#i went in to lost galaxy really wanting to like mike but

[mo-ok]

Mike should have been Leo's dad. The second they made Magna Defender Zika's dad they should have done the same to Mike. Make him a hard ass military dad estranged from the son he had too young. Make him a similar age to Commander Stanton. Make them old friends. Give us the middle aged man love story we deserve.

Idk man I just feel like Mike literally got nothing to do in LG. He came back to life, got a few episodes in the spotlight, then went on to do absolutely nothing until he blew up his cow in the last few episodes. Like, at least if he was a tired old bastard it would have made sense as to why he wasn't in every fight.

Also this is a real nitpick but the fact that Mike doesnt talk while inside/part of the Defender Torozord really bothers me. If they didnt want the Zord to talk, they should have given Mike cockpit scenes so it atLEAST SOMETIMES FELT LIKE HE WAS ACTUALLY IN THE FIGHT

[munsnz]

TRICKS OF LIFE — STEVE HARRINGTON

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐯. — 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐞? Overview: Y/N tells Mike information to help their lost friend, she also heads to the search party for Will with Victor. As they explore, the past unravels and there is an odd occurrence that happens. Navigation & Mixtape

Tag: @samiyamuntaha @thepowerstoner @ughgclden @mqyfield @cooperdaysgf

“So right by Mirkwood right?” Mike Wheeler’s voice peeped after listening to Y/N’s remark of details about what she heard at the Hawkins Police Department a few hours ago. It was around 7 pm, right around to where the girl was getting ready prone to the search party being held with a few of the residents of the town.

Y/N hummed a positive response to clearing out his doubts just in case he was confused by any means, this wasn’t going to help Mike, it was going to help Will get a faster chance to be retrieved to his home again.

Although Hopper disapproved the request of letting young people in the search, Y/N and Victor were eventually allowed to come along, “Yeah, but remember you have to be somewhat far from the real search group okay? We don’t want you to get caught.”

”Mike! What are you doing?” Nancy’s faint voice was caught on the other line of the phone, leading Mike to leave the phone out, Y/N overhearing them argue over the dumbest things.

Prior to the noises of Mike pushing Nancy out of the basement she guessed, the boy came back on the line, sighing loudly, “Sorry about that, Nancy gets so annoying, I still don’t know why you still hang out with her.”

”She could be a priss sometimes,” She responds, breathily giggling, clenching the ceramic telephone tighter, “But she’s still my friend if you could say.”

Continuing with their conversation based on the plan, it was perfectly assembled, safe with a high possibility of finding Will, even if it had been a day. Will couldn’t have gone far anyways. Y/N was about to speak, but was suddenly caught off guard as soon as she heard her dad in the hallway, getting prepared for the search.

”Oh shit! I have to go now,” Y/N hushed in a subtle tone, trying her best to keep away Hopper from listening to their discussion, “Remember to be home by 9 at least with flashlights. Stay safe Mike.”

The line went awfully silent, placing back the phone to its regular position on the handset, while it being attached to the wall. Rapidly, spinning to look at her father, trying to act as normal as possible, his brows furrowed at her.

”What were you doing?”

Shrugging it off calmly, Y/N breathily giggles while she put her hands on her hips saying, “I was just checking in with Victor, that’s all.”

Hopper’s eyes widened at her point, clicking his tongue as he started grabbing on his sweater for the frosty night ahead, “Funny, but I just called his mom to let him know that he was coming.”

”Right..” Y/N casually crossed her arms, cursing under her breath before she showed any subtle reaction to what she was up to. Play it cool.

In the silence of her looking around the messy home by the front door, Hopper sharply whistles while slinging the car keys in the air to catch them, making Y/N follow right behind me, pretending as if the few minutes didn’t occur. Feeling the breeze of the autumn air, both the relatives made their way to the vehicle, on their way to the small yet important search for this boy, Will Byers.

As the road got narrower and narrower, the car drove deeper into the dark woods, where Y/N could see the slender trees and branches surrounding them. The starry sky lit up the place with a soft tone of dim blues and grays painted across it on the chilly night. Watching out the window, Y/N squinted her eyes to see a figure from afar waving towards the vehicle, a familiar figure to be Victor. Hopper drove nearer, the headlights being able to guide him to the stop where a small crowd of people were surrounding along with the patrols.

Hopper cleared his throat, while he pushed the breaks down and turned to his daughter, “Hey kid, remember don’t be-“

Without hesitation, Y/N swung the car door open to step out of it, hustled her way to her so called “acquaintance”, Victor. It was more like a friend but she didn’t want to be that close with the boy. Victor wearily smiling at her.

“You seem tired,” Y/N creeps up next to him, watching the small groups of people around the mounds of dead leaves and twigs gathered for the search.

Victor’s voice brings the girl’s attention back to him, he clears his throat, “I mean dealing with Flo is already a lot for me to handle, so I suppose I am.” The two silently chuckled, the frost getting to their noses, “I heard there’s gonna be a chance of rain.”

”Really?”

“Yes really! Haven’t you seen the forecast? I’m even wearing a jacket!” Victor squinted his eyes, his eyewear raising up on the bridge of his nose and the girl shrugged aimlessly.

Y/N scoffed, shoving him slightly, “I think there’s way more important things we need to focus on instead of the weather.”

From afar, Hopper and the policemen indicated all the volunteers to gather around on the sidewalk, near the entrance of the forest. The flashing blue and red lights were turned off from the cars, everyone else preparing for the upcoming search.

”Okay guys!” The chief shouted to direct everyone, “We need to stay in the 5 mile radius from where Will was last scene! Everyone please be careful and remember to blow the whistle if you find anything at all!”

Heads were nodded, agreeing to the directions, Officers Powell and Callahan guided two separate groups from different directions, Y/N having to come along with the third group including her dad. Although the girl was 16, her father wanted to take the best care for her, after Sarah. He wanted to keep her as close as possible, but he knew she was getting older. It was just for today, he can protect her for today, now being aware of a kid disappearing in their town. Maybe one of them was next.

“I guess that’s your call genius,” Y/N told Victor as she pointed towards Powell’s group who were walking to the right side of the woods, the people disappearing one by one into the darkness.

Not budging at all, Victor stood his ground saying, “I think I’ll stick with you for now, there’s just soccer moms hoarding the group for Powell, he has a fan club.”

“You’re not wrong Vic,” She sniggered quietly but failed miserably, letting out a subtle loud laugh, both of the teenagers walking behind their group, down a steep hill leading to the inner nature.

Rushing down first to the bottom, the tall brunette reached his hand out for Y/N who was still at the top, to help her come down to his level, “M’lady?”

”Why thank you, what a gentleman!” Y/N sarcastically gasps, gripping onto his hand to steady herself below, after they jogged closer to the group, flicking their flashlights on to carry on.

Everyone glanced above the branches, the moon shining as the crickets chirped. The crisp wind running across their faces, making the trees shuffle loudly. As flashlights led them with its brightness, they all searched and searched, for any trace of the boy around the area.

Half an hour later, the air became cooler than usual, almost bringing a frostbite to their bare hands. The sound of branches and dead leaves crunching over the few people above them. In the silence, Y/N stayed near Victor and her father, hearing shouts for Will. The realization hit the girl, they were looking for lost Will, Will hasn’t appeared, he was probably in some sort of danger. She fastened her grip on the flashlight, looking around more closely, along with the rest.

”He’s a good student,” Someone decides to break the silence of the leaves and twigs crunching under their feet, Victor and Y/N turned their attention to him as they strolled in the woods.

Hopper cocks an eyebrow up and looks towards the teacher’s direction after the statement, “What?”

”Will. He’s a good student. Great one actually,” He elaborates, smiling sheepishly to lend his hand in front of the chief to introduce himself, “I don’t think we’ve met, Scott Clarke. Teacher, Hawkins Middle. Earth and biology.”

“Don’t you remember he was my teacher back in the day?”

Victor nods agreeing with Y/N’s statement from behind, Hopper reluctantly trying to remember his daughter’s middle school teacher, still not recalling since in those past years where fighting for Y/N’s custody between the parents, “I always had a distaste for science.”

”Well maybe you had a bad teacher,” Mr. Clarke remarks, checking if his flashlight was still operating, trudging closer to the group of three ahead of him.

”Yeah, Ms. Ratliff was a piece of work,” Hopper scoffs jokingly, Y/N doing the same as well, remembering his shitty science teacher from his past years while he studied at Hawkins High.

”Ratliff?” The teacher ponders, realizing that the same teacher still resides in Hawkins after all these years, “You bet. She’s still kicking around believe it or not.”

Victor elaborates in between them, sliding his hands onto his pockets, “I had her when I was in eighth grade a few years back.”

”Oh I believe it Victor. Mummies never die, so they tell me,” Hopper smiles, trying to get his daughter to notice but she dozed off beyond the sight of the woods, ”Sarah, my youngest, galaxies, the universe whatnot.. She always understood all that stuff. I always figured there was enough going down here, I never needed to look elsewhere.”

Y/N flickered her eyes towards her father’s direction after hearing the special name, it wasn’t so special to one, but to her, it was. Sarah, Sarah Hopper her little sister, but soon enough the teacher interrupted, “Maybe I’ll get her in my class I-“

“No, she uh.. she lives with her mom in the city,” He cuts the man off from his statement, Victor widening his eyes on Y/N’s side, knowing fully that wasn’t true.

The girl beside the tall boy looked back at his dark eyes, signaling him to be quiet, Y/N was aware of the fact that everyone in Hawkins knew Sarah’s death. Just because of her own blabbermouth, Steve told everyone including the parents her little secret the young female confessed to.

As much as her dad still wants to deny the fact the little one was gone and resting in peace, staying of his delusion Y/N wished she could have. It was a promise. A promise that everything was okay and there wasn’t nothing to worry about, almost some sort of fairy tale where everything had its happy endings with a happy family which wasn’t it.

“Thanks for coming out, Teach. We really appreciate it.” Hopper clears the air, trudging past them farther into the dark eerie woods, Y/N and Victor repeating his steps behind him.

Once they were  out of the picture and range from hearing, a middle aged woman spoke up next to the teacher, in a hushed tone saying, “She died a few years back.”

”Sorry?” Mr. Clarke shifted his head in bewilderment towards the lady for any clarification from the inadequate statement given.

”His kid.”

The teacher’s eyes widened, observing the two family members mumbling inaudible words behind the brisk trees of the cool night. He didn’t know the Hoppers hid their family, they never talked much about family when it came to projects when Y/N was younger. It seemed like something ever so private not like where many kids shared experiences with their loved ones, they always kept everything about their family closed up. Almost a mystery.

Y/N could hear the soft mumbles of the quiet conversation being exchanged by the lady and her former teacher, she felt sick knowing that her father stays in the delusion of her sister being alive, lying. Lying wasn’t so hard for her, Y/N was almost a professional at it when it came to helping the party in situations. But lying to her dad was different, it was the both of them against the horrid place called the world.

“Is Sarah going to be back?” A small girl walked over to the grown adults who stood at the front door, puffy eyes showing on their faces, as they held a plastic wristband and stuffed tiger after a long day from not seeing her sister. It was already near midnight.

Without any move, the woman, who to be seen was the girl’s mother, bursted into tears, her husband catching her into his arms. The youngling worriedly watched her parents shed tears, a middle aged woman got up from the couch to comfort both of them. Whispers and mumbles being shared between the adults, bringing more tears.

”Mommy?” The girl steadily crept next to her mom’s leg, wrapping her short arms around her waist, pressing her cheek against the woman’s body, “Don’t cry, I’m here.”

Sobs were still heard from the mother, the two of the women held each other tightly while the tall man let go from their hug, kneeling next to the girl’s level, “Y/N, kid-“

”Dad, where’s Sarah?!” Y/N shakily shouted, her stomach feeling uneasy, with her sister not being found. What happened to Sarah? She knew Sarah was going to get better. Why was mom crying? So many questions filled her head, eyes welling up, her father hugging her tightly with all the hurt and love. Y/N noticed the wristband that her father was holding, she peered closely to see a sloppy handwriting shown as the name Sarah, written all over it with the date when she was sent to the hospital.

”Sarah is... gone.”

The little’s watery eyes widened, her bottom lip trembling, she threw her arms around her father, her head leaning onto his shoulder. Her little sister was gone, she was alone now, her heart crumbling into a million pieces. Sarah, Sarah wasn’t here anymore. But it seemed so surreal, it was only yesterday the two sisters laughed about one of the nurses dropping her cup of coffee while getting chemotherapy.

“Dad.. Can she come back?”

Sadly grinning, Hopper wiped the girl’s chubby face from her tears, shaking his head, “I’m sorry kid, she’s not coming back.”

”But she has to! Sarah has to come home with us,” Y/N choked in her tears, her eyes becoming swollen, grabbing the wristband from her father’s large hand, “Sarah can’t leave me alone here. She promised she would stay.”

”Y/N, I know this is difficult but your sister left us. She’s in a better place now.”

Making her cry even more, Y/N’s mother rapidly kneeled next to her husband and daughter, she sniffed, grabbing onto her daughter, “We promised Sarah we would love each other and always stay safe. Forever.”

”Promise?”

Both of the girl’s parents joined in for a tight hug, Y/N fastening her arms around the two others, “Promise. We promise you sweet pea.”

”Y/N! Y/N!” A familiar voice boasted in the ears of Y/N, she focused her attention back to the voice. There was no one beside her by the time she looked around, it was the sounds of the wind and her alone. Her flashlight flickered in her hands, she shook it vigorously to try and turn it back on, but there was nothing coming out of it, just a dimly lit tone guiding her way. Nothing else in her sight except for the trees and moonlight, she tried her best to not overthink this and make her way back to the group.

Every turn she made in the paths, it led her to nowhere, noises filled the aura. Slowly, she began to worry, she wasn’t coming back to the group. Y/N’s head filled itself with thoughts, there was no way she could be lost, last time she was with Victor, rambling about the weather. Where was she? Looking up, she felt small droplets of water dripped onto her face above, Y/N squinted her eyes to avoid the drizzle. The water fell down slowly until it started raining heavier in the air, she wiped her face to dry it off and continue to try to find her way back.

“Dad!” Y/N shouted, wrapping her arms over herself, her hair becoming soaked along the time. She kept shouting and shouting, worry filling her in. The girl was afraid. What if she went missing like Will? Oh no.

Without a precaution, a branch from behind was heard. Y/N whipped her head to the direction, seeing a small human with a white gown rapidly run off to opposite direction, the rain blurring her eyes. Was that Will? Curious, she picked up speed to follow the boy, it may be Will. A chance of relief rushing in as her adrenaline sped up, almost running faster. “Will! It’s me!”

The boy didn’t stop, sprinting faster with his bare feet. Y/N still yelled, slowing her pace down, then picking it back up, going through the trees. An idea came to her, tugging at her metal whistle to her lips, blowing on it. The sound coming off it, maybe attracting people to find her and the boy, it has to be Will. Using her arms to run faster, she suddenly trips over a thick log after not seeing below her because of the wind, sending her to the floor. She whimpers as she felt her ankle burn in a pain, whistling even more.

From the distance, few people to what she could tell came forward to her, rain soaking over her head. Thunder being heard far away, Victor came into the picture to kneel down next to Y/N.

”Hey are you okay?” He worriedly checks on her, receiving a nod. Victor looked around for any possible wounds since he found her on the ground, “We couldn’t find you!”

Y/N hardly paid attention to him and looked afar to see if the boy would turn up again. She held Victor’s jacket to pull him closer, “I think I saw Will! He was running through there I-“

”Chief Hopper coming through, excuse me,” A voice from the crowd of people called in, Hopper bringing himself forward to find his soaking daughter on the ground pointing toward another direction. “What’s wrong?”

Victor moves to tell Hopper while being next to shaking and wet Y/N, “She saw Will.”

[youandthemountains]

Karate Kid/Cobra Kai survey

No one tagged me but i wanted to do it bc i wanna talk cobra kai and nothing is true, everything is permitted, know yourself & follow no one etc. etc.

It's the year 2021 and you're obsessed with The Karate Kid. How are you feeling?:  it's cringe as hell but you know what!!! in @deputychairman's fine words, the cringe is the point!! i am so thankful i finally watched the karate kid trilogy, has been a net positive in my life!! love an earnest weirdo who tries and won't be bullied into submission!!! love making an effort to understand why people are the way they are!! also esp after watching the macchio torture porn movie with the oddly comforting 90s commercials, i do get why you get stuck on a past that made more sense to you even as it makes you progressively more incapable of engaging with the world as it is now.

Did you grow up with TKK or are you new to the series?:  I had heard of it, and heard of Miyagi-isms but had never watched it bc honestly I associate 80s movies with my brother and his girlfriend insisting I watch a ~classic~ and being bored out of my mind. But I wish I had watched this one then!

We gotta do the basics. Favorite character:  Lol well, I think this comes as a surprise to no one, but Daniel, Mr. Miyagi, and Kumiko

Favorite ship:  Lawrusso! Although I've enjoyed reading well-written version of Daniel/anyone, it all depends on the writer. I feel weird about ~shipping the youths but I think Samtory & Sam/Aisha & Aisha/Tory are all delightful. Also Daniel/Johnny/Amanda has got some of the best writers in the fandom writing for them.

Underrated character: OH where to start - Kumiko my beloved, Chozen (sorry I'm a stubborn Chozen stan I have no idea when and how this happened I just think there's so much unused potential there), Miguel (I feel like he gets lost in all the other characters storylines, like he's a vehicle for everyone else's stories while his own storylines just kind of sputter out), Chris (he switched sides and is one of the only characters who was never comfortable with the instinctual aggression at Cobra Kai and pretty immediately apologized but he gets like no story? classic), depending on which fandom we're talking about, Aisha, Sam and Tory (but honestly they're great characters and people really and truly find any excuse to hate a teen girl. Yasmine and Moon I get because they're really non-entities as characters, they literally just exist to be the Mean Girls and then wrestled into submission as the Hot Girlfriends.) Shannon - I feel like she gets constantly dunked on or written as this evil party girl, but I think she's interesting! Robby clearly loves and trusts her despite how tumultuous it was growing up with her and she did absolutely mistreat him through neglect, but when help was offered to her via rehab she took it and made an active effort to engage and try and apologized for her mistakes and embraced change. I think that's really hard to do and really admirable, and I love that she still kept her feistiness and sense of humor throughout.

Underrated ship (don’t say therapy, lol):  Underrated ships are my raison d'etre! Some of my favorite non-lawrusso Daniel ships:

Daniel/Chozen - my white whale, I know he had sexual relations with that man. I just know it.

Daniel/Kumiko - not super underrated but they're the most tender star-crossed missed connection, I really think they're the kind of love where you're comforted just knowing that there exists someone in the world that really knows you

Danielle/Ali - thanks to @iamtheremin's fics, I'm eternally craving the lesbian karate kid. god. icon.

Daniel/Jimmy - fully thanks to @klovenhooves writing it beautifully, the concept of them as tennis partners progressively drawn to each other lives in my head rent-free

Johnny/Daniel/Shannon - also thanks to @idontknowkaratebutiknowcrazy's great writing and WHAT a threesome. Gives you an absolutlely delightful peek at what Johnny/Shannon were like and they combine the full force of their Party Blondes on an unsuspecting Daniel. incredible.

Daniel/Ruben - thanks to @ted-imgoingmad's fascinating new fic, just unbearably heartbreakingly gentle with a Daniel that's trapped in a different toxic relationship

Samtory - thanks to lesbianbean's incredible series!!! Honestly I had not thought of it before but then she went all galaxy brain on us and woof. and then of course @cobra-sigh just made it better and better

Wax On, Wax Off or Sweep the Leg?:  sweep the leg just because I'm stronger with my legs than my arms.

Which of Daniel’s dumb little outfits is your favorite?:  he's a fashion icon, how's a girl supposed to pick just one. the powder blue ruffled prom suit is just, absolute king shit. the black tank top & hachimaki with the shirt tied around his waist? butch icon. the soft comfy sweatpants from KK3? it's what he deserves.

Character from the films you most want to return, who’s not Terry Silver: Mostly everyone's come back already haven't they? so, Jessica and Mike Barnes. oooh Freddy Fernandez - I'm curious about the only guy who was kinda friends with Daniel.

Scene that lives in your head rent-free: from Cobra Kai? bloody unhinged Daniel shooting Johnny a wide-eyed look just before murdering his abuser and the little nod he gives Daniel back, and also the way Daniel's soften and when Johnny joins forces with him against Kreese.

From TKK - Daniel sitting next to Mr. Miyagi and comforting him after Mr. Miyagi's father died and giving him the most upset, sympathetic, and loving look in the whole series while Mr. Miyagi silently tears up. I love them so much

Will Anthony LaRusso ever be relevant?:  Lmfao I fully think the writers have completely forgotten he exists. Did they cast a different actor for him in s3 or did he just grow and look totally different?

You live in The Valley and are forced into the karate gang war. Which dojo do you join?:  No gang wars! I join Topanga and the love and peace kid. We've already learned the gang wars never actually solve anything, just kick the can down the road!!

What’s your training montage song?:  I cannot think of any hype songs at all right now

It’s the crossover event of the century! Which TV show are you combining with Cobra Kai for an hour-long Saturday night special?:

uhh Leverage because that's what I've been watching. They're tipped off about the corrupt DA in Encino and eventually find out about this gang war funded by DynaTox and join forces. Let's go steal a high school karate tournament!

Tagging: @firstaudrina @keybladeofsteel @issa-wasteland @deputychairman @miyagifangdo @leohtebewunden @jknip2 @bobakick @childishzombiejellyfish @mindlessbehavior2011 @likethegardensofbabylonn @banzai-larusso @jenpsaki @anicety @shewritesdirty @dancinbutterfly @padraigendragon

[orangedodge]

@dannybagpipesarecalling​ replied to your text post:

I didn't realize those were Destiny's diaries either. If you would be so kind, can you explain how Emma knows? Unfortunately I haven't read enough comics to know this backstory.

I am glad you asked about this, because it gives me an excuse to post about it while hopefully not sounding like a conspiracy blog. I've been slightly obsessed with this idea since Emma first turned up in House of X, so I'm rather excited that “maybe Destiny's Diaries still exist” isn't just my weird crack canon any longer.

Emma was, in short, the last person who can be established to have control over the whereabouts of the diaries. And as one of the top five telepaths in the world, who has expressly defended that secret from the likes of Exodus and Mr. Sinister, she is capable of preventing Professor X from just taking the information from her. So barring new retcons, if Moira has the diaries now, they had to have been obtained directly from Emma.

That's not enough to say that she turned them over to Moira specifically. She could have given them to Charles or Er—okay, no, she wouldn't give them to Charles. There could be a circumstance where she'd trust them to Erik though. But in that contingency, I think there's enough context to support Emma knowing why they'd want them and for who. To be clear though, I would be less confident about making that assertion if Emma hadn't just opened the “Dr. Moira MacTaggert Memorial Public Hospital” expressly to freak out Charles and Erik, and if HoxPox hadn't already linked them by showing Moira to be worried about what Emma was up to.

(This got kind of long so I thought it'd be helpful to say the important part up front before spiraling down the continuity rabbit hole)

The origins and resulting chain of custody for Destiny's Diaries are as follows: One January, decades ago, Destiny began recording visions of the future in a series of diaries. Filling one book per month, she continued writing for thirteen months. This process was described as auto-writing, and Destiny herself did not have a complete memory of what she had written, nor did she understand the meaning of much of what she wrote.

Nonetheless, the July diary contained a recording of the events leading up to the defeat of Apocalypse, and another diary contained information on the life of Hope Summers, so they've been very relevant to the events of the modern era. It's not explicit yet that Krakoa's founding is also in the diaries, but because we know Destiny had at least one separate vision of Krakoa, and because Moira is interested in reading them, it seems fairly likely that whatever Moira, Charles, and Erik have been doing behind the scenes is also in there.

In the decades since Destiny authored them, most of these diaries were lost, except for five that Mystique kept hold of, and a sixth that Irene hid away herself. After Mystique killed 'Moira,' she sent her five diaries to Professor X, hoping that the temptation of using them would consume his life and lead him toward a ruinous fate. Destiny meanwhile had entrusted the sixth diary to Shadowcat (who Destiny met in 1936, while she was time traveling and having an affair with Moira's grandfather don't worry about it), who eventually became so freaked out by something she read in it that she vanished on a mission, let her friends believe her dead for weeks, and had herself deleted from Cerebro, while leaving the diary to Rogue for safekeeping while she was away.

(That last chain of events isn't incredibly important, I just think it becomes kind of lol in light of current canon)

Rogue went on to take that diary and the research that had been done on it to Storm. Storm and Rogue then formed a splinter team of X-Men, to journey the world searching for the lost diaries, believing Professor X could not be trusted. Along the way a seventh book turned up with a treasure hunter named Vargas (don't worry about him), and an eighth was found by Gateway and given to Rogue in a dream. Eventually Storm tried to get Phoenix to collect Professor X's diaries for her, but they discovered that they had already been stolen (Shadowcat did it).

The rest of the diary hunt isn't really important, just that Kitty eventually ended up retrieving the full set, before she rejoined the X-Men, which only happened after Xavier had left Scott and Emma to run the school. This timeline is important for establishing that Xavier has never possessed the full set of diaries himself, and was not involved in collecting the lost books at any point, nor was he present at the time the diaries were brought to the school and fell under Emma's protection. This rules out the possibility that the set of diaries we've previously seen were somehow forged by Xavier.

Xavier would not return to the school until after losing his mutant powers, whereupon he departed for space on an adventure to another galaxy. He was unavailable, therefore, to have undertaken any telepathic shenanigans, so what happens next actually happened, and is not a psychic illusion. While Xavier was gone, Mr. Sinister recruited Exodus and Mystique, and began a campaign of hunting down precognitive psychics, time travelers, and any other sources of information on the future. Scott, Emma, and Kitty meanwhile predicted that they were going to be next, and came up with a bananas plan to keep the books safe.

X-Men volume 2 no. 203 by Mike Carey (Writer), Humberto Ramos (Penciler), Carlos Cuevas (Inker), Studio F’s Edgar Delgado (Colorist), Virtual Calligraphy’s Cory Petit (Letterer), Will Panzo (Assistant Editor), Nick Lowe (Editor), Joe Quesada (Editor in Chief), Dan Buckley (Publisher)

First they hid the diaries somewhere in parts unknown. Emma then altered the minds of “all of us” (everyone who lived at the mansion at that time) to perceive a bunch of decoy books as the real thing. She then erased Kitty's memory, and her own, so that no telepath would be able to extract the information by force, before they gave each other a series of post-hypnotic triggers so they could restore one another's memories if they ever needed the books again. When eventually Exodus attacked the school looking for the books, they restored their memories, and decided to send another team to the hidden location where they'd buried a mystery box. Emma gave this location to Sam and Bobby, who dug up the box, which was never opened, and which was destroyed by Gambit during a firefight with Sinister's forces before anyone could confirm its contents.

This was intended by author Mike Carey to be the end of Destiny's Diaries, a dropped plot from a previous creative run, that was vaguely useful at building up to the Messiah Complex crossover, but was a lot more trouble than it was worth to an author who was writing about the X-Men trying to avert a bad future. But there's a lot of room in the story he wrote for the diaries to have survived after all.

I think it's actually really suspicious that the box was accessible to Bobby and Sam at all. Why not drop it under a mountain? Why not bury it under the ocean? Why not keep it phased in a tree? And it's a big red box with a big red 'X' on it. I know the X-Men love their branding and all, but that's going pretty far.

No one actually opens the box before Gambit blows it up either. It could have contained more decoys, or nothing at all. 

And when talking among themselves, Emma and Kitty never actually say that they're sending the X-Men to retrieve the diaries. They say that they know where the diaries are, and then send the X-Men to a place where they've buried something. The intent of the author is clear, but there's room in the dialogue for a later writer to decide that this just was another plan to keep the books hidden.

So for the entire period of time between assembling the complete collection of thirteen diaries, and their seeming destruction, they are never unaccounted for. Only Emma and Kitty knew the full extent of what they did to hide them, and where they were hidden. If fakes were destroyed instead of the real thing, no one would have known.

We could just be in retcon territory, but I don't think so, because it's fine on its own without any direct changes to canon. And really, faking the destruction of the books to cover up their real location makes a lot more sense than believing Emma Frost actually sent Sam to retrieve the incredibly suspicious looking red box that contained the most important object in the world, while half the super villains on the planet were chasing him.

Believing the diaries weren't really destroyed just requires the reader to accept that Emma would lie to the other X-Men, and keep lying to them for years, and that she'd be willing to put Sam and Bobby's lives at risk to protect that lie. Which she was already doing in that story anyway. She was already lying to everyone when she changed everyone's memories. And she—and Scott and Kitty—was already fine with risking everyone's lives when setting up a decoy trap in a school. So that's why I think this works better as a continuation of the existing, known, story of the diaries, and not a direct retcon to what happened.

In conclusion I think Emma knows about Moira because Moira got the diaries from somewhere, and Emma is the person she could have gotten them from. Nothing proves a direct hand-off in, like, a formal standard of proof or anything, but Emma having access to the diaries for so long, and having been wrapped up in this whole weird plot thread—which involves Moira and most of the Quiet Council—is enough to imply the connection in a story sense.

(ETA - For completion’s sake, there is also a weird story I didn’t go into called Chaos War that was published in 2011 where Moira is resurrected and finds a book in the ruins of the Xavier School that may or may not be one of the diaries, and touching it causes her soul to merge with Destiny’s, who then possesses her and guides her through a quest to destroy an evil god. This was an odd story to place in continuity at the time, and has only gotten stranger, given  1. that couldn’t be the real Moira, 2. Destiny is not merged with her soul. If this is in continuity (it’s been suggested that Moira’s golem was the character in this event), and all of the characters are who they say they are, and if the book in question was actually one of the thirteen diaries (and not some other book that Irene also wrote), then it requires Emma to have deliberately left one of the thirteen books behind for “Moira” to find, which if anything only adds to the likelihood that she knows what’s up)

[hockeynascarfan91258]

A/N: Links to Chapter 1-3 posted at bottom of page!

Chapter 4

It had been a few days since Eden left Sids after they raped her.    She called out sick from work she couldn't face them.    The team was headed out to California and Eden asked if she could fly out and meet the team there.    They said that was fine.     Eden went out a day early and did some sight seeing.       It was nice.     The team arrived later that day.     She had just gotten finished eating when there was a knock at the door.    Eden goes and sees it was Sid.

"Eden please open the door." Sid says.

He had carnations her favorite in his hands and a stuffed Panda bear too.   Eden figured she might as well hear him out.    She opens the door.  

"What Sid?" Eden says.

"I am sorry for what I did to you the other day." Sid says.

"Oh you mean raping me when I said no." Eden replies snarky.

"Yes I am sorry baby.   It will never happen again.     Kris is sorry too these are from us." Sid says.

"Look let's just let by gones be bygones.   I  won't say anything about what happened.   I won't tell your secret." Eden says.

"Please baby.    Think about it.    We really do love you." Sid says.

"Okay I will think about it okay." Eden says.

"Good baby.    We love you and don't want to loose you." Sid says.

"I will think about it okay.   Now I just want to go lie down.   I am not feeling well." Eden says.

"Okay feel better." Sid says kissing her softly on the lips.

"Thanks Sid.   Goodnight I will see you at practice tomorrow." Eden replies.

"Okay baby." Sid says kissing her head.

Eden took the flowers and Panda and shut the door behind him.    She wasn't thinking about anything she was walking out of this and going to be with Chase.  

That was when her phone went off. It was Chase.

"Meet me down in the lobby." Chase texts.

"Wait you're here!" Eden texts back.

"Yup got a race here in Cali and then racing Phoenix and Vegas." Chase says.

"Let me change and I'll be right down." Eden says.

She throws on a pair of jeans and a black be brave shirt.    She then heads down to the lobby.

Chase was standing there waiting for her. She runs to him.

"Chase." Eden exclaims practically jumping on him.

"Hey princess." Chase says kissing her.

Eden kisses back not caring who was watching.

"I'm so happy you are here." Eden says.

"I am happy too I get too see my girl. Now let's go I have a special date planned just the two of us." Chase says.

They link hands and head out to them rental car. They both get in. Chase takes off towards San Diego.

"Where are we going?" Eden asks.

"You will see." Chase says smiling at her.

45 minutes later they arrive at the zoo.

"The San Diego Zoo!" Eden  says excitedly.

'Well I know how much you love animals especially pandas so I figured I needed to bring you." Chase  says.

They park. They then head to the entrance. Chase  pays for them them. They find out there was a bus called the Kangaroo Bus that would drop them off at various parts of the park. They get on the bus and it takes them to the first part of the zoo. The Australian Outback. Inside there they see the Australian Wander which was full of plants that come from down under, along with Camels, Koalas. Laughing Kookabura's, Tasmanian Devils and Wombats.

It was fun. They got to hold a koala, play with a kangaroo and ride a camel together.

Eden was taking all kinds of pictures.

From there they head into the Lost Forest exhibit,. There they see Bog Garden, Bonabo's , Fern Canyon, Flamingos, Ginger Garden, harpy eagels, Hawaiian pants, Hippo's, Mandrills, Monkey's, Okapi's, orangutans, Otter's and pygmy Hippos pygmy marmosets, Tapirs, terrace lagoon, and Tigers.

"I want a hippo for Christmas is one of my favorite Xmas songs so I love hippos." Eden says.

"They are intriguing animals." Chase says.

They continue on. They were holding hands and acting like a real couple and Eden was loving it. They then get on the Kangaroo bus and head to the nest spot for them. They then do the Panda Canyon, where they see Amur Leopard's, Giant Panda's red pandas and Takins.

"Pandas are my absolute favorite animal in the whole wide world." Eden says.

"I know now come with me." Chase says.

They head behind the habitat where they met a zookeeper. Chase paid extra for them to be able to play with one of the panda's. It was one of the Cubs born not that long ago. Also Eden was adopting it and could name it. Eden was having the time of her life. Chase had them take picture and a video. She ended up naming the bear Chase. Finally they leave.

"Thank you for doing that for me. I love it." Eden says.

"I am glad baby." Chase says.

That was when Eden ran to the trash can and threw up. Chase held her hair back. He also got her ginger Ale.

"Do you want to go home?" Chase asks.

"Nope I'm okay now." Eden says.

They then head to the Africa Rocks where they got to see and play with the penguins.

They head around the zoo seeing more different animals. They saved the best for last where Eden  got to see the polar bears another one of her favorites. It was neat to see them out playing. Eden  took more pictures.    Finally they headed to the gift shop and Eden got a few things. Chase got her a few things as well and they left.

"Thank you Clyde for a much needed fun day." Eden says.

"You are welcome Princes." Chase says.

"Our first official date." Eden says.

"And it's not over yet." Chase says.

They hop in the car and head back towards Los Angeles.    Chase heads to Disneyland and parks.

"Disneyland baby?" Eden asks.

"But of course. Have to take my Princess to the happiest place on earth." Chase replies.

"I love you." Eden says.

"I love you more princess." Chase replies kissing her hand.

He then gets out of the car and gets her door. Eden gets out and they head to Disneyland hand in hand. They head inside and   stop first at Sleeping Beauty's castle and have someone take a picture of them in front.   

They got a few different ones including of one of them kissing.   After that they head to start riding rides.   They  get on Alice and Wonderland, Astro Orbiter, Autopia, Big Thunder Mountain, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, Casey Jr. Circus Train, Chip and Dale's tree house, the Disney Gallery, Disney Railroad, The Disneyland Story presenting Great moments with Mr. Lincoln, Donald's Boat, Enchanted Tiki Room, Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, Frontierland Shootin' Exposition, Gadget's Go Coaster, Goofy's playhouse, Indiana Jones adventure, It's a small world, Jungle Cruise, King Arthur's Carrousel, Mad Tea Party, Main Street Cinema, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Mark Twain Riverboat, Matterhorn Bobsleds, Mickey's house and meet Mickey, Minnie's house, Mr. Toads Wild Ride, Peter Pan's Flight, Pincchio's Darin Journey, Pirates Lair on Tom Sawyers Island, Pirates of the Caribbean, Roger Rabbits Car Toon Spin, Snow Whites Scary adventure, Space Mountain, Star Tours The Adventure continues, Star wars Launch Bay, Star Wars Path of the Jedi, Storybook land canal boats, Tarzan's treehouse, Dumbo the flying elephant, Haunted Mansion, Main street vehicles, Splash Mountain, Davey Crockett's Explorer canoes, and Sailing Ship Colombia.  

"I am hungry." Eden says after they finished riding the rides.

"Me too." Chase  replies.

"Let's  eat and then we can continue on." Eden  says.

"Sounds good.:" Chase  says.

They decide to eat at the Carnation Café.    They both get burgers and fries and milkshakes.    After they eat they head and do a few shows.   They do a Star Wars Character Experience and then they do Jedi Training.   That was fun they then meet fairy friends at Pixie Hallow and meet the Disney princess at Royal Hall. Chase took a few pictures of Eden. He got a her few things. He figured for Halloween she could be a princess and he would be a race car driver.

They  continue on and get on Animation Academy, Fliks Flyers, Francis Ladybug Boggie, Golden Zephyr, Goofy's sky school, Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout, Heimlich's chew chew train, it's tough to be a bug, Jumpin Jellyfish, King Triton's carousel, The Little Mermaid: Ariel's undersea adventure, Luigi's Rollickin Roadsters, Maters Junkyard Jamboree, Monsters Inc. Mike and Sully to the rescue, Princess Dot Puddle Park, Radiator Springs racers, Red car trolley, Silly Symphony Swings, Soarin around the world, Sorcerers workshop, Toy Story Midway Mania, Tuck and Rolls Drive em buggies, Turtle Talk with Crush, The Bakery Tour, California Screamin, Games of the Boardwalk, Grizzly River run, Mickey's Fun Wheel, Redwood Creek Challenge trail, Frozen at Disneyland resort, and Guardians of the Galaxy: Monsters after dark.

They then head and see Ana and Elsa's Royal Welcome, Frozen Live at Hyperion, Meet Olaf, and Meet the Residents of Radiator Springs in Cars land.

Finally, they head back to the car and head to Universal Studios.   They go inside and get on rides.   They ride on Harry Potter and the Forbidden journey, The Wizarding World Of Harry Potter, Flight of the Hippogrif, Fast and the Furious Supercharged, King Kong 360, The Walking Dead attraction, Despicable Me Minion Mayhem, Jurassic Park the ride, Transformers The ride, The Simpson Ride, Revenge of the Mummy Ride, Super Silly Fun Land, Sill Swirly Fun Ride, Special Effects show, Water World, Universal's animal actors, and Charter sightings.

They finish everything they wanted to do at the park before heading back to the car.

They then head back to the car and back to the track. Chase  had something special planned for them. He had it set up and ready to go.

"What's this?" Eden says seeing a table set up for two.

"Dinner for two baby." Chase says.

"Awww Clyde." Eden says kissing him.

Chase kisses back. He then helps her sit down.

He goes and heats up their food. He had made chicken parmigiana and noodles along with a salad. When it was done he sits it in the table and then takes his seat. They each take a piece of chicken and some noodles.   They then add a little bit more sauce to each before sprinkling it with parmesan cheese.   They put some salad in their salad bowls and add the dressing.   Chase pours them each a glass of wine.

Eden takes a bite of the food and then says

"Oh my god it tastes as good as it smells."

"Thanks.   The sauce is my mothers homemade recipe." Chase  says.

"Well it's good." Eden  says.

They eat and enjoy each others company.   Once they finished Eden helped Chase  clean up and put the leftovers away and load the dishwasher.

"The flowers are for you." Chase says to her.

"Thank you Clyde.  Carnations are my favorite flower and pink is my favorite color." Eden  says.

"I know baby." Chase says.

"So wha are we going to watch?" Eden  asks.

"Since  I know how much you love scary movies I have the Conjuring universe movies ready to go." Chase replies.

"Lead the way." Eden says.

Chase lead her to the game room.   They both sit on the couch as Chase turns on the Nun.   The movie starts.    Not even five minutes into it Chase jumps at a scary part.

"Damn." Chase says.

"You really hate scary movies don't you?" Eden asks.

"Yes I do.    But I will watch them because I know you like them." Chase says.

"Well I will keep you safe Clyde." Eden says.

"I know." Chase says as another scary part happens.

They movie went on.   Eden felt him get a little tense and knew he was scared so she leaned in a little closer trying to comfort him.   Chase puts his arm around her pulling her closer to him.  She leaned her head on his shoulder.  

It got to the part where the priest was buried A alive.    Chase started to shake.   That was one of his phobias being trapped someplace not being able to get out.   He was claustrophobic.

"Oh Chase." Eden says leaning in placing a soft kiss on his lips.

She would do anything at that moment to make him feel better.   She never experienced a man so vulnerable.

Chase kisses back putting his hands on each side of her cheeks.  Eden parts her lips slightly.   Chase deepens the kiss exploring her mouth with his tongue.

"Mmm." Chase moans deep in his throat.

"Mmm." Eden moans too.

"God Princess ." Chase says once they both come up for air.

"You are a good kisser Clyde." Eden says.

"So are you Princess." Chase replies.

  She looks deep into his eyes and sees a bunch of emotion swirling in them.

Chase leans in kissing her again pulling her all but into his lap.   His hands roam up the back of her shirt setting her skin on fire. 

"God Clyde take me to bed." Eden moans when he let her up for air again.

"God baby are you sure?" Chase asks.

"God yes." Eden says she wanted him so bad.

Chase picks her up carrying her into his bedroom.   He sits her on her feet closing the door.    Once the door was closed Eden pushes him up against it.

"Eden." Chase moans.

"I want you and I am going to take you." Eden says.

"I want you too." Chade says.

She starts to lift his shirt up placing soft kisses along his chest as she does.

"Fuck." Chase moans.

Once she gets the shirt up and and over his she throws it to the floor.

"You have the most amazing body Clyde." Eden says running her nails lightly down his chest to the band of his jeans.

"Thanks Princess oh god." Chase moans as she pops open the button and pulls the zipper down running her finger up his happy trail.

She works the jeans down his hips kissing his stomach with light fluttery kisses as she does.  Chase just moans.

She then works his boxer briefs down as well freeing his rock hard cock.   Eden licks her lips.  She places soft kisses on his stomach again before running her tongue down his happy trail.   She places soft kisses on each thigh before slowly taking his cock into her mouth.

"Fuck Eden." Chase moans running his fingers through her hair.

She sucks him in nice and slow running her tongue along the underside of his shaft.   She looks up locking eyes with him.   She keeps sucking him in and out of her mouth slowly.

"Fuck Eden that's it suck my dick baby." Chase moans gently pulling her hair as he starts to thrust.

Eden kept going slowly torturing him bringing him to the verge of cumming.

"God baby I am going to cum." Chase moans he didn't know what she wanted.

Eden gently starts to play with his balls never taking her eyes off him.

"Princess oh god." Chase moans as he cums hard down her throat.

Eden swallows every drop before slowly licking him clean.   She then slowly works her way back up his body pulling him in for a kiss.   She explores every inch of his mouth with her tongue letting him taste himself on her lips and tongue.   Chase slowly backs her towards the bed.  He breaks the kiss long enough to pull her shirt over her head tossing it.

"Jesus Eden that bra." Chase moans seeing it.

He pulls one strap down kissing her shoulder as he does.  Then kisses the other as he pulls that strap down.   He sucks and licks the tops of each breast peaking out from the cup.   He pulls the cups down taking one in his mouth running a circle around her nipple with his tongue before sucking on it gently nibbling on it bringing it to a peak.

"Clyde." Eden moans running her fingers in his hair.  

Chase moves to the other breast doing the same thing.   He slowly unclasps the bra pulling it off tossing it aside as well.    He then kisses softly down her stomach to the band of her jeans. 

He uses his teeth to pop open the button lightly nibbling on her belly as he slowly inches them down her hips and legs. Eden steps out of them kicking off her shoes.

"God baby those panties.  God so wet." Chase moans running his mouth over her pussy smelling her juices.

He then slowly works them down over her hips and down her legs.     Eden kicks them off.   He then slowly kisses his way up her legs placing a kiss on each thigh.   He blows cool breath across her mound as she slowly spreads her legs.   He runs his tongue up and down her slit before pushing inside starting to fuck her with his tongue. 

Not long after he started Eden gently pulls his hair pulling him away from her.

"Fuck me Clyde." Eden  says all but begging him.

"God okay baby."  Chase says kissing his way up her body.   He picks her up kissing her letting her taste her on his lips and tongue and gently lays her down on the bed.

"God please Clyde I need you inside me now." Eden moans.

"God baby." Chase moans as he gently pushes inside her.

"God yes." Eden moans as he starts to thrust gently at first.

He wanted to go slow letting her adjust to his size.   She was so tight and wet.

"Jesus Eden you feel so good.  Like a glove." Chase moans.

"God fuck me Clyde hard and fast." Eden moans digging her nails into his back.

Chase moves a little harder and faster.   Eden wraps her legs around his waist letting him go deeper inside her.

"Eden oh god." Chase moans going even harder.

"Clyde god that's it." Eden moans as he stretched her even further.

She throws her head back arching into him.  It felt so good.

"God baby I am not going to last." Chase moans

"Cum baby let me feel it." Eden monas.

"Eden sweet Eden." Chase moans looking deep into her eyes as he cums hard deep inside her.

"Clyde oh god." Eden moans shuttering as her orgasm rushes through her.

She cums with him feeling him coat her insides.   She just moans as her body shutters from the pleasure.

Chase kisses her gently on the lips and then the jaw and neck as they ride it out.   

"God Clyde again  I need you again." Eden moans.

She just wanted to feel that good again and not think about anything.

"Okay Eden but this time it will be nice and slow." Chase says.

"Please." Eden begs.

Chase starts to move again inside her taking it nice and slow.

"Eden god." Chase moans loving being inside her.

"Clyde god." Eden moans as he slowly builds her up.

"So close." Eden moans.

"Cum baby." Chase moans.

"Clyde." Eden moans as she cums.

"That's it baby milk my release." Chase moans as he cums again inside her.

They make love a few more times before Eden's eyelashes started to flutter.   Chase gets up.

"Where are you going?" Eden asks sleepily.

"Shhh baby I will be back." Chase says kissing her softly on the lips.

He goes into the bathroom grabbing a wash cloth wetting it with warm water.   He then comes over and gently wipes her down cleaning her.

He goes and tosses the rag in the hamper and then climbs into bed beside her.   She curls up to him laying her head on his chest.   Chase pulls the blanket up over them kissing her head as they both fall asleep.

**************************

The next morning Eden and Chase woke up when the alarm went off.

"Good morning baby:" Chase says.

"Good morning, oh god." Eden says getting up and running to the bathroom.

She made it just in time to empty her stomach in the toilet. Chase was right behind her. She got her everything up. Chase then picks her up gently and carries her back to bed.

"Sorry baby." Eden says.

"For what?" Chase asks.

"Getting sick." Eden replies.

"It's okay." Chase replies.

"I need to go back. I have to change before I head to practice." Eden replies.

"Yeah I know. I am glad I was able to see you." Chase says.

"Me too I will try and make the race on Sunday." Eden adds.

Chase smiles. He gives her a few shirts from his collection. They then head to the car and head back to Eden's hotel.

"I will see you later princess. I love you." Chase says.

"I will see you later Clyde. I love you too." Eden replies.

They share a few more kisses not wanting to part ways. But finally Eden heads inside and up to her room. She showered and got dressed and then heads down to the bus. Once everyone was on they head to the arena. Eden goes and gets the exam room set up in case they would need it for anything. That was when she felt arms snake around her waist.

"Hey baby, I missed you last night." Sid says.

"Hi Sid. Sorry I was so tired. Still getting used to the time change." Eden replies lying.

She didn't know what he would do if he knew she was with Chase. She was scared of him. It sucked cus she had a contract and had to work with the Penguins until the end of the 2021 season. Even though she wanted to quit.

"I know it can take effect on you but you will get used to it." Sid says.

"I know. Don't you have practice?" Eden asks.

" I do but I wanted to know if you were doing anything after?" Sid asks.

"No I don't. Sunday I am going to the NASCAR race before the game that night. But nothing today." Eden replies.

"Okay maybe I can come to your room, we can order room service and watch movies." Sid says.

"Okay." Eden says.

"Good see you then." Sid replies.

"Is Kris coming too?" Eden asks.

"Nope just me this time." Sid says.

"Okay." Eden replies.

Sid kisses her and leaves to attend practice. Eden grabs a little something from the snack bar and goes and watches practice. Halfway through Kris took a high stick to the face and there was blood.

"I got it." Eden says.

Kris comes down the runway and into the exam room. Eden follows him in. Kris was sitting on the table.

"Damn that hurt like a son of a bitch." Kris says.

"Sorry Kris." Eden says dabbing the blood away with a towel.

"It's okay. Is it bad?" Kris asks.

"Yes going to need stitches but shouldn't keep you out of the game tomorrow." Eden says.

"Good." Kris says.

Eden stitches him up. Kris puts his hand over hers.

"Thank you. Sorry for the other day Eden. Are you okay?" Kris asks.

"Yeah I'm okay. And your welcome it's my job." Eden says.

"I know. Im still thankful for you." Kris says.

"I know. I don't know what's going to happen between us but I promise I won't tell anyone about you and Sid. I just don't think I can do this. It took me to moving away and being away from him to realize how much I love Chase." Eden says.

"I know I can tell. Look if you want out that is fine. I know you won't tell anyone about me and Sid but I don't know if Sid will let you go." Kris says.

"I know." Eden says.

"Did you ever love us?" Kris asks.

"I loved you Kris you never hurt me.   Sid in the other hand." Eden says looking down.

"I'm sorry he hurt you Eden." Kris says lifting her head up.

He leans in and kisses her.    Eden kisses back.

"God." Eden moans as she pulls away.

"Go lock the door." Kris says.

Eden goes and locks the door.     She comes back over and climbs into his lap.

"God." Eden moans as he shreds her panties.

"I like skirts." Kris says.

"God." Eden moans as Kris pushes up into her.

"Ride me pretty girl. You know you want to." Kris says.

"God Kris." Eden moans as she starts to move up and down.

"That's it pretty girl." Kris says grabbing her hips.

They needed to be faster. Kris took control of their movements. Eden bit her arm throwing her head back to keep from screaming out. Kris nips and sucks her neck as they move.

"Eden fuck." Kris calls out as he cums hard deep inside of her.

"Kris. "Eden moans out as she cums with him.

They ride it out and Kris picks her up off of him. He stands up and fixes himself.

Kris then kisses her head before walking out the door. Eden collected herself. She then cleans up the exam room and prepared it from the game tomorrow. She then heads out and gets on the bus.

Once all the boys were on board they all head back to the hotel. Eden goes up to her room. She changes into her new Chase Elliott shirt and a pair of lounge pants. She wasn't feeling the greatest. She was laying down when there was a knock at her door. She gets up and opens it. Sid was there with room service and flowers.

"Come in." Eden says letting him in.

"Thanks." Sid says kissing her cheek.

Eden shuts the door.

"What did you bring?" Eden asks.

"Chicken noodle soup and ginger ale. Because I know you said you weren't feeling good." Sid says.

"I am not." Eden replies.

"I am sorry. Well let's eat and then we can relax and watch something on Netflix or something." Sid says.

Eden nods her head yes. So far it was going okay and she wasn't afraid. This was the Sid she started dating. They ate the soup and Eden nibbled the saltines. She sipped the ginger ale. Finally they laid in bed and Eden turned on Netflix. She turned on Sweet Home Alabama one of her favorite movies. She started to think about Chase. This movie was the story of their lives. Sid started to kiss her. Eden kisses back closing her eyes. As they were making out Sid runs his hands down her body. He runs them down her pants and under wear rubbing her pussy before sticking a finger in.

"Hmm nice and wet for me pretty girl." Sid says.

"Yes." Eden moans. She was pretending it was Chase.

"Want me to fuck you pretty girl?" Sid asks.

"Please." Eden begs.

Sid slides her pants and panties off followed by his jeans and boxer briefs. He then hovers over her running his tip along her entrance.

"Soaking for daddy." Sid moans.

"God don't tease." Eden begs.

Sid pushes into her and starts to move thrusting hard and fast.

"Fuck baby." Sid moans as she moves with him.

She wrapped her legs around his waist letting him go deeper.

"God." Eden moans digging her nails into his back.

She still had her eyes closed pretending it was Chase fucking her.

"That's it pretty girl milk my cock baby get ready to take my cum." Sid moans.

"GOd." Eden moans she was almost there.

"Fuck Eden god." Sid moans as he cums hard pumping her pussy full of his cum.

"Clyde oh god Clyde." Eden calls out as she cums too.

"What the fuck did you just call me?" Sid shouts slapping her.

Eden's eyes flashed open and she realized that by her fantasizing about Chase she called out his name.

"Umm." Eden says.

"Did you call me Clyde? Were you thinking about another man while I was fucking you." Sid screams at her.

Eden was so scared she didn't know what to say.

"Answer me you ungrateful ass whore." Sid screams.

"Yes I am so disgusted by you and how you treat me that in order for me to even attempt to have sex I have to think about Chase so I can get off." Eden screams out pushing him off of her.

She gets up off the bed. She was going to hide in the bathroom or something. She had her cell phone.

"You fucking whore. Don't you ever push me again or I will rip your hair out and choke you with it." Sid yells grabbing her hair pulling her back to him.

"Ow you are hurting me." Eden says.

"You think I fucking care. I hope it hurts. Remeber I am the only guy besides Kris who can cum in your sweet pussy. We are the only ones who can fuck you." Sid says.

"Fuck off Sid. I want out of this. I can't stand you. I fucking hate you. Get out." Eden screams turning around wailing out on him.

"You want to hit me bitch. I am going to show you." Sid says.

He picks her up throwing her back into the mirror glass shattering. He bashes her head against it not caring that it busted her head open. He then throws her down onto the floor throwing the mirror down on top of her covering her in glass.

"I will kill you before I ever let you leave." Sid says.

"Please I need help." Eden cries out.

"Fuck that bleed for all I care. If I can't have you no one will." Sid says as he kicks her hard.

Eden whimpers. Sid then leaves the room door slamming behind him. Eden still had her cell phone. It took everything in her to dial his number.

"Hey Princess." Chase says answering on the first ring.

"Chase help. I am hurt." Eden says.

"Eden? Where are you?" Chase asks panicked.

"Hotel Chase. Hurry." Eden says before she blacked out.

"Hang tight princess. I am coming to get you." Chase says.

You ever love somebody so much

You can barely breathe, when you're with them, you meet

And neither one of you, even know what hit 'em

Got that warm fuzzy feeling, yeah them chills, used to get 'em

Now you're getting fucking sick, of looking at 'em

You swore you've never hit 'em, never do nothing to hurt 'em

Now you're in each other's face,

Spewing venom in your words, when you spit 'em

You push, pull each other's hair, scratch, claw, bit 'em

Throw 'em down, pin 'em, so lost in the moments, when you're in 'em

It's the rage that took over it controls you both

So they say it's best, to go your separate ways

Guess that they don't know ya 'cause today, that was yesterday

Yesterday is over, it's a different day

Sound like broken records, playin' over, but you promised her

Next time you'll show restraint

You don't get another chance

Life is no Nintendo game, but you lied again

Now you get to watch her leave

Out the window, guess that's why they call it window pane

Just gonna stand there and watch me burn

But that's alright, because I like the way it hurts

Just gonna stand there and hear me cry

But that's alright, because I love the way you lie

I love the way you lie

I love the way you lie

[darealbellabelleoftheball]

Lock and Key Chapter 3

Chapter Three - Awkward Family Dinner

Saturday morning I got ready for the dinner. I curled my hair and put on more makeup than I usually would. One of my step mothers bought me a red forties dress that ended just below the knee, and since I wanted to make a good first impression I decided why the heck not? I put on some simple black heels to finish the look. Now I just had to wait.

Later Mycroft pulled up in his car to take me to the dinner.

"Hello Miss Jones."

"You know since I am having dinner with your family, I would prefer for you to call me Keyland." I decided. I didn't want to be reminded of Dad.

"Right of course..." Mycroft replied seemingly disinterested in my being there. "Then you may call me Mycroft." he responded, robotic. He seemed lost in his own thoughts this evening. The silence dragged on. Soon I was lead to my own thoughts. I didn't know what to expect of his brother and wasn't sure how I should ask. So after a few minutes I decided to test the waters.  

"So Mycroft, do you have anymore siblings?" Mycroft tensed. His eyes went wide, then suddenly his behavior shifted. He almost seemed, more human.

"No I don't." he said, straightening his tie. "What about you?" He asked leaning his elbows on his knees.

"Oh well I'm sure I do have some siblings out there." He raised one eyebrow.  

"Well my family isn't the kind you would see on a postcard. My real mother was the first one Mortimer married but I was not his child. I like to believe she loved him and they were happy. But I doubt it. He married again, six no seven times after her death. I digress. To answer your question out of all the children he fathered I was the only one acknowledged. Er.. Well that lived." I said all of this with a straight face. Very matter of fact. As if telling somebody else's life story.

The rest of the way to Dinner was relatively quiet. I learned not much from reading Mycroft. { His shoes were Italian leather. - Expensive, 'Minor position' my foot! - He seems detached, anti-social. This speaks of a troubled childhood, -I would know-. His job was high stress, and he was the eldest. All very simple deductions.} I looked out the window and watched as we drove out of the city. I loved the countryside. Never went much though. Never had cause to, as our family had so few friends.I noticed how. Mycroft tensed when I mentioned siblings, Hmm. Sherlock must be a trouble maker. But I'd gathered that already. For the rest of the ride I tried to keep my thoughts on Mycroft and how his family might be like. He is working on a computer now. Must be important. Finally after miles of rolling hills and rivers, we made it to the Holmes' Residence. Funny this isn't what I pictured.

A charming little cottage sits at the end of the lane. Thatched roof and all. The car stops. Mycroft gets my door. He offers me a hand but I ignore it, brushing past him as I head to the house. He joins me on the stoop and knocks three times, leaning heavily on his umbrella. The door swings open.  

"Mike!". A woman with sandy white hair smiles at us as she opens the door. "It's so good to see you!" she turns then and regards me. "And you must be Miss. Jones!" the woman's cheery voice carries through the cold air. "Oh Mike, you didn't tell me she was pretty, not that you would...Well come in the lot of you!" she gushed, swinging the door open. "I'll tell Sherlock you are here!" The woman I assume is Mrs. Holmes bustles out of the room.  

"That is our mother."

"She seems nice."

"You think she is too normal for me to be her son."

"No I know that some people can be the polar opposite of their parent."

"Ah...right." He says hanging up our coats and his cane.

I hear footsteps coming our way as Mycroft leads us to the kitchen. Here goes nothing.

In walks a tall young man my age. He has black hair that curls over his forehead, and his eyes. Those eyes. Even red rimmed as they are they are indescribable.  

At first you think that they are grey, then you see it sparks of green, waves of blue. They look like the galaxy. They look like the mind behind them is quite sharp.  

I now know why they say that the eyes are the window to the soul.

I can tell he is a druggie though. Just by looking at his arms. What a shame. What a waste.

We stood in silence eyeing each other suspiciously.

"She is not as matronly as I would have expected." he announced his eyes roaming my face.

"William!!" Mrs. Holmes gasps, lightly slapping Sherlock on the arm.

"Only the best for you, brother mine." Mycroft responded rolling his eyes.

"Keyland Jones."I say extending my hand with a smirk.

"Jones! What a boring last name!" Remarked Sherlock. As his mother glares at him.

"I assure you Mr. Holmes I am anything but boring."

he gave me a despondent look.

"Really?" he responded dryly.

"Really, Ich weiß, dass du das jüngste Kind bist.[I know that you are the youngest child.]

No has tenido una relación seria toda tu vida.[you haven't had a serious relationship your entire life.]

, и вы использовали наркотики, чтобы отравить ваш мозг.[and you have used drugs to poison your brain.].

Instead of helping people with your incredible talent."I finished, staring into Sherlock's shocked face.  

"I'm plenty interesting darling." I stated, patting him on the cheek as I breezed by him.

"Mrs. Holmes." I addressed her. "you have a lovely home." Mrs. Holmes smiled knowingly at me and we talked about trifling things as we left the room. I could have sworn I heard Mycroft laugh as we left, but it must have been my imagination. As soon as we were in the living room Mrs. Holmes addressed me. "I think that you will be good for Sherlock. He often needs someone to cut him down to size." She smirked, handing me a cuppa.  

"Hmm I've noticed." I murmur

"Will you help me in the kitchen Keyland?" she says loud enough for the boys to hear. I smile this might be more fun than I thought...

VIP

@summerfly-lesbian

[thestarkerisobvious]

Mabon

amazing art work by @starker-sorbet​         A snugglefic for @mrstarksbabyy​

Sixteen

3     Mabon

As the day Tony called “Mabon” approached, Peter was very busy.  Busy storing up books, and magazine articles, the kinds that made him laugh and the kinds that made him furious.  Silent Spring.  Any article about Chernobyl.  (He had bought a multiple magazines with articles on the topic of that when they visited New York City.  The subject made him want to punch holes through walls whenever he read about them, but it was worth the money.  He knew Tony would love it.)  Busy writing down copious notes about memories in his notebooks, both happy and sad, cheerfully preparing to give each one up to Tony.  

And just as judiciously he kept a careful eye on the animal population, both wild and domesticated, around the house.  The number of barncats were getting out of hand, both May and Ben had noted, but Peter tried to discourage them from taking action, reminding them of the rat population down in the basement.  The rat population he, Peter, was supposed to be in charge of (that was another one of his secrets.  He had led them believe he was interested in becoming an exterminator, like Mike DeSlaughter’s dad.  That’s why he was in charge of the rat traps in the basement, all of which he was sabotaging himself.  He wasn’t trying to rid their household of rats, in fact he was doing everything in his power to encourage them.  He needed them for Tony.)

For the week before the 21rst of September Peter sat next to his bed, reading out loud to the darkness under the bed.  He read Hitchhiker’s Guide the Galaxy and Mad Magazine. They were long, lonely nights.  Sitting on the floor.  Leaning his head against his bed.  Reading aloud to himself for hours into the night.  Reading to the silence.  Waking in the morning to trudge, exhausted, to school to spend the day planning on reading deep into the night again.  Aching from the loneliness of Tony’s absence.  Wondering if anyone knew he was acting like a crazy person.  Wondering if it had all really been a dream.

Until that night. Four nights before the date circled on his calendar.  Sitting cross-legged on his floor and complaining bitterly about an article on endangered species, he heard it.

“Peter…”

Peter’s heart leapt. His breath quickened.  Then, with a grin that reached from ear to ear, he closed is National Geographic and dug out from his pile of books the thing that he had been saving for ages.

“Jonathan Harker’s Journal.” He read with a smile.  “3 May. Bistritz.  Left Munich at 8:35 P.M., on 1rst May, arriving at Vienna early next morning; should have arrived at 6:46, but train was an hour late. Buda-Pesth seems a wonderful place, from the glimpse which I got of it from the train…”  

He read almost all night, until finally 4 AM came about and he had to give up and crawl into his bed. The next morning was the morning he did something he had never done in his life, he convinced May and Ben that he was sick and had to miss school.  It didn’t take much convincing.  Peter never missed school.

Sleeping all day made that night so much easier, giggling his way through Life The Universe and Everything while keeping one arm fearlessly under the bed, waiting to feel Tony feed.  About 1 in the morning he finally felt it, that tiny, sandpapery tongue on his wrist. After that, he had trouble concentrating on his book.  For hours he alternated between reading and talking to Tony, telling him about his many adventure that summer as he felt his friend feeding at the pulse on his wrist, sometimes lapping, sometimes… ah yes sometimes… sucking.

And so it went.  By night he fed the thing under the bed.  By day he gave himself pep-talks and stern talking-tos.  

He was different now. Older.  Stronger.  The boy who had chickened out around Tony, more time than he could even count, was gone. That boy had been replaced. Replaced with a young man, more experienced, more knowledgeable, more confident.  Peter wasn’t a kid anymore.  Peter was going to get some answers.  And Peter was going to make some demands.

It was a Friday night when it happened.  Two full days before Mabon.  Peter didn’t know how he knew, but he knew.  As darkness fell, he stood up from the floor and sat on the edge of his bed. Over and over again he reassured himself.  Told himself to be brave.  He was dressed in his long pajama bottoms and a button-down pajama top.  He had planned this outfit for a month.  He wasn’t backing down now.

With a hiss and a whisper Tony emerged from under the bed.  Peter kept his eyes steadfastly closed as the inkblack cloud arose.  He breathed in the comforting smell of earth and burned incense, but did not look until he felt the bed sink under Tony’s weight. Only when a human-like hand reached for his hand did he open his eyes and smiled at the figure beside him.

They sat very close together, smiling, their foreheads together, and greeted each other in whispers. Sometimes only Peter spoke, letting Tony suckle the last two fingers on his left hand.  He couldn’t seem to stop touching Tony’s face, tracing the dark lines of his eyebrows, his cheekbones.  The face was pale and hollow and painfully thin, but Peter knew it would soon change.  “My sweet one, how you’ve grown, you’ve become so strong,” Tony whispered and Peter glowed under the praise.  “You will feed me well, you will make me powerful.  I will serve you so well.  I will be your beloved, my master scholar.  My library-pilgrim…”

“I keep telling you, I don’t have a Masters degree!” Peter scolded when Tony fit Peter’s fingers into his mouth again.  Peter felt like giggling with delight, even as he started to describe the parts of his science class that were actually getting interesting.  He couldn’t stop smiling.  As the September days had dragged on so painfully slow, he had begun to think that Tony had only been a daydream.  A kind of nasty invisible friend that Peter should be praying to God about.  (The boys in the First Devil’s Church Sunday School were always reminded they should pray for God to deliver them from their Dirty Thoughts.)  Now those doubts felt like dreams.  He kept Tony’s forehead close to his forehead, kept his hand close to Tony’s face.

Finally Tony let Peter’s fingers slip away from his mouth.  They held each other’s hands tightly, Peter looking deeply into Tony’s eyes.

Then Tony looked sadly behind him.  Looked at the pillows, then looked down at their clasped hands.

“You have fed me, and I have come.  I am your servant, Master Peter.  I would I were your beloved,” he whispered.  

Then he looked up at Peter with dark eyes.

“Am I no longer welcome in your bed?”

Peter squeezed Tony’s hand, took a deep breath, and then stood.

There was something he had planned on saying right at this moment, the words he would say as he unbuttoned his pajama shirt, but the words dried up in his mouth.  Something about the promises Tony had made in his bedroom in the dream-castle, promises he had never kept.

The words didn’t come, so he unbuttoned his shirt in silence.  He had planned on letting the shirt fall dramatically to the floor, but at the last minute he lost his nerve.

But words or no, drama or no, the look on Tony’s face when Peter silently climbed into his lap was absolutely worth it.

With a hungry growl that made Peter’s spine light up like stars, Tony’s mouth descended upon the vein in Peter’s neck even has his long fingers starred over Peter’s back and pulled him close.

Tony fed.

The Master (Post)

Questions, discussions, constructive crit are all welcome at @witchwayisright​

To be tagged please message me.

[jq37]

thoughts on this week's ep?

**spoilers for broadway brawl**

***Before we start, I remembered as I was typing this one of the important notes I lost from last week’s recap: Interesting that Christmas seemingly went off without a hitch. I expected Santa to come back into play somehow (like, someone would check on him to make sure Christmas was still on or he’d call them in to help or something) but he hasn’t, at least not yet.***

My guys, my guys, my guys. Was that something or was that something?

I think I am on record as saying that combat is my least favorite part of ttrpgs generally speaking because I’m here for the RP but when a combat episode shines it really freaking shines (see eg: that first combat ep of Bloodkeep where everyone went full Galaxy Brain except for Matt who couldn’t hit a single thing) and this is such a good example. This is easily a top five ep of the season for me, maybe top three so let’s get into it and break down why it was so awesome.

We start right where we left off with Titania and members of her court having come into the theater to beat the tar out of Misty mid-show.

Quick note: At the end of last ep, it was set up so that Misty was thrust on stage right after hearing the mirror was on stage which would place this fight right at the top of Act 2 but at the start of this ep, Brennan seems to indicate that it’s taking place during what would be the closing number. Which would make more sense but imagine you go see a play, the first act is super dope, and then the second act is an insane, minute long fight that’s pretty unconnected to the plot and then a buff, naked, beautiful man tells you the show is over and you should leave. Wild. Anyway.

Pixies with tommy guns in inherently funny.

So one of the things that makes this fight really great is the way it directly ties into the story in a way besides “These bad guys are in our way.” Misty is using this show as a part of her reincarnation spell so if the show is messed up, it fails and she’s on her last life. Brennan has a cool mechanic of making her roll death saves every round at a difficulty lower than her modifier (which is s/t crazy like 11) but that gets harder with damage done to her and performance checks failed by other players who decide to jump on stage. It’s a great way to make the battle feel like it has more personal stakes and it’s my fave original Brennan mechanic since the Family in Flames Sophie’s Choice situation.

(I love that the death save counter is changed for theater comedy/tragedy masks for this. Nice touch.)

Em, Esther, and Wally are also at the fight which is clutch.

Also, Sondheim is specifically here which is an insane detail to add just because.

WILD that no one knows what’s going on with the ritual initially because, as Lou almost does, getting all the civilians out is the smart move and it would COMPLETELY ruin Misty’s plans instantly.

Lou having Kingston take the stairs bc’s he’s 50+ years old and has no time for that nonsense has equal but opposite energy to him doing extra rolls for Fabian to do unnecessary parkour before a simple attack because Fabian’s Like That.

Murph fireblasts the hell out of Titania’s foot soldiers right off the bat from outside of counterspell range which is very cool.

“Give me a performance check for the cockroach.”

“You’re upstaging me bitch?”

Another great thing about this fight is that because of it’s theatrical nature, everyone’s RPing it more than a usual battle ep (or more intensely maybe is what I mean).

Titania hypnotizes Don Confetti and his goons into fighting for her.

“She doesn’t know she’s in a play but she does sing most of her dialogue which is helpful for you.” Titania is just Like That.

Pete drops an erupting earth and drops a sick 37 damage on those same minions Kug got.

I didn’t notice before but yeah, Ally does roll die like a f-ing beyblade champion.

Emily hearing Murph’s low key, offhand comments and cracking up is great.

“Get Sondheim!” (Emily and then Ally: WHAT?!)

Actual living dude Stephen Sondheim being involved in this fight is just so ridiculous and fun and crazy.

We go around to Misty’s turn and she has to beat a 28 (upped from 10) and she fails which feels worse than a normal failed death save somehow.

Lou, in a very good RP move, tells Pete to tell Misty to end the show so she can tell them not to so the group has a valid reason to not evacuate which is a thing they (or at least him and Ricky) would obviously want to do.

Sophie, the madwoman, jumps out of the balcony, grabs a costume, then runs on stage. Emily’s glee at being told that her grabbing the costume will give her advantage is great. She’s always trying to figure out how to make the most of her moves. She is the living embodiment of the concept of method to madness (which is from Hamlet since we’re talking Shakespeare today). 

Ox is constantly dying (Brennan!) but also it’s like, why was he even there before the fight started? I’ve never seen a non-service dog in a theater.

Ricky: Is this part of it?

Oh, forgot to mention that everything that happens on stage is kinda shielded by the Umbral Arcana so everyone watching thinks it’s part of the show, which is a cool plot detail.

Ricky gets fULLY NAKED (Emily, with perfect comic timing: Now do I roll with disadvantage?) and leaps into the fray. He casts Protection from Evil and Good on her which (1) He does by Magic Mike body-rolling on her while he’s naked and considering how much shorter she is that her raises some interesting questions about positioning and (2) is the most clutch use of this spell I’ve seen in a while. It’s a spell I always wanna take as a Paladin because it makes sense character-wise, but I’ve never been able to actually use it because we’re never fighting fiends, fae, or celestial.

Brennan’s dime change change reversal of the critic’s comments on Ricky’s body rolls when Zac re-rolls his 11 makes me glad I never had to face him in a debate team setting.

Ally: What’s Esther’s deal ;)/Brennan: *Esther’s Weapon Stats*

“Your only secret you’ve ever had in your life is that you have a crush on her.”

Wally has a beautiful singing voice and a working knowledge of Midsummer's which is wild.

Lou’s periodic, “My man”’s when Ally/Pete does something cool. He’s very dialed into being Kingston.

Ricky’s aura keeps everyone near him from being charmed and Misty saves everyone else w/ a nat 20 counterspell. Few things in D&D are more satisfying than a well executed counterspell.

Titania trying to get Pete to be her consort or something when he just over the super posh Priya is very funny.

“I mean between me and Sondheim, get Sondheim!”

“DO WE HAVE HOMEWORK TONIGHT?” (“We did have homework.”)

Anyway, Misty has one success now!

Misty tries to use puppet to get Titania to drop her crown and it doesn’t work. Brennan says the crown is Crown of Stars which I looked up and it’s actually a spell, not a physical crown, but I’m assuming he used the mechanical effects of the spell on a physical item.

Brennan doing all these musical/singing bits when he absolutely doesn’t have to. I love it.

I love Ricky and Sophie being the two martial fighting heavy hitters of the group. Like, the two fighters, having the spellcasters’ backs.

I hope the one kung fu fan in the back of the theater never sees another Broadway show again because he’s gonna be so disappointed. 

“I’m just so inspired by that beautiful penis.”

Murph, out of character, verbally acknowledging how insane what they’re doing is. I love when someone pauses in a game of D&D to just recite what’s currently happening out of context so everyone can appreciate how crazy it is. D&D. Gotta love it..

Emily and Siobhan have a quick conversation in the background about whether Sondheim did Les Mis or not (not, that’s Claude-Michel Schönberg) while Brennan and Murph are Ring nonsense.

I also was mildly suspicious of Alyssa so I’m glad Kingston checked her out.

The entire roast of Brennan when he’s selecting D6s is an instantly iconic D20 moment. I can’t do it justice. You kinda just have to see it.

“Someone call Wizards of the Coast!”

Em, Wally, and Alyssa go out when Titania puts out a huge spell that blinds Kug.

“Yummy, yummy, tastes like ass.”

On Misty’s next turn, she rolls a fail which makes it 2 failures to 1 success. Brennan mentions that a nat 1 counts as 2 failures and a nat 20 counts as 2 successes. I’m sure that won’t be relevant later because you can’t foreshadow things when dice rolls are completely random.

Misty fails on puppet again again and Titania goes full Wicked Witch of the West on her and starts Jonesing for those shoessss.

Emily’s Emily(tm) move of the session is doing a flying leap at Titania, hitting her with a stunning strike and having Brennan retract the Box off Doom he was pulling out because she can’t save when she’s stunned. She just plummets out of the sky.

Don Confetti respecting the sacrament of marriage as he goes full Opera ghost and tries to garrote Sophie.

Ricky (still naked) grabs the crown from Titania, tosses it to Misty, and, with some improv and a good charisma roll, makes the show suddenly make sense to the very confused but entertained audience.

I’m so glad that Murph decided to turn into a bear and that they made the Winter’s tale ref. I should have had faith in Brennan and Siobhan, the theater nerds. Exit pursued by a bear y’all.

Lou and Emily bonding over being proud of their die for rolling well when they lend it out for a big roll.

Really wish Pete had wild magic surged in this fight. Just to add that extra bit of chaos. 

With a very good turn (no damage taken, no performances failed) Misty only has to avoid snake eyes to get through this turn. She leapfrogs over that low bar and rolls a nat 20, instantly fulfilling her win condition. At this point, the play is superfluous and Titania is still down.

“Brennan lost and now he knows reddit is gonna eat his ass.”

OK, remember how I said earlier that Misty seems like the kind of character you nudge a little temptation at just to spice things up? Yeah, her killing Titania and getting the crown of the Seelie Fae makes me a liiiitle apprehensive, but we’ll see how that turns out.

“I killed my queen! This is America we don’t have royalty here.”

“Bear, I don’t know who you are, but take me on your back, let me ride on stage.” —creator of West Side Story, Stephen Sondheim

Misty charms the critic at the show to make sure they get a good review which is such a fae thing to do.

Kingston’s clearly not loving attacking Don and Co. post “real fight” what with his whole Do No Harm thing (well, that’s Dr’s but same principle applies I assume) is a good character detail. For that matter, so is Ricky just taking Titania’s crown and not beheading her which he super could have done while she was down but it would have been very incongruous with everything else about him.

Brian “This isn’t Loony Tunes” Murphy throws Sondheim as a projectile weapon at a pixie who snaps the pixie’s neck and then does a monologue at the audience.

I love it when someone rolls low on an insight check and Brennan gives them useless info and then they repeat it in their character’s voice.

4 mins from the end of the ep, Siobhan realizes there are two Perrys in this story for the first time and has a bigger reaction to that than almost everything else in this ep except her nat 20.

Ricky looks for costume faun legs to cover his fully out dick instead of costume pants or even his own pants.

Misty starts glowing with reincarnation energy and she runs into her dressing room for privacy. Also, she still super hasn’t told anyone what’s going on. (ALSO, assuming she’s gonna make the world think she died, it’s gonna be wild for the company of the show to have their leading lady put on the performance of her life and then die on opening night).

“Who am I to refuse a crown when it’s placed so deftly upon my head?”

You know that behind the scenes thing where Brennan is like, “Yeah, I knew Siobhan was gonna steal that book,”? I got some of those vibes during the crown scene.

The implications of what Misty did are gonna be left until next ep but Brennan says something about her creating her own court and it looks like she’s recruiting followers in the promo. IDK how I feel about that (these stories tend to have great power--especially tied to powerful magical items--as a corrupting force) but I am very excited to see how it goes down! See you then!

[clericbyers]

The funny thing about RR!St3 (and yes I'm still talking about this) is that its technically your au so if u don't like stuff about season 3-and maybe that's like everything lmao- than you can change it for this au!!! so what're some things you could change to flex on the duffers with ur beautiful Galaxy brain?

oh ur so right….oh man OH MAN the power in my hands right now…this is super long but i got so into it okay thank u…

First off, my real vision for RR!ST3 would not be too close to how ST3 went down; the RR!ST3 I originally hashed out was me trying to stick close to ST3 but as I said then, it was hard bc many of the issues in ST3 wouldn’t happen if Mike wasn’t obsessed with El and if we actually address the fact that these kids are dealing with serious trauma from the events of ST2. In RR!ST2, Mike would be the one dealing with being possessed, Will would have been at his side the entire time, Nancy and Mike would be a lot tighter thanks to RR!ST1 (like she’d be very overprotective because she almost lost her brother and he’s annoying yeah but she can’t imagine not having him in her life anymore). So when RR!ST2 ends with the Snowball, I can see Mike still dancing with El when she returns because he needs to thank her, she saved his life after all, but I really. just cannot see his level of attachment being enough to try to date her. Because in ST1 and at the beginning of ST2, Mike is wracked with guilt about losing her, about bonding with her and ultimately her being a sacrifice to save them. He doesn’t have that in RR!ST1 and RR!ST2, at least not to the same degree as ST1 and ST2. He didn’t have the time to bond to El and while I think he might have fleeting feelings for his savior (like I said, nightingale effect) and have some guilt about how she seemingly gave up her life to save everyone, especially him, I also think RR!ST2 Mike would be very attached to Will though given how Will trusted him and stuck by him despite all the horrors. Mike takes loyalty very seriously and Will being with Nancy and Karen (as she would be the “crazy” mom who lost her son in RR!ST1, but she’d enlist Joyce’s help since Ted wouldn’t really care so it would be power duo Joyren trying to figure out where Mike is) in the RR!ST2 shed scene would mean a lot to him.

Now, we have those 8 months between ST2 and ST3 where basically Mike and El entered a relationship in ‘85. In that time frame in the RR au, I would focus more on how the Party is getting over the trauma they faced during RR!ST2. Firstly, Mike is definitely not okay after being possessed by a demonic godly shadow force. He’s in therapy again maybe, back on medications, IDK what exactly but he is broken inside but trying his best to act like everything is normal and he wasn’t just possessed. I think he would try to cling onto his childhood as Will did in ST3, because Mike didn’t get to grow up normal since he got kidnapped and possessed by monsters. Will and El would bond a lot in those 8 months though, definitely becoming closer siblings and El having a crush on Mike can still a thing. Mike might not feel that same way for her but he’d be down for dating if just to feel normal again. Part of that may be to continue dampening how he feels for Will because he just wants to be a regular kid again and what he feels for his best friend is not at all natural in his mind. I like the idea of Mike and El getting together in ST3 at the mall scene so I’d stick with that. But I also feel like Mike would definitely also be spending half the time subconsciously trying to stay away from El because she’s also a reminder of the horrors he faced in the UD and with the Mind Flayer.

There would be a lot of Will, El, Mike moments too! Will is her brother of sorts in the RR au and Hopper is only ever really comfortable with Mike coming to visit when Will is over, too, even before Mike agrees to date El.

So okay, Episode 1 of RR!ST3 deals with the fact that all the kids are still dealing with some sort of trauma. Mike wakes up from a nightmare, uses his walkie talkie to contact Will, and Will comes over and sits in his room with him and they chat for a bit until Mike can fall back asleep. Will sits at the foot of Mike’s bed watching him sleep before he sneaks back out the house. Nancy catches him and thanks him for stopping by and then he catches Lucas outside too while making his way back home. Lucas casually mentions that he couldn’t sleep and they chat about how weird things have been when no one in Hawkins knows what happened last fall. In the early afternoon the next day, Will bikes over to Hopper’s cabin to hang out with El, they listen to music and doodle together for hours, just being great friends. El casually mentions that she might have a bit of a crush on Mike (who comes with Dustin, Lucas, and El to visit sometimes because fuck ST3 and isolating El from the Party). This could be a moment for Will to be like, “Oh, me, too.” and they can bond over liking Mike together (that’d be cute af!! and it would help Will feel more comfortable about how he feels toward Mike when he’s able to talk about it without persecution). She asks him if Mike likes him back and Will kinda just stops doodling.

“I don’t know,” he murmurs hoarsely. “He’s never said anything.”

El hums and takes out a purple crayon to color in the grass. “Do you know if he likes me?”

Will says he doesn’t know but that he’ll figure it out for her. Hopper won’t let her come with Will to the movie that night so he promises one night he’ll help sneak her out and then bikes over to the theater. We have the ST3 theater scene but it’s reversed of course, so it’s Mike who feels the Mind Flayer and Will who asks him if he’s okay. Mike isn’t as shy and flustered as Will was in ST3 though, he tries to brush Will off petulantly (as RR!ST3 Mike tries his best to act like the events of RR!ST2 aren’t affecting him as much as it is) but Will takes his hand and says, “It’s okay to not be okay.” and Mike kinda fidgets but squeezes his hand in turn before they both go back to watching the movie.

The next day when Dustin comes back, we have the Party going up to Cerebro but there would not be any El and Mike leaving like in ST3. Instead, Will and El are whispering between themselves but it’s not really much about anything. El is too shy to ask Mike if he wants to sit with her as they listen to Dustin call his girlfriend and Will just wants her to feel comfortable near Mike and keeps pestering for her to just sit next to him. Mike is irritated because he wanted to hang with Will more today and he’s bonding with El. His powers activate from his irritation and he’s blocking the radio signal for Dustin and Suzie’s call. When it starts getting late, the Party splits up, Will and El leaving first because of curfew (a real one not the lie El told in ST3). Lucas and Max leave next and Mike is left solo with Dustin.

“I know that Will and El aren’t together, but god, I feel so childish being the single one out.” Mike complains as a chill breeze washes over the two of them.

Dustin hums distractedly, still trying to work out why Cerebro isn’t picking up Suzie’s channel. It takes a moment for Mike’s words to sink in and then he perks. “You know, El likes you.”

“She what?” Mike blurts, giving Dustin a look. “No, she doesn’t. She can’t.”

“Uh, but she can and she does.” Dustin turns a random knob to a different frequency. “It’s pretty obvious; she was sending you heart eyes this entire time if your oblivious ass would have realized.”

Mike isn’t sure how to feel about it. He’s always seen El as Will’s sister, especially with Hopper attempting (and kinda failing) at dating Joyce. Even when they danced at Snowball, it was a thing of gratitude, of joy, of acknowledging that she hadn’t died and he was happy about that. But, El actually liking him? “What am I supposed to do about that?”

“Do you like her?”

Mike scrunches his nose. He feels…something toward her but he’s not really sure what it is. It’s not the same way he feels toward Nancy but it’s not what he felt toward Max either. And it’s definitely not what he feels toward Will, but he doesn’t want to think about that right now. He wants to feel normal. “I’m not sure.”

“Well, if it’s not a solid no, then I’d say go for it.” Dustin adjusts his hat and leans back with a sigh. “She’s cute and I think this is the first time a cute girl has ever liked your nerdy ass.”

“Shut up,” laughs Mike and he nudges his friend who grins in turn. He looks up at the sky and sighs. “I should probably get back home before my mom goes nuts. Talk to you later, yeah?”

“I’m leaving, too,” he sighs as he stands up. “I don’t know why this isn’t working. Maybe the clouds are too overcast.”

Mike shrugs and flicks at the radio’s antenna. It buzzes erratically, static blasting through Dustin’s headphones and then suddenly there’s a voice coming through the noise. It’s a blend of things, like the receiver is caught between two frequencies. One is Suzie, the other is some spoken code (in English because the random inclusion of the Russians works for Red Scare era / anti-Russia 80′s America but like…it had no set up so I wouldn’t use it for RR!ST3) that neither Mike nor Dustin can understand. Dustin tries to fix the frequency channels to focus on Suzie, but he looses her and the input only focuses on the frequency the code is on. Mike touches the antenna again, holding on this time around, and he can literally feel the electric currents coursing through him, something sharper than a tickle but not as harsh as actual electrocution. The dials on the receiver interface start wavering about randomly and crazily until Mike lets go and then there’s only static again.

“What the,” Dustin mutters, bending down to check how Cerebro is working. “What did you do?”

Mike stares down at his hands, a panic attack on the edge of his senses because, seriously, what the hell was that? First having flashbacks in the theater and feeling that shocking tingling sensation on their way up the hill, now this? “I…I don’t know.”

Dustin taps at a dial and frowns. “Touch it again. Like hold onto it as you did earlier.” Mike does as told and the dials go nuts again. “Mike…do you…have you had any issues near electrical appliances recently?”

Mike scowls and tries to remember if anything odd has happened recently. “No? Not really. Sometimes the radio in my mom’s car doesn’t work and the TV gets a little staticy but that’s normal. Oh, and we had flickering lights out at the cabin when Will, Lucas, and I visited but it’s a cabin in the woods so what do you expect.”

Dustin bites at his bottom lip. “And this only happens when you��re around?”

“I, uh,” Mike grabs at his hair, “No, no, it doesn’t. It doesn’t. It can’t…I’m not, what…I thought that was the Upside Down only.”

“What do you mean?”

“I could touch the lights and the TV when I was in the Upside Down version of the basement. And when I touched them, everything glowed. Kind of like casting Daylight in D&D.” Mike struggles to find his breath; he never really talks about what it was like in the Upside Down. “And…and I knew, I knew where the demogorgon was before I should have. Like innate. And the dead people…”

“Detect Evil?” Dustin suggests, cocking his head to the side. “Mike, do you think any of that stuck with you here?”

[ So basically, the equivalent of “magic” in D&D is electricity in the real world / the Upside Down since electricity and tech is kinda like modern magic, and all of Mike’s powers in the Upside Down are, in theory, paladin spells. He couldn’t control which lights flickered on like Will did in ST1 but he can turn them on and he can create a beacon, along with talking to the dead and having an innate circle of protection around him (a magic circle as paladins can have!) ]

Mike goes back home totally freaked out and refusing to believe he has “powers” because his time in the UD felt like such a nightmare anyway. He just wanted to survive, he didn’t ask for this, he didn’t ask for the Mind Flayer to possess him and use his body to kill people, to almost destroy Hawkins in the process. And that night, Mike decides he absolutely cannot let these possible powers do anything or mean anything because he’s normal, he’s a normal 14-year-old boy who is absolutely not crushing on his very male best friend, no, he’s gonna get a girlfriend, and hang out at the mall like kids do over the summer, and everything is going to be fine.

The next day, Will doesn’t go over to El’s place to hang out, Mike picks up the phone and says a dumb lie about Will being busy to try to get out of it. (“Friends don’t lie,” says El afterwards. “But brothers do.” snorts Max, “All. The. Time.”) He’s frustrated by El wanting to spend time with Will one-on-one when he’s trying to get the og4 Party members together for some normal hangout time playing D&D because, again, Mike here is the one trying to cling onto his childhood, even more now that he might have “powers”. They play D&D with Mike as DM and it all goes well until Karen comes downstairs asking about magnets and Mike internally freaks out. He’s been feeling like someone is watching him for a while now (hint: El when spying on the boys in the Void) and now his mom is talking about something that could very well be his powers working. Dustin knows and can actually see it, so he suggests everyone should get some fresh air and hang out at the mall. The Party goes out shopping, they hang out at Scoops Ahoy and Mike and Dustin share their story about the radio last night but purposefully leave out details about what Mike did with the antenna. Will feels guilty for lying so he’s trying to find some new clothes so El isn’t always wearing Hopper’s hand-me-downs, and they run into Max and El outside.

“Well, well, well,” Max huffs as she crosses her arms. “Didn’t expect to see you here.”

Will is worried because El leaving the house and being at the mall of all places would definitely make Hopper upset. “Are you okay?” he asks her, careful not to sound too overbearing. “Does Hopper know you’re here?”

El shrugs. “I told him I was seeing Max. And I am.” She turns to Mike. “You said Will couldn’t come over yet you are shopping. Why did you lie?”

Mike, who has spent practically the whole time at the mall on pins and needles, is really not in the mood for being questioned like this. “It just came out. I wanted to hang with the boys, okay? Just us. Like old days.”

El frowns. “Do you not like me?”

“No! No, I really like you!” Mike softens up and gives her a smile. “Honest; friends don’t lie, right? I’m sorry I lied to you. Today’s been…weird.” Dustin huffs at that. “Don’t worry about it though, I genuinely like you.”

And Mike doesn’t mean it that way–he had just said ‘friends don’t lie’ because he really does see her as a friend–but El takes it that way, and she grins widely, blushing as she ducks her head. “I like you, too, Mike.”

Will didn’t even think Mike liked El that way but now that it’s spoken in front of him, he can feel his heart breaking just a bit because any chance he thought he had is gone in his mind. El steps into Mike’s space and he blinks a couple times. “I want to go out with you.”

Dustin gasps, Lucas covers his mouth, Will tries his best not to look dejected, and Max whoops at her side. Mike turns to Will, who is staring at his feet, and then looks back at El. (A parallel to Snowball when Will looked at Mike for approval before going to dance with Zombie Boy girl.) Mike told himself he was gonna get a girlfriend and be normal, right? Ignore whatever happens in his chest when Will smiles at him. Ignore all of that and his stupid powers and be normal. “Yeah. Yeah, okay. Let’s go out.”

So the Party stays at the mall a little longer and Mike and El hang out together and get ice cream at Scoops’ Ahoy, which is amusing to Steve and Robin both. At the end, they go back to the Wheelers and El has to go back to the cabin but Mike is kind of in a daze because wow, he just got a girlfriend for the first time and went on a date with her. Dustin keeps teasing him, Lucas is cackling and making kissing jokes, but Will…Will is oddly silent at first. They get back on the campaign but no one can really concentrate and Will starts getting concerned about El and how she was out and about without Hopper’s knowledge. Mike is even more frustrated now because he thought things were going to start getting normal now, but it just seems to be falling apart. Will won’t even concentrate on the campaign, Dustin is horrible at trying to be subtle about if Mike’s powers are activating, and Lucas is complaining with Will about how Max and El are hanging out.

Mike lashes out and storms outside, where Will goes after him. “Mike, I’m sorry, it’s a really good campaign,” Will starts with a hand to Mike’s shoulder, “but I’m worried about El and I just…I can’t concentrate right now. We can play it tomorrow, I promise.”

Mike yanks himself away from Will. “Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, it’s always tomorrow! I said ‘see you tomorrow’ before and then I never did! Tomorrow may never fucking come! But oh, that doesn’t matter, huh? Tomorrow always comes for you. Tomorrow is always gonna be better.”

“Mike,”

“No!” he yells and lightening crackles in the distance. “No, you don’t get to say anything! You keep spending time with El, forgetting about all of us! I’m her boyfriend now and I’m not even this obsessed with her whereabouts.” He waves at Will, who scowls. “She’s not even really your sister and you’re letting her just ruining the party like this? And for what? So you can have a fake younger sister to hole up in her room all day?”

Will’s nostrils flare. “El is my sister whether you like it or not!” He snaps back with irritation. “It’s not my fault you don’t like El!”

Mike pauses, eyes widening just a fraction as his breath visibly hitches. No one was supposed to know that he wasn’t even sure how he felt…Dustin himself had come to the conclusion that Mike knew he liked El all along. Will though wants to take it back immediately. Taking out his anger onto Mike isn’t fair at all and just because Mike suddenly has a girlfriend doesn’t mean he should try to accuse Mike of not liking her. But he can’t help but question either way because Mike barely alluded to seeing her that way anyway.

“Look, I’m…I’m sorry, that came out wrong. So wrong.” He steps toward Mike, who tenses up more. “I know you like El, okay? I know you care about her. I care about her, too, just differently. She helped save you and the Party, how can I not care? That type of care has been with me for months. I can’t shut that off. I’m sorry.”

Mike’s breathing is getting denser and his vision is getting blurry because now he knows. Now he knows how he feels and he really fucked up saying yes to dating El. He doesn’t like her like Nancy and he doesn’t like her like Max either. He especially doesn’t like her like a boyfriend. “I like El like how you like her.”

“Mike?” Will’s voice is soft and shaking a little and Mike feels like throwing up.

“El saved me,” he whispers, “She saved me and I like her for that. I do. But she’s not…”

“She’s not what?”

Mike is crying now, angry tears dripping down his face like the rain as his voice crackles like the thunder. “She’s not you! I thought she would be enough and maybe I was wrong for it but it hasn’t even been a full day and I already know! I already know I don’t like her like that because I like you!”

There’s nothing but the patter of rain and Mike’s heavy breathing, and Mike can already feel his heart breaking because he spent so long trying to deny this and now he blurted it out in the midst of an argument like a dumbass and now Will is going to hate him. Hate him for not being normal, hate Mike for being what Lonnie always said he was. He’s crying still, hands shaking at his side as the tears continue to spill.

Will looks up at him with widened eyes and Mike can’t take it any longer. He can’t face the inevitable rejection right now. “I need to go.”

“Mike, wait, no! Mike!” Will rushes toward him but Mike’s already on his bike and riding through the rain. “Mike! Mike, come back!”

When Mike doesn’t turn back, Will rushes downstairs, tears streaming down his face as well and he can barely get his words out. “We need to find Mike, we need to find him now!”

“Will, what happened?” Lucas asks but Will grabs his jacket instead of replying.

“We need to go, now.” the brunette is shaking and Dustin puts a hand on his shoulder.

“Seriously, Will, what happened? Is he okay? Is he hurt?”

“Yes, yes, oh my god,” Will collapses on the stairs before he can finish climbing them. “Oh my god, he confessed to me.”

“Confessed what? His powers?”

Will blinks a few times and looks up at Dustin as he rubs at his runny nose. “His what? Powers?”

Dustin freezes. “Oh. I, uh, I thought…oh…oh. Mike likes you?”

Will waves a passing hand. “Pause, what is this about Mike’s powers?”

Lucas speaks up with irritation. “I thought you said we need to go!”

So all the boys get on their bikes and ride toward the Byers house since that’s where Mike would go when his nightmares got bad enough and it’s a safe place for him outside of the basement. Dustin explains what Mike had done with Cerbero and how they caught this code that he had been sort of hashing out with Steve and Robin when they went to the mall. No one is home at the Byers residence (Joyce and Karen are out with Hopper doing their whole side storyline there) and Will starts to freak out more.

“Where would he be, where would he be?”

Lucas crosses his arms. “Maybe the cabin? That’s where his girlfriend is after all.”

And that’s not where Mike is, he’s actually with Steve and Robin at the mall given he feels he’d be better off with someone who understands the UD/MF mess (Steve) and someone who doesn’t know the Party dynamics (Robin). He’s just about to tell Robin about his confession to Will when he feels the Mind Flayer and knows that he’s back.

The rest of the season is kinda…the same ish but also not?? But so I don’t write out the whole damn thing now lmao here are the pointers:

El and Mike are still trying to be girlfriend and boyfriend when they reunite at the cabin (Scoops Troop is a thing but it’s not tied to the Russian bs so they aren’t at the mall the entire time) but Mike is also really uncomfortable with El’s advances though he tries not to act like it.

Mike avoids Will as best he can even though Will keeps trying to get one-on-one time with Mike to confess that he likes him back

Jonathan and Nancy team up at the cabin too with news about the exploding rats (the MF’s attempt to possess non humans that went wrong) and Mike speaks up about how he might have powers himself

El tries to teach him how to go into the Void (which would be like a prayer for him) but when he does so, he ends up running into the Mind Flayer and find out that it’s after him and is willing to kill all his friends to get to him

Mike and El both pull out of the Void together gasping and crying and Will is immediately at Mike’s side as Max rushes to El. “He’s going to kill us,” Mike sobs shakily, “He’s going to kill us all.”

El gets attacked by the Mind Flayer (not Meat Flayer) because it was coming for Mike and she intercepted the transmission using her mind

At the hospital Mike breaks up with El (instead of how in ST3 they became friends again), and she’s a little hurt but understanding when he confesses that he likes someone more than her and doesn’t want to hurt her by lying to her constantly when dating her

Will finally gets Mike to himself here and is about to confess but then Mike feels the Mind Flayer (his innate sense evil power) and it’s possessed someone. He confronts it, helps save Nancy from the shapeshifting demogorgon attacking her, and banishes it from this dimension, only to pass out from the effort

El takes over with her powers and with Mike’s help, accesses the radio to find the channel that Dustin and Mike had found before. She discovers that someone is trying to open the gate again under the mall

At the supermarket, Will and Mike finally get to talk and Will confesses that he likes Mike, too. “Blank makes you crazy, right?” Mike chuckles as he takes Will’s hand in his own. He’s not willing to say love yet even if he knows it’s true. He knows that Will understands him though. Will always does.

“Yeah,” the boy replies sweetly, “blank makes you crazy.”

Cue an almost kiss before Lucas and Dustin come around with the fireworks and they all get over to the mall

Big battle against the Mind Flayer and the people it possessed. Instead of a giant gory meat machine, it possesses people in Hawkins like it did Mike in RR!ST2 and uses them to shapeshift them into individual monsters. So the Party is attacked by a horde of demogorgons and demodogs!!

The fireworks help a lot as Lucas suggested, and Mike and El work together as superpowered besties to banish the Mind Flayer from all the neighbors. Some die in the process (because it’s just, brutal and violent and horrible) and Mike gets temporarily repossessed in the battle but he’s more leveled up now and understands how this works, so he can banish the MF from him (a level 4 paladin spell might I add!) as much as El used her powers to take out the piece of the meat machine in her leg in ST3

Hopper closes the gate but not in enough time (we need him in the Upside Down for RR!ST4) and then the Mind Flayer retreats, but it kills all the people it had possessed in the process, which only wrecks the kids with guilt for being unable to save everyone like they almost did

This also frightens Mike who has been possessed by the Mind Flayer because it means his connection is still strong enough that the Mind Flayer could kill him instantly too (but it won’t bc Mike and El’s powers are too strong and it could possibly kill itself trying to kill them through that connection)

At the end there’s no one really moving away. El has lost her powers, Mike’s are nearly depleted / he doesn’t know how to use them without El’s help. Everyone is mourning Hopper and with El and Mike unable to use their powers, they can’t go into the Void to see that Hopper’s actually alive.

uhhh the epilogue is the first day of high school and the Party are hopping off their bikes and chatting about something nonsensical. Lucas and Max are holding hands, Dustin is waving his arms about wildly as he explains his latest science project, and Mike and Will are standing close together, just enough to brush their fingers together. (El is homeschooled since she needs to catch up on her education)

“You okay?” Will asks quietly as they stand off to the side away from the bustling crowds. “It’s okay to not be okay.”

“I know,” Mike grins down at his boyfriend, which is still so blush inducing to think about, so he blushes. “But, I’m fine. I’ve got you right beside me so I’m definitely okay.”

[mazanica]

So I felt a desire to list some, though not all because that would take too long, of my AUs. So here are main AUs and some favourite AUs of mine!

MAIN AUs

(includes AUs I’ve yet to write or publish, but have planned out, and links to the ones started/that have anything written for them)

Phantom Watchers (Aliens AU): TW- Contains mental, emotional and physical abuse of a child. Bandi Cator is the son of General Commander Akrai Cator and Head Doctor of Sciences Aniya Martel, of the planet Lapinia. He isn’t sure who he really is, but it’s never mattered before... until he wakes up on a strange planet, alongside 11 others... and a mysterious group watching from the skies. (xx)

One Stormy Night on Lakeview Road (Vampire AU): When Goldie and his friends were children, they went into the old abandoned mansion on Lakeview Road and met the long-missing Fischbach family, whom they knew for only a single stormy night. Twelve years later, Goldie is the only one who remembers everything that happened that night and to believe that it was real- and he is the first to figure out just what was really living in the abandoned mansion. (xx)

Beneath Their Masks (High School AU): TW- CONTAINS SEVERE ABUSE, from physical, mental/psychological, emotional and sexual. Also contains cliques and highschool bullying. Spring and his friends are trying to survive their final year of highschool without anyone finding out their little secrets. Goldie and his friends are trying to enjoy their final year of just “being kids.” However, when new science teacher Mike Schmidt partners Spring’s group with members of the Fazgang, cracks begin to form and their classmates see right through them. (5 different parts; xx)

Division (Elemental/Magic AU): In a world divided into those who have Powers (Pazons) and those who don’t (Norands), two different rebellions are rising up... but they take completely opposite approaches and innocent people get hurt. One group of highschool students caught in the crossfire is about to learn the ugly truth of the world they live in and that nothing is what it seems. (xx)

Circuits to Flesh (Paranormal-esque reincarnation-ish horror AU): Freddy Fazbear and all who stepped through his door was always meant to have a tragic end. After the Mangle bit Jeremy Fitzgerald, the Toys were slated to be destroyed and the Originals sent to the old location again. However, rather than bemoan their fates, the Toys choose to spend their last hours fixing their older counterparts and making right what was wrong. This simple act of kindness changes everything. Fate has something else in store for them. For all of them. But they have to earn it. (xx)

Ribbons (Android AU): Many years ago, droids rose up and rebelled against their organic creators, and the survivors retreated into the places their mechanic creations could not follow; the wet forests, the blazing deserts and the freezing tundras. However, as the androids advanced and redesigned themselves and created new droids, they found a way to overcome the flaws of their “ancestors.” With sealed, synthetic skins, stabilizing fluid and a highly realistic appearance, the war between organics and droids continues. At least, that’s what Blu has always been taught- but when he meets and gets to know Bonnie, a Droid, it becomes clear that things aren’t so black and white. (xx xx xx)

Pennies AU: Bonnie, Freddy and Goldie are highly successful musicians who feel like they’ve lost something. They return to their hometown, Durmont, where a string of disappearances around Alban Creek have been happening the last 12 or so years. Bonnie remembers the first kid who disappeared when they were only around 5 or 6, whom he had spoken to the same morning he disappeared- the same morning of Bonnie’s mother’s funeral- and goes to Alban Creek with Freddy and Goldie... where they find themselves falling into another world. (xx)

CANON AUs

Aftermath Verse: After the murders, the Toys made a terrible choice and the OGs can only try and finish what they started. (just look through my Aftermath Verse tag lol)

Shadowed Verse: The Shadows play a game and Blue and Red are the ones who suffer.

Mending Bridge: Mike Schmidt returns to Freddy Fazbear’s to unravel the secrets of his past, in the process saving all of their futures.

Forever Five Nights: Mike Schmidt tells his granddaughters the story of how he befriended the animatronics through small acts of kindness.

Timeline (Unnamed): When something threatens to unravel all of time, Mike, Jeremy, Scott and the animatronics are chosen to save the multiverse. However, a difficult choice must be made- one where no one knows the outcome of. (Only includes FNaF 1-4 and explores the idea of a Redeemable!Purple Guy) (xx)

ANTHRO AUs

SCY-FY

Like I have 30 Phantom Watcher AUs it isn’t funny so I’m not even gonna list them (maybe if you really beg to see them all but some of them are literally the same AU but if one detail was different so-)

Starlight Dream: Similar to Phantom Watchers, it’s an Alien AU. However, Bonnie is an alien and Blu is not. Bonnie, a Lacatran Soldier fighting for Lacatran Independence from Lapinia, crash lands on Earth, right in Bonito (Blu) Rodriguez’ field. Blu brings the alien into his home and tends to his wounds, and begins to teach Bonnie Earthen cultures.

Project Xeros: Blu is an alien. A sexless, species-less alien known as the Xeros, one of the many products of Project Xeros; designed and bioengineered by a race intent on galactic domination, the Xeros can take the form of any species they have seen and touched in their true forms, and within a few generations any chosen planet would be completely wiped out as the Xeros multiply. However, upon discovery, the Xeros were ordered destroyed by the Galactic Alliance. Blu is one of the few survivors, and ends up on Earth in the company of Bonnie Henderson, a farmer’s son who, despite dreams of life on a stage, has taken over the family business after his parents’ untimely passing. (I think I’ve posted 1 or 2 things about this AU on tumblr...)

Stargate Atlantis AU: In which the cast end up discovering the lost city of Atlantis... in another galaxy. Spring, a young, mysterious and strangely brilliant scientist with a powerful Ancient Gene, is recruited into the Stargate Program where he goes to Atlantis under the leadership of Freddy Fazbear and his brother Goldie. Life on Atlantis is always an adventure, and it isn’t long until everyone on the voyage begins to lose their Earthen identities as they mingle with the locals of this new galaxy- from the strange bear “Red” who lives on the Atlantis mainland, to the Chickens of Avia whom become their main ally....

Dystopia/Droid AU: Freddy, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy are Droids built in the 23rd century. They watched the fall of Man shortly after their creation, but they sleep through the centuries under the careful watch of the Tower’s AI, “Goldie.” One day, many centuries later in the 27th century, Red, Blue, Chirp and Mangle (and those are not nicknames; simply words that have been found, but meanings lost, from the Old Writings, as language has changed over time) live just outside the ruins of an ancient and great city. The know it as a forbidden place, as it’s from the era of Hubris. However, they choose to explore the old tower at the center of everything, and unknowingly fix what had been broken- unintentionally waking of the vestiges of the past that everyone wishes had been forgotten...

More Droid AU: There are different types of Droids; Service Droids, Rally Droids and Kindred Droids. Service Droids are Droids built to fulfill specific jobs, such as factor work or servant work or farm work. Rally Droids are Droids made for fighting, like Droid Wrestling or something. Kindred are Droids built for people who either cannot have children of their own, or want a child they can mold perfectly into what they desire. The first two of these are not meant to be sentient, but they became sentient over time. Kindred are meant to mimic people as realistically as possible, to the point where their parts “grow” over time so the parents get the full raising-a-child experience- just feed them metal, keep them up-to-date at a doctor (mechanic), and you’re good. Except... none of the Droids are happy with this arrangement. Blu is a Kindred who desires more out of life than what his “parents” want him to be, and Bonnie is a Rally Droid who, after losing a match and being badly damaged, is bought by Blu’s parents as a sort of “bodyguard” and “companion” for their sheltered Kindred. However, the two begin to learn from each other...

False (Human AU): The world (of anthros) is a simulation, and in order to see what’s really happening, you have to die without dying- i.e. die before your body dies, without the script, so that the world resets back to before you died... and for the briefest of moments, where you are, you wake up. And only those who “died” and woke up, even just for a second, remember or realize it was ever reset at all. Blu has figured it out long ago, and Bonnie has always had a sense of something being wrong...

FANTASY AUs

Soulmates; Words: TW contains child abuse and neglect. In which the first words your soulmate ever says to you is written on your body. Bonnie and all his friends have very interesting tattoos. Blu and his friends have equally interesting tattoos. However, none of them believe soulmates are tied together, and a few of them have personal reasons to avoid it at all costs...

Soulmates; Colours: In which you can’t see the colour of your soulmate’s eyes until your eyes meet. 

Soulmates; Voice (PW AU): In which you can hear the voice of your soulmate in your mind, and speak to them through the link. Blu and Bonnie are a Lapinian and a Lacatran, and on the night of the last Lacatran uprising, where Blu’s father razed over 50 Lacatran villages, including Bonnie’s, the link connects Blu to a hysterical Bonnie. Over time, the two become friends and learn each other’s secrets, perhaps even falling in love along the way, but neither see how they will ever even meet, let alone be together. Until the day they wake up on a planet far away from home, not even ten feet from one another...

Soulmates; Red Strings (PW AU): In which the red strings of fate tie everyone together, and some people can see them; thin red lines, tied to everyone’s middle finger and fading away, extending across the ground to places unseen... or to the person a few feet away. A young Lapinian, Blu, has always been able to see them, and he has always known he was different- because instead of going across the ground, his string went straight up into the sky. He’s met only a handful of people like him, whose string goes into the sky and who can see them. He’s curious, but when he finds the person on the other side of his string is a Lacatran....

Angels & Demons AU: Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy and Goldie are demons. Red, Blue, Chii and Mangle are angels. Spring is... something else. No one really knows. But these two groups end up colliding in their assignments on Earth, and no one really knows what to do about it. Least of all them.

Accidental Demon Summoning (unnamed): TW Contains child abuse and elements of racism and bullying. Bonito “Blu” Rodriguez has just moved to the USA with his mother and new stepfather, leaving all his friends behind and starting at a new school. One day, after being locked in the attic by his irate mother, Blu finds some belongings from the tenants before them- some old candles and demonology books. Blu doesn’t believe in demons and he’s bored... so he decides to do it. However, he makes a terrible mistake; he doesn’t outline contract parameters. Therefore, when a demon actually appears, Blu is pretty sure everything is going to go pretty badly... but the demon decides to stick around, just to mess with him. Upon seeing what is happening, however, the demon decides to fulfil his contract anyway, and Blu is horrified to find that they now have a new classmate. Spring Salvage, a demon hunter and Blu’s first friend in America, isn’t pleased.

Long for the Sea: Bonnie has moved in with his father in an old town, and reunites with his childhood friends Freddy, Goldie, Chica and Foxy. However, he’s not the only new kid on the block; strange things happen around Spring and his group. It turns out that Spring, Blu, Shabon, Red and Chii are merfolk, and Mangle a benevolent sea witch, who have fled from a dangerous war for the Throne- which Spring, the crowned prince, cannot yet claim as his blood isn’t “mature” enough. So they bide their time, and Bonnie feels drawn to investigate...

Reincarnation AUs: I have a few of these actually, including one that has Blu remembering all his past lives and Bonnie remembering flashes of the last. Another one, however, is Bonnie and Blu are the reincarnations of a semi-famous historic couple, a lord and a lady, who died young and childless, almost perfect replicas of their past selves, and remembering the last ballad they wrote together... which only the current owner of the old historic house, Bonnie’s own uncle and direct descendent of the lord’s sister, knows.

Pirate AU: Foxy is the captain of one crew. Mangle is the captain of another. Spring is a dread pirate who retired and went into hiding years ago to care for his young son, whose mother (one of multiple lovers Spring had had at the time) died in childbirth. Some things happen that drags Spring out of retirement, causes Foxy’s crew to start searching for him, and makes Mangle’s crew go undercover in a large medieval city to find answers and save their “princess”...

Dragons AU: Bonnie is a dragon who can take human (er, rabbit) form. He fell in love, many years before, with the magic queen of the kingdom at the base of the mountain his horde of gold is in, and dedicated his life to serving her and her kingdom. However, a war that the kingdom was swiftly losing, even with the help of a magic dragon, threatened to tear everything apart, and Bonnie made a choice he never wanted to make; as a last ditch effort to save the queen, he used almost all of the rest of his magic, trapping him in his dragon form for over a hundred years, to send her through time, to a future where “you will be safe.” Now, nearly three hundred years in the future, long after peace has been made and the kingdom now lives under the rule of Ursius (now a country, rather than a planet lol) while maintaining its culture through festivals and historical plays and such (with the Ursian twin kings’ blessings) and the mystery of the missing queen, Blu lives with his family near the forest’s edge near the ruins of the ancient city, seeing the tip of the castle protruding just above the treeline. He has no memory of his past, but feels a strange longing to go there...

Historical Hero AU (NOT PW, all on one planet, the names are all countries): Bonnie is a Lacatran Warrior... from long in the past. He is credited with almost singlehandedly defeating the Lapinian Army, with just one snag; he fell on the battlefield and was never found. It’s a mystery that haunts everyone to modern times. In modern times, peace has for the most part been attained; Lacatra gained its independence from Lapinia as a direct result of Bonnie, Lapinia and Ursius and Lacatra are now all allies of one another, and only Lapinia is still run by a monarchy, under the close watch of a Council. Blu, attending the College of Arts and History in Lacatra, has always been looking into the mystery of “Where did Bonnie of Lacatra go?” Well, he gets his answer one day when he heads to his home near the Lacatra-Lapinia border and literally trips over an injured rabbit. The answer? “He somehow slipped through frikkin’ TIME.” Bonnie does not adjust to modern times well.

Zombie World AU: TW references child abuse and running away. Blu is living a pretty hard life when he ends up slipping through the gaps into a parallel dimension, just like his best friends who disappeared years before. This world is much like his own... except it has been many years since a zombie outbreak, and no one he knew in his world was ever born here. Now he must find a way back, but a desire to save his new friends causes some trouble... after all, if someone who was never meant to exist crosses dimensions, what happens then? (xx)

Pokemon AU: Blue began his journey to becoming a Pokemon master when he was young, but he doesn’t go it alone.

PARANORMAL AUs

GHOSTS AU: TW talks about past suicide and murder. Everyone’s a ghost. They’re all dead. Boom. Bam. Okay a little more on that, everyone knows ghosts exist, but they all seem to gather in this one area... and in this one town, where the barrier between the worlds is thinnest, the ghosts look just like anyone else. Sometimes you don’t even know you’re dead. But when it’s normal to have a dead classmate, things get weird. Deadly weird. The living and the dead were never meant to mingle, and bad things happen to the living who cross that line. So no one does. It’s pretty easy, though- the dead tend to ignore the living. Bonnie is new in town, coming to live with his father after his mother was murdered during a trip to the mountains, and he feels drawn to a certain group of students. Two groups of students, actually; the Fazgang, and Springtrap’s gang. However, he’s told from day 1 to not approach Springtrap’s gang... because they’ve been dead for over ten years, and simply going through the routines they’d had when alive. Yet he somehow gets the ghosts’ attention, something that was nigh on impossible for the living to do... but Bonnie begins noticing some strange things about himself, and his new friends. Maybe they aren’t as alive as they thought.

ANOTHER GHOST AU: Bonnie and his friends move into an old creaky house, and right off the bat Bonnie sees strange shit happening. He’s none too pleased, because no one else will believe him that they’re not alone in the house. However, something happens that brings it to everyone’s attention... there are ghosts living in the house. It doesn’t take long for Freddy to put together the pieces; these are the ghosts of the Fischbach Family, a family that was murdered over fifty years before and their bodies, save for a piece of one of their ears, was never found. Now they have to help the ghosts move on by finally, finally, solving the case of their murder. Except ghosts can be so cryptic and never tell you what you need to know...

YET AGAIN A GHOST AU: Well, kinda-ghost AU. It’s not really ghosts but it’s hard to explain. Basically some culty crap happened, and the man who funded the local high school, Samuel Salvage, died under mysterious circumstances, as did his entire family. Bonnie, a conspiracy theorist, has many theories as to what might have happened, but Goldie, who is having a hard time coping with his and Freddy’s parents’ divorce and failing his history class, could not care less. However, when he’s given a research assignment about the family as extra credit- his only chance to pass and graduate- he goes to the graveyard where the entire family- the two parents and all eleven of their children, whom died within 10 years of each other from unknown causes- is buried. He accidentally ends up standing on one of the graves, and from that point on he’s able to see and speak with Franklin “Spring” Salvage, one of Samuel Salvage’s sons, though he isn’t aware of his identity at first... and he begins to uncover a dark, dangerous secret that no one wants him to learn.

NORMAL WORLD

The Dome (Dystopia AU again): WARNINGS this AU contains classism taken to an extreme. All of society now lives in Dome, a city inside- well, a dome. There are two levels to the Dome; Above, where the elite live, and Below, where the lower classes struggle to survive under the dangerous iron fist of their totalitarian government. Freddy, Goldie and their friends have always lived Above, never knowing the horrors of what happens Below in their spacious, sunny scapes. However, a school project has them venturing Below for a documentary that turns out to be more dangerous than any of them ever imagined.

Circus AU: THE OG MAZANICA AU YO! CAN’T BELIEVE I ALMOST FORGOT LIKE. WARNING, THIS AU CONTAINS EXPLICIT RACISM. In a world where Anthros are legally considered little more than animals and have few protections and many discriminations, Freddy, Goldie, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy run a restaurant, with Mike as the owner on paper. Red, Spring, Blu, Chii and Mangle run a circus (along with Marion, BB, JJ and a few others) with Jeremy as the owner on paper. They’re both funded by the mysterious sponsors Shafred Umbre and Bonsha Shade, two of the rare “Animals” who made it in this world. So of course, it’s only a matter of time before these two groups meet... (xx)

OTHER

Narnia AU: Pretty self explanatory, but basically; Red, Blue, Chii and Mangle are four siblings who find themselves in another world, and they live out an entire life there...

Wrong Number, Thank You: WARNINGS this AU contains depression and suicidal ideation/attempts and mentions of self harm Sometimes a wrong number message can save a life, as Goldie learned when he accidentally messaged one of his classmates instead of his brother. After receiving some help on the math homework- and a picture of the notes with something suspicious in the background- Goldie makes it his goal to befriend and help this mysterious classmate.... if only he could figure out who it was. Meanwhile, Spring is frustrated with his nosy classmate, yet...

OKAY I HAVE A LOT MORE BUT THESE ARE SOME OF MY FAVOURITES, if you have any questions about any of them just shoot me a message and I’ll happily answer. I might add more later on so yeh. I have so many more lol... Now in Mazey’s Oneshot Collection there’s a ton already but I have like 10x that many so-

[bravadoseries]

All the evens for Audrey and all the odds for Margo!

thank you!  this got super long so i’m putting it under a cut hehe

audrey: 

2. why is your oc problematic?

audrey is problematic because she has no clue what she’s doing when it comes to anything and when it comes to being a hero, she relies almost entirely on trial and error.  

4. what crossovers with other ocs have you talked about?

i have talked about crossovers with you for leila, @emiliachrstine​ with jacqueline, and @notaboutcat​ with grace barnes!!!  

6. if your oc were to have superpowers, what would they be? if your oc has superpowers, what are they?

so audrey has super soldier strength as her primary superpower, and also there’s some other stuff that will be revealed during the thor: tdw arc

8. alright, be honest—whether or not they get the chance to prove it, is your oc worthy?

so i think that audrey does become worthy eventually during endgame, but i think that all the avengers are.  

10. what’s your oc’s fight song? (e.g., immigrant song for thor, just a girl for carol)

girls just wanna have fun!!! i think is the biggest one.  but i have actually picked out songs for the main fights in all of the movies audrey is in: 

avengers battle of new york: “mama talking” by parov stelar

moscow fight against bucky: “bad guy” by billie eilish which i know wasn’t technically released yet but it’s okay

thor: tdw final fight: “big god” by florence and the machine

tws final fight: “seven nation army” by the white stripes

avengers: aou battle of sokovia: “glass & patron” by fka twigs

captain america: civil war airport scene: “bad blood” by taylor swift

angels of mercy final fight: “tomboy” by princess nokia

thor: ragnarok: “the future’s so bright, i gotta wear shades” by timbuk 3 

avengers: iw: “yellow flicker beat” by lorde

avengers: endgame: “girls just wanna have some” by chrormatics and “lights up” by harry styles and “boys wanna be her” by peaches 

12. what was your oc like in high school?

audrey didn’t officially go to high school because she was tutored privately until she started just going to college but she was generally bored with her tutors.  when she went to high school in the 80s, she was jarred.  even though she’d gotten several degrees by that point, she was like freaked out by being with other people and having to have a social life because in college she just didn’t talk to anybody.  so she was nervous and quiet but she did have one good friend!

14. your oc meets thanos. what’s their first move?

omg audrey’s first move is to spit on him, i think, and then she just like attempts to tackle him and scratch his eyes out ngl

16. your oc gets married. which canon characters are in the wedding party?

yesss braudrey wedding time!! natasha is one of her bridesmaids, tony is the officiant, and both steve and darcy walk her down the aisle.  steve and darcy have a young daughter by this point who is a flower girl with morgan, and they’re super cute.  i could talk about the braudrey wedding for so long though i have so many little plans

18. what are your oc’s bad habits or vices?

audrey loves sweets, i think is one of her vices. she also tends to know she’s making bad choices but go through with them anyway. 

20. your oc wears the gauntlet (without any detrimental effects on their health) and gets one snap to wish for anything they want. what do they ask for?

audrey asks to destroy the infinity stones, i think most likely.  she doesn’t want that energy to be condensed into such a powerful form because that’s like a nightmare.  i think it changes from film to film, but by the end, her final wish is for everyone to not be so powerful all the time

22. what does your oc’s bedroom look like?

audrey’s apartment is very minimalist, because it’s easy for her to get overwhelmed.  before she moved into the tower, she was a workaholic because she would get so bored with her freetime that she always had case files everywhere.  once she joins the avengers though and kind of like starts building a life for herself, she starts to settle into her place more and have details that reflect her life more—photos on the walls, little things that she collects from good memories, and a lot of books on the shelves!  audrey likes big windows and keeps them open, but the space is mostly like white with dark blue accents.  

24. which characters from other movies or shows is your oc a combination of?

excellent question!  so audrey reminds me a lot of like the most chaotic combinations of mike schur main ships?  she’s both chidi and eleanor, and both jake and amy.  she’s anxious but also impulsive, awkward but also extremely loving, strong but also scared.  

26. which canon character would they go to for advice? why?

audrey goes to different characters for advice about different things!  with moral problems, she goes to steve.  with fighting advice, she heads to natasha, obviously.  with relationship advice, she heads to darcy.  and later, post aou, audrey actually spends a lot of time with wanda and pietro becoming more politically active.  

28. what’s your oc’s biggest flaw?

audrey is scared of everything! i think is her biggest flaw.  it’s hard for her to overcome that fear.  

30. what movies or shows is your oc featured in?

audrey is in agent carter, she has cameos in iron man 1+2, thor 1, captain marvel, and captain america: tfa.  she’s a main in avengers, thor 2, tws, avengers: aou, captain america: civil war, thor 3, and avengers iw and endgame!

margo: 

1. how did you pick your oc’s name?

margo is short for margaret! i think peggy is kind of an old-fashioned name (technically so is margo) but margo is cute and short too 

3. besides their main ship, who else do you think they would work well with?

i think margo could have a relationship with magnus (thor and jane’s older son) but it probably wouldn’t be super healthy.   also i think she and calliope could have had a cute relationship which coulson would have lost his mind about lol.

5. what’s a crossover with another oc that you’ve wanted to do, but haven’t officially discussed or planned?

i feel like it would be cool to talk about margo with @cassercole​‘s queve family ! i think an audrey and q crossover would just slap in general because i think it would be angsty and cool and i can imagine q being like . i did not sign up to be a stepmother, but thanks, but then the two of them actually becoming friends eventually.  

but anyway, i can imagine bonnie and tristan teasing margo and making them call her aunt and uncle but them all getting along well and hanging out at family reunions and getting into trouble . having a vision of the three of them stealing a blunt or something from tony’s jacket pocket at thanksgiving and then all of them being high and paranoid about getting caught by steve. 

q catches them and margo is like please don’t be mad and please don’t tell my mom and q just rolls her eyes and closes the door to the room they’re all in after telling them dinner’s in 10 minutes, and she won’t tell but it’s up to them not to get caught.  

7. rank their compatibility with the marvel teams: avengers, guardians of the galaxy, agents of shield, defenders, runaways

okay so: 1) avengers, because they’re her family.  2) gotg, because she thinks they’re all super weird and cool.  3) runaways, because i think she’s scrappy and has a similar sheltered background to them.  4) aos, just because found family time.  5) defenders.  super brutal and she’s just like ummmm i am scared . 

9. which other mcu characters would your oc really get along with?

i think gamora and margo would get along super well.  also margo’s close with carol because she likes how she’s not too serious about herself as a hero.  i think she’s also probably gets along well with wanda and pietro.  she’s super close with her dad, also.  

11. post a snippet of the next chapter of an oc’s fic!

okay to be honest i have not written any of margo’s fic yet so i will have to pass 

13. what’s a secret about your oc that they would never admit? feel free to be as angsty or as silly as you’d like!

margo would never admit it but she has a slight schoolgirl crush on thor, who is one of the strength instructors slash english teachers at the academy.  

15. if your oc has a costume/were to have a costume, what does it/would it look like? what colors? cape or no cape?

no cape, but sometimes she ties a towel around her neck and dances in her dorm room.  margo’s costume would probably look a lot like helena bertinelli’s costume on arrow—very classic, infinity mask, etc. 

17. after a battle, how does your oc recover?

she cries into her pillow for several hours and enters a period if intense self loathing and eats ice cream.  

19. what were some other faceclaims you considered for your oc?

when audrey was shipped with pietro, margo was played by josefine frida petersen!

21. if your oc survived the snap, who do they miss the most?

in an au where audrey has margo before infinity war and the snap, margo would be devastated to grow up without her mother

23. what’s their love language? what’s the love language of the character they’re shipped with?

i think margo’s is words of affirmation, and leo’s is quality time! 

25. which characters annoy your oc? why?

margo gets annoyed with her mom, a lot.  audrey and bex are really close and so she feels left out of that relationship.  i also think that margo doesn’t get along super well with pepper because she thinks pepper doesn’t like her.  she doesn’t like peter quill that much, even though she likes the rest of the guardians.  and she never meets loki, but i think she would absolutely hate him.  

27. what’s your oc’s biggest strength?

i think her biggest strength is her big heart!  she feels a lot and she’s kind of intense but she’s a very loving person.  

29. team cap, team iron man, team i don’t care, or team please stop fighting?

team please stop fighting!! she’s like why is my life an episode of family feud . i know she doesn’t exist then but she looks back on it and brings it up sometimes and they’re both deeply embarrassed about it in hindsight and also like . okay BUT and she’s like okay nevermind!!!!

[thewildwaffle]

Abduction - Chapter 18

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After the humans had been removed from the room, and Jebannuck had basically been hauled away, Simmo stood alone with her guards in the throne room. She stood there, unsure of what to do next. Commander Rozar hardly gave her a passing glance as he swept back to the throne. Her mandibles twitched involuntarily in annoyance. Normally, she'd be perfectly fine with being overlooked, especially when it came to any upper-ups and authority figures. Now, however? Under these circumstances? It felt like a slap in the face. What? Was she supposed to stand here forever on this stupid ship, waiting to be excused? Maybe she could just… slip away while the Commander still had his back turned.

“Now tell me, montauk,” Commander Rozar’s voice cut through the silence and echoed around the now, almost-empty room, “under what circumstances is it even remotely logical that I find you out here, floating along after our triumph against the Galactic Confederation, traveling with a Confederation officer and two humans?” He growled, or maybe it was a chuckle? It was hard to tell. “I must say, it's quite the entourage. Not quite a typical crew for your kind, now is it?"

He had reached the throne and sat down, sweeping his robe and long feathered tail dramatically. His golden eyes seemed to burn into her black ones. She averted her eyes to the ground in between them. He leaned forward in his throne, as if the movement would catch her attention and have her look up again.

"Now, now, no need to be shy. I don't care about the legalities or trade disputes with whatever it is that you have been up to. Those are all done with now that we've finally got control of this section of space. Whatever misdeeds you've done in the past as far as the Galactic confederation is concerned, the Burnti have little to no interest in. I myself have even employed many montauk. Not only am I well aware of many of your kind's... tendencies, I welcome them. In fact, it's because of your people's... lax stance on confederation laws that I have been able to..."

"I was doing nothing illegal." Her heart froze. She just interrupted a Burnti Fleet Commander. Not just any commander. Commander Rozar was a very well-known, well-feared leader. Her arms were frozen to her sides and her mandibles clicked involuntarily. Oh she wished she could have just snuck away earlier. She probably wouldn't have made it, but just the idea of being 'not here' was a very nice thought right about now.

"I wasn't doing anything against any law, Burnti or Confederation," she continued. Commander Rozar leaned back slightly, head tilted ever so slightly to the side, the smallest ghost of a smile pulling at the corner of his mouth. He would, apparently, allow her interruption, so she continued. "I was marooned on the planet Gamnut 4 after I lost my crew. I'd been there for several hundred partecs. I'd been salvaging what was left of my own crashed ship and repairing it with what I could find from the wreckage that managed to make it to the planet's surface. That's how I found the sefra and the humans. We worked together and were able to get into orbit, where your ships then found us."

"You worked together?" The smile that had been teasing at Rozar's face spread itself in plain view. "You, a montauk? Working willingly with them? Now that is a sight I'm sad I missed out on."

The muscles in the back of Simmo's neck tensed. She bit her tongue. she really, really did not like Commander Rozar, but she held back what she really wanted to say. She took a slow breath and opted for a safer response, "With all due respect, sir, you have a Galactic Confederation prisoner now at your disposal, you have your humans, may I now humbly request my leave from your glorious presence and return to my own ship? There are matters I wish to attend to." Matters, she thought, concerning those grug-heads who started the whole chain of events that led me to end up here in the first place.

Commander Rozar considered her for a moment. Large, blunt claws smoothed over the regal orange and yellow feathers of his forearm. "Not quite yet, montauk. You seem to think your part in all this is over. I'm not convinced it is. Do you have any idea why I have been so intent on studying humankind? Why I have been hiring so many bounty hunters to sneak earth materials across the blockade? Why I have offered such outrageously large rewards to anyone who could bring me a human?"

Simmo looked up slightly, still not meeting Rozar's eyes. As much as she'd like to say that she didn't care, she had known about the bounties that had gone out. They were odd and risky, but the best paying gigs always were. She and her crew had never gone after such prizes themselves, but it was well known that sneaking quality earth goods or information across the blockade was a good way to get stupid rich. If you survived or weren't arrested, that is.

Rozar took her silence as confirmation to continue. "As I stated earlier, humanity's alliance with the Galactic Confederation was one made in ignorance and haste. I plan to rectify it. I plan to bring the confederation to their very knees. And now, the blockade has fallen. Now, I have two humans in my possession. Thanks to you, little montauk, I have just been handed the very thing I need to bring down my enemies."

"Your excellency, I am glad to have been a help to your cause.” She bowed her head low.  “However, now that, as you've said, you have the humans, I'm not sure what more I can do here. Surely I could be of more use to you from my ship, perhaps retrieving more information or supplies from Earth?" Or getting as far away from this part of the galaxy as quickly as I flarging can, she thought.

Commander Rozar closed his eyes and chuckled. "I have plenty on such tasks already.” He  gestured for an attendant to approach. A small, blue scaled alien rushed over and handed Rozar a datapad.

“As far as the humans are concerned, you find yourself in a very interesting situation, and it is a situation I plan on making use of fully.”

“My liege?”

Rozar didn’t respond immediately, but instead scrolled through something on the datapad. He paused and scanned the screen intently for a moment. “We need an alliance with Earth. Failing that, we need to get them to end their current alliance with the Galactic Confederation.” He tapped the screen a few times before handing the datapad back to the blue alien, who bowed low and exited the room.

Simmo watched them disappear out the door. Earth, Earth, Earth. This whole mess over an alliance with a single planet? What the frewan had happened while she was marooned?

“Do you mean to tell me,” annoyed, Simmo forgot to watch her tone, “this is all about how if you can’t have an alliance with the humans, no one can?” She felt her gut drop the instant the words started leaving her mouth, but at half-way through the sentence, she went ahead and finished what she was going to say. Hopefully, this whole conversation would be over before her rash tongue could get her in trouble.

Commander Rozar only smiled. Vaguely, she remembered human Mike smiling with his teeth bared like that. It was much more threatening coming from the Burnti Fleet Commander.

“I suppose that’s exactly what I’m telling you. And you would be wise to help me make sure that’s exactly what happens and that my humans are ready to do their part.”

***

“Karpen, what are you staring at?”

“It’s those humans. That one’s making those weird noises again and the other one keeps glaring at me,” Karpen tensed. He’d been pacing at their post since they’d brought the humans to holding room.

“So what?”

“So, what if they’re planning something? They were dangerous enough before Drin’s lab, but now he let them keep that, that beast?! Who knows what they’ll be capable of now?”

“Karpen, just stop. What are they going to do? They and their little pet are locked up, we’re armed, they’re surrounded. They’re humans, not camshuri.”

The rest of the guards laughed.

“Aww, Karpen,” teased one, “don’t tell me you still believe in the camshuri?”

“What?” Karpen reared his long neck in indignation, “No! Of course not! I’m not a fledgling! I just think - Argh! There,” Karpen spun around to look at the entrance to the human’s room, “they’re at it again!” He could see them through the reinforced clear panel that made up the main wall.

The human male was making a series of high-pitched whistles and claps. Or at least, he was whenever he wasn’t shouting commands to the hairy earth beast or singing some strangely soothing song. Drin had been fascinated by the fact that this creature, obviously a carnivore, acted so friendly towards the humans. He allowed it to stay with them so he could study their interactions. So far, it was mostly the male that interacted with it. The human female, meanwhile, was sitting on top of the pile of bedding they’d been given. (Apparently humans prefer to sleep on top of and buried under as much soft fuzzy material as they can get.) She was staring at them back through the glassy door. Or scowling, more like. It seemed to be the only expression she had lately.

“They’re up to something,” Karpen growled. “She’s been glaring at us ever since she got settled in there. She’s challenging us.”

“How can she be glaring at you? It’s a two-way mirror. She can’t even see us.”

***

It was quickly obvious that the idiots on guard duty thought she couldn’t see them. But she could. She’d recognized it as a two-way mirror as soon as she walked in the room. The Burnti Empire seemed to be anything but subtle so far. After touching the mirror and seeing no gap between her finger and its reflection, she knew. What’s more, it was a really lousy two-way mirror. Sure, she couldn’t make out every fine detail, but she could see the guards as they shuffled around.

While Wenona watched the guards, Mike had been testing Carson on every trick he could think of. So far, he’d confirmed that he could sit, stay, shake paws, and roll over. Kind of. He wasn’t quite so good at that last one, but Mike seemed intent on perfecting it and teaching him more.

Anyway, it was obvious that Carson wasn’t some stray a bounty hunter had just happened to pick up. He was someone’s pet. He was stolen - just like them.

She’d had enough. It was clear that if she was ever going to get back home, she’d have to be the one to make it happen. Without taking her eyes off the guards on the other side of the glass, she tried mentally piecing together some sort of map of the ship. Or at least, what they’d seen so far. She tried to review the halls and corridors. She felt pretty confident she could find her way back to where Simmo’s ship was. Or at least where it had been. They might have moved it by now though. But they’d been in a docking bay. What if the Junk Lego wasn’t there? Maybe they could nab another ship?

They could take the guards when they tried moving them around the ship. It was clear they knew a bit about humans, but as Drin had said, they’d never encountered them before. Being underestimated had worked in their favor before on the Montauk ship. The Burnti Empire had no idea who they were messing with.

They could take the guards. But the real problem was, could they an escape before they were found out? This was a much larger, much more staffed ship than the Montauk’s had been. They could have died before. They nearly did. And this time, she seriously doubted there’d be another ‘Gladius’ to come along and pull them out of whatever mess they ended up in.

It might work. But it might get them killed. But the alternative was sticking around to see whatever the Burnti Empire had planned for them. If it was anything like the Montauk they had hired, she didn’t want to be around long enough to find out.

It was a lot to think about. She brought it up to Mike. He wasn’t too keen on the idea.

“And what? Leave Jeb behind?”

Wenona looked away, frowning. She had thought about that. No matter what scenarios she ran in her head, she couldn’t figure out what to do. What could they do? They didn’t even know where he was.

“That's… that's low Wen. He's out best friend! How can you even think like that? Is getting out of here that much more important to you?”

“That’s not what I…” she scoffed. She didn’t mean… She wouldn't... couldn’t leave Jeb… right? She shook her head, she wasn’t sure she wanted to answer that even to herself right now. But you know what? At least she was trying to come up with a plan. What was he doing? Playing with the dog.

“Isn't it to you?” Her voice suddenly sounded like it could cut through glass. “Is it? Even a little? Or have you been having too much fun playing space adventure to remember that we're not supposed to be here? We’re supposed to be on Earth. We’re supposed to be with our families! That’s what we’ve been trying to get back to since we were taken. Or at least, I thought we were. That’s what I’ve been doing. I miss my family Mike!” She wiped away a rogue tear that had the audacity to start rolling down her cheek. She turned around from Mike and punched a lump in the cushions she sat on. “They need me, and yet everytime I think I'm closer to getting back to them…” she slapped a small nearby cushion and sent it flying across the room. She rolled over to face the wall. She didn't want to look at Mike, or the guards she knew were watching. Most of all, she didn't want anyone to see the tears she could no longer stop from falling.

The silence was deafening. Wenona nearly jumped as the cushion she had sent flying was placed on her hip. Annoyed, she jumped a bit and looked around, expecting to see Mike, but instead, saw Carson panting happily. The pillow was slightly wet and had a string of drool still connected to his mouth. He licked his mouth to clear it up and rested his massive head on her side, next to the pillow.

Wenona sighed. She reached out to pet his head. His massive tail wagged slowly but happily. “Good boy.”

Carson huffed in reply and nuzzled the pillow closer - pushing it off her hip and into her arms. She sniffled and gave half a smile. As soon as she raised the pillow up, Carson lifted his head and stared intently at it before Wenona threw it across the room. With a scrabble of dull claws on the floor, Carson was off.

Wenona and Mike watched as the pillow was returned to a spot between them. They both took turns throwing the cushion for Carson for several minutes. In silence. Not looking at each other. Just picking up the pillow and tossing it across the room.

“Wen,” Mike stopped to scratch Carson's ears before throwing the cushion again, “You said you had a sister, right? Younger sister?” She nodded but still didn’t look at him. “I don’t think I ever asked, but, how close were you two? In age, or, whatever.”

Wenona’s nose prickled as she felt more tears starting to come. This wasn’t quite the take she’d been expecting this conversation to take.

“She’s almost five years younger than me, but we were pretty close. Especially growing up.” She paused, taking a deep breath to steady her voice. “We… we did everything together.” She wanted to stop at that, but the words seemed to start coming of their own accord, “She was more athletic than I was growing up, but we’d play on the same baseball and soccer teams as kids, then I’d go to her games when she was in high school. I’d help her with her homework when I’d come home from college. Especially with essays. She had a hard time with spelling.” She couldn’t stop the tears anymore, so she gave up trying. “We used to turn the radio up really loud when I’d drive her to the store. She’d always get the lyrics wrong, and it used to annoy me so much,” she choked out a laugh and rested her head down in the cushions.

“I don’t remember what the last thing was that I said to her. Or to my mom or dad.”

Carson brought back the pillow, but this time when Mike threw it, he merely meandered off and laid down along the wall, panting like he was tired. Outside, the guards’ muffled voices could be heard as they switched shifts. Mike sat down on the other side of the pile of cushions and blankets.

“I always wished I had siblings. I was an only child growing up, and we moved a lot. And I mean, a lot, so I always thought it’d be nice to have someone who I wouldn’t have to start over with every time.” He paused and they sat in mostly silence again. Eventually, Mike got up and grabbed a couple of water orbs the room had been stocked with. He tapped Wenona on the shoulder and handed one to her.

“I’ve always hated being alone. Or, well, I guess not alone. I mean everyone needs to be alone sometimes, but not being alone… I guess it would actually be… lonely. I hate being lonely.” He sat back down in his spot.

“I always thought that if I had a big family, I wouldn’t ever be lonely. I never got any siblings though, but…” He sighed and bobbed his head for a while. “You know, Wen, we’ve been through some real messes lately, and we’re still alive. We’re gonna get out of this. It’s just… different this time. We need to play it right. Weren’t you telling me before to think before I act?” Wenona lifted her head a bit to look at him. “Yeah, I know!” He chuckled. “Look at you, teachin’ me stuff!”

Wenona smiled. She wiped her face as she sat back up.

Mike continued, “I might not have had a big family on Earth, but I feel like it’s gotten bigger since I was abducted.”

Wenona’s dark eyes met Mike’s steely gray ones for a moment. She nodded before looking back down at the water orb Mike had given her. She drank most of its contents and then threw the nearly-empty orb at the window where the guards were standing. It splattered gooey and wet across the glass. Several jumped back startled, and a few reached a hand to holstered weapons as they tried to figure out if they had a ‘situation’ on their claws.

Both Mike and Wenona gave a small chuckle before Wenona leaned forward to whisper quietly, “So what’s step one?”

Previous Chapter           Next Chapter

[pjbehindthesun]

chapter 23: an hour and a half from now

Saturday, November 3rd, 1990

What does it say about me, that this is the most at home I’ve felt in this city since I’ve moved here? Leaning on a cold metal pole in the back of a shithole music venue by myself with nobody to talk to, just watching the people in the crowd who have no idea they’re being watched. Shit, I don’t mean it to sound all creepy like that, it’s just one of my favorite things to do: pay attention to people when they think they’re being ignored. That whole “dance while no one’s watching” idea? Makes for a solid evening of entertainment all by itself. Unless, like tonight, everyone seems to be here on a goddamn date. For the first half of the set, it’s just felt nice, the way no one’s bothered me all night, but it’s like a light switch flicked in my head and now all I can see is that everyone’s here with someone. Fucking great. Can’t even enjoy a show without reverting into a self-pitying, morose fucker. Maybe if I find a different spot in the club, I can try to force my attention back on the band. At least no one’s hassling me about shouldering my way forward. In a small enough place like the Off Ramp, no one really gives a shit.

Yeah, okay, this is better. The only people I can see are the handful of people directly in front of me and the band. They’re pretty fucking great, I never saw ‘em before… Jesus Lizard, I wanna say? Supposed to be out of Chicago, so we probably know a lot of the same people, although Beth was always way more into the noise rock scene than me…

Fuck. Stop it, Vedder. I hate this whole fucking break-up thing. Whose idea was it, anyway, not mine… I hate how everything reminds me of her. Or, I guess, I want to hate it. Truthfully, those painful little stabs of memory are all I have of her anymore, so I guess I should be grateful for them. I have a habit of hoarding them, like a collector, turning them over and over like cherished trinkets. How fucked up is that? Wait a minute… that’s not her, is it? There, the little brunette, up on the rail, in the white t-shirt that’s too big for her frame... fuck, it looks just like her from this angle, it’s got to be her… what the fuck is she doing here? She wouldn’t have come all the way up here, would she? For what reason? To tell me she wants to get back together? I shove between a couple of guys who are probably gonna murder me in an alleyway later, but it doesn’t matter, my hand’s on her shoulder, she whips around, and…

“M’sorry, thought you were someone else,” I mutter as the girl turns back to the music with a justified look of disgust, although there’s no way she heard my apology and definitely no way she cared. Of course it wasn’t her. What the fuck would she be doing in Seattle? What sense would that make? So fucking stupid. Doesn’t matter how many times I think I spot her in a crowd, it’s only wishful thinking. Stupid, invasive, immature dreams of her coming to find me, to tell me we’d made a horrible mistake. Just dreams. I can’t get myself outside the club fast enough. There’s a stack of the local circular on the counter by the door, so I grab one on my way out, hoping I’ll find something in there that’s actually worth thinking about, and shiver when I hit the damp outside air after escaping the stuffy club.

Maybe I should have gone out with Jeff and Mike after all, seen whatever show they wanted to see. Maybe I would have had a different set of distractions with them, done a better job keeping my mind off of Beth. Then again, seems like every time I go out with the guys, we end up hanging out with like a dozen of their closest friends in the music scene. Normally that’d be great, but I can’t shake the feeling that their buddies are always making fun of me somehow. I don’t blame ‘em, I’m probably fucking hilarious to them, a surfer in Seattle, a terrified frontman, the absolute antithesis of everything the guys had going on before, with Andy, just a…

...just a self-absorbed knucklehead whose problems aren’t shit compared to what I can see a little ways down the road from me. There’s a person, a woman, maybe, looks like she’s about my mom’s age, and she’s settling in for the night underneath the highway overpass. Okay, there’s one way I can quit being a mopey sack of shit and do something positive.

After giving her all the change in my wallet, the newspaper I wasn’t really reading anyway, the flannel under my coat, and the cut-off gloves I’d forgotten I had stashed in my pocket, I start back in the direction of home. Or Jeff’s apartment, I should say. Home’s a long way away. But I don’t get very far past the door of the Off-Ramp.

“Eddie?”

The door opens, carrying with it a wall of club noise and a familiar, mellow voice that makes me turn around.

“Oh, uh, hey Chris,” I greet him as he materializes out on the street, looming in all black. “You been here long? I didn’t see you, I woulda said hi.”

“No, you wouldn’t have,” he smiles, “but it’s cool, I probably wouldn’t have either. It’s just one of those nights. You probably know how that is. I figured you’d be over at Squid Row with Jeff and Cready.”

“Oh, uh, you know, I was just…”

“Hey, like I said, it’s one of those nights. I’m being an antisocial shit too,” his grin widens. “We could team up, you know? Twice the brooding.”

“The more the moodier,” I’m chuckling in spite of myself. Chris seems to do that -- put people at ease. If he wants to. I’m glad I ran into him.

“Where were you headed?”

“There’s this footpath over at Discovery Park, and it’s usually pretty kinda quiet this time of night. My wife, she’s a big fan of these ridiculous little dogs. You ever seen a Pomeranian?”

I squint, racking my brain. “Those the Chinese ones, the little ones that look like mops?”

“No, no, that’s a Pekingese,” he laughs at the characterization. “Poms are even less dignified, they’re literally just pom poms with googly eyes glued on. Anyway, Susan’s all about ‘em, and we just got one. Well, a new one, I should say, we already had one, so now they’re a dynamic duo. Kinda funny to watch them try and keep up with my shepherd in the mud,” he mimes short legs flailing and a tongue panting, and his long hair looks for all the world like a pair of poodle ears as it sways along, “so I go out there by myself with a bunch of shitty beer and watch ‘em run around until they’re too tired and I have to carry ‘em back, one under each arm. It’s really fucking therapeutic, you should try it.”

Is this guy serious? I know I’m new to Seattle, but you’d have to live under a rock to miss how big Soundgarden is around here. And this notorious rockstar spends his weekends roaming through forests like a lonely ghost with a pack of ridiculous hounds? That’s officially the coolest fucking thing I’ve ever heard another human being say.

“Well? You in?”

I bob my head once in agreement, trying not to smile like too much of a fucking maniac, and another easy smile spreads across his face.

“Yes! My car’s that one, the Galaxie. Fuckin’ radio’s stuck on a religious station right now, though, hope you’re feeling the right combination of gullible and guilty.” He points at something parked behind him on the corner before turning on his heels to head in that direction. A massive, battered, late ‘60s Ford land yacht. I don’t think I could feel more heartfelt and instant love for an inanimate object if I tried.

“Hey, if you’re into hiking, we oughta go tomorrow too, there’s that trail Cora and I were telling you about a while back, I don’t think she’d be too mad if we went without her… although on second thought, I don’t want her to kill either one of us, so maybe we should probably check and see if she wants in... ” he trails off as I break into a jog to try and keep up.

***

Sunday, November 4th, 1990

“Where are you off to at this hour?”

In the quiet and darkened apartment, Alex’s voice makes me bounce into the air from my seat on the couch where I’d been tying my shoe.

“JESUS! You scared the shit out of me!”

He watches me with a rueful twist of his lips. “It’s my apartment too, ya know. You got too used to it being empty while I was gone, huh?”

“No, it’s not like that…” ...except it’s exactly like that, I mutter to myself as I try to stop my heart from racing like a cornered bunny's… “I just didn’t think you were awake yet and I didn’t want to be the one to wake you. I figured you’re probably still tired. From your trip.”

“Nah,” he groans through a stretch, “wide awake. My body’s still on mountain time.”

“Hmm.” I return my attention to my laces in the absence of anything else to say to him.

“You didn’t answer my question, though.”

“Your…?”

“Where are you off to?”

“So long, Mom, I’m off to drop the Bomb...” I singsong absently while I finish tying the other sneaker’s laces. When I straighten up, Alex is looking utterly lost and more than a little annoyed.

“Come again?”

“Little bit of pre-nostalgia for World War III, that’s all.”

I bite my lip to shut myself up. Weapons of mass destruction and nuclear holocaust are maybe slightly less funny when we’re actually keeping so many secrets from one another.

“You’re so fucking weird.” Alex shakes his head in dismissal, not showing any signs of having gotten the joke. Stone would have thought it was funny. UGH, god damn it, speak of the devil. Why am I thinking about Stone? Stop thinking about Stone! Stop it! Quick, change the subject…

“Well, I was going to go for a run, if that helps answer your question.”

Alex nods and I breathe a sigh of relief. It’s the only excuse I can find for getting out of the house long enough to clear my head and sort through some of the chaos of the last 48 hours. Making sense of what Lucy was trying to tell me the other day. Deciding what to do about this gift Alex sent Patch. Figuring out what the hell I actually think of Stone now. It’s gonna need to be a long run.

“Can I come with you?”

“Are you feeling okay?” I frown as he circles his arms around me, my body staying stiff as he tries to coax me to relax.

“Better than ever. So can I?”

“You want to come with me.”

“Mmm.” He kisses the tip of my nose, and it's a struggle not to wrinkle it in response.

“Outside.”

“Unless you just want me to chase you around the apartment, I figured as much.”

“Run-ning,” I stretch my word out, unsure whether I've lost my mind or he has.

His bottom lip pokes out. “Don’t sound so shocked, you might hurt my feelings.”

“Sorry, I’m sorry, it’s just… I don’t think you’ve ever…”

“Who says I can’t start now?”

“No one, but…”

“But what?”

“I can’t guarantee there will be any bears or murderers chasing us, Alex, and I’ve never heard you say anything nice about weirdos like me who run for fun.”

“Are you impugning my athletic ability?” He laughs, grabbing my ass and making me contort away from him yet again. At the look of confusion on his face, it occurs to me that I'm being a colossal asshole.

“You really want to come running with me?”

“Mmhmm.”

“But… why?”

“Why what?”

“Alex. You hate running. And hiking. And being outside. And, like, nature in general.”

He shrugs and says, very simply, “yeah, but I love you.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, oh,” he grabs my ass again, and it’s all I can do not to grimace, “I missed you, okay? I kinda want to spend time with you.”

Well, it’s official, if I blow him off right now, I’m a sub-human. So much for my grand plan to figure out how in the world I'm supposed to tell him I don't really love him anymore.

“Yeah… okay. Let me, uh, let me get some stuff together and we’ll go?”

He lets go of me with a smirk and heads towards the kitchen, but pauses a few paces away and groans as he claps his hand over his eyes.

“Pull a muscle?” I ask, trying not to sound too hopeful.

“I don't even think I have running shoes.” He faces me with a sheepish look, pulling his hand back to ruffle his hair. That always used to make me melt, when he’d do that. Used to. Now it just seems like a juvenile gesture he drops whenever he’s trying to get out of trouble. I never used to understand how falling out of love with someone was possible. I dimly remember thinking Stone sounded like a total asshole when he explained having gone through it. But right now, he’s the only person I want to talk to about it. Which is deeply inconvenient when I’m supposed to be hating his guts. Stupid Stone. But on the bright side, now I have an easy excuse to go on that solitary run.

“Oh, well, that solves th --”

“I’ll call Brian, he runs, I bet he has a pair I can steal!”

Before I can finish my objection, he’s got the phone to his ear and has already dialed his friend. I sink back against the lip of the kitchen table while he and his friend haggle over a pair of stinky running shoes, his friend who he’s never introduced me to, his friend who suddenly symbolizes how thoroughly we established completely different lives the moment we moved to Seattle. Why did it take me so long to figure this out? Lucy’s been trying to tell me, even Patch tried to tell me… damn it, I should really call Patch.

“Okay, don’t move a muscle, I’ll be right back!”

Alex plants a slightly-too-rough kiss on my cheek before flinging on his coat and bolting out the door. I numbly make my way over to the couch to curl up and stare at the phone. This is as good a time as ever to call Patch, right? See what he really thinks about Alex’s $500 stunt? Make sure he isn’t going to hate me if I go through with breaking up with Alex? God, they’ve always been such good friends, how on earth do you break up with someone who’s become a part of your family?

But instead of picking up the phone, I pick at a loose piece of rubber on the sole of my shoe. I want to hear my brother’s voice, but I’m terrified that maybe, possibly, there’s a slim chance he’ll tell me exactly what I want to hear and then I’ll have nothing left to do but act. And anyway, as much as I need his affirmation, I’m afraid of hearing yet again how I’m making all the wrong choices. It’s not his problem to solve, any more than it’s Lucy’s. I can hear how exasperated they’re both getting with me. So instead of calling my brother, and bothering him with my bullshit and hearing his predictable answers, I sit in a giant pile of mope and pick at my shoes while I wait for Alex to come back.

A heavy pair of footsteps slows down as it approaches my door. That must be Alex. I don’t even look up. Until the owner of the footsteps knocks. Alex wouldn’t knock.

“Uh, it’s open?” I call from the couch.

When Chris cracks the door and leans to peer inside, his hair precedes him, cracking me up and shaking me out of my mopey idiocy.

“Smokey! Can I come in?”

“Always. What are you doing in this neck of the woods?”

“Funny you mention woods,” he smiles, bounding over to the couch. He hesitates for a moment at the pile of laundry I haven’t folded yet, which is occupying the entire cushion next to me, but after I shrug at him, he scoops it up and dumps it unceremoniously on the floor. One item, my favorite navy blue bra, stays hooked to the afghan, and I cringe as I watch him gently untangle it and set it down on top of the rest of my clothes, looking totally unfazed. He joins me on the couch, staring at the toes of my shoes and stretching his arm along the back of the cushion. “I’m heading out for a hike, just gotta pick up my date first.”

He reaches over and shoves my arm with his fingertips.

“Nuh uh, no can do.”

“Smokeyyyyy,” he whines.

“I have to study! And, uh, I’m waiting for Alex to get back so we can go for a run?” I wish I could have kept my voice from turning my statement into a question, because there’s a glint of understanding in Chris’s eyes that I don’t particularly like. But his voice is mild enough when he speaks. I like him for that.

“Sure, sure.”

“Okay, fine, I kinda don’t feel like being around people today, are you happy?”

“Hardly ever,” his mouth twists, “but I know the feeling. Kinda why we’re friends in the first place, right?”

The corners of my mouth tug up just as his have as I stare at him and reflect on how much he’s brought into my life since I scolded him on a mountaintop on a day when we both needed to escape into the woods. This friendship that has never demanded much at all, but always been easy to settle into again after a lapse. The reassurance that there’s always someone with whom I have this maladjusted ghosting habit in common. And the Mookie guys. I have him to thank for that too. I swallow the peculiar lump rising in my throat.

“So, what’s new with you?”

“Yeah, I miss you too. Not much. Just working on Temple stuff now that we’re home for the rest of the year.”

“Ah, right. How’s that going?”

“Excellent,” he enthuses. “Shouldn’t even call it working. Never quite done anything like it. Have you heard any of it yet?”

“No, not that I can think of.” I haven’t heard the guys play in a while, but I’m not about to go into that. “You guys have that show coming up?”

He nods. “Couple weeks. You’ll be there, right?”

I let out a sigh that I feel like I’ve been holding in for days and resume torturing my shoe. “Uhm, I don’t know, I’ll have to see, I might be working that night. What day is it?”

“The 13th,” his voice drops about an octave, “and just what the fuck do you mean, you don’t know? Stoney’s gonna shit a brick if you if you miss it.”

“Yeah, maybe.” I glance back up at him and flinch at his menacing expression. “I don’t know. Things are just... weird… there... right now.”

“You and Stone? Seemed pretty okay a few nights ago.”

I cringe in immediate regret of how publicly cozy Stone and I had gotten on Halloween. And if that’s all Chris knows, then he doesn’t know the half of it…

“Yeah, well, I don’t know, it’s weird now.”

“When was the last time you talked to him?” Chris presses, shifting his posture to face me more directly and still glowering at me.

“The other day, before he went home with the flu or whatever, Jesus,” I pat the arm of the couch, “is this a witness stand or something?”

“Okay, okay,” his demeanor relaxes. “Just be there, okay? This whole thing, I mean, the vibe of working on it has been really overwhelmingly positive, but it’s the kind of thing that’s still… I don’t know, it’s just important to me that you’re there, I feel like you’d get something out of it. And whatever’s going on with Stone, I’m pretty sure it’s important to him too.”

“Okay,” I mumble, fighting back the lump again, “I’ll see what I can do.”

Chris bobs his head. “Flu, huh?”

“What? Oh, right. I don’t know, he just looked like death warmed over and I’m pretty sure he went home right after we talked.” Another twinge of regret twists my insides, this time because it hasn’t even occurred to me in all my anger to check in on Stone and see how he’s feeling. He looked really, really terrible. Fight or no fight, he’s still my friend, and if I were the one to contract whatever bubonic plague is going around, I know he would be the first one to make sure I was okay. Especially since I think his parents are still out of town, which leaves him all by himself trying to take care of that dog and house. Shit, I should probably go over there.

Chris doesn’t point any of that out, though, thankfully. Instead, he silently looks around my apartment with interest, seeming very much all of a sudden like a cocker spaniel with a very short attention span. For everything this friendship means, it’s kind of weirdly emblematic that he’s never even seen my place before.

“Chris?”

“Mm?” he responds, not looking away from the bookcase in the opposite direction.

“You didn’t come all the way over here just to see if I wanted to go hiking, did you?”

“Nah, I’m actually here to pick up Eddie, he said he’d go. I think I finally sold him on our mountain.”

“Judas!!”

I aim a kick square at his hip, laughing as he intercepts my foot and disarms it by yanking off my shoe and throwing it across the room where it thuds against the opening door, missing Eddie’s face by inches.

“Whoa-oh,” he calls as he flinches, but his dimples dawn as a smile draws on his mouth, “who the hell throws a fuckin shoe?”

Chris grins back, yanking off my other one to lob it at Ed’s face, but it’s caught easily. Eddie throws them both back to me in a pair of gentle underhand tosses.

“So you coming with us or what, Cora?”

“Nah, leave her for dead, she’s a lost cause,” Chris chuckles as he stands up.

“Gee golly, mister, can’t imagine why I wouldn’t want to go hiking with you,” I drawl. Eddie’s eyes bounce back and forth keenly.

“Well, uh, too bad, maybe another time?” he says softly as plaintive wrinkles appear on his forehead.

“You bet. Just, you know, the boyfriend’s on his way home and we’re gonna go running, so it’s not a great time.”

“Oh, alright,” Eddie nods, but the wrinkles deepen in a way that tells me he’s about as believing of my excuses as Chris.

“No Jeff?” Chris asks as they head for my front door.

“No, he said it sounded cool but he said he’s gonna help Lucy do some stuff around the apartment today.”

“I bet he is.”

“Okay, you pigs, get out,” I shove Chris in the back toward the door, throwing all my weight against him, although he digs in his heels and I have no hope of moving him unless he wants to be moved. “You kill any more fucking time and you’re gonna lose the light, you know.”

“She’s got a very good point,” Eddie agrees, and Chris unlocks his knees, laughing as I stumble to keep my footing.

I’ve just shooed the two of them out the door when Alex comes home, carrying borrowed running shoes and still exuding the same smothering, sycophantic energy as when he left. I’m feeling extraordinarily stupid for not calling Patch to sort this shit out when I had the chance. Maybe after the run. On the bright side, Alex is in terrible shape for such a beanpole, and I’m confident I can outrun him, or at least make him wheeze enough not to have to worry about making conversation.

***

My head swims from the fumes as I take another deep breath and force myself to steady the paint brush, even though my arm is starting to ache from reaching so high, and my knees are getting sore from balancing on the sink basin. Whose bright idea was it to repaint a room with so much trim all by herself with no ladder? Oh right, that would be me. The white noise of the bathroom fan blocks out everything except the exertion of doing the work properly and the joy of seeing a new color stain a primed surface. Even if I’m not sure about the color just yet. I’m not really a blue sort of person. But this feels like a direction I wanted to follow. Any of the weird “improvements” I’ve done to this place, I’ve done by following that urge. I accepted a long time ago that I wasn’t getting my security deposit back. It’s fine. I’m not good at coloring in the lines or making up my mind. Let me make my messes and see what happens. It usually cleans up okay.

I crawl off the sink, hastily wiping the smear of bright teal paint off the porcelain with the damp rag tucked into the waist of my shorts, and look around. It’s… very blue. But the cabinet’s dark stain doesn’t look so dingy next to it, and I’ve got plans for the mirror that should warm the room up a little more. I’m refilling the tray when I hear the apartment door open and close, the sound of hightops being nudged off, and the familiar beat of heavy footprints padding down the hall to find me. Just the sound of him in my apartment has always made the place feel brighter.

“Whoa,” Jeff’s rasp reverberates off the walls, “you weren’t kidding, that’s… that’s fuckin BLUE.”

“Too much?” I spin around to study his face as he studies the walls.

“Nah, it’s cool. Vivid. It’s very you.”

“Ooh, your stock is falling, Jeffrey, I was just thinking to myself that it might have been the wrong color.”

“Why?” he pulls the headband out of my hair and begins to kiss my temple, the outside edge of my ear, and down along my neck to my shoulder. It’s a struggle not to wrap myself up in him, but my hands are still covered in paint. I manage to resist that temptation, but talking remains a challenge.

“Blue’s, uhm, it’s kind of a bummer…”

“No, no way, it’s so… like… sensitive, and strong, and… okay, I’m babbling, but can you blame me…”

“Yeah… but… like… the trim’s kind of glaring now, I don’t know what to do about it…”

Time to abandon any pretense of thinking straight, now that he’s got his nose in my collarbone like this. Maybe he won’t mind a little paint on his jersey...

“So this is you staying close to home, huh?”

“What?”

“Cora, all that shit. You bailed on all my ideas for plans, remember? Wanted to stay close to home?”

I frown at him, wondering where he’s going with this. There’s that neediness again. It’s not like him at all. So far, we’ve always been able to strike the right balance naturally, without putting any thought into it. We’re together when we want to be, we have space when we want it. And lately, Jeff’s been throwing all that out of balance. I wish he’d just tell me what the fuck’s going on… I wish he’d stop kissing my ear like that, or I’d remember to ask him about it…

“I still do… I think that’s for the best. But, uh, there’s a lot we can do at home, though, right?”

“I have some ideas…”

Before I can respond with some cute, pithy bullshit, he’s spun me around like I weigh nothing at all and pinned me against the wall, seemingly oblivious to the fact that it’s still dripping with wet turquoise paint. But I don’t give a shit either. I manage to reach my bare foot out behind him and nudge the paint tray out of our reach, ease him over so we’re both standing on the dropcloth, and give in to the full force of his kiss, trying to plant my feet as much as I can because my back’s slipping sideways in the paint. But my effort is unnecessary, because I’m not going anywhere in his grip. His hand lands flat on the wall next to my head before raking blue paint through my hair and dragging blue fingerprints across my throat, and it’s a race to see who can get undressed enough, fast enough…

*

Winded, and thoroughly slathered in turquoise, we splay out on the soaked dropcloth in a blissful, painted pile.

“Well, at least now I know what to do about the fucking trim color,” I nod at the formerly crisp, white door frame, which is now coated in Smurfy fingerprints from our failed efforts to keep our balance.

“I dunno, it’s a nice artistic statement when paired with your vertebrae sliding down the wall,” his fingers point out the trajectory of my body.

“I think I’ll just do the trim and walls and ceiling all the same color. You know. Very Masque of the Red Death.”

“Gothic, I like it.” He sighs, letting his head fall back and his eyes close. I squelch a little closer, remembering that we still have unfinished business.

“Jeff.”

“Present,” he sighs, not opening his eyes.

“Just checking.” Somehow, I still can’t bring myself to spit it out. “Uhm, you still willing to help me finish painting?”

“What else am I gonna do,” he muses with a contended smile.

After a farcical attempt at cleaning ourselves up, we continue to paint, halfway dressed, until the entire room is saturated in turquoise. My every pore and mucous membrane sympathizes.

“Anyone ever told you you’re a disaster with a paint brush?” he teases, watching me try to wash the paint from deep under my fingernails in the sink.

“Oh, yeah, it’s on my resume, actually.”

“Smartass,” he reaches out with a menacing blue paw, attempting to smear the arm I’ve just washed off, but I manage to dodge him.

“Missed me, missed me, now you gotta kiss me,” I taunt, feinting left and then right.

“Ugh, work work work,” he gives a gravelly laugh and abandons all pretense of not being able to catch me, wrapping me up once again and finding my mouth with his. But that annoying thought that there’s something we’re not saying still won’t leave me alone.

“Hey, hey, Jeff?” I kiss him back lightly but maintain my ground, until he finally quits and looks at me in confusion. “Why… uh, why don’t you just fucking say it?”

His grip on me lightens and his jaw falls slack, confirming that I was right to press the issue, that it wasn’t just my issue. I persist, “I know you’re all pissed about not making plans this weekend, I know you’ve got something you want to say to me, there’s some occasion you’re trying to manufacture, and either you’re really terrible at breaking up with me or it’s something I really want to hear, so either way, can you just spit it out already?”

Jeff’s shocked stare makes me wish immediately that I hadn’t said anything, damn it Lucy, things were fine, why did you have to put him on edge, here we go, the other shoe’s bound to drop, he’s gonna break up with me, come on, let’s just get it over with…

“Yeah, yeah, okay,” he starts to pull himself together, making my stomach lurch and my shoulders tighten as I brace for the bad news. “Uh, I just… I really fucking love you. A lot.”

Now it’s my turn to gape like a fucking idiot.

“You what?”

“Yeah, Luce, I love you, and I’ve been thinking it, like, forever, and I just… I don’t know why I didn’t say it already, maybe I just assumed you already knew or something, because we’ve been so good at like, not needing to say the obvious thing… but I’m kinda tired of not saying the obvious thing, because we’re not promised anything, and I’m tired of taking it for granted, so... I love you, and I don’t want to spend my time with anyone else, and I don’t want to have to walk downstairs to see you in the morning, it’s just too fucking far, okay?”

My mind is full of stammering thoughts as I turn over the logistics of what he’s just said, but all that I can manage to say out loud through the grin splitting my face is, “I love you too,” as I pull him into a still-not-quite pigment-free kiss.

***

This. This is what dying feels like. I’m sure of it. Oh, yuck, I’m pretty certain the color coming out of my lungs does not occur in nature. Dark. Why is it so dark in here? What the hell time is it? Jesus, I slept the entire fucking day, that's just grand...

At least there's no one around to witness how pathetic I probably look right now. This whole flu thing's not very big on dignity. Although, who am I kidding, I'd wear a robe and slippers everywhere if it was socially acceptable, and I’d kill for someone to bring me a cup of tea so I don’t have to slither out of this bed and get it myself. My fever finally broke this morning, in a disgusting, sweaty miracle, which is a mixed blessing because it's nice not to feel like a shivery rag doll anymore, but now my sheets smell like gross fever sweat and not the much more pleasant smell left behind on my pillow by Cora the other night. I wish her hair didn't smell so damn good all the time. It's really fucking inconvenient.

Ow. Crap. Dehydration headache. One of the downfalls of attempted hibernation. With a chorus of my most pathetic whines, I manage to get myself out of bed and over to the kitchen to nuke a cup of water for some tea. Just as I’m steeping the bag, though, there’s a knock on my door. Fucking great. I wasn’t serious about actually wanting someone around… unless it’s…

“Hello?” I croak, wincing at my sore throat.

“Stoney! You live!”

“Cornell?”

“You gonna let me in or what?”

“I don’t know, how’s your immune system?”

“Strong, like ox.”

Laughing and coughing, I open the door to let Chris in. He shoves a box of tissues into my chest and blows past me to set a quart container of some kind of murky liquid, which I eye suspiciously.

“Hot and sour soup, from Grand Palace. Foolproof cold remedy, I’m pretty convinced this shit cures cancer, or at least ebola or something. Cora told me you looked like death warmed over. Girl doesn’t lie.”

“Oh, uh, you… you talked to Cora?” I pick up the soup and inspect it more closely.

“Yeah, I, uh, talked to Cora.”

“Hmm.”

“Dude, eat something, it’s not gonna kill you.”

“Doubtful.”

“Pansy.”

“Pusher.”

My laughter dissolves into a choked cough again as Chris saunters over to the cabinet like he owns the place and grabs a couple of bowls.

“Hey, let’s sit out on the steps, it’ll help the black lung.” He hands me a bowl of soup and, in no position to argue, I snag the blanket from the back of my couch to wrap around my shoulders as I follow him onto the landing outside my front door where we sit and dangle our feet over the edge, like little kids. I’m feeling too rundown to admit it, but he’s right -- my chest feels better within seconds.

“Eat, man, eat, you’re looking so thin you’re gonna blow away out here.”

“Who died and made you my grandma?”

“I prefer the philanthropic, mysterious stranger vibe, but have it your way.”

I try a bit of the soup, which sticks in my gullet after a day of not eating or drinking, and I sputter into another full-body coughing fit.

“Gahh, why’s it so… viscous??”

“It’s the viscosity,” Chris beams, slurping up another spoonful. “Coats the throat, or something.”

“Yeah, I bet you say that to all the girls,” I choke, but the soup’s actually pretty good and not too heavy, so I have some more. We sit in silence for a while, which is one of the things I’ve always appreciated about Chris, before I pipe up against my better judgement.

“So,” I have to clear my throat again, “uh, how’s, how’s Cora?”

“She’ll be alright, I think. Seems pretty unhappy with you.”

“That makes it a day that ends in -y.”

“But she’s fine. Tried to get her to go hiking today, but she was going running with that Alex guy.”

“You don’t say.” Alex and physical exertion? What the fuck? Is this a fever dream, still?  

“Seemed weird, I mean, he doesn’t really come along for a lot, she does a lot on her own. And she didn’t seem too excited about the idea of him tagging along, I dunno.”

“Would you be excited about trying to outrun a wart on your ass?”

“Ouch. So, you hate him, yeah?”

“It’s not that I hate the guy, necessarily…” Chris’s eyebrows shoot up as I continue, “...just… you know… kinda always wanted to buy him a toaster for his bathtub.”

He tosses me a pity laugh. “Yeah, well, she’s not an idiot, don’t think she hasn’t picked up on that. Whatever the hell’s going on with you two, you can’t ignore him.”

“You’re telling me.” I hold up my hand to shush him when I hear the phone ring, and we both listen as the garbled sound of my answering machine comes through the door, but there’s no message.

“Stoney, what the hell happened, anyway?”

I squint at his face for a moment, torn between not wanting to drag everyone into this little drama that’s been playing out with Cora and actually wanting to talk to a friend about it. Jeff and Cready were zero help, but Chris has always been a better listener for the heavy stuff.

“We… kinda… I mean, she stayed over the other night, and…”

Chris’s eyes widen and his jaw drops, although he can barely contain the laughter that accompanies his surprise. “Oh!” he exclaims with glee. “You’re idiots!”

“Okay, (a), thanks man, good talk, real supportive. And (b), why are we idiots, exactly?”

“You slept with her even though you knew it was a bad idea! That's not like you. That's like something Mike would do. Or me. You’ve always got all the angles figured out. And Cora, she's like, got her shit together more than any of the rest of us. She should have known better.” He frowns, drumming his empty spoon on his kneecap.

“Yeah, well, she's sorta… new at this. And anyway we didn’t actually sleep together, alright, I mean, we slept together but not like you’re thinking.”

“Reeeeal convincing, Stone,” he teases. “Whaddya mean she’s new at this? Haven’t she and that guy been together since, like the dawn of time?”

“Yeah, but like, that’s it, that’s her whole story, and I think… I think she and I have something really good, and I think she knows that, but it probably really freaks her out to think about ending anything that’s been, you know, such a fixture for so long. I don’t know, I’m probably not making any sense.”

“More than you know. Just give her time, man. She thinks the world of you, and it really pisses her off to admit it. That’s a good thing, it’ll still be there after she figures out the whole ‘first love’ thing.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I whine, which devolves into more coughing, which cycles back into even more whining.

“On the bright side, you’ve really perfected that Tibetan throat-singing technique,” Chris cracks as he stands up. “You’d better get back inside. Anything I can do to help while I’m here?”

“Nah, thanks, the toxic sludge seems to be working, I’m feeling a little better already.”

Chris claps me on the back, betrays the slightest slip of a smile, and starts down the staircase without another word. I let myself back inside, free to moan and groan as much as I like in the absence of anyone to make fun of me for it, and shuffle my way over to the answering machine. The first message is pure auditory chaos, but through the cacophony, I gather that Mudhoney’s on a tour stop in Tijuana and that my answering machine tape should probably be burned after I listen to the message so as not to implicate anyone in a felony. The usual. That’s got to have been from earlier today and not just now -- Chris and I would have heard that excitement through the door for sure, but I wouldn’t put it past myself to have slept through it this afternoon. Whatever. I delete their message and listen to the second, much quieter one.

“Hey, Stone? uh…”  Cora’s hushed voice is interrupted by Alex calling her name in the background. I hear her give a sharp inhale, followed by a click, and that’s all.

[daggerzine]

HOLIDAY FLYER: Quiet was the new loud- the band talk about their beginnings, the end and the forthcoming reissues of their first two records!

John and Katie, the early years.  

Holiday Flyer were truly something special in their 1990’s heyday. Hailing from Sacramento, but even in a scene that boasted bands like Tiger Trap and Rocketship, Holiday Flyer seemed to be off on their own island doin’ their own thing. Formed in the early 90’s by sibling John and Katie Conley (now Katie Haley), they released four LPs and several EPs and singles before calling it a day (and forming their next bands, California Orange for John and Sinking Ships for Katie,….now those bands are John’s Desario and Katie’s Soft Science).

 I still remember them driving a few hours from Sacramento to Santa Rosa, where I was living and booking shows (circa 1994-’95) and introducing themselves to me at a show I had put together (I think it was Codeine) and telling me about their band, which got me immediately interested. The music was soft, spare and pretty….not quite folk music but close (with decidedly non-flowery lyrics). As the band went on and they added band members the sound got a bit denser but no less personal and still very melodic.

 This year the Darla label is reissuing the first two albums, 1995’s Try Not To Worry and 1997’s The Rainbow Confection on limited edition vinyl (500 copies each).  It’s the first time on vinyl for both and the download for each one includes several extra unreleased tracks.

 So, here a few weeks before their 2/14/19 release date, I shot John and Katie some questions re: the origins of the band and what they’re doing now.

 Quiet was the new loud.

 Did you guys grow up in Sacramento or nearby?

 John: We grew up in Rocklin and Roseville. In my early 20s I moved to downtown Sacramento. I have lived in or around the area ever since. Currently, I live in West Sacramento. I’m still really close to the downtown/midtown area of Sacramento which I like. I still try to go to as many shows as I can here in town.

 Katie: So the Rocklin/ Roseville area is about 20 miles northeast of downtown Sacramento. It has grown a lot in the last several years with a major expansion of business and residential development. When we were young and growing up there the area still had a small town feel and some parts of the community were considered pretty rural – including our backyard ;-). I too eventually made it downtown and stayed for many years while I finished college. I still live in the Sacramento area.

 What did you get into first…punk rock? New wave? Something else? What was the progression like?

John: The first genre of music I got into was Metal. The first album I ever bought was Blizzard of Ozz - Ozzy Osbourne. I met Mike Yoas (Holiday Flyer, Desario) in 1985. He introduced me to Punk and New Wave. One of my favorite bands he turned me on to was Naked Raygun. They are still a favorite. Around 87 or 88 Katie and I started to listen to similar bands. We both loved The Smiths, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Echo and the Bunnymen etc. When she turned 15, our parents would let her go to shows with me, which was cool. Looking back now, she was pretty lucky. She got to see some killer show. A venue in Sacramento called the Cattle Club booked some amazing bands in the 90’s. We saw Ride, Lush, Slowdive and Nirvana there, just to name a few.

Katie: Yep, as little sister, John pretty much always had an influence on my musical taste. He's got great taste so why not follow! But I have to say I never really got into the punk rock. As a young child I really loved Olivia Newton-John, Pat Benatar, Fleetwood Mac, and Madonna (I must confess). Later The Bangles and the Go-Go’s were pretty big in my world. By my mid-teens is when John and I really started seeing eye to eye again regarding music. We watched a lot of 120 Minutes on MTV together. I remember that the first music posters on my bedroom wall in high school were Depeche Mode, The Cure, The Smiths and R.E.M. Those bands pretty much sum up the start for me. And yes, I was seriously lucky my big brother didn't mind taking his little sister with him to shows. The Ocean Blue and The Mighty Lemon Drops in San Francisco is one of the stand out shows John let me tag along on that comes immediately to mind.

 Was it pretty early on that you and Katie began making music together?

John: Katie was always singing, even when she little. I started playing guitar when I was 13. I had a band my last year of high school and Katie would occasionally sing with us. We didn't start playing together until after Katie graduated from High School. 

Please tell me about the early days of Holiday Flyer? Was it pretty easy to make music with your sister or did it take some coaxing? 

John: After High School, I had a couple of bands that didn't last very long. I kind of lost interest in playing music for about 6 or 8 months afterwards. I didn't stop listening though. I think one of the records that got me to pick the guitar back up was Today by Galaxie 500. There was something so different and special about that album for me. I started writing songs again and Katie would just come into my room and start sing with me. That was sort of the beginning of Holiday Flyer.

Katie: Yep, I pretty much forced my way in with harmonies that were not asked for.

John, still rocking it today. 

 What kind of stuff were you guys listening to at the time the band started?

John: I was really into a lot of shoegaze stuff. Ride, Lush, Slowdive. I think the band Moose had a huge influence on our writing. I had the early Moose EPs and remember buying an import copy of their first album. It was so different from the EPs, not shoegaze at all. It was really 70s folk influenced but still dreampop. At that time we were also really into some unfashionable 70s soft rock like Al Stewart, Bread, early Chicago, early Bee Gees ( Katie learned to play the snare/ride cymbal set-up playing along to Chicago and Carpenters records). 

Katie: Bands I recall listening to quite a bit during the early days of Holiday Flyer, include The Red House Painters and Belly. Looking at both of our lists, I think its clear that the bands we regularly listened to at the time were quite different that what we were. We never really set out to replicate a sound. If anything I think the influence or take away we always had from whatever we were listening to was melodies, lyrics, and song structure. This was put through our filters and out came HF songs. 

 Had either of you been in bands before or was Holiday Flyer your first band? At what point did Verna come into the picture? Who else was in the band other than the two  of you?

 John: I had a short lived punk band in High School. After that I had a band for a couple years called The Boon with Mike Yoas (Desario), and then another short-lived band called Ellie. There was a band called Light Iris that Katie and I were in with Jim Rivas ( Rocketship, Holiday Flyer, Desario). Katie and I both felt we were better able to achieve what we wanted to do musically as a duo so we left. Jim went on to play in Rocketship. That's how we met Verna. We played shows with Rocketship and Dustin Reske engineered all of the early Holiday Flyer recordings. Katie and I worked as duo for the first year. The early recordings are layered guitars and Katie and I singing. We didn't play live that often at first. In fact, we didn't play a show until after we started sending out demos. We got asked to play a showcase for Alias Records in LA, and I had to wrangle a show at a cafe just to make sure we could pull off the songs before we went to LA. We continued to played shows as a duo (electric guitar and vocals). Katie added the snare drum and cymbal after we released our first 7". When Rocketship broke up we asked Verna to play bass with us. This was the core band for most of Holiday Flyer. We had guests on most of the records. Our friend Toby Marshall played lead guitar on the Sweet and Sour EP. Ross Levine (Soft Science) played trombone on "The Rainbow Confection". Mike Yoas played bass and Matt Levine (Soft Science) played guitar on "You Make Us Go". For "I Hope", we expanded to a full band with Jim Rivas on drums, Mike Yoas on bass. 

Katie singing with Soft Science. 

When did it feel like a real band? When the first record came out or even before that?

John: It started feeling like a real band after we released "Try Not To Worry". We were getting good reviews for the album and doing fanzine interviews. We were also playing shows in San Francisco and LA and opening shows for Red House Painters, America Music Club, Low and Smog.

 Lyrically were there any specific themes you were exploring?

Katie: Looking back at the lyrics, some of them I really love, and a few of them I think oh no...can't listen. They are lyrics only 19 year old me could have written. But overall, I think the HF lyrics are really just kids trying to make sense of it all in a somewhat sweet naive way. I think that might be part of the appeal? They are very honest.

John: I agree with Katie, I think most of the lyrics, especially on the early recording and first couple of records were us just writing what we knew. Some of it is difficult to listen to now, for numerous reasons. Ha Ha! That being said, I'm really proud of what we did in Holiday Flyer.  

Katie: Me too. 

 When and why did the band break up?

Katie: Oh boy, why do you have to bring up old shite? Ha, Ha. 

John: Well, it was my decision to end Holiday Flyer. It was just a good place to stop. We had made our most polished album, I Hope and I wanted to do something different. Verna and I had already released the first California Oranges album with our friend Ross Levine on drums. After a couple of show as a trio, we added Ross's twin brother Matt on lead guitar and started working on our 2nd album "Oranges and Pineapples". During that time Katie and Verna started recording a record with Ross and Matt which ended up being The Sinking Ships. About a year later we decided to merge the two bands and Katie joined California Oranges.

  Soft Science blowin’ minds.  

Sacramento is kind of a low-key city but has always had a great indie rock/pop scene throughout the years with all of your bands plus Rocketship, Tiger Trap, etc. Why do you think that is? Something in the water?

Katie: Perhaps the area somehow cultivates shut-ins? Ha, Ha.  

John: Not really sure it's big enough to call it a scene (ha ha). I think there might be a one degree of separation for most of the indie bands from Sacramento.

Please tell me about the reissues that Darla Records is doing?

John: James Agren at Darla has been wanting to reissue Try Not to Worry and The Rainbow Confection for a long time. Both albums were originally released on Silver Girl Records and have been out of print/unavailable for many years. With these reissues the entire HF catalog will now be available through Darla Records. About a year ago James was finally able to get me to start the process. I felt it was a good time to reissue them. It took us awhile to gather all the miscellaneous tracks which will be included with the digital downloads of each record. I'm looking forward to them being available on vinyl for the first time. Both albums have been remastered by Mike Yoas along with all the bonus material including demos and songs we recorded for compilations. I'm really happy with how it turned out. The LPs sound really good. I think people who like the records will be happy with them. I designed new sleeves for both records too, which was fun. They also have liner notes written by Jack Rabid and Dave Heaton, which is super cool.

The new covers for the reissues. 

Katie: Yes, we really appreciate everyone who helped make the reissues happen! Even our friend Scott Cymbala from Fingepaint Records (the label that released the first HF 7”- also Beck’s first 10”) dug through boxes at his house to find original copies of old songs that were remastered and are included with the bonus material.

Will the band be (or have you been?) playing any gigs for the reissues?

Katie: I love singing with John it is a special experience that I really appreciate now that I have more perspective on what we did. But, we will have to see. We are both pretty busy with our other projects right now.  

John: Katie and I played a few show over the last few years. One was opening for Mark Eitzel which was cool. We played a show with Mike Yoas on bass and Jim Rivas on drums for a local Summer concert series last year. Our current bands come first at this point, but if the right opportunity came up I'm sure we'd make it work.

What are you two doing musically these days?

John: I've been in Desario now for going on 15 years, which seems crazy. It's not as easy to find time for music like when we were younger, but I'm glad to still be playing. Desario are going to start recording a new album in January and hopefully play some shows out of the Sacramento area next year. 

Katie: I am in Soft Science. Our 3rd album Maps came out in June of 2018. It was released through Test Pattern Records which Ross and Matt Levine run, and I help here and there on occasion. John does most of the graphic design for the Test Pattern releases as well. We are all very fortunate for that! This last year was a pretty amazing year for Soft Science. A couple highlights include playing Paris Popfest and traveling to Michigan to play at the Kalamashoegazer fest. I enjoyed seeing you there Tim! I also enjoyed seeing my old pen pal from the HF days, the wonderful Janice Headley, who created the Copacetic zine in the early 1990s. I had not gotten to see her in many moons so that was fantastic. She was there playing in Tears Run Rings so that was an extra treat! For 2019 Soft Science will just be doing whatever we can with the current momentum we have. All in consideration of our normal lives of course ;-). But we all love it so, new songs, and more live shows are in the works! 

  Desario bring the noise. 

 What are some current Sacramento bands that we might not know about but need to?

Katie: Soft Science played with Rosemother this year and I thought they were quite good!

John: Arts & Leisure are working on a new record, which I'm excited about. Two other Sacramento bands I really like are Ghostplay and The Surrounded. Ghostplay has and EP out now, and The Surrounded are working on an LP or EP. 

Any final thoughts?  Closing comments? Anything you wanted to mention that I didn’t ask?

John: Thanks Tim for all the support and interest over the years for our music. I'm also thankful to still be playing and look forward recording and playing live in 2019.

Katie: Just thanks for asking us to do the interview! We are thrilled there is interest in the reissues of our old HF albums. There is an overwhelming amount of music out there so when anyone listens and likes you it is best to be grateful. That we are!

Please visit the links below both for the reissues as well as what John and Katie are doing today. 

https://darla.com/products/holiday-flyer-the-rainbow-confection

https://darla.com/products/holiday-flyer-try-not-to-worry

www.testpatternrecords.com 

https://www.facebook.com/desarioband

https://www.facebook.com/softsciencemusic

 More more more Desario.

[hawkinstrashmouth-blog]

The Roasted Bean Coffee Shop (Reddie ch. 1)

Description: If IT never existed in Derry. Eddie is in his senior year and openly gay. Excited to leave Derry because of the homophobes and his mother. Eddie runs into a long lost friend, Richie Tozier and Richie just so happens to take an interest in the smaller boy once again. 

A/N: Constructive criticism is very appreciated, but please no rude comments. I am very new to this. Let me know if you want to be added in the tag list! Thanks! :)

Disclaimers: MENTIONS OF ABUSE AND LATER ON WILL BE NSFW (NOTHING TOO INTENSE YET OOF)

Aged up to 17/18 – senior year

Word count: 1,328 (Kind of a short first chapter but they will get longer and hopefully more interesting :/ )

 Parts: 1/?

Tag list:  @get-fcking-reddie  LET ME KNOW IF YOU WANT TO BE ADDED IN THE TAG LIST WHEN I POST!!!!

CHAPTER 1 YEET

_______________________________________________________________________

Have you ever wanted to run away? Ever wanted to pack up all your shit and run far away from everyone and everything? Away from the hurt and the trouble. All your problems. Eddie desperately wanted to leave. As far as he was concerned, this town was cursed. From the homophobes in the town that hated Eddie for his sexual identification, to his own mother who constantly was breathing down his back and telling him to take his pills.

His fake pills. He knew they were fake, but he had been so attached to the pills from the constant fear of disease. He could survive without them, he knew that his phobia was irrational, but nonetheless that didn’t help his mind change course. He despised the town and the people in it. Just one more year, one more year of absolute hell, then he could run far away from all that hurt that this town had caused him.

Grabbing his black back pack off his wooden floor, Eddie ran down the stairs. Reaching for the doorknob, there was a voice behind him. He was foolish to think he could possibly scurry away that quickly from his mother. A complete and udder fool to think it would be that easy.

 “Eddie! You better not be leaving without saying goodbye to your dear mother!” His large mother said from the kitchen. She was a plump woman in her forties who treated Eddie like a child. Like he was incapable of tying his own shoes, chewing his own food. And even, breathing his own air.

“Sorry mommy, I just forgot.” He lied directly to his delirious, bulky mother’s face. He huffed out a large breath knowing that the crazy lady wouldn’t let him leave without the everyday, endless kiss on the cheek. It’s not that he didn’t love his mother because, he did. Of course he did. But, she was piece of work, she probably thought the same of him. 

Dragging his feet along the floor, the boy smooches a big, fat wet kiss on her cheek. He could feel the cheap pink blush that was coated on her face and well, now on his lips. The germaphobe could only think about how the hell he was gonna get this off his lips without offending his mom’s poor feelings.

 Retracting as fast as possible, Eddie says a quick goodbye once again and makes his way out the door. After closing it, he tries to breathe. A huff that he had no idea was stuck in his throat was finally released. Being in his town made him feel like he was constantly suffocating and dying. A slow and agonizing death.

Eddie began dragging his feet along the side walk to school. Luckily, he only lived a short 10-minute walk from and to Derry High school. There was just one stop before school, as always. When he was younger, he used to ride his bike everywhere. Up until last year when his mother decided that it was too threatening and unsafe for a boy like him. At the rate, she was taking things from him for being ‘unsafe’, he eventually won’t even be able leave the house at all. Sometimes he thinks about just defying his mother entirely. All hell would probably break loose.

Getting bored, he began counting the number of steps he took and he lugged himself along. It was still warm outside, summer just ending. Too bad, it going to get cold. Though Eddie hated the bitter weather, always tugging and biting at him as he walked, he hated summer. Not for the weather, but rather the loneliness.

Since Eddie had come out as gay right before high school, in the eighth grade, not many people talked to him. He had his couple of friends Bill, Stan, and Mike. They were really excepting for him. They weren’t around much though; Bill and Stan were always off doing something. Most of the time they talked was at school where they were safe and away from Eddie’s frightening mom. But Mike was a home schooled kid. They got along well because Mike got made fun of for that and well, his skin color.

But, they rarely ever got to hang out anymore. As he pondered, Eddie made a turn in the opposite direction of the school. Coming to the coffee shop everyday of high school, well everyday he wasn’t in the hospital for some god-forbidding disease his mother thought he had. Seeing the small Roasted Bean sign in bold black letters he swerved to the door. He pulled open the warm metal handle and slid in.

 This was Eddie’s favorite place, he felt as though he could escape from his life here. Not many of people came to this little place. It was just down the road from the school. You would think most students would come here in the mornings, but no. This place wasn’t cool enough for the annoying high schoolers.

Every morning the short boy would tell his mom that he was going to a early morning study session but rather, he was just coming to this old place and sitting alone in a booth. Usually just looking out the window and drinking his coffee silently. The only part that he thought was enjoyable about Derry. The silence.

He took in a long inhale of grounded coffee beans and instantly felt relaxed. Coffee was Eddie’s favorite drink. It was one of the first things you would learn about him. Well, that is if they ever take the time to get to know him. Most don’t. They see him as a queer, asthmatic freak. They look at him and heavily judge who he is as a person. Thank god he met Bill and Stan when they were younger, they were so innocent and thought nothing much of him. Just wanted to make some friends.

 That’s how the people in Derry are, judgmental. Eddie always supposed it was because they felt invalid as people and so they take it out on the odd one out. Who just so happened to be Eddie. Fulfilling his morning ritual, he walked up to the counter to get the same drink he always does. A black coffee. His mom doesn’t let him drink coffee, says it’s bad from him. But something was off, something was not like normal.

The barista wasn’t the normal lady with the dark brown hair and bright blue eyes in her forties who usually took his order and didn’t say much. The lady with the dark bags that plainly didn’t care what he had to say because I was too early to care. He could recognize that face from a mile away though. The dark chocolate curls the hung low on his face and the freckles that reminded him of a galaxy of stars. Oh, and let’s not forget the thick glasses that shielded this pretty eyes that were full of light.

Richie Tozier? Trash mouth? He and the boy in the apron at the register used to be the best of friends. They were closer than most. They would share secrets and would sneak into each room’s every single night. But all the shared secrets and midnight talks stopped when Richie’s parents became more and more abusive. But, to top it all off, Eddie was gay. Richie’s parents didn’t like that very much at all.

It’s not that Richie had ever said that was one of the reasons but, it didn’t need to be said. The two drifted apart and now they seemed to being lived on different planets. They could see each other but, they never spoke. Just glances in halls and small one word exchanges if only absolutely nessesary. Eddie had almost forgot about the annoying boy who made him realize his sexuality.

Oh yes, the pain and agonizing truth. Eddie had always had a thing for the trash mouth growing up. His gross ‘your mom’ jokes and such. Snapping out of his trance of shock and confusion, Eddie walked to the counter. Richie looked equally confused and distraught by seeing the boy in the coffee shop.

It threw them off like a broken roller coaster that went off it’s tracks.

“So what can I get you, good looking?” The annoying boy said in a British accent wiggling his eyebrows in almost a mocking manner. Oh boy.

[vintagegeekculture]

Dead Fandoms, Part 3

Read Part One of Dead Fandoms here. 

Read Part Two of Dead Fandoms here. 

Before we continue, I want to add the usual caveat that I actually don’t want to be right about these fandoms being dead. I like enthusiasm and energy and it’s a shame to see it vanish.

Mists of Avalon

Remember that period of time of about 15 years, where absolutely everybody read this book and was obsessed with it? It could not have been bigger, and the fandom was Anne Rice huge, overlapping for several years with USENET and the early World Wide Web…but it’s since petered out. 

Mists of Avalon’s popularity may be due to the most excellent case of hitting a demographic sweet spot ever. The book was a feminist retelling of the Arthurian Mythos where Morgan Le Fay is the main character, a pagan from matriarchal goddess religions who is fighting against encroaching Christianity and patriarchal forms of society coming in with it. Also, it made Lancelot bisexual and his conflict is how torn he is about his attraction to both Arthur and Guinevere.

Remember, this novel came out in 1983 – talk about being ahead of your time! If it came out today, the reaction from a certain corner would be something like “it is with a heavy heart that I inform you that tumblr is at it again.”

Man, demographically speaking, that’s called “nailing it.” It used to be one of the favorite books of the kind of person who’s bookshelf is dominated by fantasy novels about outspoken, fiery-tongued redheaded women, who dream of someday moving to Scotland, who love Enya music and Kate Bush, who sell homemade needlepoint stuff on etsy, who consider their religious beliefs neo-pagan or wicca, and who have like 15 cats, three of which are named Isis, Hypatia, and Morrigan.

This type of person is still with us, so why did this novel fade in popularity? There’s actually a single hideous reason: after her death around 2001, facts came out that Marion Zimmer Bradley abused her daughters sexually. Even when she was alive, she was known for defending and enabling a known child abuser, her husband, Walter Breen. To say people see your work differently after something like this is an understatement – especially if your identity is built around being a progressive and feminist author.

Robotech

I try to break up my sections on dead fandoms into three parts: first, I explain the property, then explain why it found a devoted audience, and finally, I explain why that fan devotion and community went away. Well, in the case of Robotech, I can do all three with a single sentence: it was the first boy pilot/giant robot Japanimation series that shot for an older, teenage audience to be widely released in the West. Robotech found an audience when it was the only true anime to be widely available, and lost it when became just another import anime show. In the days of Crunchyroll, it’s really hard to explain what made Robotech so special, because it means describing a different world.

Try to imagine what it was like in 1986 for Japanime fans: there were barely any video imports, and if you wanted a series, you usually had to trade tapes at your local basement club (they were so precious they couldn’t even be sold, only traded). If you were lucky, you were given a script to translate what you were watching. Robotech though, was on every day, usually after school. You want an action figure? Well, you could buy a Robotech Valkyrie or a Minmei figure at your local corner FAO Schwartz. 

However, the very strategy that led to it getting syndicated is the very reason it was later vilified by the purists who emerged when anime became a widespread cultural force: strictly speaking, there actually is no show called “Robotech.” Since Japanese shows tend to be short run, say, 50-60 episodes, it fell well under the 80-100 episode mark needed for syndication in the US. The producer of Harmony Gold, Carl Macek, had a solution: he’d cut three unrelated but similar looking series together into one, called “Robotech.” The shows looked very similar, had similar love triangles, used similar tropes, and even had little references to each other, so the fit was natural. It led to Robotech becoming a weekday afternoon staple with a strong fandom who called themselves “Protoculture Addicts.” There were conventions entirely devoted to Robotech. The supposed shower scene where Minmei was bare-breasted was the barely whispered stuff of pervert legend in pre-internet days. And the tie in novels, written with the entirely western/Harmony Gold conception of the series and which continued the story, were actually surprisingly readable.

The final nail in the coffin of Robotech fandom was the rise of Sailor Moon, Toonami, Dragonball, and yes, Pokemon (like MC Hammer’s role in popularizing hip hop, Pokemon is often written out of its role in creating an audience for the next wave of cartoon imports out of insecurity). Anime popularity in the West can be defined as not a continuing unbroken chain like scifi book fandom is, but as an unrelated series of waves, like multiple ancient ruins buried on top of each other (Robotech was the vanguard of the third wave, as Anime historians reckon); Robotech’s wave was subsumed by the next, which had different priorities and different “core texts.” Pikachu did what the Zentraedi and Invid couldn’t do: they destroyed the SDF-1.

Legion of Super-Heroes

Legion of Superheroes was comic set in the distant future that combined superheroes with space opera, with a visual aesthetic that can best be described as “Star Trek: the Motion Picture, if it was set in a disco.” 

I’ve heard wrestling described as “a soap opera for men.” If that’s the case, then Legion of Super-Heroes was a soap opera for nerds. The book is about attractive 20-somethings who seem to hook up all the time. As a result, it had a large female fanbase, which, I cannot stress enough, is incredibly unusual for this era in comics history. And if you have female fans, you get a lot of shipping and slashfic, and lots of speculation over which of the boy characters in the series is gay. The fanon answer is Element Lad, because he wore magenta-pink and never had a girlfriend. (Can’t argue with bulletproof logic like that.) In other words, it was a 1970s-80s fandom that felt much more “modern” than the more right-brained, bloodless, often anal scifi fandoms that existed around the same time, where letters pages were just nitpicking science errors by model train and elevator enthusiasts.

Legion Headquarters seemed to be a rabbit fuck den built around a supercomputer and Danger Room. Cosmic Boy dressed like Tim Curry in Rocky Horror. There’s one member, Duo Damsel, who can turn into two people, a power that, in the words of Legion writer Jim Shooter, was “useful for weird sex...and not much else.”

LSH was popular because the fans were insanely horny. This is, beyond the shadow of a doubt, the thirstiest fandom of all time.  You might think I’m overselling this, but I really think that’s an under-analyzed part of how some kinds of fiction build a devoted fanbase.  

For example, a big reason for the success of Mass Effect is that everyone has a favorite girl or boy, and you have the option to romance them. Likewise, everyone who was a fan of Legion remembers having a crush. Sardonic Ultra Boy for some reason was a favorite among gay male nerds (aka the Robert Conrad Effect). Tall, blonde, amazonian telepath Saturn Girl, maybe the first female team leader in comics history, is for the guys with backbone who prefer Veronica over Betty. Shrinking Violet was a cute Audrey Hepburn type. And don’t forget Shadow Lass, who was a blue skinned alien babe with pointed ears and is heavily implied to have an accent (she was Aayla Secura before Aayla Secura was Aayla Secura). Light Lass was commonly believed to be “coded lesbian” because of a short haircut and her relationships with men didn’t work out. The point is, it’s one thing to read about the adventures of a superteam, and it implies a totally different level of mental and emotional involvement to read the adventures of your imaginary girlfriend/boyfriend.  

Now, I should point out that of all the fandoms I’ve examined here, LSH was maybe the smallest. Legion was never a top seller, but it was a favorite of the most devoted of fans who kept it alive all through the seventies and eighties with an energy and intensity disproportionate to their actual numbers. My gosh, were LSH fans devoted! Interlac and Legion Outpost were two Legion fanzines that are some of the most famous fanzines in comics history.

If nerd culture fandoms were drugs, Star Wars would be alcohol, Doctor Who would be weed, but Legion of Super-Heroes would be injecting heroin directly into your eyeballs. Maybe it is because the Legionnaires were nerdy, too: they played Dungeons and Dragons in their off time (an escape, no doubt, from their humdrum, mundane lives as galaxy-rescuing superheroes). There were sometimes call outs to Monty Python. Basically, the whole thing had a feel like the dorkily earnest skits or filk-singing at a con. Legion felt like it’s own fan series, guest starring Patton Oswalt and Felicia Day.

It helped that the boundary between fandom and professional was incredibly porous. For instance, pro-artist Dave Cockrum did covers for Legion fanzines. Former Legion APA members Todd and Mary Biernbaum got a chance to actually write Legion, where, with the gusto of former slashfic writers given the keys to canon, their major contribution was a subplot that explicitly made Element Lad gay. Mike Grell, a professional artist who got paid to work on the series, did vaguely porno-ish fan art. Again, it’s hard to tell where the pros started and the fandom ended; the inmates were running the asylum.

Mostly, Legion earned this devotion because it could reward it in a way no other comic could. Because Legion was not a wide market comic but was bought by a core audience, after a point, there were no self-contained one-and-done Legion stories. In fact, there weren’t even really arcs as we know it, which is why Legion always has problems getting reprinted in trade form. Legion was plotted like a daytime soap opera: there were always five different stories going on in every issue, and a comic involved cutting between them. Sure, like daytime soap operas, there’s never a beginning, just endless middles, so it was totally impossible for a newbie to jump on board...but soap operas know what they are doing: long term storytelling rewards a long term reader.

This brings me to today, where Legion is no longer being published by DC. There is no discussion about a movie or TV revival. This is amazing. Comics are a world where the tiniest nerd groups get pandered to: Micronauts, Weirdworld, Seeker 3000, and Rom have had revival series, for pete’s sake. It’s incredible there’s no discussion of a film or TV treatment, either; friggin Cyborg from New Teen Titans is getting a solo movie. 

Why did Legion stop being such a big deal? Where did the fandom that supported it dissolve to? One word: X-Men. Legion was incredibly ahead of its time. In the 60s and 70s, there were barely any “fan” comics, since superhero comics were like animation is today: mostly aimed at kids, with a minority of discerning adult/teen fans, and it was success among kids, not fans, that led to something being a top seller (hence, “fan favorites” in the 1970s, as surprising as it is to us today, often did not get a lot of work, like Don MacGregor or Barry Smith). But as newsstands started to push comics out, the fan audience started to get bigger and more important…everyone else started to catch up to the things that made Legion unique: most comics started to have attractive people who paired up into couples and/or love triangles, and featured extremely byzantine long term storytelling. If Legion of Super-Heroes is going to be remembered for anything, it’s for being the smaller scale “John the Baptist” to the phenomenon of X-Men, the ultimate “fan” comic.

The other thing that killed Legion, apart from Marvel’s Merry Mutants, that is, was the r-word: reboots. A reboot only works for some properties, but not others. You reboot something when you want to find something for a mass audience to respond to, like with Zorro, Batman, or Godzilla.

Legion, though, was not a comic for everybody, it was a fanboy/girl comic beloved by a niche who read it for continuing stories and minutiae (and to jack off, and in some cases, jill off). Rebooting a comic like that is a bad idea. You do not reboot something where the main way you engage with the property, the greatest strength, is the accumulated lore and history. Rebooting a property like that means losing the reason people like it, and unless it’s something with a wide audience, you only lose fans and won’t get anything in return for it. So for something like Legion (small fandom obsessed with long form plots and details, but unlike Trek, no name recognition) a reboot is the ultimate Achilles heel that shatters everything, a self-destruct button they kept hitting over and over and over until there was nothing at all left.

E. E. Smith’s Lensman Novels

The Lensman series is like Gil Evans’s jazz: it’s your grandparents’ favorite thing that you’ve never heard of. 

I mean, have you ever wondered exactly what scifi fandom talked about before the rise of the major core texts and cultural objects (Star Trek, Asimov, etc)? Well, it was this. Lensmen was the subject of fanfiction mailed in manilla envelopes during the 30s, 40s, and 50s (some of which are still around). If you’re from Boston, you might recognize that the two biggest and oldest scifi cons there going back to the 1940s, Boskone (Boscon, get it?) and Arisia, are references to the Lensman series. This series not only created space opera as we know it, but contributed two of the biggest visuals in scifi, the interstellar police drawn from different alien species, and space marines in power armor.

My favorite sign of how big this series was and how fans responded to it, was a great wedding held at Worldcon that duplicated Kimball Kinnison and Clarissa’s wedding on Klovia. This is adorable:

The basic story is pure good vs. evil: galactic civilization faces a crime and piracy wave of unprecedented proportions from technologically advanced pirates (the memory of Prohibition, where criminals had superior firearms and faster cars than the cops, was strong by the mid-1930s). A young officer, Kimball Kinnison (who speaks in a Stan Lee esque style of dialogue known as “mid-century American wiseass”), graduates the academy and is granted a Lens, an object from an ancient mystery civilization, who’s true purpose is unknown.

Lensman Kinnison discovers that the “crime wave” is actually a hostile invasion and assault by a totally alien culture that is based on hierarchy, intolerant of failure, and at the highest level, is ruled by horrifying nightmare things that breathe freezing poison gases. Along the way, he picks up allies, like van Buskirk, a variant human space marine from a heavy gravity planet who can do a standing jump of 20 feet in full space armor, Worsel, a telepathic dragon warrior scientist with the technical improvisation skills of MacGyver (who reads like the most sadistically minmaxed munchkinized RPG character of all time), and Nandreck, a psychologist from a Pluto-like planet of selfish cowards.

The scale of the conflict starts small, just skirmishes with pirates, but explodes to near apocalyptic dimensions. This series has space battles with millions of starships emerging from hyperspacial tubes to attack the ultragood Arisians, homeworld of the first intelligent race in the cosmos. By the end of the fourth book, there are mind battles where the reflected and parried mental beams leave hundreds of innocent bystanders dead. In the meantime we get evil Black Lensmen, the Hell Hole in Space, and superweapons like the Negasphere and the Sunbeam, where an entire solar system was turned into a vacuum tube.

It’s not hard to understand why Lensmen faded in importance. While the alien Lensmen had lively psychologies, Lensman Kimball Kinnison was not an interesting person, and that’s a problem when scifi starts to become more about characterization. The Lensman books, with their love of police and their sexism (it is an explicit plot point that the Lens is incompatible with female minds – in canon there are no female Lensmen) led to it being judged harshly by the New Wave writers of the 1960s, who viewed it all as borderline fascist military-scifi establishment hokum, and the reputation of the series never recovered from the spirit of that decade.

Prisoner of Zenda

Prisoner of Zenda is a novel about a roguish con-man who visits a postage-stamp, charmingly picturesque Central European kingdom with storybook castles, where he finds he looks just like the local king and is forced to pose as him in palace intrigues. It’s a swashbuckling story about mistaken identity, swordfighting, and intrigue, one part swashbuckler and one part dark political thriller.

The popularity of this book predates organized fandom as we know it, so I wonder if “fandom” is even the right word to use. All the same, it inspired fanatical dedication from readers. There was such a popular hunger for it that an entire library could be filled with nothing but rip-offs of Prisoner of Zenda. If you have a favorite writer who was active between 1900-1950, I guarantee he probably wrote at least one Prisoner of Zenda rip-off (which is nearly always the least-read book in his oeuvre). The only novel in the 20th Century that inspired more imitators was Sherlock Holmes. Robert Heinlein and Edmond “Planet Smasher” Hamilton wrote scifi updates of Prisoner of Zenda. Doctor Who lifted the plot wholesale for the Tom Baker era episode, “Androids of Tara,” Futurama did this exact plot too, and even Marvel Comics has its own copy of Ruritania, Doctor Doom’s Kingdom of Latveria. Even as late as the 1980s, every kids’ cartoon did a “Prisoner of Zenda” episode, one of the stock plots alongside “everyone gets hit by a shrink ray” and the Christmas Carol episode.

Prisoner of Zenda imitators were so numerous, that they even have their own Library of Congress sub-heading, of “Ruritanian Romance.” 

One major reason that Prisoner of Zenda fandom died off is that, between World War I and World War II, there was a brutal lack of sympathy for anything that seemed slightly German, and it seems the incredibly Central European Prisoner of Zenda was a casualty of this. Far and away, the largest immigrant group in the United States through the entire 19th Century were Germans, who were more numerous than Irish or Italians. There were entire cities in the Midwest that were two-thirds German-born or German-descent, who met in Biergartens and German community centers that now no longer exist.

Kurt Vonnegut wrote a lot about how the German-American world he grew up in vanished because of the prejudice of the World Wars, and that disappearance was so extensive that it was retroactive, like someone did a DC comic-style continuity reboot where it all never happened: Germans, despite being the largest immigrant group in US history, are left out of the immigrant story. The “Little Bohemias” and “Little Berlins” that were once everywhere no longer exist. There is no holiday dedicated to people of German ancestry in the US, the way the Irish have St. Patrick’s Day or Italians have Columbus Day (there is Von Steuben’s Day, dedicated to a general who fought with George Washington, but it’s a strictly Midwest thing most people outside the region have never heard of, like Sweetest Day). If you’re reading this and you’re an academic, and you’re not sure what to do your dissertation on, try writing about the German-American immigrant world of the 19th and 20th Centuries, because it’s a criminally under-researched topic.

A. Merritt

Pop quiz: who was the most popular and influential fantasy author during the 1930s and 40s? 

If you answered Tolkien or Robert E. Howard, you’re wrong - it was actually Abraham Merritt. He was the most popular writer of his age of the kind of fiction he did, and he’s since been mostly forgotten. Gary Gygax, creator of Dungeons and Dragons, has said that A. Merritt was his favorite fantasy and horror novelist.

Why did A. Merritt and his fandom go away, when at one point, he was THE fantasy author? Well, obviously one big answer was the 1960s counterculture, which brought different writers like Tolkien and Lovecraft to the forefront (by modern standards Lovecraft isn’t a fantasy author, but he was produced by the same early century genre-fluid effluvium that produced Merritt and the rest). The other answer is that A. Merritt was so totally a product of the weird occult speculation of his age that it’s hard to even imagine him clicking with audiences in other eras. His work is based on fringe weirdness that appealed to early 20th Century spiritualism and made sense at the time: reincarnation, racial memory, an obsession with lost race stories and the stone age, and weirdness like the 1920s belief that the Polar Arctic is the ancestral home of the Caucasian race. In other words, it’s impossible to explain Merritt without a ton of sentences that start with “well, people in the 1920s thought that...” That’s not a good sign when it comes to his universality. 

That’s it for now. Do you have any suggestions on a dead fandom, or do you keep one of these “dead” fandoms alive in your heart?