#the chair was so Bella had somewhere to sit while waiting for Nightmare to jump on-stage

[moonfurthetemmie]

ok so hear me out actually. i have an idea for how nightmare could actually stop Petruccio and Gonzalo

through a series of very unusual events, Petruccio (and only Petruccio) is captured and taken to JR.

Gonzalo spends several days frantically searching for him, and eventually he runs into the Meme Squad. They think he's a little off, but when he tells them he's looking for a dear friend of his who went missing they're like "oh. that'll do it" and just accept it.

Then he tells them that Petruccio is a corrupt and they all go "oooooh. uh...do you perhaps know if people wearing gold pins with the letters 'JR' had anything to do with your friend's disappearance"

"...what do you know."

they point him to JR and tell him about Dream.

Gonzalo wastes no time in tracking this mother fucker down and attacks him. With the element of surprise and Dream severely underestimating how violent and murderous a radiant could be, Gonzalo pins him down and manages to get Petruccio's location out of Dream.

Dream isn't fatally injured, but boy did he get a rough and painful wake-up call. Gonzalo leaves him, with the vague threat of a fate worse than death if he finds out Petruccio is dead.

Petruccio's alive and mostly well. He was freaking the fuck out these past few days but aside from that and being treated like a rabid animal in confinement, he's fine.

Gonzalo breaks him out. Big hugs and apologies and shit. They find the Meme Squad again to thank the three for their help.

They end up hanging out with the Meme Squad for a while, and the pair decides that they quite like these three.

Nightmare, thinking that it's mostly common knowledge and that they'll find out anyways if they hang out long enough, mentions his and Dream's destiny bond. Upon prompting he explains what that is and is like "you were probably going to hear about it anyways, sooo"

And Gonzalo and Petruccio go "...ah. that's...an issue."

Nightmare: ...Why?

Gonzalo, tapping his chin: Well...We like you. We like you a lot. You're fun.

Gonzalo: Dream, however, needs to go.

Nightmare: Nightmare: uh

Petruccio: ...You said he's trying to kill you, though. That must mean he's working on a way to break that bond.

Nightmare: Uh?

Gonzalo, grinning: Oh, I think I have a wonderful idea.

And they leave before the Meme Squad can properly process any of that.

Gonzalo and Petruccio drop Francisco off at JR and tell him to offer help in breaking Dream and Nightmare's destiny bond. They explain everything he needs to know, but tell him that if he tries to betray them they'll know and he better fucking not.

he decides he doesn't want to find out what they'll do to him if he does, so he quietly does as he's told.

Dream finds something strange about this, but when asked Francisco's face becomes Afraid and Regretful for a split second. And then he smiles and shrugs and says "I just thought I'd see if I could help."

Something about Francisco also reminds Dream very much of Petruccio and Gonzalo, but he can't place what. it's the magic tracker they put on him btw. dream can sense it. it's faint enough though that anyone who isn't them won't know what it is.

fast forward and Gonzalo and Petruccio get a message from Francisco saying that the soul bond has been severed, and Dream is now dedicating most of his resources to finding and catching Nightmare.

Gonzalo and Petruccio crack their knuckles and start setting something up.

they're basically planning on making a big show of trying to quickly and forcefully making him a vessel for Yighraru. They're not even sure how well it'll go, but either they'll get the perfect revenge, or he will have a gruesome, painful death, or he'll be left a mere shell of his former self from the trauma. All of which is a win for them!

Either way. They set up a little stage somewhere. Dream vanishes for a few days around when they start setting that up. And then they day arrives, and the whole team comes. Bella hides off-stage. Antonio, Bea, and Lodo hide in the audience and wait for their cue. They're all in costume. They won't be recognized.

Gonzalo and Petruccio made absolutely sure that the Meme Squad would be nearby when they started.

Dream is tied up and dragged onstage. He's pretty beat-up. A crowd quickly forms, but the stage isn't easily accessible unless you frequently hop/vault/climb over 3-4 foot objects, so they mostly just murmur nervously. it helps that Gonzalo and Petruccio's faces have been on the news and no one is too eager to fuck with a corrupt and a clearly deranged and exceptionally pissed radiant.

They have their speech about how Dream was teeechnically right about Petruccio, but Gonzalo's just as bad if not worse. Also Petruccio was like this while he was still the positive spirit. They basically just poke huge holes into Dream's deep-seated beliefs about positivity and negativity while laughing at him. Publicly. There's probably at least one camera that they planted so that it'd get on the news at some point, in case no one filmed the thing themselves. It'd be no fun if there was no video recordings of their show!

Petruccio and Gonzalo realized pretty quickly after meetings him that, despite being reasonably upset about Dream's bullshit, Nightmare still really cares about him.

So, as expected, when the Squad rolls up to the show Nightmare goes "HEY WHAT THE FUCK??" and runs over to try and help Dream, Cross and Error in tow.

Antonio, the strongest, catches Cross and physically restrains her.

Lodo grabs Error and holds her arms behind her back, trying to ignore how badly Error's freaking out about being touched at all.

Bea just holds her arm out. Nightmare skids to a stop to avoid getting sliced by her fucking CLAWS and she grabs him from behind, pinning one of his arms to his body, and putting the blades on her gloves right under his chin.

Antonio and Bea mumble apologies. Lodo, not that Error can see it, slowly nods. she is also very sorry for this.

Petruccio and Gonzalo act surprised, and then go "aww, did you want to help him? After all these years of him hunting you down for the crime of being born a certain way, you don't want to watch him die? How heroic! You could learn something from him, Angel boy. A shame you won't have the chance to."

they pick on Dream some more about how fucking Nightmare just tried to come save him.

After a few moments of this Petruccio yanks Dream's head up by his hair and Gonzalo presses the blade of his dagger against his neck-

Nightmare "manages" to break free of Bea's hold, summons his spear, and jumps onto the stage, only to be grabbed by oddly familiar blue strings and yoinked mid-air. When he stops rolling he finds himself wrapped up in strings like the worst kind of mummy, almost entirely unable to move, and Bella steps onto the stage.

She kicks him (rather gently, but he still yelps) and goes "Don't you know it's rude to disrupt a theater production? Now look at you. So much for a hero."

She joins Petruccio and Gonzalo, and they start the 'real' show.

the crowd does not like the real show but they can't find it in them to turn away. Even Bea's straining to hear as much as she can.

but unbeknowst to everyone except Cross and Error, Nightmare has ooonnee little trick up his sleeve.

or more specifically. a pocketknife in his boot.

the eldritch magic being displayed and the way Dream's starting to freak out as his magic slowly turns blue isn't distracting the crowd so much that they don't notice as Nightmare trying to inchworm away and try to grab the knife. He can bend his spine and his knees and shit, he just can't move anything else. so he's just. awkwardly trying to contort his body so he can get that LITTLE FUCKING KNIFE and trying not to swear and draw attention to himself.

he manages to get it. freezes and looks back at the three trying to summon something. starts trying to cut the strings without cutting himself too badly. He gets one arm free, than the other, then his legs. As he's doing this he's trying to think of some way he can get Dream out of this. There's no way in hell he can take all three of them in a fight, and he's sure their lackeys that grabbed him and his friends are going to help bring him down. He's going to need something better than his spear, but what?

as he scrambles to his feet and looks around frantically, he is quite surprised to see the perfect weapon.

He exits stage left. and then quickly enters again and swings a metal folding chair at Gonzalo, Petruccio, and Bella's heads.

with three rather sickening BANGs, the three of them crumple to the ground. Dream slumps to the floor as well, alive but exhausted and in great pain. Everyone stares at the three in silent shock. Nightmare slowly lowers the chair and says, shakily, a little awed himself, "why did they even have this back there?"

Cross and Error wheeze and yell, loud enough for everyone to hear, "What's this?? It's Nightmare with the metal chair!"

the crowd starts laughing too, relieved that Dream is alright, and actually starts. cheering?

nightmare blinks. why are they cheering. what the hell

and then Gonzalo and Petruccio stir. Whether or not Bella survived this I'm not wholly sure, but the two spirits are quite durable.

Nightmare immediately goes "oh FUCK", drops the chair, and drags Dream's half-concious ass off stage.

Antonio, Lodo, and Bea step back and Bea's like "did...did he actually hit them with a metal folding chair?? holy shit."

Lodo signs something about being surprised that Gonzalo and Petruccio didn't account for the 100+ year-old wanted criminal having a back-up weapon and being very resourceful. They really shouldn't have had that chair.

Some people from the crowd get to the stage before Cross and Error do, and help Nightmare get Dream down. Dream's bonds are cut, a portal is made, and they get out.

While Gonzalo and Petruccio still very much want Dream dead and are really pissed about what happened, they're not too keen on fucking with any of them again after the Metal Chair Incident.

Francisco spills the beans to Dream when he gets better, and Dream goes 'oh christ. okay. do you want to stay here we can put you in witness protection and probably get rid of that tracker thing'. there may be gay shit after. maybe. too soon to know

Nightmare's face is once again circulating around the internet, but for once everyone is praising him. and he is still so fucking confused

Unrelated to the last post (joke) do you think an eldritch creature could take advantage of a destiny bond to fuck with DS Nightmare and Dream? because if yes they definitely will need extra help because Nightmare is in no shape to try and stop H!Lear and H!Puck.

The thing’s influence might be too powerful once he gets near the main sources of its power in this dimension (the rings), and when he gets there he suddenly can’t remember what he was trying to stop them from doing and just joins them

[demigodreading]

Roadtrip Ella Alina Series

Day 1 of Amanda Rollins Week: ROADTRIP

Characters: Amanda Rollins, Olivia Benson, Fin Tutuola, John Munch, Ella Alina (Original Character)

Relationships: Olivia Benson x Original Character (Mother and Daughter)

Warnings: Mention of Olivia’s kidnapping but nothing super detailed. 

Preview: Olivia and Ella are taking a week vacation to Michigan for a little time off. Olivia says that Ella can invite anyone she wants. Ella decides she wants to ask Auntie ‘Manda.

“Auntie Manda!” Ella yelled as she burst through the doors of the precinct rushing towards Rollins desk.

“Ella Bella,” Amanda smiled grabbing her into a hug, “How did the last day of sophomore year treat you?”

“Boring, my AP classes finished over a month ago so we have been watching movies for weeks. All my normal kid classes were super easy and a waste of my time,” Ella sighed sitting on the side of Amanda’s desk.

“Not everyone can be as smart as you kid genius,” Fin said as he leaned back in his chair.

El smirked at this comment as Munch walked over to her, “You worked on your writing like I told you to while watching movies right?”

“Of course Uncle John! I have almost eighty pages of my story done.”

“Good girl,” Munch said tossiling Ella’s hair, “Fin, Warner called and said we need to come to her to get the test results.”

Fin nodded and grabbed his jacket. Ella waved goodbye and then turned her attention back to Rollins who was typing away at her computer, “Hey Auntie?”

“What’s up dollface?” She responded looking up at Ella.

“Momma is taking me to Michigan on Sunday for vacation. She said I could bring someone along with us… can you come?” Ella asked as she tapped her fingers on her knee nervously.

“I mean, I got some vacation time saved up. You sure you want an old broad like me tagging along with you?” Amanda winked.

“Of course! You really mean that you will come?” Ella said excitedly.

“I gotta ask Cap for the time off and check with your Mom but I would love to go.”

“I’ll go talk to PawPaw now!” Ella exclaimed and then rushed off to Cragen’s office leaving Amanda shaking her head.

As Ella entered Cragen’s office Olivia walked back into the office with a large brown bag in her hand. She looked around the precinct panic coming when she didn’t see Ella.

“She is talking to Cragen right now,” Amanda commented rising from her desk, “She is determined to have him give me time off to go on vacation with y’all.”

“So she did ask you? Good. She was nervous about it.”

“Are you sure this is okay Liv? I don’t want to interrupt mother and daughter time.” Amanda said shoving her hands in her pockets desperately hoping that Liv wouldn’t turn her down.

“Ella and I would love to have you,” Liv smiled and then laughed as Ella walked out of Cragen’s office with a huge smirk on her face, “Looks like she got Cragen to say yes to our vacation.”

“You know PawPaw can’t say no to me,” Ella winked.

Amanda laughed and then went to Cragen’s office to confirm. Olivia and Ella ate lunch at her desk as Ella went through her last day of school. Once they were done Ella pulled out her laptop and began working on her novel as Olivia finished her paperwork. Amanda would glance over at them occasionally a large smile coming to her face. She was going on vacation with her favorite fifteen years old and the woman that she had the biggest crush on. This was going to be the longest week of her life waiting to leave. 

Ella spent the rest of the week reading and writing in different places of the precinct. After the kidnapping Olivia kept Ella close refusing to leave her at the apartment alone. Ella didn’t mind the precinct had always been her first true home. She made sure to stay out of everyone’s way when they were busy often sneaking up to the roof to get some fresh air. When she did she would text Olivia every thirty minutes confirming she was safe somewhere in the precinct. Olivia knew that she was on the roof but didn’t have the heart to tell her to leave her favorite space. Occasionally she would send Amanda to it to make sure that Ella hadn’t fallen off.

Ella had been calm all week till it came to Saturday night. She was rushing back and forth making sure she packed everything she needed. Olivia merely sat on the edge of her bed and laughed as Ella showed her every single outfit she planned to bring. Ella even packed Olivia’s bag refusing to let Olivia help her at all. Liv didn’t complain much knowing her mind more concerned with the vacation ahead of them. She knew that she needed the time off and away from the rush of work. Heck, she just needed to be away from the apartment in general. She still jumped at every single noise and woke up in the middle of the night screaming. Soon Ella had taken to sleeping next to Olivia in her bed claiming that she was the one having nightmares but Liv knew that Ella was doing it to help calm her own panic. It had been working so far but she could tell that Ella had begun to rarely sleep making sure that Olivia could sleep through the night. She could only hope that this vacation gave them both some relief.

Early the next morning Ella was rushing up the stair to Amanda’s apartment two at a time. Olivia was downstairs still nursing her coffee Amanda’s in the cup holder next to her. Amanda opened the door on Ella’s first knock having already been up for two hours. She had repacked at least a dozen times questioning everything that she had decided to pick. Then once she was sure her luggage was fine she had paced the apartment looking for any last-minute excuse to get out of going. It was not so much that she didn’t want to go it was more the drive there she was dreading. She and Ella were very bonded but she still felt like Liv was keeping her at arm’s length. She hoped Ella would fill most of the silence.

Ella quickly grabbed Amanda’s suitcase and pulled Amanda out the door. Amanda barely had time to close the door behind her before she was being tugged down the stairs. Ella threw her suitcase in the trunk next to the others and then clambered into the back seat. Amanda plopped down in the front seat and was immediately greeted by Olivia handing her a cup of coffee.

“Figured you could use this just as much as I did. I hope I got your order right.”

Amanda smiled, “Thanks Liv. Just what I needed.”

For the first couple hours, Ella talked excitedly about all of the things that she planned to do. Olivia had booked a cabin on a small island in the upper peninsula of Michigan called Sugar Island. Ella was most excited about the fact that the only way to reach the island was a five-minute ferry ride. She had never been on a ferry in a car before. She talked about all the places where she could read the books Munch had given her and the swimming she could do. Olivia had always been a city girl and knew nothing about all of the outdoor stuff that her daughter wanted to do but Amanda was more than willing to fill in all the gaps for which Olivia was grateful for. They talked about hikes they would take and waterfalls they could see. After a lengthy discussion, Olivia promised to join Amanda and Ella in jumping off one of the waterfalls that Ella had found nearby. Only after Ella promised that she could prove that she wouldn’t die in the process leaving Olivia without her Ellie Bean.

Shortly after that matter had been settled the car filled with small snores as Ella fell asleep laying on the back seat. Amanda turned around pulling a blanket up around her making sure that she wouldn’t get cold with the air that rolled from Olivia’s car.

Olivia smiled watching Amanda and decided to break the silence, “Thanks for coming Manda.”

Amanda sat shocked for a moment. Only Ella really called her Manda Olivia stuck towards calling her Rollins when she needed something. When she had regained her bearings she replied, “Of course Liv. Thank y’all for having me.”

“I know that it means a lot to Ella,” Olivia said and Amanda could feel her heart sink, “And me. I never really did thank you for everything that you did for her while I was..” Amanda knew she couldn’t finish the sentence as Olivia’s hands gripped the steering wheel harder, “It was really not a bother Liv.” “You took her into your home and made sure she stayed safe. You kept her in school and you protected her,” Olivia said tears silently rolling down her face, “All I kept thinking about while I was there was if my daughter was going to be okay. That was all that mattered to me and you made sure that happened. I will never forget that.”

Amanda gently placed her hand on Olivia’s thigh to calm her down, “I would do anything for you and Ella. Anything.”

Olivia smiled and placed her hand on top of Amanda’s, “And we would do the same for you.”

Amanda expected Olivia’s hand to pull away but instead, Olivia wrapped her fingers protectively around her. Amanda had to focus all her attention on keeping her breath steady as Olivia continued to hum along to the radio. In the back seat, Ella let a huge grin cross her face before she closed her eyes and let sleep overtake her again.