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writing-in-april · 4 years ago

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Postmarked In The Past

Spencer Reid x Female Single Mom Reader

Summary: After sixteen years of no contact Reader reconnects with Spencer because she has to reveal the secret she’s been keeping since she stopped sending letters to him.

A/N: Hey heyyy! This is my sixteenth fic (it’s actually was totally unintentional to choose the 16th for this fic even though the daughter is 16 in this fic lol 😂) for my 30 fics in 30 days for April!! This one is based off of this request and is part of my unlinked Spencer Reid & Letters series! Thanks for all the love and support lately- I was going to put out my plan for my 1500 follower celebration yesterday or today but if you saw my post I’ve been struggling so it’ll probably come on the 19th or the 20th. Submit an ask here- I love hearing from everyone 🥰Thanks for reading and hope y’all enjoy 🥰

Warnings: Reader keeps a huge secret she definitely shouldn’t have, Reader is a single mother-the daughter doesn’t have a specified name but she is specified to be 16, Reader is very defensive when her daughter finds the letters, mentions of a one night stand

Main Masterlist Word Count: 2.5k

Spencer had been a bright spot in my life, one that had been snuffed out all because of me. When I had found myself pregnant with his child, after I had visited him once, I bolted. For a long time I justified my actions, saying to myself that it was better that Spencer was unburdened while his career was just starting out. But, deep down I knew how wonderful Spencer would have been as a father, how he would have moved heaven and earth to make everything work. And, that guilt haunted me.

The memories I had of him were so far in between, every moment with him had been so fleeting at the end. I struggled to sometimes even remember how he looked as it had been sixteen years since I last laid eyes on him.

I had to strain my memory to remember the way his gelled hair curled around his ears and how sometimes I saw him let the curls free only around me. His eyes had been brown, I could remember that. But, pinpointing what shade they were when they glinted in the light or were drenched in the shadows was lost to me. I knew he had been tall and lanky, his hands reflecting that with how spindly they were. To remember how those fingers had felt on my skin, or how his lips had marked me, or how he would gently stroke my hair was too difficult. Whether it was because I couldn’t remember or that I didn’t want to, it was just too hard for me to want to try to strain my memory anymore.

The labor had been the most difficult thing I had gone through, no one had been there to hold my hand. And, I didn’t really want anybody else except Spencer holding it. I had gritted my teeth and accepted it, pushing through the physical and emotional pain, especially since the pain of losing Spencer had been entirely because of me. I had been given a beautiful baby daughter that day and it was then that I started to force myself to forget Spencer, she looked too much like him to be able to bear.

The only things that remained in my life that involved him were the letters I sent to him in the last year of our relationship while we were long distance and my daughter. The letters were able to be shoved in a box at the bottom of a closet, but my daughter confronted me with my actions everyday by existing. I loved my daughter very much, I just tried to avoid the topic of her father by concocting a lie and making myself forget all of Spencer’s features so I wouldn’t see them as much in her. My nightmare would be the two things converging to confront me with my guilt, I don’t think I could handle that.

—-

At the kitchen table I saw my daughter, holding a letter. Her holding a letter wasn’t at its core a bad thing of course, but I could tell by the slight yellowing of the paper that it was getting old. Immediately panic spread through me; there were no other old letters she’d be looking at besides mine, the ones I sent to Spencer.

“Those are private.” I snapped defensively, definitely too hostile to be reasonable. It was obvious by my tone of voice that I was hiding something.

“Private?!” She yelled, giving away that she had already read at least a few of them. I clenched my eyes shut to prepare for her question, “Are these from my father?! Who you said was a one night stand?!” I vividly remember explaining the lie I had concocted for her, her being confused why I would only be with her father once. It was a hard subject to dance around, a difficult lie for me and her to swallow. But, the alternative was too painful for me to be honest with her, or honest with Spencer. And, I knew it made me selfish, at the time it had been so Spencer wouldn’t stop his blossoming career. With time I realized that I really had done it because I had been scared. The guilt had started to sting worse when I realized that.

I had been caught, there was no weaseling out of this. I hanged my head in defeat, finally admitting to the large lie I had even roped the rest of my family in, “Yes.”

If she had been a dragon she’d be breathing fire on me while she spoke, “And why would you keep this from me! Did he do something bad or something?! Is that why you didn’t tell me?!”

“No-I-“ I stammered a few times until I found the words, “I- I did it because I didn’t want to hold him back… We were so young, and I knew he’d quit his new job across the country to come back to me.” Keeping the details still vague was my only armor right now. I kept to myself how those letters were the way we communicated for months when he started in the academy. We were only able to meet up once a month, and one month I unexpectedly fell pregnant. I never sent another letter or came to visit him again once I found out.

She clenched her jaw at me, looking back down at the scores of letters that we had written, and I had hidden. Her next question now made me clench my jaw, “C-can I see him? Or call him? Or send him a letter?” If you don’t know how to contact him anymore I’m sure we can-“

I was nervous as to where this was going. There was no way I could contact Spencer again after all these years, the guilt already ate at me everyday. Seeing and remembering his face would only make it worse. Fear was fueling me and I cut her off because of it, “No- I- I don’t think it’s a good idea...I just need more time- until I’m ready.” I started to shrink away from her, my authority slipping through my fingers as I became more and more vulnerable.

“You’ve waited sixteen years, you’ll never be ready.” The spite in her voice was stinging, she wasn’t completely wrong in her statement.. And when I didn’t answer she then stormed away, slamming the door to her room.

——

Our relationship in the few weeks following was strained at best, estranged at worse. She barely spoke to me since then, the biggest conversation we had was about what was for dinner- and that had been about two sentences long.

I was slowly coming around to the idea of perhaps finding a way for her and Spencer to reconnect. The guilt that I had been so afraid of becoming worse if I confronted it head on, only grew worse by avoiding it. I was actually going to talk to her after I got home from work, until I realized what she did.

She left her own letter on the table titled Dear Mom, detailing where she was going without giving any specifics. There was one part that gave her reasoning for writing her plan down, she didn’t want me to have a heart attack even if she was mad at me. Plus there were a few sentences about how she had used her own money that she had been saving up, which was supposed to be for college only serving to make you even more frustrated. At the bottom she wrote- I’m going to find my Dad, please don’t follow me or call the police.

I scoffed to myself, wondering if she expected her warning to not to follow her to be followed. Of course I was going to follow her, there was no way I was going to just let her go off on her own like that.

It wouldn’t be too hard to find her. Spencer may have changed apartments since then, but one quick google search of news articles he was mentioned in showed me that he still worked at the BAU in Quantico. It was probably a safe bet that my daughter did the same thing and was planning on visiting him at his office.

The plane ride there had been tumultuous, not in the sense that there was any chaotic occurrence or severe turbulence on the plan, more like in my mind. My hands shook, my foot tapped, and my mind raced while I took the long flight from Las Vegas all the way to Quantico. My mind went round in circles whether or not I viewed Spencer meeting my daughter- our daughter as a good thing. It was difficult to accept that even though they’d both most likely be mad at me, they deserved to meet. Especially since I knew how good of a father Spencer could potentially be. Once I had landed I didn’t stop, getting a cab straight from the airport to where the BAU offices were located.

The building looked daunting in front of me. It wasn’t a skyscraper by any means, but the task that I was here to do was so big it felt like one as I stared at it while trying to work up the courage to go in. The guilt however, was too hard to ignore.

My mind was on autopilot as I told the secretary at one of the front desks. It was too stressful to focus on worrying, so exhausted from the emotional roller coaster I was riding. An agent had assured me that she was safe which made some of the stress melt from my shoulders luckily.

“Here she is.” The agent gestured to the office, empty of any other person except my daughter. I felt even more relieved now that I saw her with my own eyes.

When I entered she waited a second before speaking timidly with disappointment, “He’s not here, he's on a case.” Her demeanor had deflated almost immediately as she saw me escorted up.

“Who told you that?” My arms crossed around my chest, nervous and furious all at once. I didn’t need to tell my daughter how in trouble she was, by the pout on her face she knew she’d be getting grounded for a long time even if I did let her talk to him.

“This nice lady named Garcia, she works with him. But, she did tell me I had to wait for you until she called him” For the first time since I had read her letter to me I cracked a smile. When we had still been communicating, Spencer often wrote and spoke about his teammates. Besides a fleeting photo of the team shown to me by him while I had been over here visiting, all my perceptions of the team and how they might look were all based on my imagination.

Despite that, when a vibrantly dressed woman clicked her heels into the room, I knew it was her. Spencer had perfectly described her, shining bright compared to the dull colors of the bureau’s office.

“So your Spencer’s baby mama.” Yep, she was definitely as blunt and beautiful as Spencer had described. I blanched at her comment, though I didn’t deny it, which was all she needed to know to confirm.

“Can you give me his number?” I skittered past the question, not wanting to confirm it out loud.

She beamed brightly at me, already starting to punch in the numbers with the phone on the desk in front of me. “You can call him now if you want on this phone, they just stopped working for the day.”

When she handed me the phone, it had already started ringing. I couldn’t help but panic, almost refusing the phone until my daughter nudged me forward to grab it. My finger trembled severely as I wrapped my hands around the phone, but I still managed to hold on to bring it up to my ear just as someone picked up the phone.

“Hello?” It was him, he sounded so similar to the boy you knew, that boy was a man now. He sounded more haggard compared to sixteen years ago; I wondered what all had happened since then.

“Hey- Spencer it’s me.” By the hitch in his voice that came through the speaker, he knew who it was.

At first I heard nothing from him, only some rustled feedback in the speaker. My shoulders were practically at my ears now afraid he might hang up. He did eventually stumble out a greeting, “H-hi? Why are you calling me after all these years- aaand on a phone at my work?”

“I’ve got to be honest with you,” I cryptically answered with an evident shake in my voice. I was biting my nails now, not caring if I chipped the polish on them. My daughter grabbed my hand to comfort me even though she was probably still furious at me which helped coax out my next statement, “cause I haven’t told you why I stopped talking to you…” I breathed in deeply once before I finally admitted the secret I had held for so many years, “Spencer, you have a daughter, she just turned sixteen.”

Dead silence was all I got, that was until I heard a choked out sob from him, “Why?”

He didn’t need to elaborate any further, it was quite clear what he was asking. Again another meek shaky reply came from me, “There were a lot of reasons- the main one was I didn’t want to hold you back.”

My daughter was now crying as was I, I hadn’t given her my reasoning until now. Maybe one day I’d give Spencer all the reasons why I had hidden it from him for so many years even though it was painful. I had held a lot of guilt about not ever contacting him again or even sending another letter. Spencer deserved to know everything, especially about his daughter who was the spitting image of him in almost every way.

“Can I talk to her?” I agreed, which seemed to surprise my daughter. I think she thought I’d be furious enough with her to not let her speak to him. She would still be getting many privileges taken away from her, just not this one as it was my fault she never knew her father in the first place. My fingers shook even more as I moved to click the speaker button so he could hear her speak.

“Hi- dad.” They spoke for a while, while I took the back seat, barely interjecting. They both deserved every ounce of father and daughter time that I had deprived them from throughout the years. My chest did feel lighter now that I had told him, now that my daughter was getting the chance to know him. Hearing them laugh and giggle with each other almost immediately only cemented how much she was her father’s daughter.

When the phone was handed back to me, after seemingly hours of talking (Garcia had even popped in a few times to get me more coffee) Spencer asked,“Can you stay in Quantico till I get back?”

I smiled, happy that I’d finally be able to see and remember his face again after all this time, “We’ll be here waiting, it’s time you meet your daughter in person.”

Ask Me Anything

—

Tag lists (fill out this form to join): If your url has a strike through it means tumblr won’t let me tag you- check in your settings if you allow yourself to be searchable

All works: @shotarosleftpinky @oreogutz @90spumkin @kyra-morningstar @s1utformgg @boxofsparklingmuses @multixfandomwriter @takeyourleap-of-faith

All MGG characters: @muffin-cup @willowrose99 @princesssmooshie @peterpanouat @anaagraceeberr @ashcakes1918 @reid-me-a-story @cosmic-psychickitty

Spencer Reid/CM: @calm-and-doctor @destiny-tsukino @safertokiss @slutforthegubes @onlyhereforthefanfics @jareauswifey @princesssmooshie @peterpanouat

Letters Series: (Group of Unlinked fluff fics about Spencer and letters): @whoreforthebau @sierraraeck @90spumkin

#spencer reid #spencer reid angst #spencer reid x reader #matthew gray gubler x reader #matthew gray gubler #matthew gray gubler fluff #mgg #mgg x reader #criminal minds #criminal minds x reader #30 fics in 30 days

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mycomfortblanket · 4 years ago

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Written in Ink

Chapter 2

“You’re Aang,” there was no question in her voice.

“You’re Toph.”

“And we’re leaving, come on Zuko,” Katara says, pulling Zuko away from the other two.

The air between the two of them gets immensely awkward. Aang can't take his eyes off of her, his thoughts are running a million miles an hour, and the only thought that would come to the forefront of his mind was of all the soulmates out there, he certainly could have gotten worse.

“Listen, I really don’t want to come off as this arrogant bitch who is always unsatisfied, but the whole soulmate thing doesn’t sit well with me. It’s nothing against-” Toph started but Aang lets out a big sigh of relief.

“Oh, thank god. I was trying to figure out how to break it to you that I didn’t want to do the soulmate thing either.”

“Seriously?” Toph asks, her eyebrows raised, “Well, alright then. Uh, I’m going to head home. Long day and all,” she says, standing up and begins to walk towards the front door.

Aang immediately jumps up and reaches for her elbow, “Wait, you’re walking all the way home?”

Toph turns towards him, “Yeah. I do it all the time, Katara and Zuko are dating, and I don’t exactly like to be third wheel.”

“Let me walk you home.”

“Ha. Aang, no offense, but I’m not some damsel in distress. I can get home fine on my own.”

“I’m not saying you’re a damsel in distress, but it’s not polite for me to just watch you walk out the door at this time of night and let you walk home,” he says, his voice taking on a frustrated tone.

“Whatever. But, you’re wasting your time.”

“How long have you worked at Iroh’s place?” she asks, her cane clicking against the concrete every now and then.

“About a year now, I think. I’m not entirely sure.”

Toph looks over in his direction, “You mean to tell me you’ve worked there for a year and I’m just now meeting you? Katara and I go there all the time.”

“Well, Zuko and I didn’t get along too well at the beginning so Iroh had us working different shifts, so that’s probably why we never met. Or I wasn’t assigned to your table, although, all things considering, I think I would have remembered seeing you,” he says, muttering the last part.

A blush spreads across Toph’s cheeks and she dips her head hoping that he doesn’t notice. She really wasn’t liking this. The small butterflies that she had been feeling all night while talking to him had erupted to giant ass pterodactyls seconds after she learned his name.

She was trying her damn hardest not to walk closer to him or lean into his space to smell him. She kept repeating in her mind her beliefs about the Names and how horribly suffocating they were. She should be free to choose who she wants and when she wants, not when some stupid inscription shows up on her skin.

Toph was trying to keep the distance between them and not ask any personal questions but somehow, they seemed to be pulled together by an invisible wire until their hands brushed. She would pull herself away and she could feel him pull away as well, the blush rising higher on her cheeks.

They finally come to her apartment building and she begins walking up the steps but stops and turned back towards him, “Thanks for walking me home. Sorry about the Names.”

“It’s fine. Was bound to happen, right? Anyways, I’ll see you later,” he steps off the bottom step and watches her walk into the building and punch the button for the elevator.

--------------------

“I just don’t see how a guy working with Zuko that he didn’t get along with never came up!” Toph says harshly into the phone. She’s pacing back in forth in her living room trying not to lose her cool too much.

“I’m sorry! I thought the name was familiar but it was so long ago that it didn’t even register who it was.

“Whatever. Did you tell Zuko anything?” Toph asks slightly more calmly.

“No, you told me not to. When he asked, I just... distracted him.”

“I don’t want to think about how you distracted him. It’s fine. I probably won’t see him again. I mean, he worked at Iroh’s place for a year and we never bumped into each other, so it’s fine!”

It was not fine. Now that they have met, they couldn’t seem to stop running into each other. Literally. The first time was a complete accident. Aang had opened the door to the Jasmine Dragon, Iroh’s restaurant, rather quickly and Toph’s cane became stuck underneath the door. The two of them spent at least ten minutes trying to get it unstuck and arguing about whose fault it was.

The next time is in her own home. She had walks out into the living room after a shower in nothing but a towel and her headphones in and makes her way over to the kitchen. Apparently, Katara, Zuko, and Aang were hanging around the kitchen table doing various forms of homework.

She's digging around in the fridge looking for her Naked smoothies (ironic right) when a gentle hand came to her shoulder and takes out an earbud, “Toph, people are here.”

“WHAT?!” Toph whips around and rips out the other earbud. She clutches the towel close to her body, “Who is here?!”

“Uh, it’s me, Zuko, and uhhh… Aang,” her voice going low when she says his name.

Toph’s face immediately went blood red, “Why didn’t you tell me we had people over?!” she hisses.

“Well, you were in the shower and I wasn’t paying attention when you got out, I’m sorry.”

“Whatever, it’s fine. Fuck. Just warn a girl next time,” and with that, she opens the fridge back up and continued looking for her drink.

--------------------

He's focused on the algebraic equation but glances up with he heard a soft voice singing along to Black by Pearl Jam, his favorite song. Toph’s walking through the living room, skirting the furniture and reaching out to lightly set her fingers on corners as she passes.

She’s in nothing but a short towel, her hair piled on top of her head and her earbuds placed firmly in her ear. She walks over to the fridge and begins rummaging around, her fingers dancing from item to item. When she leans over, more of her legs become visible, and Aang can’t help but stare. She’s fucking gorgeous and the more skin that exposed to him, the more he wants to see.

As soon as Toph bends over, Katara is out of her seat and moving over to Toph to let her know of the audience in the kitchen. Even though Katara spoke low when she said his name, he instantly knew when it registers with Toph that he is seeing her in little to nothing.

Her eyes scan the kitchen listening for a sound that would direct her to him. Somehow, her eyes land right on him and they make unintentional eye contact which steals his breath away.

He immediately drops his head onto the table unable to keep looking at her. Toph’s bare shoulders were free of any freckles or acne and looked as smooth as silk. He so badly wanted to run his fingers across her shoulders to see if his assumption is correct.

Once Toph’s freak out is over, she bends back down and continues looking for something before she snatches it out of the fridge and walks back to her room.

Katara sits down, her cheeks having a slight blush to them. She glances up at Aang who still has his head down on the table.

“You okay?”

“Yeah. It's just a lot harder to stay away from her than I thought.”

“I still don't understand why you two won't just talk to each other and get together. You guys had such a great time at the party,” Katara says in a low voice so Toph doesn't hear from her room.

“I just… I can't get emotionally attached to someone right now. It's… complicated,” Aang says, hoping that's the end of the discussion.

“Explain it to me then,” Katara says smartly, leaning back in her chair with her arms over her chest. She raises an eyebrow at him and waits for him to start talking.

“I just… I don't know. My guardian, Monk Gyatso, he past away a year or two ago from some form of rare lung cancer. And just, ever since, I- I don't know. I just haven't wanted to be close to anyone I guess? It sounds stupid when I say it out loud but, in my head it makes sense to me…” Aang says, his voice trailing off at the end of his sentence.

Katara makes a humming noise in the back of her throat in acknowledgment and cuts her eyes away from Aang and over to Zuko.

“Has Zuko ever told you about his family?”

Zuko's eyes go wide when she brings the topic up. Why on earth would she want to talk about that?

“Long story short, when I met him, he was this super angry person, could barely get a word in without his temper flaring up,” she says, waving her hand in the air.

“That's not true,” Zuko grumbles.l

“It totally is true. When his Name first appeared on his skin, we had actually just made eye contact. He immediately came up to me and started giving me shit for walking into his life, saying that he had enough to deal with and I didn't need to add to it.”

“Oh whatever, I did not say that!”

“You most certainly did. And being the stubborn person I am, I poked a finger in his chest and made him back down. It was slow and hard work, some serious fights broke out between us that I won't go into. But, in the end, it was completely worth it,” she says, her eyes softening when she looks back at Zuko.

Aang takes a deep breath and sits back in his chair, drumming his fingers on the table in front of him, “Yeah, that's great and all, but it's not always like that. Plus, she doesn't want it either.”

“Oh, I know her reasoning and it's because she's stubborn about having things decided for her, that's it. Her parents growing up were incredibly over protective cause she’s blind,” she gestured towards Toph’s room, “She would act out any chance she could, which honestly, just made the whole situation that much worse.”

Aang looks over to the hallway that Toph had disappeared down. Glancing back at Katara, he just shrugs his shoulder before picking up his pen and continuing his homework.

--------------------

Later that night, Toph heard Katara yell for her from the kitchen. She walks in there in a large tshirt and sweatpants, her hair down and falling over her shoulders. She had put on her baggiest clothes to hide herself after the incident that had happened earlier

“Sokka and his girlfriend are coming over to watch some movie that Zuko has been raving about. Do you want to watch with us?”

Toph just nods her head as she walks into the kitchen and hops up on the counter as Katara rummaged around the kitchen, preparing something to eat.

“Is Aang going to be there?” She asks, fiddling with the wooden spoon Katara had just taken out.

“Uh, I'm actually still here,” he says from the kitchen table.

“Oh. My bad. So, princess, what's for dinner?” Toph asks, trying to ignore Aang and the butterflies that erupt in her tummy.

“Zuko ordered some pizza, I'm making brownies, Sokka is bringing snacks and yes, before you ask, he did get you your blue sour straws,” Katara says, cutting off any outburst Toph may have had.

An hour later, everyone had arrived and Aang had been introduced to Sokka as Zuko’s coworker and nothing more, and Sokka’s date had been introduced at Suki, and nothing more. Katara had set up the tv to the opening scene of the movie and wis waiting for everyone to grab their slice of pizza, snacks, and drinks and pick their spots for the movie.

Toph was the last one into the living room as usual, “Okay all you seeing-eyed creatures, let’s just make this easier for everyone, where am I sitting?

“Mmm,” Katara says, swallowing her bite of pizza, “Other end of the main couch, next to Aang.”

“Shocker,” Toph mumbles, too low for anyone to hear. She makes her way over to her spot and sits down between Aang and the arm of the couch. She leans her elbow on the arm of the couch and attempts to move herself a little further away from him nonchalantly.

Aang leans into her a little more and she can feel his breath move the hairs around her neck just before he says, “You’re being totally obvious you know.” His light laugh causes the corners of her lips to turn up involuntarily.

“My bad,” she says, sitting back normally on the couch.

“If my cooties really bother you that much, I can sit on the floor.”

Toph snorts which draws the attention of Katara and Suki but they say nothing, “No, sorry. I’ll behave. I’ll be normal.” She pulls her legs up on the couch with her, sitting criss cross applesauce, her knee resting against Aang’s thigh and the other resting on the arm of the couch. She puts her elbow on the arm as well and leans her cheek against her fist and listens to the movie.

The heat from Toph’s knee seeps into his pants and it’s all he can think about as the movie continues. She opens her bag of sour straws and points them over his way, offering him one. It takes him a full three seconds to take his mind off her knee touching his thigh to acknowledge the fact that she is offering him some of her snack. Grabbing on quickly, he shoves it in his mouth and looks over at her.

She is still looking straight ahead, although a lot more bored. “You bored?” he whispers to her.

She jumps slightly, but turns her head to whisper back, “Yeah. Action movies are kind of hard to follow along with since, you know, I can’t see the ‘action scenes’,” she says, using quotation marks around ‘action scenes'.

About half way through the movie, she shifts so that both of her feet are curled up on the couch with her, resting against the arm of the couch and just barely touching him. She lays her head down fully onto the arm of the couch as well and closes her eyes.

He honestly doesn’t blame her for being bored. He’s bored.

He’s always hated action movies so he can’t imagine how bored she must be trying to decipher people with British accents talk during loud car chasing scenes. Eventually, he leans his head back against the couch and closes his eyes as well.

--------------------

The screen finally fades to black and it seems that only Katara and Zuko are still awake. She looks around the room and notes that Aang is leaning against Toph, his head resting against her shoulder as she rests against the arm of the couch.

Sokka is spread out longways across the other couch with his back tucked into the corner and Suki in between his legs, using his chest as a makeshift pillow.

“No offense, but that movie sucked,” Katara whispers standing up from the couch and stretching, popping her back in multiple places.

“Hey, 007 movies are amazing, you just don’t appreciate them correctly…” the two of them head towards her bed room as he continues ranting about the cinematic wonder world of Agent Bond.

#taang #atla #avatar the last airbender #toph x aang #aang x toph #chapter two #written in ink #fluff #no angst yet #but I guess it'll get there

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skyhopedango · 4 years ago

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State of the Season pt 1

So, so many shows! :O I don't remember the last time I watched so many ongoing shows. Alas, quantity doesn't translate into quality, but still, there are some pretty nice shows that I enjoy a lot.

Not these, though.

Dragon, ie wo kau

Yeah, this was crap. I expected something fun and fantasy-spoofy, I got a badly animated, badly produced, badly acted (from the main character) video-game-referencing show that takes one joke that is already not incredibly funny, and runs it into the ground until there's nothing left but dust. Pity.

Mars Red

Oh, this show. The first episode was stilted and vaguely pretentious*, but I thought eh, let's see a bit more of it. So I watched episode two and three, and bam, the usual vampire-hunter-vampires shenanigans with some half-hearted attempts at ~Historical Relevance~ but still pretentious. Perhaps it could've been better with more interesting/charming characters, but they weren't interesting at all... OK, that's not quite true, I liked that young vampire (supposedly the most powerful one?) who was always doing the "hey enemy vampire, you can join us or you can die" speech, that was cute.

*I mean... yes, you've read Salome. Yay. So how is it related to what happens in the episode? Does she kill the one she loved to possess him or something? No. Does she do anything even vaguely related to the story of Salome? No. So... what's the significance of the references? And from episode 2 it was downhill. EP 2 has Romeo and Juliet for "tragic lovers" which is about the most clichéd thing ever and the lovers' story had nothing in common with Romeo and Juliet other than them dying in the end. And in episode 3 the characters are literally standing around reciting Relevant Poetry. I suppose this works for people who are satisfied with understanding a reference and who want to feel smart for knowing some classical literature, but other than that...

I've been putting off watching episode 4 since Monday, and frankly at this rate likely I'll never watch it.

Fumetsu no anata he

3 episodes in, and oh yes, I remember why I didn't keep up with the manga. Look, I'm not saying it's a bad show. As most people I was very impressed with the first episode. Good stuff, emotionally powerful. But what happens after that is just totally not my cup of tea. Nonhuman entity learning to understand humans and gaining sympathy for humanity would be totally up my street - but not really when it happens via a generic adventure story, tryhard epicness tipping into unintentional hilarity every now and then, overwrought music, precocious kids mugging for the camera, and the threat of misery porn looming just over the horizon... and that's not even mentioning the obvious production issues apparent from episode 2 that further undermine the epic tone the show is going for.

I think I'll give it one more episode, although I have a feeling I'm not going to last longer. I'm sure the story will eventually have some profound things to say, but I'm also sure it'll be nothing I haven't heard before in ways that resonated better with me.

86 -Eighty-Six-

aka "Liberal Circlejerk - The Anime". (And while it can't be "white liberal" for obvious reasons, it has the attitude down pat.)

This show. This is what you get from a LN for horny teen boys fantasizing about being badass soldiers and naive girls in sexy uniforms, that also wants to say Serious Important Woke Stuff. You get a show about Super Special Teenagers that is hilariously dumbed down, preachy, self-congratulatory, and also cynical about how it treats its female characters. (And that's not even saying how stupid the setting is... I'm sure there'll be some twist but seriously, it still wants us to just handwave away stuff like "even if the enemy's weapons will expire in 2 years, how come nobody asks 'what if they built new ones' or 'what if they have other stuff up their sleeve'" etc...)

Really, I'd like to say that at least the show has its heart in the right place, but I can't, because for every preachy and dumbed down but decent message it delivers it does shit like ogling the main female character (whose uniform has a garterbelt apparently because the LN writer is into that), having her make cute pouty or blushing faces, pointing out how she's a virgin, having a "boys ogle bathing girls" scene* where the girls of course talk about boys and romance because girls, eh? etc. Hell, in episode 4 it even manages to undermine the single best thing that happened in the show so far by basically tone policing the oppressed character who told the MC to fuck off and not treat them as her morality pets. Clearly even if your friend was just killed in action and this random person who is also your oppressor and is wallowing in privilege, is crying in your ear making it all about her, you shouldn't be rude to her because aw shucks she meant well. And of course all it takes is a "sorry, I'll treat you like humans from now on, I swear" for everyone to start respecting her. Like, wow, she's committed to the bare minimum, where's the champagne?!

*Yes, the girls were dressed, but you just know that at one point in production (or perhaps in the source material) they were were naked. The entire scene is set up as a usual ogling-bathing-girls scene, so I'd bet money that what happened was someone in production vetoed it in the very last moment so they didn't have time to rewrite everything, only to give the girls clothes.

I'm still getting some entertainment value out of 86 (those spider tanks are pretty nice...) but oh boy, the cringe.

#86 #86 eighty six #mars red #fumetsu no anata e #to your eternity #dragon goes house hunting #anime review

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viren-reader-love · 5 years ago

Note

What would you think about doing one where there is a Pentarchy-wide conference of dark mage guild chapters, and the reader is a fellow mage from another country. Viren and Reader don't meet often, but when they do, they predictably end up drinking, arguing vociferously over the details of their methods, and ultimately hooking up. This occasion is no exception.

There you go! I had a lot of fun writing this :D

Hope you like it.

(Ao3 link)

.............................................................................................................................

Devil or angel? I can't make up my mind

Which one you are, I'd like to wake up and find

Devil or angel, dear, whichever you areI miss you, I miss you, I miss you

Devil or angel, please say you'll be mine

Love me or leave me, I'll go out of my mind

Devil or angel, dear, whichever you are

I need you, I need you...

===

The salty air refreshed your lungs. In the distance, hues of green added color to the crystalline blue infinitude of the ocean.

"Land ahoy!" yelled the first mate, watching the horizon from atop of one of the ship's poles.

"Aye!" Replied the captain, turning the hem. You felt the ship move to the right as it approached the island ahead with a new speed.

Clutching tight to your shoulder bag, carefully not to lose the precious relic that it contained, you tried to control the butterflies in your stomach. You knew Viren would be there and this simple fact made all those memories resurface.

Every Mage Fair was the same. Excessive drinking, followed by vociferous arguments about your conflicting opinions and different methods to understand dark magic that, somehow, always end up with you and Viren waking up in the same bed.

Well, not somehow. You knew exactly why it happened. No matter how many lies you told yourself during the invariable hangovers that followed, the attraction you felt for Viren was too strong to be labeled as unintentional, or a simple drunk mistake.

Despite everything, you were starting to get attached. Why? Was the only question in your head. Why him?

Romantics will say it is because opposites attract each other and write countless verses of the ardent passion they can ignite. But they forget about the ugly parts that come afterward. At least that was how it had been for you.

The fair would end, Viren would escort you to the pier and you would sail back to Evenere with only a simple goodbye. No last kiss, not even a hug. And the days that followed were even worse. The letters you would exchange were made by cold and impartial words concerning your duties as High Mages, nothing more.

As the ship approached the bay, you took one deep breath mentally making a promise to yourself.

This had to end.

Today was the day things would change.

===

New faces from all corners of the five kingdoms passed by. The smell of spices and delicious food perfumed the gentle summer breeze and everything was a cacophony of colors, laughs, and songs.

Elaborate stands dotted the hills as far as the eye could see, each signboard announcing something more interesting than the last. Fireball contest, Antiquery Boutiques, Mirrors of Illusions...

Your feet stopped in front of The Blushing Troll - Bar and Inn, where you and Viren would predictably end up after the Pentarchy High Mage reunion. Despite being only the beginning of the afternoon, the bar was crowded and a line was forming on the outside.

The large door opened and you spotted Agata, the barkeeper, dragging chairs outside to accommodate her costumers. "Hey, y/n!" she waved.

You smiled walking to help her with the heavy chairs. "Hi, Agata. Nice to see you again."

"Nice to see you too friend. So, rumor has it that Evenere will blow our minds this year," she winked gesturing to your bag. "I'll prepare a big celebration. Want me to save the romantic suite for you and your hot boyfriend. Or you'll stay at the usual room?"

Your cheeks turned scarlet, knowing fully well she was referring to Viren. "For the last time, he is not my boyfriend."

Agata cackled. "Alright cookie. And I ain't a barkeeper," she playfully punched your shoulder. "See you two tonight alright?"

It was no use insisting on this topic. Agata could be as stubborn as Viren sometimes, so instead, you chose to focus on your earlier promise and said goodbye, resuming your walk to the meeting point where the other High Mages were expecting you.

===

Two guards stood like statues before the imposing construction that marked the entrance of the Pentarchy Meeting Point.

"Hold. Present yourself," one of them ordered, gesturing for you to stop.

"Lady y/n. High Mage of Evenere," you said, giving the guard your invitation sealed with Evenre's royal symbol.

The guards then stepped aside, giving you free passage to the seemingly endless white steps that lead to the Meeting Point, located atop the tallest hill.

Almost out of breath, you finally arrived. Burgundy flags with the bright red symbol of Dark Magic hanged over the five chairs, binding the kingdoms, so vast and diverse, with one common interest.

All the other four mages were already in their sits, except for Viren. "Lady y/n," he bowed. "So glad that you are finally here. We are all very anxious to see what big surprise you have for us," he said with his usual charming tone that made your knees go weak.

"Well, then I won't keep you waiting any longer," you managed to reply with the formality this situation required, despite the memories of your hot nights with Viren flashing before your eyes.

Walking to the center of the room, your gaze was still glued on him as you began your speech. "Fellow mages, today is a historic day. For generations, dark mages across the five kingdoms used the knowledge passed down by our ancestors to improve humanity's ways. We no longer suffer from famine, deadly plagues or fear the threats that come from Xadia. And, as I'm sure you all know, this was only possible due to the struggles of one man: Ziard ."

The mages of Neolandia, Del Bar and Duren hummed in agreement, but Viren listened to you thoughtfully and you smirked, certain his not easily impressed frame would melt away soon.

"Everything Ziard new about dark magic was written in three journals. Two were found by Lord Viren but the third was destroyed when Ziard was brutally murdered by Sol Regen. Or so we thought," you paused.

Reaching for your shoulder bag you retrieved a leather journal, worn-out due to the merciless time. "Here, I present you the last journal of Ziard."

Gasps emerged from the other members, but Viren's reaction was priceless. Even if you hated to admit, you adored his enthusiastic face.

He darted up. "May I?" he gestured to the book and you nodded, letting him take it.

"That is remarkable," Viren mused, carefully turning the thin yellow pages. "Imagine all the secrets it contains, all the lives we could help with this! I don't know how you manage to locate it, but congratulations y/n."

His sharp frame softened when he said your name and for a moment, you thought your head was deceiving you with his sudden kindness. Did he-- did he just complimented you?"

However, this moment was short-lived as Viren continued to speak. "It was about time Evenere did something to contribute to this Dark Mages society. Katolis will be forever grateful for your donation."

"What?!" You said offended.

"Of course! Surely you didn't think the journal would stay with you. Once I return to Katolis I'll provide copies for you all."

"How dare you?! I found it, therefore it's staying at Evenere. You can have the copy," you replied, blood starting to boil.

"The journal belongs to Katolis' archives, with the other two originals," Viren took a step forward. Not intimidated, already accustomed to this type of argument, you took a step as well.

"Katolis is not the center of the world Viren. It can not concentrate all knowledge about dark magic."

"So we must hide it in the depth of the swamplands?!"

"Fellows, fellows!" the mage from Neolandia caught both of your attention. "There is no reason to start a war over this. I say we vote to decide who keeps the journal. All agree?"

You two nodded, heading back to your seats but never letting your intense glares drop.

"Now, all of those in favor of the journal staying in Evenere, please raise their hand," declared the mage and to your astonishment, only you voted in favor.

===

With large gulps you drained the beer from your large mug, slamming it against the balcony of The Blushing Troll.

After your glory was snatched from your hands, you had to sit through the rest of the afternoon and watch Viren and the other brag about their discoveries and theories and, of course, Viren had to bring a three-dimensional presentation. Again!

Mind in a frenzy, fuming, doing your best not to let rage overtake your actions, you powered another drink and turned back for the hundredth time to see Viren, also drinking and enjoying the evening with the other High Mages.

"Look at him," you said to Agata, "so full of himself. Think he's the greatest mage that ever lived. Bet two silver coins that after a few shots, he's going to start crying and saying he loves them."

You moved to fill your sixth...seventh cup? But Agata stopped you.

"Alright cookie, that's enough for tonight," she said, taking the mug from your hand.

Ignoring her, you snatched a bottle from a random person, taking another big gulp. "This was supposed to be the year of Evenere. This was supposed to be my moment," your drunk nagging continued, "he already has Zirad's staff and killed the king of the dragons. Why can't he let me be on top for once."

"Huh, interesting," Agata tilted her head, looking at Viren as well, "he always seemed like a bottom to me."

"No, totally. Bottom confirmed. But--" you shook your head, realizing where this conversation was going. "Focus Agata. Ok? Focus. I'm being wronged here."

"Cookie, are you sure the journal is the only reason you are mad?" she asked with a kind, motherly tone.

Yes, you were mad about the journal. Heavens know how hard it was for you to find it, and letting this relic be part of Evenere's public archive would be good for the local mage community.

But there was something else, a deeper feeling that intricated like a spider web, trapping you in it.

You were caught between the duality of strongly hating and desperately wanting to cave in to his charms. Every time your gaze found him your body screamed. It begged for you to kiss him, to have him underneath you right now. To bury your face against the side of his neck and just nuzzle in it. To hear his moan, paint and gasp against your ear as your hips rocked and his hands squeezed you tight...

Yet, every time your head would also say no, remembering how cold the morning after could be. How he would treat you like a stranger and how every little thing was reason enough for a fight.

It was like being on fire while still being frozen.

"I just don't know anymore. I think it's best if I called the night."

Getting up, you asked for the keys to a room, not caring if they were the usual, or the special suite, or just the keys to the storage room. You just wanted to lay down, close your eyes and wait for this terrible day to end.

Stumbling down the corridor, spiling your drink everywhere, your weak legs betrayed you. You see the ground coming fast, but only a second before the painful impact, a pair of strong, familiar arms held you.

"For heaven's sake, how many drinks did you have?" Viren's face twisted, probably smelling the intoxicating smell of booze that you weren't sure anymore if it was yours or his.

Your hands tried to break away from his embrace but, instead, they just staid there, feeling the curve of his muscles.

"Just a--" a hickup cut your words, "just a few. I'm fine."

"I have never seen you this drunk. You are not fine," Viren insisted. You squinted, trying to discern if his face was actually worried, or was your vision that was getting blurry.

And right when you were about to repeat that you were fine, nausea crawled your throat. Arching, you stained Viren's boots.

"Means nothing," you pointed a weak finger at him while wiping your mouth with the hem of your sleeves.

Viren huffed. "Alright. Let's get you out of here before you ruin somebody else's boots too." Sliding his arm under your legs, he then carried you bridal style to the Inn of the Blushing Troll.

===

Sitting on the toilet, face slouched on your palms, you watched Viren take a tiny bottle containing a thick pink fluid from his side pocket.

"Drink it," he ordered. "This potion will stop your nausea."

"I know what a sickness-killer is," you replied snatching it from his hand. The thick fluid descended your throat like honey, immediately extinguishing the bubbling feeling in your stomach.

Viren raised a brow at you. "Feeling better?"

Out of spite, you crossed your arms and looked away. "A little too sweet for my taste. I prefer my version of the potion."

He scoffed. "Unbelievable. I get out of my way to help you and this is how you thank me? You are even more annoying when you are drunk."

"If you despise me so much, why are you doing this??" your tone was deadly serious and a heavy silence fell.

There was a tremor in your hands as your heart pumped hard against your ribs. Your eyes stared at him, frightened of Viren's response yet eager to hear it.

But Viren's features were a conflicting mixture of gapes and choked words. And anger sneaked into your blood like poison as the silence increased. Yanking your hands into his shirt, you brutally pulled him closer.

"Answer me," you growled. Noses almost touching, Viren's hot breath mingled with your fuming. "Answer me!" you repeated.

Viren slumped, burying his lips in yours. His fingers dug into your hair as your mouths moved wildly, kissing each other hungrily. He started to pull you forward, guiding you out of the bathroom.

When your legs hit the bed, you climbed over him. Lust pulsed throughout your entire being as Viren laid beneath you, staring back with the same need.

"I'm going to rip that answer out of you. I'm going to make you say it." You said before kissing him again. Tongues plunging, sliding deep while hands ran along every inch of your bodies.

Going lower Viren hurriedly helped you unbuckle his purple broach and remove his vest. He started to pull his black shirt up, but you stopped him. Pushing his arms over his head, you let them stuck there, exposing only his chest and face. "Keep them there," you sensually said.

Leaning, you brushed your mouth against his but denied another kiss, moving to suck and bit the side of the neck. Your skin shivered as it brushed against his beard.

Viren started to push his hips up, moaning quietly in your ear. You moved to remove his boots, pants, and underwear and your whole body blushed at the sight of his throbbing cock, curled, touching the base of his stomach.

You just... stared at it.

"Y/n..." Viren said your name in a weak cry.

"I think I should leave you like this," you said with a devilish smile.

"WHAT?!" It sounded more like a sign of desperation than a question and you simply love it.

"It's what you deserve anyway..."

"Y/n!" Viren started to hustle, trying to take his shirt off but you quickly stopped him, mounting him again.

"You're not moving until I hear you say it." You repeated. It was hard to control your urgers to stripe your clothes and just own him, ride him until he came undone. But you simply had to hear him say it.

If he loved or hated you, you simply needed to hear it.

You began to move up and down slowly. Your pants grinding against his erection provided a blissful friction.

"You terrible...ahh!--ssstubborn...aaah--sssexy wonderfull," Viren managed to say between his heavy pantings, "I--I"

Your body increased the seep and an animal sound escaped him. "I need you I want you y/n please!"

Finally, the words came out of him in a desperate begging. Not being able to hold your desires any longer, you yanked your clothes off. Viren untangled himself from his shirt and adjusted himself on the bed. Grabbing you by the waist, he put you back on top of him, shoving his cock inside you.

A deep moan snaked out of your throat as you felt that gratifying pressure. You laned forward and between sloppy kisses and pantings, both of your hips moved, going deeper, harder.

“That’s it...come on...so good...," you said, gaze glued on Viren's wobbly, melting face.

"Y/n yes....I need you...AH!"

As your bodies attacked each other, stripped from all pride and shame, you reached sheer ecstasy. "I'm yours..." you whispered, mind in another plane, every nerve like a bolt of lighting as Viren also gasped in his orgasm.

Resting your foreheads together, still interlaced, you both relearned how to breathe, letting the hotness of your climax slowly fade.

===

The morning came. A sharp pain smashed against the walls of your skull like an angry tide, and the rays of sunshine were enough to burn your retinas as you waited in line to bord the ship that would take you back to Evenere.

Even with this cursing hangover, the events of last night played clearly in your mind. Every action, every word. What remained unclear was the truthiness of it all.

Wich was why you didn't wait for Viren to wake up. You couldn't take him saying everything was another drunk mistake again. It would hurt too much.

The plank fell with a heavy thud, bridging the pear to the boat. But before you could take another step, you heard Viren's voice calling for you.

"Y/n. Wait!"

You never thought you would see Viren in such a state. The browns and whites of his hair were tangled in a ridiculous mess of impossible angles, his beard, once neatly in place, was now all fuzzy and puffed. His shirt was wrongly buttoned and the lace of his boots still undone.

"Viren what on earth are you--"

"Stop," Viren raised his hand. "I need you to just stop and listen without interrupting because if you do I-- I don't think I'll ever regain the courage to say this again." There was a deep fragility in his gaze and his voice didn't carry the usual confidence. Worried, you let him take you to an isolated corner.

After a deep inhale, Viren continued. "Y/n, what I said last night, about wanting you...it wasn't just the reflection of alcohol. I, really, truly want you. You understand magic in a way so different from mine. But it is challenging, it is exciting! And when the realization of my feelings for you finally came, I panicked. I was scared to have someone new in my life. Because in these last years, all the people I ever loved seemed to get hurt. My wife, Queen Serai... Harrow. Even my relationship with my son is falling apart!"

Viren closed his eyes, breathing deeply again before holding your hands. "I was scared that if I brought you into my life, I would somehow end up hurting you. So I tried to push you away but it was so, so hard. Every time we met I just wanted to hold you, have you next to me. And it was in this fruitless attempt to protect you that I ended up hurting you even more. It was stupid I know. Can you ever forgive me?"

Your hands moved to gently cup his face. Viren easily leaned forward and your lips met in a kiss. It was slow and soft, comforting in ways that a thousand words could never be. Viren's hand rested below your ear, his thumb caressing your cheek as your fingers ran down his spine, pulling him closer until there was no space left. The soothing sound of the ocean mingled with the beating of your heart, strong and passionate.

Pulling away, you looked up and Viren's frame was renowned. There was joy, and you could feel the love that played in his subtle smile and soft gaze.

"Does that mean you will stop criticizing my way to do magic?" Viren asked.

"Only if you promise me you won't bring another three dimensional for the next year's fair. That trick is getting old Viren."

"It's my trade mark."

"No, it's not."

"How about we discuss this at breakfast?" Viren suggested. "Maybe we can plan a presentation together. Perhaps travel in search of another relic for Evenere..."

"Yes. I would love that," you replied.

So hand in hand you two head back the Blushing Troll. Things had finally changed and you knew, for now on, it wouldn't be easy waters, but for Viren, you would continue to sail, both ready and excited for the start of this new chapter in your lives.

#viren x reader #viren-reader-love #lord viren #viren

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ngame989 · 5 years ago

Text

“Change” - TGG SVTFOE Fanfic Collection Ch. 3

Writing: @ngame989

Art: @toxicpsychox (make sure to follow him for bonus pics from the story!)

Editing: @bmc-nightfury, @seddm

Alternate fic links - FFnet, AO3

Summary: Star, Marco, Tom, and Janna celebrate Earthni's first Halloween and get a taste of what life's like for the rest of its inhabitants.

Comic Page

Masterpost

See below for the text, hope you enjoy! Sorry for the delay, we’ll be back in a few days with the comic page!

Flying was one of the most exhilarating feelings for Marco Diaz. He flung his arms out to the side, letting the wind ripple around and through his hair, his face, and the open front of his hoodie. With a world this beautiful and vast, who even needs the hoodie, anyway? It’s just weighing him down, preventing him from truly feeling as free as he knows he can be. He shifted positions, dramatically discarding the hoodie and feeling the crisp autumn air on his upper body through only the thin grey t-shirt. Suddenly it struck him: how exactly was he flying without Nach-

“Pfffthbtbt, Marco, what the heck?!? You got hoodie stuck in my teeth!”

Marco tried to glance at the familiar voice that interrupted his thoughts, but he was blinded by the sun gleaming in the purple sky. His arms instinctively were brought up to shield his vision. Wait, Marco realized, hadn’t he been holding on to something? Panic set in, both at the feeling of losing something important and at not even being able to recall what it was. It was uncanny, the moments he’d just experienced felt as vague and distant as anything he’d experienced in the Neverzone...

The view of the stunning Earthni landscape beneath him was obscured by a massive dangling ribbon in front of him, disrupting his contemplation. It was utterly tantalizing, almost demanding his attention. He shifted positions, reaching forward as far as he could to catch it, tugging the ribbon to his body and wrapping himself up in it, nestling deeper into his fabric cocoon and feeling briefly at ease. Wait, where exactly was he again? Something felt off, but the unnerving thought dissipated entirely once more at the soft touch on his head. Two large fingers tousled his hair to and fro, giving him a sense of contentment he didn’t know was possible. A glance skyward revealed the face of a giant Star Butterfly towering over him with a soft smile as she pet his head in the safety of a pocket sewn into her narwhal dress. Did that dress even have a pocket? And how was he here? Why was Star so big? As his mind sluggishly tried to work out what wasn’t gelling about the whole situation, his gaze followed their ribbon higher and higher until it finally reached the red balloon guiding them through the sky.

“OK, Marco, payback time!” she shouted with glee, flicking her head and whipping a tuft of flowing golden hair directly into his face.

“Bleh, Star, your hair… ptooey, Star, your hair is in my mouth… Get it out… Star? Star! Star!”

…

His eyes snapped open, senses on high alert, rapidly regaining his full cognitive faculties. He felt a light sheet draped on top of him; he was in bed, in his pajamas, with no hoodie or jeans in sight. Something large was still wrapped in his arms, but this time there was a warmth and softness that invited him to snuggle in deeper. The last thing he noticed is that his face was still completely buried in blonde tresses, and it all clicked.

“Thanks Roy, these goblin dogs zzz are absolutely zzz deliiiiiicioooouuus zzzzzzzzz”

“Star...”

“Why yes, I would like to try strawberry-flavored zzzzzzz”

“Staaaaaaar… wake up. It’s almost...” He tried and failed to peek around the veritable curtain in his face. “I don’t actually know what time it is, but we should still get up, today’s the day!”

“Totally, totally, totally, just 5 more minutes, Marco… 5 more hours…”

Marco sighed and lifted his head, freeing his face from the hairific onslaught and sighing into the crook of her neck. The leftover hint of strawberry shampoo danced through his nose, infatuating him as he pulled Star closer and felt the silky fabric of her gown softly graze his hands. She laughed and cast aside her favorite teal pillow with a heart she had been holding, gripping his arms instead, both enjoying each other’s company and affection - a fairly common occurrence these days.

Three months of this kind of paradise. Well, close to it, anyway; that first night on Earthni had been a one-off incident at the time, but it still hadn’t been long until unintentional movie marathon naps became slightly less unintentional and eventually moved to the comfort of one of their beds altogether, allowing them to spend nights in each other’s arms and sleep in at their leisure. And why not? They had all the time in the world. Marco was technically done with high school, and Star certainly wasn’t that upset that there wasn’t a fully integrated school system for Earthni quite yet. Besides, formalized education wasn’t much of a thing on Mewni anyway, and she wasn’t a “foreign exchange student” bound by Echo Creek’s norms anymore in this new world of theirs. They’d answered a few questions to the public about the Cleaving and spent a bit of time in the limelight, of course, but otherwise they were finally free of the burdens that had been on their shoulders for most of the time they’d known each other. It was the summer vacation they’d longed for, even though the season had passed them by long ago.

Suddenly, a knock at his door interrupted their bliss. “Star, Marco! Lunch is almost ready!” Angie sing-songed through his door. That woke both of them up - not because his mother had caught them innocently canoodling the night away, as that boat had sailed a while ago with a fairly predictable acceptance (though not without some teasing), but because lunch? How long had they slept in? Star bumped into Marco’s forehead when she bolted upright, startling him so much that he backed up off the bed into a heap on the floor.

“Marco! Gosh, Marco, I’m sorry-”

“M’okay,” he groaned, letting her help him uncrumple his body and stand up straight. They scrambled around the room to gather the discarded boxes of Sugar Seeds from the night before and shared their usual quick good morning kiss before splitting off to get ready for the big day ahead of them. Ten minutes later, Star emerged from her room with one of her older dresses, sky blue with two belts minus the fuzzy leg warmers, and skipped over to the stairs to slide down the railing into the dining room where Marco was already seated. Angie brought turkey sandwiches on the table.

“Good morning, you two. Sleep well?”

“We were up waaaay too late marathoning the new season of Fiesta de la Noche. I think it was the Sugar Seeds, please never buy the ‘Oops! All Corn Syrup!’ flavor again.” Marco winced at the lingering stomach pain.

“It’s sugar made from corn, why would you ever think I wouldn’t buy it?” Star scolded, adding some table sugar from the shaker the Diazes had repurposed for Star (leading to a few accidentally ruined dinners in the first week) to the fruit salad on the plate.

He playfully rolled his eyes and dug into his meal. “So, mom, where’s dad?” he mumbled out between bites.

“BOO!” No one even flinched at Rafael’s entrance from the back door.

Marco groaned. “Dad, are you trying to scare everyone again this year?”

“Haha, no, Marco. Last year I thought, ‘Why go for scary when nothing could ever top a hungering spirit almost devouring your loved ones, sending you into a manic frenzy?’ But then a lightbulb struck me on the head: I can simply bring joy and happiness instead of reopening the wounds of the most traumatic night of my life, haha!” Marco vacantly boggled at his father for a few silent moments, trying and failing to find any possible words in response, but there was no need as Rafael spoke up again. “Oh, and River is helping too!”

As if on cue, Star’s dad barreled through the back door dripping sweat. “I’m a riot with the youngsters, this will be a blast! Rafael, my good man, thank you so much for inviting me to participate in your culture’s festivities. Now how far would you like the catapult to fire the children?”

Rafael nervously chuckled as he lead River out the back door; the families got along swimmingly, but it was clear that neither had fully adjusted to every idiosyncrasy of the other. Marco and Star, having just finished the last of their lunches, followed out the back door and gaped at the spectacle. A giant corn maze occupied at least half of the massive property the Diazes now occupied, catapults of varying sizes had been built with landing pads, a few carnival-looking booths stocked with buckets of candy were set up with games Marco didn’t even recognize, and it was all topped off with decorative ghouls and skeletons scattered all around. The teens’ eyes bugged out of their heads as they processed the scene. How the heck did they sleep through the assembly of all of this? An instantly recognizable revving sound approached from the side; Marco’s eyes lit up as he ran over and gave his favorite dragon-cycle a big hug.

“Oh, Boo-Boo, good to see you!” he cooed, affectionately stroking her scaly head while she purred. A few weeks ago, she spotted him by chance in Monstertown while they were helping Eclipsa finish up some new housing, and after a tearful reunion the Diazes (who were a bit apprehensive upon finally learning what a dragon-cycle actually was) had built a stable in their backyard for her. She came and went as she pleased, but was more than happy to ride with Marco like they always had, occasionally with Star in tow.

Rafael approached and tentatively patted her on the head once, which caused her to defensively nuzzle into Marco. “By the way, Nachos asked if she could help us tonight with the Halloween chicanery and maybe give the kids some little joyrides… if that is OK with you.”

“Aww, that’s so sweet of you, girl!” Marco cooed. River hollered excitedly at Star and Rafael to show them his latest contraption, leaving Marco alone with his companion. His warm gaze turned steely in an instant as he knelt to the ground, looking directly into pink reptilian pupils of his dearest dragon-cycle.

“Thanks for doing this for me, Nachos, I owe you one. Remember the plan, OK? Keep an eye on them and keep everyone in one piece. You have my number if anything goes wrong, right?” She matched his serious demeanor and nodded sternly, at which he softened and kissed her on the forehead before scratching that spot on her neck that she always enjoyed. “I can always count on you, girl.” He stood up quickly to prevent any suspicion when he heard Star chatting to their dads as they approached the house once more.

“OK, dad, try not to have too much fun tonight. Last Halloween I was here, everyone almost got eaten.”

“No promises, sweetie!”

Star waved goodbye with a cheery grin before turning to Marco, eyes widening while maintaining the grin for an exaggeratedly concerned effect. Marco snickered and took her hand, heading back inside the house for their next mission. With all the shenanigans going on tonight, everyone decided it was best for Mariposa to not be in the house, so Star had volunteered to take her with them tonight, which meant she’d need a costume. The pair split apart to gather their supplies for the task. Star took a quick peek into the nursery and found Marco’s angel of a baby sister fast asleep in her crib, fortunately not disturbed by all the happenings around the house. Star went into Marco’s room and cleared off the floor for them to work, mere seconds before a big ball of purple fluff barged through the door.

“Can you believe that girl at the fabric store?” the bundle scoffed, revealing itself to be Marco after unceremoniously dumping piles of fabric and sewing supplies on the ground. “How can you not tell the difference between lavender and heliotrope? It’s so obvious! Even with the swatches from Turdina I’m still not sure if these are the right colors, and I will not settle for anything less than perfection for my little Turdinita-”

“OK, Marco,” Star huffed out. Like everything he did, it was still cute when he entered diva mode, but it was still near the top of the annoyance list. She rolled her eyes and grabbed him by the shirt, pulling him downwards and pecking him on the lips - mostly to shut him up - before putting a finger on his chest and pushing him onto his bottom in front of her. “Let’s get this done, OK? I know that you and Tom are gonna take, like, an hour on the makeup for your costumes.”

“Our trial run clocked in at 44 minutes sharp,” he retorted with a smirk, laying the sewing pattern out to start arranging the fabric. Minutes turned to hours as they toiled away, carefully picking out the colors and textures from the vast selection of cloth Marco had procured. Star was no slouch at the craft - she had decorated Marco’s cape by hand, after all - but every time she glanced over at Marco pouring his entire self into every thread and sequin, she couldn’t help but smile.

Marco carefully balanced a pin between his teeth, holding it up to make sure the design was coming together, then put it down to see Star dreamily staring at him. “Uh, Star? Is something up?”

“N-nothing,” she stammered in response, preparing the accessories for the finishing touches.

“Hey, I just realized… you still haven’t even told me what your costume is yet!” He handed the fabric over to her to begin cleaning up the massive mess of scrap around his person.

“I did tell you it’s a surprise, and I’m sticking to that! You and Tom went all gung-ho on the whole ‘bullfighting’ thing from the beginning. A girl’s gotta have her secrets, Diaz!”

“OK, OK,” he held up his hands in surrender, “I’m sure it will be amazing. Anyway, how does the dress look?”

Star scooted over beside him and held up the frilly purple outfit in front of them, flipping it over and around to get the full view. “Looks like a job well done to me!”

Marco’s eyes glistened at the sight. This whole thing had been his idea, wanting to make his baby sister’s first Halloween something special even if she wouldn’t remember it (there would be ample photographic evidence, his parents would make sure of that). But in some way it was also his way of commemorating his old life and what they’d left behind. Although Star had perhaps been the most dramatically affected by the Cleaving, losing the magic she’d known all her life, he had his own friends and adventures across the multiverse too. Earthni was special in its own unique way, and he certainly wouldn’t trade it for anything, but he didn’t want to forget the parts of his life he’d left behind. Shutting his eyelids and taking a deep breath and feeling a bit of moisture squeeze out, he wrapped an arm around Star, pulling her into his side. “Thanks for helping me with this, you didn’t have to-”

“Marco, you know I’d do anything for Mariposa. And it’s fun just spending time making stuff together!”

“We are pretty good at this, aren’t we?”

“Eh, I’d give it a passing grade.” Marco and Star jumped to their feet striking a tag team battle pose in the direction of the unforeseen intruder... and found Janna sitting on Marco’s bed, surfing something on her phone which was rested on Star’s pillow without so much as looking at them in acknowledgment.

“Janna!?” Marco asked incredulously. “Wait, shouldn’t you be in school?”

“I told them I was half-demon after the whole Severing Stone thing and they ate that riiiight up, so I’m exempt from human school now.” He could do nothing but blink in disbelief. “Anyway, on my way over I saw your dads with both their shirts off for some reason and I really didn’t feel like dealing with that so I just snuck in through the window. Oh, and I brought Meteora, too.”

“Wait, what? Where is she then?”

“On your head.”

Marco looked up and saw Meteora clinging to the ceiling before staring directly down at him and dive bombing, taking them both to the floor and giggling at his expense. Star helped him up and took the baby from him, calming her relatively easily by virtue of not being Marco Diaz.

“OK, but Eclipsa didn’t tell us about this! Why do you even have her?”

“Look, guys, it’s not a huge deal. She needed some help this morning and your parents told her you two were ‘busy’,” she said, holding up the pillow in one hand with the air quotes, “so she called me instead. Some monsters were, I dunno, worried about Halloween a bit or something and Eclipsa was dealing with that but still wanted Meteora to go trick or treating.”

“So you’re saying that Eclipsa wants Mariposa to bring her back a lot of chocolate.”

“Bingo.”

Star pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. “OK, fine, whatever. What’s this about being worried about Halloween?”

Janna shrugged her shoulders impassionately. “The whole schtick of Halloween is using the idea of monsters to try and scare people, and they’re a bunch of monsters who don’t want to be seen as scary.” She stood up and tossed her phone up and down a few times before slotting it into her pocket and finally addressing Star and Marco directly. “Whole thing’s a load of crud if you ask me, I’m totally down with monstery quirks. Plus you wouldn’t have to worry about costumes! Like, look at the munchkin there, she’s got pointed ears and a tail. It’s already better than anything I ever went trick-or-treating in.”

Meteora briefly stirred, as if picking up on the talk about her, and Star motioned everyone to the door with her head. The trio moved into the nursery quietly to put Meteora in the guest crib they kept around for her frequent visits, then went downstairs to continue their conversation.

“I mean… it can’t be that big of a deal, right? Costume parties were a thing on Mewni, too, and not everyone who showed up was a Mewman. I doubt it will be perfect, but everyone’s been getting along pretty well so far!” Star said with some emphatic hand-waving.

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Marco responded. Admittedly, Marco wasn’t entirely sure. The residents of Echo Creek were generally pretty accepting, in his own experience, but it was never a certainty. Tensions could linger for a while unseen, and one could never know exactly when they’d boil over. But being with Star had taught him a lot about trying to see the best in the world, and he found himself able to share the overall feeling of optimism.

“Plus, I don’t think any kids are gonna climb all the stairs to the Temple,” Janna chimed in from the couch.

“That too,” Marco replied without looking away from Star. “It’s our first big holiday together, and- and I just want this night to be about us having a blast with all our friends and getting a whole truckload of candy!” he yelled triumphantly, taking Star’s hand. Her shining ocean pools focused entirely on him and blazed with the same determination he had.

“I’d tell you two to get a room, but...”

Marco’s eyes went wide as he blushed, causing Star to finally end their moment of emotional vulnerability with a contagious laugh (and light blush of her own) that Marco quickly joined. Once it subsided, Star took Marco’s other hand in hers. “Yeah, you’re right. Hopefully nothing too unexpected hap-”

The front door violent opened with a burst of flame and smoke entering through. Marco shrieked and leapt in fright, being caught and cradled by Star. What could possibly have done such a thing?

“Hey guys, how’s it hanging?”

Oh. That’s what. “Hey Tom,” Marco sighed out, hopping down from Star’s arms as the smoke cleared from his dramatic entrance and Tom closed the door behind him.

“Am I, uh, interrupting something?”

“Marco got freaked out when you burst open the door,” Janna ever-so-helpfully provided.

Tom raised an eyebrow at Marco judgmentally. “You’ve lived with Star for years, come on, dude.”

“I’m not on guard for it when she’s directly next to me!” he cried defensively with his voice cracking, extending his arms in her direction to punctuate his statement. “Anyway, Tom, you ready for the big night?”

“You know I am,” the half-demon responded, meeting Marco in the center of the room for a high-five. “Alright, we should get costumes ready. We’ll be in Marco’s room if you need us.” As they ascended the stairs, Marco caught Janna making some sort of comment about to Star about “stealing your man” - he shouldn’t have expected much different. As soon as they got into his room, he went into his closet to gather all their costume pieces as Tom shut the door. “I can’t believe you humans basically have a giant costume party once a year where everyone gets candy. I could probably, like, just walk around like normal and it would still count. That’s too cool.”

Marco sat them both down on his bed and began to wipe his face off. “Eh, it’s pretty tame usually. Two years ago, Star and Janna summoned a ghost that ate everyone and my dad had to wrestle it to get everyone back. The inside of his belly smelled like licorice, it was awful. But it was an interesting Halloween.”

“Hungry Larry?” Marco assented while beginning the first layer of foundation. Tom laughed and held Marco’s arms at bay while he regained his composure. “Not a demon curse, but I’m familiar. Of course it was those two. OK, man, you can’t tell me funny stories like that, we’ve gotta get this done and we don’t need any distractions.” Marco nodded, always happy to see someone share his dedication to the craft. Foundation, then outlines, then filling in with white… the process stretched on for minutes as the basic design became evident. He sat back to observe it from multiple angles. While Marco switched brushes to begin the detailing, Tom spoke up once more. “I’ll be honest, man, I was kinda surprised about this. Figured you and Star would do a couple costume or something.”

“This idea was too good to pass up, though. Plus, I thought it’d be cool to do something like this with you! I mean, you are one of my best friends,” Marco rubbed the back of his neck, realizing too late that he had had a bit of white face paint on his hand.

“Well, it’s super cool, so thanks.”

Once Marco put the finishing touches on, he held up a mirror for Tom. The reflection showed his face transformed into a skull with ornate patterns everywhere. When Marco had come up with the idea for bullfighting costumes, Tom had been pretty disturbed by the fact that the bulls were killed. Marco had to admit it was pretty cruel, but after learning about Día de los Muertos, Tom suggested an Underworld-themed bullfight (where the bulls were already dead). Tom offered a fist-bump which Marco proudly accepted, and then the two switched places to begin the process all over again.

As Tom reached over to grab the makeup, his eyes lingered on the pillow with a heart at the head of Marco’s bed. His eyes darted back and forth between the pillow, all three eyes widening. Marco followed his train of thought and- oh no. “Tom, it’s not what you think-”

Tom raised his hands defensively. “Dude, I won’t judge.”

Marco sighed. What did he do to deserve this all in one day? “It’s not like that- OK, it’s not like that that, just… yeah.”

Minutes ticked on in silence while the steps were redone on Marco’s own face. Foundation, white paint, highlights… It was only when Tom got to the final ornate decals that Tom spoke back up again after sketching the outline on Marco’s face. “For the record, I know we haven’t really talked about it much but when I told you I was cool with you two getting together, I wasn’t just bottling stuff up or anything, OK? Yeah, breakups suck, but I’m pretty sure after a day or so my mom was taking it harder than me,” he chuckled with a toothy grin. “I know we haven’t, like, talked about it much since then, but you two are perfect for each other. I’m happy that you’re happy, dude, and more importantly I’m happy with myself too.” Words stopped once more as Tom focused to finish the pattern, showing Marco his own face in the mirror much to his delight. Everything came together flawlessly, and even faster than they’d anticipated. Marco breathed a sigh of relief at still managing to accomplish everything they needed to before trick-or-treating officially began. Part of that relief, he had to admit, was due to Tom’s words as well. Of course he didn’t think Tom resented him or anything, but knowing that they weren’t just “cool” but completely free of any potential past baggage felt like a weight off his shoulders. Marco leaned in and gave Tom a one-armed hug, clapping him on the back. “I take it you’re happy with the makeup job?” Tom joked.

“Well, your contouring is flawless. But it was mostly for the other stuff.”

“Anytime, man,” Tom responded, punching his shoulder lightly with a smile.

“Alright, costume time.”

***

“Star, seriously, do I have to do this?”

“Trick-or-treating starts in a few minutes, so too late nooo-oow!” Star sing-songed, bouncing over to the top of the stairs. “Are you boys down there?”

“Yeah,” she heard both Tom and Marco reply from the living room downstairs.

“Alright, Janna, it’s showtime!” Star grabbed her hesitant friend by the wrist and practically dragged her down the stairs. “Introduciiiiiiiing… Starberry!” She twirled in place once for effect, showing off her full body strawberry suit complete with themed headband and boots, then pulled Janna out from behind her, who had her hand on her forehead. “And Janna Banana!” She’d begrudgingly put on the main banana costume but had vehemently declined to wear the rest of the ensemble Star had picked out for her, sticking with her normal outfit instead, which Star was willing to accept.

Marco and Tom stared wide-eyed for a moment, turning to each other, then the girls, then to each other again, then back to the girls, mouths agape.

“How… what… wuh…” they both stammered incoherently, before bursting into raucous laughter, holding onto each other just to stay standing.

“God this is stupid,” Janna grumbled under her breath.

Star waited until they were done before explaining herself. “OK, so remember that night at D&D where Janna bet me I couldn’t beat the cyclops horde and I did?”

“You were only able to do that because you, and I quote, ‘rolled for cuteness check’ so they’d adopt you instead and Ferguson allowed it for some reason.”

“Well, maybe it’s because my character is incredibly cute!”

“Your character is just an elvish Marco.”

“Exactly. Anyway, since you guys were already doing your own thing for Halloween, I thought Janna and I would, too! Fruit Friends!” Star shrilled, hugging Janna and wiggling her back and forth.

“Let’s just get this over with.”

“Well, you both look great,” Marco giggled, walking over and flicking the strawberries on Star’s headband. “Where did you get this?”

“Dad helped me make it. He’s surprisingly good at arts and crafts. You two look pretty nice yourself.”

“Thanks. Tom wouldn’t wear the rest of the costume, though, but it’s still OK.”

“I’m not wearing a full body fursuit, Marco. But I can definitely do that thing bulls do in cartoons,” he coolly smirked, before blowing a puff of smoke with a bit of flame from his nostrils. Tom had a large nose ring and a bushy tip on top of his tail, but otherwise was wearing a pretty standard dark jacket on top of a maroon button-up shirt with dark slacks.

Star turned back to her boyfriend, looking his flashy getup up and down. “You look pretty nice yourself, Diaz,” she crooned playfully. “Although you missed out on the opportunity to be Mango Diaz for the night, bub.” The skull-themed makeup was absolutely divine, as she expected from the boys - they were frankly better at it than her. The ornate gold decorations all over the jacket and high-waisted pants looked sharp on top of the red base, and she was never one to complain about a nice white dress shirt and black tie, either. “Heh, I don’t want to mess up the makeup but-”

Marco cut her off with a brief kiss, taking her by pleasant surprise, and when her eyes fluttered back open he gave her a half-lidded stare and a smug grin. “Don’t worry, we used sealer.”

Janna moaned at the couple and slumped onto the couch. “Let’s just go get candy already.”

“Are you kids leaving soon?” Rafael poked him head out from the kitchen, making a comical “oh” face upon seeing all the costumes. “Darling, come look at how wonderful these costumes are!”

Angie quickly joined with the babies in tow, oohing and aahing over all the outfits. “Let’s get a quick picture before you leave, shall we?” The babies crawled over to the teens as they struck a pose for the camera. Her best friends - well, besides Ponyhead, who had blown them off for a special edition of her show tonight - all together having fun on holidays? It was exactly the life she’d been wanting for herself for a while. Stump Day was the last time they’d done anything like that, and even then it was riddled with strife and tension, but it filled her with a genuine warmth to know this would be the norm now. Or maybe that was just the not-that-breathable costume. Tom let out a yelp when Mariposa tugged on his tail, clapping in glee at the response.

“Guess that’s our signal to go,” he said in a strained voice, scooping up Mariposa and handing her to Marco who had just put on his baby carrier before she could pull at the nose ring. Meteora, meanwhile, seemed content to nest in the leaves of her strawberry outfit. They all grabbed their bags and headed out the door.

The night started off fairly uneventful; they collected candy going door to door, and most of the Echo Creek residents were quite impressed by the costumes and especially by Tom’s pyrotechnics. They passed a few monster families wandering around - her favorite was a centipede-looking monster that had an elaborate assembly of dolls mounted onto her body to make it look like a bunch of humans in a conga line. Once they had stopped at every house in the immediate neighborhood, their bags were fairly full already, so they decided to take some time and go explore looking for decorations for a while before stuffing their bags to capacity too early. The group headed towards some of the more blended areas of the merged town (still colloquially referred to as Echo Creek by most of the population) to see how all the different groups were celebrating the spooky festivities. Star and Marco were walking hand-in-hand with the babies in their care, just taking in the sights and enjoying the company, while Tom and Janna were chatting beside Marco.

“Janna, I’m telling you, that isn’t a real thing!”

“C’mon now Tom, I have three different necronomicons that reference it.”

“Grandpa Relicor goes on for hours about curses at every single family dinner and he’s never mentioned anything that could turn a human inside out.”

“Maybe he’s keeping it for himself. Did you ever think of that?”

“I’m sorry that I don’t think about turning humans inside out all that often! Look, we can just head to his library sometime and- wait, hold on. Star, isn’t this where we got kidnapped that one time?”

Star snapped out of her daze and looked around; they were in the old monster village! Star had been so busy during the last stretch of her time on Mewni that she hadn’t even gotten to visit it once some of the monster families came back, and Buff Frog had come over to visit them a few times on Earthni but she hadn’t been sure exactly where his home was. She motioned for the group to follow her while she looked for the right hut… There! They walked up to the door and knocked.

“Go away! We do not want any!”

“Buff Frog, it’s me!”

The door flung open and Star was immediately swept up into a giant bear hug. “Star Butterfly, my little sweet potato! It has been so long! Come in, all of you. What brings you to my home, and why are dressed like weird red plant with many eyes?”

“It’s Halloween, we’re trick-or-treating!”

“What is this ‘Halloween’ of which you speak?”

This caught Star off-guard. It had been posted all over town and in the newspapers, hadn’t it? After all, there were plenty of monsters she’d seen celebrating tonight already.

“Um, well, it’s an Earth holiday where people put on costumes and walk around to other people’s houses, and those other people give them candy!”

“Ah, so that explains mysterious children at door all night. I hide in home. Many not seem happy when I am not giving them things. This also why tadpoles go with friends wearing peculiar clothing. I understand all now.”

“Out of curiosity, Buff Frog, why didn’t you know?”

“I am needing help to read fancy Earth papers, text too small for eyes. Children try to show me this ‘internal net’ of yours for video, but I do not like. They teenagers now, do not talk to old man about life,” he sighed mournfully. “Is OK. We begin Halloween now. Who want swamp grass? Is favorite treat, but I happily give to my good friends.”

“Thanks Buff Frog, but uh, I think we’re good,” Marco said, making a quick face of disgust.

“Whatwuzzat?” Tom mumbled through a mouthful of swamp grass while eagerly taking more from Buff Frog into his bag.

Another knock came to Buff Frog’s door. His face lit up in joy. “This must be trick-or-treat! I try your custom now.” He went over to the door and opened it, arms spread wide with a gigantic smile on his face. “Happy Halloween! I am so glad to have fresh-faced child at door and be part of holiday cheer. What your costume supposed to-”

“Ugh, whatever. You have any candy or what?” Star sharply turned her attention in that direction at the familiar voice.

“Jeremy?” Marco cried out, his voice cracking.

Star and Marco poked their heads around the side of Buff Frog at the familiar voice. Jeremy Birnbaum, in the shrill, diminutive flesh. Of the many people Star had met during her time on Earth, he was one of the few that she would’ve been perfectly fine with never seeing again, and she knew Marco hated him far more than she did. He was wearing a karate outfit with his name embroidered in multiple places on the fabric.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Marco Diaz. What are you doing out in a dump like this? Oh, wait, that makes perfect sense!” he cackled.

“Don’t listen to him, Buff Frog,” Marco shouted, still fixing his angry gaze on the child. “He’s just a sad, mean little turd.”

“Look, Marco, I get it. You did one big thing and had your 15 minutes of fame and you think you’re hot stuff. But all you really did was make this town even lamer and bring a bunch of weirdo losers here. Whatever, I’m out of here. By the way, those wing things on your head are wimpy, old man. Anyway, later, nerds.”

As he was walking away, he antagonized a few groups of monster teenagers that were wandering around. Star’s face felt like it was on fire. She started charging out the door to give the twerp a piece of her mind, but a large hand gripped her shoulders and held her back.

“Star… is not worth it.”

“Yeah,” Tom added, hands in his pockets. “For the record, I’ve seen a lot of demons with wings way wimpier than yours.” Buff Frog laughed sadly.

Star clenched her fists in and out, knowing they were right. After taking a deep breath, she plopped down onto the floor, resting her cheeks on her hands and sighing. Since the Cleaving, it seemed like everyone had been getting along so well, and problems had been out of sight for so long that she’d gotten complacent. Even after the subject came up earlier today, she really hadn’t believed that anything bad would happen. Had she just been delusional for assuming that things were really better? Could more of this happen? Would more of this happen? She’d done everything in her power, including giving up that very power, to fix the problems and prejudices she saw in society. On some level, she knew she shouldn’t be too bothered by this - it was just Jeremy, after all - but it was just sinking in how far away they still were from the world she wanted to see.

After another minute stewing in her negative emotions, two large hands hefted her back to her feet, and she found herself staring directly into big yellow eyes at a distance where she could see every individual wrinkle under them. “Star, is OK. Those like mean boy exist, but it not so bad. I am used to it. Is better than Mewni. No one try to shove us off cliff yet,” he laughed. “Besides, mean boy not wrong. This place is dump. Children not do chores. Teenagers. Now go, I am not needing you being sad. Get candy with friends and adorable babies,” he said sternly.

“OK. Well, tell Katrina and all the others that we said hi,” Star hesitantly spoke. He was right, she supposed, but something about it still wasn’t sitting right with her. Marco took her hand with the smile he always gave her when trying to ease her worries and the group headed for the door.

“Star, karate boy, take good care of each other. Friends and babies too. You are both like tadpole to me. All will work out, da.”

The group said their goodbyes and headed out. “You feeling alright?” Marco inquired after they’d made their way out of the monster village, .

“I- yeah, I’m fine. Just stinks to see something like that after a while of things being really good.”

He squeezed her hand reassuringly. “I know a house that gives out homemade candy bars made from Sugar Seeds. Ferguson ate four of them one year and was sick for two weeks. Wanna go?”

Star was grateful for the change in subject, and turned to see his soothing chocolate gaze roving her face. He was always right at her side knowing how to lift her spirits, whether it be out of the deepest depths or from the mountaintops into the clouds. Maybe it was just best to push the issue out of her mind for n-

“I hate to interrupt the moment,” Tom stuck his head between them, forcing them to split apart to not get smacked by his horns, “but you might want to check this out.” He pointed a block in front of them to a group of kids frantically scrambling away from something with purpose, looking back over their shoulders every few seconds. Star and Marco locked eyes briefly once more and ran over towards them with the others just behind. Interestingly, Star noted, there were humans, Mewmans, and monsters alike in the group. The moment they drew near, one of the kids just pointed around a large building nearby without a word before continuing their mad dash.

Even Janna seemed interested now, raising an eyebrow along with the others before jogging towards the source of the commotion. They rounded the corner and were greeted with…

“Ludo’s castle?” Star and Marco said simultaneously. “Ludo’s here?”

“They’re still doing that thing?” Tom mouthed to Janna in the periphery of Star’s vision.

Now that she thought about it, there was a dim recollection of Ludo’s voice in her mind from the fateful day of the Cleaving, but her entire being had been so focused on the portal that it had barely registered at the time. How they hadn’t stumbled upon it in the past few months, though, was beyond her. OK, maybe it had something to do with them spending their first few dragon-cycle joyrides focused more on each other than what was below them, but in her defense, how was she supposed to focus on anything else with Marco in his adorkably handsome rough-and-tumble rider outfit? A non-heart-shaped spot of pink tinged her cheeks, and she shook off the thought by striding towards the castle, with Marco jerking forward as a result.

Janna’s eyes lit up at the eerie glow of the torches and the medieval trellises all along the walls. “Finally, my kind of Halloween.” She leaped forward to ring the doorbell.

Before anyone could react, a large net descended on them, capturing them and hoisting them up into the air. They all instinctively tried to break it, and found it impossibly strong. The door opened and they were hoisted into the and carried inside. Star tried to get her bearings but struggled to adjust her position given the bulky fruit costume. Eventually they were set back down in a large room. Star was finally able to crane her head enough to see the back of a large stone throne with two giant horns.

A shrill, familiar cackle erupted from the occupant of the throne. Suspicions confirmed, at least. “Hello, children. You have been trapped in my clutches! By the power invested in me on this Hallow’s Ween, I declare you… trick-and-treated!” Everyone remained still for a second, holding their breath to see what Ludo would do next. “Trick-and-treated!” he called out again. His voice dropped to a whisper, but Ludo was bad at whispering. “Dennis, that’s when you turn the chair!”

“Oh, right, sorry big brother!”

The stone throne swiveled around to reveal Ludo in the same clown costume Star remembered from the seance years ago. Spider and Bird, who Star now realized had been the ones to trap and carry them, emerged from the shadows to flank the sides of the throne. Right as the net dropped, Star felt her costume get pelted with something light. She picked up a small bag that had landed next to her face; it was labeled “Gold’N Crispz”.

“Ludo, what are you doing?” she finally called out.

“Wait, Star Butterfly? Is that really you? Help them up, help them up quickly now!” Spider, Bird, and a tall Kappa Star didn’t recognize helped Marco and Tom up first, who in turn assisted with Star and Janna. Ludo ran over and leaped up into a confused Marco’s arms, giving him a big hug and doing the same to Star a moment later. “I’ve missed you both so much!”

“We, um, missed you too, Ludo?” Marco unsurely stammered out.

“Oh, Marco, you’re alive! I thought you were actually a skeleton for a moment there!”

Star cleared her throat to get his attention once more. “So, uh, Ludo… we saw some kids running away screaming from here before.”

“Trick-and-treating hasn’t been going so well, they all call me ‘ugly hairy clown’ and flee. Ah well, more chips for me! But help yourselves, you two!”

“Uh, Star?” Tom spoke up. “Where’s Meteora?” Wait, what? She was gone? Star had felt her pulling on the leaves just a few minutes ago. She glanced over to Mariposa, who was still strapped into Marco’s carrier comfortably, seemingly unaffected by recent events. She groaned in frustration; the night had already had enough problems, why did this have to happen?

“There!” Marco shouted, pointing to the half-monster baby who had started crawling all along the gloomy walls of the castle. She rounded a corner out of sight.

“I got this,” Janna said. “This is my kind of place.” She jogged as fast as her costume would let her into the corridor Meteora disappeared into.

“I have zero clue who any of you are,” Tom added, pointing finger guns at Ludo and his friends, “but you guys seem like you have some catching up to do, so I’m just gonna go too.” He followed after Janna, tailed by the taller Kappa who Star presumed was Dennis who was breathlessly shouting warnings about various things in the castle.

“Well, your friends seem fun!” Ludo spouted out, bouncing on his feet. He led them into a room decorated like a lounge and jumped up onto one of the armchairs, motioning Star and Marco to do the same. “Come, sit! Would you care for another game of cha-rahds?” He gasped suddenly, pointing at Marco’s chest with a comically excited grin. “You two had a baby! That’s so nice! What’s her naaaaaame?”

Star and Marco’s faces both flushed. “She’s not ours, she’s my sister!”

“Potato, tomato,” he waved his hand at them dismissively. “I’m so happy for you both!”

“Anyyyyway,” Star drawled, eager to change the subject, “You rebuilt your castle, huh? It looks…” She spotted some sludge dripping down one of the walls nearby. “...nice!”

“Yes, it’s been quite an emotional journey this past year. I floated through space for a while - I think I hallucinated you with six arms at one point!” Star raised a finger and began to open her mouth, but Marco quickly grabbed pushed it back down. He probably had the right idea. “Then I lived a dreadful life with mother and father for a while, and then my wonderful little brother who I love so very much helped me see that I didn’t need them anymore by dunking a basketball, and we ended back up here! I guess that’s about it.”

“That’s… uh, glad to hear you’re doing well?” Star asked hesitantly. It was nice to see him not constantly attacking them or plotting to steal from them, but he was still an incredibly strange creature that Star could never quite get a read on. “How’s Earthni been treating you?”

“What’s an Earthni?” He blinked a few times, still innocently grinning.

“Earth and Mewni fused a few months ago,” Star dumbfoundedly responded.

“So that’s why the sky went all pretty and purpley, and why that milkshake stand I always went to right after I failed at getting your wand appeared right next to us. Speaking of which, how is that wand of yours?” He leaned forward in his seat expectantly.

“It’s, um, gone,” Marco said.

Ludo’s brow furrowed. “Well why don’t you go find it?”

“He means gone gone.” Star added. “We destroyed its source.”

“Whaaaaaaat? So no more magic at all? No more wand?” His beady pupils suddenly contracted to tiny dots in the center of his bulbous yellow eyeballs, voice dropping to a whisper. “...no more wand. No more wand. No more wand! I’m free, I’m- I’m free!” He stood up on the chair, jumping up and down and spinning around looking the happiest they’d ever seen him. “My brain, it doesn’t stop scheming and plotting for ways to steal the wand. It’s been lingering in the back of my mind for so long, but I don’t want it there. This is such a relief!”

Star felt a pang of sympathy for her ex-enemy. His mind was largely still an enigma, but he was struggling to put a past he wasn’t proud of behind him in his own way - something she was quite familiar with. She popped open a bag of chips and inspected them carefully, still a bit concerned about whatever food Ludo might deem worthy of giving out. Much to her surprise, they were actually just standard potato chips - fairly good ones, at that, and she was pretty hungry, having been too preoccupied to even dig in to her candy haul so far. Ludo remained in his happy reverie, babbling to himself while she munched and crunched down all the chips. Was that really all there were in it? Stupid packaging. She rustled the bag a bit, hearing it echo through the room. How could a bag be so loud? When the noise persisted, she realized it was actually footsteps. The three stood up and found Tom, Janna, and Dennis, all with scratches and scrapes and scuffs on their skin and clothing, panting heavily with Meteora fast asleep sucking her thumb in Tom’s arms.

“That baby is a nightmare!” Dennis squeaked out, his nasally voice only accentuated by his breathlessness. “She fought off Spider and Bird-”

“Yes, yes, we’ve all had a lovely evening, Dennis. But get this: the wand is gone! I’m free! Star, Marco, it’s been wonderful to see you again, we must catch up more some other time! Quickly, we must go tell Fudo and Tudo and Kudo and Zudo and Menudo and-”

Star, Marco, and the others had managed to make it the whole way off the castle property and out of earshot before Ludo was done with his list of names.

“Sooooo… what happened to-”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Janna tersely stated, as if the experience had made her a changed person. “Let’s just go take Meteora back home.” She took a step forward and winced

Tom snapped his fingers and a pillar of flame erupted in the street behind them, fading away seconds later to reveal his souped up Underworld carriage. “I can’t portal everywhere anymore but I can at least do that. Hop in.”

“What a gentleman,” Janna grumbled, tossing herself face-first onto the long plush seats within.

Star looked at the carriage, then looked up to Marco and knew they were on the same page as usual. They weren’t quite ready for Halloween to end yet. “We’ll make our own way back.”

“Suit yourself,” Tom shrugged, following Janna into the carriage before taking off for the night.

Marco’s hand found Star’s once more as they started to meander back in the general direction of home. “Well, that was an unexpected visit.”

“Yeah… glad to see Ludo’s doing well, though. It kinda gives me hope for Earthni, y’know?”

“Hmm?”

Star gazed up at the last vestiges of the sun in the sky. The sunsets on Earthni were becoming a constant positive in her life, always reminding her of the best the world had to offer. Of Marco, of peace, of the promise of a happy life ahead of them. “If Ludo, the guy who spent basically every waking second of his life for my entire first year here trying to steal my wand, can dig deep down and learn and grow from it… maybe we don’t just have to accept that some people are going to be mean idiots. It’s never gonna be perfect, but maybe there’s at least some hope that anyone can change.”

“I guess you’re right.”

“Except Jeremy. He might be one of the hopeless ones,” she joked, jabbing an elbow into Marco’s side causing them both to giggle profusely. “Weeeeeell, we should probably get home soon. This little angel is on a one-way trip to Snoozeville.” She gave a feather-light boop to Mariposa’s nose.

“...should we still stop for those Sugar Seed bars?”

She sighed in contentment and leaned against his arm. “You know me too well, Diaz.”

#starco #svtfoe #star vs the forces of evil #tgg svtfoe #fanfic

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incorrecteragonquotes · 6 years ago

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Eragon Movie Recap Part 1: The First Part

So.

I watched the Eragon movie. Voluntarily.

I would say that I had forgotten how bad this movie was, but the truth is, I don’t think I ever fully understood in the first place. I saw this thing in theatres back when I had very low standards, and I kinda disliked it then. Seeing it again more than ten years later, it blew my mind. Ohhh boy, was I ever unprepared. I knew it would be bad, but this? I completely underestimated it. I was not at all ready.

But, ready or not, I saw the film. All of it. In detail. And among all of the bad bits I found many things to laugh at, though I imagine most of those were unintentional, and at least one instance of thematic consistency, which is always nice to see. So, the film was bad, certainly, but not thoroughly, completely terrible. But, if what we have now is bad, can we do better? Can we take what the studio has given us and transform it into something fun to experience, something people might actually choose to look at because they like seeing it? I certainly hope so, as this is the beginning of my quest to make that a reality.

This post and those following it will constitute a recap of the 2006 Eragon film - a summary of its events with a bit of commentary sprinkled in. Personal opinions will probably sprout up faster than weeds in a suburb. The wordy bits will be broken up by annotated screencaps from the film itself. I hope you like them! This series is based on a recap/screencap format that I personally have seen in mammothrider’s RWBY Recaps. In this recap series, you’ll be able to see elements from both that and screencap annotation blogs like cakewatchespsychopass. These folks do some very good work, and if their stuff looks interesting to you, you should totally check it out!

Now that you know what’s coming, I invite you to join me on my journey, as it is now beginning. My mission: to give you a way to enjoy the Eragon movie without first having to endure the Eragon movie.

Our story opens with a series of aerial shots. Clouds, mountains, and more are visible as the opening narration makes it clear that we’re in for a few minutes of exposition. Eventually, while looking at some clouds, a dragon raises its head into the frame. It turns out that we, the audience, were the real dragon rider the whole time! I must wonder, though, where the dragon was keeping its head earlier in this shot. That must have made for one uncomfortable flying stance.

But what’s this? On the other side of this cloud, we find a battle! With dragons fighting left and right and fire flying every which way, we look up to find ourselves attacked from above by another dragon!

The narrator informs us that all of this fighting is because of some guy named Galbatorix. While we’re on the subject of this guy, I have to ask, who names their kid Galbatorix? Like, even ignoring the part where it’s clearly an Evil Overlord Name, am I the only one who thinks it’s weird that somewhere, somebody looked at their kid and thought, I’m going to give you a really unwieldy name containing entirely too many syllables and weird consonants. I don’t mean to suggest that people never have long or complicated names, but compared to the rest of the names in this story, this one really sticks out to me as a very egregious example.

Moving on, we’re told about how there was this big war where a bunch of people died, and those that didn’t opted instead to run away in the approximate direction of some mountains. But wait! Who is this?

Some important rebels are riding through the woods on horseback, and they… stole the king’s favourite rock. We aren’t told why this matters. We are told, however, that the most important rebel’s name is Arya. Interestingly, she appears to be wearing the least armour, despite being the most important. Maybe they’re hoping that people will recognize her, and therefore not attack? That’s an unusual strategy. Regardless, everyone’s favourite oversized paperweight is clearly causing a few problems.

Meanwhile at the local evil lair, Ol’ Galby’s telling his Shade friend Durza all about how much he misses his cool rock. Oh, if only there were someone who could go on a low-profile retrieval mission. Someone with vaguely-defined supernatural abilities. Someone who doesn’t have the responsibility of staying in this weird mountain cave in case they need to loom dramatically in front of the camera. Durza, one of the least bad characters in this movie, takes the hint.

And now, we get to meet our protagonist! He’s getting out of bed at nighttime, for some reason. Protagonist walks past his sleeping uncle on his way to the door, and, for some reason, takes the time to pause and smile fondly at him. I’m not really sure of what the filmmakers were trying to communicate with this. He cares about his family? This man is, in fact, related to him? He would be disappointed if his parental figure were to suddenly be murdered? It is indeed that time of day, you know, the one when people generally aren’t awake? I should hope these things are all understandable by other means.

As our narrator informs us that this man venturing into the woods with a bow and some arrows is, in fact, going hunting, we get to enjoy a confusing bit of editing. In one shot, Protagonist Man (the fact that his name is Eragon is, of course, left unsaid) is closing the front door behind him. In the next shot, he’s climbing a hill in the middle of a lush forest that was clearly not at his doorstep in the establishing shot. Yes, I know he could have walked there first, but the editing strongly suggested he didn’t have to.

Moving on, Durza’s lurking in the forest now, waiting to intercept some horses and their humanoid companions. He stands in the middle of some pathway, raises his hand all magic-like and starts… hissing? The Urgals are apparently on their game today as they know how to interpret vague hissing as “launch ambush plan 4.2”.

It’s ambush time! Arya’s two dude friends get pincushioned real fast, and Arya herself gets tackled off her horse. Oh, no! If only there had been some obvious sign of trouble, like a suspicious dude acting suspiciously in the middle of the road dead ahead.

Eragon’s walking in the woods. There’s no-one around and his phone is dead. Out of the corner of his eye, he spots it: a deer.

Meanwhile, Arya is scooting along in the forest, holding a sword. That’s probably not how you hold a sword. Man, elven emissary training just isn’t what it used to be. Though, I do wonder how she made her tackler vanish before they hit the ground. We will probably never know. Then again, maybe that’s what they covered during training in place of proper sword-carrying technique.

I digress. Suddenly, it’s the Ring of Fire! Durza’s casting it, and really doesn’t seem to worry about fire damage while walking through it. He tries to intimidate Arya by finishing his sentence even after pausing to let her quip, but she’s one step ahead of him. She retrieves a very special cool rock, and immediately beams it out of her jurisdiction. Foiled again, Durza!

Time for Eragon to shoot the deer. But wait! The deer got all glowy and exploded! Actually, no, it didn’t explode, but it did get very mildly spooked and will be grazing elsewhere. Eragon doesn’t know what’s going on. His arrow’s on fire. There’s a cool rock on the ground. It’s smoking. Eragon looks perplexed, more than anything, by this complete surprise. I understand that intense confusion is something anyone would be feeling in this situation, but I would think that Eragon might have more pressing concerns when faced with a flashy mystery projectile.

Durza walks over to Arya, who’s collapsed onto the ground. It turns out that InstaPost is an expensive service. They discuss the exact meaning of “out of her jurisdiction”.

Eragon has decided to walk over to the cool rock. He squats down next to it. Picks it up. Blows on it. Truly an exhaustive investigation. Unsurprisingly, he doesn’t do any sort of check beforehand to make sure that the suspiciously shiny explosively teleporting object isn’t going to curse him on contact. Oh, Eragon. What are we going to do with you?

Arya, meanwhile, has some sixth sense that lets her know that her cool rock has been found by an idiot. Satisfied, she takes a nap, leaving Durza to pick up the pieces.

This brings our first installment in the Eragon Movie Recap series to a close! This part covered about 6 minutes of screentime. Thanks for reading, and I hope you had fun, as I most certainly had fun writing it. If there was something you particularly liked, or would like to see done differently in future installments, you are more than welcome to leave some feedback as a reply, or in the ask box, or however else you’d like to deliver your message. I look forward to hearing from you!

Remember to tune in next week when we visit such questions as “will Eragon achieve his dream of multiclassing?”, “just how much trouble is Arya in?”, and “will the audience ever see Eragon follow proper safety procedures?”. See you then!

Bonus:

#eragon #inheritance cycle #eragon movie #sorry for dragging you through the mud but i promise it's in the spirit of good fun #eragon movie recap #eragon shadeslayer #durza #galbatorix #arya drottningu #saphira #long post #sorry mobile users #mod zar'roc #as in written in first person singular by mod zar'roc #despite this blog having two mods #mod brisingr helped too #but if you're looking for someone to blame you should know #this parody has been brought to you by mod zar'roc

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mondofunnybooks · 6 years ago

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MONDO FunnyBooks: 'SLAB THEM CAKES!'

As might have been hinted at previously, here at The Mondo Mansion, we are huge wrestling marks. Love it in all of it's forms, whether Wrestlemania, G.L.O.W, Japanese Deathmatches, Hour-long matches between Ric Flair and Ricky 'The Dragon' Steamboat, Sting* and Robocop teaming up to fight the evil of The Four Horsemen, The Shockmaster, Vader destroying Antonio Inoki in 30 seconds, Antonio Inoki's fascinating match with Muhammed Ali, the Meltzer ratings destruction that was the Okada/Omega trilogy, a ludicrous obsession with collecting consoles in order to run obtuse Japanese only games released in the 90's or the Sunny/Sable Karate Fighters Holiday Tournament. We once sold a hundred pounds worth of graphic novels in two minutes for Humanoids based solely on the fact that we were wearing a Bullet Club T-Shirt and a fellow Young Bucks fan came over, hit us with the 'Too Sweet' hand gesture and asked us what was good.

So, as this last week has featured: The American release of the Greatest Wrestling Engine Ever Created Except Possibly The Aki One in Fire Pro Wrestling World for the PS4, The Starcast Festival happening as we type, R.D Reynolds is running riot at said event by way of Katie Vick and The Gobbledygooker, Us explaining Rey Mysterio Jr and The Blue Demon comics to one of the more respectable members of the comics ambassador community in a chip shop while buying Russian Porn Comics (More on this in the future.) and All In being broadcast on the NJPW network, our brain is basically pyro and superkicks at the moment. We intend to calm down roughly around Tuesday.

Given that we would rather read a ridiculous comic than one designated by The Grand Poobahs to be 'worthy' any day of the week, it is only destiny that we would find ourselves drawn to the wonderful world that is the wrestling comic. Naturally, there have been quite a few attempts to blend these two elements, and since both wrestling and superhero comics run on the 'Soap Operas But With Spandex.' model, it should have been an easier fit than actually has happened. There are far too many comics to recount here but here are a few of our favourites.

Tiger Mask:

Started in 1968 in Japan and serialized in 'Bokura'. Tiger Mask recounts the adventures of an Evil Heel Wrestler who strikes fear into the hearts of cowardly American Gaijin Wrestlers, but calms down a bit when he returns to America. This series has taken many forms of comics, movies and anime with the character of Tiger Mask being played by some of the greatest wrestlers ever such as Koji Kanemoto, Mitshua Misawa, Ultimo Dragon and the current incarnation Tiger Mask W is performed by Kota Ibushi, one half of the amazing tag team with some obscure guy called Kenny Omega when performed at live wrestling shows. His main baddie is The Black Tiger, most notably played by a young Eddie Guerrero. Just looking through the live history of Tiger Mask is a crash course in some of the most fantastic wrestling shows ever recorded and current anime 'Tiger Mask W' ought to be getting the sort of recognition that 'Attack On Titan' currently receives. The comics boast stunning covers far ahead stylistically and in graphic design terms to their western counterparts. A bit tricky to find legally in physical form but well worth tracking down.

Notable Mention 1: 'Warrior'. Not the worst thing The Ultimate Warrior had a hand in (See The THINGS TOO NUMEROUS TO MENTION DEPT.) but certainly up there in all-out abuse of the English Language, comics art, paragraphing, terrible concepts and unintentional homo-eroticism. Covered in far too many comic blogs to be worth going into here.

Notable Mention 2: The WWE comic from Titan. There's a good story involved with the creation of this. Given that Vince McMahon has apparently never heard of the 'Pirates Of The Caribbean' films, one I'm quite willing to believe. Literally, all we can tell you is that Triple H is actually Cain. From The Bible. As in 'And Abel'. Which is a bit odd given The WWE had a wrestler called 'Kane' knocking about whose whole schtick was that he was an evil brother, but there you go.

Spider-Man: Tangled Web 14.

SMTW was the last really interesting Spider-Man comic, for our money. An ongoing series featuring more adult or idiosyncratic takes on the world of Spider-Man from comic creators who probably wouldn't suit the on model published Amazing Spider-Man book but could be counted on to deliver a memorable story in an issue or two. The title kicked off poorly with one of Garth Ennis's less interesting tales, but quickly found itself redeemed with the'100 Bullets' team of Brian Azzallero and Eduardo Risso delivering the story of one of The Kingpin's henchmen that blew away everything else on the shelves and nominated for Eisners that year. Later issues also ran the heartbreaking by 'Flowers For Rhino' by the 'Enigma' pairing of Pete Milligan and Duncan Fegredo, one-off strips by the likes of Paul Pope, Darwyn Cooke and Kaare Andrews and the chilling 'Double Shots' by Sean Phillips and Ron Zimmerman.

Issue 14 would see Azzallero return to co-write a story with Scott Levy, better known to the world as ECW/WCW/WWF performer 'Raven'. 'The Last Shoot' concerns a New York-based promotion (roughly based on Philly's ECW.) down on its luck until one of their top stars decides to use a bit of old school promotion to turn their fortunes around. It's VERY Eisner/Dropsie Avenue in its approach, which isn't the worst influence to take on at all. The final page will alter your memory of one of the most iconic moments of Spider-Man history forever. Notably better than CM Punk's comics, although those are quite good as well.

Notable Mention 3: Marvel's W.C.W S.L.A.M. Force 'What if a drunk tried to lightbox Bryan Hitch's art in order to draw a comic where WCW wrestlers of the Goldberg/NWO era were superheroes who took their look from the worst of Image Comic's excesses?' The piece of 'Rabid Wolverine' Chris Benoit art did depict him with claws, though. So those two seconds of research into character design are recognized here.

Notable Mention 4: The 10th Muse by Image Comics. The September 1999 issue of Playboy featured then WWF Top Star Sable in a nude photoset and was one of the best selling issues of the magazine ever published. The November 2000 launching 10th Muse used Sable as a model and only had the accolade of 'Best selling comic called "10th Muse" published in November 2000!' to boast about. The inability of American men to draw realistic blonde women with large breasts that don't look like they're made from bubblegum continues to confuse us.

Finally.

The best crossover in the history of comics..

Obviously, there are some contenders for this title: Archie/Ramones. Flaming Carrot/Turtles. Savage Dragon/Destroyer Duck. Archie/Punisher. Spawn/Batman. Cerebus/Bacchus. Archie/Sharknado. Superman/Hulk by Steve Rude. Batman/Scooby Doo.

However, there is simply nothing on a scale with the December 1991 combination of Spider-Man Creator Steve Ditko drawing a strip for WWF's Battlemania that starred The Enduring Legend Of Wrestling that is...The Undertaker. It was Ditko's belief that the only stories worth working on were the ones that depicted Good Vs Evil and since this was before the infamous kayfabe breaking speech by Vince McMahon on the Dec 15th airing episode of Raw where Vince declared that fans were smart enough to recognize there were no good guys or bad guys, the simple tale of The Big Boss Man (Literal embodiment of Law and Order.) versus The Undertaker who, well, if you don't know by now, you probably didn't make it this far anyway. He's been nicknamed 'Big Evil' in the past and might have killed his parents. Let his best mate Paul Bearer be murdered in a perspex box filled with cement so he wouldn't have any weaknesses. Once tried to marry Vince McMahon's daughter after tying her to a 'symbol'. (Totally not a crucifix or a cross. Totally not that at all.)

The story is er, Paul Bearer trying to entice a lady into the Funeral Parlour. Luckily The Big Boss Man has been watching via surveillance truck and smashes through the wall to save the day from the whims of The Evil Undertaker. It doesn't really deserve the art of Ditko but is still light years ahead of their Hell In A Cell match which ended with, um, the death of The Big Boss Man via hanging. Possibly. Taker would go onto better things including an incredible run of matches at Wrestlemania involving Shawn Michaels, CM Punk, Triple H and Brock Lesnar. The Big Boss Man probably peaked somewhere between stealing the corpse of The Big Show's Dad at a funeral and feeding Al Snow his dog. All things considered, this might be a nicer way to remember Steve Ditko than how Marvel chose to treat his last creation for them. The effect of the 1st Marvel Civil War on Speedball is a tale for another time. (Also, Ditko drew an amazing Sensational Sherri Martel, who we still regard as one of the top ten workers of the 1980s.)

Just time as we settle down to download all of the performers from All In to Fire Pro World to plug the fantastic work of Erik Hodson, who drew a number of Wrestling/Comic cover mashups currently on display at Starcast. We fell utterly in love with them so here's a few examples of his fine work. Shout out to R.D. Reynolds of Wrestlecrap fame for drawing them to our attention. Check out more at www.Erik Hodson.com or donate to his patron: https://www.patreon.com/heymelby

See You ALL IN The FunnyPages.

*All jokes involving the concept 'What, the bloke out of The Police?' will be charged £9;99. Payments to the usual address.

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agentnico · 7 years ago

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Best F(r)iends: Volume One (2018) Review

This is a film that is not going to win any Oscars, for it is awful. You should go watch it!

Plot: When a drifter befriends a quirky mortician, an unlikely business partnership is formed. Paranoia soon develops, however, and both men are forced to come to terms with the fragility of friendship and loyalty.

It has been 15 years since The Room was revealed to the world, and ever since then things have never been the same. People would stand in line endlessly waiting to purchase a ticket to hear the infamous “I did not hit her, I did naaawwwt...oh hi, Mark”, bringing along spoons to throw at the screen, and Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero having achieved their dreams of becoming big...only not in the way they could have imagined. Now we are graced with the duo reuniting for Best Friends, a two-part tale about...well, friendship and dreams as well as weirdness after weirdness after weirdness, and it is breathtaking!

Let’s be honest, just like The Room, Best Friends is not a good movie. From first sight you’d think it actually is not that bad, with the cinematography actually being generally really good, the music by Dan Platzman of the Imagine Dragons using some cool synths and melodies, however look a bit closer and you realise how clunky the whole thing actually is. The transitions between scenes are very randomly and awkwardly cut, the camera shots focus on random objects for no apparent reason, and, again, for no apparent reason, there is an abundant use of slow-motion throughout, and the sound mixing and editing is abysmal with the soundtrack cutting into the film really randomly and the volume of various scenes and sounds and music was all over the place. Basically, the movie feels like a student film at times, with it trying to go experimental (however in this case for no justified reason) and because of it the whole thing is a mess. However, this is why this film should be watched mainly by fans of The Room, as it is the fact of how bad it is that makes it so great.

The story and plot is bizarre and bonkers, and so I won’t go into any detail so as to not spoil the madness of it all. I’ll just say that it is both intentionally and unintentionally hilarious. The acting, okay, the acting is, as expected, not good, but at the same time every cast member fits perfectly into their role and no one else would have fit that role but them. Greg Sestero plays Jon Kortina, a young drifter who lost his family to a tragedy as a child and who “looks like a homeless guy” as described by one of the other characters (guess who?), and his monotone delivery, like in The Room, makes the character more enjoyable than if it was played by someone of the high standards as Daniel Day-Lewis! Some of his facial expressions in this film are priceless! Tommy Wiseau is obviously the MVP, his eccentric unique style fitting perfectly to the character that Greg has written for him, and he easily gets all the best one-liners. I also want to mention Kristen StephensonPino as Traci, Jon’s girlfriend in the film, as out of all the cast members she was the only who actually gave a proper decent performance and used some proper acting techniques, like having eye-lines and intensity in her voice.

Our screening was followed by a Q&A with Greg Sestero (who wrote the screenplay and starred as one of the leads), in which he discussed many fun behind the scenes tales and woes in making Best Friends, from the intentional (and some unintentional) references to The Room (as well as general references, like the use of the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it photograph of James Franco) to if he cast Tommy Wiseau in any cult classic horror flick he would cast him as Blair Witch to confirming Tommy Wiseau is from Transylvania and thus, a vampire, to how Tommy...well basically there was more talk about Tommy than on the film itself. Sestero also teased that Volume Two of Best Friends will be bolder and even crazier, and I cannot wait! After considering the results, I can say that this film definitely does not have breast cancer. Quoting a classic, “what a story, Mark!” (I mean Greg).

Overall score: 9/10 YES, I AM TOTALLY BIASED HERE, FOR IN REALITY THE SCORE IS PROBABLY A 2 OR 3/10, BUT FOR ME IT’S MY FAVOURITE FILM OF THE YEAR SO FAR, AND SO A 9/10!

TOP MOVIE QUOTE: “Oh hi Jon.”

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libraryofrewrita · 7 years ago

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Chapter 25: Farewell, Yo-kai!

The group started at Mckraken, who was lazily sitting on the throne, looking at them like he was expecting someone else to walk in.

“Huh…not what I expected.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?!”

“When I heard that two kids were going to try to stop me, I expected you to be in either junior high or high school, not elementary school.”

Of course, Mckraken was lying. Having read the report Maddiman gave him, he did know how old the two kids were. He just wanted to rile them up a little, although he was admittedly worried.

Maybe trying to rile them up is a bad idea…if these two managed to defeat Maddiman and get here to fight me, then…no, Squiddilius. Don’t get distracted. You’ve put too much work into getting to the top and you’re not going to let some kids take that away from you!

Mckraken gave the group a malicious smile as he attempted to repress his negative thoughts.

“I must say, I’m surprised to see any human children making it this far. I would say you have guts, but honestly? I think you just wasted your time if you think you can defeat me.”

“And what makes you so certain, Squiddilius? Do you feel threatened by two human children that have bonded with Yo-kai?”

Venoct’s voice carried a tone that sounded like a combination of being threatening and teasing.

“N-no! Yo-kai are far more superior to the humans! We should be ruling over them!”

Venoct didn’t buy it. He knew that Mckraken was terrified of his plans falling apart, plans that he had spent years putting together. The only thing keeping him from letting the invasion to the Human Realm start right that second was the fact that he was facing what could be his plan’s demise and he couldn’t think straight.

“Humans and Yo-kai should never be friendly with each other! I’m restoring the pride that was lost when some of these Yo-kai actually decided to be friends with the humans and act like their little pets!”

Nate and Katie didn’t have to look at their Yo-kai companions to know that they felt insulted by Mckraken’s words, saying they had no pride by befriending humans and Nate and Katie saw Whisper’s face turn cold, which they had rarely, if never, seen. Yes, they had seen him mad and annoyed a few times in the short while they had known him, but the expression on his face was that of someone who has had enough.

“Excuse me, but just because some Yo-kai believe that we can get along with humans doesn’t mean we have no pride. If you can’t even see that truth, you’re not fit to even rule a goldfish bowl, let alone the Yo-kai Realm, you shellfish Yo-kai.”

Whisper broke his cold facade to snicker at his unintentional pun and Nate and Katie took the moment to speak up for their friendship with their Yo-kai companions.

“That’s right! We just want to live together in peace!”

Mckraken laughed, obviously not taking them seriously, even with Whisper snapping back to his cold facade.

“Squeeheehee! You gotta be squidding me! It’s never going to happen once I take over!”

“We’ll see about that! Mckraken, we challange you to a battle!”

Mckraken looked confused for a moment as he looked at the Yo-kai currently with them.

Let’s see, the only strong one they have seems to be Venoct and I’ve seen the kid fight. Other than him, I can easily wipe out the other Yo-kai they brought. I mean, it’s just a nekomata, two komainus, and whatever the white Yo-kai that doesn’t work for me is supposed to be. This will do nicely.

“Very well, I’ll agree to your battle.”

Mckraken got up from his throne and walked down the stairs to the group, stopping just a few feet away. To his surprise, Nate and Katie summoned two more Yo-kai, Frostina and Tattletell and sent them up with Venoct, the nekomata, and the two komainus.

“Wait a minute! Why isn’t he battling?”

Mckraken gestured to Whisper, who was already hanging near Nate and Katie with his Yo-kai Pad in hand.

“Oh, I’m not a battler. I’m a butler.”

Of course, Nate and Katie, along with Jibanyan and the Koma Brothers, knew that Whisper was a decent battler due to the Nocturne Hospital thing, but they all agreed that Whisper didn’t have to battle until he felt he was ready to battle once again.

“Besides, Squiddilius, they never told you which Yo-kai were going to battle you.”

*****

As the battle began, Mckraken had to rethink his battle plan slightly since Whisper wasn’t battling him and there were now six Yo-kai battling him instead of five.

Look Squiddilius, it’s just a cat, two lion dogs, a grandma, a little girl, and a teenager…all of which have elemental powers and are dead. What am I saying? These kids managed to defeat Maddiman and get here to me with most of these Yo-kai here and if Venoct is here, these kids must have impressed him enough to be willing to work in a group, considering that he’s usually alone…

Mckraken was snapped out of his thoughts by Jibanyan scratching him multiple times.

Gah! Focus, Squiddilius!

The Koma Brothers then lauched their elemental attacks at the same time, creating a ball of electricity and fire that hit Mckraken straight in the chest, which made him stumble, but considering how strong he was, it wasn’t enough. Still, that didn’t stop the front party from putting their all into their attacks until they were switched out to heal.

Great, now I have to deal with the more human-like Yo-kai. I better not be defeated by them, otherwise this will be very embarrassing.

Unfornately for Mckraken, having the younger sister of a powerful Blizzaria, a small grandma that can heal her allies and inspirt you to reveal your weakness, and the former servant of the late Great Lord Enma battling you wasn’t exactly a bundle of joy, especially if said Yo-kai were friends with humans trying to help the former servant restore peace to both realms.

I’ll let them fight me for a while, then I’ll unleash my secret weapon!

Mckraken did put up a fight, draining health from one Yo-kai, stealing some energy from their Soultimate Moves, attacking them with whatever elemental ball he could summon, and occasionally smacking them with the tentacles hanging around in the background, although the other Yo-kai still kept fighting as well, throwing their own elemental attacks at him, hoping to stop him from stealing their health and energy.

Okay, time to stop playing around!

Mckraken started to create a large, light blue and white ball of energy as the tentacles blocked off the Yo-kai from disrupting Mckraken’s progress.

“He’s preparing his Soultimate Move! We have to stop him right now!”

Venoct unleashed his Soultimate Move to remove one the tentacles protecting Mckraken and the other Yo-kai followed suit with their Soultimate Moves until there was nothing left to protect Mckraken. Mckraken fell to his knees out of shock, leaving him in a vulnerable position as Venoct’s dragon scarf dealt the final blow, defeating Mckraken once and for all.

*****

“H-how?! How could I be defeated?! Why did you have to get involved?!”

Whisper crossed his arms and said,

“Don’t blame us. You’re the one who couldn’t leave the Human Realm to the humans. These realms don’t belong to one single entity and if they did, it would certainly not be you! It wouldn’t be good for the reputation of the Yo-kai that want peace between the two realms if you were in charge!”

Mckraken gave out a weak laugh as he said,

“You may have beaten me here, but I’ll be coming back! Both realms will be wrapped around my tentacles and they will be mine! Just you wait!”

With that said, Mckraken disappeared into a large puff of purple smoke and the group stared in silence, feeling both happy because they had defeated Mckraken and worried because they had a feeling that it was far from over.

“Let’s get out of here and meet up with Lucas. I just hope he’s okay.”

“Don’t worry, he is. He’s at the school right now.”

“Well, let’s get going then!”

As they left the throne room, there was a Mirapo who looked extremely happy to see them.

“It’s about time someone put Mckraken in his place! As my way of thanking you, I’ll transport you to the Yo-kai Elevator so you don’t have to walk all the way back!”

They stepped through Mirapo and true to his word, they were at the elevator. They stepped onto the platform and headed back to the Human Realm.

*****

“Hey, Lucas!”

Nate and Katie saw Lucas waiting at the statue where they had first encountered Slimamander and met Venoct for the first time. Mr. Barton was also there waiting for them as they walked up and explained what had happened. Mr. Barton looked out into the distance as he said,

“I have a feeling that it’s far from over.”

Before they could ask Mr. Barton what he meant, they saw the statue glow purple and Slimamander appeared before the group.

“Oh no…”

“Masssster Mckraken has freed me from my imprisssonment and the first thing I’ll do is-!”

Venoct sent his dragon scarf at Slimamander before he could finish his sentence and Slimamander disappeared in a puff of smoke.

“But we fixed the seals and locked him away! How did he get out?!”

As if on cue, Kyubi came up to the group.

“Bad news! Mckraken’s goons have invaded the Human Realm!”

“What?! I thought he would hold off the invasion if he was defeated!”

Kyubi glared in the direction he had just come from.

“So did I, but apparently Mckraken has decided to have one more go at total realm domination.”

“This is terrible! What do we do?!”

Whisper was silent as he knew of one way that could work, but he wasn’t sure how Nate and Katie would react. He glanced at Venoct, who seemed to know what he was thinking about. Venoct nodded at Whisper and Whisper sighed as he said,

“There is a way to stop Mckraken for good. We need to make some stronger seals to keep him from getting to Springdale and after we do that…we have to seal the elevator, which will break the connection between our realms.”

It only took a second for Nate and Katie to realize what he was saying.

“If we seal the elevator…you’ll never be able to come back to the Human Realm?”

Whisper nodded solemnly and Nate and Katie started to think to themselves.

Can we really do this? We’ll never see our Yo-kai friends again if we seal the elevator, but if we don’t…Mckraken and his followers will overrun the Human Realm and cause more trouble.

Nate and Katie sighed softly as they came to their final desicion.

“Alright, how can we make some stronger seals?”

Kyubi summoned a bag with a picure of a sakura flower and handed it to Katie and handed a map with three locations circled on it to Nate.

“You have to sprinkle this stuff on the cherry blossom trees to make them bloom. By making them bloom, they’ll make the seals stronger.”

“Nate, Katie, you go work on making the cherry blossoms bloom while Kyubi and I deal with Mckraken’s followers. Lucas, you stay with Mr. Barton until I come to get you, okay?”

Lucas nodded as Venoct and Kyubi left to battle Mckraken’s followers and Nate looked at the map and pointed to one of the circles that was just a few feet away from where they were standing.

“Come on, there’s a tree we can make bloom over here!”

They rushed to the tree and saw Wazzat in the middle of battling a large wall-like Yo-kai.

“I won’t let you let you hurt my friends and their realm, Impass!”

Wazzat angrily bit down on Impass’s head and they watched him become very confused.

“Wait…where am I? What was I doing again?”

Wazzat turned to see Nate and Katie standing there and gave them a smile.

“Hiya! This Yo-kai threatened to make things difficult for you so I turned the tables on him!”

Katie sprinkled the powder on the tree and to their amazement, the famous pink petals of the cherry blossoms appeared.

“Woah!”

“This area is now safely sealed! Let’s get to the next seal!”

Nate looked at the map again and after some careful thought, they headed down towards the riverbank to find Walkappa giving his all against yet another one of Mckraken’s followers.

“There’s no way I’m going to let someone like you take over, Rollen!”

“Look at how you struggle. The die has been cast and resistance shall only make it worse.”

Whether or not Rollen was just saying that to mess with Walkappa, they didn’t know, but they did help fight with Walkappa until Rollen was defeated. With him gone, they were free to make the cherry blossoms in the area bloom.

“Okay, I’ll stay here and make sure no one messes with the cherry blossoms here! You guys go and make the rest of the cherry blossoms bloom!”

They went to the final area, which was actually close to their homes and saw Rattelle casually blocking the Yo-kai’s bat swings with her parasol and attacking him with her parasol.

“Glad to see you two here! I have a bit of a problem as you can see here. I have been fighting this Bruff for a while and he refuses to give up so I was wondering if you two could give a lady a hand with this?”

After managing to fight off Bruff, they threw the powder onto the trees and saw the cherry blossoms blooming once again.

“You guys go on ahead! I have to protect this beautiful seal you just made from those evil Yo-kai!”

As they walked away, Whisper said,

“We did it! Now we just have to get to the Yo-kai Elevator and seal it off once and for all!”

In the chaos, they had almost forgotten what that meant for their Yo-kai friends, but they couldn’t worry about that right now. They had to get to Mount Wildwood and make sure Mckraken didn’t make it to the elevator.

*****

Meanwhile…

Mr. Barton had finished making the final call to the Yo-kai that were disguised as humans living in Springdale, making sure that they had made the preperations for what was to come.

I’ll really miss it here, but after the elevator is sealed, we won’t be here anymore. Of course, maybe in the future, a way for us to come back will be found, but we’ll have to wait and see.

*****

As they walked up the steps towards the Yo-kai Elevator, they saw the surrounding area had turned white. Worried, they rushed forward to find some of their Yo-kai friends there and Mckraken being held back by streams of energy.

“So you made some new seals and managed to drive away my followers…big whoop. That’s not going to stop me!”

Mckraken broke through the energy streams holding him back and tranformed into a new form that none of them expected to see.

“Squeeheeheehee! Time for me to show you what real power is!”

“Give us your best shot, Mckraken! The bottom line is, you’re not taking over anything!”

“That’s right! You may as well just give up and go home right now!”

“Nyobody wants you here anyway!”

“Yo-kai agreeing with Yo-kai against me?! I’m inkredulous, you traitors!”

Mckraken seemed to thinking something over for a second before saying,

“I’ll make you a deal. Join me, and you can rule this realm. How’s that?”

Whisper just gave Mckraken an annoyed look and said,

“A: you can’t bargin with something you don’t have.

B: you can’t bargin with something no one else here has any interest in.

C: I don’t make deals with anyone that calls me a traitor just for being friends with humans. You really are quite an awful negotiator, you know that?”

“Yeah! They’re actively choosing to live and coexist with us out of their own free will!”

“I’m nyot gonna let a bully like you threaten Amy’s realm! I’ll protect Amy, Nyate, and Katie, nyo matter what the cost!”

Komasan, despite his timid nature managed to speak up,

“Y-yeah…it’s bad to do…bad things!”

“You all lost your pride as Yo-kai! No matter! I have nothing else to discuss with you. This realm is going to be mine!”

*****

The moment that the Yo-kai Nate and Katie selected to go into battle stepped towards Mckraken, they all felt a sudden burst of energy inside them as they started to fight Mckraken. Even the Yo-kai that were just hanging around started to help in whatever way they could, whether it be shouting words of encouragement, healing the battlers in any way that they could, or telling them where to hit Mckraken to deal more damage. As they witnessed the battle happening before their eyes, Nate and Katie only had one thought on their minds.

Is our friendship with them the reason their attacks are more powerful? They would risk everything to make sure that nothing happens to us or our realm. The least we can do is help them through this battle!

“Keep going, guys!”

“We believe in you!”

Even as Mckraken’s new form changed into a strange palatte of colors and he used new attacks on the battlers, they never gave up on their Yo-kai friends and they never gave up on Nate and Katie until eventually, the battle came to an end as Mckraken once again fell to his knees.

*****

“I don’t believe it…how could I possquidly lose? What a calamarity!”

“Are you quite through yet? Let’s all experience your defeat a bit of self-respect. As a butler, I’m quite proud of all of us! Our cooperation was stellar!”

“I don’t regret a thing nyow!”

“I feel kind of…actually…I feel more confident, zura!”

“So do I, Komasan!”

“It’s like Lord Enma always said: ‘The Human Realm needs our friendship, not our control. To witness the strength of friendship between humans and Yo-kai is both inspiring and humbling.’”

Nate and Katie both wiped away a tear that had formed after hearing Whisper say that.

“Whisper, that’s beautiful.”

Whisper smiled at the two kids before turning back to Mckraken, who was now disapppearing into a very large puff of smoke and when he disappeared, everything was back to normal.

“So, I guess this is it, huh?”

Whisper nodded.

“I’m afraid so. It’s time to close the Yo-kai Elevator.”

They both knew this was coming, but they couldn’t help but cry.

“W-whisper…I know we have to make sure our realms are safe from Mckraken…but it feels like it’s too soon for us to part ways and there’s still so much we don’t know about Yo-kai.”

Whisper looked at them with sadness in his eyes and said,

“I know, but every meeting leads to a parting. It’s the circle of life. Our goodbyes were fated since the moment we met at this very tree.”

“We know, but we’re not ready to leave you guys…”

Whisper dried their tears as he tried to stay strong for them.

“Allow me to perform my final duty as your butler.”

Whisper softly mumbled something as he summoned a talisman.

“This talisman is what we need to take care of the elevator!”

Whisper flew up to the elevator doors and slapped the talisman onto the doors.

“We’re now…closed for business!”

A bright light shot out and Nate and Katie covered their eyes to avoid being blinded by the light. When they uncovered them, they saw the area was glowing softly and so were the Yo-kai in the area.

“My time as your butler…has sadly come to an end. We must now go back to our own realm.”

As he said that, some of the Yo-kai started to disappear one by one, clearly either trying to hide that they were crying, trying not to cry, or just giving up and letting their tears flow.

“However, you must not worry. This is not a moment of sadness.”

Jibanyan gave the kids a small and sad smile as he waved goodbye to them.

“Bye-bye nyow…”

“I’m sure we’ll meet again someday.”

Nate and Katie saw their Yo-kai Watches disappear into a small ball of light and looked at Whisper, the only Yo-kai remaining.

“And with that, I shall take my leave. Goodbye…for now.”

Whisper gave them a gentle smile as he disappeared, much like the other Yo-kai had.

“Whisper!”

There was yet another burst of light and when they looked up, there was nothing at the foot of the tree. No Crank-a-kai, no elevator doors, nothing out of the ordinary.

“T-this is really it, huh?”

“Yep…”

They sighed sadly and mumbled,

“Whisper…”

They walked out of the area with the Crank-a-kai and as they walked, they saw the light pink cherry blossom petals falling and they grabbed each others hands and rushed forward, happily laughing as they reached the stairs and overlooked the town.

“Thank you, Whisper.”

They smiled and stared into the distance, remembering the journey and fun they had with him and their Yo-kai friends.

“Thank you, my Yo-kai friends.”

Previous Chapter: https://libraryofrewrita.tumblr.com/post/168438768539/chapter-24-the-three-gates Next Chapter: https://libraryofrewrita.tumblr.com/post/169168805494/chapter-26-back-to-normal

#yo-kai watch #yokai watch au #rewrite #au #chapter 25

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