#full of monsters and animatronics and horrible things oh my!

[unimatronic]

i just wanna expand on more than just the daycare bc the daycare’s fun n all but i wanna go full fuckin balls to the wall w something scary

[antiquecompass]

Untamed Winter Fest Day 13: Family

Wherein Lan Xichen experiences his very first Jiang Holiday Extravaganza. (Also on Ao3).

“You’re just--you’re just going to bring him? To Lotus Pier? Just like that? You don’t want to maybe wait until next year? Are you---are you sure he can handle it?”

Jiang Cheng stared at his brother over their lunch table.

Wei Ying rubbed his nose and shrugged. “Don’t look at me like that. It’s not about Xichen. You know I love him, and you with him. You two together. But you also know how your mom is this time of year. You know the Lans don’t celebrate Christmas. Even with their basic knowledge of it, there’s having to dodge all the red bows and garlands and santas in the store and then there’s Lotus Pier at Christmas. It’s a neon animatronic freak show that punches you in the face, steals your pride and your lunch money, and then dropkicks you once more for good measure with the holiday spirit.”

“She’s not that bad,” he said.

His mother was enthusiastic about Christmas, perhaps aggressively so to some degree, but she could be reasoned with--bartered with at the very least. The singing stuffed cats in place of the musical nativity set that played ‘What Child Is This?’ for example. Stuffed animals in place of the actual lambs she was tempted to buy for little Yuan’s first holiday season with them. Mistletoe only placed on the main pathways of the house and not every five feet. She could make compromises when met with better offers or a convincing argument.

Few things in this world made his mother truly giddy, but something about Christmas did, and they’d all grown up indulging her. Granted it had turned their mother into a bit of Holly Jolly Yuletide Monster, but that meant she could be easily distracted by anything that lit-up and played a Christmas carol.

“We both have two full weeks off. Two full weeks we intend to spend together,” Jiang Cheng said. “So, it was either deal with Mom’s increasingly dramatic speeches about me abandoning the family and our traditions because of my demands over Thanksgiving or drag Xichen to Lotus Pier, slap a Santa hat on his head, and tell him to keep calm and merry on.”

Wei Ying whistled low.

"What?" Jiang Cheng demanded.

“Nothing," Wei Ying said, fidgeting with his napkin. "Just, you might want to ask Mingjue if you can borrow some of his homemade brew. Xichen might need it to get through the next two weeks. Does he know almost all of the Jiangs and the Yus will be there? To stare at him? The only person you’ve ever brought home for the holidays?”

“They’ll only all be there for Christmas Eve and Day. And New Year’s. The rest of the time they’re at their own homes,” Jiang Cheng said.

He had, in fact, kept that small, truly insignificant detail from Xichen. Even combined the Jiangs and Yus couldn’t hold a candle to the seemingly unending amount of Lans. The biggest difference was, well, the Yus were loudly opinionated and unafraid to show it and the Jiangs were either like Yanli or like...him.

“He’ll be fine,” he said, more to himself than Wei Ying. Xichen was charming. All he had to do was nod and smile and he’d win most of the family over.

His brother scoffed. “Better ask Mingjue for two bottles of that home brew.”

Wei Ying absolutely deserved to get Jiang Cheng’s napkin thrown at him, but he also had a point.

He’d call Mingjue as soon as lunch was over.

**********

“Zhan,” Lan Xichen said in surprise at finding his little brother in his kitchen. “I wasn’t expecting you today.”

“Yuan wanted to visit Jingyi,” he explained. He finished rearranging Xichen’s orchids, like he always did when he visited. “And I came to prepare you.”

“Prepare me?” Xichen asked in confusion. “Prepare me for what?"

Zhan pulled a dvd case out of his coat pocket and handed it to him.

“National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” Xichen read out the title. “What’s this?”

“While done for comedic effect, of all the general holiday films out there, I felt this was the one that would best prepare you for Christmas at Lotus Pier. Once it’s done there is a series, I believe called Crazy Christmas Lights, that we will also watch for your preparation.”

His brother could be hilariously funny and sarcastic when he was in a mood, but this was not a joke. His face and eyes both showed that he was completely serious.

“It can’t be that bad,” he said even as he followed Zhan into the living room.

His brother shook his head. “That’s what I thought. And then I saw the polar bears.”

“The what?” Xichen asked.

“They sing and play instruments, like those bears at Disney World,” Zhan said.

Lan Xichen froze in place. “Madame Yu has her own Christmas version of the Country Bears Jamboree?” he asked.

“Polar bears,” Zhan corrected as he took the dvd case from Xichen’s lax grip.

**********

The drive had been long. The boat trip had been uneventful. Lotus Pier remained one of the most beautiful places Jiang Cheng had ever seen in his life as long as he didn't look at their backyard. Xichen still hadn’t started a running sprint towards the ocean to escape, so Jiang Cheng felt that so far it could all be counted as a success.

“Baby, you need to breathe,” he said once he’d parked the car.

“Is this the right time to mention your mother terrifies more than any person or thing I’ve ever encountered in my life,” Xichen said, clutching Pepper’s carrier in his lap.

“That’s just your natural sense of survival,” Jiang Cheng said. “It’s my cousins you really have to be careful around.”

No one could prove that Yu Jinzhu and Yu Yinzhu were professional assassins, but no one could disprove it either. It was one of Wei Ying’s more sensible conspiracy theories.

He leaned across the seat and kissed Xichen’s forehead. “Besides, my mother likes you. Even more, she likes and approves of you. You’re going to be fine.”

“Right, of course,” Xichen said, nodding. He still had a white-knuckle hold on Pepper’s carrier and the fabric was reaching its breaking point.

Jiang Cheng put his hands over Xichen’s own and held them there until Xichen’s entire body relaxed.

“Okay?” he asked.

Xichen nodded again. “Should I also mention I can’t stand your father?”

“Hey,” Jiang Cheng said with a true smile. “That makes two of us.”

Xichen did not laugh. Instead his eyes narrowed as he took in the backyard. “Is that...is that an inflatable Santa and his sleigh and reindeer?”

Jiang Cheng took a deep breath.

“So, here’s the thing,” he said as he unlocked the car doors. “Mom has a bit of a collection.”

**********

There was a tiny elf sitting on the mantle of the fireplace in their bedroom. Logically Xichen knew it was a toy or decorative object and its eyes couldn’t possibly be following him and yet he wondered if Jiang Cheng would be horribly insulted if he hid it in the back of their wardrobe.

“Oh fuck,” Jiang Cheng said as he came into the room . “That fucking creepy ass thing. I thought I got rid of them all already. Where the fuck did this one come from?”

He picked it up and marched across the hall to Wei Ying and Zhan’s room, opening the door wide enough to toss it in.

“No, no, hell no,” Wei Ying said opening the door again, hair and clothes a mess.

“Already?” Jiang Cheng asked. “We’ve only been here for an hour.”

“Yeah? Come back with that judgy face once you have a kid to take care of. You’ll grab any second alone you can get too.” He shoved the elf into Jiang Cheng’s chest. “You take the fucking creepy ass elf. I’ve already cleared this room out. No more. I’m not getting murdered in my sleep.”

“It’s not staying in my room,” Jiang Cheng said.

Both brothers fell silent and then turned their heads to the other bedroom on their floor.

“Yanli will kill us,” Jiang Cheng said.

“Yeah, but imagine the Peacock’s screams,” Wei Ying said. He gripped Jiang Cheng’s shoulder. “This is your mission, should you choose to accept it.”

“If I go down, I’m taking you with me,” Jiang Cheng said, already headed towards his sister’s bedroom.

“A worthy death,” Wei Ying said, before slamming his door.

Xichen was on vacation. He was not going to play Academy Headmaster to a group of thirty-somethings. He was going to pretend he hadn’t witnessed the last fifteen minutes. He was going to disavow any knowledge of what just occurred. He was absolutely not going to get on Yanli’s bad side. Or Madame Yu’s.

He continued his unpacking, a task interrupted by the eyes he felt on him earlier, and went over to the wardrobe.

“What the fuck!”

The words were out of his mouth before he even processed it. Jiang Cheng came running back into the room.

“Baby?” he asked.

“Why?” Xichen asked. “Why are there more elves?”

This one was sitting on the top shelf of the wardrobe staring down at him. Looking at him as if he knew Xichen disliked him. It. The decorative object that could not possibly have thoughts or feelings of any kind.

“I am so sorry,” Jiang Cheng said, grabbing it and tossing it towards the hall. “I had no idea she’d acquired more.”

“How many are there?” he asked.

Jiang Cheng cupped his cheek. “I love you,” he said.

“How many?” Xichen asked.

“I love you, so much,” Jiang Cheng said.

“How. Many.”

“With all that’s in me,” he continued.

“Jiang Cheng.”

“There’s probably sixty now,” he said. “She makes it into a scavenger hunt for the kids.”

It was only Saturday. He’d been here for less than two hours. He already felt like he was losing his mind.

He was never ignoring his brother’s warnings again.

“For the record, I deeply wish we were in Maine right now,” he said.

“Yes,” Jiang Cheng agreed.

He wrapped his arms around his boyfriend. “And while I have no regrets about coming here, I can’t promise all of your mother’s horrid little elf creatures will survive this weekend.”

“We’ll blame it on Sugar,” he said.

“And I love you,” Xichen said. “Even if I’m not entirely sure my sanity will survive this weekend either.”

“You’re not afraid of penguins too are you?” he asked.

Xichen laughed. “No, no, of course not.”

Jiang Cheng hugged him tighter. “You’ll be just fine.”

“What does that mean?” he asked, suddenly not feeling fine at all.

“Nothing,” Jiang Cheng said, too quickly. “Nothing at all. Just a little thing out by the tennis court that’s of no concern.”

Xichen took a deep breath, leaning even more on Jiang Cheng, and reminding himself that this is what it meant to be family, to share each other’s traditions. Even if they came with horribly clashing colors and tacky inflatable lawn decor and creepy elves and a Christmas tree in their room covered in bear ornaments. He still had two full weeks of Jiang Cheng in his arms and Sugar, Pepper, and Nutmeg close to him. With his own brother and his nephew. A few tacky lights and the overpowering smell of peppermint everywhere was a small price to pay for such a gift.

He opened his eyes and found one of those creepy ass elves on top of curtain rod.

“My love, I’m going to need you to sweep this room again, because I just found another one.”

“Fuck,” Jiang Cheng said as he turned around and walked over to the window. “How in the hell did she even--she stuck Velcro on it? What in the hell?”

[allthefilmsiveseenforfree]

Child’s Play (2019)

Well it’s Friday, so that means another classic horror franchise is getting rebooted. This time it’s Child’s Play - you know, the one about the spirit of a serial killer that gets trapped inside a talking doll and terrorizes the neighborhood? Well, serial killer spirits are SO 1991, so the 2019 version has updated it to a “smart” doll capable of operating all your wireless devices and there’s no supernatural mumbo jumbo going on here - just a disgruntled factory worker pushing back at unjust labor laws by removing all the safety protocols in ONE doll and shipping it off far away. You know, as most labor disputes get resolved. So Chucky (voice of Mark Hamill) comes to be best friends with Andy (Gabriel Bateman) and soon starts disposing of anyone he believes might be compromising their friendship. I think we all remember how upsetting it was when our Teddy Ruxpins started to do the same thing. So is this AI bringing in a new wave of “smart” horror reboots? Well...

God I hope not. It’s a mess. There’s some ok stuff in here, but wow I have a lot of questions for the director, the screenwriter, and the design team.

This is the worst character design I’ve ever seen. His eyes are both too big to be like a standard doll, but too small to be in the Bratz or anime-type range. Also, he suffers from the Jack Nicholson problem. For as brilliant as Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is, its casting is truly epically terrible. Jack Nicholson looks crazier than a shithouse rat at the very beginning of the film, making his descent into madness feel a little less like a descent and more like a very level straight line that you could use to hang a picture frame. Same thing with ol Chucky blue eyes here. He looks so uncanny valley creepy right from the get go that when he goes full murder spree it’s like “oh no he’s...doing exactly what his face indicated he would be doing this whole time who could have possibly predicted.” I’m all for the use of animatronic puppetry over CGI but...I just feel like the design here really missed the mark. 

I’m sorry, I’m just so pissed at the inciting incident for this whole thing. Why would your revenge against your shitty boss be to remove all the safety protocols from a microchip going into a device that is shipping halfway across the world from you? What’s the endgame here? Seriously. THE most plausible line of reasoning is “This doll will malfunction and cost this company I hate working for $39.95.” Well, that doesn’t impact your shitty boss. The only OTHER plausible line of reasoning is “This is going to make a murder doll that will malfunction and kill people on the other side of the globe.” That STILL doesn’t impact your shitty boss AND it means this guy is a total sociopath with a diabolical scheme on a level Chucky can’t even dream of. Why isn’t the movie actually about him???

It’s weird to see Aubrey Plaza playing a mom but I kind of love her snark being melded with maternal instinct here. Although, honestly, she does feel more like Andy’s big sister than his mom. 

As for Andy (Gabriel Bateman), he’s actually a really solid leading man in this. Even when he has to break down into hysterics over Chucky’s bad behavior, his performance never veers into whiny or shrill. He’s got a lot of charisma and plays Andy as a fundamentally sweet kid who maybe just doesn’t have many friends because he hangs out with his mom and sucked into the vortex of his phone too much. I was impressed, because he has to carry 80% of the movie by himself talking to an animatronic Annabelle.

I will say, Chucky’s horrible design aside, Mark Hamill does a phenomenal job as the voice of Chucky. Even when he’s repeating the same phrases over and over again, he injects a level of pathos and humanity into Chucky that’s really impressive. I know this isn’t a controversial opinion, but he really is maybe the best living voice actor of our time.

Full disclosure, there is some violence done to a cat that is very distressing, not once but TWICE. The cat dies :( And it’s particularly egregious because not only do you get faked out once thinking “oh this cat is gonna be ok” but THEN after the gruesome part, Chucky uses the sounds of the cat to emotionally torture Andy and the audience. That shit is fucked up.

Um, I’m not sure what lack of googling this screenwriter, Tyler Burton Smith, did but these literal children are not millenials, they are generation Z, GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER.

The tone is wildly uneven. It’s not funny enough to be a horror comedy, and it’s not really scary, just jump scares and being creeped out by Chucky’s fucking face. Also, the film can’t decide if we’re meant to feel bad for Chucky being a victim of his programming and his shitty preteen masters showing him a bunch of campy slasher movies OR if we’re meant to be scared of him because he’s a murderous monster doing things of his own free will. 

Why are there watermelons in this man’s yard? And the line “a white guy dead in a watermelon patch - poetic” ... what fucking poetry are you reading? Listen, I have two degrees in English literature, and I don’t remember Samuel Taylor Coleridge ever writing anything about any fucking watermelons.

Another weird choice - the movie is pretty gory but not in a fun or campy way. I think sometime around 2010, movies lost the ability to do buckets of blood in a fun way? I know that sounds fucked up, but this isn’t campy or silly, it’s just kind of gross - both trying to be gleeful and also taken way too seriously. At first, when it’s only super pervy or abusive dudes that are getting whacked, it’s like, ok, there’s a comeuppance factor here, this is gross but fine. But then it starts extending to characters that have done nothing wrong and that we’ve been pushed to love and empathize with. So then it feels a lot less fine but still very gross. 

One major highlight - I will watch Brian Tyree Henry in anything. He’s just so so good at everything, and this is no exception.

Also - BTH plays a detective and Andy is literally trying to hide evidence made of human remains in the detective’s apartment. For dayyyyys. Let that sink in. Do you think that shit doesn’t smell?? And he keeps disposing of evidence and things he doesn’t want to deal with in the trash chute of his own building. Where the detective also hangs out. There are other dumpsters, my dude!

If you’re making a murderous doll movie and a guy who looks like Jack Black (Trent Redekop) perving around in a basement is the creepiest thing that happens, that’s probably not a good sign.

Speaking of Not Jack Black, everything in his death sequence makes no sense. Why would you stand on a table saw to get away from literally anything? Why would your table saw have a “smart” functionality? Take this as a warning kids, if Google starts making smart table saws, that’s when we draw the line.

There is one (1) cute dog, and Chucky is uninterested in him. He escapes the movie unscathed and appears to be a Very Good Boy.

Did I Cry? Fucking no, oh my god, not at all. 

This is just a real uneven mess. Some performances shine amidst the terrible material (BTH, Mark Hamill, Gabriel Bateman) but overall, I had a lot more fun with the playfully wicked marketing campaign (coming out the same day as Toy Story 4, the film leaned into the gag by creating a series of posters depicting some gruesome ends to our favorite Toy Story characters, with Chucky being responsible). If this had been more comedy, less uneven revenge porn, this might have had a fighting chance at being something really interesting. As in most things, though, I have to advise you stick to the original.

If you liked this review, please consider reblogging or subscribing to my Patreon! For as low as $1, you can access bonus content and movie reviews, or even request that I review any movie of your choice.

[kurobizzlewrites]

Leaps of Faith

Chapter 2 - Worth Fighting For

Fandom: YouTube RPF/Markiplier (with hints of Five Nights at Freddy’s)

Pairing: Mark Fischbach x Reader

Story Summary: You’re a multi-universe jumping secret agent, specializing in video game universes and out to prove you’re more than just a legacy. He’s a famous YouTube star who’s assigned to be your new partner thanks to his expertise in the horror game genre. You don’t know what’s worse: putting your trust in this weird dork or falling in love with him.

Genres: In-game reality, AU, romance (specifically ‘rivals to friends to lovers’), comedy, action-adventure, & horror

1

Chapter Summary: You try to convince Mark that working with you would be the worst thing ever. As usual, nothing goes according to plan.

Warnings: Swearing, explicit language, reader acting like a dick, mention of maybe child death

Words: 2665

A/N: Let’s keep the ball rolling with another new and improved chapter. Again, if you wanna read the all the chapters I have so far (all are going under revision, especially you chapter 3), then click here. Otherwise, continue on my wayward folks. Special thanks to @angelwrote to being sweet and lovely and ugh you’re the best Ange

—

Not to toot your own horn but you had always considered yourself a badass. You’ve dealt with drug dealers, Nazis, zombies, Nazi Zombies, aliens, and even dragons thanks to your line of work so you had quite the resume to back your confidence up. That’s why it was such a blow to your pride when you went to such lengths to avoid one measly guy. It wasn’t out of fear; there was no way you could be scared of Mark Fischbach. No, you avoided him because he made you feel things. Gross things. Like guilt. And a bit of shame.

The first day after you had discovered your terrible luck of being his neighbor, you did all you could to show how horrible of a partner you would be. You gave him dirty looks, cold shoulders, and distanced yourself as much as possible whenever you came across him inside and outside your building (which was surprisingly a lot). But every time you walked by with your most intimidating stare, Mark would always reply with a cheery smile and a wave.

Where was the apprehension? The anger? You were acting like complete dick to him, weren’t you? Dammit, he was making you question the intimidation skills you took so long to perfect. Plus, he was making you feel super guilty for doing all this. You never felt guilty! How dare he!

When your first plan ended up in failure, you decided to go with a different idea: never make contact with him ever again. Maybe if you avoided him long enough, he would forget about alternate realities and secret organizations long enough for you to find a more suitable partner. However, taking this course of action resulted in you staying at your office much longer than most of your co-workers, busying yourself with a variety of work. When not jumping to different universes, you were usually tasked with paperwork. Most of it involved research into what games were trending now and charting them out on fancy graphs or figuring out what Beta Universes had to be maintained in order to stop any negative bleeds from coming in. You also took some time to look into your first big assignment since your relocation by playing through the game. And boy, did Chuck really nail it in the head.

This game was terrifying.

It wasn’t the monsters or the atmosphere of playing inside a haunted children’s restaurant that scared you (they were just creepy at best). What got to you the most was the waiting. The game kept you on the edge of your seat as you waited for the clock to hit 6 AM, the only things protecting you from murderous animatronics were a flashlight and a bunch of cameras. You also kept flinching at those stupid jumpscares, especially when it was that dumb puppet. It almost made playing at your cubicle rather embarrassing but it was a thousand times better playing with a bunch of people around you than at your apartment by yourself.

Tonight, you stayed even longer than expected since you were completely engrossed with defeating the final night. A crowd had gathered around your cubicle to watch you play with many of them shouting or screeching whenever they saw any sign of Freddy or his friends. Eventually, you completed the final night after your 21st try, earning you a round of applause from your co-workers. You coolly brushed off the pride but couldn’t help the blush dusting your face as you waved good-bye to the people that remained at the office. By the time you stepped out of the building, the full moon was already overhead. You caught the next bus home and successfully snuck up to your apartment without any incident, practically giddy with your success-filled evening. Your mood did a complete 180 the moment you opened your refrigerator door to find nothing inside.

When was the last time you went grocery shopping? You thought back to previous dinners from the last few nights and remembered that you’d been ordering take-out. A glance at your garbage confirmed this as your stomach began to growl. It was probably too late to have anything delivered from a decent restaurant so you begrudgingly settled on going to one of those 24-hour fast food places close by. Sighing sadly to yourself, you dragged your feet out your apartment and began to lock the door behind you when a delicious smell drifted under your nose. You quickly spun around to find the source of the smell only to make accidental eye contact with Mark.

Fuck.

“Uh, hey.” You ended up greeting awkwardly despite yourself.

“Hey there.” Mark casually greeted back as he pulled out his keys. “Going out?”

“Yeah, I need to find dinner…” Your eyes drifted to the plastic bag hanging from his hand and your mouth began to water without warning. Mark followed your gaze and soon let out a chuckle when he put two and two together.

“Want some? I always order a lot so I can have leftovers later but you’re welcome to have that share.” He offered. You looked back up at him in surprise. Was he serious? For a few moments, your eyes traveled back and forth between Mark and his plastic bag of goodies as you sorted out the pros and cons of this decision. If you took him up on his offer, you would end up talking to him, something you really didn’t want to do for a number of reasons. One of them was because you’d be playing right into Evangeline’s hands about socializing with people outside of work. You also didn’t want to remind him about the job offer or be bombarded by questions about the position or alternate realities. But on the other hand, you might be able to convince him that the consultant position was not worth his life (or yours). And dammit, you really wanted to eat whatever he bought. It smelled too good to pass up.

“Okay,” you finally answered, “I’ll join you for dinner. But only because I don’t want to wait forever for the bus.” Mark perked up and grinned a toothy grin.

“Great! Come on in!” He exclaimed as he unlocked his door and held it open for you. You headed inside, your stomach leading the way and found his apartment almost an exact replica of yours, save for his furniture choices and personal belongings. Mark closed the door and placed the bag on the coffee table in the middle of the room.

“Just take a seat on the couch. Want anything to drink?” He asked as he headed over to the kitchen.

“A water is fine.” You replied back, taking a seat along the edge of the couch. There was no way you could relax here, no matter how hungry you were. You had no idea what his deal was or why he would invite someone he barely knew into his home. No one was that trusting.

Minutes later, Mark came back with two cups in his hands and set them on the table before plopping down beside you. “Now let’s see…” He mumbled as he pulled the plastic towards him and dug inside. “Do you want teriyaki chicken or sweet and sour pork?”

“Whatever you don’t want, I guess?” You answered with a shrug. Giving him first pick was the least you could do. You watched as he looked at both containers before handing one over to you along with a pair of chopsticks. “You know how to use these, right?”

“Of course, it’s not like I’ve never had Chinese food before.” You responded with a light glare as you accepted the food and utensil.

“Hey, how should I know? I don’t know anything about you.”

“Why don’t we keep it that way?” You immediately regretted those words and quickly glanced up to see his reaction. Mark had turned his attention to opening his food but couldn’t hide the hurt look on his face. You bit the inside of your cheek, the familiar feeling of guilt rearing its ugly head.

“Sorry, I’m just not one for personal conversations, ya know? I really do appreciate this so… thanks.” You weren’t sure if you sounded as sincere as you felt but once you saw his lips turn up into a small smile, you let out a sigh of relief.

“It’s fine, I get it. You should hurry up before your food gets cold.”

“Oh, right.” It was a bit hard to eat with the tense, awkward silence surrounding the two of you but you somehow managed. About halfway through your container, Mark finally had the bright idea to drown the silence out with some mindless television as he grabbed the remote and turned on his flat screen.

“What do you wanna watch?” He asked as he flipped through channels. You were going to reply with a ‘whatever’ when you saw a flash of something familiar between channel flips.

“Wait, go back.” Mark complied and flipped back to the previous channel where a red-haired anchorwoman was reading the news.

“-has been missing for about 48 hours. Mackenzie is the second child that has gone missing this past week, the first being Carter Adams.” Two pictures appeared on the screen, one of a little girl in braided pigtails and the other a little boy with a dimpled grin.

“Shit.” You cursed as you placed your dinner on the table, your appetite long gone. Two kids already? The game had only been out for a couple of days.

“What’s wrong?” Mark asked but turned his attention back to the news when the woman continued to speak.

“Just like Carter, Mackenzie was last seen leaving a local pizzeria with her friends but never made it home but police have made no connections between the restaurant and the missing children.” You saw the color drain from Mark’s face as he too dropped his food on the table when a picture of the said pizzeria came up.

“No… it can’t be.” He whispered in disbelief.

“It is.” You replied solemnly. “It’s not an exact replica but it’s definitely an effect from a bleed.” Although the name of the restaurant was blurred out, you could still make out the silhouette of a bear hanging above the sign.

“So, there’s a bleed coming from the Five Night’s at Freddy’s universe?!” Mark practically screeched, seconds away from a major freak out.

“Yeah, it’s all thanks to that stupid sequel. Or prequel, or whatever it’s supposed to be.” You answered, digging into your pocket to fish out your phone. You had to call Evangeline and see if she knew about this.

“No one’s gone through the game and put up the walls or whatever they’re called?”

“Everyone who’s tried is dead. I’m supposed to be the next Agent to give it a go but Evangeline is still screening potential partners for me. Won’t let me go without one.”

“Then I’ve made my decision. I’ll be your partner.” You fingers stopped moving as your body went cold. You spun around and faced a determined-looking Mark.

“Hell no you’re not.”

“Look, I might not have the training but I know this game inside and out. I can hel-”

“No, you can’t!” You snarled, making the dark-haired man flinch but he quickly collected himself and steeled his gaze to match yours.

“What is your deal? What is it that you don’t like about me? My face? My attitude?”

“Everything.”

“Yeah? Then why the hell are you here? If you really hated me, you wouldn’t have stepped foot inside my apartment, much less accept my peace offering.”

“I…” Your anger began to subside in the face of Mark’s logic as an embarrassed blush creeped onto your face. Dammit. You let out a long sigh, releasing not only air but a good amount of your rage, leaving you an exhausted lump.

“Fine, I don’t hate you okay?” You admitted, looking down at your hands as the guilt you had locked away took over. “I was just trying to make it harder for you so you wouldn’t accept the job. I don’t need someone dragging me down.”

“I beat the game, I know how it works.” Mark stated, his tone softer than before. Probably backing down now that you weren’t growling at him.

“I’m sure you do, you wouldn’t have been sought after by my boss. But this is a life or death situation and I don’t know if I can trust someone who’s never been out in the field, especially if that said someone just recently learned about all this crazy shit.” Silence followed soon after and you glanced up after a few moments to read Mark’s face. The mixture of emotions made it hard to pinpoint what exactly he was thinking but you could tell that he was torn up about this. Finally, he began to speak.

“I feel responsible for what happened to those kids.” He confessed in a soft voice. You raised an eyebrow, not expecting that to come out of his mouth.

“What are you talking about?”

“I helped spread word about the game through my videos.” He explained as he rubbed the back of his neck, a pained expression on his face. “I uploaded the last one yesterday and I’m pretty sure they’ve all reached about two million views by now. Dammit!” You jumped when his fists suddenly slammed against the coffee table as Mark’s face contorted from guilt to anger.

“There’s nothing I can do here! No one would believe me if I went to the cops so the only way I can stop any more kids from getting kidnapped and possibly killed is if you let me go with you to that universe!” His eyes bore straight into yours, the fury clearly shining through before they slowly turned into desperation after a few moments.

“[Name], I promise I won’t drag you down. I’ll listen to whatever you say and do whatever training I need to do so please, let me help.” You looked at Mark for a good long while, studying every inch of his face with your trained eyes. You were searching for some kind of crack, a lie beneath his anguish but you couldn’t find anything. He was truly shaken up by the fates of those two kids, no, two complete strangers, and seemed determined to make things right. To do so much for someone he didn’t know…

It was fucking inspiring.

You haven’t met anyone, in or out of the Agency, who would jump into danger for someone they didn’t know in a long time. Chuck was onto something when picking this guy for the position. Maybe you could trust him, just a little bit.

“7 AM.” You finally announced as you stood up.

“What?”

“We’ll leave here at 7 AM for the office so we could start on your training. You need to at least get used to universe jumping before we go face Freddy and his gang.” You ignored Mark’s bumbling as you started for his door but stopped short when he called out to you.

“Wait! Does that mean…?” You glanced over your shoulder and gave him an even look.

“Yeah, I’ll take you as my partner. But remember, you made me a promise. And I hate people who break their promises.” Mark blinked, probably surprised over your change of heart, before giving you the brightest, sincerest smile you had ever seen.

“I won’t let you down.” He replied warmly and you felt your breath hitch just the tiniest bit. You brushed away your strange reaction and gave Mark a simple nod.

“Good. See you tomorrow.” You walked out of his apartment, hearing his good-bye just as you closed the door behind you. As you crossed the hallway to your door, you placed a hand over your chest, feeling it’s quickened pace beneath your shirt and skin. You furrowed your brow in confusion as you headed inside.

What the hell was that?