#riverdale one shot

[cantgetworsethanthistbh]

dumping more of my stancest feels here because i cannot NOT think of them. i read journal 3 for the first time this week and its great because Ford acts like stanley's biggest hater which is pretty fking funny (if not absolutely infuriating at times because omfg stfu you smug prick)

but the moments like this get to me

Ford being blinded by his quest of grandeur, accolades and praise for world changing discoveries, so obsessed with greatness, being the first name people remember, and all the other things his npd-isms tells him he wants.

And then there's "reminds me of camping with my brother. i wonder what he's up to..."

i mentioned in my previous post that stan acts quite a lot like the anchor to ford's boat, keeping him grounded and most importantly, safe from both the bitter and the sweet kinds of evils. but he also represents something so much simpler to ford too: the simple desires he represses so much because its not "good enough" for someone special like him.

he resents stan so much because he represents a "block" against that percieved good enough success he wants, the obstacle that made it impossible to get in a fancy college, become the world renowed researcher, the one who wanted to destroy his journal's and lifes work (even though it was the better, safer option if Bill really WAS that dangerous, which he was) that could still make him famous. because if ford's not "praised and weird" then he's just "weird" and being "weird" was nothing but a pain his whole life that kept him rejected and isolated from the masses. and stan prevented him from that.

(btw "maybe he can prove himself to me" is nasty work my god ford is a douche lmao)

a lot of his projections of something greater comes through with how he treated dipper in the show (his whole spiel in damvtf) and fiddleford in journal 3 where he looks down on the happy life that fiddleford had with his wife and child and saying he was "wasting his talents" making computers. and like, we all know by the way he takes them on high stakes adventures they're not as prepared for compared to him (and end up causing more trouble than not by doing so), he's trying to fill a gaping hole left by someone else. we all know this obviously, we all know what we ship here, but what i came to appreciate the most about it is how much that gaping hole exists in the low stakes

everytime ford is thinking during the "down time" moments, his thoughts always drift back to his childhood, and one person who represents it.

childhood memories, making fun of stans favorite snack, scribbling out a design of the stan o war, whenever Ford lets his mind wander it expresses such an intense yearning for the past before he became obsessed with wanting something more. these are his most utmost and most unfiltered thoughts, which is why he scribles them away or and writes in code. and the fact that he directly says they are about NOT getting married, followed with "wondering what he's doing right now", painting the picture of what his most ideal idylic life is. wanting a return of something lost. wanting Stan back more than anything.

he finally accepts that his dream never really changed, just the same as stan's and so they saild off together for the rest of their days, in ford's own words (which ironically sounds like a marriage to me either way so tough shit ford)

[froottalks]

Whispers of Lost Love - Veronica Lodge x reader

[summary: reader and veronica were in a relationship, veronica ends it due to her family/personal problems. later veronica misses the reader but the damage was already done.]

Masterlist

The city streets were painted with the hues of twilight, a melancholic setting that mirrored the storm of emotions within your heart. Veronica Lodge, the woman who had once been the melody of your life, now stood before you like a distant star whose light had faded. The love you had shared, once a symphony of passion and promise, had transformed into a haunting melody of heartbreak.

Veronica's gaze held a mixture of sadness and regret, her lips quivering as if struggling to find the right words. "We need to talk," she said softly, her voice carrying the weight of a decision that could alter the course of your lives.

You let out a nervous laugh, "Everything alright V?" you have an idea of what's to come even though you don't want to believe it. After all, nothing ever comes with your girlfriend saying, we need to talk.

The two of you found yourselves on the balcony of your favorite coffee shop, a place that had once been the backdrop to whispered confessions and shared laughter. Now, the air was heavy with tension, the space between you a chasm that seemed impossible to bridge.

"What is it, Veronica?" you asked, your voice barely above a whisper, though the fear of what she might say seemed to amplify your words.

She took a deep breath, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. "I think… I think we should break up."

The words hung in the air like a dissonant chord, shattering the fragile remains of the love you had once nurtured. Your heart seemed to stop, the pain of her declaration a piercing ache that radiated through your chest.

"I don't understand," you managed to say, your voice trembling with a mixture of confusion and hurt.

Veronica's gaze never left yours, her expression torn between sorrow and determination. "(Y/n), I love you, but our paths are... diverging. My family's legacy, the expectations... I'm suffocating, and I... I can't be the person you deserve right now."

Tears blurred your vision as you struggled to process her words. The love that had once felt like an unbreakable bond was now unraveling, slipping through your fingers like mere grains of sand.

"Why didn't you talk to me about this? We could have faced it together," you said, your voice a blend of hurt and desperation.

Veronica's shoulders slumped, the weight of her decision evident in her posture. She had tears streaming down her face now, "I thought I could handle it on my own. I thought I was protecting you."

The pain in your chest deepened, the ache of betrayal mingling with the sorrow of losing the person who had meant the world to you. The city lights twinkled around you, a stark contrast to the darkness that seemed to have settled within your heart.

Days turned into weeks, and the emptiness left by Veronica's absence in your life was a constant reminder of the love you had lost. The places you had once explored together and had filled you with happiness and joy, were now tinged with bittersweet memories, the laughter and shared moments haunting your thoughts like a poignant melody.

You found yourself navigating through life, the once-familiar routine now a chore. The ache of missing Veronica was an ever-present companion, a shadow that seemed to grow longer with each passing day. The lyrics of the songs you once loved held new meanings, resonating with the emotions you were unable to express.

One evening, as the rain pattered against your window, a message notification broke the silence of your solitude. It was from Veronica—an invitation to meet at a place that had once been your sanctuary.

With a mixture of trepidation and longing, you knew you shouldn't but you found yourself at the familiar park bench, the place where you had shared secrets, dreams, and your love. Veronica was already there, her gaze a mixture of sadness and regret. She stood up when she saw you approach,

"(Y/n), I miss you," she said softly, her voice carrying the weight of unspoken emotions.

Your heart ached at her words, the flood of memories overwhelming. "Veronica, why did you end things if you miss me?"

She looked down, her fingers nervously tracing patterns on her lap. "I thought I was doing what was best for both of us. But I've realized that losing you hurt more than any challenge I face."

Tears welled in your eyes as you stared at the person who had once been your everything, now standing before you with a vulnerability that mirrored your own.

"Is there a chance for us?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

You hesitated, the wounds of her decision still fresh. "Veronica, you walked away from us."

She reached for your hand, her touch a fragile lifeline in the sea of pain. "I was wrong, and I regret it every day. But I still love you."

The rain intensified around you, the drops echoing the tears that were threatening to fall from your eyes. The memories of your love story flooded your thoughts—the laughter, the promises, the dreams you had shared.

With a heavy heart, you pulled your hand away. "Veronica, what we had was beautiful, but it's different now. I can't go back to the way things were."

She bowed her head, barely giving a light nod, her shoulders shaking with the weight of her sorrow. "I understand."

The silence that followed was filled with the echoes of a love that had once been everything, and now was a haunting reminder of what could have been.

As you walked away, the raindrops mingled with your tears, each step taking you further from the woman who had once held your heart.

THE END

[jugheadvarchoni]

The core four in “Archie’s Holiday Magic #1 Special (one-shot)” ❄️☃️

— Main Cover by Gretel Lusky & Variant Cover by Gary Erskine

[jugheads-choni]

A new “meet the characters” for Archie Comics’ July 17th one shot: “Truth or Dare”!!!!

Featuring my FAVS Jughead, Cheryl, & Toni! Also Trula, Ethel, Betty, Kevin, Jason, Moose, Midge, Trev, & Reggie!! 🥰

[strideofpride]

Jughead surviving rabies makes him one of only two people in human history to have done so. Okay medical marvel 🫡

[dxnyarya]

good luck, babe by chappell roan is actually so early season 7 cheryl coded

[wxckedwxrld]

Oneshots

➪𝑭𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝑵𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔 𝒂𝒕 𝑭𝒓𝒆𝒅𝒅𝒚’𝒔

➪𝑯𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒚 𝑷𝒐𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓

➪𝑳𝒂𝒘 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑶𝒓𝒅𝒆𝒓:𝑺𝑽𝑼

➪𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒗𝒆𝒍

➪𝑵𝒂𝒓𝒄𝒐𝒔

➪𝑷𝒆𝒂𝒌𝒚 𝑩𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔

➪𝑹𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒅𝒂𝒍𝒆

➪𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒓 𝑾𝒂𝒓𝒔

➪𝑺𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔

➪𝑺𝒖𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒂𝒍

[kcthescreamqueen]

Master List

You can find the people I write for here, and here, you can sign up to be, tagged for specific fandoms or people. The list will have frequent updates as I find new fandoms I like, so I’d recommend checking it occasionally.

My inbox is open with anon on. Please don’t abuse the anon power, I want people to have the freedom to be able to drop requests anonymously without having to feel uncomfortable about their requests and being able to see they might like freaky stuff, and no one knows that. I do take requests!

Tag List

Writing Dues and Don'ts

[pileofboneswrites]

THINGS ARE DIFFERENT.

SUMMARY — this year brought a world of horrors for you. a car accident just weeks before your first day of sophomore year leaves you with no memory of the last year of your life. six months later, things have settled for you; you've got perfect grades, you're a cheerleader and your boyfriend is the quarterback. life is great, perfect even, until a certain raven-haired boy comes crashing into your life, causing chaos and triggering some of your memories to come back.

PAIRING — sweet pea x fem!andrews!reader | reggie mantle x fem!andrews! reader

WORD COUNT — 9.6k

WARNINGS — shitty friends, mentions of a car accident, cheating (caught in the act), lying, angst, fighting, swearing, i think that's it???? (let me know if i missed anything!!!!)

A/N — the plot of riverdale is kind of muddled in this fic; hiram logde's plans are apart of it somewhat, but jason is still alive. no mention of "yn" everyone mostly refers to her as andrews, reg refers to reader as "sunshine" a few times, and fred refers to her as kiddo, also the absolute SHITSHOW i went through to post this, oh my god, tumblr formatting is FUCKED (i usually write everything in my notes app or on wattpad bc i have lost so many partially done fics to shitty service). like i get WHY, but AHHHHHHHH (that's me screaming at the top of my lungs,,, 24 hour loop edition), not proof read

MASTERLIST | RIVERDALE

YOU.

"ronnie needs our support on this," your twin brother archie explains, he's leaning against the door frame of your bedroom.

your back is to him, and you're trying to get ready to head out for school. your homework, laptop and other things sit spewed around your room. utter chaos from your midnight homework session. you straighten yourself, finally meeting his eyes.

"yeah, and? veronica is your girlfriend, not mine archie." you reply, leaning down to shove your laptop into your school bag.

"please?" he pleads, and you roll your eyes.

veronica lodge's dad is no good for riverdale, you can feel it. every move he makes seems to rattle one of archie's friends, or cause a disturbance within the town. since hiram rolled in it seems like one half of riverdale is always up in arms. first jughead when the serpents trashed the drive-in, and the northsiders because of the southsiders joining the now only school in riverdale.

"arch, i don't have the same kind of love from my friends you do. i step on their toes over this, i'm going to be an outcast." you reply, zipping up your bag.

"you can always hang with us," archie sighs, crossing his arms over his chest. "i know that betty misses you a lot, same with jughead."

"then why haven't they reached out?" you snap, sick of the conversation at hand.

archie always gets your hopes up, then plans fall through or they "unintentionally" leave you out. so, you're done. they know that you don't remember anything from the last year; the good, the bad or the petty. you're done trying to change things when with every effort you're shot down. you want normalcy. you want your friends back, but if they're not going to tell you what's going on, or make an effort, then why should you?

"just think about it, okay?" archie says, and you shake my head.

you throw my bag over your shoulder and push past him. you pause in the hallway, guilt creeping up on you, but ultimately decide not to worry about it. archie's been babying you, coddling you even since the accident. which to an extent you can understand it; you could have died. at the same time you feel like you never have a moment to yourself. archie's always lurking. you jog down the stairs, patting vegas as you slip out the front door onto the footpath.

the weather is hazy, it's damp out, fog lining the streets obscuring vision twenty feet head. you thank the powers that be for you remember a jacket. you pull your hood up as you walk towards the sidewalk, but you catch sight of your boyfriend's car parked on the street.

"morning princess," reggie calls through the open passenger window.

"morning reg," you reply pulling the door open and sliding into the passenger seat.

"did you hear about southside high closing?" he prompts after you give him a quick peck on the lips. "means all the trash is going to be clogging the halls of riverdale high,"

"yeah, arch filled me in this morning. you'd think after all the drama surrounding archie and the serpents he'd be less than excited about them transferring in." you sigh, tossing your bag into the backseat.

"he's on their side?" reggie asks, mouth twisting in disgust.

"guess so," you shrug, pulling on your seatbelt as reggie pulls away from the curb.

"but you're not?"

"i'm indifferent," you reply. "i don't care one way or the other,"

"cheryl's going to hate it," he says, and you shrug again.

the drive is relatively short, and silent. when you and reggie aren't making out, it's usually pretty quiet. you're together on the principle of "it makes sense". that's quite literally how he phrased it when he asked you out. and to an extent he's right. it makes sense for a football player to be dating a cheerleader. it makes sense. that being said, your relationship is entirely physical and for show. you're more along the lines of friends with benefits than an actual relationship. he only calls you when there's a party, or he's horny. romantic, you know. reggie grabs your backpack, and you climb out of the car.

"morning!" betty shouts, climbing out of her mom's car.

"hey," you reply, watching as she b-lines towards you.

"you friends with cooper again?" reggie whispers, leaning against the passenger side door.

"no, her friends want my support about the southside," you whisper back, plastering on a fake smile.

"good morning," mrs. cooper says as she drives past.

"good morning mrs. cooper!" you reply cheerily, she smiles and waves before turning out onto the street.

"hey, can we talk for a minute?" betty asks, stopping a few feet away.

she looks like she always does. blonde hair pulled up in a tight ponytail, makeup pretty minimal and natural, and her signature grey crown sweatshirt.

"sure," you say, and reggie leans down to plant a kiss on your lips, as you grab your backpack from him. "see you in homeroom."

he just smirks at you, as you turn away. you feel his eyes on your back until the two of you slip inside of the school. you feel slightly more at ease without reggie by your side. you follow betty to the room dedicated to the blue and gold (your school newspaper). betty drops into her seat at her desk, and you drop your bag on the table and plop down in the chair on the otherside of her desk. you sit, crossing your arms over your chest.

"whats do you want?" you ask, your question coming out ruder than you'd intended.

"i uh, i wanted to touch base." she says, averting eye conact.

"touch base? we haven't spoken since before my accident, betty. what do you really want?" you snap, becoming both annoyed and upset that she didn't actually mean it.

you could have played dumb, you could have gossiped, you could have gave her a life update. but you spend so much time being fake with your 'friends' that you can't handle any more superficial small talk that neither of you will remember. she looks taken a back by your brashness, and you feel a twinge of guilt. just a twinge.

"i—" she starts, but you cut her off as you forcfully shove your chair back, causing an awful screeching sound as it drags across the tile floor.

"look, cooper, if you need something, be straight with me and don't get my hopes up to use me for information." you grab your backpack and trudge into the hallway crashing straight into someone sending you flying back.

you grunt, bracing for the impact but instead you feel two hands on my arms steadying me. you peak your eyes open, and see a tall guy with dark hair and a leather jacket.

"oh shit, i'm sorry," you mutter slipping past him as you rush up the stairs.

you feel the hair on the back of your neck stand up, like someone's watching you. you turn your head as you head up, and see the guy who caught you staring in your direction. he looks pissed, and you wonder for a brief moment if that anger is directed at you. you feel someone poke you in the shoulder and you turn your head to look at them. you jump in shock at how close she is.

"you good?" cheryl asks, the usual distaste in her voice, one eyebrow raised in question.

"yeah, fine," you reply walking in step with her, glancing down the stairs, to see a brown and pink haired girl pulling him away.

"—and i don't know why she wants this so bad—" cheryl's voice drifts off into backgroung noise, something that tends to happen more and more frequently.

that guy looked weirdly familiar. you swear you've seen his face before but you can't seem to place it. which is also happening more, and more frequently to you. you know it's going to bug the hell out of you.

"—and i said—" cheryl continues, as you head towards english.

"andrews!" you feel two arms wrap around your middle, and you're yanked backwards and lifted up.

"ahhhhhh!" you shout, startled by the sudden movement and contact, your kneejerk reaction is to raise your elbow and throw it into the first piece of flesh you connect with.

"andr- shit!" a familiar voice yells, as you free fall to the ground, landing on your ass hard. "what the hell, dude!?"

you lift my head and see cheryl's twin brother jason leaning over, clutching his stomach in pain. you clap your hand over your mouth in a mix of embarrassment. he glances down at you, rubbing the tender area, mouthing 'what the fuck' over and over.

"shit! jason, i'm so sorry—" you say, quickly standing up, he waves you away so he can take a second.

"what has you so jumpy this morning?" cheryl asks, crossing her arms and raising both her eye brows at me.

"no clue," you reply truthfully.

"too much caffeine likely," jason says, standing up right and throwing his arms cross both mine and cheryl's shoulders to guide us to class.

"how many cups a day are you drinking?"

"two," you reply, no hesitation.

you haven't been sleeping much lately, or at all really. you weren't sure what was worse; the lack of sleep, or the fact that when you do manage to fall alseep all you seem to dream of is the four agonizing hours you were trapped in your car after the accident.

"four with extra espresso." jason chirps, and you mock elbow him and he flinches, dropping his arm from your shoulder to shield himself. "not cool dude,"

"aw, prwincess," you mutter tapping his cheek with your hand.

you duck under his arms at a weak attempt to catch you, and slide into class dropping into your usual seat beside ethel muggs. mrs. leroy has all the desks grouped in twos. she likes to assign a lot of partner assignments and classwork, so you ended up with desk pairs.

"good morning," ethel says brightly, and you smile at her.

"good morning ethel, how was your weekend?"

"it was good, how was yours?"

"it was okay," you reply and shrug as mrs. leroy, our english teacher waddles into the room.

she drops her bag beside her desk and takes off her jacket, hanging it on the back of her chair before standing at the front of the room and clearing her throat.

"alright guys, we have a bunch of new students joining us. i'm sure you heard about the students from southside high tranfering in, and we're going to be very welcoming. as such, i've decided to change up your desk partners to kick off our next project." she says, and everyone groans. "hey! who knows, maybe you'll meet your new best friend!"

you drop your head down on the desk as she continues to speak.

"i call your pairs and you'll move to the assigned set of desk pairs, every up."

everyone obeys, clearing to the back, front and sides of the room as she spends the next fifteen minutes reseating you.

"mr. blossom and ms. topaz, these desks please." jason nudges your foot as he passes.

"she's pretty," he mouths and you roll your eyes, a shit eating grin on his face.

"mr. sweet pea, and ms. andrews."

"sweet pea, what kind of name is that?" cheryl snickers, rolling her eyes.

you step forward, dropping into the closest desk to you, ducking your head to look into your backpack for my notebook and pencil. you drop them onto the desk, and look ahead to the board.

"uh, excuse me—?" you turn my head, and see the guy who caught me in the hallway.

"yeah?"

he's cute. messy—but like the intentional kind of messy—dark hair, with curls over his forehead, and dark eyes. there's a hint of ink poking out over the collar of his leather jacket, you catch sight of a snake's head.

"can i— uh— can i borrow a pencil or pen?" he asks, and you nod, turning to dig into you backpack for one.

you feel his eyes on you, watching your every move as you dig. you pull out the first pen you find and hand it over. he reaches out, grabbing hold of it, and your fingers briefly touch. a shiver immediately shoots down my spine, and you drop your hand. you get a flash of a memory, it's difficult to piece together what you're remembering. you see a flash of a half empty vodka bottle, a leather jacket, and a tattoo gun. you gather your things, and jump out of your seat rushing to the bathroom, you hastily shove your notebook away and drop your bag upon entering the bathroom. you drop to your knees in front of the first toilet you find, and empty the contents of your stomach. you wipe your mouth with the back of your hand and lean back against the stall dividers, trying to catch your breath.

it was like for a brief moment you was there. you could hear the tattoo gun buzzing, you could feel the scratch against your skin and you could taste the vodka. you stand up, and walk over to the mirror. maybe you're losing your mind. you would notice a tattoo, wouldn't you? if you didn't know to look for one, maybe you wouldn't... you lift your hoodie a little, and catch sight of one of the snake's heads poking out from under the underwire of your bra.

"holy shit," you breath, pulling your hoodie back down.

you lean down, and turn on the water slashing it onto your face. you stare hard at yourself in the mirror. how could you not see something like that? why didn't anyone tell you? you were told that you grew apart from your friends, but by the looks of things you had a whole other set that no one knew about, or at the very least didn't want you to go back to. the bell rings, signaling the end of first period, and you stand there staring at yourself in the mirror. the door opens slightly, and the brown and pick haired girl sticks her head in and sees you.

"hey, are you okay?" she asks, opening the door fully to come in.

"uh, yeah, i think so." you reply, and she nods, not pushing the topic any further, which you appreciate.

checking in on you is a small act of kindness that not even my so-called 'best friend' cheryl could give. you feel your phone vibrate in your pocket, and pull it out, turning away from the sink to lean on it. think of the devil, a text from cheryl.

you don't reply, you just sigh, and shove your phone back into your pocket. you look up and catch the girl's reflection staring at you.

"uh, sorry." she says and you shake your head, mustering a small smile.

"it's okay, i'm—," you say, sticking out your hand to her.

"actually, we've met bef—" she cuts you off, but is cut off by the bell ringing.

then there's a loud bang on the door, and it opens slightly.

"topaz! we need to talk," it's sweet pea.

she throws you a sympathetic smile and heads out to the hallway. you there for another few minutes, fully aware of the fact that you're missing chemistry before you pull your phone back out, and call your dad. i can't handle this, i'm incredibly overwhelmed. all of this is too much. i know toni? i'm a southside serpent?

"hey kiddo, what's up?" he asks, answering on the first ring, it's his coffee break. "aren't you supposed to be in class?"

"i am," you reply, your voice shaking, immediately giving away how you're feeling. "i just— dad—"

"sweetheart?" he prompts.

fred andrews, a saint walking, ever understanding. you're incredibly blessed to have him for a dad. you force yourself to take a shaky breath, you're on the verge of tears and your eyes burn.

"can i have a day? i just— i'm so overwhelmed. can i go home?" you ask, the dam breaking, tears slipping down your cheeks.

"yeah, kiddo, i'll come get you and sign you out for the day, okay?" he says, and you whisper okay. "hang tight, i'll be there soon."

"thanks dad," you say, and hang up.

you stare at your reflection, your eyes are puffy and you look like hell. your hair is a mess, but you really don't have the energy to fix it. you grab a couple paper towels from the dispenser and wipe your face. you grab your backpack and head down to the office. you drop into one of the chairs across from mrs. bell's desk to wait.

"oh, hi," she says, exiting mr. weatherbee's office holding a folder. "how can i help you dear?"

"i'm not feeling well, my dad's coming to pick me up." you reply, forcing a small smile.

"oh i'm sorry to hear that dear, i hope you feel better," she gives you a sympathetic look as she plops down at her desk.

you're used to the look; the sad eyes with a small forced smile, you'd recived it a lot since the accident. there were no fatalities thankfully, but it drastically changed your life. at least you have to assume it did, you'd lost a year's worth of memories and it only took you a severe concussion and a couple weeks of physical therapy.

"good morning, dorris," comes your dad's voice, he steps into the office and mrs. bell smiles at him.

"well hello, fred." she says, a faint smile on her lips.

everyone on this side of town loves your dad. fred andrews is the kind of guy who will drop everything if you're in a bind, whether you're a friend or not. he signs you out on the sign out clipboard and turns to you.

"ready to go?" he asks, and you nod, standing up.

he slings an arm around your shoulders, and you wrap an arm around his middle as you walk. he doesn't ask you any questions, but you're sure when you get home he's going to have some.

SWEETPEA.

"she acts like she's never met us before," fangs says, sitting down beside sweet pea on the steps leading up to the bleachers.

they need privacy to talk about what's happening, this was the closest thing sweet pea could find. especially with all the gawking, stares and judgemental looks they'd been receiving since showing up to their new school this morning.

"i know, she didn't even say "hi" or anything. it's the least she could have done given everything," sweet pea grumbles, watching as toni walks towards them.

"she doesn't remember us," toni says, coming to a stop in front of them. "she literally doesn't remember us. like at all, she introduced herself to me in the bathroom,"

"what the hell?" fangs mutters, "maybe it's an elaborate plan to keep her summer in the snakes den a secret?"

"that is the dumbest thing i have ever heard," toni says crossing her arms over her chest. "you heard how she was talking before she ghosted us, she was over it all, the cliques, school, all of it."

"she said we were her family," sweet pea mumbles, "and then she disappeared. maybe it was all a lie,"

"jesus christ, or maybe, something bad happened to her, and she actually doesn't remember us." toni replies, the annoyance in her voice prominent. "and if she didn't remember us, then how would she know to contact us?"

"i sent her over a hundred texts since she disappeared, none of them have even been opened."

"case and point," toni says, rolling her eyes. "look, sit and stew in your misery, or confront her. i don't know about you guys, but i plan on getting my friend back."

with that toni turns on her heel, and heads back towards the school. fangs sighs, and stands up, brushing the dust off his ass as he turns to stand where toni had just been.

"maybe she's right," he says, looking down at sweet pea. "we know elly, she wouldn't just up and ghost us like this unless something happened. i want our friend back, and i'm with toni on trying by any means necessary to get her back,"

fangs studies sweet pea's face, looking for any indication that he's heard anything he said. after a moment, fangs sighs again, and turns to follow toni back into the school. sweet pea sits there on the bleachers, he watches as his friends grow smaller and smaller the further they get. he groans, and throws his head back. he's frustrated. he hasn't heard a damn thing from you in months, and then he sees you at his new school and suddenly his whole world collapses. he sighs, and pulls his cellphone out of the pocket of his leather jacket. he opens up his texts, and pulls up your messages.

you never showed up, you never called, you just disappeared. well, apparently you hadn't, but for sweet pea you did. other than toni and fangs he had no other friends in common at the time. no way of getting a hold of you when his calls all suddenly hit you voicemail. now here you are, back in his life, but so far from his reach. he had hoped a million times over the last six months that he'd find out what happened, that he'd get some kind of explanation or closure. something. anything.

but when his eyes landed on you, it was like all the anger towards you, and the situation melted away. for a second, it was like you were never gone. then that daydream snapped, and you were rushing away. not an ounce of recognition in your eyes. it hurt. his phone vibrates in his hand, and it brings him back. back to the bleachers, back to the harsh reality that you might have no clue who he is, back to the anger that swirls in his head, back to how much he loves you, and how much his heart hurts because you might no remember any of it.

he looks down at the screen, leaning forward, his elbows resting on his knees as the bell rings again.

YOU.

"alright, so, what's up?" he asks, as you drop onto the couch.

vegas jumps up beside you, and drops his head into your lap. you run your fingers through his soft fur and try to figure out a way to start this conversation.

"what was i like over the summer?" you ask, looking up at him.

he's standing by the front door, leaning against the archway leading into the living room. he's got his arms crossed and he's watching you silently.

"you were like you are now," he shrugs, "you didn't spend much time home, at first you were busy with cheryl and then you got a job."

"a job?" you ask, that's new information. "where?"

"the twilight drive-in," he replies, "you made some new friends with your co-workers, or so you said. you and archie were barely home over the summer,"

there's a few moments of silence as you digest this new information.

"dad?"

"yeah kiddo?"

"where was i going? why was i in that car?"

"truthfully, i don't know. archie said the two of you had gotten in a pretty heated fight, and you'd stormed out. a few hours later i got a call from sheriff keller,"

you nod, and sigh, leaning forward. you rest your elbows on your knees, and rub your eyes.

"i had a memory come back," you say after a minute, you don't look up at him. "it was weird though, it was really intense. it was like i was inside the memory."

"do you know what triggered it?"

"no," you lie, until you figure out what's going on with you, you plan to keep sweet pea and toni out of things. "it just hit me in the middle of english, and i had to get out of the room. i went to the bathroom and i puked."

"you puked?"

"yeah, nausea hit me seconds after the memory."

"well, at least you're making progress. the doctor said it could take a while,"

you nod, finally looking up at him. he checks his watch, and comes into the livingroom.

"you take it easy okay? don't strain yourself," he kisses your forehead and heads back to the front door. "i love you,"

"love you too dad," you murmur, watching him leave.

when you can no longer hear the rumble of his truck, you decide to head up to your room. until the accident you'd kept a near meticulous set of diaries, if you can find the one you was working on, maybe it can shed some light on what's going on.

it's weird, you're you, living in your body, but up until six months ago you were a completely different person. it's like living inside a stranger. you step into your room, it's a mess. clothes litter the floor, spilling from your closet, empty take away coffee cups, empty mugs from downstairs and energy drink cans litter the top of your dresser and desk. you go to the hall closet across from your room and grab a garbage bag and head back in. might as well clean up.

a few hours later you stand in the center of your now clean room. all your clean clothes have been re-folded or hung up, all the dirty clothes are in the wash and there's not a single thing out of place. except for—you squint, dropping to your knees in front of your bed, leaning down to pull two cardboard boxes from underneath. one is marked MY NOTEBOOKS, DON'T TOUCH (THAT MEANS YOU ARCH) in all caps—obviously your diaries, but the other has no label. you take off the lid and audibly gasp at the contents. sitting on top is a leather jacket with the southside serpents logo on the back, under the jacket is a dark green journal, a white handled switchblade, your old cellphone and a set of keys.

the screen on the phone is shattered, pretty near unusable by most people's standards. no one knew where your phone was after the crash. you'd just written it off as lost... finding it here, in this box changes things. you put it on the charger, and sit cross legged on the floor. maybe it'll be able to turn it on, if not you could to take it to a repair shop. you pick up the jacket, and check all the pockets. inside the left pocket is a half crumpled note, you pull it out and flatten it. it's definitely not your writing. it has one sentence, and it crushes you.

i love you too - sweet pea

you drop your hand holding the paper into your lap. that just makes everything even worse. does he know that you lost your memories? does he know about the accident? does toni? do they think you're pretending? were you on your way to see him when you crashed?

"fuck," you whisper, pulling your knees up to your chest.

you wanted the truth, and you got it, well part of it. how do you process all of this? how do you fix this? god, you just want to scream. throw things. have a little bit of a meltdown. it won't fix anything, but it might make you feel better. you rest your forehead on the edge of your bed and sit there on the floor, the jacket half hanging out of the box.

"hey?" comes archie's voice from the hallway, i jump at the sound. "hey- are you okay?"

you kick the box under your bed and glance up to see archie. he stops at the threshold, looking intently at you. you hear more sets of feet coming up the steps.

"i—"

you want to lie, you want to tell him you're fine. say everything's a-ok. but it's not. it's really not. and then betty, jughead and veronica come up behind archie and the damn breaks. you start violently, and uncontrollably sobbing into my arms. how did you wake up a year and a half older with such resentment for your three best friends? how did your life fall apart so quickly?

"hey, sh, sh, you're okay, everything's okay," archie says dropping to his knees to envelope you in a hug.

the other drop down on the floor with you. veronica and betty rub your back soothingly. you need to apologize, but you can't stop crying. maybe that's just as well, still a meltdown, just a different kind you suppose.

"i'm sorry!" you cry, frantically wiping your eyes with the sleeve of your sweater.

you dislike crying in front of people, and you know most people don't like having someone cry in front of them. you try and steady your breathing.

"hey, you don't have to apologize," veronica says. "we've all kind of been terrible friends since your accident,"

"that's why we're here," betty adds, patting your shoulder comfortingly.

"that's why they're here," jughead says, and betty swats at him and misses. "hey! let me finish woman! i was going to say, i've been a great friend. we had lots of fun working at the drive-in together,"

"jug..." betty says softly, using that same tone people often use when they're tip-toing around things that might hurt you. she shakes her head slightly, "she doesn't—"

"hey! don't talk about me like i'm not here!" you say loudly, all three of them turn to look at you. "i'm not fragile, you don't have to choose your words carefully around me, i have amnesia not brain damage."

"you're right," veronica says, staring each of them down until they nod. "we all need to stop treating you like glass,"

you quickly stand, your back to them for a minute. you take a deep breath, and turn around.

"arch, what were we fighting about when i left?" you ask, and he looks at you for a moment before swallowing, hard.

"you felt abandoned," he says, his eyes falling to the black rug they're sitting on. "you were upset because we were going on our annual nyc trip, but i'd also promised ronnie i'd help her with something in the morning, and i wanted to push the trip back by two, three hours. and you got really upset and exploded on me—it was entirely justified on your end—there was a lot of things you wanted to do together over the summer and i either canceled or forgot. i was a shitty brother."

"no, arch, you weren't. i'm sure i was just being drama—" you start, but archie raises his hand and you stop.

"no, i was being selfish. i made you a promise, and i broke it. i'm sorry," archie says, standing up and pulling you into a tight hug. "i'm sorry, i really am."

"and we're sorry," jughead says, as archie lets you go. "we thought that giving you some space would be a good thing, but we all got a little caught up in our own shit."

"i understand that, however, i've been alone pretty much for six months." you reply, crossing your arms over your chest.

"you've had cheryl, and jason, and reggie—you seemed like you were pretty happy..." betty says, and you shrug, looking away from her. 

"cheryl is nice— but all we talk about is her. jason's fun to hang with but we have nothing in common other than reggie and cheryl. and reggie.." you sigh, staring out your window over their heads. "reggie made sense."

"he made sense?" veronica asks, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"picking reggie made sense, and don't get me wrong i do like reggie, he's a great guy—a good listener, great at solving problems, fun to hang out with and all—but there's no connection." you sigh, you briefly contemplate telling them about the jacket, about your supposed summer with the serpents, but decide against it for now.

"are you going to break up with him?" archie asks, and you shrug in reply.

"i probably should," you sigh again, why does all of this have to be so damn hard? "did he ask about me when i disappeared this morning?"

"yeah, i told him you weren't feeling well. dad text me about you being home," archie says, and you nod.

"well, i say we grab dinner at pops tonight like old times," veronica says when the silence goes on a beat too long.

"honestly, i would love that, but i have to tie up some lose ends first. i'll meet you guys there at," you pause, walking over to your old phone, tapping the screen, relief shoots through you when it lights up, "say, 6?"

"sounds good," betty says, and they all stand up.

you unplug your phone, pocketing it as jughead, archie and veronica file out, heading back downstairs, but betty lingers.

"you okay, cooper?" you ask, teasingly.

she turns towards you sharply, hands clasped behind her back, "this morning, i— i really was trying to touch base with you. i know that the whole southside thing kind of has half the school losing it, but you told archie no, and i wasn't going to push it. he mentioned that you were upset about the group not reconnecting with you after everything, and i just wanted to see how you were— are."

"i owe you an apology for how i acted, i was frustrated with arch, not that that's an excuse, but i just kind of snapped. i'm really sorry, i shouldn't have taken that out on you betty,"

"your anger is justified, we should have been by you every step of the way—"

"you were busy, things happen. i missed you guys, sure, but this entire thing has been insane. i woke up six months ago with no memories from the last year. and to be fair, it's not like i made much of an effort with you guys."

"well, we're all okay now. and, you could never truly get rid of us,"

you let out a short laugh, throwing your arm over her shoulder, leading her out into the hallway.

"and you couldn't get rid of me if you tried," you say, and betty grins at you, her arm circling your back as you descend the stairs.

you're standing outside the mantle's house, trying to decide if now is really the best time to be doing this, but your rationality wins out and you move towards the door before you lose your nerve. you raise your hand to knock, but the door flies open and you're met face to face with mrs. mantle. 

"hi dear, are you okay?" she asks, a warm smile on her face. 

"yes. ma'am, i just..." you were not prepared for his mom to open the door. 

that was actually the worse possible thing that could have happened. mrs. mantle has always been such a kind, and wonderful person towards you. you almost wonder if she's the reason you'd let things between you and reggie continue as long as they have. 

"sorry, is reggie home?" you ask, and she nods, stepping out of the way to let you in.

"he's upstairs doing homework, are you staying for supper?" 

the longer you speak to her the more you're dreading following through with this. she's such a nice lady, and you're not entirely sure how reggie's going to handle this. you really don't want to lose her. 

you force yourself to shake your head, "no ma'am, i just have to talk to reggie and then i have dinner plans with my brother," 

she nods again, and you slip your shoes off, and head upstairs. 

you've been here so many times that you don't even have to think about where you're going. as such, this leaves time for you to panic and try to talk yourself out of it. you're not sure why. reggie had been a crush of yours for a long time, from middle school to freshman year at least. when you woke up without your memories from the last year, you'd still felt that way about him. you'd been excited when he initially asked you out. mind you that excitement fizzled rather quickly, realizing what the arrangement meant for your relationship.

you were disappointed, sure, but you weren't blindsided by any means. reggie had always given you the kind of vibe that he wasn't interested in settling down just yet. so, when you push his partially closed door open and find him with his tongue down the throat of a different cheerleader, you're not entirely shocked. the girl notices you first, she's younger than you and reggie by at least a year, and she squeals, pulling away from him. he doesn't notice you at first, his eyebrows pulling together in confusion before he follows her eyeline. they both look like deer, and you're the headlights.

"uh, h-hey..." reggie musters, sitting down beside the girl, "i think you should probably go,"

"y-yeah, g-go...." she says, jumping up and flying out of the room.

you stare at him, unsure of how to continue. sure, he'd made this infinitely easier on you, but at the same time you still find yourself hurting a bit.

"i'm sorry," he says, dropping his head into his hands.

"despite our "arrangement", reg," you use air quotes, "i thought you respected me more than this,"

"i do!" his voice comes out loud, then softer, "i do."

the silence that follows is deafening, and feels like it stretches for hours. he doesn't look at you the whole time, his eyes trained on the ground.

"well, you've made this decision a whole lot easier for me. i'm breaking up with you, reg." you sigh, "i don't hate you; i'm not mad at you; i am a bit disappointed, but i think we were kind of doomed from the start. maybe in a couple months we can try to be friends, just friends. if you're down with that..."

he raises his head, guilt written clear across his features, but he nods, "i'm sorry, sunshine. i really, really am."

"i know reg," you say, leaning down to give his hand a squeeze. "so am i,"

you turn to leave, hesitanting in the doorway.

"reg?"

"yeah?"

you turn to look at him, "see you around,"

4:50pm. you have about an hour and ten minutes before you have to meet archie and the others. you plop down on your bed, and flip your diary open. there are only eight entries.

entry 1: may 16th

i can't do this anymore. faking everything. it's driving me fucking insane. betty, ronnie, and archie are always flaking on me. internship this. summer job that. charity this. sorry i forgot that. jug is the only one who hasn't consistently left me hanging, and we're not even all that close. that being said, out of all of them, i'm starting to change my tune on that. he's even offered to talk to his manager about possibly getting me a summer job at the twilight. which would be killer, i'm there for most of the showings anyway. at least i'll get paid for doing something i already enjoy. then at least i'll have something going on. i'm honestly not ok with them constantly rescheduling things but for whatever reason i just sit there and take it. i need to start putting myself first, and find some friends that put in just as much effort as i do. i wonder if the three of them will even notice if i stop putting in the effort.

entry 2: may 19th

guess who has a new job!!! me!!!!!!!! i'm so excited, i don't think i've been this happy about something in a long time. i start tomorrow night, and jug's already introduced me to some of his coworkers. i'll be working in concession. we're even allowed to sit outside and watch the movie when we're between customers. i'm so looking forward to having this. betty, ronnie and i were supposed to go shopping today but they both just texted to cancel. go figure.

entry 3: may 20th

first day was a success! my new coworkers are so nice, i even made quick friends with a girl named toni. she's got pink highlights in her hair which really suit her. i also overheard that she's a southside serpent. mind you she doesn't really seem like the kind of people i’ve been told are in that motorcycle gang. then again, you're not supposed to believe everything you hear.

okay!! it's later now, and toni asked me if i wanted to hang out with her and her friends at the quarry tomorrow!! that's the first time in a really long time someone’s asked me to do something with them! i, of course said yes! i’m so excited!!

just got back from the quarry, i had so much fun. more fun than i’ve had all year! toni is so much fun to be around, she has the best energy, and it's just so refreshing to be around someone who actually wants to do things and live in the moment. the last time i hung out with ronnie and betty they were both glued to their cellphones, undoubtedly texting jug and archie. i also met her two best friends sweet pea and fangs, who are also super cool. they were really nice, and welcoming. i was pretty nervous, because i’d seen the two of them at the drive-in with fp a bunch of times, so i knew they were serpents, but they were both so nice! i’m really starting to wonder if the serpents are as “bad” and as much of a problem as other northsiders insist they are.

entry 4: june 21st

oh god, it’s been a month since my last entry. i have so much to write about… i honestly don't know where to start. i’ve been hanging out with toni, sweet pea and fangs pretty consistently since that day they invited me to the quarry. i’ve stopped chasing archie and his friends to hang out, and i was right in my guess that they wouldn't notice if i stopped trying. i haven't received a single text from any of them. i mean, i have from archie, but he’s my brother so that doesn't really count in my opinion. and i guess jug too, but we're coworkers and he was the only non-flake before anyway. either way, it’s been so nice having toni, fangs and sweet pea reaching out to make plans with me and when i reach out to them they actually follow through. we all have a lot in common; we enjoy a lot of the same music and tv shows.

toni is a god with her camera, i don't think i’ve seen more beautiful photography, and she takes the BEST candids. she’s taken so many pictures of us, she’s going to get me some physical copies for my scrapbook.

fangs can get you ANYTHING. he’s such a smooth talker that people just end up giving him things. he even got us into a sold out _ show. i’m really not sure how he managed, but we got escorted by security to the barricade.

i was supposed to go with betty, archie and ronnie, but i decided to flake on them for a change. that did get me a few texts from each of them, and i didn't answer them. i just turned off my phone and enjoyed the show. it was amazing!!!!!! i had an absolute blast.

i’ve also been spending more time with sweet pea… alone… (obviously, with toni & fangs too) he’s nothing like i thought he’d be when we met. here i go again judging a book by its cover, shame on me. but he’s so sweet, it took a bit to get him to open up to me, toni says he’s just protective, which i both completely agree and understand. with friends as cool as those two, i don't blame him. he goes out of his way for everyone; holding the door for old ladies, standing in the middle of a busy street so kids can cross. he seems so scary and mean, but that's just his defence. we've been getting a really close, and every time he asks me to hangout i get butterflies.

we're hanging out tonight too, i’m going to pick him up in twenty minutes and we're going to the quarry. i’m sitting in a booth at pop’s waiting for our food. i really like him, and i enjoy spending time with him. toni said she’s never seen him so happy, and that she thinks he likes me. i really hope he does, because i like him. i might even tell him as much tonight… that might be a bit too much, actually. i don't know. oh, pop’s calling my order, i’ll update you later!

just got back from the quarry, and oh. my. god. sweet pea kissed me! i was all nervous, and i decided i was going to tell him how i felt and before i got the words out, he leaned over and just did it! i’ve had a few kisses before, some good, some not so much, but this one? it was the BEST i’ve ever had. that thing you read about in fanfics or novels about fireworks or butterflies, it's REAL. he asked me out on a date too, and i’m literally so excited. i called toni before i added this update and she squealed. she was right, he does like me. mine and sweet pea’s date is wednesday night, we're going to watch a movieat the drive-in and then in the morning we're all going camping at sweetwater river.

my phone is ringing… it’s archie? weird, he usually texts me. i’m going to answer him, i’ll be right back.

just got off the phone with arch. mom is coming down from chicago for the weekend, and we were supposed to go together to pick her up, now he’s backed out on me and i have to go alone. what could be more important than picking mom up from the airport?! especially considering we rarely see her. whatever, i guess it’ll give us time to talk.

entry 5: june 30th

just dropped mom back off at the airport. this visit was so fucked. i picked her up, we had a lovely conversation, and then she asked me where arch was and i had to lie to her. he said he was going to call her and let her know, but apparently he didn't. then, he didn’t show up for family dinner, which he was also supposed to help me cook (spoiler: he DIDN’T). when mom and dad asked where he was, i was like a dear caught in headlights. i have no fucking clue!! i called him, and BAM! voicemail. mom calls him and woah, he picks up first ring. he lies, and gets away with it. arch was gone all weekend which screwed up my itinerary. i mean, seeing mom was the highlight, obviously, but archie and i planned all this stuff and we didn't get to do any of it. not to mention, archie had promised he’s take mom to the airport because he was gone all weekend, and then he didn't show! again! i had plans with toni, and i had to apologize and cancel on her (which isn't fair to her or me (but fuck us i guess??)) anyway, i’m banking on archie cancelling our yearly trip to nyc with everything going on. i’d lay money on it now.

entry 6: july 1st

i’m so mad right now. archie saw me and sweet pea coming out of pop’s with lunch, and got in sweets face. he has NO RIGHT. especially considering how much he's left me hanging lately. i will admit, i did something i shouldn't have, but he said something he definitely shouldn't have (that i shant repeat here (just know it's vile)) and i then punched him. sweets then threw me over his shoulder and carried me to my car. i bruised the crap out of my hand, archie’s got a hard face i guess. toni and fangs tried to lighten the mood when we got back but i couldn't help myself. sweet pea and i ended up leaving early, and we just drove around for a while. when i finally did calm down, he thanked me for standing up for him. why wouldn't i?? archie has no right to treat any of my friends like that, let alone my maybe boyfriend (we haven't really labelled it yet). and archie’s one to talk about people’s “priorities” and who they “really” are, seeing as toni, sweet pea and fangs have done nothing but be great friends and have been there for me all summer and he (MY! TWIN! BROTHER!) couldn’t even see his mother while she was down from chicago. i haven't seen archie since our altercation at pop’s and i’m more than okay with that.

entry 7: august 15th

sweet pea and i got into a fight. it’s nothing major, and i know he’s just looking out for me, but somethings aren’t really any of his business. namely, things involving my family. i was telling him about mine and archie’s annual trip to nyc, and how this will be the first year that it’s just the two of us. mom and dad usually go with us, and it’s the highlight of our summer. i’ve been really looking forward to it, and that i’m hoping this will help mend the tear we’ve both been helping create in our relationship. i’m not going to entirely blame arch because i’ve definitely not helped… especially when i punched him in the face in july. he’s finally speaking to me again. it took a couple of weeks and awkwardly dodging each other but we’re at least talking again. which is progress i guess. we haven’t talked about it either. he just walked into my room last tuesday and started telling about this video he saw, and then everything was fine again. we’ve always been like that, but what archie said really isn’t ok, and what i did really isn’t ok either. i plan to bring it up on our trip. anyway, back to sweets, he’s worried i’m going to get super hyped up about this trip and then archie’s going to yank the carpet from under my feet (kind of like he’s been doing all summer, but i digress). we leave in two days, and so far everything seems to be going well. i should apologize to sweets before we leave though, cause i did kind of snap at him… adding that to the to-do list.

entry 8: august 17th

fuck archie. FUCK. HIM. sweets was right. FUCK EVERYTHING. GODDAMN NORTHSIDERS. 

that was it, the last entry. you wrote that the night of your accident. that's why you were in your car. that's where you were headed. you close the diary, and smack it off your forehead. you close your eyes, and then let out a scream of frustration. you throw the book across your room, and pull your old phone from your pocket. you sift through your text threads, you'd sent more outgoing messages to betty, veronica and archie then they'd sent back to you for months before your accident. turns out they weren't  just shitty friends afterwards. 

you pause for a moment, your finger hovering over fp jones' contact. why would you have jughead's dad's number? up until hiram started causing a stir in town, jughead hadn't even been living with his dad so you never would've needed to contact him. you click it and a bunch of text messages load in. 

things were falling into place for you. they were shitty friends before. you were going to need new ones regardless, that's how you ended up in friendship purgatory at riverdale high. cheryl just isn't your cup of tea, and you're still not sure how you feel about reggie after everything you witnessed this afternoon. one thing you do know; you owe some people an explanation. you close out of the messages, and go to your gallery. the first picture that you see is one of you, toni, sweet pea and fangs, your faces all pressed together cheek to cheek, smiling widely. you smile, and then suddenly it's like a damn breaks and a years worth of memories come flooding in. you drop the phone, and rush downstairs, grabbing your keys from the bowl by the front door. 

"you guys are terrible fucking friends," you say, not really caring to control the level of your voice as you stomp towards your brother and his friends. "not you jug, you're fine, i'm talking about these three."

archie, veronica and betty share confused looks then look up at you. you tower over their table, anger coursing through you. you stare the three of them down quietly, eyes darting from one to the other, to the other.

"uh, didn't we already go over that?" veronica asks, her tone light and joking. 

"not really," you say, "i got my memories back, and you guys were fucking terrible. what did i do to deserve being cancelled on, and forgotten about so easily by you three? especially you arch, you're my brother. my twin. you of everyone are supposed to have my back!"

betty and veronica's eyes drop to their laps, and archie freezes, his eyes wide. 

 "while i appreciate your apology from before archie, with all the facts, i don't accept. what you did was fucking shitty, and i never would have done that to you. never. as for you two, if you don't like me, or just don't like hanging out with me, or just don't want to be my friend, stop making plans with me. i'm done being treated like that, and if any of you want to make things right, actually make things right, you'll be able to find me with my real friends; toni, sweet pea and fangs. who, unlike you three, actually like spending time with me. and for the record, are really good people, and deserve to be treated with respect." you turn on your heels to leave, and then pause at the last booth, whipping back around, "also, fuck you guys."

you pray that you're right about this. you never hung out with them during school, so you weren't sure if they were going to be at the quarry tonight. the weather's still nice, so you're hoping that you're right. you turn onto the familiar dirt road, and catch sight of their bikes in the distance of your headlights. relief washes over you as you get closer, you see three figures walking towards you and you pull in beside the bikes, like you had so many times before. you turn the car off, and jump out. 

"fucking hell, andrews! you scared the shit out of us!" you hear fangs yell, a bark of laughter leaving him. 

"guys--" you say, walking closer to them, your heart beating hard against your ribs. 

you almost wonder if it's going to beat right out of your chest, you're  so nervous, but you're so happy to see them. you missed them. 

"told you she knew who we were." sweet pea sneers, cutting you off. "what schools out so you can be friends with us again?"

"what? no--" you start but he cuts you off again. 

"where were you? why are you back now?" he bites out, and toni smacks him. 

"shut up and let her talk." toni says, nodding at you. "go,"

"i got into a car accident on august 17th. i have no idea how, or what happened, but i was trapped in that car for four hours, and spent two days in a coma. then when i woke up, i couldn't remember anything that happened over the last year. i now remember everything, and am really, really sorry for unintentionally ghosting you guys for six months." you pause to take a breath, and gage their reactions, "i know how this all sounds, but i promise i'm telling the truth,"

toni smirks, stepping forward to throw her arms around you, "i'm glad you're back, i fucking missed you."

you hug her tightly, "i missed you guys way more,"

"i bet you did," she laughs, letting you go, and stepping back.

you hug her tightly, "i missed you guys way more,"

"i bet you did," she laughs, letting you go, and stepping back.

she turns to look at fangs, and sweet pea and holds her hand out, “c’mon boys, cough it up.”

begrudgingly, they both pull five dollars out of their pockets and drop it into her hand. fangs then moves past her, and scoops you into a bone crushing hug.

“missed you,” he whispers, then lets you go.

“missed you too,” you smile, and the pair of them slowly slink back to the fire they’d been sitting around, giving you and sweet pea space.

sweet pea stares at you, dark eyes unreadable, his posture tense. it takes you back to how he was when you met for the first time. closed off, on guard, and analytical. you want to reach out for him, wrap yourself around him and never let go. you’re not sure he’s ready for that, so you shove your hands deep into the pockets of your jacket. your fingers catching the slip of paper he’d given you months ago, curling around it, you put it out and his eyes close briefly.

“i understand if you need space,” you say carefully, unfolding the small scrap. “but if you ever actually meant this, you have to know that i never would have left you hanging like that intentionally.”

he takes the note from you, his eyes leaving yours to look at it. he stays quiet for what feels like an eternity.

“i know.” he finally speaks, eyes still on the note. “deep down, i knew you wouldn't have left. not when you socked your brother for me. i was just so mad… at myself for what i said to you last, at you, for not following through on your text… then seeing you at school– it didn't make sense. instead of really thinking about it, like toni did, i just–” his eyes meet yours again, “i don't know, i let my fears take hold, i guess.”

"i--"

"JUST KISS ALREADY; YOU LOVE HER, HE LOVES YOU, THE END-"

"FANGS, SHUT UP!" toni yells, the sound of her smacking him and him asking her to stop follows.

you and sweet pea share a glance, and then both break out in giggles. when the giggles subside, you step closer to him, your hand landing on his shoulder.

"i love you, sweets, and if you need time—"

"i've had enough time, what i need now, is you." he says before pulling you against him, and kissing you.

he pulls back briefly, letting you catch your breath, "i love you too,"

[delusionalwritingsofagay]

I want to know if you can do a omegaverse fanfict of alpha Archie Andrews X Omega male reader where the reader is a single dad of twin boys from a previous Alpha that left him. Who after his sons were born him and his family moved to Riverdale to start a new start. Quickly he people in Riverdale begin to realize he is the father of his twin Sons who got mixed reactions but he doesn't really care because all he cares about are his own children their safety thinking that he doesn't need a another Alpha in his life until he come across Archie. Who Archie surprisingly falls in love with the Omega reader loving how he takes care of his sons always imagining him as his mate but never know how to ask him until one day the reader was stressed since he has no way to pick up his sons from daycare because of the bad weather that day and his parents are out doing business as Archie realized and decide to help him giving him a ride to the preschool and help him pick up his sons who after that day it become a daily thing where the two will pick up the reader's sons and do something fun together. After a couple of weeks Archie finally asked the reader out who the reader accepted knowing that his sons love Archie so the sign to give it a shot. After some months they become official as everything was going well until the alpha that fathers the reader's Sons finally showed up causing trouble who Archie stands up for the reader which caused a fight between the two Alphas which cause both of them to go into the hospital. As the reader apologized to Archie that he bring him into this mess who Archie Comforts him telling him that he doesn't care as long as him and his sons are safe and that he would do anything for them. ( sorry for the long request)

Fresh start

Pairing : Alpha Archie Andrews x Omega Male reader Tags : Omega verse, Past implied Mpreg, Single parent reader Word count :1086

Authors Note : So sorry for the late reply, i tried my best but i have really bad writer block when it came to this one, if you would like a part two which includes the rest of you request, just let me know and I'll try to do it.

Riverdale was supposed to be a fresh start, a chance for Y/N to leave behind the painful memories of the past. After his Alpha ex left him and their twin boys, he packed up their lives and moved to this small town, hoping to find peace and a semblance of normalcy. The twin boys, Jasper and Leo, were everything to him—two tiny bundles of joy with laughter that could light up even the darkest of days.

The first few weeks in Riverdale were a whirlwind of unpacking boxes and trying to establish a routine. Y/N threw himself into being the best father he could be. He enrolled the boys in day-care, joined the local parents’ group, and tried to get to know the other families. While many of the neighbours extended warm welcomes, it was a small town, and secrets had a funny way of spilling out.

Some residents recognized Y/N as the single dad of twins, and the messages came from all sides. Curiosity swirled through Riverdale like a constant breeze, accompanied by mixed reactions. While most were supportive, Y/N couldn’t help but feel the prying eyes of judgement. But in those moments of vulnerability, he held fast to what mattered most: Jasper and Leo.

Looking after the boys kept Y/N busy. But after a long day, the exhaustion often settled heavily in his bones. The thought of allowing another Alpha into their lives felt daunting. He had loved before—deeply and completely—but had been left alone to weather the storm of single parenthood. Now, he was determined to focus solely on his sons’ happiness and welfare.

Then came Archie Andrews.

With his charming smile and infectious enthusiasm, Archie quickly became a fixture in the lives of those in Riverdale. Y/N first noticed him during a community event—Archie was leading a music class for kids. Jasper and Leo's eyes sparkled with joy, captivated by the way Archie interacted with them and the other children. The warmth that radiated from Archie was palpable, and Y/N felt a flicker of admiration he hadn't anticipated.

As the weeks rolled on and the seasons began to shift toward colder weather, Y/N found himself drawing closer to Archie in unexpected ways. They had crossed paths at the day-care more often than not, and each time, Archie made an effort to engage with Y/N and the boys. It was innocent at first—a smile here, a shared laugh there—yet it quickly blossomed into something more profound.

However, one fateful day figured to challenge Y/N’s outlook on life in Riverdale.

The weather turned unexpectedly nasty. Clouds rolled in, and soon rain pelted the streets like marbles dropped on concrete. Y/N found himself fretting about the condition of the roads. He had no car, and his parents were out of town for business. The thought of walking in this downpour to pick up Jasper and Leo from day-care felt impossibly daunting.

As he paced his apartment, a faint knock at the door interrupted his spiralling thoughts. When he opened it, the sight of Archie standing there, drenched from head to toe, sent confusion rushing through him.

“Y/N!” Archie exclaimed, shaking off the rain like a soggy puppy. “I saw the weather forecast and came to see if you needed help. I can drive you to pick up your boys!”

Y/N hesitated, torn between feeling grateful and the constant reminder of his reluctance to allow anyone into their lives. Did he really want to rely on someone else again? But as he saw the genuine concern in Archie’s eyes, he felt the weight of his pride battling the reality of the situation.

“Um, yeah… that would be great. Thank you,” Y/N replied, trying to keep his voice steady.

The car ride was both tense and comforting. Y/N’s heart raced despite the ease of the conversation. They chatted about Riverdale’s quirks and local hangouts, but Y/N found it hard to ignore the way Archie’s casual glances made his stomach flip. It felt strangely wonderful.

When they arrived at the day-care, the sight of Jasper and Leo running to greet him was worth the world. With Archie by his side, Y/N couldn’t help but feel a sense of delight as the boys excitedly recognized their new friend.

After picking them up, a spontaneous idea struck Y/N. “Would you like to come back to our place for some snacks? I could really use the company—and I’m sure the boys won’t complain,” he suggested, half-embarrassed.

Archie’s grin widened, and how could Y/N have known a simple invitation could change everything?

As weeks turned into a routine, the boys grew to adore Archie, and Y/N found solace in their little family growing closer. Each day meant picking up the boys and spending quality time together, whether it was building fortresses made of blankets or biking down the nearby trails.

Yet beneath that camaraderie blossomed something stirring in Y/N’s heart. The more time he spent with Archie, the more he realized how he had begun to imagine a future where they could be more than just friends. He saw in Archie a gentleness and strength that beckoned to him, softening the barriers he had built over the years.

Finally, weeks turned into a couple of months, and one sunny afternoon while Jasper and Leo played in the backyard, Archie mustered the courage to approach Y/N. “You know, I’ve been meaning to ask you something,” he started, clearing his throat.

Y/N, cautious but curious, waited for the words that would surely change everything.

“Would you like to go out with me? Just us? A date?” he blurted out, a hint of apprehension ghosting over his expression.

Y/N’s heart thundered in his chest, and a smile spread across his face—a smile filled with warmth and hope. The boys were playing nearby, oblivious to the moment that was unfolding between their father and the Alpha who had quickly carved a place in their lives.

“Yes,” Y/N answered, his voice barely above a whisper tinged with disbelief. “I’d love that.”

Days turned to weeks, and soon they were officially together. It felt right, bringing the boys along for “family days” where laughter and joy filled their small home. The connection between them deepened, fortifying Y/N’s belief that perhaps he could trust again, and that maybe Riverdale was not just a place for new beginnings, but for new chances at love.

[jugheadvarchoni]

𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚒𝚗 “𝚁𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚍𝚊𝚕𝚎 𝙾𝚗𝚎-𝚂𝚑𝚘𝚝” 🥰

[stargazinglesbian]

lay off him he is DEAD he has enough problems as it is

do it :3

[jugheads-choni]

CANNOT believe I forgot to post these, but here are the two covers so far, and also some sneak peek art at the new one shot “Truth or Dare” coming July 17th!!!

Art by the wonderful Laura Braga (who did Blossoms 666) & story by Ron Robbins

[fanfics4all]

Summer Fling

Request: Yes / No  Hi, I'm a new follower so I don't know if you accept requests, but I've been OBSESSED with Sweet pea. Unfortunately my Riverdale phase came back, since then I've been creating imagine scenarios with Sweet Pea, well, more specifically, Sweet Pea having a "summer fling" with a reader who has the appearance and personality of Liv Rooney and was super friends with Betty or Cheryl (and it would be as if Josie didn't exist or had never been involved with Sweet Pea but the reader) Anon

Don’t be shy, request things! <3 Have a nice day/night

Sweet Pea x Fem!Reader 

Word count: 776

Warnings: Nothing really, sad ending I suppose?

Y/N: Your Name 

PLEASE DO NOT STEAL MY WORK, I WORK HARD ON MY FICS AND IT’S NOT COOL TO STEAL SOMEONE ELSE’S WORK! 

If you want to be on the tag list for anything (My series fics, specific character fics, or just all of them) All you have to do is send me an ask and I will add you! 

Masterlist 

If you enjoy my work, you could also show support by buying me a coffee! 

(Not my photo, credit to whoever made it!)

The summer in Riverdale was supposed to be ordinary. Lazy afternoons with Betty, trips to Pop’s, and avoiding the Southside drama that always seemed to creep into the picture. I hadn’t expected it to be anything more than just a short break before heading back to my life in the city, but then I met Sweet Pea. 

It started at one of Cheryl’s infamous bonfires. Betty had convinced me to come, saying it would be ‘fun and totally safe.’. I wasn’t so sure about the safe part, especially when I spotted the Serpents hanging around the edges of the firelight, their leather jackets catching the glow like something out of a movie. Sweet Pea was with them, leaning casually against his bike, arms crossed, and smile tugging at his lips. I saw him around before, mostly in the background of Betty’s stories about Riverdale’s chaos, but we never talked. That night though, he noticed me. When our eyes met, this spark, a flicker of curiosity in his dark gaze, made my heart skip a beat. 

“You don’t look like you’re from around here.” He said when he finally approached me. His voice was low and teasing. I raised a brow, trying not to let his intense stare throw me off. 

“And you don’t look like you talk to girls who aren’t from around here.” I shot back, folding my arms. To my surprise, he laughed, a genuine sound that made the butterflies in my stomach stir. 

“Fair enough.” He said, holding his hand out. 

“Names Sweet Pea.” 

“Y/N.” I replied, shaking his hand and feeling the warmth of his touch linger a little longer than it should have. 

That was the beginning of it all. Sweet Pea wasn’t like the guys I usually hung around. He was bold, a little rough around the edges, and completely different from what I expected. But there was also a softness to him, hidden beneath his Sperpent persona and the smirks, I couldn’t help but be drawn to it. Our ‘fling’ started with stolen moments, late-night drives on his bike, secret meetings at Sweetwater River, and whispered conversations under the stars. He showed me a side of Riverdale I’ve never seen before, the hidden beauty in the chaos, and I showed him that there was more to life than just surviving. 

One night, we snuck into the movie theater after hours and shared a thing of popcorn he had somehow managed to swipe from the concession stand. 

“So, what’s a girl like you doing in a town like this?” He asked, his tone playful. 

“Visiting my Grandma.” I smiled. 

“And maybe having the time of my life with a guy who’s way cooler than he lets on.” Sweets raised an eyebrow, leaning in closer. 

“Cooler than I let on? You sure about that?” I laughed, pushing him lightly. 

“Don’t let it go to your head.” He smiled, a soft genuine smile that made my heart race. 

“You’re different, Y/N, in a good way.” 

“Good different?” I teased, though my voice was soft. 

“The best kind.” He whispered, his gaze locking with mine. 

As much as I tried to keep things light, I couldn’t help but feel something deeper growing between us. But we both knew it couldn’t last. I was only in Riverdale for the summer and Sweet Pea’s world was here, tangled up in the Sperpents and everything that came with that. 

The night before I left, we met by the river, sitting on a blanket as the water glimmered under the moonlight. Neither of us said much, the weight of the inevitable hanging between us. Finally, Sweet Pea turned to me, his expression serious. 

“I wish you didn’t have to go…” He said, his voice barely above a whisper. I swallowed hard, trying to keep the tears at bay. 

“Me too, but we knew this wasn’t forever.” 

“Doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck.” He muttered, his jaw clenching. I reached out, taking his hand in mine. 

“This summer… it meant everything to me, Sweets. You mean everything to me.” He looked at me, his eyes filled with something I couldn’t quite place. Sadness, hope, maybe even love? 

“You’re not going to forget me, are you?” 

“Never.” I promised, leaning in and pressing my forehead against his. 

“And you better not forget me either.” He pulled me into a kiss, slow and lingering. It was like he was trying to hold onto the moment as long as he could. When we finally pulled apart, he rested his forehead against mine, his hand cradling my face. 

“Goodbye, Y/N.” He whispered. 

“Goodbye, Sweet Pea.” I said, my voice breaking.

Tag list: @les-bio-lie @tashy-bear @ashwarren32 @hollie-blogs-blog1 @lover-of-books-and-tea @nerdygaloresposts @teenwolfbitches28 @kmc1989 @drw0301bieber @lady-of-lies @ravenmoore14 @ravenempress101 @cillianchamp @rowanthomasknapp @rachelxwayne @ready-4-fanfiction @madammarvellous-blog1  @emo-godess-loves-you @hiya-imthatgirl @mindsetjupiter @averysinclaire @mittelerde1999 @sweetest-peas @rousewriter @camiconfessions-blog @thecaptainsgingersnap @cenyddtheunicorn @jacksxsouthsideserpents @lover2448 @mamacobie13  @staygoldsquatchling02 @wanderlust-and-poetry @hiighdeex3 @ayeitsjaz @skeletalwolfcat @scarrasco1325 @reblogserpent @darkestbeforethedawn16 @fandom-princess-forevermore @will-noble-owns-my-ass @t-a-i-l-o-r-m-a-d-e @madebyleftovermuses @liz-owl

[popculturebuffet]

Batman: No Man's Land Retrospective Part 1: Cataclysm

Hello all you happy people. This project's been brewing for a while now and i'm so happy to finally get to dive into it. For the next two years, i'm taking a look at one of the biggest and most influental batman stories ever. This is a story that's been adapted four times, introduced a batgirl, a story massive in scope that gives batman a problem that no amount of money, no amount of punching and no amount of batarangs can solve.

No Man's Land follows Gotham after it's utterly destroyed by a massive earthquake and the goverment "shockingly" decides rather than repair the crime pit, to let it burn and let anyone who can't afford to move or dosen't want to leave to fend for themselves. It puts Batman in his darkest hour: he failed his city, and now he and his allies have to find some way to save it. It's a massive story that i'll be reading as we go, reading each volume before I cover it. I know some spoilers, the story's 27 years old and a lot of it impacts later bat stories and i've read it's direct sequel new gotham, but as for the fine details and how things evolve.. that i'll be figuring out just before you do.

Before we get to the government abadoning Gotham like it'd later do with Riverdale, we have to get to the why: the massive and excellent event cataclysm. Yes there's an event that leads into the event.

Cataclysm is intresting in that while super villians do show up, this is gotham after all, their not the main threat. The main threat.. is simply a massive earth quake that most of gotham was warned about, but only Bruce took seriously. And even then.. i'ts not enough: While Bruce's holdings and headquarters are saved, most of gotham is totaled and the bat himself is left in the one building he couldn't quakeproof: his home. Our heroes are left desperatley trying to help or play catchup as the world falls apart and even as they try to save everyone they can the truth hangs ominously over them: Gotham.. may not be able to come back from this. So join me won't you for an epic unlike any other, a story of dread, hope, and quakemasters, this is Batman Cataclysm

We begin with Detective Comics and a prelude issue. As is standard for an event this size we're going to be jumping around a LOT of books today, along with three one shots. Every book in the bat family is touched and a ton of major bat writers left their mark on this one.

Unfortunately the one who does the most.. is Chuck Dixon

So for those less familiar Chuck Dixon is one of the biggest batman writers ever: He wrote Robin and Nightwing and defined Tim Drake and Dick Grayson as a result. His run on Nightwing is why I became a massive fan of the character and why I tend to prefer bat family books to the bat himself.

He's also a huge asshole. Absolutely giant in the industry of being a dick. I'd like to thank @brotoman-exe for the background here as while I knew Chuck Dixon was a conservative prick, he gave me some helpful info to explain why he became the bitter lemon he is now.

So Chuck as you can tell was a big writer: he wrote most of batman after all. He then got blackballed from the big 2 in the early 2000's. From his perspective, it was for being conservative and he went full right wing asshole before it was cool. In reality.. it seemed he was just a dick. He had a weird tirade about a tounge in cheek Marvel MAX, their mature leaders line, series about the rawhide kid that recast him as a macho camp gay man, and made the bold assumption the writer of the book, a vetran artist, was tricked into it. He sunk his own career and blamed the woke media for it. He bounced around in other companies, as early IDW apparently was fine with his bullshit, but eventually he ran out of options and ... well he made this

Yes that is Chuck Dixon, batman and gi joe writer making an off brand gi joe comic about Q from Qanon. I swear to god this is not something I made up. This.. this happened. You can even buy it on amazon

Look is it fun to dunk on Chuck Dixon making a comic about the quannon conspiracy starring the titular q as an action hero. yes. I mean I could do it all day. But my larger point is that Chuck Dixon sucks dirty ass in thunderstorms, is an objectively bad man. Not sex offender bad, but while the bar for being shitty in comics is high, it's not so high that "being mad a character was made gay and making action hero comics about an active and dangerous conspiracy" dosen't rate.

So I have the unfortunate duty of being objective about his work here. I do not like this man, but he was an objectively good writer. It does not, as he seems to thinnk, excuse him from being a piece of shit. I simply can't avoid talking about him as of the 7 batman titles at the time, he wrote three of them: The afformentioned Nightwing and Robin, along with detective comics.

Since I need to wash the taste out of my mouth and this will be easier than mentoining every writer as they come up, let's meet the rest of our writers room who as far as I know haven't written qanon: the continuing adventures. I wonder if the villian is joe biden as cobra commander. Perhaps bill clinton. Clinton Commander.

Writing the flagship Batman comic is Doug Monech, one of many longtime batman writers on this project. He wrote some in the 80's and what i've read of his run, which has sadly been undercollected or only half collected in the case of one collection I have as he wrote both detective comics and batman up to crisis on infinite earths, is excellent. Well done stuff that helps build up batman's world and his relationship with jason todd. I prefer post crisis jason, but he still does a good job with batman's struggle to let the kid in. He's also the one responsible for blessing the world with Harvey Bullock.

For Shadow of the Bat we have consumate Weirdo Alan Grant, a british writer who afraid to ask "You want nuts. Well let's get nuts". His stories i've read are decent and kind of weird, and fittingly he created my faviorite Batman Villian, Scarface, aka the puppet what bullies his owner/other personality. Grants work here is impecable, as is everyones even ass face and made me want to check out more of his 90's shadow of the bat run. He's got a weird poetic style to him.

For our spinoffs we have batman legend Dennis O'Neil, who with Neil Adams redefined the character. he was also editor and wrote large chunks of other bat mega crossover knightfall. He's awesome and I miss him dearly.

Finally we have Devin Grayson who wrote Catwoman and does a decent job with it. She's the only one besides Chuck Q Dixon to have a bit of infamy though rather than be for being a raging asshole, she simply wrote something what bad. She followed him up on nightwing and while the better person, decided to have Nightwing join the mob for a while, and had him get assaulted by fellow vigilante the tarantula and said assault not treated lik ea big deal because a woman did it.

She's fine here but it's hard not to think about that run so bad I refuse to ever touch it when bringing her up.

So with our writers room assembled let's talk about the issue. It's a fun one off as I said: a criminal brags to his buddies about beating up batman. It's also here where a fairly stupid choice by dc edtorial comes up: At the time batman was to be considered an urban legend by gotham. It's a period I mostly remember for getting mocked in the pages of young justice as Peter David has never met a stupid decision he couldn't take the piss out of and Linkara doing the same in his march of the titans retropsecitve.

Since this does come up with several citzens proclaming batman dosen't exist, I... have to dive into all the ways this is nonsense. So here we go: batman has been on at least three superhero teams, none retconned out by crisis on infinite earths; he was on the justice league of america, left tha tgroup to found the outsiders after political red tape prevented him from going on a rescue mission, and after leaving them rejoined the league as it's leader for the justice league international era. He left soon after to keep his profile low.. but waas still seen on news interviews and coverage and was still publicly on the roster for some time. And by this point he's REJOINED the JLA and was part of them thwarting an alien invasion, an invasion of angels and other very public disasters. On top of that his former sidekick Nightwing was famously part of the Teen Titans as robin, leading two incarnations up to this point. The New Teen Titans in paticular were a very public group, famous in new york and most notably saving the world from Trigon and getting a giant ass parade for it. He also operates as Bludhaven's hero at the time of this book and unlike batman isn't nearly as stealthy.

On top of this the Joker has been a very public meance, killing dozens, fighting the justicfe league a few times, fighting batman in a bi plane at new years and most notably after killing Jason Todd, he became ambassador to iran

The point of this long detour is that it makes zero sense that batman is seen as a "legend" at this point who "dosen't exist". While he does stick to the shadows and is defintely the most standoffish of the justice league any time he's a member, there's enough public tracks to make him being some sort of mythical figure laughable. I try not to be this pedantic in a comics review, writers slip up, canonical mistakes happen. Even now when you can google things. But this isn't a simple mistake this is a weird status quo shift that made things awkward for other books for no real reason. Batman's already feared as a larger than life figure. Just because crooks know he exists dosen't make him less terrifying or them less prone to exagerate.

Thankfully the bulk of attitude , at least for now, from most of the writers was

Most of it is lip service with only two big moments, this one and the other where it's relevant to the plot. Most of gotham tends to know batman and co are out there.

Okay now we can FINALLY get to the issue which again is fun: the criminal embellishes the hell out of the story and we see both his inflated version where it's an ocean's elven style heist and where he goes to to toe with batman.. and the reality: his crew was whoever he could get, he got the info from being a janitor, the heist went sideways fast and both batman nad robin tore his ass up. This is confirmed to his friends when batman swoops over and scares the shit out of the guy. A fun simple story.

The real meat though is in the ending: We meet Jolene Relazzo a character introduced just for this storyline for two reasons: to set it up and to serve as a plot point for the ongoing arc. She's a seismologist, one who warned Bruce Wayne about an inevitble disaster years ago: Gotham is on a fault line and while it hasn't had a quake in living memory, i'ts due and should. Given who she was talking to, Bruce set to work: as the issues after this reveal Bruce quakeproofed every wayne holding except the manor, and fired his board of directors when they all said it was too expensive. Is this a lot to just. .have on exposition? yes. But it shockingly works: I didn't realize Jolene debuted here till I looked it up as she feels like a natural fit: Bruce isn't stupid. He's batman. He prepares for shit. So it makes sense he knows a decent amount of scientests. As Homer Simpson will tell you bruce is one, but while he's a master of a lot of things, he specializes in forensics. He's not a super genius, and thus him listening to experts makes sense. And given his preparedness it makes sense his first action would be "quakeproof my shit". And given the cost he does so for the reasons he does anything: it's the right thing to do. It saves him money sure, but as we'll find out some of these holdings are apartments or hotels. Innocent people could get hurt. employees could get hurt. Bruce could never allow that if he can help it. And as the quake arrives.. Jolene can't reach bruce whose in his cave.

To the writers credit, paticuarlly alan grant who writes the explination there's a simple reason for why Bruce coudln't quakeproof the manor: the batcave. he coudln't risk someone finding out about it. As for "Why didn't he ask steel or another super hero to do it", Clark and Wally could probably speed read the info and john henry is a former construction worker, so it's possible .. but it'd draw too much attention. I'll see how plausable it is as we go as to why the rest of the league stays out, i'm betting not so much but here.. I get it. It's way too many questions to easily answer and might upset unions in town. Batman simply COUDLN'T get the mansion quakerpoofed. Now the fact he had no plans for if the quake happens is a little stretch.. but Batman has to plan for a lot. He probably thought he'd get forwarned or the cave would hold.

It does not. The mansion collapses bringing alfred down to the cave, trapping bruce and leaving Bruce's home gone> it's a truly shattering scene and well done by alan grant, underlying just how sudden this is: like any disaster it just htis and in a second everythings gone. Batman does wiggles his way out and trie sto go for the car or one of the exits but everything collapses. He's truly trapped.

Meanwhile Harvey Bullock was tailing a local criminal bamed "Billy Wildman" but the quake happens. He's forced to team up with Anarky, who as the name gives away is an angsty teen who dressed like an adult. They work together as Bullock quickly realizes he needs the help to help civilians. And that's the big part here: most of the hero work done.. is search and rescule. Batman's not above that and has saved many a person but their usually hostages or kidnap victims. This is the kind of emergency work brave first responders do every day and that while batman will do in a pinch is outside his element.. but he and the other heroes of gotham do. Anarky is a street punk.. but gladly helps.

Finally we have Barbra Gordon, at this point oracle, batman's eyes and ears who after being shot by the joker traded in her batgirl suit for being a computer genius and tech whiz for any hero who needs it, mostly the bat family. Her own Clock Tower base was shaken but is otherwise fine. Naturally it was one of bruce's quake proofings and Barbra presumably bought it from him. She goes to see what's going on but sees the situation as it is.. and takes command. While she takes a second to let her terror at what could've happened to her love ones out, she instantly takes charge of the police she finds, convincing them not to go fleeing for their loved ones; She's sympathetic: her boyfriend, dad, stepmom and batdad are all out there, but they need to help those who need it. So she gets what resources they have and gets to work. It's one of my faviorite scenes in this event: When crisis hits, Barbra is the first to respond and the first to make a dent in the nightmare Gotham is facing.

Batman is having less luck on his end. He does manage to pull a spider man, escaping the wreckage.. albeit instead of just with pure will expert timing. He reunites with Alfred.. but there's no exit. Their truly trapped. The only way out is a bunch of underwater currents Batman never mapped. And I do like this: yes you could say "this is the same man who quakeproofed a city, why didn't he map these tunnels or have an exit" And the simple answer given and one I accept.. is that he never got around to it. Batman has backup plans for his backup plans.. but I like this batman who simply, as a human does, lets things slip. The Quakeproofing was easier: It was an imminent threat, and something he could deligate. Batman really NEVER deligates batman stuff and until recently didn't have any full time staff for the cave itself. If somethings low priority like say exits on the offchance the quake does hit and he's inside or mapping the cave systems he'll ignore it. Batman's a workaholic with control issues: the only things bruce deligates in costume are the stuff Alfred and Barbra are better at, cleaning the house, cleaning wounds, and doing computer stuff. It makes sense SOMETHING would give.

So with no other option he plans to surface and if it exposes him so be it: there's no second guessing, no other option: he's going to save his dad. And as he dives.. he gets hit with an aftershock.

So while batman might be batdead in this 7 part event that has his name, let's check in on the rest of gotham. The first tie in was earlier and in the pages of Nightwing. It's an excellent tie in as Dick hears about the quake during his night shift at the bar he works at, working at a cop bar to get info.

At this point Nightwing is the hero of Bludhaven, which is gotham but worse. Which yes is possible. Less super crime at first, but more street crime. It's everything gotham was pre batman and our hero fights with no real allies and only the right thing on his side. Still he books it the second he finds out what's happening and TRIES to find Barbra and Bruce... but being the hero he is dick gets sidetrack, finding people in distress and putting himself at great risk to save every last person, including a mom who gets her daughter out but nearly dies. It's a heartwrenching issue as you follow these people from the start, and see just how far Dick will go. It's one of the big pulls i've mentioned of cataclsym: Seeing our heroes against impossible odds they normally don't face this way.

As Dick heads off to go find his dad and girlfriend, well sorta girlfriend I forgot it's more of a situationship at this point and we'll get to the actual hookup in this very crossover, but that's for later.

For now we check in on another hero: Azrael. For those less aware, Azreal was the center of one of batman's biggest events and one I might cover someday: Knightfall. To make a very long story short after loosing his first bout with Batman, super genius and roidy mcgoo Bane studied his foe, then released every villian in arkham and blackgate, arkham for the criminally sane, and let batman wear himself out. Then Bane broke into his house, broke his shit and then broke his back, and rather than choose his actual son, Batman choose Jean Paul Valley, a 20 something who he'd resecued from a cult. This.. didn't go well as Jean still hasn't fully got the cult out of his system and went all grimdark and 90's and didn't hand the mantle back when Bruce was better. Bruce kicked his ass, but still let Jean Paul operate once he was deprogrammed.

So JP is currently taking Bane back to the arms of Saran Essen and.. some other guy. Sarah is comissioner Gordon's wife and Barbra's step mom. With him is Nomoz who I had to google as.. he's an actual troll. He was in the same cult Jean Paul was and why he put on costume again but eventuallys witched sides. I think he's neat. It's just.. neat to have an actual troll in the middle of this pretty grounded story. Well grounded for a former cult member fighting a luchador pumped up on steroids.

Bane escapes and a chase insues, but Bane wants Jean Paul to rule with him as "we're not so diffrent you and me' Jean defies him and that's that for now. He just.. kinda vanishes for the rest of this part of the crossover. All it does is explain where Sara was. It's a solid issue and I like this kind of detour: seeing how the rest of the batfamily handled the quake and it's a neat way to weave it into what was going on with Azreal at the time.

Back at the main plot, barbra gets some good news as when Bullock gets back, he decides to go look for her dad when he finds out no one's been sent as what people they have are busy putting out fires in both senses as gas manes have exploded. But her quiet relief when Bullock goes says a lot as does his saving Jim. Babs and Jim's reuinon is also touching.. he tells her to keep working, as it's important.. but is VERY proud of her.

The next issue covers batman's underwater adventure, as he tensely navigates currents. While he's doing that, we get one of my faviorite plots as we follow the Huntress, who had the misfortune.

Huntress is another vigilante in gotham.. and one of the few not given the okay by Batman. She was the daughter of a mob family that got wiped out in front of her eyes and grew up to become both a dedicated teacher and a hunter. The problem is Helena will ABSOLUTELY go for the kill at this point in her life and Batman has a thing about that. Maybe you've heard. And look I can get tired of Batman's "YOU CAN'T OPERATE IN MY CITY WITHOUT MY SAY SO"

Shtick. It's mostly for Stephanie Brown, who we'll get to. But this is a plot i get and like: Helena wants to do the one thing Bruce just CAN'T allow. He can't have a killer in his city claming to do what he does.

This event adds a wrinkle to it though: how justified is his no kill code when there's no prison to take the villians to? When things are hardest how can he possibly justify this? The answer is that he has to, that it's who he is... but does EVERYONE have to stick to it?

In this case Huntress has to help a bunch of people on the same subway car, complicated by some asshole with a gun taking hostages not knowing how bad it is. She manages to rescue his hostage and save the day.. but an aftershock leaves the guy pinned. And she.. leaves him. In the clutch.. she can't hold up to some code she dosen't belivie in. I belivie in it, I get why bruce does, it's a good code.. but where's the line? It's a fascinating thing to dive into... why should Helena keep this up when things are this bad and one more criminal is not going to black gate, but is going to make things so much worse.

The answer of course is just becaue things are hard don't make it right, but I love this situation pushing that. While i'm in the court of heroes not killing unless it's absolutely necessary, I like testing them. Helena falling into it first makes sense but i'm curious as this goes how far batman can be pushed by the horrors that await.

Speaking of the Bat he emerges in teh bay.. and screams in horror, letting out a big no as he sees the full situation: his city is dying, on fire, torn to pieces, the skyline gone.. and there's little he can do.

Now for another interlude and a fantastic one. Catwoman was just casually robbing a department store for the thrill of it. She could just buy goggles but admits in narration ther'es just something about gotham.. something wild that makes someone want to do crazy shit. She loves this stupid city.

The quake hits and no one has any idea what's going on.. but Selina helps. it's a great show of her character: Yes she's a thief and this is long before her protector of those who society forgot schtick I love so much.. but she's a good person. She'll steal shit.. but she'll also help, guiding a group of survivors through the wreckage. She does try to bolt.. but when she sees her city torn to shit... she doubles back and helps and then goes and helps who she can. Despite her protestations... she can't help but to help either.

We then get Robin's tie in.. which is only a few pages long. Yeah Robin was overseas, throwing hands with a dictatorship apparently and at the tail end of this arc returns home.. just as shit gets real. Robin at this poitn is Tim Drake, the third robin and one of the best. Tim was made a contrast to the previous two robins: He wasn't an orphan, he has a family that apparently live right next to Batman at this point, and he leans more into the detective side having figured out who Batman and Nightwing were and urging Nightwing to become robin again in the wake of Jason Todd's death at the hands of Ambassador Joker.

So onto the next chapter, a one shot Blackgate: Isle of Man. We follow a death row inmate Jared Manx whose execution gets delayed.. by act of god. Jared says he's innocent, that he didn't do what he did and despite every attempt was still going to get the chair. He protects his lawyer and a nun brought ot comfort him as things go pair shaped and a riot breaks out with many a criminal escaping, including KGBeast, exactly what that sounds like, who kills whoever's in his way. It's a well done issue especially since it marks Batman's come back. Hearing what's going on Batman SWIMS OUT TO BLACK GATE despite everything he's just been through, and quickly goes john mclane on their asses when he gets there. A few do escape and we'll catch up with them later, but batman's able to help the police helicopters land and clean house. Sadly.. jared does not make it. He sacrices himeslf to save his companions and claims "actually I did do it". And I like the ambiguity left: was he lying the whole time or, and this is what i go with, was he just lying to save innocent people. He died.. but he got to go out on his terms saving innocnet people and wether he's a murderer or not.. he won't be forgotten for that.

Back to the bat proper and the next issue is another banger as Batman grapples with just how hopless it feels... he can stop criminals but.. this is something else. Alan Grant does a damn good job as he waxes poetic about the devistation and how batman feels.. and how he presses on anyway. Saving who he can. He does realize he can only do so much, and thus goes for help: From the Penguin. At this point Penguin's settled into his modern role as a fixer who keeps his hands clean and more brokers crimes and has his men do them than actually get arrested again or try and use a penguin blimp to blow up the Gotham mint or some such. Batman gives him an ultimatum: don't fucking loot, instead help whoever he can since he has the resources to. Given the circumstances batman has nothing to bribe Pengy with... but he can still do threats okay. If Penguin loots Batman WILL come for his ass when thigns are done and will not stop making his life hell. And since he became a shady mobster to avoid that Penguin agrees. His men would be shot on sight anyway and the faster things get closer to normal the better.

We catch up with Tim who can't get back into the city: Roads are blocked and while most would be fine with just having to lodge in Bludhaven, showing you just how bad things have gotten when that's the GOOD option, Tim has no time for that and steals a motorcycle leaving an iou and tearing it up to get back to the city.

Jolene is having a less rad time, as while her building is safe she wants to get to bruce to help.. and instead gets kidnapped by some shady crooks. and "coincidentally" right after things get worse as a mysterious villian calling himself the Quakemaster, real missed oppertunity to call himself the aftershockmaster but whatever, sends a message to the police and a tape to the media: He caused this, and he'll destroy what's left unless he gets his ransom.

We take a break from this newly introduced baddie who will surely last longer than the length of this review for an anthology issue. Batman Chronciles is a batman series I was unaware existed before reading this trade, a quarterly book to help add extra stories. This issues stories really hone in on this event's strengths that while , as always batman is the center, we get a lot of what the rest of gotham is going through, boots on the ground as everyday civilians and other vigilantes deal with this nightmare.

Our first story is the contract, an okay tale that features a kid who belivies in batman. You know batman leader of batman and the outsiders , the justice league, the league of international heroes. That mytholgical figure. It does have a fun twist on the kid waiting for batman to save them: he dosen't.. but a bunch of criminals contracted to do.. contracted by Bruce Wayne. It's a brilliant twist in an otherwise okay story.

The rest are all shorter tails either spotlighting various victims or setting up things to come: Ras Ah Ghul gloats in his evil lair that batman's lost the city.. and he will finally have him as his heir forgetting the no murder thing. The Penguin saves people... but only those he finds useful and only for a favor down the line. A man tragically calls out and is trapped... and is not found, robin finding someone else instead. Two Face's henchman plan to turn him in for reward money. It goes as well as you'd expect. And a little boy waits , having lost his parents.. but finds Dr Leslie Thompkins, who once again comforts a young orphan.

Onto Nightwing. Dick finally makes his way to the clocktower, where Barbra has returned to help cordinate things. The two are relived and as usual are adorable together. Before things can get a bit more serious Tim shows up to kill the mood. Babs is at least still happy to see him as, to my shock, they hadn't met before this. Neat little moment.. that becomes less neat when all involved realize NONE of them have heard from bruce.

Bruce himself is busy in a new identity: Detective Hawke. I love the look as Jim is naturally suspcious of a random officer showing up, the last thing he needs is a supervillian attack fucking now... until it hits him. He's been through so much and i'ts only getting worse so it's likely a huge relief to find that batman is back and doing all he can.

As Batman saves lives the rest of his team look for him.. but find the giant cratered manor, utterly horrifed. While it's not mentioned on text, the art does a good job showing how devistated dick is.. he's trying to hold it in but it's clear seeing his home for some long gone .. it's a lot. He goes in to check on the cave and Alfred, while Tim goes to check on his dad, who hugs him tight, a sweet moment and one of the few bits of hope we've gotten so far.

Dick finds more as Alfred is fine along with Harold, who came in with some digging equipment giving the two an exit now they have help. Harold is batman's mute tech man, forced into working for the penguin till Batman rescued him and gave him a home in his creepy basement. I mean granted who dosen't want to live near a giant robot dinosaur that was used to hunt men for sport?

The next issue deals with quakemaster; The police have doubts about his claims.. but are going to give him the money in case as there's no way in hell they can survive another quake. Batman does his thing investigating, going to find Joelne Relazzo... and finding she was kidnapped. Since Bruce is a distrustful batstard, he does check to make sure she's not a villian.. but isn't and comes to the correct conclusion: the quakemaster kidnapped her for her knowhow to make himself seem more credible.

Batman relays with Gordon and the two try to trap quakemaster.. but like any good villian he sent henchman to collect the money. They have no idea who the guy is and our heroes have no real leads.

So Batman goes back to the cave and brushes off his son and sidekick who were worried he might you know be dead, or lost. Same with his father. I get tensions are high but even for Batman this is a dick move. It's about an 8.. not quite "slapping robin in the face" or "war games" , a comfortable quiet or papa spank.

Batman does put together that Quakemaster is lying

The facts he has are all wrong.. which Batman reads as a clue. Jolene is feeding him bullshit to make it clear no one's in any danger. He still worries for HER, as kidnapped scientest is not a long lived profession.

Time for another side story, and this one is one of my faviorites. Sadly another Chuck Dixon joint but hey. This follows Huntress again this time with Spoiler

Stephanie Brown is the daughter of Cluemaster, aka tenmu riddler . When she found out what her dad was, she became Spoiler, determind to "spoil" his crimes by tipping off Robin. She soon became attracted to him and at this point is currently operating but only when he lets her as Batman is not a fan because "I DIDN'T TRAIN HER AND I'M NOT GOING TO YET BECAUSE BLURRRRRRRRRR". As you can probably guess by now I hate this look for batman. For chuck it was probably "Well it's his city of course he am the god he am the god". For me i'ts being a dick to a teenager who just wants to impress her crush and has a genuine talent for this and making Robin's life harder because shut up. Ther'es a line between "batman dosen't understand people's emotoinal and will often make decisions on pragmantism and not what''s necessarily the emotionally healthyc hoice " and "batman is a giant asshole who wants everyone else to be like him." and this feels like it's crossing it. Maybe it's better in the individual issues I don't know it just feels.. off to have Stephanie HAVE to get the permission of robin or feel like she needs it and I prefer the later her who when given similar dickish paramiters by Barbra when Steph became batgirl, instead just... proved her worng when she could. And Babs gets more of a pass as while she was being a tad condescending this was also after Steph's previous career left her seemingly dead. I put that "death" more on Batman than her, but tha'ts a whole other mess. My point is he had no reason to not take her in then and there, see if she had it then cut her loose like huntress. With Helena i'm more understanding as .. they can't kill people. That's a line they can't cross. I'm understanding in this circumstance, but in regular day.. no. They can't just kill people because their bad people.

It is neat to team the two up though: Steph tries to honor the code while Helena.. does not, but Helena also shows her a bit more repsect.. she's gruff but unlike Robin or Batman dosen't seem to dismiss her. She also relates to having a parent who sucks, as Steph has to confront cluemaster. Cluemaster DOES want to get money to treat Steph's ill mother.. but can't understand why this upsets her. That in the middle of a disaster when at the very least after escape he could've just... fucked off and gone on with his life or helped people.. he STILL chooose to steal money. Steph dosen't let Helena kill.. but still dosen't make it out of the situation cleanly, having once again been fucked up by her dad. It's deeply engaging and while a lot of i'ts probably just being a fan of Stephanie Brown's later apperances as Batgirl, it's still deeply engaging and since Steph was in a mall when the thing happened another nice boots on the ground story.

We'll finish the story in a second but for coherence sake i'm going to save the penultimate chapter of the quakemaster saga to do alongside the finale for Cataclysm as inbetween them are two unrelated side stories that just.. break the flow. Ic an't blame the trade for including them, but instead of moving them after the steph story for better reading their kept when they came out.. wedged inbetween a massive cliffhanger in the Quakemaster plot.

So i'm covering them here. First is catwoman which is.. not a great issue this go round. It should be, it has Catwoman fighting Poison Ivy who plans to retake the city for plants and is written okay, and has a good moment of selena going back to rescue her latest victim she honey trapped.. but it has a LOT of Catwoman slut shaming Ivy. I mean Ivy shouldn't kill and brainwash anyone of any gender, but the framing of it is just.. bleh. I do like Catwoman having to team up with Bullock and Ivy's own spores getting on her face.. and WANTING them to keep growing even if she dies, but this is forgetable and if I read this again, which I likely will, i'll defintely be skipping it over.

The next one's a bigger disapointment: the concept is brilliant: at arkham the power goes out... just as Killer Croc's cage is open so he escapes and Joker convinces him to let him out. He also lets out scarecrow , riddler and two new characters Vox and Witch.. who only show up here despite being given intresting backstories. THey kidnap an unfortunate guard and decide to play a game: whoever tells the best story kills the man.

Unfortunately, the stories are.. eh. Only vox and riddler's stories stick out, vox for her tragiclaly imitating her mom smashing her father in the head with a beer bottle on her brother and the freaky art style and Scarecrow for the fucked up ending where some puppies eat their owners alive. The rest are forgetable. It's a lesser attempt at the BTAS episode "Almost Got Em. The ending, joker delcaring they all one and all of them carving up the poor bastard and leaving him alive but his mind broken, is horrifying.. but the issue is a wasted opprutnity not helped by where it's awkwardly wedged in

So onto our finale: Robin investigates quakemaster as do Renee Montoya and Bullock. The latter two eventually find his hideout while Robin. .figures out who he is. I knew due to the guidebook I mentioned, but it's still a neat way as they give you the clues.. you just don't realize it. Quakemaster tends to do two things: pause mid sentence to rethink his words.. and not use any words with b in them.

While Jolene hopes her clues are getting through, Gordon goes to meet mayor Marion Grange, who seems to be one of Gotham's few competent mayors.. but is tired and pissed having to deal with 80 problems. And she gets an 81st as armed goons burst in to demand the ransom money. She informs them the city.. is broke, another devistating blow but understandable: gotham had two pandemics back to back before this.

As they prepare to kill her the rest of our heroes find quakemaster.. and his hostage, Mackinzie Bock, recurring detective the wiki didn't have much on.

So we come to the end of Cataclysm. Robin.. decides to mock quakemaster, daring him to say his name. Suprisingly this dosen't end in Bock's death, but in Quakemaster loosing his temper and going after our heroes. This allows the detectives to free bock and go fre relazzo whose greatful and gives harvey a kiss on the cheek. Awww.. now she has scabies.

Meanwhile Bock and Robin really rock tonight as they find the Quakemaster... and Arnold Wesker's hand up his ass. Wesker is the vintriloquist, a tragic supervillian and my favorite batman villian alongside his usual partner, Scarface, a chalk white gangster puppet and his other personality. Quakemaster is another of Wesker's personas, forcing him to do this scheme just like scarface.. nad not much else. It's a clever twist and I love the fact that the only super villian to have a major role in this .. was Scarface. The rest were one offs.

The two try to flee but BOck has a clever solution.. he won't shoot wesker.. while the issue is a bit iffy on Robin blaming wesker when he clearly has DID and his alters are the criminals, he doesn't want wesker killed. And neither doe sbock who instead shoots Scarface in the head while poor wesker calls for a medic. It's tragic as it is brilliant. He can't hurt an innocent.. but scarface isn't an innocent.

So with that the day is saved. Nightwing goes to save gordon, Wesker is taken in. Yet.. it's far from a happy ending. As Dick notes.. the city MAY not recover and while batman assures them it will and they at least won... it's very clear gotham.. isn't okay. They saved the day, prevented another disaster.. but like all the victims they've saved.. it's only so much triage. Gotham is bleeding out and there's only so much surgery batman can do before it flatlines.