#i’m not into mascot horror but i could be convinced | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

gamerwoo · 3 years ago

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Seventeen: Welcome to Caratland (End)

Characters: Seventeen x reader (gender neutral)

Genre/warnings: horror/halloween au, choose your own adventure au, horror au, angst, murder, major character death,

Summary: The night before Halloween, you and your 13 friends decide to go explore the infamous abandoned amusement park: Caratland, where it’s rumored that rides start on their own, empty mascot suits are seen walking around, and people don’t return the same as when they left. Can you and your friends survive the night in Caratland?

a/n: realizing halloween is coming up, i’ve decided to FINALLY finish the au i did last halloween. for those who kept up with it: i’m sorry for discontinuing it. there was hardly any interaction with it so i just lost interest and motivation. and the lack of interaction is why i decided to just put all the choices in this part so you can see all the endings and whatnot. i’m sorry it took so long to wrap things up and there will probably be mistakes so i’m sorry about that, but i hope you all still enjoy it. ALSO LMK WHICH PATH/ENDING YOU GET FIRST TIME AROUND!!!

Tag list: @sadienita @xummie @mingoats @xxbluestrifexx @kwanseo @junhaoshua @allegxdly

Previous | Caratland Masterlist

[NOTE: there will probably be mix-ups with paths and endings because i literally just did all of this in 3 days and posted without anyone proof reading it. i will go through everything later to fix and edit things, so please be patient with me!!!]

»»————-　　————-««

16 -- A

“It’s probably best to go back to the breach, right?” you decided. “We know it’s there so it’s the best way to get back.”

“_____ has a point,” Wonwoo shrugged.

“Alright, everyone head back to the hole -- and don’t get split up,” Seungcheol stated before deciding to take the lead.

“Okay, but if I see one of those glorified Chuck E. Cheese mascots coming toward us, I’m leaving all of you behind,” Seungkwan muttered as he followed with the group.

All of you were glancing around trying to keep an eye out for the animatronics, while also trying to quickly and quietly make your way back to the way you’d gotten into the park. You kept mentally kicking yourself for convincing your friends to come here. If it wasn’t for you, you wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place. You were just lucky everyone was still here...

The gates were starting to come into view, and you felt relief begin to course through you. Your legs were starting to move faster on their own, just wanting to get out of this living nightmare.

Seungcheol shooting his arms out to stop the group was what had you skid to a stop. He whispered loudly for everyone to get down behind the nearby shrubs and two trash bins. The fourteen of you poked your heads around to see what had gotten him to act like this, and your heart sank at what you saw

Serenity was blocking the hole in the fence.

“Fuck,” Jeonghan hissed.

“We’re gonna die here...” Seokmin whispered, but Wonwoo was quick to comfort him.

“What’s the plan now?” Hansol wondered.

“I know it’ll risk us going to jail or something,” Jihoon began, “but I think it’s time we just cave and call someone.”

“No, I’m not going back there!” Seungkwan whispered intensely.

Your eyebrows furrowed as your turned to look at him, “Excuse me?”

“I’d rather get arrested than get murdered,” Mingyu insisted. “At least we know we’ll be safe and alive in jail.”

You made a face, “Will we, though?”

“Listen,” Hansol interrupted as he pulled out his phone, “I’ll just call my parents -- they’re really chill. And worse case scenario, they just lecture us.”

But as he went to make the call, all his phone did was beep at him like the line was busy. He took the phone away from his ear and looked down, furrowing his eyebrows.

“We had service all night, right?” he asked.

“Yeah...?” Joshua replied.

“Well now I don’t for some reason,” he said, turning his phone screen to show his friends.

Mingyu’s eyes widened, “You’re kidding.”

Then everyone, including you, were taking out their phones and checking for service. Just like Hansol, you had no bars.

Unfortunately, everyone else was in the same boat.

Now, Seokmin was on the verge of tears, “We’re going to die here!”

“Don’t get hysterical yet,” Minghao told him. “There’s gotta be a way out of this. Even if we have to wait around until morning, we can probably out-run these hunks of metal.”

“Y’know, I heard a friend of a friend snuck in here once,” Soonyoung began. “Some dude Changkyun knows. He said there’s apparently some sort of underground exit under the food court.”

“At this point, we’ll have to try anything,” Wonwoo sighed.

“So back to the food court?” Seungcheol practically whined.

You took a deep breath, “Unfortunately, yeah.”

[GO TO: 17 -- A]

»»————-　　————-««

16 -- B

“Does anyone even remember where the hole in the fence is?” you asked.

Everyone either gave you blank stares or shook their heads. You let out a sigh.

“Alternate way it is,” Minghao shrugged.

“Let’s just hang here until someone thinks of something,” Seungcheol suggested. “We’re all here, and I think those things are still hanging around wherever we were before. It’ll take a while before we see them again.”

So the fourteen of you hung out at the merry-go-round. Most of you leaned up against the horses or found yourselves sitting down on them. A few of you sat on the two steps of the platform. Chan and Wonwoo were sitting in one of the carriages that most families or parents sat in. All of you were scrolling on your phones or looking at someone else’s phone, trying to research anything about Caratland that might help you find a way out. Maybe a map or a blueprint or something might come up.

Suddenly, the ride jerked. You almost fell over onto Junhui as the ride began turning slowly, the music trying to play but the wiring was too old and worn that it just sounded demonic at best.

“Ha ha, very funny,” Jihoon scoffed. “Who turned on the ride?”

The question was overlooked by Mingyu’s shriek. Every head who was on his side of the merry-go-round whipped over to see Bongbong sitting on a horse only a few rows away from the tall boy. But another scream from Seungkwan was what brought attention to the answer to Jihoon’s question.

Eight was standing at the controls of the ride, his never-changing smile on his face as he slowly waved.

“Run!” Joshua called, leaping off of the horse he was sitting sideways on.

“Run where?” Seokmin called as he scrambled to get off the ride and jump the short fence.

“Food court!” Soonyoung shouted as he pumped his legs as fast as they would go. “It’s a long shot...but I have an idea!”

“I’d rather know the idea first!” Jeonghan called after him as the group ran together away from the merry-go-round.

“One of Changkyun’s friends apparently broke in before!” he tried to explain between breaths. “He said there’s an underground exit there! Who knows if it’s legit, but...”

But it was the only plan they had.

[GO TO: 17 -- A]

»»————-　　————-««

17 -- A

All of you had to squeeze through the tiny basement windows to get back in after finding the doors to be locked once again.

“How’d those fuckers get out in the first place?” Jeonghan huffed as he landed on the concrete floor of the basement. “The doors have been locked this entire time.”

“We’re being chased by animatronics that haven’t been functioning for years, and they’re out to kill us for some reason, and that’s what you’re going to question?” Soonyoung pointed out.

“Can we focus, please?” Seungcheol whined. “The sooner we find this secret eit, the sooner we’re free.”

“Everyone start searching,” Hansol said, waiving for everyone to scour the basement.

All of you searched every inch you could. The floor, the walls, shelves, behind old cupboards and props -- but there was nothing.

“What if it’s not here?” Chan suggested.

“Yeah? And where else would an underground exit be other than in the basement?” Jeonghan shot back.

The youngest frowned and rolled his eyes, “Soonyoung just said it was underground, he didn’t say under what part of the food court.”

“I mean...Jeonghan has a point,” Seokmin admitted hesitantly. “The basement is underground.”

[TO GO UPSTAIRS TO THE FOOD COURT GO TO: 18 -- A]

[TO CONTINUE SEARCHING THE BASEMENT GO TO: 18 -- B]

»»————-　　————-««

18 -- A

“It can’t hurt to check somewhere else,” you spoke up, moving to stand beside Chan. “We’re looked everywhere down here. What if it’s not in the basement? There could be some secret tunnel under a different location and we’re just going to be here wasting our time.”

“I mean...yeah, that makes sense,” Jihoon decided with a shrug. “Alright, we’ll try back upstairs.”

“I don’t wanna go back up there...” Seokmin whined, clinging to the nearest person -- it happened to be Junhui.

“We’re all going,” you reassured him with a soft smile. “Let’s go. Nothing’s going to happen.”

You led the way up the stairs this time, but you found yourself going slow. You strained your ears for any noise on the other side of the basement door but the food court seemed to be quiet. Maybe the animatronics couldn’t get back in since the doors were locked.

You pushed the door open cautiously, poking your head out to glance around. It seemed empty, so you opened the door wider and let everyone else out.

“Is that e--”

SLAM!

All of you jumped back and turned around hearing the basement door slam shut behind the last person out.

“Fuck this, I want out,” Mingyu stated, shaking his head as he began to quickly walk away from the door.

“Hold up,” Wonwoo reached out and grabbed Mingyu’s wrist to keep him with the group. “We should stick together.”

“It probably just closed from the weight of the door anyway,” Minghao figured before going to pull on the door handle.

It didn’t budge.

“Move out of the way, toothpick,” Seungcheol smoothly pushed Minghao out of the way before trying the door himself.

Still nothing.

“D-did it...lock?” Chan asked slowly.

“Haha, would you look at that?” Seungkwan said, checking his wrist that very clearly didn’t have a watch on it. “I actually have to get the fuck out of here. Bye!”

“Maaaaybe,” Hansol grabbed him by the elbow and dragged him back, “don’t do that.”

“Yeah, nobody goes running off, got it?” Jihoon checked, shining his light at everyone to make sure they agreed to the new rule. “Shit’s too weird to be splitting up.”

“I think our best bet would be to hide in the security room until morning,” you spoke up. “It’s probably the safest place in here.”

“_____’s right,” Wonwoo nodded. “Let’s go -- and stick together.”

As a group, all of you made your way to the security room, with you, Jihoon, and Soonyoung leading the way. All of you had your lights, shining them around to make sure the entire area was safe until you made it to the security room and barricaded the door closed.

“Jesus Christ, I hated that,” Mingyu panted as if he had been holding his breath the entire time you were walking.

“I think I almost shit myself,” Soonyoung admitted.

“Imagine your last words being ‘I think I almost shit myself’,” Junhui snorted.

“Hang on, shut the fuck up,” Seungcheol snapped, holding a hand up as he quickly scanned the group in the room. He was trying to count heads while all of you were talking, and as he quickly recounted, his blood turned to ice. “Why are we one short?”

“One short?” Jeonghan asked.

“Someone’s missing,” he said urgently.

“Alright, let’s run attendance real quick,” Jihoon decided, trying to stay level-headed. He pulled out his phone and went to the group chat. “Obviously I’m here. Soonyoung?”

“Here.”

“Seungcheol?”

“Here.”

“Mingyu?”

“Unfortunately here.”

“Hansol?”

“Yup.”

“_____?”

“Here.”

“Joshua?”

Silence.

Jihoon looked up from his phone, repeating, “Josh?”

You and your friends looked around, trying to find Joshua’s face in the crowded room. But nobody spoke up, and the silence following Joshua’s name became deafening.

“Oh fuck...” you breathed, trying to not completely lose your shit. “Did we really lose Josh?”

“We have to go back for him,” Jeonghan insisted.

“What? No!” Seungkwan shouted. “That’s suicide!”

Then everyone was bickering. While everyone of course wanted to hope Joshua was safe, half of the group felt that going back out to look for him would mean all of them would get killed. The other half, on the other hand, were willing to risk their lives to go on a rescue mission.

[TO GO OUT LOOKING FOR JOSHUA GO TO: 19 -- A]

[TO STAY IN THE SECURITY ROOM GO TO: 19 -- B]

»»————-　　————-««

18 -- B

“I mean...how would it be under anywhere else?” you asked slowly with a shrug. “No offense, Chan. But like, this is kind of the only basement in the place.”

“See?” Jeonghan sneered.

Chan just frowned and rolled his eyes.

“There’s gotta be something we missed,” Soonyoung said, trying to stay calm. “Let’s just sweep the place over again.”

But after more looking, you still came up with nothing.

“At this point, I’m about to just dig through the boxes of old animatronic parts and just hope there’s a portal at the bottom or something,” Joshua sighed, slumped against a wall with Jeonghan beside him.

“Good luck,” Jeonghan scoffed. “I already tried picking one up to move them away from the wall but they’re super fucking heavy. It’s literally impossible.”

You turned your head to look at the large stack of boxes. There were piles of various sizes, but the ones at the back pressed up against the wall went up the highest. It was a long shot, but behind the boxes was the only place nobody checked because it couldn’t be reached. But with everyone giving up hope, it didn’t hurt to try, right?

“Hey, Gyu,” you spoke up before pointing to the boxes. “Think you can move those?”

Mingyu shrugged, “Yeah, probably.”

He walked over to the wall and began lifting boxes one-by-one. He grunted as he picked them up and moved them away until he called everyone over.

“There’s metal behind here!” he called over his shoulder.

“Ooh, is it the door?” Soonyoung asked excitedly, pushing himself off the floor.

“Told you it was better to look down here,” Jeonghan said once more.

Jihoon groaned, “Can you let it go? Leave Chan alone already.”

Seungcheol started assisting in the box-moving until the metal door was accessible. Seungcheol tried to push it open, but it didn’t budge. He tried harder, but still nothing.

“Can I try?” Mingyu asked.

Seungcheol stepped out of the way, gesturing for the tallest to give it a shot.

Mingyu threw his shoulder into the door a few times before it finally swung open, leading to a narrow corridor that looked like it would bring you straight to Hell.

“Okay,” Soonyoung breathed out, “let’s see if this is the way to freedom.”

[GO TO 20 -- A]

»»————-　　————-««

19 -- A

“Why is this an argument?!” you shouted over the bickering. “Our friend could be dead! I don’t care if nobody comes with me, but I’m going to find Josh.”

“I’ll go,” Jeonghan stated.

“Me too,” Hansol volunteered with a slight raise of his hand.

“Plus, I highly doubt an animatronic got him,” Minghao scoffed as he went to join your group as you went to open the door.

“Well...good luck with that,” Seungkwan nodded.

In the end, it was you leading the way, with Jeonghan, Hansol, Minghao, Seokmin, and Seungcheol tagging along -- the latter two clinging to each other as you opened the door and went down the short hallway to the door that read EMPLOYEES ONLY on the other side.

“Why would he split off from the group?” Jeonghan wondered. “If he were trying to prank you guys, he would’ve had me in on it.”

“Maybe he just--”

Your sentence was cut off by a scream -- your own scream. Your eyes saw the scene before you: Joshua’s body laying just in front of the EMPLOYEES ONLY door, a bloodied mess. All you could do was scream.

Standing over him, covered in what you could only assume was your friend’s blood, was Bongbong.

“_____, run!” Minghao shouted, grabbing your arm and yanking you away from the door.

He quickly reached for the door and slammed it closed as you and the others ran back down the short hall. Jihoon had poked his head out the door to see what the noise was, and you crashed right into him, hyperventilating as tears welled in your eyes.

God, that image was going to be burned into your brain forever.

“What happened?” he asked.

“J-J-Josh!” you sobbed.

“Those things are in here,” Minghao panted, closing the door to the security room and pressing his back. “Th-they got Josh.”

“You’re fucking with us,” Seungkwan said quietly and very unsurely.

“Would Minghao fuck with you?!” Jeonghan cried. “If you don’t believe us, why don’t you go out there and check for yourself, Kwan? Go get yourself traumatized!”

“Okay, don’t scream at him, it won’t help anything,” Wonwoo spoke up, trying to somehow keep the group put together.

“Let’s just focus on finding a way out,” Seungcheol decided in a shaky voice.

“U-um...guys?” Mingyu spoke up, staring into the monitors.

Everyone gathered over to see what he was looking at.

Each room had a camera and a monitor to go with it. In each room, stood an animatronic. Each camera had an animatronic staring into it, as if they all were staring at the group.

They knew where you were.

“We have to get out of here,” Seomin panted, beginning to hyperventilate. “They’re going to come in here and kill us!”

“I get it’s scary, but we have to stay calm and--”

“Hey!”

Everyone turned their heads a the sudden exclamation. Chan was standing beside a square metal door in the floor with some dusty boxes and wires he’d moved to find it. He smirked, gesturing to the door.

“While you guys were shitting your pants, I found the underground exit,” he stated.

“Well fuck, kid,” Jihoon whistled under his breath.

“Let’s get the hell outta here,” Soonyoung said as he threw the trapdoor opened and descended the ladder that led to a narrow corridor.

Chan gave Jeonghan a pointed look, “And you thought I was stupid.”

Jeonghan just rolled his eyes, “Whatever.”

[GO TO 20 -- A]

»»————-　　————-««

19 -- B

You felt like a shitty person for not wanting to risk your life for Joshua. You felt extremely guilty that you didn’t want to go out and look for your friend, but truthfully, you were afraid to die -- and that’s why half your friends didn’t want to go looking for him. Not everyone was brave enough to be a hero, and while you always told yourself you would be when putting yourself into the shoes of horror movie characters, it just wasn’t the truth.

But in the midst of the argument of whether or not to go out to search for Josh -- the argument that you stayed silent for -- Mingyu spoke up in a shaky voice, “U-uh...g-guys?”

Everyone turned toward him to see he was staring into the monitors. You all gathered over to see what he was looking at.

Each room had a camera and a monitor to go with it. However, the monitors had gone fuzzy so you couldn’t see anything in any of the rooms.

Wonwoo’s eyebrows furrowed, “Why are the cameras suddenly down?”

You wished they stayed that way after seeing what was displayed next. In each room, stood an animatronic. Each camera had an animatronic staring into it, as if they all were staring at the group.

They knew where you were.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the most disturbing thing.

You could see on one of the monitors, Bongbong was standing in front of the camera holding a familiar body. Joshua was being held up by his neck, and blood was coming out of his mouth, nose, eyes, and even his ears.

You weren’t the only one to let out a scream and flinch away from the camera, hiding your face as you started panicking and crying.

“We have to get out of here,” Seomin panted, beginning to hyperventilate. “They’re going to come in here and kill us!”

“We have to find the fucking exit!” Seungcheol said in a panic. “Everyone go--”

“Hey!”

Everyone turned their heads a the sudden exclamation. Chan was standing beside a square metal door in the floor with some dusty boxes and wires he’d moved to find it. He was just staring at you like he hadn’t just witnessed what all of you did -- and maybe he didn’t because he was too busy searching.

“Way ahead of you,” he stated.

“Thank god,” Jihoon said under his breath.

“Let’s get the hell outta here,” Soonyoung said as he threw the trapdoor opened and descended the ladder that led to a narrow corridor.

Chan gave Jeonghan a pointed look, “And you thought I was stupid.”

Jeonghan just glared at him, “I’m not in the fucking mood.”

And then he went down the ladder.

[GO TO 20 -- A]

»»————-　　————-««

20 -- A

Other than only being wide enough for one person to walk through at a time, it was also very dimly-lit. It definitely looked like something straight out of a horror movie that would 100% lead to the characters’ imminent death.

Needless to say your heart was pounding in your ears.

There was another metal door, but this one was far easier to open. The squeak of it echoed down the corridor as the thirteen of you filed into the room. It seemed to be where they kept the spare mascot suits that actual employees would wear. There were a few of the bodies of the suits hanging up, with heads scattered in corners and on shelves, along with gloves and feet strewn about.

“I hate this,” Jun stated, looking around the room.

“I know these things are empty, but looking into their empty eyes is somehow worse,” Jihoon mumbled, staring at an Eight head.

At the opposite end of the tiny room in the right corner was another metal door. You were starting to wonder how many more metal doors you’d have to encounter in this place.

To the left of the room, there was a tiny wooden door that seemed like it would lead to a crawlspace. You assumed there was just more storage back there, but nobody cared enough to look back there, anyway. The focus was to get out of this place and get to safety.

“C’mon,” you nodded your head toward the other metal door that you assumed would lead to the exit, “let’s keep going.”

As Seungcheol went for the door, you and your friends heard banging. You all paused, Seungcheol’s hand on the handle. You listened for the banging again, and then looked to where it seemed to be coming from.

“Guys?” Joshua’s voice called from behind the small wooden door. “Guys?! Oh my god, guys! C-can you hear me? Hello?! Help me!”

“Josh?” Jeonghan took a step toward the door.

[TO HELP JOSHUA GO TO 21 -- A]

[TO CONTINUE TO THE EXIT GO TO 21 -- B]

»»————-　　————-««

21 -- A

“Joshua!” you cried as you ran to the small door.

You knew what your eyes saw, but was it possible none of it was real? How else would you be hearing Joshua’s voice? He must’ve been alive somehow. Anything seemed possible at this point.

You got down on your knees, opened the small door, and crawled your way through. You stood up as your friends tried to get in behind you, but what you saw made your heart fall into your stomach as your hands went to cover your mouth, muffling the loud sob that came out.

Joshua’s body was slumped against the left wall, looking just as you had remembered.

He was still dead.

Your friends had similar reactions to you. Seokmin even threw up.

Seungcheol shook his head slowly, eyes full of tears while some streaked his cheeks, “We... W-we have to bring his body...”

“He’s right,” Jihoon said solemnly -- his body seemed to be shutting down now, almost uncapable of processing his emotions. “We need evidence of what happened tonight. Nobody will believe us otherwise.”

“I-I hate to say it, b-but...it’ll s-slow us down, though,” Wonwoo interjected through his sniffles. “What if we don’t make it out?”

[TO TAKE JOSHUA’S BODY WITH YOU GO TO 22 -- A]

[TO LEAVE WITHOUT JOSHUA’S BODY GO TO 22 -- B]

»»————-　　————-««

21 -- B

You quickly reached out and grabbed Jeonghan to keep him from going any closer to that door. He turned to look at you, a pained expression on his face.

“Jeonghan, that’s not Joshua,” you told him. “You saw what happened to him. Whatever it is, it’s not him.”

“I think _____’s right,” Wonwoo nodded. “We need to keep going.”

You kept your hold on Jeonghan as all of your began filing out of the mascot room into another narrow corridor like the other one. This one, though, had a sharp right turn before leading down a while to another steel door.

But this door didn’t budge.

Soonyoung was at the head of the group, and he groaned in frustration as he tugged at the handle over and over again, “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me; what’s with these doors?!”

You started to hear a thumping. It slowly got louder and louder...

...Or maybe it was closer and closer.

Junhui walked down the way you’d come and poked his head around the corner, his eyes widening at what he saw. He whipped his head back around and booked it straight back to where your group was trying to open the door, calling, “You might wanna hurry up on that door!”

Coming down the hall were all four animatronics, their eyes lit up as they stomped closer and closer.

“It’s not doing anything!” Soonyoung huffed, trying with all his might to open the door. “Mingyu, get up here!”

Mingyu squeezed between bodies to get to the door, trying to open it as the group just shouted for him to be faster.

“We might have to just...face these things,” Chan said. “Once and for all.”

“Yeah? How?” Wonwoo scoffed. “They’ll crush us in seconds.”

“There’s fou-- thirteen of us, and four of them. We might have a shot.”

“Well hurry up and decide so we can at least put the strongest up against them first,” Junhui called.

[TO FACE THE ANIMATRONICS WHILE MINGYU KEEPS WORKING AT THE DOOR GO TO 23 -- A]

[TO FACE THE ANIMATRONICS TOGETHER GO TO 23 -- B]

[TO KEEP TRYING THE DOOR GO TO 23 -- C]

»»————-　　————-««

22 -- A

“We can’t just leave him here,” you stated. “Not only for the evidence, but because he doesn’t deserve to rot away here. His family doesn’t deserve to wonder what happened to him.”

“I’ll grab him,” Seungcheol offered, swallowing his fears and stepping forward to scoop up his friend. “Let’s get him home.”

Chan was the last into the tiny room, so he turned to go. But the wooden door was suddenly closed and wouldn’t open back up.

“What the hell?!” he grunted as he continued to try the door.

“Why’d you let it close, dumbass?!” Jeonghan demanded.

“I didn’t!” Chan shouted back. “It was just open!”

“Ugh, leave it to the fucking baby to--”

“G-guys?” Seokmin asked.

“Can you get off my fucking case?!” Chan huffed as he stood up and went to stand toe-to-toe with Jeonghan. “You’re always such a fucking asshole to me! Why can’t you--”

“Guys?” Seokmin tried again, looking between the left and right walls.

“Are you two really going to argue right now?” Jihoon groaned. “We’re literally--”

“Guys!” Seokmin finally shouted over everyone. “The walls!”

“What about the--”

Jihoon’s question died down as soon as all of you began looking at the walls. They were moving in toward each other, which would crush all of you between them.

Everyone was suddenly in a panic. Everyone was throwing themselves at the door, trying to tug it open before the walls could do anything. Some of you -- such as you and Wonwoo -- decided to spread out so you had more room. But some -- like Jeonghan and Chan, who grouped up by the door with a few others -- created a big human-lump that would be crushed faster. You heard their cries and pleas before they were crushed to death with a sound you couldn’t get out of your ears.

It was only a moment later you met the same fate.

[GO TO ENDING B]

»»————-　　————-««

22 -- B

"Nobody wants to be the asshole that says it’s better to leave him behind, but...” you trailed off.

Wonwoo was right. Joshua would more than likely slow you down. Besides, you knew Josh would want all of you to have the best chance of getting out alive as possible.

“Th-then you go ahead,” Seokmin spoke up, almost like he was afraid to.

“What?” Jihoon asked.

“I...” Seokmin looked at Joshua as more tears welled in his eyes. “It makes me sad to think he’d just be down here alone. I don’t care if he’s...gone. He can’t just stay down here.”

“I’m not leaving my best friend down here,” Jeonghan agreed.

“Seokmin, he’s--”

“Look, just go,” Hansol interrupted whatever Jihoon was going to say. “I’ll help them with the body. You guys just go on ahead.”

Minus the three who wanted to collect Joshua’s body, the group turned and left the small room and went back to the mascot room. Soonyoung tugged on the metal door and led the way down another corridor that looked exactly the same as the one that had led into the mascot room. This one, though, had a sharp right turn before leading down a while to another steel door.

But as you were walking down the hallway, you heard the yells and screams of your three friends. All of you turned on a dime and ran back toward the mascot room but the metal door was already closed and wouldn’t re-open for some reason. All of you were yelling and trying to open the door until you heard a sickening crunch, and then silence.

You all fell silent. You didn’t know what to do now.

“We--” Jihoon’s voice cracked so he cleared his throat. “We should just...keep going...”

Following behind Jihoon, you all turned one by one and went back down the hallway. You turned the corner and walked down that long hallway toward another metal door.

But this door didn’t budge.

Jihoon groaned in frustration as he tugged at the handle over and over again, “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me; what’s with these doors?!”

You started to hear a thumping. It slowly got louder and louder...

...Or maybe it was closer and closer.

Coming down the hall were all four animatronics, their eyes lit up as they stomped closer and closer.

“It’s not doing anything!” Soonyoung huffed, trying with all his might to open the door. “Mingyu, get up here!”

Mingyu squeezed between bodies to get to the door, trying to open it as the group just shouted for him to be faster.

“We might have to just...face these things,” Chan said. “Once and for all.”

“Yeah? How?” Wonwoo scoffed. “They’ll crush us in seconds.”

“There’s fou-- nine of us, and four of them. We might have a shot.”

“Well hurry up and decide so we can at least put the strongest up against them first,” Junhui called.

[TO FACE THE ANIMATRONICS WHILE MINGYU KEEPS WORKING AT THE DOOR GO TO 23 -- A]

[TO FACE THE ANIMATRONICS TOGETHER GO TO 23 -- B]

[TO KEEP TRYING THE DOOR GO TO 23 -- C]

»»————-　　————-««

23 -- A

“Mingyu, keep trying the door!” you called to him. “We’ll try to hold them back.”

“We?!” Seungkwan repeated.

Mingyu continued to try to pull the door open as the animatronics slowly turned the corner and began walking toward the nine of you. You weren’t sure how to prepare yourself for this at all, but you knew you couldn’t just turn your back and die.

But you should’ve known what would happen. Four giant machines up against eight fleshy humans who were nowhere near as strong. Sure, all of you were faster than them, but how could you dodge or run in such a narrow hallway? You were doomed from the start.

Well, not you specifically.

Seungcheol had shoved you to the back toward Mingyu, promising to keep you safe. So your friends all died in front of you, and all you could do was stand there and watch in horror.

That’s when Bongbong closed in on you.

“I got the--!”

Mingyu’s exclamation of finally getting the door open was cut off by Bongbong’s arm swinging out and clotheslining him into the wall and cutting off his oxygen.

The attack that was meant for you, but you had ducked underneath.

The light flooded into the corridor, and just like that, the animatronics just shut down. The light turned off in their eyes, and they were frozen with their hands reaching out for you.

Except Bongbong’s arm that was now frozen in place, keeping Mingyu strangled against the wall.

You could hear Mingyu gasping for air as you slowly opened your eyes that you’d squeezed shut when you ducked. You looked up and saw the animatronics were lifeless now, and then you shot up and turned to try to help Mingyu. You pulled and pulled on Bongbong��s arm while you had to watch Mingyu slowly die. It was like watching a movie in slow motion, the way his body went limp and the life drained from his eyes. Still, you stood there and sobbed and told him you’d free him as you continued to pull uselessly at the animatronic.

When it finally set in that you didn’t stand a chance, you ran out the back parking lot where the door opened to. You ran out of the park and to your car -- which was still parked near the other 3 that belonged to your friends that were no longer with you -- and drove off toward home with tears still streaming down your face.

The clock on your car radio said 6:08am.

[GO TO ENDING A]

»»————-　　————-««

23 -- B

“The door’s useless!” you cried. “We’re not going to just turn our backs and die. That’s not how I wanna go out.”

Nobody had any faith, but they knew you were right. Laying down and dying after all of this wasn’t worth it. If you died, at least you would die fighting.

But you should’ve known what would happen. Four giant machines up against nine fleshy humans who were nowhere near as strong. Sure, all of you were faster than them, but how could you dodge or run in such a narrow hallway? You were doomed from the start.

Seungcheol had shoved you to the back toward the door that wouldn’t open, promising to keep you safe. So your friends all died in front of you, and all you could do was stand there and watch in horror.

That’s when Bongbong closed in on you.

[GO TO ENDING B]

»»————-　　————-««

23 -- C

“The door will work!” you swore “Like the basement, remember? Just keep trying!”

Sure, this was different in the way that you had to pull and not push, but it had to give eventually, right?

You continued to face the animatronics that were now starting to close in on all of you. Seungcheol tried to squeeze in besided Mingyu, grabbing the handle and pulling with him. Jihoon crawled between Mingyu’s legs and stood in between the taller boy’s arms, both of his hands wrapped around the handle and tugging with everything he had.

You moved to put yourself in front of your friends. You got all of them into this mess, so you deserved to be the first to die.

As Bongbong closed in on you, you closed your eyes.

“_____--!”

The darkness you saw behind your eyelids suddenly seemed brighter, and you felt a gust of wind from behind you.

There was a couple seconds of silence.

“Holy shit,” Minghao breathed.

You opened one eye just enough to see Bongbong’s face just inches from yours. But...why were the lights in its eyes off?

You opened your eye wider. Then the other one. Its arm was only a hair away from you, but it made no move to actually touch you. There was also light flooding into the corridor from behind you. You whipped your head around to see the door was open, and you looked back at four animatronics. Were they off now?

“Oh my god,” you sighed in a shaky voice, taking a step backward toward the door.

“Let’s get the fuck out of here,” Wonwoo said as he grabbed your hand and all but dragged you out the door.

The door opened to the back of the parking lot. All of you ran as fast as you could toward your cars, only stopping at the hood of the closest one to catch your breath. Seungcheol pulled out his phone.

“It’s 6am,” he reported.

“Maybe that’s why the door didn’t open,” Wonwoo panted, hands on his knees.

“I don’t care to speculate,” Jihoon said as he went to get into one of the four cars. “Take me the fuck home.”

[GO TO ENDING C]

»»————-　　————-««

ENDING A

You weren’t sure what to do about the texts from the group chat when you got home. You swore everyone was dead. You watched them die in front of you.

Soonyoung said he was tripping balls the whole night.

Jeonghan agreed, saying he was sure there was something in the air making them hallucinate.

Even Jihoon was saying something weird had happened that night, because he thought he saw everyone die.

So...maybe they were right?

But when you inevitably went to school Halloween day, something didn’t seem right. Maybe it was because you hadn’t slept all night and you were drained in every sense, or maybe it was because you were convinced all of your friends had died right before your very eyes, but everything felt...off. At least, your friends did. It was their smiles and their voices and their hugs and laughs and promises that everything was fine, but something about it seemed alien to you.

Maybe it was from how emotionally and mentally drained you were, and the fact you didn’t get any sleep, but you swore there was an odd glow to their eyes that wasn’t just the glimmer of the florescents.

And why did Junhui wink at you?

[YOU AND ALL YOUR FRIENDS ESCAPED FROM CARATLAND...OR DID THEY?]

»»————-　　————-««

ENDING B

Get dressed.

Brush your teeth.

Brush your hair.

Go downstairs and converse with your parents.

Drive to school.

Say hello to your friends.

Laugh at what Soonyoung said.

Promise to walk to class with Seokmin and Seungcheol after you go to the bathroom.

Go into the bathroom.

Use the mirror to fix your outfit.

Use your fingers to brush through your hair one more time.

A light reflects off the mirror.

You are the only one in the bathroom.

[NONE OF YOU ESCAPED FROM CARATLAND BUT SOMETHING ELSE DID]

»»————-　　————-««

ENDING C

(NOTE: i know some people might’ve only had josh die while other had more people die. so this part will mention multiple people who didn’t make it home but i will only mention josh by name. sorry if it seems kind of confusing)

You didn’t even want to go back home after everything that happened. But you needed to shower and change, so you dropped your friends off before going home. After getting out of the shower, you checked your phone. Your heart dropped and your stomach was doing flips at what it saw.

One series of texts was from a group chat that was all of the people you were positive made it home from Caratland. All of them were wondering what the fuck was going on.

The other was the original group chat, with a text from Joshua asking if everyone made it home okay. It made a shiver go down your spine. How could he be texting? He died.

Those that had died started having a conversation about hallucinating, insisting something weird must’ve been in the air to make everyone trip and see things that didn’t actually happen. Nobody knew if it was possible. Minghao suggested that at this point, anything was possible. But still, why did all of you have the same hallucination?

The group decided it was best to ignore the message.

When Wonwoo offered to give you a ride to school, you said yes.

The two of you walked to homeroom together and saw the usual group of your friends sitting at the left side of the classroom. But seeing the friends you thought had died now just sitting there like nothing happened made your skin crawl. You wanted to turn around and walk out.

Wonwoo squeezed your hand and continued forward.

You sat and chatted with the group, and everyone seemed to be dancing around the fact that things were...weird. Maybe it was because you hadn’t slept all night and you were drained in every sense, or maybe it was because you were convinced all of your friends had died right before your very eyes, but everything felt...off. At least, your friends did. It was their smiles and their voices and their hugs and laughs and promises that everything was fine, but something about it seemed alien to you.

And why did Joshua wink at you?

[YOU AND ALL YOUR FRIENDS ESCAPED FROM CARATLAND...OR DID THEY?]

#seventeen #seventeen au #seventeen imagine #seventeen scenario #seventeen fanfic #seventeen series #seventeen x reader #seventeen text au #seventeen horror au #seventeen halloween au #seventeen aus #seventeen imagines #seventeen scenarios #seventeen fanfics #seventeen text aus #seventeen horror aus #seventeen halloween aus

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weirdmarioenemies · 4 years ago

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IT’S TIME TO TALK ABOUT BUGSNAX

Do you know about Bugsnax? You gotta know about Bugsnax! Everyone’s talkin’ ‘bout Bugsnax! The game that baffled viewers of the PS5 reveal, leading to many sarcastic jokes about it being “game of the year”, and leading so many to convince themselves and others that it MUST be secretly a horror game.

And that’s BOGUS! Even kind of rude, if you ask me. Isn’t it sad how so many simply cannot accept that something so unabashedly silly, so proudly whimsical, can exist without a twist? That the core concept, that the developers put so much passion into, isn’t seen as “enough”, and that it apparently must be a sort of cover-up? I sure think it is. It’s basically the new “were they on DRUGS when they made this”!

Of course, when I saw the reveal of Bugsnax, I knew the truth. That this was like a game tailor-made for me specifically. A creature-collecting game where EVERY single creature is not just food with googly eyes (which, by the way, puts EVERY Bugsnak on my Best Ever Characters List), but EVERY single one is based on some sort of invertebrate! Not a SINGLE collectable creature here that I dislike, or even not like that much!

And as we learned more, the passion only grew! Even the regular characters are funny creatures... there are mysteries to be uncovered... there’s a boatload of LGBT+ representation, even! There’s a non-binary character who’s just as prominent as everyone else, who everyone else effortlessly uses the correct pronouns for!

At this point, I’ve not only become a quite prominent member of the Bugsnax fandom across the wiki and official Discord server, but I’ve now finally played Bugsnax, and it is my favorite piece of media ever. I am not exaggerating. Please, if you get the chance, play Bugsnax (by Young Horses Games, creators of Octodad, by the way!). I could go on for so long. But this is not a game review, it’s a creature review! And this is not just a Funky Friday. It’s Flavor Friday this week!

So I’m going to be talkin’ ‘bout a bunch of Bugsnax! Both some of the most major ones, as well as some of my top favorites. Each Snak’s name will be a link to a video of all their lovely voice clips! I will not be talking about any plot details, but some Bugsnax discussed will be ones not “officially” revealed at the time of the game’s release, so keep that in mind if it may concerns you!

STRABBY

We will start with Strabby, the first Bugsnak ever seen, as well as, without a doubt, the mascot! And I think it’s perfect for the role. It’s simple, it’s iconic, it’s cute, it’s silly, and I would probably say this about any Bugsnak if it were the mascot, but Strabby is the one with an official plush, so here we are!

Strabby is based on a ladybug, and maybe it doesn’t resemble one THAT much, but I still think it makes sense, as a red little “bug” with seeds resembling spots in a way, and being conventionally charismatic overall.

Also, say hello to Sprout! This baby Strabby in a ball is entrusted to the player to take on their adventure, and can be directed with a laser pointer to access small areas, and help catch other Bugsnax!

BUNGER

Strabby may be the mascot, but Bunger is, without a doubt, the breakout star! All Bugsnax are silly, but Bunger is absolutely goofy. This fast food rhino beetle runs around without a care in the world, saying “bungerbungerbunger”, and gleefully knocking any other creature it sees into next Tuesday. They also knock away any traps in their path, but their recklessness and love for ketchup is key to capturing them!

CINNASNAIL

Strabby and Bunger may be the only ones with dancing gifs (for now), but now we enter my FAVORITES! Starting with Cinnasnail, who is absolutely perfect in every way, and of course my number one favorite. A cinnamon roll snail is even a creature concept I’ve come up with and drawn myself over four years ago, and seeing Bugsnax have the same idea for my favorite creature was really magical! Of all the Bugsnax, Cinnasnail not only has my favorite “bug” basis, but maybe also my favorite snack basis. I do not eat cinnamon rolls very often at all, but they are so splendid. As a snail, it is of course rather easy to catch, but it tends to be JUST out of reach... you will need some way to retrieve the trap before it escapes!

FRYDER

Fryder may be cute like all the others, but it’s also really dang cool! I really love the visual of the ketchup cup being the main body, but also like a sort of obscuring hat. Fryder is based specifically on orb-weaving spiders, and unfortunately its ketchup webs did not make it into the final game, but it still behaves uniquely in that it lurks on cave ceilings until tempted with ketchup to come down!

DR SODIE

Dr Sodie is one of many Sodies throughout the game, all delightful and based on specific canned drinks, but Dr Sodie in particular is my favorite, thanks to its name, implying this Sodie has a medical license. At this point, you may be questioning how this is a snack at all, but Bugsnax are only KINDA bug and KINDA snack! This is 100% edible and 100% Bugsnak, baby! Sodie’s anatomy fascinated me even before I played the game, and hearing it SING made it for sure one of my top favorites! It is also one of the ones I was most confused on the bug basis for, until finding out that Sodies are shrimp! I think they have some of the most interesting behaviors, too. They swim happily around, but unlike most Bugsnax, they HATE sauce of all kind, and spray water to wash it all away! How inconvenient... or is it?

CRAPPLE

a CRAB! a CRABAPPLE! Delightful! It’s a bit hard to see here but yes, it does have eyestalks. Crapple is important to me on a personal level, you see. Every day, I eat an apple with peanut butter for breakfast. And Crapple’s favorite sauce is peanut butter! You can even cover Crapple itself with peanut butter! I can make peanut butter apple IN this game! As if it wasn’t perfect enough. Also wonderful is that Crapple is a curious creature and likes to pick things up and bring them back to its lair!

I really do have a lot to say about Bugsnax. But I think this is a good point to stop at for now, given the length of the post! There will be a part 2 in the future, and this one will probably be soon!

#bugsnax #funky friday #not mario #mod chikako

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yourpinkoverlord · 3 years ago

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Kotobukiya is asking for people to weigh in what the next MLP character they should turn into a Bishoujo figure should be.

Assuming they’re actually listening and going by most commonly said or something, here’s my prediction on who they’ll make based on the responses and some other factors.

Ones I’m pretty sure they will make at some point:

—Starlight Glimmer, 100%. On all sites I’ve seen discussing it (and especially Twitter) Starlight was requested the most. Plus she’s basically a main character from season 6 onward, it seems obvious.

—Trixie. She was brought up quite a bit + if they make Starlight, making Trixie to match her is an obvious next step (“You want to complete the pair, don’t you? So you need to spend more money, riiiiight?”)

—Princess Cadance. Not only was she brought up a lot but she feels like an obvious choice. They made Celestia, Luna, and Twilight (although not a very princessy version). Just need her to complete the Princess set.

—Derpy Hooves. Highly requested, and she’s basically the fandom mascot. And not only that, but who doesn’t like Derpy?

Ones that were brought up a bit but I’m more unsure about them actually getting made:

—The Dazzlings. While not as much as the first four, they were brought up by folks quite a bit. They’re known for their human designs so just like Sunset they wouldn’t need to design completely new human designs, just make new poses. If they make one they’d almost have to make the other two (and I don’t know how many people would only want one) so it’s an easy 3 to make. Plus, uh, the Bishoujo line has always been a bit horny, even with the MLP line (yeah) and Hasbro might let them get away with slightly more sexualized Dazzling figures considering they’re Sirens and the way they sung and were animated in RR so that might...be more convincing? I only put them under “unsure” because they were brought up a bit less than the others, and, well, they’re not ponies. But they may not care about that and even use their merch pony designs to go with the figure, who knows!

—Queen Chrysalis. At first I was surprised with how often she was brought up, but looking back, I think she’s overall the most popular villain. I’m putting her lower than the Dazzlings since she doesn’t already have an animated human design (she does have an EqG doll tho) so she’d basically be created from scratch, and unlike the Dazzlings she doesn’t have an obvious character to go with her. Except for maybe Cadance. Actually, a matching Cadance and Chrysalis would be pretty cool. Still putting her under “unsure” because she wasn’t said as often as some other characters.

—The Cutie Mark Crusaders. They actually weren’t recommended as often as I thought they would be. I’d assume they’d be slightly cheaper since they would be smaller (unless they made their adult designs or something). They’re still possible because they’ve been secondary characters since season 1 and were still recommended a decent # of times. But judging by other recommendations if they were made it looks like they would be made pretty late. And since I brought it up earlier I wanna say, judging by the other young-looking characters in the Bishoujo line, no, if they were made they probably wouldn’t be sexualized.

—Spike. He was mentioned in recommendations more often than the CMC, so that’s something. There’s just two problems: He’s not a pony and he’s not a girl. Now, the Bishoujo Horror line genderbent male horror characters so him being a boy isn’t necessarily an issue, but I just don’t know for sure if they would do this with the MLP line. And there’s still the issue of him not being a pony. They would have more freedom in designing him since he doesn’t have any official human designs at all (let alone a female one), but at the same time they would have to start from scratch. Plus there’s the question of: would there even be much interest in this figure? People are definitely recommending him but for most it’s more of an afterthought (long lists that include Spike at the very end). And while he’s pretty well-liked now, Spike still has a reputation of being disliked by the fandom as stuff left over from the early days. But still, he’s a main character so not completely off the table.

—Discord. I saw him brought up a little bit. This could be a very metal figure, imagine how cool a (probably genderbent) human Discord could look. But I also saw a lot of people say it would probably look weird. Not a lot of people recommended him, he’s not a girl, he’s not a pony, he’s seems pretty hard to translate into a human design...there are a lot of things holding this possibility back. But he’s still a secondary character with a little bit of interest so he’s still a possibility.

—DJ Pon-3. Wasn’t actually brought up that much but she’s a pretty popular background pony and has even reappeared quite a bit because of it. Plus her design is pretty cool, that’s a plus.

—Octavia. If they make DJ Pon-3 making Octavia to go with her seems like an obvious choice. Usually when DJ/Vinyl was recommended Octavia was recommended along with her. Only problem here is that Octavia doesn’t appear nearly as much as DJ, and doesn’t have as much Hasbro love as DJ.

—Lyra Heartstrings. Was barley recommended, actually. I was surprised. But I guess it makes sense, her design isn’t a unique background pony design. Still, she’s pretty popular and has an EXTREMELY obvious character to go with. Speaking of...

—Bon Bon/Sweetie Drops. Like Lyra, was barely recommended. BUT, if you make Lyra, you gotta make Bon Bon. If you make Bon Bon, you gotta make Lyra. Two times the money. Has a spy backstory to work off of for the design. Pretty popular.

Annnnd those are my predictions. It looks like the MLP line is making bank for Kotobukiya, I mean why else would they keep expanding it? I love that they are but my wallet is crying.

Who do you think is most likely to be added? And who do you WANT to be added?

#mlp #my little pony #anime figure #Kotobukiya #Bishoujo #imagine if this line could continue well into G5 #I wonder if G5 Bishoujo figures are a possibility at all or if they’re sticking to G4

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blu-joons · 4 years ago

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Telling Him You’re Pregnant ~ Kim Taehyung

Little things you carried on saying raised his suspicions that something was going on, he tried to ignore them at first, but over time they became more and more obvious to him, and you had no idea that he was picking up on things.

“Hey pickle,” you smiled as he walked through the front door, you walked over to greet him, pressing a kiss to his cheek, feeling his arm wrap limply around you.

He tried to ignore the new nickname you gave him, but the romantic aspect of it just didn’t click for him, he could tell that something was going on, judging by the way you spoke, he didn’t want to ask you and offend you, but he was becoming convinced his suspicions were right.

“How was your day?” You asked him, adjusting the sleeves of the baggy jumper that you wore, feeling his eyes watch everything that you did, when he spotted you folding the sleeves up, it was unlike you to wear clothes like that.

“It was good,” he spoke expressionless, “how was your day, did you get up to anything good?”

“Not really, the same old thing bub,” you smiled up at him, “my mum gave me a call which was nice, but that’s about him,” you added, walking into the living room as he followed behind you, trying to push his thoughts to the back of your mind.

Your hand rested over your tummy as you sat down, puffing your jumper out so that it clung as far away from your body at work, trying to avoid making anything obvious to Taehyung.

“I was thinking maybe I could cook dinner for the two of us tomorrow, open a nice bottle of wine if you fancy it,” he suggested, noticing the way you winced when he mentioned wine to you.

“You relax, you’re the one who’s had the busy day.”

You went to stand, but he pulled you back down, too many things had added up in his mind, nothing else explained what was going on, he had every belief that you were pregnant, he just had to find a way to make you tell him.

“Your face looked like it didn’t want wine, you always love a glass of wine with dinner,” he pointed out, watching your eyes roll.

Straight away you had a feeling he was onto you, you didn’t want to be so obvious about it, but your heart pounded when he suggested wine, there was no way you could drink it whilst pregnant, you were in a hole that you needed to climb out of.

“I’ve not really fancied it for a while,” you lied, resting your hands in his lap, playing with the hem of you jumper, trying to distract from him. “I’m trying to get healthier too so I’ve been sticking to water as best as I can to be honest.”

He admired your efforts to try and lie to him, but he knew you all to well that something was going on. “Are you sure that’s all that’s going on, you’ve been off for a few weeks now.”

“Why do you ask?” You tentatively questioned, smiling weakly across at him.

He sighed, “don’t get upset, but I’ve been thinking that maybe you might be pregnant, and I won’t be mad either way.”

“I am pregnant,” you told him, watching him slightly smile, “how on earth did you manage to figure out that I was pregnant? I’ve tried so hard to be secretive about it.”

He chuckled, moving across to wrap his arms tightly around you, getting his first touch of the start of your baby bump. “A few things, the wine was an obvious clue, but you’ve been calling me some weird nicknames recently as well.”

“Have I? I didn’t even notice, I was doing it,” you smiled, feeling his lips press to the side of your face, “it’s baby brain.”

“I did think it was strange when you started calling me peanut and sprout, you’ve not done anything like that before until the past few weeks.”

His hands pushed your jumper up, looking at the small bump you had, you’d tried your hardest to hide it from him, you didn’t want to tell him until you were ready, but just like he managed to do, he knew you all too well, and exactly when you were busy keeping things from him.

“I’m so happy that we’re going to have a baby, we get to have our own little one, and settle down as a proper family, it’s all I’ve ever wanted with you, and now that it’s coming true, I can’t quite believe that it is finally going to happen for us.”

“I feel like I’ve been dreaming over the past couple of weeks to be honest.”

He smiled, cupping either side of your face, “how far along are you? Have you been for any scans or anything just yet? I hope that I’ve not missed out on any of the good moments yet, I want to be there with you through it all.”

You only found out you were pregnant a couple of weeks ago, instantly your mind raced to think of little nicknames for your bump, what you failed to realise is that not only did you talk to bump that way, you also ended up calling Taehyung by them too.

“No scans yet, you’ve not missed out on anything important.”

“That makes me feel a lot better.”

“And the boys are going to be absolutely thrilled, they’re going to be uncles and have a little mascot for the band.”

“Do you want to know something funny?” He asked you, “one time at the studio you called Namjoon pickle, he didn’t know what to do.”

Your eyes widened in horror, whilst Taehyung giggled in front of you, you hadn’t even realised you made the mistake, Namjoon never reacted in front of you about it.

“I’m going to have to apologise to him,” you sighed, shaking your head at yourself.

Taehyung smiled, taking both your hands in his, squeezing them so you looked across at him, furrowing his brows at you.

“He’ll know why you called him that when we tell him you’re pregnant,” he assured you, “they’re going to be so excited for the baby to happen, they’ll never leave your side just like I won’t, you’ll have the seven of us right by your side throughout all of this.”

“I don’t know what I did to welcome a baby into this world with such an incredible guy and all of his incredible friends too.”

He pressed a kiss to your lips, “just think, this time next year we’ll be sat here with our baby with the two of us, we’ll be able to have a proper family, just the three of us all together.”

“Theirs is no way it will just be the three of us, the nine of us sounds more like it, they won’t ever leave us alone.”

You loved the boys, almost as much as you loved Taehyung, they knew how happy the two of you were, and how perfectly paired you were, you knew when they told them how excited they would be, secretly they’d been talking amongst themselves for months about how ready the two of you were to take the next step.

“I’m so excited to have a baby with you, I’m going to be right by your side.”

“I know, you’re incredible, you’ll be the best dad.”

“And you will be the best mum.”

---

Masterlist

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tiareadstween · 3 years ago

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***SOME SPOILERS AHEAD****

Hey, happy Halloween! 🧡🖤

Even through I’m by no means a professional and my review’s definitely not perfect, I first gotta say that I personally found this movie amazing. I liked this fresh, new take on Freaky Friday but with a horror spin. Instead of switching places with your mom it’s a middle-aged serial killer creep, eugh!!

The movie opens up to four teenagers gathering around sitting and talking around a bonfire on the blonde girl’s patio drinking beer. Then one of them goes into the basement to find a specific type of alcohol. He gets the wine shoved down his windpipe from behind and I can already tell this is gonna be good. The three remaining survivors get killed by the masked murderer. (whose mask looks like its been pieced together out of flesh) He stabs and pins the blonde girl opposite to the entrance of her house, where her parents find her. The masked murderer gets away with an Ancient Aztec ritual knife that was kept in a glass display box, which was now in pieces

Millie Kessler is your normal, average, dorky but sweet 17-year-old girl who lives with her older cop sister and mother. We also get a peek at her social life at school with her two friends. The climax begins after the homecoming game, with Millie, convincing her friends prior she didn’t need a ride home, sitting all alone on a beach in her mascot beaver costume, constantly texting her mother, who was passed out drunk on the couch, until the phone went dark. The Blissville Butcher comes out of the shadows and into the light under a street lamp. He then chases and stabs Millie on the football field by the now-glowing ritual knife under the full moon. Luckily, her sister comes and saves her before the killer could do anything else. The next morning the Blissville Butcher was in Millie’s body, and him in Millie’s body. Millie only has less than 24 hours until the switch becomes permanent.

Maybe I’m just weird but to start I really liked the shot where the knife reflected off of the butcher’s, (who is now in Millie’s body) eyes before attempting to kill her sister before her mother snatched that knife out of his hand. The cinematography, sound, and editing really did add a layer of suspense and fear that kept me on my toes. I also enjoyed to comedy that came with it. Horror and comedy is a weirdly wonderful unique mix. When Millie was waiting her her mascot costume I was basically shouting silently at the screen for her to take it off. Girl I can never, it must’ve been hot, you don’t wanna stank! What I’ve found touching was a scene later in the movie between Millie and her mother. Millie, who has the police on her tail, is driven to the discount store (by her friends to get a disguise and end up with a rubber face mask) where her mother works at and hides in a dressing room stall. Her mother offers the unassuming customer a selection of polo shirts to try and end up spilling her life story because she was reminded of her late husband and his favorite pink polo shirt. Millie then replies that she lost someone too: her dad. Her mother spills more into her worries about how her kids were more quiet and shut out after their dad died, and of her little girl going off to college and being all alone in the house. She fears that she’s being overprotective. Millie brings some input, telling her mother to just give her daughters some space, and that Millie loves her and won’t leave her all alone. (Ugh, the feels!)

With the kill count the Blissville Butcher made in Millie’s body at least it was the people who (I swear I’m not a psychopath, but could you really blame me?) deserved it instead of an innocent student. From the selfish attention-seeking popular girl getting frozen -300 degrees in the school basement (?) to the wood shop teacher (who was probably a highschool bully himself and doesn’t deserve to work with children) being split in half by a table saw and the three jocks attempting to gang rape her…yeah! take ‘em down! Now, we’ve all learned from Beauty and the Beast that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but it was kinda weird when Millie’s crush tried to make out with a grown man with brown teeth and whose clothes probably reek, even Millie saw that too. Sweet of him, but still hilariously weird. 😂

Lmao that was long. If you made it this far thanks for reading! I’ll be posting more movie and book reviews soon.

#movie review #review #comedy movies #horror movies #horror comedy #movies #2020 movies #halloween #all hallows eve #first post #reviews #movie reviews #movie critique #ramblings

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salt-warrior · 4 years ago

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WHEN EARTH TURNS TO ASHES

Masterlist

Chapter Eight: Incidents and Accidents

Rain poured outside of the school building, despite the fact that it was snowing back in Colorado. Olympia's weather was much more constant— remaining at a cool, rainy temperature year-round. Kai couldn't imagine living in a place where seeing the sun was an uncommon treasure. He needed sunshine almost as much as he needed air, but maybe that was just because he's grown up in constant sunshine.

The door to the principal's office swung open, and out stepped a large, smiling man resembling the Wolf on his door placard. Kai turned wary; he didn't much fancy going into a principal's office after all the time's he'd spent in his own.

It was always Thorne, coming up with a stupid plan and getting them sent to the principal. Kai tried fruitlessly to convince him to stop, but in the end they would always be back up in front of Principal Konn.

"Kaito Crown?" The man's voice came out as something close to a growl. "I'm Alpha Strom." Kai bit back laughter as the principal extended his hand politely— the things that some hippies did. Kai shook the man's hand, and found that he had a pleasantly business-like firm handshake. It reminded Kai of his father.

"You can just call me Kai," Kai said. "Only my dad ever calls me that; and my old school principal."

A bark of laughter split the air, and the two grinned. "I take it you don't have fond feelings for your late principal, then?"

"No, I got along with him fine. He and my father were childhood friends, and he was like another parent to me." Kai thought back on Torin. He was a kind, wise man. He had been there for Kai every moment after his mother had died. "My friend was a major troublemaker, though, so I always had to go and talk with Principal Konn."

"Ah, I see how it is then." Principal Strom winked, gesturing for Kai to enter his office. "Come in and take a seat. I imagine that for whatever reason you're here, it's important."

"You have no idea," Kai muttered. He had planned what he was going to ask the Principal on his five hour flight to Olympia. He had brainstormed about it as he had tried to sleep in his hotel. He had thought about Selene, and how much she was counting on him— or maybe Kai was just counting on himself for Selene.

Strom walked around his large, beat-up desk to sit in a high-backed chair. The seating arrangement looked uncomfortable on his large frame, even though it would have drowned Kai. The room was plain, barren. The only decoration was a flag with the wolf mascot stamped across and the bold letters of OHS. "What would you like to discuss with me today then, Mr. Crown."

"Selene Linh." Kai sat straight up in his chair, mirroring the man across from him. His father had taught him that presenting your best self was one's greatest asset in getting a business deal; Kai hoped that the same applied to gleaning information from an old High School principal.

"She went here about two years back, before–"

"Before she ran away." Principal Strom rubbed two fingers against the bridge of his nose. "I remember Selene. A brilliant girl with a tragic story."

Kai shivered at Strom's words. He didn't appear to hate the girl judging by his demeanor, but he may have just been good with facial masks. "Yes, you see, Selene recently got into a bad car accident. She lost part of her left leg and has severe nerve damage. I just– I'm trying to find someone who cares for her."

The principal stared at Kai, his dark eyes piercing. He was a kind man, but not one to be messed with either. "You may have a hard time with that," Strom said. "Before she ran away, she was constantly bullied, though she never admitted it— too proud to admit. All sorts of rumors were spread about her, and no one ever knew whether or not they were true."

"Were they about how she killed her sister?" Kai asked, his burning curiosity getting the better of him. There was something mysterious about the young girl's death. Something covered up and suspicious.

Principal Strom's face revealed nothing, but his hitched breath showed that the question was shocking. "Yes, they were about Peony Linh."

Kai sat forward in his seat. "How exactly did Peony Linh die? Do you know?"

"No one knows. No one except for the family— they were under strict orders to keep things related to Selene under the wraps until the final adoption papers were completed." Principal Strom looked grave. "Selene and Peony went somewhere; Selene came back alone. No one talked about Peony after that, except for the rumors that spread about Selene having killed her; most of them spread by Pearl Linh."

"Do you think that Selene killed Peony Linh?" Kai asked urgently.

"Personally?" Strom shook his head. "Selene was a fierce girl. I knew her well. But I do believe that she would never have harmed Peony— at least not intentionally."

"Did Selene have a violent past?" Kai cringed as the words slipped out of his mouth. He felt guilty for digging into Selene's past, but he needed to know what was going on. He needed to know her.

"Technically, I'm not supposed to tell you anything about Selene," Principal Strom looked uncomfortable. "But I am willing to tell you what I do know, as long as it's just between the two of us."

Kai nodded fervently.

"Okay, so I don't know much, except for the basics. Her Social Service worker, Liam Kinney, worked his butt off to help her, but trouble always followed Selene. The family before the Linh's, they had wanted to adopt Selene as well, but then there was an incident. I don't know what happened," Strom put his palms flat against the table, cutting Kai off before he could ask. "Kinney kept things tied up very tightly. I would give you his contact information, but I lost track of him about a year ago."

"Like I said, Selene was a kind girl, but dark things always seemed to follow her. Not many people would be willing to tell you much about her; especially not the Linh's. I can, however give you one person who might give you your best shot." Strom pulled out a piece of paper and began to write something down.

"Who would that be?" Kai asked, feeling despondent. He had hoped for more than 'she has a dark past' and 'I can't give you much information.' He wanted answers.

Strom paused from his writing. "Selene's friend. Well, someone who was once her friend." Strom glanced at his computer, clicking a few tabs and keys before he finished his note.

"Here," Strom said, handing Kai the paper. It had an address, a phone number, and a name written in barely legible writing. "She stayed here local since graduating. She was a star pupil, but and outsider; like Selene."

"Thank you for all of your help," Kai stood, and extended a hand to Strom. They shook, and Strom had a melancholy glint to his dark eyes.

"I do hope you can do something for Selene. I always– I wish that I could have done more for her." Strom patted Kai on the back. "I knew that she was being bullied, and I did nothing. I knew that she was drowning, and never did I throw her a life raft. I hope that perhaps you'll be able to accomplish what I could not."

A burning sensation filled Kai's chest. He simply nodded his head, and walked away before he had to look at more of this guilt in the old man's face.

Selene may have caused a great amount of anger and heartbreak, but she caused just as much guilt and sorrow. She was a burning pathway of destruction and loss. She was a magnet for bad luck, but also for people. She was a forest fire: calamitous and deadly, but impossible to ignore. She was a fallen angel, causing the Heavens to weep at her downfall and Hell scorn the beauteous creature in fear of her being the greatest of them all.

Kai read the note again, launching the coordinates into his phone. He would figure out what happened. He would track down Liam Kinney if he had to. But for now, he would talk to Cress Darnel.

***

"Why?" Selene's words were harsh and bitter. "I thought you were my friend. I trusted you." Betrayal twisted her words into a comfortless whisper.

Cress's big blue eyes widened, and Selene would have felt guilty under different circumstances. "You know that I didn't do it— I didn't mean for it to happen. I didn't think–" Selene choked on her words. "We– I– she was my sister. I loved her. You know that."

Selene had cornered Crescent after class, needing to speak to her one last time. She had to know if the betrayal was an act of free will or forced. She wanted nothing more than to believe that Cress didn't mean it. The look in her best friend's eyes, however, was answer enough.

"I thought I did." Cress squeaked. Her eyes were brighter than usual. "But Pearl, she told me the truth. She told me, and now the whole thing makes sense. This wasn't even the first time you've killed someone." Cress looked sick as she said the words. "Ran Kesley–"

"Don't," Selene spat the words like fire. "Don't you dare. That was–"

"An accident?" Cress cut through, her voice rising with nerves and mockery. "You and I both know that an accident like that doesn't just reoccur. You planned it all. You're a freak; a sociopath. Do you even know what love is?"

Selene flinched as if Cress had caused her physical pain. It wasn't the first time she had heard the words, but hearing them come from her best friend made then sting more than they had coming from Adri or Pearl or even Mr. Kesley.

Cress's face softened, but less out of sympathy than horror and sadness. "You tore apart families, Selene. You may not have intended it to happen, but you still caused it. You– you–" Cress covered her eyes with her small, delicate fingers.

"I don't even know why you stay here." Cress murmured, her posture hardening. "No one wants you." Cress hissed. Selene had never heard such unkind words come from the girl. Cress had always been so sweet; now she was ice and a cruel knife in the back.

Bile filmed in Selene's mouth. There were so many things that she wanted to say. Thousands of comebacks, dozens of betrayals; but nothing came.

"Me neither."

#when earth turns to ashes #wetta #a burning world #marissa meyer #tlc #kaider fanfiction #tlc fanfiction #kaider #linh cinder #selene blackburn #prince kai #emperor kai #the lunar chronicles #lunar chronicles #carswell thorne #cress darnel #konn torin #salt warrior stories

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where-theres-smoak-2 · 4 years ago

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Barchie Theory

Full disclosure here, this isn’t my theory. It’s something I’ve seen going around on twitter in various different comments that I’ve decided to put all in one post because I think all these smaller theories or details could be linked together to make one big theory if that makes sense and I was wondering what others might think of this theory as I am still a little unsure of it myself.

Ok so the theory is that in 5x14 we will get a love confession. To be honest when I saw that tweet that is literally all it said just ‘I think we’ll get a love confession in 5x14.’ So I’m not really sure where the original theory came from but there are other tweets as well that could be relevant to this theory. Another thing people have pointed out which could support this idea that 5x14 will be a big episode for Barchie is because madchen amick posted this:

This reveals that the episode she is directing is 5x14 and it’s called The Night Gallery. Some twitter uses have made the suggestion that title could be related to this picture that was released a couple of weeks ago by the set designer:

This picture shows a collection or a ‘gallery’ of pictures. The title like all the other titles of Riverdale this season is linked to an existing media. This one is a TV show called ‘the night gallery.’ The premise of this tv show was the host would show three paintings and each painting would be linked to a story which would be told (it was mostly horror stories). I could see how this picture could be related here. My theory going off of this is that the episode will follow a similar format as the tv show the night gallery. I have heard that the actors who played little Betty and Archie in 4x18 were seen on set so we can assume at some point we will get Barchie flashbacks. Now to be clear it is not confirmed that the picture above is from 5x14 and its not confirmed that the child actors will appear in 5x14, this is just speculation. But I could see them showing us one of these pictures then it flashing back to the memory/ story that is in that picture. Then showing us another picture and us having another flashback to another moment in Barchie’s past. So yes in my opinion I could see there being a link between the title of the episode and the picture of all the photo frames.

Another twitter account pointed out that Ted Sullivan one of the writers said this about 5x14:

Again this doesn’t say anything in particular about Barchie but seeing as Betty is such a big part of his life I again could understand why people might come to the conclusion that something important with Barchie will happen in 5x14. Especially if you combine it with the title and the photo of the picture frames. On top of that Ted also said this about a certain episode in season 5:

When questioned further he elaborated a little more:

So naturally with the hmm at the end many people are speculating that its in reference to Barchie as most comic book fans are Barchie fans and this implies that the comic fans will also be very happy.

Now me personally not to be a debbie downer but I do feel like alot of this information is too vague to say for definite that this means we are getting Barchie in episode 14 but again I can see where people are coming from with it. For me I think the most convincing ‘evidence’ is the title and the photo of the Barchie pictures but it is also worth noting that Ted posted the tweet about Archie having a powerful storyline in episode 14 the day after he posted about a ‘VERY special’ episode, so that could be an indication that episode 14 is the very special episode he was referring to. I mean the language he uses to describe the two episodes is very similar, describing something as ‘very special’ and something as ‘near and dear to your heart’ definitely, to me, has similar vibes. But again on the flip side of that its also worth bearing in mind that there could be at least some degree of baiting going on here so take it with a pinch of salt.

Also this is a sort of side note but as I mentioned baiting. Yesterday Evan did post a picture of Cheryl and the bulldog mascot and zoomed in on the mascot and put the caption ‘me patiently waiting for tomorrow’s episode (and #barchie)’ before later editing it to remove the Barchie part. Now why he went back and edited it I’m not sure maybe because he knew that there wouldn’t be alot of Barchie in this episode and realised it properly wasn’t a good idea to tag it with Barchie for an episode that didn’t have any content for them? But this could be an indication that there is still more of Barchie’s story to tell. But again this could also just be them baiting us, I’ll be honest I am very wary of the writers right now.

I mean as far as timelines go episode 14 could be the perfect time for Barchie to have a love confession. I’ve said a few times now that I could see something happening between Barchie in the season finale like a kiss or confession from one of them as they think they are dying that is then ignored after like with Leyton in season 3 of OTH. If this were to happen in episode 10 then that would give four episodes of Barchie being confused about what happened and their feelings about it before the ‘big confession’ where they both finally lay it all out on the table. Then you have another five episodes after that where they are together for the remainder of the season. So that would be 4 episodes where they are FWB, 4 episodes of them being confused about their feelings after a spontaneous kiss and 5 episodes of them as a couple which to me seems like a logical timeline.

Whilst I am not sure if they will have any scenes in this episode I really do think they will have something in ep 10 because the show is going on a longish break so they are going to need to keep the fans interested. By having Veronica and Archie get together last episode, then having Betty and Jughead investigating this week, if they then have something happen between Barchie in the midseason finale then the will have all three sides of the fandom itching for more because they want to know what will happen next for their ships. I really don’t think its a coincidence that they’ve brought back the og ships this close to the midseason finale and so that’s why I think they’ll also bring in some Barchie content to keep everyone invested whilst they are on break.

Anyway think I’ve waffled on long enough what does everyone else think, do you think its possible that Barchie will have a love confession in episode 14 or are you still thinking it’s done and dusted for Barchie?

#barchie

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callophelia-ailingamnemonic · 4 years ago

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If The Omori Fandom Played Homestuck... [Pt 1]

Okay... so um... y’all know how I love assigning hero titles/classpects to characters and how I love the potential of Fandomstuck, right? Yeah, lmao so I decided to assign a hero title to my Fandomstuck interperetation of this psychological horror RPG game called OMORI! It’s a really good game and I had an idea for a hero title for them! And cuz I have a feeling this post is gonna be pretty long, I’ll go through what I think their lunar sway would be, as well as other things such as chumhandles, typing quirks, planets, sprites, strife kinds, and fetch modi in the next post uwu

Though please keep in mind that this is purely my opinion, and if you disagree with it, then that’s cool, you don’t have to listen to my conclusions! They’re merely suggestions uwu Additionally, all this speculation is based off of OptimisticDuelist’s own research and that this post will contain a lot of spoilers for OMORI, so be warned, and remember; this is all just for fun and to satisfy my Fandomstuck obsession :33

For the sake of not confusing the actual game from the character, I will refer to the game’s personification as ORI.

After playing the game, I strongly believe that ORI’S hero title is the Prince of Hope.

The aspect of hope relates to faith, possibilities, positive emotions, and all things imaginary, idealistic, and as my friend would say, all about “Faking it until you make it”. Additionaly, as quoted by optimisticDuelist, hope also “describes our faith in the narrative’s coherence, our excitement for building plot threads and our ability to immerse ourselves in the fictional world”. Majority of the game takes place in WHITE SPACE, a DREAM WORLD created by SUNNY after MARI’s death as a sort of coping mechanism to handle the guilt of the truth. Many things about the DREAM WORLD relates to hope, such as how SUNNY hopes to forget what really happened to his sister by immersing himself in the DREAM WORLD for the price of isolation in the real world (for FOUR years!) where, in the DREAM WORLD, everything is better because MARI is still alive there and all his friends are together and happy. The aspect of hope, however, is not just restricted to SUNNY/OMORI and WHITE SPACE, but also to the characters outside in the real world which is why I think the aspect of hope relates to ORI beyond the game’s protagonist. BASIL believes in SUNNY and that there was no way he could have killed MARI or vandilised all the photos, no matter how clear it was, and instead blames SOMETHING for all of it. Additionally, the rest of the cast believed in the lie SUNNY and BASIL created regarding MARI’S death and don’t even find out until the very end of the game if you get the true ending. We can also go a few steps further by bringing up the group’s hopes and dreams for a brighter future, SUNNY’s hope for forgivness and the fact that happy (And its other stages) are all positive emotions that play a role in battles.

Although I’m pretty set in stone about hope, you do see traits of other aspects throughout the game.

Time, since the aspect is linked to music, narrative pacing, decay, and is associated with photographs through the canon Knight of Time, Dave Strider. Right off the bat, we can link the whole photography thing to ORI since the truth is revealed to the player through a series of photos, and also that BASIL loves taking them. Additionally when the game brings us to the real world for the second time, we get to learn how the world SUNNY used to know changed in the last four years. Additionally, MARI and SUNNY played the piano and violin (respectively) and MARI died the day of their recital. If we wanted to go above and beyond, we could probably bring up how BASIL’S mental state takes a quick turn south when he finds out SUNNY’s gonna move, and on the last day, if left alone, will kill himself, which will either lead SUNNY to lock that memory away, or kill himself by stabbing or jumping off the hospital’s roof if the player gives up during OMORI’s battle. So yeah... lot’s of death.

Void and how it can represent secrets, lies, misfortune, and the unknowable alongside nothingness/meaninglessness and the physical world. This applies to ORI and how the whole reason WHITESPACE exists was due to MARI’s death and how it was covered up with a lie and how hard OMORI tries to stop SUNNY from discovering the truth.

Light, which represents imagination and true information, good fortune, and what’s important. Imagination also applies to WHITESPACE and how as the game goes one, we begin to learn the truth behind MARI’s death.

Blood, which represents connection, responsibility, commitment to a collective, an attachment to the world and character dynamic. This applies to ORI and how despite the fact the characters had drifted apart ever since MARI’s death, they were all able to fall back together due to their friendship. Heck, the whole thing about them all being close friends is often seen and mentioned throught the game! In addition to that, the lack of connections ended up making everyone miserable and eventually, SUNNY owns up and tells the others how MARI really died in the end of the true end.

Heart, which reflects the soul, inner feelings, love and attraction, and platonic ideals of both people and objects. Additionally, canon heart players are known for roleplaying and personality splinters, which if you count OMORI (SUNNY’S dream alter ego) going around and protecting the truth by pretending everything is alright, then that kinda fits the heart bill as well. We could additionally go a little deeper by bringing up Sweetheart and the fact that the dreamworld is personal and important to SUNNY, since everyone in that world was either people in real life when they were still young or mascots from games and comics SUNNY knows of.

Kind of breath, since a part of the aspect includes detachment from the world... since... y’know, SUNNY HASN’T LEFT HIS HOUSE IN FOUR YEARS.

And kind of rage, since anger is one of the emotions the play a role in battles, and that a part of rage is that its contrivance is meant to make us see through the illusion of the fiction and focus on its flaws instead. This can be applied to how quickly the dreamworld falls apart as the game progresses, breaking the harmony time and time again, and constantly reminding us that everything is not as it seems.

Although these aspects could all be used to describe ORI, I still kinda see hope as the main aspect.

Now for the next point, why in the world would I think ORI to be a prince of all classes (Especially considering Homsestuck’s canon Prince of Hope)??? Well, I’ve already describes what hope is and how it relates to the dreamworld and its purpose, and then I’m gonna bring up what a prince (Alongside its passive counterpart, the bard) does; they destroy.

Princes are ones who destroys their aspect, or destroys through their aspect for themselves. As one of the most active classes, it can be stressfull for them to adopt passive roles, and tend to dominate the plot with the sheer impact of their actions. Royals (princes and bards) are those concerned with aristocracy, nobility, and the great figures who shape society, and due to that, share a focus on birth-rights and legacies. Royals are often intensly devout to the cause they believe in and the people they love and are not afraid to fight for what they believe is right. They tear down what’s old and stagnant to allow the flourishing of the new and are often formidable attackers, but also effective debuffers, as they remove their aspect from reality or wear down their enemy through its use. However, their reverence for high-class court society can make them judgmental or arrogant, and their greatest challenge is to resist the ego that would convince them that they’re above others.

The main reason I chose the Prince class for ORI is because they can destroy their aspect, and in this case, I will their aspect, being WHITE SPACE/the DREAM WORLD. As mentioned countless times earlier, WHITE SPACE is SUNNY’S safe place and their protection from the truth or what really happened, but as the game progresses, the player’s actions and OMORI’s reaction to anything that would reveal the truth breaks the illusion of the DREAM WORLD, before eventually, destroying it althogether in the end and (if you managed to figure out the hangman’s game) uncover the truth in the form of a broken realm known as BLACK SPACE. Additionally, the entirety of HEAD SPACE (WHITE and BLACK) was created by the game’s protagonist, which would already put them (SUNNY/OMORI) in an important position. If we want to expand on the whole aristocracy-nobility thing, we could bring up the fact that SWEETHEART is... I don’t really know what she is, but she’s super popular, rich, and owns a castle in the DREAM WORLD, and that CAPTAIN SPACEBOY/FRIEND is a well-known space pirate, and MR JAWSUM who is the owner of this hotel-resort thing. The fighting part of the Royals’ description easily fits ORI, since it is an RPG game. I could keep giving reasons as to why I think ORI would be a prince, and several other alternatives I thought would fit, but this post is already really long :’DD So the last thing I wanted to say about this was that the reason I thought ORI would be a prince, and not a bard, was mainly because of the prince’s activness and how as the game goes on, OMORI grows stronger before the final battle of the game turns into a struggle for power between SUNNY and OMORI.

Anywho, this is my really long explenation of why I would think ORI (My Fandomstuck interperetation of OMORI) would be a Prince of Hope! At one point, I did contemplate the idea of them being a witch, but then I felt as if that would have suited SUNNY more as an individual.

So yeah, that’s basically it and I’m gonna make another post later about all the other stuff afterwards, and to finish this post off, here is a picture I made of ORI using Gacha Club uwu (Cuz I have no drawings prepared ;w;)

#Classpecting Random Characters #homestuck #classes and aspects #Hero Titles #OMORI #Fandomstuck #Fandomstuck OMORI #Fandomstuck Hero Titles #Fandoms Play Homestuck #Spoilers for OMORI #Mentions of death and suicide

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shyneanon · 4 years ago

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@volet-forest‘s suggestion convinced me to finally try writing HT Sans. Since I’ve never done it before he’s sort of a mix of different people’s interpretations that I’ve read (though I detect a lot of Axe from Skeleton Squatters and the Landlady). This isn’t really meant to be HT Sans/Reader, because I have no idea how I would write that, but I realized that this could technically be the rocky start to one, which is interesting.

---

Well, this was a horror movie set if you’d ever seen one.

This was the house? Seriously? It looked completely uninhabited. There were no lights on, it clearly hadn’t seen yard work in years, and the structure itself was beginning to fall apart. You considered calling your manager and telling him the situation, telling him that there was absolutely no way that you were going to that house. It looked like some serial killer’s hideout, and you wouldn’t be surprised if whoever was there had only ordered a pizza to lure some poor delivery person (in this case, you) to their doom. It might not even be inhabited like you suspected, and the serial killer had just found a good spot to commit a murder. Surely, even you weren’t desperate enough to potentially risk your life just for a tip, right?

…

Yeah, you definitely were.

By the time you reached the door, your heart was hammering in your chest. This is a terrible idea, what are you doing? At the same time, another part of you tried to rationalize the situation. There’s nothing wrong. These people just don’t take care of their house. You’ll see once you knock and they answer. They might be weird, but not dangerous. As if… you just wanted to believe you being in danger wasn’t possible.

Now you understood why people made dumb decisions in horror films.

Tentatively, you reached up to ring the doorbell, but before you got the chance, it creaked open, just barely, as if someone had sensed your presence. Creaked open. Just barely. The fact that you didn't immediately turn on your heels and run would be so embarrassing later. If you lived, anyway. The other side of the door seemed completely dark… besides one glowing red eye. So the customer was a monster. People didn’t exactly have red eyes, much less glowing ones. Unfortunately, the extremely large red eye did not help your unease. Still, you hoped that smiling as if nothing was wrong would convince your brain that yes, indeed, nothing was wrong. It felt strained, and you could only hope it didn’t look that way.

“Um, hi. I… I have your pizza.”

The red eye looked down at the pizza box in your arms, then back at you, eyeing you suspiciously as if you were the one who was sporting a thousand red flags. The owner of the eye said nothing.

“You… did order a pizza, right?” Maybe they hadn’t, and you were at the wrong place and you could bail. The real customers would complain about cold pizza, but you’d be alive.

“... Yes.”

They said it very slowly, deliberately. Their voice-- or, his voice, he sounded male-- was deep, but not in a warm and welcoming way. This wasn’t Santa Claus’ deep voice.

The door swung all the way open and you honestly expected the inhabitant’s hand to shoot out from the darkness, grabbing your arm and yanking you inside, the pizza forgotten. But they didn’t make any other movements, didn’t even reach their hand out to take the pizza. The light from the street lamps outside the house finally took away the veil of darkness, and you were able to see the entirety of your customer.

Oh my God this was so much worse.

It wasn’t that he was a skeleton. You were used to monsters by now, they’d been free from the Underground for years. So a living skeleton didn’t scare you, even if you’d never seen a skeleton in person before. It was just… What the hell? You hadn’t ever seen a monster like… like this.

Firstly, the red eye was his only eye. His other eye socket was empty. Secondly, there was a massive hole in his skull. Above his one eye. It looked like he’d been seriously injured and just… never gotten treatment? His mouth was sort of locked in a grin-- which made sense, he was a skeleton, but it just made him look crazed. And his clothes seemed as unkempt as the house he was living(?) in-- they were tattered and stained. Your eyes drifted to a few stains on his shirt, and your heart almost stopped.

Was… was that... Blood?

You decided not to think about it any more.

You must have been visibly afraid at this point, because his one functioning eye… socket’s… lid lowered in what looked like irritation.

“... It’s rude to stare, you know.”

His speech was still slower than the average person’s. But you could detect sass. It occurred to you that on the off chance he wasn’t a murderer, you probably seemed like a jerk for being visibly afraid of him. Honestly, you felt justified, but it was still mean if he wasn’t dangerous. If he wasn’t, then he was probably sick of people reacting to his appearance like this.

“S… Sorry.” You held out the pizza. Just take it already. “Here you go.”

He just looked at it. He looked just a little less creepy with his one eye not all wide, at least. After studying you again, still with an air of suspicion (Dude you were the one who ordered the pizza why are you afraid of me just fucking take it), he finally took the pizza box. He then opened it to look inside. You were so eager to leave you almost forgot to charge him. Right, you were doing this in hopes of a tip. (Although seeing as you offended him, you probably weren’t going to get one. Good job, me.)

“Um,” you said, and his eye looked back at you. “If there’s nothing wrong, that’ll be--”

Another voice, much louder and higher, called from further inside the house. “SANS? IS SOMEONE AT THE DOOR?”

That had to be the monster’s name. Sans. He said nothing, again. Didn’t even look in a different direction. His eye was just… locked on you. And he’d called you out for staring? At least the eye wasn’t wide anymore….

He was joined by another skeleton, so, so much taller. So tall that his head almost brushed the ceiling of their (admittedly small) house. He actually looked like the monsters’ main mascot… but… also not. Unlike Papyrus, he had some pretty crooked teeth, so he didn’t look much friendlier than Sans, but at least he looked mostly uninjured compared to his companion. And he didn’t have a giant glowing red eyeball. His smile was also a lot friendlier.

“OH!” he said. “HELLO, HUMAN! WHAT BRINGS YOU HERE?”

Could he not see the uniform you were wearing? “I, uh, came to deliver your pizza.”

“PIZZA?” He looked over at Sans. “SANS, I DID NOT KNOW YOU ORDERED A PIZZA.”

Sans’ mouth was already smiling, but you saw one corner quirk up higher in a genuine smirk.

“... I didn’t.”

Wait. “Wait, this is the wrong house?”

He didn’t say another word, just started backing into the shadows of the house again like the creep he was. His companion looked a little bothered by this. “UM, SANS, IF IT IS NOT OUR PIZZA--”

“It’s fine, Paps. They probably won’t take it back anyway.” All you could see was his eye again, and it narrowed at you. “They probably think we’re contagious or something.”

What the heck? “No, I don’t, give me the pizza back.”

“... No, I don’t think I will.” His gaze became darker. “I’m not… passing up… on free food.”

Could they… not afford food? He said it like he wouldn’t eat tonight if he didn’t get the pizza. Still though, this wasn’t a charity!

But before you could say any more, the door was slammed in your face. An argument began on the other side, with “Paps” insisting that they give it back. But you… you didn’t have time for this. This wasn’t the hill you wanted to literally die on. Your manager would understand. Heck, he’d probably scold you for even going up to the house in the first place.

So much for that tip.

#This was honestly so fun to write tho #HT Sans is such a jerk in this lol #self-insert #reader-insert #fanfiction #sans #horrortale sans #horrortale #horrortale papyrus #drabble #fanfic

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braindeadskeletons · 4 years ago

Note

Hello!! Can I have a matchup please?? It seems like every time I ask someone for one, something happens in which they can't 😂😂 but that's fine lol,, I'm a cisgender bicurious female of which the curious part is aimed towards males! The only men I've ever liked are fictional smh,, my friends tend to think I'm bubbly and very open, and they relate me to the colours orange or yellow! I'm also British and I have a love for horror movies and psychology. I would go on but,, happy writing!! Love ya

I'm a very naturally femine person in appearance. My room is full of pastel colours, mainly pinks and purples, alongside plushies and lots of duck ornaments! Since my favourite animal is a duck (fuck geese they scare the shit out of me). Despite this, a lot of people don't expect this? Apparently I seem like the kind of person to have a much simpler or perhaps darker room. So I usually tend to shock people when they see what my room looks like lol. I love unique fashion! Stuff you see on cat walks - christmas themed dress, teacup shaped t-shirt, whatever! You name it, I've probably seen something like it! Because of this, I also have a love for weird decorations. My kitchen is flamingo themed, my bathroom is winter themed (yes, I have a santa clause toilet), and my office is fulled to the brim with 90s and 80s memorabilia. Stuff you wouldn't find nowadays without some digging!! I'm currently in college taking an accounting degree, also alongside business. After that, I also wish to take a literature course to help with my fanfiction writing (perhaps I could eventually write a novel? I don't know haha) Crude humour is the key for me to be happy. As much as silly humour and stuff is great, say something vaguely offensive and I'll crack up! As long as it's not meant to be taken genuinely, then I'll find it funny. Although I have to be close to the person for me to actually start laughing at stuff like that

Hey there! I'm so sorry this was a wait! I basically had some stuff come up and it delayed my work a lot. Plus the added time from the added information you gave me, which I thank you for by the way <3 I had a lot of fun writing this! I hope it doesn’t disappoint lol. Instead of delaying this further let's just get right into the matchup, shall we?

I match you with Undertale Papyrus!

This might've been a little too obvious huh? I just couldn't help it, you two seemed like such a natural pair! I try not to go with matches that are too obvious but sometimes you just have to go with it.

The first thing that naturally attracted Papyrus to you was how open and bubbly you are! He can relate a lot to that himself and seeing how much of a natural you are while interacting with others just convinced him further that he just had to talk to the pretty lady! Of course, the moment you two start talking you both hit it off. It’s kind of physically impossible for anybody to hate Papyrus or for Papyrus to hate anybody. You know those fanfics on AO3 that are slow burn, friends to lovers, 140+ chapters? That’s what this is. There is no better way to put your relationship before you both are dating. Papyrus means well, and by god is he a good person, but he’s a bit of an airhead when it comes to romantic attraction. You could literally tell him that you want to marry him and have ten monster/human hybrid children and he’d still be like ‘BUT,,,AS FRIENDS,,,?’ You’ll need to wait for him to understand his feelings himself. It’ll hit him at one of the dumbest times possible. For example:

----------

You: geese are just,,,,kinda,,,,horrible

Papyrus:

You: fuck geese

Papyrus:

You:

You: Papyrus are y-

Papyrus: I THINK I’M IN LOVE WITH YOU???

----------

Yup. Just like that. No warning, no proper build-up, nothing could have predicted this. It’s just silly moments between the two of you that make him so smitten. Like you’re such??? A dork??? How could he not fall in love with you?? It’ll be a huge smack in the face for him that he’s fallen in love with you. Probably it’ll be the same for you if you’re the type of person who is oblivious with love. If not, then it was horribly obvious he likes you and you were simply waiting for him to say something first. The blushing, constantly trying to impress you, his lovestruck gazes at you when you laugh at his antics, etc. The signs were all here if you’re able to spot them. Now that Papyrus is aware of the fact that he likes you he isn’t going to let this opportunity pass by. Time for the dating manual!

This part is actually going to be the worst. Yes, the hard work and effort are absolutely precious and you’re very flattered he’s trying to “court” you as he puts it but it’s going to be overwhelming. Unless you’re fully on board with flowers being left at your door, love letters, great “acts of love”, serenading you with a not so great voice, randomly inviting you out to “friend dates” that are actually regular dates in disguise, complimenting you every waking moment, and more you might want to stop him and just tell him you like him too. Once you tell him you feel the same way, prepare for the most wholesome hugs and kisses from the big goober. Fully expect to wake up the next day and everybody already knows you’re his date-mate. Papyrus is going to tell everybody and their great grandmas that he landed himself with the greatest human ever.

So you mentioned that your kitchen is flamingo themed? Uh,,,don’t get used to it. Not that Papyrus would ever openly try and change your home, he loves your decorating! He doesn’t really understand how people wouldn’t expect you to have such an adorable home! He has named all the duck ornaments, become well acquainted with your stuffed animals and the real animals, is slightly afraid of the Santa Claus toilet because Santa is the evil man sans told him about, etc, etc. But we all know how he gets in the kitchen. If you care about the wellbeing of your flamingo decorations maybe move them somewhere else? Papyrus swears that he won’t set fire to your home but we both know how that goes for everybody involved.

----------

Papyrus: HUMAN

You: Yeah?

Papyrus: HOW ATTACHED WERE YOU TO THE FLAMINGO DECOR

You:

Papyrus:

You:

Papyrus:

You: Hun, I love you

You: but if you fucked up the flamingo decorations I swear to god-

----------

This is a regular conversation you two need to have. Somebody, please stop him.

He really really loves your sense of fashion! Since the two of you have been dating, he’s actually gotten into it a bit himself. Papyrus tries not to invade your privacy but one time he stumbled into your office and saw all of your memorabilia dedicated to the 90s and 80s and immediately fell in love with the aesthetic. It’s all he could talk about for weeks and god knows he isn’t stopping anytime soon. Try introducing him to some more fashion! Papyrus probably won’t get enough of all of it. Watch him show up to your home dressed like the whole circus.

When Papyrus hears of how you’re studying right now, he’s going to go on a little bit of a rant about how he knows plenty of stuff about school! Not really. He just thinks he does because he has his face in a shrub at Toriel’s school. This isn’t to downplay his intelligence of course but monster education and human education have a lot of differences. When it comes to accounting Papyrus isn’t exactly going to understand anything, but he will be very supportive! He may not understand much about accounting but he surprisingly knows a lot about business?? Yeah, it’s a little strange but I guess you shouldn’t be that shocked. Papyrus is supposedly the ‘mascot of monsters’ and he’s also friends with the monster ambassador. To say the least, he’s surrounded by a lot of really important people. If you’d like, he’ll even take you to meet a couple higher-ups! Whatever he can do to support you he will.

As for your love for writing, Papyrus would probably have to redirect you to Alphys. Don’t take this the wrong way, it’s just that the humans on the surface have been a little…intense...for Papyrus and Sans. He’d like to take a break from any sort of writing for a long long time.

Onto the final section! Date nights! Which for Papyrus might as well be every night. His idea of an ideal date would probably be something extremely outlandish, but he knows humans can’t handle a lot of the stuff he can so he tones it down. Making dinner and watching a movie is good enough, right? Papyrus knows you love horror movies in particular. This poor guy is trying his very best. Please be patient with him. He wants to prove that he can protect you and be the bigger monster but he’ll end up clinging to you the whole time and maybe even crying?? Just a little. As a treat.

Yeah, so go gentle on the horror movies. Poor guy is gonna pass out.

His main goal during the date will be to make you smile at every possible turn. You’re in luck with the crude humor! Now you may be thinking ‘but Papyrus isn’t crude, he’s such a sweetheart!’ and you’re not wrong really. Most of the stuff he says is entirely on accident or he’s just genuinely oblivious to the implications of what he just said. If anything that only makes it all the more hilarious to witness. If Papyrus catches himself with what he said he’ll try apologizing profusely only to be met with your adorable smiling face. He may not get what’s so funny but seeing how your smile reaches your eyes makes whatever he just said worth it.

#AAAA IT IS D O N E #It was so fun writing this lol it just took me so long again I'm very sorry about that!#thank you for being patient <3 #thank you for sending this in!#Undertale #Undertale matchup #Undertale Papyrus #Undertale Papyrus x reader #matchup

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dgrayland · 5 years ago

Text

★D.GRAY MAN ★ ANIME & MANGA RECCOMENDATIONS

So, you all knows how much I love D.Gray-Man (forever and ever and ever) but when you get at the point where you pretty much watched and rewatched the entire series - original & hallow and all - as well as read and re-read the manga you’re gonna need a breather to process all the emotions but yet still can’t seem to let go. Yet at the same time, ya need a breather with something familiar yet something new. Yule gotchu, fam (＾＾)ｂI’ve compiled a few recommendations that might match your tastes.

The few below would probably have elements from DGM that you might like and find intriguing and probably fill up the time until Hoshino reveal more to us.

Here we go!

GLOSSARY

01. Claymore

02. 07 Ghost

03. Pandora Hearts

№ 1 — CLAYMORE

RECOMMEND : Both Anime & Manga ★★★★★

This is an oldie but a real goodie. I think it was way back when I was in middle school when I first watched Claymore but recently I rewatched it and it’s still very good. The action scenes were top notch and each battle is very interesting to watch especially when they really go at it.

The story takes place in medieval-esque time in a world that’s overrun by demons known as Youma who can disguise themselves wearing human skin. They’re difficult to get rid of and when a town found themselves infested, they have no choice but to contact and Organization in order to dispatch a Claymore warrior in order to deal with the monster. In this story, we follow a Claymore named Claire, one of the Silver-Eyed Witches as she is accompanied by her human companion Raki.

The Organization is definitely the Order’s equivalent, Youma’s as Akumas and Claymore/Silver-Eyed Witches as Exorcists.

Those who love D.Gray-Man would definitely find something to like in Claymore as they hit similar themes although Claymore is definitely a bit more darker and gory in nature so beware of that (A bit of warning on assault too. I think two scenes but it didn’t get far.) There’s definitely body horror and blood and guts but it’s mostly keep out of eyesight in the anime but the same can’t be said for the manga.

The story is really intriguing and really led you to wanting to know more and wanting to know how it ends. The soundtrack is also absolutely fitting and gets you hype up with the scenes. There’s 26 episodes for the anime and the manga is complete with 156 chapters (give or take) Though I haven’t finished the manga yet so no spoiling me (;´д｀) Not that I don’t know the ending...what?! Sometimes I can’t help myself!

I have so many things I want to rave about this anime but I’m gonna keep my lips shut and let you experience it by yourselves. (・ω<)

Not enough? Let these few gifs convince you!

№ 2 — 07 GHOST

RECOMMEND : Both Anime & Manga ★★★★

Same with the above, I was probably in middle school when I first stumbled on this anime. After completing Claymore for the second time, I instantly remembered and rewatched it. This focuses more on emotional point similar to D.Gray-Man where characters have their own arcs and lessons to go through.

07 Ghost takes place in a fantasy realm with cultural influence from Germany, magic in forms of Zaiphon and even have Sky Pirates! Yes Sky Pirates! The story however follows Teito Klein, a battle skalve (slave) for the Empire but one day he starts to remember his past and flees from the Empire falling into the church grounds where the 7 Ghost are worshipped. And soon he have to deal with Kors and Wars who temps humans to grant their wishes before taking their souls and run into the 7 Ghosts as he tries to uncover his hidden memories of the past.

I think out of the three recommendation, 07 Ghost hits most of the same notes as D.Gray-Man though I do prefer DGM in terms of story telling and everything but 07 Ghost is an interesting emotional journey of its own. In this series, the Church mirrors the Order though DGM order is much darker in terms of ambitions, Wars and Kors mirroring Akumas and the Clerics and 7 Ghosts can stand in the place of the exorcists. Allen and Teito have similar notes as well but I won’t say much more because it’d be spoilers but a clue would be in terms of identity, they’re not all they seem. Lastly, 07 Ghost have a beautiful melody called Raggs Requiem that would be Lacrimosa Lala’s song equivalent.

The anime guarantees a good time having hit the same comedic and emotional points and for all those shonen-ai shippers, this is the series for you (o'ｕ≦o) though I have yet to see if the couples end up together (I’m still reading the manga. Gomennasai m(；∇；)m ) so no guarantees on that. For the first time viewers, you’re gonna need tissues for the anime. It’s not a long anime with 25 episodes that focuses on the church before Teito leaves for the journey but it’s a worthwhile experience.

As for the manga...I was a bit disappointed by a couple of scenes as it moves at a fast pace and didn’t have as much of an emotional impact on the readers as covered by the anime but the story is fascinating and the characters have many layers and the deeper you go, the more you see their motivations aren’t surface level. The manga isn’t long spanning exactly 100 chapters (if you count the extra) and there’s enough mystery and emotional backstory as well as action to go around. I’m actually disappointed that they didn’t continue the anime as the story after Teito left the Church was very interesting especially when it comes to the identity of Teito Klein as well as the true identities and past of the 07 Ghost : (1) Zehel, (2) Fest, (3) Profe, (4) Relikt, (5) Vetrag, (6) Ea and (6) Lankarte as follows -

Not to mention we have a younger less cynical perverted version of Cross, a less eccentric but still highly eccentric Komuii-like character as well as a cute mascot, Burupya! How could you say no to such a cute face?

№ 3 — PANDORA HEARTS

RECOMMEND : Both Anime & Manga ★★★★★

OKAY, YOU KNOW WHERE I’M GOING WITH THIS. THOSE THAT KNOW WILL KNOW AND I KNOW THAT MOST OF YOU KNOW! This...This is probably the only anime and manga that can compete against DGM emotionally and story-plotting wise. They both will eff-ed you up emotionally, bawling into tissues as well as leave you screaming at books and screens at what will happen next.

Oh gosh, I hope I do it justice.

Pandora Hearts takes place in a fictional England in Victorian Era times in the age of noble houses and Dukedoms. On the very day that a boy Oz Vessalius is about to have his Coming to Age ceremony, he fell down and discovers a pocket watch upon a that plays a mysterious melody. Strange things happens and he was thrown into the world of Abyss - a twist on Lewis Caroll’s Wonderland filled of broken things, the Will of the Abyss and beings called Chains. There he meets a Chain and form a contract with her bringing him back to his own world but an Organisation have tracked him down and now he have to cooperate with them as he unravels the mystery about himself, the Chains, the Abyss and the dark secret that loomed behind the noble houses that affects their pasts, present and future.

There’s so much I want to say and yet can’t say about this series because the amount of spoilers. It would be something that haunt you for a long time and once you get invested, you can’t quite get out.

There’s similarities between characters such as Oz with Allen and I dare say Komuii and Sheril with Xerxes but both series have a strong character cast that you would fall in love with each of them and layered story where nothing is as it seems including characters. The Chains can stand as either Innocence or Akumas in a sense but it isn’t a typical monster hunting story, it’s rather focused on unravelling the mystery one string at a time. There are heavy elements on horror and a bit of warning of blood and a bit of bodily harm so take note of that.

The anime is 25 episodes long and serves as a good enough introductory to the series but the manga is where the story truly shines. The soundtrack however is wicked epic and worth listening to. Yuki Kajiura lends her talents creating haunting melodies that would haunt your mind and tug at your hear strings. The manga spans around 104 chapters and good news! It’s completed so no need to sit in agony for so long (gawd knows I have. I had to wait for years. I still have to finish up the manga thoughᕕ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)ᕗ Yes, yes, I am a bit slow when it comes to mangas) But I think most of you are pretty acquainted with this. How I know? Well....when this happens.

One last thing I need to mention - the art for Pandora Hearts is extremely beautiful and you will find yourself staring at a single page for more than a few seconds just to take in all the details. That’s it.

CONCLUSIONS

That’s pretty much what I’ve been able to gather over the last couple of months. I hope the recommendations are helpful in some way. Even if it’s not, it’s fun to write about for a bit. I definitely know there’s more series to recommend and would love to hear if there are suggestions. I’ve heard about Demon Slayer being one of them but haven’t started on it yet. Anyways....

Happy watching and reading!

#dgm #D.Gray-Man #07 ghost #claymore #pandora hearts #DGM anime & manga recommendations #yule's list

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wastefulreverie · 5 years ago

Text

Ectober19 Scarecrow

Genre: Horror/Suspense

Word Count: 6833

"Why did I have to get paired with her?" Mikey banged his head against the lunch table. "She's just so… ditzy! The epitome of the A-List's idiocracy! Phantom this and Paulina that! It's always the same story!"

Lester gaped. "Dude, I don't know why you're complaining! Star's hot! Like, hot hot. Any other guy would be head over heels!"

He groaned. "She's not my type."

"I thought everyone was your type?"

"Being bi doesn't mean that I'm attracted to anyone. Sure, Star's pretty and all but she's superficial and scatterbrained." Mikey glanced her a few tables away and scowled. He drew his fingers over her head and crossed an X. "Not my type."

"Whatever," Lester said. "I still think you're overreacting. Even if you're not into her, being her partner can't be the end of the world!"

"Trust me, it is. This leadership project is due in a week and she hasn't even talked to me about it yet! All she's done is text Paulina and brainstorm half-assed ideas about beautifying the community and act like I should be carrying the entire project!"

"Well, why don't you come up with a project idea that she'll actually be interested in? Something that she'll get into?"

"I don't think she has any interests. She's just that… shallow," Mikey remarked bitterly.

"She's literally the second most popular girl in school, she has to have something she likes to do!"

"I mean, she likes cheerleading? And uh, nail-designs? Oh, and Phantom! She loves Phantom!"

"There you go!" Lester said. "Come up with a way to improve the community using Phantom! That's your project!"

"'Using' Phantom? How am I supposed to get in contact with the ghost boy!"

"I mean, you don't have to get him on board. Just use him as a marketing tool or a logo or something. There's plenty of other people that look up to him, so it'll work like a charm!"

"I hope you're right, Lester. I'll try to talk with her next period."

"That's the spirit!" he patted Mikey on the back.

"So, I know that you're not really into this project, but I have a few ideas that you may want to hear me out on."

"Okay, sure." Star didn't even look up from her phone. "Knock yourself out."

"The assignment says that we have to come up with a way to improve the community, and I know that our community's main problem these days is ghosts, so I was thinking that… we could do something about Phantom?"

Immediately, her eyes snapped up. "Phantom?"

"Y—yeah."

"You're not one of those antis that want to get rid of him, are you?"

"No!" Mikey waved his hands. "I was more thinking like, we could base our project on him somehow! To benefit the community!"

"Oh, yeah. That sounds cool. But what would we do?"

"Well, there's a lot of damages because of ghost fights. Maybe we could figure out how to minimize damage? And use Phantom as part of the campaign?"

She bit her lip. "That's a good idea, but it's tricky. There's no way to predict ghost fights or protect areas once they've been targeted. We can't exactly get tangled up in the fights themselves."

"True… so maybe we can find a way to prevent them or dissuade ghosts from attacking at all? But what keeps ghosts away?"

"Phantom?" Star suggested.

Mikey's eyes widened. "Oh my God. Phantom keeps the ghosts away! That's it! We can just make giant mascots of Phantoms to keep the ghosts away!"

"What? Like… Phantom scarecrows?" she laughed.

"Exactly like Phantom scarecrows! If they're convincing enough, ghosts will totally steer clear of them!"

"It's so stupid that ghosts might fall for it! Mikey, you're a genius!"

"Thanks!" he pushed his glasses up on his nose. "So… any ideas what materials we'll need?"

It took a lot of resources and a considerable amount of planning, but by the end of the week, Star and Mikey had single-handedly created six Phantom-crows ready to be placed around Amity Park. Their teacher amended them for their creativity and awarded them a well-earned A. The rest of the class had resorted to basic projects like flower planters and soda-can recycling, so their project was definitely a breath of fresh air and bound to break ground in their community.

"From a distance, even I'd think this was Phantom!" Paulina marveled. "Wouldn't you think so, Dash?"

She ran her hand over the glossy black material that Star managed to snag from a local crafts store and twirled the scarecrow's tufts of white hair.

"I gotta hand it to you, Star, this idea was super smart!"

"Well, Mikey came up with it. I just bought most of the stuff and helped put it together."

"So modest," Paulina crooned. "You're definitely going to be a great aunty-coneur one day!"

"Do you mean 'entrepreneur'?" Mikey deadpanned.

"Yeah, that person!"

"Paulina knows what she's talking about, nerd!" Dash shoved him.

Mikey huffed indignantly and held his tongue. He didn't need to get the shit beaten out of him today, after all. He only had to wait a little longer and this entire partnership with Star would dissipate. Then, he wouldn't have to deal with the A-List anymore.

"So, where are you putting them up?" Paulina asked. "I wouldn't recommend putting them in uh... Fendork's neighborhood. His Dad might shoot them down."

"Ugh, I forgot about that lunatic," Star intoned. "Good thing we're not putting any on that side of town. So far, one's going up in Elmerton and another's going by the docks. We also decided that we're putting one on the school's roof since we get a lot of them here. We haven't decided on the other three yet because we're waiting on a map of areas with high attack rates."

"Good idea. Hopefully they'll actually make a difference!"

"Well, that's the idea, after all."

"What if ghosts aren't scared of them, though?" Dash pointed out. "I mean… you'd think most ghosts would be scared of Phantom, but some of them aren't. Some of them try to fight him! Like that time Phantom and I were shrunk real small and we had to battle this killer robot dude who was totally out for Phantom's ectoplasm! We kicked ass together!" he boasted.

"I don't know why anyone would be foolish enough to purposely fight mi amor! He's so strong and brave that he can defeat anything!"

Mikey hated to admit it, but Dash… was sort of right. What if the ghosts saw the scarecrows and tried to attack them because it was Phantom! What if instead of ghost deterrents, they acted as incentives?

Well, too late now. Mikey couldn't afford to turn back now. If they didn't follow through with this project, their grade would be jeopardized. Everyone was counting on them to do this and if Mikey shot down his own idea that wouldn't look good at all! The best course of action was to watch how this would play out and pray that Dash was wrong. He had to have faith in the scarecrows.

Even if it was against his better judgment.

Danny was reasonably confused on most mornings, but today was not cooperating with him at all. The moment he touched down on Casper High's campus and shifted into Fenton, he was met with a startling sight. There was a life size-doll that resembled Phantom hoisted above the school's entrance. It was wrapped in shiny, black material, branded with his logo, and had a flat mop of white hair on its head.

It was kind of eerie. Was this a dare or a threat? Was someone going to try and hang him in front of the school? Given, the doll looked like Phantom, not Fenton, but his ghost side still had plenty of haters. He'd learned the hard way never to underestimate his enemies—ghost or human.

Danny set his suspicions aside and surrendered himself to Lancer's first period. Still, the picture of that doll haunted him. What did it mean? What was it for? Did a student do it?

Between third and fourth period, Danny caught up with Sam and Tucker and asked them what they knew. To his disbelief, Tucker responded a bit too enthusiastically.

"Oh, that's a Phantom-crow!"

Danny gaped at him.

"A what?"

"Phantom-crow. You know, like scarecrow. Phantom." He mimicked smashing the words together with his fists. "Phantom-crow."

"I still don't get it."

Sam's explanation was much more helpful. "It's something that the College Prep class did. They had to plan a community service project or something and one of the groups came up with Phantom scarecrows to ward off ghosts. Who knows? It might work."

"If this takes off, you should patent it," Tucker suggested. "They're based on your physical likeness. You could totally make a profit!"

"You want me to apply for a patent… for giant scarecrows that look like me?"

"Duh!"

"Tucker, I don't think scarecrows are really an original idea."

Sam laughed. "Yeah, you might have to fight some medieval farmer for the rights."

"That's easy, Danny can just take me to their ghost! Then we can hash it out over who owns scarecrows."

Danny shot them an incredulous look. "What are you two even talking about?"

"Apparently Tucker's going to go beat the shit out of some dead farmer."

"Wouldn't the farmer beat the shit out of him?"

Tucker held his hands to his chest in dramatic shock. "You've betrayed me, Daniel."

"Last time you said that it was over onion rings."

Sam snorted. "That sounds about right."

They turned the corner to Danny's next class and bid them a quick goodbye. He slipped into his desk and laid his head down, trying to get a minute or so of rest before class started. Danny snagged any naps he could these days with as much sleep deprivation he got. The chatter of his classmates dwindled under the veil of sleep and soon Danny was dreaming.

...

A tree rustled across the courtyard. It wasn't very tall, but it's branches stretched around itself donning magnificent, orange leaves. It looked familiar, but he couldn't place where he'd seen it. An autumn breeze twisted through its leaves and ventured towards his face. It pressed against him and whispered something incomprehensible, something cold. He wanted to reach out and touch it, but his arms wouldn't move. It was like they were pinned to his side.

That's alright, he decided. The wind still feels nice.

Suddenly, something below him shrieked a terrible shriek. He tried looking down and—

—smacked his head on something hard.

His desk.

He smacked his head on his desk. Great job, Fenton!

The tardy bell must've startled him. Stupid bell. It sounded exactly like that noise from his dream… oh. It was the noise from his dream. (But was it?)

Maybe he was more sleep-deprived than he thought, but it almost felt like he'd heard the noise in his dream first.

It was easy to ignore his parents' endless drivel about ghosts at the dinner table, but Danny usually tuned back in anytime they mentioned Phantom. Even if it was something he didn't want to hear about, like their newest dissection procedure or the surgical camera they'd installed in the lab ("It'll capture that nasty spook's insides in high definition!"). Nonetheless, it wasn't all bad; sometimes they were just discussing his presence in the community or about how their latest attempt to capture him failed because he 'conveniently' evaded their traps.

"Oh, Mads, did you hear about that project that a few kids did? People are finally recognizing the need for more diverse spectral protection methods!"

Mom dragged her spoon across her plate, dividing her food from latent ectoplasmic residue.

"I don't think I've heard of that yet. What did they do?"

"Well, you know how all the young people look up to Phantom? Some kid got the idea that Phantom's likeness could scare away the other ghosts and decided to make Phantom-scarecrows. Isn't that clever?"

"Oh, it is! Phantom's awfully territorial, so it makes sense that his presence could drive away other ghosts. Surely, some of them will see through the ruse, but it'll dissuade a few of the smaller ghosts."

"That's what I thought too," Dad said. "It won't be extremely effective, but it's a step in a good direction. More and more people are evaluating the threat of ghosts in this town and taking action!"

"I don't know," Danny spoke up. He hadn't put much thought into the topic, but it seemed that people were neglecting a few obvious facts. "It's true that some ghosts are afraid of Phantom, but there's other ghosts that seek him out to attack him. If ghosts find the Phantom-crows, won't they attack areas that wouldn't have been targeted otherwise?"

His parents stared at him and his stomach dropped. Had he said something too detailed? Did he give himself away?

"What?"

Dad fiddled with his silverware. "It's just… you usually don't give your opinion when we talk about ghosts anymore."

Danny's cheeks grew hot. "Oh."

"I mean, it's true what you said," Mom added. "Actually, it's a really good point! I'm surprised that you knew that about Phantom."

"I pay attention sometimes."

Especially in his own ghost fights, but they wouldn't know that.

"Well, how about you put some of that attention in your classes, huh?"

"I am. Have a little faith in me, will you?" he joked. "And this isn't the first time I've spoken about ghosts in awhile. I just… I don't know, get enough about ghosts in the rest of my life that I'm usually tired about talking about them when I get home."

She narrowed her eyes. "They're not bothering you again, are they?"

"No, no! Nothing to worry about. Who knows? Maybe I'm being too pessimistic and those scarecrows will actually work. Then we really won't have much to worry about!"

"Well, if the scarecrows ward off all the ghosts, we'll still be left with Phantom," Dad pointed out. "That'd be a sad sight; a hero ghost flying around with nothing to fight. That spook will be so distressed that he'll never see us coming!"

And… this was probably a good time for him to duck out. He didn't need to enable another one of Dad's 'rip Phantom apart molecule by molecule' tangents. Danny hurriedly came up with a homework assignment and excused himself from the table.

Danny usually didn't get enough sleep to dream. Whenever he did, they were usually trauma-induced nightmares. Flashes of the portal, the feeling of being ripped apart and smashed together again all in the same moment, and the sickening stench of his own flesh burning. The swish of a red orb, the loss of his free will, and infinite piles of riches… enticing him to stay forever. And him. The cruel curl of his lip, his wicked laugh, sadistic and crippled by apathy. The way Sam's head rolled back when the explosion hit, how Tucker's glasses caught the brilliant blaze, and his parents' look of absolute betrayal.

You know, regular nightmares.

He didn't know what to do with this. This didn't feel like a nightmare, but it was definitely vivid enough. That, and he was lucid. Was lucid dreaming bad? He knew that Jazz did an entire report about it for one of her psychology classes.

He was suspended in the air, but he couldn't move. Paralyzed. Entranced by the dark landscape below. Weathered planks of wood carved broad paths over a misty mass of water, ebbing in and out. He couldn't see them, but there were a few street lamps nearby. Their reflections hung in the water like ethereal, yellow flames.

Somewhere in the distance, dogs barked. Gritty, low howls that pierced the night. They lulled after a few moments, but Danny couldn't help but feel like something was wrong. This wasn't one of his normal nightmares; this was something new. This felt real.

He tried to speak, to say something. But it was like there was something sewing his lips together. What? He couldn't even talk? It was irritating enough that he couldn't move his body!

In a panic, he tried moving his legs, arms, anything. Nothing would work! Why wouldn't his body work?

He was ultimately trapped in his own body.

He wanted to move. Couldn't he at least have the freedom to breathe?

… maybe this was a nightmare.

The dark water ebbed in and out, hitting the concrete barrier underneath the docks and moving back across the lake. The same pattern, over and over with no deviation. How many minutes had it been? It felt like he'd been listening to the waves for an eternity now. It was cruel how dreams distort one's sense of time, stretching tedium out for hours. He just wanted to wake up.

He was lucid, yet he had no power. He couldn't control this dream, move his body, or wake up. He tried to snap himself out of this, tried to resurface his consciousness. Still… the waves splashed against the wall and retreated. He tried for so long too… so long.

Was this his brain's idea of a metaphor? Was this self-punishment? He'd almost prefer being compressed inside the Fenton thermos. If he heard that water splash against the wall one more time—!

Okay, that settled it. This wasn't a nightmare; this was insanity.

Just as he'd given in, surrendered to the futility of waking up, his alarm went off. The dark docks vanished before his eyes and suddenly he was acquainted with his pale, yellow blinds. Somehow, in his sleep, he'd phased his arm into the blinds beside his bed. Without much thought, Danny tried pulling his hand out and ended up disrupting them even more.

Duh, dumbass. You phased yourself in, you have to phase yourself out.

Finally coherent enough to function, Danny phased his arm back out of the blinds and leaned against his headboard. He didn't feel rested at all. He just wanted to go back to sleep. Even though he'd dreamt for hours and hours, it was like he hadn't gotten a wink. Maybe it wouldn't be the end of the world if he took a short nap before getting ready?

But it would be. Mr. Falluca had a chemistry quiz first period that he couldn't miss and he'd made a promise to his parents that he'd pull his grades up. There wasn't a choice; he had to push through it. After all, it was just until three o'clock… he could make it until three! He'd done it before and he could do it again.

He was okay. That impossibly long dream had ended and he was going to take Falluca's test. He was okay because he had to be.

Okay, he didn't make it until three. He made it to lunch and Sam and Tucker forced him to take a nap on one of the couches in the library. He called them stupid for being such good smotherers and blacked out like a light.

This time, he was suspended over the courtyard from yesterday. His first instinct was to move, to move his head so he could place his surroundings, but once again his body refused to move. He pushed his mind to regain control of his body, pushed himself to even twitch a finger. Inevitably, his attempts were null. He was helplessly imprisoned within himself, paralyzed.

Just like last night. And now that he thought about it, just like his daydream yesterday.

He should've realized it much sooner. This was a pattern, wasn't it? Something was seriously wrong with his sleep.

He addressed his gaze to the scene below him. Sunlight cast across the courtyard, and for the first time Danny noticed that there was a human-shaped shadow stretched across the ground. There was a roundish top that must be a head, a bulky torso, and thin arms and legs. There was enough to suggest that the shadow belonged to him, but that definitely wasn't his body. He knew his own shadow and that wasn't his. Was he even in his own body?

Somewhere, a door slammed.

"Shhh, we'll get caught!"

If he could gasp, he would have. There was someone here, someone that wasn't part of this void dreamscape. Or, maybe they were. Maybe they were a figment of his imagination, but they were still the first person he'd heard since these weird dreams began. If only he could turn his head...

"Nuh-uh!" a second voice called out. "The cameras are still broken from the last attack. We're fine."

The first person—a girl—scoffed.

"So? Teachers come out here for smoke breaks. We're not in the clear, dumbass."

"Oh."

The two figures lingered in Danny's peripheral vision. The girl wore a red sweater and carried a metallic lunchbox. The second voice—a tall, dark-haired boy—shouldered a green and orange backpack. He didn't recognize either of them, but it was clear that they were students.

Did that mean that this was… Casper High? What the hell?

Why was he dreaming that he was hanging over Casper High? Why were these kids in his dream? And why couldn't he still move? Why was this happening over and over? Why, why, why—?

The girl in the red sweater jestfully shoved her accomplice. "Danny," she said. "Danny wake up."

Wait what?

"Wake up. First lunch is over, we gotta go."

His eyes snapped open and he almost collided foreheads with Sam. Luckily, he managed to phase through her just in time. She made an "eeking" sound and stepped back.

"Close call," Tucker commented. "Though, if you hadn't phased you coulda tried to aim a few inches lower." He tapped his fingers against his lips with a shit-eating grin.

"Tucker—" Sam growled.

This time, Danny took a few steps back.

"Wanna repeat that?"

When school ended, Danny found himself visiting the school's courtyard. There had to be a reason that his dreams transported him here, trapped him here. He was going to get to the bottom of it, no matter what. Even after his nap at lunch, he hadn't felt rested at all. And he had a bad feeling that he wouldn't get any rest until these dreams stopped.

As soon as he entered the courtyard, he was met with the sad sight of the Phantom-crow. It immediately struck home and Danny pieced it all together.

This started when the Phantom-crows had been hung up around town. This particular Phantom-crow was hung directly over the courtyard, where he'd been in his dream. And it cast the exact same shadow.

It sounded beyond ludicrous, but it was the only thing that made sense: he was being pulled inside the scarecrows.

Reeling from his discovery, Danny ran his hand over his face. This couldn't be real. He didn't even know this was a thing. Who would even think this was a thing? Who suspected that they saw through the eyes of their own immobile, straw imitations?

With a bout of levitation, Danny leaped onto the roof. He examined the Phantom-crow with baffled fascination and noted that it looked even less like him up close. He reached to brush it's mop of stringy white hair and immediately refrained. Was it even safe to touch this thing? What if he touched it and it zapped him straight back into it, for good this time? Paralyzed, trapped as a scarecrow… forever.

He didn't want to take that risk.

Instead, he resolved to just eyeball it. From what he could tell, there wasn't anything obviously suspicious about it. That didn't help his situation at all. He needed to figure out how to get it to stop pulling him in, to stop disrupting his sleep and thrusting him into hours upon hours of mind-numbing tedium.

He hated this stupid Phantom-crow.

If he could get away with destroying it, he would. But this was a community project. He couldn't destroy something that others made to benefit the town, could he? Students had dedicated their time to this. Besides, tons of people were keeping their eye on this project, even his parents!

He'd feel guilty destroying it.

Having made up his mind, Danny stepped off the roof and flew home. He'd find another solution.

"Mom, Dad," he called into the lab. He was desperate and didn't have time for indirect prefaces, he was jumping straight to the point. "Do you think Phantom's spirit is actually in the Phantom-crows?"

Something in the lab clattered.

"What was that, Danno?"

Danny trudged downstairs and repeated his question. If anyone would know about ghostlore, it'd probably be his allies in the Ghost Zone. Although, his parents were closer so he'd settle for their explanation first.

Mom pulled her goggles off of her face. "What do you mean 'Phantom's spirit?' Are you asking if he's possessing them?"

"Yeah, sure. They're supposed to protect the city and a lot of people think he has a protection obsession—" Only a few people had figured out his obsession, but he was stretching the numbers for credibility. "—so do you think that some part of the real Phantom is lingering inside the Phantom-crows? And hypothetically, is there a way to get rid of it?"

Dad tilted his head. "That's an oddly specific question, but I always love a brain teaser! Lemme think on it for a few minutes."

He reached for a pad of notebook paper and started gathering his thoughts.

Meanwhile, Mom narrowed her eyes. "Are you asking for a reason? Did you see something?"

Danny bit the inside of his cheek. "No, no. It was uh, just a conversation I overheard."

"Ah."

"I figured the experts would know, so I asked you guys."

He was probably pushing the flattery, but he was short on time.

"Good call," Mom ruffled his hair. "If there's anything else you ever want to ask about ghosts, you come to us, okay?"

Like he couldn't just ask himself for most things.

"Oh, for sure!"

"Alright, I think I got something!" Dad declared. "It's possible for ghosts to possess objects that he has a personal connection to. Normally, it'd be something from his past life, but since the scarecrows are erected in his image it isn't too far of a stretch to say he could possess them."

"What about removing his possession? How would I, I mean, someone do that?"

"Hm, possession is tricky. People assume it means the same thing as overshadowing, but it's a lot deeper. You could probably pass the scarecrows through the Ghost Catcher, but that'd only be a temporary fix. Removing the ectoplasm doesn't sever the connection, so I'm at a loss."

Mom nodded. "That's why human possession is such a big deal. You can knock out a ghost that's overshadowing a person, but you have to perform an exorcism to fix possession. And exorcisms… aren't exactly foolproof. They're religious rituals, not scientific procedures—a lot could go wrong."

"Like those horror movies!" Dad chimed in.

"What would sever the connection?" he asked.

"Well, killing Phantom would probably do it."

"You can't 'kill' a ghost, sweetie," Mom reminded him.

"Right, but Danno knows what I mean! Obliterate him, tear him to pieces—that sorta stuff!"

Danny tried to keep his hands from shaking and shoved them into his pockets. "Yep."

"So, does that answer all your questions?"

Definitely not. He still had no idea how he would sever the connection, in fact, he felt even more confused.

"I think so. I'll be up in my room."

He left his parents alone with their experiments and slammed the deadlock behind him. He didn't know what to do or who to turn to. He was positive that Sam and Tucker couldn't help. Hell, he wasn't even sure if he could explain this to them! Clockwork and Vlad would tell him to figure it out by himself, and he doubted any of his other allies would know what to do.

He was fucked.

All he could do now was try not to fall asleep.

In a battle between the body and mind, the body always won. It was an inevitable consequence of man's hubris; no one could outwit sleep. No one living, anyway.

Danny couldn't even remember where he'd fallen asleep. In his room? On the kitchen table? Had he caved and gone to Sam or Tucker's house?

All he knew was that he'd screwed up and now he was back inside one of these scarecrows.

This time he wasn't at the docks or at the school, but he was hanging over a street. An ordinary street with cracked pavement and dark green scorch marks that the city failed to power wash. It wasn't nighttime yet, just a little bit before sundown. He could see the sunset in the distance, grazing above a powerline in his peripheral vision.

He couldn't make out much besides the street below him. From what he could tell, this could be any side of town. But if he had to guess, he was out near Elmerton—it was quiet here. Elmerton was the farthest area from downtown, by local standards it was much more rural than suburban. That, and Elmerton was often the brunt of ghost attacks so not many people wandered around the streets anymore.

Danny couldn't decide which was worse. The grating repetition of water crashing and receding against the docks, or silence, stretching out into what felt like hours. Had it been hours? The sun had finally fallen below the horizon, hailing pitch darkness. There weren't any street lamps here, unfortunately. Not being able to see anything felt wrong. Danny was used to having night vision, so not being able to discern his surroundings was startling.

How did humans live like this? It must suck not being able to see. No wonder Tucker complained all the time.

No sight, no sound, no movement. His only occupation was his thoughts, and they were screaming. Livid. Loud. Desperate.

He wanted this to move, he wanted some relief! But there wasn't any relief!

It was as if a heavy weight was compressed on his chest, digging deeper every time he tried to breathe. He would inhale and the pressure would clamp tighter, tighter, tighter! No reprieve for Danny; your lungs aren't allowed to inflate! Tighter, tighter, tighter.

Time was excruciating. If he ever woke up, he'd ask Clockwork if he could punch it in the face. (But isn't Clockwork time? … shhhhh)

At some point, the night's darkness dissolved and resurfaced below Danny's eyelids. His breath caught in his throat and he awoke in a fit of coughs.

He'd woken up.

He didn't know why or how he'd woken up, but he figured that it must've been something in the real world that disturbed his sleep. Before, he'd only been pulled from his dreams by an intervening force. And he couldn't have just woken up because he was well-rested, he was still as exhausted as ever. Whatever had happened, it was a fluke and he was grateful.

"Coffee," he decided groggily. "I need coffee."

By morning, Danny was hardly holding on. He'd woken up around two o'clock and downed at least three pots of coffee. They worked for the first four hours, but they were gradually wearing off; they could only do so much.

"You look tired Danno, did the spooks keep you up?" Dad asked.

"Something like that," he grumbled.

"Well, that's a shame! Hopefully you can get some shut-eye after school today. Jazz is in town from college for three days, so we're going out for dinner tonight."

Ancients, what would Jazz say when she saw him like this? How would he even explain?

"Good luck on that big test today, by the way! I saw Mr. Lancer's email about it. I'm sure that's why you were up so late, making bank on your promises."

He completely forgot.

"Alright then, I gotta head down to the lab so I'll see you later, kid!"

Somehow Jack had moved from the table to the stairway and Danny hadn't even noticed.

"Bye, Dad…"

Once the coast was clear, Danny kicked off from the ground and floated out of the house. To his chagrin, it took him twenty seconds longer than it should have to realize that he was still in human form and had forgotten his backpack.

If that didn't set the tone for the rest of his day, he didn't know what else would.

"Name and date at the top of your paper, bubble in the version of your test that's written on the packet, and… start."

The literary assessment was an hour-long multiple-choice test comprised of various excerpts and comprehension questions. Danny was supposed to complete the study guide, which would've given him a pretty solid idea on how to answer these questions.

'Which of the following is NOT one of the claims mentioned in the author's introduction?' 'What is the antecedent of "they" in paragraph nine?' 'Examining the letter as a whole, how can you summarize the author's argument?'

Danny tried to read over the passage to answer the questions, but his mind kept getting hung up on the same sentence over and over. His eyes felt heavy, strained. The ink on the paper appeared to bleed, dripping letters that swirled into a soup of nonsense. How was he supposed to make sense out of this?

He propped his head on his hand. He was so tempted to just lay his head down on his desk, to fall asleep, but he couldn't do it. He couldn't give in and he couldn't go back into those scarecrows. He had to at least try on this test and from there he'd try to make it through the rest of the day.

If he couldn't accomplish this, what could he do?

His neck felt sore. His eyes stung with days upon days of sleep deprivation. The circles below his eyes felt hot. His hair was flat and greasy. Had he even showered this week? He couldn't remember. He couldn't remember much.

His eyes glazed over. Words were letters and letters were ink. And what was ink? Black. Ink was black. He was fading into it, eyelids drawn like curtains.

After a few moments, the world was no more. He was snapped straight back into the school's scarecrow, stolen from his own body.

Goddamnit.

He didn't want to be here. He wanted to go back. Even if it was to finish a test he was doomed to fail. He didn't want to be here! He was tired of this suffocation, paralyzation. Tired of arms strung to his side, pinned like a puppet's. Tired of not even being able to breathe or blink or shout.

He just wanted to scream.

FUCK.

He wanted out out OUT—

Why did this have to feel like an eternity, strained upon his mind? Like someone had pulled the dough of infinity through his ears and was stretching it across his brain with a rolling pin.

The tree in the school's courtyard stared at him, and with no other choice, he stared at it. He could only see the tree's face if he looked at it a certain way, but he was sure that there was something inside its bark. Something sentient, something tortured. He was the same as the tree. Inanimate. Rooted. He wanted to tell the tree that it was okay, but it wouldn't be. The tree would always be a tree, stuck. Suffering.

It was probably a good thing that trees couldn't talk either.

With this revelation, he decided that he didn't want to look at the tree anymore. Instead, he turned his attention to its leaves. They rustled in the wind, and Danny longed for their freedom. To at least move along with the wind, instead of just tethered to one spot with no autonomy. At least their perspective of the world changed, spinning up into the sky or resting on the prickly, damp grass.

Danny never thought he would have envy for a leaf, but life was full of surprises.

Suddenly, his wrist folded underneath him, unbuckling with a pang of pain. His eyes snapped open and Danny recoiled at the hand pulling on his shoulder. Mr. Lancer stood beside him, judging him with a resigned look of disappointment.

"Mr. Fenton, the test is over. Please turn in what you've completed into the basket at the front."

Danny stared at him. Was he serious? Was it actually over? Had he really just failed this test? No, had he just failed a multiple-choice test? He couldn't even stay awake for that?

That was the last straw. He was done.

He wanted to find a compromising solution, but he couldn't live like this anymore. He wouldn't let the scarecrows dominate him any further.

"Mr. Fenton?"

His mouth was dry. He nodded at Mr. Lancer, deposited his empty answer sheet in the basket, and left without a word. Sam and Tucker were waiting for him at his locker, but he couldn't even handle them right now. He was unhinged, tired. So fucking tired. Although destructive, he only had one option. He knew that those students put a lot of work into their project, but he needed sleep. Sanity. Anything other than this.

He only felt a little guilty.

Commotion spread throughout the school like an untamed, ruthless beast. Mikey knew that something was happening, but he couldn't tell what. Several people were nose-deep into their phones, wide-eyed and aghast. Others straight up dropped everything and fled the classroom, disregarding Mr. Falluca's cries of reason. Mikey couldn't seem to get a clear answer from anyone. There was so much pandemonium that nobody took time to explain.

Kwan was shaking Dash by the shoulders, Sam looked like she'd just swallowed a lemon, and Paulina was trying to push her way past Mr. Falluca. Near the back of the classroom, Valerie sat cross-legged on top of her desk and rummaged through her backpack. From what Mikey could tell, she was piecing together some sort of… ecto-ray? How did she even have one of those?

"He's finally lost it," Valerie grunted. "It was only a matter of time."

Who? Who was causing this much panic?

"Won't anyone tell me what's going on!" he shouted.

He had every right to know as they did. It wasn't fair that nobody clued him in because he didn't have any friends in this class.

Sam took pity on him. "Phantom's being a dumbass."

Mikey blinked. Phantom? No wonder everyone was getting so riled up.

"He's attacking the scarecrow," Dash mumbled. "Phantom's the good guy, why would he do that? He's the good guy..."

Wait, what?

"My scarecrow?" Mikey's voice cracked.

"Mi amor… something must be troubling him; I need to talk sense into him," Paulina wept.

"Hold up, hold up, hold up—! My scarecrow?"

Was he offended? Did he not like that it looked like him? Did he think it was a mockery?

That had to be it. Why else would he attack it? Mikey's stomach twisted with guilt.

He had pissed off Phantom. Phantom! He probably thought it was a hate message! He probably thought Mikey and the entire school hated him!

"GAH."

Mikey's eyes snapped back up. Paulina—a hundred-pound girl that was all elbows and knees—had overpowered Mr. Falluca. She'd slammed him against the doorframe and fled. The rest of the class followed in her lead, including Mikey.

In a thriving mob, they stormed the courtyard. Mikey was sandwiched between Kwan and a short, brown-haired girl, but that didn't stop him. He pushed against the people in front of him, desperate for a glance of Phantom's carnage. He had to know, had to see. And after enough shoving, the mob thinned enough that Mikey had a clear vantage of the roof.

Phantom had fistfuls of straw in his hands, engulfing them in bursts of hazy, green fire. The scarecrow was still hanging at its post, but it was mostly gone; he'd destroyed all but the last of it. It stung to see all of his hard work decimated by the hands of his idol, but it didn't hurt as much as he'd anticipated. He could tell that there was something… off about Phantom.

For instance, there was something wild in his eyes, but it wasn't angry. It wasn't insane either. He still seemed like himself, he just seemed frustrated. Stressed. Pitiful. There was definitely something pitiful in his eyes.

He wondered what drove Phantom to this point, why he unleashed all his frustration out on Mikey's scarecrow. Maybe he was mad at himself, so he decided to hurt something that looked like him? That idea haunted Mikey, he hoped it wasn't true. Phantom did so many great things for them, he shouldn't feel bad about himself.

"I hope he's okay," Sam whispered. Mikey hadn't even realized she was beside him now.

"Me too," he said. Though, Phantom looked a little more relieved than he had a moment ago. Maybe this was what he needed. "Though, I think he will be."

#Danny Phantom #Danny Fenton #Sam Manson #Tucker Foley #EctoberWeek19 #Ectober #Horror #Angst #Mikey #Star #Maddie Fenton #Jack Fenton #Mr. Lancer #Suspense #Creepy #Fanfiction #Phicc #wrwritings

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takonei · 4 years ago

Text

Beta AU - Main story, Chapter 3, deadly life (Part 5)

Note of the author: ... Heavy stuff incoming. Sensible souls beware.

Chapter 3: What is beyond humans’ control - Deadly life

...

Kaito’s face blanched. Shuichi could faintly see sweat drops on his temple.

"I... I’m...”

He felt bad for the biker.

He was the only one with decent knowledge in mechanics and able to do Keebo’s maintenance while both Tsumugi and Ryoma were sick.

The responsibility of Keebo’s death fell on him.

He was the one responsible.

He was the reason why the robot wasn’t with them anymore.

Even if Keebo wasn’t human, he was still considered a part of the group. And to Monokuma, he was a participant.

He had a conscience -though less developed than a human’s-, he had thoughts, desires, and even though he didn’t express them much, Keebo did have emotions.

The thought of his friend being executed like Tenko and Maki for a tiny maintenance mistake he didn’t have full control upon...

That terrified Shuichi.

Now that he thought about it, how many of them were responsible for others’ deaths? Or even attempted to kill?

Miu tried to, but couldn’t bring herself to actually do it.

Kaito killed Keebo on accident.

Kokichi was the reason why Kaede was the victim of the second case.

Kirumi murdered several people in the past.

Ryoma, as a war mechanic, built weapons that killed people.

That left five people innocent.

Only half the group had never tried to and/or ended someone’s life.

... And he didn’t count the blackened who killed Himiko.

Did they already have blood on their hands before committing the crime?

Who knows.

The courtroom was silent, the others slowly realizing the truth.

Miu was looking away. The guilt seemed to flow back to her. Perhaps a part of her knew how he was feeling.

Ryoma looked angry, but kept his emotions to himself. Now was probably not the time to lash out at Kaito, and he knew it.

Kirumi, Kiyo and Rantaro, even though they were not the most expressive, had hints of pity on their faces.

Tsumugi was staring at Kaito, a neutral look on her face. She didn’t look satisfied by the results, but she didn’t look annoyed either. How could she be so calm in a situation like this?

Angie was hard to read. Was she not caring about Keebo’s death? She was simply waiting for something to happen, but couldn’t bring herself to start the conversation.

And Kokichi... He looked more troubled about what was coming than the fact Kaito was indeed, the second blackened.

They all investigated Keebo’s death to know what Kokichi even had those last few days.

Was the truth even worth achieving? Was it worth putting a “killer” stamp on Kaito’s face?

Monokuma may have said he would have forced them to investigate Keebo’s death anyway, but they still chose to go along with it.

Shuichi had a horrible feeling.

“And now...” Monokuma broke the silence. “I have to complete my part of the deal!”

The others turned back to the bear- except Kaito, who was still looking at the ground.

Kokichi was even more afraid than Shuichi.

“Drum rolls for Kokichi’s condition, please!” the mascot yelled.

Before the remaining Monokubs could start the noise, Rantaro interrupted them. “Just tell us already.”

“Kids these days! No sense of humour!” Monokuma pouted. “Very well! In that case...”

“Kokichi did, indeed, have the despair disease, even though his symptoms differed from the others!”

Shuichi unconsciously held his breath.

“And... What were my symptoms...?” Kokichi hesitantly asked.

“Puhuhuhuhu! Well what would be more suited for you...”

“... Than the reverse disease!”

Shuichi raised an eyebrow. “The... Reverse disease?”

He glanced at the others. They were just as confused... And then his eyes landed on Rantaro. The medic’s face became as white as Kaito’s.

Does he know?

“... Oh no.” Rantaro muttered low enough to be heard only by Shuichi's musician ears and perhaps the two girls on his sides.

“It’s pretty simple actually!” Monokuma continued. “This disease will reverse your talent! So for the ultimate karma who’s very existence rewards good people and punishes the bad ones...”

“An ultimate karma with the reverse disease will punish innocent people and reward the bad ones!”

Shuichi could barely mutter “What does this have to do with anyth-”

Before he realized.

Himiko.

Himiko was the one to care about Kokichi the most.

So much that she stayed around him almost the entire time he was sick.

So much that when she wasn’t at his side, she felt guilty for leaving him alone.

She never was afraid of his talent and the dangers around it.

She still helped him get through everything that happened in the game.

And when they found her dead this morning...

... She was unrecognizable.

Wounds covering her body, bones and joints broken, stabbed in all places, and a grotesque graffiti of angel wings behind her back painted with her own blood.

And all this torture inflicted while she was alive.

They were all wondering what she even did to deserve such a cruel fate...

... But the answer was right here. Right in front of their eyes.

Like a reversed wheel of fortune unable to stop spinning.

Like a blind judge unable to distinct the virtue from the vice.

Kokichi and the disease offered the astronomer a fate worse than death.

And he had no control over this.

Karma rendered an unjust judgement and took the life of the one who deserved it the less.

...

Shuichi’s eyes slowly widened in horror.

The others felt as shocked and terrified as him as they realized the harsh truth.

Even Ryoma and Tsumugi who were the most stoic people of the group were appalled by the reveal.

First Kaede, and now this? Kokichi had finally started to accept his talent thanks to Himiko, and she perished because of it.

What did Kokichi even do to deserve this?

Wasn’t being the cause of Kaede’s death enough for Monokuma?

“Haha... Hahahahahahah...”

The violinist’s eyes shifted to the small boy.

He was hysterically laughing.

For what felt like an eternity, a delirious laughter filled the courtroom, dumbfounded eyes fixated on him.

“What did I even expect? It’s always my fault. It always has been. Whenever something bad happens it’s always me. Whenever someone suffers it’s always me. And if it’s not my fault well guess what? It’s still me somehow.”

The tone of his voice sent chills down Shuichi’s spine. It was like he already accepted it.

How used to this type of situation was he?

How much blood did he have on his hands because of his talent?

“Well! You got your answer now!” He outstretched his arms, a wide smile on his face. A joyful gesture not fitting a normal reaction at all. “If it’s karma that killed Himiko, then you have your blackened! It was about time I pay for every death I’m responsible for.”

Shuichi blinked. “What...?”

"It’s my fault she died, right? Then it’s only fair *I* get to be executed.” he continued.

In his voice wasn’t regret nor sadness.

It was madness. Tiredness. Dreadful acceptance.

A plea to end his life.

When he broke down last trial, it was already hard to look at.

But this was different.

They were all so convinced his condition would be a major clue to the case that they forgot why Monokuma even put them in this killing game.

It was to make inflict them despair.

And he was excelling at doing do.

Rantaro himself was starting to panic. “Hold on, we can’t just execute you, we don’t even know if you’re-”

“Who cares about that! Karma ended her life, end of the story! I’m the culprit you’re all searching for!” He yelled desperately.

“Even if ‘karma’ is part of this, we don’t even know who was the one to kill her. So unless you killed her we have no reason to vote for you.” Kirumi countered.

“SHUT UP! You have no idea what you’re talking about! There is one person responsible for her death here, and it’s me!”

Kiyo tried to calm down the conflict. “I probably will never understand what you went through but we need to-”

“There’s nothing to understand! Himiko is dead because of me and this despair bullshit! I am the blackened here!”

“Then let’s settle this right now.” Tsumugi slammed her hands on her podium.

Shuichi snapped out of his shock. “What do you-”

“Monokuma, I have a question about the rules.” she asked.

Everyone turned to the prodigy.

“Who counts as the blackened in a case exactly?”

The robotic bear laughed, paws on his mouth.

“The blackened is the student who commits the killing. So no matter how much someone is indirectly responsible for someone’s death...”

“... Only the person who does the final blow is the blackened!”

Rantaro frowned. “The final blow...?”

“Or in the case of a poisoning, it’s the person who gave the substance to the victim who is the blackened!”

The courtroom went silent.

“... That settles it.” Tsumugi declared.

No matter how much karma was part of the equation, Kokichi was not the blackened.

The boy looked beyond mad.

“That’s still on me! I’ve seen people die by my fault, Himiko is no exception!”

“Kokichi, please!” Rantaro yelled, surprising everyone.

He winced when Kokichi’s desperate eyes landed on his.

“It’s... Horrible. Even I have never seen such a horrible death before. And I’ve seen a lot of stuff over the years.”

“Then just vote for me already! I-”

“But.” he interrupted. “I refuse to believe an invisible concept such as karma was able to physically do anything to Himiko.”

“We still have a culprit to find. The real blackened.” Kirumi continued.

Angie looked up. “We didn’t talk about Himiko’s death that much, didn’t we?”

Shuichi took a deep breath. “I still... Have trouble realizing someone went that far in a crime...”

“I’m telling you I am the culprit! I am the reason Himiko died! I should count as the blackened!”

Kokichi was not giving up.

Shuichi had trouble staying calm.

This whole trial was heartbreaking.

"Kokichi, are you the one who drugged me and killed Himiko?” Rantaro strongly gripped his podium.

“No! But I should still count as the blackened!”

“You are not the blackened for this! We have to find the real culprit, Monokuma said so himself!”

“I know I’m responsible for this! Just stop it already!”

“No! We have a murder to solve, we need to do justice for Himiko!”

“No one needs to die other than me here! There’s only one person who deserves a punishment and it’s me!”

“Can’t you see that whoever did this did not have a state of mind that could be described as remotely sane???”

Rantaro yelled desperately.

Kokichi stopped.

“Rantaro...” Ryoma turned to him. “What do you mean by that?”

“The killer could have just stabbed her and leave and yet...” he explained. “... I think whoever did this had lost every little bit of sanity they had. Which is why my theory is...”

“... That the killer had the despair disease and either never told any of us, or lied about their symptoms.”

Shuichi didn’t even know why he didn’t think of it this way. It felt obvious, on second thought.

“And do you think you can rule out some suspects?” Kiyo asked.

Rantaro thought for a second. “The first one we can rule out is Kokichi. Since Monokuma himself told us the real symptoms, and he even defended me about the soporifics.”

The violinist could see Kokichi clenching his fists, gaze to the ground.

Miu raised an eyebrow. “Can’t we also say Tsumugi and Ryoma are innocent? The monokubs pretty much confirmed their symptoms!”

“That’s what I’m doubting.” Rantaro replied. “Do you really think the monokubs would tell us if someone lied about their own symptoms?”

“Are you suggesting we’re lying?” Tsumugi glared at him.

The medic wasn’t phased in the slightest. “Aren’t you the one suspecting me all the time? Or only you are allowed to suspect other people?”

“Let’s not argue right now.” Kirumi interrupted them before things would go wrong.

Kiyo seemed to be pondering for a moment. “... Monokuma, I have a question about the disease.”

“Let’s see, what is your question?”

“Supposing the killer did have the despair disease. Do they remember their own crime?” he asked.

... If they didn’t, things would get really problematic.

“Excellent question! Even though it is tempting not to answer, I shall give you this detail!” the bear exclaimed.

“As much as a case where the murderer doesn’t remember their crime is interesting and has a lot of potential, for this case, if the killer did have the disease, they do remember their crime!”

“Then in that case we can rule out Tsumugi. She was the first one to tell us that she didn’t remember the last few days.” Kirumi explained. “And I don’t think Ryoma would have agreed to follow her and fake amnesia as well, if she was lying.”

“We can also rule out Ryoma in the process. He was with Rantaro and I for the first part of the investigation and told us the same.” Kiyo added.

“So we got Kokichi, Tsumugi and Ryoma out of the equation. Which is a start.” Rantaro concluded.

“However we can’t keep trying to rule out suspects like this.” Ryoma raised a hand. “If we don’t solve the murder as a whole we will get nowhere.”

Shuichi unconsciously nodded. “That’s right... I think that’s the best for now.”

“We have to solve Himiko’s murder entirely.”

#ndrv3 #danganronpa v3 #ndrv3 au #beta au #main story

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