#put that thing back in the chuck e cheese you found it in

[wolf-tail]

Yeah yeah, lazy mascot horror based on a "ooh kids thing scary" concept is really turning indie horror games to sludge, but the original concept can work if done with some care and effort.

To make mascot horror work, you need a couple things, nostalgia and a pre-existing fear.

The nostalgia part scares you by taking something, usually from your childhood, that you associate with saftey and comfort, then making it at least feel dangerous to you. This feeling, of something safe being taken away, upsets certain survival instincts and puts you in aplace of deep fear. Not mascot horror, but Coraline does this with the idea of your own parents, or at least imitations of them, no longer being safe, which is why we were so scared of it.

The second part, pre-exisying fear, especially from childhood, takes something that might be irrational at first, and validates it, at least in the context of the game. Always been scared of clowns? Well now Chuckles McFuck is gonna get you! (IT).

Put these concepts together and you got yourself some decent mascot horror.

FNAF worked, at least initially, because it played on these 2 emotions. Pizzeria arcades are places lots of people find nostalgic and comforting, but those animatronic mascots were always creepy. My mom grew up in the 90s and said that some kids couldn't even walk into a Chuck E Cheese's without crying.

Another example of millennial horror is Tattletail, where you literally play as a child in your family home during Christmastime, but your parents are nowhere to be found and you're being tormented by characters based on Furbies and Teddy Ruxpin, two toys that had 90s kids pissing themselves.

Amanda the Adventurer works because she's an expy of Dora the Explorer (she was a cartoon staple back in the day, but the way she talked directly to you was kinda creepy, huh?)

Garten of Banban had a bit of nostalgia potential (kindergarten and daycare) but squandered it by bad, lazy, money-hungry execution.

Hello Neighbor was just Youtuber bait when it tried to be horror.

Steamboat Willie could work as a horror concept, but someone already sorta did that, and did it better (Bendy and the Ink Machine)

[robinette-green]

Robin's Inside the Pizza Plex DCA Romance Fics

These are fics I've started that take place inside Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizza Plex. The call is coming from inside the plex!

A Door You're Unable to Close:

(tag)

My best friend talked me into coming with her as moral support to her little brother's birthday party. I hadn't wanted to go to that stupid birthday party to begin with and now I'm trapped in a video game, a horror video game that might kill me. I thought at the time that it was ironic that a kid named Greg had gone missing in a Chuck-e-Cheese of all places but this is taking things much too far.

Invisible:

There's nothing like working for a corporation in a capitalist society to remind you that you are nothing but furniture and need not be perceived unless needed. Even the animatronics in this place are treated more human than I am. At least I'm on the same level as the staff bots… that's a plus? Though usually, people prefer to speak with a staff bot over me, so I suppose 'even' is the lie I tell myself. I've worked for Fazbear Entertainment at their pizza plex for about a year. I do a little bit of everything. Cleaning, repair, sales… even security sometimes. Most of the human workers have been replaced with robots to cut down on employee costs. Sometimes I think I'm the last human working here, but then I remember Vanessa still works here too. Sometimes I wonder if they just forgot to fire me or tell me I was fired, but I'm still getting paychecks, so… yeah. The time clock beeped an acknowledgment as I punched in my employee number. "Attention! Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex is closed! Have a pleasant evening!" Sighing, I adjusted my bag on my shoulder and took a long swig of my coffee.

The Star Dome (LateNight DayDreams):

An OC named Fey is a new animatronic that has been added to the plex.

Another Daycare Story:

This is another of your reader x Sun/ Moon Pizza Plex daycare stories. We start with a 20-something individual getting a job in the daycare and having to overcome a fear of animatronics. There will be some angst with Moon. Then the romance will begin. Eventually, we'll hit the events of the game and go through all that fun, but until then, this will be mostly random fluff and angst shenanigans in the loose shape of a story as our main characters fall in love.

Little Assistant:

MC is the assistant to the CEO of Fazbear Entertainment. As Vanessa kidnaps and kills children while attempting to bring Springtrap back to life, MC is forced to clean up the mess and cover up the disappearances. MC is also tasked with keeping an eye on the Daycare attendants, keeping them in line as they are forced to help kidnapping children. “Did you do it? How do we know if it worked?” “We’ll have to test out some command code on him. Everything uploaded without issue, but they do have minds of their own. He may put up a fight.” I wasn’t paying attention to the conversation, wanting as little to do with this as I could get away with. They had already forced me to help with so much, cleaning up all that mess, all that red, covering up the disappearance. Shuddering, I looked through the glass into the daycare beyond. Deep in the dark, I could see two red eyes glaring out at us, furious. I couldn’t blame him. The virus they had activated in the night mode daycare attendant was going to be used for something horrific.

Lost Time:

The reader, already in an established relationship with Sun and Moon, dies and wakes 5 years later in the body of an animatronic. The pizza plex was rebuilt after the collapse and fire. Due to some miracle, all of the animatronics had survived the disaster and were now back to work, entertaining the general public as though nothing had happened. After everything fell apart, children stopped disappearing, but the missing children were never found. Business was booming, and everything seemed to be better than ever. With the massive influx of money, Fazbear Entertainment decided to invest in a new animatronic, a drummer for the band, to add to the rock and roll feel of the Glam Rocks. But in the way of all things with Fazbear Entertainment, the acquisition of this animatronic was very confidential. Several none disclosure agreements were signed, and the whole thing was very shady. None of this mattered to me, of course. I was more worried about my new role in life. Well, it was life in a sense. I had finally woken up after 5 years to find myself strapped to a chair in parts and services, having been turned into an animatronic.

Lost in the Dark:

Working third shift for security wasn’t so bad. I spent the first few hours patrolling the halls of the upper floors, that being what I had been assigned. Then I would spend the rest of the night at the security desk in the daycare, cameras pulled up on the computer screens and keeping an eye on the ‘crazy’ animatronics that inhabited that colourful playground. 6 months of working night shift in the daycare, and I am unfortunate enough to have developed feelings for two clueless robots.

Bad Day:

I stopped with my hand on the door. I had come all this way on my day off and now I wasn't brave enough to push the doors open. Today had been a hard one. A nightmare the night before and some rough conversations had made my insides feel all squishy and tender. All I really wanted to do was lay on the floor and cry but something had brought me here, to the daycare.

Taking Time:

They needed a robotics expert and I needed a job. I had been between jobs. I had actually just been let go from my last job and was frantically looking for a new one when I had received an email from Faz Bear entertainment. They were looking for a robotics expert to run their parts and services lab. The pay was phenomenal but I would be the only one working in the lab and would be expected to keep the staff bots, animatronics, arcade games and all the automated systems in working order. I didn’t even hesitate a moment before I sent them a reply and agreed to an interview for the following day. Great pay and an entire lab to myself? Yes please.

Why is it Spicy?:

okay so... this is an AU of my Unpleasant Nightmare fic. I started this as a joke for myself but now we're here. The general idea is the same. Stuck in Security Breach and need to find a way out but Sun and Moon are extra flirty and handsy.

Out of Place:

Fosters and Green is an up and coming robotics company and is the talk of every news station in the world. They haven’t even released their first line of robots yet but people are already clambering to get their hands on a robot made from Foster and Green. They plan on releasing a few household bots that will work as cleaning staff or secretaries but they also plan on releasing a line of child care bots. Why hire a nanny when you can have a live-in one you don’t need to pay. My designated number is D-375, I have been dubbed Kate by the technicians who ran all of my quality assurance checks. My dreams of working with a family of my own were quickly dashed. Foster and Green decided that they wanted to place a bot somewhere in the public eye where people could watch it at work and so had partnered with another company who also made robots, though they specialized more in animatronics that were designed for entertainment. The two companies decided to put one Foster and Green’s N-90 models in the daycare center of Fazbear Entertainment’s PizzaPlex to work alongside the child care units that Fazbear Entertainment had created.

Taking Over:

They needed a robotics expert and I needed a job. I had been between jobs. I had actually just been let go from my last job and was frantically looking for a new one when I had received an email from Faz Bear entertainment. They were looking for a robotics expert to run their parts and services lab. The pay was phenomenal but I would be the only one working in the lab and would be expected to keep the staff bots, animatronics, arcade games and all the automated systems in working order. I didn’t even hesitate a moment before I sent them a reply and agreed to an interview for the following day. Great pay and an entire lab to myself? Yes please. I was hired on the spot. This wasn't surprising seeing as I had worked in robotics for most of my life and had some hands-on experience with these kinds of animatronics. The AI units that Faz Bear uses would be new to me but I was sure I could figure out the new tech quickly enough.

Unpleasant Nightmare:

My best friend talked me into coming with her as moral support to her little brother's birthday party. I hadn't wanted to go to that stupid birthday party to begin with and now I'm trapped in a computer game, a horror computer game that might kill me. I thought at the time that it was ironic that a kid named Greg had gone missing in a Chuck-e-Cheese of all places but this is taking things much too far.

Some of these won't be finished and some are OLD writing of mine. you have been warned. Please don't let that stop you from reading these and enjoying them <3

[fauxfickle]

I've been thinking a bit about animatronicswarehouse, Aaron Fetcher, and the ethics of putting rare or lost media behind a paywall. Last month, animatronicwarehouse launched a subscription service in which for $30 a month you can receive rare prints of CEI characters and shows. This is quite similar to Aaron Fetcher's premium video service where for $65 you have access to private videos of Aaron's current projects, old CEI show footage, stories, or just general updates. Aaron's service is pretty notorious for being needlessly complex for subscribers and easy for "thieves" to just screen record.

What really gets me though is the wealth of lost/rare footage sitting there collecting dust. Many of the digitized films from CEI's earliest shows sit behind a paywall. I wouldn't be as frustrated if premium subscribers received videos a month or two earlier than people watching the main channel to make both parties happy, however it seems that many won't be released for quite some time, will only have very short samples posted to lure more people to the premium service, or worst case, not seen at all.

Back to animatronicwarehouse. I'm concerned that this new service will become very similar to Aaron's service, albeit much less bloated. AW already knows Aaron, I mean, they did a good amount of work together to create one of, if not THE best RAE shows. They seem close and I'm worried that he'll start taking cues from Aaron. Yesterday he announced that he's selling posters of rare, high quality images of CEI shows that are presented as a must-have collector's item. Now, I don't really have a problem with this. My and other people's complaints start with the price. Most posters cost $120 with the most expensive costing $195 for a poster of the RAE that looks extremely similar to one that can easily be found on showbizpizza.com. You can also buy a $150 picture of the Hard Luck Bears that can be found online as well.

AW's Poster vs Photo posted by Hourly Rock a-fire Explosion (@HourlyRock) on twitter

As an advocate for archiving all forms of media for future generations, I cringe a little every time I see a rare photo with a huge watermark and blur on it or footage cut off and interrupted with a plug for a subscription service. It feels exploitive to make profit off the rarity of something, especially in a fandom where most people weren't alive when these early animatronics were up and running and can only recapture that magic through photos and video. Part of the reason animatronics are still popular is because new generations can look back at them or find current operating ones. I've seen people in YouTube comment sections from countries that never had Showbiz Pizzas or Chuck E. Cheese and yet they can enjoy it because videos and photos allow them to interact and enjoy these things. If we put the past behind a paywall, what will we have to discuss in the future?

[nonbinarycharmybee]

okay putting my rambling thoughts below the cut, major spoilers, you have been warned

I saw the film with someone who hadn't seen the previous 2 and every time there was a stobotnik scene I could hear an "aww" or "is this allowed? Is this allowed?? 😳"

Also during the chao garden scene one of my coworkers opened the door and shouted "WOW BEN SCHWARTZ IS SO ANNOYING" to which my other coworker (self-avowed ben schwartz fan, immediately clocked the pre-movie video as being filmed in brazil recently) yelled back "SHUT THE FUCK UP!"

Speaking of the chao garden. Tails. Baby. He's so baby omg. "It's okay guys I know somewhere we can go" *drags his big brothers to chuck e cheese* ":]"

"Break glass in case of emergency!" Knuckles I love you OTL

When the first notes of live and learn started playing: no. they can't. they COULDN'T be.

Me during that entire sequence, from the lyrics(!!!!) to the Pose (!!!!!!!!)

Shadow's backstory is slightly different, yes, but I don't mind most of it? I mean, I knew it wasn't going to be 1:1 from the games, and "they found an alien hedgehog inside a mysterious meteorite" does make more sense here than "they decided to create an anthropomorphic hedgehog that just happened to look like sonic"

Alyla browne absolutely killed it but I'm not sure what to think about Maria not being sick anymore. Still, the roller skates, the guitar covered in stickers, the record player. She is everything.

The one major criticism I have with this movie is the changes to Maria's death. An explosion? Really? REALLY? what the fuck dude. This is such a major disappointment it's not even funny

Also. We kept playing interview clips at work so I repeatedly heard that Keanu "leans into the bill and Ted thing while playing shadow". I have not seen bill and Ted but I know it's about time-travel(?) so I assumed it would be like. Shadow says 70s slang bc why not. Anyways he didn't and I was very disappointed 😔

That one shot of sonic and shadow on the moon is gonna feed sonadow shippers for weeks I can't wait for the fanart

Metal sonic looks sooooo good holy shit. Literally straight out of the game. Also MY GIRL!! who was it that said rob o' the hedge should be in one of the movies cuz that was my first thought when I saw her cloak. I need hd recordings yesterday.

In conclusion: 4/5 stars, I fucking love sonic the hedgehog

[diamondzoey]

Mafia!Calamity: Come on Jemma, do it for our friendship. You can't put a price on that...

Mafia!Jemma: Yes I can, dear. Fifty dollars.

—————-—————-—————-—————-———

Victor : It's called cauliflower, not ghost broccoli.

Timmy , eyes wide: I know what I saw.

—————-—————-—————-—————-———

Duarte : You didn’t cry when bambi’s mother died?!

Vincent , sarcastically: Yes, it was very sad when the guy stopped drawing the deer.

—————-—————-—————-—————-———

Azren: I want to be with you for the rest of my life.

Jemma: Damn, that sounds like a marriage proposal.

Azren, getting down on one knee: That's 'cause it is.

—————-—————-—————-—————-———

Emerald: What’s your favorite color?

Durate : Stop asking stupid questions. Ask me something logical and mature.

Emerald: How many moles of sodium bicarbonate are needed to neutralize 0.8ml of sulfuric acid at STP?

Durate : My favorite color is (favorite color)

—————-—————-—————-—————-———

Amber: All right, Adriana , that’s it, you’re grounded! I found a rap album hiding under your bed and it was the clean version. I didn’t raise you to be such a nerd!

Adriana : I’m not even your kid-

—————-—————-—————-—————-———

Keres : I am the sand guardian, guardian of the sand!

Calix: Jemma quivers before them!

Keres : Fuck off!

—————-—————-—————-—————-———

Modern!Easton, on the phone: Where are you?

Modern!Atticus: I told you, I’m at work

Modern!Easton: Swear you’re not at Chuck E Cheese again?

*skee ball machine alarm goes off in the background*

—————-—————-—————-—————-———

Bloodmoon!Chester: It's not like I try to blow things up, exactly. It just sort of happens. You've got to admit though, fire is fascinating.

—————-—————-—————-—————-———

Vincent : Here’s the cold medicine you asked for.

Vincent : *dumps 3 shopping bags of wine on the table*

Adriana : ...Thanks.

—————-—————-—————-—————-———

Vincent : I need some help with my homework, Victor .

Victor : What’s the assignment?

Vincent : I’m supposed to write a paper that presents both sides of an issue and then defends one of the arguments.

Victor : What’s your issue?

Vincent : That’s the problem. I can’t think of anything to argue.

Victor : That’s hard to believe.

Vincent : I’m always right and everybody else is always wrong! What’s to argue about?!

—————-—————-—————-—————-———

Jemma : I'm cold.

Azren: Here, take my hoodie.

*meanwhile*

Lamia: I'm cold.

Calamity: I can't control the weather, Lamia.

—————-—————-—————-—————-———

Adriana : There are three ways to handle a difficult situation. The right way, the wrong way, and the Durate way.

Nash: Isn't that the wrong way?

Adriana : Yes, but it's faster.

—————-—————-—————-—————-———

Korey: Keres is late again.

Jemma: How did this happen? I called them at 8 o’clock this morning and pretended it was 11.

Sammy: I printed up a fake schedule for them saying we were starting at 9 instead of noon.

Duarte : I set their clock to say PM when it’s really AM.

Korey: Oh boy. We may have overdone it.

*Keres bursts through the door*

Keres: WHAT TIME IS IT?

—————-—————-—————-—————-———

*Modern!Sammy is ordering a cake over the phone*

Shop Employee: …and what would you like your cake to say?

Sammy, covering the phone to look at The Squad: Do we want a talking cake?

—————-—————-—————-—————-———

*When calamity gets a phone*

Calamity, looking at a dead phone: How do we bring this thing back to life? Magic? Live sacrifice? I know a guy in town-

—————-—————-—————-———

Bugs in this

Azren/Calamity- @strayharmony943

Victor/Vincent- @littlesiren79

Emerald- @aspenm00n

Chester- @not-5-rats

Keres- @gatorboys22

Atticus- @atonalasmr

Nash- @lightdragon789

Adriana- @idontevenknow7878

Amber- @astralbulldragon13

Easton- @itsargyle

Korey- @rozeliyawashereyall

Jemma/Lamia- @diamondzoey (me)

Calix- @pinkcocopuff-aqualoid

Durate- @puffin-smoke

Sammy- @ccstiles

[glamrockraybot]

No one has particularly asked but in my redesigns for the animatronics I tried to make them as similar as I could to real life chuck e cheese animatronics, while being able to keep the story as is.

My original sketches had notes that were removed so I could put animatronics on one page, but I'll share some here;

Freddy, being the first one I designed, had the concept of the endoskeleton (or rather "mech" as I will call it now) on his page.

In this regard the fnaf one and two animatronics are actually very nearly accurate. The head is actually a bit bigger usually in real life, presumably to give the audience an easier time seeing their facial expressions. A hitch is that the mechs don't actually have teeth. I mean, like, why would they? The fnaf animatronics don't even need them they are just for extra spooky factor, I guess.

Also, animatronics like the older chuck e cheese ones are air pressured, not electric. This is less common today but was most likely a budget thing along with it possibly being easier to work with?

Since I couldn't think of a way they'd be able to move in such complex ways with just air pressure, I decided that I can allow the fact that Henry and Afton most likely found a way to combine the two in a way that would make it cheaper and easier while allowing them to make more complex shows.

The face is extremely simple, and even with the fnaf animatronics having more expression with their eyebrows and a second pair of eyelids for the bottom of their eyes, I think this is something air pressure could handle. The teeth were replaced with the standard jaw movement piece, which would be hidden by a mouth plate in the back of the mouth (no extra teeth required).

Realistically, these would have to be charged often. My solution would be that they can be charged while stationary on thr stage, whether that's from plugging them in (something a tech would have to do in-between shows), or if the stage floor has some wireless charging built into it, though that's probably pushing it for the 80s.

The arms and legs are complex, seeing as they are shown doing rather simple things for their performances but able to move them in many more different directions. And their legs. Need I mention more about that? Real animatronics usually cannot move their legs. There are some minor exceptions, such as rock-afire's Beach bear being able to tap his foot, but no, they cannot walk around. In fact most do not have mechs below the hips (which for fnaf animatronics are also quite small. How are you holding up your upper body?). This is where the electricity comes in.

The battery would have to be large, so hiding it in the feet would be best to give them a solid standing position.

They would also have a voice box for off-stage use only, as on stage they would have their tapes play on the speakers. These voice boxes would play the same tapes, with the singing come from the box instead of the stage. These wouldn't be removed when they were confined to the stage, but I imagine the battery packs in their feet would be to prevent wandering. It's curious how they still manage to do so at night....

And for the outer part, it's standard for animatronics. The fur covers every part of the body not clothed, aside from the face. The face is made out of extremely malleable latex or similar material, and the nose is rubber. The nose for freddy is subject to change to a softer material that would allow you to gently honk his nose.

As for the wood interior, I saw that once for a chuck e cheese animatronic, and figured it would be best to use to help the animatronics keep their shapes. The velcro attaching the head pieces is for easy removal for maintenance.

I have more notes for character specific alterations to the mech. Those are mostly just the funtimes, with mangle as an exception as I changed them a LOT. If you're interested...let me know 👀

[theoddcatlady]

Mr. O'Brien's Party Place

I just wanted to start saving money for college. I didn’t sign on to deal with the rest of this bullshit.

I applied for practically everything in my area, but the thing is, so did all the other kids that graduated from my class. And luck of the draw, I didn’t get hired at McDonald’s, KFC or Panda Express. 

I got hired at fucking Mr. O’Brien’s Party Place.

It was like a circus and Chuck E Cheese had a drunk one night stand and whoever carried the kid did cocaine laced with glitter. This place was awful, and I was stuck being the janitor. At least I didn’t have to wear one of the eyeball searingly bright spandex costumes the waiters and other performers wore, which I have a feeling chafed like a motherfucker… but I did have to be the one to mop the pee and blood out of the ball pit. Seriously, don’t let your kids play in those, they might get HIV.

But unlike most of my other friends, I didn’t get paid minimum wage, I got paid pretty damn well. So I shut up, smiled, and let myself be pointed to the nearest pile of vomit because Billy ate his pizza too fast. I say pizza in the loosest sense of the word, but you get my point.

I figured out quickly I was the odd man out when I walked into the break room and not one person acknowledged my presence as I ate my packed lunch. I was okay with that, I mean I was the janitor. I didn’t know anyone else there, none of my friends were hired, and I hadn’t met anyone here before. I wasn’t part of the clique.

Then one day I got a damn migraine and Bunny came to my rescue.

Bunny was just what I heard people call her, she wore these pink floppy bunny ears and had her face painted with a nose and whiskers. She wore this oversized magenta onesie and always sung the birthday song for the birthday girl or boy. That’s really all I knew about her before the migraine.

I get migraines pretty frequently. And this was a bad one. I knew it was coming on by the time I clocked in, but I didn’t exactly have someone else to call in for me. I just hoped it wouldn’t be a bad one.

Yeah, it got to be a bad one after an hour of squawking children and flashing lights from the stage.

I felt like I was about to faint when Bunny popped out in front of me. “Robin? You look pale. Do you need to sit down?”

I opened my mouth to say ‘yes, I really do’ but all that came out was this pathetic gurgle. Without another word, Bunny lifted me up, put me over her shoulder and carried me off like I didn’t weigh any more than a feather.

She took me to the break room, laying me down carefully on the threadbare couch. “I’ll bring you some water, would you like some Advil too?” She asked.

I nodded and she gave me two thumbs out before skipping out of the room. She returned a few minutes later, handing me the pills. “What’s wrong, lovely?” She asked, and this was the first time I noticed her British accent.

“Migraine. Sound. Light hurts. Didn’t want to call in.” I swallowed the Advil and took slow sips of water.

Bunny nodded before getting up and mercifully dimming the lights. “Just lay back here, I won’t tell Mr. O’Brien. I’ll go bring you a blanket too,” She said, and before I could object she was gone.

I was quite embarrassed to be treated like this, but Bunny wouldn’t hear any apologies. Every half hour until the end of my shift she came in to check on me, got me more water. And feeling her gloved hand run through my hair was so genuinely soothing I almost cried.

Luckily I could drive myself home at the end of my shift. Bunny put her finger to her lips and told me it was our little secret that I rested for a ‘little while’ of my shift. Bitch, I was useless for over half of it, but Mr. O’Brien never found out.

Bunny was sweet. But Bunny and the other employees had a secret.

Like I said earlier, I didn’t know any of these other guys. Not that weird, I live in a small town but it’s not like you can know everyone. And I’m a bit of a hermit. I don’t go out except for work. But over time, I began to realize that I never saw the other employees leave.

Sure, they’d sometimes disappear for part of the day, but I never saw one leave the building. Not even to chill out back for a smoke break. I didn’t think too hard on it, it’s really easier not to think when something weird happens. I bet some of you have witnessed something that was in fact quite bizarre but just didn’t think of it that way. You made an excuse.

Course, it’s really hard to make an excuse when you walk in on your coworker literally pinning another one’s back together.

I should’ve already gone home, but there was a nasty shit explosion in the men’s bathroom and I was late. I just entered the back room to clock out when I saw Bunny and another performer called Pumpkin sitting on the couch. Pumpkin’s shirt was off and I nearly backed out, thinking I walked in on something a little private when I realized there was something very wrong with Pumpkin’s back.

Between her shoulder blades there was two deep red gashes, painfully swollen and oozing pus. She had tears in her eyes and I realized Bunny was holding silver pins in her fingers. A few pins were already in Pumpkin’s skin, forcefully keeping the skin together like a quilt my grandma would work on.

I dropped my water bottle, startling both women and Pumpkin yelping quietly as one of the pins slipped out. “Fuck, B… Bunny, it hurts so much,” She gasped.

Bunny set down the pins. “I can explain!” She said.

“I hope you can,” I hurried over to Pumpkin’s side to examine the wounds, “Jesus Christ, she needs a doctor!”

You might as well suggested I take Pumpkin out back and shoot her in the head with their expressions. I raised my hands in the air. “Or not! What do I know? Those wounds are infected though! She needs serious medical attention!”

“I need my wings back.”

Pumpkin sobbed quietly, holding her shirt up to cover her chest as she rocked back and forth. “I can’t do this anymore, Bunny! It hurts so much, I can’t dance like this!” She said.

Bunny rested her hand on Pumpkin’ s shoulder before looking at me. “… You’re a normal person, right, Robin?” She asked.

I nodded dumbly, wondering what the hell she could mean by that. Bunny nodded before she unzipped the back of her onesie and turned to let me have a look.

Right, I told you how Pumpkin’s back looked, right? Well Bunny’s was about a hundred times worse. Same two wounds, leaking pus and painfully swollen, only Bunny had the added bonus of having actual maggots crawling about in sores surrounded the slits. I nearly threw up as one squirming grub fell onto the ground.  

Bunny zipped herself back up before sitting down. “The best we can do is pin ourselves together. Mr. O’Brien won’t let us leave,” She said.

“Why?” I asked, shaking my head, unable to burn that horrid image from my head. “What did he do to you?”

“He took us.” Bunny wrapped her arms around herself. “He took us from our home and took away our wings. We can’t go back without them. If he suspects we’ve left… he’ll destroy them.”

“Then he still has them?”  

Bunny nodded and picked up the pins, pushing them through Pumpkin’s back to force the wounds together. “In his office. But we can’t go in there.”

I had already made up my mind by the time I walked to the door. “I’ll go then.”

Pumpkin’s eyes filled with hope but Bunny’s were filled with fear. “If he catches you, he’ll kill you,” She said.

“Hope he does,” I joked, although the joke was not taken well judging by Bunny’s horrified expression. “I’m kidding! I’ll be quick, he’ll never even know I was in there.”  

I slipped out of the backroom and headed right for the office. Whether it was luck or fate, Mr. O’Brien was out, and he never locked his door.  

I may have spitefully knocked the horseshoe off his door on the way in, I always thought that thing was stupid and really didn’t match the theme of the place, but I didn’t care. I don’t know if I’d let it sink in what Bunny and Pumpkin were, but I didn’t care.  

I found the wings stacked in the closet. Each were sealed in clear plastic, in every imaginable color and shape. I grabbed the whole stack, not sure which ones were Bunny’s or Pumpkin’s, and walked on out.

I almost was back to the break room when I heard Mr. O’Brien yell after me.

“Robin! What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”

I bolted into the room and locked the door behind me, throwing the plastic packaging at the girls. “He saw me! Find your wings!” I yelped as I held the door shut with my body.

Pumpkin pulled out a pair of monarch butterfly wings and crowed with joy as she stood, more bloody pins falling onto the ground. I felt Mr. O’Brien slam into the door behind me, I knew we didn’t have much time.

Bunny pulled out an incredibly large pair of pink wings and I saw her smile triumphantly before she held them to her back.

The door came off the hinges and I was thrown to the floor the same moment the room was filled with a white light.

When the light died down, Bunny was no longer in bunny ears and a onesie… and her eyes were much colder. Both her and Pumpkin stood side by side as O’Brien came into the room, going white as a sheet as he realized he was too late. “What have you done, Robin? Do you realize-”

Pumpkin crossed the floor and without so much a single moment of hesitation clawed out Mr. O’Brien’s eyes. He screamed in agony before Pumpkin tackled him to the ground, from where I was pinned under the goddamn door I could see squirts of blood coming from Mr. O’Brien’s general direction.

The door was lifted off of me and Bunny picked me up, setting me on my feet. She wasn’t short and cutesy anymore, she looked almost feral and towered almost two feet above me in height. “We’re even now, Robin,” She said as she patted my head, “I knew you’d do whatever I wanted you after I helped you with your headache. You wouldn’t like to owe a person, you’d hate owing a fae even more.”

She pressed her lips to my cheek and I was back in my bedroom.

Shit’s gone sideways here since last week. People disappearing only to reappear saying they’ve been gone for years, people who have been missing for literal decades have popped up thinking they’ve only been gone for a minute. People have bizarre Rube Goldberg machine-esque accidents that result in horrific maiming or death. Kids are gone for just a second suddenly act completely out of character, laughing at nothing and never sleeping. Nature is reclaiming any place abandoned by humans. I see people dancing down the streets, people with glowing wings and beautiful faces.

So I might’ve screwed my whole town and now we’re under attack by a bunch of fae who’ve been cooped up for fuck knows how long by a bastard who made them perform at his shitty pizzeria joint.  

Hopefully they’ll get bored and leave soon. I need to find a new job.  

[cranberrytart451]

Opinion:

The fnaf movie actually upset me in a way that bayverse transformers couldn't: I was never once convinced of character motivation.

I see a lot of people liking this movie, and that's valid. You can like something that is objectively bad, but you can't disregard criticism either.

If you want the next fnaf movie to be better, you need to separate your feelings from objective facts. Not in a "facts don't care about your feelings" way, but in a healthy way. By both recognizing bias and confirming emotions.

I also hate posts saying things like "if you didn't like the movie, fuck you. If you thought this scene was bad, you are stupid and wrong."

Shocker. It seems like it's the first time you've met a person with a different opinion.

Objectively, as someone who is not a filmmaker but knows a lot about how films are made, this movie took a lot of effort to even reach the screen. People poured their souls and passion into it, and that should be admired and respected.

But high effort doesn't always equal effective product.

Spoiler below:

First off, the camera work in this film was sloppy. This was not shot like a horror film. It was shot almost like a comedy.

There were too many close-up shots (reaction) and not enough wide. We never get the real scale of the animatronics in the film as the angles of the camera were parallel with them.

The lighting is too bright. Darkness should have been this movie's best friend as it would have made the puppets look more realistic and creepy. I work at Chuck E Cheese, and it becomes a liminal space the moment the lights are off. They should have used that.

The score is bland except for opening and closing credits.(I think the only thing the movie hits on the head is the opening credits with the arcade pixel art showing Springtrap leading the kids away.)

There are shots that are either too long or too short, messing with the pacing.

Do not get me started on the writing. This movie thought it was really clever, but no dialogue stood out except for "I always come back." (Which they should have left for the end credits scene)

Vanessa. Do I even have to start? She should have been the main character.

Do you understand the horror of living with a serial killer? A CHILD SERIAL KILLER!? Her entire life would be on edge. What if she didn't know her dad was killing and only found out through the course of the movie? This could have been a mystery horror movie.

They wasted what they had. That's the problem with this movie. It didn't focus on the right things and put too much emphasis on nothing subplots.

(Getting a little emotional because-)

(Are we gonna talk about how the aunt was killed in Mike's house and is never brought up?!)

Mike also AGREED TO GIVE HIS SISTER AWAY FOR DREAMS OF HIS DEAD FAMILY. Let me repeat. DREAMS. NOT EVEN HIS DEAD BROTHER'S GHOST.JUST FUCKING DREAMS.

... you might say he changes his mind. But the fact that he so readily does it in the first place pisses me off.

The aunt might be a karen, but she is right. Get Mike away from that kid. He doesn't prove to me in this movie that he is a good fit to raise her ONCE. He clearly loves her, but not as much as his dead brother or his own selfish guilt.

Characters can have flaws, but he doesn't redeem himself in my eyes by the end of the film.

Kid actors were kids actors. Nothing special. Not too annoying though.

The tone is inconsistent. Not even in an intentional way. It's just a roller coaster. One second, they build a fort the next Vanessa threatens to shoot Mike.

3/10

I wanted to like this movie. I had such a low bar for it. I can not believe it reached the depths of the ocean.

Fuck this movie hurt. I can't even say I liked it subjectively, cause it was so boring.

[sweetestdiary]

15. trembling hands / for rosie (and pietro 👀)

There were numerous cities Rosaria would have loved to visit, so many that if she was absolutely certain she had to means to get up and roam wherever her heart desired, she would have a long list of destinations.

On this metaphorical list, some of these regions would have included Los Angeles, Gatlinburg, Tennessee…she actually knew very little of Gatlinburg beyond it having a Germanic influence, but still. The occasional commercials that popped up on television made Rosaria inclined to think the area looked cute! Even São Paulo was on her imaginary list out of intrigue for her father’s vague roots.

So many places would have been higher on her list than Las Vegas, where she was with Mr. Impellizzeri. This trip was not for pleasure though, it was, in all honesty, for work.

Raphael had finally given consideration to Pietro’s words about having a broader influence, so he sought to have a hand in a casino one of his long-time associates was building. But Raphael was not leaving his home, no, it was Pietro who had to pack his bags. Even a consigliere ‘in training’ like Rosaria was required to come. Both the men said that this event would teach her about the language of business. 

Business, business, business…

For days, this large trip loomed over her mind dreadfully. Rosaria did not once think of glitz and glamor nor of frivolous spending. Her thoughts revolved around suits, ties, and men with dark, slicked-back hair who engaged in tense, tricky, dialogue-heavy scenes straight from The Godfather.

But when she was on the strip? It was as though something magical happened. Anxiety zapped away, and the young woman’s thoughts shifted drastically as she found herself living a moment straight out of a film. With each way she turned her head, enormous casinos towered over her - MGM Grand, Caesars Palace, the Mandalay - all of them shiny, noisy, and enticing. 

She likened the insides of the casinos to be like a Chuck E. Cheese for adults as her ears were filled with the sounds of zings, pings and loud rhythmic sounds that identified someone had gotten lucky. There was a curiosity, an interest to look around and observe the machines, but she would not be like her father who would she recalled spending down to the last penny on scratch-off tickets. Pietro, however, had little plans to be financially chaste here.

 “Play hard before you work hard,” he eventually told her, forcing his chips into her manicured hands. Admittedly, Rosaria was not thrilled with her boss essentially pushing her away but she obeyed rather than put up a Scozzari-level fuss. When sulking off, she supposed she was too much like a fly, buzzing around him on the floor. And maybe even at the blackjack table, she looked a little too bitter and impatient for the game to end when he strived to focus. 

Filled with petty, low-level angst Rosaria roamed the slot machines full of disdain. She sat at one, another, a few more that would lead her to that fifth, fated slot machine. She didn’t think of winning, she wasn’t full of anxious anticipation for three matching strawberries to appear on screen. Instead, she was thinking of how judging by the machine’s art, it was manufactured in either the 80s or early 90s. The cartoony fruit spun and spun, while Rosaria was mentally making the decision of where to venture to next when sounds of success flooded her senses.  

In the most cinematic moment of all, Rosaria won money. $1,600, all hers.

Caught up in a sudden rush of exhilaration, she wasn’t sure how Pietro knew how to find her in the vast casino but he did. Rosaria didn’t bother questioning where her boss came from, or even how much money he made at the tables, she was far too focused on processing the thrill of her win. Looking over her shoulder, she only said one thing:

“Look what I did!”

“I see what you did!”  

Needless to say, unlike Pietro was interested in staying at the casino for a few more hours, Rosaria insisted they leave before they ruin their luck. But like Pietro, she wasn’t financially chaste. She had the idea that perhaps clothing stores on the west coast were more refined, more on the cutting edge than the average shops in the Midwest.

It was all so fun, so perfect. Then, the sun set.

Sometime between stepping into the shower and drying off her legs, Rosaria’s thoughts took a shift. Alone in the hotel room’s pristine, marble bathroom Rosaria looked at herself. In her reflection, she did not see ugliness, but rather, too much youth. 

Suddenly grappling with feelings of insecurity and inadequacy, Rosaria questioned the city’s seedy underbelly just as she questioned herself. She didn’t belong here. She may have been twenty-eight, but she felt too young to witness a business meeting where the men would likely be in their upper thirties, late forties...she wondered, would there be men in the meeting room observing her the way a crouching lion observed an oblivious zebra who grazed in the grass? Would they wonder why she was here? 

By just being in the same room as them she reflected the intelligence sense of  Mr. Impellizzeri and especially Mr. Polombo. Did she have professional attire to make the best impression or were her clothes just sexy? 

Would she die? Die from a meeting gone array where bullets would make holes in plastered walls and riddle the bodies of her and her superior?

A day of bliss became a night of terror and even after she was clad in her silk pajamas, Rosaria swore if she stayed in her room with her thoughts she would combust. 

“Mr. Impellizzeri?” Her fists rattled at the bedroom door on his side of the hotel. “Are you awake?”

–

“So, how old were you when this happened?”

“...”

“Mr. Impellizzeri?”

For a second time, Pietro had come back to reality. “I’m sorry Rosa, what did you say?”

“I was asking how old were you when you began overseeing meetings? And also, how old were you when you began doing business and -” a brief pause as Rosaria fought to properly define a specific role - ultimately, she couldn’t think of any. “-other things like that!”

There was no way Pietro could speak to Rosaria and simultaneously watch Bugsy. Something Pietro found about Rosaria Scozzari, after working nine months with her, is that when she talked she wanted to be seen just as much as she wanted to be heard. 

So, for Pietro to do something like shift his gaze to the wide-screen after giving a few, generally (and generically) supportive remarks, Rosaria was sure to do something like pace around or make direct eye contact with him or perhaps even ask a brazen question that was sure to get attention. 

Then there were her eyes - she would always set those big orbs on him when she spoke like this, slightly stretching them out more than usual. Pietro thinks this was a deliberate tactic on Rosaria’s behalf: trying to fight and brush off an intense gaze like that was difficult.

He pulls his arms behind his head, genuinely weighing the question. “I could have been nineteen or eighteen. But I’ve always done a bit of everything when it comes to ‘work.’ I was never a stranger to nearly all sides of the business.” 

She was still looking at him with those eyes…shoulders hitched high, and no smile to be seen, she needed more reassurance.

“You shouldn’t worry your pretty head about tomorrow. You’ll never get your hands dirty, you’ll always be working with words.”

“That’s one of the things I’m scared about too!” She’s quick to say, explanatory hands lifted; “Because sometimes, when I’m nervous, I feel like I forget what words are and I have this fear that maybe one day, in the middle of the conversation, I’ll forget what I’m talking about-” 

“Then you don’t rush through the conversation.” Rosaria did not have the time to talk about her anxieties or her ideas of letting Pietro down as he intervened with this. “Talk slow. Live in the present. When you can be grounded in the present, your words?” crossing his ankles as reclines on the bed, he lifts his right hand: creating a symbol of perfection. “You’re going to be a damn good consigliere. Probably better than Aldo…” Briefly, Pietro’s eyes roll to the ceiling: “may he rest in peace.” 

Bite by bite, Siegel shoved his dinner into his mouth. In this moment, if gluttony was Siegel’s sin, then lust was Virginia’s. Her desire for him was powerful, unrestrained. As the gangster ate, the woman showered him with passionate, kisses - the sight on screen would usually cause Pietro to raise the corner of his lips and slightly chuckle at one of the more unusual cinematic preludes to sex, but in this instance, the moment did nothing for him. He found his mind focused on Rosaria.

The mattress he laid on was big enough for three adult bodies, but there she sat in her satin pajamas in the room’s sole chair. Close enough to him while still being far off from him - Pietro supposes she liked to have the convenience of quickly sprinting off. 

 In a moment of undeniable vanity, Pietro thought of how other women would find a reason to sit on the mattress with him or, if they were feeling particularly flirty, they’d lay against him feigning innocence. He didn’t understand why Rosaria wouldn’t do the same thing. It’s not as though she had innocent feelings for him. No, she made her attraction clear when they first kissed in his office earlier this year. That’s when she pulled him in by his tie to press her lips against his own, and yes, although Pietro deepened the kiss, he swore he didn’t lay a finger on her until he heard her moan in his mouth. Otherwise, that moment was all her. 

Beyond that, in this present time, Pietro thought they had a good day together. Without anyone they knew observing them on the strip, there were plenty of instances where he wrapped an arm around her, displaying mild physical affection. And, didn’t Rosaria remember how he proudly wrapped his arms around her when she hit her jackpot at the slot machines? She should have known that he was fond of her.

Maybe she felt shame... 

“Mr. Impellizzeri?”

“Yes?”

“Did you ever have second thoughts about what you do for a living? Did you ever think of a more normal life? Even if it was just once?”

Promptly, De Niro came to mind. “What’s a normal life?” Pietro responds, “Barbeques and ballgames?”

Immediately, Rosaria wore a look of puzzlement on her face and, knowing her as well as he did, Pietro knew she was trying to decide how to form her response in defining what a ‘normal’ life was. But more than that, it occurred to Pietro that one of the coolest quotes he heard as a teen truly proved there was a generational gap between him and Rosaria. “That’s a line from Heat, babe.” He calmly (and swiftly) explains before she went on a spiel.

“Oh,” Rosaria’s cheeks grew warm and for a moment, she was too ashamed of her cinematic ignorance to make eye contact with Pietro. “I’ve never seen that,” but more than anything she was grateful she didn’t speak unrestrained. Surely, he would find her so ridiculous. 

“I’m not sure if Ralphy ever gave you a thorough talk about me, but I come from a poor family, Rosa. Dirt poor. When I came to America, I couldn’t even speak English.”

Rosaria had to blink, his American accent was so good. She would have assumed he at least came to America as an infant. 

“I have cousins in Chicago, but they weren’t successful. They were laborers…the sort of people who live above their shop to save money, if I didn’t run around as a courier for wise guys I wouldn’t have broken the cycle of poverty. I would be struggling to support a wife and a few kids at some low-end job.”

“That’s not true, sir, if you had gotten your educa-”

“I didn’t have the money for college. And I doubt my old man would have been interested in sending me there.”

It didn’t matter that Pietro said this matter-of-factly, the words stung so much Rosaria felt she may as well have endured a scolding. “I can understand that,” she forces herself to agree, “I’m the first college graduate in my family but…” should she drop the topic? Should she say never mind? She isn’t afraid of speaking, but what she is afraid of Pietro possibly becoming agitated by her. 

“But?” He rose an eyebrow, interested in where the conversation was leading. Rosaria forcibly swallowed her insecurity. 

“...don’t you ever feel…” she struggles with the right word, gesturing as she strives for something soft, something that’s not villainous; “morally compromised?”

“No.” Said without a second of thought and packaged with the hint of a confident smile. 

“Why?” “Because for me, this life is not about drivebys and drugs. It’s about knowing when it’s time to build, when it’s time to watch, and when it’s time to act. I care more about dying with a legacy attached to my actions than I care about dying surrounded by drugs or beautiful women. You know the city behind you was built by gangsters, don’t you?” “I knew Bugsy Siegel had the idea, but I thought there were other forces involved in the making.” Rosaria forces herself to speak briefly, this isn’t a topic she’s well-versed in and she seeks to avoid feeling embarrassed.

“The mob laid the entire foundation for it. Casinos, theatres. You’re not wrong that other people came along: they made it family-friendly but without Benny Siegel’s brilliance? This would be just another Los Angeles in a different reality, or maybe it’d be as renowned as Montana. All and all, it’d be nothing unique.” “Oh…” Rosaria’s legs tighten. That’s all she could bring herself to say, oh. The history lesson did intrigue her, but she found herself more intrigued with the way Pietro lay before her on the hotel bed. The man was just so relaxed, even in the way he relayed this information to her in his smoky voice. There was also a shimmer of something in his eye that she could not identify, and frankly, she was far too intimidated to stare him back in the eyes and attempt to analyze what it was. Not when she felt excitement growing at her core. 

“I’m not saying every gangster is an entrepreneur in the making, but there are some men in this life who have dreams of luxury and others who have real dreams. This life is just a means to an end to get what they need.”

“I don’t think you ever told me about your dreams…”

“Rosa, there’s so many ideas I have running through my head, I wouldn’t know where to start telling you.” A light chuckle, “we’d be here all night long.” 

“But I like listening to you talk!” She also loved it when he called her Rosa. Granted, this was a name her father called her, but the two men approached it differently. When Pietro called her Rosa, it was alluring. The natural roll of his tongue, the consistent trace of fondness. And in a funny way, the name Rosa made her feel like a different woman than, “Rosie,” - as Ben called her and especially a baby name like, “Roro,” as Sonia would call her. A raised eyebrow leads to Rosaria tucking a stray hair behind her hair, “you like listening to me talk?” “I could listen to you talk forever.” Rosaria would have admitted if she knew there would be absolutely no consequences. “I do, there’s so much I can learn from you!”

Pietro smiled. Naturally, he chose the best hotel for him and Rosaria to stay at. Nothing modest, he went for a two-bedroom luxury suite. Color scheme and accommodations aside, Pietro’s favorite aspect of this suite was the wide window that overlooked the strip. What could he say? He was a sucker for a nice skyline that lit up at night. And Bugsy be damned, Rosaria ultimately enhanced this view. As she sat still, planted in her seat, this was a moment Pietro realized something: Rosaria was incredibly attractive. 

Now, this was something he had previously recognized nine months prior when she popped up outside his office. She was what he would deem cute, easy on the eyes, and definitely eccentric, but he didn’t really study her.

Her eyes were stunning. They were round, wide, and warm. When he was shot by Mendel - left on the icy parking lot in pain (because a bullet to the shoulder certainly wasn’t an effective way to kill him), Pietro recalls Rosaria hastily speeding to him with so much fear and concern. Then, in the hospital, she still held that concerned look. She didn’t respect him because he was her superior in this specific point in time, she cared for him as a human being. Even now in these eyes, Pietro was prone to see many emotions from her. He would pin point them as wonder, affection, and desire. 

Another thing Pietro was taken by was how glorious Rosaria’s hair was. She looked stunning when she wore it in waves or curls, but he appreciated it in moments such as now when it was sleek, dark, and shiny. Almost illuminated by the neon lights behind her. Then there were her eyebrows, her nose…Rosaria had a face that reminded him of home. Old neighbors, kids he played soccer with when he was just a boy. Admittedly, it made him feel warm inside. 

Then there was the matter that over the course of nine months she had, without him realizing, grown a lot in how she conveyed herself. In the early days, Rosaria would have a little eyeliner, very soft lipstick. Today on the strip he recalls glancing at her midconversation and seeing eyeshadow, a more prominent shade of red on her lips. When he took her to the best retail shop Vegas had to offer, she chose figure-fitting clothes without the influence or insistence of Raphael. 

When they first met, Pietro remembers loosely assuming his assistant to be twenty-two, twenty-four - Rosaria being twenty-seven surprised him. If he met her today and learned she was twenty-eight, he wouldn’t have been as surprised because it was all in the way she was now carrying herself.

But not all of Pietro’s thoughts were pure.  The perverse side of him couldn’t help but think of how pretty her bare shoulders would look in the night’s glow. He couldn’t help but think of how her pretty brown eyes would look up at him with eagerness and reverence if he pressed her back into the hotel room’s tall glass window. He wanted to kiss her so badly.

“Why don’t you come lay next to me?” He pleasantly asks her, warm and inviting.

Her eyes visibly widened, “Mr. Impellizzeri-”

Casualties be damned, Pietro wanted intimacy tonight. Smoothly, he corrects her; “Pietro. I can be Pietro here.”

“I-” Much to his dismay, she didn’t repeat his name. Instead, Rosaria merely furrowed her brow, her legs pressed close together, her ankles crossed. Pietro wondered if it was an attempt to fight off arousal. “I don’t feel comfortable doing that,” in her nervousness she choked out a modest laugh. 

“Why not?” 

“The first time we slept together, you - when you were getting dressed you said we could never be found out for what we did, and then I started to feel bad and I swore we would never do something like that again, as a precaution!” Pietro thinks this is the first time a woman told him exactly how she felt about a one-night stand. Ever so slightly, his brow creases: “I didn’t mean to make you feel bad.” 

“I’m sure you didn’t intentionally mean it, but it was a moment of weakness on my part and I would never want to jeopardize your career! Or my position alongside y-” 

He lifts himself off the mattress, “nobody can see what we do in here,” similarly, his hand raises; pointer finger gesturing for her to come his way. “It’s okay.”

For a split second, Rosaria swore she could perfectly visualize herself below him on his bed. Flushed, she thought it would be nice to feel him kiss her again, to inhale his scent again…

But…no. She would wake up in bed alone, overthinking and guilt-ridden, just like how she rose from his floor feeling dirty. She doesn’t think she could bare his back turned to her in the morning, especially not when she had a meeting to attend with him. Maybe he would give her attentive affection for the remainder of the time they were here, though. But she would be off her high once they got into the airport as the reality of their positions set in. 

She didn’t want that feeling, she didn’t want that regret, she didn’t want to yearn for nights with him.

 “M-Mr. Impellizzeri,” she breathes, frustrated and hasty, “I-I can’t do that. But thank you for listening to me! I’m going to try to go to bed!”

“Goodnight, Rosa.”

He couldn’t get an attitude with her. She would be back, he was sure of it.

                                                — 

“Nobody can see what we do in here,” he had said to her, voice as thick as honey. “It’s okay.”

Thoughts of what they could have done infiltrated her mind, just as memories of what they had done before had made her thoughts vivid. 

She tried to sleep. Rolled to the left, to the right, but the thought of Pietro kept her thighs pressed together as if that would relieve her need.

She wanted Pietro making rough sounds in her neck again as he felt pleasure, she wanted her knees planted in his king mattress, her soft body pressed against his firm one as he brought his hand inside her panties, fingers curling inside her. 

She’s a hundred percent sure he made her come on his wooden floor just by a light growl in addition to his thrusts, so imagine how easily he could make her come with his hands - how many times could he make her cum if they had all the time in the world to themselves? Such thoughts kept her needy and reckless. Rosaria felt compelled to try to replicate the fantasy, but she knew her slender digits wouldn’t be thick enough to give her the friction she craved. Really, Rosaria could almost weep from frustration: she hates fingering herself. She didn’t even bring a vibrator on this trip!

 Rosaria was sure that Pietro’s thick fingers would feel almost as good as his cock, though. She remembered how during foreplay, Ben use to tease her clit with his fingers as a prelude for inserting his tongue and tasting all the wetness he got out of her. Maybe Pietro would do the same - the idea of him going down on her was nice, but she didn’t want that. She wanted him to tease her, yes, but she wanted him to say - no, command her, to taste herself off of his fingers before he slipped his hand back inside her.

How pathetic was this? Rosaria asked herself. Not because she was arching her back as she gently caressed her body, but because any other woman would have seized to opportunity to get on Pietro’s bed and let whatever happen, happen. 

She couldn’t do it, she couldn’t touch herself. 

Bold and needy, Rosaria considered going back to Pietro’s room. It had only been nine, ten? Minutes by now. But she couldn’t go back into his room after leaving in such a rush, could she? Would he laugh at her? Cruelly deny her need since she turned him down? But, Rosaria thought, other women wouldn’t care. Other women would go to him - get their needs fulfilled - and then go about their business. Rosaria thought it was time to be like other women. With hands trembling, she wondered if she could knock at the door. But, at the end of the day, Rosaria was a Scozzari. They were inclined to be bold, pursuers. “Pietro…” knuckles gently brush against the white painted door, “are you awake…?”

“...I’m awake.”

When Rosaria enters, he still looks comfortable and content. Not resentful, not bitter. He flashes her that reassuring half-smile and she swore she could melt: “what took you so long?”

[clairethecutepup]

Chaotic Quintet: 'Nights' of Chaos (Ch. 3)

Chapter Synopsis:

The Kanker Sisters seem to be handling the goats fine enough, as is everyone else with the rest of the Chaotic Quintet-- even if not the smoothest start, in some cases more than others. However, nothing can ever be too easy-- especially when someone else appears in the quintet’s drunken visions! Unlike the rest of Claire’s group, this big guy isn't about “harmlessly” recreating the FNAF games…

-----

If you're interested in reading elsewhere (and keeping track of the story), here are the links; if you're interested in reading here, click "keep reading"!

https://www.deviantart.com/clairevlcek/art/1123430455

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/58869547

https://archiveofourown.org/works/59122021/chapters/154866244

Chapter Title: The ‘Night’s’ Finally Over… Right?

******

"Okay, girls..." Lee stands up from the hoofprints, "Looks like we got us a couple of horned kids to deal with..."

"Gee, this'll be fun..." Marie rolls her eyes, "We get stuck with ol' Teenage Angst and that crazy little creep..."

"Aww, they're not so bad..." May shrugs, "Big Ed and Alexis always seem to get along, it's so sweet."

"Yeah..." Marie looks at her, eyebrow raised, "Notice how you said YOUR MAN and said nothing about ol' Sarah Jr."

Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. Or, his symbol: Seve sways and stumbles about, before the young buck tugs on Lee's jacket.

"Well, look who it is..." She stares at him, "You gonna make things easy then?"

"Hey, who the heck are you...?"

"Part of the bunch who's taking you back home, your only choices on that being: 'Do we wanna go back in nets or body bags?' We know how you maniacs get, and I’M at least planning to give back any trouble you cause us and then some!"

"A b-bunch...? Ya mean, like more 'anima-animatronics'...?"

"Anima-whats?"

"I think he's talking about those machines that you see at Chuck E. Cheese and stuff," Marie shrugs, "or whatever someone drunk would yap about.”

“We’ll be whatever it takes to get you all back home,” Lee huffs, “So, are we gonna make it easy or what?”

“I’m on a ceiling…!”

Yes, Alexis truly was: she hung from the top of her upside down feet, giggling at everyone below her broken ceiling light. 

“Yeah, and you’re probably gonna bring it down in the next three seconds, huh?” Marie huffs, “I got this…”

She throws her net, colliding its head with Alexis’ and knocking the doe onto the ground.

“Huh, she went down easier than I thought…” Marie smirks, then frowns as the other stands, “Wait, nevermind…”

“Great idea…!” Alexis giggles, “We can catch Claire in this, then put her in a suit!"

"Nice goin', Marie," Lee growls, "you just gave one of 'em a weapon..."

Even Alexis holding a marshmallow instead would be concerning enough, nevermind something she could actually whack someone with or easily turn into a burning torch.

"Y-Yeah, we can net her...!" Seve agrees, "Uh, but where is she?"

"... Say, did you see her, fellow animatronics...?" Alexis points at the Kankers, "I-It should've been easy, when you each have three heads 'cause you only got one body..."

In Alexis' and Seve's warping visions, the Kanker Sisters stood together as some quadrupedal fox-spider of three heads. As for the sisters themselves, they clearly saw each other normally and thus stared at the goats: Marie raised an eyebrow, May scratched her head, and Lee's furrow brow remained hidden under her hair.

"... Yeah, we DID see Fido," Lee smirks, "In fact, she bolted from the joint. Right, girls?"

May and Marie look at each other, catching on, then agree and nod.

"I knew there's a reason we only found a dalmation!" Alexis gasps, "Seve, w-we gotta get out there...!"

“Yeah, you guys gotta hurry!” May takes either’s hoof, “She’s, uh… about to take a bus out of here, back at the Cul-De-Sac!”

“Why that little…!” Seve slightly falls back, shaking a fist, “Teach her to p-pull a fast one…!”

“Don’t worry, I made it easier to get her…” Alexis holds up her now-flaming net, “I increased v-visibility, and w-we can still catch her in it…!”

“Oh, no ya don’t!” Lee snatches it and stomps it out, “Last thing we need’s you two lighting the whole place up!”

“Who wants to bet she’s not even carrying a lighter…?” Marie points at the doe, then shrugs with that hand, “Might wanna rely on more than just your boots, Lee…”

“Trust me, Marie, I ain’t taking any chances… May, hold onto the entirety of ‘em, I don’t trust those two to just walk right now.”

May then lifts a kid underneath either arm, while either side has a sister close by and watching the specific goat. Unfortunately, a change of location will only increase personal devastation, when Tweedle-TNT and Tweedle-Plunge’ inevitably explode with each other’s help… Perhaps with a fiery literalness, even.

-----

The Eds travel through their portion of the building: Eddy and Double Dee keep their backs together and nets ready, while Ed walks alongside them and just holds his net to the side.

“Sarah, oh, Sarah…!” Ed cried, “Big Brother is here to take you home, along with everyone else who threatens to destroy the neighborhood more than we! Those little dickens…”

“It truly does feel like karma indeed, sometimes…” Double Dee sighs, “All that’s missing is the additional charge of a quarter beforehand…”

“Oh please, it ain’t like we were ever THIS bad!” Eddy huffs, “Most of the stuff we messed up was mostly ED, anyway…”

The mentioned man sniffles and wipes a tear away, a smile upon his face.

“Like big brother, like baby sister… I am so proud.”

“Yeah, yeah, she’s a real chip off the ol’ lump…” Eddy rolls his eyes, “‘Cause that’s just our luck, ain’t it? And when she’s not outdoing the ‘master’ herself, she’s got a whole army to help make everyone miserable…”

“Out of the way, fatheads…!” Sarah pushes past Eddy and Double Dee, “We’re looking for Claire… So, quit blocking our way…”

“I don’t see the slippery rascal down here, Sarah…” Jimmy’s masked head is (somehow) in a floor vent, “I’m afraid I don’t feel much breathable air down here, either…”

“Hi, Sarah!” Ed waves, “Hi, Baby-Brother-Adopted-By-Law!”

Double Dee comments, “Well, that was easy…”

“Don’t jinx it, Sockhead…” Eddy looks from him to Sarah, “Look, Frogmouth, do us all a favor and just knock off whatever’s goin’ on THIS time…” he scans the Freddy Fazbear head on her, “... Not sure I wanna know what, though… But do I ever?”

“Please listen to Eddy, Sarah…” Double Dee places a hand onto her shoulder, “Although it’s too late to entirely prevent any standard chaos, we can at least keep it to just that poor pizza establishment…”

“No, we’re messing with Claire, and that’s final…!” Sarah yanks her shoulder away, “And if you’re not gonna get out of the way, you’re gonna help make it possible…! Now, go on, s-scram and find her…”

She grabs Eddy.

“Hey, put me down, ya--!!”

Sarah chucks him into the opposing wall, making a large ceiling tile fall and crush Jimmy.

“Sarah, I officially have no air…!!”

“Suck it up, buttercup…” Sarah huffs, “You’ve got a Claire to find…” she points at the Ed Trio, “So do you guys, so quit just lookin’ the part and act it…”

In her and Jimmy’s intoxicated eyes: Eddy is a weasel, Double Dee is leopard gecko (or a “lizardman”), and Ed is a gerbil. The “weasel” then pushes himself free, leaving the wall and landing on Jimmy next. Unfortunately for the man in the Bonnie mask, Eddy’s fine with standing there for a bit…

Jimmy wheezes, “Sarah… DYING….”

“I’m about to ‘act’ out a game of Whack-A-Mole,” Eddy pats the net into his palm, “if you’re not gonna come quietly…!”

“You’re not hitting moles,” Sarah snarls, “you’re finding Claires!”

“Oh, we’ll find her, alright!” Eddy presses his face against hers, “While YOU guys are goin’ back to the Cul-De-Sac, before ya REALLY get into trouble!”

“There’s no suits to stuff her in, back there!”

“Just go back, before YOU get ‘stuffed’ into a body cast yourself! Trust me, Sarah, no one’s worried about holding back with an OVERGROWN frog-mouthed brat!”

Ed lifts Sarah up and away, worry on his face; while Double Dee slides in front of Eddy and holds his arms out.

“Now, now, peaceful resolutions are always possible…!” the second man assures Eddy, “Perhaps we simply need to tell them that we ‘saw’ Claire back in our very Cul-De-Sac, as we made our way here…?”

Eddy perks up at the idea.

“... Say, you’re right, Double Dee… Could’ve sworn I actually saw the half-pint strolling outta here and making her way back to their house…”

“Wait, she left…?!” Sarah growls, “Why that… that cheater! Jimmy, get up, we’re hunting a cheater now…”

Jimmy was likely dead now, from oxygen deprivation and having whatever remaining amount be crushed out of him. Then again, if falling TREES couldn’t kill the man as a young boy… Ed sat Sarah on his shoulders; while Double Dee and Eddy put either of Jimmy’s arms around their shoulders, supporting the foot-dragger between them.

“March, gerbil…!” Sarah points ahead, “I want that cheater in a suit yesterday…!!”

Before Ed can take a single step forward, Rolf crashes through the nearby wall: he pounced onto Claire, as she tried to make a turn in the ventilation system, and shoved her through metal and plaster. Of course, since Eddy and Double Dee held Jimmy, the accident-prone man shared the misfortune of getting crushed underneath debris. Claire repeatedly smacked her tablet against the son-of-a-shepherd-turned-shepherd’s head, though he remained unfazed.

“The miserable hunt has come to an end, She-Of-The-Dog’s-Ancestry!” Rolf lifts her by the literal collar, “Surrender yourself to the detainment awaiting your tomfoolery’s drunkenness, lest Rolf unleash his full wrath upon your miserable soul!”

Rolf raises his brow, as Claire stops her device-related assault. Was she actually surrendering? … No, she needed to press the “button” onscreen that rewinds the music box. She still needed to ensure “Music Mike,” or however Garbage Grump called him, didn’t go on a rampage of sorts… especially when Music Mike hates those who are the least bit canine. With the box fully wound, Claire decided to try swiping a paw across Rolf’s face instead. Honestly, nothing too different from what a farmer faces when defending against his livestock’s predators, despite his pause in reaction. When he DOES react: Claire is gripped by the tail, repeatedly slammed onto the ground. The tablet goes flying from Claire’s grip-- smacking Kevin in the face when his group finally enters the room, thus knocking him onto the ground. Jonny finally managed to snap out of his bitten hand’s pain prior, allowing him and Nazz to position Kevin in between them for optimal face-assault.

“Ow… What the heck…?” Kevin sits up and pulls the thing off, “... Hey, I thought I lost this thing. How’d you guys find it?”

Eddy, Double Dee and Jimmy then pop out from the debris pile.

“Sarah, look,” Jimmy points, “so many allies to finally help out with Claire. But first, we must get back to the Cul-De-Sac…”

Claire keeps a tight grip on her panda head, eager to hide herself from the duo it actually worked on. She also gets Eddy's attention, as he approaches.

“Hey, is that my old ‘Panda Eddy’ hat; where the heck did you get that…?” he struggles to pull it off, “Come on, the rest of your pals are already causin’ enough trouble in these stupid animal heads, last thing we need’s YOU joinin’ in!”

Eddy finally pops it off her, with Sarah and Jimmy taking immediate notice.

“Jimmy, she’s over there…!!”

“Deceiver; that is no dalmation…!!”

No “dalmation” indeed, but “DAMNATION” was arguably more accurate, thanks to Eddy dooming Claire… Sarah leaps from Ed’s shoulders and tackles the wolf-girl, thus Rolf by extension, crashing them into the debris pile. Double Dee and Rolf go flying away, along with the drywall pieces; leaving Sarah to sit on Jimmy’s back and hold Claire by the collar.

“Ha, got’cha!” Sarah presses a finger into her nose, “Now you’re goin’ into a suit for sure…!!”

“I’M going into a body cast for sure,” Jimmy adds, raising his index finger, “but it’s all worth it for fun shenanigans…”

Well, it might not have worked out with Rolf, or the “animatronic sheepdog,” but a desperate pup always bites… and also scratches if they can. Claire goes from wolf to ravaging feline: she sends fabric, hair and mask components flying when she spins around the two. She always did make the ravagings by a younger Sarah instead seem more pleasant-- even when back then, a smaller Sarah’s jaws could crush metal. On the bright side, the “game” of recreating Fazbear Entertainment’s horror series was over for the man and woman, now that their masks were gone and they could no longer be “animatronics.”

“Darn it, Claire,” Sarah glares her scratched-up face toward her, “you ruined everything! You wait right there; until Jimmy and I get new costumes, so we can continue bringing your stupid game to life…!”

“Hey, that’s perfect,” Eddy pops up behind them, “‘cause we’ve got all sorts of costumes back at your place! So, why don’t we head on over; so you guys can not only get all dressed up again, but also rest up and have the energy to keep your stupid little ‘game’ going?”

Sarah and Jimmy just shrug.

“Okay…”

“Great, I’ll lead the way…” Eddy puts an arm around either, “While the rest of you guys lead the way for small, short and rabid over there…”

He motions a thumb to poor Claire, who’s on all fours and trembling. Double Dee sighs. Of course Eddy would saddle everyone else with the most vicious of the Chaotic Quintet-- despite Sarah and Seve also existing in it. Then again, ALEXIS is also in the group. … Look, just don’t touch the little puppy-girl over there, and that doe will only earn the appropriate “Lord-Help-Us-All” title through her more zany and scarily clever antics. At the very least, despite Claire’s arguably greatest lethality of the bunch, any little pup will relax with the proper kind touch and words--

“Time for Rolf to tame the savage beast!!”

Well, an experienced farmer pouncing onto and wrestling with an animal (or animal-kid) helps too…

“Rolf has fought wee baby coyotes with a mightier bite, Wolf-Girl!” Rolf headlocks her, “Be it defending his flock or how else the mighty shepherd must reign down his wrath upon foolish beasts, you shall face almighty defeat-- without even the mighty shoe!”

No one else knows what to do: they’re definitely afraid of the poor girl getting hurt, but they’re also afraid of themselves getting hurt by her. However, one bystander makes his presence known: he sticks his muppet head out from the nearby trash can, still wearing that security cap between his trumpet-like horns.

“Hey, security mutt!” Garbage Grump proclaims, “I thought I told ya to keep an eye on Music Mike! Thanks to you, he’s now allll cranky and is throwing quite the tantrum! … Although, now may be a good time to remind ya that Fazbear Entertainment isn’t responsible for injury nor death to people-- and ho boy, are YOU in for some ‘death and injury’ with that canine side of yours. Well, hasta la vista, I’m not sticking around to watch that traumatizing mess! … Emphasis on ‘mess’...”

As the purple puppet retracts into the can; it’s only Claire, Sarah and Jimmy who noticed his presence at all-- and it’s only THEM who seem to notice the foreboding stomps and figure approaching. A giant yeti-looking beast of clarinet horns, xylophone teeth, purely red eyes, and sharp guitar chip nails stands there: in the hallway, he breathes heavily and lets them stare horrifiedly at his black form, until he lets out a mighty roar and raises his arms. Garbage Grump then pops his head back out from the can.

“As you can see, I’M also the looker in our family. Have fun dying, especially YOU, mutt.”

He goes back in; as Sarah and Jimmy scream in terror, while Claire’s jaw drops and her ears droop atop her head.

“What?” Eddy looks at them, “What’s the problem all of a--?”

Claire manages to scramble free from Rolf’s grasp, while Sarah and Jimmy jump onto their quadrupedally running friend’s back as she passes.

“Sarah, I don’t care for the game right now…!”

“Claire, we’ll stop playing if you get us out of here…!!”

Now, hunting “animatronics” have become part of the hunted humans… However, it’s sure to become “hunted humans and goats,” assuming Seve and Alexis hadn’t finished themselves off (and the Cul-De-Sac they returned to) already…

[End Chapter]

******

... Anyone else concerned that The Living Tombstone's 3rd FNAF song is about to become reality? Also, this is the beauty of crack fanfiction: you can have official characters mingle together, you can have your original characters mingle with them-- all in the name of good, chaotic fun! Now, who wants to bet they'll even have a Cul-De-Sac to hide in from Music Mike (who I now want to see in an actual Corn Kidz 64 game)?

[miiilowo]

hey you realize i can read your reblog right. i wasnt saying half the shit you put in here, i do think hes an irredeemable abusive asshole, so dont insult me and boil down my interpretation of him down to "tumblr sexyman who can do no wrong", thanks.

first off, this whole, general post, isn't worded very well, mostly because i am/was irritated at the shitty writing this series does have and always has had. its great that you managed to piece together whatever the hell this is back in 2015, thats fantastic, good for you! that doesn't change that to me, and to an extremely large portion of the fanbase, this felt very badly done and phoned in because the amount of clues that Were dropped (if you can even say they were actual clues at all) were far and few inbetween, and wouldn't lead someone to believe that william is pumping hallucinogenic fear gas into his childrens bedrooms. when you set up shit in a certain way, people are going to believe that Thats What The Story Is, because thats typically how storytelling. yknow. works. this isnt some masterful plot twist, hell, this isnt even point a to point b. ive always thought that the "closed due to leaks" thing was william trying to cover his ass because an animatronic he built MURDERED HIS OWN CHILD and he was attempting to come up with an excuse/a coverup. a lot of other people Also thought this. it's not an out there assumption to make, and acting like people are stupid for not managing to get "fear gas chambers" from "closed due to leaks" just doesnt seem fair to me lmfao

second of all, it wasnt a silly headcanon i came up with and got MAD that scott would DARE to interfere with MY AFTON that he cared for his children, it was based off evidence that was given to us in the games, because william afton in The Games is different to william afton in The Books. not everything is going to line up. for example, in the books, he sedated/put the kids to sleep before killing them, which would demonstrate a level of care of some kind, or at least a lack of complete cruelty when it comes to the murders. but i dont think he did that when he killed charlie outside in the rain. do you understand what im getting at? their characterization isnt identical in a manner of ways, and since i apparently wasnt Smart Enough and i was too absorbed in my "uwu tumblr sexyman afton" interpretation to get scotts supposedly master plan correct or whatever, i interpreted the following as him (though in a fucked up helicopter parent sort of way) trying to keep an eye on and protect his children while he was busy working because hes a neglectful piece of shit:

security cameras all over the house and in bedrooms

circus baby being modeled after elizabeth, and william repeatedly telling elizabeth to stay away from circus baby, presumably because he didnt want her to get hurt (i dont think this is an insane leap of logic to make either)

the fredbear plushie being a way to monitor evan specifically as he is constantly terrified (among other things regarding his own motives)

generally, i dont think someone who essentially founded chuck e cheese would hate children, let alone his own kids

your argument includes the fact that someone who loves their kids wouldn't do any of these things. this isnt true. someone whos a Good Parent wouldnt do these things. someone whos a Bad parent but still loves their kids to some degree might. theres a big difference there. evil people have things they care about, and i personally think that having afton care about his children but being a bad parent who goes about it in a Bad Way is much more interesting than him just being some abusive dad lmfao. im not trying to make him cute or redeemable or whatever the fuck else you might think. it may not be the perfect unconditional love that Good Characters and Good People are capable of, but we are both well aware that he's neither of those things, yes?

while none of those things were stated as being outright canon ways he cared about his kids with afton turning to the camera and telling the reader that, it was still a theory of mine that got disrupted a bit, and i feel like being upset over something like that is fair. not to pull the "im literally neurodivergent and a minor" card, but FNAF and Namely william have been a special interest of mine (autism) for nearly 9 years now. im going to be a little bit sensitive about this kind of thing. especially when my favorite character of all time who i hold dearly to me gets a wrench thrown in what i thought was his characterization by shitty writing

everyone's interpretations of the timelines and characters differ, ive just been very frustrated that people keep acting like this was the plan the whole time and shitting on people who got upset about it. scotts been phoning it in for the whole 9 years hes been making fnaf, but youd think at this point maybe, just maybe, they'd learn when to leave things behind. apparently not. (for the record, i do think it was michael in fnaf 4, and i thought it was likely the illusion discs if not a nightmare induced by the guilt of killing his younger brother. having it be the nightmare option is more compelling to me as well, considering it, oh, i dunno, Gives The Protagonist Motivation And Depth, but i guess we should throw that out the window too since everyone knew this was coming and 95% of the fanbase just happened to miss it)

honestly? im mostly irritated by the fear gas stuff because if its actual intention is to explain fnaf 4, then my main reasoning for why william actually cared about his kids in the game canon is out the window. if people are correct, and the monitors didnt exist to watch them to make sure they were safe (considering he was never home or working on shit relating to his career) but Instead existed to monitor them when their rooms were being pumped with fucking. hallucinogenic gas. god. pulling my hair out

[scaryscarecrows]

Jason and Co in FNAF.

Full disclaimer: I have not played this and do not intend to, but I DO have YouTube and TV Tropes, so. LET'S GET CRACKING.

Jason: So this...is Gotham. I mean. Let's face it, at any given time there's a man in a Halloween costume trying to decapitate a child. I've been that child! So it wasn't...not to be callous, but, well...I thought someone was fucking with the animatronics. I mean, good God, Penguin had explosive robot, er, penguins once. A murderous anthropomorphic teddy bear is not that exciting.

Jimmy: Bullshit! I'm the one you all bullied into applying for the job!

Antoine: You weren't hurt.

Jimmy: My pride was hurt! People come to me for Big Deals, I don't grovel for some crappy night watchman post!

Antoine: You're fine.

Jimmy: Humph. Anyways, I get in, I run a loop so I can keep the stupid job, and I get them in, and we all hunker down in this dismal, grimy, old-pizza-grease-reeking little office.

Frank: It sucked. The doors didn't shut without draining the power-who does that in this day and age?-and yeah, it smelled. Like, bad. It smelled like ancient pizza and shit, I'm not even kidding.

Mark: It did. It was gross. These places always are, too; I worked at Chuck E Cheese as a teenager and it was vile. Stay out of the ball pit, kids.

Riley: So we're sitting there, regretting everything and also being bored, when one of the things moves. Like, we don't see it move, s'just that Jimmy flipped the camera and one of the stage ones was, uh, off the stage. And I go, 'oh, fucking finally, something's happening!', and the boss and I go to check it out. DUDE. This thing was DISGUSTING; blood and crap in the fur, smelled like death, the whole nine yards. You'd swear someone stuffed a body in there, man, it was awful.

Trent: While they're in there, checking it out-full on checking it out, by the way, last I looked Riley was trying to get the head off-there's this running noise, which is never something you wanna hear. And we go flipping through the cameras in time to see something just booking it towards us. And, uh, we figured they could fend for themselves, and, uh. Slammed the doors.

Riley: Finally, when we can't get a good look in the duck, we decide to take this fucker apart. And I do mean take it apart; knives were out. This...maybe wasn't smart.

Jason: There was a body in there. Or. What was left of one. This is bad, but we kind of figured it might happen. What nobody factored in was that something...ah...fuck it. It sounds crazy, but it happened. We had this thing split open, and it went crazy. I don't know if we triggered some sort of defense program or what, but it tried to bite us. Nearly took Dylan's hand off.

Riley: I can't afford to lose any more pieces. I don't wanna be the six million dollar man!

Jason: We beat a retreat, because the other ones started...screaming. It was very creepy, but we had video evidence of what we found.

Antoine: Only problem was that once they got back to the room, the rest of these things started moving. One of 'em tried to take the door down.

Mark: It was creepy. And sick, my god; I didn't get a good look at the body in the duck, but I think that's probably for the best.

Frank: We made it, though. Put a call to GCPD around...four-thirty, maybe. Management had a nasty surprise when they showed up to a crime scene the next morning. Serves 'em right, if you ask me.

[gamerwoo]

Seventeen: Welcome to Caratland (End)

Characters: Seventeen x reader (gender neutral)

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

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

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

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

Previous | Caratland Masterlist

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

»»————-　　————-««

16 -- A

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

“_____ has a point,” Wonwoo shrugged.

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

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

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

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

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

Serenity was blocking the hole in the fence.

“Fuck,” Jeonghan hissed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

You made a face, “Will we, though?”

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

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

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

“Yeah...?” Joshua replied.

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

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

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

Unfortunately, everyone else was in the same boat.

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

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

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

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

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

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

[GO TO: 17 -- A]

»»————-　　————-««

16 -- B

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

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

“Alternate way it is,” Minghao shrugged.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But it was the only plan they had.

[GO TO: 17 -- A]

»»————-　　————-««

17 -- A

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

»»————-　　————-««

18 -- A

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Is that e--”

SLAM!

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

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

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

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

It didn’t budge.

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

Still nothing.

“D-did it...lock?” Chan asked slowly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“One short?” Jeonghan asked.

“Someone’s missing,” he said urgently.

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

“Here.”

“Seungcheol?”

“Here.”

“Mingyu?”

“Unfortunately here.”

“Hansol?”

“Yup.”

“_____?”

“Here.”

“Joshua?”

Silence.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

»»————-　　————-««

18 -- B

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

“See?” Jeonghan sneered.

Chan just frowned and rolled his eyes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mingyu shrugged, “Yeah, probably.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Can I try?” Mingyu asked.

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

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

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

[GO TO 20 -- A]

»»————-　　————-««

19 -- A

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

“I’ll go,” Jeonghan stated.

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

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

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

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

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

“Maybe he just--”

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

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

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

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

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

“What happened?” he asked.

“J-J-Josh!” you sobbed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Everyone gathered over to see what he was looking at.

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

They knew where you were.

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

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

“Hey!”

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

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

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

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

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

Jeonghan just rolled his eyes, “Whatever.”

[GO TO 20 -- A]

»»————-　　————-««

19 -- B

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

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

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

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

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

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

They knew where you were.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the most disturbing thing.

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

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

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

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

“Hey!”

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

“Way ahead of you,” he stated.

“Thank god,” Jihoon said under his breath.

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

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

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

And then he went down the ladder.

[GO TO 20 -- A]

»»————-　　————-««

20 -- A

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

Needless to say your heart was pounding in your ears.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[TO HELP JOSHUA GO TO 21 -- A]

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

»»————-　　————-««

21 -- A

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

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

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

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

He was still dead.

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

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

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

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

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

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

»»————-　　————-««

21 -- B

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

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

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

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

But this door didn’t budge.

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

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

...Or maybe it was closer and closer.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

»»————-　　————-««

22 -- A

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“G-guys?” Seokmin asked.

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

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

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

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

“What about the--”

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

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

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

[GO TO ENDING B]

»»————-　　————-««

22 -- B

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

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

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

“What?” Jihoon asked.

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

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

“Seokmin, he’s--”

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

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

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

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

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

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

But this door didn’t budge.

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

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

...Or maybe it was closer and closer.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

»»————-　　————-««

23 -- A

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

“We?!” Seungkwan repeated.

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

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

Well, not you specifically.

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

That’s when Bongbong closed in on you.

“I got the--!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[GO TO ENDING A]

»»————-　　————-««

23 -- B

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

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

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

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

That’s when Bongbong closed in on you.

[GO TO ENDING B]

»»————-　　————-««

23 -- C

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

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

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

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

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

“_____--!”

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

There was a couple seconds of silence.

“Holy shit,” Minghao breathed.

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

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

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

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

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

“It’s 6am,” he reported.

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

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

[GO TO ENDING C]

»»————-　　————-««

ENDING A 

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

Soonyoung said he was tripping balls the whole night.

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

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

So...maybe they were right?

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

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

And why did Junhui wink at you?

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

»»————-　　————-««

ENDING B

Get dressed.

Brush your teeth.

Brush your hair.

Go downstairs and converse with your parents.

Drive to school.

Say hello to your friends.

Laugh at what Soonyoung said.

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

Go into the bathroom.

Use the mirror to fix your outfit.

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

A light reflects off the mirror.

You are the only one in the bathroom.

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

»»————-　　————-««

ENDING C

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

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

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

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

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

The group decided it was best to ignore the message.

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

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

Wonwoo squeezed your hand and continued forward.

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

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

And why did Joshua wink at you?

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

[imaginewarehouse]

Various Males x Fem!ExModel!Reader || Oneshot

Plot: You, a retired model get hired at Cloud 9 and, not-at-all-surprisingly, you get harassed by every allegeable (According to them) bachelor in the place- but god fucking damnit! You’re just here to get a paycheck??!  

“You can’t knock ‘em out, you cant walk away,

Try desperately to think about the politest way to say,

“Just get out of my face,”, “Just leave me alone,”

“And no you cant have my number,”,

“Why?”

“Cuz I lost my phone.”

(Inspired by Lily Allen’s Knock ‘Em Out)

Includes (In order of appearance after the introduction bit): Sal Kazlauskas, Garret McNeil, Tate Staskiewicz, Isaac (And I think my favouritism here definitely bleeds through*Cough*), Elias Greene, Cory, Jonah Simms, and Marcus White.

Warnings: Sal, harassment (They leave after you say no though. Just to be sure) 

🔆  🔆  🔆

“And uh, yeah one last thing before we all hop off to work! We have a new Cloud 9 family member. Y/N! Would you like to stand up?” Glenn, the lovely man who took your interview a week ago and then went out of his way today to look for you out front in the morning to show you around quickly and guide you through clocking in, finds you in the crowd of workers and gestures for you to stand.

Oh, uh- uhh, okay! Up we get, then, you think as you stand up like he said and take a look around at all the judging eyes, which normally wouldn’t phase you but here is a lot scarier than what you’re used to. This an entirely different environment to getting up at a modelling gig- you know nothing about working this kind of job! You’ve never done it, so, you’re afraid they’ll judge you right off the bat and make it difficult for you to ask questions. And you can’t keep bothering Glenn- he has more important things to do.

Oh god, you hear whispering. You peer around. Where is that coming from?-

“This is Y/N L/N! She’ll be working with Go back’s today,” Right, Go Back’s Easy enough; Glenn explained them earlier before the meeting started. “So if you see her in your area- be sure to say hello and see if she needs some help, K? Good. We’re jazzed to have you with us Y/N.”

“Thank you!” You quip quickly, then sit down and focus on Glenn again, hoping dearly at the same time that attention disperses from you immediately.

Glenn smiles, glancing down at his clipboard for any last-minute messages. “Okay! I think that’s it, so- “

The whispering from before suddenly cuts off. “Uh yeah, question?” Glenn stops short when a man in the back kind of rudely cuts him off, but sighs out a ‘Yes, Marcus?’ as the woman beside him - Dina, - rolls her eyes severely. Oh, you let a tiny ghost of a smirk slip over your lips. That’s kind of a reaction, isn’t it? “Yo- new girl.” What- me- w h y- You immediately get awkward again and twist around in your chair, but don’t really know who to look at. Luckily the tall brunette in the warehouse uniform is pointing, so you figure it out pretty quick that that’s who you’re looking for, and calm down. Mostly. 

Yeah? You raise one eyebrow. “Hi?”

He grins back to the right and the left of him, to his equally pleased buddies and pals, before raising a Vogue magazine- and it’s the issue on which you scored the front page. Jeez, that was months ago! “Is this you?”

A chorus of ‘Ohhhhh’ and general excitement travels around the room and for the first time ever, you’re half ashamed to admit that yes that is you. In your usual circle this is something to be proud of… but you get that it isn’t really like that, in non-modelling circles. In fact, it could be something to be embarrassed about.

Especially seeing that oh dude and his gang of Michael Myers fashion wannabes look like a hungry, dim-witted, wolves rather than plainly interested about your modelling career.

But, still, you smile politely and nod. Hopefully it’ll be forgotten before the afternoon, at least. “Yeah, that’s me.”

“Nice.”

Hmm… you really, really hope that it’s forgotten soon, at least, as you turn back around to face the front again as Glenn sends everyone off to work. Because if not, then these boys are going to learn the hard way that models take self-defence classes religiously.

Or at least you are going to have a very uncomfortable day, which is just great. You groan inwardly at the thought, as you gather up your coffee from the table beside you and drop it in the trash can on the way out.

~

You’re just doing your own thing and someone

Comes out of the blue,

They’re like,

“Alright”

But he’s saying

“Yeah can I take your digits?”

And you’re like, “No, not in a million years, you’re nasty.

Please leave me alone.”

There’s already so many Go Back’s! You think excitedly, as you get to work looking for where things should be. You’re glad to have something to do- at your first job with Chuck E Cheese, before you got into the modelling thing, you were basically useless the first day because you weren’t allowed to grill yet, you didn’t know how to assemble, and they didn’t want you out on the floor for the birthday party that was happening, in fear that you would mess up royally. So you just sat around trying not bother anyone, and that felt terrible. So, wandering the aisles of Cloud 9 with a full shopping trolley searching for products and neatening things up? Sounds like a good deal to you. Yes please.

“Uhh, hi.”

You practically jump entirely out of your skin, hearing the voice right beside you and whip your head around to see a balding guy in a blue Cloud 9 jacket. Is this man licking his fingers!?

“Uh,” You step back with your brightest, most polite smile, picking something up from the Go Back’s cart and rounding it to put it between you and the man, before acting like you’re stupid enough to be putting barbecue sauce in the Barbie section, and then… “Oh, oops! Silly me!” You flash the guy a nervous look. “I’m still working things out… “

Well? Better to look like an absolute idiot, then be standing within grabbing radius of the creepy man licking his fingers that you’re all alone in the middle of an empty aisle with. “Um… so, what’s up? Did someone send you to find me, or… am I doing something wrong? You know better than me, after all!”

“No… “His gaze licks up your form and if it weren’t for all your ‘training’ in staying still and not feeling this kind of thing- you absolutely would have wigged out. “You’re doing fine… Just wanted to see you.”

Boy- if anyone else could see your face right at this moment, full of disgust and mild horror, you’re sure you would be YouTubes next hit. Or a meme. “Oh… “You nervously chuckle. “Um, well, I’m gonna… go… “You pull the trolley around so that you can back up out the back of the aisle and escape through stuffed toys, into the open but his hand comes down on the other end of the trolley- stopping it. Before you can stop yourself, verbal diarrhoea spews from your lips. “Glenn has my resume- there’s a photo on there you can have.”

“That’s okay I prefer them to be breathing.” Both his hands are on the end of your trolley now, tight so his knuckles turn white, and he’s breathing unnecessarily heavy. He’s even leaning over the trolley some like his body really can’t handle whatever terrible heat is plaguing it right now. Oh god, oh god oh god oh god… this is so gross.

“Well, that’s… u-understandable...”

He looks up into your eyes, now, and doesn’t blink. Who the hell is this guy?! “Say… “ Oh no, oh no- he’s coming around the trolley-he’s coming around-he’s close-too close-too close-mayday-MAYDAY- Slowly, in your face, he licks up his thumb, makes an ‘Mm,’ sound, and you deeply wince; So much so in fact that one of your eyes completely closes. “Could I take your phone number?”

You absolutely couldn’t have helped what happened next if you had wanted to.

“Eeeeuuuwwwwwwww no not in a million years, your nasty, please leave me alone!!” You exclaim in a high voice before abandoning the trolley and rushing off to customer service.

~

“No you cant have my number,”

“Why?”

“Cuz I lost my phone.”

By the time you got to the front desk, you had basically calmed down and were mostly just stressed that you left the Go Back’s behind- but still must look troubled as the guy manning the front desk makes a confused, half-concerned but mostly intrigued kind of face at you as you stop there. You’re about to explain your appearance - that or just shrug, not too bothered about reporting whatever mess that was. Not on your first day, at least. No way. - when his face relaxes, and he nods. “Ohhh. Damn, Sal got to you?”

Sal? Was that the guy’s name? You didn’t check. “Oh, was that his name? I was a bit too preoccupied by his eyeballs sucking out my soul, to notice his name tag.” Now that you’re thinking about it, though, you glance at this man’s name tag. Garret.

“Yep, that’s Sal. That’s just one of the wonderful things involved in working here that you’ll just have to get used to.” Garret grins, offering you a chill perspective with a side of cynicism. You sigh, truly feeling relieved that you’ve found a normal person and relax your back against the taller part of the desk.

“Brilliant.” The sarcasm drips off the tip of your tongue.

“You’ll have to deal with a lotta that here, though, looking like you do.” You turn your head to the side to look already exhausted just by the idea, at him. He shrugs. “Hey, I don’t make the rules. I just speak the truth.”

“God- I feel sorry for the other women working here.”

“Oh, no. They’re in a completely different wheelhouse to you. Sorry.” Garret leans on his forearms on the desk, and you roll over to lean on your shoulder and pay attention. “See, you’re a model- “

“I was a model,”

“You were a model- which through primitive male thought process makes you prime real estate. Whoever manages to ‘bag’ you, for lack of a better word I apologise, gets some serious bragging rights.” He shrugs, and looks vaguely apologetic but still some how shameless as this utter bullshit slips out of his mouth. “We can’t help it- some of us don’t even know we’re doing that, but we are. Actually, I’m probably the only one who’ll admit it… which… kinda makes me your best option. Self-awareness, and all that.”

Oh. A dry laugh comes out of you as you feel a text come through in your back pocket and pull out your phone. As you see that its not an urgent message, you immediately put the phone back and glance around for any supervisors before returning to your conversation with Garret. “Oh- of course it does.”

“Exactly!” He grins, and you can’t tell through his expression at all whether he’s genuinely this clueless or if he’s just shooting his shot. “So- “

“No, you can’t have my number.”

“Why?”

Deadass, in a very monotone voice, you say: “I lost my phone.”

Then the two of you just have a stare off for a minute. Garret because he just saw you use your phone, and you because you wont back down.

~

“Oh yeah, actually yeah I’m, I’m pregnant. I’m having a baby in like 6 months, so no. Yeah, yeah… “

“You know,” The chemist pipes up from behind the Pharmacy desk as you put back some pill boxes he said were fine to return to the shelves, and you glance over at him to show you’re listening, and check his name tag. “I myself considered a career in modelling, before this. People even say, now, that I could model.”

Oh boy. You think, fighting not roll your eyes. And how old are you? Early 30’s? I don’t think so buddy.

“Oh, well, I wouldn’t recommend it.” You flash him a nervous grin before returning to your shelving. “You’re good for, like, 3 years. But then you hit 22 and unless you look like Victoria Justice shared with you whatever youth fountain she got chucked into, then you have to find something else to do with your life- despite having nothing to fall back on.” Okay… so… I might be a bit bitter.

Tate chuckles - and oh boy, he sounds just like your old manager. Totally fake, -, hiding his hands in his lab coat pockets. “Yeah, you’re probably right… Besides, I got the better end of the deal, anyway. Doctor for the doctors, they call us.” They call Pharmacists that? Who? That’s news to you. “Ahhh, yeah… I’m doing pretty well for myself.”

“Yep.” Forcing a fake smile his way, you leave the shelf you were stocking and get closer to the desk to stock another, as Tate’s eyes follow you waiting for encouragement of some kind. Doesn’t he have a job to do?? “You chose well!”

“Yeah, thanks. I know.” Ffffff-f a r out. This guy! “You know, you and me, we’d make a good couple.”

Oh? Dear god? You pause your shelving in surprise at the bomb this man has just dropped so casually, fish oil tablets paused on their journey to the shelf mid-air. Could Garret’s crazy-pants theory have been right?

“Ohh,” You giggle nervously, returning to work a bit faster now. “I don’t know. I think for a pharmacist like you, I would envision, like… “An actual doctor? No, I can’t say that. “A personal trainer, or something. Keep you both healthy all-round, you know? Now that’s a power team.” As long as that personal trainer has humility enough for the both of them, at least.

“Mergh,” He makes a face, like ‘What the heck are you talking about??’, before shaking his head of the things you just said and leaning over the desk towards you. You keep packing, even faster now. Like the Flash. Go! Go! Go! Death Con 5!! “So, whadaya say? I could pick you up Friday after work, and we could head up to one of my timeshares?” He says that like it’s such a selling point! You think, fighting off the powerful urge to laugh but still feeling the panic deep in the pits of your soul. “Stake it out together for the weekend? Get to know each other?”

“Uhh… “Excuses! What are they? You slowly stop stocking, turning around to face him and crossing your arms. The man deserves to at least be faced as he’s rejected; You’re kind enough to give him that, at least. “I’d love to! But, the thing is… “Chewing your bottom lip, you think hard.

Ding Ding Ding!!

“The thing is, Tate… “You fake some nerves, now. “I’m actually, uh… “You look up, face relaxing. “Pregnant.”

Oh boy, the way that man recoils at that word, like a terrified, disgruntled, blonde hedgehog. You’re going to laugh so hard about it, later!! “Oh.”

“Yeah! Oh, I mean, yeah… I’m gonna be having a baby, in like, 6 months so… yeah… Yep.“ You shrug to him, as if its just so unfortunate. “Shame.”

~

She looks in her bag, takes out a fag, tries to get away from the guy on a blag,

Can’t find a light.

‘’Here, use mine.’’

‘’See the thing is I just don’t have the time.’’

Ahh, lunch. Now you can check your texts! Hmm, you look through your notifications and gradually lose excitement. Mum… mum… mum… phone bill company… friend… mum again…

Ah, the glamorous life of the famous.

You roll your eyes, and get to responding to your mothers texts about dinner and when you’ll be home and how your first day is going, not noticing the not-so-jolly, not-so-green-(unless-you-meant-pot) giant approaching you. When you finally finish responding to both your mum and your friend, you put your phone away and start unwrapping your lunch- a typical ham sandwich that you’re actually pretty excited about. That’s one good thing about your sudden drop in financial status; You can put in your damn sandwich as many pieces of ham and cheese as you like. Grinning excitedly, you pick it up and have it halfway to your mouth before another person - a very heavy, large person, - drops down beside you on the bench you’ve commandeered behind the store. You close your mouth without any delicious lunch inside it and look up, politely to the person who’s joined you.

And all you can think, is wow.

He could put you in a suitcase and walk off with you right now and have no problems.

That’s wow.

“Hi! I’m Y/N,” You introduce yourself, offering a hand for him to shake.

“I know.” Oh, well yeah okay that’s understandable. Glenn did introduce you to everyone this morning. Despite the man’s less-then-excited response, he takes your hand in his and shakes. It makes you all giddy inside, honestly. So b i g. “Names Isaac.”

Do you remember Isaac in the breakroom this morning? You wrack your brain for him, because surely if he was there you noticed him-

Oh. Yep, you remember him. He was one of that Marcus-Dude’s pals chuckling and whispering behind him. He was one of the men that had the magazine with you on the front, and if there’s one thing you know about men who carry Vogue in their locker’s it’s that they fit into only 2 groups- interested in fashion, obviously… and interested in the women. And this man clearly is not interested in fashion. Immediately, on this realisation, you feel disappointed- you really could have liked this man right off the bat…

But it looks like he’s just going to be another of the men at this store you have to get to know, before becoming friendly with.

“So,” He starts, and you fight off a wince. Hopefully, you don’t know what’s coming. But… the likeliness of that is not high. “You wanna go out, some time? I’m a big fan of your work.” He smirks.

“Oh, ha ha.” You laugh sarcastically, shaking your head and returning to your sandwich. You take a bite and- Ahhhhhh, so worth the wait. Oh my god. Food orgasm. “At least you’re honest!”

“Yeah, so is that a yes?” His face brightens a smidgeon, which is a lot seeing as he doesn’t seem to be totally all there, in the first place.

You look up at Isaac, and look apologetic. He was honest with you so its only fair that you’re genuine with him. “Sorry… “

“Ah- actually, I don’t know if this’ll change your mind, but I have 2 weeks to live, so… “

Never mind on that honesty thing, then.

Dull-eyed, you stare up at him. “… Uh-huh.”

“Its true! I have, uh, cancer.” He insists, nodding his head and forcing his eyebrows up his forehead all serious-like.

“Cancer.” Right.

“Yep.”

Right, time to look in the bag... You start to wrap up your lunch again - sadly, as now you’ll have to wait until the end of the day and the bus ride home to eat it, - and plop it back away in your bag, getting up and pulling out a cigarette instead- that should hold you over until the end of the day. “My lunch break is actually over, so I should go- Damn, where’s my light?“

Isaac rifles through his pockets until he pulls out an old looking neon orange lighter, and offers it to you. “Here, use mine.”

Oh, no. You stare at it like a deer in headlights. If you accept that, like you really want to right now because it’s been a month since your last smoke, then you have obligations to sit with him for another couple minutes, at least.

Aghh… You groan and whine on the inside, before making up your mind and flinging the cigarette into a puddle. “See the thing is, I don’t actually have the time-”

~

“Go away now, let me go.”

“Are you stupid? Or just a little slow?”

“Ughhh… “This one has been giving you looks all day, but had no courage until now to speak to you- but the thing is? He didn’t have the smarts, either, to take off his wedding ring at least before he decided to be a bastard and bother you. So you feel absolutely no regret about being exactly as dismissive or plain rude, as you feel. “Elias? Go away now.”

The nervous man, who’s been ringing his hands this whole time and stuttering through failed date requests that you pretended you didn’t understand because of his struggle, gets panicked. “Just let me ask!- Will, will you go out with me?”

“No.” You yawn, dropping a piglet toy into a basket.

“But!- “

Turning away, you start pushing your trolley along to get to the next aisle. “Let me go.”

“We can go wherever you like!”

Sighhhhhhhhh. You turn around and grant him an audience, putting your hands on your hips and raising you brows at the wedding band on his left hand.

“Are you stupid? Or just a little slow?”

~

“Please fuck off.”

Oh good god in heaven, they’re going bigger with their proposals.

“Y/N! Will you go out with me?”

This man, Corey, has grabbed the announcement phone now that you’re walking away, making you freeze like the dad possum in Over The hedge and seriously consider playing dead, too, as you slowly turn around to look at him again.

Oh, if only looks could kill- he would be so dead that even Vlad the Impaler’s victims would laugh.

This is your first day, and the fact that you’re being harassed by multiple stupid men is bad enough but now he’s calling attention to you like this? Glenn’s going to think you’re a troublemaker!! Jesus fucking Christ- you need this job! Corey continues to talk into the speaker phone, even as he looks into your eyes and sees his death.  “And… now… you’re looking at me like that, so uh… I’m just gonna… say please?”

… “’Please’ fuck off.”

“Yes ma’am-“  

~

“Go away now, I’ve made myself clear.

I don’t think so.

Nah its not gonna happen.

Not in a million years.”

Since the run-in with Corey and the following spike in your blood pressure, you’ve calmed down again. But now you’re looking into the two faces of a ‘Mateo’, who you apparently work with, and a ‘Castor’ who does not work here and is not shopping but is still in your face and is t h i s close to feeding that ugly tie to his cousin.

But, still, you’re going to stay graceful, because Castor constantly looks like he’s 3 seconds from pooing himself. “Now please go away, now… I think I’ve made myself clear.” By explaining, politely, that you aren’t looking for a man but thank you for the offer, Castor.

“Oh, but you haven’t heard what Castor does for a living! He’s in insurance,” Mateo explains to you, like this is some huge game changer. When you don’t react, he adds that there’s good money, insurance.

You almost laugh. Does this boy really think you’re such a gold digger? Boy- if I wanted riches then I could’ve easily become a C-Class actor who has no skills in the area, but is pretty so gets praised like she does- like a lotta my model friends.

Instead I’m here, at Cloud 9.

Come to your own conclusions.

But instead of saying that, though, you just shake your head nervously. “I don’t think so… “

“But!- “

“Nah… sorry, its… not gonna happen… “

“But Castor is- “

“Not in a million years… “

~

“Aw, no. I gotta go. My house is on fire.”

Now, at least this one is respectful, you think, listening to him talk about the products you’re shelving together. He had come over and offered to give you a hand when you looked confused, as a ‘Cheyanne’ had handed you a scanner earlier and then promptly ran off, despite your utter incompetence. You were so relieved that this guy turned up!!

“… so, you just punch in reduce .50, and scan! Its pretty easy, if you have it properly explained to you. I- I was actually in the same situation, as you! When I first started here, except I ended up, uh, reducing all the items in electronics to 15 cense rather than discounting it all 15 percent.” A grin spreads across your lips at the story, and thank god that Jonah had turned up before that happened to you and, with your luck, you got fired for it.

“Oh no!”

“Yeah- Amy, our uh, floor supervisor, was pretty cranky with me about that… “He laughs himself, resting his hands on his hips; Still looking nervous at the memory.

You look back down at the scanner you’re holding and shake your head. “Well at least you know, now! And thank you so much for coming to my aid, haha. I was so lost- you’ve been a huge help! A life saver, truly.”

“Yeah… “ He gives a cute little, reserved smile. “So, uh, its basically the end of the day! Hope you’re first day hasn’t been too strenuous. At the end of my first day, I know I was tired. But I got to go out with a couple of the other employees and have a drink, to destress. If-If you were free, we could… do something. Together.” Your eyebrows slowly raise up your forehead at that, and you turn to look up Jonah, sceptical. What was that? You sure have had a long day, and its about to get a lot longer if this boy is asking what you think he is. “Sorry! Sorry, that sounded weird. Um, I guess what I’m really asking, is… would you like to, I dunno, go out with me sometime? I know some great places.”

Oh, noooooo! You cry, on the inside. You thought you found a normal one!

Still, he is being so nice… The least you could do is let him down easily.

“Oh, Jonah, I actually… oh- sorry.” Your phone beeps in your pocket and you take it out quickly to have a glance - its just your mother… again, - … and suddenly get an idea. Feigning shock, you quickly put the phone away and put down the scanner. It’s time to clock out and go home, anyway, thank god. “I have to go! That was my mum, uh- I really have to go!”

“Wow, wow, wow, what’s wrong?? Can I help with anything?”

Oh… he looks so concerned. He’s sweet.

But before you can rethink your words, this living horror slips out. “My-my house is on fire.”

Oh god, you’re a horrible person.

~

“I’ve, I’ve got herpes. No- Syphilis!”

Oh thank god the day is over. Rolling your shoulders back, you kneel down at your bottom locker, open it up and take out your bag. Now you can go home and put on Gotham on Netflix, wear no pants and eat thin mints until you fall asleep.

When you get up, you aren’t watching out for a man to be standing barely half a foot away from you - Your mistake, obviously, - so you jolt right out of your skin when you see him and curse. What is wrong with these men? Does Cloud 9 offer complimentary staff ninja classes along with their lack of health insurance? Man, classy company. “Sorry!” You look up past the coveralls after stepping a safe distance back from him, and immediately feel dread deep in your chest. “Oh, hi. Marcus, was it?”

“That’s me! How was your first day?” He asks, seeming polite enough despite the fact that you’re cornered between tall boy and the lockers. And you’re too tired to try and slip away- this boy will get out of your way.

“It was good! Thanks for asking. I’m ready to go home and collapse, though.” You admit, shoulders dropping and a tired smile on your lips. Mmm… thin mints… bed… blankets… Cory Michael Smith… I can taste it… Marcus just needs to get out of my way.

“I hear that.” Evidently not quite as deeply, though, as he moves on pretty fast. “Listen- I was thinking if you’re into it we could… go out, some time.” He tilts his head forward to clarify, “On a date,”, in case that part hadn’t translated, and chuckles. “We could see a movie or get drinks, or something, I don’t know. How about tonight?”

T-tonight? The word nearly slips from your lips; All disbelief and tears and exhaustion, included. You’re so tired. “Um… you know, tempting offer, but um… “He looks so hopeful. It nearly changes your mind. “Not tonight.”

“OH! So like, tomorrow?” Oh christ- “Cuz I’m supposed to watch Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here with my mum, but… no, I can blow that off! So, tomorrow?”

You take a deep breath, not really knowing what you can say. “Marcus… “He raises his eyebrows, waiting for an answer. “… I have herpes.”

“Wait, what??” He steps back, nearly tripping over a table in his fear that just being near you will cause him to contract the disease, and you let your guard down in relief. Yep, for sure, definitely. If it makes him back off, then yes- you have herpes. You have a raging, festering case of herpes.

“Yeah! Or-“ Squinting, you pretend to sift through your brain. “Was it Syphilis?” This boys eyes basically bulge out of his head and you’re totally going to laugh about it later, but right now you have to get out of there. You waive your hand dismissively and walk on by him towards the door like you don’t have a care in the world. Before you leave though, you turn around a flash Marcus a big smile. “Either way, ew, right? Well, see you tomorrow buddy! Gotta go! Enjoy I’m A Celebrity with your mum.” Then you’re gone.

Tomorrow is going to be a much better day, once that rumour is properly spread.

[waitineedaname]

8 for roommates aha!

8. With a bunch of roommates, the mornings can really turn into HBO’s hit show Game of Toilets.

Gordon loved his friends. He really did. They had the kind of bond formed through going through a literal life or death situation together, and he cherished their friendship to no end. But if he had to live in a small apartment with them for much longer, he was going to tear his hair out.

When they had gotten their first chance to relax at Chuck E. Cheese post-Black Mesa, it quickly became obvious that he was the only one with a place to stay. Tommy and Coomer both lived in the Black Mesa dorms that were now buried under a metric ton of rubble, and Bubby had never even left the facility, but Gordon had an apartment nearby so he could host Joshua every other weekend. Gordon, being the gracious and bighearted man he was, invited them to stay in his guest rooms until they managed to get back on their feet. At first, it was okay. The Boomers could take his guest room, and Tommy could take Joshua’s bed when he wasn’t around. Eventually, Benrey showed up too, and that was also fine, whatever, Gordon had a futon in the living room. But as time wore on, Gordon found himself wishing he’d helped them all find a long term hotel to stay in or something.

He’d lived with roommates before. It was hard to get through college without living with other people. He thought his worst roommate experience would be his freshman year roommate who would forget his keys and crawl through the window at 2am, absolutely reeking. Living with the Science Team, however, proved to him that there were roommate quirks he hadn’t ever imagined. Like opening the cabinets for a midnight snack to discover Benrey already folded into the world’s most upsetting origami, eating all the cereal. Or Bubby and Coomer taking apart all of his appliances to put them back together into one mechanical abomination that no longer toasts bread or boils water, but does serve as a makeshift air fryer, for whatever reason. Or Tommy growing mystery creatures in cups of liquid left out on the windowsill.

Worst of all, somehow, was sharing a bathroom with all of them.

Gordon would admit it, he didn’t exactly have a low maintenance bathroom routine. His hair took a lot of work, okay? It was the part of his appearance he cared the most about, and that meant he had a lot of products and took a while in the shower. Sue him, it’s his fucking bathroom. Except it wasn’t anymore, apparently. Because Bubby took about ten years in the shower every fucking day, and then somehow Coomer would jump in after him before anyone else could take their opening, and then he’d take a century in the shower too. In the few minutes a day when the shower wasn’t occupied, Benrey would sneak in there and eat Gordon’s hair products. He hadn’t caught Benrey doing it yet, but he knew they were. And Tommy-

Well, actually, Tommy wasn’t that bad in the bathroom. The worst he did was tilt the showerhead up really high because he was so damn tall, but all things considered, having to reach up and tilt it back down was the least of Gordon’s concerns.

Dr. Coomer had just beaten him to the bathroom for the billionth time despite being across the damn apartment when the door opened, and Gordon collapsed on the couch with a groan. Tommy, seated at the corner of the couch and doing something to his alarm clock with a screwdriver, hummed sympathetically.

“Something wrong, Mr. Freeman?”

“Tommy, man, I love you guys but I want my fucking bathroom back,” Gordon said, running his hands down his face.

“Oh! Do- My dad’s been looking at real estate offers for us, should I tell him we’re ready to move out?”

“Wh- Yes!” Gordon took his hands off his face to stare upside down at Tommy. “Are you telling me you could’ve done that at any time?”

“Not any time, not, um, immediately after the party, but uh, yeah! I hadn’t told him we were ready yet because I thought we were having a… an extra long sleepover!”

Gordon was stunned silent, and anything he could’ve thought to say was completely derailed by Benrey wandering into the living room. “This juice is bangin’, yo,” Benrey said, smacking their lips. Gordon sat up enough to see what was in Benrey’s hand: Gordon’s high-end conditioner. The two made eye contact across the room.

“YOU!” Gordon bellowed, vaulting over the coffee table to chase after Benrey, who quickly scampered away.

Once he managed to pull Benrey down from their perch above the microwave, Gordon decided he needed to make a very important call to Mr. Coolatta.

[capstoverogers]

Pick Up Games - A 90s Avengers Fic

Synopsis: In a universe where Carol Danvers stays her ass put on Earth and the entire MCU takes place during the greatest decade, I present to you: the Avengers in the 90s, playing street ball

Pairings: Carol Danvers/Maria Rambeau, BestFriends!Maria Rambeau & Sam Wilson, Implied Sam Wilson/Bucky Barnes, V Subtle BlackHill

Warnings: Allusions to the traumatizing singing animatronics at Chuck E. Cheese

Word Count: 1,156

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In 1996, Sam Wilson is always wearing his Scottie Pippen Chicago Bulls jersey.

“MJ would be nothing without Pippen,” he constantly and confidently explains to anyone who will listen. “Every Michael needs his Scottie.”

Sam thinks he’s a much better basketball player than he actually is, but he can hold his own if he can keep his trigger-happy hands from launching an unnecessary three-pointer in pick-up games. He’ll maybe make one per game (and will consider himself the next Steve Kerr because of it), but he makes up for it because he’s the absolute king of assists.

Sam and Carol Danvers lead the charge to get some S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and the Avengers together to play pick-up every Saturday morning at the closest park. Maria and Monica Rambeau always dutifully watch from the bleachers (the former acting like its her greatest weekend inconvenience, though they all know she loves it). Monica insists on bringing the boombox, acts as the official DJ as she switches back and forth between the local hip hop and classic rock stations, because Carol swears nothing gets her in the game like glam metal.

Steve Rogers can always be seen nervously pacing the sidelines (he doesn’t think it’d be fair if he and his bulging chest join the game; besides he’s always been more of a baseball kind of guy), acting as the unofficial referee, no matter how many times they explain to him that the very nature of street ball is no rules.

“I just don’t want anybody to get hurt,” he whines with a pout so unintentionally puppy-like that they can’t help but keep letting him ref.

They call Bucky Barnes “the silent assassin” because you forget he’s there until suddenly he’s dropped twenty buckets on you out of nowhere. He grumbles every time Sam smacks his ass after a good play, but they all share secret smirks at the way he also flushes.

Rambeau alternates between heckling Sam every time he bricks a shot and hollering, “Hell yeah, that’s my best friend!” whenever he does his signature fake right, dish left to a wide open Hawkeye who sinks the three or lobs a perfect ally oop to Thor for the slam dunk.

Speaking of Hawkeye, Clint Barton is absolutely useless unless he’s behind the arc. Can’t dribble worth shit, but no one’s ever seen him miss a shot. Not ever.

Natasha Romanoff doesn’t play but can always be found wearing the shortest shorts anyone’s ever seen as she lounges on the bleachers, bobbing her head to the radio and trading jokes with Monica. When the game ends, she husks out a ‘good game, boys’ until an insistent cough draws her attention to a playfully glowering Maria Hill (who is an absolute beast on defense and in the post with that delightfully long torso of hers).

Without fail, Natasha flashes her the kind of smirk that’ll make you have to gulp down an entire gatorade in one go.

“But of course as always, the ladies did it better.”

“Thank you.” That would be Carol interrupting the moment. She’s the self-proclaimed captain every week and takes pick-up games way too seriously. Peter Parker’s no longer allowed to play with them because everyone’s afraid her competitiveness with crush his tiny little earnest spirit.

Carol’s absolutely radiant when her team wins, though, immediately beelining it to the bleachers to hoist a cheering Monica onto her shoulders as she quirks an eyebrow at the girl’s pretending-not-to-be-impressed mother.

“Don’t I get something for winning?” Carol baits.

“Yeah, you get to follow this ass to the car so you can buy us lunch.”

There’s a chorus of “oooohs” and Carol pouts until Rambeau breaks down and plants a kiss on her lips. Monica scrambles off Carol’s shoulders to leap into the arms of an approaching Sam (in a frankly very dangerous maneuver that Maria side eyes with pursed lips) as they all head for the parking lot. Bruce Banner - who shows up late and smothered in sunscreen - consoles a ruddy faced Thor with an awkward pat on the back, because the God of Thunder is absolutely a sore loser.

(“These silly Midgard games have nothing on the grand arena events we’d hold on Asgard each century! There I am the undisputed champion!”)

Carol and Maria jump into their neighboring convertibles, playfully competing to see who can get Monica to ride with them until the girl proclaims “I want to ride with Uncle Sam!” Carol gapes and Maria rolls her eyes fondly as Sam triumphantly cackles.

“You raising her right, Rambeau,” Sam teases. “She knows quality when she sees it.”

Carol putting her middle finger on display in his direction just makes Sam laugh louder as he carries Monica over to his trusty blue Camry, followed a little too close by Bucky (everyone does them the courtesy of pretending not to notice). Steve throws his ham-hocked leg over his Harley, and the rest pile into Barton’s mini van (Natasha forgoes claiming her usual assumed position of shot gun to instead press her thighs against a self-satisfied Maria Hill in the backseat).

They make their way to Chuck E. Cheese for lunch because let’s be real, Monica calls the shots (and Sam honestly likes their pizza, he doesn’t care how the super soldier Brooklyn Boys give him shit for this “blasphemy”). Tony Stark, Pepper Potts and little Morgan Stark meet them there and Stark spontaneously decides to buy a birthday party package, even though it’s nowhere close to anyone’s birthday and the Chuck E. Cheese is technically already fully booked for the day. But he’s Tony Stark - like they’re really gonna say no. With a slice of pizza in one hand and a fountain coke in the other, Tony babbles on about how he could improve the animatronic technology to make it less creepy.

“I better not go into the garage later and see one of those things,” Pepper warns as she warily eyes the stuttering movements of robotic Chuck and gang as they sing an honestly not terrible cover of the Beatles “Eight Days a Week.”

Carol and Monica go on a rampage through all the games and absolutely clean out the place, earning enough tickets to win a huge Captain Marvel plushie that Carol cheekily gifts Maria (who rolls her eyes but secretly pulls out to cuddle against every time Carol’s called up to space for long periods of time) and Thor talks excitedly about the nine realms with a creature he swears he recognizes from space until Bruce has to gently point out that it’s just a human in a giant rat costume.

That night, Carol gets an AOL instant message from NicholasNotNickFury:

NicholasNotNickFury: thanks for inviting me to your little Saturday pick up games

CaptainHotStuff: but we didn’t invite you

NicholasNotNickFury: IT WAS SARCASM DANVERS

The end.