#he may have been turned into a vampire after getting out of prison

[thatweirdnoise]

if you think about it, f!Cell is a cannibal, but q!Cellbit is a vampire. So he isn’t really a cannibal, just a dude who went to jail cuz he was eating lunch

[failing-to-write-again]

"Beloved I-"

"Oh, now I'm beloved? Funny I swore I was 'that lady' not a moment ago"

"My love please-"

"Oh no, do not concern yourself with this lady she is perfectly capable of seeing herself to bed"

You mutter as you sit at the vanity removing your finery after a particularly tense ball. You hear the bedding crumple slightly as he sits, noticing from his reflection in the mirror out the corner of your eye as he runs a hand through his hair.

"You must understand that I was trying to protect you. Vampires do not 'date' as such, and in these circles marriage is a contract. You would have been hounded."

You sigh as you feel the pressure alleviated from the adornments left on your head all night. Licking your lips and pursing them as if such physical actions could quell your frustration.

"There is protecting me from hounding and then there is throwing me to the wolves while they fawn over you."

You pause turning your head to the side to look at him not a reflection.

"While you had countless women hanging on your arm and begging for dances I was questioned and harassed by strangers."

"Why didn't you say, who crossed you?"

He stands coming to stand behind you, holding his hand awkwardly unsure if he should touch you in your state.

"I did try, Reiji!"

You spin around fully and stand glaring at him.

"At any sign of approach you shooed me away as I got looked through or glared at like some dirty rag. And then you placated them! 'Oh no, I have no idea who that lady is.' It took your father stepping in to stop one of them biting me when they realised our arrival together was simply coincidence"

Reiji's face shifted from guilt to fury. Looking to the side as he shifts his glasses further up his nose. For a moment only the ticking on his desk and your tense breathing audible.

"Why would he step in. He's the one who ordered I say nothing."

He hung his head, shaking it slightly before gently reaching for you arms and guiding you towards the bed.

"My love you must understand, I had to prioritize your well-being long term."

Biting back tears as he sits you on the bed, you pick at the seams of your gloves. You spat your next words.

"You were so cold, and then you got angry I danced with your father when he was seemingly the only thing protecting me. I was terrified and yet it's my fault? You dismiss me as if I'm nothing and then get angry at me when someone else does your job"

He inhales, as if stalling. Slowly he kneels, his face coming in to view as be tilts up your chin to look straight at him.

"Love, I may have. No I made an error in my judgement on the best way to act to protect you. I should have communicated my approach before."

He shifts bringing you right foot, still trapped in dance heels, to rest over his unbeating heart. Slowly opening them and kissing the exposed skin of your ankle.

"I want to build you, your own world. A life of happiness for you where you need never deal with unfair struggles once more. But to do so I require his approval to give you title."

He leaves the shoe to his side and switches focus to your left foot. Focusing his gaze entirely on the task, finding it difficult to be so vulnerable and not in control.

"I desire no other the way I do you. It infuriated and vexed me to have these feelings pulling me so far from the course. Any woman who has ever approached me before has been dealt with in the same manner. Mannerly but ultimately fruitless words, enough to placate but never crossing a line to anything past passive. Until you"

He lets down your foot after removing it from the tight prison of a shoe you've worn all night. Slipping your hands into his and gazing up at you at last.

"You are my answer and focus. I am drawn to you as though I am the only one effected by your gravity. Do not be foolish enough to think I am a scientist who does not correct after a failed result. In future I will never let you leave my arm all night should you bless me with your company again."

You finally smile, squeezing his hands lightly, and leaning ever so slightly forward.

"You are a foolish man at times dear."

"How could I not be when you call me that so sweetly?"

Magenta eyes swirling with adoration draw you in. He shifts from kneeling with one to both knees to regain some height over you once more, tilting his head and leaning in pressing his lips to yours. A suddenly ungloved hand touching against your cheek. Your arms moved up to ground yourself, gripping his suit's lapels, pulling him closer. After a moment his pulls himself away, his tongue touching his lips as the taste of your lip gloss lingers.

"Am I forgiven beloved? Or will you be 'able to put yourself to bed' hmm?"

His eyes crinkle slightly as he grins at you. You chuff slightly before pulling him in by the collar, of course he allowed you this for once, vampiric strength dulled to allow his human some control.

"You ever call me 'that lady' again and I will choke you with your tie."

"Would you rather beloved or love?"

"My most dear and beloved love, you who brightens my night and whom I beg to receive kiss."

"I do believe you will cause a mass fainting should they hear that."

He climbs onto the bed as you lay back, one arm holding him up the other resting his hand on your waist. Your arms looping around his neck, nails lightly scratching the nape of his neck.

"You forget I can be just as possessive as you my dear. I'm not a massive fan of sharing"

[physalian]

“Endings are the hardest!” / “No, beginnings are the worst!”

I’ve never had a problem figuring out the way I want my stories to end but starting them? Yeash, that’s so much pressure. Both carry the same weight for different reasons while you have writers in both camps with legitimate arguments. One may be harder than the other on a writer-by-writer basis, but they are equally daunting.

—

So. Beginnings:

You have sometimes as little as three sentences to hook readers, at most the first chapter. I don’t even give fanfic more than the opening line sometimes (mostly because fanfic takes opening en media res to wild new heights). I’ve been working on a system of “I have one sentence to give you the setting, the protagonist, and the hook that makes this book different, go” and while it might not be perfect, it’s a starting point.

For example! The opening sentence to ENNS is:

Beneath the snowdrift of the longest blizzard Elias has ever endured, the last vampire in the dungeons has finally succeeded in taking their own life.

As someone who struggles with beginnings, I have given you five pieces of information in 25 words:

The setting, that concerns long and repeat blizzards and snow

Protagonist’s name

Establishing the existence of vampires

Establishing that those vampires are kept in dungeons

Establishing that those presumed prisoners are in such bad conditions, that they’re restoring to suicide, something vampires don’t tend to do

I think I did a pretty good job.

So much of the burden of your book is given to so few words. You can’t make it cliché, but try too hard to be unique and you risk looking pretentious. You have to establish the setting, the narrator, the initial setup and inciting incident and convince readers to pick your book out of hundreds of thousands of other options. I hate beginnings.

Best advice among an avalanche of others? Write a placeholder and come back later if it’s too daunting and frustrating because there is no writing advice that is one size fits all.

It’s entirely dependent on your genre, your demographic, the age of your protagonist and how self-aware they are, the tone of your story, your own personal writing style.

“First sentences should include THIS!”

Yeah, okay, but what if I have a better idea? Beyond that your sentence should have a hook that sets your book up as something apart from its genre neighbors, just go look at the most famous opening lines. They’re all different.

There is nothing in common between

Call me Ishmael.

and

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.

And that’s the point.

—

Endings though?

Endings bear the burden of providing catharsis, or robbing you of it. Endings have to answer ‘but what does it all mean?’ and stick the landing, or they don’t. Endings can turn a TV show that took the world by storm for four magnificent seasons and drag it limping across the finish line in a finale that sucks the life out of the fandom forever.

Endings either leave you in an existential lurch staring at the ceiling, or in tears of joy or anguish, or frothing at the mouth at yet another cliffhanger. If you can’t answer ‘what does it all mean’ you have bigger problems than just your final lines.

People don’t have fan theories about your first page, they have fan theories about what comes after your last page. There are no rules to writing an ending and sometimes by its nature of being unfulfilling you become infamous.

Example: The ending of Mark of Athena, that prompted this dedication in its sequel House of Hades.

“We’re staying together,” he promised. “You’re not getting away from me. Never again.” Only then did she understand what would happen. A one-way trip. A very hard fall. “As long as we’re together,” she said. She heard Nico and Hazel still screaming for help. She saw the sunlight far, far above—maybe the last sunlight she would ever see. Then Percy let go of his tiny ledge, and together, holding hands, he and Annabeth fell into the endless darkness.

(one short Leo POV later)

Nemesis wanted him to wreak vengeance on Gaea? Leo would be happy to oblige. He was going to make Gaea sorry she had ever messed with Leo Valdez. “Yeah.” He took one last look at the cityscape of Rome, turning bloodred in the sunset. “Festus, raise the sails. We’ve got some friends to save.”

If you weren’t in this fandom when this book came out and ended with the protagonist falling into Greek Super Hell, to wait a whole year to find out what happens next—We lost our collective minds.

And then the next book opened like this:

Gettin’ a bit big for your britches there, ey, Riordan?

How you write your ending should reflect the kind of feeling you want to leave your reader with. In this case, it was anguish and despair and the pinnacle of “always leave them wanting more”. Maybe you’ve written a character who’s suffered constant setbacks to reaching their goal, and the final line is them at peace with, or without achieving it. Or it’s the final plot twist/reveal no one saw coming. Or it’s ambiguous, leaving it up to reader interpretation.

My favorite classical book ending comes from The Great Gatsby and while I had to crack open my copies of the PJO books, I know this line by heart:

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

There’s just something so melancholy and tragic about it, as it should be: Gatsby is not a happy story. That line is the answer to the thesis, that trying to live in the past and not embrace the future, not allowing yourself to move on, can only end in tragedy, and yet, so many of us do exactly that.

The image of a dinky little rowboat is always what I’ve pictured, as opposed to a ship or something more formidable. A rowboat bobbing around the thrashing waves, pitted against a force of nature it can’t ever hope to overcome, yet it endures.

The book opens on an equally melancholy note, “In my younger years…” as the protagonist reflects back on their life gone by. It’s an American classic for a reason.

Even if your final line is unspectacular, the line isn’t as important as how the narrator feels about the book being over. Quotable hashtags are great, but if the ending doesn’t feel like a proper fit, you’re going to leave readers disappointed.

—

Endings are so fricken fun though, no matter what’s at stake. It’s as cathartic for me to finish as I hope it is for the reader to read. There’s plenty of advice out there on the perfect opener or the perfect closer, the endless arguments over which is harder, and it’s all up to you in the end. They just come easy to me, I have no advice. I can picture them well before I get to the final pages and they just click into place. Beginnings, though? Ugh.

—

Thank you for 300 Followers!!!

[danieyells]

I have major Rui brainrot. But anyways-

A couple of things I caught onto.

At the beginning of the game, they list off all the houses in Darkwick except for Obscuary before finally mentioning there’s a new house being added. That it doesn’t have any general entries (this is after speaking about Jabberwok btw) and that it’s also pretty exclusive to even ghouls. They��re heavily alluding to Obscuary, here. Kaito also starts to say something about their captain before being cut off (this is in one of the entrance ceremony chapters in the prologue).

But heres a couple of brain rot things I have.

If Obscuary is a newer house- what house was Ed and Rui in prior?

I’m sure they were moved to Obscuary because they’re considered high risk to the general populace (and also why there are no general admissions as well).

Ones a vampire. One is a reaper cursed guy who’s touch can kill you. And then they’re moving Lyca there- who is also considered pretty high risk (at least, Darkwick seems to think so).

Additionally, Haku goes out of his way in the beginning to warn Rui about Article 77 & 78. Well- now we know what those Articles entail per the new chapter. Rui seems pretty high risk for getting slapped with that considering his curse makes him a danger to be around. I’m assuming the same for Ed since he’s a vampire but also he did something that I’m sure we’ll find more information out on the next chapter. I hope. I cope.

I’m curious if Lyca being placed in Obscuary is also meant to be taken as a message (he’s definitely going to blab about being held in PRISON since he seems to say whatever is on his mind- according to Rui affinity lines). The message being “If you fuck up, you’re next”.

Anyways- I could blab more but I have just been turning this over in my mind and I saw you mention somewhere in one of your blogs about Obscuary possibly having general students. But early in the game, they say that the new house (alluding to Obscuary) has no general populace and isn’t even an option for the ceremony and that they’re specially selected to be put there. (If I’m recalling correctly).

Brainrot is always welcome here anon -u- i may just be slow at responding to it sometimes lol.

But yeah I did forget that Obscuary was stated to not have general students--I tend to forget things that're earlier in the game because the hyperfocus wasn't as strong when the game first launched hhhaaaa but thank you for the correction!!! 💞

To clarify Obscuary wasn't newly being added but rather it's the newest house of all of the current ones(implying Dionysia, Ultio, or Clamentia may have been newer.)

We don't know how long it's existed so it could be brand new, but we only know that it's existed the least amount of time of the currently active ones. That doesn't necessarily mean that they had to be in another house before this. Some of Darkwick's rules have existed for like 100 years apparently, according to one of Ritsu's lines, so for all we know the house is 10 years old and they just haven't added more that are currently active since Obscuary. ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

However we do know Rui was likely in another house(or school?) before this because he got his reaper curse on a mission.

I assume he was in one of the defunct houses before this, personally--maybe Dionysia since he's a bartender? Or Clementia since he's a pretty peaceful and kind person? Clementia would also make sense since they did exorcisms and presumably worked with spirits. . .so if he was on a mission that ended up involving a spirit and a reaper didn't take kindly to his involvement. . .curse? We don't know exactly how one gets a reaper curse--it could not involve a reaper at all.

As for Ed. . . . . .well all of this hinges on the simple question of how long has Ed been a vampire. Because Haku mentions in one of his chats that he's not trying to end up a super senior(i.e. he wants to graduate and be a 4th year) so he goes on missions instead of going to classes instead of being held back. And we know Ed is a lazy fuck lol so it's entirely possible that Ed's been here for ages and just never went on enough missions or to class enough to graduate!

Of course if he's been a vampire less years than he's been in Darkwick then he likely was in another house. . .we know he likes his tablet and he's lazy and irresponsible, so he's likely captain out of seniority rather than skillset, but we don't really have any clues as to what house he would have been in beforehand. . .which house would be most likely to encounter a vampire? Frostheim? Mortkranken?

It's also possible that he was a vampire when he got here and was placed in Obscuary immediately after being brought in, no weighing of souls or anything.

BUT AAA I HOPE YOU'RE RIGHT ANON I HOPE THEY TOUCH ON THESE IN THE OBSCUARY CHAPTER i mean they have to right???? Or maybe it'll be in their character stories(so after the Obscuary chapter lol)--either way I hope it's addressed a little bit. . .even just a quick "this is how i ended up this way" thing--maybe the mission reminds Rui of the one he got cursed on and he doesn't want you to go. We know Lyca was born part werewolf, so I'd absolutely believe Ed was a vampire all along and just rolled up that way.

I figure they're gonna place Lyca in Obscuary both as a message(assuming he isn't somehow prevented from talking about being imprisoned, or maybe once he's out he just doesn't care much about that he was locked up a moment ago because he's more concerned about exploring his new surroundings) and because they just Do Not Trust Him even though he's clearly just a large dog at worst.

(thank you for sharing your brainrot with me! There's so much to think about haha)

[leslutdepointedulac]

Ghosts

Vamptember ~ Day 15: Ghosts

“There was nothing you could do.” Armand tells him again, sorrow and regret evident in his tone. “It wasn’t your fault.” He pauses while he studies Lestat for a moment, then says, “Many years ago now, I told Louis that very few vampires have the stamina to endure immortality. The ones who don’t will eventually come to that realisation, they will realise that they don’t have it in them to face forever. They face only despair and fear for what the future will hold for them, they are corrupted by it, and seeing that there is no end to their turmoil, they find their freedom in death. He had to do it, Lestat. Nothing was going to stop him and believe me when I say I did try to sway him.”

Lestat shakes his head and frowns at Armand. “He wasn’t some old dog to be put down after no longer being able to serve his master.” He retorts harshly. “He was a person, he was one of us. He was happy once.”

This time, it’s Armand’s turn to shake his head, only his expression remains dejected. “That’s not what I’m saying. Don’t you see? He may have been happy once but that passed; the darkness overtook him, he couldn’t see clearly anymore. He was suffering as a prisoner of his own mind. To at least try and talk him down was all I could do but I couldn’t force him to leave his thoughts of the funeral pyre behind. He’d already convinced himself that that’s what needed to be done and I couldn’t get in the way of that; it would only have done more harm than good. What he did, it was a mercy to himself.”

“I just wanted him to be happy.” Lestat says in a small, broken voice. “Why couldn’t he be happy?”

Armand glances down and shakes his head again. “I don’t know. I don’t think he knew how. Happiness was simply too difficult for him to achieve, his mind was far too fractured. But it wasn’t up to you to fix him, it wasn’t even up to me. All I could do was attempt to control his tempers but I couldn’t salvage his broken mind.”

“Control his tempers.” Lestat lets out a small laugh and gives Armand a weakened smile. “Like when you cut off his hands and left him to starve?”

“He was erratic, nothing else would keep him in check.”

Lestat nods. “I know, you were only trying to help. You did what you had to do.”

[No Good At Goodbyes A03]

@vamptember

[serial-serializednovelreader]

What's the first thing comes to mind when you think about them? -Jonathan Harker

Favorite canon thing about this character? -Van Helsing

Deepest darkest secret they won’t even admit to themselves -Jonathan Harker

More asks yay!!!! I am going to get into some implied spoilers in this one; since you’re asking about Van Helsing, it sounds like you’ve read the book before! I’ll try to keep the spoilers implied, but I also have a spoiler-free ask here, if you haven’t read Dracula already!

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of them?

Jonathan Harker — bravery, love, and lizard fashion (yes I know, hear me out).

For bravery, I think of him trying to save a child, hitting Dracula with a shovel, and silently sharpening his knife.

For love, I think of “(Mem. get recipe for Mina)”, holding Mina closer when she cries and calls herself unclean, and his hair turning white.

For lizard fashion, I think of him looking down to prevent surprise/fear of the height later, straining to climb just a *little* more while gritting his teeth, and risking his life in hopes he could escape by imitating the monster who’s kept him prisoner.

Favorite canon thing about this character?

There are many things I love about Van Helsing, so I’ll give two: a serious and a funny thing.

Serious: That he’s not afraid to break down and be emotional, especially in front of other men. Most mentor characters, even in today’s age, are expected to be infallible and stoic. When things go wrong, they are impassive and continue on as if everything is normal. It’s refreshing to see him not be stoic when something terrible happens and instead cry it out — especially considering the conventions for men at the time. I know you didn’t ask this question, but this is also the scene that really made me love him!

Funny: Pulling Jack Seward’s ear “playfully” and making metaphors about corn is just a regular thing he does. IIRC, that’s like…the first in-person scene we get with Van Helsing (by which I mean he’s in-person with Jack and not writing a telegram/letter to him — I know everything in this book is a collection of letters/diary entries)? And he immediately owns the scene by calling Arthur “good corn” and then pulling on Jack’s ear when he doesn’t get the metaphor. It’s glorious, I love it!

Deepest darkest secret they won’t admit even to themselves?

I think, for a while, Jonathan is unable to admit to himself he was fed on by Dracula the night of June 29th. The evidence is all right there for him to see the next day when he sees Dracula bloated and blood coming out of his mouth, but…he doesn’t seem to register it. He doesn’t say anything of it, except he’s (understandably) disgusted, but also notes he doesn’t want “his own body” to be a “banquet” for the three vampire sisters — as if he wasn’t already one last night.

I think it’s understandable he doesn’t write it down. We know Jonathan doesn’t like to write about events he has no concrete evidence for and — well, he’d remember being fed on by a vampire, right? He remembered when the sisters were going to do it last time. But this is different. I believe the Count kept Jonathan asleep for the feeding (or wiped his memory of it) because he knows Jonathan has been acting “rebellious” lately and didn’t want him to rebel further, though it would’ve been difficult for him to with Dracula’s mind control on him. Perhaps Dracula just didn’t want to take any chances.

So if Jonathan can’t remember the event, he isn’t going to write it down. Plus, emotionally, it may be too overwhelming for him to write about in the moment. After all, he’s just tried to escape the castle several times before he wrote it and he’s about to try another escape attempt right after he finishes the entry, which may result in his death. In other words, his emotions are all over the place. We’ve always commended Jonathan on writing the hard truth — even when it’s difficult — but in this case, I think it’s a lot like Seward writing about Renfield, where he’s not even fully thinking of the idea to make it conscious. At this point, it’s more of a horrifying possibility he’s content to leave as an unconscious idea for the time being. Later, when Jonathan has processed this trauma, he’s able to understand he was fed on and can use that knowledge to his advantage! For now, he can’t admit this, even to himself. :(

Ask game here

[blacktycoon]

ok so pnat theory: the "power" that's "sleeping" in mayview is or was literally BL/sandman, and the true nature of her dream-manipulation power is full-on godlike reality warping that just so happens to be localized to dreams as long as she's by herself w/o a "host", because she's literally sleeping at the bottom of the lake in the waking world. the entire consortium is a cover she's created to try and prevent people from claiming her power bc she clearly feels awful about the incident (i think it's pretty safe to assume she's being genuine there- it wouldn't make sense to apologize to gwen after everybody else vamoosed otherwise, i don't think), and the incident 13 years ago was the result of the closest anyone ever got and may or may not have been some sort of Harmonic Convergence-esque event

...what i'm trying to piece together is if "13 years ago" lines up with when davy might have gained his own reality warping powers, and also when dimitri met peekaboo, bc i'd bet that the could both be "fragments" of BL/Sandman since they deal in such pure reality-warping and peekaboo is so weirdly mysterious

dimitri says he remembers meeting peekaboo right after preschool

preschool is around ages, like... 3-5, right? ten years ago, ed was 3, so he would have been just born when the incident happened

is dimitri the same age as max/ed/isabel? or isaac? idk if we know, but... its, like, a couple years off >:/c

i guess there's no reason to say that peekaboo couldn't have floated around for a while before finding a medium... or, well, hang on, maybe peekaboo was possessing dimitri for some time without dimitri awakening, like forge in johnny rn. i could see that, especially if dimitri was, like. an infant.

ooh, y'know, maybe that's why VP was so outraged that she didn't get a name from the sphinx of truth-- she needs to figure out who's holding the fragments in order to piece them together to claim the power

(maybe the freaky shadow spirit could be another fragment too? idk, shadow manipulation... it seems like kind of a stretch but it definitely appeared around the same time)

CH. 8 PG. 61 EDIT: OKAy okay the LOCKER.

"Indeed, he was drawing more and more power from it with each passing day" that's GOTTA be the source of his reality warping ability as seen in his encounter with Hijack

"Davy sympathized with the poor thing, really, having sprung free from a prison they once shared", also:

OKay okay OKAY, so. Sealed away to rot? The [grudge] that let him go? Like... "this grudge" that Gwen and BL have "nursed" for years? "Locked" it in nighmares? The locker has a sticky note with "ZZZ" on it. Sleeping.

Davy was part of the Consortium. He was trapped, the same way as Gwen. He escaped by cutting off part of the spirit that was holding him there... and the piece came with him.

Is it possible... hmm. Is it possible that the power might turn humans into Monsters? I wouldn't be that surprised honestly, like... we see with Isaac that mediums tend to take after their sprits physically in some manner. Prolonged contact with a (Great?) Wight might have even more dire consequences.

Also the locker's got vampire and werewolf stickers on it. So. Also a ghost! And... a bur--? WAIT A BURGER

THE LOCKER HAS A *B U R G E R* ON IT

[bottombaron]

I think that Guillermo, at the end of Laszlo's 'Roast' party in episode 7, will reveal his secret.

The party will most certainly devolve into a roast of him instead, because of course it will. Because Nandor won't be able to make clever jokes or get anyone to laugh and in order to save his ego he'll do what he always does in those situations and sacrifice Guillermo in its place. He'll say unnecessarily cruel things because he thinks no one person can be more important to him than the fear of his own weakness. He'll pile it on too. One thing after the other. Maybe the other vampires invited to the roast will laugh along because familiars are easy marks. And the heat will build. There's only so many lashes Guillermo can take on behalf of Nandor's pride. And Laszlo, Nadja, and Colin are starting to grimace and wince.

And that's when Guillermo will do it.

He will stand up, with the chair he was sitting in making a horrible noise across the wood floor like a record scratch. To let you know that the party has been violently cut short.

And Laszlo will do a panicked head shake, maybe try to salvage the situation from the precipice that Nandor has unknowingly brought them to. That Guillermo is about to jump off of. With all of them helplessly attached.

Guillermo was put in the audience on the other side of the room. Already segregated from the rest of the group. He's in a room filled with vampires who were just laughing at him but now look. Nandor's peers. The whole vampire community is here, watching him.

Guillermo's vampires sit across from him at a long table with a podium, like a panel of judges. Like he's a prisoner standing before the pulpit awaiting a verdict. He's got one last moment to either swallow the pride he just started to embrace on a float earlier that year and sit back down, let himself be ridiculed like always but live to see another day ... or burn it all down like it deserves to be, with his plea of guilt.

Holding a struck match, Guillermo will finally speak the truth to Nandor. To everyone. The real truth. The one he hasn't spoken out loud yet. The one nobody knows.

He will say, "I have a joke." And everyone will listen.

"I paid to have some barely-turned, low-rank, nothing of a vampire. Who hasn't even been one longer than I have been a familiar…to bite me. And turn me. In the back room of a gas station where he works. And he did it."

"I've been turned by a vampire that wasn't my master. That wasn't you."

Guillermo's jittered, bitchy energy tapers. He no longer fidgets or looks around at the faces slack-jawed at him. He's gone cold.

Like a killer, he delivers the next blow straight at his master's heart, sitting across the room at the podium, similarly frozen in place.

"But that's not the joke."

"The joke is, I may not have known how taboo it was…that it would be such a big deal to everyone else…but I did know…" (he licks his lips and despite his unshakable intent the uncontrollable emotion he always carries inside him threatens to undo his composure. Still, he keeps his voice loud and steady. Mostly. His attention is focused. His eyes start getting a little wet, but he hardly notices. He's going to follow through.)

"I didn't even really do it because I wanted to. Not then, or like that. (Not with him). Not for the same reason I had wanted to do it before. Or the reason I told Laszlo and Nadja I did it."

"See…the joke is…"

(His voice has become softer. It still carries across the room easily. There is no one else in the whole house but Guillermo and Nandor.)

"I did it because I knew how it would make you feel."

"I did it because I wanted to hurt you."

[regaliasonata]

Ranger Headcanons Batch

-Marah and Dustin, after settling out their differences, have become rather good friends. Mainly like two braincells forming together in unison. She kinda likes to play dress up with him and with attending the academy invites him with Kapri to sleepovers.

-Marah loves Doja Cat, though Cameron had to take away her speakers when she kept blaring music in the Watanabe Estate. She gets music from Conner who in turn gets it from SPD so she has access to future artists.

-The Wild Force zords and animal spirits in JF are the same but have variations. The animarium used to be affiliated with Pai Zhua but split off, WF focuses on sharing wild force powers through their crystals as outside sources while JF utilizes animal spirit powers from the inside.

-Some dimensions share a universal counterpart, Shelby and Scott are counterparts along with their fathers. This may also count with other characters such as Mack and Venjix or Kendall and Dr. K.

-A lot of the older red rangers from MMPR to Time Force do not like the newer reds. For many reasons...One they aren't exactly keen on being respectful just because of bragging rights, Hunter is hated the most by some of them for good reason due to Jason trying to impede on personal business the Bradley's had with their parent's old enemies and the red ranger came back with electric burns on his body. Two the amount of gimmicks and forms kinda show up the older reds, Jayden and Casey jumped Tommy during a forced sparring match. And finally three, Tyler doesn't know who they are and for all we know there could've been different teams in his universe so who the hell is Jason Lee Scott?

-Hunter does actually like TJ, Eric and Andros, Cole is nice but he doesn't like him cause Dustin's got eyes for the fellow lion ranger...it's on sight if Jason comes to Blue Bay Harbor.

-Taylor and Jen despise SPD, Syd and Z's treatment being the reason.

-The first yellow ranger meeting happened during Ninja Storm and Dustin literally became the marshmallow of the group.

-Some teams that are more secluded have reasons mainly due to feeling indifferent about zordon or the increase of mmpr rangers trying to come in a fix everything when they aren't needed.

-while Mystic Force may the the strongest team due to their magic, raw power wise that category goes clearly to Ninja Storm with their non ranger elemental powers and training...if anything if lothor kept them as evil then I feel like it would've been even harder to change them back than in the DT crossover. Jungle Fury might be abel to take care of them if they are lucky.

-Rangers, specifically those with civilian powers, are banned from the Olympics. Or at least until there's a division crested specifically for them.

-The Morphin Grid has a spiral of collective unconscious with ideas, hence why Tarrick and Leanbow share a dort of similarity. The idea is that there might've been some magical aspects on Rafkon giving Tarrick the same appearance armor wise or a dimension where Leanbow was his counterpart.

-Necrolai and RJ had a feud during the Twilight era of media...Vida and Casey were hyping both sides up(mainly supporting their respective partners🩷🖤❤️💜). Luckily this wasn't about the movie and more on which were better, werewolves or vampires.

-Hunter and Blake's willingness to kill Kanoi wasn't by circumstance. They really were down to murder if needed, the Thunder Academy had some rather different ways of training but from being fueled by losing their parents if anything was to happen to the other sibling then it would be lights out for their enemies.

-During the Cosmic Fury invasion the Mystif Force team didn't lose against Zedd but only got caught off guard. He needed a backup plan because he knew he wasn't strong enough to beat them, they roasted the shit out of him from the ranger prisons.

-Majority of the rangers aren't straight.

[free-for-all-fics]

Tanz der Vampire/Dance of the Vampires and Dracula Musical Prompts! These are written with the German productions in mind, but really any adaptation could work. Pls tag me if you’re inspired by any of these ideas and I’d love to read it! ❤️🩸

1. You’re Count Dracula’s daughter/son and Graf von Krolock’s wife/husband. Describe what your immortal life and marriage is like. You may have been addressed as Countess/Count Dracula while you were still unmarried and later Countess/Count von Krolock after your marriage, but as the biological daughter/son of Count Dracula, you’re still technically a Princess/Prince. Your father was a Prince of Wallachia in his mortal life and later became the King of Vampires, after all. You’re vampire royalty; your beauty, charm, family name, etc. made you highly sought after by men and monsters alike. But there was no better a match for you than Graf von Krolock. He’s a handsome and charismatic nobleman with a flair for dramatics. He’s technically lower in status than you, but you don’t care. You love him for reasons far more important than rank, so you’re not too bothered with the fact that you married down.

In all your centuries together, you’ve never for a moment regretted your choice to take him as your husband and eternal mate. Moving from Castle Dracula to Castle Krolock was easy since it immediately felt like home. You’re no stranger to acting as Mistress/Master of the Castle; you loved making Krolock Castle your own and adding your own personal touches, whether it be the interior of the castle or the garden/cemetery outside. Maybe it’s because you wished to have a son or daughter that your husband later turned Herbert and adopted him as yours and his son. If you wanted an heir, he would kidnap anyone of your choosing from a human village and turn them at your request. Herbert may not be yours by blood, but he would be your son in every other sense.

2. Beauty and the Beast AU: You’re Sarah’s sibling and Graf von Krolock is fixated on you instead of her because he believes you to be the reincarnation of his beloved husband/wife/lover. You look and act exactly the same, it’s uncanny. He kidnaps you, maybe half mad with grief and delusional from his centuries of black melancholy and loneliness. While you’re technically a prisoner in his castle, he doesn’t treat you like one. The castle is your home now so he lets you explore freely. You may go anywhere you wish, except for one locked door. That room is forbidden. You can’t leave the castle grounds or go beyond the garden/cemetery. He won’t let you. If he’s not watching you, there’s always another vampire or servant who is.

“What’s the story with the locked room upstairs?”

“It belongs to the late Graf/Grafin. We don’t go in there.”

“It might help me figure out what’s going on if I could take a look inside.”

“Best of luck. That door locked itself up tight the day of his/her funeral. There’s not a key in this world that’ll open it. Many have tried - myself included, I regret to say. If you’re really going to try opening that cursed door, if you’re really going to try breaking in to explore the late Master’s/Mistress’s room, the only advice I can offer you is this: Don’t let the Master catch you. Do you understand? Don’t let him catch you.”

During your captivity, you’re haunted by nightmares of lying dead on a stone bench deep within the castle’s chambers. The chamber can be accessed only through the window, set high in Krolock’s castle wall. A large bat flies in and hovers over the bench, regurgitating blood onto your dormant body. Your corpse starts to interact and bond with the dripped blood. Within seconds, you’re once more resurrected as a vampire. You wake up in a cold sweat from these night terrors. You either wander the castle halls in the dark and get lost, only to later be found by Kukol or Krolock himself. Or the Count is either lingering in your doorway or leering at you from over your bed, watching over you and waiting for you to awaken.

He lets you partake in the annual Dance of the Vampires, a celebration when the undead come to life in the cemetery and the castle again lives its former glory for one night only. He gifts you a beautiful suit/dress and protects you from the other vampires. He’s made it more than clear that only he or Herbert are allowed to dance with you. Are you truly his long lost love reincarnated or has the Count‘s mind succumbed to madness from centuries of existential pessimism? Are you truly a flickering light of hope in his shroud of black melancholy? Whether you remember your past life or not, could you ever find it in your still beating heart to love him despite him being your captor? Would you let him damn your soul and give you his vampire kiss so you can join him in eternity and save him from this inhabitable hell of loneliness?

3. Graf von Krolock was once deeply in love with you, Dracula’s daughter/son. You were his beloved wife/husband and eternal mate, but something happened where you were either killed by vampire hunters or died tragically. Your father was devastated by your untimely death. In his grief, he blamed your husband. Count Dracula and/or Graf von Krolock may have avenged you by hunting down, brutally killing and sucking the blood of the humans that took you away from them, but it didn’t make either vampire feel any better. They were still hollow. Even if your death wasn’t murder and was an accident, they’d still set fire to the villages and instill fear in the humans for what was done to you. Blood was spilled and heads rolled. No man, woman, or child was safe from their wrath.

Your father and husband never reconciled their relationship following your death. No matter how drawn out or excruciatingly painful they made the deaths of the hunters that slayed you or how many centuries passed, nothing could numb the pain your absence brought upon them. Your husband has never remarried; no mortal nor vampire could fill the void you left behind. No matter how beautiful, smart, etc., no one could ever hope to take your place. You were his mate, his one true love. Your old bedroom doubled as your personal study and it was one of your favorite rooms in the entire castle. It’s still exactly as you left it. Torn apart with grief, Krolock either keeps it locked up tight and has Kukol hide the key out of his sight so he’s never tempted to step foot in your room ever again. Or he’s the only one who’s permitted to hold the key and enter. He personally sees to keeping it clean and orderly, free of any dust or signs of decay. You wouldn’t want your favorite room to be neglected and left to rot away with time, so he keeps it pristine for you. He knows you’ll never step foot in this room or his castle again, but cleaning keeps his mind busy and helps him cope with your loss. This room brings back once happy memories of you now marred by tragedy, but it makes him believe for a few fleeting hours that you’ll come home.

“What’s the story with the locked room upstairs?”

“It belongs to the late Graf/Grafin. We don’t go in there. Ever. Only the Master would be allowed to go in and out. It’s best not to ask questions or go poking around.”

“It might help me figure out what’s going on if I could take a look inside.”

“Best of luck. That door locked itself up tight the day of his/her funeral. There’s not a key in this world that’ll open it. The Master likely carries it on him or keeps it somewhere hidden. I wouldn’t even try, if I were you. You’d be dead the second he caught you snooping around in places you weren’t supposed to be.”

To this day, Count Dracula refuses to have anything more to do with Krolock, citing what he believes is your husband’s failure to protect you. They haven’t spoken since the day of your funeral. Dracula is unyielding in his belief that Krolock could’ve or should’ve done more and that your death is your husband’s fault, even if it’s not actually true. You were his only surviving child and heir, and he only wanted the best for you. He didn’t approve of your choice in husband. If you had listened to him and never married Krolock, maybe you’d still be here. But you went against his wishes and married him anyway, and now you’re gone.

The King of all Vampires has held onto his grudge against your husband for centuries and isn’t going to ever let go of it unless, by some miracle, you’re brought back. Speaking of which, a group of humans are spending the night in the abandoned ruins where you supposedly died. They’re here to tell scary stories and urban legends, but get much more than they bargained for after they inadvertently resurrect you with their blood. The first thing you do upon awakening is kill and feed from the humans closest to you. You’re so weak and feel like you’ve been starving for centuries. You can’t be bothered to chase the others while they scream and flee in horror upon realizing you’re more than just a legend. First, you want to find and reunite with your father and husband. What happens next?

4. You’re Graf von Krolock’s beautiful and enchanting daughter, but have no interest in men. While Herbert has fallen in love with Alfred, you’ve been trying to claim Sarah’s heart. Neither you nor your brother understand subtlety; it’s in neither of your vocabularies. You’re both laying your seductions on thick, uncaring if your approach makes Alfred or Sarah feel awkward and uncomfortable. Awww, they’re both so cute! Herbert is very playful and fun. He loves playing games and chases Alfred all over the castle. The poor man is scared half to death as he tries in vain to run away and escape your flamboyant brother. Once Herbert finally catches Alfred, he holds him tightly in his strong embrace and carries him off to his bedroom, where he will read him poetry and tease him all night. He wants to take his sweet time seducing the boy before he bites him. He wants to make love to Alfred first. He wants Alfred to want him, to give in and reciprocate his love.

Meanwhile, you’re obsessed with Sarah and constantly interrupting her many baths to spoil her with extravagant gifts such as a beautiful red dress and matching red boots. You’d love nothing more than to join her in that tub and explore her naked body. You can tell she’s been sheltered her entire life and has never experienced the touch of a man nor a woman. You doubt she’s ever touched herself and would love to show her how to do it. She’s so innocent and naive; you want to corrupt her so bad and show her the sins of the flesh, just as Herbert wants to do with Alfred. But you’ll be patient for now and turn up the vampire charm once she arrives at the Vampire Ball, wearing your gifts. You’ll dance with her all night and you’ll bite her to turn her into your heart’s companion. She’ll be your mate, your lover for all eternity.

Krolock either steps back and lets you and your brother handle it, or he actively encourages you both to pursue your romances but leaves you to bite your lovers yourselves. He’s too wrapped up in the Vampire Ball or his own existential pessimism to watch over you or your brother’s activities. There comes a time when each vampire must turn their first human, and there’s no better time to learn than now. Either way he’s not going to come between his children and their newfound paramours. Despite your differences and his serious disposition, your father loves you and Herbert more than anything. He’s just too fucking exhausted all the time, wrapped up in the festivities or crushed by his own black melancholy. He can’t be bothered to always get involved with your and your brother’s whims or…whatever this is. He’s raised you both well enough over the centuries that he trusts you know what you’re doing.

5. You’re just trying to donate blood but your lovers/husbands, Count Dracula and Graf von Krolock, are acting like total weirdos. They’re both leering over you the whole time and have no concept of personal space. If you have a fear of needles, they’re running their long fingers through your hair and scratching your scalp with their long nails as they kiss your forehead to comfort you. They’re making sure you have plenty of snacks and water so you don’t pass out. But they’re both eager to taste that sweet, sweet blood. You knew you should’ve left them at the castle, but they were stubborn and insisted on coming with you. Bringing vampires to a blood drive is like bringing them to an all-you-can-eat buffet. If they leave your side, it’s because they’re bothering the other nurses trying to take blood, insisting that it shouldn’t be that hard to find a vein. They’re asking inappropriate questions about where the blood is stored and if they could have a bag or two to go. No, they can’t have any blood bags. This blood isn’t for them, it’s for the countless humans that need it. The poor patients and nurses look nervous and probably think the vampires are going to eat them.

You knew being a human and having two vampire lovers/husbands was going to be incredibly awkward and uncomfortable, but they seriously have no chill when it comes to blood. Even after their centuries of vampirism, you have to bribe them to behave with promises of letting them bite and drink from you once you fully recover and your blood replenishes. If your arm wasn’t stiff from having a needle or tube in it, you’d face palm so hard. This is the last time you’re bringing them with you when you donate blood. These Counts are lucky they’re so handsome, charismatic, and amazing lovers in bed. Sometimes you don’t know what you’d do with them otherwise. They love having you sandwiched between them every night so they can lay their heads on your chest and listen to your heartbeat. It’s like music to their ears. They can almost dance to the beat. It’s one of their favorite sounds, apart from the noises you make when they make love to you. Hopefully when they finally turn you into a vampire, life with them will be less chaotic. Spoiler alert: Eternal life with them is even more chaotic than it was when you were mortal.

6. Dracula didn’t kill Van Helsing’s wife, Roseanne. Instead he turned her into a vampire and put her under his thrall, either as revenge against Van Helsing or because he was in love with her too and felt spurned when she decided to marry Abraham.

7. Underworld AU: Roseanne was a vampire and Dracula’s biological daughter. She fell in love with Abraham Van Helsing, a human man. Even though it was against vampire law, she and Van Helsing continued their secret love affair, whether or not he ever knew she was a vampire. They eloped and Roseanne later became pregnant with a Dhampir child. Upon discovering her pregnancy, Dracula killed his own daughter. He loved her, but the abomination growing in her womb was a betrayal of him and the entire vampire race. He did what he had to do to protect the species. Since his wife’s murder, Van Helsing has sworn revenge on Dracula and has dedicated his life to vampire hunting, determined to slay the Vampire King himself.

8. You’re Professor Abronsius’ grandchild and either Krolock or Herbert are in love with you. Instead of Sarah, you’re the one who gets seduced and kidnapped by vampires. Your grandfather is so busy with taking his notes or exploring the Count’s library that he gets easily distracted and sometimes forgets what he’s doing. Wait, why is he in this castle again? Oh yeah! To rescue you from the bloodthirsty vampires. Right, right. He loves you, never doubt that. The moment he realized you were gone, he was desperately searching for you. But it’s no surprise you were kidnapped right from under his nose in the first place. Even if you had kicked and screamed, he was probably deaf to your cries for help, having blocked out all noises. He often forgets the world around him.

When he does finally come to rescue you, he’ll probably ward off the vampires by lecturing and admonishing them. Poor Abronsius never even realizes it, but it’s already too late for you. Krolock or Herbert has already bitten you. By dragging the newly transformed you out of the castle, your grandfather didn't exactly save mankind from the vampire plague. You can’t return home with him. Krolock’s castle is your home now. The Count and/or his son will come after you to bring you back. Your grandfather walks off singing about his "victory” while you’re starving. That young assistant of his looks so appetizing. Just one bite won’t hurt.

9. Count Von Krolock spends a lonely and melancholy life in his old castle in the mountains, in the company of his son Herbert and his servant Koukol. Krolock has never been the same ever since he lost you, the love of his mortal and/or immortal life, to an unforeseen tragedy. Your untimely demise was so long ago that the Count has lost track of time and can no longer remember when exactly you died. Your body has since been laid to rest in a beautiful mausoleum near his castle cemetery. He’s given you only the best. The most beautiful coffin/casket, flowers from his garden, etc. The epitaph on your grave has worn down with time and is practically illegible. But he still remembers the words he had lovingly engraved underneath your name. Ever since your death, The numbness and loneliness of his existence is interrupted only at the annual Dance of the Vampires when the undead come to life in the cemetery and the castle lives again, for one night, its former glory.

You’re not a vampire, but you rise from your grave with the rest of the undead. For one night only, your body is magically restored and you become flesh. You’re just as beautiful as you were the last time Krolock saw you alive, before you were taken from him. Your voice is the same, your hair is the same, your scent is the same, etc. You and your beloved Count make the most out of the few hours you have together. You dance the night away in each other’s arms before the Count escorts you back to your beautiful resting place. He holds your hand as he helps you climb back into your coffin/casket and gives you one final kiss before you return to your annual slumber. He closes the lid just before the night ends. Just before sunrise, your body decays once more. He can never bear to watch you change back. But he can still hear it. It’s just as unbearable, or maybe even worse. He retreats back into the castle before the sun can burn him.

“Until next year, my love.”

[spoiler-alert-andabunchofnumbers]

Look, I love the Castlevania series and the Netflix adaptation made 3 great seasons ("Um there are 4 seasons" LIKE I SAID, 3 GREAT SEASONS), but we have got to talk about how disappointing it is that the main trio never met or even knew the existence of Hector and Isaac - or honestly, that entire half of the plot. I will forever find it weird that the show set up two related but never intersecting plot threads (and arguably a third, go figure during the worst season).

It's sweet and empowering that both of them found their own ways to live before and after Dracula's death, with Isaac being a total badass and even progressing to a better person despite seeing how unfair, cruel, and rude the world is - to the point that he defeats Carmilla not JUST because she was partly responsible for Dracula's death but because he actually wanted to make the world a better place. But even though Isaac could arguably be founding an entire empire and generation of peace, he and Hector don't even seem to know about Alucard's existence or contributions, let alone Trevor and Sypha.

We can debate Hector and Lenore's fucked up relationship all day, but in the end the two of them DID end up bonding through all the lies and deceit. They were able to actually talk to one another and have the other listen; in the end, both of them were just born in different worlds on different sides. Lenore genuinely seemed to want to settle things peacefully, but she got left behind in a world that valued only overwhelming strength; she decides she can't live as a prisoner even though Hector was no doubt stronger than her for enduring his own imprisonment and subjugation, but I think Lenore was already on her way to losing herself. Despite what she did to Hector, she wanted to at least believe she understood him; even though she was a sympathetic vampire, she still believed knowing enough to control someone was the only way they could be friends - so when it turns out Hector was plotting the downfall of Carmilla and her buddies, unfortunate Lenore had to be betrayed as well. Even if Hector wanted her to live, she was a living contradiction. A vampire who is physically very strong and intimidating, but a woman who other male vampires have looked down upon, and even male humans. A creature who feeds on humans, but one who wants to settle things peacefully. She absolutely had a role in Carmilla's gang of women just surviving, but in Carmilla's mad conquest, she was useless at best and a hindrance at worst.

In the end, Lenore was one of the few vampires that might have been sympathetic to the human side of the argument, but she physically couldn't live like that. I believed Lenore genuinely wasn't capable of turning her whole worldview upside down and aiding humanity in any way - being beneath them. Dracula opened himself up to one human and it destroyed him; he saved Hector and Isaac, but he also sacrificed himself and forced Isaac away, that was the extent of his personal affairs with them. I think it's fundamentally difficult for vampires to adopt human ideologies and empathy, making Alucard the only vampire ally we really have in the series - because he's only half. Unlike Alucard, she is a full vampire. She has a divide that she can't just bridge like he can.

Imagine if Alucard got to meet the only other humans beside his mother who genuinely looked up to and cared about his father. What would Isaac and Hector have to say to the son of the man they had admired and then lost as well? Imagine Alucard meeting another human who may have even fallen in love with a vampire, but who understands how far their worlds pulled each other apart. Or maybe Sypha can relate to having her eyes opened to a world outside her Speaker family. Imagine a discussion with Lenore about what it means to be caught between wanting to make peace with humans and knowing how much harm they cause - her actually getting a sympathetic vampire perspective from someone like Alucard who wouldn't look down on her.

Imagine the tension that could come from Trevor meeting a Forgemaster, Isaac trying to explain his control over Night Creatures and his ability to even make them fight for a sympathetic cause. Both Isaac and Trevor have experience being the outcasts, understanding how awful humans can be, but they both found their way to still fighting for the right thing. Trevor understands why killing Dracula's wife would make him want to purge the world in retribution, but he still knows humans are worth fighting for. Isaac fully abandoned his faith in humanity and believed in Dracula completely, and even THEN he managed to find the good amongst the rabble. Is it right to make Night Creatures from the dead, even if they were bad people? Even if it's to champion a good cause? Even if Hector and Isaac have full control over them without a potential for any sort of rebellion?

What I'm saying is, I love the idea of a new Castlevania series, but nothing will beat the OG season 1 and 2, and season 3 should have been answering questions and tying up loose ends - not going off on at least 3, 4 tangents that were just meant to come out of nowhere and make things shitty again after our happy ending and I guess they're kinda related but not really, so now we can fix the new shitty stuff and have ANOTHER happy ending and avoid showing anything resembling resolutions, just teaser after teaser for the fanfics to finish up.

Anyway so I'm going to the fanfics and if I don't come back, tell the Final Fantasy rants I love them-

[dracwife]

happy safeshiptember 2023! i hope everyone has a blast with the prompts<3

ship: a taste of the divine -> dracula/ambroży

word count: 810

summary: safeshiptember day 1: fall weather

"You aren't a prisoner, you know."

If it were anyone else, perhaps they would have been frightened by the sudden voice. Ambroży, however, was not. Their head turns just slightly, vaguely listening.

"What ever do you mean by that?"

The Count takes a step closer, his hand coming to rest on the other's shoulder. He tries to trace their gaze, longing as it watches over the grounds from the windowsill in which they sat. The fire blazes on the opposite corner of the room, but avoids reflection on the glass as they both now peer out into the night, presumably to combat the chill of the air so high up.

"I mean if you wish to leave, you may."

Ambroży, confused, now moves, spinning so they may face the vampire.

"What a terrible thing to say!"

They stand, though nearly a foot of difference sits between their height. Ambroży's head tilts upwards, brows furrowed as they huff disapproval once more.

"What ever have I done to wrong you, for you to say such things?"

"Nothing at all," The Count's hand brushes their cheek gently, "You simply seemed...Distracted. It is always my worry that those woeful eyes of yours crave something I am afraid I cannot give you. I was simply reassuring that if you wish to leave, you may."

"I don't wish to leave, I --" they pause, their voice lowers, "I simply miss the outside."

Dracula leans down, an assurance that he is listening, and as he hears their words, he smiles in relief, maybe even bewilderment at such a trivial want.

"What is stopping you? Go outside, my dear."

"It's too cold this season, don't you understand? And I don't know these grounds like you, it would be silly of me to even try."

The Count chuckles, how endearing humans could be when they wanted to. He takes a moment, a moment where Ambroży turns back towards the window, only to feel the heavy fabric of their cloak wrap around their shoulders, with gently dangerous hands that tie it in place. The hood is pulled over their head, and a kiss stolen with cold lips as they are led down winding staircases they have come to know so well, and through rooms of all kinds, until finally they reach a rather old wooden door, hinges scarcely in tact after what may well have been decades of little, if any, use. Ambroży has seen it many times, leading from the kitchen but could never quite get it open -- they didn't dare pull the lock too hard, lest they break it, and figured for better or worse that it was nothing more than a spare cellar of sorts.

But the Count opens it easily, as though it were any other door in the castle, and beyond that pulls them through. What lay behind the door, they come to know was not another room, but the garden, a gated little area secluded by trees. They wonder now why they had never noticed it, looking from their bedroom window but at the same time, supposed they never really knew what to look for anyways. They glance about in awe, taking a few steps beyond Dracula's pace, but his long strides quickly bring him besides them once again.

Ambroży smiles, stumbling upon what may have been a table at some point, chairs flipped upwards on it, now covered in ivy, in flora of all kinds, and they tug at the vines that bind them together in amusement.

"You could have just asked, if you wished to simply go outside."

"I didn't want to bother you with such silly whims," their head tilts as they brush dirt and dust off of the table, which at one point was carved from marble, he thinks.

"No need of yours is ever trivial." Though he tries to offer assurance he understands that it was likely in vain. He watches as Ambroży explores the terrace.

"I bet you used to host all sorts of parties here, no?"

"Many years ago, perhaps."

"Oh, I bet it was beautiful then, and -- Oh!"

The Count's attention snaps from reminiscences, for a second he's worried letting someone so fragile loose in the overgrowth was a mistake. But instead of injury, he finds reverence. Ambroży looks up, towards the trees. Moonlight manages barely to peek through the branches, slivers of silver that light the way for their expedition.

"Look," Ambroży points, grinning, "The leaves, they've begun to change color."

Dracula wraps his arms around the human, pulling them close as they gaze there together again.

"It's my favorite time of year," Ambroży leans back into him, "Say you'll help me fix this place up? So I may come out here when I like?"

Ambroży feels the low rumble of a response against their back, "Of course, my love."

[danieyells]

Re: Towa observations

I mean my opinion on him is more or less the same? I love him and finding out that he actually used to be even worse in terms of his aggression towards anomalies and he's a fucking murder suspect and he is so mean to Ed just outright aggression and open disdain. . .I love him so much he's secretly so cruel and mean and hides it behind love and whimsey which isn't faked at all, he's just very. . .like that? He's not trying to hide it either he's just multifaceted in that way. We learn that love--for who? For what? From who or what?--made him decide to be more tender towards things that are weak and small, whereas he was the opposite before, and then we turn around and learn oh by the way he may have killed somebody actually. The fact that he's even a suspect kind of enforces how cruel he used to be--and the pc dismisses it so quickly despite seeing how brutal Towa can be for themself? Like yeah he's nice but he killed like 20 anomalies in one go with like 0 effort. He could easily commit at least manslaughter.

When we were introduced to Ultio and they were explained as basically being the house that acted as prison guards for dangerous anomalies Darkwick was holding, I quickly headcanoned that Towa had originally been placed there and was transferred to Jabberwock after the Clash and the dissolution of Ultio. Ed revealing that Towa was actually crueler last time he saw him and he's gentler because of love only reinforced that theory--that means he didn't have that love before and his ambition could have been totally different when he enrolled. Yeah he probably had that interest in romance, but his ambition for being in the academy probably wasn't a Jabberwock one if he's behaving completely differently in some major aspect. . . .

As for the observations, they're mostly the same although I'm pretty sure the tree is good now, or it's not bad or harmful. It likely represents the state of things in Darkwick itself in some way, and the constant conflicts are killing it? It has one glowy ball for each house(or, 9 glowy balls and one dull one. Clementia, perhaps?) including the defunct ones. Towa himself probably doesn't fully realize the importance of the tree, but he's also one of the only people who can see it. Everyone else just sees the hill, but not the tree on it, I think.

While I think historically Towa may have had even more violent tendencies, I no longer have thoughts of him potentially being the spy at the moment, unless the spy turns out to not be working for Darkwick but something else(demons or anomalies or something.) Towa has his own whole thing going on. We're not getting the whole Towa plot until like Season 4.

Now knowing his bloodtype now aligns with Ed(a vampire) and Lyca(a werewolf, however he doesn't like needles and refused his health check) so the missing blood type may be an inhumanity thing as first presumed, but it could also just be a "I am not letting the doctors touch me" thing lmao. I would absolutely believe Towa not letting someone come near him with a needle lolol. I figure if he really is a non-human anomaly he had such a negative relationship with Ed that they didn't wanna put them in the same house, so maybe Jabberwock was chosen to house him instead since they wouldn't have enough people after the general students were removed? Or they weighed his soul again.

A new-ish observation is that if Towa decides he doesn't like something he will just Stop Doing It. He went as far as Obscuary for the human-faced dog and decided he didn't like being in Obscuary and just decided to leave without the dog. Yes, Haru wanted him to bring it back. He loves Haru, he would love to do things to make him happy. He also does not care. He is going home. They can get a new dog. I say this is new-ish because the way he just throws wounded Haru around could be the same tendency here, just to an extreme, I guess?

I'm very excited to see who ended up doing this murder. I hope it's Towa. He deserves it. But yeah no real changes beyond 'I no longer suspect him of working with any enemies, he's doing whatever he wants and that happens to possibly be good for the island'

[gt-mcyt]

monsters vs aliens

(ao3)

Chapter 5: Monsters VS Aliens

George knew that monsters, by the American government’s definition – different, non-human, and dangerous to society – were rare. Sure, there were plenty of people and things dangerous to society, but not many of them were non-human, which was the key part in allowing the government to lock them up without legal protest. George was the first “monster” captured and experimented on by the American government, after all – even if he was more of a mutant than monster, if you wanted to get technical – and Karl and Sapnap came not long after he was detained. They were lucky that all three popped into existence around the same time, really. So, he didn’t expect another addition to Area Fifty-Something within his lifetime. And if there was, he expected it to be a werewolf or a vampire of some sort, not a cute, white-haired, hundred-foot-tall man – err, pretend you didn’t hear the “cute” part.

Despite Sapnap’s teasing, George knew that the demon also found the giant man cute and intimidating, and not in a scary way, but in a “trying to talk to him makes me stutter and blush” kind of way.

If only Dream wasn’t so held up on this Quackity guy.

“Quackity said …” this, and “Quackity said …” that.

George was getting tired of hearing about Quackity, and it wasn’t because he was jealous (yes, he was mature enough to admit that he was jealous Dream was engaged to someone else). It was because despite the obvious stars in Dream’s eyes every time he talked about his fiancé, George couldn’t help but hate every fact and memory Dream shared about the man. If he was being honest, Quackity sounded like an asshole. But Dream just couldn’t see it!

Maybe, eventually, George could get Dream to see his worth. Maybe, eventually, George could get Dream to look past his bug eyes and cockroach wings and get him to flirt back with him. Maybe, eventually, they could be together in the way that George wanted.

But today, George had a different goal: get Dream to shrink down to his previous height.

George was going to do it by using certain electrical currents, which would hopefully interact with the extra-terrestrial energy in Dream’s body, and – if the extra-terrestrial energy was the cause of his immense size and strength, like George suspected it was – it should reverse the energy’s effects on Dream. George may have been more of a chemist and biologist than engineer, but he still knew his way around a computer and electrical parts. So, using a pizza box, a toaster, stolen computer parts from the prison office (but shh, no he doesn’t have those parts), wires he’d pulled from the wall in his bedroom (he definitely didn’t do that, either), some stray batteries that had been in his lunch a couple days ago, some paper clips, and … hmm, he was still missing something.

Behind George, Sapnap and Karl were playing Go-Fish with Area Fifty-Something themed cards; however, playing any intelligent game with Karl was like trying to turn lead into gold (and trust George, he’d tried – he could branch out from chemistry and biology if he wanted, thank you very much!) Karl just … didn’t have a brain. And he wasn’t very good at cards, either. Patches sat behind Karl, peeking at his cards, and occasionally giving Sapnap hints when she felt like it.

The fact that Patches was more intelligent than Karl sometimes amused George, and sometimes filled him with sorrow.

“Go fish,” Sapnap said to Karl. He looked up at Patches, who started to lick her paw three times in succession, then stopped. Sapnap smirked. “Do you … have any … threes?”

Karl’s purple eyes widened. “Yes, I do! How are you doing this? You’re the luckiest guy I know!”

Sapnap grinned and cracked his knuckles. He reached over to the radio on their table and tweaked the antenna, helping the static fall away and making the music clearer. George’s eyes narrowed. Bingo. “Luck ain’t got nothing to do with it,” Sapnap said. “I’m just that – what the … hey!”

George jumped from Dream’s bigger table and used his wings to glide to the other, normal-sized table. He plucked the antenna from the radio, evaded Sapnap’s fiery fist trying to grab him, and scurried back over to Dream’s shoes. Dream, wordlessly, reached down from where he was sitting in his chair, and George climbed onto Dream’s palm. It felt leathery and firm, and Dream’s fingers were almost all as tall as George. Feeling Dream lift him from the ground to the table was like being on a roller coaster with no safety straps or harnesses; the only thing keeping George from tumbling to the floor was how Dream’s fingers curled over him in a mock prison, to keep him safe. George’s stomach was left behind as he went from ground level to fifty feet in the air in seconds.

As he was gently pushed from Dream’s palm onto the metal table, deposited by the Macgyvered computer, George’s stomach became unsettled for a whole other reason. George, still on his hands and knees, looked up at Dream and made eye contact with his gorgeous green – though they looked golden to George – eyes. His white hair curled and framed his soft face. It was like a bunch of baby cockroaches – or butterflies, whatever the saying was – were fluttering around in George’s belly.

“Uh, George?” Dream said. “Do you finally have what you need?”

“Um,” George said eloquently. Then he snapped back to himself, shaking his head. “Yes, yes, I do. In fact, I have everything I need.” He got to his feet and hurried over to the computer, sticking the antenna into the port he had created. The computer screen, which had been staticky before, now gave a clear visual. George laughed in victory. “They called me crazy, but I’ll show them – I’ll show them all!”

“George,” Dream said, looking concerned, “I’d prefer it if you didn’t do your mad scientist laugh while I’m hooked up to this machine.”

Patches meowed loudly, padding over to Dream’s chair and head-butting Dream’s side.

Sapnap leaned back in his own chair, “Patches is right. Dream, you’ve been letting Dr. Cockroach over here experiment on you for a month.”

“I’m not Dr. Cockroach, I’m Dr. Davidson!” George squeaked, embarrassed. He’d been a cockroach-human mutant for years, but that didn’t mean he appreciated when Sapnap poked fun at his situation or accident. He was … sensitive about it.

“Well, what choice do I have?” Dream asked, exasperated. He crossed his arms over his chest defensively. “If George can make me normal, or even eight feet tall, I can get out of here and get back to the life I’m supposed to have. There’s no harm in trying. I’m practically indestructible, anyway. It’s not like George can kill me with his experiments … right?”

Dream turned to face George, large eyes searching for reassurance. And though George’s heart clenched at the sight, and he hated how eager Dream was to leave them, he still nodded. “Right. I wouldn’t do that to you, Dream.”

“Okay, throw the switch, Doctor,” Dream joked. “But – but don’t do the evil laugh. Please.”

“Got it,” George said. “Now, you’re going to feel a slight pinch in the brain.” He reached over to the switch made out of a bottle of hairspray and flipped it without further hesitation, ignoring Dream’s concerned look. The wires and pads connected to Dream lit up with the electrical current, and Dream gasped at the pain, then the wires got red-hot, and George started to worry about just how much electricity was being generated – it shouldn’t have been too much, not with what he’d slapped together – but maybe it was reacting negatively with the energy within Dream.

Dream groaned from the pain persisting, and George made a decision. But just before he was about to turn off the machine and call it a day, the machine short-circuited and shut off, sending one last large bolt of electricity through the wires to Dream. Dream screamed and tumbled from his chair, causing a massive thump to echo through the commons.

George, heart in his throat, shut off the machine and jumped from the table, using his wings to glide down to Dream’s side. As he walked past Dream’s hand, he did a double take when he realised that Dream’s pinky finger was now as long as he was tall, when previously, George had stood taller than it.

George had a bad feeling about what had happened.

“Dream!” George called. Sapnap and Karl joined him at Dream’s side.

“Am I small again?” Dream groaned. He rolled over, leaving George, Karl, and Sapnap to hurry out of the way, lest they be crushed. Dream got to his hands and knees, still groaning, and looked down at the others. His expression changed from pained to crushed.

“I’m afraid not,” George said. “In fact, you may actually have grown a couple of feet …” He laughed nervously.

Dream sighed. “That’s okay. We can try again another day.”

Sapnap growled. “You really don’t get it, do you?” He asked. He threw out his arms in frustration. “No monster has ever gotten out of here! Nobody’s leaving, nobody is ever getting out.”

Across the room, there was a whirring sound, and a large metal panel opened. Bad came flying in on his jetpack. “Good news, monsters!” He said, “You’re getting out!”

“Until today,” Sapnap said, looking miffed.

-

“So, let me get this straight, Bad,” Sapnap said, “You want us to fight an alien robot?”

The entire monster team was on a moving platform, slowly trudging past multiple two-way mirrors and military personnel. Dream had to stay on his knees the entire time because the area had not been built for his hundred-foot-tall frame. He listened intently to what the general was saying, so excited that he barely cared about all the stares he was getting from the tiny humans.

“And in exchange,” Bad explained, “the president authorised me to give you your freedom. Granted, you’ll still need to live on base, because you aren’t human, and can’t get living quarters in a town or city, but you’ll be allowed to leave and travel as you want.”

“I can’t believe it!” Dream said, “Soon, I’ll be back in Quackity’s arms …” Then Dream looked down at himself, then at the size of the others. “… or he’ll be in mine.”

“I can’t wait for summer break back in the Florida Everglades,” Sapnap said, eyes lit up with a fire. “I loved wrestling alligators and freaking everybody out.”

“And I’ll go back to my lab and finally finish my experiments,” Karl giggled.

“No, no, that’s me, Karl,” George said.

“Then … I’ll be a really giant man,” Karl said.

“That’s Dream, Karl.”

“Fine. Then I’ll go back to Florida and be with Quackity.”

“That’s still Dream, Karl,” Sapnap said.

“I think I, at least, deserve a change to be with Derek!”

The group sighed.

-

After a few hours plane ride, which left Dream uncomfortably cramped in the cargo unit, they finally landed. The back door opened and lowered, giving a ramp for them to walk off. Bad jumped out with his jetpack, letting the others follow him. Dream uncurled himself from his position and, on his hands and knees, descended the ramp. When he was finally on the road that their plane had landed on, he got to his feet and stretched, hearing the satisfying pops his back made. Below him, the three little monsters walked down the ramp, and Dream caught George glancing up at his large height, eyes even wider than they usually were. Dream tried not to let it get to him – after all, it’s not like George had a leg to stand on when it came to seeing others as freaks.

“Let’s move out!” Bad called. He used his jetpack to fly to about waist-level with Dream, leading the monsters further down the road.

Dream finally got a chance to look around. The road they were on was empty and the surrounding area looked abandoned; they had been told that the area was in a state of evacuation due to the alien robot. But then Dream saw a large bridge off to the west, and his eyes widened when he recognised where they were. He flapped his hands in excitement.

“This is Anastasia Island,” he told the others. “This isn’t far from my home! Only about an hour out!”

George hesitantly stepped further out on the road and looked around. His eyes took in everything with a reverence that could only come from someone imprisoned for many years. His antenna wiggled eagerly, which Dream found almost … cute? George sighed in relief. “Just feeling the wind on my antenna … isn’t this wonderful? Being outside?”

“I haven’t been outside for a decade,” Karl said, then conveniently added, almost sadly, “I’ve only been alive for a decade.”

Just then, over the horizon, there was a large groaning sound. The fog and smoke cleared to show a figure maybe two hundred yards away. It was bigger than even Patches, probably three hundred to three-hundred-fifty feet tall. It was oval-like in shape – almost like a Kinder Egg with arms and legs – and had a singular green eye, which was surveying the land around its base. The rest of the robot looked to be made of various metals and had seams between metal plating that glowed a neon green. Bad whistled in an impressed manner. “Wow! That’s quite the robot!”

Dream’s jaw dropped. “It’s huge.”

Bad used his jetpack to fly back to the cargo plane, speaking cheerfully as the ramp and doors closed behind him, “Try not to damage it too much, monsters. I might want to bring it back to base to study!”

“No, no, no, wait!” Dream said, panicked, “You didn’t say anything about it being huge! Bad, wait! No! Don’t leave us here!”

But it was no use – the plane had already begun to ascend, flying away from the group.

There was another groaning sound, the sound of large and heavy amounts of metal moving and grinding against itself, and then the giant robot was facing them. From so far away, Dream still felt mildly safe, but then the robot shot a bright green light from its eye. The light fell on the group and, stupidly, Dream was reminded of playing Among Us and how the crewmates needed to scan each other in med-bay, which generated a light that ran up and down a crewmate’s body. It was like the alien robot was scanning them – though, for what, Dream didn’t know. He didn’t get the chance to investigate because, just as quickly, the light disappeared. The robot stopped moving and held still.

Karl smiled up at the robot. “I think it sees us.” He waved his hands in the air. “Hello! Hi! How are you doing? Welcome! We are here to destroy you!” He mimed punching with one fist into another.

“You are not helping,” Dream hissed. Then, “I cannot fight that thing. It’s, like, twenty feet taller than I am.”

“Technically speaking, it’s about two hundred feet taller than you,” George said. “I think you’re getting your measurements mixed up because of your size and how that makes other things relative to –” George stopped abruptly at Dream glare. “… right. Not helping.”

“I cannot fight that thing,” Dream reiterated. “I haven’t even been in a fistfight before, how am I meant to fight a giant metal robot?!”

“Relax!” Sapnap said, grinning, “We’ve got this under control. After all, most of us are indestructible.”

Before Dream could tell Sapnap how little that relaxed him, George walked over and put a comforting hand on Dream’s shoe. Or, well, it looked like it was supposed to be comforting. Dream couldn’t even feel the touch. “It’ll be okay, Dream. Why don’t you hide in the city? You’ll be safe there while we deal with the robot.”

Though he felt like a coward for doing so, Dream did not want to fight a three-hundred-foot-tall robot, so he nodded and was quick to turn and run toward the city.

Maybe he could help with evacuation?

-

“Finally, some action!” Sapnap said, excited. George rolled his eyes at the demon’s posturing. Sapnap stretched, cracking his knuckles. “I can’t wait to turn that oversized tin can into a really dented, oversized tin can.” But then the robot got closer, showing its absolutely massive size, and opened up its side panels to reveal its arms. Sapnap gulped, suddenly looking less confident. “Okay! Does anybody have an eye on when Patches will get here? We could really use Patches right now.”

“Patches wasn’t supposed to be here until later!” George said, panic filling him.

The robot got even closer, its feet crunching into the pavement.

“Wow!” Karl said. “Would you look at the size of that –”

“FOOT!” George screamed.

George and Sapnap got out of dodge quickly, but Karl stayed behind, eyes wide and expression in awe. The robot foot came down on the gelatinous blob, smashing him into the pavement and flattening him into a pancake. George thought for sure Karl was a goner, but then the foot raised – there were four of them, now that George could see clearly – and Karl hung from the bottom of the metal.

“I got him, you guys! I got –” the foot came down again, and Karl disappeared. Then the foot raised, and he was back in his human-like shape, stuck to the metal. This happened a couple more times as Karl continued to talk. “Don’t worry! I won’t let go! … I’m wearing it down! … Please tell me it’s slowing down!”

But it wasn’t slowing down. In fact, it was speeding up and heading straight for the city – where Dream was. And potentially innocent civilians. But most importantly, Dream.

“We have to go after it!” George exclaimed.

-

The entire city was dead. Everyone had been evacuated hours ago, leaving a city that was eerie in its stillness. Dream felt absolutely huge as he traversed through the ghost city. He barely fit through the tight roads, he accidentally stepped on a few cars, knocked over a streetlamp, and almost tripped and caught himself on the side of building, only to pull his hands away and found the concrete and metal crumbling beneath his fingers. Most of the buildings were shorter than him, with only a few reaching over his head – those being the skyscrapers.

Dream turned to one of said skyscrapers and caught his reflection in the many polished windows. He looked … not like himself. His face was the same as it had always been, but everything else was wrong. His hair was still curly, but now it almost reached his shoulders, and was white instead of copper. His eyes were brighter, more neon than they should be. His ears were slightly pointed, like an elf. His skin was paler than usual, thanks to two months locked up underground, and his freckles stood stark against his complexion. He grimaced, then noticed through the grimace that his teeth were all sharper, more jagged, with long canines. Dream reached a hand up to hook a finger around his canines, staring at his reflection with a somber expression.

Then the ground started to shake.

Dream knew that meant the robot was nearby.

Not for the first time, he wished he was smaller. Except, this time, he didn’t wish he was smaller because he wanted to be normal – he wished he was smaller because he wanted to hide. Panic filled his chest, the need to hide overwhelming. He felt a sharp tug in his gut and suddenly, the buildings around him grew taller … or he was shrinking.

Dream gasped as everything got bigger, and suddenly he was just as tall as the apartment he stood next to, easily hiding behind the build. Dream looked down at his hands as though they held the answers, but there was no answer. After being nearly a hundred feet tall for two months, then suddenly shrinking, Dream wished he had more time to freak out about it. As it was, he stumbled through the streets, trying to put himself further away from the robot.

Unfortunately, it was for naught – he was on another street when he was suddenly highlighted with a bright green spotlight. It scanned him. Dream gasped at how strong it was, hurting his eyes, and tried to move out of the light. It followed him, though, through Dream’s attempts to dodge it, and at the last second, it turned a bright red, then disappeared. The big green eye on the robot turned red, leaving it to look Christmas-themed as the green lights between its metal plates still shone through. For a few seconds, nothing happened. The robot didn’t move and neither did Dream.

Then all hell broke loose.

The robot moved one of its giant arms through the building it stood in front of, knocking debris and concrete everywhere. At his now diminished size – probably fifty feet or less, if Dream was guessing correctly – the debris was large enough to cause a grave injury if hit. Dream dodged it all and started running like his life depended on it.

Which it did, most likely.

Probably.

Unfortunately.

-

Dream ran and ran, until he reached the Bridge of Lions. It was one of the larger bridges in Florida and it connected St. Augustine to Anastasia Island. Dream had crossed the bridge many times before, but never had it looked so small to him – and he was only fifty feet tall right now! Regardless, the robot persisted after him. The only good thing about the alien robot was that it moved slowly, though not slowly enough that Dream couldn’t see it entering the waterway from a couple hundred yards away. As the robot splashed into the depths, Dream could see that the water wasn’t nearly deep enough to submerge and short-circuit it, which was a shame, really. Dream would have loved if the robot died before it could get to him.

As he got closer to the bridge, Dream saw multiple cars in what looked to be a traffic jam, but upon closer inspection, was due to an accident. There was a semi-truck turned over, blocking the path to St. Augustine. Dream looked back over at the robot and saw that it was too close for comfort. The humans on the bridge were in trouble, and though Dream doubted he could lift a semi-truck at his current size, he still needed to do something. So, he walked along the bridge, surprised that it held his weight, and went to help the stuck cars. His first instinct was to just lift the semi-truck out of the way, so he got on his knees and went to bend and lift; he surprised himself with his own strength, seeing as how he almost completely flipped the truck without even trying. Then he turned to the other cars, ready to push them through the open path if needed, only to see multiple people getting out of their cars, running away and screaming.

Dream almost thought they were running from him – and didn’t that hurt – before he heard the splashing of water and moving of heavy machinery, and he gasped as he looked over his shoulder and barely dodged one of the arms of the robot reaching for him. The entire bridge slanted under the weight of the arm, dragging Dream closer to what looked like a mouth on the robot – complete with a full set of rotating, jagged, sharp teeth.

Dream screamed.

He slid down the bridge but managed to get his feet on the upper and lower lips of the mouth, stopping his descent into the shredding teeth. Several empty cars fell victim to the robot.

“No, no!” Dream said, breathless as he tried to climb away, “no, it can’t end like this!”

Just then, there was the sound of a helicopter in the air, and Dream chanced a look behind himself to see a helicopter dragging a huge puffball on a string, luring a very playful Patches after it. Patches jumped one last time, missing the ball, but landing in the water by the bridge. That was when the cat-caterpillar seemed to realise that Dream was in trouble – she was such a smart girl! – and meowed loudly. She batted her paw at the robot, leaving large claw marks in its eye, disabling it. The robot stopped. Then Patches placed her paw on the bridge, pushing it back so it laid flat. Dream was finally able to breathe, and he looked up at Patches gratefully.

Further down the bridge, Dream saw the three little monsters making their way through the abandoned cars, toward him. When Sapnap saw Patches, he started to run. He greeted the cat-caterpillar with a smile, earning a loud meow. “Hey furball, where’ve you been?!”

Then he saw Dream.

“Whoa! Why are you all … small? Err, well, smaller?”

“That is so not important right now,” Dream hissed. “The robot is trying to kill me, specifically! It followed me through the city instead of going after literally anything else! Why is it doing that? Why would it –”

And then everything went dark.

-

“NO!” George screamed when he saw the robot crush Dream with its claws. For a few seconds, nothing happened. The robot was still again. George put his hands over his mouth, wanting to cry. Even Patches seemed to catch the mood, meowing shrilly and growling at the robot.

“Is Dream? …” Sapnap didn’t finish his sentence.

George closed his eyes, pained.

“Wait, what’s … whoa …”

George opened his eyes again to glare at Sapnap, only to catch sight of something within the robot’s claws, glowing a bright neon green. And then, miraculously, the claws opened. Dream pried them open from within, with pure strength alone, and he was literally glowing. No, not only glowing, George realised, but also growing. Dream went from fifty feet tall to over one-hundred-fifty-feet tall within seconds. George’s eyes widened in awe.

The bridge began to crumble, cars began to fall, humans began to scream, and Dream stuck his leg out to save the few ones remaining, all while keeping the giant claws open.

“Wow,” Karl said cheerfully, “you’re doing great!”

“I’m doing everything!” Dream yelled. “A little help?!”

Beside him, Sapnap grunted. “Come on guys, let’s take this thing down!”

He started to throw fire charge after fire charge at the robot but was unable to do little more than char the metal. George’s eyes narrowed at he saw the green light around the robot flash every time Sapnap hit it, deflecting the fire. “It’s no use, Sapnap,” George said. “It has a deflector shield. We need to take it out from the inside!”

George released his wings and jumped and glided down toward the mouth of the robot, where the rotating, crushing teeth lay. He grimaced. You couldn’t crush a cockroach, and he really hoped the truth held for him, too. He scurried through the teeth, being pushed every which way, the sharp barbs pushing against his wings and sternum, until, eventually, he landed in an empty area within the robot. He crawled as high as he could go, until he reached a small space with a large orb with several wires sticking out of it. In front of him, he could barely see out of a large window because there were four claw marks decimating the glass – the eye that Patches destroyed. George huffed, winded, and reached out for the wires.

“Right, right,” he muttered to himself, eyes sweeping over the different colours of wires. It all looked blue and yellow to him, curse his colour blindness. “Here we go …”

-

Trying to stop a giant alien robot from crushing you, along with keeping several cars from falling into the water and potentially killing the humans inside, was a lot of work. Dream almost couldn’t keep up, and he needed help. But he couldn’t call for Patches to attack the robot because George was now inside it, and he didn’t want George to get hurt. Patches seemed to somewhat understand this, because she was a pretty smart kitty. However, Dream could alleviate the need to keep the humans safe.

“Karl!” He exclaimed.

“What?” Karl asked, sounding genuinely confused.

“Help me!” Dream snapped.

“Sorry, I was just staring at this bird over there,” Karl giggled.

“We have to get these people off the bridge!” Dream instructed, ignoring Karl’s aloofness. “Help them!”

“Got it!” Karl said, giving Dream a thumbs-up. Then he turned, picked up a car over his head, and started to drag it over the side of the bridge, like he was going to throw it into the water.

Dream would have sighed had he been able to, but between everything he was doing not to die at the moment, he was a little hard-pressed. “No, Karl!” He exclaimed, “Move the dividers to let them through, not throw them over the edge!”

“Oh, yeah, you’re right,” Karl said, giggling again. “My bad!”

Karl put the car down, allowing it to speed off, over to St. Augustine’s. Then he picked up several dividers, eating them as he went along, dissolving the concrete in his Jell-O-like body. Dream used his leg to push the cars away from the edge, yelling at them to start driving. Further down the bridge, Karl started to slow with eating the dividers. He groaned. “Oh, I don’t feel so good.”

Sapnap kept throwing fire charges at the robot, but he was slowing down, obviously exhausted. Behind Dream, Patches was hissing, padding around in a circle in the water, clearly not happy with being wet anymore. George was still inside the robot, doing … whatever it was he was trying to do.

Dream was alone.

He grunted, pushing at the robot’s claws still crushing him. His muscles were starting to strain. If only he were a little bigger, then he could fight the robot one on one … there was a tug in his gut, and Dream saw his hands start to glow. He looked down at the rest of his body, seeing it glowing, as well. The world around him started to get small, and the bridge underneath him started to crumble between the crushing force of the claws and his weight. The robot got smaller and smaller, the claws getting too small to contain him, until Dream was able to slip out of the singular claw. Suddenly, the bridge collapsed under him, and Dream gasped – until he realised that the water barely reached his ankles. He was now at the same height of the robot, if not a little taller. Empowered by his new height, Dream reached out and grabbed hold of the robot’s arm, pulling it with all his strength. With a loud groan and pop, the entire arm came off, and the robot shrieked loudly. It blindly reached out with its other arm, the claw crushing the bridge more, but was nowhere close to hitting Dream.

“George!” Dream called, readying the arm he was holding like a baseball bat, “I don’t know if you can hear me, but it’s time to get out of that robot! I’m going to kick its ass!”

There was a large spark that came from the robot; it glowed a bright green, before the light completely disappeared. And then George was jumping out of the hole where the other arm extended from, gliding with his wings toward Dream. Dream managed not to flinch as George landed on his shoulder, grabbing the edge of the collar on his jumpsuit. George looked so tiny, barely half the size of Dream’s fingers. Dream couldn’t even feel his weight on his shoulder, and that scared Dream.

But even if he couldn’t feel George, he could hear him clear as day: “I’ve disabled the deflector shield! We should be able to finish this thing now!”

Dream took that as permission to start kicking ass.

When Dream was younger, he used to play baseball. It wasn’t his favourite sport – that would be football, which he loved to watch more than play – but he had been a damn good hitter. He’d consistently hit every ball that came his way, and had such control over his hits that he could control where the ball went and how high. This was all important because when he hit the robot with its own arm, he used it like a baseball bat, and he swung with all his strength. The arm hit the robot’s other arm dead-on, and vibrations shook up Dream’s arms from the impact.

The robot’s metal arm crumpled.

Dream swung several more times, aiming strategically, until he took a final swing and took the robot’s swiveling head clean off. The robot stilled and fell, crashing into the water and causing large waves to lap at Dream’s ankles. The robot’s eye stopped glowing and everything came to an end. Finally, Dream stopped, breathing heavily. He dropped the robot’s severed arm. On his shoulder, George cheered. Over on the part of the bridge that didn’t break, Dream could see Karl and Sapnap – looking so tiny – also whooping and cheering for him.

Relaxed, Dream felt the now familiar tug in his gut, and the world around him grew – or rather, he shrunk. He kept shrinking until he was at his regular height, and he had to stop and think about when he started considering a hundred feet tall his new “normal.”

“Oh my god,” George said into his ear, still standing on his shoulder, “you can size-shift.”

Over on the bridge, Sapnap howled. “That was so bad ass!”

“Do it again! Do it again!” Karl clapped.

Dream smiled. Yeah, everything was under control now.

-

[thethistlegirlwrites]

Unwanted

“We’ve got a victim sample that needs testing,” Shay says, passing a vial of blood over the counter to Dina. 

“A living one?” Dina asks, already turning around to the trays in the massive fridges behind her. There’s two of them, one with a heartbeat inside a red heart stenciled on the glass, the other with a black skull. A bit graphic, but a good reminder which one samples from the living and samples from the dead go into. 

“Yeah.”

Shay doesn’t spend a lot of time in the labs, but he’s starting to pick up on the rhythms. Living samples get priority aside from dead that have upcoming burial dates, especially when family has requested answers needing to know if they ought to pursue cremation instead. 

The two orange trays on the bottom of the dead fridge are new. 

“Starting a new system, Di?”

“Oh, just improving on the current one. These are the ones that come over from county morgues and the prisons. Unclaimed bodies with suspected venom infection. We have a ten-day window to test them unless someone makes a claim, so aside from special cases, we can leave them a little longer.” She sighs. “I hate having to triage like this at all, but…”

“You’re doing the best you can. Everyone in here is.” Shay starts to leave, then stops. “Wait, you said ten day cooling off period for unclaimed bodies?”

“Yeah. Not sure why that’s the rule, but oddly enough it doesn’t affect the fledglings. They still turn like they were at the moment of death. I watched an autopsy and two days later saw the guy walking around downtown with his shirt flung open and not a single scar on him.”

That’s a weird story and if he was in a different mood Shay would have a lot of questions about it, but right now, he has a more pertinent one.

“I was buried a lot sooner.”

Di stops with her hand on the fridge handle.

She’s got that look on her face that she has when someone who’s come in for testing gets their results back positive. 

“If whoever can claim the body waives the right to, the authorities can decide what to do as soon as they get that refusal.”

It’s worse than he thought. He wasn’t just unclaimed, just a forgotten footnote to his family.

For things to happen the way they did…he was outright rejected.

“I’m sorry.” Di’s voice is the soft consolation he didn’t ever expect to be directed at him. After all, it wasn’t like he could get worse news than ‘you are literally already a vampire’. 

Apparently, ‘you are a vampire no one wanted’ is in fact worse.

He makes it through reports and picking Sierra up from the infirmary (again) in a haze. All he wants to do is go home and go to sleep and hope he doesn’t feel this awful when he gets up. His body may not have been left to decompose for ten days, and it wouldn’t really have mattered if it had, but he feels pretty zombie-movie-rotten right now.

Rotten enough he forgot they were planning to meet Joey and Nico for drinks this morning. Sierra’s insisting on going, chucking her arm sling in the back seat the second they get to the car. “I’m not missing celebrating Joey’s promotion for a little glass cut.”

“Little glass cut that needed fourteen stitches,” Shay reminds her, but as usual, she ignores him.

She’s excited, and riding adrenaline and painkillers and the success story of the mentor program (say what she will about not being a good fit for it herself, she takes a lot of pride in what their team has done to promote it), and he figures that’s why she doesn’t notice he’s being so quiet.

Then again, maybe she’s worried he’s thinking about the college kid that sample he dropped off came from, and trying to keep him from sinking into a broody little heap of depression if it turns out the kid is in for the same hell he went through.

If that’s the case, he appreciates the effort. But he doesn’t really want to talk to anyone tonight.

Still, for Joey, he’ll make the effort. She’s doing really well; her family is an excellent motivator and given she was already existing on the fringes of society, transitioning into the new kind of life she has to lead now seems to be a little less jarring than it is for some people. 

She and Nico, along with Pete and Saanvi (neither of them had actual physical injuries and finish their reports inhumanly fast) are already waiting at a corner table at the Luna when Sierra and Shay walk in. Wren’s not there, but Emma gets a little touchy about fae and their magic in her bar, so she rarely makes an appearance here. Shay can’t blame her. She’s no fire fae, but one mini-tornado is enough. 

He makes a mental note to tell Emma her new bouncer didn’t do a thorough enough job checking for their entry marks. He let Sierra in with Shay on blind faith that she was with him and therefore trustworthy.

He’s still subbing shifts when he can, but more and more of his nights are taken up on the task force.

Joey jumps up to wave them over, still wearing her blue “Nico’s Custodial” t-shirt that stands out like a neon sign under the lights. He can see why she hasn’t changed, the logo on her chest now has the words “Team Manager” underneath it. She’s got to be proud. He is.

If he could just forget about the whole rejection thing, tonight would be amazing.

They’re a couple rounds in (and one hilarious - for everyone but Pete - mixup of shot glasses) when Joey stops answering questions about her job and starts asking everyone else how their day was. 

Sierra gives a wildly inaccurate version of how she got her injury, Pete and Saanvi tag-team explanations of whatever accounting-savvy thing it was they did to get the address of the place, and Joey even elbows Nico until he tells her about spending three hours on the phone with a supply vendor trying to find out how they were sent seven boxes of window cleaner spray bottles instead of ten jugs of bathroom sanitizer.

“What? I’m not going to work with you every day anymore,” she says when he protests that they literally work at the same company. 

And Shay knows he’s not getting out of this one with his secret intact.

“How about you? You look like you got sucker-punched,” Joey says. “I mean, not like I saw that happen too often…” 

Sierra chuckles, but it dies off as soon as she looks at him. 

“She’s right. I didn’t scare you that bad, did I?” She looks at Joey. “I was totally embellishing that story for dramatic effect. I only fell down two flights of stairs.”

He sighs. He’s going to have to tell someone at some point, because the way this is going, it’s going to eat at him like the poison that ran in his veins.

“Long story but…uh…I found out in a roundabout way from Di that my family had to have rejected any claim on my body for me to get buried when I did.”

“What the fuck?” Nico asks. He’s the only one able to get a word out.

“There’s a ten day waiting period on unclaimed bodies unless whoever is contacted about picking them up refuses to.” He looked it up while he was working on his report. The legalese was hard to read, but the gist was right. “I was buried after three.”

Sierra’s hand is wrapped white-knuckled around the handle of her knife. “Give me names.”

“No.” Honestly she probably wouldn’t have a hard time tracking his parents down, and he doesn’t think she’d actually commit a murder over something like this, but… “Sorry about that. I just totally killed the good mood.”

“No, we’re sorry. That you got stuck with such a terrible excuse for blood family,” Pete says.

Shay catches Sierra and Nico looking at each other and kicks Sierra’s foot under the table. “No one is going on any vigilante vengeance sprees. It’s over and done with. A long time ago.”

“Not if it’s still hurting you like this, it’s not.” 

Joey has a point. 

He’d like to bury this six feet deep, like whoever was in charge of dead prisoners did with him, but you can’t bury pain. There’s no getting this out of his head. It’s a permanent piece of who he is, just like being a vampire. Unwanted, rejected, refused.

He’d known his family didn’t approve of any of what his life became, and honestly he wouldn’t expect anyone’s to. But they didn’t even want his body when it was all over. 

“Screw blood family. We're a ‘blood’ family,” Sierra says. “I think it ought to mean something that you’ve drunk my blood and Pete’s.” She stops. “Wait. I just made our thing really weird, didn’t I. Shit.”

“I can’t decide if this is better or worse than the stain collection thing,” Pete groans. “Great job, Van Helsing.”

And once again, the table is laughing. 

Sierra may have royally weirded out everyone, but Shay has to admit, she’s kind of right. If Joey can get her citizenship based on where she turned, where her home earth is, then maybe waking up undead is a kind of rebirth. Maybe you get a new family. If that’s the case, then Sierra and Pete are pretty much the first people he interacted with in a real way afterward. Which does sort of make them one very messy, complicated, sometimes dysfunctional family. Somewhere along the way, they’ve added Saanvi, and Wren, and he’s pulled in Joey and with her, Nico (even if sometimes their abrasive banter makes it sound like they want to kill each other).

He can live with that. Or…you know…not.

(You can read this story and others from this universe on my WorldAnvil here!)

@catwingsathena @nade2308 @the-one-and-only-valkyrie @telltaleclerk @ettawritesnstudies  @writeouswriter @whump-place @the-lovely-wren

[mermaidsirennikita]

I realise this is subjective but what's the straight-up most batshit (derogatory or complimentary) thing you've ever read in a book? This doesn't even have to be a rec list, i'm just curious about the Things You've Seen

Good question!

Morning Glory Milking Farm seems so normal now, but when that premise came out it was so crazy. I mean, tbh, the book is actually a pretty normal cozy romance in a lot of ways, just with a really wacky framing (which has kind of become C.M. Nascosta's signature). I'm kinda meh on it, but not because of the premise. Run, Run Rabbit is my Nascosta of Choice.

I began reading Immortals After Dark because I heard of Lothaire's premise, tbh. "3,000 year old vampire (who has been a Big Bad in the other books) finds out hillbilly coed is his fated mate, is like 'oh God, that is SO embarrassing, I can't' and convinces himself that his actual fated mate is the demonic goddess possessing said coed's body, so he puts the coed on DEATH ROW for safekeeping, and five years later shows up to slaughter everyone in prison, rescue the heroine from the lethal injection, and go 'WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME YOU IDIOT???'"

It was the death row element that got me reading. And that's over with in like, the first two chapters. And then it gets CRAZIER. God, I love that book.

The Thornchapel series by Sierra Simone was SUCH a big swing, even by her standards. Six friends try to figure out the creeping, looming darkness in an ancient chapel...? While following ancient sacrificial rites and hooking up with each other? There are two romances (MMF and FF)? How does she juggle all that?

The answer: really, really well. I love that series. Perfect Gothic vibes.

I mean. The Earl Takes All by Lorraine Heath. Gorilla Twins. And she pulled it off to perfection.

The All the King's Men duology by Kennedy Ryan does not seem that bonkers in theory (long-term back and forth between a billionaire oil guy's rebellious son and a Navajo environmental activist-turned-political-operative) but the books are actually iNSANE lol. He's lost in ANTARCTICA at one point????? She's kidnapped by masked men??? There are hostage videos??? Honestly, this duology is kind of like... Scandal vibes, if Scandal hadn't gone completely off the rails. It really may have been Kennedy Ryan watching Scandal and going "... I could do that better". And boy does she.

The Wolf and The Wildflower by Stacy Reid has a gloriously insane premise. The hero is a duke (the Duke of Wolverton or something too??) who was stranded in the Yukon for years and basically became a part of a wolf pack and developed incredibly wolfy habits... So his family hires a father/son pair of psychiatrists to help him adapt back to society... And then he smells the "son" and realizes he's actually a woman in disguise (genuinely, this isn't a gross transphobic plot, the heroine fully identifies as a woman and just disguises herself as a man for Romance Reasons) and detects her WOMANLY SCENT. It. Is. Insane.

Lush Money by Angelina M. Lopez. Lady billionaire offers to financially bail out a small principality on the condition that the heir (who has a genius-level IQ) a) marries her for a year b) gets her pregnant so that she can have a hot, smart royal baby.

Speaking of baby stuff, Nobody's Baby But Mine by Susan Elizabeth Phillips!!!! The heroine is a genius college professor who graduated from college or got her phD at fourteen or something insane, and she's really socially inept because she never had a normal childhood, so she wants a baby of AVERAGE INTELLIGENCE. Which, despite being a genius, she thinks means having a baby with a dumbass to balance out her intelligence. And she identifies an aging quarterback as a dumbass, so she literally like, seduces him into getting her pregnant. And then he finds up and shows up in her classroom, leaning against the door entryway and going "CLASS IS OVER" lol. God I loved it.

Kiss an Angel by SEP is also insane. Begins with a contemporary forced marriage, then the heroine finds out her new husband (who hates her) is taking her on the road working at a traveling circus??? Where she develops like, a psychic bond with a tiger. His circus trick is the whip trick where he cracks the whip to zap off a flower she's wearing or something.

And he's descended from the Romanovs