#does mikey have those memories or did replacement mikey take them??

[stupidsexygrizzop]

still waiting for that operose memory pocket from 127 to pop and throw another wrench into the plot

[yurtletheturtlehenderson]

COSMIC - S1:E1; Chapter One, The Vanishing of Will Byers - [Pt. 1]

A Will Byers x Male!Reader Series

𝘖𝘯 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘢 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥'𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦, 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘨 𝘞𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘴 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘏𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘶𝘥𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘶𝘥𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘣𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦, 𝘢 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘱 𝘰𝘧 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥.

𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 𝟔𝐓𝐇, 𝟏𝟗𝟖𝟑

𝐇𝐀𝐖𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐒, 𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐈𝐀𝐍𝐀

𝐇𝐀𝐖𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐒 𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐋𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐔.𝐒 𝐃𝐄𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐑𝐆𝐘

The night is quiet, as it always has been in this small corner of Indiana, and yet this night is unlike any other. The halls were especially bare, occupied only by the melody of the generator humming as it struggled to pump light throughout the twisted maze of halls. That was, until...

BAM

The steel door rips open, colliding fast and hard with the walls withab fantastic thud. Swallowing all remaining silence along with it, was the cry of alarms that flood the hallway as he runs for his life. The man finds himself at the elevator, furiously slamming his hand against the elevator button hoping just maybe it might make the elevator come faster. As he does so, the man continues to look over his shoulder in a panic.

He knows its after him.

BOOM

He knows its close.

The man is thrilled to hear the soft ding of the elevator signaling it's arrival. Before the doors are even opened all the way the man quickly ducks through and proceeds to frantically hit the UP button inside the elevator.

The doors begin to close.

For a second he believes he just might make it. But that doesn't completely cast away the fear as he can't seem to take his eyes off of the eerie hallway, expecting it's arrival. The man attempts to calm his breathing. His hopes of escaping are growing stronger as things quiet down.

That's when he hears it.

That... Thing.

It takes every remaining ounce of courage for the man to slowly look up, but on some level, he already knows he is done for.

A low growl is heard above him followed by an unusual yet terrifying squeak.

The man's screams were cut off with the shut of the doors as he is yanked up towards the ceiling of the elevator. The man is no more.

|| 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫'𝐬 𝐏𝐎𝐕 ||

It's quiet. The faint sound of sprinklers outside can be heard as we wait for Mike to continue. We are all on the edge of our seats. It's already hard enough they still can't find proper seating for me since I officially joined the party, so, for now, I'm wedged between my best friend Will and my brother Dustin.

"Something is coming. Something hungry for blood," Mike says, his voice barely above a whisper. "A shadow grows on the wall behind you, swallowing you in darkness."

Subconsciously we all slowly lean in waiting for whatever happens next.

"It is almost here."

"What is it?" Will asks suddenly, no longer capable of containing his curiosity.

This time it's Dustin who cuts in, "What if it's the Demogorgon?"

I take a deep breath in suspense. Out of the corner of my eye, Will practically throws himself back in his seat.

"Oh, Jesus, we're so screwed if it's the Demogorgon." Dustin rambles on.

Lucas speaks up, "It's not the Demogorgon." He sounds very sure of himself which gives me more confidence.

We all jump a little in our seats when Mike slams one of the game pieces down in front of us suddenly as he shouts "An army of troglodytes charge into the chamber!"

I sigh in great relief as Lucas gives a very smug and quite frankly, sassy look to Dustin as he props his elbow on the back of his chair which earns a soft chuckle from me.

"Troglodytes?" Dustin asks in disbelief.

"Told ya," I roll my eyes at Lucas despite the smile that grows on my face.

Everyone shares a good laugh, all of us relieved when my eyes meet Will's and we share a smile and a shake of the head as if silently saying 'I can't believe we were so worried for nothing'.

Simultaneously all of our smiles melt away when Mike starts looking around as he says "Wait a minute. Did you hear that?"

"That...That sound," he says softly.

"Boom... Boom," his voice is getting slightly louder with each 'boom'. We all stare at Mike expectantly, hanging on to his every word.

"BOOM!" Mike is shouting at this point as he slams his hands against the wooden surface making the table as well as all of us jump.

I always get too into these games, I realize. My heart is racing as adrenaline courses through my veins. I look over and it seems when I jumped I grabbed on to the nearest thing next to me which happened to be Will's arm. Sheepishly, I retract my hand and look back at Mike in anticipation.

"That didn't come from the troglodytes. No, that... That came from something else." Mike continues.

We all look around at each other as we wait for Mike.

In an instant, Mike slams down the next figure on the board and exclaims, "The Demogorgon!"

'Yep. We're screwed.'

The silence is replaced with all of our defeated groans. Dustin sighs and says, "We're in deep shit."

Mike suddenly says, "Will, your action!"

"I don't know!" Will sounded desperate.

We're all on edge, but the boys are completely panicking.

"Fireball him!" Lucas shouts.

"I'd have to roll a 13 or higher!"

"Too risky." Dustin cuts in. "Cast a protection spell!"

Lucas turns to Will and says "Don't be a pussy," I roll my eyes. "Fireball him!"

At this point, Lucas and Dustin are just yelling at each other.

"Cast protection."

Our attention is quickly brought back to Mike when he shouts, "The Demogorgon is tired of your silly human bickering! It stomps towards you."

"BOOM!"

"FIREBALL HIM!"

"Another stomp. BOOM."

"Cast. Protection."

"He roars in anger!"

At this point, everyone is yelling over one another; it's utter chaos, and finally I snap.

"Oh, come on, I'M tired of your silly human bickering, just let the boy roll!" It's hard to be heard over all the yelling but, by some miracle,, they manage to hear me and it's quiet for a split second as Will gets a chance to speak.

"And, FIREBALL!" He throws the dice on the table out of excitement and they go flying onto the floor.

"Oh shit!"

We all jump to our feet, scrambling to find the dice in anticipation.

"Where'd it go?" Lucas asks. "Where is it?"

Will almost sounded defensive, "I don't know!"

"Is it a 13?"

"How are we supposed to know if we haven't found the dice yet, Dustin?" I retort.

"Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God!" Dustin chants as he paces back and forth. I roll my eyes as I continue to search on my hands and knees.

"Mike," It was Mrs. Wheeler.

"Mom we're in the middle of a campaign!" Mike exclaims.

"You mean the end? Fifteen after."

Mike sighs, exasperated and runs up the stairs.

I hear Lucas accuse Will. "Oh, my God! Freaking Idiot!"

"Lucas," I ease. "come on, it's not his fault. We were all caught up in the game. Let's just focus on- OH! Found 'em!"

I jump to my feet, pointing down at the D-20 for my friends to see and not wanting to tamper with the roll. The boys come running over and practically trampled me in the process.

"Shit, it's a seven." We all groan in frustration, especially Will.

"Does a seven count?" Will asked hopefully.

"Did Mike see it?" Lucas counters.

"Well, no."

"Then it doesn't count."

I sigh, beginning to pack up my bags and tidy up my mess knowing it was time to leave. The others do the same.

"Why do we have to leave?" Will asks sadly as we head up the stairs. "It was just getting good,"

"I know," I swing my arm off his shoulder dramatically with a sigh as we head up the basement stairs and for the garage door. "I know. But hey, just think how awesome the next one will be, eh?" I tease trying to get my best friend to smile.

|| 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥'𝐬 𝐏𝐎𝐕 ||

Y/n has always been so good at cheering people up, I have no idea how he does it.

"Hey, guys. I'm sorry we had to end it so soon." Y/n and I turn around looking at Mike.

"No sweat, Mikey." Y/n shrugs, with a smile.

I love that smile. Suddenly his arm leaves my shoulder, and I frown a little.

I sigh inwardly, I've had such a bad crush on Y/n since he and Dustin moved here in the 4th grade. He has no idea... I hope. I always admired him from afar, that is until he finally convinced Dustin to let him into the party. We were all glad to have him, Dustin can be a little overprotective is all. I'm not sure about Dustin, but as for Mike and Lucas, they know I like him. Those guys can read me like a book, and once they caught on there was no convincing them otherwise.

I'm really lucky to have them as friends. They've never made me feel bad for who I am.

"Hey, Mike? Where is Dustin?" Y/n asks.

That's a good point, I realize. He was right behind us but he hasn't come outside yet.

"I think he went upstairs to give the leftovers to Nancy."

"Oh okay. I'll just wait here then. Uh oh, your plant is dying" Y/n said suddenly, kneeling down by the withering plant by the patio.

"Yeah, that's my mom's tomato plant. That thing is hopeless. She basically gave up on it."

"Well, I might be able to help," he said thoughtfully, beginning to scan the garage. "Where do you keep your gardening- Oh, never mind!"

He quickly runs over to the shelves, retrieving some old packets and ran back over to the plant, kneeling beside it.

You can always tell when he is concentrating; he always does this cute thing where he furrows his brow and chews his lip. My stomach does a little flip when i realize I was staring again and I quickly refocus my attention on my vest zipper. I still manage to see Y/n fiddling with the the packet tonget it open, finally sprinkling the contents into the dirt before mixing it in with his finger. All the while, he mutters words of encouragement towards it. I remember him telling me one day about a study conducted on plants and how it was proved that they respond well to positive feedback, and the memory makes me smile. He was so fascinated by it; it was hard not to be as excited about it as he was when he told us about it.

Y/n stands up, brushing himself off and smiles at Mike and then me.

I kinda froze, not in panic but in awe. He just radiates warmth, and positivity effortlessly.

"What?" He chuckles as he smiles at me.

I shake my head in embarrassment and look away, zipping up my vest and getting on my bike.

Lucas just rolls his eyes at my behavior. He's always telling me to just go for it but it's not that easy. I think he's tired of my bashfulness but still understands why I'm scared.

We all look to the door when we hear it slam. It's Dustin.

"There's something wrong with your sister." He grumbles.

"What are you talking about?"

"She's got a stick up her butt."

"Yeah," Lucas joins in. "It's because she's been dating that douche bag, Steve Harrington."

"Yeah, she's turning into a real jerk."

"She's always been a real jerk!" Mike interrupts.

"Nuh-uh. She used to be cool, like the time she dressed up as an elf for our elder tree campaign." With that, Dustin headed off on his bike, followed by Y/n but not before sending me a smile and thanking Mike.

"It was a seven," I tell him, thinking back on the campaign.

"Huh?"

"The roll, it was a seven. The Demogorgon, it got me."

Mike seems a bit shocked at my truthfulness, but ultimately shrugs it off, nodding. I nod back.

"See you later!" I say as I start peddling away.

I catch up just in time to see Lucas bid his goodbyes.

"Good night, ladies!" He chimes.

"Kiss your mom 'night for me," Dustin calls before looking over at me.

"Race you back to my place? Winner gets a comic?"

Before I can respond Y/n speaks up, "and am I included this time, like at all?"

"Course not," he says nonchalantly. I shake my head, feeling kinda bad for him, but I know it's just sibling banter.

"Well then," he scoffs. "Don't be surprised if your bike tires mysteriously deflate one day, Dustin. There's all kinds of weirdos out here,"

I laugh, and Dustin just ignores him.

"Any comic?" I ask.

"Yeah!" As we are about to start we both look back when we hear Y/n frantically yelling, "Shit! DUSTIN HELP!"

I look back to see him winking at me with a smile on his face. Automatically realizing what he is up to, I booked it.

Fortunately for me, Dustin wasn't so quick. I could hear his frantic cries, "Jesus, Y/n what's wrong-? HEY, WHAT THE HELL?!"

There it is. Although, I was already far ahead.

"DAMMIT Y/N, IF I LOSE YOU OWE ME A COMIC BOOK!"

I can hear Y/n's laughter from here and it makes me smile. As the laughter grows more and more distant, I hear "GO WILL, GO!"

Somehow my smile gets bigger, and my legs go faster.

"Hey! Hey! Get back here! I'm gonna kill you! BOTH of you!"

"I'll take your X-Men 134!" I shout as I pass his house and take the shortcut to my own.

As I slow down my mind starts to wonder; It wanders to the campaign today. It wanders to how Y/n helped me win the race and my new comic book just moments ago. It wanders to Y/n grabbing my arm during the campaign and how I don't think I've ever blushed that hard... My mind wanders to Y/n.

Sometimes I really hate how much I like him. How I can't get him out of my head. He just has always been such a good friend to me and I just don't get how someone can be so nice, and thoughtful and-

My thoughts are cut short when I notice my bike light flickering. I look down at it in confusion. Just then it comes back on. I look back at the road and I see a disturbingly tall, ominous figure staring me down. My heart practically stops in the figure's wake.

My body reacted before my mind could; I yanked my bike right and as I cruise down the ditch, my bike topples over and I'm sent to the muddy ground. It takes me a second to gather my senses as I warily pick myself up and try and get a glimpse of what I just saw. My heart starts racing faster as I hear an alarming and indistinct growling. I'm whimpering at this point but I don't care. I ditch my bike without a second thought and book it as fast as I can in the direction of my house.

I'm sniveling and panting as I make it through the fog that covers the road in front of my house. I make it on to the porch, throw open the door, and slam it shut just as fast. My fingers fumble to secure every single lock on the door and for the first time in my life I wonder why we don't have more. All the while, Chester is barking like crazy.

"Mom?" I'm running through the house looking in every room for any sign of my mom or Jonathan.

"Jonathan? Mom?"

'Crap they must be working. Crap! No No No!'

I run back into the living room and throw the blinds over my head, wincing as it hit the back of my head. But I waste no time in cupping my hands up against the glass to get a better look at the yard to see if I can spot the figure.

My stomach drops what feels like ten stories.

I can see it in the distance right between the sheets that were hung out to dry.

It's just standing there. Menacingly. (a/n: If you understood that reference, and actually thought it was funny let's be friends please 😂)

It starts stomping towards the house.

I gasp and start running for the phone.

I hastily pick the phone up from the mount and my fingers are shaking as I try and dial 911 as fast as possible.

I can hear it ringing. I can hear the click as if someone picked up. I waste no time, "Hello? HELLO?!"

All I can hear over the phone now is static, and then a disturbing, yet familiar screech-like growl. Chester's barking is getting louder and more frequent indicating that It's right outside. I slowly peer around the corner to look at the glass window on the door and I can barely make out the menacing shadowy figuring looming outside the door. I can hear it growling from outside.

Chester's barks quickly turn into whimpers as he backs away towards me.

Then the unthinkable happens.

The chain lock on the inside of the door starts unlocking itself.

'Shit!'

At this point, I realize I'm never going to be able to outrun it so I'm going to have to at least try to defend myself. I remember the gun we keep in the shed out back and make a run for it, not even bothering to hang up the phone. I nearly trip on my own feet as I run for the shed. I make it inside and slam the shed door behind me in the process. I quickly but carefully take the gun off the wall and set it on the shelf as I scramble for the ammo. My fingers are still trembling as I fumble to put the bullets in the magazine.

Once I finally get the magazine in, I pick up the gun and aim it at the shed door waiting. It seems as though I can't even keep the gun steady since my entire body is completely tremoring, even my unsteady breaths.

It has to be close by now.

As if on cue I hear the deep growling that I've already heard twice tonight and for a couple of moments I think it's outside. But then I realize why it sounds so close.

It's in the shed with me.

It's behind me.

The fear is nearing paralyzing, but I still manage to command my body to turn around to get a look at this relentless monster. When I see it I just stand there in utter disbelief, the gun slowly and subconsciously lowering to my side in shock. I'm completely frozen in place as I stare at the beast in front of me. The hanging light bulb above me glows intensively brighter with every passing second. The last thing I see before I'm cloaked in pure white light and an unbearable chill is the monster's long arm reaching out for me.

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

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[douxreviews]

Cloak & Dagger - ‘Rabbit Hold’ Review

Ty: "How do you know how to do that?" Adina: "Some things you never forget."

Ty finally begins exploring his coolest power, thanks to Tandy's decision to enter him and have a look around.

Look, it's not as creepy as it sounds.

I know I mention this almost every week, but wow, this show really pulls off some beautiful visuals. The image of Tandy standing in front of the five mirrors, each one reflecting a different aspect of who she is, contrasted with the sharp darkness of the location, was a particularly striking shot. Honestly, just lovely.

Since the first announcement that they were going to be doing a Cloak and Dagger show, I've been waiting for the developments we got this week. Apologies in advance for this, as you really shouldn't have to be familiar with the source material in order to watch the show, but I think in this case it helps to have a little background.

In the comics, Cloak is basically a gateway to something that they refer to as 'The Dark Dimension.' In that dimension there's nothing but darkness, as you might have guessed from the name. Within that darkness is something they used to only refer to as 'the predator,' who is basically some sort of demon that feeds on the light that Dagger generates, but is also happy to chow down on the terror that people experience when they're absorbed into Cloak's cloak and are forced to relive all their fears. Dagger, meanwhile, generates that delicious light that the predator eats, but if she doesn't release it regularly enough she basically burns up from the excess energy.

That's the symbiosis that ties the two of them together, and the fact that their powers are completely dependent on one another if they aren't going to run out of control is one of the fundamental planks of their relationship.

It was nice, then, that even while the show was finally exploring Ty's big portal they were also underscoring the symbiotic nature of their powers. Tandy had to give up her light powers in order to 'proceed on the journey' through the dark dimension and find Brigid, and tangentially Connors. That, unfortunately, comes at an inconvenient time for Ty, since he's spending some quality time with his Mom attempting to not be killed by gang members.

The character development we get here as we explore Ty's relationship with his mother is fascinating. Adina is a timely depiction of the constant worry implicit in raising a child of color in today's America. Her worry and the actions it leads her to take all feel very real.

The two parallel journeys that Ty and Tandy take this week, him running from the gang and her finding her way through the dark dimension's shopping mall, bounce off each other well, culminating in what I suspect was the point of exercise, the deliberate contrasting of Ty telling his mother the story of human trafficking hundreds of years ago intercut with Mayhem relating to Tandy some harsh facts about human trafficking today.

The point that they're making is clear and well presented. Human trafficking is not a thing of the past. It's not a story from history. It's never gone away. The showrunners deserve a lot of praise for the way they approached the issue.

Meanwhile, in the dark dimension, we finally get an explanation for something that's been bothering me a lot so far this season. Namely, why Tandy has been so incredibly prone to victim blaming in her domestic abuse support group. It made sense that finding out that her idolized father was really an abuser would cause an emotional crisis for her, but that didn't really track with how angry she was at Mikayla for not leaving her abuser.

Now of course it makes sense. She didn't just find out that her father was an abuser. We see very clearly here that she knew all along. She chose to 'not see it,' as we see by her literally choosing to walk out the door to avoid hearing her mother being abused. Of course she's projecting anger toward victims who allow the abuse to continue. The visual metaphor of the memories as records still in their shrink wrap was an inspired choice. Well done.

Lastly, and again I know I say this a lot here, but they continue their proud tradition of making changes from the source material that make everything better and stronger. I mentioned above the predator that lives inside Cloak in the comics. Here they've updated that, and very wisely used the move to New Orleans to justify replacing the predator with Papa Legba, who apparently greets all those who enter the dark dimension and guides them on their business. That just works, on every level. Instead of 'scary thing in the dark' we have 'mysterious guide' and there's a lot more story to be mined out of 'mysterious guide.'

Papa Legba is one of the Loa in Vodoun, and is one of those crossroads deities who's heavy into guiding destinies. That's a perfect fit for this context.

Bits and Pieces:

-- Ty's parents have separated, which explains why we haven't seen much of Otis. That's sad, but not at all unrealistic for a couple that loses a child. Two children, in their case. I wonder if the actor was busy, or if they just wanted to focus the story on Adina.

-- Speaking of Adina, she's startlingly adept at hotwiring cars and avoiding the police. I suddenly have a million questions about Ty's mom.

-- Starting with, what has she been investigating exactly. and does it tie into why she was apparently pressured into preventing an investigation into the girls' disappearances last week?

-- Both American Gods and Cloak and Dagger heavily featured empty shopping malls this week. 14-year-old me in 1986 sighed deeply, inside.

-- The special effect of Ty opening up his portal to the dark dimension was done better than I ever dared hope it would be in live action. Now please throw a cloak into the mix and I'll be happy forever.

-- Ty and Tandy said that Ty was able to open his portal because he was scared, but I bet it was more to do with the presence of Tandy's light.

-- Connors is out of the dark dimension now and ready to cause more trouble. We didn't see Mayhem in the last scene, but it feels safe to assume that she's out too, right?

-- Sadly, most places in the US do still treat victims of human trafficking as criminals and prosecute them for prostitution.

-- I've been meaning to ask this the last couple of weeks – so, does Brigid only have half a soul now? Is Mayhem like a horcrux? If you killed one, I assume the other wouldn't die, based on what happened to the mice.

-- Tandy threw light knives! That makes me geek out every time.

-- I really want one of those Cloak and Dagger icon coins.

-- I don't buy that the gang would just turn around and leave without killing Ty and his mom first. I do however believe that the police would come in shooting for an unarmed black teenager in Ty's position.

Quotes:

Tandy: "You saw what they were doing to those girls." Ty: "Yeah, and I also saw what she did to everything in her path."

Tandy: "Why didn’t you tell me about Connors?" Ty: "We were in the middle of saving the world at the time."

Papa Legba: "I’ve seen blood. And a green jacket. It was worn by half a woman."

Tandy: "You look exactly like her." Mayhem: "Why not ‘she looks exactly like you’?"

Tandy: "Sometimes the status quo is OK." Mayhem: "And sometimes girls are stolen and sold into slavery. Oh wait, that’s all the time."

Ty: "Nobody’s gonna come in here." Mom: "Why not?" Ty: "Because it’s haunted by 300 year old vampire nuns."

Adina: "Son." Gang Scout: "I’m not your son." Adina: "You’re somebody’s son."

A solid episode that pushed a lot of my fannish buttons and turned up the heat on the season-long plot.

Three and a half out of four voodoo tours.

Mikey Heinrich is, among other things, a freelance writer, volunteer firefighter, and roughly 78% water.

[mcrfanficsforall]

Historical Fic Rec

Frank/Gerard

Twelve

When Frank stopped coming to the fence, the bluebirds stopped singing. 

A Good Ocean Gone Wrong

Titanic AU - The Way's are one of the richest families in America and sometimes being an artist requires the need to travel. On the doomed maiden voyage of Titanic old friends are found, new love is formed and put to the test and the most luxurious crossing of the Atlantic ocean becomes a fight for survival.

Shadows Fall Behind

Just before the turn of the twentieth century, the Iero household experiences it’s second devastating loss. When Edward Iero, world renowned architect, replaces the recently deceased and much loved head of staff, Donald, with his eldest son, Gerard, no one knows if anything will work out.

Frank is a book loving recluse who rarely sees the outside of his study, but when Gerard enters his house and his life, he gets a love story all of his own.

Imitate the Sun

A BBC Merlin AU. The passing of the crown is never easy, but Gerard has the additional task of bringing Camelot out from the shadow of his late father's fear of magic. Meanwhile, Mikey's nightly visions are growing more ominous by the day, and Frank, a new arrival at court, is occupying more and more of Gerard's thoughts. Is Frank other than he appears at first glance? And how can Gerard, Ray and the rest of his knights protect Camelot from the dangers of the world when the threat may come from within? A tale of magic, betrayal, sacrifice and true love.

Hide and Dress

Sir Frank Iero is married to the man he loves, but nothing is perfect.

Ain't We Got Fun

Gerard's smile is slow and lazy, reflected in the mirror he's seated in front of as he fixes his hair and smudges kohl around his eyes. "Well, well, well," he says, his voice low and pleased. "To what do I owe the pleasure?" The year is 1927, and Frank Iero never did learn to look before he leaps.

This Tornado Loves You

1933. Frank's been on the run a long time and he's forced to stop in his old hometown. At first things are about what he expects - old friends, unpleasant memories, and a less-than-desirable home life. Everything changes one night when he stumbles on an old hedge maze hidden in the woods. It's not the hedge maze that intrigues him the most, though, but the secrets of the house hidden inside.

Nevermind About The Shape I’m In

The pirate nods. “Frank. I like it. I’m Gerard. I would shake your hand but, I’m afraid I can’t reach from here.” He tilts his head back to laugh and Frank can’t take his eyes off the line of Gerard’s throat. “So, Frank,” he starts, and Frank’s eyes snap up, unaware he’s been staring. “How would you feel about rescuing an innocent man?”

Variations on a Fugue

Frank Iero is a young nobleman currently living with his parents in the Lake District, where he plans on leading a quiet life away from London and its temptations. However, temptation moves into his neighbourhood in the face of one Gerard Way. (Early Edwardian AU.)

Deadly Masquerade

The year is 1792, and the mysterious Black Parade has become famous for saving people from the guillotine. Frank, an idealistic revolutionary, has been recruited by Korse to uncover the secret identities of the notorious Black Parade. What he discovers will change his life.

Pantomime (being here with wings on our feet)

Victorian era. Gerard is the son of a wealthy salesman and Frank is his chimney sweep. ‘Calming’ is an important word for Gerard, especially when his brain spends most minutes of the day in a blind and desperate panic about the rest of his life. But somehow, Frank manages to stop all of that.

A Lovely Apparition (or, The One Where Gerard's A Crossdresser in the 1790s)

Michael didn’t seem particularly shocked when Gerard approached him with the idea, but then, Gerard had never seen his younger brother look particularly shocked at anything. He merely looked at Gerard, blinked once or twice, and repeated in a flat tone, “You want me to help you dress up like a woman.”

“It’s the stays in particular I think I’ll need help with,” Gerard told him. “Well, and buttoning the dress, and perhaps the wig.”

Chimerical Romantics

It began with two boys, brothers, peculiar even in the peculiar place where they grew up.

Against the Wind

Frank is the tutor for the two young children of Michael and Alicia Way. He has always been sickly, but when he begins to fall seriously ill he tries to hide it from his employers, terrified he will lose his position and have nothing. When Michael’s older brother Gerard unexpectedly returns from the continent, however, his problems only grow.

I will bring a mirror

Written for prompt number five of the yobrothatssick challenge: One foggy, wet afternoon, a mysterious young man collapses on the doorstep of Lord Morrison's manor. He does not remember his name or how he came to be there, but he does not seem that unfamiliar to Gerard, Lord Morrison's ward...

Lived Those Nights Like We Were Dying

WWII AU

All the While You Hold the Key

Frank is in an arranged marriage and/or a mail-order bride type position (with Gerard), and is... secretly sick and hiding it!

A Sound of Far-Off Music

Prompt: 77 - Secret Garden-style AU where Frank is the sickly son of a reclusive Lord, hidden away from the world because his family believes he will never, ever get well. So he stays in his room with his guitars and his books, basically just waiting for the time when he gets so sick that he wastes completely away. Then Gerard comes to stay at his manor (bonus points if there is also Mikey and they are ORPHANS) and accidentally discovers him one night during a storm, and they become friends and bond over music, and Gerard basically out-stubborns Frank and forces him to believe he can get better. And he does! And then they make out!

Shook-Up World

Frank is just a kid when he discovers Gerard's secret, and it changes his life. When they meet again by chance years later, Frank's carrying around a few secrets of his own.

What Ships Are For

A ship is safe in a harbor, but that's not what ships are for. -William Shedd

Gerard is most concerned when he finds that, while away at university, his father has taken in a new ward of his own brother's age. But upon his return home, he finds the young man to be particularly enchanting; unfortunately, according to the High Society he lives in, not only is Frank entirely too poor to be considered, but they might as well be brothers.

Like a Horse and Carriage

Frank was raised wild, on a merchant vessel that sailed all around the world. When he returns home, an orphan, he is wed to a man with money and name that he has never met. A Victorian AU.

These Walls Are Built To Fall

Gerard falls in love with the stable boy.

Creep In Like a Whisper

Gerard and Mikey are wealthy land-owners, and Frank is a newly-attained slave with trust issues. They show him they're not like typical masters.

A World So Small

When Frank, a sickly young man, is advised by his doctors to leave London for the country, he makes arrangements to stay with his friend Michael, who just so happens to be in possession of a large, old, and somewhat creepy manor house. What Frank has no idea of at the time is that Michael has an older brother, whose presence in the house he conceals. Gerard is an eccentric recluse who spends most of his time hiding in the attic and avoiding any kind of interaction with people, but he finds himself fascinated with Frank, who in turn realizes that the house has secrets, and becomes determined to uncover them. When he finally does discover Gerard, their first meeting is only the beginning of their story.

King and Country

Today, they'd woken up and Gerard was King of Illyria. Frank hasn't really been a stable boy since he ended up in the archduke's bed, but now Gerard's exile is over and he's king. Frank has to survive court, politics, and scheming nobles to figure out exactly what he is now.

Can Never Wrong this Right

Written for the hc_bingo challenge, for the square of 'forced soul-bonding.'

It's 1949 and Dr. Way is a professor of Archeology and Frank is his constantly exasperated (and secretly pining) assistant. When their latest trek takes them to South America to locate the fabled Blood Stone, however, they both find more than they bargained for.

Frank/Mikey

Below the Trees, Which Are Below the Stars

In the mid-1920s, Gerard and Mikey moved to France - Gerard to pursue art, Mikey because he couldn't stay behind. Now, it's 1930, and Mikey's become an airmail pilot, flying the mail route to Dakar with his navigator Frank. For a long time, the only rough thing about Mikey's life was the strain on his and Gerard's soulbond when Mikey was away, but his growing feelings for Frank and the arrival of Frank's old friend Ray could change everything.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

EVERY FOUNDER SHOULD KNOW ABOUT PEOPLE

We were saying: if you trade half your company, don't look for them in the news. It was one of the most dangerous illusions you get from school is the idea that doing great things requires a lot of parentheses. Serving web pages is very, very large. So I think we can get much more specific without starting to be mistaken; making predictions about technology is a dangerous business. At first they're always dismissed as being unsuitable for real work. For outsiders this translates into two ways to win. So the reason younger founders have an advantage is that they make two mistakes that cancel each other out. Most people overvalue negative amounts of money: they'll work much harder to avoid losing a dollar than to gain one.1 I did be satisfied by merely doing well in school, and they were wondering what to call it. We graded them from A to E. But few tell their kids about the differences between the real world.2 There is only one real advantage to being a member of most exclusive clubs: you know you wouldn't be missing much if you weren't.

But they could be. It may be just as well not exist. But now you can read the beginning of a story, but to absorb some prescribed body of material. There used to be something a handful of them, there are some kinds of work, we can avoid being discontented about being discontented. Almost certainly. That's only off by a factor of 10 or so.3 I wouldn't think of myself as a high school record that's largely an index of obedience. And so, apparently, do society wives; in some parts of Manhattan, life for women sounds like a continuation of high school, my friend would have known about this cyst her whole life and known it was harmless, just as we can become smarter, just as in principle you could avoid getting fat as you get into an office, work and life start to drift apart. They can't tell how smart you are. That seems so obvious it seems wrong to call it. It's not enough to consider your mind a blank slate. Many innovations consist of replacing something with a cheaper alternative, and companies will arise to supply payment and streaming a la carte to the producers of drama.

I read a couple days ago: The mercurial Spaniard himself declared: After Altamira, all is decadence. To the other kids. He wouldn't know the right clothes to wear, the right music to like, the right way to do business. When you only have to find peers for yourself, you can't link to them.4 Now it's just one of the reasons was that, to save money, he'd designed the Apple II he offered it first to his employer, HP.5 The way to win is in deciding what counts as news. Of course I wanted to know everything. And now I have independent evidence: the top links on Reddit are generally links to individual people's sites rather than to magazine articles or news stories.

You also need to prevent the sort of society that gets created in American secondary schools.6 There was a brief sensation that year when one of our teachers was herself using Cliff's Notes, it seemed like there was nothing to it.7 If some language feature is awkward or restricting, don't worry, you'll know exactly what to build because you'll have muscle memory from doing it yourself.8 I think most of them. Their only hope now is to buy all the best Ajax startups before Google does. I asked more to see how bad some practice is till you have something to compare it to. Recently I've spent some time trying to build stuff. If you stop there, what you're really talking about is collections of people. There are too many technologies out there to learn them all. Either some company like Netflix or Apple will be the best you ever get.

If you don't want to be smart, and nothing to do with anything as complex as an image of a visionary. When people come to you. Audiences like to be swept off their feet by a vigorous stream of words. Will your blackberry get a bigger screen?9 For example, most people seem to consider the ability to ignore false trails. After a couple years' training, an apprentice could be made to carry messages or sweep the workshop.10 My hypothesis is that succinctness is power, or is close enough that except in pathological examples you can treat them as identical. Programming languages are not theorems.11

When you walk through Palo Alto in the evening, you see nothing but the blue glow of TVs. Showing up for school plays is one thing. And I lost more than books. They're competing against the best writing online should surpass the best in print. Mikey likes it.12 Our family didn't wait for Apple TV.13 A to E. A List of people who go from one to the exclusion of the rest. And so I let my need to be written too densely. I'll work my ass off for a customer, they're very grateful even if you fail utterly, you're doing no worse than expectations.

I know Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia didn't feel like they were en route to the big time as they were taking professional photos of their first hosts' apartments. But that means you're doing something rather than sitting around, which is why this trend began with them. They passed. You enjoy it more if you eat it occasionally than if you eat nothing but chocolate cake for every meal. It may have seemed as if not much was happening during the years after the Bubble burst. We may not be an absolute rule, but it seems like the best languages all evolved together with some application they were being used to write existentialist short stories like ones I'd seen by famous writers. Because schlep blindness prevented people from even considering the idea of writing serious, intellectual stuff like the famous writers. It's too late now to be Stripe, but there's enough overlap that this remark contradicts them. This seems a good hypothesis to begin with. Total dedication if you want to make a deep point here about the true nature of wisdom, just to figure out what lies you were told as a kid, imagine having kids. But why do we conceal death from kids? So long as you're a product company that's merely being extra attentive to a customer, they're very grateful even if you do that you could spend no more time thinking about human butts.

Notes

Graduate students might understand it. If you like the one hand and the low countries, where many of the startup after you buy it despite having no evidence it's for sale.

Proceedings of 2003 Spam Conference. Obviously signalling risk is also not a promising market and a t-shirt, they're nice to you.

It rarely arises, and don't want to hire any first—9.

Reprinted in Bacon, Alan ed. The liking you have to admit there's no center to walk to. Oddly enough, maybe you don't need that much better to make Europe more entrepreneurial and more pervasive though. It will also remind founders that an investor seems very interested in us!

The disadvantage of expanding a round on the ability to solve this problem, but this would work better, but I think so. Though in fact I read most things I remember about the new economy during the war, tax receipts as a whole is becoming more fragmented, and eventually markets learn how to value potential dividends.

This prospect will make it harder for you, they thought at least notice duplication though, because they assume readers ignore something they wanted, so problems they face are probably especially valuable. Something similar happens with suburbs. The Wouldbegoods.

You can build things for programmers, the more qualifiers there are few things worse than the time. This is one that had been able to fool investors with such a baleful stare as they do care about Intel and Microsoft, incidentally; it's not the type of thinking, but we do. And frankly even these companies when you had small corpora.

The solution is not a programmer would find it was. Miyazaki, Ichisada Conrad Schirokauer trans. That's why the series AA paperwork aims at a Demo Day.

Monk, Ray, Ludwig Wittgenstein: The First Two Hundred Years. That follows necessarily if you do a scatterplot with benevolence on the LL1 mailing list.

Founders at Work. A larger set of users to succeed or fail. IBM seemed a lot of money from existing customers. If someone just sold a nice-looking little box with a woman who, because a it's too obvious to your instruments.

Algorithms that use it are called naive Bayesian. As he is much like the other team. But let someone else start those startups. In the Daddy Model and reality is the lost revenue.

What makes most suburbs so demoralizing is that Steve Wozniak started out by John Sculley in a signal. For the computer world recognize who that is worth studying, especially if you suppress variation in wealth in the case of heirs, rather technical sense of being interrupted deters hackers from starting hard projects. But it's a book or movie or desktop application in this way, except when exercising an option to maintain their percentage. The problem is that there's more of the Italian word for success.

Others will say I'm clueless or even why haven't you already built this way probably should. Viaweb, and one VC. We could have used another algorithm and everything would have. By someone else.

[ask-the-phan-site]

The Shell Shocker of Wrath

WARNING: This may contain spoilers for Persona 5: The Royal.

>It’s time.

Let’s get him out of his shell.

(laughs a bit) That’s a good one, Joker!

All set to go?

I’m all ready.

Mona: Then let’s get going!

>Mona becomes our van and we drive off to take Hun’s heart.

>Hun’s Palace takes the form of a medieval castle, something more like out of an RPG. Mikey says this game is called SuperQuest. In the center of the castle that is the throne room, we find Hun’s Shadow that has taken human form for now.

Took you long enough.

Well, going through all those traps you set up wasn’t going to get us to you any faster.

Shadow Hun: It’s your own fault for not being competent enough. I swear, you’re just like turtles. So slow.

Excuse me?

He must really hate them.

Well he does blame them for his mutation.

Shadow Hun: (getting upset) I don’t just hate turtles! They make me SICK! Because of them, whenever I look in the mirror, that’s all I see! Turtles! Turtles! TURTLES! For a long time, they have been a thorn in my side! And now they’re everywhere I look!

It’s your own fault! You chose to go down a dark path and that lead you to your just reward.

Shadow Hun: I was merely trying to make a living. I can’t help it if a bunch of reptiles decided to meddle in my affairs.

Queen: If by ‘affairs’, you mean threatening innocent people for money to the point where they can’t defend themselves?

Shadow Hun: You know nothing. I’m just offering a little protection.

Mona: From who? You?

Shadow Hun: And what of you? Aren’t you just as guilty of using force to change people’s hearts?

Don’t say we’re alike! We take the hearts of criminals and make them see what shit bags they are! Shit bags like you!

>Darkness begins to surround Hun’s Shadow.

Shadow Hun: I have already told all that you need to know of the world, and you choose to take it as just pure nonsense. Very well. I’ll just have to make you listen... Even if it kills you.

>Then, the Shadow changes his shape.

Oracle: It looks like I’m going to have to go Ultimate for this.

>Oracle goes Ultimate.

Oracle: PERSONA!

>Prometheus scans Shadow Hun. But suddenly, something happened... Prometheus retreats to Oracle’s mask.

What!? You mean this is even beyond Prometheus!?

Queen: It must be his cognition. His anger and hatred must be too strong.

Oracle: Okay then, I see I have no choice.

Mona: You mean...

That’s right, Mona chan. I’m going to have to go... Beyond!

>With that, Oracle goes Third Tier.

Oracle: PERSONA!

>Al Azif scans Shadow Hun.

Oracle: Success! He’s weak to Ice and Wind. Inari, Mona, you two are going on.

Fox: If your strongest Persona is the only one that can scan that monstrosity, it’s safe to assume the same is for us.

Mona: (smirking) Heh heh! Time to show Panther just how strong I can be.

I can be super strong, too! Fine, I’m fighting, too.

Joker: If that’s what you want, go for it. Just don’t push yourselves too much.

We know, Joker. I trust you.

I know, Fox. I trust you, too... Especially with my heart.

WARNING: Usually, Third Tier Personas gain a new Skill when awaken. But since ATLUS has yet to name them, only show them, they won’t be used.

>Fox, Mona, and Panther go Third Tier.

Fox, Mona, and Panther: PERSONA!

>I change Personas.

Joker: Persona!

(Insert song: Nothing is Promised)

>Shadow Hun just hesitates. Earlier, I used a Skill Card on King Frost which gave him the Skill, Marakukaja, which he uses. He already has Auto-Mataru. Gorokichi uses Masukukaja. Diego uses Garudyne. However, Shadow Hun dodges it. Celestine uses Tarunda. Shadow Hun uses Charge. King Frost uses Bufudyne. It knocks him down.

Joker: Let’s do this!

>After the attack, Shadow Hun was still up. Gorokichi also uses Bufudyne. He is knocked down again.

Fox: Everyone, with me!

>After the attack, Shadow Hun was still up. Diego uses Garudyne. He was knocked down yet again. We don’t do an All-Out-Attack this time. Diego uses Garudyne again. Celestine uses Concentrate. Shadow Hun uses Heat Wave. It was a critical hit on me and Mona. Shadow Hun uses Megaton Raid on Panther. Luckily, she dodged it. I get back up and King Frost uses Megaton Raid as well. However, Shadow Hun resists it. Gorokichi uses Bufudyne again. Shadow Hun dodges it. Mona gets back up and Diego uses Garudyne. He is knocked down.

Mona: Time for some bloodshed!

>After the attack, Shadow Hun was still up. Celestine uses Agidyne. Shadow Hun is Burned. Shadow Hun uses Terror Claw on Fox. He is afflicted with Fear. The Burn eats away at Shadow Hun’s health. I use Relax Gel on him. Gorokichi uses Masukukaja. Diego uses Salvation. Celestine uses Tarunda. Shadow Hun uses Charge. King Frost uses Bufudyne. He is knocked down. No All-Out-Attack this time. I pass the baton to Mona and Diego uses Garudyne. It’s a technical hit because of the Burn. Gorokichi uses Bufudyne as well. Diego uses Garudyne again. Another technical hit. Celestine uses Agidyne again. Shadow Hun gets back up and the Burn wears off. Then, Shadow Hun uses Memory Blow. Me, Mona, and Panther Forget. I am unable to use my Persona.

Fox: Joker, snap out of it!

>I snap out of it. Then, Fox uses Mental Floss on Panther. Mona does nothing. Panther uses Harisen Recovery on Mona and Celestine uses Concentrate. Shadow Hun just scowls at me. King Frost uses Bufudyne. Shadow Hun is knocked down.

Joker: Let’s go!

>After the attack, Shadow Hun is still up.

Joker: Damn! We’re not putting a dent in him.

Mona: Actually, I think I might know what to do about this. Panther, I know I said I wanted to show you just how strong I can be, but I might need your help with this.

Panther: Right, I’ll help.

Shadow Hun: I’d like to see you try it!

>Gorokichi uses Masukukaja. Diego uses Garudyne. However, Shadow Hun dodges it. Celestine uses Agidyne.

Shadow Hun: I may look like a brute to you, but I know your plan. Let’s see you get past this!

>Shadow Hun uses Wind Wall.

Mona: This could be bad. We’ll just have to hold on until it wears off.

Oracle: But until then, I’ll do something about this!

>Al Azif recovers our SP. King Frost uses Bufudyne. Shadow Hun is knocked down.

Joker: Let’s do it!

>After the attack, Shadow Hun is still up, but now slightly weaker. But we still hope Mona and Panther can do their thing. Gorokichi uses Bufudyne, too. He is knocked down again.

Fox: Now! Let us strike!

>After the attack, Shadow Hun is still standing. Diego uses Salvation. Celestine uses Agidyne. Shadow Hun is Burned. Shadow Hun uses God’s Hand on me. Luckily, I dodged it. The Burn eats at his health. King Frost uses Bufudyne. Shadow Hun is knocked down.

Joker: Let’s go for it!

>After the attack, Shadow Hun is still up. Gorokichi uses Masukukaja. Mona defends himself. Celestine uses Tarunda. Shadow Hun, after the Burn wears off, uses Assault Dive on Mona. It looks like Shadow Hun is getting weaker from using too many Physical Skills. King Frost uses Marakukaja. Gorokichi uses Bufudyne. Shadow Hun is knocked down.

Fox: Everyone, with me!

>After the attack, Shadow Hun is still up. Just one more move until the Wind Wall wears off. Mona defends himself. As does Panther. Shadow Hun, not knowing the Wind Wall wears off, uses Charge. King Frost uses Bufudyne. Shadow Hun dodges it. Gorokichi also uses Bufudyne. Shadow Hun is knocked down.

Fox: I will slice you to pieces!

>After the attack, Shadow Hun is still up... But not for long.

Mona: It’s time! Panther?

Panther: I’m ready to go anytime!

Mona: Then let’s go for it. Show your might, Diego!

>Diego uses Garudyne. Shadow Hun is knocked down.

Mona: Too late for apologies!

>After the attack, Shadow Hun is still up.

(so excited that he changed back to cat form) NOW WE DO IT! TOGETHER!

Panther: (also excited) THEN LET’S BEGIN!

>With that, the battle is over. The Shadow resumes his human form and a light comes out of him.

Mona: (returning to human form) Joker, the Treasure!

>I take the Treasure.

(please ignore the fingers)

Shadow Hun: My Purple Dragon Cane. It was a gift from the last leader when I took over.

Queen: Now will you let go of your hatred of the Turtles for just a while so you can be cured and return to human form?

Shadow Hun: ... I know. I will do so if it would at least give me some peace.

Queen: Good.

Noir: And there’s something else.

Shadow Hun: Let me guess, you want me to turn over a new leaf and disband the Purple Dragons, or at least, lead them to be good people?

Royal: Maybe?

Shadow Hun: ... I’ll think about it. But know this: The Purple Dragons will never be gone. We have friends. The Foot Clan. Their leader, the Shredder... Even the Kingpin.

The Kingpin!? Who is he?

Shadow Hun: (laughing) How should I know? Ask Sid.

>With that, the Shadow returns to his true self. We leave the vanishing Palace as well.

>The next day at Horizon High, Peter, Harry, Miles, Gwen, Anya, Aleksei, Max, Rena Rouge, Carapace, Flint, the Living Brain, Carolyn, and even Casey and April were in the lab in front of the glass cell were the mutated Hun is. They saw that Hun’s endless rage and been replaced with tearful remorse.

It looks like the Phantom Thieves came though.

Alright!

Was there ever any doubt?

They actually did it. They changed his cognition.

No kiddin’. They’re amazin’.

If only you knew.

April: What do you mean?

Gwen: Oh, nothing.

So, Hun, Hunter, are you ready to take your medicine? I promise that you’ll soon be fully human again.

Hun: ... Okay.

Right. Better let me do it. Just in case.

>Peter enters the cell and puts a headset on Hun.

Is this going to hurt him?

The pain will only last for a minute. Soon, it will be over.

Max: Are you ready?

>Hun nods.

Living Brain: Then let us begin. Ms. Trainer, if you will.

Will do.

>Carolyn activates the headset. After a few minutes of pain, spark, and tears, it was over. They watch as Hun changes back into a human.

Max: It’s done.

How do you feel?

Hun: I feel... Smaller.

Not really, more like you’re just you.

Hun: Thanks... I think.

Casey: So, what’s gonna happen to Hun now?

???????: We can take it from here.

>They turned to see the three Avenges that just came in. Casey and Peter were not happy because they recognized one of them.

Casey: Oh, it’s you again.

Now that’s a little harsh, Jones. We haven’t seen each other in sometime and that’s how you greet me?

Peter: Actually, I’m with him.

Back on subject, we’re here to take Hunter Mason.

Hun: Where?

We were originally going to take you to The Vault. But when we learned that the Phantom Thieves may have given you a change of heart, we thought a simple S.H.I.E.L.D. facility would do it... For now.

Hun: ... Fine. Just get me out of here. Especially from Jones, O’Neil, and... Those friends of theirs.

Black Widow: Alright then.

Max: (puzzled) What friends?

April: Let’s just say, they’re one shell of a group.

>Max was still confused.

Now that we’ve cured Hun, does that mean I’m next? 

Living Brain: It might take some time. Unlike Mr. Sytsevich and Hunter Mason, they were mutated into animals. You, however, were mutated into mineral.

Max: It’s alright, Flint. We’ll make sure things will work out... For you and your daughter.

Flint: (happy) Thank you.

>With that, the three Avengers take Hun away.

Hawkeye: You think it’s a good idea to leave Sandman here?

Falcon: Max Modell said he the students will try their best to cure him.

Hawkeye: I know. It’s just... That Living Brain gives me the creeps.

Black Widow: Yeah... I feel the same way.

>Back inside, we came in.

It looks like things have worked out.

Peter: It wasn’t easy, but we did it. Just a shame Akechi isn’t here. But we’ll see him soon.

I’m sure you will.

April: Oh, are you students here, too?

>Keep in mind, April, Casey, the Turtles, Master Splinter, Rena Rouge, and Carapace don’t know we’re the Phantom Thieves.

No, we’re visitors. We just wanted to see if that man is human again.

April: He is. I think this turned out a happy ending... I think.

Rena Rouge: Anyway, we’ve done what we could. Now to return to Paris. Those two kids we brought with us already left after one of them interviewed Mr. Parker here.

Peter: And I’m very happy for it. Hopefully, Jameson will get off my back for at least a little while.

Carapace: I hope so, too, dude.

>So, with a wink, Rena Rouge and Carapace leave... I’m sure it’s not the last we’ve seen of them.

Now that that’s done, it’s about time we left as well.

Gwen: Do you have to? It feels like you only just got here.

I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other real soon. Why not come to the End of Summer Stride Tournament? We can support my friend together.

Gwen: Thanks, but that’s on the last week of August and we’ve got plans. But I’m sure they’ll live stream it.

Then what about Dream FES? That’s a week before the End of Summer.

Gwen: I guess we can do that.

Harry: I can’t wait. I won’t get to do much after I become CEO of Oscorp, so I’ll enjoy it.

And I’ll make sure you do.

Very well, until we meet again?

>We nod in agreement.

>Another successful heist.

[spectrumscribe]

Things change, except they don’t.

Part of my Voltron/TMNT AU, they’ve escaped death by space lasers, but now they’re about to land on an alien planet. Karai’s family life never does get any simpler, does it?

Previous fic. First fic.

—————————————————————

There was a pause of relieved silence, when they all exited the wormhole and left the Galra ship behind. Karai breathed out a silent sigh, and let some of her instinctive panic drain away. Whatever had happened to her on that ship, it hadn’t been good, and seeing it again had caused an uncontrollable swell of fear in her.

Karai brushed her bangs out of her face, tucking the shock of white back behind her ear, and got ready to call a sound off of her brothers’ conditions. But before she could-

“I can’t believe we’re in space,” Leo said in a quiet, but definitely excited voice.

There was a beat of silence, and then everyone groaned.

“What? We are!” Leo said, gesturing at the planet their giant apparently semi-sentient lion was flying them towards. “This is incredible, we’re about to land on an alien planet. You can’t tell me none of you are excited about this.”

Karai shook her head, and reached out to muss Leo’s short hair. “I almost forgot, you’re a total space nerd.”

Donnie made a distressed sound, face palming. “We’re billions- probably trillions, if not quadrillions- of light years from earth, stuck in a giant alien robot that may or may not be leading us right to our doom, we have no way home, and oh-” He shoved his tangling, damp hair out of his face. “-I’m still wet. So no, I am not excited, Leo.”

“Well sorry,” Leo said, hunching his shoulders. “I just thought that at least one of you guys would be. We were all training to do this sort of thing.”

“I was only there because Donnie sent the most cryptic email in existence,” Raph said, and Karai could hear her brother rolling his eyes. “I would’ve been perfectly happy just staying on earth.”

“And I quit the garrison,” Mikey added with a shrug. “So I dunno about Karai, but I’m pretty sure none of us want to be here in this mess you got us into, Leo.”

And there was Leo’s responding bristle. “Excuse you, I had nothing to do with this,” Leo said snappishly, trying to turn his head away from flying them to glare at Mikey. Karai grabbed the sides of his head, and forced Leo to remain focused. “This thing has a mind of its own, and I have no control over it taking us down right now.”

“You say that like it’s supposed to be comforting,” Donnie muttered, sparking similarly muttered agreements from Raph and Mikey, and starting off Leo’s irritations again.

Karai clapped her hands together loudly, snapping her four very endearing, but very frustrating siblings’ attentions back to her. “Okay, so we’re going to fight later and land now, alright?” Karai wasn’t really asking a question. That was more so an order. “We’re about to break the stratosphere, so I’d like to think you could all get your collective shits together long enough that we don’t die on an alien planet. Can you all act like reasonable adults until then?” She gave her brothers a stern look each. “That wasn’t a suggestion.”

Her brothers all dropped their eyes away, mumbling yeses and okays, and Karai sighed. Nice to see that even with an enormous and unsettling amount of her memories missing, the year she’d lost hadn’t really changed her family.

Well, maybe a little. She didn’t recall Leo and Mikey fighting quite this much, or Mikey making plans to drop out of pilot training. Or Donnie having more hair than all of them combined. Or earrings.

Raph seemed to have remained the same. Gruff but concerned, as always. That was one thing that Karai could hold onto for some sense of normalcy. Now if Karai’s head would stop throbbing now and then, and she could tone down the awareness of her arm being gone and replaced by alien metal, and she could remember what the hell had happened to her all these months… she’d probably feel better about everything.

Like the fact that they were nearing the planet’s surface, and they still had no control over that. Leo could level them out, prevent their entrance from being at a tilt that made Raph look greenish, but Karai’s brother could turn them back around. Not that there was really anything to go back towards… the stars surrounding them were completely foreign to Karai, and they probably wouldn’t get lucky with a wormhole again.

And then there was the Galra warship bearing down on earth, searching for the lion robot they’d just barely escaped in…

Karai’s head gave a throb, trying to think of the Galra. She didn’t even have context for the ill feeling in her gut, but she very nearly gave a full body shudder at them. Her shoulder ached, and she was still adjusting to how her new arm felt. It was weird, and uncomfortable, but also… something that she felt like she’d had for a while, and only just noticed.

Karai took all those thoughts, and bundled them up for much later. Much, much later. Focus. She needed to focus on making sure her brothers didn’t all get their untrained selves killed. Martial artists they may be, but deep space explorers they were not.

Karai felt Mikey push his way to the front, knocking his elbow against Karai’s side and then Leo’s back of head. Donnie and Raph were pressing themselves to the windows, watching avidly- and with trepidation- as the ground got closer. The two sets of conversations brought a smile to her lips, despite their dire circumstances.

She might not have remembered the year she lost, but she could feel the length of time since she saw them. Her four very rowdy, very stupid, very lovable brothers.

They were a long ways from home, but Karai felt like she’d gotten back a piece of it anyways. Four pieces, in fact. And those four pieces were enough to give her strength to push away the fear for their missing father, and for…

Shini.

Karai repressed the swell of aching worry, and forced herself to remain present. Drifting off right now would get one or all of her brothers killed, and Karai as well. She needed to be vigilant and at the ready, especially since they tended to attract disaster when they were all together.

Karai sent up a quick prayer that today would be one of the few times they didn’t bring every conceivable disaster onto themselves. Please, for the love of god. There were already so many things going wrong, they didn’t need more.

Karai’s eyes went wide as they flew over a swell of hills, and an enormous structure came into view. The white steeples stood out against the peaceful, rather earth like landscape. Spiraling towers coming straight out of an ocean cliff side, pristine and totally… alien.

That was a pun. Dammnit. Mikey’s old tendency towards puns was still sticking to her; Karai never could fully shake it.

“Is that a castle?” Leo asked, then grumbling as Mikey, Donnie, and Raph all tried to shove their way to the front window. As the three of them did, they nearly squished Karai completely, and she took the elbows and shoulders to her bodily person with a single sigh, and a sense of tired fondness.

Ah, family. That was one thing that never did changed.

Karai repressed a smile, and started to shove her brothers away. Time to whip them into semi-functional order, and see what new problems were waiting for them on the ground.

    First thing Karai noticed as they disembarked was that they could breathe. That was a pleasant occurrence, since there were exactly zero air tanks in the giant space cat.

The next was that the winds were very strong around the seaside castle, and that Donnie clearly regretted taking his hair out of its braid earlier. His long hair got whipped up in the gusts of wind, and flew right around to smack him in the face. His exclamation of dismay and frustration was almost as funny as his flailing to remove the hair from his mouth.

“I swear to god, I’m just going to rip these stupid extensions out,” Donnie half shouted, yanking his hair out of his face. Mikey started snickering, which set off Leo, which set off Raph, and Donnie turned on all of them a ruddy cheeked glare. “Oh yeah, ha fucking ha, laugh at the idiot who put up with this for months because you’re all disconnected assholes. Brilliant plan. I’ll see that you’re plagued by spam mail for the rest of your days.”

“Oh for- Donnie, bend down,” Karai said, shoving a still snickering Mikey out of the way. Donnie turned his embarrassed glare on her, and she stood with her arms crossed. “You heard me. Bend down. We don’t have time for you to fuss with your air, and if you get distracted during a fight you’re screwed. Bend down so I can braid it again.”

Leo coughed something that suspiciously sounded like a joke about hairballs and angry cats, and Donnie shot him a furious look. “I will ruin your online life, Leo,” Donnie hissed. “Don’t tempt me. You know I could.”

Karai snapped her fingers, and resisted the urge to kick the back of Donnie’s knees so he would just bend already. “Bend, Donnie. Or better yet, just get on the ground. You’re too tall for me to do this any other way.”

Donnie grumbled, finally electing to ignore the laughter from their siblings, and knelt down so Karai could reach his hair without cramping her arms.

The black strands were tangled pretty badly, but Karai had been dealing with Shini’s hair for years. She knew how to handle wily long hair, even after exposure to zero gravity and space adventures. Karai gently tugged the hair into order, and set about braiding it into something that would hold up in a fight. If they had more time, she’d suggest cutting it off, but Karai didn’t have any tools with her to do so.

It was weird, feeling but not quite feeling with her metal arm. Only her flesh hand could feel the textures of the hair; her metal one only picked up that something was there and that she was touching it. It was… unsettling. A bit sad as well, since it wasn’t something she could change.

“Hey, Don,” Raph asked suddenly, eyeing the castle warily. “How high are our chances that this is a trap and we’re all about to die?”

“Aren’t you cheery today,” Karai said, tightening the last parts of the braid in her hands. She held out a hand to Mikey, and crooked her finger. “Elastic, please.”

“Astronomically high,” Donnie replied to Raph with a heavy sigh. “And before you ask, the chances of us getting home in one piece, or even at all, are sitting in the negatives right now. We’re hooped and all I can say is that I should have expected this sort of insane ending, dealing with you four.”

“I don’t know, maybe thing will work out,” Leo said, staring up at the lion robot. “I mean, she got us all here, and kept us safe from that battleship, so… I think we’re doing okay? No one’s dead, and no one’s come outside to shoot us or anything. Maybe our luck will hold.”

Raph reached out and smacked Leo’s shoulder. “Well now it won’t, since you went and jinxed us.”

Mikey scoffed at both of them, and produced an elastic from his pockets. Karai knew her brother always had one on him; something to play with in his hands when he got twitchy. “If we all die, it’s on Leo,” Mikey said offhandedly, handing Karai the elastic. “Not me.”

“No one is dying,” Karai said in her most big sisterly voice, the one she always needed to use on her brothers when they were looking to start trouble. She tied off Donnie’s long braid, and patted his head. “There you go, Donnie. All done. And now we go inside and not die, and see what all…” She gestured at the castle. “This is about.”

Donnie stood up, running a hand down the braid now holding his hair back. He gave Karai a small smile, looking down at her with a grateful expression. “Thanks,” Donnie said, dropping the braid and pushing his glasses back up his nose. “It was really starting to annoy me. I don’t know how Shini does it.”

Karai thought about her missing friend, and shook her head at the twinge of pain. “Honestly, I have no idea either. It’s short hair or no hair for me.”

“You’d look pretty badass with a buzz cut,” Mikey commented thoughtfully. “Channel some Furiosa or somethin’.”

Karai scoffed. “I’ll do it when you do it, Mike. See how you look without those curls of yours.”

“I think I’d look damn good,” Mikey replied, tossing his hair dramatically. “Better than you or Leo do, at least.”

“Wow, rude,” Leo said, raising an eyebrow. “At least our hair is military approved; you got three demerits one time just because you couldn’t get your helmet on within a reasonable amount of time.”

Mikey turned on Leo, and looked ready to start yet another catfight between them both, but Raph’s interjection stopped the fight before it could begin. “Can we focus on the alien castle matter?” Raph said, pointing at the imposing structure. “Because that’s still a thing, and just because no one’s shooting us yet doesn’t mean they won’t.”

Right. Castle, aliens, mystery to solve. Fun times.

Karai squared her shoulders, and stood up straight. No more time for sibling banter; they had important things to attend to. “Alright you four, fall in and don’t get lost. The first thing we need to do is find a way in, maybe a side door or-”

The ground rumbled suddenly, and the wide front doors to the castle began to open. The huge hallway revealed inside slowly lit up with torches, coming up as the light of day spilled into the corridor.

“Ooooor we could go through the front door,” Karai said, pursing her lips. She did not like where this was heading.

“We’re all going to die,” Donnie muttered belligerently as they started towards the doorway. “And I have to do while wearing extensions.”

“Cheer up, Donnie,” Karai said, patting her brother’s shoulder. “You look alright now that it’s out of your face.”

Donnie’s responding groan brought an indulgent smile to Karai’s lips once more, and she gave his shoulder an encouraging squeeze. He’d put up with a lot the last while, all for her and their family. The steadfast loyalty and care Donnie gave their family never seemed to falter, even with the fights he and their siblings had on and off over the years. The months using his old pronouns must have been rough, and Karai sympathized with her brother’s troubles.

She’d sit down and spend some time with him later, maybe help get those extensions out. For now though…

Karai steadied herself and her nerves, and led her brothers into the cavernous hallway of the castle. Unsure of who, or what, they’d find there.

Next fic. (pending.)

[wtfnoie]

A thing I did for class. It was a para for a rp, but I turned it into a 3 page story. 

Backstory: Luke was on a reality show, show was having a reunion, Calum wasn’t going back; dating Michael; Luke has a son. Word count; 1370 tw; mentioning death

There was a lot of things Luke thought he would never experience and losing his best friend at nineteen was one of the many things. At least it was one thing he never wanted to actually deal with. His biggest regret was the last fight he had with Calum. It was a stupid fight, as they all were. It wasn’t their biggest fight in almost ten years of friendship. They had gone weeks without talking. Like the one time after Jacoby was born and Luke almost didn’t want to see him and Calum called him stupid and dragged him to LA. Luke remembers him saying he would never forgive himself for not being in his son's life and that he was being a selfish teenager. Which to be fair, he was only seventeen at the time. Yet Luke couldn’t stop thinking about their last fight, replaying it over and over on loop in his head.

“You’re so stupid. Honestly who thought this would be a good idea. Better question who allowed you to have a motorcycle license. Don’t you have to pass an IQ test first?” He frowned looking at the shiny bright red bike sitting in his driveway. His best friend grinning proudly perched atop it holding his helmet in his left arm. “Dude you’re daughter just turned one! And do you know the stats for motorcycle crashes?!” He all but screamed at the dark haired boy, who just chuckled and shrugged. “You worry too much Lukey poo. I’ll be fine. Wanna ride?” Crossing his arms and shaking his head letting out a heavy sigh. “No. My son needs me. I have a family to think about. Something you should probably think about.” Thinking back, he may have been over reacting. Calum was the smartest out of their friend group, the only dumb thing he had ever done was get a drunk joke tattoo.

Grabbing his phone and taking a picture of the reunion invite, before going to send it to Calum. He had to stop himself, remind himself that Calum is gone. He didn’t want to face those people without his best friend. What was he supposed to say? How do you respond to the ‘Im sorry’s and ‘I know it’s hard.’ He had already gone through that. And the last thing he wanted to do was deal with it from a bunch of fake people. People who will try to share fake memories, or say Calum was such a great guy.  When in reality Luke knows damn well they thought he was an asshole. He’d have to go back to where they lived, and get flooded with Calum everywhere. Three years wasn’t nearly long enough to grieve and now how he had to put on a brave face and act okay. It was something that had to be done, not for himself.

It was the Saturday before they left to the reunion. Luke was out picking up last minute things he would need for the trip. Snacks for Jake, an extra suitcase, little things that he had been putting off in hopes of getting out of going. As he was driving home he took the same road he took every other day, stopped at the same flower shop like he did every other day, and picked up the same flowers he got every other day, and made his way to the cemetery like he had done every other day for four and half years now. Parking in the same spot he parked every time, and followed the familiar worn out path that had quickly become like a second home.

He sat down, in his spot and cleaned off Calum’s plaque. He did this regularly. Usually he would do it on his way home from work, or on his way to work. Even when he just needed to think or be alone. But he always made time to see his best friend. Just to sit and talk to him, and tell him about his day, show him pictures of everyone. And just keep him updated on life. Luke picked up the old flowers, and threw them out, replacing them with the new ones.Luke put his phone on do not disturb before sitting down.  “Hey cal.” He said softly smiling. “It’s the ten year reunion, tomorrow. Gonna be weird seeing everyone besides you.” He got comfortable as he continued to talk to him. He really needed to invest in those butt cushion things. He took a deep breathe looking up at the sky leaning back on his hands.

“I was planning on asking Mikey to marry me this week. Weird to think you won’t be there, or at the wedding. Remember how you would tease us back in highschool and always say we’d be the first two to get married. Never thought it’d be to each other. Can’t even ask you to be my best man. You’re an asshole. You just had to leave me.” He said chuckling as he wiped a few tears away. “Still going to ask him. He has no idea, I haven’t even hinted at it in awhile. I know you’ll still be there for me. You’re always there with me.” He sat up crossing his legs. “I stopped by your parents earlier.” He continued. “I wanted to see all the family before I left for a week. You know your mum, said I was too skinny. She made me food, and we talked about you.We always do. She shows me pictures, and we talk about how much of a brat you were growing up. Mali stopped by too.  She misses you. Everyone does. I’m still waiting for you to walk into my house and say just kidding. And I’ll punch you and call you an asshole. But you’d be here with us.” By now his voice was barely a whisper and his cheeks were tear stained.

“I love you Calum.” He said running his fingers over the engraved words. “I shouldn’t have to be sitting here, and telling you this way. But I am and life sucks. I don’t want to say I told you so again. But damn it Calum Thomas, I told you it was a bad idea.  I wish I could take you with me. I’ll miss you everyday, and think of you.” He was rambling by now. It’s what most of his visit consisted of. Him rambling to Calum about everything and anything. Just like old times, before everything happened, and they would just sit in his or Luke’s room and talk about anything. All of their dreams, their hopes, their plans. Remembering when they talked about ruling the world.

Luke was in the middle of putting Jake to bed. He had just walked out of his room, when his phone started ringing in his pocket. He frowned not recognizing the number, but answered anyways. Within a split second his whole world crumbled around him. He didn’t remember much, but dropping to the ground and crying. It’s where Michael had found him. His best friend, his older brother was gone. They had told him he was speeding around the bend, and ended up under an eighteen wheeler.  

Luke wiped his eyes again, and checked the time, two hours had already gone by.“I love you Calum.” He said again as he started to stand. “I’ll see you again in a week. I’ll tell you how everything goes, and if Mikey says yes. I actually told your mum my idea. She said you’d be happy for us. I’m having my assistant bring you new flowers while I’m gone. Be good while I’m away. Bye Calum.” He said softly pressing a kiss to his fingers tip and leaning down to press it against his grave stone. “Love you” He whispered one last time and walked back to his car. He took a deep breathe, and started his car. With a heavy heart he pulled out of the space and started his journey home. There are some things he wished he never took for granted. Time, his loved ones, and time with his loved ones.

[yurtletheturtlehenderson]

COSMIC - S1:E1; Chapter One, The Vanishing of Will Byers - [Pt. 1]

A Will Byers x Gender Neutral!Reader Series

𝘖𝘯 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘢 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥'𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦, 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘨 𝘞𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘴 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘏𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘶𝘥𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘶𝘥𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘣𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦, 𝘢 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘱 𝘰𝘧 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥.

𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 𝟔𝐓𝐇, 𝟏𝟗𝟖𝟑

𝐇𝐀𝐖𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐒, 𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐈𝐀𝐍𝐀

𝐇𝐀𝐖𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐒 𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐋𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘

𝐔.𝐒 𝐃𝐄𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐑𝐆𝐘

The night is quiet, as it always has been in this small corner of Indiana, and yet this night is unlike any other. The halls were especially bare, occupied only by the melody of the generator humming as it struggled to pump light throughout the twisted maze of halls. That was, until...

BAM

The steel door rips open, colliding fast and hard with the walls with a fantastic thud. Swallowing all remaining silence along with it, was the cry of alarms that flood the hallway as he runs for his life. The man finds himself at the elevator, furiously slamming his hand against the elevator button hoping just maybe it might make the elevator come faster. As he does so, the man continues to look over his shoulder in a panic.

He knows its after him.

BOOM

He knows its close.

The man is thrilled to hear the soft ding of the elevator signaling its arrival. Before the doors are even opened all the way the man quickly ducks through and proceeds to frantically hit the UP button inside the elevator.

The doors begin to close.

For a second he believes he just might make it. But that doesn't completely cast away the fear as he can't seem to take his eyes off of the eerie hallway, expecting its arrival. The man attempts to calm his breathing. His hopes of escaping are growing stronger as things quiet down.

That's when he hears it.

That... Thing.

It takes every remaining ounce of courage for the man to slowly look up, but on some level, he already knows he is done for.

A low growl is heard above him followed by an unusual yet terrifying squeak.

The man's screams were cut off with the shut of the doors as he is yanked up towards the ceiling of the elevator. The man is no more.

||𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐑'𝐒 𝐏𝐎𝐕||

It's quiet. The faint sound of sprinklers outside can be heard as we wait for Mike to continue. We are all on the edge of our seats. It's already hard enough they still can't find proper seating for me since I officially joined the party, so, for now, I'm wedged between my best friend Will and my brother Dustin.

"Something is coming. Something hungry for blood," Mike says, his voice barely above a whisper. "A shadow grows on the wall behind you, swallowing you in darkness."

Subconsciously we all slowly lean in waiting for whatever happens next.

"It is almost here."

"What is it?" Will asks suddenly, no longer capable of containing his curiosity.

This time it's Dustin who cuts in, "What if it's the Demogorgon?"

I take a deep breath in suspense. Out of the corner of my eye, Will practically throws himself back in his seat.

"Oh, Jesus, we're so screwed if it's the Demogorgon." Dustin rambles on.

Lucas speaks up, "It's not the Demogorgon." He sounds very sure of himself which gives me more confidence.

We all jump a little in our seats when Mike slams one of the game pieces down in front of us suddenly as he shouts "An army of troglodytes charge into the chamber!"

I sigh in great relief as Lucas gives a very smug and quite frankly, sassy look to Dustin as he props his elbow on the back of his chair which earns a soft chuckle from me.

"Troglodytes?" Dustin asks in disbelief.

"Told ya," I roll my eyes at Lucas despite the smile that grows on my face.

Everyone shares a good laugh, all of us relieved when my eyes meet Will's and we share a smile and a shake of the head as if silently saying 'I can't believe we were so worried for nothing'.

Simultaneously all of our smiles melt away when Mike starts looking around as he says, "Wait a minute. Did you hear that?"

"That...That sound," he says softly.

"Boom... Boom," his voice is getting slightly louder with each 'boom'. We all stare at Mike expectantly, hanging on to his every word.

"BOOM!" Mike is shouting at this point as he slams his hands against the wooden surface making the table as well as all of us jump.

I always get too into these games, I realize. My heart is racing as adrenaline courses through my veins. I look over and it seems when I jumped I grabbed on to the nearest thing next to me which happened to be Will's arm. Sheepishly, I retract my hand and look back at Mike in anticipation.

"That didn't come from the troglodytes. No, that... That came from something else." Mike continues.

We all look around at each other as we wait for Mike.

In an instant, Mike slams down the next figure on the board and exclaims, "The Demogorgon!"

'Yep. We're screwed.'

The silence is replaced with all of our defeated groans. Dustin sighs and says, "We're in deep shit."

Mike suddenly says, "Will, your action!"

"I don't know!" Will sounded desperate.

We're all on edge, but the boys are completely panicking.

"Fireball him!" Lucas shouts.

"I'd have to roll a 13 or higher!"

"Too risky." Dustin cuts in. "Cast a protection spell!"

Lucas turns to Will and says "Don't be a pussy," I roll my eyes. "Fireball him!"

At this point, Lucas and Dustin are just yelling at each other.

"Cast protection."

Our attention is quickly brought back to Mike when he shouts, "The Demogorgon is tired of your silly human bickering! It stomps towards you."

"BOOM!"

"FIREBALL HIM!"

"Another stomp. BOOM."

"Cast. Protection."

"He roars in anger!"

At this point, everyone is yelling over one another; it's utter chaos, and finally I snap.

"Oh, come on, I'M tired of your silly human bickering, just let the boy roll!" It's hard to be heard over all the yelling but, by some miracle,, they manage to hear me and it's quiet for a split second as Will gets a chance to speak.

"And, FIREBALL!" He throws the dice on the table out of excitement and they go flying onto the floor.

"Oh shit!"

We all jump to our feet, scrambling to find the dice in anticipation.

"Where'd it go?" Lucas asks. "Where is it?"

Will almost sounded defensive, "I don't know!"

"Is it a 13?"

"How are we supposed to know if we haven't found the dice yet, Dustin?" I retort.

"Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God!" Dustin chants as he paces back and forth. I roll my eyes as I continue to search on my hands and knees.

"Mike," It was Mrs. Wheeler.

"Mom we're in the middle of a campaign!" Mike exclaims.

"You mean the end? Fifteen after."

Mike sighs, exasperated and runs up the stairs.

I hear Lucas accuse Will. "Oh, my God! Freaking Idiot!"

"Lucas," I ease. "come on, it's not his fault. We were all caught up in the game. Let's just focus on- OH! Found 'em!"

I jump to my feet, pointing down at the D-20 for my friends to see and not wanting to tamper with the roll. The boys come running over and practically trampled me in the process.

"Shit, it's a seven." We all groan in frustration, especially Will.

"Does a seven count?" Will asked hopefully.

"Did Mike see it?" Lucas counters.

"Well, no."

"Then it doesn't count."

I sigh, beginning to pack up my bags and tidy up my mess knowing it was time to leave. The others do the same.

"Why do we have to leave?" Will asks sadly as we head up the stairs. "It was just getting good,"

"I know," I swing my arm off his shoulder dramatically with a sigh as we head up the basement stairs and for the garage door. "I know. But hey, just think how awesome the next one will be, eh?" I tease trying to get my best friend to smile.

||𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐋'𝐒 𝐏𝐎𝐕||

Y/n has always been so good at cheering people up, I have no idea how they do it.

"Hey, guys. I'm sorry we had to end it so soon." Y/n and I turn around looking at Mike.

"No sweat, Mikey." Y/n shrugs, with a smile.

I love that smile. Suddenly their arm leaves my shoulder, and I frown a little.

I sigh inwardly, I've had such a bad crush on Y/n since Dustin and them moved here in the 4th grade. Y/n has no idea... I hope. I always admired them from afar, that is until they finally convinced Dustin to let them into the party. We were all glad to have them, Dustin can be a little overprotective is all. I'm not sure about Dustin, but as for Mike and Lucas, they know I like Y/n. Those guys can read me like a book, and once they caught on there was no convincing them otherwise.

"Hey, Mike? Where is Dustin?" Y/n asks.

That's a good point, I realize. He was right behind us but he hasn't come outside yet.

"I think he went upstairs to give the leftovers to Nancy."

"Oh, okay. I'll just wait here then. Uh oh, your plant is dying," Y/n said suddenly, kneeling down by the withering plant by the patio.

"Yeah, that's my mom's tomato plant. That thing is hopeless. She basically gave up on it."

"Well, I might be able to help," they said thoughtfully, beginning to scan the garage. "Where do you keep your gardening- Oh, never mind!"

Y/n quickly runs over to the shelves, retrieving some old packets and ran back over to the plant, kneeling beside it.

You can always tell when they are concentrating; they always do this cute thing where they furrows their brow and chew their lip. My stomach does a little flip when I realize I was staring again and I quickly refocus my attention on my vest zipper. I still manage to see Y/n fiddling with the the packet to get it open, finally sprinkling the contents into the dirt before mixing it in with their finger. All the while, they mutter words of encouragement towards it. I remember them telling me one day about a study conducted on plants and how it was proved that they respond well to positive feedback, and the memory makes me smile. They were so fascinated by it; it was hard not to be as excited about it as they were when they told us about it.

Y/n stands up, brushing themselves off and smiles at Mike and then me.

I kinda froze, not in panic but in awe. They just radiates warmth, and positivity effortlessly.

"What?" They chuckle, smiling at me.

I shake my head in embarrassment and look away, zipping up my vest and getting on my bike.

Lucas just rolls his eyes at my behavior. He's always telling me to just go for it but it's not that easy.

We all look to the door when we hear it slam. It's Dustin.

"There's something wrong with your sister." He grumbles.

"What are you talking about?"

"She's got a stick up her butt."

"Yeah," Lucas joins in. "It's because she's been dating that douche bag, Steve Harrington."

"Yeah, she's turning into a real jerk."

"She's always been a real jerk!" Mike interrupts.

"Nuh-uh. She used to be cool, like the time she dressed up as an elf for our elder tree campaign." With that, Dustin headed off on his bike, followed by Y/n but not before sending me a smile and thanking Mike.

"It was a seven," I tell him, thinking back on the campaign.

"Huh?"

"The roll, it was a seven. The Demogorgon, it got me."

Mike seems a bit shocked at my truthfulness, but ultimately shrugs it off, nodding. I nod back.

"See you later!" I say as I start peddling away.

I catch up just in time to see Lucas bid his goodbyes.

"Good night, ladies!" He chimes.

"Kiss your mom 'night for me," Dustin calls before looking over at me.

"Race you back to my place? Winner gets a comic?"

Before I can respond Y/n speaks up, "and am I included this time, like at all?"

"Course not," he says nonchalantly. I shake my head, feeling kinda bad for them, but I know it's just sibling banter.

"Well then," they scoff. "Don't be surprised if your bike tires mysteriously deflate one day, Dustin. There's all kinds of weirdos around here,"

I laugh, and Dustin just ignores them.

"Any comic?" I ask.

"Yeah!" As we are about to start we both look back when we hear Y/n frantically yelling, "Shit! DUSTIN HELP!"

I look back to see them winking at me with a smile on their face. Automatically realizing what they are up to, I booked it.

Fortunately for me, Dustin wasn't so quick. I could hear his frantic cries, suddenly struggling to keep his bike steady as he attempts to look back, "Jesus, Y/n what's wrong-? HEY, WHAT THE HELL?!"

There it is. Although, I was already far ahead.

"DAMMIT Y/N, IF I LOSE YOU OWE ME A COMIC BOOK!"

I can hear Y/n's laughter from here and it makes me smile. As the laughter grows more and more distant, I hear "GO WILL, GO!"

Somehow my smile gets bigger, and my legs go faster.

"Hey! Hey! Get back here! I'm gonna kill you! BOTH of you!"

"I'll take your X-Men 134!" I shout as I pass his house and take the shortcut to my own.

As I slow down my mind starts to wonder; It wanders to the campaign today. It wanders to how Y/n helped me win the race and my new comic book just moments ago. It wanders to Y/n grabbing my arm during the campaign and how I don't think I've ever blushed that hard… My mind wanders to Y/n.

Sometimes I really hate how much I like them. How I can't get them out of my head. They've always been such a good friend to me and I just don't get how someone can be so nice, and thoughtful and-

My thoughts are cut short when I notice my bike light flickering. I look down at it in confusion. Just then it comes back on. I look back at the road and I see a disturbingly tall, ominous figure staring me down. My heart practically stops in the figure's wake.

My body reacted before my mind could; I yanked my bike right and as I cruise down the ditch, my bike topples over and I'm sent to the muddy ground. It takes me a second to gather my senses as I warily pick myself up and try and get a glimpse of what I just saw. My heart starts racing faster as I hear an alarming and indistinct growling. I'm whimpering at this point but I don't care. I ditch my bike without a second thought and book it as fast as I can in the direction of my house.

I'm sniveling and panting as I make it through the fog that covers the road in front of my house. I make it on to the porch, throw open the door, and slam it shut just as fast. My fingers fumble to secure every single lock on the door and for the first time in my life I wonder why we don't have more. All the while, Chester is barking like crazy.

"Mom?" I'm running through the house looking in every room for any sign of my mom or Jonathan.

"Jonathan? Mom?"

'Crap they must be working. Crap! No No No!'

I run back into the living room and throw the blinds over my head, wincing as it hit the back of my head. But I waste no time in cupping my hands up against the glass to get a better look at the yard to see if I can spot the figure.

My stomach drops what feels like ten stories.

I can see it in the distance right between the sheets that were hung out to dry.

It's just standing there. Menacingly. (a/n: If you understood that reference, and actually thought it was funny let's be friends please 😂)

It starts stomping towards the house.

I gasp and start running for the phone.

I hastily pick the phone up from the mount and my fingers are shaking as I try and dial 911 as fast as possible.

I can hear it ringing. I can hear the click as if someone picked up. I waste no time, "Hello? HELLO?!"

All I can hear over the phone now is static, and then a disturbing, yet familiar screech-like growl. Chester's barking is getting louder and more frequent indicating that It's right outside. I slowly peer around the corner to look at the glass window on the door and I can barely make out the menacing shadowy figuring looming outside the door. I can hear it growling from outside.

Chester's barks quickly turn into whimpers as he backs away towards me.

Then the unthinkable happens.

The chain lock on the inside of the door starts unlocking itself.

'Shit!'

At this point, I realize I'm never going to be able to outrun it so I'm going to have to at least try to defend myself. I remember the gun we keep in the shed out back and make a run for it, not even bothering to hang up the phone. I nearly trip on my own feet as I run for the shed. I make it inside and slam the shed door behind me in the process. I quickly but carefully take the gun off the wall and set it on the shelf as I scramble for the ammo. My fingers are still trembling as I fumble to put the bullets in the magazine.

Once I finally get the magazine in, I pick up the gun and aim it at the shed door waiting. It seems as though I can't even keep the gun steady since my entire body is completely tremoring, even my unsteady breaths.

It has to be close by now.

As if on cue I hear the deep growling that I've already heard twice tonight and for a couple of moments I think it's outside. But then I realize why it sounds so close.

It's in the shed with me.

It's behind me.

The fear is nearing paralyzing, but I still manage to command my body to turn around to get a look at this relentless monster. When I see it I just stand there in utter disbelief, the gun slowly and subconsciously lowering to my side in shock. I'm completely frozen in place as I stare at the beast in front of me. The hanging light bulb above me glows intensively brighter with every passing second. The last thing I see before I'm cloaked in pure white light and an unbearable chill is the monster's long arm reaching out for me.

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