#i also watched the jurassic world movie for the first time AFTER going to the exhibit

[bogkeep]

saw some lego dinosaurs today :3

[tkwrites]

He's Got It Bad - Quinn Hughes x ofc

gif by 40ep

Title: He’s got it bad

Author: Tory / @tkwrites 

Relationship: Quinn Hughes x Sarah Roberts (OFC) 

Warnings: Swearing, lots of teasing & chirping, mild spoilers if you've never seen the original Jurassic Park.

Summary: When Sarah meets the team at Conor's birthday party, not only does she get to know Quinns teammates and their partners, she enters a world she never expected. At practice the next day, the guys congratulate and tease Quinn mercilessly.

Word Count: 2,600

Comments: I’m sorry this one took me so long, Daisy! I started it two or three months ago, but couldn’t find the right way to finish it. And then earlier this week, as I was falling asleep, it just snapped into place. I hope you enjoy it! 

As before, the research described here is dubious at best, so please take it with a big grain of salt.

If you did enjoy this, please let me know by commenting, reblogging, or sending in an ask. Your encouragement and comments truly inspire me to keep writing. 

dasiysthings asked: If you’re taking requests/suggestions for Quinn and Sarah au doing a Sarah meeting the team for the first time has been on my mind lately. What would they think of her? Sure Quinn’s mentioned her and they saw sarah in the stands her first game but maybe she attends a team function like birthday party or team family meal. Something low key and not public maybe? Also how much do they tease Quinn after?🫣🤭

He’s got it bad

A Quinn & Sarah Snapshot

“Are you free on Thursday?” 

It was a rare night off, and he’d requested they order food and watch a movie. Currently, they were lounging in a giant bean bag in the gaming room. Quinn was partially on top of Sarah, his head resting on her chest as the first Jurassic Park played on the large screen.

“I think so. Why?”

“Garly’s having a party that night for his birthday. I hoped you might want to come with me.” 

“Who?”

“Garly,” he repeated before correcting himself, “Conor. Garland. From the team.”

Quinn had mentioned Conor before, and she knew he was one of the trio of guys he was really close to.  

“Sure,” she said, hoping her voice sounded more confident than she felt. “Who will be there?”

“Most of the guys and their partners if they have them.”

“Is it going to be wild?” she asked, winding one of his curls around her finger. She needed to prepare herself if it was going to be a night full of drinking. 

“Nah, Conor’s pretty chill, and we have a game the next day.”

“Okay,” she agreed again, splaying her fingers through his dark waves, letting them slip and slide over her skin. For someone who washed it so often, he had remarkably soft hair. 

 Nuzzling into her chest a little more, he sighed. He loved when she played with his hair.

Sarah jumped when the Dilophosaurus appeared on screen, tilting its head at Nedry. 

Quinn laughed. She hadn’t even flinched when the T-Rex had tried to attack the kids through one of the park cars. “You okay?”

“I hate this one,” she said, turning her head to the side. 

He glanced at the TV in time to see the dinosaur hiss and pop its frill. “You hate this more than the T-Rex?” 

“At least the T-Rex is just a big predator. This one stalks and tortures first, and I hate it,” she said, face still turned away. 

“But Nedry deserved it.” 

“Maybe so, but I still don’t like to think about it.” 

He chuckled.

Only after the yells faded away did she turn back to the movie and continue tracing her fingers through his hair. 

By the time Thursday came around, Quinn realized just how nervous Sarah was. She texted him about the dress code three hours before he was supposed to pick her up.

It’s a party, he’d written back, unsure of what she meant. 

Yeah, but is it like a heels and cocktails party? Or a backyard barbecue party?

Well, it’s been raining all week, so I’m pretty sure we’ll be indoors.

Don’t be a smartass. 

Just casual. Food and drinks. 

She’d called him then, and he’d answered, confused. “Hey?” 

“I just…” she began, “this is the first time I’m meeting most of your teammates and their girlfriends and I don’t want to be the only one in jeans when everyone else is in dresses. I want to make a good impression.” 

“You’ll make a good impression no matter what you’re wearing.”

A breath blew out of her nose, whistling by the phone speaker, “you don’t get it.” 

“Don’t I?” 

“Quinn, you wear the same thing all the time.” 

“First of all, I do not.”

He continued before she could get out her retort that Brady could back her up on this fact. “And secondly, everything I’ve seen you wear would be fine for this. You always look nice.”

And he meant it. Even in her aquarium uniform, which consisted of a blue t-shirt or polo with the aquarium logo and whatever pants she happened to be wearing that day, she always looked put together.

She made some noise in her throat like she thought he was telling tales. 

“Look, you might get some looks if you showed up in a trash bag or something.” 

Laughter barked out of her mouth. “Why would I ever wear a trash bag?” 

“I don’t know. I’m just saying that barring an unhinged trash bag outfit, you’ll be fine. People are just excited to meet you.” 

“You told them I’m coming?” she asked, feeling sudden nerves attack her stomach. 

“Yeah. Conor suggested I invite you. The guys want to meet you.” Plus, ever since she'd met Brady, he'd wanted her to meet everyone in his life.

“Oh,” she said quietly. 

“Just wear what you feel comfortable in, and I’ll pick you up at six, okay?” 

“Yeah, okay,” Sarah said, feeling even more anxious than before she’d called him.

She couldn’t even wear her go-to outfit for when she was nervous. St. Patricks day was the next weekend, and she’d asked Quinn to come to her uncles and needed the green dress for that. Plus, it was freezing and sleety outside. A dress was not the way to go. 

Jane walked by, and Sarah called her in. 

“What happened here?” Jane asked, taking in the clothing spread all over Sarah’s usually tidy room, and Sarah herself standing in her underwear. 

The only thing she could decide on was the blue bra, which always made her feel confident and sexy. She’d paired it with a matching pair of underwear.

“I’m going to a party with some of Quinn’s teammates tonight,” she said. 

Janes eyes widened with what Sarah thought was the appropriate amount of concern. 

“So I’m trying to figure out what to wear. The dress is out,” she said, gesturing to where it was hanging in the closet. 

Jane bit her lip, surveying the chaos. “My vote is for those boyfriend jeans that make your thighs look killer,” she said. 

Sarah breathed a sigh of relief, glad to have someone express a definitive opinion. She’d put those same jeans on earlier but stripped them right back off, worried all the other women would be in fancier dress. “You don’t think they’ll be too casual?” 

“What kind of a party is it?” 

“Birthday.”

Jane looked her over, “you’ll be fine. Killer jeans, nice top. Quinn won’t know what hit him.” 

She pulled the jeans on, hopping as she tugged them over her hips, “thanks. I’m just so nervous.” 

Jane sat on her bed and began putting shirts back on their discarded hangers, “I don’t think you need to be.” 

“No?”

She shook her head, “from the way he was looking at you when he stayed for dinner that night you guys made up, I’m not sure anything could put him off you.”

Sarah felt her cheeks flush. 

“Anyway,” Jane said, pulling a purple blouse out from underneath her, “I think you should wear this. It looks good with your eyes.”

“Thanks, Jane,” she said, gathering the other woman into a hug, “I don’t know what I’d do without you.” 

Sarah was already in the lobby when Quinn pulled up to her building. She wore medium wash jeans a dark raincoat. He appreciated that she was wearing flat boots instead of some fussy heel. She threw the hood up to block the rain before running out to his car. 

When they got to the house, he opened the door without knocking before leading her inside. There was a coat rack already brimming with wet jackets, and Sarah stripped hers off to hang up with the others. 

Quinn stopped in his tracks halfway through unzipping his own jacket. 

He thought he’d seen all of Sarah’s clothes. Which was a stupid notion now that he thought about it — they hadn’t been dating for that long — but she tended to wear a kind of uniform.

Today, though, her jeans fit her like a glove — clinging to the curves of her thighs and hips. He was certain she’d never worn them before. He would have remembered. Seeing her in them now, he wished she’d given him some kind of warning.

When he didn’t follow her, Sarah turned, which was worse. The purple blouse she wore skimmed over her breasts and had a pattern embroidered around the collar. The color somehow made her eyes brighter and lips more pink. He had no idea that could happen.

He felt like he needed to catch his breath as a surge of attraction reared in his stomach.

Not only were the guys going to tease him mercilessly for being with someone new, he was going to have to watch her in those jeans all night. The mental exertion it was going to take to not pop a boner was already making him tired. 

Before his mind could truly go to war about the pros and cons of just turning to go back to his place, Conor called out, “Huggy? Is that you?” 

Too late to turn back now. “Yeah,” he said, not taking his eyes off Sarah. 

“Huggy?” she repeated.

“It’s a long story.”

The thrill of touching her reared to life again as he took her hand to guide her into the house. He made his mind focus on math equations for the walk into the kitchen and hoped it would be enough. 

“Hey!” Conor greeted, immediately grasping Quinn in a hug when they walked into the kitchen.  “You must be the elusive Sarah Huggy won’t stop telling us about,” he said as they broke apart.

“Good things, I hope,” Sarah joked as they shook hands.

“Well, he certainly didn’t lie about how pretty your eyes are,” a woman said, coming up to stand next to Conor, running her hand along his forearm before entwining their fingers.

The color that pinked her cheeks made Quinn’s knees want to buckle. God, he was in deep.

The strange thing was that he wasn’t scared about it. That had to mean something good.

“I’m Meghan, and this is Conor,” she said with a bright, friendly smile. 

More introductions were made, and Sarah tried to keep track of everyone, but there were at least 40 people there, and she felt instantly overwhelmed. She should have known. She knew how many people were on a hockey team, but it was still a little shocking to meet everyone all at once. 

They were absorbed into one of the small groups of people, and Sarah sipped from her seltzer only to find it was lemon flavored, not pineapple like she'd expected. She frowned at the can. 

“Do you want something different?” Quinn asked, noticing the disappointed look on her face.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Conor and JT glance at each other. 

“No, it’s okay. I was just expecting pineapple, so the lemon was a bit of a shock.”

“There’s pineapple in there,” Meghan said, gesturing with her own can. 

“I’ll get you one,” he said, turning to the fridge. 

She caught his arm and he turned back, “it’s fine, Quinn. This one’s already open. It’s not a big deal. Most seltzer tastes the same anyway.” 

“I’m glad someone can finally admit that,” Brock said, lifting his beer to his lips.

His pretty blonde girlfriend smacked him on the arm, “just because you can’t tell the difference doesn’t mean no one else can.”

Sarah smiled at them. They were cute together - like a model midwestern couple. 

“So, Sarah,” JT said, pulling her focus, “Quinn tells us you work at the aquarium.” 

She went through her usual explanation of her schooling and research.

“Tell them about Tuesday,” Quinn prompted. 

Everyone in the group looked between them expectantly. JT and Conor shared another glance. 

“What happened Tuesday?” Natalie asked, taking the bait right away. 

“Well, I’ve been doing a lot of experiments with Walter to see if he can taste my mood.”

“What?” 

“Octopus have tastebuds and nerve endings in every suction cup that far surpass our own, so I’ve been wondering if he can taste the hormones on my skin. Anyway, I sprayed some Cortisol, which is the hormone that releases when you’re stressed, on my hands to see how he’d react, and he went from seemingly happy to see me to very subdued almost immediately.” 

“Whoa,” Brock said. 

“Yeah,” she agreed, eyes brightening. “It was really amazing. With some more experiments, I think I could probably use this as the basis research for my thesis.” 

“Exactly how did this guy convince you to date him?” JT asked, pointing at Quinn.

Natalie smacked his arm. 

“No, I’m serious. You’re really smart. You know Huggy didn’t even finish college, right?” 

What the hell was this nickname? 

“I did finish college,” Quinn interrupted, “I graduated last year.” 

“Whatever,” JT said with a dismissive hand as if that detail didn’t matter. “Does he have you under some sort of mind control?” 

Sarah laughed out loud, and Quinn’s eyes darted to her, catching her wide open smile. 

“Cause she couldn’t just like me,” he defended, sarcastically

“A girl like this? This pretty and this smart?” JT asked, “it’s hard to believe, Huggy.” 

Even though she could see the glint of humor in his eyes and knew he was only teasing, Sarah still stepped in, “Nope. No mind control.” She emphasized the statement by reaching for his hand, “You know as well, probably better than I do that Quinn has really great qualities. He's a really good guy.” 

JT leaned back on the counter, a jokingly suspicious look still on his face as he glanced between them. 

Quinn could feel himself blushing. He didn’t mean for Sarah to come to his defense like that. He didn’t mean to put her in that position. All the same, he was a little glad for it. JT had a way of teasing a persons insecurities right out of them, and to know Sarah didn’t feel the same way eased something in him. 

“Our daughter loves the aquarium,” Natalie cut in fluidly as if she was used to smoothing over her husbands’ aggressive teasing.

“Let me know the next time you come by,” Sarah said without missing a beat, “I’ll give you a personal tour.”

“Oh, she’d love that. We’ll have to get a group of us together.” 

JT gave her a genuine smile, and Sarah let a little breath go in her chest. 

At the next mornings practice, Quinn ran through drills and exercises, ears pricked for the inevitable teasing he knew would be coming his way. 

To his surprise, it didn’t come until the end, after he’d showered and was dressing in his stall.

“Dude, you've got it bad,” Joshua teased as he walked by, “I’ve never seen you look at someone like that,” he said, adopting a sappy, lovestruck expression. 

“I don’t know if you can top the way he was about to chuck that can of seltzer away from her because she didn’t like it,” JT said.

“Right?” Conor agreed, laughing, “‘Do you want something different? Let me get you a new can.’” He mimed rushing around searching. 

“Don’t forget the first time he told us about her,” Brock cut in, “he was like fucking Aladdin, ‘she’s got these eyes.’” 

Joining in the laughter, Quinn tossed his towel in their direction. 

Conor caught it easily. “Our little Huggy’s in love,” he teased, elongating the last word into several syllables. 

“Guys,” he said, leveling them with a look he hoped would shut the conversation down. “We’ve only known each other 9 weeks.” 

“So you’ve been keeping track,” Brock surmised, glancing around with a knowing expression. 

Guess he may as well get comfortable in this hole he dug for himself.

He’d dished out this same chirping when Brock had brought Bella around for the first time and knew it was best to just let it lie, and eventually, it would become old news. 

When he didn’t deny it, the boys around him all whooped and hollered enough that everyone else in the room looked over.

“Seriously though,” JT went on, “I have no idea how you landed her, but she’s a great girl."

"And,” he continued with a smirk, “if you ever get bored of her, I'm sure Kuzy’ll take her off your hands. He wouldn’t stop looking at her all night.” 

Quinn glared, more offended at the insinuation he would get bored of Sarah. 

JT laughed, raucous and loud, “Oh, he’s got it bad, alright.”

He couldn’t stop the flush that rushed into his cheeks. 

“Don't worry, Huggy. No one's gonna steal your girl.” 

Shaking his head, Quinn shoved his sneakers on.  

Want more Quinn & Sarah? Check out the Snapshots Masterlist

To read all my fics, check out the Fanfiction Masterlist

[wondersinwaynemanor]

you think the Wayne kids would try to get Bruce's attention all at once? one look among each other, they already know the plan and they want to be competitive about it.

like for an instance:

Bruce, in his study at the Manor, answering work emails when he hears the heavy footsteps of his children and loud voices from outside the door. he holds a breath, readying himself.

Damian, his sketchpad on his hand, opens the door: Father, no matter what they say, stay completely still. I'll work on a portrait of you.

Bruce, blinks, before offering a smile: Of course, son. Let me finish this email then I will-

before Damian can close the door, Jason barges in with a few car keys on his hands, almost hitting Damian in the process.

Damian, growls: Careless Imbecile.

Jason, grins and ruffles Damian's hair: Well, it's nice to know you love me, Dami.

Damian attempts to push Jason away from the table, but to no avail. Damian tts.

Jason, approaches the table with ease, lifting the sets of car keys: Hey, old man. I was thinking of going out tonight. What car should I take?

Damian: Don't let him, Father. He's a careless, clumsy, fowl excuse of a human being.

Jason tries to pinch Damian's cheeks before the younger boy moves away.

Bruce, blinks, before studying the keys: Anything, Jaylad. You're free to drive-

then Steph enters with a bag of chips on both of her hands, 3D glasses covering her eyes.

Steph, grins widely: Heya, B! Me and Cass are planning to watch Jurassic Park in the family room. Want to join us?

Cass also enters the room, 3D glasses perched on her nose, a gentle smile on her face.

Jason: So the others aren't invited, huh?

Bruce, blinks and smiles at the two girls: Surely after dinner, okay? Let's make it a family movie night. But first, I have to finish-

Damian, approaches Bruce's side: But Father, you already agreed that I will make a portrait of you.

Damian then looks at Steph and Cass: Traitors!

Steph, just grins even more: It might be too scary for you, Dami.

Damian, whines: I've seen it a couple of times!

Dick, enters the room next, smug smile on his face: You all better be talking about my charming personality.

Jason, rolls his eyes: Actually the exact opposite. We're talking about how annoying you are, Dickface.

Dick wraps an arm on Jason's shoulder, trapping him for a side hug: Awww Little Wing, you flatter me.

Jason pushes him away.

Steph and Cass giggle at the side of the room.

Dick, walks over to where Damian is, bringing him close to him as he faces Bruce: B, I need your help with a plan for the Titans' mission. I'm kind of doubtful about it.

Bruce, blinks and nods at his eldest: Sure, chum. I'll be down at the cave-

Cass, goes near Bruce this time, holding him by the arm: No, you said we watch.

Bruce, touches Cass' hand: Yes, sweetheart. Don't worry, all of us will watch, okay?

Damian, groans: That film can wait tomorrow night.

Steph: It has to be tonight.

Jason: I have plans with Roy tomorrow night.

Dick: I think I'll be off world tomorrow.

Duke, enters the room, a bright smile on his face: Hey, everyone. Hi Bruce, want to check out these new puzzle boards I got? Seems like you need a break.

everyone replies with something.

Bruce, pinches the bridge of his nose: Will everyone please not talk at once? Better yet, will everyone give me some peace first? I need to plan the rest of my day so I can be with each of you.

Tim is the last to enter the room, wearing a suit: B, I need you to come with me to Luthor's meeting. He's planning something and I need you to help me figure it out.

the rest of the Wayne kids erupt with different conversations.

Damian: I was here first. The rest of you can just go on with your lives without Father.

Jason: B, just tell me which car I should drive and I'll be off your shoulders.

Steph: You're not going anywhere after dinner, Bruce. We're watching the movie with and without the rest.

Cass: You already agreed.

Dick: So we're just going to ignore that I need help? This is an important mission. The world can be at stake here.

Duke: Well, I'm at stake here. Plus, Bruce needs to rest.

Tim: So we're just going to let Luthor do whatever he's about to do. We're better than this.

Bruce, stands up from his chair: Okay, okay. Everyone, just give me a few minutes and I'll let you know what happens next. Please, just... Please.

everyone grumbles under their breaths and leave the room.

Dick, speaks by the time they are away from the study: Is the bet still on?

Steph: I think I'm winning cus Cass is B's favorite and I agreed with her on the movie.

Jason: It's probably baby bat.

Tim: My money's on Duke.

[everlasting-rainfall]

Hear me out

Animal shifter au but in a jurassic park setting with the beast pirates

Okay so I’m gonna admit that I have actually never seen the Jurassic Park movies like I think I tried once when I was a kid but I was way too scared of them to ever keep watching it and I’ve just never gone back

But I do know the basic premise like nature park tries to revive dinosaurs and things go horribly wrong, yeah?

Also fun fact! In some scenarios, animal shifters were supposed to be the dominant species of earth but they kind of went into hiding and became a lost myth after humans came around and started doing some crazy shit

Typically animal shifters are just waiting for the exact right moment to strike back against the humans and take the earth back as lord knows that they’ll treat it better…

Anywho let’s get into it! Also my sincerest of apologies if this isn’t as good as you hope it would be!

!-MINORS DO NOT INTERACT AT ALL-!

!-POTENTIAL TRIGGER WARNINGS-!

Stalking, Kidnapping, Forced (?) Pregnancy, Stockholm Syndrome, Unsafe Work Environments, Apocalyptic Scenario, Implied Murder, Violence

!-POTENTIAL TRIGGER WARNINGS-!

!-MINORS DO NOT INTERACT AT ALL-!

So imagine the visual that you’re some kind of person who has managed to land a job at one of the most dangerous but exciting sort of zoos in the world as they’ve managed to bring back the dinosaurs

The job listing states that they need someone to clean things and maybe occasionally play a role in the totally safe dinosaur shows that they put on for entertainment and also occasionally for educating people as well

You were probably reluctant but hey, you need the money and this job pays some good money so what’s the harm in just taking the job for the summer is what you tried to tell yourself at least

First few days go well as you’re mostly just cleaning up around some specific animal areas, you learn some pretty cool stuff about the dinosaurs and even find out that they have some things that were thought to be myths like a giant blue dragon

You even start to like the look of some of the dinosaurs too even if a lot of them just look generally pissed off a lot of the time like you didn’t know it was possible for a triceratops to look both somehow absolutely wasted and angry at his surroundings at the same time

Eventually though after your first week, you’re asked to do an animal show with some of the dinosaurs and this can only go so well is what you think to yourself especially as you’re dressed up in a cave woman’s costume for the show

Basically the dinosaur will be let into the area and it’s your job to get it to move about to do different things for the commentator to tell the audience about like you don’t even realize that you’re being stalked at one point and the commentator is like “Oh! And the great Sabertooth Cat is also an excellent hunter!”

You were told later that the commentator was trying to warn you without scaring any of the guests and causing a commotion…

The shows always got your heart pumping on max speed as these creatures were terrifying like the dinosaur known as Ulti once tried to crack your skull open when she thought that you were getting too close to her brother for her liking

It was just for the summer though and the park would pay you generous bonuses for anytime that you did one of these shows and got hurt, probably to prevent a lawsuit but regardless…

As time progressed though, you found that the animal shows were becoming easier like Who’s Who the Sabertooth Tiger wouldn’t even try to hunt you during shows with you anymore and King was even pretty chill with you as well like he wouldn’t even bat an eye when you stretched out one of his wings to show the audience just how big his wingspan was

You had even done a show with Kaido the Blue Dragon that they had and although you were writing down your will on some stationary in the dressing room before you were set to head out and you headed out into the area and let the commentator introduce you as the brave cavewoman who knew all about dinosaurs

Part of you was just waiting for Kaido to be released into the area so you could be ripped to shreds already as you had heard horror stories about how dangerous that thing was but when the commentator introduced your guest for the day and released the blue dragon

Oddly enough, he didn’t kill you right away like he stared at you for a good while but he didn’t try to burn you alive with his fire breath or even snap his jaws shut on you like the worst thing that he did was growl at you

The commentator instructed you on what to do like “For most people, dragons are simply a legend but they were oh so very real! They even had bigger teeth than any known dinosaur species! How about you show the audience those teeth, brave cavewoman?” and you would have to lift one of his lips in order to show the audience

Your fear was probably obvious to Kaido as you did your thing as he simply just rested his head on the ground to convey that he was bored, it was weirdly like he was trying to reassure you that he wouldn’t kill you almost

Eventually the show ended and you were able to head back into the dressing room and get changed, you took a long deep breath and just laid on the floor for a while to let the adrenaline wear off. Some of your co-workers probably thought that you were dead in all honesty

Luckily as the months pass by, the dinosaurs and even the dragon get closer with you causing the animal shows to go as smooth as they possibly can like the Mammoth known as Jack straight up lifts you up with his trunk at one point during a show and lets you slide down it onto his back. It was like something straight out of a movie but the audience loved it

As for your job where you clean things? That’s the least stressful part of your job and honestly what you far more prefer to be doing as it just entails going around the park and emptying trash cans along with picking up any litter that you might find

Occasionally acting as a guide as well for lost park goers, this part of your job takes you all around the park to almost all of the enclosures. Some of the dinosaurs don’t pay you any mind while the ones that you’ve done shows with typically come up the viewing windows and follow alongside you until you’re out of sight almost like they’re trying to greet you

The only downsides to this part of the job is that when the bathrooms are filthy then it’s your job to clean it up and the occasional rude customer whose complaining for no good reason but that isn’t too bad as you typically wind up never seeing those guests again if it happened outside one of the enclosures oddly enough

It’s towards the end of the summer that something incredibly weird happens though as you are being brought in to do another show as the brave cavewoman but they want you to work with a dinosaur that you’ve had no prior experience with. Can’t be too bad, right? Especially as they say they’ll even let you bring Sasaki in to feel safer as it’s another triceratops!

This dinosaur acts far more like how you would expect a typical dinosaur to act, it’s much more aggressive with you and you find yourself having to dive out of the way more than once to avoid being speared on its horns as the commentator tries to act natural

Sasaki is somewhat being helpful as he is jerking his head at it like he’s trying to command it to calm down but it’s after one of its horns catches you and injuries you, Sasaki is pissed and a fight breaks out between the two triceratops

Chaos ensues and you find yourself in the middle of a dinosaur fight as Sasaki tries to protect you and this other triceratops is just hellbent on hurting you. The guards can’t rush in as that would cause serious panic and that’s the last thing they need but the commentator is clearly worried about your safety

After what feels like hours, you’re saved from the terrifying show and both triceratops are contained to safely be put back in an enclosure. You get your injury all patched up and the park runners agree to take you off dinosaur shows completely but that wasn’t what was weird

What was weird is that the triceratops who hurt you proceeded to completely disappear from it’s enclosure in the middle of the night… It was there before everyone went home and now it was all gone…

The park of course tried looking for it but they could never find it and there were absolutely no signs of escape or footage of any escape on any of the security cameras… It simply vanished without a trace…

Your last bit of time spent at the park was as a cleaner but after the experience at your last dinosaur show, the dinosaurs and dragon that you typically worked with seemed more protective of you now like if you were cleaning around Who’s Who’s enclosure then he would simply chill out where he could see you and if anyone blocked his vision then he would get up to move then chill out again

Ulti even head butted the protective glass once when she saw someone run into you and nearly knock you over, she looked absolutely pissed too like if you could understand what she was saying then you were pretty sure that she would have been cussing out the park goer

However as nice as this job was, everything has to come to an end eventually as your last day working at the park soon arrived and you were given your last bit of pay before you started working for the day

You said goodbye to all of your co-workers as you passed them by but you also went around and said goodbye to all of the dinosaurs as you felt it was polite, a lot of them almost looked shocked and disappointed that you were leaving with King himself even looking incredibly disappointed and almost angry to hear that

Once your shift had ended, your boss had asked you if you could stay just a little bit longer as someone had made an absolute mess of one area of the park and he would gladly pay you extra if you stayed to clean it up

You said yes before seeing it and instantly regretted it as you were there for the rest of the day just sweeping up trash and cleaning all sorts of things that had been spilled

By the time that you were finally done, it was closing time and all of your co-workers went home so you started to head to tell your boss that it was safe to lock up for the night now as you were finished and heading home

He nodded his head saying that he had some things to take care of so he would still be here for a bit and you started leaving, you were honestly going to miss working here but it wasn’t so bad as now you wouldn’t have to worry about heading home

Just as the exit was coming into view though, you saw something out of the corner of your eye and looked over to find that there was a person in the park. Assuming it was an intruder, you tried to scare them off which proved to be a horrible decision

As soon as you had spoke, they looked at you and rushed you. The next thing that you knew, you were unconscious. You expected to wake up somewhere horrible and indeed you did as you woke up inside of what was clearly one of the dinosaurs enclosures

Your heart sank…

You tried to stand up and hoped to find a way out before whoever was in this enclosure found you and decided you were desert, your legs were wobbly with fear but you did your best to walk slowly and hopefully not draw any attention to yourself

You soon found the edge of the exhibit and followed it until you found a door that you could hopefully escape through but before you could even find out if it was locked or not, spider silk suddenly stuck onto you and you found yourself being dragged off into the darkness

It occurred to you that you were in Black Maria’s enclosure who was a prehistoric spider and you knew that death was likely coming soon as you felt yourself be dragged deeper and deeper into the enclosure by the spider silk until you started being lifted

Here it comes is what you though and you felt your body being wrapped up in spider silk except for your head, you were dangled from a tree branch and expected to feel teeth on your head only for nothing to happen other than a chuckle and a command for you to open your eyes

You briefly cracked them open and found yourself face to face with a giant blonde lady whose lower half was a spider… She smiled at you when she saw you and commented on finally being able to see those eyes that she loved so much at night too

Part of you tried to sputter out a question only for your mouth to get covered in webs, she told you to save your questions for when the others got here and they would surely be here soon now that all the humans were gone

Eventually one by one, they all appeared in the enclosure with some of them being normal human size while others were much bigger. They stared at you like you were a piece of meat hanging inside of the window of a butcher shop and you couldn’t stop the fear that came from it

When the woman removed the webbing from your mouth and the man with the horns told you to ask any questions that you have. The first thing out of your mouth was “Who are you?!”

You would have followed it up with an “And what do you want from me?!” but they spoke as soon as you were finished, some of them looked almost offended that you didn’t recognize them and asked if you truly didn’t

You confirmed that they didn’t so they introduced themselves, they told you that they were the dinosaurs that you had been working with for so long while at the park… And when you tried to point out that they couldn’t be that, they suddenly all transformed right before your eyes…

The shock was so immense that sticking a fork in an electrical socket couldn’t compare, you were told what animal shifters were and told that there were animal shifters wandering around even today. It wasn’t just them and a lot of animal shifters typically seek out a human to entertain themselves with

And what do you know? You were perfect and they weren’t going to let you go…

“…Please don’t hurt me…”

“Don’t worry about that… Hurt is the last thing that you’ll feel with us if you’re good…”

And that’s how a new life begins for you as you wind up wrapped completely in spider silk during the day and hung from one of the trees upsidown almost like you’re in a cocoon but come nighttime…

Black Maria takes you down as soon as all of the humans leave the park and the fun begins as the dinosaurs that you once did shows with made you into the main attraction as they would typically fuck you senseless while the others watched

You never quite became an animal shifter like them but after so many days and nights of the same thing, you oddly began to get used to it as the dinosaurs would use your body and entertain themselves with you just about every night after fulfilling your needs

It was starting to become weirdly enjoyable and you looked forward to seeing which dinosaur would be taking you next… It didn’t even occur to you that this could be Stockholm syndrome…

And when the day came that the dinosaurs told you that you wouldn’t have to be in your web cocoon soon anymore as the animal shifters were soon going to take back the world from the humans, you didn’t care

Not in the slightest bit

Not even when they left you hanging in the web cocoon for safe keeping with a promise to come back as you knew that they would…

The humans didn’t stand a single chance after all and soon the world would once again belong to the animal shifters just like they had told you it used to…

So you remained hanging in your web cocoon from one of Black Maria’s trees in her enclosure… Calm, relaxed, and with all of your needs met…

What could possibly make this better? Oh you knew cause what made this all the more better was your stomach

A stomach full of dinosaur eggs…

[ape-apocalypse]

Road To The Kingdom - My Planet Of The Apes Retrospective

With the hype for Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes on the rise, I decided to do a bit of a deep dive into the trilogy of reboot movies starring the incredible Andy Serkis and the various tie-in titles.

Why ramble on about a series that most people seem to overlook? Well, I think back to an interaction I had here on Tumblr in 2017, just one week before War For The Planet Of The Apes came out. While scrolling through the POTA tags, I found a post that wondered if anyone was actually excited for the new film or if the studio hadn't gotten the message and was making it for an audience that didn't exist. I responded that I was genuinely excited for the new film, that I loved the motion capture apes and the action scenes and the surprisingly engaging story, and would be seeing it opening weekend. The other person seemed surprised by my honest answer and apologized for their snarkiness (a truly shocking turn of events in the history of the Internet!).

I explained that I'd gone into these films thinking of them like Jurassic World series; I wasn't there for a great story and deep writing, I just wanted to see dinosaurs destroy things. So when I went into the POTA films, just expecting to see fun action movies with monkey chaos and apocalyptic results, I was surprised that I was swept up in the characters and their stories. I loved seeing the life of Caesar from tiny carefree baby to resilient revolutionary to fearsome leader, and the lives of all the humans and apes around him. The other poster said they hadn't actually seen the movies, just expected them to be shallow cash-grabs on reboot nostalgia, but they might have to reconsider giving them a shot after my enthusiastic response.

So if I can sway the minds of anyone who has written off these films, more movie tickets sold might mean more films and other media told in this ape apocalypse world!

And even if you already know and love the films, I also want to give some love to tie-in materials. Books, comics, YouTube shorts, video games; POTA has a surprisingly large catalog of bonus material for a series not considered mainstream like Marvel or Lord Of The Rings or Star Trek. I don't see them get many mentions in the fandom so hope a little spotlight on them can help them shine. They have delicious tidbits of world-building and character backstory, filling in gaps between the movies. I already have my fingers crossed there will be some tie-in material covering some of the huge time jump between War and Kingdom. With three hundred years passing between them, there is so much to learn about the ever growing and changing ape societies. I'm eager for any scrap of info they'll share!

But really, even if nothing I write changes anyone's mind about this franchise, it's still fun to gush about one of my favorite fictional universes.

My brief history with POTA was that I didn't know much about the original films before going into the new Andy Serkis trilogy. I'd heard enough about the original film to know the main beats of the first movie (quotes like 'damn dirty ape', the reveal of the planet being Earth with the Statue of Liberty). I saw the Tim Burton film which didn't leave any kind of impression other than the incredibly realistic costumes/make-up, so much so that I was apprehensive of the CG apes. Since getting into the new films, I've started watching the originals and may cover those just for fun.

So whether you're a long-time die hard fan or a fresh face to Caesar's legacy, I hope you'll enjoy my thoughts on the Planet of the Apes franchise!

Links to all my posts as they are released:

- Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes Film

- Prelude and Contagion Comics

- Motherboard YouTube Shorts

- Firestorm Tie-In Novel

- Fall Of Man Comics

- Dawn Tie-In Comic

- Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes Film

- Revelations Tie-In Novel

- Last Frontier Video Game

- Crisis Video Game

- When Worlds Collide Comics

- War For The Planet Of The Apes Film

- War Tie-In Comic

- Caesar's Story Novel

[zepskies]

And So It Goes - Part 15

Pairing: Billy Butcher x OFC (Latina!OC)

Summary: As Madelyn Stillwell’s personal assistant, Helena Flores finds herself caught between protecting her job — and more importantly her life — or helping Billy Butcher bring down the supe who killed her best friend, Becca. 

AN: This story lives!!! Lol I'll try to be more consistent about finishing the last few chapters on this story for those who are still following it.

ASIG Series Masterlist

Word Count: 5,000 Warnings: 18+ for some spiciness, angst.

15: Schemes & Lies

Three months after Butcher and Helena each accepted job offers, they had developed a kind of rhythm. On days like today, when he was home and actually woke beside her in bed, their mornings could afford to be lazy.

She woke to his hand slipping under her shirt as he moved in closer behind her. His bare chest met her back, and she felt his warmth. She had to stifle a smile, though her eyes remained closed while another hand brushed her dark hair away from her neck and pressed a nipping kiss just under her ear. His beard prickled along her skin.

“You can stop pretending you’re asleep,” he rumbled.

A real smile crept across her face as his fingers danced tantalizingly between her breasts. She breathed in deep and hummed with a little stretch, as if she were just waking up.

She gave herself away by purposefully rubbing her ass against his growing length. It earned a grunt from him, followed by a chuckle.

“All right, you fucking asked for it,” said Butcher.

Helena giggled and turned her head to accept a kiss. But before the morning could well and truly kick off, his phone buzzed on the nightstand.

They paused. She was the first to sigh and let her hand fall away from where it had begun to sift through his short hair.

“That’s you, babe,” she said.

“I know,” came his surly reply. Her amused smile returned while she watched him twist away to reach for the phone. He answered it without getting out of bed.

Predictably, it was Hughie. Supe Affairs had another case for him, Kimiko, and Frenchie. Some telekinetic supe was robbing stores without even entering the building.

By the time he hung up, Helena was ready for what her boyfriend was about to say when he sat up in bed and turned to her.

“I’ve gotta go,” he said.

She nodded and laid a hand on his chest. “Be safe.”

He briefly covered her hand and nodded. He hesitated for a moment, but he leaned over and pressed a parting kiss to her hairline.

Then, they each got out of bed to start the day. Butcher eventually left after freshening up and getting dressed, with a to-go mug filled with a fresh batch of Cuban coffee. When his car peeled out of the driveway, heading for the city, Helena saw that the coast was clear.

She got dressed for “work,” and she drove in the opposite direction—a couple of hours upstate. She sent a text each to both Grace and Ryan. By the time Helena got to the safe house, Ryan was already hanging out in the front yard waiting for her.

He ran up to her with a solid hug that almost bowled her over, but she accepted it with a laugh.

“Hey, buddy,” she greeted, carding her fingers warmly through his hair. “What’s up?”

“Nothin’ but the rent,” Ryan joked. She’d taught him that one when they were jamming out to ‘90s music while cooking dinner together last week.

“Damn right,” Helena grinned. She walked him inside, where Grace had been watching her charge from the front windows.  

“I need to run some errands. Are you all right here with him?” Grace asked. Helena nodded.

“Yeah, for sure,” she replied, before looking over at Ryan. “What’re we doing today? Trivial Pursuit, Sudoku, a movie?”

Ryan thought about it. Then he gave a smile that was all Becca.

“All three?” he suggested, and also implored with those big blue eyes.

Helena chuckled. This time, she ruffled his hair. “Okay, Sudoku and a movie first. Let’s pick one out.”

An hour later, they were nearly done with Jurassic Park: The Lost World when Ryan turned to Helena on the couch. A big bowl of popcorn was nestled between them, and their Sudoku booklets were long ago filled out. She’d have to bring more challenging ones next time.

“Can I ask you something?” said Ryan.

Helena nodded and paused the movie. “Shoot.”

“If you’re…together, why don’t you just come with Billy when he visits?” he asked.

She sighed; she’d thought she went over this already. “It’s not because I don’t want him to know I’m hanging out with you. It’s because this is important to me. The work I do with Grace is also important to me, but he’d rather I do something else… Billy wants me to be safe, but sometimes, I have to take risks in order to make a difference. Just like he’s doing with Supe Affairs.”

This was her conviction, and she couldn’t feel guilty about what she was doing, only that she was lying to him.

“I don’t get it,” Ryan said, his brows furrowing. “Are you doing something wrong?”

“What’s wrong is that I’m keeping it from him. But I don’t regret spending time with you, or working with Grace,” Helena replied. “Ryan, it’s natural to want to protect the people you care about. Like your mom. She made a lot of sacrifices to protect you, and that wasn’t wrong either.”

Ryan seemed to digest that, while Helena’s mind continued to churn. It had taken her a while to understand Becca’s choices, but if Helena could already feel this much of a desire to watch over Ryan and protect him, then she could only imagine what Becca had felt. Every day Helena spent with her best friend’s son was both a blessing and a curse: it reminded her of Becca, in the best and worst of ways.

She could also see him thinking, with that sad frown of his. It broke Helena’s heart, if she was honest. So she scooted over on the couch and tugged him into her side. He went willingly, resting against her when she wrapped an arm around his shoulders and rubbed his back.

“But just so you know, I don’t come to see you because I have to,” she said. “I think we’ve got a good thing going here, don’t you?”

Ryan smiled, and he nodded before glancing up at her. “Can you tell me another story about her?”

“Hmm.” Helena searched through the archives of her brain. “Okay, we were in high school—”

A knock at the door interrupted her. Her entire body tensed.

“Ryan, go to your room. Don’t come out unless I tell you to, okay?” she said.

He opened his mouth to protest, but seeing her serious gaze, he nodded and got up to heed her instruction. Helena grabbed the gun Grace had told her was hidden under the coffee table, and cautiously she went to the front door and looked through the peephole.

She relaxed, expelling a breath. Fuck.

“It’s okay, Ryan!” she called back, and she opened the door to one Billy Butcher.

His dark brows rose a fraction, the surprise evident in his eyes. He nearly dropped the new Connect 4 game he held.

“What the bloody hell are you doing here?” he asked.

Helena sighed and pushed the door open. “Nice greeting. Come in.”

Butcher grasped her arm and leaned in. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Ryan coming, but he still made a point to say lowly in her ear.

“You’ve got some ‘splainin’ to do, Hel.” His tone was cheeky, but it held an undercurrent of serious that she recognized well.

“We’ll hash it out at home. Don’t make a scene in front of Ryan,” she replied. She caught sight of Grace’s car pulling back into the driveway. “I’ll head out first.”

After saying a quick goodbye to Ryan with a hug (all the while ignoring Butcher’s eyes on her), Helena took her leave and started the long drive back home.

Butcher watched her go through the window. And when Grace entered the house, his grouch look let her know that they’d be having words.

He spent the better part of the afternoon catching up with Ryan and playing their new game. But when the kid finally went upstairs for a shower before the dinner Grace was cooking, Butcher cornered her in the kitchen.

“You’ve got some mighty fucking nerve, don’tcha?” he said.

Grace shot him a roll of her eyes. “Come off it, Butcher.”

“You should’ve fucking told me,” he said hotly. “You didn’t just let her back into the game. You pushed her right into the bloody center.”

Grace stopped stirring the spaghetti sauce to level him with a glare.

“Your actions have consequences,” she said coolly. “You could’ve left Helena well enough alone, and let her put Homelander, and all of Vought out of her mind. You are the one who can’t let go.” 

Butcher later found Helena back at her house. She had showered and dressed into one of her old college shirts, faded and rung smaller in the wash, and some skimpy shorts. If she was trying to distract him, she’d have to work a bit harder than that. (Though the sight of her, bare legs and braless, did catch his eye.)  

He turned off the TV while she was watching the latest episode of The Great British Bake Off and looked down on her with a face of stone. She curbed her inclination to spark off first.

“Look, I’m sorry I lied to you—”

“That’s the least of it,” Butcher snapped. “I don’t need you stepping into my business—”

“Excuse me,” she said tersely, and she pushed off the couch to meet his tense stance. “Ryan isn’t just your business. Becca was like a sister to me. You and I both know that she wanted her son taken care of.”

“Grace and I have it covered,” Butcher argued.

“Ryan would be lucky to see you once a month,” she countered. “And Grace can’t watch him every second of the day. Besides, he needs more than that. He needs as many friends and socialization as we can give him—”

“And what happens if Homelander finds him someday,” he reminded. “What the fuck happened to laying low?”

Helena made a sound of frustration and threw up her hands.

“Well, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I just can’t do some stupid fucking data entry job,” she said. “I’ve been in this too long. And apparently, so have you.”  

Butcher didn’t have an answer for her.

So he left, and slammed the door behind him.

Helena didn’t know this, because Butcher screened his calls for the next two days. But he drove back into the city after seeing a text from Queen Maeve, of all people, on his latest burner phone.

He rented a by-the-hour motel for the express purpose of doing business. She had been giving him intel on rogue supes for months, acting as his undisclosed informant.

Tonight, she met him there with a few samples of Vought’s latest R&D project: V24. Supposedly, it gave someone superpowers for just 24 hours.

Why? Well, maybe it would give Butcher the edge he needed to end Homelander, once and for all.

But the pièce de resistance of that conversation was her latest tip: a weapon that could possibly kill Homelander, like it killed America’s first superhero.

Soldier Boy.

Helena was in a silently simmering rage when she got ahold of Frenchie over the phone. She paced the length of her living room. 

“I’m only going to ask this once, and I don’t want any bullshit, Frenchie,” she said. “Where is he?”

The other man gave a nervous chuckle. “Why’re you trying so hard to find Monsieur Charcutier?”

She paused; no one on the team, not even M.M. knew that she and Butcher were together. She made up an excuse on the fly.

“It’s about Ryan,” she said. “I’ve been helping Grace with a few projects, including his safety detail.”

“Truth be told, I haven’t seen him in a few days,” Frenchie admitted. “But, the last time he was here, he mentioned something about finding a supe named Gunpowder.”

Gunpowder? The name rung a bell, but not much of one.

“Why?” she asked. Frenchie heaved a sigh, but he eventually told her about Butcher’s latest plan (obsession)—finding the weapon that might’ve killed Soldier Boy forty years ago.

Helena hung up with Frenchie and made yet another call.

“Yes?” Grace answered.

“What do you know about Soldier Boy’s death?” Helena asked, in a tone that said she had no time and patience for any runaround.

There was a pause on the line.

Soon enough, however, Grace’s shrewd voice returned.

“I know he’s dead,” she said. “Whatever Butcher’s after this time, he’s chasing a ghost story.”

Helena wanted to believe that was true, but she had spent her entire career reading people. Reading a room, hearing the unspoken in what they said. And she had an inkling that her new boss was lying her ass off. 

Not even 24 hours after that conversation, Grace called Helena to ask for her help…and to drop a bomb.

“What the fuck? Victoria Neuman’s a supe?” she exclaimed, but soon covered her mouth, as if anyone could hear her in the privacy of her big empty house.

“It’s worse than that,” Grace sighed. She then explained that Hughie had seen her explode a man who knew her before she became Victoria Neuman. She’d been adopted from an orphanage as a child…by Stan Edgar, of all people.

Helena sat down hard on the living room couch and rubbed at her already aching head.

“And I fucking made her head of Supe Affairs,” Grace said. In her tone, Helena knew the woman was kicking herself.

“She knows where Ryan is?” Helena asked.

“Yes. I’ve already organized his relocation. Meet me at the following address, but don’t write it down.” 

Helena had a better photographic memory than she did an audible one, but she still remembered the numbers and street to the letter.

As always, Ryan was happy to see her. He came bounding to her when she got out of her car. Grace came out as well.

This house was old and situated on the verge of forest, virtually in the middle of nowhere, and cold and dreary with large gray clouds looming above.

“What’s the plan?” Helena asked Grace, after the three of them headed inside. Ryan showed Helena where the kitchen was so she could start making some tea; she needed something to calm her nerves.

“This is safe, for now, but we’ll need to keep moving,” said Grace. “It’s up to you whether you want to come with us.”

The unspoken second choice was staying at home, where Helena was most likely safer. At this point, if she were to keep visiting Grace and Ryan, she could potentially put his safety in jeopardy.

They had to assume Victoria had told Stan Edgar what she knew about Ryan’s first safe house. The fact that Homelander hadn’t come barging in for a year told them that either Victoria or Stan had kept the information to themselves (a small blessing). But Ryan had been even more exposed than they thought.

Helena watched Ryan carefully pour the hot water from the kettle into each of the mugs. She spoke lowly with Grace, even though they both knew that the child’s superior hearing would likely pick up on whatever they said.

“I don’t want to leave him,” Helena whispered.

“You have to think of what’s best for him,” Grace replied.

“I am,” Helena returned. “He needs us. All of us. Even Billy.”

Especially Billy, she thought.

Helena and Grace continued to go over the pros and cons of her continuing to make her visits to Ryan, but Helena was surprised when Grace answered a text with a frustrated sigh.

“Butcher’s coming,” she said.

“What? Now?” Helena said. Both hope and anger trilled through her. She hadn’t heard from him in a week, and now he was swooping in?

Well, she doubted he knew she would be here, to be fair.

An hour or so later, she was proven right. Butcher drove up with Kimiko, Hughie (who strangely had his right arm in a cast), and even M.M. They were just as surprised to see Helena, though they watched the scene unfolding between her and Butcher as they stared at one another with tension.

It didn’t break, even when Ryan came to all but tackle Butcher with a hug.

“Ooh,” Butcher grunted, hiding a frisson of pain as he hugged the kid back. “Easy does it, lad. Bloody death grip you got there.”

Ryan backed off slightly with concern. He’d noticed the same thing Helena did, apparently.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Butcher said with an easy smile. He patted the kid’s shoulder and began to lead him inside. Though his eyes met Helena’s as he passed her. They both knew they didn’t want to make a scene in front of Ryan.

But pulled him aside into the hall before he could have whatever tete-a-tete he wanted to have with Grace. Helena smacked him on the chest, making him flinch.

“Ey!” he protested, but she leveled a finger at him.

“You’ve got some fucking nerve,” Helena hissed. “You go radio silence on me for a week. I have to find out from Frenchie about your latest batshit crazy fucking scheme to end Homelander.”

Butcher’s teeth clenched in frustration, but he grasped her arm gently.

“Look, we can hash this out all you want later. But we’ve both got some fucking work to do here,” he said.

Helena shrugged his hand off her arm. “That’s no apology. Until you’re ready for that, I guess we have nothing to discuss.”

She turned on her heel and went into the room where Grace and the others were waiting, save for Kimiko, who was keeping an eye on Ryan in the backyard.

Butcher sighed and followed Helena into the large study. Helena stood by Grace with her arms crossed. Hughie stood opposite with M.M., who looked between Butcher and Helena shrewdly.

“Aw, hell nah,” he said.

Hughie’s brows drew together in confusion. “What?”

M.M. sighed and cast a finger between the simmering Helena and the tense shoulders of Butcher.

“I can’t believe it,” he said. “How long’ve you two been fucking?”

Helena’s eyes widened, while Butcher’s went heavenward.

“Here we fuckin’ go,” he muttered.

“It’s not,” Helena tried to speak, with stops and false starts that had her blushing. “It’s not exactly like that.”

M.M. tilted his head and crossed his arms. “Yeah? What’s it like?”

“For Christ’s sake,” Butcher said.

“Whoa, what?” Hughie interjected.

“Can we please just,” Grace tried, but Helena finally raised her voice to cut over everyone.

“It’s a thing, okay! We’re together,” she said, though she sent Butcher a glare. “Though at the moment, that remains to be seen.”

A pregnant pause filled the room.

Hughie managed to utter, “Uh...how long’s this been going on?”

Helena sighed. “About a year.”

M.M. blinked in surprise, though it didn’t shock him to see that Grace clearly knew. He shook his head.

“Interesting.”

“Right, can we get back to the matter at hand?” Grace said. “Victoria Neuman. I’d very much like to hear the plan to eliminate her.”

“Well, that depends,” Butcher said. His hands slid into his pockets as he turned to her. “On what you can tell us about your holiday, down in Nicaragua.”

What? Helena thought. She turned to Grace with a frown.

“I’ve never been to Nicaragua,” said the agent.

“Oh really? ‘Cause a little birdy told me you were Payback’s case officer down there, on a classified job that Soldier Boy never came back from.”

The other woman tried to deny she knew anything about what Butcher was talking about…but after he threatened to expose all of her contacts and agents in the CIA, both active and inactive. Helena looked at Butcher incredulously, wondering where his soul had gone to.

He avoided her gaze and remained steady on Grace. This was how he got results.

“It was part of Operation Charly,” Grace eventually admitted, though through her disgust at Butcher.

To Helena’s further surprise, Grace admitted to participating in a secret CIA operation in 1984 for the Cold War efforts against the Russians. In which the CIA trafficked cocaine into the U.S. to fund the government’s efforts.

And Vought American, led by a young Stan Edgar, leveraged enough political power to try partnering their team of supes with American soldiers. Their team was Payback, led by Soldier Boy, Vought’s first superhero.

Helena had been a records keeper, among other things. She knew Soldier Boy’s story all too well. His backstory had been carefully crafted: a “rags to riches” story that framed a poor young kid from hard knocks into taking the world’s first super serum in 1944. He’d led his own unit in World War II, fighting against the Nazis and for the American dream.

His entire career had been tickertape parades, shitty movies, and even a few cheesy music videos that had been chart toppers in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Helena had seen them all. And she’d come to learn, just as well, that they’d been completely fabricated.

Now, she had to listen to Grace tell her story. About how the cast of Payback had fucked up the entire mission.

But Butcher paused her story halfway through, looking pale and almost green as he made his way down the hall to the bathroom. Helena frowned. She held a waiting hand up at Grace and went to follow him.

She heard the flush of a toilet, more than once, after the sounds of his upheaval. She was leaning against the wall, arms crossed when Butcher finally emerged. He stopped short, meeting her gaze. In his, she saw that his eyes were red and glossy. His skin was ashen and dewy with sweat. She could faintly smell chemicals on him. Her head tilted.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“‘M fine, Hel.”

“Nope. Try again.” She stepped into his orbit and looked up at his face. This didn’t look like a bad burrito or a stomach bug. This looked worse. Like withdrawal. “Oh my God. Are you on something?”

Butcher looked away from her. She grasped his trench coat and made him look at her.

“What the hell is going on with you? Jesus, Billy. Talk to me,” she pleaded. “When were you going to tell me about this Soldier Boy thing?”

Again, he didn’t want to seem to answer her. Her lips pursed.

“Look, I know you’ve got M.M. and the rest of the guys. But weren’t you and I in this together?” she asked.

Butcher made the mistake of looking into her eyes. There, he couldn’t lie.

“It’s temp. V. Or uh…V24,” he said.

Helena’s eyes went wide as her mouth fell open. “Oh my fucking…Billy.”

V24 was the last R&D project she heard about before she quit her job at Vought. She knew all too well what it was.

“Finally gives me the chance to level the fucking playing field,” he said. She grasped at his shirt.

“How the fuck did you get that? When I left, it was still in preliminary testing,” she said.

“Well, the mockups are a bit hairy, but it gets the fucking job done,” he said.

She let out an incredulous scoff, resting a hand on his pale cheek. “Clearly it isn’t without side effects.”

Butcher’s face was grim. “Small price to pay.”

Helena paused. Her expression dimmed from concern to shock, and then sadness. Her hand slowly fell from his cheek.

“You’re not going to stop,” she said shakily. “This vendetta you have against Homelander. You’re not gonna stop until you’re dead. Which means you’re giving up on us. On everything we have…or would’ve had.”

“Hel,” Butcher sighed. He tried to hold her, but she slipped away from his would-be embrace.

She shook her head, and tears welled up in her eyes. 

“You don’t really love me,” Helena realized, her lower lip trembling. “Either that, or you hate Homelander more.”

She didn’t give him a chance to touch her again. She walked away from him, down the hall and back into the room where Grace and the others were waiting. She scrubbed at her tears along the way.

Grace’s story culminated in Swatto giving away the CIA’s position. The cartel they were trying to avoid brought Russian special forces in as their allies.

A mass shootout ensued, in which all of Grace’s unit were massacred, and Soldier Boy had somehow been killed, his body taken far beyond the Iron Wall, along with whatever mystery weapon that could possibly kill an invulnerable supe.

Helena couldn’t help but see Grace in a new, more sour light. Yes, she’d been the sole survivor of a mass grave. But she had led an operation that had ruined the lives of thousands.

When Grace asked to speak to Butcher alone for a moment, Helena easily agreed. She needed a break from both of them. She left the room in disgust and joined M.M. on the porch outside. They watched Hughie join Kimiko in playing Connect 4 with Ryan.

“I’m sorry,” M.M. said. It earned her curious gaze. “I can’t even judge you for hooking up with Butcher, because I’m here now too.” 

She smiled faintly. Though a few minutes later, she frowned with a jolt as the front door slammed open. Out came Butcher, roiling mad. Grace was on his heels.

“What happened?” Hughie asked. He and Kimiko walked over with Ryan.

“We’re off,” Butcher snapped. He headed for his car without even looking their way. Ryan ran over to meet him.

“Butcher, wait up! Where-where’re you going?” he asked.

“The city,” Butcher spoke shortly. Helena got up to follow them. Worry churned in her gut, for both of them.

“When will I see you again?” asked Ryan.

“You won’t. Ain’t safe for you.” Butcher’s words were clipped, and none too gentle.

“Billy,” Helena tried to stop him. It took Ryan pushing at the man, showing a fraction of his super strength. It was clearly instinctual, born of desperation. But Helena saw the hint of wariness behind Butcher’s eyes.

“What are you talking about?” Ryan asked. Pleaded really, for an explanation, for some compassion. Butcher had seemed to be rung dry.

“I got to go,” he said.

That was when Ryan grabbed the man’s arm, with intentional strength. He huffed and puffed like he was on the verge of losing control.

“Ryan,” Helena warned, with worry in her eyes. She stepped up behind Butcher, who held out a protective hand against her coming closer.

“Ryan, let go,” Butcher said, with authority.

“No! You said you’d always watch out for me,” Ryan cried. “You promised!”

Butcher repeated himself, more firm, but still, the kid didn’t relent.

“I won’t let you!”

“Well, maybe I don’t want to look at ya, after what you done to my Becca. Did you ever think of that?” Butcher snapped.

Helena gaped. Her shock was almost as visceral as Ryan’s dismay. He let go of Butcher with tears already welling up in his eyes.

His eyes that flashed red.

Helena gasped this time. It led Butcher to subtly shift his stance, so he was standing directly in front of her. He already regretted his words, but his anger and his pride wouldn’t allow him to do anything more than watch for what Ryan would do.

With a blink, the red haze was gone, but he reached for the chain of the Christopher’s medal around his neck and yanked it off. He threw it at Butcher’s feet.

“I hate you,” he said, in a trembling voice. He ran back into the house.

 Butcher turned around to find that Helena also had tears unshed in her eyes. She trembled with both shock and a thread of wary fear. Before he could ask if she was all right, she looked up at him like she didn’t know him.

“How could you do that?” she asked. “He’s just a kid, Billy!”

He glanced down at the ground. His face told her that he knew she was right, but out of his mouth came more resigned assholery.

“Yeah, well, what else is fucking new,” he said. Helena scoffed angrily.  

“You’re more than this,” she said. “I don’t care what the hell Grace told you. You don’t have to be this man.”

He tilted his head at her.

“And what would you have me be? Prince bloody fucking Charming?” Butcher shot back. “You can babysit that kid all you want, but you ain’t his fuckin’ mum! You ain’t Becca.”

A shaking breath fell from Helena’s lips. She flinched as if he’d slapped her.

Butcher saw it all play out across her face: shock, dismay, and deep hurt. Her tears welled up once more and slid down her cheeks. Behind her, he saw M.M., Grace, Hughie, and Kimiko. All of them saw a monster in human clothing.

Rather than torture himself further by staring at her face, he looked away. And like a coward, he began to turn from her to head for his car.

“If you walk away from me, I’m done,” Helena said. She watched him halt in his steps. “I’ll be fucking done with you for real.”

His steps halted for a moment.

She saw that it wasn’t enough to hold him, however. Her tears continued to fall as she watched him walk away from her, and she glared at his back all the while.

She accepted murmured apologies from M.M. and Hughie, and a sad look from Kimiko as they left to continue their mission: their hunt for Soldier Boy.

Helena felt rooted to where she stood, until Grace laid a hand on her shoulder.

Both women eventually turned back to the house. Helena wiped at her tears and went upstairs to find Ryan’s door. She leaned against it and let out a breath.

“You want to talk?” she offered.

“Leave me alone!” came the angry reply. But she knew he was crying, that his heart was shattered.  

She knew the feeling.

AN: 😬 Sorry for ending on angst, but we're headed into the meat of S3 now...

Next Time:

Butcher makes a deal, and Helena finally meets Soldier Boy! 😜

Soldier Boy distracted Helena from her thoughts, however, when he reached out to thumb at her chin, raising her face up to his. 

“What’s your name, by the way?” he asked. His head quirked slightly. 

“Helena.” She guided his hand away with her own, but in one smooth motion, he’d taken her hand and pressed a kiss to the back of it. 

“The face that launched a thousand ships,” he teased. “I like it.”

“That was Helen,” she replied, subtly tugging her hand out of his. “You know, of Troy.”

But the bitch of the bunch was, she was actually blushing.

Keep Reading: PART 16

The Boys Masterlist

Main Masterlist

Tag List:

@lauraaan182 @homielander @calizmor @haibara-ai-tsii @brujaporfavor @sleepyqueerenergy @adoringanakin @skyesthebomb @lunaticgurly @deans-spinster-witch @kazsrm67 @letheatheodore @agothwithheavysetmakeup @jacklesbrainworms @foxyjwls007

@wincastifer @ades106 @iamsapphine @simpforbuckyb @vanillawhiskeyflavoredkisses @roseblue373 @brianochka @branj19 @hazel-eye-coffee-shop-girl-blog @globetrotter28 @charmed-asylum @waywardxwords @deanwinchestersgirl87 @this-is-me19 @rachiem4-blog @sweettimelady @leigh70 @clinicallydepresso

@xiphoidbones @skoveu @nyotamalfoy @kmc1989 @emily-winchester @emily-winchester @xxlaynaxx

[sea-creature-things]

Grimwalker things

Chapter 3: Eyes

This chapter deals with grimwalker's magenta-red eyes and it is angsty. Writing angst was very fun, I'm hoping it turned out well.

This one took a surprisingly long time to make... I struggled a little with letting everyone shine and not getting trapped in the Noceda-siblings-pitfall. This one also has a lot of flashbacks so i hope the timeline is still clear.

Next chapter will be wholesome again!

Read here below the cut or on AO3 with this link:

Gus was lying on his couch-bed in the basement, with Hunter next to him on his mattress. It was long past bedtime, but neither of them were even close to sleeping. For Hunter this was just another Tuesday, but Gus should’ve been off to dreamland by now.

He just had too many things floating around in his brain.

It had been a little over a month now. Gus thought they had acclimated quite well to the Human realm. He was proud of his new understanding and expertise.

Luz had taken them to so many exciting places! The movies, the supermarket, human picnics, an ice cream shop. That last one was a little weird for them. Ice was supposed to scream, but here it was just lying there.

Gus knew their food was different, he just never imagined how different. The flavours were so rich and there was a LOT of sugar. In everything actually, not just the ice cream. Even though the witches couldn’t digest certain things, Gus loved human food.

He especially fawned over the fastfood restaurants. It was absolute insanity to him. Restaurants in the Boiling Ilse were supposed to be fancy, they were an experience.

Gus and his dad would always go for special occasions. Those places attracted illusionists, who made the room just a little more special. Making glasses sparkle, making flowers float around or giving the room a golden glow.

He missed that so much, but he was sure they would do it again soon. They'd celebrate saving The Ilses by going to the fanciest restaurant they could find!

Not this otherworldly 'McDonald' thing. Although, he would love to show his dad some day. It was honestly amazing how the place handled food. And it was very fast indeed!

The group also returned to the mall a couple times. Gus had taken it upon himself to show his buddy around. Hunter had missed their first opportunity, and while Gus totally understood, he was still bummed.

So, he’d looked around with a guide-perspective in mind. After he got over his initial excitement of course. The mall was so unbelievable big, it felt like the shops were endless. It was a little overwhelming. The Demon realm markets had nothing on the mall. Luz was so amazing for doing all of that for him, for all of them.

Camila was just as adamant as her daughter about keeping them all happy. She took such good care of them.

Gus had never missed a mother in his life. It was always him and his dad against the world and he loved that. But Camila had become a second or third parent to all of them so quickly. It was… it was impressive honestly.

The more he missed his dad, the more he sought comfort by Camila. And she gave it to him so readily. She fed his love for human things, encouraged him about the portal and kept his hopes up.

She was a lot like Hunter in that way. They let him be scared and sad, before comforting him.

Just a few hours ago Camila offered to have a movie night! They had done that before and everyone was excited. This time though, she suggested they watch Jurassic Park, because Gus and Hunter had loved that fossil book so much.

The boys were absolutely enthralled. They loved the technology, the characters and of course all the dinosaurs. Amity and Willow didn’t care for it, but were amused all the same.

Vee proudly explained all the special effects, but still got a little quiet when the T-rex tried to break the car. Willow helped by bumping their shoulders and asking how she thought that part worked.

Gus loved hearing about the human’s version of illusion magic.

Luz had seen the movies many times before. She called it a classic, but kept interrupting with spoilers. It got to the point where Gus and Hunter would shush her whenever she opened her mouth.

When there was a tense scene with the kids and two velociraptors, Luz wanted to assure them the characters would be fine. She only got the first few syllables of her sentence out.

“Don’t worry-“

Hunter, who had been sitting next to the spoiler grinch the entire time, wrapped his arm around her shoulder and clasped his hand over her mouth. He pushed her against him to prevent her from escaping.

“Luz shut up!”

He had been too immersed in the movie to really think about his actions. If his mind wasn’t so full of dinos, he would’ve been worried about Camila sitting right there. Or Luz herself being uncomfortable. But he never had to worry either way.

Luz burst out in a muffled, uncontrollable laugh.

“I swear to Titan…” Hunter growled with as much amusement as actual annoyance. He shook her back and forth. She laughed even harder and slapped her knee.

Hunter finally let her go and she melted into the couch in a fit of giggles. Some poorly constructed sentence about their obsession with the movie somehow escaped her lips.

He hadn’t noticed it before, but everyone around him was cracking up too. Gus grabbed him from the couch so they wouldn’t miss the end of the chase scene.

Luz clearly wasn’t wrong. They had been fanboying through the entire movie and it didn’t stop after the credits rolled.

They’d kept their excitement up all the way through their bed-time routine. And had still not calmed down when they got downstairs. They recreated scenes from the movie with dramatic vigour, which wasn’t hard for an illusion witch.

Gus even made some really convincing velociraptors with his magic. Who chased the duo around while they pretended to be Ian Malcolm and Alan Grant.

They were making quite the ruckus and eventually got told off. Amity yelled from the top of the stairs to be quiet, causing Luz and Willow to shuffle her off to bed. And after laughing about that too, the boys finally settled down.

She was right of course. It was late and the girls were trying to sleep. Gus tried to do the same, not wanting to mess up his sleep schedule. But he ended up just lying there, thinking.

Hunter said it would be “one of those nights” and grabbed a book instead. Even with the fairy lights, the room was rather dark. Perfect for sleeping, just not for reading. Gus wasn’t going to question it though. That was a conversation for another day.

Or was now the perfect time?

It was late at night. They were cozy and warm. Hunter had finally gotten comfortable enough to relax with him. Gus had even seen him go to sleep earlier than him a couple times.

But not tonight. It was “one of those nights” after all. So yeah, it was a bad idea.

They had ‘deep talks’ before, but this was a difficult one to have, even on a good day. He wouldn’t want Hunter to lose his comfort, to disturb his brand new peace.

But he still couldn’t sleep! He had to talk about something.

“The human realm is pretty cool huh?”

“Absolutely.” Hunter smiled. He put the book aside to give his buddy his full undivided attention. Gus loved when he did that.

“I mean, that movie!” Gus magicked a T-rex with hearts and sparkles above his head. “So cool!”

“I know right!” Hunter was ready to go an another fanboy rant. “The part where the T-rex defeats a velociraptor?! and then the roar— and then the banner falls down!”

“Peak cinema!” Gus quoted Luz and they both laughed.

Their human friend hadn’t been talking about tonight’s movie. But she used the phrase a lot, so now Gus did as well.

"Yeah, I kinda like this place.” Hunter smiled down at his hands. But then seemed a little frazzled and quickly continued talking. “N-Not that I don’t like our own realm, or-"

"No I get it.” He interrupted him and Hunter relaxed again. Gus moved to lay on his side, looking down at his bro.

“I was worried that I wouldn't be able to enjoy the human world, with the way we got here,” Gus said. He couldn’t help the pain that seeped into his voice with that last part. Hunter’s expression softened even further, Gus didn’t think that was even possible. “but I have. I really, really have."

"Me too." Hunter bumped his fist into the witch’s shoulder, making him sway back and forth with a giggle. “And we’ll find a way back eventually.”

“Of course!” Gus wasn’t worried about that. Those feelings came and went like waves, but right now his hopes were high. “We’re gonna get that portal working.”

He felt their conversation coming to an end. He was definitely not done talking.

“You know what else is peak cinema?”

“What?”

“The actual cinema!” Gus bounced up, sitting on his knees and pumping his fists excitedly. “You remember when we went there? That movie was so funny! And that big box of popcorn was really delicious, you’re just hit with that smell when you walk in!”

“Shhhh,” his friend tried to calm him. “Amity might yell at you again.”

“She yelled at us, Hunter.” Gus made a pointed hand movement between the two of them. “She yelled at us.”

“Alright, alright.” Hunter snorted. “But you should still settle down.”

“Fffffine…” Gus laid back down on his side, hoping Hunter had not caught onto him yet. “Oh! Do you remember that picnic we had?”

“Um yes?” Hunter looked at him a little confused.

“We went to that field with the hill and we were able to use our magic because there weren’t any humans around.”

“Yeah, I remember,” Hunter deadpanned. “That was last week.”

“And then there’s the time we-“

“Gus.”

“The time we went rafting. And we-“

“Gus.”

“… Yeah?”

“Go to sleep!” Hunter snorted as he pushed his full palm into the witch’s face. Gus made an offended noise when he was pushed onto his back.

“You’re one to talk.” He crossed his arms with a huff.

“That’s…” Hunter pointed a finger in the air, but lost his gusto pretty fast. “That’s fair. How about we both try to sleep? See who gets there first.”

“You’re on!” Gus was determined to beat him. But fair was fair, he had to actually try to sleep.

Hunter couldn’t help the smirk that formed on his face. Did he really think he could win from an insomniac?

Well, he should at least try.

Soon enough, he was the one just lying there, thinking. He could hear steady breathing next to him. The younger boy had lost as predicted.

Gus had a point though, Luz had led them through all sorts of crazy activities. Hunter’s memories of the ‘rafting’ thing were both fond and extremely unpleasant.

He felt powerful while steering the boat. It was like steering an airship, one of the very few things he missed from home.

Gus, Amity and Vee were very frightened. It was stupid, but he liked being the protective one for once. He was usually the one that needed comforting, so it was a nice change of pace.

Willow was looking fierce as always, but Hunter could tell she was secretly afraid too. Or at the very least worried. Him and Luz were the only ones actually enjoying the River Rapids.

It helped that he knew it was safe. As rough as the river looked, the real speed wasn’t anything special. They had all experienced much worse back home. On top of that, Luz had assured them that Human water wasn’t boiling.

It was fully confirmed after Amity fell in the river…

They all freaked out, her girlfriend most of all. She almost dove in after her. Luckily, Amity knew how to swim. Hunter and Willow steered the boat towards a sand bar, so they could reunite with their fallen comrade.

“Omigosh Amity!” Luz ran towards her, hugging the drenched witch. “Are you okay?!”

“Yes, don’t worry Batata.” Amity smiled. “I’m fine! The water here is harmless right?”

“Yes of course!” Luz answered like it was the most obvious thing ever. She never learned what it took to make a lake or river back home safe to swim in. “I know my super awesome girlfriend is not going down by the likes of the River Rapids.”

The couple twirled each other around, laughing like the idiots-in-love that they were. Gus, Vee and Willow cooed at their overly-sweet display and voiced their own happiness over the fact that Amity was fine.

“The Blight survives another day.” Hunter congratulated her, after hoisting the boat out of the water enough for it to stay put.

“Ha-ha,” Amity punched him lightly in the stomach, “I can see you trying to come up with some dumb joke already.”

“I’m just saying…” Hunter smirked. “You can never call me a wet cat ever again!”

He gestured to her state of being. Not a single person could deny she looked like a soaking cat. If Ghost fell in the river instead, the differences would be impossible to find.

Judging by the snickers and giggles that erupted, he was right. Gus made a set of neon blue cat-ears appear on Amity’s head. Which made Willow and Vee burst out in a roaring cackle.

“Awwww~” Luz covered her mouth, trying to hide that her adoration was turning into a laugh.

Amity turned beet red. That face was a common occurrence, but it was still amazing. Ever. Single. Time. The abomination witch swatted the illusion away and turned to Hunter with a fury he hadn’t seen in a while.

She had chased him around with a purple ball of fire, while he ran with rowdy laughter.

Now that Hunter thought back, those memories were mostly fond. He felt so happy and free. He was surrounded by an incredible amount of warmth.

He almost felt like a normal kid.

But the feeling never lasted. Normal was just not in the cards for him. Everything reminded him of that.

The few books on Grimwalkers he was able to find were burned into his memory. The pages haunted him, but realisations of what they meant still snuck up. And when it inevitably did, anxiety and panic would seep into his skin.

It had been the usual reason for his insomnia the first few weeks in this house. Amongst other things. But he went from sleeping due to complete exhaustion, to sleeping because he wanted to. Well, sometimes.

Nowadays, it was mostly the nightmares that send him back into the hopeless feelings he’s grown so accustomed to.

It always started the same.

Golden masks on a dark forest floor, bleeding into the grass. Bones scattered everywhere. Fog blocking his view.

Then cracks would form, first in the masks, then in the ground itself. Hands would rise from them, decaying hands, clawing at his feet, gripping his legs.

Then he fell.

A large fissure widened right underneath him. The hands dragged him further down. Dirt and blood spilled into his mouth, filled his eyes, clogged his ears. The earth gave way and he fell. He fell right back into his hands.

Hunter woke up in a cold sweat.

He shot upright, his eyes wouldn’t open, his mouth felt dry from the mud, he still couldn’t hear anything! He desperately clawed around him, trying to find an escape. His breathing hitched, was there still earth in his throat?

He tried to cough it out, but there was no resistance. His lungs heaved and his head spun. He kept grabbing and scratching and clawing. But all he felt were soft blankets and a cold wooden floor.

His right hand slammed against something hard. His wrist send a shot of pain through his arm.

Wait.

His eyes were open. He could see fairy lights and a couch. Soft blankets and a wooden floor…

Right.

He was in the basement. No forest, no masks, no blood. No Belos. There was nothing in his throat, or his eyes, or his ears.

He was safe.

That was the couch he just hit. His head spun quickly to the witch sleeping on it. Gus was facing him. He had his duvet all the way past his head, only his face was peaking out. His eyes were closed and his breathing was slow and steady.

He was still sleeping.

Hunter thanked the Titan. Disturbing Gus right now would absolutely break him. His own breath finally found some regularity. He tried his best to focus on the four fingers technique.

With every breath, Hunter felt his stress ebb away. His head still hurt though. He decided splashing some water on his face might help.

He soundlessly ascended the stairs, he was an expert at that by now.

He wondered what time it was as he walked to the bathroom, avoiding all the creaky floorboards. He went straight for the sink and didn’t bother to turn on the light.

The cold water felt like nirvana on his skin. It slowly cooled down his skin and his headache faded away. He washed his face and hands, and his neck for good measure. He breathed steadily between every splash of icy heaven.

Eventually he felt grounded again and took his towel from the rack. They had to extend the rack to hold six towels instead of two. Hunter often felt bad that Camila had to buy so much extra inventory.

Nevertheless, he was very happy with the soft fabrics on his face. He would be forever grateful for Camila Noceda. She was so compassionate.

He dried his face and hung it back on the rack. As he moved back towards the sink, his gaze caught on his own reflection in the mirror.

His magenta eyes stared back at him.

He stopped dead in his tracks. The blend of magenta and red was glinting in the mirror. Even in the dark the colours were clear to see.

Red eyes.

It was the very mark of a Grimwalker. Their most recognisable part. He was once again reminded what exactly he was.

It had only recently turned into such an issue for him. Magenta irises just weren’t weird in the demon realm.

Sure, the masked helped, but most people didn’t know anything about Grimwalkers. Besides, other people had weird colours too. Like very bright green or yellow.

Here in the Human realm though, it was the strangest thing.

Hunter got asked ‘how he had red eyes’ by humans on the street quite often. Just earlier today he had one of those encounters.

———

The Hexsquad, as they liked to call themselves, was hard at work in their clubhouse. The bright summer sun was shining through the windows of their newly renovated place.

They had fixed the giant holes in the walls and the floor, they had hung colourful wallpaper, Camila had given them an extra rug and Luz had found an old bean bag in the attic. They had even found a tiny ‘cooler’ at a yard sale.

They tried to decorate the place as much as possible with plants and string lights. The witches had made drawings of their families and Luz had put up a poster of the portal door, as much as she remembered.

Hunter was still fixing the old chair that had been there forever. He was almost done with the stitching, but that would have to wait a little longer.

They were trying to build a portal and it was proving very difficult.

They were scattered on the floor with notepads and books. Vee had tried to organise the pens, erasers and pencils in the middle. Put the pile dispersed every few minutes.

They were all trying to brainstorm human-versions of the ingredients they needed, yelling suggestions across the room every now and then.

Hunter was also trying to remember the portal he had seen in the castle. It was different from the one Luz had made, bringing them straight to the Human realm instead of the in-between she had described.

He was sporting a similar look to Gus and Amity. Hands in hair, staring at the pages. Hunter sighed frustrated, his own pages were still so empty.

That’s of no use to her.

Willow let out a despairing groan and snapped her notebook closed. She sat up straight to stretch.

“Let’s take a break.” She said, more like a demand than a offer.

“Yes please…” Gus flopped on his stomach with similar noises of pain.

Amity and Vee joined in with their own agreement. Hunter tried to ignore them and focus on his 1/4-filled page. From the absence of a certain human’s voice, he guessed Luz was doing the same.

But you can’t just ignore a conversation that’s happening right next to you. Amity suggested to go into town and Vee seemed excited about a particular place.

So, to the objection of Luz and Hunter, the witches and demon stood up and evacuated.

“Wait guys, I have to-“ Luz tried, but her girlfriend interrupted.

“Nope.” Amity said sternly. She grabbed her arm and tugged until she stood up.“You have to take a break.”

Gus was already out the door.

“But if we just-“ Hunter started.

“No.” Willow took the notebook he was scribbling in away.

“Leaving now would only-“

“No.” Vee came to join the plant witch for a duo to behold. Hunter looked up at the girls with slight fear, hidden by stubbornness.

“But-“

“NO!” Both of them yelled and Flapjack chirped incessantly. Alright, the message was clear.

“Sorry guys, but you’ll have to sit this one out.” Amity said to the palismen.

They were cuddled up in a dog bed that Camila had given them. The magical creatures all said things along the lines of ‘fine by me’ or ‘have fun’. It was safe to say they weren’t heartbroken about being left alone.

Hunter stood up under the pointed gaze of the girls. But he made no motions towards the door, looking at his pen apprehensively.

Vee grabbed the back of his shirt and basically dragged him out of the door. Hunter let out a yelp while stumbling backwards, looking at Willow who just followed with a smirk on her face.

“Okay Vee, where did you wanna go?” Luz asked after stretching in the sun. Seemed like Amity already convinced her.

“There’s this boba place that I’ve really wanted to try.” Vee shifted to her human disguise. “I don’t know where it is exactly, but I know what it’s called.”

Apparently that was good enough for Luz’s phone, because shortly after pressing a few buttons she was leading them through town. Vee and Amity on either side of her.

Even though they no longer looked like twins, the basilisk and the human still resembled sisters. Acted like it too.

The boba shop was small, but it had a few tables and sofas. The place was decorated with a pastel colour pallete, the counter had photo’s of their products on display and the wall behind it had their menu on chalkboards.

They found a table in the corner with 6 seats and started deciding on their order. Luz and Hunter were tasked with memorising everything.

“Oh no…” Luz gasped after patting every pocket that her pants had. “I forgot my wallet!”

The table was filled with a moment of shock. Before they could despair over walking all that way for nothing, Vee fished a couple of banknotes from her pocket.

Luz’s sigh of relief as her sibling deposited two 20-dollar bills in her hands, was quickly replaced by confusion.

“Wait. How?”

“Camila gave it to me for this exact situation.” She said with a cat-like grin. Luz pouted at her.

Vee playfully hit the back of her head, messing up her hair. Luz retaliated by ruffling hers. Before they could turn it into a fight, Gus told her to order already.

“Right, we’ll be back in a minute.” Luz chirped and tugged Hunter along.

The cashier who greeted them looked to be around their age. He had a mint green apron on over a white T-shirt. Blue hair peaked out of a hat with he shop’s logo on it.

“Welcome to Boba Pop, may I take your order?” The guy practically did a double take to look at Hunter. “Wow, dude. I love your contacts! Where did you get ‘em?”

“My what?” He asked confused. He was not prepared for this question, he didn’t even know what it meant.

“Your eyes,” The cashier pointed at his face. “That red colour is awesome.”

Hunter was a little overwhelmed. This guy had never experienced social anxiety and it showed. At least now he knew what they were talking about.

“Oh this is my-“

“Favourite colour!” Luz jumped in. “It’s his favourite colour.”

She smiled weirdly at the guy and Hunter looked at her confused too. Then the realisation that he couldn’t say ’natural colour’ to a human hit him like a lightning spell.

“Oh! Yeah, I really like… con-tats.” He laughed awkwardly. The energetic cashier seemed oblivious to their weird behaviour.

“Cool! Where did you get them?”

The duo looked at each other with the same stumped expression.

“They were a gift!” Luz managed to improvise. She looked smug at her own answer. “For his birthday.”

Hunter looked away with a wobbly smile when he thought ‘yeah my very first birthday’. He quickly repressed it.

“Um yes,” He said, “and we don’t know where they got them. The friend I mean, who got them for my birthday.”

Hunter trailed off and looked to Luz for guidance. She was just smiling at the employee so he did the same.

“Aww, thats too bad.” The blue-haired boy looked genuinely dejected. Then he straightened his back and looked at them a little shocked. “Oh! I’m so sorry. May I take your order?”

“Oh no, don’t worry.” Hunter tried to assure him, waving his hands frantically. Luz offered both guys some mercy by starting with her own order.

Luz tried her best to ordered everything, but couldn’t remember some of the details. She blanked completely on Willow’s order and looked at the grimwalker next to her for help.

“Jasmine green milk tea with half ice.” Hunter said with absolute certainty. Luz smirked at him. “What?”

“Nothing~”

“Is that all?” The cashier asked, putting it into the machine. Hunter still wondered how those things worked exactly.

Luz confirmed and payed for their order. They only had to wait a little bit for the employees to make everything. When it was done, they said goodbye to the blue-haired guy and walked back to the others.

Vee was probably the happiest to get her drink, but the others were excited too. They opted to take the drinks to go instead of sitting at the table. It seemed like a waste of a six-person table to Hunter, but the rest wanted to walk around in the sun.

And so they walked around town with their cold drinks, enjoying the nice summer weather.

They walked past clothing shops, cafes, restaurants. Making plans to remember certain places for future visits. Eventually their drinks ran out and they crossed the road for a trashcan.

From there they saw a ‘cute little park’ as Amity called it, obviously they had to go there.

They walked towards the charming elm trees, but when they rounded the corner of the fence they stopped dead in their tracks.

There, on a pedestal stood two large stone statues, wearing clothes straight out of a history page.

Witch-hunter history.

Luz stopped so abruptly that Gus bumped into her. Amity was holding her hand and felt a tug when her girlfriend halted. Willow, who had been walking next to Gus, recoiled from their crash.

The three witches immediately voiced their curiosity and concern.

Hunter recognised him too. Vee only noticed because he fell silent. Just a second ago they were talking about tea, now he stared up at this thing with an unreadable expression.

She followed his gaze. The bone-chilling realisation almost made her shapeshifting unstable.

“That’s… Belos.” Luz managed to get out after her friend’s concerned murmurs.

The witches surrounding her all looked at her bewildered, then snapped their attention to the statue.

The pedestal read: Gravesfield folklore, The brothers Wittebane.

Hunter felt like his body was about to crumble. That was indisputably the face of the man he had called uncle his entire life. And that was his brother. That was Caleb.

That was his blueprint.

A disgusting feeling rose in his throat. He felt like the world was spinning around him. Light-headed and reeling, his mind was blaring alarm bells. He couldn’t hear what Luz was saying to their friends, the sounds around him were distant and distorted.

He couldn’t stop looking at him.

His lungs were threatening to give out. Irregular short breaths entered his body, while breathing out felt impossible. He was in the verge of hyperventilating.

Vee felt a little woozy and off-balance. The hold on her shapeshifting was weakening. She felt her hands turn back into claws and saw some green spots forming on her arms. A nauseating feeling tumbled in her stomach.

They had statues. Belos and his brother had statues here. Two witch-hunters had statues here.

A sharp sound to her left broke her out of her daze. Hunter was looking even more wobbly than she felt. She could see the panic in his eyes. She tracked his gaze once more and it finally clicked.

On instinct she grabbed his hand, her claws dug into his skin. He barely felt it. Hunter slowly turned to her, still feeling spaced out. Vee gently tugged on his arm and walked backwards.

He let her lead him over grass, feeling too overwhelmed and scared to pretend he was okay. She tugged her brother along, until they were out of earshot, making sure he was with his back towards the statue.

She took his other hand and squeezed them both, this time being mindful of her sharp claws. The pressure helped him focus a little, but breathing was only getting more difficult.

“Breathe Hunter.” Vee spoke clearly. He squeezed her hands back, desperately trying to ground himself.

And like a broken spell or an unlocked chain, his lungs finally worked again. His irregular gasping for air turned into irregular deep breaths.

“Just breathe.”

The basilisk carefully looked back at the group. The other witches were still inspecting the sculpture and listening to Luz talk about Philip.

It looked like they had successfully slipped away.

“Just breathe.” She said again, calm and pointed.

She coached him through his rising stress, and slowly his hyperventilating stopped. He followed her calming breaths, eventually he moved onto his familiar four-fingers technique.

Vee’s hand now floating in the air in case he needed it. In time, Hunter calmed down. He looked at her with nothing but gratitude. She had helped to prevent a full-on panic attack.

“You okay?” She asked attentively.

“Yes.” Hunter blew out a hefty breath one more time. “Thank you.”

“We’ve gotten pretty good at this, huh?” Vee let out a loaded sigh and a shaky chuckle. Hunter nodded with a tired smile. She swung the hand that still held onto his back and forth.

“And to think I wanted to murder you just a month ago!" She laughed a little odd but with obvious relief. Hunter couldn’t help the elated laugh that escaped out his mouth.

The strange feeling of humour after an almost-mental breakdown, made his sound a little weird too. She was right, their relationship was insane. The basilisk that was scared out of her mind when they first met, had called him ‘brother’ only a few days ago.

He was aware that they had a unique kind of bond with their shared experiences in the castle. But he’d never expect to be regarded as family. He wasn’t sure if he deserved it, but it made him feel so happy.

And treating Vee like a little sister made her really happy, even though he couldn’t yet get himself to call her that. She said she enjoyed hugs and hair-ruffles. Apparently teasing, bickering and joking around was also part of it.

He was still new to it all, but it just felt so right.

Luz had been calling him ‘bro’ and ‘hermano’ for a while now. Maybe he was more used to it than he-

“Whatcha doing over here?” Willow suddenly appeared to the right one him.

Saying it startled him was an understatement. Hunter yelped a loud “WAAA-“ before he doubled over and went back to his calming breaths.

Willow, having missed his panic, was looking jolly and unbothered. She cocked an eyebrow at him with an amused smile. But when she saw that Vee didn’t share her sentiment, she got worried.

“Sweet mother of Titan.” The blonde boy heaved out.

“Are you okay?” Willow asked. Looking from Hunter to Vee and back.

“We’re fine.” Vee assures her. Being infinitely more skilled in lying, she quickly fabricated a half-truth. She glared at the statue. "That... thing just makes me really uncomfortable."

“Mmmh, I get it.” Willow nodded with a soft look. Thinking about their past always made her angry. She looked back with a scowl. “I just wanna spray paint all over it.”

"That sounds like a wonderful idea!" Vee smiled creepily. Focusing on Hunter’s feelings had helped her to calm down as well, but now her mood was really improving.

“Guys,” Hunter piped up when he felt grounded once more. “Vandalism is wrong.”

He was met with two deadpan faces. The tips of his ears tinted pink when he looked at Willow. He quickly turned his eyes away.

“But I wouldn’t stop you.” He mumbled.

“Alright!” Vee jumped away, ready to throw rocks at Belos’s image. This was going to be very therapeutic for her.

Willow and Hunter watched her leave. The green-haired girl met up with Luz, said something and started doing exactly as she set out to do. Gus and Amity didn’t take long to join in.

The duo standing in the distance looked at each other, and started giggling.

“Do you wanna join them?” The plant witch asked, really wanting to do so herself.

“Maybe another time…” Hunter looked away. He felt like his legs would refuse to walk back to that thing.

Willow understood, and as much as she felt the vandalism-urge burning in her soul, she wouldn’t leave Hunter behind. She couldn’t even imagine how devastating it must have been to find a statue dedicated to you abuser. Her heart bled for him.

The blonde witch would always be ready to distract her when she needed it. She had no trouble returning the favour.

“Hey, look at this.” She crouched down next to a flower bed on the edge of the park, gently bending a purplish-blue flower towards him. “This is called the balloon flower.”

Hunter was immediately intrigued. He crouched down next to her and inspected the plant. It was a cluster of flowers on one stem, they were star-shaped and had a peculiar looking pistil.

“See how the petals are fused?” Willow ever so carefully glided her thumb over the blue petals, they were indeed stuck to each other. “We don’t have any flowers like this in the Boiling Ilse.”

“Why not?” Hunter was fully captivated.

“I dunno.” Willow shrugged. “Different evolution I guess.”

“Oh.” Hunter laughed. He had expected some profound answer, but that made sense. He touched one of the other flowers to feel the strange petals for himself. “Did you learn about these in that book?”

“Yes! The one from the library.” She was delighted that he remembered she loved that book so much. “Balloon flowers are actually very popular.”

She was also glad he accepted her attempt at distracting him with plant facts. So Willow happily listed all the different names for the different shades of blue present in this species.

They talked about the book for a bit. He was excited to learn that the human realm had flesh-eating plants too. But then Willow had to break the news to him that they were really tiny. After that, the group called them to leave. Their vandalism-therapy was done.

Hunter found himself walking at the back of the group again, this time with Gus. They had to pass that damned statue again to go home. His effort to resist wasn’t strong enough, he looked up at Caleb’s face one last time.

He felt like a freshly scabbed-over wound was splitting back open. He wouldn’t go into a panic again, but he felt sick to the stomach. And maybe a little dizzy too.

“Hey,” Gus looked at him curiously. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah!” He lied.

“Did the statue make you uncomfortable too?”

“Yeah…”

Hunter knew this was bound to happen. Gus was incredibly observant and smart. More so than anyone, he was the real mom of the group. He cared so much and they had build an amazing friendship, which was exactly why this was so uncomfortable.

Gus, on the other hand, didn’t feel very smart right now. What kind of question was that? Of course he was uncomfortable!

He just wanted to talk about it.

But Hunter clearly didn’t, so he wouldn’t press the issue. He could take a wild guess either way. He knew that Hunter wasn't even looking at Belos's statue. He was looking at his brother.

Caleb Wittebane.

———

Hunter had been staring at his reflection for what felt like an eternity. A wounded sigh eventually escaped his mouth. His shoulders slumped, breaking him out of his frozen state.

His hands moved involuntarily to his face. He rubbed the inside of his eyes. Then he squeezed them shut and opened them wide. He intently studied the colours and the fibres.

He always thought that the way the fibres of an iris weaved was so pretty. Not when he looked at his own, but someone else’s, like Willow. Like an intricate web of beautiful pigment.

He didn’t hate the colour of his eyes, he hated what it represented.

He dragged his hands down to his mouth. His chapped lips had always been a constant and Amity had desperately tried to get him to use lip balm. She was right, she was always right, that’s why she was so annoying. He just forgot.

With one finger he lifted the side of his upper lip, uncovering his fangs. He was still more inclined to call them sharp teeth. That’s what they were after all.

He used to hate those, but his friends all loved them so much. Now he wasn’t sure how to feel. Just neutral maybe?

He then moved his hands up into his hair and hung them on his neck. His hair had grown, falling just past his ears. It looked different, but he could still style it the same way.

It didn’t have to stand out, right? Nobody noticed? He couldn’t bring himself to cut it here.

He had to cut his hair religiously back in the coven. It always had to look perfect. Everything always had to be perfect. The human realm was supposed to be his peaceful escape.

No.

No, stop.

What was he even thinking? They had crashed into this realm in an apocalypse. The end of the world! This was refuge, not an escape. He had to remember the difference.

That still didn’t mean he had to cut his hair.

He moved one hand to his scar, softly pulling the skin up and down. Tracking the edge, like he’d done a million times. It was the only thing entirely his own.

His eyes, his teeth, the rapid growth of his hair. That was all Grimwalker. The colour of that hair, his bone structure, his nose, his eyebrows. That was all Caleb.

“What a shame. Out of all the Grimwalkers, you looked the most like him."

Why couldn't he reject that sentence? Even just as a bold-faced lie. He wanted to utterly deny that is was true, but when he looked at that statue...

It looked so painfully similar.

His scar was the only thing that didn’t belong to either of them. But even that little beacon of uniquely him, didn’t bring any comfort. How could it? It was a deep pink slash across his cheek. His very first scar.

He barely remembered how he got it. Well, it was Belos of course. He just didn’t recall any of the details.

It was the first of many. Every single one of them seemed so clearly malicious in retrospect. How had he ever been so naive?

It is the curse! He didn’t mean to! As if that monster could ever really love him. A lie, that’s all it was.

His arms dropped to his sides. The hundredth sigh of the night escaped his lips. He hated this so much. But he couldn’t move away from that damned mirror. Like plant magic was rooting him to this one spot in the bathroom.

When he looked in that mirror, he didn’t see anything he liked. He didn’t see himself.

He wanted to punch that mirror and-

The sounds of very familiar slithering passed in the hallway, violently ripping his attention away from the mirror. He heard the slithering in the kitchen and then a crunching noise.

Vee.

More like his guardian angel. The kitchen was very appealing, stronger even than the mirror’s pull.

That was good right? He had to escape this depressing pit he created. Joining Vee would do definitely force him away from his own mind. Or maybe misery just loved company.

He deliberately kept his head down, looking at the mirror would root him back in place. He hoped he left the sink neat enough.

Hunter entered the kitchen and saw his basilisk sister elbow-deep into a cereal box. She was looking off in the distance while munching, until she noticed him. She froze and they looked at each other for a solid 10 seconds.

“Hey.” Vee said blankly, breaking the awkward silence.

“Hey.” He returned in the same passive way.

She continued to crunch on her midnight snack and tilted the box towards him. He shuffled over and leaned on the counter, grabbing a fistful of the cereal.

Usually he’d be a bit upset about eating from the box, but he was just so tired that he didn’t care anymore. He felt a little empty right now.

“Insomnia?” Vee asked, blinking slowly and sideways.

“Nightmare.” Hunter answered between crunching. “You?”

“The other one.”

“That sucks.”

“Sure does,” She snickered. “Nightmares aren’t much better. Are you okay?”

“Yeah I’m fine.” Now that he actually had company for his misery, he didn’t want to get into it.

Vee knew he was lying, naturally, but she was leaving it be. She didn’t really have the energy for a heart-to-heart right now either. They just kept eating their cereal in comfortable silence.

Then Luz walked in.

Both basilisk and grimwalker froze again in the middle of their munching. Their human sibling stood just past the doorway and looked at them surprised.

“Hey.” They said at the same time, in the exact same way as before.

“Hey,” Luz laughed and bounced over to grab her own helping of cereal. She hopped onto the counter and ruffled both of their hair. Calling them both ‘hermanitos’.

Vee glowed at the nickname, and Hunter smiled. A small, growing feeling of light was forming somewhere, almost within reach.

“Di’ya have a nightma’?” Vee asked through a mouth full. Hunter didn’t even have enough energy to lecture her about proper eating etiquette. Eating from a box kind of defeats the purpose anyways.

“No, I couldn’t sleep.” The human answered. “I feel like I went in and out of sleep at least 6 times already.”

“Insomnia.” Hunter hummed knowingly.

“Yeah…” Luz sighed. She was well aware of her insomnia-household. This wasn’t the first time that the three of them had gathered in the kitchen, at the most ungodly hours of the night. “So I came down here for some water, but this is way better.”

She threw a piece of cereal in the air and caught it with her mouth. Hunter moved wordlessly to the cupboard and filled three glasses with water. The girls both looked at him with shit-eating grins. Hunter rolled his eyes, he could never just do something nice without them turning it into a big deal.

“Awww you big softy.” They cooed. Hunter looked at them annoyed, then snatched the cereal box from Vee’s hands.

“Just for that, I’m eating the last of this.”

“NO!” The sisters gasped and leapt to save their snack, but he was too fast and too tall.

Hunter tipped the thing over and the last of the cereal, which was only 5 pieces at most, was gone.

“How could you!” Luz called out with a dramatic look of betrayal. Hunter and Vee both shushed her, trying to hold in their laughter.

“How could you?” Luz whispered this time, giggling along with them.

“Ya know… we have another box.” The sly basilisk suggested, showing off the inside of the pantry.

“Vee, we can’t eat two boxes of cereal in the middle of the night!” Hunter whisper-yelled, slapping their greedy hands away and closing the cabinet door. “What about the others? What about breakfast?”

“Yeah Vee, think about breakfast!” Luz teased like she hadn’t just been reaching for that box as well. Vee stuck her tongue out.

“What time is it anyway?” She asked and Luz pulled her phone from her back pocket.

The blue screen lit up the room, but she completely forgot to check the time when she noticed a sudden shine.

“Wow….” Luz marvelled at the teens standing in front of her. “Cat eyes.”

The teens in question, being completely lost, looked at her confused.

“I didn’t know you guys have that!” She was awestruck.

“Have what?” Vee felt stumped and wanted an explanation quickly.

“You know when cats are at a certain angle to a light and their eyes glow?” Luz was met with a couple of dumbfounded faces. “Because of their night vision? You guys have reflective eyes… like cats?”

“Reflective eyes?!” Hunter reacted suddenly. The realisation had snuck up on him, as if thinking about it earlier had doomed it to come true again.

“What? Nooooo hahahahaha-“ He laughed nervously, backing up until the edge of the kitchen island dug into his back. His voice trailed off and he took a deep breath. “No.”

“Hunter?” Luz’s voice was uneasy and she reached out a hand to him, but it faltered. Vee looked wary and uncertain.

His heart sank. It had barely gotten the chance to climb out and it sank all the way back down.

“No…” His voice broke.

He hugged himself tight. His arms were tired, his legs were tired, his everything was tired. He slid down against the island.

“Hunter?” Vee asked with the tinniest voice. She eyed Luz and they shared a look of extreme worry.

“Noooooo…” Hunter buried his face in his hands and groaned. “Whyyyyy?!”

Did the Titan hate him? Was he cursed? This night just kept getting worse! And just when he thought he escaped those feelings, those thoughts. Leave them in the dark bathroom and never look back. He really was naive.

Luz and Vee shared a final look and joined him on the floor. They sat down on either side of him, leaning against him as a silent show of comfort.

Hunter felt tears stream over his face and by the way his shoulders shook, his sisters could tell. Luz put a hand on his back and the older boy let out a shaky breath. He let go of his legs and slowly sat back up, dropping his arms on the ground.

Nobody said anything.

Vee wrapped her tail around his ankles and let head head fall on his shoulder. Her cheek smushed and her fuzzy hair tickled his neck. Luz hugged him tight, resting her head against his arm.

Hunter just let the tears fall.

He felt a confusing mix of distress, comfort, exhaustion, gratitude, fear and love. He really hated today, it was such a long, draining day.

But he felt so happy to have these two consider him family. They let him bawl his eyes out without question, sharing this moment of pain just to make it easier for him.

Eventually they would let each other go. Vee would spend the night watching YouTube videos. Luz would read Azura books until sunrise. And Hunter would rest his tired eyes, for once sleeping dreamless and peaceful.

But for now, they would stay like this. Together.

[tohjwcc]

Who am I? INTRODUCTION

Alright, so I've been here for like..half a year now? I actually don't entirely know, but ish 6 months. But I feel like I want to introduce myself. Idk why.

- So. Hi. I'm tohjwcc.. I honestly wanna change it, but I'm scared people won't recognize me if I do so haha. So, I guess I'm stuck with it for a lil while longer. Guess I'm just a "normal" (heck I'm not, I'm weird as f-) teenager...ehm, well, going to highschool after summer. Yasammy/cc/ct nerd, basically.

- My personality is complicated. For any camp cretaceous fan, I can easily describe myself as a softer version of Yaz. I have a strong Yaz side, but another big piece of my personality is just quirky and weird and funny (people say I'm funny.. so I hope they're telling the truth lol). But also, I've been told... SO. MANY. TIMES.... That I'm too nice for my own good. I'm kind and nice to everyone. I can't be mean to anyone. At least not on purpose. That is one thing that separates me and Yaz from being completely identical (personalitywise) (which again isn't entirely true, my quirky and weird side is bigger than my serious/Yaz side. I'm basically the yasammy icon. That quirky side could be referred to as Sammy lol.) But ofc there are other small stuff that also separates us two a little but yeah. (Tbh idk... I haven't really figured myself out yet. Idk what I am like, I just wanna be like Yaz cuz I love her so deeply and I can really relate to her in so many different ways. Idk, maybe I'm just not like her at all. Maybe I just wanna be like her...? Ugh, I don't know, I don't know myself. Dang it. My dream is to be cool. Like my girl Yaz. Okay, enough rambling).

- English is sadly not my first/native language, so any bad grammar or wrong wording could appear, so I apologize for that. I also like to make up new words, so if there's a word you've never heard before, it's probably one of my new creations. Confusion can appear, you've been warned.

- On this blog.. is it a blog? I don't even know. Anyways, on this account thingy I mostly post about camp cretaceous/chaos theory. That is where my main interest is. That leads us to my next.. ugh, me and words. I don't even know what it's called in my language. Paragraph, maybe? Let's go with that. That leads us to my next paragraph.

- Favorite shows. I've got a LOT, but the ones that might appear on this account are probably just Jwct/jwcc and the owl house. There's a chance like stranger things and heartstopper could be joining us too. I know nothing. I could be posting/reblogging random crap as well, so nothing is for sure.

- I started watching camp cretaceous when season 3 had been released. I was in my "Jurassic world era", so I had been watching all the Jurassic world movies (ish), so I guess I just wanted to rewatch some of them again, and then I saw it. "Jurassic world camp cretaceous". I was like "OoO". I began to watch it, and fell in love with it IMMEDIATELY. Also, a funny fun fact, I started watching it when I was 12. And now I'm 15. This means I was as old as the youngest character when I started watching it, and I am NOW as old as the OLDEST characters are in the show. This show has been with me through all my teenage years so far. I'm so greatful for this show and these campers. They helped me through so much, and I could never thank them enough.

-The jwcc character i can relate most to is Yaz. 10000%. Like I said before, she is so me. My friend says I'm a Yaz, and she once said I even looked like Yaz, which is cool, but idk how cuz I'm not a brunette haha. But these are the bestest compliments I've ever gotten.

Shoutout to anyone who even bothers to read this lmao. I might add stuff to this later, who knows.

Have a great day ^^

[coulsons-fullmetal-cellist]

Clara and the Bad Dinosaur

(Dieter x horror loving female)

Words: 1, 687

Summary: playing the wrong movie results in a disaster of the toddler variety (artwork can be found here)

Warnings: poor little toddler cries, Dieter gets sad, mild angst but lots of happy fluffy stuff at the end, mild spoilers for Jurassic Park 3 and Jurassic World

Check out masterlist here

Parenting had its good and bad days, its ups and downs. Today was one which had both. You had gone out for a simple errand but as soon as you walked in the door, you were bombarded with tears as your daughter ran up to you crying.

“Mummy! The bad dinosaur!”

“Bad dinosaur?” you looked to your husband for context. Dieter was looking like he had committed possibly the worst crime and immediately regretted it.

“I accidentally put on Jurassic Park 3 instead of Jurassic Park,”

“Rexy dead!” she wailed. Now it all made sense.

“Oh, my sweet little pumpkin,” you cuddled her close to you, “Rexy isn’t dead.”

“No?” Her voice had calmed a little.

“No. Dr. Grant went to a different dinosaur island. So the Spinosaurus killed a different T-Rex. Your Rexy is still alive.”

“Rexy not dead?”

Dieter chimed in, “She shows up in Jurassic World.”

“World?” Clara asked and now you knew that she would want to watch this film. You sighed away the frustration of this upcoming task.

“We can watch that later. You went through a big sad emotion, and I think you need a nap to feel better,” you kissed her little face which was showing signs of being tired. You scooped her up and, after washing her face, put her down for a nap. Coming out of her bedroom, you found no signs of your husband. Eventually you found he had retreated to the bathroom. Dieter was lying in the empty bathtub, hoping to drown himself in his sadness.

“Dieter, what’s going on?”

“I’m a terrible father,” he sounded so convinced.

You tried to reassure him, “No you’re not.”

“I made our daughter cry.”

“You didn’t mean to though,” you hopped into the bathtub and snuggled close to him, “You made one silly mistake. I’m sure I’d put on the wrong Land Before Time, which is the one she likes?”

“The second one. She’s not ready for the first one, and Chomper is her favourite.”

“Why does our daughter love T-Rexes so much?”

He shrugged, “I don’t know, they both have tiny arms?” the mood lightened as you both chuckled.

“You’re a great father,” before you could deny this, you continued, “You can play with her for hours, I’m exhausted after 10 minutes. And you make her laugh so much. I swear she’ll burst into bubbles of giggles from how much you make her laugh.”

Dieter smiled, “Well, you’re good at dealing with her when she’s being difficult or sad.”

It was your turn to shrug, “I’m used to dealing with difficult clients. It’s a lot more understandable with toddlers, they’re so much easier to deal with.”

“They’re also so much cuter.”

“Dieter, your hand is on my butt.”

“Sorry.”

“No, it means I know you’re feeling better.”

“I’m feeling a lot better,” his hand wandered over the rest of your body, getting higher and higher until you gave him a warning grumble, “So you don’t want to get naked?”

“Not right now. Clara will be up from her nap soon and she’ll want to watch Jurassic World, so you’ll have to distract her while I fast forward through any sad parts.”

“Can we skip through the dialogue? Some of it’s worse than Cliff Beasts.”

You nodded, “Who talks like that? And I’m skipping that kid staring at that girl because it’s downright creepy.” You both got out of the bathtub, “Do you want to wake her or make a snack?”

“I can wake her if you want.” You parted in the hallway. Dieter gently woke up Clara.

“Cupcake, time to wake up,” she slowly opened her eyes, “Hey, I’m sorry I put on the wrong dinosaur movie.”

“It’s okay.” She got up and wrapped herself around her father’s neck like a baby sloth and he carried her out to the living room.

“So, do you want spaghetti or meatballs for dinner?”

“I have both?”

“You want both?” he gave a silly dramatic sigh, “I guess you can.”

He put her down and she immediately ran over to where you had put some snacks on the coffee table. As you all settled on the couch, you put on the movie.

“I was offered a part in this film.”

This fact surprised you, “Were you?”

“Yeah, but I hate franchise films and there was too much green screen.”

You would have furthered enquired about this, but you needed to be the parental guidance for this film. You reassured her that the pig definitely didn’t get eaten by the Velociraptors and shielded her from seeing it actually getting eaten.

Clara was very much like her mother and loved a scary movie, but even some things were too much for a little one. “That the bad dinosaur?” Clara asked about the Indominus Rex.

“It’s not a very nice dinosaur pumpkin.” You were worried this would be too scary a dinosaur, but she was distracted as her eyes lit up over the baby dinosaur petting zoo and lit up even further when the film took everyone to the Tyrannosaurus enclosure. “Look, it’s Rexy.” But there was not enough of her favourite dinosaur to see.

You all watched the Indominus break through its habitat and started eating people, Clara felt it needed telling off.

“Bad dinosaur.” It was so funny and cute the both of you couldn’t help but laugh at your daughter.

The display of herbivore carnage lay ahead so you gave Dieter the toddler distraction signal and he bent down to be eye level with her, blocking the TV, protecting her from any potential sadness.

“Do you think a T-Rex would like spaghetti and meatballs?”

“No.”

“No? If I gave Rexy a plate of spaghetti and meatballs, would she eat it?”

“She’d eat you!”

“She would?” she giggled in response, “Well, that’s rude of her.”

The flying dinosaur scene was going to be a potential source of sadness, so another toddler distraction was in order and Dieter went right ahead with it.

“Do you think dinosaurs like ice cream?”

“I don’t know.”

“Would long necks like ice cream?”

“They like tree stars!”

“Oh, so they would like tree star flavoured ice cream.” Clara thought her daddy was being very silly and giggled accordingly.

Once all the human aspects were taken out of the equation, Jurassic World ended up being quite an enjoyable film. And you both didn’t have to voice the various plot holes which displayed a tremendous amount of human stupidity. Now it was the final battle between Indominus Rex and good old Rexy. It looked like the poor girl was going to lose and Clara was ready to bury her face into your side in concern. But suddenly, Blue came to her rescue, they displayed a surprising amount of teamwork and the Indominus was finally dispatched by the Mosasaurus. T-Rex and Velociraptor, usually foes, came together to fight a common enemy, simply nodded to each other that their paths may cross not this day, but another time.

As Rexy step onto the platform overlooking her kingdom, she gave a triumphant roar making her rule noted and marking the end of the movie. Clara roared in response.

She spent the rest of the evening reenacting the final dinosaur fight with her dad and her various soft toys. Dieter was roped into playing the part of Rexy while she was Blue and the director.

“Rahr?”

“No, Rahr!”

“Rahr! Is that right?”

“Yeah!”

He popped the toddler onto his shoulders, “Come on Blue, let’s get that bad dinosaur!”

“Rexy don’t talk,” she corrected.

“Sorry: Rahr!”

Mr. Lobster played an appropriate Mosasaurus and after defeating the bad dinosaur, tried to chomp your leg while you were making dinner. It took a while for Clara to shake off the part of her role while her dad, a seasoned professional, could go back to be adorable old Dieter.

“Oh no, our daughter has turned into a dinosaur.”

Dieter towered behind her, “Well, I guess you don’t want dinner.”

“No,” she looked up at him and seemed so upset, “I want besketti!”

“You can most certainly have besketti little missy!” He picked her up in a cuddle and put her in her chair. You all ate with a dinosaur appetite, thankfully without the mess they would usually leave. Dieter washed up while you gave Clara a bath. She peeked her little head from beneath the bubbles and motioned her arms to snap together biting some invisible prey.

“Are you the Mosasaurus?”

“Yeah, I’m the Momosaur!” she exclaimed. “I eat bad dinosaurs!”

It was at this point that Dieter came in with her pyjamas. “Am I a bad dinosaur?” he asked.

“No, you’re daddy!”

As you dried her off and put her in pyjamas, not dinosaur themed, she was starting to droop in exhaustion. You tucked her into bed and gave her a little kiss on the nose.

“I love boo!”

“Love boo!”

You stood by the door as it was Dieter’s turn to say goodnight.

“I guess after all those dinosaurs, you want a dinosaur song.”

She shook her head, “No.”

“No?”

“I want my song.”

“Your song?” he gave a silly dramatic sigh, “Okay.”

She cooed in excitement as her father got his hands to dance tickles over her while he sang.

“Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh. Chubby, little, stubby all stuffed with fluff” he chuckled her tummy like she was stuffed with fluff,“he’s Winnie the Pooh,” he booped her nose, “Winnie the Pooh. Willy, nilly, silly old bear.”

“Daddy.”

“Yes cupcake?”

“I love you.”

“I love you,” he kissed her forehead as she fell into a peaceful sleep and quietly shut the door and moved into your waiting arms.

“Do I need to say I told you so?”

“Okay, I’m a pretty good dad.”

“Pretty good? I’d say you’re the best, most amazing, most handsome dad ever.”

“Well, I can’t do it without the best, most amazing, most beautiful mama ever.”

“Your hand is on my butt again.”

“Sorry.”

“It can stay there.”

“So can we…?” he asked, and you nodded, “Oh, I’m going to show you how sexy a mama you are!”

Films referenced: Jurassic Park (1993), Jurassic Park 3 (2001), Jurassic World (2015), The Land Before Time (1988), The Land Before Time 2 (1994)

Lovingly tagging @boliv-jenta @simpingcowboy @ellenmunn @o-sacra-virgo-laudes-tibi @brilliantopposite187 @chaithetics @myloveistoolittle @cevans-is-classic @glshmbl

[mrultra100]

Ultra's Ramblings- The WWD '13 Retrospective

“Every fossil tells a story… even if said story is a bunch of jumbled-up nonsense”

As hard as it is to believe it, this month marks the 10 year anniversary of the Walking with Dinosaurs movie, which originally came out in theaters all the way back in 2013. I’m just as shocked as you all that this damn thing’s been around for an entire decade now, but nonetheless, I feel like a quick article is in order to describe some of my personal thoughts on the movie, and how it could’ve been great.

For those who don’t have context for this mini-retrospective, along with the film in question, this was a movie adaptation of the much beloved Walking with Dinosaurs mini-series made by the BBC. The documentary set out to show off the lives of dinosaurs, along with the other animals that they shared the world with during the time. Unlike later nature documentaries like the Planet Earth series, which focus on various scenes of different animals living in the same type of habitat (Deserts, Islands, etc), WWD’s episodes respectively set themselves in a single location, with the focus being on a central animal. New Blood focused on Coelophysis in Arizona during the Late Triassic, Cruel Sea showing off Ophthalmosaurus living on the Jurassic islands that would one day become Europe, Death of a Dynasty being focused on T. Rex in Hell Creek before the KT extinction, etc.  While the science behind this show hasn’t aged well during the nearly 25 years since its release (coughcough150tonLiopleurodoncoughcough), the storytelling present throughout the 6 episodes were beautifully crafted. And that aspect of the franchise stuck around for the various sequels and spin-offs that would follow in the years since. This thing even got a stage show for Darwin’s sake! It’s safe to say that, as the first big paleo-documentary to come out after Jurassic Park, WWD has left a pretty big impact for paleomedia as a whole, one that we’re still feeling to this very day.

With all of that said… where the hell did the movie go wrong? To answer that question, some history is needed. Back when this film was first announced, the plan was for the movie to have no dialogue (aside from the narrator, obviously). It would’ve been like a theatrical version of the original show, if it wasn’t for the hivemind of brainless, money-grubbing executives at Fox, who saw the movie in its early stages and thought “Hey, why not add in a bunch of unnecessary voice overs, dumb jokes, and pointless pop songs into this film?” It felt like they were trying to cash off of The Land Before Time, despite that franchise being a zombie begging to go extinct at that point. And thus, that’s how this film was hijacked to be nothing more than brainless nonsense aimed at little kids. That just not only feels disrespectful at the franchise as a whole, but it’s also disrespectful towards children. I, along with many others, grew up with the original series growing up, and they had things like a pair of cynodonts eating their own babies, the Liopleurodon suffocating under his own weight on a beach, a recently-hatched Gastornis being eaten alive by a swarm of giant ants, the gorganopid’s mummified corpse during the early Permian segment in Monsters, Chased by Sea Monsters ending with an entire horde of mosasaurs converging on the Ancient Mariner (And possibly devouring Nigel Marven and his crew), among other things. Yes, this movie had a few frightful moments, with the biggest being the forest fire scene, along with Patchi and Scowler watching their own father get killed off by one of the Gorgosaurus during the aforementioned fire (And that scene didn’t felt forced), but a good portion of the time, it’s just unfunny jokes and pop songs.

With all of that said, while much of the film reeks of suck, there are some good things to be had here. Firstly, the animation. As much as I wished they used props and puppets like in the original show, the animation still holds up well even after 10 years. The dinosaurs blend with the live-action environments, and for the most part, they still hold up with scientific accuracy. Another point to bring up is the setting that this movie takes place in. Keeping up with the tradition of the franchise showing lesser-known animals and ecosystems, this film is set in Alaska, 70 million years in the Late Cretaceous. During this time in Earth’s history, the dinosaurs that lived here had to deal with long summers, where the sun didn’t set for months. On the opposite side of that, the winters that followed were freezing, with the moon looming over the dinosaurs’ heads for an equally long time. It was a tough place to live, and the dinosaurs who lived there adapted to live in the cold. Not only are species like Pachyrhinosaurus, Gorgosaurus (which was renamed as the more-fitting Nanuqsaurus in the Prehistoric Planet re-cut), Edmontosaurus, Edmontonia, Chirostenotes, and more were showed in the film, they looked gorgeous with their designs.

And as much as this film’s humor is child-friendly to an excessive degree, I do have to admit that I liked Alex a good bit. Don’t get me wrong, a good portion of his jokes are some of the lowest common denominators I’ve seen in a film, he still had my interest a good bit. The scene where he helps Patchi realize that living for something he loves is better than dying in vain was one of the few times where the film felt genuine and not-forced. If the dialogue wasn’t so riddled with brain dead humor and had a vibe more like a mix of both the original show and Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, I certainly would’ve liked it more. Back to Alex for a bit, my final comment about him is how I feel he might actually be a sort of god…

…I know you’re about to laugh at me for saying that one of the characters in a bastardized movie adaptation of a beloved paleodoc is a god, but hear me out a bit. At the start of the film, he telepathy talked to some kid in the modern world as a crow, morphed into an Alexornis and flew off into the Cretaceous somehow, is able to break the 4th wall multiple times, was somehow able to rewind footage of the film itself, even fade out of existence at the end of the film. I might be crazy for this, but Alex might be some sort of all-powerful, telepathic bird god. How else can he talk without his beak moving? That right there is the magic of a literal deity, and we should've all realized this back in 2013 and given him the respect he deserved! THE TRUTH NEEDS TO BE MADE!

Amen, sorry for all of that. I went a bit crazy back there. Getting back to the topic at hand, those are my thoughts on Walking with Dinosaurs 2013; A film based on one of the most legendary paleomedia franchises, but was ultimately wasted potential by out-of-touch parasite executives. They went and turned the WWD brand into a laughing stock, and it still stings to this day. All of this makes me appreciate modern paleodocs like Prehistoric Planet and even Life on Our Planet from Netflix even more. At least they both had visions that weren’t dabbled with alot. All of this were my personal thoughts on the movie, so if you want more in-depth looks into the movie and its history, check out the videos made by Kody Cook and Rickraptor105, along with the Letterboxd review made by IsaiahCTorre. They all made great reviews discussing what went wrong with this fossil. Oh, and speaking of fossils…

Ę̴̘̖͎͇̹̲͇̱̞͇̺̫͎̲̟͖̰͚̰̰̥͈̣͔̰̬̹͔̥͙͋̀̊̌̎̈́̋͛̊̓̂͛́͒͛͑̉͛͒̑̂̉͛̀͆̀̀̾͗̄̈́͛͋̈́̆̊̌̂͐̈́͆͌͊̕̚͠͠͝͝͝ͅͅͅV̷̧̢̢̨̧̡̢̛̛̟͇̘͔̣̭̤̰̠͖͚̝̲̳͚̹̖͍̖̮͇̞͈̺̝̹͔̻͚͚̠͈̥͕̠̱̤̦͍̺͐̏͝ͅͅȨ̴̡̛̯̘̟̯̙͍̖͔̯̰̭̬͍̯̮̗̞̣͕͔̮̦͚͖̰̱̼̺̖̲̻̪̹͈̫̤̭̙̠͓̦̬͎̩̉̎̿̂̉̏́͒̅̅̒͋̑̇͊̈́̈́͋̒̌̓̕̚͜͜͝R̷̡̡̨̡̖̠͓̼̪̖̗͎̝̱͍͚̼̱͖̩̖̻̠̝͍̗͈͕̘̹̼͕̲̦̞̩̘̱̭͇̪͖̗̫̤͇̰̳̊̋̀͜Y̸̨̨͓̘̯̖̰͎͇̙͕̓̆̓̈́̂̽̌͜ ̶̡̧̡̡͉̙̠̯̳̥̗̲͙̲̲͎͉͚̱̼̹̯͇̱͙̹̫̘̺̗̤͉͍̙͕͚͍̂̾̔͒͒̈́̕̚͜͠F̸̯̜̞̮̪͉̲̟̯̗̹͕̝͖̜̳̼̠̳̰̖̆̔͗͒̂̌̀͌͘͝ͅͅǪ̸̢̧͓̰͔͖̞̙̮̳̗̠͚̼͇͎̮̪̥͉̬̰͉͕̙̲̹̤̤͔͚̦̫̮̪̳̻͖̦͌̀̍̿͒͗͜͝Ş̴̥̻͖̬̣̬͖̜̹͚͎̘͕̞̪̎̎̎͝S̴̢̡̯̲͔̙̥̱̮̘̣͎̣̖͕͈̥̪͈͉͎̮̼̦̣͍̫̜̈́̇͒̈́͛̆͗̒̔͑̀̈́̎͌̿͒̿̽̊̌̈́͐̈́̈́̒͑̈́͗̈́̈̿̈́͛̋̊͋̇̀̚͘̕̚͘͘͜͝͝I̵̡̛̠̿́̀̄͒̎̑͂̑͆͊̀̾̏̚͝͠L̷̡̢͎̘͈̥̲̄̎̆̀̓̿̔̋͛͐̓̚̚ͅ ̶̨̢̡̨̛̛͔̱̬̱̙͓̫̦̦̹̬̠̞̻̻͈̝̰͔͇̙̦̥̫̰̠͉͎̩̦̱̠̼̪͆̄̓̇͌̎̍̿̈́̂̎̄̀͆̓͒̽̒͌̄͛̅́͊̉̾͂͜͝͝T̷̡͓̤͙̺̖̻͎͓̭̠̤̄̑͒͐͊̊̃̂̐̑͋̅̄͋̐̓̊̿̎̋́̈́͌̈́̈́̆̎͐̅̓̓́́̅͋̾͋̈́̄͒̏̈́̏̚͘͝͠͝Ȩ̵̢̨̧̨̛͙̪̹͔̗̣͚̺̠̲̖̪̤͙̩̟̠̳̱͖͚̳͗̊̂̒̿̒̂̃̾́͛͋͆̾̊̐̓̃͋̃̅̐̓̍̃̀̒͌̆͗̐̒̆̄͋̄͂̓̂̅̎̀̚͘̕̚͘͜͝͝ͅL̵̢̛̜̯͈̮̎̽̆̎̑̒͑͋̽̀̈́́͛̌̊̂̉͆̓̈́͆̀́͂̇͐̅̉̈̋̓̿̆̔́͑̈́̾̆̈́͐́̇̽̎̽̒͘͠ͅĻ̶̨̨̡̢̧̡̧̛̛̱͇̥͙̬̦̪̪̥̼͔͔̰̻̥̠̲̹̳̗̗̪͇̲̗̞̜̤̘̟̙͉͎̱̬̥͗̈́́̐̑̓̀̀̆̆̈́̒̊̊̒̈́̀͂̅̋̈́̄́͒̉́̃̾̆̈̓̈́͑̆͋̋͝͝ͅŞ̸̨̢͖̙̩̻͇̞̞̳̅͆̄̃̍̍́͛̈̎͋͌̇̍̊̍̋̑̋͘ ̶͔̹͇̠͈̠̭̑̄̇̔͛͌̈̉̔͒̄̚͝͠͠͝Ȁ̸̧̡̧̛̙̘̞̦̫̤͕̰͓̙̱̗͎͕̝͋̾̇̈́̄̃̓̓̈́̔̀̄̓͆̕̚͜͜͠͝͝ͅ ̶̨̢̡̢͔̦̖̪̱̥̣̭̝̥͙̱̝͇̦̠͆͋̀̊̚S̵̡̖̙̟̻͙͕̖͕̙̣̻̩͚̥̼̪̞̈̓̆̑͋̅͑̃̍ͅŢ̴̧̨̧̢̧̛̛̛̠̮̙̪̯̱̳̗͙̣͔͉̳̟̳͈̝̻͕̼̬̱͕͎̤̼͔̖̳̄̾̓́̓͆̐̇͗̈͗͛͒͂̊̈́̍̇̄̊͌͜͠͠͝͝Ô̸̙̥̦̍̇͌̈́̑̅͂̋̎͆͂͛̎̊̇̽̊̆̿͠͝͝͝Ŗ̶̢̛̘̜͕͉̹͕͎͎̹̯͈̤̼̲͈̪͉͆̆̽̅̑̑͒̓̈́̽̽͐͆̽̀͂̋̒͌͛͗̂̔͌̀͋̈́̏̋͌̆̀̚̕͘͘͝͝͝ͅͅỶ̷̧̡̛̫͕̳̼̘̗̝̭͓̪̦̝̗̱̗̞̦͓̻̝͖̻̰͈͉͉̼͚̘̗̬͈͙̔̎̈́̅̂͗̌̑̌̌͂́̐̐̉̑͗͂̑͛̏͒͋̄́̓̾͊̾̊̅̍͆͒͋͗̕̕ͅͅ

[actuallylorelaigilmore]

2023 Movie Journey #17: Elemental

elemental. i watched this one earlier this week with my family...and i'm finally caught up on movie reviews! which means i can now post new ones right after i see the movies. yay.

this movie's cast has some actors who i know, probably most notably a guy i enjoyed in jurassic world dominion. but much, much more importantly, the star of this movie is leah lewis, so even if i hadn't liked the movie overall i still would have had a great time watching it.

i fell immediately in love with leah lewis's portrayal of george when i started watching nancy drew this year. and i mean immediately--i was watching with somebody who loved bess the most, and i had seen so much ace on my tumblr dash that i knew i'd like him too, but george was still my favorite character by the time i finished the pilot. without even knowing how great and rewarding her season 1 arc would be, or how much depth she would eventually have beyond her introduction as 'grudge-holding black sheep nancy's boss,' i could just tell she was my type of fave.

and even after watching the whole first season of nancy drew, it wasn't until i was rewatching it to show it to @actuallylukedanes that i accidentally learned george was played by leah lewis...and that i already knew her! she was in the half of it! which i watched and reviewed in 2020, and loved so much that i've wanted to get other people to watch it ever since. i didn't connect her performances at all, but even my review back then raved about how she was what made the movie good.

so when i realized she was starring in this, i was thrilled. and what i love about her is that she's consistently the kind of actor who has a real presence: she makes her characters engaging and stands out in a big way for somebody still young (though she started acting as a kid, so i know she's not new just cuz she's newish to me). she's signed on to the matlock reboot with kathy bates and i don't expect to love that cbs show, but i am very excited to try it anyway.

as for the movie though: i couldn't help but spend the first half just hearing george, in all her lines. not in a distracting or bad way, but a nice familiar feeling. i suspect the goal with animated disney heroines is to not make them too distinctive, because there's kind of a 'friendly normal' sound to the modern ones regardless of the actress that means even when i can recognize who's speaking, they all sound a little more similar than i would ever say they do in live action work. (either that or it's just me not being able to differentiate as well in animation, which is certainly possible.)

anyway, i loved everything about her work in this; she was the reason i cried a few times. in my opinion that's always a mark of good work, making an impressive amount of connection with viewers using just your voice.

i also really liked her parents and wade, despite the movie's core conflict revolving around all of them--this movie did a good job of explaining who everybody was as things went along, in a more than superficial way, so that it was much easier to still like people when the Bad Times came because they made more sense and were more sympathetic. as family conflicts go, compared to encanto and turning red, this one was my favorite because of that. no matter how angry or disappointed her father got, or how much that affected ember, i could still sympathize with him too and believe that his love for her was more important than anything else.

now, i know this movie got mixed reviews (or possibly worse? i only saw vague headlines) but i'm not really sure why! the metaphor they used to tell the story about immigration and a diverse society was maybe more blunt than usual, but i don't think that's a bad thing. and while it did center on themes that disney movies cover a lot (family expectations, parental disappointment, feeling like a failure, being an outsider, etc)...there are reasons those themes pop up so much!

especially when pixar movies are trying to appeal to both kids and adult audiences, i think it makes total sense to keep coming back to the 'classics.' again, there were a lot of thematic similarities between encanto and turning red and this movie (despite their differences in the details) and i watched those other two--encanto more than once--but still cried just as easily when ember confessed to her dad that she was a bad daughter, and when they bowed to each other before she left. the wounds between us and our parents never really heal, i think, at least not for everybody. so this movie tugged at me by just representing those feelings well, and making me care about the characters.

and when it comes to caring about the characters, probably my favorite thing about the movie besides the cast was the way the plot genuinely surprised me. i expected a happy ending, because it's a disney movie. but based on the trailer, i didn't know what to expect between ember and wade beyond 'they meet and things happen.' and the movie does such a good job of setting up the world they live in and the rules they live by that i believed them.

so in the beginning, i figured they were going to become unexpected friends, and navigating that alone would be a challenge. in that story, presumably the happy ending would've been something like, she learns that wade is right and she doesn't have to stay with fire people and never interact with the rest of the world, and they get to have further adventures.

but then! it turns out that this movie is going for romance. weirdly, i don't expect that from disney movies--you'd think i would when they're the home of princess culture and everything, but i wasn't a 'princess meets her prince for a happy ending' kid. i grew up with disney classics but didn't imprint on any of them.

instead, i was a don bluth kid! singing music from an american tail is literally one of my earliest memories, and my animated love story growing up was anastasia. if i squint, i can kind of see overlap between that animated romcom and this one, in terms of traumatic family history and a guarded, feisty female lead who gets what she thought she wanted all along just as she's also fallen in love with someone whose difference threatens her new fulfilled goal.

i'm not saying the two movies are very alike, lol...a zombie sorcerer belongs nowhere in elemental, obviously. but they both treat their romances with less sentimental sweetness, more sparkage and sincerity. the flirting in this is cute, and i loved them more the further along we went.

but of course, there's still that pesky plot-established problem that makes them a doomed romance. so once it was clear that their dynamic was about falling in love, not just befriending the 'other'...then i honestly expected a bittersweet ending where friends is all they can be. because this is disney, not pushing daisies, and in a world where nobody seems to have invented the elemental version of saran wrap for characters to safely kiss through, what kind of future could they have?

i did not expect them to give us this story where the characters are all believable in how firmly they believe (or don't, in wade's case) that different elements can't mix, and then for the story to show us those differences being overcome. i mean, that theme isn't exactly a new one, love conquering all, but the differences were so much more concrete here--it was life or death for them! when the parental disapproval alone was almost enough to ruin their chances!

i suppose you could flip my reaction to this movie and look at it the opposite way, and complain that their ability in the end to do what the story all along told us couldn't be done made it a waste of time, like the stakes were fake even if they didn't know that. maybe if you predicted the ending from the beginning, it could have felt that way.

but i didn't have expectations for the ending. so while i was really hoping ember and wade could be together, i was prepared for the alternative, a more modest 'crossing the aisles' journey of discovery for them both that opened her world and future and allowed him into her life from a safe distance going forward. instead, their whole story was wonderful and i love them and i'm so glad that they get to be the odd couple they are in a very divided world.

one last fun (if also slightly vexing) thing about this movie is that while it does end, it leaves a lot open, too. and i wanted to get to see ember start her internship; i wanted to learn about their new life and if it goes well for them once they're out in the broader world. i guess i wasn't ready to say goodbye to them, really, is all.

but that was fun at least on the level of seeing this with my family--it meant that after it ended, we were discussing what a sequel could be about, and that segued into a discussion about whether ember and wade could have kids or if they'd have to adopt--and how cool it would be if them having kids would create new elements or something. i love that idea a lot.

and i enjoyed this movie a lot. it was super pretty, i liked most of the characters, and it was unexpected romcom fun. i'm officially rooting for pixar to make more love stories now.

[hammah-banana]

No because the way this list is so so wrong in so many ways.

Like I get that this website probably isn’t all that serious, but I need to break this down because I just-

Okay.

I have a couple issues with this list:

The main one being the way in which they have ranked the Nublar 6, while the other is the actual arguments for how they seemingly decided to rank these kids.

First, besides for Zach, all of the campers are at the bottom of the list. I’m not going to get into where they are all placed in the ranking, but it is clear that whoever made this list didn’t actually pay attention to how the kids were written and the actual depth that these characters have. Collectively, it seems like their arguments for the N6 is that they’re all annoying in their own ways, and that’s that.

I get that not all Jurassic fans may be interested in CC, especially since it’s garnered for a slightly younger audience (even though everyone can enjoy it and that doesn’t mean it’s dumbed down or anything!), but if someone goes to the trouble to actually rank all of the kids in the Jurassic franchise, they have to actually understand each of their arcs, personalities, quirks, vulnerabilities, motives, etc. In the case of the N6, they really only list the “bad” or “annoying” things about them, instead of actually taking a step back and looking at these characters as a whole. (And yes, I do understand that the N6 have their moments as well, like Darius in S5.)

For example, with Kenji they describe him as being “obnoxious” and an “arrogant trust-fund brat”, while also stating that he has a character arc. This reads as if they’ve only watched the first season of the show. (And this article was released AFTER Dominion and season 5 came out, so there’s no excuse for not having seen the other seasons.) And these are the same people saying that they love when Kelly drop-kicks a velociraptor out of a window! (Though I’m not saying you can’t like this scene, is was a pretty goofy moment.)

In Kenji’s case, he’s so much more complex than that, and he goes through a MAJOR arc throughout the show, even flip-flopping a few times.

I could go on about all of the other issues I have with their statements on the N6 (like how Sammy is “poorly written” or that Ben is suddenly super pretentious after having spent some time alone in the jungle or how Yaz is one of the least interesting characters, when I’d argue that she’s actually one of the MOST interesting), but I digress.

The other issue is the actual comparisons that they’ve made for these kids. With the N6, they simply state their “annoying traits” or flaws, so to speak, while with the other kids they either:

A: only state their good or bad qualities or

B: list a few facts about what they did in their respective films

Take Maisie as an example (who I’d argue is one of the least interesting characters of the franchise despite her unique backstory and great portrayal from Isabella Sermon):

Their only real argument for her is that she is a clone. That’s it. They go on to say that’s she been in two movies and has played two different characters, unlike the other kids, but there’s nothing actually about her as a character and who she is.

I would also mention that the novel versions of Lex, Tim and Kelly are on this list (as well as Arby Benton from The Lost World), but it’s been a hot minute since I’ve read Jurassic Park and I never really got into The Lost World, so I can’t offer my two cents on those kids.

I know this isn’t super serious or whatever, but I just needed to rant because when I read this list, I was mad that our beloved N6 weren’t getting the love that they deserve.

(Ps if you actually read this entire thing, thank you! I know it’s just a silly goofy ranking list, but I enjoy talking about this kind of stuff!)

[gottaeattolivegottastealtoeat]

OutofBread;

Let me put out this shameless self-promo for other blogs that I actually have running and I hope you guys will all have fun adding them if you please!

Janis - From the Inuyasha video game Secret of the Divine Jewel!

Link - This Link is an amalgamation of a bunch of the different video games, so very heavily Canon Divergent.

Crysta - From Ferngully. Please, please, please give her some attention. I have never actually gotten to utilize this muse and interactions would be so fun! I play her anywhere in the timeline, from before she met Zack in the movie, to after when she's learned how to control her powers.

Fawn - From the newer Tinkerbell movies. Another muse very rarely utilized, if ever. I will love you guys forever if she got some attention!

Kurama - From YuYu Hakusho! One of my strongest muses, and also one of my best. I resonate really well with my foxy ragechild, and he is almost always active. It would be really fun to get some stuff going with him.

Terra - From Kingdom Hearts. Also really resonate with this boyo. He is one of my other favorite and fun characters to play as, but I have also rarely utilized him so some interactions would be fun to say the least!

Lelouch - From Code Geass. LET. HIM. HAVE. THE. WORLD. Not literally, but figuratively. I love Lelouch with every fiber of my being and he is another muse that I absolutely adore and will love you forever for interacting with.

Derek - From the Swan Princess series of movies. This little dummy is a sweetheart, please feel free to go and bug him. I will forever give you cookies. This dumb Himbo lives in my brain rent free.

Mushrambo - From Shinzo! And the list of REALLY OBSCURE MUSES CONTINUES. LIsten, I haven't seen the Shinzo anime/tv series/cartoon whatever it was actually in FOREVER but Mushrambo also lives in my head rent free and I have clips on standby from the show to watch just for characterization purposes because this man is absolutely WORTH IT.

Katerina - AND FINALLY, my OC Katerina!! She has a bio if you follow the link to her page, and I love her to pieces. This is my comfort muse. I will never NOT have muse for this beautiful sweet precious girl. My foxy little fox. Please and thank you forever if you give me interactions with her. I could say twenty-bajillion things about her and it will never be enough so just... y'know. Go check her out!!

Jimmy - Quick edit to add Jimmy Kudo from Case Closed. I love this little gremlin with every fiber of my being and he deserves love and attention. The boy will have fun and love all the attention. Bring it on!!

Kagome - Another quick edit to add the queen. The sweetest girl. My best, brightest, perfect little girl. Kagome Higurashi from Inuyasha. Feel free to follow her for the fun times. We love interactions, and you should all go and give her love. Please?

Diablo - From the anime/manga/novel series How Not To Summon A Demon Lord. He's a lovely little muse, but also, he's a lonely little sonuvabitch who needs friends. So please come and interact with him?

Terry - Terry McGinnis from Batman Beyond. Very smug and smarmy little bat child; he will have fun talking to all of you and enjoying life. Please enjoy him to your heart's content. Villains, please flock to him because we will enjoy having witty banter and kicking your butts~!

Jack - Jack Frost from Rise of the Guardians. He's only got your best interests at heart. Come and have some fun! No, really. You need to come and have some fun with him, or else he'll bean you with a snowball to make you have fun with him. So, like, just avoid the snowball to the face. Come play~!

Owen Grady - From Jurassic World, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and Jurassic World: Dominion. Open to play in any of the movie timelines, also featuring Canon Divergence for the timelines of the first two movies. Come and enjoy a little bit of fun with the Raptor Dad. Let's have some fun roleplaying in Jurassic Park and Jurassic World stuff!!

Ashitaka Akira Muso - Prince Ashitaka from the Studio Ghibli movie, Princess Mononoke. Open to play in a verse set after Princess Mononoke, wherein he lives in Iron Town with the rest of the inhabitants and has taken over as the ruler of Iron Town from Lady Eboshi. Everyone looks to Ashitaka for answers and guidance as the man who saved all of their lives. Please have fun interacting with him!!

[swedebeast]

What are the most important video games, books, movies, and/or tv shows that really shaped your taste today?

Oh man, the problem here is not just in remembering which ones that fit the bill but also reducing the numbers so this doesn't become a bloated mess of an answer.

Howevah, I will try.

Video games: I've played most genres growing up and it was a bit of console but gravitated towards PC pretty much by my mid teens. I really thing it was Civilization III that solidified by taste for strategy games after being exposed to Civ II in a bootleg CD game pack, but Red Alert really did a number on me as well - especially Command & Conquer Tiberian Sun. But I cannot lie, Fallout 2 and Fallout: Tactics were instrumental in developing my taste for RPG's and my borderline obsession with the post-apoc genres which I carry with me 25 years later.

I read much more when I was younger, but I only recently had a rediscovery of the earliest science fiction novels I read that without a doubt set the first brick on the road that I would go, and it was the Swedish YA Science Fiction series "Andromeda" published 1979-1986 (I even made a post about it earlier). I am sure it lead me to other classics like War of the Worlds which remain a favourite for me. That, and I think graphic novels might fit - and then Tintin, Spirou, Asterix & Obelix fit as formative. But also the more adult ones like Buddy Longway.

And movies.... man, apart from 1980's and 1990's Disney animated movies that I devoured, I have to say that monster movies of the same time remain close to my heart. Aliens, Predator remain favourites. Jurassic Park was fundamentally formative for a lot of kids of the time, but I also consider Tremors (one and two anyway) to be one of the most fun monster movies out there. In general though, I also think the bad movies that came out were also formative in developing my tastes. Everyone saw the Star Wars prequels - being any kind of sci fi fan meant that they were mandatory viewing - but they never *wowed* me. So, I knew I loved the originals more. Not fanatically so, that is more reserved to-

Jumping into TV-shows specifically, I can't understate how much Star Trek blew my goddamn mind. I have no idea where it started - I remember seeing mid-90's on Swedish Kanal 5 around noon on weekends re-runs of Star Trek TOS, later also DS9, I remember some of the earliest shows I pirated was TNG, AND also religiously watched Babylon 5 also on Kanal 5 when it was a new show, and I followed Voyager -and- Enterprise when they first ran on... SVT 1 or 2, 19:00.

And on that, I just remembered how much I followed ANYTHING Star Trek in the video game space as well. Starfleet Command, Bridge Commander, Klingon Academy, Elite Force, New Worlds, even games that were supposed to come out but never did (Like, Star Trek Borg or whatever the fuck).

But on the note of TV-shows and my youth, I would be remiss if I also did not give a shout-out to Babylon 5. I have a sweet spot for space operas, very much due to this show - and together with TNG it has made me a very, very picky fucker with my science fiction writing. It set a high bar for me. Thanks, btw.

In general, I can remember movies, shows, books and games I grew up with or at least had exposure to, but it takes some introspection to realize which ones actually influenced by - and then by how large of a degree. I still remember the ending scene from the "Death of Computers" Swedish cyberpunk novel nearly 30 years ago when I was not even 10 years old reading it - but did it really shape my taste in fiction? Did reading the follow-up novel give me a love for language, when a space traveler killing a giant alien bird with a laser knife on its last powerpack - but to avoid culturally contaminating the strange human cave men - at the end he just picked up a rock and gesticulated smashing the bird on the head - later on having his partner deliver her baby and the caveman midwife saying "flekka" - and it was strangely similar to the Swedish word girl - "flicka"? And this gave rise to a theory that these people were transplanted by some alien force?

No idea, man. But what I do now is that every so often I see if Good Old Games have released Klingom Academy yet - 23 years after its initial release - and I know that the main composers were two people collaborating, one is the original composer for TNG and also worked on several Star Trek game projects, and the other is Inon Zur - who later worked on Bethesda's Fallout games?

If these games and showes are not influences, I sure do think a lot about them.

[legendary-raptor-trainer]

Chris Pratt positivity post

Guardians of the galaxy vol 3 is out, I watched it aosta week ago on may 3, then on may 5 and since then I haven't recovered. Because, once again, after Iron man, I have to say goodbye to one of my most beloved hero team. The Guardians meant so much to me since I watched the movie in 2014. I entered that theater thinking the same like anyone else:This was going to be the first MCU failure. Who the hell would watch a movie with a talking raccoon and a talking tree?

I left that movie theater in awe. I discovered one of my other SI, my new obsession alongside Tony Syark: Peter Quill. Then I started having a crush on Pratt after watching him in Jurassic World the following year.

On May 3... I left the theater with that same awe but also bouncing in happiness because (SPOILER ALERT)...

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Marvel told us the Legendary Star Lord will return.

At first I was just so excited because moments before that I saw one of my heroes leave the best MCU found family to make amends whit his past. He came back to death to love a normal life for a while. The team dissolved. I was in denial and heartbroken but then those words appeared on screen.

The following day the weight of what happened hit me. This was the last time I will see them in a movie theater, together, being direct by the genius of James Gunn. Who know, maybe one day another franchise surprise me and make me feel the same thing I felt while watching the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy. But for now, this was the last time we see this actors under Gunn's direction for the MCU.

And man, I've been depressed, grieving a phase of my life, I save in my heart with fond memories of burying myself in fan fictions of the Guardians, of me reading and learning everything I could about Pratt and Peter Quill, and the following rolls he took in several movies.

I want to cry, want to hit my head because the feeling are overwhelming because I don't know what the future will be for Peter. Marvel confirmed us he is coming back but... Who will direct him? Who else aside from Gunn and Pratt, will honor and continue the work they have done with Quill? Haters gonna hate and will call me a fan boy but objectively, only few characters in the MCU are well written and have and amazing character arc. Tony Stark, Steve, Bucky, T Challa, and of course the Guardians. The rest, you can empathize with them but they don't feel evolved, I don't feel emotionally connected or understand their reasoning.

So someone else continuing the story of Peter Quill it's a big risk. And it makes me anxious, makes me feel overwhelmed with all my thoughts, makes me want to cry, scream or hit myself because I can't shut my mind and stop thinking about it.

Anyways, I'm talking gibberish right now and lost the point I wanted to make here.

Even if I feel a overwhelming amount of emotions, what makes me happy is that finally, after years of mostly finding post about people hating Christ or a small amount of content for the Guardians or Peter, now that the movie came out and it had moved everyone's heart and made us fall in love with this team again... I'm happy more people is posting and talking great things about the character, about the actor, the Guardians. Yeah, found a few Chris haters but I'm actually surprised some of them have actively admitted they're falling for him because of his hair and beard in the movie. Which I need to say is one of the cutest and hottest look Chris has ever have.

[1jemmagirl22]

So I was watching a PandaRed video when I remembered Tyler Hoechlin is in both Teen Wolf and Arrowverse. Then I started thinking, could I connect most of my favorite shows through the actors in them? 

Well this sent me down a spiral so now I’m going to spell it out, and in short connect most of my favorite shows, movies, and actors. I’m not even fucking kidding nearly every show or film I’ve ever adored connects to each other through enough convoluted pieces of metaphorical and literal red string. 

To start off we’re going to use Teen Wolf as a connecting point, the center of the board. That’s right, just imagine a big cork board Stiles Stilinski style packed with red string that’s what I’m laying out here.

From Teen Wolf we can diverge in a couple major directions. First we’ll take Tyler Hoechlin and jump to the CW. Using Tyler Hoechlin we get to Supergirl, and using the Crisis on Infinite Earths Crossover we get to all the major Arrowverse shows. Check them off the connection chart.

Using Supergirl we get, and this is rapid fire here. Chris Wood to Vampire Diaries, and take Candace Accola and Joseph Morgan and we get The Originals and Legacies too. That’s the TVDU checked off. 

Taking Katie McGrath gets us to oh yes, Merlin, and from there, oh we get many fun things. First off from Merlin we get Colin Morgan, who can bring us to Doctor Who, but we’ll get there later. Next up is Bradly James who gets us to Medici the magnificent, and oh wait just a minute good old Daniel Sharman, who I might add brings us back to BOTH The Originals and Teen Wolf! I’m not even kidding, it gets more fun from here. Also Katie McGrath was in Jurassic World so that brings our first MCU connection with Chris Pratt, but keep waiting there’s more. And AND! With Merlin we get Anthony Head who brings us to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doctor Who (Again!), and Scooby Doo (a Scooby Doo film I might add directed and written by James Gunn) via Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Sara Michelle Gellar, who is going to be in a spin off for Teen Wolf!!

Seriously I’m just getting started this is insane and I think I’m gonna have to split it up a bit. Before moving on from Supergirl (Yes we are still on Supergirl, and the CW). We must also mention Chyler Leigh who can connect us to Grey’s Anatomy. But again, we get there later and oh boy is it fun.

After Supergirl let’s just skip over most of Arrowverse, if I named every actor connection between all the major CW shows we’d bet here for a very long time but I will stop at Arrow’s Katherine McNamara. Because *rubs hands together* she gets us to Shadowhunters!!!! Because oh yes, Shadowhunters is fun, very fun. First off Harry Shum Jr. Ok, now not to mention the fact that he, Mellissa Benosit (of Supergirl) and Grant Gustin (of The Flash) are all in Glee (A show I have never and will never watched but I still got to mention it), with my favorite author of all time, Chris Colfer, is just, my gods we’re still on the first leg of this insanity tree it only gets more awesome from here. And as of recently, with dear Harry Shum Jr. joining Grey’s Anatomy, yet another link to TV’s longest running medical drama. 

Our final stop in the Shadowhunters territory is Luke Bains, aka my first connection the my favorite show of all time Marvel’s agents of Shield. Because, that's right Luke Bains popped up in season 7! I will also as a side not mention through Shield season 7, and Dianne Down I connect to Disney, and as such through the constant interconnectedness of Disney both Cole Sprouse and Zendaya, getting us MCU (again!) and RIverdale. Don’t ask for the full explanation of how this connects just look it up on Youtube and you’ll find massive crossover explanations. Moving on!

Now, with that first branch, yes first branch! complete we move on to our second, and our second branch from Teen Wolf is Adelaide Kane, who oh boy, brings us to many things. First there’s Reign, which gets us to Toby Regbo, who brings us back to Medici the Magnificent! (He also connects us to Fantastic Beasts but if I go down that habit hole its a while, short expo I’ve got Pirates of the Caribbean. And through good old Jude Law, the RDJ Sherlock Holmes movies. And also, Captain Marvel, and brings us to not only Clark Gregg, and another connection to MCU and AOS, but also! Also! Star Wars!) 

Ok *Takes Deep breath*. We've got a lot done, but there’s still more! back with Reign, before we get back to Adelaide Kane. Torrance Combs brings us to not only Supernatural and the Tudors (Which also gives us our first OUAT connection but I have a better one so put a pin in that). But also, full circle back to the Originals. Gods this is enjoyable. And again, skipping SPN cause I don’t need that kind of actor headache, we got most of my faves here. 

Side Note also Celine Sindeton was also in Medici so just, ya. And While I’m on the topic Medici connects auto Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings! Yes both of those fantasy jugecrnots via Richard Madden. And! via Sara Parish and Last Night in Soho we get to Anya Taylor Joy, and Queen’s Gambit (And also our first Thomas Brodie Sangster mention but we’ll get back to him in a minute) and Matt Smith, which brings us once again back, to Doctor Who! 

*another deep breath* The next connection is even better. Anna Popplewell brings us to Narnia, which brings us to, have you guessed his name? I bet you guessed his name. We’ve now reached *drum roll* Ben Barnes! And Ben Barns brings us to Shadow and Bone! Oh yes, I’ve brought it in. Via Amita Suman we also get to The Sandman and Doctor Who, which gets us to Jenna Coleman (who brings us to The Crown) and Patton Oswalt (who brings us back to AOS), and said show is written by good old Neil Gaimon. Who brings us to Good Omens and David Tennant too, but again, I’m getting so off track I still haven;t even touched Once Upon a Time yet. 

Narnia must also be mention because with Narnia we get to The Royals, via William Mosley (Said show gets us to Gossip Girl, somehow); Georgia Henly gets us to Spanish Princess which gets us to Downton Abbey and the White Princess, which gets us back to Shadow and Bone and also, Jodie Colmer, cause at this point why not (just play with IMDB to find more connection my brain is starting to hurt); and also yet again Game of Thrones, and this time adding Harry Potter, with Peter Dinklage and Warwick Davice. I can also bring in Elf now. Elf! I started with fucking Teen Wolf and now I’m at Elf!

Moving on! Adelaide Kane brings us to Grey’s Anatomy, again and short of saying everyone ever, let’s just stick to the ones that connect to shows I haven’t mentioned yet and jump to Millie Bobby Brown. Because yes she was in Grey’s Anatomy and yes I can now connect Stranger Things, Enola Holmes, the Witcher, and the DCEU.

Am I done yet? Am I free? Nope cause Stranger Things brings us to Jamie Cambel Bower, who brings us to Lilly Collins, who bring us around to Fantastic Beasts and the Tolkien movie. And so much more but I’m getting tired so I’m moving on again!

I’m gonna take a minute to mention all the MCU connection and say Tom Holland, the main AOS cast, and any Marvel actor you can think of including Karen Gillian are on the board. through Karen we get to Doctor Who, and directily back to Arrow and Legends via not one, not two, but three speerate actors. We also get to Torchwood which through crazy twists can bring us back around to Enolam Holmes and Agents of Shield! (Just look up the actors my brain can't remember their names by now).

Almost there, we’re done with branch two. Yes this was only brach two! And now we can move on to our final branch, Dylan O’brien, and eventually OUAT and the West Wing. Dylan O’brien brings us to Maze Runner and that brings us to two brilliant points. First Kaya Scodelario who brings us to pirates, Spinning Out, and more. Will Pouter, who’s also in Narnia. And the star of my childhood in every way Thomas Brodie Sangster! Oh this sweet precious darling brings us to not only Love Actually, and every British actor ever so just check the IMDB, but also Queen’s Gambit. 

Ok, ok, from here we take the Queen’s Gambit route via Doctor Who, back through Karen Gillian and get to the major MCU, through many films we get to both Josh Dallas and Sebastian Stan who get us to Once Upon a Time. but wait, we don’t even have to cause Once Upon a Time is reached from, who, well Adelaide Kane of course cause she’s in season 7, and no matter how much I fucking hate season 7 its Adelaide Kane and I adore her. From Once Upon a Time we get to the final of my fav shows, the West Wing, how? well by Richard Schiff of course, he was in season 1, 1! of OUAT. 

Now there are some things left out, Bridgerton, the 100, Warehouse 13, Grimm. Okay like give me a minute. Grimm is gotten to via Grey’s cause David Guintoli is in an early season. But we could also use Elizabeth Tolluch, a star of super man and Lois. Either way we’re there, and from there Sasha Roiz takes us to not only Warehouse 13, but also I kid you not the 2004 for disaster movie Day after Tomorrow, and Jake bloody fucking Gylenhall. That’s right he’s in here too. 

Now Bridgerton can be connected via Julie Andrews, somehow, likely via Aqauman, or at least that's the one I can connect with least amount of brain power. Bridgerton get’s us to Derry Girls and the british CSI (or show every actor will be on at least once) Midsummer murders, so just throw in MI5 while I’m here. 

The 100, takes a minute, but not really. Grey’s comes in yet again, with Isaiah Washington. From there we get the 100, but also via Henry Ian Cusick we get both Scandal and Lost so throw in a crap tone more actors from those. I’ve now tied in the Hawaii 5-0 and Magnum PI Reboots. And somehow, ABC’s Inhumans! Like how?! Richard Harmon can also get us to Blake Lively via the Age of Adelaide, and back, yet again to Gossip Girl!

What's still left to connect? The Great, how do I do this Nicholas Holt. I can either go via Anya Taylor Joy and the Menu or Tolkien but either way Nicholas Holt, The Great, and Elle Fanning are now connected to this insanity, somehow!

Rapid fire round now so I can squeeze in as many show as possible before my mind dies. Agent Carter via haley Attwell who brings us back around to Kira Knightly and like everything. Lilly Collins is in here through Either Downton or the Mamia mia Love Actually connection, which gets us to one of my fav films, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Anne with an E via Stranger Things. And Runaways via Stan Lee. 

With all that out of the way, we conclude this experiment? insanity trail? Lecture? I don’t know all I know is this is bloody fucking awesome and insane and just do with it what you will. There is no point, its just a long trail of every actor I’ve ever liked can connect to another actor and anther thing I liked and honestly I’m not complaining. Now all I need is more of this is new media and I’m all set. 

Also, if anyone wants to add on to my connections, please feel free. Like honestly, I beg you, make this insanity more insane.