#get ready for - unsolvable adult

[thankstothe]

[fuctacles]

Eddie, begrudgingly: Dustin's older brother is kinda fine :/

I had a craving for best friend's older brother AU so I wrote some but it's not my forte I'm out of ideas so that might be it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Edit: jokes on me I guess [Part II] [Part III]

Eddie was about to knock on his freshman friend’s door when there was a loud commotion on the other side and the door opened by itself. A guy, probably around his age, nearly ran into him in his haste to leave the house. He startled, taking Eddie in. And then taking a double take, the way Eddie was used to people doing at the sight of him.

“Who are you?” the guy asked, scrunching his nose and not meeting Eddie’s eyes.

He felt his hackles rise, venom building in his throat and ready to spit. He wasn’t expecting this on a Saturday on his friend’s doorstep, but he guessed this was the kind of town where you just couldn’t wear your battle vest in peace anywhere. His upper lip twitched ready to form a snarl, when suddenly the guy's features softened, a spark of recognition lighting up his eyes.

“Wait. Let me guess. Eddie?”

Eddie faltered, taken aback by the sudden shift in tone. He frowned.

“Yeah?”

The guy's face warmed up with a smile, and Eddie was not ready for that kind of emotional rollercoaster this early in the morning.

“Dustin’s stories do not do you justice,” he says for some reason, eyeing him again. Eddie wants to shrivel up and hide. What the fuck was happening. “He’s waiting for you in the kitchen,” he said, stepping to the side to invite him in. “I have to go to work, so you two be good, okay?” he says before waving a cheery goodbye and closing the door, disappearing just as abruptly as he showed up in front of Eddie. The inside of the house suddenly seemed dull.

Another ray of sunshine peeked from the kitchen, toothy grin and hazelnut curls.

“So you’ve met Steve!” Dustin grinned in place of a greeting.

Eddie gawked at him.

“That,” he pointed at the closed door. The sound of a car leaving the curb tickled his ears. “Was Steve?!”

“The adopted brother Steve? The Star Wars fan Steve? The badass older brother Steve?”

“Yes, all that,” Dustin nodded enthusiastically.

“I thought he was, like, 16!” Eddie flailed and it sounded like a petulant whine even to his ears. He winced.

Dustin frowned at him like he was being stupid. Eddie didn’t like that gaze, but unfortunately at this point, he was getting used to it. His younger friend leaned on the kitchen door frame watching Eddie toe off his shoes.

“He’s 19. What gave you that impression?”

Eddie frowned at his scuffed Reeboks. He nudged them with his toe to line up, looking for an answer.

“The adopted part, I think? He’s almost an adult, who adopts that old?”

He knew he had said the wrong thing as soon as he said it. He looked up at Dustin, whose face twisted uncomfortably.

“Shit, sorry man. I didn’t mean-”

Dusting clicked his tongue impatiently, interrupting him.

“It’s fine. This is an unconventional arrangement,” he said in that way when you heard something repeatedly. “I can tell you more, but after we make that character sheet, okay?”

Eddie nodded, eager to abandon his social faux pas. The Henderson’s were an unconventional unit, and that’s what he loved about them, at least from the stories Dustin shared. The guy was a little freak, just like Eddie, so it checked out his family was just as unconventional. So was Eddie’s after all.

The parallels made him warm up inside, the familiar need to protect his younger friends flaring up.

“Deal,” he nodded, following his friend inside the kitchen, where notebooks and DnD manuals already littered the table.

A couple of hours, two coffees and an unsolved argument about the intricacies of multiclassing later, they decided to take a break and Eddie could finally feast his eyes on the family photos on display. He stood in front of the newest one standing front and centre on the mantle. Steve was smiling shyly to the camera while Claudia Henderson had her arms around his shoulders and Dustin was grinning wide from his other side, hair ruffled by the older boy's hand.

“How long he has been living here?”

Dustin’s head popped out of the kitchen where he was rummaging for snacks.

“About a year. Remember the Starcourt fire?”

“Yeah?” Eddie frowned, taken aback by the seemingly unrelated question.

“Well, he’s been there and-” the boy frowned, fully stepping into the living room and crossing his arms. “Shit, Mom says I shouldn’t be babbling it around. That it’s Steve's story to tell.”

Eddie hummed, cocking his head.

“Your mom is very smart.”

Dustin unwrapped his arms, clenching his hands together.

“I guess I could tell you I mean who are you gonna tell? You just-”

Eddie raised both his hands, stopping him.

“Dude, he interrupted with all the disapproval his drug dealing nonconformist self could muster. “She’s right and that would be breaking your brother’s trust.”

“Uh. Yeah,” Dustin gulped, looking adequately ashamed at proposing the idea. “You’re right., he nodded.

This lasted about half a second because nobody could stop Henderson from being an egocentric know-it-all and since he was wrong he was now going to overcompensate for it. Of that, Eddie could be sure.

“We can go to his workplace and you could ask him!”

Eddie raised his hands again.

“Hold your horses Henderson, we’re not harassing your brother at work.” The boy was actually pouting, the little shit. “I am not that determined to hear it. I’ll just catch him another time I visit.”

That was the wrong thing to say because he wasn’t planning on being a recurring guest initially. Or maybe it was the right thing to say since Dustin positively beamed at the implication.

Maybe it was because the kid’s presence has been a good influence on him as well.

Also, while the story of Steve’s adoption didn’t seem that interesting before, the idea of a mall fire being somehow involved raised questions that were now itching the back of Eddie’s tongue. He had to ask them at some point.

*

“There’s this guy,” Eddie starts one day during lunch break. 

“Oh-ho,” Gareth murmurs with disdain, the crumbs from his sandwich falling from his lips.

“Not like that,” Eddie glowered at him, slapping against his arm. Even though it was kinda like that. “He’s picking up Henderson after Hellfire today and if we run into him, I want you guys to be civil.”

“We’re always civil,” Jeff frowns at Eddie’s backhanded accusations.

“Yeah, especially when you guys are mooning after Mrs. Wheeler.”

The comment raised a wave of loud protests from his friends.

“I am just saying-”

“You’re just saying that guy is hot and we shouldn’t ogle him?” Gareth, the worst friend he has, raised his eyebrow.

“No, I’m just-”

“You calling dibs, Munson?” John the Traitor, the Backstabber, joined in. Johned in, if you will.

‘No!” Eddie protested, maybe a little too loud. A couple of heads turned but when they saw the ruckus was coming from the freaks table, they quickly lost interest. “He’s the worst. A hunk of jock with stupid hair but!” He rose a finger. “He’s Henderson’s family. And what do we do with family members in Hellfire?”

“Lure in.”

“Lull into a fake sense of security.”

“Cast charm person.”

“Exactly,” he smirked, pointing his finger at each of them in approval. “This case is no different.”

“It feels different,” Gareth murmured under his breath, earning himself another smack on the shoulder.

*

Eddie wrapped up the session and was giving out experience points to his players when a soft knock interrupted his counting. He frowned at the door.

“Speak ‘friend’ and enter!” he hollered to his sheep’s utter glee. He grinned at them.

Dead silence was all the response he got, so he assumed whatever normie was bugging them got discouraged. But then, Henderson was turning around in his seat, yelling at the door.

“It’s from Lord of the Rings! You know this one!”

There was a shuffle on the other side where apparently, Steve came already to pick up his brother.

“Oh! Um… Melon? Was that it?”

“You may enter!” Eddie commanded with a grin straining at his cheeks. Dustin was doing a good job educating his jock brother, apparently. 

The guy pushed the door open, taking in the table full of teenagers. He waved hesitantly.

“You guys finishing up?”

“I’m handing out points, we need just a few minutes,” Eddie waved his hand. “And it’s Mellon.”

Steve frowned.

“That’s what I said.”

“Sure you did,” Eddie cocked his head condescendingly, ignoring the eyes of Corroded Coffin members staring at him. “Now sit and wait,” he gratuitously offered, snapping his fingers and pointing at a nearby bench, like Henderson’s older brother was some kind of dog.

To his surprise, he nodded shortly and obeyed, sitting down and watching him expectantly. Eddie took it as his cue to proceed. He coughed to gather his sheep's attention and went back to his meticulous calculations.

*

“That didn’t look like Charm Person to me,” Gareth hissed as soon as the younger members of Hellfire had left.

“Huh? What are you talking about?” Eddie scrunched his eyebrows, throwing him a look while he stuffed his campaign notes into his bag.

“You told us to be nice, but you ordered him around like he was one of the kids,” Jeff pointed out, arms crossing.

“I did not”

“You totally did.”

Eddie’s eyes narrowed as he straightened up.

“What is this? Mutiny? Among my own kin? Ungrateful little herd I had nurtured on my own breast-”

He was interrupted by a cacophony of grossed out noises.

“Spare us the imagery, please.”

Eddie huffed indignantly, closing his bag.

“Then quit yapping. It was a singular lapse of judgement on my part,” he said with finality, throwing his bag over his shoulder. Without looking back, he walked off, hand raised in a goodbye, “Toodles, bitches.”

And he was gone.

Gareth sighed.

“Man, I love Eddie, but sometimes…” John cut himself off, shaking his head. 

“Yeah.”

*

Eddie’s been on the fence about it for some time now. But the time was ticking and he did say more than once that ‘86 was gonna be his year, so maybe it was time to pocket his ego and make some calls.

Some very, very humiliating calls.

Sighing deeply he imagined himself going to the woods and digging up a deep hole. There he imaginary buried his pride, made a fancy map to find it later, hopefully in time for his graduation, and finally dragged himself back home and in front of his phone. Next to it, he tacked on a list of numbers of all his newest sheepies in case of emergencies. Like Hellfire scheduling.

He sighed once more, slumping dramatically before dialling the first of the numbers. As he listened to the dial tone, he squared his shoulders, decided a more confident pose was in order. He was now a man of action, taking his fate in his own hands. His pride was buried deeply in the darkest corners of the forest and only a courageous-

“Har- Henderson residence, this is Steve speaking.”

Eddie’s mind went blank, completely thrown off. Who was he calling again? What for?

“Hello?”

“Is this how you pick up the phone? Did I get the wrong house? Is this the British Queen?”

“... Eddie? Is that you?”

Busted.

“What gave me away?”

“Ah, only the dramatic nonsensical ramblings.” Steve answered, amusement in his voice. 

“Thank you, I pride myself in those.” No pride! Pride is buried deep in the putrid soil of a forgotten battlefield! “But I’m here for the superior Henderson, please and thank you.” Ah yes, the Charm Person again. Somebody could think Eddie buried his Charisma along with the pride.

“Sorry, Claudia is at work right now.”

Eddie scrunched his nose, confused, the gleeful tilt to the voice in his ear irking him. Then he remembered the mom. A staple in most households.

“Har, har, Steven. The smart one.”

“Please never call him that to his face,” the man said with a resigned sigh.

“There wouldn’t be enough space in the room for both our egos if I did.”

Steve laughed then, softly and genuinely, before calling out for his younger brother.

After a loud rattle, Dustin’s lispy voice finally reached Eddie’s trailer.

“What's up?”  

The man braced himself for what he was about to request.

“I need your help with an assignment.”

*

The door opened before he could even knock. Again.

“I thought I told you not to inflate his ego.”

“No, you told me not to call him smart. It is merely a by-product of my desperate attempts at graduating,” Eddie shrugged matter-of-factly. “Besides, I don’t respond to the likes of you.” He punctuated his words by seizing the guy up before brushing past him inside the Henderson’s house.

“The likes of- Excuse me?!”

Eddie was skipping towards Dustin’s room.

“Hey big guy I’m here for my tutoring!” he announced himself, standing in the open door to his friend’s room, who quickly beckons him inside. Steve’s heavy steps follow and soon he’s the one standing in the door frame, arms crossed, while Eddie bounces on Dustin’s bed.

“What do you mean the likes of me?” he asks, almost pouting. 

“Mainstream,” offered Dustin, shuffling through stuff on his desk.

“Jocks,” added Eddie, still bouncing with glee, hair following up and down.

“Normies.”

“Pop listeners.”

“Mom friends.”

“Conformists.”

“Okay, I get it!” Steve threw his hands in the air, stopping the list that probably wouldn’t come to an end otherwise. “You’re the cool guys, have fun having your cool stuff,” he huffed angrily, grabbing the doorknob. Before he closed the door he threw one seething glance at Dustin. “Do not. Ask me for snacks,” he hissed before slamming the door shut.

Eddie flipped back on the bed, a wide grin splitting his face.

“Man, your brother is so easy to rile up,” he chuckled gleefully.

“Right?! He’s so bitchy,” Dusting turned around towards him, signature smile in place. Eddie hollered.

“He is!”

Alas, a slap of palms interrupted his delightful trashing around.

“I believe we have some physics to cover?”

Eddie groaned. Right. He didn’t come here to bother the older Henderson. Booo.

[Steddie masterpost] [Ao3] [ko-fi]

[tia-amorosa]

Sunset Died - Wolff/Sekemoto

Granny's warmth

Later. By now it was early evening. After Sam came home from school, he was still quite quiet. But he had been given some homework to do. “Thornton, can… Can you help me with these tasks?"/ ‘Um, sure, let me see…’.

The tasks were not unsolvable, but Sam only joined the class late. As a result, he is a little behind on some things. But he quickly understands the connections, which then lead to solutions in the end. “OK, I didn't get it into my head that quickly back then. That was good"/ ‘thanks… There's someone at school who I've known a bit longer’.

“Oh yeah? And who is it?"/ ”Malcolm Landgraab. He's just as clever as me”. Thornton had to smile and looked a little skeptical. “aha, you mean, yes?"/ ”mhm. And we can draw at school when there's a break. Someone made music today… That was great"/ ‘So… Do you like the school?’. Sam looked at his paper and shrugged his shoulders. “I can't say yet, but I'm going back tomorrow”..

Morgana listened to the conversation while she summarized a few things for work on her laptop. She was amazed that Sam showed little sadness despite the great loss of his grandmother. Either he was adept at hiding his grief or he was processing everything a little differently. “I'll get dinner ready for us.”.

For dinner, Morgana had made something she hadn't had for a long time. And she happened to have the ingredients in the house. Even if the sauce came out of a bag. “I hope you still like spaghetti?"/ ”mhm. Dad liked it too, I think"/ ‘Yes, I remember when I was at the restaurant once, he was there too and he ate a big plate of spaghetti, hn.’.

“I overheard your conversation earlier, Sam… You met Malcolm?"/ ”mhm. I knew him from kindergarten… But he wasn't there often because he was always sick"/ ”that's right, he didn't have such a strong immune system as a small child. It's slowly getting better now… He's a really nice boy. Maybe you'll become really good friends later on”.

“Let's see… Did you actually have many friends, Thornton?"/ ‘Me? Hm, not many, no… But there was one I did all sorts of nonsense with’/ ‘What?’/ ‘Um, I think I'd better tell you when you're the right age’/ ”Hm… All right. I'll go to bed after dinner"/ ‘o.k., would you like…’/ ‘No, no bedtime story.’..

After dinner, Sam retired to his room. He changed into his sleeping clothes and was about to go to bed. Then he noticed that Morgana had put his grandmother's book on his bedside table. He looked at it silently and without any expression on his face. “Dad said it contains everything I need to know. I haven't had that feeling since Grandma left”.

“So that means…That no one will die in the next few days or…hours. Hh-hh…It's strange not to hear her breathing. I wonder if she'll mind if I sleep in her bed? Mine always squeaks like that…”. Sam thought long and hard about whether he should lie in his grandmother's bed. But he just felt the need to be a little close to her…

What no one really paid attention to in the last few days was a letter on Yumi's bedside table. But today it caught Sam's attention. He took a quick look at it. It said “For Morgana & Thornton” in small letters. “hm, I'll give rhem the envelope tomorrow. Grandma's bed… It's much warmer than mine”. He quickly slipped under the covers and fell asleep faster than the nights before.

The adults are usually the last to go to bed. But when Thornton came into the bedroom, Morgana was sobbing in front of the crib. “Is something wrong?”/ “h-h, no, I… I was just thinking about how she used to stand here and talk to Maureen”/ “She really liked the little one”.

He went to her and gave her a loving, comforting hug. Then she plucked at a crease in his sweater with her fingertips. “Yes, she really has. And Maureen will soon be a bit bigger again. Time goes by so quickly"/ ”That's true. I miss her too, even if it was strange every time she thought I was her son"/ ‘but you always acted the right way’.

“So you're… A little proud of me?” he asked in a quiet, almost mischievous tone. This allowed him to elicit a small grin from her. “Yes, I'm really proud of you, hn. But… Don't look at me like that, I…"/ ”Hey, don't worry, I'm not in the mood either. But can I still look at you?"/ "‘hnhn, sure.’.

While her parents went to bed, Maureen looked around a little. Her field of vision didn't give her many options, but sometimes there was a fine veil that hovered over her bed. It made her smile. As if there was something familiar there.

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

@greenplumbboblover ⭐

[magicalmikuri]

Some of my favorite Lostwave Songs - Solved and Unsolved

For those looking for cool obscure music, lostwave is your friend! Don't mind me geeking out about unidentified or previously unidentified music aaa!

Solved -

Making Dedication by First Person - Probably my favorite lostwave song period. Beautiful lyrics. I found it took me a few listens before I really started appreciating it.

Cyan Daze by Chimera - THIS SONG IS ABSOLUTELY SLAMMIN' IT'S SO GOOOOOOD.

L.A. Woman by P.J. Marcus - If I had a nickel for every time I really loved a song called "L.A. Woman", I'd have two nickles. Which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice.

The Livin' and the Dyin' by Jim Dawson - Really beautiful song and an early lostwave solve!

On the Roof by Johan Lindell - The original "most mysterious song on the internet". Absolutely slammin'.

Traveling Minstrel by Richard Torrance - No fish.

Bird On a Wing by Rare Bird - Absolutely bangin' song, lovin' this dude's voice.

Common Hound by The Blind Venetians - Another early lostwave solve and absolutely awesome song.

Early in the Morning (Demo Version) by Excalibur - Much better than the final version imo. This song makes me feel like a 80s wizard shooting lightning out of his hands, which is extremely high praise if you ask me.

Little Islands by The Gallery - Great song with an emotional story behind its search. I'm so happy it's finally solved.

Ready n' Steady by D.A. - Not a unidentified song but a lost song! Well, now it's found but you get the idea. Deserved a release imo.

George Sand by Antonia and the Operators - Bangin' song. I wish there was more by this band they're so good honestly???

Organ by Jon Lord - This was solved in like 10 seconds but still worth putting on here. I love a good neo-classical piece.

Unsolved -

"The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet" - You know I had to put this here.

"Fond My Mind" - Another classic lostwave song. They gotta solve this and TMMS eventually right? RIGHT???

"Wait Forever" - Very ethereal sounding. I really love this one. It's possibly by a German band called the In Tensions or the Intentions but there's no record of them anywhere online?

"Deluded" - Probably one of my favorites. This song SLAPS. The vocalist's performance is delightfully unhinged.

"Baby It's Not Too Late" - Song from an... *ahem* adult film, that's absolutely slammin'. A lot of vintage porn has great music for some reason??? Unfortunately this is likely unsolvable.

"I'm Almost In Love" - Another vintage porn song. This song has an absolutely awesome saxophone and keyboard part??? Also I have no idea why Barni used a picture of some pandas but I'm not complaining. Unfortunately this may be unsolvable.

"Losing My Patience" - Possibly from a porn film??? It's got that energy. I love the guitar solo here.

"Fly Away" - Another famous lostwave, this time from Japan! Despite the slightly unnerving tone, the lyrics are quite mundane???

"Light the Lanterns" - Sometimes called "The Third Most Mysterious Song on the Internet". I love the surreal lyrics.

"Writing from the Train" - Underrated lostwave song. Switches between two different languages for some reason???

"One More Chance" - I really like this one because I feel it has vintage anime vibes for some reason???

"Cat Swimming Guitar Solo" - Awesome guitar solo and Barni put a picture of a cat swimming for some reason, so exactly what it says on the tin!

There's so many more lostwave songs I wanna gush about so I might do a part 2???

[queenoffishingandcookies]

This has spoilers for umineko, careful if you chose to read.

Sometimes I remember that Eva’s birthday is on October 21st.

I’m not sure how old she actually is since the year the adults were born was never released (to my knowledge), but in my headcanons she’s somewhere around 50 - 52 at the time of the Rokkenjima Incident.

Eva would have ‘celebrated’ her 50-something birthday, knowing that all of her family - with exception to Ange, who hadn’t been on the island - was dead.

Her son, her husband, her two other nieces and just-returned nephew - her younger siblings, her in-laws, her elder brother.

She would have gotten one year older, and known that it was - in part - her fault that none of the children would get any older. Not her precious George, not Jessica or Battler, not even little Maria.

Whether she intended to or not, Eva shot the first bullet. Eva committed the first murder that night, involuntary manslaughter or murder to some degree - and everything spiraled from there.

The witch had set up the board (not a game, not to her, because she’d been serious-) ready for murder and, when found out, had given them a second chance at living their lives - lives that otherwise would have been lost, for good.

(The message bottles that washed up later told only too seriously of how that girl - the witch - really had intended to murder them all of the epitaph remained unsolved. Though, in the end, her mercy hadn’t mattered because Eva -)

At the end, in the dying hours of October 4th and the birth of the 5th, that chance was thrown away like a rose ripped from its roots.

A mistake that birthed a massacre, the truth of which would be forever sealed away within her diary - obscured by a witch’s shadow and an island destroyed by explosion, trapped forever inside a little catbox sealed by a key now only Eva could unlock, swept away by the ocean waves.

(The debris field must have been massive, and someone must have heard the explosion go off, even if the cause was unknown).

It left her entirely alone, on a day where she would have once been surrounded by her loved ones.

October 21st, 1986 - Eva faces the prospect of outliving those she never should have outlived.

She goes to her grave knowing she wasn't the true culprit, and still - at the same time - it was in part her fault.

[belit0]

Killer - TobiIzu (part 2)

Okay, so a comment from EyesofNeptune8004 on my ao3 collection made me re-read chapter 28, and I decided it was way too good as to finish it there.

My past self, the one who created this shi, was rly rly gone when she did it, so im not sure about having the yandere-psyco-crazy touch anymore, but i wanted to try cause this one is truly interesting.

ao3 collection - chap 28

Madara knocks on the door of Izuna's apartment for the tenth time, standing in the complex's corridor and carrying a bag of groceries in his hand. He brings with him a little bit of everything, food, cleaning products, bathroom essentials. He has seen his little brother a couple of times since he was found in that cheap motel, and is worried about the state of mind he might be in.

The scene was heartbreakingly clear, and he blames himself for not paying attention. Izuna has been in the field for a while, working in the trenches and with hard cases, but throwing him in headfirst to deal with the worst serial killer they'd had in years wasn't the wisest thing to do on his part.

He thought he was ready to take on a case as important as that one, and had no hope of getting any breakthroughs on it. The only thing police knew about the murderer was his name, and only because he allowed them to find it out, serving it to them on a silver platter.

Tobirama had appeared overnight and did not take long to make them understand he would keep on acting until they found him, but the crime scenes he left behind him were so clean, immaculate, no evidence could be extracted beyond what could be seen with the naked eye.

Victims of any age, children and adults, men and women, all marked by 3 red cuts on the face, and a note on the chest with a word written on it, "Tobirama". They suspected it might not even be his real name, having searched the database a million times without coming up with a match. Or maybe the man was so meticulous to the point of having wiped himself off the face of the earth, eliminating his persona to operate at ease.

The officers nicknamed him "the white demon," based on the few testimonies they had collected of his multiple acts, all reporting a white-haired man near the scene prior to the attack.

Whatever they were dealing with, Madara had no hope of solving it soon or even finding anything to help them move forward. Bodies continued to turn up everywhere in the city, and police hope was dwindling.

His younger brother had been complaining to him for months because Madara only assigned him simple situations, small kidnappings way too easy to solve, overly obvious murders, stupid robberies, so he thought giving Izuna an unsolvable case would be just what he needed.

He wanted a challenge? He would give him a challenge.

Madara saw far too many cases less serious than this one being shelved for lack of evidence and figured he'd assign it to him just to make his brother feel important.

Big mistake.

He knocks on the apartment door again, and raises his voice to break through the piece of wood separating them "Izuna... I don't want to have to use the key, please." Sure, his brother left him a copy when he moved out of the house, an emergency key in case he lost his, but Madara tries to assess the situation differently.

If the younger Uchiha manages to get out of bed and open the door for him, not everything is lost. He has visited him since that night, but he can never get this one to get up.

"I'm coming in..." he whispers more to himself than anything else, taking the key out of his pocket and opening the door. All the windows are closed, curtains covering the glass, and it looks like there hasn't been sunlight in the place for weeks.

Several empty food containers are visible from the entrance, scattered all over the floor and reaching into the room. Izuna is probably still in bed, not having gotten up except to go to the bathroom or eat.

Madara makes his way through all the trash surrounding the floor, kicking things to get to the kitchen in order to leave the groceries he bought for his brother in the fridge. When he opens it, puffing in distress, he is greeted by a terrible stench, something probably rotten that has been there for a good few days.

There are tears in his eyes, and he doesn't know if it's because of the strong smell or because of the image that rotten meat brings to his mind. Izuna told him, a few days before everything happened, he would prepare a special dinner for him as a celebration for having solved one of the most controversial cases of recent times, that of the red-eyed assassin. Madara, in charge of the investigation department of the police, had been working with all his concentration on catching the ruffian who was terrorizing the local park, and perhaps that was what made him stop paying attention to what his younger brother was doing with the white demon's case.

He didn't even know about the special clue Izuna received.

He holds his nose and tries to close the refrigerator tightly, the door jamming with the trash on the floor and unable to close all the way. He ends up slamming the appliance, venting the anger he feels about the whole situation and wipes his wet eyes with the back of his hand.

This is his fault. He could have prevented it if he hadn't underestimated the situation, if he had paid attention to his brother's wanderings.

It's his job, to coordinate all the detectives in the department and make sure they do a good job, but he lost sight of the one he most cared about, and threw him into the lion's den without knowing it.

The white demon had broken his modus operandi with Izuna, tracked and investigated him, marked him, and took him where he wanted and how he wanted. He had complete control of the situation from start to finish, and made the Uchiha act as he wanted, handling him like a puppet. He guided him to a secluded place, using clever words and manipulating him not to alert anyone.

Lacking experience, Izuna fell for his scheme. He’s lucky to be alive.

Why is he alive?

He had been found passed out in a motel room, his pants off and his shirt unbuttoned, his face red and wet from what appeared to be tears. The position in which his body was discovered denoted sexual abuse at first glance, with marks all over his rear area and even some blood between his legs.

The policemen who first arrived at the scene did not dare to go in until Madara was there, and it was he who came face to face with the image, covering the exposed body of his younger brother with his jacket, and carrying him in his arms to his own car.

The examination at the hospital was the most difficult part, and the younger Uchiha had to be sedated so as not to attack the nurses trying to conduct the abuse assessment. Izuna was unconscious for the next 24 hours, resting at Madara's house, but upon regaining awareness, he demanded to return home.

The way he cried to go back to his apartment, the violence with which he insisted his older brother listen, the urgency with which he communicated his need to get there, was unnatural. He would not allow anyone to touch him, nor would he allow them to take his cell phone to investigate possible breaches in the system, ways in which the killer could have gotten to him. Madara didn't have the heart to contradict him, feeling too guilty to deny him anything, letting him keep the phone and going home.

From then on, Izuna refused to leave his apartment, taking refuge within the four walls of his house and seeking comfort in solitude, not getting out of bed and having trouble eating. He began to forego mundane tasks, necessary for human functioning, and the older Uchiha had to assist him with the simplest of things. Bathing, combing his hair, eating. Between his long work shifts and the demands of an entire department, Madara tries to find time to visit him, to help him, but life doesn't wait. Doctors gave him a barrage of medications for his mental state, but he refused to take even one.

Izuna withdrew into himself.

Consumed by anger and resignation, he walks through the garbage to get to his brother's room. It pains him to see the mess his home has become, and he can't help but remember the pristine state in which he kept his place before this happened. Izuna was always a man of neatness and tidiness, always groomed and well dressed, perfumed, ready to conquer whomever he wanted. The state in which his apartment is at the moment only reflects the inside of his head.

Now everything seems to have changed, and if someone were to see the situation without knowing its background, they would probably think it was the home of a hoarder. Where once there were beautiful decorations and family photos, now there are only empty soda cans and unlit cigarettes. The floor adorned by a beautiful carpet now lies covered with dirty clothes and empty food containers, a few full trash bags here and there.

Heartbreaking.

On the bed, an amorphous figure is visible under several quilts and blankets, and a head of matted hair peeks above the mess. Madara approaches slowly, not wanting to startle him, not knowing if he is asleep or awake, "Zuna...? Are you-" he jumps back in surprise, raising his fists reflexively as his younger brother lunges at him with a knife.

He brings him down before he can hurt him, trapping him under his arms on the bed and disarming him with experienced movements. Izuna was always the more agile of the two, but the one who least evaluates his moves before executing them.

"IZUNA! IT'S ME!" Exorbitant eyes stare at him intently, and he knows his younger brother must be trapped in a terrible loop of flashbacks and bad memories, horrible enough to sleep with a knife under his pillow. He concentrates his gaze on Izuna and can appreciate how different moods and reactions travel across his countenance, ending in heavy tears.

The younger Uchiha was never one to cry, but it seems to be the only thing he can do lately.

He disarms beneath him, freeing his hands and turning on the mattress, covering his face and refusing to confront him, "I'm sorry" is all he dares to say, repeating it over and over again like a mantra.

"It's okay, it's okay, you're safe..." He helps him up and hugs him tightly, hoping his arms can give him comfort, some sense of relief, his perfume helping him out of this horrible mental place he finds himself in.

Between words of encouragement and caresses on his back, Madara manages to lead him to the shower, preparing the water to a nice warm temperature, going to look for a bottle of his favorite shampoo among the groceries he bought for him. Helping him undress as one would assist a small child, he can't help but tear up inside at the fragility of his younger brother.

Izuna is just a hint of his former self, pale and consumed by anguish, skinny to an unhealthy level.

Once underwater, Madara estimates he has about forty minutes of productivity, using the time to clean up the mess all over the apartment. He bags piles and piles of garbage, mostly cans and plastic, clearing the floor at least enough for him to walk without stepping on objects as he goes.

He wipes down those shelves full of cigarettes, washes the dishes, and picks up a thousand trays of food scattered on the ground. He even has time to swipe a damp cloth on the mirror the younger Uchiha likes to use to dress himself.

Izuna finishes with the bath just as his older brother attends to changing his sheets, entering the room already clothed and with a towel wrapped around his hair. "Are you done? Need help with that?" The police chief points to the abandoned comb on the dresser, and when the other nods wordlessly, takes it and attacks the tangle he's had in his hair for days.

Madara likes to imagine each knot he manages to untangle is one step closer to getting his little brother back, working the hair patiently and restoring it to the neat look he enjoyed wearing.

"Look at you, all nice and tidy..." There is no reaction under his hands, and he knows not even the smallest gestures will be able to pull him out of the hole he fell into. No matter how much he helps, his efforts seem to be in vain. "I was wondering about taking your phone for investigation now...? I brought you a new one, new number and all, just to be safe."

Madara still hoped his brother would eventually come to his senses, regain his innate police thinking and understand it was necessary to hand over the device for research. There's a chance it could be the biggest breakthrough in the whole case, but the elder Uchiha didn't want to impose his rank and seize it without permission.

Maybe he should have, because days go by and Izuna doesn't hand it over, yet this is his younger brother, not just any victim.

There is no way of knowing if the white demon infiltrated his life through technology, not knowing Tobirama's age and capabilities. The biggest possibility is that he tracked him by his cell phone, intruding into his private life without the detective even knowing.

"No." Is all he replies, not moving from the spot despite Madara being done with his hair. The police chief snorts with indignation, but refuses to give up the fight so easily. "I got the contact information from that therapist Itachi used when he needed it, remember? He's a great guy, they say he's really good at what he does... I made an appointment for you to see him." He grabs the phone he brought for his brother as a replacement for the one that might be tapped, and hands it to him.

Izuna, unmoving, doesn't even look up, nor does he hold the device when it is passed to him.

"His name is Hashirama and... where is it, Izuna?" He asks looking in all directions, searching with his eyes for the phone. and remembering not seeing it when he tidied the room. "Where did you hide it-" A buzzing sounds in the bed, and the pillow lights up slightly. Having changed the sheets, the Uchiha is surprised he didn't notice it, and as he opens the cover, he tries to understand why his brother is so stubborn about keeping that damn phone with him.

An unbecoming attitude of Izuna, it seems he is trying to hide the device, not to see it.

The Uchiha, like any young adult, finds that smartphone a must-have, always carrying it with him everywhere he goes and never letting the battery run out. The typical person who takes thirty pictures of food before eating, now keeps the phone buried in the bed, as if trying to ignore it or make it disappear.

It doesn't make sense.

The screen lights up again when he finds it between the pillow stuffing, with 10% battery remaining and a message from an unknown number just delivered to his inbox. He can't read the contents of it since the system doesn't recognize his facial structure, but something doesn't sit right with him about the situation.

"I don't need any therapist or any medication I-"

"I'm not asking you, I'm simply informing you. You will go, it's a fact, this can't go on like this. Why did you hide it there? What are you not telling me?" Madara gives no room for argument, taking the old phone and stashing it in his coat. He doesn't bother with an evidence bag, having broken the usual protocol since he found Izuna at the motel.

"If you check it, there's no going back Aniki." He replies slowly, in an almost imperceptible tone of voice, not daring to look at him. There is something in his words that unnerves him and puts him on alert, as if his younger brother is premonishing something.

"Maybe it will allow us to move on. I'm going to catch him, Zuna, promise. I brought you food, please eat something." He assumes it's about his trauma, reliving that terrible moment once the team manages to discover information on his phone and finally have material to track him down. Madara is convinced this little device has everything he needs to stop the assassin, and he will not rest until he has sentenced him to death.

Izuna does not answer, but seems to want to say something. He looks up and appears to deeply admire him, as if he wanted to engrave the image of his older brother in his memory. He is about to speak, but Madara's personal cell phone buzzes, the ringtone flooding the room.

He looks at the screen before answering, "Obito" reflecting back on the phone, and gives him a kiss on the crown of his head before leaving. "I have to get back to the station, but call me if you need anything, yes?" he strokes his wet hair, and whispers a small " I love you" to which he receives no reply. He makes sure to lock the door once outside and carries in his hands all the garbage bags he gathered in the apartment.

That's the last time he sees his brother before everything goes to hell.

[wack-ashimself]

Oh me swearing, talking about genocide, and an island where they kidnap and rape kids* is too adult for your kids?

Know what I find 'too adult'? Yelling/beating your kids to listen, then telling them if they don't, they will SUFFER FOR ALL ETERNITY BURNING IN HELL.

THAT is fucking adult.

Because mine is being direct, forthright, and honest about the world. I ain't trying to hide or mislead them in any way. If anything, make them ready for it. Yours is scaring them into submission thru threat of forever torture. We are not the same.

*btw, telling them about the evils of the world prepares them for it so they won't be first on the cutting board. Kids get kidnapped, PERIOD. But also cuz they don't get told what to look for or that they could get kidnapped. You don't even want to know how many missing kids cases go unsolved (hint: SIGNIFICANTLY FAR MORE THAN SOLVED!)

[writerig]

alrighty besties, these have some mystery and shit but also dark themes- so please don't read if you don't like darker themes-

The police sirens were still echoing at the back. The corpse would definitely need a post mortem - or at least according to the laws it would.

And Yumi in fact hated this whole thing - the corpse being of her sister. Her eyes were attached to the corpse and she can't even run up to that dead body which once was alive.

Even though there was some distance between the corpse, she could see the differences. It had a small thin line on her neck. Which was neat since it was barely noticeable.

Of course, this wasn't a matter of someone killing themselves. This was a murder. Sure there were a few scars on her hand which probably the killers tried to make her look like she did it by herself, but alas, that was a poor attempt.

"This is a murder-" "I know." The woman spoke. It was well aware, that Charlie would know that. What was Yumi doing? Perhaps making a fool out of herself.

"If so, then we can investigate it, right Charl?" The tall woman remained silent, she bit her lip.

"No." "...no? Why not-"

Charlie took a deep breath, her fingers running through her face as she let out a sigh. "You know that everyone here is bought with money, right? That over here any one can die. There's no such thing as justice over here."

"I too have influence-"

Yumi was shot with a look. "Oh? Darling, you don't have enough influence yet. What are you? A CEO? Yes, that's right you are but you have a spokes person for you. Doesn't really matter because that bastard has more of influence then you do. Starting to model? Yes, you will get some recognition. Yes, people are will to die for you - well your body and you can tell them lies, but till how long? Not like, you will become supermodel in one day."

She took a deep breath before looking at Yumi. "Yes, true you helped Sophie with half of the cases, that you got the info, but this? Darling just no. It might cost you your life."

"I am ready for that." Of course, Yumi would be determined. Once she made up her mind there was no way that she would let that mystery go. Especially right now.

"Are you going to stop me-?" "Hon, I know I can't."

Charlie smiled at the child - well know a legal adult. "I will get back to you with details when the piece of shit tells us some info. Though it might take a day or two."

Yumi's frowned, a day or two? That's a long time. "At least tell me something useful-"

"Sorry hon, can't do that right now. I have to go."

And Yumi was back with her thoughts. To pin point on who had murdered her sister. The motive was clear, it had to be related to be one of her cases, the cons of being a lawyer.

She took one look at the corpse of her sister, pale as ever. Her eyes closed. Blood on her black coat as she was carried to the ambulance, for God knows what.

Even if they were to classify the case as murder, they'd just find a random person and make them view the killer by some random bullshit which would somehow close the case.

Or maybe they would not even bother doing that. Simply classify it as unsolved.

There were many possibilities and she didn't know in which one to look at.

@yourlocalintrovertt , @starboo-txt , @hollowedart

[signalwatch]

Tarzan Watch: Greystoke - the Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984)

this is the most pretentious possible Tarzan poster

Watched:  04/10/2023

Format:  HBOmax

Viewing:  First

Director:  Hugh Hudson

I can only imagine what the pitch meeting was for this movie, and I can totally see how it happened.  

In 1981, Hugh Hudson had directed Chariots of Fire, a movie that was a smash hit about pasty British guys running foot races and worrying about religion.  Like, you couldn't escape the movie, which I watched on TV once when I was sick as a kid and immediately erased from my memory.  But it was a big @#$%ing deal when adults went to the cinema.  

I'm sure it's great.  But it was an unlikely hit, and won Best Picture.  Career made for somebody.

So when the director of the footrace movie comes to you and says "we're gonna do Tarzan.  But now it's a prestige costume drama about how Tarzan is, in fact, a very sad ape man.  He is not a super-human living among men, continually pursued by hot women and fighting weird alien threats and large animals.  Instead, he's a kind of skinny French guy who does stuff you've seen apes do at the zoo.  But, you know, it's quite sad" I guess you trust and give that guy a sack of cash to give it a go.

A bunch of other people had seen this movie, and had more or less ape-blocked me from seeing it over the years as every time I said "I've not seen this, but I'd like to" I'd be told "No.  It is not good."  And I was like "okay, fair enough."  But tonight that didn't work, and I settled in for 2 hours and 15 minutes of sad Tarzan.

Look, at the end of the day, someone needed to realize a grown man imitating an ape is not what Tarzan is, exactly.  Or that this would be a good thing to see on screen when it did happen.  I don't know if they thought they were getting the magic on camera by having Christopher Lambert oop every time he felt an emotion, or basically having him play an ape who occasionally mutters short sentences.  Frankly, this Tarzan seems positively ready for an institution, and so it makes for an utterly unbuyable love story between John Greystoke and Jane Porter, but it's the sexy 80's, so you know they're gonna bang.  And, indeed, they do.

I've read the first Tarzan book, seen a few other Tarzan movies and read (and re-read) a Marvel comics adaptation of the first part of the first novel a fair bit, and you kind of realize the quick pitch version of the Greystokes winding up in Africa and their time there before things go sideways is more crucial than this movie thought.  Add in that this movie really, really struggles with whether Tarzan is a feral person or has the astonishing intellect of the Tarzan of the novel in order to hew closer to a very 1980's story about man and nature, man's nature and nurture, and lacking basic reasoning skills in early 20th Century Scotland.

I can maybe get with a "but what if Tarzan really happened?" angle, but you're in a constant state of "yes, but..." regression that more or less flatlines at baby John Clayton dead in the jungle two days after his discovery by Kala.  So you have to maybe accept even more, but more nuanced, absurdities than even the original novel doles out in order to buy the film.  The casting of Lambert is odd, in part because he's not exactly Johnny Weismuller, and it's difficult to believe this guy survived in the jungle against apes and leopards. But it's the fact that when Tarzan is home, he's both utterly alien to himself and the world around him, but no one seems to notice?  As he's all but flinging poo, people are just jabbering away at him.  

What's oddest is that because Lambert is fairly successful at becoming an ape(mentally), it feels as if there's no inner world to Tarzan in some ways.  We have no idea if he understands anything said to him, or the complexity of his predicament.  He self soothes by ooping and rolling around.  It's incredibly weird that the movie doesn't seem to think this is a problem.  Or maybe it's an unsolvable problem?  There's just a peculiar distance between the characters and the viewer, all of them - not just Clayton, that it's a bit odd.  

All of that is, in it's way... kind of passable.  But the movie is also morbidly predictable.  Maybe it's the era, or maybe it's that they treat Tarzan more like a cub in Born Free than a human character, but you know this shit ends with Tarzan seeing his kindly grandfather/ benefactor croaking and the demands of the world becoming too much so he wanders back into the jungle to sweeping orchestral music before our ape man ever leaves the jungle.  You know Jane will stand there impassiveley while Tarzan chooses a swift death in the jungle over endless food, luxury and sex with an actual human.  You know the noble Belgian will try to get him back to the jungle when, frankly, he's probably gonna get killed after living soft for a year.

I am sure this felt mind-blowingly clever as they were making it, but the end result is a sad man making monkey noises for 90 minutes, and then running away.  And that's maybe not what people were thinking of when they showed up to see a Tarzan flick with a budget.   

Jamie mentioned the movie felt weirdly disjointed, and upon review...  yeah.  It kinda was.  The movie can feel like it's borrowing from movies you already know, but doesn't do much with those storylines, so it's like these barely realized vignettes.  Like - the entire storyline of Jane having a suitor goes nowhere and doesn't really do what it's intended to do - ie: show Jane how Tarzan is more noble than the nobleman.  She doesn't see him beat the young helper guy.  She doesn't see Tarzan save the day.  She just dumps the guy for reasons that are vague (I mean, except wanting to live in a sweet mansion).  That's just an example.  The movie kind of does a lot of this.

It's a shame, because there's maybe a path for a Tarzan movie that tries to ground itself a bit more.  But the 1980's was probably the last decade to tell a story about Tarzan without culture's need to navigate and acknowledge Europe's fuckery in colonial Africa.  I think now you'd need to set the story post WWII or something and be careful.  ERB's original prose isn't quite as racist as you'd expect, but it's certainly a product of its time (ie: it's still racist, just not as nut punchingly straightforwardly racist as other things you'll stumble over).  

I kinda liked the 2016 Tarzan, because (a) the casting was rock solid (b) 3rd reel animal rampage and (c) making Lord Greystoke here anti-Colonial and giving a convincing argument for his desire to return home.  It's got issues, and I wanted more monkey-business, but it was all right.  That said - it was still mostly a reminder:  oh my god.  This is really hard now.

Anyway, I'm glad I finally watched it.  It made excellent use of Andie McDowall's frankly stunning hair.  Rick Baker's ape suits were everything I'd read about.  The set and locations look phenomenal.  There were genuine moments of hope for me that this might be better than expected.    

https://ift.tt/m9dawB2

from The Signal Watch https://ift.tt/2mAZjzG

[eldridgerpg]

BASIC INFORMATION

full name → Cherie Windsor. current age → Twenty-Seven Years Old. neighborhood → Downtown. status → unavailable

PERSONALITY

positive → Supportive, Reliable, Candid. negative → Impatient, Obsessive, Opportunistic.

BACKSTORY

In her early years, Cherie was known as little Amara Greene, the first and only little girl to the young Liliana Greene, her father unknown. Their life faced many hardships and quite honestly, Liliana wasn’t fit, or ready to be a mother when she had Amara, though she tried her best to give her the life she deserved, even if it would only be for three years. Cherie doesn’t remember much of her childhood, her memories fading as the years progress. It’s very…confusing and blurry, the pieces not quite sticking together, but her questions are always brushed off by her parents Mark and Priscilla, often excused by a drowning incident she’d supposedly suffered when she was a toddler. She very much forced herself into the role of the black sheep, mostly to rebel against her parents, and really to keep the fake friends from hanging around. The moment anyone learned her name it was like dollar signs were filled in their eyes, even now as an adult she debates changing her last name. However, she is truly grateful for those that do stick around and would do anything for everyone in her circle. Her interest in true crime peaked at a pretty young age, getting lost in unsolved documentaries, somehow always thinking she would be one to solve the mystery. Her podcast Foul Play started around the time the disappearances and killings began to arise in Eldridge, with some cases more difficult than others to cover, but the money is decent and she does truly love getting to talk about and dive into true crime basically for a living.

[castle-dominion]

c4x6 demons

Nice big moon there oh yes buzzfeed unsolved moments! I should finish watching that with my older bro... Where's the van outside tho? How do the doors close again? Maybe ghosts ARE real. Like in murdoch mysteries & then it was never again acknowledged that murdoch could see ghosts What can he see? I thought the thing came from you-know-where?

AC, on her dad's lap as they watch a movie together but then he tilts her in front of him: Dad, are you using me as a shield against flesh-eating zombies? She looks so adult. & oddly tanned. RC: I know he's busy, and you are very thoughtful to be so accommodating, sweetheart, but a healthy relationship is based on mutual respect. I mean, think about what kind of signal you're sending if you're the one always re-arranging your schedule at the other one's every beck and call. I mean, if you just drop everything the very moment that— *beckett calls* *castle drops everything at her call*

RC: The Ghost Wranglers are here? Okay, that's why I love these guys. Body's not even cold, they're already tracking down the ghost. KB: Why doesn't it surprise me that you actually watch that ridiculous show? GIRL SHUT UP RC: Ridiculously awesome. Jack Sinclair is, *becks turns to him in shock* hands down, America's most accomplished ghost hunter. KB: Um...Castle...Jack Sinclair is the name of our victim.

LP: His throat was slit almost from ear to ear, jugular, superior thyroid, common carotid left and right. You name it, it's been severed. Sexy Can't you be behind the guy? Heck yeah ghost killer! She works with dead ppl don't let her believe in ghosts

Oh nice maybe they caught the murder on camera castle explaining what it means <3 So many angles! Mum & I both immediately knew it wasn't begging for mercy. An emp maybe? (btw I'm pronouncing it émp' like in rvb when they were arguing abt it) GIRL IF THEY HAD AN ARGUMENT THAT IS A RECENT UPSET IN RELATIONSHIPS, THAT'S WHAT THEY ASKED ABOUT

Ryan's nice red sweater over his suit uwu JE: Right. Hey, we're still on for dinner tomorrow night, right? Me: what? Maybe it's a game night or smth not a date haha KR: Oh, yeah, Jenny's totally psyched. Me: oh KR: She's never really hung out with Lanie before, so *full body nod* cool. JE: Well, just to let you know, Lanie's gonna be getting off a double shift. So, she could be a little cranky. KR: Oh. *squints eyes* Maybe we should reschedule. I mean, isn't the whole point for Jenny and Lanie to get along? JE: Nah, she'll be cool. Just, you know, don't say anything controversial. KR, walking back over & crossing arms: Like what? What's controversial? [The computer makes a sound.] JE: Bingo. KR: Bingo. Don't talk about Bingo? JE: No. *gestures with some irritation* Barry Bavetta's been busy, and so has his lap. Dude has racked up a hell of a tab at a strip club

RC: We heard you were racking up quite a bill. Or is that billing quite a rack?

Sounds like he said he did kill the guy but obv it couldn't have been him. "you decided to prove him wrong"

Killing time was KIND OF funny "apparition american" KB: You'll see, Castle. This'll turn out just like every other murder investigation. *Ryan walks up looking concerned.* Once we find out more about our victim's life, the details surrounding his death, everything will be explained. KR: Um…maybe not everything. Mr irish folklore over there he looks SO mildly concerned & shaken & I LOVE it, good acting b'y *gestures politely to send castle in first* Caught a ghost! So cool!

Posting that intro on my blog

B'y surely u got SOME sleep esposito smiling watching castle set up his ghost murder board *drank her coffee* RC: ready for this? Espt *nods* RC: a demon

RC: That's not a real thing, you know. That real ghost hunters use. JE: "Real" ghost hunters? Isn't that a contradiction in terms, bro? Oxymoron? Nah man let people have their beliefs I thought that "I do" was Ryan Ooh Ryan nice tie! RC: You see? I am telling you, there is something going on with this house. The last people-- to-- *Castle tries to flip the board back around, but Beckett stops him.* RC: The last people that lived there moved out four years ago in a hurry. KR, breathy: Why? RC: I don't know, but I think it's time we found out. KB: Knock yourself out, Castle. RC: You're not coming? KB: No. I've got a murder to solve. KR sidles up to castle, eyes wide, eyebrow raised, mouth open: I'll go. *softly* [Beckett gives Ryan a look. Castle smiles at Ryan, then turns and sees Beckett's expression and his face falls. Beckett narrows her eyes.] RC: Ooh. That's a look. KR, looking down & to the side: Yeah. RC: I get these a lot. Just start walking. Faster. [Beckett watches them leave, then smiles & looks over at the empty coffee cups.] Ryan really is becoming castle jr!

Poor beckett, castle drank her coffee then said he'd make her one then he doesn't & she burns herself on it. I like the idea of ryckett & casito but rn we have some rystle & especkett scenes. JE: Yo. I, uh, just saw Ryan downstairs. I can't believe you let him go chasing ghosts with Castle. KB: Yeah. Maybe Shaggy'll keep Scooby out of trouble. Besides, you never know, maybe they'll come up with something useful. JE: Oh, you want useful. *sarcastic surprise* 'Cause I just spoke to CSU. They found fingerprints at the scene from a real live person, so… *points & wiggles finger* Becks still has the coffee with her

Girl maybe he thinks he was molested by a ghost it is not your business to make fun of the (probably psychological) issues of a man in prison! Wow the grammar & spelling... the handwriting is fine

Poor guy, he has to live with his mom bc he's an ex-con, he violated his parole for the guy who ruined his prison life, I just really feel for this guy. Prophesy vibes

This is so cool & cute & funny & scary! RC, trying not to show his excitement over the ghost: Oh, my God, that's terrible Ryan looking mildly freaked out is my new favourite thing Mercedes King & Mercy LaGrande are both cool names KB: So the question is, how is she involved in all of this? *rystle look at each other & hop up quickly* RC: Uh, well, you know, uh, Ryan and I would be glad to go check this out *ryan nods half winks* if you guys are too busy solving that murder. *especkett share a look*

Oh & now caskett is here instead of rystle These folks are doctors. They are psychologists, they are pharmacists, they are the medical professionals of the past. & I respect them. Why did he say mercy I can see IT not HIM? his face is an it but jack could have said him too.

Give that man a prize. tbh I expected the pics to be even more gory Murdoch mind moments!

I love the term on the lam, I like this guy's shirt (I have one from hot topic that looks like it lol) RC, looking to beckett: Really? He claimed there was a demon involved? AS: I know. Like anyone's going to fall for that, right? I mean, what kind of jackass did he think he was dealing with?

Ooh info! Cool! Valid, he probably turned him away. Yep you need a warrant babe. Do you need a warrant to get their car service logs? Ooh I love it when they do that! There was this one time a serial killer was watching TV with his wife 20 or 30 years later or smth & they said "this is a serial killer, we think he looks like this" with an aged up model including the style of glasses he would most likely wear & the wife looked at him & said "it looks exactly like you" & they both just laughed it off bc how could this guy my husband be a serial killer? lol that's so silly how he looks like the killer.

KB: Wait a minute, don't you guys have dinner plans tonight? KR, afraid: Uh, we can move it to…some night when Lanie's not coming off a double shift. JE: Uh, actually, Lanie's really looking forward to it. KB: You know what? No worries. It's on my way home. [Beckett takes the photos.] KR+JE: You sure? KB: That I don't want to be the one to blame for ruining Lanie's night out? Oh, yeah. I am sure.

Martha <3 Ooh hoo wowie look at alexis! & going to a party too! No he literally just called, you can answer & say she just went out bc she had plans or smth! gah!

Ooh scottish architecture! Ooh Laird's Lugs! KB: We'll go first thing in the morning, see what we come up with. RC: *puppydog eyes* KB: You want to go now?

RC: For me. Please. KB: I ain't afraid of no ghosts. *ghostbusters theme*

She's pulling his leg KB: How long have you known me, Castle? Of course I don't believe in ghosts. *door closes* RC: What was that? *lights go out* KB: Well, that's odd. RC: No, that's more than just odd. This is the same sequence of events that preceded Jack Sinclair's murder. KB: Except Jack only had an EMF meter. I've got a gun and a flashlight. *The flashlight goes out.* Except wouldn't their phones also be out? Gosh it's hard to be on someone's shoulders *grabs* KB: *gasps!!* Castle, I said legs, okay? RC: Oh. Legs. Sorry.

LP: Not as sorry as I was. I'm around dead people all day. When I get home, I want a live one. JE, eating: I was tired. [Ryan and Jenny laugh.] JO: I can't believe we waited so long to do this, babe. KR, wearing his fortnightversary tie: Yeah. Yeah, it really did turn out to be a perfect night. JE: *winks at ryan* KR: I would like to propose a toast. I know that it's kind of corny, but it's me, (yeah lol) so well, there we go. Uh, to best friends, now and forever. [They toast.] JO: Cheers. JE: And to the future newlyweds. JO: Aww. [They toast again.] KR: You are so thoughtful. LP: Cheers. JO: You know, Kevin said you guys made a great couple, *Lanie smiles & leans towards javier* but I had no idea. [Lanie and Esposito cuddle and lean in to kiss.] JO: So, when are you two getting married? [That kills the mood and Esposito and Lanie recoil w/o even kissing.] KR: JO: LP: JE: *stares daggers at Ryan* KR: *moves to drink his wine during the awkward silence.*

Sad that they found a magnetic field generator to explain the moving tripod BUT wouldn't it have also moved every other tripod & any metal that Sinclair had on him? WHY is it creaking tho? *makes castle open the door* Oh it's a rat It's like when higgins kissed a corpse! Well he fell on it & his lips touched its lips but he was so grossed out about kissing a corpse & that's totally valid Poor castle lol

Hide & seek lol. In the morgue: *Beckett exits and Castle stops on his way out* RC: Hey, how'd that double date go? LP: *crosses her arms and glares.* RC: I-- I just… LP: *eye twitches* *KB comes back in abt the case, but castle leaves past her* RC: Don't ask her about the date.

KR: Look, I said I'm sorry, okay? t-- h-- I didn't mean to jinx the dinner. JE: (imitating)"This really is the perfect night." KR: Jenny got a little caught up in the moment. JE: (falsetto)"When are you two getting married?" That's a question you do not ask! (Yeah jenny, sorry. I love you plenty tho. btw when are we going to find out she's a spy like with terrence myers or mary morstan) [Ryan sighs.] JE, mellowing out: I-- You know, it's-- it's not entirely your guys' fault. KR: You guys have a big fight after? JE: Big fight? *laughing* No. Mega fight, *seriously* yes. *ryan nods* The point is, we, um…we decided that we're gonna cool things off. (Good facial expressions.) KR, sad for his friend: Wait, you mean split up? JE: Yeah. Just until we both figure out what we want. *looks down kinda sad but also an "i don't talk about emotions" way* KR: Man, I'm so sorry. JE: Anyway. *starts ignoring him* KR: Look, brother, if you need anything, you know I'm always here… What? Friendship<3 also "brother" is such a Term

WHOA THE BRO GOT THE GIRL? Cafe jouer not cafe jouerre bro Either it's weird how he remembers all the details or they got burned into his brain bc of that event or it's weird how he remembers all the details bc they would be overshadowed by the horror.

KR: It wasn't someone Melanie worked with. I just tracked down George Banner, Melanie's manager at Flywide Travel twenty years ago. He said Melanie had two co-workers: KR: both guys. RC: A-ha. KR: Married. RC: Still… KR: To each other. (XD WOW) RC: Oh. I mean bisexuality, maybe they invited her to join idk The way castle's hair moves lol

It is not going to be him Ooh strong man there WOAH DETECTIVE SMITH!? Yeah I can understand why you... wait he killed her too I forgot AS: You're both very smart, but you're forgetting one thing. Me: you have a gun? AS: This house is haunted. Nice, lights out scene, fun. Now becks has also lost her gun, maybe ryan won't feel so bad about tyson getting the drop on him.

AS: Get on your knees. *castle starts moving* KB: Don't worry, Castle. He's not gonna shoot us. That won't fit the legend. AS: *pulls a sexy knife* rysposito had better be around Technically that's illegal tho

Ooh castle is so right! Jack sinclair's ghost was TOTALLY solving the murder! Sussy elevator (are ghosts canonically real?)

Oh no I feel bad for ashlexis. Castle said "goin'a" like "going ta" except since n & t are in the same place in the mouth he just said goin'a, not quite "gonna" Cuddling <3 Flesh eating zombies I love their father daughter love time Wait am I in the zombie movie? As soon as they press play we're going to be attacked by zombies!

[bangtanloverboys]

just a ghost out of his grave // jjk

summary -  if there’s anything jungkook hates more than being dead, it’s ghost hunters who won’t let him spend his afterlife in peace

pairing - ghost!jungkook x ghost hunter!reader

genre - humor, angst; ghost au

word count - 1.3k

warnings - ghost files/buzzfeed unsolved reference, mentions of death, jk died young (like 17-18)

author’s note - happy halloween everyone! i hope you all enjoyed these little ghost stories

tagged - @jeontier

the ghost of you masterlist

If life was long, death felt longer. It had been. . . God, Jungkook couldn’t recall how long ago it had been since his accident. Days? Weeks? Months? However long it had been, he didn’t like being dead. He knew he was dead too, which was a bit weird finding out. All he remembered was exploring the old abandoned psychiatric hospital a few miles south of town, rumored to be haunted. He was there on a dare. He knew he shouldn’t have been there, but Jungkook was never one to back down from a challenge. All he had to do was grab something and get out. He couldn’t even remember exactly what, but he knew he had it in his hand when he died. Falling through the floor.

The reason the building was abandoned was for a multitude of reasons: hospital shut down due to lack of funds, the supposed ghosts (not supposed anymore, as Jungkook was now one of them), and the building not being structurally sound. He thought those last bits were just made up to keep kids away. But hindsight is 20/20, especially when you’re dead.

At first, Jungkook couldn’t handle it, the whole being dead thing. He screamed, threw things, yelled at anyone he could see walking past through the window. But quickly, he realized that it was no use. No one heard him and all he was doing was wasting energy. 

As time went on, Jungkook tried to make peace with his death. A bit difficult considering he was stuck in an abandoned hospital for the rest of eternity, but it was the thought that counts. 

But there was one problem Jungkook grew to realize that he hated more than being dead. And that was ghost hunters. Every few weeks or so (usually in the summer or fall), teams of teenagers with ouija boards or grown adults with all sorts of gear would break into his final resting place and annoy the absolute shit out of him. 

At first he thought it was funny, scaring the teenagers into believing he was a demon or using that very loud and annoying spirit box to say stuff like “apple-tater” and “spaghetti”. But after so many “who are you”s and “let your presence be known”s, he wished for nothing more than to be alive only to smack the shit out of these so-called ghost hunters.

Tonight was just like any other, a small group of young adults with backpacks and cameras came strolling in like they owned the place, ready to “capture evidence”. Jungkook resisted the urge to roll his eyes as the leader of the group, who seemed to be you, gave orders for where all the tech should be placed. 

“Alright, Jimin, set up the laser grid in the south-west hallway. Hoseok, you do a sweep with an EVP in the west wing. Tae and I will take the REM pod up to the 2nd floor. Try and do a spirit box session and remember to keep your cameras on at all times,” you instructed, looking at each of the other guys. 

“You got it.” They all sounded off as they went off in their separate ways. After watching them split up, Jungkook decided to follow after you and Taehyung, who seemed to be clinging to your side, you two seemed like he would get the most fun out of this encounter. “Tae, I love you, but you’re slowing me down.”

“You’re heading towards the spot where a guy literally died falling through the floor! You need to be careful!” The taller man hissed back at you.

Now that caught Jungkook’s attention. 

You rolled your eyes at your friend. “That’s the third and fourth floor. We’re going to where he fell to.”

“You mean where he died!”

“Taehyung, we are in a psychiatric hospital. People have probably died in every room of this building. Now shut up, we’re almost there.”

You were right, Jungkook thought. It wasn’t a hard spot to miss, there was a hole in the ceiling where he fell through and another hole above that. He went through two stories, shattering all the bones in his body. . . He still felt the sickening crack of each one if he thought about it. 

Jungkook watched curiously as you handed Taehyung a camera, who immediately started filming as you pulled out a device from your bag. It was an interesting circular thing, with dozens of colorful bulbs on the top. You set it down right below where he fell through, on the spot he died. 

“Okay. Mysterious Teenager Spirit, this is a REM pod, the closer you get to it, it’ll light up. Can you step closer to it if you understand?” You spoke out into the air, looking about the empty room. Jungkook stood still, not sure if he should give you any satisfaction. “Here, I’ll show you.” You stepped forward, holding your hand above it, and the lights started going off. “Easy. Can you do that?”

Unsure how long he would be able to take it, Jungkook complied. He stepped closer to the device, the light bulbs pulsing.

“Woah!” You and your friend called out in shock.

“Okay! Uh, oh shit, spirit box. Hang on.” You dug around in your pocket, pulling out another device he was all too familiar with. The ever present static echoed against the walls. “My name is Y/N and this is my friend Taehyung. Can you say our names back to us?” Jungkook didn’t say anything. “Can you tell us your name?”

“Why should I tell you?” He said.

“Why,” was all the machine picked up.

“Oh shit! This is. . . this is awesome, okay. Tae, you’re getting this right?” You looked to your friend, who looked like he was about ready to crap his pants.

“Y-yeah.”

“Okay, keep rolling.” You turned back to the spirit box. “Because wouldn’t it be nice for people to know?”

“Eat shit and die.”

“Eat shit. . . Die.”

You blinked down at the spirit box, a look of disbelief written over your face. 

“Did. . . did the ghost tell you to eat shit?” Taehyung asked.

“I- uh, yeah. . . .Okay. Didn’t expect that.,” you muttered. “Can you tell us how you died?”

“I fell through the fucking floor! You know this already,” Jungkook said as he crossed his arms, he hated these dumbass questions. 

“I fell. . . you know this. . .”

Both you and Taehyung are completely silent now. “How. . . how did you know we know?”

“You were literally talking about it,” he scoffed.

“. . .literally talking about it. . .” The spirit box repeated. 

“Okay, so you are the teenager that died here then? You fell through the floor, you were here on a dare. What were you dared to get?” 

“Y/N, we got enough evidence, I don’t wanna anger it any-”

“Shhh!”

You both were silent, giving Jungkook time to respond but he didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t remember. 

“You went up to the fourth floor. Do you remember what’s on the fourth floor?” You asked.

Jungkook racked his brain for it, he didn’t go up there too often in his afterlife. But he recalled something. . . something about a tool from the head doctor’s office. 

“Head doctor. . .” The spirit box answered after he responded.

“That’s right. The head doctor’s office is up there. And you grabbed something from that office. Do you remember what it was?” 

Jungkook furrowed his brows together, trying to remember what. The more he thought, the angrier he got. He didn’t even notice the two of you beginning to shiver in your thick coats.

A beeping came from Taehyung’s pocket. “Y/N, the temperature’s dropping. . .” He said as he looked at the beeping device. 

“I don’t remember,” Jungkook gritted out.

“Don’t remember.”

“You can! Just think, what’s in a doctor’s office usually?”

Frustrated, he let out a scream, causing all the equipment you had out to blitz. 

“Shut it off! Y/N, let’s go!” Taehyung shouted at you, ready to bolt out the door back to the others.

“Okay, okay!” You shouted back as you turned off the spirit box, silence finally filling the room once again. Jungkook didn’t know how, but he could swear you were looking right at him. “It was a journal. You died grabbing his journal.”

[multiples-fandomswontkillme]

~Metal Family headcanons~

These are like my... general hcs)? which means I didn't include my main hc that Glam, Ches and Vicky are polyamorous, married and started dating after Glam met Vicky, and absolutely everything that implies for the kids and the relationships between each member of the fam. Maybe I'll make a separate post for that or maybe not! Who knows lkfwnlfqnf

Glam

Bisexual

Glam has constant nightmares and ocasional night terrors ever since he ran away home and is an active sleep walker. Ches helped him through the worse ones when they were younger, and learned how to deal with them, always preferring not to wake him up but being with him until the episode passed. Vicky has learned how to deal with them, though she normally asks Ches for advice with it cuz she comes out short sometimes.

He has PTSD. I bet it's diagnosed too, he takes medication and goes to therapy, it doesn't mean he still doesn't have his bad days anyway. He's trying to get better.

Glam has talked to Vicky about his past, his father and his family. This is a direct contradiction of Alina's confirmation that Glam doesn't talk about it with anyone but man FUCK THAT. We love good communication in this house, Vicky tries her best to help him, but there's only so much she can do to help.

Glam enjoys gardening, cooking and making models, he also likes doing his make up, painting his nails and dressing up in fancy, extravagant clothes even if he has nowhere important to go.

He likes taking care of everyone's hair, and constantly helps Vicky brush her hair cuz there's so much of it, Dee when he gets stressed over how tangled it can get, buys Ches hair products so he actually takes care of it, and chases Heavy so the kid actually washes, untangles and brushes his hair.

This one is kind of weird, but I refuse to think any adult in the family is unarmed at any time. Glam owns a taser and pepper spray. They're bright pink and sparkly.

This man cried his eyes out while watching Coco. He's hell to watch movies with cuz he talks and predicts what's gonna happen during the movie, judges them with scores at the end and all.

Vicky

Also bisexual!

Vicky's the one who does everyone's laundry most of the time. She prefers it that way since she's the only one that knows how to wash their black clothes so the colors stay vibrant. (This is based on my gf shaming everyone but Vicky cuz their black clothes always look so muted and almost gray, but Vicky's whole outfit is always the same vibrant black colors, so we decided that neither Glam or the kids know how to wash dark clothes)

She has anger issues, if it isn't obvious. I think she also has PTSD, mainly survivor's guilt due to her surviving the accident her brother died in. She blames herself and cannot bear to talk about it, in some sort of deep denial. If she can't remember, it can't hurt as much, right?

She has scars on the right side of her back and her hip, from the road rash she got on her brother's accident, she never treated it due to grief and it scarred badly. Apart from that, the scar of the caesarean section from Heavy's birth. She doesn't really mind both of them, they happened, nothing to do about them.

She likes watching boxing competitions, brawling matches and motorcycle repairing on TV. Loves doing BBQ's and going to the pool. Also an enjoyer of teasing her kids, kissing and loving her husband at random times, spending time drinking and bonding with Ches and bragging about her family and punching anyone who thinks they're not that cool.

Not particularly a fan of make up, skirts and dresses or any traditionally femenine-perceived stuff. But has been making exceptions due to Glam and Ches being unashamed of being seen as femenine, and actually rocking the looks. The internalized misogyny is kind of slowly dissapearing.

Apart from the guns she carries in each arm (I mean her biceps, have you looked at the size of those?? She strong) she has brass knuckles on her at all times. Glam gifts her new ones sometimes, she loves having multiple choices to punch people teeth in.

Loves horror, thrillers and action movies. Falls asleep during rom-coms and dramas. Ironically, loves gossip and talking shit about people. Enjoys hearing Ches talks about the gossip going on in the nursery home even if she doesn't know who the hell he's talking about.

Rest of the family under the cut!

Heavy

Heavy is a trans boy! He doesn't know his sexuality yet though, he's still figuring himself out. When he's older, i think he definitely dated some men but had better luck with girls.

Heavy has had innocent crushes on some girls on his class before, but they never turn into anything more cuz he's not the best at expressing himself. He follows the bother-the-girl-to-death-until-she-hates-you gimmick, and unsurprisingly, it doesn't work.

I'm sorry to break this to u but Heavy totally had an among us phase, and uses so much reddit and twitch slang... You know he does.

Likes bullying and teasing his brother to death. You know that when Dee had his first romance, Heavy was ALL up in his business being a tease and a bad attempt at a wingman. He means well tho.

He's not squeamish at all. Also has great pain resistance. This kid has picked cockroaches with his bare hands and loves cats, of course the cats have scratched him. He's tough!

Grows up to be the charming himbo he was always destined to be.

Dee

I hc him as demisexual. Kind of inherited his dad's tastes for the takes no crap, intimidating but pretty kind of people.

Can't cook. He tries but he can only do basics like rice, cereal, chicken nuggets or eggs. Complicated meals always burn or don't taste like anything at all. It drives him crazy.

Dee was a quiet and very well behaved toddler before Heavy was born. He never threw tantrums or got whims. After Heavy was born though, and despite the fact he understood his brother was small and needed special care, he started craving attention often and cried and got mad at little things. Typical jealousy of the oldest sibling.

The first time Dee fell in love with someone, he didn't recognize it was love at first. He just thought his interest on the person was born out of curiosity and aesthetic attraction, but as soon as he realized he seeked validation and companionship, that he liked seeing them smile, that he wanted to protect them, that he yearned for more time alone with them and that he wanted more than what just a simple friendship implied, it was an instant 'oh hell no'. He wanted those feelings to get the hell away, but unfortunately, they were there to stay.

Canonically likes MLP, psychological and horror anime like Death note and Hellsing, so I'm deciding he also watched Death Parade, had a FNAF phase, is very into The Walten Files. This guy enjoys any kind of specially dark ARG's and knows a ton of lore of real crime, unsolved cases, ghost appearances and other stuff. Doesn't believe in the supernatural, but sure is entertained by it.

He's a mess at romance. Flirting? His attempts at compliments are hardly flattering. Giving gifts? The best he can manage is jewelry and you can kind of tell he asked his dad for help. Dates? He's so nervous he's silent for most of it, but begins getting comfortable and having fun if his partner really knows how to get him down from his negativity cloud.

Ches

Pansexual.

He's very good with kids. He has the patience of a saint and he's laid-back, chill and fun but still is an authority figure who knows how to put limits. Sure, he's gonna let the kids light up a house on fire BUT hey, now they know everything about fire precautions, burns and how to treat them AND how to get away with arson. What an educational evening, am I right?

Due to certain info from the "Goodbye" official comic, I headcanon Ches as depressed. I don't want to elaborate a lot 'cuz of spoilers, but... God, everything related to his mom fucking hurts, man. How did he deal with all that?

Ches has been Dee and Heavy's babysitter so many times he cannot count them with all his fingers. He learned how to put those kids to sleep almost immediately (Sing Bon Jovi's "This ain't a love song" and any cheesy love song in a slow lullaby style and they're out), which movie were their favorite as kids (Heavy loved 'Monsters Inc.' and Dee never looked away during 'Meet the Robinsons'), how to console them after nightmares (Heavy needed reassurance, sweet words, and to be with someone until he fell asleep again. Dee just had to be tucked in, get his nightlight turned on and kissed in the forehead). He practically raised those kids along with Vicky and Glam.

More than once, Dee and Heavy have slipped and called Ches "Dad". Ches immediately gets his shit eating grin on and answers "Yes, son?" and does a couple of dad jokes just to mess and embarrass them. He's actually very flattered and surprised at how proud of himself he is for being a father figure to both kids.

Has a scar on the left side of his forehead due to a bottle his mom threw at him when he was younger, around the time he met Glam. He hates the scar with passion, it's a permanent reminder of the fact she never cared, that's why he always keeps it covered with his headband. Gets sad about it sometimes.

Ches likes to spend his time with a group of grannies of the nearby nursing home. He genuinely considers them his friends and gossips and hangs out with all of them on weekends. Bingo, billiards, walks in the park, soap opera marathons, you name it. I even designed them, gave them names and backstories... God, i just love the concept too much. I'll make some art about Ches and his granny gang FOR SURE, you're NOT ready for them.

Carries a pocket knife on him at all times. This man grew up on a bad neighborhood and absolutely knows how to defend himself, he can be intimidating when he wants to be and will pose a threat if needed. He's fucking terrifying when genuinely mad. Just cause he looks harmless doesn't mean he is, darling.

That would be all!

[rottenbooks]

Dark academia inspired books I want to read

⚰️The Six by Kirk Holland⚰️

💀 Fiction, Fantasy, LGBT

In a small Texas town, the unusually strong son of two bestselling authors is sick of sitting on the sidelines. Cozy in the tall trees of Oregon, a little woman sharpens her knives and readies herself for another day at the faire. Meanwhile, another young woman is prepared for a day of conning tourists and begging a living unaware that she’s being stalked by a man with a secret of his own. And on each coast, the enchanting adopted twins of a media mogul enjoy the fruits of the high life. They all have one thing in common: none of the Six know who they are.

They’re about to discover it.

Discover who they are. Discover those around them are more than they claimed. Discover the end game is only the first play.

🏚️Gothikana by RuNyx🏚️

📜 Dark Romance, Gothic, Mystery, Horror

An unusual girl. An enigmatic man. An ancient castle. What could go wrong?

An outcast her entire life, Corvina Clemm is left adrift after losing her mother. When she receives the admission letter from the mysterious University of Verenmore, she accepts it as a sign from the universe. The last thing she expects though is an olden, secluded castle on top of a mountain riddled with secrets, deceit, and death.

An enigma his entire life, Vad Deverell likes being a closed book but knowing exactly everything that happens in the university. A part-time professor working on his thesis, Vad has been around long enough to know the dangers the castle possesses.

And he knows the moment his paths cross with Corvina, she's dangerous to everything that he is.

They shouldn't have caught each other's eye. They cannot be. But a chill-inducing century-old mystery forces them to collide. People have disappeared every five years for over a hundred years, and Corvina is getting clues to unraveling it all, and Vad needs to keep an eye on her.

And so begins a tale of the mystique, the morbid, the macabre, and a deep love that blossoms in the unlikeliest of places.

🔮Ninth House (Alex Stern #1) by Leigh Bardugo🔮

🕯️ Paranormal, Adult, Horror, Mystery

Galaxy “Alex” Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. By age twenty, in fact, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she’s thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world’s most elite universities on a full ride. What’s the catch, and why her?

Still searching for answers to this herself, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. These eight windowless “tombs” are well-known to be haunts of the future rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street and Hollywood’s biggest players. But their occult activities are revealed to be more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive.

📕People Like Us by Dana Mele📕

📌 Mystery, Thriller, Young Adult, LGBT

Kay Donovan may have skeletons in her closet, but the past is past, and she's reinvented herself entirely. Now she's a star soccer player whose group of gorgeous friends run their private school with effortless popularity and acerbic wit. But when a girl's body is found in the lake, Kay's carefully constructed life begins to topple.

The dead girl has left Kay a computer-coded scavenger hunt, which, as it unravels, begins to implicate suspect after suspect, until Kay herself is in the crosshairs of a murder investigation. But if Kay's finally backed into a corner, she'll do what it takes to survive. Because at Bates Academy, the truth is something you make...not something that happened.

🌷Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas🌷

🌆 Horror, Thriller, Adult, Gothic

You are in the house and the house is in the woods.

You are in the house and the house is in you . . .

Catherine House is a school of higher learning like no other. Hidden deep in the woods of rural Pennsylvania, this crucible of reformist liberal arts study with its experimental curriculum, wildly selective admissions policy, and formidable endowment, has produced some of the world’s best minds: prize-winning authors, artists, inventors, Supreme Court justices, presidents. For those lucky few selected, tuition, room, and board are free. But acceptance comes with a price. Students are required to give the House three years—summers included—completely removed from the outside world. Family, friends, television, music, even their clothing must be left behind. In return, the school promises its graduates a future of sublime power and prestige, and that they can become anything or anyone they desire.

Among this year’s incoming class is Ines, who expects to trade blurry nights of parties, pills, cruel friends, and dangerous men for rigorous intellectual discipline—only to discover an environment of sanctioned revelry. The school’s enigmatic director, Viktória, encourages the students to explore, to expand their minds, to find themselves and their place within the formidable black iron gates of Catherine.

For Ines, Catherine is the closest thing to a home she’s ever had, and her serious, timid roommate, Baby, soon becomes an unlikely friend. Yet the House’s strange protocols make this refuge, with its worn velvet and weathered leather, feel increasingly like a gilded prison. And when Baby’s obsessive desire for acceptance ends in tragedy, Ines begins to suspect that the school—in all its shabby splendor, hallowed history, advanced theories, and controlled decadence—might be hiding a dangerous agenda that is connected to a secretive, tightly knit group of students selected to study its most promising and mysterious curriculum.

🍁We Wish You Luck by Caroline Zancan🍁

💌 Contemporary, Adult, Mystery, Thriller

It doesn't take long for the students on Fielding campus to become obsessed with Hannah, Leslie and Jimmy. The three graduate students are mysterious, inaccessible, and brilliant. Leslie, glamorous and brash, has declared that she wants to write erotica and make millions. Hannah is quietly confident, loyal, elegantly beautiful, and the person they all want to be; and Jimmy is a haunted genius with no past. After Simone—young, bestselling author and erstwhile model—shows up as a visiting professor, and after everything that happened with her, the trio only become more notorious.

Love. Death. Revenge. These age-old tropes come to life as the semesters unfold. The threesome came to study writing, to be writers, and this is the story they've woven together: of friendship and passion, of competition and envy, of creativity as life and death. Now, they submit this story, We Wish You Luck, for your reading pleasure.

❌How We Fall Apart (How We Fall Apart #1) by Katie Zhao❌

🔪 Young Adult, Crime, Mystery, Contemporary

Nancy Luo is shocked when her former best friend, Jamie Ruan, top ranked junior at Sinclair Prep, goes missing, and then is found dead. Nancy is even more shocked when word starts to spread that she and her friends--Krystal, Akil, and Alexander--are the prime suspects, thanks to "The Proctor," someone anonymously incriminating them via the school's social media app.

They all used to be Jamie's closest friends, and she knew each of their deepest, darkest secrets. Now, somehow The Proctor knows them, too. The four must uncover the true killer before The Proctor exposes more than they can bear and costs them more than they can afford, like Nancy's full scholarship. Soon, Nancy suspects that her friends may be keeping secrets from her, too.

☠️Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth, Sara Lautman (Illustrations)☠️

📖 Horror, Historical Fiction, LGBT, Mystery

Our story begins in 1902, at The Brookhants School for Girls. Flo and Clara, two impressionable students, are obsessed with each other and with a daring young writer named Mary MacLane, the author of a scandalous bestselling memoir. To show their devotion to Mary, the girls establish their own private club and call it The Plain Bad Heroine Society. They meet in secret in a nearby apple orchard, the setting of their wildest happiness and, ultimately, of their macabre deaths. This is where their bodies are later discovered with a copy of Mary’s book splayed beside them, the victims of a swarm of stinging, angry yellow jackets. Less than five years later, The Brookhants School for Girls closes its doors forever—but not before three more people mysteriously die on the property, each in a most troubling way.

Over a century later, the now abandoned and crumbling Brookhants is back in the news when wunderkind writer, Merritt Emmons, publishes a breakout book celebrating the queer, feminist history surrounding the “haunted and cursed” Gilded-Age institution. Her bestselling book inspires a controversial horror film adaptation starring celebrity actor and lesbian it girl Harper Harper playing the ill-fated heroine Flo, opposite B-list actress and former child star Audrey Wells as Clara. But as Brookhants opens its gates once again, and our three modern heroines arrive on set to begin filming, past and present become grimly entangled—or perhaps just grimly exploited—and soon it’s impossible to tell where the curse leaves off and Hollywood begins.

A story within a story within a story and featuring black-and-white period illustrations.

[lctenights]

*  jeremy  shada  ,  trans  man  ,  he/him  ,  22  .  don't  suppose  you've  seen  jordan  porter  around  anywhere  ?  i've  been  meaning  to  tell  them  the  rumor  i  heard  about  them  .  you  know  ,  that  they're  a  hybrid  .  i  swear  they're  reminding  me  more  and  more  of  always  having  room  for  one  more  friend,  sitting  in  the  dark  and  watching  the  stars,  song  lyrics  hastily  jotted  down,  late  night  road  trips,  cuddling  up  by  the  fireplace  each  time  i  see  them  .  but  ,  then  again  ,  sometimes  i  feel  like  they  can  be  a  little  too  headstrong  .  guess  their  ability  to  be  bright  outweighs  that  ,  though  .  hey  ,  if  you  happen  to  see  them  ,  give  me  a  call  .  i  can't  wait  to  see  the  look  on  their  face  when  i  ask  if  the  rumors  are  true  .  [  penned  by  spirit  ,  21  ,  she/her  ,  est  .  ]

BASICS

full name: jordan oliver porter

nickname(s): jojo, jord, jordie

birthdate: february 14th (aquarius)

age: 22

gender/pronouns: trans man & he/him

sexuality: pansexual

species: hybrid (witch / untriggered werewolf)

BACKGROUND

mother: dr. violet porter

father: dr. benjamin porter

education: college (bachelor’s in criminal justice)

APPEARANCE

eye color: green

hair color: brown

height: 5′8″

piercings: none

tattoos: none

scars: top surgery, some on his legs and hands (”it’s a long story.”)

BIOGRAPHY

jordan oliver porter was born and raised in queens lace! his parents lived in a neighboring town then settled here upon securing jobs as a doctor and professor respectively. they instilled a love for learning & knowledge in their only child from day one, something he still carries to this day.

he gets the dad friend part of his personality from you guessed it, his father. always at the ready to fuss over someone and make sure they’re taking care of themself. then the goofball side comes from his mother. they both enjoy putting a smile on someone’s face or making them laugh, but mother and son can be serious when it’s time to get serious.

he was born on valentine’s day! people who know jordan like to joke that this is what makes him such a romantic, but the impulsiveness remains unaccounted for since his parents are the pro-con list-making type of people. (it’s the aquarius energy, baby!)

once he was old enough, his parents sat him down for a family discussion about his hybrid nature. up until then, he had received age appropriate answers but that day’s chat covered questions old, new, and ones he hadn’t even thought of yet. the porter household has always been a safe space, full of love and encouragement. however, as is tradition, mum remains the word on sharing this information with others. just to be on the safe side, as his parents and grandparents will say.

aside from the shenanigans that were bound to come along with his heritage, jordan’s life has been fairly normal! he did well in school, made a name for himself as a class clown and one of top students.

he also took up guitar & bass lessons to have an outlet for his seemingly boundless energy, to work on his focus. shortly after, he started writing songs when the creative energy turned into something concrete. a message that he wanted to get across, a story that he wanted to tell, a gripe that he wanted to get off his chest, or an idea that was simply entertaining to write about.

(ooc sidenote: this also led to him starting a band with some friends of his! more details to come as the connection gets filled so definitely keep checking back here!)

another love that jordan has is for mysteries! a curious kid who became a curious adult, he has no shortage of detective novels in his bookshelves and he often tries to guess twist villains in movies or shows. plus, being a private investigator caught his eye as a potential career option way back in the day. what better way to help others and give answers to cases that had long gone unsolved? and an added bonus - in his eyes at least - is that he would be working alone. he has never been interested in dragging other people into potentially dangerous situations with him, thank you very much.

jordan returned home to queens lace last year after graduating from college! he has a criminal justice degree under his belt, ready in the event he wishes to open up his own private investigation business or become a detective.

and all of this brings us to the present day! with recent events, he’s feeling quite protective over his loved ones and wants to help keep them safe however he can. but he also won’t deny the desire he has to dig a little deeper, see if he can help answer some of these unspoken questions.

what does the future have in store for jordan? only time will tell.

[conradscrime]

Germany’s Creepiest Mystery: The Hinterkaifeck Farm

February 02, 2021 

Get ready for a bone chilling one you guys, this story has had me freaked out for years. Another unsolved, and another old time long ago story, this one really leaves you with chills going down your spine. Let’s get into it. 

One of Germany’s oldest and most terrifying unsolved mysteries surrounded a very quiet and kept to themselves family, Viktoria Gabriel (35), her two children Cäzilia (7) and Josef (2) lived on a farm with her parents Andreas (63) and Cäzilia  Gruber (72). They lived on a farm in a town called Kaifeck, which was outside of a place called Gröbern. 

On April 1, 1922 people in town began to grow concerned for the family as Cäzilia had failed to show up for school as well as the family not showing up to church where Viktoria sang in the choir. Also on April 1, two coffee sellers named Hans Schirovsky and Eduard Schirovsky arrived in Hinterkaifeck to place an order. But no one responded when they knocked on the door and the window, they walked around the yard but found no one. They noticed that the gate to the machine house was open, but they decided to leave without checking it out. When Cäzilia still had not shown up to school two days later on April 3 and the notice of the family’s mail piling up going uncollected, neighbours began to grow suspicious. 

On April 4, 1922 a man named Albert Hofner went to Hinterkaifeck to repair the engine of the family's food chopper. He said he had not seen any family members there and had only heard sounds of the farm animals and the dog inside the barn. He waited an hour, but decided to start his repair, which took him about 4.5 hours. This is honestly so creepy to me because at that point the Gruber family had been murdered and if any of the people who had shown up to sell or repair anything had known they were not only a property with 6 dead bodies but also probably in the presence of the person responsible for it I am sure they would never sleep again. 

So on April 4, neighbours began a search of the family farm to figure out what was going on. This search was led by a man named Lorenz Schlittenbauer who was a nearby farmer. The neighbours found four bodies in the farm, all of which were covered in hay. There were also two bodies found within the house, one being Josef, Viktoria’s son and the other being the maid, a woman named Maria Baumgartner (44), who suspiciously (and very creepily) had just begun her first day on the job when the murders took place. 

The reason the family had gotten a new maid was because the old maid had claimed that the farm was haunted and quit six months before the murders took place. Keep this in mind, it will become important later on. 

What happened to the family was very disturbing. It appeared that on the evening of March 31, 1922, Cäzilia Gruber (Viktoria’s mother) had been strangled as well as received seven blows to her head, leaving her skull cracked. Her husband, Andreas’ face was covered in blood, Viktoria’s skull was also smashed with her head showing “nine star shaped wounds” and she had most definitely been hit in the side of the face with a blunt object. Her daughter, Cäzilia’s jaw had been broken with her face and neck covered in wounds. 

It is suspected that the adults died pretty instantly from their injuries, however the younger Cäzilia appeared to have suffered the most. They believed she was alive for hours after the attack and in a state of shock, so much so that she had ripped her hair out in clumps that were found. 

Josef, the two year old found in the house had been murdered in his cot, suffering a heavy blow to his face, while the maid, Maria, suffered blows to the head. What is interesting is that the killer covered the bodies in the barn over with hay, and also covered the bodies in the house; Maria’s with sheets and Josef’s with his mother’s dress. 

None of the animals on the farm had been harmed, in fact it was discovered that they were all kept well and fed after the murders had occurred which meant that someone was staying in the house, someone who did not belong to the family. This explains why the bodies were covered, so that if the killer had remained in the house for a few days they would not have to directly look at the bodies. Chills. 

The killer also had made meals and eaten in the house in the days following the murders, as well as lit the fire to stay warm. The killer is suspected to have lived in the house with the dead bodies for 3 days. The previous maid that had recently quit, and claimed the house was haunted said she always felt as though she were being watched and constantly heard noises in the attic. Sounds like someone was living in the house with the family, unbeknownst to them. 

The previous maid was not the only one to report strange happenings around the farm. Andreas, Viktoria’s father also had claimed that he had found a newspaper in the home that he did not buy, a set of keys to the house had gone missing, and he had noticed footprints from the woods going towards the farm that were not any of the family members. The footsteps were found in snow, and only going in one direction: toward the house. Whoever’s footprints were in the snow, they had not left the family farm. 

There have been a few suspects over the years, but no one has ever been arrested for the murders. 

Viktoria’s husband had died in WWI and there was always suspicion on who the father of 2 year old Josef was. Viktoria apparently had a relationship with Lorenz Schlittenbauer, the man who led the search party and helped discover the families bodies. Lorenz had publicly claimed that Josef was his child and he had planned to marry Viktoria though Andreas did not approve and the marriage did not happen. Lorenz went on to marry another woman and they had a baby together, but the baby died a few weeks later. 

Lorenz was a pretty solid suspect and police theorized that he was in a bad place over his baby dying so he came to kill the family. They found his behaviour suspicious, he was very nonchalant about the whole thing, however they really did not have much evidence to actually tie him to the murders. 

The also thought maybe Viktoria’s husband, Karl Gabriel had come to murder the family. They suspected that he came back to war and killed the family though they soon found out he had died in France years before. This theory suggests that a possible affair was happening between Viktoria and Lorenz at the time her husband was away at war. 

There was also talk that either Viktoria or Andreas had slain the entire family before taking their own life due to the suspicion that Andreas had violent and incestuous tendencies. There was rumours that Josef was the product of incest and that Andreas was known to have a sexual relationship with his children. There is no real proof of this however, and none of the wounds found on any of the bodies appeared to be self-inflicted so it is very unlikely that this was a murder-sucide. 

In 1923, just one year after the murders the Hinterkaifeck farm was demolished, and the bodies were buried in Waidhofen. When demolishing the house, a mattock was found in the attic and a pen-knife in the hay of the barn. 

The Grubers and the maid Maria were beheaded after their autopsies and their skulls were sent to Munich to be examined, though no new information was found. They were actually buried headless and their skulls supposedly got lost in WWII and were never returned. 

This case remains unsolved. So I’m curious, what do ya’ll think? To me it’s pretty obvious that this is someone who knew the family quite well and someone who definitely had beef with someone in the Gruber family. I think that whoever the person was they planned the whole thing out very well, and had probably been living in the attic of the family home for a period of time (at least coming in and out of the house as far back as six months before the murders due to the previous maid’s claims) and without the family knowing which is perhaps the creepiest part of this entire story. Whoever did it will probably never be known as it will soon be the 99th anniversary of the Hinterkaifeck Farm murders. 

Whatever happened on that farm almost a century ago will probably remain a mystery forever.