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itsclydebitches · 4 years ago

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YYH Recaps: Episode 1, Surprised to be Dead

Hello, all you hypothetical readers! It's a beautiful spring day and I have a free afternoon ahead of me, so what better time to start another massive project while I guilty stuff my other WIPs deep into the depths of my hard drive? Yeah. Iffy life choices aside, someone mentioned a few weeks back that they'd love for me to recap a show I have more positive things to say about than negative (RIP RWBY) and ever since Netflix announced that their live-action adaptation of Yu Yu Hakusho is in the works, I've been itching for a re-watch of the anime. With the RWBY hiatus underway, it seemed like the perfect time to fulfill both desires.

Before we begin though, I'd like to touch on a few things that are going to influence this project.

First, YYH is near and dear to my heart. Written by Yoshihiro Togashi in the early 1990s and later adapted for an American audience by Funimation, I had the pleasure of experiencing this story five different ways: as a serialized tale in Shonen Jump, a binge read when I had the money to buy the manga, tiny snippets of the anime on Adult Swim late at night — don't tell my parents ;) — as an after-school treat on Toonami, and then years later as a re-watch when I introduced it to a friend (who, in turn, blessed me by having us watch Fullmetal Alchemist next). I used to keep a Hiei bookmark in everything I was reading, the spirit gun made it into our witch-wolf-space adventures on the playground (middle school was wild), and there was a long period of my life where I tried very hard to teach myself to stand with my hands behind my back, precisely as Genkai does. Spoiler alert: I failed. So to say I love the series is... a little bit of an understatement. I bring this up simply as a way of demonstrating that there's more than a bit of nostalgia attached to YYH for me and that will inevitably cloud my reading of it. How can it not? So that's just something to keep in mind as I work through a series that, like any having hit its 30th birthday, has its outdated, flawed, and other questionable aspects.

Second, but very much connected to the first point, is that these are pretty casual recaps. I summarize and extrapolate, focusing primarily on plot and dialogue (but with the occasional cinematography aspect tossed in). I'm not conducting research on the cultural history here — something that will come up at least once in this episode — I'm not arguing an overarching thesis, and I've never been someone who focuses on the author/production/trivia of a series. I'm here for the story as the story is presented to the viewer. If you've read my RWBY Recaps, this will function precisely the same way, with the only difference being I'm engaging with a finished text as opposed to an ongoing one, so there’s a lot less, “Maybe ___ will happen” theorizing going on.

Third, I obviously recommend that you watch the show yourself (you can find it on YouTube!), but you don't have to know the series to follow along. As these massive paragraphs attest, I tend to be both detailed and verbose, so we'll be covering every major plot point — and most of the smaller ones too.

Finally, I'm working from the dub. I know, I know, the horror. But it's what I grew up on and, honestly, I think it's superior to the sub. YYH's dubbing is in a class all its own and to this day there are very few shows that compare to it. Trust me, it's a good call.

That's enough of the boring chit-chat though. Let's get started!

Our very first episode "Surprised to be Dead" opens on a crowded street. We see lots of traffic, people going about their business, and a pedestrian crossing sign that, crucially, turns red. This is our normality and, like in every genre story, you need to break that normality at some point so that the protagonists can go on their fantastical/supernatural/science fiction journey. YYH eases us into things by first breaking the normality of an everyday afternoon: there's a screech of tires, quick shots of a man pushing a child out of the way of an oncoming car, and then his back is hitting the windshield. We begin this story with a horrible — but otherwise mundane — car crash.

Now, these flashes alone have a fair bit to unpack. Despite later getting a brief shot of the man's scared face right before he's hit, the moment's focus is really on the child. He's the one foregrounded in the initial, slow-mo shot. He's the one who appears in color while the man is kept in shadow. This isn't just a hit, it's a rescue. The camera is also careful to follow the soccer ball this kid was playing with (more on that later in the episode), with it flying through the air as the man is hit and bouncing to a stop in the street, acting as the dramatic finish. It's childhood! It's innocence! It's play on a sunny afternoon! And it's all gone wrong.

This moment is chaotic and even a bit confusing. Not in the sense of what's happening — that is quite obviously a guy being hit by a car — but who the victims are, how precisely this came about, or even why we're meant to care about this beyond a generic capacity to feel for other human (fictional) beings... that's all removed. And it works. As the crash takes place, the camera pans across the stunned crowd and we, the viewer, become a part of that crowd. They don't know what precisely is going on either. We're all just horrified onlookers as a sudden tragedy takes place. We're all watching the same show.

So everyone realizes this guy has been hit. People are staring in shock and someone calls for an ambulance. We see the driver fall to his knees in the street, distraught, shakily saying, "I didn't mean to..." It's a very serious and emotional scene that —

— is immediately tempered by this guy waking up, complete with a cute 'pop!' sound effect when he opens his eyes.

This is YYH's brand, this Very Serious Circumstances skillfully interwoven with casual indifference/comedy. It's admittedly far from a unique brand, but it's an excellent choice given that this is the same attitude that will drive 99% of our protagonist's interaction with the world.

Speaking of said protagonist, our guy wakes up, opens his eyes, and realizes that he's floating. There's a great, disorientating shot from his perspective where everything is upside down, causing him to nearly fall out of the air. Well would you look at that, he's as confused as we are. It's our audience surrogate!

A narrator says, "And so it all begins. This boy's name is Yusuke, he's fourteen years old, and he's supposed to be the hero of this story. But oddly enough, he's dead."

Game of Thrones might have made it popular, but YYH did it better.

(Yeah, yeah, I know one death kick-starts the journey and the other is a shocking twist. Just let me have this.)

Now, it's a weird introduction, right? At least at the end. The announcement that change has occurred, a name, an age... that all checks out. But "supposed to be the hero"? What the hell is that “supposed to” mean? Our narrator gives us the easy, surface answer: "But oddly enough, he's dead." We're capitalizing here on the audience's expectation that death ends a character's journey and though they may have been a hero previously, they can no longer be one moving forward. That function within the story has passed. So it's this intriguing question of, "What kind of hero do you have when that hero is dead from the start?" but as we'll see soon, there's an additional meaning here of, "How can Yusuke be the hero?" As this premiere sets up, Yusuke doesn't act like the hero is “supposed to” act.

Until he saved this kid.

But right now he's just confused: "Okay, this is weird. Stupid weird."

Two EMTs arrive on the scene and are hilariously useless. You know how in any medical drama a doctor will stop CPR after a couple of seconds because obviously you're not going to spend half the episode on realism? Well, that's this only a thousand times worse. One guy just looks at the kid and announces he's fine except for some bumps and bruises. Meanwhile, the kid is sobbing.

"Well, at least one of them is," replies the other EMT, because I guess he can tell Yusuke is beyond hope without taking a pulse or anything? "I hate cleanup," he complains as they load his body onto a stretcher because that's? An empathetic response to have??

Honestly this scene is wild.

Yusuke is understandably upset that he's, you know, dead and all. He starts hounding the EMTs who, unable to hear him, just go about their business of taking the kid and his body to the hospital. "You think you can just do whatever you want because you have that stupid uniform on? You can't just write me off. Listen to me!" and Yusuke tries to punch one of the EMTs in the head, resulting in him floating right through.

What a great way to introduce your protagonist's personality. We see here that when things go wrong Yusuke's default emotion is anger and it starts creeping in even before he thinks the others are ignoring him: "Stupid weird." He has problems with authority — "You think you can just do whatever you want because you have that stupid uniform on?" — is used to others listening when he gets angry — "You can't just write me off!" — and is poised to use violence at the slightest provocation. Yusuke is a guy who, right now at least, is ready to punch first and ask questions later.

As Yusuke floats back up into the air and the ambulance drives away, he finally cools down enough to try and think his way out of this. "It's not like this is the first time you've been in a jam,” he thinks. Yusuke recalls that yeah, something was different about today...

...he actually went to school.

Catch me laughing that this idiot boy equates the weirdness of him dying with going to school. Good lord.

Anyway, this jumpstarts our flashback. We open on a generic, anime middle school (that always feels like a high school to me) where the principal is calling for Yusuke through the loud speaker. Oooo someone’s in trouble! We follow a young girl up to the rooftop and she gets a classic hair-blowing-in-the-wind moment to establish that she's our love interest. Meet Keiko Yukimura.

Keiko finds Yusuke hanging out and immediately starts lecturing him for trying to chew gum and refusing to wear the boys' uniform. "Oh, give me a break, Keiko. I look better in green." Note that it's here we learn her name and it's an easy, casual way to introduce it. I bring this up because Yusuke's introduction via our narrator is very much... not that. It's an on your nose statement about his name, age, and importance to the story, and if you're just starting the show in 2021, it might come across as a rather armature move. Like something out of a kid's show, perhaps. Yet here we see that this was a deliberate choice, considering that YYH is capable of introducing character information naturally when it wants to.

This moment also tells us that Yusuke cares a great deal about his image. More on that in a bit. Because Keiko isn't finished her list of grievances yet, going on to say that his attendance record has hurt their entire class, hurt her as class representative, and if he keeps going down this path he won't even graduate middle school. "Sometimes I think you don't care about anyone but yourself and then you don't even do that right!"

They're legit complaints. Too bad Yusuke is busy looking up Keiko's skirt.

Yeeeeah. Sadly, this is common for anime, particularly a 90s anime like YYH. Even presumably more progressive series like My Hero Academia feature characters like Mineta, whose entire personality is being a pervert, and the creation of abilities that "require" kids/young women to be scantily clad. See: Yaoyorozu. YYH is no different in this regard, with various forms of sexual harassment functioning as a shorthand for how much Yusuke secretly likes Keiko. "Boys will be boys," right? Obviously not.

Like so many others series, the creators get away with it because they’re framing it as a bad thing. It's totally fine because look, Keiko slaps him! This is teaching the viewer how wrong this behavior is. Never mind that this is clearly an established habit between them, that Yusuke laughs off Keiko's discomfort, and that the whole scene is meant to be funny for the viewer. That's the real purpose here; it’s not a PSA on harassment.

That, and to establish the long-suffering love Keiko has for Yusuke in turn, largely stemming from a life-long friendship. "Dumb boy! He hasn't grown up a bit since he was four years old." We see that Keiko's early interactions with Yusuke have given her insight that others lack. As she heads down from the roof she runs into two girls hiding around the corner, too scared to come out lest "the great Urameshi" set his sights on them. Isn't Keiko terrified of what he might do to her? "Or worse, what others might say of it?" Like any classic high school middle school setting, one's reputation is king. Yusuke cares about how others see him — maintaining that tough boy attitude — and the girls care more about what the rest of the school might think of Keiko's interactions with him than the presumed harm Yusuke could do to her. They heard he can summon 2,000 men with just a whistle and that he "kills for fun!" But that means nothing in the face of people talking about you. Despite being one of the most popular girls in school, Keiko is the outsider here via her disinterest in what other people think.

The animation changes here, giving us a good look at how the girls picture Yusuke: tough, scowling, surrounded by shadows, and backed by an entire army.

In contrast, we've already seen what Yusuke is really like.

Keiko laughs the image off too. Yusuke is more like a "lamb" than a killer and besides, he couldn't order around two people, let alone two hundred. "He doesn't have many friends."

"That's not what I heard," says one of the girls.

"Yeah," goes the other. "I think we would know."

Again, rumors rule here, with whispers in the hall considered more reliable than someone who interacts with Yusuke on a daily basis. Keiko doesn’t have a hope of changing their minds.

Oh, as a side note, I love that they gave Keiko Miyazaki-esque hair. It's very emotive.

Yusuke escapes outside where the principal is still calling for him to report to his office. He overhears a conversation around the corner and we cut to two boys, one of which is showing a wallet off to the other. He explains that some bully tried to rough him up, but he said he was Urameshi's cousin and the bully took off, dropping his wallet in the process. The guy's friend is impressed, but what is he going to do if Yusuke ever finds out he lied? Not to worry, he says, that "blockhead" would probably think it's true even if he did somehow hear.

Yusuke, obviously, does hear about this and he, also obviously, does not believe this guy is his cousin. He looms ominously and they scurry up against a wall, terrified and offering him the wallet as an apology.

"You think I want your money?" Yusuke yells.

YYH is, in many respects, a rather simple story, but I appreciate the hints of complexity in these otherwise straightforward interactions. It's not that this guy used Yusuke's name to steal a wallet, he used it as a form of protection against another bully — a far more sympathetic motivation. It's not that Yusuke's fearsome reputation has resulted in any genuine respect because once people think they're safe they reveal how little they think of his intelligence — he's a "blockhead." And Yusuke, though intimidating and violent, is not your average, schoolyard bully. He doesn't care about money, only the insult and the damage this guy using his name might have done to his reputation. There's a little more nuance here than you might otherwise expect.

Also, note how dark the boys' standard uniforms are and how much they blend into the rest of the world. Yusuke, as our protagonist, stands out in his bright clothing. He was right, he does look better in green!

So he's ready to clobber this kid when one of the teachers arrive: Mr. Iwamoto.

Iwamoto demands to know what's going on, but the boys are too terrified to rat Yusuke out. Noticing the wallet on the ground, he assumes that Yusuke was after their money, something that greatly offends him: "Whatever!" Iwamoto goes on to say that, "No good weeds like you should have been plucked a long time ago," making it clear that he considers Yusuke a hopeless case. The positive aspects that Keiko sees, as well as the complexity the viewer sees — to say nothing of his introduction of saving a kid — aren’t considered here.

Notably, Iwamoto exists in part to show us what Yusuke could become. Not a teacher (he's obviously not attending school enough for that!), but a cynical man who is cruel for cruelty's sake. Yusuke is already barreling down that path, ignoring Keiko's advice, terrorizing other students, trying to punch EMTs, etc. If his life (or afterlife...) hadn't changed through that accident, this is the kind of person Yusuke might have grown up to be, and we can see that clearly in the visual parallels between them. Dark haired men dressed in green who scowl with ease and toss out cutting insults. Yusuke is staring his future in the face.

For now he walks off with a final shot, "You shouldn't talk. It makes you sound stupid." This time Yusuke makes it to the school's entrance and tries to enjoy his second attempt at chewing gum, but someone hits him in the back of the head.

"Okay, somebody's DEAD — ah. Sorry, old man."

"That's Mr. Takenaka to you."

Our principal has finally left the office and hunted down Yusuke for himself! Putting this interaction immediately after the one with Iwamoto allows the viewer to compare them. Yusuke might be irreverent towards his principal, but it's clear there's still some kind of respect between them. Yusuke only starts threatening because he doesn’t realize who hit him and once he does realize it's Takenaka, he immediately apologizes. That "old man" comes across as a teasing insult and Yusuke allows himself to be briefly dragged back towards school, rather than throwing a now classic punch. In turn, Takenaka cares enough about Yusuke to try and keep him on the straight and narrow. He utilizes Yusuke's preferred language — violence — but in a casual way, nonthreatening way: slight hit to the back of his head, noogie, pulling him along by the ear.

It's the sort of physicality we're used to seeing in media between a parent and child who are outwardly antagonistic, but actually share a deep bond. Takenaka is also careful to frame their return to his office as a "discussion," not a punishment, and offers Yusuke tea along with the conversation. Whereas Iwamoto considers Yusuke to be a "weed" that should have been plucked from their school long ago, Takenaka is determined to help Yusuke bloom.

If we're continuing the flower metaphor :D

Yusuke isn't in the mood to play along though. He gets away by using a fake ear, startling Takenaka when it unexpectedly pulls free. Yusuke escapes the school grounds and Takenaka, suffering a back twinge from his fall, can't chase after him. Poor guy. I understand that pain lol.

Yusuke heads home where we're introduced to his mother, Atsuko. Most notable in her first shot is the soft lighting that highlights her looks. We're not told how old she is here, but I believe she's around 28 — and she looks it, if not younger. Given that Yusuke is 14, that means Atsuko was a mom at his age. This is a quick and subtle way to tell us about Yusuke's home life. There are more overt details in this scene — it's at least lunchtime and Atsuko hasn't left her bed yet, she demands that Yusuke make her coffee instead of greeting him, it's all meant to imply (before we actually see) that she's an alcoholic — but her age is another way to highlight the broken household here. There's no partner in sight and she clearly had Yusuke as a teenager. He hasn't had a strong parental figure to take care of him. If anything, Yusuke is taking care of Atsuko here.

"Oh great, mother of the year!" basically sums things up.

Atsuko wants to know why Yusuke isn't in school and he says that everyone is pissing him off today, particularly with their preaching. "Dear, if you hate preaching so much you should live on your own... but you can't do that, can you?" Alongside a rough upbringing, Yusuke is suffering from the common problem of being trapped in a dead-end life. He hates his school, his town, and coming home to find his mom hungover. Yusuke has no prospects and, outside of one principal, no one who is actively working to help him find some. Even the little things he hates, like being preached to, are unavoidable because if you want to live on your own, that requires money. Good luck pulling that off as a middle schooler whose only skill is street fighting!

Yusuke walks off in a huff, literally shouting in a street about what a bad day he's having (and hilariously scaring off pedestrians in the process). His shout brings trouble though. A couple guys appear to ambush him, their boss close behind. The music increases the tension, Yusuke's expression is serious, and we even get a Dutch angle thrown into the mix.

For any who don't know, the Dutch angle is a popular film technique to establish that something is wrong. There's tension in the scene, something uneasy is at play, and the world is now literally off center. It's perhaps most famously used in Do The Right Thing to establish the friction between an Italian-American pizzeria and the predominantly African American neighborhood it's based in.

But it's also used a great deal in horror as a way to say: yup, shit just got real. Scary real.

This Dutch angle introduces a character you may not appreciate at first, but absolutely should: Kazuma Kuwabara.

He's initially the comic relief and that's clear in his introduction. Within seconds we move from that intimidating arrival to, well, seeing him. To be clear, I've got nothing against redheads with big chins, but compared to Yusuke's design, Kuwabara is meant to be the funny looking one. His threat level plummets the moment we get a look at his face, especially in a series that will occasionally use looks as a (supposed) measure of intelligence.

Also, Kuwabara is dressed in light blue so, like Yusuke, we know he's important!

Any assumptions that his appearance isn’t meant to imply a goofy, embarrassing personality are put to rest when Kuwabara starts rambling about how they last time they fought Yusuke just got a cheap shot in and he'll definitely win this time. Yeah, he won't. Yusuke is thrilled by this diversion though and we get a shot of him looking almost as creepy as Keiko's friends think he is. Whatever else might be said about Yusuke, he is absolutely a monster in a fight.

Which we see here. If anyone picked up the series without knowing this was a fighting anime, they'll realize it now. Yusuke's choreography is stylized to show off his skill: he disappears with a 'whoosh' and dark lines to suggest inhuman speed,

attacking Kuwabara with a knee to the face, utilizes flying kicks, lands perfect, precision punches, and ends it all with the toe-tip landing we've come to expect of all powerful fighters. Kuwabara never even got a hit in.

Happy as a clam now, Yusuke wanders off whistling and Kuwabara's friends are left to pick up the pieces. AKA, his likely broken bones. I love that they're legit friends though and not just nameless goons for the sake of giving Kuwabara a small gang (though their names won't come up until later). "That makes 0 wins an 156 loses!" one of them cries, trying to get Kuwabara to stop ending up in the hospital, probably. We establish that Kuwabara is The Most Dramatic Ever when he pulls his broken body into a seated position, shouting, "No! I almost had him that time!"

Then he passes out.

Kuwabara, honey, you obviously did not almost have him, but god bless you for the outlook. The most optimistic thing on this Earth is a well-loved Golden Retriever, but Kuwabara comes in at a very close second.

With his dream to one day beat Yusuke in combat established, we cut to Yusuke wandering the street where the episode opened. "Okay, I'm remembering" he says in a voiceover. "After that I met the kid."

The soccer ball reappears as it rolls to a stop at Yusuke's feet. He grabs it and immediately starts yelling at the kid. Horrible protagonist, right? Well, Yusuke is trying to instill in him the danger of using this street as a playground, a worry the viewer already knows is 100% justified. “Listen, kid, that’s dangerous! There are cars going by that will splatter you into the pavement!” It's one of those quick moments where we get to enjoy Yusuke's duality: he's someone who is nearly making a toddler cry, but for rather understandable reasons. He's got the right idea, but needs to go about it in a more mature manner.

Which is precisely what he attempts to do. Sort of. Yusuke changes gears, though whether it's a more "mature" route is certainly up for debate lol. He tries entertaining the kid instead, raising and lowering the soccer ball to reveal goofy faces.

When these fail to impress, Yusuke goes full out by stuffing the ball into his pants, pushing his nose up with a pair of chopsticks he got from god knows where, and generally just putting on a display.

So Yusuke cares very deeply about his reputation... but only when it comes to those who are an established part of his life. Keiko, Mr. Takenaka, and the other kids at school all need to maintain a particular image of Yusuke, one that he's carefully cultivated. But random pedestrians on the street? Who cares about them? Let them talk.

This shows us that Yusuke does indeed have priorities over his own, selfish goals. Namely, the happiness of some kid is more important to him than looking "cool" for a bunch of strangers. Lots of characters with Yusuke's surface attitude would sneer at the idea of degrading themselves for — their words — some brat. But Yusuke, as we constantly see, actually does have that heart of gold. “Well, if all else fails I can still make kids happy.”

Although... I'm not sure what to make of his display itself. I have the distinct sense that there's something prejudiced here that I'm not able to fully articulate, what with the chopsticks, slanted eyes, bald head, and the like, though to be entirely frank I don't have enough knowledge of Japan's history to say precisely what it might be. Or, really, whether it exists at all. Just something to chew on.

What I am sure about though is the importance of having the child label Yusuke as monster — "Yeah, monster! — but in a delighted manner. Yusuke is indeed some kind a monster, someone who disappoints adults and terrifies his classmates, a demon fighter on the streets too, but here that identity is reworked into something positive.

Having successful secured a laugh, Yusuke tells the kid — calmly this time — to go play elsewhere. The toddler stares up at him with the blank expression only kids can manage.

Well, kids and whatever headspace I'm in after writing these metas.

To absolutely no one's surprise except Yusuke's, the kid does not go elsewhere. Instead, he continues kicking the ball down the street, causing Yusuke to exclaim, “Dammit, what’s the use? The kid can get smashed by a car for all I care!” Liar, liar.

The picture becomes desaturated as the kid kicks the ball and it flies into the street, time slowing down to show it landing precisely in the middle of the road. Yusuke again yells for him to stay put, but when has a toddler ever listened? He begins to walk into the road as our driver arrives, speeding, swerving, and paying more attention to the girl at his side than what's in front of him.

This time, we see the accident from the front with both Yusuke and the kid presented equally.

There's a cut to black and when we return we're in the present, Yusuke floating above the policemen now investigating the scene. “So that’s it? I’m roadkill?” As Yusuke realizes he's dead, specifically that he's a ghost, a voice goes,

"Bingo! Bingo! You win the prize!"

A woman has appeared who is quite obviously othered by the standards of the episode so far. Unlike the greens, blues, and browns of the series' modern clothes, she's dressed in hot pink kimono with blue hair to match. She's also, you know, floating on an oar.

“I didn’t expect you to figure it out so quickly," she says, referring to Yusuke's revelation that he's dead. Apparently, those who meet unexpected and/or violent ends tend to take some time coming to terms with their demise. It's a nice acknowledgment of Yusuke's intelligence in an interaction that's otherwise... not great for his self-esteem.

Meaning, this woman is about to drag him lol.

She introduces herself as Botan, pilot of the River Styx and guider of souls to the afterlife. You might also know her as the Grim Reaper.

(Hey, RWBY fans: I originally wrote that as Grimm Reaper 🤦‍♀️)

It's an claim Yusuke takes issue with because 1. Botan is too pretty to be the Grim Reaper and 2. If she was really some god of death she'd be taking this much more seriously, not laughing and saying, "Bingo!" For the audience this does two things. First, it acknowledges our own expectations and validates them. Yusuke's world isn't so far removed from our own that he takes Botan's looks and personality at face value, he also expected a skeleton with a scythe. So don't worry, all the weird stuff in this series is weird to our protagonist too. They'll be explanations. Or, even if there’s not, you’re not wrong for being surprised.

Second, it sets up the very common theme in YYH of undermining those common assumptions again and again and again. We've already seen it with Yusuke, wherein characters who look and act a certain way are, supposedly, destined to be that person and nothing more. Yusuke is meant to be just a "weed," a dumb, violent, angry loser who goes nowhere in life... but we already know he's more than that. Botan is supposed to be scary and serious, but she says nah, I want to be cute and bubbly instead. No character in YYH embodies who they're "supposed" to be when you look past those surface characterizations. They play the part of archetypes — and do keep certain parts of their expected personalities — but they're also far more well-rounded than that. Which yeah, is something most people expect from any story nowadays, but YYH is particularly adept at making you think you're watching Simple Show A only to turn around and surprise you with More Complex Show B.

It's great, trust me.

So Yusuke is pissed that Botan isn't adhering to those expectations, in the same way that he works hard to validate others expectations of him. He doesn't know how to deal with someone challenging his world view yet. Rather than angering Botan though, she just nods and says that this response makes sense for him. “Rather than being scared, or surprised, you yell a lot and tell me I don’t know what I’m talking about." Taking out a notebook, she quickly summarizes everything we learned in the flashback — minus Yusuke's complexities: he's fourteen, in middle school, is ill-tempered, violent, hates authority, and is a horrible student.

Typically, Yusuke responds by getting angry and trying to snatch the booklet out of her hands, only for Botan to pull it out of his reach, laughing. The tables have turned! Rather than being surrounded by people who cower at Yusuke's imposed authority, he now finds himself faced with someone who laughs at his transparent attempts to take control of the situation.

Calming down, Yusuke wants to know if the kid he saved is really alright and Botan offers to let him see for himself. That offer produces Yusuke's first, genuine smile.

They fly to the hospital where a doctor is in the process of giving the kid a clean bill of health, his mother crying with relief.

That's enough for Yusuke. “Alright, Botan, I’ve got no regrets, so you can take me to hell or wherever it is I’m going.”

That tells you all you need to know about Yusuke's self-worth, despite his bad boy attitude. His life is a dead-end as far as he can see and most of those around him haven't done anything to dissuade him of that idea. He says he doesn't care if the kid lives or dies, but then instinctively saves him. Post his death, Yusuke doesn't have anything he considers a regret, or anything he'd like to do before he leaves, like saying goodbye to a loved one. Oh, he's also pretty sure he's going to hell and has resigned himself to that without a fight.

Uplifting!

Botan just laughs though, saying that she's actually here to offer Yusuke an "ordeal" that could bring him back to life. See, he wasn't supposed to die today — let alone die saving a kid — and frankly they don't know what to do with him. It's another neat summary of what we've already learned: Yusuke is a far more complicated case than the afterlife assumed and now, when push comes to shove, deciding whether he belongs in heaven or hell is... muddled.

There's a fantastic story there about the problems with an afterlife that reduces a person's entire life to a few surface characteristics recorded in a book, refusing to acknowledge the context of their situation, or their capacity for change. “Run someone with your credentials a thousand times and they never would have saved a kid like that." Except, of course, Yusuke did save him, so those "credentials" are suspect, to say the least. However, YYH is not a story that explores these issues. Instead, I recommend you watch this!

Rather than being upset at the afterlife's low opinion of him (because let's be real, Yusuke shares it), he latches onto a little detail Botan let slip. If he wasn't supposed to die today... then was the kid?

Mmm... no. Actually, without the chaos of Yusuke jumping into the road, the driver would have swerved at the last second and the kid would have not only lived, but actually come out with one less scrape.

So Yusuke is obviously upset by this news! I would be too!! Holy shit, hang onto the "it's the thought that counts" message with everything you've got.

Also, don't think too much about the fact that the afterlife apparently knows exactly what will happen to people, down to how many cuts they accumulate in an accident. Also, don't think too much about where the afterlife foreseeing the crash begins and the unexpectedness of Yusuke interfering ends. That way lies madness. This will never come up again, so just let it go.

Sorry, 2013 me hijacked the post for a second.

As said, Yusuke is understandably upset by this revelation and as he fumes I'm reminded that this series likes to pull some amazing expressions.

Botan reiterates that it's all fine because Yusuke can come back to life. Weren't you listening? He should feel honored, in fact, considering that an offer like this only arrives every 100 years or so. Well, that explains why all of humanity isn't grappling with people coming back to life on the daily. One person every generation isn't going to cause much of a stir.

However, instead of jumping at the chance Yusuke announces that Botan is just like the teachers at school: she doesn't know what she's talking about. “You said yourself my life was kind of pathetic, right?” he says, going on to explain that everyone will be happier now that he's dead. His school won't have to deal with his behavior, Keiko won't have to nag him, and his mom will be able to party whenever she wants. It's a win-win for everyone involved.

Hmm, this feels familiar.

Don't worry, Yusuke doesn't need to experience a whole alternate reality to get the message.

“I’m sorry you feel that way at such an early age," Botan says and she is sorry, because despite her teasing nature that's a legitimately horrifying thing to believe. Yusuke won't budge though and after a little back-and-forth Botan leaves, telling Yusuke he should think it over while visiting his wake. She'll come back once he decides what to do.

“Do you have worms in your ears, lady? I did decide!” but Botan is long gone.

We cut to that night where Yusuke has indeed decided to attend his own wake. Maybe because of Botan's advice, maybe because he's just morbidly curious. We’re not given insight into the decision.

Atsuko is a mess, to put it mildly, not dressed for the occasion and sitting slumped against the way, staring vacantly as the guests offer their condolences. Yusuke is surprised by the fact that his entire class is here, but quickly writes them off when he sees two of the boys laughing. I'm on the fence about this detail, which I'll unpack in just a second.

First though, Yusuke sees Keiko exiting the house, inconsolable in her grief. She collapses on the ground with her two friends trying to offer comfort, despite the fact that they had nothing good to say about Yusuke himself. Good on them.

Before he can think too long on this though, Yusuke is distracted by Kuwabara's arrival. Unlike Keiko's crying, he expresses his grief through yelling. Specifically, yelling at Yusuke. For dying. For daring to "run away." His own friends are physically holding him back as he charges into the wake, screaming, “Who am I gonna fight now, huh? Who am I gonna fight?" It's not really about the fighting, of course. At least, not the fighting alone. "You’re supposed to be here for me," Kuwabara finishes, the punch he's thrown at Yusuke's photo going limp and catching his first tear.

You know, for all the goofy expressions, this show really is gorgeous. Just wait until we get to the fight animations.

Kuwabara's reaction is why I hesitate to write off the classmates like Yusuke has. Granted, we have no reason to believe that they care for him as Kuwabara does — they're nameless background characters defined only by their terror of "the great Urameshi" — but it's still a split second taken out of context. We don't know what they were laughing at, or if laughing is a part of their grief. God knows I personally laugh at the most inappropriate moments. If you tell me someone has just died there is a very good chance I will laugh awkwardly as I try to process that. It’s just a reflex. All of which I bring up not because these side characters are important, but because Yusuke's perception of his own worth is. The point of each of these moments is to show that those around him have always cared for him, even if Yusuke didn't notice. It's nice to think that extends to his classmates too. The variety likewise exists to show us how people grieve differently, with Kuwabara's friends not understanding that this is how he's working through the trauma: “This place is for mourning!” He is mourning, even if his way of mourning isn't as socially acceptable as Keiko's. So if screaming and throwing punches is valid, crying is valid, staring stoically in a drunk stupor is valid... why not laughter too?

Not likely, perhaps, but possible.

As an additional possibility to chew on, watching this premier again, it struck me how more emotional Kuwabara's scene is compared to Keiko's. Don't get me wrong, crying and calling Yusuke’s name gets the point across, but it's two seconds of generic grief compared to a much longer scene rife with intensity. When Kuwabara arrives the music swells and everyone is forced to pay attention to him. His grief is loud, violent, and given symbolism with his fist and the photo. There's more effort put into his reaction, frankly, so it wouldn't surprise me if fans started shipping them after this. That grief combined with an "enemies to lovers" possibility is a pretty potent mix. To be clear, Yusuke/Keiko is the (oh so obvious) canonical endgame and in the fandom Yusuke/Kuwabara can't compare to another slash ship that will turn up later, but this is a good example of how writers can craft some Very Gay Scenes without realizing it. When you have the girl crying prettily for a second and the guy absolutely losing his mind over Yusuke's death, questioning his purpose now, his support network, and then collapsing in grief... don't be surprised if your audience goes, "Oh hey, maybe they'd be a good couple instead."

But I digress.

The only people who are unquestioningly happy about Yusuke's passing are Mr. Iwamoto and his co-conspirator, Mr. Akashi. You know Akashi is another bad guy because he has bucked teeth and "ugliness" is an easy way to code for evilness. YYH is not immune to those mistakes :/

These two are really something else though, standing in the middle of a wake and claiming it's “too bad that car wasn’t big enough for them too," referring to Kuwabara and his friends. Wow! What stellar members of the academic community. Iwamoto goes on to say that Yusuke dying at least accomplished something good. Not, mind you, saving the life of a child, but rather looking good for their school's reputation. Akashi agrees, but says it's likely Yusuke only accidentally saved him while trying to steal the kid's lunch money. Remember, that accusation of theft is the one thing Yusuke has said outright that he does not do.

He's pissed listening to all this — wouldn't you be? — but knows by now he can't do anything about it. In another fantastic shot, Yusuke hovers his hand over Iwamoto's shoulder, desperate to grab him, when Takenaka's arrives there instead.

“What do you suppose is more disgraceful? That boy showing his misery, or your insensitive and idiotic words!”

HELL YEAH. You tell 'em, Mr. Takenaka.

Yusuke gets his third shock of the night at this passionate defense. Takenaka leaves the teachers to go pay his respects, but admits to Yusuke's picture that he just can't speak well of him. He was surprised to hear that Yusuke gave up his life for another and it's a fact that he acted selfishly. Though he doesn't say it in as many words, Takenaka explains that he's not grieving because Yusuke was a good person, but because it's so clear to him that he might have been. “Why didn’t you stay? You could have made something great out of yourself.”

Normally, "Why didn't you stay?" is just something for the living to grapple with, as the dead obviously don't have any say in what happens to them. But Yusuke does. It's here that the lighting grows soft again and Yusuke considers Takenaka's words. Keiko and Kuwabara grieve for who he was, but Takenaka grieves for who Yusuke could have been — someone that might still exist if Yusuke decides to undergo this ordeal.

Atsuko adds fuel to the emotional fire, breaking down and hiding her face in her knees.

Finally, the kid Yusuke saved arrives with his mother. Because yes, Yusuke saved him in every way that matters, considering no one else knows — or will know — that he'd have lived anyway. I like that the show doesn't allow that knowledge to undermine the emotion of their arrival, or what Yusuke’s act meant to them.

The mom tells her son to pay his respects and the kid thanks Yusuke for saving him, and for "making faces." He clearly doesn't get what's going on here. This is confirmed as the two leave and he asks his mom if he can play with Yusuke again tomorrow. “I know some people sounded angry at him, but he’s really nice!"

They're probably just crying because they want to play with him too, he thinks, which just makes his mom join in. Everyone is crying in this club tonight.

Those words are the cincher for Yusuke and with a brief montage of all the grief he's witnessed, he makes his decision.

We cut to later that night where Yusuke floats above the city, admiring the moon. Botan reappears and he asks, “Have you ever not known about something that seemed obvious to everyone else?” Yes, everyone has experienced that at one point or another. She asks if he's made his decision and Yusuke agrees to try and come back to life.

Emotional revelations out of the way, we're allowed another tone shift as Botan yells with joy, speeding off and causing Yusuke to grab hold of the end of her oar, lest he be left behind. Cranky as always, he demands to know where they're going. "To the spirit world, of course!" They're off to see someone who can explain the ordeal and give Yusuke the tool needed to complete it. Just hang on and enjoy the ride.

Thus ends our very first episode! Ah, the nostalgia. This is part one of a four arc series, with the anime cutting out a lot of the filler stories found at the start of the manga — a smart decision, I think. They primarily do the work of teaching Yusuke what he learned at the wake, so if you can accomplish that as quickly as the adaptation did, all the better. Especially since Yusuke needs to grow a great deal beyond the basic understanding that people might, sort of care for him, and that work will occur primarily through a job he's going to take on. The series isn't really about his death and it's not about an attempt to come back either — it's about what happens once you get that second chance. So this is the setup, but it's important setup all the same.

No need to skip ahead though. I've blathered enough for one recap. I hope you enjoyed and I'll see you when the writing gods next bless me with energy! 💜

#YYH #Yu Yu Hakusho #YYH recaps #mymetas

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an-abundance-of-castiels · 5 years ago

Text

Best Left Forgotten

Part 18: Waiting

Series Summary: You wake up in the bunker with a serious head injury and no memory of the last year or the Winchesters and find that Dean is avoiding you. You are determined to find out the truth about what happened but maybe the truth is best left forgotten.

Characters: Dean x Reader, Sam, Cas

Warnings: language, Season 10 Spoilers

Word Count: 1594

General Disclaimer: I do not own the gif or any of the Supernatural properties or characters. This is a fan piece and is intended to be enjoyed only as such.

A/N: Oh wow guys! One year later and my first fic is finished… Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who has read and shared and followed the story. An ENORMOUS thank you to @weirdochick56 for rough beta-ing and helping through an amazing year of this story. You are the best ;)

...I hope you like it.

Best Left Forgotten Masterlist

Missed Part 17?

**********

You blink your eyes open slowly and the first thing that registers is a horrible pain in your head. Your vision is blurry around the edges. You suddenly remember why you are here and you push through. You manage to make it to your feet in time to watch Sam lay down the photos and say something to Dean. You can tell immediately that your hearing isn’t right. All you hear is the high pitched ringing of complete silence. You hear Sam’s statement as a mumble passing through a tunnel. You are so dizzy but you have to save Dean. You remember it all now. The blood, the pain, the terror. That thing hurt you because you were a threat to it. None of it matters now because that was not Dean. But this man, standing in front of you, this still is. You can feel it deep in your very being. And you have to save his soul, because… It’s part of you. If he is lost, so are you.

You stumble down to the bar where those two boys, who you love more than anything, are about to make a horrible decision. You have to stop them, even if it kills you.

“Dean!” You call out as he raises the scythe up to… oh my god… Kill Sam.

Dean looks up at you suddenly and his eyes shift from a blank stare to recognition. He lowers the scythe as you stumble forward. You clutch your head as you fall over your own feet. Your vision blacks out and suddenly you have been scooped up, just before you hit the floor. After a moment, your vision comes back and you see Dean staring down at you.

“I knew you’d catch me.” You smile up at him through the pounding in your head.

“I thought you were gone, I thought I killed you… again, after all this time.” Dean closes his eyes, “This is why I have to go, why I have to let you and Sam go. I’m a monster.”

Every word pierces your chest a little bit more. “Dean, a monster would’ve let me fall and killed Sam. Killing Sam, me, the pieces of yourself that remind you who you are, your family? That will turn you into a monster. Don’t give up on yourself.” You know how important this part is. It takes all of your strength, but you reach up and kiss his cheek. “I forgive you. I love you.”

Dean’s face crumples at your words and he lets out a choked sob. You see pain, shame, and relief flood his face through the tears. He kisses your forehead and lets out a shaky breath.

The old man walks forward, past Sam. “Dean, if you can’t do it, I’ll do it for you.” Suddenly the scythe blade bursts out of his chest. The man looks down, stunned, and disintegrates into a pile of sand. He is gone within seconds and behind him stands a very surprised Sam holding the scythe. He seems almost frozen in place, mouth open, eyes wide.

“Are you okay?” Dean asks Sam, worriedly.

“Yeah. I think I just killed death.” Sam mutters back, “What about you?”

Dean looks back at you, terror in his eyes. You smile back at him through the pounding in your head. You feel the left side of your face go numb.

“Y/N?” Dean panics and lowers you to the floor. Sam runs over and cradles your head. He’s already dialing Cas, but you know that it is too late.

“Cas!? Help! It’s Y/N!” Sam begs. You pull the phone from his hand weekly and he lets you.

“I love you Cas. Thank you for everything,” You hang up the phone just as Cas tries to protest the resignation in your voice. “Sam, you’ll always be my best friend.” You stop for a moment to clutch Dean’s hand as a spasm of pain radiates from your head down your spine. It won’t be long now. You feel yourself relaxing into the pain as it turns to numbness. “Make sure Dean lives a long life, I can wait.” You turn to look at Dean for a long moment. You look into his eyes and see your Dean. Your protector. You smile and feel warmth and peace spread from your chest as you realize the truth in your next words, “I love you and I forgive you. You are not that monster. You are a hero. My hero. Every minute of my life that I spent with you was heaven on Earth. That’s all there is to say. This isn’t goodbye forever, it’s goodbye for now.”

Dean seems stunned with tears streaming down his face. He seems confused for a moment, unable to accept the finality of your words. He gazes down at you with eyes full of love and a plea. A plea for you to stay. A plea you wish so badly you had the power to give in to. “Y/N, there’s nothing but pain waiting for me. Monsters don’t go to heaven.” Dean looks down in shame. His face is twisted with sob.

With all of your remaining strength, you cup his head and lift his eyes to look into yours. “Dean, I k-”

You start to choke on blood and your words won’t come. Every breath burns as you breathe blood, unable to find air. Dean sits you up, desperately trying to help you breathe. The edges of your vision start to go black as you convulse in his arms, struggling to breathe.

And the world fades to black.

The last sounds you register are Dean screaming and Sam sobbing.

————————————

You open your eyes in the bunker, on the couch. You wait for the pain, the headache, the hole in your stomach… and they don’t come. Cas must’ve healed you. Relief is the first real thing you feel. You hop up and start looking for the boys. There’s something very important you need to tell Dean. He needs to understand that you aren’t going anywhere. They’re nowhere to be found and Dean’s door is locked. Odd. You reach into your pocket for your phone… It’s not there. Worry begins to creep in when Castiel walks through the door.

“Cas!” You run and hug him, “Where are the boys? Did Dean get the mark off?” You smile at Cas.

“Y/N,” Cas looks at you carefully. “You’re in heaven. I came to make sure you were okay.”

You’re quiet for a moment as you remember the last few moments of your life. You made this choice. The choking and the blood. You steady yourself and take a deep breath. “I’m fine. Is Dean… I mean… the mark? And Sam?”

“Sam and Dean are fine. The mark is gone but it released the darkness.” Cas sighs, “We have to deal with that next, I suppose.”

“Good,” you smile, knowing that Sam and Dean are right where they should be: on another quest to save the world, “Tell the boys I love them and I believe in them. And tell Dean I will wait patiently.”

“They love you, Y/N. We all do. We miss you. We gave you a hunter’s funeral.” Cas looks down.

You pull his face up to look you in the eye, “Thank you for everything Cas. You gave me more time than I ever would have had before I met you. This is not your fault. I love you.” You feel warm and safe here. This is perfect.

Cas, feeling your happiness, smiles. “Goodbye for now, Y/N.”

You watch him leave and your smile drops the tiniest amount as you feel the familiar ache in the center of your chest. Almost perfect.

————————————

30 years later

You sit patiently in the living room watching one of Dean’s favorite Kung Fu movies for the 100,000th time. Your chest aches every moment you spend watching them, but they remind you that he is coming back. The door to the bunker, which has remained closed for almost 25 years, creeps open. You hop off of the couch and tense up with your angel blade, preparing for a fight or for another angel coming to ruin your happiness to get back at the boys. You aren’t afraid, only determined to kick ass. You tense up, preparing for a fight as the door creaks open and a shadowy figure steps into the shadows.

An elderly man with familiar green eyes steps into the light.

You drop your blade and feel your chest light on fire. A burning yearning for his touch. You can’t help the joy that spreads across your entire being.

He is an old man with grey streaks in his hair and deep wrinkles under his eyes. His face lights up when he sees you. You watch as he races down the stairs and by the time he reaches the bottom, he is the Dean you remember with dark hair and emerald green eyes. He holds his arms out and you run to him and jump into his arms. The moment you touch, You take his face in both of your hands and kiss him deeply. He carries you over to the couch and falls onto his back. You both lay there and you bury your face into the crook of his arm, stretching out on top of him. You smell the familiar scent of musky pine, flannel, and whiskey. You breathe it in, inhaling it like you will never smell it again.

You feel whole.

It’s finally perfect.

“I’ve been waiting,” you murmur.

The End

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#best left forgotten #Demon Dean #dean winchester #Sam Winchester #castiel #spn.spn fic #dean x reader #angst #fluff

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legendarymasterwolf · 6 years ago

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E3 2019: My Thoughts on What We Saw

Alright, E3 is over this year, which means it's time to go over what we saw and my thoughts on it.

This is late, so some stuff here will be out already.

I'll be going by publisher alphabetically, so first up, we have...

Borderlands 3

I'm so freaking hyped to get lost in this hilarious world again. I've played Mordecai in Borderlands 1, Zero in 2, and Claptrap in Presequel. Still trying to decide who to play as in 3, but right now, it's looking like I'll pick FL4K, since he specializes in long range and has a few cute beasties by his side. Also, we're getting not one, but THREE action skills with each character. Not only that, but you can sacrifice your grenade skill for two equipped skills.

The Children of the Vault look like some worthy successors to Handsome Jack for title of "Best Borderlands Villains", though we'll see how they pan out on release date.

The gameplay that we saw of Moze looks smooth. Heck, everything about this game looks sleek and refined without doing away with the art style. Also, guns with legs.

Anyway, we not only got the gameplay reveal, but also Commander Lilith and the Fight for Sanctuary, a new DLC for Borderlands 2 that sets up 3, so I'm scrambling to finish the Handsome Collection on my PS4, which just got a lot more difficult now that I've bought RDR2 finally, along with several other games.

Control

I loved Alan Wake, and this is from the same people, so I’m hyped. The game looks great, has a suspenseful atmosphere, and it seems to play well. I’m looking forward to release date.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Reboot

I haven't bought a COD game since "Black Ops 2", though I have played the newer ones with a friend of mine. It looks good visually from the reveal trailer I saw, I'll say that much. No gameplay yet, but I know it'll be gritty, focusing on some of the more shocking moments of the original trilogy, like "No Russian" from MW2 or the nuclear explosion from MW1, so it seems we're bringing in more edge to the series. Still, I'm glad the campaign is back, and I'm interested to see how it will look.

12 Minutes

A twelve minute time loop where you're forced to relive the death of your wife and the only way to break it is to find out why she was killed? Sign me up.

Code Vein

I remember this one from last E3. Still the same opinion, too. Anime style souls game that I might buy for the story, which looks interesting.

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot

So this looks REALLY good. It's like a deep RPG, deeper than Xenoverse was, with mechanics besides fighting like fishing, and as for the fights themselves, they seem to be more strategical than before, with a healthy dose of classic DBZ fisticuffs in there for good measure.

Elden Ring

A Souls game written by George RR Martin? Don't know too much about it besides that, but it looks cool based on the trailer.

The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan

Basically, another Until Dawn, but on the open sea during a storm. And I'm totally okay with that.

Deathloop

Another game from Arkane? The guys who made Dishonored? I'll take it. Besides, another time loop premise sounds interesting.

Doom: Eternal

If Fallout 76 was any indication, Bethesda desperately needs a win now to restore faith in their studio. Besides a few of the other games announced at E3 2019 that could do so, there was one that stood out in particular: Doom Eternal. I’ve already played all the Wolfenstein games, with the exception of one upcoming entry on this list, and based on what I’ve seen of Eternal, I’m going to like it due to the similarity in gameplay.

GhostWire: Tokyo

The presentation on the new game from the makers of Evil Within, another series to try now that I have a PS4, was memorable for a few reasons. First off, Ikumi Nakamura, the game’s creative director, was the main presenter and she was adorable. Seriously, it’s probably one of the best E3 presentations I’ve seen this year. I can’t remember the last time I saw one so genuine like hers, plus it helps that the Internet has fallen in love. As for the game itself, it looks great, with people disappearing in Tokyo and it being up to some guy with a bow and supernatural powers to find out why. The reveal trailer was all we got, but still, I can’t wait to play it.

Wolfenstein: Youngblood

The first game I’ve ever preordered, and this comes from a guy who never preorders on principle. It’s a Wolfenstein spinoff with BJ’s twin daughters, so yeah, I’ll buy it. Plus, it’s co-op, so I’m playing this with my best friend. Still trying to decide which twin to play, though. Probably Jessie, since my friend is gonna want to play Soph.

Paranoia: Happiness is Mandatory

Looks interesting, plus the gameplay reminds me of Shadowrun Returns.

The Sinking City

This one’s already out, but it looks good. Hopefully, it’ll be received better than Call of Cthulu before it. Plus, I’m all for a game where the protagonist is losing his mind, like Dead Space.

Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood

Set in the World of Darkness universe, like Bloodlines, except you're a werewolf instead of a vampire and it's from a different studio. Gameplay was revealed behind closed doors, but it looks good from what I've heard. We don't have too many werewolf games around.

Cyberpunk 2077

SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY ALREADY!

Yeah, this might be the first game I preorder for myself, since now we finally have a release date: April 16th, 2020. The new trailer we got gave us a glimpse of a default male V as well as what may be Jackie’s death (please don’t kill off Jackie, CD Project RED, I like him too much already). After V’s employer tries to double cross him, V tries to kick ass with his twin arm blades, which look really unique, before said employer shoots him in the head. The trailer ended with a major surprise: as V comes to in a junkyard, a figure in jeans, a tank-top, and a silver left arm approaches, and kneels to reveal a face and voice that sounds suspiciously like Keanu Reeves.

Yes, that’s right, for those who haven’t heard by the time this is posted, Keanu Reeves is in Cyberpunk 2077 and he’s playing Johnny Silverhand, a legendary rocker in the world of 2077 who may not be what he seems.

After the trailer premiered onstage, Reeves came out onstage to promote the game. He could barely get through the start of his speech, people were that excited to see him in the flesh. There was even a great moment where he described the game as “breathtaking”, to which a fan shouted out, “You’re breathtaking!”, to which Keanu responded in kind. We don’t deserve this man.

Anyway, at the end of his speech, Reeves gave a new look at gameplay as well as the game’s release date. The glimpse was only about 20 seconds long, but still, the new look at the combat, hacking, and what is presumably a digital afterlife or something like that was enough to get me even more hyped for this game.

Seriously, I couldn’t be more hyped. This game is gonna be massive and I just might preorder it.

My Friend Pedro

Switch game, but still looks cool. It’s already out now.

Sea of Solitude

I need to play more games that make me feel like this. The art style looks gorgeous and the theme is depression, so yeah, I may buy this one if I like what I’m hearing.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Honestly, EA's part of the the expo was kind of depressing, especially when it got to Anthem. However, we did get more of Jedi: Fallen Order, and for that, I'm grateful, because this game looks great. Both the combat and lightsaber look slick as does the gameplay in general, and the voice acting is on point, from Cameron Monaghan to Forest Whitaker. We need a good Star Wars game for current gen consoles, and while The Old Republic is still my favorite, that's for PC. Also, while it has been announced that there are no microtransactions in the game, I'm sure EA will find some way to screw it up, but for now, it looks awesome.

Greedfall

I’m interested. Story and premise have me, a mix of 17th century colonialism with horror and the supernatural. Gameplay looks like my kind of jam, and we may be getting romance options too, based on some trailer observations.

John Wick Hex

Gameplay seems unique, plus it’s John Wick. I will always take more of Keanu Reeves.

Grandia HD Collection

I like JRPGs like this one, though it’s for Switch, so I can’t play it.

Way to the Woods

Looks like a cute adventure puzzle game. I might get it for PC.

Wasteland 3

This series looks like tactical Fallout, so yeah, I’m likely to give this one a shot since it looks good.

Blair Witch

A Blair Witch video game? That’s psychological horror?! With an adorable dog companion named Bullet?!?! Yes, please.

We didn’t get much besides a trailer and some gameplay, but I’m eager to see more.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Sequel

Ugh, why is it that last year I was complaining about not having a PS4, now this year I’m complaining about not having a Switch?!

Anyway, this looks great and I want to see more. Especially since I’ve heard it’s going to be scarier than Majora’s Mask.

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

Looks good on the graphics front, plus the gameplay additions looks promising.

And once again, I can’t play it.

Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order

Out of all the games on this list, this is the one I want to play most that I can’t play because, you guessed it, I don’t have a Switch.

I loved the original Ultimate Alliance games, so I’m sure the new one is gonna be a hit, what with the new combos, character designs, and references to the MCU, plus it’ll tie us over until Marvel’s Avengers.

Pokemon Sword and Shield

The Pokemon look cute, it is set in the world’s version of the UK, gameplay looks improved, and once again, I can’t play it.

Empire of Sin

It looks cool, plus I need more Mob style games to play. It’s also made by the people who are responsible for the next game on this list...

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2

It’s only in pre-alpha, but still, this one looks good. The original is on the Steam store, and there are fan made patches that improved upon what was originally a disaster. The sequel looks like a smoother version of its predecessor, with a few new abilities and mechanics put in. Again, it's in pre-alpha, so the final product will look much cleaner, but for now, I'm excited for its release date.

Shenmue III

First off, I’m royally pissed that Epic stole this one. That being said, the game looks great and I’m looking forward to continuing Ryo’s story on PS4. The gameplay looks great, the atmosphere is enthralling, and the English dub sounds good this time around. Still pissed about Epic, but at least I can play it on PS4.

The Outer Worlds

This still looks great. Since Fallout 76 took a nosedive and kept on going, we need a game like this to get that bitter taste out of our mouths. This still looks like a cross between Fallout and Borderlands, the true New Vegas spiritual successor that we need right now. The companions actually look helpful, have personalities of their own, and the Flaws System sounds really interesting, giving your hero a perk in enchange for a debuff for the whole game. Also the humor is great, too.

Marvel’s Avengers

Yes, the character designs don’t look so hot. However, those can be changed on the road to launch. That aside, I liked what I saw. The gameplay looks great, the voice cast has some top tier talent for the industry, and the promise of more heroes to be added after launch without the attached microtransactions has my attention.

Dying Light 2

I only played the demo for the first one, a game I still need to play, but I liked it enough to want a sequel. The usual free running mechanics look smooth, plus the addition of player choice shakes up the game, making your playthrough unique, so yeah, more of the good old stuff with a few new things sprinkled in.

Final Fantasy VII Remake and Remasters

The remake of FF7 looks AMAZING. The hybrid combat system looks like a dream, plus the character designs look top notch. In addition, the voice cast sounds on point for their respective characters. The hype around this thing was evident from the incessant cheering, we want it that much. We even have a release date: March 3rd, 2020. It’s been a long time coming, but it seems the wait to experience this classic for the second time on a different system will have finally been worth it.

Also, there was content announced for FF14 as well as two remasters: Crystal Chronicles and FF8.

Bet your ass I’m buying the remaster for FF8.

Biomutant

This has been described as Fluffy Devil May Cry. It’s accurate. I didn’t know you’d be able to customize your character, to! Combat looks fun, and it appears there is humor present if the narrator is anything to go by, so I’m interested.

Destroy All Humans! Remake

I never played the original, but I did read about it and hear about it from a friend. From what I’ve seen, the remake looks fun! Good parody of the 1950s and the updated graphics look great. Plus, Krypto seems like a fun, grumpy protagonist.

Gods and Monsters

This looks like a cross between Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Legend of Zelda. Considering it’s being made by the same creators of the former, I can’t wait to see more of this in the future.

Ghost Recon: Breakpoint

I’ll be honest, I still haven’t played any Ghost Recon games, so maybe here would be a good place to start. Gotta say, I like the way Jon Bernthal presented. He just seemed at ease onstage. Plus, Bernthal’s dog looks adorable. Bam Bam is the real hero of the Ubisoft press conference.

Anyway, it seems Bernthal is playing Cole D. Walker, one of the antagonists of the game. Didn’t see any gameplay, but still, the game looks good. I need to play more tactical shooters in general.

Watch Dogs: Legion

I played the first Watch Dogs game. Thought it was cool, but overall it was a bit disappointing. I still need to play the second one, but I heard it was a major improvement, even if it wasn’t a financial hit. Still, this one put a smile on my face. The ability to recruit and play as anyone? A sarcastic AI as your companion? A grandma assassin? I will take all of it, thank you.

Also, grandma assassin.

Did I mention there was a grandma assassin?

Can’t wait for March 6th.

LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

The LEGO Star Wars games were some of the first games I ever owned back when I played on the PS2, so I’m hyped for a collection of all 9 films in one game. We don’t know much beyond the announcement trailer, but hey, I’ll gladly take this one when it comes out next year.

Baldur’s Gate III

A video game that plays like a DND game? I can’t wait. Haven’t played the other games, but I’m sure I’ll be fine once I play that tabletop prequel they mentioned.

Battletoads

It’s an Xbox and PC exclusive, but still, glad this is getting a remake.

Bleeding Edge

This looks like an Overwatch reskin. The combat itself looks unique, though, so we’ll see how it goes.

Gears 5

We got a little more on Gears 5 this time around. We’ve got a look at Kait and how the Locust influence is threatening to tear her apart (that’s what I’m assuming, I’ve never played the Gears games). We also got a new mode, Escape. I might get it, since it’ll be available for PC.

Halo Infinite

If this is what Xbox Scarlett looks like, then Sony might have actual competition for once. This is the best the Halo series has looked in years, and considering how let down some felt after Halo 5, it’s about time. We’re getting the same badass Master Chief back, this time with no AI companion, as Cortana has suffered corruption due to being around for longer than normal and has gone psycho as a result. Regardless, the graphics look amazing and I can’t wait to see how it looks when it releases Holiday 2020.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps

I never played the original, but I might have to now, because this looks cute. The art style looks great and I’ll always be interested in games where you fight things ten times your own size. Plus, it seems to run smooth, and just by the sound of the story, it already has my heart.

Psychonauts 2

To cap things off, let’s end with a game I’ve been excited for since I finished the original months ago. The game seems to be coming along great, if the first level is anything to go by. Returning voice cast, new enemies and powers, new environments to explore, Jack Black voicing a Brain in a Jar, need I say more?

Also, this game looks to explore the water curse put on Rasputin’s family, so it will be a more personal and chilling story as well.

________________

So, there you have it. That’s my thoughts on E3 2019, half a month late.

What are you guys excited for? Leave a comment letting me know, especially if there was something I left out!

Until then!

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dreadhaus-literature · 5 years ago

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{A/N} Waiting on the Sun to Rise.

Oh how I wish that ol’ sun would rise~♫

youtube

I wrote a bit. {Points down.} It’s nothing special, 2nd POV just ‘cause idk what’s going on with anything again and it feels weird to try and write dedicated pieces when stuff’s off. {Waves a hand in a circle.} Said it before, but this time I’m trying not to let it keep me from writing. Used to use that as an excuse to not write or do anything but I keep saying if I keep that up I’ll literally never do anything and I’m in my 30′s, now.

I’m ready to do stuff. And so I’m gonna do stuff.

I’ve been reading “The Writer’s Process” by Anne Janzer, which was recommended to authors who want to know how to prep for writing seriously, sort of like a “how to get started writing novels” 101 book. It had really good reviews on Amazon and I’m on Chapter Five right now. It’s only about 200 pages long, if that, but it’s honestly really useful. It’s got good tips on balancing work/personal life with trying to write (like you have to actually dedicate time to write, can’t just expect to write a novel on wishful thinking) or how to help stimulate creativity. It includes tidbits and tips from psychologists who have done studies on the best way to tackle creative processes like writing so you can get the most out of your writing; it’s really been a helpful tool. The chapter I’m on right now talks about tackling procrastination, lmao, and how to self-discipline--which I have said is one of my biggest problems. I make excuses, I find reasons to not write, I let myself get distracted, but I’ve been saying all year I’m tired of looking back on the year before and spying all the wasted time and just sighing @ myself.

There’s no excuse other than me being lazy and/or making excuses. The older I get, the less forgiving I get with myself about it.

My 20′s I am now realizing was really not a good time for me to try and get published, I’m sort of allowing myself a pass because now that I’m out of that decade, I realize I was working through a lot of shit. I was still dealing with abuse into my late 20′s and while no one’s life is perfect I recognize that I wasn’t in a good enough headspace to dig deep and write well. My emotions are 97% of my writing and they weren’t right. Now that I’m in a better place in all aspects (still working on the living situation, but got less than a year to go, there) I can shelve the self-reflective work and start trying to make something of this talent and imagination I’ve got.

I don’t really know where this aggressive, “I am going to write.” mojo has come from. I mean I’ve always, always known I wanted to be an author but it was sort of a hobby more than a career. I wasn’t taking it seriously and there’s probably lots of reasons for that--

1. Was dealing with depression and teetering on finding any self-worth enough to try to make something of myself. 2. Been told from a young age that I was not good enough and to give up/not bother trying because I won’t make it. 3. Afraid of failure and the resulting, “I told you so”‘s.

So yeah. I just hid behind fanfiction and sprinkling my OC’s and plotlines through fandom work, which allowed me to express what I wanted to express without fear of failure or putting myself out there. But that’s not enough, at least...I don’t know. I’ll always have a heavy preference for writing for FL and Monica and stuff, but I treat that like...hm. Almost like a treat? It’s a treat for me. To give something of myself to someone I love very much. Her reactions will always be my favorite.

Stepping outside of that, though, fanfiction stopped being enough for me a number of years ago. It was too confining, I had so many ideas and characters and themes and stuff I wanted to put out there that I didn’t want to work in a confined space anymore. Y’know that saying, “Of course you’re uncomfortable and unhappy where you are--you’ve grown, you’ve changed, you are no longer that person. It’s time to move on.”

I feel that.

It was like wearing a pair of shoes that were too small. Yes, I could wear them and get somewhere, but not the distance I needed, and wanted to go. My hopes of being published haven’t gone away. I’m scared to try still, lol, I know my writing’s good, it’s the one thing I know I’m good at, but the way I want to do it is different than the norm. In a way, selfishly, I feel like Christine. She was one of the only people writing paranormal romance when she started, and she’s said how she had to push and push to get her publisher to take a chance on her work, that she knew she had something good and she didn’t give up on it. And now, we have the Carpathians. ♥ I’m somewhat in the same boat with wanting to write 2nd POV. I’m totally capable of making a heroine and giving her a name and backstory but I know what I like to read when I read fanfiction. 2nd POV. It’s more personal, it resonates, and tbh it helped me through some really difficult parts of my life. I want to return that to my readers. To give them that personal immersion that 2nd POV provides. But those aren’t the books that are published.

I’m getting ahead of myself. I don’t have a novel finished or anything, lmao. I just, it’s one of my fears. That I’ll write this novel in 2nd POV and not be able to get it published...but I suppose I should cross the first part of that particular problem before anything else. Can’t fret about being published if there ain’t shit TO publish, DOT.

I’ve got a few novel ideas. Milano hasn’t gone away, lol. He still lurks about, like he’s just waiting for me to get my ass in gear and actually write his book properly.

...I really did sort of just use Yu Yu Hakusho to sort of write my own practice novel of Milano’s, lmao, if I’m being honest. I mean I did also want to go the hipster route and write for Yusuke because he was so under-loved in the community and I wouldn’t be me if I wasn’t subjugating favoritism but truthfully I wanted to let Milano loose. I was proud of him, proud of the story and world I’d created around him, and I needed an outlet for it and was too young to know what to do with what I had. Was fucking 18 years old, fresh out of high school, and in way over my head honestly. Now that I’m matured, older, and my ADHD isn’t kicking my brain around like a pinball machine, I think I can do him proper justice.

So yes, Milano, I will still be writing your novel. Just uh, don’t ask me when. Baby steps.

I also have Bram’s story that I wrote 20 some odd pages of outline and prep work on, that I fully intended to novelize. And I still think I have something there, so hold onto your obsession, Bram. You’re up on the board, too.

The most recent idea I had was for a series of novels, called Help Wanted. It actually started from the most recent story I wrote for Monica, where she delivered those specialized herbs to Milano. I essentially work in a service industry and it got me thinking about how I like to take care of people, that you don’t typically see that in romance novels. Usually the heroine is the one being taken care of and while I won’t object to that, I also like to do the taking care of. And it’s not an itch I get to scratch a lot, when I read. So I have been tossing around this series of novels where the heroine of each book is a caregiver of some sorts, taking care of the love interest in some way, shape, or form.

For example, the idea I came up with today was for a human nanny (the reader) who gets hired by a vampire to take care of his child after his wife was staked/murdered. The vampire is hopeless as a father and needs all the help he can get, and his child needs a proper caregiver. The nanny comes highly recommended and to make matters worse, when shown a list of potential caregivers the child picks her out of all the other candidates. The vampire is wary of allowing a human in his home but he’s rewarded when his little one flourishes under the love and attention the new nanny brings. Can the vampire come to trust and love one of the very same who killed his late wife?

Another idea I had was for a bubbly housekeeper/caregiver who comes to care for a depressed zombie/undead. The undead can barely take care of themselves and the caregiver was hired by a Wellness Committee, who keep tabs on supernaturals (think like child or elder protective services). The undead wants nothing to do with life but can’t die--but maybe, just maybe, with a little bit of TLC from their caregiver they can learn to live again. Happily, with the one who truly saved their soul.

Obviously don’t judge me too harshly, I’m literally like two days into this idea, lmao. It’s rough around the edges, like super rough, but it’s something that speaks to me. It’d be sort of like the Carpathians as in like, a shared universe, with all sorts of different love interests per novel--it’d be paranormal so there’d be monsters and demons and ghosts, weres and mers and just--maybe even superheroes! Or that could be a spin-off series or just--

See it’s just a lot and it’s all brand new and I’m still working all this out.

BUT! What’s exciting to me is that I have ideas, still. I still want to write, I’m still living in this creative, imaginary headspace and I’m still wanting to share that world. I think I’ll just always be this person, and that’s not a complaint. I’m glad. Imaginary places got me through my childhood and tbh it’s what’s getting me through this hectic shit we call adulthood.

I’ve been saying, all year, that I’m going to keep going and I’ll probably keep saying it. I’m still working a lot of stuff out, still figuring out my writing process and I need to get back to writing every day (I did it for the first three months of the year so I know I can do it) so that when the time comes for me to sit down and write for Milano, for Bram, for Help Wanted--

That I’ll still be ready to go. 💕

#{A/N} : commentary #{A/N} : ideas

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fallenhuntersx · 7 years ago

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@Y/NMartin - Guy’s, I know I’ve been a little MIA but it’s been for good reason, me and Jensen wanted to spend a few more weeks out of the public eye so we could celebrate.... you're looking at the future Mrs. Ackles.

“ ACTRESS Y/N MARTIN ENGAGED TO SUPERNATURAL ACTOR “ the online post headline read, you thought today would be the right time to announce your good news. Your close immediate family and friends already knew but you didn't want people talking and spreading rumours so you got your publisher to contact E!News, Entertainment Weekly and others, they got permission to break the good news to the rest of the public, you had wanted to keep it private for a few weeks before you announced it the world. But this moment for sure was a moment you’ll never forget. It had been the craziest few years of your life, first, you didn't think Jensen even liked you but all came to all you both were deeply head over heels for each other, you were both just too stubborn and oblivious to realize it until you admitted it to your sister one night. You always had a plan when you got into acting, you were supposed to climb the ladder and try many roles that were out of your comfort zone because that's what actresses do, of course there were many mountains to climb but finally you found your fit, your family. You had relationships with other actors but nothing too serious but you never expected to be engaged to your Supernatural co-star.

You woke up the morning after yours and Jensens big news had been announced, you looked over at the empty space beside you, a sigh leaving your mouth, you looked down at your ring finger, admiring the diamond that was glistening in the morning sunlight beaming through your window. You were both back on set later in the afternoon finishing off the current series, you smiled through your hair up into a messy bun, wrapping a silk dressing down around your curves, walking down to the kitchen you were met by that peachy bottom you just loved so much, you loved Jensen’s eyes but he had other assets going for him.

“ Morning baby, “ you said wrapping your arms around his waist.

“ You want pancakes this morning “ he smiled, giving you a wink.

“ when have I ever turned down them babe, you shouldn't even have to ask “ you said laughing, moving to sit down at your breakfast table that was in view of your backyard.

“ We better not be late today of all days “ Jensen sarcastically said, kissing the top of your head.

“ hmmm I would rather spend it some other way “ you walked towards him, wrapping your hands around his waist.

After what only you could explain as an eventful morning, you and Jensen pulled up on set greeted by the usual security guard Martin. “ Congratulations to the happy couple, but just a heads up I would advise the back entrance, too many paparazzi buzzing around the place“ he said with a sheepish look, you smiled back at him as confirmation. Martin had worked on set for years and he was one of the good guys, always looking out for everyone.

A few hours later, you were filming one of your character scenes, this season was getting back to like it was in the beginning, your character had finally come back to hunting with Sam & Dean but there was still a little tension between Harper and Dean, and a big fight scene was coming up. One thing that you knew what was coming up next, it just gave you an excuse to kiss Jensen more even if it was in front of the cameras and film crew.

Bruised and bloody after her recent hunt, Harper threw her bag onto one of the Library desks, she let out a loud sigh continuing to remove her jacket, things got a little heated between her and Dean, argueing as per usual, Harper had been on many Hunts before but this one really hit home. She pulled out a chairs to sit next to Sam who was reading one of his many books, opening her laptop she clicked open the internet to see if there was any more research she could do for the next hunt.

“ what the hell was back there “ Harper heard his voice before she saw him walking down the bunker stairs as Deans voice ehcoed through the halls.

“ what we got the bastard thing, you should be thanking me “ Harper replied harshly, with a sarcastic tone in her voice.

“ you’ve got to be kidding right, you could have been killed Harper “

“ yeah and you would care why, I mean sam here, I know gives a shit about me, but you Dean, don't make me laugh really “

“ you really think that, really I’m not getting into this right now “

“ Yeah cause that's what Dean Winchester always does, runs away when someone actually confesses feelings for him, treats them like dirt and then had the odasicity to think they’ll forgive him, you know Dean, i thought you could be different, maybe love me back but you've treated me like crap and once again I'm picking up the pieces “ Harper replied, standing from her chair moving towards Dean.

The space between Harper and Dean was getting tighter with every breath, even though she couldnt care less about him, deep down Harper was deeply in love with him and he knew it because he felt the same, both were to stubborn to admit they were wrong, thier pride at risk.

“ for god’s sake you’s two, right Harper you love Dean and Dean you love Harper to, I’m sick of this tension between all of us, you could cut the tenison with a knife. I love you Harper you know that but stop being as stubborn as him, and dont deny it cuase you’ve got more in common than you realise, yeah you’ve had your differences but deep down i know and everyone around us knows it “ Sam finally blurted out, he had enough of the bickering and heeped up sexual tension between you two.

“ Sammy stay out of this “ Dean shouted back.

“ You know he’s right “ Harper looked at Dean and smiled, before she could say anything Deans lips were pressed against hers, she wrapped her hands around his waist deepening the kiss. She jumped up, Dean catching her holding onto her curves.

“ Sammy you may want to put some headphones on “ Dean said breaking the kiss, winking to Harper carrying her to his bedroom.

“ CUTTTTT! that was brilliant guy’s , go have a break and be back in 20 “ Phillip shouted.

Walking off set back to your trailer, you felt a pair of arms around you. “let's finish what we started this morning “ Jensen said kissing down your neck, you smiled turning to face him, you pressed your lips against his deepening this kiss.

“ OH GOD GUYS, I KNOW Y'ALL ENGAGED NOW BUT CANT YOU DO THAT AT HOME “ you both heard Jared & Misha shout behind you guys.

Smiling into your kiss, you pulled Jensen into your trailer, kicking the door shut.

#supernatural imagine #supernatural #supernatural x reader #SPN #Jensen Ackles #jensen ackles imagine #jensen ackles x reader #dean winchester #deanwinchester #dean winchester x reader #dean winchester imagine #Jared Padalecki #jared padalecki imagine #jared padalecki x reader #Sam Winchester #sam winchester imagine #sam winchester x reader

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ask-readyplayergaymers · 7 years ago

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((Mod post!! Gonna answer some questions for me that have been sitting around for a while, sorry the response is so late ;w;

Everything’s under the cut to save space 0w0 ))

Anonymous said: Okay but totally loving the concept of Michael as Gil and Jeremy as Oz??? Like, freaking Alice is Christine (even tho its totally a personality clash apart from the childish aspect but shhhh) and just yes

YEAH MAN...any type of PH crossover is good hhh but GOSH imagine Michael like. After growing up and spending ten years looking for Jeremy like Gil did ahh my heart aches!! And Jeremy coming back pouting like “You’re taller than me now that’s totally not fair, M” Christine would make a really cute Alice I think, just seeing her dress up like Alice and having her kick ass as the B-Rabbit?! Hell yeah!

zekromztk2 said: Out of all of the Pandora Hearts characters, who is your favorite? Mine is... probably either Alice or Oz

HELL I LOVE GILBERT I’D DIE FOR THAT MAN LEGIT;; I love Oz and Break a lot too and! RUFUS BARMA AS WELL I ADORE HIM

Anonymous said: did I hear Harry Potter?

Ye man talk to me about the Marauder days any time I love talking about Sirius, James and Remus getting into shenanigans at Hogwarts hoo boy

Anonymous said: (Hey mod, so basically Jake and Rich are just gonna be background characters with kind of their own stories?)

Yes! Jeremy and Michael are the main focus here, but Jake and Rich sort of have their own thing going on in the background as more minor characters to the overall blog! I want to make a more developed backstory for the treasure hunter girls and Christine as well, so we’ll see how that goes~

Anonymous said: Thank you so much for introducing the novel this AU is based on to me!! Now that I've finished reading, I understand a lot more about this AU and now I want to ask... Would you consider Mr. Heere/Reyes as Morrow?

You’re very welcome, it’s a great novel so! I’m glad more people are reading it after having run into this blog, I must spread the pureness that is Aech to all of humanity //shakes fists And yes! Mr. Reyes is Morrow, I can imagine him sort of contributing to the hunt with lots of theater related things, which Christine specializes in! Book!Squip is Halliday, and there’s actually a little more about that and his relationship with Jeremy that I want to get into later.

Anonymous said: ((I had literally never heard of ready player one but I lov this blog so much I actually went out and bought it. Consider me murdled dead))

Yeah man like;; I didn’t read the novel until this past summer and after that I just got so into it and BMC at the same time so? I combined the two and here we are! Aaah I’m so glad!! Like I’ve said before I love it when people come tell me they went out to buy the novel and read it because of me, it makes me so happy :’) Hjrhjd please don’t die lol

emibeani said: ((I just finished reading Ready Player One, and thank you so much for this blog.))

I’m glad to hear it!! And you’re very welcome, I honestly didn’t expect so many people to get into but I’m super appreciative of all the interest you guys have shown so far so?? Thank you!!

Anonymous said: THIS IS NOT A ASK, BUT, OMG, THIS AU IS FUCKING PERFECT.

Glad you like it, ty! ;D

aslyn-is-artsy said: Your art is absolutely amazing

Hrhrhgfh I’m blushing thank you wow;;

aslyn-is-artsy said: Thank you so much for showing me this amazing book. I now aspire to become the real version of Art3mis. Just with short blonde hair instead. ;)

No problem!! It’s such a fantastic read and I was honestly blown away by it, so yeah...! Haha yeah I love Arty! She’s such a badass character and she doesn’t put up with any of Wade’s shit, which is great, she’s so empowered and I adore her

theitalianscribe said :I don't remember if this was answered, but is Michael trans male in this au?

Nope! I mean if you want to headcanon him that way that’s fine, I won’t stop you! I’m not going to endorse that since I myself don’t see him being that way, but you all are entitled to your own opinions so! And even if he were trans that wouldn’t be the main point of the blog anyway, I’m focusing more on their actual relationship, not their sexuality or gender or anything like that ^^

Anonymous said:i checked the book Ready Player One out from the library just because of this blog! are there any other books you recommend? (i havent finished the book but i like it so far i think!)

Oh nice!! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! Ahhh hmm well if you like supernatural teen stories, there’s a series called Darkest Powers by Kelley Armstrong about this girl named Chloe who finds out she’s a necromancer after being sent to a “troubled teens” home, and she meets these boys named Simon and Derek who also have special abilities and then all sorts of crazy things happen! I first read it back in high school and I still love it a lot, so yeah it’s a trilogy and all of the characters are really great so! (I looooove Simon like. So much.) Check it out if you have the time, it’s a good read!

kitikat101 said: Random potential song parodies: I Love the OASIS (I Love Play Rehearsal), Find That Egg (Be More Chill, pts. 1 and 2), Two-Player Game (but with Joust), Oases In My Head (Voices In My Head)

Kit can I say how much I adore these song titles they fit so well I’m really tempted to make parodies for all of them, absolutely brilliant

geeklychic1012 said: So are we allowed to send in fanfics based on this blog? (Cuz I submitted one but my wifi is shit and I think Tumblr might have eaten it haha)

YES!! Please do I’d highly enjoy reading stuff from you guys! And yes I saw and it breaks my heart like. Why. I’ll post it soon for everyone else to see too! They must all suffer as I have hfhdjhgjg

Anonymous said: Who would be I-r0k in this au? Or would I-r0k still be his normal jerk self?

I’m actually...not sure :0 There aren’t enough characters in BMC to properly cross over with all the rest of the RPO characters so;; I might have to go through the BMC novel and find some obscure background character to sneak in as I-r0k lol, because I would like to have all of the RPO characters replaced by BMC counterparts, if that makes sense!

theitalianscribe said: Does someone else take Halliday's place in this au? Also, do the gunters have a shared obsession with pop culture from a certain time period? What time period?

Yeah, I mentioned that up above! But Book!Squip takes over the role of Halliday, and musical Squip is Sorrento, of course~ Honestly I’d say like, probably the early 2000s, since that was when I was growing up and I can actually make references back to that time lol? I mean I love the 80s as well, just as it is in the book, but I feel as if I don’t know enough about that time period to actually. Make proper references and constantly. (I mean I could ask my parents who lived during that time too but;; haha.) Most of the stuff on here are me self-projecting, like with video games, books, and anime, that’s all me lol

Anonymous said: " “You don’t need to sell me on anything, Wade,” she said. “You’re my best friend. My favorite person.” With what appeared to be some effort, she looked me in the eye. “I’ve really missed you, you know that?”My heart felt like it was on fire. I took a moment to work up my courage; then I reached out and took her hand." aka perfect au is perfect how does it fit S O well

!!! yEAH MY DUDE I LOVED THAT PART and just imagining Michael saying that to Jeremy I wanted to cry;; I don’t even know but the INSTANT Aech was introduced I was like “Ohhh man. I’m getting major BMC vibes here” and bam, a week later this blog was born lol

Anonymous said:Would you be okay with cosplay of your character designs? I can't do one anytime soon, but they look really cool (and jerm's hair honestly looks fun to do)

YES!! OH MY GOD I’d probably die of sheer happiness if you guys cosplayed these dorks! If you want I could draw a character ref sheet so you actually get a proper look at their outfits! But yes I’d highly enjoy that;; like the cosplay doesn’t even have to be accurate I’d still love it anyway, and doing things like acting out some of the asks here (I’ve seen it be done before and it’s so cute!) would be totally okay too! But yeah as always TAG ME or submit it here so I can see it aaaa I’d love love LOVE that! ^^

Anonymous said: SPECIAL BOY SPECIAL BOY SPECIAL BOY SPECIAL BOY SPECIAL B

YEEEEEAAAAA IT’S ABOUT TIME I MADE AN OUTFIT FOR RICH RIGHT I LOVE HIM SM

maysurprisedyou said: Hi! This isn't quite an ask, but!! I started reading Ready Player One because of this blog and it's really interesting so far so thank you!! All of your posts seem to make my day ahah <3

Oooh I’m happy you’re liking it so far, I’m glad my blog inspired you to read it! And aaAAAA that’s so sweet I’m?? Hhhhfh thank you! :’)

#The mod speaks #OOC #The final boss makes an entrance #Long post #Whew!! That was a lot of asks to get through #Thanks all of you for your interest and support! Ily #The mod answers

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whitewitchdani · 7 years ago

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The White Witch: Chapter 8

Read Chapter 7 Here

Word Count: 1,900

Pairing: Eventual Sam x Evelyn Singer

Warnings: Canon typical violence, fluff, angst

A/N: Chapter 8 is here! Now I know this is a long chapter, but it’s worth it I promise! As always, let me know if you’d like to be tagged and please PLEASE give some feedback! I haven’t received much on this series and I’d like to know if your guys are enjoying it or if there’s anything you think needs to be changed or that you think should or might happen!

The White Witch Masterlist

It was 9 AM and Dean was waiting for his brother and Evie in the kitchen. Frustrated, he finished off his coffee and went to wake both of them up. He stopped at Sam's room first, opening the door to rouse his brother. As he did this he was met with an empty bed. Dean frowned, confused. Maybe he was in the bathroom showering or something.

He moved on to Evie's room to wake her. He hoped she had gotten some sleep after last night’s incident. From the look on her face, whatever she relived in that dream was truly terrifying. He pushed open her door quietly, not wanting to startle her. When he finally stepped into the room completely, he was surprised at what he saw. He let loose a low chuckle, "Sammy you dog."

Sam was lying in bed with Evie, both of them tangled up in each other. At least they were clothed. He just stood there for a minute with his arms crossed, before giving Sam a little nudge in the thigh with his foot.

Sam looked around tiredly before his eyes settled on Dean, "Hey, what time is it?" He rubbed his eyes.

"It's 9. You guys are late. You look like you had fun after I left," Dean smirked.

Sam looked at him confused before remembering the huntress that was currently curled against him. "Shut up Dean, it wasn't like that."

Evie finally started to rouse from the voices in the room, though she couldn't make out what they were saying. Sam felt Evie start to stir and looked down at her with a smile, "Hey, good morning."

She looked up at him with a sleepy smile, "Backatcha Winchester." Sam couldn't help but think of how cute she looked right now being half asleep.

"C’mon you two. Coffee's on, foods on, it’s story time and you're already an hour late." Dean headed back to the kitchen as Sam and Evie sat up in the bed.

"Are you ready?" Sam looked at her concerned. She looked down and let out a sigh.

"Not really," she glanced back up at Sam, "but you guys deserve to know the truth. Because if you keep me around, you need to know what's coming.”

Sam squeezed her shoulder and gave her a small smile. They both headed into the kitchen and took their seats at the table. They all ate breakfast in silence, before refilling their coffee and heading into the library.

"Alright witchypants, spill."

Sam shot Dean daggers. "Dean you could be a little more sympathetic."

"It's okay Sam. I lied to you guys, I deserve a bit of a cold shoulder." Evie leaned back in her chair and wrapped her hands around her coffee mug, mentally preparing herself to tell these men the story of the worst day of her life. The brothers watched her intently waiting for her to start, Sam with a soft supportive expression and Dean with a harder one.

"Okay well, it was the day after I graduated from college. We were having dinner at our house to celebrate. It was a small family thing, just mom, dad, Bobby, and me. It was perfect. It was full of laughs and love. They were ecstatic because I had decided against becoming a full time hunter, only a resource they could call on from time to time if needed. My parents bought me a car and Bobby bought me a gun, much to my mother’s dismay. I was ready to start a normal life. Dinner ended and Bobby gave his hugs and left.

“We were cleaning and there was a knock on the door. I was in the kitchen doing dishes so I didn't really hear what was going on. I didn't think anything of it until my father yelled. I dropped the plate I was drying and ran into the living room. Both of my parents were unconscious on the floor and there was a man in the middle of the room. When he saw me, he broke into a huge grin and his eyes flashed black as he walked towards me. I went to use my powers to fling him away from me but he was quicker and pinned me against the wall.

“He came right up to me and stroked my face, 'Hello there little witch. You know, I was just walking by minding my own business when I felt the amount of power radiating from this house. I haven't felt this kind of power in a very long time. I thought all of your kind were extinct, but I apparently was wrong.' He rubbed his hands up and down my body, 'and in a pretty package no less.'

“That's when I head butted him and broke his vessel's nose. I knew he was a demon and it really wouldn't hurt him, but it was all I could do. All it did was piss him off. He straightened up and attempted to wipe the blood off his face, but there was a lot. He walked back over to me and dropped me from the wall so I was standing.

“His eyes flashed black again, 'You'll pay for that bitch,' and then he knocked me unconscious.

“I'm not sure how long I was out, but I woke up tied to one of our dining room chairs. He was standing in front of me twirling a knife, 'Good you're awake. I have a proposition for you. You come with me to Hell and use your magic for our King's purposes, or bad things happen.'

“I just kind of stared at him dumbfounded. I didn't really know what was going on. Apparently I took too long to answer because that's when he killed my father in front of me. Slit his throat. I screamed and cried. I was hysterical. He came over and slapped me, 'Answer now or we'll repeat the scene with mommy over there.' I just said yes. I would've done anything to save my mother. The bastard just grinned.

“'Glad to see you're being so agreeable, little witch. But for good measure,' and then he just slit my mothers throat anyway. After that it was kind of slow motion. I was crying and hysterical, the demon was getting ready to untie me to take me god knows where when Bobby kicked in the door. The demon charged at him but Bobby shot him in the head. The demon just laughed at him but wasn't able to move.

“‘Devils trap bullet. Pretty nifty, huh?’ Bobby said with a smirk.

“He growled and was so angry, vowing vengeance on Bobby and I when he climbed back out of hell. Bobby didn't miss a step in that exorcism though, sent the bastard straight back. He came over and untied me, then I dropped to the ground by my dads body and just cried. He tried to drag me out of the house but I fought him the whole way, calling for my parents. He finally got me outside and in his car. By that time, I was just silent. I stared straight ahead and didn't say anything. I heard Bobby talking to me, telling me how we'd come back for my things and my car after the cops had done their thing, but I didn't respond. He took me back to his motel and cleaned me up; I had a pretty good cut on my cheek from where he had hit me in the same spot twice. I still have a scar.

“I wasn't really the same after that. I knew I could never have a normal life. So I started hunting full time and I never looked back. I've never even been back to my hometown. I can't."

Throughout the whole story, Evie never looked up from her coffee cup and never took a drink from it. It had gone cold in her hands. Sam and Dean watched as she warmed the coffee back up with only a wave of her hand and took a long drink.

"I'll never get used to that," Dean let out a breathy laugh. He was nervous Evie would be angry at his remark. He was relieved when she laughed too.

"I know. I'm not even used to it and I've been doing this for almost 10 years."

She finally looked up at the boys, and it was then they saw she had tears streaming down her face. "And that's why they're dead. Stupid magic. I wasn't even their kid. They took in some random magical kid a hunter dropped on their doorstep and what'd they get for it? Their throats cut." Evie set the mug on the table and put her head in her hands.

Dean and Sam looked at each other. They felt bad that they had forced her to tell this story, but they knew it was better this way because they could be more prepared for what's coming.

Evie sat and kept fighting the sobs that racked her chest. She felt so guilty. It was her fault her parents were dead. She felt a hand grasp her wrist and pull her to her feet. She expected it to be Sam but was surprised when she was pulled to Dean's chest, the elder Winchester hugging her tight.

"Listen, I know it hurts. But that was not your fault. Your parents knew about who you were when they took you in. You may have been different from them, but they loved you. The only person to blame for that night is that damn demon. And I promise if you stay here with Sammy and me, we will do our best to protect you and we will kill that demon. Not just exorcise him. Kill the bastard."

Evie was shocked at Dean's declaration. She thought he didn't really care for her since she was supernatural herself. But she hugged him tighter, feeling comfort in his arms.

"Thank you Dean. Thank you so much."

Dean smiled and stroked her hair, kissing the top of her head. "You're welcome kid."

She left his embrace and smiled at him. She turned and looked at Sam who came over and hugged her as well. "I'm so sorry Evie. I can't imagine going through something like that. I'm always here for you. For anything." She hugged him tighter. She was skeptical of these boys at first, but knew they were going to be her family now.

"Hey I have a question though. Why did Bobby show back up at your house?" Dean asked sitting back down at the table.

Evie giggled as she remembered. "I asked him that myself when I woke up that next morning. And you know what he said? 'Forgot my leftovers'."

They all laughed. "Yeah that's definitely Bobby. I'm just confused as to why he didn't mention you to us." Sam wondered aloud.

"Well, I wasn't technically supposed to exist. It wasn't that he didn't trust you guys, he just wanted to let as few people know about me as possible. But I knew about you guys. The Winchester brothers: you were basically Bobby's sons. He would talk about you guys all the time. He was so proud of you and always hoped to introduce us someday. He always said that if anything happened and I needed help and he wasn't around, I should find you guys. Because you were family."

Read Chapter 9 Here

TAG LIST:

@lovesamwinchester

@winchesters-favorite-girl

@belfbastettia

#supernatural #supernatural fanfiction #Supernatural fanfic #supernatural fandom #supernatural x OC #sam winchester fanfiction #Sam Winchester #Sam x OC #sam winchester x oc #dean winchester #SPN #SPN FANDOM #spn fanfic #The White Witch

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pika-ace · 7 years ago

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In the Heights Strange Men Series AU

Okay, I’ve been meaning to do this for a while so it’s finally time to immortalize it!

My bud @a-weird-blog-in-general and I are both avid fans of the Strange Men series, which if you don’t know, is a series of four RPG pixel horror games consisting of The Crooked Man, The Sandman, The Boogieman, and The Hanged Man. They’re really cool and in-depth games, focusing on internal struggles of life while adding a supernatural/horror touch. They’re famous for their in-depth characters as well as multiple endings depending on choices you make. We’ve discussed AUs of these before and now, since the fourth game is confirmed to be the final game in this awesome series, it’s finally time to post about it! Also, if you’ve never heard of these games, I HIGHLY recommend downloading them or going on YouTube and watching a playthrough, cause they are a blast!

LONG ASS POST UNDER THE CUT (and spoilers too)

We start with the first game in the timeline, The Crooked Man, starring Benny.

This takes place about a month and a half after the musical takes place. It’s about the end of August, and Nina has gone back to Stanford. Meanwhile, Benny, is MOVING. Yes, moving out of the barrio! Mostly because he’s still trying to find his way and find a new job. Plus, he’s secretly stressed by his long-distance relationship with Nina, and ON TOP OF THAT, his mom was admitted the hospital a few weeks back (yeah, that’s right, I’m including Benny’s mom in this!), with a tumor in her brain making her forget things, including her own son, kinda acting like Alzheimer's. So you could say that Benny’s also moving to be closer to her, as his new apartment is walking distance from the hospital. So, Vanessa and Usnavi help Benny move into his new apartment, but on the first night in his new home, strange things start happening in his apartment. He hears crying at night, the faucet and TV turn on by themselves, and words are written on the mirror. There have been a few rumors about the previous owner of the apartment and Benny finds some things that belonged to him. With nothing else to do, Benny decides to investigate, and he’s first led to an abandoned hotel. After wandering around, Benny runs into a girl called Mandy (who bears a striking resemblance to a certain someone ;)) who is looking for something her boyfriend gave her. They split up for a bit and Benny soon runs into a hideous monster with a crooked neck; the Crooked Man. The monster chases and attacks Benny multiple times, but no matter what Benny does, it always comes back, and taunts him with voices saying how he’s nothing and how Nina would be better off without him holding her back, but he manages to overcome it, saying how even if Nina does end up leaving him, he will always love her and be proud of her accomplishments. After getting away, Benny runs into Mandy, who’s crying and wondering why she’s risking her life in a dangerous place like this when she’s not even sure if she’s good enough for her boyfriend. Benny tells her that it’s okay to worry about things like that and there’s nothing wrong with crying with worry about losing something. You just have to do the best you can, and if things don’t work out, just move on and don’t let it get your down. Mandy thanks Benny and gives him an address to another location. The new address leads Benny to an abandoned high school where he runs into a teen named Chris (I know, this will make sense later). Chris is wandering around the campus cause he had fond memories of the school, and he and Benny kinda butt heads. So Benny wanders through the school and who does he run into? The Crooked Man. Benny manages to lose the monster every time, but he’s also reminded of when he was in high school. It turns out that Benny didn’t graduate high school and actually flunked out. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t make grades good enough to graduate. It got so bad that he resorted to cheating on his final senior exams, but he got caught, which pretty much ruined his chances of graduating. He didn’t get expelled since the year was just about over anyway, but it didn’t stop the sting. Benny overcomes these memories by remembering his adult life in the barrio. He got the job at the dispatch and he’s been able to make his way even without a high school degree. Anyway, Benny finds Chris trapped in a room that’s leaking gas and manages to save him and the two finally start to get along a bit. Chris tells Benny that his grades weren’t the best when he went there. He was able to graduate, but he still has to take classes at another school in order to get requirements for a college to accept him. Chris doesn’t want to give up on college because one of his high school teachers believed in him and gave him the confidence to keep trying. Unfortunately, Benny then finds an old diary page from that same teacher, saying how he didn’t care for Chris at all and believed that he would never succeed. Chris finds out and gets really mad, but Benny is able to talk him down by saying that he should quit thinking that everything’s going to work out. If Chris isn’t meant to get into college, it’s not the end of the world; he’ll still be able to make something of himself and make his family proud. That calms Chris down, and he thanks Benny, giving him yet another address. This one leads Benny to an abandoned hospital where he meets a young boy named Robin, who’s waiting for his parents. Benny takes Robin with him so he won’t be alone while he waits for his parents, planning to take him to the police if they don’t show up, and they run into You-Know-Who yet again while Robin’s in the bathroom, trapped with the monster. Benny manages to save Robin, who breaks down into tears, but Benny comforts him by telling Robin about his own mother. They explore around a bit more until the Crooked Man shows up and kidnaps Robin. Benny finds them on the roof and manages to kick the Crooked Man off the roof. But even though Robin’s safe, he’s still upset, thinking that his parents hate him; even though he’s scared, he hangs in there, but his parents won’t come. Benny tries to tell him otherwise, but he’s reminded of his own parents. Robin leaves the roof and disappears, so Benny gives chase, until he finds himself in a room where he finds...his dad. But by this point, Benny’s sure it’s an illusion so he starts attacking him, but his dad grins while Benny chokes him ‘It hurts Benny...just like it did back then...are you going to kill me this time?’ Benny stops and he’s reminded of when he was in high school. His dad was never the best rolemodel, always staying out late, drinking, having affairs and the like. But he never hurt Benny or his mom, until one particular night. His dad came home, drunk and angry, and after fighting with Benny’s mom, started beating her. Benny got so angry that he fought back and nearly killed his father, but luckily, Usnavi had been planning to stop by and arrived just in time to stop him and call the police to have his dad arrested. After that day, Benny never believed he had a real family anymore. Not only did he almost kill his own father, but now his mother doesn’t even recognize him anymore, and now he’s abandoned her in a hospital, despite everything she did for him in his father’s absence. His whole life has been and always will be crooked. Meanwhile, back in the barrio, Usnavi is downtown visiting Vanessa, but Usnavi is worried about Benny as he hasn’t been calling or texting for a few days. However, Usnavi then gets a call from Benny. ‘Benny?! Oh thank god, where are you?!’ ‘...Central Hospital...’ ‘Wha...why are you all the way out there?! Hang on, Vanessa and I will come get you, we-’ ‘No...don’t come...just leave me alone...’ And Benny hangs up. Usnavi and Vanessa book it to the hospital and start looking for Benny. As they travel up the stairs, they run into Mandy, Chris, and Robin, all telling Usnavi that Benny is waiting for him on the roof and that he needs him. Usnavi’s super confused, and gets even more confused when Vanessa lightly smacks him for trying to scare her. ‘What are you talking about?’ ‘You know what I’m taking about! Who the hell are you talking to?!’ Yeah, all those people Benny had been talking too? They’re not real. They all represent some kind of fear or obstacle in Benny’s life. Mandy represented his fear of losing Nina, due to their long-distance relationship and how she would possibly love a screw-up like him when she’s at Stanford and gonna change the world (that’s also why she looked a lot like Nina). Chris represented his past self when he flunked out of high school and thought he would have nothing in the world, when no one at school believed in him. And Robin represented the family Benny left behind, the family in both the barrio and his own parents. So, Usnavi goes up to the roof and finds Benny, standing there, holding a pistol to his head, saying how he’s ‘a crooked man and how nothing will ever go right for him no matter how hard he tries.’ Usnavi stares until he blinks and sees something that looks like a figure, holding Benny and the pistol, talking through him. Usnavi has no idea what’s going on, but in a flurry of panic, Usnavi runs up and starts punching Benny, screaming for the monster to let go of him. After a good number of punches, Benny finally shoves Usnavi away and seems to snap out of it. After that, Usnavi and Benny sit on the roof and have a good long talk about what Benny went through, and Benny decides to finish this. He goes to the address of the previous owner of his apartment, and faces the Crooked Man one last time and tells him that he won’t end up like him, and the monster disappears for good. Benny travels up to the attic, where he finds the hanged corpse of the former tenant, who’s head has become crooked due to the noose. Benny makes peace with him and decides that he’s going back to the barrio, where he belongs. But not before he visits the hospital, where they have successfully removed the tumor from his mom and he has one last conversation with her before she dies peacefully. The story ends with Nina calling him, and everything seems right with the world.

Next in the timeline, The Sandman, starring Sonny.

This story, I’m thinking having happen about a month after the events of Crooked Man, making it the end of September (timeline may vary). Basic premise of this: Sonny has acquired insomnia. It started around the time Benny moved away before Crooked Man started; the barrio had another blackout and, of course, Sonny was left alone in the bodega yet again. But this time, Pete didn’t show up; he was able to get the grate down, but with all the noise in the darkness, Sonny was too scared to leave, meaning he spent the whole night, wide awake, sitting by the front door with his baseball bat until the next morning when Usnavi found him. Ever since then, Sonny just hasn’t been able to sleep; he dozes off for a chunk of time, but then wakes up again for a few hours, and the next thing he knows, it’s morning. And to make things worse, Sonny hasn’t been a very happy camper lately because he’s getting bullied at school. He would vent to his friends about it, but the barrio has seemed really empty lately. Nina’s at college, Vanessa’s downtown, Daniela and Carla are in the Bronx, the dispatch is gone, Benny’s in the process of moving back in (and recovering from the Crooked Man), even Pete has been barely seen, being called away to any jobs and commissions he can take to make money. And to top it all off, Sonny and Usnavi have been growing apart. Ever since the events of the musical, they’ve been seeing less and less of each other, mostly because Usnavi’s been being WAY more of a workaholic than usual, pulling all-nighters at the bodega and barely coming home. So Sonny’s just sleepless, lonely, and miserable, until one night, he wakes up to find that everyone has fallen asleep where they stood. There are people asleep on the streets, in the halls of buildings, Usnavi’s even asleep at the counter. Rightfully freaked out, Sonny goes outside to try and find other people who are awake and he comes across a dog. The dog first leads him to the salon where a giant shadowy monster is sound asleep. Sonny peeks in through the back and finds Daniela, and Carla huddled in the backroom, the monster keeping them prisoner. not questioning why they’re back, Sonny gets in and manages to sneak them out. They think they’re safe, but the monster wakes up and emerges from the salon, knocking Sonny to the ground and chasing the three ladies off. Sonny tries to give chase, but it’s like they’ve vanished without a trace. Sonny is then reminded of when the salon closed for the last time. While Sonny knew they were leaving, he didn’t know officially when, so when he walked by the salon the next morning to see it dark and closed, Sonny couldn’t help but feel crushed that neither Daniela or Carla said goodbye, and just vanished without a trace. The dog from earlier appears again and leads Sonny to an empty parking lot where he finds Benny, who seems to be running for his life as he’s being chased by a bunch of driver-less taxis. Sonny and Benny both run, but Benny gets trapped and one of the cars knock Sonny away, dazing him for a bit. When he snaps out of it, Benny and the cars are gone. The dog appears again and leads him to an old building where Pete lives. Sonny goes to Pete’s room and finds him only for them to be attacked by a bunch of creatures made of paint. Sonny and Pete try to run, but Pete trips and falls before they reach the door. Sonny tries to go back for him, but one of the monsters throws him out the door as another descends on Pete. Sonny gets up and runs back in to find...nothing. The monsters and Pete are gone. Now Sonny’s really confused, and he wanders back outside to find the same dog. The dog leads Sonny back to the bodega and he realizes that something’s missing. Usnavi. He’s not there. Sonny looks for him, but he’s nowhere in sight. Sonny goes back outside and the dog is staring at him. Sonny then realizes that this dog had been leading him to all those weird things with his friends, always showing up at the right time. It was too convenient. Sonny asks who the dog really is and the dog introduces himself as Lullaby, a being created by the Sandman. While everyone in the world is asleep, there are a handful of people like Sonny who can’t sleep because of their insomnia. It’s Lullaby’s job to create a ‘lullaby’ for that person, fulfilling their deepest wishes and desires so they can go to sleep. The reason Sonny had been experiencing all these illusions, was because they were all his darkest wishes, which all stem from his anger of how much the barrio has changed. Sonny denies it and instead demands that Lullaby take him to the Sandman so he can find Usnavi. Lullaby complies and Sonny finds himself in the Land of Fairies, where he meets several creatures, like the Tooth Fairy, a talking unicorn, a mermaid, etc. Sonny eventually finds the Sandman’s castle and meets the Sandman, speaking a strange language. Sonny suddenly remembers when he was a toddler, his mom once told him a story about the Sandman and how he would dig out the eyes of bad children who didn’t go to sleep with a spoon. And Sonny is facing the Sandman, who’s staring at him with big, bloodshot eyes and holding a spoon. Sonny books it out of there and keeps exploring the castle while occasionally running from the Sandman, and meeting up with Lullaby. He solves a few puzzles too until he finds himself in the Sandman’s bedroom where he finds a sleeping Usnavi in a large crystal ball full of sleeping sand. Lullaby meets him in there and right when Sonny’s about to ask how he can get him out, Lullaby cuts him off. ‘I’m surprised at you; you go through all this, and just to save your cousin? Even after he almost left you and has been ignoring you? Why do you even want to save him? Are you even mad at him?’ And Sonny just explodes, ‘YES, I AM MAD AT HIM!’ Sonny vents about how hard it’s been for him without Usnavi, and how he’s felt like he’s been so alone, but that Usnavi’s his only family, and he still loves him despite everything he did, so he has to save him. Lullaby then shows Sonny the Sandman’s journal, detailing his whole plan. It turns out the Sandman is just VERY sleep-deprived and he made a special sleeping sand that would put the whole world to sleep. He even made a machine to freeze time so no one would age or suffer in their sleep. That way, the Sandman would be able to sleep for a while until he was ready to do his job properly again. The journal also mentions Sonny, and how the Sandman admires how he lights up like the sun and his close relationship with Usnavi; the Sandman feels sorry for Sonny’s insomnia and after Lullaby’s three attempts didn’t work, he decided to whisk Usnavi away so that the bond between them might be rekindled once more. That’s why the Sandman has been chasing Sonny; he just wanted to put him to sleep. But Sonny can’t sleep just yet; he feels bad for the Sandman, so he wants to help him sleep. So after a little more exploring, Sonny makes his own bag of special sleeping sand and even finds the Sandman’s scepter. He meets the Sandman and they have a little showdown until Sonny makes the Sandman fall asleep with his own sleeping sand. Lullaby meets up with him and Sonny suddenly feels really sleepy. He falls to the ground, and Lullaby reassures him that time has stopped for the humans and will go back to normal once the Sandman wakes up. Before he falls asleep, Sonny says that he’s not just gonna ignore the troubles he has back home anymore, he’s going to face them; Usnavi, Pete, the school bullies, he’s going to deal with all of it when he wakes up. Lullaby then transforms into Sonny’s mom, giving him a few final moments of comfort before Sonny, at long last, falls asleep. X amount of time later, the Sandman wakes up, fully refreshed and returns Sonny safely home and tucks him in. He then goes back to his castle, starts time up again, and the humans wake up the next morning. Sonny wakes up, feeling more refreshed than ever and finds Usnavi at the kitchen table, awake and well, saying he fell asleep at the counter. The day goes on, and Sonny does what he said he would do. He stands up to the bullies at school, talks with Daniela, Carla, Vanessa, and even Benny. Even Pete finds him and apologizes for blowing him off so much. Sonny then goes back home and has a long talk with Usnavi and make up. The story ends with Sonny looking up at the sky where he knows the Sandman’s watching and gives him a thumb’s up; everything’s good.

Up next, The Boogieman, starring Vanessa, taking place in the summer, so about nine months after Sandman.

Life in the barrio is going about as usual. Summer’s here, Nina’s home (her second year being much more successful) and everyone’s just in a good mood. Vanessa has been doing great at her new fashion job, but her boss feels that she works too hard, and her boss also knows about Vanessa’s relationship with her mom. Her boss decides Vanessa needs a break and gives her two tickets to a tourist trap called Livingstone Castle, a giant old castle where guests can spend the night and learn about the history. Vanessa’s first thought is to bring Usnavi, but by complete coincidence, Usnavi also won two tickets to the same castle in a contest. And EVEN MORE coincidental is that Benny bought Nina tickets for them too; even Pete got one. So Benny and Nina are going, Sonny wants to go, so therefore Pete wants to go, so that leaves one extra ticket. Daniela and Carla are busy, so Vanessa ultimately decides to let her mom comes, but makes her promise to not TOUCH any alcohol on the trip. They ride on a nice boat there and arrive at the castle, meeting the owner of the castle, Brendan. Vanessa wanders around the castle for a while and they all eat dinner together in the dining hall before all dispersing to their separate rooms: Benny and Nina, Usnavi and Sonny, Vanessa and her mom, and Pete. Once in their rooms, Vanessa’s mom tries to talk to Vanessa, but in short, it doesn’t go well; Vanessa’s relationship with her mom has been slowly going downhill since her dad died when she was little. Everyone goes to bed until Vanessa is awoken by her phone ringing. Her phone that she can’t find for some reason. Vanessa gets up and realizes that her mom is nowhere in the room, and under the door is a note telling her to come to the Reception Hall to ‘see a show’. Vanessa makes her way to the reception hall and finds that all the rooms where the others are are empty, although Vanessa notices that in Usnavi and Sonny’s room, a chair is knocked over. She keeps her guard up, gets to the Reception Hall, and a strangely dressed man is waiting for her; the Boogieman. The Boogieman tells her that she is the main player in a game he wants to play, a battle of good vs. evil. And to kick off the game, what does he do? Kill Brendan by cutting his head off and then runs. Vanessa tries to give chase but the door’s locked, so she looks for another way. She makes her way to the staff halls, but all the servants and even their tour guide is dead, with the words ‘Hurry’ written in blood. Vanessa gets another message from the Boogieman saying if she doesn’t hurry, then the others would end up the same way. Shit has gotten real! Vanessa makes her way through the castle as quick as she can until she finds a room where Pete is strapped to a table with a giant fucking buzz-saw right over him. The Boogieman appears again and stabs Pete in the leg when he pleads for help and taunts them both for a bit before he revs up the buzz-saw and vanishes. Running against the clock, Vanessa barely manages to undo the restraints and save Pete. After stopping the bleeding on his leg and having a moment to catch their breath, they head on and find another room where the Boogieman is waiting again and he asks Vanessa ‘If you could only save one of two people, who would you choose?’ And sure enough, Usnavi and Sonny and bound and gagged and dangling over a giant pit that leads to a floor full of spikes. There are two levers, and when one is pulled, that side will be dropped while the other is raised. ‘Will you save the boy with a bright future, or the man you love?’ The Boogieman vanishes again and Vanessa and Pete work together and figure out a plan. They find a huge table and place it over the spikes on one side of the hole, and it happens to be the side Sonny’s on. They go back up, and drop Sonny and raise Usnavi but Vanessa jumps down the hole with Sonny and breaks his fall, just in case the spikes broke the table with their weight (She knew that Usnavi would be crushed if she let Sonny die and Usnavi’s happiness is more important to her). After that fiasco, they manage to find a room with no traps or puzzles, so they deem that their saferoom. Vanessa tells Pete, Usnavi and Sonny to stay put and goes out to look for any signs of the others. She eventually finds Benny passed out on a bridge, but Nina is nowhere in sight. Benny and Vanessa go and look for her (while they go, the Boogieman plays the WHAT’S IN THE BOX?! trick on Benny; don’t worry, Nina’s fine.) until they arrive in some kind of chapel where Nina is passed out and tied to a cross. The Boogieman appears and taunts them before setting the fucking chapel on fire. Benny grabs a bucket of water and manages to get himself across the flames blocking him from Nina and unties her. Meanwhile, Vanessa runs to another hallway and uses an axe to break open a water pipe and put out the fire. They bring a still unconscious Nina back to the saferoom and she wakes up, to everyone’s relief. Now the only one missing is Vanessa’s mom. After that, Benny and Vanessa go out once again to look for Mrs. Garcia, but have no luck. As they make their way back to the saferoom they find Usnavi in the hallway calling for Sonny, who has apparently disappeared (god dammit, Sonny). They hear the Boogieman’s voice and he taunts Usnavi for a while, and it works. Now poor Usnavi is freaking out, so they get back to the saferoom. Apparently, Sonny went to the bathroom and never came out. Vanessa goes in to investigate and finds an open vent above the bathtub, big enough for smol little Sonny to squeeze through. By this point, Pete’s recovered enough to walk, so he goes with Vanessa to find Sonny, leaving Benny and Nina to comfort Usnavi (you’re emotional right now Usnavi, you’d just do something stupid if you came). Sure, enough, Sonny DID sneak out on his own. He wanted to look for Mrs. Garcia, but of course, he couldn’t leave the room, so he took matters into his own hands. After crawling through the vent, he finds himself in some sort of dungeon, where You-Know-Who is waiting. The Boogieman then sics a bunch of wild dogs on him. Sonny manages to keep away for a bit until they corner him. But just before they attack...they just stop and go to sleep (can guess who caused that? ;)). A few seconds later, Vanessa and Pete bust in, but Vanessa is NOT happy. After sharply lecturing Sonny about leaving without saying anything, they go back to the saferoom where a fluffy reunion commences. Sonny apologizes to Usnavi and Vanessa, and Vanessa and Benny go out to keep looking. They wander some more until Boogieman shows up and taunts Benny for a good while (this guy LOVES messing with Benny) and Benny lets the taunts get to him this time and falls down a trapdoor into a room filling with gas. Luckily, Benny finds the door but it’s locked, but Vanessa finds the other side and gets him out (totally fucking up her arm in the process to grab the key to the room). They both pass out from exhaustion for a bit until they both wake up and wander for a bit more. They take another break since Vanessa’s getting pretty tired from blood-loss on her arm. They keep wandering until they reach a room and Vanessa hears a phone ringing. She tells Benny to turn off his phone, but Benny says there’s no phone ringing, cause he lost his phone, and Vanessa’s lost hers. Vanessa hates the sound of phones ringing, because it reminds her of when her mom got the call about her dad’s death. Meanwhile, back at the saferoom, Mrs. Garcia runs into the saferoom, where she’s greeted by the others. She frantically asks where Vanessa is, and they tell her she’ll be back soon. But Mrs. Garcia runs out of the room. Pete gives chase, but Mrs. Garcia can’t be swayed, ‘That man will catch me! And if he does...my little girl, she...’ It turns out that the Boogieman has been taunting Vanessa’s mom as much as Vanessa. She initially got away when the Boogieman kidnapped everyone from their rooms, so he challenged her to another game. She had to run and NOT let the Boogieman catch her or he would kill Vanessa, as he tricked her into thinking he had captured her. Pete meets up with Vanessa and Benny, and Vanessa convinces the two boys to go back to the room, since Pete’s still hurt. Vanessa travels to the highest tower of the castle where the Boogieman is waiting for a final showdown. But Vanessa starts laughing, saying that the Boogieman is just a coward. Instead of facing her, he always took hostages and ran off; the Boogieman was hiding from her, in a sense. ‘You did so much shit to get on my bad side; you kidnapped my boyfriend, threatened his kid twice, nearly burned my best friend and her boyfriend and you made my mom cry...you fucked with my family, and I can never forgive someone who does that.’ So after a pretty epic showdown, with Vanessa taunting the Boogieman and beating the shit out of him, and FINALLY unmasks him. It’s Brendan, the owner of the castle. It was a fake all along. But at the last second, Brendan lunges at Vanessa with his cleaver. He doesn’t stab her, but he grazes her side pretty bad, just as Usnavi and Mrs. Garcia burst into the room and Vanessa collapses. Usnavi tackles Brendan in a rare burst of anger and the rest of the gang come in (Nina rounded them up, having started to suspect that everything was just fake). Benny helps Usnavi keep Brendan down, sending Sonny to find something to tie him up with, while Nina, Pete, and Mrs. Garcia work with Vanessa. Vanessa apologizes to her mom and says that she wants to finish that talk they started when they get home, and she passes out. The police are called, Brendan is arrested and everyone is taken to the hospital. Once they properly recover, they’re questioned, and everyone goes home. About a week later, Vanessa and her mom visit Mr. Garcia’s grave, and Vanessa finally cries. She didn’t cry once when he died, and she’s finally letting it out. Her mom comforts her, the way she should have when he first died, and the two seem closer as a family than ever before. Everything’s good.

And last but not least, The Hanged Man, starring our favorite vandal, Pete, taking place in the winter of the same year, landing us half a year after Boogieman.

So it starts off with Pete receiving a call that his father died from a heart attack. If you recall, my headcanon is that Pete’s mom died when he was a toddler and his dead mentally and verbally abused Pete until he was a pre-teen before vanishing without a trace. So, Pete’s not exactly upset about his dad, but the call did drag up memories of him that he’d like to forget. As a result, he grows very distant from the barrio for a while, even avoiding Sonny. Anyway, after wandering into a store outside the barrio he sees a bit of merchandise that reminds him of his dad, so he takes it and destroys it. The manager catches him and holds him in the backroom and interrogates him before confiscating Pete’s phone and calling one of his few contacts, which happens to be Benny. Benny arrives and tells the manager that he’s basically one of Pete’s guardians (just to get him out of there) and Benny takes Pete home. Benny and Nina try to talk to Pete, but he won’t say a word. They say that he can stay with them for a bit and show Pete to the guest room, but Pete sneaks out and goes on his way. He goes back to his home and the next morning, he tries to go out and do some graffiti, but for some reason, he just can’t do it. He can’t draw a thing. Pete tries to wander around to clear his head, but he keeps running into barrio dwellers and he can’t deal with them talking to him. So Pete runs off and finds himself well outside the barrio. After a while, he finds himself in some kind of forest and sees a mouse in the snow. But not just any mouse, a mouse wearing a little scarf and mittens and one boot; it’s Snowball, a mouse he drew a lot as a kid; one of his first real works of art before mom died. Snowball waves Pete over and Pete follows it until he arrives in some kind of abandoned mental asylum. Pete wanders around looking for Snowball, until Vanessa finds him (Daniela pointed her in the right direction). Vanessa had been told by Benny and Nina that he had run off and decided to look for him. Pete refuses to leave, so Vanessa says she’s not leaving without him, so she’ll just explore a bit until he changes his mind. Pete continues wandering around, hearing strange noises and seeing shadows all the while, until he chases Snowball into a room where *drumroll* Lincoln Rosario is. Lincoln left home a long time ago, wanting to pursue a career in music (basically the same as the workshop) but judging by his dirty and ragged clothes and pale complexion, he’s not doing very well. Unfortunately, since it’s been so long, they don’t recognize each other. Lincoln tells Pete that this asylum used to be a shelter for homeless people and it was shut down 15 years ago because of an incident where three people were brutally murdered, hung with their guts spilled. Lincoln says he’s here because he’s looking for a black notebook, cause a friend of his is looking for it. Pete promises to keep an eye out for it and goes on his way. He runs into Snowball again but sees a shadow behind him in a mirror and passes out. He wakes up a while later with Vanessa next to him, having found him that way. Vanessa tries again to get Pete to leave with her, but Pete still refuses, saying he just needs time to himself for a bit. Vanessa agrees but still refuses to leave the building. Pete goes off on his own again until he runs into none other than Sonny, who had gotten worried about him and learned where he went from Daniela. Sonny fails to get Pete to come home, so the two decide to explore together (getting the shit scared out of them by shadows in the process) Sonny and Pete wander for a while, and Pete finds the notebook Lincoln was looking for. But after a while, Sonny starts questioning Pete about his behavior, which causes Pete to snap at Sonny, telling him to leave him alone. Very hurt, Sonny turns to go, and Pete sees a small pirate with beady eyes and a dark blue bead latched onto Sonny’s back; Bluebeard the pirate, a drawing he made in school after his mom died and who he blamed for anything he did wrong like an imaginary friend. Suddenly feeling worried, Pete runs after Sonny and apologizes for snapping at him and tells Sonny to go home as he doesn’t want him in a place like this. Sonny agrees but promises to come back if he stays too long. Sonny leaves and Pete goes off, eventually finding Lincoln, who he returns the notebook to. Pete keeps going until he finds himself in some kind of tank room, where a giant pool of water is. Pete tries to leave, but he thinks he sees hair on the handle, making him jump, slip, and hit his head on the ground before falling into the water. Thankfully, it’s Vanessa to the rescue again, as she pulls him out of the water and brings him to a safe room to warm him up. Vanessa tries to talk to him, questioning why he’s even here and what’s really going on with him, but Pete refuses to talk and runs off. He finds himself in some old library where he runs into a stranger. The stranger questions Pete and what he’s doing there, when Vanessa shows up and intervenes, making up a story how they were exploring and got separated from their friend. The stranger buys the story and introduces himself as Rob, saying he was visiting since he stayed there as a kid when his family was homeless. Rob leaves them alone and Pete separates from Vanessa yet again and goes out onto the bridge connecting the buildings and sees yet another creation of his brought to life. Teardrop, a girl in a white dress that he drew countless times when his mom died (Teardrop bares a striking resemblance to his mom). Pete wanders back inside and finds himself in a room that has a large hole in the middle. He runs into Rob again, and Pete makes the mistake of mentioning Lincoln. Rob suddenly snaps and grabs Pete, shooting rapid fire questions at him. At that moment, Vanessa bursts in, brandishing a pistol she had found lying around a while back, and Rob puts Pete in a headlock, holding him hostage and interrogating Vanessa. They have a bit of a standoff until Rob throws Pete towards the hole, forcing Vanessa to lunge forward and grab his hand, letting Rob get away. Now shaken, Pete and Vanessa wander back outside to the snow bridge and have a long talk. Pete tells her about his dad and why he ran off ‘I don’t want to be around people pretending they care about me; no one cares about me.’ Vanessa of course, calls bullshit on that ‘Oh yeah, that’s exactly why Sonny and I came all the way out here to find you, and why I saved you all those times; because we don’t care.’ So by this point, Pete still doesn’t want to leave, but this time, it’s because he wants to know why he’s seeing all his creations running around. So he goes off on his own again and finds himself in a kitchen where he hears squeaking; Snowball is in the trash chute. Pete leans in to get a better look but ends up falling down the chute and ending up in the dump. While looking for a way out, he hears voices. Pete peeks out to see some kind of boiler room, and Lincoln and Rob are there, talking. It turns out that Rob and Lincoln are lovers, and Lincoln accidentally killed someone a while back, hence why he’s hiding out here. Rob is trying to help him run away, and told him that if Lincoln came here, he could help him be happy before he ran, and the answer to that is in the notebook that Pete gave him. Unfortunately, they hear something, and Rob finds Sonny, who had come back to look for Pete and happened to hear part of their conversation. Lincoln doesn’t recognize Sonny due to his winter gear and Rob drags Sonny into a separate room, cause you know what happens to people who overhear someone’s plans. Pete sees red and grabs a metal bar from the dump and climbs out. He bursts into the room to see Rob in the process of strangling Sonny. Pete knocks him on the head, scoops Sonny up, and books it out of there. He takes them to a padded cell and they hide there for a bit until they’re sure they’re alone. Sonny gets his breath back (maybe the two have a talk about Pete seeing these things and when it started with his mom dying) and they hurry off to find Vanessa. They find her, warn her of what’s going on, and they start to run, but part of the ceiling breaks and Vanessa gets conked on the head badly. Vanessa’s head is bleeding on the floor, so Sonny runs off to find some towels or sheets to help with the bleeding. Pete stays with Vanessa and Lincoln eventually catches up to them, and he recognizes the faces he used to know. But before he can set anything straight, Rob appears on the other side of the hallway, holding a knife to Sonny’s throat. Recognizing Sonny as well, Lincoln tries to talk Rob down, but he’s far from sane by this point. He forces Pete to take Vanessa to this giant storage room, with a now bound and gagged Sonny as leverage. Pete’s tied up too and Vanessa’s on the floor, still half conscious. It turns out that Rob was there when the murdering incident happened fifteen years ago and has now felt inspired by it. The black notebook Lincoln was looking for has the details and plans of the killer and how he did it, saying that doing this would make the person happy. So, of course, Rob wants Lincoln to do the honor of killing Pete and Vanessa in the same manner, promising that Sonny wouldn’t get killed. But, of course, Lincoln can’t do it, so Rob steps up to do it, but at the last second, Vanessa shoots Rob in the arm with her pistol and unties Pete. In a split second, Pete thinks of a plan, whispering to Vanessa that he would keep Rob and Lincoln distracted while she freed Sonny and got out of there. Pete presses his pocket knife into her hand and runs off before he can protest. Rob orders Lincoln to chase Pete and Rob staggers behind after (since his arm is bleeding). Pete manages to run and have them both chase him out of the asylum and into the woods. Once they’re out, Pete reveals that Sonny and Vanessa should be long gone by now. Enraged, Rob turns on Lincoln and blames him for this whole mess. It turns out that Rob is basically an abusive lover to Lincoln, mentally degrading him for a good few years since they met. Rob continues berating and insulting Lincoln, until Lincoln snaps and starts beating the shit out of Rob. Pete stops him before he kills him, and Lincoln breaks down, realizing what a mess his life has become thanks to Rob. Pete tells Lincoln that he can still be happy; he can’t stay in his own little world, like Pete had been doing. He has to face reality, or else he’ll become a hanged man. That seems to help, but Rob gets up, lunges towards Pete with his knife raised and- BANG! Vanessa appears, supported by Sonny, shooting Rob in the shoulder. Sonny tackles Pete in a hug, yelling and crying about how worried he was and Pete passes out from exhaustion. The police arrive a while later, Rob and Lincoln are both arrested, and everyone else is taken to the hospital. Nina has a short reunion with Lincoln and they find out that if he cooperates with the police, then he has the chance of getting a lighter sentence (10 months at most), while Rob is facing life in prison and possibly death row if Lincoln confesses to everything he did. Sonny and Vanessa get fussed over by Usnavi, and Benny and Nina visit Pete and have a good long talk with him. Pete finally realizes that the barrio has been and always will be his family and he’s gonna do his best to do what his mom said: become a real good man and make your family proud. And everything’s good.

And THAT’S ALL! I’m not even gonna touch the bad endings. You guys can look them up and put the pieces together yourselves ;)

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chelsorz07 · 7 years ago

Text

you know it’s not forever

I think I’m gonna stop doing these soon, since it’s been at least a year since I started the series and I have to have repeated some already. But for tonight I have nothing else to do. Also for anyone who actually cares I’m working on a fic...it’s not my first but it will be the first one I finish and publish so keep an eye out in the next couple days, Dean/Cas fans ♥

2010/2018

What's one of your locked text messages? a line from a justin bieber song that sarah sent me haha Don’t have any. This phone doesn’t delete shit apparently. Where is the one boy/girl you want to see the most right now? at this very moment i would grow a left nut just so i could give it away if it gave me the opportunity to kick it with mah weskimo. Texas. Do you think your last ex deserves to die? i don't think about him, one way or the other. I definitely do not think that. He thinks that. And I try to convince him every day that he’s wrong, just like he does for me. Who was the last person you slept in the same bed with? david. Dave but he’s been gone for two weeks. Would you be mad if your best friend dated the person you like? probably, considering the person i like is my boyfriend. If my best friend dated my husband, yeah that’d be an issue. She never would though. She doesn’t even like him as a person lol Is anyone over- protective of you? my parents used to be but i think they've decided to chill for the most part. Nobody cares that much about me. Plans for tomorrow? babysitting, and hopefully walmart to get shirts to tie-dye for the summer set. Laundry, Netflix, hopefully finishing the story I’m writing. I really suck at dialogue. Have you made a mistake in the past week? i make mistakes by the hour. Constantly. I don’t recall a specific one though. Do you know anyone named Joshua? yeppp. A couple. Nobody I’ve spoken to in years. Will you be in a relationship in 4 months? more than likely. I’d like to hope so. If my marriage falls apart in the next four months I will most definitely kill myself. If you were paid 1 million dollars to spend the night in a supposed haunted house, would you? for sure. I’d do it for free. What were you doing at 7:00 AM? sleeping. Watching TWD and playing solitaire on my phone. Do you think you can last in a relationship for six months? it's been almost a year. Oh my god. Do you think two people can last forever? perhaps. I have yet to see it happen. Would you put yesterday on repeat and live it forever? nah. No, yesterday sucked. Work was dead and with nothing to do my feet hurt like hell, even with medical grade compression socks on. Did you ever kiss someone with a tattoo? yeah. Yup. I would never go near that person again. I was 19 and stupid and he was a filthy liar. What did you do today? watched maranda, cleaned up the house a little. that's pretty much it. Slept mostly. Picked up the living room. Watched tv. Looked at real estate listings. Talked to my dad. It was a decent day. Last time you laughed super hard? no idea. i laugh all the time. Can’t remember. I tend not to laugh really hard when I’m alone. Which I usually am. Do you find smoking unattractive? nope. but it sucks being around all my friends who smoke when i quit two and a half months ago. It probably is but I’m a chain smoker so I don’t really care. How many people do you fully trust? haha...well...used to be one. now i'm not sure i can completely trust anyone. Still one. Although the person is different. Nobody will ever have my back as much as my dad does. Did anyone see you kiss the last person you kissed? i doubt it. Um...randos at the Pittsburgh airport. Did anyone call you pretty recently? ehh...don't think so. The last person to call me pretty was me. But Mike agreed so I guess him lol Do you look decent when you wake up? depends how my previous night went. That’s a valid answer. I look shitty without makeup no matter what. If my makeup from the previous day isn’t all fucked up after I sleep then I still look good. Are you afraid of falling in love? no. If I was it’d be way too late. Say the last person you kissed was kissing someone right in front of you? i'd probably feel exactly the same way i felt when i woke up from a really bad dream about him yesterday morning. There would be violence involved. Do you have any empty alcohol bottles hidden somewhere in your room? um...i don't believe so. I don’t drink anymore. There are a couple bottles of whiskey in my freezer that haven’t been touched in years, that’s about it. when was the last time you were at the beach? never. Still never. Think back to September, were you in a relationship? yep. I’ve been in a relationship for the past eight Septembers. Almost nine. If you had to delete one year of your life completely, which would it be? i wouldn't. Last half of 2010, first half of 2011. Do you know anyone with such a terribly annoying voice that you can't even stand? most people. Fucking BARB. A lady I work with. She’s so irritating. I’ve even had customers complain to me about her voice, saying they want me to check them out instead. Who was the last person to give you a hug? maranda. Dave. What was the first thing you thought this morning? aksdfmkaoiewhfjdnf;h. “Wtf time is it?” It was actually almost 3pm. But I don’t go to bed till the morning so. What is something that you disliked about your day? uh. everything. The fact that I was pain free most of the day and now I’m not. Have you ever kissed anyone whose name started with a B? How many? nope. Not that I recall.

What about T? How many? no. Nope. What do you currently hear right now? commercials. Carl Grimes. And my cat snoring. Have you ever sent a text to the wrong person? many times. Yep. Awkwardsauce. Who was your last text from? chele. My dad. Did you have any unread text messages when you woke up today? no. Nope, just a voicemail from my pharmacy. Would you rather be able to control the weather or control traffic? weather. Ooh...those are my two biggest fears sooo...Idk if I could pick. Are you faster at text messaging or typing on the computer? computer. Computer for sure. Even with Swype. If you won a trip to a nude beach would you go or give the trip away? i wouldn't go that's for sure...but i'd figure out a way to make money off of it. I stand by that. In your opinion which is the stronger emotion: love or hate? love. of course sometimes when i say i hate someone, it's just because i don't know how to tell them i love them. and furthermore, feeling like i hate someone can make me love them even more. Love. I don’t have the energy for hatred anymore. But I’ll never stop loving what I love. Would you rather sleep for 3 days, or stay awake for 3 days? sleeeeeeeep. Honestly...I don’t know now. I do love my sleep. And I’m lucky to do it for three hours at a time, let alone three days. But I’m also the world’s biggest night owl and am most productive when I should be sleeping. What time did you go to sleep last night? 5am this morning. Like 9am? I don’t remember. When was the last time you had starbucks? never have, never will. I broke my vow and had it exactly one time, a couple years ago. But I refuse to pay five dollars for coffee ever again. Timmy Ho’s and Sheetz are better and half the price. If you were granted one wish, what would you wish for? i don't believe in wishes. Money. What's the tenth text in your inbox say? "is nellie home?" from my mom. “I’m just happy you actually did something about it. Suppose I should return the favor and look into this now.” From Dave, about our respective health issues. Did you stand on your tippy-toes when you had your last kiss? for some reason i always do, even though he's only an inch taller than i am. I must have broken that habit somewhere along the way, because no, I didn’t. Do you like the same person you did a month ago? i've liked the same person for two years. That will never change. Would it be weird if the last person you kissed called you? yeah, cuz he's at work. and he almost never actually calls. He doesn’t call unless something is wrong. Kissed somebody whose name starts with a C T D or J? d. First name D, last name C, middle name J. All different people. Do you ever think about the past? i think about past, present, and future. Always. Do you believe exes can be friends? sometimes. They most certainly can. Do you currently have a hickey, if so where? i've never had one. Only guy who ever gave me a hickey was a complete tool and I only liked him for his southern accent. He came along a few months after the last time I took this survey, when I was on the rebound. Last night you felt? meh. Bored and in pain. What's your favorite thing to do when you're bored? play solitaire. Read fanfic or watch Youtube. In the past 72 hours have you been under the influence? yup. I haven’t. It’s been months since I even drank a beer. Does anyone know your password besides you? no. Dave knows a couple of them. What're you wearing right now? pajamas and a hoodie. Lilo & Stitch pajama pants, Supernatural Day 2017 shirt. The Hot Topical makes a lot of money from me. What were you doing when you found out Michael Jackson was dead? don't know, don't care. i never liked michael jackson. That. Do you want to see somebody right now? yes. Several people. When's the last time you cried? daily. Um...a couple days ago at work because I was in pain. And probably the same day because I was watching Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life and it always makes me cry. Would you rather sing or dance in front of 100,000 people? i'd do both. I don’t want to do anything in front of that many people. But I could sing better than I could dance. Would it be more likely of you to fail Science or Math? both. I sucked at both. I was strictly an English and Art kinda gal. Will you regret your next kiss? no. they're so few and far between i can't regret them. not that i would anyway. No way in hell. I relish the ones I can get. Has the last person you kissed ever seen you cry? yeah but he doesn't ever seem to care. All the time. Everything makes me cry. Next time you will kiss someone on the lips? hopefully i'll get to see him tonight or tomorrow night when he gets done working, since i won't see him on his day off this week. Sometime between the hours of 4 and 7am next Thursday. Your boyfriend buys you flowers, you say? he's not that stupid. he knows i hate flowers. Still true, except he’s my husband now. Do you understand football? understand it and love it. The fooseball is life. I’m so freaking excited for the draft tomorrow. Is the last person you kissed mad at you? he'd have to care to be mad. Our last conversation was about travel and home buying so probably not. The person you have the strongest feelings for dies, do you care? shut up. i'm terrified of that more than anything, because he seems to like to do dumb shit that could get him killed. and i've been having tons of dreams about it lately. What the hell kind of question is that? I’m not a sociopath. Think to the last person you kissed, have you ever kissed them in a car? yes. Our first kiss was in a car. Well not the first kiss but that’s what we spent the entire rest of that night doing lol...There have been many car kisses since then as well. Have you kissed more than ten people this year? one person. Just one. Would you ever date someone who was gorgeous but they had a conceited attitude? no. looks don't matter as much as personality. I didn’t know he was conceited at the time but no, I never would again. Like I said, dude was a tool. If someone called you a bitch would you be offended? more like proud. I AM a bitch. I own it. Do you know a few people that smoke weed? a few? i know less people who DON'T smoke weed. Everybody smokes weed anymore. Except like my parents. Was this the best summer of your life? it hasn't happened yet. but last summer was the best so far. For the record, the summer of 2010 was the worst of my life. And last summer was really good for the sole reason of my birthday week, where I met All Time Low and got to spend it back home with my family and friends. Do you think relationships are even worth it? some are. Hope so. Medicine, fine arts, or law? arts. Same. Have you been through driver's ed yet? safety ed...like six years ago. i still don't have my license though. We didn’t have “driver’s ed”. Safety ed was like six weeks of basics but there was never any practice driving or anything like that. I didn’t get my license till I was almost 23. What do you think about people who party a lot? i think i want to be invited? If they’re my age, they need to grow the hell up. If they’re my sister’s age, I’m sure most of them will get sick of it eventually like I did. When was the last time you dyed your hair? almost a year ago...i've been really lazy with it lately. A little over a month ago? It’s orange with black ombre. I like the concept but next time I’m getting it done professionally. Is there a movie you've seen countless times? more than one. Several. I tend to watch most things I like over and over again instead of watching new things. What do you need to go shopping for? i need to stop shopping. Haha...that’s a good answer. But I do need some more compression socks. Have you ever read Twilight? no. Yes, and dammit, I liked it. I still curse myself for that. Is there something that happened in your past that you hate talking about? yeah. Nah, I’ll talk about anything. I’m pretty self-centered. If Britney Spears came to your town, would you go see her concert? hell yes i love her. I’d be there with bells on. Meet anybody new this week? nope. but i'm going to on wednesday. Idk if customers at work count. I don’t leave my house unless it’s for that. Do you dislike anyone at this moment in time? everyone. Yeah, the cunt that thought it’d be cool to cheat on her boyfriend with my best friend and then screw him over as well. Any up coming events you're excited about? the concert on wednesday, and my birthday. Going home next week and house shopping. Does anyone hate you? sure. I guess so. Don’t matter to me.

#not spn #personal #about me #bring back myspace surveys 2k18 #i do what i want

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