#mystery urban fantasy
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trekkele · 7 months ago
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Ok I've got my pesach books up to 3, +graphic novel, +nonfiction, which is probably enough. I really wanted another heyer tho
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anim-ttrpgs · 27 days ago
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If you’ve ever tried to run a “murder mystery” in D&D5e, you know how it goes. There’s not much that can be rolled, the PCs’ abilities barely help them, they get stuck, the DM has to walk them through, etc.
If only there was an better way to do mystery adventures in a TTRPG!
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octobelus · 3 months ago
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hey if you want to solve mysteries as a genius detective, bumbling idiot, super powerful predator, deeply traumatized weirdo, Normal Guy, or some combination of the above, check out the ttrpg Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy
development is ongoing, but in its current state my character got to trigger a cascade of dramatic reveals and worsening mental health among the party where it turned out 3/5 of them were living dolls while a dead body lay at their feet and the only human was covered in its brains. I haven't played ttrpgs in yearsss and this was a hilarious way to come back to it!
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radiantcircle-if · 4 months ago
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The Radiant Circle
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The Radiant Circle is a work-in-progress contemporary fantasy interactive novel with elemental magic, a heavy hand of romance, and a salt-sprinkle of mystery. The story is rated 18+ and may contain triggering content for some.
↪ introduction (updated 7/22/24) ⟢ demo (upcoming fall/winter)
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You were born without any magic into a long lineage of sorcerers who serve the Night Circle—a division of the Radiant Circle, the central governing body that maintains order among sorcerers. Even now when you live outside of the magical community, you’re still required to report to the local leadership about the magic you still don’t have.
Of course, only after having accepted a life without magic, you awaken a latent magical power too great to be yours. Myths speak of such a sorcerer, a Resonant Soul capable of mastering all four elements, reincarnated throughout history to bring balance to the magic community. So little is truly known, but that can’t be you.
But what if it is?
Thankfully, as an investigative journalist, what you do best is hunt for the truth. To unravel the secrets of your soul, you’re forced back into the world of sorcery to navigate ancient rivalries and contend with those who may fear your newfound power and seek to bury it for good. 
Because while most didn't believe the myths to be true, others have been preparing for your return. Most of all? You four souls bonded to yours for eternity.
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Play as the main character ⟢
Choose your name, appearance, gender, and sexuality.
Develop your personality as a harmonizer or disruptor—will you bring unity or will you bring destruction?
Gain mastery over elemental magic as the Resonant Soul—how much mastery in each element is up to you.
Travel the world while earning or losing influence through your decisions—will your reputation precede you or will you remain unknown?
Five romance options ⟢
Two pansexual men, one lesbian, and two gender-selectable romance options... and a hidden sixth romance option... with the potential for more to unlock later.
Four soulmates who will be revealed over the course of the story—your bonds, whether platonic or romantic, are yours to develop.
And if you don’t like romance, you can improve your friendships instead.
Or if you’re a misanthrope, deteriorate all your relationships to your liking.
Good endings? Check. Bad endings? Also check.
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You ✦ 26-year-old journalist from Seattle, USA (ℹ) Rejected by the magical community because your magic never awakened, you once sought to understand why before later turning to a career of journalism to attempt to uncover truths that don’t have to do with magic. Your dissertation was titled “Unveiling the Hidden: A Comparative Study of Secret Societies and Their Influence on Modern Media." After landing your dream job as an investigative journalist, you're returning home to Seattle for your assignment.
⟡ tropes include main character (surprise! you're the main character), insider/outsider, the most wanted (because you are a…), person of mass destruction, (possible) living legend, (possible) lust object, (seemingly) cosmic plaything…
Arseau Nassiet ⟡ High Justicar 31-year-old water sorcerer (he/him) from Seattle, USA (ℹ) A talented water sorcerer, your older brother Arseau is well loved within the Night Circle's upper echelons, but he'd never brag about it. He has been away from home for over a decade, raising ranks within the circle alongside his best friend. He coordinates his visit home with yours during the holidays so he can see his favorite younger sibling (never mind that he has only one sibling—you).
⟡ tropes include protective older brother, brainless beauty (yeah, he's a himbo), the caregiver/caretaker, the confidant (if you want), the informant, nice guy (someone has to keep the peace between the Pico brothers), the reliable one...
César Pico (RO) ⟡ Archumbricar 31-year-old earth sorcerer (he/him) from Tijuana, MX (ℹ) One of the highest ranking earth sorcerers in the world, César is seen as the unofficial heir of the current Night Luminary—and he takes the role seriously. As your brother's best friend, he has been a permanent fixture in your life as far as you remember—another persistent reminder of the magic that has remained inaccessible to you and the community that left you behind. He's at least an attractive reminder, even if it's unfortunate that his rare smirk proves that he knows it.
⟡ tropes include the hero, the cold & brooding heir, older brother's best friend/forbidden love, age gap, opposites attract, danger deadpan, glory hound, tall dark & handsome (obviously) ⟡ solo-route (with a possible rivalry with his brother), borderline enemies to lovers, (possible first love), forced proximity, maybe the slowest burn
Rafa Pico (RO) ⟡ High Justicar 27-year-old fire sorcerer (he/him) from Tijuana, MX (ℹ) The younger brother of César....and also his left hand man even though he doesn't take his position within the Night Circle very seriously. He doesn't take anything very seriously except his freedom. Especially his freedom to flirt his way into anyone's good graces.
⟡ tropes include the explorer, the charming playboy, childhood/long time friend, (his) unrequited crush (on you), the (horny) bard, speed demon, hell seeker, elegant classical musician... ⟡ solo-route (with a possible rivalry with his brother), friends to lovers but he never really saw you as a friend, forced proximity, slow burn
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Gazi Gharib (RO) ⟡ Photojournalist 28-year-old (she/her or he/him) from New York City, USA (ℹ) Your roommate and best friend ever since you moved to NYC, they're always ready to help you investigate something new and dangerous.
⟡ tropes include the innocent, the best friend, the encouraging charmer, the serial romeo, the casanova, agent mulder (the believer), empathetic communicator, spirited competitor, the klutz ⟡ solo-route or poly-route with Deniz, besties to lovers (and you can start at the lover bit if you'd like cause this one is a...), faaaaaast burn
Deniz Yılmaz (RO) ⟡ Private Investigator 26-year-old (he/him or she/her) from Istanbul, TR (ℹ) Your next-door-neighbor and childhood best friend. You haven't kept in close contact, but they're the first person you think of seeing when you visit home.
⟡ tropes include the jester, agent scully (the skeptic), street-smart investigator, hardboiled detective, erudite stoner, literal-minded/snark knight combo, childhood friends, loyal supporter, gadgeteer genius ⟡ solo-route or poly-route with Gazi, childhood friends (or was it more?) to lovers, (possible second chance romance...), somewhere between slow and fast burn
Dr. Noel Sung (RO) ⟡ Journalist 41-year-old (she/her) from London, UK (ℹ) Your graduate school mentor who you credit for preparing you to land a job at The New York Times as prestigious as it is. She's now your direct supervisor, and she has quite the assignment for you.
⟡ tropes include the magician, high-powered career woman, absent-minded professor(/former forbidden love?), age gap, charismatic intellectual, intuitive leader, pragmatic idealist, deadpan snarker, determinator, shrinking violet, (your possible unrequited crush on her goes here)… ⟡ solo-route, workplace romance (technically; she's your boss now), slow burn
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An ancient, hidden society of sorcerers ⟢
The Radiant Circle is the central governing body that maintains harmony and order among sorcerers, as well as keep their community secret. It was originally formed and led by the Resonant Soul (called the High Guardian—this is you) and the most powerful elemental sorcerers of the time (called the Founding Guardians—these are the four souls bonded to you) as an alliance of sorcerers from across the New Kingdom of Egypt.
After its formation, the magical community grew, and eventually, the Radiant Circle was divided into four smaller regional circles called the Ephemeral Circles: the Night Circle (you know the most about this one), the Dawn Circle, the Day Circle, and the Dusk Circle. These four circles, also called luminariates, are the main governing bodies of the current world of sorcery. Every known family of sorcerers lives under the eye of the Radiant Circle and one of the four Ephemeral Circles.
Only the Resonant Soul can be the High Guardian of the Radiant Circle. Only the four souls bonded with Resonant Soul can be the Founding Guardians. During periods where the Resonant Soul or the Guardians aren’t alive, these positions are left vacant and the Ephemeral Circles meet as the Radiant Council annually instead. Unfortunately, it's been so long since there has been a Resonant Soul that there aren't many people left who remember who sits at the top of the hierarchy.
You live as a Threshold—an uninitiated sorcerer, typically a child who can't use magic yet—within the luminariate called the Night Circle. You sit at the bottom of the hierarchy, but every other sorcerer you know? César is an Archumbricar, the right hand of the Night Luminary and leader of the Night Circle. Arseau and Rafa are César's High Justicars, his right and left hands. Your dads even play a role, advising the Luminary from their position in the Night Weave.
A single soul that can control all four elements, reincarnated once again—you ⟢
Before you became the Resonant Soul, you were a child born without magic to two prominent sorcerers sometime before recorded human history begins. Back then, it was common to put the child of every sorcerer through a resonance ritual, even children of sorcerers born without magic who always died in the process. But where there's a will, there's a way, and someone really wanted you to live and created circumstances that bound your souls together—one into endless reincarnation and the other into endless immortality.
You meet the four original Guardians over the course of hundreds of years. Your bonds are unique and have chained the fate of their souls with yours so that they are reincarnated in an endless cycle by your side. Even so, you've lived more lives without them than with them, lived more lives without magic than with it. Almost as if you're fighting a losing battle against knowing your true soul.
Only the Resonant Soul can resonate with all four types of elemental magic, but your magic remains locked away until you regain your memories (how're you supposed to regain memories you don't remember you need to regain? then again, how safe would it be to give you all that power and no recollection of all the mistakes you've made?). The Guardians are known for their extraordinary abilities in one element; their magic isn't sealed away, only their memories (which still isn't convenient—how are you supposed to know who they are if they don't know who they are?).
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⟢ retweets & asks are welcome! there is no better writing motivation ♡
〉 Sections: Profiles, Editorials, Articles, Ask Me, Answers, Quotes
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ominous-feychild · 4 months ago
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✦ MY WRITEBLR INTRODUCTION ✦
Hey! I've been here for a while and I've somehow amassed a shocking amount of followers and mutuals, so I figured it's finally time for me to force one of these out for you guys!
(And you know... a masterpost... when I get around to it. 😅😭)
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About me:
✦ Barlowe (she/her)
✦ In my early 20s
✦ A writer of 10 years ✦ working on novels for 6 of 10!
✦ Less dedicated to—but still interested in!—drawing, animation, photography, and cinematography
✦ AuDHD and a grey lesbian (aka I'm leaning asexual) �� (my writing may or may not be a special interest)
✦ I have a whole bunch of other neurodivergencies besides AuDHD but I don't think y'all want me to get into all of them, haha. ✦ oh, and I say "haha" a lot. I apologize in advance.
✦ I think I'm hilarious and make jokes constantly
✦ I use a lot of emojis and tone tags to help convey tone. Please forgive me if it's annoying, it's to cope with my inability to communicate. /lh /hj
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Masterlists:
✦ General ✦ Worldbuilding ✦ Sun and Shadow ✦ The Arcane Rifts ✦ Rising From the Ashes
(will be added eventually)
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My Obsessions:
✦ Fantasy, horror, mystery, action, and exploration of realistic characters' reactions to the things they go through.
✦ Fairy tales, mythology, and folklore
✦ "Ye Olde History" and language
✦ DIVERSITY!!!
✦ Explorations of "evil-coded" characters and abilities--aka, not just showing them as evil. Show them as people (for characters) and tools (for abilities)!
✦ Traumatizing my characters just like I've been
✦ Traumatizing my characters in ways I haven't been!
✦ Learning!!!
✦ Talking way too much about the things I like to the point that I need to make a whole separate post to share it so it doesn't clutter my intro post... oh, hey, why is this linked?
✦ THE AESTHETIC!!!!
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My Aesthetics:
Those who've been following me for a bit probably know that I adore "the aesthetic" and try to make my posts look nice... even if there's no real reason to besides that it gives me a little serotonin. Here's my favorite aesthetics!
✦ Starry; night sky ✦ Dawn / dusk ✦ Sunrise / sunset
✦ Nature! ✦ Forestry ✦ Cottagecore ✦ Rustic ✦ Ocean
✦ Literally all of them, please and thank you
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My Writing:
✎ Sun and Shadow
Everything goes wrong for Freya Ula when she leaves her simple life as a fisherwoman to get engaged overseas. Her ship gets wrecked, she finds out her dad's been hiding secrets from her for her whole life, and, oh, she gets framed for a terrorist attack. Wait, WHAT!? After the city's greatest detective is attacked and disappears before she could consult with him, Frey has to enlist the help of his kid and her would-be fiancée to find out who framed her and clear her name. If only Crow was half as good a detective their dad was supposed to be.
Main characters: Freya, Crow, Daleira
✦ Urban-esque high fantasy ✦ purposely very tropey in places ✦ however, as always, I love throwing in curveballs. Wonder what's played straight and what I'm going to emotionally destroy you with. Definitely won't be Crow.
✦ Slow-burn romance between Frey and Crow ✦ immediate interest between Frey / Daleira ✦ oh, look, it's a love triangle? ✦ JOKE'S ON YOU, IT'LL ACTUALLY BE POLY ✦ it's just... going to take a while.
✦ Lesbians, lesbians everywhere ✦ though Crow is actually genderfluid and uses they/them for the first book ✦ despite barely having anything written I've already plotted a bit of book 2 ✦ I desperately need help.
✦ Unsurprisingly is a detective mystery with action mixed in ✦ I'm not typically a romance writer, I excel in action fantasy ✦ please have mercy on my soul
✦ Lots of magic, it's high fantasy + victorian aesthetic ✦ (aka "gaslamp fantasy" if you've heard of it) ✦ Frey's got sun-themed magic ✦ gasp, I know ✦ Crow's got shadow magic ✦ wonder why this sounds familiar ✦ Daleira's got, hm, well it's also shadowy! ✦ spoilers 😘
✦ About to be updated en-masse for a writing contest!!!
�� The Arcane Rifts
Ghosts of past tragedies haunt the town of Kavo after decades of neglect. Fantastical creatures desiring nothing but fear and destruction hide in invisible tears in reality. Gangs and the police are at constant war with one another, there's a shapeshifting monster running amok, and the mayor's assistant suddenly wants a disabled orphan kicked to the streets. A year ago, Gene was discovered in the forest on the outskirts of town, half dead, amnesiac, and unable to even speak the local language. As he had nowhere to go, he was brought to the orphanage of Kavo for a place to stay. Now Caspar, the assistant of the mayor and the man who funds the orphanage, wants him kicked out. When Gene's left to the cold, cruel streets of Kavo on his own, he has to navigate through a town ravaged by decades of neglect and intrigue. Has the corruption truly been purged from the government? Why are godly forces active in Kavo, a small town in a backwater country? And most importantly--will Gene survive?
Main Characters: Gene, Tazin, Mislav, Ludmila, Rada ❧ Gene and Tazin for book 1 ❧ the other 3 start being MCs books 2 and 3 ❧ I guess Nikolai is also a MC tho
❧ Industrial-era rustic high fantasy ❧ mixes fantasy, action, horror, and mystery! ❧ oh helloooooo "ominous feychild" origin? ❧ very strong folkloric and traditional fantasy inspo ❧ except I mean "traditional fantasy" as in ❧ "we don't understand this magic stuff but we're used to it" ❧ not "travel the world adventures!"
❧ VERY involved story with strong themes of discrimination, poverty, exploitation, trauma, and the recovery from trauma ❧ each main and secondary character is one flavor of discriminated against or another in-universe ❧ obviously I try to write it respectfully, but you can't really write bigots being bigots "respectfully"
❧ Has two "main plots" going on simultaneously; technically three ❧ I periodically give the reader updated "character guides" ❧ like they get more recent plot info added kinda like a red-string board to keep you, the audience, up-to-date with info you might've otherwise missed ❧ I think it's really cool and people seem to enjoy it ❧ I know it seems like a lot but please give it a chance
❧ I've literally plotted out pretty much the entirety of the first and second books, and know most of how book 3 will go, yet there's very little out for the current version of the story ❧ part of that is because I'm paused on the 3rd draft
❧ There's lots of timeskips throughout the first two books, but they're mostly to age up the protagonists! Gene, the MC, starts the series at 7. I promise it's not a kid's story though.
❧ The "secondary MC", Nikolai, is the police chief investigating magical stuff going on at the same time. They tie in with the main story involving Gene, though won't appear to for a long while.
❧ The "golden child" series I love more than SaS; however it's on hiatus because I promised people to work on SaS first and SaS is more popular as a romance-focused story. :/ ❧ I would never be salty about that.
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Taglist:
For everything: @honeybewrites @the-golden-comet @illarian-rambling @ashirisu @urnumber1star
@the-letterbox-archives @48lexr @aalinaaaaaa @thecomfywriter @an-indecisive-nerd
For Worldbuilding: @paeliae-occasionally @pluppsauthor @thelovelymachinery
For the Existentials: N/A
For the Avatars: @thelovelymachinery
For Sun and Shadow: @mysticstarlightduck @paeliae-occasionally
For the Arcane Rifts: @paeliae-occasionally
For Rising From the Ashes: N/A
For the Storm Avatars: N/A
For the Order Avatars: @thelovelymachinery
For the Magic Avatars: N/A
For the Fire Avatars: N/A
For the Water Avatars: N/A
To be tagged in tag games: @honeybewrites @aalinaaaaaa
Ask and ye shall be added
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Divider by @cafekitsune
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mc-cookies · 8 days ago
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Objectionable
(An Ace Attorney-inspired custom Trait for Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy, an excellent indie tabletop RPG by the good folks over at @anim-ttrpgs)
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Once per Scene, when this Investigator proves that another character is lying or hiding relevant information, they gain 1 Investigation Point and a +1 Contextual Bonus on subsequent Interpersonal rolls to uncover further details about that untruth. During these lines of questioning, if another character finds a flaw in their logic, the Investigator takes a Composure roll with a +1 modifier, and their Interpersonal Bonus ends. [1]
[1] Investigators with this Trait emulate the tactics of scrappy defense attorneys from a certain series of courtroom drama visual novels. By finding contradictory details in the stories of others, they can pull apart an entire testimony at the seams, but if they take too big of a logical leap and can’t back it up, they quickly lose confidence, momentum, and the trust of onlookers.
Each Investigator (player character) has 3-6 Traits which mechanically represent various aspects of their character.
More information about Eureka and its mechanics under the cut!
Eureka is among my favorite RPGs I've ever read, and certainly the best investigation-focused system I've seen. Its systems are deeply elegant, creating a game where players can piece together mysteries alongside their Investigators in a grounded world that still leaves space for supernatural intrigue. Combat is swift and strategic, but deadly if you go in without a plan. Investigations can be complex, but even the stickiest of situations don't require railroading to keep players on track. Mundane and supernatural characters alike have access to unique abilities, quirks, and skills that make each character feel distinct in mechanics as much as in flavor. The game interacts with the real world by way of fiction in a way that's refreshing and endlessly fascinating.
I absolutely recommend you give Eureka a shot, especially if you've been disappointed trying to run mystery stories in systems like D&D5e.
This trait, as is probably clear from the art and description, is heavily inspired by the gameplay of the Ace Attorney franchise, where you're expected to pull at the threads of a story until the truth falls into your lap, but where every further question is a risk. This is part of a broader trend in the rulebook where traits reference investigators from other mystery media, including Columbo, Sherlock Holmes, Jacques Clouseau, Kolchak, and the Scooby Gang (two links), among others.
The text of Objectionable references "Investigation Points", which are an abstract representation of how well an Investigator understands the mystery they're looking into. They can be traded in for "Eureka!" moments, which allow Investigators to retroactively learn information from a previously failed roll or increase their chances on a future roll. Getting a bonus point in this case encourages players to use this Trait whenever it's applicable, and represents the growing confidence of the Investigator as they get to the bottom of the other person's story.
It also refers to Composure, which is kind of like an emotional HP system – having low Composure reduces the possible skill bonuses an Investigator can receive on a roll, because if they're scared, tired, hungry, frustrated, or otherwise thrown off their game, they're less likely to succeed at what they try to do. In this case, the potential loss of composure references Ace Attorney characters getting flustered and embarrassed when the player chooses the wrong line of inquiry.
I'm not affiliated with ANIM (other than being acquainted with their team, since they're quite active within their online communities), but I really do suggest supporting them on Patreon and/or itch.io and/or Ko-Fi. On top of making Eureka, they also run a TTRPG Book Club server on Discord, which is excellent for finding RPGs to read and play and people to read and play them with, and they already have other projects planned after Eureka's full release. There's also a free beta version of Eureka available on their itch.io page, on top of the more frequent updates available on Patreon. Go check out cool artists!
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jessread-s · 5 months ago
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✩🕯️📜Series Review:
Core concepts
⋆ The Atlas Six - Physics
⋆ The Atlas Paradox - Psychology
⋆ The Atlas Complex - Philosophy
“The Atlas” series is so much more than dark academia or romance. This series studies what happens to human beings when they are promised access to infinite knowledge and power. It is about how quickly we turn on each other and abandon our own morals to gain. said knowledge and power. Each installment blew me away as I watched Blake’s six protagonists gradually find and/or destroy themselves. My mind was continuously expanded by her prose and it made me question my every decision. It’s a soul crushing read, but perhaps also a necessary one.
Cross-posted to: Instagram | Amazon | Goodreads | StoryGraph
@torpublishinggroup @olivieblake
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witchblood-if · 2 years ago
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“A Macigian never reveals their secrets. A Witch even less so.”
Well, you had a good run. For the last 70 or so years that you've had your little shop in Esmar's capital, nothing overly exciting happened. Apart from the occasional political changes and economical shifts, you could mostly carry on business as usual. But when the Fae calling herself your "best and only friend" invites you to pull a heist on your rival's home you didn't realize what effect that stunt would have on your immortal life. But damn, you really wanted that statue back.
Play Demo
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Witch Blood is an upcoming urban fantasy interactive fiction story where you take on the role of one of the last proper witches of Esmar, hoping to resolve a very time-sensitive mystery that might cost you your own life if you don’t get on with the investigation soon.
Does it have to do with random people’s head exploding?
Is this the reason you seem to have more prophetic dreams than usual?
Why are there so many strangers storming into your shop demanding answers you couldn’t possibly know?
And why does your familiar keep eating your receipts? You need those for your taxes!
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Create your very own witch. Appearance, personality, gender and sexuality...  All that Jazz
Choose a furry (or non-furry) companion for your immortal life
Become a master of 5 witchy skills that may or may not help you along the road
Keep your business afloat (you got bills to pay, after all)
Solve a mystery, save a bunch of people, and meet the Gods (???)
Find love, friendship, or rivalry (or maybe all three of them at the same time) with 5 different people who will. Not. Leave. You. Alone.
And for the love of the Gods: please stop spitting coins
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So far it will probably be a 16+ kind of rating for:
Mentions of violence, blood and gore
Strong language, cursing
Suggestive language
but things might change. I’ll keep you updated in any case.
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The Best Friend: Faith (f)
Flirty and flighty, Faith is certainly living her best life. And while she’s not always the most reliable of friends, she always shows up for your weekly tea and gossip session (and more often than not with baked goods as well). If you’re looking for a fun night out: Faith is your gal. Don’t ask how she pays for all of it without having a job though.
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The Knight in Shining Armor: Isaac (m)
A stranger visiting your shop and ... flirting with you? Thankfully you’ve lived long enough to see through his ploy and stay unaffacted to his charms. Mostly. With a quick smile, a stance almost too relaxed and some really suspicious questions you can’t quite get a read on him. And you have the feeling he is also not really a tourist interested in your special sale items.
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The Loyal Advisor: Eli (f/m/nb)
Another stranger. This one seems much more honest than the last one but somehow you haven’t decided yet if you appreciate that or not. They say there is a problem their employer has sent them to hopefully solve and after some extensive research you seemed to be the least untrustworthy person of your craft to potentially help. You can’t quite tell from their stoic face if that sentence was supposed to be a compliment, a joke or very subtle sarcasm. But the pay they offer is nothing to turn your nose up at and you’ve worked for way shadier people.
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The Crazy Mushroom: Mezilkree (f/m/nb)
Mezilkree has been a frequent visitor of yours for quite some years. Mostly they just hang out at your shop and try to scare potential customers. When you try to make them leave they declare they are a customer, throw a bottle cap on your counter and shove a handful of candy from the jar you keep for kids in their mouth. Sometimes they even do buy something if they’re on an errand for their family, but as their community grows more and more resentful of non-mushrooms this occasion becomes rarer and rarer. In the many years of botherment, you have found Mezilkree to be a mischievous but sweet troublemaker. Some of the time, at least.
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The Other Witch: Levan (nb)
An Enemy. A Fiend. Your Immortal Rival. Most of the time you and Levan stay clear of each other, as is agreed upon in your Contract of Geniality. But now they have decided to steal a very valuable artifact you have spent months on locating. At least you’re pretty sure it was them, who else would be skilled enough to enter your home. Even though you don’t particularly get along, Levan is a witch you have known for the longest of time. But because of their spiteful nature and (admittedly somewhat deserved) arrogance you have long decided to avoid them, lest you burn down the whole town in a fit of anger. They really know how to push your buttons.
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ROs Physical Appearance 
Witch Types
Demo
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#ro ask ----> Scenarios and asks including all ROs
#ros ----> unspecific general info about ROs
#ch: [name] ----> info about that RO, often paired with #ros
#ch: carter ----> facts and info and rambling about the author
#mc ----> anything to do with your character, customization and so on
#lore and #lore ask ----> anything that’s about worldbuilding
#story and story ask ----> anything to do with plot
#lovely ocs ----> readers showing off their ocs
#lovely readers ----> lovely words from lovely people
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Hello my lovelies! This is a first attempt at Interactive Fiction, and on an even more important to note: a first real attempt at writing. I hope it doesn’t suck too much! Also please forgive orthographic and grammatical errors, English isn’t my first language :) (if you see something, say something tho)
Currently the prologue is in the works and will face some editing and expanding.
Until then,
Love, Carter
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annkhr · 3 months ago
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umbraldame · 1 month ago
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@anim-ttrpgs is updating Faries in the Eureka rulebook and its inspiring me to make an absolutely terrible nepo baby investigator 👀
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noahhawthorneauthor · 1 month ago
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It's solving mysteries and falling in love season 🔎
This is a dark bunch so check TW for these, and contrary to the caption there's not spice in all of these, just most of them.
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anim-ttrpgs · 6 months ago
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A quickly doodled fan comic from @umbraldame featuring a thing from beyond A.K.A. "The Blanket" and her ability to absorb not only nutrition but information from the people she digests! That would be pretty handy for investigating a mystery, if you could get past the question of morality.
This is one of the five playable monster types in Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy, and a fan favorite around here!
Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is still crowdfunding on kickstarter from now until 2:00 PM CST on Friday, May 10th! Back it before it's too late!
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If you want to try before you buy, you can download a free demo of the prerelease version from our website or our itch.io page!
If you’re interested in a more updated and improved version of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy than the free demo you got from our website, subscribe to our Patreon where we frequently roll our new updates for the prerelease version!
You can also support us on Ko-fi, or by checking out our merchandise!
Join our TTRPG Book Club At the time of writng this, Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is the current game being played in the book club, and anyone who wants to participate in discussion, but can’t afford to make a contribution, will be given the most updated prerelease version for free! Plus it’s just a great place to discuss and play new TTRPGs you might not be able to otherwise!
We hope to see you there, and that you will help our dreams come true and launch our careers as indie TTRPG developers with a bang by getting us to our base goal and blowing those stretch goals out of the water, and fight back against WotC's monopoly on the entire hobby. Wish us luck.
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kahixxi · 9 days ago
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underground-secret · 1 year ago
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The Hunter and The Witch: Dean Winchester x Fem! reader
Description: A small town where dark secrets unfold isn’t anything new to these seasoned hunters, except when it has something to do with urban legends…apparently.
Warnings: cannon violence, mentions/talk of suicide, mentions of gruesome death, eye bleeding, Blood Mary (idk if this would be a warning but like 🤷🏼‍♀️), mentions of murder, witchy stuff
Tag list: @jesllianaquilesrolonsworld , @okayiamkassandra ,@fablesrose
A/N: I’m so sorry this took so long to get out again my AP class is really AP-ing and has taken up literally all my time. I spent four days working on a 20 pages packet that took forever meaning I had zero time for this. Again so so sorry.
Word count: 7,719
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Bloody Mary
(Masterlist, Previous Chapter, Next Chapter)
“Sam, wake up.” Dean nudges the man in question, the car in park.
Sam wakes, confused, he sits up and looks around. “I take it I was having a nightmare.”
“Yeah, another one.” Dean confirms, and I nod too a frown on my face.
“Hey, at least I got some sleep.” Sam offers
“Sam” I stretch out his name, “that cannot be your positive to this.”
“You know, sooner or later we're gonna have to talk about this.” Dean adds.
But Sam ignores us, avoids the whole conversation, “Are we here?”
Dean lets him avoid the whole ordeal and I have to wonder how long he will let his brother lie. Though I guess I'm no better. “Yup. Welcome to Toledo, Ohio.”
Sam picks up a newspaper that sat on the console of the car, the obituary of Steven Shoemaker circled.
‘The Shoemaker family is sad to announce the sudden death of their beloved husband and father Steven Shoemarker. Steven was 46. A short service will be held on Wednesday, [...] 31 at 2:00 p.m. at the Toledo [...] and cherish you [...] Your [...]’ The article read.
“So what do you think really happened to this guy?” Sam asks us.
“That's what we're gonna find out.” Dean answers, turning off the car. “Let's go.”
We exit the car, entering the large hospital building that stood in front of us walking up to the two desks that lie in the room. One of them is empty with a name tag that reads, ‘Dr. D. Feiklowicz.’ The other one however was occupied by a Morgue technician in blue scrubs, “Hey” the man greets us as we approach.
“Hey.” Dean answers back.
“Can I help you?” The technician asks, looking between the three of us.
“Yeah. We're the, uh...med students.” Dean lies.
“Sorry?” The man asks back.
“Oh, Doctor—“ Dean stammers over the name, “—Figlavitch didn't tell you? We talked to him on the phone. He, uh, we're from Ohio State. He's supposed to show us the Shoemarker corpse. It's for our paper.”
“Well, I'm sorry, he's at lunch.” The tech informs us.
“Oh well he said, uh—“ Dean sighs, “—oh, well, you know, it doesn't matter. You don't mind just showing us the body, do you?”
“Sorry, I can't. Doc will be back in an hour. You can wait for him if you want.” He tells us, gesturing to the seats on the side of the room.
“An hour? Ooh. We gotta be heading back to Columbus by then.” Dean looks at me and Sam as if queuing us to lie with him.
“Yeah.” Sam and I say at the same time, “Jinx” I mumble underneath my breath just loud enough for Sam to hear me who in return gives me a scrunched face.
“Uh, look, man, this paper's like half our grade, so if you don't mind helping us out—“ Dena explains getting cut off by the man in scrubs, “Uh, look, man...no.”
Dean laughs a little. He turns around to face us, mumbling, “I'm gonna hit him in his face I swear.”
But I mean we can’t really blame the guy he’s just doing his job.
Sam hits his brother on the arm, taking a step in front of him he opens his wallet and pulls out some twenties. He lays a few of them, at least five, down on the desk. The Morgue Tech picks up the money, “Follow me.”
The technician gets up and leaves. I go to follow, seeing in the corner of my eye Dean grabbing Sam when he too tries to follow, forcing me to stop and go back a step to see what they are on about.
“Dude, I earned that money.” Dean complains.
“You won it in a poker game.” Sam clarifies.
“Yeah.” Dean answers.
Sam rolls his eyes, pulling away from his brother to follow the technician.
“You’ll make it back” I say, patting Dean on the back shortly to go follow the morgue man.
Dean stays back a half a second before following after us.
“Now the newspaper said his daughter found him. She said his eyes were bleeding.” Sam said as the Morgue Tech pulled back the sheet over Steven’s face. Revealing a pale, long faced man with dark hair, blood stained on his cheeks below his eyes as if he had cried them.
“More than that. They practically liquefied.” The tech scuffs.
“Any sign of a struggle? Maybe somebody did it to him?” Dean asks him.
“Nope. Besides the daughter, he was all alone.” He answers.
“What's the official cause of death?” Sam questioned.
“Ah, Doc's not sure. He's thinking massive stroke, maybe an aneurysm? Something burst up in there, that's for sure.” He replied.
“You mean like cerebral bleeding?” I ask, wanting to clarify.
“Yeah. This guy had more blood in his skull than anyone I've ever seen.” He responded.
“The eyes & mash;what would cause something like that?” Sam asked.
“Capillaries can burst. See a lot of bloodshot eyes with stroke victims.” The technician explains.
“Yeah? You ever see exploding eyeballs?” Dean scuffs.
“That's a first for me, but hey, I'm not the doctor.” The tech shrugs.
“Hey, think we could take a look at that police report? You know for, uh...our paper.” Dean requests.
“I'm not really supposed to show you that.” He answers, stretching out ‘that.’
Sam sighs clearly annoyed, as he pulls out his wallet.
Now leaving the hospital, walking down the stairs Sam suggests, “Might not be one of ours. Might just be some freak medical thing.”
“How many times in Dad's long and varied career has it actually been a freak medical thing and not some sign of an awful supernatural death?” Dean points out.
“Uh, almost never.” Sam answers.
“Exactly.”
“Well then, let's go talk to the daughter.” I announce”
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We walk into Steven’s funeral, a picture of him on the desk.
All the men in the room are wearing black suits and the women adorned in black dresses, everyone except us. Dean points this very fact out, “Feel like we're underdressed.” I nod in agreement, my lips in a tight line, the guilt of interrupting these people’s mourning with not only us being undressed but also for not having a reasonable explanation of us being here.
But no one stops us as we keep walking through the house, all the way towards the back and outside to the backyard.
A man points us towards Donna and Lily Shoemarker, the daughters of the man we had seen on a metal table only moments before, who are standing near two people whom I can only assume is a friend or family member.
“You must be Donna, right?” Dean greets the eldest daughter as we approach the group of people.
“Yeah.” She answers sadly brushing her short brunette hair out of her face.
“Hi, uh—we're really sorry.” Sam says.
“Thank you.” She replies, and I know she must have heard that same phrase of ‘i’m sorry’ and must have answered the same ‘thank you’ over and over to each person here. As if the death of her father hadn’t broken what’s inside her enough.
“I'm Sam, this is Dean, and that’s Y/N. We worked with your dad.” He explains.
She looks at one of the adults near her and then back at us, “You did?” And I feel bad for lying to her about this to give her a connection to her father that had never existed.
“Yeah. This whole thing. I mean, a stroke.” Dean goes on.
“I don't think she really wants to talk about this right now” One of the men with her say, stepping in.
“It's okay. I'm okay.” Donna says, with a sharp nod.
“Were there any symptoms? Dizziness? Migraines?” Dean asks, listing out various options.
“No.” She says simply.
Lily, the youngest daughter, turns around, “That's because it wasn't a stroke.”
“Lily, don’t say that.” Donna snaps.
“What?” Sam asks.
“I'm sorry, she's just upset.” Donna explains.
“No, it happened because of me.” Lily speaks up.
“Sweetie, it didn't.” Donna tries to convince.
“Oh Lily”, I say sadly crouching down to be closer to her eye level, “What makes you think that?” I knew what it felt like to blame yourself for someone else’s death, especially your parents, especially when it happens twice and you're too young to understand why this would happen to you. I feel the eyes of the people around me bore into me, especially from the brothers behind me.
“Right before he died, I said it.” Lily answers.
“Said what?” I ask her.
“Bloody Mary, three times in the bathroom mirror.” She explains, pausing, “She took his eyes, that's what she does.” My eyes go wide, not exactly expecting that answer.
“That's not why Dad died. This isn't your fault.” Donna reasons.
“I think your sister's right, Lily. There's no way it could have been Bloody Mary. Your dad didn't say it, did he?” Dean offers, giving the kid some logic to combat what she believes.
“No, I don't think so.” Lily answers. But I know it will take her years to really believe it wasn’t her fault, if ever.
Saying ‘bye’ to the grief rickened family we head back inside the house, but instead of truly leaving we sneak upstairs, approaching the bathroom.
Sam pushes the door open, dried blood stained to the white tiled floor, “The Bloody Mary legend...Dad ever find any evidence that it was a real thing?”
“Not that I know of.” Dean answers, him and I trailing in after Sam who stoops to the floor touching the dried blood, “I mean, everywhere else all over the country, kids will play Bloody Mary, and as far as we know, nobody dies from it.”
I grimace, why would he touch the blood?
“Yeah, well, maybe everywhere it's just a story, but here it's actually happening.” Dean offers.
“The place where the legend began?” Sam asks and we both shrug, Dean opening the medicine cabinet.
“But according to the legend, the person who says B—“ Sam looks at the medicine cabinet mirror, it now facing him, he closes it before continuing, “The person who says you know what gets it. But here—“
“Mr.Shoemaker gets it instead” I finish his sentence.
“Right.”
“Never heard anything like that before. Still, the guy did die right in front of the mirror, and the daughter's right. The way the legend goes, you know who scratches your eyes out.” Dean adds.
“It's worth checking in to.” Sam concludes, as we leave the bathroom.
“What are you doing up here?” A blonde woman stops us, the same woman who was comforting the daughters outside.
“We—we, had to go to the bathroom.” Dean lies, poorly, because it makes perfect sense for three people to be using a private bathroom all at once.
“Who are you?” She asks us, naturally not accepting the poorly down lie.
“Like we said downstairs, we worked with Donna's dad.” Dean confirms.
“He was a day trader or something. He worked by himself.” She counters, and we should really start researching these people before we make up lies of how we know them.
Dean tries to cover, “No, I know, I meant—“
“And all those weird questions downstairs, what was that? So you tell me what's going on, or I start screaming.” She tells us, leaving no more room for any nonsense.
“All right, all right. We think something happened to Donna's dad.” Sam begins.
“Yeah, a stroke.” She answers.
“But it isn’t a typical sign of stroke, it might be something else.” I say softly, ashamed for suggesting such a thing to someone who has no knowledge of our world. These people are going through so much the last thing they need is some random people questioning what they know, I wouldn’t blame her if she did scream.
“Like what?” She scoffs, crossing her arms in front of her.
Sam explains this time probably sensing my unease with all this, “Honestly? We don't know yet. But we don't want it to happen to anyone else. That's the truth.”
Dean tilts his head, “So, if you're gonna scream, go right ahead.” My eyes widened, snapping to look at him, and suddenly that unease I felt vanished, replaced by a burning hot feeling that rushed through my veins and brought a flush to my face. I gulped, trying to push down the feeling a simple sentence that wasn’t even directed towards me made me feel. The cockiness it held as well as the allowance in his voice…it shouldn’t have affected me, and really shouldn’t have created a burning-longing in my gut.
“Who are you, cops?” The woman questions us, but my eyes haven’t left Dean as if he was light and I a moth.
I catch Sam and Dean looking at each other, speaking without words, in my peripheral vision. “Something like that” Dean answers.
It’s then that Dean must have felt my gaze on him, my lips slightly agape as I looked at him through my lashes. His attention turned to me as Sam continued the conversation that I had long blanked out of. Dean looked me over, eyes trailing over my very being, only worsening the burning I had felt within. His eyes met mine again giving me that devilish smirk of his, I swallowed again my eyes falling to his lips.
Sam clears his throat, nudging his brothers hard enough that he knocks into me slightly. Effectively catching our attention.
“Let’s go” He tells us, the woman still in front of us this time her attention to a small piece of white paper that I assume has some sort of contact information on it.
“All right, say Bloody Mary really is haunting this town. There's gonna be some sort of proof—Like a local woman who died nasty.” Dean begins as we walk into the oddly dark library, the stale smell of cleaning products surrounding us.
“Yeah but Blood Mary is a widespread legend with tons of versions of who she actually is, with no clear answer. There’s the mutilated bride, a spirit conjured to tell the future, a witch, and a whole lot more” I answer.
“All right so what are we supposed to be looking for?” Dean asks.
“Well in every version's got a few things in common. It's always a woman named Mary, and she always dies right in front of a mirror. So we've gotta search local newspapers—public records as far back as they go. See if we can find a Mary who fits the bill.” Sam adds, answering.
“Well that sounds annoying” Dean admits.
“No it won't be so bad, as long as we…” Sam trails off looking over to the table lined with computers all that say ‘Out of Order’, he chuckles “I take it back. This will be very annoying.”
We quickly turned around, heading back to the motel we were staying at to do our research there. Dean sat leaning with his head on his hand on the small table in the room on his brother's laptop. The younger brother in question had fallen asleep on one of the beds, the rustling of the sheets giving away the fact he was tossing and turning. I however sat crisscrossed on the other bed Deans to be specific, not like he cared anyways, researching on my laptop trying to find any relevant info on a Mary in this town or deaths relating to mirrors.
“Why'd you let me fall asleep?” Sam suddenly speaks up, voice evident with sleep.
“Cause I'm an awesome brother” Dean scoffs, he’d never admit it was really because Sam hadn’t been able to sleep or at least sleep long for the last couple of weeks.
“And what’s your excuse Y/N?” Sam questions me, leaning on his side with one arm propped up.
“You were sleepy!” I admit simply, smiling at him. He rolls his eyes, huffing a laugh.
“So what did you dream about?” Dean asks him, though what he was really asking was ‘did you have another nightmare?’
“Lollipops and candy canes.” He answers sarcastically. So sassy and for what?
“Yum” I reply, my eyes going back to my laptop.
“Did you find anything?” Sam asks us.
“Oh besides a whole new level of frustration?” Dean huffs, making Sam sit up, “No. We’ve looked at everything. A few local women, a Laura and a Catherine committed suicide in front of a mirror, and a giant mirror fell on a guy named Dave, but uh, no Mary.”
Sam falls back on the bed, the crisp sheets making a ‘whoosh’ noise beneath him, “Maybe we just haven't found it yet.”
“Thing is, there’s also been no strange deaths in the area, no other eyeball bleeding. Nothing. Which you know is good in hindsight but not quite helpful for us.” I explain.
Dean adds on, “Whatever's happening here, maybe it just ain't Mary.”
Almost as if on cue Sam’s phone rings, he answers, still laying down. “Hello?”
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Charlie, the blonde woman who questioned us before, sat on the park bench slightly hunched. I sat next to her to offer some comfort, while Dean sat on the back on the bench, his leg nearly brushing my back.
“And they found her on the bathroom floor. And her—her eyes. They were gone.” Charlie nearly sobbed, having explained everything that happened with her friend Jill.
Jill, who had wanted to tease the blonde women about believing in such a legend, saying the name in the mirror and winding up dead. Her death being in the same manner as Mr. Shoemaker.
“I'm sorry.” Sam answered, eyebrows scrunched together.
“And she said it. I heard her say it. But it couldn't be because of that. I'm insane, right?” She whimpered, using the back of her hands to clear the wetness from her cheeks.
“You aren’t insane” I tell her clearly.
“Oh God, that makes me feel so much worse.” She whines and I try to not let it hurt me, because she's griefing, even though it does.
“Look. We think something's happening here. Something that can't be explained” Sam explains. Dean adding, “And we're gonna stop it but we could use your help.”
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Dean lifts me up again, this time to reach an elevated first floor window rather than a fence. His hands sliding from tight around my hips, to brushing down my thighs as he lifts me in reach of the window sill. The window wasn’t that high to reach in the first place but with my height, amidtely being shorter than both the boys, it wasn’t exactly comfortable or super easy to reach the window and pull myself up and in.
My hands grasp the cold white window sill, my rings clinking against the surface as I pull my body up. I swiftly slide my hips sideways making my butt land on the sill, in the same sort of movements you would use when you lift yourself out of a pool.
I move my legs inside the carpeted room, ducking slightly as to not hit my head on the open window. The room belonged to Jill, and as my feet hit the soft gray carpet I officially feel the disgust of intrusion creep up on me.
I slide off the windowsill moving into the room more, Sam quickly taking my place near the window to pick up the duffle Dean threw up at him. He catches it, putting it on the bed and immediately digging through it.
“So what did you tell Jill’s mom?” I ask, crossing my arms over my chest, the uncomfortability of being in someone’s bedroom let alone a dead girls bedroom crawling up my skin and in my bones.
“Just that I needed some time alone with Jill's pictures and things.” Charlie answers looking between us and the door nervously. Dean climbs through the window shutting the curtain behind and Sam pulls something out of the bag. “I hate lying to her” Charlie adds.
“Trust us, this is for the greater good. Hit the lights” Dean orders.
She goes over to the lights, “”What are you guys looking for?
“We'll let you know as soon as we find it.” Dean hums.
Sam hands him a camcorder on and ready, the object he got from the duffel, “Hey, night vision.” He recalls prompting the older brother to do so, his face scrunched with focus as he finds the button.
“Perfect.” Sam smiles.
The little screen of the camcorder is facing Dean, in a ‘selfie’ like mode, “Do I look like Paris Hilton?” He smiles.
I laugh, slapping a hand to his upper arm on instinct, “Sure you do, baby” I joke, the pet name not something I ever use slipping from my tongue before I could realize. His head turns to give me an amused and smug smirk. In his distractment Sam takes the camera back, going over to the closet door filming around the mirror.
“So I don't get it. I mean...the first victim didn't summon Mary, and the second victim did. How's she choosing them?” Sam asks out loud.
“Beats me.” Dean answers, focusing back on the situation at hand. “I want to know why Jill said it in the first place.”
“It was just a joke.” Charlie reasons.
“Yeah well somebody's gonna say it again, it's just a matter of time.” Dean replies.
Sam wandered into the bathroom now, looking at the mirror there. “Hey!” He calls out, getting us to turn and look at him. “There's a black light in the trunk, right?”
Dean immediately went off to go get it coming back rather swiftly, just as Sam placed the mirror on Jill’s bed laying it upside down after having carried it from the bathroom. With the black light now in hand, he peels off the brown paper that’s on the back of the mirror, shining the purple light on its back revealing a handprint and the name ‘Gary Bryman.’
“Gary Bryman?” Charlie reads out loud both as an acknowledgment and also a question.
“Do you know who that is?” I ask her.
“No.” She answers simply.
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Back on the bench, in nearly the same positions, Sam recalls his findings. “So, Gary Bryman was an 8-year-old boy. Two years ago he was killed in a hit and run. The car was described as a black Toyota Camry. But nobody got the plates or saw the driver.”
“Oh my God.” Charlie gasps, horror in her eyes as she covers her mouth.
“What?” I ask the question we’re all thinking.
“Jill drove that car” She answers. Without looking for confirmation I know the boy's eyes are wide too, but there’s no room for the talking that comes after shock.
“We need to get back to your friend Donna’s house.
Somehow, with the help of Charlie, we convinced our way into Donna’s house back up to the bathroom we were in only hours before.
Hunched over the mirror with the black light, our suspicions were correct. There’s a handprint, one I have to say looks like the one in Jill’s bathroom, but I'm no criminologist. This time the name ‘Linda Shoemaker’ is written on it.
We all look at each other, knowing it’s likely that Steven killed his wife hence why Bloody Mary went for him and not the young girl who chanted her name. But the only way to have any idea of this theory is correct is to ask the brunette teenager downstairs.
“Why are you asking me this?” Donna asks us.
“I’m really sorry, Donna, but this is important.” I try to explain, but I know it won’t make sense to her. I mean we are total strangers asking her uncomfortable questions about her dead mother.
“Yeah. Linda's my mom okay? She overdosed on sleeping pills, it was an accident, and that's it.” She fumes, eyebrows scrunched together in fury, “I think you should leave.”
“Now Donna, just listen.” Dean reaches a hand up, as if to motion ‘calm down.’ But it doesn't work. Teary eyed and a little red in the face she yells, “Get out of my house!” Swiftly she runs up the stairs, not giving us another option.
“Oh my God. Do you really think her dad could've killed her mom?” Charlie asks, finally picking up on our theory.
“Maybe.” Sam shrugs.
“I think I should stick around” Charlie announces, referring to staying with Donna, which is probably a good idea.
“All right. Whatever you do, don't—“ Dean tries to warn getting cut off, “Believe me, I won't say it.”
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The crisp smell of old books and, oddly, cinnamon fill my nose as I take a deep breath, flexing my hand as I work out the cramping from writing a little too intensely in my small journal.
Dean sits next to me on the cold metal chairs in the library we decided to research in (different to the original one we were at), he’s typing away on the clunky computer the library has. Sam’s staring off at a bulletin board behind us with all sorts of things on it.
“Wait, wait, wait, you're doing a nationwide search?” He asks Dean, alerting us of him coming back to his seat on the other side of his brother.
“Yep. The NCIC, the FBI database—at this point any Mary who died in front of a mirror is good enough for me.” Dean answers.
“But if she's haunting the town, she should have died in the town.” Sam points out.
“I'm telling you there's nothing local, I've checked. So unless you got a better idea—“ Dean explains and as much as I love him I cut him off.
“Well, Mary’s victims have a pattern, which I know you guys already know so I'll just cut to the good part. Both victims had secrets relating to where people died and, here’s the good part, there’s a lot of folklore on mirrors, specifically that mirrors are a reflection of your soul. And with that your secrets and lies are revealed to the mirror.
Fun Fact! It was the Romans who believed that the soul would regenerate every seven years, so if you broke a mirror then you’d have to wait seven years until your soul was cleansed of the bad luck and misfortune.
And while I have more fun facts about mirrors I will end it there.” I smiled, satisfied with my information vomit as well as my fun fact because fun facts are wonderful.
Both boys look at me strangely, a mix of confusion and what I think is amazement (they should be amazed cause that was a really great fun fact). Dean seems to shake it off, “Right. So if you've got a secret, I mean like a really nasty one where someone died, then Mary sees it, and punishes you for it.”
Sam adding, “Whether you're the one that summoned her or not.”
“Correcto!” I answer, and by correct I mean that’s what I was thinking for our working theory.
“Then take a look at this.” Dean announces, clicking a few buttons on the computer before leaning over to the nearby printer, pulling out and handing us the paper. It’s a picture of a woman lying by a mirror in a puddle of blood. He prints out another picture, this time of a handprint and the letters “Tre.”
“Looks like the same handprint.” Sam points out and I nod in agreement.
“Her name was Mary Worthington—an unsolved murder in Fort Wayne, Indiana.”
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“I was on the job for 35 years-detective for most of that. Now everybody packs it in with a few loose ends, but the Mary Worthington murder—that one still gets me.” The detective states, unfortunately I immediately forgot his name. It's not the nicest thing to happen but I was also really focused on his country accent that’s just a little too funny.
“What exactly happened?” Dean asked, leaning forward in his chair, his elbows resting on his knees.
“You boys and girl said you were reporters?” Mr. Detective questioned.
“We know Mary was 19, lived by herself. We know she won a few local beauty contests, dreamt of getting out of Indiana, being an actress. And we know the night of March 29th someone broke into her apartment and murdered her, cut out her eyes with a knife.” Sam recalls the gruesome story.
“That's right.” He confirms.
“See sir, when we asked you what happened, we wanted to know what you think happened.” Sam clarifies for him, somewhere between a curious and condescending tone.
Mr. Detective eyes us over as if he’s contemplating something. He spins his wheely chair around swiftly getting up and going to a large file cabinet. “Technically I'm not supposed to have a copy of this” He huffs, pulling out a file and then a picture, the same picture Dean had already found on the computer. “Now see that there? T-R-E?” Detective reads out, even though unbeknownst to him it’s old news to us.
“Yeah” Dean answers.
“I think Mary was trying to spell out the name of her killer.” He theorizes.
“Do you know who it was, or any theories?” I ask, trying to get any sort of new answers.
“Not for sure. But there was a local man, a surgeon-Trevor Sampson.” He pulls out another photo, this time of this Trevor guy, he has an oval face with curly short hair definitely on the darker side but I can’t say exactly what color due to the black and white photo. He’s also wearing some sunglasses.
“And I think he cut her up good.” He finishes, his accent thick.
“Why do you think it’s him?” I question further.
“Her diary mentioned a man that she was seeing. She called him by his initial, ‘T’. Well, her last entry, she was gonna tell ‘T’'s wife about their affair.” He answers, and for a detective that truly means nothing.
“No offense but how does that directly correlate to Sampson… I mean there’s other people with the initial ‘T’ right?” I question him again, hoping it doesn't offend the man.
“It's hard to say, but the way her eyes were cut out...it was almost professional.” He explains.
“But you could never prove it?” Dean asks, chiming in.
“No. No prints, no witnesses. He was meticulous.” Mr. Detective nods.
“Is he still alive?” Dean follows up.
“Nope.” He sighs, sitting down. “If you ask me, Mary spent her last living moments trying to expose this guy's secret. But she never could.”
“Where's she buried?” Sam asks this time.
“She wasn't. She was cremated” He answers. No digging up bodies for us today.
“What about that mirror”, Dean nods towards the one in the photo, “It's not in some evidence lockup somewhere is it?”
“Ah, no. It was returned to Mary's family a long time ago.” He explains, leaning back in his chair.
“You have the names of her family by any chance?”
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We drive down the roads, the sun setting behind us. Sam’s call dictates where we go, either to whatever location he gives us or back to the motel.
“Oh really? Ah that's too bad Mr. Worthington. I would have paid a lot for that mirror. Okay, well maybe next time. All right, thanks.” Sam hangs up, pocketing his phone.
“So?” Dean asks.
“So that was Mary's brother. The mirror was in the family for years, until he sold it one week ago to a store called Estate Antiques. A store in Toledo.” Sam stated.
“So wherever the mirror goes, that's where Mary goes?” Dean raises.
“Her spirit's definitely tied up with it somehow.” Sam simply puts it.
“Isn't there an old superstition that says mirrors can capture spirits?” Dean asks.
“Yeah! People would cover up the mirror when someone died so that their spirit/ soul wouldn’t get trapped.” I explain, happy to spew some more of my fun facts.
“So Mary dies in front of a mirror, and it draws in her spirit” Dean works through the facts.
“Yes! But I don’t know how she’s working through various mirrors” I admit.
“I don't know either, but if the mirror is the source, I say we find it and smash it.” Dean proposes.
“Yeah, I don't know, maybe.” Sam gets cut off by his own phone, “ Hello.” A look of concern washes over his face, becoming pale “Charlie?”
The motel room is colder, the rain outside causing that meek fact. Charlie’s sitting on Sam’s bed, her head on her knees, after we picked her up from school all terrified. All the curtains are drawn shut, all the mirrors and reflective surfaces are covered with sheets or turned aquas towards a wall or the floor there will be no bloody mary getting in here.
Sam sits next to Charlie, “Hey, hey it's ok. Hey, you can open up your eyes Charlie. It's okay, all right?” She looks up reluctantly and slowly, “Now listen. You're gonna stay right here on this bed, and you're not gonna look at glass, or anything else that has a reflection, okay? And as long as you do that, she cannot get you.”
“But I can't keep that up forever. I'm gonna die, aren't I?” Her voice wobbled, fresh tears running down her cheeks.
“No. No. Not anytime soon.” Sam comforts, but I don’t think it helps.
Dean sits on the bed too, “All right Charlie. We need to know what happened.”
“We were in the bathroom. Donna said it.” She answers simply, rocking herself slightly.
“That's not what we're talking about. Something happened, didn't it? In your life...a secret...where someone got hurt. Can you tell us about it?” Dean pushes.
She looks around uncomfortably, swallowing she begins, “I had this boyfriend. I loved him. But he kind of scared me too, you know?” She looks over at me for confirmation knowing without any previous conversation about it that I would understand. And she was right. It was as if bad boyfriends were sewed into the fabrics of being a woman, it would be a little strange if you hadn’t had one.
I nod and she continues, “And one night, at his house, we got in this fight. Then I broke up with him, and he got upset, and he said he needed me and he loved me, and he said "Charlie, if you walk out that door right now, I'm gonna kill myself." And you know what I said? I said "Go ahead." And I left. How could I say that? How could I leave him like that? I just...I didn't believe him, you know? I should have.” She cries harder, going back to her previous position.
I move towards her, Sam getting up to allow me to sit close to her. I hug her, holding her close despite her awkward position. “That’s not your fault” I told her simply, and I meant it too. She uncurls herself, quickly wrapping her arms around me and stuffing her face into my neck. I hold her tighter. “You did the right thing, leaving him” I mutter.
Dean huffs, gripping the steering wheel slightly tighter, “You were right back there Y/N, her boyfriend killing himself, that's not really Charlie's fault.”
“You guys should know as well as I do that spirits don't exactly see shades of gray. Charlie had a secret, someone died, that's good enough for Mary.” Sam reasons.
“I guess” Dean sighs.
“You know, I've been thinking. It might not be enough to just smash that mirror.” Sam suggests.
“Oh, what do you mean?” I ask with a tilt of my head.
“Well Mary's hard to pin down, right? I mean she moves around from mirror to mirror so who's to say that she's not just gonna keep hiding in them forever? So maybe we should try to pin her down, you know, summon her to her mirror and then smash it.” Sam explains.
“Well how do you know that's going to work?” Dean questions.
“I don't, not for sure.” Sam shrugs.
“Well who's gonna summon her?” Dean follows up.
“I will. She'll come after me.” Sam states as if it’s the most obvious answer and with no care for himself.
“You know what, that's it.” Dean nearly shouts, pulling the car over quickly and roughly making my body shift nearly knocking into the door.
“This is about Jessica, isn't it? You think that's your dirty little secret that you killed her somehow? Sam, this has got to stop, man. I mean, the nightmares and calling her name out in the middle of the night—it's gonna kill you.” Dean fumes, not quite yelling but also not quite talking.
“Now listen to me—It wasn't your fault. If you wanna blame something, then blame the thing that killed her. Or hell, why don't you take a swing at me? I mean I'm the one that dragged you away from her in the first place.”
“I don't blame you.” Sam answers plainly, almost in defeat
“Well you shouldn't blame yourself, because there's nothing you could've done.” Dean adds.
“I could've warned her.” Sam sighs, and the pain in his voice makes me want to cry.
“Sam…you couldn’t have known that would happen.” I chime in, though it doesn't quite feel like my place.
“And besides, all of this isn't a secret, I mean we know all about it. It's not gonna work with Mary anyway.” Dean exclaims.
“No you don't.” Sam states, no further explanation given.
“I don't what?” Dean asks.
“You don't know all about it. I haven't told you everything.” Sam shrugs.
“What are you talking about?” Dean questions, face full of confusion.
“Well it wouldn't really be a secret if I told you, would it?” He replied sassily.
Dean looks surprised, “No. I don't like it. It's not gonna happen, forget it.”
“Dean, that girl back there is going to die unless we do something about it. And you know what? Who knows how many more people are gonna die after that? Now we're doing this. You've got to let me do this.” But Sam doesn't get any answers, with a roll of his eyes Dean drives off. Conversation over.
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Sam is trying to pick the lock on the shop's door, somehow without any word he became the designated lock picker. The dark oak door opens and all around the store are mirrors, mirrors of all shapes and sizes and varieties. Truly the worst place to be in this situation.
“Well...that's just great, '' Dean sighs, pulling out the photo of Mary’s corpse to look at the mirror, the one we’re looking for being a wooden frame. Not very helpful considering our location where there are countless mirrors that look exactly the same. “All right let's start looking.”
I nod in agreement handing both boys their crowbars. I shifted my baseball bat in my hand, there wasn’t a third crowbar and there was no reason for it anyways, a baseball bat is just as good at smashing.
We enter the dark store, flashlights on, splitting up we look for our specific mirror.
“Maybe they've already sold it.” Dean suggests, from some part of the store.
“I don't think so.” Sam says, stopping in his tracks. Dean and I walk over on either side of the taller man, Dean pulls out the picture again comparing the two. It’s our mirror.
“That's it.” Dean sighs, “You sure about this?”
Sam hands over his flashlight and sighs, “Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary.” He looks between the both of us, “Bloody Mary.”
A light shines through the store windows, illuminating the room.
“I'll go check that out. You guys stay here, be careful. Smash anything that moves.” Dean shuffles away.
I grip my bat tighter as a breath that isn’t mine nor Sam’s surrounds us. He turns around quickly but I keep my back towards him, “Nothing?” I ask and he hums in confirmation.
Out of the corner of my eye I see Mary in one of the mirrors, I step forward swinging my bat back and then forward hard. The glass shatters falling to the floor around my feet. Then Sam hits a mirror behind me, before swiftly turning back to her mirror.
“Come on. Come into this one.” He mutters underneath his breath.
He tilts his head watching his regeneration weirdly when suddenly he starts breathing heavily grabbing at his chest.
“Sam!” I shout, grabbing his arm. His eyes begin to bleed, blood trickling down his cheeks. He drops his crowbar, the metal clinking against the floor loudly.
“It's your fault. You killed her. You killed Jessica.” A voice rings out, one that sounds like Sam’s though I know it’s not him speaking. I help him to the floor carefully as he grabs his chest harder.
“You never told her the truth—who you really were. But it's more than that, isn't it?” The voice fumes.
I get up leaving Sam to the floor, “That’s enough of you” I mutter, gripping my baseball bat tight. I hit her mirror, the glass shatters around me.
I hear Sam take a deep breath in, when I look down at him he’s no longer holding his chest. He holds a thumb up to me, weakly.
But for some reason the voice didn’t stop, Mary was no longer hurting Sam but her accusations wouldn’t stop.
“Those nightmares you've been having of Jessica dying, screaming, burning—You had them for days before she died. Didn't you!?! You were so desperate to ignore them, to believe they were just dreams. How could you ignore them like that? How could you leave her alone to die!?! You dreamt it would happen!!!”
I smash three more mirrors, anything to get it to stop by it doesn't.
“SAM, SAMMY!” Dean shouts, rushing into the room and crouching down to his brother.
“It's Sam” He answers meekly.
Dean holds onto his brother's face gently, eyeing his face and the blood on it, “God, are you okay?”
“Uh, yeah.” Sam replies, a little unsure though considering the circumstances I get it.
“Come on, come on.” He pulls Sam up, bringing his arm around his neck with a nod of his head towards the door. I follow the boys towards the exit.
A sudden crunching noise forces us to turn around. Mary crawls out of the frame of her mirror, her long black hair covering her face, she walks over the broken glass with no care, her head tilting to the side as she crawls towards us. Her dark nearly black eyes bore into us, somehow she forces us to the floor.
My chest feels tight as if someone was squeezing my heart, I try to crawl backwards on my hands like a crab walk when a sharp pain surges through my hand followed by my eyes. I bring my hand in front of me, a large slash runs through my palm, a piece of glass sticking out of it. The ache in my eyes I know is not caused by glass but by Mary, I reach my gold hand up to my cheek blood trickling down my face. I suck in a breath, the pain not helping the already pain I was feeling. I look over to the boys on the left of me nearly on top of each other as blood runs down both their cheeks.
Mary stands approaching us with a head tilt and a limp. I grumble holding up a shaky hand, waving my hand once, slowly, making long mirrors form in a line in front of Mary acting as a wall between us.
“You killed them! All those people! You killed them!” A female voice cried out, Mary’s voice.
She looks at her reflections scared, when she begins to choke. She grabs on to her throat and her chest, crumbling down to the ground she shrieks, turning to a puddle of blood
With another wave of my hand the wall of mirrors shatters, glass falling to the floor loudly.
“Hey Y/N?”
“Yeah?” I hum feeling a little defeated.
“This has got to be like...what? 600 years of bad luck?” He asks me and I can’t help the big smile that falls on my face.
“Mmm I can’t wait” I laugh, the sarcastic comment coming to me with ease.
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The sun rises in front of us, gleaming on the Impala. Our faves are cleaned up, ridden of blood and the event that unfolded. The only proof of it happening being my hand that’s carefully wrapped in white gauze, the glass now out and the cut cleaned.
Charlie sits next to me in the back seat as we pull up to her house, it's odd having someone else back here with me.
“So this is really over?” She asks us, her eyes puffy from her night of crying.
Dean looks at her through the rearview mirror, nodding, “Yeah, it's over.”
“Thank you.” She says, Dean reaching back to shake her hand. She turns to me next, arms open in a hug. I close the gap between us and give her a good squeeze.
She smiles a little sadly at me, getting out of the car.
“Charlie?” Sam calls out, stopping the woman in her tracks. She turns around, “Your boyfriend's death...you really should try to forgive yourself. No matter what you did, you probably couldn't have stopped it. Sometimes bad things just happen.”
She smiles faintly, turning back around to go into her house.
Dean hits his brother's arm gently, “That's good advice.”
We drive off the car falling silent for a beat before Dean talks again, “Hey Sam?”
“Yeah?” He answers.
“Now that this is all over, I want you to tell me what that secret is.” Dean tells him, looking between him and the road.
“Look...you're my brother and I'd die for you, but there are some things I need to keep to myself.” He admits with a sigh, looking out the window.
The car falls silent again.
Healing isn’t easy. It's not something you can put a bandaid on and expect to be fine, and maybe all that Sam shared will be enough for now but that’s not something we can gauge.
That is times doing, and time isn’t something we can control.
God knows i’ve tried.
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fightingalgth8rs · 3 months ago
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Who wants me to write Detective Georgia fanfic!! ??
It is going to be fire 🔥.
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🌞 Meena.
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mysticstarlightduck · 2 months ago
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Extra 2.0 OC Favorites!
Some more characters from What Lurks In The Hollow, Zach Taylors and Amy Millihan!
Rules: share photos of your OCs' favorite color, season, shoe choice, weapon, food & drink, clothing style, mode of transportation, animal, pastime, and breakfast and if they're an introvert/ambivert/extrovert then change up any one of the five favorite things categories for the next round. BONUS: Add some music/songs that fit their aesthetic (the songs don't have to be their favorite songs, just fit their vibe)!
Zach Taylors
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Favorites:
Color: Graphite black/dark gray
Season: Spring
Shoe Choice: Worn-out black converse studded with metal spikes and chains that were added to it through a DIY
Weapon: Pocket-knife
Food: Cheap diner hamburgers with curly fries
Drink: Vanilla Ice Cream Milkshake
Style: Improvised goth style with dark ripped denim pants, band shirts, studded belts with chains, fingerless gloves with black fish netting, tin rings and black leather vests.
Mode of Transportation: Skateboard
Animals: Geckos and lizards. Has one gecko named Mark, whom he stole from a parked pet store truck.
Pastime: Reading good books by the campfire
Breakfast: White chocolate protein bars
Personality: Ambivert.
Songs:
I'm Alive - Shinedown
Hayloft - Mother Mother
I'm Just A Kid - Simple Plan
Washing Machine Heart - Mitski
Welcome to the black parade! - My Chemical Romance
Amy Millihan
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Favorites:
Color: Pastel, especially pastel yellow
Season: Winter
Shoe Choice: Purple sneakers with star patches
Weapon: Baseball bat
Food: Fried chicken wings with barbecue sauce
Drink: Soda
Style: Simple long-sleeved shirts usually under a T-shirt with a fun pattern, thrift shop pants and a backpack
Mode of Transportation: Her creaky old pastel yellow bike
Animal: Both cats and dogs!
Pastime: Watching movies to fall asleep or to have a movie night, when Dylan has the time.
Breakfast: Waffles with chocolate
Personality: Mild extrovert, wary extrovert lol
Songs:
Butterfly Fly Away - Miley Cyrus
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun - Cindy Lauper
Here's to Never Growing Up - Avril Lavigne
One Call Away - Charlie Puth
Fox On The Run - Sweet
Tagging (gently): @sleepy-night-child, @kaylinalexanderbooks, @smol-feralgremlin, @wyked-ao3, @topazadine @littleladymab,
@winterandwords, @eccaiia, @sarahlizziewrites, @illarian-rambling
@agirlandherquill, @anoelleart, @ray-writes-n-shit
@writernopal, @anyablackwood, @unstablewifiaccess, @forthesanityofstorytellers
@i-can-even-burn-salad, @cakeinthevoid @thecomfywriter
@thepeculiarbird, @clairelsonao3, @memento-morri-writes, @starlit-hopes-and-dreams @amaiguri
@cherrychiplip @thecomfywriter @thelovelymachinery
@differentnighttale, @leahnardo-da-veggie
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