#but hey at least we came in on budget I guess

[flanaganfilm]

Hi, Mike! So I figured I'd ask something for real before your inbox gets too crowded 😅

I've always been curious about the former residents of Hill House. I feel like there is so much there to be told and unpacked, like how they lived and died. Poppy, William, and their children especially.

I've read some of the reddit "background stories" one of the Hill House writers posted on r/nosleep, but I'm curious to know about your take on it, and if there is a possibility of a prequel series that explores it?

Have a good day!

We had actually written an entire history of Hill House. It was meant to be presented at the beginning of every other episode, and be passages from Steven's book. It would go ball the way to the construction of the house, and then chronicle all of the people who died over the years. It would also have eerie foreshadowing for a lot of the things that would torment the Crain kids.

In particular, it meant that you fully understood the identity of the legless ghost in the basement (and how he was burned), the Tall Man, and the saga of rivalry between Poppy and Hazel Hill. It also spelled out the fact that Mr. Dudley (Robert Longstreet) was actually a Hill himself - his mother was a cleaner who had an affair with one of the Hills.

It ALSO even explained why the kids heard the phantom dogs barking (William Hill slaughtered all of the dogs on the property one horrible night).

We had written it all out and were very excited to film it, but ultimately Netflix and Paramount cut these sequences for budgetary reasons. We never got to film them.

I don't expect there will ever be a prequel series (or any other HAUNTING series for that matter, at least not for quite some time). Which is a real shame. But one of these days I'll try to dig up the mythology we'd created and post it here on Tumblr so that maybe you can all enjoy it.

[axlhecksbasement6]

Alone | Axl Heck x fem!Reader

You were one of Sue’s long time best friends. The Heck family basically watched as you grew up. they watched you fall, they watched you cry, they’ve seen far more embarrassing things that even your family hadn’t seen.

It was Junior Prom and everyone had a date except for you and Sue.

”It’s okay!” sue said enthusiastically. “We can be each other’s date!”

”That’s a great idea, we can even have matching dresses! Yours can be pink and mine will be (fav color)!” You said with a huge smile. You grabbed your magazine and with Sue you two began to browse. 

“This one is gorgeous!” She exclaimed pointing at the floor length gown.

”You have such a good eye!” You giggled.

If only you could stop time right there…

The next day you went back to the Heck residence.

”Hey Axl,” you smiled bashfully. You would never admit this to Sue but you had such a big crush on Axl since the 8th grade. Something about his jock, bad boy, long hair, aura made you want to kiss him.

”Hi,” he said nonchalantly. He grabbed a bag of chips and walked to his bedroom. You sighed defeatedly. You had been droppings hint to Axl that you want him to ask you yet he either ignored it or didn’t notice it.

”You should just ask him,” Brick said walking past you.

”What?!” You exclaimed nervously , “what would I ask him?”

”Everyone except for Axl knows. My mom and dad have a bet going on to see how long it takes for you to finally tell Axl,” Brick said nonchalantly.

”I’m not very good at hiding it am I?” You sighed.

”Nope! Even Sue knows, she just won’t say anything.” He grabbed his book before walking back to his bedroom.

You sat on the couch defeatedly, so everyone knew how hopelessly in love you are. “Idiot,” you mumbled.

Sue walked in the house squealing like a fangirl.

”Sue?” You said rushing towards her.

”Guess who just asked me to prom!” She asked. Your expression dropped.

”Who?” You asked trying not to sound disappointed.

”Darrin!” She squealed. You knew how much she liked Darrin and you always wanted to support your friends.

”That’s great!” You smiled and held her hands.

”I know! I’m so excited!” She jumped around causing her mom to walk out of her room.

”What’s all this noise?” She asked.

”Darrin just asked me to the prom!” Sue squealed excitedly.

You watched as Frankie’s expression drop, “What about (Y/n)?”

The realization hit Sue and she looked at you with an apologetic look.

”I’ll call Darrin and tell him I can’t go with him,” she tried to keep her optimistic expression but you knew deep down that she wanted to go with Darrin and not with you. 

“It’s okay, go with Darrin. I insist you go with Darrin,” you smiled holding her hands again.

”Really?” She asked and you nodded.

”I know how much you wanted Darrin to ask you and I would be a terrible friend if I robbed you from it.” You smiled. Even though deep down you were sad and disappointed. “But, this means you have to get a pretty and unique dress for prom!”

”OMG! You are so right! We should go dress shopping! The three of us!” Sue excitedly said jumping up and down.

”Yeah! We have to pick the prettiest dresses!” You smiled clapping your hands.

”Can you take us mom? Please!!” Sue begged.

”Okay, okay. I’ll take you two dress shopping,” she smiled. You and Sue squealed in excitement and rushed to her bedroom to do more magazine looking. 

The day finally came and Mrs. Heck took the two of you dress shopping. You three went to at least ten different shops and tried on at least 30 dresses per store. 

“I hate this one!” She exclaimed rushing back to the fitting room.

”You looked adorable!” Frankie shouted only to get a frustrated grunt from Sue.

You stepped out wearing a floor length (color) dress. 

“Oh. My. God. You look absolutely gorgeous in that!” She said watching as you did a small runway walk.

”I love this one so much!” You smiled excitedly. “It’s in my budget too!” 

“It is so gorgeous!” Mrs. Heck gave you a wide smile.

”I’m getting it,” you said walking back to your fitting room. Sue tried on three more dresses before finding the perfect dress for her. She couldn’t stop twirling and bowing like a princess. You check dress shopping off your list. 

Prom night arrived and still you didn’t have a date. You put on your best smile and walked to Sue’s house. You saw Darrin’s car parked on their driveway and you felt a sick feeling in your stomach. It dawned on you that you’re a third wheel. You stopped outside the front door and debated wether you should go in or not. You sighed and walked in.

”(Y/n)! You’re here!” Sue exclaimed happily walking up to you.

”I sure am!” You smiled happily.

”You two look gorgeous!” Mrs. Heck smiled. She pulled out the camera and took pictures of you and Sue, Sue alone, Sue and Darrin, and the three of you. The sick feeling never left your stomach.

”Let me get one if you (Y/n),” Mrs. Heck smiled. You awkwardly stood there as Mrs. Heck took a picture. You couldn’t help but  feel sad. You’re going to be the only one there without a date, you’ll be third wheeling with your childhood best friend. “You look beautiful.”

You smiled at her the best you could.

”We should get going!” Sue said happily grabbing your hand.

”Actually, I think I’ll drive myself to prom,” you smiled. “You and Darrin deserve a grand entrance!” 

“Are you sure?” Sue asked and you nodded.

”I insist,” you smiled holding her hand again. She smiled at you, waved good bye to her mom wand excitedly walked with Darrin.

”Do you want a ride?” Frankie asked and you shook your head.

”My dad left the nice car for me, I’ll make my grand entrance,” you smiled at her. “I should get going or I’ll be late and not the cool kind of late.”

”I want a lot of pictures,” Frankie smiled and you nodded. You walked out of the house and stood on their porch. You began to walk back home and the tears began to fall. You couldn’t help it at the point. You couldn’t help but feel defeated. Even though you suggested it you wished that maybe Sue would come back, ditch Darrin, and go to the prom with you. You arrived at home and realized you didn’t have your house keys. You repeatedly knocked on the door before realizing your moms car was gone. 

You sighed defeatedly once more. You began to walk to school. You and Sue used to walk together but now she gets a ride from her brother or her boyfriend. The tears began to fall again. You were happy for Sue yet you felt like you were missing out.

The heels began to hurt your feet. You stopped and took them off. 

“Stupid heels,” you whispered. You hated the concrete floors and the sound your feet made when it hit the floor. After 15 minutes you arrived at school. You watched as the couples entered the building with huge smiles on their faces. 

You put on your heels and walked inside the building. You looked around and saw Sue happily dancing with Darrin, a smile crept to your face. You walked around a little and watched the couples.

You walked to the desert table and grabbed a cupcake. You walked around again, a slow song began to play as the couples began to dance with each other.

Your heart dropped, you were alone. In a sea of couples you were by yourself. You felt tears again, you walked out of the gym and outside the building. No one was outside except for you. 

You slumped down on the steps, you wanted to cry but you didn’t want to seem weak. You didn’t want someone to see you and laugh at you.

”Why aren’t you inside?” You heard that familiar voice. Axl. You quickly wiped away the tears before looking up.

”It was too crowded, I needed some air,” you smiled.

”Then why are you crying?” He asked. You looked away and shrugged.

”I wasn’t crying, something got in my eye and I was trying to take it out,” you mumbled.

”I can tell when you’re sad. We basically grew up together,” he said extending his hand. “You shouldn’t be out here on prom.”

You looked at him confused but held his hand anyway. You noticed his tux and smiled.

”Did your mom send you?” You asked.

”Yes and no,” he said.

”Yes and no?” You questioned and he nodded.

“I wanted to come, I just didn’t know if you wanted me to go. You and Sue were going so I thought it would be awkward for me to go to prom with my sister, then stupid Darrin asked her to prom. I just didn’t know how to ask you.” He explained and you felt your face heat up. “And then my mom told me to go, she said you looked sad and wanted me to go and cheer you up.”

”Tell your mom I said thanks,” you smiled and he nodded. You two walked back inside. Luckily the DJ was playing one more slow song.

”Can I have this dance?” He asked and you nodded. You rested your head on his chest and listened to his heart beat. You felt like you finally weren’t alone. Like finally, you felt alive, you felt noticed, you felt like yourself again. Even though prom was short and not as magical as you expected it to be, you still had such a good time.

[uinmyheart]

[♡] "Hey, stranger"

"Hello, youuuu" you instantly smile after hearing his voice.

"How's everything going over there?" you ask. You're sitting in your pajamas, skincare routine already finished and putting some lotion on your legs. it's been ages since the last time you were able to do this properly.

"Well, our dear Hanni has been acting like a brat all day just because she misses you. She's been acting like i'm the devil." you hear a certain echo of his voice as well as the knocks of pans and silverware which probably means he's wrapping up the night routine while your call stays on speakers.

"I'm guessing you had an eventful day." you smile.

"And that's to say the least." you both giggle. "I'm not sure about letting Hanni continue with her football lessons. She's starting to grow some muscles and now I'm scared of a pre-teen that just happens to be my only daughter."

"I don't think it's the football lessons, babe. It's that age." you giggle. You're so happy to hear them and your heart aches now that you're not with them.

As soon as your daughter started growing, it was time to get back on your feet and start working again, but every single time you had to pack your things for a quick work trip, it became even more difficult than the previous one. Maybe it's the constant fear of missing out on things that happen in your house, or not being able to be in control of everything that's happening over there, but being completely honest, you cannot really complain about the perks that came with work travelling. The suite your workplace had provided for your stay, and the clean bathtub in your bathroom wasn't so bad either.

"I mean, you should've seen me driving over here with a car full of annoying teens making fun of everything that I did or said. The way they made fun of my nose for more than 20 minutes almost made me cry, honestly." hearing you giggle out loud makes him lightly smirk even though deep inside he still feels hurt by the way his own blood had betrayed him like that in front of all of her friends. "And feeding those demons.. It's insane. I'm going have to squeeze in a quick run to the grocery store. We're out of.. oh, yeah. Everything. They even found those special cookies we keep hidden for our movie nights."

"Ooh, babe. It was time you found out. Hanni has been eating them non-stop. That place is not a secret anymore. I just stopped restocking those because she always checks right after coming back home. It's taking a toll on our sweet treat budget." you deliver the bad news with a pretty big smile on your face, already imagining the look of confusion on his.

"That's insane. She's insane." "I know, right? But at least she's cute, though."

"Yeah, she really is. You should see the way she scrunches her nose when she runs on the field. Totally cute." he gushes and you can only hum in response. "What about you, though? How's my management & sales senior doing?"

"It's pretty boring over here, I must say." you sigh. "Boring deals with boring people. Cannot complain though, not allowed." you both giggle. "You wanna guess what I did today?" he hums.

"I had a 20 minute shower." he groans in response. "No complaints and no banging on the door."

"You're killing me over here!"

"And when I got out, I asked for room service. Had some fried chicken, some pizza and now I'm even waiting for dessert!"

"Are you guys hiring? Maybe I can squeeze in my résumé and a couple of interviews."

"I'm not sure relationships between coworkers are allowed over here.."

"For a night like that I could leave my wife." all jokes aside, "Hey!" you instantly exclaim, feigned offense laced in your voice.

"I know, baby. I know. Just joking." you smile at him. "So... what are you wearing? Do you miss me?"

Before you could even think about a cheeky response. A big, loud, and clear. "EW!" is heard right on cue. There's your girl.

"Dad, you're so disgusting." you can hear your husband loud complaints as well as your daughter's perfectly clear light hearted insults to his father.

"So what? Is it a crime to love your mother? I'm not apologizing for that."

"You're both too old for this! At least don't do it in a common area on speaker!"

As you stay silent for a couple of seconds you get to hear the way they go back and forth as Hanni continues to emphasize how embarrassed she feels by your behaviour. Teens can be so intense, you cannot help but roll your eyes.

"Anyways... Mom? Are you there?" your girl asks.

"Yes, my lovely daughter. How are you? Do you miss me?"

"Incredibly much. Dad over here is embarrassing me at school and at practice as well." you smile at what she tells you. You miss this banter even though you get to have a taste just by the phone.

"I'm sure he is. I made sure to give him instructions on how to!" Hanni whines on the phone and you can hear Jungkook in the background making slight fun of her.

"So, mom..." "Yes?" "I've been thinking.. since you're already there.." You know exactly where this is going. "Can i send some stuff for you to buy? There's this new lip glo-"

"Jeon Hanni! You're in so much trouble. Why would you use your time to talk to your mom to ask her stuff?!" Hanni whines as Jungkook continues. "That is not how I raised you!"

"Dad, you're so annoying. For real."

To cut things short, you ended up compromising on bringing your daughter this new lip gloss everyone's talking about and a new water bottle she insists that will help her performance on football practice. Absolutely ridiculous, yet you agreed on buying it just to make her happy.

And at the end of the night, when you're unable to get some sleep as you shine in the glow the television gives you, you're awoken from your trance-like state by a message from your husband.

It's the best way to end a mostly perfect day. A pictured of him and your daughter cuddling on your big bed together, her hiding on his chest already sleeping with her mouth wide open and him being his usual cheeky self with his big doe eyes and sticking his tongue out.

"She always caves ❤️ we miss you, honey! Come back soon"

and you cannot wait.

[thesoftboiledegg]

Rick and Morty if Autism Speaks and Autism Moms focus-grouped it to death:

Rick: Everyone, I have a terrible confession to make. Summer [scrolling through her phone]: Sure, Grandpa Rick. How many planets did you blow up today? Rick: No, Summer, it's much worse than that. I... [sighs and sticks his hands in his pockets] I just got back from the doctor's office. I...I have autism. [The entire family gasps in shock. Summer drops her phone. Morty's hands fly to his mouth.] Beth: No! Rick! Why didn't you ever tell us? Rick: I didn't know, sweetie. Bird Person noticed that I'd been flapping my hands a lot and said, "Mubba rubba nub nub," which means, "I'm going to give you a referral for an autism diagnosis." I just got back from the clinic. I'll be honest with you--when the word "autism" came out of the doctor's mouth, I couldn't decide if I wanted to hide the truth from you or crash my ship directly into the building, killing me instantly. [Jerry stares at him. Summer starts sobbing. Beth glances at Morty with horror and disbelief.] Beth: But--what about Morty? He flaps his hands sometimes, too. Do you think that--maybe--oh God, I don't even want to say it-- Rick [looking at her sadly]: I don't know, sweetie. Autism is a genetic disease, and it's not looking good. Morty: No! NO! Why, Rick? This is the worst thing you've ever done! Rick: I'm sorry, buddy. I wish I could go back in time and delete the autism from my genes. Summer [sobbing]: You've ruined our family! I always knew I was the one normal child, and now you've just confirmed it! Beth: I'm sorry, Morty, but I won't be able to look at you the same way again. I knew there was a reason I favored Summer all these years. And Rick, well--I don't know if you can keep living here. Our budget is already tight without you spending $500 a month on math textbooks and model train sets. Jerry: Wait, hang on. If I can get meta here for a second--doesn't Dan Harmon play Bird Person? And isn't he, you know...in that way? Rick: Autistic? [Beth and Summer gasp at the sound of the word.] I don't know, let me check. [He opens a portal and disappears, then returns a few seconds later, his eyes heavy with sadness.] Yes. Dan Harmon is autistic, which means...Bird Person is autistic, too. I'm sorry. [The entire room is silent.] Beth: Well...at least you'll be able to get together now. I know you autistics can't date normal people. Summer: Autistics can't date anyone, period. Sorry, Morty, but I guess Jessica and Bruce Chutback both dodged a bullet. [Morty bursts into tears. Beth rubs his shoulder.] Beth: It's okay, honey. Look at it this way--you'll be able to go on lots of adventures with Grandpa since we have to separate both of you from the general population. Jerry: And "different" doesn't mean "worse." I mean, in this case, it absolutely does, but it doesn't mean that in other contexts. Morty: I'm sorry that I'm burdening everyone. [glances up] Hey, um, Rick--maybe you can find a cure, right? [smiles weakly] Some planet out there must've found a cure for autism by now, right? Rick [forces a smile]: You've got it, buddy. I'm sure there's a universe out there that's...found a cure for this tragic disease. [Everyone looks silently down at the table. Morty stands up.] Morty: I'm going to sit in my room for a while. Let me know when you've decided if you're going to keep me or put me up for adoption. Beth: We'll let you know, honey. [Morty walks upstairs. The rest of the family turns to Rick, who sighs.] Rick: Well...I guess I'll go to the garage. The noise-cancelling walls will protect you from the sounds of my incessant stimming and hand-flapping. I know you don't want me back in the house, so you can turn my room into extra storage space. Jerry can even turn it into a man cave if he wants. I don't care if he does. I don't care about anything anymore. Summer: Neither do we, Rick. Neither do we... [Rick walks into the garage and sits quietly on the stool. After a few minutes of silence, he hesitates, then reaches inside his coat and applies a sticker to his ship. The camera zooms in to reveal a puzzle piece that reads Autistics On Board.]

[onegirllis]

So, about the new LIS trailer

It took me some time, but forgive me for the delayed response. I had to dig myself out of the fandom grave to actually look around and notice what the hell was going on. I spent another moment pondering if I still care, and with the answer "barely," I came here to write this post.

1) For whatever reason DickNein (yes, I didn't miss the scandal, who is the nazi now?) still doesn't understand what made LIS 1 so successful. It wasn't the diversity; it wasn't the same copy-paste lines; it wasn't the murder; it wasn't the superheroes from small towns with different powers. It wasn't even the lesbians (I know, shocking!). There were merely a few elements that made LIS special: - Magical Arcadia Bay with its residents - The rewind time superpower, which was one of the best mechanics in narrative games since the genre was born - Max, Chloe, and Rachel (not necessarily in that order), and you need at least two to make it work, preferably with Chloe at least somewhere there. - the specific art style and saturated colors (butchered a bit in BTS but then going full SIMS 4 for the rest of the games) - and most importantly - the soul Sure, DontNod could get away with alteration, to no fanfare and sometimes to no success, but their experiments came from the right place. This shit ain't it.

2) For whatever reason, Chloe is now a dog. I know. I know. I understand. Listen, my fellow comrades, I know how it feels when the devs pull put shit like, "Oh, they were just friends and grew apart, but now she named her squirrel after the love of her high school life".

3) Max had plastic surgery. She also decided to be entirely anonymous so that she looked like everyone else. Every model looks the same, and I hope they will have their names spelled above them as they walk around. Otherwise, I have no idea who is who. Frankly, she looks a little bit like Steph had a lot of fun with the entire cast of Sims 4 and then had a baby.

4) On top of everything, the new Max, however, probably now goes as Maxine, is teaching her Polaroid skills at a university. Now we know we are in an alternative universe all along. I hope the tuition matches the useful photography skill set you obtain there.

5) For any other reason unknown, she can dress up as Chloe, who can be dead (see the Ultimate edition). I know Max has a long tradition of dressing up as dead people, but I hoped it would go away with her Botox and other plastic corrections. But hey, we survived Chloe dressing up as Rachel and cosplaying as her dad, too, so I guess I shouldn't even be surprised. Not that it's a low-budget movie, and they have a limited wardrobe. It's a video game, but the tradition of having a mental stroke is still strong.

6) Oh no, another murder I gotta solve! I shall use my powers. Why now? Is it another girlfriend who is into printing photos? Or is it her student? Or both? Max becoming Jefferson would be a nice twist, even if not loved among the community, but I don't think it would get anywhere that dark. It just will get stupid.

7) This is supposed to be a fanservice a little too late and on the wrong foot. I know y'all missed Max. I didn't, but I understand the hype on seeing her on the screen. Although following a teenager in Arcadia Bay was interesting, simply by the shot of nostalgia with every step, here we are following a middle-aged single art teacher (or someone who looks middle-aged to the point that they decided on fixing their face). NO ONE WANTS TO FOLLOW THEIR ART TEACHERS WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK.

8) The Nazi problem (well, well, well, the turntables). I know DeckNein had to do some cleanup among their staff. I hope they did, but somehow, I doubt it was done for the right purpose. Therefore, I'm uncomfortable giving them any of my money, now or ever. I know, there are worse studios. I know it's stupid, but LIS was always special, filled with this little genuine spark. It just doesn't feel right.

9) The game has the worst UI in the history of modern gaming.

10) And to finish my rant on something even worse, LIS4 is coming just before DontNod's new game, most likely to compete with it on the market. A bit sus, don't you think?

Anyway, dick move, my friends. All of it. Actually, waving dicks around in the air all along. Despite our differences, this ain't right. And God knows how much worse it could be.

[luna-rainbow]

I was looking at some information on Captain America 4 because it sounds like they are doing an entire reshoot. I saw a preview for Sam's new suit for the movie. What are your thoughts on this? Because it feels like he barely wore the one that he got to wear in TFATWS. And that one was given to him by Wakanda and made from Vibranium. How can this new suit be preferable to that one? And I guess its now not a big deal that he got a suit from Wakanda?

Thanks for the ask!

The change of suit happened with Wanda as well when she went from TV to movie so I guess it happens with major budget upgrades. It does suck that vital character development points get undermined but, hey, this is the MCU we’re talking about.

As far as the new suit goes, I quite like it! I like that navy shade, the lines look more dynamic and I think overall the design is much more complimentary to Mackie’s body shape. Maybe they can say vibranium can change the suit’s paint job — after all, didn’t T’Challa’s suit hide in his beads? Surely changing the colours isn’t a big deal in a world like that 😂

I think the issues with the show were pretty evident as soon as it ended. The criticism about the “do better” speech was always there. There is a group of very vocal people who have a vested (ship war) interest in defending that show. From what I’ve seen, a good number of them are well aware of the flaws of the show (and have many of the exact same talking points) but if you are not one of them, you’re not allowed to talk about it. I don’t think these people have changed their stance on CA4 — in the sense that they were always concerned about Spellman bungling it, and they always disliked how little care was put into promoting Sam’s story, but god forbid if you’re not in their ship and talked about it. So in a way, I don't think the show isn't "ageing well"...because I think most people really haven't changed their original opinions. I'm sure there are some people out there who previously loved the show and now changed their mind because of Sabra, but I haven't seen a lot of comment from that corner on Tumblr at least...

I do think it’s ironic that CA4 is now being accused of Zionist agenda when the first criticism that came out was its anti-Semitic working title (New World Order). I have no idea what politics it will push — if any, because let’s face it, the main problem with TFATWS isn’t its centrism, it’s the lack of commitment to any ideology and its protagonist-centric morality — but what this whole saga tells me is that the publicity team for CA4 is either incompetent or woefully understaffed. I don’t think I’ve heard anyone come out to try and salvage the publicity debacles. The optics of Sabra is going to be very tricky given the current climate, and I don’t see Spellman being a writer who can handle the subtlety (or bravery?) to make her work.

I remember Simu Liu allegedly said to Marvel execs that "we (POC) are not an experiment" -- but honestly, this is what CA4 is feeling like. Sam the Black Cap is experimental and they're cutting corners on many parts of this production. They don't care that he fails - so they are setting him up to fail, which would then justify them pulling the plug early so they can go back to investing in safe favourites.

[elisysd]

1. Guess my childhood is over

Masterlist - Previous - Next

Chapter soundtrack: Older - Alec Benjamin

She will miss her room. That’s what Julia thought as she was finishing packing. Today was her last day in her childhood bedroom before leaving to pursue her dreams. A few months ago, she finally achieved one of her biggest life goals. Well, at least she was one step closer to it. After a lot of interviews and tests she had gotten a job as a junior engineer for the F1 team Skoda. It was a team from the back of the grid, with almost no budget even though they were helped by Ferrari, especially with the engine. But still, she was so damn proud of herself. All those years of sacrifice finally paid off. She would work on the tracks with the team for the whole season. It was a one-year contract for now, but they had made it clear that if they were happy with her, they would gladly keep her. She was excited and she couldn’t wait to start. From a very young age she had always been passionate about how cars were working, how they could be improved to be faster. And that’s what she was about to do. With enthusiasm, she locked her big suitcase and put it in the corner so her dad could bring it downstairs later.

Stepping out of her room, she was welcomed by happy barks and a fluffy Australian Shepperd. Bailey was the family dog that Charles got them almost ten years ago. Even if originally, Bailey was a dog for her little brother Louis, she had quickly taken a liking for Julia and at some point, she became more like her dog than her brother’s. Not that he minded, he didn’t care much about her.

“Hey my girl! Let’s go eat. Come on.”

The dog began to turn around her, wiggling her tail.

“I’ll be playing with you later, I promise.”

Bailey barked again and Julia rushed downstairs. Her mom was in the kitchen, finishing to prepare the lunch as her dad was reading his notebooks and taking notes. She took the plates that were on the kitchen island to put them on the table and on her way, she took the opportunity to kiss her dad’s cheek, taking him by surprise.

“Ready for the season, princess?” Charles Leclerc asked his daughter.

“I can’t wait to be the one who will bring the ideas to upgrade the Skoda and make it faster than your Ferrari!”

“Don’t think I’ll make it easy for you. We worked hard on the car and I have the feeling we will be very competitive this year!”

“More competitive than Lamborghini?” asked Julia to tease her father.

“We hope so.”

A few years ago, Charles had taken the job of Team Principal of the Scuderia. Julia remembered how they came to their door one day, practically begging her dad to work with them. She was nineteen at the time and had only started her college degree, but she remembered how her dad hesitated a lot before finally agreeing. He didn’t want to leave his family behind again, knowing that it was what had almost cost him his marriage a few years prior. But her mother had insisted, saying that he would regret it if he were saying no. It took time to bring back Ferrari at the top. Three years. Three years of hard work of intense recruiting and negotiations but they finally managed to become vice-champions in the constructor’s championship twice in a row, behind Lamborghini. Not where they wanted to be of course, and Charles was hoping that this year, they would finally be on top.

“Ju? Can you go tell your brother that lunch is almost ready?” told her Lyanna, making Julia stood up and go to her brother bedroom.

She knocked on Louis’ door but heard nothing. Slowly and softly, she opened it to see him lying on his bed, reading a comic book, his headphones securely put on his ears. She stood in front of him so she would be in his field of vision before waving and taking away his comic book.

“Lunch is ready.”

He nodded and stood up before leaving the room closely followed by his sister. When seeing his kids back, Charles smiled and put away his notebook as Lyanna was coming with a plate for Louis where she had separated the vegetables by colours and size. Louis also took a little bag of potato crisps and made sure to make two sides: one where the crisps were full and one where they were not. It was always like that he always had to separate everything before eating or it was triggering him. No one was paying attention anymore to his little quirks that Julia found endearing.

“What were you doing, Louis?” carefully asked Charles.

“Reading.”

“Yeah? And what are you reading.”

“A comic book about Spiderman that mom bought me, yesterday.”

Julia was seeing that her father was struggling to find ways to make him talk. For as long as she could remember the relationship between her father and her little brother had always been weird, often uncomfortable. Not from Louis’ side, but from Charles’. He never knew what to say or how to say things.

“Do you have any fun facts about him to tell us?” asked Julia, knowing very well that her brother was a mine of information when he loved something.

“Oh yes. Did you know there is an alternate version of Spider-Man where Peter is an anthropomorphic pig. His name is Spider-ham.”

“No way! That’s so cool!” exclaimed Julia.

“How did you learn that?” said Charles.

“I don’t remember.”

Charles sighed. It was not today, again, that he would achieve a more than two sentences conversation with his only son. He looked down on his plate as Julia saw her mom scooting closer to him and put a hand on his thigh.

Louis didn’t talk much during the lunch, not that he talked a lot anyway but usually, when Julia was giving him the opportunity to talk about things he loved, whether it was Marvel, animals (insects in general) or music, he was unstoppable. But not today. He ate in silence, with his noise cancelling headphones that he didn’t put away and when his plate was empty, he left the room to go back to his bedroom.

“I’m going to see him.” Julia stood up as well and followed him. When she finally caught up to him, he was already back on his bed and with his book. “Louis… talk to me.” she pleaded him.

“You’re leaving me.” he said as a matter of fact, but Julia could hear an ounce of sadness in his tone.

“You know that I have too…”

“You always promised me you would be there for me.”

“And I’m not backing down on that. You know that if I could bring you in my suitcase to have you with me I would.”

“You will be all over the world. You won’t have as much time for me as you have now. You will have new friends and you will forget about me.”

“That’s not true. I will call you every day. And you can text me whenever you need someone to talk to or to help you with your homework.”

“I don’t need help with my homework.”

And Julia knew it was true. Her brother was a little genius. A little genius that her parents didn’t want to put to school, preferring to have him studying at home. Julia sometimes felt guilty about that. She didn’t have the most amazing school years, being bullied because of her last name. People always liked to reject her or to use her in order to have access to privileged places. It was something she didn’t like to think about as it was always bringing back bad memories.

Sometimes, the insults, the pulled hair and the nasty remarks were coming back haunting her. If she had a hard time trusting people, it definitely came from that time of her life. She still remembered vividly the pain it caused her when her first boyfriend, when she was fifteen, played her and made her believe he loved her only to find out later that it was just in order to meet her dad. It had been a hard pill to swallow and since then she had been careful around men. She never really had a boyfriend since that time. Of course, she had a couple flings and one night stands, but it was never serious. She didn’t let anything be serious. Her only focus was her career and her dream to work one day alongside her dad at Ferrari.

Her parents didn’t want Louis to go through what she had gone through and had decided to let him be homeschooled. They knew how cruel people could be and since he had been diagnosed with autism, it was less frightening to keep him sheltered. Julia was not always sure it was the best idea. Louis would have to face, sooner or later, the world and how cruel it could be.

She looked at her little brother and couldn’t help but feel guilty. He would be alone. Sure, he had their mom, but Julia was the only one Louis would willingly confide in. She was his pillar. And Julia was scared that without her here, he would crumble. She tried to think that it was not as different as when she was away for college. But still, she was coming back home whenever she could, and she was in Switzerland so not far away from home. Now, she would be all around the world, with messed up time zones.

“Are you hating me for leaving you?” she asked seating on his bed.

“I’m not angry to see you leave, just sad, I guess. You are the only one who understands me here.”

“You know that’s not true; you have mom too. And Bailey. You will take good care of her for me, right?”

“Mom is mom. It’s not the same. And I’ll take care of Bailey. Australian Shepards need a lot of attention. So, I will try to play with her twice a day for an hour.”

“Thank you, Louis. Can I hug you?”

“Did you wash your hands before?” he asked seriously as Julia rolled her eyes.

She stood up and went to the bathroom before coming back showing him her clean hands.

“Done. Can I have my hug now?” she insisted.

Louis went to her and threw his arms around her clumsily. He hated social contacts. He could barely tolerate his mother’s kisses. But Julia was not the same, she was his favourite human being.

“I love you. Always. Whether I’m three meters away from you or on another continent, I love you.”

He sighed and she felt him nod. He pulled away from her and put back his headphones, letting Julia know that he didn’t want to talk anymore. She left his room to face her dad that had probably heard their conversation. He was not trying to be subtle about it.

“I wish I was as good as you with him.” he told her.

“You’re trying, dad. That’s what matters the most.”

“That’s what your mom said as well.”

“Well, listen to us then.”

“Like your uncle Arthur would say, Leclerc’s women know best.”

“And he is absolutely right.”

Charles threw an arm around his daughter shoulders and kissed the side of her head. They soon joined Lyanna in the living room who is petting an enthusiastic Bailey.

“So, how are you feeling about everything?” asked her mother.

“It’s strange. It’s a mix between excitement, nervousness, and fear of failing.”

“It’s normal things to feel, princess. I was the same.”

“It’s going to feel weird to have you both away…” confessed Lyanna.

“I’ll take care of her, Lya.”

“Oh no! Please don’t embarrass me!” groaned Julia.

“That is basically my job as your father. That and scaring boys away from you.”

Lyanna and Julia both rolled their eyes making Charles laughed. It was always amusing to him to see that his daughter had similar if not identical expressions to his wife.

“And about Ethan… how do you feel about that?” asked Charles.

Ethan was Julia worst enemy since kindergarten. They never got along, nor did they really try to. Fortunately for her, as Ethan started to get really good with karting and later made his way into F3, then F2 to end up finally in F1 three years ago, in Maserati, a midfield team affiliated to Lamborghini, the new name of Red Bull, she didn’t have to see him or interact with him more than necessary.

“I’m not going to work for him or with him for what matters, so I won’t see him much. And as long as he is not acting like a dick, everything should be fine.”

“I hope so. You are both adults now, surely you can act like civilized people.”

“I know I can. The question is, can he?”

“Julia… He is not that bad you know. He is a bit of an idiot sometimes, but who wouldn’t be considering how he grew up.”

“Dad, I know that you like him. For unbeknownst reasons. But using his childhood as a way to excuse his behaviour is just not it. I think Louis and I are the perfect examples of growing up privileged but not being pretentious assholes. You and mom did a pretty good job raising us to be humble and hardworking people.”

“Julia, he is not that bad. He is actually a very focused driver, always asking questions, always wanting to learn. always trying to get better. It’s admirable. He is going to get big.”

“That’s just a facade, dad! That’s a mask he puts on to make people like him. Why can’t you see that? Don’t you remember how ruthless he was with me? Like the one time he stuck gum in my ponytail and mom had to bring me to grandma so she could cut my hair? Or the one where we had this school trip and he just decided that it would be funny to hide my lunchbox somewhere and I couldn’t eat. And I have tons of other examples!”

“Now you are being dramatic.”

“I’m not! I know exactly who he is deep inside. He is rotten. It’s crazy that you can’t see that!”

Her parents smiled at her. They were used to it by now and were not taking it seriously anymore. It was a rivalry that was lasting for more than twenty years now. With an angry gesture Julia left the room. She had a few things to check before being sure that she would not forget anything.

In her room, she took her time to print every corner of where she grew up in her mind. She looked around and went through the mess she accumulated over the years. Her eyes found a vision board, made when she was 12. She smiled when she saw written in bright red capital letters, in the centre of the board, almost taking up all the space “WORKING FOR FERRARI”, and next to it between parentheses with her adult writing “with dad”. In the box under the board, she found pictures of her, her mother and her father, on racetracks, when she was young, before Louis’ birth. She found her favourite one from Le Mans where her dad participated along with Max. It was a bittersweet day, she had to spend it with Ethan, but seeing her dad accomplishing one of his dreams was a wonderful experience to witness. One they shared just the two of us. She folded the picture and put it in her purse.

As she was sitting on her bed caught up in her memories, she didn’t hear her mother coming and taking place next to her.

“I remember this picture. It was maybe your third or four Monaco Grand Prix. You were five years old, something like that. Your eyes were glued to the cars, nothing could make you look elsewhere.”

“Yep, that’s sound like me.” smiled Julia.

“I don’t tell you this enough but, I’m proud of you. I know how far you’ve come, and I know how hard your worked to be able to be where you are today. I’ve never doubted you. Not once second. You have the stubbornness of your dad.”

“Dad would argue and tell you that it comes from you.”

“Your dad is an idiot.”

Julia laughed.

“I wanted to give you this. So, you have something from home when you miss us. Whenever you feel blue, you just have to hold onto it, and it will be like I’m right by your side.”

Lyanna took out of her pocket a black velvet box. When Julia opened it she found a red bracelet with a little horse on it. It seemed old and the iron was slightly rusty. Beside the horse, there was a movie clap next to the Monegasque flag. Two wedding rings circled around each other and two baby socks, one pink and one blue were completing the bracelet. Julia recognised it and knew the importance it held for her parents; it was a perpetual reminder of their story. Julia put it around her wrist and hugged her mom.

“I promise I’ll never take it off and I’ll take care of it.”

“I have no doubt you will. I want you to add things to it. It is yours now, Julia. It is your story to write. But no matter what, your dad and I will be by your side. Forever and always.”

The next morning, she was boarding the private jet that was bringing her to Bahrain for the pre-tests and her first GP. She would stay on the side for starter, just the time for her to adjust, and then progressively she would get tasked on specific things to look at on the car.

“I know that being Ferrari team principal comes with some perks, but it always shocks me. It shouldn’t, but it does.” she said, moving awkwardly in the alley of the plane.

“Technically, it’s supposed to be for Ferrari team members. And since you are working with Skoda, you shouldn’t be here. It’s a favour, I give you Julia.” joked her dad.

“If you want to get into technicalities, Skoda uses your engines so… we are allies.”

“There are no such things as allies in F1, princess.”

She sat opposite to her father and looked outside the window. It would not be long before they took off. A few hours later, as they were both bored to death, Julia looked at her father pensively, biting her lips as if she wanted to say something but didn’t dare to, something her dad caught.

“What is going on in this little head of yours?”

“Can I ask you something?” she asked with hesitation.

“Anything. You know that Ju.”

“Why don’t you want me to work with you?”

He put down his notebooks and crosses his arms against his chest. He took his time to answer her.

“I’m not going to teach you how F1 is a make-or-break kind of world. You know that. I don’t want to people to think that you are where you are only because you are my daughter. They will look down on you. I want you to prove them wrong. And you can’t prove them wrong if you are already with me. You are talented Ju, you have an eye for details, you are smart. I want you to show them that you are a fighter and that you deserve to be there. I would love to have you working with me, it would be a dream. But before, show them all what you are made of.”

“And what if I fail?” “I’ll have your back. I’ll always be there if you need me. For whatever reasons. But you are my daughter, you are a Leclerc, and we don’t give up when things go rough, we fight with all we have until the end.  And that’s what you’ll do.”

Author's note: And let me introduce you to miss Julia and her family that you already know!! I love her, she is amazing and you have seen nothing yet hehehe. I hope you caught the little Cruel Summer reference that was there.... 👀 let me know in the comments.

I can't wait to read your thoughts about it, so don't hesitate to leave a comment or an ask, as well as reblogging and leaving a like. It helps a lot for the story to find its audience. I also have a taglist for this story, so if you want to be added so you never miss a chapter, let me know.

Taglist:

@herondalism @aundercover @musingsbyshreya @karmabyfernando @reengard @mycenterfold @smoooothoperator

[aurumacadicus]

Stuckony rat race for the meme thing

Me, only vaguely knowing what rat race means: Sure!

What time period is this? Eh. Just know whatever time period, Howard WOULD be that asshole who throws his kid out and disowns them if they get knocked up out of wedlock.

--

Steve and Bucky met at the doorstep leading up to their apartment building. The sun had set hours ago.

“You got extra hours, too?” Steve asked as Bucky sagged down onto the front steps. He started to sit, then gave up, falling the last few inches with a groan. “Fuck.”

Bucky put a hand up to brace him, letting out a long sigh that clouded the air in front of him. “Yeah.” He pulled his hand back and rubbed it over his face, exhausted. “Christmas is coming, you know.” He sucked in a deep breath, covering his eyes. “I wish it was just presents I’m worried about, but my god, Stevie. The bills. Tuition. Extra groceries. Medicine. Diapers. I don’t remember my parents struggling like this.”

“We’ll get through it,” Steve said, instead of that he remembered his mother struggling vividly, all those nights he stayed home alone just so she could pick up another shift, and another, and another. He pulled out his pack of cigarettes, offered him one and then struck a match. “December’s just one month.”

“I guess,” Bucky muttered.

Steve took a long drag, held the smoke in his lungs for a moment, then let out it out in a slow breath. “It’s the only thing Tony’s asked for since he moved in.”

Bucky stayed quite for a while, until half his cigarette was gone, then muttered, “Yeah, I know. I’m not... mad. I’m just... I’m just so tired, Steve.”

“I know,” Steve answered, slinging his arm over Bucky’s shoulders. “I know. We’ll get through this, though.” He stubbed his cigarette out, then stood up, dusting his pants off. “Come on. Tony’s waiting for us.”

“Yeah, okay,” Bucky agreed, taking one last puff before stubbing his out as well.

Tony was bent over the kitchen table when they came in, one hand in his hair, the other scribbling figures onto the paper. Harley was in his rocking bassinet beside him, blinking slowly up at him as Tony used his foot to rock him slowly back and forth.

Steve bent to press a kiss to the top of his head. “Hey, sweetheart. You hungry?”

“We ate,” Tony answered, distracted, then jabbed his pencil toward the stove. “Bucky’s mom brought over some stew.”

Bucky perked up, going over to the stove and opening the pot. “That was nice of her.” He paused, then put the lid back on, turning to Tony with a frown. “Why did ma bring over stew?”

“She thought I looked too skinny,” Tony complained, free hand falling to his rounded belly. “Worried that we’re all working too hard to take care of ourselves properly. I’m too tired to argue. Did you know they raised the price of chicken because of some avian illness? I have to rework our entire grocery budget.” He sighed, turning to look at Harley, whose blinks were getting even slower, sleep clearly creeping up on him. “I wanted to cook dinner for everyone,” he admitted, voice small. “I’m just... I’m just so tired.”

“You’re growing another person in you, Tony,” Steve soothed. “Of course you’re tired.”

“Yeah, but at least I get to be tired at home,” he sighed. “You and Bucky are out there, working at these factories, working overtime and still managing to do homework after--”

“Hey,” Bucky cut in sternly, coming over to wrap an arm around his shoulders. “We talked about this. It’s a decision we all made together. In fact, you were the only one who had to give something up when you got pregnant--Stevie and I are the ones who didn’t want you getting a job on your feet while you’re pregnant.” He smiled a little. “You could probably get more money if you could do your bookkeeping at an office instead of out of our kitchen.”

“But then your mom couldn’t drop in and watch Harley while I wash my hair and take a nap,” Tony mumbled. He turned to look into the crib, frowning. “I just wish I could do more for you guys.”

“You do more than enough,” Steve assured him. “You’re taking care of our son, and having another baby, and taking care of the apartment. On top of that, you offer bookkeeping services to the people who can only afford pennies when you could be making hundreds a week at a big firm.”

Tony sighed again, leaning his chin on his hand. “And I insisted on a Christmas we can’t really afford, so you guys are working even more overtime.”

“You didn’t insist. You asked,” Steve corrected gently.

Bucky smiled at him. “And us working more is a choice we made ourselves. We’re not even doing anything extravagant. A ham, a Christmas tree, some presents.” He leaned down to press a kiss to the top of his head. “Next year, maybe we’ll be able to spring for some twinkly lights in the window.”

“Next year, I’m gonna have two babies and less time for bookkeeping,” Tony muttered, still frowning.

“Next year, Bucky will have graduated and can have an engineering degree behind him when he applies for jobs,” Steve replied. “And I’ll only have a year to go.” He leaned in to kiss the top of his head as well. “Good thing you already had a degree before you got pregnant, but I’m sorry you didn’t get to do all the schooling you want.”

“Maybe once the babies are in school, I can go back,” Tony mused, then sighed, shaking his head. “I’ve gotta finish this for the Merlins’ shop.” He motioned at the papers in front of him. “If I get it done by tomorrow, Mr. Merlin will give me two boxes of canned goods for free.”

Steve and Bucky immediately gave him space, instead going to fill their bowls with stew. It would certainly help their wallets if Tony could get even one box of canned goods for free. For two? They’d fuck off out of the apartment with Harley if he needed the space.

[moviemunchies]

I saw this go up on Hulu, and I decided it might be worth checking out. Historically, I am not really a murder mystery person; on the other hand, I found things like the Benoit Blanc movies and Only Murders in the Building to be fun, so I thought I’d give this one a shot! A high-budget, stylish murder mystery set on a luxury cruise liner–there’s potential here.

It only lasted one season, though.

Hm…

Death and Other Details is about our heroine, Imogen Scott, who is on a luxury cruise with the Collier family, who pretty much adopted her after her mother was mysteriously murdered during her childhood. There are plenty of colorful characters on this cruise, including Rufus Cotesworth, an investigator once hailed as “The World’s Greatest Detective,” but who failed to solve the murder of Imogen’s mother. When one of the guests on the cruise is murdered, Imogen and Rufus must team up again to find the killer–and how it connects to what happened years ago in Imogen’s childhood.

Alright, so here’s the thing: despite being billed as such, and people comparing it to things like Only Murders in the Building, this is not a murder mystery. Okay, it has one, and it’s a mystery about a murder, but the story on the whole is not that kind of story. It’s more of a crime/conspiracy thriller. The events of the murder all tie into a larger web of deceit and an internationally-reaching crime boss who keeps having his name passed around.

It’s also not entirely confined to this ship? There’s an episode where Imogen and another character hop off for a day on nearby Malta, which makes for wonderful scenery, but makes me think that it undermines the entire schtick the show’s going for–a story confined to a specifically limited location.

I am also quite frustrated in that the show has one major way of starting drama: putting characters in an affair. There are other sources of drama, to be sure, but that’s the one that comes up constantly, as if the writers couldn’t think of any other way to make characters interesting than, “Hey, look! This person’s having sex with someone they’re not supposed to!” Even if this is your kind of drama, I think it happening so often in this show would get old rather quickly. There came a point when the show revealed two characters are secretly sleeping together, and by that point I was so bored of the “twist” that I didn’t realize it was meant to be a surprise at all.

Random side note: I do appreciate that this is a show with a sketchy priest, and he is not Catholic. At least, I don’t think so? It’s unclear. One character speculates he’s Episcopal. Given he has an openly-acknowledged son who is a social media star and not a scandal/requires explanation, and that he keeps changing shirt colors, it seems like ‘Catholic’ is not what they were going for.

When we get to the end of the story, there’s a massive twist that doesn’t feel quite earned. TV Tropes tells me that some people saw it coming because of one detail, but me being bad with faces, I didn’t notice it. Either way, I don’t think this twist works, because it asks us to go back and revise way too many things and doubt the intelligence of most of the cast of characters in the show. The unreliability of memory is a motif in the show, sure, but there’s only so far you can take this. Showing the audience one thing over and over, and then saying that actually it didn’t happen like that, is pretty close to straight-up lying to them and doesn’t make a good story.

I wanted to like this show more than I did. It didn’t work though; despite the show clearly framing itself as clever, most of the important uncovered secrets amounted to love affairs, and the resolution didn’t feel earned. I wasn’t a fan of how it wasn’t even really a murder mystery to begin with, but a crime thriller. The performances are good, I guess? Yeah, it’s stylish, I guess, and there’s sex, though if you need more to your television mysteries than that (and I hope you do), we can do better than Death and Other Details.

[tenebraevesper]

Five Nights at Freddy's: Obsolete, Night 6: Picking Up The Pieces

''You turn away, I'll be right beside you! You cut me off, but I'll always have another way to find you! My body's still mending, you're in for a sight! Another night but it doesn't get easy, because you're stuck picking up all the pieces that they salvaged! No matter what the ending, you won't last the night!''

 – Salvaged by NateWantsToBattle (Five Nights at Freddy's 3)

xXxXxXx

Sam took a deep breath as she found herself again in the Fazbear's Fright office. She was not looking forward to this, but she knew that she needed to get through this level. She looked around, the office not being that different from the office in Five Nights at Freddy's 3, with the most noticable thing being the huge air-vent right next to the table.

''Hey-Hey! Glad you came back for another night! I promise it'll be a lot more interesting this time…''

Sam ignored Phone Dude's commentary on finding new items for the horror attraction and searched the desk through for any Tapes and coins. Since it was the first night, she didn't have to worry about Springtrap and needed to just keep the systems working. Luckily for her, she managed to find a Tape behind the Maintenance Panel on the box, as well as a coin near the bobble heads on the left side of the monitor.

I wonder what kind of information is Tape Girl going to give me this time.

She stared intently at the window that allowed to see her the hallway, as if expecting an animatronic to jumpscare at her. Even though the night was peaceful, she could feel her heart rate going up. She felt anxious about the upcoming second night, the one where she would have to deal with Springtrap until 6 AM. She knew that he was just a game character, but all the memories associated with him felt overwhelming.

This is something I need to go through. I need to confront him, even if this is not the real Springtrap.

It didn't take too long for her to hear the familiar chime that signaled the end of the night. After taking her prize, she found herself back at the main hub and looked back, seeing Glitchtrap standing behind her, still waving at her.

''Hello? Can you hear me?''

''Unfortunately, I do,'' Sam replied, decided to give the Tape a listen before she continued playing Five Nights at Freddy's 3. After entering the Tape Room, she quickly put the Tape 5 into the recorder, holding her breath in anticipation as she heard Tape Girl's familiar voice.

''The drawers have been emptied out. Someone was here. I don't think it was spring cleaning either. No, there was plastic on the floor. Someone was definitely here during the night. It had to have been the client. I mean, they sent us that stuff in the first place with no explanation. Told us to scan it. Said it would expedite the process so we wouldn't need to program any path finding ourselves. It was a budget things, I guess. It was just junk- circuit boards and things like that. Looked pretty old. Somehow, though, there was usable code on some of it. It seemed to take hold by itself. Things started changing. But then, he started appearing. At least, that's what Jeremy said.''

''The client? What client?'' Sam's eyes narrowed. ''What do they mean by circuit boards?''

She remained silent for a moment as she processed the new information. The client they were talking about had to be a Fazbear Entertainment representative. It's the only thing that makes sense. She returned to the main hub, taking off her VR headset and started pacing through her room. Then, there are the circuit boards. Fazbear Entertainment used some kind of circuit boards to… scan the code for the game? Sam's eyes widened, her lips parting slightly as she stared back at her VR headset. No way… Why would they… Where did they even get those circuit boards?!

She suddenly felt chills flowing down her spine, shuddering.

''Where did they get those circuit boards?'' she whispered, slowly repeating the question. ''What kind of code did those circuit boards have? Why would Fazbear Entertainment take them away?''

She looked up, observing the Golden Freddy plushie on her bed. Her eyes narrowed as she clenched her fists, turning back to the VR headset and putting it on. She had a bad feeling about this whole thing, realizing that there was only one way to get the circuit boards – directly from the source. She didn't even want to think about it, not wanting to process the implications of that.

I need more evidence.

She found herself back at the main hub, with Glitchtrap waiting for her. She took a look at him, wondering if he too was the result of the scanned circuit boards.

''Who are you?'' she asked, but Glitchtrap remained silent, staring back, still with that cheery grin on his expression. She sighed and shook her head, focusing on the monitor.

Let's get this over with.

Returning back to the office, she tried to mentally prepare herself for her confrontation with Springtrap.

''Hey, man- okay, I have some awesome news for you!...''

Paying zero attention to Phone Dude, she started switching through the screens in search for Springtrap. She eventually found him on CAM 10. As long as he stays there, I should be peachy. The first few seconds were just her staring at Springtrap, when the monitor suddenly started to flicker, with Springtrap disappearing and appearing on CAM 09. Sam didn't panic though, simply switching instead back to CAM 10 and activating the Balloon Boy clip.

''Hi! Hello! Hahahahahah!''

''I shouldn't worry too much, since I already know this game inside out,'' Sam muttered, yawning. She knew that it was late in the night and wanted to complete Night 2 before going to sleep. Springtrap eventually returned back to CAM 10, staring at the camera as he idled. ''If you really think you can beat me, you're– agh!'' Sam was startled by Phantom BB, quickly trying to switch the cameras, only to get jumpscared, with Phantom BB screaming at her. As she recovered, she quickly turned to the maintenance panel to fix the ventilation error. She tapped with her food impatiently as she waited for it to be fixed. Once done, she turned back to the cameras, realizing that Springtrap was gone.

''Where are you?'' Sam muttered as she turned to CAM 09. He wasn't there. ''Damn it! Where did he go?''

To her chagrin, the cameras suddenly experienced a video error. Sam turned to the maintenance panel, aware that she needed to fix it as fast as possible if she didn't want Springtrap win this Night. As she turned towards the panel, she saw Phantom Foxy staring at her and quickly looked down.

''Com'n… Faster…'' Sam inhaled sharply as she looked back at the monitors, going through each and every camera in order to find Springtrap. ''Please, tell me he isn't in the vents…''

Suddenly, there was an audio error, forcing Sam to once again fix it without finding Springtrap. Frankly, she didn't remember Five Nights at Freddy's 3 to be this difficult, especially not on Night 2. It was also possible that her reaction was slower due to her being too tired to think clearly or see anything.

As she looked up, she almost let out a scream, freezing when Springtrap suddenly appeared right in front of her, staring at her through the window. ''Springtrap, what the hell?! How did you get here so fast?!''

Springtrap just stared back at her, with Sam being well aware that he was out for her blood. Sam frowned, turning to CAM 02 and pressing the Balloon Boy voice clip.

''Hello?''

''Springtrap, leave!'' Sam said in a firm tone. ''You are not welcome here.''

Springtrap seemed to ignore the Balloon Boy voice clip and instead kept staring at her. Sam pressed the distraction button again, looking back at the monitor and to her relief, Springtrap appeared on CAM 02. Sam realized that he probably had used the vent to travel quickly through the entire building, forcing her to return him back to CAM 10.

''You know, you're still just as sneaky as you used to be when you were still here,'' Sam said bitterly as she forced Springtrap to go to CAM 03. ''You're merciless, determined and you won't let anyone stop you.'' She was suddenly met by another video error. ''You don't care about anyone, but yourself, William.'' She frowned. ''Why should I even bother with you? Sure, there is the matter of closure, but at this point, is it worth it? While I have returned to Five Nights at Freddy's, why should I care about you?''

As the video feed cleared, Sam groaned when Springtrap vanished once again. She found him staring at her intently in the office hallway… again.

''You are not doing yourself a favour here, William,'' she said, glaring at Springtrap. ''You are an awful person, and you know it…'' She activated the Balloon Boy voice clip and looked up, her gaze filled with anger and her eyes watering. ''I was so bitter when you left without a word. If you had at least told me what you were planning to do… I guess, I would've gotten over it… Maybe we could've figured out something… Anything… You shouldn't have abandoned me…'' Suddenly, the lights faded and Springtrap vanished, appearing at the office door. Sam turned towards him, still glaring at the animatronic. ''You're an idiot!''

Then, she heard the familiar chime as the clock turned to 6 AM. Sam suddenly realized that she felt cold. Her heart was racing and there was a tingling feeling in her fingers as she grabbed her prize – Plushtrap jumpscaring her. Shaking him off, she returned to the main hub, staring at the monitor.

''He is gone. There is no reason for me to just yell at a video game character,'' she grumbled and faced Glitchtrap, glaring at the latter. Glitchtrap just waved cheerfully at her, but Sam felt unnerved. It didn't help that Glitchtrap was reminding her of William. ''I'm not done with you either,'' she told him, then exited the game.

Glitchtrap's grin widened.

xXx

''Tsk, tsk, tsk… Someone's angry…'' The voice echoed through the darkness, not caring whether anyone could hear him. ''Or worse… Disappointed.''

A dark purple light illuminated the void, revealing an empty stage with a pair of purple curtains covered in silver stars on the sides. The voice belonged to Glitchtrap, who appeared to be to talk to an invisible audience.

''I wonder, can someone really hold this much resentment?'' he asked in a sarcastic voice, then chuckled. ''Well, of course they can! It's really fun to see people getting riled up, especially if it's the person you love.'' He crossed his hands on his back and started pacing across the stage. ''Seeing her this upset should be something I'd be happy about, yet I'm more excited about the fact that she might slowly be realizing what our connection is.''

He tilted his head, eyeing the empty seats and seeing a humanoid figure sitting in one of the chairs. The figure was slumped over, with a dark red and black blood pool forming below him, as if someone knocked them out. Glitchtrap grinned, placing his hands on his hips and leaned forward.

''Sleeping, are we?'' He waved his finger, as if scolding a naughty child. ''That's fine. We, or rather, I have to still wait for all the right puzzle pieces to fall into place.'' He opened his arms, as if presenting something. ''Then, we can begin with the show!''

xXx

Sam yawned, walking with a tray in her hand to the corner of the cafeteria, Matt being right behind her. While she fortunately didn't have any nightmares, she was still mentally exhausted from playing through Help Wanted. She had figured that eating some food would wake her up properly, so at least she could last for the rest of the school day. She suddenly felt Matt gently nudging her, leaning forward to whisper into her ear.

''Someone's glaring at you,'' he said, walking past her and sitting on the opposite side of Sam. Sam sat on the other side and looked up, realizing that the one glaring at her was her ex-best friend Theresa Clover, aka Tessa. Sam rose an eyebrow, locking eyes with Tessa, who just gave her a hate-filled glare and sat down at an empty table a bit further away from the table where she would usually sit at. The table she was referring to was the one where Violet and her friends, that is, the popular crowd would sit at. Sam hummed, turning her attention to Matt. ''I thought she was friends with Violet. Why is she sitting alone?''

''You tell me,'' Matt replied. ''She was your friend.''

''Well, since Tessa basically used me in order to get closer to them by offering them to come to my place and use my stuff, like video games, I assume she ran out of stuff she could offer them,'' Sam replied.

''That's what happens when you become friends with people who just want stuff from you instead of liking you for who you are,'' Matt noted. Sam nodded and turned to her food, only to hear Matt add, ''So, anything new you want to talk about? You did show me around Ricky's and you said that you played Help Wanted last night.''

''Honestly, I don't know whether I want to talk about it,'' Sam replied. ''I've been processing a lot of things and I'm currently trying to make sense of them.''

''Do you think that talking with me would help you process that information easier?'' Matt asked. Sam remained silent for a moment, as an image of Springtrap flashed through her mind. She shivered, shaking her head.

''Not now,'' she replied. Matt gave her a sympathetic look.

''No problem,'' he said. ''Just give me a call whenever you're ready.''

''I will,'' Sam told him, then after a moment of pause added, ''You know, confronting my own past was a good idea. I haven't really had any nightmares and there were a lot of emotions I needed to deal with. It feels like a relief that I'm over some stuff, but this was the easy part. I haven't tackled the more difficult issues yet.''

''Do you think you'll need support with that?'' Matt asked.

''No, for now, I'll try go through it by myself,'' Sam replied, then smiled. ''You know, you should think of a career as a therapist considering how much you insist on helping me.''

''I'm not really interested in that,'' Matt said, shaking his head. ''I mean, sure, I don't mind listening to your problems because…''

''They're sounding crazy?'' Sam cut him off. Matt gave her a sheepish look, with Sam smirking. It didn't often happen that Matt would get nervous over something. Usually, he would always be calm, cool and collected, so it was unusual to see him freak out over something, even if it was something seemingly insignificant.

''Uh, that's not what I meant,'' he quickly replied. ''I don't think you're crazy at all.''

''Then you're one of the few people who think that,'' Sam told him, sighing. ''Sometimes, I think I'm crazy, only to remind myself that crazy stuff happened to me. Admittedly, I choose to participate in that, so it was my fault…''

''But, you haven't chosen to let a murderer roam free,'' Matt told her in a hushed tone. Sam blinked, staring at him for a moment as she realized that he was referring to Connor Davis.

''Of course not,'' she replied in a defensive tone. However, she had to admit that she did let a different kind of murdered roam free and regretted it.

Matt rose an eyebrow, adding, ''I know that there's a lot of stuff you haven't told me yet. I can still sense the agony attached to you. If you want to carry that burden alone, that's okay. Still, you shouldn't feel guilty over the things you have no control over.''

Sam remained silent, actually wanting to tell him that things were a bit more complicated than that, but then she realized that maybe, just maybe, she was the one who was overcomplicating everything in her mind. Sure, this wasn't what Matt wanted to tell her, but her attempts of outright blocking memories and emotions associated with them didn't help her with dealing with her past.

Still, she was determined to change that.

xXx

''Sam, are you done with your work yet?'' the manager, Kylie Anthelm, asked Sam, who was in the back room, working on the animatronics. Sam looked up, shaking her head.

''I still have some work to do on them,'' Sam replied, with Showtime Freddy sitting on the table in front of her. ''Don't worry, I'll close up.''

''Okay, but don't stay too late. It is a school night after all,'' Kylie replied, closing the door. Sam sighed and turned back to Showtime Freddy, having unbuttoned his vest and shirt to gain access to the hatch behind which his endoskeleton was. She reached inside Freddy's chest, carefully moving away some of the cables that were covering the circuit boards, exploring the already familiar wiring and mechanical parts.

''So far, everything's fine,'' she muttered, only to rise an eyebrow when she came across a particular circuit board. It was something that had always been there, having caught her and Springtrap's attention once, but they had no answer back then. However, now she was interested in finding out more about it.

''Give me a moment,'' she muttered, focusing on one particular circuit board, trying to figure out how to remove it, or at least getting a better look at it. She reached for it, but she couldn't take it out for closer analysis as it was attached to the endoskeleton via several wires. Don't I have some kind of document about this thing? She grabbed her flashlight and managed to turn the circuit board around, finding something carved on the plastic.

''HW: Freddy Fazbear (Copy),'' Sam muttered as she read the carving on the circuit board. She stepped back, leaning against the table. She hummed, ''HW… HW… HW…''

''…It was just junk- circuit boards and things like that. Looked pretty old. Somehow, though, there was usable code on some of it…''

It then hit her. Sam froze, her heart racing. She was shaken to the core.

''HW – Help Wanted.'' She turned to Showtime Freddy, staring at the animatronic. Showtime Freddy just looked back at her solemnly, as if understanding what was going through her mind. Sam's lips parted as she observed him in stunned silence. ''Freddy… I-Is this…'' Before she could finish her question, Freddy's eyes glowed briefly as he looked down at her, staring at her in silence. Sam gulped. ''T-That's how you know… That's how all of you know… That's why you guys acted as if you were possessed, but never were.'' She took a sharp inhale. ''You have the memories of the previous animatronics, as well as what is going on in the Help Wanted game. You know exactly what is going on.'' Her eyes narrowed as she stared at the animatronic, adding in an demanding tone, ''Am I right?''

''Is this what you believe to be the truth?'' Freddy asked her. Sam was caught off guard by the question. Admittedly, she wasn't completely sure about it. She lowered her head.

''Honestly, I'm not sure whether that's the case,'' Sam said. ''How would Fazbear Entertainment even be able to salvage circuit boards from the animatronics; that is, if they did that. I acknowledge it would be possible for them to perhaps find something, but it sounds so crazy.'' She frowned. ''However, Fazbear Entertainment isn't a stranger to using shortcuts. Not to mention, they wanted to make the game experience as authentic as possible, didn't they? So, what if they could re-use the old animatronic programming? What would they want to achieve with that?'' She stepped back. ''More importantly, what about the old Five Nights at Freddy's games. As much as I saw, Help Wanted kept re-using some segments.'' She shook her head and looked back at Freddy. ''Freddy, what exactly do you guys know?''

Freddy glanced down, looking at his open chest, with Sam realizing that he probably wanted her to close it in case she was done with checking on him. She quickly placed the circuit bord the way it was and closed the hatch, leaving Freddy to button his shirt up.

''So, what can you tell me?'' she asked him.

''Keep in mind, I cannot answer all of your questions,'' Freddy told her, patting the place next to him on the table. Sam sat next to him, curious about what Freddy would tell her. The Showtimes weren't really talkative about things that didn't concern their performances, usually remaining vague about everything else. ''I will tell you what I know, though.''

Sam nodded, staring intently at Freddy. It was strange to talking to the animatronic, but she was glad that there was someone who could answer some of her questions. Moreover, Freddy wasn't someone she feared, being kind and friendly towards her. He did have a protective side, as she saw him once leading away a girl who had been excluded by the other children and cheering her up.

''When I woke up for the first time, the stage I stood on was nothing like the one at this place,'' Freddy said, with Sam giving her a curious look. ''Then, all I saw was static. I did sense something… It was a rage unlike any other, as if I was trapped and I wanted to find the person who trapped me, and murder them.''

Sam felt goosebumps all across her body, with chills flowing down her spine. Despite Freddy's calm tone, she could sense the resentment in his voice.

''I didn't understand what was going on with me. I was convinced that I was malfunctioning,'' Freddy continued.

''What about the others?'' Sam asked.

''They experienced similar memories and thought the same,'' Freddy replied. ''However, when a technician would enter the room and attempt to repair us, we would black out. When we would wake up again, the technician would either be screaming in panic or unconscious.''

''So, you don't remember what you did to them?'' Sam asked.

''No,'' Freddy told her. ''We decided to put up an act, though. We thought that there was a good reason for scaring them and we didn't think much about it. For some reason, nothing happened when we were with you.''

''Maybe I'm not a threat?'' Sam suggested. ''I mean, there has to be a reason not to scare me to death or hurt me in some way.''

''Well, you certainly don't pose a threat to us,'' Freddy noted, his eyes narrowing. ''However, the bunny animatronic that would accompany you, Springtrap, did.''

''Freddy, could you tell me why exactly you felt that Springtrap was a threat to you guys?'' Sam asked.

''It's hard to explain, but whenever he was present, I and the rest would feel this unexplainable rage and resentment towards him. We could see the man behind the mask,'' Freddy told her, frowning as his voice turned into a growl. ''We knew he was the murderer.''

''I see…'' Sam muttered, shuddering. ''Could you tell me more about what you felt? As well as what you remembered?''

''What I felt… There were so many different emotions…'' Freddy said, closing his eyes and reminiscing. ''There was anger, depression and fear.'' He then gazed at Sam. ''At nights, we would also see a shadow-like figure standing at the back of the restaurant.''

''What?'' Sam was surprised, giving Freddy a look of concern. Freddy shook his head.

''The others and I don't believe that the figure was real,'' he added. ''It was probably a mix of those memories, which felt as if they belonged to someone else, and what we saw and knew.''

''This sounds quite creepy,'' Sam said.

''It was, but we knew that the figure couldn't hurt us. We wanted to know what was haunting us, though,'' Freddy said. Sam fell silent for a moment as she tried to process everything.

''Okay, I just need to think through the whole thing,'' she said. ''According to those Tapes, if whoever set them up is really telling the truth, Fazbear Entertainment may have collected a bunch of circuit boards, very possibly from the animatronics, even though I have no idea from which ones. They didn't use the code only in Help Wanted, but they also used the code in your programming so you would act similar to the previous animatronics.'' She took out her smartphone, finding the document with the files about the animatronics. ''Found it! 'It should be noted that some of the coding had been taken from an already pre-existing source in order to make the animatronics more authentic and their behavior closer to their predecessors. Fazbear Entertainment is not responsible for any unpredictable action committed by the animatronics.' I knew that there was something!'' She turned to Freddy. ''So, you are remembering what the previous Freddy Fazbear had probably experienced. Or perhaps, the child that was trapped inside the animatronic.''

''It might not be everything, though,'' Freddy replied, with Sam giving him a curious look. ''Sometimes, we feel as if we're being watched. As if someone is with us constantly, in our minds, and it drives us crazy.''

''Do you have any idea what it is?'' Sam asked. Freddy gave her a serious look.

''It's evil,'' he said. ''We know it's evil and that it's broken. It's insanity incarnate.''

Sam was silent for a moment, biting her lip. ''You're referring to William, aren't you?'' Freddy stared at her for a moment, then nodded. ''Although, there is something else I've been wondering about.''

''What is it?'' Freddy asked her.

''In those memories, have you seen a bunny, different than Springtrap, with stitching all over the costume and wearing a purple vest?'' Sam asked him, holding her breath. Her expression was hopeful, yet fearful. She wanted to know the answer, yet she was afraid of knowing it. However, she needed to figure out what was going on in order to move on.

Freddy slowly nodded. Sam inhaled sharply.

''That person would stare at us, waving at times and asking 'Hello? Can you hear me?','' Freddy told her. Sam's eyes widened and she felt the chills running down her spine.

''He did…'' she whispered. What exactly have I contacted? What is inside that game?!

''Sam, are you okay?'' Freddy asked her worriedly. ''You are so pale.''

''No, I'm not okay,'' Sam said without even thinking. ''That thing… That bunny… I named him Glitchtrap and he is waving at me inside the game, asking the same question. If he was just a video game character, something the game developers added into the game, he shouldn't be part of your memories. He shouldn't be able to haunt you.''

''Yet, he is,'' Freddy said.

''At this point, I don't think he is a video game character,'' Sam said. ''Maybe, he is something that was brought over via the circuit boards.'' She shuddered. ''Honestly, I'm not sure whether I want to know what exactly he is.'' She then sighed, burying her head into her hands and groaning. ''God, I need to check the official version of the game to see whether I can find him there. This is so awful, but I have to do this.''

Freddy gave her a look of concern, tilting his head.

''You know, if you ever need a hug or comfort in some way, you're always welcome.''

Sam smiled and hugged him, burying her head into his chest. Freddy certainly lived up to his species of a teddy bear, being quite cuddly. As Freddy released her, Sam took a deep breath.

''Okay, I feel a bit better,'' she said. ''Thank you.''

''You're welcome,'' Freddy replied, getting off the table and turning to Sam, grinning at her. ''Now, don't forget, if you ever want to have some fun without a worry, you can always pay us a visit.''

''I'll keep that in mind,'' Sam replied, smiling.

xXx

Despite it being late in the night, Sam decided to play the official version of Help Wanted, trying to find the Tapes that were scattered across the game. She did find a few Tapes, as well as the Tape Room, but to her confusion, instead of warnings offered by Tape Girl, they contained Phone Guy's phone calls from the Five Nights at Freddy's games, like some kind of masterlist. Also, there was no trace of Glitchtrap.

''Damn it,'' Sam muttered as she took off the VR headset. ''This is not what I thought would happen. I hate this.''

She turned the game off, having realized that the official version of Help Wanted was completely useless to her. The only thing she could rely on was the beta version of the game if she wanted to get to the bottom of this mystery. It felt like some kind of nightmare.

''Fine,'' Sam muttered, opening the beta version of Help Wanted. Once she found herself back into the main hub, she turned back to Glitchtrap, who was still waving at her, seemingly blissfully unaware of what she knew.

''Hello? Can you hear me?''

''Yeah, I can,'' Sam replied. ''Tell me, who are you?''

Glitchtrap remained quiet, staring back at her. Sam sat on her chair, crossing her legs and staring at Glitchtrap.

''What do you want me to do? Should I play through the entire game or should I quit? Are you trapped inside the game? I know you're not part of it,'' she asked. ''Where did you come from? Why are you here? What is your real name?''

''Hello? Can you hear me?''

Sam frowned, sighing. She was already sleep deprived and she needed to go to bed. Turning off the game and the lights, she crawled back into her bed, falling asleep soon. Her dreams were filled with darkness, illuminated by a strange, purple glitching.

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#Five Nights at Freddy's: The Untold Story (Masterlist)

[larathia]

So I finally got my hands on the Beast movie. (review/analysis)

As a movie: ...wow. That was bad. That was ....Flash Gordon (the 1980s one, soundtrack by Queen, that one) levels of “seriously, you need a BUDGET to do this story, why didn’t you get one?”

As a BSD AU, though, there was some interesting stuff here.

Let me get the ‘movie itself’ bit out of the way first, though.

For anyone going “But I wanna see! I wanna see!” - I feel you. I do. I’d been scrabbling for months trying to get my hands on this movie, to see what it showed. And so I feel I really should tell you....WOW THIS MOVIE NEEDED AT LEAST FIVE TIMES THE BUDGET IT APPARENTLY GOT, okay. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen better SFX on movies from the 1980s. In fact, I know I have; that’s why the comparison to Flash Gordon came to mind, because it’s the only 80s movie I can think of offhand where the SFX are comparable-to-slightly-worse than this.

Akutagawa is definitely the central figure of the movie. They did not have anywhere near the budget to do Rashomon justice. The utter failure to do Rashomon any kind of justice actually makes the acting worse. Have you ever seen the 1960s Batman? Adam West? (If you haven’t, go look it up, I’ll wait.)

Bluntly, the fight scenes - and you know, there’s a lot of those - look like 1960s Batman fight scenes. Just without the ‘pow’ and ‘biff’ animations. It’s just about impossible to take it seriously. Even Oda’s fight scenes, which should have looked utterly Matrix-esque, came off this way. And if you’re thinking ‘yeah but the Matrix needed a budget’ - agreed. I will therefore add that even Kenji’s fights were 60s-Batman levels of cartoonish.

They didn’t even manage to make Dazai’s swan dive off the tower look realistic. I half-thought, the way they did that shot, that Dazai was going to swoop off into the clouds like a goth mummy Superman.

As for the costuming....I’ve seen better at conventions among the cosplayers, not gonna lie. I’ve seen better wigs on cosplayers, I’ve seen better costumes on cosplayers.

I’m sure the actors did their best with what they had, and sometimes - sometimes, despite all this, they managed to pull off a scene well. There are moments here and there where I forgot for a few seconds that I was watching a fansubbed movie that looked like a fan production. But I couldn’t fall into the movie on its own merits. I just couldn’t. I wanted to so much, and it just wasn’t going to happen.

Okay. Now that I’ve lowered your expectations to a more realistic level regarding “wanna see!”, let’s move on to the content.

I would like to begin by saying this movie expects that anyone who is sitting down to watch it has

1) Read the manga, 2) Read the light novels, 3) Also read the Beast manga, and 4) Watched the anime.

It harks back to all of these at different times, and also alludes to things in the manga(s) that it does not go into depth on because it assumes you already know all that shit. And then it goes in its own direction, all the while kind of winking at the audience like “hey, I bet you were expecting a straight adaptation, but GUESS WHAT” Sometimes, this leads to honestly bizarre choices. Like using the quite gentle-sounding ending-credits music from the anime during a big fight scene between Akutagawa and Atsushi.  Other times it’s more puzzling...like nearly every appearance of Fyodor.

I will say that watching the movie cast certain parts of the manga in a new light for me; namely, some of Dazai’s motivations. It honestly felt to me, watching this, like B!Dazai used what he changed to try and actually ...wake Akutagawa up? Make Aku realize just what he’s been doing wrong all this time? Because in this version, he really was going to kill Gin...and you’d think that would be a terrible thing, but it actually comes off as kind of a mercy to her. A way to spare her from feeling responsible for her brother’s choices, since he’d happily kill the whole world to ‘get her back’. And it made me think of why B!Dazai kept Gin as a secretary, instead of recruiting her - we know she’s actually quite a capable member of the Black Lizards, main timeline. I think Dazai kept her a secretary because he needed her to be...well, pure. Pure enough at heart that she could see her brother being an out of control rabid dog and recognize it for what it was, and call him out on it. Because nobody else could get through to Aku. Everyone tried, but no one got through. It was Gin basically telling him he’s a soulless monster born to do evil that shook Aku up enough to start really questioning himself. And Gin did that because of how Dazai had treated her up to that point, meaning Dazai basically turned Gin into the key to cluebat Aku into growing the fuck up.

I was ...also less inclined to blame Dazai for how Atsushi turned out. Atsushi is just...broken, regardless of what universe he’s in, and in the Mafia you don’t get healed from that, you just learn to deal with it.Dazai’s order not to return to the orphanage likely had a lot to do with Mori being in there somewhere, and a desire to keep Atsushi from getting even more broken by the old headmaster. He seems to be as gentle with Atsushi as the situation allows.

Ah, but y’wanted to know what’s different.

Well, first, Fyodor is in this motherfucker. When Oda goes into a top secret facility to get the recording of Dazai so Aku can hear the Man In Black’s voice, Oda runs right into a cello-playing Fyodor. Who gives him the recording. And incidentally poisons Oda with a contact poison on the disc’s case. Why? Who the fuck knows. Fyodor and nobody else, that’s who. (Oda seems to just get better from the poison.)

Second, there’s a coda after the credits. In it, Atsushi is summoned to a supermax prison cell, where a straight up deranged Chuuya is being held by the government. Despite, y’know, being in a government supermax prison, Chuuya declares himself Boss of the Mafia. In this capacity he’s called Atsushi to attend him, and when Atsushi says he’s out, Chuuya says Kyouka’s already returned to the fold, oh and btw go kill the ADA.

Chuuya is deranged, it turns out, because he’s spent seven years plotting to kill Dazai, and then the fucker up and offs himself one day for shits and giggles (as Chuuya sees it). He can’t kill Dazai now, so he’ll go after the ADA, which attacked the Mafia and the attack resulted in the death of a Boss, therefore the mafia is honor-bound to avenge said Boss. (This is actually reasonable, since while Dazai does kill himself, the only witnesses are the ADA and Atsushi, who can be argued to be a traitor to the mafia. And the ADA really did storm the mafia base and kill a lot of people and it’s ...actually pretty reasonable for Chuuya to demand the mafia retaliate. That IS how such orgs work.)

For this movie, I have to say, a double-black shipper would need glasses so heavily rose-tinted you can’t tell the difference between blood and water to see any kind of shipness here. Chuuya haaaaaaaaates Dazai. And Dazai seems to regard tormenting Chuuya as a kind of stress ball.

Fyodor, meanwhile, is sending assassins after Aku and Atsushi with a timeline of ‘two weeks’, after which apparently the world will destabilize. (Because three people know about the Book; those two and him.) He says he’s fine being the ‘only one who knows the truth’. He then eyeballs the camera with basically a ‘come see part 2 when it comes out’.

Gods, I really hope if they DO a part 2 they get a godsdamned SFX budget.

The main takeaway that I feel is relevant here, is that the movie pretty much underlines that the Book’s reality-rewriting power is decidedly limited. Which I do hope will be relevant very soon in the manga.

[yanderefairyangel]

I hate having to do that but hey

If you are on Twitter be aware of these two

This guy Arox is someone who insist Engage flopped. Many people try to correct him and he just accuse them of coping.

For context, he came to one post that wasn't directed to him and started calling me a liar for saying that Engage costed less to make then 3H and was aiming at Awakening's result, keeping on quoting the interview where they said they wanted Engage to have an Awakening effect (and apparently failing to realize what it meant)

And I tried to explain several time how one can deduce from the data we know that Engage might have a smaller bugdet then 3H and that the comparison with Awakening infered they wanted a result more in line with Awakening... well

Do you see what I am dealing with. I repeat, we will never know unless we have Satori maiden's power what was the exact budget or the exact number of sales that was expected. All we have are the interview and data concerning the developpement. I already said it but again, if the devs had said they wanted Engage to bring a new audience like 3H did, we would all be expecting that they wanted to reach 4 million sales in 4 years. If they compared it to Awakening, is it really that crazy to deduce they expected to sell at least 2 millions ?

Again, 3H is a much bigger game then Engage. When you read that Engage was originally an anniversary game developped in parallel time as 3H, with a split of team, that their main project was 3H, if you take into account that 3H was delayed for no reason unlike Engage that was delayed just for COVID reason and receives additional developpement because people had time to kill, that 3H had much more cut content including entires chapter unlike Engage who had only some units and voice line, 3H whom we know was rushed unlike Engage who was already ready in its release to the point we got the DLC announced right after, etc you can deduce that Engage costed much less to produce then the gigantic 3H. It has nothing to do with Awakening and Fates cause I never, at no point said Engage has a lower budget then those two nor even a low budget, but simply that it was lower then 3H's but it's like comparing an elephant with a whale. It's not cause the whale is bigger that the elephant isn't big, it's just not as big.

I linked him to post talking about it, to people talking about it and he kept calling me a liar because "it's not explicetely said !" and maybe I was at fault for sounding to sure about it when it's mainly my deduction on the matter, however, he clearly made no effort to actually pay attention or even engage with what I said but he received many other people telling him that being the 4th best selling game is not a flopped and never listened to them and...guess why

For context, it's about the Best strategy game award.

Basically, if you see him don't try to argue or make a point he won't listen. Just scroll away or block him.

And now.

Beware of this weirdo. It's an Alear hater that hates the game and keeps commenting that Alear is a and I quote "disguistingly hellishyly ugly pedophilia and incest supporter" under random fanart or content of Alear. They commented that on a literal fanart of them eating ice cream with Sommie ! And I know them. It's the same as this maniac rabbit fangirl of Chrobin and CorrinxCamillar who hates M!Robin and called him a "pedophile" cause they don't like that he can marry Lucina and called F!Corrin slurs because they prefer M!Corrin. I remember seeing them commenting on of on Phoenix Master 's FEH tutorial videos and comment about M!Robin and F!Morgan hateful stuff for no other reason then them being the unit used !!!! I bet it's one again one of those people who still understand even though it was debunked, that Anna and Veyle are NOT romance in the JPn version. Anna's support literaly ends in the same way as Ricken's in Awakening where they aren't in a romantic relationship at the end ! And I still wonder how someone can read Veyle's PR support and goes "ah yes, my sister said she would jump of joy if I were to wake her up to, how romantic" ?!

And not to mentionned that it's incredibly rude to comment on a fanart of someone who clearly likes that character that the character sucks, but even comment on stuff that can be very trigering to hear ?! I personally think incest and pedophilia are super important matter that you should not comment on lightly, so seeing someone who genuinely throws that in a comment about a fictional character because of nothing but "I don't like this" tends to make my blood boil.

I personally am tired of these two, they aren't worth your time. I am not a fan of call out post, but really I am also too old for that sort of thing

[tyrannosaurusrexdale]

THE CALAMARI KID

[SUNDAY, 7:12 PM]:

Okay, I know it’s been a while since our last session and that email is an unconventional way to talk to you. Some work changes (beyond my control) resulted in my getting a pay reduction and I took a break from scheduling appointments. But I know it's going to be temporary and it'll be back to normal soon so please we can just roll with this for now?

So, I know we talked about my dad, and his career. He was in a movie that came out in 1980, called “The Calamari Kid”, it was a low budget little thing, he said it was right before he was going to quit acting and get a job selling Lincolns with my Uncle Glen, well, the movie turned out to be a hit. People loved it. It made a whole bunch of money (for who I have no idea). I think I told you some of this. So it’s the 40th anniversary this year and the town in Maine where it supposedly took place is having a big festival about the movie. The director, some of the crew, Susan Wilkes and Gary Dunkel are all gonna be there. My dad can’t make it cause of his heart and everything else so they invited me in his place! It’s been really nuts this week and honestly it’s a little overwhelming. I know your office has been calling me about some unpaid sessions but I would really appreciate an email in return. Whenever you can.

[TUESDAY, 9:35 AM]:

Okay, just wanted to see if you got my last email or if you have but haven’t had a chance to respond to it. I know it’s a complicated situation but I was just curious, I guess. This festival thing is really occupying my thoughts. You won’t believe this. The mayor called me today so say that they’re unveiling a statue of my dad in the town! They want to immortalize the Calamari Kid! It's that part when he dramatically takes off his sunglasses in his first scene, that was the very first time anyone’s ever done that in a movie! It seems strange to me but they verified it with a film historian so that’s pretty cool. I’m having a little anxiety thinking about spending so much time next to the ocean but I’m hoping that once I see it for the first time I’ll feel a bit better. My flight is tomorrow!

[WEDNESDAY, 3:49 PM]:

I just landed in town and checked into my hotel room. This is already turning out to be crazier than I expected. There were at least two people on the flight there in costume from the movie and they kept looking over at me and whispering. I thought it would be flattering but I felt just a little uncomfortable! And then in the airport, one guy was filming me with his phone, as I grabbed my bag and got into a cab, he shouted at me that he still loved my dad, no matter what he’d done on the set of the movie. I didn’t think that that many people knew about that whole thing but maybe they do! But they had a big banner at the airport welcoming fans of the movie and my hotel is pretty nice! American Colonial! They have an omelette station and everything!

[THURSDAY, 2:29 PM]:

Hey so the weekend has gotten off to a pretty good start! This morning I got to go to the mayor's office and meet some local people. A few of the movie people were there, Susan Wilkes, I told you about her! She played the beach lifeguard and was in a few scenes with my dad. Very friendly woman. A little too friendly, honestly. She came right up to me and held my face and told me how much I looked like my dad and kept saying "what could have been, what could have been." I didn't realize Susan was such a fan of my dad! She mentioned she has a daughter around my age that she seems really proud of. I thought the mayor was pretty excited but when he shook my hand he seemed to stare right through me. Did I upset him? Not sure. Feel like this would be an exciting thing for his town! Gary Dunkel wasn't here but I hear he's in town already. I'll probably see him soon! Great start to the weekend so far!

[FRIDAY, 12:14 PM]:

Interesting time this morning. I went to brunch with a local fan group and as I left the restaurant, one of the townspeople definitely threw a rock in my direction and yelled something about my dad. I didn't see who did it but I think some of the costume guys went over there and sorted them out. It was a more violent encounter than I expected, I have to say. A lot of tension in the air in this town, ha ha!

[FRIDAY, 4:06 PM]:

Susan Wilkes keeps trying to get me to have sex with her daughter. She’s really not shy about it at all! I saw her at the breakfast this morning and she kept telling me how the women in her family keep their husband’s stomachs full and balls empty. I don’t think I like that! She said it in front of a waiter! I would try to avoid her the rest of the weekend but we’re sitting together at a panel tonight and the unveiling Sunday so I don't know how that's gonna go, ha ha!

[SATURDAY, 9:40 AM]:

I have to tell you about the opening reception!! I couldn't believe it. They had it at this restaurant that they named after my dad. 'The Calamari King!' Incredible. I even hung out with the owner for a bit and as you can imagine this is a big weekend for him. He gets a lot of business from fans of the movie every year on Memorial Day. He also mentioned that "they", whoever that is, broke his window a few weeks back and that people have been speeding past his place at night and honking their horns. These small towns are so interesting with all their stories.

Susan put some money in my pocket last night (about four hundred dollars) so I might be able to take care of those invoices soon enough. She's an exceptionally generous woman! She mentioned that when they were filming the movie she pitched what she called a “beautiful, intimate scene” with my dad to the director but he turned it down. I thought that was a very forward thing to say but it’s nice to find these little tidbits about the movie. Did you know that it was mostly financed by the South African government? Found that out yesterday! Wow!

Also, I’m thinking about it and I could have sworn I saw Gary Dunkel outside the reception Friday night. He was pacing around and smoking, and looked really angry at someone inside. At least I think it was him! I haven't seen him since I was a kid but he looked really rough! The suit he was wearing looked like he found it in the garbage! Police had to be called because a fight broke out. I didn't think things like that happened at events like these but I guess with these small towns you never really know.

[SATURDAY, 6:11 PM]:

Hey I just got back from the fan fest this afternoon. So cool! I couldn't believe how many Calamari Kids there were! With the lobster shirt and sunglasses. There were a few people dressed as Susan and as Gary and as chubby Principal Rose, and a bunch of guys in vests as the Chowder Boys. Amazing! I was posing for photos and signing autographs too. The Q & A was a little different though. Do you know what an allegory is? I think it's the sort of thing you learn in college but I did business so I had no idea. But a guy in a waistcoat told me that the movie was an 'allegory' for the diminishing cultural power of whites Americans. Does that make any sense? I thought it was just a movie, ha ha!

Also Susan Wilkes had her hand on my knee for most of the session. It might have just been an accident? I don't know. I thought Gary Dunkel would be there but he did his session earlier that morning by himself. Unusual! Whatever he said this morning was pretty controversial, it seemed.

[SUNDAY, 5:30 AM]:

So they just woke us up at the hotel and the fireman told me that someone called in a bomb threat. Not good for my anxiety! I'd feel a lot better if you responded!! I have an enormous bruise on my stomach now and I do not remember the specifics. I drank quite a bit of wine last night and the last thing I remember was the sculptor of the Calamari Kid statue getting right in my face and he was very upset! Please email me back!!

[SUNDAY, 11:51 AM]:

Hey, I'm sorry if I was a little curt this morning. I was on edge with the fire alarm thing, as you can understand. But you won't believe it, after I sent you that email, I ran into some big fans of my dad. They were dressed up and everything! They were very nice to me but they had some unkind things to say about some of the people in this town. Really intense! We even had a few cocktails. One of them they named after my pops! I can't recall what was in it but I gotta say, I'm feeling great this morning. I might just keep this going all afternoon for the statue unveiling. I'm on vacation, right! This is exciting!!

[SUNDAY, 2:27 PM]:

Susan showed me a pair of sexy Calamari Kid themed underwear! She giggled and said she bought them at the merchandise stand but I think she made them herself. She brought them from home!

[SUNDAY, 7:34 PM]:

I definitely had my doubts about Gary Dunkel, I know I did. And guess what? I was correct. 100% correct. We did the statue unveiling earlier. I was super pumped. Really proud of my dad and really excited to see it. Guess what? It looked like absolute dog shit! Just horrendous! I'm looking at this thing and they made my dad look like a big weird sheep! It was leaning to one side and looked like it would fall over. And they didn't even get the sunglasses right! The sculptor came up and took a bow and was whooping it up and I wanted to push him off the stage. I thought I might do it. They took the photo for the newspaper and just as they were doing it, that son of a bitch Gary Dunkel comes up beside me and shoves me into the mayor. Attacking me from behind, like a coward. I wouldn't have fallen over, but I had a few more cocktails at the unveiling, which I'm not going to apologize for and I know you're going to judge me about as you always do, if you're even still reading these emails. A few fans that were there got involved and there was a bit of a fight right there on the stage. I definitely got trampled on a bit and I think I lost my wallet in the fracas. At one point, Gary stood over me and looked at me and said "Memorial Day 1992. Tell your father that I'll never forget." What the fuck does that even mean! Just a second later, a guy in a lobster t-shirt clocked him with a rod and they had it out pretty bad. This weekend is not turning out how I'd expected. I honestly don’t know if Gary survived, he strikes me as a very fragile man. It might be going a little better if you could ANSWER MY EMAILS, PLEASE.

[SUNDAY, 7:41 PM]:

I'm beginning to think that this isn't about the money anymore. I'm beginning to think that it's personal. Is this because I tried to hold your hand? It was a very emotional Easter for me. Hearing a lot of police sirens tonight and the last I saw the mayor he was wearing some kind of tactical vest. He looks tough!

[MONDAY, 12:58 AM]:

If you're going to read any of these emails, please let it be this one which I'm sending from a hardware store on the edge of town, for my own safety. After the incident on the stage, Susan Wilkes took me and some other people to dinner on the pier in what she described as a secure zone, which was lovely. She kept wanting to hold my head next to her body, which was intense at first, but after a while felt comforting. (The waiter was kind of weirded out about it but I guess SOME PEOPLE just aren't into people helping others.) As we were getting the bill, we heard the sound of glass smashing. We turned around to see that the townspeople were going absolutely nuts. Someone threw a brick through the window! We went outside to see a group of guys had cut down the statue and were attempting to throw it into the ocean! They sliced it off at the legs and had carried it all the way to the water! I knew the thing was a cheap piece of shit! What a disgrace to my dad! I was so angry! I went out to get in their faces and get some answers, and who was directing traffic? Gary Dunkel! I was happy to see he wasn’t killed. But he looked bad! Very bruised! I was really ready to say something. I wanted to get in their faces and ask what was going on but before I could, some of the fans showed up in costume and got after them! Jeez, it was really ugly. The fans were greater in number but the guys from the town had tools, and all seemed like really fucked up weird guys. There was a lobster roll stand that was on fire and every window at the restaurant was broken and a guy in a crab t-shirt was really crying. At least one guy was face down in the lagoon. The last thing I saw before Susan led me into the back of a moving truck was Gary getting absolutely pummelled with a tire iron. He couldn’t have survived that one! I wonder what my dad did to make him so angry. I guess I’ll never know.

[THURSDAY, 4:18 PM]:

So much has changed since the last email I sent you and I feel as if I am a completely different person. But I can tell you that I have a new family who love and care about me. Susan has a beautiful plot of land near the Canadian border that she assures no one knows about. I traded my phone for passage and goods so can you let my girlfriend know I won’t be back for a very long time? Also I have begun having sex with Susan’s daughter Euphrates so I feel like the gf and me are not going to make it. She’s a magical woman! A lot like her mother. This could be a new beginning for me. My dad would be very proud.

[mediocre-writerr]

who do you love [lexi howard]

lexi howard x reader

requested: Hiii! I just discovered your page while looking for Euphoria fics. I saw that you don’t have any Lexi Howard fics. Could I request a fic where Reader is partnered up with Cassie for a project or something and they meet Lexi and develops a crush on her, but Lexi is clueless and thinks reader has a thing for Cassie? Fluff please. Also your works are absolutely amazing!

a/n: italicized are rue's voiceover

*not my gif*

Lexi has always lived in the shadows of her sister. Every guy or girl she liked just never fell for her. They always fell for her sister. Cassie was the one in the spotlight and Lexi was just the background character.

You sat there with your earbuds in as your teacher went on and on about some project you guys had to do. But again, you weren't exactly listening.

Until he came over and ripped your earbuds out of your ear. You looked up at him with innocent eyes, "Ms. Y/L/N, you're partnered with Ms. Howard. Hopefully, she'll be able to fill you in since you weren't paying attention,"

You sent him a small smile before trudging your way over to Cassie. You heard a lot of things about her, but you didn't really care what everyone thought around here. Most of them were assholes anyway.

"So were you paying attention to anything he was saying?" you asked as you plopped down into the seat next to her.

"Not a word, but my friend Kat heard all of it. If you want you can come over tonight, we can start working on it, getting it over with," she offered and you nodded. 

“Sounds great,”

You see this was the start of a beautiful friendship for Y/N and Cassie. They became as thick as thieves. Everyone thought that Y/N and Cassie would eventually get together, but the entire time Cassie was just trying to get her newly found best friend to admit feelings for her sister. 

And those feelings started, cheesy to say, but at first sight.

You knocked on the Howard’s door, bouncing on the balls of your feet. You didn’t really know how to feel, Cassie was popular and well you? Not so much.

The door swung open and you swore your jaw dropped all the way to the floor. You were met with the younger Howard sister. She was beautiful. Her beautiful brown hair fit perfectly with her fair skin.

“You must be Y/N?” she says, snapping you out of your daze.

“Yeah, that’s me. Hi, Lexi, right?” you asked, stepping into the house as she held the door open.

“Yeah. Cassie went out with Maddy, but she texted me and said she’s on her way back. You can come in, you don’t have to wait outside like a dog,” she joked and you laughed together softly.

The two of you sat together on the couch. Your eyes gazed to the TV to see her watching Crazy Rich Asians. One of your favorite movies of all time. The screen was showing the montage of Rachel trying on all the different dresses for the wedding.

“This movie is a masterpiece,” you tell her.

She nods, “This is my first time watching it and I’m completely sold,” 

“Oh, you haven’t even gotten to the best part yet. The wedding scene is-” you put your fingers to your lips and kiss them, “Chef’s kiss!” 

“Hmm, I’ll have to take your word for it,” she said.

You continued watching as the wedding scene started. Lexi’s eyes were glued to the TV, but yours kept drifting towards Lexi. The way she watched intently as Kina Grannis started singing “Can’t Help Falling In Love”.

The scene ends and she looks at you, tears boarded at her eyes, “Why am I going to cry?” she laughed.

“Because it’s one of the most beautiful scenes in history,” you told her. 

The two of you just stared at each other. Her doe brown eyes were captivating and you couldn’t help your eyes from drifting down to her lips. There was a moment where you thought she did the same thing. 

The door bust open filled with laughter and Cassie and Maddy’s eyes landed on the two of you, “Hey Y/N, sorry I’m late. I see my sister was able to keep you company,”

“Oh yeah, Lexi was great. It was nice meeting you, I’ll see you around,” you told her. 

You see, my best friend Lexi developed a crush on Y/N right after that. But despite me and Jules telling her constantly that she felt the same way, Lexi still thought that you fell for her blonde sister and not her. 

“Cassie! I am not telling your sister that I like her. She does not feel the same way that I do. I am not going to risk my friendship that I’ve built with her and you,” you told her as the two of you laid on the bed in her bedroom.

She looked at you with her blue eyes like you were on drugs, “Are you kidding me right now? You sound like you just bought something from Fez. I’ve never seen my sister look at anyone the way she looks at you. You need to stop being a fucking coward and just tell her how you feel,”

“Okay, what if she does want to be my girlfriend? What if something bad happens? I lose the both of you and I can’t do that. I don’t want you to choose between me and your own sister,” you whispered.

Your heads were slightly tilted towards each other as you just stared at her, “I think you need to take advice from your favorite movie: you’re not playing to win, you’re playing to not lose. So play to win. Don’t think about the what if’s and even if things go south with my sister, I found a sister in you. You’re not gonna lose me either,” she said, “You’re one of my favorite people in the entire world, possibly my favorite, don’t tell Maddy that though. I love you so much Y/N,”

Little did the two of you know that Lexi was at the door way. She didn’t hear anything besides that you’re Cassie’s favorite person and that she loves you. 

“Awww someone loves me,” you nudge her shoulder, “But I’m for sure going to tell Maddy that I’m your favorite person. She’ll have a field day with that one,”

She pushed your face away from her, “You will not! I’ll just tell Lexi myself then,” 

You gasped, “You wouldn’t dare!” 

“Then you do it!” she exclaimed. 

Lexi avoided Y/N after that day. She also avoided Cassie. The two girls didn’t know why the brunette Howard was avoiding them. All they knew was that she avoided them every chance that she got.

It broke Y/N’s heart. She was finally ready to tell Lexi how she felt. And now, she wants nothing to do with her. No more movie nights. No more random ice cream days. But rather, Y/N going over to visit Cassie and being disappointed when their mom would answer the door and not Lexi.

You finally caught up to her as she was trying to sprint past you in the hallway. You grabbed her wrist and she looked back at you. The first time actually seeing those beautiful eyes of hers in weeks.

“What did I do? I understand if you don’t want to talk to me. I understand if you don’t want to be my friend, but please just tell me what I did. That’s the least I deserve,” you whispered, your voice breaking at the thought of losing one of your best friends. 

She shook her head, “Nothing, you didn’t do anything,” 

“I obviously did something, you’re not talking to me!” you exclaimed. 

Lexi broke free of your grasp, “You don’t need me Y/N. You have my sister. Cassie always wins. She’s always been in the spotlight. She always gets the guys and girls. Everyone I’ve ever liked, she went for them. And she always wins. I just thought for once that I mattered. That for once, the person I fell in love with chose me, but I guess I was wrong,” 

She stormed away and you were left with your mouth agape. Everything she said twirling in your brain. You immediately told Cassie all of it and your brain worked together to try and figure out a way to win her back. Until it all finally clicked.

You stood outside in the backyard of the Howard’s house. A slip n slide was in the path leading to you, switch on candles. You sat on the opposite side with a guitar in your hand. Luckily, you can play. 

Singing on the other hand, well let’s just hope it goes well.

“Cassie, I already said I don’t want to talk to you! You can’t bribe me with Bob Ross tutorials!” Lexi’s voice echoed as she closed the backyard door. 

She spotted you sitting there and she was immediately about to go inside when you yelled out to her, “Lexi please! Just let me explain, it’ll take maybe three or four minutes of your time,” 

Lexi walked down the slip n slide, but not before falling on her butt and sliding towards you. You let out a roar of a laugh as she finally reached down to you. She tried hard to fight off a laugh and a smile, but you could see it faintly. 

When you finally came down from your high she looked at you with raised eyebrows, “Well, I’m waiting,” 

You started playing the guitar. The melody you learned just hours before playing from the guitar. You took in a deep breath as you started singing the infamous song that got you to fall in love with her in the first place. 

“So, take my hand, take my whole life too. For, I can’t help falling in love with you. For, I can’t help falling in love with you,” you finish the song.

The two of you look at each other as you place your guitar down next to you, “You do matter to me, Lexi. More than you know. I’m sorry it took me so long to tell you, but ever since the first night I met you I’ve always been in love with you,” 

“Cassie actually told me that I need to play to win. And if I had to slip on my ass a thousands times trying to set up this low budget recreation of the wedding scene in Crazy Rich Asians, I would. I did it because I need to win your heart, because Lexi, you already have mine,” 

A small smile breaks out onto her face as she closes the distance between the two of you. She kissed you ever so softly as you tasted the sweet taste of her lips. 

“And you have mine,” 

[five-rivers]

Beltane

Written for Ectober 2021 Day 1: Trick vs Treat. This is part of the Exhumed series.

.

Danny Fenton walked into the precinct. As often happened when he did this, all attention slowly turned to him. “Hi, Detective Patterson. Have you ever heard of Beltane?”

Patterson took a long swig of coffee through the plastic stir straw, because she felt the need to be at least a little drugged before dealing with whatever this was, and then said, “Is this the kind of thing the whole precinct needs to know about, or is it more specific to me?”

“Mm, not specific to you, but I’m not sure if everyone needs to know about it, yet.”

Despite only select members of the Amity Park police force knowing Danny Fenton had another identity, he’d become a sort of ‘ghost liaison’ for the precinct. Better him than the adult Fentons, who tended to break things even (especially) when they were being careful.

“Actually,” continued Danny, “you might have already noticed some things about it. I mean, it’s seasonal, and Mom and Dad were detecting ectoenergy and ghost activity spikes for events like this before they got the portal up and running. Although, the portal was supposed to stabilize and reduce those spikes… I guess reducing one isn’t bad?”

“Okay,” said Patterson. “I don’t really know what you’re talking about. Do you want me to go find Collins?”

“Oh, that might be a good idea.”

“Great,” said Patterson. She turned her head to shout across the room. “McGee. Go find Collins.”

“Still the new guy?” asked Danny, sympathetically.

“It isn’t like we’re a popular posting,” said Patterson, “and, thanks to the ghosts, we don’t really need new people.”

Danny nodded placidly. “I know. But it must be hard for him, don’t you think?”

.

McGee had done his job. He’d discovered the corruption in the Amity Park Police Department and plumbed its depths. The problem was that he could never, ever, report it. Even if they didn’t have a perfectly good cause for it all, what they were ‘hiding’ (and they were only barely doing that) was so ridiculous that McGee had thought he’d gone crazy at first.

Ghosts.

The whole of Amity Park was haunted. Just like it said in those touristy brochures at the front of the local diners.

He stuck his head into the break room. “Collins, Patterson and Fenton want you,” he said.

“In the normal room?” Collins asked, shoving a sugary monstrosity of a donut into his mouth.

“I have no idea. She didn’t say.”

“Normal room then. Great job, McGee.”

McGee rolled his eyes. Great job, he said. As if he’d done anything.

God. What would Halloween be like?

.

“So, it’s like, reverse Halloween?” asked Patterson.

“Well, not exactly,” said Danny. He patted Daisy, the department mascot slash corpse sniffing dog who had followed them into the small interview room, gently on the head. “Actually, there are more similarities than differences. Basically, like Halloween, we’re going to get a spike in ectoenergy. Maybe even some ectoplasmic storms. More portals. That kind of thing.” He shrugged. “Most holidays and seasonal divisions have them, you know.”

“So… we’re getting Halloween round two?” asked Collins.

“What do you bet that this is what gets McGee to snap?”

“He’s been here since December,” said Collins. “I think he’s too stubborn to leave.”

“Is he still spying?” asked Danny.

“No,” said Patterson, waving a hand. “He gave up on that, after a while. But there’s a new office bet about whether or not he’ll stay stay, or if he’ll decide to quit. We’re not allowed to join in because we know him too well.”

“Mm,” said Danny.

“I don’t actually know if I feel like I know him that well,” said Collins.

“Well,” said Danny, “it shouldn’t be as extreme as Halloween. Since, I mean, there aren’t as many religious holidays directly associated with death and stuff happening on or around May first. So. Yeah. But the thing is, there are some traditional, er, activities. Spirited activities.”

Collins suppressed a groan, and was glad that Captain Jones wasn’t available today. He and Danny could sling puns at each other for obscenely long periods of time.

“I’ve never noticed ghosts doing anything on May Day,” said Patterson.

“This is only the third year anyone’s even acknowledged that ghosts exist,” said Danny, “so I’m not really all that surprised. But the reason that I came to talk to you guys is that some of the ghosts want to do Beltane stuff. Like the fire blessings. Also, I’ve been told that some of the trees in town are secretly ghost trees, and if we don’t want to deal with another tree army, we need to do some stuff to appease them.”

“Secret ghost trees.”

“My source is very reliable,” said Danny. “Also, while I say ‘we don’t want to deal with it,’ I think we all know who’d be dealing with most of it.”

“You would,” said Patterson.

“Got it in one. Like, I can convince most of the ghosts to either do their Beltane stuff in the Ghost Zone, or somewhere out of the way. They’ll be disappointed, but I can do it. The ghost tree thing, though…”

“Can’t we just, I don’t know,” said Collins, “get rid of the ghost trees?”

“Well, they aren’t really evil ghost trees. Or even really ghost trees. They’re more… ghosts that live in trees?”

“What, like dryads?” asked Collins, raising his eyebrows.

“That’s what I said, but they’re different species, apparently.”

“Okay,” said Patterson, “so. Appeasing the trees. How many trees are we talking about here, and how are we going to appease them?”

.

“Okay, so, this is definitely a whole precinct kind of thing,” said Patterson.

“And possibly an ‘all civil servants’ type of thing,” added Collins. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Where are we going to get the funding for this?”

“Oh, don’t worry about money,” said Danny. “I’ll just blackmail Vlad, and if that doesn’t work, I can get Mom and Dad to pay for it.”

“What,” said Collins.

“I think this might be a bit beyond your parents’ budget,” said Patterson, “but knock yourself out as far as Masters goes.”

“Well, I guess if it is,” he allowed, dubiously, “I could get the cults to pitch in?”

.

“This is nice,” said Danny. The sky was a bit overcast, which was a shame, but the hundreds of bright flowers and cheerful music more than made up for that.

The May Day celebration was, in Danny’s opinion, a success. At least, this half of it was turning out to be. He’d have to wait and see how the Spirit Bonfires went tonight before he could really make a judgement.

He’d only had to blackmail Vlad a little, too. It turned out that the ‘ruthless businessman’ in Vlad was ludicrously easy to manipulate, and once Danny brought up how a celebration like this one could revitalize local businesses and bring in tourism, he’d caved.

Although, that might have been the threat of an angry tree army. Vlad had definitely come off worse for wear in the last one, on all fronts.

Then, publically putting the Phantom Stamp of Approval (and Necessity Given The Potential Angry Tree Army) on the event had gotten buy-in from his fans and (sigh) the cults. The cults were, in fact, very enthusiastic about their new Holy Day. Danny had made a map of all the places they’d set up booths, and was studiously avoiding them.

Sam and Tucker were doing a walkthrough of that area, now, to check for problems and unadorned thorn trees. They’d arranged to meet up soon.

So, Amity Park was decked out in ribbons and flowers. All of the schools had gotten Maypoles and the day off of classes. Several bands, both human and ghostly, were playing in different parts of town.

It was chaotic, but great.

Danny briefly cut into the street to dodge a pair of college-age men play-fighting with tree branches (a genuinely important tradition symbolizing the battle between winter and summer), then walked through a wall to avoid two ghosts doing the same thing.

Finally, he reached Madame Babazita’s table.

“Hi,” he said, “three readings, please.”

“Three?” she asked. “Just for you?”

“My friends should get here before mine’s done,” said Danny. Was he channeling some predictive powers? Maybe. Holidays did make his powers weird.

.

“I have no idea what your reading is saying,” said Madame Babazita, after fifteen full minutes. “The cards simply aren’t speaking to me today. Also,” she held up an Uno card, “I’m not sure how this even got here.”

“That’s okay,” said Danny, “I just wanted to make sure it was the same as last time.”

.

“Hey! Phantom!” called Ember across the crowd of ghosts that had gathered in the cemetery. Most of them were fire or nature themed. “You’re in for a treat!”

Danny, who had been examining the flowers left on his grave, looked up. “I am?”

Ember draped her arm around Danny’s shoulder. She’d been a lot more friendly with him since the corpse incident. “Sure are.” She stepped up onto the surface of his memorial, pulling him up behind her. Danny shook off a brief chill and looked around.

Ghosts were streaming into the cemetery from various directions, bringing armfuls of flowers with them. Danny could see two, huge bonfire piles of flowers growing near the cemetery gates.

“Are there going to be cows?” asked Danny, who was still fuzzy on the details of the ghostly side of the celebrations.

“I don’t know,” said Ember. “When I’ve seen this done in the GZ there are. Here? Who knows. Maybe we’ll just walk through.”

Danny nodded, unworried. Beltane sure was an interesting holiday.

The last armful of flowers was placed, and every flower in the cemetery caught on fire at once. Including the ones on Danny’s grave. Danny yelped, jumping into flight. As an ice core ghost, he vastly preferred cold to heat.

This went without saying, but fire was very hot.

Ember grabbed his foot, and he almost kicked her. “You knew that was going to happen,” he accused.

“Sure did, babypop,” said Ember, grinning. “Come on, don’t you want to pass through the bonfires?”

Danny eyed the very large bonfires on either side of the cemetery gates. They were lit up with sparks like fireworks, shifting like flowers blooming and withering and blooming again. They were beautiful and impressive, and Danny felt like melting just by looking at them.

“I don’t know…” He wanted to, but… melting…

“Well, if you want to go out the other way and be horribly unlucky for the next year…”

Danny narrowed his eyes. “Is that another trick?” he asked.

Ember’s grin grew wider, and she took off towards the gates. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

Danny sighed and followed her.

.

“Unbelievable,” said McGee. “Absolutely unbelievable.” He gave the elderly cultist a boost into the wagon.

“I know, right?” said Patterson. “All this property damage and a low-key kidnapping,” she gestured to the hapless late night partier who had called the police when the cult got too insistent about their message, “and they didn’t even have the good drugs?” She shook her head. “Not that we ever arrest anyone just for drugs in this town.”

“I did not just hear you say that,” muttered McGee.

“We’ll make an Amity Parker out of you yet,” said Collins, heartily, slamming the back door of the wagon. He thumbed the button on his radio. “Any other disturbances?” he asked.

“No, you’re good to come back,” said the dispatcher.

“What I don’t get,” said McGee, leaning against a nearby wall in a moment of weakness, “is why we aren’t breaking up whatever cult thing is happening in the cemetery.” They’d seen it quite clearly on their way here.

“Because those are ghosts,” said Patterson.

McGee took a deep breath. “The ghosts are having some kind of ritual in the cemetery, and you aren’t worried.”

“Not really, no.”

“I hate it here,” said McGee.

“Do you, though?” asked Collins, sounding genuinely interested in the answer.

McGee opened his mouth to snap back that, yes, he did. But…

Hm. Huh.

Collins patted him on the back.

[marauderundercover]

Taking Chances Ch. 1: Adopted

AO3 @maribat-bdbwm

Adopted. Adopted. Adopted. Adopted. The word runs on a loop through Marinette’s head as her world crumbles around her. She was adopted.

“What? Maman, I don’t, I don’t understand.” Marinette says, her voice cracking as she tries to act like this isn’t bothering her. Like she doesn’t feel as though her entire world is changing.

“Marinette, sweetheart, just take a breath. That’s it, breathe in...and out. Very good.” Her maman says, holding her hands as she breathes with her slowly. Marinette swallows thickly, trying hard to ignore the way her hands shake in her maman’s.

“Maman, why didn’t you tell me?” She asks, confusion and self doubt swirling in her mind. Why was she adopted? Did her birth parents not want her? Could they not take care of her? Was she a mistake? Did they hate her? Did her maman hate her now? Is that why she’s telling her? Is she going to be kicked out? Is she going to have to leave Paris? What if-

“Marinette?” Her maman’s soft voice pulls her out of her thoughts. Marinette frowns when she realizes that she has tears running down her face.

“I-I’m sorry.” She says, pulling her hands away to furiously wipe at her tears, trying hard to ignore the sympathetic look her papa keeps giving her.

“You have nothing to apologize for, Marinette. Are you feeling up to an explanation? Or would you rather not talk about this?” She asks, her face covered in worry.

“I wanna talk about it.” Marinette says quickly, before slapping her hands over her mouth. She didn’t mean to say that. What if that’s not right? What if what her maman has to say is just going to hurt more? What if-

“Okay. It’s okay, sweetheart. I’m sorry we waited so long to tell you.” Her maman apologizes, scooting closer to wrap an arm around Marinette’s shoulders. Her papa wraps an arm around both of them, his presence calming Marinette enough so that she can think a little more clearly.

“Why did you wait? Why now?” She asks, still confused why she decided to break the news today of all days.

“We were going to wait until you were sixteen. Let you be at an age where you would understand it a little more, understand that being adopted isn’t wrong. And that you didn’t do anything wrong.” She explains, rubbing her shoulder gently.

“But then, why now?” Marinette asks, frustration starting to build. Why say they were going to wait and then not actually wait? Why would they-

“Mme. Mendeleiev called. You’re starting a unit on genetics and biology, and she knew that you were adopted. She just-” She sighs, frowning. “She didn’t want you to be blind sided or caught off guard in class if things didn’t add up.”

“But why does she know?” Marinette asks with a frown.

“Because we were both friends with your birth mother.”

--- Walking into class, Marinette tries hard to avoid the worried glance from Mme. Mendeleiev. All of the information from yesterday swirling through her head; her maman was friends with Mme. Mendeleiev. They were both friends with her birth mother, Bridgette Le. Her birth mother didn’t just give her up, she did want her, her maman had reassured her repeatedly. But she had died. And Marinette had almost died as well. And her parents? Didn’t hate her now. They didn’t love her any less, they reassured her of that several times before Marinette asked to be excused to go to bed. Tikki had had to watch for akumas most of the night. Breathing shakily, Marinette sits and immediately starts doodling on her notebook, hoping that no one else will put two and two together once their genetics unit starts. Hoping that no one will know or ask her. About adoption. --- It was two weeks after Marinette found out that she was adopted that she decided to talk to her maman about it again. After ranting to Tikki for several nights and spending time thinking about it, she had slowly started to accept it. It didn’t mean her parents loved her any less. It didn’t mean that she was any different or anything. It just meant that she had two more parents. A birth mother who had apparently wanted what was best for her, naming Sabine Cheng as her godmother even before Marinette was born. And a birth father. A man that Marinette was determined to talk to her maman about. Surely the woman would know something about him, given her close friendship with her birth mother.

“Hey Maman.” Marinette says, walking into the kitchen and sitting at the counter. Her maman smiles brightly at her as she continues to fill the dumplings.

“Hello sweetheart. How’s your commission for Jagged going?” She asks, her face filled with pride. Marinette grins and nods.

“It’s amazing. The shape of the suit is much different than anything else I’ve made before, but I think it’s going to look really cool!” Marinette says, a wide smile on her face before she remembers the whole reason she came into the kitchen. She clears her throat. “Maman, could I ask you something?”

“Of course Marinette.” She says, closing and filling dumplings before placing them in the steamer.

“When we talked about my...adoption. You didn’t say anything about my birth father. Did you know him too?” Marinette asks, staring down the counter to avoid looking at her maman.

“I didn’t know him very well, I’ll be honest. Bridgette met him when she went to the US for a year. I’m not sure what happened, but she did write a letter for him. I have it in the lock box though, she didn’t put an address on it and I wasn’t sure where to send it.” She explains and Marinette frowns at the lack of information.

“Does he- did he even know about me?” She asks.

“I’m not sure. Bridgette didn’t talk about him much. All she really said was that the town wasn’t fond of her and she didn’t want you to grow up in that environment, said it was terribly dreary. And that he was obsessed with his work. He worked for some big company, but I’m not sure if he still does. ” Her maman adds and Marinette nods.

“Is that all?” She asks, trying not to show her disappointment.

“Let me grab the letter. I can’t remember his name, but it should be in there.” She says, turning and washing her hands before walking away to get the letter. Marinette lets out a long breath, hoping that she isn’t making a mistake by looking for this information. --- Bruce Wayne. That was apparently the name of her birth father who lived somewhere in the US. Her maman was right about that. The letter didn’t have an address and Bridgette hadn’t put anything specific about the location. Besides her birth father’s name, the letter was a dead end. How generic could a name be? Bruce Wayne. It was like finding out her father’s name was Thomas Williams or John Smith or something. There must be thousands of Bruce Waynes in the US. Walking into Mme. Bustier’s class, Marinette trudges to her desk in the very back and drops down into her seat. Dropping her head onto her desk, she barely notices Adrien walk in.

“You okay, Mari?” He asks, frowning as he takes the seat next to her.

“I got a name.” She mumbles into the desk, knowing the boy would understand. She turns her head so that she can glance at him, frowning at the wide smile that takes over his face.

“Really? That’s great!” He says and she huffs.

“Not really. It was the most generic name ever, and the letter that Bridgette wrote didn’t have a location or anything.”

“Why do you want to talk to him so badly?” Adrien asks and Marinette sits up, frowning.

“I don’t know, I just-” She sighs. “I guess I just want the chance to meet him. Maman’s told me so many stories of Bridgette since I found out, and I’ve loved getting to know little things that we have in common. I just want to know if I have anything in common with him.”

“If you really want to meet him, I’ll do everything I can to help you find him.” Adrien says. Marinette looks at him, relief and gratitude coating her face.

“Really? You’d do that for me?” She asks, hope and faith that this could actually work rushing over her. Adrien nods, gifting her a small smile.

“Of course, Mari.” He says. Marinette opens her mouth to thank him again, when Mme. Bustier barges into the classroom.

“Students! Listen up, I have an amazing announcement!” She cheers, clapping her hands together. Marinette looks at the woman wearily, unsure of what the woman could be so excited about. She’d had a meeting with the woman earlier to talk about the end of year trip. They hadn’t talked about much, just the budget and trips that they could feasibly do. Marinette had also shot down some of the woman’s….less than ideal options. Seriously, who thought a trip to Gotham was a good idea? Even Marinette, with her lack of knowledge about the world’s big names and celebrities, knew that Gotham wasn’t a great place. It was quite literally crawling with villains, and unlike Paris, there was no Miraculous Cure to fix everything. Marinette blinked as the class suddenly erupted with cheers.

“What happened?” She asks Adrien, zoning back into the situation around her.

“We’re apparently going to Gotham for our end of year trip.” Adrien mutters, clearly not thrilled with the turn of events. Marinette nods, then freezes as the words register. Well shit. --- Marinette huffs as she rushes into the empty hotel lobby. Key word: empty. Well, okay it wasn’t completely empty, but it definitely didn’t have the entire class (and teacher!) that it was supposed to have. Instead it just had a tired looking concierge and a bowl of bruised apples. Fantastic. Grumbling under her breath, Marinette pulls out the itinerary that she had been forced to create for this trip she was forced to be on. She wasn’t trying to be dramatic, but between Hawkmoth and all of her responsibilities as Ladybug, going to a city like Gotham was the last thing that she wanted to do. Its villains, or Rogues as they preferred to be called, seemed to have no fear. At least Hawkmoth was smart enough to hide behind his goons. Gotham’s rogues had no such qualm, and instead ran around to personally cause mayhem. Glancing down at the itinerary, Marinette suppresses a groan. The entire class left early. Of course they did. Whatever, she still had plenty of time to get to their scheduled tour time at the Gotham City Museum of Modern Art. It had been Alix’ suggestion, as the girl’s father was friends with someone who had helped in its most recent street art exhibit.

“Marinette!” A small voice yells. Marinette glances down at her purse and raises an eyebrow at the concerned look on her kwami’s face.

“What?” She whispers back.

“You’re not really going to walk by yourself in Gotham, are you?” Tikki asks, her eyes wide with concern.

“I’ll be fine, Tikki. And I plan on getting a cab.” Marinette says, giving her purse a reassuring pat before walking out into the dreary mist outside. Hailing a cab with surprising ease, Marinette tells the driver her destination and sits back, watching the gargoyles and architecture stream past. She’d have to sketch something later, because a million ideas for a Gotham inspired line was floating through her head. When the cab stops, Marinette smiles and thanks the man, handing him the fare and a tip.

“No problem, Miss Wayne.” The driver says, tipping his cap before zipping away from the museum. Miss Wayne? As in her father? Marinette shakes that thought away almost as quickly as it appears. What are the odds that she’d be in the same city as her birth father? Must’ve mistaken me with someone else, Marinette thought to herself, almost as if she was reassuring herself that there was no chance of seeing her birth father. No chance of someone seeing her and saying, “oh, are you Bruce’s girl? You sure do have his nose”. No chance of the man himself running into her and seeing a perfect blend of himself and Bridgette and- No. No need to panic about this right now. Pushing the thoughts away, Marinette rushes into the museum and nearly runs over Adrien.

“Mari! Are you okay? Where were you? I didn’t see you in the lobby so I got on the bus to look for you and you weren’t there and then I tried to get off to find you and-” Marinette cuts Adrien’s rambling off with a tight hug to reassure him that she’s there. She’s there and she’s safe.

“I’m okay, I promise. I got a cab surprisingly easily.” Marinette reassures him, mumbling into his chest. He freezes momentarily before returning the tight hug.

“Marinette! Now that you’re here we can start the tour. The tour guide suggested we start in the Comedians Hall of Fame and then loop around and end at the new graffiti display.” Mme. Bustier announces, clapping her hands excitedly. Marinette pulls away from Adrien, blushing slightly as he squeezes her once more before fully letting her go. Wandering through the Comedians Hall of Fame, Marinette’s eyes dance over the exhibits. She wasn’t necessarily passionate or inspired by this section of the museum, but it was still interesting. A big bang made Marinette spin around and frantically look for the exits. The uncontrollable laughter started seconds later. Shit.

“Welcome, welcome to MY hall! Except someone apparently forgot my picture. No worries though, I’m sure we can add one with all of your smiling faces in it as well.” A voice echoes in the hall. Marinette’s blood instantly freezes. The Joker. In a room. With her class. Oh my God, someone is going to die.

“What’re you doing?” Adrien hisses out. Marinette blinks and realizes she had unconciously taken a fighting pose. She was so used to protecting the class as Ladybug against Akumas, she just immediately fell back into the role. She straightens immediately, but it’s too late.

“Ah, a brave little girl. Who do we have here?” Joker asks, and the sickening realization that he’s holding a gun washes over her. There would be no Miraculous Cure. No Lucky Charm. Marinette grits her teeth and stares at the man’s yellow teeth stretched into an unnatural smile.

“Marinette.” She says, leaving out her last name. No need for her parents to panic because her name is trending at the site of a villain attack. Assuming nothing goes wrong and the heroes show up and she doesn’t die by the hands of the Joker. Not that that would be traumatic, or anything.

“What, no last name? Or did you think I wouldn’t recognize you?” Joker asks, pushing her hair out of her face with his gun. Marinette sees Adrien’s fists clench out of the corner of her eye, a wave of determination running through her. She needed to keep Joker distracted so that he wouldn’t notice Adrien and try to hurt Adrien. Since obviously, as an Agreste, he was a much better hostage than the daughter of bakers. Well, and the biological daughter of some random American man who doesn’t even know she exists.

“It’s Cheng.” She retorts, dropping her father’s last name off in a desperate attempt for her full name to stay off the internet.

“Is it? Are you sure? Because if I didn’t know any better, I’d think you’re a new Wayne. Much smaller than the others, and a girl is different, but maybe Brucie’s just changing his type.” Joker taunts and Marinette’s head spins. Wayne? It can’t possibly be her birth father...Wayne must be a much more common name in the US than she originally thought and maybe even though she hadn’t even thought about contacting him yet or trying to find him, maybe it would be much harder than she could’ve ever thought because it’s such a common name and he probably has no idea that she wants to even try and find him and there’s probably no chance that he even wants to meet her and-

“Are you even listening to me?” Joker’s annoyed voice cuts off her internal spiral. Marinette quirks up an eyebrow and shakes her head.

“No, not really.” She says, eyes widening and face instantly turning red as she realizes that this was not the kind of villain she could smartmouth like she did Akumas as Ladybug. She’s not even Ladybug right now.

“You’re odd. Maybe you’ll be even more useful than I thought.” Joker says after a moment of tense silence. Marinette glances around the room, noticing how the goons that came in with Joker were more focused on Joker’s weird reaction to Marinette than the other hostages. Making eye contact with Adrien, Marinette has a silent conversation, hoping that he’s suddenly become a mind reader and will start getting people out of the room while the bad guys are distracted.

“I doubt that. I’m failing science.” Marinette says matter-of-factly. It was true, though she wasn’t usually this bad at science. But it was really hard for her to focus on genetics and biology with everything else going on. So her parents didn’t really blame her either, though it did dissapoint Mme. Mendeleiev.

“You’re kind of a smart ass, aren’t you?” Joker taunts, haphazardly waving the gun around.

“It’s um, one of my better qualities.” Marinette stumbles over her words as the gun stops waving to once again point at her face. Joker smirks, his face suddenly darkening as a crash echoes throughout the room. Marinette pales as she watches Joker turn and shoot through the wall next to the door that Lila was currently walking through. Lila yelps and drops to the ground, and for the first time ever, Marinette is certain her tears are real.

“I see what you were trying to do, Frenchie. You were trying to get my hostages out of here. But why? Why would you play hero like that? What would YOU get out of that?” Joker taunts, moving the gun so that it’s pointed right at Marinette’s face again. This time, Marinette could feel the heat radiating from the end of the gun. From the gun being shot at the wall. Near a classmate. Granted it was Lila, but it was still someone she knew. Someone she couldn’t save with the Miraculous Cure because this would be it. The smoke filling the room pulls Marinette’s attention from the gun in front of her, and instead to the hulking figures that suddenly entered the room. Four people, three of them tall but one of those three towering over everyone else in the room. Marinette blinks as her eyes attempt to adjust and she sucks in a breath in shock. Batman. Batman and Nightwing and Red Hood and Red Robin. Of course she knew the vigilantes here, she had done extensive research on anything to do with the hero scene in Gotham. Mostly to keep herself and the class safe in case of an attack, which now that she thinks about it is actually impossible to plan for. Marinette’s feet seem frozen to the ground as she glances around at the bodies hitting the floor. She couldn’t see clearly, but she was almost certain that they were the goons that had arrived with Joker.

“Oh come on, I was just trying to greet this lovely young lady. Say Batsy, don’t ya think she looks like she could fit with the other Wayne brats?” Joker taunts as Batman closes in on them. Joker had shifted her so that she was pressed up against his chest, the gun now situatated at her temple. Batman stops several feet in front of them, a clear grimace on his face.

“Let the girl go, Joker.” He demands in a gruff voice. Marinette inhales sharply as Joker tightens his hold on her.

“I don’t think so, Bats. See, I need this one to guarantee that I get outta here without taking a trip back to my cell. So how about instead, I’ll take her on a little trip and leave her somewhere you can find her later.” Joker offers.

“I don’t think you’re in any place to attempt negotiations.” Batman replies, his face an unwavering mask.

“And why is that?” Joker asks, and Marinette can hear the wide smile in his voice, though she can’t currently see his face.

“‘Cause you’re the asshole who didn’t bother to focus on the rest of us.” A gruff voice from behind taunts. Joker sputters in shock, but seconds later his arms loosen and Marinette dashes towards Batman, glancing back in time to see the man collapse to the ground.

“Is he?” Marinette asks, unsure how to feel about watching a potential death. Even if the man was horrible, he hadn’t killed her or any of her friends so she couldn’t wish him dead. No matter how much it would help her sleep tonight.

“No.” Batman says. Marinette nods before turning her attention to the head of the Batfamily. A wide smile spreads across her face and she extends her hand for him to shake.

“Well then, thank you for saving me, Monsieur. I’m Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

Next