#she also keeps apocalypse's body in her basement

[jewishcissiekj]

i love blaming everything on my social anxiety. only 90% of my accusations are true

[meltedbrains]

How Buffy copes

BtVS throws a lot at its characters: betrayal, heartache, grief, monsters of the week, and whatever the plural of apocalypse is.

Over seven years we watch the characters go through the ups and downs of life, celebrating and commiserating with them, sometimes cheering them on, sometimes begging them to stop.

During the downs (particularly the controversial sixth and seventh seasons) the writers remain remarkably consistent with the coping strategies the core characters use. Or rather, how they react to things that are just too personal.

Xander, Willow and Giles generally provide counsel to Buffy, supporting her emotionally, and sometimes practically, so that she can do the right thing. The things that they are unable, if not unwilling, to do. This does not mean that they always agree though, the gang are frequently at odds with each other. They often demand Buffy to lead them and then accuse her of doing it wrong, of dictating what the right thing is by virtue of being the slayer.

But whether they like it or not, she is the slayer. Saving the the world is her responsibility, and, as I said in a previous post, she has always taken on responsibility even before becoming a slayer. When she meets her baby sister for the first time she promises to look after her. When Joyce thinks she's dying Buffy promises to look after Dawn. This is either learned or inherited from Joyce (to an extent). Joyce attacks Spike with an axe to protect Buffy. Joyce is easily manipulated to protect Sunnydale from the occult. Joyce realises that Dawn is not her child but still believes that she needs to be protected. Dawn protects her friends from the ghosts in the new Sunnydale High basement. Dawn protects Amanda from the vampire and the bringers before encouraging her to fight on her own.

Her friends can't always handle it but Buffy shoulders the responsibility of the world on her shoulders. Not just because she is a slayer but because she is also a Summers.

But back to when things get personal, when the chips are down and you're having a bad day at the end of a bad week in a bad year.

When their loved ones are hurt, or killed, or (sighs) sleep with someone you don't like. Willow, Giles and Xander give in to their rage; they look for revenge and punitive justice. Willow attacks Glory when she steals Tara's mind and flays Warren alive after he kills her. Giles tries to kill Angel as revenge for Jenny Calendar. Xander tries to kill Spike after he and Anya sleep together. Buffy is not immune to this, like all good characters she is inconsistent and has flaws. She has a death match with Faith after she poisons Angel. Later she follows Faith to Angel the Series not as the slayer but as a wronged party seeking revenge and has to be talked down by Angel. However much she tries not to give in to anger she does fail but these failures remind her to keep her anger in check.

The coping mechanism I see Buffy use the most is to shutdown. When the world gets too much she withdraws. After killing Angel at the end of season 2 she runs away and starts a new, fake, life in LA as Anne. And what brings her back? Slaying. In the season 3 opener she introduces herself to the bad guy (with trademark Buffy/SMG wit and charm) as "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. And you are?".

Anne is not who Buffy is, she is a mask she wore while grieving, while isolated from her friends and family. Buffy is The Slayer, a protector of the innocent, a kicker of ass.

Buffy shuts down a few more times during the show. Notably in 'The Body' she regresses to an almost childlike state, unsure of herself and readily following orders from authority figures, only brought out if it by Tara's kind words and shared experience. The big one, however, being before the S5 finale when all hope (and Dawn) seems lost. Practically catatonic Buffy forces Willow to take charge of the scooby gang and use some magical therapy to get Buffy to "Snap out of it!".

Buffy frequently falls back on being an emotionless slayer when she doesn't want to deal with her emotions ('going through the motions' as it were). She tries her best to not let her personal life and her own feelings get in the way of being a slayer (not always a good thing).

So now we get to season 7, quite a lot of criticism for this one, but I like it. As would be expected of the final season this is Buffy at her most grown, a responsible adult and leader. Gone is the lone slayer from the pilot, in her place is a general, leading her army to war against the biggest bad we've ever faced. Ironically this leadership position has made Buffy more alone than ever before, everyone questions her judgement, everyone has their own ideas, few are willing to actually take the reins.

In S7 Buffy might be at her most functional, while also being the most shutdown. She can't let herself connect with the potential players because she knows that they are counting on her and whatever she tries will lead them to their death.

(As an aside I think her volatile relationship with Faith serves the narrative the best here, allowing Buffy to give in to an anger she rarely lets herself act on or even feel.)

Episode 5 (a quarter of the way through) is titled 'Selfless', a heartbroken Anya has become a vengeance demon again and started killing people, too many for Buffy and the gang to ignore it. Buffy decides to kill her (Anya seems to be attempting suicide by cop, no longer enjoying the vengeance that once fueled her).

Xander is unable to see Buffy's point of view here, he sees Buffy as a blood-thirsty avenger because that's what he has done in the past, as have Willow and Giles. He is unable to see Buffy as a levelheaded Slayer who understands her enemy. Buffy does not want to kill Anya because it's easy but because it's the right thing to do. Anya is tasked with enacting bloody vengeance on 'innocent' people on behalf of injured parties. Buffy is tasked with killing monsters to protect innocent people. The two aren't really compatible.

Unfortunately Buffy is already shutting down emotionally by this point in the season and the thought of killing her friend does not make her open up about her feelings.

Buffy has constantly put the weight and responsibility of the world on her shoulders (both voluntarily and as the calling of a higher power). She cuts herself of from her friends and family that do not and cannot understand her life and while this makes things easier for her it also makes it harder for them to understand her. Buffy is constantly alone, whether on a pedestal or kicked to the kerb.

Sometimes it's easier to push the emotions down than to feel them.

[batfamfucker]

Episode Three things I loved:

Bill and Frank. Obviously.

Old gays in general. Two gay men who get to grow old together and die together happily (As happy as you can be in the apocalypse).

Secret basement below the basement.

Bill's bunker. It's awesome.

Bill being Autistic for his entire screen time. Tell me that man isn't neurodivergent. I love him.

The fact Bill and Frank died together and it was lovely and they were happy instead of Bill finding Frank hanging like in the game. I'm glad they got to go together peacefully.

The gay coding with their words. 'A man who knows which wine to put with rabbit' 'I know I don't seem like the type' 'No, you do.' He read that motherfucker. 'Who's the girl' 'There is no girl' 'I know'

The piano scene. The fucking song throughout the ep. And the end as Joel and Ellie drive away. The open window. The message within the lyrics.

The cute little town.

Them bickering and being a married couple.

The meme-ability of Bill. 'The government ARE Nazis!' And 'You WHAT?' I need them as meme templates thanks.

Honestly that whole scene 'They ARE' 'They are NOW but they weren't THEN'

Bill's fucking Illuminati stuff. The hilarity of him staying alive because of his conspiracy theories.

Bill being a fucking badass tbh. The minute FEDRA leaves, just breaking into everywherr. Seeing him set up that town, having a full blown plan, setting up traps and building a goddamn generator, relaxing as he lets his traps take care of infected, just enjoying his steak and laughing. Knowing he does that a lot 'Gets me everytime'. Man's was made for this. He slayed tbh. That whole scene was so satisfying.

I was scared Frank was gonna use Bill, and he did at first, but then seeing him genuinely begin to love and care for him. Refusing to let Bill die when he got shot even though Bill told him Joel could care of him, wanting to marry Bill on his last day.

Honestly Frank just being sassy and dragging Bill lmao. 'We need friends babe. Sweetheart please you just sit in the basement all the time. You need a social life other than me, and for my own sanity, I need one too. So I've made a friend over the radio and you can't do anything about it. Now get me my paint'.

Tess being an AllyTM. Her and Frank being besties whilst their paranoid husbands scowl at each other.

Joel unable to say the word 'partner' for Bill and Frank lmao. You just adopted a lesbian. Honey, you've got a big storm coming.

I was hoping Ellie would get to meet Bill and he would tell her about Frank (Before going into the ep, based on the game) so she would have a nice little internal 'I'm not the only gay in the world thank god' moment. But I didn't mind since the whole episode was amazing.

The strawberry scene.

Bill apologising for getting older quicker but then it's Frank that needs the help later. My heart.

Frank and his paintings and beautiques.

Frank knowing Bill poured the pills into the wine bottle so he'd die too.

The marriage scene. Them exchanging rings. Having the same last meal and wine they had for their first meal together. Sitting next to each rather than across the table. A shot of the hole that Frank fell into, where they met. Sobbing. I love them.

They are the definition of 'In sickness and in health, till death do us part' and it hurt but it was some beautifully.

Knowing any Homophobic Gamer BoysTM were ripping their hair out at this episode.

It ripped my heart out but the fucking skeletons. The baby blanket and transition to seeing that baby and the mother. Knowing what happens. Hearing a mother comfort her kids and seeing a old lady and a whole community of families and knowing what happens to them.

All the fuck the government stuff. It feels like all the fucked up shit they did is so realistic and would happen.

The letter for Joel. 'Keep Tess safe'. And the symbolism of knowing there's at least one person (Ellie) worth saving. Worth living for. My heart.

Also, though. 'Hehehehe'

Ellie reading 'hehehehe'

The casualness of human bodies in the apocalypse. Periods actually referenced in an apocalypse show! Joel tossing Ellie some deodorant! Him being prepared to take care of a teenage daughger again! Ellie telling him he needs to shower (Also their banter). Ellie stocking her bag with toilet paper.

Joel making a small gravestone for Tess out of rocks from the river. That hurt.

Dad Joel coming out more and more each episode.

The forest scene. Joel giving his jacket to Ellie to sleep in so she wouldn't be cold. Him making sure she eats even if he doesn't.

Ellie roasting Joel. Joel roasting Ellie. 'Shit at shooting or life in general' Joel's continous 'offended but mostly confused I just got dragged by a 14 year old' face.

The arcade machine.

The repeat of the 'Anything bad?' 'Just you' joke.

Ellie being lowkey a psychopath again? The basement scene and her seeming to enjoy killing the infected dude.

Ellie being upset he stashes the massive gun. Because same.

The plane scene. Ellie's excitement all episode. Every question she asks. That's my Ellie.

Joel's dark humour. 'So did they'.

History Lesson With Joel.

Flour Zombies Confirmed. It's no longer Plants Vs Zombies, it's Plant Zombies.

The way he said the date of the outbreak, the subtle pain, and you can tell it's engraved because of that reason, as well as Sarah's death, and his birthday. I can't wait until Ellie finds out it was his birthday. And/Or about Sarah.

Contractor (?) Joel dragging Bill about his fences and using his KnowledgeTM to bait him into trading. Him being right.

Ellie's first time in a car. 'It's a spaceship'

'Women's shirts'. Joel really is thinking of her and it's nice to see he's used to taking care of a teenage girl and how he goes back into that role with ease. Him getting used to that again, even if begrudgingly at first.

Everytime Joel tells Ellie off. Dad Mode Joel Activated.

The fucking seat belt scene. Joel telling her to put her seatbelt on. The parallel of him saying that to Ellie like he did with Sarah. Him leaning over her and Ellie being completely comfortable with him doing so. Her not knowing what a seatbelt is.

Joel trying to get Ellie not to play music but then not letting her turn it off when he realises it's a song/artist he likes.

Joel warming up in the final shot when he likes the music. Ellie hating it. It's giving Dad Who Listens To Smooth Radio Whilst You Die Inside. I know because I've been there.

No school scene. Not introducing the bloater so soon. I'm glad we're building to that. Makes it seem much more impactful.

Basically the entire episode.

All I 'didn't like' (/Joking) was that they didn't hide literally everything in that house in the secret basement below the basement so raiders won't find anything when they come, so it'd still be there if they ever need to go back there. But that's just because I wouldn't be able to deal with it if that were me. I'd be making sure no one finds that shit. It's mine, and I'd go back for it when possible. Maybe. At some point. Hopefully. Or live there myself if I wasn't in Joel and Ellie's situation. I also wanna see Joel swinging upside-down from a chain at some point.

Joking aside, this episode is great. The show continues to not only meet my expectations, but exceed them. I can't take the fact that there's only nine episodes this season because I don't want it to end and I hope season two isn't about the second game, but for the show's later seasons to be about the years and adventures Joel and Ellie have together after the events of the first game, if season one meets the end of the first game. Because I love them and need more of this.

I'm so excited to see where this show goes. It has the perfect balance of sticking to the source material yet also doing new stuff that also surprises people who have played the game. I adore it.

[leon-scott-kennedy]

Distrail

Chreon, Rated-T

Read on Ao3

For a price, anyone could check into a seedy motel, even three people covered in blood, guts, and grime, no questions asked, especially with the ashes of Raccoon City still cooling 100 miles away. So the horizon still held a faint glow of destruction when Leon and Claire stumbled, barely conscious, through the front door of the Tadpole motel at 2 PM October 1st, using each other as support and Sherry clinging to Leon’s back like a koala if a koala drooled and snored.

Two other motels along the highway turned the odd couple away, rumours already flying about Raccoon City, zombies, and a nuclear cover-up. But at the right price, triple the going rate, Claire managed to convince the manager to let them bunk down, courtesy of Leon’s stressed credit card.

The fact Leon’s credit card worked, or that he even still had his credit card, was a miracle. His wallet hadn’t exactly been a priority, and honestly, they could sleep in a cockroach-infested basement, and Leon would be happy because they were dead on their feet after hiking on foot what Leon estimated to be a good 30 miles of rough terrain to get to the nearest town. The sun barely peeked over the horizon when the sky behind them exploded.

Raccoon City was gone. The people Leon had sworn to defend were gone. Sherry and Claire were all he managed to protect, and he’d be damned if he failed now.

The motel room wasn’t terrible; two double beds, a small tube TV, and a leaky faucet. It wasn’t good, but it wasn’t something out of a horrible nightmare. They’d left that behind them.

“I’m glad we don’t have a blacklight,” Claire joked, but her tone fell flat.

Leon nudged the bed farthest from the door suspiciously with his boot, dragged back the yellow duvet, and inspected the mattress before he lay Sherry down and tucked her in. He even let Claire shower first, insisted, while he watched Sherry sleep, tossing and turning and whimpering from reliving the horrors in her dreams until Claire emerged from the bathroom, hair still damp, and crawled into bed beside Sherry.

By the time Leon scrubbed his skin raw, the water was cold, and Claire had passed out cold with Sherry cuddled up beside her, little hand tangled in the front of Claire’s dirty tank top like a lifeline. Leon passed out face first on the other bed. He couldn’t even muster the energy to get under the covers.

Movement woke Leon. He jolted awake, reaching for his gun on the bedside table, only to find Claire, fully dressed, perched on the end of his bed and tugging one of her boots. She smiled sadly at the gun levelled at her head.

Leon lowered Matilda, gasping for air. His arm fell limply to his side. “Claire?”

“Hey.” Claire pulled on her second boot. “Sorry.”

Leon blinked at the sleep crusting his eyes. “What... what are you doing?”

Claire sighed and set her foot back down solidly on the ground, hands grasping her thighs. “I need to find Chris. I need... I need to know he’s okay.”

“Now?” Leon glanced at the clock. The bright red numbers read 7:46. The setting sun outside glowed faintly behind the curtains.

“If you ever need me...”

“Forget me. What about Sherry?” Leon snapped, somewhat mollified when Claire winced.

“I know you’ll take good care of her.” Claire’s attention briefly snapped to the sleeping 12-year-old that had survived literal hell. “Leon... if I didn’t have to.”

“Yeah. Yeah, whatever,” Leon scoffed, then rolled over. His heart thundered in his chest. He heard Claire briefly wake up Sherry to say goodbye, promising they’d be in touch, that if Sherry ever needed her, all she needed to do was call.

The door creaked open. Leon clenched his eyes shut, willing down the panic swelling in his chest until it ached. This was it. He was all Sherry had left. They were on their own.

“Take care of our girl for me.” Claire’s voice was barely a whisper.

Leon’s hands trembled, buried in the sheets and pillows, he struggled to suck down air, and his hearing fuzzed. Claire was gone.

For hours, Leon faded in and out of consciousness, barely able to keep the crush of dread at bay. Finally, at some point around 3 AM, he gave up all pretense to sleep and kept a vigilant guard. He jumped at a car alarm, tensed at the slam of a door, and clenched Matilda tightly when soft footfalls passed their door. Eventually, Sherry climbed into his bed to watch early morning cartoons with him.

“Is Claire going to be okay?” Sherry asked softly. She hugged Leon’s arm, cuddling into his side like he used to with his grandma.

“Yeah. Don’t worry about her,” Leon said. He slumped to the side, gently resting his head on top of Sherry’s. “She’ll be fine, kiddo.”

When the sun rose, Leon and Sherry trekked down to the front office to extend their stay another night, then hiked into town searching for clothes and sustenance. Being out in public, surrounded by people, set both Leon and Sherry on edge. They jumped at the slightest sound, and Sherry refused to release Leon’s hand for anything less than going to the bathroom, and even then, he had to stand guard outside the stall. Thank god he had pissed before they left the motel because Sherry was clinging to the back of his jacket while he tried seemed ridiculous.

Their shopping trip was quick. They grabbed what they could, Sherry setting a brisk pace through the little thrift store they found, dragging Leon from rack to rack. They scrounged up a few changes of clothes, socks, underwear, which Leon was a little uncertain of, a jacket that fits over his side holster since he had a license to carry, and a backpack that they filled with snacks and a deck of cards from a little corner store. It turns out Leon’s palette was similar to a twelve-year-old.

The tenuous credit limit finally crapped out on Leon when he tried to buy a six-pack at a shady liquor store on the way back to the motel.

“No job. No money. Just great,” Leon sighed.

For the rest of the day, they holed up in their room munching on junk food, watching terrible daytime TV, and playing Go Fish until Leon made the brilliant decision to teach Sherry how to play poker, and she fleeced him for all the Cheetos.

Leon had no plan beyond survive, and he hadn’t even planned for that. His body ached from being tossed by mutated monsters and shot. His wrapped shoulder twinged.

“Shit,” Leon cursed and clutched his wound. They needed help. He needed help. Taking care of a kid without any resources would be impossible; never mind, he’d never taken care of a person in his life. He had no siblings, no parents. His grandma died when he was nine.

Leon smiled at Sherry in reassurance when she questioned him. This little girl couldn’t be another statistic of the system. He could fix that. He would fix that.

Covered in orange Cheeto dust, Sherry crashed around 8 in the evening. The glow of the sun behind the curtain reminded Leon of the mushroom cloud that had enveloped the sky 36 hours ago. Leon’s stomach twisted in knots. Every creak, every thump, every squeaky break, Leon tensed, waiting for something to crash through the door and disrupt the precarious peace.

Leon hunkered down on his bed, the one closest to the door and any potential threat that came for them, and prepared for another sleepless night on edge.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Around one in the morning, his eyes beginning to droop, Leon nearly fell off the bed in his mad scramble for his gun when someone knocked heavily on the door. Checking his clip, Leon cautiously crept to the door, motioning for now very awake Sherry to stay out of sight.

“Who is it,” Leon called.

“Hi. Look, I’m sorry to bother you. My name is Chris Redfield. I’m looking for my sister Claire.”

Leon blinked and glanced back at Sherry, whose head had popped out of the blanket at the sound of Claire’s name. Then, double-checking he had bolted the chain, Leon opened the door a crack to peek out.

A man a little taller than Leon stood under the flickering light outside the door, his hair cut short and a 5 o’clock shadow. Chris Redfield, decorated member of the Racoon City Stars Division. Leon recognized him from the old photo Claire had shown him, but also the records he’d run across during his frantic hunt through the Police Department.

“Chris?” Leon said, astonished it was actually him. He slammed the door, unbolted the chain, and flung the door open again. “What the- Claire’s looking for you. What are you doing here?”

Chris, who eyed the gun uncertainly, brightened at the mention of his sister. “Is she here? The manager at the front recognized her. Said she was here with some guy and a kid.” Chris glanced past Leon into the room to Sherry curled up in the other bed peering out with curious fear from under the blankets.

Leon shook his head, eyes scanning the parking lot. “She’s not here. She left this morning to find you.”

“Fuck.” Chris winced and glanced at Sherry again. “Shit, sorry.”

Sherry giggled into her hands, and Leon rolled his eyes. “I think she’s dealt with worse.” Like the apocalypse.

“But she’s okay. She’s alive?” Chris asked.

“Who? Claire? Yeah. Yeah, she’s fine. Saved my ass more than a few times.” Leon smiled wistfully and then frowned. So Claire had left, and now, here, her brother was trying to track her down. It must be nice to have someone that gave a damn about you.

“Oh, thank god.” Then, finally, all the tension and stiffness in Chris’ posture melted. “I got her message, and...”

Leon scanned the dark parking lot again for any sign of life, then gestured into the motel room. “You should come in.”

“No.” Chris waved off the invitation. “No, I need to find her.” But the fatigue in his voice threatened to topple him, and that would definitely fell Leon if he tried to catch him.

“Dude, you’re dead on your feet,” Leon said. “It’s the middle of the night. Crash for a few hours.”

“Yeah!” Sherry chimed in, bouncing on her bed. “Stay!”

Chris shook his head. “I can’t.”

Leon pursed his lips. “Look, I don’t know you, man. But I do know that if you pass out behind the wheel and wrap yourself around a pole, you’re pretty damn useless to her.”

Chris opened his mouth to argue, and Leon sighed, tilting his head to the side, ready to give up when Chris snapped his mouth closed and cleared his throat. He studied Leon closely, scrutinizing him like he would a suspect, but Chris must have been satisfied with what he found - weakness, terror, immaturity - because he finally said, “just a few hours.” And the anxiety squeezing the life out of Leon eased, just a tiny bit. Enough that he could breathe.

Chris excused himself to run and grab his go-bag, and Leon cursed his stupidity because nothing was stopping Chris from running. That tightness immediately returned, but a few minutes later, another sharp knock sounded at the door.

Leon smiled tiredly and welcomed Chris into the room, relieved to have the company, someone who knew what they were doing; an adult. Leon grew up fast, but he’d never been an adult in his life. Racoon City was supposed to be a fresh start, and now, he was back to square one. Not even. He was in the basement of square one—the root cellar.

Leon finally caught a good look at Sherry with the lights on, still covered in orange dust, her fingers and cheeks stained. “Jesus. Did you eat the Cheetos or roll in them?”

Sherry laughed. “Leon taught me to play poker, and then I won all the cheezies,” she said to Chris, who grinned.

“Nice job.” Chris offered her a high-five, which she eagerly accepted. The hero worship was already forming.

“He gets a little wrinkle right here when he lies,” Sherry said, pointing a small finger between her eyebrows.

“Okay,” Leon said, scooping Sherry off the bed and carrying her off under one arm. “Let’s get you cleaned up and back in bed, munchkin.”

Cheeto dust proved a formidable adversary, but they managed. When they walked back into the room, Chris was standing exactly where they had left him, his bag still slung over his shoulder and his boots laced.

Getting Sherry tucked back into bed became a struggle now that the brand new company hyped her up; no hesitation whatsoever. She liked Chris. She even made Chris put her to bed, Leon faking offence at being disregarded for the new guy, but there was something about seeing a six-foot boulder of a man coax a tiny twelve-year-old back to sleep that made Leon’s chest ache. Especially when Chris told the story of how Claire was convinced that if she left fake teeth under her pillow, she could trick the tooth fairy into giving her more money. It never worked. The tooth fairy left chocolate coins instead. Fake money for a fake tooth.

Leon watched perched on the edge of the other bed, a little envious of Chris’ skill with kids. He double-checked the safety on his handgun, then the clip. Chris eyed Leon as he set his weapon back down on the bedside table, and Leon couldn’t muster the energy to be self-conscious about his paranoia.

Chris may be Claire’s sister and a fellow survivor of Raccoon City, but Leon didn’t actually know him. For all he knew, he was a traitor like Irons or Wesker. Maybe he wasn’t the man Claire believed him to be. What the hell had he been thinking? Inviting a stranger to stay with them?

With Sherry asleep again, Leon and Chris were left to settle in for the remainder of the night. For Chris, that meant shedding his bulky jacket and combat boots.

“It’s Leon, right?” Chris said. He stood awkwardly beside the bed, watching Leon click off the light and climb under the blankets, tucking himself up against the edge of the mattress as close as he possibly could without toppling off. “Claire mentioned you in one of her messages.”

Leon almost facepalmed. He hadn’t introduced himself. He really was doing everything backwards. “Yeah. That’s me. Leon S. Kennedy.” He curled up into a small ball.

“Jesus Christ.” Chris swiped his palm across his mouth. “You’re the new rookie.”

Leon chuckled humourlessly, his hands tightening into fists around the sheets pulled up to his neck. “Was a hell of a first day.”

Chris picked up real quick that Leon didn’t want to talk about it. So instead, he climbed into his side of the bed, the one closest to the door. The mattress dipped under his weight, and Leon tensed. Where else would Chris have slept? The floor? The last person Leon shared a bed with was his ex, who had seemingly saved his life. If she hadn’t broken up with him, if he hadn’t gotten drunk, if he hadn’t slept in hungover as hell, he would have arrived right in the middle of the initial panic, and who knows if he would have survived that. No one else in the department had.

What would it have been like? The screams, the moans, the pleas for help- the sounds still played on repeat in Leon’s head. Lieutenant Marvin Branagh, mouth agape, stumbling towards him with his hands out. Leon had put two bullets between his eyes.

The first indications of a panic attack slammed into Leon. Abruptly, his throat closed. He couldn’t breathe, his vision slid out of focus, and his chest compressed. Like someone reached into his chest and squeezed his heart in a vice. His entire body shook.

Suddenly, a warm voice murmured in his ear, the soothing tone talking him down, calming him. Leon wasn’t alone. He wasn’t trapped in the police station battling endless waves of the undead, the people of Raccoon City he’d taken an oath to serve and protect.

“Leon, kid, you need to breathe,” Chris said. His presence was a solid wall behind Leon. “I’m going to touch you, okay?”

Leon focused on Chris’ voice. His vision began to swim back into focus, his hearing rushed back in a sudden wall of familiar night noises like the drip of the faucet in the bathroom or the lonely car that passed on the highway. He nodded, not fully understanding what Chris was saying. An arm slid around his waist and pulled him back into a firm chest. Leon flailed, seconds from panic again when Chris’ voice rumbled in his ear.

“You’re going to be okay. I got you.”

Leon grasped Chris’ arm, his grip probably tight enough to leave bruises, and he choked on a shuddering sob.

“It’s okay, Leon. You’re going to be okay.”

Gasping for air, Leon rolled over and buried his face in Chris’ chest, and Chris let him. Leon’s sobs were muffled in Chris’ arms, not wanting to disturb Sherry in the next bed. He felt every subtle muscle flex when Chris tightened his grip or shifted them into a more comfortable position. That’s how Leon passed out, wrapped in the reassuring embrace of a complete stranger, one who understood the hell he’d lived through and the fear and uncertainty he felt in his soul.

Morning came quickly. Leon woke up still curled into Chris’ chest with a death grip on the other man’s faded t-shirt. Chris’ nose was buried in Leon’s hair, each soft snore ruffling his hair, but his embrace hadn’t lessened overnight.

The warmth of embarrassment burning, Leon snuck out of bed, anxiously loosening Chris’ hold and dashing for the safety and solitude of the bathroom, horrified at his complete lack of control the night before. No one had held him like that before, at least not since he was a child and his grandma would sit up with him after a nightmare. But, sadly, this was another type of nightmare, a waking one.

When Leon finally mustered the courage to wander back into the room, Chris was up, sitting on the edge of the bed with his elbows on his knees.

“You okay?” Chris asked the same time Leon burst out, “I’m sorry!”

Chris sighed. “You didn’t do anything wrong. When I showed up on your doorstep last night, I saw right away that you were barely holding it together.”

Leon’s fists clenched at his side. He couldn’t meet Chris’ gentle gaze.

Chris crossed the room in two enormous strides and considerately grasped Leon by the shoulders. “It was the shock finally hitting you. It happened to me too, but I was alone,” Chris admitted. “Hey. Hey, come on. Look at me.”

Leon bit his lower lip, but he slowly looked up, eyes stinging. “I don’t know what to do.”

Telegraphing his movements, Chris gently pulled Leon into a tight hug. “You’re not alone. We’re going to do this together. I want to take Umbrella down, but first, I wanna make sure you’re okay.”

Leon jerked back so fast Chris stumbled. “I want to help. I want to make those sons of bitches pay.”

Chris smiled. “Good. But first, I have a safe house.”

Together, they set the plans. Leon and Sherry would meet Chris in two days, hopefully with Claire in tow, at Chris’ new safehouse three states over. Sherry and Leon could catch a bus a couple miles down the highway to get them most of the way. The trick would be getting up the mountain to the cabin. But they were in this together. Hope simmered once again.

Armed with a freshly drawn map on motel stationery, Leon watched Chris pack. Umbrella wouldn’t know what hit them.

“Here. Take it.”Chris handed Leon two rumpled twenties, a five, and a few ones he dug out of his wallet. “It’s all the cash I have on me, but it should be enough to get you there. I’ll drop you off-”

“No.” Leon took the cash, but waved off Chris’ offer to give him and Sherry a lift to the bus station. “It’s in the opposite direction. We’ll be fine.”

“Two days,” Chris promised. Sherry had climbed out of bed and now clung to Chris’ arm as if he couldn’t leave as long as she was attached. He ruffled her hair. “With or without Claire, I’ll be there and we’ll go from there.” Chris grabbed Leon by the back of the neck and dragged him into a gruff hug, their foreheads lightly pressed together. “It’s gonna be okay, kid.”

And Leon believed him. That is, until two hours later when an unmarked vehicle pulled up on Leon and Sherry hiking down the side of the road, hand in hand. They never made it to the rendezvous.

[bracefacefreak]

Agnes Montague, Hill Top Road and that creepy tree...

Ok, so I just spent the good part of a few hours trying to figure out what the hell was going on with Agnes Montague, Hill Top Road, Raymond Fielding and that damn creepy tree, and now you are going to have to suffer through it too. 

So Agnes Montague is born, probably sometimes in the 50′s during a ritual of the Cult of the Lightless Flame. She is to be their Messiah and complete their final ritual. However, being the embodiment of pain and destruction, she is not easy to control. 

So in the 1960′s when she is around 11 years old, Agnes is sent to live at Hill Top Road, a known stronghold of the Web. At this time it is inhabited by Raymond Fielding, a servant of the Web, who uses it as a halfway house for troubled teens, who he promptly sacrifices to his God. 

At some point Agnes rescues at least one of the young men from Raymond’s basement trap (MAG 59.) We aren’t told how Raymond reacts to this, but around this time Raymond begins to stop taking in youths, perhaps to avoid any more escapes/because he recognises Agnes’ ties to another entity?

Raymond Fielding vanishes, likely in the early 1970′s. By this point Agnes is old enough to inherit Hill Top Road and it is discovered that the house is now in her name. It seems likely that Agnes was involved in Raymond’s death, although it is possible that the Web turned on him to allow it’s greater plans to proceed. 

Agnes keeps Raymond’s severed R hand which upsets the rest of the Cult - it seems that this is likely because by this point the Web has some sort of hold over Agnes. The Cult never expected this could happen because of Agnes’ power and connection to the Desolation, but it seems that they were wrong. Raymond’s hand seems to act as some kind of binding between Agnes, Raymond and (to a lesser extent the house.) 

It seems likely that the Web wants to have control of Agnes as part of it’s machinations to prevent the Desolation’s ritual. We are told a number of times the Web (like the End) has never attempted a ritual and does not seem keen on the idea. This later turns out somewhat incorrect but it’s unclear when the Web realised this and it seems likely it may  have known that if another entity attempted and even partly completed a ritual, it would not play well into the Web’s plans to spread itself and the other fears. 

Anyway, back to Agnes. Agnes is said to have remained in the house for a few years, perhaps because of her being bound to it or maybe just because she didn’t want to go back to the Cult. 

However, in 1974 a child vanishes from the street and the locals suspect Agnes. I wonder whether perhaps the Web took him, or maybe he fell through the crack between realities. Soon after this Agnes burns down the house; was this a reaction to the child’s disappearance? A way to try and stop the Web? Simply a wish to leave, especially as she had caught other’s attention by this point and this was a way she could sneak away? Or maybe she could only leave the House if it was destroyed? 

Raymond Fielding’s charred body is found in the ashes of the house, missing his right hand. 

However, Agnes seems to remain bound to Hill Top Road somehow and it seems to me that the tree/box buried beneath it is definitely important here. Firstly, the tree is not badly damaged/destroyed in the fire, it is only mildly scorched, as if Agnes had tried to burn it but had not been able to. In my opinion it seems likely that the Web somehow bound Agnes to the tree/box. Perhaps it forced Raymond to do this before his death. Anyway, from what I can work out (and this is purely my own theory) Agnes and the tree are somehow tied together - Agnes (and maybe this extends to her followers) cannot destroy the tree (probably because it will have some negative effect on her), and she cannot be killed while the tree stands. Does that make sense? 

Sometime after the fire, a young Gertrude Robinson turns up at HTR to explore as she is trying to find a way to stop the Cult of the Lightless Flame. She finds a box of Agnes hair - another feat of the Web - and uses the hair to perform what she believes is a banishing ritual. However, the ritual is actually a binding ritual and somehow binds Agnes and Gertrude together. From this point Agnes refers to Gertrude as her anchor - a tether to humanity and something that prevents her from completing her destiny. Gertrude meanwhile ends up being protected by the Cult as they fear any harm to Gertrude may harm Agnes. This ritual seems to have two purposes. One, it is another way in which the Web has some control over Agnes and therefore the actions of the Cult, plus it’s a back-up in case something happens at HTR. Also, it allows Gertrude to continue on her quest of stopping rituals while being afforded some protection, and as we discussed before, the Web is not keen on a ritual happening, at least at this point in time. 

It’s possible by tying her to humanity, (although I believe Agnes was already likely more human than was probably good for her whole-Messiah-thing - I just think her actions for Ron Sinclair may have been more than a fuck you to the Web), Gertrude’s ritual also accelerated Agnes descent into doubt and ultimately uselessness as the Cult’s Messiah and apocalypse lynch-pin. 

So Agnes and Gertrude live their respective lives for thirty or so years. During this time, Agnes realises that she cannot perform the Cult’s ritual as it will fail and this will mean they will have to wait centuries before they can try again. However, at this point she also can’t kill herself because of her connection to HTR. 

But in 2006, Evo Lensik is compelled (again by the web perhaps?) to uproot the tree and destroys the box beneath. This frees Agnes and allows her to complete her sacrifice for the Cult. It also seems to sever Raymond Fielding’s connection with the house as he is not seen again by anyone who lived at HTR after this time, perhaps because the connection only existed through Agnes and with her gone, so was his link. This might partly explain why the hand was in such good condition, because Raymond was still somewhat alive up to the point where Agnes died. 

Those living at HTR do not report any further paranormal events, at least until the start of the show’s storyline. 

Sorry, that was long, but I hope it made some sense. Would be interested if anyone has their own theories/ideas/comments. I’m always happy to discuss TMA with other fans. 

Thanks. 

[ask-laz-and-pals]

hey laz! have you met anyone else in the basement yet?

Lazarus nods. "There's a lot of other people down here."

"My older sister is down here too. Her name's Bethany but I usually call her Beth."

"Beth doesn't like going on runs with me since she doesn't want me to see her corpse if she ends up dying. I don't want her to know how many pills I eat in one run, so I guess it works out."

“I think Isaac was one of the first to end up here. He's also the youngest. He doesn't talk much, but he does like to draw! …Sometimes the things he draws are really violent, but if he's in a good mood he'll draw pictures of cats or familiars."

"Maggie is kind although a little blunt sometimes. She's one of the more social people down here."

"I don't know how to feel about Eden. They say a lot of things that don't make sense. One time I woke up to them standing over me and them saying that my 'stats' are terrible."

“Apollyon scares me a little. He’s not mean or anything- he’s actually really nice, but sometimes he just stand still and stares at his void for hours or talks about the apocalypse. Him and Beth like to talk about books sometimes.”

“I don't know much about Judas. He's usually busy studying his book or writing stuff down. Cain likes to hang around him sometimes and Judas will tell him to go away but he never actually makes him leave.”

"Cain is really good at finding pills and winning stuff from the arcades. He's a bit superstitious though and he'll get nervous if a run goes too well or if he doesn't go through rooms in a certain order."

"Samson is strange. He's really friendly towards everyone, until he gets mad. Sometimes it'll just be little things like accidentally stepping on a spike or missing the boss rush. I saw him beat a gaper to death with his fists and keep hitting it until he was covered in blood... I stopped going on runs with him after that."

"I don't know much about Eve either. She usually keeps to herself. Sometimes she'll spend time with Lilith or sing to her bird."

"Blue is... a dead body. They move around and talk like they're alive, but they look and smell like they're rotting. Sometimes he coughs up flies or maggots. I feel bad for avoiding him but he creeps me out."

“The Lost hides and cries a lot. They get mad whenever someone tries to comfort them though. He yelled at me when I offered a hug."

"The Forgotten is really curious about everything. They like to investigate things by smacking them with their club. They've hit me a couple of times but I don't think they meant anything bad by it... I hope."

"Keeper bit me for quarter during a run once. I'm afraid of what he would do for a dollar.”

“Jacob and Esau are always together, but sometimes it seems like Esau wants to explore on his own. Jacob is really cheerful and talkative but sometimes he'll say mean things or push me out of the way for a good item. Esau can be a bit grumpy sometimes but he always apologizes if he ends up saying something mean."

"Azazel is hyper and loud. He's always flying around or hiding in dark corners to try and scare someone. Beth doesn't like him very much since he almost burnt her book one time."

“When I first arrived, Lilith scared me the most since, well, she's a big tall demon, but she's super nice! She worries a lot about me and the others who are human. She says we're too squishy to be crawling around the basement. I think she wanted to cry when she realized we don't have claws or sharp teeth.”

"I think that's everyone but I wouldn't be surprised if there are more people down here."

[knifeewifee]

Into the Dark Tamaki x Fem! Reader

A/N: WOW this took fucking FOREVER, But I’m super proud of it! I didn’t proof read the last bit cause I’m LAZY but I hope yall like it!

This is in a  Apocalypse AU. There are no Quirks in this AU. Female Reader

TW: NSFW, Gore, Death, Violence, Some Blood, SelfHarm ish, Kinda Angsty

Tag list: @strawbirb​ @heroheads​ @caprisun-calories​ @hummusatune​ @honeytama​ @we-mentally-unstable​ @redflannel​ @engel-hageshii

Check out the others here!: https://lady-bakuhoe.tumblr.com/post/620733945423740928/here-is-another-nsfw-collaboration-for-the-bnharem

Word Count: 4.3 k ish

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The irony of the situation was not lost on you. It has been over a year since the mysterious disease that spread worldwide had first come around. There was no real name for this infection other than calling those who were infected ‘Vampires’ or ‘The Dead Ones’. There’s only one real way of being infected and that's to have one of the infected’s blood mix with your own in some way or another. They always show the same feature. Sharp teeth and claws, inhuman speed, strength and the most dangerous of them all, a never ending hunger for human blood. So strong that the ‘vampires’ become bloodthirsty and violent monsters who are more than willing to tear into the throats or limbs of their loved ones to quench an almost never ending need for the crimson liquid. Once infected there was no way of turning back. Mostly because you were, in fact dead as a doornail. You can’t reverse death.

When the disease first came around the only option was to kill them. Despite their strength and speed it wasn’t so hard. They were weak to the sun and always burned in a horrific way into ash. The smell of burning flesh was so strong around that time. Another way to kill them was to take off their heads. Which wasn’t as easy. They could heal their bodies quickly and if you miss it almost guaranteed your death by the monster.

Once they were changed they were no longer the one you loved or knew. Most aren’t even sure if they remember who they were before they were changed. They attack with no remorse. So they ended the same way.

   Which is why you find your situation so.. Disheartening. You sat on the wooden crate staring at the dark haired man in front of you. Tamaki Amajiki was someone who you didn’t know well before this whole event happened. His anxiety was an ever flooding emotion that got in his way of making friends. He sat next to you in your animal science class and his shyness always made it difficult to start a conversation with the man. Despite this your heart would always flutter at the sound of his soft voice whenever he did speak. When he did speak his passion was conveyed in a way like no other. You could see it in his dark colored eyes. The sparkle in them when he talked about how he wanted to become a vet to help animals in need.

His kindness didn’t stop at animals though, he was also incredibly kind to people as well. More than willing to help others in need. Which is how you both ended up in this situation. Tamaki was chained to the brick wall. The gray metal shined dimly in the little candle light there was. You watched him softly as small whines of pain left his lips. You hated to see him this way.

   While out gathering supplies you were attacked and Tamaki protected you. Unfortunately he was badly injured from it. You don’t know how but at some point the vampire must have bled onto Tamaki, because now he’s on the floor in front of you as one of the infected. You know that you’re supposed to get rid of them. To stop the spread of this, but over the year you have spent together you had fallen deeply in love with the timid dark haired man. You couldn’t bring yourself to hurt him. So instead you chained him up in the basement of a cabin that the two of you had found way out into the forest in the mountains away from the dangerous cities.

This was a stupid thing to do, this could get you killed but the fear of death didn’t scare you. Tamaki would never hurt you. He is far too kind and caring to do that. Not on purpose anyways.

When you first met him one year ago he was timid but had a kind heart that you found to be his best trait. Over the time that you had spent with him you learned more things about him. You learned he looked up to his best friend Mirio. You learned how hard Tamaki worked. You could see the passion in his eyes, you knew no matter how much anxiety he had that Tamaki would do his best no matter what.

You thought that he’d become a great vet. That was before everything went to hell. When this mysterious disease first appeared it spread fast and took down large cities, Like Tokyo, New York and Shanghai in only a matter of days. Law enforcement and medical workers were affected first since they came to the aid of those injured and infected. Without reinforcements and medical care many people died or were unprotected. The ‘vampires; were mindless and violent. No one was sure if they could even talk or communicate in any other way other than ungodly screaming. Like the hunger they suffered was so painful they could feel it in their very souls.. If they had one anymore that is. They attack any and all without prejudice. Blood covered the streets and the inside of homes. It was clear to most that leaving the city was the best option. If only it had been that easy.

You did what most people did and packed up your car to leave. You didn’t pack much, some clothes, pictures, food and water. You knew this would last a long time and packing light was your best option. It hurt to leave some of your things, to leave precious memories behind, but at this moment, survival was what was important. You didn’t have any family or much friends for that matter. Not anymore. All of the streets leading out of the city were packed with cars as far as you could see. It seems you weren’t the only one with common sense. After an hour night fell over the streets like a suffocating blanket, you felt uneasy. Nothing was moving.. Why weren’t the cars moving?

That's when you heard it. Screaming, it wasn’t just from one person. It was from many. Young and old, men and women. All their screams echoed down the packed streets. You panicked and slid into your back seat grabbing canned food, water, a shirt and pants into a backpack and slung it over your shoulder, there was no way in hell you were gonna sit here like a pig to the slaughter. You exited your car with a machete in hand and weaved and dodged around cars keeping low. How could you have been so stupid? You put yourself in a bad position. Surrounded by people in a place you couldn’t move, you needed to get out of here.

You didn’t want to die. Not yet, you wanted to do so much.  You wanted to be so much. Though those plans are ruined now that you look back. You were disoriented by a scream. This scream wasn’t far away. In fact this scream was right behind you. You turned and saw it standing over the body of a young woman. You could hear her downing in her own blood as that thing tore into her throat with a god awful sound that you could never describe in a way that would truly express how horrid it was. No amount of horror movies could prepare you for a sound like that. One that made your stomach turn and your heart break. The glass of her car window laid on the ground, her hands gripping at it, like she was trying to look for some sort of weapon to protect herself. You could see the desperate fight in her eyes. One of someone, who wasn’t ready to die yet. Soon her body went limp. Her blood colored the street and her car like paint.

You slid behind a car and covered your mouth. You wanted to sob, scream or try to help her but you knew there was no helping her, she was gone. You steadied your breathing and looked around. Was that the only vampire here right now? Was there still hope of getting the fuck out of this situation? You couldn’t keep yourself still, you wanted to run. You wanted to get out of there. You didn’t want to be like her. Suddenly you felt something on your neck, something that both terrified you and sent your heart into despair. The smell of copper heavy on its rotting breath. You turned your head to see it staring at you with sharp golden eyes that practically glowed in the darkness that surrounds you.

It was mere inches from you, and yet your body wouldn’t move. Fear etched its way into your bones and muscles stiling you like a statue. Your eyes moved down to its fangs. It’s mouth twisted into some sort of sick grin as its clawed and disfigured hand reached out towards you. That's when the situation hit you. You need to fucking MOVE.  NOW. It was like the cement in your bones disappeared as you bolted from your hiding place. You had never moved so fast in your life your legs and lungs burned as raced around cars and people.

Just as you thought you had gotten away you feel a sharp pain in your side and your legs turn to jelly under you. Your face hits the rough asphalt hard, bits of rock digging into your hands, knees and cheek. The matchette you once held thrown out of reach. You let out a whimper of pain. Not from the fall but the burning hot pain in your side. Like someone pushed hot steel through your skin. The taste of copper filled your mouth. A string of curses leaves your lips as you desperately try to crawl away. This wasn’t how you were going to die. Not by one of those things. You were NOT going to be an unsatisfying meal to one of those vampires.

You felt something grab your leg with sharp dagger like nails digging into your ankle. You kick at it with your other leg screaming as you desperately try to fight. ‘Is this karma?’ You thought. ‘ Am I being punished for standing by while others died in front of me?’ A sob wrecked through your body as you turned clawing at the ground trying to reach for your only weapon.

“L-LEAVE HER ALONE!” the familiar erupted through the night. It felt like everything was in slow motion as you turned to see the face of the timid man who used to sit next to you in your class and the now headless vampire who had your life in it’s hands.

Before you could even react to what had just happened you were wrapped into Tamaki’s arms and lifted up. Tamaki didn’t say a word. In fact he didn't even really look at you as he ran through the cars and into the grass that separated the road and the thick forest that leads to the mountains. His breathing was uneven and panicked as he bolted past the tree line and into the dark forest.

That was how the two of you ended up together in such a fucked up situation. The two of you wandered through the forest for days until the two of you found an abandoned cabin at the base of the mountains, the thickest part of what seemed like a never ending woodland. Your wounds weren’t too bad and with the little medical knowledge Tamaki had from class he was able to patch you up. As the weeks went by the two of you became closer.  

The more you were with him the more you fell in love with him, and he also fell for you just as hard. On cold nights you’d sleep close to him with his arms wrapped around you. At the time. The small things you two did together made it seem like the world hasn’t fallen apart. Like Everything was okay.

But now. Your world was falling apart all over again. The one person you had, the last person you had in the fucked up world was now one of the vampires. The pain of this realization twisted in your chest. Being stabbed again would hurt less than to watch your love cry out and whimper on the floor, begging for something to eat. But you knew it wasn't food he wanted. Unfortunately the blood of animals didn’t work. Instead it only made him sick and hurt him more. You want to stop his pain. You want to ease his hunger. There was only one way to do that.

You pulled out a pocket knife from your jacket pocket. You pulled off your jacket and tossed it on the cold cement floor. Tamaki looked up at you from the floor, his reddened eyes scanning your form. “W- … What are you doing?” His vision is blurred from pain filled tears but he could clearly see the gleam of the pocket in the dim candle light. He knew exactly what you were going to do. He didn’t want that. Tamaki shifted from his laid down position and tried to move towards you. “S-Stop don’t do that!” The chains pull tightly, stopping him from moving closer.

“Tamaki.. You’re in so much pain. I just want to help you.” You look at him softly as you open the pocket knife and put the blade to your wrist. “I can give you some of my blood. Animal blood is only hurting you more, it makes you sick!”

Tamaki pulls at the metal confindments roughly. The thought of you hurting yourself for him made his chest burn in despair. This was his fault. He got infected and now you’re suffering for his mistakes. “I’m infected. I’m already sick. Don’t … Don’t hurt yourself for me, bunny” He looks at you with sadden eyes as he watches you intently. It made him feel sick that part of him wanted it, that he could smell your scent no matter how far away you were. A sickly sweet smell of burning sugar or incense. One that he craves to always have near him. It only made him hunger for your blood more. To be buried in your scent and devour you whole.

His heart sank as he saw beads of crimson blood slide down your perfect skin. You slowly make your way towards Tamaki with your arm outstretched. “Tamaki Please.” the crack in your voice spoke volumes about how you felt. This is your fault. You wanted to help him, he was in pain because you lost focus, because you didn’t check your surroundings. You had your head in the clouds and forgot what kind of world you live in now.

“Just drink it, Tama.”  Tamaki looked away from you and moved back. “N-no. I can’t. I don't want this..” He swiftly turns away and leans his head on the wall behind him. He wraps his arms around himself like if he didn’t he’d fall apart right there. You wrap your arms around him and lean your head against his back. You felt his body tense under your arms. At this point it didn’t matter to you that he may be dangerous. This is Tamaki. A man you loved more than anything, whose kindness knew no boundaries.  Nothing would change that, here he is, in an unbearable kind of pain you’d never understand. A never ending hunger you'll never feel, but he still refuses. He’s different. He isn’t like anyone else. He may be a ‘vampire’ now but he’s still the gentle man, with the same soft eyes and caring hands.

“I’m sorry, Tama. This is all my fault. You’re like this because of me.. I just wanted to help you.”  Tamaki starts to shake a small groan escaping his lips. “I-I .. You need to move away from me...”

“No.” You rub your face into his shoulder, trying to fight off the tears. “I’m not going anywher-”  your words are cut short by a sudden and swift movement from Tamaki pushing you into the freezing brick wall. You never saw Tamaki as being particularly big. He always slouched into himself making him seem much smaller than what he really was. But in this moment he loomed over you, his dark eyes almost shining red in the soft yellow light. You’d be lying if a small bit of fear didn’t grip you in its paralyzing claws.

Tamaki grabbed your hand, the blood from the cut you made earlier smeared across your arm and hand. His thumb moved carefully over the red and raised skin. He never breaks his gaze from your arm as he brings it closer to his trembling lips.  Tamaki didn’t want this. He needed this. Overwhelming guilt flooded him as his pale lips pressed against the fresh cut. He couldn’t hold back any longer, the smell of copper and your overstimulating scent made his head spin.  

You bring your other arm up and run your fingers gently through his indigo locks. Your face twists slightly with pain as Tamaki’s tongue runs across your self made injury. The crimson honey sliding along this tongue and down throat. It was almost intoxicating, it was addicting. He wanted more. The normally reserved man pressed into you his grip on your arm tightens as he locks his lips around the source of his pleasure. He slides his knee in between your legs, a soft groan radiating from deep in this throat.

“Tama-.. ki?” A heat rushes to your cheeks as soon as you see the look in his eyes. Not the same look he used to have. He has a much darker expression now as his lips release from your wrist and he pressed his forehead to yours. The smell of the rouge liquid heavy on his breath as he leans in closer to your lips. His hands move down to your hips and pulled you flush against his growing bludge. You gasp slightly as his lips lock with yours in a needy and sloppy kiss.

Tamaki bites your bottom lip asking for entrance that you gladly gave him. He slid his tongue into your mouth and the taste of your own blood filled your mouth. There were so many things running through your head at the moment. Should you even be doing this? Was this okay?

You grab onto Tamaki’s shirt to tug him closer to you. The heat of the kiss was leaving you breathless, your mind was reeling from lack of air and the pang of need that radiated from in between your legs. You’ve never done something like this with Tamaki. You’ve never really kissed him before, because he’s always become far too nervous and would hide away. Now here he is taking your breath away in a way you never thought he could. Or would do.

The way Tamaki’s scorching hot tongue explored your mouth made your heart feel like it was going to explode. You wanted to melt into his arms and stay like this for ever. But the moment was cut short when Tamaki pulled away heavily panting, a string of saliva connecting your lips. You almost forgot you hadn’t been breathing, “Tama..”

“I want more..”  His lips brush across your neck making your heart leap into your throat. A small whine forms at the back of his throat as he nips gently at your neck. His hands slip under your shirt as he kisses and sucks on your neck leaving small hickies as he works his way to your collarbone.

“I… I want more of you”  Tamaki lets out a shaky breath as his fingers make their way to your unprotected plush breasts. You let out a sigh as he pulls your shirt over your head and tosses it to the floor. The cold air of the stale room brushed over your now exposed skin. His sharp eyes trace over every line and curse of your body committing it to memory. A red blush dusted across his face and to his pointed ears as he looks up towards your equally flustered expression.

He looks back towards your breasts cupping one into his hand and taking your sensitive bud into his searing mouth. His sharp fangs drags gently over your skin as he sucks and licks your nipple. His fingertips run gently over your sides causing you to moan his name softly. The sound of your voice only makes his erection that much more unbearable for him. He bites down softly and a small sharp pain fills your breast. The metallic taste of blood ran over his tongue once more as he runs it across the newly made mark. A twinge of guilt setting in this stomach at the small whimper that radiates from your throat. He pulls away slightly, only to have your fingers run through his long soft locks.

“Tamaki.. Do whatever you want with me, I’m yours..”  You lean down and place a gentle kiss on his lips, that quickly turns heated once again as his worry and guilt dissipates and is replaced with lust. His hand slides over your bare soft stomach towards the hem of your pants. He quickly unbuttons them and slides his fingers into your panties brushing his fingers against your silky wet folds.

A shiver runs up your spin as you feel Tamaki’s warm breath against your throat. “You're so wet and warm..” his words dance across your skin as he nips at your pulse point gently. A low grow reverberates from his chest as he slowly rubs circles with his calloused finger over your engorged clit. Your delicate hands quickly cling on to Tamaki’s shirt. A needy moan fills the room. You hips moved on their own begging for more stimulation against his hand. You almost felt embarrassed grinding against his finger like a bitch in heat, but you’ve wanted this for so long. You want Tamaki. You didn’t care about anything else at this moment.

“You’re so pretty like this.. You’re so beautiful. “ Tamaki begins to rub against your greedy clit faster. “Cum for me, bunny. Please” His lips latch into your collarbone kissing and suck eagerly leaving his mark. Your cries of pleasure become stuck in your throat and all you can let out are choked out whines and praise as the coil in your stomach begins to tighten rapidly. You pussy empty pussy clenching around nothing. You wanted him so badly. The feeling of euphoria washes over your quacking body as your orgasm washes over you. You bury your face into Tamaki unable to hold yourself up anymore as his fingers continue their assault against your now overstimulated clit.

“Tamaki, Please. I want you so bad.” With your words Tamaki helped you pull off your remaining clothes. He unbuckles his pants and pulls his cock out. It was much thicker than you thought it would be. A small bit of panic runs through you as you begin to wonder if that would fit in you. You push the thoughts to the side as you run your fingers over his hot shaft. He pushes you back into the wall pulling you around his hips, his hands cup around your ass holding you up. The cold metal of his chains press into your skin causing a chill to run through your body. You wrap your arms around his neck looking for any kind of support. The feeling of his precum covered tip running over your entrance set your body on fire.

His names fell from your lips to implore him to take you. To finally make you, his. His sensitive tip presses into your cut without much resistance, inch by inch his member stretches your wall. His fingers dig into the flesh of your ass as he bottoms out inside you. A loud moan rips through his throat as the taut ring of your entrance squeezes around him.

Before you could become used to the size of him inside you his hips began to move. Your legs wrap securely around his lower back as you cry his name with each needy thrust. His thrusts are irregular and fast slamming into you without thought. His lips find yours in a passionate and burning kiss. His moans fill your mouth as his hips snap into yours. The feeling of his cock rubbing against your tight walls made your head spin. You hadn’t noticed the look in his eyes as he kissed your jaw and down towards your throat once again.

A scorching pain fills your body as Tamaki’s fangs skin into the soft skin of your neck. A small string of sorrys leaves him as he laps up the small river of crimson honey. He sucks your blood desperately as his pace picks up and becomes much harder. The pain in your neck and pussy sends you over the edge again as your body is once again hit with another orgasm. Your nails dig into Tamaki’s shoulder as you press your head into the stone wall.

The head of his cock kisses the entrance of your cervix and his sloppy movements become slower. You could feel his cock twitch inside you. A loud groan radiates from the back of his throat as his cock spits ropes of cum into your pussy, filling you up. A hiss of release bruisers across your neck as he kisses the bite mark on your neck in apology.

“I’m sorry… Did I-I hurt you?” he slowly lets you down as his knees finally buckle underneath him. He wraps his sinewy arms around your waist and lays his head in your shoulder. Taking in your sweet scent. You shake your head and run your hands down his back.

“No.. You didn’t” The two of you stay like that on the floor for a while. You didn’t mind this.. You didn’t mind that he was no longer human. If this was the life you were meant to have them so be it. You’ll gladly go into the dark with him. Tamaki is different from the rest. You love him and he loves you.

[shameboree]

If im correct, garden of bitches are your own oc's right? (If they're not please ignore the rest of this ask, but if they are...) who are all ur oc's and their names and stuff if you don't mind me asking?? I love hearing about people's original characters!!

U ARE CORRECT. welcome to my BITCH GARDEN

gonna base most of this info off a combo of various supers aus bc theyre the most consistent baselines i have. this isnt close to all of them but theyre either my most used or the ones i could easily fix up other draws of heh

MY MOST DRAWN OC: FALLON. exceptionally small (4′8) bratty rich girl. has electricity powers she primarily uses as a NEAT LIL PARTY TRICK to light things. big on pretending to be very sweet and well behaved for authority figures but is actually a little unhinged. commits FOOD CRIMES on a regular basis and isnt allowed in the kitchen at home. has a twin bro who is my friends oc. their fambly is from georgia so colin and fallon have corresponding drawls. im going to stop here bc shes my horrible little brat and i could talk abt her a lot

ELLIS. 6ft absolutely horrendous cunt with a mullet. shes tiktok famous for being funny (mean) and joined student council to relentlessly neg fallon and the other high strung nerds bc shes MASSIVELY HORNY for their misery. all of her favorite hobbies include making others suffer in some capacity. very chill hard to ruffle demeanor. has the POWER OF PERSUASION and only does bad uncomfortable things with it (many of my ocs are just hugely unpleasant ppl u will find). her aunt runs a morally dubious info trading agency, but shes on an OVERTLY MORALLY REPREHENSIBLE villainsquad of bad little clown assholes with her uncle.

TARAN. BRAINDEAD EVIL theres nothing going on in their head except the drive to be sexy and also publicly humiliate ppl. their greatest strength lies in being insanely confident even when they are VERY CLEARLY wicked wrong abt shit. theyre part of the bad baby clownsquad with ellis and also specialize in mindfuckery like the rest of the clown assholes but tbqh i forgot the what and the how

COLIN. a WEIRD and UNNERVING lad. fallons cousin, got all the height she didnt (7ft). has kitty eyes regardless of au but no one talks abt it. powers? unclear. has some absolutely incomprehensible eldritchy religious beliefs. possibly a cryptid, all vids/pics etc are VERY MYSTERIOUSLY and INVARIABLY absolutely fucked glitchy n corrupted. cats constantly congregate arnd him. usually smiling blankly- seems like a pretty nice dude in the most casual of interactions but dont trust him bc he would probably ritually sacrifice you*. his mom sells weed

FORREST. highkey nervy all the time on the edge of a full on hysterical meltdown. if youre familiar with the MASKS tabletop hes the LEGACY char. his mom is a HERO worldwide she like fixed global warming or something (this was a GUT BUSTER in game bc its ridiculous). he has a lot of ridiculous over the top powers but his inability to function daily under the pressure of upholding the family image basically negates them entirely. NERFED BY ANXIETY. one of his powers is basically sex pollen (but like, funny) so his previous team COMPLETELY IMPLODED bc at some point his helmet came off and everyone freaked out bc they wanted to bone him the second they saw his shitty bowlcut.

(*we in fact have a jennifers body/tragedy girls style horror comedy au where colin and fallons brother ritual sacrifice her in the basement w a hello kitty knife and it causes a short term apocalypse and then she comes back wrong at the end so they have to become serial killers to keep her fed anyway good times)

[bluebellhairpin]

Homecoming

Erik Lehnsherr X Mutant!Reader 

A/N: I’m hungry for Erik. I love him. He could impale me with a stop sign and I wouldn’t even mind. So have this long fic that no one asked for! (Also, Reader channels a much healthier path to a Erik ‘Everyone I Love Dies’ Lehnsherr-type situation in this fic. Go Reader.) - Nemo 

Warning(s): Angst. Ugly crying (from me, not the characters). General X-Men antics and Mutant problems. Mentions of Character Death. 

Summary: After the events of Apocalypse, both you and Erik get back something you thought you’d never get to have again. A friend. Maybe even a home.  

Masterlist ��

You first came to Charles’ school damaged and broken. 

Like many mutants of your time you were shunned by the world, and hunted by the people in it. You were seen as different, in a time where different was bad. The Difference was dangerous. If you had no way to hide your mutation, you didn’t go into the open. 

Luckily, your mutation wasn’t a physical one, not unless you wanted it to be. 

In a way you were a shapeshifter, a mimic, even if you could only do so with other mutations. 

If you saw someone with wings, you could grow a pair that looked identical. If you saw someone make plants grow, you could too. The only thing was you couldn’t do them both at once. That coupled with an unfortunate circumstance became your undoing. 

The unfortunate circumstance was being caught by one Bolivar Trask.

By the time you managed to get away from him, you’d wished he’d killed you like he had with all those other mutants he got his grubby fingers on. 

You’d reached the streets, aching all over, and feeling as vulnerable as ever. You knew no one, and you had nowhere to go. So you added ‘hopeless’ onto your list of feelings for your first night back in the world.

That morning you found out not all the humans in the world wanted mutants dead. 

Even though he said he was only human, you were convinced he was just being modest - he was surely an angel. He was so kind, taking care of you until you could fend for yourself, and eventually you grew strong enough to be able to protect him too. Him and the little girl you’d brought into the world. 

But you were wrong.

While you were not the same woman you were before Trask had you, you still could only mimic one mutation at a time. Remembering back, you were so confused. It happened so fast. You didn’t know if it was you or the men who found you, but you did know that both him and your girl were dead. You also knew it was easier to blame yourself. It was easier to run.

So you ran. 

Years later, your running lead you to a school - housing a couple dozen other mutants, mostly teenagers - and that’s where you stopped running. 

__________

“Charles, you sure you don’t need any sunscreen?” your lips quirked up, eyeing the seated professor out the corner of your eye.

He didn’t look too impressed.

“(y/n), don’t start now.”

“Or a hat?” you asked, striding over to his side as you leant down and ran a hand over his - now very bald - head. “Don’t want you getting sunburn.”

“I ought to snap those sunglasses right off your face (y/n).” he quipped, swatting your hand away. He was acting all sour about it, but that glint in his eye definitely didn’t make his smile less convincing. 

“Just the sunglasses?” a new voice piqued, followed soon by the voice’s owner sliding over to Charles’ other side, “If it were me you’d be threatening my livelihood instead of some accessory.” 

“I’m special.” you said, sticking your nose up at Erik. 

“You can say that again.”

“Oh quit mumbling Erik.” Charles said, rolling back into the rebuilt mansion - and out of the sun - queuing the both of you to follow close behind. “You could do something useful with those words of yours, like (y/n) does.”

“Teaching isn’t for me Charles.”

“Oh,” you said, looking over at Erik over your glasses, “And inchoherit sentences are?” 

Erik reached over, sliding the glasses right off your nose, before snapping them shut and placing them in your shirt pocket.

“I think you should learn to keep your trap shut.” he said, coming to a stop beside Charles - who was patiently waiting for you both to quit bickering so the two of them could go visit Raven and Hank in the ‘basement’.

“I doubt that.” you said, grabbing your glasses and popping them back on your face before walking off to supervise some students back outside. “Have fun with the kiddies, kiddos.” 

“Well done Erik,” Charles said, turning back towards the way to the Danger Room, “You’ve just met and she already likes you.”

“That was her liking me?” Erik said, unamused as ever. “I’d hate to see how she acts towards people she doesn’t like.” 

“Surprisingly pleasant. If I had to guess it’s so they leave faster.” 

__________

You didn’t see Erik again for months. 

Charles told you he didn’t want to stick around, and honestly from what you’d seen and heard of him he didn’t seem like the kind of man to stay in once place for no reason. When you did see him again he was back at the school, despite his somewhat dislike for being there. 

He was standing in the open front door, dripping wet from the rain outside, and looked like he was not going to move from that spot until he dried off. Luckily you were there to save him. 

“The hell are you doing?” you asked, running a hand through your messed hair as you made your way down the stairs.

“Making Charles’ floor all wet at some ungodly hour of the morning?” he offered, wiping stray drops of water off his face and onto the floor.

“Don’t make more of a mess Erik.” you said, “Just get to the kitchen and try not to make more mess. I’ll grab towels and some other stuff for you.”

By the time you grabbed an armful of towels and a change of dry clothes, Erik was awkwardly standing in the corner of the kitchen closest to the fridge. He was standing like he just realised how uncomfortable wet clothes are, with his arms held out from his body and his legs apart. 

He noticed you as soon as you came around into the doorway, and held his arms out for one of the towels. You threw one over his head instead, while maneuvering around to peel his jacket off. You could safely assume it was a heavy jacket to begin with, but it being so waterlogged made you wonder how he was even still standing with it on.

“What’re those?” Erik asked, nodding his head to the pile of clothes you left on the counter.

“Clothes. Dry ones.” you said, folding the jacket at arms length and hanging it over the sink. “For you.” He went over to inspect them, holding the shirt in front of him, before bringing it to his chest.

“These are not your clothes.” You looked up at him, and he looked over at you. You just nodded.

“You’re right. Get dry and change.” you said. “I’ll go get Charles.” 

__________

Erik hung around for a while after that. And by ‘a while’, this time that meant a number of days. 

You’d pass in the hallways, or he’d walk past your classroom door. You’d meet each other outside during breaks, or back in the kitchen in the early hours of the morning when the world was still sleeping. Not much transpired between you both except small talk. It was never heavy stuff. 

At least not until some rather unsavory people came to the school.

They didn’t stay for long - thankfully - and with not only your help but that of Erik and a couple older resident mutants, those that wanted to hurt you were scared off. That was the first time Erik saw exactly what your mutation was. What exactly it meant.

The people came armed, a small group of mutants that didn’t seem to like what Charles was doing. They would ‘set free’ all the children he’d ‘taken’ and put them ‘back into the world’. As if they’d survive that long without hating themselves. 

The mutants had elemental-like powers, one with the ability to produce ice shards, while another could breathe fire, another could take hold of the plants that surrounded the school, and the last caused the sky to darken and the earth below you to rumble like you’d never heard before.

And then there was your team - your X-Men - ready to fight them, even though half of you had woken up less than five minutes ago.

Erik couldn’t believe what he saw - what you could do. 

There was the ice mutant, conjuring pointed icicles out of nowhere and throwing them at your team, and yet you were right up there - toe to toe with them, matching their deadly projectiles with your own, posing as much of a threat to them as they were to you. 

And as soon as rock and metal joined play, even more followed, you trading weapons the size of your hand to ones that make cars look like a childrens toy. 

All because of you, half of the team didn’t even need to batter and eye at these ill-intended visitors. And those ‘visitors’ decided to leave, whimpering with the promise to not come back - at least not until they thought they were stronger. 

In short, Erik was impressed. 

__________

“You know, I don’t usually let others join me up here.” you said, feeling Erik make his way to the rooftop behind you, “It’s my space.”

“Your’s now, maybe. But I’m sure there are at least half a dozen students who come here for the same thing.” he replied, coming to rest next to you, his legs dangling off the rooftop to mirror your own.  

“I don’t blame them.” 

It was true. While there wasn’t much to see from the roof of the school, on nights like this there was plenty to see. The sunset was disappearing under the horizon, painting the sky with a bright orange and pale lavender, leaving space for the stars to come out to play. It was beautiful.

“I’m leaving soon,” he spoke, voice soft and his eyes not meeting yours, “An island called Genosha. You’d be welcome to come with me, or even just to drop in for a holiday.” 

You cracked a smile at that. 

“Yeah?” 

“Yeah.” he said, looking at you, smiling. 

“Sounds like it could be a home away from home.” You bumped your shoulder with his, keeping something pleasant even though he was leaving. Even though this was him saying goodbye.

“For you,” he said, eye twinkling, “(y/n) I’d make it nothing less than home.”

[kurt-nightcrawler]

destress

Scott Summers x Female Reader

request: OMG, I love your page so much. It’s so pretty and beyond beautifully thought out. 💕 i was wondering if I could please request a Scott Summers x reader. Something where she helps Scott adjust to everything when he first arrives and she’s always checking up on him to make sure it’s all good, they become quick best friends and on one of the nights where he’s most stressed, she takes him out to get his mind off of things. Thank you for your time and consideration! 🥰♥️

a/n: I am so sorry this request took so long! I am one of the slowest writers in history, I am so sorry! I hope you enjoy it

Word Count: 3.4k

 Being the new kid sucked, everyone knew this. Even if you ended up popular as the new kid it sucked.

It was even worse if you had laser eyes that could kill people, and you had to wear sunglasses all the time. 

That’s how it was for Scott Summers, younger brother of Alex Summers. Scott was a mess— he just moved from Ohio to Xavier’s in New York, and he barely knew anything about it! His brother didn’t say much to him about Xavier’s— hell he wasn’t even around much. When he was though, he tried to spend time with Scott and be a good big brother, make his parents proud and crap. 

So when Scott got a mutation and destroyed the boy’s bathroom at his school, Alex picked him up and took him to New York.

-

Scott’s first night was rather… odd. He couldn’t see, and he bumped into some weird chick who could read minds. Not to mention the building shook during the night. 

Scott didn’t have a roommate, so he had no one to ask questions. No one to help him around the building. No one to be his friend. 

Okay, he wasn’t that lonely. He didn’t need a roommate to make friends at school. He just needed to get out. Except he couldn’t see.

-

The next day he was taken outside by Dr. McCoy. 

“I made you some glasses… They should help you reflect the beam and trap them in the ruby quartz, so you can see.”

Scott didn’t want to get his hopes up, but he was desperate. To see again would be a goddamn miracle. 

He slipped them on and opened his eyes. He saw the sky… the clouds… the trees— it was breathtaking. How he took everything for granted! He was a fool.

“Thank you, Professor. Thank you!” Everything was red in some way, shape, or form, but he couldn’t care less about that. He could see and that was the most important thing.

“I’m not a professor…” Hank mumbled. “Yeah, no, of course. Of course. I’m glad they worked.” 

“Dr. McCoy! Alex said you needed me.” 

Scott looked at her. She had all normal features, so her mutation had to be something mental or along those lines. 

“Did he say what for?” 

She didn’t confirm or deny his question. “He said you’d be outside with Scott and I had to help him out since he was new and stuff.” 

Does she think I’m a charity project? Does Alex Think I’m that dependent? “You don’t have to do that.”

“Uh, I kinda do… It’s either me or Jubilee at the moment, and trust me, Jubilee is not the match for you. You pissed her best friend off so now she kinda hates you.” 

“I’m sorry?” What did he even do? Was Jubilee’s friend the girl Scott ran into yesterday? 

“Jean Grey, you bumped into her yesterday. She’s over there by the tree.” (Y/N) motioned to the tree. 

“Oh.” Scott felt sheepish. He didn’t mean to snap at her. He just wasn’t in the best of mindsets. Also, he really didn’t want any enemies at his new school.

“We can go talk to her if you want. I’m sure she won’t be mad, just tell her it was a misunderstanding.” 

“You sure?” 

“Yeah, come on,” (Y/N) made her way over to the tree and Scott followed.

“Hey, Jean.”

“Hey (Y/N).” She didn’t look up from her schoolwork. “Scott.”

“Hi. Hi, um… look I wanted to apologize—“

A group of smaller kids was standing a ways away from the tree, but near enough, so they could be heard. 

“Look, it’s her!” 

“Careful she might cause an earthquake!” 

“She’s dangerous.”

Scott saw the kids and thought they were afraid of him and his eyes, as he scared a couple of people yesterday. “Hey! It’s okay now. I got special glasses. I can see.” 

“It’s not you, they’re afraid of,” Jean stated. 

(Y/N) tried to hide her eye roll. “It’s not that bad. They’re little, they’re scared of everyone.” 

“What are you guys talking about?” Scott asked. “Wait… last night…”

Jean frowned, “Yep, that was me.”

“You made the building shake.” 

Jean nodded, “you’re not the biggest freak in school.” 

(Y/N) looked between the two. Did Jean have a crush on Scott already? He’d only been at Xavier’s for two days!

“Guess not… Um look, about yesterday—“

“It’s fine. I get it.” She waved him off.  “When your mutation first happens it’s a lot of stress and stuff.”

“Yeah but, I was a dick. I was wondering if we could start over?” 

Jean was taken back by Scott’s request. She never thought he’d apologize. 

“Oh, yeah. Of course, we can.” They shook hands and exchanged names. 

“And I’m (Y/N).”

“Um…” 

“(Y/N), we know that…” Jean stated. 

“Yeah, well I wanted to feel included.” 

“Okay.”

-

Scott, you had decided, was going to be so much fun. He knew his way around the mall and wasn’t half bad at Pac-Man. He liked Star Wars and cherry slushies, however, he could only see red due to his glasses, so you had to tell him which was cherry. 

Once you got back to the mansion… it was gone.

Everyone was standing out front, but as soon as you arrived it blew up and everyone was outside in the blink of an eye. 

Scott pulled over and jumped out of the car, running and screaming for his brother. 

“I got everyone.” A guy decked out in silver leather said. Scott glared at him. 

“Where’s my brother?” 

“I dunno man—“ 

“WHERE IS HE?” You had to hold Scott back from hurting the silver man. “No, no. No, no… No! NO!” 

Jean tried to soothe him with her telepathic abilities, but it didn’t do much, it just got him to shut up. You couldn’t even bask in the silence, as a military helicopter landed on the campus grounds. 

“Guys, hide!” Jubilee instructed. You all ran over and hid behind a hunk of stone wall. 

“Why are we—“

“Shh!” Jubilee put her hand over your mouth. The helicopter shot a sound wave of some sort, causing everyone closest to it to get knocked out. A man in military gear shouted at soldiers to collect certain people. He only wanted adults and you could only recognize one of them— Hank McCoy. 

-

Kurt got you all into the helicopter, but couldn’t get you out. You thought you were going to die, but that wasn’t the thing on everyone’s minds. 

Scott was grieving over his brother whom he presumed dead. He was crying silent tears. 

Comfort him. Jean urged you. You weren’t sure how, or if that’s what he needed, but you had no other options. 

You placed a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to show support and in return he hugged you tightly, still crying. You were slightly taken aback at first, but you returned the hug, rubbing his back to try and calm him. 

“He was supposed to do great things… Do something with his life. He shouldn’t have… He didn’t deserve to die!” 

“That’s not what he thought. He thought you were going to do great things, make something of yourself. Why do you think he brought you here?”

He wiped his nose with his sleeve, “How do you know that?” 

“Scott, he told me. He told Hank and Hank said I was the best kid to show you around, and then Alex went on and on about everything great about you and how smart and talented you were and how proud he was of you. He was so proud of you.” 

Scott wiped his tears away and nodded, trying to stop crying and pull himself together for whatever would happen next in the helicopter. 

-

Then Apocalypse happened. The fight with Apocalypse, where you were told to go batshit crazy with your mutations and fight. You felt alive, even with the weight of the world resting on you winning. 

There was so much happening, you couldn’t keep track of anyone but yourself. You had gotten hit badly a few times, but you had to trudge through. 

Jean and Xavier defeated Apocalypse with their powers— it was cool what Jean did. Scary, but cool. They both nearly passed out due to the strain it took on them. 

You ended up back at the pile of rock left of the mansion, most of the students in a state of panic, but all in awe when seeing everyone in the armor, mutations on full display. 

You didn’t want to get Scott’s hopes up, but you couldn’t find Alex, no matter what you did. He had to be dead, under the rock somewhere. 

You held his hand, giving it a caring squeeze. “I’m sorry.” 

“I’ll have to tell my parents once Jean and Magento finish rebuilding the mansion.” 

“Yeah…” 

-

The mansion was almost finished, and there was no sign of Alex. You and Scott had given up hope, but for some reason, Hank persisted. “He can’t… He can’t be dead! This wasn’t supposed to happen!” 

And then you realized Hank wasn’t completely crazy after all. 

A body was trapped under the basement when Jean and Erik were rebuilding. Everyone thought it was Alex. It was Alex, but you weren’t sure if he was alive. 

“He’s unconscious, but he’s alive.” 

Scott jumped up and hugged Hank, thanking him for everything and for finding Alex. 

“He means a lot to us both. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for him.” 

Obviously, an unconscious mind takes time to wake up, and Scott wasn’t allowed to stay at Alex’s side all day. Charles made sure he knew that wasn’t allowed, and he used you to keep track and make sure he wasn’t sneaking down at odd hours of the night or skipping class to see him. 

You offered to help Scott set up his room, mostly because you didn’t care much about yours for the time being. 

“You have a lot of old rock albums.” You stated while placing them all on his bookshelf.

“Most of them were Alex’s.” 

“That’s cool. Did he give you all his old stuff?” 

“Uh, yeah. Most of it, anyway. I have some of his old clothes— leather jackets and stuff, mostly.” 

“Oh, that’s really cool. I guess you guys were close.” 

He nodded, “Yeah, close as we could get, anyway, with the large age gap and all. I really care about him.” 

Peter, Scott’s new roommate and the silver guy who saved everyone from the mansion explosion, came in with some of his own stuff. 

“Hey, guys.” 

“Hi, Pete.” You greeted back. 

“Look, Scott—“

“It’s okay. I know what you’re going to say.” 

“No,” Peter shook his head, “I feel awful about it. Forgetting your brother like that. I’m so sorry. If it were me and someone forgot my sisters in a situation like that, I’d get super angry.”

Scott shrugged, “It’s okay. You got everyone else though— and that’s a lot of people.” 

“Alright… Friends?” He held out his hand for Scott to shake. 

“Friends.” 

They shook on it, and you tried not to laugh at how cheesy the motion was, but you still let out a comment. 

“You’re roommates. You kinda have to be friends.” 

“Huh, I guess so,” Peter mused. 

-

Alex woke up almost two months after the Apocalypse battle. You and Scott were the first to run down and see him. He was in rough condition, but he was alive nonetheless.

“Hey, Scott.” Alex croaked out.

Scott hugged him tightly, “You’re so stupid! I was so worried! Hank was worried, we all freaked out— never do that again.” 

“You don’t have to worry about me. It’s supposed to be the other way around.”

“You almost died! Of course, I’m going to worry about you.”

Alex mumbled something back, but you didn’t hear it.

Hank was there too, contributing to the conversation until Xavier came down and told you all to leave Alex alone so he could rest. 

-

As time went on, you kept an eye on Scott. You were in the same friend group, so that was inevitable. 

You got extremely close— closer than almost anyone else in the group, minus Jubilee and Jean. You told each other about your worries, secrets, past troubles, and your crushes. Scott, despite his persona of a douchebag with sunglasses, or token white guy in an action film, was sweet and empathetic, and smart. He took two AP classes and spent more time training than anyone else. 

“I just want to get control of my mutation and throw better punches.”

“I know. Just don’t overwork yourself.” 

He always said, “Don’t worry about me. I won’t.” But you always worried. He was probably your best friend at the mansion, of course, you’d worry!

-

Winter break came closer and closer with every passing day, which meant midterms were right around the corner. 

Everyone was stressed— downing immortal amounts of caffeine, watching the sunrise and set every day, and rereading notes until their brains exploded. 

Scott was not excused from this, and the night before his first final he was up way past any reasonable hours, studying. 

There was a somewhat-quiet knock on the door, and Scott barely acknowledged it. 

“Hey, dork.”

“Can’t talk.”

You huffed, “You’re no fun.” 

“Sorry, but I really cannot fail any finals.” 

“Scotty, you’ve been studying every second for the past month… C’mon…” You whined.

He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. You grinned, knowing you’d won. 

“Come on, 7/11 is open late. You can get some food and water. Relax from all this stress… Please?” 

Scott closed his book and got up out of his chair. “Fine.”

“Yes!” You cheered. 

“Let me grab my jacket.” 

You were thrilled you got Scott away from his books for a little bit. You needed a break and it felt like you hadn’t seen him as much as usual. 

-

You talked the whole walk down to the garage. Scott just listened. He liked listening to you speak— about your day, petty drama with your friends, plus anything and everything in between— Scott likes the sound of your voice, and even if you didn’t know what you were saying, it sounded right. Or it did to him, anyway. 

And that was a part of having a best friend, right? 

Scott couldn’t tell, but he thought so. He’d never been this close with a friend before, and he had also never had a real crush on anyone before. 

Crush? I don’t have a crush on, (Y/N). We’re just close. She’s my best friend…

But how many times had that cliche been fulfilled? 

“Scotty?” No response. (Y/N), also couldn’t read his face due to the sunglasses, so she really didn’t know what he was thinking. 

“Scott?” 

“What?”

You chuckled a little, “You zoned out there, buddy.” 

“Oh…” His cheeks were tinted red. 

“You, okay?”

He nodded, picking out keys to one of the cars.

“It’s my turn to drive!” You told him. 

“Yeah, but it’s my turn to pick out the car,” He retorted. 

You rolled your eyes as he tossed you the keys and you unlocked the car. 

Scott climbed into the passenger seat and immediately turned on the radio. “So where are we going?”

“7/11. I want a slushie. Plus—“ You glanced at the clock for a moment. “—It’s the only place open.” 

Scott hummed in agreement. 

You drove in silence for a little bit until you caught Scott staring at you.

 He quickly looked away.  

“Is there something on my face?” 

“No.” He was curt with his answer.

“Why were you looking at me then?” 

“I’ve missed you…” 

You smiled. “I’ve missed you too, Sike.”

 You pulled up to the gas station. It was well lit, considering the late hour it was. There were only two or three cars in total parked there. 

“I’m gonna get some gas first,” You told Scott as you turned off the car. 

He stood there and waited for you. 

“What’s Mystique said about our next mission?” 

Scott sighed a little, “A lot… there’s a chance we’re going to Germany to bust up the mutant fighting ring, but nothing’s for certain.” 

You put the gas pump back in it’s holding spot. “Really? That’s pretty big…” 

“Yeah, but, we fought Apocalypse, so—“ 

“Not everything has to compare. Sure, we don’t have to go local, but we’re allowed to not stop every big bad. It’s just not physically possible.” You held the door open for him. 

“Thanks— It’s our responsibility. If we don’t do it, who will?”

You browsed the snack isles, not giving him an answer. Scott stood there, waiting for one, but knowing you probably couldn’t give it. 

“Oh! Um, look— you’re one person, Scotty, and we’re a team of like, 12 people. What we accomplish is huge! But we won’t win every battle. Losing sucks, I know, but you can’t stress yourself out over it…”

“I just don’t want to regret anything.” He finally picked out a bag of chips. They were plain as could be. 

“I get that, but you can’t spend your whole life doting on ‘what if’s’.” 

You put your items on the counter to be rung up. You pulled your card out of your pocket, but Scott stopped you.

“Here, I got it.” 

“You sure?”

“Yeah, it’s only a couple of dollars.” He handed his card to the cashier. 

“Do you guys need a bag?”

“No, we’re good. Thank you though.” You grabbed your drink and snacks and bid the cashier goodnight. Scott did the same.

“So, now what?” Scott asked once he got in the car.

“Let’s just eat in the car. It’s a change of scenery from the mansion.”

“(Y/N), this isn’t a change of scenery, this is a murder scene!” 

You laughed, “It’s not dark enough for that!” 

Scott huffed.

“Look, if you really wanna die, I can drive us to the park, or Target parking lot.” 

“No, no,” Scott said in between sips of his slushie. “This is fine— perfect actually.” 

You were smug. 

You ate your food in silence for a little bit, exchanging weird glances with Scott. 

“What?” You asked, laughing out of confusion. 

“You’re really pretty,” Scott admitted.

“Pfft…” You scoffed.

“I mean it… You’re a great friend too…” 

“Glad to know we’re best friends cause you think I’m hot,” You joked.

Scott rolled his eyes, knowing you’d never accept the compliment and it was stupid of him to say.

“You know who else is good looking?” You asked. 

“Who?” “Rob Lowe.” 

“From The Outsiders?” Scott asked in disbelief. 

“Mhmm.” You nodded. Scott chuckled. 

“Hey! You had a crush on Sara Anne from third hour for the longest time. You have no room to judge.”

“Yeah, and then we went on a date and I got over it… I also had a crush on Jean—” 

You nodded, and Scott swiped his drink back. “Yeah, but she’s dating Ororo…”

“Speaking of boys…” You laughed at Scott’s poor attempt to change the subject. “You went out with Warren for two months.”

“What’s wrong with Warren?” You asked defensively.

“Nothing! It was just weird, only two months.” 

“I told you.” Scott shook his head. “No? I thought I did. Well, anyway— He was like actually kind of into Jean, and like subconsciously in love with his childhood best friend… Her name was Candy South, I think?”

“Candy Southern?” Scott asked, leaning his chip bag over to you. You took a handful and set it on the center console.

“Yeah! That’s her name.”

“They’re dating right now, she’s nice.”

“Good for him.” 

-

You drove back to the mansion around midnight. You went up to your rooms quietly, trying not to wake anyone up and get caught sneaking in. 

“I’m sorry for being so busy lately.” 

You offered a sad smile, “Not your fault, Scotty.”

“We could hang out this weekend? See what’s at the movie theatre?”

“It’s a date!”

Scott’s mouth gaped open. Your eyes widened in shock. Why did I say that? 

“Uh… It’s not like a date date, but like we’re two people, going to the movies alone—”

“It can be a date if you want.” 

Your mind went blank. Surely you misheard him. 

“Uh, what?”

“I just meant, um, we could— never mind—”

“Do you want it to be a date?” You tried sounding confident in your words, but you were nervous.

“I don’t wanna ruin our friendship…” Scott looked down, avoiding your gaze. 

“Scotty, it’s okay.” 

He nodded, a little unsure.

“It’s a date.” 

“Yeah,” He decided.  “It’s a date.” 

Your face moved forward, lips slightly puckered. You placed a kiss on his cheek. Scott’s face turned red like a tomato. 

“See ya later, Scotty.”

[red-hood-vigilante]

hbo spn storylines, drabbles, ideas, thoughts, wishlist, whatever you may call it. it’s messy, nothing makes sense and pretty sure a lot of these contradict each other

more of sam at stanford with jessica/flashbacks. jessica potentially lives but is revealed to be a demon (but she developed actual feelings for sam and really did come to care for him because a demon falling in love with a human would be SO interesting) OR she lives but her memory gets wiped like dean did to lisa OR she dies like she did but she is a ghost that haunts sam (he welcomes it but eventually he lets her go -> character arc). he still dreams about her though and he has her keepsakes with him wherever he goes, her rings, her favourite book, anything that was left of her from the fire

you have to be extremely careful when making deals with demons because they are cunning and evil creatures. they will follow the rules of the deal but will find loopholes to put some sadistic twist on the terms. you want money? of course, too bad you’ll be arrested for fraud before you can use any of it and spend the next ten years in jail before i drag you to hell. you want a perfect husband? sure he’ll love you. in fact, he’ll love you so much he’ll keep you locked up in the basement to keep you safe etc etc. saving a person often becomes the person that causes or leads to your death.

the creation of jack: after s5, when lucifer is trapped in the cage again lucifer fuses his own soul with a human soul to create jack, who escapes to earth to find sam and castiel. i have a longer post about this saved in my drafts

lucifer is trapped for good in the cage after s5 but if he was to return again, dean would kill him while sam would kill michael - this would be nice parallels and a sort of fulfillment of the “one brother must kill the other” prophecy because one brother DO kill another brother, just not their own

more azazel and how he came to the plan of how to free lucifer; opening a hell gate earlier, more experimentations with the demon blood etc

mary was infected with the blood when she was a baby, sam is the first and only second generation special child (longer post about that here)

personally, i want to see more and know more about john and mary’s relationship. when mary died, john and mary had fulfilled their destiny (having sam and dean) so does that mean that his love and dedication to mary post her death was falsely fabricated by the angels to ensure sam and dean would grow up in ideal conditions to become hunters? or maybe, after mary’s death, john wakes up from the spell with two kids he doesn’t recognize and a wife he thinks he loved, but the memories of the past years of his life are like a fever dream; he never wanted to live in a town like this nor was he interested in having kids? but here the house is, and here are his kids, but now he’s alone and empty and with no answers. (idk i just find john and mary and their relationship very fascinating) if the latter, if john and mary see each other again it’s like the spell activates again and they become blindly in love with each other, but once gone, they return to their confused and hazey state of mind, like just woken up from a coma

i do like mary coming back but i love how in s5 when she wasn’t found in heaven it was hinted that she was just discarded because she had fulfilled her “purpose” and i think this adds to the whole notion of how heaven and angels can be really cruel AND how mary is this mythical, religious figure to both sam and dean and we only get to know her through their lenses, like religion and faith

ruby is present for a longer amount of time to make the reveal even more shocking. at one point or another, dean does actually trust her and they all work together on cases for a while. ruby’s backstory as a witch is more explored. i like her death in s4 because she’s in this total state of euphoria and has achieved a goal only she was entrusted with, and she is so convinced sam will understand, until sam holds her down while dean carves her heart out. so we either keep that or she serves lucifer for a while (until he kills her which she is happy about because of her blind loyalty to him, could again mirror dean and john/castiel and heaven) or she serves lucifer and like crowley she realizes lucifer will kill demons after humans (redemption arc, but i don’t really like that, let her be evil!!)

dean and sam helps bela out of her deal and she becomes their go-to person when they need a magic item or book. she doesn’t like it but she owes them. regularly hooks up with jo.

angels are really hollow soldiers - they only follow orders and don’t understand the concept free will or choice or individuality at all. they are extremely righteous and strike without warning often on a whim, often very bloody (explosions a la castiel in swan song). if something fall into what they consider justice they will kill it. no concept of love, attraction or gender. real form can’t be perceived by humans unless they want them to, which leads to eyes melting (pamela) or breaking a person’s mind (in 5.16 zachariah actually says that sam and dean sees him in his vessel bc they’re ‘limited’. so.)

castiel, anna, maybe uriel and some others are exceptions to this, but only becomes so after longer exposure to human’s world. even then, they don’t change their violent whims, just the reasoning and where their loyalty lies

hbo spn is s1-5 stretched out for 8-10 seasons with the aesthetics of s1-2. i’m cutting out demon dean, purgatory, the mark of cain, the men of letters, the alphas, leviathatan, god being the real villain all along and the other worlds because it was just too much and far remived from the roadtrip aesthetic. keeping kevin, charlie (she is introduced via ash bc they’re hacker friends), the trials, rowena, uuuh the angels falling is such an interesting concept but idk if it would fit. maybe metatron? but his motivations are different. soullessness + the concept of souls might be kept if it’s explained better. i’m torn on whether or not to include the campbells

hell, heaven and purgatory are explained but only seen in glimpses, keep these ideas ambiguous and up to interpretation outside of what we hear. remember the line ‘hell is...well, it’s like hell. even for demons’? leave it at that. the exception is 5.16 bc that episode fucks so hard

if we end on swan song and let the show be the tragedy it is, i want to keep the ambiguous ending. is that sam or lucifer? if it’s sam, will he contact dean or walk away? we will never know! there is also no ‘the world is ending’ more than once, it really lost its impact after the second or third time.

idk how i feel about the men of letters - it is logical that there would be organized hunting and an established network and system on how to do things, but for the sake of keeping it hbo-style and grounded, there are no networks beyond the roadhouse and singer’s salvage yard.

i want sam and dean not have a permanent home except the impala, motels and impala ONLY. the bunker had potential but it was just for the sake of convenience it was there with all the lore and answers they needed when it was necessary. maybe eventually they do stop travelling so much when it becomes more about the Big Stuff instead of the episodic cases that requires driving all the time but it will be like an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere. i want sam and dean to never have a physical house as a home but they scrape together whatever they have make something similar to a show

as the show progresses, sam and dean become pretty hated by other hunters because they’ve started apocalypse and have an increasingly shitty reputation. and john was an infamous good hunter but also a dick. everybody knows that people who work with the winchesters often end up dead, that one brother will sacrifice anything and anyone to save the other and that they frequently work alongside demons. even the ones they DO work with (jo, ellen, bobby, rufus, bela) are hesitant to be involved with them

sam’s powers are strong but after killing lilith and the truth revealed to him, he represses the powers in shock and fear of how blinded he was by them and the rush of power they gave him. a little more about how sam fears what the lust for power and strength did to him. he continues to repress his powers, often to a dangerous point where he will be on death’s door as a result of not using them. when meeting jack and mentoring him in using his powers, jack asks him about sam’s powers after sensing them. sam eventually decides to lead by example and embraces his powers again, but remains extremely careful about using them (this also fulfills dean’s arc of having to let go of the holy-innocent-pure-ideal-not a person but an idealized version of sam-little brother sam he has put on a pedestal for so long)

bobby is viewed as a father figure by sam and dean but bobby makes it clear he doesn’t want that burden or relationship in his life after his wife died. he makes this clear to them too, but sam and dean have fucked up perceptions of parental figures so they don’t think bobby means it (they just latch on to whatever parental figures they can find)

we see more of sam’s relationship with the side characters; sam and jo hunt together on occasion, he hangs out with ash and talks hacking when visiting the roadhouse. he and ellen loves playing poker together. if anything, dean is the one who’s isolated - he only ever really cared about mary, john, sam and cassie, and never really had any friends. sam is way more well adjusted and sociable after spending time at stanford where he’s had conversations that didn’t only revolve around dead bodies and lore. 

this could also feed into dean’s extreme abandonment issues and isolation he feels and how this would affect his psyche

sam and dean are both unknowingly prepared to become the perfect vessels; sam loses his humanity by becoming more and more like lucifer (defying his father and his will) while dean becomes prepared by doing what michael did; casting his brother away in his time of need (blindly following his father and his will). very much like in s4 but even more intense and brutal (i love angst :))

we see different hybrids; demon/human (antichrist), human/(arch)angel (nephilim) and demon/angel (???), but none of them are all powerful bc narratively that’s really boring. they’re strong but have very specific powers that affects them and/or their surroundings in catastrophic ways (but no other worlds bs, we stick to the road trip aesthetic, keep it grounded). i want the only all powerful character to be god but he doesn’t show up at all, he’s the ultimate absent father. is it chuck? we never find out!

powers would for example include giving people diseases, force anyone close to them to tell the truth (not consciously, it’s just the air around them), read minds, create storms, light things on fire when they’re angry, make people hallucinate etc. like fucked up shit but not things that are too grande because again - that’s really boring

abbadon, the princes of hell and the four horsemen are more fleshed out villains instead of the one season reign the each had. 

being a prince of hell is a title that is inherited - after azazel dies, sam gets the title because he is the one with azazel’s blood in him OR meg does, but idk if that would be as interesting (if she actually was his daughter)

it remains a horror show throughout, lots of gore and blood

the moral code and ethics of the brothers are the opposite of the beginning; dean thinks in black and white, sam sees shades of grey and individuals instead of what they are. however, as the show progresses, their train of thought becomes opposites; dean becomes more open to how people are true evil and how monsters are often victims of their circumstance while sam becomes harsher and less forgiving after ruby’s betrayal along with finding out the truth of his existence and how there’s been demons around his entire life. eventually they’re on the same page and they see the circumstances. 

on the other hand; i also really fuck with the idea of dean maintaining his black and white morals on that all monsters=inherently evil, humans=inherently pure and good, but he is the only human on team free will. sam is half demon, castiel is an angel, jack is a nephilim, rowena is a witch, garth is a werewolf, mary is a zombie etc

demons become demons in hell by agreeing to become the torturer and thus giving up their humanity to be free of pain, does that mean they could become humans again by regaining some humanity? by doing good deeds? (potentially this is confirmed with jessica and how she came to love sam; genuine love and care for a human could reverse the demon process?) this also means dean was a demon in hell but was purified/turned back again when castiel raised him. this also plays into dean becoming like michael; in trying to absolve himself from what he did in hell he becomes ruthless, unforgiving and righteous to evil, much like the angels, regardless of his personal connection to a person and what he would consider “evil”

dean and pacifisim: after dean is cured from being a demon/the mark of cain/is made aware of his blind righteousness that he used as an excuse to kill, he becomes firmly determined to reign in his anger and violent tendencies by becoming a pacifist (like sam in s11) as a way to redeem all the blood he’s spilled. of course in his profession and true dean fashion he won’t be able to do it 100% so he decides to only act in self defense, and he only goes batshit violent on the offense when it’s about protecting sam

OR. dean’s self righteousness becomes his own downfall; the belief that all evil must be eradicated, refusal to see the circumstances and the shades of grey is what pushes him to lose his humanity and become a demon and therefore, in a potential ending the ruler of hell, because i think it would such an interesting journey from a to b, that dean starts out human, revels in his holiness, executes and kills in the name of his own holiness in the belief that he’s becoming the ultimate angel, the ultimate hero when it’s doing the opposite. if this happened then sam would take the opposite route; starts as a human, becomes more and more demonic, stops himself and returns to his hopeful and optimistic self, has faith and humility and that is what makes him ascend from abomination to purified and holy (trials). 

this could be a perfect 10 season structure as well: s1-5 are when sam and dean start off humans; dean becomes holy and as close to an angel a human can be, while sam drinks the demon blood and almost becomes one to gain the freedom and power he wants, but begins to turn it around to send lucifer back to hell. s6-10 is when dean becomes the unholy and sam becomes the holy even though neither realize because now there’s no grand master plan - this is who they are, who they choose themselves. don’t know how this ould end though; either as normal humans again (but there wouldn’t really be a ”normal” after everything) or they really go off the rails with sam like ruling heaven (not as god though, just as a good and just man) and dean ruling hell. castiel is human and stays on earth with jack.

the gothic americana aesthetic is kept throughout the entire show and is only shot on film

after s5 castiel returns to heaven to help restore order, and he takes charge for a little while, but eventually returns to earth after trying to introduce democracy to angels who didn’t get it. in his place, anna takes over and she rules heaven well (after trying to kill mary when going back in time she isn’t killed by michael, but narrowly escapes and remains in hiding to heal until castiel reaches out and finds her)

when finding out they are The Vessels and will be brought back regardless of what they try, sam and dean explore what this means more. dean throws himself into dangers and to protect others. he is burned, blown up, stabbed, electrocuted, beheaded and eaten, but wakes up the next morning in his bed without a scratch, without any pain and memories of his deaths. he revels in this untouchability. sam kills himself over and over only to be resurrected again and again by lucifer. he remembers the pain and blood.

that being said, while dean is like angel royalty, sam is demon royalty. the demons don’t go after him, they don’t hurt him. some even offer up themselves to be drained of blood, even after lilith’s death. it makes it really difficult to stay clean but he pulls through with dean and castiel actually supporting him. to help sam get through his addiction, dean stops drinking alcohol and they go through their withdrawal together

the angels almost worship dean as the michael sword and have an open disgust towards sam for being lucifer’s vessel - they always answer dean’s prayers and calls for help, they follow his orders if need be and don’t hesitate to heal him if he needs it. sam could pray until his vocal chords bleed or call out for help while holding his guts in his hands; none of the angels would come to his aid. the only one who answers sam’s prayers is lucifer as a voice in sam’s head or a hallucination. sam could call demons to help him out but he refuses

sam isn’t the first hunter to drink demon blood, to try to enhance his own abilities using the supernatural as a means to get there - there are hunters who have altered themselves with parts from werewolves and vampires to become better hunters, like the styne family (the guys from s10), blurring the lines again of what’s good and human vs what is evil and inhumane

if angels can’t find a vessel to volunteer, they will force them to say yes - the how is not important, only that the ‘yes’ is said, whether its meant or not, any verbal yes will do. the angels never sleep and they never eat, which is disturbing to sam and dean who are exhausted all the time and eat scraps whenever they can

castiel, like all other angels, is taught to despise and not care about sam winchester at all, but the more castiel gets to know sam, he becomes fascinated with him, how lucifer’s ultimate vessel, starter of the apocalypse and destroyer of god’s creation can be so kind and gentle, so full of faith, acceptance, optimism and hope. in dean castiel sees a good man, yes, but also a man who’s bloodthirsty, rages, revels in war, resorts all problems with violence, loves conditionally and expects unquestioned loyalty. sam too, has a darkness and bloodthirst in him, but it only comes out in glimpses. castiel thinks it’s funny, how sam turns out to be the opposite of lucifer while dean is so alike michael

[piratefalls]

A McDanno rec list for a new friend. (These are also authors I enjoy, so consider this a blanket rec list.)

The Bareknuckle Poet by pleasebekidding

After a serious accident left Steve temporarily wheelchair-bound, working towards his recovery, he enrolled at Rutgers for a year. He met Danny Williams in his criminology course, wearing pride pins and chipped black nail polish, so sure of himself that Steve found it breathtaking. What happened next redefined Steve's sense of self, his ambitions, and many of his priorities.

Tax Benefits by renecdote

“Everyone already assumes we’re married so maybe we should just...” Danny gestures broadly with his beer. He’s maybe a little bit… Not drunk, but definitely tipsy.

“For the tax benefits.”

Danny gives him an aggravated look. “Yes, Steven, for the tax benefits.”

Danny (jokingly) suggests they should get married. Steve takes him seriously.

ua kaha aku la ka nalu o kuu aina (the surf has pressed upon my land) by icoulddothisallday, TetrodotoxinB

Steve knows, he learned, how a man behaves. He can play his part. Danny, who is a good man and great father, looks nothing like what Steve was taught. Reconciling the two means giving up everything he's clung too for the last two decades, and there's nothing about it that's easy.

*potentially triggery AF (deals with effects of conversion therapy) but beautifully rendered

the art of leaving and saying goodbye by Verasteine

2007 is the year Danny learns that choice can be the worst kind of heartbreak. AU.

*warning for infidelity (not mcdanno)

in jest by apathyinreverie

“No, babe,” Danny shakes his head with a grin. “If the apocalypse were to go down while I’m elsewhere for some godforsaken reason, then you stay put and I’m coming to wherever you are.” His grin widens. “And I expect you to have cleared any aliens or zombies or whatever else might be messing with us off the island and to have set up a nice, comfortable military dictatorship for us to rule over by the time I get back.”

It’s a joke.

Of course it’s a joke.

Until it isn’t.

(A the-day-after-tomorrow-style apocalypse AU, where the world decides to end right when Danny is visiting one of the other islands with Grace. Because, of course, it does.)

not just friendship (romance too) by earthquakedream

Steve's gone and gotten himself a boyfriend. Danny's not sure what worse: the fact that he's stupidly jealous or that he actually likes the guy.

All I Ever Wanted (It Comes with a Price) by leviarty

Steve gets shot. Again. Danny is not okay.

* warning: a young grace shoots someone to protect both herself and a gravely injured steve

After All Our Troubles, We Have This by Banshi13

"I'm ending this," McGarrett muttered after a few moments of silence. "I'm not coming back until Wo Fat is in the ground. I'll dig his own grave and bury him myself if I have to, but my father is dead, my mother is running all over the world in hiding, my sister and I were uprooted from our lives, and now he's got Danny locked somewhere in a basement in the middle of Japan." He looked both Chin and Kono in the eye, deadly resolve in his eyes. "This ends. Now. This is the absolute last time that man interferes with my life and my family."

The Other Guy by haldoor

Danny tells Steve what he thinks is a funny story from when he attended Grace's school play. Steve doesn't think it's so funny; in fact, it makes him jealous.

Strapped by stellarmeadow

Steve's determined Danny's going to be prepared next time.

Warm to the Touch by veronicaluv

Danny didn't think twice about going to North Korea to find Steve. He just didn't know everything would go to hell when they got back.

Me and my heart (We got issues) by SquaresAreNotCircles

“I’m in love with you, Steve,” Danny says. He does it softly, quietly, laying the words into the darkness of Steve’s backyard like they’re something breakable, something to be tiptoed around. “I thought you should know.”

Steve’s heart jumps. It rams against his ribcage so hard it’s going to leave bruises. So hard he startles awake, and he almost yells before he realizes he’s outside because he fell asleep in one of the garden chairs in his backyard again.

how to be gay for your best friend in ten easy steps by commatme

See, the thing is that Danny doesn’t really do gay sex, what with being straight and all, but when Steve says I love you he sounds so earnest he makes Danny want to consider it. Which is crazy, right? He’s pretty sure that’s crazy, or at least a little unhinged.

It’s Not So Easy Caving In by paradis

The one where Danny used to be a heroin addict.

blame it on the ocean view by carryokee

Danny gives in, freaks out, and comes to his senses.

So Have I Loved You by Brumeier

In which Grace has a surprise for Steve's birthday and there's not a dry eye in the house.

take it back to a couple years yesterday by itsrosencrantz

Danny really, really doesn't want to go to his twenty year high school reunion.

Steve decides they're going anyway, and Danny takes it about as well as you'd expect.

View From The Shipwreck by flowerfan

Danny Williams isn’t in a great place – he’s a reluctant transplant to Oahu and an outsider at HPD. Former Navy SEAL Steve McGarrett isn’t doing much better, having suffered a career ending injury. When Danny’s young daughter Grace wanders into Steve’s bar after getting lost on a school field trip, Danny is drawn to Steve, somewhat against his better judgement – he’s got enough on his plate. He’s not exactly sure what Steve sees in him. As they spend more time together, Danny learns how Steve’s injury has changed his life in many ways, but not the most important ones. As one thing leads to another, Danny realizes that things might be looking up after all.

True North by lavvyan

“Tell you what, my dad’s throwing his annual Christmas Ball on Saturday. It’s not a trip to Aspen or anything, but it is nice. Fancy food and everything. You guys should come!”

On the trail of a suspected war criminal, Steve and Danny have to go undercover at a fancy ball. The sacrifices they make for the job.

Oh, and Steve's pining like the taiga. Nothing new there.

outside the lines by withoutwords

“I’m Detective Williams.” Danny says, not trying too hard to keep it smug free. “This is my partner, Detective Mackenzie.”

Ken Doll keeps his arms up, his eyes flickering between them all as if he's only seeing police for the first time. “Good cover,” he tells Danny, and it sets Danny’s teeth on edge.

“This is the part where you say sorry for assaulting a police detective, for compromising an investigation, and for acting like a complete asshole while doing it,” Danny growls, about to change his mind and cuff the guy himself.

“Sorry, Officer.”

The bastard is still grinning.

Boys Like Me, We Try Too Hard by romanticallyinept

Steve's always wound so fucking tight.

And Danny's worried about him. Legitimately worried about him. Because maybe Steve always lays into the perps a little hard, and maybe he follows his own rules and his own morals and doesn't stop to sleep unless his body's actually shutting down around him, but usually, Steve's okay at the end of the day. Usually, Steve's not leaning against the wall of the alley they're in, eyes closed and shaking, with the perp he'd cuffed a minute earlier lying on the ground and crying about his broken nose.

Steve keeps a secret, and Danny does his best to patch him back up when it comes to light.

Transformative by boxparade

“You know, I’d heard you’d changed a lot after high school, but I’ve gotta admit, this is a little weird.”

* trans (FTM) Danny

All the Way by VictoriaAGrey

Danny has lost count of how many times he and Steve have used the sexual tension between them for undercover work, only for it to be bottled away after the op is over. With Saint Michael as his witness, that ends tonight.

Nocturne in C# Minor (featuring Stevie Ray Vaughn) by minor_demimonde

So, to recap, Danny has beautiful eyes, great shoulders, a pleasantly-shaped butt, a delectable mouth, expressive hands, and he smells good.

You know, Steve has gone to bed with women who didn’t have that much going for them.

seen it in the flight of birds by Siria

AU from the beginning of Season 2. The Five-0 task force has been reinstated, but the new governor's determined to shake things up. Facing changes and unexpected betrayals, the team has to work together to face new challenges.

It Ain’t Me Babe (Nah), It Ain’t Me You’re Looking For (Babe) by tourdefierce

A story in which Danny makes lists and can't find his heterosexuality underneath all his homogay, Steve has a lot of faces, Kono is perfect in every way and Chin continues to keep Hawaii safe from the Five-O's general disfunction—Or, a story about Kono being awesome and how she likes her men with hearts in their eyes for each other.

Ratios, Decimals, and Percentages by fuchs

In which Steve takes an internet quiz and slowly loses his mind. Danny's okay with it.

Let’s Dance Like We Used To by AndreaLyn

There isn't a world in which Danny wouldn't go after Grace. So when Rachel moves the family to California, Danny goes with. Steve gets left to process life without Danny.

Gunfire, Rainfall, and Beach Erosion by thegrrrl2002

Steve and Danny are kidnapped. After which there is too much swimming and too much rain and it's all very romantic. If you are Steve, that is.

Moving In (To Every Single Aspect of Danny’s Life, Including the Boring Bits like Dry-Cleaning by westgirl

It felt wrong for Steve to sound unsure of his place in Danny’s life. His place in Danny’s life was at Danny’s side, driving him slowly insane. Steve should feel secure about that.

Always Known What I Wanted To Be by mickeysixx

Grace Williams has always wanted to be a cop.

The Taper Phase by popfly

It’s like being run over by an armored car, like the impact of gunshot to tac vest. The pride Danny feels for his daughter and something else, something about Steve’s tank top sticking to his stomach, the way his shorts stretch across his thighs. The goofy grin that lights up Steve’s face when he sees Danny and Charlie, waving one hand while he nudges Grace with the other.

Pitching Woo by SBG

In which Danny pitches (and then accidentally catches) woo.

clue: four letters, ‘is a many splendored thing’ by armillarysphere

“Crosswords? What are you, sixty?”

“They stimulate brain activity, Danno. You ought to try it sometime.”

Steve doesn’t even look up from his newspaper, half-chewed pen resting at the corner of his mouth in an entirely too distracting way.

That’s Not Just Friendship, That’s Romance by thismuchmore

Danny and Steve start out accidentally dating each other, and it turns into something more.

it’s not what you’re sure of (it’s what you don’t know) by somehowunbroken

Art thief Steve McGarrett and his team come up against FBI Special Agent Danny Williams, and things spin wildly out of control from there.

Same Deep Water by JiM, kalena

This isn't the first lifetime Danny's been in Hawaii. When the stress ratchets up, the dreams get more and more real. Turns out Danny has some unfinished business . . . with Steve.

Warning: Ambien use may lower inhibitions in a wakeful state.

Curiosity Didn’t Kill This Cat by unadrift

"I'm confused," Rachel says. "Are you two dating or not?"

Danny sighs. "You remember that thing with the cat in the box? The one that's both dead and alive?"

"Schroedinger's cat?"  

"It's kind of like that."

"Okay," Rachel says. She clearly has no idea what he's talking about.

2727 Piikoi Street by imaginary_iby

The ways in which Danny makes himself at home by Steve's side, and the family he gains as the years go by. (Featuring Steve in Timberland boots and little else, and happy goofs who like to make out against the front door).

All The Earth Awaits Thee by Portrait_of_a_Fool

Steve knows all about war and willpower, but this is still the hardest battle he’s ever had to fight.

* warning: life threatening illness, no MCD

The Vertical Challenge by AlamoGirl80

Five times Danny thinks about his height, and then realizes that being "not-tall" doesn't really suck at all.

Some Things to Think About When You Decide to Be an Asshole by sutlers

Steve gets high and tries to fuck Danny; things devolve from there.

Inked by thehoyden

Of course Steve is enjoying himself. They're bait for a serial killer who has some sort of serious hangup about tattooing loved ones' names on their skin -- of course Steve thinks this is practically like a vacation, but better, because the chances of collateral damage are higher.

This Thing Of Ours (It Needs a Better Name) by leupagus

Cosa Nostra: (kō'sə nō'strə) etym: Italian n. The branch of the Mafia operating in the United States. Literally, "our thing" or "this thing of ours."

Ho’oponopono by ember_firedrake

Groundhog Day AU. Danny finds himself trapped in the same day over and over again.

Swim for Brighter Days by zarah5

Danny kisses Steve late on a Tuesday, early on a Wednesday. Steve punches him. (Set vaguely post-finale, so spoilers for that.)

All My Guards Away by sheafrotherdon

Tag to episode 1x18, with all the heartache that implies. Now with bonus fixes. With thanks to dogeared for all her suggestions and edits.

Let’s Take it from the Top by pterawaters

Steve goes along with the bachelor-party-in-Vegas, because he chose Danny to be his best man, and that's what Danny wants to do. Unfortunately, the things that happen in Vegas don't necessarily stay there.

How to Keep Your Mouth Shut by primetime

Danny’s sometimes gay. Gay, sometimes. Does dudes. He doesn’t know how to say it right. He doesn’t know how to say it at all.

Don’t Turn Me Home Again by gyzym

After a rough day of island living, Danny wakes up in New Jersey and learns the hard way to be careful what he wishes for.

End-Around by t_fic

Steve hesitates with his hand on the doorknob, looking back over his shoulder at Danny and nodding once before disappearing inside, and yeah, Danny is going to be so fucking lucky to get through this night without a coronary event.

Lonely People Do Stupid Things by waketosleep

Danny decides to show Steve the true meaning of Christmas, and does it by dragging him to New Jersey.

Down Beneath the Waves by samjohnsson

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but sometimes it takes another thousand to explain it.

Love’s a Battlefield (and the Navy Did Not Train Steve for This Shit) by cyerus

The Kalakaua-Kelly clan are determined to matchmake Steve. Out of desperation, Steve makes up a boyfriend named Danny.

It doesn't quite go according to plan.

put your mind at ease by eleanor_lavish

Somewhere in the last year, while Steve was busy killing bad guys, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell has been erased from the books and guys like Jeff can marry whoever they damn well please.

You’ve Got Hawaii (and all I’ve got is you) by queenklu

In which Danny has issues, presents, and Steve fleas, not necessarily in that order.

Jaws by JoeLawson

Danny has a secret.

[peanuts-and-pickles]

Glitches, Candles, and Knives

Summary: Five and Sloane (from the Sparrow academy) become (strictly platonic) friends. One day, while hiding out in a secret room, Fives trauma from the Apocalypse carries over and effects his power, making him “glitch”. He keeps it a secret from everyone, including Sloane, but little does he know Ben saw the whole thing. Later, on a mission, he gets injured, looses control of his power, and his secret leaks.

Warnings: Fighting, graphic violence, mentions of blood, a stabbing, Five in pain. This is my first writing piece, please let me know if I forgot any. 

Word Count: 1139

(Ok guys this is my first ever public writing piece, so i’m sorry if its bad. I would love constructive criticism, but plz don’t be mean, i’m sensitive)

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

Number Five blinked to the hallway, making sure the coast was clear. He gestured to Sloane, who was peeking around the corner. The two of them crept down, through the old house, into the creaky basement. Five lifted the moth ridden carpet, which released a puff of dust into the air. Sloane coughed, waving it away from her face. She lifted the trap door hidden beneath, and together they slipped into the secret space they had both discovered when they were kids. 

The two had become secret friends, after she and him had bonded over the stupidity of their siblings on a mission. Once they realized they both had many things in common, they slowly opened up to each other. Their siblings had no idea, of course. Nether Sloane or Five had any intention of showing any weakness, which, to them, apparently meant making friends. (Also, it was likely they would be considered traitors by their respective families.) 

Both Five and Sloane had found the hidden room when they were young, separately of course. Once they discovered the other knew about it, it became their secret hangout. 

Sloane's finger burst into flame, and she lit a candle, the soft glow gently illuminating both their faces. 

Five snorted and clicked on a flashlight. He never was one to believe in unconventional methods. 

They talked for a long time, about life, their respectable childhoods, their siblings, and Reginald. 

While the Umbrella’s childhood had been miserable, the sparrows had been... tolerable. Reginald was still the jerk he always was, but seeing how the first batch turned out, he decided to try a different approach on the sparrows. By a different approach, he meant calling them by their names, instead of numbers. Also,  not locking any of his children in mausoleums. 

The pair talked long enough for the candle to burn low, until Sloane’s head dropped onto Five’s shoulder, and she began to snore. 

Five glanced at her, before focusing on the candle, the light reflecting in his dark eyes. 

But Five and Sloane were not alone. Across the small room, Ben  watched the two of them. He sat, his back against the wall, watching Five trace patterns in the dusty floor. He wished he could say something, anything, but there he sat, dead, and silent. 

Suddenly, Five doubled forward, clutching his stomach. He made a small sound of pain, and his body… flickered. The only way to describe it was like when a t.v. screen glitched, sometimes in two places at once, unfocused and pixelated. Ben started forward, calling his name. Of course Five couldn’t hear him. His body was still broken, flickering. Ben felt like he was seeing double. Panic crept up his throat. Should he get Klaus?

Five gasped, and the glitching stopped. He sat forward, his breaths quick, ragged and painful. He clutched himself, his body still shaking. He glanced over at Sloane, who was still mercifully asleep, her head leaning onto her shoulder.

Five hugged himself tighter, his knees drawn to his chest. He looked at his hands, and in the softest voice possible, whispered “What’s happening to me?” 

That was when Ben noticed the soft grey ash, drifting through the air, coming to rest on Five’s shoulders. 

                                             .         .         .

“Sloane. Hey, Sloane,” Five shook Sloane's shoulder. “Mm?” Sloane stirred, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Five watched her for a second, his hesitation clear on his face. Ben leaned forward. “Tell her,” He muttered.“Dads calling us.” Five said, getting up. “Better put out that useless candle of yours.” Ben sat back, disappointed and frustrated.  Five always was bad at asking for help. 

Later, the two academies stood in front of Reginald, dressed in their mission suits, masks on. The Sparrow and Umbrella academy stood noticeably apart from each other, giving hateful looks across the divide. 

“There is currently a bank robbery taking place at cornerstone bank. Nothing you can't handle. We must hurry however, as it would be ideal to arrive before the city’s incorrigible police department does…”

As Reginald kept talking, Ben watched Five. The others hadn’t seen what he’d seen in the room beneath the floorboards. If they had, they'd be bombarding Five with questions, trying to help in the only way they knew how. That's why Ben didn’t tell Klaus. Not even when he noticed Five’s hand, hidden behind his back, glitching just like his whole body did in the basement. 

Reginald’s pep talk ended, and the groups dispatched off on their mission. 

Luther slammed a robber over the marble counter, his skull cracking on impact. He turned, and sprung into the fight, his chest bare, all his monkey hair out in the open. 

While Alison dispatched a robber quickly, she tossed a broken pipe to Marcus, who made quick work of his own assailant. Throughout this all, Five and Sloane fought as a well coordinated pair, fighting efficiently, each person's power helping them in their own way.  When a robber pinned Sloane against the desk, Five kicked him in the small of his back, and then when he turned around,  punched him in the face. 

“Hey Five! Heads up!” Diego shouted, whipping a knife out of his belt. Five jumped back, and Diego threw with scary precision. He focused on the knife, curving it around the corner, heading straight for the unsuspecting robber. That's when the robbers friend tackled Diego, breaking his concentration. 

The sounds of fighting were suddenly broken by Sloane's scream. She stared in horror at the knife, sticking out of Five’s stomach. He was staring at it too. With one shaking hand, he touched the bloody wound, and stared at his fingers, dyed red. A strange quiet came over the group, teetered on the edge, and then fell. His sibling’s rushed toward Five. Unfortunately for him, the robber, who Diego's knife was meant for, got to him first. He slammed Five against the wall, and in one smooth move, yanked the knife out of Five’s stomach and held it to his neck. “Don’t move,” the robber growled, looking around at the group. Underneath him, blood dripped from Five’s lips. His whole body shook with pain.

 Ben was the first to notice the gradual flickering slowly taking over Five’s body. But soon Luther did too, and his voice joined those trying to reason with the robber. “What the hell is happening to Five?!” Klaus shouted. Because now Five’s whole body was glitching. This time, worse than before. 

Ash rained down around Five, and rubble flickered in and out of existence around his feet. Cinders joined the flickering ash. 

“What the hell?!” The robber backed away from five, who slid down to the floor. Five flickered, crying out in pain. 

“It's the apocalypse,” Vanya breathed. “He brought the apocalypse here. somehow,” 

As his siblings rushed toward him, Five flickered once, twice, and then disappeared in a flurry of cinders and ash. 

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To be continued???

[zrtranscripts]

Season 9, Mission 4: Out of the Past

Heist

~

[birds twitter]

AMELIA SPENS: Okay team, let's go over this one more time. General Bakari has sent Abel a distress call from a remote Tunisian base, Red Scorpion, which is probably home to red fungus and definitely home to one Ernest Van Ark.

PETER LYNNE: Oh, despite the fact that you, you know, um, what was it? Oh yes, blew him up with a rocket launcher, Five! That's... [laughs] It's typical! My luck. We get Janine back safe, and oh, who pops up but the devil himself?

AMELIA SPENS: Bakari wants a team to sneak something out of Red Scorpion. Our hope is that it's a red fungus countermeasure. To get there, our team needs to infiltrate New Agadir, a city in the middle of the desert, while posing as Death's Hand, a mercenary group whose greatest hits include assassinating a blue chip CEO using a neurotoxin-tipped knitting needle and overthrowing at least three heads of state.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: This is all so exciting! Proper Mission Impossible stuff!

AMELIA SPENS: Peter, remind me why you brought the new person along. It's Frances, isn't it? From the Hebrides?

FRANCES DEMPSEY: I wanted to try a run. Janine said I could come because it's a low-danger assignment, and because I promised to stop asking to be on the Tunisia team if she let me. I overheard Sam talking about the mission.

AMELIA SPENS: Marvellous. Janine should add “make Sam keep a secret” to her bucket list. [sighs] At least you're not pestering me to let you go. I've already had to veto Jody's involvement. I need her here working with me to train runners on McShell tower protocol.

PETER LYNNE: [laughs] I bet she was thrilled about that.

AMELIA SPENS: Anyway, our problem is getting a team to Tunisia. The information in Bakari's transmission enabled us to contact the Maghreb Protectorate, a government which operates in what used to be parts of Tunisia, Libya, and Algeria.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Another government, that's incredible!

AMELIA SPENS: Yes, well, they're no use to us yet. They have no jurisdiction over New Agadir, and besides, our governments do not yet trust each other enough for them to provide assistance. Our team can't risk crossing Europe - too many unknowns - and our few ships are all either exploring or acting as repeater stations for overseas agents - too far out to be useful.

All we have left are small coastal merchants. I've found one scow captain willing to take people to Tunisia, but he's cautious. He wants the latest nautical charts. Pre-apocalypse, obviously. Not a lot of hydrographic surveys since Z-Day. You're approaching the London home of Horatio Brewer, famous British investor. Should have what we want.

PETER LYNNE: Are we sure about that, Amelia?

AMELIA SPENS: Fairly. Mr. Brewer was a keen yachtsman. Old Ministry intel says he planned to escape Z-Day by sailing to a second home on the Tunisian coast. Had all the prep work done, then his neighborhood turned gray. We think zoms got him, but he was keeping his preparation safe in a basement vault.

PETER LYNNE: Great. So basically, we're looting a dead man's travel plans. Lovely. Um, see that street across the park, Five? That'll be his, so better hurry while it's still light out. Come on, everybody. Run!

~

[birds twitter]

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Wow, this is a classy street. Look at the mansions. That one's got ivory cherubs carved over the gates.

PETER LYNNE: Neighborhood's in pretty awful condition, though. You've got overgrown gardens, smashed windows. No sign of V-types though, thank God. Dearg made me a prototype one-man burn cube, Five, sewn right into my chest. Anti-P-type measure. Got the trigger, but not massively eager to try it.

AMELIA SPENS: Maybe not, but it's the only reason I'm letting you near Tunisia.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: So Amelia, who exactly are these Death’s Hands people? Will they be tough to impersonate?

PETER LYNNE: Frances...

AMELIA SPENS: Oh, they're a nasty bunch. Former special ops, freelance since Z-Day. Bakari says they've been traveling the world as hired guns. Their rep gets them a lot of private security gigs. He's given us contact details for the real team, so we can lure them out of our operation’s way.

PETER LYNNE: Frankly, I don't think we should be trusting Bakari. This whole thing is probably a trap, which is why, Frances, Janine said that you can't – [zombies moan] Oh, God damn it!

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Uh, isn't that the place we want? Big Georgian house covered in ivy?

PETER LYNNE: Well, Amelia, there's a horde of zoms milling outside Brewer's house, so we can't make it to the entrance.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Well, we could gain entry by the house next door. Look at the big white mansion. Its roof's half collapsed, sloping into the road. We could clamber across it, jump to Brewer's roof, and get in through his attic window.

AMELIA SPENS: You know Peter, I'm warming to the new blood. Quickly then, off you go. I've got the scow captain waiting on tenterhooks. I need this deal closed ASAP. Run!

~

PETER LYNNE: Amelia, we um, we got in through the attic window, followed a ladder leading deeper into the house. Now we've found a sort of private antique collection? So we're in a carpeted hall full of artifacts in glass cases.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: They've got plaques. That's a Roman bust, Celtic coins, an Egyptian amulet. That's a Carthaginian pot from Tunisia. Shouldn't these be in a museum?

AMELIA SPENS: Ah, well, Mr. Brewer was a rather avid black market trader, made a fortune trafficking plundered historical artifacts. Actually, it might make a good impression if our little expedition returns some stolen goods. Grab the Carthaginian pot, Peter.

PETER LYNNE: Oh, burglary with Amelia, just like old times. So let's see. It's a classic. We've got the pot on the pedestal, so if I just lift its case - [alarm blares] Ah. I honestly didn't think the alarm battery would have lasted this long. Um, Five, grab that pot, would you?

[zombies moan]

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Uh, guys, apparently there are zoms in the house too, coming up the stairs behind Five. Six big ones in dark suits.

PETER LYNNE: Oh, that'll be Brewer's former home security. Alarm's got their attention. Hello! Still on the job, eh, boys?

AMELIA SPENS: Wish I could find staff that dedicated. No need to waste rounds, blueprint says there's a master bedroom down the corridor on your left. Brewer always left a spare key in the lock for his mistress. If you can lure the zombies in, you can trap them there. Run!

~

FRANCES DEMSPEY: Keep going, Five, there's the door past the amphora vases. God, how big is this house?

AMELIA SPENS: It was originally five smaller houses that were joined together behind a Georgian facade. Brewer felt he needed the space.

[door creaks open, floor creaks]

PETER LYNNE: Amelia, we're in the bedroom. There's a – ooh, four-poster bed, lovely. Uh, photos of Brewer and his family. Nice mustache. It's very Howard Hughesian. Um, Frances, you okay?

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Zombies! I forgot how scary they are up close. Didn't have them on Dearg. I'm actually shaking.

PETER LYNNE: Oh, uh, oh yeah, of course. No no no, um, it's okay, Frances. See, so the key was in the door and um, here's what we're gonna do. We're all going to get behind the bed. This room's really big, so when the zoms come at us, we'll then be able to circle around and lock them all in.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: The house isn't in the best structural condition. There are big cracks in the walls, and that creaking probably means the floor is compromised. If any more bodies start stomping in here -

[zombies growl]

PETER LYNNE: See, there are the zoms and they're... coming straight over the bed, so run for the - ! No, no, no! [shouts]

[floor collapses, glass shatters, PETER and FRANCES cough]

AMELIA SPENS: Peter, Five? What happened?

FRANCES DEMSPEY: The floor gave way under the bed! [coughs] The zoms were too much weight. It just smashed down through the house, took the zoms with it.

[house creaks]

PETER LYNNE: This house is definitely unstable. Yep, uh, sounds like the whole place is coming down.

AMELIA SPENS: If you follow the corridor outside the bedroom, you'll find stairs. Take them down to the basement. It's a reinforced garage, should remain intact if the house collapses. Plus, it's where that vault is. Hurry up, you don't have long to grab those charts, and they're absolutely vital.

PETER LYNNE: Oh, also um, there's a horde of zombies chasing us. Come on, run!

~

[zombies moan, house creaks]

PETER LYNNE: Yep, there's the stairs, Five. Straight down, down you go.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: The chandeliers overhead are really shaking. Five, look out!

[chandelier falls, glass shatters]

PETER LYNNE: [laughs] That was close! Chandelier smashed right through the stairs. Could have done without the glass shards in my face, to be perfectly honest. Um, edge around the hole it's left in the stairs. [house creaks, zombies moan] Oh, fantastic. Amelia, we just passed the ground floor and I can hear more zombies barging into the house. So that'll be the horde from outside, attracted to all the noise.

AMELIA SPENS: Just keep following the stairs down. There are exits in the basement, but you have to reach the vault first. Run!

~

PETER LYNNE: Yep, yep, yep. Five, close the door, close the door! [door slams shut] Oh, good. Amelia, we've made it. We're in the basement garage, and the stairwell’s collapsed behind us. Ooh, this is a huge concrete car park. There's tons of fancy cars. There's Bentleys, BMWs... a Model T? All right, just, could you give me a minute, Five? I've just got to pick some chandelier out of my face and eyes.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: That's amazing. Your wounds, the way they're healing. Enhanced cell regeneration? The scientists on Dearg talked about it. [gasps] This is what Van Ark did to you!

PETER LYNNE: Yes, it is. Not really looking forward to meeting him again. Rather pull my kidneys out, honestly. But Janine is not leaving me behind this time. I just got her back and I won't lose her again.

FRANCES DEMSPEY: Dearg was his, you know. I was trapped there for ages. If you're going to a Van Ark lab, I can help. And honestly, I can't stay in Abel. It's funny, when we got security fixed at Dearg, first place I wanted to see was where Alice lived. But being there... a lot of older runners, they look at me, they see her. It's hard.

That's why I really came today. I needed to get out. And I guess I started to feel... if I was going to be her ghost, I might as well run, like she did. I don't want to be a ghost, Peter, and I don't want to go back to Dearg. I want to see the world, find out where I fit in.

AMELIA SPENS: People, you should get moving. That wasn't the only staircase leading to the basement.

PETER LYNNE: Over there, Five, look. It's built into the concrete wall, huge round metal door. That looks like a vault to me. Come on, run!

~

PETER LYNNE: Amelia, we're at the vault door. Here's the C-4. Do the honors, Five. [explosion] [coughs] Okay. Okay, right. Uh, vault is a big gray room with shelves, lots of shelves. Uh, model yachts, dusty piles of... ooh, gold. Five, Frances, look for those charts.

[paper rustles]

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Hey look, found a massive file on a shelf titled Inventory. It's an index of Brewer’s deals and trade contacts. There's a whole chapter on Tunisia.

PETER LYNNE: [laughs] Gotcha! There's tons of nautical charts on this desk under the sextant. [dragging footsteps] Uh, what was that sound? Five, could you go and check behind the shelf of canned food? [zombie groans] Oh, good. Hello! Amelia, we've found Brewer. Looks like he locked himself in here after he'd been bitten, entombed with his wealth like a rubbish pharaoh.

[laughs] Oh good, we've also got a zombie wife and two zombie children in the shadows. Welcome, everyone. He's taken his whole family down with him. [more zombies growl] And that is going to be the rest of the zombies in the garage. So Five, Frances, we're gonna move towards the door. Need an exit now, Amelia.

AMELIA SPENS: There's a ramp on the west end of the car park, leads up to the surface. The shutters open from inside. Hurry, get the charts to safety, run!

~

PETER LYNNE: Okay Five, Frances, I think we've lost the zoms. Street looks clear behind us.

AMELIA SPENS: Well, I'd call that a success. Five even kept the Carthaginian pot. Now we've got the charts, I can have people heading to Tunisia in days.

PETER LYNNE: Janine's finalized the team. It's her, me, Five, Sam, Maxine, and uh, computer expert. Look, I-I am sorry Frances, uh, but honestly, you are safer here. We're going a long way from home, and trust me, Van Ark isn't to be taken lightly.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Wait a second, look at this. The folder I took, it's full of photos, Brewer logging artifacts he traded. Look at this Roman mosaic from Tunisia, the symbol in the corner.

PETER LYNNE: That is the endless circle from Mor Island.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: That's not all. Brewer's notes say he sold the mosaic to a military base code-named Red Scorpion in Tunisia before Z-Day. He says the commander of the Red Scorpion base scared him, told him not to record any names. Whatever that place is, it's definitely connected to the fungus, and they've known about it since way before we have.

~

[watersbound]

KLAUS  HARGREEVES  /  002  .  high  coward  sober  !

triggers  :  physical  sickness  ,  intense  fear  ,  confinement  ,  injuries  ,  war  . mentioned  :  dave  katz  ,  allison  hargreeves  .

with  one  notable  exception,  his  lowest  points  in  life  were  in  rehab.  not  the  withdrawal.  at  least  with  that  ,  he  had  something  to  cling  to  outside  of  his  head  ,  even  if  it  was  a  toilet  seat  .  even  if  it  came  with  violent  trembling  ,  nausea  ,  lots  of  sweating.  he’s  pretty  sure  he  even  had  a  seizure  once.  but  he  also  might  have  faked  that  for  medical  attention.  who  can  say  ,  now?  

his  dear  sister  allison  ,  she  had  the  best  of  intentions  putting  him  through  rehab  over  and  over  again  with  her  bottomless  pit  of  money.  it’s  the  slim  chance  he  might  be  able  to  get  his  grubby  hands  on  some.  she’s  so  sweet.  but  also,  fuck  allison  for  that.  and  he  doesn’t  mean  that  ,  but  he  also  definitely  does.  

he’s  glad  when  no  one  visits  him  in  rehab  because  there’s  always  a  point  in  the  process  he  thinks  he  could  genuinely  strangle  someone.  and  klaus  loves  the  family  he  hasn’t  seen  in  months  or  years  or  something  like  that.  so  much!

the  psychological  withdrawal  sucks  too.  but  it  still  doesn’t  scratch  the  surface  of  what  complete  sobriety  feels  like.  he’d  rather  lash  out  at  staff,  pace  and  babble.  he’d  rather  cry  and  disassociate  constantly  ,  than  be  sober.  that’s  why  rehab  is  the  worst.

that’s  not  to  say  that  being  in  the  war  was  great  ,  because  it  wasn’t  ;  a  lot  of  people  died  there.  but  he  can  get  plastered  and  poked  in  vietnam.  with  ink  or  pollution  ,  and  he  does.  in  his  lungs  or  his  skin.  his  nostrils.  and  when  he  was  really  ,  really  scared  ,  there  was  dave.  he  was  a  high  like  no  other.  some  nights  when  he  clung  to  dave  he  could  tolerate  the  spirits.

but  even  that  was  temporary.

and  some  days  when  he’s  laying  on  his  back  on  the  twin  bed  and  staring  at  the  fluorescents  on  the  ceilings  ,  some  of  those  days  were  worse  than  those  he  spent  solidifying  his  fear  of  tight  spaces.  the  days  or  nights  or  both  that  he  spent  sobbing  ,  shrieking  in  terror  ,  tearing  at  the  impenetrable  walls  of  the  academy’s  basement  until  his  fingernails  were  stubs  and  he  was  so  tired  that  his  body  just  .  .  .  collapsed.  

during  those  times  there  was  no  light  or  air  to  keep  the  attention-seeking  child  company.  instead  he  was  ,  enveloped  in  darkness  with  voices  and  cries  and  pleas  from  the  dead.  sometimes  he  was  the  first  one  to  acknowledge  them  in  years.  they  were  hurting  ,  wronged  ,  misunderstood.  but  klaus  was  a  kid  and  they  were  scary  and  he  wouldn’t  be  the  messiah  until  ,  many  years  later.

and  besides  ,  somehow  at  the  age  of  eight  the  child  in  him  clung  to  a  false  sense  of  security  ,  daddy  would  never  let  me  die  in  here.

tried  as  he  might  for  as  long  as  it  happened  ,  to  be  strong  so  that  ,  when  daddy  did  open  the  door  to  check  that  his  most  cowardly  child  had  overcome  his  ridiculous  fear  of  ghosts  ?  he’d  be  ready  to  show  him  ,  he  wasn’t  afraid  anymore.  but  he  could  only  sputter  out  pleas  for  release  ,  sob  out  in  pathetic  heaves  the  first  lie  of  so  many  lies  that  he  wasn’t  afraid  anymore.  

he  never  sold  the  act.  but  being  a  lost  cause  paid  off  in  its  own  way.  the  torture  stopped  eventually  and  daddy  didn’t  get  his  way.  he’s  pretty  proud  of  that  these  days.

now  he’s  thirty  and  klaus  has  long  since  known  what  it  feels  like  to  be  truly  free  of  the  spirits  who’ve  stalked  him  for  decades.  he  knows  it  feels  so  good.  he  knows  he  has  fun  and  his  fingers  tingle  and  it’s  easier  to  dance.  he  makes  more  friends.  and  enemies  ,  and  he  doesn’t  give  a  damn  because  he  just  feels  good.  everything  hurts  less  and  colors  are  brighter.  best  of  all  ,  there’s  no  voices  that  shouldn’t  be  there  or  shadows  that  grip  his  guts.  it’s  great.

so  when  he’s  laying  on  his  back  on  the  twin  bed  ,  and  the  fluorescents  are  turning  his  eyes  into  black  holes.  when  his  lips  tremble  and  his  eyes  dampen  he  has  more  clarity  than  he  has  in  a  long  time  ,  so  the  ghosts  ,  they  start  to  close  in  on  him  once  more.

now  you’ll  have  to  drag  him  kicking  and  screaming  to  get  him  anywhere  near  a  rehabilitation  center  ,  and  he’ll  bite  ,  because  he  hasn’t  been  since  dave  or  this  apocalypse  or  that  apocalypse.  

sober  hits  different  when  you’re  under  fluorescents  and  not  on  the  streets  of  dallas.

klaus  loves  the  high.  sleep  is  a  close  second.  it’s  a  fragile  system  ,  because  when  he  gets  more  than  a  few  hours  at  a  time  ,  the  exhaustion  begins  to  fade  and  the  dead  begin  to  taint  his  dreams.  with  their  cracked  voices  ,  dirty  hands  ,  bloodied  throats.  they  reach  for  his  dog  tags  and  they’re  still  there  when  he  opens  his  eyes  in  rehab.

[pagankingfinn]

The Unfaltering Chaos Trio - Chapter 1 - Goddamn it Izu

The noise of multiple sets of feet pounding against the pavement echoed up the walls of the building around them. The tallest figure spun around to cover their escape with a veil of fire, following the shorter companions soon after. The shouts of heros and the sirens of police cars reverberate around the inside of their skulls.

The tallest had dark, almost purple in color, burn scars that covered his body. Between old and new injuries it was difficult to tell what his condition was. He seemed to mostly be covered in dirt, however, the unlit alley ways provided no way to tell.

“Izuku this is all your fault!” The tallest yelled, the smallest responded by flipping his head back with a grin and a giggle. His green and black curly hair was pulled into a messy bun, his dark moss green eyes glimmered with mischief, he had several injuries already but didn’t seem to notice as he ran with a limp. The female running beside him was covered in scrapes and bruises, the hems of her clothing were singed and ripped.

“You’re welcome Dabi!” He responded as he looked forward again, and led the other two through the streets. Despite the delays they had been setting up, they could hear the pro heros getting closer and closer. A fireball narrowly missed the female of the group, hitting Izuku in the back. He cried out in pain as he stumbled and fell.

“Shit! Come on Izuku, tell us which way to go!” The female spoke as the taller male carried Izuku on his back. The anxiety of the three rose with every passing second, the heros were on their heels as they continued to run through the streets.

Before they could get any instructions, their escape was cut off by a wall of branches. The other passage was blocked off by several pro heros. Their sweat dropped as they heard the familiar thump of combat boots against concrete. They spun around to look at the raven haired man.

As Dabi and the unnamed female took a fighting stance, they were cut off before anything could happen.

“Your friend needs medical attention, it would be wise to surrender before he gets worse.” The pro hero, Eraserhead, stated. The pair didn’t seem to like that, seeing as the female gave a loud outburst in response.

“NOBODY TOUCHES OUR LITTLE BROTHER!” She screamed, the only thing keeping her from lunging forward was the weak grip she felt on the shoulder of her sweater. She looked to see Izuku was the one who had grabbed hold of her sweater, while Dabi sweeped his arm out to keep the female back.

“Toga, we’re surrounded. If we fight now, we might lose Izuku. Look at him-” Dabi tried to reason, Toga’s head dropped to the ground as she reached up and gently grasped the hand holding onto her sweater. They both knew that there was no way to easily heal him, after all the organization they belonged to had no healer in the group.

Izuku began to slip off Dabi as he spoke, Toga let out a screech as he rushed to try and support their chosen family member. Dabi looked alarm as they turned their attention to the boy faintly breathing at this point. They shared a look before slowly nodding, and surrendering.

Except, they forgot to put Izuku down beforehand, so they ended up dropping him on accident. Luckily Eraserhead was fast enough to use his capture gear and grab the boy.

The rest went as expected, except with Izuku in an ambulance while Toga and Dabi were being taken in for questioning. They ended up taking an offer that they couldn’t refuse from a mouse bear dog creature, and then were taken into the newest place of residence for the next few years.

That’s how Izuku woke up, handcuffed to a hospital bed, covered in bandages, with Toga sleeping next to him and Dabi leaned across the end of the bed in a chair. He stirred slightly and made a small noise as he reached out for his older brother.

“Hey Izu, how’d you sleep?” Toga asked him as she woke up and sat up, hooking an arm under his right armpit and holding his left arm to help him sit up. She then used her foot to poke Dabi awake.

“... Where are we?” Izuku rasped out, looking around the room carefully. Dabi slowly looked up and saw that Toga was helping to support the sickliest member of their sibling group. Dabi moved onto the bed, sliding behind Izuku so that he could fit. He looked at the bandages on his back and slowly untied them.

“We’re in UA. They used you as a bargaining chip against us, if we didn’t accept they were going to seperate us all.” Dabi explained as he unwrapped the tight bandages. Unfortunately, because of how Izuku’s broken bones had healed when he was younger, he had to be careful to not cause any more breakage. Izuku slumped softly against Dabi once the wrappings weren’t so tight.

“Thank you.” Izuku mumbled in gratitude. He shifted until he was more against the larger male, enjoying the heat his body gave off as it helped relax his taxed muscles. Toga joined her brothers in the pile on the bed, nestling into the crook beside Izuku.

That’s how the UA staff found them, well, that’s how Aizawa, Nezu, and Recovery Girl found them. They looked up silently at the door as it opened, the three of them stiffening as their muscles tensed. Dabi dragged Izuku closer to him as the trio subconsciously tried to squeeze themselves as much as possible against the white brick wall. They stood out against the sterile environment of the infirmary.

Izuku glared at the three, ignoring the tender areas on his back as he pressed against Dabi. He pulled Toga closer as well. The sight was quite interesting, with the three teens tense and hunched over like vultures. They didn't make a move or speak as they looked at the adults in the room.

Nezu jumped up on the bed and Izuku nearly screamed in response. It was hard to not want to reflexively screech when a white furred creature jumps up onto your hospital bed. Toga, Izuku, and Dabi were all too dazed and off put by the surreal events to fully process what was going on.

Recovery Girl did end up yelling at Izuku for not having his bandages on, when it was explained that the boy had a history of breaking bones without proper treatment. Meaning that, and this was especially true for his ribs, if there was too much pressure applied he could break his bones again. It also didn’t help that Toga and Dabi wouldn’t let the old woman get near Izuku if she had any intent of breaking his bones to heal them.

Once Izuku was no longer clad in a hospital gown. He instead was now wearing his tattered clothing that had been repaired with staples and the most hideous prints Izuku had ever seen - courtesy of Dabi and Toga - a random tee shirt, and the rest of his regular outfit. Including the twink shorts, stockings, garter belt, and high tops that had been dragged through the zombie apocalypse and back four times over.

Soon enough the chaotic trio had been led to the 1-A dorms, and shown their rooms. As the three weren’t allowed to leave campus yet, Nezu had instead placed them in the dorm systems as guinea pigs for how dorm life would look. Nezu would open up the dorms, likely at the end of the first semester, to the students.

It was only once the three children were inside the empty dorm building that they let out the breath they had been holding. They looked around the commons for a bit, then Aizawa gathered them shortly after.

“Alright you three, there’s a separate floor that’s just for you guys. Nezu had Cementos add to it while Izuku was in the infirmary. It does have running water and electricity, it’s also the floor where the boiler, furnace, and backup generators are. But you won’t be able to access that area.” Aizawa explained to them with an authoritative tone as he led the trio to the elevator. He inserted a key, opening up a button that would take them to the basement.

It was eerily quiet, the teens were still trying to process what in the fresh fuck was going on. It wasn’t too much of a surprise as their world had been turned upside down within only a few days.

“Thank you, we should be able to find our rooms from here.” Dabi huffed out as he coralled his siblings out of the elevator and sent them off down the hall. He raised his eye skeptically while Aizawa glared at him.

“What? We may have just had our entire world flipped, but we can take care of ourselves. We don’t need you or any other adult to keep us in check. The three od us may be chaotic but we’re not stupid, and even if Toga and Izuku are the most likely to get into trouble, they still know when to not push the boundries.” Dabi responded dryly, crossing his arms as he stood in front of Aizawa. His piercing lightning blue eyes seemed to cut into the hero’s soul.

“Yeah yeah, just stay out of trouble. Here’s a copy of the key to the elevator, don’t lose it.” Aizawa responded with the same dry tone, he placed a spare key in the hands of the teenager. He continued his conversation as he walked to the elevator.

“You three will be required to wear the UA uniforms tomorrow. I or another staff member will grab you tomorrow morning when classes start.” Aizawa spoke as he entered the elevator. The doors shut behind him, Dabi watching the entire time until he could hear the box departing. He headed in the direction Izuku and Toga went.

Toga came running around the corner screaming, hiding behind Dabi while the croaky cackling of Izuku could be heard. “He found a bunch of tools left over from construction!” Toga squeaked as she cowered behind Dabi, Izuku came tearing around the corner soon after with a sledge hammer in hand as he grinned widely. He was covered in dust and seemed very proud of himself.

“I knocked out the walls between the point where two of the bathroom cabinets connect, and the wall between two of the closets. So now we can have tunnels to visit each other!” He squealed, dragging them off to show his handy work. Surprisingly he didn’t absolutely destroy the walls and had somehow managed to get fairly clean cuts.

“How did you-” Dabi began to ask, before being cut off by Izuku.

“Magic.”

Dabi looked at Toga, who gave him a shrug. He seemed to just accept the fact that their younger brother was one to take action without thinking. This was clearly one of those moments, as Izuku ran off to go explore some more. Meanwhile, Toga and Dabi decided to explore the now connected rooms. Each of them were bare beyond a closet with some uniforms, a night stand, and a bed. They wrinkled their noses in disgust with a light sneer.

“Hey Izuku! We’re going to dismantle the beds and move them all to the central room! Bring that tool box you found!” Toga yelled out into the halls, there was some rustling and a crash before Izuku came bounding over with a tool box. Dabi set out on dismantling the wooden frames while Toga and Izuku went to work on moving the mattresses out into the hall.

Izuku and Toga soon returned to grab tools and go dismantle the other bed frame, they kept the one in the central room intact. Using the closet tunnel they moved the pieces of the frame into the central room. Dabi got them to help move the pieces into the hall and into the central room.

The entire process took over an hour, and rebuilding a bed frame to fit three mattresses all next to each other took even longer. By the time they had finished they were all wiped out, they had no clocks in the dorms, but guessing by their biological clocks and their exhaustion they figured it was around 9 or 10 pm.

The low growling of their stomachs shook them from their shock as they sighed, Toga flopped onto one of the mattresses with a heavy huff. Izuku gave a sigh.

“I’ll go scrounge something together for us, there’s likely something I can manage to find in the school kitchen.” Izuku offered, he had the most experience with living on the streets than the other two. So when it came to times like this he was usually the one to go and scrounge around.

On the other side of the city, it had taken Aizawa until he got home to realize he forgot to tell the kids to go grab food. He mentally cursed at himself, there wouldn’t be any other teachers present at this time to tell the kids. He didn’t have any way to call them, as he didn’t have their numbers despite them having phones.

Izuku didn’t take long to exploit his skills of having the flexibility of a ferret. To the boy, climbing around and finding escape routes was like a sixth sense. So within fifteen minutes, he had escaped the basement, gotten out of the dorms, snuck into the cafeteria through the kitchen back door, and was now poking around to see what he could find.

There! An open bag of white rice. He looked around for something to put the rice in, deciding to turn his hoodie around and use his hood to carry the rice. He filled it with as much as he could manage, pulled the draw strings tight, and fled before he could push his luck too far. He was back to the dorms even quicker now that he knew where to enter the basement again.

It wasn’t long before Izuku had found a hot plate and a small pot to cook with, he squirreled away back to the room where his siblings were. Toga sat up when she heard Izuku, and Dabi looked over from where he was seated. They watched as Izuku filled the pot with water and plugged in the hot plate. He scampered off to grab a lid, a stirring spoon, and some dishware to use.

Izuku had only made a small portion of the rice, and soon enough the rice finished cooking. The trio was able to dish up their plain meal. Izuku unplugged the hot plate as he and his siblings dug into the bland rice, but even so they enjoyed just having something warm to eat. Soon enough with the warmth of food inside them, mixed with exhaustion, they all climbed onto the beds and fell asleep with their limbs entangled.

The next morning the three woke up fairly early, each of them got up and stretched individually. Without saying a word, Toga bounded off to one of the bathrooms to shower, while Izuku and Dabi used the same one. Both boys had trouble reaching various spots. Izuku often couldn’t get all the soap out of the thick mop of hair on his head. While Dabi couldn’t always reach his back to clean the dirt out from under the staples and in between his scars. Izuku also liked to help Dabi re-dye his hair when the black began to face.

Soon enough all three were finished with their showers and had dried off. They each dawned the new uniforms they were required to wear, and Izuku went to wash the pot and cook up some more rice before a teacher came to grab them. All three of them scarfed down their rice after it was finished cooking. After, Izuku styled Toga’s hair into her usual space buns.

Dabi took the bun out of Izuku’s hair and brushed it while the other male was busy with Toga’s hair. He put it back up into a bun before brushing his own hair. Dabi grabbed the key and used it to access the elevator so that they could go sit in the commons. The three teens went and sat on the floor near the doorway while they waited for a teacher or staff member to come grab them. Time ticked by agonizingly slow for the tree, Izuku took to napping against the wall. Toga decided to subtly move the furniture around, while Dabi just charged his phone and played on it.

Finally salvation came in the form of the door knob turning. The three jumped to their feet and wept in joy as the boredom was finally banished from the kingdom, at least until the quest reset for the next person to come along and obtain it.

Izuku immediately recognized who the hero was without so much as looking directly at them. He quietly muttered indignantly under his breath, but didn’t comment on it as they followed Japan’s national golden labrador. Sufficient to say, the reverse-otaku for a hero was not the most favorite among the three. The vibrations of him walking up to the door were enough to rudely jar Izuku awake, and the smile that reflected light even in the depths of the abyss was enough to get the green haired teenager more than annoyed.

The walk through the halls didn’t seem to lift their spirits any higher. The sheer size of the place was enough to put all of them on edge, and the idea of it being filled with future heros didn’t help in the slightest. Eventually they reached the gargantuan doors of class 1-A, and just in time as they were called to enter the classroom.

Swallowing the anxiety in their throats and steeling themselves for the events of the future, they slid the door open and walked into the classroom. The murmurs and shouts of excitement died out entirely for a few blissful milliseconds, only for the chaos to return. They looked between each other, unsure what to do, before the caterpillar on the floor got up to quiet down the class.

“All of you be quiet. We have three new students joining us, as you can tell, they will introduce themselves and then you may ask questions. Keep the volume down, if I have to be woken up because you all are too rowdy there will be severe consequences.” The tired talking caterpillar spoke, the three stared at the amalgamation before realizing that it was a sleeping bag that contained their homeroom teacher.

Izuku hesitantly walked up to the podium to introduce himself, he wanted to get this done and over with. He spoke clearly to the class in an excited manner.

“I’m Izuku Midoriya, I don’t have a quirk. A fun fact is that I’ve broken several bones and never gotten any treatment, the worst is from when I broke four ribs.” He beamed, bouncing on his heels as if it was perfectly normal to have broken four ribs and even more bones.

Dabi gently pulled Izuku back, the small boy easily following as Toga soon took the place of where Izuku was once standing. She seemed to share the same attitude towards her greeting as Izuku, except not as much bent on the breakage of one’s body.

“I’m Toga Himiko! My quirk is Transform, I have to consume the blood of someone to take their form. I like knives and one time I ate a bird!” Toga enthusiastically spoke, spinning around to join Izuku. Dabi was the last one to go.

“I go by Dabi. My quirk is Cremation, basically I can use blue fire. These are my adopted siblings.” Dabi spoke plainly, making blue fire in his hand as a demonstration before putting it out and joining his siblings.

That’s when izuku noticed a particular ash blonde and pressed as close as he could to his siblings. While Izuku didn’t necessarily fear the man, he had mixed emotions and typically avoided confrontation at all costs.

“DEKU! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE YOU QUIRKLESS BASTARD!” The boy remarked angrily as his palms popped with the sound of small explosions. Izuku let out a sigh and stepped forward slightly.

“I’m not here by choice, flaming dumpster fire man fucking hit me with a fireball and I woke up here after collapsing on the ground. I’m here not because I want to be a hero, but because I’m a villain who got captured thanks to the pompous assholes you all look up to. Got that, Kacchan?” Izuku snipped back, the class went quiet as the resident angry pomeranian stopped working. Izuku gave an annoyed huff in response as he crossed his arms over his chest.

“We’re not answering any questions.” The three spoke before heading to their seats. They quietly conversed between each other as they ignored those around them.