#oh hey a crossover between three of my favorite games

[bleuternatea]

pure cringe you can tell this was barely rushed.

my last post before the new year (in my place). i removed all my negative feelings behind me to make this lazy mess of mine.

sorry, just sad and tired, I'll make more positive shitposts next time

aight happy new year gonna make 2023 my turf

(also forgot to add my watermark, so please no steal)

[Posted on December 31, 2022]

[nataliedanovelist]

GF & MvsM - Wanna Talk About Dinos?

This crossover was inevitable. It just works too well. Maybe one day i’ll write a fic about how the folks at Gravity Falls handled the robot-apocalypse. Probably shrugged it off. “Eh. We’ve had worse.” Haha! What if Stan and Ford, cuz they were out sailing, had no clue what happened and when they came back they were like, “Wait, what?”

For now, please enjoy this fic of Aaron making a new friend...

(credit goes to @stephreynaart for her OC Jacob) ~~~~~~~~~~ “Hi, would you like to talk to me about dinosaurs?”

Aaron asked this question more times than he could keep track of, but that wasn’t going to stop him from asking it. It started as a dare from his big sister two years ago, but now it’s a fun hobby. When fifth grade isn’t overwhelming him, scaring him with mountains of homework and horror stories about how hard middle school is going to be, and when he’s run out of YouTube videos to catch up on, he is on the hunt for fellow giant-lizard-lovers like a hungry Ceratosaurus.

“No, okay bye.” But it did get a little tiring to always cross out names and phone-numbers on the phone book with red ink. Hey, a dinosaur of a way to find phone-numbers was appropriate. He read the next number, dialed it, and after a ring or two he asked, “How would you like to talk with me about dinosaurs? No, okay thank you.”

Aaron crossed out another name and sighed, taking a break since he reached the end of a line of numbers. Maybe he should just be grateful for Abbey and accept that no one else wants to talk about the Jurassic Period. Or the Cretaceous Period. Or the Triassic Period. But then a big, old, gray-tinted ad distracted him. He grinned, thinking it would at least be fun to give them a call, and he dialed the number.

Private home phone-numbers were fun, but businesses were also fun! Poor, bored workers would gladly talk to him rather than crabby Karens, and they got paid for it! So Aaron smiled as the phone rang, and he grinned when someone picked up.

“Thanks for calling the Mystery Shack, you’re talking to Mr. Mystery himself! How may I befuddle or bewilder you?”

“Hi! How would you like to talk with me about dinosaurs?”

“Oh, dude! I’d love to, but I’m scheduled for a tour of the Oddity Museum in three minutes.” The man said, and Aaron grinned continuously, because it sounded like Mr. Mystery really wanted to talk with him about dinosaurs. “But hey! Can you hold on for one minute, I think I know a guy!”

“Yeah, sure mister!” And Aaron was greeted by the sound of a catchy jingle about buying t-shirts and mugs and snowglobes. He smiled and wiggled his feet along to the music as he looked outside at the beautiful late-fall afternoon, entertained while he waited.

~~~~~~~~~~

Soos was on the hunt. He planned out the house in his head. Abuelita was taking a nap upstairs, Melody was organizing the upcoming tour, and Stan took Jacob out for ice cream, so he might be…

The owner of the Shack grinned when he stopped at the doorway and saw the man he was looking for, sitting in Stan’s chair, reading a book.

“Uncle Ford!”

The old sailor smiled up at the young man. “Yes, wh-...”

“Do you think you could answer the phone for me? I have a tour and I think this customer’s request is right up your alley.”

“Uh… sure, but w-...”

“Thanks, you’re the best!” And Soos was gone before he could address Ford’s confusion.

Ford was a bit lost, having little to no business with business, but he had learned at this point to trust Soos, so he picked up the phone beside him and was immediately greeted with a sweet, “How would you like to talk with me about dinosaurs?”

Ford grinned and closed his book. “I would love to! All three periods are equally as fascinating to study, but the Triassic contains some of my favorite dinosaurs!”

A young voice gasped on the other line. “Mine, too! Everyone thinks the Jurassic period is so great, and it’s pretty cool, but the Triassic gave us Plateosaurus and the Brachiosaurus!”

“That’s very true! You know, it’s very interesting, maybe depictions don’t include feathers at all, which is a bit frustrating, but perhaps after the news has spread they will incorporate more feathers on merchandise and textbooks.”

“YES! That’s what I wanna do when I grow up, help draw better-accurate dinosaurs!”

~~~~~~~~~~

The phone rang on Sunday. The Shack was closed today, so Stan lazily answered it and was greeted with, “Wanna talk about dinosaurs?”

“Sixer, phone for you!”

Ford ran into the living room, elbowed his twin out of the chair, and took the phone. “Hello again, Aaron! Now, where were we? Right, so Australopithecus. … No, I don’t think… Oh! No, homo habilis was erect, Australopithecus was never fully erect.”

“Maybe he was nervous.” Stan groaned, getting to his feet.

Ford shot him a look as thankfully the young boy on the other end didn’t catch that and happily shared some more fun-facts about homo habilis.

~~~~~~~~~~

While most college students were excited for Spring Break so they could get drunk or lose their virginity, Katie was excited because her family had planned a special secret roadtrip. She was careful to keep up with her family and talk to her parents and brother frequently, but Aaron had a hobby he wasn’t talking about that his parents found out and were thrilled about. Aaron had made another friend.

Rick and Katie did some research and the tourist attraction sounded right up their alley! In the middle of the woods, tons of weird stuff, and a fun roadtrip filled with diners and attractions. They decided to surprise Aaron, and they made up a lie that they would spend Spring Break in California with Katie so she could show her family around San Francisco, when in actuality they would be traveling up the state to the Redwood Highway and see the oddity place, and maybe even allow Aaron to meet his new pen-pal. Or, um, phone-pal.

So after bombarding Katie with hugs the Mitchells threw her luggage into the car and drove off. Aaron turned to Katie and excitingly asked, “So where are we going first? Can we go fix the Golden Gate bridge by painting it gold?”

Katie laughed and ruffled his hair. “Maybe later, right now I wanna show you guys this fun store right outside of town. Here, check out the videos I made for my classes!” And she pulled out some airpods and gave one to Aaron.

“Cool!”

Rick and Linda smirked at each other as they drove north. By the time they reached a little diner in Redding, CA, it was very clear to Aaron that they weren’t in San Francisco anymore. “Come on, just tell me where we’re going!” The boy begged as he fed Monchi a fry.

“The best kind of prizes are the surprises.” Linda quoted.

“Eric, Deborahbot5000, where are we going?”

“Sorry, Aaron, we cannot give that information.” Eric said, he and the other robot sitting politely in their seats, happy to be a part of the social interaction.

“Yes, Mother will bury us if we disobey.” Deborahbot said matter-of-factly.

“What?! No I won’t, sweeties.”

“Won’t you ground us?”

The family laughed and Aaron let the topic go; if he was honest, he loved a good surprise. The big family stopped in a motel just at the California-Oregon border, and the next morning after muffins and coffee and orange juice they were on the road again, passing dozens of trees that made Rick feel at home. Katie happily recorded the trip, trusted to be the documenter for another fun roadtrip, with hopefully not as much mortal peril.

Aaron watched as they left the highway for a simple road, and they passed a big sign. The boy gasped and caught what was happening. “No WAY! Really?!”

“You know, I hear this Mystery Shack even has a Sasquatch.” Rick commented while Linda pulled out a pamphlet from the glove box.

“It says here it’s full of odd things you’ll never see anywhere else, even a dinosaur footprint…”

“Wasn’t there a rumor of there being a Bottomless Pit?” Katie asked, pointing her camera at Aaron to get his reaction.

“Thank you thank you THANK YOU!!!” Aaron cheered, hugging his Dad’s neck and kissing his Mom’s cheek.

“Hey, no worries, buddy.” Rick eased, fixing his shewed glasses. “We wanted to see this place, too!”

“Why don’t we eat a quick lunch and then we’ll take the backroad for the attraction? There’s a coupon in here for a diner made from a giant log!”

And so after being served by a pretty blonde teenager at Greasy’s, they drove through town to get to the backroad. Signs made them confident that they were going the correct way, as well as Eric and Deborahbot5000’s GPS. Then as they turned a corner, a big triangle-shaped building came into view. Aaron grinned at the giant sign with a missing letter. People were already leaving, arms full of souvenirs and one or two already wearing their new hats or t-shirts. Once Rick parked in the Free Parking Lot, Aaron spilled out of the car and ran for the shack, but he stopped.

Katie caught up to him and patted his back. “You cool, man?”

Aaron shrugged, holding his hands in front of him and his shoulders up to hide his face a bit. “I-I dunno… What if… What if he doesn’t like me?”

“Hey, I get it.” Katie admitted. “When I first met my friends I was really nervous. I had talked to them online for weeks and I was worried it wasn’t gonna be what it was all cracked up to be, but it was. Your system worked! You found another dino-lover! You earned this moment. Just take in a deep breath and be yourself, cuz you’re a pretty cool dude.”

Aaron smiled up at his big sister. “Thanks.”

Trusting Eric and Deborahbot5000 to watch Monchi and make sure he used the bathroom, the Mitchells went inside the shack. On the porch there was an ice cooler, a sign reading schedule times for tours of the Oddity Museum, a Help Wanted sign, and two rocking chairs with a game of checkers between them.

Inside the store a few customers filled up the gift shop, alongside t-shirts, snowglobes, a vending machine, a door beside ti that read Employees Only, a bookshelf full of comic on one side and old newspapers claiming alien sightings on the other, a fish tank holding a monkey-mermaid, and barrels full of spaceship keychains and dino claws. A new section called Camping Stuff caught Rick’s eye, selling backpacks, lanterns, flashlights, batteries, canteens, and compasses. Katie opened a comic called Lil’Stanley and laughed at the swears, taking a pic and sending it to her friends’ group chat. Linda looked into the barrel full of patches and grinned at all the fun designs, while Aaron stared happily at the mer-monkey.

The Employees Only door opened and closed and Rick watched as a man in a suit, fez, and eyepatch walked up to the lady at the register and kissed her cheek. The woman smiled lovingly and left while the guy who resembled a gopher checked a customer out. Rick waited until the buyer left to approach the register, leaning an arm on the counter.

“Welcome to the Mystery Shack, dude!”

“Thanks! So, this is gonna sound weird, but my son Aaron talks to a guy here about dinosaurs…”

“No way!” The owner interrupted excitedly. “Good to see you, dudes! I’m Mr. Mystery! Wow, you guys came a long way, huh?”

“Nah, only from California. My daughter is attending art school there.”

While the men chit-chatted and Linda joined them, Katie noticed a guy walking up to Aaron and looking at the mer-monkey. She smiled and tried to read the comic without being too nosy, but she kept her senses on her brother.

“Hm, quite fascinating, isn’t it?” The man in the blue hoodie said. “But I think my favorite is the fossilized footprint. Could be Nanuqsaurus hoglundi.”

“The Polar Bear Lizard?” Aaron clarified, touching his chin as he looked at the dino-print, his back to the man he was talking to. “Maybe, but they’re from Alaska. It’s possible plate tectonics did cause some fossils to be relocated here, but it could also be a Nanotyrannosaurus lancensis footprint.”

“The Dwarf Tyrant? Could very well be. Would you like to talk about dinosaurs after your tour?”

Aaron’s eyes widened as the voice was finally familiar to him. He turned and looked up to find an old man smiling up at him. He had fluffy gray hair with a white stripe running around his scalp, wrinkles by his eyes due to smiling, a cleft chin, glasses, and wore a blue hoodie with a maroon sweater underneath. His hands were behind his back and he smiled down at Aaron warmly, while the boy was jittery and overly-excited. He took in a sharp breath and had to fight every muscle to keep from leaping through the screen door. 

“H-H-Hi…” He peeped. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Y-Yeah, sure! I’d love to! I’m Aaron! Er, wait, you already knew that.” And he held out a hand to shake.

His phone-pal, Ford, chuckled and got on one knee to be eye-level. “Greeting, Aaron! It’s nice to formally meet you.”

Aaron shook his hand and noticed something. He had six fingers on his right hand. A quick glance told Aaron he also had six fingers on his left hand. Aaron grinned with sparkling eyes at his new friend, while the old sailor smiled warmly at the boy that reminds him of his niece and nephew when they were young.

[tonio-dawson]

The Perfect Trap

OC x Antonio Dawson

Crossover Blue Bloods x Chicago PD

Words: 4,401

A/N: This is my very first crossover, please be nice :) This story follows the life of Maggie Reagan, twin sister of Jamie Reagan which makes her the youngest of the Reagan family. For context, here is the Reagan family tree. This story took place in New York, I might be writing another one that takes place in Chicago so we can focus on the CPD Intelligence Unit. Hope you like it!

---

"I have to say I don't like this one bit," Frank Reagan finally spoke. “Dad, we’ve talked about this,” said Danny. 

“Yes and I gave it a go, but I just want to say again I don’t like this idea,” Frank gazed to his youngest.

“None of us like it any more than you do,” Maggie answered, all eyes were on her and her fiancee who sat next to her, clenching his jaw. He gave it a long pause, “We can still call it off,” his raspy voice sounded heavy and his remark raised many eyebrows, “Hey! Don’t do this to me brother,” Danny complained, pointing his fork to his soon-to-be brother in law. “Easy, Daniel,” said Henry at the end of the table, trying to calm his eldest grandson.

Maggie Reagan is the youngest of the Reagan family. She followed her family legacy, entering the police academy around the same time as her twin Jamie, but she moved to Chicago wanting a clean slate without the burden of her last name in New York. On the job for eight years, now she’s working as a junior detective in Narcotics. Maggie met Antonio Dawson on a joint operation with the Intelligence Unit two years ago and started dating not long after. Much to her surprise, Antonio quickly grew very close to her family including his hot-headed brother, Danny. Apparently being a hard willed yet by-the-book cop was the ticket to be loved by the entire Reagan family. A big reason why it was rather easy to get all of their blessings to put a ring on Maggie’s finger six month prior to this dinner.

So, the commotion at the Sunday dinner table isn’t about their wedding at all. Danny, who had been picking Antonio’s brain for a lot of his cases, finally caught a big one. Danny’s case this time has become an official police matter between CPD and NYPD, both wanting to keep feds out of it. Teo Rodriguez, who ran a drug ring five years ago in Chicago has resurfaced in New York. Back then, Teo managed to avoid any conviction thanks to the loyalty of his crew  in Chicago. None of them gave Teo up and no crime that he pulled had hard evidence against him. Though he remains free in Chicago, CPD made sure that his operation was crippled and that Teo cannot do business in Chicago again. Not long after a major operation to convict all of his crews, Teo skipped town and fell off the CPD radar. 

A couple of months prior, Danny caught execution-style homicides in Harlem with markings over the victims. It’s obvious that this is gang-related killings, but he never saw these markings before. He had been banging his heads as that was already a third homicide, the killer had definitely been playing with him but he was no close in identifying him. Not until he shared it with Antonio who filled him with useful information. With Antonio and CPD’s aid, Danny came close to locating Teo, but he ran with the same old problem: without hard evidence, they didn’t have enough to convict him. 

They’re back to square one. And so, Antonio and Danny came up with an idea - a risky one. Setting up a trap. Knowing Teo, everything is an eye for an eye. Five years ago, when Antonio arrested Teo’s second-in-command, Pedro, CPD held his 10-year-old son and threatened him to give the kid up to social service and never to see him again if Pedro didn’t give himself up. Pedro finally came to the precinct and had himself arrested. However not 24 hours later, Diego, Antonio’s son went missing. He was finally found unharmed, but they could never connect Diego's abduction to Teo.

The idea was to provoke Teo by revealing Antonio and have him arrest Teo’s sister who lives in New York. They hoped that if Teo took the bait and made the connection, his next move would be taking Maggie into hostage. Being Danny’s sister and Antonio’s girlfriend, Maggie is the perfect trap. They would then set up surveillance and wiretap on Teo, so they could finally catch him red-handed. This is of course an operation with a lot of ifs. And a huge risk for Maggie. Antonio had second-doubting his idea at least a hundred times but Danny convinced him to go with it. With Frank’s blessing, the operation was a go. It’s a risky idea, but a necessary one.

On the dining table, Antonio shook his head looking at Maggie, “Sorry. I know this is my idea and everything, but...,” “Hey, it’s our idea,” Danny corrected. “Yeah Danny, that’s why we all don’t like the idea,” said Jamie, which earned a chuckle from everyone. Danny scoffed, he really likes his future in-law, but doesn't like the detective popularity contest at the dining table. 

“It’s the only way out if we want to get this scumbag,” said Maggie. Frank let out a sigh, “Do what you got to do. But please, be safe,” Frank shot a look at Antonio and Danny. “In case you forget, we are the three finest detectives in the country, Dad,” Danny replied with a smile while Antonio kept clenching his jaw, wondering just how things can go. 

---

A few days later, they started the operation. “Teo Rodriguez!” Danny shouted, he rounded the street near Teo’s apartment, catching him just after he exited the building. “Oh if it isn’t my favorite Detective,” Teo replied with a smug, “What is it? If you have another conspiracy theory, I’m not interested. Already said I have nothing to do with your homicides,” he tried to walk off but Danny stopped him. “It’s not that, I thought you wanted to see something. Come with me,” Teo didn’t comply at first but he finally gave up when Danny revealed her sister’s name. 

Danny took Teo to central booking, across the hall, behind the bars - a sight was presented to Teo: Antonio was holding his sister, Ella, cuffed and ready to be processed. From afar, they watched the scene, “I believe that’s your sister? But who’s that next to her? Do you remember him?” Danny asked. “Ella! No, you can’t do this!” he screamed. Ella only turned her heavy head and gave Teo a disappointed look before disappearing to the next room. 

After processing Ella, Antonio approached Teo, “Teo Rodriguez, remember me?” Antonio asked.

“Not really. But I do remember Diego,” Teo replied with a smug. 

It pained Antonio but he kept his cool, “Well, perhaps Ella facing a 5-year charge will jog your memory. You thought after leaving Chicago, you can start all over again because no one knows you. But we know. It took NYPD a while but now that they’re working with me, we all know well that you like to keep business close to the family. I tracked down Ella long before you did. That mom of yours really does like sleeping around…” Antonio continued.

But Teo laughed hysterically instead, “Oh you like playing games now, Detective Dawson?! Let’s see who’s the better player.” 

“So you do remember him,” Danny said, “Reagan and Dawson..let me guess, extended family? If you have a cop family here in New York I’m gonna find out. Remember Detective, this ain’t Chicago.” Teo pointed his finger at Antonio and left.

“Remind me, how did you know about Ella again?” Danny asked when they got to the car.

“After the investigation, we realised that none of them snitch on Teo not because they’re scared, but because they think of him as family. We dug into his childhood and found out that he actually has a lot of step siblings. One way or another his crew has blood ties,” Antonio explained.

“So when he moved to New York, he only had few contacts. Since his mom has children everywhere, he always has family,” Danny continued. “Long story short. Let’s just hope he took our bait,” Antonio replied.

----

“Is this really necessary?” Maggie whined. “Come on Mags, you need to be seen in the city, reuniting with old friends, having fun.” said Jamie while handing over her dress. 

“It’s 4pm in the afternoon,” said Maggie. “And you are known to be an early drinker, since when you’re complaining about drinking?” Jamie asked. “Since knowing my fiancee and my brother is taking down a very dangerous criminal,” she answered while getting ready. 

“Let’s paint the town red and hope that Teo is indeed as smart as Antonio predicted,” Jamie smiled. He called up a couple of his most trusted cops, pretending to be Maggie’s old friends. Four of them were heading to a corner bar in East Village. 

Detective Baez, Danny’s partner, had been tracking down Teo’s movement with an unmarked car. She’s sitting outside of Teo’s apartment in her car while their team has been listening in to phone calls and text messages from Teo. Nothing suspicious of yet, but close to 7pm, Teo texted his accomplice to meet him somewhere in East Village.  Baez stayed put and ordered Danny to stand by on Maggie.

At around 7pm, Jamie, Maggie, and their friends had been spending time at the corner bar. They haven’t seen anything out of the ordinary. Until three suspicious looking men sat down next to their table, exchanging looks, but no sign of Teo yet. Down the road, Danny and Antonio parked two blocks away, with a TAC team parked further down. 

It’s been half an hour and no sign of Teo, nor that the group of men does anything. Is it a false alarm? Jamie and Maggie sense that something is wrong but they can’t figure it out yet.

“Something feels off. If those are Teo’s guys, why don’t they make a move? Should I go to the back alone to lure them?” Maggie asked. “No, Maggie. Too risky.” said Jamie. 

“Yeah but if you’re around Jamie, they won’t make the move. I’m good with Sandra and Alex here,” asked Maggie. Jamie looked hesitant but eventually yielded, “You keep her safe, okay?” Alex nodded and gave him a reassurance squeeze in the shoulder, “We got this, Reagan,” said Alex.

Jamie went out the bar and joined Danny and Antonio in their car. Another half an hour, still no sign of Teo and no chatter on his phone, Antonio also started to be uneasy. 

“I think you two should join Baez, I don’t think he’s coming here,” said Antonio to Danny and Jamie.

“Leaving you alone with our sister? No,” Danny quickly rejected.

“Come on. I’ve got the cavalry here with me,” Antonio pleaded. “I feel more safe if you have eyes on Teo is all.” 

Danny yielded, went out of the car and took Jamie’s car heading to Teo’s place, “You spotted him yet, Baez?” he called Baez. “No. No movement from his apartment since he’s back from the bodega an hour ago,” Danny and Jamie looked at each other and looked for the bodega. 

“What is he wearing?” Danny asked. “Grey hoodie, black jeans, and white shoes,” said Baez over the phone. “Shit,” Danny muttered. “What is it?” asked Baez. “I’m at the Bodega looking at the security footage. Looks like he paid someone to wear his clothes and went back to his apartment.”

“Well his phone is still at home, so is his car,” Baez reported. “He must know we’ve been sitting on him,” Danny shook his head.

Jamie filled Antonio with the new development, “Shit. We got played.” Antonio cursed himself, he can’t believe all their plan had been crushed. Teo is a man of his words, Antonio is absolutely certain that he’ll take revenge but where is he now? He wrecked his brain and recalled his last conversation with Teo, that’s when he realized his mistake, “Jamie!!” Antonio screamed on the phone Danny swore he could see waves coming out of Jamie’s phone.

“It’s not Maggie….it’s Erin. My extended family. Go find her, I’ll join you.” Antonio’s voice was shaking in panic, he’s about to shift the car gear when he heard a gunshot coming from the corner bar where Maggie was. “Damn it!” he ran out along with the TAC team to the bar.

Danny and Jamie could not hear anything more from Antonio, the line got disconnected after the gunshot, but they decided to trust the man and make a run for Erin. 

Danny was on edge while Jamie drove as fast as he could, “Danny, there’s a thing between us twins. I have a feeling that she’s okay.” said Jamie. “Okay if that you trying to calm me down, I’ll take it. I wish you can say the same for Erin,” Danny was beyond angry at himself. This operation was under his watch, and so far nothing according to his plan. 

Danny kept calling Erin but no answer. Baez pinged her phone and put her in a three-mile radius around her apartment. “Please Erin, please be home,” Danny mumbled. The ride was only 15 minutes but it felt like forever for the Reagan boys. Erin���s car was parked in front of her apartment building, but when they got in, she’s not home. 

Meanwhile, the situation at the bar wasn’t pretty either. The TAC team surrounded the bar, already securing civilians. Antonio could not believe what he’s seeing, it was like seeing a scene from a movie: gun standoff between the three men versus Alex and Sandra, with Maggie held on a chokehold, gun on her temple. Antonio quickly made his way in, which gained a strong protest from the perp that held Maggie, “Don’t move! Or I’ll kill her!" he yelled. Antonio took the risk coming in, but he’s fairly certain that Teo didn’t order his guys to kill Maggie.

Antonio rose his hands up, “If you don’t know already, you’re holding hostage a Chicago Police Detective. And I guess you didn’t expect the two friends here are also cops,” he pointed at Alex and Sandra.

“Now, I am from Chicago too so I wanna make sure that I bring her safely home. I know Teo sent you. And you’ve failed already because the task was to kidnap her, right? Why don’t we make this quick man-” Antonio kept talking to shake them off. “Shut up!! Or I’ll kill her!” the perp became more and more nervous. Maggie exchanged looks with Antonio, trying to understand his play. Antonio looked at her, Maggie looked calm, she trusted Antonio could get her out of the situation. 

“I know it’s not the deal. The order was not to kill anyone,” Antonio tried to win them over.

“You don’t know anything,” the one holding Maggie pulled his trigger, the two others looked utterly confused and panicked. As the prep adjusted his arm position, Maggie elbowed him hard on his stomach, pushed his arm up and duck down. His shots were fired but went to the ceiling. Antonio tackled him as Maggie crawled to the side. Antonio pulled his gun on him, “Don’t you even think about it,” and the perp dropped his gun. 

The two other men were taken aback wanting to shoot back, but Alex and Sandra shot their legs first and lunged at them. They were apprehended quickly and taken outside. 

Antonio asked to deal with the one holding Maggie earlier. He was cuffed now so Antonio threw him on the table pressing him hard with his body. Maggie watched in disbelief from the side with the other officers. She had seen Antonio in action a few times before, but never quite like this. 

“Where is Teo?!” Antoino screamed pinning him to the table, “I don’t know man-” the perp laughed. 

“You want to laugh now?” Antonio pulled his gun and placed it on the back of the perp’s knee, “Well, you should know, in Chicago, we play things differently. There’s no need to be politically correct. Now where does he say he wants to stake out Erin?” 

Maggie just put two and two together now, Teo has levelled up his revenge game, he went after Danny’s two sisters. Not caring about all the eyes, Antonio put his hand around his neck now and pressed his gun more, “I’m not playing here-” the perp was shaking and finally gave in, “I don’t know the name of the place, Blue something… a diner near her apartment. Now let me go!!” he screamed and coughed. Antonio threw him to the ground and motioned the other officers to take him. He knew that he would get in trouble later coercing a perp like that, but he couldn't care less.

He quickly called Danny, giving him Teo’s location and possibly Erin’s. After that, he turned to Maggie, who was still processing the situation, “Babe, you okay?” he reached out to hold her hands, she nodded but suddenly gave Antonio a tight hug. “Hey, you’re okay, I’m here,” Antonio tried to calm her down. She was on the verge of tears when Antonio pulled her away, he cupped her face with his hands, “I love you Maggie and will always protect you.” he paused and continued, “I hate to do this, but unless you can pull yourself to be Detective Reagan now, I suggest you get check out on an ambo because I still have to save your sister..” he said it calmly but not leaving the sense of urgency. Maggie bit her lip, realizing that her day was far from over and that her fiancee is still a cop on a job. So she took her deepest breath, “Let’s go, Detective Dawson,” she gave his hand one last tight squeeze before quickly making her way inside his car. Antonio nodded, still worried but he knows Maggie can do this. She was a cop before she was his girlfriend afterall.

Danny and Jamie ran across the street together with Baez who had joined them. They didn’t notify anyone yet as they don’t want to spook out Teo and put Erin in more danger. The Blue Whale diner was a bit more crowded than usual. Danny came in and asked Erin to the front counter. They confirmed she’s in the back, when he showed Teo’s picture the barista nodded and a few seconds later they heard a commotion from the back. People started screaming and ran out. Teo has found Erin.

“Jamie! Baez! Secure everyone!” Danny yelled. Turned out that Teo didn’t expect that Erin would recognize him right away - she immediately reached for her phone to call 911 when she saw him. And when he realized this, he quickly drew his weapon out, taking Erin before she could press dial.

Danny went to the back of the restaurant while Jamie and Baez were still out front making sure everyone’s out. Seeing Danny, Teo held Erin tighter and put his gun on her side.

“You Reagans. Think you’re so smart,” Teo smirked.

Danny drew his weapon to Teo, “It’s over Teo. You didn’t get Maggie either,” said Danny. “Oh yeah? So, I have more reason to kill this one then,” he grinned. Danny’s stomach was twisted. He could make the shot but Teo’s too close to Erin.

The standoff felt like forever. Danny tried to talk their way out of the situation. What took Baez and Jamie so long? He didn’t have back up. So he could only stall and talk nonsense to Teo about making a deal to get him out of jail. 

Just when Danny was about to run out of options, Antonio came through the back door with Maggie, both weapons drawn to Teo, “It’s over Teo, you’re surrounded. You put the gun down real slow, or we take you out,” Antonio said calmly. Teo looked at Antonio, "You think you finally won, Detective Dawson?" His grip on Erin became tighter "Oh if I had known earlier that the famous Reagan family had ties to you…" He shifted his aim, his weapon pointed at Maggie this time. 

"Teo, if you want to walk out alive…your only way out is me. My brother and Detective Dawson here won't think twice about shooting you," said Maggie. “Detective Dawson? You think I did not know you’re his girlfriend?!” Teo shouted. 

She looked straight to Teo but her gaze was to Danny's. She gave Danny a slight nod, “I know you know now. Teo, now please…” Maggie begged, throwing her arms up like she was about to surrender, “Please, don’t hurt…” before she could finish her sentence, Danny fired a bullet to Teo's shoulder that was holding the gun. 

Teo's gun went off but his aim was horrible, Maggie dodged his bullet and in a split second, she ducked and pulled Erin who was already on the ground towards her. Teo now on the ground, with Danny on top of him cuffing him. He grunted, Antonio kept his gun pointed at Teo and put it on Teo’s temple. "Tony, don’t. He's not worth it." Danny looked at him. Antonio's eyes were filled with anger, "I'm gonna make sure you're going to the death chair, and you’ll wait for that agonizing day in misery," Antonio hissed when getting him up. Teo still didn't look defeated, Danny shoved him and let Baez take him to the station.

Maggie held onto Erin as tight as she could. Today was horrifying. "Erin...are you okay?" Erin hugged his sister tighter, "I am now, thanks to you," to that, Maggie suddenly sobbed at Erin's shoulder. Looked like she had it worse than Erin. Erin looked confused, she never saw Maggie cry this way. Not even after the incident that made her move to Chicago 9 years ago. She held her, looking to Danny and Antonio for explanation. They may not be the closest siblings but Erin loves her siblings equally don't matter what. Antonio looked at Erin with an apologetic look, feeling responsible that he didn’t force Maggie to sit out after the bar shoot out. 

Antonio approached her, "Hey Maggie, your arm is bleeding. Let's get you check out, the ambo's here," a bullet must've grazed Maggie’s arm during the first shootout. Maggie didn’t move an inch, still hugging her sister tight. He rubbed her back, closing in to her ear, "Come on, let Erin go. She's okay and you can go see her after. Okay? Danny will take care of her,” Maggie pulled away and looked her sister in the eye, "Erin I'm sorry…" still sniffing. "Hey, none of this is your fault, Maggie. And look, your sleeve is dripping with blood, go with Antonio," Erin reassured. Antonio pulled Maggie close to his side and walked out holding her. 

After Maggie left it’s Erin now who could not take it anymore, "Oh Danny, that was too close to comfort," she buried her head against Danny’s chest. He put his arm around her, "I’m so sorry sis. It's over now, it's a good thing that we rehearsed that move over and over again," said Danny comforting her, "One hell of a day," he muttered.

--

Outside, Maggie was still shaking while getting patched up. Antonio held her hand the entire time, "I'm so sorry," was all Antonio could say to her. He knew his fiancee was hurting more in her heart than physically. But he did not know what to say, his head was still full with anger, heart pumping, adrenaline still hadn't washed out. He saw Jamie and motioned him to come over to the ambulance. 

“Hey Mags, you okay?” Jamie asked. “Um.. yeah no,” Maggie started sobbing. Antonio pulled her into a hug, his brows curled and his face spoke a thousand words to Jamie. “It’s over, okay? It’s just adrenaline wearing off,” he realized that Maggie was still shaking. “You did good, babe. You did good.” he whispered to her ears. 

Maggie pulled away, seemingly calmed down, she looked at Jamie, “I uh… I put Erin in danger, I got the whole cavalry looking after me and not one on Erin’s side…” tears streaming again. Antonio sighed, looking at Jamie for help, this is going to take long to recover from.

“We can’t go to that rabbit hole Mags, you know that. If you keep doing this then Danny would probably beat himself up, he brought everyone into this,” Jamie tried to reason. 

“Or me- I should’ve forced you to stay after the bar,” Antonio’s words are shaky now, he’s also on the verge of tears, seeing Maggie like this, not his best forte. 

Thankfully one of the officers came to break the moment before Antonio shed any tears, “Detective Dawson? The commissioner is on the line,” Antonio realized he had left his phone in the car and hadn't given an update to Frank yet. He nodded at the officer and turned to Maggie, “I’ve got a lot of explaining to do to the NYPD. You sit tight here with Jamie, okay?” Maggie nodded as he left. 

“How can you all be so strong?” she asked Jamie. “We’re not Mags. We just pretended to be, so the others can be,” Jamie took his twin sister’s hand. “If you can’t do it for us, do it for Antonio. He’s the one that got it the hardest. Danny is a close second though and that’s just because he’s a Reagan. But marrying a PC daughter and getting in the middle of this mess? Fiancee of the year that he is,” Jamie chuckled, tried to lighten up the mood. 

Now that Maggie can put things into perspective she put on a brave face, “I’ll start pretending now,” she smiled at him. “Yeah, you can be all sappy and sad when we’re alone at my place?” he offered. “With a bucket of ice cream and a superhero movie?” Maggie asked. “Yeah, can you give Antonio something to do tonight? Eddie’s got the night shift so we can have the night for the two of us.” he said.

“Oh, I won’t have him tonight. After today, I bet Danny would be drinking his night away with him…”

“So, it’s officially our night then,” Jamie hugged his twin sister.

[seanfalco]

Hey, I love your Klaus and Nathan fics, they are my favorite! I don't know if you do crossovers, but if you do I was wondering If you could write a fic where Nathan and Klaus fight over Y/N, each one trying to charm her and seduce her. Thank you <3

words count: 2.3k a/n: I’ll admit this was a bit of a challenge for me, but I enjoyed it.  I ended up writing three short alternate endings, so you could pick your favourite.  There’s really no plot to this, but dang if this isn’t the dream, man.

——

Extricating yourself from the crowd, you made your way to the kitchen, dodging other stumbling drunken party goers til you found the makeshift bar.  Surveying your options, a voice across the counter from you caught your attention and you glanced up to see who had addressed you.

“What’re yeh drinkin’?”

As you looked up at the guy standing across from you, leaning against the counter, a kitchen towel draped over his shoulder, you caught his eye as he leered at you unabashedly, biting his lip, his gaze flicking down and back up appraisingly and you cocked an eyebrow at him, taking in his appearance as well.

Young, probably early twenties if you had to guess, he was lanky, something he’d probably grow into, with a mop of unruly dark curls and eyes that sparkled when he grinned -- his smile catching you off guard and you found yourself grinning back.  

“What, you the bartender, or something?” you asked, eyeing him skeptically.

“Well, what else would I be?” he shot back with a cheeky grin as he plucked at the towel slung over his shoulder, as if that proved it.  “I’ll be anythin’ you want me t’be,” he continued when you didn’t look convinced.

“Smooth one, aren’tcha?” you asked with a laugh, leaning against the counter and his grin widened as his eyes slipped to the low cut collar of your shirt, rather unsubtly, his adam’s apple bobbing as he stared.

“Y’know, it’s hard to trust people at parties, there are so many guys that’ll mix girls’ drinks stronger to get them drunk faster, just so they can take advantage of them” you said conspiratorially while giving him a warning look, which he blanched under, chuckling nervously. 

“That--that’s awful,” he exclaimed, scandalized, rebounding quickly.  “What kind of sick, perverted individual would do such a thing?”

His eyes darted from yours and you snorted, deciding to go easy on him -- at least he was cute.

“Look, if yeh don’t trust me, you can watch exactly how much I pour, alright?” he asked, a slight petulant huff to his voice that made you laugh and you agreed, telling him what you wanted and leaning forward to watch him mix it, laughing even harder when he tried to get fancy and nearly dropped the bottle of liquor, managing to catch it before much spilled.

“Thank you, uhm…?” you exclaimed as he handed you the cup, hesitating, waiting for him to supply his name.

“Nathan,” he replied and you ducked your head, raising your cup in thanks.

“And do I get th’pleasure of knowin’ your name?” he asked, his cheeky smirk returning, “so I’ll at least know what name I’ll be moanin’ tonight when I get lucky,” he added with a wink and you quickly brought your cup to your lips to hide your flushed cheeks, a little surprised that your drink really wasn’t all that strong.

“Are you always this self-assured?” you asked, once you’d composed yourself.  “I’m actually a little impressed.”

Nathan merely grinned, spreading his hands and shrugging.

Rolling your eyes, you decided to go easy on him once more, he had made you a drink after all, and hadn’t been too much of a creep about it.

“I’m [y/n],” you answered and Nathan opened his mouth, no doubt to make another cheeky remark when you felt someone sidle up to the counter next to you, his voice cutting Nathan off and drawing your attention.

“[y/n], huh?  Such a lovely name.  In fact, it happens to be my mother’s name as well, what a coincidence.”

“Oh, really?” you asked, not bothering to hide the sarcasm in your voice, though an amused grin played at your lips -- this hadn’t been the first time you’d heard such a line used before.

“Well, it could’ve been,” the newcomer quipped with a shrug, flashing you a roguish grin that made your breath hitch as you turned to him.  “I never had the pleasure of knowing her, but you…” he paused, taking your hand in his before bringing it to his lips, his manicured facial hair tickling your skin as his dark rimmed eyes flicked up to yours, quickening your pulse and you couldn’t but notice his dark fingernail polish and distinctive palm tattoos.

“...You I’d definitely like to know,” he finished, his long wavy curls brushing his shoulder as he tilted his head to smile at you.

“How sad,” you replied, feigning seriousness to his tired pickup line, watching the handsome stranger in front of you with curiosity, feeling Nathan’s scowl on the pair of you.

“It is, but c’est la vie,” the man mused with a vacant wave of his hand and a dramatic sigh, “perhaps you’d like to distract me from the heart-wrenching sorrow?”

Fighting back a grin, you tilted your head to match, propping your hand on your hip.  “Alright drama queen, do you have a name?”

“You, dear fraulein, may call me Klaus,” he intoned, his eyes flicking past you to Nathan and a smug grin twisted his lips.

Oh boy, you thought, knowing where this was headed.

“So,” Nathan exclaimed loudly, trying to catch your attention back from Klaus.  “What’s a bird like you doin’ at a party like this all alone?  That is, unless you came here with someone--?”

Oh, very subtle.

You took another drink from your cup before answering.  “Are you asking if I have a boyfriend?” you asked pointedly, onto his game, and Nathan shrugged, frowning.

“Well, do yeh?” he replied.

Glancing over, you found Klaus looking just as interested, though he hid it better, plucking a bottle out from the others and pouring himself a shot as he waited for your answer.

“Nope, I came here with a friend, but she ditched me to dance with some hot girl, and she’s probably busy tasting her cherry chapstick right about now, if you know what I mean,” you mumbled, tipping back the rest of your drink.  “So, which of you wants to dance with me and distract me from this heart-wrenching betrayal?” you asked, feeling rather bold as you finished off your drink, your eyes flicking between Klaus and Nathan.

Before you knew it, Klaus’s hand was in yours, pulling you with him toward the next room where the music was playing.  Glancing over your shoulder as he led you away, you flashed Nathan an apologetic smile as he was left to simmer sullenly.

However, before you could feel too bad for him, Klaus was pulling you into his arms to dance and your pulse spiked at his proximity.

“Finally, we’re alone,” he sighed melodramatically and you draped your arms over his shoulders, following his lead and swaying with him despite being completely at odds with the driving bass that poured through the speakers, much to your amusement.

“Why’d you want to get me alone so badly?” you asked curiously, your finger idly twisting in his long curls and your eyes found his.  This close he smelt of stale cigarettes and alcohol, and faintly of something else you couldn’t quite place, but it wasn’t unpleasant.

“Why not?” he countered, challenging you, “It’s so much better to go after what you want, don’t you think?”  His lips quirked into a mischievous grin, and paired with those smokey eyes you didn’t stand a chance.

“Charmer,” you murmured, melting against him as he leaned in, his lips inches from yours and you let your eyelids flutter shut in anticipation.

Suddenly you felt someone bump into Klaus, jostling you as well and your eyes snapped open.

“Sorry mate,” Nathan’s lilting voice called in faux surprise, as if it were totally a coincidence that he’d just run into the two of you.  “Guess it looks like it’s my turn,” he exclaimed, turning to you.  “Can I cut in?” he asked smugly and you couldn’t help but grin a little, letting him pull you further into the crowd as you blew a kiss to Klaus.

“You did that on purpose,” you pointed out and Nathan merely shrugged, not even bothering to look guilty.

“Maybe I did and maybe I didn’t,” he quipped and you rolled your eyes.

“Are you jealous?” you asked instead, laughing delightedly as he spluttered indignantly, taking your hands and threading his fingers with yours as you danced together.

“Me, jealous?  Of that pretty boy?  As if!”  

Throwing back your head, you laughed freely, collapsing against Nathan and though he made a show of scowling, you could tell he was pleased.

After the song ended you told him you had to use the restroom, slipping out of the crowd with a promise to return soon.

——

Fixing your hair in the mirror before returning to the party, you grinned at the thought of the two equally charming, if completely opposite men out there waiting for you, knowing eventually you’d have to make a choice.

Not far, you found Nathan and Klaus eyeing each other disdainfully, catching a snippet of their conversation as you approached.

“Hey man, piss off, I saw her first, that means I have dibs!” Nathan exclaimed headedly, pointing a finger threateningly in Klaus’s amused face.

“Aww that’s cute, you actually think you have a chance with [y/n].  Clearly, she was more interested in me,” Klaus countered, gesturing to himself importantly.

“Oh, please, y’smug bastard, he had chemistry.  Didn’t yeh see her eye fuckin’ me before you came and stuck your big fat nose where it wasn’t wanted?”

“Chemistry?” Klaus scoffed, holding up his hands, flashing his inked Hello and Goodbye.  “I hate to break it to you shit stain, but that’s not what I’d call it --”

Oh shit, you thought, having heard enough of their bickering.  Bracing yourself, you strode over to them…

Nathan

“Nathan, Klaus,” you exclaimed, catching their attention, your pulse spiking as both sets of surprisingly similar eyes swung toward you.

“Klaus,” you murmured, reaching up on your toes to brush a kiss to his cheek, you flashed him a smile before pulling away, slipping your hand in Nathan’s.  “Thank you for the dance, I had a lot of fun,” you said and his face fell for a moment before he shook his head slightly, smiling to himself.

“The pleasure was all mine,” he replied and you turned, pulling a speechless Nathan with you, though he quickly shook himself out of it, sticking his tongue out at Klaus over his shoulder before you were pulling him back into the bathroom with you.

Not wasting any time, as soon as the door clicked shut you yanked Nathan to you, his lips colliding with yours and a pleased moan slipped from your mouth and he kissed you back eagerly, his hands wandering hungrily.

Pulling back for a moment Nathan gaped at you.  “Why’d you pick me for?” he asked between kisses and you jumped up to the counter, taking your shirt off before slipping his over his head and trailing your fingers down his smooth chest, your gaze holding his.

“Because you made me laugh, and besides, you smirked, taking his hand and guiding it to your breast, “he had chemistry.”

Klaus

“Nathan, Klaus,” you exclaimed, catching their attention, your pulse spiking as both sets of surprisingly similar eyes swung toward you.  

Catching Klaus’s eyes you shared a look and his lips twitched as you turned apologetically to Nathan, reaching up to brush an errant curl from his forehead. 

“Nathan, thank you for the drink and the dance, but I think I’m gunna --” the rest of your words were cut off as Klaus draped his arm over your shoulder, pulling you close to his side.

“We’re gunna get outta here,” Klaus exclaimed smugly, wheeling you away from Nathan who gaped after you.

“Oh, sure, whatever, pick him!” he called after you.  “There’re plenty of other drunk impressionable girls here who’ll wanna shag me!”

Once you’d left the noise of the party behind, you walked across the street to a nearby park, empty at this time of night, Klaus sitting at an empty bench, pulling you into his lap.

“Now, I seem to remember being in the middle of something before we were so rudely interrupted,” he mused softly, his gaze finding yours as his hands slipped up to cradle your face.

“Hmm, you’ll have to remind me, I can’t quite remember…” you teased, smirking as pulled you closer, finally pressing his lips to yours.  Wanting more you swiped your tongue impatiently against his bottom lip, tasting him as a shiver raced down your spine.

“So hasty,” he murmured against your lips, grinning.

“What can I say, it’s so much better to go after what you want, don’t you--” before you could get the words out, Klaus took you by surprise, drawing your bottom lip between his teeth before his tongue darted into your mouth, deepening the kiss like you’d wanted and soon you were full on making out in the middle of the park, not really caring if anyone saw.

Both

“Gentlemen, let’s not fight,” you exclaimed, cutting off their argument, your pulse spiking as both sets of surprisingly similar eyes swung toward you, but a mischievous smile tugged at your lips, heat rushing through you at the thought that had gripped you.  

“...After all,” you murmured, taking both their hands and drawing them with you, “there’s enough to share.”

Klaus’ and Nathan’s eyes widened, Nathan’s mouth going slack while Klaus merely grinned darkly, and both men let you lead them back to the host’s bedroom, away from the rest of the party.  

“That is, if you think you can get along long enough for that,” you purred, shutting the door behind you.

“This isn’t my first rodeo, sweetheart,” Klaus exclaimed, slipping to the bed and pulling you into his lap, brushing your hair aside to trail his lips along your neck teasingly, drawing a soft moan from you as you reached for Nathan, pulling him down next to you.

“I can share, if he can,” he muttered, swallowing thickly and you grinned, hooking your finger under his collar and drawing him to you, pressing your lips to his, and soon you weren’t sure whose hands were whose, the only thing you were certain of what that you were so glad you’d come to this party tonight.

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

Tag List: @magic-multicolored-miracle / @imagine-you-are / @etherealsxnder / @thehrgreeves / @iamsexytrash / @unlistedpond / @remibarnes22 / @itsmetaphorbriansblog /

[monellabella]

Where are the rats? AKA Pt. 2 of the hunger games x HP crossover series ft. Fredward Weaslely (OC x Fred W.)

a/n: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL THE LOVE ON PT. 1 I NEARLY CRIED READING EVERY COMMENT SO THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH MWAH <3

Warnings: Just some cursing and a mention of a black eye (this is all I can think of but pls let me know if I should add any!)

Taglist: (leave a comment or message me to be added!) @anchoeritic​ @pineapplesandpinas​ @mitsukui​ @beiahadid​

Link to Pt. 1: https://bisou-doux.tumblr.com/post/640770995870957568/the-starving-games-ft-freddie-weasel-aka-pt-1 

Those ten minutes felt both shockingly short and blissfully eternal; As time seemed to run of its own accord. Seeing my mother and sister alone was enough to make me misty-eyed; but when mom pulled a disgruntled-looking Tulip from her bag and handed him to me, I burst into tears. I collapsed onto the floor and just sat there. My mother and sister joined me. I curled into mom’s lap, allowing her to stroke my hair as I laid my head on her chest and gave in to the soothing, wavelike motion of her breathing. Maeve snuggled up close to us and hugged my waist from behind, leaning her head on my back. Tulip, that furry little menace, seeming to sense the heavy sadness that blanketed the room- plopped himself onto my lap and curled into a ball against stomach. I sniffled and gave a light chuckle. I started stroking his plush fur absentmindedly; I eventually let my eyelids, heavy with grief and exhaustion, to slowly droop closed.

None of us felt much like talking. We just sat like that for a while- letting the tears roll silently down our cheeks. I could’ve easily fallen asleep, but my mother soon gently sat me up, and I reluctantly shifted from my place in her lap. Maeve begrudgingly followed suit, and we both sat criss-cross on the floor across from her. Maeve shuffled closer and leaned her head on my shoulder. Tulip was kind enough to stay in his place- in fact, seemingly enjoying it- and I felt the vibrations of his contented purrs echo through my chest as I pet him. At last, my mother broke the silence, “Seph,” she sighed, “I- um-” she seemed to be at a loss for words. “Mom, it’s okay. You don’t have to say anything.” I said quietly. Her eyes brimmed with tears. “Oh, Seph,” she leaned forward and hugged me tightly. I tried to keep my composure, but my voice still shook when I spoke, “It’s gonna be okay, mom. You have so much love around here- none of the aunties or uncles would ever let you and Maeve fend for yourselves- you know that.” I rubbed her back comfortingly. She sniffled, “I know but-” she sighed and pulled away slowly, placing her hands on my shoulders. “Seph, promise me you’ll try.”

“I promise- no, I swear- whatever happens, I am leaving that arena alive.” I said resolvedly. My mother looked at me, her eyes, like mine and Maeve’s, were red and puffy. She cupped my face with her hands and gave me a small smile. Planting a tender kiss on my forehead, I reached up to place my own hands over hers. Maeve, who was still at my side, spoke up, “You didn’t have to do it, y’know. I could’ve handled it.” She sniffled and wiped at her nose with the back of her hand, “Not to mention Tulip- He’s gonna miss you! You’re his favorite out of the three of us!” she added. I looked over at her and scoffed, “First of all, kiddo, you haven’t even hit your growth spurt yet- so I doubt you’d be handling anything other than that fancy Capitol silverware.” Mom laughed, and Maeve looked down and smiled, “Also- what on earth makes you think I’m Tulip’s favorite? The little jerk was SLEEPING ON MY FACE THIS MORNING.” At that, we all burst out laughing, the sound of it bouncing off the walls and making everything seem a little bit lighter. When our laughter died down, a comfortable silence took its place. We sat there for a moment soaking it in. Eventually, Maeve turned to me and broke the quiet, “Hey, Seph?”

“Mhmm?”

“Give ‘em hell, will you?” she said gravely. Instead of reprimanding her for her choice of words, mom nodded, and looked at me earnestly, “Give those bastards in the Capitol a run for their money.” 

“But how? They own me now- I’m their property. They could do whatever the hell they want.” I said.

“Bullshit. You’re still a person. Not a hunk of meat.” she gently placed her hand on the side of my face, “You have a brain- use it.” She glanced around the room and lowered her voice to a near whisper, “The thing the Capitol fears more than anything is the districts realizing exactly that. They’re afraid we’ll rise up against them when we realize we’re not just brainless pawns. They keep us in check with the games- reminding us that they have all the power- that they can threaten us all they want but we’ll never have the guts to do anything about it. But that’s all they are- threats. They’re threatening us because they’re afraid of us.”

“But what am I supposed to do about it? I can’t exactly organize a rebellion.” I replied, matching her lowered tone. 

“I’m not asking you to. What I’m asking you to do is remember that you are not just a sheep off to the slaughter. Make them like you- show them that you’re not just some kind of dirty, uneducated savage. Appeal to their vanity; trust me, they have a lot of it. Whatever happens, make all those pricks at the Capitol wonder if maybe they shouldn’t have sent you into the games- that you might just be the one tribute they seriously regret sending into the arena. Show them you have a mind and soul. Give those Capitol freaks something to feel for. But most importantly,” she leaned in and spoke in a barely audible whisper, “give that motherfucker Snow something to be afraid of.” She leaned back and looked me dead in the eye. “Do you understand what I’m saying?”

I nodded wordlessly. 

“And for god's sake please don’t let them put you in some kind of hideous outfit, or I swear, I’ll stop rooting for you then and there.” Maeve joked. I looked over at her and smiled. I ruffled her hair and gave her a big smooch on her forehead. “I won’t. Pinky promise.” we hooked our pinkies together and gave each other a curt nod. “Besides,” I said, “if the outfit’s ugly enough, I’d rather go naked. At least that would earn me some points with some of the male sponsors, don’t you think?” Maeve giggled in response. I leaned over and hugged them both, “I love you. I love you both so much. I’m coming back, you hear me? I’m coming back.” We heard heavy footsteps coming down the hall. I gave Tulip a quick kiss on top of his head, and whispered “I love you, too, Tulip. You’re the best cat anyone could’ve asked for.” I handed him over to Maeve, and she quickly but gently placed him back into the bag as we all stood up. Mom hugged me so tight I could hardly breathe, but I didn’t care. “I love you. I love you so much, sweetie.” she whispered. “I love you, too, mom.” My eyes started to water. She planted a kiss on my forehead and both my cheeks, and I stepped over to Maeve as I heard the footsteps getting closer, “I love you, kiddo. Don’t ever forget it.” “I love you, too.” she replied breathlessly, tears now pooling in her eyes. Maeve held the bag between the three of us, Tulip poking his head out from the top of it, and I embraced them both as tightly as I could manage. A moment later, the door swung open and five peacekeepers entered the room. “Time’s up.” one of them said. We all turned to face him, but I maintained a tight grip on Mom and Maeve’s arms. “You two,” he said pointing to my mother and sister, “Out.” Two of the peacekeepers walked over and grabbed hold of their arms. They pulled them away with such force, I had no choice but to let go. I stared after them, my feet glued to the floor, as the two peacekeepers pulled them out of he room. My breathing quickened and I felt myself starting to panic. I rushed towards the door to see if I could still catch a glimpse of them, but I was held back by two more peacekeepers grabbing my arms. “Wait, please, just a few more minutes.” I said desperately. I saw the bright purple edge of Maeve’s dress disappear as they rounded the corner into the main hall. “Please. Please, I’m not ready to go.” I choked. I heard their steps echo across the marble as they were made to walk rapidly towards the exit. “MOM!” I cried, pushing harder against their iron grip. “MAEVE!” I shouted, fat tears rolling down my cheeks. I grunted, practically throwing myself out of their clutches. “LET GO OF ME!” I screamed, “LET GO OF ME YOU FUCKING BAST-” but the rest of my sentence was muffled as one of the peacekeepers clapped his hand over my mouth. I thought about biting his palm, but it was unfortunately protected by a thick leather glove. But him and his stupid gloves couldn’t stop me- I screamed anyway- yelling out obscenity after obscenity as I continuously tried to free myself from them. I was losing my voice, and I strained against them so hard, I thought my shoulders might pop out of their sockets. When I heard the sound of the heavy brass doors being opened and closed, I went limp. I stopped fighting. I slumped forward as my breathing slowed, and my anguished cries turned into defeated sobs. The peacekeeper removed his hand from my mouth, and the one still standing behind us, who’d been observing my little meltdown, took a few steps closer, “You done?” he asked. I huffed in annoyance, “Yes,” I croaked, my voice practically non-existent. “Good. Now shift it or we’ll drag you to the train by your ankles.” I gulped, straightening up just in time to once again be shoved to my next location. 

Instead of leaving through the brass doors, we walked straight past them and down a second hallway opposite the one we just came from. This one was slightly larger, and the dark wood-panelled floor had square tiles of dark green marble lining either side of it. At the end of it was a set of bolted steel doors flanked by two more peacekeepers. As we approached them, they opened the doors to reveal what appeared to be a large, dimly lit tunnel. It looked like the underground station we took that morning- only much, much nicer. The concrete platform we stood on was unnaturally clean- neither a single piece of trash, nor suspiciously blood-like spill. The tall, arched ceiling was entirely covered in dark blue and green tiles that still gleamed despite the dim lighting. I didn’t think it was possible for an underground station in a city to be entirely vermin-free; yet here I was, and there was not a rat or cockroach in sight. But the most peculiar thing was how wide the single set of tracks was- they were at least 12 or 13 feet wide. For fuck’s sake, how big could this train possibly be?, I thought to myself. A few moments later, two peacekeepers emerged from steel doors, grasping the arms of a tall, redheaded boy. They walked forward and stood a few feet to my right. I looked over, and tried to hide my smile: despite their armored uniforms, the two peacekeepers looked absolutely ridiculous standing on either side of their prisoner- he was at least a good four to six inches taller than both of them and made the two of them look like little children holding onto their mommy. Despite the fact that he looked like he could crush them with his pinky, Fred was sporting a nasty black eye that hadn’t been there less than an hour ago. Observing his injury, I could’ve sworn I saw him glance at me. I tried to catch his eye- well, the good one- but he just clenched his jaw and resolved to stare blankly at the ground below him. I exhaled through my nose in frustration and turned my gaze back to the empty tracks in front of me. We stood there in torturous silence for a few minutes, until suddenly I heard a faint rumbling coming from the right of the tunnel. As it got closer, some of the lights flickered and everything looked to be shaking. A few moments later, a sleek, black bullet train pulled into the station and whizzed past us until it slowly came to a squeaking halt. Every window was tinted so that you couldn't see inside. The door in front of us slid open with a small hiss, and Ms. Magenta from the ceremony stepped out. She gasped happily, “Oh, my lovely tributes, I am so-” she paused upon seeing Fred’s eye, “My goodness what have they done to you?” No one said anything. She turned to the peacekeepers holding Fred, “Did you do this?” she said sternly. 

“He wasn’t cooperating.” one of them replied flatly.

“That’s not an excuse to abuse him! Don’t you understand that he is going to be on television in front of the entire country? He cannot have that on his face, it’s hideous! It will ruin his entire outfit!” she said shrilly. 

“Not my problem.” he responded. Ms. Magenta scoffed angrily then took Fred by the wrist and whisked him away from the peacekeepers, “Come, my dear, we’re going to get this all fixed up. You will get the best treatment the Capitol has to offer!” She turned on her heel and walked over to me. “You, too, my dear- come, come!” she chirped. The peacekeepers maintained their grip on my arms and started walking towards the train, but she turned and stopped them, “Oh, please, let go of her,” she huffed before stepping back and yanking me over by the wrist, “She’s a girl, not an animal.” she said disapprovingly. She took mine and Fred’s hands into her own and I stumbled a bit when she jolted us forward. Walking briskly to the train, I smirked as I put my free hand behind my back, and held up my middle finger. 

I held on to the tiny railing on the side of the five or so steep steps leading into the train, and the door hissed shut behind us. Once at the top, I turned to face a room that made the marble halls of the Justice building look like a pile of bricks. She let go of our hands but I hardly noticed as I stood gaping at the space in front of me. I now clearly understood why those tracks were so wide- it must’ve been double- maybe triple- the size of the apartment I lived in. There was an elaborate crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling, and gold sconces in the spaces between the windows. The floor was made of dark cherry-wood panels that looked like they’d never seen a single step. On either side of the train carriage, there was a short little couch, a chaise I think it’s called, with gold legs and light-blue silk cushions. In the middle of the car, below the chandelier, there were two larger couches facing each other that matched the ones on the side. Between them was an elegant glass table where a white, porcelain tea set, and colorful little cakes on a silver-tier platter sat on its surface. The carriage itself carried a faint scent of old wood and lavender. I looked over to see Fred standing there with the same, awed expression. “Is- is this all for us?” he asked quietly. 

“Of course it is! You are both very important guests of the Capitol- it would be rude of us not to show you the best of our hospitality.” Ms. Magenta replied brightly. “Now, if you would follow me, I’ll show you to your rooms and then we will meet in the dining car for supper, alright?”

“Wait there’s more?” I asked, my voice still a bit hoarse. 

“Well, obviously.” she replied chuckling, “The trip from here to the Capitol takes at least a week- you can’t expect to stay in one room the whole time, can you?” she laughed lightly then made her way to the door at the other end of the car. It slid open to another train car- this one as equally opulent as the last, though instead of couches, in the center of the room were two pairs of plush silk chairs. A jade and white marble chess board sat between two of them, the pieces all lined up perfectly. Between the others was a small, square wooden table with a pack of playing cards sitting on top. “I’ve never played chess before.” Fred remarked.

“I have; it’s fun.” I replied looking up at him. 

“Really? D’you think you could teach me?” he said, turning to face me.

“Sure.”

“Is it a hard game?”

“No, not once you get the rules.”

“Okay, good,” he said nodding to himself, “You’ll teach me then?”

“Yeah, tomorrow.” 

“Cool.” He looked down at the ground and a small smile crossed his face.

We followed Ms. Magenta through the next few train cars until at last she stopped and turned to us, “So, behind me are your rooms. Yours Fredrick-”

“It’s just Fred, actually.” 

“Very well; Fred, your room is on the left, and Persephone, yours is on the right.” she paused then looked over to me, “You do like to be called Persephone, don’t you?”

“Well, most people call me Seph, but you can-”

“Persephone it is! Don’t worry, it is a very pretty name, everyone at the Capitol is going to love it.” she said excitedly, “Now off to your rooms! I’ll see you both at six o’clock in the dining car.”

“Wait a second,” I said, “You never told us your name.”

“I didn’t? Huh- I was sure I mentioned it...well anyways, it’s Emerald. Emerald Tallis. But of course, you can both call me Emmie. Now both of you- rooms!” she said walking away briskly. 

“Wait, but how will we know-” Fred started to ask. 

“There are clocks on your walls!” Emmie responded as she walked through to the next carriage. “Ta-ta!” she said airily, waving her hand above her head as the door hissed shut behind her. Fred and I stood there awkwardly for a moment before I cleared my throat, “Um, I’ll see you at six.” I said quickly. 

Without looking up, he nodded, “See you at six.” And with that, we both walked hastily into our respective rooms and shut the door. The room was surprisingly plain. It contained a large bed with a dark grey comforter partially inlaid in light wood-panelled walls, a small desk in the corner to my right, and some shelves to my left. The whole room was basked in a warm glow emitting from the strips of light that trailed across the top of the wood panels on the walls. Admittedly, it was a nice change from the extravagance of the rest of the train. I stepped over to the bed and fell backwards on to the plush comforter. I kicked off my shoes then sat up once more, leaning back on hands. My stomach rumbled.

Shit, I thought, I should’ve snagged one of those cakes. 

I massaged my still sore throat.

And maybe some tea, too.

a/n: If you’ve made it this far, welcome I have a task for you: can you give Seph this mug so she can drink her tea

I don’t think she knows what a dinosaur is but she’s gonna like the mug. 

[pangtasias-atelier]

This is not ask about kinks (No offence btw i don't which word to replace kink with). in previous ask, you said you didn't like the canon of Tormod and Muarim origins right? so i would to ask what type of canon would you give them if you could? I also like ask, if the Tellius saga ever get a revamp/remake, what would be biggest wish fullfill? for me its Tormod reclassing into a melee class / Laguz Army to availability more...

Oh, it's okay! No worries lol, this is a kink blog after all.

As for Muarim & Tormod, I would honestly just prefer it for Muarim to have literally found Tormod out of nowhere and took him in. Like that's just so much better than the wierd little dynamic of Tormod basically being the son of Muarim's ex master and Muarim taking him Tormod in when the noble house falls.

Honestly, my biggest wish fulfilment would just be getting supports in RD. Like, that alone would be so beautiful. Hell, they could even keep the mini supports and make it so that those are a super small in battle bonuses.

And although a remake with both games would be phenomenal, let's face it, Nintendo is a company and they are as greedy as all hell just as every other company so they'll be their own remakes

Though there's a lot more to help RD. Even though it's already really damn great imo. But if the legitimate fixes, I'd say this:

Fix availability. Tormod, Muarim, and Vika really have no business joining for like 3 chapters before leaving until the last 6 chapters with their stats from part 1 lmao

Also, BALANCE. When people say RD is the second most unbalanced game, they mean it. The difference in usefulness in characters is astounding. Also, Dawn Brigade still in tier 2 classes while Greil Mercenaries are already hitting tier 3 is ridiculous and pretty dumb

Laguz gauge. It's not terrible but I still feel that PoR gauge would work much better, especially with olivi gras and such. Also , Laguz being locked to single range hurts them so much since RD is pretty enemy phase heavy.

Weapon balance. Magic is pretty bad and also had terrible caps. Laura has amazing speed growths but can't take advantage of it since her caps are awful.

Difficulty balance: Part 1 shouldn't be the most difficult part of the game when there's three more parts after it.

Writing: part 3 aside, (I don't know how to fix it without making Pelleas look ever worse than he already did by signing that blood pact lmao) part 4's writing kinda comes across as a generic "series crossover game" it's not bad and it also serves in showing tensions between characters. But it also highlights favoritism, Skrimir praising Micaiah while ready to murder Naesala. And also Pelleas getting off the hook easy from Tibarn.

And as for personal wishes:

I wanna save Zelgius. He's by no means this innocent character people love to paint him as, but it bothers me that you can save Lehran but not Zelgius

Change Pelleas's "death" scene in part 2. The fact that the only difference is suddenly getting the option to have Micaiah jump in the way just feels so cheap. I will say Pelleas' death is kinda just a punch on the first playthrough since the option kinda does give some false hope to sparing him. And it ultimately becomes a complete waste. (though Pelleas does get forgotten afterwards sadly)

Give more screentime to Skrimir and Sanaki. The two are great characters as is, but it would've been fun getting a chapter or 2 with them to help solidify their arcs.

Also, give Pelleas and Elincia some more screentime

Ike. He's great and I love him, but godamn is he just this absolutely perfect child that can do no real wrong and everyone praises him so much. Granted, his growth was already in PoR but still. (Praise Micaiah's lines dissing Ike, it's just such a great fresh view in seeing how the losing country sees the game's hero after that other FE games don't do)

Speaking of Ike, it honestly would've been cool seeing him get a more supporting role instead of just blindsiding everything and taking over. But that never goes well in games. Look at the fandom with Micaiah lmao. (And also Tales of with the Symphonia sequel)

Stop the whole Astrid x Makalov thing. I just hate the ship lmao

And that's just for RD sjdhsjnsksb it's really obvious how much I love Tellius. But admittedly, they're all nitpicks than any actual true flaws.

As for PoR, it's been so long since I played it, but it honestly has like no real narrative flaws that I can find? I just vastly prefer RDs ambitious scale of writing vs PoR's take on the whole basic FE plot.

As for gameplay stuff

Balance magic a bit, lightning is too good. And that not, bring back tier 1 light mages and also bring back dark magic.

Give us Maniac Mode!!

RD's improved UI and models alongside the skills

Make knives way better and let Sothe promote. Unpromotable tier 1 classes is the worst idea ever. Unless you're a dancer, you should be able to promote.

Let Laguz weapons rank up

FIX THE AWFUL WEAPON RATE GAIN

OMG SERIOUSLY THAT WAS SO AWFUL

I DON'T EVER WANT SUCH A SLOW WEAPON RATE EVER AGAIN

Give Elincia more screentime. I love her and like yeah, not every women needs to be this badass warrior, but the Nyna archetype is just so done at that point. (But hey, she still turns it on it's head by the end. And so does Pelleas)

And that's all I can think of really.

Again, I'm such a huge Tellius nerd lmao. Though I currently believe FE6 will get remade first. Tellius is still too recent, and intys probably doesn't wanna touche the incest plot shit in FE4 and FE5 also has to get passed up for a remake due to being in Jugdral.

God this is so fucking long sjdbjsvavsvs

[can-u-imagine-that]

Title: Battle Scars, part 3;

Fandom: X-Men (crossover with The Avengers, both movie-verse);

Character: Peter Maximoff;

Note: Y/N: Your Name;

Warning: Cursing;

Request: Okay I have a long request, please bear with me (probably could be split into parts). I have been craving for a little crossover imagine between the Avengers and the X-men. Soooo I was thinking that the main OC or the “you” has a relationship with Peter and they are all happy and stuff (idk probably before Dark Phoenix, after Apocalypse) and their mutation is healing… they can easily heal wounds but it hurts them when they do and the Avengers want them to help in the fight with Thanos (1) They feel the pain of the wound and depending of how many wounds they heal it may actually hurt them. They are an old friend of Natasha and Clint. They end up having a fight with Peter because he doesn’t want them to go (I like to think the x-men did their part during the war too, so maybe you could come up with something) but they end up going anyway, without solving things between them and Peter. And of course they disappear in Thanos Snap and Peter grieves and all fast foward (2) the remaining x-men are helping the Avengers fight Thanos in End Game when the Blip happens and boom they are back and reunite with Peter and he matured a lot and was never able to let go of his s/o and fluff happens… sorry for the long request omg, I just got really excited and I really hope you like it and can do it… thank you so so much Author’s Note: It’s quite obvious but I need to clarify that I’m changing a lot of stuff from both Avengers and X-Men movies to fit this request. So this is only part one so it’ll manly focus on Peter and the reader BUT I decided to consider him and Pietro as two different characters since they are from different movie universes theorically and since, well, Pietro barely even existed in the Avenger’s universe unfortunaly.

And now the final part of this imagine, which I must say is one of my favorites. I had so much fun and of course I had to re-watch both Infinity War and End Game which made it even better. I thought about doing a smut, but decided to keep it cute and touching. Let me know if anyone is interested in a part 4.

Hope you all enjoy it!

Click to read part 1

Click to read part 2 (in case you missed it)

Things went havoc when the battle started and you lost Peter from your sight for a long time, but somehow you knew he had you on his all the time. You focused on your main task which was keeping yourself and all the teammates you could help alive.

Instead of depending on the gun all the time you used your powers recklessly. It was dangerous but you’ve never been really fond of battle. You shot enemies around you when needed but your main task was finding and healing everyone that you could. When your powers started to get you too tired you noticed you couldn’t heal them completely, but kept doing your best.

You were breathlessly healing a huge gash on Wanda’s side when Thanos army turned into dust. When the pain from the wound eased you managed to stand up, widening your eyes when you saw Tony Stark.

He looked barely alive. Half of his body was completely black and burned by the use of the Stones.

Automatically your feet took you near him, your hands reaching to touch him to try easing his pain. You didn’t know him, it was true, but just the fact that he sacrificed himself to save everyone was enough for you.

But someone grabbed you before you could.

A tall and slim woman in a blue suit, very similar to Tony’s red one, stared at you with her eyes filled with tears, her lips pressed into a tight line. You remember healing her once during the battle. Her name was Pepper.

“H-He... you...” she whispered, breathing heavily until she finally calmed enough to speak properly to you “You’re just going to kill yourself... in this state... both, your and his... it’s too much... I noticed how your power works... even if you were in full condition, trying to heal him now could get you killed...”

She made you step back from where Tony was. A boy who had introduced himself as Peter was kneeled in front of him, saying something but your attention was focused on Pepper.

“No... I-I... I can... let me try... please... please, Pepper...” you pleaded, shaking her hand off and making your way to Tony again.

“Someone, stop her.”

Before you could understand what was happening you were swept off of your feet and throw into someone’s shoulder. It took you a while to recognize Sam before he spoke to you.

“I’m sorry, Y/N... we can’t lose someone else...” he said, placing you carefully on the ground.

You considered trying to run, but when you looked over Tony again it was too late. You could feel it.

He was gone.

A gush of wind signaled you that Peter stood by yourside again. You had no idea of what happened during that time you disappeared but the pained expression on the silver haired mutant told you a lot.

You allowed yourself to stumble towards his body, wrapping your arms around his waist and burying your face on the crook of his neck. And you had no idea of how much he needed that. Your warmth was all he nedded at the moment. He closed his eyes, squeezing you tightly against his body.

During the next few days, in grief and respect to Iron Man’s sacrifice, the X-Men stayed with the Avengers, attending the funeral and helping them settle down again. Your power was really appreciated after you recovered completely.

You and Peter barely had time to speak to each other, as you came to learn how much the speedster became close to Tony, thus suffering a lot for his lost and as you grieved for Natasha’s death. You also noticed how much he changed. How different he was. In a normal circumstance the new Peter would have been a major turn on for you, after all, technically, physically speaking, now he was the older one in the relationship a place - which obviously you never thought would change - that used to be yours.

It was during a cold night where you woke up from a nightmare that you and him finally started to talk about all that happened.

“Hey, hey... babe... I’m here... it’s okay...” he whispered quietly, staring at your face while his hand drawn small circles in your tear stained cheeks.

“I-I...” still dazed from the dream you sobbed and whimpered, making Peter aware that this was the same nightmare you have had for the least three nights. Only this time was worse and you ended up waking. Usually he’d just cuddle you until you calmed in your sleep “I could... I could have saved him... I could have...”

“Sh, no... you could not. You’d die, Y/N... and I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you again... for the third time...” he whispered, kissing your sweaty forehead and when he noticed that your breath was still erratic he sat on the bed, gently lifting you so that you were now sat in front of him “Hey, breath with me... c’mon...”

Peter knew pretty well what you were going through, oh, how he knew. He remembered the first year after the Snap. He would wake up just like that, but he had no one be there for him. So he promised himself that he would be there for you. He helped you ease your breath, staring in your eyes kindly, with only the light of the bedside lamp casting a weak yellow hue on your features.

“I’m... sorry...” you whispered ashamed.

“Hey. You don’t have to apologize...” he said immediately, shifting his body so that his legs were almost crossed with his ankles meeting behind you and your legs were hunched over his thighs “I went through this a lot... but I’m here with you. I’ve got you... I promise.”

Your eyes, still welled with unfallen tears, met his. Peter was dead serious and you couldn’t help a small chuckle.

“It must have been really tough years... this five that went by...” you whispered bitterly “I wish... I wish I could have helped you... when you went through this...”

A small smile found it’s way to his lips.

“You did. You have no idea how much...”

You stared at him confused. Without speaking, he simply tugged at the chain he had around his neck. You wanted to ask him what it was, but didn’t find the right moment before. It was always tucked inside his shirts, but you could see that he wore it all the time. And Peter was never really a fan of accessories.

You gasped when met with the familiar silver glean of the ring he gave you.

“I had this with me all the time... it was my most precious reminder of you. And also a reminder that somehow I had to bring you back because I had really fucked everything up that day.” your breath caught in your throat when you saw his eyes shining “I... spoke with you all the time. When these nightmares happened. I just couldn’t bear the fact that you were gone and I had not even properly said goodbye to you. I hadn’t said how much I loved you... because I was being a fucking brat...”

You hugged him tightly, feeling your shirt getting wet with his tears on your shoulder and suddenly the roles were reversed and he was the one being comforted by you.

“I’m here now...” you whispered sweetly in his ear.

“It was hell...” he kept muttering really fast “It was like hell. Like I was the one dead. And I didn’t even know if dying would allow me to meet you again. I felt useless and weak. I missed you... I missed you so much. Sometimes I’d even see you... except of couse it wasn’t you. But it seemed so real...”

“Peter...”

“And then I had already lost all my hopes Scott came with his idea and... and... I didn’t want to get my hopes to high, but I did. I even managed to get better for a while. For a while I felt like I could be that annoying Peter that everyone knew. Who didn’t give a fuck about a lot of stuff. Nat...” he choked a sob “Nat bet her life on the idea... and she was right... but still hurts so much...”

He was rambling so much that after his words started to mix with sobs that you could barely understand what was the subject again. He started to talk about Natasha and then about Tony and after that about you again.

“Hey, love, look at me...” you said, holding his head between your hands and resting your forehead agains his “You’re the one panicking now... breath...”

Peter snapped out of it, taking a final deep breath before allowing his hand to rest over yours.

“Sorry...” you both smiled a little, wiping tears and breathing softly, just enjoying each other’s company.

After a while his hands trailed towards the chain again, unhooking it and slidding the ring out of it.

“You told me to hold onto this... until you came back...” he said, gazind fondly at it “I didn’t expect it would take you five years...”

Remembering something you furrowed your brow at him.

“Hey... why did you said you couldn’t lose me for the third time? Technically you only did once...”

“For me it was worth two... the first time was after that stupid fight before you left... and the second during the Snap...”

“Silly... I said we would figure out things when I got back... you didn’t lost me that first time...” you said while your arms circled his neck.

“Well, you were about to meet a bunch of Avengers, y’know. That can affect any guy’s self steem...” he arched one brow at you and you giggled.

“Wow, so that means your ego actually wasn’t strong enough at the time?”

“Can we go back to being sweet, please?” he pouted, grabbing your right hand that was resting on his neck and roughly shoving the ring back into your finger.

You actually laughed at his attitude.

“There’s the Peter I know. Really sweet, huh?”

He smirked, but gently got a hold of your hand, approaching it from his face and kissing your knuckles. His eyes closed as he brushed the back of your hand softly against his face, feeling the coolness of the ring mixed with the warmth of your skin. Then his lips drifted to your wrist, peppering your arm with kisses, making you giggle until he finally found your neck earning a small hum from you. Then finally his lips found yours and his breath rigged because, oh my fucking God, how he had missed you.

You allowed him to push you back into the bed, his body glued into yours. You were so close to each other that you could barely understand where your body finished and Peter’s started. The kiss had so much longing into it and his touches seemed to worship you, caressing your sides and face as if you were the purest and most precious gem he could ever find. There was no malice on his touches, you noted, Peter just wanted to actually feel you were there.

“Y’know...” as if on a cue, he whispered against your lips, pulling apart just to talk and dive into your neck slowly “I’m having nightmares too...” your hands tangled into his hair, soflty messing with his silver strands and drifting to caress his neck and back “Sometimes... I dream that I’m waking up and you’re not here again... and then I actually wake up, feeling terrified that I’ll look by my side and find an empty bed... but then...” he pulled away, his dark eyes finding yours and you see nothing but love radiating from them “Then I look at you... and you’re there looking like a freaking angel... and I know that I’m the luckiest man in the world...”

“Aren’t you charming?” you smile and even though you have a light and jokinly tone he knows that what you say afterwards is indeed really serious “I’m glad that I have you with me... because these scars... these fears and dreams... they’re gonna be a hole battle just by themselves...”

Peter laid by yourside now, his thumb caressing your cheek as you looked at him. He pulled you closer, kissing your lips again.

“I know. But we’ll fight this battle together... and this time I’ll make sure we win right on the first try...” you smiled, staring lovingly into his eyes. His words soothing you more than any kind of physical comfort he could give you “But you’ll have to be really strong... it’s a... bumpy road...”

“I promise I will be...”

And this time you would keep your promise to him.

[zerolympiustrife]

Favorite video games of all time?

Get ready for a LONG post, folks! However…allow me to break this down to my three favorite video game genres: Fighting games, RPGs/JRPGs, and Platformers/Action Platformers (both 2D and 3D). However! Since I feel like these posts are gonna take MUCH longer than I thought it would, I’m just gonna divide the genres into separate posts. But for now, let’s stick with the…

FIGHTING GAMES!:

Dragon Ball FighterZ: My number one favorite (traditional) fighting game of all time. My favorite ArcSys game of all time. My favorite Dragon Ball game of all time. This game is the reason how I got into the Dragon Ball franchise back when I’ve had to little to NO interest in the franchise, even when I’ve watched the ENTIRE Namek saga from the original anime back in 2009. The game’s GORGEOUS art style, every character animation’s (such as specials, supers, intros, victory poses, and ESPECIALLY the Dramatic Finishes) faithfulness to the original manga AND anime of Dragon Ball Z and other DB properties (such as GT and Super), the AWESOME soundtrack (courtesy of ArcSys theirselves, who’re known for awesome music in their games), the 3v3 gameplay, the character roster (though I’ll admit that having five Gokus and Three Vegetas is rather silly), having a new character design by DB creator Akira Toriyama himself, and lastly, being a breath of fresh air to those new to the fighting game genre (since the genre itself is notorious for its high learning curves) AND to Dragon Ball fans who were sick and tired of having the story of DBZ recapped over and over and over AND OVER AGAIN is a fucking sight to behold. This game FUCKING RULES (and a million times better than MvC:I). However, I wouldn’t call it perfect. I’ll admit that the Story Mode is rather lackluster, Arcade Mode is rather lacking, the Shop is completely randomized, and the Online Mode, much like every other fighting game, suffers from lag, spammable players, or just outright ragequitters. That, and the fact that, unlike MvC3 and BB:CTB, every character assist only sticks to ONE attack (meaning that more than one character is gonna have a Kamehameha assist), and that MOST PLAYERS you’re gonna run into is gonna main the likes of Cell (who ENJOYS dragging out combos for as long as possible), Adult Gohan (like Cell, also drags out long combos), and Vegeta (Super Saiyan, because of his assist. Need I say more?). But aside from those flaws, it is hands down the BEST fighting game I’ve ever played, next to…well, below.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: My number one favorite (unique) fighting game of all time. My favorite Nintendo game of all time. Series creator Masahiro Sakurai is a man that I’d like to describe as…well, not only doing the impossible and HIGHLY respected, but also putting those filthy naysayers about certain characters in their place. The fact that the whole point of Smash Ultimate was to include EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER FROM SMASH 64 TO SMASH 4 (Wii U and 3DS), INCLUDING EVERY THIRD-PARTY CHARACTERS DESPITE THE LICENSING AND DEVELOPMENT ISSUES THIS WOULD CAUSE is another sight to behold. FUCK Melee, THIS is hands-down the best Smash game of all time! The inclusion of Spirits, the Adventure Mode, the Boss battles, the gameplay, the kind of chicanery you can pull, the game’s main theme “Lifelight”, the roster, the soundtrack…there’s just ALOT about this game that I just fucking adore. What can you make folks more hyped about this game? Oh, I don’t know…why not shock everybody with JOKER (from Persona 5) AND BANJO & KAZOOIE (who’s still owned by Microsoft) being in the game. What I love about Smash Bros is how Sakurai is just outright defies those say certain characters can’t appear in the series for silliest (or justifiable) reasons. Cloud can’t be in Smash because his game was never released on a Nintendo console until 2019? No problem! Ridley’s too big therefore he can’t be playable? Fuck that! Banjo & Kazooie can’t be in Smash because they’re owned by Microsoft of the Xbox brand? It’s fine! Why? “Because I AM HERE!” -Banjo (JK, but seriously, the fact that Banjo’s in was quite a surprise.) Smash 4 is the reason how I got into Final Fantasy VII, and I hold the entire Smash series in high regard for doing so. Goddamn, do I love this franchise! But! Again, it’s not perfect. The Online Mode is MUCH worse than DBFighterZ (to the point where you’re more than likely to end up in a battle with Items TURNED ON or stages with distracting hazards, OR end up fighting the SAME fucking characters I hate fighting against, such as Little Mac, Falco, Inkling, Incineroar, etc.), and that fighting against EVERY single spirit in the Adventure Mode to get 100% can get rather tiring (not to mention that you gotta get BOTH bad endings from fighting Galeem solo AND Dharkon solo), lack of additional content upon release (Stage Builder and Home-Run Content weren’t even implemented into the game at first), and lastly (although these two complaints are one of more personal matter and one towards Square Enix), the fact Zero from Mega Man X, my favorite video game character is ASSIST character instead of a playable was really heartbreaking to see (but hey, I’m not complaining TOO much since I enjoy interacting with him in my free time in Training), and lastly, the fact that Cloud, and to high extent, Final Fantasy VII AND the FF franchise as a whole has LITTLE TO NO representation in this game whatsoever (again, I feel like this was more of SE’s fault than Sakurai’s). No spirits, no “Fighter Spirit” artwork from the original FFVII, no Assist characters, not being dubbed in English AGAIN (though this was more of a contract issue with SE), no additional music on Midgar, NOTHING. But, nonetheless…this game is fucking awesome.

Blazblue: Cross Tag Battle: Ahahahahaha! Ah…Oh, Blazblue…I love this franchise oh-so much, but the fact that it hasn’t received the same treatment as Guilty Gear lately (not to mention the mainstream Blazblue games, aka the C-series, has pretty much came to an end) is a rather sad sight to see…depression aside, I love Blazblue. I REALLY do! I love the characters, I love the stages, I love the music, the story is confusing as FUCK, but it’s a fighting game franchise I’ve discovered WAY back 2012 and I still love to this day, even more so than Guilty Gear (don’t @ me). So…what to do now? Could there perhaps be another Blazblue game? A game that just so happens to be a crossover? One just as awesome as Smash Bros? Ooh! How about…PERSONA 4?!? UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH?!? A FRANCHISE THAT, LIKE DRAGON BALL AND FFVII, I’VE HAD NO INTEREST IN UP UNTIL 2018 (aka RWBY)?!? AAAAAAAAAAAAAA- Fangasm aside, the fact that this game even EXISTS is an achievement in its own right. As stated before, this game is the reason how I got into RWBY. What I really love and adore about the game are the interactions among the characters. That, and I was SO HAPPY to hear that the game would be dubbed in English, after GG:Xrd Revelator and BB: Central Fiction lacked a dub. I was not only excited to hear the likes of Ragna, Noel, and Hazama voiced in English again, but I was also happy to hear that any characters who’ve never been dubbed in English in the past (characters from UNIB, newcomers in BB:CF, etc.) would be dubbed in English as well. Hell, the fact that the characters from both Blazblue AND Persona 4 (two franchises/games I really love) being in the EXACT same game together was enough to make me be all like “Shut up, and take my money!”, considering how crazy excited I was in the past to see them interacting with one another via fanart and fanfiction (thanks to the Persona 4 Arena games being developed by ArcSys). And if you thought having only THOSE four franchises in the game was enough, you’d be wrong! Here’s Arcana Heart! Here’s Senran Kagura! Here’s a FIFTH character from RWBY: Neo Politan! This game, much like DBFZ and Smash Ultimate, is awesome. However, complaints I do have towards the game are the Online Mode (although the chibi interactions are cute and adorable and I will praise the Online Mode for that, and ONLY THAT), Gordeau from UNIB is still a problem, the rest of the half of the roster is entirely DLC, lack of additional content upon release, the control scheme is WAY too simplistic (even moreso than DBFZ), and lastly, while I love the sprites ArcSys did for RWBY, the reused sprites from Blazblue, Persona 4 Arena, and UNIB is also a complaint I have (but a minor one, mind you. They could’ve just easily redone the sprites specifically for this game, but…no). And while this game isn’t exactly in my top two favorite fighting games, it’s definitely in my top THREE. Also, I have yet to actually to play the Story Mode of this game, but I haven’t yet, therefore, I hold no opinion on the story as of currently. Marvel vs Capcom-styled traditional fighting games are hands-down, my go-to preference for traditional fighters.

Dissidia (and Dissidia 012): Final Fantasy: Forget Dissidia NT, THIS game (mostly Dissidia 012) is what an awesome 3D Action Fighting game is about! Much like how Smash Ultimate’s a unique fighting game (a Platform Fighter), this game is also a unique type of fighting game, possessing RPG elements and just having a blast with its awesome combat system. Cloud and Sephiroth were just so much fun to play as, with Terra, Squall, and WoL being my other favorite characters in this awesome game. This game is also essentially a HUGE homage to Final Fantasy as whole. From the ongoing conflicts between Cosmos and Chaos, to MULTIPLE references to the character’s original games, to additional modes that involve unlocking the likes of Gilgamesh from FFV, or fighting against the most frustrating secret final boss I’ve ever had the displeasure of fighting against (Feral Chaos), these games are awesome! Also, the reason why I’m addressing both games as a single installment here is because technically, while Dissidia 012 IS a prequel, it pretty has the same content (no, scratch that, MORE content) from the first Dissidia game and it’s pretty much an updated…well, not a “port”, per say, more like an enhanced re-release, much like Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 or any of the Blazblue EXTEND re-releases. However, complaints I have for Dissidia is that certain characters are annoying to fight against (such as Jecht, FUCK that character), the RPG system takes a while to build up until your favorite characters are FINALLY at Level 100, trying to get the rarest Equipment is rather difficult, and lastly, the action commands for certain character’s EX Bursts can be retooled for the sake of a proper fighting game, but then again, Dissidia ain’t a “traditional” fighting game. But aside from that, not only is this my favorite Action RPG/Fighting game of all time, but this is also my favorite Final Fantasy Spin-Off of all time.

Tatsunoko vs Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars: What’s that? You were expecting a Marvel vs Capcom game to be on this list, let alone my top 5? Too bad! It’s Tatsunoko, baby! This one definitely holds a spot in my heart as this game stands as my number one favorite “Capcom vs Whatever” game of all time (yes, even moreso than Marvel vs Capcom itself OR any of the SNK vs Capcom games, don’t @ me). I love this game. I love its soundtrack (ESPECIALLY its main theme, “Across the Border”), I love the roster (despite being small), I love the final boss of the Arcade Mode (Yami, from Capcom’s Okami), and I love the gameplay. My complaints goes towards the lack of additional content outside of Arcade and the Gallery (although the top-down shooter minigame is rather fun), and, as stated before, small roster. But other than that, this game was really fun to play.

OTHER FAVORITE FIGHTING GAMES:

Sonic Battle, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, SvC: Chaos, and Blazblue: Chrono Phantasma.

Coming up next: My favorite RPGs/JPRGs!

[worryinglyinnocent]

I haven’t done one of these for ages, so here goes! Tagged by the lovely @galactic-pirates

Pick 5 shows, then answer the following questions. Don’t cheat. Tag 10 peeps.

Lost

Once Upon A Time

Dead Like Me

Stargate Universe

BoJack Horseman

1. Who is your favorite character in 2?

Eeee, it’s a toss up between Belle and Rumpel, with either one of them taking the top spot depending on how out of character the other one is acting at the time...

2. Who is your least favorite character in 1?

Jack. I know he’s the hero and he did eventually grow on me a bit by the end of season 6, but some of his behaviour towards the women he’s in romantic relationships with really raises red flags for me and unfortunately it’s not something that I can unsee. 

3. What is your favorite episode of 4?

S2 Ep4 Pathogen. Super touching stuff with Eli and his mum, and Chloe/Rush bonding. What more can you want?

4. What is your favorite season of 5?

Season 5. It’s a good season for ace representation which is an issue close to my heart; it also ties up a bunch of loose ends from earlier in the series, and the characters all come to various crisis points. I hope there’s a sixth. 

5. Who is your favorite couple in 3?

There aren’t really any canon romantic relationships in DLM, but I love the bro-ship between Rube and Roxy. 

6. Who is your favorite couple in 2?

RUMBELLE. Without a doubt. Absolutely 100%.

7. What is your favorite episode of 1?

Oh man, there are so many! Although I think the season six finale The End. I know that Lost has one of the most divisive endings in history, but I loved it. I also love season 1’s Do No Harm, season 3′s Par Avion, season 5′s LaFleur and season 4′s The Constant. 

8. What is your favorite episode of 5?

I like most of the episodes, but special mention to season 5′s Free Churro for keeping me completely interested despite it being entirely a monologue in a single location. 

9. What is your favorite season of 2?

One. Everything got established, everyone was introduced, there was still the ongoing season-long storyline of the curse still being in place, and of course, the best 45 minutes of TV ever created, Skin Deep.

10. How long have you watched 1?

I discovered it in 2017, long after it finished airing, and I binged the entire 6 seasons on 4 separate weekends. 

11. How did you become interested in 3?

Woah, this is a long story. Ages ago I used to buy the odd film/tv magazine for interviews with actors I liked when they had new films coming out. Many many years back, I was in a Hugh Jackman phase and Van Helsing was coming out, so this was what, 2002/2003 ish? Anyway, I bought the sci-fi magazine Starburst and it had, among other things, a more in depth feature and episode guide to Dead Like Me. It stuck with me for ages and many, many years later, I decided ‘hey, lets watch it’. This was in 2016... 

12. Who is your favorite actor in 4?

Robert Carlyle is the reason I started watching it, so I’ll have to go for him. Ming-Na Wen is also amazing. 

13. Which do you prefer, 1, 2, or 5?

Argh, it’s a toss up between Lost and Once. With Lost, I have seen every episode, but there are a lot of bits that I can take or leave and a lot of bits I’m ambivalent about and a lot of bits I didn’t like. With Once, I feel a lot more strongly about it but I skipped three seasons in the middle because I got so angry with it. 

I honestly can’t decide. 

14. Which show have you seen more episodes of, 1 or 3 ?

Well, if we’re going by numbers of episodes, then Lost, just because there are more episodes (120, to DLM’s 32) but I have seen every episode of both shows, so on percentages of episodes seen, they’re both on 100. 

15. If you could be anyone from 4, who would you be?

TJ. She’s smart, she’s kind, she takes no shit. 

16. Would a crossover between 3 and 4 work?

No. They’re just way too different in tone. I mean, theoretically, yes, because the DLM mythology can fit into pretty much any setting at all. Death is the one constant in everything. But DLM is a pitch black comedy and SGU is a sci-fi drama. I can’t even begin to imagine it. 

17. Pair two characters in 1 who would make an unlikely but strangely okay couple.

I mean, with Lost, pretty much anyone is fair game with anyone, but one rarepair I love that no-one else seems to is Desmond/Claire. When you look at their interactions in the season 2 finale and in season 3′s Par Avion, and all of their interactions in the flash sideways in season 6, it’s really clear to me that they have a lot going for them. 

18. Overall, which show has the better storyline, 3 or 5?

BoJack, definitely. BoJack has several ongoing plot threads and they’re always revisited and tied up, even seasons later. DLM is much more episodic with less focus on an ongoing plot. That’s not to say it’s not enjoyable, but it’s not really a storyline-based show. 

19. Which has the better theme music, 2 or 4?

Neither of them really have theme music... 

I’m terrible with tagging, so have at it if you want to, peeps!

[andrewmoocow]

Gravity Soul chapter 13: Return to the Falls, Trust No One? (originally posted on August 12, 2019)

AN: As Doctor Stephen Strange once said, "We're in the endgame now." I'd like to thank everyone who has stuck by me since Thanksgiving 2017 as I laughed, cried, cheered and felt myself die inside while this saga progressed. They always say parting is such a sweet sorrow, and I have a feeling it's going to be even more sorrowful for me since this story holds a special place in my heart as a crossover between my favorite anime and one of my favorite cartoons. But enough sentimentality, let the final battle against KISHIN CIPHER begin.

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--

There was dead silence in the now red-lit forest of Gravity Falls. Kishin Cipher's fortress the Fearamid continued to hover above the Oregon town that barely had any life left inhabiting it now that the townspeople were either transformed into building blocks for his throne or hiding in the shadows.

However those shadows would finally see a beacon of light shining nothing but hope upon the desolate village in the form of the Mystery Meisters returning to the falls at last. Out of a portal came Dipper and Mabel first, their bond broken and repaired within the span of a few hours after the boy went out of his way to save his sister from the grasp of Kishin Cipher and Anti-Mabel.

Next came Stanford Pines, Maka Albarn, Black Star and Death the Kid along with their respective weapons Azusa Yumi, Spirit Albarn, Tsubaki Nakatsukasa and Liz & Patty Thompson. "This is it everyone. Beyond these woods, our final battle with Bill and Asura awaits." Ford boldly declared. "Is everyone ready?"

"I definitely am. And I'm ready to save Soul as well." Maka responded willing to risk her life for the sake of her Demon Scythe. "As am I dudes. We're coming for you Mr. Pines!" Soos added also ready to rescue his father figure and former boss Stanley Pines. "We haven't got a moment to lose, but I suggest we find shelter before he finds us." Franken Stein suggested turning his screw while Wendy, Crona, Ox, Kim, Kilik, Gideon, Pacifica, McGucket and the rest of the team followed behind. "Any ide-"

"Mystery Shack." the kids stated in unison before Stein could even finish. "Well aside from the fact that that's where we stayed at last Weirdmageddon, there's also a mystical barrier made out of unicorn hair protecting it from weirdness." Dipper explained. "Wait, unicorn hair?" Black Star wondered. "Tell me more!"

"How about later? We gotta get moving!" Mabel said racing to find the Shack. The group then followed the sweater girl but without their knowledge, an Eyebat peered at the party before flapping its wings and soaring to the Fearamid.

The eye creature entered the pyramid and faced its master Kishin Cipher as he schemed on his human throne. "Okay, gimme reports little guy!" he commanded the Eyebat with a poke of its cornea. It rumbled a bit before a holographic image of the Mystery Meisters running away from him. "Well well well, can't say I'm not surprised!" the Dream Kishin commented with a sneer. "Now we can finally start the welcoming party!"

His minions all assembled before their master and took a bow as Kishin Cipher gave orders. "Okay, I'll need all of you circling the town in search of any survivors!" he stated. "Arachne, Shaula, Mosquito, Giriko, Shifty, you follow those mortals and terminate them! Henchmaniacs, blow that cabin to bits and take out anyone inside! And Horsemen?"

"Yes Master?" the Madness of Greed formerly known as Grunkle Stan wondered planting his sword in the ground while his eight-legged horned possum Shanknir scampered to his side. "I've got a special assignment for all of you. I need the four of you to fight alongside me in the eventual big showdown. You up for it?"

"As always mighty God of Weirdness and Madness." Medusa Gorgon, the Madness of Wrath, answered loyally. "And I trust that you in particular won't try to turn on me and take my power?" K.C told the witch. "I sincerely promise you that I have no ulterior motives."

"Very good." Kishin Cipher smirked, feeling ready to destroy all in the fated clash.

--

"We should be getting close everyone, I can smell the cheap money." Dipper stated hiding in the bushes as he spotted the tourist trap from afar. "It feels like it's been so long since we've last seen that old place."

"Really? Cause it felt like we've spent an entire night searching for Pacifica and then a few days in Death City." Mabel added stacking her head on top of her brother's. "Well no matter, we're finally home." Ford continued stepping out of their hiding spot to knock on the door. "HALT! WHO GOES THERE?!" a familiar voice screamed. "Can you shut it Rumble? You'll get us caught!" another exclaimed harshly. "Besides, who knows who it could be?"

"Is that Eruka?" Dipper muttered in shock. "And that other guy sounds really familiar." Soos replied. "But let's barge in just to be safe!"

"That is rather rash and could be dangerous, but okay I believe you." Maka stated preparing to bust down the door. "Let's do this."

Battle cries were all around as the Mystery Meisters charged into the Shack with weapons raised high and a little resistance within the hovel roared as well. There were however a few familiar faces among the resistance's ranks. "Eruka, Free?" Dipper and Mabel exclaimed in unison. "Kids?" the frog and wolf responded just as stunned when the Multi-Bear stepped out of the bathroom. "Just so we're clear, we're all out of toilet paper." he announced amidst the awkwardness. "Did I miss something?"

--

"Are you making yourself at home Stanley?"

Stan sluggishly smacked his lips with a grumble and slowly opened his eyes to discover that he was now in a black and red room with a lamp as its only light source and a choppy record player nearby. Stan was bewildered as last he remembered, he & Soul sacrificed themselves to protect their loved ones and converted into minions of Kishin Cipher. He decided to get up from the chair he was sitting in to get a better look, but instead found himself chained to it. "Let me ask you again. Are you making yourself at home Stanley?"

"Hardly!" Stan exclaimed struggling to break out of his chains. "Where am I and who are you anyway?!" he asked. "Oh pardon me sir. Allow me to introduce myself." the voice's owner, a fine-dressed imp with a wide grin on his face, apologized. "I am the little demon now residing in your heart after you accepted the Black Blood within you."

"Hey, doesn't Soul have a weird little man kinda like you inside of him?" Grunkle Stan asked. "And why am I in this Sunday best getup?" He then brought attention to his current attire of a tuxedo with a red bowtie and a diamond ring on his finger. "Though I do like this ring."

"Why it's simple. As a fellow host of the Black Blood, you are one of four people forced to serve your new master. Though only one wasn't unwilling." the Ogre explained snapping his fingers to reveal the other hosts; Preston Northwest, Soul Eater Evans and Medusa Gorgon. Medusa was the only one to not be restrained to a chair, implying that she was the willing one.

"You won't get away with this you crimson cretin!" Preston shouted before the Ogre made a gag appear with another snap of his fingers. "Oh you Northwests don't know when to quit or shut up." the demon commented. "He's right you little twat, the twins will find a way to save us!" Soul added just as defiant. "Just why are we all here?"

"The master simply wants us all to be in better harmony." Medusa explained picking up a violin from a table out of two other instruments. "Make your choice." she commanded allowing the captives to get up from their chairs to choose. "I call dibs on the saxomaphone." Stan declared snatching the brass instrument. "Guess that leaves me with the clarinet." Preston added picking up his chosen woodwind. "But what about the boy?"

A spotlight shone on a grand piano behind Soul. "Of course." the scythe muttered sitting down and preparing to play. "But still, what's with all the harmony crap?" he asked the ogre. "Even though you are completely powerless to stop everything that you're perfectly aware of, there still has to be teamwork amongst Bill's slaves." the imp remarked. "NOW PLAY!"

The three unwilling Madnesses slowly warmed up under the watchful glare of Medusa who began expertly leading the way on her violin. Soul unwillingly but just as beautifully followed up with his piano while the Gravity Falls citizens just awkwardly looked at each other. "Do I see reluctance?" the Ogre snarled viciously electrocuting the two. "PLAY!"

"Okay, keep your pants on Lucy!" Stan growled playing the saxophone while Preston began his clarinet. Although their number was a nice piece, it symbolized how the three males were completely reluctant to serve Kishin Cipher.

--

"So that's the whole story?" Dipper asked Eruka while the group sat around a campfire inside the Mystery Shack that the resistance against Kishin Cipher had made their homebase. "Yeah, when we found your weirdo little house, there were already a few other people taking shelter as well." the frog witch answered. "Yeah, and a ton of strange characters too!" Free added. "Like those minotaur guys, the little dwarves, a couple of video game characters and whatever that bear is supposed to be!"

"Hey for your information Bigby, we're gnomes! The dwarves hang around in the mountains." Jeff exclaimed standing up next to Free. "But what of the strike force Death sent in?" Kid wondered twiddling his thumbs. "Most of them didn't make it." Sid stated. "Justin tried to kill that monster, but he was made a part of his creepy throne. Djinn Galland, Tsar Pushka, Feodor, Tezca Tlipoca and Mifunewould meet the same fate."

In a dark corner, Zubaidah & Enrique comforted a grieving Angela while Dengu & Alexandre leaned on the wall with Pitt colas in hand. "We're trying to do the best we can to fight back, but Kishin Cipher is pretty much all powerful." Mira explained. "The only thing that can keep us safe from him now is that unicorn hair shield keeping his powers at bay."

Suddenly rumbling footsteps sounded outside the Shack. "Uh guys, we got a situation!" the resistance's lookout, the wax head of Larry King, announced. "Those Henchmaniac guys are heading straight for us! And I am honestly surprised it only took them until now to find us."

"Everybody, battle stations!" the dating simulator character Giffany shouted taking position at a nearby window as the Henchmaniacs finally arrived with Moonlight, Kaguya, White Rabbit and the Black Clown leading the way. "Come out come out wherever you are." White Rabbit chimed in a sing-songy voice. "Your hair shield may not be penetrated by us, but we will find ways to penetrate you."

"NONE SHALL PASS!" Manly Dan screamed putting up his dukes. "You're only just making us want to tear you all to bloody shreds even more." Paci-Fire boomed telepathically. "Why the hell are we only cowering inside the Shack when we could be out there kicking their asses?" Black Star asked. "Also, what kind of monster is that ugly baby?"

"We're just not ready yet. Our forces are strong, but we still need something even stronger to stand a chance." Candy answered. "Candy's right you guys. We need to save Soul, Stan and Mr. Northwest if we want to save Gravity Falls. They're part of that big wheel Ford talked about." Maka responded. "Exactly, but how can we rescue them in their current states?" Stanford pondered. "By the way, do you think they can hear us?"

"Yes, yes we can!" Pyronica called out, causing the polydactyl author to angrily pound the wall. "Dammit!" he groaned agitatedly. "Well, time to cut things short. Kid, Kilik, Wendy & Dipper, you're all coming with us." Black Star declared. "The rest of you hit the deck!"

"Are you truly sure about this kids? These demons may look rather ridiculous, but judging by their apparent connections to Bill they must be insanely powerful." Stein observed. "We have to do this to protect the Shack while the rest of you think of a new plan." Kid replied beckoning Liz and Patty to his hands. "You're right. Stay safe out there." Maka promised the tourist trap defenders.

"Hey Henchmaniacs, we're right here for you!" Dipper announced grabbing Excalibur on his way out the door. "Well look who we have here, the master's favorite Pine Tree." Kaguya purred. "He always has talked about how much he hated you the most."

"Listen you creeps, just tell us where Soul & Mr. Pines are or you'll go from monsters to targets." Kid threatened. "We're basically saying prepare to get wrecked you rejected Pokemon!" Wendy added tossing her axe at one of the demons aiding the monsters. The creatures were silent for a moment and then, roared before charging.

"Incoming!" Kilik declared yanking Paci-Fire's binkie out of his mouth and stabbing him in the eye with it. Kid meanwhile shot right through Keyhole's namesake forehead at Lavalz. The amount of bullets put through the lava lamp creature's body were so plentiful, they put him on the brink of death. "Please boy, I beg you to have mercy!" he begged the son of Death. "I can do whatever you please! I'll be your servant, I'll turn on my fellow demons to assist you, just please don't kill me!"

"You know, come to think of it." Kid contemplated before a shadow rose from behind him. "This was all a trap and there's someone behind me, correct?" he wondered aloud shooting Amorphous Shape in the eye without even turning his back. "Now Dipper!"

Dipper cut Amorphous Shape to pieces while the creature's guard was down and he screamed loudly as he was reduced to just his soul. "Aw snap, he just killed Morphy!" Kryptos shouted. "This one'll be for him you freaks!" Pyronica shouted lighting her fists aflame. The opposing sides charged while everyone else in the Shack concocted a plan of attack.

"So I suggest we try using a human sacrifice." Stein revealed. "I like it!" Soos agreed. "No, I don't think that will be necessary." Maka rejected the idea to everyone's dismay. "We need an approach that'll involve everyone of us working together."

"OOH, OOH, OOH! I GOT ONE!" McGucket cried raising his bandaged hand. "All right, what do you got Fiddleford?" Stein asked the rich hillbilly. "Giant robit! We already did something like that last Weirdmageddon!" Fiddleford answered excitedly. "Funny story, that's almost exactly what we did when we fought Asura." Azusa stated. "Coincidence, I think not."

"But how are we going to get one? Especially in a place like this?" Crona wondered. "We can use whatever we please around town. Like we said, worked last time." Wax Larry King answered. "Is anyone else going to question why this wax head can talk?" Sid offhandedly pondered. "Whatever, let's get moving!"

As for Dipper's group, they were all backed into a corner by the surviving Henchmaniacs. Lavalz, Paci-Fire, Keyhole and Hectorgon had now joined Amorphous Shape in being destroyed, but their friends were now even more furious and taken them all down. "Well Dipper, where does this fit into our battle plan?" Kilik grunted awaiting his fate. "I'm sure something will turn up for us." Dipper replied optimistically. "Is that so?"

Standing before them, Arachne had just joined up with the former Nightmare Realm prisoners alongside Mosquito, Giriko, Shaula and the Shapeshifter. "And where were you this whole time?!" White Rabbit exclaimed hotly. "We were simply biding our time. Besides, it was fun seeing the children try oh so desperately." Arachne added. "And speaking of which..."

"Don't even think about trying anything funny with us or the Shack!" Wendy threatened. "Is that so little redheaded bitch?" Giriko snarled menacingly. "Well let's make a compromise. We'll do something funny with your little friends who are no doubt trying to escape."

And indeed Giriko was right. Maka was leading a group of the survivors out of the Mystery Shack consisting of herself, Bud Gleeful, Thompson, Ox, Sid, Mr. Poolcheck, Tyler, Free & Dengu. However the party would immediately be blocked by the Shapeshifter. "Stop, right, there. Which one of you wishes to die?"

"Hands off you glowing bastard!" Free snarled baring his claws. "Aw, poor little Free. It seems that you couldn't stand being a pariah for what you did to Maba, so you decided to betray your master for these weaklings she wants destroyed."

"For your information Xenomorph, Medusa was kind of a pretty awful boss and we just moved to a different one." the wolfman responded with a stupid grin on his face. "Can you not doom us right now?" Mr. Poolcheck and Thompson said in unison. "As you did serve Kishin Cipher, it is most unfortunate for you that I must slay you to prevent the rebels from gaining any information on him." the Shapeshifter deduced preparing to strike. "Make your last wishes."

"Stop right there!" Maka cried pointing her father's weapon form at the alien creature. "I won't let you harm anyone here today. I bet you won't even last until tomorrow to come back and kill us all!"

"Very well, then we'll strike again within two days!" the Shapeshifter replied. "How about three?!" Black Star butted in suddenly. "Four!"

"Five!"

"Six!"

"Seven!"

"MAKA CHOP!" Maka cried smacking Black Star on the head and knocking him out. "Tomorrow it is then." the Shapeshifter declared. "Okay everyone, pack it up! We can start again the next day!"

"Aw man." the rest of Kishin Cipher's present minions groaned like disappointed children. "SUPER anticlimactic." Kaguya complained. "I know right?!" Giriko replied. As the monsters began to leave, the rebels raced back inside the Shack to form a plan.

"So what were you doing out there leading those guys?" Ford asked Maka. "We were coming up with attack plans while Dipper was out fighting and someone made the suggestion of turning the Shack into some kind of robot."

"That's exactly what we did to beat Bill last summer!" Mabel exclaimed. "Exactly!" McGucket added. "Seems like we made it safe to go outside again, so let's get to work." Tsubaki stated. "But where can we find what we need?"

"Don't worry everyone," Dipper announced. "Mabel and I know where."

--

One montage of working hard on the resurrection of the automated tourist trap later, the rebels snuggled up underground in Ford's laboratory watching for signs of trouble. "Status update: K.C's forces have kept their word." Tambry announced peering through the periscope disguised as the totem pole outside the Shack. "Good work, we still got time left." Ford applauded. "Time left til we can get Stan and Soul back."

"And my father?" Pacifica asked innocently. "Sure, him too." the scientist answered. "Can't you show her a little sympathy? Her old man is currently forced to fight for an all-powerful demon thing and even showed willingness to help us before that, yet you still have that grudge against him." Liz stated. "Yes I apologize for being a bit insensitive, but the other two are still most important." Ford claimed. "Now then, have we worked any kinks from the last time?"

"Well, definitely got more unicorn hair to fully shield us." Candy stated in the midst of cutting Celestabellebethabelle's mane. "And it can fly now too!" Grenda exclaimed. "Is there anything this town can't do when they come together?" Melody said.

Meanwhile in the attic, Maka gazed out the twins' bedroom window at the blood red sky in silence. "Don't worry Soul, we'll be there for you soon."

"Did we hear you talk about Soul?" Mabel asked suddenly interrupting their older friend. "Gah, you guys!" Maka squeaked. "Aw don't be so skittish Maka, we just got a little feeling you like him." Dipper replied. "As in, like him like him." Mabel added beaming which made the scythe Meister blush like mad. "Oh quit blushing, you know too!"

"Okay, you got me!" Maka finally gave in. "I really do like him. He may be rather distant and cold, but he's just that much of a loyal friend who would do anything to protect me!" she confessed to the twins. "That's why I'll protect him in exchange, and maybe we could finally make music again."

"And you've been hiding these feelings for how long now?" Mabel asked Maka again. "I mean, I've heard that you two often argued like you were married or something."

"But let's try not to hyperfocus on that for now, cause I've also heard that if you do so, you can get distracted a bit too much and even get mad when people try to keep you away from your-" Dipper responded before Maka shushed him. "Okay okay, let's just keep up the fight against Kishin Cipher. Hopefully no one heard us."

"I did." Soos stated suddenly appearing by the door. "Don't mind me dudes, I just knew it from the moment we all first met."

--

Meanwhile at the Fearamid, Arachne was forced to give Kishin Cipher the bad news about the results of the attack.

"YOU DID WHAT?!" the Dream Kishin screamed loudly, causing enough vibrations to cause miniature earthquakes. "YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT YOU LOST MOST OF MY MEN TO A BUNCH OF PUNY MORTALS HIDING IN A CABIN, AND THEY MADE YOU AGREE TO TRYING AGAIN TOMORROW?! HOW STUPID CAN YOU ALL BE?!"

"My sincerest apologies master, we just arrived too late." the Spider Witch revealed bowing to the ground with her two subordinates and youngest sister. "But still, we might as well prepare for the final battle." she assured him. "You got a good point there Rachney." Kishin Cipher agreed spawning a wineglass filled with time punch. "In that case, I propose a toast! First one goes to absent maniacs."

The army of demons began mourning for the fallen Henchmaniacs while holding their own wineglasses. "Morphy was just too young!" Kryptos bawled into Pyronica's cape, blowing his nonexistent nose on it. "Did anybody else catch the lava lamp guy's name?" Moonlight asked Xanthar, who simply replied with a shrug. "This one is for you Keyhole." 8-Ball declared drinking the glass and tossing the time punch away hard enough for it to explode.

"But I would also like to propose another one." Kishin Cipher solemnly stated when his mournful expression turned into a fierce sadistic grin. "TO OUR ONCOMING VICTORY!" he cheered tossing his glass to the ground and smashing it underfoot. "MAZEL TOV TO ALL OF YOU! MAZEL TOV!"

The otherdimensional freaks began cheering for their master as his speech continued. "I'd like to thank all of the following for helping us make it this far!" Kishin Cipher announced splitting himself into Bill Cipher and Asura for the first time in what felt like ages. "First off, I'd like to thank my number one fan here for making a deal with me to exact our revenge!" the Kishin exclaimed fistbumping the dream demon. "And I'd also like to thank that pigtailed scythe-bearing brat for giving my new partner here that stupid courage punch!" Bill responded. "Without her, we wouldn't have met and become an unstoppable team!"

The duo merged back into Kishin Cipher who picked up a microphone while a large projector screen appeared behind him. "And in addition, we are also thankful for all the idiots that led themselves to their doom!" The screen began picturing many of the Dream Kishin's enemies and all they've accomplished in accidentally guiding the monsters to victory while the minions continued cheering. "It brings a tear to all three of my eyes to see so many freaks of nature all under one roof to celebrate the coming end of the universe! Especially you creature with like eighty-eight different faces! There, are you happy now?!"

"Actually, I've grown an eighty-ninth face!" the aforementioned multi-faced trog declared revealing a very handsome face to have sprouted. "Oh my, look at that thing!" Kishin Cipher exclaimed revealing the face's turquoise humanoid form. "Isn't it just dashing?!"

The creatures began oohing and aahing at how bizarrely attractive the new face was before Kishin Cipher returned to his speech. "As I was saying ladies, germs and unspeakable horrors of all shapes and sizes, this is it!" he declared making double peace signs over a podium while the projector screen made a large portrait of himself appear. "Tomorrow is the day that sanity goes completely down the shitter and pure madness reigns supreme! How excited are you!?"

"VIOLENTLY!" his army chanted arming themselves with torches, pitchforks and all sorts of stereotypically uber-violent tools. "And how bloody will our enemies' deaths be?!" Kishin Cipher continued. "INSANELY!" the monsters screamed pumping their fists. "Yeah, that's all I wanted to hear!" the leading abomination shouted raising his arms. "Come on everybody, let's get weird!"

Elsewhere in the Fearamid, the Four Madnesses meditated while their harmony exercises continued. The horsemen sat in utter silence until the Madness of Greed opened a single eye. "Kids."

--

The next day, all was silent once more in the forest. That is until a large mechanical being ambled among the trees, casting a shadow over the flora. Metallic footsteps thundered while leaving large car-shaped footsteps behind until finally, the Shacktron 2.0 reached the clearing where the Fearamid was situated. "Are we ready everyone?" Ford asked taking the pilot's seat. The rest of the rebellion nodded in response while preparing for war. "Good. Time to make our claim."

A large megaphone placed at the deck of the Shack was turned on by Dipper before he spoke into it. "Kishin Cipher, this is the Mystery Meisters telling you to surrender now and give back our friends or prepare to fight!" the boy threatened with an amplified voice. However, there was no answer. "D-Did he just give up already?"

"I'll say." Kishin Cipher sarcastically answered while suddenly appearing in front the young Pines brother and giving him a scare. "Long time no see Dipper, been a long while since we had a one-on-one chat!" the Dream Kishin casually greeted his archenemy. "And did you lose weight or is the stupid cosplay just throwing me off?"

"It's not stupid cosplay, my sister had it specially made for me!" Dipper declared defensively clutching onto his scarf. "Oh come on brat! It's too obscure, too ugly! I don't know which is worse!" K.C continued insulting making his hand violently detach itself. "I might just split a seam now if I don't die laughing first!"

"Not if we have the last laugh! NOW!" Dipper commanded allowing the rest of the crew to start firing all sorts of weapons at the Dream Kishin. "You can't break the Shacktron this time, we got unicorn hair from head to toe now!"

"Oh my, you're actually giving me a challenge?" Kishin Cipher quizzed while his forces spawned behind him. "Well what're you waiting for mortals?! Come and get me!"

"This is it everyone, we can do this!" Maka exclaimed taking control of the Shacktron 2.0. "Keep firing at them all!"

"But Maka, we can't just blast cannons at him forever!" Tsubaki advised. "You ready Black Star?" she asked her Meister holding out her hand. "Like Hell I'm not!" the ninja responded taking up arms and leaping outside the Shack, clashing blades with the Madness of Greed. "Been waiting for a proper rematch old man, haha!"

"Bah, you are simply a child dressed in a silly outfit. In fact, you are all children in silly outfits compared to us and our master." the old man in the golden armor scoffed taking out the Shadow Weapon Meister and making him fall to the ground. "NOOOOOT SIIIIILLLLYYYY!" the teen shouted faceplanting into the dirt. "Wait, are these clothes really that stupid?"

"Is there any way we can free Stan, Soul & Mr. Northwest without K.C getting in the way?" Dipper asked Stein. "The freeing our friends part is quite simple Dipper, we call it Chain Resonance where our souls must be on an equal playing field to do great things." the scientist proclaimed. "The keeping Kishin Cipher from interrupting part is much harder."

"How about the important guys, that's you guys, take on the Madnesses while everybody else keep the big guy at bay?" Free suggested warding off the Eyebats with his ice magic. "Good idea Free, and good luck too." Dipper agreed. "Okay everybody, we're gonna tackle the Madnesses ourselves!" he announced to the Mystery Meisters currently not occupied with fighting the monsters while Black Star crawled back up to the Shack. "Any last words before we go?"

"I got one." Pacifica stated turning to her mom. "Mother, I promise we'll bring Dad home."

"I love you." Soos said to Melody. "I know."

"If I don't come out of this alive," Gideon announced to his father and Ghost-Eyes. "tell my widdle ol' story."

"No offense to any of you guys," Azusa said to Ox, Harvar, Kilik, the Pots, Kim, Jackie, the NOT class girls and Hiro. "But you didn't do that much. Like I said, no offense."

"Eh, I'm used to it." Hiro replied giving a salute to the Mystery Meisters. "Now godspeed, all of you."

"Thanks everyone." Dipper said gratefully taking Excalibur by the hand and putting him in the sheath Mabel made for him. "And don't worry Stan, we'll be here."

"Hey hate to interrupt, but do you think these outfits look kinda dumb?" Black Star asked. "We don't have time B-Star!" Mabel exclaimed hurriedly. "Mabel's right, let's get a move on!" Maka announced arming herself with her father.

--

In the distance, the Four Madnesses were now benched after Greed's brief clash with Black Star watching their master take on the Shacktron from the Fearamid. "When do you suppose we shall strike once more?" the Madness of Sloth snarled biting on the tail of the eight-legged possum Shanknir. "We'll come back once Kishin Cipher is done with the mortals." the Madness of Wrath stated. "But speaking of which, I can sense a certain few of them coming our way."

"We've got you now Medusa! Release our loved ones, and others, or else!" Ford exclaimed leading the Mystery Meisters in cornering the four Madnesses. "It's absolutely hopeless now for all of you." the Madness of Envy purred menacingly while spinning his scythe. "Soon, Kishin Cipher's madness shall flood this town and once we bypass the barrier surrounding this town, we'll move onto the rest of reality as well."

"Barrier?" Marie asked turning to Ford. "That's the law of weirdness magnetism, whatever bizarre thing comes in can't get out." the author briefly explained. "But it seems that through Kishin Cipher's unlimited power that I'm sure he keeps pulling out of his behind, he won't need a special equation I've memorized to lower the shield around town."

"Doesn't matter if he's able to do that anymore, since our lord can warp all reality to his whims." the Madness of Sloth stated. "But enough about him, let's kill you!" The Northwest-turned-beast summoned his giant bell and slammed it onto the ground, creating a small crack in the floor of the lair that began getting larger. "Just wait til this hole begins to get larger and soon you'll fall headfirst on the ground below! I hear mortal brain-matter is delicious this time of year!"

"Listen daddy, I know it's still you underneath that hideous body!" Pacifica called out. "Please, just do anything to tell you still recognize me! I'll even take you ringing that stupid bell again if it means I'm still seen as your daughter!"

The Madness of Sloth prepared to smack his bell again before the girl's words reached his ears. "Pacifica?" he grumbled mid-attack. "He's open, now!" Maka shouted slashing the monster across his face with her father. "You brat!" the slovenly monster roared. "Black Star, tie those three up and we can begin!" the Scythe meister commanded the ninja who readied his chain scythe and lassoed up Sloth, Greed & Envy. "Dipper, did you bring the journal?"

"You bet I did!" Dipper proudly declared fishing Journal 3 from his backpack. "The three of you into position and get your wavelengths rolling!"

"Okay, this is it." Kid remarked as the three formed a circle around the three captured Madnesses. They began forming a connection with their soul wavelengths that built up a forcefield surrounding them. "No, you won't get away with this!" a frantic Medusa howled trying to stop the Resonance, but the barrier had other plans that caused it to send her flying toward her master's throne.

"Everyone, together!" Ford commanded placing his hand on the combined soul. "Wait, is this even possible?" Crona asked the author. "I honestly have no idea, but let's just improvise." Stanford answered while the rest of the group placed their hands on the soul. "Dipper, if you please."

"You got it." Dipper declared opening the journal with his free hand and beginning to read. "Videntis omnium. Magister mentium. Magnesium ad hominem. Magnum opus." he began chanting and everything took on a brilliant cyan glow, from the Mystery Meisters' eyes to the soul surrounding Maka, Black Star and Kid. "Habeas corpus! Inceptus Nolanus overratus! Magister mentium! Magister mentium! MAGISTER MENTIUM!"

In a similarly-colored explosion, all were fast asleep.

--

In a pitch black ethereal realm solely inhabited by three pillars with stained glass portraits depicting the trapped trio, Dipper & Mabel landed on the one depicting their lost great-uncle. "This has to be the place, especially with all the quiet Latin chanting around us." Dipper declared adjusting his cap while Ford, Wendy, Soos, Black Star & Tsubaki landed behind the twins. "And that must be Stan over there!"

Indeed, the boy was right. However, Stan has now been regressed in age in this spiritual plane with his only companion being a silhouette of his father in front of them. "Wait, I remember this! It's like when Crona chatted with his shadow in his soul!" Mabel exclaimed trying to walk towards the shrunken Stanley, when suddenly the shadow blocked her path. It remained completely silent for what seemed like hours before pointing at the group with a earsplitting loud, unearthly shriek while the three pillars rapidly drifted apart from one another.

On the pillar inhabited by Soul, he was currently held in a straitjacket with the Little Ogre holding him on a leash when Maka, Spirit, Crona, Marie, Stein, McGucket & Gideon. "What have you done to Soul you scarlet shithead?!" Spirit screamed preparing for a fight. "What have I done you may ask?" the Ogre snickered while the Latin choir was now backed up by a choppy record player. "Why, I'm simply helping your friend follow his destiny."

"Well what kind of destiny is forcing him against his will to serve a monster?" Marie argued. "Why not just ask the boy." the imp chortled letting go of the leash he held on Soul. "Now go on my boy. Show them how much the master has improved you."

"Like hell I-" Soul began trying to resist control before Ogre pulled hard and electrocuted him. "Make it stop! Just make it stop!"

And finally on Preston's pillar, he was tied to a fancy chair with his head forcefully bowed down while faced by his daughter along with Azusa, Kid, Liz & Patty and Blair. "Dad, can you hear us?" Pacifica called for her father. "What brings you here daughter?" Preston glowered in defeat. "Don't you know that I am beyond redemption?"

"Don't be like that daddy, it's like what Grandpa Auldman said! Even the blackest of hearts have a speck of light within." Pacifica tried comforting Preston, but her hand was slapped away by the bandage tendril of Kishin Cipher. "No no no Llama, YOU shouldn't be like that!" a figment of Bill Cipher scolded the blonde. "It was thanks to me your family was able to rise to the top, but then your generation just had to screw everything up! Need I remind you?"

With a clap of his hands, Bill conjured up a giant bell to threaten Pacifica with. He began ringing it violently, forcing the girl to stand down. "Wait, you're afraid of a bell?" Kid asked her. "Pavlovian conditioning." Preston grumbled. "My wife and I basically made her our bitch with that accursed bell. Go on, shoot me now and end this. All of you know I deserve it."

"No, we haven't lost yet!" Pacifica cried trying to resist the bell and slowly marched towards her dad. "Our...family...name is broken!" she growled in her struggling. "And I'm...going...to...FIX IT!"

"How are you fighting back?! It's like he said, you're his bitch!" Bill screamed continuing to ring even louder before Kid and Azusa shot at him. "And you're all pretty much Shinigami's bitches too, having to do the dirty work while he lazes about because his stupid soul protects that even stupider city!"

"I don't think so Bill." Kid scowled. "Now Blair!" he commanded the cat, who let out a loud "Halloween Cannon!" and blasted the bell out of Bill's hand. "This isn't over you all!" the triangle screeched angrily while fading away. "I'm only a figment of his mind, preparing all of you for the real deal!"

As soon as the imaginary Bill faded, Pacifica made a beeline for her father's prison and released him. "P-Pacifica?" Preston stuttered before his daughter hugged him tight. "B-but why? Bill was right, I was a monster!"

"I know you are, but you can be something more." the blonde said softly. Suddenly, the spirits of every Northwest before them appeared lining up beside the two and facing them. With soft smiles, the ancestors vanished just as quickly as they materialized, leaving a fade to white behind.

--

"More firing, more! More!" Grenda hollered as the Shacktron soared around the now giant Kishin Cipher like a biplane, continuing to shoot at the monster while he waved his arms around trying to swat them down. "Uh gang, don't think we're gonna last any longer out here!"

"Don't lose hope everyone! The unicorn hair will protect us!" Sid exclaimed while in command of the flying hovel. "Though I'm mostly saying this because I've already died before. The rest of you might not be so lucky, not gonna lie."

"If that's the case." Wax Larry King solemnly declared turning to Hiro and Dengu. "Then gentlemen, it's been an honor." He grabbed a violin with his teeth and began playing it with the bow he bit down on, before a large crashing sound was heard. Appearing from the distance was Death City itself, now with its own set of limbs equipped with larger copies of Death's gloves.

"Are you kidding me right now?" Kishin Cipher began chortling at the walking city. "I mean, what's a literal walking town gonna do to-" Before the Dream Kishin could finish, the Death City Robot gave him a fierce jab to the eyes. "THE HELL?!" he screamed falling to the ground. "Seriously, is that you in there old man?!"

"You bet it is Cipher!" Lord Death called from the Secret Vault where he piloted the machine. "Time for us to settle the score, and this time this shall be the day your madness ends forever!" The mobile city then held out its hands and scooped up Kishin Cipher's unconscious form. "Special Attack:" Death announced. "COFFEE TABLE FLIP!"

"SO AWESOME!" the boy band clones Sev'ral Timez cheered. "Who digs giant robots?!" Hiro exclaimed. "I dig giant robots!" Nate replied. "We dig giant robots!" Chutzpar added. "Chicks dig giant robots!" everyone else answered in unison. "Nice!"

--

Back in the mindscape, Soul and Stan were the only ones remaining of the present Madnesses. The shadow form of Filbrick continued his horrible shrieking for another few seconds before abruptly stopping. "Is that your old man?" Black Star asked Ford. "Exactly Black Star. Though he was most certainly a hardass in life and not very kind towards Stan, he was a very mediocre guy very deep down." Ford answered. "Allow me to make peace with him."

The author stepped forward towards the facsimile of his long-deceased father and extended his hand out. "Hello there dad, or at the very least some spawn of Hell taking his form." he greeted Filbrick. "It's me, Stanford. I know this may seem like much, but could you please kindly let my brother go free so that he can join us in saving reality from utter destruction?"

"Not impressed." Shadow Filbrick snarled glaring at his descendants. "Not impressed with what?" the six-fingered genius asked. "With what you've become." Filbrick answered. "Look at you my son. Workaholic, haughty, unforgiving."

"That's all in the past!" Ford argued. "Okay, maybe I'm still a little too focused on my research, but still you have no right to call me out like that!"

"You tell 'em Ford!" Mabel exclaimed before Shadow Filbrick forced a barrier around the others and another over Stan. "They are insignificant, especially to you!" the shadow stated. "Your family is suffocating, correct?"

"No, stop all these lies at once!" Ford continued shouting. "You should watch your tone around your father!" Shadow Filbrick scolded. "I thought your brother was the only ignoramus between you two, but it seems you're just as foolish!"

Stanford didn't say a word after that, except for the growl he let out as he clutched his father's faker's neck tightly. "You take that back about us you faker!" he roared. "I know what you are, you're nothing but a manifestation of our negative emotions!"

Suddenly the barrier lowered around the rest of Ford's party and prepared for a fight. "Get them!" Shadow Filbrick choked commanding an army of duplicates. "Black Star, help me here!" Ford shouted to the ninja. "Yahoo, a chance to show my skills at last!"

"Finally time to put "that" to good use." Tsubaki grinned before they declared in unison, "Let's go, Soul Resonance!"

Tsubaki's weapon form changed from a chain scythe into a katana blade and then into a kunai that Black Star used to create afterimages of himself while running circles around the Filbrick shadows. "Try and catch me suckers!" the man who would surpass God cried out brashly. Sadly for him, the shadows were able to find out which was the real one and apprehend him, snatching Tsubaki away. "Don't worry, I got this!" the Shadow Weapon Meister declared preparing another move. "Ultimate Move: Black Star Big Wave!"

Black Star zoomed in for the kill, elbowing his partner's captor in the back while forcing his palm out, creating a large electrical force in the shape of a star that dissipated the shadow and freed Tsubaki. "And now, onto you!"

Jagged black lines began decorating Black Star's face as his sword finally shattered the shield around Stanley, and the de-aged grunkle looked up. "Black Star, what're you doing back here?!" Stan cried trying to protect himself from the scrambling shadows. "Just saved your life kid. Come with us if you want to live some more!" Black Star exclaimed taking the boy's hand as Stan slowly began returning to his normal age. "Yo Dipper, Ford, we got Stan!"

"Excellent work you two! Now let's finish this." Ford congratulated the pair letting go of his father's impersonator to prepare for the final blow. "Everyone, mobilize!" he commanded standing alongside his returned brother. "Good to be back in the fold poindexter." Stan said with his voice returned to its normal gruff octave. "And thanks for helping me out there kid."

"You're welcome old man!" Black Star replied beginning to charge towards Shadow Filbrick alongside the Stans & Dipper. "Now let's end this!"

"What are you doing?!" Shadow Filbrick cried out in horror before Dipper and Black Star's souls formed a connection. "Twin Blades of Legendary Justice!" the two boys announced their new attack as they stabbed their enemy in the chest while the Stan twins punched him on both sides of his head. "Y-y-y-y-y-you haven't won, YEEEETTTTTTT!"

Those were the final words of the fake Filbrick Pines before he exploded into pure light that covered the entire mindscape, along with similar blasts coming from the other two pillars.

--

"Oh geez, what happened?" Stan groaned slowly getting up off the wet ground and noticing the sky was a beautiful blue. "And where are we? Are we dead? I was betting on biting the dust like a hero."

"I don't think we're dead Grunkle Stan." Dipper stated gazing at Tsubaki standing nude, glowing and covered with black stripes in front of a large deer-like creature colored black with white markings. "Everyone, this is the will of my clan." Tsubaki introduced the creature who glared at the three Pines. "I see you have taken on a pupil of your own my camellia blossom." the will of the Nakatsukasa clan remarked gazing at Dipper. "And it seems he wields the legendary sword Excalibur."

"Yeah, good observation there." Dipper remarked. "So are you going to like, bless me or something?"

"Such a modest young man." the Will of Nakatsukasa commented. "Reminds me quite a bit of Masamune before his fall." he added turning to Tsubaki. "A little, I guess." the young woman replied stepping down to look at the boy. "Are you ready for the next phase of training?"

"Uh, uh, yeah?" Dipper stuttered while he face turned red from trying not to look at Tsubaki's spiritually bare form. "Hey guys, am I late?!" Black Star hollered rushing towards the group. "Hey, we gonna knight Dipper or something?"

"Sure, go ahead Black Star." Dipper answered proudly before the ninja summoned his sword and knighted his newfound equal with it. "Hopefully you can be just as badass as I someday."

"You got it." Dipper answered his new brother in arms with a firm handshake and the realm went white once more.

--

"Please Maka, just kill me and put an end to this! It's the only way I can be free of him!" Soul begged his Meister as the Little Ogre continued pulling on his leash. "Just do it!"

"No Soul, I can't!" Maka cried. "I won't let you die like this, not after all we've done for each other." she stated letting a few tears fall. "We may bicker a lot, but you've done so much for me. I'm your partner, best friend, closest confidant. And maybe we could be something more."

"Called it!" Marie cheered. "Oh, my baby girl!" Spirit replied feeling proud of his daughter. "Wait, when was that a thing?" Gideon wondered. "Bah, don't think the power of love can stop me!" the Ogre scoffed yanking on Soul's chain even harder, the pain forcing him to change into his Madness of Envy form. "Now my slave, finally destroy them!"

Maka armed herself with her father and got to work on trying to free Soul. However for the latter, he had a scythe of his own that is pretty much an exact double of his weapon form. "So it's come to this old friend. Scythe to scythe!"

"Meister to weapon!" Maka replied clashing blades with Soul. "Soul to soul!" Their weapons collided and ground against each other, causing sparks to literally fly. As for the rest of Maka's group, they were forced to fight more shadows similar to Shadow Filbrick.

"We need to find a way to get Soul distracted so that we can save him!" Stein exclaimed while taking command of Marie and fighting back-to-back with Crona. "Anyone have ideas?"

"Why don't we, I don't know, get 'em to kiss?" McGucket suggested. "But how can we do that?" Crona wondered. "Simple, just gotta shove 'em into each other!" Ragnarok suggested. "But we'll have to take out all these first to make more room and make things go smoothly."

"And where have you been this whole time?!" Gideon asked Ragnarok. "You've barely been useful to us for most of this journey ever since we left for Death City!"

"Hey, shut up kid!" the Black Blood sword argued just as McGucket split them up. "Alright you two, let's just get a move on."

"It's like my master said, the power of love is fruitless against me!" Soul hissed proceeding to gain the upper hand on his former partner. "What makes you believe I can be cured?!"

"Because she's got help!" Crona declared trying to push the Madness of Envy towards her. "Quick old man, start playing!" Gideon cried shoving Maka forward. "You got it!" Fiddleford exclaimed beginning to play a romantic tune on his banjo while Stein cleared out the remaining shadows. "What trickery is this?!" the Ogre yelled as Maka & Soul began slowdancing. "Don't fall for that music, just kill them all!"

"W-what are you trying to do Maka?" the final Madness asked slowly beginning to turn back into Soul. "Remember how earlier I said we can be something more?" Maka asked softly. "Well it's because, I do kinda have a crush on you. I mean, after all we've done for each other I'm surprised you haven't admitted that either."

"Yeah, gonna be honest, I do too." Soul confessed. "Even this music is something we made together, isn't it?" he asked slowly bringing his partner in for a kiss. "Yeah."

"NO! NO NO NO! I can't be foiled by the power of cliches, what will Master Cipher think?!" the suited imp panicked trying to separate the newfound lovers. "Well we think you need to go." Crona snarled shoving him off the pillar and into the inky blackness below. "I know he'll get you for all of this!"

As Maka and Soul finally kissed, the mindscape went completely white.

--

"Yeesh, couldn't wait until after we saved the world, huh?"

When the pair broke, they found themselves back in the Fearamid with the entire Mystery Meister crew, plus the recently returned Stan and Preston, surrounding them. Spirit burst into tears about his daughter finding love, Mabel & Marie highfived each other for a match made and Black Star gave his buddy a thumbs up. "My man!"

"Everyone." Soul gasped looking at them all. "And Mr. Pines too!?" he exclaimed staring at Stan. "Yep, in the flesh Sharkbait." Stan cackled and took a deep breath. "Real nice for us all to be back together."

"So where do we go now?" Preston nervously asked and Dipper, Maka, Mabel & Soul looked onward at Kishin Cipher being double-teamed by the Shacktron and the Death City robot. "Kishin Cipher." they declared in unison.

Speaking of which, Kishin Cipher found himself backed into a corner by the two mechanized homes. "So, any suggestions my surviving goons?" he asked the remains of his army. "Well, it seems you can't directly hit the Shacktron." the Summerween Trickster analyzed. "So we must hit something with it!" Wax Sherlock Holmes added. "Like the other robot!" the Flying Dutchman concluded, which gave Kishin Cipher an idea. Shrinking down to regular size, he warped above Death City and extended his arm into its underground to seize Lord Death from his current hiding spot. "Not so all-powerful and all-knowing now, aren't you father?!"

"If this is part of another scheme, that's not going to happen!" Death shouted smacking Kishin Cipher in the face with his glove while being held by the antenna on top of his head. "I'll let you run free, if you hand over my soul." K.C. offered threatening him with an energy blast on his middle finger. "Or perhaps you'd much rather prefer being murdered on the spot in front of your soon to be dead son!"

"I'd never!" the Death God refused. "Well, suit yourself." the Dream Kishin casually answered carelessly dropping Lord Death on the ground from high above before his arm next searched the Death Room, eventually finding Asura's soul buried underneath one of the crosses within.

"Come to papa!" the monster announced swallowing the soul whole and beginning to get more stronger. Tiny bat wings emerged on his head which became more angular & chiseled, his arms more comedically muscular and the bandages forming into demonic wings. "And now for the main course!" he roared excitedly grabbing Death City by the large rock formation underneath and smashing the Mystery Shack into pieces, potentially killing everyone inside. "Oh no, I murdered everyone you love! Ah, don't be a bunch of sadsacks, cause you'll be joining them pretty soon!"

The Mystery Meisters stared in shock, horror and sadness at what just happened. Soos started crying uncontrollably at the possible loss of his fiance, Preston futilely reached out for his wife, Ford dropped to his knees in defeat and everyone else was in mourning.

All except for the Mystery Twins and Maka & Soul, who were absolutely furious at Kishin Cipher. Dipper held Excalibur tightly while tears leaked from his enraged eyes, Mabel stuck to her brother's side, Maka simply glared and Soul clenched his fists in fury.

The final battle for the fate of all humanity has finally begun. And in the distance, a certain clergyman stood atop a tree watching with a wolfman.

--

Hey there boys and girls, sorry this took so long! I just got tied up with so many things that this chapter took me nearly most of the year. But hopefully this is all worth it, even with some parts feeling rushed in my eyes. Is the resistance truly dead and has Kishin Cipher finally won?! Well, I guess the final line might make it pretty obvious. Join us next time for the epic final clash where the fate of Earth and all reality shall be decided.

[archiveofolives]

tagged by @captainmrvels, tyvm!! here's the funny thing tho: i don't watch tv shows anymore :D sometime between 2014 and now, i decided it was no use pretending and completely stopped trying to catch up with the episodes i'd missed so i'm just going to sort of retrofit this questionnaire to make it applicable to me! i hope that's ok ❤️❤️❤️

Pick 5 shows fandoms, then answer the following questions (don’t cheat!)

marvel (oh i just realized the avengers have a cartoon series!)

ff7 (errr movie and oav?)

ace attorney (it has an anime! does that count)

star wars (eh)

his dark materials (hey this one at least has a tv show coming out soon)

1. Who is your favorite character in 2?

it's this guy cloud strife, you may have heard of him from my blog lmao

2. Who is your favorite in 1?

WE ARE LOKI ON MAIN FOR A REASON, BABY

3. What’s your favorite episode of 4?

HA this one worked like a charm. ummm probably episode 7 bc that made me feel Things and i loved rewatching it as compared to the others. altho if we bring in every other movie in-between, it's obviously rogue one. BUT i DO have a special place in my heart for episode 1! i've been a star wars fan since i was a kid thanks to my dad but i was obsessed with episode 1, it really pushed all the right buttons for me. like i wouldn't call it a solid movie next to episode 7 but man is it a classic!

4. what’s your favorite season of 5?

i think i will love every season when they do come out but book-wise, i think you can't beat the level of wonder of northern lights/golden compass, depending on which edition your bookstores sold. my REAL absolute favorite tho has got to be once upon a time in the north bc the leads are basc my two favorite characters lmao

5. Who’s your favorite couple in 3?

OH MAN mia fey and godot! i'm such a trash for tragic relationships and i think they looked very handsome together!

6. Who’s your favorite couple in 2?

cloud and aerith—my home ship since 20 years ago and the reason, i think, a lot of my ships tend to be on the tragic side >.>;; but i just love the tropes they're hitting, you know? and then how their colors and characters complement each other, i think they're a very attractive couple

7. Least favorite episode movie of 1?

movie bc it's easier than the comics lmao. but probably dr strange? icn say it's civil war bc it has spider-man, black panther and ant-man which for me are the only things really worth seeing in there but dr strange doesn't really even have that much of a hook for me to begin with. i wouldn't have gone and seen it if not bc of my team who wanted to see it for our team building excursion lol

8. Favorite episode of 5?

find me anything with lee scoresby in it baby!!!

9. Favorite season installment of 2?

i think i will forever be devoted to the classic polygon game, the one that started it all, y'know? but i'm really excited for the remake and i really enjoyed ff7ac/c! i also have not played the other games in the compilation bc money and time lmao (says the woman who just spent 12 hours on the game yesterday like some high schooler >.>;;; i just got aerith's great gospel and i already miss her ;_;)

10. How long have you watched 1?

i have been a clown since 2012

11. How did you become interested in 3?

we got a ds lite!! and then everyone kept raving about the phoenix wright game so my sister got it for us and then one day, i just decided to watch and help her play the third case and now, it's part of how we bond. we've always solved cases together ever since, they're much easier and less creepier that way

12. Favorite actor in 4?

oh wow, another lucky hit! ummm ewan mcgregor? i was a huge fan of his obi-wan kenobi like, icn remember calling other characters my favorite after his obi-wan anymore. so i'm really excited he's going to reprise the role, finally!!

13. Which do you prefer, 1, 2, or 5?

oh god, probably 2?? bc between the three of them, ff7 has had the biggest influence in my life. like seriously, the reason i'm in my job rn is bc of it—i went to college to take up computer science bc i wanted to make games like ff7 lmao but that didn't work out bc calculus is the worst. STILL it pushed me to the right direction of being in stem!

14. Which have you seen more episodes new releases of, 1 or 3?

i'm gonna have to say 1 for the obvious reason that they've released more movies than 3 has released games bc they're the products of an entertainment tycoon, you know? while with 3, there's still a part of it that still feels like a passion project and i haven't seen the anime yet lmao.

15. If you could be anyone from 4 who would you be?

i'd be a rebel. when i was a kid, i wanted to be a jedi, tho, lol

16. Would a crossover between 3 and 4 work?

ACE ATTORNEY IN SPACE. SPACE ATTORNEY AHAHAHAHAHA. i mean WHY NOT, you've got coruscant, you've got imperial sympathizers sowing discontent to lead to the first order (i think), you've got other separatists while we're at it, smuggling, bounty hunting, the fall of the jedi order. especially after rotj, i can imagine how active the courtrooms were with the war criminals and the petty ones taking advantage of the shift of government. the feys are obviously of the force, the von karmas could be a family linked to sympathizers, maybe nick is even attuned to the force which is why mia singled him out! it's easy to work out the whole thing ❤️

17. Pair two characters in 1 who would make an unlikely but strangely ok couple.

but marvel is already doing that job for me lmao. ummmm jane and roz solomon? but it's not unlikely bc they ARE friends and roz was the first person jane confided to about being thor. really icn think of anything off the top of my head, i'm not a shippy kind of person unless the canon lays it out before me and i get convinced. which, in itself, is rare.

18. Overall which show franchise has a better storyline, 1 or 3?

3, hands down. i'd much rather miss more movies of 1 than new releases of 3. it's in the quality of the storytelling, y'know? which isn't to say i loved all games lol i mean honestly, if you ask me? i'd tell you apollo justice is a huge au.

19. Which has better theme music, 2 or 4?

OH THIS IS A GOOD QUESTION. you're asking me who did it better, john williams or nobuo uematsu??? damn, they're both solid composers with amazingly timeless pieces but from my biased point of view, you can't beat nobuo uematsu. his work on final fantasy as compared to williams' work on star wars is more varied and he freaking makes MIDI sound like an orchestra!! and, he was the fucking soundtrack of my childhood. i was SO lucky to have been raised in a generation where he still did the music to all final fantasy games.

tagging: OH NO I DON'T KNOW WHO TO TAG DDDD: ummm @summoneryuna watches lots of shows, right??? @egregiousderp but with anime?? @safarikalamari just bc???? lmao idfk

[linzerj]

Golden Gate’s Heroes

(Hey ya’ll it’s that Venom/Ant-Man crossover fic I promised. It’ll have a few more chapters and maybe I’ll even figure out a real plot for it eventually. The AO3 link will be in the notes.)

---

Scott has got to learn to pay attention to schedules. Or maybe he just needs better friends. Actually, no, it’s probably a combination of those two factors that has led him to his current situation.

“Aw, are you sure you can’t come to babysit Cassie? No, I know it’s last minute, but – well, no, I’m sure I’ll figure something else out. Thanks anyway, Mrs. C.” Scott hung up the phone, then put his head in his hands with a groan.

“Are you sure I can’t just come with you, Daddy?” Cassie asked, bringing him out of his funk. “I can just sit in the lobby and play games on my phone. Or I can even sit in the car!”

“No, Peanut, that’s not fair to you,” Scott said, sinking off the couch to sit next to his daughter on the floor. “It’s my fault that I forgot about this big meeting we’re having. But your mom and Paxton are out of town for the week so I can’t just drop you back off, all the usual babysitters and even the emergency babysitters are all busy, and obviously Luis can’t watch you because he’ll be with me, and then Hope and Hank and Janet are out in NYC trying to not kill Tony Stark as they hash out new Accords amendments now that Jan is back, and….” Scott trailed off with a groan.

“I’m eleven now, daddy. I’m almost twelve! Did you know that when you’re twelve, you can legally stay home alone?”

“Oh really?”

“Well, that’s what the teacher said when she was offering everyone who was already twelve to come take a babysitting course!” Cassie beamed. “I’m almost there, just another three months!”

“Yeah, well, I don’t know if that would fly with Agent Woo, remember him?” They both shuddered overdramatically, before Cassie sighed.

“I know, daddy. Sorry again.”

“And again, not your fault Peanut, that’s all on me.” Scott grabbed his cell phone again and began scrolling through his contacts list. “I mean, I haven’t called everyone yet,” he narrated when Cassie peered over his shoulder. “Maybe we can find someone on this list who I know that can watch you for 2, 3 hours tops.”

And that’s when Scott saw it, a name he forgot he had in his phone, certain he had deleted it or lost it when he got his new cell. They’d hit it off at an interview before he’d had to go to prison for his big heist, and hadn’t really talked at all since then. It was such a long shot, but everyone else in his contacts had either already said no or lived way too far to make it in time or were Avengers that were doing who-knows-what. There were probably other options in his phone, but, well, it never hurt to try, so.

Holding his breath, he called Eddie Brock.

Eddie’s phone rang while he was scrolling through his Facebook feed in a half-asleep daze. Venom perked up a bit at the unknown number – they loved to take over and scare any telemarketers that called, which was why Eddie rarely answered unknown numbers anymore.

But this one looked – not too familiar, but it had a legit San Francisco area code, and something about those last four digits was ringing some sort of distant bells. So with a shrug, Eddie answered.

“H’llo?” he said through a mouth of Fruit Loops.

“Uh, hey, is this uh, is this still Eddie Brock?” the caller asked. Eddie swallowed his food, ignoring Venom as he manifested a head and started munching on the rest of the cereal, and studied the number with a confused glance for a second. The voice sounded sort of familiar, but it was not immediately recognizable, and Eddie wasn’t sure who would have his number that was unsure if it was him – he’d lost most of his old contacts when he’d broken his old phone, but he’d reprogrammed in all the numbers of important people or people he talked to daily, like Anne and his boss.

“Yeeeeah, who is this?” he finally said after realizing that the guy on the other end of the line was probably wondering what the hell was taking him so long to respond.

“I don’t know if you remember me, but uh, this is Scott Lang.”

And that made everything click into place. “Oh! Yeah, the engineer who broke into that CEO’s house and stole all the money that he’d been stealing! Yeah, how you been, dude? You’re out of jail I see – probably been out a while by now, actually, huh. What, uh, what’s up?”

“Okay so, this is going to sound super weird and I know we don’t know each other very well but you seemed like a cool dude and whatever, and even after all that LIFE Foundation stuff you still seem really awesome, but uh, anyway. I’ve got a daughter, right, but I’m an idiot and forgot to get a babysitter for like three hours while I go do this interview for my new business, and all my other regulars are busy because the universe is awful, and uh, if it’s not too much trouble and you’re willing to do it, I was wondering if you could, uh… just… watch her for like, two or three hours? Please?”

Scott rushed this all out in one breath, and it took Eddie a moment to process it. Some dude he’d interviewed once nearly 6 years ago was asking him to babysit his kid? Venom offered no insight to his problem, focusing on slurping up the remnants of their cereal.

“I’ll definitely pay you, too, and when I’m done I’d be totally down to hang out too, I mean, if you wanted to, I mean, oh god what am I even saying-”

“Yeah sure.”

On the other end of the line, Scott paused. “Really?”

“Sure,” Eddie said again, pushing Venom’s annoying face away as they leaned in closer. “I’m free, got nothing better to do, and you sound super stressed out man, and kids aren’t so bad. Plus I still totally respect you for that heist and exposing that scumbag, even if it was a one-time thing or whatever, so. Yeah.”

“Oh thank you thank you! I’ll give you my address, can you get here – ohhh boy, just, whenever you can? I gotta run ASAP man.”

“Not a problem,” Eddie replied, jotting down the address and grabbing his keys. “See you in a bit.”

Eddie, Venom said as Eddie plugged the address into his phone and started down the stairs of his building, what is ‘babysitting’? Why would we sit on a baby?

“Oh, uh, that’s not – we’re not literally sitting on a baby, love. We just go and watch a child, oh gosh how old even is this kid, oh boy. Well uh, we basically make sure she doesn’t die while her parents aren’t home, and then we get paid money for it.”

Hmm. Humans are weird.

---

Eddie arrived about five minutes after getting the call. He may have sped a little bit, but he wasn’t pulled over or anything, so it was fine.

Knocking on the door revealed Scott, dressed in a suit, smoothing down his hair and obviously trying not to look too flustered. “Okay, hi, Eddie, hi, I’m Scott, I’m sure you figured that out,” he said, extending his hand. Eddie took it and shook it briefly as Scott continued on. “So Cassie is pretty chill, man, don’t worry about a thing, there’s chicken nuggets in the fridge for you guys to eat and you can also have whatever else you want, and don’t worry about feeding Charlie Ben-Ant-e – wait – Cassie where’s Charlie Ben-Ant-e?!”

“Uhhhh… I don’t see him Daddy!” Eddie heard a girl call. She appeared in the doorway, and Eddie supposed this must be Cassie. She looked between ten and twelve, which, okay, that was definitely manageable. “But I’m sure it’ll be fine, he usually doesn’t start his routine for a while anyway.”

“Okay so don’t worry about Charlie Ben-Ant-e at all then,” Scott said to Eddie. “Also this is Cassie, Cassie this is Eddie, thank you again for watching her so last minute for me like this man, I really really owe you one, but I gotta go, bye Cassie be good-” Scott kissed his daughter on the head – “thanks again Eddie, I’ll see you in a few hours!” And Scott was off, running down the road to what Eddie supposed was his car. Well, then.

Eddie turned to Cassie who was looking at him intently. “Uh,” he said. He stepped inside and closed the door behind him. She was still watching him. “Uh, hi.”

“Hi,” she said, still studying him, before grinning up at him and asking, “So you interviewed my Daddy before?”

“Oh, uh, yeah, back when, you know, he was arrested and whatever.” Eddie mentally smacked himself. That is probably not what you should say to kids.

But Cassie surprised him. “Yeah, he’s my hero,” she told him. “I think it was good that he tried to get that money back to the people it belonged to, even if he didn’t do it the right way. But he tried! And when I got to see him again after he got out of jail, I got him this trophy to show him how much I loved him!” And she triumphantly held up a cheap trophy.

“World’s Greatest Grandma?” Eddie asked, squinting at the writing on it. Cassie looked at the trophy then giggled.

“Yeah, it was the only one they had left, but now it’s like our secret joke,” she told him.

Eddie I like this child, Venom said, and Eddie couldn’t help but agree.

---

Eddie was cool, Cassie decided, even if she heard him muttering to himself every now and then when he thought she couldn’t hear. Maybe he was like some of her friends from school, who talked to themselves to keep on track or reassure themselves. There was nothing wrong with that, and she didn’t want to make him feel bad about himself by pointing it out.

But he was pretty funny too. He told her stories about being a reporter, and made lots of jokes like her dad, and grinned when he munched down on some chocolate with her. He asked her questions too, about what she liked and wanted to do, and when she said that maybe she would be famous someday he chuckled and said that she should think of all his questions as a practice interview. She wouldn’t mind having him as a babysitter again, she decided.

But that’s when Charlie Ben-Ant-e decided to make an appearance.

Her daddy had named the ant after a drummer whose name allowed for the ant pun of all his favorite ants. This was the same ant that had fooled the FBI when her dad had to help Hope and Mr. Pym stop the Ghost and save Hope’s mom.

Cassie had been told to keep the giant pet ants a secret from her friends, because people didn’t usually like ants anyway, and the giant ants were kind of scary. Cassie thought they were cute and that those people were dummies, but whatever. Her pet ant Ant-ony Junior lived with her and her mom and Jim Paxton, and it had learned to be very good about hiding when she or the grownups had friends over.

But Charlie Ben-Ant-e had not yet learned this. It still liked to stick to its usual routine, which was why her dad only had over his friends who knew he was Ant-Man, or had other people over when Charlie was sleeping.

So, sure, when Scott had left, Charlie hadn’t been around. That wasn’t unusual – lately he’d taken to wandering the backyard, or napping under beds. But of course, he was still a creature of habit, especially when it came to his food, and the meeting seemed to be running a little longer than expected.

So when Cassie went into the kitchen to grab chocolate milk for her and Eddie, she almost jumped when she saw Charlie Ben-Ant-e. He was scuffling at the fridge door, and Cassie rushed over to grab his designated food from the cabinet instead.

“Here, Charlie,” she said, filling his food bowl more than she should have, but hoping it would distract him long enough for her dad to come home and Eddie to leave. She liked Eddie, and she didn’t want this to scare him away. That would suck.

She grabbed the chocolate milk and some cups and ran back into the living room, where Eddie was looking past her toward the kitchen with curiosity.

“I was just feeding Charlie Ben-Ant-e,” Cassie explained before Eddie could ask. “Hopefully he won’t bother us.”

“That’s okay,” Eddie said. “Is he like, your dog? Cat?”

“Uh, yep!” Eddie totally didn’t believe her, but he shrugged and let it go.

So they sat for a while, sipping their chocolate milk and watching Phineas and Ferb reruns, when Charlie Ben-Ant-e decided to scuttle on by and head toward the electronic drum set.

“Uh,” Eddie said, eyes wide as he did a double take. “Uh, what…. is that Charlie Ben-Ant-e?”

Cassie grinned guiltily, and shrugged, trying her best to look innocent. “Maaaaybe…”

Eddie was still watching as the ant put on the headset and started drumming. “Ben-Ant-e,” he repeated, “Ben-Ant-e. Well. That. That explains the name pun, I guess.”

Cassie looked up at him, slightly concerned. “Are you… going to run away? Or call the police? Please don’t,” she added as an afterthought. “He’s really harmless. We trained him to play the drums!”

“I’m more… confused,” Eddie said slowly, eyes still on the ant. “How did – what – like, how does he exist? And no,” Eddie continued, whispering to himself, “we cannot eat it, stop it Vee.”

And Cassie blurted, “I’ll tell you how we have him if you tell me who Vee is that you’re talking too.”

“Uh,” said Eddie, and then her dad decided that this was the time to come home.

“Uh,” said Scott, eyes going from Eddie to Cassie to Charlie Ben-Ant-e back to Cassie then back to Eddie. “Uh.”

“Uh,” Eddie said again. Cassie decided that sometimes grown men were idiots.

“My dad is Ant-Man,” Cassie blurted, because there was too much tension now and she couldn’t stand it.

“Cassie!” her dad hissed, and she guessed he was upset that she told his secret identity. But what else was she supposed to do? Eddie had already seen Charlie Ben-Ant-e, and he wasn’t running off screaming yet, so maybe he could be a friend.

“What? Oh, okay, that’s, okay,” Eddie said. “So, uh, you were at that airport battle during that Avengers thing, that was crazy, I did a report on that, but uh, are you like an official Avenger then?”

“You’re taking this way better than some people, but whyyyyy does that matter?” Scott shot back, recovering from Cassie’s betrayal. Cassie was curious too, but Eddie did say he was a reporter, so maybe it was his natural reporter curiosity.

“Well, uh, um, uh, I don’t know if you heard about the uh, shhh, the whole LIFE Foundation rocket and human testing thing just a few months ago?”

“Yeaaahhhhhh, what does that have to do with anything?”

“So, they, uh, they had actually brought back these alien symbiotes and were experimenting with them using people, and well, uh, oh god Vee, listen one of the aliens may or may not be a friend but you won’t arrest us for that right?”

“Dude I don’t think I have jurisdiction to arrest you anyway, but I mean, like, what is even going on.”

“Oh god,” Eddie said again, and that’s when a weird black slime tentacle thing branched out of his shoulder, which formed a head with white eyes and very sharp teeth.

“Hello,” it said, and Eddie put his head in his hands.

“What the he-e-eck,” Scott said, stumbling backwards.

The black goo thing sprouting from Eddie grinned. “We are Venom,” it – they? – explained.

Cassie thought that Venom looked kind of cute in a weird way, and so she voiced her thoughts. “You’re kinda cute, in a weird way.”

Venom swung its head toward her, a long tongue sticking out of its mouth. “Cute? Eddie, tell the child we are not cute! We strike fear into bad guys!”

“I mean you are kinda cute when you’re just a floating head, Vee,” Eddie said, seeming to have overcome the shock of everything going on. Venom turned back to Eddie with a look of betrayal, and Cassie thought that they must be inside Eddie’s head or something because Eddie rolled his eyes at an unspoken jab and muttered, “yes you are you drama queen.”

“Okay, okay, let’s back up for a minute, yeah?” Scott said, holding up his hands. “Maybe let’s try this again. Hi, I’m Scott Lang, that’s my daughter Cassie, I’m also Ant-Man though that’s usually only when Hank really needs me right now, and we may have used our grow and shrink technology to make a very big ant named Charlie Ben-Ant-e that plays the drums and acted as a decoy for me when I was on house arrest. Your turn.”

Eddie blinked. “Well, uh. I’m Eddie Brock, and this is Venom but I call them Vee, and together we are also Venom. We met after I was disgraced for trying to expose Carlton Drake after Drake’s rocket crashed and brought their race here, and then LIFE was doing all sorts of unethical experiments on symbiotes and humans, but I broke in and we accidentally bonded and then we went out and beat up Drake and another evil symbiote and maybe ate some people at one point, and now we just try and keep to ourselves except for some occasional late night runs where we, uh, well.” Eddie paused, looking at Cassie with what she thinks is concern and nervousness.

“We eat the heads of bad guys,” Venom said plainly, and yeah, Cassie could see why Eddie didn’t want to say that out loud.

“You eat people?!” Scott cried. Eddie winced.

“Only bad guys!” he emphasized. “Plus, look, Vee needs some compound from humans, one that’s especially abundant in brains, in order to live or else they’ll start eating my organs and then we’ll both die and that’s not that fun.”

“Phenethylamine,” Venom added, “is what we need. It is also found in chocolate and there are supplements but they aren’t as good as fresh stuff. It is in many animal brains as well, such as the rats and raccoons and even deer we sometimes eat, but we feel that it is not bad to eat other bad people who would be released from prison, free to hurt more people again.”

“So you’re trying to be a hero too?” Cassie asked.

“Sure, yes, we are,” Eddie and Venom said together, and Cassie found that a little creepy but also super cool.

“Well,” her dad said, “that, uh. Sure is something. What the hell are the odds that two superheroes meet because one asked the other to babysit his daughter?”

“Like zero,” Eddie replied. Then: “Seriously though you won’t tell anyone right?”

Scott opened his mouth, then closed it, then opened it again. “Well. I mean. You could always tell them yourself?”

Eddie leveled a very unimpressed stare at her dad, and Cassie couldn’t help but ask, “You want to tell Hope and her parents, daddy?”

“And maybe whatever’s left of the Avengers,” Scott admitted. “Not that I don’t believe you or trust you or anything! But like, more as a… like, you could join us? That’d be cool, right?”

Eddie blinked, and it’s Venom who answered. “We will…think about it,” they said. “For now, we would appreciate if you tell no one, or we might eat your head.”

“Please don’t eat my daddy’s head,” Cassie said at the same time Eddie shouted, “No, Vee, we aren’t eating a hero’s head!” They shared a look, and Eddie continued, “Cassie would be very sad if you ate her dad’s head.”

“Oh. That’s not good. We like Cassie,” Venom said with a bit of a purr, and Cassie giggled.

“Well,” Scott said, “thanks for, for not eating my brain I guess. And, hey, you have my number – let me know if you ever want to do that hero meet-and-greet thing, I’m serious.”

“Sure, I mean, like we said, we’ll think about it,” Eddie replied.

“Yeah, cool, cool, man. I guess, uh. I guess I’ll see you around?”

Eddie and Venom grinned. “Sure,” was the simple reply.

“Great,” Scott said. He looked back to Cassie and then back to Eddie. “And uh, if you’re okay with it – I mean – I’d be okay with you babysitting Cassie still, I mean only if you want to…”

Eddie cut Scott off with a laugh. “Sure, man, we’d love to. See you around, man; bye, Cassie!”

And Cassie watched, still fascinated, as Venom melded back into Eddie and they walked out toward their motorcycle before driving away.

“He was like, the best babysitter ever daddy,” Cassie proclaimed, grinning up at her dad. “I liked him, and Venom too!”

“He certainly was….something,” Scott replied, scratching the back of his neck. “And I’m sure we’ll see him again, sweetie. Now, should we get Charlie Ben-Ant-e some more food or what?”

[bthenoise]

Q&A: Here’s How Some Of Your All-Time Favorite Music Videos Were Made Thanks To The Brilliant Max Moore

So you want to make music videos? Well, we have some good news and we have some bad news. The bad news? It takes a TON of hard work. The good news? We have some pretty solid advice from one of if not the best music video directors in our scene. 

Working with the likes of Converge, Code Orange, Knocked Loose, Motionless In White, Movements, New Found Glory and a ton more, Max Moore has built quite the reputation of being an ultra-consistent, ultra-creative and incredibly hard-working director working his way up from the DIY hardcore community. 

Talking with The Noise about getting started behind the camera and what he suggests to up-and-coming filmmakers, Moore commented, “I think it's so easy to get caught up in the comparison game of what camera somebody has starting out or where you live.”

“I don't live in Los Angeles,” Moore said. “I live in a random ass city in the Midwest. And if you can just get away from all the bullshit and just focus on making really creative, cool ideas, then you're going to be somewhat successful over the people who just freaked out about the new stabilizer or piece of gear.”

With a resume of nearly 100 music videos, commercials and short films under his belt, Moore clearly knows his stuff -- which is exactly why we wanted to reach out to the talented 28-year-old and find out how he got his start making some of our favorite music videos.

To check out Moore’s story and insightful guidance for future directors, be sure to look below. Afterward, for more, head here.       

How long do you think you usually spend on an edit? Obviously different videos vary but what’s your average time?

MAX MOORE: Well, not all directors edit their own stuff. But for me, it's a big part of what I do. And in terms of having control over the final product, I mean, you can shoot and direct something amazingly [but] if you don't have a good editor, it can all kind of fall apart there. So editing is the one thing that I still do all myself. So as you can imagine, it just depends on the project. But even more so than that, it really just depends on the timeline from the label or management or whatever. 

For example, the [recent] Knocked Loose video, I edited it in like a week. And you know, that's like working on it six to eight hours for a few days or something like that. But I've also had crazy deadlines where it's like, “Hey, the video is literally supposed to come out in three days from when we shoot it.” So I'll just hunker down and edit nonstop for like 48 hours. So I've literally shot a video in LA, flew (because I actually live in Kentucky -- Louisville, Kentucky -- where Knocked Loose is from) back home and edited a video and turned it in and it came out like two days later. So yeah, it really just depends. But I think the biggest thing is just if the labels are like, “Hey, it’s not due for a while,” I'm gonna let it sit. [laughs] I'm not trying to kill myself just to get it done.

Do you ever overlap with videos? Or is it usually one project at a time?

I usually always kind of have multiple projects going at the same time. It's varied in different years. I've been doing this full time for about six years. Some years, I did insane amounts of music videos. Some years, I do a little bit less. I think the most I did one year was like 40 music videos or something crazy. So if you think about that, there are only 12 months in a year. So there's obviously going to be some crossover. But these days, I'm trying to -- when I was first doing this I was like, “I want to do as many as possible and work with as many artists as I can.” But these days, I'm trying to be more selective about what I take on and I'd rather do fewer, really good [videos] than just pump them out. So I've also started directing commercials as well. I don't want to do 40 music videos a year. It’d be nice to do a handful of ones I’m really passionate about.

For young filmmakers and directors who are just learning, what’s your time management like or the schedule that you give yourself on a day-to-day basis?

I think the biggest key, especially when I was getting started, I would get a lot of offers to do videos and I was just so excited to have the work that I didn't know how to say no yet. So I kind of overbooked myself, like the year I did almost 40 videos, that was so stupid. Like, truly. I mean, I worked like seven days a week for the entire year basically. So I think it starts before you even get the work. By that, I mean learning when to say no. You know, “That video sounds really cool, I like that band, but I just don't have time.” Or you know, “Hey, it's a good budget. I don't care about this artist. Nah, I'm going to pass.” You know what I mean? So I think it starts from the get-go and I'm learning to be better with that. 

As the years have gone on, in terms of the day-to-day, I think it's just like any business. It's prioritizing things that need to get done based on when they're due. I think that sounds like a really non-answer but I think it's important to keep to your schedule -- especially when you're self-employed and you do a lot of it yourself. It's really easy to get overwhelmed and not know where to start. But I like to stay organized by keeping a well-established schedule and prioritizing by what's due when and knocking it out in that order if that makes sense.

Is there one video in particular you had to turn down that you're super bummed about?

Yeah, I mean, there's been lots of cases over the years. But it's been less of that, like, “Hey, we want you to do it” and I feel like I have to pass. The things that I mostly get more bummed about are the videos where I write it -- so the way the normal process works is it's not usually, it happens a lot for me [with] someone I’ve worked with several times [where] we're directly working together and they know “Hey, we want Max to do the video.” So we’ll figure out the treatment and what the video is going to be, but I am working directly with them. 

But usually, the way it works is that my rep, my music video rep, which is just like (that's what they call it, it's like my agent, basically) and so she will send me tracks from record labels and say, “Hey Max, do you want to write on this?” And so say it's a really awesome artist that I would love to work with, it’s like, “Oh yeah, I would love to write a treatment for that.” She says okay, so then I spend the day putting together a music video treatment, sending it off to her and she sends it to the label. But the label is also collecting several treatments from several different directors and you don't know how many, who's writing, who else is also writing on it or how many. 

And so back to the original question. I've definitely gotten bummed like, “Oh my god, I'm writing a treatment for blah, blah, blah, whatever band or artist. I'm so excited!” And then it's like, “Yeah, they went with somebody else.” And then you’re like, “Ahhhhh.” [laughs] This is the name of the game. It's as frustrating as it can be music video directing, or directing for some production in general. [You] kind of just gotta have tough skin. And if you get your feelings really hurt by not getting a job or the client not liking the video or the edit, or whatever, you gotta just have thick skin and roll with the punches. The people that can roll with the punches consistently and keep trucking even though they get bummed on not getting stuff, those are the people that are successful and can have consistent work. Not saying that's me [laughs], but yeah. 

When you're writing treatments, do you feel like the ideas come to you pretty instantly? Or do you have to think for a few hours, sometimes days?

I think it just depends on the specific situation. There have been times where I'll get sent a song and I immediately have something come to mind and the treatments done in like an hour. Then there are also times where I've literally sat at a computer for hours and hours and hours and gone on walks, took a shower, left and drove around and there's nothing I can do [because] I'm 100% in writer's block. I finally just end up being like “Alright, I’ll write this down and submit it.” But I think it just depends on the situation. I think it's always easier in a situation where it's an artist that I know and that I've worked with previously. Like a band like Code Orange or Knocked Loose. I've worked with both those bands multiple times and we have a rapport, a creative rapport that we can kind of reference previous videos or it's really just a trust thing. Those kinds of artists that I’ve worked with trust me and trust what I'm writing is going to make sense for the song or the record or whatever. So it's always easier when I have a direct relationship with the artist rather than when it's just more the standard business thing where there's several layers of middlemen in between– my manager, or my rep, their manager, a video commissioner. That's where the creativity is a little harder to pin down.

It’s interesting having a job in a creative space because there isn’t just some button you can push to come up with ideas. Like when people say, “Hey, think of some ideas for this.” It’s really not that easy.

Totally. 

But talking about the artists you've worked with. You mentioned Code Orange and Knocked Loose. When you came up in this music scene was that the music you were listening to?

Yeah. So when I was younger, I'm 28 now, but all through middle school and high school, I played in lots of different punk and hardcore bands and toured. Did that whole thing. My friends were in a band called Xerxes that was signed to No Sleep Records, which was kind of a poppin’ label back in the day and so that was very much my world that I came from like the DIY punk hardcore scene. So naturally, a band like Code Orange -- I was friends with them and that was the music I was already playing and it sort of just kind of lent itself for me taking on those kinds of videos. I didn't like set out to specifically direct music videos, it just kind of happened naturally from the fact that I had a big background in music and all these friends that were in bands and all these connections. 

But at the same time, I stopped playing music and went to film school and then those two things just naturally lead together into one. But yeah, to answer the question: Yeah, I mean, that's the world I come from and that's kind of why so much of my work has been in that scene, whatever you want to call it. Obviously, I've worked with lots of different kinds of bands like pop-punk bands, indie bands, stuff like that. But it's all really under the umbrella of “alternative music,” that’s what I would call it. But the cool thing about having my rep is that she and the production company I'm signed with, they can kind of give me opportunities to write for artists and bands that are kind of outside my own connections. Like a pop artist or hip-hop artists or something like that. So, though I come from punk and hardcore, I love all kinds of music. I listen to hip-hop mostly these days. And so even though [punk and hardcore is the] majority of what my work is done in, I definitely have a strong desire to branch out and flex creative muscles in a different genre or different types of video. If that makes sense.

Yeah, so who are some dream artists you'd love to work with?

I mean, I’d want to do the biggest of the big. [laughs] I want to do a Beyoncé video [laughs]. I’d do anything, man. But the cool thing about my background is people kind of pin me down as always the “hardcore director.” But in reality, if you actually know me personally, you know that my kind of interests is so much broader than just hardcore. When I was 17, I was a hardcore kid. At 28, I'm just Max [laughs]. I can like Drake. I can like Beyoncé. I can like whatever. So really the dream artist is anybody who's willing to give me the time. I know that’s kind of a cop out answer, but yeah. Anybody who's just down to let me make some cool stuff. I'm always interested in working with them.

So do you think some advice to incoming videographers is to not pigeonhole themselves into just one category and instead branch out and try everything?

Yes and no. I think, oddly, some of the reasons why I've had consistent work over the last few years is because there is this network of bands in the scene. Whether it's the record labels I work with, I think just like any business you get hired because you get good at one thing where you specialize in something, like you know, a plumber or electrician or any type of business. A plumber is going to get hired to do plumbing and in that way, it's been good for me to continue to work with bands in a similar genre because it just keeps the ball rolling and you’re able to create a style. 

But that’s why I think, starting out, I think it is kind of cool. This has just worked for me. The thing about music video directing, or directing as a whole, is that there's no right or wrong path. It's not like becoming a doctor where you have to take a test, you pass the test and someone gives you a piece of paper and says you’re a doctor. Everybody's path to music video directing, or directing any type of production, looks very different. So I'm just speaking personally and what’s worked for me. So I think working in this kind of genre of music has allowed me to basically make a living. But I think once you get to a certain level, or have a certain amount of videos under your belt or if you're just bored and want to try something different, I think breaking out and not being afraid to branch out, that's the biggest thing. Be consistent and put yourself out there but at the same time, don't be afraid to try new things with new kinds of artists or people.

A good example of that as far as your music videos go has to be the Chapel music video you directed with all the giant breakfast stuff which we assume was pretty challenging for more reasons than one. Speaking of, what has been the most challenging music video for you to shoot personally?

I would probably say, the most challenging would probably be the [Code Orange] “Forever” video -- and then I'll have the worst day on set story, I'll share with you. But with [“Forever”], there was just a lot of logistics. I actually self-produced the music video. We shot in Louisville, Kentucky. So there's just a lot of working parts to the video. I mean, there's so much in it and the biggest thing, the challenge is the big pyrotechnic stuff at the end of the video. You know, if we were shooting in LA or somewhere like that, getting a pyro person is no problem. They're everywhere and you can get them. Normally, when I’m shooting in LA, there’s a production team, the producers will handle all that and make it happen. But trying to like, you know, maximize the budget and put everything I could into this video, shooting in Louisville was a better option, which is where I'm from and just finding a pyro team in Louisville, Kentucky was not possible. [laughs] There isn't anybody. So we had to bring people in from Nashville and it was just a lot. I remember being totally overwhelmed. If it was any other artist, I would have been like, “I can't.” But because my relationship is strong and special with that band and I care about the art and believe in what they're doing, I was like, “You know, this is an important record, this is an important single” and I just felt that it was like “You gotta go hard on this one.” And yeah, they ended up getting nominated for a Grammy for that song. I'm super proud of what they've done and seeing them grow. So I think just because I cared so much, that's why that was the most challenging one if that makes sense.

Totally.

And then the worst day on set was with this band called Motionless In White, which also involved a ton of pyro behind the stage. It was just the longest day and our gaffer, who had all the lights and equipment, he was a no-call no-show the morning of the shoot and set us behind. And then the pyro thing, we had all this fire on the stage inside this warehouse and it popped the sprinklers and sprinklers went all over everything and I had my camera in my hand and I'm like running out. And it wasn't clean water, this was like an old warehouse and it's black fucking sludge coming out of the sprinklers. And I was like, “Oh my god, dude.” I was freaking out like, “It's done. It's over.” 

But then somehow the crew like shop-vacuumed it all up and we kept shooting and then finally the stage caught fire. There was like 300 screaming tweens -- they were just fans but they were in the video and it was just straight chaos. Anyways, it was a crazy day. The video turned out, came out and that's all that matters. So what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

What do you think is one of the biggest things people misinterpret about being a music video director?

I think the biggest thing that people don't understand, the biggest part of my job that I didn't even know was the biggest part of the job is it's not just about “Hey, can you direct a video? Or can you make a video?” As a working music video director, it's all about writing. That's something I had no idea about when I first got into it. Like, you can yell action and you can shoot and you can edit and produce and make an amazing, clean product. But you will not get work consistently or at all really if you don't know how to write a treatment and accurately portray your idea and write it and set it up in a way that all parties involved can clearly understand. 

So the biggest misconception is that it's not just about being on set. So much of my day-to-day is writing and pitching. In that way, it’s not good enough to just be a good director. You have to be a good writer and a good salesman for the ideas that you have and that you believe in. And even if you don't believe in it, you have to make them think that you believe it. And then when you get there, and it turns out it works, everybody's happy. But I think that's the biggest misconception of what a day-to-day music video director is. It's a lot of sitting in front of a computer and finding reference images for your treatment or searching online for that one still [image] you remember from a movie that will be great to go into the treatment or coloring reference images in Photoshop. I mean, most of my job is that. It’s pitching. And then, that's intercut with the shoot days and the edits. But it's a lot of hard work and it's not for people who, you know -- production isn't like the cozy nine-to-five thing. You got to really want it and you’ve got to be willing to continually be putting yourself out there. And it's hard but when you find some level of success and work consistently [and] see people really dig the videos -- like the Knocked Loose video came out the other day and people were digging it -- that's when it feels like “Hey, you know this is really hard and sucky sometimes but wow, it's worth it.” 

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A post shared by Max Moore (@maxmoorefilms) on Apr 18, 2019 at 12:24pm PDT

What are some of your favorite music videos you've seen that really inspired you or made you wish you thought of first?

I think watching older Smashing Pumpkins music videos is huge for me. Also weirdly, My Chemical Romance. I was right in that era where they were huge when I was like in [my] teen years and I was certainly into hardcore and all that but I'm a sucker for pop-punk. I was into that kind of stuff and I was watching Fuse after school and stuff like that. So, those era music videos are iconic to me. 

From a young age, I always thought those videos were sick. [And] like Underoath videos and stuff like that. There's a theme of like, darker imagery that I was just naturally drawn to. But those are things growing up like, “Man, that’s so cool. I would love to do something like that.” [And] now I've gotten to write on some Underoath music videos recently, so it's all kind of full circle. I would love to do a Smashing Pumpkins video, that’d be amazing.

Did you ever watch Making The Video on MTV?

Totally! Looking back on that era of music videos, the music industry has changed so much since then with streaming and how the budgets were bigger for music videos. But I think now music videos are so much more important and relevant than they have ever been. You know, when I first started directing music videos, YouTube was really in its infancy for music videos. Vevo wasn't a thing, viral content was just getting on record labels’ radar. So I kind of slipped into the industry when it was in a lull, like YouTube wasn't this giant thing where music videos lived yet and here comes this little kid and I just had a DSLR and got into the DIY punk thing. Then as that rose back up and labels started to put in more money for music videos, I kind of rose with that as the internet gave a rebirth to the music video in some ways. 

I mean, certainly there was always the major label people that were getting good budgets even during this slump when streaming stuff started to come out. But for me, in punk and hardcore, I was able to slide in there and just -- there is such a big disconnect between watching Making The Video and then my early music videos because it's like a kid shooting in his bedroom some close up that is on a shitty $600 DSLR [camera]. I think even now, the biggest budget things I do now, I still always have that DIY, do it yourself, punk mentality. At the end of the day, even if I have like a 60-person crew, 40-person crew, 20-person, 10-person crew, I'm steering the ship and no one's going to care more about this video than me. And I just still try to take that kind of DIY spirit into everything that I do, even today.

Is there anything else you want to tell the people reading this?

I have a lot of kids DM me or email me asking like, “Hey, what lens should I get? Or what cameras do you shoot on? Or how do I get into directing?” And I think to kind of mass answer that or to give some encouragement -- I always say this but I think it's important -- I think it's so easy to get caught up in the comparison game of what camera somebody has starting out or where you live. I don't live in Los Angeles, you know. I live in a random ass city in the Midwest. And if you can just get away from all the bullshit and just focus on making really creative, cool ideas, then you're going to be somewhat successful over the people who just freaked out about the new stabilizer or piece of gear. 

There's a time and place for that, you certainly have to be good at the craft. But beyond that, it's all about being creative and sticking to being DIY. If you want to direct music videos, there's no reason why you can't. Especially [since] everybody's an artist or some SoundCloud rapper these days. So everybody has someone that they probably know, at least by like a few degrees that is making music. And like, my phone shoots 4k [laughs] so there's no reason not to be able to make something if you want to do it. So just get away from all the bullshit and all the distractions and really just focus on creating cool ideas that are unique and push the boundaries.

That's really great advice. 

For sure. And I think it's, you know, people always hit me up because they want an easy-to-click answer. But the fact of the matter is everybody's path is going to look different. And if you just want it enough and you have that drive, you're going to figure it out. I think that's just with anything in life, for the most part. So the last thing I want is to come off like, “[If] you do this, you will be like me and have this.” I just work hard and I try to work with artists that I like and that's basically it.

[fangzeronos]

SDCC 2018 wrap up

Ok now that SDCC is over, I feel like I should do a little wrap up for the weekend. I got to sit and wait for all the trailers and news to come out since I couldn’t afford to go, so this is gonna be strictly from the “Nerd on the Couch” perspective. I’m putting a read more in case anyone wanna skip this.

 Titans: The trailer was alright. Robin’s in a bad place because of Batman so his “Fuck Batman” line is justified. Starfire and Beast Boy could still use some work, but it was only the first trailer, so we’ll have to reserve judgement until the show comes out. I’m looking forward to it anyway.

 Young Justice Outsiders: It’s actually real. I thought for the last two years we’ve all been thinking it’s not coming and that we’ve all been living in a dream about wanting it back. I was in the middle of the store when I saw the trailer and my heart stopped. Two minutes of Season 2 recap, including Wally’s ‘death’ (HE ISN’T DEAD ALRIGHT!? HE’S JUST IN THE SPEED FORCE AND NOBODY CAN CONVINCE ME OTHERWISE DAMMIT!!!) before we get the new footage. The new characters look amazing, Geoforce looks like he’s going to be a good character, hopefully we’ll get Terra since she’s “been missing for two years”. Still waiting to see M’gann, Kaldur, Beast Boy, and the rest of the season 2 cast, but I’m excited for this one more then Titans.

 And since both shows above are going to be on the DC Universe Online service, I can see paying $75 a year for it if we’re going to get more Young Justice. With all the shows coming out on DCUO, like Harley Quinn, Stargirl, Swamp Thing, Doom Patrol, and all of the older shows like Batman The Animated Series, Wonder Woman, the older DC movies and the comics, I can justify paying that much for a yearlong subscription.

 Supergirl: Season 4 looks like it’s going to be interesting. Agent Liberty seems like a decent antagonist, but with the way this show has done in the past, hyping a villain for the first half and then swapping it with a generic bad guy for the second, I don’t have much hope. It looks like they’re toning down the relationship drama from season 2 and 3, which is good. I’m honestly thinking they’re going to screw Lena’s character development and have her go evil Luthor judging by how season 3 ended with her “We can begin phase two” line and having the Harun-El made up that she gave to Alura. A few quick shots of Alex as Director of the DEO sporting a new haircut, nothing too revealing except for the Supergirl spacesuit at the end. I saw it and my mind went to the first Injustice 2 game trailer from 2016 with the armored look. I’m looking forward to the new season, not keen on it being on Sundays before the Charmed reboot but have to get the viewers for a remake somehow.

 Arrow: Oliver Queen in prison. That’s a hell of a concept for the season. We know something’s going to change and he’s going to be out by the fourth or fifth episode, possibly earlier. Decent shots of the other characters, Dinah wearing SCPD riot gear was a nice touch, Laurel-2 denouncing vigilantism makes for an interesting idea considering what the hell she’s done in the last seasons. Diaz is fine, not enjoying having him around again but since he didn’t get killed at the end of the last season, it’s fine. Longbow Hunters might make for interesting fodder, but we can’t be sure until the show starts. I’m sick of Felicity, but that arguments been done to death. We all know it was Roy in the Green Arrow suit in the end of the trailer. If it had been Diggle, we’d have seen his face and since we know Roy’s back, it doesn’t really give us many options to choose from. I’m glad it’s on Mondays now so I can watch it and keep up instead of being behind.

 Legends of Tomorrow: It looks great. This one has become one of my favorites on the network and I’m glad to see they’re getting more episodes. Hopefully this season doesn’t get shafted and end up getting thrown to a different night or time or cut in the middle for a different show. Bringing Constantine back for a regular spot is a good move considering what they’re going to be dealing with thanks to the fallout from killing Mallus. Dragons, demons, all sorts of magical and mythical creatures. “Couldn’t we be heroes just a little longer?” made me laugh and it’s that sort of thing that makes Legends stand out to me. It can be dark and gritty but still lighthearted and fun. It’s what Flash started to be and it’s what Arrow needs to be. I’m glad it’s going to be on Mondays along with Arrow.

 Flash: Coming off of the reveal that Mystery Girl is actually Barry and Iris’ daughter (which I’d had a feeling about anyway since she was so giddy at the wedding in the Crisis crossover), Nora seems to be a fun addition to the cast this year. I’m honestly looking forward to seeing what she messed up, why she came back, and why didn’t she learn from Barry’s mistakes about screwing with the Timeline. Cicada looks to be interesting, and I hope he’s going to be the main villain for the year. I want to know more about how Caitlin was Frost before the Accelerator and Flashpoint happened, or is it a side effect of Flashpoint two years later? Guess we’ll find out in October.

 Aquaman: The trailer looked amazing. This might just be part of what the DCEU needs to get its shit together and stop being so grimdark. Wonder Woman proved DC movies can do fun and lighthearted and still hit some dark themes and notes, and this looks like it’s going to do the same thing. Jason Mamoa looks as badass as he did in Justice League, Amber Heard is beautiful as Mera. Atlantis looked amazing. I’m thoroughly excited and December can’t come quick enough to see this.

 Shazam!: One of my favorite DC heroes, man. Zachary Levi just killed it in this trailer and I was laughing the whole way through. If the movie keeps that same energy up, I’ll be damn happy. March release for this one and I’m ready to go!

 Godzilla: King of the Monsters: It’s frigging Godzilla, fighting his own list of bad guys. Mothra, Rodan, King Ghidorah, all classics that should have been in the first one instead of the MUTO. I’ve always been a Godzilla nerd, so when I saw this trailer I was geeking the fuck out. I’m definitely excited for this one.

 Now, you’re probably wondering, “Hey, where’s Voltron in all of this?” and you’d be right that I haven’t talked about it yet. I have spent three days milling over the reveals from the Voltron panel and been trying the right ways to word things, so I don’t seem like I’m being an asshole and damning myself with what I’m going to say. Now, with that out of the way.

 The season 7 trailer looked good. We’re going back to Earth, so who knows how much time really has passed since the only indication we’ve had was the week that Kuron was in the Galra fighter before Keith and Black found him back in season 3. I’m sad to see that season 8 is going to be the last of VLD, but I can understand why, since they were only approved for so many episodes. Going back to a 13-episode season is the best thing they could have done. Keith piloting Black still kind of irks me, but with Shiro only having one arm, I guess it makes sense. I would much rather have Allura in Black, put Lance back in Blue, and give Red back to Keith, but that’s a whole other post.

 The big thing people took away from the panel was “You’ll meet Shiro’s significant other, Adam.” When I saw that on Twitter, I was…. I’m not gonna lie, I was disappointed. You’ve had six seasons of moments between Shiro and Allura, the Hand Touch, the way she looked at him when he said “You found me” at the end of the season, how adamant they are about saving each other every time they’re in danger, Shiro’s resolve to get her back in Season 1 after she threw him into the shuttle and got taken by the Galra. And now it’s all thrown out of the airlock?

 No offense to the writers, Josh Keaton who gets mad credit for keeping this close to the chest and not revealing anything, the fans that are a fan of this plot point for the next season, but I’m not a fan. Don’t get me wrong, LGBT representation in animation/kids’ media has come a long way in a few short years. Look at Steven Universe. One of the main characters is a literal fusion of two she-pronoun using space rocks. I just feel like this is shoehorned in like a checkmark on an RPG character creation. “PTSD? Check. Missing limb? Check. Male POC? Check. What else can we check to make people happy? OH! Gay! DOUBLE CHECK!!” is what it feels like to me. To me, this feels like the writers have been shadow stalking Tumblr, AO3, FF.net, everywhere else Voltron is big and made their choice but what the popular ships were in the search results.

 Make Shiro gay, fine. Make him bi, that’d be a better option because then we can ship him with whoever we want and not get comments that say that shipping Shiro with Allura or any other female member of this show is gay erasure. By saying “Shiro’s gay”, you’re shooting all of the other Shiro ships in the face. Shieth shippers are over the moon, Shallura shippers are sitting in a corner, Klance shippers are looking between the two going “WTF”, and the rest of the internet’s like “Why is it a big deal?”

 I feel like I should stop there about this. This is already more then a page in my word doc.

 SDCC 2018 was fun to watch from a distance. CW brought some good trailers, DC killed it with 8 trailers, and Voltron is what it is. Now begins the countdown for SDCC 2019.

[moreinfinite]

It’s About Damn Time (Marvel/Harry Potter Crossover)

Pairing: AU Peter Parker x Reader, AU Bucky Barnes x Reader

Words: 2k

A/N: I AM BACK BABY! And I am back with a crossover fic that i have been working on for almost a year. MY BAD. I really wanted to write some Harry Potter Universe fics but insert some Marvel characters in there. I hope you all enjoy because I worked my ass off and this has to be one of my favorite fics I’ve written! So enjoy some Hufflepuff Peter Parker and a Slytherin bad boy Bucky Barnes.

I looked at myself momentarily in the mirror, there were dark circles under my eyes. I should really stop staying up so late in the restricted section. I threw on my robes and tried to decide what to do with my messy mop of curly hair, it had been raining all morning and that made my hair puff up like a poodle. I finally settled on a half bun, by the time I got my hair fiasco figured out I was already late for my potions class.

I ran down the corridor not looking where I was going and found myself on the floor, books scattered everywhere. I met pair of gray eyes as a hand pulled me up, it was Bucky Barnes resident Hogwarts badass. He was a seventh year Slytherin and oh my god was he hot.

I scrambled to gather all my books. He looked at me and smirked. “I think you’re forgetting something.” He held out my wand.

“Thanks.” Blushing I took it and continued my descent down the hallway, walking until I was 100% certain he couldn’t see me then continued on my sprint to class.

I was 10 minutes late to potions, thank god that Professor Slughorn was teaching this year and not Snape because I was able to sneak in pretty much unnoticed.

“Thanks for saving me a seat Pete,” I whispered under my breath as I slid into an empty spot.

“That’s what I’m here for aren’t I?” He gave me his signature Peter Parker smile.

“Another long night in the library?”

I nodded briefly between taking notes.

“You’re such a stereotypical Ravenclaw.” He chuckled softly to himself.

First rule when you come to Hogwarts, befriend a Hufflepuff it will be the best decision you ever make. Peter sat next to me in my Intro to Potions class first year with Professor Snape, I helped him pass the class and he helped a poor awkward Ravenclaw gain some friends other than my stack of books. That was almost six years ago and we have been inseparable ever since.

Slughorn had us partner up to begin brewing a Draught of Peace Potion, something that required near constant stirring and perfect timing when adding ingredients. Without even looking I knew Peter was already at my cauldron, we had an unspoken pact that we would be partners for any and all partner projects no matter what.

Peter began stirring as I began adding the powdered moonstone. “So why were we up so late last night hmmm? In the restricted section again I assume.”

I would’ve elbowed him if he wasn’t busy stirring, he knew me too well. “We are talking about resisting the Imperius Curse in Defense Against the Dark Arts and I was curious about the other Unforgivable Curses.”

“Of course you were.” He laughed, “Maybe you should find a hobby that won’t get you expelled.”

I rolled my eyes, “Keep stirring Parker, I can’t add the hellebore syrup until it turns pink.”

The remainder of the period flew by between the on going pun competition with Peter and trying to finish or potion without blowing the room to bits. Professor Slughorn came over to look at our finished brew.

“Outstanding! This is one of the best brewed batches of Draught of Peace I have seen in years. Looks like I’ll have to keep an eye out for the both of you.” He jotted a few things down and was on his way to observe the next pair’s potion.

I high-fived Peter, who ended up wrapping me in a playful headlock. “Hell yeah! The dream team is back at it again.” I tried to squirm my way out of it the all of a sudden we were face to face, mere inches away. We locked eyes and something felt different, something unspoken that had been there for ages was now beginning to surface.

People had left, class was over and there we stood in the middle of the potions room staring at each other. I waited for Peter to finally make a move.

He frowned and looked at the clock, “We better get going or you'll be late for you next class too.”

I followed behind him slowly hating myself for not saying anything.

Peter walked me to my next class, which was customary. We basically had the same schedule except I was in a seventh year Defence Against the Dark Arts class. I know, I know it sounds super Ravenclaw of me to be a sixth year in a seventh year course, but I couldn’t help it I was good. During my third year Professor Lupin saw I was easily surpassing everyone so he decided to bump me up a level. Dark Arts was my niche and I was perfectly content being in an advanced course.

I always made sure I was early for Defence Against the Dark Arts since Snape was teaching this term. The man was a hardass but he knew his way around a wand, something I appreciated immensely. I found my way to my seat, second row on the end per usual. Everyone began filling in seats all around me all except for one.

“Please turn to page 228.” Snape made his way to the front of the class. This week we were finally going to learn the art of resisting the Imperius Curse something that few students have achieved let alone mastered.

“Resisting the Imperius Curse is similar to Occlumency one must clear their mind and focus on the task asked of you and doing the opposite. Resisting requires a strong character and is achieved by few even with practice over time. Furthermore..”

The doors to the classroom flew open cutting Snape of in mid-lecture, Bucky Barnes leaning against the door frame.

“Sorry I’m late everyone.” He walked past some Gryffindor girls in the back winking at them as they swooned. He made his way to his seat directly behind mine nodding in my direction, I rolled my eyes before turning back around. He was as insufferable as he was hot.

“About time you showed up Barnes, this is getting rather ridiculous. 20 points from Slytherin.” Snape walked over hitting him upside the head. “Next time less gallivanting in the halls and more showing up to my class on time.”

Professor Snape returned to the lecture and I spent the whole period furiously taking notes. I felt something hit the back of my head, I looked back to see Bucky smirking, pointing down at a piece of paper on the floor.

I picked it as class was finishing, it read Meet me at the Quidditch stands tonight at 10. Bucky was gone before I could say anything.

They day went by like any other, I hadn’t made mention of the note until lunch. I saw Peter, who was sitting with our normal group of friends. Wanda Maximoff a sixth year Ravenclaw and my roommate, we were roomed together our first year and have been friends ever since. Clint Barton a sixth year Gryffindor, who has always been the jokester of the group; he has connections with the Weasley Twins and always has the best stuff. Bruce a seventh year Ravenclaw, was the wise older brother that would help with homework or studying for test or even if you just needed someone to talk to. Lastly, Steve a sixth year Hufflepuff and one of Peter’s closest friends (aside from myself) and also roommate, the three of us have spent lots of time in their room.

I squeezed in between Steve and Peter who were flinging peas at each other.

“Thank god you showed up, do you know how hard it is to contain these neanderthals?” Wanda sighed with relief.

“Hey!” Bruce looked up from his herbology homework.

“Except for you Brucie.” Wanda patted his back comfortingly.

“Well I take pride in being a neanderthal thank you very much.” Clint lined up paper football aimed right for Wanda’s head just missing.

“Of course you do Clint.” I laughed.

We ate lunch like we do everyday and talked about our day, normal lunch small talk until things became more focus on me.

“So, (Y/N) how was your day?” Bruce asked in a fatherly tone, it was like he was a 30 year old man trapped in an 17 year old.

Peter chimed in before I could answer. “Well she was late to potions this morning, she would’ve gotten detention if I hadn’t covered for her.” He laughed as he elbowed me playfully.

“I wouldn’t have been as late if I hadn’t face planted into Bucky Barnes on the way to class.” I blushed even just saying his name.

“Wait wait wait, did you just say Bucky Barnes? As in THE Bucky Barnes? Resident Slytherin hottie? Mega bad boy? THAT Bucky Barnes?” Wanda’s jaw almost to the floor in disbelief.

“Yeah that one.”

“HOLY HELL HOW DID YOU GET SO LUCKY!? I would pay him money just for him to punch me in the face or something.” Wanda stood up practically yelling.

“Well in Defense Against the Dark Arts he passed me this.” I pulled the note out of my pocket and handed it to Wanda.

She looked at me with the most serious look plastered on her face. “(Y/N), you need to go.”

“I don’t know Wand..”

She cut me off, squishing my face between her hands. “YOU NEED TO GO.”

Peter grabbed the note off the table reading before handing it to Steve. “I don’t know (Y/N), I don’t think you should go.” Peter was quieter than usual. “Like you said before, he has a reputation. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

I looked at him and smiled wrapping him up in a side hug, “Thanks for the concern Petey but I can take care of myself.”

Wanda cut Peter off before he could say anything else. “Then it’s settled, you’re going!” she clapped her hands together with a devilish smile on her face.

By the time 9 o’clock rolled around I was getting anxious, I had honestly never hung out with any boy alone besides Peter. I had no clue what the hell I was doing. Wenda tried her best to try and tame my curly mop of hair finally managing to get it to lay flat. I threw on my Ravenclaw house sweater, the one I usually wear on cold days or to Quidditch games, and a pair of light wash jeans.

I stood below the Quidditch stands taking a deep breath. You can do this. He is just a boy. Pretend you are talking to Peter. YOU CAN DO THIS.

I walked up the stairs to find Bucky leaning across the bench, arms and legs stretched out making him look taller than he already was. He looked up at me. “Hey (Y/N).”

I struggled to get words out. “H...hhey.”

He chuckled in the darkness. “Come sit down stay awhile.” He motioned to the empty space next to him. “I don’t bite, despite what everyone else says.”

I take him up on his offer and sit down next to him, nervously looking at my hands.

He moves in closer to me, is face just inches away. “So are we going to do this or what?” Bucky begins kiss my neck and tugging at my bra through my shirt.

“What are you doing?” I pull away from him in disbelief of what is going on.

“You didn’t think I asked you up here to talk did you?” He scoffs before returning his hand to my chest.

“Bucky, please stop.” I try to pull away but his grip around me tightens.

“Don’t be a prude (Y/N).” His mouth returns to my neck.

I slowly pull my wand from my back pocket. “Flipendo.”

Bucky goes flying across the stands, his hand flipped up to his nose that had started  bleeding.

“You’re going to regret that, you fucking bitch.” He gets up and runs back to the castle.

I hadn’t slept all night that night. I  just sat on the roof of the Ravenclaw tower, a place where most other Ravenclaws go to be alone. The sun was rising as a heard footsteps approaching me. I didn’t even have to look up to know who it was.

The figure sat beside me. “Did you come to say I told you so?”

I looked over, Peter looked genuinely upset. “You know I would never do that (Y/N).” He smiled as we wrapped his arm around my shoulders. “Wanda came and got me this morning she was worried about you. You never came home last night, she had no idea where you were.” He paused. “I knew this was the first place you would go.” I smiled back at him before my head found the crook of his neck

We talked for hours, mostly details about last night.

“I knew it was too good to be true. No guy would really want this.” I sigh.

“Bucky is an ass. Anyone would be lucky to have you, you are worth so much more than that (Y/N).” Peter looked at me intently.

I tried shrugging it off. “You’re just saying that because you’re my best friend and I’m sad”

“No, I mean it.” He takes a long pause.

“Remember first year potions?”

“Of course I do Pete. You were absolutely terrible.”

He looked down and smirked before looking back up at me. “Well I lied. I’m actually really good at potions. You’re actually the one that sucks, but I wanted an excuse to talk to you.”

“Why would you go and do that?” I tried to hide my face to avoid Peter seeing me blush.

“Because you were the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my entire life,” his hand pulls my face up to look at him “and you still are.”

Peter leaned in, my heart felt like it was about to bet right out of my chest. He smiled softly, our lips met and he gently pulled me closer, then ran his thumb down my cheek affectionately.

He pulled back slowly to gauge my response.

My eyes fluttered open and I smiled up at him. “Well it’s about damn time Parker.”

He laughed and pulled me into his chest. “I have been waiting 6 years to do that.”

My head found his shoulder, “It was definitely worth that wait.”

@avengedwritings @ravenclawravings @ravenclawcommonspm @mangosoldier@bionic-buckyb @welcometotheravenclawcommonroom @volklana @writingruna @fvckingavengers @cumonbucky

[kurara-black-blog]

All of the numbers from 1 to 15 pls

Well then! I already answered 1 and 15, so here’s the other 13!

2. While writing angst, what three songs would you listen to to give it that ultimate angsty feel? 

Oh, boy, this (and the next one) is a hard question to answer! My writing is extremely connected to the music I listen to, which means every fanfiction has a specific “soundtrack” that gave me a specific feeling/mood. But, if I really have to pick three…

Stay With Me, Sam Smith, cover by Post Modern Jukebox (specially when related to romantic stories).

Trisha’s Lullaby, FullMetal Alchemist Brotherhood Soundtrack.

Music Box 9/Good Bye Defect Mogeko, Mogeko Castle OST.

3. While writing fluff, what three songs would you listen to to give it that ultimate fluffy feel? 

Can’t Sleep Love, Pentatonix.

Wooden Heart, Elvis Presley.

Eduardo e Mônica, Legião Urbana.

Somehow, they’re all love songs…

4. Are you a writes-too-much-description type of fanfic writer, or the writes-too-much-dialogue fanfic writer?

Too-Much-Description. I get paranoid with dialogue, never know when the characters are talking too much or too little.

5. What is your specialty as a fanfic writer? 

I have no idea, but I would guess drama? I don’t know, what do you think? I mean, I pride myself on being quite good with characterization, if it’s that you’re talking about.

6. What was the best work (completed or not) that you’ve written so far, in your own opinion? 

Right now? Well… Most people would probably think it’s 29% of Realities, but it’s actually the two Lance/Lotor fics I wrote for Laugst, Taste and Needed. Why? Well, they are heavily packed with meanings and feelings and I put so much thought on each paragraph (not that I don’t do that on my other fics, but those two were… a bit… of a delicate situation). I could go on and on, I could actually make a whole post analyzing the fics if you want. I love them. 

(I’m also very proud of my Zelda fic, Kingdom of Mandacaru, even though no one read it and I put it in hiatus.)

7. What fandom is the best you associate with? 

Voltron. Rigth now, at least. Because of Lance, mostly. And, hey, space. I can’t resist space.

8. If you were to write a crossover between any fandoms, what would they be and why? Give us a snippet of the two worlds colliding. 

You can’t ask me that and expect me to be able to aswer promptly! Okay, let me think… Ib, my favorite game ever, with Voltron. I would love to see it. I would love to write it sometime.

Ib is a beautiful game that inspires me to this day. It’s a horror RPGMaker game and it’s brillant. I think it would be amazing to see team Voltron inside Ib’s universe.

Pidge didn’t rememeber what she was doing. All she could remember was Coran telling them to not touch anything. Obeying, she stood there, quietly staring at the painting of a sleeping boy with dark skin and brown hair. The plate just bellow it read “The Seventh Rose”.

“Pidge!” She heard Hunk call. “Let’s go!”

“Coming!” Pidge yelled back, giving the painting on last look before running after her team.

On the way she wondered why se felt like she knew the boy in the painting.

(Not gonna lie, also would love a Golion/Voltron crossover)

9. Of which of your works would you make into a movie? Why?

The Kingdom of Mandacaru! I expand the whole Zelda universe and fill a bunch of plot holes (or will once I go back to it) and I think it would either be a great movie or a great game!

10. Do you make outlines for your works, even your one shots?

More or less? Usually I plan things out only for longer than 5 chapters fics. Oneshots and shortfics, well, I usually have an idea of what I want and what I should do, but I never really do an outline. I just write.

11. Have you made playlists for any of your characters?

No, but I’ve made a playlists for whole fics.

12. What was the motivation behind 29% of Realities Series?

My pure and neverending love for:

Lance

Anyone who knows my blog knows that I love Lance more than a lot of things in this life. I relate to his character way too much and I thank God they made Lance everytime I think about him. So, of fucking course, I want everybody from his universe to feel the same.

Just so you know, not all the love Lance is gonna get in my works is romantic, some are platonic and familiar. Like, for example, Coran will forever love Lance as a son and so will Haggar/Honerva soon enough.

Angst

That goes without saying, yeah? Well, if there’s something I like is emotions, they’re all fascinating to me and I love analyzing, understanding and making my readers feel writing about them.

Just so you know, the most fascinationg emotions for me are: Fear, sadness, hope, happiness, hate and love. Expect them in any of my works.

Romantic fluff

I am a hopeless romantic, and you can take the fluff out of my cold dead hands. Even if I haven’t written much of it lately. Soon.

The Paralel/Multiple Universes theory

I love that theory, I believe in it, and everything I write will have something to do with it, even if it’s just in the first vague idea of a fic.

The Butterfly Effect Theory

Same as the above. Also, I live my life accordingly to this theory.

The Possibilities both theories bring.

I am all about possibilities, I could write all the possible variants of the same fucking story. Again and again and again and again. Chapter after chapter after chapter. It’ll happen, eventually.

13. On any fanfiction readable site, which story/one shot/mini-series was your absolute favorite?

Hard to choose, but I really like With Flying Colors.

14. Who are you ultimate favorite inspiration fanfic Tumblr writers?

Weeeeeeeeell….. @inthisformiambadwolf, they’re amazing and I love their stories, so if you’re into Doctor Who and reader inserts…