#dad freddy. he's a little confused but he's got spirit

[yogurthoopsart]

I'm glad people are liking my trans roxy agenda!!! Join us. It's totally canon. I promise.

Anyway. Elaborating. The reason Faz Ent. goes along with the Roxy transition is bc the rest of the animatronics accept Roxy immediately and refuse to do otherwise. This is their good friend, of course they'll accept her. It would be too expensive to rewire the AI's of all the animatronics, so faz ent just rolls with it.

In fact, they start playing around with the idea of new characters, since Roxy is taken so well. They experiment with endo AI stuff and get Monty as a result. Roxy is stoked that there's a new guy. Until her dad dies and the new guy takes his place (she probably doesn't know it's his fault, but he's still being an ass to her other dad so she's justified)

[fivenightsatfreddysfanfiction]

Thanks for the Memories

Jeremy draws on various memories when Gregory and Cassie ask for help with their school reports, and a visit by Alex sets off far darker and more painful ones, all revolving around one man; Mike Schmidt.

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

The bell over the door jingled, catching Jeremy’s attention as he looked up from the small endoskeleton he was assembling to see who had walked into the shop. “Oh, hey, Mike,” he greeted with a grin, seeing the older man step carefully around a table covered in scrap parts and plush animatronic casings. The dubious look on Mike’s face at the miniature versions of the Fazband was par for the course; neither of them expected to be able to make the toys without Fazbear Entertainment coming for their heads, but considering the legal debacle the company was in over Mike being the Bite victim and Jeremy’s father being cleared of allegations of being a murder accomplice, maybe they were letting it slide to avoid more trouble.

Fine by Jeremy, he’d use his father’s software to do some good in the world and protect kids via the Securi-Toys. Balance out the crap Fazbear Entertainment did to cover up those kids’ murders.

“It’s weird to be around tiny Fazfucks,” Mike remarked dryly, picking up a fuzzy head for a Freddy toy and squinting at it suspiciously, “Feels like they’re gonna come to life and come for my kneecaps or some shit.”

“Well, they’re not. I’m the one making them, so they’re more defense than ‘I’m gonna stuff you in a Christmas stocking at midnight’,” Jeremy replied with a chuckle. He reached out to pat his computer affectionately, “Papa’s software will finally get to do what he intended it to do; keep kids safe from harm.”

Mike took another look around at the collection of parts and equipment, eyes squinting as he took time to process what he was seeing, likely just now realizing that Jeremy had quite a lot of stuff for his new workshop that he couldn’t have been able to afford by himself. He set the Freddy head down, a scowl on his face that Jeremy could tell came from confusion and frustration with that confusion. His new medication to help with managing the lingering effects of his head injury was a lot less effective compared to having the 5th Child’s spirit guide his thoughts and give internal reminders.

But Faith was gone now, passing on in the effort spent to keep Mike alive from the second bite a possessed Foxy gave him, so now the two of them had to continue living without her to rely on for help and support. Probably for the best that Mike and Jeremy had no plans to go near a Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza Place location for the rest of their lives, if they could help it. The Home Location was locked down, fully taken over by the spirits of the children still bound there and his papa’s ghost looking over the place to ensure they got to ‘play’ freely within its boundary.

“Where’d this stuff come from anyway?” Mike finally asked, poking at an animatronic eye and watching it roll around in its tray.

“Papa’s family contacted me after the stuff with us and Fazbear Entertainment hit the news,” Jeremy replied. He still didn’t know how to feel about that; anger that they had stayed distant for so long after disowning his father, irritation that they only chose now to reach out, after his father was long dead and his name had been smeared and it took Jeremy’s efforts to clear it, a strange gratitude that they reached out at all, that somebody wanted him. Most of all was just frustration that they could have cleared things up sooner, faster, if they hadn’t turned away from his father’s plight and ignored the early signs of spousal abuse his mother inflicted on him and then turned to inflicting on Jeremy once his father was dead.

But then, Jeremy would have never met Mike, wouldn’t have the Dad he yearned to have as a kid and the loving family home he’d always hoped for. So many conflicting feelings.

“They sent me all this stuff when I told them I was planning to make little animatronic toys with Papa’s software as a business and then offered to be a supplier of parts on a family discount.” Jeremy waved his hand over all the equipment and boxes of metal. He shrugged. “Guess this was their way of saying ‘Sorry for ignoring you and your papa for your entire lives’. Kind of a lame apology but at least it saves me the trouble of buying all this myself at full price. I can spend my money on going to school for engineering instead, get a better handle on how all this stuff goes together.”

“Back to school for you, huh?” Mike remarked with a proud smile, “Yeah, that’s a good use of the bribe money that fuckwad company gave you to settle out of court. Using mine to finally pay for the wedding Doll deserves to have for putting up with me.” Jeremy lit up at the news, his smile stretching his cheeks in excitement.

“That’s awesome! You guys are getting married at last! This is the best ending ever!” he exclaimed, jumping up from his chair to hug Mike, snuggling into the older man’s embrace.

“Yeah, and we have you to thank for that, too,” Mike told him in quiet joy, “You looking for answers to questions I didn’t even think to ask or knew was there, savin’ me from the bullshit that happened that night. We’re gonna have a good life from now on, you, me, and Doll. Make some good memories that’ll last us both.”

That was the happiest Jeremy felt in a long time, beaten out only by the joy they all shared when Mike’s daughter Faith was born.

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

Present Day-

The bell over the door jingled, catching Jeremy’s attention as he looked up from the small endoskeleton he was assembling to see who had walked into the shop. “Oh, hey, Gregory,” he greeted with a grin and glanced over to the girl that walked in with him, “and you brought a friend! That’s a first.” He snickered at the pout Gregory shot him in return.

“Come on, Mr. Fitzgerald, you’re gonna make me sound lame!” the boy complained while the newcomer looked around at everything in awe. “This is Cassie,” Gregory introduced his friend and Jeremy greeted her with a nod, “We’re doing reports on technology innovators for school and Cassie’s doing hers on Afton Robotics. Her dad used to work for them as a technician so she’s really interested in their A.I. and stuff.”

“Huh, I thought you’d do that one yourself,” Jeremy commented, eyebrows raising in surprise. The boy had been primed to be an Afton engineer, a perfect host body for William Afton, based on what Ven and Damien had figured out and what Vanessa had told them happened under the Pizzaplex.

“Nah, the whole class expected me to write about Afton Robotics, but I don’t want to get seen poking in their official stuff,” Gregory grumbled, arms folding over his chest. Probably to avoid being put in a position to get disappeared again. Jeremy sighed; seemed like Fazbear Entertainment hadn’t stopped with the weird cover-ups. Not with how many people kept disappearing in town over the years.

“So then what are you doing here?” he asked in confusion before blinking at Gregory’s phrasing. ‘Official’ resources. “You want Cassie to have access to our data on Afton Robotics?” he asked warily, narrowing his eyes at Gregory nodding and Cassie giving him a puzzled look.

“Why do you have something like that? Isn’t your family’s company a competitor to Afton Robotics?” she questioned.

“It’s complicated,” Jeremy told her and rubbed his head, a long sigh drawing out of him as he thought over how to explain things. “I don’t know. Our database is seriously out of date, and we only have it to try and figure out what happened in the past to make sure it doesn’t happen again in the future.” He gave Gregory a meaningful glare, “Clearly we didn’t get enough relevant information to prevent a repeat of Circus Baby and the Eggs Benedict A.I. situation.”

Gregory scowled briefly before shrugging it off, his expression turning more uncaring of his experience. Cassie blinked in surprise, “Circus Baby? From Circus Baby’s Pizza and Parties? Gregory said you’re the one who built her.”

“Her physical forms, yeah,” Jeremy admitted, leaning back in his chair and looking over the scattering of parts and tools in the workshop, “Her first body was originally from Afton Robotics, but her A.I. was stolen from another family.”

“Bold accusation,” Cassie pointed out flatly. Jeremy shrugged.

“We have proof, but that proof will cause a lot more pain and trouble to a lot more people than it’s worth. So the best that happened was a good copy of the A.I. was stolen back, which had a ton of Afton Robotics data attached to it that we kept, Fazbear Entertainment kept the master copy, and their feud stays in the shadows as long as no one else gets dragged into the mess,” he replied carefully. “I built Circus Baby’s current self for the rescued A.I. and that’s who you see in Meera’s pizzeria. Fazbear Entertainment doesn’t bother me about it because of an old settlement between them and me about my papa.”

“The guy in the museum who looks like you?” Gregory asked, his eyes wide, “You had beef with Fazbear Entertainment cuz of him?”

“Huh, didn’t know the family put Papa’s picture back up there,” Jeremy remarked in an unimpressed tone, “Nice of them to do after so many years of pretending he and I didn’t exist. Guess that was also part of the apology gift of all this stuff they sent me for the business back when I was younger.” He frowned a bit, studying Cassie carefully before glancing back over at Gregory. “I can print out some stuff from the files, but I gotta make sure it’s safe stuff. Think you two can spare some time to wait around for that?”

Gregory looked uncertain for a bit there, and Jeremy felt a little bad about reminding the kid that his database wasn’t public knowledge for good reason. But what was contained in the copy of Afton files he stored in the workshop was less about the surface level stuff on the animatronics as entertainment and more about William Afton’s research on Remnant and how to get more of it and what it could do for creating A.I. and extending human life. Stuff that no child should see.

Stuff that Gregory shouldn’t have had first hand knowledge of but it couldn’t be helped since he and his mother were unfortunate victims of Elizabeth Afton’s attempts to resurrect her daughter and William.

Jeremy would have to carefully sift through what he had and pick out anything that looked like it was just about animatronic coding and hope there wasn’t anything mentioned that could lead down a rabbit hole Cassie could get lost in. Maybe he’d be lucky and find some new angles on the current mystery of what went on in the Pizzaplex during this search.

“Grandma knows where I am, so I can take my time,” Cassie chimed in, looking for a chair to sit in and settle down for writing, “Dunno why you guys are so weird about some files but I guess it has something to do with legal stuff.”

Gregory shrugged listlessly and Jeremy just sighed and turned to his computer, setting up a search in the database for a sample of files based on some keywords. With that done, he turned back to Gregory. “My ‘beef’ with Fazbear Entertainment was because of Papa, Jeremy Jonathan Fitzgerald Sr.,” he replied to the boy’s earlier question, “He was accused of something he didn’t do and died before he could clear his name. I finished the investigation myself, found the proof that he was innocent that had been hidden because of the cover-ups done to the Missing Children Incident they did, and to keep me and my proof out of court, Fazbear Entertainment publicly declared my father innocent of wrongdoing after their own ‘investigation’ and gave me a hell of a settlement check as an ‘apology’ for taking that long to clear his name.”

“Yeah, sounds about right for that Afton lady to do,” Gregory grumbled, “They did the same thing for Vanessa and Sydney to make us ‘go away’.” Jeremy gave him a wry grin. It did seem like a repeat situation, though likely it was because of Vanessa bearing the name ‘Afton’ and the company scrambling to not piss off their owner, and Meera had stormed into their office in a fury over the condition of her ‘cousin’ Sydney, which set off the earlier secret unofficial agreement to keep peace between the Enfuego Family and Fazbear Entertainment.

Not like Meera was going to honor her side anyway, blood feuds didn’t end until a whole bloodline was wiped out, but Jeremy hoped to be far away from that fallout when it happened.

Gregory’s eyes flicked to Jeremy’s computer screen as an image flashed by in the database search, and his expression twitched. Jeremy glanced over to see what he had reacted to and smiled a bit at the images of the Guards scrolling through at a set speed. The keywords had been about animatronics, so it might have pulled up the files on the various guards who matched certain generations of animatronics. He pointed at the screen. “You saw me in there? I was the night watch for the ‘new’ Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza Place at the home location, when the Toy Fazband was built and sent over and ended up getting Papa’s software uploaded when they connected to the network.”

“You were a security guard?” Gregory questioned dubiously.

“How did you think I was doing my investigation? I got hired there to save up for a place of my own and also look for the clues and evidence I needed to clear Papa’s name,” Jeremy replied with a chuckle, “That’s where I met my best friend, who then became my dad.” He reached out to grab a framed photo from his desk and held it out to the boy. “That’s him,” he pointed out, “Mike Schmidt, best dad a lonely teen with PTSD could ask for.”

Gregory took the framed photo from him and studied it in silence, leaving Jeremy to turn back to his database search and clean up the results. There were a few files that seemed safe enough to share, mostly early blueprints for the Funtime animatronics and planning discussions for the types of personalities their A.I. would have programmed. He sent those to the printer and flagged the rest of the search for later reading himself.

“Did your headache come back? Here, you’re lucky I always keep some medicine on me for you these days,” Cassie said suddenly. Jeremy spun in his chair to blink at Gregory gripping his head with a grimace, the photo held close to his chest in a hug to keep from dropping it. The girl had hopped out of her chair, unzipping her pouch to take out a bottle of basic headache medication, sorting out a couple of pills to hold out to Gregory. While he threw both of them into his mouth, she also grabbed a bottle of water out of her backpack to hand to him as well. “Maybe it’s something to do with stress? My dad used to get headaches after coming home from work and he blamed stress.”

“Y-yeah, probably that,” Gregory muttered between sips of water. He handed the photo back to Jeremy with a weak smile. “He seems.. nice.”

“He looked nice in that photo cuz that was when I got accepted to the college I wanted to go to,” Jeremy replied with a laugh, “If you asked anyone else, Mike was a jerk on the best of days and an asshole with a mean streak on the worst days. Then again, most people didn’t know that part of the reason he was perpetually pissed off was because of having to survive six hours a night for five nights a week against killer robots.”

“Can’t relate,” Gregory snarked dryly before looking over at the printer buzzing, papers sliding out into the tray, “Oh, hey, stuff’s done.” Jeremy gestured at him to go ahead and the boy took the papers, handing them over to Cassie. “Here ya go, hope that’s enough for a decent report,” he told her. She flashed him a smile in thanks, taking the stack and immediately turning to read them, an excited gleam in her eyes.

“So if you’re not doing a report on Afton Robotics, which company did you pick?” Jeremy asked Gregory in mild interest. With a nervous laugh, the kid just rubbed the back of his neck and gave a one-shoulder shrug.

“I went with Fitzgerald Defense and Security. Figured it’d be easy to do if I ask you about it,” Gregory admitted and widened his eyes, poking his fingertips together, “Could you help me, Mr. Fitzgerald?” He then immediately flinched, one hand rising up to press to his forehead, “Ow! What the fuck.. stupid headache.. when’s that damn medicine gonna kick in?!”

“I’ll help when you feel better. Go sit,” Jeremy told him with a wry grin. He was a little touched that the kid wanted to write about his father’s family company, but he wasn’t sure how much help he’d actually be. His father didn’t really say much to anyone about Fitzgerald Defense and Security, didn’t keep a lot of notes in regards to it, just small references and names in regards to the maintenance and creation of the first set of Toy Animatronics. Jeremy turned back to the database, frowning at a few mentions of his father’s name in the Afton files.

It was a little frightening to have learned just how close his father came to catching Elizabeth Afton’s attention for looking too hard and too intently at the springlock mechanisms of those early hybrid animatronics. If he’d been at that sister location when the failures happened.. well, that would explain a lot about his father’s behavior at the home location afterwards and why Damien was so violently aggressive towards any iteration of Springtrap. Might actually have been a good thing that he went back to the home location immediately to decommission Spring Bonnie and Fredbear; Elizabeth seemed to target software-leaning engineers and programmers for host bodies for her father-in-law if Gregory’s affinity for Afton software and animatronic hardware was any indicator.

He dismissed the files with a soft sigh, trying to push thoughts of his father out of mind as he turned his gaze towards the photo of himself and Mike. His relationship with his father was complicated, doubly so when first interacting with Damien after their mutual realization; lots of arguing, lots of crying, lots of apologies, lots of explanations, excuses, accusations, and regrets, enough to have any therapist who could work with them rolling in counseling fees. By now, Jeremy had settled into a kind of equilibrium with his memories of his father and his life now with the man’s soul existing within his reincarnation. He could work with Damien and sometimes he’d end up working alongside Jonathan, in those few instances where he was Awake to help him and Damien get through some difficult troubleshooting in the workshop.

“So when will I get to see you again, Dad?” Jeremy mumbled, reaching out to tap his fingertip to the photo, “Or did you lose out on reincarnation by giving up Six? Would that happen to me when it’s time I give back Seven?” Because Seven was like Six, born from Jeremy’s feelings of hope for living and desire to heal his wounded past and family, and given the direction to protect by Damien, and so the created spirit endlessly kept Jeremy’s body healing, extending his life and slowing his aging. Jeremy didn’t want to live forever, but he also didn’t want to miss his chance to possibly find Mike again.

If his Papa got his soul messed with and exposed to enough Remnant to be reincarnated, then surely Mike would get the same chance. Years of working at Freddy’s, surrounded by so much Remnant, actually being possessed for nearly his whole life up until they both left Freddy’s employment, if anyone deserved to be reincarnated it was him. But did giving up Six change that? Supernatural stuff was way beyond his knowledge.

“Mr. Fitzgerald? I’m feeling better now, so could I ask you about your family’s company for my report?” Gregory asked cautiously, pencil and paper in his hands and concerned expression on his face. Jeremy gave him a small smile before shaking himself off, setting his thoughts aside for later. He could almost imagine Mike telling him to wait until after work to mope and his grin grew more genuine.

“Yeah, sure, let’s see how much help I can be,” he replied.

They talked for a while about the kinds of things Fitzgerald Defense and Security worked on, though Jeremy knew more about the line of observation and reporting animatronics than anything else. That was the line that developed based on the Toy Animatronics his father had programmed and the source of the parts he used to build Circus Baby’s forms and the Securi-Toys. Part of him wondered who handled the programming for them now, since Jonathan was the software engineer for the family before his disowning and death.

The scratching of pencils over paper as both kids wrote their reports filled the air, letting Jeremy sit back and relax. It was a slow business day, much of his paperwork had been done already, Damien’s paycheck was already sent out and the few orders for repairs he had were nearly complete so he could afford a little break before finishing them. Despite the melancholy brought about by his usual missing of his dad, he was happy with his life. A little longer, he’ll wait a little longer for any signs of him reincarnating and if he or Damien couldn’t find Mike anywhere then Jeremy would have to accept that his dad got his wish of truly passing on.

True rest sounded like it’d be nice. If it worked out like that, then maybe giving Seven to Damien again wouldn’t be so bad; the spirit worked well with him and Six, a solid team.

The kids exchanged papers to read over the reports and double check their work and Cassie quickly made a face at Gregory’s writing. “Gregory, you can’t turn in a paper that calls Toy Chica ‘Stupid Japanese Bird’!” she scolded, “That’s awful!”

“I’m not the one who made her that way,” Gregory replied with a pout, folding his arms over his chest.

“Y’know, I never understood why Papa programmed that into her,” Jeremy admitted, sheepish expression on his face. “The pervy stuff she kinda learned on her own, though. It was the reason why Mike hated her during my time at the pizzeria. So much weird innuendo.”

“See? Mr. Fitzgerald agrees with me!” Gregory declared smugly. Cassie just gave him an unimpressed look as she slid the paper back across the table.

“Fix it,” she told him and he sighed in complaint but took the paper and began erasing his words.

“Fine, but I still stand by my opinion!”

“Your opinion sucks; you didn’t even know she existed until Mr. Fitzgerald told you about the Toys.”

The kids were amusing. Jeremy hid his quiet laughter behind his hand.

It wasn’t long before Cassie checked her phone and informed him and Gregory that she was being picked up by her grandmother. “Thanks a bunch for the info, Mr. Fitzgerald,” she said with a smile, “It was really cool to learn about the Funtimes. Do you think Funtime Foxy was the starting base for Roxy? Both of them were pretty gung-ho about their show times and making sure people were there to see them.”

“It’s possible. Afton Robotics kept pretty good records on their animatronic programming, even if some of that programming wasn’t exactly theirs to keep. I can still respect archiving old software, even if I don’t like the people doing the archiving,” Jeremy mused and squinted a bit in thought, “I wonder.. it’s been a while since I thought about where the drives holding the backups of the original Fazband went. Router stole copies long ago, but the originals also went missing during the fire sale after Fazbear Frights burned down.”

“You think if Afton Robotics got them they’d remake the old animatronics for the museum?” Cassie asked hopefully, “It’d be really cool to see what Freddy and the others looked like in the old times!” Jeremy laughed again, rueful in sound. ‘Old times’ certainly made him feel a lot older.

The funny part was they did sort of remake the old Fazband, but they had been silent, empty shells of themselves, little more than hunting endos dressed up in suits that mimicked the original Fazband crafted to capture Mike and collect samples of his Remnant. Didn’t work since they didn’t pose the challenge Mike was used to countering, so he kept them at bay easily. All that did was prove that the drives housing the programming for the originals wasn’t in Afton’s hands, so they were still lost.

Gregory didn’t chime in, tapping the eraser end of his pencil against the table top as he gazed distantly off, like he wasn’t quite tuned into the here and now. Lost in his thoughts maybe? Jeremy couldn’t really tell. Every now and then the boy’s eyebrows twitched, eyes narrowing just the smallest bit. It reminded him of when Mike would be processing events after a flurry of them on a night shift, slowly sifting through what information he’d managed to grab and sorting them out to something coherent enough for him. Maybe Gregory was the same way, just with something else affecting his thought processing. Jeremy had seen Damien hand off a few fidget toys to the boy some time back so the tapping pencil was probably his immediate stand-in for one.

He pulled himself out of it in time to walk Cassie to the shop entrance when her grandmother pulled up, waving goodbye as she left and then coming back to sit at the table again, a frown on his face.

“Something on your mind?” Jeremy asked. With Cassie gone, they could both be more open about things in regards to the Aftons and animatronics.

“I dunno. My headache’s not really gone, but it’s not really hurting either,” Gregory replied uncertainly, hand rising to his forehead to rub carefully at his scalp. “Like... it itches inside my head and it’s kinda annoying. What the hell am I supposed to do about that?”

“Mike used to have a problem like that. We figured out a bit late in the game that he could kinda soothe it with a heating pad. Wait here, I think I’ve got one stashed away,” Jeremy replied, getting to his feet and wincing at feeling a tingle around his knees. Whatever creaking or popping was supposed to happen at his age simply didn’t, not with Seven immediately dealing with any minor damages caused by growing older. “Since Cassie’s gone home, how about you? Gonna call Vanessa to pick you up?” he called over his shoulder as he went into the backroom to search for a heating pad or hand warmer.

“I dunno if she’s home right now. She said she was gonna go bargain shopping for suppliers for Radical Eats with Sydney, so maybe Alex will come get me. I can text him and maybe he’ll actually bring those lemon cookies I told him to make,” Gregory said and Jeremy’s eyebrows rose at the words. That sounded super appealing since Faith liked to tease him by making lemon bars for Damien and not letting him have any until after Damien had his fill. His adoptive little sister could be such a pain sometimes but he loved her all the same.

“I didn’t know Router could bake cookies. Figured being an angry hacker was all he could do,” he commented as he fished a small hot water bottle out of his med kit and filled it with hot tap water. He wrapped it in a cloth towel and headed back out to the workshop. “Why did you tell him to make my favorite cookies?” he asked curiously.

Gregory was looking down at his phone, legs idly kicking back and forth as he tapped out his texts rapidly. “Because I was getting bored with him whining about you showing me stuff and I can tell he’s just clinging to this whole idea of being your rival cuz you’re not giving him any attention,” he replied with a roll of his eyes and a huff of exasperation, “So I told him to bribe you into talking to him with a plate of lemon cookies like ages ago but he hasn’t done it yet so I keep poking him about it whenever I get the chance and this is another good chance to do it since I’m making him come here to get me.”

“You didn’t have to do that,” Jeremy sighed, shoulders slumping as yet more complicated feelings and memories rose up from the conversation. He really didn’t care for Router, was happier to think of him as just up and gone after making that deal in the weird underground facility, had never really forgiven him for the chaos he caused in Freddy’s that night he and his partner and mercenary gang broke in to steal the Fazbands and ended up temporarily killing Mike. As far as Jeremy was concerned, if he never had to cross paths with the hacker again, he’d pretend there was a god and thank them every day just for that. “I haven’t reached out probably for the same reason he hasn’t tried to contact me,” he added firmly, holding out the wrapped hot water bottle and watching Gregory carefully place it on his head, “We don’t like each other for past and personal reasons, and we’d probably just end up fighting if you put us in the same room for any length of time. It’s safer for both of us and everyone we care about if we just don’t make contact.”

“Uuuugh, you two are so laaaame! And annoying!” Gregory complained loudly, slumping back in his chair with the bottle on his head, “What even did you guys do to each other for this stupid rival thing to start in the first place?!”

“He got my best friend killed the night we ‘met’,” Jeremy told him flatly, a scowl on his face as he folded his arms over his chest.

Gregory blinked a few times, then looked away bashfully. “Oh,” he said quietly before his brow furrowed a little and he looked back up in confusion, “But.. you brought him back.. right?”

Jeremy felt his eye twitch. “That doesn’t make it all better, you know,” he replied and there was something else. Something that didn’t feel right about this, something uncomfortable that he couldn’t pin down. But he’d spent too long at Freddy’s to ignore gut feelings of something not quite right and he could feel himself getting more on edge, eyes glancing around to try and see if he could find the source of his unease.

“Sorry,” Gregory mumbled, a miserable look on his face, “I thought.. Freddy said that he and Knife Lady talked and agreed that they weren’t gonna be friends cuz Freddy did something in his past life that pissed off Knife Lady and she wasn’t gonna forgive him for it but she was okay with him being around us because he was trying to do better in this life. So.. so I thought...”

Jeremy sighed again, feeling his own headache coming on between trying to deal with Gregory and trying to pin down whatever was causing this sense of unease. “You thought if we talked something like that would come up and we’d come to some agreement too,” he guessed and pinched the bridge of his nose as he heard Gregory sniffle a little.

“I just.. I just want Alex to stop being an asshole cuz I like coming here to visit when you’re around,” he whimpered, “And I want you to just give him a chance cuz he’s really trying. He bakes stuff for me and helps me with homework and teaches me about hacking and programming-”

“I get it, I get it, he’s great to you and you want us to get along,” Jeremy cut in because he didn’t want to hear any more. It was so much easier to just think of Router as he remembered him in their first encounter with each other, when they were enemies and things were black and white because he and Mike were the good guys protecting the property and Router and Panther were the bad guys breaking in to steal it and then Mike got killed and Router was forever stamped as evil beyond forgiveness in Jeremy’s eyes.

He was so furious with the man that he had very nearly killed him that night. If it hadn’t been for Faith, for the Fifth Child, he probably would have and destroyed his own hope to save Mike in the process.

But this? A child pleading with him to give the guy a chance.. at what exactly? He didn’t want anything to do with Router, but he felt bad that Gregory felt this way about the fact that neither of them liked each other. And yet that wasn’t a good enough reason to just wave away the trauma and anger and pain of that night just so Gregory could have his ideal.

The bell above the door jingled and Jeremy pulled his fingers from his pinching to see who walked in. The young man who was Router’s reincarnation.. great.

The first thing Router did was zero in on Gregory looking gloomy in his chair with a hot water bottle on his head and then look up at Jeremy with a near-murderous glower that Jeremy returned with a glare of his own, sparks of green electricity flickering around his hand, daring him to try anything.

“What did you do to him?” Router growled, stepping closer to Gregory and giving his sparking hand a wary glance. “Did you make him cry?!”

“I didn’t do shit to him,” Jeremy retorted, “He got a headache while working on his homework, hence water bottle.” He folded his arms over his chest again. “Him looking all sad like this is because of you holding this stupid grudge towards me when you’re the one who fucked things up.”

“Me fucking up?!” Router declared in offense, stepping forward in confrontation, “You were never supposed to be at that fucking pizzeria, Fitzgerald! I had your precious daddy tell you to fuck off and you’re the one who showed up and fucked everything for all of us! You fucking got my best friend killed that night and I’m never forgiving you for that!”

“You got my best friend killed that same night, so I’m not forgiving you for that either!” Jeremy yelled, feeling the urge to beat the ego out of the man again.

“But you got him back!” Router shot back furiously, “You brought him back to life somehow! I saw him with you in that bunker! You brought him back but you couldn’t do the same for Panther, you couldn’t do it for my best friend and I hate you for leaving me without him for so long!”

“I wouldn’t have done it even if I knew I could at the start,” Jeremy hissed in contempt, “He deserved to rot in hell for coming after Mike for whatever stupid reason he got into his head and I’m glad he lost all his memories because at least he’s less of a shithead without them while you’re a reincarnated asshole who still didn’t get his best friend back.”

“Stop fighting!” Gregory shrieked, throwing the hot water bottle at Jeremy and hitting him in the stomach with surprising force. He stumbled back in surprise, feeling Seven already working to heal the bruising. “You’re both being fucking jerks! Get some therapy! Or shoot each other with Nerf guns or something, I don’t care! Just stop fighting!”

Silence filled the workshop then, broken only by Gregory still sniffling, now hugging Router’s side tight, and Router’s own breathing shaky in the wake of Jeremy’s last barrage of words. He thought back over what he’d said and winced a little. Okay, that had been a low blow so maybe Gregory was fair in chucking that water bottle at him.

“Let’s go,” Router muttered after a long exhale that Jeremy was pretty sure was meant to steady his voice, “Vanessa and Sydney are bringing takeout again so I told Freddy he doesn’t have to make pizza for dinner before I came to pick you up.”

“I’m sorry,” Gregory mumbled and Router just shook his head, rolling his eyes even as he patted the boy on the back comfortingly.

“Now do you believe me about how Fitzgerald and I have an undying hate for each other?” he asked lightly, almost mockingly, “And how we’ll never get along?”

“I wouldn’t say ‘undying’,” Jeremy corrected mildly, returning the glare Router gave him with a quick shrug, “I do plan to die someday, from old age. Just on my terms.” It wasn’t often he got to be petty so he’d take the chance even if it didn’t really feel as good as he thought it should.

“Why can’t you just talk to each other?” Gregory complained bitterly, “Fucking assholes, both of you.”

“Some things you just can’t get past, so the only thing you can do is just recognize that it’s better to not be around things, or people, that are an issue,” Jeremy replied carefully.

“But you were both there at the Pizzaplex!” Gregory protested, “You were working together there that night to save me and Vanessa and Freddy!”

“We.. we weren’t there for you or her,” Router admitted quietly, a grimace on his face, “We were actually there for Sydney. You three were just kinda a bonus we didn’t expect.” Gregory stared up at him in surprise before swiveling his head over to give the same stare at Jeremy when he spoke up.

“And we weren’t exactly working together. Router ran off to do whatever on his own and I stayed with Damien to do technical support for Circus Baby,” he clarified, shifting uneasily on his feet. That sense of something not right never left, still lingered in the back of his mind and the sooner he got both of them to leave so he could focus on analyzing it, the better. “So, yeah. Not in the same place if we can help it.”

“You guys are assholes,” Gregory repeated stubbornly, hugging Router tighter.

“If I stop bitching every time you want to come here or talk about Fitzgerald, will you stop trying to get us to talk to each other?” Router offered with a sigh. Jeremy noted how the younger man very obviously refused to face or look at him, keeping his eyes on the door to the workshop.

Gregory sniffed, but at least looked like he was considering it. He glanced up at Jeremy while still silent and he almost looked.. disappointed.

For some reason, seeing that expression.. hurt.

Jeremy swallowed, tightening his fingers to clutch at the sleeves of his shirt, and he looked away to evade that disappointed gaze. “You can’t force forgiveness,” he explained quietly, “Not.. not when we’re not ready to try.”

“Not when we’re not willing to try,” Router amended with a huff, glaring at the door.

“..Do you think.. if Mike was around.. he’d try to talk things out with Sydney?” Gregory asked haltingly.

“Dunno. Doubt we’ll ever know,” Jeremy sighed, stepping back to lean against his desk and letting his eyes fall to the framed photo. God, he missed him so, so much. Mike would probably know what to do in this situation, right? Or at least just make it painfully clear where he stood with just a punch to break up the situation entirely. “Panther doesn’t remember Mike and.. and Mike hasn’t appeared in any way, ghost or reincarnation. For all I know, he’d probably flip Panther off and the guy won’t know why Mike would be so pissed.”

“His name’s Sydney, not Panther,” Router bit out, shooting him another glare before refocusing on the door. His eyes looked almost watery. “He doesn’t act like that anymore, doesn’t remember it, so there’s no point giving him his old codename when it doesn’t fit him anymore.”

Jeremy opened his mouth, closed it, then sighed again. “Alright,” he murmured.

“I wanna go home,” Gregory decided listlessly and flashed him a weak smile, “Thanks for the help with my report, Mr. Fitzgerald. See you again soon?”

“Sure, it was no trouble. You’re always welcome to stop by,” Jeremy told him reassuringly and looked up at Router, “And there’s no need to make me any baked goods, even for a bribe.”

“If I did make you anything, I’d have poisoned it first,” Router huffed, folding his arms over his chest. Jeremy smiled thinly back at him, lifting his left hand to show a faint green ‘7’ appearing on the back.

“Would have been neutralized before it did anything to me, but it’s cute you thought to try your dad’s M.O.,” he replied in saccharine tones.

“I said, stop,” Gregory ordered, glaring up at both of them, and Jeremy froze, shoulders hunching up, like he was back on his first week at Freddy’s and Mike had called him ‘Probie’ in that same tone that meant he was getting close to the man’s limit on patience. Router winced, one hand dropping to his arm to grip it tightly near the inner elbow. “Cassie said once that if you can’t be civil, then just shut the fuck up.” He blinked, then squinted one eye in consideration, “Well, okay, she didn’t say it exactly like that but it’s like that.” He started pushing at Router’s back, “Come on! Let’s go! Being pissed off at you two makes me hungry and I wanna know what Vanessa and Sydney brought back for dinner!”

Router shot Jeremy a glare over his shoulder as they headed out the door and Jeremy just threw his middle finger up at him, his face blank of any other expression.

He held the pose until both of them were gone and then allowed himself to let out a long exhale in relief. That was so much stress crammed into a short amount of time. He’d almost prefer another night at Freddy’s in comparison. At least then he could just put on a mask and avoid most encounters. After that whole mess with Router, he half-wished he could just drink the memory away but Mike had cut back heavily on drinking when Doll got pregnant and kept mostly dry from then on so there wasn’t any alcohol within easy reach.

The bell jingled again and Jeremy groaned, facepalming as he hoped it was just a regular customer or something.

“Hey, old man.. eh, what’s with that face?” Damien asked warily as he set down a plastic bag with some takeout cartons inside and Jeremy pulled his hand away to blink at him in surprise.

“Damien? You’re at home by this time, what’s up?” he returned in a confused tone.

“Steph dragged Ven and Meera off to some nightclub to scope it out for fashion ideas, so I caught a bus over since I know you like to work late on the weekend and you tend to forget to feed yourself,” Damien pointed out, unpacking the cartons before pausing with a frown, lifting his right hand to look at the back of it. “Weird, reacting again.”

“Probably because I used some of Seven’s power earlier,” Jeremy sighed, heading over to the door to lock it and flip the sign to ‘Closed’, “Router came by to pick up Gregory and it went about as expected between us.” He took the wooden chopsticks Damien held out to him and sat at the table, nudging aside a small endoskeleton arm to make room for a carton of fried rice.

“Which old man did you inherit that anger issue from, Jonathan or Mike?” the younger man quipped as he peeled the lid off his ramen. He slurped up some noodles with a happy hum before blinking. “Wait, was this in front of the kid? Dude, not cool,” he added with a disapproving scowl, “I chewed out my soul for being a shit father to you, now I gotta chew you out for being a crap role model?”

“I didn’t mean to scare Gregory!” Jeremy protested over his carton of sesame chicken, “Router just brings out the worst in me, and apparently I bring out the worst in him too. Both of us already knew it would be bad to meet and actually interact, but Gregory forced both our hands!”

Damien gave him an ugly look, sneering over his cup of ramen, “Damn, that’s cold. Blaming the kid for both of you having issues that blew up in front of him when you coulda dealt with it way before Gregory even entered the picture. You sure as hell didn’t learn that from Jonathan or Mike.” Jeremy groaned and planted his face in his palm again. “Ah ah, don’t hide from this.” Damien poked at the top of his head with the other end of his chopsticks, tapping his skull just hard enough to get his message across.

They resumed eating together in silence, companionable and comfortable, while waiting for him to pull himself together enough to give an account of what happened. Damien had a good sense of humor but he also had a strong sense of justice and a deep dislike for poor parenting. As many issues as Jeremy had had with his father along with complicated feelings towards the man, he felt just as bad for Damien’s initial turmoil, anger, and hatred that had directed inward at himself because of his father’s soul. Vincent helped a lot with sorting out a lot of their family and reincarnation issues, but something Jeremy didn’t allow him to help with was his issues with Router.

Mainly because he’d never thought he’d see the guy ever again.

“Talking to Gregory brought back some good memories of Papa and Mike,” Jeremy began after a good amount of their dinner was eaten. “It was nice to talk about them, the few good memories I had of Papa, and all the stuff Dad did for and with me.” His mouth thinned, his expression souring. “Then Router showed up and brought up a lot of bad memories.”

“Reconsidered talking with Vincent about it?” Damien asked around an egg roll in his mouth, his words slurred from the food. Jeremy frowned.

“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” he scolded before grimacing, “Wait.. no.. don’t...”

“You’re not my dad,” Damien quipped with a wide smile and gleeful eyes, cackling at his groan as he held the egg roll between his fingers, “How do you keep falling for my dad joke bait? You had two of them!”

“You take way too much enjoyment out of that,” Jeremy told him irritably before returning to his chicken, “And after Gregory’s reaction, I think I should get some help with what I remember of that night. He said Router was trying to be a better person, but my mind won’t let go of the things he said and did that night.”

“Memories can be a pain,” Damien agreed somberly, “but at least we have them. Still, sometimes I’m a little jealous of Gregory, Vanessa, and Sydney. Memories can be heavy; is it lighter to not have them?”

“Memories can keep hurting us years after they’re formed,” Jeremy muttered, poking at his food, “Would it be easier to have them taken away?”

The silence was heavier as they reflected on their words. Eventually, Damien raised his eyes to the older man, sadness that he shared with the soul inside shining through. “Would losing memories of the people we love be worth giving up the painful ones?” he wondered aloud. Jeremy tilted his head, thinking of the shining gold of his Papa before he fell to shadows and inflicted hurt, of the rough friendship with Mike that hardened into strong and stable familial bonds, lasting through the pain and grief and horrors of the night shifts.

“No, I suppose it isn’t,” he finally said quietly, “And I feel so sorry for Router and Sydney now. I can’t imagine how painful it must be.. to face your best friend’s reincarnation and realize they’ve lost their memories of you and your life together.”

It must be.. true agony.

[forever-fan]

New(ish) FNAF Au

Do you ever come up with a new AU and go "This is awesome! I can't believe I'm the first to think this up!" and then you do research and you aren't the first, or anywhere near the first to think it? Yeah, that happened to me.

So... yeah. This is a 'William was never the killer' AU. In fact, the actual murderer was Henry Emily. Well, I mean... sort of. He didn't kill Charlie, of course. Let's get into this.

Charlotte Emily was murdered by some random drunk from out of town. The man's wife had cheated on him and he got blackout drunk. After the initial murder, this man is no longer important and can be ignored. All you really need to know is he never confessed to what he did, so the mystery of Charlie's death became a cold case.

Henry Emily is pissed off that his daughter, his only family, is now dead. You see, Henry's wife left him after Sammy died in a car accident. The people driving the two cars were Mrs. Emily and someone who also died in the crash. Mrs. Emily divorced her husband and later confided in friends that she thought he was going to kill her. She also reveals that Henry is very mentally unstable.

Moving on, Henry decides to get revenge on the people who put his daughter outside. As it turns out, three boys locked Charlotte outside while two girls distracted people from what was happening. (La Missing Children) Henry is fucking pissed and is ready to pick off these kids one by one, but he pauses for a moment and thinks.

Henry isn't just gonna put on the Fredbear suit and murder kids, it would be obvious that it was him wearing the suit. (Also, the spring locks are unstable in Fredbear because Henry isn't as stuck up about maintenance as William is about SpringBonnie. This is the reason that Evan's tears triggered the jaws to clamp down a few months prior.)

Henry decides to wear William's spring lock suit. And so, the yellow rabbit lures five children to their deaths. These kids never realize that it was Henry instead of William. Therefore, the kids go all vengeful spirit on Afton.

Now, you may be wondering, "Why would Charlie help the missing kids possess robots and murder her dad?" Well, she also doesn't realize that William didn't kill her or the others. It was a dark, foggy, and rainy night. Charlie could only make out the man's heavy breathing, dark shirt, pale skin, and slurred cursing.

In fact! Charlie only started suspecting her murderer to be William after the Missing Children Incident. All the cops were saying William must have done it (despite lack of evidence) and her dad was saying he suspected William also killed her (despite the fact he was inside doing maintenance in the back, and the fact Henry had said nothing on that matter when initially asked by the cops the night his daughter died). So... yeah. Charlie is confused and upset.

Anyways, in this AU, the Funtimes were never meant to kill. What happened to Elizabeth was an accident and an actual malfunction. The compartment within the Funtimes was made as an earlier version of Glamrock Freddy's stomach storage. The claw was made so Baby could reach things a little farther away and pull them into her compartment. Baby counting the children was a safety feature to make sure no children went missing ever again.

William was distraught and broken when his daughter died. He felt like he was betrayed by practically everyone in his life. Henry called him a murderer, his wife left him (suicide), Michael accidentally ended Evan's life, and now his own creation had killed his daughter. Really, all he had left was Michael, and his relationship with his son had been strained since allegations of William being a murderer first started being tossed around.

Later on, after he realizes the animatronics are haunted, William tries to free the missing children from their metal prisons. Their angry spirits chase him into the back room, where he puts on the SpringBonnie outfit in an attempt to feel any comfort in that morbid moment. And then the final betrayal of William's life happens. The spring locks fail and William's creation kills him.

Michael goes along his journey through the games as normal, except in this world he is a pawn in Henry's sick game. After Michael is scooped and Ennard leaves, I personally like to think that the remnant begins to heal him. So, when we finally get to the fire and he is wearing a mask, it is so that none of the animatronics recognize him and get suspicious. It is not because he is a zombie boy.

Henry's speech is mostly BS because he is a psychopath. The part for Charlie is the only part that really holds any truth on how he feels. But yeah, Cassidy drags William into a personal hell because she is clueless and William is this AU's biggest scapegoat. We are going to completely ignore the canon of Help Wanted, Security Breach, and Ruin. None of that happened in this AU, except for the fact that some psycho dressed up in her fursona and started murdering kids at her job.

But yeah, that's my new goofy little AU. Except, a ton of other people thought of it first, just slightly different.

[daandyli0n]

okay, so!!

(small heads up: i've got. some weird timeline shit going on with the These Gilded Haunted Halls au. so just a heads up there)

first, Cassidy:

full name is Cassidy David Afton. some people call him Dave and it confuses the shit out of him.

heterochromia! one blueish-silver eye (his dad's eye color), and the other a dark brown.

autistic and semiverbal. a lot of people think he's selectively mute though.

nonbinary but didn't get to figure it out 😔

the Fredbear plush had been a gift from Charlie and Andrew. it was also his favorite.

he had a pacifier up until he died.

loves plushies. fucking loves them.

knew all of the MCI kids in one way or another. his best friend, though, was Gabi (the Freddy spirit).

may or may not have witnessed his dad murder someone when he was a toddler, and that's what fucked him up. his dad was in the suit, too, so that's why he was scared of the animatronics in particular.

he honestly...didn't hate Michael, surprisingly enough. they had both been close before William decided to do some Killing, and his murders had fucked both of them up pretty bad (Michael lost two of his friends (Charlie and Andrew) in the span of like. a month, and to say he didn't have a healthy way of coping with it is an understatement (just ask Cassidy), and well...Cassidy literally witnessed one of the murders, and it traumatized the fuck out of him). if anything, Cassidy was more confused and upset about the fact Mike was being mean to him out of nowhere.

Cassidy had the Nightmares first. they were trauma nightmares, not anything caused by Fear Gas or something similar. they got transferred over to Mike after Cassidy died, though (not on purpose).

Andrew was the one talking through the Fredbear plush. they wanted to keep an eye on the kid.

survived the Bite! he lives!! well, for a few months, at least. we'll get there.

he was the Midnight Motorist Runaway. where was he going? to find Andrew's body, long story short.

so...i may or may not have come up with a Wild theory while trying to fall asleep at night, and then decided to make it canon to the Rewrite/au. so if you're curious what happened to this poor kid, long story short: Cassidy died in a carousel fire at Fallfest '83...that may or may not have been William's fault. and intentional.

he's more angry on behalf of the other spirits than himself, really.

he is "The One [William] Should Not Have Killed," but he's not the Vengeful Spirit.

he's the one who keeps dragging Mike back to Freddy's. mostly in a "Mike please come pick me up i'm scared" sort of way.

my beloved <3 he deserved so much better <3

now, onto Andrew:

technically speaking, his full name is David Miller Andrews.

the reason his friends call them Andrew/Andy is because of Mike. long story short, William will usually refer to employees (especially newer ones) by their last names, and when Mike was little, he sort of copied that by calling people he'd just met by their last names. this led to Mike calling him 'Andrews,' then 'Andrew,' and then 'Andy.' it just stuck.

demiboy, but isn't aware of that specific term; he/they.

he, Michael, Charlie, and Sammy were all in the same age range (12-13). Andy was the oldest, being about a year older than the others at 13.

died over a month after Charlie did (died on June 26th, 1981, while Charlie died on May 13th, 1981).

wasn't even an intended victim of William's; the two got into an argument and William knocked them out. the next thing they knew, Andrew was getting springlocked in Fredbear.

William dumped his body in a lake near the Afton House.

possessed the Fredbear plush to keep an eye on Cassidy (and Mike, to a lesser extent).

got really pissed off after Cassidy died. because Jesus Fucking Christ William.

he and Mike used to have a crush on each other, and while Andrew could tell Mike reciprocated their feelings, Mike didn't know Andy felt the same way. they were happy when Mike started dating Jeremy; he took it as a sign Mike could move on.

yes, he did get pissed off when William started using Dave Miller as an alias.

the Vengeful Spirit :]

that's all that's coming to mind right now!! anyway. my beloveds <3

would you like to hear a bit about my version of Cassidy (CC) and Andrew?

i'm thinkin about them and i want to Ramble

Please do I enjoy rambling

[tinyvampire]

how the ghosts would react to you coming out as trans

(bc i have bbc ghosts brain rot & i’m up late with good ol trans anxiety) enjoy!!

thomas

he would support the hell out of you, but would definitely be the kind of cis person to make a big dramatic show of it every time he accidentally misgendered or deadnamed you. listen - i love this man, but he is a drama queen. after telling him you’re trans, he would probably make it about him in some way - like maybe he once knew someone who was queer, or he always wanted to write a poem about one of those greek myths that involve trans people but he was too scared to, and etc etc etc. so yeah, he’s a bit of an attention whore, but he would go full ‘damn your eyes’ on anybody who was malicious towards you for your transness, 100%.

julian

with a crass, in poor taste joke, confusion, and then acceptance. basically how julian responds to any semi serious situation. he’d make some awful joke, maybe about cross-dressing, and then after learning more about what being trans actually means he’d come around. i don’t think he’d apologize (does he ever, like fr lol) (love him but 🤨), but he would probably say it makes sense that you’re a man/woman/nb, because of x y z behavior (which is stereotyping, but like at least he has the general idea & he’s trying) and then he’d make a conscious effort to never use your old name again.

fanny

similarly to the way she reacted when the lesbian couple was married at button house. she’d be aghast & outraged for like five minutes, ranting around the house about how true gentlemen/ladies don’t exist anymore in this modern age and etc etc but by the next day or so, she’d sheepishly apologize and ask you some questions about it. from then on she’d be quietly supportive in her own way, like automatically correcting when someone misgenders you & then never bringing up the incident; even when you thank her she’d be like ‘what on earth are you talking about, (chosen name)!’

pat

exactly how any ultra-supportive dad would react. pat would make it his personal mission to affirm your identity & make you feel comfortable and safe regarding your transness. he would also definitely throw you a surprise party in celebration of your coming out, complete with ‘it’s a boy/girl/baby (if you’re nb)’ banners courtesy of alison. he would be so touched that you trusted him with this information & more proud of you than he could ever say in words. (he’d also excitedly tell you facts about 80s queer icons that you already knew, but you’d pretend not to just to humor him.) (‘wow, freddie mercury was bi?! 😮’)

robin

honestly the best to come out to imo. robin’s been around a long time; this has made him incredibly kind & understanding. humanity’s stereotypes & societal pressures are born & die just as fast as people do, and he’d tell you as much (in his own robin way). humanity’s prejudices are much the same & robin has no time for that bullshit. he’d always be there if you needed a shoulder to cry on, and would passionately defend you and your identity should the occasion arise, no matter what.

the captain

instantly eager to assist you in any way possible. “it was very sharp of you to come to me with this. there’s so much to be done. we must change all of your legal documents at once, not to mention the wardrobe issue. hmm..patrick! assemble the troops!” he’d take charge immediately as though the only reason you came out to him was because you couldn’t handle transitioning by yourself & needed someone to be in charge. he accepts you right away too, though, so it’s no bother to you that he’s being his usual bossy, captain-y self. also he’d respond as though an actual crime had been committed if anyone gave you shit for being trans.

kitty

the definition of ‘little confused but got the spirit’. she’d probably think you mean you want to play dress up with her, and she’d be so excited she wouldn’t be able to focus on any explanations being offered by the other ghosts or alison. (& i know the ghosts couldn’t even play dress up if they wanted to, but do you think this fact would stop kitty from trying??? absolutely not) eventually, though, pat would gently explain it to her & she would support you whole-heartedly. (she’d still be totally confused though, bless her)

mary

literally would have no fucking clue what you’re talking about. “what be a transgender?!?” it would take the better part of a day to explain it all to her, but i do think she’d eventually understand, at least better than kitty. she’d probably be worried you’d be burned for it at first, and might even discourage your transition goals because of it, but once you reassured her that times have changed, she’d be happy to support you.

humphrey

i’m headcanoning this headless man as a trans man & no one can stop me. honestly, now that i think about it, humphrey gives off some serious t-boy swag vibes. i feel like you’d tell him you’re trans & he’d be like “ah so that’s what they’re callin it now” & boom, y’all are best friends. i can hear you in the replies now, ‘but they didn’t have access to hrt back then - !’ well pffpffpff, i don’t care. humphrey is trans now. you’re welcome.

[stressisakiller]

Next Steps (F.W)

The Other Dursley Part 2

Pairing: Muggle Dursley x Fred Weasley

A/N: This was requested by and anon who asked for a second part to muggle Dursley x Fred Weasley. I may go ahead and do a third part to this, let me know what you think in the comments!

Flashbacks are in italics. Fred lives AU

Warnings: None, Just fluff 

Word count: 2k

Part 1

You and Freddie had spent the morning together at his flat. You enjoyed some pancakes together that you had agreed to make, chocolate chip, of course, much to George’s delight when he walked out of his room that morning. You and Fred had decided not to tell anyone that you were together yet, you wanted to see how long it took them to figure out that you had actually started dating. George took a measured glance at the way you were seated, lounging in your chair with your legs across Fred’s lap. You pretended not to notice.

 “So what do the lovebirds have planned today?” He questioned. You just rolled your eyes and replied,

 “Well, I was wanting to help out at the shop for a little bit until Harry can get here to show me around a little more.” George’s eyebrow raised at that

 “Oh? Why isn’t Fred showing you around?” you giggled and rolled your eyes

 “Well he does have a popular business to help run and I would hate to get in the way of that,” you answered teasingly. You didn’t give George the chance to answer instead grabbing the dishes and heading to the sink. “Actually,” you mused, “I think I’ll head out to explore now.” You saw that trepidation on both of their faces. “I’ll be fine really, I just want to explore and discover this new place at my own pace and you need to work” You grabbed your purse and Fred stopped you right before you got to the door, he gave you some money so that you could buy whatever you wanted while you were out and with that you headed out eager to explore this magical new world.

 You found an ice cream shop and a cauldron shop, it felt kind of like a kitchen store just more specialized, you were impressed by the solid gold cauldron wondering what the purpose for it could be. You kept wandering through the increasingly busy streets, passing a robe shop and one that should all types of herbs. You were surprised to note that other than the ice cream shop there weren’t many food businesses and there weren’t any bakeries. You decided to speak with Fred about that when you got back to the shop. You were pulled out of your thoughts by someone calling out your name. You turned and saw your cousin running towards you, you laughed as he pulled you into a hug and swung you around. You were dizzy by the time he set you down, you giggled as you asked

 “What are you trying to make me fall over? What’s the occasion Cousin?” Harry grinned at you, 

“Does there have to be an occasion? I’m just excited to see you again! Plus I’m excited to show you around my world a little bit more, although it seems like you’ve been doing some exploring of your own.” You couldn’t help but look a little bashful at that.

 “I couldn’t help it, it was just such a beautiful morning and there was just so much to see!” He shook his head at your excitement,

 “I understand that completely, I felt the same way the first time I came here. Come on let's go! I have to show you my favorite spots.” You spent the rest of the morning into the afternoon running around with Harry, learning more and more about the wizarding world. As you explored you noticed that there were many shops that were empty and closed, asking Harry about it he explained what happened with the Wizarding war and how it affected Diagon alley and the people that worked there. You asked him about your idea from earlier. Would there be a way to buy one of the old shops and bring a muggle bakery in? He mulled it over for a moment before decisively saying that he couldn’t see why not and that he and Mr. Weasley would love to help you figure out the details of how and where. You headed back to Fred and George’s shop in high spirits debating whether you should talk to Fred about it yet or keep it as more of a secret until you got all of the kinks worked out. Opening the door you couldn’t help the smile that lit your face when you saw Fred in his element, talking with his customers, telling them about all the trouble he and George got into at Hogwarts, convincing them to buy more than they needed or thought that they wanted. You giggled as you watched one of the kids walk by you with a dazed look on his face after talking with Fred, you could relate, you wore a similar look after hanging out with him the first couple of times. You strolled over to him just in time to hear the end of his latest story.

 “And that’s how George and I ended up creating a swamp in the middle of the hallway.” You shook your head at that deciding that you would ask him about it later. He noticed you walking up out of the corner of his eye and turned to smile at you, pulling you to his side as he finished helping the customer. He placed a quick kiss on your head, not being able to help himself. You looked around and saw that George was just leaving the storage room so he probably didn’t see it so you could keep the charade going at least a little bit longer. You murmured that you were going to go put your bags into the apartment upstairs since they were giving a little heavy and he nodded and told you to come back down and find him once you were done. You did just that, taking a moment to check your appearance in the mirror before you headed down, appearances weren’t the most important thing but you knew that you probably looked a little windswept after being outside all morning. You came back down the stairs and started to help George at the cash register, he quickly explained the money system and told you to holler if you needed any help before he ran back into the backroom to restock a couple of the shelves that were currently empty. You were in awe of how well their business was doing and how many people appreciated them bringing joy back to the world. You became determined that you were going to find a way to help them bring that joy back in any way that you could. Mentally setting up a plan for how and where you would put your bakery. Looking around the shop you had ideas for tons more desserts and goodies, wondering if wizards would like the coffee you would make and what new flavors you could experiment with that the wizarding world had. Watching Fred you settled that you would wait to tell him until you were certain it would work. 

The next couple of weeks consisted of you, Arthur, and Harry making and executing the plans for your new shop. You found and bought the empty shop next to the Weasley’s shop, thinking that you could put a doorway between the two so that it would be easier for Fred and you to see each other during the day. It didn’t take long for George to realize that you were up to something so you had to spill the beans and tell him your plan. You were surprised by how excited he was at the prospect and how many ideas he had to make it better. Your secret-keeping came to an end when you had purchased the new place and Harry had helped you set up all of the appliances you would need, Arthur, made sure that it was all perfectly legal and you had a permit as a muggle to have a business in the wizarding world. It was two months since you and Fred had started dating and you were going to show him your shop as an anniversary date. You baked that morning making a couple of your new treat ideas including bread shaped like unicorns and chocolate trolls filled with raspberry compote. You were super nervous about telling him, worried that he would be mad about you keeping it from him, but you didn’t want to get his hopes out before knowing if it would work out. You met up with him around 7 that night, right as their shop was closing. He walked down out of his apartment as soon as you walked in the door. He wasn’t dressed up, he had taken off his suit jacket and vest earlier in the day, but he still looked good in his slacks and white button-down with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. You were dressed in a cute sundress not wanting to look too formal knowing that Fred probably wouldn’t look properly formal until the day he got married. You may have blushed a little when you had that thought. He walked up to you, looking you over he couldn’t help but wonder how he got so lucky, 

“You look beautiful” he breathed out, you blushed even harder at his words

. “Well, you don’t look too bad yourself” you quipped, “are you ready to see my surprise for you?” He flashed you one of his signature grins and told you to lead the way. He couldn’t help his confusion when you lead him out of his shop and into the one next door. You held your breath as you turned the lights on, worried about what his reaction would be. You heard his quick intake when the lights illuminated the space around you. You waited another moment before turning to look at him, his eyes were taking everything in and you waited for him to ask the questions you knew were coming. After taking in the whole room he turned to face you,

 “So is this what you’ve been working on the last 2 months?” he questioned. You looked down stealing yourself to what he would say once he heard your answer. 

“Yes, Harry, your Dad and I have been working on figuring out a way for me to open a bakery in Diagon Alley. They helped me enchant the appliances so that they would work without muggle electricity. I should be able to open in a couple of months, there is still a lot to get done.” You were surprised by the smile that overtook his face at your words,

 “You mean to tell me that in a couple of months you will be working right next to me and living near me? That I will be able to just walk next door to see you and not have to worry about exploding magic to muggles?” his smile grew when you nodded “This is the best gift you could have ever gotten me!” He pulled you into a tight hug and you realized that there was no one else that you would want to be with not when the man in front of you was so excited for you to get to do your passion. You felt the tears well up in your eyes from how happy you were to have him in your life. You looked in his eyes and declared that you were done hiding your relationship from his family, that you wanted to go to the weekly Weasley dinner that night and let them know that you were together and couldn’t be happier. He grabbed your hand and apparated you to the garden outside the burrow. Giving you a quick kiss to fortify you he opened the door and walked into the Burrow with your hands intertwined. You laughed at Mrs. Weasley’s reaction and how she was so excited for you to be a part of the family, you and Fred blushed at that. You were swarmed by the rest of the Weasleys and were so overwhelmed that you almost didn’t see Harry handing over a galleon to George. Almost

[trashyswitch]

The Ghosts of His Past

Part 2 to: Don't Release The Spirits! Link

William develops a relationship with the 5 ghost kids he originally killed. They spend time together, play games, and comfort each other when they're down. But another ghost comes out from the shadows, and immediately contradicts everything William had built up...

There is implied child murder, discussions about child murder, and implied suicide. If any of these topics bother you, you can either click off or read at your own risk.

It is still unknown whether a person’s soul lingers with their physical body. So far, the kids’ circumstance has proven it doesn’t. William had realized that despite the kids’ bodies being taken and properly dealt with for their funerals, their souls were no longer linked to their bodies long after being killed. The only body that still really existed within the Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria building, was William’s body. But that was only because his body was hidden too well for them to find. No one could tell that there was a body in that suit, unless they looked at the blood or actually opened the suit head. But William was a little nervous for that day to come. What if his soul was still linked to his body? And if so, then what would happen if he could feel the suit head being pulled off of him?! The thought terrified him.

It terrified him so much that he would spend some time just floating in the storage room, staring at the suit with blood surrounding it.

Today was one of those days where William would do this. He would just stare...stare until he couldn’t stare anymore. Soon, another ghost came floating through the door. “Hi William.” someone greeted.

William knew exactly who it was. “Hi Cassidy.” William replied. Cassidy was the only ghost that hasn’t called him Dad yet. She preferred to go by ‘Uncle William’ or ‘William’, depending on her mood during the day.

“Staring at your body again?” Cassidy asked. William gave her a slight nod. “Why? It’s just gonna make you feel worse.” Cassidy told him. “We didn’t spend hours looking at our bodies. Sure, we didn’t get to see them very much. But we didn’t dedicate time to stare at our bodies like you do.” Cassidy told him.

William sighed and rubbed his forehead. “I know.” William replied. “I know it’s just gonna make my thoughts whirl again. But...I’m nervous.” William admitted.

“Nervous you’re gonna feel your unconscious body’s pain?” Cassidy asked.

William looked at Cassidy and nodded.

Cassidy floated over to the body and dug her hand into the suit. William widened his eyes. “What- HEY! DON’T!” William shouted, before tensing up for the pain that was gonna hit him.

...But…

Nothing happened. William opened one eye and opened both when he realized Cassidy was still digging around. There was nothing. No pain. “...Wait…” William muttered, confused.

Cassidy removed her ghost hand and turned around. “See?” Cassidy revealed, showing her hands.

But...there was one tiny problem: her hands weren’t bloody.

“Why aren’t they bloody?” William asked. “And...If you’re a ghost, are you even able to interfere with my physical body?” William asked.

To further prove William wrong, Cassidy dug into the suit again and ripped out some wires and...Oh god...Was that-

William widened his eyes in horror and disgust. But...she was right. He wasn’t experiencing pain. “...Wow.” William reacted, looking down at himself. Nothing of his ghost body had changed.

“Now do you see?” Cassidy asked, throwing the mixed handful of guts aside. “No pain, no worries.” Cassidy replied. Even as she ridded her hand of the guts, her ghost hands were not covered in blood. Only the guts themselves were slightly bloody.

Cassidy floated to William. “Now come: You have a family to come home to.” Cassidy encouraged, grabbing his hand and floating through the door together.

Even though William’s body was still technically connected to the springtrap suit, William was still capable of moving away from the suit and onto the stage whenever he pleased. This stage became William and the kids’ shelter during their time spent in purgatory. So, that’s where they headed. William and Cassidy flew themselves through the stage curtains and observed the cute scenes within the stage: The kids had made 2 separate forts out of the worn out pair of torn red curtains that had been previously discarded in the storage room. They had multiple dining room chairs set up to keep the curtains up, and had half-deflated balloons as pillows for their forts. They had also hung up party banners as the fort curtain entrances, and used the leftover party hats to make their forts look more castle-like on the top.

“Sir Gabriel! The Mighty Men have broken our entrance walls!” Fritz told Susie.

“Oh no! I will start repairs right away!” Susie declared.

“But your Majesty! You’re the queen! How will you repair the walls if I’m fighting?” Fritz asked.

Cassidy smiled and grabbed the toolbox hammer. “Worry not, Soldier Fritz! I, The handy girl, is here to fix your walls!” Cassidy declared.

“Hallelujah!” Fritz declared.

Susie pouted. “I wanna fix the wall! Being a queen is boring. You can’t do anything!” Susie whined.

“You can help me, if you want to.” Cassidy offered. “I’ll let you hold the hammer too.” Cassidy offered.

Susie gasped and held her hands out for the hammer. Cassidy handed the hammer to her, and watched as the hammer weighed Susie right down to the ground. The hammer was just too heavy for her ghost hands to carry.

This ended up being a hilarious thing for William to watch: he let out a short laugh in reaction. Suddenly, Susie looked at William! “DAD’S BACK!” Susie shouted, throwing the hammer to the side and floating quickly to William. Cassidy yelped in surprise and tensed up for the hammer to hit her on the chest…

...Only for the hammer to float right through her body.

Cassidy opened her eyes and observed the hammer that was floating below her footless bottom. “...Oh.” She reacted. She had managed to forget she was a ghost and couldn’t actually get injured by physical objects.

William lifted Susie up and hugged her happily. “Hello Susie! Having fun?” William asked.

“Yes! We’re playing a game where a girl kingdom and a boy kingdom are fighting to take over the other!” Susie explained.

William giggled. “Yeah? Who’s winning so far?” He asked.

“THE BOYS!’ Jeremy yelled, sitting on the ‘throne’.

Fritz and Gabriel were doing a sword fight with wooden sticks and were being cheered on by Susie and Jeremy. It didn’t take long for the kids to throw their sticks back to their forts and for the kids to start wrestling.

“YES! SHOW FRITZ WHO’S BOSS!” Jeremy shouted.

“KICK HIM IN THE CROTCH, FRITZ!” Susie yelled.

“I CAN’T KICK HIM IN THE CROTCH! HE FEELS NO- EEK!” Fritz shouted to Susie, before being shoved to the ground by Gabriel.

“A-HA! I’ve GOT YOU NOW!” Gabriel declared.

“Not for long!” Fritz declared, before reaching her arm up to tickle him.

“Nope!” Gabriel declared, pushing her arm down. Fritz reached her other arm up. “Not happening!” Gabriel declared again, pushing her other arm down. But that didn’t stop the girl from leaning forward and blowing a raspberry on his neck! “BWAAAAHAHAHAHA!” Gabriel let go and floated away quickly. But Fritz was already up and chasing him! “WAIT! NO! FRITZ! STOP IT! EEEK!” Gabriel shouted amidst his quick ‘running’.

“Wow! For a person who’s part of the man side, you sure scream like a girl. Maybe you should join us!” Fritz suggested.

“NO! NEVER! I AM A BIG BOY!” Gabriel argued.

Fritz soon caught up to him and pinned him down. “About as big as a school desk.” Fritz replied with a smirk as she wiggled her fingers at him.

“Hey! That’s mean! I’m taller than a desk!” Gabriel argued.

“Fine. How about this: As big as a teacher’s desk?” Fritz offered.

Gabriel thought for a moment, and slowly nodded. “Okay. I can see tha- YAAAHAHAHAHA! EEEHEHEHEHEHE! FRIHIHIHIHITZ!” Gabriel shouted, laughing hysterically as Fritz drilled near his hips.

“Yes soldier?” Fritz replied.

“STAHAHAP TIHIHIHICKLIHIHING MEHEHEHEHE!” Gabriel begged.

“Do you accept defeat? Do the girls win this war?” Fritz asked.

“IHIHIHI…” Gabriel replied, not really sure what to do.

“DON’T GIVE UP, GABRIEL!” Jeremy called to him. “YOU CAN DO IT!”

“KEEP TICKLING HIM, FRITZ! GO FOR HIS NECK AGAIN!” Susie cheered on.

William was just giggling to himself as he watched the whole thing. If only the world wars had been fought like this...There would’ve been next to no bodies to clean up.

“OHOHOKAHAHAHAY! IHIHI GIHIHIHIVE UHUHUP! GIHIHIHIRLS WIHIHIHIN!” Gabriel finally gave up.

“Awwww…” Jeremy whined.

“YES! GIRLS WON! WE WON! GIRLS RULE! BOYS DROOL!” Susie shouted, standing up from her throne and jumping around.

William smirked and walked up behind her. “Now you be careful what you’re saying, Susie bear…” William warned with a hint of playfulness in his voice.

Susie’s cheering quickly paused as she realized who was behind her. Susie turned around and looked up to William. “...Oops.” Was all Susie said.

“Come here you!” William declared before picking her up. Susie let out giggles and quickly bursted out laughing as William lightly squeezed her lower ribs and skittered his fingers all over her belly. “Tickatickatickatickatickatick- atickatickatickatickatick!” William teased super quickly.

“EEEHEHEHEHEHAHAHAHAHA! DAHAHAHAD NOHOHOHOHO!” Susie laughed.

“Dad nooo? That’s cute. Looks like poor Susie should’ve thought about that before you said that boys drool.” William suggested.

“BOYS! THE TICKLE MONSTER HAS SUSIE! DOGGIE PIIIILLLLE!” Fritz shouted.

Suddenly, there was a war cry of 4 other kids floating up to him super quickly before kitty slapping him. Though it took Cassidy’s hand to get William onto the ground, the kids did manage to get William down so they could doggy pile him.

“Help! I’m being doggy piled! aaAAAAH! Hahahaha! Ahahand tihihickled! HAHAHAhahaha!” William fake yelled, quickly falling into giggles and laughter.

“TICKLE ATTACK!” Cassidy declared before tickling his ribs and sides.

William squealed and bursted out laughing almost immediately. The kids quickly joined in, tickling his armpits, his hips, his feet, and his neck. Fritz had started going for the abs as well, which ended up being the best choice she’s ever made. “HAHAHAHAHA! NOHOHO AHAHAHABS! NOHOHOHOHOHO AHAHAHAHABS!” William screamed.

“Oooh! A keypad!” Fritz declared. Fritz started poking and pressing roughly on the abs like a telephone keypad. “Beep beep beep, beep beep beep, beep beep beep beep!” Fritz teased. William threw his head back and bursted into cackles. Fritz made her hand into a phone symbol. “Hello? Oh HI! Is this the tickle monster?” Fritz teased, looking at William from the corner of her eye.

“STAHAHAHAP IHIHIHIT!” William begged.

“Perfect! He is here, and ripe for the tickling.” Fritz replied to the fake voice on the other line.

“COHOHOME OHOHON GUHUHUYS! IHIHIHI NEHEHEED AHA BREHEHEHEAK!” William begged.

Jeremy and Susie both bursted out laughing. “No you don’t! You’re a ghost just like us! You don’t need air!” Gabriel argued amidst his own laughing.

William looked at himself and realized: Yeah...he’s right. “BUHUHUHUT STIHIHIHILL! IHIHI’M GOHOHONNA GEHEHEHET YOHOU GUYS BAHAHAHACK!” William told them.

Susie giggled. “I know.” She replied.

Suddenly, Fritz started clawing and spidering her fingers all over William’s abs! “eeEEEEHEHEHEHEHE! HAHAHAHAHA! NOHOHOHO SPIHIHIDERIHIHIHIHIHING!” William pleaded.

“Is poor Papa afraid of spiders?” Fritz teased.

“AHAHAHA LIHIHIHITTLE.” William replied.

“Oh no!” Fritz reacted, looking at the other kids with a wink. “Guess we’d better get more spiders crawling around, then.” Fritz replied, wiggling her fingers like spiders to show the kids what to do.

William’s eyes widened in fear as he stared at the kids’ signalling. He knew EXACTLY what they were planning, and he knew he was gonna love it, AND hate it all at once. Suddenly, all 5 kids spidered their fingers all over William’s sides, belly, ribs, hips, armpits and neck. William was laughing and wiggling around absolutely everywhere! It was hilarious for the kids to see him wiggling around like a fish out of water, and even MORE hilarious watching him wave away the spiders that weren’t really spiders.

“Hmm? What’s going on?” a voice asked. The kids suddenly stopped their tickle attack and looked to their right:

There, rubbing their eye, was the ghost of a tiny girl with long brown hair, and a red wound on the right side of her right chest. The rest of the ghosts flew over to her.

“Hi Charlie!” Cassidy greeted.

“Sorry Charlie.” Susie immediately apologized.

William was still quite giggly from the tickle attack. He was holding himself in the fetal position and letting out the leftover giggles that were still in his lungs. He didn’t even realize there was another ghost on the stage.

Charlie smiled at the two forts. “I see you guys are having fun.” Charlie said to them.

“We were playing war kingdoms!” Jeremy declared.

“And the girls won!” Susie added.

Charlie giggled. “That’s great!” she said.

Soon, William finally calmed down enough to sit himself up. “Who’s he-” William paused his words when he realized just who he was looking at. She was completely familiar to him. He knew this ghost all to well. But...How did…

Charlie turned to look at William and widened her eyes as well. She backed up slightly gasped in fear. “Get behind me.” Charlie ordered the rest of the ghosts.

“It’s okay, Charlie. He’s-” Jeremy tried.

“Behind me. Now.” Charlie ordered again, glaring at Jeremy.

Jeremy, and the rest of the ghosts went behind Charlie before Charlie threw her arms out to the side to guard them from the murderer. “Uncle. William. Afton.” Charlie said slowly, her strong voice covering up the fear she felt. “Father to Elizabeth and Michael...Best friends with my Father...And Co-founder of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza.” Charlie explained.

William snapped out of his thoughts. “I...Charlotte-”

“CHARLIE.” she shot back.

William backed up slightly in fear, and looked away for a moment. “Ch...Charlie.” He said, growing more and more afraid of her.

Charlie noticed this and lightened up her facial expression. “Afraid?” Charlie asked.

William nodded his head. “And confused. I killed you outside the building. Why would you cling to the building?” William asked.

“You think I had a choice?” Charlie asked. She looked at the music box and pointed to it. “My soul possessed one of your animatronics.” Charlie explained. “That kept my soul in the Pizzeria.” She explained. “These souls possessed your animatronics too.” Charlie explained.

She started pointing to the kids and stating which animatronic they became.

She pointed to Jeremy first. “Bonnie.” Charlie said.

She pointed to Gabriel. “Freddy Fazbear.” Charlie said.

She pointed to Susie. “Chica.” Charlie said.

She pointed to Fritz. “Foxy.” Charlie said.

She pointed to Cassidy. “Golden Freddy.” Charlie said.

And lastly, she pointed to herself. “Marionette.” Charlie said.

William’s eyes widened in horror.

Then, Charlie looked to the souls. “You guys were tickling him. Spending time with him. Treating him...like he didn’t end your lives.” Charlie reacted calmly.

William looked away.

Fritz stepped up. “He feels remorse for what he did.” Fritz told her. “He apologized for ending our lives. The reason why he did it was because he wanted his own family.” Fritz explained.

William tensed his face. Charlie frowned and looked at William. “You had your own family! What was wrong with the family you had?!” Charlie asked.

William looked away.

“And I still don’t understand why you killed me.” Charlie added.

Fritz’s eyes widened. “He killed you too?!” Fritz reacted.

“Yes. I was his first murder.” Charlie replied.

“...Oh.” Fritz replied.

“...Well, he’s dead now too.” Gabriel told her.

“How? And why here, surrounded by the ghosts of the children you killed?” Charlie asked.

William looked up a little, but still refused to look at her. “I springlocked myself.” He replied. “I triggered the springlock suit in the office, and...died.” William replied.

“Why?” Charlie asked. “Did you finally feel bad about all the crimes you committed? Did you feel like you couldn’t handle jail life?” Charlie asked.

William slightly smiled. “I ended my life because I had nothing else left to lose.” William replied. “My daughter is dead, my youngest is dead, and my wife is dead too. Michael is the only one living at this point. Living with the guilt of his family, and struggling to make his own life out of the rubble I left him in.” William explained.

Charlie lifted her eyebrows slightly. “And how in the world did all that occur? Hm?” Charlie asked.

William frowned and glared at her. “You don’t deserve to know.” William shot at her. “I want you to know that keeping your death nice and quick was a mercy move I purposefully made. Your murder could’ve been much more painful.” William told her.

Charlie’s eyes widened in surprise. Did...did he really just say that? “And how was a 3 year old supposed to know that the way you killed me, was ‘merciful’?! How would you feel if my father came up behind you with a knife and ended your life without a second thought?!” Charlie yelled.

William softened his expression a little and looked away. He knew Charlie would be hurt. He knew Charlie would be angry at him if they reunited. He knew this all along. But William didn’t know that Charlie had become one with the pizzeria. He never knew.

...Perhaps he should’ve...

[knivesandwives]

Can you give an excerpt (is that the word?) or a pic from the book about Hannibal and Clarice's little date thing? I'm intrigued lol

Oh lol I'm honestly still reading it! Thank you for facilitating my venting though, and I will gladly share my incomplete knowledge. I haven't even finished this scene, which continues into another chapter. I had to take a break and cool my head because it makes me want to gag like I was a 5 year old with an aversion to kissing scenes (which is not usual for me. I just. I don't know about this). I could take the time to finish reading it in the time I'm writing this buuuut I'm too heated to do so atm, even though it would spare me the embarrassment of having very incomplete context. I don't even know whether Thomas Harris intends for the reader to want them together, but his treatment of Hannibal Lecter has generally verged on salivating over him, imo, so. I'm gonna take it as implied that I should like this a bit more than I do. I could be very wrong. Under the cut because it is a Rant

-----

I’ve got the fun wacky stuff first because this book is Wild. Bonkers. Then I have semi serious stuff and Thoughts thoughts in the second half 

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

WACKY FUN STUFF PART

it is So over the top corny. Highlights so far:

-Hannibal is playing the harpsichord when Clarice walks out. In other scenes he’s played his theremin. He is insufferable

- the piece he's playing is called ‘If True Love Reigned’ and was composed by Henry VIII, which is a red flag if ever I heard one

-he dresses up in white tie for her and spends FOREVER decorating the house *just so* and inspecting the dinner table from various angles to check whether the Aesthetic is right, because the house he's rented out is only so-so and he's gotta make up for it:

I mean. He decides to add a shit ton of flowers to make it intimate and create a hanging gardens effect, realizes that this looks bad, and decides that the solution is More flowers. Maybe he’s right, but I think with the rest of the decorations this is probably looking like a mess right now.

-Uhhh if I remember correctly from the Freudian Daddy Issues chapter (hhhhh I want to have a word with Thomas Harris), the reason he makes the peonies in the flower arrangement “white as SNO BALLS” is because she has some sort of (dad-related) childhood memories about these fucking Hostess twinkie-level snacks. There are Levels to his floral arrangements

-Similarly, the cocktails he prepares for them have orange slices on the side because it’ll remind her of her father slicing oranges and Hannibal wants to be daddy

-The landlord he’s renting the house from (where he’s keeping Clarice and holding Date Night) has a fixation on Leda and the Swan, to the point that he has four statues of it and eight paintings of it in that one house alone. Hannibal likes the horniest one with the best “anatomical articulation.” Make of that what you will. There was indeed a reason for Bryan Fuller including such a pussy out painting in the set for Hannibal’s dining room. Hannibal covers the other Leda statues and paintings that don’t live up to his standards

- He brings her clothes to wear?? Special Fancy clothes for Date Night. Ugh. And I thought it was pushy and anal in SOTL when he gave her tips on how to improve her fashion

- Hannibal wears an ascot over a white shirt. No jacket. I don't know if I trust the taste level of this man. I like Freddy from scooby doo but his look seems like a stretch in this context

-he uses candelabra like he's the phantom of the opera and has this incredibly fucking extra mirror in his rented house:

-he tells her his goals for the evening in one of the trademark Long Confusing Hannibal Monologues we’re so used to seeing in the show, then asks Clarice if she understands, and her response is: no I don’t so I hope your food is good at least

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

Actual Serious Thoughts about it  (content warning: some vaguely psychosexual things involving characters’ family, drugging and non-sexual consent issues)

I think my reaction is definitely influenced by the context that's been presented so far for their relationship in this book, which includes (briefly):

--Hannibal has a fixation on Clarice as a potential replacement for/idealized version of Mischa, his dead sister. The moment he lays eyes upon her again in this book he starts having uncontrollable flashbacks that directly associate Clarice with Mischa and overlays their meanings and iconography. So... that's something. It shows up constantly whenever we get a glimpse into his POV. I have thoughts about what Hannibal finds appealing about Clarice RE as an idealized version/teacup reversal of Mischa; the book tells us he admires her courage and her spirit as a warrior despite having been victimized, and so Clarice is in some ways a version of Mischa that was capable of surviving despite the odds. That was (crudely) my working theory, anyway. Might have to reevaluate that now because I'm less certain now about Hannibal's intentions and how much his appreciation for Clarice is really *respectful* of her potential, versus how much he sees her as some sort of vehicle to replace Mischa and be some sort of walking talking idealized doll that he crafts into his dead sister. I wanted it to not be *as* weird and psychosexual as I thought it would end up being, but this book definitely leans into some weird sexualized Freudian shit, and I'm concerned that Mischa and Clarice are part of that despite my best efforts to rationalize it in a way that I would have preferred. Really, who fantasies about their lover being a reminder of their sister?

--Freudian hell part 2: Hannibal has rescued Clarice from the Verger farm (after she rescued him, which was quite dramatic) and has her drugged at his house and undergoing the type of hypnosis we see suggested with Will and Miriam Lass in NBC!Hannibal. Hannibal suggests things, she follows those suggestions with apparently little agency of her own. He probes into her history and traumas and causes her to see things. Among his goals here is to have her make peace with her dead father in some way (in a scene which strongly resembles Abigail's therapy with GJH's corpse as seen in the s3 flashbacks), and to give her some form of control over her memory of him. This is accompanied by some very squicky speculation from Hannibal about Clarice having taboo sexual associations with her father, which she projects (among other things) onto other father figures in her life like Jack Crawford or her fallen FBI partner. I didn't know before I got into this book whether it was going to legitimize the Electra complex angle on Clarice this much, and maybe I'm wrong to accept Hannibal's viewpoint as sacred, but. So far, that seems to be the take.

----

So that's the context for the leadup to this romantic dinner scene. Hannibal has decorated his house specially for this date night type thing and given her a slinky, fancy dress to wear in his fancy house. Clarice has been heavily under the influence of drugs so far, and this night is no exception. This chapter so far has been a treasure trove of the more romantic dialogue repurposed for NBC!Hannibal, but I kind of can't stand it here in this book as anything remotely romantic. It's almost entirely him talking *at* her and it seems like this is more about him and his idealized fantasy of her than it is actually about her. The text does refer to him as "the monster" more frequently in this chapter, and it calls him out directly for his vanity and self congratulation, so I'm not entirely sure if I'm even supposed to like it, but. Anyway. You asked for excerpts! This particular scene is probably the densest part of a very dense chapter (the highlights are a mess rn):

There's a lot of interesting stuff in here, some of which really raises my hackles in ways I wasn't anticipating. Clarice has just emerged in the outfit he chose for her to join him. Clarice's first question to him is to ask about how much he's invaded her privacy without her knowledge, and he has a very bullshit answer where he pretends that this situation he's manufactured, in which he drugs her and creates a fantasy world for them, is okay because it exists outside of reality. It doesn't. It's an interesting idea but it's bullshit. This is not his memory palace, this is reality and it does exist as a part of time that Clarice has had to experience (or not, as the case may be for her level of consciousness throughout this). And he turns around from this question about him being intrusive to reiterate his attraction to her. Squick at that. Her plain (possibly curt?) answer to his compliment, even though it's a thank you, causes him annoyance. This is where I really, Really start to have, like, flashbacks to Jessica Jones and the playing house plotline. Real strong flashbacks to that. Clarice's (apparently unintentional) failure to meet his standards and reciprocate in the exact way he wants her to makes him Annoyed. Clarice identifies this and holds her ground, interestingly enough, and Hannibal has a moment of awe at her stubborn individuality, but immediately falls back on self congratulatory wanking at his choice of woman. Then, there's more talking at her, to which she eventually says that she basically doesn't know what the fuck he means but she hopes he plans to make dinner worth her while. I appreciate Clarice holding her ground so well here, especially given the circumstances, and I don't know quite where this is headed, but I guess the gist of it is that in this context I just really want to slap Hannibal about and see him burn

[tinalbion]

OMG YOUR REQUEST ARE OPEN YEAAH, can i request possessive nsfw with freddy (and if not too much, inkubus and buckman) x fem s/o with a soulmate au? I LOVE YOUR BLOG SO MUCH YOUR WRITINGS ARE SO AWESOME💞💞 and sorry for my bad english

Of course, you can, honey! And don’t you ever apologize for how you’re speaking. You’re learning, and that’s all that matters! But if it helps, you’re doing a great job, honey! Since there are many Soulmate AUs that I’ve seen, I’ve just chosen one if that’s alright! ♡ I’ll probably be making a separate part for the possessive part of this ask since I was mainly trying to get down the AU aspect, so I apologize!

Freddy• Whenever you had slept, your dreams went wild, and sometimes you would catch glimpses of the thing that stalked you. It was hard for you to see what was chasing you since you had only seen small movements from the corner of your eye, but you never saw a face. 

• It got worse and worse as the days progressed, and your friends noticed the change in your face. The black circles under your eyes were getting more and more difficult to hide. “You’re never gonna find your soulmate if you’re always sleeping,” your friend would say, but little did they know that you hadn’t slept in weeks. 

• You thought about that as looked at the bleak black and white world, no colors filling your eyes like it did with others. You envied your mom and dad; they had found one another and your dad had brought color to your mom’s world when she needed it the most. But now, all you wanted was a decent nights sleep. The whole ‘soulmate’ thing everyone went on about was always so cliche and obnoxious, you just wanted sleep.

• The fear welled in your throat as you ran from your unknown assailant, the dark and steamy halls caused your footsteps to echo around you, and all you could do was pray to find a way out. You’ve run out of options as you backed into a corner, and that’s when you heard the heavy footfalls approaching. 

• Your eyes were squeezed shut as they approached, bot wanting to look your death in the eye. Your heart sped up as you could sense them hovering over you, and that’s when you heard the clinking of metal too close for comfort. 

• The snap of metal caused you to open your eyes and look up into the face of your demise, but suddenly there was an explosion of color. You weren’t entirely sure how to react at this moment, but you sat against the wall and stared up into your soulmate’s eyes with the most horrified and amazed expression. 

• The contrasting colors of his sweater hurt your eyes, his melted skin had so many different shades of colors that your brain couldn’t even explain it all to you. But the most horrifying thing was that your soulmate was about to murder you.

Inkubus • A creature like Inkubus had needed to be reborn every hundred years or so, and his time was coming soon. He had ended up in a large city and claimed many innocent lives, toyed with them like a cat would to a mouse. He enjoyed what he did, and he had usually gotten away with it.

• He had chosen you as his next target without even having to be close to you; he could smell your incredible scent from miles away. You had innocently been having a cup of tea at the local cafe when you had an odd gut feeling all of a sudden. You adjusted your hair and pushed it away from your face as you read your book, the black words not really standing out from the greyed page.

• Your world was void of color and you had just wanted to see the beauty of flowers for the first time in your life. Maybe your soulmate would be holding a bouquet for some reason, and upon seeing them with the bursts of color would brighten your day. You sat there and thought about whoever it could be when you had gotten a call from your mother, asking you to pick up some things for her before your visit today. You agreed with a heavy sigh.

• The demon was keeping close tabs on you as you had begun to drive off from the cafe and could easily keep up with you as he followed, his thoughts solely trained on you, making sure not to lose your scent or he’d have to start all over again. When you had reached the long driveway of the house, that’s when he tried to strike. 

• It was as if he appeared out of thin air as he pushed you against the car door, his hand immediately covering your mouth to repress your screams. You tried to get a good sense of what was going on as your body jumped from the shock, but your eyes met his and that’s when you felt your entire body surge with a jolt of electricity. 

• Your world was no longer the shades of black and grey, it had expanded to the extraordinary colors you had dreamed of seeing for so long. Inkubus was suspicious of your lack of fighting as you just slumped against your car, so he removed his hand from your face and questioned you. 

• “Do you not fear what’s about to happen to you, mortal?” he teased as he glared down at you. When you had suddenly raised your hand, that was when he figured you would try to escape, and he awaited a good struggle, but your hand had gently rested against his face, causing him to pull back. 

• You were both too confused to even consider speaking just yet, but you knew that this man who had just come from nowhere had appeared to you as if fate intervened. You swallowed the lump in your throat and offered a crooked grin. “H-Hi, my name is Y/N…” That’s all you could say, but something about you tickled his curiosity, so maybe he wouldn’t end your life just yet.

Mayor Buckman • How could you hide such a discovery from your entire group of friends and get away with it? How was it that some old school Southern mayor turned out to be the one to bring color to your life - literally. You and your friends were staying in town just long enough to enjoy their annual Jubilee celebration, so all you had to do was hide it until then.

• When he had personally came to the quarters you and your friends were staying to invite you to dinner, you kept your head bowed the entire time while holding your breath. You wanted to face this and tell him everything, but you had only met the man and knew nothing about him, only that he was very proper, which you had usually been quite the opposite sometimes. You were a free spirit.

• Buckman had found himself staring at you as he watched your interact with the townsfolk or talk to your friends; he was rather curious and dare he say, a bit infatuated. The way you presented yourself was reserved and yet had an undertone of dark humor, you were almost irresistible as there was an invisible pull. 

• You had dressed a bit more nicely since you were having dinner with the mayor and a few of his chosen circle, but you continued to keep your head bowed when in his presence. He noticed but said nothing as your friends all laughed and conversed with Granny Boone and the mayor. You almost slipped up a few times in your own conversation about your newfound sight to color when your friend commented on your dress, your cheeks reddening like crazy. 

• After dinner, you had slipped out quietly to get some uninterrupted fresh air, but you were spooked when someone had stepped up behind you and cleared their throat. The mayor stood there with a small smirk playing at the corner of his mouth as he bowed to you. “So sorry for the intrusion,” he would say gleefully. “It’s been brought to my attention that you clam up a tad when I’m around, was there something I had done to offend you, Y/N?”

• This was a moment you had wished to avoid altogether, but if he even noticed your awkward behavior, maybe you weren’t playing it as cool as you’d hoped. “No, you haven’t done anything of the sort!” you’d stutter and wave your hands dramatically, trying to find a way to slip away again, but you knew there was no escaping this time. “I just…it’s really hard to explain.” He would just laugh and shrug his shoulders. “Try me.”

• He was relentless and wouldn’t let you leave until you told him, and when it was all over, you covered your face and hid your blush, but he stood tall like he usually did and remained silent for a few moments, taking it all in. Buckman tipped your head upward to face him with his index finger and thumb, his eye staring directly into yours as he wore that playful smirk. “Well butter my biscuits, I think we have an interesting night ahead of us, darlin’.”

[snazzamazing]

Stupid random theories, headcanons, and unpopular opinions of mine

Btw, these are all long so sit tight

My mangle theory :

I cant be the only one here who thinks that mangle was taken apart by little kids. It wouldn't make sense that little toddlers would be strong enough to pull apart a metal robot. That's because the kids didnt break her, william did. Mangle seems like he was an inspiration from funtime foxy because sister location happened before AND a lot of times, "toy foxy" is often referred to "funtime foxy". Due to this inspiration, mangle had the ability to record voices and things just like funtime foxy. Why am I pointing this out? Well, why would mangle randomly have static noises and a broken radio sound? It's her recorder, it's broken. He recorded many things and then recorded something that someone didnt want anyone to find out about. That someone would be William afton. William is always suspicious and doing evil things.Let's say that, oh idk, maybe William murdered someone, some person called the cops on him, (which explains the police messages n stuff in the radio) William killed that person and his the evidence of the murders. At least that's what he thought. Mangle was somehow recording the whole thing. William had no other choice but to take her apart and destroy him. But then William thought that it would to suspicious to have mangle be randomly broken the next day and so he fixed mangle up in way where it looks like shes fixed, but one tug hes broken and the kids are there to blame for. All of this might be a stretch I know, but apparently in one of the fnaf 2 minigames where theres a mangle Sprite, in the files or sources codes or WHATEVER IDK, there's a hidden message that says "he was here" or something like that. THAT CAN SUPPORT THIS THEORY errr headcanons? Idk I should go sleep lol

Micheal headcanon:

I always wanted to believe that Micheal was the older brother/Bully and that the bite victim was a different character. Why? Because I want more..character for Micheal. He went to sister location because he wants his torn apart family to be back together. He went to save Elizabeth and he never forgave himself for being the one to 'kill' his brother and all that failed. I wanted Michaels story to be exciting and emotional because of his past and the whole family thing

I also always liked to think that Micheal started working out to gain some strength before becoming a technician because he knows that the robots are strong and dangerous. That way things can be more action packed with Michael punching through pipes and walls, and holding back animatronics trying to grab him, and just...cool stuff

Fnaf headcanons:

Freddy has a nice deep voice and that's his real voice. When it comes to preforming during the day, he talks in his "family friendly" voice which is all goofy and fun (kinda like Patrick star's voice) The animatronics are a lot different on stage. It's as if they play as characters and they change their voices sometimes (like Freddy). Chica acts like this ditzy cute country gal, Bonnie is a laid back chill bon, foxy is just more ...pirate, and Freddy is a fun loving silly lead singer

Nightmarriones pupils change shape to Express his emotions. (Sad=tear drop pupils, sick=swirly pupils, angry=skull or fire pupils)

Lefty has his own voice instead of a whispery girly voice because he is his own character. He may look like the rockstars but he was made differently. The rockstars were built by some factory or company and they have advanced technology which gives em the ability to have emotions, personalities and to do tricks. Meanwhile lefty was built by henry in a shed or something. Henry only focused on programming him to find charlie and he had to make lefty look like the rockstars to blend in and not be suspicious. Other than that, lefty was a total rush job. Henry only wanted Charlie therefore, Henry didn't care to give lefty a personality, emotions, an EYE, or stablness.

In the afton family, the mother is sweet, kind, caring, and over protective while william is outgoing, silly, and isnt afraid to do anything (before he went insane). Usually kids have similar personalities to their parents soooo I like to think that Micheal is more like his mom but looks like his dad and that Elizabeth looks like her mom but acts like her dad. Why? Because I always saw Michael as a hero, he cares for others and he wants to save his family. He is sweet and protective like his mom. Elizabeth is rebellious and sassy. In the sister location mini cutscene with William and Elizabeth, she disobeys william to see baby and that's a rebellious move. Elizabeth likes adventure and crazy things so she wont follow the rules any time soon.

Funtime chica does all the rockstar's make up. When months pass by, the rockstar's paint would peel or chip and so ft. Chica would repaint their lipsticks, eye shadows, cheeks, etc. And they look fresh and new afterwards

Even though puppet and Goldie (and all the other animatronics) have been through so much shiz, they still try to keep their cool and enjoy life

In the rockstar crew r. Bonnie is the creepiest. Yeah, he seems chill and is self centered, he is the only rockstar who is most likely to murder someone if he's told to do so (this isn't counting ucn where they all kill). All on Bonnie's songs are so creepy and he sings about killing you in unique ways. Stuff like making slivers (or slippers) out of you, flaying your flesh, smashing your face into concrete, ending your life, and stabbing your heart with his guitar. He's definitely into gory stuff

Springtrap has two different personalities. Most of the time he's himself, spring bonnie. A kind fun loving bun who completely changed his personality after becoming springtrap. He is know constantly scared, upset, and afraid of Williams next move. He hates being an evil monster but it's not something he can control due to William still having control over him. When the slringbonnie side of springtrap gets mad or upset that's when hes weak and William takes control and becomes the evil side of springtrap. Springtrap is very aggressive and very strong. Slringbonnie tries to fight back Williams spirit, but as time went on and when the kids got sent free, spring bonnie got lonely and gave up which let William take full control over him. Sprjngbonnie is gone, its William now (which explains scraptrap)

Idk if this is a theory or headcanon but fnaf 1 bonnie is blue. Yes, he is known to be purple and everyone says and draws him purple but he's blue. Maybe it's the certain blue color he is but due to lightning it makes him look very purple. When he's in more darker areas, bonnie is very blue but when he's in the light areas, hes purple. Let's not forget how every single version on bonnie is blue (except for extras like spring springbon and bonnet etc.) Exept for fnaf 1 bonnie. That doesn't make sense if one of the originals would be purple but all the other versions are blue. One more thing, in the silver eyes, they mention that bonnie has blue fur ;) this was a dumb rant sorry

Shadow bon is evil and can shape shift cause hes a goopy shadow boy and shadow fred is his lil assistant

After fazbears fright burned down, William got to take control over springbonnie(trap) and roamed the streets at night. He roamed dark allies and probably killed whoever slighted him. It was a long walk but he was just trying to get to his destination, fred bears diner. Because of the fires, the springtrap suit was more ruined and unsturdy and so it was time for a change. Somehow William got out of the suit but he's weak without one so he picked an old spring bonnie suit, scraptrap. (According to the fnaf minigames there are multiple spring bonnie suits so that why spring trap looks different)

I got more headcanons but this post is already to long :p

My Unpopular opinions:

Am I the only one here who's not way into the whole Michael AI theory?? Like it kinda makes sense but at the same time, making a whole new robot son with advanced technology IN THE 80s does not give the fnaf-y feel?? Ya know what I mean? Like it doesn't fit the theme? Also the ai thing is in the books and the books are a different universe from the games sooo idk why matpat still connected them?? Hsjsbsjsjsn fnaf is just waaaaay to confusing. Also please dont get mad at me for this opinion cause matpats ai thing is just a theory, its not canon

Foxy isnt super great. Dont get me wrong, I love foxy and he's an amazing character but I don't get why he got so much attention and hype

Bonnet and lolbit should just be canon already. They're not canon characters but they're included in sooo many things in fnaf so might as well make em canon

Funko needs to make a fnaf 2 figure set where you collect t.chica,t.bonnie,t.freddy, puppet, one of the withereds or shadows and you collect them all to make a mangled mangle figure. I would DIE for a fully formed noodle fox figure, how cool would that be?

Scraptrap design is perfect. I know that we all make peanut and Jimmy neutron jokes but honestly I love his sharp teach, creepy eyes, AMazInG voice, and his stabby arm. Sometimes in some angles, he can look heck a creepy

SCRAP BABY LEGITIMATELY FREAKS ME OUT SHES SCARY

butter sock

[froodyie]

Can you do a story with Steven and Spinel dressing up as different animals with a nose mask with each of their animal costumes?

AN: Thank you so much for sending this request! I actually had fun doing it! I had to make it Halloween bc tbh I couldn’t imagine them dressing up in animal costumes any other occasion. I hope you like it ^^

“A week! We gave you a whole week! I can’t believe you couldn’t last a week! No, scratch that! I do believe it!”

Spinel rolled her eyes and continued walking towards the Warp Room, tuning out Yellow Pearl’s useless rambling as said gem followed closely behind her with Blue Pearl and Pink Pearl in tow.

“Aw leave her alone, Yellow!” Pink Pearl said, stepping in to defend Spinel as usual. “What’s wrong with wanting to visit a friend?”

“What’s wrong?! What’s wrong!!! I’ll tell you what’s wrong!!! She does this every single day!! ‘Oh where are you going, Spinel?’ ‘I’m going to visit Steven.’ ‘Oh! Has anyone seen Spinel?’ ‘She’s with Steven, my Diamond.’ With that track record, she’s better off living on Earth with him then staying here in Homeworld.”, Yellow Pearl retaliated, very defensively and with her arms crossed.

“Well...uhm..but Spinel,” Pink Pearl began, searching for what to say. After a few more attempts, she gave up, giving Spinel an apologetic look that told her: ‘She does have a point.’

Yellow Pearl beamed upon seeing this and raised her head up in a very haughty manner. She focused her attention on Blue Pearl. “What do you think, Blue?”

“To be quite honest, it really doesn’t bother me at all. It’s cute that she likes visiting him a lot,” she calmly responded with a small smile on her face, “Besides, Yellow, I thought you were happy about Spinel’s daily trips to Earth. You were talking about it the other day.”

Spinel bit down on her lip, stifling a giggle. Behind her, she heard Pink Pearl try to do the same, but she failed and snorted loudly.

An offended look passed through Yellow Pearl’s face and she crossed her arms, huffing. “At first,” she began to defend herself, “But it gets tiring and frustrating when all your Diamond asks you is: ‘Where’s Spinel? Has anyone seen Spinel?’ I was hoping for a week or more of not having to hear that, but our dear Spinel just couldn’t wait at all! Oh, but 6,000 years? She can definitely wait for that long! That’s nothing for her!”

A thick blanket of silence fell upon everyone the moment those words came out of her mouth.

Pink Pearl stood aside with her hand over her mouth. Blue Pearl’s mouth hung slightly open and with her hands, she pushed back her bangs to reveal her eyes, pupils wide in shock.

It took Yellow Pearl only a matter seconds before she realized what she had just said. She began to stutter, desperately looking for an apology.

“Sp-Spinel! I didn’t m-m-mean it—oh my s-stars!”

It was too late. Before she knew it, she was backed up against a tight corner. Spinel loomed over her, tall and intimidating with her hands balled up into giant fists, ready to take aim. Yellow Pearl gulped and instantly shielded her gem with both her hands.

“S-Spinel! Don’t! She didn’t mean it!” Pink Pearl begged, hands outstretched as if she was about to grab Spinel to stop her, but she didn’t. She held back, only hopeful that her words would get to the gem.

They didn’t. Made obvious by Spinel raising her right hand high over her head.

Yellow Pearl shut her eyes tightly and turned her face away, expecting a very painful blow that never came. Instead, she felt a finger flick her nose, making a loud, audible ‘whack!’ sound.

“H-Huh?” She opened her eyes. Spinel’s large, spiraling, magenta-colored eyes, filled to the brim with dark amusement, were the first thing that greeted her.

“Heh,” the gem chuckled and shook her head softly, “Ya really have a big mouth...For a Pearl. Don’t cha?”

Yellow Pearl remained silent and so did everybody else.

Spinel backed up a few steps. With her arms crossed, she shook her head and clicked her tongue in disapproval. “Gee! With that mouth, I’m very much surprised you’ve been able to hold this position of yours as Yellow Diamond’s Pearl for millions of years. You’re darn lucky things have changed now.”

“I-Spinel…”

She didn’t listen to her. Her eyes roamed around until they landed on the giant Warp Pad in the middle of the room and widened as if she just remembered why she came here in the first place. With a hop, she stretched her way on top of said Pad and warped away without saying anything.

Whatever fear Yellow Pearl had shivering within her disappeared the moment Spinel left and she rolled her eyes, letting out a tremendous sigh. “‘You’re darn lucky things have changed now!’ Bleh!” She mocked, sticking out her tongue.

It went back in the moment Pink Pearl jabbed her elbow into her side.

—-

“Ta-da!! Our last pumpkin for tonight! What do you guys think?” Steven exclaimed with a wide, joyful smile on his face. In his arms, he cradled a large Jack-O-Lantern with a pair of monster eyes and sharp teeth.

“It looks great!” Connie complimented as she walked over and grabbed it from him. She settled it inside the red wagon, alongside the many other Jack-O-Lanterns they made.

“A little bit different than all the others you guys made, don’t you think?” Amethyst said, hopping off from the table to inspect the Jack-O-Lanterns.

She had a point. The majority were decorated with drawings of their closest family and friends: Garnet, Pearl, Bismuth, Lapis, Peridot, the Diamonds, and so on. The only one that actually seemed to be showing the terrifying spirit of Halloween was the one Steven had just finished making.

“That’s actually why I made it,” Steven admitted, chuckling softly, “Now thinking about it though, it kinda sticks out like a sore thumb. Maybe it wasn’t a very good idea…”

The growing sound of squeaky shoes approaching quickly caught their attention. They turn around just in time to see Spinel hop down the stairs and run her way towards Steven. Before he could do anything, he found Spinel’s arms wrapping around him and pulling him in for a hug.

“Steven! My good pal!!” Spinel cheered, smiling widely.

“Spinel! It’s nice to see you!” Steven laughed. He gave her a hug and a pat in the back the moment she let him go.

“Hey Spinny!” Amethyst greeted with a wave. “Where you’ve been? We missed you the last three days.”

“Oh, the Pearls needed me for something that was supposedly important at first,” Spinel said, rolling her eyes. Her eyes then fell upon the wagon full of Jack-O-Lanterns and then the bucket full of candy on the table and then the Halloween decorations hanging on the ceiling. “Hey, wait a darn minute! What’s all this stuff?”

“It’s all of our decorations for Halloween!” Connie explained. The young girl grabbed the candy bucket from the table and walked over to Spinel. She held it out to the gem, offering some. “Here. Take one.”

Spinel looked at it, confused at first, but then she pulled out a round, red lollipop.

“Uhm...what’s Halloween??”

“Oh!” Steven exclaimed. “I completely forgot! This is your first Halloween!”

Amethyst scoffed playfully. “Pfft! This is the first Halloween for nearly every gem at Little Homeworld. Spinel, you should’ve seen the presentation Lapis, Peridot, and Bismuth put up a few days ago! Halloween 101. It was a huge riot!” The small gem’s eyes widened. An idea had popped into her head. “HEEYYY! What if we recreate that! Right now!”

Connie nervously laughed as she remembered the disaster that had been the presentation. “How about we not?” She clapped her hands together before grabbing a hold of the wagon’s handle. “People are going to start trick-or-treating soon, so we should start putting these guys up. Steven will tell Spinel everything there is to know about Halloween. Won’t you, Steven?”

He nodded with a small smile. “I’ll see you guys later! If my dad shows up a little bit early, tell him I’m here with Spinel.”

After the others left, Spinel pulled the wrapper off her lollipop and popped it into her mouth. “Now,” she began, crossing her arms together, “What’s this whole Halloween biz?”

“You remember how I told you about the Fourth of July a few months back, right?”

She nodded.

“Halloween is a holiday just like that one. Minus the fireworks and American flags everywhere and also the barbecue. For Halloween, everyone dresses up in costumes, be it scary, funny, or cute, and go around at people’s houses to get candy.

“Oh,” she took out her lollipop and looked at it, “That’s nice.”

“I know, right!? Free candy for a night!”

“Is there a reason ya guys celebrate it?”

“Well...it’s mostly to have fun and it’s the one night you can go around wearing any costume you want.”

“You can’t wear a costume outside of that?”

Steven shook his head, sadly. “Not unless you work at Freddy Fazbear’s or Duck-Fil-A or any other company that has a mascot that requires a costume. Hey, speaking about costumes, it’s a good thing you came here tonight! I have something to show you

She gave him a quizzical look.

Before she could say or do anything, he grabbed her hand and led her to his room. When they got there, the first thing that caught Spinel’s eyes were the two outfits lying neatly on his bed.

“I was having a hard time picking a costume for this year,” he began to explain as he grabbed both of the outfits and showed them off, “But then I decided to ask Lion to decide for me and—guess which one he picked.”

Spinel thought for a second before pointing at the costume at the right.

“Yes! Who would’ve guessed he could be like that, huh? That’s Lion for you.”

The costume was literally a lion costume that Steven had painted pink to make it look exactly like Lion. The other costume...well, she wasn’t exactly sure what it was.

“What about the other one?” She asked.

“That one’s a Cookie Cat costume!”

“Oh...uhm what’s a cookie cat?”

“Oh, Cookie Cat’s an alien cat that left both his family and home behind when he came down here to Earth to escape an interstellar war. He was the mascot of these delicious ice cream sandwiches by the same name. Unfortunately they stopped selling two years ago probably because of competition. Curse you Lion Lickers. I would’ve definitely have bought you some if they still sold them. I’m pretty sure you would’ve liked them.”

Spinel looked at the costume he still held in his hand. Her eyes were focused on Cookie Cat’s two different colored eyes.One white and one pink.

“Yeah, I would have,” She said and then reached out for the costume, taking it out of his hand, “Hey, Steven. C-Can I ask ya somethin’?”

“Hm? Yeah sure.”

“Y-Ya wouldn’t—I-I mean you guys wouldn’t mind if I joined ya for this, would you? I-I think I like the idea of this whole ‘treat-or-trick’ thing.”

Steven smiled at her. It was another one of those types of smiles, so filled with warmth and love, which left Spinel feeling kinda weak every time it happened (and let me tell ya, it was happening quite a lot recently as she came to notice). It took so much of her power to prevent herself from falling victim to her buckling knees or to let her heart-shaped gem fly out of its place in a ‘bumpidity-bump!’ mess.

“I wouldn’t mind and I’m pretty sure the others won't either. I was actually about to ask you if you wanted to,” he said and then he walked over to his clothes cabinet, where he began to look through all his garments, “I have a ton of costumes here. Which one would you like? I have this sneople costume and oh—I still have this Pink Diamond outfit from two years ago…”

“Actually,” Spinel began, holding out the Cookie Cat costume in front of her, “I’d like to wear this.”

He smiled again. “Sure! Go ahead.”

She wasted no time in pulling the costume over her and in such a cartoonish manner that Steven had only blinked once when she already had the full costume on.

“How do I look?”

“Great! It’s a perfect fit!” Steven complimented. Just after he said that, the sound of rock music entered through the open window of his room. “Ah, Dad’s here! You can go down with the others. Tell them I’m getting ready.”

“Sure thing!” She said and watched as he quickly walked to the bathroom. Once the door close behind him, she walked down the stairs.

“Spooky scary skeletons,” she sang to herself, happily imagining the fun night that awaited them, “Send shivers down your spine…”

[wackapedia]

Angels and Stray Kitties

Your daughter meets an angel :)

A/n: this idea hit me at 3am and wouldnt let me sleep until i write it. Can be read as either Gwilym, Joe, Ben, or Allen! (Not Rami because it mentions Uncle Rami uwu)

Warning: Happy tears

---

You were taking your daughter to see his dad filming. The studio was only a couple of minutes away from where you live so you decided to take a walk. As you were waiting for a clearing at the crosswalk, holding your daughter's hand, a voice called out to you. It was your high school friend.

"Y/n I cant believe its you! Ever since you got married to that actor I feel like I'll never see you again!" You were caught up with the conversation with your old friend that you didn't notice your daughter slip her wrist out of your grip. After you exchange numbers with your friend, you noticed she was missing. You called out her name and thankfully, she emerged from a dark alley.

"I told you to never ever leave my side! Where were you? Your dress is soiled!" You scolded her.

"There was a nice orange kitty over there and I went over to pet it" she said gesturing to the dark space between two buildings, already sounding sorry.

"You cant just pet stray animals! What if they bite you? Or worse?" Your panic still hasn't subsided after seeing that shady-looking alley.

"The man said its okay to pet the kitty." She said, the fighting spirit within her.

"You spoke to a stranger?! Darling, we're gonna have a long conversation about this!" Your soul almost left your body upon hearing her excuse.

"He wasn't a stranger! He was a nice man and was petting the kitty first" She reasoned again, this time describing the stranger.

You picked up your daughter as you speed-walked along the sidewalk to get to your destination.

As you entered your husband's dressing room, your daughter squealed for her daddy.

"How's my little princess?" He said as he picked her up and kissed her cheek.

"She had quite an adventure today on our way here." You said to your husband

"Really? What happened?"

"I met an angel, daddy!" She said energetically. "He said he liked your movie bom- bomeh-" she continued, struggling with the syllables

"Bohemian Rhapsody! You met a fan today huh?" Your husband finished, slightly confused about his daughter's experience.

"Yeah! He said thank you for telling his story." Your daughter said, now distracted by the lights around the vanity table. Your husband raised an eyebrow, looking at you.

"Why dont you tell daddy how he looked like, baby?" You asked your little daughter.

"Oh he had a moustache and some funny teeth. And he had wings!" She giggles, proud of herself.

"At first I thought it was uncle Rami but the man's eyes were brown and not green."

---

A/n: fam, i cried after writing this. Freddie must have some fabulous wings. 😭😿

[the-metal-reaper]

An Eye for an Eye - Chapter 5

Well, here’s the final chapter of An Eye for an Eye! I loved experimenting with a different setup for this tale, placing it outside of one of the games. It’s been a lot of fun! 

did i cry while writing this? yes. a lot. i love my kiddos, sue me.

---

Those eyes. She had seen them far more times than any person should. She had seen them on Michael, while he stood paralyzed in front of those nightmare-fueled steel monstrosities. Charlie had seen them on herself in the reflection of the rain-soaked glass of the window looking into Fazbear’s Family Diner, with the silhouette of her killer behind her. She had even seen them on her own father, as he stared into the emotionless eyes of Charlie’s former suit. And yesterday, she saw them on William as he stared at her through the mask of the Spring Bonnie suit just before the springlocks thrust themselves into his skin, shoving jagged mechanical parts right into his ribcage. Even when she shuts her eyelids as tight as she can, and feels her tears dripping down her face, those eyes still haunt her. They’re burned into her retinas. 

Charlie hates this, hates that she’s crying, and hates herself most of all. Why was she so easily convinced to kill? Charlie was supposed to be the protector of lost souls, and yet she had created more. She was no better than William.

She looks up at Michael, who’s sitting next to her, facing the television. Neither of them had gotten much sleep. A rerun of an old soap opera, one that Michael had watched religiously in his youth, plays on the set, but neither of them are really watching it. 

Michael wraps an arm around Charlie’s shoulder and pulls her closer. He runs his gloved fingers through her short brown locks and smiles a little to himself. He had almost forgotten what satisfaction and contentment felt like, but now it flowed through him like blood. His mission was complete.

On his side, he feels something cool. He looks down at Charlie, eyebrows quirking up with worry, and sees her tears. All at once, his peace drains to gnawing anxiety.

“Hey,” Michael smiles down at Charlie, who wipes her tears with a damp sleeve before meeting his gaze. “What do you say we… go stop by Fazbears? Say hi to your dad?”

Blood rushes to Charlie’s ears. She can barely hear Michael over the sound of her racing heartbeat, and she struggles to keep her face calm. The simple thought of that place is barely tolerable without her consciousness getting hijacked by images of the horrific monstrosities Charlie had committed the night before. But she needed to stay positive. She had to. 

If she didn’t have her cheer, what did she have?

“Sure,” Charlie smiles for the first time that day. Michael smiles back, relieved.

They hop into the car, and Michael skids down the street, almost jumping the curb. Charlie hangs onto the seat behind her for dear life. 

She laughs, “Why the heck are you driving so fast?!”

“Because,” Michael blows past the ‘Speed Limit: 20 mph’ street sign at 60, “it’s fun.”

Leaving dark tracks behind it, the purple Oldsmobile screeches to a halt in front of Fazbear’s glistening glass doors. The sun has just barely passed the horizon, so Michael’s face is cast in shadow as he lightly taps on the front door to the Pizzaria. No response. The main room, which is visible through the slightly frosted glass, is silent and dark. It may have been early, but Henry should’ve been there. He managed the place.

Charlie sees Michael’s confusion and concern. “Hey, I can unlock the door if we need.”

“That sounds good.” 

With a nod, Charlie pushes herself through the glass and clicks the lock open. She goes deeper into the restaurant, reaching for the light switch to turn on the lights, when she sees them.

Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy. Staring down at her from the stage with lifeless eyes. Eyes that had been filled with life by the Marionette, and emptied of it by the same hand. 

Charlie hadn’t realized she was crying until she felt Michael’s hand on her shoulder.

“Let’s find your dad and get out of here,” he murmurs. The spirit wraps her arms around Michael in response. Together, they walk through the restaurant, while Charlie tilts her head away from the stage. 

Michael sees a dim light from a doorway down the hall. He leads Charlie there, only to see a man slumped over at the manager’s desk, beer bottle in hand and tiny television screen illuminating his face.

 Sighing, Michael reaches over the desk and shakes him awake. “Henry.”

Henry’s eyebrows quirk up in confusion, then he smiles with recognition. “Hey, guys.”

“Were you here all night?

“Uh, yeah,” He blinks, rubbing his eyes, “I was watching William.”

Gesturing towards the TV screen, Henry shows Michael and Charlie the camera footage of the door to the safe room, which has remained the same since they locked the door. 

“So, how are you?” Henry smiles.

“Well…” Staring at the floor, Michael says, “We’re thinking about moving. Leaving Hurricane.”

“What? Why?”

“Too many memories. Ones that I’d rather not remember. And besides--” Michael turns to Charlie, then falls silent. She’s so dim that she’s barely visible, her face buried in Michael’s coat. He puts an arm around her shoulders.

“But you just got here!” To Michael’s surprise, Henry sounds almost angry. He rises to his feet and walks around the desk to stare Michael down. “You can’t leave Hurricane.”

“Henry. The only reason we were here was to deal with William.”

“‘Deal with him?!’ Let’s not tiptoe around this, Michael. You convinced literal children to murder him for you because you just didn’t want to do it.”

Michael practically spits, “I did what I had to. I saved your life, for God’s sake. You’re just a coward.”

“A coward? No, I just have a moral compass. On the other hand, you are exactly as your father described. Soulless.”

A blur of movement brushes past Henry and smashes into the desk behind him. Oak splinters under Michael’s curled fist, and he glares red-hot lasers through Henry’s eyes. “I’m done taking your shit, Miller. We’re leaving. That’s final.” Michael stuffs his shaking hands into his pocket to avoid attacking Henry. 

“We? If you think you’re taking my daughter from me, you’re sadly mistaken.” Henry jabs his finger into Michael’s sunken chest, not even sparing a glance at Charlie, who has long since moved away from the argument in favor of hiding in the corner. 

“I—” Turning away to look for Charlie, Michael slows. His red-hot anger is cooled by the pitiful sight of his best friend curled up on the floor, her normally fluorescent features faded with fear. “Listen, I’m not trying to make Charlie’s choices for her. She can choose whether or not to move with me.”

“You’re not pulling that, Michael. Let her choose, so that way you can pull your little voodoo magic and put her back under your spell like always. Lottie’s going to stay with me, her father.”

“‘Voodoo magic?’ You mean being her friend? That’s the thing, Henry, you don’t really care about Charlie. Not like she is now. You just want your Little Lottie back.”

“Of course I do! Your father may have taken her away from me, but you’re the one who’s corrupted her, who’s turned her into something she’s not. You’re the one who made her kill someone!”

Henry gasps in a few breaths of air, his finger wavering in the air in front of Michael’s eyes. He closes his hand into a fist, and rises to put his face in the empty air where his fist was.

“So tell me, who really killed Lottie?” Henry spits, “William, or you?”

The linoleum tiles crack under Michael’s heel as he shoves Henry back into the desk, sending the older man flying over the desk and into the wheeled chair behind him. Michael wheels around, pausing when he sees Charlie’s apparent absence from the room. 

Facing the floor, he whispers, “I’m sorry I fucked everything up.”

Just as quickly as he ended the argument, Michael storms out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

“Asshole.” Henry growls at the closed door. Slowly, he pulls himself back to his feet, muttering yet more profanities as he does so.

He looks up at his daughter with an apologetic smile. Charlie stares back with a combination of anger and fear on her face as her cheeks sparkle with tears.

Pointing at the door, Charlie stammers out, “Listen, I-I’m gonna—”

“I meant what I said.” Henry busies himself by fiddling with his desk chair, trying to get the wheels to spin again. “I know he’s your friend, Lottie, but I just don’t think Michael is trustworthy.” 

Charlie’s hands curl into fists, but the only words she can muster are, “Michael’s always there when I need him. An-and I can’t say the same for you.”

She flies through the door, barely even noting the unpleasant wave of nausea that hits her as she does. Before she can even so much as take a breath, Charlie’s in the dining room, staring up at the stage. A muffled sob escapes her lips as she stares into Fritz—Foxy’s— lifeless eyes. Charlie turns away, wanting desperately to look at anything else. As she finally regains a slice of her sense, Charlie briskly walks through the booth seats and out the front doors.

The evening sun cast long shadows across the road, obscuring most of Michael’s face. He sits on the curb, looking at some distant point in the horizon while his cigarette smoke swirls around him in a cloud, concealing his face further. Through the smoke Michael sees a familiar figure join him on the curb. They sit in silence for a moment.

“You’re not coming with me, are you,” Michael says quietly. The smoke disperses, and Charlie can see the resigned frown on Michael’s face.

Charlie’s eyebrows quirk up in horror. She bites her lip, choosing her words carefully. “I’m not sure if I ever talked about it much, but… my years as the Marionette were hell.”

Michael looks up quickly, confusion dancing across his face.

“I was so alone, Mike. My d—Henry stopped coming to the restaurant, you never went back, even William left. I was so… cold.” Tears begin to well in Charlie’s eyes once again, but she grits her teeth and blinks rapidly. She shouldn’t cry again. She can’t. “Gabe, Jeremy, Suzy, even Fritz were always angry. Not just at William, at the world too. And I let myself get angry too.” Charlie pulls Michael’s arm into her lap and rests her head on his shoulder. “But then you came along.” A smile dawns on her face. “You helped me remember who I was, Mike. Who I am now. I don’t think I ever thanked you for that. So, thank you.” 

Michael pulls Charlie into a tight embrace, pushing her cheek up against his razor-like collarbone. His arms are shaking. 

“That’s a no to staying, by the way.” Charlie laughs. Michael smiles gratefully as a response. 

They sit in each other’s arms for a while, watching the golden sun light the horizon on fire as it sinks below. 

Michael glances down at his companion. “Are you okay?”

“I don’t know,” she frowns. “I guess I just thought he’d be different.” 

“I’m sorry.”

Charlie looks up at him, catching his gaze. “Don’t be. I have you, Mike. You’re all I need.”

---

Thank you so much for reading!! I’ll be posting art again starting next week.

Previous | Where it all started

[anthonysstupiddailyblog]

Anthony’s Stupid Daily Blog (195): Mon 26th Sep 2022

Got a call early this morning from Dad asking if I would go to see Nana Jenny at the retirement home because he had injured his back bowling with Lacey and couldn't do it today. When I came into the home Jenny was stood in the office talking to one of the staff member and she saw me in my motorcycle jacket, trousers and baseball cap and got a bit of a shock and for a few seconds she didn't recognize me. She took me to her room and we had a chat but because her memory is starting to fade she kept forgetting that the person she'd seen in the hallway was me and so for the rest of the day she kept saying to me "That guy in the hallway was massive wasn't her?". Don't think that she's far gone though because outside of the occasional bit of confusion she's still fairly switched on. She told me the names of all the cast members on this cooking show that we watched and accurately remembered stuff that happened the last time Dad and I were there. She's also retained her sense of humour because at one point she looked over to the little Elvis teddy she has sat on her bed and said "What are you looking at?" then looked back at me and smiled. I think she still thinks that she's eventually going back to her bungalow but sadly that isn't possible because the doctors have said this would be too dangerous for her and have determined that she needs constant supervision. It's really upsetting seeing anyone suffering from dementia but all we can hope is that it progresses as slowly as possible and that we get many more years with Jenny. Who knows maybe in the years to come they might develop the treatment that slows it down even further. After an hour Jenny told me that I would have to go because she had to be somewhere. I thought that this might just be another delusion but it turned out that every day at three they have a group meetup in the lounge where the residents can chat to each other. I hugged her goodbye and said that I'd see her soon and I plan on keeping this promise to her. Dad goes down there twice a week so I'll ask if it's okay if I start meeting him there so we can all spend some time together. Even though Jenny really annoys Dad he always makes her laugh and you can tell her spirits are raised after she gets a visit from the family. Tonight before bed I watched the zombie film Dead and Buried.

Of all the zombie films I've seen so far for this, Dead and Buried is probably the most radical departure I've seen from both the original voodoo slave and the bloodthirsty flesh-eater. It blends in science fiction elements more than any other zombie picture I've seen and cleverly unravels it's plot piece by piece and I was intrigued throughout. I really like the pacing and time of this film. When people go to see horror movies I think people have a tendency to try and predict when the scary scene is going to be. Gary Sherman was clearly aware of this and so does his best to try and second guess the audience. For example the opening scene in the beach is shot is like a made for TV romance drama and I think the reason behind being as melancholy as possible to make the lower it's collective guard so they will shit myself when something scary happens. With this in mind I subconsciously was keeping my guard up convinced that a jump scare was coming but then the interactions between Freddie and "Lisa" go on for quite a while and then had me convinced that this movie was going to be a slow burner with the scares coming later in the movie. With this in mind I lowered my guard and naturally this is when the scare happened. Granted most film-goers aren't as easily fooled as I am but I'd wager a lot of people watching the film were tricked just like I was. Another ingenious bit of timing happens not long after this when the guy in the overturned car screams. If I'd been watching this in the cinema it would have made me jump and I wouldn't be surprised if the makers of Se7en saw this scene. What's great about the positioning of this scene so soon after the burning alive scene is that we've just seen something incredibly gruesome so we've convinced ourselves that another scary moment won't be along for a little while and then we immediately get proven wrong. Cleverly the director also manages to get us to do the exact opposite, namely convince us that a character will meet with a brutal climax only for them to escape thus releasing the tension in the audience. I was genuinely surprised the family survived the encounter in the house (even if they are found dead the next morning). Finally a twist ending on top of another twist ending? Sherman never stops trying to outfox the audience . With regards to the amount of gore in the film the special effects team really stepped things up to make the kills and gore as realistic as possible. Also on a bit of a side note Gary Sherman purposely avoided letting the color red be visible in any scene, so the sight of blood during the murder sequences would be all the more shocking. This is a really good idea and shows that the director wasn't resting on his laurels trying to get the film out as quick as possible, he actually took time to think of ways to make each scene as effective as possible. A similarly great creative decision is the constant presence of fog in the village. It's a great way to step up the tension from the standard zombie flick. "How can we make them more scary? Well what if the people can't see them?". The rebuilding of the corpse scene is absolutely tremendous, a real highlight of the picture as it reveals so much about the plot and the characters and just let's us sit back and marvel at the sheer amount of work that has gone into this movie. I love the fact that a lot of the budget clearly went on the effects but they didn't let the fact they had a good effects guy make them think they could just rest on their laurels and neglect other elements of the movie like plot, direction and action.

The performances are really good especially that of Jack Albertson AKA Grandpa Joe in Willy Wonka (and the Twilight Zone episode The Shelter) as Dobbs. Albertson was terminally ill with cancer all through filming but you wouldn't know it as he still puts in a really focused and at times theatrical performance. James Farentino is really good in the film too particularly after he finds out what's going on with Dobbs and has a Harry Angel in Angel Heart-esque breakdown. The level of emotion he puts into the performance (which includes tears in his eyes during his confrontation with Dobbs) is really impressive. It was also cool to see a pre-Freddy Kreuger Robert Englund popping up in the film but to be honest he doesn't do much. Seemingly every minute of screen time that goes by reveals a little more about the mystery of the movie and I was always gripped. This was like the cinematic equivalent of the gameshow Catchphrase where at the end of each player's turn another piece of the big puzzle is revealed. We go from Freddie being murdered under almost cult-like ritualistic circumstances to Freddie turning up good as new at the diner. Then Dean hits someone with his car and their severed arm is still stuck to the grill and after this discovers his wife has a strange fascination with witchcraft. The whole time I was watching the movie and more clues were being revealed I found myself going into detective mode and trying to figure out what was going on which is great for a movie to be able to do because it made me empathize with the main character Dean and experience what he is experiencing. The film does have a few major flaws. Although the majority of the effects are tremendous the acid burn scene looks awful. As the thing was melting I was expecting the character to scream "No that's acid! Please keep that away from my Resusci Annie dummy!". Although the ending is clever I can't say it was entirely surprising but that’s just because I've seen countless other movies and TV episodes with similar if not identical twist endings (The Twilight Zone episode The After Hours being a good example). Also it's a bit hard to imagine that Dan never showed any signs of being a zombie until just after he found out he was one. For instance a piece of his wife's face detaches as soon as Dan touches it proving she is a zombie...so did they never kiss or have sex? Also his hands start to fall apart just after the final reveal so he never once showed any signs of falling apart until just now? Bit of a stretch. A few issues with the story and effects aside this is a brilliant movie. A unique premise with some genuinely interesting twists, spectacular performances and killer effects.

Favourite quotes:

Villagers: Welcome to Potter's Bluff"

Dobbs: I've replaced missing eyeballs with sawdust, used bent aluminum combs as dentures, used the back part of the scalp where there was no front part and folded one hand over waded up newspapers when the other hand had no fingers

Dan: Janet I had some shells in this drawer where are they? Janet: When were you at the beach? Dan: Bullets Janet, Bullets!

[lickstynine]

Back from the Dead, Dying Inside (part 2)

Prequel

Part 1

Jace woke up in so much pain, he could hardly move. His painkillers had been wearing off long before he fell asleep, but he’d thrown the pills across the room, and he couldn’t have retrieved them without help. He stretched out in bed, groaning and trying to adjust. He nearly jumped out of his skin when a voice piped up beside him.

“Are you okay?”

Jace jerked into an upright position, but his face went white and he flopped back onto the bed with regret. “Fuck me... Wren, when did you get here?”

“When I woke up. Mum said you were feeling poorly, so I wanted to check on you.” Wren gestured to the bed, where a blanket much softer than Jace’s usual was tucked around the injured boy. “I brought you something soft. I like soft things when I’m sad.”

Despite how much he was aching, as well as a lingering bitterness after his argument with Serafina, Jace couldn’t help but smile. The gashes on his face stung with the movement, and his expression quickly fell. Even in the dim light, Wren didn’t miss it.

“You’re hurting... Where did your medicine go?”

Jace sighed. “It’s... it’s on the floor.” His voice was hoarse, scratchy from screaming and dehydrated from crying all night. “Careful, there’s broken glass over there...”

Wren didn’t ask why; he didn’t have to. He just carefully reached around the shards to pick up the assortment of plastic bottles, moving them back to the nightstand. “I’ll go find you some water, so you can take your medicine.”

He ran off, returning with a water bottle, as well as a pill crusher. Jace couldn’t take whole pills with his jaw wired - they had to be powdered and mixed with water. Looking at the labels of the bottles, Wren made sure he was doling out the right amount of each medication before offering it to his brother. 

Forcing himself to sit up, Jace took his medicine, thought it didn’t feel like it was settling well. His stomach was aching fiercely, as he had hardly eaten over the last few days. Wren again saw the discomfort on his brother’s face.

“Do you want some more water? Or maybe some tea or something?”

“No, I don’t... It’s not... I just... haven’t eaten in a while.” Jace mumbled. “I’m sick of those shit smoothies. Just thinking about them makes me wanna puke.”

Wren nodded understandingly. He stopped to think for a minute. “I’ll be back.” He hopped to his feet and ran downstairs, rifling through the refrigerator and freezer. They of course had vanilla ice cream, but he honestly wasn’t expecting to find the other thing he wanted. To his surprise, there it was - in the very back corner of the refrigerator, a single bottle of root beer. Wren pulled both out onto the counter, grabbing a big glass from a cabinet and an ice cream scoop from a drawer.

Jace was flicking listlessly through a comic book when his little brother returned. He was surprised and a little confused to see Wren carrying a foam-topped glass with a fat straw sticking out of it. “Whatcha got there?”

“Root beer float.” Wren grinned, holding it out to his brother.

Jace’s face lit up at once, recognizing the treat his father used to make for him as a kid. “Shit, really? I didn’t know we even had root beer.”

“I didn’t either. There was one hiding in the very back of the fridge.” Wren watched closely as his brother picked up the glass, hoping he had done well.

Jace was more than thrilled to have something that wasn’t pureed bullshit to eat. He sucked down almost a third of it at once, only pausing because he’d given himself a brain freeze. He smiled at Wren. “It’s really good.”

Wren smiled back. “Good. Can... can I ask you something?”

“Yea, sure.” Jace shrugged, sipping at his drink again as the pain of the brain freeze faded.

“What’s bothering you? Mum said you were upset last night, but she wouldn’t tell me what you talked about.” Wren sat on the edge of the bed, watching his brother with worried eyes.

Jace sighed. “Just... this.” He gestured with a cast-covered hand towards his torn-up face. “Healing is gonna take forever. I’m going crazy in here, and I’m not even gonna look like a goddamn human when it’s over.” The rage from yesterday was gone, replaced with a morose wobble in his voice.

“Well, you... you don’t have to stay in here.” Wren told him. “I know you don’t like the wheelchair, but I really don’t mind pushing you around. It’s like driving a snarky go-kart.”

Jace laughed so hard, he felt a stab of pain in his healing ribs. “Shit, I want that on a t-shirt or my gravestone or something. That’s fuckin’ great. Maybe I’ll be your snarky go-kart when I finish my float.” He decided.

Wren smiled. “Really?”

“Yeah, sure. Just, like, stay inside the house. I don’t wanna run into anybody besides, like, Dad.” Jace was afraid that Serafina would still be mad at him for last night, and he had no desire to see anyone who didn’t live with them.

“Are you sure? The weather is really nice. You’ve been stuck inside for weeks... I thought you liked going outside.”

Jace shook his head. “Not anymore. It’s not worth it. Not when you look like Freddy Krueger fucked Frankenstein. You shoulda seen the faces of the people in the fuckin’ waiting room when we left...” He muttered, clearly bitter.

Wren frowned. “We could just go in the backyard? At least then you’d get some sun...”

“What, and kill every animal I look at like some Tim Burton version of a Disney princess?”

“It’s... it’s really not like that... the only people who are looking at you like that are judgy and mean.” Wren declared.

“No, they’re normal.” Jace snapped back. “Normal people don’t look like they jumped in a wood chipper on a dare, and they don’t like freaks that do look like that.”

Wren sighed. His brother wasn’t really wrong, which was making it hard to argue, so he tried to go a different route. “It’s really weird that you’re so bothered by that. Isn’t the point of being punk to look scary and upset the normal people?”

“Well, kinda, but you can look punk and still look good. You can’t look good when your face looks like you tried to shave with a lawnmower.” Jace huffed.

Wren was struggling not to laugh at his brother’s dramatic imagery, but he continued anyway. “Really? Cause I remember you saying,” he switched from his natural slight British accent to a rather exaggerated surfer-dude voice. “Dude, it’d be so fuckin’ cool if I got in a fight with somebody and got like, a scar or something. Chicks dig that shit, it makes you look like a badass.”

Now it was Jace’s turn to try not to laugh. Those words and that voice sounded fucking ridiculous coming from his demure little brother. He had to compose himself before continuing to argue. “That’s different. I meant like, one scar, on my cheek or something. Or across the eye, like Dad. That looks fuckin’ cool. I look like a fuckin’ mess. One scar is sexy. A bunch is psycho.”

“I still think it’s pretty punk.”

“Dude, you’re not exactly the leading expert on punk. You look like my school librarian.”

Wren huffed in fake offense. “Hey!”

Jace held up his hands. “I’m not saying I don’t like you, I’m just saying I’d never ask you for fashion advice, even if my own eyes rotted out of my skull. I’d be safer just grabbing clothes from my dresser at random.”

Wren was still making a faux-upset face, but he was struggling not to giggle. “Yeah, well... I wouldn’t let you pick out books for me. I’d get like, a colouring book and a Playboy magazine.”

Jace snorted. “Yeah, probably.” Despite how their conversation had started, Wren had managed to lift his spirits substantially. He sucked down the last of his root beer and set the glass aside. “You wanna like... see if my wheelchair can go down the stairs?”

“No!”

“You’re no fun...”

[not-another-imagine-blog]

Livin’ On a Prayer (Auston Matthews)

Word count: 1495

Warnings: Kind of a sex scene

Author’s note: This wasn’t requested, but I had the idea for it when Bon Jovi came on Throwback Thursday while I was driving to work last week. My first attempt at something even remotely coming close to smut. Let me know what you think!

You absolutely adored the Matthews family. Between the constant dry heat of Scottsdale, a vastly different climate than Toronto, Auston’s sisters always finding the time to tease him and tell you embarrassing stories about him and Ema trying to include you, the hopeless cook who once managed to actually burn water, in the Matthews family tradition of cooking large meals together, Auston’s family quickly became another family to you, in addition to your actual family and the Leafs family. Even though you loved all of the Matthews, you missed your hometown. After a really nice month in Arizona at the conclusion of the season, you were more than ready to show Auston where you had grown up.

Turns out, your family loves Auston just as much as Auston’s family loves you, if not more so. They found your quiet giant of a boyfriend incredibly endearing. Even your dad, the man that was the reason that none of your friends wanted to go to your house in high school, wasn’t his intimidating self around Auston. Even though your family was more than welcoming they, much like Auston’s family, are very overbearing to two people who really just enjoy the company of each other.

Today, you decide to take Auston sightseeing as a pseudo-date. Although Auston is the one that handles driving in the busy cities of Scottsdale and Toronto, you decide to take the wheel for this tour, the numerous back roads getting confusing for even a local. As you back out of the driveway, Auston looks at the interior of the car.

“Is this your car from high school?” He asks, lips twitching as he takes in the odd shoe, school sweatshirt, sports gear and school spirit items that you had abandoned the day you graduated.

“It is! She was supposed to be passed down from kid to kid, but they all get rides from their friends. My baby needs some love.” You give the dashboard a loving pat as you coast down the street. Auston continues to inspect your car.

“Does this thing even have an aux cord?”

“Unfortunately, no.” Auston laughs. “Trust me, all of my friends used to make fun of me for it, I don’t need my boyfriend to do the same thing.”

“Don’t worry, I have nothing against your car.”

“I sure hope not. Y’know, we have coyotes out here, and if I were to have to leave you on the side of the road because my car got offended by you, I would be a little worried for you.” Auston looks at you, a huge grin on his face.

“Did you just threaten me, (Y/N)?” You shrug, trying to fight a smile off of your face. As the radio plays quietly in the background, you suddenly come to a realization.

“It’s Thursday!” You start to fiddle with the radio, trying to find the right station.

“I’m glad you have your days memorized. Why is Thursday so important?”

“The big radio station in town does a Throwback Thursday, where they take requests and play a bunch of songs from the 80s and 90s! This was our favorite day of the week; we would always ride to school and sing all of the old songs at the tops of our lungs.” You smile, referencing your siblings. Finally, you remember the radio station and get the radio tuned, laughing triumphantly as the music of David Bowie spills out from the speakers. Auston can’t help but to smile at your enthusiasm for Throwback Thursday.

“I’ve never heard of a station doing this before.”

“Perks of living in a small town, I guess.” As you cruise down the interstate, you entertain Auston with your renditions of the Backstreet Boys, Wilson Phillips, Salt N’ Peppa, En Vogue and Madonna. You’re about to speak when the beginning strains of a familiar song fill your ears. Auston groans as you squeal and lightly smack his arm, making sure that he hears.

“Why this song?”

“Well well well, guess they know who’s in town?” Bon Jovi begins to sing and you join in, nearly yelling the lyrics and dancing in your seat. “‘It doesn’t make a difference if we make it or not. We’ve got each other,’” You grab Auston’s unwilling hand and swing it. “‘And that’s a lot. For love, we’ll give it a shot!’”

“Don’t do this to me, babe.” You groan and pout.

“Auston, please? You know you wanna. I know that I’m no Mitch, but I’m still pretty fun to sing with.” Auston says nothing so you decide to drop it, changing lanes and getting back into the song. “Whoa, we’re halfway there, WHOA, LIVIN’ ON A PRAYER, take my hand and we’ll make it I swear-”

“Whoa, livin’ on a prayer!” You’re sitting at a stoplight off of the interstate, so you completely justify taking your eyes off of the road and smiling widely at Auston, giggles leaving your lips. The look on Auston’s face, a grimace at the fact that he actually just sang the song that made him into a meme, turns your giggles into full-on laughs, a snort escaping as you clasp your hand over your mouth. At that sound, Auston bursts into laughter.

“I-can’t-believe-you-snorted!” Auston gasps out, sending you into another bout of laughs. A car angrily honks behind you, causing you to jump. You turn and sheepishly wave as you start to drive, pulling into a parking lot so that you don’t crash due to your boyfriend still laughing.

“I’m so mad that you just caused some guy to get angry at me because you made fun of my laughter.” You feign anger at the whole situation before miserably failing, a smile gracing your features.

“I’m sorry (Y/N), I just haven’t heard you snort from laughter in a while.” You both quiet as Auston stares at you, moving a stray piece of hair out of your eyes. “My family stole you away from me the whole time we were in Arizona.”

“And my family’s been stealing you from me too.” You realize. “I miss these little moments, Aus. I like it when it’s just the two of us.”

“How do I miss someone that I haven’t been apart from in over a month?” He asks, almost to himself.

“I miss you too.” His lips are on yours in a matter of milliseconds, hands becoming tangled in each other as you clamber over the center console, straddling Auston’s lap.

“I feel like I haven’t touched you in ages.” Auston mutters against your skin, nipping at your neck as you moan out his name.

“Y’know, I never did get to have sex in this car.” You breathe out, testing the waters. Auston pulls away, smirking at you as his eyes darken.

“Well then, I guess we’ll have to change that.” He immediately lifts you up, making it seem almost effortless as he tosses you into the back seat, climbing in after you. Auston’s hands immediately go for your breasts while he goes to work sucking a hickey on your neck. Your mouth falls open as you attempt to speak, not being able to force any words out. Your hand moves to palm Auston’s bulge as he groans through clenched teeth.

“Oh God, (Y/N), the things you do to me.” You pull his face back down to yours in a searing kiss. As articles of clothing are thrown all over your car, you thank your lucky stars that you managed to pull into an abandoned parking lot. Your heavy breathing mixes with Auston’s, the only sounds in your car besides the sound of the radio, still playing throwback music.

After an adventurous afternoon that consisted of absolutely no sightseeing (“except for that gorgeous body of yours.”), you and Auston make it back to your family home. After spending 20 minutes attempting to find your phone, which you realize you left on the charger in your room all along, you finally check your phone. You’re surprised to see plenty of messages; normally, you only ever get texts from Auston. Instead, Sydney, Steph, Mitch, Freddie and plenty of others have all left you texts about how good of a singer you are. You whip your head up to Auston, who attempts to look nonchalant, as you immediately scroll to Instagram. On both his story and as an actual post is a video of you singing and dancing exuberantly to ‘Livin’ On a Prayer.’ Every so often, Auston switches the screen back to his face, where he’s desperately trying not to laugh.

“Someone’s ready for hockey season to start #GoLeafsGo” is the caption that accompanies the video.

“Now everyone knows how terrible of a singer I am!” You groan, cheeks going red. Auston pulls you onto his lap, kissing your nose.

“Yeah, but they also know that I have the most supportive girlfriend in the world.” Auston starts to kiss you again.

“I’m never going to get to take you sightseeing.”