#also go ahead and tell my mom!! rip whoever manages to get her on the phone

[thatswhatsushesaid]

“um, you are actually supposed to hate this character with your whole chest, the text is EXTREMELY clear that he is terrible and you should not like him”

well i like him anyway. what are you going to do about it, tell my mom?

[pit-and-the-pen]

Hiiii, you know I love angst so can I please request with prompts 22 and 45 from the angst list please? Happy or angst ending its up to you. Thank you!!

Dirty Little Secret “Which part of me wasn’t enough?”

“Would you hate me?”

Warnings; extremely brief mention of torture. Extremely brief mention of ‘Parental’ abuse. Briefly implied smut if you squint at the end. 

Word count:5k

A/n: Just get ready. Honestly. I’m so sorry for how sad this about to be

taglist:  @thoseofgreatambition @ickle-ronniekins @summer-writes @obsessedwithrandomthings @harrysweasleys: message me if you want to be added to taglist :)

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“For the last time. Please don’t call him my cousin” You pleaded as you sat in the Gryffindor common room surrounded by your friends. George and Fred sat closest to you as Harry was sitting in an armchair across the room, yet again complaining about whatever Malfoy was currently annoying him with. 

“I mean he-” George started. You shot him a glare that instantly made him recoil from you.

“They pretend the Tonks name doesn’t even exist . Why should I claim them?” You muttered out under your breath. 

“Come on, Y/n. we know you’re nothing like him.” George says, leaning over to give you a small peck on the forehead. 

“But what if I was, even a little bit? Would you hate me?” Your voice wasn’t any louder than a whisper. He just frowned at you. 

“You know what, I just remembered I have homework I need to do.” Pushing yourself off of the couch, you snatched up your school bag and headed out the portrait hole, needing to get out of the room. George just stares at the place you just were. He balls up a piece of paper and chucks it towards Harry. 

‘Nice going. You upset her.” Fred piped up. 

“You know how she gets whenever someone brings that up. Like just mentioning it enough will make her go bad.” George continued. 

“I didn’t think she would react like that.” Harry said defensively. “I’ll apologize when she comes back later. Alright?” He obviously felt bad but there wasn’t much he could do about it now. 

You had stayed in the library much longer than you planned. At first just using it as an excuse to leave the common room, but you suddenly realized how much work you had been avoiding. Your last year was not a piece of cake at all. Umbridge constantly looming over you didn’t make things any better. Quickly shoving all of your work into your bag, you ran back to the common room to make sure you didn’t get caught out after hours. The last thing you needed was another detention with the toad. 

Much to your surprise, the group was still sitting in the same position you left them in. A few have dozed off, including George. Stretched out across the couch while Fred was reading some book you couldn’t see the cover of. When you walked back through the opening, a few of them flicked their eyes over to you. 

Fred hit George’s shins and he woke with a start. “She’s back” is all he said to Gerorge. With that, you notice him give Harry an expecting look. Harry cleared his throat, getting your attention. 

“Hey I wanted to say sor-” You held up your hand. Not wanting to bring up the subject again.

“Don’t worry about it.” He tried to argue it further but you just shook your head. He seemed to get the hint that you didn’t want to talk about it anymore and let it drop. You walked over to the couch and leaned down to give George a small kiss. 

“Go to bed.” You mumbled to him with a small laugh, noticing how he was already falling back asleep. 

“Why would I do that when you’re down here?” He said, eyes seeming to be closed. Suddenly his arms wrapped around your waist and he pulled you down onto the couch with him. You let out a small scream in surprise. 

“Get a room!” Fred shouted at the pair of you. This caused the few people who had fallen asleep to wake up. 

“We already have one. What would you call this?” George joked back, leaving small pecks all over your face and neck as you laughed. You managed to swat him off of you and stood up, straightening your uniform. 

“Well with that amazing display. I think I’m going to bed.” You were breathing heavy and laughing. That was one of the things you loved most about George. He never let you go to sleep anything but perfectly happy. He gives you one more big sloppy kiss, much to the displeasure of the rest of the room, before he also heads up to bed. You should have known things were too good to last. 

The next morning, you, George and Fred walked down to breakfast together like normal. There was an eerie hush that seemed to be over the great hall. It felt like walking into a brick wall with how much tension was in the room. 

“What’s everyone on this morning? Umbridge drop a new decree?” You asked Lee as you sat down at the table. 

“Take a look.” He responded while throwing this morning's edition of the Prophet in front of you. George and Fred both peered over your shoulder as your face dropped. 

MASS BREAKOUT FROM AZKABAN

The heading read. Displayed on the front was a picture of none other than Bellatrix Lestrange, seeming to be trying to bite whoever had the displeasure of taking her picture. You threw down the paper and suddenly felt sick to your stomach. 

“Hey.” George said, grabbing your arm as you turned to stand up. Right as you were about to pull your arm out of his grasp, you noticed your family's large silvery owl swooping down. You caught a letter that was dropped down to you and it flew out of sight. Probably to the owlery. 

Immediately, you noticed your mother's large loopy handwriting on the outside. Still standing, you ripped open the envelope and read the letter. 

“I am sending Nympthadora to Hogwarts to talk to you. Go to Dumbldores office the moment you receive this. - Love mom.”

Your breath seemed to get caught in your chest. Why did your sister need to come to school? Did they think you knew something about the breakout? If anyone needed to be questioning Malfoy. And even that would be a stretch. You looked around and noticed George was staring intently at you. Silently asking you if you were okay, his hand still wrapped around your arm. 

“I..I have to go.” Was all you could manage to sputter out. 

“Are you okay?” His voice was full of concern.

“I don’t know. I’ll talk to you later okay?” You grabbed his hand and gave it a tight squeeze before grabbing your bag and all but running out of the great hall. 

On your way to the headmasters office, you ran into Professor McGonagall. 

“Ah Tonks.. I was just heading to the great hall to look for you.” She eyed the letter in your hand.

“I see you got the letter. Very well, follow me.” You were getting more scared by the second. Never in all your years at Hogwarts have you been in Dumbledore's office. To say you were terrified was an understatement. 

“Sherbert Lemon.” McGonagall said when you approached the gargoyle outside of his office. She waved her hand for you to go up and you had expected her to leave, instead she followed behind you. On the way up you started going over in your mind everything you had done lately. Nothing you could think of warranted all of this. 

Once you got to the top of the staircase, you heard a few voices talking rather loud and fast. You couldn’t make out anything, only that one of the voices was from your sister. You froze instantly, not wanting to deal with whatever was happening ahead. 

“Go on.” McGonagall sighed when she noticed you paused. You stepped into the large round room that was the main part of Dumbledore’s office and the few people in the office looked up. Along with your sister, Remus was with her. 

“Y/n!” She called out and ran to give you a giant hug. You haven't seen her since the summer and if you weren’t as scared as you were, you would have been more excited. 

“We’ll have time for that later, Tonks.” Remus said in a tense voice. She let go but stayed by your side. 

“Well. We shouldn’t wait any longer to tell you. I bet you’re wondering why you’ve been called up here?” Dumbledore asked you. You had suddenly lost your voice and could only nod. 

“You aren’t in any trouble. But that is all the good news I have, I’m afraid.” He paused and gave you a smile that didn’t seem to reach his eyes. “With the recent breakout from Azkaban, Andromeda decided it was time to tell you the truth. Tonks? Do you want to be the one to tell her?” When he said that, Tonks grabbed your hand and gave it three little squeezes, the two of yours sign for ‘I love you’. She cleared her throat

“This really isn’t easy to tell you. Okay.” She took a deep breath and turned to you. “A few years before Bellatrix went to Azkaban. The family discovered she had a child. The only problem was no one knew where they were. Then she was arrested and that’s when they found..Found you.” 

Suddenly you felt very light headed. You had to have heard her wrong. Tonks had said they found you. 

“You had been obviously neglected. Stuck in a small nursery and looked after by only a few house elves. That’s when mom agreed to take you in. Narssica and Lucius were still under heavy suspicion to be working with you-know-who and didn’t need more connections to that side, plus she had only just had Draco. The decision was made not to tell you because she was never really a mother to you. And up until last night, we never thought she would be out of Azkaban.” She looked at you, her eyes suddenly full of tears. She was expecting you to say something but your brain had suddenly stopped functioning. You could only stare at her blankly. 

“The reason why we’re telling you this now, y/n” Remus started. You had forgotten he was there up until he spoke. Your eyes flickered over to him. “Is, since you are of age now, the order is concerned she might come and collect you.” That seemed to do the trick.

“And do what?” Your voice was tiny. 

“We don’t know. We know Voldemort lost a large amount of followers so maybe to try to recruit you.” 

“I would never do that!” You interrupted. He held his hand up to stop you.

“We all know that. You’ve been interested in the order since this summer. We’ve all seen it. But she isn’t known for playing fair. We just need you to be on guard.” He seemed to sag down after saying this, as if a great weight was placed on his shoulders. 

“We just want you safe. If mom didn’t think it was better for you to know, we wouldn’t tell you. But everyone decided it’s better to hear it from people who love and care about you then hear it from her if she got the chance.” Tonks’s voice was soothing. Or at least it should have been but you were still numb from shock. She grabbed the sides of your face. 

“Don’t think for a second that this changes anything. You’re still my sister and I still love every bit of you.” When she said that, it broke whatever you were holding onto and tears started falling from your face. You vaguely processed the others shifting out of the main room. 

“I know your head is probably going to a million different places at once. But this doesn’t change the way anyone looks at you.” She said.

“Did everyone know?” You managed to get out between sobs. 

“Everyone that needed to know, knew. All of the Order. But again, no one looks at you any differently.” You nodded. Whipping away the tears as you started to calm down. It didn’t change anything. But that nagging voice in the back of your head only shouted all of your worst fears at you. You’re no different. Evil is in your blood, not just your family tree. If you’re her kid, then some of the worst blood is in you too.

“Are you okay?” Tonks asked, snapping you out of your thoughts. 

“As okay as I can be.” You say with a slight laugh. You wipe away a few more tears and give her a small smile. 

“You can write to me if you need anything. Even just to talk okay. Anything you need.” She says as she gives you another big hug. This time, you squeeze her back until someone else clears their throat. 

“I do hate to say it but we have to leave.” Remus chimed in. Tonks gave you a look and you nodded. 

“Okay. Seriously write me if you need anything.” Tonks says as Remus grabs her hand. The two of them leave in a ploof of green fire. 

“Well if that’s all, Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, I’ll leave.” You say, your mind still playing catch up. McGonagall gives you a sad look and they both say goodbye as you walk out of the office as fast as you can while still being polite. 

You all but run back to the Gryffindor common room trying to beat the tears threatening to start up again.  You barely make it back to your bed before you started crying. Everything you had been scared about fresh in your mind. There really was nothing good about you in the end. How you ended up in Gryffindor was suddenly all you can think of. After a little bit you had cried yourself out to the point of falling asleep.

It must have been a couple hours, you woke up with a start as the image of you in dark black robes burned out of your mind. The sky was just getting dark, making the dorm pink with the sunlight. When you walked up to the sink near your bed, you saw how puffy and red your face was. Sighing, you splashed some cold water on your face before you walked out into the common room. 

“Y/n!” George bellowed when he saw you. “There you are. You disappeared earlier and I haven’t seen you since.” His face fell when he noticed your face. “What’s wrong.” He whispered when you sat down next to him. Of course he would be able to tell right away something was off. You shook your head. 

“I don’t want to talk about it right now.” And surprisingly he dropped it. You really did want to tell him but not in the crowded common room. 

Days went by and you kept coming up with ways to avoid the topic. It was always the wrong time, it was too crowded, someone interrupted you.Umbridge's rule of boys and girls not being within six feet of each other is also not helping at all. You can’t tell if it was a good thing or not at this point. The longer you went without telling him the more nervous you got, having already come up with a million different ways he’ll react. 

You haven't meant for it to just come tumbling out. Not like that, not in the mean, clipped tone that it did. The two of you stood facing each other, eyes wide and round. He took a second to process the words you had just shouted at him. 

“This is a sick joke right?” His words make your world shatter. You suddenly can’t find it in yourself to meet his eyes as you shake your head. 

“You..You didn’t think this was important to tell me?” He ran his hands through his hair. “Did you really only just find out? Or have you been lying to me this whole time?” You flinch a little at his tone.

“I only just found out the other day. I promise I didn’t li-” 

“You know what.” He started, interrupting you. “I don’t even want to hear it. You swear up and down youre so much different from the rest of your family. And I believed it because I mean, look at Tonks. Look at who I thought was your family. But her?” He spat out. “How can you look at Neville ever again? How can you sit in the same common room as him and just pretend everything is okay?” You felt the tears run down your face. No one looks at you any differently. Tonks’ words from the other day echo in your head. You knew she had been wrong. The only person whose opinion of you really mattered saw you from what you really were. 

“I’m still me.” You manage to say in between sobs. “I’m still the same person you fell in love with. George please.” You grab at his robes as he starts to leave the room. 

He freezes and looks at where your hand grabbed him, like it burned him, like it made him dirty. 

“That’s the worse part.” Was all he said as he pried your hands off of him and gave you a little shove backwards. The action taking you by such shock, you almost lost your balance. You started up at him wildly, tears streaming down your face. A sob of his name left your lips but you could barely understand it and he was already gone. You sunk to your knees. “Which part of me wasn’t good enough?” You screamed at nobody in particular. You never made it back to the common room that night. 

You also never got another chance to smooth things over. To explain to him the way you had planned. The twins set off their bound-to be-infamous fireworks display the next day and they were gone.

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You didn’t know why you came. A small part of you deep down knew why. It had been so long since you had been wanted. Since someone had asked you to be a part of anything. The halls of the manor were as cold as you remember. The few times you had come here as a small child played in your head. Back when the Malfoys were still trying to prove they were good by letting you come over. You now realized it was because you fell into what they deemed worthy of being in the house, and that’s why Tonks haven't been invited. 

Narcissa was still leading you through the house when you seemed to come to your senses. What the hell were you doing?  You didn’t want to be in the house. You wanted to be at the burrow with Fred and George. They don’t want you, remember? He could see what you really are. 

You ignored the voice and focused on how the hallways never seemed to end. The small shadows of house elves scurrying out of your way was enough to make you sick. 

“In here.” Narcissa said when you got to a random room. You took a deep breath before she suddenly grabbed your arm. 

“Think about what you’re doing. Think very hard. Say the word and I’ll let you turn around right now and no one will know. But walk in there and I can’t help you.” She was dead serious. The voice of a concerned person. It warmed you a little bit. 

“I just want to talk to..to her.” You say as convincingly as you can.

“It’s your life. I’m damned one way or another. You on the other hand, you have a choice.” 

“And right now I’m choosing to try and talk to her. I’ll figure it out from there.” She seemed to sag down but composed herself and announced something to the room. You heard a high pitch laughter that chilled you to your spine. She nodded to you and put a should- be- comforting hand on your back as you walked into the room. 

You swear the temperature dropped ten degrees as you walked in. The bedroom was big, like a cavern. A high ceiling with very little furniture in contract to the sheer size of it. A small part of you was surprised to see a bed, thinking hanging from the ceiling like the bat she was, would have been more appropriate. 

“Hi, mom” You said in a dead voice and her laughter echoed off of the walls. High pitched and nailing you to the floor. 

“So they told you after all. How sweet.” Her voice didn’t match her appearance. It was a soprano baby voice, that was almost worse than the gravelly voice you thought she would have. 

She stood up and walked closer to you. Every inch of your body was screaming to run but you wouldn’t give her the satisfaction. Eventually she was standing right in front of you. Her hand reached out to twirl a piece of your hair. 

“Now why did you really come here? I hope you’re smart enough to know I’m not going to start singing you lullabies.” That seemed to be the very question you were asking yourself now. Why had you come? A deep part of you just wanted to have a normal family. Bellatrix was far from that. 

She suddenly grabbed your left arm. “Could it be something to do with this? I don’t think the Dark Lord has sunk low enough to need someone raised like you were though.” She looks over to her sister who is still standing in the corner of the room, tense as a board. “What do you think Cissy?” She says with a slight pout. 

“No.” You said, shaking your hand out of her grasp. “I needed to come here to see what I’m not. I was so afraid of becoming like you, even before I knew, I had to see. And you know what I learned?” You suddenly felt brave. Like everything had finally clicked into place.

“Aw. What would that be?” 

“We make our own choices.” Your next moves were very calculated. You had a few seconds at best as you pulled your wand out of your cloak. 

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Every part of your body hurt. Like you had been in a particularly nasty game of quidditch. You went to open your eyes but instantly shut them at the pain that radiated through your skull. 

“Just let me see her.” A voice called from outside of the room you were in. 

“Why? So you can hurt her even more? George just leave it. She’s not even awake yet.” You recognized the voice as Tonks. Wait if she said George, does that mean? You peak your eyes open just a tiny bit and notice the familiar surroundings of the burrow. How did you end up here? You didn’t remember a lot past the first move. Everything had gone by so fast. 

The door clicked open then shut and you heard, who you assumed to be, Tonks huff. You tried to sit up a little bit.

“Oh. You're up!” She was at your side in a second. “If you weren’t so banged up I would beat you right here.” Her voice held no malice despite her words. 

“Do you want to tell me what the hell happened?” She all but screamed.

You winced at the volume but tried to sit up a little more. She helped you prop up on a pillow. 

“Well.” Your voice was raspy. “I..I don’t know what I was thinking.” You had never felt more stupid in your life. What did you expect to happen? You took a deep breath and told Tonks as much as you could remember. She just stared and you blankly. Looking for something to say. All of a sudden you found arms wrapped around you. 

“You are such an idiot. Do you know that?” Her voice shook with tears. “I guess that explains some stuff too.” She seemed to be talking to herself. “God I could kill that boy right now.” 

“You came here in the middle of the night, bleeding. Half conscious. It was a miracle you were even able to apparate in the state you were. Molly was able to patch you up but you might have a few scars.” She paused. “Well, one really.” With that she pulled up your left sleeve and your heart sunk.

“It’s not what you think. She started the process but didn’t finish it.” You stared at the bumped skin that was clearly a hastily carved dark mark. Looking at that hurt more than anything. Sure it wasn’t the real thing, you needed to fully commit to be able to get one and from what you’ve heard, it’s not a pleasant experience. Knowing you have any bit of that on your body makes you fight the urge to be sick. Tonks rubs your shoulder. 

“I’ll give you some time to process everything.” She gives you a quick peck on the forehead and closes the door softly behind her. 

You start to drift off when there's a small knock and the door creaks open just a crack. You’re half expecting it to be Tonks. But in all reality, the face you’ve wanted to see the most since that awful day greets you. 

He awkwardly stands in the entryway of the door. You can’t meet his eyes, but move over slightly to show he’s welcomed to sit on the bed. The only thing he does is shift his body weight so he’s leaning against the wall directly across from the bed, and gives the door a soft nudge close. 

The silence hangs heavy in the air. All the words you’ve wanted to say hang on the tip of your tongue, you try to hold them back. For once, his face is unreadable as you finally look up at him. You threaten to melt on the spot right then and there, realizing immediately you haven’t lost an ounce of love for this man. If anything, from the dull throb in your chest, you probably love him more somehow. 

A deep sob touches your ears and you suddenly realize he’s crying. 

“George.” You start but he holds up a hand. 

“This is all my fault.”He walks towards the bed and sits down in the space you gave him. “Tonks just came down and chewed me out” 

“She-” Once again he interrupts you. 

“I deserve it. I explained to her what happened because the plan was for you to leave Hogwarts with us that day. That’s what I had even dragged you into that room to tell you.” He laughed a little, not his usual laugh, this was stiff and cold. 

“I was stupid enough to let my own prejudices get in the way of everything that I felt.” He started. 

“I don’t blame you” Your voice was small. You were fighting back tears at seeing how upset he was. 

“No. See that’s the issue.” He grabbed your hands and looked at you for the first time. “I made you think that you were different. Unloveable to the point where you felt like you had to go to Death Eaters to feel like you belonged. I regretted what I said the moment I had time to think clearly.” He took a deep breath. “I was so angry at the idea of it, I never thought to think of how you might be feeling. You never seemed so afraid of me as when I got mad at you. Merlin” He took a deep breath. “I would rather die than ever see that look on your face, let alone know that I put it there.” He moves one of his hands to your cheek, wiping a tear with his thumb in the process. “I love you more than anything y/n. I was a stupid git and I’m more sorry than you can ever imagine. I don’t deserve you accepting my apology but I’m here if you still want. I’m here no matter what.” His words took a few seconds to sink in. 

“You know what I realized?” You said after a few seconds of silence. His face showed he was taking in every word you said. “I was so afraid of becoming like the rest of my family, I never stopped to think that I had a choice in it too. I could never be like them because I’m not them. I mean look at Sirius. If he can be raised in that family and still be as good as he was.” You paused. “I’m good because I want to be. Because there is nothing that is black and white. And most importantly I am not my mother.” George just stayed silent. You took another deep breath. 

“You hurt me more than I can ever explain. And I do still love you. I love you more than anything in this world.” You smiled. “But boy do you owe me a lot of kisses to make up for this.” George sat still for a couple seconds, fully processing your words. Then a giant smile formed on his face. His arms wrapped around you and ripped you up from the bed. Spinning you as you yelped it pain. 

In an instant, his lips crashed to yours, swallowing whatever sound you made. He was everywhere all at once. Hands gently exploring and your hands fused into his hair. He touched a spot that made you wince particularly hard and he separated from you just the slightest bit. 

“Marry me.” He said, panting. You laughed, a fuller laugh than you had in months. “I’m serious. I should have asked you that day.” You just wrapped a hand in his hair. 

“After all of this is over. I just might take you up on that offer Weasley.” He smiled once again before reconnecting your lips. You ignored the pain. After all, he had a lot to make up for.

[winchesterbrotherstan]

Teen Wolf- Wolf Moon (1.01)

Pairings: Stilinski siblings, Scott McCall x Allison Argent, lowkey Scisaac 

Summary: Scott is attacked in the woods and develops new skills. While the Stilinski triplets try to figure out what’s happening, Scott hones in on the new girl, leaving Isaac feeling dejected.

Warnings: blood, cursing, animal bites, uhhh... wolf?

Word Count: 7793

“Ya know, that guy kinda looks a lot like you, Gabe.” Stiles pointed at the screen as a boy with a red school jacket and headphones made a face.

I looked from the TV to one of the boys. Their faces were alike, and they were probably the same height. Gabe’s hair was longer, and his face wasn’t as worried.

He snorted, “He does not.”

Stiles reached over and ruffled his hair. “Does too.”

Gabe uncurled himself from my side and pulled the pillow from me, hitting Stiles in the face with it. Stiles shot up, throwing his blanket over Gabe. The taller boy ran to the living room, positioning himself on one end of the round table. Gabe struggled to rip the blanket off before running after Stiles.

“Stiles, you dickhead!”

“Language!” My dad yelled from upstairs.

I laughed and got up from the couch, shuffling over to see my brothers circling each other around the table.

“Boys, come on.” I chuckled, seeing the playful snarl on Gabe’s face.

I rolled my eyes as Stiles growled. I decided I would film the disaster and ran upstairs to get my phone. I heard Dad on the phone with someone. I leaned against the door of his room.

“A body in the woods?”

“Yeah, two joggers found it.”

“But only one half?”

That sounded strange.

“Yes, sir.”

“So let me get this straight. Two joggers went for a run in the woods, and they found half of a twenty something year old girl’s body?”

“Yep.”

“Alright. I’m on my way over now.”

“Okay. State police will meet you there.”

“Okay. You have a nice night, now.”

“You too, sir.”

He hung up the phone before getting ready to leave. I ran and got my phone before scrambling back down to the boys, hoping my dad wouldn’t catch me.

“Lup, some help?” Stiles made a face.

“No.” I laughed and pulled out my phone so I could start to film.

Gabe turned and flashed a pearly white grin at the camera before talking himself up.

“Stiles, I’m gonna take you down.”

Dad came down the stairs, raising an eyebrow as he walked right into the middle of Gabe’s attempt to tackle Stiles. Stiles gasped as our father hit the ground, followed by the youngest Stilinski.

“Dad, are you alright?” Stiles and I rushed to his side, both stepping over Gabe.

He grunted as we helped him sit up. “I’m okay. Gabriel, what the hell was that?”

Said brunet flinched at the mention of his full name.

“Sorry Dad.” He mumbled, scratching the back of his neck.

“I don’t know what you kids are doing, but I’ve got to go. I’ll be back by morning.” He groaned as Stiles helped him to his feet.

Gabe sighed as I pulled him up, ruffling his hair.

“What? Why?”

“Work calls, kiddos.” A pat to each of our heads.

“Dad, come on. Can’t it wait? Stiles and I play tomorrow and we won't be able to go out afterward if you're too tired.”

Dad placed a reassuring hand on Gabe’s shoulder and squeezed.

“Being the sheriff isn’t easy, Gabe. I’ll be back in time to see you guys tomorrow morning.”

Gabe huffed as Dad walked to the closet at the front, pulling on his jacket.

“Lupus, can you order some pizza for tonight?” He called.

I wandered over to him, shuffling on my feet.

“Sure.”

“I’m sorry, kids. I promise we’ll go out some other night.”

Stiles dropped his head onto mine. Gabe chewed at his cheek and nodded. Our dad grabbed the keys before opening the door.

“Oh, and kids?”

He turned back to see us. Our three heads snapped up, eyes wide.

“Make sure you go to bed at a reasonable time.”

He shut the door without another word.

Stiles let out a small sigh and Gabe let his shoulders slouch. He looked up at Stiles before looking down at me.

“What kind of pizza do you want?”

I only looked up at Stiles, who was staring holes into the door. “I wonder where he went.”

I grinned.

“We’re not getting pizza, are we?” Gabe asked as Stiles grabbed the keys to the jeep.

                                                          ***

“Wait, half of the body?” Gabe leaned forward, looking from Stiles to me.

“Yeah, they only found half of a girl’s body. Are you gonna make her say it again?” Stiles looked at him in the rearview mirror.

Gabe rolled his eyes. I ruffled his hair. He pulled back and fixed it before leaning forward again. I went to mess with it again, only to have him catch my hand and hold it.

“Are we stopping by to pick up Scott?” I asked.

“Yeah. You guys wait in the car.” Stiles said as we pulled to a stop in front of Scott’s house.

“Fine.” Gabe scoffed as Stiles left.

I climbed over to the back, leaning against my baby brother.

“Isn’t Dad gonna yell at us for this?” He asked, looking down towards me.

“Only if we get caught. And if we do, we’ll blame it on Sti.”

“Like hell you will.” Stiles popped back into the car, Scott sitting shotgun.

“Hi guys.”

“Hey Scott.” We spoke in unison.

“Do you wanna get Isaac, Lup?”

“No, I don't wanna drag him into this mess in case we get caught.”

Stiles scoffed. “We’re not gonna get caught. But fine.”

Stiles drove off to the woods. The ride consisted of Stiles making jokes and Scott rolling his eyes while Gabe and I stared out the windows in the backseat. Stiles parked in front of the sign stating that entering the preserve at night was forbidden.

“We're seriously doing this?” Scott jumped to the ground before helping me out of the car, Gabe following behind me.

Stiles grinned as Gabe shut the passenger door. “You're the one always bitching that nothing ever happens in this town.”

Gabe sighed and shoved his hands in his jean pockets as we walked past the sign. Stiles turned his phone’s flashlight on.

“So what did we drag you from tonight, Scott?” I fell into step with him, my brothers ahead of us.

“I was trying to get a good night's sleep before practice tomorrow.” He answered.

“Right, 'cause sitting on the bench is such a grueling effort.” Stiles called over his shoulder.

“No, because I'm playing this year. In fact, I'm making first line.” Scott said proudly.

“Hey, that's the spirit. Everyone should have a dream, even a pathetically unrealistic one.” Stiles called again.

I rolled my eyes and patted Scott’s shoulder, “I’m sure you’ll do just fine.”

Scott smiled before speaking, “Just out of curiosity, which half of the body are we looking for?”

“Huh! We didn't even think about that.”

“And, uh, what if whoever killed the body is still out here?”

“Also something we didn't think about.” I chewed at the inside of my lip as we climbed over a small hill, Gabe stumbling over his feet and muttering a curse.

“It's… comforting to know you've planned this out with your usual attention to detail.”

“I know.” Another sarcastic grin from Stiles as I helped Gabe steady himself.

Scott stopped to take a puff of his inhaler. I stayed behind with him as Stiles kept walking.

“Maybe the severe asthmatic should be the one holding the flashlight, huh?”

Gabe noticed something and threw himself at the ground. I pulled Scott down as I dropped too. I realized there were officers right in front of us. Stiles got to his feet and started to run.

“Wait, come on!” He called after us.

Gabe and I exchanged looks before going after our brother, leaving Scott behind. We could get caught and be fine, but if Scott’s mom found out, his life would be over.

“Stiles! Wait up! Gabe! Lupus!”

Stiles was still ahead, Scott somewhere behind us once on his feet. One of the policemen shone a flashlight at Stiles, telling him to stop where he was. I yanked Gabe to hide behind a tree with me, Scott having the same idea a few yards back. I heard Dad speak as he approached his only visible child.

“Hang on, hang on. This little delinquent belongs to me.”

“Dad, how are you doing?”

I heard Stiles’s nervous chuckle and stifled a giggle. 

“So, do you, uh, listen in to all of my phone calls?”

“No, heh. Not the boring ones.”

“Now, where’re your usual partners in crime?”

Before Stiles could mention Scott, Gabe and I left our spot, Gabe dragging me to our father. 

“I told them it wasn’t a good idea.”

“So it was you who listened in?” He shone the flashlight at me.

I only glared at Gabe, hopefully giving Scott time to get away undiscovered.

It didn’t work. “Where’re the other ones?”

I knew Scott was probably still behind the tree.

“Scott didn’t come along.” Gabe started.

“Yeah, he wanted to get a good night's sleep for tomorrow’s game. I didn't grab Isaac. He's probably at home.” I added, not lying.

“It’s just the three of us in the woods.” Stiles said.

“Alone.” We smiled.

Dad took his light off me and aimed it towards the woods.

“Scott, you out there? Scott? Isaac?”

No answer, not even leaves shifting around. The three of us bit back grins, knowing Scott was still there, just well hidden.

Our father sighed and looked back to his three children before staring me down. I faltered and gave a nervous smile.

“Well, young lady, I'm gonna walk you and your brothers back to the car. And you and I are gonna have a conversation about something called invasion of privacy.”

I knew I was in for it, but hey, at least Scott got away and we had fun. Gabe managed to lighten the mood as our dad walked us back to the Jeep, making jokes about how tomorrow was gonna go for him and Stiles. We piled into the car, Gabe in the back, Stiles driving, and me in the passenger seat.

“Be careful driving home, okay kids?”

The three of us nodded.

“Bye Dad.”

He sighed and shook his head slightly.

“Bye.”

I rolled my window up as Stiles drove away. Gabe sighed as our dad fell out of sight.

“How’s Scott gonna get home?” He asked.

Stiles only shrugged. “He’ll be fine.”

                                                         ***

I rolled my eyes and held the door of the Jeep open for Gabe as he got out. Jackson had just hit Scott with the door of his overpriced car and was now scowling at him. We walked towards Scott and returned Danny’s wave. Jackson smiled at me but I rolled my eyes again. Everyone on the lacrosse team wanted to be good with the manager, even the captain.

Scott had called us last night to let us know that he had lost his inhaler and had been bitten by some animal when he went to look for it.

“Okay, let’s see this thing.” Gabe nudged Scott, eager to investigate the wound.

He had always had an affinity for things like that, and he was probably gonna be some sort of first responder when he grew up.

“Ooh!” Stiles grimaced, having always hated the sight of such grotesque things.

“Yeah.”

Gabe reached out to peel back the bandaging, but Scott moved back.

“Whoa! It was too dark to see much, but I'm pretty sure it was a wolf.” Scott shouldered his bag and we started walking.

“A wolf bit you?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Uh huh.”

“No, not a chance.” I shook my head, the only one of the four without a lacrosse stick.

“I heard a wolf howling.”

“No, you didn't.” I shook my head again.

Scott scoffed, “What do you mean, no, I didn't? How do you know what I heard?”

“Because California doesn't have wolves, okay? Not in like 60 years.” I laughed at him.

“Really?”

We stopped walking, “Yes, really. There are no wolves in California.”

Scott shoved his free hand into his jean pocket. “All right, well, if you don't believe me about the wolf, then you're definitely not gonna believe me about when I tell you I found the body.”

“You… are you kidding me?” Gabe jumped in.

Scott shook his head, “No, man, I wish. I'm gonna have nightmares for a month.”

“Oh, god, that is freakin' awesome. I mean, this is seriously gonna be the best thing that's happened to this town since-” Stiles’s attention turned to the popular girl as she walked towards us. “Since the birth of Lydia Martin. Hey, Lydia-”

She walked right past us without even glancing at him.

“You look…like you're gonna ignore me.” He turned to Scott. “You're the cause of this, you know.”

“Uh huh.” Scott smiled.

“Dragging me down to your nerd depths. I'm a nerd by association.”

The bell rang and we started walking again.

“I've been scarlet-nerded by you.” Stiles accused Scott.

                                                         ***

Stiles took an empty seat in the back and I sat behind Gabe, next to Stiles. Scott took the only free seat near the middle of the room.

Mr. Kent started writing on the board as the late bell rang.

“As you all know, there was a body found in the woods last night.”

Scott looked at us, and I grinned softly while Stiles winked and Gabe shook his head. Isaac wasn’t in class yet, which made me a little sad, because I would’ve liked to see his reaction to the news.

“And I am sure your eager little minds are coming up with various macabre scenarios as to what happened.”

Multiple girls were preoccupied with their lip gloss and passing notes.

“But I am here to tell you that the police have a suspect in custody,”

Scott glanced at us, but Stiles only shrugged.

“Which means you can give your undivided attention to the syllabus which is on your desk outlining this semester.”

A bunch of kids groaned as we started to flip through the pages. I noticed Scott flinch out of the corner of my eye, but I shrugged it off. Maybe he got a paper cut. He looked around frantically. I caught his eye, asking if he was okay. He only waved my attention off, focusing on something through the window. I stared at him, confused by his strange behavior.

“Is there a problem, Miss Stilinski?” Mr. Kent asked.

A few people laughed. I sighed and mumbled a response, redirecting my attention to the papers on my desk. My eyes skimmed over the syllabus, but I didn’t really read it. I kept my attention on Scott, now curious as to why he was acting so weird. His eyes trailed from outside to the door, just as it opened. The vice principal walked in, followed by a beautiful tall girl with dark curls that cascaded down her shoulders.

“Class, this is our new student, Allison Argent. Please do your best to make her feel welcome.”

Scott’s eyes followed her as she took a seat behind him. He smiled to himself as he turned around, handing her a pen with puppy dog eyes. She seemed confused at first, but she finally accepted it was a grateful smile before thanking him. Stiles and Gabe were oblivious to the situation as Mr. Kent spoke, “We'll begin with Kafka's Metamorphosis, on page 133.”

I rolled my eyes just as the door opened. I looked up to meet blue eyes and a head of curls. I grinned as he took the empty seat next to me.

“Who's that girl?” He pointed with his pencil, opening his textbook.

I grinned and leaned over, flipping his book open to the right page.

“New. Name’s Allison. She's already got Scott wrapped around her little finger.”

Isaac grumbled and stared wearily at them as Mr. Kent gave us a lecture on today's topic.

                                                         ***

The hallway quickly filled up with people as the bell rang, and I clung to Gabe’s side in an attempt to not get separated. Isaac patted my head as a farewell before venturing off to his locker. We made our way to our own lockers, Stiles close behind. Scott was already by his own locker, backpack slung over his shoulder as he stared across the hallway. Gabe followed his line of sight and scoffed as he opened up his locker.

“Can someone tell me how new girl is here all of five minutes, and she's already hanging out with Lydia's clique?”

“Because she's hot. Beautiful people herd together.” Stiles said as he popped his locker open.

Jackson joined Allison and Lydia, which made Stiles glance away. He was in love with Lydia, and Lydia was going out with Jackson. Gabe tossed his books into his bag before grabbing his lacrosse stick. Gabe and Stiles began to argue over something, probably who was going to make first line and who wasn’t. Gabe had always been better at sports than Stiles, but Stiles was faster in a classroom sense. I grabbed the books I needed and slid them into my bag, slamming my locker shut. Scott jumped, eyes wide as he looked in my direction.

“Scott, are you alright?”

He snapped out of whatever trance was holding him and nodded as he watched Allison get dragged away by Lydia.

                                                         ***

“But if you play, I'll have no one to talk to on the bench. Are you really gonna do that to your best friend?” Stiles wheezed as we ran to catch up to Scott.

“I can't sit out again.” He tossed his bags onto the bleacher. “My whole life is sitting on the sidelines. This season, I make first line.”

Gabe tossed his bag by my feet before making his way onto the field. Stiles sat down next to me, already knowing that he had no chance of playing. Scott was smiling at something behind us, but I didn’t feel like turning around. My guess was that it was Allison.

Coach Finstock came up to me and my brother.

“I want McCall on goal today.”

“Coach, he’s never played.” I answered, confused.

“I know, that’s the point.”

I nodded and marked it down. “Okay.”

Coach went to Scott, shouting his name before tossing him a goalie’s stick.

“You're on goal.”

“I've never played.” Scott brought up the same point I had before.

“I know. Scoring some shots will give the boys a confidence boost. It's a first day back thing. Get 'em energized, fired up!”

“What about me?” Scott asked.

“Try not to take any in the face.” He slapped Scott’s cheek lightly before turning to the rest of the team and clapping his hands. “Let's go! Come on!”

I sighed and got comfortable on the bleachers as Coach signaled for me to blow the whistle. My lips instantly dropped it when I realized that Scott was groaning and holding his head, his stick on the ground in front of him. Isaac stepped out of his place in line to shoot me a look, probably about Scott. I dodged his glance. Something was wrong. It didn’t stop Jackson from stepping up and launching his ball at the goal. Scott, unfocused and disoriented, took it to the face. I groaned as he fell backwards. Everyone, Coach included and Isaac, my brothers, and I excluded, laughed.

“Hey, way to catch with your face, McCall!” Jackson called out through his laughter.

It stopped when I glared at them. Stiles shook his head at Scott as they made eye contact. Scott got up and brushed himself off, picking up his stick and moving his head from side to side. He nodded at Gabe, who let out a short breath before running and aiming for the goal, right behind Scott. Scott caught the ball in his stick and nodded to himself. The guy behind Gabe seemed impressed that Scott McCall had actually caught a ball.

Stiles blinked as he realized what had happened.

“Yeah!” He called out.

Coach blinked twice, obviously confused. Gabe stepped aside to let the boy behind him shoot, eyeing me. Scott had terrible hand-eye coordination, we all knew that. He stopped shot after shot, surprising us all. I had long since abandoned my clipboard and pen, now focused on Scott’s newfound skill.

A boy stepped up to go next, but Jackson shoved him back using his lacrosse stick, practically baring his teeth and growling as he ran towards him, making his shot. Scott caught it with little to no effort. Stiles jumped to his feet, flailing slightly. Everyone on the bleachers clapped and Gabe and I grinned, happy that somebody had finally managed to be better than Jackson. I noticed that even Lydia was cheering for Scott, which only added to Jackson’s anger towards him.

“That is my best friend!” Stiles shouted.

I saw Jackson shoot Lydia a stare, and she only responded with a face before slowly looking back to Scott, her smile reappearing. Coach seemed impressed and I made sure to make a note of how Scott McCall had managed to stop Jackson Whittemore’s shot.

                                                         ***

The boys and I were in the woods, hastily going back to the spot Scott had been attacked. Stiles and Scott let the bottom of their pants get wet, but Gabe and I decided to jump the final stretch instead. I landed on solid ground, and Gabe slipped, getting one foot stuck in the creek. Scott turned and pulled him out without a problem.

“I don't…I don't know what it was.” Scott continued the conversation he and Stiles had been having earlier. “It was like I had all the time in the world to catch the ball. And that's not the only weird thing. I, I can…hear stuff I shouldn't be able to hear. Smell things.”

“Smell things? Like what?” I joined in, popping my head between their shoulders.

“Like the mint mojito gum in someone’s pocket.”

Gabe and I exchanged glances. My leggings didn’t have pockets, and his were empty. We both looked to Stiles.

He shoved his hand into his jean pocket. “I don't even have any mint…mojito… ”

He stopped mid sentence as he pulled the piece of gum from his pocket. I snorted and turned back to Scott.

“So all this started with a bite.” I said.

“What if it's like an infection, like, my body's flooding with adrenaline before I go into shock or something?” Scott started to panic.

I grinned at Stiles. You know what? I actually think we've heard of this.”

“We have?” Gabe raised his eyebrows.

I elbowed him.

“It's a specific kind of infection.” Stiles finished.

“Are you serious?” Scott stopped walking.

“Yeah. Yeah, I think it's called lycanthropy.”

“What's that? Is that bad?”

“Oh, yeah, it's the worst. But only once a month.” Stiles explained.

“Once a month?” Scott was still frantic.

Gabe rolled his eyes as Stiles spoke again.

“Mm hmm. On the night of the full moon.”

Stiles and I howled at the same time. Scott pushed Stiles back by the chest and flicked my forehead.

I laughed and followed after him as he started walking again. “Hey, you’re the one that heard wolves howling.”

“Hey, there could be something seriously wrong with me.” Scott exclaimed.

“I know! You're a werewolf!” Stiles let out a little growl.

Scott ignored him and kept walking. I trailed after him, Gabe at my side.

“Okay, obviously I'm kidding. But if you see me in shop class trying to melt all the silver I can find, it's 'cause Friday's a full moon.” Stiles said, hands on his hips.

Scott stopped walking and Stiles ran straight into me. I pushed him back as Scott spoke.

“No, I…I could have sworn this was it. I saw the body, the deer came running. I dropped my inhaler.”

He bent down, searching through the leaves and sticks for his inhaler. I bent down near him and helped him look.

“Maybe the killer moved the body.” Gabe offered, toeing through leaves to see if he could find the inhaler without using his hands.

Gabe hated bugs.

“If he did, I hope he left my inhaler. Those things are like 80 bucks.”

Stiles suddenly hit Scott’s shoulder and adjusted himself. Gabe and I popped to our feet, followed by our hypothetical werewolf.

There was a man a couple of years older than us standing not too far. Black leather jacket, black pants, black shirt, black shoes, black hair, glowing pale skin. He walked towards us, looking upset.

“What’re you doing here?”

None of us spoke. Stiles scratched at his buzz cut hair.

“Huh? This is private property.” He spoke again.

I snuck a glance at Stiles, who was staring at the man, mouth open. Gabe must’ve noticed too, because he was the first to speak up.

“Uh, sorry, man, we didn't know.”

“Yeah, we were just looking for something, but…” Scott trailed off.

The man’s expression turned expectant, as if he wanted to know what we were looking for. It hit me then that he looked familiar, and it was only because our father had worked a case in which his whole family was involved.

Scott shook his head, “Uh, forget it. Uhm.” He just shook his head again.

Derek Hale looked Scott straight in the eye and tossed him his inhaler. Scott caught it. Derek turned tail and left.

Stiles stared after him. Gabe sighed and I let out a breath.

“All right, come on, I gotta get to work.” Scott nudged Stiles, who snapped back into attention, his hand smacking at Scott’s chest.

“Dude. That was Derek Hale. You remember, right? He's only like a few years older than us.”

“Remember what?” Scott looked confused.

“His family. They all burned to death in a fire, like, ten years ago.” I jumped in.

“I wonder what he's doing back.” Gabe mumbled.

Stiles scoffed, shaking his head before walking off. “Come on.”

                                                         ***

“Stilinski!”

Stiles, Gabe, and I turned at the sound of Coach’s harsh call. He rolled his eyes and pointed at me. I patted my brothers’ shoulders before running over to Coach.

“What’s up?”

“Go find Jackson. This thing starts in five and I still haven’t seen him. Find McCall while you’re at it, too.”

I nodded, “Yes Coach.”

I turned back to my brothers and rolled my eyes. “I’ll be back in a few.”

They nodded and made their ways to their respective spots. Stiles on the bleachers, Gabe on the field. I went back inside the school, going for Scott first. I found him at his locker, but before I got to him, Jackson came up and slammed his locker shut.

“All right, little man. How 'bout you tell me where you're getting your juice?”

I closed my eyes and bit my tongue. Whatever was happening to Scott was going to get him in some very big trouble.

“What?” Scott shook his head.

His eyes darted my way, like he somehow knew I was there. But then his attention went back to Jackson.

“Where are you getting your juice?” Jackson left a pause between each word, speaking as if Scott were stupid.

Scott looked confused, his eyes squinting before he looked back at Jackson. “My mom does all the grocery shopping.”

I bit my tongue again, trying not to laugh. I knew he was being sincerely pure and not sarcastic, but it was funny.

“Now, listen, McCall. You're gonna tell me exactly what it is and who you're buying it from, because there's no way in hell you're out there kicking ass on the field like that without some sort of chemical boost.”

Realization dawned on the hypothetical werewolf, “Oh, you mean steroids.” His eyes danced around Jackson’s figure. “Are you on steroids?”

Jackson shoved him up against the lockers. “What the hell is going on with you, McCall?”

I wanted to jump in, but I wanted to know what was up with Scott. He told us less and less about what happened every day, so maybe something he would let slip here would help.

“What's going on with me? You really wanna know? Well, so would I! Because I can see, hear, and smell things that I shouldn't be able to see, hear, and smell. I do things that should be impossible, I'm sleepwalking three miles into the middle of the woods, and I'm pretty much convinced that I'm totally out of my fucking mind!”

Jackson blinked a few times, confused. Scott let out a huge breath and leaned his head back against the locker.

“You think you're funny. Don't you, McCall? I know you're hiding something. I'm gonna find out what it is. I don't care how long it takes.” He punched the locker, right by Scott’s head.

Scott flinched. I stepped into sight, my teeth clenched and my eyes dead on Jackson. He scratched the back of his neck, eyeing me.

“Hi, Lupus.”

“Get your ass to the field. Coach’s been looking for you.” I jabbed my thumb over my shoulder and he ran off.

I went up to Scott.

“Are you alright?”

Scott nodded, obviously shaken. “How much of that did you hear?”

I grabbed his shoulders. “All of it. Are you sure you’re okay?”

Scott forced his breathing to calm and nodded again, this time more genuinely. “Yeah, I’m alright.”

I nodded. “Alright, let’s get you on the field so you can make first line.”

We ran out of the school, Scott speeding up so he wouldn’t be late. I ran after him, catching Stiles and Gabe eavesdropping on our dad’s phone conversation. I yanked Gabe by the back of his jersey.

“Aw, come on. I was listening to that.”

“You’re playing, now come on.”

He sighed but picked up his lacrosse stick as he walked over to Scott. Stiles came sprinting, his voice high. “Scott! Scott, wait up.”

“Stiles, I'm playing the first elimination, man. Can it wait?”

Stiles grabbed ahold of his shoulders, “Just hold on, okay? I overheard my dad on the phone. The fiber analysis came back from the lab in L.A. They found animal hairs on the body from the woods!”

Scott pulled free. “Stiles, I gotta go.”

Stiles called after him as he ran out onto the field. Gabe quickly followed suit. I sighed at Stiles and started walking off to join the team.

“Wait, no! Lu! You're not gonna believe what the animal was!”

I sighed again and turned to him, eyebrows raised expectantly.

“It was a wolf.”

I shook my head in order to clear it. I patted his cheek as Coach blew the whistle.

“Let's go! Gather round! Bring it in, come on! Come on!”

Scott put his hand up in the air. I followed his line of sight to Allison Argent.

“Got a question, McCall?”

“What?” Scott snapped out of his reverie, now back on Earth.

“You raised your hand. You have a question?”

“Oh. No. I was just, uh…Nothing. Sorry.” He averted his eyes to the ground.

“Okay. You know how this goes. If you don't make the cut, you're most likely sitting on the bench for the rest of the season.” He patted Stiles on the arm.

“You make the cut, you play. Your parents are proud. Your girlfriend loves ya!” He grabbed hold of Cole’s helmet and shook his head from side to side. Ouch.

“Huh? Everything else is, uh. Cream cheese! Now, get out there and show me whatcha got! Come on!”

Jackson screamed first, trying to pump the boys up. “Let's go! Let's go!”

Jackson and Scott ended up on opposite teams, against my pleading. Of course, as soon as Scott got the ball, Jackson knocked him flat on his back. Scott laid for a few seconds, angry. He sat up quickly however, ready to kick Jackson’s ass. Scott got the ball first, leaving Jackson in his dust. He dodged every defensive attack, finishing with a backflip and a perfect shot.

Everyone on the bleachers stared. They slowly began to clap with Stiles, and the gentle clap reached roaring cheers.The rest of the team ran up to him, congratulating him. Gabe hung behind, glancing at a pissed off Jackson before looking at me.

Coach blew the whistle. “McCall! Get over here! What in God's name was that? This is a lacrosse field. What, are you trying out for the gymnastics team?”

“No, Coach.”

“What the hell was that?”

“I don't know. I…I was just trying to make the shot.”

“Yeah, well, you made the shot. And guess what? You're startin', buddy. You made first line. Come on!” He slapped Scott’s cheek before running off.

Everyone in the crowd applauded again, standing. Stiles looked from Gabe to Scott to me, a worried look on his face. I patted his leg.

“I know.”

Gabe caught my eye and mouthed something at me. He had to repeat it once or twice, but I soon understood what he was saying.

That’s not normal.

I shook my head. He was right. Whatever was happening was anything but normal.

                                                         ***

Gabe was sleeping on his bed, laptop still on his lap as his head fell back against the headboard. Stiles was sitting at his own desk, printing out article after article he thought could be useful. I was sitting on Stiles’s bed, a mythology book open in my lap. I had highlighters and sticky notes, all thanks to Stiles. I was working on wolfsbane while he tackled lycanthropy. Gabe had been on silver before he had fallen asleep. There was a knock on the door. I shoved my book off to the side and made a leap for Gabe’s bed, slamming his laptop shut. Stiles closed his at the same time the door opened. I fell next to Gabe, expecting our dad.

It was Scott.

I sighed and Gabe grumbled, now awake.

“Get in. You gotta see this thing. We've been up all night reading. Websites, books. All this information.”

“How much Adderall have you had today?” Stiles asked with a small smile.

“A lot. Doesn't matter. Okay, just listen.”

Scott sat down on Stiles’s bed, tossing his bag aside. Gabe sat up straight, now listening to what Stiles was saying. I sat at the foot of his bed.

“Oh, is this about the body? Did they find out who did it?” Scott asked.

I shook my head. “No, they're still questioning people.”

“Even Derek Hale.” A grumpy Gabe added from behind me.

“Oh, the guy in the woods that we saw the other day.”

“Yeah! Yes. But that's not it, okay?” He flailed his hands.

Scott was still smiling. “What, then?”

“Remember the joke from the other day?” He attempted a laugh, but only a sad wheeze came out. “Not a joke anymore.” Lines appeared on his forehead, but they only made him look younger.

We were only 16. If any of this was real, why did we have to deal with it? We were just kids.

I jumped in for Stiles. “The wolf. The bite in the woods. We started doing all this reading. Do you even know why a wolf howls?” 

“Should I?”

Stiles jumped to his feet, clearly taking over again. “It's a signal, okay? When a wolf's alone, it howls to signal its location to the rest of the pack. So if you heard a wolf howling, that means others could have been nearby. Maybe even a whole pack of 'em.”

Scott leaned forward, and I couldn’t differentiate sarcasm from genuine wonder. “A whole pack of wolves?”

“No!” Stiles paused. “Werewolves.”

“Are you seriously wasting my time with this? You know I'm picking up Allison in an hour.” He picked up his bag and slung it over his shoulder.

Stiles reached out and stopped him, hand on his shoulder. “We saw you on the field today, Scott. Okay, what you did wasn't just amazing, all right? It was impossible.”

Scott looked hurt, maybe even a bit taken aback. “Yeah, so I made a good shot.”

“No, you made an incredible shot, I mean…” He took the backpack from Scott and threw it back onto the bed. The way you moved, your speed, your reflexes. Y'know, People can't just suddenly do that overnight.” Stiles said.

Scott sighed, looking down at the ground.

“There’s also the vision and the senses, and don't even think we didn't notice that you don't need your inhaler anymore.” I piped up.

I get the feeling Gabe would’ve added something if he hadn’t been so tired.

“Okay! Guys, I can't think about this now. We'll talk tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?! What? No! The full moon's tonight. Don't you get it?” Stiles grew more frantic.

“What are you trying to do? I just made first line. I got a date with a girl who I can't believe wants to go out with me,” Scott got closer to Stiles, who sat down at his desk again, “And everything in my life is somehow perfect. Why are you trying to ruin it?”

Stiles scoffed and pulled out a paper. “We’re trying to help. You're cursed, Scott. You know, and it's not just the moon will cause you to physically change. It also just so happens to be when your bloodlust will be at its peak.” Stiles spoke nonchalantly.

“Bloodlust?” Scott repeated, incredulous.

“Yeah, your urge to kill.” Stiles shrugged.

“I'm already starting to feel an urge to kill, Stiles.”

Gabe scrambled for something on his desk. “You gotta hear this.” He opened a book and took his seat behind me once more.

“‘The change can be caused by anger or anything that raises your pulse.’ All right? We haven't seen anyone raise your pulse like Allison does.”

I sighed. “Scott, it pains me to say this, but you’ve gotta cancel this date.”

“I'm gonna call her right now.” Stiles said, taking Scott’s phone from his bag.

“What are you doing?” Scott let out a high pitched complaint.

“I'm canceling the date.” Stiles went to drop back into his chair.

“No, give it to me!”

I felt the tension rise seconds before Scott pinned him against the wall, fist aiming for Stiles’s face. I leapt up as Scott redirected his fist for Stiles’s desk chair. It fell flying backward. Gabe pulled me back to him, all eyes on Scott.

“I'm sorry. I…I gotta go get ready for that party. Guys, I'm sorry.” He shouldered his bag before quickly leaving the room.

Stiles thumped his head against the wall. I ran to him, pulling him into a tight hug. He didn’t resist. Gabe pulled the chair up, staring at it. Stiles tensed up.

“What’s wrong?” I pulled back but my hands didn’t leave Stiles’s.

Gabe angled the chair towards us so I could get a better view. The back of the chair had four long scratch marks.

I sighed. Stiles was right.

                                                         ***

I noticed Scott near the pool, struggling to keep upright.

“Ise.” I cut the blond off. “Just give me a second. “

I ran over to Scott, hands on his back. I tried to steady him and waved my hand in front of his face.

“Scott, are you okay?”

He didn’t seem to hear me. I followed him into the house, dragging Gabe along with me to make sure he didn’t fall flat on his face.

We brushed past Stiles, who instantly noticed something was wrong with his best friend. “Yo, Scott, you good?”

Another girl saw it too, “Are you okay?”

Scott kept going, in his own world.

Stiles shrugged his “nothing we can do now” shrug. I sighed and followed after Scott. Allison came behind me, watching with me as he got into his car and took off. I ran off to get Stiles, only to run straight into Gabe.

“Where’s he going?”

I pushed past him, dragging him along. “I don’t know.”

“Are we getting Stiles to drive us to his house?”

“Yeah.” I looked around, trying to find him in the crowd of people.

“Lu! Gabe!” He was standing near the snacks.

“We need to go.”

“Now?”

“Now.” Gabe took the cup from his hand and put it down on the table.

“Hey!” Stiles whined as we pulled him out to the street.

“Scott left.” I said.

“Uh, guys?” Gabe stopped cold.

I looked up at him. He pointed. Allison was getting into a black car. I realized Derek Hale was in the driver's seat. He sent a wink our way before driving away.

“Okay, let’s go.” Stiles tugged at the hood of my jacket.

Gabe climbed over the seat and into the back. Stiles started the car up before my door was closed.

                                                         ***

“Where’s the spare key?” Gabe asked as he put the rug back in place.

I looked over at Stiles, who produced the key from his pocket, a shy smile on his face. He unlocked the door and ran up the stairs, Gabe and I following. Stiles knocked on Scott’s door.

“Go away.”

“Scott, it's us.” Stiles pressed his forehead against the door.

The door opened slightly, but it didn’t budge any more against Stiles’s weight.

“Let us in, Scott.” I tried as Gabe and I joined Stiles against the door.

“We can help.” Gabe pleaded.

“No! Listen, you guys gotta find Allison.”

“She's fine, all right? We saw her get a ride from the party.” Gabe ran a hand through his hair.

“She's, she's totally fine, all right?”

“No, I think I know who it is.” Scott sounded like he was in pain, but he was obviously strong enough to hold the door back against the three of us, who were pushing on it.

“You just let us in. We can try-”

“It's Derek! Derek Hale is the werewolf! He's the one that bit me. He's the one that killed the girl in the woods.”

My blood ran cold and the three of us stopped struggling with the door. Stiles looked at me, then at Gabe.

“Scott. Derek's the one who drove Allison from the party.”

There was a second of silence before the door slammed shut. Stiles instantly tried the knob, but it was locked.

“Scott!” I slammed my hand against the door.

There was no noise. Gabe sighed.

“Guys, he’s not gonna let us in.”

I sighed and shook my head.

“Yeah, you’re right. Let’s just go check on Allison.” I ushered the boys down the stairs.

                                                         ***

Stiles pulled into the Argent driveway. We scrambled out of the car. I knocked on the door. Stiles pushed in front of me just as her mother opened the door.

“Hi, Mrs. Argent. Um… you have no idea who we are. We’re friends of your daughter. Uh, look…this is gonna sound kind of crazy, um…really crazy, actually. You know what? Crazy doesn't even describe-” Stiles ran his hand over his hair.

“Allison! It's for you.” Mrs. Argent cut him off.

Allison appeared on the stop of the stairs, a look of disappointment on her face. I felt Gabe let out a breath. I smiled softly and waved. She waved back before making her way down the stairs. She said something to her mother, who left.

“What’s up, guys?”

“Uh…” Stiles licked his lips before looking down to me.

“We just wanted to make sure you got home safe.”

“Right. Because Scott left me stranded.” She folded her arms across her chest.

“Which was totally not cool. That’s why we wanted to make sure you were okay.” Gabe grinned.

That seemed to get a genuine smile from her.

“Yeah, I’m okay. Thanks for checking in, you guys.”

The three of us nodded, similar smiles gracing our unsimilar faces.

“Do you wanna come in?” She moved back, opening the door further, giving us access to the house.

“Oh. Thank you, but we can’t.” I gave her a sympathetic smile.

“You have to go check up on Scott now?” She put one hand in her pocket.

We all nodded.

“Sorry.” Stiles mumbled.

“It’s okay.”

“Um, we should go.” Gabe backed down the steps first.

She nodded, wished us luck, and closed the door.

                                                         ***

“There he is.” Gabe leaned forward and pointed.

Stiles stopped the car next to a shirtless Scott. I climbed over into the back as Scott got into the passenger seat, looking like a lost puppy.

“You were gone all night.” I rested my chin on the seat, looking at the not-so-hypothetical werewolf.

Scott sighed, clutching at his arm. Gabe took his jacket off and handed it to him.

He gratefully accepted it and slid it on. “You know what actually worries me the most?”

Stiles looked at me in the rearview mirror before turning his eyes back to the road.

“If you say Allison, I'm gonna punch you in the head.”

I glanced at Scott, who looked like he was suffering.

“She probably hates me now.”

“Ugh. I doubt that. But you might want to come up with a pretty amazing apology.” I patted his shoulder. 

Gabe jumped into the conversation, “Or, you know, you could just…tell her the truth.” 

“And revel in the awesomeness of the fact that you're a fucking werewolf.” Stiles cut him off.

Scott and I glared at him.

“Okay, bad idea. Hey, we'll get through this. Come on, if we have to, we'll chain you up ourselves on full moon nights and I’ll feed you live mice. I had a boa once. I could do it.”

Scott scoffed a laugh, and Stiles grinned. I smiled and leaned back into the seat.

                                                         ***

“Lup! Hey!” Isaac ran to my side.

“Hey!” I pulled him in for a hug, my eyes still on Scott, who was talking to Allison.

“I haven’t talked to you all day. What’s up?” He sat next to me on the steps.

“Not much. What’s up with you?”

He followed my line of sight.

“Oh, you’re watching over your new star?”

I rolled my eyes and looked at the blond next to me.

“Speaking of Scott, what happened to him at the party the other day?” He looked back to Scott, who was leaning in for a kiss with Allison.

“He got sick.” I answered.

“New girl still got him?” He asked, a bit of distaste in his voice.

“Look for yourself.” I leaned against him, looking at the not-so-hypothetical werewolf and the new girl.

Before they could kiss, Allison ran off into a red SUV. Scott turned and started to walk our way. He stopped in his tracks before turning around and looking at the man who was presumably Allison’s father. Scott waved meekly, and the man smiled back.

Scott turned back, a look of fear and confusion on his face.

“Lupus?” A pair of fingers snapped in front of my face.

I turned, looking back at Isaac.

“What’s wrong?”

Isaac shook his head in response and got to his feet, holding a hand out to help me.

“We gotta get to practice. Come on.”

[quicksilversquared]

Supervillain Backstabber: Chapter 2

Lila Rossi had an understanding of sorts with Paris’ head supervillain, Hawkmoth. He would give her powers to take down Ladybug; she would try to get the Miraculous for him. She assumed that their agreement would also grant her immunity from being targeted by any of his other akumas. When it turns out that that isn’t the case…

Well, Lila never forgives a slight. And she WILL get her revenge.

links in the reblog

-----------

The next part of Lila's plan unfortunately required more stakeouts on top of rooftops. Now that they were reaching the hottest part of the summer and the sun was beating down overhead, all she wanted to do was find an air-conditioned building and hide inside of it all day. Either that, or escape to the beach and spend most of the day splashing in the water.

But she wasn't going to do that. No, Lila had a plan, and she intended to stick to it.

Hiding out on the rooftop of the Grand Paris was both harder and more exasperating than Lila had expected it to be. She had to dress up to make it pass the doorman, work her way up to the rooftop, and then shed the gaudy, bulky parts of her disguise in order to effectively hide in the foliage on the roof, where everyone who had half a brain cell knew that Chloe always waited with her bee-light during akuma battles, waiting for the superheroes to come give her the Bee Miraculous. It didn't happen often- Ladybug and Chat Noir tended to take care of akumas on their own most of the time, and when they didn't they seemed to favor the temporary superheroes who weren't the most spoiled brat in all of Paris- but it did happen on occasion.

And Lila had to wait for that. With every hot, humid, sweaty, uncomfortable day that Lila spent on that rooftop, her anger grew. If Hawkmoth had just managed to honor their partnership, as strange as it was- if Ladybug had just kept her nose out of it and not made Lila into an akuma in the first place- if- if-

She should have been reaping the rewards of having most of the school wrapped around her pinky finger right now, attending picnics and invited to pool parties and sleepovers every day. But instead, Lila was sitting on a rooftop, trying not to attract any attention.

They were all going to pay for this.

Each akuma fight made her sit up and take notice. With every boring, underpowered, uncreative akuma that came out, she slumped. Chloe wouldn't be needed for those.

And then came D-Day. An akuma that was just a little too much for Ladybug and Chat Noir alone. Chloe cheered when she spotted Chat Noir heading for the Grand Paris, and Lila rolled up onto the balls of her feet, making sure that her hat and sunglasses were firmly in place. They would hide her face from view, and the long ponytail that she had pulled her hair into instead of her usual three-part style would keep her identity safe.

She was ready. She had to be. Thankfully, Chat Noir seemed to be in a hurry.

"Catch!" he yelled as he touched down for a moment, tossing a small box at Chloe. She nearly fumbled it. "Transform and meet us near the Eiffel Tower!"

Chloe nodded eagerly, opening the box. Something round and yellow popped out, but Lila knew that her target- the bee comb- was still in the box. With Chloe distracted by the yellow blob and Chat Noir already heading off, Lila had her chance. Popping up, she sprinted with all of her might across the rooftop. Her muscles complained after being still for so long, but Lila ignored them as she reached out and grabbed the box, pinning the comb down with her thumb as she ripped the Miraculous out of an unsuspecting Chloe's hands.

"Stop!" she heard Chloe scream. "Come back here right now! Thief!"

Up ahead, Chat Noir paused mid-air, turning around. Lila didn't wait to see what his reaction was. Instead, she shoved the comb into her hair, calling out the phrase that Chloe had oh-so-helpfully shared with the world during her superhero vlogs.

"Pollen, transform me!"

This rush of magic felt much more potent than her akuma transformations. Sting grinned and took to the air, her wings- why Queen Bee didn't have them, she didn't know and didn't care- beating furiously. Before Chat Noir could fully turn around, Sting was off, dodging between buildings until she reached street level. Once she reached an alley, she detransformed. Lila slid the Miraculous back into the box and pocketed it, smirking the whole way.

Phase Two was complete. Hawkmoth was going to regret ever crossing her, and then, once he fell... well, the superheroes of Paris wouldn't be far behind.

 ----------------

 The news was all over Paris: the Bee Miraculous had been stolen from Chloe Bourgeois. No one knew who had done it, or why. After the escape, the new Bee hadn't been seen.

Public opinion was mixed, Alya had texted Lila. Some people were worried that someone connected to Hawkmoth had stolen the extra Miraculous. Some thought it was a foreign curiosity-seeker, because who else would risk the wrath of Ladybug and Chat Noir once they were found?

Others, much to Lila's surprise, were of the opinion that someone taking Chloe's Miraculous was long overdue. After all, she hadn't exactly been picked so much as she had taken the Miraculous for herself, and now she had at least a little experience as part of the superhero team, so Ladybug and Chat Noir kept using her. She wasn't much of a hero, particularly outside of the superhero suit. Whoever had taken it had to be better, right?

Most people were holding out to see what the new Bee would be like before they formed their opinion. After all, they hadn't joined the superheroes during that fight.

The other news- which Lila had already heard, because it was impossible not to- was that the mayor had dedicated a special police force to finding the thief and getting Chloe's Miraculous back. They were going over the video footage, trying to pick out any distinguishing features.

It was a really good thing that Lila had been wearing an outfit that she had gotten from a thrift store and had been able to toss. Her mom wouldn't recognize her, and neither would any of her classmates.

She let the fervor die down for a few days, then took the Miraculous out again. Once again, the yellow orb formed and a small figure appeared in it. It frowned.

"You aren't my Queen."

"I'm your new owner. The last one was inadequate." Lila surveyed the small being. From Chloe's videos, she was assuming that this was the bee kwami, aka Pollen. "And I'm going to defeat Hawkmoth."

Pollen frowned. "Then are you going to join Ladybug and Chat Noir?"

"No." Lila couldn't help the dark scowl that flashed over her face. She rushed to hide it, though, because this Pollen could be a valuable source of information if she played her cards right. "They only battle the akumas. I've spent the entire summer up on rooftops, tracking down the source of the akumas. And I've found it."

Pollen gasped. "You found- you found Hawkmoth?"

"Right. Unlike Ladybug and Chat Noir, I actually put in the effort to find him. And I'm going to take him down." Lila leaned forward, fixing Pollen with a steady look. "And to win, I need you to tell me everything about this Miraculous."

 --------------------------

 Preparing for the final battle took another two weeks, weeks in which Lila spent transforming in the dead of the night and practicing her fighting on the rooftops. Pollen had told her about all of the Bee's powers- which really weren't that impressive, if Lila were being honest- and Lila needed them honed to perfection. During that time, her relationship with Pollen got tenser.

The kwami had never been happy about the thief of the Miraculous, which was ridiculous considering that Chloe had pretty much stolen it in the first place. Lila's refusal to work with Ladybug and Chat Noir had the kwami further on edge, particularly when Lila refused to divulge why she was so against working with the superheroes. Lila didn't trust the kwami with Hawkmoth's identity, either.

And then she had discovered that Pollen had to do whatever she commanded. There was an order in all of her questions now, and the kwami had to answer.

Unfortunately, Lila learned nothing new from that. Pollen had already told her about all of the Bee's powers that she could access, and knew only the same things as the public did about Hawkmoth and his powers. She hadn't been holding anything back.

Lila really, really wished that Chloe had had the Fox Miraculous instead. Now that she could do something with.

With the end of summer starting to appear on the horizon, Lila knew that she had to act if she wanted to take out Hawkmoth and the superheroes before school started up again. So she transformed and flew over to the Agreste manor one evening, readying herself for the fight. Ten minutes of looking in the windows and prowling around the outside of the mansion told her that Adrien was out- no doubt with his annoying lie-detecting sidekick- and Mr. Agreste was nowhere to be seen.

He had to be in his lair. She had come at a good time.

Sting flew over the manor, taking advantage of the falling gloom to keep herself out of sight. Her dark outfit would keep her hidden against the rooftops, for the most part, and if anyone noticed her hopefully they would assume that she was Chat Noir.

Not that it would matter soon enough.

It wasn't long at all before the tiny window that she had noticed before opened. Before any akuma could come out, Sting threw her trompo forward and smashed the rest of the glass before flying in as fast as she possibly could. She landed in front of a clearly startled Hawkmoth and smirked.

"I am Sting... and your time is up."

Hawkmoth staggered back a step in surprise, then grabbed his walking stick and pulled a sword out of it. His eyes narrowed. "How did you find-?"

Sting scoffed. "Like it was hard to find. I just had to figure out where the akumas were coming from."

Hawkmoth's smile was anything but friendly as he took a fighting stance. Sting mirrored him. "How smart of you. And why, may I ask, did you bother to track me down? No one else in Paris has even tried."

"Because you betrayed me, you no-good backstabber," Venom spat. "I helped you so many times, and what did that get me? Nothing but on the Miraculous Watch List! You still sent an akuma villain after me!"

Hawkmoth's eyes widened, then narrowed as he glared at her. "Volpina."

"It's Sting now, and I'm here to get my revenge! Now say good-bye to your Miraculous!"

As she charged, Sting saw Hawkmoth smirk. "I wouldn't be so sure about that if I were you, Sting."

Her trompo connected with his sword, and Sting yanked on the cord to pull Hawkmoth's weapon out of his grasp. Instead of it flying into her hand, Hawkmoth yanked back and Sting went stumbling towards him. Once she got close enough, his foot connected with her middle and she was flung back, hitting the wall hard and slumping to the floor.

No! She couldn't fail like this! She refused. She had trained and trained for two entire weeks. Sting refused to lose to a backstabbing traitor.

Grimacing, Sting pushed herself up. "You'll pay for this, Hawkmoth."

"I rather think I won't. But you will learn what happens to intruders in my lair." Hawkmoth pushed a button, and several panels on the wall opened. Something slid out, and it took Sting a moment to place them.

Missiles. What had she gotten herself into?

Sting's hand tightened around her weapon, and with a start she remembered that she was protected by a super-suit. If Ladybug and Chat Noir could get thrown around Paris every day and come out without a single scratch, she wasn't in danger from a couple measly missiles. They were meant as a distraction, and she would not fall for it.

Gritting her teeth, Sting charged again. This time, she did manage to pull the sword away from Hawkmoth. A second of trying told her that she couldn't break it, so instead she flung it out of the broken window with all of her might. Sting gave herself a mental pat on the back and turned back to attack Hawkmoth.

She never got there.

A click and a hiss were all the warning she got before a missile hit her right in the middle of the back and sent her flying into another wall. Sting scrambled away before it could explode, only to get caught by another, then another. Her head was spinning as she tried to crawl away.

How- how had it gone this wrong? What was happening?

"Little baby superhero thinks that she can go up against a supervillain and win," Hawkmoth taunted. "How foolish. All you've done is deliver another Miraculous straight into my hands."

"I'm no superhero," Sting spat, activating Venom. "And I'm not done with you yet-"

Hawkmoth laughed, just as another missile hit her. The trompo clattered across the floor, and Sting had a moment to panic before her head hit the wall yet again and the world started fading. "Big words from someone who couldn't even land a hit."

And then the world went black.

 --------------------------

 Lila woke up in a hospital bed. She blinked her eyes open and tried to glance around, but regretted it immediately.

Everything hurt.

"Don't try to move. You took some pretty hard hits."

Lila gasped and turned her head anyway. There, standing in one corner of the room, was a police officer. A nurse stood behind her, looking worried.

"Ladybug and Chat Noir rescued you," the police officer informed Lila, and she had to resist the urge to scowl. Of course they had. "They defeated Hawkmoth and brought the two of you in. And I have to inform you that you're wanted by the police for the thief of the Bee Miraculous."

Her brain was working a little slower than usual, but as soon as the police officer's words sunk in, Lila began to sniffle. "After all I did to track Hawkmoth down? The superheroes never would have found him if it weren't for me!"

The nurse looked uncomfortable, but the officer remained stoic. "You could have informed the superheroes of his location instead of stealing a Miraculous to try to take him on yourself. Ladybug and Chat Noir have testified that they knew nothing of your research or plans, and that they only found you and Hawkmoth because of the noise from his missiles. They said that your actions could have given Hawkmoth another Miraculous and endangered the entire city."

Lila turned up the tears. "I t-tried to tell them and they didn't want to listen to me! They said that I was just searching for fame and not to w-waste their time and now they're lying to save face. What other option did I have?"

"You'll have to tell that to the judge, I'm guessing." The police officer nodded to the nurse and then left. Lila stared after her, disbelieving.

They- they couldn't possibly still be thinking of going through with charging her, could they? That just- that wasn't fair at all! The public should be thanking her, admiring her bravery and commitment to taking Hawkmoth down.

"I'm sure the charges won't go far, dear," the nurse assured her once the door closed. "It's just that the mayor and his daughter always throw a fit over any perceived wrong. The public will be thrilled over Hawkmoth's defeat, and they won't care so much over how it happened."

Lila played up the sniffles. This was someone who she could get on her side. "I r-really hope you're right, because I just- I just wanted to help-"

"And you did. Hawkmoth is gone, and Ladybug and Chat Noir saved the day once again." The nurse smiled as she raised the bed so that Lila could sit up, missing the flash of anger that flashed over Lila's face. Of course the superheroes were getting all of the credit. That's just what they always did, didn't they? "I hear that it was a hard fight. I don't think that they landed in the hospital, though."

Lila did her best not to say anything to that.

"And your mom should be on the way," the nurse continued, oblivious to her internal rage. "She was getting briefed by the doctors on the care that you'll need once- well, once you're discharged. That certainly won't be right away."

That pulled Lila out of her increasingly murderous thoughts. Briefing? And she wasn't getting discharged right away? That didn't sound good. Her mom wouldn't need to be briefed for a little concussion, would she? "Care?"

This time, the nurse's wince wasn't hidden at all. "I- yes. You see, what the superheroes said probably happened was that your Miraculous got dislodged during that last throw, and you started detransforming as you hit the wall. And I'm sorry to tell you that there were some spinal injuries. If- if you're very lucky, with therapy, you may be able to walk again, but it could take quite a while and-"

This time, Lila's tears were real.

 ---------------------------

 Apparently the nurses thought that Lila wanted to watch the endless coverage about Hawkmoth's defeat, or maybe that was all that was on TV. Three days after she woke up, Lila was stuck watching some annoying news anchor chatter on about how Mr. Agreste's home was currently being combed from top to bottom and a second Miraculous had been confiscated by the superheroes, one belonging to Mayura, Hawkmoth's ally from Heroes Day. Mr. Agreste's secretary was being taken in for questioning on suspicion of assisting a supervillain. The investigation into Mrs. Agreste's disappearance was being more closely examined, and investigators hoped to get a break soon. The superheroes were on scene 24/7, of course, and had been joined by Rena Rouge, Queen Bee, and a little old superhero called Jade Turtle as they searched for clues.

The gushing over the superheroes was going to make Lila ill, and she only refrained from turning the TV's incessant chattering off because she needed to know what the current story was in order to make up her own. She would have to explain several things: why she had started hunting Hawkmoth down, why she hadn't just gone to Ladybug and Chat Noir instead of taking a Miraculous, and, to her classmates, why she had been in the city instead of in London or- actually, no, she had said that she was meeting with some people in Sweden now, she thought.

So far, it looked like Lila could keep on using the sob story that she had come up with upon waking up: that she had wanted to help the city, of course, and had spent weeks and weeks tracking down Hawkmoth's lair, only to have the superheroes brush off her claims all because she had been akumatized more often than the average person (because she was the victim of bullying, boo-hoo, and she was always so hurt when people called her a liar). She had taken things into her own hands, and bravely ventured into Hawkmoth's lair alone. She had wanted to call for backup, of course, but had been worried that Ladybug and Chat Noir would ignore her again, and now she had a permanent back injury as a result.

(It... maybe, possibly, might not be permanent. The doctors had said that she might be able to recover, but Lila had seen the looks they had exchanged. Full recovery wasn't likely.)

That story was what she had told the police, and the hospital staff, and her mom. As a result, Lila's mom was considering a lawsuit against the superheroes, since their "inaction" had pushed Lila into a situation where she had gotten super hurt.

Even if Lila couldn't take Ladybug and Chat Noir's Miraculous like she had initially planned, she could still drag their names through the mud.

That afternoon, a reporter came to visit Lila, and she happily fed Madam Chamack the story that she had come up with. She looked shocked at Lila's story, but dutifully recorded everything before promising Lila that she would get a proper interview with a camera once she had recovered and was out of the hospital. There would no doubt be a big special with all sorts of interviews once all of the investigations had died down, and Lila would feature heavily.

Frankly, she couldn't wait. She also couldn't wait to get out of the hospital and go home and eat some decent food and wear her own clothes again. She wanted to be able to have visitors- her classmates no doubt had heard what had happened and wanted to visit, but visitors were heavily restricted and it had taken even Madam Chamack several days to get permission to come in for a short visit. Lila wasn't sure if it was the hospital or the police who had made that decision, but it was annoying.

She was bored.

The next morning, Lila asked one of her nurses when she would get to leave. Instead of a straightforward answer or a fudging "I'll ask the doctors", she just frowned and shrugged.

Any answer would have been better than that. Maybe they were tired of asking, or maybe they knew as well as Lila did that between her condition and the police investigation, there was no real way to know when she would get out.

Right after that, another police officer came in for yet another official interview. Lila was getting tired of them by now- wasn't one enough?- but maybe it was because her mom had formally submitted the lawsuit against the superheroes the previous evening.

Lila smirked at that as she reached for the remote to turn on the TV. She wondered how the public had reacted to that, and to her interview. Madam Chamack had seemed shocked by Lila's story but accepted it easily enough, and Lila had to hope that the rest of Paris would be the same.

The superheroes would protest, no doubt, and try to contradict her story, but who was Paris going to believe: them, or the girl who had figured out who Hawkmoth was and tried to confront him on her own, leaving her with a serious injury?

(Lila hoped that she would get her legs back, she really, really did. It had only been a couple days and she wanted to walk, run, anything.)

"-continued developments on the Hawkmoth case," Madam Chamack was saying as the screen came to life. "Yesterday afternoon, Paris was shocked by accusations that Ladybug and Chat Noir ignored a tip-off from Lila Rossi, the girl who was injured during her face-off with Hawkmoth. There was even a lawsuit filed against them. Ladybug and Chat Noir refuted the claims yesterday evening, as expected."

"We knew nothing about Lila's efforts to find Hawkmoth, as we said before," Ladybug firmly told the camera in what was clearly a clip from the previous evening. "We take all potential leads very seriously. The police will have records of some of the tips that we received and subsequently investigated in the past, no matter how questionable the source or the accusation."

Madam Chamack's face filled the screen again. "We went to the police department, and while the files are closed due to the fact that they concern private citizens not accused of anything, the chief assured us that they do exist and that the superheroes followed up on all sorts of leads, even ones with absolutely no evidence. And then this morning, while Gabriel Agreste was being moved from a high-security ward at the hospital to the prison, we managed to get a shocking interview with him."

Slightly shaky interview footage filled the screen, with Mr. Agreste in the middle of a ring of burly police officers. There was a flash of Madam Chamack's hair in the corner of the screen as a microphone was thrust into view. "Mr. Agreste! Mr. Agreste, a few questions!" She didn't sound deterred by the police at all, even though several looked less than thrilled about her presence. "Mr. Agreste, you were found after Ms. Rossi spent several weeks following akumas back to your house. Why do you think, out of everyone in Paris-"

"Why did she decide to do that?" Mr. Agreste finished for the reporter. He had come to a stop, and none of the police looked thrilled. He shot one that was clearly trying to nudge him along a disgusted look. "That's easy enough. She told me why. She wanted revenge."

"Revenge?" Madam Chamack sounded confused. Lila was starting to feel a sinking feeling of dread in his gut. "Was she akumatized and wasn't happy about it?"

Mr. Agreste snorted. "Not happy about it? She was thrilled about it. She hates the superheroes and Ladybug in particular after some incident with them, and so she had been accepting akumas on purpose and even grabbing ones destined for others so that she could go after the superheroes. Apparently she was under the impression that doing so would grant her immunity against any akuma attacks."

There was a clear gasp from Madam Chamack. "She was getting akumatized on purpose?"

"She would volunteer for it. Then she got upset that she got targeted once and wanted revenge for that reason. It was hardly for a noble cause, and I don't doubt that she planned on taking out Ladybug and Chat Noir after defeating me." Mr. Agreste was jostled again, harder this time, and he glared at the policeman responsible before returning his attention to Madam Chamack. "If you don't believe me, I have proof. There'll be security camera footage- video and audio- from my lair on the home computer. The camera was there in case there were ever any intruders who came in while I wasn't there."

This was his revenge on her, Lila realized with a sick, sinking feeling. He was going down- there was no getting around that- but he was going to take her down with him. She wouldn't get cleared of the charges for stealing a Miraculous and needlessly endangering it, and at this rate...

She was going to get charged with purposefully colluding with a supervillain. If the police searched her notebooks- and they would now, who was she kidding?- they would see that she had been planning on taking out the superheroes, too.

Unless...unless they didn't listen to a supervillain. Unless they thought that he was just lying to slander her. But he had mentioned proof, and the likelihood of both reporters and police not following up on that was pretty slim.

"After that, while the police searched for the footage, we decided to approach some of Lila's classmates to see what they thought of the accusations," Madam Chamack continued. "Most of them were confused and not sure what to believe. Others, though, are positive that at least part of Lila's story are made up."

It didn't take a genius to figure out what was coming. Still, Lila couldn't hold in a hiss when she saw Marinette Dupain-Cheng's face appear on screen.

"Lila tells a lot of stories," she told Madam Chamack. "There was a video of her on the Ladyblog a while back with her claiming that she's Ladybug's best friend, even though she had just arrived in Paris. Anyone could have asked Ladybug about it and had that disproved in seconds."

"Ladybug told Lila to stop spreading lies about her right after that, and Lila didn't listen," another voice chimed in, and Lila scowled when the camera panned out to include Adrien Agreste. Why anyone would bother to interview him, she didn't know. Surely he wasn't considered a reliable source of information, with his father unmasked as Paris's supervillain. "That was the first time that she was akumatized as Volpina."

"She was akumatized again and made the illusions of the fighting Ladybug and Chat Noir on Heroes Day, even though she was claiming that she was in the middle of a trip out of the country," Marinette added. "She was gone from school for several months, claiming that she was on a trip and meeting all of these famous people. I don't know why no one besides us ever fact-checked her story. There were a ton of details that just didn't line up."

"Celebrities not even in the same country that she claimed they were, landscapes behind her with stores that closed years ago- it wasn't that hard to find the posters that she used as a backdrop to her Skype calls," Adrien told Madam Chamack. He wrapped his arm around Marinette's. "And no one ever checked up on that."

"And there were stories that she would tell in class, too- she claimed to have a hearing problem after saving Jagged Stone's kitten on an airplane runway, that's the one I remember most," Marinette finished. "Which is ridiculous. It's not hard to find video of Jagged Stone saying that he only likes reptiles and that he's had Fang for years. So I'd say that Lila is lying this time, too. Getting super-bent on revenge because of some perceived slight is totally up her alley. She's clearly trying to discredit Ladybug and Chat Noir and all of their hard work for the city."

"And she's certainly been akumatized far more often than anyone else in the city," Adrien added in. "Most of those times- the majority, I'd say- there wasn't even anything that had happened that we knew of to upset her."

"So even before we got our hands on the tape, there were some serious doubts about Lila Rossi's trustworthiness," Madam Chamack said as that clip ended. "Conversations with the teachers at her school confirmed that Lila had told those stories, and a source at the embassy confirmed that Ms. Rossi's mom was not traveling during the time that her daughter claimed. And then we received this clip."

Lila's heart was in her throat as a familiar scene showed up on-screen- Hawkmoth's lair. Glass shattered, and Sting appeared in front of Hawkmoth. They started their exchange, and every word she had said came over loud and clear.

No. No. All of her lies, all of her hard work, the careful web that she had spun- all of it was falling apart. Lila buried her hands in her hair, tugging as she tried to figure out some way- any way- out of this. She had to figure out something, anything, anything at all.

Nothing came to mind.

There was a knock on the door, and it opened to reveal several police officers. All of them had grim looks on their faces, and Lila knew without a doubt that they had already been informed of everything that Madam Chamack had just presented. The questioning that morning hadn't been because of her mom's lawsuit- which was definitely going to get thrown out, if it hadn't been already- it was because they were going to use her own words against her, pointing out where the evidence contradicted her words.

Lila gulped, unable to completely hide her nerves. She had never faced this level of scrutiny before, and had never told such large lies before, either. She hadn't ever done anything worse than threaten a couple people into silence before, and now- now she was facing multiple charges, each more serious than the last.

This time, Lila had to admit, she might have bitten off more than she could chew.

Fin.

[pikapikaprecure]

Pikapika☆Precure Under The Big Top episode 5- Pretty Cure Sleepover! Robot fight at 3 a.m?

Finally, it was last period. Even better, Friday. Just five more minutes...

four...

three...

two...

one...

zero! Suzume walked out the door and made her way to her house, Emica running as fast as she could way ahead of her. By the time Suzume got to the front porch, Emica was waiting there for at least two minutes. “Hey Suzu! guess what?”

"What?” Suzume sighed and started to unlock the door.

“I asked Mom and Dad if I could invite some friends over while you were at the rink, and they said yes!”

“Which friends?”

“Well, I only have two options, Noa and Kaede. I asked both of them.”

"You have to have more than two friends.”

“Nope!” Emica made a childish smile. “Anyway, Noa said we could have a sleepover and everyone else said that was okay! Mom and Dad also said you can invite some of your friends too!”

"Okay, I guess.” Suzume made her way upstairs while Emica sat down on the couch. Once she was in, she took Ellie off her bag and told her, “You can talk now.”

“Finally.” Ellie said, shifting out of her keychain form and stretching her limbs. “What’s all this I hear about a sleepover?”

“Oh yeah, Emica’s having a sleepover, apparently I can invite people too.”

“You should invite the other Cures. It’s important for you guys to stay together.”

“You do realize I have other friends, right?”

“Come on, Suzume, what if another robot attacks you? I’ll invite Stripe and Whisker too.”

“You are the tiny floating elephant version of an overprotective mom.”

“I know.”

Suzume took out her phone and called Airi, as she still hasn’t gotten Aina’s number. Airi picked up rather quickly. “Yeah, hey.”

“Hey Airi! I was wondering if you wanted to spend the night at my place?”

“Really? We barely know each other.”

“Well I can invite whoever I want, and Ell-”

“I’m on speaker.”

“Well, you know, she is super cautious and overprotective, so she wants me to invite you and Aina.”

“What about Noa?”

“Emica invited her.”

“Oh, alright. I’ll tell my parents. When should I come?”

“Don’t care. Maybe come soon, we could do some homework together.”

“Alright, see you!” Airi then hung up.

“Okay, Ellie, why don’t you get the other fairies?” Suzume turned around.

“Okay, I guess.” Ellie answered, floating out the window literally moments before Emica walked in. “Hey Suzu! Who’d you invite?”

“Oh, I invited Airi and I’m gonna invite Aina.”

“Are they like, your only friends all of a sudden?”

Suzume wasn’t quite sure how to answer without giving away her secret. Luckily, the doorbell rang. The sisters went downstairs to answer it. It was Kaede, with a giant bag that was filled with what Suzume thought was probably a mix of homework, pillows, and a bunch of toys, probably Precure related.

“Kaede!” Emica cheered. “Suzu, I call our room!” She ran upstairs, Kaede following, though much slower.

Suzume played on her phone for the next few minutes, but soon enough she heard the doorbell ring. She went to answer it. Aina had arrived, as well as the three fairies. “I did’t call you yet, Aina...”

“Oh, the fairies stopped by.” Aina answered. She pet Stripe, then walked inside.

Eventually, Airi and Noa also came. Once they all finished up their homework, Suzume, Airi, and Aina went into the living room to situate themselves. Noa also followed, despite being invited by Emica.

Emica and Kaede went upstairs. Kaede, sat down on Emica’s bed. “You know what’s up with your sister lately? She’s never hung out with anyone as much as she’s hanging out with Airi and Noa and Aina. They’re always doing something.”

“I know, it’s so weird.” Emica responded. “She rarely even hangs out with me anymore.”

Meanwhile, the Cures began to unpack their bags. Noa seemed to be very secretive about the contents of hers, and Aina noticed. “Noa, is something up?”

“No...”

“You sure?”

“Yeah...”

“What’s in that bag?”

“Nothing. I swear.”

“I’m pretty good with telling these things. Come on Noa, we won’t tease you.”

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

“Me too!” Aina added.

“I guess I won’t either then.” Suzume said as she fixed her ponytail.

“Okay, fine.” Noa took a doll with pale white skin, dark brown hair in ringlets, big blue painted on eyes, and a knee-length white dress with ruffles and pink bows out of her bag. “This is Bell-chan, I’ve had her since I was three. Please don’t think I’m weird or childish for playing with dolls.”

“It’s not weird at all!” Airi said. “I still sleep with a teddy bear.” she added, gesturing to the stuffed bear on her pillow.”

“Can I do her hair?” Ellie asked.

“Of course!” Noa answered. “Be very careful, though.”

Ellie began to braid Bell-chan’s hair when all of a sudden, footsteps could be heard. All three fairies quickly turned into keychains.

Emica and Kaede marched down the stairs, holding replicas of the Bonheur Wand and Chanceux Sword, respectively. “I am sick and tired of being ignored!” Emica yelled, repeatedly beating the wand on her sister. “Viva la revolution!”

“The real thing hurts more.” Suzume responded, not getting slightly hurt.

“How would you know?”

“Just a guess.”

“Why are you all of a sudden hanging out with these girls though? You never hung out with them before.”

“I... I can’t tell you... uhhh, I don’t know.”

This made Emica really mad, hitting Suzume harder than she thought she could.

“Hey bitch, what was that for?”

“Gotta problem?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“Fine, me and Kaede versus you and your new friends. Winner gets... uh... I’ll figure it out later. It’s on.”

“Deal.”

Aina, not wanting to see either party get mad, ripped the wand out of Emica’s hand. She twirled it and showed off the skill she got from fighting with the real thing regularly.

Neither of the sisters were remotely intimidated. They just went at each other directly, no weapons needed.

Airi, Noa, Aina, and Kaede knew that someone could get hurt, and tried their best to break up the fight. Suzume and Emica didn’t stop though, and the fight continued until everyone collapsed on the floor.

It was about 4 a.m. when Airi heard a little knock on one of the windows. She was a relatively light sleeper, and even the smallest noise could cause her to wake up.

She ran up to inspect, and she found a robot. “Goddammit,” she muttered. Just when she was about to wake up the others, another voice came from an open window. “Hello there...”

Airi turned around. It was Yukio, who was controlling the rest of the robots, slowly making them circle the house.

Airi quickly ran to Noa. “Noa! Noa! Noa!”

“What time is it?”

“Who the hell knows?”

“What do you want?”

“There’s an army of robots outside.”

“Okay...”

“Don’t you think we should get rid of them?”

“Ten minutes...”

“We can’t wait ten minutes, Noa.”

Aina, suddenly wide awake, turned to the pair. “Get up, Noa.”

“Fine...”

Now the girls had to wake up Suzume. If Airi was a light seeper, Suzume was the complete opposite. It might take more than 10 minutes to get her up. Unfortunately, there was no such time as more and more robots surrounded them. Of course, the girls had no idea, so they tried to get her up by shaking her, whispering in her ear, and turning on alarms. Eventually, Airi had enough.

“SUZUME!!!!!!! GET YOUR ASS UP BEFORE WE ALL DIE!!!!!!”

Suzume, eyes still closed, partially sat up. “What, Mom?”

Opening her eyes, she realized that the voice, in fact, belonged to Airi. “Oh, Airi, sorry. What?”

Airi said nothing, just pointed out the window. Suzume stumbled to the window, and muttered “Holy fuck, that’s a lot of robots.” under her breath.

“To the circus?” Noa proposed. The other girls nodded. 

“I know a secret exit,” Suzume said. “Follow me.”

The girls made it to the circus, but the robots still managed to follow them. They came outside and silently agreed it was time to transform, and took out their Pikacompacts.

“Magic circus jubilee change!“

“Magic circus parade change!”

“Magic circus cheer change!”

“Magic circus carnival change!”

“For the happiness of the world! The Pretty Cure of beauty and grace! Cure Jubilee!”

“For the happiness of the world! The Pretty Cure of creativity and love! Cure Parade!”

“For the happiness of the world! The Pretty Cure of peace and hope! Cure Cheer!”

“For the happiness of the world! The Pretty Cure of bravery and friendship! Cure Carnival!“

The Cures all smiled and looked at each other before saying, “Together we are Pikapika☆Pretty Cure Under The Big Top!”

The girls began to prepare to fight the robots, but Cure Jubilee noticed something. “The fairies!”

"Go get them,” Carnival responded. I’ve got it for now.” Carnival aimed her two fists at two robots. Yukio, who was still controlling the robots, made them punch back. The metal hurt, but that didn’t stop Cure Carnival. “Bonheur Wand!” Carnival went back at them, hitting the robots with the sharp edges of her wand. Once the robots were clearly incapable of fighting, she moved on.

“Fêtê Ribbon!” Cure Cheer summoned her ribbon. “Pikapika golden tangle!” Cheer tied up five of the robots, then used the ribbon to push them into a nearby building.

Cure Jubilee was also nearby, now with the fairies. “I got them!” she called to Carnival, who was still hitting robots with her wand. Then she turned to another batch of robots. “Listen up, bitches.” she told them. “You really think you’re gonna win this? The Pretty Cures always win.” She jumped down from the roof she was hiding on and she hit a robot’s face. She turned to another, and kicked his face. She kicked the faces of a few more as well.

Cure Parade stood by. To her, it seemed that all the robots were being taken  over by the other girls, and there wasn’t much she could do. Carnival noticed this. “Hey Parade, there’s one robot left, you know.”

She was right. If the Cures looked closer, there was one more robot under Yukio’s control. Since he was the last one left, all of Yukio’s power and energy was being put into this one robot, making him more powerful than all the others.

"You got this one!” Stripe whispered to Cure Parade. 

“Are you sure?” Parade answered. 

“Of course we are! This one is all yours.” Whisker told her.

Parade turned to the robot. “Chanceux Sword!”

She ran up to the robot, sword in hand. Parade lifted it it up, then carefully aimed it at the robot. Just a moment later, the robot had Parade by the neck, before she could even use the sword. Cure Parade kicked and kicked and kicked, before realizing this did nothing. “Wait a second!” She said to herself. The robot had her neck, her arms were still free. Parade could still stab the robot. She held the sword carefully, aimed, and when the robot wasn’t looking, she stabbed and broke him. Then she could finally break free and finish what the robots started.

"Félicité Bow!” Jubilee summoned her weapon, being the last Cure to do so. All the girls held their weapons in the air. “Pretty Cure Cirque Charge!” The girls then made their way back to the house and detransformed. It was only five in the morning, there was still time to get some sleep.

The next morning, Emica and Kaede woke up and grabbed some yogurt, but the Cures were obviously very tired. Suzume stumbled to the breakfast table and sat next to her sister. “Emica, I’m sorry.”

“Me too, Suzu.” Emica answered. “Could you try to spend more time with me though?”

“I’ll try.”

After breakfast, Emica sat down in her bed. I’ll try? Sure she will. Suzume and all her new friends were super tired in the morning. This doesn’t just happen normally.

Something fishy is definitely going on.

[the--blackdahlia]

A Home for Sammy Chapter 1(Supernatural/Simon & Simon Crossover)

Title: A Home for Sammy Chapter 1

Summary: After John is gone too long on a hunt, Sam and Dean wind up in the system in San Diego. After a case, Rick and AJ Simon wind up meeting the brothers. But it might not necessarily be good.

Warnings: Butchering the canon of both shows. Maybe some language. More to come.

AN: I would love to thank the wonderful @newtospnfandom for betaing for me! For anyone that doesn’t know, Simon & Simon was an 80′s TV show about two brothers who ran a detective agency.

“AJ, are you sure about this?” Rick Simon asked his little brother as they parked the car.

“Yes Rick, for the millionth time, I’m sure.” AJ said with a sigh. “Why are you trying to talk me out of it?”

Watching kids for a weekend, and having kids over to protect them until a case is over are one thing. They are completely different than fostering a kid.” Rick explained.

AJ Shook his head and climbed out of the car. “Fostering is almost exactly* the same as watching a kid until the case is over,” AJ told his brother, “And you didn’t have to come with me* you know.”

“I wanted to see what kind of kid was so bad that Alice said he has to be fostered ASAP.” Rick admitted.

Awhile ago, the Simon’s had worked a case for Alice Carter, catching some very illegal activity involving children that still sent shivers down AJ’s spine. He had told her that he would be interested in fostering sometime. She took it into consideration and called him a few days ago, telling him that she had a kid at the children’s home that needed to go into foster care ASAP. She couldn’t give any more details over the phone, so AJ had set up a meeting and, of course, Rick tagged along to be annoying.

The brothers made their way to the building. They were greeted by a cheerful secretary who immediately had Alice from her office. She smiled as she hugged the boys.

“Thank you both for coming.” Alice said. “Even though, I really didn’t expect Rick to join you.”

“I’m here to observe.” Rick said, dipping his hat a little. Alice laughed some.

“And observe you will.” She said. “Follow me. I’ll show you the little one that I need fostered and then we can discuss business.” AJ looked back at Rick, who was making faces at his brother. AJ rolled his eyes and followed Alice. She led them down a hallway to a window that overlooked the library area. Kids were in there reading, drawing, playing board games, normal kid things. Except for one, who was perched on a high stool instead of a comfy chair, just watching the room. Rick elbowed AJ and pointed at the kid, mouthing “That one’s yours.”

“Who’s that?” AJ asked. Alice smiled some.

“That’s Dean.” She said. “He mostly keeps to himself, unless you make him mad. He can be a real sweetheart. He has a protective streak, bordering possessive.” She paused for a minute. “And no, he’s not the kid you’d be fostering.”

“Really?” AJ asked. Alice shook her head.

“See that little one with the curls. He’s reading a book right in front of Dean?” Alice asked. AJ and Rick looked at the little boy. He couldn’t be older than three, maybe four. He had a dimpled smile on his face as he mouthed along to the young reader book in his hand. “That’s Sam. That’s Dean’s little brother. He’ll be the one you’re fostering.”

“I didn’t think that agencies liked to split siblings up.” Rick said. Alice sighed.

“Normally, no. But remember how I told you that Dean has a protective streak, bordering possessive?” AJ and Rick nodded. Alice took note of a kid coming towards Sam. “You’re about to see it.”

****

“Hey shrimp, give me that book.” A bigger kid, much bigger than Sam, said.

“No, I’m reading it.” Sam said, turning his attention back to his book. But the kid didn’t take no for an answer and ripped the book from Sam’s hands. He didn’t have much time to enjoy his victory though when a eight year olds fist met his nose, making him drop the book.

“He. Said. No.” Dean growled at the bigger kid. “Mess with him again and you’ll get worse.”

“I’m telling!” The other kid whined, tears springing from his eyes.

“Go ahead. See if I care.” Dean growled, taking his place behind Sam again on the stool. “No one touches my brother.” The other kid ran off while Sam took his book back and resumed his reading, Dean keeping vigilant of any threats.

****

“Oh my god.” AJ whispered.

“That’s nothing.” Alice said. “But we can get into more details about that later. All I know is that those boys need separated for their own good. I’ve never seen an eight year old that can punch like that. And yes, they’re both smart, but Dean is a little delayed in some areas and I’m afraid that too much toxic codependency is going to make Sam the same way.” Both Simon brothers could tell there was something that Alice was leaving out.

“Follow me.” Alice said, leading the Simon’s away from the window. She led them back to her office and offered them seats. She took her own seat across the desk from them.

“So, what’s their story?” Rick asked. Alice smiled some.

“Dean was caught shoplifting cans of soup from a local store. Sam was all alone in a motel room…” She closed her eyes for a moment. “It was unlike anything I’d ever seen.”

****

Dean was sitting at the police station. He didn’t want to talk, but somehow they got the name Sam out of him. They though maybe it was a someone who made him steal. They found out where he had been living and went to search the motel room with a search warrant given to the motel manager. Inside, they found satanic looking pictures taped to the wall, knives and a gun on the counter, and a scared little boy in the corner clutching a blanket and small stuffed rabbit like his life depended on it.

When the police brought the little boy to the station, the first one fought tooth and nail to get to him, holding him close to him. And when the social workers came, oh boy, was it bad. The boys were separated for a while, which was a mistake. They tried to put Dean in a foster home of his own, but that didn’t work. Dean always escaped, always found his way back to Sam. Always threatened whoever they were with that they’re dad was coming for them and he would be pissed.

Dean thought they had been in San Diego for far too long. He was ready to get Sam out of there, to hightail it out and call Uncle Bobby or Pastor Jim to come get them until John was done with whatever he was going and could come get them. After awhile, the state of California decided that the Winchester boys would be better in a children’s home, since Dean was too clever for his own good and Sam needed more interaction than just his brother.

But after only a few weeks, Alice saw that they needed time apart. And she knew that, from the pictures she had seen from where the boys had been, that they were in need of a lot of help. And the stories that Dean would tell, the threats he would make to other kids, it was scary what that poor kid had been exposed to. Talks of demons and werewolves, monsters and death. A fear of fire and police.

That led Alice to her decision. Most of the time, they didn’t like to seperate siblings from each other, but this was a special case for two special boys.

****

“I just think that with your expertise, Sam would be safest with you.” Alice admitted to AJ. “You’re the only one I trust to handle this.” Alice scanned the two detectives. “ I know this is a lot to ask…”

“I’ll do it.” AJ said, making Rick look at his brother with wide eyes.

“You will?” Alice asked, hope in her eyes.

“Yeah, you will?” Rick asked. AJ nodded.

“Yes I will.” AJ confirmed. “I have to get things ready at home, but yes, I’ll do it.” Alice smiled.

“Let’s get the paperwork started then.” Alice stood up and got a folder from her file cabinet. Rick looked over at his brother.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Rick asked. AJ nodded. Alice walked him through the paperwork while Rick watched on.

****

“There’s already a bed in the spare room.” AJ explained to Rick as they walked into AJ’s place. “So I won’t have to worry about that. Alice said he didn’t have much when he was brought in, so my main thing will be buying clothes, toys, books, things like that.”

“AJ, you saw what that brother of his did to that kid when he took the book from him. I just don’t think it’s a good idea bringing him here.” Rick said. AJ shook his head.

“You used to be like that over me.” AJ told his brother.

“Yeah, but we also had other friends we hung out with. You had your surfer group, I had Carlos. We weren’t joined at the hip like Sam and Dean are.” He flipped through the file that Alice had provided for AJ. Any allergies, blood type, and other little bits of information that AJ needed to know about his new house guest. “And heaven help us if their dad comes looking for him.”

“The boys have been in the system for a few months now. And he hasn’t come looking.” AJ countered.

“As far as we know he hasn’t.” Rick pointed out.

“Why are you so against this?” AJ asked. “Are you jealous?”

“Of you? No. I’m just worried is all.” Rick explained. “What if something happens? I don’t want to watch my brother lose his life because of some kid with a possessive brother and a devil worshipping dad.” AJ was about to comment back when the doorbell rang. AJ answered it, seeing Cecilia Simon standing there.

“Hi mom.” AJ said, hugging her. She smiled and hugged back he best she could before bringing a couple boxes into the house.

“This was all I could find of yours and Rick’s from when you were kids.” She explained. AJ had placed a call to his mom on the phone at the children’s home while Rick had went to the bathroom. “So, are you going to tell me more about what’s going on?”

“AJ here is adopting a kid.” Rick grumbled. AJ shook his head.

“I’m not adopting mom. Just fostering a little boy.” AJ explained to his mother. “His name is Sam and the state thinks it would be best to put him in a protective foster home.”

“A protective foster home?” Cecilia asked.

“Kid has a brother with some major trust issues.” Rick explained. “They want them apart.”

“Oh my. I couldn’t even imagine you two being split up.” Cecilia said. “What about their parents?”

“Mom isn’t in the picture.” AJ said. “According to Sam’s file, she died when he was just a baby. And as for dad, who knows. He left them in a motel with no food and no money. Dean got caught stealing food from a store. That’s how they found Sam.” He was leaving out some parts, like the satanist stuff. HE didn’t want his mom to worry more than she already was.

“I don’t fully understand but I’m sure once you bring the little one here, I will.” Cecelia said. “When is he coming here?”

“As soon as the paperwork clears and I have everything I need for him.” AJ explained. “I need to run to the store.” He paused for a second. “Do kids still like the same things we did growing up?”

“More modern versions of it, I’m sure.” Cecelia laughed. “Just try cars and army men right now and see where it goes from there.” AJ nodded and looked at Rick.

“Want to help me shop for Sam?” AJ asked.

“I guess.” Rick said. “I just don’t want you spending a lot of money.” AJ ignored his brother and headed back out to his car to head to the toy store.

****

“Dean?” Sam asked one night as they got ready for bed.

“What is it Sammy?” Dean asked, keeping guard over Sam as he brushed his teeth.

“When is daddy coming for us?” Dean’s heart felt heavy. He had no clue. He didn’t even know where John was. He had been gone longer than he should have been. Dean just hoped that he was still out there somewhere, alive, and on his way to get them. Because Dean had a really bad feeling in his gut.

“He’ll be here. He always is.” Dean said, playing with Sam’s hair. He was surprised this place didn’t make him cut it.

“Okay Dean.” Sam yawned and rubbed his eyes. Dean handed him his stuffed rabbit and blanket. He always kept it safe for Sam.

“Get some sleep squirt. You’ve got more books to read tomorrow.” Sam smiled and headed to his bed for some much needed sleep. Dean did as well, but he stayed more vigilant and restless than Sam did. He had to be on the lookout.

Watch out for Sammy. That’s what he was trained to do.

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A Home for Sammy Tags: @bobasheebaby 

[dyketectivecomics]

So...what ARE you feelings on bruce being a Pisces? Let alone that Cass is an Aquarius, Dick is an Aries, Jason's a Leo and Tim's a cancer?

I slowly shut my laptop and set it aside on my bed, staring ahead at nothing in particular as I reminisce on a favorite Pisces in my life. My best friend since childhood, a girl who i’ve known for well over a decade, more than half of my life really, who happens to share the exact same birthday as Fictional Character Bruce Wayne. A Pisces-cusp.

I think on the similarities I see between them, the qualities of her character that only I and a few others would know, and try to think on how others have perceived her before joining our friend group over the years. I admire her empathy, her passion for music and video games, her willingness to put all of her friends above herself. 

And then i remember how she drunk-texted our group chat last night just to tell us she loved us & that she couldn’t wait to hit up a gay bar with us when we’re all back in town.

And I cackle. Because if no one else does, I do see these qualities in Bruce Wayne’s character. Just a hair below all the so-called brooding and angst. Bruce is a water sign who’s a little emotionally stunted in that he tries to hide his feelings, but he feels oh-so-very much. He’s a Pisces trying to emulate a Scorpio and falling just short (bc lets be real, he’s got too many kids that he definitely dotes on) but yknow… it’s something that when he’s done correctly by writers, they somehow manage to fit those qualities in without even realizing, I think. Sure, he’s not a kid that I grew up with and there’s plenty of differences because my friend is, yknow, an actual person who’s more than a couple of personality traits. But damn if I don’t see similarities….

Now, as for the rest of the kids & others that I relate them to… (under the cut, tagging as “long post” for mobile users just incase tumblr wants to be a butt again) Also a warning bc some of this will sound like I’m ripping from astrology sites but honestly just narrowed things down from my own personal experience with these signs. Take all of this observation & comparison with a grain of salt, if you wish.

Cass is an aquarius, like myself. And I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t see more than a few similarities in what few scattered stories I’ve been able to read so far (or even that I might be prone to reading a bit too much into some of it bc hey, I have a fav now & I want to see myself in her, sue me). One of these days I’m probably going to sit down and really dive in, but for now, I gather what I can, listen to the meta that others have, and ofc, try to form my own opinion. 

That being said, an eccentric-ass Aquarius is really the only choice to take over the mantle from a sensitive-ass Pisces, and everyone can fite me on this. Aquarians & Pisces, my friend and I, Bruce and Cass- all on a similar wavelength, esp when they’re encouraging each other and learning to grow from one another.

Cass is an air sign that most people only see as being grounded because of the discipline David Cain instilled in her from childhood. She’s funny, wise beyond her years, and intensely dedicated to the mission at hand bc of what it means to help others as a whole. And this is fault that I see in myself and in her: she’s got plenty of empathy for those she might already be close to, and absolutely cares about humanity in a greater sense, but caring for individuals without getting to know them can be uncomfortable. She’s driven, but can be blindsided by that dedication and burn herself out easily if others don’t intervene. Also, an introverted extrovert, one who’s absolutely ready to meet with others and collaborate/team-up, but can get a little lost in her own head from time-to-time.

…

Now, Dick the Aries. My other best friend since childhood also shares this sign with my First Favorite Robin. And I do see more than a number of parallels between the two of them. My aries friend has a penchant for taking over projects and setting themselves in charge of the operation. But they also have the charm and ingenuity to make themselves to seem the perfect and best fit for that leadership position. They’re rebellious, a little brash in decision-making, but they’ve also mellowed out over the years in many small ways. Still on fire about what they’re most passionate about in life, and more than willing to achieve it by any means necessary, damn anyone who thinks that they won’t.

There’s a popular consensus in fanon to make dick a kind of hufflepuff who’s just there for his friends & loves hugs and is lovey all around- but Dick is driven. He cares for his friends fiercely and will help them absolutely, but he’s ready to avenge them too. He’ll punch you in the face, pirouette with the utmost amount of sass, and then make you feel bad for making him do it in the first place. He’s got that bit of deviousness that will make you second guess his intentions. But if you’re already part of his inner circle, you have nothing to fear from him. And that’s where his lovey side then has room to come out.

…

Moving on to Jason the leo, and I know you didn’t ask, but Im adding Stephanie to this discussion as well since she’s a leo too. A few leos that I’ve gotten to know over the years can be summed up very lovingly as this: attention whores. (again. very lovingly. i love each and every one of those bitches so damn much, this is something they’ve each used to describe themselves lmao)

Leo is the King of the Zodiac, commanding attention in the room whenever they walk in. They’ve got plenty to say, of course, and they’re excellent diplomats/socialites in many ways. Often best suited for a leadership position. They know how to read the conversation and the room and turn it best into their favor. They will dazzle you with their wit and charm, but also in their knowledge of the subject at hand. If they have an Opinion, they’ll absolutely let you know what it is, and they’re not afraid to hold back on what they perceive to be a truth. Some will have a bit more tact than others, but they’re a fire sign, after all. 

Did this just describe Jason & Steph? well maybe not to some, but I definitely see their drive to complete their own missions & joining up Bruce’s crusade as Leo qualities. Steph and Jay are willing to do what it takes and butt heads with whoever they must if it means doing what they see is right. They’re absolutely social people too (maybe Steph a bit more than Jay will be), and you can’t deny they’ve both got a certain kind of charm over the rest of the family.

…

Tim the cancer sign… this is… difficult actually. One of the few signs that I don’t recall having significant interaction with. (& honestly the character & Robin that I have the least personal interest in. I do want to like him but I just…??? Havent rlly found the time to put into reading up on him more)

But just going off the water sign aspect, and knowing water signs in my life… Emotions & emotional intelligence are obviously going to be at the forefront. From what I’ve gathered on Tim, he’s very well-rounded in all areas of his life, and driven to succeed at whatever he’s set his mind to. I can absolutely respect the strength his character has commanded over the years, and his popularity is absolutely earned, I think. Writers have worked hard to make sure he’s distinct from Dick & Jason before him in many ways, and I’ll have to look deeper into his character & listen to more meta on him before I’ll be comfortable to speak further on that.

…

To round out this discussion, I want to bring Barbara into the mix, because she’s had a fixed birthday for awhile now. And tbh she’s just as much part of the family as the rest I think (yes, I know some people get Babs fatigue bc she’s the first batgirl & gets the other girls lost in the shuffle but hey! I’ve loved her for awhile now!) She is *drum roll* a Libra!

Now, this ones a bit tricky, bc the most important Libra in my life is my mom. Buuuut, she and Babs are both cusps… on opposite ends of this zodiac sign. I admire my mother for her resolve, inventiveness, work ethic, and stability. I also loathe her tendency to micromanage projects, become overly involved in the work of others (to the point where she WILL find out whats going wrong) and how she tends to overwork herself (just this past spring has been really really difficult. I’m surprised she hasn’t worked herself into the grave with the amount of stress she puts on herself)

Now some of these qualities, I absolutely see in Babs. But I also see a bit more awareness in her character, esp when she’s grown up into her Oracle persona. She seems able to recognize what she’s doing and how she’s affecting others, and will sometimes use that to her advantage. She’s a character who’s grown into the adversity she faces & doesnt let it change her resolve for completing the mission, even if it needs to be from a new (& probably better) angle. She adapts well to change, or forces the change to adapt to her. She is a force to be reckoned with and admired.

…

All of this to say… at the end of the day, the stars are still just balls of gas and light that sit some billion light-years away from us. Do they really control our personalities? I mean, probably not. But there’s enough similarities in those traits to make you wonder… and it’s honestly just a Good Fun Time regardless. 

[aeticon]

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After using the French Bulldog 5 Things You Should Know About This Woman Dog Mom She Loves Dogs More Than Human Tee Shirts diapers for almost two years I must say it s sad to have to cancel the bundles their customer service is awful and I m not sure what s going on with their diapers my last bundle 6 out of the 7 packs of diapers didn t work the sticky tags rip when trying to put the diaper some kept falling off so the diaper wouldn t stay up I contacted them through email and the person asked me for pictures to show how they aren t working ummm no I can t email you pictures of my half naked baby then she says not what I meant I mean pictures of the diapers so you want me to keep diapers that I have use and take pictures it really makes no sense so upsetting I guess they are okay for smaller babies but not for active 17 month old. So this is going to be a bit long but bear with me I had what I believe to be a pointless and incredibly frustrating experience with the assistant manager jamie at your auburn hills great lakes crossing location today I have been coming here for three years I frequent your orlando san marcos and new jersey locations as well at least once a year when we stop we usually spend 5 to 10 thousand dollars on your products the system is simple I go in park in a corner and bring bins to my corner sort them bag them move them to the front register and repeat today I brought a personal duffel bag as it holds about 8 to 12 of your bags worth of stuff I get told that i’m not allowed to use it because it’s policy not a big deal at all I say okay i’ll do that for the rest rather than rebag all of this i’ll just go up in line and pay for it and it can sit behind the counter seems pretty reasonable to me nope I got obstructed suggested that I might be stealing something and not allowed to pass stating if I don’t want to follow the system I can leave he then takes my entire duffel dumps it onto the floor and then rebags it into victoria secret bags then moves it to the front counter so it can be rang in I thought this was a little odd but hey he was doing all the work rebagging it so whatever i’m like dude i’m going to be spending about 8k today all I want to do is come in spend some money get out without any drama what’s the problem whoevers in charge should be thrilled with a sale like this we’re spending 8k keep in mind that I told him that I would do what he wanted and it wasnt’ a big deal and the response was to the effect of stop being lippy and just listen I told him what do you want from me I just agreed with you and said I would use your bags i’m not being lippy at all I know this because I said okay dude not a problem i’ll use your bags his response was maybe if you get to buy it i’m like what are you suggesting that an 8 000 order is something you guys don’t want he’s like yeah if you buy it i’m like dude we are spending 8k today why would I bag up a bunch of stuff and spend 2 3 hours picking our your fabulous product to not buy it anyway so I had 4 credit cards one card had 2 000 one had 3500 one had 2000 and one had 1000 because I am buying for multiple people I had 4 different cards all in my name I wanted one receipt for each card not a big deal to me right wrong again he cited some policy and said if the order is more than 750 items that they aren’t allowed to ring in under 750 items on any one receipt id like to point out that that amount is higher than your employees said they could take as a cash payment I asked him to please show me that I would understand better if I could just read it he was willing to do so he brought out the policy book and to my surprise what it actually said was words to the afffect of cash payments cannot be split up or over 750 items I forget the second half my immediate reply was so what’s the big deal im using credit not cash he snatched the policy book away from me at that point and said you know what you can just listen to me or I don’t have to let you buy anything it’s up to my discretion I then called your orlando outlet and your new jersey outlet and talked to the store managers and cited your policy I was given I asked them to confirm if that was accurate and both said if it was a policy it was news to them I then asked if they would let me buy my order using 4 cards and 4 receipts the woman at orlando said oh my gosh yes we do that every single day I asked if I went to her store if I would have any trouble with this in the future and was told no then she said you can always come down here if you’re in the area and i’ll be happy to take your order after that phone call I tried again here’s the video of that attempt I said listen I have 4 credit cards your register girl said you told her she can’t ring up an order under 750 items that’s 3500 if it’s 5 items not all of my cards have that much I have done multiple receipts every time I came here heck I can even supply them to show it he tells me that because I am order so many items that I can’t have less tan 750 items per receipt so I point around to everyone else and ask what about everyone else you aren’t forcing them to spend a minimum of 750 items what about the final charge i’ll have 750 items for two tickets but the leftover isn’t going to be 750 items you’re not going to let me buy them he shrugged his shoulders to say no at this point I haven’t yelled ive been a bit snarky and sarcastic because I know he’s just giving me a hard time two people ring in our order almost every time I am up there and we were there 3 times in the last 6 months spent a bunch each time so at 730 8pm or so we are done shopping assuming that two people could ring us up ended up being a fantasy he forced one employee only to ring us up later on he comes up when its now close to 9pm and says hey you mind if we ring you up on both registers I chuckle and say no I don’t but you do you don’t want to be breaking that 750 rule do you he glared at me and then sent the employee away and walked off after blinking a few times I laugh because after telling me over and over he couldn’t do it he just got caught trying to do what should have been done to begin with a short while later after 9 I find out that everyone is standing uip front except for the one girl and another associate because none of the rest of them are allowed to help her ring us up the only two people left in the store with about 700 more items to be rang in if that’s not enough since it was a holidy all of these employees are apparently being paid overtime to stand around and wait at a bit after 10 all but two girls leave and one girl is waiting to count cash while the other girl sits and keeps ringing stuff in we apologize profusely we expected two employees to ring us up like always and timed our visit to be out around 9 if this had happened instead of having one literally stand there and watch her for 1 hour and 47 minutes after close we would have all been out on time and no overtime or extra hours spent so finally at 10 47 pm our orders are done we thank the lovely girl lauren and jasmine who got stuck staying 2 hours past close because a manager made up some random policy and had to double down when I pointed out he really needed to follow that 750 rule when he was going to toss another girl on the register if this is policy fine it doesn’t seem to be no manager at your other outlets knew what he was talking about the orlando one insisted that the only restrictions are on cash payments and verified I was paying cash or credit it’s a pretty humiliating experience to get hassled trying to buy panties and bras by someone who’s on some type of power trip the only thing I said sideways to him was that I flat out didn’t believe his policy and that credit absolutely is not the same as cash I didnt call him any names scream at him or did anything to disrupt the store beyond what you see in the videos if this is not policy i’d like an apology from that manager in person or over the phone admitting he was mistaken I would hope that the next time I go there I am not hassled but if not I guess there’s always orlando or new jersey who seem to be quite friendly I also want to give recognition to jasmine and lauren lauren is the poor soul who got stuck ringing everything in alone because of the manager’s silly rule and not allowing anyone to help because it would be in violation of the 750 item rule jasmine was the cash counter who had to wait until we were out of the store to count cash even more interesting is that I had a former employee with me helping me buy and she said she never heard of this policy either but it doesn’t mean it wasn’t added since she left she was just as confused because the manager spent over 30 minutes trying to explain and defend this when that time certainly would have been more efficiently spent doing productive things instead of hassling someone who literally sits in a corner and speaks to no one while sorting through your products one bin at a time id love a call back about this or to find out what exactly is going on ive never been hassled like this before and it was a little frustrating and very trying to keep my cool joe rossetti alexandria gunn. A sad day we’ve lost tammy grimes the actress whose voice brought molly grue so perfectly to life she was 82 years old

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[cosmicmadwoman]

Adam and Eve Chapter Six: High Heeled Criminal

As always thank you every for reading:) Comments and feedback are always welcome :) Why do I smile so much?

Wanna read from the beginning? Click here! http://archiveofourown.org/works/11360046/chapters/25427913

Summary: Betty and Jughead find a clue at the morgue, Alice publishes a controversal article, Archie acts weird around Betty and Jughead finds Betty’s bro.

Rated: M

Word Count: 3,009

Jughead stared blankly at his best friend as hot tears began to put down the redhead's cheeks, his jaw clenched trying to fight them. Jughead was beyond furious that this coward hiding behind a cartoon thought it was cute to jostle Archie around. This was his father who died, not a hamster. This was the most real thing Archie had ever experienced and it was turning the blissfully ignorant boy into a quivering mess. To Jughead, it looked like Archie would never be the same.

Another thought that came to Jughead was… who knew the gang was going to the morgue and have enough time to beat them there and move the body? The only person he and Betty told was Wolf. Was the pizza face liquor delivery boy more than that? Or did he let something spill to “upper management” as he called it? Jughead appeared to the others as insensitive as the two girls went to Archie and cuddled into his arms. Veronica swiped a copper lock from his tired eyes and shot Jughead a look.

“I’m sorry, Arch. I know this is a lot. I’m just thinking,” Jughead said. He brought a finger to his chin and was tapping the cleft as he looked around the room for something.

“Can we get the hell out of here?” Veronica cried. “We are just standing in a damn morgue.”

Jughead nodded without a clear answer and started sweeping his flashlight under the slabs of metal and underneath the cabinet of drawers.

“You guys go ahead, I wanna check out a few things first,” Jughead murmured.

“I want to stay and help,” Betty said and crouched down to look at what Jughead had his eyes trained on under Fred’s drawer.

Veronica rolled her eyes at the two teens playing detective in a dark morgue and helped a devastated Archie through the slim window. The pairs drove separately and far from the hospital to seems as inconspicuous as possible.

“What do you see, Juggie?” Betty asked lowly like the dead bodies could hear her talk.

“Blood,” the black haired boy answered slowly.

“That’s not surprising in a morgue,” Betty said.

“Fresh blood is. Dead bodies don’t make fresh blood.”

“That means whoever was moving Fred was bleeding…” Betty felt the familiar rush of amateur detective work vibrating in her stomach.

“Betts, come closer,” Jughead wrapped his arm around Betty as she leaned in to investigate with him.

“There are two sets of footprints in the blood,” Betty observed, “That means two people, which probably means they fought.”

“That also means they aren’t working alone. One set is the work boot and the other--”

“Heels,” the teen sleuths said simultaneously.

“Who would wear heels to remove evidence?” Betty chuckled in spite of the dark situation surrounding them.

“Veronica wore heels when she came down here with us,” Jughead pointed out as he snapped several pictures of the prints with his flash on. Betty blinked harshly each time.

“So someone out of place would wear heels to a mouge robbery,” Betty concluded.

Jughead nodded excitedly, sitting up and flashing his torch towards the window. “We should get going. I think we got all we can from this place.”

Betty linked her ar with his and kissed his cheek ever so lightly, “Is the big bad serpent scared?”

“No!” Jughead blurted out and as soon as he said it he realized how unconvincing it was.

Betty let out a insidious giggle and took his head in her hands, kissing his lips, pulling away only slightly so there lips are barely touching as she speaks, “Prove it.”

Jughead, without warning, crushed his lips onto Betty’s their noses squishing at the sudden impact. While slipping his tongue through his girlfriend’s lips, he wondered what happened in their lives that brought them here. His fucked up family life and perpetual abdonaments, and Betty’s equally fucked up family with impossible expectations. Is is their parents that sent them down here, he thought, making out in the Riverdale morgue, clinging to each other like heathens. He had not idea why he wanted this, why he wanted her now, and it scared him. He was depraved, he was haunted and inside he felt ugly, but it didn’t stop him from ripping Betty’s shirt open like a caveman and palming her breast. She brought something out in him that defied all Jughead logic; he was an alpha, a neanderthal, a generic red blooded male when she bites her lip and groans in his ear.

“Take me to hell,” she murmured his his ear when he pressed her against the wall under the window and sank into her heat unexpectedly.

His motions were quick and fervent, part of him wanting it to end and never think of it again, while the other part of him begged to unleash onto Betty and never look back. He resolved to never look back. Jughead finished inside Betty, feeling guilty for not paying attention if Betty came or not, but by the way her legs went slack in his arms as he held her against the wall, he knew she did.

“And to think we couldn’t get anymore fucked up,” Betty gave a dark laugh.

“Is it bad that I don’t care anymore,” Jughead whispered.

“I don’t either.”

Jughead brought Betty home around 1:15am but neither of them moved when he pulled up.

“I still can’t wrap my head around Cheryl sleeping in my house right now. Snug in her red lingerie, probably sleeping on her back like she’s laying in a coffin. Who sleeps in lingerie away? That’s so impractical,” Betty ranted.

“Ew. That last thing I ever want to think about is Cheryl in lingerie,” Jughead said.

“Oh please. Cheryl is hot. You can’t tell me her in lingerie grosses you out,” Betty said.

“Honestly, Betty. You are really the only girl I’ve ever wanted to see naked,” Jughead admitted. Throughout middle school and high school, his romantic and sexual thoughts always centered around Betty. It was like he met his soulmate and didn’t need to waste time on anyone else. He only ever wanted Betty.

“I love you, Juggie,” she smiled and kissed his pointed nose lightly. “How can we be so gross and cute at the same time?”

“I guess we can’t decide which to be.”

“I should get inside. Polly is probably wondering where I am. She won't rat me out, but I bet she’s being all mother hen right now,” Betty explained.

Jughead nodded. He knew he would see her tomorrow after school, but she’s grown to be such a enormous part of his everyday life, and a humongous part of his heart; he didn’t feel right when she wasn’t with him.

They said goodbye again and he watched Betty’s blonde ponytail bobbing as she ascended

the rickety ladder. What he would give to sleep beside her tonight. Instead, he found himself on a small twin sized bed, listening to the snoring of RJ again. The rhythmic noises lulled him to sleep and he dreamed of him and Betty getting married in hell with Satan as the officiant.

---

Betty used to adore going to school, but since Jughead moved to Southside High it just wasn’t the same. She didn’t realize how much she relied on the company of Jughead to get through the day. A friendly smile just for her, a hand squeeze when he can tell she’s getting overwhelmed, and a safe haven for them in the Blue and Gold office when they just need to be alone and get away from the fallacy of high school.

She had made it through the day and was now in her inner sanctum putting together filler articles about bad cafeteria food and new dress codes. She wanted to report on Fred’s missing body, but she wanted Archie’s permission first. Parading around the drama of his father’s death was not something best friends did.

Speaking of which, Archie barged into the office and slapped down a newspaper from her parents’ establishment, his face matching the red hair on his head.

“Your mother published the article about my dad being taken,” Archie’s jaw was clenched, “she’s saying it was to cover up his involvement with the Serpents.”

“What?” Betty took the papers off the table and scanned them quickly. “That is completely baseless! It’s not like my mom to report fake news like this. I know for a fact Fred isn’t-- wasn’t involved with them.”

“Through Jug?” Archie asked.

Betty nodded quickly. Archie could be so presumptuous sometimes and if he knew she became the first official female serpent, he would blow and blame her ‘sudden corruption’ on Jughead. To Archie, Betty had always been the innocent girl-next-door and wouldn’t allow his mind to picture her as anything else.Jughead was the only one who saw her not as a category or archetype, but as Betty. It made being with him like nothing else, she was free.

“There has to be some other motive behind this,” Betty thought aloud.

“Can’t you just ask her?” Archie suggested.

“Ha. That would require the Coopers telling each other the truth. I’ll have to go about it a different way,” Betty explained darkly.

“No one in town will believe this, anyway. My dad has done so much for this town,” Archie said.

“But he did have the Serpents help on the construction site,” Betty pointed out, which she instantly regretted when she saw Archie’s face fall. “I’m sorry, Arch.”

“Why is this town so fucked?” Archie sat down in the office chair behind the desk next to Betty, where Jughead sat, and she felt the heat of possessiveness on her face. It’s just a chair, Betty reminded herself.

“Something in the water,” Betty chuckled.

“Well, you and I must have not drank it,” Archie said. He took her hand and squeezed it lightly. “You’re the last good thing left in this place.”

Betty was beyond uncomfortable. Not only was his touch too eager and too deliberate, but his words reflected flirtation. Veronica was his girlfriend, he should feel that way about her. Archie will always be her best friend, but Jughead was more than a friend, more than a lover or boyfriend, he was-- she couldn’t put it into words. Their souls were fused together and it transcended high school relationships and petty flirting. And that seemed to be all archie could offer at this point.

“Nobody is perfect,” she replied. Betty felt the sting of a memory of when Jughead called her that.

“You’re pretty damn close,” Archie smirked and squeezed her hand again. When Jughead did it it was reassuring, when Archie did it, it felt crushing. “What is on your hand?”

Her scars, she forgot. The only person who touched her was Jughead and he knew her story. She didn’t want to explain to Archie, she shouldn’t have to. Her mind was blank coming up with an excuse and she paused unnaturally long for everything to be okay.

“Are you… is everything...alright?” Archie shrugged and dropped her hand like it was ablaze. It made a uncomfortable thud when it fell on her lap.

“Absolutely,” Betty gave him her sweetest smile that her mother taught her to wear when a conversation needed to end.

Archie quirked his eyebrow and didn’t seem any more assured. “Is Jughead treating you right?”

Betty was taken back by his unwarranted bluntness.

“One hundred percent. Jughead is everything to me,” Betty added for emphasis, “I wouldn’t want to be with anyone else.”

Archie replied simply, “Oh.”

Betty shook her head. This whole exchange was all wrong, the newspaper the flirting the assumptions, this wasn’t how Archie and Betty acted toward each other. Something was changing, and after all the two friends had been through, why was it feeling like everything was falling apart in this one conversation?

“Do you love Veronica?” Betty asked suddenly.

Archie looked stunned and took a long pause before saying, “Why do you ask?”

That wasn’t the answer Betty was looking for. Before she had a chance to probe further, the raven haired girl in question arrived with the beanie clad boy from the Southside. Betty and Archie both blushed like they were caught red handed and Jughead looked at his girlfriend curiously. Veronica didn’t seem to notice as she waltzed into the Blue and Gold office.

“I found this drifter lottering,” Veronica joked, jerking her thumb towards a now slightly irritated Jughead. “He told me about the footprints you guys found and I think I can help.”

“Ronnie! That’s fantastic!” Archie hopped up exuberantly and twirled her around, both giggling. Betty thought the display was odd considering how just moments ago Archie dodged an important question regarding his intentions with Veronica.

“Wait, what footprints?” Archie eventually asked when he set her down.

“Our two detectives here found bloody footprints near where we found the note. One a heel and one a work boot. And if I know anything, I know my shoes. From the photo Jughead showed me, the delicate print on the sole is from an expensive limited edition heel call prétentieux by Rex Buse. Only 15 were sold to Americans,” Veronica explained excitedly. This was her domain and she was ecstatic to be useful.

“So that narrows it down exponentially,” Betty said clearly impressed.

Veronica appeared out puff out her chest a little in pride. “I know. I at least know of a few people in Riverdale and New York City that have them. Cheryl Blossom, my mom and… well… me.”

“Does that mean it could have been your shoes that made the footprints while we were there?” Jughead sighed, another dead end.

“I did wear those shoes, yes, but I didn’t come home with blood on them,” Veronica said.

“Did your check your mom’s?” Archie asked

“Yes. Don’t worry, I’m not offended. After learning everything about my family in the last four months I wasn’t counter her out. I didn’t see any blood when I looked, though, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t wash them off.”

“Betty can check Cheryl since she’s living at the Cooper house now,” Archie said.

Veronica snorted, “God bless you, Betty.”

“Thanks, Ronnie. I need all the blessings I can get,” Betty sighed.

Archie looked at his friends awkwardly and gathered his backpack, “I have football. We’ll talk later.”

He left and Veronica followed explaining how she was so excited to slip into ther mother’s closet again to double check for blood and pretend she’s in CSI. As soon as the two left, Jughead turned on his heel towards Betty and raised his eyebrows.

“I don’t want to be a jealous prick but....” Jughead let his pause speak for itself.

“Yeah, Archie was being weird. He’s probably just confused about all the stuff going on with his dad,” Betty explained the behavior away and turned back to her computer and stared blankly.

“Confused?” Jughead probbed. He sat on the edge of the table and his face reminded her of when he interrogated people during the Jason investigation.

“I think he was coming onto me?” Betty’s voice formed the sentence into a question instead of an answer. “I know, bizarre.”

Jughead shrugged, “Not bizarre. You’re incredible, Betty. You’re probably right, he’s just looking for someone to hold onto through all of this, so I’ll let it pass. If he comes for my girl again, there’ll be trouble.”

“I hope you’re joking,” Betty said with a laugh.

“Of course,” Jughead gave Betty and kiss on the cheek.

“So what brings you to Riverdale High besides your gorgeous girlfriend?” Betty asked tauntingly.

Jughead rung his hands together and the mood quickly shifted. Betty looked away from her computer screen and held his hands. He resisted the urge to pull away and rub the back of his neck, but instead he smiled shakily.

“I kind of went behind your back about something and I hope you don’t hate me,” Jughead divulged hurriedly, “about your brother.”

Betty tightened the grip on Jughead’s hand and looked down at the floor. “What did you do?” Her voice was pointed and direct.

“I found him,” Jughead whispered.

Betty finally looked up and he could see the silvery drops of tears fall delicately from her doe eyes. Her lips twisted into a thin line. Jughead usually always knew what she was thinking, but this time he couldn’t get a read.

“Where is he?” Betty asked, her voice creaky and week.

“He lives in New York City. Bronx, to be exact. He works at the zoo. I found him because he was in some promotion photo spread for the zoo. Get this, he is a lion tamer. I could show you the pictures, they’re really cool,” Jughead offered.

“Does he look like me?” Betty had so many questions but she didn’t know if she was able to ask Scott herself. She had to talk to Polly, her mom; maybe even her dad. But somewhere in her wanted to keep him to herself and keep him protected from his birth parents’ and sister’s drama and get to know him on her own terms.

“He has your eyes,” Jughead admitted while he tucked a loose strand of ponytail behind Betty’s ear.

“I should go home and talk to Polly and my mom about this,” Betty finally said.

“Okay,” Jughead said, “I’m sorry if I overstepped my bounds. I just, you deserve the world, Betty. Everything you’ve ever wanted. I want to be able to give that to you.”

Betty smiled the tenderest of smiles and kissed Jughead on the mouth harshly, making him lean his arms back on the desk to catch himself.

“You did overstep, but I’m glad. I think this is going to be good for my family,” Betty said, her eyes hopeful and strong.

Jughead loved her like this. Really, he loved her all the time, but especially like this.

“I love you, Juggie,” Betty said, grabbing her things. “You have no clue how much.”

Jughead smiled and kissed her lightly, “Same here.”

[batshitbetty-blog1]

Multicontinental Madness

Fucked up dream time! 

This one's a wild ride, so hold on to your hats. It starts with me in London, checking into a hotel.  That goes well enough, but then I'm given complex instructions on how to get to my room.  Apparently in this hotel, the elevators only run between one floor and the next, and you have to switch elevators on every floor as you go up.  Of course, the elevators aren't centrally located, so you have to tour each floor before you can move up.

In my wanderings, I passed a floor with a tropical "natural" pool, including a bar halfway in, on one floor.  The next floor was a massive library with rooms around the edges.  Then came the "roof," even though it was stacked in the middle of all the floors.  Somehow the sky above was open and the sun was shining, regardless of the fact that it wasn't actually the roof of the building.

The next floor was a labyrinth of thin hallways with evenly spaced shower heads, most of which were in use by other hotel patrons.  I wound my way through it looking for the next elevator, and eventually rounded a corner and came face to face with a naked guy who, in spite of having a gym-toned body, looked incredibly insecure being naked in a maze full of other naked people. 

I decided it was incumbent upon me to boost his confidence, so I nudged him backwards with several shoves on the chest, dragging my luggage behind me the whole way, until he was backed up against a sink.  I then manhandled him in some way, but I couldn't tell you how because the dream actually went fuzzy while this was going on, like blocked porn on a hotel TV in the 90s.

This led to me being kicked out by a bellboy.  I managed to find a taxi, and when the driver asked me where I was headed, I told him I didn't know and explained what had just happened.  He nodded sagely and told me this particular hotel was known for that, and that the guy I'd manhandled was actually a hotel employee whose job it was to roam around that floor in the buff to trap patrons into acting inappropriately.  

The driver decided to help me out and called the hotel, using the voice of the front desk clerk, and explained that my ban had been lifted and I was to be allowed to check into my room as planned.  He refused to take any money from me, saying it was only the right thing to do in response to the hotel's unethical business practices.

Knowing all this didn't stop me from repeating this cycle with the same dude on the same floor and getting kicked out three more times.   Somehow, each time I got booted, the driver was still there.  He'd sigh, call the hotel, and pretend to be someone of increasing importance to get me back in, generally by pointing out that I had done the responsible thing and fuzzed out my interactions with the hotel's boy toy to avoid directly offending any other patrons.

When that cycle ended, I found myself in a huge building that was a cross between a shopping mall and Hogwarts.  I had been brought in as part of a special tour and presentation to the kids who, depending on which section they belonged to, were either students of the school or the children of shopping parents who had been dropped off at day care.   There were to be three different groups of kids seeing the presentation that day, and we were just getting the first underway. 

The tour included a look into several classrooms and shops, and was interrupted by a random staircase flood.  We were advised to stand at the outside edge of the staircase to avoid the water.  I managed to stand on the wrong side for long enough to get soaked from the waist down, but after I moved to the right side, some guy from up ahead came crashing down in a wave of water and profanity. The tour ended up back at the day care center, where all the adults present were supposed to teach the kids about certain concepts they'd use at some point in their future lives. 

I noticed then that there were more adults than I had thought there would be, and enjoyed knowing that I'd be spending less time talking with all the extra people.  The facilitator came around and handed me an otherworldly-long clipboard.   In exchange, I rooted around in my pocket and came up with a used handkerchief to give her.  She seemed pleased to get it - she wasn't in any way grossed out over it. She then asked me to explain the concept of an equitable transaction to the kids. 

I pointed out to them that she had given me a clipboard and I had, in turn, given her the contents of my nose.  We had both gotten something we were pleased with out of the deal.  Therefore, the transaction was equitable.

As we were gearing up for round two, the dream shifted again.  I was back home this time, just coming home after a day at some unspecified job.  The neighbor's portion of the duplex was on fire, so I had to park up the street and walk a bit to get home.  (No, it didn't bother me that the building I lived in was on fire.  It seemed logical in this dream that the fire would respect the boundaries of property ownership.)

Oh, and I was naked. With nothing but a plastic shopping bag to preserve my modesty, I legged it up the street and into my house.  On climbing the stairs, I found that, while I was gone, Mom and a couple of her sisters (who I didn't recognize at all) had completely remodeled the second floor of the house.  They made judicious use of the theory behind Pratchett's L Space, because the inside was now several times larger than the outside. 

The whole area had been redone in dark wood and my bedroom now occupied an L-shape at the front of the house. I kicked everybody out so I could get dressed privately, even though I no longer had a closet.  Then I wandered into my bathroom to pee, and found that it had been redone in such a way that different objects somehow occupied the same space at the same time. 

The sink was now in a little cubby on its own.  My toiletries were stored behind the mirror in a cabinet that could only be opened by properly twisting one of several coat hooks mounted on the glass.  Next to it - at first glance, anyway - were two toilets.  One looked like it had been ripped out of a wheelchair accessible stall in a hideous public bathroom, and the other looked like something out of the future that I was afraid to touch because what if it came with the three shells I never bothered to learn how to use?

The bathtub was new and much bigger, with three different drains and several jets.  I tried running the faucet just to watch it in action and it suddenly started leaking rust from a tiny, uncaulked bit on the back side, so I turned it off.  I also found a light that delayed for a minute or so before turning on after the switch was flipped.

So I got situated and started to pee, when I hear a voice to my left talking to me.  Not only did someone shove the door open to talk to me while I pissed, but - of course - it turned out to be the naked guy from the London hotel, only with clothes on this time.  I don't remember what we talked about, but damn if it - both the conversation and the stream of urine - didn't go on for a very awkward length of time.

Finally done with the bathroom, I wandered out, only to see that where the toilets had once been there was now a set of shelves.  On those shelves was about a six year supply of loofahs, all of which carried different scents.  I raised an eyebrow and left the room. Then I found out that Mom had also upgraded our internet package while I was gone, and it needed to be set up.  She also handed me a "savings card" the cable company had given her to go along with the new service and asked if it was worth keeping.  I read about it, and found that for the low price of $48.00 a month, we could get a statement credit of $16.85 once every two years.  I threw the thing in the trash.

I suddenly remembered I'd left my car up the street and left to go get it now that the fire department and whoever else was out of the way.  On the way out through the garage, I saw that Mom had upgraded her car.   It was still an SUV, but now it was black and looked like something you'd expect to see the A Team rolling around in if they were a bunch of soccer moms in a Batman movie. As I'm walking up the street, I realize in a flash that Cami and Quincee have gone missing, so I fished their collars and leashes out of one of my pockets and start the hunt. 

Before long, I run into a street urchin who asks what kind of dogs I'm missing.  When I tell him they're a couple of yellow labs, he points to a tent on a street corner a bit up the street, where the girls are rooting through people's food.   Oh.  And Quincee, for some reason, is now a German shepherd. They're madly excited to see me, and in my haste to get them home I slip the wrong collar on the wrong dog. 

This apparently signals to them that it's time to go on an adventure, as they take off like sled dogs, dragging me along behind like I'm on a sled.  Suddenly we're in San Francisco, and I can't get the girls to direct themselves toward home. I lose them again, me and the street urchin running madly behind them.

We caught up with them under a bridge, where they were being chased in a circle by a cop on a motorbike.  Cami finally turns and jumps up to shove the cop off his bike, and then both dogs leap over construction mess to be intercepted by a couple of frat boys on bicycles.  The frat boys catch them and give the leashes back to me, and then we're off on another wild ride. They end up rounding a corner and flying down a massive staircase toward the beach.

This is when I woke up, probably because there was no way in hell the imaginary sled I was stuck to would survive a trip down that incredibly long, steep staircase. Been a while since I've had a dream like this.  What I lack in quantity, I make up for in quality.

[survivor-switzerland]

EPISODE 2: I LIED ABOUT MY MOM BEING IN THE HOSPITAL - ZACK

king of my vote being the one to kick stevens ass out of here despite not having made a single confessional this episode

So Steven left unanimously which was kinda boring. I was hoping to see some wild throw away votes that would've caused drama but oh well, a unified tribe is a strong tribe right? wrong.

If anything this tribal has left me worried, because it's left no indication as to who could be the next target, which is distressing. I do have an alliance with Daisy, Luke, Zack and Ci'ere now though so hopefully that is gonna be a major advantage for this part of the game!

Wow how ruthless can the other tribe be. I always knew that they wouldn't go after Abel but not even letting Steven survive even one tribal was really savage of them.

Why do I keep forgetting Logan wants to be addressed as HIM.

Casanova huh, Renee won that immunity in bora bora so I now our tribe needs to step this one up.

I can't believe Steven got voted out... I feel kinda bad now? That makes it twice in one night that he got eliminated, from both Second Chances and Taveuni (I was gonna promote that season but it'll be over by the time confessionals release lol). And it was rocks in Taveuni. RIP Steven. Hope he doesn't take this personally.

rip I feel so bad voting out steven 10 minutes after he was rocked out.... when he was rocked out first tribal in India... to be fair, I didn't know any of this before. and there's no way I could've known he would be rocked out of Taveuni when we targeted him.

anyways so previously i made an alliance with zack and luke which turned out pretty well. we had the intentions of adding abel and renee which is why we wanted to keep abel and vote out steven instead since he did the least in the challenge (after abel).now, ci'ere and jev have added the 3 of us to an alliance so i'm wondering if maybe it would've been better to just get out abel because even though we controlled the vote really easily, it seems like people were confused about why it was steven but didn't wanna be in a minority. and in the future, i would like to get out renee, just bc she seems like a liability. she barely talks to me (and i assume most people) and i dont think she's said one word in the tribe chat. being aligned with someone like that can be risky. she could be an easy next vote if she keeps this up, although it might be difficult to convince zack because i think they're friends. hopefully he won't let that screw up his game.

also apparently people have been like, telling other people they like me? which is kinda good and kinda bad. on one hand, it's good to be liked by people. on the other hand, you don't want people to know that you're liked by everyone. that could make me a target. maybe not immediately, but the closer we get to merge the more people will be looking at that stuff.

i'm also really scared about a swap. i think that's what screwed me in solomon, and in some other games too. hopefully it's not soon and that i get put on a tribe with at last either zack or luke. ci'ere and jev would be good too, but i'm more confident that zack or luke wouldn't flip on me.

also i'm laughably bad at this game so hopefully we either have some comp beasts on this tribe or we have a few people who flop even worse than me.

i don't even know were to start ctfu.

okay so.. steven went home (yay)

better tea: i got an idol clue.. what do i need to do in order to get the idol though? basically throw immunity and risk someone from my tribe/ me going home. i need to come in 7th place in this challenge and then.. the idol is mine.

LISTEN. i have no problem fucking my tribe over. i just need to come up with an excuse as of why i sucked so bad in the challenge because i already told them i can easily get 1m in this game klsdfhg.

looks like i'mma need to come up with something drastic as of why i flopped huh. i also need to try to get everyones scores so i can do my math.. time to act like i actually care about them and want to see there scores and act like a coach for them huh.

good luck.. the next time you talk to me i'll probably either have an idol or i won't!

I'm still clueless about the whole Steven Snell vote, but I feel horrible because I told him to vote for Abel and he did. 😭😭 In other news, giraffes are so cute and I'm praying that Matterhorn will slay Casanova. I already broke a million and Zack said that 5 million is a good score, so that's my goal. I'm also pumped to be apart of the new Girl Hi alliance and I'm feeling slightly better about my position within the tribe.

Well I'm gonna be like the only one not over a million score but oh well at least I'm trying here's to flopping it's my best score ever

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZemPI9jlFXo#

I'm currently hiding the fact that I have a higher score rn so when results so (hopefully we win) my tribe would be all shocked. :P

Well I didn't get the reaction I was expecting but YAY MONTE ROSA WON! That score wasn't really high if you compare it to the ones on Generations.

Thank god Renee didn't beat her high score in Bora Bora, whew

I'm really glad we keep winning tbh, cause so far I've legit done like nothing for this tribe and I know if we go to tribal I'm leaving. Would probably help if I were like, talking to people but oh well.

SOO.

in order to get the idol i had to get 7th place in cassanova and did i? i sure DID.

i had to come up with an excuse tho as of why i flopped... so i just told the tribe at like 3pm that my moms in the hospital and i wont be home to play it online so i have to download the app and the app sucks ctfu. (sorry mom oo0o0ops.)

but not only did i get pity messages? i got an idol bitches. i'm ready to slice and dice some hoes.

daisy wants to vote out jev.... i'm not having this.

Lmao my tribe sucks. Koror we are not. Keegan does okay in challenges I guess but I barely know him so I kinda wanna vote him out? Idk I don't want to vote anyone out I'm sad ://

Oh boy. Are we in a situation. For the second time in a row, we have aligned ourselves with the flop of the challenge. First, Abel, who we managed to save but not without raising suspicion. And now, we're in an alliance with Ci'ere and Jev, and Jev just got a strike for not submitting.

So the first assumption is that we have to steer the vote away from Jev. We're aligned with him, it's kind of obvious. But then we realize that there are only two people we're not aligned with in one way or another, and that's Trent and Keegan. Zack tells us it should be Keegan because he was more suspicious of voting Steven last round, whereas Trent was just compliant.

But then I start to think ahead a bit. If we lose again next round, Trent is the only one we're not aligned with and he could become suspicious and possibly try to flip the numbers on us. He could likely convince Renee and Abel that they're on the bottom, maybe even Jev and Ci'ere too. Plus, voting out anyone other than Jev could expose a dominating alliance to the other tribe. And in the event of a swap, we could be in trouble.

So now it comes down to - do we vote out Jev or Keegan. At this point, the most important thing is that whoever goes home it was the decision of us 3. And I'm kinda leaning toward voting out Jev. This keeps our alliance underwraps and makes sure that no one knows we have control. It lowers the possibility of the tribe flipping on us. The only problem is, if Ci'ere isn't into this plan, we could be making an enemy out of him (and potentially others, if he can convince people that we're unloyal and evil, especially in a swap situation that would be dangerous).

But we don't even know if Ci'ere and Jev are a strong duo, and at this point in the game the obvious vote might be the best choice, in order to stop people from knowing what's really going on.

Sometimes the best move you can make is no move at all. People think you have to always be making huge moves in order to do well in this game, but sometimes it's better to sit back and let the game take course.

18 people are gonna be keft after this next tribal. I believe..... there's gonna be..... a tribe swap into 3 tribes.....then reward challenge will start to happen and fuck my entire life i just realized i forgot to check up the god damn mountain

Matterhorn is going to tribal council once again and I think it's because some people just aren't putting enough effort into the challenges. I feel the need to reiterate that this is a second chance season and there are people who weren't given this opportunity to play again that would have put their hearts into that frickin' challenge. STEP YOUR PUSSES UP Y'ALL. Ironically, all of the other members of Hi Girl scored the lowest lmao. I'm glad that we decided to keep Abel around because he proved that he can do well in challenges, plus it seems like he trusts me. I scored 2 million in Casanova which was the second best submission on this tribe and I hope that they'll see me as an asset moving forward.

FUCK YES WE WON AGAIN IM SO HAPPY! Whew I really didn't think we had a chance in that immunity tbh, flash games are always hard to gauge. Anyway, Logan found an immunity idol clue which is hot, but he had to get 7th in the immunity competition which is actually the ugliest task ever. He didn't think it'd be smart to go for it so we just continued as usual with trying to win immunity. We tried to monitor who else could have had a clue because some people were obviously trying to find out who scored what... basically i just hid in the corner and didnt tell anybody my score. It looked like Tyler and maybe Brett had a clue as well, Max ended up getting 7th, but wasnt on the radar for having a clue. Logan is leaning towards getting out Tyler if we go to tribal because of possible connections they have on the other side... but i dont plan on seeing tribal any time soon. I think there may be a swap coming up soon, just because our tribe is kick ass and all good things must come to an end :/

Another win??? If this was glee I'd burst into song!! I feel like we need a dance break so here's what I feel like doing -

So our tribe lost the immunity challenge again which sucks because it would be nice to have a round off and actually just get to talk normally to some of these people but it's been straight strategy since the beginning due to our losses but it's definitely eventful. I'm in an alliance with Zack and Daisy (with Renee and Abel on the side) and I like that alliance, I think we could do pretty well if we stay together and we have control on this tribe with right now. On the flip side I'm also in an alliance with Zack, Daisy, Jev and Ci'ere but with Jev getting a strike, we were thinking of voting him out because of it. I don't really know if this is the best thing for us right now because I think Jev would trust me down the line and I'd feel bad about betraying his trust but this is my second chance and I'm not holding back. Hopefully I survive this tribal and we can pull out a win next round otherwise it is not looking good for the Matterhorn tribe.

EPISODE 2

The next challenge was posted and fuck me sideways-- a flash game. I was really hoping there'd be not too many of these this season because flash games are the devil and I'm not a 17 year-old virgin anymore who has the time and lack of responsibility to perfect the art of giraffe smooching anymore. I knew opting to be the first sit out wouldn't be a great idea, but with Benjamin and Dom both volunteering, I felt okay with participating in the challenge even though it's not my prowess. Silver lining: I managed to find a SECOND idol clue. I'm 2/2 now. This one required me to sacrifice my high score (HAHAHAH!!!) in order to place 7th out of the 9 players participating in my tribe. So really, I just had to be better than two people. I was really banking on Ashley Sarah and Dom being worse than me, but both of them pulled through and I placed dead last doing my absolute best in the game. Shocker! I'm really curious as to what would have happened if I managed to succeed in placing 7th in my tribe--would a second hidden immunity idol have materialized? Would it have been a notification that my tribe's idol had already been found (by me)? I'm so sad that I didn't manage it! Fortunately, we did win the challenge by 5 million points--4 of Matterhorn's 9 competitors scored below me, so while weakest on my tribe, at least they have me and not Luke, Zack, Daisy, or Jevvon.

Honestly, not much happened in terms of strategy this episode in terms of strategy because we had our challenge and we won again, but I can tell you this much. Tyler asked for who we could possibly ally ourselves with. I pitched Ashley Sarah primarily because she's a functioning adult and seems rather trustworthy. I also threw Ian's name out there because Ian is really genuine and I feel like his status as a Runner-Up will draw more attention to him than a quitter and someone who didn't make the Top 10. I also listed Benjamin as an alternate--he comes off as rather kindhearted and pure. I have already put feelers out to Ashley Sarah and she's been receptive, but also I've discussed with Nick the possibility of looking out for one another as well. Nick is a very fun personality and very mature for 17. I feel like we are very similar and even if he really is in a contingent with Dom and Logan, I'd much rather the 3 of them like me and put me lower on their hit list in the event that they manage to succeed in gaining traction with a majority. Ideally, I'd like to win the next immunity challenge to further bury Matterhorn, but if we don't...it looks like it's time for war. And I have a hidden immunity idol, two functioning adults, and a fuckton of teenagers to contend with. Until next time!

[5/17/17, 10:52:18 AM] jev !!: So I have your vote to stay??

[5/17/17, 10:52:29 AM] jev !!: Blessed

AHH. ok so, i have NO idea where this tribe is at and i literally haven't talked to anyone that much and I'm so nervous that my name is gonna come up in tribal tonight. I did the best for the immunity challenge, which could be seen as a threat but i hope for now they just see it as like an asset to the tribe. so far i like zack and luke. luke seems pretty straight forward and for now seems to be shooting straight with me so he's cool. every time i try to talk to daisy she's super like short with me and doesn't really give me anything to help continue the conversation, then goes and complains to other people that I'm not messaging her, which is so annoying zzz. other than that i don't really know about anyone on the tribe but i hope theres a name thrown out besides mine, and i can survive this vote even with my terrible social game!

I hate that there's probably a big ass alliance that I'm not apart of

WHY THE FUCK DOES DOM THINK HE CAN GO AROUND THROWING OUT PEOPLES NAMES WHEN WE HAVENT EVEN GONE TO A TRIBAL OR LOST AN IMMUNITY???????????????

i'm.... STRESSSSSSING.

abel just found the same idol clue that i did (7th place in cass) and he's like "omg i'm gonna send it to daisy and luke to gain trust!" and in my head i'm just like... fuckfuckFUCK. if these hoes do the math and see i got 7th place.. i mean put the pieces together, i'm EXPOSED. and then they'll figure out i lied about my mom being in the hospital dlksjfdkslf.

and now nobody is talking to me... i sure am probably going home now HUH.

i was literally fighting so hard for abel to stay and now that he has that hint... i literally wanna vote him out...

when zack is having a meltdown.. zack snaps and fights people for no reason.. so zack is really tryna hold back right now..

Okay so this vote is the complete polar opposite to last tribal's, my alliance can't seem to decide on one person to vote for, and the one person that Zack suggested (Keegan) got shot down by Daisy, which is shady as hell.

I like Keegan a lot, but honestly it's much easier to go with majority so if I have to write his name down then it's what I'm going to do. Plus it'll probably make an iconic blindside since he has no idea about any vote (or at least that's what he said to me) Hop

Hopefully I don't end up on the wrong side of the vote!

CAN WE HAVE AN OCTUPLE TRIBAL BECAUSE MY WHOLE TRIBE SUCKS AND IS EITHER BORING OR LYING AND BORING THIS IS SECOND CHANCES AND THESE PEOPLE DIDN'T DESERVE A 0TH CHANCE LIKE EVERYWHERE I TURN I'M BEING STOPPED BY "lmao idk what to do i like everyone :3" JEV BITCH WHAT HAPPENED TO #STRIKESOLIDARITY WHY CHASE THE MAJORITY WHEN WE CAN MAKE THE MAJORITY STUPID ASS BITCH LUKE IS BEING SO PASSIVE RN DAISY IS THE MOST INSUFFERABLE PERSON TO TALK GAME WITH, KEEGAN AND TRENT FLOP FOR BEING THEMSELVES. I feel like I'm getting voted out but there's still no reason to ignore me because i can't do anything about it and it would be a shitty move especially when I literally have a reputation of being a goat in every game i play qqjhdbhjkdkw. I want this tribe to get pagonged.

I don't really care for the alliance that I'm in right now since I'm not in a position where I could help make decisions and it's seriously annoying me because this will be the second tribal in a row where I have no say in who goes. My opinion doesn't matter. If I say the wrong thing or stray away from what they want, they could easily drop me as an ally in favor of someone they deem blindly loyal. I have to work with this alliance to survive the next couple of upcoming rounds and I'm glad that they decided to take me in. Jev is pushing the vote on Keegan, but Keegan told me that he really likes Jev so that worries me a bit. I've been bonding with Keegan the past few days and I don't want him to go. It's still too early to be captain save-a-hoe though, but I'm gonna try to save Keegan by pushing for Abel. At this point I just feel helpless and frustrated about this mess.

ugh. so we talked about voting out abel, because he's pissed some people off and we figure we could pass it off as "fixing our mistake" from last tribal. i figured that would be the best option since abel pretty much only works w us and voting him out won't piss anyone off and will push suspicion off us. but zack really wanted keegan to go for some reason, and i guess luke thinks that abel is really loyal to us (or just him, i guess, and us by affiliation) so he wants to keep him. i'm pissed because i think this is a short term band aid solution.

after this vote trent will realize he's on the bottom and he'll try to flip some of the others on us (which may not be that hard considering it's pretty much just me, luke, and zack making the decisions). voting out abel will keep suspicion off us within our tribe and the other one, which is good in a possible swap situation and even if we don't swap.

but at this point it's not a good idea to piss of zack or luke. and im usually the biggest player, the one making the decisions, thus the biggest target. so if letting them make decisions means less blood on my hands and less suspicion on me, then so be it.

i think after this tribal ill message trent and be like "i don't know why he was voted out, that makes no sense to me, i just had to be in the majority" to hopefully get him on my side so that if he flips i'll know and we can fix this.

It seems like tonights vote is heading towards Abel. At least I hope it is. I've heard from quite a few people it's going to be him.

Honestly, the way this game has been going is quite strange. Losing the first two immunity challenges is horrible and I hate it. But voting out Steven first was a surprise. He participated in the challenge and seemed pretty friendly. Apparently not. And now we're (hopefully) voting out Abel, who did nothing in the first challenge and among the top scores in this second one.

I don't know who's controlling these votes but in a way I'm glad it's not me. I've put a solid foundation of a relationship with Ci'ere, Trent and Jevvon. I've had some awesome conversations with Luke and Zack. And Daisy and I are getting along and passing information. Abel I've never spoken with and I've only had a short conversation with Renee, but overall I think I've got a good position moving forward. Not to mention I've been doing well in the challenges.

Part of me is hoping for a tribe swap soon though because I honestly don't think this current tribe will ever win a challenge. But if that happens there's a good chance I could get swap fucked and no one wants that.

Honestly this round has me stressed to the max. Zack, Ci'ere, Luke, Daisy and Renee have all said they're voting for Keegan but for some reason I have a bad feeling that I'm gonna be shook and blindsided. I hope it's just a case of #Jevanoia !

I found the hidden immunity idol clue, but it turns that I was a little too late to the party. :< The clue said that you'd have to come in 7th place in the Casanova challenge in order to receive the idol. Zack scored 7th which would explain why he was telling everyone to share their scores and that he couldn't score as high because his mom was in the hospital (whether that was true or not). ☕️🐸 INSPECTOR KEISHA IS ON THAT A$$! 🕵️‍♀️ You're not slick henny. Zack is the mastermind of Matterhorn and Jev is his little sidekick. He's in control right now and he has the power to do whatever he wants. Nobody can touch him, but I might be able to. I'm gonna keep this info to myself until I can use it to my advantage.

I should probably end my purple edit at some point.....

I'm straight up pissed. I wanted to fly under the radar but these idiots have given me no other choice. Abel could have been SUCH AN EASY VOTE but now Luke is telling me everyone's saying Keegan..... WHAT? i'm sorry no. Abel is mean and rude, Keegan has done nothing wrong in this game and shouldn't be leaving over someone who has been nothing but a piece of shit for our morale. So clearly there's a group dominating the vote because everyone was telling me Abel, yet a select few are coming to me with the Keegan info.

Also lowkey Daisy's been a bit of a bitch, but she's one of my only hopes for allies at this point so pray for me!!

[seenashwrite]

Conversations with The Commissioner: Canon Fodder, Round 1

Originally posted on that blog we ditched ‘cause we liked y’all better. And listen, straight up skip this if you (A) don’t give a rip about the story and/or (B) don’t give a crap about a painfully detailed assessment of Azazel & the Special Children. We’re just cleaning out folders here, folks.

Carry on - Nash.

Wednesday, December 7, 2016 A Very Special Canon Fodder Post: The Special Children of SPN

The Commissioner:  I found a canon mistake.  Well, two actually.

Me: Hit me.

The Commissioner: First chapter - Sam's loading dishes into the dishwasher. A non-existent dishwasher. 

Me: [stares] You don't think that they'll have gotten a dishwasher by season whatever-the-hell we're idealizing this to be?

The Commissioner: .....

Me: Noted. Next?

The Commissioner: Also chapter one, you have Sam saying if Jane were a Special Child, it'd be the first time there was two in one family.  There were those twins.

Me: Hell's bells, I cannot believe I'm having to explain this.

The Commissioner:  You can just edit the chapter.

Me:  No.  I'm not wrong.

The Commissioner:  You're wrong, I re-watched the episode.

Me:  I'm not wrong.

The Commissioner:  You're a mule.

Me: [sigh]  Pull up the notes file.

The Commissioner:  You have ten thousand, what's it called?

Me: "Plot Hole Dumpster Fires"

The Commissioner:  Wow.

Me: I'm subtle, it's why you adore me.

In the spirit of pushing daisies, the facts are these:

(A)  We get hip to Azazel making pacts with randos that if he can show up to their homes in ten years without them freaking out, then he won't do fill-in-the-blank to them now.

Why he assumes that any of these people will definitely have a baby old enough to get the dose - because for whatever the hell reason they can't be a newborn but can't be like, a year old - in exactly ten years is beyond me.

Why demons can leap into a person without consent and he can't zip into a baby's room is way beyond me.

Why he thinks it's going to take more than ten seconds to rub a toothless infant's gums with his bloody finger is also really, really beyond me.

Why he thinks the parents or siblings or meemaw or whoever's there pose any sort of threat to him that requires the use of fireballs is, you guessed it, so far the hell beyond me that I can't even.

.......

The Commissioner:  But they apparently did and that's why some of the parents died.

Me:  Yeah, some - not all.  So he's capable of somehow managing to not be Inspector Clouseau'ing the bejeezus out of it.

You're busting into my next point.

The Commissioner: Continue.

.......

(B) At some point Zaza tells Dean that his purpose for going into the homes is giving the babies the blood and alludes to having something bigger in mind than just having a demon army or whatever. We, of course, come to learn it's because Lucy's in the cage with kaleidoscope eyes, dreaming for freedom, waiting for his vessel.

Which, P.S.?  

No way has Azkaban only been at this in the past decade.  That would make him the shittiest henchman ever, if he's not been pounding the pavement and getting after it hardcore since the moment our favorite morningstar got wrecked.

And this is proven, we'll get to that in a minute.

.......

The Commissioner:  Wait.  All the special kids were around the same age, that's part of the reason I think -

Me: Nope.

The Commissioner:  Not just the twins, though, that's the other -

Me: Nope.

The Commissioner:  FINE. Go ahead.

.......

( C ) And bless my heart, I actually looked this up:  it's in season five, ep #21 - Castiel says specifically that Lou-Lou's vessel has to be prepped with demon blood.  Otherwise it'll just... I don't know.

I don't know.

Implode if they're on a Nickelback level?  Last as long as Rick Springfield if they're kinda up for it, then sort've dissolve?  Kick it into the next century if they're of Willie Nelson caliber and seem to not have aged since, oh, 1970?

.......

The Commissioner:  You're digressing.

Me: It's so, so annoying.

The Commissioner:  Maybe. I still think you're wrong.

.......

(D)  The backdraft nursery side show featuring your dead mom wasn't routine across the board.

Here's that breakdown:

The Kids & the Blood / Extreme Makeover: Nursery Edition

    Sam - y/y

    Andy - probably/y

    Ava - ?/?

    Jake - ?/?

    Lily, a.k.a."Hey writers, that's just blonde Rogue" - ?/?

    Max - y/y

    Scott - y/y

    Baby Rosie - it's a toss-up/y *

    Magda - ?/? *

* Those two are proof Hepatitis Az was for sure monkeying around with this routine up til around the time he died, cause, you know, Baby Rosie.  Which, again, good on ya - don't blow your wad on one group of kids.

My guess?  He was going through at least one group of kids per year, likely more than one group, and they always turned out to be duds.

.......

The Commissioner:  But what would he do with them?  Death match them?

Me: Who cares?

The Commissioner:  But their families and their jobs... I mean, they'd be missed.

Me: Who cares?

The Commissioner:  Do you think maybe he just gave them over to his demon friends to use as meat suits once they didn't work out?

Me: WHO CARES?!

The Commissioner:  This is one of those times I wish you were a fan.

.......

(E) Now we get to-----

.......

The Commissioner:  Wait.

Me: I'm going to have a stroke.

The Commissioner:  Why'd you list Magda?

Me: Because the "THEN" on that ep was all heavy with the special snowflake Sam blah-blah.

The Commissioner:  Hold on, I'm going to look for a transcript.

Me: [goes to get snack, possibly vodka]

The Commissioner:  [reads] Okay.

Me: Okay, what?

The Commissioner:  Okay, you were... right.  About that.  The line about more than one in a family, you're still wrong.

Me: [sighs, again]

The Commissioner:  Go ahead.

.......

(E) Now we get to the twins, specifically Ansem Weems / Weber, a.k.a. All My Names Are Garbage.  He and his twin brother (Andy) were adopted as babies.  Andy got the full Zuzu's petals midnight special.

There is *zero* indication to think that Weemie did.

There is, however, *every* indication to think the Weemster is an effing psychopath.  Ol' Azzie visited him in his dreams, we know that, and we know the kid legit had the psychic thing going on.  

None of the other kids (well, technically, jury's still out on the baby) show indications of not playing with a full deck -  the abused kid had every reason to be messed up, but that's not what I mean.

I'm talking about Weem-dog's blatant sociopathy.  You know, has to fake basic emotions, shows lack of remorse, has inflated ego, wouldn't know empathy if it walked up and bit him in the ass.

And while I think Uncle Zaz was manipulating him, I have no idea why exactly.  Best I can tell, it was to light a fire under Andy, a.k.a. live action Shaggy doll, Mystery Machine van and weed sold separately.

Because Andy's the kid he wanted.

.......

The Commissioner:  Wait.  How do you know that?

Me: Because that's the twin that didn't get dead.

The Commissioner: But-

Me: Lookit, if he wanted Weem-a-licious, that's who would've ended up at B-list hunger games.  He didn't.  He wanted Andy.  Because Andy wasn't a g.d. sociopath, and because Lucifer is, and Lu's not going to be stuck in the same body with someone just like him.

The Commissioner:  How do you-

Me: Think about the personalities of the vessels he's chosen thus far.  I mean, the ones he didn't just essentially in-and-out.  They're all actually fairly mellow people.

The Commissioner: Hmmmm....

.......

To sum up:

I think all the kids on that list (except the baby, because they might have saved her in time) got the blood.  Period.  It's a moot point if they didn't, because they wouldn't be prepped to be the host.

I think all these kids had something dormant in them.  I don't know how he knew.  I speculate in the story in later chapters, but we just don't know.

We do know it's not like he's making the rounds like Santa Claus and visiting every house with a baby.  There has to be some sort of screening process, beyond just him thinking the parents are cool enough to let him in the house, or whatever b.s. reasoning they give.

.......

The Commissioner:  Deep breath.

Me: I know.

.......

And just because siblings are twins, that doesn't mean a damn thing when it comes to their every tendency.  Then when it comes to fraternal twins, well, they're just siblings who were born at the same time.  That's it.  They have no more in common genetically than, oh I dunno, an older brother and a younger brother by about, say, four years.  I'd have bought into it more if they were identical twins because there, you have a genetic mirror image.

I also submit that those two were no more family than you and I are; they did not grow up in the same house, with the same parents and cousins and siblings and schoolmates and blah blah blah blah.  To say that adopted children's biological ties are by default stronger than the bonds they have with the people who wanted them and took them in and loved them as if they'd given birth to them?  That's pretty effin' reductive.

I stand by my statement - We haven't seen 2 special children in the same family.

Because having "gifts" does not equate to receiving demon blood - the first administration of which had to be as a baby - and that's the primary qualifier for the special children.  Wee-Wee had a gift, so have probably eight thousand other characters we've seen, but he doesn't meet Special Child criteria for me any more than they would.  Being a gifted person and being a sibling to a special child just isn't making a strong enough case.

.......

The Commissioner:  What if the showrunner or whoever said that yes, Weems was a special child?

Me: Then they need to hire better writers, turn back time and be clearer.

The Commissioner:  Dude.

Me: And give him a new name.

The Commissioner:  Dude.

Me: I'm cranky.

The Commissioner: Well, for what it's worth, you sold me.

Me: Aw.  Good.  Now I need to not think about the story or this show for at least a day.

The Commissioner:  That's perfect!  Because---

Me:  Don't.  Don't say it.

The Commissioner: ---it's WEDNESDAY!