#it used to be owned by someone who had an unfortunate and mysterious accident

[oeuvrinarydurian]

I was busy today, but I invited Morse to a birthday party I threw at my glamorous villa for @jessieren.

You know how he is…it’s always “work”, but he did stop by for a glass of champagne.

He sends you his love, and extra fidgets.

[wandering-winchesters]

Tragedy

Pairing: Dean x Reader Word Count: 3,626 Summary: The reader is used to hunting solo, yet this solo hunt does not turn out quite like she had hoped. She is required to call on Dean and Sam after she is injured. Trigger Warnings: injury, firearms, blood, death. SPN level violence Requested: No A/N: I hope you enjoy this, I had fun writing it. Please let me know what you think. :)

Masterlist

I let out a sigh, tossing my laptop onto the motel bed, frustrated didn’t even begin to cover it. I had spent the last several hours searching through local records, looking for any deaths that fit the profile of the ghosty murderer floating around town, but nothing lined up. I wished Sam was here, he would’ve been incredibly helpful searching for an answer. But I had split off from them a couple weeks ago, returning to solo hunts, like the old days. They had both argued with me, tried to convince me to stay with them., but I had insisted on going off on my own again. I had to prove to myself that I still could, I felt as if I was slipping into a pit of dependance and a lack of self sufficiency. 

I had spent the last six months hunting with the two Winchester boys, helping them tackle numerous cases, which was nice. However, it terrified me how comfortable I was around them, I had told myself that I wouldn’t ever get too close to someone ever again. But with them, it was too easy to fall into comfortable dependency. Especially Dean. God, Dean Winchester. His eyes could pierce my soul if I let them, they appeal to me like a siren appeals to helpless sailors. I couldn’t resist him when I was around him, causing me to make stupid choices, I went with his gut over my own and it left me feeling helpless. It wasn’t his fault, he wasn’t doing anything intentionally, I just couldn’t help but fall further in love with the green eyed hunter every moment I spent with him. Which is exactly why I left, love had never come easy for me. I had lost my parents as a teenager and branched off on my own, evading the torment that would have greeted me had I gone to live with my Uncle. I never went to college, I hunted. Yet while on one of those hunts, I met Ian. Ian had been the love of my life, before he met an unfortunate end in a terrible car accident, eerily similar to the way my parents died. Death, followed me and those that I let in and loved. 

So I had sworn off love, friendship and anything else that let people into my life. That was until the two Winchesters had busted down the door to the old house, guns drawn, expecting to find me in the captivity of a werewolf den. Instead, they found me. My own weapon drawn, the body of a dead werewolf at my feet. I wish I had been recording that moment, the looks on their faces were utterly priceless. I had agreed to help them on one more hunt, that turned into three, which turned into six months worth. I was getting too comfortable and I just had to get out. That’s how I wound up alone in this motel, attempting to crack the case in this podunk town. I laid down on the musty motel bed, pushing my laptop onto the far side and leaving enough room for me to lay down. I stare at the cracks in the ceiling, following the trail they make and trying to distinguish where one starts and another one ends. Then it hits me, I have been looking in the wrong place this whole time. All of the deaths had occurred at the local bar and I had assumed it was a vengeful spirit, but what if it wasn’t? What if it was a, shit- what are they called? I grab my laptop hurriedly pulling up the lore I had been reading earlier, my eyes scanning the words quickly, skimming until I land on what I was looking for. A wraith. They had all died under mysterious circumstances, but they all had the same wound on their forehead. A small, circular incision. It had to be a wraith, but who was it? There was one bartender, he was my number one suspect. I glance at the clock, it’s not too late to go now. I ensure it is loaded with silver bullets before I tuck my gun into the holster, placing it at the small of my back and covering it with my leather jacket. I glance around my room once more making sure that I am not leaving anything behind. I send Sam a quick text, updating him as to my suspicions, he had texted me earlier in the day just checking in with me, so I figured it couldn’t hurt to keep him updated. 

The drive to the small little dive bar was short and uneventful. I checked to make sure my gun was still in place as I opened the door to the interior, the hinges in need of help judging by the loud shriek of protest they gave off as I opened it. I take in my surroundings, making note of the few people inside the bar. There were five, the bartender and four other customers not including myself. The bartender glances my way, gesturing that I can sit anywhere, he’s an unassuming man. His hair neat and well groomed, yet everything else about him is a mystery, we’ll call him blondie. I take a seat at the corner of the bar, my back to a wall and my field of view encompassing the majority of the room. 

“What can I get you?” He asks, setting a coaster down in front of me. I consider him carefully, trying to determine if he was a threat. I order a beer and a water, fully prepared to sit back and wait everyone else out. The television is the loudest sound in the bar, conversations around me hushed and sparse. Most people too focused on their drinks or the television to be deep in conversation. That’s how the next hour goes, I sip my beer and observe the people around me, watching and waiting. I pull out my phone and see a text and a missed call.

    -Missed call, 9:53 P.M. Sam Winchester 

    -10:13 P.M., From Dean Winchester- Sammy said you found a wraith? Want some backup? They can be tricky bastards. 

An unconscious smile pricks my lips, the concern in his text obvious. I respond with a brief thanks, but no thanks and send Sammy another text asking if everything is okay. 

A few of the other people in the room had left by this point, leaving just myself, the blonde man behind the bar and one other guy, who appeared to be in his mid thirties. I drained the last sip of my beer, setting the bottle down on the surface of the bar. I rolled my shoulders back, my upper back starting to ache from the lack of support provided by the stool that I had been sitting on for the last while. I am taken aback by another beer being set down in front of me, I hadn’t ordered it. The confusion must be clear on my face, because the bar tender gestures to the man a few seats away from me. “It’s from him.” Blondie says, a small smile pulling at his features, which confuses me further. I glance once more to the one other customer in the bar and I find his eyes are already fixed on me, dark and focused. 

“Thanks.” I mutter, raising my beer towards him, suspicion heavy in my voice. For whatever reason, this rubs me the wrong way. The environment in the room had changed and every bone in my body was screaming danger. My gut said this was about to get bad. 

“I figured you deserved another beer before you meet your accidental death. We knew you were a hunter from the second you pulled into town. It’s a pity, you’re too pretty to die this young. Too bad.”  His words hit me like a brick to the face, my eyes close and I take a deep breath. This was it, it wasn’t one wraith it was two. In that moment, I regretted leaving the safety of numbers. Had Sam and Dean been here, it would’ve been three to two. Not two to one, with me on the losing team. I blink once more, taking one more deep breath, the kind that makes your lungs scream from too much oxygen and I hurl my beer bottle at the bartenders head. This action buying me a few seconds, enough to get off the stool and anchor my feet on the old wooden floor. Nevertheless, it wasn’t enough. Blondie had stumbled back from the impact of my beer smacking off the side of his head, however that had given the other wraith the opportunity to close the distance between us. His fist collided with the corner of my jaw he then proceeded to throw me into the hard surface of the bar. I grunt, the sheer force that he had thrown me with enough to knock the air out of my lungs. This hunt was about to go down terribly, I could handle one wraith on my own, but two? I don’t know if I could manage to take out both of them. I can already feel the throbbing in my jaw from his blow and I am dreading how I will feel in the morning, if I make it to the morning. I rest my elbows on the bar top, using my momentum to kick my feet into his chest and send him flying backwards. I use the gap I have created to pull my gun from the waistband of my pants, aim and fire a silver bullet right between his eyes. He drops, dead weight. 

“NO! You’re going to pay for that, you bitch!” Blondie yells, his eyes trained on his friend who had just fallen, dead, to the floor of the bar. I turn to face him, my gun pointed directly at him. He snarls, his attention turned towards me. For whatever reason, I hesitate, my finger doesn’t pull the trigger and I don’t end him. A complete mistake, he closes the distance between us faster than I can comprehend and sends my gun clattering to the floor. His hands shoving me backwards, causing me to stumble and fall to the floor. It happens in a matter of seconds, seconds I cannot even process. My gun is no longer in my hands, but it is clutched in his grip. He points it towards me and fires, it hits me directly in the side. A scream leaves my lips, but I don’t have time to process what just happened because his body is now on top of mine, his anger clear and pulsating through him. My hands come up to defend my face, pushing him away with all of my strength, but he is stronger.  I wrap my fingers around his wrist, knowing what is to follow. The spike in his wrist is already extended and it is clear that he intends to send it straight through my skull. 

“Any last words?” He asks, his mouth set into a sneer, his fingers just brushing my forehead preparing to send the spike through my forehead. 

I grit my teeth, every nerve in my body screaming, adrenaline pumping and thoughts rushing through me. I laugh, bitter and cold and It catches him off guard. That slight hesitation is all I need to get the upper hand, I slide my hand up from where I was gripping his arm. I grab onto the spike extended from his wrist and wrench it backwards with all of my strength, effectively breaking it in two. His scream sends shivers down my spine, the spike still clutched tightly in my fist. I pull the knife from where I keep it hidden around my neck and drive it through his skull, much like he had intended to do to me. His full weight falls onto me and I cry out in pain, his body crushing the oxygen out of my lungs and the bullet wound in my side is throbbing like no other. I manage to slide out from underneath of him, slowly and agonizingly. I scoot myself backwards towards the wall, finally reaching it and I slump back against it. I look down at the hand I had pressed to the gun shot wound on my side and wince, it’s not a pretty sight. Crimson has soaked through the white t-shirt I was wearing, a lot of blood by the looks of it. My head is spinning, either from blood loss or the blow to the head, I wasn’t sure which one. I cover my mouth as a coughing fit wracks my body and when I pull my hand away there are traces of blood there too. Fuck. This really wasn’t good. Before I could even register what I was doing, I had pulled my phone out of my pocket and called Dean. He picks up on the second ring. 

“How’s it going sweetheart? Did you change your mind about wanting help with the wraiths?” He asks, his tone cheery, I can hear the roar of the Impala in the background and it brings a slight smile to my face. I must have remained silent for longer than I thought because Dean speaks again, his voice serious and concern flecked throughout. “Y/N, are you okay?” 

“Mmm, I took out the wraiths, but they got me good too. Any chance you’re nearby?” I groan, trying to reposition myself in such a way that I can apply better pressure to the wound in my side. I can hear the Impala accelerating, as Dean responds. “Shit. We are twenty minutes out from town, figured we’d surprise you. Where’s the bar?” I manage to give him brief directions, doing my best to recall where exactly I was. 

“I’m so tired Dean.” I whisper, the phone beginning to slip from my hand and away from my ear. 

“Hey, no, don’t do that. You don’t get to do that, you hear me? You stay with me, talk to me. I am almost there sweetheart.” He responds and I can hear the panic rising in his voice but its too late. Every breath is a battle, holding my phone to my ear is impossible. The amount of strength it requires is simply too much. I watch as it clatters to the floor, my eyes slowly blinking shut. I slump forward, the world around me fading into black. 

—

I vaguely notice voices, irritating voices drawing me back towards consciousness. I try my damndest to ignore them, the more I focus on them the greater the pain is flowing through my body. I hear my name being yelled, my shoulders behind jostled and my body being laid flat on a hard wooden surface. My head is placed onto something soft and I take that as permission to sleep. Yet I don’t get to do that, hands grab my face pulling me back into consciousness. 

“Y/N, hey, oh thank God, look at me Y/N.” Dean is leaning over me grim faced, his hand pressed tightly against my rips holding something against it. I wince, trying to pull his hand away but he stops me. Sam’s face swims into view as well, his hand cradling the back of my head. 

“Dean.” I sigh, my voice weak and seemingly coming from someone other than myself. “Doesn’t seem too bad, does it?” I ask, laughing slightly before grimacing from the pain that causes. His face is pale, eyes searching for the answer to my question, he doesn’t have to answer, I know it doesn’t look good. 

“Im going to get you out of here, I promise. You’re gonna be okay.” He says, lifting my shirt so he can tie the bandage around me as tight as he can. He picks me up, a yell leaving my lips in the process. I can hear him whispering reassurances and apologies as he carries me out to the Impala. It all feels like a dream, as if I am watching from above as all of this happens. I drift in and out of the darkness the entire car ride, the whole way into the motel room. Until eventually, it all fades to black once again. 

—

“I don’t know what else to do Sammy, the bullet went all of the way through. We stopped the bleeding and stitched her up. But that was hours ago! She still hasn’t woken back up.” Deans voice sounds nearby, anxious and completely grating on my nerves at the moment.

“Would you shut up! ‘M trying to sleep here.” I groan, the throbbing of my nerves returning like a wave of pain rushing over me. I hear a flurry of movement, before the bed sinks down next to me and I can feel a hand rest against the side of my face. I open my eyes, blinking rapidly, trying to adjust my eyes to the harsh lighting a stark comparison to the darkness of sleep I was used to. When my eyes his, he falls apart. Tears spring to his eyes and he breaks down before my very eyes. His mouth opens and closes multiple times, searching for something, anything to say. 

“Dean, Im okay.” I whisper, my voice raspy and aching in my throat. He shakes his head, his eyes still trained on my own. 

“You weren’t, we almost lost you so many times Y/N.” His words sink in slowly, understanding for his reaction lands on me in droves. 

“I’m sorry I worried you. Thank you for getting to me in time.” I reach my hand up and touch the side of his face, surprised when he leans into my touch. 

“He made the twenty minute drive into an eight minute one.” Sam says, and for the first time I realize that he’s sitting in the chair a couple of feet from the bed. I chuckle lightly, unsurprised, Dean was always able to drive way too fast when he needed to, a talent almost. 

We spend the next few hours talking, questions being thrown at me from every angle. I do my best to answer them, but exhaustion quickly settles in. Sam notices and mentions to Dean that they should let me get some sleep, there’s a slight argument over who will stay with me. Much to my surprise, Dean is insistent upon staying himself. Sam gives me a quick hug and excuses himself from the room, which leaves Dean and I alone. Oh so alone. It wasn’t the first time we had shared a room, but it felt completely different this time. An uncomfortable silence hangs between us, neither one of us wanting to be the one that breaks it. I shift my body, trying to prop myself up further in bed. A decision I regret as soon as I flex the wrong muscle and am greeted by a screaming pain in my side. I throw my head back, my mouth opening in a silent yell. Deans hands are on me in an instant, helping me settle into a more comfortable position. I give him a grateful smile and expect the silence to continue, but it doesn’t. 

“You’re never doing this again, you hear me? You’re only ever hunting with us from now on. I could’t bear it when I found you like that and I definitely couldn’t bear it if it ever happened again.” Dean says quietly, his eyes trained on the floor. I’m quiet for a minute, considering my response carefully, unsure where his words were coming from. Dean wasn’t controlling, so it wasn’t that. Concern was evident, but I didn’t think that was enough to spur him to make that declaration. 

“Dean, I am really okay. It was a bad turn of events, but I have been hunting for years on my own and I made it this far. You don’t need to worry about me, ill be-“ He cuts me off, his voice raised and his hands running through his already disheveled hair. 

“You don’t get it, do you? Ever since that night, six months ago, I have worried about you. I care about you, Y/N, so worrying comes with the territory. For a time, I thought you cared about me in that way. But then you left. You just left and I didn’t know what to do with myself, so I followed after you, not wanting something to happen to you and thank god I did.” His words leave me speechless, did he mean what I think he means? Before I can protest or respond in anyway, he’s walking over to me. He sits on the edge of the bed, leaning towards me. His hand comes to rest on the back of my neck, pulling me towards him ever so slightly. He leans in, his face nearing my own and my eyes flutter shut. His nose brushes my own, his breath causing goosebumps to rise on my skin. 

“ I love you, Y/N and nearly losing you, made me realize that I couldn’t keep that to myself any longer. Fear in the face of tragedy and all of that.” He mumbles, his lips nearly brushing against my own as he speaks. I don’t think, I just act. I close the distance and press my lips against his own, dissolving into the kiss and I can tell he does too. His warmth envelopes me entirely, his lips, his touch, everything. When I finally pull away, my head is spinning. His words rushing through my mind, over and over again. “I love you too, Dean.” I whisper, smiling gently and I press another kiss to his lips. “Fear in the face of tragedy, how poetic.” 

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

s4 episode 12 thoughts

didn’t watch an episode last night because i was sad. and by consulting the people, i knew that this episode would ALSO be sad. but now in my infinite wisdom, i realize: how better to distract yourself from your own sorrow than to watch some fictional characters writhe in their own grief? which brings us here.

“a headless corpse walks out of a hospital morgue” well that actually just sounds silly. i know it’s not gonna end up being silly, and i’m sure my heart will be on the floor, but you have to admit, it sounds silly.

author’s note: the episode about the dude with no head is now the second episode EVER to make me cry. and editing these notes is gonna SUCK SO BAD😭😭😭I WAS WRONG ABOUT DROWNING MY SORROWS IN FICTIONAL WOES. I HAVE NO INFINITE WISDOM. ONLY TEARS.

let us begin below. join me. hold me. comfort me.

ambulance time :3 we see a guy named leonard, who i presume will be the star of the episode given its title. he tells michele driving the vehicle that this guy having a heart attack is “up to his ass in alligators”, and idk what that means, but it doesn’t sound good

oh a needle. mmmm no no. NO. no. <- girl who cannot look at the screen

NO! no. crash. oh god, that’s my worst fear. EMS lady michele who made the mistake of looking behind her while driving is now covered in blood. i assume that we will see leonard's head soon.

(little did i know!!! little did i know. i have a fear even deeper than causing a car accident that decapitates someone)

ah, yes. the head is not attached to anything. michele, covered in blood, is leaving after leonard is dropped off in the morgue.

the guy in the morgue is trying to stream casual by chappell roan (obviously) but he hears some thumping in the distance. leonard has escaped! without his head!

oh god, he killed morgue guy. you see, i thought we were going to get an episode where the mystery was how the headless man got around and lived his daily life, not that the headless guy was also going to be a murderer. i thought we were gonna get scenes of his headless body using sign language to communicate and question how he’s gonna eat in a semi-comical fashion. but now. now he’s evil. sigh.

and leonard is naked. do they put you in the morgue naked??? i always assumed there’d be a little bit of dignity…

SCULLY TIME!!! i can feel all pain in my body evaporating. she is looking in the little morgue case he escaped from. there are a lot of bloody footprints. and mulder is here, too!

it’s funny how i sit down to watch the scully and mulder show and then when i see them on screen i think “oh boy, it’s scully and mulder time :D”

good news! the morgue guy who was certainly streaming chappell is NOT actually dead. he was just knocked out. and had all his clothes taken, which is unfortunate.

scully is gagged at the idea mulder thinks a headless body escaped from the morgue, and me too girl, but i feel you should be used to it by now. we probably both should be, actually. 

she thinks it’s some sort of coverup for body snatching! oh, compelling. even mulder seems to nod along. god, wouldn’t it be funny if they just had a normal case once? please. i beg.

they’re looking at security camera footage from the night it all went down, and see the clothes that were stolen from morgue guy being worn by someone. scully thinks maybe the thief got scared and dipped, which led to this wonderful exchange: “where could he hide an adult body where it wouldn’t be found?” “i’ll show you” <- YEAHHHH I LOVE WHEN SHE SAYS WEIRD AND UNSETTLING STUFF

time to check the medical waste. are you telling me surgical byproduct gets turned into roads??? i don’t think i can handle that information, so i’m going to simply not fact check it. but she would never lie to me.

mulder looks freaked tf out as he hands the flashlight to her to inspect the waste LMAOOO

“mulder i think i’m gonna need your help, your arms are longer” (cut to visible distress on his face) LMAOOOOO

he’s groaning as they rummage through bags of human stuff, but they find leonard’s head!! noticeably, NOT the rest of him

they are going to split up, and mulder will go to leonard’s house while scully looks at his head. and she makes a pointed correction that he is no longer living. damn. 

his head weighs 10.9 pounds! the head looks a little… wow, i was gonna say it looked fuzzy, but now we get a closeup and it’s actually very convincing. no rigor mortis or clouded eyes, which is inconsistent with the time of death. and she’s gonna go to brain town when he opens his eyes!!

well, bodies do that sometimes. and he’s opening his mouth. and closing it. so uh. what’s that all about?

something or someone is running as mulder enters leonard’s house. he finds a bathtub full of blood, which is not promising. and blood out the window. 

bro stuck his fingers in the blood and sniffed it….. OH! it’s not blood. it’s iodine. okay. that’s less freaky. 

scully says it seems the head has been effected by radiation that is preventing any sort of scanning, and also that she hasn’t cut into the head yet, even though she knows it’s just extra energy stored in the cells that made him blink, but still! aww mulder be NICE TO HER!

“maybe he was home” "leonard betts." “yeah” “without his head.” “yeah :)” LMAO

OMG his headless ass was IN the iodine!!!

WAIT.... HE HAS A NEW HEAD??????

wait… he was a really good EMT… and his head somehow grew back… is he one of those aliens that can heal people???

(author's note: it was a really good guess on my part, but i think he was some sort of new freak not previously established in canon)

he could diagnose illness very well… but he kept his distance from his coworkers. hmmmm. and he never got sick. hmmmm. or injured. HMMMM. michele is suspicious.

they’re gonna mummify his head. sort of. and mulder is smiling at scully over his own stupid joke, and i want to punch his stupid face (affectionate).

man. i do not care for this slicing of heads process. 

oh no!! leonard was like, entirely made of cancer. was he absorbing the cancer of his patients… is that a thing you can do….?

he should have died a looooong time ago. or maybe the process of slicing distorted the findings?

michele is pulling into the hospital as she deals with another case, but she hears someone say “up to your ass in alligators” over the radio… and she recognizes leonard’s voice! he’s making another correct ID on what is wrong with a patient!!!!!!!

the agents are off to one of the professors at a maryland university that mulder keeps on call at all times, who is going to look at the head slice. oh…. this guy does aura photography. okay, so not super promising.

she’s like yeah yeah yeah i know about eastern medicine but WHAT does it have to do with this. i respect her knowledge and her focus.

it looks like the aura photography captured some shoulders? that i guess mulder thinks proves leonard is still alive somehow?

“are we happy with the results?” <- something about the way he said this made them sound so married. i'd be happy to live in that brief moment forever.

scully looks pissed off into another dimension at this whole process LMAO

mulder wants to know if there is a good kind of cancer that is actually regeneration…. and the iodine helps regeneration! which has been used in labs for creatures whose limbs regrow, i guess 

“there isn’t a creature on earth that can regrow its head” “worms. you cut a worm in half, you get two” <- and that’s why you’re the FBI’s most unwanted, because you advocate for worm murder 😭😭

“mulder, they’re worms” <- LMAOOOOOOOOO STOP i saw that line out of context once 

scully gets a phone call! and it turns out leonard had an alter ego named albert- whose fingerprints match his? but albert has a living relative. visit time?

yes, it is visit time. oh! the picture his mom has on the table is the same as the picture we saw earlier of leonard when he was featured in the newspaper!

they try to tell his mom that “her son” died recently, but she says he died 6 years ago!! well, that is confusing.

michele is also on the case, looking for whoever it was who she heard on the radio earlier using that distinct phrase and accurately diagnosing people. the others pointing him out to her refer to him as “the new guy”.

and it is leonard! michele is chasing him…. he hugs her and reassures her that it’s okay. at first it's touching, and i realize too late that he is going to kill her, which he does while apologizing. then he lays her down???? but he gets caught!!

he is running and running…. but he gets tackled by the cops and handcuffed. with a very conspicuous head bruise.

OH MY GOD he PULLED HIS THUMB OUT OF THE HANDCUFF BLEUGHHHHHHHHH all the cops return to is some blood and a finger 😭😭😭

no no bad…. body horror… bad…. not for junis, who are weak and frail… 

michele was given a lethal dose of something that occurs naturally, so it usually misses detection. and leonard was ID’d as the attacker!!! oh i just know everyone at that hospital is SO confused

mulder and scully are fighting over evolutionary theories…. while holding umbrellas in the snow… sigh. so beautiful.

GAG! the trunk of leonard's car is filled with cancerous tumors. that scully can name as she sees them. a massive flex of her knowledge.

OH. maybe he eats cancer. well. this is a bold theory, mulder, and what a lovely time for you to propose it, as i am just thinking of how lovely they look in the snow, and how they should go ice skating and other such winter activities. sure. the guy eats tumors.

and the car leonard was driving traces back to the mom!!! so they go to her place with a warrant. scully confronts her, saying they know she’s lying about her son being dead, and he killed someone, so lying to protect him isn’t gonna get her anywhere except JAIL.

mulder finds iodine while she recounts a tale of her son being beaten up as a kid. and she says god means for leonard to stay even if people don’t understand. crazy thing to say about a guy who just killed someone. 

leonard is at a bar watching someone smoke and looking at him hungrily. while his baby thumb pulsates and regrows. NASTY! nasty. 

he’s getting up after the cigarette dude and following him outside like he’s hunting some prey. he says that “you’ve got something i need” and whips out a tiny knife. uh oh.

back at mom’s house, they find a storage locker receipt. off to track it down.

oh. leonard was straight up eating that dude inside the storage locker. see, i don’t care for that. and also he is screaming while this happens and also his body is pulsating and oh my god. OH MY GOD HE JUST GREW A NEW HEAD???? out of his mouth. whyyyyyy

at the storage unit, the agents find blood flowing from beneath the door, and then the dead cigarette guy. but leonard comes out in a car at them!

i like how mulder grabbed scully to keep her safe... it was very nice. 

leonard is speeding off. and they shoot at him, which causes the car to go up in flames. damn. good shots, those two.

so the cigarette guy had his lung removed, but now leonard seems to be burnt to a crisp. BUT! when they dig up the guy under the pseudonym who had allegedly died 6 years ago, he looks also very dead!!

so he just keeps dying and coming back? i ask myself.

no! mulder thinks that the car crashes- both times- were decoys, and that “leonard” is still at large. scully does not seem pleased by this. 

and back at his mom’s house, she’s washing him in iodine, saying they “found your friend”. she says the FBI aren’t going to leave him alone…. you know what you have to do…. WHAT TF DOES THAT MEAN???

the agents are watching her house. but then an ambulance rolls up, saying that an old woman has had massive blood loss. did he eat his mom?? how would anyone know?? is this a trap???

scully finds his mom, who has a surgical cut…. and they’re taking her to the hospital… scully is helping her out…. she is so kind

but as they take leonard's mom out, scully notices IODINE ON HER HEAD! is he waiting on top of the ambulance? she tells mulder to get over here RIGHT NOW. 

and leonard grabs her!!!! and says she has something he needs. NO!!!!! no that means…… no. 

she’s beating the hell out of him though which is a major slay. she defibrillates him. queen.

it seems he really died. for now.

mulder’s telling her she should be proud, but she just wants to go home. that's what she says: "i want to go home". oh my goooooooood. oh my gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood.

wait it’s still going. she’s coughing. NO, SHE’S COUGHING BLOOD?????!

no it’s her nose. oh my god. the end.

FUCK YOU ALL I HATE EVERYTHING (punches wall) (punches table) (punches everything in an arm’s reach) (keeps punching until i collapse into a ball of sobs)

well. for most of this, distracting myself with fictional character’s problems worked. but now i’m just sad about my own life AND scully’s.

okay. i won’t lie. you want me to tell the truth? fine. i’ll tell you. i’d never lie to you...

i knew about the scully cancer arc. 

there. i said it. i know, i know, i too wanted everything to come as a surprise. but in all honesty, i’m glad i knew about it, because if i didn’t i’d probs be straight up ugly crying right now. 

yes, i saw it in a gif set a while ago- not this part, but from a later episode- and i find myself still deeply saddened despite knowing it was going to happen. i think it’s just so awful that cancer is a thing that happens, and even knowing that scully isn’t real doesn’t it make it less of a reality for other people, and that breaks my heart. of course i want my fave fictional girl to be okay- and this was foreshadowed after the abduction arc anyway- but cancer…. god, it’s just horrific. i think we all know someone who has it and have had to see what they endure. and it’s so genuinely and horrifically fucked up. luckily i can look at this leonard guy and be like damn, wouldn’t it be fucked up if a guy grew a new head? and i can rest knowing that it shall never happen to anybody alive, but this? like. you just don’t know. it could happen to anyone. 

and that really scares me, i think. more than anything else. so at least we learned about my deep set fear together? glad we had that bonding experience.

gooood. i’m gonna cry. okay yes, check it write it down- the tears are in my eyeballs. you can’t see it, but it is happening. yes, and now they are leaving my eyeballs and going down my cheeks. okay so. that’s fine i guess.

fuck me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

this episode was fine, other than that, i guess? i mean i laughed a bit but then i laughn’t. the laughter was cancelled. his face when he was digging around in the body part jumble was really funny, i love when he is squeamish. and i liked him laughing at his own joke and how beautiful they looked in the snow. the idea of this as a monster was kinda interesting and very disturbing in practicality- body horror is always gonna get me- but leonard himself wasn't super compelling. you can't really be that good of a healthcare worker if you're in it just to eat people. his mom was more interesting to me, but also she was annoying because how tf are you gonna sit there and say your baby boy eats people because he is so special?

scully, why do they do this to you……….. i need to save you from chris carter myself……. 

s4 loyalists: you scare me, because how can you endure this willingly? bro, i love angst too... but this is just straight up masochism 😭

[albentelisa]

Hi! So here's an interesting ask.

What if Jim was born as a wizard, with Hisirdoux "Douxie" Casperan as his teacher?

Jim's magic woke up at five. Barabra is accepting of Jim's magic, but James Sr is disgusted at his son being a wizard and calls him 'an abominal freak of nature who should be wiped off the earth' which is what led Barabra to divorcing James.

I'll say that Jim's magic power seemingly came out of nowhere in this AU (well, his ancestors possessed magic, but Barbara for example had no idea magic was real). Jim's magic is too strong for someone born in this era. His element is light too, which is rather rare.

After her divorce, Barbara does her best, trying to find a good magic teacher for her son despite having no connections to the magic world. She does so because Jim's magic goes out of control frequently and she's scared he might harm himself. Initially, her attempts are futile as she only finds all kinds of con artists.

Barbara finds out Douxie by accident when she catches a glimpse of his magic and realizes that it's as real as Jim's. Initially, Douxie is reluctant to teach Jim (as he isn't a master wizard), but as he realizes that there is no one to show the kid the proper way to do magic, he accepts the mentor's role.

Jim likes Douxie tremendously, though he thinks of him as his big bro rather than his teacher (and well, Douxie is fine with that - he just fails to be strict or formal).

Toby learns about Jim's secret relatively fast - once Jim starts to believe that Toby will react adequately. After learning about the magic, Toby often joins Jim during his lessons at GDT Arcane Books (though he mostly fools around and annoys Archie).

Jim (and Toby too) tries to join Douxie in his occasional monster hunting, but it's where Douxie is really strict (as they are still kids and he feels responsible). Not that it changes a lot though as those two sneak out and hunt small creatures (like goblins) rather often. During one of those outings, Toby and Jim meet Blinky and Aaarrrgghh and befriend them. Another reckless hunt leads to meeting Kanjigar, who isn't happy about kids risking their lives. Kanjigar also learns that Douxie (who is Merlin's apprentice) is in Arcadia.

Since then Douxie, Jim, and Toby become regular visitors at the Trollmarket. Kanjigar is fine teaming up with Douxie sometimes, but it's a big no for Jim (and especially Toby) to join.

Ironically, that is the reason why Jim and Toby bond with Draal. Those three have a lot of secret missions together, which resulted in several changelings' deaths.

That activity picks up Strickler's attention. He knows that there's a wizard in Arcadia, but has no idea who it is. Still, he decides to awaken Angor Rot and use him as a bodyguard.

Strickler also decides to find and force Angor to train a shadowmancer to counter the unknown wizard's light magic. Angor picks up Claire and Strickler switches Enrique with NotEnrique to force her to cooperate (and have an overseer).

Meanwhile, like in the canon, Kanjigar dies. And in this AU Draal succeeds him as the next champion. Jim is obviously part of his team by that time - those two are basically brothers-in-arms. Draal is also more cooperative as he has learned to work in a team before becoming the Trollhunter.

Unfortunately, Strickler accidentally learns that the mysterious wizard is Jim (they are close in this AU too). He plans to use Claire to convince him to switch sides (as he knows about Jim's crush). Strickler also approaches Barbara to have a backup plan (and ends up falling for her).

Claire is conflicted once she learns that Jim is a wizard, like her. Because of her circumstances, she hates her own magic and sees it more as shackles. Initially, she thinks that Jim is also forced to practice magic, but soon realizes he is free. Since that moment, she starts to hope that Jim might help her to escape and gives him small hints (she cannot tell him openly as Angor is watching her from shadows). Alas, Jim is slow and doesn't catch those right away, but eventually realizes that Strickler is the enemy and Claire is also on the villains' side (initially, he doesn't realize she has no choice).

As for Draal, he discovers that Nomura is also in Arcadia (there is some more bonding between Jim and Draal as both fell in love with an enemy).

Claire manages to have a proper talk with Jim (which Angor deliberately 'ignores') and explains everything. They both have a plan that Claire works as an inside agent and helps the team defeat Bular. However, Strickler catches her and uses her as a hostage to lure Jim (he plans to use him against Draal later).

Jim seemingly cooperates only for the rest of the team to barge in and defeat Bular. Nomura still ends up in the Darklands (she is close to switching sides though) and Strickler escapes with the help of Angor.

Claire is now free and Jim promises her to free her brother. He is slightly concerned that Draal won't agree to open Killahead only to discover that Draal also wants to go there to save Nomura and kill Gunmar, no matter what everyone else is thinking. Draal asks Douxie to upgrade the amulet (he believes that Merlin's apprentice can do it), but Douxie thinks it's impossible for him. Meanwhile, Jim and Blinky discover the information about triumbric stones and the quest for Eclipse begins.

Strickler never leaves Arcadia in this AU. He lies low though as he's scared that both Claire and Jim will look for him to kill him (and even if those two forgave him, Draal wouldn't). Besides, Strickler doesn't believe that the Trollhunter and his team can defeat Gunmar - he thinks that they will only free him, which will result in disaster (for him as well as he failed Gunmar). Strickler decides to prevent them from opening Killahead and later dispose of the team (even though he regrets that Jim is among them). He also uses a binding spell on Barbara to ensure his safety.

Meanwhile, Angor contacts Claire and makes a deal with her. In this AU Claire knows that Angor is a victim of circumstances and can relate, so she isn't against freeing him.

As for her shadow magic, she is reluctant to use it as it's connected to her unpleasant memories, but as both Jim and Douxie (who took over as her magic teacher) encourage her, she is more willing to give it another try.

The Janus Order betrays Strickler (they also send some stalkings after him), and he is on the run. He has no choice but to come to Jim for help. Jim agrees to help him but asks to free his mother and Angor first.

Actually, Strickler half-expects that Jim won't keep his word so he's surprised when the Trollhunter's team actually gets rid of stalkings.

Barbara in this AU is aware of mostly everything minus the fact that Strickler is a changeling and about the binding spell (as Jim decided to keep it from her so that his mother wouldn't be heartbroken). Strickler confesses everything to her himself, seeking her forgiveness. While Barbara doesn't forgive him at once, she is willing to give him a chance to atone.

Despite the plan, Draal decides to go to the Darklands alone as he feels that it will be tough there for everyone else (and previous trollhunters kept reminding him that the Trollhunter should stay alone). Jim manages to tag along at the last second.

They find Enrique, and Draal sends Jim towards the exit. Jim gets Enrique out (like in the canon), but gets captured and ends the next cell to Nomura. Gunmar doesn't kill him for now as he plans to mind-control Draal and force him to kill Jim (and mind-break him entirely).

What Gunmar hasn't expected is that Jim teams up with Nomura and helps Draal escape. The other teammates arrive just in time to help them too.

Still, Gunmar is out of the Darklands like in the canon. Angor Rot goes alone to fight him and ends up mind-controlled. Gunmar also contacts the Janus Order and Usurna, starting to gather his forces. Gunmar contacts Morgana through Angor's mind as those two have a link and also takes over the Trollmarket.

Everyone who escaped is slightly desperate and decides to contact Merlin.

In this AU, Merlin doesn't destroy Jim's life, but he's pretty much willing to sacrifice Draal if that means defeating Gunmar for good (and Draal actually sees no problem with that until Nomura beats some common sense into him).

Jim and Claire decide to try and power up the amulet using their powers (as they both instantly dislike Merlin). It's rather dangerous for them as both are inexperienced and the power up is temporary, so Draal only has some limited time until it stops working.

Still he manages to win (with everyone's assistance).

[eye-of-enigmatic-thought]

[Note: Image description is in the alt text of the images due to its length. Let me know if writing them down on the post's description is more preferred!]

Here is Wilt!! My Flower Kid for Smile For Me with a new and improved art ref! I still love this tall goober even if I've never done much with them, lets hope that changes seeing my hyperfixation for Smile For Me STILL isn't over!!

Additional info and their backstory under the cut!

In the middle of nowhere in the US, there was a old reclusive farmer. This farmer took care of everything mostly on his own and didn't allow many people to come onto his property, the reasons varied, but part of it had to do with how he had Shadow abilities that he'd use to 'possess' straw bodies to help him in his work, also part of how he was able to care for his farm on his own as well.

The farmer however, would grow especially attached to a scarecrow he constructed to ward away any pesky birds from his crops. This attachment would prove to be so great, that the shadows from the Farmer would separate and make the scarecrow into their own person, who the Farmer would name 'Wilt' for their droopy appearance and tendency to care for even the most wilted plants.

The farmer and Wilt had a father-child bond, and he took care of them and taught them everything he knew. However even if the farmer tried his best, he was still a recluse and didnt dare step away from his farm, and so neither did Wilt, leading to them to be very unsocialised, things became worse when the Farmer eventually passed from his old age, leaving Wilt alone for many years until when in their early 20s, they finally decided the loneliness was too great for them to bear, and decided to leave it for the nearby town their father would distribute their crops to.

Wilt had a incredibly hard time adjusting to town life, they were not only incredibly clumsy and would get into a lot of accidents, but their social inability made many find them unsettling to be around. Even now surrounded by other people, Wilt was still lonely, and for a while mostly spent time exploring the streets in hopes for someone to interact with, even if briefly.

Eventually, they were found by a friendly couple that ran a flower shop and needed a helping hand. When they saw Wilt's ability to care for flowers that had even wilted greatly, they decided to take them in and help them settle in. Whilst Wilt now had a occupation and friends in the shop owners, they still felt lonely from how many customers would still find them offputting and how the shop owners had a lot of difficulty understanding them. Even now, they were still unhappy.

Eventually, some mysterious fliers would appear around town, talking about a retreat known as the Habitat where sad people go to fix their frowns. Intrigued and feeling that they could use something to fix their frown, Wilt decided to embark to the mysterious Habitat...

Wilt, personality wise, is a very empathetic and kindhearted scarecrow, always wanting to help others and nurse unhealthy plants back to health. Their empathy can be so strong that the thought of stepping on flowers makes them shriek in emotional pain.

Unfortunately Wilt has incredibly poor social skills due to only ever knowing their farmer father, who was also very socially inept. They barely talk and often can only make wheezing sounds or say short one syllabel words at a time due to anxiety. However, this anxiety is a tad eased when Wilt talks with their little crow puppet Root, which was made to initially tell jokes to make their father smile and laugh, and so ends up being more confident (and even sassy) with it.

Despite this overall anxiety, Wilt has at times a mischevious side, and has the habit of sometimes standing completely still like a regular scarecrow before jumping at someone to surprise them as a joke, though they don't always understand why someone wouldn't laugh back at them!

[mamamittens]

My spooky event has launched!

Very excited to see what y'all come up with! Already very creative ways to interpret my set up for what you can request (positive)!

Anyway, I just had a fun idea, perhaps I'll actually do something with it idk

So, I was thinking about those ghost romances and how they're always so damn tragic. I mean, it's either that or it's a horror story and not the actual end game ship lol

Mostly because of the whole "Can you realistically date someone who can't die when that's all you can do to rectify the disparity--eventually you will grow old and nothing changes a dynamic like literal time itself".

So, picture this, Thatch and Izou purchase a nice place outside of town. Just for the two of them. It's an old building but it's been well taken care of and renovated a few times by various, short term owners. One of those "Oh, this is so nice and cheap--black mold or ghosts?" Kind of situation.

And it's not black mold.

Yeah, a few folks have died, starting back in the late 1800s.

They're not phased in the least by the ominous history or reputation and settle in.

It doesn't take long for shit to start happening.

Stuff getting moved. Doors closing or opening on their own. Footsteps at three in the morning. Fun stuff like that.

After a while they can't pretend nothing is happening and start loudly demanding answers.

All the

"Show yourself!"

And

"Who's here with us?"

Mostly from Thatch cause he's been binging ghost hunting shows. Izou just wants his makeup to stop fucking disappearing.

"Well, at the moment, just me."

Thatch screams startlingly loud and high, stumbling to the floor.

They're in the living room and there, settled neatly on the love seat that came with the house, is a woman. She's faintly glowing, almost translucent. Colors washed out.

Dressed in a white nightgown with a loose dress robe tied neatly at her waist. Dark curls braided down her back. One bare foot and the other hidden in a worn slipper peaking out from beneath the lace trim. She looks tired and slightly apologetic.

"Terrible way to meet, I know, but unfortunately the dead have only a few talents--change not being one of them." She grimaces, adjusting thick glasses on her nose. "And yes. I'm dead. No, I'm not fucking with you. Yes, this house is haunted. No. I did not move your things... Actually, I did move your keys yesterday, but you dropped them on the floor and nearly kicked them under the stove--in my defense."

"...You don't look dead. Well, aside from the ethereal... Whatever you have going on." Izou points out. She sighs, pulling aside her dressing gown, revealing a bloody stab wound to the heart. "Ah. I'm... Sorry. Wait, if it's not you, then who's been fucking with us?"

She shrugs.

"The others. I'm the first, technically the oldest. But I'm hardly an authority. Got two kids--different times but they get along quite well-- a war vet, a couple, and a rude bastard. My bets are the kids or the bastard. The couple.. keep to themselves. And the war vet prefers to watch."

Izou grimaces at that.

"Watch? You don't mean...?" She snorts.

"He's more concerned you're communists, actually. No desire to see you 'fornicating' with a few slurs thrown in. Passed in the fifties." She sort of apologizes with a shrug. "I'm Nikia by the way."

The other ghosts don't usually show themselves. Thatch finds that offering cookies keeps the shenanigans to minimum. Nikia preferring to watch TV with them or read. Quiet company for whoever is home.

Sometimes someone tries to come over specifically to "call upon the spirits" but the boys staunchly turn them away.

They discover that Nikia's death is considered a mystery, her body never found. The kids were both accidents. The vet died of a heart attack. And the couple carbon dioxide inhalation. They usually only start acting up if the fire alarm battery dies, fittingly. Otherwise it's just the kids and Nikia who regularly do anything interesting.

Naturally, they treat their unexpected house mates as family.

Shockingly, the couple are the first to move on after a big family dinner. Thatch left place holders for their 'house mates'. Apparently they always wanted a big family and being included gave them that last push.

The vet went as quietly as he 'lived' after Izou finished setting up his gun collection. Having found peace in seeing the tools of his trade treated so reverently but respectfully with full awareness they were weapons. A world where such things could be decoration rather than defense soothing him into the light. And probably a few "era appropriate reassurances mixing with blatant slurs and racism that's kinda touching if it didn't make you wince to hear it aloud".

The kids disappeared after a very lovely and well decorated Christmas with stand in toys for them to play with. They still kept the toys on the shelves for them, despite the kids having moved on.

Then it was just them and Nikia.

They'd grown close by this point, all three of them. And they were a little nervous about her status in the house.

They didn't want her to go. She was a wonderful companion in an otherwise quiet and too-large house. But there was an undeniable temptation in what could never be.

She's completely intangible. Touching her feels like dipping your hand in icy fog. Only the hazy sensation of her nightgown. The barest breeze where her fingertips lay.

It's not healthy, this "if only" relationship they have.

It is shocking that Thatch is the first to bring it up.

"When are you moving on? Is there something we need to do to... Bring you peace?" He asked hesitantly in front of the fire one night.

Nikia looks at him. Glancing at Izou who seems conflicted by the question. She smiles softly.

"...You already know. I..." She cleared her throat, tears clinging to her lashes. "I liked my peace. My solitude. At the time, it was rare. Unheard of for a good woman to want to be a spinster... Some people took that personally. But I never wanted to be alone like that. Where he must have left me."

She looks out at the woods.

"...you look half dressed... You heard him coming. You ran."

"... I did. Thought I lost him. But, like a rabbit and hunting dog..."

"He found you."

"I lied. When I said the dead can't change. It's just... So limited. The best I could do was hide the knife." Nikia informed them gravely, pulling aside her robe. The stab wound now decorated with the hilt of a fine dagger, bearing a bloodied crest. "He must have buried me with it. I still had both shoes when he killed me."

They spend a month with metal detectors trying to find her.

When they do, they dig her up, finding her decomposed corpse. Knife sliced between her ribs. Skeleton draped in silk and cotton beneath the tangled roots of a gnarled tree.

The cops are called and she's finally put to rest. The knife identified as belonging to a wealthy family at the time with only one suspect with sufficient motive. Her case, closed.

They find her ghost sitting on her tombstone.

She looks so tired.

"I'm sorry for the trouble."

Izou sighs heavily, lowering a bouquet of roses alongside Thatch.

"It was nothing."

"... If it was another time... Would we still have been friends? If we met between the stacks in a library or in line for coffee, instead of like this?"

"We'd be more than friends." Thatch swore softly.

She smiles. Her features warm in the setting sun as she fades away.

They're upset for weeks afterwards. Drinking to what "could have beens" and more.

Until they're dragging out by Marco and Ace under their father's orders, his worry palpable even through phone calls.

Thatch resolves to buy the sappiest romance novel he can to wish fulfill his way out of another hangover.

He reaches for a second hand copy of a book only for his palm to settle over cold fingertips. Startled, he steps back, an apology on his lips.

Only to see a familiar face looking up at him sheepishly. Large glasses low on her nose with pale blue eyes and curly hair died a rich, indigo hue.

"Oop--Ssssssorry. Coffee? I mean, would you like to get coffee with me?" He asks breathlessly. "I'm Thatch--my partner is Izou, by the way, over there." He gestures to the other section, raising his voice just so. Izou glancing back and doing a double take.

He's quick to come over.

"H-Hi, are you new here?" He asks.

"Yeah, just moved in, actually. Not really into coffee but... I'd love to meet up? Make new friends, maybe?" She asks nervously.

"It's no trouble--like, at all!" Thatch reassures quickly.

"Yeah, we'd love to get to know you!" Izou adds in.

Neither of them are sure how this is happening, but she smiles and they know it's real. That crooked smile all too familiar, making her eyes squint and nose wrinkle and flair as she chuckles. Throaty and soft.

This time, this time it'll be different.

It will be better.

[horizon-verizon]

What do you think about the deaths of Laenor, Harwin and Lyonel? I myself am convinced, thanks to Preston Jacobs, that Laenor was simply killed in a skirmish with people to whom Qarl owed money. On the other hand, I do not necessarily agree with about Harwin and Lyonel - Preston claims it was most likely an accident, which is possible, but I am more inclined towards Daemon setting the fire out of jealousy (maybe to prevent Rhaenyra from getting back together with him, now that her husband is dead?). I am mostly thinking of parallels between this scenario and Blood&Cheese incident, where Daemon is motivated by emotional reasons to order a hit on someone, which results in unintended collateral damage (in the case of Harwin's murder Lyonel).

@minetteskvareninova

I still have yet to watch a vid from Preston Jacobs.

This is the account of Harwin and Lyonel's deaths plus the speculations of people in-world about them:

The cause of the fire was never determined. Some put it down to simple mischance, whilst others muttered that Black Harren’s seat was cursed and brought only doom to any man who held it. Many suspected the blaze was set intentionally. Mushroom suggests that the Sea Snake was behind it, as an act of vengeance against the man who had cuckolded his son. Septon Eustace, more plausibly, suspects Prince Daemon, removing a rival for Princess Rhaenyra’s affections. Others have put forth the notion that Larys Clubfoot might have been responsible; with his father and elder brother dead, Larys Strong became the Lord of Harrenhal. The most disturbing possibility was advanced by none other than Grand Maester Mellos, who muses that the king himself might have given the command. If Viserys had come to accept that the rumors about the parentage of Rhaenyra’s children were true, he might well have wished to remove the man who had dishonored his daughter, lest he somehow reveal the bastardy of her sons. Were that so, Lyonel Strong’s death was an unfortunate accident, for his lordship’s decision to see his son back to Harrenhal had been unforeseen. ("A Question of Succession")

And this is the quote for Laenor's death:

The Lord of the Tides and his lady were still in mourning for their beloved daughter when the Stranger came again, to carry off their son. Ser Laenor Velaryon, husband to the Princess Rhaenyra and the putative father of her children, was slain whilst attending a fair in Spicetown, stabbed to death by his friend and companion Ser Qarl Correy. The two men had been quarreling loudly before blades were drawn, merchants at the fair told Lord Velaryon when he came to collect his son’s body. Correy had fled by then, wounding several men who tried to hinder him. Some claimed a ship had been waiting for him offshore. He was never seen again.

The circumstances of the murder remain a mystery to this day. Grand Maester Mellos writes only that Ser Laenor was killed by one of his own household knights after a quarrel. Septon Eustace provides us with the killer’s name and declares jealousy the motive for the slaying; Laenor Velaryon had grown weary of Ser Qarl’s companionship and had grown enamored of a new favorite, a handsome young squire of six-and-ten. Mushroom, as always, favors the most sinister theory, suggesting that Prince Daemon paid Qarl Correy to dispose of Princess Rhaenyra’s husband, arranged for a ship to carry him away, then cut his throat and fed him to the sea. A household knight of relatively low birth, Correy was known to have a lord’s tastes and a peasant’s purse, and was given to extravagant wagering besides, which lends a certain credence to the fool’s version of events. Yet there was no shred of proof, then or now, though the Sea Snake offered a reward of ten thousand golden dragons for any man who could lead him to Ser Qarl Correy, or deliver the killer to a father’s vengeance. ("A Question of Succession")

I don't think Harwin and Lyonel's deaths were accidents. Felt too convenient.

List of Suspects for the Strongs' Deaths and My Conclusion

Corlys:

gains nothing guaranteed by killing Harwin and Lyonel--maybe the Hand position for either himself or Rhaenys but Laenor died BEFORE Harwin & Lyonel. Wasn't him.

knew Laenor was gay, and he was very willing to just let Rhaenyra’s sons live as Laenor’s trueborn sons for his own ends. He cared for and loved Jacaerys

Viserys:

was not very violent (unless publicly pushed to affirm his authority, like with Vaemon's relatives after Vaemond's death).

was not a very proactive person in comparison to people like Daemon or Rhaenyra or Alicent or Larys

was not a person given towards underhanded schemes, preferring open partying, feats, and as little conflict as possible except when Vaemond’s relatives mention bastardry again after he already ruled it forbidden, preferring to be open and aboveboard as much as conventionally possible.

very much loved his grandchildren and never resented their presence or the fact that they weren't Laenor's.

could have killed Harwin much earlier before even Rhaenyra birthed her second son if he actually cared so much about Harwin "ruining" his daughter. If for anything for his father, Lyonel’s, continued service. Viserys, even though later reinstating him, didn’t want Otto to have an easier time coming back after already dismissing him for questioning Rhaenyra.

knew what he was getting Rhaenyra into by marrying her to Laenor, a gay man, for the sake of political "peace" with Corlys. You can read why Viserys accepted Rhaenyra's kids HERE. Wasn't him.

Daemon:

had far more to gain and was more willing to kill Harwin and Lyonel since I very much believe he was in love w/Rhaenyra AND wanted to be a direct ancestor of any and all Targ rulers after her. Or responsible for their training, make a name for himself in history.

HOWEVER -- Viserys would have never allowed Rhaenyra to marry Harwin Strong after Laenor's death so he could protect the secrets of the V boys' parentage. Viserys put the Strongs out of court, so Daemon had no reason to see Harwin as a legitimate rival for her hand in marriage. As for romance alone, still, Harwin was exiled from the court and no longer a rival.

If Daemon wanted to kill Harwin, again, he would have done it much earlier -- if he loved & desired Rhaneyra -- at least sometime after Lucerys' birth.

Larys:

was allied with the greens nearly from the jump, knew that Viserys would go for familiarity above all and avoid Rhaenyra and Daemon as candidates for the Hand position, thus opening the Hand position for Otto

killing Harwin/Lyonel opens up the seat of Harrenhal for himself AND allows a strategic location for the war definitely coming (even without Lucerys' or Jaehaerys' deaths) -- which is why Daemon himself even went there later

during the Dance, proved nearly invaluable to the greens while being the very sneaky, calculating/shadowy, deceptive manipulator willing to betray anyone for his own goals and was the person in the shadows spreading those rumors about Rhaenyra -- even his own family

Both Rhaenys and Corlys, again, lived close to Daemon when he was with Laena and moved her and their twins to Driftmark for 3 years. They would have witnessed his habits, etc. It's possible that they were too grief-stricken to actually be able to discern his involvement or lack of involvement, but to be so unobservant after the worst of the grief (from shock) went...eh, unlikely.

Harwin and Lyonel's deaths benefit Larys and the greens most of all. Larys is the best suspect, and I personally think he killed Harwin and Lyonel. Ironically, I agree with HotD on how those deaths turned out.

List of Suspects for the Laenor's Death and My Conclusion

Laenor's death is a dicier thing.

Debt Collectors:

accidentally -- in them trying to get Qarl OR to get Laenor to pay for his debts OR in the streetfight

Qarl:

Qarl had no characterizations or described traits in the account I could point out other than:

being gay/queer

had "low" birth

being Laenor's second-known lover

was a gambler with huge & many debts

Qarl argued with Laenor, and I personally think it had something to do with his debts. Perhaps Laenor refused to pay them off and Qarl got angry, feeling jilted and rejected. It's a possibility, but I don't think that this is 100% exclusionary from Qarl also under someone's else pay OR promise of escape.

Daemon:

like Harwin, removing Laenor opens up the path to Rhaenyra's hand, whether or not he loved her or not (personally, I believe he did love her)

and he marries Rhaenyra mere months after Laenor's death

Qarl Correy managed to evade capture despite Corlys putting out alerts and Driftmark being smaller than other regions -- not many places to hide ... unless you know your way around or have capable people hiding and guiding you to safety

Qarl had debts to pay and wasn't rich despite being Laenor's lover

HOWEVER -- also lived with Laena and their daughters in Driftmark with the Velaryons for 3 years or so BEFORE Laenor died. He still seems to live close to or with them, after Laena dies, so Corlys would have had a better sense of whether or not Daemon killed his son and take some action against him BUT he never does. It would have been beyond stupid for Daemon to try to kill Laenor being so close and knowing that people will suspect him. Corlys sent out rewards for Qarl’s capture, with no indication of suspecting Daemon.

he and Rhaenyra married 4-5 months after Laenor and Laena die and even that time was too little for everyone else. In this context, the idea that Daemon killed Laenor to get to Rhaenyra is less likely. Because if he didn’t care about the “appropriate” time to wait to marry his target, why would he wait 4-5 months after killing Laenor?

has a cousin, called Princess Rhaenys, mother to Laenor. There’s no indication that she ever actually liked Daemon, yet we hear nothing of her suspecting Daemon. With her personality, if she ever suspected Daemon, she'd never let him go.

still needs the Velaryons for Rhaenyra's claim. Even if he only wanted Rhaenyra for power, the risk of the Velaryons finding out he killed their son would remove Velaryons' support for Rhaenyra-Daemon and any of their kids or at least significantly reduce it and open up the path to retribution. Simply not worth it.

Septon Eustace (who disliked Daemon and wasn't given towards elaborate or detailed descriptions unless he detested a person [Rhaenyra and her cut from the throne]) maintains that Qarl was responsible for Laenor's death

Daemon is the only person ever suspected of having Laenor killed apart from those who were after Qarl for his debts (by Mushroom, who though given to embellishment, also was still close to nobles to hear their whispers and understand quiet implications BUT he also wasn't there and there is the stuff I already speculated). But I can't put all my faith in the possibility of him being responsible for Laenor's death with the information we do have AND those I've speculated above. I'm given to thinking that Laenor was just killed by Qarl in a passionate confrontation.

[hoenn-hakase]

Anniversary: The Story Thus Far

With the 10th Anniversary Super Gauntlet going on, my brain has kicked into overdrive this week thinking about some of the lore concepts to come up. Of course, at this point we've only done Red, Bootleg Yellow (yes, I'm counting it), Gold and Silver, so we've still got a LOT of games to cover before we get into the plot, but ideas are already flowing. Things may change, but I just wanted to get down some current thoughts down while I've got it.

So one plotline the Lorecord has been playing around with for a few years now is that our last season, S10, took place in a Post Apocalyptic universe that S9 had been building up to (I wanna make a separate post on this) and we finally got an arc ending payoff with Wilting Y. Each person has their own thoughts on the timeline and what events led to this and what the aftermath was, but my gosh that moment we collectively went "OH SNAP" when connecting Mega Aerodactyl to Yveltal, there's no the question of what's going on in the Super Gauntlet.

Super Gauntlet is all vanilla games being played completely on real hardware systems. This opens us up to a lot of features we've never had access to! It's exciting but having all of the regions in their vanilla states feels like a new era. The world was rebuilt It's been centuries since The End. Someone hit restart on the universe. All thoughts that have come up in discussion before. But then something interesting came up: Our first loss.

Now I personally don't think a run needs Releases to become "interesting" but it can lead to some really fascinating ideas as we try to make sense of the loss. In this case, we were fighting over the need for Cut to continue the game. Our options were: 1) evolve the Kakuna (Simon) we already had in the party so Beedrill could learn Cut. Unfortunately, there was a pretty dedicated group of evolution cancellers, so doable but proving difficult. 2) With patience wearing thin, we could just deposit someone and go catch an Oddish. (Which is what eventually happened.) 3) It may be difficult, but we had a Spearow in the PC so if we needed to use it anyway to deposit someone, we could grab the bird then trade it for Dux, just like we did in the original Red run. But people were scared of the PC and for good reason, since sure enough we had a PC war break out and Marvin "Mushmouth" the Squirtle, Simon the Kakuna, and yes, even the Spearow, were all Released.

But interestingly enough, someone proposed that Dux was the one behind this. The question quickly became why. Maybe... just maybe... because this Dux was the same as the one from Original Red. That maybe Dux was trying to avoid the fate that killed him before. Maybe because he saw this group of relic hunters and knew that Ash did not have the most noble intentions in grabbing the Helix Fossil and would actually unleash an even greater threat in his quest chasing rumors and legends and whispers of the bygone era. Ash clearly obsessed about the past when it seemed almost everyone had forgotten about it. He spent hours at the museum in Pewter to learn about the gods and set out from home with a dream. He had already obtained things like the Helix Fossil, the Town Map, the Bicycle, all symbols of Chosen past and surely more to come. Maybe the death of Marvin and Simon was truly an accident but now that Dux has "awoken" the memories of his past life, he now starts a new personal quest to follow the Chosen to stop the Voices from destroying everything again. Which Dux may have been right about Ash sadly since the kid eventually did NOT revive Helix but eventually went out of his way to obtain the mysterious Missingno named Bucket who he used a few other times to expand his riches. Put a pin there, I'll get into his fate later.

And then it was added that we meet a Farfetch'd in Ilex Forrest too. Maybe the next time we would meet Dux. Maybe he was still traded by the little girl to someone else and that's why he refuses to listen to the Woodcutter's assistant. Now that he's aware of all of this, he ran from owner to find Celebi and get answers about these strange memories of a past life. Why is this happening? What happened before? Something to definitely look out for once we saw the stories of Gold and Silver.

Well, GS dual runs came up and we could see that the twins Raymond (Gold) and Xyler / Xylver (Silver) have very different personalities with Xy often taking advantage of his brother to expand on his own power and speed on ahead by wrecking anything and anyone in his path. He caught a Ledian early on, who has become associated as the Incarnation of Olden just as one would say Helix is an Omanyte (even if there have been times we've said not all Omanyte are Helix) and much later on it gained an on-again-off-again teammate status further solidifying Xy's reputation for being a "morally gray" character. All the more telling that he failed to get either of the Tower Duo while Raymond was able to get both. Raymond is a sweet kid, and a good kid. After his brother took his Chikorita and left him with a Geodude, Raymond stayed loyal to his rock friend and eventually got a Golem. He had a Slowpoke he made a king. He had the patience and kindness to evolve his Eevee into an Umbreon, and yes, he eventually befriended Ho-oh and carried it to League.

I mention all this because even if they seem like a pair of ordinary kids, no grandiose backstories (yet) or cool occupation, something of great interest came up towards the end. For one, we were told this was not a race but by gosh did it get treated like one. Johto lasted about a day and a half. Xyler beat the League while Raymond was still in Blackthorn City and just to dunk on him, he beat it a second time while Raymond was trying to win the first time. (In truth it's because we had one VERY dedicated player who wanted to get Ledian it's promised place in the Hall of Fame) But we got to the Trainer House in Viridian City and discovered we had some guests! Ritchie was one of our side game hosts from Yellow about a year or two ago, and NEEKO was from a Silver run from about the same period.

Neeko is especially curious to see here though because during his run, he was able to pull off some ACE glitchery most notably turning the Sudowoodo into a Celebi named ASUS. It was also said about this time that when we played Blazing Emerald Redo as a side game it was to wash the awful taste out of the community's collective mouth after some of the things that happened during our original Blazing Emerald run. There had also been joking how we ~never~ got to use the Pokemon Agony had before. And we sure ~never~ got to see some of the places that only exist in BE before. So there was some lore that Neeko used his own reality warping powers and Time Guardian friend to "erase" Blazing Emerald from the timeline. Agony.... Is another tale for another time, but let's just say I hc he did not take the idea of "fading from existence as everyone he loved forgets about him as some sort of punishment for things outside his control while he STILL suffers the consequences" very well. Neeko probably means well? But him showing up to beat down Xy (he swept us in the first encounter) is not a good sign for our power seeking scamp because Neeko has literally destroyed people before, he would do it again if he thought it would fix things. AND WORSE he's got ties to Celebi which brings us back full circle that maybe the one Dux was working for / went to meet in the forest with, was none other than Neeko. And given Xy's bad luck with birds (even his flier was "borrowed" after Raymond picked up Kenya then traded it to him) who better to thwart / keep an eye on this punk than the Leek Knight himself here to fulfill the divine duty he never got to fulfill?

And maybe he did. Maybe he didn't. I have two thoughts that if he did, what happened. 1) Neeko "erased" Xy's original adventure where we don't know and don't want to think about what he did to catch Neeko's attention when there was no one to stop him. This second time having Raymond go with him / instead of him may be specifically to stop that path of events from happening again. 2) Xy may have been the target but Neeko may have learned from his mistakes. Instead of going after him directly like he did with Agony, he tried to change the course by instead going after Ash. 3) ... Both are simultaneously true.

Ah yes, still got that pin?

Now before we started SGRed, we played a few intermission games to test out the system in preparation for the official run. One of those was Bootleg Yellow. We didn't finish it though, but we had a hero named Ash and he picked up a Squirtle so connections are there already. Since Missingno messed up our Hall of Fame data, we discovered that Ash was "dreaming of Marvin" as we watched a mini HoF play out with a corrupted Squirtle image. After the run, we got to go back and finish Yellow. Interestingly, since Ash had a full pack when he beat Giovanni, we had no space for the Fissure TM. Game Freak thought of this, so Giovanni doesn't disappear until you take it. So it looks like in SGR, Team Rocket never disbanded. BUT in Bootleg Yellow there's a greater focus on Team Rocket if I understand right and the League Rematch replaced Gary with Jessie and James as Champion. So Ash did end up finishing off Team Rocket so Johto events could proceed as they should. But how this came about is because after Yellow we have been playing Stadium2 with our games plugged in. There's a feature in Stadium2 that both lets you play the GB cartridges from an arcade mode and allows you to bring Pokemon from said cartridges into the arenas. Ash tried to withdraw Bucket and of course the game crashed. This seemed like The End for him. Except timeline wise this may have been what "saved" him assuming he completed Red, failed to defeat Team Rocket, whatever happened between Neeko and Xy the first time, Neeko went back and ripped Ash out of this Bad End but by doing so Ash ended up starting over in Yellow. Further complicating things is either Ritchie is here because while Ash had to set up events for Xy, Raymond didn't have that problem because Ritchie had done it. They're cool, just hanging out. That may mean when Neeko tried to fix things with Ash though, he accidentally booted out Ritchie. Alternatively, it could be that since the world is having these moments of repetition, Ritchie being a Chosen never forgot the old world and had his Yellow adventures ages ago. Seeing things play out (albeit differently this time) he's just here because he's worried about his home and wished nothing but the best for Ash. Which he did good so now Ritchie is just keeping an eye on things because he knows Neeko and is nervous about what he's up to. Please don't erase anyone this time. That caused such a mess... On the upside, whatever terror Neeko thought Xy might do didn't come to pass. Interestingly, ASUS ended up being the name of Xy's rival, so it's possible the redhead jerk was actually Celebi in disguise all along checking in on Xy to make sure he was good this time. Or ASUS being so aggressive was because he kept failing to stop Xy since he kept losing. It's funny then to think Neeko only showed up in the post game after having an "aw crap" reaction to Xy getting to the League miles ahead of Raymond but then Xy let his brother catch up. Only because like the Tortoise and the Hare he got cocky. Raymond defeated Red first so he kinda won the game. Red was vanilla Red of course so I'm not quiiiite sure what significance that would mean for Xy to reach him second. And with Ash and Ritchie around, technically we're not even sure who this Red is but it was (possibly) important to Neeko either way. So since Raymond won, that did ..... something??? We'll see.

But going back to Ash now. Why would he not have his team when starting over? Because after GS we went back to Stadium2 where Ash's team has been crumbling because of technicalities. First we ended up trading Bucket to Raymond but this turned it into a normal Ditto so it's no longer a cursed abomination. Ash could technically get Bucket back, but it'll never be the same. We also evolved our Onix into a Steelix so that's nice for him, but Ash can never bring him home now since Steelix would create a time paradox. So that's two members gone. As much as Ash cares about Pixie I bet he wouldn't dare risk her or the others remaining on a second journey if he started over in Yellow. Buuuut alternatively, Ash falling through a crack in the space-time thanks to Neeko may have honestly made him forget what happened. Was Red all just a dream? He's waking up 10 years old again being told Oak is waiting to give him his first Pokemon... Man, it was a nice dream being all action hero and finding creatures that shouldn't exist and all that. But... Just like Dux, it's possible as he went along this journey, even as things are slightly different, he's getting memories of what feels like another world. Another life... What happened to him?

And that now has my mind racing over other characters who may have had memories stirred. Ash's rival was named Blue. Is it the one from Original Red? From Gauntlet? What does he remember? Does Lance have this sinking feeling that for all his fame and fortune he's missing something? He had a wife, a whole family back in Naljo before the world fell apart. And now he's met not one but three new Chosen, how much deja vu is he getting from TPP shenanigans over the years? I have some thoughts on them, but that's for another post subject.

But for now, we got Ruby and Sapphire coming up on Monday!! And you know it's about this point in the series the stakes start rising. We've taken on mere mortals, now let's save the world from primordial titans! .... Good luck heroes.

[skullhub]

MUSE PROFILE: Miguel O'Hara (E - 928B)

Name: Miguel O'Hara

Age: 29

Pronouns: He/Him

Height: 6'7"

General Alignment: Lawful Neutral

General personality: Stubborn, Short-tempered, Somewhat closed off, Incredibly intelligent, Kind of a workaholic, Smug, Very adaptable, Casual.

Family: Conchata O'Hara (Mother), George O'Hara (Step-Father, deceased), Gabriel O'Hara (Younger Brother), Tyler Stone (Biological father)

Home: Nueva York, Earth E-928B

Backstory: Miguel O'Hara was the kid who could not catch a break no matter what, and unfortunately his misfortunes only continued to follow him through his life as his situation got worse as he got older.

Miguel O'Hara was a product of an affair between Conchata O'Hara and Tyler Stone, and had grown up for the longest time thinking that his abusive step-father George O'Hara had been his biological father. Having endured most of the brunt of George's abuse until he disappeared from the O'Hara's lives and then died uneventfully and mysteriously young of "health complications." Leaving the eldest O'Hara to pick up the pieces when his mother finally returned from the mental health clinic after recovering somewhat from her ex-husband's abuse.

When Miguel grew into a semi-functional adult he had managed to snag a position as one of Alchemax's geneticists, becoming one among the bests for a while there (unfortunately) before an experiment involving genetic imprints failed during it's first human test run. Though he was unhappy with having to work for the mega-corporation for a while he never acted on his thoughts of quitting until the moment he saw that amalgamation that used to be Mr. Sims. Feeling disgusted at himself for what he had done, he hastily wrote up a notice for his departure from the company and marched up to Tyler Stone’s office to deliver it to him personally. After the paperwork was handed in, O’Hara would’ve been quick to leave if not for Tyler Stone offering him a drink and to chat one last time about his departure and how everything will proceed going forward.

When Miguel took a sip of the drink he realized far too late that his boss had drugged him with the highly addictive, extremely potent hallucinogenic known as Rapture, which Alchemax only had the cure for. Stone had drugged O’Hara in an attempt to force him to stay with Alchemax, but he didn’t account for the fact that Miguel would do anything to leave. Even attempt the same procedure that killed the test subject before him.

He input his own genetic code as a baseline for the experiment, and during the process of cleansing his genes, it had been sabotaged by one of his superiors who was attempting to kill him and cover up the incident as another accident. Miguel had survived despite Dr. Delgato’s tampering with the machine and Miguel ended up being spliced with tarantula DNA, gaining a multitude of superpowers from the botched procedure and losing his addiction to Rapture.

Extra Info: Miguel has a developing grey streak in his hair due to stress, he keeps dying it for both the sake of everyone not calling him old, and also to prevent himself from hating looking in the mirror due to looking too much like Tyler Stone.

Miguel often slicks his hair back so it doesn’t get in his face while he’s working, he often gets annoyed at his own curls. He got so frustrated with it and how it looked that he almost shaved all the hair off his head.

Miguel has to focus really hard so his talons don't come out and hurt someone, he also purposefully mumbles to keep the general public from seeing his fangs.

Miguel has a phobia of rats for a multitude of reasons he will not explain.

Miguel’s suit is made of unstable molecules that is practically indestructible. The previous costume he donned got torn to shreds far too quickly so he developed his current suit as a way to work around it.

Miguel does in fact have organic webbing and artificial webbing, the organic webbing is only if he doesn’t have access to his artificial ones though as using his organic webs gives him great discomfort.

Miguel keeps earmuffs/earplugs and sunglasses with him due to his sensitive hearing and sensitive eyes. He gets overstimulated very easily due to his super sight and hearing and the migraines he gets often cripple him to the point where he can barely look up at a holo-screen without feeling dizzy.

Miguel takes a genetic stabilizer that he produces weekly in alchemax's labs to keep his spider half and human half equal to each other. If he doesn't take his genetic stabilizer on time he'll be susceptible to more migraine attacks and increased irritability.

Miguel also suffers from venom overflow that he has to get rid of otherwise he'll accidentally make his entire mouth numb. He often drains the venom into vials to either turn into something else or carefully dispose of when he has the opportunity.

[galionne-diging]

MummyAru Digimon AUs: A Non-Exhaustive List

Alrighty, here's a little list of the AUs I've either written bits and pieces for at some point, think about regularly or am working on right now. Tho I keep adding more so there will probably be some extras in the future-

---

Title: Ghost Cycle

Genre(s): Adventure, Romance

Summary: Mummymon and Arukenimon are reborn in the Ghost Game Universe, with no memories of their previous lives as Oikawa’s underlings. Following different paths of life Mummymon becomes a doctor and Arukenimon an explorer (no she’s not the unhinged one we see in episode 21), both having no idea the other exists- until the pair find themselves in the Human World at the same time. Suffering from simultaneous visions and an overpowering sense of déjà-vu, they decide to work together to find out more about their previous lives- and why they had to come to an end.

-

Title: Digimon Adventure 03

Genre(s): Adventure, Friendship, Mystery

Summary: A few months have passed since the events of New Year’s Eve 2002. The second set of Chosen Children finally returns to the Digital World- only to find a new threat looming over them! Thankfully they’re not alone, as a trio of Digimon make their appearance to help them along the way. But who really are Dokugumon, Bakemon and Ajatarmon- and why do they feel so familiar? (Pretty much a “Season 2” to Adventure 02 where the Chosen deal with a new threat, with a subplot revolving around Mummymon & Arukenimon learning about who they used to be and how they came to be)

-

Title: Savestate Refresh

Genre(s): Friendship

Summary: After being killed by BelialVamdemon, Mummymon and Arukenimon are brought back to life by the Digital World- at the cost of their data and biological makeup being altered to allow their rebirth. Mummymon’s human DNA is completely purged from his body to make him a regular Digimon, whereas Arukenimon loses all her data and is left as a normal human.

-

Title: Adventures of Archie & Mumi

Genre(s): Adventure, Comedy

Summary: Digimon Adventure 02 but everyone is gender-swapped, including our favorite Spider/Mummy duo.

-

Title: The Family Gathering

Genre(s): Absurd comedy

Summary: “You’re wifeless, swagless, left-handed, 3D, what’s wrong with you?!” (A.k.a all of the canon & oc Arukenimon and Mummymon meet-up, somehow ; X-Evolution gets bullied for being 3D, Aru hugs everyone, Lotus trauma dumps and Festa horrifies the world by existing) (AU created in collaboration with GrimsDeadB0nes)

-

Title: The Destruction Chapter

Genre(s): Angst, Drama

Summary: Arukenimon and Mummymon have returned among the living, but Vamdemon and Yukio Oikawa’s treason have left them with scars ; too many to count. Arukenimon seems the most affected- making the snap decision to do ‘better’ than those who used her. She is going to destroy the Digital World, whatever it takes. Even if she has to die with it. And even if the Arukenimon he fell in love with is long gone, how could Mummymon ever give up on her?

-

Title: Hathor's Blessing

Genre(s): LGBTQ+, Friendship

Summary: She had never thought much of it at first. It was just a few glances, a few prolonged looks she caught here and there. An eye that stared just a little too long at her makeup set ; hands that held her dress just a little too firmly when they did laundry... But then came the question.. "Arukenimon… Have you ever felt like you were meant to be someone else…?"

-

Title: Bond of Blood

Genre(s): Horny

Summary: Following a sudden and brutal accident, Arukenimon’s data is heavily damaged and begins to deteriorate rapidly. In order to stop this process and help her recover, Jyou Kido determines that she needs to intake new data to repair her system. Unfortunately, pure data seems to conflict with her own and regular human DNA simply won’t do the trick. The only solution is for her to intake a mixture of both- and there is only one other person who can provide her with it. (a.k.a a Vampire AU with no actual vampires)

[littleladymab]

FebruarOC - Fe + Finn

a TWO FOR ONE DEAL!! They're from the same project and, somehow, have the same initials. They're not related at all. Felicia "Fe" Monahan and Finn Meadows! (The third of their trio will appear later this month)

To start, Washer at the Ford was the project name I had for what I wanted to become a bunch of kind of supernatural murder mysteries, but also it was the story of a girl who (somehow??) came into the possession of the soul of Jack, man who fooled the devil many times and then: got real drunk and died by drowning in a bog and then had to wander through purgatory holding a burning coal. And the Devil went "hey wait a second that soul is mine by rights" and wants it back. Looking at the scant notes I had for it and what I remember of the plotting, oh I could make it so much better now. But it is what it is and it's a low priority project to get back to. 

Fe is the daughter of the local witch, who used to do spirit work before her husband died. Fe herself can see/talk with spirits and ghosts. I unfortunately don't remember how her dad died, but it was a real bad accident and probably had to do with spirits. But her mom shut down everything regarding that after the accident and resorted mostly to doing apothecary and just general plant focused stuff. 

Fe dropped out of school after the accident when she was 13 in part due to ruthless bullying started by another student and also wanting to be with her mom. The other student started calling her "Ghost Girl" and while she's like "yeah I am" he said it in a way that was clearly out to make her something beneath all the other students and this coming at the same time as her mom leaving the spirit business and her father's death, it was just a little too much for a pre-teen to handle! So she left and never went back!! 

She's been trying to get her mom to deal with the grief and in so doing get back to her old practices, but Shelley is having None Of That. Especially now that a murder has happened in the small town, and the fiancée of the victim is saying that she saw a spirit washing his clothes in the river before he disappeared -- well, bean sidhes aren't native to Tennessee, so that's weird, huh?? Shelley does not find it weird and that girl should go to the police. And Fe is just "hm don't think they'll be able to help.... mayhaps.... I'll investigate on my own". 

Finn is probably a Northern Boy, who recently graduated from college and has moved down to live with his uncle and help at his church before he goes to seminary. I have in his character notes that he's got a "closely guarded secret" that was mostly just, he was in love with someone he shouldn't have been, and it got messy. But you know, it would be fun to do some Intense Southern Preacher vibes with his uncle that he gets wrapped up in -- especially since Fe doesn't like his uncle and i do really want to lean into the southern gothic vibes. 

When I originally started plotting for the story, he didn't have much of a personality at all. He was just tall (totally a personality trait) and serious especially when compared to Fe and Othello, but when I actually started writing it (hello 2012 nano) he immediately got a very charming if not a little self deprecating sense of humor and clicked well with Fe off the bat. She gets a huge crush on him from the jump, but he treats her politely and strictly as a friend. Which is fine, she realizes that he's just nice to her and she confused that with romantic feelings because she's not had enough genuinely nice friends in her life. So once they get that figured out, they're besties. 

It should also be noted that Finn has, what the Devil calls, a soul that is sweet and delicious to spirits. He is actually just a really good and nice guy and admittedly his previous love life wasn't too much sin to spoil the taste. 

Here's just some random scene between Fe + Finn for free on my patreon! (I suppose before they're friends with Othello lmao). I sure did read a few wiki pages to see what patron saint Finn would have on his token and the answer is Thomas Becket who is patron saint of diocesan priests but it doesn't come up at all because why would it. 

[mariacallous]

Barring an act of God, there’s no question who the official winner of Russia’s upcoming presidential election will be. But the leadup to the vote has brought with it a different, smaller mystery: why has Boris Nadezhdin, a 60-year-old former lawmaker whose campaign centers around his opposition to Putin and the war, been allowed to make it this far? According to Meduza’s sources, it was somewhat of an accident — and now the Putin administration wants Nadezhdin to leave the race of his own accord. But insiders from the presidential hopeful’s campaign say he has no intention of doing so. Meduza special correspondent Andrey Pertsev explains.

[The Kremlin’s politic bloc] held brainstorming sessions: they discussed the possibility of having a liberal candidate participate in the presidential race as a way to show the West, to show outside audiences, that these kinds of ideas are unpopular [in Russia]. It was supposed to be someone who’s well-known [in the West] but unknown to most of Russian society. The candidate would get 2–3 percent, and that would be it. But when they started mentally going through all the possibilities, it turned out that everyone who fit the bill either has dual citizenship, has been declared a “foreign agent,” or has bank accounts and real estate abroad. So they pulled the plug on the idea because it was unfeasible.

This account came from someone who took part in one of these Kremlin “brainstorms.” He said the Putin administration held these sessions several months ago, while the idea to include a “liberal candidate” in the 2024 presidential race first arose in early 2023. Another source who also attended the “brainstorming sessions” confirmed this description: “They talked about a lot of things and went through a lot of ideas, including this [the nomination of a ‘liberal’ candidate].”

A source close to the leadership of Russia’s ruling United Russia party also told Meduza that the Putin administration discussed allowing a “liberal” candidate to run, but that the authorities ultimately nixed the idea. “We barely even look over at the West anymore; it’s no use trying to prove something to them. And there wasn’t any domestic reason to do it, other than to increase voter turnout. But they determined that it would be easy to ‘make up’ these extra few percentage points by using multi-day voting,” said the source.

In October 2023, the Russian newspaper Vedomosti reported that the Kremlin was planning to add some variety to the presidential ballot by allowing a “liberal” candidate to run, naming former Ekho Moskvy editor-in-chief Alexey Venediktov as one possibility. Venediktov himself told journalists that he had no plans to join the race.

Around the same time, politician Boris Nadezhdin, a former associate of murdered opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, announced his own plans to run. (Nadezhdin has occasionally represented Russia’s “liberal opposition” on Russian state television in recent years, something that genuine opposition figures are generally not allowed to do.) “Unfortunately, everyone I would probably have supported if they had run is either no longer able to, like Nemtsov, or is in prison, or has left the country. So I have to do it myself,” he told journalists.

Two sources close to the Putin administration told Meduza that neither the Kremlin’s political bloc nor the political strategists it works with have provided any assistance to Boris Nadezhdin. At the same time, they said, the Kremlin’s information bloc — whose leader, Alexey Gromov, has a competitive relationship with political bloc leader Sergey Kiriyenko — did show interest in Nadezhdin’s campaign and briefly believed that by supporting “their own liberal,” they could contribute to Putin’s victory.

“[The Kremlin’s information bloc] had their first conversation with Nadezhdin [in early fall]. They’re in contact with Boris because of his [regular] participation in [propaganda] TV shows. But to reiterate: [Nadezhdin’s campaign] is not [Gromov’s] project. The discussion didn’t go any further. Everything was at the level of, ‘If something goes wrong, I can probably [help],’” said one of Meduza’s sources close to the Putin administration.

Nadezhdin himself has publicly insisted that he never discussed his candidacy with the Kremlin.

‘Boris was careful’

Initially, Nadezhdin refrained from making any anti-war or anti-Putin statements. In his campaign manifesto, he said that Russia needs to have a “Western orientation” and be “like a European country.” He even expressed agreement with several statements made by Vladimir Putin, including the idea that “the world of the 20th century is collapsing” as China and India prepare to surpass the West in the global order, and that this will give Russia a chance to become Europe’s “largest economy.”

An acquaintance of Nadezhdin told Meduza that at the time of those comments, Nadezhdin still expected the Putin administration to support his candidacy. “Boris was careful; he tried not to say anything too subversive for fear of scaring off [the Kremlin,]” said the source. According to this person, Nadezhdin was also hoping to increase his name recognition on the national level ahead of a possible run for Moscow City Duma in September 2024 or Russia’s State Duma in 2026.

But according to two sources close to the Putin administration, Nadezhdin was unable to convince the Kremlin’s political bloc to help him with his nomination. They believe that this was what “radicalized” the candidate, leading him to post slogans against the “special military operation” and the president himself on his website. One source from the Kremlin’s political bloc and two political strategists who have worked for the Kremlin told Meduza that Nadezhdin “categorically cannot be called a spoiler candidate or a coordinated candidate.”

“Any ‘technical candidate’s’ campaign has to have a supervisor [from the Putin administration], and preferably a political strategist. Representatives from these campaigns must attend meetings [with the administration] and compare notes. There’s nothing like that in Nadezhdin’s case, even though there was some past communication. […] There’s no way [the Kremlin] would have authorized his statements against the special military operation and Putin. They’re not suicidal,” said one source close to the Kremlin.

Several sources from Nadezhdin’s campaign also emphasized that the candidate’s team currently has no contact with the Putin administration or its political strategists. “There are a wide variety of people working here, from various campaigns. Some of them gained experience working with [opposition politician Maxim] Katz; others worked with Navalny’s offices. Most of them worked as volunteers or semi-volunteers. All of them are working out of sincere support,” said one source.

In January 2024, a number of well-known opposition politicians, bloggers, and experts living outside of Russia expressed support for Nadezhdin, including Maxim Katz, political scientist Ekaterina Schulmann, and supporters of Alexey Navalny, including his wife Yulia. Katz uploaded dozens of tweets calling for Russians to submit their signatures in support of the candidate, while Schulmann interviewed him for her YouTube channel.

Politician Lyubov Sobol, who works for Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, said Nadezhdin’s sudden popularity is a result of the fact that he “gives people a chance to show that Russian society has a demand for political representation and new voices.”

By late January, thousands of Russians were lining up throughout the country and abroad to add their signatures in support of Nadezhdin’s candidacy. As of January 26, the campaign has collected approximately 200,000 signatures — twice as many as he needs to officially join the race.

Now, the campaign’s lawyers are tasked with verifying each of the signatures and submitting them to the country’s Central Election Commission by January 31. A source who monitored the signature collection process for Nadezhdin’s candidacy told Meduza that some of the signatures have “obvious flaws”: they’re “real signatures, but crossed out.”

‘He’ll be thrown out like a hot potato’

The Kremlin’s political bloc, which oversees presidential elections, finds this situation troubling. One source close to the Putin administration told Meduza that the bloc hopes that Nadezhdin himself will decide not to turn the signatures in and either say that too many of them had errors or that the campaign failed to meet the required regional quotas. “In this case, they would be willing to offer him something [in return]. But the desire to make a trade is fading: [Nadezhdin’s] behavior is veering too far from the system,” he said.

But according to an acquaintance of Nadezhdin and a person who works in his campaign, Nadezhdin still has every intention of turning in the signatures and registering his candidacy. “He’s really in it now; it’s become a real battle for him,” one source said. Whether and how he’ll actually manage to get on the ballot, however, is unclear. ��His radicalization and the support from opposition figures abroad have definitely not increased the odds of him being allowed to register,” a source close to the Putin administration told Meduza.

According to the source and one of their colleagues, the president’s staff has no intention of letting the Central Election Commission register any candidates who oppose the war. “There’s a portion of the electorate that wants the war to end. If [Putin’s opponent in the elections] decides to cater to this demand, they may get a decent percentage. And [the Putin administration] doesn’t need that,” said one source.

As Meduza has previously reported, in the 2024 elections, the Putin administration wants Vladimir Putin to receive about 80 percent of the official vote, with a turnout of at least 79 percent. According to Meduza’s sources, an “anti-war candidate” like Nadezhdin could make it difficult to achieve these results, even with the help of electronic ballots and multi-day voting.

At the same time, the Kremlin is not concerned about possible protests in response to Nadezhdin being blocked from running. “Everyone has already forgotten about [Ekaterina] Duntsova, and her case didn’t cause protests. This won’t [either],” a source from the political bloc told Meduza. Nonetheless, the Kremlin views voters’ enthusiasm for Nadezhdin’s candidacy as “fairly problematic”: “It’s become clear that people are eager for something new — that’s a very unpleasant effect.”

The Kremlin expects Nadezhdin’s voters to redirect their support to Vladislav Davankov, the nominee for the Kremlin-approved “liberal” party New People. “Obviously, his campaign won’t have anything explicitly anti-war or anti-president,” a source close to the party told Meduza.

According to a source from the Putin administration, Nadezhdin shouldn’t count on any support from the Kremlin’s information bloc or its leader, Alexey Gromov. “Hypothetically, someone who supports letting him register could convince the president that they need Nadezhdin for some reason. But that’s very unlikely,” said the source.

A political strategist who works with the Putin administration and with several Russian governors said he agreed. In his opinion, the Kremlin’s information bloc didn’t “choose the wrong candidate to promote,” but it did make the mistake of failing to state its intentions clearly. “The situation took a wrong turn,” he said. “There’s a problem, therefore someone must be to blame: the people who proposed having a ‘liberal on the ballot.’ […] The result will be them flinging Nadezhdin around like a hot potato, casting the blame on others.”

[sims2wildrotations]

Grunt family, Rotation 1 (Spring)

onto the grunts! i wonder what they'll find. sorry for the late upload, this took forever.

its early monday morning when the yapping of a dog wakes the grunt family. General Buzz presumes its one of the strays rummaging through the trash again, so he storms out to shoo it away. It wasn't a theiving stray, though, it was a small black dog yapping mentally over an unconscious man- no, not man, boy. older than his own son, but significantly younger than the general. he approached and gave the stranger a look over, only to bear witness to the myriad of scars covering his body, one even cutting through his hair. the boy was even missing a finger on one hand, and the other hand was curled in an unnaturally stiff fashion for someone who was unconscious. that wasn't even covering the scorched clothes and arms so thin he could almost see where the bones were. Without hesitation, he called Tank over and got him to help carry the stranger inside.

but, a stranger wouldn't stop their daily routine, so buzz and tank went through their morning obstacle course as ripp was put in charge of watching over the boy. Buck, on the other hand, was busy playing with the dog and seeing what tricks it knew. turns out, the little dog was very protective of its apparent owner.

the stranger hadn't awoken by the time breakfast was made, and they didn't try wake him, so buzz put some in the fridge in case he woke up before dinner. seeing the boy's face now, he noticed the scars across his nose and jaw, too clean and precise to be from an accident. he had a very bad feeling about this, but he wasn't one to break regime, so he kept his boys on track as he waited. he had the day off anyway.

unfortunately, he couldnt keep his attention on the boy, as while buck and the dog were playing outside, a sudden strike of lightning- in a perfectly blue, unclouded sky- struck the tree and almost struck buck. he raced outside the moment he heard his boy scream, followed on his heels by tank and, surprisingly, ripp. In a cloud of spray, the fire was extinguished, by Tank. Buzz praised him for his quick reaction, and checked Buck over for injuries. thankfully, nobody was hurt, though the little dog was shaking out of its fur. He ordered the two to play inside for the rest of the day, while he investigated the mystery lightning. He knew Tank and Ripp would be heading to work soon, so he didn't give them any orders, instead stomping up his watch tower and using his alien-proofed telescope to scan the skies for the spaceship that must've caused it. were they trying to abduct buck? they better had not.

as he watched ripp and tank safely get into their respective work cars, he saw buck waving him over from the ground, and he hurried down. the stranger woke up, buck told him, and wasn't well at all. in fact, he had scrambled into buzz's room and barricaded the door. which, in buzz's opinion, wasn't the worst reaction he'd seen from someone as scarred as the stranger. he'd seen soldiers knock people out from instinct when waking up in medical tents or barracks. he told buck to go play in his room, and investigated. he approached the situation in the manner he did when his ex-soldiers were triggered into flashbacks, carefully and calmly. despite everyone's beliefs, buzz was in fact capable of calmness. he spoke through the door, explaining how he found him face down in the sand with a dog. the boy only answered with one word, 'dog?', and buzz told him the dog was with him and didn't seem hurt. he didn't bring up the lightning. it took a while to get the boy out of his room, but eventually, buzz heard the barricade be moved, and the door creaked open, just slightly. through the gap, the boy asked, still in few words, who he was. he gave his name and title, and asked the same. the boy paused, and answered very quietly, 'nervous subject'

that. wasnt a name. in seconds, buzz realised why he was so scarred. he wasn't a soldier, not even a regular abuse victim, he was a test subject. though, the question he had was, for humans or for aliens? the boy seemed human, he didn't have the unblinking effect the smiths had, in fact, he was blinking with too much frequency, as if his eyes hurt. buzz didn't want to call him by a subject name, but he didn't have anything else to call him, but before he could speak, nervous asked if he could have his dog back. well, he actually just pointed to the dog and said 'give', but buzz got the message. he could appreciate the bluntness. buzz stepped aside and let the dog squeeze through the gap. unfortunately, though, the door closed soon after. he was awake and alive, at least. he'd probably be hungry, though, so buzz took the breakfast leftovers and left them at the door, and something he was pretty sure was edible for the dog. he never owned a dog, never liked them outside of the sniffers and attack dogs the military had. he'd have to get some food for it soon, though.

he spent the rest of the afternoon as he usually did, working out, but when he came down to check on the boy, he found the empty plate sitting outside of the door. well, at least he ate it. buzz figured he wasn't sleeping in his own bed tonight, but he was in the army, he'd slept in worse places than the couch. he'd rather take the couch than trying to force the scared boy out of the room and risking him getting violent, or running away. there were too many damn aliens in this place to risk it, that and they were in the middle of a desert in the quite literal road to nowhere, he'd drop dead from the heat before he got anywhere near the next town.

when ripp and tank returned home that evening, buzz had to give a rather stern telling off to ripp, who had ignored a customer at work and got his pay docked for it. this, as usual, didn't have much of an effect past making both of them angrier, but when he heard Nervous barricading the door again, he ended the conversation and instead began preparing dinner, as Buck started firing off questions about their locked-in discovery. Buzz explained, with no sugarcoating, the situation, and couldn't stop Buck from running over to the bedroom door and trying to talk to Nervous through it. he shared a look with Tank that got the boy to keep an eye on his brother while Buzz cooked. Once dinner was served, Buck took a plate of it and left it outside of Nervous' door. For once, Ripp actually sat with the rest of them as they discussed the newcomer. Buck, the kind boy he was, wanted to befriend him, while Tank was cautious, obviously concerned, but suggesting that whoever had Nervous captive before might come find him. Ripp didn't say much, but he didn't argue, so they collectively took it as agreement. Buzz assured them that if anyone tried to take Nervous anywhere, he'd deal with them. Especially the Smiths. With that agreed upon, they all went to bed.

Buzz woke up in the middle of the night, and did his usual routine of checking in on his boys. As he came back down the stairs, though, he found Nervous standing in the kitchen, arms full of (Ripp's) crisps, and looking petrified. Buzz quickly did a once over of the situation before him, the boy was hungry, but didn't trust them enough to ask. that was expected. however, he was familiar enough with house layouts to find and steal from the kitchen. now, he had the face of someone who thought they were about to be killed. he had probably had to steal food from whoever had him before, and had been punished for it, he probably had a restricted diet they controlled. no wonder he was so thin. With this information, Buzz did not approach, nor take the food from him. he asked if he was hungry, getting a nod, and offered him cereal. Nervous blinked at him, as if he didn't know what he was on about. Did he not know what cereal was? Buzz did not ask, instead moving around him, avoiding any sort of contact, as he made him a bowl of cereal, and asked him to put the crisps down. Nervous kind of eyed the bowl, then looked at Buzz and, without looking away from him, gently put the crisps onto the counter, took the bowl, and backed away until he was out of buzz' sight, and heard the door close.

Hopefully, that was a start, but as Buzz tried to go back asleep, he couldn't help remember the glazed-over fear in the boy's eyes, he'd seen that too many times in soldiers. that wasn't just a fear reaction, that was a flashback waiting to happen. seemingly, he hadn't set him off, though, so it gave him some comfort. not much, but some.

the next day, he didn't see much of Nervous, but the dog had been released from the room at some point in the night, so they fed him that morning before they went to school and work respectively. Buzz knew leaving him on his own might not go well, but he wanted to see what he would do when left to his own devices. He had security cameras nearly everywhere in and out of his house anyway, so anyone coming or going would be picked up on it. meanwhile, with Nervous, he heard everyone leave close together, but he didn't know their schedule, so he had no clue when they'd be back. he didn't like that, he felt like he had even less control here than he did at the Beakers. maybe he should go back, maybe outside of the lab was even more dangerous than they were, maybe- after half an hour of a panic attack, Nervous found one of the phones and called Pascal, who was worried sick about him. he told him how he'd escaped, but now some strange family had him. He was confused when Pascal's immediate question was 'were they green' and Nervous said they wore a lot of green, and one of them had green streaks on his face. This must have been the wrong answer, as Pascal seemed to panic. He asked question after question about if he was okay, had they hurt him, had they yelled at him, but Nervous, confused and starting to panic over Pascal's panic, said they hadn't touched him, they'd fed him more than once, and he heard yelling but it wasn't at him. He said he didn't feel well, but he recalled that he had probably been injured by the broken machine in the lab before he ran. Pascal told him to stay put and he'd come over when they got home. Nervous told him not to get hurt. For the rest of the day, Nervous didn't leave the house, but did look around at all the rooms. there were four beds, which seemed to track with the four voices he had distinguished from behind the door. There was the oldest one, he didn't seem far off Loki's age, he didn't seem outwardly dangerous but he was the one who was yelling, so he didn't trust him. There were two others, they seemed younger than Nervous, but he hadn't seem them yet, so he didn't trust them either, and then there was the youngest one, or at least he sounded the youngest. He sounded quite small, based on where his voice came through the door from, and he was quite nice. He told him last night that his dog was very cute and he hoped they could be friends, and that he had brought him dinner. It was good food, not the half-rotted stuff the Beakers gave him, or the stale crisps he took from the fridge. It was good, and Nervous only woke up once in the night, hungry. Usually it was more than that. The youngest one reminded him a bit of Pascal, so he decided to trust the boy, at least a little more than the other three. He wouldn't risk sticking his neck out too far, though. After that, he didn't do much. didn't have much to do, except wait for them to return. It didn't take long, as three of them showed up far earlier than Loki and Circe ever did, and Nervous had to scramble to get back to the room before they stepped through the door. Worse yet, he heard more voices than yesterday. Had they been working overnight like Circe? he didn't see anywhere anyone else could sleep in, but he didn't know the layout well, he couldn't be certain. he barricaded the door again, just to be safe.

Fucking shit. Buzz had gotten demoted and sent home early for a satellite problem he hadn't had the space knowledge to fix quickly enough. On top of that, both of his teenaged sons had brought someone back from school, and he still had Nervous to deal with. He prayed the boy had behaved while they were gone. He half expected something to be broken when he stepped into the house, but instead, he found it almost the exact same. Almost, things had been visibly touched and put back down, but nothing broken, nothing stolen, his prayers had been answered. He was, quite frankly, exhausted, and his son had a friend over, so he didn't run him through the course, instead sitting up in his watch tower to observe and wait until Buck came back. Maybe his son's more socialable attitude could coax Nervous out of his room. He'd really like some proper sleep. Once Buck did come home- with an A+ and no friend trailing behind him- Buzz sent him over to negotiate with the anxious man currently holding his room basically hostage. As he did that, Buzz started on dinner, and definitely didn't nearly set anything on fire.

Thankfully, the friends left just before dinner was finished, so he didn't have to cook for more people. good, he had only cooked for the five of them, anyway. Much to his shock, though, he found Nervous sitting on the far side of the second table, away from where the rest of them sat. He didn't react, though, and simply placed his plate down and continued. He watched from his peripheral as Nervous slowly ate, as if it was poisoned, and then scarf it down after a second of some kind of realisation. He recongised that hurry, that was the hurry of a starved man who knew it would be taken away. He mulled over the best way to try talk to him, when Buck beat him to it and introduced them all to him. Nervous looked over each of them with caution, and it was only then did Buzz notice the twitching in his hands, and the…oddness he generally gave off. For a moment, he considered if he was an alien, but he'd been watching him through the cameras all day and he hadn't transformed into anything else, hadn't adjusted himself the way the aliens did when they had something wrong with their disguise, he was, as far as Buzz could tell, human. weird, but human. He could tolerate human weirdness more than alien existence, and while he wanted to tell him to stop being weird, he knew that would scare him off, so he tightened his jaw and kept quiet, letting his socialable son take the lead. Slowly, Ripp entered the conversation, and asked Nervous about the stuff he liked. Nervous only had three things he liked, apparently; dogs, stars, and writing. Buzz was almost surprised he could write, but he only shared a subtly surprised look with Tank, who returned it. The rest of the dinner went smoothly, though Nervous didn't stop looking cautious and afraid, he said a few sentences here and there, never starting any without being asked first. Then, at the end of the meal, he gestured for Buck to come over, and whispered something to him. Buck passed it onto Buzz, and asked if Nervous could have seconds. Buzz was uncomfortable looking at how thin the boy was, so getting any food in him was good.

With a second plate given to Nervous, Ripp vanished off to his room, while Buzz took Tank to do a night run of the course. Buck should, technically, be asleep, but Nervous hadn't fleed to the room immediately, so Buck was keeping him distracted for now. that night, Buzz successfully slept in his own room, while Nervous took the couch. Nervous also didn't get up that night when Buzz checked over his boys, so he considered it a success. Hopefully, he could get some answers out of the boy in the morning.

That morning, Nervous ate with them again, sitting a chair closer, but still on the other table. He and Tank talked this time, in the few-words-at-a-time way that seemed to just be how Nervous talked. Buzz didn't like the name, but he supposed Nervous was an accurate name, at least. The four of them told him goodbye when they left, this time, and Buzz told him he and Buck would be back by 3, and the teenagers would be back by 1. Nervous seemed to understand this, so Buzz filed 'concept of time' under things the boy understood. He did wonder, briefly as he left for work, if Nervous had ever come across a military time clock before.

As soon as the Grunts, which was what Buck had said their last name was, left, he called Pascal. his friend hadn't appeared yesterday, and he was worried. Pascal apologised before Nervous could even say anything, and explained how he saw they had company round, and didn't think it was safe enough. He promised to show up this time. Nervous wasn't angry, he had also hid at the sight of the people through the window, and Pascal had the pregnancy to worry about. He didn't know much about pregnancy, but he couldn't imagine getting hurt was good for it. He was still untrusting with the Grunts, not afraid, but not trusting of them either. Buck seemed good, Ripp was okay, Tank seemed nice but they hadn't talked much, and Buzz….scared him. He was nearly the same height as Nervous- a feat, considering he was somewhere over 6 foot, according to Circe, and was far stronger looking than him. Thankfully, Pascal held true to his word, and showed up just as Buzz and Buck came back, and just after Tank and Ripp left again. What he didn't realise, however, was that Pascal was not fond of the Grunts, and the Grunts were not fond of him.

When Buzz arrived home, he saw Pascal Curious waiting at the door. What the fuck did he want? He may have been the Curious that Buzz disliked the least, but it didn't mean he could show up on his doorstep unannounced. Admittedly, Buzz wasn't in a great mood when he asked Pascal why he was here, and came off less 'your on my property unauthorisied' and more 'get the fuck off my property' Pascal, in an act of unusual bravery, told him to shut the fuck up. That stunned Buzz into silence, as Pascal told him he was here for Nervous. Buzz was quickly snapped out of his silence and told Pascal that if he and alien spawn ever touched Nervous, it'd be him they'd answer to. This escalated into an argument, one that continued until Nervous threw the door open and shoved Buzz directly off of the porch and down its (thankfully three) stairs. He wasn't hurt, but only at that moment did he actually take in the fact Nervous was taller than him, and by more than an inch. From the bottom of the stairs, his shadow casted over him in the evening light, Nervous looked almost dangerous. Almost. the tremble in his hands and the masked fear in his eyes told him otherwise, not to mention the way Nervous stumbled back when Buzz got up. What really concerned him was when Nervous, clearly thinking he would be punished, did not try to ask for mercy, or beg, or anything of the sort, but instead apologised in a voice so quiet Buzz barely picked it up, and seemingly tried to fold in on himself to make himself smaller.

Pascal got inbetween them, and told Buzz to let him go. Buzz told him to get away from Nervous. The tension was palpable until Buck ran over and told them, with a sternness Buzz was proud of, to stop fighting. Buck asked Pascal why he was here, and Pascal said Nervous called him. Pascal asks why they have Nervous, and Buck says his brother and father found him outside and brought him in. Nobody seemed to notice Nervous having a panic attack until Pascal suddenly turned around and started talking him down from it. After Nervous was calmer, the four of them sat at the table, Buck and Buzz on one side and Nervous and Pascal on the other, and got both sides of the situation. Pascal did not explain Nervous' past, but considering how shaky the tortured boy was getting, Buzz didn't fancy pushing him past his limit. Eventually, they came to an agreement. It was made very clear that the Grunts still didn't like the Curiouses, but that Pascal can visit whenever he wants, and Nervous can leave at any time.

As the agreements wrapped up, Tank and Ripp arrived home, and Ripp had brought a friend with him. Wonderful, another thing for Buzz to deal with. Nervous vanished off to talk to Pascal, so Buzz went to call Tank over for a training session, when Ripp stopped him. He introduced the guy with him as Avri Bruenig, his boyfriend. Wait, what. Ripp shrank back at his father's expression, and wondered if he had misread his father. shit. shitshitshit- Buzz, on the other hand, was running through his entire life experience, wondering where he had missed the fact his son was gay. he had raised him as a good, proper military boy, but no, he had to go and get into the wrong crowd, and now this But he stopped, when he saw Ripp start to back away, as if Buzz was going to hit him. Of course he wouldn't, he had never raised a hand to his children and he never intended to, so why would-

oh. he made him think he would.

From over Ripp's shoulder, he could see Tank tensed up, as if ready to get inbetween them. He could see Pascal and Nervous through the window, watching in fear. shit. had he really gave them that impression? after far, far too long of a pause, Buzz held a hand out to Avri. Avri took it, and everyone visibly relaxed, some more than others. Once everyone was inside, it was clear neither Avri nor Pascal were leaving for the night, so Buzz cooked dinner for the lot of them, and did his best to start conversation. with Avri, at least, he still wasn't a fan of the Curiouses.

the next morning, avri and pascal stayed for breakfast before leaving, and the grunts followed soon after, leaving Nervous on his own again. this time, he felt safer, and cautiously explored the outside of the house. he stayed very far away from the large, scary tower and investigated the odd obstacle thing in the backyard. then, he found these weird colorful things, and figured out you sat on them and they moved. he didnt figure out much of its purpose past that, but he liked the gentle swaying it caused, so he sat there for a while. then, he spent the rest of the day playing fetch with the dog, who still hadn't been named. Scout, Tank suggested as he left for work. Scout. that sounded good. He didn't know what a Scout was, but he also didnt know what a Tank was, so he presumed it was a good name.

When the Grunts got back, Nervous discovered what a birthday was. It was, as implied, the day of someone's birth. Nervous presumed birth was the end of pregnant, but nobody clarified this to him, so he was mildly confused the whole time as the Grunts celebrated Buck's birthday, which was important. for some reason. he didnt know why. At dinner, Ripp told his father he was going to go to college. this was actually a concept Nervous had heard of, he'd overheard Loki and Circe talk about their 'degrees' they got at 'college', which related to their lab. As far as Nervous knew, college had to do with labs, but he didnt know if Ripp knew that, so he just…watched him cautiously throughout the dinner.

Buzz was almost certain Nervous didnt know what college was, as the moment Ripp announced it (which Buzz was glad he had some idea of a future), Nervous started glaring at him. Buck leaned over in his chair and whispered an explanation to Nervous, which calmed him down somewhat, but not much. At least he didn't run. Surprisingly, though, Nervous asked an unprompted question, he asked if everyone has parents. They told him yes, and Nervous asked how many. They said two. Nervous then asked where their second was, and-

their dad locked up immediately. The boys had varying reactions to the question, Tank tensed and went quiet, Ripp turned away from him entirely, and Buck hunched over in discomfort, but took the reigns with the question and, very carefully worded, explained that their mom wasn't around anymore. Nervous asked where she went, and Buck said he doesnt know. Nervous goes quiet and thoughtful for a minute, before saying he doesn't think he had any. Buck asked what he meant, and Nervous said that 'they' had told him he was made in a test tube, but they had also told him he was made by someone else. Buck asks who 'they' are, and Nervous goes quiet. Tank breaks the tense silence by declaring he was going to bed, quickly followed by Ripp, who said he should get working on the applications. Nervous and their father said nothing as they left. Buck trailed off upstairs quietly, and called up the one friend his father didn't know he had; Jill Smith. he liked Jill.

Meanwhile, Buzz laid in bed, wide awake, recalling the moment his wife left over, and over, and over. his thoughts flitted about all night, from lyla, to what nervous might have been subjected to, to trying to pinpoint the moment he made his sons think he would hurt them. he even considered Pascal, and how he knew of Nervous in the first place. He had many questions, but after that dinner, he didnt think any of them were ready to talk. Who was he kidding, none of them were ever ready to talk. If he had been, Lyla wouldn't have left.

They were so not-ready to talk that Ripp took his stuff and vanished in the night, in a cab on the way to simstate university. He had left a note, he didn't want his brothers to worry, but he didn't care if he worried his father anymore. And as soon as he got to college, he'd be quitting his stupid fucking job and getting away from his controlling ass father. Yeah, he didn't batter him over his boyfriend, fuckin woo, but that wasn't enough to make up for the years of sternness and trying to force him into a life path he didn't fucking want. and, to top it off, he was getting rid of his stupid fucking name. Ripp Grunt was no more. Rowan left the Grunt household, followed by his boyfriend.

That morning, the Grunt boys (and Nervous) awoke to a panicked, furious Buzz, who started furiously questioning where he went wrong the moment the three of them came downstairs. Nervous shrunk back from him, but Tank took initiative and asked what happened. Buzz shows him the note, and demands to know why he wouldnt tell him. After reading Ripp's note, and seeing how brave his brother was, he decides to be a good future general, and tell it straight. he stops his father from his pacing, and unloads onto him everything. how he always wanted to impress him but nothing he did ever seemed good enough, how he always went at Ripp for not living up to what he wanted, but Tank's tried so hard for his whole to live up to the expectations that Buzz had for him and his brother but it never seemed t work and- and Buzz hugged him.

He had no idea how he had been so stupid. How he had missed it all this time. Buzz apologises for all of it, and tells him he never wanted to hurt his sons, he wanted them to live good, stable lives and he thought if they were all army they'd have something to work towards. He never realised, never noticed, it wasn't what they wanted. Tank tells him he does want to be military, but he wants to do other things too. Buck steps in and admits he doesn't want to be in the army either, he wants to be a musician, and he wants to befriend the Smiths. Buzz almost gets angry, but Tank admits he wouldn't mind getting to know them as well. Buck asks why he even hates aliens that much, and Buzz tells him their unnatural, their weird, and Buck asks if he hates Nervous too, then. cuz Nervous is weird, theres no denying it. Buzz stops and looks over at Nervous, whos hiding behind the stair railings. He says no. Buck tells him to give the smiths a chance, and the curiouses. He admits to being friends with Jill, and tells him she and her dad are nice, that he's met Polly and he isn't that bad. Buzz seems begruding, but says he'll try. Tank suggests having a barbecue and inviting them over. Buck agrees with this idea.

Buzz gives in and agrees, still not comfortable with the concept of mingling with aliens, but if not doing so hurt his sons, he'd do it. First, though, he wanted to get Nervous actually moved in. It didn't take long, as Ripp's unfortunate leaving left a room empty, but Buzz ordered a new bed to be delivered, in case Ripp ever wanted to return. later that day, they celebrated Tank's birthday, after he got promoted at his job.

the next day went well, they agreed to have the party on saturday, tank continued his course training, buzz contemplated many things, and nervous got back to writing in his diary. it was a new diary, he had left the old one behind, but now it was good memories. Buzz even got Buck a violin for his music ambitions. While Buzz and Buck were away, Tank had the day off, and called round his crush, Laura Monif. 'Crush' quickly became 'Girlfriend', and Buzz met her once he got back. Unfortunately, Laura wasn't fond of him, but with the newfound information Buzz had gotten, he couldn't blame her. Buck, meanwhile, got a job at a record shop, one step closer to his dream of being a musician. That evening, as everyone was heading to their beds, Nervous pulled Tank aside and asked what counted as a father. Tank told him as best he knew. When Nervous and Buck went up the stairs, Buck said 'goodnight, dad', and Nervous repeated it.

Buzz froze from where he was cleaning the dishes. Nervous had called him dad. He didn't know how to feel about that, he had just lost one son from his bad parenting, but now, he seems to have gained another. Had he really treated Nervous better than his own blood? He never thought he was ever that bad to them, so, before Tank followed his brother(s?), Buzz stopped him, and asked as much, if he had been a bad father. Tank hesitated, and, as if worried he'd anger Buzz, admitted that he 'sometimes acted the way he said grandfather had'. Buzz left for his bed without a word, and Tank hesitated on staying up, instead deciding to do some night laps of the course. Buzz laid in bed, recalling his own childhood, and his own father. his father hadn't been good to his momma, he remembered the beatings he would get whenever he tried to protect her. or any time his father was angry, really, but it had always been his fault. before he learnt otherwise, he always tried to get his father to play when he came back from work, but obviously, the hard-working general never wanted to, and usually snapped at him to go away. He was, admittedly, a bit lonely when he was young, it was part of why he wanted more than one kid, so when he was off at work they'd have someone else to play with. but his father wasnt bad to him, sure, he got beaten, and had his fair share of verbal repremands, but his father was a general, a highly respected, overworked general at the height of a war. of course he got angry at him, Buzz hadn't exactly been a star child. His momma always said he had his father's brawn, but, looking back at it, he uncovered memories he had pushed away a long time ago, ones of him as a young boy wanting nothing more than to play with his father. of a teenage boy with his friends, learning how not to flinch at a hit. of a young man trailing after his father in his first military camp, desperate to prove himself. and he remembered lyla, the saving grace he had from his father, how often she'd help hide his bruises when they met up before school. At his father's funeral, dozens of soldiers had shown up for it, but Buzz hadn't. He had been stationed at the time, but there was something deep in his chest that didn't want him to go to it. His mother had outlived him, and he'd never seen her smile so brightly as she did after his father was gone. She had gotten very sick after Tank was born, but her smile didn't fade, especially not when she met her grandson. She had died before Tank could walk, and Buzz had taken time off to attend her funeral. he had shed tears at it. He hadn't for his father.

Would that be him? If he died at war, would Ripp attend his funeral? If Lyla hadn't left, would she smile brighter after his death? Is she smiling brighter now, wherever she had moved to? And was that General, the stubborn, stern man his father was, what his kids saw when they looked at him? god, he had fucked up. But now Ripp was gone, and Buzz had a scared, traumatised young man living under his roof, one that had already witnessed every horror a civillian could. He prayed he could fix things with Ripp, but until he knew how to get to him, he still had two- no, three sons living with him that he could fix things with, one he hadn't done anything wrong to yet. He wouldn't fuck it up this time.

The next morning, Buzz gave a genuine apology to his sons, and told Nervous he would be welcome to join the family. He didn't have to change his name, if he didn't want to, but he'd be part of the Grunts. Nervous didn't seem to grasp it for a minute, but when he did, he nodded. still cautious, but it was good. Tank and Buck accepted this with ease, but when Tank made a comment about not being the eldest anymore, he asked Nervous how old he was, and Nervous sort of just…shrugged.

Nervous didn't know his age, he only had estimations based on the Grunts, the Beakers, and Pascal. He was younger than Buzz, the Beakers, and Pascal, but older than Buck, and he was fairly sure older than Tank and Ripp. But he didn't really have anything specific to go off of. So, when asked about it, he shrugged and asked how old Tank was. 18, apparently. No, he was older than that. He very, very vaguely remembered hearing Circe mention it had been 'over 20 years' since she became a scientist, in the celebration of what he realised now was a promotion. So he was at least 20, but anything past that was beyond him. So he answered 20, he thinks. The Grunts- no, they clearly noticed the pause and calculation, but thankfully nobody tried to press on it- he wasn't up for remembering much more of the lab then he just had. Instead, Tank grinned and called him big brother. Huh. he was a big brother now. If he understood the stuff about 'family dynamics' he had picked up since coming here, he now had a dad and two- no, three brothers. Like Pascal did. Nervous smiled, Pascal would be really happy to hear about this.

As breakfast was wrapped up, Buck was selected to call the Smiths and Curiouses round for the barbacue. Unfortunately, the Curiouses couldn't come, as Pascal was apparently very sick, so it would just be the Smiths arriving. Buzz still wasn't a fan of this idea, but had realised he had learnt it from his father, and it wasn't actually a very good reason to hate an entire family for some 30 odd years. That didn't mean he was comfortable interacting with aliens, but he'd try. for his kids. To his surprise, all three of them actually showed up, which Buzz half thought they wouldn't show at all. Buzz instinctively tensed when he saw the aliens- no, when he saw Johnny and his father. But, with an encouraging look from Buck, he offered a handshake to Polly and- he accepted it. He expected an alien to feel more…scaly, but he didn't. really, really cold, but nothing awful. Buzz didn't have a damn clue how to begin fixing decades of resentment, but Polly was a father, so he asked the only thing he could of; he asked how the kids were. Polly was shockingly receptive to this, and they quickly got into conversation about their respective children, about Polly's wife Jenny, and mututal bragging about their sons' success in careers. Unfortunately, half the neighbourhood caught wind of the barbacue, and decided to show up unannounced. Buzz decided to let it happen, though he lost track of Polly when someone pulled him into a coversation.

Nervous, on the other hand, was, well, nervous. He had heard of aliens from Pascal, who must be getting close to that birth thing by now, but he'd never met one. He didnt' want to hide in his room this time, though. If Pascal was going to have one, he wanted to get used to them before the kid arrived. He wasn't afraid of them, he was actually kind of okay with them, but they were still new people he had no information on, so he hung about by doorways and corners, waiting for someone to talk to him. Thankfully, the seemingly older of the two aliens- the one Buzz had been talking to- started up a conversation with him as he came in from outside. He was nice, really nice. And he didn't give any weird looks or concerned expressions when he saw Nervous' twitching. He looked a bit concerned about the scars, but he'd gathered by then that scars like his weren't normally so big, or on anyone at all. He hoped not, he didn't like the idea of other people having Beakers in their lives.

As the barbacue continued, Buck was called out for his first shift at work, leaving Buzz, Tank, and Nervous to befriend the Smiths on their own. Buzz made some hotdogs on the grill he forgot he owned, and ate them over conversation with Nervous, Polly, and Johnny. They really weren't that bad, sure, they moved in unnerving ways sometimes, but so did Nervous, and Buzz had grown used to the twitching and blinking- or, in the Smiths' case, unblinking. He found out many things about Polly that day, he had picked earth in particular to retire to because he loved it so much, he was debating having one last child, he really hated ice cream sundaes, and his favourite game was american football. Buzz excused himself, and found the old pigskin that sat in his room, and came back to ask Polly if he'd like a match. Turns out, Polly is very competitive. and very good at catch. For an apparently elderly alien, he was scarily good. Tank and Johnny cheered them on from the sidelines. Speaking of Tank and Johnny, their meeting hadn't gone as well, with some yelling and shoving from both sides, but when they saw their fathers talking outside, they begrudingly started up conversation. Like their dads, they had stuff in common. less stuff, but still some. Apparently, it was Johnny's birthday coming up. Tank made a mental note of that.

The two boys also got involved in the game, but not on the side of their dads. No, they teamed up together, forcing their dads to team up together as well. By the time the sun went down, everyone was on decent terms, and went home pretty damn happy. Buzz was happy with this outcome, he had admittedly snapped at Polly a few times during the game, but that was the General Buzz side of him- one he also needed to work on, apparently. Though, there was one of the neighbourhood women at the barbacue that kept talking to him, constantly. He didn't mind it, necessarily, he just found it odd. At dinner, Tank expressed his happiness over befriending Johnny, saying he was a cool guy. Buzz mentioned the lady that had talked to him, and Tank very bluntly told him she liked him. Buzz did not believe this concept, so Tank didn't try. Instead, he told his father about how he was to be stationed in an active battle zone soon. He was excited to finally get a chance to fight, and, even though he now knew his dad didn't need it, he wanted to prove that he could. After 18 years of training, he finally had the chance to show his dad he could do something brave. Buzz, on the other hand, was nervous about it. Extremely proud, of course, but nervous. Soldiers didnt usually come home the same. But, if Tank really did want to follow his footsteps, he'd let him. He wasn't to be stationed with him, so he gave him some advice on the generals and types of soldiers he'd probably encounter.

So, only three days later (with nothing much happening inbetween), Tank hugged his father and brothers before heading off in the army truck that came to pick him up, on his way to fight his very first battle. as Buzz watched the vehichle drive away, he jolted as Buck hugged him. 'he'll be okay, won't he?' Buck asked. of course he would, buzz told him, he was a grunt.

In the days leading up to Tank leaving, Nervous got more comfortable with starting conversation. So, when Tank did leave, he asked Buzz to teach him to cook. He liked Buzz' cooking, but he didn't want to rely on other people deciding when he ate. They had a good time, learning how to make a few different meals. Even when Nervous nearly set it on fire. Nervous also decided he wanted to learn to write- not in a general sense, he already knew how to write letters and words, but he wanted to write a story. He wasn't sure what, yet, but he wanted to learn. He wanted it to be about aliens, he knew that much, and he wanted it to be happy.

---

So, as we leave the Grunts, i hope nothing goes wrong while we're away. Because that would be a real shame.

(Foreshadowing is a tool commonly u-)

Next, we'll see how the Curiouses are doing, and how Pascal feels about this whole situation.

[h0ney-letters]

hi

About me (kinda)

Age: 24

Pronouns: she/her

Main blog: @h0neyfreak

Genre/style: literary fiction, speculative fiction, creative nonfiction, flash fiction, poetry. I would also love to one day write a themed cozy mystery series under a pen name that sounds so fun.

Published?: no, not sure if I want to or if I just want to write for fun. I’ll probably submit things to some journals eventually and maybe self-publish if I ever write anything longer

Other hobbies/interests: knitting, drawing (traditional and digital), painting (oils mostly), ttrpgs (currently DMing a MOTW campaign), and I’m a casual Formula 1 fan

cw tags: I’ll always tag explicit depictions of rape, gore, and violence as “#cw: [subject]”

(Some of my) favorite books:

Madness is Better than Defeat by Ned Beauman

The Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan

Series of Unfortunate Events series by Lemony Snicket

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (but only the Constance Garnett translation)

The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh

Who is Maud Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

Current wips (updated monthly) (current ver. Oct 2023):

Long work 1: Every Reason Why. A novel following a waitress as she gets into an abusive relationship interwoven with anecdotes from her life before her abuser (going back to childhood) building two parallel stories. ~10k words at time of posting.

Long work 2: [untitled] A group of friends meet at summer camp and ~something bad~ happens. Follows them through adulthood as the bad thing unravels/becomes clear. Currently just a vague idea with some bulleted lists and snippets. Has not left the notes app.

Short work 1: What Violence? A short surreal body horror story about a young girl who gets stabbed in the chest with a knife and discovers it does not hurt or bleed the way it should. She searches for someone to bring her to a doctor to give her stitches but struggles to explain what’s going on. Based on a dream I had. ~300 words at the moment.

Short work 2: He Called Me Something Bad. A young girl kills her teenage step brother (or woman kills stepson, still sorting it out) in what appears to be an accident. The social worker/detective interviewing her starts to realize that it was not An Accident. Currently in the notes app/ideas phase. Unclear if it will make it out.

Tag list (mostly for my own reference/benefit)

#ref -> helpful lists, words, resources etc.

#guides -> kind of like ref but more to collect posts about how to write specific rules/identities of characters or settings

#inspo -> quotes, art, snippets, prompts and other things that make me want to write

#wip -> I’m a slut for a good Pinterest board/Spotify playlist/other way to outline ideas without having to sit down and write so that stuff will go here. Along with any snippets

#ocs -> any stuff about my characters. idk how much I’ll use this one because I mostly see people making OC content for genre fiction and it feels weird to make stuff for short stories and kinda disjointed literary fiction. But I also might be a weird little freak (likely) who needs to get over herself (extremely likely)

#tips -> useful info about the writing process, publishing, software, etc

#my work -> anything I write myself. I can’t pick a title to save my life so tagging by title won’t work

#good stuff -> writing by other people that I love and want to come back to and read a bunch because it is good

#review -> book/story/essay reviews. Goodreads stresses me out but I want some way to catalogue what I read now that I’ve graduated and have time for it. Also reviewing stuff helps me figure out what I want my own writing to sound and feel like.

[detectivereads]

Deephaven by Ethan M. Aldridge

5/5

This post is for fan entertainment, I’m not being paid.

I got this book and immediately started to read it as soon as I could. I have been hyped about this book since I saw the artwork of Nev, our main character.  

Reading the first few pages my heart went out to Nev, who up till they arrived at the school, had a hard life: their mother left and their father is having issues of his own, and Nev decided to go off to school and start over with a new life.

When Nev entered the school, we met a student who is also one of the prefects, Patience Sleepwell, who chose to stay over the summer break, and the principal of Deephaven Academy, Principal Blanchly.

Upon meeting with the principal, you get the feeling that she is not someone to mess with, she has a low tolerance for rule breakers and expects all the students to be outstanding.

Skipping ahead when the rest of the students came back, Nev finds themselves in a restricted area where they meet a boy named Danny, and the male prefect Thaddues. At the opening assembly of the new term, we do hear about a unfortune accident that happen last term where a student died.

We met several other characters, some in which are insufferable with how they think they are better than everyone, and others using their status to get what they want, Thaddues being one of them. There are some other characters that gave me warning flags of don’t trust them.

This story is amazing, when I got to the part with the initiation, and we meet the creature, good lord the suspense for both Nev and Danny being on their own against this creature, the panic that Danny felt when he was in a small, enclosed space was very scary. Nev, during their exploration of the restricted wing, finds some issues with what Thaddues had said early when all three of them met, that the east wing is structurally unsafe but there are no signs of the issues that Thaddues mentioned.

(Yes!!! It’s a mystery!!!!!!!! Woooooo)

I don’t want to spoil to much of the story, but reading the ending it gave me a somber vibe, Nev and Danny both had close calls with the creature that lived in Deephaven. Both characters do have a heart to heart about there lives up till coming to Deephaven.

However, when I got towards the ending of the book, I was shocked with the information we received, and it kept hitting one right after another.

My original thoughts were that the creature was eldritch, but I was wrong (which I had a feeling it was wrong but that was my first guess before reading the book). Now I was worried that this book was going to be too scary (I like Goosebumps level scares and Classic Horror), this book had a feeling of foreboding and at some points of the book that made my anxiety raise.

If you want a spooky book, I highly recommend this book. I can see this book becoming one of my yearly reads for the fall season. The ending of the book gave me the feeling that Deephaven has more secrets to tell us, and I am hoping that there will be more books.

[hana-akari]

“I grew up on stories of Sparda… They always gave me hope that I could be something more than what my demon blood dictates I be but I keep my distance from those groups.” It was hard to tell who was genuine and who was a completely crazy person at times. Besides that, she didn’t belong in a church. Not after the things she’s done.

“I’ve noticed but that’s what I like about you.~” Sakura grinned, flashing her own set of fans.

She always liked that there was always something to learn about him. When they first met, he was a complete mystery but as time moved on, she learned more and more about him. His interests. The things that made him smile. Everything that made him tick. It put Sakura at ease that they didn’t jump into anything. They took the time to get to know each other before anything happened with them. Things happened too fast with her last relationship, and that led her to be heartbroken in the end. With Vergil, it felt okay to fall in love again. They haven’t even been intimate yet. Despite sharing a bed a number of times. Vergil was the first person ever to willingly allow her to cuddle him. Despite the first time being an accident. She just had a habit of going for the warmest thing on the bed and that just happened to be him at the time.

Sakura paused to look at the view with him, “It is, but the view is made nicer seeing it with you.” Her cheeks turned pink at the admission but it was true. The view would have been beautiful regardless but sharing it with someone special just made it better.

“The ocean is so beautiful to look at but terrifying to be in. I’m not the best swimmer and I have read all about things that could possibly be in there.” She let out a small laugh, turning her gaze to him, still smiling.

Vergil was right, this was her first time in one of the rebuilt cities. It really was amazing to see how far humanity has bounced back after everything that happened, things looked almost normal again, “You know… I used to work at a hospital in a city like this once. Before things went to hell. Hated the job. No one respected me. It was kind of a blessing in disguise that the world nearly got destroyed. It freed me but it also allowed me to meet you.” It was terrible to say that she was happy things happened. Not so much all the hurt it caused but what it gave her in the end,

“That place sounds expensive and classy. I kind of wish I had something nicer to wear.” Not that her current outfit was bad. Sakura always dressed well. 

A small gasp left her lips as Vergil took her hand, the blush returning to her face as she laced his fingers with his, “Lead the way, you get through crowds better than me.” Unfortunately, due to her height, she was easily swept away in crowds. Vergil towered over most people, so he didn’t have that issue. 

Sakura stayed close to him as they moved through the crowd. It was a lot more crowded than she expected but at least the place wasn’t too far away. She let out a sigh of relief once they made it inside but yet didn’t let go of his hand. Her pretty sea-foam colored eyes sparkled as she looked up at the grand library,

“I can see why.” Sakura allowed him to lead her over to an elevator. Something she never thought she’d see again. Humanity really has come far.

The concept of love ever truly finding him sign had long since passed, and he had led himself to believe that for a very long time. Sort of a way to atone for the wrong he had done. From his past life searching for nothing but power, cutting down anyone who would dare try to stop him from achieving his goal, all the way to today. The damage he had done as Urizen was by far the worst he'd ever done, the fact that he had nearly killed off the entire human race with the Demon Qliphoth Tree and its bloodthirsty roots that drained humans of blood so quickly, they were literally rooted into the ground where they stood, eventually becoming nothing but dust silhouettes of their person.

The moment there was a gust of wind, or if someone them by they would be gone, he just hoped that Sakura didn't know the full extent of what he'd done. There was already this slight bit of concern welling up within. Could she really love someone who almost ended the world? He didn't know and hoped she wouldn't ever find out, there was this fear of losing her already, slowly stirring deep within the twist of his stomach the more he thought about it. For now, he pushed any troubling thoughts to the very back of his mind and placed his full concentration, on just having a lovely date with his devil-hunting partner.

[{ 🗡️ }] - "That's the unfortunate reality about some of those groups. While there are a few out there that are actually religious, with genuine practices, there is a large number of them that are basically cults. Such was the case with the city I mentioned."

He says, recounting the city of Fortuna, a place that he hadn't thought about for a long time, he had a history in that city, but he chose not to give it any more thought, for various reasons, the two main ones, being his old flame, and the offspring they had created. Nero would be a bit of an awkward thing to bring up, especially since he didn't exactly get the chance to raise him, it was a complicated thing to explain and wasn't exactly his favorite thing to talk about either, so he decided to save that topic for another day, that conversation would be an inevitable one anyway.

[{ 🗡️}] - "There's much more to me than devil hunting and swordsmanship." He simply replies, mirroring her playful expression as they looked eyes, flashing her a grin, showing off his devil fangs as she let him take the lead.

[{ 🗡️ }] - "But of course, look a little deeper, and you'll be surprised what you might find~" He teased before they headed through the rift.

Once the new couple took their first step onto New Dawn City, as the portal closed behind them, the two were greeted by a beautiful sight, the rift had taken them to one of the streets near the surrounding ocean, and the setting sun was shining down casting its warm orange light across the water creating a captivating view.

[{ 🗡️ }] - "Well would you look at that? What a spectacular sight." The half-devil took a moment to admire this astonishing view with her before they made their way to dinner. It's a lovely moment, having someone to share this beautiful sight with rather than looking at it alone.

As the moment passed, he let Sakura take a quick glance around them, this was her first time in one of the rebuilt cities, it was truly an impressive feat, seeing that humanity was able to restore even the slightest semblance of what used to be a normal life, with an ordinary world. Once she's finished, hearing her voice, he turns his head back to face her, giving a nod.

[{ 🗡️ }] - "We're going to one of the best places to eat in this new city. a place called The Shooting Star Inn. Yes, it's a hotel, but they have a restaurant inside on the top floor called The North Star Diner." He explains as he led the way towards the downtown district which thankfully was only around the corner.

[{ 🗡️ }] - "Since it's a Saturday night, it's going to be a bit busy downtown, so we'd best stay close." After his words, he gently reached out and took her hand, fingerless gloved fingers curling as they interlocked with hers. The second their downtown, they are met with a mess of people around, just as Vergil said. It didn't take long before they arrived, the hotel was a skyscraper that went pretty far up, standing at at what looked to be at least eighty stories high

The couple walked through the door and stepped into the luxurious library, it was beautifully decorated, and it had a modern contemporary design.

[{ 🗡️}] - "This is the most popular hotel here." He says, leading her to the elevator.