#elias being an annoying menace

[peppymintdreams]

Hot and Sweaty…. Ramen

Elias x Barista

The room was bathed in the soft glow of the kitchen lights as Elias and Barista sat across from each other, sweaty and out of energy, the only sounds being the quiet slurps of ramen noodles and the soft clink of chopsticks against bowls. The aftermath of their intimate moment still hung in the air, a subtle hum of energy lingering between them. Their clothes were hastily thrown back on—Elias in his loose-fitting joggers and Barista in a stolen shirt that definitely wasn’t theirs but smelled like him.

Barista was the first to break the silence, glancing at Elias with a lazy, satisfied smirk. “I think that’s the best “workout” (sex code for the cameras) I’ve had all week.”

Elias grinned around his chopsticks, shaking his head in amusement. “Yeah, I’ll bet. Almost made me forget we were starving before.”

Barista chuckled, twirling some noodles in their bowl. “And now here we are, post-workout meal, looking like we just survived a war.”

Elias leaned back in his chair, his muscles still loose and relaxed from the earlier intensity. He reached over to ruffle Barista’s hair, a playful glint in his eyes. “You say that like I didn’t win.”

Barista raised an eyebrow, pausing mid-bite. “Oh? You won?”

Elias shrugged, fighting a smirk as he slurped more noodles. “I think the evidence speaks for itself, the bet was that you wouldn’t make a noise.”

He said “ahem” clearing in his throat “Harder Elias!” He screamed,

Barista rolled their eyes, but couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled up. “You’re impossible.”

“I know.” Elias leaned forward, his eyes gleaming mischievously. “But you’re still here, aren’t you?”

Barista gave him a look, a mockingly thoughtful expression. “Hmm, you’ve got a point. But it might just be the ramen. It’s really good.”

Elias feigned a hurt expression, dramatically clutching his chest. “Ouch. Reduced to just being a ramen chef. That’s cold, even for you.”

Barista leaned forward, placing their chopsticks down with a small clatter. “Well,” they said in a low, teasing voice, “you did bring the heat earlier. Guess I’m just balancing it out.”

Elias chuckled, his gaze softening as he watched them. “Fair enough. But next time, I expect some gratitude for my culinary skills. It’s not every day you get ramen like this after... you know.”

Barista smirked, picking up their bowl and taking a long, exaggerated slurp. “Fine. Consider me grateful.”

“Good, because I might just make you crawl over here next time your legs give out.”

Elias laughed, the sound filling the space between them, lightening the air. As they both returned to their meal, the intensity of earlier slowly dissipated, leaving behind a warmth that had nothing to do with the ramen and everything to do with the easy, familiar comfort they shared.

Even after the flames of passion, they found something just as satisfying—quiet moments of laughter, teasing, and noodle-slurping, knowing that whatever came next, they’d face it together.

[peppymintdreams]

True true but Elias would be more of a demon child

And Elias is already enough just by himself 😂

If Tara were still alive do you think her and the warden would’ve had more kids??

Probably not.

[yanverse]

I’m curious how the yans would react to their darling suggesting being free use? Some of them would never act right EVER again; but I also think some would start out too nervous to make a move, but once they do it a few times, they become something of a menace.

prrrrr.......free use, you say? i have.......ideas >:) (lmk if u want more! <3)

Elias, Kaito, Lilith, Isabelle, Adrian, Nina

(cws: free use kink, domination, degradation, dressing up, fingering, overstimulation, messy sex)

Elias obviously needs to keep you around while he's working, and it just so happens that he's also in need of a good secretary for his practice. Win-win! He can have the best of both worlds: keep you close enough that he can see you whenever he wants, and you've got something to busy yourself with when he gives you paperwork--but aside from filing a few things you basically just get to mess around on the computer while he's in session. And unless you're into it, you won't be hearing any questionable noises and thumping through the wall--he's had to rebrand and lost some repeat customers, but he's a taken man now, so no more shenanigans.

Of course, that means you've got a much hornier, much needier cowboy on your hands than you're used to. He doesn't need to jerk off between clients or on his break anymore if the mood hits him midday--that's what he's got you for now, right? He can just waltz out of his office, tap you on the shoulder, and drop to his knees right there. Worried you'll get caught, that someone might walk in early or a solicitor will drop by? Then you just need to stay nice and quiet while he's under your desk. He might just end up leaving indents in the floor from the spurs on his boots, cause it's so easy and you're so accessible and you don't even have to stop working! In fact, if he's in the mood to tease, he might dangle the threat of stopping over your head if you don't keep working while he goes down on you.

But knowing him, there'll be an equal chance of him rushing over, locking the door to the office, and just throwing you over the desk like he can't wait a second longer to have you. There's a reason he's got so much time in between his clients, and it's because there's no better time to mess up his cute little secretary, and make sure you have to sit with his cum leaking down your legs the rest of the day.

Kaito has half a mind to just sit you on his lap all day. He doesn't have to go out for work, he barely leaves the house as is, and you're around each other most of the time anyways. Why not? He could game or tweak his latest sketches with you settled and comfy on his lap, his cock twitching softly inside you with those pretty mewls of yours perking him up. That, to him, is heaven.

If that's not the case, though, then sparing a hand to entertain you is just as good. Especially if you're in an argument, or if he's mad at you, or if he's just annoyed but not in the mood to talk about it. He doesn't even have to be paying attention, but more than likely you'll be begging for him to give you some.

With the spare seat next to him and his eyes glued to his computer screen, he only needs one hand to fiddle with his tablet pen as he shades his latest drawing. And all the while he has his fingers buried between your legs, his reactions minimal as you soak his chair with sweat and grab at his sleeve in desperation. You keep cumming all over yourself, you're a mess, and he's already gonna have to clean you up after so at least don't distract him. Each orgasm aches more than the last with overstimulation melting your brain into your skull, but you won't even stop him. You probably could, but why would you? He said it himself: he's gonna clean you up when he's done, you just have to wait until he finishes up. But knowing Kaito, odds are he's gonna make you much, much messier before he actually gets to that part.

Lilith loves providing for you. She loves to make you happy, to come home with money and food and love, and to shower you with everything she has without you having to lift a finger. You love her, you've done enough.

But when the opportunity to bus tables at her restaurant comes around, it's a hard deal to ignore. Extra income, extra time together, and extra chances for you to socialize and put in some hard work? If you're all over it then she can't exactly say no. A good girlfriend wouldn't say no to such a simple request. It may have her biting her nails at first, but seeing you succeed fills her with a feeling of pride that gives her an extra spring in her step on those extra-hard days.

But she's lucky that the diner has so few willing waitresses and such a small staff to begin with, because you two can get so close to getting caught with your pants down. She'd never consider getting off at work before this, but with you so present and available all the time...shooting her those lusty looks across the dining room, bending over just a little too far while you're cleaning tables, brushing by her just a little too close while she's taking an order...if she didn't pull you into the bathroom and push you up against the stall, she might just go crazy. Whether it's your hand up her skirt or hers down yours, it really doesn't matter--if you're going to let her touch you whenever she wants, then she has to take advantage of it. Nearly every break soon turns into a chance to get away, her lunch swapped out for a glorious ten minutes with your legs spread, body bent forward, and her tongue making short work of that promise you made that you'd stay quiet.

Isabelle isn't offered the suggestion of free use. You are free use. You're her toy, you're meant to be used, and you're smart enough to know that she doesn't take such a stance lightly. She's not fucking around with any of that touchy-feely, "casual dominance" crap. You'll know she's dominating you because she won't let you forget your place--look away for a moment, let your guard down, and you'll be pounced on before you can make sense of it. Even if she's just finished making you cum for every year you've been alive, she could very well come back into the room after a minute and decide she's not quite done yet. Bathing, showering, eating, sleeping, it's all the same. So long as you're still breathing, there's an incredibly high chance that you won't go very long without her weight pinning you down or your legs pulled apart for her to have a taste. But at least you're still alive, which is more than can be said for Isabelle's other playthings and romantic interests.

You would think that someone as poised, confident, and professional as Dr. Moorwell wouldn't be nearly as intrigued by the concept. Adrian is a romantic, after all--a chivalrous one at that--so you would struggle to imagine him as being so crass and self-indulgent with his lover.

Alas, he is. In fact, he's like a beast while in pursuit of it. Adrian loves to catch you while you're unawares; reading, reaching up for something on a high shelf, organizing his library, taking a sip of your drink, crawling under the sofa to retrieve whatever you dropped, the view makes him shudder and his belt comes off like the buckle is melting. There's always a touch first, a light tap or a brush down your sides to reassure you that it's him, but it's just a formality. The quick smack of his palm hitting your backside is the real test, because so long as your cute little squeal is followed up by a whine or a moan, he knows there's no risk. He can squeeze you, pull you apart, violate those precious, sacred spots so deep they've never seen the light, and it'll satisfy you to the point of making you gush all over him like he's turned the dial of a sprinkler.

At this point he might as well give you the title of housemaid. Your presence in his home reassures such tidy, homely feelings even amidst the stacked clutter and the piles of unread books. Besides, he'd have an excuse to put you in one of those silly, frilly costumes with the headbands and the wrist cuffs, and you could call him--w-well, it doesn't matter what you call him, so long as you prance around as happy and sweet as usual, and look at him with all that love in your eyes even once he's reduced you to tears and trembling legs.

Nina would be the last person to ever accept such a sinister request. Touch you? Unprompted? Without gloves, or a thorough hand washing, or..? You seriously think she would ever do such a thing on a whim?

That terrible attitude only lasts a few minutes, however, because her complaints are only a farce for how her mind has started working in overdrive. Because you like her enough to ask her for something so lewd. Because you think she's pretty. Because you look at her and think hot, wet thoughts despite her difficult attitude and her insistence on keeping everything clean. You desire her, and that's a feeling that's only come by on very, very rare occasions.

Hence why your request is fulfilled so quickly--like, less than twenty minutes quickly. Less than the time it would take for her to shower and scrub and go through her step-by-step routine in order to touch you, because the waiting is too agonizing and she just has to feel you. To feel your love and your beating heart in your chest, your pulse pounding all the way up your fingertips as you spread her open on your stupid, dirty, filthy hands. The only reason she'll allow it is just because it's you, but don't you dare get a big head! This is just more convenient for her. She'll just take a shower afterwards. But...well, you're coming with her. It'll surely be easier to clean up if you're already in there, so if you think your bathing time from then on is going to go uninterrupted, you'll be very sorely mistaken.

[echantedtoon]

Until Death Do You Vow Ch5 Sealed In Blood

(Warnings: Mentioning of blood.)

The distant cry of a carnival mystery.

A pained wail. A pained moan. Looping through the walls and dancing on flowers.

The petals shake. Stems and pistals trembled. And  perfume avalanche upon thee. A billion scents  as strong as a forgotten sun.

Strong enough to sting your eyes 

It was still dark when you came to. And the first thing you felt was the coldness and softness of something which you laid upon with a ringing in your ears, and for a moment you thought it was a dream. All of it. Just a terrible, horrible nightmare. And you'd open your eyes and be staring at the walls of your small home, laying on your sorry excuse for a bed in your apartment with Taylor bunking on the couch like so many times before when your investigations turned up nothing. The second thing you felt was pain and soreness the more your body began to wake. It started with a small throbbing headache just under your skull, as if someone was beating it from inside out. You didn't bother to move much other than lift a hand trembling to your head, wincing at the many cuts and bruises that lined not only this arm, but your other arm, where your legs weren't covered by your gown, and some on your face and neck from where you had fallen or been pushed over. The many small cuts, bruises, and scrapes stung like tiny annoying jabs at your skin. And to top it all off, you felt pins and needles in the left arm and leg you'd been laying on for a while when you forced yourself up just enough for you to lay on your less sore back and stare up at the blue ceiling above your body. F/c eyes blinked as something bright shown down at you from above. The sun???....No. It wasn't the sun. That would've been a very warm welcome to what it had ended up being. Your vision gradually, slowly came back enough to focus on what was swung above your head, and your brain registered it as ...the moon?

Yes. The moon.

The harmless thing hung above you shining through the window silently as if acting as a bright beacon for your darkened experiences. Despite its blood red menacing appearance. Which begs the question...Where WERE you!? You continued to lay there until the pins and needles fully left the right side of your body and you pushed yourself up into a sitting position, hissing at the soreness and somewhat numbness of your poor limbs. And with a hiss, you looked around. This uh...This wasn't your apartment. Or your bedroom. It looked like you had fallen through one of those old black and white photos from the Victorian times and landed in one of their bedrooms. The furniture around the room looked old but at the same time, in great condition like it was all brand new. Even the curtained bed you laid upon looked well made . The sheets silky and clean as if freshly washed, dried, and placed on the mattress and the pillows still fluffy from where you had laid on them. No damage at all could be seen around the room.

No mold. No mildew. No cobwebs or dust. No graffiti. No trash or broken furniture.

Nothing.

"....What the heck? Where am I?," you asked yourself the ringing still present.

Funny. You thought the ringing would leave by now. It didn't occur to you that the rings was not in your ears until you looked down at the bed and found your phone lit up and ringing loudly. It made you flinch as it moved before stopping and then someone called loudly through the earpiece once more.

"Oh God, Y/n!!," you winced as Taylor's voice yelled through the earpiece. "I've tried calling like fifty times since the connection dropped! What the hell happened?!"

"Ow! Keep it down, Taylor. I'm fine! I just passed out ..and somehow ended up in bed?" You gave another confused look around.

"Are you still in the mansion?!"

You paused. And paled as the events from before hit you. That...That WASN'T some dream or sleep deprived hallucination from Taylor's ramblings! YOU HAD BEEN TOUCHED BY A GHOST!! And not any ghost! THE Elias Gallagher. You shuddered and goosebumps appeared where you remembered his cold touch. A bigger shiver ran through you.

"Describe your location?"

You blinked before looking around again. "Well.. Everything is dark and a shade of blue, and I'm still in the mansion I think. So not too bad but I dunno if I'd consider it 'good'. I'm in some kind of bedroom."

"Wait. A bedroom?"

"Yeah. It's really weird. Compared to everywhere else this room is surprisingly really clean. None of the paint's chipping off the walls and all of the furniture looks almost brand new. But it still matches that Victorian mansion look. Here. Take a look."

Holding up your phone, you turned it on and snapped a few pictures the flash lighting up the room- Just as a strike of lightning  lit up the room in all its glory. You jumped looking out the window again only just now noticing the clouds that had nearly blocked out the entire sky. It would rain any moment. Shaking your head, you went ahead and sent the photos to Taylor before noticing something else.

.....Where the heck did these gloves come from?!

Your hands were covered in some kind of fancy silk gloves and a shiny ring slipped on over one . Your get up didn't come with these! Obviously you didn't put them on. Which meant someone had to have removed this ring, placed these on you, and then slipped the ring back on your finger. ..A gift from Elias maybe?

"Huh." After a moment Taylor spoke back up which means he must've seen the pictures you texted him. "Maybe the door was locked and nobody got in?" He suggested. "This place is a known party hub. Maybe whoever else wrecked this place but they couldn't get into there?"

"I don't think so. Even if that was true, don't you think there still would've been a whole bunch of dust in here? And rotting furniture and stuff?" 

"That's really strange."

"No kidding. Maybe Elias likes a clean living..uh dead space. But this whole situation is crazy. Way different than the last time I had a ghost encounter." There was a loooong moment of silence before Taylor gave a nervous laugh making you raise a brow. "Taylor, what's so funny?"

"I- ..Uh . That's because the last mission I sent you on wasn't the real thing. That was a uh-..fake ghost encounter."

There was a pause..."WHAT?!"

"Hey. It wasn't a bad thing." He quickly defended himself as your anger suddenly grew. "We did get a few members after we posted your reaction."

"For a few weeks before they left! Are you freaking kidding me, Taylor?! I can't believe you'd do something like that! When I get out of here, we're going to have a VERY long talk!" You shouted annoyed at him before grabbing your phone and swinging your legs off the bed. "As soon as I find a way out of here, you're so dead! Then we can film you as a stupid ghost and get members that way!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hang on a sec. Aren't you lightheaded or dizzy or something? I think I heard you fall and I've been trying to reach you for TWO HOURS! You might have a concussion or something!"

You deadpanned. "I feel fine besides finding out my best friend faked a ghost and didn't tell me." He audible winced. "Besides I only fainted...Either I was really scared, or that ghost was really powerful. What did you hear while I was out cold?'

"I just kept hearing that guy's voice and a rush of air. So...was it really Elias?"

"Are you sure this isn't another one of your fake ghosts?" Maybe you shouldn't have said that but you were angry and hoping that maybe he'd say yes so you could believe that this really didn't happen.

"What?! N-No! I swear!" Ok. There goes that hope. "So you really talked to THE Elias Gallagher?"

"He held my hand too."

"Ok. I'm coming in! We have to get you outta there!"

"WHOA ! Hang on there! You can't just barge in here! We don't know what might happen if another person disturbs a ghosts resting place! Plus I don't even know where I am! There's no sense in both of us getting lost!" You slowly stepped towards the door you were sure wasn't a closet. "Plus, maybe I can take a picture of Elias if I come across him. Isn't that what you wanted? Proof of ghosts?"

"Yeah. I was sorta prepared to find a ghost not for you to go M.I.A for two whole hours!!" Taylor hyperventilated.

"Taylor, calm down. Deep breaths. I'm fine. I'm still here and talking to you aren't I?"

 You passed by a full length mirror and gave it a look. And paused. You were surprised to find your entire reflection perfectly clean and dirt free. Your dress was perfectly clean and as beautiful as the Moment you put it on. Shouldn't it be torn with dirt stains from all the falls you took? No. Your hair was still perfectly done up. Your make not smeared as if you had just put it on. Your dress without a wrinkle. Your body without a dirt stain. You looked just...

Perfect.

Just like this room. The only thing out of place on your body was the ring that still smeared a bit red with your blood droplets. ...That was really weird.

Eventually Taylor evened his worried breathing. "Ok. Ok. You're right. But if he was able to put you to sleep then he's a lot stronger than we thought!"

"Well if you're heading out then I'm coming in! I trust that guy as far as I can throw him which is t much considering he's a ghost."

You rolled yours eyes. "In a mansion where you can get lost? Nah. I'll meet you out."

"No, no, no! On second thought, stay where you are! We have no idea what the dude's up to!"

"All the more reason to leave! Ugh. Look, Taylor. If he really wanted to hurt me he would've already done it by now instead of putting me in a nice bedroom. Just let me handle this. The last thing we need is for you barging in here and making him mad or worse you hurting yourself. Trust me on this. Ok?"

There was silence for a moment before Taylor sighed. "Fine. But you are STAYING on the line with me and giving me status updates!"

"Deal. But I am serious. When I get outta here we're gonna talk about what you did."

Taylor grumbled but you paid it no mind as your hand grabbed the doorknob and turned. Luckily it wasn't locked and you opened it enough to just stick your head out. A long hallway greeted you. Lightning flashed lighting up both ends as you looked left and right. 

"Ok. I'm definitely still in the mansion but I don't see any ghosts...And I think I'm on the second or third floor. I'm gonna try to find the stairs."

"Alright. Be careful. What happened before you fainted anyways?"

You slowly closed the door behind you, careful to not snag the floor length veil into the door. Also  careful to be very quiet closing it. Hopefully the thunder and lightning would muffle the creaking door.

"It was pretty normal until it wasn't. Remember when we were joking about Ian?"

"Yeah?"

"Well something invisible grabbed my hand, and then the ground just started moving like those zombies in movies before they bust outta their graves!"

"So Elias is a z-z-z-zombie!?," Taylor's voice sounded terrified all of a sudden.

"No. He's not a zombie. He's definitely dead but he's not a even close to a zombie." Taylor sighed in relief. "He's a pure ectoplasmic ghost. But he sure gave me a scare." You looked behind you as more lightning lit up the building. Still nothing. "I dropped the rings Ian gave me and he took them.." you gave another glance at your hand. "Well one of them. Next thing I know he's talking to me, I faint, and then I wake up in a strange room."

"You must've accidentally disturbed where he used to be buried or somehow summoned him."

"Well I felt like I was being watched the entire time I was out there so I must've said something that made him come out."

Taylor hummed. "Huh. I wonder what it was. If no one else was successful in getting him to show himself then you must've said something that caught his eye. Can you tell me what he said?"

"Didn't you hear everything?"

"Not everything. The connection kept swinging in and out. I only heard glimpses of you screaming and the some muffled static and a few words."

"Well he asked me why I was here? I told him the truth that this was a ghost hunt. And he asked why I was wearing a wedding dress. I told him basically that I only wore it cuz of our common interest in tragic weddings." You curiously tried a nearby door reaching out to turn the doorknob and opening it to peer in. Nothing but an empty closet. You closed it. "Oh. He also thought I was proposing to him."

"Hang on... WHAT?!"

"Yeah. He thought I was proposing to him." You paused. "... Maybe that's why he took the rings and came out."

"Hang on. I think you're skimming over the important details here! You proposed to a dead guy!"

"No I didn't. He just thinks so."

"Uh. THAT'S THE IMPORTANT PART!! Why aren't you more worried about this?!"

"I don't even know if he's still in the mansion with me. For all I know he might've gone back to rest again. It won't matter if I get out of here anyways." You walked further down the hall.

"And if you DO run into him?!"

"Then I'll explain everything to him. Now stop yelling off my ear will you?"

Taylor grumbled but he didn't yell anymore. You took the chance to walk further up the hallway before pausing again as a sound other than the thunder and wind outside entered your ears. It sounded like.. humming? Your brows rose and you slowly began to follow the source of it. Each slow step left your heels clicking softly and the floor slightly creaking. You followed it until reaching the end of the hallway and poked your head around. Still nothing but the humming was louder and it seemed to be coming from a particular room. Slowly your head retreated.

"I think I found out where Elias went. It's really weird. This is all really weird. Is it possible I went back in time?"

"No. Otherwise we wouldn't be able to communicate. Why?"

"Because none of the house looks old anymore. It's not even cold. Seriously, does he have like a ghost maid or something that cleans up around here? For a party house it's not really wrecked."

Again another pause. "If the house looks better is it because of Elias? The fact that it's not cold has to mean something. I think you've really awakened him."

"Say what?"

"Your presence has given him something he hasn't had in forever. I think this house confirms to his spectral energy. You've made him happy. You've satisfied part of his unfinished business for romance but..I would be careful with how the rest of those desires are filled."

You stood there for a long moment. "So a ghost is happy because he thinks we're engaged. Yeah. Why not have this happen on Friday the Thirteenth?"

Your sarcasm was not lost on Taylor who sighed. Curiously you peeked back around.. before slowly moving towards the door that the humming came from. Each click of your heels got you closer until you stood in front of the door left ajar. Slowly you moved the front of the veil from your face to lean forward and peek through the crack in the door. The room looked like an old study. A few sofas, a desk with an office chair, and a bookshelf on the far wall stuffed with books. And there in the middle of it all was Elias. The spook hummed in a absolute happy way, one arm holding a small stack of books while the other skimmed the shelves looking for something. Eventually he pulled out a book adding it to his stack before floating over to the coffee table and setting them down next to a teapot, teacup, and a plate of presumed snacks....Wait. Could a ghost even eat or drink?

CRASH!!

"AH!!"

You squealed as the loudest crash of thunder yet sounded out causing you to jump forward pushing the door open and startling the ghost inside. You both froze staring at each other for a moment before a look of concern fell over Elias.

"Oh, Y/n my dearest. Wait there." Oh no- Elias was quick to phase through the furniture and soon he was standing right in front of you looking working. "My dear, you mustn't wonder around. Things are still out of sorts."

...You blinked. "Really? The place looks clean to me." Taylor groaned in your ear but you ignored it. "And I woke up anyways. I couldn't just sit around and do nothing."

"And here I thought I had been quiet as to not disturb your slumber. My sincerest apologies", Elias apologized profusely making you hold up your hands.

"No it's fine. I woke up by myself."

You watched as he cocked his floating head making it bob a bit more. You tried not to stare at the obvious place where his head was disconnected from his neck or the red staining his otherwise blue body. "And yet it doesn't excuse the unreadiness of this manor. After all I have to do all the cleaning myself. Look at the study. So far from its glory days." His eyes gave a look of distaste at the room.

"Didn't you say the place looked clean?," Taylor asked confused in your ear.

It's true the place looked better than most dorms you've seen. Either Elias was a perfectionist or you both were seeing two different versions of the manor. "I think it looks good."

He offered a small huff and smile. "Just wait and be amazed. I will have to find new staff quite soon." He pondered holding up a hand to his chin. "Sadly they didn't stay behind as I left my body." He groaned closing his eyes. "Oh. If only they had."

"Is he serious? Who'd work for a ghost in a moldy old manor?"

You again ignored Taylor. "Well I'm sure you'll find some more eventually. You'll be able to really look around and..stuff."

At this he shook his head and held up a finger. "On the contrary, arrangements must be made with all haste."

"Arrangements? Arrangements for what? Staff interviews?"

He smiled widely and happily. "Our wedding of course."

Taylor choked on air through the earpiece as you just stood there staring at the smiling spook. .... What?! You guessed you couldn't blame Elias for wanting to have that fairytale wedding he never got to have after so long but- HOLY COW!! Taylor mumbled something in your ear and you totally agreed.

"Whoa! Hang on there a moment!" Elias blinked as you held up your hands. "I think we're jumping the gun a bit here!"

He slowly blinked. "Jumping the gun?...Is that a wedding tradition I haven't heard about? If you want that I can surely arrange it. I'm sure my father's musket is around here somewhere."

"It's a figure of speech. It means you're moving too fast." You explained.

His face regarded you before frowning. "But you're heart. I can hear it's tears fall upon your shattered soul. I promise you, my dearest, that a heart does not heal easily. No matter how many takes of tragedy and hardship one reads, reality is always more painful." Well you couldn't argue with that. A hand pressed over his chest where one's heart would be. "Why my heart has been broken more than a dozen times over the course of my life and alas it has never once healed. Only turned to an aching scar. And I have tried my damnedest to ignore those wounds. To let them bleed out and form into some semblance of strength, but it left me sickly instead. If a heart must be mended, then surgery must be immediate."

You stared at him for a long moment because...Well that's EXACTLY how you felt after Ian stood you up at the alter. But ..still as much as it pulled at your heart strings,you couldn't just pretend that this whole thing was ok! You needed to sit him down and talk to him.

"Do NOT trust him! AT ALL!!" Taylor's voice warned. "But don't do anything to upset him either. Play it cool."

Ok..Got it. But you couldn't NOT tell him! It'd be cruel AND ridiculous! You couldn't get hitched to a ghost! You held up your hand to get his attention but paused as he smiled warmly and grabbed it in his own cold hands.

"And here before you is someone who can mend your broken heart. Someone who can cherish you, stay with you, bring happiness to you. I never had that chance in my mortal life and after so long,  I want you to choose happiness not sorrow, My Dearest. And I want to be the one to give you that happiness."

You fell silent for a moment just staring at his smiling face and despite yourself your face heated up a pink, although you sighed. "Elias, can I talk to you for about something?"

He blinked. "Oh. Yes. Of course. Anything." 

You gently removed your hand from his before slowly walking over and sitting down on one of the old sodas. These heels were killing you. You took a moment sighing in relief before looking at the slightly worried ghost. "Elias...Are you aware that I wasn't actually proposing to anyone?"

Blunt but there really wasn't any point in beating around the bush. Immediately Elias looked shocked at your words. "But..your vows.."

"Those vows were what my ex was supposed to say to me on our wedding," you explained the best way you could for him to understand. "I was upset about what he did and I was just..." You couldn't say joking around with your friend because Elias might interpret that as you mocking his situation. "*sigh* I was just acting out what I didn't get to have said to me." That was true, and it was the easiest way to explain it to him. "I dropped the rings when I tripped over my dress on accident." You gestured to the dress. "I wasn't actually expecting literally ANYONE to show up. Not you or anyone else."

Elias fell silent as he stared at you with a neutral face. "But..I thought you were looking for me."

"I was but not to propose, I wanted to see if there was any truth to the stories of this place," you explained further to him. "I just happened to be reminded of my own bad wedding while I was here and acted out because I was upset. I wouldn't have done it if I knew you would be disturbed and I am really sorry for that. That's why I wore the dress like I explained to you a few hours ago."

Again Elias fell silent for a long moment seemingly in thought until he sighed and nodded. "I think I understand now."

You sighed in relief. "Thank goodness. I thought you'd be angry at me."

"Oh course not. After all, you were only acting out due to a broken heart and thus sought solace in someone of a similar situation. Nevertheless I shall not let this put a damper on the ceremony."

"SAY WHAT?!" A glass shattering sound went off in your mind as Taylor yelled.

"Wha- N-Now wait a second." You held up your hands. "Did you not understand anything about what I said?

"Oh no. I understood you perfectly," he clarified holding up his own hand, "Nevertheless I accept what fate that has brought us poor souls together. Rest assured that I will not be like that snake who so carelessly spured your affections so carelessly and drove you to me."

"Um..Elias, how long ago do you think I was stood up?"

"Judging by your gown, I would think that you would've been spured less than a day ago."

"Wrong. It happened over two years ago, so there's no need to worry about me."

"Two years?!" He gasped a hand clutching his chest. "Well it's not a wonder you came here. Surely it has not been as long as my heart has endured but two years of festering sorrow is too much to wait."

Taylor groaned and you fought the urge to facepalm yourself. "Elias, that's also more than enough time for someone to move on. You never forget but you can find happiness some other way." You tried to be gentle to his worried puppy eyes. "Like focusing on yourself and trying new things. Putting yourself first and spending time with the people who matter the most!" You smiled widely at him. "Have you ever thought about doing that? You must meet lots of people coming through here."

Sheepishly he looked away. "I..Have thought such things, but when you are in my situation.." he looked down at himself with a frown. "Your options are very limited, and no one has shown me the kindness you have. Even if your proposal was accidental, I still accept it with honor."

"Well.." He really wasn't getting it was he? "Even if you did, surely we can't be married. There's not a ceremony."

He smiled again. "Fear not! I shall arrange everything we need."

"Well surely it's not a binding one. There's no one to do the rites!"

"And remember the famous lines! 'Til death do you part!'," Taylor added quickly, "He's a ghost! Death has already parted you both!"

"And death has already parted this!", you added quickly with Taylor's point. "I'm afraid this wouldn't be any good even if we do have a ceremony."

Instead of getting upset he only smiled at you wider. "On the contrary, our pact holds truer than most engagements." As if to make a point, he presented his hand where the ring still sat on his own hand where one would expect a man to wear a wedding ring. It shined golden with minor red smears. "Our vows are sealed in blood. All we're lacking is the proper ceremony. But first I must make the proper preparations. Like the cake. My grandmother's recipes are still somewhere in the manor. I remember eating them when alive and adoring them. Then there's the flowers. Unfortunately you seemed to have lost yours, so I'll supply that as well" he held up his hands to you in a gesture of comfort. "Your energy is still exhausted, so you must rest a little bit longer. Please wait here for a moment and I'll get you something."

Before you could say anything, Elias literally sank through the floor and a second later he was gone leaving you alone. After the stunned silence Taylor spoke again.

"Y/n...Why did he say that your vows were sealed in blood?"

"I have no idea! I didn't give him any blood if that's what you're thinking!"

"Wait. Didn't you say that you got a papercut or something?"

"Yeah. One of the roses you got me pricked my finger. Why?"

There was silence for a moment before Taylor sounded VERY nervous. "Y/n, PLEASE tell me you didn't touch him with a bloodied hand!"

"What? No! Why?"

"Because I think you accidentally made a big magical mistake."

You paused. "What are you talking about?"

Taylor groaned before sighing. "Ok, ok! Do you remember how in ancient history people would make blood sacrifices to appease deities? Or how people refer to close friends as 'blood brothers' or something?"

"What are you getting at?"

"UGH! I'm saying that blood is used in a lot of supernatural or magical properties. Look at vampires for a prime example!"

"Elias isn't a vampire, Taylor."

"The point is!! That I think you inadvertently made a soft of pact with him by accident. Not in the demon like sense, but a marriage is still a pact, just in a different and more intimate way."

You froze. "...No."

"Yes! You made those vows and drew blood, and offered it even if it wasn't directed at Elias. He accepted it and now...I think we're in a lot more trouble than I thought."

You didn't say anything about it but yelled out and slammed a fist on the soft sofa cushion harmlessly. "Well now what are we gonna do?!"

There was a moment of silence before Taylor spoke again. "Maybe we can convince him to move on."

"What?"

"Elias is still around because he never got to experience what he's always wanted, which was to be married. Right? Even if the ceremony isn't legal or has any standing, maybe holding a fake ceremony will bring closure to him and allow him to move on finally. If he moves on then, the contract breaks and you're scot free."

"And if it doesn't?"

"....I dunno. We'll think of something. Right now it's the only thing I can think of."

[patchesproblem]

HELLO HI me again sorry it’s me the worm in your reblog do you have any einsla aus,,,,

HI YES. I'M SO SORRY IT'S TAKEN SO LONG FOR ME TO REPLY.. My brains been fried and I've been having a hard time formulating my thoughts / being able to think straight in general. * Typing this in after the fact, I'm sorry if any of this comes off as confusing or unreadable. It very quickly turned into me rambling.

Insanity under the cut.

I have. A Lot. I'll list them and then I'll make a little section at the bottom about them!!

University AU

Herrscher Tesla AU (I have a lot about this and I think I still have your original ask about it in my ask box.. I'm so sorry I'll probably respond to it after this sobs.)

Half Life 1 / 2 AU (I actually have A LOT about this. I'll probably link my previous posts about this. Though I haven't updated on it in a bit so I'll still be adding additional information.)

AU where everythings the same except they have an immortal cat named S'more (she's a menace to society.)

AU where Karls alive. (Yes this I'm considering this separately. Leave me alone I miss him every day.)

AU where they're actually just living normal lives together.

RPG AU (Technically Elios, but I'm helping them work on it and writing a fanfic about it. Need to update it but regardless.)

Also I guess this kinda counts as an AU? It's canon compliant but I have an entire thing about post-lab 42 and them struggling to cope after the fact. It's more depressing than wholesome, though the herrscher one is depressing too.

Harvest Moon AU.

I think I have a few more I'm not remembering right now.. If I remember them I'll reblog this.

Also going to put the Herrscher AU at the bottom because it's extremely depressing and I know some people won't want to see it.

Also a lot of this will be a very brief / dumb down version of the AU's. This is mainly just because I don't know how many people want to read huge blocks of text.

University AU:

So essentially in this AU Karl, Planck, Joyce, Joffrey, Joachim, Elias, Tesla, Einstein, Schrodinger, Reanna, Elysia, and Eden are still alive. It takes place in modern times and is in a world where Honkai doesn't exist.

Tesla and Einstein met at university. They were in the same class together and eventually they were forced to partner up for a project, and they became friends / girlfriends through that. Tesla didn't really like her at first, but Einstein kept annoying her (affectionately) and soon she grew to like her.

Einstein was adopted by Karl and Planck (I need to make it clear this is not a ship thing. It's one of those 'they take care of her together' things) and was taught by the two of them. She often switched between living with the two, though she still saw both of them often. Joyce was also adopted by Karl along with his younger brother Joffrey. Joffrey doesn't really remember life before Karl, though Joyce still remembers some of it. He just doesn't like talking about it.

Explaining this because it's kinda important to the AU. Einsla, Schrodinger, and Welt all live together as roommates. Insanity ensues. They also have a little 'study group' they've named anti-entropy and have little pins on their backpacks.

Jobs just because I want to talk about it and I don't know how to segway into it:

Karl works as a psychologist at the university.

Planck teaches as a professor at the university.

Elias is the librarian.

Welt works at a cafe while he studies.

Elias is friends with Tesla and Einstein and he often asks them to watch Joachim for him whenever he needs someone to. Their relationship with him is pretty much the same as canon for the most part. They tend to take him places and sometimes take him to eat. Tesla also ropes him into pulling pranks on others (Welts often the victim of these.) He knows Joffrey and they're friends.

Joffrey is also watched by them sometimes, though it's mainly by Welt. There have been times where he had to let them watch him though just because he couldn't. Joffrey isn't really one to pull pranks and tends to stay quiet and sticks by Welts side whenever possible.

Schrodinger tends to stick to herself, though she does occasionally cause mischief. Her and Reanna are dating, so Reanna often comes over too. All of them are friends.

Karl and Tesla's relationship is a disaster (in a good way.) She was terrified of meeting him because of Planck, and she didn't want to leave a bad impression. Karl likes her though, and after awhile viewed her as family too. He's Einslas #1 defender and fan while Plancks their #1 hater.

Not sure where to add this, but the reason Elysia and Eden are here too is just because I really wanted to make Elysia and Tesla friends. Also because her and Welt are the first herrschers of their respective eras. I think Elysia and Tesla would get along really well.

I actually have a lot of scenarios about this AU if you're interested! Mainly just silly little short stories, but still.

Half Life 1 / 2 AU:

OKAY I HAVE POSTS ABOUT THIS (I'll see if I can find them later) BUT I LOVE TALKING ABOUT IT SO!!

Okay so: in this Tesla and Einstein are scientists working at Black Mesa, though the day the Ressonace Cascade occurred.

Some background information about their life before that:

Tesla had beef with Gordon Freeman. She did not like him. At All.

Tesla and Einstein worked with each other on projects, though they had no part in the resonance cascade.

They hated how things were being run at Black Mesa. They had actually just finished packing their equipment / personal items into boxes and were about to leave when the resonance cascade happened.

When the incident occurred Tesla had grabbed / threw herself over Einstein instinctively trying to protect her. They both ended up being okay, though they had cuts, scrapes, and bruises. They weren't in the same area as Gordon Freeman at the time, so they were farther away from the cascade.

They made their way to an area and met a security guard who was trying to gather the remaining survivors. A majority of them were hurt or dying, only a few of them were relatively unscathed. They helped the security guard out with taking care of the others, and they attempted to call for help before they realized the phone lines were down.

They volunteered to look for help so that the guard could stay with the survivors, and he gave them a map and took them to his station to give them guns and ammo (at this point they already knew that it wasn't safe.) However they tended to try to stay out of sight and not fight if able. Though Tesla did start getting creative and made makeshift grenades at some point.

It was easy going at first. It was around an hour or two into their journey that Einstein decided to pick up a headcrab and force Tesla to let it tag along just to mess with her. It was defanged so it wasn't dangerous. She Hated It. She was yelling about it and called Einstein insane (as any person would.) They did become friends though eventually.

They traversed the alien infested areas, though it wasn't always easy. There comes a point where either Tesla or Einstein (I haven't decided yet) nearly falls into radiation and the other grabs them along with the headcrab.

Along the way they slowly learn more about what happened at Black Mesa, and learn that the military is their enemy. They also learn that Gordon Freeman is somehow still alive and has made the military extremely angry and has killed a majority of them.

Their main goal was to get to the lambda lab, which they managed to get to with some struggle. Eventually Gordon Freeman arrives and they assist the other scientists with sending him to Xen.

In Half Life 2 they're working with Dr. Kleiner and Eli Vance. They too have a hidden lab where they conduct their own research. They still have the headcrab, and it's like a cat to them. Barney does not like it either, though. Barney doesn't really see them much since he mainly works with Kleiner, and he's still working for the Combine. Gordon would eventually meet with them.

I also had an idea where Welt was a high ranking alien / combine soldier but lost his memories, and because he looked like a normal person Einsla took him in. Schrodinger or Reanna would figure it out, and bust into their lab ready to kill him to protect Tesla and Einstein and make sure that the plan won't fail.

Eventually their lab was raided by the Combine, though it wasn't because of Welt. In fact he shoved them through the gate and told them to run. (He's fine don't worry.)

I have other ideas for the AU, but for the sake of space I'll leave it at that.

S'more AU:

S'more is a menace cat who's immortal. They're stuck with her. I'm thinking there was an accident involving Honkai at some point and they found her and took her in, later on realizing that she was immortal like them. S'more actually appears in quite a few of my AU's, I just don't talk about them much anymore. There are a few where she's a normal cat (mainly in the ones where Tesla and Einstein are just 'normal' people.)

Post Lab 42:

I'll elaborate more on this in a different post, but it deals with them grieving while dealing with their trauma.

Some important notes are:

At first Tesla locked herself away and couldn't bring herself to even be in the same room as Einstein or Planck. It wasn't because she hated them or blamed them, it was the opposite. She blamed herself for what happened (survivors guilt) and wished it was her that died instead of Welt. She felt like she failed to protect Einstein, and thought that she hated her even though there wasn't Anything suggesting that she did. (I actually have an old fanfic of Einstein waking up before Tesla and running to find her that I still hc.) Einstein was already hurting because of everything, and then having Tesla refuse to see her made things even worse. It wasn't until Planck forcibly dragged Tesla out kicking and screaming that Tesla came out. Anyways afterwards Tesla and Einstein were almost constantly glued to each other and if the other wasn't there they'd be scared and out of it. I don't know if any of this makes sense, but essentially trauma responses. If you want any clarification / explanation feel free to send another ask and I'll explain!

I had something else to put here but I genuinely forgot what I was going to say.

Harvest Moon AU:

I don't really have much written down about this. A majority of what I have was typed on my private Twitter and I don't really have time to go digging for it. If anyone's interested I can go looking for it.

Herrscher Tesla AU:

CW for death + Joachim potentially killing Tesla.

I'll go more in depth when I finally answer your original ask, but here's some of it.

During the second eruption Einstein was killed during the battle with Sirin, causing Tesla to lose it. Her anger, sadness, confusion, and grief consumed her causing her to become the third herrscher of the CE. I was thinking potentially the HoT? But I'm not so sure about it. I also thought about maybe having her take the HoR core, but I don't really think it'd work since the 301 (I'm counting Welt in there) souls have to approve of whoever they're going to.

She'd fight with the mechs, as well as her and Einsteins robots. I'm thinking she'd probably be wearing some kind of black mourning gown mixed with her black dress from the VN. I also think references to Einstein would be prominent, as well as subtler references to Elias, Reanna, Joyce, Schrodinger, and Planck.

Anyways she went on a rampage, swearing to destroy Schicksal and anyone working for them, and eventually her and Joachim fought. Her mind was so messed up by her grief and the honkai taking over her that she didn't really process who exactly it was she was fighting. He was still hurt at this point, not to mention still dealing with Sirin, and he was essentially paralyzed with fear.

I had a horrible idea that during their fight towards the end Joachim called out 'big sister Tesla' similar to what he called her in the VN, managing to make her flinch long enough to stop her from continuing her rampage.

I haven't decided if she died yet or not, but I'm not going to lie I think she probably would. The anger, grief, and the years worth of trauma are things Honkai feeds on, and Tesla just lost the most important person in her life. She gets badly injured during the fight, and at the end Joachims probably the only one by her side as she dies in the snow.

TLDR Joachim loses both his moms. Rip.

[ollieofthebeholder]

to find promise of peace (and the solace of rest): a TMA fanfic

Read from the beginning on Tumblr || AO3 || My Website

Chapter 106: April 2018

Melanie’s leg had stopped hurting after about three weeks. Her soul hadn’t yet.

She wanted to be angry with the others—Martin and Jon especially, but Sasha and Gerry too, and maybe even Tim—for not noticing what was going on with her. How had they not seen that she was getting so out of control, that she was being consumed by the Slaughter? How had none of them asked about her leg? How had Martin not even Looked at her? And she couldn’t bring it up with them, because they’d probably have some logical, rational explanation, like that it was so gradual they hadn’t noticed, or that she’d have bitten their heads off if they’d tried. Or at least, she told herself that was why she was annoyed. And it was true, kind of, but honestly, she was more angry with herself, because those arguments would have been true.

Why couldn’t it have been something sudden and dramatic, like the statement about the Murder Club they’d looked into? Or something obvious even as it was gradual, like Martin’s growing dependence on the statements? But then, they hadn’t really seen that getting worse until he’d come back from America and Elias had declared him the Archivist. And the only reason they’d noticed anything to begin with was that they’d already known how his Mark had affected him, kind of. They hadn’t thought Melanie’s Slaughter Mark was affecting her like that; after all, it wasn’t the Buried that made her seek out small spaces to squish herself into in times of high stress, she’d always been like that. Why would they have assumed that her being so angry all the time, when she’d always been ready to fight at the drop of a hat, meant she was being affected—or infected—by the Slaughter?

And yet…and yet.

As Melanie stared at her reflection in the mirror of the washroom at the Institute, taking in the pallor, the circles under her eyes, the hair dangling in her eyes and hanging past her shoulders—she hadn’t realized it was getting so long—she remembered the airport when Martin left for Beijing. She’d been so angry—with the situation, with Elias, with Martin for not being able to come up with a better excuse—but trying her level best to hide it because she didn’t want Jon to get more upset than he was. Every time she’d swallowed back the rage, her leg had given a renewed throb of agony.

And Jon had noticed. He’d asked her about it, and she’d brushed him off. There’d been other times, too—Sasha offering her paracetamol seemingly at random, Tim giving her piggyback rides unprompted while they staked out the House of Wax, Gerry suggesting she might want to get checked out again—but she’d ignored those as well. And the cats had avoided that leg entirely, something she hadn’t picked up on until she sat down after putting Nod in Daisy’s lap and Wynken had promptly loafed herself on top of the stitches and started purring her head off. Nobody had pushed her further. She guessed she couldn’t blame anyone for not wanting to deal with her anger. She didn’t really want to deal with her anger.

She sighed and turned away from the mirror. She and Sasha had spent the night in the Archives; Daisy was unwilling to leave, or maybe just afraid, and Martin, perhaps remembering the uncomfortable weeks he’d spent alone while being menaced by the Corruption in the guise of Jane Prentiss, insisted she not have to stay alone. The only way to keep Martin—and by extension Jon—from spending every single night in the Archives was for the others to take a turn at it, and last night Sasha had managed to convince him to spend a night at home. Since Melanie had slept in a bit later than she wanted, she had only just woken up when Jon and Martin arrived and had had to walk past them in her rumpled pajamas. Not that neither of them had seen her like that before, but still.

The shower facilities in the Institute were primitive, but functional. Melanie scrubbed her scalp down and then began washing the grime off her skin. As she often did these days, she paused long enough to trace the puckered ridge on her upper thigh. Seventeen stitches, and the doctor at the clinic had complimented Martin on his precision but agreed they would need to watch out for infection. Still, he’d told her it would probably heal cleanly, and she likely wouldn’t even have a scar.

Well. She knew better. Much like Jon’s shoulder, Martin’s chest and hands, and the worm holes that still dotted both of them—worse on Jon, who was an absolutely terrible patient—not to mention the white streak at Martin’s temple and the one on the side of Gerry’s head, this was never going away. At least it wasn’t actively killing her anymore.

She washed the soap off and shut off the shower just before the hot water ran out, squeezed the majority of the water out of her hair and toweled off roughly, then tugged her pajama bottoms back on. Screw it. Wasn’t like they could get fired anyway, and she wanted to be comfortable today. That was also why she put on the Sinner’s Gin tour shirt—because she wanted to be comfortable. It certainly had nothing to do with what it represented to her. Then she gathered her other things and stepped, barefoot, out of the washroom.

One good thing, if you could call it that, about Peter Lukas’ tenure at the head of the Institute was that they very rarely encountered people from other departments walking around, so Melanie didn’t have to justify her attire, her attitude, or her wet hair. Still, best not to push her luck, so she chose not to duck into the break room for tea or cocoa and instead headed back to the Archives.

Sasha sat behind her desk, a cup of coffee at her elbow and a pile of papers at her side, leaning way too close to the screen of her laptop; she really needed to go in for an eye exam, but always claimed there wasn’t the time. Daisy was curled up in the chair behind what had once been Basira’s desk, feet on the seat, arms draped over her knees like a beggar in a pantomime or a painting of Primitive Man Around The Fire, her face haggard and normally keen amber eyes haunted. She was looking up at Gerry, who was perched on the edge of Tim’s desk, cradling a mug of tea in both hands; Tim had his own chair turned around backwards and was leaning over the backrest, blatantly more interested in whatever was going on than in any actual pretense at real work. Melanie didn’t see Jon or Martin, but the door to the Archivist’s office was slightly ajar and the light on, so probably they were in there for some reason.

“—long night,” Daisy was saying, her voice quiet and slightly ragged. “It’s always harder after a nightmare.”

Gerry nodded. “Yeah, I get it, trust me. The problem is you’re expelling a lot of fear, which takes energy. So you start reaching for something to refill that energy. And because it’s Fear-related, the Hunt is promising you the exact kind of energy you want. Need, really.”

“I—” Daisy’s hands clenched over her knees. “I can’t do that.”

“No,” Gerry agreed. “But there are ways to get around it. We’re both a bit lucky there, too. The Hunt was an animal fear before it bled over to people, and there are definitely animals aware enough to fear death, too.”

There was a moment’s pause, and Daisy uncurled very slightly. “Are you saying I should go chase the pigeons in Trafalgar Square?”

“No, I’m saying you should go chase squirrels in Hyde Park. Pigeons aren’t afraid of anything,” Gerry said, deadpan. It got a surprised laugh, albeit a small one, out of Daisy, and Melanie covered her mouth to muffle her own snort. “Seriously, though. There are ways to satisfy the Hunt without…Hunting people. I, uh, usually end up finding hospice units and lurking in the hallways. There’s usually someone dying, and I can…kind of passively absorb the fear that comes from knowing their lives are at an end, or the fears of the family members that they’ll be next. It’s not a lot, but it’s something. I used to feed off the rats in the alleys around the bookshop, but the little bastards are quick, I can’t always catch them anymore.”

“Maybe you should work together,” Sasha said absently. “Daisy can hunt the rats and you can subsume their souls once she’s got them cornered.”

Gerry paused. “That’s not a terrible idea, actually. If you’re up for it, Daisy.”

“I…maybe,” Daisy said uncertainly. “Won’t it…I mean, it won’t split the difference?”

“That’s not how it works. Fear’s not a finite resource. Besides, we’ll be feeding off different points of the fear. You’d have the fear they felt at being followed, chased, backed into a corner…and I’d have the fear of knowing it’s the end of the line.” Gerry took a pensive sip of his tea. “I mean, we have to be a little more active about it than Martin does. The Eye can get at least a little bit of satisfaction out of the statements, even the written ones, if Martin’s experiencing them for the first time. But there’s something we can do, anyway.” He studied Daisy for a moment, then added, “What’s really worrying you about that?”

Daisy looked conflicted. After a moment, she asked, “Should we really be working together?”

“Why not?”

“It’s just…it’s something Martin said once. Said we shouldn’t be relying on other people to keep us human. That we had to do it ourselves.”

Gerry snorted. “Martin’s smart, but he doesn’t know everything. And since I’m guessing this was last year when Elias Bouchard murdered Leitner, he knew even less than he knows now.” He pondered for a moment. “Or maybe he just phrased it badly.”

“How do you mean?”

“It’s like…like getting sober, or, well…” Gerry grimaced and gestured at himself, a bit self-deprecatingly. “Or quitting smoking. We have to want to do it for ourselves. If we only want to stop, or try to stop, because someone else wants us to, then yeah, it’s not going to stick. Trying to rely on just yourself…it’s so easy to lie to yourself, to convince yourself that you’re beating it and that just one won’t be so bad. That’s why Basira is in so deep. She’s convinced she can just count on herself and it’ll be fine.”

Daisy flinched at Basira’s name, but nodded. “She’s always been like that.”

“I thought you were partners,” Tim said, speaking up for the first time. “She didn’t ever rely on you?”

“Of course.” Daisy stared at the floor, or at least in the direction of the floor. Melanie got the impression it wasn’t the floor she was seeing. “If it was a situation where I knew what I was doing, she’d…trust me. She just expected I’d do the same when it was her taking the lead.”

“So…not partners,” Tim supplied. “Just whoever was in charge in any given situation. Basira doesn’t strike me as the kind of person who sees the world in shades of grey.”

“Not helping, Tim.” Gerry rapped his knuckles lightly on the top of Tim’s head. It made Melanie smile a little—God knew he’d done that to her enough times.

“I guess,” Daisy said uncertainly. She slumped. “Makes me look pretty stupid, then. Trying to anchor myself to someone who—”

“You’re not stupid,” Gerry cut in, his voice gentle but firm. “She was the only person who was there for you for…how many years? And she accepted you as you were, which was what you wanted at the time. Just not what you needed.” He softened. “Look, I’m the outlier here—I kind of went from zero to avatar in five point two, you know? But Martin…he was luckier than most. He came into his powers sort of gradually, at least at first, and we all knew what was going on, so we were able to give him something to hold onto, pull him back when he started getting too close to the edge. Even I had them to keep me from just giving up and buying a holocaust cloak and a scythe and lurking in graveyards.” He ran a hand over Tim’s head. “And then I met Tim and Sasha and Jon, too, and they got tangled into this mess, and they gave me more anchor points. Same with Martin.”

Daisy messed with one of the folds in her jeans. “I don’t have that, though.”

“Yeah, you do,” Gerry assured her. “We all know what you’re dealing with…to varying degrees. We’ll help you however we can.”

“It’s—it’s not the same, though, is it? I don’t have…” Daisy glanced at Gerry’s hand, still resting on Tim’s head, and then cut her gaze away quickly.

Tim huffed out a laugh. “Doesn’t have to be…whatever you want to call this. I mean, yeah, we’ve got this, and Martin and Melanie are his siblings, but Jon and Sasha are friends and they’re just as important. And then there’s whatever Jon’s turning into, or trying not to turn into or whatever. Just because Martin is his strongest anchor doesn’t mean he’s his only anchor. Hell, I’m pretty sure Jon was the biggest factor in slowing the spread of that Slaughter bullet through Melanie, and they’re more what I would term ‘partners in crime’ than anything else.”

That struck Melanie in the chest like an almost physical force. She’d been mentally nodding along to everything Gerry—and Tim—had been saying, recognizing all the ways Martin held onto his humanity…by the tips of his fingers and the skin of his teeth sometimes, but still, human. Until Tim said that, though, she hadn’t realized how close she had come to losing it altogether. She’d been angry, sure, the Slaughter had been affecting her…but now she found herself mentally recategorizing everything she’d done in the last year—the way she’d acted towards Georgie after she’d revealed the cause of her and Jon’s breakup, the screaming match she’d had with Tim over the tapes, the various murderous thought’s she’d had towards Elias, the relief she’d felt when the things attacked the Archives and she had an excuse to go after them.

Fuck.

“Where’s Martin?” she asked, coming into the circle of desks proper.

Daisy jerked up and went tense, obviously startled, then slowly relaxed. Gerry glanced up at her. “Document Storage. Morning, Neens.”

“Morning.” Melanie dropped her sleep shirt and towel on the seat of her own chair and headed towards the room, then pushed the door open.

The cot was still in here, but none of them really used it much anymore; they tended to sleep out on the main floor so as to be more aware if things attacked. Still, it made a useful place to sit, and Martin and Jon were seated on it, Jon with his head resting on Martin’s shoulder and Martin holding him tightly. Both looked up as she came in.

“Move. I need a hug.” Melanie crossed over to the cot and wedged herself between them, the way she always did with Gerry and Martin. Jon made a couple noises of protest, then shifted to put his arm around her as she practically crawled into Martin’s lap.

Martin hugged her tight. “Rough night?”

“Rough morning.” Melanie clung to Martin’s jumper and fought back the tears. “I owe you an apology. Actually, I owe you a lot of fucking apologies, but…”

“Why, what grievous sins have you committed lately?” Martin said lightly.

“Don’t give me that. I…Jesus.” Melanie took a deep breath. “I almost let myself turn into an avatar of the Slaughter. I almost killed you. And I haven’t apologized for it. I, I wanted it in there, I wanted the anger, and…”

“Hey.” Martin’s tone grew serious. He kissed the top of her head lightly. “You’re my sister. You don’t need to apologize.”

“Yeah, well, I’m apologizing anyway.”

“Fine. Then I accept your apology.”

Melanie waited, but nothing else was forthcoming. Then again, had she really expected it? She hadn’t asked for Martin’s forgiveness, and she hadn’t earned it either. And there was more to it than that, there was the whole…making amends thing. She’d have to work on that. For now…at least Martin knew she was sorry. And he’d accepted her apology.

“I’ll give you two some space,” Jon said. There was a creak as he got up from the cot, and he slid his arm away gradually, his fingers lingering briefly on the back of her neck before he traced a small curlicue and let them trail off. It was such a typically Jon gesture, the little sign-off before he broke physical contact, that it made her heart ache even more. There was a rustle and a small shift, and then the soft click of the door to Document Storage closing, and Melanie and Martin were alone. They sat for a while, Melanie just pressing her face into Martin’s chest, Martin rubbing his thumb absently against her shoulder in yet another familiar gesture.

“This sucks,” she said finally. “I hate knowing that I hurt you and I can’t change that. I hate realizing just how goddamned angry I was for so long, and that I just…let it happen. I hate that I’d have probably killed someone a lot sooner if anyone had actually tried to intervene, and I hate that now that it’s gone, I kind of miss it.”

“And you hate that I get to keep the Archivist powers,” Martin said.

Melanie glared up at him halfheartedly. “And I also hate that I genuinely can’t tell if that was some Archivist bullshit or just an educated guess.”

“I’ve known you since we were seven, Neenie. Up until you stabbed me, the only time you ever actually, seriously got that mad at me was when we were ten and I didn’t drop out of chorus because you found out you weren’t going to be getting into the pointe class. Remember? You screamed at me that it wasn’t fair I got to keep going when you couldn’t.”

Melanie flushed as the memory, which she’d repressed pretty thoroughly, forced its way back into her consciousness. “Yeah. I remember. I was mad at you up until you were so shocked that I didn’t keep going to my classes, because I said what was the point if…and you said you thought I enjoyed it and that was why I was even dancing in the first place.” She sighed heavily. “I’ve burned a lot of bridges with my temper, haven’t I?”

“And sunk a lot of ships. And salted the earth for good measure,” Martin agreed.

Melanie couldn’t help but laugh a bit. “Jesus. I need therapy.”

Martin laughed, too. “Don’t we all.” He reached down and tugged her hairbrush, which she’d actually forgotten about, out of the back pocket of her pajamas. “Sit up. Your hair’s going to dry with those knots in it.”

This was familiar territory, too, and Melanie wasn’t sure she deserved it, but she complied, sitting cross-legged on the cot with her back to Martin. He was always gentle with her when he did this, no matter how badly tangled it was, and the delicate way he picked up a handful of hair and carefully began working out a nasty knot without pulling on her scalp felt a lot like forgiveness to her. “Is it long enough to braid?”

“I think so, yeah.” Martin began working the brush through her hair. He was quiet for a moment, then said, “I’m not sure therapy would actually help all that much.”

“Might be good to have someone to talk to who wasn’t in the middle of all this bullshit.” Melanie thought that over. “Then again, I’m not sure how much I could actually talk about my issues without…you know, going into the Fourteen and all that. And I don’t think that would make much of a difference.”

“Yeah, I don’t think the NHS employs that many people who know anything about this,” Martin said dryly. “And if they do, I doubt I’d want to talk to them.”

“Spiral, you think? Convincing you your problems are all in your head?”

“Or the Flesh amping up your body dysmorphia until you’re willing to let it do drastic things to make it stop. Or the Web convincing you to give into your impulses. Or the Eye pulling your secrets out before you’re ready to share them. Or—”

“Okay, okay. I get the idea.” Melanie sighed. “Mum’s the word.”

“I didn’t say that,” Martin said, surprising her. “If you want to try it, I’ll certainly support you. Won’t even ask you what you’re talking about or offer to help you figure out how to phrase it. I just…” He took a deep breath. “Did I ever tell you I went and saw the school counselor a couple of times, after I tried to kill myself?”

“No, you never mentioned that.”

“It was one of the conditions of them letting me out of hospital. Tuesdays and Thursdays, I went and saw Ms. Lorraine during my study hall. Just for a couple of weeks, though.” There was a plunk as Martin pulled through a particularly tough knot. “Sorry.”

“I didn’t feel anything.” It took a lot of effort to keep from turning her head to look at him, but Melanie managed. “What happened? I mean, why did you stop talking to her? Because you convinced her you wouldn’t try again?”

“I dunno. It was hard to explain why I’d done it without talking about the Spiral, you’re right about that. I had to do a lot of improvising,” Martin admitted. “But we talked about other things, too. Mum being sick, and Dad leaving, and even Granddad dying. That was really why she stopped our sessions, honestly. She said therapy was great and all, but that there were some things I would never be able to deal with while I was still in the middle of them. A wound can’t really start healing if it’s actively being held open, you know?”

Melanie swallowed and started to nod, then stopped herself. “Yeah, I know what you mean. And it’s hard to pick out what problems are tied up in the bullshit Mum and Aunt Mary dragged us into that we’ve never been able to climb out of and what problems are just…problems I can recover from. Losing Mama, that I can probably talk to someone about if I’m not over it, but even losing Dad, now that I know Mum was making him sick…”

“Well, she was helping, but the Fears do tend to build on what’s already there. I think Dad would’ve deteriorated early anyway even if Mum hadn’t intervened. Just…maybe not quite that fast.”

“Still. I can’t really talk about how much losing him hurt to someone who doesn’t understand…”

“That your stepmother was exploiting his condition? That I think you can talk around pretty easily.” Martin began separating her hair into sections. “I dunno, Neens. I know I sounded like I was being sarcastic before, but I think we all do need therapy, to one degree or another. I just don’t know what good if we’re still actively in a situation. And it’s not like this is a situation they can give us advice on getting out of.”

“You know I still won’t ever leave you, right?” Melanie asked quietly.

“I know, Neens. Just like I won’t ever leave you.” Martin paused in his work to lean forward and give her a tight hug. “I love you.”

“I love you, too, Martin.” Melanie snuggled back against her brother for a moment, relishing the moment of calm and familiar peace in the midst of all the—also far too familiar—crazy that was her world. “That’s never going to change. No matter how angry I get or what happens, I’ll always love you.”

Martin squeezed her, then let go and resumed his braiding. He began humming under his breath, then singing softly. Melanie recognized the tune instantly. It was the song that had started their love of sea shanties, the one they rarely pulled out except in lighter moments or dire circumstances, the one that had inspired them to sing shanties to burn Leitners. The one that always made her feel better when she thought about it. Martin’s very first solo.

Tears pricked her eyes, but that didn’t stop her from joining in with Martin when he got to the chorus again. “Leave that poor old stranded wreck and pull for the shore…”

[dark-mega]

Alright previously I talked about the world and bosses, now is time to talk about the finale… but first I think it would be nice to talk about the cutscenes of the R-E army

Cutscene 0:the six members are together reunited in a hall with tubes and red lights everywhere, Valtasar talks first about the disappointing of their monsters not being able to hold back some habitants of the planet (obviously Kirby and the rest) Valtasar talks about destroying the planet but Vincent disagrees and the others agree with Vincent, Vincent decides to let every member control their look out for their respective alpha faker and buck is told they are approaching he’s territory, Buck says he’s “jonna clobbah deir enemies”

Cutscene 1:Buck returns defeated and is quickly insulted by Valtasar for not getting rid of a pink ball, Vincent jumps in to defend him and the two brothers get in a small childish fight, Olivia comfort Buck by giving him a cake (which he eats by taking off he’s helmet but we don’t see what’s under it (yes they are all wearing helmets) then after the brothers stop screaming at each other Vincent warns Olivia of Kirby going after her alpha faker, she says she will cook them and feed give it to their monsters has breakfast

Cutscene 2:Olivia arrives defeated falling to the floor, Valtasar insults her telling he’s monsters have done a better work at stopping Kirby than Buck and she ever did, Vincent doesn’t agree and talks how Kirby seems to recycle the Necroceptors the monsters are made of to become stronger while seemingly changing the kind of charge it provides. The two brothers get in a fight again but this time they are interrupted by Naúm which takes their attention by shooting at the sealing, Valtasar talks about him destroying “he’s” sealing meanwhile Vincent seems to be happy to see him since he talks how if someone here is able to defeat Kirby before things get out of control is Naúm. But has they talk Valtasar gets a idea to make a fifth Alpha faker

Cutscene 3:Naúm kneels down to Vincent looking defeated, Buck and Olivia seem ready try to comfort Naúm for when Valtasar starts insulting him but the three are surprised by Valtasar not being in the room, Vincent explains he’s brother went to make a new monster able to rival Kirby, when the four think they have a peaceful moment dramatic music starts playing and Elias appears talking about how he’s going to destroy the pink menace while talking about he’s “superior intellect” while Vincent try’s to be polite the others don’t hide the fact they are annoyed by him. The four slowly retreat leaving Elias to talk about himself

Cutscene 4:Valtasar returns and talks about the power of he’s new creation which seems amazingly aggressive towards everyone, Olivia returns from feeding it and she talks how the monster is actually kinda sweet unlike the other monsters, Valtasar is annoyed since he’s creation tried to eat him alive but everyone agrees that’s because Valtasar is spiteful, then Elias appears defeated as well and Valtasar says how he was having a good day till he heard he’s creation hated him so he starts insulting him but Vincent cuts him and talks how Kirby and friends are approaching and how he’s the ones that is going to deal with them meanwhile he commands the synthetic and shadow soldiers to prepare

Cutscene 5:Vicent returns defeated has he’s welcome by he’s friends but he’s brother is nowhere to be seen, then he talks about how Kirby might be of use for their cause and finally stop this nonsense of conquest. He talks about doing a small modification to the fabric and end the R-E project once and for all but he needs more time so he’s friends offer to stop Kirby a bit more before it reaches the final Alpha faker, he thanks them and starts getting to work

Fake Kirby cutscene:Kirby and friends arrives to the reunion room but they are welcome by Fake Kirby which at first greets normal Kirby doing the classic “Hi!” But with a distorted voice, fake Kirby face quickly changes and the fight starts

After the fight:the reunion room quickly turns into a elevator and now Fake Kirby and Kirby are now in top of the Shadow Showdown, Valtasar kicks Fake Kirby off the flying fabric and pulls out a gun while talking how “if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself” while he activated the cannons below the Shadow showdown creating a black hole that starts eating pop star and the final fight starts

Mid final fight:Valtasar helmet is broken and he falls to the floor, Vincent uses the chance to stop the fight and confronts he’s brother, Vincent talks about he’s brother machination actually having secret modifications no one but he would know about, he talks about how Valtasar has been purposefully wasting Necroceptors to keep absorbing planets into that evil dimension, he talks about he’s brother machine not being made to resurrect the other members of their species but to do something else, and how he found by trying to upgrade it based on Kirby’s ability to extract the little positive matter inside the Necroceptors. After hearing this Valtasar shoots at he’s brother multiple times causing him to fall form their home into the black hole below, Valtasar says “look at what you made me do” and we can finally see he’s… “face”

Valtasar now steals many attacks from he’s brother and starts fighting with he’s heart now consumed by fury,envy and hatred. However that’s not enough to stop Kirby which beats Valtasar, however Valtasar notices how there is just enough Necroceptors to execute he’s plan, so he activated a capsule which he uses to absorb all the Necroceptors. Valtasar grows meat and skin once more has the Necroceptors take the from of a armor around he’s body

The real final battle starts, Valtasar seems to be playing with he’s new massive power and inmortality instead of taking the fight seriously but but even after he’s life bar is emptied he keeps fighting, Valtasar then shoots he’s stronger attack at Kirby which seems to get rid of the pink ball but in reality it only powered them up, kirby is extremely angry, now Kirby is inmune to the massive attacks of Valtasar has their “star wish” bar is always full, Valtasar try’s to escape but the final quick time event starts and Kirby starts beating Valtasar, Valtasar attacks despite destroying planets with ease it seems they can’t hurt the puff ball which thanks to the positive energy of the Necroceptors has unlocked a big fraction of their hidden power, kirby then beats up Valtasar more in a small quick time event so Valtasar creates a attack bigger than the universe but kirby absorbs it to Valtasar’s surprise, the sinister villain can’t do anything but just say “I hate you” with a distorted voice before Kirby shoots the attack right back at him destroying every single part of Valtasar leaving nothing but the mask behind. Kirby,King dedede,meta knight and Bandana waddle dee are carried out of the falling fabric which is being swallowed by the black hole, after that happens the black hole closes and all the monsters made of Necroceptors in the planet to disappear and the day has been saved once more.

Now for the post game extra mode

At the other side of the rift there was a sinister dimension called the “lands of Despair”, Vincent wakes up and is meet with some synthetic soldiers and Shadow soldiers which were searching for their leaders, he tells them about Valtasar betrayal but he tells them to keep searching for the others. Now Vincent has to fight fake monsters now powered up by having lots of Necroceptors inside of them (basically like those enemies in Magolor’s epilogue that shine with a blue light but now with a explanation in world the world) Vincent will travel through the level that are versions of the places they invaded recreated with Necroceptors (basically like the monsters but in structures which are we seemingly impossible and a waste of resources) and after every boss fight he’ll save each one of he’s friends which become playable characters. The thing is how now you lack the “star wish” mechanic but in compensation the R-E team is extremely overpowered

Bosses:to proceed Vicent has to defeat each one of the new alpha fakers, with the addition of Fake Shadow Soldiers which are just Shadow soldiers but a lot stronger

Fake Buck:this rampaging beast is found facing the real Buck, this beast unlike the real one is just a rampaging brute that destroys everything on sight

Fake Olivia:this sour impostor is seen attacking the real Olivia, this faker is very aggressive and with a sour personality that has nothing but hatred inside of her

Fake Naúm:seen facing the real Naúm, This one is a soulless and un loyal beast that will destroy everything on he’s sight

Fake Elias:seen attacking the original Elias by the back, even more loud and annoying but lacking that well meaning personality the original had deep down below all that ego

The Veast:someone fused the four Alpha fakers into a rampaging abomination, they are seen attacking fake Kirby which despite being one of Valtasar creations seems to be rejected by their species for not being pure evil (possibly because they were made to imitate Kirby which ultimately means some of the good on Kirby affected the final result) so they were welcomed to the team

The final:now all reunited they follow the source of all the fake monsters finding a kind of tree generation lakes of Necroceptors, the six get inside the tree and they meet Valtasar reborn thanks to the Necroceptors

Valtasar starts monologuing about how he’s superior, how he tricked everyone with the help of the “twins” to make himself inmortal while tricking everyone of how he would revive their species, but when he directly talks to he’s brother addressing him has such Vicent says “I have no brother” and Valtasar leaves the dialogue and immediately starts to fight into a harder version of he’s final fight against Kirby, after the six defeat Valtasar he falls into the Necroceptors and the tree starts to fly revealing how the tree isn’t a tree but a massive creature called “the twins of pain”

Description:the twins a long time ago communicated with the worse of a falling race and helped Valtasar with the promise of letting him use the thing their cold death heart creates to let him become inmortal in exchange of him causing has much pain has possible which allows them to create even more of the red liquid. But Vincent was always a pebble on their metaphorical shoes trying to make it has painless has possible, but now Vincent is here discovering the truth and ready to free all the creatures he unknowingly feed to the twins

At the end the final quick time events start, Buck throws a mountain at the twins, Olivia cuts it’s left arm, Naúm bombs the Twins eye, Elias chains the twins holding them back, the shadow soldiers open fire all at the same time, the twins shoot a giant laser but fake Kirby absorbs it and now all the R-E army opens fire at the same time and blast the twins meanwhile Fake Kirby shoots a giant blast of the Good inside the Necroceptors, The twins crumble and fall meanwhile the creatures from the worlds Valtasar feed to them start escaping, but this dimension starts crumbling since the twins kept it together using their power, but luckily they find the the twins were sitting on the “Shadow showdown” and they all got to work together using Vincent synthetic Necroceptors to reactivate the fabric and escape back to their home dimension with all the creatures that escaped from the twins insides

Vincent gazes upon the empty space has he’s friends approach him asking him what to do next, he tells them they have to fix their mistakes, with them using their fabric now to pull out the planets from the land of despair which is effectively destroyed once every planet is freed from its grasp and the once dark galaxy becomes full of light once again…

You thought this was over? You seem to forget there’s the “true arena” and parts of the lore I haven’t discussed yet. See you in the last post talking about some of the lore and the true arena

[oaxleaf]

mag 108 - monologue

this statement giver is insufferable. to be honest this statement is not even scary either, so he is just being pretentious and annoying. besides from that, not much more to say about it. what entity do you guys think this is? it reads a bit as the stranger with the masks, but there is just also something very lonely about it considering that they are really just empty fabric husks. i'm personally leaning towards the latter cause i like the idea of a lonely statement being read right before peter turns up

speaking of, peter's here! he's great. top three antagonist after elias and helen, i think. he's a bit of a weirdo, and quite menacing when we get closer to mag 159, but until then i simply find him very entertaining

melanie seems to have officially given up, something which i talked about on my relisten of mag 106. she does not even attempt to do her job. basira, meanwhile, notices but just sort of ends up on standby. she delves into her own research instead and waits for martin to bring it up. tim is nowhere to be seen and neither is daisy. in short, the archives and its staff are crumbling in a way that makes me very sad

[ofskellingtcns]

FULL NAME: wesley ezekiel skellington. NICKNAMES: wes, weast, south. DOB: october 29. AGE: twenty-one OCCUPATION: comic book shop employee. ZODIAC: scorpio. ORIENTATION: bisexual. GENDER: male. PRONOUNS: he / him. PARENTS: jasper skellington & victoria everglot. FC: rudy pankow.

tw. bio has mentions of dismemberment and body horror. he’s a skellington u know how it goes.

- to keep in theme with jasper and victoria’s love for gothic and horror they named their son wesley after iconic horror director wes craven. it seemed on par with their son because he just loves making people scream. wesley and his twin cthulhu came to be with the aid of the dark arts. their mother was having trouble convincing so with a little bit of black magic the twins came to be. he was half skeleton monster which means while he could do all that his dad did it came with a price because of his human side. his body wasn’t fully made to withstand all that was needed so wesley could pop parts off but it left marks on his body - unlike his father. as for a full skeletal transformation? wesley attempted it once and the pain was too excruciating he had to stop. ironically, he was left with a broken arm.   

- wes was gifted the same brilliant mind his father had. he was a certified genius except he didn’t use his intelligence to its full potential. jasper had always sought out something more in life but wes was just content with where he was. he didn’t want to be grand or special, he was fine with slacking off and not giving people expectations. he didn’t want to live up to the skellington name which he was well aware was powerful in hallow falls. it was once besmirched but his father had fixed his reputation, leaving citizens to continue to grovel at their feet for forgiveness. he was the only son in a sea of girls and while jasper didn’t want to pressure his son he also wishes wes would see his potential. 

- he graduated the top of his class but never applied himself to do extracurricular activities or anything. wes had the grades but he let everything else slip. he would much rather be at the skatepark or smoking weed rather than doing bake sales or whatever the golden kids did. for lack of a better word he was fine with being a loser rather than being popular.  

- currently wes works at the comic shop in elias. if he’s not causing mayhem with the teague triplets, or annoying his sisters, he’s with his boyfriend, harry, minding his business, keeping his side of the street clean !!

- personality wise –  absolute fucking menace. very sarcastic and never takes anything seriously. he’s a little crude sometimes. is also known to be moody, chaotic and destructive. he has his moments of intelligence and being the voice of reason but it’s far and few. he plays dumb a good chunk of the time and finds it amusing when people realize that he has more than one brain cell. despite all the annoyance, he’s very loving, loyal and funny.

INSPIRATION: richie tozier from it ( 2019 ), mike wheeler from stranger things, donnie darko from donnie darko, teenage dirtbag by wheatus, charlie kelly from it’s always sunny in philadelphia, shane madej from buzzfeed unsolved, lip gallagher ( shameless ), steve clark ( disturbing behavior )

CONNECTIONS: can be found here.  THIS COULD BE YOU ! hit me up for connections.

[donatellosfm]

Task 25-

Diana knows she’s special. She along with her 3 cousins were cloned from her dad and uncles. She knew that her existence was Donnie’s greatest act of love. That didn’t stop her from being a menace. Diana was every bit as smart as her father and just as sarcastic. She trained with her cousins under her grandfather Splinter and dear uncle Leo. She wasn’t the best ninja because she was clumsy but she made up for it by having a good grasp of her mystic abilities. She does spend all other hours gaming with her friends and helping her dad build his inventions. 

General

birth name.      Diana Lea Hamato nicknames.         Di,  date of birth.       April 2 age.      22 gender.          cis female pronouns.          she/her powers.           mystic abilities that allow her to create structures species ( if not human / mortal ).        half mutant turtle, half human sexuality.       pansexual place of birth.        New York, New York current residence.   Elias, California occupation.       her dad’s r&d department, ninja turtle

Appearance

height.     5′8 build.        toned hair colour/style.    brown/wavy eye colour.        brown piercings.      Ears tattoos.       cyber tattoo to match her dad’s. notable markings.    scars from training with a bo on her knuckles and ankles glasses/contacts?      yes, contacts  faceclaim.        Hailee Steinfeld voiceclaim.    Hailee Steinfeld

Health

physical ailments.     weak wrist from breaking it 3 times allergies.        none sleeping habits.   what’s sleep? eating habits.        food? jk she eats whatever is around. body temperature.         runs cold dominant hand.        ambidextrous  drugs / smoke / alcohol?     no / no / no

Personality  

positive traits.     warm, friendly, innovative, brave, humorous, tenacious, reliable negative traits.    impulsive, sarcastic, perfectionist, messy, easily annoyed, clumsy likes.     video games, playing games with her friends, working on something until it’s finished no matter how long it takes, training with her grandfather, annoying her dad, her uncles, repurposing broken things,  dislikes.    running, getting stuck in social situations she can’t get out of, being outside for too long, being interrupted, getting talked down to bad habits.   forgetting that sleep in necessary 

Relationships

father. Donnie Hamato mother. could this be you? siblings. nah children.  nah birth order.   only child baby significant others. n/a closest friends.     dixie reyes, enzo mcqueen, nanami nakamura, rory utonium, hamato cousins and you!

Tests

zodiac sign.   Aries mbti.      INTP temperament.       sanguine hogwarts house.    slytherin moral alignment.     neutral good

Skills and stats

Languages spoken.  English, Spanish, Japanese drive?  Yes jump start a car?     Yes change a flat tire?        Yes ride a bicycle?     Yes swim?     Yes play an instrument?      Yes, drums play chess?         Yes braid hair?     Yes tie a tie?       Yes pick a lock?        Yes sew?        Yes

compassion.          7/10.

empathy.          8/10.

creativity.          7/10.

mental flexibility.          10/10.

passion.          10/10.

luck.         7/10.

motivation.     6/10.

education.          8/10.

intelligence.          10/10.

charisma.          10/10.

reflexes.          10/10.

willpower.          7/10.

stamina.          10/10.

physical strength.          9/10.

battle skill.          10/10.

initiative.         10/10.

restraint.          6/10.

strategy.         9/10.

team work.          10/10.

[peppymintdreams]

Barista: [peacefully making coffee in the kitchen]

Elias: [sneaks up behind them and whispers] "Boo!!!."

Barista: [jumps, nearly spills the coffee] "¡Hijo de tu madre!"

Elias: [laughing uncontrollably] "I didn’t know you spoke Spanish! Say more!"

Barista: [glares] "Yeah, I’ll teach you something. Cómo te voy a matar."

Elias: "Is that a love confession?"

[xoxo-bunnydumpling]

When Eli accepted my mother's invitation to come by for coffee with exactly zero hesitation, I knew I had fucked up by not warning him about her before. I think he thinks she's changed since my childhood. She hasn't. Not at all. Forget what I said about people's journeys through life please, I'm annoyed and that's allowed.

She has us cornered in the grocery store, which is the only place I ever see her anymore. She is buying Tab and non-dairy creamer which she likes to mix together and in my eyes that's strike one. She tells me it looks like I've been hitting the croissants while poking me in the belly (I have) and then points at Eli and says "who is this then?" as if he's not a whole ass person that she could easily just introduce herself to and that in itself is strikes two and three.

Before I can say anything, he sticks out his hand and makes the introduction that she's entirely too self centered to make. That he introduces himself as Elias instead of just Eli is something that I definitely take notice of. Dude has performed his vibe check and is set to match energies. I guess I didn't have to tell him shit.

She's suspicious of his friendliness, I can tell.

"How do you know my daughter?"

"Oh...Allison introduced us."

My mother makes a face. Allie isn't her favorite.

"And?"

"And then we had been introduced."

"Hmm." She stands there waiting for me to insert myself. I don't really know what to do or say. My mother has always frazzled me. So he does what only a complete menace would do and turns to face me, raises his eyebrow just enough...and kisses me, while also poking me in the belly.

"We should go get some food in ya." He has truly never sounded so completely Minnesotan. "Your mother may start accusing me of neglect if we don't."

Alarm bells go off in my head at how her eyes change at the word "neglect". I have no idea how far he's gonna push this but...I'm hungry and grumpy and want to let him. He grabs my hand. "Honey, I can hear your stomach growling..."

"Okay, yeah. Mom, good to see you...tell Candy I said hi." (Candy is my stepmom. She's fantastic.)

I'm almost in the clear when she says, "oh speaking of Candy...she'll want to meet you, Elias. Come by for coffee later?"

"Just me?"

Y'all. I'm truly thinking about giving him away now.

In a moment that really takes me back to being a kid, before things went fucky, before she lost whatever it was she had before and was always playful and fun, she smiles and says: "Oh no, bring your girlfriend. But feed her first...I don't feel like cooking."

On the ride over, stuffed and sleepy, I warn him that my two moms are super gay. So gay that I expect them to have pulled out their Indigo Girls boxed set for the evening's entertainment as a test of his fortitude.

He laughs. "I can be a little gay..."

"I know. But you are new and so they will be extremely gay to see how you react."

He thinks for a moment.

"I get it. I do that."

"With gayness?"

"No, with Jewish-ness. It's always nice to get the anti-Semites out of the way before wasting any time on them."

Although he would admit that his Jewish identity is not extremely pressing in his everyday life, and it tends to be merely cultural rather than religious at this point, he's also told me before that growing up it earned him a ration of shit and instead of making him meek it only made him completely unwilling to NOT be proud to come from people who refused to be wiped from the earth. Never having lived as any kind of minority (my father is Mexican but I didn't grow up around the family, and you've seen me...I just look white as fuck) I've never had to do that but I can see where he, and my parents, are coming from at least.

"It's that one...with the pride flags." I say, as we get closer to the house.

"Publically gay, here? I'm sorry honey but I'm gonna have to like them at least a little for that."

Candy answers the door in a kaftan because of course she does. She crushes me in a hug and I like it. "It's been such a long time!" It has kinda been a long time, longer than most people go without seeing their parents when said parents live in the same town, probably. "And you brought...story time guy?" She looks super confused.

He laughs. "Small towns are so great. You can call me Eli if you want...or Story Time Guy works too." (He must like her already, he's not Elias this time.)

I find it so odd he never, ever mentions that he's actually head librarian of his cute little branch (although you wouldn't think he's in charge of shit the way his gaggle of older female employees damn near refuse to do most of the things he asks)...the one I used to go to when I was a kid, after we moved here and before we moved back. He's perfectly satisfied to be Story Time Guy and that really piques my ovaries.

My bio mom comes in and Candy asks her "babe, why did you not tell me my daughter is shacking up with the handsome Story Time Guy?"

"Is he handsome? I didn't notice. Being a lesbian and all." And there it goes. "Story Time Guy?"

She and Candy talk about him as if he's not there and Candy explains that she takes my niece at least once a week. It's their "cultural enrichment" and "arts education" for the week. My mother thinks my niece is too young for books (she's 8 months old) and at that...Eli disagrees with her so heartily that we all have to sit down to discuss it.

"Did you know that children who are read to regularly..." I don't have to actually listen because I've heard it before. This time, I watched how animated it is, how much he talks with his hands. How he cares so much about this and I'm a little angry he never got to be someone's dad. His children would have been so smart. "...so, don't ever stop bringing her. Hell, I'll read her stories when she's 30. I'm not going anywhere."

My mother asks him if he wants tea instead. To be fair, he did make a face at her coffee. To be extremely fair, it's very strong.

"No, no...don't trouble yourself. Although a fork and knife might be beneficial."

"Too sturdy?"

"I was gonna get hair on my chest eventually."

The banter between them is easy, even when he doesn't let my mother sneak her remarks about my "lifestyle" past him. I still don't know what she means by that.

"I think she's amazing. Come on...single mom, working so much, trying her best?" he doesn't even bother trying to tread lightly with this. "She deserves more credit than she gets, certainly." My mother stares at him, squinting. He does not try to smooth anything over. Dude said what he said, period.

Candy leans back in her chair, chuckling.

"Ho-lyyyy shit, Story Time Guy...are you in love with my daughter?"

"Absolutely." I expect him to say something else, to make a joke, to tag this with something like "should I not be?" but he doesn't. He leaves no room for doubt. He takes this seriously. He may just actually love me, you guys.

Candy smiles and shakes her head, gets up, and heads for the kitchen...patting Eli on the back on her way past.

"Let me make you some tea..."

[mobius-prime]

227. Sonic the Hedgehog #159

System Reboot

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Ron Lim Colors: Josh & Aimee Ray

All right everyone, we've finally made it! After 213 long issues of having him around sticking his fingers into everything, we've reached the final issue that Ken Penders ever wrote for the Archie Sonic comics! Interestingly enough, this isn't actually the final issue he had a hand in entirely - he inked and lettered one final story several issues from now - but since this is the final one he actually wrote, this is where we'll be saying our goodbyes to him. And so soon after Karl left, too! Those of you who know the comics likely know what's coming next issue, so we might as well tear through this one to get to it! Kenders, with your final issue, show us what you got!

So last issue saw Hope lying on the floor injured and unconscious from a blow to the head, and Shadow threatening Sonic if she dies. Sonic then does the most level-headed and reasonable thing a person could do in this situation, meaning he immediately gets offended and attacks Shadow, and they both start punching and throwing each other around while hurling insults in each other's faces. Rosie is quite understandably disgusted with their behavior, and shouts at the both of them to stop at once.

About time! In his lab, a distraught Uncle Chuck reviews the Metal Sonics' technical specifications before lamenting ever creating them in the first place. Rotor reassures him that what's happening now isn't his fault, and reminds him that it's not necessarily the inventor's fault what others choose to do with the invention, obviously hinting at his past with the roboticizer as well. Eggman, meanwhile, finds himself in awe at the sheer destructive potential of the bots, admiring their reckless destruction of Knothole without regard to the citizenry that get in their way, but rather disappointed that he himself didn't come up with these particular models. Shadow, chasing after Sonic, is still worried that they may not reach the doctor in time to save Hope, and he feels a particularly strong connection to her due to her resemblance to Maria, as well as the compassion she showed him back when Locke kidnapped him. This gives him the strength to once again use his Chaos powers in a way he… apparently still doesn't understand. C'mon, Shad, this is hardly the first time you've used Chaos Control, surely you should recognize it!

At Castle Acorn, Elias and Antoine, standing on lookout, are dismayed to see that the Metal Sonics haven't been stopped on their rampage through the center of Knothole, and are on a straight course for the castle where everyone is sheltered. Shadow's Chaos portal abruptly opens behind them, and Sonic hands Hope over to Dr. Quack for treatment, something Shadow begrudging accepts as being the best they can do for now. Sonic, thoroughly annoyed by now at having to deal with such a menace modeled after himself, races back out to fight the rest of the Metal Sonics still bearing down on the castle, and Shadow follows him once again, not content to be left out of the fun. Sonic does his best to take down the attacking force with a whirlwind of his own, but it barely leaves them rattled, and he begins taking some nasty blows, clearly losing the fight. Shadow, coming up on the scene, realizes that despite all their differences he can hardly leave Sonic here to die like this, and raises his hand, emitting another blast of energy that immediately disables all the remaining robots.

Honestly, I'm a little weirded out by the idea of Knuckles of all people explaining stuff like Chaos Control to Shadow, given how hard that role is reversed in the games, with Shadow knowing a lot more about Chaos powers and Knuckles being an isolated loner with no proper knowledge of his heritage or the extent of his abilities. Anyway, with the day saved, Sonic reenters the castle to find Elias holding a medal which he has apparently pulled directly from his ass given the speed with which he's managed to produce it, or otherwise he's just had an award with Sonic's name on it sitting around for a long while for just such an occasion as this. He's awarded the title of Gentleman-At-Arms, something which comes with many privileges that Elias promises to explain later, and then… it's party time! Everyone weirdly acts as though this has been the biggest threat their society has ever faced, despite the fact that barely a year ago a malevolent alien force that had already eliminated civilization on this planet once before tried to suck the entire planet into a black hole, but whatever, we can let them have this one. But what of Shadow? Is he just standing around outside broodi- yeah he's totally standing around outside brooding.

…sorry, Chuck, but what the hell does that mean? What secrets do you apparently hold that are so important that you feel like you have to deviously hide them from Shadow? Like… it's such an ominous-sounding line that means absolutely nothing. By the way, this is where the story ends - absolutely no explanation is given for why the Metal Sonics went on a rampage the way they did. I mean, we know that someone targeting Eggman activated them and sent them after him, but halfway through the story they just kind of switched targets from Eggman to All Of Knothole for seemingly no reason. I suppose you could just say their programming got too scrambled to tell an innocent from their target, but honestly they feel more like a plot device intended to let Shadow discover his own abilities, and therefore something that wasn't well thought out and will be forgotten about by the next issue.

The Despicable Dr. Robotnik: Insidious

Writer/Pencils: Ken Penders Colors: Josh & Aimee Ray

Well, after all the excitement of the previous day, Eggman is looking to recoup at least some of his losses. A.D.A.M. is thankfully online once again, and despite Eggman's sour mood, A.D.A.M. hopes to cheer him up with some good news. He draws Eggman's attention to the nanite fiasco of a few issues ago, and while Eggman is initially unimpressed with him bringing up one of his failures, his interest is piqued when A.D.A.M. demonstrates that the signals the nanites send between themselves can be intercepted by their own equipment here in New Megaopolis. This gives them a direct backdoor into the dealings inside Knothole, and Eggman watches in fascination as A.D.A.M. manipulates some of the nanites in real time while Tommy, Jules, Chuck, and a few others run experiments on them.

Under Eggman's guidance, A.D.A.M. directs small quantities of nanites to "infect" first Jules, then Bunnie, with those two being the main targets due to their inorganic body parts. However, when Eggman tries to order Sonic himself to be bugged, A.D.A.M. points out that since he's organic he can't bond with the nanites, which kind of seems to go against the idea of Tommy doing just that…

See, this bugs me, because I actually put thought into the whole "this is why the nanites can bond with Tommy's shell now" thing, and yet here it's discarded in favor of "I don't know, shells aren't organic or something"? Yes they freaking are, Penders! I researched it! I learned more than I ever thought I needed to know about the biological composition and evolution of turtle shells just to make sure my one little comment about Tommy's shell bonding with the nanites would be accurate! Granted, I get that Mobians aren't exactly the same as the animal species they're descended from, but you'd think the shell of a Mobian turtle would count as similar at least. *sigh*

Well, on that somewhat anticlimactic note, we've finally reached the end of Ken Penders' tenure as head writer for these comics. It's been… well, I feel like saying it's been a wild ride would be a bit of an understatement, but the sentiment is there, at least. And while I know he hasn't been a popular writer among many fans, and I've had my own fair share of criticism for his work (especially the later stuff), I still think it's appropriate to recognize the many good things he brought to the comic, especially the characters and plot points that have by now become mainstays in the world of the preboot. That said, now that we're moving on from the Era of Penders, a lot of the most controversial stuff in the comic is behind us, and we have a bright, interesting, and well-written new future to look forward to! Hope everyone is ready for the excellence that is Ian Flynn, cause here he comes!

[daresplaining]

Are there any instances where superhero’s would give Daredevil something to look at and he has to wing it/ tell the truth that he’s blind?

    Yes, there are! This happens all the time, and not just with other superheroes. My favorite example is a major moment in DD history: when Ben Urich uses this exact strategy to get Daredevil to reveal his secret identity.

[ID: Excerpt from McKenzie’s Daredevil run. Daredevil is wearing head bandages and a hospital gown (over his costume). Ben Urich sits next to him, a lit cigarette in his mouth, and holds up a photograph.]

Ben: “It’s the story of a lonely little boy blinded by a freak accident. And it’s the story of how he overcame his handicap to become a successful lawyer and a Man Without Fear. It’s your story, Matthew Murdock, and I can prove it!”

Matt: “Now just a minute, Ben! You can’t seriously believe I’m–”

Ben: “Well, if you’re not Matt Murdock and if you’re not blind, just describe this photograph to me and I’ll leave. I’ll forget the whole thing.”

Matt: “Photo–? Ben, I… I really don’t feel like playing games. I’m not Matt Murdock, I’m certainly not blind– and I don’t see why I have to prove anything to you. It’s none of your business… who I am. It’s… it’s… it’s true…”

Daredevil vol. 1 #164 by Roger McKenzie, Frank Miller, and Glynis Wein

    I love this interaction– the facial expressions, Matt’s flustered struggle to come up with an excuse, its significance as the start of a beautiful friendship, the fact that Ben barged into Matt’s hospital room (while smoking!) to get this interview– and it’s a testament to how vulnerable Matt is to this sort of situation. Years later, after Matt has faked his death and reappeared as a “new” Daredevil during Chichester’s run, Ben uses this same ruse to check if his friend is actually still alive. Sadly, what could have been a moving/hilarious recreation of this iconic scene is ruined by some silly sensory writing. 

[ID: Ben confronts Daredevil, who is dressed in the black and red armored costume from the end of Volume 1, on a darkened rooftop. Ben hands Daredevil his wallet, which contains a photo of himself and his wife Doris.]    

Ben: “Tell me about this picture.”

Caption: “Ben Urich has played this bluff before, to prove Matt Murdock and Daredevil were one and the same. Make a blind man describe a photograph. It worked then. Murdock can’t afford to let it work again.”

Matt: “Sure… okay. Bring it over here in the light were I can see it…”

Caption: “Light and dark areas absorb degrees of heat from the lamp above. Enough difference to paint a crude picture for hypersensitive fingertips. Some deductive guesswork on the photos a man might carry in his wallet. All adding up to enough for a stab in the dark.”

Matt: “That’s you… and she’s your wife?”

Daredevil vol. 1 #339 by Alan Smithee, Alexander Jubran, and Christie Scheele

    Sigh…

    In any case, as I mentioned, Matt (as Daredevil) is frequently confronted with these types of situations, thanks to people’s assumptions that he can see. The degree of success he has in maintaining that illusion of sightedness varies. Below are a few of my other favorite moments.

    This is another major one, and another rare instance in which Matt decides he has no choice but to reveal that he’s blind. During his early adventures in San Francisco, he develops a brief alliance/friendship/romanic tension with the cosmic hero Moon Dragon. When she gets seriously injured, Matt is the only person around to operate the machine that will save her life. Unfortunately…

Matt: “Moon Dragon… there’s no way I could grasp this–”

Moon Dragon: “Please… just… do exactly as… I say… Begin… with the… yel… yellow… dial… turn to… Dare… devil… what is… wrong? Begin…”

Matt: “I– I can’t!! Moon Dragon… I–I’m blind!”

Daredevil vol. 1 #106 by Steve Gerber, Don Heck, and George Roussos

    Being a cosmic entity, Moon Dragon deals with this inconvenience by casually restoring Matt’s vision. He asks for it to be removed again shortly afterward because he finds it annoying. 

    I pointed out Matt’s hand-wave-y deciphering of Ben’s photo (and Matt also mentions feeling colors in the Moon Dragon scene), and while that sort of thing has mostly been abandoned, unfortunately it informed many of these types of moments in early Daredevil stories. Rather than acknowledging the limits of Matt’s perception, the writers would simply skew and amplify his other senses to explain the problem away, as in this moment in Roy Thomas’s run: 

[ID: Daredevil is leaning on Foggy Nelson’s desk. Foggy hands him a newspaper, and Daredevil (with his gloves on!) runs his fingers over the front page.]

Matt: “Tell me– who were the joy boys?”

Foggy: “This paper will explain things…! Read it and weep!”

Matt: “Let me pore over this for a minute! (–’Specially since I’ve got to do my speed-reading casually– with my fingers doing the walking!)”

Daredevil vol. 1 #68 by Roy Thomas, Gene Colan, and Artie Simek

And this even more extreme example from the same run: 

[ID: Daredevil (still with his gloves on!) is running his fingers over a framed photograph, while a tearful Karen Page watches.]

Karen: “How could you have known that we needed you… when even I didn’t know it… until a few moments ago?”

Matt: “I’ll… explain all that later, Karen! Right now, let me study your father’s picture! (And I do mean study… not see! But she’s too upset to notice that I’m using my fingertips to learn her father’s appearance!)”

Daredevil vol. 1 #56 by Roy Thomas, Gene Colan, and Artie Simek

    Matt reading newsprint is fine; there’s a ton of precedent for it, it makes a certain degree of sense, and it’s been a part of his power-set for a long time. Matt reading newsprint with his gloves on without Foggy noticing anything weird is much harder for me to believe. And don’t get me started on his perceiving a framed photograph by touch with his gloves on. 

    Fortunately, more recent writers have moved away from these types of shortcuts, and are willing to acknowledge that Matt’s other senses can’t fully compensate for his lack of vision. The usual outcome is that Matt manages to improvise an excuse/alternative approach that allows him to maintain his secret, or he’s lucky enough to have someone else inadvertently help. 

[ID: A bystander shows Daredevil an image of a man (labeled as John Powers) on his tablet screen. Daredevil’s radar sense perceives the screen as a blank rectangle.]

Bystander: “Except this guy! He’s not one of us!”

Matt (caption): “What?”

Bystander: “I’m not on the list, but he is! See? Who is he? Do you recognize him?”

Matt (caption): “Ummm…”

Judge: “John Powers. Does anybody here know that name?”

Daredevil vol. 3 #31 by Mark Waid, Chris Samnee, and Javier Rodriguez

[ID: Daredevil is standing by as a man feeds a key card into an old-fashioned computer. The address “13 Wall St.” appears on a small screen.]

Matt: “Can you determine what building this key is for?”

IT guy: “Certainly! That data is coded into the key with magnetic particles which our computer can decipher– and there’s the address as you can plainly see!”

Matt: “Uh– yes. Are you sure there is such an address?”

IT guy: “Thirteen Wall St.? Of course!”

Matt: “Thanks! (I wonder what that technician would think if he knew Daredevil was blind and couldn’t ‘plainly see’ anything!?”)

Daredevil vol. 1 #144 by Jim Shooter, Lee Elias, and George Roussos

[ID: Matt (in civvies as his alter ego Jack Batlin) is “watching” a muted TV with his friend Stithy. The TV appears as a vague box shape in Matt’s radar. On the screen are the symbols of the U.S. government, the Fantastic Four, and the Avengers.]

Stithy: “Maybe I start makin’ ‘em for Uncle Sam though, huh? Plenty o’ need in the Big Apple now!”

Matt: “What do you mean?”

Stithy: “See for yourself…”

Matt: “I… uh… turn it up, will you?”

Stithy: “Picture there doesn’t say it all? Lazy S.O.B.!”

Daredevil vol. 1 #329 by D.G. Chichester, Scott McDaniel, and Joe Andreani

[ID: Daredevil is inside a building. On a table in front of him is a bomb, with several wires exposed. He is communicating with Steve Rogers (Captain America) via communication devices.]

Steve (off-panel): “We’re all right. I can talk you through defusing it. You’re looking for two wires. Green and yellow.”

Matt (caption): “Damn. He doesn’t know you’re blind.”

[ID: Daredevil dives out the window, comes back in with one of the guys who set the bomb, and slams him down on the table.]

Matt: “Turn it off.”

Daredevil vol. 5 #4 by Charles Soule, Ron Garney, and Matt Milla

    And finally, my other personal favorite category, in which Matt deals with this problem by just… leaving:

[ID: Daredevil is standing on a city street, talking with two cops.]

Cop: “Nobody recalls anything… except running to escape… from something.”

Matt: “Then, Lieutenant, we’ve got a first class menace on our hands.”

Cops: “Can you give us a description, DD? Hair color? Eyes? Distinguishing marks? We’ll put out an A.P.B. on him right away.”

Matt: “I’m, uh, still a little shaken, I think… Let me get some rest, okay…? Collect my wits. I’ll be in touch.”

[ID: He runs and swings away.]

Daredevil vol. 1 #101 by Steve Gerber, Rich Buckler, and George Roussos

[ID: Daredevil is standing in the middle of a diner. Two bystanders are sitting at a table next to him, reading a newspaper article that reveals his secret identity.]

Bystander: “Hey, Daredevil… Hey, uh, Daredevil… what color’s my shirt?”

[ID: There’s a moment of awkward silence, then a loud boom from outside. Daredevil runs out of the diner.]

Bystander: “He didn’t answer…”

Daredevil vol. 2 #35 by Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev, and Matt Hollingsworth

    While Matt has worked hard over the years to maintain his secret identity and hide his blindness as Daredevil (with… varying success), it’s definitely a relief to him when the people around him are in on the secret and he can be honest about his limitations. 

[ID: Daredevil and a cop are on a rooftop at night. The cop shows Daredevil a smartphone screen.]

Matt: “Someone want to describe to me what’s on that phone?”

Daredevil vol. 4 #8 by Mark Waid, Chris Samnee, and Matt Wilson

[spell-struck]

i don't know your ocs' names but i want to give you an excuse to talk about them so hm... do multiples of 3 for the oc ask

Oh boy this is… okay!I’m going to spoil my boy, Elias Hawke. Here we go.

1. What is/are your OC’s nickname(s) and how did it come about? 

The obvious reply is that his nickname is “Hawke”, just out of being well… Hawke. But his family has amassed some other names, like “bumbling idiot” (Amanda), “nug head” (Bethany, on rare occasions), “smart-ass” (Carver)… most of them are with love. Malcolm used to call him Eli. That was a long time ago.

3. How tall is your OC?

He’s a wonderful 6′2 beefy mage, which means plenty of love to go around.

6. What is one word you would use to describe your OC’s appearances?

himbo

9. What does your OC’s bedroom look like?  His/her living area?

Depends! He had to share the space in Gamlen’s place with Leandra, Amanda and Carver, so it was too cramped for anything of substance. Once they move into the Amell estate, he’s got his own room, so it quickly becomes more “lived in”. He’s not a super messy sort of guy, but you’ll quickly find books strewn on his desk that he never bothered to put back, and he doesn’t make his bed. Just can’t see the point!

12. What is your OC’s relationship with his/her father?

Okay, I’m actually really glad I get to answer this one. So before Malcolm passed away, he was pretty much the only one in the family who Elias felt particularly close to. Being a mage, it meant that he was under pretty high security (as was Bethany, but I’ll get into that) and both Amanda and Carver felt a little resentment toward their brother for being the reason they couldn’t live a “normal” life. As a result, he felt very isolated from his non-magic family. Malcolm was fun, kind, and Elias developed similar if not the exact same mannerisms as his father. When he was forced into the “family head” position after his father died, it might be that he tried to behave in a similar fashion because it would put his family more at ease. He remembers his father dearly.

15. What was your OC’s childhood like?

Like I said, Elias was a mage born into a world where magic was feared, and with an apostate father his childhood consisted of constant moving and an ever-present fear of being taken from his family to the Circle. He received a great deal of training from his father on how to use his magic safely, and did his best to stay out of trouble–rather, stay out of trouble with the Templars. There was a time when he and his twin sister Amanda were close, but after his magic manifested, their connection faded. This isn’t to say it was all bad. His family, despite their troubles, was very happy for a time, and his fondest memories were dinner time conversations which usually came with some type of entertainment like a play or a mock sword fight between Amanda and little Carver (but she had to be careful with him).

18. How many times did your OC move as a child?  Which area was his/her favorite?

He wouldn’t be able to give you a solid number. Too many times to count, but he loved the people in Lothering. Especially once the Blight started, everyone was trying so desperately to help one another, it really kept up his faith in others to see those who truly cared doing all they could–him included.

21. Who are your OC’s closest relatives?

Before Kirkwall, it was his father and Bethany. Being mages, it was just natural that they would spend a great deal of time together, with Malcolm teaching his children what they needed to know to protect themselves and manage their magic. Elias was fond of his little sister; he and Bethany got along well, and that could be attributed to their being the primary recipients of Malcolm’s jokes. They were close; when she died on the way out of Lothering, he became a stranger in his family. His mother, Amanda, Carver; they were his family, and he loved them, but they didn’t know him the way he wished they did. He was effectively isolated, and they didn’t even know it.

24. Who are the people your OC dislikes/hates?

He and Isabela just can’t see eye to eye. He’s a do-gooder, if his actions could result in unrelated and innocent people being hurt, he won’t do it. Isabela thinks he’s a goody two-shoes, and he won’t deny it if being honest and kind is being too good. He’s been accused of being easy to rope into help, too, and never for financial gain–another thing Isabela just cannot comprehend.

27. What are some things your OC admires about his/her soulmate?

Fenris has a resolve that Elias himself wishes he could have. He admires the way that Fenris has dedicated himself to righting the wrong done to him, but does try to keep him occupied during those quieter moments so that his drive for justice against Danarius doesn’t consume his every thought. Still, to be able to have that focus is admirable in itself, and it’s something Elias knows Fenris will one day be able to put to other use.

30. Did your OC participate in extracurricular activities, and if so, what were they?

Not sure how to answer this… Elias likes to write poetry. It isn’t very good poetry, mind you.

33. What subjects interested your OC?

He always had a fascination for the branches of magic that applied gravity and its pull; it had more oomph. That’s definitely why he specializes into Force magic.

36. What are your OC’s thoughts/opinions of his/her current profession?

he’s a professional apostate but it’s legal now

39. How does your OC handle anger?

Typically, pretty… well? Kind of. He doesn’t like to make anyone feel like something is their fault; unfortunately, he turns that anger inward, and blames himself for whatever went wrong. Now, if it’s something that another person very deliberately did and had dire consequences, he will try to remove himself from the situation for as long as he can in whatever capacity he can until he can give proper judgement without being clouded by anger.

42. What makes your OC happy?

When the people he loves and cherishes are all in his estate, chatting by the fire, or when they’re playing cards at the Hanged Man. Those moments of pure camaraderie, simple times like those where no lives are at stake and no danger is afoot. 

45. What are some things that annoy your OC?

Uninformed claims and assumptions on his friends or on mages. He strongly disagrees with the Circle’s, and by extension the Chantry’s view on magic, and wants people to make judgements on him and his companions after they’ve gotten solid impressions. It hurts and bothers him to no end when people decide he is a menace for his magic–even if he’s there to help. (I don’t know if it helps that most people don’t know he’s a mage anyway)

48. What are some of your OC’s vices?

If he’s at the Hanged Man and knows that he has no commitments the following day, he will drink himself into the morning in Varric’s room. He will also crash in Varric’s room.

51. What are some of your OC’s morals?

If innocent people will be directly harmed by the action, he will refuse to take it. Templars are not innocent people, though, so they’re on a case-by-case basis.

54. Does your OC think with his/her head or heart?

Absolutely his heart. He’s not stupid, but he leads with his emotional responses more often than not. Except anger; he knows better than to act on his anger. Not like his twin…

57. What are some of your OC’s weaknesses?

He’s very sensitive. I wouldn’t say Elias is bad with criticism, just that he really takes it to heart. He tries so desperately to do right by everyone, but at the end of the day, he just can’t please everyone. 

60. If your OC could change one thing about him/herself, what would it be?

Geez, uhm… it’s difficult, because he isn’t ashamed of his magic, but if it would have made his family’s life easier, he would change being a mage in a heartbeat. He feels responsible for so much of their suffering.

63. How does your OC display love?

Elias uses touch-based affection, so he’s a cuddler. He likes to hug his friends whenever they’re just. Chilling. He likes to lay on them (they usually will let him, too, because they love him.) and just nuzzle into their necks.

66. What is your OC’s favorite food?

He’s fond of sweeter foods, so any sort of sweet dessert type food, really.

69. What is your OC’s favorite kind of weather?

Rainy days! It always smells nice, and he likes to curl up by the fire with the family dog (named Baby by Amanda, shh) and read. 

72. What is your OC’s favorite kind music (and song if there is one)?

Hm. How to answer this… I’ll say he likes listening to Orana play. She’s very good, getting better every day.

75. What is your OC’s favorite scent?

He really liked the perfume his mother started wearing once they got the estate back. He will neither confirm nor deny that he stole some on occasion because he liked the mixed floral smell.

Thanks a bunch for the extensive asks! Ask prompt found here.

[seefircs]

elloooo ! i’m reese (they/them) and finally. finally i am alive. its been a hectic few days bc of school and work buuuut im here ! so i play elias caroll, whomst is the master gunner on the ship. i’m v excited to write with u all and this rp has legit been an idea in the works since . uhhh end of 2017 ? took us long enough ! anyway i rly suck at intros , so . lets give this a fkn shot.

also pls feel free to mssg me if you’d like to plot. x

( HARRY STYLES, CIS MALE, 22 ) — look sharp, landlubber ! that’s ELIAS CAROLL, the MASTER GUNNER of the merchant’s mercy. HE joined the crew 3 YEARS AGO and is known as ELI to the rest of the company. apparently, he is usually quite POMPOUS, but can also be pretty IMPULSIVE when tested, so be careful ! wouldn’t want ya to end up on the business end of that DOGLOCK PISTOL he carries…

so elias is . 1/2 of the demon twins aka the duo elias and amos. aside from his twin, he has two brothers and one sister.

he was born in boston, massachusetts ! 

the reasoned he joined piracy was bc .. he rly couldnt handle responsibility lmao like w helping out w the fam and he just felt kinda Trapped in boston uh

him n his twin always discussed leaving together and making something of themselves but elias left first , without saying goodbye 2 any of his fam

and he actually joined a ship that was NOT the merchants mercy.. he was on another boat for a few years until that ship was raided 

and whom was it raided by ? The Merchants Mercy ofc. and they were gonna kill him but amos was a part of the crew at that time and pushed them to allow elias to just join their crew

so low and behold , elias becomes a part of the crew and works his way to being the master gunner

which he is definitely .. very skilled in that area . he knows everything and anything about guns, ammunition, the cannons, all of it !

and the gun he carries, which is a doglock pistol, is his fucking baby and he named it rose bc. why not name your gun. like why the fuck not.

he is also just... a fucking menace. always getting in people’s business, acting like the leader of the group (even tho he clearly is not ??) and thinking hes all tough shit.

he likes to make empty threats that he won’t act upon unless u really make him mad 

and honestly. if it wasnt for his skill and role i feel like he would have been forced to walk the plank a long time ago but thats just my humble opinion on my muse!

and what i mean by empty threat is like. if hes getting it on w/ someone he would say he’s gonna throw them off the deck or some shit but. he never actually would mainly because.. this is his new family and. he loves his family :/ unless its his twin, then he’d probably push him over board.

um he is also very Bisexual

inspired off this photo:

thank u for ur time. im going to set up an actual bio page and some stats for him later but... this is the gist of him for now. i promise he is not as much of an annoying asshole as he seems. well. maybe he is.