#i was just drawing Charlie and then i was like ok put a bow on him.. and then i see im drawing frederica instead

[honeyed-badger]

“I don’t even go here!!” I insist, running aimlessly through the square, phone flashlight blazing as the sun sets. “I haven’t read all the source material! I got all this through osmosis! One minute I was drawing Charlie and I thought I’ll add a bow due to her-due to his charm, and then suddenly I’m drawing Frederica, I don’t know how this happened!” Everyone keeps scrambling indoors, the streetlights aren’t coming on, someone motions for me to turn off my phone. “What-“ my voice is drowned out by a deafening drone from above. I look up in time to see the silhouette of a German plane pass overhead before the ground shakes violently with the detonation of a bomb and my vision goes black. The last thing I see is the vague image of a doctor pulling an injured man out from under a collapsed building.

[sassy-radio-hazbin-queen]

Bambi and the Devil Ballroom chapter

---------

To say Alastor was nervous wasn't understatement He had never been on a date He had been to plenty of balls with With Rosie and Charlie for like get togethers. But this but this was his very first actual date.

He started rummaging through his the doors and stuff."I don't even know what to wear". he said panicking. " I mean I guess I could wear this". He gestures to his suit. Mimsy looked at her friend horrified "Oh no no no my dear no you're going to wear that old thing to a ball. This is your first date sweetheart. You must look your best".

" Now let me see what I have in my drawers" Mimsy said opening up her well drawers. Alastor had his eyes closed shut. It didn't matter of his friend was human or a wardrobe It was weird saying her open up like that. Mimsy kept rummaging through before she finally gasped " This is it This is the one for you my dear friend"! She pulled out of her draw a gorgeous red ball gown.

It was off shoulder little puffed in the middle was a golden rose brooch. The dress flowed down and aired out a little bit with a rummages in the end and a gorgeous sash. Alastor gasped his eyes feeling with tears." This is the most beautiful dress I've ever seen in my life.".

"Well put it on". Mimsy encouraged. Alastor took a second before snapping his fingers and the dress was on him. Mimsy smiled "Oh my you look beautiful it that Alastor". Alastor blushes " Thank you Mimsy". He snapped his fingers and his red hair was now in a small rose bun. A golden rose hair clip was on the side. Mimsy smiled again. " Now your ready my dear".

Meanwhile Lucifer was also getting ready for the ball. He took a bath. Angel and Cherri were helping with his hair. Which had grown quite long in recent years. Cherri was cutting it while Angel told her where to cut.

" Now remember Your majesty it must be tonight you have to tell him tonight your feelings to him". Angel said trying to give Lucifer the confidence he needed.

" Yes tonight I can do it". Lucifer said boldly. Then doubt came to his mind". No I can't do it". Cherri frowned. " Why not. You love him don't you".

" More than anything". Lucifer said. Cherrie smiles " then tell him what's the worst that can happen". Lucifer Gave her a what do you think look on his face. Cherri sighed. " Just try ok".

Angel crossed his arms " He better I want my sexy body back". Lucifer frowned " Well that's what you get for sneaking in places your not invited in". Angel rolls his eyes. " If I could I'd flip you off".

Lucifer laughs" sure ok now let's see the hair". He paused seeing his new ahem look. " Um well you look so " Cherri began trying to find the right words. Angel was laughing. " Stupid". Lucifer said deadpanned. " Umm let's try this again ok". Cherri said.

Vaggie entered the room. " Ahem your date awaits you".

Lucifer came down the stairs wearing a nice Red and gold suit. But his eyes widened seeing Alastor. His heart beats a million times a minute he walks up to him and places a kiss on his hand. " You look gorgeous in that". Alastor blushes. " Thank you. You look quite handsome yourself". Lucifer heart practically leapt. Maybe he had a chance. He bows and Alastor does the same. Angel and Cherri begin to sing as the two lovebirds descent the stairs.

" Tales as old as time,

True as it can be,

Barely even friends then somebody bends unexpectedly".

Alastor saw how Lucifer was now eating properly and it made him smile. He then remember this was supposed to be a ball so he grabs the devil's hands and leads him to the dancefloor. Lucifer gulps as Alastor puts his hand on his waist and they begin dancing.

Angel and Cherri continue singing as the two dance the night away.

"Just a little change

Small, to say the least

Both a little scared

Neither one prepared

Bambi and The Devil

Ever just the same

Ever a surprise

Ever as before

Ever just as sure

As the sun will rise

Tale as old as time

Tune as old as song

Bittersweet and strange

Finding you can change

Learning you were wrong

Certain as the sun

Rising in the east

Tale as old as time

Song as old as rhyme

Bambi and the devil

Tale as old as time

Song as old as rhyme

Bambi and the devil.

They stopped singing as they watched the pair go outside.

Alastor sighs " This is the most fun id had in so long. I remember dancing with my mother" he smiles fondly thinking of the memory. Ever since he made peace with his past he felt he could talk about his mother. " I used to step on her feet Alot". He giggles. Lucifer nods. " Alastor may I ask you something"?

Alastor nods " Of course what is it". Lucifer took a deep breath and took Alastor hands in his own.

" Are you happy here with me"? He asked. Alastor cocked his head confused by the question. He was happy but at the same time he missed Rosie and Charlie deeply. " I am". He began. " You are "? Lucifer asked hopeful. " But". Alastor said looking down. " But , but what"? Lucifer asked concerned.

Alastor began to tear up. " I miss Rosie and Charlie deeply. Id give anything to see them again". He looks away not wanting the devil to see him cry. Lucifer smiles. " There is a way to see them both".

They went to the west wing and Lucifer gave Alastor his mirror with instructions on how to use it. " Show me My friends". Alastor commanded. The mirror shone blinding him for a minute. When his eyes adjusted though he gasped in horror.

Rosie was in the ground coughing she looked terribly ill. Charlie herself wasn't fairing any better. " Oh no they are sick , they could be dying ". Alastor said worried. He knew there was nothing he could do. He was a prisoner here. Lucifer turned away and stared at the Rose. It was wilting fast. He knew what he had to do.

" Then go to them". He commanded. " What "? Alastor asked confused. " I I release you". He said. " Oh thank you ". Alastor said giving Lucifer back his mirror. " No keep it. So you'll always have something to look at and remember me". He caressed Alastor cheek. " Thank you for understanding how much this means to me". He turns to the mirror" don't worry guys I'm coming ". He leaves the room. Vaggies comes in. " Welp I say this night has gone splendid".

" I let him go". Lucifer said. " You WHAT "? Vaggie said horrified. " But why"?

" Because I love him". Lucifer answers.

" HE WHAT "?! the others all say when Vaggie told them what Lucifer told her.

" After all this time, he finally learned to love". Husk said sighing.

Meanwhile as Lucifer watched Alastor leave he begins to sing.

I was the one who had it all

I was the master of my fate

I never needed anybody in my life

I learned the truth too late

I'll never shake away the pain

I close my eyes but she's still there

I let her steal into my melancholy heart

It's more than I can bear

Now I know she'll never leave me

Even as she runs away

She will still torment me

Calm me, hurt me

Move me, come what may

Wasting in my lonely tower

Waiting by an open door

I'll fool myself, she'll walk right in

And be with me for evermore

I rage against the trials of love

I curse the fading of the light

Though she's already flown so far beyond my reach

She's never out of sight

Now I know she'll never leave me

Even as she fades from view

She will still inspire me

Be a part of everything I do

Wasting in my lonely tower

Waiting by an open door

I'll fool myself, she'll walk right in

And as the long, long nights begin

I'll think of all that might have been

Waiting here for evermore. "

Lucifer finished just as Alastor disappears in his eyes forever.

[icecream-and-gadreel]

Chapter 1: Family ties

Series Summary: Jack goes missing days after his father betrays their family by joining another syndicate. Everyone suspects Lucifer but instead of sitting around wondering, Castiel goes to the best detective he knows: Dean Winchester. The cynical detective has lost his lust for life and doesn't want to make his miserable days anymore miserable by being caught between the two biggest crime families in the country. Ever persuasive, Castiel is able to recruit him and start a relationship that neither of them expected.

Summary: Castiel can't bite his tongue around his family anymore. Meanwhile, Dean thinks about retirement up until he finds that his agency has been broken in to.

Pairing: Destiel

Other characters: Samandriel, Sam, Gabriel, Jack(Mentioned), Lucifer(Mentioned) Max, Cassie(Mentioned) Charlie (Mentioned)

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Language, mentions of violence, guns, smoking, death mention, threats

Word count: 2800+

A/N: Thank you to my amazing beta @cajunquandry, I appreciate you making this fic sparkle! Anyways I am obsessed with Noir films and bamf!Castiel, so why not feed into both? Enjoy!

Masterlist

Three days missing

Castiel

Cigarette smoke fogs the room, the sound of jazz music combatting the chattering crowd. Sitting in the corner of the bar is Castiel, swirling his beer mindlessly.

It's driving him insane.

His family, all crowded around him, celebrates some meaningless victory and pretend like nothing is wrong. The absolute disregard for Jack's disappearance is enough to make him want to snap. But he doesn't. Instead, he swirls his beer and avoids the looks from his brothers. Samandriel stares at him from across the bar, babysitting a glass of water. He seems to be the only other person that gives a damn. Castiel begins raising to his feet, halting when Sam sits next to him. Sighing, Castiel sinks back into his seat.

“Hey,” Sam says, rolling his sleeves up. Castiel grunts in response, setting his beer down and leaning back in his seat.

“You came.”

“Yeah, uh Gabriel wouldn't stop calling the office so...” Sam shrugs, gesturing for the bartender. He orders a shot of vodka, clearing his throat. “You ok?” he asks, patting Castiel's back.

“Far from it,” he retorts, flicking his eyes to the other man. “He's gone. No trace, no signs, just vanished. I'd feel better if there was a body.”

Sam nods, downing his shot with a huff. “I get it –”

“Do you?,” he snaps, glancing over his shoulder before continuing. “All they talk about is 'loyalty' and 'putting the family first', but the moment it really counts they're nowhere to be seen,” he growls.

Sam nods. “No, I get it, I do,” he says, nodding once more. Before Castiel can respond, Gabriel is throwing his arms around them.

“Stop being a fucking buzz kill!” Gabriel whines, tssking his younger brother. Castiel shakes out of his grasp, whirling around toward the crowd. Gabriel offers him a bottle of whiskey, wiggling his eyebrows. “Live a little, baby bro.”

Snatching the bottle away, Castiel stands from his seat, gaining whoops and hollers from his family.

“Castiel –”

“My nephew,” he begins, cutting Sam off. The crowd goes quiet. “Our nephew has disappeared from the face of the earth.” Castiel swigs from the bottle, a river of liquor running down his neck. “Could be dead or worse.” He smashes the bottle against the ground and Sam flinches back, a look of concern crossing his face. “Excuse me if I'm not 'chipper',” he adds, a faux-smile on his face. The room is silent, even the music has stopped. Castiel stares around at the sea of shocked faces, his chest heaving as the anger bubbles inside of him. “You're all full of shit. Being with family only matters to you when it's fun!”

Sam stands from his seat, patting Castiel's back. “I think we should go,” he whispers, flinching when Gabriel clears his throat.

“Look, we all know Lucifer has him, can't take him from his dad now can we?” Gabriel asks.

They could. All they'd have to do is find the bastard, tell him to give Jack up, and take him home. Castiel considers telling Gabriel this, but heads for the door instead. He ignores the protests from his family, tucking his hands into his pockets and making his way down the road. He pulls a lighter from his pocket with a huff. He looks over his shoulder at the sounds of a car approaching, rolling his eyes. 

“Need a ride?” Sam asks, easing the car to a stop. Silently, Castiel leans against the hood of the car, pulling a cigarette from his shirt pocket. “Come on, get in.”

“No, get out.” Sighing, Sam pulls his keys out of the ignition, sulking over to him with a cocked smile. “The detective,” he says, flicking his eyes up to Sam.

“My...brother?” Sam asks, shaking his head when Castiel nods. “It's not gonna happen.”

“He was able to get to Michael. I still don't know how he got close enough,” he says, resting a hand on Sam's arm. “What I do know is if anyone could find Jack, it's him.”

“It's not gonna happen,” he repeats, stiffening as Castiel squeezes his shoulder. “Dean doesn't deal with the mafia,” he adds.

“Please. It's like I'm the only one who gives a damn,” he says, gently rubbing Sam's arm. “I can't do this alone,” he adds. Sam melts under the touch, as he always does, and darts his eyes away.

“It's not that easy,” he mumbles. Castiel flicks his cigarette away before bracing Sam's other arm, a stone look on his face.

“An address. That's all I need. If he says no, then I'll leave,” he says. Sam rolls his eyes and gently urges Castiel's hands away.

“Only if you go back to the bar with me.” Sam points behind himself. “You owe me a shot.” Castiel hums, shrugging.

“Fine.”

–

Four days missing

Castiel stares down at the sloppily written address, squinting his eyes. The ink is smudged thanks to Gabriel spilling a drink all over the napkin, but he thinks he has the right place. He rubs a hand over his eye, trying to shake away his hangover. Never again will he challenge his overgrown lawyer to a drinking contest. He stares down at the address once more, glancing up when he hears humming. A man with caramel skin makes his way to the building, pulling out a set of keys. After opening the door, he disappears into the building. 

Glancing around, Castiel draws his gun, jogging across the street and ducking into a nearby crevice. Minutes later the delivery man is reemerging. He sets down his sack of packages and sorts through the keys once more. Castiel creeps up behind him, pressing his gun into the other man's back.

“Don't scream,” he says, voice calm. The man obliges, slowly raising his hands up. “What's your name?”

“Max,” he grunts, looking over his shoulder with a sigh. “I don't carry my wallet, but I think someone ordered a blender,” he says dryly, nodding to the bag.

“I need to get into this building,” he says in a near whisper.

“You couldn't just ask?”

“Would you have let me in?” he retorts. Max shakes his head, sorting through the keys once more and opening the door. He leads Castiel inside, hands still in the air. “Come with me.”

“Why?” Max grows, shooting him a glare. Castiel opens the door to the detective's office, pushing Max in first. The room feels claustrophobic; the mess on the floor and desk isn't helping. It smells faintly of cigarettes and warm cologne. Castiel looks at each corner, noting that there aren't any cameras. He sinks down into the spinning chair behind the desk, gesturing at Max with his gun.

“I'm a very good shot,” he begins, opening a drawer and digging around. “But if I happen to miss, I will find you, and if I find you, things will be much less pleasant than they are now.”

“Wow, you're a blast to deal with,” Max says, leaning against the wall.

Castiel grabs a picture of a stoic man and a curly haired woman from the desk, his gun still aimed at Max. “I've been told recently that I'm not,” he says, furrowing his brow. They both share a solemn look. Dean, he assumes, looks far more intense than Sam described him. He flips the photo over, chuckling under his breath. 'The wife and I try to be serious for once. Didn't work. September '48'. he turns the picture once more, observing Dean before getting back to his main mission. Cameras. Bugs. Recorders. Anything a cop could use to get him caught up. He squats down, running his hand underneath the desk.

“...flies in.”

Castiel frowns, looking up at the source of the voice. His throat runs dry as he trails his eyes over the man before him. Black pants that cling to his bow-legs. A button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up, revealing freckle kissed skin. His face falls into a frown, his cherry red lips parted. Castiel forces himself to look away, glancing down at the picture.

Dean.

Dean

Dean tosses a burger on Sam's desk, a toothy grin on his face.

“Mornin' sunshine,” he cooes, gaining a groan from Sam. “Come on, grease is the hangover miracle cure.”

“I just need sleep and...copious amounts of coffee,” the younger Winchester groans, slowly rising from his desk. “...And to never drink again,” he adds, eyeing the burger.

“Yeah, leave it to the professionals buddy,” Dean says, shooting him a wink. Sam furrows his brow and unwraps his burger as he leaves his office.

“Any new cases?”

Dean hums, following Sam out and staring at the sky. The last case had ended with him locking one of the Novak brothers up, and sending another one running for the hills. The months to follow have been almost stagnant. “I think it's time,” he says. Sam bites into his burger, cocking an eyebrow at him. “You know, retirement. No more catching politicians in motels, just me and Baby.”

Sam scoffs. “Yeah, ok.”

“What? I'm serious!” Dean says, gesturing to the air. “Look at this, Sammy,” he says. The sky is blue with few clouds painting the sky. Cars are racing down the street, along with many people hustling on the sidewalks. “I don't get to enjoy this beautiful city anymore.”

Sam chuckles, glancing around. “Someone peed on this 'beautiful' sidewalk,” he says, pointing to a spot on the ground. Dean hops over it, staring at the stain as he passes. “But yeah, you're missing out,” Sam chuckles.

“Ha. I think it'll be good for me, though,” Dean says, stroking a finger along his jaw. “Solving crimes, angry convicts just waiting to catch me in a dark alley. I don't like it anymore.” Sam frowns, tossing the last bite of his burger into his mouth.

“All you've ever talked about is helping people.”

“Yeah, well.” Dean pauses, darting his tongue over his lip. “Just doesn't get me out of bed like it used to,” he says, glancing at his brother. The younger Winchester gives him his trademark puppy dog eyes, making him huff. “What?”

“Being cooped up in the house all day thinking of Cassie isn't healthy, Dean.” He speaks slowly, keeping his eyes locked on Dean's. “Neither is drinking yourself to sleep and waking up next to random strippers. The agency is the only thing that kept you sane,” he adds. Dean chuckles, his chest tightening at the mention of her. At the office. Sitting at home. It doesn't matter, the only person on his mind will always be her. He twists the wedding ring around on his finger, forcing out a laugh.

“You'd make a better shrink than a lawyer.”

“Fine, let's say you quit, what about Charlie? She needs the job and you know it,” Sam says. Dean purses his lips with a shrug. As he approaches his agency, his face sinks. The door is wide open, and on the side of the door sits Max's parcel bag.

“Wait here,” Dean grunts, gaining a perplexed look in return. Slowly, he pokes his head into the door, scanning his eyes over the room. Nothing seems disturbed, save for his door being left open. He scratches his scruff, eyeing the door to his office. Cracked open. “Max, you left the door open,” he yells, making his way toward his office. “Gonna let flies in...” his voice trails away at the scene before him. Max, standing in the corner with his hands up. A vaguely familiar man digging in his desk with a gun aimed at the delivery man. The man stares at Dean silently, blue eyes dancing.

“Go,” the man says, waving his gun at Max. He reluctantly walks out of the room, hands still in the air. “Are there any bugs?” he asks, voice rasping. Dean slowly makes his way to a bottle of whiskey sitting on the window seal, shaking his head.

“Had a couple roaches a while back, other than that, no,” he says, grabbing two glasses. He sets them on his desk, filling the glasses half-way with the liquor. “Dean Winchester. Am I looking at a new client?”

“I hope so,” he says, reluctantly tucking his gun into the back of his pants. Dean offers the man a cup of whiskey, sipping from his own. “This isn't how I imagined this interaction going.”

“I figure either you shoot me, or you pay me. Neither sounds bad these days,” he says, chuckling. The other man remains silent. “So...wife's cheating? Boss stealing from the company? What's the case?”

“A missing person, my nephew,” he says, making his way around the desk. Dean grabs a pen and a piece of crumpled paper, leaning on his desk.

“Fun. What's he look like?” Dean asks.

“Brown hair. About 5'10''. Twenty-two. Blue eyes...” He gulps down his whiskey, wiping his mouth afterward. “I just need to know that Jack is alive.”

Dean jots down a few notes, nodding to himself. “Right, and what's your name?” he asks. The other man pauses, looking to the ground. Dean stares at him silently, rolling his wrist when the man doesn't say anything. “You know, like the thing people call you?”

“Castiel,” he says, biting his lip. “Castiel Novak.”

Dean tosses the pen and paper, clasping his hands together. “There it is. I don't work with murderers. If you need a lawyer, my brother's always taking new clients,” he says, gesturing to the door. “Have a good one.”

Castiel takes a step closer. “Sam is the reason I'm here. I'm out of options.”

“Look, I feel for you, I really do but I'll be damned if I get involved with the mafia,” he says, holding his hands up and shaking his head.

“Who said anything about the mafia?”

“You do realize that I locked up Michael, right?” Dean asks. Castiel clenches his jaw, huffing. 

“Jack doesn't deserve to be ignored because of what his family is 'allegedly' involved in,” he says,taking a step closer to Dean. “Name a number, any ridiculous price and it's yours.”

Chuckling, the Winchester crosses his arms over. “I don't take blood money.” He nods to the door. “See ya,” he adds. Sam jogs into the room, staring between the two men with raised eyebrows.

“Hey, what's up with Max?” Sam asks, frowning when his eyes land on Castiel. “Oh, you've met.”

“Yup. We met and now he’s on his way out,” Dean says, sipping his liquor before setting the cup down. Castiel pinches the bridge of his nose, chest heaving. Wordlessly, he pulls his gun out, aiming it at Dean.

“I don't think you understand the position you're in.”

“Woah, hey,” Sam says, holding his hands up to Castiel. “Let's calm down.”

“I don't have time for this. I need help, Dean.”

Dean cracks a grin, tilting his head. “I already told you my answer. Burn down my business, shoot me, whatever. I've got nothing to lose.”

“Yeah?” Castiel returns his smile, turning the gun on Sam. “Well, You've got him,” he says. Dean stands from his desk, his smile being replaced with a grimace. “Lay his life on the line, and I'll know you stand for nothing.”

“Castiel,” Sam says, hurt apparent in his tone.

“You love pointing that thing around, huh?” Dean asks, voice wavering. Castiel stares at him blankly, cocking his gun.

“Might I remind you that I've been accused of allegedly killing men for much less. Imagine what I'd hypothetically do to him to gain your cooperation, Detective,” he says. A look of hurt crosses Sam's face, and he turns his eyes to the elder Winchester, letting out a heaving breath. Castiel raises his eyebrows, turning his gun to the ceiling and firing off a round. “In case you thought it wasn't loaded.”

Dean looks between both men, swiping a hand over his face. When Castiel points the gun at Sam, Dean holds his hands out to him. “I'll do it,” he blurts, heart pounding in his chest. Smiling, Castiel de-cocks his gun, looking between both men.

“Thank you, I'll be here first thing tomorrow.”

Eternity squad: @sheinthatfandom​​ @greenshinigamieyes @lipstickandwhiskey @feelmyroarrrr @bcarolinablr @mrswhozeewhatsis @mssunnyone

[write-mywayout]

You asked for fic prompts and if you would, the Umbrella Academy kids picking names and Klaus getting his from the "A Series of Unfortunate Events" novels would be great. Or anything fluffy and Klaus related, honestly. (Have a nice trip)

here you go!! hope you enjoy it, please send me more prompts!!

~

The lives of the Hargreeves children were less than normal. Everyone circumstance beginning from their birth had left the seven siblings vulnerable to imaginable amounts of grief, pain, and danger. Each one of them had their way of escaping, if only for a time, from the grim reality that was their lives. Number One found that running drills and sprinting miles helped to clear his head, channeling the emotional exhaustion into a physical one. Number Two liked to sit and watch Grace cross-stitch, the threading of the needle in constant and precise movements serving almost as a type of hypnosis. Number Three enjoyed painting, everything from a canvas to her fingernails to the makeup on her face; she liked the feeling that she could create something out of nothing and had the power to change it whenever she pleased. Number Four loved to design clothes. He would never be able to make or wear any of them considering his forced profession and uniform (not to mention the fact that sewing was not an activity approved for boys), but that didn’t stop him from filling sketchpad after sketch pad with drawings that would rival the runways in Milan. Number Five found solace in cooking, whether this was convincing Grace to let him help with her preparation of meals when he wasn’t training, or simply standing beside her and watching (this happened more often than not since trainings left him generally fatigued). Number Six was an avid reader, he found a kinship in tales of sorrow and monsters, allowing himself to momentarily project into a world where these horrors were not his own but someone else’s. Number Seven drowned herself in music. Once she picked up her father’s old violin, her fingertips itched for new pieces to learn and songs to play.

It is no surprise that these great escape artists would cross paths in their endeavors. Number Seven would bake cookies with Grace while the others were on missions, getting tips from Number Five on how to make the edges crispy while keeping the inside gooey. On their rare days off, Number Four would dress up Number Three in daring outfits, playing music on Number One’s record player and having her strut down the hall to show the others the costumes he had put together for their little fashion show—at the end of which Number Four would come out and bow, giving a small wave with fingernails freshly painted by his runway model. Number Two liked the quiet serenity that followed Number Six when he was tucked away in the corner of the library, enthralled in his latest novel, and would often come and just sit and share the silent peace.

Most of the children eventually followed suit in regards to this specific activity. While Number Two and Number Six still shared their private, hushed reading time, the others gradually began to gravitate toward the calm presence that surrounded Number Six when he was reading. This led to a Sunday night tradition amongst the kids, in which they would all drag pillows from their rooms and curl up next to the fire place in the library after dinner to listen to Number Six read books aloud. It was unspoken that no one talked during this time, unless to ask for clarification or for a part to be repeated. It was a sanctuary away from competition and petty disputes, granting each child the escape that it was.

They tore through every genre. Number Three and Number Four thought Crime and Punishment was a little dense, Number One loved Catch 22 in all it’s confusing wartime glory, Number Five enjoyed the wit and sarcasm of Hamlet, and Number Seven reveled in anything written by Vonnegut (she used to say that “he writes the way music would sound if it were made of words”). The fan favorites, however, were the Series of Unfortunate Events books. To no one’s surprise, all the children felt a connection to the trials and tribulations faced by the Baudelaire orphans. They commiserated the loss of parents and a normal home life, the presence of overbearing and wicked adults who refused to listen, and the overall feeling that their life was indeed the result of a series of terribly lamentable factors.

They were gearing up to finish the third book in the series the night their father announced at dinner that they would be allowed to choose their own names, per approval from Grace. They were allotted twenty four hours to decide. While they all habitually gathered around Number Six near the fire that Sunday night, story time was recklessly abandoned with the excitement and approaching deadline regarding the choosing of their names.

“Should we try to do some sort of theme?” suggested Number Seven.

“Are you kidding? I have waited way too long for this to not make my own, very individual decision,” Number Three said, twisting her curls into a large bun that sat on top of her head.

“I don’t get why we have to be the ones to choose,” grumbled Number One. “I’m just gonna let Grace pick mine, she’ll know what Dad prefers anyway.”

“Sounds about right. Why think for yourself when you could have someone else do it for you?” Number Two mocked.

“Hey! No arguing during story time! You guys know the rules,” Number Four interjected with a disapproving wave of his hands in their direction, subtly scooting himself between the two to act as a physical barrier.

“Six isn’t even reading anything,” Number Five pointed out.

“Well it’s the principle.”

“Ben,” Number Six said softly.

“What?” Number Two asked.

“I think I like the name Ben.”

“That’s so boring,” Number Three laughed. Ben just shrugged.

“I think it suits you,” Number Seven offered with a small smile. Ben returned it with a shy grin of his own.

“Thanks.”

“Anyway, if we’re getting to choose our own names I’m gonna do something cool. Like Storm or Panther or Rocket,” Number Two said excitedly.

“You do realize that all those names just sound like the ones the magazines already give us?” Ben pointed out.

“So what? They give them to us because they think we’re cool.”

“They think I’m cool, but definitely not you,” Number Three teased. Number Two stuck his tongue out in her direction.

“Alright your majesty, so what’s your name gonna be?”

“Hmm, I was thinking something stylish but not too outlandish. Like classy, in an elegant kind of way.”

“Maybe Charlotte?” Number Seven suggested.

“Nah, I don’t want people calling me Charlie. I am so not a Charlie.”

“While you workshop that, I will be naming myself Klaus,” announced Number Four.

“Klaus?” Number One questioned with a subtle look of condemnation.

“Yeah! It’s different, it’s memorable, and it’s…” Number Four mumbled the last part.

“It’s what?” asked Number Five.

“It’s the name of my favorite book character ok?” Number Four said, eyes fixated on the fireplace as his cheeks burned red. Ben smiled next to him.

“Really? Klaus is your favorite character? I would’ve thought you resonated more with Count Olaf. I mean, you do have a similar taste in fashion and flare for the dramatic,” Number Three jabbed.

“Hey! I am not Count Olaf! And his outfits are way tacky, I am honestly offended that you would compare the two of us,” Number Four feigned hurt. “And I like Klaus he’s… smart. He uses knowledge to figure things out and create stuff. And he doesn’t get scared, because he knows he can always find a way to escape, and that he has his family to help him out if he can’t.”

Number Four didn’t want to say it out loud but Klaus was kind of his hero. He dreamt of being as smart as he was, desperate to offer some sort of offensive skill to their team. He knew what the others thought about him sometimes when they went on missions. Sure he was no Number Seven, he did have certified powers after all, but his abilities didn’t really serve in stopping bank robbers or rescuing civilians. And secretly, Number Four always admired Number Six, or Ben now it seemed, for his intelligence. Sometimes he would ask questions while he was reading just to hear him explain the intricacies of some military term or seventeenth century city he didn’t care about simply because he liked to hear someone who knew things talk about them. And, unbeknownst to the others, the two of them would sometimes sneak into each others rooms at night and go under the covers with flashlights to read ahead in their story time books. It never bothered Number Four to hear the chapters again on Sunday, and Ben didn’t seem to mind telling them for a second time.

The rest of the group sat silently for a moment taking in his words. It wasn’t often that Number Four seemed to think something through this thoroughly and then decide to share it. As loud and outgoing as he could be, he never really talked about things of substance. They all knew that he dealt with issues they didn’t—it’s hard not to hear him scream in his nightmares when it reverberates through a silent mansion in the dead of night—but that part of Number Four is always tucked very far away from the sunlight and from the others. Whether that was by choice or necessity, no one was really sure.

“I think it’s perfect… Klaus,” Number Seven encouraged, placing her hand lightly over his and giving it a squeeze.

“Thank you! You can be my Violet Seven,” Klaus smiled and squeezed her hand back. The gesture, both physical and metaphorical with the naming of her as his partner in crime, lit Number Seven’s face with joy.

“Maybe I will be Violet,” she agreed, almost in a whisper.

“Whatever. I’m going to be named Rocket,” Number Two boasted.

~

Number Two was not named Rocket.

Grace met with each of them the next day before dinner to discuss the choices they had come up with and to make sure that they would be Reginald approved, as they were to announce them at the close of the evening’s meal.

Because Number One arrived bearing no opinion on the matter, he picked a name at random from a pre-approved list that their father had drawn up. He felt smug, knowing that this would likely please his father since he was sure that none of his other siblings would dare give up the chance to not let their father decide something. His name, second row and third from the bottom, would be Luther.

Number Two was not happy when all of his name choices were shot down by Grace. He argued that she should be on his side and say screw it to what their father wanted, to which she replied that there were no sides and that he should not use “screw” in that context. He refused to pick from the pre-approved list, so the two of them workshopped a few choices before landing on something Number Two felt was cool enough and that Grace thought Reginald would sign off on. Number Two’s name would be Diego.

Number Three had spent all night going back and forth between names. She was flipping through a magazine when she landed on a photo of a smiling girl, teeth white and head thrown back in laughter, with a quote about how much fun she was having with her friends at this summer’s newest water park attraction. Her fingers stalled on the page, locking eyes with the girl in the photo and wishing that she could trade places with her. She couldn’t help herself from choosing the name scribbled across the model’s photo in bright pink, and so Number Three would be Allison.

To his surprise, Number Four’s name choice was approved without much debate. Grace felt the name was robust and reasonable, which would make Reginald happy, and that it was just as unique as Number Four himself. Without much fuss, Number Four was granted his request and would be Klaus.

Number Six faired similarly to Number Four. His choice in name didn’t spark much concern from Grace, other than the modification that his name must be officially documented in its full version. And so, Number Six would be Ben (officially Benjamin).

Although Number Seven proposed the name Violet to Grace, she was shot down as their father had apparently ruled against the use of colors as names. After seeing her disappoint, Grace compromised by agreeing to let her keep a V name. Number Seven had always loved languages, her favorite being Russian, so Grace decided to choose a name to match. Number Seven would be Vanya.

Number Five would disappear that night during the dinner at which they were all to announce their names. When he didn’t return by the meal’s end, Reginald decided to proceed without him. The children all presented their names, Vanya having to prompt Ben as he had left a customary place for Five to speak in between him and Klaus. When Number Five failed to return late into that night, the kids all snuck into the library one by one, each finding the others waiting for them in a mutual state of insomnia, feeling the need to return to a place of solace and escape. They lit a dim fire and huddled close together, leaning in to hear Ben as he read the book in a whispered tone. Their day of happiness had been overtaken by one of fear and loss, and as each child revelled in their new names they couldn’t help but feel guilty, knowing that somewhere out there, Number Five was still just a number.

[siphonophored]

ok so. the normal guy is Jake, he has absolutely nothing interesting about him he is just some guy. he has some cringe mundane office job or smth probably idk and plays Video Games in his free time. i havent worked out the story much violet is roommate #1, a shark catgirl (shark tail and teeth, cat ears) shes a college history professor and is pretty shy and timid. shes insanely smart. her students are all obsessed with her and constantly try to impress her/ask her out. shes flattered but declines all of them. she's been a friend of jake's for a pretty long time. i don't have any recent drawings of her but uhm she has light blue hair tied into a single side braid, glasses, yellow eyes, glasses, big boobies, huge shark tail, yeah. also shes 6'1 olivia is roommate #2, just a normal catgirl. shes super excitable and happy and upbeat and affectionate. she has short brown hair and brown cat ears she has yellow eyes.. she has big boobies and wears exclusively shirts with tit windows. i haven't decided where she works yet... shes cute :) shes also a longtime friend of jake. trixie is roommate #3. shes super goth. she never smiles. she has long straight black hair and a big bang that covers her right eye. she always wears heavy black makeup. shes very angry. just all the time. she likes to insult and make fun of jake. idk where she works yet either.. probably a music store or something. she has NO boobies. she likes playing super smash bros with olivia but she always loses and gets super heated. uhm yeah MIA is roommate #4. shes a musical idol and one half of a singing duo with her sister may. towards her fans she acts super kind and cheery and stuff but is actually super cruel and mean and shitty.. i actually had yumemi yumemite in mind while creating her lol... she has tan skin, green eyes and wears heart-shaped contacts, she has light pink hair she puts into twintails with cute pink bows. she has smallish average boobies idk. she is also part of the "bully jake" team. also as an idol her fans prefer her over her sister and shes a real cunt about it. maya is roommate #5, mia's sister. shes Very shy and timid and never stands up to her sister and just Takes the abuse. her sister treats her terribly but does love her in her own way. OH they're twins btw.. maya has long light pink hair, green eyes, ykno. she has a very Boring appearance and doesn't work as hard to look cute like her sister. shes sweet and it rlly affects her confidence bc their fans don't like her.. she gets pretty close to jake bc she can vent to him and he's a good listener, he helps her stand up to mia a bit. everyone else in the apartment thinks maya and jake are dating or fucking or something but they're not. hazel is roommate #6, a chef! she has tan skin, long green hair she keeps in a ponytail tied up with a yellow bow. she owns her own restaurant that's super popular! she likes cooking for her roommates though, and she makes dinner every night. shes sweet and pretty modest. shes also quite muscular and underestimates her strength sometimes. oh and has big boobies ofc charli is roommate #7. shes a personal trainer and is SUPER muscular and her room is mostly workout equipment. shes really rowdy and fiery and scrappy and likes fighting. one time she tried sparring with jake and broke his wrist by accident. shes insanely strong . she has a 6 pack. i love her<3 ALSO I LIED these are all i have so far maybe ill add an 8th idk anyway yeah that's them

do u guys wanna hear abt the "normal guy has 8 catgirl roommates" story

[mycreativeoutlet1]

The Trickster’s Mate Ch 7

Word Count: 2k

A/N: And she's back! Real life has been hectic, and nothing sucks inspiration away like working all the time! Anyway, there's literally no plot to this whatsoever. I tried to come up with some kinda plot and just couldn't, so here's a few of those failed attempts at...something. These three little sections are in no particular order, but I hope you guys like them!

"You almost died?! What?!" Charlie's voice yelled at you over the phone.

Jumping and pulling the phone away, you can't help but grimace. You had completely forgot that Charlie didn't know anything about you and Gabriel, or that you had nearly died... "I'm sorry, Charlie! Everything just happened quickly and then there was the few hunts with the brothers and I basically died and Gabe almost didn't make it in time-"

"So you and Gabe are finally a thing now? Instead of just feeling each other up?" she asked with a vocal smirk. She had been around for a couple times when Gabe had massaged your shoulders. She had also been pushing for you two to get together. And you felt like crap that you had forgotten to tell her...

Well... "It's actually a bit more than that," you say, thinking about the entire mate thing. "Where are you?" Charlie sounds confused as she rattles off that she was in her apartment. "Ok, I'll be there in a minute."

After hanging up, you call for Gabe who was currently in Heaven. He had been trying to help his brothers and sisters out more and you had encouraged him to help out the angels without a purpose. Some of them had been fighting again, while some escaped onto Earth, and some just stayed low. It was a nightmare according to Gabe and Cas.

"Hey, Babe, will you poof me to Charlie, please?" you ask aloud, grabbing your phone and money. A quiet ringing answers you, and you give the go-ahead, then the next thing you know you're standing in Charlie's apartment while you stumble a little from appearing.

Charlie nearly threw her drink at you when you appeared, letting out a shriek that she would later deny. "When you say a minute, you mean a minute," she said, trying to get her voice back to normal, hand on her chest as she breathes.

"Perks of having a mate that's an angel," you shrug, waiting for the words to register in Charlie's mind.

Charlie laughed, waving her hand in the air. "Yeah, yeah, no need to brag- wait mate?!"

"Yeah, you may want to get comfy," you tell her. "It's a long story."

You couldn't wipe the smirk off of your face.

Gabe's angelic voice, a ringing of high pitches that were just shy of being painful to your ears, resounded through the room. Right now, you were sitting on the back of Gabriel's thighs, massaging your hands through his wings slowly as he lay on his stomach. He had started with loud human moans, but that failed him after about twenty minutes. Now his vessel's mouth hung open while his actual voice rang around the room unfettered.

After a particularly deeper push into his muscles in the space between his wings, Gabe's body bowed upwards, jerking suddenly and nearly knocking you from his legs.

"Did you just-?" you trail off, an eyebrow quirked. Maybe his wings were more sensitive than you had thought... "You still there, Cupcake?" you ask, still smirking, as you run your fingertips through his feathers gently.

His body breathes heavily underneath you as he lays there motionless. More ringing resounds in the room, at a much more pleasant volume. A warmth reaches through your bond, his only other answer than his true voice.

"Gabriel," you call. Shifting forward, you card your fingers through his hair and lean against his back, his wings underneath you. "I love you," you whisper into his ear, watching his eyelids flutter. He responds in his angel voice, which makes you smile until your cheeks hurt. Even if you couldn't understand him, you could infer pretty well to get the gist.

Lightly scratching the middle set of wings, you wonder how much longer he could go for. You'd been massaging his wings for almost an hour by now. Not to mention he had already finished, even if that wasn't your particular goal. You finally pull your hands back, ready to crawl up next to him to lay down.

A sudden, insistent ringing echoes around the room, making you pause. "You want me to keep going?" you ask, unsure if that's what the sounds mean. Gabe's wings flutter slightly, while another ringing answers your question. "Alright," you smile, straddling his butt so you could reach more of his wings. You practically jumped at the chance to spoil your archangel. He had done so much for you, it was about time you got to reciprocate a little bit. It was hardly as if you could buy him something he didn't have, or could create with a single thought.

Starting gently, you trace your fingers over each feather that you could reach. The upper most set of wings stretched slightly, making room for you to reach the middle set. It was the third set, the smallest of the three, that seemed to be the most sensitive so you weren't going to touch those yet. If he wanted to draw this out, then you would.

Another ten minutes go by before Gabriel's wings start to twitch again. His voice, which had been at a pleasantly low ring, was now gaining volume and intensity.

"I wish I could understand you, your actual voice," you say aloud, unsure if he could actually hear you over himself. Regardless, the sentiment was true.

Finally, your hands began to grow tired so you dig your hands into the softest and most sensitive set of wings. Immediately, Gabriel's vessel bows off the bed until he's on his hands and knees, fingers digging into the silken sheets beneath you two. Gabriel must scream because, even though you can safely hear and angel's voice, it was intense enough to make you cover your ears in a flinch as a blinding light fills the room.

Gabe sagged against the bed, unmoving, as little spots danced in your vision.

"Gabe?" you call, putting your hand on his now wingless back. "Sweetheart?" A slight sense of panic fills you as you realize that he wasn't breathing. Had you hurt him somehow? You didn't understand angel ringing, what if you had gone too far? By the time you check your bond, you can only feel a slight sliver of what you usually feel when he was around you. "Gabriel?"

Crap! Crap crap crap, you think as you pace along the side of the bed. Ummm... well you could still feel him through the bond so he wasn't dead... "Cas?" you call, trying to keep calm. He was the only person you could think of to help.

Within moments, Cas appeared looking stoic as always. "What is it?" he asked as he looked around at you and Gabe's vessel face down on the bed.

"Umm, well..." you start off awkwardly. "I was...grooming his wings for a while, and then he suddenly screamed and everything went white, and now he isn't moving..."

You could've swore you saw his cheeks go slightly pink, but he walked over to Gabe's vessel and placed his hand on Gabe's shoulder. "He's alright," Cas told you, taking his hand back. "He went back to Heaven."

Heaven? What the hell? "He's not, like, hurt or anything right?"

Cas closed his eyes for a second and then shook his head. Sighing in relief, you sit on the end of the bed. You were just glad you hadn't hurt him. "Thanks Cas," you tell him. "Sorry I freaked out over nothing."

Before Cas could respond, there was some rustling before arms wrapped around your torso from behind. "I'm gone for a few minutes and you've already got another angel here," Gabe's voice teased from your shoulder blade.

"Well if you didn't scare the heck out of me, you wouldn't have that problem," you retort, giving him a small smack on the arms around you.

"Couldn't help it, you wing-sexed me back into Heaven. I almost burned through the vessel," Gabe explained, nuzzling against you. "Not that I'm complaining in the slightest."

Now Cas's face was definitely blushing. "I'm leaving," he announced before vanishing on the spot.

"Thanks Cas!" you yell after him, knowing that he'd hear you. After Cas left, Gabriel pulled you back into bed, snuggling up close to you. "You're okay, really?" you ask, just lightly rubbing your hands over his shoulders. "I thought maybe I hurt you or something."

"Mmm," Gabe hummed, "I'm perfect. Better than perfect actually. Give me five minutes and you'll be better than perfect, too," he smirked, poofing your clothes away.

You couldn't quit looking behind you periodically. Something was definitely following you. It would slow as you did, hiding as larger groups of people went past you on the streets.

You and Gabe were traveling around, and you had decided you wanted to visit some of the smaller towns in between all the tourist spots. This town only had a few thousand people in it, but most of them seemed friendly enough as you asked for the best local restaurants. After comparing what you wanted and the options around, you had decided on a surprisingly large local diner. The food was great, the portions large enough to fill you, and you had half a to-go box filled with leftovers. After eating, Gabe had to go to Heaven to help Cas with something real quick, so that left you plenty of time to wonder around and look at any stores or shops.

Narrowing your eyes slightly, hoping it would work, you take one of the fries in your box and drop in on the ground before continuing on your way down the street. Sure enough, when you look back the fry is gone. You leave fries for a while, only making sure that they're disappearing behind you. After a few more minutes of walking, you run out of fries, so you wait outside one of the stores, playing on your phone.

There!

A white and brown ball of fluff was sniffing around the ground near where you had dropped your food behind you.

Slowly, you stand up walking near the small puppy, trying not to startle it. "Gabe," you whisper, finally within a few feet of the puppy. As it's sniffing around, it finally realizes that you're nearly a foot away and it yelps like it's in pain and shies away from your outstretched hand.

Was it possible to hear the sound of your heart breaking? Because you were pretty sure it did. The small puppy curled in on itself, ears flattened against its head. Digging in your to-go box again, you hold some more food out for the puppy, hoping to ease the puppy closer to you. Several people walk by, watching you as they pass, and some just ignoring you completely. Leaving the to-go box open on the ground close to the puppy, you call for Gabriel again.

"Whatcha need, Jelly Bean?" Gabe chuckled as he poofed in on the street next to you.

"How would you feel if I brought a dog home with us?" you ask. In your excitement, you keep babbling before he can respond. "Look at it! It's adorable and fluffy and probably homeless since it doesn't have a collar!"

Gabe looks at you with surprised eyes, looking back and forth between you and the puppy.

"Please, please, please?" you clasp your hands together, making sure the puppy was still eating at your leftovers and hadn't run away.

Instead of answering, Gabe just laughs for a moment. Maybe he just didn't like animals? you think, heart sinking a bit. Even if you couldn't take it home, you'd find somewhere else to take it at the very least.

"You really think I'd say no to you?" Gabe finally says, shaking his head at you. "Oh, my love, you've a lot to learn still."

Yes! "You. Are. The. Best!" you say pointedly, kissing Gabe in between each word. "Now how do we get it home? It won't let anyone close."

He gives you a look that says 'seriously' before he snaps his fingers and the two of you and the puppy vanish from the street.

A/N: Let me know what you guys thought! I know it wasn't much, but I ran out of plot ideas at the moment. If you guys want to see anything more, send in some requests or let me know! I can't believe how much people like this, and I'd rather not say goodbye to the Trickster just yet, but I don't want to write crap just to keep this going, ya know? So let me know, please?? Thanks guys!

[smilesthroughfandoms]

It Runs in the Family AU (Bendy and the Ink Machine fanfiction).

So I’ve been working on a prolouge for a fanfiction I came up with. I’m about halfway through the majority but I want to see if it’s something people are interested in. It’s apart of an AU entitled “It Runs in the Family” and while I haven’t got all the details hammered out, if you have questions’s just message me.

Henry Irwin Ross was born an only child to a school teacher and a journalist in Queens, New York in good old USA. Though times were tough and his parents couldn’t afford much, they tried to give little Henry all they could. His mother gave him her old wooden arc she used to play with, and his dad sweet-talked some of his co-workers into giving him their children’s old toys, ones they never played with anymore.

Henry’s mother made all his clothing from scratch, which was especially trying since he often ended up soiling them—as an infant often does.

Henry’s father worked as many hours as he could so he could provide for his family. When the food budget started to get tight, he went into their backyard and planted a big garden to grow most of their food. The neighbors even gave them some of the chickens they raised (Mr. and Mrs. Ross were grateful for the gesture, but seeing how the chickens they received were the ones Henry often chased around the yard, it was a bit of a hollow gesture).

When Henry turned five, Mr. Ross brought home a pad of paper and a few pencils. “Kid needs somethin’ else to draw on besides the walls and ya apron.” He told his wife.

The next day Henry proudly showed his parents what he had used the pad of paper for. Flipped through individually, the drawings weren’t to special. However, if one flipped through quickly, it looked as though the pictures were moving.

The next week, Mrs. Ross brought home a book entitled The History of Animation and Henry couldn’t get enough of it. He asked his parents to read it to him every night and his mother caught him doodling more “moving pictures” when he was supposed to be practicing his spelling.

The Ross’s were just happy that their son was happy (the fact they didn’t have to wash the doodles off the walls twice a week was just icing on the cake).

Henry wasn’t that old when his father lost his job. A lot of people lost their job. Henry noticed though that, despite a lot of people being out of work, no one seemed to be getting a new one. He assumed they were trying because he knew his dad was trying. No one seemed to get a new job though.

The radio seemed to spout the word’s “bad economy” and “depression” on an hourly basis. He always asked his mother to change the station to Junior G-Men but she would always shush him. Henry didn’t know what “depression” meant, but he assumed it was something bad by the way his mother always wrung her hands whenever she listened to the radio.

When he wasn’t in school or helping around the house, Henry would always go to the park and play with the other neighborhood boys. They would go down by the ponds in search of treasure, they’d play kick the can or baseball with a worn ball and a long wooden pole, or they’d bike to Coney Island to see the freak-show (the latter often got them in trouble).

Henry was about ten when a new kid came to town. His name was Joey Drew and his mom was the new cleaning lady for the Van Burin family. He was tall and lanky and his eyes reminded Henry of the grass in the park. He often walked with crutches due to his bad foot, which seemed to twist all the way around. The older kids teased him about it, but Joey Drew would just punch them in the nose so they stopped doing that.

Joey Drew seemed the type to keep to himself. He never talked to anyone or sat with any kid at lunch. Henry would see him in the halls every day with a pad of paper and a small pencil, he’d be scribbling something and then look up at Henry. The two boys would stare at each other for one second and then go about their business.

Until one day, Henry got in trouble for getting into a fist fight with Charlie Harmon’s. He was forced to stay after school for one hour while Charlie got sent home early with a broken nose. Henry knew he shouldn’t feel proud, but Charlie deserved it for calling him dilweed.

To his surprise, Joey Drew was forced to stay after too. Henry didn’t ask why, but knew a good portion of the older boys feared him, so thought better to ask.

Fifteen minutes in, and Mr. Jacobson (Joey and Henry’ teacher) said he was going to go inform Henry’s mother of what had happened. Henry groaned and slammed his head onto the desk as the teacher left.

“Your ma works here?”

Henry glanced up to see Joey Drew glancing at him, brow raised.

“Yeah… she teaches the older kids.”

“How much older?”

“Um, I think the next grade up.”

“Oh.” There was a very stiff silence until Joey asked, “What’s it like having a parent for a teacher?”

Henry shrugged “Ok, I guess. But she’s always breathing down the back of my neck to finish my math homework.”

Joey smiled a bit. “I know the feeling. My ma is always sayin’ that I need to ‘buckle down and be serious’.” The boys laughed at Joey’s high-pitched voice, an obvious attempt to impersonate his mother’s shrill voice.

“I’m Henry Ross,” He finally introduced himself.

“Joey Drew,” The boys shook hands.

“Where ya from, Joey?”

“Detroit.”

“Where’s that?”

“Michigan.”

“Where’s that?’ Joey rolled his eyes but laughed. The boy got out of his seat and gestured for Henry to follow him to the front of the room where Mr. Jacobson kept a globe on his desk. After spinning it a bit, Joey pointed to a state shaped like a mitten and said “There.”

Henry stared in awe for a second before asking, “What’s it like there, in Michigan?”

Joey shrugged. “Ok I guess. There are a lot of lakes there, so ya can go swimmin’ a lot during the summer, and the leaves change color during the fall. The winters can be bad though. Like when I was seven, the snow was up to here on me,” Joey held a hand up to his nose before continuing, “and nobody could leave their house for three whole days!”

Henry was no stranger to snow, but the city often made sure to keep most of it off the road, so he found it hard to imagine such an amount accumulating all at once.

The rest of detention, the boys sat next to each other silently conversing on where they grew up, movies they had seen, and games they had played. After detention, despite her anger, Henry’s mother agreed to give Joey a ride home.

The two had been friends ever since.

It was the following summer that Henry first saw Bendy.

Joey was spending the weekend at Henry’s. The two had spent most of the day doing chores and chasing chickens with Joey’s crutches. Before dinner, the two had started doodling and that’s when Henry noticed his friend’s drawing.

“What’s that?”

Joey glanced at his drawing, then Henry, then glanced away bashfully. “It’s just um…” The rest was mumbled quietly so Henry couldn’t hear.

“It’s just what?” Henry insisted.

Joey sighed. “It’s a… cartoon I draw.” He shifted his pad of doodles over to his friend so he could get a closer look. “I call him Bendy.”

Henry glanced at a page filled with small comics of this Bendy character. A tiny black-and-white devil with a cute face and a bow-tie. Often the comics were filled with Bendy playing pranks on another character named Boris the Wolf, however there were comics of Bendy dancing around in a tutu. All of them made Henry laugh.

“These are great, Joey!” Henry told his friend earnestly. Taking a quick flip through the pad, he saw more quick-hand sketches of Bendy and Boris’s misadventures. “You really like this Bendy character, don’t ya?”

Joey smiled a bit wistfully. “’Course I do! I made him up myself.” Henry smiled and glanced between his friend’s art. Joey reached over and glanced at the few doodles Henry had done and sighed again. “Have you ever wanted something really bad, Henry? Like, really bad?”

Henry, a bit startled by the seriousness of the question, shook his head. “I… can’t say I have buddy.”

Joey glanced at his Bendy drawings. “I have this absurd idea… that maybe, just maybe somehow I could… Bring Bendy and Boris to life.”

Henry let his friend’s words sink in, still glancing at the Bendy comics when an idea came to him. “Like animation!”

Joey glanced at his friend, puzzled. “Huh?”

Scrambling to his feet, Henry rushed over to his bookshelf and pulled The History of Animation off the shelf and handed it to Joey. “This book taught me that animation is bringing your imagination to life! I’ve been making these moving pictures in pads my whole life, but I never had any idea well enough to make a full fledge animation out of… But Bendy, he could be real popular someday!”

“Animation?” Joey muttered to himself, glancing down in what almost seemed like disappointment. After a tense silence, Joey glanced at Henry with a small smile on his face. “So… animation?”

Henry smiled eagerly and launched into an explanation of animation.

That night, a pact between friends was made; Bring Bendy to life so all could see. A pact that two friends promised they would stick together for.

“Until the end of the line?” Joey asked

“Until the very end!” Henry assured.

It took a year of work for the two friends to finally earn enough money to buy an animation studio, and even then, the Van Burin family gave Joey a hefty loan to make it happen. Nonetheless, the two friends were ecstatic.

The Ross’s and Joey’s Mom were not happy the boys didn’t go off to college, none more so than the mothers, but they had made an agreement. If the first cartoon wasn’t a success, they’d got off to college. The mere idea of giving up on their dream made the two friends work twice as hard to make Bendy a success.

The studio officially opened for business when Henry was eighteen and Joey was nineteen. Of course, to make a successful cartoon, you need more than two people. So, the two friends put together a crew.

At the head was Joey. After all, it was his original cartoon and the studio itself was in his name. Director, Producer, and (official) Head Animator. He ran the whole show. True, he worked mostly by what censors dictated was appropriate for a children’s cartoons, but he called the shots.

Henry was second in command and Joey’s right hand man. The (unofficial) Head Animator. Joey did a good portion of the animations himself. Whether it be synchronizing with audio, movement, backgrounds, or even model sheets, Henry did it. Joey helped whenever he could, but director was a heavy title to bear, so Henry ended up doing most of his work with the other animation crew.

The music department was headed by Samuel “Sammy” Lawrence. A man who could play just about any instrument you put into his hands. He was average height with hair the color of the dandelion’s Henry’s mother made him pull out of the garden. He was gruff and a bit cold at times, but he could take a simple tune and turn it into a musical masterpiece. Henry greatly respected this ability, and by extension respected Sammy.

The Conductor for the band is Norman Polk; a dark skinned man with a big grin. Where Sammy is cold and distant, Norman is warm and welcoming. He treats you as if you were his oldest friend and listens to whatever you have to say, even if he doesn’t particularly care for the subject. That and the fact that he can put up with Sammy makes him ok in Henry’s book.

And since it’s hard to keep a studio clean (and Henry forced Joey to hire him), Wallace “Wally” Franks is hired as a custodian. Henry doesn’t see him that much, except when he spills a thing of ink all over everything—which happens more often than Henry would like to admit. Wally is a stand-up guy and offers Henry a cigar every time he sees him. He politely declines every time.

With this ragtag band of misfits, they call a team, they make the first ever Bendy cartoon entitled Little Devil Darling within a year of opening the studio. To their immense gratification (and Joey and Henry’s relief), it is a hit with critics and audiences alike. One critic even said that Bendy had the makings to be bigger than any mouse or rabbit or dog other studios were putting out at the time.

To celebrate, Sammy had taken everyone out to drinks. Everyone but Joey. He said he had other work to do. Henry wasn’t happy about leaving his best buddy behind, but Joey insisted that it was fine.

Henry still couldn’t shake the feeling that something was troubling Joey. Maybe it was the apathetic look in his eyes as the rest of the crew left?

“We need more voices, Henry.” Joey tells him one day over lunch.

“Uh-huh,” Henry replies.

“Female voices, to be exact.”

“Uh-huh…”

There is silence between the two friends as Henry chews his sandwich and Joey stirs his pasta idly.

“So…?”

Henry raises a brow, “So… what?”

“Know any dames looking to be in animation?” Joey asked.

Henry rolls his eyes. “I know just as many dames as you, Drew. Probably less,”

“That’s pathetic, Ross. Just sayin’.” Joey teases.

“Just put out an ad, Joey.” Henry tells him.

“But then I’d have to pay them… And we only have two cartoons out at the moment.” Joey glances at his friend nervously. While their budget is still a bit tight, Henry knows they can afford to bring in one more person.

“Yes, that’s usually how this type of thing works.” Seeing how he is getting no help from his friend, Joey turns to Sammy, who is munching on an apple at the table behind his.

“Hey Sammy, know any dames with good voices for cartoons?”

Sammy glares at the boss. “Hire someone new, ya cheapskate.”

While Joey is less than pleased, Henry gets one hell of a laugh out of Sammy’s response.

A knock on the wall behind his desk startles Henry enough to drop his pen. Sighing in annoyance, Henry reaches down to pick up the pen. “Wally, for the last time, I don’t know who would win in a fight between Godzilla and—”

A very pretty redhead woman with dark skin and a teal dress waves shyly at him. “Am I interuptin’ anythin’, hon?”

Now, Henry has been on his fair share of dates in his twenty-years of life. There was time in high school when he and Joey had dated the very blonde, very much cheerleaders, Smith Sisters. However, it has been awhile since a pretty dame has caught him off guard like this.

Feeling his ears warm up, Henry frantically shakes his head. “N-Nope! Not interrupting one bit. Nope, nothing to interrupt here.”

“That’s good,” The woman smiles, either not noticing Henry’s sudden anxiousness or deciding not to address it.

“I’m Henry, by the way,” Henry offers her his hand, “Henry Ross.”

The woman shakes his hand. “Susie. Susie Campbell.”

“So, what brings you here, Miss Campbell?”

“Um, Mr. Drew put out an ad for female voices…”

Henry smiles in realization. “Oh! You’re responding to Joey’s ad,”

“You know, Mr. Drew?”

“Sure, do. Grew up together. C’mon, I’ll show you where there holding auditions.” Henry stood from his desk and led Susie to the back of the studio, where stairs to the recording studio were. “So, you into voice acting, I take it?”

Susie giggled and Henry found it adorable. “I’ve been told I can do a lot of funny voices, I just never tried before today.”

Approaching the door, Henry reached over and held it open for her. “Joey and Sammy should be down there, holding auditions.”

“Well, thank you kindly, Henry. I hope to see you around.”

Henry bid her best of luck and softly closed the door behind her. Humming a happy tune, Henry walked back to his desk with a slight bounce in his step. Wally had caught him on his way back and smirked, even if a bit surprised by the animator’s behavior.

“You’re in a good mood ain’t ya?” The custodian commented.

Henry shrugged, a wide grin on his face. “You bet I am, Wally!”

As luck would have it, Susie had the exact voice Joey was looking for. She was hired on spot for multiple voice roles. Henry had a suspicion that it was partly so Joey could save money, but it meant Susie was around more often so he wasn’t complaining. The two often ate lunch together in the studio mess hall… Granted, Norman or Wally often joined the two, but it made for pleasant conversation.

Susie was from Portland, Oregon and had a knack for doing impressions. She explained she often did impressions and funny voices to cheer up her grandmother, who was sick quite often. When her grandmother died, Susie did the voices to cheer herself up. Her father would’ve preferred if she had gone to college, but Susie felt a calling and had decided to follow it.

Henry could relate.

It wasn’t until Henry caught Wally and Norman teasing him about his “crush on Susie” for the fifth time in one week did he realize that it might be true.

Unfortunately, it seemed he wasn’t the only one.

Six months after Susie was hired, Henry and a few other animators had decided to go out to eat for lunch. They were ahead of schedule and it was a gorgeous day out, so why not have some fun for a change?

Henry had gone looking for Joey, Sammy, and just about anyone else who might want to join them for lunch. His looking had taken him down to the recording booth. Stepping inside, he stopped short when he saw Susie in the recording booth, singing her heart out while Norman conducted the band.

“Once in a while, will you try to give one little thought to me, though someone else may be nearer your heart? Once in a while, will you dream of the moments I shared with you, moments before we two drifted apart?

“In love’s smoldering ember, one spark may remain. If love still can remember, that spark may burn again. I know that I’ll be contented with yesterday’s memory, knowing you think of me once in a while.”

Henry smiled in awe, unaware that Susie had such a heavenly voice. He glanced up to Joey and Sammy and his smile fell. Joey glanced at her with a light shining in his eyes that Henry recognized from when they were dating the Smith Sisters. As for Sammy, Henry could count on one hand the number of times he’s seen the music director smile. The one he was sending Susie’s way was softer than the other smiles.

“In love’s smoldering ember, one spark may remain. If love still can remember, that spark may burn again. I know that I’ll be contented with yesterday’s memory, knowing you think of me once in a while.”

Joey and Sammy stood, applauding for the redhead when she stepped out of the booth. She smiled, blushing bashfully. “I take it I did well?”

“Miss Campbell, I think you might be just the voice we’ve been looking for!” Joey smiled.

“For what?’ Henry asked, making his presence.

“Henry, just the man I need to see! You doing anything right now?” Joey asked.

“Some animators and I are gonna go out to lunch and I was wondering if any of you wanted to join me? But it seems like you’re busy so I’ll just—”

“Oh, that sounds like a wonderful idea, Henry!” Susie smiled.

Sammy shrugged. “I could eat…”

While Joey didn’t look to pleased that everyone was making plans without his consent, he shook his head. “Alright, but when you get back, you my friend are going to start sketching model sheets for our newest character: Alice Angel!”

Henry’s eyes widened. “Alice Angel?”

“Voiced by none other than our very own, Susie Campbell.” Joey laid an arm on her shoulders, smiling proudly.

“Aw shucks, Joey.” Susie blushed, though she seemed proud.

Before Henry could get in a word, Joey had somehow waltzed over to his side, smiling. “So, here are some ideas for Alice’s character I’d like you to remember,” The Director had steered his friend towards the staircase up and was now rambling on about how this new character, leaving Sammy and Susie no choice but to follow them.

Halfway up, Joey had made a comment about running these out-of-work-lunches by him next time, but Henry was hardly paying attention. Behind him, he heard Susie ask Sammy “So this Alice Angel character… do ya think people will like her?”

Sammy smiled reassuringly. “Doll, I bet she’ll be just as popular as Bendy someday!”

“Ya really think so?”

“I know so.”

Susie smiled and laid a hand on Sammy’s shoulder. “You’re a peach, Sammy.”

Henry frowned, heart sinking just a bit.

If Henry could describe Susie in one word, it was colorful. She often wore brightly colored dresses or skirts with hats that—on any other girl, would look silly—complimented her loud and vibrant personality. Since Henry was surrounded by black, white, and grey cartoons, her presence was often refreshing.

Lately, however, her role as Alice Angel had kept her in the recording booth often. Sometimes, Henry would run down to get a feel for a certain piece of music’s tempo; to see how slow or quick a scene had to go. He would find the musical director smiling (actually smiling!) at the pretty redhead.

Then, at lunch, we would finally drag himself away from his desk, he would spot Joey and Susie laughing at some joke Joey had told and playfully swiping small morsels from the other’s lunch. Henry tried to avoid sitting there.

However, Henry and Susie lived on the same block and would often walk each other home or to work. Those fifteen minutes to and from were some of the highlights of Henry’s day.

It was December when Henry decided to throw caution to the wind and ask Susie to dinner, just the two of them that Saturday. Susie had seemed surprised, but she had said no. “No thank ya, Henry dear. It’s not that I wouldn’t love to! It’s just… Joey already asked me. Ya understand, don’t ya, hon?”

Henry nodded, heart feeling heavy at the moment, but said he understood. Which he did. He respected Susie and as long as she was willing to keep him as a friend, he could learn to be happy. It still stung though.

That night, Norman and he went out for beers. The following Monday morning, he saw Susie and Joey smiling and talking quietly to each other. His heart feeling like a lead weight in his chest. The only comfort was that Sammy was seen glaring daggers at the boss as well.

[skymoonandstardust]

The Prince and the huntress part 20

An: Ok guys, here we are. The second to last part. This is incredible, so thank you and I hope you all enjoy it.  oh, and this is a long on and 3,300 words give or take a few more . . .

Dean woke with a groan the next morning. He hadn’t even been awake for a minute and he was already dreading the day and wishing it was over. 

Well this was going to be great. . . not.

Reluctantly he dragged himself out from under the warmth of the covers and started getting ready to face the trial of a day.

    Ten minutes later he was walking through the huge doors of the dining hall.

As usual it was full to bursting, every table filled and there was a constant din that was near deafening from all the people talking, laughing and shouting. As dean walked to the dais he was greeted by a few people, which he returned and even stopped to talk here and there.

Reaching the Dias he walked to his seat, saying good morning to Sam and Charlie as he passed. Dean even managed a “Good morning” for his dad even though he didn’t feel there was much good about it at all.

“Eat up.” His father instructed, completely ignoring what dean said.  “We’re leaving in ten minutes and we’ll be gone almost all day.”

Not wasting anymore time Dean did as told happily digging into the bacon and eggs in front of him.

As soon as all three of them were done they got up and left. Charlie stood and walked out with them to say goodbye, since she was finished too.   “Bye Charlie” Sam said giving her a hug “We’ll see you later.” Dean added hugging her once Sam released her.

“Yeah, see you later.” She agreed, letting go.

Charlie had asked and used every method she could think of to get john to train her, to let her hunt but none had worked. In some ways, he was old fashioned and this was one of them-he didn’t think she should hunt. So, Charlie was left behind as they rode away, Sam and dean looking back once and a while to see her still standing there.    

   The trip to the forest took twice as long because they were heading to the deep woods, where there were even more monsters then on the edge of the forest. Dean was grateful for that though, since it was far from your part of the forest.

When John thought, they’d gone far enough he spurred his horse towards the side of the trial and led the way into the underbrush. 

They were attacked right away, some stupid werewolf lunging right at them.  She was dead in a second, Sam immediately firing a bullet into her heart and making her collapse in mid spring.  Without even stopping, or slowing down the three of them rode on.

It continued like that for an two hours, an endless stream of monster after monster, then there was a lull.   They were  just wondering aimlessly, their horses in a slow walk.

Suddenly Dean saw something out of the corner of his eye.

Looking again he saw the figure of what looked like a man standing a few yards away, his yellow eyes proving that he was no human.

“This way, over here!” Dean yelled immediately breaking away and racing off at a gallop after the figure, who’d started running the second he’d heard Dean’s voice. “Dean, Wait!” “Dean!” Sam and John yelled, desperately trying to spur their horses to go after him. The mounts were bucking and prancing, going every direction but refusing to go forward.

It took a minute to get them under control and once they were, they rode off immediately.

Luckily, they could just see Dean in the distance, and followed him.

The two of them caught up to him just in time to see Dean reign up in front of the man, who was standing in the middle of a clearing his arms spread wide in invitation and a huge smirk on his face.

Dean didn’t waste a second in trying to shoot him.

Instead of collapsing Yellow eyes only looked down at the bullet hole then back up at dean “Oh. That tickled.”

“How did that not hurt you? Why didn’t that work?”

“Come on, you expected a little bullet to stop me?” He raised his voice then, addressing john more than Dean “I thought your daddy would have taught you better than that.”

John spoke up this time “Those bullets all had devil’s traps carved on them.  it should have weakened you at least.” 

Yellow eyes shrugged “Maybe a bit, but I can still do this.” With a flick of his wrist Sam was thrown off his horse which immediately reared, hooves pawing the air. When it landed with a thump the horse tore off at a gallop, vanishing out of sight in a minute.  “Sammy!” Dean roared, running over to his brother while John dismounted and stormed toward the demon. 

“Ah, Ah, Ah, not a step closer.” Holding his arm out in warning “Not unless you’d like for your skull to meet a tree.”

“Azazel.” John said

 “You know me, I’m touched.” The demon smiled “How did you find out about me?”

“Oh, believe me it was hard, endless research, questioning I don’t know how many demons but I did hear all about you.”

“Still, you couldn’t find me, not to get your revenge for your pretty little queen.  So, here I am coming to you and you still can’t stop me.”

John opened his mouth to say something when Dean came out of nowhere, lunging at yellow eyes, demon knife in hand. The demon didn’t even flinch he just motioned again and Dean went flying, his head connecting with the unforgiving bark of a tree full force. There was a sickening crack and Dean fell to the ground with a thump, let out a moan and was completely still.

Sam, who had recovered just in time to see this ran over to him yelling “Dean! Dean!”

John whirled on the Demon “You son of a bitch!”

“oooh, strong language! We wouldn’t want the kiddies to hear would we?” the demon said motioning to where Sam was still checking on Dean.

As he turned back the smile was taken off his face as a gunshot spilt the air again. He cried out and his skin sparked red for a minute before, Surprised,  yellow eyes looked down to see a bullet hole in his leg. Looking up at John he smiled “That’s some gun you’ve got there.” A second later he vanished.

“Come on Sam quick, get Dean on a horse. We need to get him back to the palace.”

Sam nodded and, working together they were able to lift him up. Sam got on after him to keep him steady and once John mounted his horse they were off.

As soon as they arrived at the palace, servants rushed up, taking Dean and hurrying him to the court physician. John and Sam were a step behind them,  worried and hurrying to keep up.  They were forced to stop outside the physician’s courters, politely but firmly denied access by his apprentice and a door softly closed in their face.

They didn’t leave though, not for a second.

It was an anxious hour of worrying for them as they paced and sat in the hall, waiting with heavy hearts and full heads.

After a time that felt like both too long and too short, the door finally opened and the physician came out, face grim.  They were at attention immediately, knowing instantly that whatever he was going to say wasn’t going to be good.

“How is he?” John asked “Is he going to be ok?” Sam questioned stepping forward.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think prince Dean will recover for a long time if at all. I’ve tried everything I could but he’s still in a sleep state. It’s up to him now but if he doesn’t wake up soon. . . I’m afraid there’s not much hope, especially given the condition he’s in.”  He bowed to John then turned and bowed to Sam too.  The gesture was deeper and went on longer then Sam was used to. He was confused for a minute, brow wrinkled only to morph into a clenched jaw and features of stone as he understood.    The man was paying him respect, just in case dean did die and Sam became the crown prince.  Sam didn’t even deign to nod his head at the stooped figure before he stormed away, not once looking back.

The man straightened and after looking at Sam’s retreating figure for a minute, turned and walked off too.

John was left standing in the hallway, staring straight ahead, glassy-eyed and mind far away.

If anyone had passed by an hour later they would have found him still standing there, they would have seen a look of resolution cross his face and they would have been there to watch him suddenly walk off, his steps determined.

 A few minutes later and the king was in Rowena’s potion room, rifling through the bottles, grabbing ingredients and putting them on the table where others already sat waiting. He carefully measured them out and put them together. After painstakingly drawing the correct symbols, making sure there wasn’t a single mistake or wavy line, he used tinder and flint to set the whole concoction alight.

It flared up and sparked before dying down a minute later. John expectantly examined the room, waiting for the demon to appear any second but a minute passed no one materialized.

Suddenly a hand was on his shoulder and John turned to find a man standing behind him. He was middle-aged and the slightly warn clothes he wore with the royal insignia on the shoulder clearly marked him as a servant.

“Forgive me.” He said, releasing his grip “I didn’t know it was you, your majesty.”

“It’s alright.” John replied “But I’d like some privacy now, please.”

“Of course,.” The servant said bowing and starting to walk away

“Hey.” The man froze as john spoke and the click of a gun cocking sounded, loud in the room “How stupid do you think I am?”

The man turned back smiling, his now yellow eyes bright “You really want an honest answer to that?” Two other servant men walked through the door, their black eyes showing that they weren’t there to  help john.

They walked behind him, flanking each side so they were poised to act at any second if he tried to do anything.

“You conjuring me john, I’m surprised. I took you for a lot of things but suicidality reckless wasn’t one of them.”

“I could always shoot you.”

“You could always miss. And you’ve only got one try don’t you, since you used that one bullet weakening me for a hot minute, just enough to get away. That was lucky. Did you really thing you could trap me?”

“No. I’m here to Bargen. I want to make a deal”  the king replied before he uncocked the gun and relaxed.

At that the demon smiled then started to pace

“It’s very unseemly, making deals with devils. How do I know this isn’t a trick?”

“It’s no trick.” John assured him “I’ll give you the gun and the bullet but you got to help dean. You got to bring him back”

“Why john, you’re a sentimentalist.” Yellow eyes said, pausing in his walk “if only your boys knew how much their daddy loved them.”

“It’s a good trade.”

“Don’t be so sure. He killed people very special to me. But still, your right. He isn’t much of a threat and neither is your other son, of course. You know the truth right. . .about Sammy and the other children?”  

“Yeah. I’ve known for a while.”

“But Sammy doesn’t, does he? You’ve been playing dumb.”

“Can you bring dean back yes or no?” John demanded

“No. but I know someone who can. It’s not a problem.”

“Good. And before I give you the gun, I’m gonna want to make sure that dean’s ok, with my own eyes.”

“Oh, john I’m offended. Don’t you trust me?”

“No.”

“hmm, fine.”

“So, we have a deal?” the king asked

“No, John, not yet. You still need to sweeten the pot.” Yellow eyes answered, talking like he was explaining something to a child. 

 “With what?”

The demon stepped forward “There’s something else I want as much as that gun. Maye more. . . ”

  Sam had calmed down and come back to check on his brother. He had small hope that he’d actually get to see Dean, expecting to only hear how he was doing so it was a pleasant surprise when the apprentice told him he could come in.  Sam didn’t hesitate.   He walked in and immediately went over to his brother, taking a seat in the chair by Dean.  He was sitting there, staring at his brother’s innate form spread out on the bed, when suddenly it wasn’t innate anymore.

Dean shot up, rising to a sitting position and Sam yelled for help.

Almost before he knew what was happening he found himself out in the hallway again, the door closed and shutting him out once more. 

Sam had no idea how long it was before the door opened again and the physician gave him the amazing news: Dean had healed and he was going to be just fine.

  A few minutes later, When John looked in at the sick room door he found Sam and Dean talking. Sam was smiling down at his older brother and even though dean was still weak and in the bed It was a relief to john to see him conscious and sitting up.

Knocking on the frame he drew their attention and hesitantly walked in addressing Dean “How are you feeling?”

“Fine, I guess. I’m alive.” He replied, shrugging.

John smiled “That’s what matters.”

“Where were you last night?”  Sam asked, his tone almost demanding and accusatory.

“I had somethings to take care of.”

“Well that’s specific.”

“Come on Sam.” Dean sighed But Sam payed on attention to him as he asked John “Did you go after the Demon?”

 “No.”

 “You know, why don’t I believe you right now?”   

John took a few steps further into the room then stopped and asked “Can we not fight?”  Sam tilted his head in confusion, his eyes narrowing slightly at the words “you, know, Half the time we’re fighting, I don’t know what we’re fighting about. We’re just butting heads.” The king said smiling sheepishly and shaking his head a bit.

    “Look Sammy, I’ve. . .I’ve made some mistakes but I’ve always done the best I could. I just don’t want to fight anymore, ok.”

“Dad are you alright?” Sam asked, voice almost a murmur.

“Yeah. yeah I’m just a little tired.”

Sam nodded almost imperceptibly and john asked “Hey, son, would you mind—would you mind getting me a cup of coffee?”

“Yeah, yeah sure.” He said, nodding and seeming stunned.

Sam glanced down at dean for a minute, a look passing between them before Sam made his way past john and out of the room. The king turned and watched him go, until the tall figure was out of sight.

 Once it was just him and his father Dean spoke

“What is it?”

His dad looked down, not meeting his eyes “You know, when  uh, --when you were a kid, I’d come home from a hunt, and after what I’d seen, I’d be—I’d be wrecked and you--- you’d come up to me, and you’d put your hand on my shoulder and you’d look me in the eye and you’d--” Here he had to stop for a minute, glancing down again, looking near to crying with shining eyes and quivering lip.  “You’d say “it’s ok, dad.” Dean I’m sorry . . .” 

“Why?” Dean’s voice came out as barely more than a whisper

“You shouldn’t have had to say that to me. I should have been saying it to you.” John explained, still looking like he could cry “You know I put. . . I put too much on your shoulders. I made you grow up too fast. You took care of Sammy, you took care of me. You did that. and you didn’t complain- not once.”

Dean shifted sheepishly at the words,  the movement looking almost like a shrug.

“I just want you to know. . .” John continued “That I am so proud of you.”

“This really you talking.” Once again Dean’s words came out in a murmur

“Yeah. yeah, it’s really me.”

“Why are you saying this stuff?”

Instead of answering John walked up to the bed and rested a hand on Dean’s shoulder “I want you to watch out for Sammy, ok?”

“Yeah dad, you know I will.” He assured him “Your scaring me.” His voice broke then, and everything about dean in that moment made him seem like nothing more than a frightened child.

“Don’t be scared, Dean.”  John told him.

He leaned down and whispered into Dean’s ear, the words so low and soft Dean almost didn’t hear them. He wished he hadn’t, wondered for a second if he had even heard right. There was no way his dad could really have told him that, right?

As John straightened he looked at him, shocked and startled, head whirling from the whole conversation.

John stood there for a minute, looking at him and fighting the tears that were threatening to spill. Finally, without so much as a hug or parting word of comfort he turned and walked out the door.

He didn’t even look back once.

  John ducked into the first alcove he found and pulled out the gun

He sighed then spoke to the empty air “Okay.”

A second later and he wasn’t alone.

  Sam was walking back from the kitchens, a cup in his hands when he noticed it out of the corner of his eye.

For a millisecond, he was going to walk past it when he did a double take and realized just what the dark lump on the floor was. . . or who it was

“Dad.”

The cup crashed to the floor, liquid spilling out of it and spreading in a small pool  as Sam ran over to the prone from of his father and screamed for help.

It came quickly in the form of two servants, one of whom helped to rush John to the sick room while the other hurried off to get the Physician.  Sam helped carry his father, feeling like he was in a nightmare again. . . and just when he’d gotten out of one too.

The doors burst open and the king was rushed in. As soon as Dean saw who it was being carried in he was up and yelling “Dad!” Sam was by his side in a minute, helping him up and the two of them walked over to watch.

There were a few halfhearted attempts to get them to go, but neither of them moved, refusing to leave their father’s side and after a minute the efforts stopped.  The two of them hung back in the doorway, anxiously watching the chaos as people rushed around and came and went.

They were there when the physician, put a halt to the confusion, bent to feel the king’s forehead and straightened with a sigh and a shake of the head.

The both of them held back tears as the man walked over to them, face grim again and bowed to Dean

“I’m sorry your majesty, but your father is dead.”

As everyone in the sickroom stopped what they were doing and bowed to him, Dean felt himself breaking agian.

 @rosep16 @a-girl-who-loves-disney @letsgetoutalive @vougebandit  @deansfavoritefics @i-feel-something-should-be-here   @sympathyforluci @docharleythegeekqueen @the-creative-lie

[grizzlefur]

WWEm - Back Like a Recurrent UTI

In response to a comment from a reader, which is frankly one comment more than I ever thought I’d get, I’m dropping the interline punctuation. Be aware I may be switching to Comic Sans next week though.

Transmission date: Monday 5/Tuesday 6 June 2017.

Coming at you off the back of Medium-Strength Rules, this is THURSDAY AFTERNOON RAW!

so yeah, extreme rules was kind of crap like, i don't need it to be all barbed wire rope exploding table deathmatches, but that was honestly tamer than a lot of episodes of raw it's like waiting a fortnight for a jalfrezi and getting a shitty mushroom dopiaza or something (that's the subtitle of the dvd release, btw) (Extreme Rules 2017: The Shitty Mushroom Dopiaza of Wrestling) kkb took the belts, though, so that's good at least in any case, i should probably stop using this blog to bitch about ppvs that we're not watching and actually watch the show just kidding, it's my blog, i can do whatever the fuck i want NEXT UP: THE HIGHLY EFFECTIVE HABITS OF SUCCESSFUL LEAFCUTTER ANTS (2017, 7hrs 41mins) *daniel starts raw* dang ah well we'll get back to that particular gem we kick off with a dramatic slideshow of an entirely undramatic two-chilli rules main event if you haven't been keeping up with the results, joe won by stealing a pin opportunity and choking finn to death i have genuinely no clue how they're going to build a joe/brock feud without turning one of them, which would make no sense and be bullshit were the hardyz in the title sequence before? i am very unobservant, so it's possible jesus fuck, guys, you don't need to keep weaponising the pyro to see what i say we're back in the mohegan sun later, joe talks about life but now, here comes a bray to chop off your head or possibly declaim some eschatological craziness could be both who knows i'm wearing a SanItY shirt, i don't give a shit aww, apparently he's here to fight roman disappointing can he chop roman's head off? booker's still on announce, which is weird given that otunga was around to be on the pico de gallo rules preshow panel ok, bray's got a mic so at least we get some preaching before roman gets here apparently sunday was the beginning of the end, because bray will not be there to slay the beast because he was stabbed through the eye with his own sword of salvation but he's fine, because he's still a god (i'm not even paraphrasing) he's here to pass judgment on the guilty which includes basically everybody who isn't him he mentions roman, the arena roof levitates on the cloud of boos he's vowed to personally punish everyone, starting with roman now oh, and here he is personally, i would not enter a room with a man who had just levelled that particular bit of demagoguery at me but hey, i'm not roman reigns loving the guy on hardcam with the I CAME TO BOO ROMAN sign so did everyone else, it seems apocalyptic cult leader and self-proclaimed god vs big taciturn punch man which way is the heel/face divide even meant to go in this situation enormous boos, roman takes bray's mic, boos redouble apparently this kind of public hate is why roman is the guy sure, why not better than proclaiming yourself the BIG FIGHT man cannot tweet roman coldcocks bray, start the match bray nearly lands sister abigail within about six seconds that would have been fucking hilarious although it kind of feels like maybe bray should have a new finisher to fit this whole bringing judgment upon the guilty thing or maybe that's just my overly-narrative booking instincts who can say (that is definitely what it is) fuck off, daniel i'll rescind your fruit bowl privileges bray avoids a samoan drop through the incredibly advanced tactic of punching roman in the head repeatedly that's the kind of tactical nous you only get by anointing yourself with the burnt grave earth of your diabolic mistress as the saying goes did we really need to cut to that enormously wide shot where the camera's on the other side of a lighting rig several astronomical units away from the ring? like, we get that the mohegan sun's big no need to prove this at the expense of beign able to see shit if i wanted to watch insects wrestle while i shine a torch into one of my eyes, i could do that at home i'm going off on tangents a lot here because this match is slow as fuck roman is still creeped out to the point of a nearfall by bray's spiderwalk goes for a pin off an uranage, then takes roman to the top rope we could be here a while he does a few punches, roman headbutts him for longer than would seem necessary before turning it into a powerbomb roman cocks his hand, takes a couple tries to hit bray what happens if he cocks his hand and doesn't do anything with it? does he have to punch something to get rid of it before it goes off accidentally? or can he rack his forearm to eject a loaded fist? enquiring minds want to know anyway, while that muse was visiting me, bray heard roman going oooooooo and rolled out, took a driveby but punched roman's head off so it seems my earlier proposal was correct huh i can call murders better than matches bray goes for sister abigail, roman reverses into a superman punch and a really slow spear for the pin so yeah that happened meanwhile, someone in the crowd has leveraged all their crafting skills to make a sign informing us that BROCK LESNAR IS TICKLISH corey invents the adjective 'slaughterous' yeah, ok bray deserves new words end segment later on, we have joe doing a thing but next, we talk about the shitshow that was the 'extreme' women's title match "But can Bayley get EXTREEEEEME?" "No." but now, we have charly interviewing enzo and cass enzo's conscious, which is a change charly asks enzo about their match tonight with enzo and cass, he responds by creeping on charly and insulting corey's hair cass is insulted by the rumours that he was attacking his bro, promises to watch his back at all times and then they leave, and enzo returns to creep on charly alone good backwatching, colin what if charly was the mystery assailant it makes so much sense anyway, now we have a dull slideshow of the dull women's title match and photos of the one welt on bayley's back, which has made her take the night off somebody send jericho to talk to her in his curtain room/office, kurt is confused by his phone and here is alexa to present terms she wants a celebration of her entire life tonight because the this is your life segment went down so well outstanding kurt immediately comes back like fuck no that's an awful idea this is your life was dreadful and anyway you owe nia a title shot tonight alexa is none too pleased and slightly shellshocked but here's dean, aka 33% of the best bit of semi-notable rules and now, here's a very large man on a stool dressed entirely in scarves and fragments of scarves, with a song he wrote after seeing a leaf fall on the side of the highway

actual quote

it's a song about how dean sucks, basically

with a subtext about how elias deserves a title shot

dean's music interrupts it

it's an elias segment, so corey is SO ANGRY

dean does his hey dude hold on a second i just want to PUNCH thing

hits him until he goes away, and demands a title rematch but here's miz on the tron, like fuck no he's wearing a bow tie for the kickoff celebration of the ic title comeback tour and elias blindsides dean into his swinging neckbreaker and shouts at him, because sometimes you just gotta but up next, samoa joe the mohegan sun fans need something to cheer, or they're going to riot but first, dean storms backstage runs into kurt, asks for a ref in miz's dressing room kurt's like no, we've got a party planned and i'm scared of maryse, please go away no dean, don't go to miz's dressing room so kurt ejects him from the building it is just heel city so far oh hey, it's joe funny, that because the prevailing heel archetype at the moment is apparently 'large samoan man named joe' first shot of the match card graphics for great balls of fire, and it looks like shit if you're making a title graphic, maybe don't put a flashy effect around the word BALLS in the centre joe thinks brock ain't shit and wants to take everything he owns including his cushy non-wrestling schedule i think we all want brock's ability to draw a salary and have fans without doing shit joe also wants paul heyman, just for giggles oh hey, paul didn't see you there (largely because you were backstage and i don't have camera control) paul does his usual spiel, and still needs to check the definition of 'defending' does his usual thing of hi joe aren't you awesome can i come into your ring sir please don't hurt me but btw my client also thinks you yourself ain't shit does a soliloquy about worrying for a living, turns it into a jew joke sigh addresses the fact that brock/finn would have been a great story, while brock/joe is just going to be two large angry men trying to shoot kill each other paul does his usual great job of hyping both people in this match you're great, but my client's better paul shakes hands with joe, tries to leave, joe grabs him again and has an earnest face-to-face conversation he's so well-spoken he's like hey paul i understand you're just a legal representative but jsyk i'm about to choke the life out of you and this is exactly what it's going to feel like and then he does calm joe is the most intimidating joe refs get involved, but not until paul goes limp the crowd are unsure how to react to this assault joe shouts at the crowd some more, then leaves and we cut to ads on the sight of paul on the floor and we come back backstage, with kurt like THE FUCK DID YOU JUST DO at joe who's like i don't know would you like me to demonstrate loooooooom but here comes seth to shout at joe and intervene also he has a new merch vest to show off kurt's like hey this sounds like a good match this booking shit is easy joe sidles off with a dark look, end thing but now we have slater and rhyno facing the kkb with the former's entrance being helpfully played under the announce team talking earnestly about joe the announcers and graphics team need to decide whether they're sheamus and cesaro or cesaro and sheamus dramatic slideshow of the cage match, making it make even less sense lovely closeup of jeff's post-dive 'holy fuck why do i still do this to myself' face bell rings, instead of getting out of the ring, cesaro creates an novel distraction by running across the ring and sliding out in the opponents' corner while sheamus commences to beating the piss out of heath slater knocks them both down, goes for a hot tag, cesaro pulls rhyno off the apron, brogue for the pin so that was a thing i'll be honest, i just love seeing them with the belts and they get mic spots awesome sheamus is like hey guys look like we know how to do this wrestling thing who knew are you all happy the hardyz came back well then you're all twats you know who isn't happy they came back? the hardyz, who basically ain't shit they reiterate their claim to be the bar, cue music and celebration but here's tjp backstage runs into neville oh so coincidentally like congrats, but where the fuck is my title shot neville does his usual patience, young one thing, tjp will no longer take this shit neville is a man of his word, and he'll give tj his shot if he takes care of mustafa next cut for ads, and here's that match tj's straight in with the slightly excessive aggression, tries to crush ali's face across the corner with his foot and then a bunch of cool spots happen faster than i can type about them but that should go without saying, really thanks for slowing things down with that really long rest headlock, tj mustafa does his lovely top rope twist torndo ddt, tries for the inverted 450, tj reverses into a detonation kick for the pin again with the really short matches mustafa deserves better tj swaggers up the ring, neville's crazy pyro hits, he basically shits himself, it's hilarious he's like i'm sorry my apprentice, i talked to kurt but we can't have a match tonight i tried tj shouts at him, storms off, so he blindsides him and beats the shit out of him on the stage and then says he can have his shot tomorrow on 205 i say 'says', more 'northernly rants' cut for ads, and we come back with another shattered dreams production goldust's like excuse you did you steal my format and my chair it is ON motherfucker promises to bring the whole movie industry into his coming golden age how this will interact with bray's prophesied apocalypse is unclear but now, in the women's locker room, mickie and dana congratulate sasha on her dance moves alexa comes in, sasha nopes out of the room and alexa's like hey girls what do you think about nia cutting in line for the title what a bitch right dana and mickie are like lol no we'll be at ringside laughing at you announce spot, and kurt appears to call corey away for urgent business involving gesturing at his phone and looking annoyed i have no clue what all this is building to if there's been foreshadowing, i've missed it cole tries to ask him what that's all about, corey's like OH WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT kalisto's here he's lost the aggressively sculpted dragon mask, back to more of an nxt-era lucha dragons thing back in mexican colours and everything whatever happened to el local ...okay, i totally did not know he was ricardo rodriguez i wouldn't have known who that was back when i started watching nxt, to be fair thanks, internet huh anyway, back on the show, ...mike? ambushes kurt backstage to ask what the fuck's going on with those emails or w/e he uses slightly more professional language, because he's talking to his boss while i'm screaming semi-informed obscenities into the formless void of the internet kurt's like nope, anonymous dude, this is private and walks out of the arena and dean sneaks in the door just before it closes dean ambrose: back like a recurrent uti (his disappointing third album) and as we watch him come in, the revival just happen to be in the back of the shot caught it that time i pay attention sometimes but now it's kalisto/titus or actually titus knocking kaliso down and then shouting at apollo also tozawa is watching because titus wants him on the brand kalisto gets a rollup holding titus' trunks, apollo's like welp guess you asked for that one boss does some light motivational slapping, end segment but here are miz and maryse, even more dapper than usual and pan over to big cass, collapsed under a bunch of girders and shit enzo comes running in like whoa what happened way to stay together, guys cass presents enzo with a tacky chain that he presumably took off his attacker, enzo hugs his bro as we cut to ads and we come back on enzo being like okay well this is clearly a frame job and btw we have a match so can cass wrestle or what the answer is no but now we're back in the ring, with carpet and champagne and balloons and maryse and a guy in a teddy bear suit with a sign says CONGRATULATIONS who is totally not dean ambrose no sir but seriously, miz must fucking love balloons this ring is at imminent risk of lifting off and here is the man himself and a dramatic slideshow of the actually-great match complete with the nicest ref ever but yes, miz and maryse both look fucking great tonight just saying surprising number of you deserve it chants miz is immediately like fuck off you chant that for everyone just reminding us he's still a heel and all but yes, i do deserve it and here's a speech about how i'm redeeming the ic belt a toast to me "Ladies and gentlemen, please raise a glass...or, if you're in this arena, a styrofoam cup..." delivered perfectly miz thanks maryse for all this stuff, mentions the bear, she's like um i thought you ordered the bear then who's flying the plane so miz attacks the bear on principle and finales him welp, that bear's dead dramatically unmasks him, revealing...some dude he's like ...um, well at least you had a brush with celebrity, get out of here *whips him out of the ring* and now here comes a big present down the ramp miz is like well isn't this nice what could this be grabs a chair, beats the shit out of the present while maryse shouts at him to stop and it's a very dead grandfather clock and a very sad maryse tells mike he ruined the party, throws the mic at him, storms off and we are left with a very dejected miz, blaming dean for all his problems and having a paranoid breakdown at the crowd and the steadicam guy who's been following miz throughout takes his headset and hat off and hits miz with dirty deeds lovely slow realisation as the camera feed went up on the tron dean swigs some champagne, takes the bottle and leaves okay, that was really well done but now, we see enzo wandering dejectedly backstage looking for a partner and now we see the family who have good seats because of pizza including the wonderfully-named Enzo Shirtz but yes gallows and anderson are in the ring and here comes enzo all on his onesie does his intro, but it's not the same without a large man gesticulating behind him does his 4G well-connected joke again get new material, dude but he's found himself a new seven-foot man it's a biiiiiig shooooooooow although it would have been amazing if it was braun big show stands in the middle of the ring like what is this tiny rodent enzo tries to give him a pep talk with some semi-coherent jokes mixed in show has progressed from 'bemused' to 'angered' this is the most awkward thing, and i could not do it justice without rubbing a buttered weasel on the keyboard and...now show is doing a joisey-accented monologue with an extended ice age reference before spelling it out for them? what the fuck is in this drink well, the match has started, so i guess the talking can stop bell rings, anderson kicks enzo's soul out of his body standard swift hot tag to show, who...does all the normal show stuff chokeslam to anderson, into badaboomshakalaka except in the form of show military pressing enzo and then just rhowing him straight at anderson well, that was a thing that happened? lasted about 90 seconds anyway next up, women's title match but here are zo and show backstage run into cass, who's like hey funny how show disappears for weeks and then he's back when you need a partner casts suspicion about show being the culprit, enzo wants to give him a ride, but cass takes him away and now let's have a terrible blaxploitation segment full of film references yup but now mike? interviews alexa in the curtain room he asks if she regrets giving nia this shot, she's like i regret this show fuck off faceless dude and back to the arena, here's nia

cut to ads, and...now a weird bit where every version of this i can find appears to have overwritten the entire women's match with the elias segment from earlier the fuck, internet apparently it was pretty much what you might have thought - nia stomped all over alexa, dana and mickie pointed and laughed, and then alexa went and started a fight with those two for a dq win i would have liked to watch that, but guess that's not happening back to the actual show just in time for a graphic for the cruiserweight title match thank fuck i didn't miss that and apparently brock will be here next week i repeat, the champion will be on the show he supposedly leads novel idea so yes, here's everyone's favourite towel-sporting middle-aged-man-strangler and also seth, who didn't try to murder a doughy guy in a suit today bell rings, joe just gets down to punching seth's face in before even taking off his towel seth goes for a suicide dive, joe roundhouse kicks him as he comes out of the ropes, because he is way more flexible than he really should be this match is 10% seth doing cool cruiserweighty shit and 90% joe's hundred flavours of NOPE seth does a sling blade into a suicide dive, and it actually works this time and into a blockbuster because why stop at one signature and as i type that, there goes another suicide dive and then into a falcon arrow, as seth goes fuck you i can do strength spots seth goes up to the top rope, wyatt cut because fuck you lights go back up, seth looks around for a bray who is very much not here, joe blindsides him and coquina clutch until death and we fade on seth bleeding, joe strutting, WOMP WOMPing, and an entirely unnecessary reminder that brock'll be here next week do you have to ruin everything, wwe (don't answer that) smackdown will probably follow tomorrow, after i've gone and been an instrument of democracy but in the meantime, let me tell you about these ants -------------------- And if you enjoyed that, we hope you'll be back next week for our seminar on Following Pheromone Trails In An Increasingly Odoriferous World. right, now that that's done, it's probably time for some FRIDAY AFTERNOON SMACKDOWN! (i apologise in advance for any political jokes that slip through) (it's been a tough few days) and we open on a dramatic retelling of the women's five-way last week so yeah, women's mitb is probably going to be the big story this week i've had some of this show spoiled, but i honestly can't remember what, so that's sorted itself out and we're back in the present, and here come the shaney and also the five contenders are in the ring already and one of them's brought their creeper charlotte is looking ridiculously overdressed in her black sequin robe seven words in, shane gets a cheap pop in shane starts introducing them all, calls tamina "a two-time superstar" the fuck does that even mean the crowd love charlotte, but they love becky more apparently we're having a six-woman tag match later because why not have the entire division in the ring *again* drumroll as shane reveals the case it's basically the same, except silver and with some extra detailing on the logo no pink, thank fuck shane has a monologue about how dangerous the mitb match is, like he totally does with the men claims whoever has won this in the past has become champion somewhere, damien sandow is crying ellsworth calls shane out for mansplaining the mitb match, carmella gets a monologue until charlotte shouts her down leans on the genetic superiority thing, offers the other four a chance at brushing against greatness somehow a face? nattie calls her out for ripping off her father, proceeds to do the same to her uncle becky calls her on this, promises to rip off everybody's arms should be worth watching tamina gets to say words, which is novel but here comes naomi gets to do her whole entrance, because fuck this argument i'm the champ hypes the match like dang i wish i was allowed to be in this INTERRUPTING TRASH SAX lana is actually here in person (why do i like this music what is wrong with me) struts down the ramp, everyone in the ring just standing there like um fuck the what shane's like um hi? btw i was trying to do a thing, why are you in my ring shit, she's still russian and weirdly propositioning shane while also asking for a spot in the mitb match naomi just bursts out laughing like do you even go here why do you get to be in this match when you've had like none ever lana claims she can beat naomi, i smell a match for later shane's like seriously this is not how this show works lana has a tantrum in russian, flounces off up the ramp a+ flounce the crowd are loving her shane's like RIGHT back to the actual show that i run let's have this tag match Pun Murderer, FluoroTwerk and Queen Bitch vs Wrestling Mom, Thug Girl (and Douchey), and Obligatory Samoan lots of spots happened while i was working that out, but the gist is it's pretty even so far currently becky is alligator rolling carmella around the ring with her legs there's my thing i haven't seen before for the week apparently carmella taking the briefcase would be "like moving from HD televisions back to nanotubes" i'm going to go out on a limb and say jbl doesn't understand how science works interference by nattie and ellsworth lets tamina hot tag in and grind becky to pulp nattie tags in so she can walk over becky and taunt her teammates she'd be a much more effective wrestler with more wrestling naomi and carmella both hot tag in, the champ commences to cleaning house including three short-arm leg lariats to tamina because hey, if you can manage those, why not throw a bunch in nattie and tamina both come in to interfere, and here's lana to loom on the ramp and knock naomi off the apron, letting tamina superkick her for the pin stands at ringside looking smug like yes i did do that the fuck you gonna do and we go backstage, where shane runs into the andre the giant trophy mid-phone call like the fuck is this horrible public art and here's mojo to address the fact that he won that match and then nothing else fucking ever and be like should i maybe have been in the mitb match being the only person that's beaten jinder on smackdown and all shane offhandedly mentions luke harper, the crowd go wild shane's giving mojo a match against jinder to qualify for the ladder match because as ever, shane books this shit about twenty seconds in advance later we have owens/nakamura but next, styles/ziggler again and weirdly, by 'next', we don't mean 'after someone from the last segment has an encounter backstage' for once here is aj now they still don't want none although by the sound of the crowd, rochester, NY don't not want none dolph enters, recap video of dolph going over aj last week which i had totally forgotten looking more closely at the men's briefcase, the logo detailing's the same so yeah, it's just the colour that's different bell rings, we start going old-school mat wrestling turns out dolph has amateur technical skills that aren't just assaults to the crotch and also, he can dropkick you in the face dolph goes for the most blatant dirty pin, gets caught just before 3 and then a famouser actually connects for a nearfall i tend to rag on them repeating matches, but hey, this is a good match slow superplex setup actually resolves in an interesting way dolph counters a phenomenal forearm into another dirty pin attempt, aj reverses into a styles clash with like no setup, gets the pin because we're actually respecting finishers for the moment and from that to more fashion files noir tyler has a gritty monologue about the connections between prison and the catwalk and narrates himself looking at their clue board fandango returns from taking the cologne to the boys in the lab, only to find out that there's no boys and no lab, so he just tasted it himself as you do

and then this leads into the two of them repeatedly saying a mixture of 'cologne', 'colón' and 'clone' at each other with an increasing sense of incredulity this is like a fucking two ronnies sketch and i love it tyler finally gets it or not nor does fandango, which obviously means they must be close tyler offers a hopeful "Colóse?" and we cut to the new day and their ice cream cart what is life but still with the noir saxophone soundtrack they've come to the fashion police office and are bemused by how they turn black and white as they enter the new day have a case for them, the police say they'll take it, except the new day can't hear them because they're still speaking in their shared noir internal monologue and i am falling apart here big e is uncomfortable with how they're just staring at him but he's got them both rompers carried in his singlet, obviously fandango is not impressed "Listen, Big E, if that's even your real initial..." line of the night right there fandango is offended because they don't take bribes pan over to tyler, who is already wearing his like hey they're fashionable screw you the new day want intel on the usos for mitb breezango hand them five file boxes pull out a hoodie, ask the new day what they know about day one and why it is h xavier is trying so hard not to corpse the fashion police take the case, sax sting, they freeze frame until the new day are like ummmmmmm we'll just go while their noir monologue starts a 'new case rocks' chant that was amazing and you have no idea how many times i had to pause it to type but back in normality...oh wait, it's mojo i still can't hear his music without my brain adding zack's parts and here's a video to tell us that cena's coming back on july 4th, because of course he fucking is i thought jinder's music was different to usual but it's the singhs doing ring announce for jinder in english and punjabi and there's the music i was expecting i really like the ramp graphics they do for his entrance and he remains jacked as fuck somewhere in america, heath slater is watching smackdown and nxt and developing an inferiority complex it's just occurred to me that jinder's and aj's entrances have basically the same beat and structure somebody make me that mashup maybe this entrance is just they don't want none in punjabi that would be amazing i love how they've given jinder a properly long entrance with some gravitas and just generally how seriously they're taking him as a champion mojo is getting the upper hand with the power of HYPE (always upper case) every time jinder rolls out of the ring, the singhs are like omg boss are you ok can i get you a drink and they just have long arguments in punjabi and don't even try and let the average american in on it a singh distracts mojo and lets jinder just jump on his head a bunch doesn't take, because that's never where mojo keeps his brain flurry of offence later, jinder gets an eye rake in and khalass for the pin decent match by two underrated performers jinder's veins seem to have calmed down a bit too, which is reassuring jinder has a mic, the population of rochester is not pleased oh, fuck off your usa chants promises to kill randy and crush his dreams at mitb, leans on the hometown angle again proclaims himself the antidote to randy orton, and by extension america and then does a promo in punjabi, pissing off americans because america another hype bit for owens/nakamura and a video about how cool shinsuke is and somebody painting a protrait of him this video is basically all showmanship, but that's totally appropriate he's great in the ring, but that's not why people love him but next, the new day actually fight and they keep saying it's owens/nakamura 'for the first time ever' i have gifs that disagree but now, randy is backstage renee comes in to ask what he thinks about jinder's promo apparently he's been getting calls from ric flair, harley race and his dad, telling him to let jinder talk and then fuck him up so that's what he's going to do sure, that's compelling interview work but actually now, it's the new day v the colóns they're still throwing boxes of cereal into the crowd and pouring them on fans, because fuck your health and safety it's xavier/e, because this isn't a serious match so naturally, jbl goes off on a tangent about operation overlord this is 90% the colóns taking all the new day spots you know and love xavier and e do the ab stretch/spank thing at the same time, xavier somehow gets francesca ii turbo despite having a match to wrestle in a side note, primo's gone and shaved, so now i have no clue which colón is which xavier does a huge missile dropkick on epico, double hot tag and big e proceeds to annihilate primo xavier does a casual tope con giro, primo tries for a pin from the distraction, fails because fuck you we're the new day, blind tag into midnight hour for the pin their post-match celebration is interrupted by the usos' aggressive music they're here to talk trash at the new day and do their prison thing, astonishingly and they have shitty misogynistic jokes about the new day and jimmy's paranoia monologue i do like that they're doing all this mic work, but can we maybe not be offensive to marginalised groups shot of kevin taping his wrists backstage, but here's dasha in the curtain room with sami asking how he's preparing for mitb he's been watching lots of matches, basically and he has no idea how to get a handle on shinsuke slippery bastard sami tries to do some of shinsuke's moves, it doesn't go well so he's going to be on announce for owens/nakamura for research purposes baron looms into the room, coldcocks sami then hits him with a ladder like stop thinking about shinsuke don't you love me and then pushes him into a convenient pile of ladders and says he's taking the announce spot cut to shane on the phone like i am literally watching the show what the shit was that why do i keep that enormous douchebag around man spends a lot of time in expository phone calls (says the woman narrating the entire show on the internet) but here's naomi to ask for a match with lana at mitb shane's like seriously you have no clue how busy i am right now naomi lobbies harder, puts the title on the line after saying lana doesn't deserve a title shot because she hasn't earned it? does the bald-snatching line, end segment and now main event time here's kevin good sweeping shot of the ring apron and floor, wrong steadicam guy #smackdownediting ad for talking smack, with aj, mojo, and lana and tjp telling us to watch 205 becuse he's awesome [citation needed] claims you can't stab someone in the back if they're standing in front of you tjp has clearly never heard of the concept of elbows baron's on announce great the two facts they put on shinsuke's sidebar are literally 'from kyoto' and 'former nxt superstar' fascinating but what do i care, i'm busy watching him in his studded tabard that everybody will be wearing in the future bell rings, shinsuke does his oh did you want a tieup i'm just going to kick you in the knees baron talks about his storied history of fucking sami up nobody cares, you balding twat kevin has briefly tried to take shinsuke on at the kicking game, failed, and returned to mastering headlocks shinsuke's kicked off a comeback with a lovely single leg dropkick nearfall off his knees to the corner baron acknowledges that shinsuke is dangerous, my no shit alarm is destroying my eardrums (daniel, can you please take the batteries out of that) baron's still trying to talk smack about kevin, but his particular brand of smack is just shite meanwhile, reverse exploder to kinshasa for the win a lightly underwhelming main event, tbh, but shinsuke's clearly been holding back on the in-ring stuff since moving up which makes perfect sense shinsuke does his poses, corbin runs in to end of days him so hard his stupid hat comes off crowd are not best pleased i'm mostly just concerned as to why he's dressed like the second-rate pot dealer at every college (baron, that is) (i would love it if people at my college dressed like shinsuke) and we fade on baron awkwardly posing at the top of the ramp and having no idea what do with his arms halfhearted shimmy as the show ends and now i'm off to watch talking smack and make shitty political jokes you can't stop me you're not my real dad (one of you reading this is my real dad and can stop me) (also possibly daniel's uncle, if he actually reads this) (memo to self: stop antagonising authority figures for literally no reason)

[andiestories]

Chapter 2B - Petrichor

"Your sister is killing it out there!" Josie screams in between orders.

Callum smiles while plating up and pass it on to his cousin. "Do you think your dad will mind if I go out there?"

Josie chuckles, "Of course not!"

"I'm taking five, chef.", Callum announces and takes a plate with a red mullet served with black garlic and saffron sauce, and a glass of bubbly. He walks over to his sister, places the food and the drink on the piano, and draws her attention, for the first time, to the outer world. "Thought you should eat and drink something, and maybe take five?"

Aimee stops playing and smiles at her brother. "How did you know?" Aimee picks up the food and drink and they both quietly make their way outside the entrance of the restaurant. Aimee looks around the room. "It's so full already." Callum chuckles and it reminds him of history repeating when Aimee sits behind a piano. How she locks herself from the world outside. Aimee notices his amusement. "What?"

Callum elbows her gently, "I'm just remembering that time when pai set the kitchen on fire with his attempt at flambé, and while the three of us were running around trying to put out the fire, you were in the living room playing. Your face when you entered the kitchen and saw the black smoke and the windows open, it was priceless. We could tell you had no idea what just had happened."

Aimee smiles at the shared memory. "I miss him." Callum nods. "Hey, maybe we can call him. What's the time in London now?" Aimee squints momentarily doing the calculation in her head quickly. "9 am. That's perfect, he is probably just entering the office."

Callum taps his pockets. "Shit. Left my phone in the kitchen. Let me run inside quickly and we'll give him a call."

Aimee starts pecking at the food on her plate. Her eyes focussed on the piece of fish. She walks a few steps away from the entrance distractedly until she bumps against someone. Her drink spills outwards, while the plate spills onwards over her dress. She gasps "I'm so sorry!" her cheeks turning red with mortification.

"What the fuck!" her eyes lift up at that voice. "You... it had to be you pommie!" Her eyes flare with anger. The surfer is in front of her. He's sporting a black tuxedo suit with white and grey stripes shirt. His hair is neatly combed and his beard is now reduced to a light stubble. His hands are shaking the liquid that Aimee has poured on him. "Can't you see where the fuck you're going?"

Aimee looks at her cocktail dress and the food that is sticking to the fabric. "I said I was sorry.", she mutters.

Liam scoffs, "You're going to pay for my dry cleaning."

Aimee stares him down, "I'm not paying for a damn thing!"

Liam towers over her menacingly, "Get out of my way, pommie!"

Aimee closes her fists and in a thoughtless instinct, driven by pure frustration with the man in front of her, she pushes him, "Stop calling me that!" however the man barely budges from where he is standing.

Liam looks amused at her attempt to enter into a physical altercation with him. "Are you really trying to hit me, sheila?"

Aimee's eyes widen and Callum's voice is heard. "Step away from her."Liam's eyes find the interjection amusing. Callum's voice raises again. "Leave my sister alone."

Liam's eyes narrow, mildly surprised at the revelation. "What are you going to do about it?", he taunts Callum. Callum closes his fist and charges against Liam. He throws the first punch that lands on Liam's right side. Liam smiles and grazes his tongue over the small lip cut.

"Callum, stop!" Aimee tries to intervene. However, it's too late. Liam punches Callum in the gut and places his head in an arm lock, displaying a position of strength and agility. Callum's face turns red as the air stops circulating to his brain. Aimee screams "Leave him alone!"

"Liam!" Charlie roars while standing at the door unamused. Liam's eyes go to Charlie and he releases Callum. Aimee runs towards her brother that coughs uncontrollably.

"Charlie" Liam responds. Charlie walks towards him and pushes him to the wall. "You promised me.", he says through clenched teeth.

Liam snickers, "Guess I couldn't help myself."

Charlie looks at his brother disappointedly and lets him go. He turns his attention to the twins, "Are you ok?" Callum nods while still coughing. "Liam, get inside, Matt is waiting for you." Liam rearranges his suit and walks past Aimee. He lingers his blue eyes on her, taunting her.

"What happened?", Jack arrives near the entrance, "I heard there was some commotion here?" his eyes glance in Callum and Aimee's direction.

Liam walks past Jack and gives him a lukewarm greeting, "Good evening, Jack.", before disappearing inside the restaurant.

"Were you two in a fight?" Callum adjusts his white uniform ignoring the question.

"It's my fault.", Aimee interjects.

"What happened?"

Aimee shrugs her elbows "It's my fault."

Jack's face hardens, "So you've said."

"It was nobody's fault. It's all over now.", Charlie flashes his best smile in an attempt to diffuse the situation. "I assume you're Callum?" Callum straightens his posture and nods. "Your appetizer was marvelous. Can't wait for the main course, mate." Jack nods at Callum to return back to the kitchen. Aimee reaches and touches Callum's arm gently. Callum looks down and disappears back to the kitchen. "And, you are wonderful at the piano, I hope you continue to grace us with your skill." Charlie flashes a smile to Aimee.

Aimee lowers her eyes to the ground, "I think it's enough piano for tonight. Besides, my dress is ruined."

"I can help with that", Eva makes her presence noticeable. "I always have a spare dress in the trunk of my car for when mishaps like these happen. You're about my size" she flashes a dazzling smile. "Come with me."

Jack encourages Aimee to follow Eva and Aimee obliges, leaving the two men alone. "I'm so sorry, Charlie."

Charlie smiles and pats Jack in the back. "I'm sure it was Liam's fault. I know my brother." They both walk back inside.

Eva walks towards her Land Rover and opens the trunk of the car. "Just one moment, I have a ton of junk in my car." Eva starts moving things around, "So how are you finding Australia so far?"

"It's a beautiful country."

Eva takes a suit bag out. "Yes, it is. I fell in love with this place immediately. Came here for university, never left again." She opens the zip to reveal an embroidered pink lace corset cocktail dress.

"That looks very expensive."

Eva smiles, "You'll look gorgeous with it." Aimee takes the dress in her hands. "Go inside the car and change. I'll keep a lookout." Aimee nods and enters the vehicle while Eva positions herself with her back to Aimee. "You play beautifully."

Aimee unzips her dress and shuffles outside of it. "Thank you."

Eva nods at a few individuals making their way inside the restaurant. "Where did you learn to play so beautifully?"

"Back home in London, I attended the Royal College of Music, and until recently I was the lead pianist at Wigmore Hall." Aimee peaks outside. "Can you help me with the zip?"

Eva turns around and gently zips Aimee's dress. "Now it makes sense." Aimee gets out of the car and Eva stares at her shoes. "Do you mind if we also change your shoes?"

Aimee stares at her feet. "Is there something wrong with them?"

"Just a gentle touch." Eva goes again to the back and removes a buckled ankle strap and stiletto heels with pink floral flourish sandals. She hands them to Aimee that proceeds to place them on her feet. "There, now you look absolutely perfect." Eva gives Aimee her arm. "Shall we go back inside?"

Aimee nods and takes her arm. "Thank you."

Eva chuckles, "My pleasure, but I have to be honest with you, my generosity has an ulterior motive." The women make their way to the staircase. "My daughter Isabella, needs some piano lessons. Seen that I find you incredibly talented, perhaps I can ask you if you would be interested in tutoring her?"

Aimee stutters, "I'm only going to be here for six months, maybe less."

Eva pats her in the arm in a comforting manner, "I'm aware of that. For as long as you can. When you leave we'll find someone else. But, I have a feeling that you two would get along. She doesn't have many friends and I think a person closer to her age range could maybe allow her to open herself up to the world. The only other person I know that could teach her is a 50-year old man. Not exactly jovial, is it?" both the women chuckle. "Just come by the house tomorrow and meet her." Aimee nods. "Great, now let me find that husband of mine." Eva leaves Aimee's side and joins the party.

Aimee stands awkwardly around the room full of people. Across the room, she sees him staring at her. Both share an infuriating look at one another. Anger flares her spirit and she marches to the piano. Other than the smell of petrichor coming through the window after the light rain that grazed the sky, Aimee is left alone to her own melody. Her fingers play for another hour until the smell of lamb fills her nostrils and indicates it is time to conclude her performance. She opens her eyes and feels relieved that she was as invisible as her brother promised. Except to him, who still observed her from afar. She turns around the room and meets his eyes. He had been watching her performance, and his stare was everything but unapologetic for it. However, he was not alone.  Suddenly, the room lights up with applause from the guests in attendance.

Aimee startles at the thundering ovation. The resonant applause reminds her of the concert hall clamoring with cheers and acclamation, her graceful bow, and the empty seat. A touch on her elbow makes her jerk back to reality.

"The Forsyths' are asking if you can play some Chopin during dinner.", Jack says.

Her head was spinning, the applause was filling her brain with unwanted noise. "Dinner? No, we had a deal, appetizers only."

Jack touches her back gently. "Sweetheart, they love to hear you play, just a couple of songs."

Her eyes flashed to the night of the concert. Her nostrils could feel the scent of the red roses at her feet. Her ears could hear the cheers and whistles from the audience. Her head starts spinning and in the back of the room, the silhouette of her dead father emerges. She blinks a few times before his shadow lurks back to her distant memory. "No!" she raises her voice. "I said no!" and runs outside. Liam gets up but stops himself when he sees Callum has followed his sister.

Aimee runs outside but her right foot gives in with the heels and she tumbles to the ground. She releases a muffled scream and is picked up by Callum. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.", he whispers. Callum picks his sister up and carries her outside the property. In the background Liam sees them leaving.

[universalidiiot]

Goretober #1

Day 1: Kidnapping

Charlie couldn't breath. He couldn't get his lungs to work with him as he looked up to the hideous, bleached faces that would be ingrained into his nightmares. He hadn't meant to wander away from his sister, but the red and white tent looked so inviting and interesting, calling to him like a siren's song. He was told not to walk inside, but he wanted to see the clowns, or the trapeze artists, or the magician, or even the ring master again. He wondered what they did when the rest of the world was gone and it was just them under the big top.

He didn't think it would be like this.

"He's a little small, Mama," one of them said, a slender man wearing a skintight red suit and a black club of spade painted-- or maybe branded-- onto his eye.

"Yeah, he's so scrawny," another one said, poking at Charlie's side with a bony finger. This one looked exactly like the other man, except he wore a black suit and had a red spade on his eye, mirroring the club-boy.

"Leave him be, boys! Let Mama take a good look at him," a larger woman snapped, pushing the two men away from Charlie and picking him up with gloved hands by his arm pits, making him hiss only once in pain. She wore a neon pink, green, and purple clown suit with a tutu and rubber gloves, her blonde hair tied up into tight pigtails at the top of her head and seperated with a hair bow. Her eyes were wild and her blood red lips against pale white skin unnerved Charlie, like staring into the face of a blood thirsty shark. The boy squirmed against her when she pulled him into a big hug, squeezing him with a soft "mmm-mmm-mmm".

"Well, I think some introductions are in order," the woman, Mama as she was called, declared, setting down Charlie but keeping a grip on his shoulders with large hands, "I'm Big Mama and those two," she pointed to the two men in suits, "are Club and Spade. But you can call us Mama and Big Bubba's."

Charlie flinched back, trying to escape his kidnappers grasp but to little avail, falling down onto his rear and leaving him all the more vulnerable. He stared up at them and couldn't tell if the darkness of the tent helped him become less scared of them or if it only added to how horrifying they were.

"Wh-where... Where is mommy? Where did mommy go?" He asked pitifully, his nails digging into the dirt under him.

"Oh sweet pea, mama's right here!" Big Mama cooed, holding her hands to her chest and looking as if Charlie had just wounded her. Maybe he had. Maybe this woman was truly insane and thought Charlie was her kid. He didn't know, all he knew was that he wanted to go home. He wanted to see his mama-- his /real/ mama-- again. He wanted to curl up on his bed and forget this had ever happened, like it was a bad dream that his mother would sing away softly.

But this wasn't a dream. The white faces were a testament to that.

The opening flaps at the front of the tent flew open, letting in a cool breeze that froze the beaded sweat on Charlie's forehead. A tall man with slicked back black and grey hair, wearing a red and white striped suit with a crimson tie and white, pristine gloves, almost as white as the skin of the clown above him, sauntered in and stood before Charlie, looking down at him with a disassociated glare.

"The guests have all left... All but this one." He took one last glance before looking back at Big Mama, "what do you want done with this one, dear?" He asked.

Big Mama thought to herself, a hand on her hip and a finger on her chin,

"Well, he's a little young, but I like him, Ringy! He's just so cute," she squeezed Charlie's cheeks and shook his face a little to prove her point, "can we keep him? He can be my little helper at shows."

The man-- the ring master, if Charlie remembered right-- hummed in thought, looking down at Charlie and then back at Big Mama with a cold smile.

"Of course, love. He's all yours."

Big Mama squealed, wrapping her thick arms around the ring master in a crushing hug before turning back to Charlie, picking him up again and holding him like a baby. Charlie, half frozen by the prospect as being kept as some pet, some fake son, stared blankly as the rest of this /family/ laughed and cheered. He shook against Big Mama and mumbled wordlessly, his eyes wide in terror.

"Don't worry boy," the ring master tipped Charlie's chin up with a finger, "let's hear a little chuckle."

"Hey," Big Mama drawled, "chuckles... I love it! Awe, Chuckles is gonna be Mama's precious baby boy!" She cried out, a grotesquely large smile stretched on her face.

If Charlie screamed for help, he couldn't tell. He couldn't remember. All he remembered was the drowning sensation of the fact that he wouldn't get out of this circus.

The thought made him chuckle just a little.

Ok, so this is actually a story from an OC I made named Chuckles. I made him on accident trying to draw Pink Diamond from Steven Universe and it came out looking like a clown, so I just went with it.

I hope to make his story line into a full blown web comic, but for now I'll bee putting little snipits of his, and other characters, stories into this group of one shots.

Hope you guys like him, and if you have any questions, don't be afraid to ask😁

[doctortdesigns]

The latest collection from Simplicity is here, and it’s… and interesting mix of patterns.  I have to say I’m really excited by a lot of the brand name/licensed lines.  The DC Comics workout gear is totally fab, and there’s a Mimi G. pattern calling my name.  Otherwise, though, I’m not too excited by a lot in this release.  Which is fine, because I’ve got a huge stash of awesome already calling my name, but I had hoped to see a little more in this release to pique my interest.  In any case, there’s a lot of new stuff to look at, so let’s get to it:

8631 – I really like the superhero themed exercise clothes.  I feel like they’d be so fun and motivating to wear to a workout!  Especially if you happen to workout at Nerdstrong Gym (I don’t, but I really want to).  Even without the wonder woman theme, I really like how high the waist band is on all of these leggings – I hate when it feel like things are sliding down in the middle of a workout.

8632 – Again, I really like the leggings here.  Looking at the line drawings, it seems the basic leggings and sports bra are the same in each pattern, but a few of the style details and all of the tops have been changed to make the overall look more in character.

8633 – I think the oversized top here is probably the least favorite of the options, but the front cross on the bra is a cute detail.

8634 – I sort of love the back of this shirt top… if you were running I feel like it would flap like a cape!

8635 – The open back jumpsuit seems to be a popular trend with the pattern companies this spring/summer.  I think I prefer some of the earlier releases, but there is a very laid back summer vibe coming off of this spaghetti strap version.

8636 – Cynthia Rowley.  I’ve never been a fan of the super voluminous patterns on this blog and I’m… not changing my mind now.  There is so. Much. VOLUME!  Normally I buy quite a few of the Cynthia Rowley designs, but this one is going to be an easy pass for me.

8637 – I think I’ve got plenty of wrap dress options in my stash, but this dress is nice if you are looking for a wrap pattern.  The skirt ruffle isn’t too crazy, and it adds a nice summer vibe to the look.

8639 – Mimi G. Style.  I feel like I almost really like this dress.  The overall silhouette and front ruching are great; it’s the under-bust opening and front slit I’m not in love with.  Granted, these would be easy changes, but still something to consider when looking at this design.

8638 – Easy to Sew.  Another dress I almost really like.  I like the asymmetric neckline, but the overall look of the dress is sort of stiff and awkward.  I suppose it’s another look that could be used as a starting point to be altered, but I’m not sure if it is worth the trouble.

8640 – I’m not overly excited by this dress.  The shaped hem makes it interesting, but again it’s that super voluminous thing going on that I’m not such a fan of.  The red version looks a bit toned down compared to the cream colored view, so perhaps it isn’t terrible.  I’d be interested to hear opinions on this look – fab or fug?

8641 – The jumper (pinafore?) style seems to be coming back into vogue in recent years.  This version has some interesting pocket seams going on, and the model view is actually cuter than I’d have expected just from the line drawing.

8642 – I don’t think there’s much left to say about ruffly sleeved tops, except, look, another one!

8643 – I’m sort of torn on this top.  I think the asymmetry gathered hip thing is cool, but I also feel like it looks a bit messy on the model.  But I also wonder how it would look on someone with *ahem* a bit more up top to possible balance it out?  Might be worth using some Loft jersey to play with this pattern. And if view D doesn’t work out, view B looks like a safer bet for fall/winter.

8644 –  More Cuban Pete couture.

8645 – 1950s Vintage reprint pattern.  These tops are actually really cute.  They all seem to have a button up back (not my favorite detail), but I really like the front views.

8646 – Learn to Sew the Trends.  It’s a pretty simple pattern, but I think it’s a cool idea for a pattern line, to perhaps get younger, newer sewists into the hobby.

8647 – More boxy ruffly things.  Moving on.

8648 – I sort of like the top view on the the envelope, where this pattern is being worn as a type of duster.  I’m not sure I’m in love with the actual garment photo though.  Probably a pass for me, but I do think there are some nice design elements here.

8649 – Easy to Sew.  I’m not really that fond of the seaweed seam pants, but I do like the shape of the skirt.

8650 – Learn to Sew the Trends.  The skirts look pretty basic, but it is interesting to note that the belt pouch is back as a “trend.”

8651 – Learn to Sew the Trends.  I think these shorts, while not exciting, look great for summer.  Plus, pockets!

8652 – Very classic pencil skirts.  Love the look in a print.

8653 – The wide legged trouser and front tie top seem to have been a major theme in all the big summer collections this year.  The high-low hem on the top is an interesting interpretation here.

8654 – 1940s Vintage.  Really, this just proves that there is nothing new under the sun.  Also, I may have to get this pattern for those pleated shorts…  You know.  Cuz cosplay.  And stuff.  Just sayin’.

8655 – Mimi G. Style.  Ok, I love me a wide legged jean, so you know these are going on my wishlist.  I have, through the wearing of my Ginger Jeans, come to realize I maybe don’t love a high waist as much as I thought, but I might be willing to make an exception here.  Plus, I love that this top is clearly intended as a cover up… Perfect for participating in the trend without having to expose the midriff if that is an issue for you.

8656 – Easy to Sew.  Despite these being really simple looking patterns, I really like the top and the skirt, though perhaps not so much together?  They both look like quick ways to get super classy pieces though.

8657 – Pattern Hacking.  I’m not sure how much changing the length of something is a “hack,” but this does look super comfortable and oddly chic.

8658 – Pattern Hacking.  There looks to be more “hacking” going on here, but I’m less interested in the basic designs of this simple top.

8659 – 1950s Vintage men’s swimsuit.  Can I just say – with that hair he looks just like a Ken doll.

8660 – Kids clothes.  I feel like this looks like a super practical pattern.

8661 – More kids clothes.  Cute, I guess?  I always have a hard time evaluating kids patterns because I feel like, as a kid I was super bipolar towards clothing.  Some days I wanted to be a princess and other days I didn’t want to wear any of the awful, ruffly 80s s**t that I had available to me.  So, I have no real commentary here, except, look, a dress!

8662 – American Girl. I like the use of trims on the skirts.  The embellishment is a nice feature.

8663 – More kids clothes that are in the vein of the popular adult trends.  Again, no comment as to the overall aesthetic going on here.

8664 – Charlie’s Aunt bags in four styles.  I actually really like the size of the bags; they seem really practical in terms of scale.  The bow designs are perhaps a bit sweet for me, but, overall, I like it.

8665 – American Girl.  The modern day clothes are great, but I wish they’d offer some of the historical design patterns, because those would be more fun to make.

8666 – I feel like making a button down top on this scale would be super challenging.

8667 – And we have a fluffy cat/unicorn/pegasus/mermaid pillow… thing.  Yes, internet, you’ve made life real weird.

8668 – Dinosaur/mermaid sleeping bags.  Yup.  To be fair, if I was three I’d totally want one.

8669 – 1940s vintage apron pattern.  I like view A – it actually seems like a super practical kitchen cover-up.

8670 – Yay cosplay jumpsuits!  The seam lines on the body would be great either for color blocking (as shown) or for doing fit alterations.

8671 – Lolita costume.  I’m not really into the whole Lolita scene, but there are lots of interesting details on this pattern if that’s your jam.

5555 – Jiffy vintage reprint pattern.  This wrap top looks super simple to put together, but I’m wondering how stable it is once you’ve wrapped it on?  The fashion illustrations look fab though.

7650 – Vintage reprint.  I’m not too excited by this giant looking summer dress.  Again – that is just so much volume!

And that’s it!  What do we all think?  Is this a fabulous summer collection, or does it leave something to be desired?  Who else is super excited by the superhero workout gear?  What are your top picks from this release?  Feel free to discuss in the comments!

Summer 2018 Simplicity Patterns #sewing #Simplicity #SimplicityPatterns #patterns #summersewing The latest collection from Simplicity is here, and it's... and interesting mix of patterns.  I have to say I'm really excited by a lot of the brand name/licensed lines. 

[karmaholmes221]

How Very Curious

Part 11- the gravity assisted snare mock 4

“Soverters! Stupid pig-heads! Bug Batchers!” The knight continued to offer us insults that grew stranger and stranger in nature until Alice couldn’t take it anymore.

“Who the hell are you?”

The old man straightened up and made his way towards us, his armor clanging loudly. “I am a knight, a White Knight to be precise. Sir Charles Eustace Fotheringay le Malvoy III  at your service.” He said proudly. “Who.. are you?” He asked after a moment of silence.

Alice hesitated for a moment, glancing at me. I motioned for her to continue and she returned her gaze to the knight. “I’m… Alice.”

Charlie perked up. “Alice? Thee Alice? Thee… Alice?”

Alice shifted back a half step. “No just...  Alice.”

Charlie was silent for a moment as he mulled this over. “Just-Alice”

Hatter shifted his weight beside me. “I thought all you guys were wiped out years ago.”

Charlie turned sharply towards us and I quickly grab Hatter’s hand. “Well you thought wrong. As you can see, I’m fit as a butcher’s dog.” Charlie said before giving an odd sounding cough.

“Are there anymore like you?” I asked.

Charlie turned  to face me and his jaw went slack for a moment. “You… you’re…” He began.

“Yeah I know, don’t hurt yourself.” I said cutting him off, ignoring the odd looks from the two people standing beside me.

“But how are you alive, everyone was wiped out, gone, offed. And yet, here you are…” Charlie trailed off.

“What is he going on about?” Hatter asked.

“Nothing, it’s nothing. Are there anymore like you?” I asked again, quickly trying to change the subject as Hatter’s eyes continued to bore into me.

“Certainly not, I’m a one off. My nan used to say that if I were the only eligible bachelor left in the world, that there wasn’t a warthog or wallflower who would polish my escuchen.” Charlie said with a small, painful sounding laugh.

“No I mean are there any other knights in these woods?” I explained.

“Your Comrades in Arms.” Alice added.

“Heavens no. Are you mad, we were all wiped out years ago.” Charlie said, picking up a shovel and laying it over his shoulder.

Hatter gave him an odd look. “You dug that pit on your own?” He asked in disbelief.

Charlie let the shovel drop from his shoulder and suddenly rounded on Hatter. “Now let me tell you something nuck-face, youth is vastly overrated. I may have put on a few years but I’m crafty. I have a very inventive and calculating mind stacked high with groundbreaking, state-of-the-art ideas. I invent all sorts of things.” He snapped before calming down a bit. “The beehive mousetrap for instance and this here pit, as you so rudely called it, is in fact my third attempt at the gravity assisted snare mock 4.” He said proudly before beginning to mumble to himself as he turned slowly away from us.

There was a moment of silence. “Oooo-kay” I said, trying to work through what exactly just happened.

I turned to Hatter to see a clearly confused and slightly worried look on his face. “He’s mad as a box of frogs.” He said, turning to look at Alice. “How the hell have you survived?” He asked turning back towards Charlie.

Charlie ignored him for a moment, gazing up into the branches of the trees and sniffing the air. He turned in a circle and refocused, staring at the three of us for a moment. “Oh yes. I’m a knight.” He said simply. “And I’m an inventor as I’ve already said but that’s strictly on a part-time basis. I also dabble in the black arts now and then, divination, toenail readings, that sort of thing.” He said, trying to be mysterious. “Here, let me show you, give me your palm.” He said reaching out and taking hold of Alice’s hand, lifting it so that the stone caught the light.

“Hey get off.” Alice said, pulling her hand away.

Charlie went completely still. “What’s that on your finger?” He asked, completely serious.

Alice swallowed. “Nothing.”

“That’s the sacred ring, the Stone of Wonderland. Our ring.” He said, taking a small step towards me on the word ‘our’.

Hatter reached out and pressed a hand to the front of Charlie’s chestplate, halting from coming any closer. “Whoah, I know you’re excited granddad but keep your distance and the ring stays on the lady’s finger ok?”.

Charlie didn’t seem to hear him as he turned away from us and dropped to his knees. “It is meant to be, this time, this place.  This meeting in the woods.”

I glanced at Hatter, slightly worried about whether or not we should help the clearly insane man. “Ookay” Hatter said taking Alice by the arm and pulling her away from the knight. “We need to get away from him before he gets us all killed.” He said.

Alice dug in her heels and came to a halt. “Maybe he can help us.

“Have you forgotten about the weirdo that’s tailing us.” Hatter snapped pointing over Alice’s shoulder towards the way we had come. “This freak show is going to draw his attention for sure.”

“I have to agree with Hatter, Alice, this really doesn’t seem like the best idea.” I said, glancing at the knight who was still kneeling on the ground, his hands clasped in front of him as though he was praying.

“This knight has survived out here for this long, maybe he knows a thing or two.” Alice argued before turning her attention back to the man, taking a small step in his direction. “Listen Charlie, we have some very bad men following us who want to kill us and steal the ring. Do you know anywhere we can lay low for a while?”

“-the stars are aligned in a cosmic ray of hope.” Charlie continued with his rant.

“And you want to put your faith in him?” Hatter asked incredulously.

Alice glanced at Hatter and then back at Charlie. “Yes”

I couldn’t help but let out a sharp laugh. “Oh god”

Alice turned back to us. “Look he might be nuts and… 150 years old and dressed like a car crash, but he’s a survivor.”

“And I’m not deaf.” Charlie called, getting slowly to his feet and turning to face the three of us. “Just Alice, My lady,” He addressed both me and Alice. “I would be honored to escort you, your goods,” He threw a quick glance at Hatter. “And your vassal to my sacred kingdom.” He said with a slight bow.

Hatter stared at him for a moment before turning to me. “Did he just call me a vassal?”

I reached up and put a hand on his cheek. “He did Hatter, he did.”