#i will FOR SURE drop more lore afterwards

[hoohoobeanie]

this goes out to @tommybones bcos arthur said he wants a little plts lore drop (and hes right it will help me get the ball rolling on writing again)

so here are little details abt pretty like the sun (spommy college au) to entice you guys and help me with writing again:

spencer is a film major and tommy is a theatre major. they run in different social circles but have lots of mutual friends

spencer has been friends with courtney since high school and they ended up at the same college

courtney and arasha have been dating since the first month of college. arasha and spencer become the most terribly annoying and judgmental duo ever (courtney apologises to every person they torture)

spencer dormed with shayne in their first year and became inseparable after that. they become a little group with alex t, trevor and every now and again kiana (someone has to keep the idiots in check)

tommy shares an apartment with amanda and angela, and suffers through their old married couple bickering

tommy is the president of the theatre student association, which is why he gets to direct the musical. he's the first ever junior to direct instead of a senior.

hes v well known around campus, and depending on who you talk to, people say he's kind of a bitch

the musical they're putting up this year is legally blonde (tommy personally campaigns for it). if anyone wants a full cast list i will give it, but for now know that Jackie is Elle, Damien is Emmett and Tommy is Callahan (ofc my king would direct AND take part, he is so talented)

tommy spends the majority of his time with the theatre people, (jackie, damien, amanda, angela, chanse and kimmy) not just because of all of the rehearsals, but because he loves them

these are bits of information that i feel would be a little extra to mention in the text themselves? ill probably still end up referencing some in there anyway :D

[iliveforyouilongforyouvesuvia]

WAIT, idea time, what if everyone did th heare put cake challenge, that would be extremely funny

The Arcana HCs: The "Hear Me Out" Cake

~ inspired by you, anon friend, and written for @vesuviaweekly's prompt "spilling tea". Hope you enjoy the messy crackfic friend! ~

Julian

Puts you on the cake with 0 shame, promptly gets sprayed in the face by Portia because "that's not a 'hear me out' answer"

Did bring a stick with Asra's face on it. Ditched it on second thought before putting it on the cake

Did bring sticks with Muriel, Nadia, and Lucio on them and place them on the cake. Muriel refused to sit next to him afterwards. The whole group stared at him in disbelief when he revealed Lucio's face. Nadia said she was better than a "hear me out"

Julian's last faces were Nazali and Barth. It was increasingly clear by the end that he didn't fully understand the concept of a "hear me out" cake and that he had just gone with all the people he knew and found somewhat attractive

Asra

Half of the items they place on the cake aren't images, they're items representing concepts/beings with no faces

Most notable was a small slip with the words "The Patriarchy" on it. When pressed for an explanation, he explains that he "always has time to f*** the patriarchy." Portia is impressed

Others include all kinds of political and social norms they just wanted an excuse to make sassy, cutting remarks about

The other half of his items are intelligent beings whose existence were either rumored or up to debate entirely

This includes merpeople, goblins, dragons, spirits, and of course, several patrons including The Magician themself. You don't know how they feel about that one but Asra claims to have told them

Nadia

Doesn't have a lot of "hear me out"s to contribute, mainly because she got into her own head about listing anybody she might have a power dynamic over as the Countess

Does list Selasi and refuses to elaborate, regardless of how many comments everyone has to make on that one

Also not totally sure how the concept of a "hear me out" cake works, so most of her items aren't people - they're situations

Specifically intimate situations

Cue everyone in the room turning more and more red as she graphically describes every creative scene she could think of

Lucio's jaw drops further the longer she speaks and complains at one point about not getting any of this when they were married

Muriel

Didn't have any "hear me out"s so he brought a list of "I will not hear this out"s instead

It starts with obvious categories, at first - animals, anything or anyone unable to fully consent, family members -

And then continues with oddly specific descriptions clearly aimed at all the other people in the room. Exes, age gaps, reckless marriages to leave family/gain more power, transactional situationships to enable concerning behavior, saying "I love you" on the first date, saying "oopsie" instead of "I'm sorry" ...

His final item is a quickly-done (read: stick figure) doodle of himself with a big red X over it, which he makes on the fly after seeing his own face added to the cake

Portia

The whole thing was her idea and she is way too excited/invested in seeing what everybody brings

Has equipped herself with a little spray bottle that she uses on anybody whose answers are not satisfactory to her

Talks up her own items only for most of them to be fictional characters that nobody else in the group has heard of. Cue frantic lore dumping as she explains 1) why this character is usually considered a bad choice and 2) why she'd do them anyways

Is the person who made and brought the cake and gets particular (with Julian specifically) about adding items without ruining it

Adds Valerius, acts surprised when Lucio mentions sleeping with him, and uses it as an opening to interrogate him for juicy details

Lucio

Proudly adds all his exes to the cake and then all of the members of your group. Promptly gets into a loud back-and-forth with Portia while Nadia looks disapproving and Asra looks disgusted. Julian is too surprised to comment. Muriel begins work on his final item

Continues to add controversial figures to the cake, including all of the courtiers, the Devil, and his rendition of the slimy worm horrors known to lurk around Vlastomil's estate

Clearly enjoys every shocked/outraged/concerned reaction way more than he should because he's getting so much attention

Does go out of his way at the end of the gathering to clearly established that the vast majority of his items were jokes

Asks to cut the cake afterwards so he can secure a huge piece

[destinysbounty]

Ranking the DR kids based on how well they'd handle getting time-traveled to the beginning of the OG series:

Euphrasia - she lives in the Cloud Kingdom and has been with the Writers of Destiny long enough to have at least a functional understanding of everything that's happened and is supposed to happen. She would also be willing and capable of ensuring the original timeline remains preserved to the best of her ability. Any errors she makes are minor and get quickly resolved.

Arin - is a massive nerd with a near encyclopedic knowledge of the ninjas' pasts, but even he doesn't know everything. He'd probably drop a bunch of lore/spoilers purely on accident and feel really anxious/awkward about it afterwards. This does not stop him from accidentally dropping spoilers in the future, though. As excited as he is to be trained by Master Wu himself, seeing Lloyd as a twerpy little brat is more than a little disturbing and he's not sure he likes this. At one point he realizes his parents are still alive/present in this point in time and has an emotional crisis about whether or not to visit them. Eventually decides that if he can use his knowledge to fix the past and perhaps prevent all sorts of bad things from ever happening, then he should go for it. But he's also constantly second-guessing himself and questioning what changes will "fix" the past and what changes will absolutely destroy everything.

Sora - only kind of pays attention to Arin's ninja fan rants, and also isn't Ninjagian and therefore has no basis of understanding for their history, so she has a very incomplete understanding of things. Why does Zane look human? She is having so much stress over whether or not she can preserve the original timeline because she really loves her life as it is now, and is scared that if she changes too much then everything she currently has will be torn from her. But if she doesn't know how things originally happened, how can she make sure she's not changing too much? Needless to say Sora would have such a bad time and is seriously regretting not paying more attention to Arin.

Wyldfyre - I don't even need to explain this one. You all know exactly what would happen.

[celestie0]

notes on kickoff ch.7

hellooo if you're here thank you for taking the interest! i just had some creative notes i wanted to get off my chest with the release of ch.7 lol i felt compelled to do so with this one i'm basically journaling here. you can read this after reading ch7 here!

I. on gojo's feelings

as for why didn't gojo just tell reader how he felt at the end of the chapter, and instead only says what he does. i think i rewrote this ending like five different times, he was never supposed to tell her at this point based on my story planning, but i did explore the idea of a dramatic confession here regardless, and it didn't fit for lots of different reasons for one, i think he's finally able to put himself in reader's shoes. it's true he's pretty dense and obviously has commitment issues/valid fears that keep him from opening up, but that still doesn't mean he hasn't hurt reader in a lot of different ways already. he realizes, whether intentionally or not, he's led her on and to do a complete turnaround within a few hours while she's already trying to process rejection as she is clearly withdrawn from him i believed would've been selfish on his part, and could possibly cause even more hurt over the fact that he could come off ingenuine. gojo is finally emotionally aware of her enough to recognize it, but he's not a perfect person so it still slips through that he's distraught at the thought of never seeing her again. in general i'm of the opinion that if someone asks for space, you respect that unless they say otherwise of note, just because he realizes that he has these feelings, doesn't necessary change his fears, as no single moment can undo years of trauma, so i think that's why he bites his tongue too. i'm not keen on making this a "woman fixes man" story but i moreso want to embrace the sentiment that you don't need to resolve every single bad thing that's ever happened to you in order to embrace love or happiness.

II. on gojo's commitment issues

i know it was brought up in the first gojo pov that he has issues committing to just one woman, but i wanted this chapter to reveal that it's really just his fear of opening up to people due to the still raw loss he feels of losing someone he loved. i aim with his pov to be more of a stream of his own consciousness rather than from an omniscient observer, which may explain the ambiguity. he's not sure if he's able to open up to a person in a way he knows is normal and healthy, so he settles on shallow connections instead. just wanted to clear this up, and say that it won't be any sort of plot point in which he struggles to be sincere or faithful when he seriously wants to commit to someone as he has no issues with that if he truly wants to be with them (unlike the whore he's been so far in the series lmao)

III. on strawberry vanilla soda

btw i've never had this flavor of soda i'm not even sure where i came up w it loool or if it even exists. i was kind of toying with the idea of gojo seeing reader's message on the can during the match, and that would maybe help him get more focused on the field (sooo sports romance cliche but i still love it haha) but i settled on him seeing it afterwards to kinda parallel the clumsiness he's had with reader so far. for some reason, the universe just doesn't want him to get his timing right with her lol

IV. on angst/conflict

i know ch7 was a bit differentttt less gojo x reader and more just gojo lmfao, it was also a bit angsty. it definitely won't stay angsty throughout the remaining chapters. this was just gojo's lore drop chapter LOL. there will still obviously be angst here and there, but i've got a lot of fun, cute, tense, silly, passionate, messy scenes still planned similar to ch5&6 because i prefer writing those kinds of scenes haha. ultimately this story was always meant to be a full-circle romance, so ch7 was to lay some of the emotional groundwork that gets brought up as the story builds to its climax

that's all i have to saayyy if you actually read this whole thing i love you?? lol. ch7 really emotionally resonated with me as i wrote it, both as someone who understands how gojo feels but also as someone who understands how reader feels, and if it resonated with you too then that makes me very happy and that's ultimately every writer's dream haha. was very cathartic to share these thoughts. i hope to see you in the next oneeee <3 have a wonderful rest of your day!

[us-the-voices-and-more-voices-2]

random Conner being a good bullshitter moment

Teacher: today class we are doing a genealogy thing, basically we are going to track your family tree. It’s an assessment of your research skills, go ham just make sure your information is correct if it isn’t you will be docked accordingly.

Later

classmate: so Conner? How are you going?

Conner: oh I realise my family history is a bit confusing but when the day comes I’ll explain it, how are you going?

classmate: oh fine, my family already had a family tree book made so I just have to present it.

Conner: cool, I have to make mine from scratch but it’s alright.

a week later after a few battles with random space pirates

teacher: well class I hope you’re ready to present your assignments, who wants to go first?

Conner: *raises his hand*

teacher: oh well, Conner go ahead.

Conner: *clears throat* okay, so my dad clark is actually my half brother *conner starts to singsong* my mother is actually some rich lady named Lex, my dad is actually this guy Elliot, my half brother is also my older brother, I know it makes no sense but keep on listening. My cousin is Kara, my family is Jonathan and Martha Kent, my stepmom is Lois lane and my nephew is Jon Kent. Yup that’s it.

the class applauds after Conner’s PowerPoint presentation

teacher: wait how is clark your half brother?

Conner: just is, my dad Elliot knocked up Lex and he left shortly afterwards. He was one of Jonathan’s distant relatives, he ended up leaving clark with the Kent’s because well easier than leaving him alone, since his mother died when he was a kid. He did die only a short while later it was only supposed to be temporary until he did die. So they ended up adopting clark, he’s still a full blooded Kent but yeah his dad is dead. And I’m his half brother because our dad had a kid with this rich lady Lex. As you can see on the chart. And Kara is our cousin who I don’t know who’s parents are.

teacher: well that’s something, I honestly was expecting something else.

Conner: I’m still in touch with rich lady Lex, since she’s a doctor and did raise me for the first years of my life, and I have family health issues. But I am the Jonathan and Martha’s kid though, Lex is just reluctant about me being with the other side of the family because she didn’t really know them well. Since dad died long after she knew she was pregnant, i was a ivf baby lol because she froze his sperm. I call clark dad because well he’s been my dad. But we are half brothers, it’s more of a “I didn’t know we were half brothers so I’m going to call you dad” thing I was 14 when I came to live with them, I had a falling out with my mother.

the class listens eagerly because this is so much Kent lore, and explains literally everything about why the fuck they look a bit different and where clark came from! the decades long mystery is solved!

Conner: so now I just alternate between the two houses, it’s not a split custody agreement or something it’s just I like living with the Kent’s. And I’m old enough to make my own decisions, so it’s just mostly living at the Kent’s and visiting mother.

teacher: well that’s something. Thank you for sharing this, you receive a B+ because I don’t have access to any of your records or know who the heck you’re talking about so B+. Whoever’s next get ready.

later

Conner sitting at the dinner table eating some roast, and slightly kicking his feet under the table asks

Conner: I did my family history thing today

Jonathan: you didn’t screw up and tell everyone something that could trace us back to superman right? *chuckles*

Conner: nope, did finally explain that clark is my half brother.

Jonathan: *fork drops* what

connner: well obviously no one believed he’s my dad, because that’d make him a teen father or something and honestly it was genuinely getting pretty weird. So I explained that Elliot, Jor el. Was my father, and that he had a kid with a rich woman named Lex because technically it’s true who can actually confirm or deny that, through ivf after Elliot died. He also had a kid with unnamed woman who is Clark’s mother, he left clark with you as he couldn’t leave him alone and he died shortly after. Isn’t that a better back story?

Jonathan super surprised by conner’s web weaving skills just nods

Conner: so now I can talk about Lex, no one thinks I’m a teen father’s child anymore, and you have some one to blame if someone does actually accidentally test Clark’s blood. I am amazing!

Jonathan: well, I guess I’ll inform everyone of the situation you just made, but I commend you for your hard work. You did a good job kid.

Prev | current | next

(yes this is a series please read the first one it's hilarious)

[flowerakatsuka]

denki!kuroba has plagued my mind for the past 24 hours so it's time to drop their design & lore. ( bonus + more lore under the cut! )

( ya'll knew i had to find a way to shoehorn kurokara into this au SOMEHOW. )

while they don't meet during the events of six idol statues of taboo, kuroha does eventually get to meet chorosuke's recently reunited brothers afterwards. strangely enough, it seems that karatsugu knows who they are. kuroha's life before the accident was much like the one kuroba lives ; having attended college for horticulture and working at their grandfather's floral shop. karatsugu and kuroha had known each other for a long time, having become friends in high school and staying quite close into adulthood. because of this, he was absolutely devastated when they suddenly disappeared a year and a half ago while on the way to visit family in yokohama. there were no reports of any crashes or deaths, no missing people found, nothing. it was as if they were spirited away, never to be heard of again. upon learning this, kuroha is rather distraught. even though his face is so familiar to them, the past he recounts to them refuses to come back to them. something they had been keeping a secret from the others at the midorito estate was that they had begun to recollect some things, but what they remembered seemed more like strange dreams than any memories they should have. memories of traveling with mononoke, fighting in gang wars, fending off youkai, a life much like what karatsugu described but not exactly the same... and in all of those memories, the six same faces, so eerily similar yet unsettling different. the most prominent of them all being the faces just like karatsugu's. they aren't sure why these strange memories are all they can recall, perhaps they're finally losing it, but with the brothers' help, kuroha might be able to figure out the true meaning behind them and even remember their life in this universe along the way.

ALSO, a quick explanation of denki!kuroba's name!

( fair warning : my understanding of japanese is very rudimentary so i may have made some mistakes in my translation or how names are written. please let me know if that's the case and i'll correct anything i've gotten wrong! )

kuroba / クロバ -> kuroha / 黒葉 ( くろは )

kuroba's name is written in katakana while kuroha's is written in kanji ( with furigana written in hiragana. )

kuroba's first name comes from クローバー ( kurōbā ) meaning clover. when the dakuten from バ ( ba ) is removed, it becomes ハ ( ha. ) the equivalent of ハ in hiragana is は, which is used in the furigana for kuroha's name. the kanji used for kuroha is 黒 ( kuro ) meaning black and 葉 ( ha ) meaning leaf.

yotsubana / 四つ花 ( ヨツバナ ) -> shinigusa / 死に草 ( しにグサ )

yotsubana comes from 四つ葉 ( yotsuba ) meaning four-leaved, notably used in the japanese for four-leaved clover / 四つ葉のクローバー ( yotsuba no kurōbā. ) the kanji for ba in youtsuba is swapped for 花 ( hana, ) which can be read has bana like in the surname tachibana. as a result, their surname can be read as " four flowers. "

the 四 ( yo ) from yotsubana, which can also be read as shi, becomes 死 ( shi, ) meaning death. the adverbializer に ( ni ) replaces つ ( tsu. ) the kanji for hana is replaced with 花 ( kusa, ) which is lifted from a synonym for clover, 詰草 ( tsumekusa. ) kusa becomes gusa as an instance of rendaku. their surname can be roughly read as " dead(ly) grass. "

[msookyspooky]

Fours a Franchise

Part 12

Wordcount: 8,567

Omfg I got the flu for a week, had a family fued that lasted months between my aunt and...EVERYONE. But thankfully my younger cousin I'm super close to is living with her Dad/My Uncle now after months of this bs so finally there's peace, then in-between this fued and my cousin moving out I got covid and ong I have been foggy headed for 2 weeks afterwards I'm just starting to feel like my normal self again....THEN Wattpad kicked me out of my account. From September till now has been an out of body experience in a bad way 🙃

So thank you all for your support and patience I appreciate it 🖤 but I am so done wracking my brain over this chapter so we're just winging it rn bc I want to write and get past this hump to finish this story then start on 5. So if I missed info or a typo or misplaced lore from previous books *No I did not*~

Annnnddd my motivation with recent Scream news.

The news of Scream 7 is so disheartening and screwed up with Sam and Tara's actresses. So I cannot promise I'm writing till 6 or 7 not only because I'm losing my hyper fixation for Scream after these 2 years but no Tara, Sam, Sidney and most likely no Stu because Matthew is a real one and wouldn't come back after how they treated Neve and Melissa so like? What's the point? This book and 5 I am for sure doing because Billy meeting Sam is a huge writing motive for me. 6 is iffy but 7? I am not. Not only do I not have the motivation to write that much more for this story but it's pointless with so much of Scream being written like bad fanfiction the last 2 installments...Hell, I could do that! But I won't because I probably won't even watch Scream 7 if they make it. The Studio has screwed over Neve and Melissa in ways that I really don't want to support.

Anyways, thank you for the patience. I appreciate all of you! ♡♡♡♡

—————————————

   Ghostface grabbed your ankle and you hit the stairs. Hard. But the second they went to stab you, you kicked them as hard as you could in the knee sending them flying back and tumbling down the stairs. 

Jill grabbed your arm. "Come on, YN!" As you both bolted for Kirby's room…Kirby had gotten separated during the chase and you didn't know where she was. 

Jill locked the door and told you. "The balcony!"

"There's no other way out?" 

"You can jump, maybe, I don't know." Jill rushed out past her lips as she got away from the door. 

You breathed hard, looking down at the drop off from the second story. You couldn't think long as the door frame started bending; the wood splintering with each bang from the killer trying to break it down. 

"That's two stories." You looked at her trying to form a plan. "...Get under the bed." 

Jill looked confused, "Wha-" 

"Just do as I say." You harshly whispered. "Get under the bed and don't make a sound or come out until I get you, okay? Trust me!…Go!" 

You watched her go to crawl under Kirby's bed as you climbed over the railing.

Jill hid under the bed as you heard the door to Kirby's room finally break and the killer come inside. Slowly walking past Kirby's bed...

You made a gasp as you almost fell.

Ghostface darted out onto the balcony to see you descend onto the porch roof. You rushed down around the corner of the home and looked back to see Ghostface on the roof too. Staring at you through that mask before disappearing. You figured back inside to look for the others because you looked back around the corner to see they were gone.

You quickly used the opportunity to get your cellphone.

You faltered just a second...You didn't trust to call police because you did not trust Judy. You didn't care if she was out in the open when Jill's mother was killed. Partners. Besides, you did not have a good track record of using your one phone call for cops and either they don't show up, show up too late, or show up and make things worse with the killer. But you still had to call someone. Randy dead, Gale injured, maybe Dewey? Maybe just risk 911-

You heard a noise and out of reflex you accidently pushed a button on speed dial that you hissed a curse at. Too late, they picked up the phone as you frantically tried windiws.

As soon as it picked up you rushed out, "The killer's here at Kirby's! I need your help. 329 whispering lane-" 

You yelled as you rounded the corner to try a window you saw was cracked open just for the killer to jump out at you. You gasped and stepped back as they tried to slash you with the knife as you dropped the phone on the roof and lost your footing. Tumbling off the roof before barely catching yourself on the gutter. Your fingers and hands burned painfully from the impact as well as trying to hang onto the thin uncomfortable metal with your body weight. The hand you injured from the knife stab a decade ago hurt the worst. Tingling and burning as you desperately tried to hang on. 

You gasped looking up to see a knife and mask. The knife narrowly missed your hand as you let go and let yourself fall harshly onto the ground. Tumbling painfully before laying there a second from the impact. Robbie no longer screamed…Only the smell of flesh and hair and plastic burning as his body provided some fucked up bonfire in the front yard that blazed overtop a pile of dead leaves...And of course this house was about like Stu's with hardly any neighbors. Should've seen that a mile away.

"Shit…" You grabbed the knife from your boot and bolted, forcing your legs to move even if they didn't want to. Running back into the house before yelping at someone grabbing you. You went to stab them before she said, "No, no, no, no! Sorry, It's me." 

You lowered the knife as you saw Kirby. She drew you to a corner of the kitchen to quietly talk. "Look, I tried to call 911 but the landlines dead and someone smashed the router...And my cellphone is missing. I-I don't know, I think I lost it while running I don't understand. "  

Your mind raced with that.

But…Did she actually call 911? Or was she lying? Where had she been? Why didn't she go with you and Jill? Did she actually try to call or did she mess with the landline and wifi in her own house?...

You didn't have time to talk as you both heard heavy footsteps upstairs and Kirby opened the basement door and rushed you in, "Oh god. Go, go, go, go, go!" She urged before following after you and locking the door as you both quickly got down the steps as she informed you. "There's a room down here we can lock ourselves in. I heard you yelling at Jill; is she okay? Did she get away?" 

You both made it to the room as you told her, "She's safe but where's the others? Trevor, Charlie?" 

Kirby breathed out shakily. "I don't know." 

You hissed through your teeth. "Did Trevor or anyone have a shoulder or arm wound? I shot Ghostface in the shoulder tonight before they escaped the barn." 

Kirby mumbled, "I don't think so." All before locking you both in the dark room…Suddenly, you both gasped and jumped at a banging noise. Nearly jumping out of your skin as you instinctively wielded your small knife. You held your knife tightly as you both saw a bloody Charlie banging desperately on the glass door leading to the backyard.

"Kirby! Please, let me in!" 

"Charlie?" Kirby breathed out, going to the door…Her eyes darted to his bloody hand and arm. 

He looked where her eyes traveled and he shook his head. "N-No! I got attacked! Please, let me in!..." He kept banging his bloody hand on the glass while fearfully looking around. "Please! There is someone else out here, let me in! They burnt Robbie!...Jesus Christ, Kirby, they set him ablaze in the yard!" 

You saw Kirby ponder and you told her firmly. Already having your hunch. "If you can't trust him; don't open the door…"

Kirby looked taken aback by that realization. 

Charlie looked outraged on the other side of the glass. "My God! Let me in!" He begged Kirby with fear raising his voice a few octaves. "I don't know who's doing this but it's not me! Please!" 

Kirby swallowed but with a tense look told him. "...Get away from the door, Charlie." 

"Kirby! It's me!" Charlie whimpered with desperate pleas. 

Kirby had tears in her eyes, voice strained as she ordered him. "Get away from the door, Charlie!" 

Charlie's bloody hand slid down the glass as he cried out, "It's me! P-Please, Kirby! It's meee-" He whined the last part in a desperate sob. 

Kirby shook her head, tears welling in her eyes as her voice cracked. And in the tiniest, crackling voice she told him. "...I'm sorry, I can't…" 

You saw the struggle on Kirby's face. Trust no one…This could be a set up to make you trust her completely. You just stood back away from the door or windows with your knife ready. Back against the wall. Nothing behind the wall. Trust no one.

Charlie stepped away from the door into the porch light's view. "What the fuck?!" He yelled in outrage and disbelief. 

Suddenly, Ghostface appeared behind him as Kirby screamed, "LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU!!" 

Killer grabbing Charlie and banging his head into the glass right over the bloody handprint he left. Smearing blood on the glass before dragging him away into the dark…

You and Kirby looked taken aback, both staring helplessly…Then suddenly, whoever was doing this shut off the outside light. It was pitch black both outside and in the room now as your eyes adjusted to the darkness surrounding you. Back against the wall as you swallowed hard and tried to get your mind in survival mode. 

And then…The lights turned on outside to see Charlie tied to a chair…So similar to the report of Steven Oarth's body found or that friend of the girl that worked for Randy. 

"Leave him alone!!" Kirby yelled, banging on the glass with teary eyes. "Damnit, leave him alone!" 

You stood back and watched in disbelief. Questioning everything. How did Charlie get tied up so easily? Was Kirby faking it? Where the hell is Jill? Where's Trevor? And now, you have no phone to call 911…It was on the roof…Then again, you called multiple times in 1996 that awful night and they didn't show up till a fire broke out...Apparently one body on fire in a leaf pile isn't enough. You felt cornered on your own here. The only thing driving you was to kill this Ghostface and find who they were. Honestly, at this point, in that order. Anyone dumb enough in this situation to run at you with that mask on deserved beat or stabbed and feel guilty about it later.

You saw Charlie bound and gagged in that chair. And you just stood in the darkness of the room helplessly watching. 

Kirby's phone rang. Charlie's contact as she answered. In the silence of the room, you could hear the Ghostface's voice on the line talk to Kirby. 

"Tell YN heads are gonna roll tonight! Tell YN this is all because of her! Or maybe she wants to take his place? I promise to be quick." 

You gritted your teeth hearing the sadistic excitement in their voice. Oh how much you wanted to yank that phone out of Kirby's hand and tell them to stop being a coward and come get you then…But you knew better. Instead, you whispered to Kirby, "Keep them talking." You knew it was most likely one of them or both of them…But it could be an outside influence, someone not necessarily in the group just like Neil was. 

Kirby tearily nodded as she sucked in a breath to keep Ghostface on the line as you snuck out of the dark room. 

—-------------------------------------

Kirby stood there as you left, shaking like a leaf. "Please, let him go." 

"I hear you like horror movies, Kirby. But do you like them as much as him?...Forget watching Stab. You get to live it!" 

Kirby's eyes widened, "No! Nononono, he's the expert, not me!" As she locked eyes with Charlie who struggled against his ties. 

"Warm up question: Jason's weapon?" 

Kirby fumbled at first in her fear stricken state. "Uuhhh, it's a machete." She released a small sniffle and touched her head.

"There, ya see? You do know the genre." The voice is entirely too sweet. Mocking her before snapping. "Michael Myers?!" 

"Uh, butcher knife." 

"Leatherface?!" 

"A Chainsaw! Please!" Kirby answered faster, desperate to save her friend as a small sob escaped her. 

"Just ask YN if you need some help. Freddy Krueger?!" 

"Uh, uh. Razor hands!" 

"Name the movie that started the Slasher craze. Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Last House on the Left, or Psycho?" 

"Psycho!" Kirby growled out through her teeth before the voice aggressively cut her off as Kirby kept pacing the doors window looking at Charlie. 

"NONE of the above! Peeping Tom 1960 directed by Michael Powe; first movie to ever put the audience in the killer's POV!" 

"Wha-" Kirby's breath caught in her throat as she clutched her head. "What? Please! Nononono, please just ask me one more question, just one more!" 

"...Alright Kirby. Then it's time for your last chance question …" The voice so sinister on the other line as Kirby softly cried to herself. "Name the remake of the groundbreaking horror movie in which the villain-" 

"Uh Halloween-" Kirby shook her head while frantically going over every horror remake she knew. "Texas Chainsaw, Dawn of the Dead, Hills have.. Eyes-" She scrunched her face forcing this out while trying to scrap her brain for every last straw she could grasp. "Uh Amityville horror, Last House on the Left, F-Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, My Bloody Valentine, When a Stranger Calls, Prom Night, Black Christmas, House of Wax, The Fog, Uh…Uh Piranha!...It's one of those, right? Right?!" She demanded while staring out the window at Charlie. 

…The line went dead silent. Everything stopped as the line was quiet, no attacks, no taunts. 

"I was right?" Kirby gritted her teeth to go outside. "I was fucking right." 

She opened the door, looked around, before rushing to her bound friend. "Hold on Charlie." She removed his tape from his mouth as he gasped and groaned at the feeling. Kirby quickly worked on untying him as she spoke. "He tried to trick me but I fucking won!" She smiled a bit as she got his hands free. Looking cautiously around herself in the dark as she tried to get the tape undone on his wrists and ankles. She helped him up and told him, "It's gonna be okay! It's-" 

"Kirby." He said her name like it was a chore. "This is making a move." 

Kirby gasped as she felt searing pain…A knife Charlie had hidden plunging deep into her abdomen. She choked on tears and air…And her eyes darted to the blood on his white shirt that he claimed was from an attack by the killer…It shifted as he stabbed and she saw a bloody gauze thickly wrapped up where the blood had soaked through from earlier…From us shooting him in the barn…She remembered him acting odd, noticing him wincing a bit when he sat down earlier but she thought it was nerves from stress…My God…It really was Charlie. 

He killed his best friend Robbie. He stole Robbie's Dad's Crossbow. He stabbed Gale. He killed Randy Meeks…It was him.

Kirby's teary eyes looked at him desperately for an answer to the madness as she choked on her sobs of pain. He jerked it back out. 

"Four years of classes and now you notice me?! All those times at the video store that you could talk Randy's ear off about horror movies like he's a fucking Messiah of horror while ignoring me?! All those years of teasing and leading me on in the friendzone and now you care?!" He demanded with angry tears in his own eyes as Kirby gripped his shoulder in pain gasping for air with wide eyes. Charlie yelled before plunging it back in her again. "Stupid bitch! It's too late!!" 

Charlie gripped onto Kirby as her body went lax. Tears and choked whimpers escaping her as the pain felt like shocks coursing through her. 

Charlie shhed her as he held her in a soft voice, "Shh, shhh. I know, I know. It's okay, take your time…Doesn't happen as fast in real life as it does in the movies, I know." 

He smirked a bit as Kirby could do nothing but feel pain as the shock of all this slapped her in the face… 

"C-C-Charlie…" 

He brutally killed Olivia to look like Tatum's death. He hosted the party. He massacred Randy. Stabbed Gale. Set his so-called best friend on fire…Now? He was stabbing her to death and killing their entire friend group plus YN. 

"Just like Sidney Prescott …Shh…I bet she suffered in that house, huh? Stab had her die instantly but I bet she gasped in pain too when Billy plunged his knife in her." He softly told Kirby. 

He then whispered something in Kirby's ear that made her eyes widen…

Kirby choked out pained gasps before Charlie shook his head and shoved Kirby off his knife to let her lay on the ground. Taking gasping breaths like a fish out of water as a pool of blood.

Charlie looked close to crying and ran a hand through his long hair while he stalked back to the house. The night wasn't over. 

—--------------------------------------

You tried to look for Jill, Trevor, your phone but couldn't find any. You put your small knife back getting  a much bigger one off the counter…Kitchen knife in hand and backup knife in your boot.

You came downstairs, that front door still open as you rounded the corner.   Opening the door to the bottom level Kirby was at last…But stopped yourself from calling out to her. It was too quiet…You wanted this Ghostface dead or caught. Wanted to help these kids. But everything in you screamed get in the car and get away. 

You took a steadying breath and backed up the stairs a few steps. Knife in hand, eyes darting before someone grabbed you in a chokehold so tight you gagged as your knife clattered down the steps and you were jerked backwards.

Charlie's arm had you in a tight grip with his knife at your face. Blood staining his white shirt…And he seemed in pain with the arm he was holding you with. Blood on the shoulder you shot. 

…You knew it. 

He was pressed against a wall as he mumbled in your ear, “You know you learn a lot when you watch movies over and over. All the plots are about to ridicule you…Think you're gonna get away? Think anyone gets away?” His lips near your ear as you gritted your teeth and slammed him back against a wall. 

As soon as he hit the wall he let you go and you grabbed your knife from your boot as you went to run out the door. You were getting out. You were outnumbered now. Just until help got here. 

…But you got intercepted…When someone plunged a knife deep into your stomach.

You had been shot and stabbed but never in your gut like that. It knocked the wind from you, your body freezing up in pain as you fell back against the staircase wall. A choking gasp escaped your lips as you clutched your stomach. You went to slash at them, jolted by the pain you felt the second you moved your arm as it radiated down to your abdomen. Ghostface easily smacked that small knife out of your hand.

It clattered to the ground feet away and you felt all air leave your lungs.

The Ghostface came towards you, lowering their knife before taking off that damn mask you learned to resent…

Long dark hair cascaded out first followed by a fair complexion and a smirk on full pink lips…And your mouth dropped.

…Jill.

You shook your head. Shocked because she wasn't even on Randy's radar. And then your face soured as you realized this was just a decade ago all over again. Another one of Sidney's family is either jealous or wanting revenge.

“Hello, Yn…” She tilted her head with a smirk. “Surprised?” 

She got inside her mask to show a small camera. “See this? This is the part where the cameras…” It beeped as she held it up smugly. “Turn off.” 

“Good.” Was the only thing you heard before a man's hand jerked her by the head and slammed her forehead against the staircase railing as she screamed in pain and anger. Billy had a firm grip on her hair.

“Jill!” Charlie went to defend her before Stu grabbed him by the throat and jerked him back.

 “Where you goin’?” Stu taunted. Knife jerking back ready to stab Charlie repeatedly at a moment's notice. “After party's just starting man. Pretty lame if you ask me. Mine was a rager.” Stu jeered with an insane grin.

You couldn't help the relieved smile as you clutched your bleeding abdomen…They actually came back for you. They heard your call and came back.

The sound of a knife jerking out of a pocket sounded as Billy readied his hunting knife. Jill cursed and struggled. “Time to join the other idiots.” He murmured.

Stu grinned, “Hell yeah, man! Number one, baby! We'll always be the one-” 

Right when Billy went to plunge his knife into Jill's side she jerked with a scream as he barely got her…Before a gunshot ran out and you saw Stu jerk back with a shocked expression on his face.

Charlie pulled out a gun leveled it behind him shooting again as Stu got shot right in his rib area jerking back from it before Charlie went to shoot again and Stu tripped backwards over a spare chair landing through the glass sliding door with enough force to fall through it.

“Motherfucker!” Billy hissed out ready to slit Jill's throat and Charlie quickly pointed the gun at us; grabbed us by the back of the neck.

Damn…This has happened too many times before.

“Let her go…Or YN dies.” Charlie mumbled, nervously licking at his lips as he fidgeted with you in his grip. You went to struggle, trying to elbow him and Charlie shoved it to your temple as you groaned in pain.

Billy really considered…He glared, Jill still in his grasp. Until Jill stabbed him in the leg. He yelled, accidentally letting her go as he clutched his thigh.

Charlie jerked you into the kitchen as Jill hissed, seeing a bit of blood where Billy barely stabbed her side before she kicked him to follow Charlie and You. “Move, asshole!” 

Billy growled in his throat as he readied his knife to stab the ever loving hell outta her before Charlie pointed his gun at him while still having a painful grip on you. “You heard her.”

Billy looked ready to take the risk, not one to back down but hearing Stu groaning in pain among the shattered pieces of glass on the porch and you yelping when Charlie shoved you with too much force into the counter. Right where your stab wound was…He relented. 

Walking as Jill told him. “Give me the knife.” 

“Bite me, bitch.” Billy scoffed. 

Charlie threatened with the gun again. “Come on, what's a knife gonna do with a gun anyways? Try to think.” 

Billy scowled before dropping the knife.

Jill smirked. “Not totally stupid. Now walk.” She ordered shoving him as Billy dragged himself forward with her knife leveled at him and her pocketing his for now. 

Jill called out Charlie's name as he forced Billy to stand beside you near the kitchen counter. “Already taken care of.” Charlie told her while shutting doors and she stood near you both with the knife. 

“Get that other douchebag for the line up.” She ordered.

Charlie went to Stu dragging him through glass by his ankles as Stu groaned in pain, teeth clenched. His shirt too dark and bloody to tell where he was shot before Charlie heaved him with a groan and shoved him up to stand. Then shoving him near the counter as Stu tried to swing on him and missed. Just hissing in pain as he caught himself next to Billy, and to your surprise, Billy instinctively reached out to steady him.

Charlie blew air past his lips with a smirk and showed a camera from his pocket. “Damn, he's a big boy, huh Jill?…And guess what? I got great footage of my Robbie kill. Better than Marnie or Olivia even.” 

“Good. We'll cut and upload it later to make it all traceable to Trevor.” Jill replied with the knife near your face.

You panted in pain while Billy stood near you leaning on the counter. His dark eyes scanning the room for any way to get leverage. Stu gripped the counter, sweating but looking murderously at both teens holding you all hostage right now.

If Charlie didn't have that gun? This would've been over with both of them dead. If YOU had your goddamn gun this could've been over before Billy and Stu even got here!

You stared at Jill, seething once the shock wore off realizing the last few days you and Randy were so nice to her; you were talking to the killer all along. Her and Charlie didn't seem to recognize Billy and Stu or if they did they weren't saying.

“Speaking of which-” Charlie opened the doors to the closet and dragged out Trevor who he threw on the ground bound and gagged with tape.

“Remind you of anything?” Charlie retorted towards you.

Yeah, did it ever. Only this time Billy and Stu were just as much victims as you were.

Charlie ripped the tape off as Trevor begged, “Jill pleas-” 

“Shut up!” She cut him off with a yell as she stripped herself of the Ghostface robe.

Charlie got closer towards you, blood on him. “See everything I learned I learned from you.” 

Stu shoved him away. “Get the fuck away from her, man.” He growled out in pain but this was a man that took so many stabbings when younger and still attacked you and flipped you both over a couch. 

Charlie scoffed but he knew who had the power right now as he smirked. But…He looked at Stu longer. Almost trying to connect the dots. 

Jill brought Charlie back as she mumbled, “Who are these guys anyways? Don't tell me they're your side pieces or something.” Jill jeered with a malicious smirk as you all said nothing. “You think my cousin Sidney had a shitty boyfriend, YN!? Here's one that fucks you, dumps you…And doesn't even make you famous.” She gave a wry smirk before kicking Trevor in his shoulder as he cried out.

Billy's eyes narrowed and his nostrils flared at hearing Jill was his old girlfriend's cousin. You could tell he wanted to kill her that much more. 

Trevor cried out, “The fuck, Jill!? I loved you!” 

Jill rolled her eyes, “Shut the fuck UP already!” Before kicking him multiple times as he yelled out in pain each blow.

Stu mumbled to Billy and you, “Mean ass girl, isn't she?” Sarcastically while he huffed and held his side in pain.

Billy asked, "How you holding up?"

"By my last bit of skin, man...Fuck. He got me in the side and lower belly." Stu huffed out in a wince.

"Fuck." Billy scoffed. "...You know what to do still?

Stu smirked, "Yeah..."

Charlie gave the gun to Jill, “I'm sure the cops would want you to have this, Jill. For your protection.” 

The second that gun wasn't aimed, Billy and Stu tried to charge Charlie for it. Their street smarts and instincts ready to attack in pain or not but before they could Jill stabbed you in the gut again and the most strangled cry escaped you. It hurt your throat to scream with such a primal pain and it instantly made Billy and Stu falter just enough for Charlie to aim the gun at them.

You cried, tears in your eyes at that god awful pain as you clutched your lower gut. 

Jill glared, “Do that shit again and I'll stab her in the throat.” She tilted her head. “Who are you anyways? Shouldn't you both be dead?” 

Billy and Stu had no choice but to back off. And when Jill said that…Charlie's entire demeanor changed. 

“Oh my God…No way…I-I thought you looked familiar but-” Charlie drew out like some star struck fan.

Jill's eyes widened too before she laughed loudly. “Shut the fuck up!...No way, Gale was right? Gale Weather's was actually right about you, YN!?” 

You sniffed back tears, gritting your teeth in contempt but not answering her. 

Charlie pointed the gun to each of them. “Bill Loomis…And Stu Macher. It's such a privilege to meet you two in the flesh!” 

Billy sneered at him, “Great, another dick rider.” He grumbled under his breath. 

Jill chuckled, “I can't believe it.” As even Trevor looked flabbergasted from the floor. “Wow, YN…Little Miss American Sweetheart is actually a treacherous lying snake. I mean, hiding two of the famous Woodsboro killers under everyone's nose and ruining Gale Weather's career over it?...Under different circumstances I'd applaud you.” 

Charlie looked momentarily freaked out. “Jill…Jill, what are we gonna do I mean…This changes our plans! I-” 

Jill took his gun. “Shhhh.” She softly told him in a way to calm him down. “It'll still work, Baby. Remember? I'm YN and you're Randy…Now, Trevor doesn't have to be Billy. We can work with this. I mean, who is going to question who the killers were with Billy and Stu here?” 

Charlie's breath hitched as he forced a smile. “And this time, Randy gets the girl.” 

She kissed him. Looking at you with the gun pointed the entire time.

Stu and Billy sneered. And the idea hit you. Charlie…Charlie you shot Charlie in the barn. He wants to be the ‘new Randy’...He was jealous and killed Randy because Randy got Kirby's attention, Randy was the movie expert, Randy was a cool nerd in school unlike Charlie. 

You shook your head in disgust. “You'll never be Randy…Do you hear me? He was better than you in every fucking way!” You forced out through tears and clenched teeth. They stopped kissing as you practically snarled at Jill. “And you will never be me! You're nothing but a jealous attention seeking litt-” 

You cried out as she pistol whipped you upside the face hard enough to jerk your head and taste blood in your mouth. Billy and Stu had to stop themselves from lunging at her, remembering the gun.

Jill looked at you with a glare as you coughed and wiped blood off your lip. Swearing she just knocked out a tooth. 

“Don't you get it? You're old news.” She gave plainly. 

You stood back up, blood on the corner of your lip as you tiredly clutched your stomach.

Trevor cried out from on the floor, “Jill, baby! Please, this isn't you!” 

Jill gave him a bored look. Leveling the gun at him and holding the knife towards you. You swore she was gonna shoot him but instead…She looked at Charlie.

“Charlie…Ya know, now with us being able to pin this on thee Billy Loomis and Stu Macher…Trevor's role can change. We don't need another Billy or Stu…But we need a James. I mean, every final girl needs some fucked up shit to happen to her like her boyfriend being mutilated. Media will eat that up.” 

Your eyes widened and you shook your head. 

Charlie even faltered a moment. 

Jill glared at him. “Do not chicken out on me now, Charlie!” 

Charlie just shook his head swallowing. “Not chickening out…Just gotta make sure we film this. Are we good on time?” He started putting the Ghostface outfit back on.

Jill smiled, “Oh yeah, we're perfect.” 

Trevor looked terrified and so did you as Charlie quickly threw Jill's outfit on, getting the mask off the counter and turned the inner camera on. He dropped down to Trevor and slid the knife threatenly over his neck. 

“D-Don't!” You begged on deaf ears as Trevor gave a blood curdling scream as Charlie started doing what Billy and Stu did to your boyfriend back in 1996 in that field. Billy and Stu seemed both unfazed or annoyed at best while you closed your eyes and covered your ears screaming over Trevor, “STOP IT!!” 

The sounds of him screaming in pain, flesh being ripped as Charlie pulled while sawing, the smell of blood. You felt ready to scream yourself as Billy to your shock drew you near with a hand on your shoulder protectively so you didn't do something stupid like lash out. Him and Stu watched the whole time. While this was the one traumatic thing that happened to you indirectly that you thankfully didn't see even if James was a shitty boyfriend. You closed your eyes and Billy had a death grip on you. You felt sick whether from bloodlose or this was debatable.

You shakily looked when the screams died down and wished you hadn't. Seeing Trevor bloody and half his face skinned off as he seemed to tremble and writhe as his body went into shock from the pain. You wanted to pass out or throw up and knowing Billy and Stu gleefully did this that night while calling you and…And hearing James sobbing and begging you to help him.

Billy's grip tightened on your shoulder as if he knew. His eyes narrowed. Stu tried inching towards a door and Jill shot the gun near the door as everyone flinched or ducked.

She said nothing, not wanting her voice on camera. As Charlie peeled his face the rest of the way off then stabbed him from sternum to groin as he choked and jerked and spasmed in pain on the floor.

And Jill just numbly watched…Watched a boy that loved her get this done to him.

Charlie took off the mask and shut off the camera with a bewildered smirk. “Holy shit…That was awesome.” He held up Trevor's face. “Hey, YN; wanna reenact TCM 2?” And tried to threatenly put Trevor's face on yours as you instinctively hid in Billy's chest. Trying to face away with an uncharacteristic whimper at what you were just forced to see. Like you were a scared teen girl all over again.

“I will staple that face to yours if you even try it! It'll be one hell of an improvement!” Stu jeered and weakly shoved him back as Billy put an arm over you.

 However, Billy gripped you and forced you to turn around. You knew it was his way of silently telling you to be strong and you forced yourself to not look at Trevor or the face in Charlie's hand and instead glared at Jill. Feeling weak with blood loss and yet you had so much hate for her. 

Jill smiled, “Now THAT is going to get views.” She looked at you. “See with you the world just heard about what happened but with us…They're gonna see it. It's gonna be a worldwide sensation. I mean, people gotta see this shit!” Jill chuckled. “It's not like anyone reads anymore.” 

Charlie took off the glove and showed you guys a video of…Of Randy being killed. Of him on the ground backpedaling with an arrow in him. All alone in the dark. 

“No please! Don't-” He got cut off choking in pain as he was stabbed repeatedly. “D-Don't hurt them…Don't hurt my kids and wife…D-D-Don't hurt YN…Please-” He pleaded with blood near his mouth before screaming in pain again as Charlie stabbed him repeatedly and the video cut off…To a close up of him hanging…Still twitching barely alive as he hung there…Guts out.

Tears welled in your eyes as your breathing got shallow. You were trembling with so much rage and mind shattering devastation. Seeing your best friend in his final moments tonight in pain begging for his life…For yours even after your argument. Even after everything he didn't hate you.

“...I'm gonna kill you…You goddamn pieces of shit…” You forced out shakily through your teeth as tears rolled down your cheeks. “I'M GONNA FUCKING KILL YOU!!” Billy and Stu had to jerk you back, Billy the least injured having you in almost a headlock before you got shot. 

Jill laughed, “God, you are so dramatic! So that goody two shoes love and peace for all; is that some PR move or-” She mocked as Billy jerked you and you were trying to fight him even in ungodly pain to get to her or Charlie.

“Stop! Now!” Billy ordered in your ear. “...We'll get them…” He reassured while still holding you back as you stopped struggling and glared daggers at them both tears rolling down your face.

Charlie informed you. “Stole Robbie's Dad's crossbow. I mean that guy on Walking Dead just gave me major ideas and Robbie also…Lured Randy back to the party by recording you and Kirby. Poor kid had no idea he was helping me get Randy tonight. Jill took care of things at her house and Kirby's phone.” 

You could only glare at him.

Jill told you. “We're gonna have fame you never even dreamed of.” 

Charlie looked at Jill in adoration. “You were the perfect victim, Jill.” 

Jill laughed like a teen girl getting away with sneaking out past curfew while Trevor bled out on the floor. “I was SO believable today, wasn't I? I mean, I told so many lies that I actually started to believe them…I really think that I was born for this.” 

Stu huffed, looking tired and woozy himself. “Congratulations.” He sarcastically monotoned. 

You got away from Billy as he let you go and you demanded weakly, “How could you do this?...Sidney-” 

“Shut up!” Jill demanded, her smiling dropping. “Do you even know what it was like in this family being related to Sidney Prescott?! Sidney this and Sidney that and Sidney, Sidney, Sidney! She was always just SO FUCKING SPECIAL!” She screeched.  “And then you…” She pointed the knife at you. “I hated you just as much. What? You survive bad luck and get all this attention? Big house somewhere, never have to work, all these interviews and book deals because your life was hard?...You had your 15 minutes of fame NOW I WANT MINE!” She yelled.

Billy groaned as Stu tiredly mumbled to him. “Told you. Fame. You owe me 50 bucks.” 

You ignored them and stared at her, shaking your head mumbling. “You'll slip. They always do.” 

Jill gave a wry smirk, looking back at Billy and Stu who technically did get away with it before saying, “Come on Charlie, let's get this over with.” 

Stu was losing a lot of blood and so were you as you both gripped the counters and Billy wasn't able to run. You all were pretty much sitting ducks right now.

Charlie handed Jill the knife. He started breathing puffs of air out of his mouth, bouncing on his feet as Jill told him loudly, “You've gotta be strong…And hold still! Okay?” 

He nervously breathed, “Old School, like Billy and Stu.” 

Billy made a face and Stu despite his condition let out a mocking laugh. Billy added over Stu's laughter, “That's right, real deep too. Don't be pussies now in front of your idols-”  

Charlie closed his eyes saying “Come on, get it up-” Before slapping himself across the face multiple times.

Stu laughed silently hanging his head and leaning on the counter for support.

You stood there thinking you felt like you were in a Twilight Zone right now or a damn insane asylum from back in the day while Stu and Billy had sadistic grins on their faces eager to see some ‘fan’ that gave them injuries get stabbed.

Charlie smacked his shoulder shakily yelling at Jill, “Shoulder me, shoulder me! Come on! GET IT UP-” 

You gasped with a slight satisfaction yourself when Jill plunged the knife right into his chest. Billy went from watching with interest to smirking with a dark look in his eye and Stu through his sweat and pain grinned ear to ear.

Charlie choked a gasp, holding his bleeding chest. “The heart?!- T-That's not how we rehearsed it!” 

You finally spoke with an edge to your voice. “You said it. Billy and Stu…If Trevor became James. And Robbie was supposed to be Stu…” 

Jill smirked to herself seeing it dawn on Charlie. She told him, “I know it's going against the script…But this is a franchise. Not a remake. And what the media loves is a sole survivor.” She whispered cruelly. “Robbie was your partner. Both of you jealous little outcasts but you…You were the idea man.” 

She plunged the knife in again as Charlie gasped harshly falling to his knees. Hyperventilating as he bled. Shock written all over his face before collapsing in a pathetic heap on the ground. 

You didn't care if it made you a monster too…There was some satisfaction. Especially when you remembered what he showed you on that phone. “You'll never be Randy, Charlie.” Was the last thing you said as Stu almost gave a little hollar of glee and Billy chuckled under his breath watching Charlie be betrayed and now only seconds from dying.

You glanced at Jill holding your stomach and like Stu things were getting blurry for you. “So…You killed all your friends…Now what?” You asked the bigger picture of what happens when all this is said and done.

Jill glared at you. “My Friends?” 

She walked up to you and Billy and Stu tensed up a bit. It was 3 against 1. 2 grown men, a grown woman and one teen girl…Problem was 1 grown man looked ready to pass out, the grown woman wasn't far behind him, the other grown man had a fucked up leg now that couldn't move as fast and the little teen bitch from hell still had the gun.

“What world are you living in? I don't need friends, I need fans ….DON'T YOU GET IT!?” She snapped at you. “This has never been about killing you…This is about becoming you. I mean for fucksake all my friends and boyfriend had to die.” 

“And your mother?” You asked, trying to be brave but staring crazy in the face again after so long…Worked on your mind.

“Collateral damage.” She mused with nothing in her dark eyes…Just nothing. “That's sick right? Well, sick is the new sane.” She whispered with a small smile eyeing you.

Even Billy and Stu didn't kill their own parents.

“You had your 15 minutes now I WANT MINE!” She yelled in your face. “I mean, what am I supposed to do? Go to college, grad school, work? Look around. We're all in the public eye now, we're all on the internet…How do you think people become famous anymore!? You don't have to achieve ANYTHING!” She gestured to you. “You just gotta have fucked up shit happen to you.” 

You stared at her in shock at her logic of wanting to be you. To have your life. To want to be the victim, to want to have people whisper about you or treat you horribly or treat you like glass. To have a target on your back forever.

All of this…ALL of this pain…Because some brat wanted attention and to get by easy in life?

Billy and Stu looked just as bewildered as you. Stu finally gave a humorously dry chuckle while trying to breathe, still holding his wounds. “I mean…Okay idea but-” 

She instantly shot him.

You froze as Stu got shot somewhere in the abdomen and went flying back. Billy went to lunge at Jill and got shot as well. He growled in pain and hit the counter. Wincing and slipping on his bloody palms trying to keep himself up. Stu laid limply and you tried not to hyperventilate at how messed up this was becoming because of one damn girl. Stu groaned on the ground coughing as he weakly held himself.

Jill laughed, “I WAS going to kill you all and blame Charlie and Trevor or Charlie and Robbie but now?...No…I think it doesn't matter if these two idiots live. Great! Because no one will question it. NO ONE. Billy Loomis and Stu Macher survived? They clearly did this and almost killed a poor innocent girl after slaughtering her friends.” 

You shook your head with fearful tears in your eyes. Billy glared daggers at her sneering, “You dumb little fuck…You think I'm going down after 15 years?!” He grabbed a kitchen knife and took the risk of throwing it. 

It went right into the arm that held the gun as she screamed and he instantly with his adrenaline pumping tried to grab it…You went for it too this time to help him instead of the other few times.

You gasped as a sharp painful cry escaped him…Jill stabbed him in the abdomen and jerked sideways. 

“Billy!-” You went to attack her too, hoping for an opening. ANYTHING! You were gonna die and-

She jerked the knife out of her arm with an almost enraged scream and stabbed you when you least expected it. She made it look like you had an opening to grab that gun and maybe you did? But her determination was just that much stronger.

She plunged the knife deep into you as you saw Billy had tried to get up multiple times and kept slipping while trying to hold his own wound close and slumped down gasping for air…Stu wasn't moving from what you could see…And you just got stabbed again. Deep. Blood spurted over your hand. This felt higher than before.

“Sorry, there's only room for one final girl and let's face it…Your time's up.” She looked so pleased with herself. So giddy as you collapsed onto your stomach.

You laid there trembling, barely breathing with your eyes wide open in fear. You heard footsteps seeing Jill walking away.

Billy looked just as bad but your eyes locked with each other on the kitchen floor. “B-B-Bill-” You couldn't even get his name out.

He shhed you. Cringing and as quietly as he could gritted his teeth to drag himself over to you as Jill started going ahead and hurting herself…Absolutely trying to kill herself by stabbing you hitting her head on a glass picture frame while yelling in pain. Trying to make it all look like she was brutally attacked.

Billy shhed you again when tears started falling from your eyes…After so long of being numb…You didn't wanna die. 

“I'm…I'm scared…Billy-” You just admitted it. Trembling like a scared child while bleeding out on the ground. Things were getting harder to focus on as he laid next to you on his back to keep his guts from pressing against the gash. 

You never thought you'd ever give him the satisfaction. Not at that shed, not in your house, not in the closet, Stu's house, Windsor, the motel- Never thought you'd give him the satisfaction of admitting you were scared of dying but you were.

Your hand trembled uncontrollably and he shhed you again. Weakly telling you, “Hey…Shh…It's alright…Don't cry, she'll hear you. If she stabs us in the head or throat or heart we're done, kid.” 

You shook your head trying not to sob as your head felt like you were gonna faint. 

“You're tough. Okay?...You can do this…You've always been a tough bitch to beat…I should know…Don't let that brat win. Don't let me or Stu win either…” He told you with heavy tired eyes. His head lolling to the side to gaze at you. Both of you held eye contact before he reached out and so did you.

“Billy…I-...I never meant…I always wanted-” You knew what you wanted to say but…Getting it out.

He stopped you with another soft shh and held your hand. He held it tight. His own fear of dying present but his urge to put on a brave face for his ego…For you too; was stronger. It's like he knew what you meant and he released a soft breath of air as if a giant weight was off his shoulders.

“Mine…” He mumbled with a small tired smile. “You've always been mine…” And then his eyes just…Closed.

Mark entered your mind and you couldn't control the small whimper as you trembled Jill crashing into things in the background.

“...Billy?” You whispered. Trying to move but couldn't as you held his hand so tight it hurt. “Billy, wake up. Please…” You whimpered as you were so tired…So so tired.

The last thing you saw was black…And glass shattering as Jill threw herself on the coffee table…And then sirens outside.

[tehrevving]

What has been Vincent's thoughts on reader? Especially the latest date fiasco and his moody reveal turning into probably the best bj of his life

Holy crap this answer got so long and drops so much unrevealed lore lmao. Enjoy!

My general characterisation of Vincent with regards to sex is that he is very interested in giving, but not so much receiving. Most of his sexual experience was with women at 'Turk Academy', who gravitated towards him because he was great at eating out and didn't expect too much in return. Vincent is demi and bi in my fic, but has a preference for women (because they make more mess lmao), not sure if that's relevant but *shrug*.

Due to him being demi, most of his experience being casual and how Lucrecia used him (which I've hinted at a little bit). He doesn't see fingering/eating out/etc as things that are overly emotional or complicated. Especially in the 'modern' day, as he can just keep his clothes on during all of it.

Reader made a deliberate effort in the beginning to understand him and get closer to him, just as a friend of course, but I don't think it's too surprising that he 'latched on' to the first person to take an interest in actually getting to know him in a long time. I do wish I'd added an extra chapter near the beginning to make this a bit more clear lol, but oh well.

After Hojo's experiments on him, he doesn't think anyone could ever want him. He actually is that person covering the bathroom mirrors and showering in the dark lol. He interprets Reader initially showing sexual interest in him, not as her actually wanting him, but as her wanting him to pleasure her, which he has no problem with doing.

She tries to address this in chapter 9 (the one after the stargazing but before the eating out), and explicitly tells him that she wants more, but he's so in denial that while he says he'll try and be better, in his mind he doesn't believe her, and to cope with it reverts to trying to ignore all of it with sex. Which was basically his relationship with Lucrecia lol, everything is too complicated so we'll just fuck and ignore all of it.

Vincent caught feelings after the fight where he transforms and the conversation afterwards. He didn't realise that's what was happening at the time, and has been in extreme denial about it. A lot of his back and forth behaviour has been him trying to reconcile his feelings with his own self-doubt and just general trauma and issues, and that he generally didn't see sex as a big deal, until suddenly it is.

All of this then builds up to the point where he just can't handle it anymore. He hasn't tried getting off after all of the experimentation, and finds that he can't on his own. I might write this as an extra chapter one day, but I feel like he can't push himself over that metaphorical edge because of his self-loathing, hatred and fear of losing control over his own body.

When he asks her for help getting off that first time, he's actually asking for a lot of unspoken things. The fact that she doesn't shy away from him, is very enthusiastic, and works within his boundaries, is a huge deal. That interaction gives Vincent hope that all of this might work.

Which brings us to the Gold Saucer date. I love this chapter. It might not be super obvious, but almost every single interaction that the two of them have with the attractions and the other group members has narrative significance. (send me another ask and I'll do a whole analysis on that lol)

Vincent decides that he is going to use this time at the Gold Saucer as a test, to see if he thinks that he can make this work. Vincent has a lot of hangups about his body and that he's not normal. He has quite an old fashioned mentality about courting someone, dating etc (but not fucking lmao). And is very aware that he can't take her out to share a meal/drinks, or do a lot of general date things. He considers this to be a huge deal.

He starts off in a good mood but grows continually frustrated throughout the night as he is reminded of all of his perceived shortcomings, and the fact that none of them seem to bother her.

By the time the G-bike VR is finished, that frustration reaches its peak and Vincent is sort of minutes away from losing control and transforming. She tries to comfort him, but he realises that nothing she says to him will work. Like, she says it's not a big deal that he can't play VR, when that's not the problem, the problem is that he is so inhuman that even a computer is rejecting him. He tries to remove himself from the situation as fast as he can and storms off. At the beginning of the date, he had some hope that he wouldn't have to reject her, but at this point he is completely convinced that he is going to, even if he has to be forceful about it.

He just stews in his own anger and self-loathing, not noticing anything around him or how his emotions are actually physically affecting her. When she calls him out on it and he actually looks at her and sees that she is basically shaking and paralysed with fear (I think I played this down in the actual chapter, but in my first draft this shit was intense), he realises that he needs to control himself. The fact that she followed him and is still trying to help him even though he is making her feel like that dissipates a lot of his anger and just leaves him with the frustration.

He doesn't want to reveal too much about the experimentations that were done to him, and honestly I think he doesn't quite understand the implications of a lot of it either. So he tries to explain while glossing over a lot of it, which means he ends up talking about more of his general human sexual trauma instead lol.

He figured that she might not shy away from the monster arm. He had hoped that showing her that would just explain everything, but of course it doesn't. I think that Vincent's self-loathing means that he's not that good at predicting how other people will react. When he thinks through conversations in his head, he assumes everyone has a terrible opinion of him to start with. So, she catches him off guard when she talks about how she already knows he's a 'monster' and doesn't care.

He continually keeps throwing out these bullshit reasons, that ignore her feelings on the matter and she's sick of it. She realises that she needs to hold him the fuck down, make him shut up and realise that she doesn't care about his dumb excuses. But at the same time, she's also smart enough to realise that it'll just make it worse if she forces him. It's important that it's him that takes his clothes off, exposes himself, pulls her into position etc. I really like that scene and the buildup because it's clear that they're both trying to show and enforce consent while being angry and not talking about it.

As for the actual blowjob. Look, she sucked his soul out through his dick and he is now 100% ride-or-die committed. He has never had anyone treat his body with any actual care. Obviously the experiments were bad, but even before that, having had mostly one night stands and then of course Lucrecia. He hasn't ever had someone care for him like that before. The fact that Reader is showing that care for the first time on his ruined, experimented-on body, destroys him. The way that she checks in on him, reassures him, and has taken note of his own cues (The 'I'm here', is so fucking important), convinces him. All of those things are the actual, polar opposite to how Lucrecia treated him (and I do intend to write a prequel about that too lol)

I love their little sex affirmations. My fave part of the fic honestly. The way that they can bounce off each other, reassure each other and show understanding with a just a few words or hair pulls. I love it lol.

Anyway, Vincent starts acting a bit differently after the Gold Saucer date, and I am so excited to show you all. I am writing furiously, but these things can't be rushed lol.

[peachy-writings]

A Spark Struck Thrice | Astarion x OC

Astarion focused Oneshot AU where the group are more or less canonically the same, but live peacefully in Baldur’s Gate… for now. (Wyll and Lae’zel don’t appear but I still love them 🥺) This is literally my before bed stream of consciousness when my OC is on my mind, but I hope you enjoy it!

Content Warnings: Main character is my own OC, Mentor!Gale, Besties!Shadowheart and Karlach, Astarion romancing, alcohol mention and consumption, sensual dancing and touching, not so serious and fluffy mostly, random lore on OC dropped.

Masterlist

“Okay, I don’t mean to sound like a hypocrite, but have you left the library at all today?”

Gale stands with a hand on his hip, a crease of concern developing between his brows. Estelle looks up from her journal, lip still worried between her front teeth. This expression quickly morphs into a smirk.

“What ever do you mean, mister Waterdeep? You sound completely hypocritical.”

The Wizard rolls his eyes. “I can’t believe Sophoebe raised such a snarky little shite... Listen, Estelle. I know how wonderful it is to spend all of your time with your nose buried in great literature and poetry, I get it, but— Do you want to end up like me?”

“Gods no!”

“Harsh… But that’s the point! I spent so much of my twenties like this, lost in other worlds and the conceptual. But when you use up all of your time like this, you aren’t actually living life. I know you go on romps down town with your brothers every once in a while, but you need to go-live! Find what you like and dislike, make some friends, maybe get a bit drunk and I’ll be here to brew up a potion that will leave you feel brand new afterward. Please, just don’t waste your life.”

A long exhale leaves the Tiefling as she takes in the man in front of her. Of course he is absolutely genuine and wise beyond his years, but this speech is such a punch to the gut. Estelle feels as though she has lived too much life, she should’ve been dead alongside her village at the age of seven. The only reason she’s here in Baldur’s Gate, under protection of the Royal Guard, safe—is because of a Wizard much like Gale that values the pursuit knowledge more than anything. She doesn’t want to waste this valuable time doing frivolous things, would rather follow the Paladin Oath she took up and stay away from environments that would lead to bad habits.

���All I’m saying is that going to the pub won’t kill you, alright?” Gale digresses, shifting back on his heel to give the woman some space.

“No, no, I understand where you’re coming from. And it is Friday… Is it normal to go to the pub alone though?”

“I wouldn’t recommend going to the Blushing Mermaid alone, but there’s a new spot I heard one of our patrons talking about called Siren’s Shanty. Apparently, it’s very popular with people from your age range and it’s not seedy like most other places.”

“Alright, then. If I go, will you let me study my ass off in peace?”

Gale cracks a grin and clasps his hands together. “Only if you tell me all about it!”

“Sure, and that will be just as boring as my reading habits,” she quips back. To which Gale guffaws.

“Just get out of here before I tell your mother you’re being a little shite,” he shoos, and Estelle reluctantly gathers her things. On her way out, he calls, “Don’t forget to bring a-“

“I will not bring a dagger with me, but rest assured I will cast a protection spell before I leave,” she calls over her shoulder just as the library’s heavy oak doors fall shut.

Usually, Estelle is stone faced and focused, but a flutter in her stomach causes her to enter the chic pub with wide eyes. Actually, it can barely be called that. A bar top greets her upon entry, but past that is a window that gazes over a dance floor. So strange, she thinks as she looks around. It feels like a coffee shop with a club in the back.

People like this place?

Not knowing what else to do, she takes a seat on a stool at the bar, careful not to sit on her hair. Usually styled with some curls framing her face and the rest in a tight braid, her hair is instead down tonight. A bun sits atop her head, a couple pieces framing her face and the rest flowing over her shoulders in purple spirals. That’s going to take some getting used to.

“Something sweet, please,” she asks the bartender.

“Sweet drink for a sweet face, got it,” he replies with a wink, catching Estelle off guard.

It’s been a very long time since anyone has flirted with her. She fights the part of herself that feels embarrassed and tries to embrace how she feels a bit of satisfaction. It did take quite a while to put together her outfit and style her hair.

For a while, it feels as if she is dipping her toes in the water, a comfortable energy surrounding her as she sips at her tasty beverage and makes small talk with the barkeep between orders. She is almost ready to call it a successful night when a loud group of people enter. Actually, it’s just one person that’s being obnoxious, and she knows her.

“Oi, is that Estelle?! You beautiful little minx, it’s been ages!”

Memories of her school years flicker in her minds eye, laughing with Karlach and Shadowheart on free periods and after lessons were over. Speaking of, the latter follows Karlach over and gives Estelle an amused grin.

“Look at you,” she says flatly, but it is a loving comment.

“Wow, I haven’t seen you two in years. Could I buy you guys a drink?”

“Absolutely!” Karlach enthusiastically agrees and the two slide into the stools either side of her.

For the next hour, the three talk and catch up. Well, mostly Estelle as she’s the one that has been living in near solitude for the last handful of years. It is like a part of her that she thought she had lost was found once again and she understands Gale’s words from earlier all at once. This spark of fun, this is what she didn’t even know she was missing.

“Love, I could sit here and chat all night, but I need to dance like yesterday. A round of shots please!” Karlach smacks the bar top with a giant grin. “Will you join us?”

“Perhaps later? I may need to warm up to the idea a bit before jumping right in.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll be able to find us,” Shadowheart assures before taking two shots back to back with no hesitance. “See you later I hope!”

Karlach takes three shots and hoots, then kisses Estelle’s cheek, disappearing down a set of stairs and coming into view through the window in the wall soon after. She watches in amusement for a while before ordering another drink. She plans on joining in, but she needs some more liquid courage before going that far. The bartender has switched out by this time, replaced by a young woman that is sweet but offers no conversation. And so, Estelle sits in comfortable silence, sipping her drink and wondering if she’ll be able to join her friends tonight.

Another hour passes and Estelle is still glued to her same spot, another drink down and a warm buzz in her head. But it’s not enough to push her onto that dance floor. She hums a tune to herself and her gaze trails around the pub, unintentionally catching the eyes of a man entering the door at that moment. He raises a brow and offers a handsome smile before taking a seat next to her.

“One glass of wine, please.”

The woman behind the counter practically swoons and quickly serves the stranger, lingering for a moment too long before going back to her duties. Estelle wants to scoff, immediately pegging the man as some pompous womanizer. The type of man Sophoebe warned her to stay away from. As though he isn’t there, she directs her gaze toward the window, smiling as she watches Karlach tear up the dance floor, Shadowheart cheering her on.

“Living vicariously?” A voice draws her attention away.

Estelle turns to face the man who she can’t help but to think of as handsome. His maroon eyes, high cheekbones and that voice are such a killer package. She needs to be careful.

“Hm?”

“You watch them dance, but you don’t don’t join.”

“Quite the astute observation. Say, are you a philosopher?” She sasses, lips loose from the alcohol. She would usually reserve this attitude for her brothers and sometimes Gale, but not a stranger.

He grins, though, amused and a little taken aback. “I… am not. I just can’t help but notice when a beautiful woman watches others dance from afar. I wonder what she’s thinking, if she’s waiting for a partner?”

Estelle laughs. “What a charmer you are. I’ll have to decline, though.”

“Oh? So you’re more of a chat in the lounge type?” He smoothly recovers.

“No, I’m more of a sit alone and enjoy myself type, but that was a great try.”

A look of complete shock takes over his features and Estelle bites her tongue to stop from laughing again. He is definitely too up himself, he thought it would be so easy to grab her attention. With a prideful feeling bubbling within, Estelle gives him a wave and decides to call it a night. She can’t wait to tell Gale about this guy tomorrow. But she does have to admit to herself that she had a lot of fun, more than she thought she would.

So much fun, in fact, that she ends up at that same pub the following Friday. She talks with Karlach and Shadowheart again and lets them migrate to the dance floor without her, with a promise to actually join them this time. She makes sure to ease into things, having two of those sweet cocktails and watching her friends dance for a while.

In the midst of her people watching, she hears an all too familiar voice. She knows exactly who it is, the way he drawls his syllables unlike anyone else.

“You again?”

Estelle turns her head, already amused at the huff in his tone and the slightly hurt expression he holds. Wow, she didn’t realize she’d bruised his ego so bad the last time they spoke.

“Ah, yes, and it’s you again.” She grins, enjoying his plight a little too much.

“Still not dancing, I see,” he murmurs and she nods.

“I was thinking about it, and I guess it’s about time now that I seem to be unwanted here.”

“I never said that,” he defends.

“Mm, your pout says otherwise. Don’t get rejected much do you?” She asks candidly.

Once again, he is shocked beyond words before recovering a bit. “I- Just go. Whatever.” He flicks his hand dismissively and Estelle giggles through her hand.

“Until next time then, sad stranger.”

She chugs her drink and heads down the creaky steps, each footfall causing the music to deepen until she’s in the den of the beast. Her friends see her and immediately draw her into the throng of people all moving and grinding. A shot is thrust at her and she takes it, laughing along with her friends when she sputters at the strong taste.

The rest of the night is spent dancing her ass off, but she doesn’t fail to notice that handsome stranger’s gaze through the window. When she is a couple more shots deep, she looks for him, ready to get bold and gesture for him to come dance. She mainly wants to see his reaction, and someone other than her friends would be fun to dance with. But he seems to have disappeared by this time. Shame, she thinks. And then she finds someone else, the stranger forgotten in an instant.

“Why order wine at a bar, fancy pants?” Estelle asks the next time she sees the handsome stranger, diving into it immediately. Although she hasn’t learned his name, she feels enough familiarity with him to tease him right out the gate.

“Are you always this rude to people?”

“Only you,” she sings.

“And why is that?” He raises his brow, the dejection from their last encounter seeming to fade into pure curiosity.

“Honestly, nobody has flirted with me so brazenly before. I found it funny.”

“You’re kidding.” He has to collect his jaw from the floor. “How is that so?”

“Oh, well you seem kind of up yourself, so…” He glares and she laughs, swatting his arm. “Kidding! Well, kind of, but- I don’t go out much. Honestly, the night we met was my first time going out by myself in years.”

“And why is that so? Why not enjoy yourself and use your looks to get free drinks from strangers you won’t ever see again? Isn’t that the best part of being beautiful?”

“Well, I much prefer to focus on my studies and work, but I do see the appeal of indulging every once in a while now.” She takes a sip of her drink. “And I don’t know, all I get for being beautiful is the same guy approaching me every time I’m at the pub.” She shoots a him a smile to soften the statement.

“The same guy who you haven’t even asked the name of, even though this is the third time we’ve met,” he chides in jest, a smile matching hers.

“You’re counting? How cute.” His ears redden at this but his face barely betrays him. “And what would your name be, stranger?”

“Astarion, thank you very much. And you?”

“Estelle.” She holds her hand out and he takes it gently, pressing a soft kiss to the back of it.

“Well, I guess it’s nice to finally meet you.”

“Likewise,” she chuckles, flipping their hands and placing a kiss on the back of his hand, leaving a lipstick mark behind. “Say, do you want to dance with me?”

He gives her an are you serious look. “What made you change your mind between when I asked you and now?”

“I know your name this time,” she replies simply, hopping off of her seat and tugging his hand, still in hers. “You coming?”

He gives her a smile of disbelief but gestures for her to lead, following behind the beguiling woman that still holds onto his hand.

The music flows through her and she feels alive, taking in a deep breath with her eyes closed before leading Astarion into the crowd. Once they are a good distance into the mass of bodies, she feels his hand slip from hers, trailing down to her hip. His other hand mirrors and he gently draws her into his chest. Her head lulls back and she smiles up at him, the blinking lights sparkling in her multicolor eyes. His breath catches in his throat, feeling an unexpected skip in his metaphorical heart beat.

Something about this woman makes him feel so… Is fresh the right word? But that’s the only way he can describe it. He feels as though he can see the world, feel things through her as she experiences them for the first time. He can feel her joy and when she laughs, he finds himself laughing along. Such a silly thing, but it makes him feel alive. Dancing with her is unlike when he dances with others. That sensual grinding is replaced by a more relaxed swaying as she emotes up at him, occasionally turning around to whisper something amusing in his ear. She keeps holding his hand and leaving little kisses on the back or the palm between songs.

“Hey, sexy, what’ya got there?” Karlach booms from behind, shattering the moment for Astarion and causing him to come back down to earth.

“Hey babes!” Estelle cheers, her warm hand leaving his feeling suddenly empty as she jumps into her friends arms, hugging both of them and chatting over the music for a bit before the one with silver hair gestures at Astarion.

He approaches with a smile. “Hello ladies, are you stealing her away for the night now?”

“Oh, no. Go right ahead, she desperately needs to get laid—“ Karlach receives a swift elbow to the gut by Shadowheart who is actually laughing.

“Real nice, guys,” Estelle replies, laughing, but Astarion can sense something in her he can’t put a finger on.

“Anything for you, babes. Now, go have fun with your handsome catch. Bye!”

The two women disappear into the crowd just as they appeared and Estelle turns back to Astarion with a bewildered look. He can’t help but to laugh, drawing her near once more.

“Is that what you’re looking for?” He asks, breath tickling her ear and causing goosebumps to rise on her bare arms.

“N-no, not really,” she stutters back, lips grazing his skin.

“I assumed so, based on our prior interactions. Not to sound cocky, but I’m sure I would’ve bedded you the first night we met if that was your intention.”

“Well aren’t we confident,” Estelle chuckles out. “So sure you could seduce me when you failed so miserably.”

“I could still seduce you. Easily,” he defends with a scoff.

“Alright then. Seduce me.”

He pulls away and looks her in the eyes. Her brows are raised in a challenging manner, arms crossing, as if to say you won’t do it.

“I can do that, darling,” he purrs, pulling her close so their chests are flush. “Don’t get upset when you fall for me.”

Her eyes roll but she smiles, hands moving to his arms just as the song shifts to something more befitting of this new tone. A spark threatens to evolve into a flame between them. They move together, her body warming his. His hands stay on her hips respectfully, but when she turns around, he isn’t afraid to begin grinding on her, whispering to her and letting his lips drag against the shell of her ear.

He feels her lean into his touch, melting. But it’s still different somehow, he thinks. She is being charmed by his perfectly precise moves, but she isn’t jumping on him. Is just letting herself be in the moment, not pushing for more but not pulling away. And he finds himself enjoying it more than he has in a while. There’s no guarantee she will even take him to bed tonight, and yet all he wants to do is give her a great time here on the dance floor. He isn’t thinking ahead, having been pulled into the moment by her hand.

At one point, she turns to face him and speaks into his ear, “Thank you truly for dancing with me, but I don’t want to take this anywhere else tonight.” She pulls back and smiles sweetly.

He leans his forehead against hers and runs a thumb over her cheek. “That’s fine, darling. I really enjoyed myself tonight. Will you dance with me again next week?”

“Most definitely, Astarion.”

Something in the way she says his name causes such a rush in him that he leans forward without thinking. Estelle is shocked by the unexpected kiss but almost immediately melts into it. Her hands fall on his chest, one trailing upward to cup the back of his neck. They become lost in one another for an unspecified amount of time. His hands finally break their oath to her hips and grip her ass, bringing her as close as possible.

They both gasp when they part and Estelle gives him a huge grin. “That was nice.”

“Very nice,” he murmurs, and she leans hear forehead against his neck.

He can tell that she’s done for the night, becoming tired from the alcohol and the dancing and the excitement. His hand runs up and down her back and he savors the moment for just a little longer. He doesn’t want to let go, and neither does she.

All that Karlach and Shadowheart can talk about when they’re with Estelle from then on is Astarion.

“You guys looked like a couple at prom.”

“I thought he was gonna take you home, what happened?”

“Well, if you must know, he knows I’m not that type of girl,” Estelle replies as she arranges her stack of books on the library table. “Now can we not talk about this in public? I don’t want Gale trying to give me the talk.”

The girls giggle but oblige, scurrying off to probably go look at the erotic books as Estelle settles down into her usual spot. She cracks open a book and leans it on the stand she brought, grabbing her pen and tapping the end against her notebook as she picks up where she left off. She gets into her groove and everything fades away as she becomes immersed, scribbling notes quickly so she can get back to the words on the page.

But a voice snaps her out of it entirely. That drawl, she could never forget it from the moment she first heard him speak. She looks up and finds him speaking to Gale at the front counter, not too far from where she sits. And like a deer in headlights, she just stares at him wide eyed, grateful that he hasn’t spotted her when she comes to.

Here? Now?!

She quickly adjusts the collar of her shirt and tries to smoothen her wild bangs, disgruntled when they spring right back into place. Why is she panicking right now? She guesses that she just hasn’t seen him without the influence of alcohol and a couple hours of preening prefacing an interaction. She prays that he doesn’t see her and buries her nose into her book, taking it off the stand and causing the flimsy thing to clatter on the table loudly.

“Ah yes, that should be near my favorite nuisance over there. Yes, the one with the purple hair that’s ignoring me right now.”

Thanks Gale, she thinks, I’m going to strangle you later.

The clearing of a throat causes her to look up reluctantly, and it’s him, handsome as ever. Why does her heart beat so erratically now? Memories of the last night they were together play in her mind and she has to shove them back in the box she’d put them in so nicely once daylight came the next day. She gives him a genuine smile, honestly happy to see him, but under these circumstances…

“Who do we have here? Causing trouble for that poor librarian are we? I know you said you spent a lot of time studying, but I wasn’t expecting to see you here, pup.”

Fuck, I’m going to evaporate under that gaze.

“That poor librarian is a family friend and more of a pain in my ass to be honest. And I wasn’t expecting to see you either. Looking for pickup books are we?”

He smirks, amused. “I don’t think those are needed, do you?” He flirts.

“Convinced you’ve wooed me?”

“Not at all, but I did have a great time with you. I was actually wondering if I could take you somewhere less… distracting?”

“Uh, not to be rude, but I’m not going to your house.”

He chuckles. “Darling, I’m asking you on a date. Perhaps to a tea house, or dinner?”

Estelle’s mouth falls ajar for a moment. “Oh! Oh, okay. Yeah, sure, dinner! When?”

“We could go now if that’s alright with you? I’m just here to pick up the next book in a series I’ve been devouring lately.”

“Sure, okay,” she trips over her words and he gazes at her for a couple beats.

“Shall I come to escort you in say… One hour?”

Giddy but coy, she smiles and replies, “Sounds great.”

It feels as though the fantasies she conjures up before bed have come to life, her heart fluttering as she wonders how this night will play out. What will she wear? Gods, it’s been ages since she’s last been on a date. Estelle doesn’t have a chance to get lost in the chaos of her own mind before Shadowheart and Karlach —masters of eavesdropping— approach her to aid in preparing for the date.

If this goes well, she definitely owes Gale all of the wild quests for potion ingredients in the world for pushing her to go to that bar.

[phxntomsdusk]

Valentine’s day with my bursonas

note; these are just a bunch of bursonas i technically made!! hope you all enjoy <3

warnings: mentions of death (klepto!wilbur), goth!wilma with a fem!reader, other than that fluff fluff fluff !!

tags: @ax-y10 , @joviepog , @pheliiaa , @idontreallyexistyet , @rqvii , @vibestillaxxx , @ivvees-blog , @average-vibe , @lillylvjy , @haunted-headset , @toastyliltoasts41 (ask to be added!)

Klepto!Wilbur:

this man doesn’t even know what the holiday is. he’s been dealing with death for so long, the poor guy never realized you celebrated love!

the first time he realized it was a thing was when he found you upset about it, crying saying you were never gonna receive flowers or candy again, because well, you had died—!

he got to work immediately. he bought you roses, holding back the urge to make them black of course. got you your favorite candy after questioning you, and set up a small picnic spot in the woods.

sure, it was a bit scary, but that’s all he really knows

he even got a raven to befriend you and follow you around everywhere, claiming it was protection

“wilbur.. there’s a crow on my head.” you awkwardly pointed up towards the black bird, furrowing your brows at him. “my love, that’s a raven. and it’s for protection! you can never be too careful in the afterlife.” he smile lightly, before planting a kiss on your cheek.

now, if you had gotten him things? he would lose it

you’d never seen him cry, but this definitely would make him bawl..

just knowing that someone truly loves him for who he is, even with what he does for a living, he can’t help it!

at the end of the day he’ll be happy whether it’s him getting you things, or you getting him things. as long as he gets to spend the day sharing his love for you, he’ll be more than happy

Softball!Wilma:

this damn girl is going ALL out for you

she’ll buy cliche and cringy softball themed valentine’s day gifts, mostly giving you those during the week leading up to valentine’s day

but on THE day?? be prepared ..

you’re getting flowers, candy, teddy bears, baskets, gift cards, everything you can imagine!!

if she’s taking you on a date, she’ll wait to give you everything, taking you back to her house afterwards and telling you to close your eyes before entering her room..

“are we there yet?” you groaned as you nearly stumbled over the stairs again, a hand stretched out as you frantically tried to find a door or wall. “yes, yes.. open your eyes, love.”

you did as you were told, seeing her bed decked out in heart shaped things, red and pink, balloons, stuffed animals, candy and such. your jaw dropped, slowly turning to look at her.

“you’re joking..” you spoke quietly, watching her chuckle and shake her head, before wrapping her arms around you and kissed you softly. “i’m not. i love you, and you deserve it.”

now, if you got her stuff? she’s not expecting it!

she’s only ever gotten those yearly stuffed animals from her mom, that always end up tucked away in a bin under her bed or in her closet..

but if you got her like a basket with gift cards, some stuff she can use during games like eyeblack or maybe heart pattern bat grip, she’s losing it!

you’re being tackled with a hug, attacked with kisses and thank yous, she won’t shut up about how much she loved and appreciates you

and for a date? you guys are going to apple bee’s, there’s no denying it. she’s a softball girl, apple bee’s is their holy grail

Baseball!Wilbur:

so if we go based on the series accurate lore- he’s the one buying things in hopes you finally go out with him

it’ll start at a practice, he’ll bring you a small bag with a note, candy, bracelet or necklace, and a small teddy bear <3

the note will be all romantic, with a heart drawn at the end

dear y/n,

you know i’ve been head over heels for you for.. months now. you’ve been on my mind 24/7 ever since i first set eyes on you. i know you don’t like me and don’t show signs of it, but i still wanted to treat you today :)

love, wilbur <3

of course he watched you as you read the letter, and seeing you smile has his heart racing

he approached you after the practice, blurting out how pretty you are, asking if you wanted to go out with him, to which you had to shut him up with a kiss <3

safe to say he had a valentine !!

Goth!Wilma:

okay, she’s goth, she doesn’t love the color pink and all the bright hearts everywhere

but for her girlfriend? she’ll spend her money on some colors for once <3

it’ll start with something small like a brown stuffed bear holding a bright pink heart, and when she saw your face light up she knew she had to do it again

she started bringing you more heart shaped and pink gifts, little notes about how much she loved you, and even gave in to wearing some colors when she took you on a date !!

“do i have to wear the pink shirt?” she sighed as she stared at it in your bedroom mirror, pulling the ends down a bit. “for me? we’re matching, it’s cute!” you smiled widely, walking close and wrapped your arms around her, placing a few kisses on her cheek. “fine.. just this once. only ‘cause i love you, doll.”

she did feel a little embarrassed out in public wearing the shirt, but with your bubbly smile she decided to forget about all the stares

she’d take you to either an ice cream place or a cafe, spoiling you with whatever you wanted, as long as you paid her back in kisses <3

and that night would be spent cuddling the stuffed animals she got you, with her wrapped around you like a koala

[emlan]

Finished DLC!

Here's some Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree ramblings, spoilers under cut.

.

.

.

.

. DLC catered to me a lot since I'm a Zanzibart cutscene enjoyer who loves map exploration and Vista money shots but I'm kinda HUH-cat.clip when it comes to some new lore bits and in general the world feels divorced from main game even though main game characters and topics are around?

I don't remember how much souls DLC tied into the other story, but I'm using The Old Hunters from BB as base and it really added extra value to its world and characters and there's just nothing new of real interest in SotE from what I can see…

In a vacuum I can only appreciate even more (literal) brother on brother action but Miquella seemingly being deeply obsessed with Radahan is so out of left field??? Granted I'm not an lorester but what I remember as Miq's key things from flavor text when it comes to ties to other people is him being sad about being unable to cure Malenia of her rot and also sad about not being able to grant Godwyn his true death. The only ties to Radahan is by proxy of his sister fighting him? (Was she even fighting him just to bring bro his crush to him? This makes Caelid getting nuked by her even more of a waste.)

It's so out of nowhere that the Epic Prime Version of him comes off as a cheap soyjak pointing bit pandering to Radahan fanboys (pretty sure he's like no1 fav guy for players right), but fanboys will obviously not be happy about him just being a hollow shell again (?) that might not have wanted anything to do with Miquella (?) so I just can't see this as satisfying for ANY kind of player even on a full Gamer Dude to Deranged Fujoshi spectrum? I imagine deep lore enthusiasts also feels a bit… Ambushed.

I'm not against Miquella doing dark unpleasant or just stupid desperate acts since it was already a popular theory that he was a brainwasher type, but the issue for me is that I'm not sure if this Miq/Rad union is "intended" to be read in such a twisted way even when it's the only way I can read it.

Though I guess the fact general consensus going from "wow Mohg is so messed up claiming Miq no matter Miq's consent" to "wow Miq is so messed up claiming Radahan no matter Radahan's* consent" is poetic….?

*I'm writing Radahan here but really it's also a synonym for 'Mohg' considering he's the one getting desecrated the most.

I'm sure I'll end up watching some vid or writeup making pieces fall into place later but I can't believe Miyazaki is handing me visual age gap brother incest and all I can do is force a strained smile in response!!!

Anyway general whining time:

As much as I love filling out up the map I feel there was too much big "empty" areas. Climbing the dragon mountain was the worst presentation of anything I've seen in a FS title, extremely cheap unfinished filler feeling with the spirit jumps instead of at least adding some kinda atmosphere like the open flower/gravestone fields. The Abyss gimmick overstayed it's welcome since it's too miserable checking if you missed a shiny somewhere without your horse, but at least the stealth parts was such a non-issue it might as well not be there.

While I like that you can see several inaccessible areas from where you stand, and I do think it leads to some fun moments when you're taking a random path halfway across the map and ends up on the other side as an a-ha moment, it was a bit frustrating not being able to tell more clearly how to reach sections. Plus I would've died 10000 times from drops if it wasn't the fact Rainbow Stones protected me from making bad choices.

What mindbroke me most was trying to get into the flower field area north east, having an "oh boy, beating this guy will let me reach it for sure!" moment for both Gaius and Sunflower was such [record scratch SFX]. I did figure posing in front of the statue was most likely the entry afterwards but somehow I had missed the gesture needed (most embarrassing DLC moment considering I tend to fine comb pretty well and the gesture pickup is just sitting there out in the open………. why am I even admitting this shameful thing). Watching trees get knocked over from something moving under the water in the church district was really cool and unnerving and then you realize it's just branch dragon number 800……………..

The wicker men has a great design but fighting them was either a boring slog or a frustrating jankfest trying to toss the bombs right. Peeved that you HAVE to use a furnace pot for the sleeping one blocking the ruin puzzle, hefty should've been fine too.

Bosses are too hectic/aggressive for my taste but that's just business as usual for ER so whatever, last boss really is way too punishing compared to other Hard bosses tho, in fact I just watched ending on YT since I'm stuck still on them :V Camera also makes a glorious return as the toughest challenge of them all.

Think my biggest highlights was seeing the bizarre finger/tongue path under the church and the finger mom boss visual itself and the black humor of the miserable living jars stumbling around with the pot on their head. Ansbach is a hot new waifu and it's very precious how such an upstanding man stays all-in loyal to a Deranged Satan (said lovingly) soooo cute you actually get a "Um, so about how Mohg died…👉👈" prompt with him. There was more NPC voice lines than I expected which was fun. St Trina's design was very neat and shoujo manga. Having to sip syrup 4-5 times instead of the classic Third Time's The Charm is a crime however and I missed making the Trina fanboy jealous until it was too late :/

The open world for all of Elden Ring is such an incredible experience that I'm happy I got to play and I had such a good time and I can't imagine any other studios will be able to reach these map heights but I also hope they never make an OW game again because it's too much when you "need" to replay it.

[gaybae1021]

Day 12: Is this love?

Aka, a Garrance lore dump!

Garroth was assigned to help Laurance get acquainted with Phoenix Drop during his recovery from the nether. Aph thought it would be good for Laurance to have someone else to talk to aside from her and Zoey, and thought him and Garroth would get along due to their shared guard experience.

Laurance is pretty down during their first few meetings, but he starts to perk up as his health improves, and he grows more trusting of Garroth guiding him through the village. It doesn’t take long for Laurance to start flirting with him, though Garroth writes it off as him just being friendly, even as he’s lowkey reciprocating the advances.

During one of their “totally platonic outings” Laurance opens up about his past: He was born in O’Khasis, and had no memories of his birth parents because they were arrested when he was a baby. He spent a few years in an O’Khasis orphanage, but quickly transitioned to living on the streets, experiencing first-hand the struggles and cruelty O’Khasis hid from the rest of the region. It’s why he’s so slow to trust; after having no one to rely on but himself for so many years, it’s difficult to be so reliant on others while he adjusts to blindness.

Garroth, while not revealing everything (for obvious reasons), also opens up; he had run away from home because he didn’t like the person his family was pushing him to be, and he’s still struggling to be his own person.

When Garroth drops him back off at his home, Laurance kisses him on the cheek before going inside.

(Old art, didn’t feel like redrawing the scene)

Garroth.exe has stopped working.

Garroth avoids Laurance the next few days. He feels awful about it, but he can’t pin down how he’s feeling, and he feels talking to Laurance would just make it more confusing. Eventually, he gets frustrated enough to go and talk with Aphra:

G: I need to ask you a question.

A: Sure? Go for it.

G: Hypothetically, if someone kissed you, and afterwards you felt like you were gonna throw up, what does that mean?

A: …like throw up from disgust, anxiety, or butterflies?

Garroth shrugs.

A: Irene help us. Come inside.

It takes a long conversation with some input from Zoey (Aroace Aph is somewhat limited in the advice she can give), but they eventually get to the root of the issue:

G: I didn’t have a say in anything growing up. Everyone just told me what to do, told me what I wanted, and I went along with it. I thought I was finally getting better, but it’s like I’m still waiting for an approval that doesn’t exist anymore! I’m so confused, I can’t even tell what I want.

A: Well, that might be a good thing to tell Laurance. It’s okay to be confused, but it’s not okay to just ignore him while you work through this. You should let him know how you’re feeling, even if you’re not sure the feelings match.

Garroth goes home to think a bit more before leaving to find Laurance. When he opens his door, Laurance is already standing there, about to knock.

L: I just wanted to say sorry for the other day. I feel like I crossed a boundary, I should have asked before trying that.

He talks faster, clearly flustered.

L: I thought we were on the same page, but I guess I’ve never done this without being able to see so maybe I misjudged how comfortable you were, and either way I’ve really liked talking to you and I don’t want things to be awkward so if you just want to pretend it never happened I’d be fine with that-

…

G: Please? For real? I need to know.

[boots-with-the-fur-club]

So, I may not have won the poll, but I’ve decided to continue on the hand lore anyway! I’m going to tag some people but I want to warn you all this contains heavy angst. Make sure to check the tags for trigger warnings!

Start

@daboyau

@phoebepheebsphibs

@littlemissartemisia

@foxolotlfreak

He had been patting himself down basically every second to make sure those things hadn’t left his fanny pack and then suddenly they just weren’t there anymore.

The heavy feeling in his chest started at that point.

He barely started forgiving himself for causing the first apocalypse, his brothers telling him he had no way of knowing what would happen.

Others were to blame, like Warren or Hypno for taking the key in the first place. The Foot Clan, for asking for them to take it.

Sure Leo’s showboating and carelessness were bad but it wasn’t out of malice. He didn’t want to destroy the world. He didn’t know.

But this time he did know.

He saw the worst things imaginable and knew how it effected the people he loves. All he had to do was to stop those stupid mushrooms from hurting anyone else.

Leo saw the look in Raph’s eyes when he admitted what happened. Raph insists that it was just a mistake, that con artist was grabbing at his fanny pack. They probably fell out afterwards or he took it and dumped it when it couldn’t be sold.

What Leo saw in his eyes made him feel differently.

It was similar to how he always looked at him during their missions after Leo became leader.

Judgment.

He can’t be completely sure that Leo wasn’t just being careless. That one distraction caused chaos and havoc throughout an entire multi universe competition.

Leo feels like Raph feels the worst about the little girl he was protecting at first. He was so sure he stopped them from getting her. How they got past him to the nurse’s office, he doesn’t know.

That hand is a big part of it at least though, that’s clear.

Leo feels more tears starting to come.

He’s lost all credibility now, hasn’t he?

Not just to his brothers, but probably everyone there. There’s nobody else to blame for what’s happening. There’s no way anyone else has screwed things up like he has.

His fingers twitch, rubbing his arms painfully.

He needs to calm down before he starts becoming too rough with himself.

Leo reaches into his fanny pack in order to grab one of the many fidget toys. His mouth forms a deep frown at not feeling a favorite of his in there.

So he lost it too?

Pathetic.

Movement in the side of his vision has him glance towards it.

The hand.

That freaking hand!

It has his fidget toy!

Did…..did it take the container too!?

Maybe he didn’t lose it!

It was stolen!

Hope starts replacing that burden in his heart and he stands up.

The hand starts skittering away, so he quickly starts following after it. He’s too distracted to realize that his brothers are also distracted. They don’t notice him as he leaves.

The hand gets into a room and Leo backs it into a corner.

“Finally! You’re not getting away this time. Maybe if I get rid of you the spores will go away again too!” Leo summons and raises his weapon, smiling out of pure relief.

His expression drops when the hand spreads its fingers, revealing some type of canisters between them.

They fall, quickly releasing “gas” that is all too familiar.

He tries to hold his breath and rushes towards the door he came in through. Leo is only quick enough to see the hand escape and the door close behind it.

Leo bangs on the door as hard as he can. Even if no one hears him, maybe his hands will break through instead.

Luck fails him.

He runs out of time.

The room is filled to the brim with spore smoke as, eventually, even his turtle DNA fails him. He finally has to breath.

Contaminated air fills his lungs with a large gasp.

He shuts his eyes tight and covers the sides of his head where ears might be if he had any.

As long as he doesn’t see or hear anything he should be safe until he gets found, right?

Wrong.

Horrific images flash around in his mind until he’s forced to open his eyes to stop them.

What he sees is absolute devastation.

It’s a war zone all around him. Everything is in pieces. Buildings, roads…..people. Shots are ringing back and forth, some of it looking like it’s from alien tech.

He knows exactly what the spores are showing him and it feels his body with a dread that should have been prevented.

Leo can’t move an inch.

It’s obvious to him that the spores are just showing him what he thinks the bad future looked like. The only information he has about it is what he got out of Casey JR. Admittedly, it’s not that much because his brothers made him promise to stop telling Leo about it.

It was impeding his recovery, Donnie said.

He wishes he knew more so that he could tell the loud, nagging voice in his brain that maybe this isn’t just what he made up to fill in what he didn’t know. That this has the possibility of being connected ninpo memories. That this is exactly what happened and is even more awful than he ever could have imagined.

Kraang appear in front of him.

Fear shoots through his veins. They’re not real. He knows this isn’t happening. It can’t be happening.

“What’s this? The leader of the resistance without his guard dogs? They must have finally abandoned their weakest link after you led that last squadron to their deaths. Culling them was highly enjoyable.” The kraang taunts.

Leo grits his teeth.

“Why can’t you just leave me alone!? Why is it always me!?”

The kraang laughs like he’s just been told the funniest thing in this war torn world.

“Because you deserve it. Every second of all of it! And even more than this!”

He can’t think of anything to retort. He’s so tired of everything.

“No last words? Good. We’ve all long since grown tired of your voice.” The kraang aims his hand at Leo, a light beginning to power up inside.

Fine, it’s all fake anyways. This might as well happen. Nothing he can do about it even if he wanted to. Nobody is coming to help him either.

The kraang keeps laughing the more his laser powers up.

No wonder Lou Jitsu always escapes in his more spy themed movies. Death rays take way too long to work.

He tears up.

Leo wishes his dad was here.

The laser finally powers up. The kraang smiles widely. Something red goes up in front of him.

Wait, what?

NO!

The laser fires.

Leo is suddenly grabbed and tossed away into safety.

He tries to quickly stand up, but something stops him.

Raph’s future clone is on keeping him to the ground, hidden behind a broken building where he can still partially see the kraang from before.

The original Raph had bought time for the clone to get Leo to safety.

Both of them were being erased, disintegrated.

Tears stream down Leo’s face as he stares up at the clone who stares back with a smile.

Leo knows fully well that anything he says right now won’t actually be said to anyone.

He says something anyways.

“I love you Raph. Thank you. For everything. I never told you.”

The clone smiles more.

“Big bros always know. Love ya too, Leo. Tell everyone else for me.”

Leo watches as the last parts of his brother’s clone floats away as ninpo into the air.

He’s suddenly somewhere else, but still in this future hell scape.

Donnie’s arm is around his own and Leo sees blooding pouring from a head wound. Usually it makes them look worse than they are and it’s not actually a concern but this definitely looks like it is.

“Leo…..put me down….”

Leo can’t stop crying.

“I told you I’m not leaving you here!”

That’s not his voice.

Well, it is and it isn’t.

Deeper, rougher, far more strained.

“Put me down!” Donnie shoves himself away from him.

Leo falls over trying to catch him but they both end up on the ground.

Oh, he’s supposed to be hurt too.

He sits up and tries to get Donnie up as well.

“I thought this apocalypse made you smarter. I guess you could never be as smart as me, even when they hit me like this….” Donnie says, staying put.

“Shut up! You’re coming with me! Mikey is just a little further!” Leo screams.

Donnie chuckles.

“You won’t even give me a pity laugh? I’m the funny one, papa used to say so.”

Leo desperately tries to stand.

Donnie yanks him back to the ground.

“Leo. Listen. I need a flavor. F-Favor, I mean. Favor….”

Oh.

Donnie’s not making it either.

“Anything, Donnie.”

“Stay here for a minute. It shouldn’t take longer than that.”

Leo chokes back his sobs as he begins clinging to him.

“Okay. I’ll do that.”

“This might be the brain damage, but I want you to keep talking. Don’t stop until….you know. Tell your dumb jokes, even.” Donnie clings to him as well.

Leo takes a shaky, deep breath, then starts talking about anything and everything.

The night sky is clear above them both.

It reminds him of when they shared a room and their ceiling had those glow in the dark starts.

They used to lay together like this and talk all night because of their shared insomnia.

Leo talks and talks and talks, getting some quiet responses from Donnie until eventually he doesn’t.

He doesn’t stop talking or holding until he’s being physically separated by Mikey and some other resistance members.

Leo doesn’t stop talking still. He wants Donnie to respond even thought he knows he never will again.

Mikey hugs Leo tightly and he finally starts crying so hard he can’t talk anymore.

It’s all over as Leo is placed somewhere else again. He knows this part very well. Mikey is shattering into golden pieces in front of him with a big smile.

Leo doesn’t care anymore that he shouldn’t be able to do anything.

He rushes forward and holds onto Mikey’s arm to try to help like his brothers told him they did before.

A chain wraps around Leo, moving him back to Casey just before Mikey fully disintegrates.

He was stupid to try in the first place.

A dumb decision.

Again.

Again.

And again and again and again and again and-

It never stops.

His brothers won’t let him die.

It’s not fair.

He doesn’t want to be the last one left.

It hurts.

He’s tossing Casey into the portal and Leo is gone right after, right in front of him.

Leo is drifting now.

A black, empty void.

He’s even more tired than he was before.

There’s no one else with him. He can’t even be reunited with everyone he lost, or could have lost.

It’s so confusing.

The prison dimension was pretty similar to this place. It’s even more even empty than that somehow though. Probably because kraang prime isn’t here with him.

Leo is completely detached from reality.

His eyes have dimmed as he sits on the floor, against the wall. He’s running out of time for anyone to be able to do anything.

He can’t hear the shouting coming from somewhere outside, not close by but shouting nonetheless.

Mikey noticed first that he was missing and now the others are in a complete panic. They lost him once and now they’re losing him again.

They don’t know how right that is.

As the situation only gets worse, a hand watches, perched up high on the ceiling like some kind of spider who’s carefully watching the webs its made.

There’s already one prey caught.

Three more to go.

[vickyvicarious]

Somehow Arthur feels very, very close to me. I seem to feel his presence warm about me. I suppose it is that sickness and weakness are selfish things and turn our inner eyes and sympathy on ourselves, whilst health and strength give Love rein, and in thought and feeling he can wander where he wills. I know where my thoughts are. If Arthur only knew!

I know there have been a bajillion thinkpieces written lectured and adapted about how blood giving or taking is sex and sexual appetite etc but man vampire lore is sleeping on blood being a vessel of one's love

So true!

Especially when we consider the difference between the vampires drinking vs. the humans transfusing. Like, I was musing about this exact thing the other day. With each transfusion, Van Helsing (et al) is performing a kind of medical vampirism. But there are a couple key differences between that and actual vampirism. And the love is the biggest one.

We see humans giving blood as an expression of their love. They are willingly sacrificing their own health to heal another. The first transfusion makes this extremely clear, with Arthur speaking of his devotion using the words:

"My life is hers, and I would give the last drop of blood in my body for her."

And that's before he even knows she needs it! Love and devotion and bleeding for another are already linked concepts in his mind, and this line makes the connection clear to readers too. As for the result - in this diary entry you quote, Lucy describes the effect as not only a physical boost, but a kind of spiritual/emotional one too. It's not just that she is physically doing better and feeling happier because of that. She is specifically thinking of Arthur after he has given her blood, and feels her love for him stronger than ever. There's a sense that his blood, full of his love for her, is in her veins now, and her love for him is strengthened by it. After Jack gives her blood, we get one of the best moments in their relationship, with the shared secret/smile at one another about the past failed proposal. I think this is such a wonderful gesture of friendship and platonic love. I wouldn't be surprised if Lucy is feeling closer than ever to him in that and similar moments too... and it doesn't have to be because of his blood in her veins, but couldn't that be a contributing factor? (We can also say maybe empath!Lucy helps her feel the effect of the emotion in the blood even more, but that's slightly beside the point.)

I've even wondered if perhaps in-universe, emotional connection makes a transfusion more likely to be successful. Remember, at the time the book was written, blood types had not yet been figured out, so the success or failure of transfusions was kind of a mystery (though only for another like three years after publishing). We can easily say "oh, Lucy is conveniently a universal recipient" and leave it at that. But thematically, it would be quite fitting if the closeness between two people makes them more likely to have their blood 'accepted'. It would also fit with the comments Van Helsing made that Arthur "can do more than any that live," or is "better than me, better than my friend John" when it's time for him to give Lucy blood. Sure, it makes logical sense for someone who isn't her doctor to do it, and he is young and healthy (and tall! more blood!), but there's also a sense that he has more 'right' to do so than the others, because he is her lover. If we run with that, the love linking them makes his blood more effective, or at least more likely to be accepted.

Now, let's contrast all of this good, love-filled blood-gifting with vampires, shall we? Just as Arthur spoke of his love in terms of giving blood, the vampires speak of taking blood in terms of love:

"He is young and strong; there are kisses for us all."

(Not to mention the whole "you never love"/"oh yes I can" exchange afterwards. That's an even more explicit example in a lot of ways, just a bit longer than this one line.) In a sense, vampires taking blood is an expression of their 'love'. But as I discussed in the post linked above, a vampire's version of love is predatory. It consumes. They don't accept blood that is willingly given. Instead they take blood, and forcibly compel people to 'offer' it to them by suppressing their minds/negative emotions in a hypnotic trance. This is where you could bring back the sex comparison, but only in the sense of an assault. They might make their victims come to them, but they aren't really consenting. There's a reason the word love is in quotation marks for them! And the absence of blood being willingly given means that rather than being a vessel for love like we see amongst the humans, instead any link created between the vampire and their 'donor' is very predatory. There is a connection created there, but it's one that is designed to make it easier to feed more, to corrupt their victim more. Maybe Dracula can feel Lucy in some way, just like she felt Arthur - but maybe it's more in the sense of him being able to know where she is or to influence her more. In fact, there is plenty of suggestion that some kind of psychic link is created between a vampire and their victim, one that can perhaps go both ways at times (such as Jonathan possibly getting a glimpse of Dracula's plans after being drunk from) but typically only serves to weaken and manipulate the victim (Lucy unable to remember or speak about what happens to her, down to the point of even hiding her bitemarks with her choker; if we go back to that Jonathan scene, his brain fever coming on so abruptly could be some sort of psychic attack/backlash).

There are also some interesting implications regarding spoilers, so I'm going to put those under a cut:

Firstly, Mina being forced to drink Dracula's blood clearly establishes a connection between them. It is explicitly a corrupting influence, and is described as being like a "poison" - very much the opposite of the strengthening connection Lucy experiences with willingly given human blood. And some of that is clearly just due to it being a vampire's blood, but maybe the fact that she's forced to ingest it against her will could be a factor too. Like, Lucy is unaware of getting transfusions, but they're all from people she loves and who love her, so her body doesn't reject them. I wonder whether, if someone really wanted to become a vampire and very willingly drank the vampire blood, then the process of turning into one might be easier or faster than the slow, disorienting decline Mina suffers in canon. Obviously how much human blood you have left in you and how close you are to dying makes a difference too, as seen with Lucy. And we don't officially know if Dracula made Lucy drink his blood too and that's always part of the vampire transformation, or if that was an extra magical measure against Mina. So it's getting way into speculation.

But the drinking blood = connection is definitely made clear with Mina. She is able to turn that against Dracula, so it at least can go both ways when the blood-giver is supernatural. I doubt it would go both ways with an ordinary human donor, but it still could support Lucy getting more connected with the people giving her blood. In fact, you could play around with that idea since she's also connected to Dracula as his victim.

.

Anyways, speaking of getting super far into speculation, let's dive a little more into the idea of a willing donor/victim for a vampire. For example, the reason a vampire doesn't get the loved-up connection is not necessarily entirely inherent to their nature, but to the behavior that nature leads to. Maybe it's the way they are preying on people and taking things that twists whatever connection is created into such a bad thing. And if so, what would happen if a human willingly donated their blood to a vampire as an expression of love?

Instead of taking, the vampire would be accepting a gift. Maybe then the love really would flow through. Maybe, even, this would mean that the person giving the blood didn't suffer as many negative effects, and the vampire drinking the blood would receive some of that more healing influence. You all know what I'm getting at. If Jonathan gave his blood to Mina in full knowledge of what was happening, would it connect her to him even more strongly? Would it, rather than hastening her descent into vampirism, conversely help her hold on to her humanity because she feels more connected to his very human love? Maybe he wouldn't suffer the same effects as usual victims - he wouldn't forget and maybe he wouldn't even feel as weakened as blood loss usually should make someone feel. Maybe he'd even get a bit of vampiric influence leaking back, but only the beneficial stuff.

It's not something I've ever considered before, but it could be a really fun idea to play with. You could even make a case for it in canon if you really tried, citing stuff like Jonathan's cold hands and flinging the coffin near the end of the book, and Mina's certainty about his location and safety. She feels the humanizing emotional connection and his presence; he isn't weakened and maybe even gets some vampiric strength/intimidating vampire aura when he needs it. Rather than a predatory connection, it is one which goes both ways and strengthens both, because it combines the supernatural elements of a vampire with the strengthening effects of willingly given love-filled blood.

That might only work in the short term, and the vampiric corruption would overwhelm and ruin things in the long run, of course. And you definitely don't have to go down that road at all in the first place. Or all the way - maybe you only like the idea of his blood helping her feel more connected to him/feel his love for her, rather than going down the whole rabbithole. But however much you use, it's a fun concept to play with, I think!

[fivemillionkeys]

Hey all

I'm still looking around for an long time rp partner. I do have some storylines going at the moment but I'm still kind of figuring out what I want & the more possibilities the better.

Who am I:

My name is Dorian/ Dax. My pronouns are he / him - They / Them. I'm 26 and I have been in the rp community for over 12 years. I have done both long format storylines on rpg forum boards as well as rapidfire ones on Discord and telegram. I've always played fandomless only. I'm pretty flexible when it comes to setting/ rp style.

I am in the CET timezone. My first language is Dutch so it can be that I make small grammar errors when writing in English, especially when writing multiple paragraphs. I study creative writing, so sometimes my replies are a little less frequent when the semester is particularly busy. But I love to chat ooc as well, so you can always shoot me a message and I'll make sure to reply as quickly as I can ^-^

Most of my OCs are male. I currently have three female characters that stuck around. I don't mind writing female characters, I'm just not very good at it. But who knows, improvement might be inescapable fhfgddd. All of my OCs have an overachring background lore. They are all from the same universe. The lore of that universe can be included in our storyline but it's not necessary for the storyline to function. Basically it can be used if it enriches the story, but I have no problem with dropping my guys into any story world/ AU imaginable.

What I am looking for:

Fandomless rp only

Available on Discord or Telegram

I am 26, so I would prefer it if my rp partner is 21+

I'm okay with pairings of any and all genders. Friends, enemies, lovers; all is possible as long as it's plot driven.

I am very new to the term "dead dove" and am a little hesitant to partake. Not to say that I won't write any dark themes ever, but it's not specifically what I'm looking for right now. A plot can have its dark moments, but I am not looking for a fully dark plot.

I don't really mind whether you write multiple paragraphs, do one-liners or anything in between. As long as it's well structured, has substance and engages with whatever is going on in the plot, it's great. I love complex inner monolog about what your character is thinking/ feeling. I also really love it when people put detail and thought into the surroundings that the characters are in.

What would work great for me is if you / your character loves to explain things about their homeworld. Or if you/ your character would love to learn about my homeworld.

I love the bonding between characters that formers through learning / exploring together and one of them taking the other under their wing.

Fantasy worlds tend to work best for the dynamics described above but there are _a lot_ of variations possible (think: pirates, medieval, apocalyptic, historical, steampunk, victorian ect) and especially once we know which characters make a good match we can do endless AU's with them too!

I love plotting together and talking ooc. I am so for telling each other about our silly little guys & how they are 100% not prepared for the stuff we're about to throw their way. Please tell me why they would be absolutely insufferable together or super wholesome :3 Feel free to send funny memes about our guys or pictures about our storyworlds. On the other hand I would also like to get to know you & what's going on in your life. Being both friends & rp partners would be awesome! No pressure tho, it's fully valid that not everyone is comfortable or able to open up quickly.

2 - 5 replies weekly would be great! Though I fully understand that life is very busy and this won't always be possible. Communication is key. As long as the ooc contact stays on / periods of inactivity are communicated about before (if possible) or afterwards, it's all good. Rapidfire would be very fun to do for certain storylines but I understand that it takes a lot of time. So maybe we could try and arrange that on a weekend day.

I love it when people are overall enthusiastic, come up with ideas, engage with the plot, and engage a lot ooc.

Welp, this has become quite long and rambly despite my best efforts not to. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to let me know. Even if you are unsure if you match what I am looking for, just ask. Exceptions can always be made ^-^ But yeah, if you would like to rp feel free to DM me ^-^

[goldensmilingbird]

Spin-off next year??

So new article dropped, this time from Kidscreen, and they just keep shocking me with things they say

"Miraculous Corp is working on a 2D-animated spinoff tentatively titled Miraculous Stellar Force. It will be set in a new location (Tokyo versus Paris), and episodes are scheduled to start delivering next year".

The special haven't released yet but they're already making a spin-off? And planning to release it next year?

"The master plan, says Yeatman, is to introduce new teenage characters in a TV movie every year, and then give each set their own series. He likens the strategy to Marvel’s MCU approach, and envisions all of the characters eventually coming together".

Okay, hold up. They already released four specials, and now they're planning to release a Tokyo special and then a spin-off immediately afterwards? What about the previous characters?

I'm pretty sure the London special was meant to introduce the sisters from Miss Rose/Double Rose, but instead they rushed it and reused a season 6 plot for a special. Still, they have the United Heroes, Lady Dragon, the whole reverse universe. Are they gonna do anything with that? Having a lot of spinoffs at once, especially if they plan to have a new one every year sounds insane.

I think they should at least release one and then see how it does. The spin-offs are not gonna have the same characters or lore or the lovesquare which is like one of the main draws, so ML fans might just ignore them. I feel like starting with Shadybug and Claw Noir spinoff would be a safer bet because the characters and powers are the most familiar to us, there's the lovesquare, but it's still different, and it's probably the most popular special so far. What's this 2D special gonna be about, I have no idea at this point. We only know there's something called Stellar Force and Lady Tiger is in Japan but is not gonna be in it.

Okay, and the last thing. The release date.

Since they said they'll release specials every year I just wanted to check when the other specials were released:

New York - September 2020

Shanghai - April 2021 (kinda weird, it's the only one released in spring)

Then they skipped a year

Paris - October 2023

Finally, London - October 2024

So it feels like they're settling into a bit of a rhythm and the next special will be released in October as well. Which doesn't leave a lot of time for a spin-off to be released in the same year.

Anyway, I don't have a conclusion. I will just be waiting for more info. Maybe will check out Zag's interview as well, in case he says something interesting.