#herbert west is going to kill me

[neothalamus]

why is he like that

[obscureenthusiast]

so I'm making a powerpoint presentation about Re-Animator (and Bride of Re-Animator) (don't ask) and even though I'm *certain* that someone has pointed this out here on the gay trans herbert west webbed site, here's one of the images for my incredibly normal presentation.

[louwsys]

MORE DOODLES BELOW

Follow me on twt i post more there!! @somberkly

[bubbysawyer]

slasher reactions to you being hit on 1

michael myers:

yeah no theyre already dead lets just establish that. we all know

he follows you everywhere, he sees everything.

so when he sees someone flirting with you, god help them (HA) if you look the slightest bit upset, nah, gone

you're at home and look up to see him covered in blood as..he usually is, but you tilt your head (as if you were even curious)

"it was that weirdo who hit on me, wasn't it?" you got a silent stare in response.

sighing, you got up and patted his chest. "thanks."

you're closely followed through the house for the rest of the night, and you sigh

is he jealous..? ah, hell.

"michael, i love you, only you." you pat his chest, and he seems to relax. "okay?" he nods a bit and brushes your cheek.

art the clown:

i know i just said it but good GOD that person is DEAD theyre SO DONE

art is possessive and wont tolerate people even looking at you weird. youve had to hold him back bc he thought someone gave you a dirty look a few times

whoever hit on you is slaughtered in minutes, probably right in front of you, depending on where you are

if they are absolutely torn to shreds by the clown while you watch, and said person isn't dead yet, art will hold you close and/or kiss you with a glare on his face as if to say "Mine!" as his vic fades out

he will turn to you and grin his weird little grin afterwards, hugging you close. aww. ...blood is getting on you.

herbert west:

seethes quietly at first. who is this plebeian? this moron? you are HIS. obviously.

he grabs your hand and keeps glaring, and he has a strong, cold glare for such a mouse of a man

he gets fed up, fast, and stands up, clearing his throat. "they are SPOKEN for," his eyes sharp, his hand still grasping yours.

not wanting to deal with that kinda works for him in some situations. he looks, presents, and sounds difficult as hell. and..he is

any jokes or remarks about him or his appearance dont phase him. his self confidence is strong, and he doesnt really care about the opinions of others about himself...well. he kind of cares about yours. maybe a lot.

able to talk so much he chases people off. amazing

will be on high alert for similar interactions (or any interactions when you are involved) for a while afterwards. jealous streak. its mostly quiet, unless someone openly flirts with you again.

pyramid head:

death.

billy lenz:

immediately insecure when you mention it. panic.

someone flirted with you?! what? why cant they be closer so he can stab their eyes out-

calms down after you tell him you hated it, though, and kiss him

needs reassurance every five minutes, but it's okay.

play with his hair. it makes him feel better.

brahms heelshire:

the deliveryman flirted with you a bit...too much. you were clearly uncomfortable. you shut the door and sighed shakily each time. he noticed.

brahms nestled up to you at bedtime, stroking your hair. "I dislike the new deliveryman, y/n." You nodded.

you knew he was a killer, you knew he would...kill for you. you bit your lip as you fell asleep to his heat behind you.

the next delivery day you held your own hand and sighed, but jumped a bit as brahms came out. he looked down at you, motioning you to open the door.

you shook but nodded, opening the door to the same creep that hit on you last time. you did your exchange. here we go..

"Come in for some tea?" you asked, getting an enthusiastic response. He came in, not seeing Brahms.

You flinched as your Brahms slammed a knife into the delivery's neck. But settled. You ran to him, nudging his mask to kiss his cheek. He purred.

[nothingenoughao3]

Why Herbert West Was Never Hypnotized (short answer: he's a lying manipulative little shit who lies)

Since @green-stuff correctly asked why nobody talks about the crying scene from the Integral Cut. A version of the scene can be found here on YouTube:

It's me, I'm no one and I will talk about this forever. (See here where I went on a rant about hypnotism and The Human Will in Re-Animator.)

The popular interpretation I've seen is that Herbert is, indeed, hypnotized. He cries because Hill mentioned his dead mentor and he's vulnerable due to his hypnotic state. Then he shakes off the hypnotism because Hill talks about making Cain "disappear", and that's something Herbert would never do. Which, cool and good and shippable, I'm fine with that.

But like for real tho let's break this down a little more.

Earlier in the Integral Cut, Hill mesmerizes Dean Halsey. Other than the reanimates, this is the only successful hypnotism Hill pulls off in the entire story. Briefly, let's contrast this with the above scene.

Halsey's drinking and just had a full meal. The lighting has to be just right. He's relaxed and he trusts Hill.

Despite this, Halsey has to be slowly, carefully talked into accepting Hill's suggestions: they don't work at first! Hill tries going after Dan first, and when Halsey rejects the idea that Dan's dangerous, Hill links Dan with Herbert... and that works.

Hill plants a few trigger words/phrases, all of which Dan detonates by accident when he tries to talk to Halsey later. Mentioning West in that scene brings back "And Cain is with [West] all the time", and thereby, "Cain is dangerous". Mentioning Meg brings back Hill's implanted suggestion that Dan's involving Meg with dangerous activities. Halsey repeats certain phrases/words Hill planted, but presents them as though he's just thought of them--not as though he's deliberately remembering them.

Everything Carl plants must comply with Halsey's normal judgments and personality--his protectiveness over his daughter is baseline, so it matters more than anything else.

And let us consider the above scene's beats with a similar bullet-point list.

Herbert is tired and angry at the interruption. It's been a long time since he got a shot of reagent. He's filling in time while waiting for Dan, and he's almost certainly anxious. And, also, most relevant, he does not trust Carl Hill.

Herbert appears to give in immediately, with all of Hill's suggestions working instantaneously. No lulling, no manipulation. Huh. Weird.

Hill tries to plant trigger words/phrases, but they don't work. Herbert obviously does not think of himself as Hill's assistant after this. He also recalls Hill saying that Dan must disappear--but as a memory, not as something he just thought of out of nowhere.

Everything Hill tries to plant in Herbert is contrary to literally everything we know about West. Herbert doesn't care about being famous; that's bait he gave Dan to lure him in as an assistant, and note he said "You'll be famous", not "We'll be famous". Killing Dan, obviously, would be contrary to Herbert's baseline personality, and so would handing over his discovery with no opposition, and so would being Carl Hill's assistant, and...

In fact, Herbert's scene here has stronger corollaries with Meg's multiple scenes where Hill tries to mesmerize her.

She's often tired, distracted, or desperate to leave. The setting is never 'right' and Carl can't seem to set the mood correctly. Even before she knows what a creep Hill is, part of her does not trust him--and she seems to trust him less the more he attempts to control/dominate/hypnotize her.

Meg reacts to his hypnotic attempts by appearing as dazed and confused as her father, at first... only to (sometimes visibly) shake it off and react strongly against whatever he was talking about. The one time Hill gets Meg to do what he wants and authorize the lobotomy, he just... convinced her it was the right choice! When he tried to use his Will on her to plant suggestions, he fucked it all up.

None of the attempted trigger words/phrases take. Meg never says "Dr. Hill is someone I can trust", or any of the other crap he tries to feed her.

And in part, it's because he's trying to override her personality by telling her to say/do/believe things she doesn't/isn't.

If we can agree that Meg is not successfully hypnotized by Hill in the film, and that her father is, then there's only one conclusion:

Herbert is not hypnotized when he's crying.

Then what the hell is Herbert doing?

There are certain stereotypical outward "symptoms" that people who are in hypnotic trances present with. Hill does not appear to have a mystical ability to detect if anybody's been properly hypnotized by him. (Because, as I argued before, The Human Will is not necessarily a mystical force in this universe, but a known physiological phenomenon which can be quantified, like any other biological byproduct.) He'd have to use the same kinds of indicators as any other hypnotist to determine his success.

The most obvious signs of successful hypnosis are glazed eyes/a dazed expression, a slowness of speech, and delayed responsiveness to stimuli. This makes sense, given what we saw with both Halseys.

Slightly less known as a sign is lacrimation, or the abnormal production of tears. Abnormal, in this case, because there is no physical or emotional cause for crying. Herbert shedding some fake tears would absolutely convince Hill that his hypnosis had worked, along with Hill's vain belief that he had more willpower than Herbert Goddamned West.

"But Nothing!" I hear you cry, "you don't have any proof that he's pretending to cry! There'd be no way to verify that!"

Ah, but there is. If you want to fake cry, and you don't want to draw on your emotions, the best way to do that is to not blink. Your eyes will begin to water as a protective measure.

If you watch the scene carefully, you'll note that Herbert doesn't blink when the camera's focused on him. The moment after he gives Hill his notes, you can see that he's actively trying not to blink and allowing the tears to continue to build up, before they finally, conveniently spill just as Hill compliments his work and mentions Gruber.

The question then becomes why Herbert would bullshit such a thing. But I think that's the easiest thing to argue of all.

He knew he couldn't win a fair fight with Hill. He also couldn't escape him without leaving his lab, notes and reagent behind for Hill to ransack. He read about hypnotism--that's certainly something that would have been taught to med students, if only as part of relatively-recent medical history--and he could have picked up on the signs of mesmerism from there. Herbert might suspect that Hill did this to Halsey earlier in the film, as when he said that "Hill has gotten to him".

When told "You will do what I tell you to do", West picks up that Carl's trying to mesmerize him... so he goes along with it. And he gives such a masterful performance that Hill is convinced to turn his back on Herbert, and remain distracted for a fatal thirty seconds.

Again, I grant that the popular interpretation of this scene is popular for a reason... but I'm more inclined to think we're seeing Herbert being a lying little shit. And I love that for him.

[joe-spookyy]

Dude tell me your thoughts about Daniel Cain + any headcannons??

hi what greatest ask i’ve ever received because all i ever have are thoughts about daniel cain. sorry this is gonna be an essay. um.

tldr - dan cain is a super fascinating character (especially when you read him as queer) and his high empathy makes it difficult for him to make the hard but necessary choices found often in the medical field, but easy for him to be manipulated by those he thinks can help him do the most Good. also he is not immune to herbert west. full post under cut and it’s pretty good you should read it.

ok first off he is literally JUST like me for real. but second. i really think he’s a fascinating character no matter how you read him. his empathy is Soooo high and it affects literally everything he does - sometimes for the worse cause he’s a doctor and honestly cannot afford to be getting this upset every time he loses a patient. but it’s part of him, which i think makes him a super interesting counterpart to herbert. he’s so distinctly Human and he cares so much about the people around him, and he’s a horrible doormat/people pleaser. this is, obviously, not at all like herbert. narrative foils oooooh. when i met bruce abbott he told me he thinks dan is a “spineless worm”, which may be technically true, but i think the way dan is so easily convinced to go along with herbert is because of this heavy empathy. he wants to do everything within his power to make things better, and what could really be better than conquering death? how much pain could he stop just with that?

because of that, i think it makes SO much sense that it was so easy for herbert to initially manipulate him into working together. plus i also think later on in the films his feelings for herbert get in the way of his judgement to. an incredible extent. herbert just has to ask and dan will immediately be at his every beck and call. hes like a dog. he wants out but he can’t stop coming back to herbert. i struggle to find any other way to explain why he’d still be living with herbert after the first movie - after all, herbert kind of did kill everything dan ever loved (girlfriend, cat, legitimate medical career). and i think these things affected him on a really deep level (which. yeah. obviously) but the way he acts in bride is so indicative of what that kind of trauma does to a person and it’s fascinating to me. he projects so hard on to gloria because of how guilty he felt for not being able to save meg. he shuts down in a lot of the more serious situations. sure, he did have his little going into shock moment in the first film, but it’s a reoccurring thing in bride. he doesn’t seem to have such a strong moral code anymore, but that empathy is still there - even though what he’s doing with herbert and their little bride project isn’t quite morally Right, all he really has left is herbert and he is dying for a way to get back to the normalcy that herbert has pulled away from him. and yet, he’s never able to really Leave. he can’t move out, he can’t stop helping herbert, he can’t really get meg back as much as he tries. but he’s too far down the rabbit hole to really care at this point. he just cares about getting what he loves back.

and sure. did he abandon herbert at the end of the first movie for meg? yeah. did he abandon herbert at the end of the second movie for francesca? also yes. did he rat herbert out to the authorities? yes (but that’s a character choice i simply cannot get behind he would not do that shit after everything he still does obviously love and care about herbert if he was gonna be a narc he would have done it after the first movie herbert didn’t even do all that much wrong in the second movie like come on he was just getting creative. whatever. anyways.) now, his choice to save meg in the first movie makes a lot of sense, in my opinion. he assumed herbert was dead (which. not a bad assumption tbh) and meg was his girl - it makes a lot more sense to save her than someone he hasn’t known for nearly as long. but when he chooses to escape with francesca and leave herbert behind, it’s a little bit jarring. he’s obviously gotten close with herbert. they still live together, they bicker like a married couple, and if we’re being honest he kind of follows herbert’s every command. again. like a dog. and plus! they just created life together in a quite homoerotic fashion!!! why in the world would dan fumble this?? well, i think i can explain it. herbert represents a lack of societal normalcy. think like doctor praetorius in the bride of frankenstein. herbert’s heavily queercoded, he actively defies god, he kills and he disrespects the dead and he’s terrible socially and he shoots up drugs (sorta) and he is all about medical malpractice. this is the opposite of what someone like dan SHOULD want. dan’s straight passing (or straight if you want to read him that way which i don’t recommend cause otherwise this analysis doesn’t make as much sense), kind and friendly, and wants a good, normal career in the medical field. and he loves his perfect girlfriend. meg (and later francesca) represent these “good” and “normal” things that dan wants and is expected to want. herbert, again, represents the opposite. so for dan to choose herbert and save him over either meg or francesca, he would be choosing to step away from the life he is “supposed” to live, the socially acceptable life. people are already suspicious of him and west as we see in the novelization of the first movie, and to save his visibly queer strange little “roommate” over the woman he’s supposed to love would have certain implications that would draw dan away from this life of normalcy that he wants so badly. but most importantly. herbert always comes back. he’s a part of dan that can’t be escaped.

well. that was a lot. headcanons. umm. i think you probably got a lot from the novel i just wrote but here’s more.

- i loveeee the dan starts smoking after meg dies hc

- i don’t believe he ratted on herbert. i think they’re still working together making freaky shit to this day. even as old men.

- i know i just said queer the whole time i was talking but he’s bisexual and you aren’t allowed to disagree with me. herbert’s gay though. emphasizes the differences between them - dan CAN choose that “normal” life but herbert can’t.

- i think he ends up needing glasses as he gets older. he wears em to read in the first movie and i think his vision declines.

- also he goes grey earlier than herbert imo cause of all the stress. herbert makes fun of him for this but herbert’s hairline is. ummmn. less powerful. so dan has ammo to fight back.

- i don’t think he’d ever be able to get a cat again after rufus. or really any pet. i don’t think he trusts himself not to damage everything he touches

- i think he’s a huge talking heads stan. you could argue this as canon because of the stop making sense poster above his bed, but i think he’s a super fan. and maybe i’m projecting. so what.

- no matter how many times herbert does it or offers it to him, he refuses to take any of the reagent.

uhh. yeah. sorry that this post is so long i hope it is sufficient to what you were looking for. thank you sincerely so much for asking this was the most fun i’ve ever had. bless up.

[gigglemugger]

The Naked and the Blind (or The Ballad of Meg Halsey).

Fandom: Re-Animator (Movies - Combs), Herbert West - Reanimator - H.P. Lovecraft.

Pairing: Herbert West/Meg Halsey

Rating: Explicit, or at the very least Mature.

Archive Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence.

Synopsis:

"Meg Halsey had a problem. In fact, she had several problems, the first of which, she acknowledges while looking at her semi empty living room, is that she can't afford to live alone anymore. The second one is that she doesn't wanna go back to her daddy's house again. This would be an inconceivable notion to her thirteen year old self, even her sixteen year old self, but at twenty five, she'd really choose living under the bridge first. Ok. Maybe not that." Meg Halsey is perfect: Beautiful, accomplished, a bright future doctor. She escaped her hometown and moved to New York, where she likely would have stayed forever. After her mother dies, though, she is forced to move back to Arkham and face everything she wanted to leave behind. --- A.K.A I made a tumblr post about how Crampton/Combs are romantically involved in all of their collabs, got replies and decided to write down a suggestion of "what if Meg was the protagonist, not Dan?" Also I did the cop-out summary thing and pasted the first paragraph of the fic. It's highway robbery. Criminal (I'm sorry).

Thanks to @resonanteye and @sugarsweetnightmareee for helping me shape this up in the replies!

Word Count: Multi Chapter, so far 2,561 published, 19,701 written at the time of publication.

Chapter Count: 1/? (likely 9).

AO3 Tags: I uhhh......... I have no idea what I made it started with one tumblr post then one reply and here we are, I included other works by Lovecraft here and rounded Arkham up and then ran, Character Study, In a way, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - No Dan Cain, he doesn't exist, Danbert shippers cry I get it, Canon-Typical Violence, Animal Death, Eventual Romance, Slow Romance, Slow Burn, Slow Build, Eventual Smut?, maybe? - Freeform, this fic is an affront to god just like herbert's reagent, Not Beta Read.

Language: English.

CW: Meg went through some trauma. Dead parents, dead cat. She also helps kill her dad later on, considering, so. It's a heavy fic, but if you liked the movie you'll be fine.

AO3 link.

AO3 Notes (yes, they're huge, bear with me): This is an AU about Meg Halsey. I always wanted to write this because in every single Combs/Crampton collaboration, they play lovers (Castle Freak, From Beyond, the Evil Clergyman) EXCEPT FOR in Reanimator, so I made a tumblr post saying I'd like to explore a Meg/Herbert thing solely because of that (and I've only seen it being done one other time, which made me wanna take a personal shot at it). This post was WAY more popular than I expected (it didn't hit the hundreds, but it hit like 20+ notes when I expected like 1 and it being a comment of "are you insane?" with nothing else), so I decided to take it seriously. Then someone suggested I make a version where Meg is the main character, no Dan, no nothing and I thought that was a really interesting idea and ran with it.  I made several notes (like four pages) about Meg's character and realized that she’s an amazing, incredibly accomplished ball of air. They made her have good instincts, a good brain, be helpful, be sweet, and then gave her zero personality. This isn’t her movie, so the first thing I did in this AU was scramble around with her brains and give her a will to live for something. The second thing I did was to scramble around with her brains enough so she’d have ambition.  The third one was to scramble around with her brains enough she’d have a crush on West—who is her equal here. I'm not saying this relationship won't go into some toxic patterns, but so does Danbert, though I understand the implications. It's more like a double edged sword, though.  When I say this is an AU, I mean it’s an AU for sure. I changed a lot of plot points, and switched things around, because it turns out that having Meg as a protag changes a lot on its own. I personally think that Herbert liked Dan for three reasons: He was beautiful, smart and incredibly gullible. Here he likes Meg because she's smart, ambitious and much more like him than others would think. She doesn't take bullshit, though. Scenes are maintained but go different directions, etc. Meg also went through trauma and transformation, which will be unpacked, and though she externally acts like the Meg we know, most of the time, she's not. She had like a Veronica Mars esque transformation, minus the REAL TRAGEDIES of Veronica Mars.  I decided to name this a ballad cause I always name things ballads and start with the definition of the word cause I’m pretentious and like to make it seem as if it’s not ‘cause of the ballad of John and Yoko. In this case, though, I decided to just call it the ballad of Meg Halsey, instead of the ballad of Herbert and Meg, or Halsey and West, because this fanfic is very much about Meg—she deserves it.  The Naked and the Blind comes from that line from Every Me Every You by Placebo (like the naked leads the blind, I know I’m selfish, I’m unkind). It felt fitting. I also included two characters of Lovecraft lore which will be useful throughout the fic (and possible sequel in which I take the bones of bride of reanimator and completely reshape it), Asenath Waite and Edward Derby, from The Thing on the Doorstep. I also mention the Pickmans, Necronomicons, all of that. I think I'm going to use Welsey as a ship name for now, though I'm sure someone else somewhere in the world has already come up with a ship name for them. I also named the Playlist I made for them this. Very normal behavior.  I have seven chapters written, almost at the end of the fic as a whole, and I’ll try to upload one every Monday. We’ll see.

1. Sucker love is heaven sent.

Meg Halsey had a problem. In fact, she had several problems, the first of which, she acknowledges while looking at her semi empty living room, is that she can't afford to live alone anymore. The second one is that she doesn't wanna go back to her daddy's house again. This would be an inconceivable notion to her thirteen year old self, even her sixteen year old self, but at twenty five, she'd really choose living under the bridge first. Ok. Maybe not that.

Here's a picture of Meg Halsey's life one year ago: A happy medical student in New York, with her own room and roommate at one of the dorm houses. Not a sorority girl like her mother gushed about her being when she was twelve, but still friendly towards everyone. Her hair was a little shorter, less gruffy, definitely bobbed, and she probably looked serene. Medical students aren't by definition serene, but she hadn't majorly fucked up. She got high grades, was the second best in her class which was full of men, and she was proud of herself.

Then her mother died. The rest was probably history, or easily deductible.

Savings had existed, but living in Arkham was more expensive than she remembered. Her dad wanted to pay for the house, but she refused because she knew what that entailed. He also wanted her to move back with him, but that would also mean other things: You don't need to pay rent, but you'll have to cook, clean, take care of affairs and be your mother. She was shocked he hadn't sent for her when she was dying, but then it had been so fast that maybe he didn't have the time.

“Don't worry daddy, it's OK,” she had said with a smile, eyeing the wine. She couldn't drink in front of him unless it was a special occasion, like a thirteen year old. “I'm just gonna have to find a roommate.”

It had been a week ago, at that house that smelled of death. Wood, carpets of history, several footprints of doctors, her mother and all the versions of herself.

I wish I could have that drink…

“Hmm…” Yes. The characteristic Dean Halsey “Hm.” The same he had for his employees when he needed to convince them of something. Here we go… “I'm not sure it's safe for you to invite a stranger into your house, Meggie.”

“I had a stranger in my house, remember? My roommate in college.” A nice girl, who never got into trouble, she had told her mother in her semi-weekly calls, which was a lie. Becca was a protester who was always in and out of jail because of fights with the cops. Still, that meant Meg had quiet nights to study, or contemplate the lights on in places that hadn't been Arkham.

“I still don't know about that, sweetheart. Maybe you should move back in for a while…”

“Are you alright, honey?” Her mother's voice resonated in her head. Last phone call before disaster. She remembered the clothes she had been wearing: Light sweater, jeans, boots. A Meg Halsey classic. She remembered it was raining and that two people went behind her, two guys, talking. There was a light breeze from the door and they were gone.

“I'm alright, mom. You?”

“Meg,” Dr. Harrod said. Hospital. Residence. Meg was holding onto her scalpel too tightly. “Maybe you need a break.”

“I'm fine.”

Another picture of Meg Halsey’s life: Prodigy. Brilliant. Bright smile, beautiful blue eyes. She was a perfect specimen of what you would call a girl: Polite, traditional, good. She never stayed out past eight, she never went with boys that much, she never strayed from her studies. She wanted to be whatever her dad thought was best, whatever her mother thought would make her proud.

Meg had goals and ambitions, sure, but she also wanted other things. She watched her parents at the table, while cutting her meat. They were always smiling, laughing easily. All of it. She wanted it all. She even thought she had met a boy, her last high school boyfriend, traditional all the way, very nice and Christian upper middle class. Then…

The television was on, showing the news and Meg bit her lip. She looked at her nails, looked at the carpet and then at her cat, roaming around. “I'm not even going to have money to feed you at this rate,” she said when her beloved Rufus came to her lap. She put her face on his back gently. “God…”

Not turning back to the house, she'd have to find a roommate, one that she wouldn't be afraid would murder her in her sleep. Maybe she needed some coffee. Maybe she needed a million dollars.

She looked at the clock on the wall, the one that looked like Felix the cat, which she had in her bedroom at ten. The eyes went back and forth, freaking her mother out. It still had the stain of when she tried to paint it pink with glitter nail polish. Most importantly, it told her it was almost time to leave. Harrod would be going up and down looking for her and she had morgue duty, which was surely a lot for her muscles and she didn't look forward to it—morgue duty being that now it was the norm that someone else other than the attending intern doctor take the body downstairs, after an incident occurred (no more was mentioned about such an incident).

She wouldn't let her colleagues say she was using her status as the Dean's daughter to get out of good honest work.

However, she would have to look at Hill… He was always there testing his weird pen…

“Ouch!” She shrieked, looking at her hand and seeing the blood. “Oh, Rufus, get off!” Rufus did so, apparently understanding he shouldn't bite her and that she'd be rightfully pissed. She had to admit it was effective in bringing her back to the scene, though. It was a documentary which aired now, about a fishing town with a strange, rare disease. She had heard about it, and should be more interested considering, but frankly all she wanted was that coffee and a shower.

It was a pleasant afternoon in Arkham, her birth city. A strange city to be brought up in, with a deep history of the occult, but with a pristine, ivy league college in the form of the Miskatonic University. Meg stepped out of her car, chilly. She was wearing boots, a sweater and her hair was up. It was getting longer. Her dad almost went insane when she wanted to leave Arkham for New York, especially for medicine if she so insisted on studying that.

“A more womanly course would be interesting…”

“What's more womanly than curing people? Than being a healer?” Her mother waved her hand.

“I'm just not sure, Meg. Your dad thinks the same… Maybe it'd be best…”

“Would you have gone if you could? If you could do anything, would you? I can. I wanna go to New York.”

Every time in the past few months that she felt the air of the hospital wafting on her, sterilized and reminiscent of all the times she went to visit her dad, it was sort of like defeat. Not that she'd let that bring her down. She did go to New York after all. It was temporary, just until her dad got back on her feet.

Until he met someone, Becca said. A hot, pretty new thing to screw.

“Halsey,” Harrod said, standing by reception. Was she waiting? “Right on time. You need to go to 106, now. A patient just died, you need to take her down.”

At least she wasn't the one who killed her. Hooray for small miracles.

Scrubs became her, she thought—not that having vain thoughts was her hallmark—but they were not better than suits by a mile. She felt extremely underdressed in a second, walking into the morgue, at least compared to the austere, small man checking the beakers.

“Meg?” The man raised his head. The second man, being the corpse, stayed thankfully very still. “What are you doing here?”

“Pushing a body?” She laughed a little, to make things light, but she knew she had been busted. A few years ago it'd be unprecedented to go behind his back on anything, but now... Besides, it wasn't drugs, it was just a dead guy for Christ's sake.

He looked concerned right away.

“You're too small to be doing this kind of work. You'll kill yourself.”

“Honestly daddy—” she could feel the ears of the stranger perking up at that. Great going, Meg. Tell every single stranger about it. “It's fine. I can do it.” He paused and pursed his lips.

“Certainly one of your classmates…”

“I said I'm alright,” she smiled a little towards him, to mitigate any disrespect, before turning her attention completely to the left. “Who are you?” The small man looked up from a tag in one of the corpses.

“Oh, don't mind me. I'm sure I don't wanna interrupt family.” Her dad wouldn't pick up on the sarcasm, Meg knew, but she did. Her shoulders tensed, her eyes narrowed.

“Nonsense,” Dean Halsey began, well humored. “Mr. West, I'd like to introduce you to the most brilliant medical student in this room…” She looked away.

“Stop it, dad,” Meg smiled her brightest smile to hide her discomfort, as usual. West smiled back, in contempt.

“Oh, does she have a name?”

“I'm Megan. Halsey.” She didn't bother stretching her hand, she didn't wanna touch him.

“Pleased to meet you, Ms. Halsey.” I don't think so.

“West just came from Switzerland. He was doing independent research for Dr. Gruber, before he died.” Meg knew the story, heard it through the grapevine, but no one knew any details.

Gruber was a brilliant doctor, though. She had read his most recent paper on brain death, and all the other ones he wrote a lot in New York. A page turner, Gruber—by medical paper standards, at least.

“So, you studied death?” She asked. His ears perked up again.

“Yes, I have.” Well dressed, prim and curt. Fun. I'll love having him in class.

“Alan,” a third voice filled the place, coming from the adjacent room, the one where he no doubt had been procuring a corpse from. Meg involuntarily twisted her nose and pretended she had an itch. She stopped on his feet. “Nice to see you down here, Ms. Halsey.”

“Well I'm glad, cause here I am, every Tuesday.” Next time tell him when you go out to do your laundry.

“Definitely more than your father comes down here. We haven't been seeing him in a while.”

“I was just showing our newest student, Herbert West here, the not-so-grand-tour.” He always made that joke when he brought people down. Meg saw him do it at least twice and heard about it four other ones. “This should interest you, Carl. He worked with Hans Gruber.” While her dad introduced Hill, and all of his prowess to get research grants somehow, probably with that freaky pen he carried, Meg was thinking briefly about how was Herbert West working for Gruber, fully, even as a student.

“I know your work Dr. Hill. Quite well.” Meg raised her head. “Your theory on the location of the will in the brain is… Interesting, though derivative of Dr. Gruber's research in the early 70s.”

She knew that. She needed a dictionary to read his most obscure work, but German and English were similar enough, she got by.

“So derivative, in fact, that in Europe it's considered plagiarized. And your support of the 12 minute limit on the life of the brain stem after death…”

“...Six to twelve minutes, Mr…?”

Meg wanted to leave.

“West. Herbert West. Frankly, Dr… Hill? Your work on brain death is outdated.”

“Carl,” her dad interrupted and Meg looked away from the scene. Frankly, Hill gave her the creeps, sort of, and seeing him that angry was unpleasant. Suck it up, ok? You know him since you were at least twelve, it's fine.

You were always soft.

“...Megan and I would love it if you came to dinner.” Wait what?

“What?” She repeated out loud. Herbert turned his bright hazel, poisonous eyes towards her. She straightened her back. “I'm sorry, dinner? When?

“Thursday,” West answered for the others. He put his hands on his hips. “Maybe pushing bodies around really isn't for someone as small as you, Ms. Halsey.”

“I'm fine.”

“You might kill yourself.”

“Dad, dinner, Thursday? I'm not sure I can make it.”

What else are you gonna do? Your friends don't talk to you anymore since you left for New York to hang out with feminists, artists, and bohemians, leaving them here with babies and husbands.

“Well, I'm sure you'll make an exception,” Hill said, looking straight at her. “A lovely, amazing student such as yourself should take some time off every now and then. Celebrate.” She hated when he looked straight at her. She could feel her dad and West observing in the sidelines.

“Sure,” Meg found herself saying, hands tight against the steel of the gurney, knuckles turning white. “I'll cook.”

You'll what?!

“Fantastic,” Hill finished, looking at Herbert next. “I'll see you in class, mr. West. Ms. Halsey.” He nodded his head and she smiled, closing her eyes.

Both Hill and her father left in what seemed to be a dream sequence, no doubt discussing the grant, and the autopsy room was silent once again.

Her head was throbbing. The walls and floors were gray, there was a corpse rotting in their midst, Meg took a deep breath—chemical and invigorating somehow.

“I take it you don't like Dr. Hill either.” She looked at West, whose eyes still shone. He approached her, footsteps echoing out. “How did you know I was studying death?”

“I'm a doctor, Mr. West. I read,” she released the gurney, feeling tired for the meal she'd have to cook, on top of studying. There was a beat before she could stop herself from asking “What happened between you and dr. Gruber?”

“What do you mean?” A slight twitch, a small movement of the lips. “Dr. Gruber had a lab accident that I was unfortunately too late to prevent.”

“I heard he was in his office when he died.” Another twitch.

“I'm sure you heard it wrong, with all due respect ms. Halsey.”

Chemical smells, corpses rotting, the smell of something burning—Hill's pen no doubt left crisp black flesh behind, and he did it on enough people in the morgue proper that it got to where she was. She looked at West for almost long enough she'd probably have his exact face and pose at that moment committed to memory, forever.

He looked at her, waiting for something to happen.

Her hands hurt from grasping the gurney for so long.

“I'm not doing so great, sweetie…” She had said. Two men talking behind her. Her dad and Hill were gone. West was there.

“I'm sorry I asked,” Meg finally gathered, headache suddenly subsiding, like it never was. “Sorry for your loss, he must have been a wonderful mentor.” West bowed slightly and Meg did the same before turning around and going through the doors.

[house-of-slayterr]

Comfort Character Heaccanons:

An: because these are the easiest thing for me to write right now, I’m trying to ease out of my writers block

The Lost Boys

David is very dad coded, I think he sees himself as the oldest needing to take care of his “brothers” but wanting to turn Star and Micheal, that’s because David wants away from Max. He’s technically the true leader of their little coven but he wants to takes Max’s place. Being a maker in important to him and as grumpy and stoic as he usually in, he loves and would do any thing for him coven. He’s attached to the boys because he’s known them so long, but the way he feels about his own progeny is much stronger of a bond. Laddie even is special to him because he’s the baby of the family and must be protected at all times.

Dwayne gives me serious caregiver vibes. The way David entrust him with the safety of Laddie because he sees how close the boys are. He loves taking care of Paul and Marko too. He smiles the most when his little ones are around. He gives the best cuddles and even loves to hunt when the others are too small to hunt for themselves. Being there to calm the boys and star is.

Marko is the most chaotic of the boys, he likes to push the boundaries to see what he can get away with. Despite being less flirty than Paul Marko almost always seduces his prey first, enjoying talking to them and watching him trust them before he devours them. Marko is also an age regressor, I believe he longs for a time when he was still human deep down. When things were more simple and easy for him. I think he regresses quite young, almost around laddies age which is why they get along so well. Dwayne and Paul are little Markos favourites

Paul is also an age regressor, he didn’t even realise for years he was doing it until Dwayne pointed it out to David. He regresses a little younger than Marko meaning he needs more help. Even laddie loves to help take care of little Paul. Paul loves being a vampire when he’s little however, he insists Dwayne and Star take him hunting so he can watch. Dwayne hated it at first not wanting his little eyes to see the violence but when he hears Paul giggle watching them his heart feels much lighter. Paul is a very needed little one, but he was already a needy and clingy adult so no one in the coven is surprised when he won’t let them go. Poor boy is so touch starved.

Now if the boys take on less of a family role in their coven and see each other more as best friends, I believe this is how I would pair them off. Star becomes a full vampire not just a fledgling and ends up with Dwayne. They have their own micro-family with Laddie. David finally gets Micheal and I think they’re super cute together. The relationship gets healthier the longer the boys are together. They’re in charge of the coven together, Dwayne stepping down for Micheal so he can focus on Star and Laddie. And last Marko and Paul cannot be separated at any cost, big or little they can and will bite and claw their ways back to each other. Paul is Marko’s rock.

Slashers:

Herbert West is Aro/ace I believe. He doesn’t show much interest in that side of his life, despite most of his colleague dating or being married. Even his own best friend has heart eyes for a girl right now and he hates it. I do think he could handle a queer platonic relationship, something a little deeper than just friendship. But anything past that is foreign retorts the scientist does not want to investigate in the slightest. He wants to be closer with Dan but worries their relationship dynamic might ruin Dan’s romantic relationship. But in the end Herbert gets what he wants and Dan is already wrapped around his finger.

Micheal is strange, he grew up in a way that didn’t fully allow him to grow up. Sure his body is an adult but his mind wanders to some of his first kills when he was a boy or teen often. It’s not quite a full regression state, more he’s stuck in the past and has zero plans for his future. Micheal knows one thing and that’s killing, he hides his complexities even from himself, dumbing himself down to just being the town slasher and pretending he doesn’t exist the other half of the time.

Lester Sinclair doesn’t give me Cis energy for some reason. He’s gives off character who’s non binary but just says their birth gender to make things “easier”. Plus growing up where he did, I doubt he ran into many trans or queer people. I see him as a Demi-boy and could totally see them rocking more femme outfits if it were for Bo. Femme boy Lester keeps me going.

Jason Voorhees is an age regressor I don’t care what anyone says. I believe his brain stayed the age it was when he drowned. All he wants is to feel safe and have a good time at summer camp and to be close to his mama. Jason throws tantrums after she’s gone, if he can’t hallucinate her or talk to her shine he looses his mind, breaking down and breaking everything in his path. He’s a mama’s boy til the day he dies and he needs her. I think he stays at camp because now he gets to experiences all the fun parts without the bullying, he just gets to be kid Jason chilling in a cabin. That’s also why he kills anyone who enter for disturbing his peace and comfort.

Billy & Stu are gay for each other, that much is cannon. But I think they work well because of their dynamic. Billy gives me caregiver energy and Stu gives me flip energy. The reason Stu started to grow disinterested in Tatum is because he was stuck being both dom and caregiver for far too long. With Billy he’s allowed to regress or not be in charge and just let his Brian heal from whatever was bothering him that day. He trust Billy with his life and would do anything for him. Billy loves taking care of Stu whether it’s as his boyfriend or as his caregiver. He’s surprisingly better at the caregiver side than he is the boyfriend side. But then again he hasn’t had a lot of practice on the boyfriend department yet. He thinks little Stu is the cutest thing to walk this earth. But equally enjoys when his boyfriend is big and decides he wants to be the more dominant one that day, he’ll step aside to let Stu have his moment

Billy Lenz is a depraved perverted boy, we all know that. But I can’t even begin to describe how many kinks this man would have. For starters he has a blood kink that much is obviously, he loves playing in it, tasting it, the colour, everything. He gets hard when he tortures his victims thinking about the delicious things he could do to them. I don’t think he understands the concept of right and wrong and would go far enough as to play with a victim after they passed for his own gratification. Billy also would have a mommy kink, his mommy issues run deep and if he felt like they were giving him any sort of affection like that he would cling to them and keep them alive longer. His Brian will view the interaction sometimes and just gentle motherly comfort, that he desperately needs, or because it’s Billy his mind always wonders to sexual desires. I don’t think there would be any ways to calm this man libido he’s just a horny freak even in his sleep.

Misc:

Spencer Reid has autism, even if the show was too cowardly to fully commit to it. Along with his photographic memory it surpassingly makes the boy good at a lot more than you’d think. A lot of people think Spencer is very innocent, the type to be bashful when holding hands with a girl, but no, his hands are very skilled and he loves to use them. I headcannon he likes to finger his partner under his desk or at the couch when he’s reading or studying paperwork for his job. He finds it fun to split his focus and mess with them. He’s also really good with his mouth when he needs to be kept quiet. The boy genius is as much of a genius in the bedroom as he is at school and work.

Abby Sciuto is an age regressor for sure. Her comfort item when she’s big or little is her stuffed hippo. Her caregivers are Gibbs and McGee, but mostly Gibbs, she feel safest with him and he loves taking care of her. Gibbs doesn’t let her have Caff pow when she’s clearly regressing after a long day, the last thing he needs is a hyper toddler Abby running around the precinct. Ducky comes up to babysit sometimes when Gibbs and McGee are out on case because he knows she’s scared of the autopsy room.

Leroy Jethro Gibbs may have more than one ex wife, but he does know how to keep a woman satisfied, in the bedroom at least. He’s not great at communication and feelings and being open, that’s why his relationships crumble and fall apart. But he’s been on this earth a long time now, he’s ripe bee keeping age. He doesn’t mind if his partner is a big younger than him, but he prefers women his age. He likes to take his time in the bedroom just like he takes his time with his boat

Barry Allen is another you would expect to be innocent. But this man has a dirty mind he keeps well hidden. He’s all smiles and giggles and himbo with his friends at work, but when it’s just him and his partner behind closed doors it’s different. Barry is a switch, sometimes he has a need for control, galaxy after difficult missions, but he doesn’t mind giving up control either. He enjoys the dynamic of playing both sides. I also fully believe this man is bisexual, he simple just doesn’t have a lot of experience with men yet.

An: I wrote this twice because my phone deleted the better first draft for no reason 😭 sorry if my headcanons were all over place I had to rewrite them from memory.

Tag: @mothmans-kingdom @kados-of-chaos @oceansrose2002 @myers-meadow

[hubristicassholefight]

Hubristic Assholes tourney Round 1 part 3a

Herbert West (Re-Animator, both book and film) vs Victor Frankenstein (Frankenstein)

Propaganda below cut

Herbet

Literally has a whole monologue about defying god in the second movie. (https://youtu.be/BOt0rRhofuI?si=o7wCwAaT347jUmcp)

Playing God by defying death itself

Victor

"ouh im gonna create life from scratch and it's gonna be Pog and Slay" WRONG it wwas FUCKT . he didnt give that thang enough SKIN even . and then it killed his whole family, well he is just a silly guy .

Textbook definition of fuck around and find out. To his credit - yeah, he was a genius who sped through All Of Chemistry Classes in 2 years and revolutionized the field of natural sciences at his university while he was barely 20, arguably invented biochemistry (and then never told anyone) and created a human(ish) being from scratch (and again, never told anyone), BUT Honestly I don't even need to say anything here, I can literally just paste a direct quote: "Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world. A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me. No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve theirs." He saw LIFE AND DEATH ITSELF as just a STARTING POINT ffs Needless to say, the "find out" stage hit him like a freight train making the rest of his life just one long trauma conga line until he died completely alone before even hitting 30 Give it up to our king of hubris, Greatest pathetic wet meow meow of gothic literature tbh

thought he could be better than God by making his own man so that he could later bring people (his mother) back to life. whole thing blew up in his face cause 1. he made it way too big and way too able to kill people 2. he immediately got scared of it and ran away 3. he left it alone without teaching it how to actually function as a human, further adding to the murderous tendencies.

Thinks making life is easy. Does not consider the life he made actually worth anything, He's like the platonic ideal of a shitty parent who wants recognition for Being A Parent without actually having the ability to care for someone else, just taken to a cartoonish extreme. Look where that got him.

Tries to create a whole ass person from scratch. It does not go well; The guy needs no introduction. Guy tries creates a whole human person cobbled together from dead bodies, breathes life into it, immediately abandons his creation, and proceeds to have his life completely destroyed when said creation goes on a rampage of revenge. Subtitle of the book is literally the 'Modern Prometheus.'

Do I really have to explain this one. He made a Guy. He played God. Then the Guy killed his entire family and (boy)friend; He is Pathetic

Victor wanted to play god. Created monster. Monster tried to kill him. Killed his brother, his gf, and his BFF, and came after him. A horror icon, and the modern archetype of the mad scientist in fiction. He's a pathetic pissbaby that needs to be punched. Cunt dies in the end get rekked lol.

I mean come on, Please he's like the guy

[fullmetalbunny16]

Ok so I'm going to like rant for a minute here about my latest hyper fixation that's been going on for about a year AKA one of the best obscure 80s horror films of all the time

REANIMATOR 1985 directed by Stewart Gordon

AKA one the most goated if not THE most goated obscure 80`s horror film ever

-I'm not very good at writing essays so this is just a brief analysis of the dynamic between Dan and Herbert and how I think Herbert screwed Dan over narrative wise (it's not as simple as I'm putting it)

(Unrelated but also I wanted to mention how unnecessary SA scenes happen to be a common trope in the movies unfortunately)

Starting with this fucker right here

(that is PEAK pathetic meow meow he's so awesome I hate him I wanna put him in a microwave💖)

-one thing I wanted to note is how Herbert doomed Dan from the get-go, so if you let me explain basically Meg was doomed by the plot because due to her being a female side character in an 80s horror film and being seen as a nuisance by West soon that image being projected on to Dan but not as direct and only seeing it as a difficult situation to where she is being quote unquote "unreasonable" when it comes to the work up until inevitably it's too late for Dan to take it back cuz his fiance is killed Wests very creations,the very thing that he assisted in resurrecting being the very indirect cause of his fiance's death.

-now moving forward we can see a turn of events where the very moment that leads to Daniel Cain's downfall is when he allows Herbert to move in. Megan's off put by him and tries to voice her concerns to Dan but Dan just brushes it off believing that West is just a little strange but nothing to be concerned about, then Meg discovers rufuses dead carcass in wests room.

-any normal person would immediately kick Herbert out and notify the police but of course Dan shockingly gives him the benefit of the doubt AGAIN after Herbert tells him he didn't kill his cat and he found him like that.

(of course Herbert probably didn't kill Rufus but it's still creepy and weird to keep your roommates dead cat in your fridge)

-my point being Daniel is doomed narrative wise, the very moment of his downfall could have been was the day he met West but also whenever he allowed him to live as a roommate with him and his fiance.

-his true Fall from Grace is when West manages to convince him that he can reanimate dead parts and "needs" his assistance (maybe he did but let's not ignore the fact Herbert is openly manipulative to try to keep Dan from leaving the work and it works every single time because Dan is shockingly easy to manipulate)

(also but to be fair if I was in Dan's place I would be easily manipulated too because Herbert's freaking adorable while also being a conniving bastard)

-one funny thing I wanted to note is how Jeffrey Combs accidentally implied Herbert doesn't know what sex is just thought that was funny

-another thing is it's not just Herbert's work that also caused the death of Meg but also caused the death of Meg's father and indirect loss of dans scholarship leaving Dan no choice but to turn to West and assist him, and yes maybe Daniel could leave any moment he wanted to but due to the damage that's already been done he probably felt like he couldn't go back so he felt like he just had to double down on the work.

-also how Herbert convinced Dan saying how they could cure brain death which basically is unheard of and how Dan himself saw how Herbert's serum worked in front of his very eyes and how Dan also happens to be a very caring person who just wants to help people this gave Herbert a pretty solid opportunity, and boy did he take it!

-also quoting what Bruce said on the actors commentary Herbert's work to him is basically what sex is to anyone else, it's borderline erotic especially that one scene in Bride where Dan decides to take control when they're reanimating the bride and Herbert's look of absolute flabbergastation is hilarious.

-also I'm not justifying Dan staying with Herbert knowing openly what they're doing is kind of inhumane but "it's in the name of science of course!!"

-so basically yeah Dad is kind of doomed by The narrative basically since you know Herbert is the main character of reanimator, I mean Lovecraft literally wrote small separate stories dedicated to West so of course he's the main character I'm just saying that due to Herbert's influence it caused Dan to essentially lose everything.

And basically if Dan just slammed the door and Herbert's face none of this would have happened the end!!

(also I'm dog water at making essays and this wasn't even an essay it was just a small analysis of how I thought Herbert doomed Dan from the get-go and how I thought like the chain of events that happened when Herbert entered his life caused us downfall for him and I also have a deep head cannon that in the events of beyond reanimator Dad's life spiraled even further because West wasn't there he had no one to assist he had no one, Herbert was the last person he had left before he turned him in and sent him to prison and I doubt Francesca stayed with him after the incident with the bride so yeah that's basically what I think)

This is how I headcanon how Dan is during the events of beyond because I refuse to believe that man is living in peace

[godlizzza]

hihihihi! i love your spider-dan au and (sorry if i sent an ask about this i can't remember if i did) but can u write a danbert spider-man kiss scene :3

Herbert stumbled as Dan set him back down on his feet. In the pouring rain his dress shoes slipped on the slick road and Dan had to reach out to catch his arm and keep him upright. Herbert glanced at him and muttered his thanks before gently drawing away. Dan was reluctant to let him go. The scene they'd just fled from had been utter chaos, Hilltop robots in pieces around a massive sinkhole in the road. Dan had watched Herbert nearly pitch over into that gaping hole, a line of his webbing the only thing keeping him on his feet.

Dan swore he'd nearly fainted from the painful swoop his heart had taken to the pit of his stomach at the sight. He was becoming more and more aware just how attached his health was to the continued safety of the scientist he was meant to have a strictly working relationship with.

"Are you sure we should have left?" Herbert asked, pulling his soaked coat tighter around his shivering shoulders.

Dan wanted to go to him, pull him into his arms and warm him up with his superhuman body heat. He resisted the urge though, balling his fists at his sides and keeping himself still.

"It wouldn't have done any good for me to be there when the cops showed up," he replied, imagining Lt. Chapman's surly face scanning the wreckage, looking for any opportunity to blame the whole thing on Funnel Web.

Herbert sighed, his breath emerging from his lips in a puff of steam in the cold air. "I suppose you're right."

Dan itched to say more, do something, but he couldn't say or do what he really wanted, so he just turned away. He shot a webline at the wall of the alleyway high above and pulled his feet off the ground.

"I should go."

"Wait-"

The sudden desperate plea had Dan freezing midair, paused as he'd been ready to swing away. Instead, he turned, hanging upside-down from the string of webbing to face Herbert, who slowly paced towards him through the rain. He only stopped when he was mere inches from Dan's face, his eyebrows drawn together as his gaze flicked all over across Dan's mask. Those quizzical eyes stared into his, full of questions and emotion that Dan couldn't read.

"I have to know," Herbert began, his voice shaky and hard to hear over the pouring rain. "Do we know each other?"

Dan sucked in a breath, his whole body instantly tense as a bowstring. Herbert had never dug at his identity before, past some idle questions when they'd first met as Funnel Web and Dr. West.

"You know I can't tell you that," Dan murmured.

He couldn't tell Herbert that they'd gone to med school together, that Dan had been bitten by the spider that gave him his powers in his final year. That all those instances where Dan had been forced to race out of class, earning him odd looks from Herbert had been a result of him growing into his hero persona, rushing off to danger. He couldn't say that even now that they had become acquainted through his hero work that they still ran into each other at a coffee shop they both frequented as civilians. Every time Dan saw Herbert in line, waiting to order his oat milk latte, he had to pretend they hadn't just escaped a death-defying experience the previous day.

He couldn't tell Herbert it killed him to keep his distance as Dan Cain.

Herbert frowned at him but didn't seem surprised. The lenses of his glasses were fogging up from his own breath and the heat emanating off Dan's body.

"I just can't believe," Herbert said softly, reaching up to trace the seam of Dan's mask beneath his jaw, "that I could know you and not realise. Even though I have no idea what you look like beneath this, I feel as though I could take one look at you and instantly know that's my spider."

Dan inhaled sharply as Herbert's fingers dug beneath the thin fabric of his mask, beginning to peel it back. He shot a hand out to clasp one of Herbert's wrists, stalling the motion.

"Herbert-"

"Don't worry," Herbert soothed, continued to gently tug the mask down until his mouth and nose were exposed, his skin instantly soaked from the rain. Herbert traced the pad of his thumb over Dan's upper lip, leaving shivers that had nothing to do with the cold in his wake. "Maybe I wouldn't know you by sight. But by touch..."

Dan's eyes fluttered shut of their own accord as Herbert leaned forward. He was aware that on the list of bad ideas he'd ever had since becoming Funnel Web, this was probably the worst. It was unwise and completely catastrophic to get involved with someone directly under Hill's thumb. But he couldn't deny the desperate ache he felt for Herbert, his desire to be close to him. And in that moment, suspended in the air, the rain pouring down on them, and the distant wail of police sirens sounding in the air, he couldn't resist that pull any longer.

When Herbert's lips brushed his, all the doubts and worries fled his mind, leaving room only for the sensation of their mouths pressed together. Herbert's hands rose to clutch Dan's face between his palms, his fingers curling under Dan's jaw. Dan had never felt the tip of someone's nose brush his chin as they kissed, but he'd never felt like this kissing anyone before. Like his whole body was being pumped full of electricity, setting his nerves alight. He so deeply wanted to reach out and hold Herbert in return, pull him close until they could be touching everywhere, consumed by the other, but he had to keep his grip on the webbing, lest he tumble to the ground.

Laying in a heap at Herbert's feet sounded appropriate. Herbert had thoroughly obliterated him.

The kiss only lasted a few seconds, but Dan built an eternity in that moment. One he wanted to construct a comfy home in so he could stay there forever. Herbert stepped back, breathing heavily. He kept his hands cradling Dan's face for a moment longer before pulling his mask back into place.

"Alright," Herbert said, sounding as out of breath as Dan felt. "You can go now."

Dan blinked his eyes open, taking in the flush dusting Herbert's pallid cheeks. He wanted to say something but his tongue felt thick and dumb in his mouth. After a few agonising seconds of the two of them just staring at each other, Dan shook himself out of his stupor and adjusted his hold on the webbing.

"Right," he said, drinking in the sight of Herbert's slick lips. "Okay. See you soon."

Then he turned and swung away, leaving Herbert on the trash-strewn ground. That tingling pulse of static electricity pounded through his veins as he swung through the city. It didn't leave him until he scaled the wall of his apartment and slipped through the window, where he promptly rolled into a starfish position on the floor. He pulled his mask off and brought the tips of his fingers to his mouth.

Herbert had tasted like mint and coffee. It was Dan's new favourite taste.

[ricardian-werewolf]

This may feel passe but let's go: The man, the myth, the legend, the Reanimator Herbert West

OH MY LORD DID YOU READ MY MIND???? I was literally thinking: damn, no one's sent me a reanimator ask!! The way that man got me on tumblr for a second time is something that should be studied! ahem.

So, my perception of Herbert West is remarkably different. The people who knew me in 2020 (JFC how was this nearly 4 years AGOOO? Fuck, I'm old!) Anyways. When i first watched reanimator, I was depressed and he was my first foray into the mad scientist. I, admittedly, overlooked a lot of his negative behaviors because to me he was the most Autistic coded character I had seen on screen. The fandom of people on tumblr and discord who I joined were, shall we say, very particular in their perception of Herbert and his relationships with Meg and Daniel Cain.

Romantically, I ship Herbert with... no one! I did ship him and Daniel very, very heavily during Covid times. However 4 years of difference made me realize that he and Daniel's relationship is fundamentally abusive that it doesn't work. I've read a lot of really good Herbert x Meg x Daniel polycule fics that do a great job of redeeming Daniel from his himbo fanon prison and giving Meg an amazing amount of agency. As someone who heard about the original source material having Herbert in the great war, I wrote a very extensive (now deleted) fic of Herbert marrying my original character Harriet, who was an american doctor and vampire. She and him served in the (Real) 42nd Canadian Black Watch Highland battalion as the supernatural doctors assigned to the battalion.

Non romantic OTP: Dan/Meg/Herbert. They have chemistry, but Yuzna and Gordon fumbled it by making Meg the victim of extensive stalking and rape from Hill (no disrespect towards the late David Gale and Barbara Crampton, who did mention that the filming of the infamous scene from the film made her in no way uncomfortable).

OHO I have many unpopular feelings about herbert, mostly wrapped up in how the fandom blorbifies him. I am, admittedly, guilty of this too. Herbert is *not* a good person, and it's what makes him so attractive to many ND peeps, and the especially transgender-lens of takes by fans needs to be respected, because it is extremely valid. However, and I know I'm going to get slammed for this, the fandom when I was active, was incredibly full of double standards and fans who were largely exclusionary towards the female and female presenting fans. I still get notes for my one reanimator fic on here, and I'm consistently shocked because it is in no ways good, at ALL.

Beyond reanimator didn't happen, and that there's a world out there where Renaimtor was a successful, if somewhat gory (and not racist) early 1900s period piece. I'd kill for it. (jk)

[jar-of-ectoplasm]

tf2 mercs as horror characters and why i think so

sooooo i know this isn't what i've been telling you guys i was gonna post BUT i'm uninspired and i re-listened to welcome to horrorwood (ice nine kills) and it got me thinkin about this

i'm gonna start out with the mercs that i have the most solid reasoning and then it'll slowly turn into bullshit

it's pretty similar to an old jojo post i made a while ago

pyro:

OBVIOUSLY i'm gonna make pyro the miner/harry warden (from my bloody valentine) because they're both silent stalking freakos with gas masks

i also think it's pretty fitting considering valentine's day is all lovey-dovey and cutsie and pyro-vision is pretty much the same way

i could also see pyro being the thing (from the thing) because of the mystery draped around pyro's identity/what they actually look like and i just love that movie so damn much

spy:

PATRICK BATEMAN PATRICK BATEMAN ARE WE SERIOUS???? they're both sophisticated homicidal dickheads i personally think it's a perfect match

psychopathe francais coming to all theaters right now go buy a ticket

medic:

oh medic you silly guy you

i have two visions for medic, one of which is herbert west (from re-animator) because DUH mad science

BUT (even if it's a bit of a stretch) i think medic would go perfectly with pinhead (from hellraiser) because 1) medic did sell his soul to the devil so the whole demon thing works out, 2) medic is a sadistic freak and 3) i just think it would be sexy alright

demo:

demo wouldn't be a horror villain he would be ash williams (from the evil dead) because i just can't see demo being a serial killer (even though he technically is) he's just too silly for this world and he deserves a silly character to go with it

soldier:

in a similar manner to demo, solider can and will not be given a deep brooding character because he is simply too silly. soldier is one of the werewolves from what we do in the shadows (the movie not the show) because my heart tells me and by god my heart is correct

sniper:

i didn't have very many ideas for sniper but i think the best fit for him would be the collector/asa emory (from the collector series) because in my opinion, sniper's weird hunter-like relationship with the people he kills kinda reminds me of how the collector functions with all the traps and the games he plays with his victims [not like jigsaw though, it's different] (granted i haven't seen the movie in a little bit, cut me some slack)

heavy:

honestly i could see him as being any of the big, silent killers in film (jason voorhees, michael myers, you know the drill) but i think it would be funnier if he were frankenstein's monster and medic was dr. frankenstein

scout:

he is being difficult but it's not because i don't have an idea for him, i have too many ideas for him. i think it would be really silly if he was norman bates (from psycho) because he's a momma's boy, but i could also see him being anton tobias (from idle hands) because he's silly and dumb but i could ALSO see him being billy lenz (from black christmas) because he's a depraved little freak

engineer:

he is giving me the most trouble. i want to keep his southern-ness but i also don't wanna dumb down his character because i love engineer. honestly the only characters i could give him that do him even a little bit of justice is bo sinclair (from house of wax) or tinker sawyer from the god awful texas chainsaw 3 (which i love with all my heart)

[lightofthemoonglow]

Okay, from one of your prompt lists, I matched some characters with words that seemed to fit and you can write whatever you get inspiration for.

Tarantism - the urge to overcome melancholy by dancing with Crawford Tillinghast. I just wanna dance with him.

Grapholagnia - the urge to stare at obscene pictures with Marty (maybe like at a fancy art museum they get dragged to by friends and Marty is absolutely baked and reader is trying not to die laughing at his observations?)

Concilliabule - a secret meeting of people who are hatching a plot with Ash Williams.

Druxy - something which looks good on the outside, but is actually rotten inside with Amanda Young (oh the angst possibilities)

Ayurnamat - the philosophy that there is no point in worrying about events that cannot be changed with Herbert (he seems like a bitch who can hold a grudge for decades)

Mamihlapinatapei - the look between 2 people in which each loves the other but is too afraid to make the first move with Milton Dammers?

(sorry i couldn't write Crawford, my brain just wouldn't so after a month, i gave up. and the Milton one just made me so sad that i wound up crying, so i'm saving that for when i'm in a better place)

Ayurnamat - The philosophy that there is no point in worrying about events that cannot be changed.

Herbert West (oops, i went in a different direction, sorry!)

It’s only a small setback. There is no use in getting upset over this because it’s already happened. Unlike Dan, Herbert is not the sort of bemoan not being able to go back in time. Even if such a thing were possible, he wouldn’t bother with it. Not when he has the tools to move forward.

Dead weight is not easy to move alone, but Herbert has had plenty of practice. He manages to maneuver your body onto the lab table, your head thunking against the cold metal. Hopefully that won't cause any issues upon reanimation.

It happened quickly. Considering the rampage that had led to your death, it had been painless as well. Just a fall in the wrong way. Herbert had lost control of an experiment and your attempts to stop it had led to your own end. Led to him having a fresh specimen, one of the freshest he’s ever had. He can save you. There’s no brain damage, you’re still warm as he lifts your head to sedation.

“Do not fret,” he mutters, as if you can still hear him, as he preps the syringe. He can calculate the dosage in seconds now, no longer wasting precious time trying to figure it out. You don't need much, not as much as the dosage he had given to the thing that killed you. It would rot and you would thrive. “It will be as if none of this ever happened.”

Druxy - Something which looks good on the outside, but is actually rotten inside.

Amanda Young

It was love at first sight.

She was leaning against the brick wall near the free clinic, watching people come and go. You had noticed her when you had gone in to get your shoulder checked and she had still been there when you had left. Something about her drew you to her, made you walk over to her and ask if she had a lighter.

“Those things will kill you, you know,” Amanda had said when you had lit up, needing a smoke after the week you’d had.

“Hey, if you were the last thing I saw before I died, I’d die happy.” You try to play it cool, ripping off a line from a movie you saw once. If she realizes your stupid pickup line isn’t original, she doesn’t let on. She smiles, as if she thinks you’re actually charming or something like that.

It’s great at first. It’s the best fucking thing that’s ever happened to you and you wonder how you got so lucky. Amanda is perfect at first, it’s the best two weeks of your life. You don’t ask about the scars because you have a few of your own and she’ll tell you when she’s ready. When you find out about what happened to her, you just hold her in response and tell her that everything is going to be okay. That she’s safe, she’s fine. You stay up all night after nightmares, you make sure she eats and sleeps, it’s a lot but you do it because you love her.

The darkness starts to seep in. Sometimes she sees someone, maybe in person, maybe on TV, and she gets this look in her eyes. It’s darker than disdain, it’s almost loathing. You’d consider it loathing if she knew them, but she never does. It sends a chill down your spine when you see that look and you wonder. You wonder if Jigsaw got under her skin. If this is how she copes, by seeing people the way he sees them.

But sometimes she’s happy, she’s wonderful and you ignore the little things. The dark looks. The long nights out.

The blood on her shoes.

Concilliabule - A secret meeting of people who are hatching a plot.

Ash Williams

The supply closet doesn’t lock from the inside but a broom handle jammed in the right place would do the job just fine.

“Come on, baby, it’ll be fun.”

You roll your eyes and brush your lips against Ash’s. There’s a bucket handle digging into your back but it’s hard to care about that when his hands have somehow made their way into your hair, your scrunchie on the floor. It’s gonna be covered in debris but you’ll survive. Ash’s mouth on your neck more than makes up for it.

“We have another three hours on our shift.”

“That’s why I’m going to start a little fire in the ladies room.”

You blink rapidly a few times, trying to process what he said. “A what in the where?”

“It’ll only be in the trash can, baby. And then you and me can head outta town for the weekend.” Ash is smirking, you can fucking hear it in his voice. “It’ll be great. I know a place off the highway with free cable and a vibrating bed.”

You laugh and kiss him on the cheek. “Let me do it. They’ll wonder why you’re in the ladies room.”

Grapholagnia - The urge to stare at obscene pictures.

Marty Mikalski

“Are you guys stoned at The Met?”

Curt sounds somewhere between amused and appalled. They had been able to get free entry because Holden knew a guy who knew a guy, it was a whole series of deals but it worked out in the end. The two of you had taken some gummies just before getting on the subway, timing it just right so it would hit when you were already at the museum.

Marty felt light as a feather, you felt like there were rocks in your legs, so it made sense to lean on each other as you stood in front of the largest painting of a naked woman either of you had ever seen.

“That’s inconsequential,” Marty brushes off the question, even though it’s obvious to anyone that knows either of you. “We’ve been hypnotized by this magnificent work of art.”

You lean forward and need a moment to actually read the plaque under it. ​​“Le Ravissement de Psyche,” you manage to say, giggling at nothing, except for maybe it’s French. “The Rapture of Psyche.” You feel weirdly proud of yourself, your head going back on Marty’s shoulder.

Curt looks at the sight of the two of you standing there, eyes on the painting instead of each other and he smirks. “You guys gonna look at anything else.”

Marty, his nose full of your shampoo and the weight of your head on his shoulder, just shook his head. “I think we’re right where we need to be.”

[eldritch-bf]

MacReady catches Danbert

in this post I expanded on some Danbert in The Thing (1982) thoughts and mentioned that the night after the kennel scene, MacReady catches Dan and Herbert having a tender moment in the lab. I was asked by @heliojip to expand on that and I unfortunately expanded so much it became a little scene so here you go.

More Questions. 800 words.

MacReady, exhausted, but too wired to sleep, slipped out of his cabin, throwing on his coat and boots, heading for the station’s exercise room. He’d hoped to jog on the treadmill until he was too tired to think. The whole business with the strange creature in the kennels unsettled him more than he wanted to let on. There was something just around the corner, he knew, and it almost certainly wouldn’t be good.

Or it was just the isolation. Paranoia nipping at his heels. Or part of it, at least.

The station was quiet, everyone having gone to bed, or so MacReady thought as he passed the labs and heard two hushed voices.

“Herbert, no. I’m tired.”

“Just a little longer. Don’t you understand the significance of this discovery? A completely new form of life? A living organism which reproduces like a virus. It’s incredible.”

Of course, it would be them. MacReady peered through the crack in the door. Both their backs were toward him. Herbert West sat at a stool, hunched over the microscope, with Daniel Cain seated beside him, a notebook and pen in hand, and a Bunsen burner between them, the blue flame the only light in the room, beside the tiny white viewing light in the microscope.

“I don’t care,” Dan said, slapping the notebook closed, rising to his feet.

Herbert jerked, clasping a hand over his arm, keeping him in place as he leaned into him.

“Daaaan,” Herbert whined, drawing out the syllable. “I need your help. Please.”

These two were strange. Dr. Copper had only good things to say about Daniel Cain—hardworking, respectful, obedient, observant, friendly, and empathetic. But Herbert West was obsessive, off-putting, and emotionless, unless it was to deride or condescend. MacReady had never known anyone to be as petty and passive aggressive as an academic, and West might have been the worst of them all. For the life of him, he didn’t understand why Cain and him were friends. They were complete opposites and seemed to argue constantly.

Maybe now he would get some answers.

“It’s always about what you need,” Dan leveled.

Herbert raised a finger. “This whole trip was your idea.”

“I wanted to come here. You wouldn’t let me go alone, because you’re afraid—.”

“Afraid?”

“Yes!” Dan hissed in West’s face. “Afraid if I’m gone too long you won’t be able to get your hooks back into me.”

Herbert scoffed. “You really think that’s why I was opposed to this trip? After everything—I know you needed to get away, and all I asked was that I come with you.”

“Why then?”

Herbert glowered and stood, crowding Daniel, still sitting, making Herbert appear an inch taller. “Why? Because you could freeze to death, could die being flown around by that alcoholic pilot, starve to death after the food runs out, or—or be killed by whatever the hell this Thing is!”

MacReady could barely hear Dan’s response.

“You were afraid for me?”

“Yes,” Herbert shifted, looking at the floor, the admission clearly making him uncomfortable. “We barely made it out of the morgue, and the investigation. And then you wanted to run off to a frozen wasteland and I couldn’t stand the thought of something happening to you when I couldn’t get to you.”

MacReady gripped the wall for balance as he watched Daniel Cain pull Herbert West into his arms and kiss him on the mouth. Herbert fisted his hands into the front of Dan’s sweater, soft involuntary moans escaping him.

Breaking the kiss, their foreheads rested on each other.

“Even when I die, I can’t escape you, can I?” Dan asked, perplexing MacReady.

Herbert moved one hand to the back of Dan’s head, yanking him back to his lips. “No. You’re mine, forever.”

Daniel groaned and Herbert let out a sharp gasp when Dan kissed down the side of his throat.

“This place is uniquely dangerous to me. Do you know what they’d do to me if they found out what I was? All these lonely men? They’d tear me apart.”

Dan growled, gripping Herbert’s hips hard. “I’d protect you.”

Herbert laughed. “There’s eleven of them, Daniel.”

Dan nipped his throat. “Don’t care.”

“And I was right. We are in danger. Danger I couldn’t even imagine.”

Dan kissed his cheek. “Yeah. But this Thing doesn’t stand a chance against us.”

Even with the weak blue light from the Bunsen burner, MacReady could make out the knife-smile on Herbert’s lips.

Herbert cupped his cheek. “Let’s go to bed, Mr. Cain.”

While the two of them quickly cleaned up the lab so there wasn’t a shred of evidence either of them had been there, impeded by Daniel Cain refusing to take his arm from Herbert West’s waist, MacReady slipped back down the hall, out of the station, and back up to his cabin. One question had been answered, but now he had many more.

[applesontheground]

your own prometheus 💉

BACK AT IT! MISSED MY BOYS AND THIS FIC, SO BUCKLE UP FOR THE NEXT ARC. ❤

CHAPTER NINE as i have done, so will you | AO3

SFW | Word Count: 3,674 | Herbert West x GN Reader x Daniel Cain contains mentioned body mutilation, light fluff, enough tension to kill a small horse ⬅ continued from robbing me of my rightful chances ➡ continued in where winners beat the time 🔁 start at the beginning with letting me in or letting me go

It wasn’t the Miskatonic you knew, the corridor silent besides the ever present hum of an air conditioning unit. After hours was when it got this desolate, and despite the unfamiliar aura surrounding you, the morgue was something you had walked by many times before.

It was strangely enough where things began, almost half expecting to see Dan without the longer hair again, as quick to pass as the entire memory had felt sometimes. Stepping through, you didn’t question where or how you landed here. You just took in a moment of silence, something hard for you to grasp at times.

A door to your right, the one to the morgue that you also recognized, then unlatched from the inside and fell open. It didn’t happen in a slow creak, but rather a self-animated swivel that stood perpendicular to you.

“[Y/N]…” A woman’s voice spoke from the depths of the room, just out of view. It echoed unnaturally from the room it came from; at least, from what you knew it was not nearly that big on the other side of the heavy industrial metal keeping the bodies nice and cold. You opened your mouth to ask whatever question came first, but it was cut off as her hand then grasped the doorframe. Pulling into your sight, a pale-skinned, half mangled woman stood before you. Dark liquid streamlined from multiple cuts on her body, and a familiar set of hand marks were collared along her neck as she lifted her head, as though it was brought to life from the autopsy photos you were trying so hard to ignore until it dissipated into the static of your subconscious.

Still, it would never quite go away even in that analogy. Who stood in front of you wasn’t quite who you had seen in the autopsy photos, and she wasn’t quite anyone else you could recognize either. The soft features were interrupted by patchwork lines of other body parts put onto her, joined just to be torn apart again to leave her in such a state now. Still, there was something frightening behind her expression that made you keep from running, almost like she was merely holding to the door to keep from reaching out to you instead.

“Leave.” She beckoned, pleading blue eyes and unkept blonde hair pasting to her jaw as she spoke, your mouth wiring shut as you merely listened to her finish the demand with your legs feeling as though they were gearing to give out rather than take off in a life-saving sprint.

“Leave before you’re put here with me.”

Air blasted through your nose, like you were resuscitated from the dream by the act of opening your eyes. The pointed graphite on the pencil had been peacefully resting against the sketchbook’s page since you had drifted off, pillow propping you up after you slumped in exhaustion. At the jolt of energy that snapped you back to reality, it shot off the page in a jerk of an abrasive line against the ginger scratches you had been doodling beforehand.

Catching your breath, you sat up straight in bed. One hand had the book pressed against your thighs, swimming in pillowy covers you were curled up in. Like it was the crust that had formed from the short rest; you slowly began to rub the images out of your mind, fingers coming up to run along where the corners met the bridge of your nose, breathing heavily through your nostrils and your teeth clenched together.

A clang from the vent made you flinch again, this time the pencil fell from your hand and you got a good look at the unfinished arm you had been sketching, interrupted by the dark streak sprinting away from the rest of the picture. “Herbert, there-! By the-“ Dan had begun to speak but another mournful howl cut him off, the sound of a second crash making your face twist in agony as you exhaled, trying to breathe dread out from your body. A death rattle struck a nerve, something so animated yet so far gone, dead long before you had began drawing that night.

You closed the book, disregarding the image you had created both on the page and in the depths of your mind as you turned the light off. Before the dark took your sight, though, you were sure to spot that your door had been locked from the inside sometime between drifting off and attempting to return with bile in your throat, and the noise coming from the depths of the floorboards you rested on.

It was going to be a problem for tomorrow’s [Y/N, you concluded as you collapsed back into bed, a pillow over your ear to keep from catching onto the sounds that came from the basement.

Sleep didn’t come despite your efforts after that. Even now, you were killing time before your shift. Tuesdays were the days that dragged on the longest, mostly because you were often tasked with reorganizing a leg of the records storage back at the offices that the ladies hadn’t gotten to. Still, drawing wasn’t bringing you much peace of mind either. Not even the quiet cassette you had put on was giving you much besides making your headache amplify against the sides of your skull as you finally flipped the messy, smudged page before you and turned the rest of the book face down on the counter.

Your eyes shot to the mantle. They couldn’t even find a clear space to give some reprieve; you spotted a bone of some sort sitting behind the antique-looking clock and had to grind your teeth to snuff a noise of frustration.Being startled was turning into an old trick, you then concurred as you dragged a hand over your face. You hadn’t heard Dan walk in, who watched your palm slap the counter as you unfocused your eyes for something to make everything stop mobbing you so early in the day.

“Hey,” Jumping, you turned to look at him. He put a hand up, trying not to laugh as you then reeled yourself in, apologizing quietly. “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle like that.” When there was no answer, no lighthearted hum of assurance that he could look past another quirk, you then looked over to see the concern on his face. “Have you been sleeping?” Dan asked, and you quickly answered, “Take a wild guess, bud.”

“I’ve seen you even on your all-nighter mornings, and you never look this-“ He stopped himself, and your eyes hardened as both of you finished the sentence in your minds, and he chose to keep the word to himself. “Do you work today?” He then asked, busying himself with trying to find something in the kitchen. You hummed affirmative, standing up from the counter and adding, “It’s my long day. It’s gonna be alright.”

“Are you sure?” He asked, stopping you before you could walk out. You were tense as he initiated to hold your hand that wasn’t grasping the sketchbook for dear life, and he suggested rather plainly, “You could always call in, try to take a nap or relax for the day. You do so much, and it’s a miracle I even see you in between it all.” You let your hand gingerly return the hold and smirked up at him. Stifling a yawn, you then sighed, “Dan, I’d love to, but I’d just start pacing the house. Sleep is…Well, you know.” You admitted, “It’s not easy for me with everything I’ve seen the last couple weeks.”

He nodded at that, laced concern over his pursed lips as he then sighed, “I know, [Y/N]. I just…don’t want you to run yourself into the ground, you know?” You nodded glumly as he then kidded you, rolling his eyes a little, “Come on, I was a med student. You really should listen to someone who’s been there.”

Smiling a little, you gave one half-second of consideration for the corridor behind you, then pulled the back of Dan’s hand up to your lips. “I really appreciate the worry, Dan. I’ll just get through today, stop by the hospital if I got business there-“ He almost looked dazed, a more genuine smile as you lowered his hand again, still holding it as you shrugged, “Then, I’ll take doctor’s orders. Get home and get some rest.”

He seemed to be lighter on his feet even, and sighed, “That-a [boy/girl/courier].” You huffed slightly, finally releasing his hand and walking back down the hall. “Thanks, Dan. See you later on, alright?” He watched you walk, [the sway of your hips/the drum of your fingers against the sketchbook set on your hip] making him smile with even more earnestly than he had managed in a hot second.

“Of course.”

Even dancing around the ordeal, your duties did find reason to go to the hospital, and you yourself a reason to find Dr. Cain chatting up a coworker in plain sight. He nearly turned on his heels at the mere sight of your approach with the usual delivery, but you didn’t get much of a ‘hello’ between you before another crossed paths.

“Good morning, [Mr./Miss] – Oh, my good lord.” You glowered as Dyer began to laugh off the ghastly look on your face, “What good’s a courier if they’re running on fumes, huh?” He [gingerly shook you, nothing too rough /slugged you on the arm just enough to make you waggle backwards a little like there hadn’t been a bone there to knock against], and you merely let out a dry, forced laugh to him while Dan tried not to look directly at him. It was as though he still couldn’t help the tight glare, but pretended it was at an imaginary fly on the back of his neck as his hand found its usual spot, a tick from being bothered.

“I’m just teasing you, [sweets/stud]. I’ll go on and tell the gals in the break room to leave some coffee for you to grab before your next stop. I’ve never seen a living soul look so dead!” Dyer laughed again, clapping you on the shoulder before sharing the love and slugging Dan on the arm. Both of you stood almost huddled together, plastering fake smiles and awkward chuckles for the man until he was well out of ear shot. You looked down at the toes of your shoes, one hand still holding the manila envelope and the other coming back up to curl into the crevice of your temple, two fingers massaging the dull throb that was lingering.

A hand clasped around your shoulder, skittering to then set in a featherlight hold on your upper arm. You watched as Dan gave you an assurance in the way his thumb dragged against your sleeve, finding the frigid skin underneath it with the motion. With your heart having leapt to your throat, you merely let your eyes trail up his own, the pristine white coated shoulder and finally to his face, taking your time to hide the way you were practically melting at the gesture.

“I’m making Herbert take a night off tonight, too – for both of our sakes.” He mentioned, and you choked down a giggle, “Good luck with that.”

“Well, I want you to join us.” Dan then mentioned, and you narrowed your eyes slightly, like the words I want you to help me keep him out of the basement were almost visible on his lips instead, “Think he’d want to be there if he knew you were there.”

“Why, because he wants to see me or because he wants to make sure I keep my hands to myself?” You joked, the strange inner thought pushing past the weak defenses of sleep deprived filters. Dan rose his eyebrows at you, jaw slightly open as you then cleared your throat, immediately reeling yourself in with your eyes now stuck on the folder in your hand. “I-I mean, I’m surprised he’d want to hang out with…anyone besides you, since you two are colleagues, and we’ve only known each other for a fraction of that.”

“[Y/N], we…” He began, but quickly stopped himself as he then craned his neck slightly, tilting his head at you so you would look at him again, “I want us to get along, get to know each other a little better if we’re gonna be-“ He stopped himself, stifled as he took a breath and you turned back to meet his eyes. You mirrored him when he broke, making sure Dyer truly had gone down another way but then you were brought back by Dan running his hand from your arm to your shoulder, then back again in a soothing motion, “If we’re going to be in this mess together.”

Blinking, you merely nodded at that, and asked, “Do you or him need me to grab anything at the store or something before I get home?” Smiling, he shook his head at you. “No, I think I have it covered. Get your work done and then just let everything go for the night, alright?” You nodded sagely at that, watching him start to walk down the hall. He then pointed at you and huffed, “Both of you are sleeping if I can do anything about it.”

You rolled your eyes, giving a mocking salute as he continued down the hall. His genuine smile came through, eyes shut from its emergence as he then turned around with light feet. You took in another deep breath, hand running up your pantleg to keep the clammy skin from ruining the manila folder as you turned and walked in the opposite direction.

“Alright. So, our county courier is for sure sleeping with Cain.”

“Oh, probably.” Dr. Graves had been idly listening to Dyer’s lament, and even agreed with him without looking up from his desk, “Dr. Cain is a serial romantic. Patients flock to him and his-“ A smile quirked on his lips, “lost puppy disposition.” When the officer merely grumbled, he then observed with the slight smirk, “You almost sound bitter about it, officer.”

Dyer rolled off the wall that he was leaning on, making a dismissive sound. “Pah. It’s good that [he/she’s / they’re] doing this, though. Distract him, take him away from the interests of West. [Y/N] knows what to do now that [he/she’s / they’ve] been made aware of the massacre.”

Graves’ expression dropped, looking away from the papers in his hand. “What?”

Dyer quickly insisted, “Look, I had to, Wilbur. Damn paper-pusher was dragging [his/her/their]feet while giving me something to work with, so I just gave a little… nudge. [He/she knows / They know] how to spell ‘confidential’, especially something as covered up as what happened here.”

Graves shook his head, and grumbled, “Well, that doesn’t answer my next question.”

“Spit it out.”

“Why would [he/she/they] want to get so close to Dr. Cain if [he/she/they] know what he’s capable of?”

Dyer snorted, looking back out the cracked door to the Pathology office as he warned, “I think you’re concerned about the wrong man, Graves.” When the man merely turned to look at him again in confusion, Dyer then spoke lower than before.

“Cain wasn’t the one who decapitated Dr. Carl Hill, now was he?”

“You want me to do what, exactly?”

Dan scoffed, and you merely stood beside him while giving Herbert a mirrored pleading expression. Still, you were kind of curious about the atmosphere in the basement you never got permission to see, tired eyes stringing out rather than keeping engaged with the two men beside you.

“Take a break, that’s what.” Dan was flimsy in his firm tone, especially with the other man who wore it well. Herbert asked immediately, “Why would I do that?”

Dan tapped the side of his sneaker to yours, and you quickly piped up. “Your mind can’t work well all the time, Herbert. You’re down here a lot, and-“ You then stifled another yawn at the mere mention, “It’d be good for the research to give it some space, even if you’re not stuck on any pressing question, or experiment or the sort…” You saw Dan give him another pointed look from your peripheral, as though you were some walking examples of the importance of breaks with your sleepy deep breath after speaking. He was silent for another long pause, but finally asked, “What are we going to do upstairs, then?”

“Board games, mostly.” You said with a shrug. Dan put a hand on your shoulder in an urgent motion and corrected, “The same things we always do at night, just upstairs and out of the basement.” The other man scoffed again, and Dan mentioned, “Look, you can bring your reading, or whatever with you. I won’t make you do anything more, just give yourself the change of scenery.”

“Are you trying to throw some sort of bone of formality out for [Y/N]?” He then asked, but still you noticed him closing his notebook, beginning to gather some things. He then dared to go on, Dan shaking his head already, “[He/she doesn’t / They don’t] need the wool pulled over the eyes any more that we’re normal people, I showed them-“

“I know you showed [him/her/them].” Dan huffed, and frayed enough from the conversation he started up the stairs again. You decided to wait for, standing there as he finally started to follow.

“Is he doing this for you or are you doing this for him?” He then asked, and your eyes slid like stone over to look him in the eye. “We’re both doing this for you.”

He merely pressed his brow at you and continued up the steps with no further questions.

You had opted to take your usual spot in the armchair across from the sofa, leaving the other two with the latter. It seemed to keep the peace, and that was what this night was about. You could do with some peace, not having to close the air vents in the Autumn again. You were barely upright, but enough not to look utterly disheveled while you had started to scribble in your book, feeling particularly uninspired, just adding detail to works in progress.

It didn’t take well-rested judgement to see Dan wasn’t actually watching, and that Herbert wasn’t actually reading. It just made you wonder if you should really keep drawing since everyone was putting on an act.

The thought sent a wave of heat through your body, and clammy fingers suddenly let the pencil slip up, fall to the carpet with two sets of eyes watching from across the room. You pretended not to notice, leaning down after it with a dizzy sensation going from your gut to your head from the shift in gravity.

“What in the world was on that page?” Dan joked, and you smiled from where you were face-level with the floor. “Which one?” Herbert eyed the two of you as you flipped to the page you had been working on the night before, the dark line the clearest thing about the image.

“It’s a fluke, I meant for it just to be a study on arm shape, but…serves me right for drawing before bed.” You laughed, and while Dan grinned back, the other man set his book in his lap to see a little better. You stayed still, uncertain as he suddenly got this tuned in hold to his shoulders, no longer scowling.

“This is different,” Herbert observed aloud, “Unnatural.” All you thought to do was hum in affirmation at that, and he did the same, almost like a mirroring action. He then looked up at you and asked, “Do you have more like it?”

“I…” You trailed off, and started to turn the pages, “Possibly. Depends on what you want to see in regards to unnatural, but-“

He didn’t even hesitate, and you once again watched with bated breath, peripherals still to the pencil laying on the floor as he shifted on the couch. Dan also watched, trying not to appear completely shocked at what was being offered.

A space in between the two men, something you felt had been kept from you, and a sudden pull from your core again made you slowly rise. Ignoring the fatigue and walking carefully around the coffee table, you flipped towards the back of the book, finding some of the X-rays Marge had passed to you. This only got Herbert to tilt his head, observing with slight bewilderment.

Dan asked, “Are those from…?” You replied quickly, “Oh god, no. Miskatonic doesn’t trust like other offices do.”

“Of course,” Herbert agreed, making the other man give him a quick look before furrowing his brow at your drawings.

Stakeouts were common for a police officer looking for answers, but Dyer wasn’t necessarily permitted to such a strike. It hadn’t stopped him from parking down the street from the infamous repurposed mortuary, the place he had found to be where the courier’s address was read as in the private records from the office.

They were leaning far too close to each other to see faces, just [y/h/c] hair next to West’s dark, short cut. Regardless, it was close, the shadows of their bodies morphing against one another in shared fascination, honed in on one spot and not afraid to get close to see. Yet, despite the two sitting together so intimately, he saw Cain’s arm slowly come around the back of the couch, not as cordial in his distance but also involved with whatever was taking place on the sofa judging by the angle of his head, looking more at the two people than what their shared focus was based on his glances to the side, the detail of his face seen better overall.

Dyer chewed his lip, trying to squint through the binoculars and truly make sense of the image before finally dropping them to his lap, and huffing loudly.

The arrangement between the courier and the other two was even weirder than he had assumed.