#the last two years it’s been mothman themed

[myrabbitistrying2killme]

TMA FANDOM SOMEONE GIVE ME MAGNUS ARCHIVES BASED CONSPIRACY BOARD THEMES!! IM REDOING MY BOARD FOR THE NEW YEAR !!

[thiswasinevitableid]

Kepler Kreeps (Indruck)

The winner of the "sweet more than scary" prompt poll was: You and I are both haunted house actors and tonight is a slow night

Duck’s tent is covered in blood. 

Fake blood, but still. If he ever needed an excuse to buy one he hasn’t had since 1998, this is his chance. 

His room is one of the darkest, with only a tipped over lantern in the corner and glo-strips to help people safely find their way through. Squinting at his watch, he sees there’s still two hours to go before they close.

“Shoulda brought a card game or something.” He whispers.

No response from the darkness across from him. 

“‘Drid? Hey, mothman, don’t conk out on me now!”

There’s a sharp trill and then two, red eyes glow in the corner, “Oh dear, I was trying so hard not to fall asleep. If it’s any consolation, we will not be seeing another group for at least fifteen minutes. Not to mention the screams from Minerva’s scene would have woken me up.”

“True.” They’ve been using the alarm from his friend’s alien abduction sequence as their cue to get in position. After all, they want Kepler’s one and only haunted house to be worth the ticket.

Duck had worked with Kepler Kreeps a few times, usually when they were short volunteers and needed an extra zombie or ghost. The profits always went to the youth center, and Duck liked the chance to goof off a bit. So when he got back from Brazil in need of ways to get back into the swing of things in Kepler, volunteering for this year’s haunted house was a no-brainer. 

He’d been surprised to find Indrid seated in the folding chairs along with him on the first night of planning; last he’d heard the Sylph had gone home, leaving Leo to take up the Winnebago in his place. 

“I tried it for a while. But I was not speaking hyperbolically when I told you I was fond of earth. I missed it terribly and Sylvain…she has another, younger seer. So when the gate re-opened I decided to move back.”

This was how Duck also learned Indrid had been living in the apartment beneath him for three months. He’d taken Leo’s spot on the lease. Given that Duck had never seen him coming or going, he’s mostly just glad the mothman is getting out of the house. 

The group settled on “Haunted Monongahela” for the theme, with each room being a different scene of horror or carnage unfolding in the national forest. As people were chatting amongst themselves about what rooms they could do, Indrid had flapped his hands, grabbed Duck’s arm, and said “I have the perfect idea.”

So now here they are, in the second weekend of the house’s run, waiting for some kids to scare. The first weekend is always busy as the haunted house die-hards and people ready for the spooky season to start flock to the gates. His guess is it won’t get really crowded again until a week or two before Halloween. 

Screams from the front of the house. Now that Sylphs are an open secret, a few are more comfortable being seen in their monstrous forms. In this case, it’s Barclay’s second cousin, Franklin, who after a bout of being feral in Texarkana moved up to Kepler to work as a bartender. Franklin starts the house off in style by chasing guests up a corridor, teeth and claws bared. 

Soon enough, there are horrified shouts from the room closest to them, courtesy of Minerva slicing open the chest of a dummy and sending fake blood everywhere. Duck slips back into the tent and readies himself.

Once the cluster of teenagers is over the threshold, he shakes the frame and scratches at the canvas, screaming like he’s being torn apart. This scares the group away from his side of the room and keeps them from noticing the massive, feathery shape rising up behind them.

All Indrid has to do is open his wings and shriek to send them running to the next room. 

When no more groups come through, Indrid perches on the block he’s using to get further above everyone’s heads and drums on it with his claws as they wait for more victims. 

“You doin’ anything fun for Halloween?” Duck crawls out and sits up in front of the tent entrance, stretching out his back. 

“Most likely joining Barclay and the others at the Lodge for a double-feature. Ooh, unless-”

“Unless?”

“Unless we get many trick or treaters at the complex?” Duck can just make out the lines of his antenna twitching. 

“Decent number, since we got plenty of kids in the apartments and in the neighborhood. Crap, that reminds me, I gotta get the place decorated so they know to come up the stairs and knock.”

“Do you prefer classic decorations or more of a theme?” Indrid cocks his head.

“Usually just do lights and maybe a skeleton or two. I do got this one idea I think would be fun, but it’d take up more space, maybe even get in your way.”

“Duck, you saw where I was living, do I strike you as needing everything neat and tidy?”

“Guess not. It’s kind of a cheesy idea though…”

“I insist you tell me. Please?” The disappearance and reappearance of glowing eyes suggests Indrid is trying to bat his eyelashes at him.

“Okay, okay. I was thinking I could decorate like it’s a haunted tropical island. Put aloha shirts on the skeletons, see if anyone makes a skeletal parrot-”

“Put out some Jimmy Boo-fet records perhaps?”

Duck laughs, “Exactly!”

“That sounds delightful? Would you like some help? We could even decorate both apartments in the same vein for a stronger impact. “

“Hell yeah. You wanna stop by my place after work on Monday? I was gonna run out and get stuff then.”

A flash of teeth in the darkness, “It’s a date.”

—------------------------------------------------------

Duck tosses a few more leis into the shopping cart. He’s debating whether to get a spinning projector that casts ghosts over the walls when Indrid appears, hands behind his back. 

“I have the perfect costume for you.”

Duck leans on the cart, “I swear, if those are bear ears-”

Indrid gasps, mock affronted, “How could you suggest I would sink so low as a Smokey the Bear joke?”

“Smarter than the a-ver-age bear.” Duck swipes the ears from Indrids hand and places them atop silver hair, “besides, you wear ‘em better.”

His friend smiles as he removes the headband, “That’s high praise. Unrelatedly, if we go by the thrift store we will find some shirts that are perfect for the skeletons.”

Indrid’s foresight is spot on, and they also score a “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere” hat and some unopened skull lights. He’s having such a nice time that he doesn’t think twice about asking if Indrid would like to grab dinner, though he slightly regrets his offer of a ride when his friend discovers the Jimmy Buffet C.Ds in his car.

“You truly contain multitudes, Duck Newton.”

“I had a case of the Mondays!”

—------------------------------------------------------------

“This really was a way better idea than me just playing dead.” Duck says as he and Indrid get into their haunted house positions. The doors open in fifteen minutes, and the presence of an actual line suggests a busy night.

Duck adds, “But I’ll have you know I was always real good at playing dead. Played so many dead guys in emergency trainings.”

Indrid makes an amused face.

“I’m serious. Watch.” Duck lays down on his back, closes his eyes, and goes limp. 

After a moment, Indrid says, “That is rather convincing.”

Duck says nothing. 

“That is also very convincing.”

The lights go out, signaling that it’s time to get in final positions. 

“Oh dear” Indrid sighs, “visitors are soon to be upon us and my fellow scare actor is deceased. Whatever shall I do.”

Duck manages not to laugh as Indrid crosses the floor. 

A tongue mlems onto his cheek and he slaps a hand across his mouth, giggling as he opens his eyes. Indrid is bent over him, grinning.

“Dang, you figured out my trick.”

“Indeed I did.” Indrid flicks him on the nose once with his tongue, then sneaks soundlessly back into his spot.

 Duck’s just glad it’s dark; he’s not ready for the mothman to see him blushing. 

—---------------------------------------------------------

“I expected the Friday before Halloween to be much busier.” Indrid sits on the floor across from Duck as the haunted house stays quiet around them (except for the atmospheric music from Kirby’s room).

“They got that Zombie fun-run over in Huntington. Think a bunch of folks from town went there since it’s a one-night thing.”

Indrid shudders, “I cannot say I’d enjoy such an event. Zombies are…they feel too close to what happened with the Quell at times.”

“I get that.” Duck scoots forward an inch, “I always get freaked out by vampire movies. Something about the biting, all the teeth going into necks, ech” he shivers, “no thanks.”

“Perhaps we should be grateful Reconciliation never sent a vampiric abomination through. Not that I can remember anyway.”

Duck’s hand bumps Indrid’s in the darkness, “Ain’t sure I ever been more scared than when I saw them tryin’ to make a mimic that looked like Jane. Figured it out quick and then I was just pissed but…but there was a second before all that when I thought they’d taken her too. That even though she was far away from this whole mess, I hadn’t been able to protect her, y’know?”

Indrid nods, “I am sorry you had to see such a thing.”

“‘Drid? Can I ask you something weird?”

Another nod and a chirp of assent. 

“What’s the most scared you’ve ever been?”

A rustle of wings, then the lilting voice replies, “When I was young. Before I learned how to manage my abilities. If you can see the future and you are not careful, you can look too far ahead, see the end of everything. When you are a little mothling, huddled in the dark after bedtime, there is nothing more terrifying than to let your mind wander where it need not and see the day when the planet goes dark.”

“Oh fuck, ‘Drid, I’m so sorry, I had no idea.” Duck takes his hand, feels cool chitin as the other three join it, clinging to him. 

“I learned quickly to be careful. But there will still times, times like when I was driving back to Kepler to warn you all your plan would not work, where I could not stop seeing the end.”

“What did you do?” His heart cracks at the thought of Indrid hurtling down some empty highway with no relief from the image of the sky ripping away. 

“I looked to better futures. To the ones where you succeeded. To the little moments that came after, even as the chances of them faded. I took comfort where I could” he lets out a weak laugh, “though I never foresaw such a comforting moment coming to me in a haunted house.”

“Me neither.” Duck thinks on the last weeks, on hushed conversations waiting for guests to come through. He’s about to say he’s glad the haunted house has let them spend more time together, but then he remembers the evenings decorating the apartments together, remembers Indrid appearing at the park to draw, remembers calling through the floor to ask if the mothman would like to come up and share the pizza he got for dinner. 

“Got another weird question for you.”

Indrid’s hands tense. There’s a chirp Duck’s never heard before, unsure and hopeful.

“I know we both got plans late Halloween night to go to the Lodge. But, uh, before then…maybe we could hand out candy together. Since we made the outside of the apartments look so damn good together, seems silly to make trick or treaters climb the stairs.”

“The answer is yes. To both.”

Duck smiles, “I ain’t asked the second thing yet, sugar.”

“The answer remains the same.”

Duck raises onto his knees and kisses Indrid once, gently, and has the unique pleasure of a seven foot tall cryptid turning to butter in his arms. 

Indridr nuzzles his forehead, “Is this the part where I am to say something clever about you being my treat?”

Duck snickers and kisses him again, “Nah. Just warn me if we need to stop kissing and scare folks instead.”

Indrid purrs and cuddles him into his lap, “Consider it done.”

[enchantedanimal]

first off: i saw your mothman coaster art and it's very cool :D

second off: you mentioned it was for a class you're taking? is that part of like a larger major for attraction design? i have a family member who has always been interested in that kind of thing and i didn't know there was something like that out there!

Tysm!!

In short: Yes, it's what I'm studying! People's reactions when I tell them are so funny bc no one has heard of it

As for a better explanation, I'll try my best to keep it from being horribly lengthy but its kinda complicated rn so bear with me (I also do not mind answering more questions about it if I know the answer)

So, my major is technically called Computer Graphics Technology/CGT, which is a digital design based major that has multiple things you can choose to concentrate in, kinda like a major within a major! I chose to concentrate in Themed Attraction Design (sometimes I just say that I'm majoring in that bc CGT tends to go over people's heads more), which is unique from the other concentrations in that it has a minor and a certificate if you don't want to take the whole CGT major. You also don't have to be into illustration/concept art- that's the role I've fallen into, but just in my group for this project we also have modelers, story writers, engineers, graphic designers, etc! They'll push you but let you work to your strengths.

I chose IUPUI (Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis) bc it's one of the very few colleges that offer it! However like I said things are weird rn bc IUPUI is splitting itself into the two separate colleges after this semester (we're literally going through an academic divorce ✌️😞) so I'm on a teach-out plan of study which is likely different than students starting fall 24' since it'll be under Purdue Polytechnic and yada yada all that fun and confusing stuff. With the many changes, Purdue should still be keeping TAD as an option.

BUT ANYWAYS from my experience so far it's really interesting! You get a good amount of exposure to the themed attraction industry, such as yearly trips down to Florida for the IAAPA convention, WDW (we took some Imagination campus classes), and Universal in November (I went last year, it was really fun), as well as getting to listen and talk to industry professionals such as imagineers and ppl at universal creative (as well as museums, zoos, etc). It's definitely unique and going to theme parks with the excuse that it's for education is a bonus lol

[witchhatgnat]

Check out my work!

Since I'm new to Tumblr I thought it would be cool to throw some links to my work out there. For those who don't know, I'm a student author and game developer and I've been active online for about two years now. I don't have links to my fiction quite ready yet but I do have links to the games I've worked on! So here are those along with a little pitch.

First up is The Pieces: I worked on this one last summer and it was my first time as the lead designer for a project! It's a short narrative game about a recently divorced person taking items from their old apartment. The game focuses on some really amazing music from the sound team and encourages players to build a song reflective of the character's emotional state. I think it's a unique narrative piece with some of my strongest writing.

Next I want to talk about what is by far my most popular game, Hearts of Hallow's Eve: Do you like ghosts and ghouls? Mothmen and vampires? Well this is the game for you. It's a Halloween themed dating-sim with a little twist. You're at a party where everyone's costume is a little too convincing. You can pick from four fiendish friends to talk to, including Mothman, Chadimir the Vampire, Franky the Cultist, and Echo the Ghost. This one is just really cute. The artists did an absolutely amazing job and I'm so happy that I got to write for Mothman. It's silly, it's sweet, and it's totally worth a look.

Next up is Field Hospital: Valkyrie, which I made with the same team as The Pieces. This time around we were making a game for GMTK Jam, and so there's a lot more mechanical crunch here. You play as the commanding officer of a M*A*S*H-style hospital in a sci-fi war. You're tasked with doing triage, managing your medical staff, and making sure that enough soldiers live each day. The main game play thrust involves dice rolls to see whether or not your staff can save the soldier they've been assigned to. Everyone also has a morale meter that's affected by whether or not they saved their patient the previous day. It's an extremely difficult game (not by design lol), but thematically I think it works really well. I'm proud of the writing I did for this, including some vague world building and random-generator lists I had to come up with. There's also more amazing music and sound design in this one.

The last one I want to talk about is Getting Ahead, which is my earliest game. It's a Twine text adventure where you play as a shade waiting in line in Purgatory. Except, you're not going to actually wait in line are you? Of course not. You begin cutting in front of people and meeting some really interesting characters. But as you do, something feels... wrong. I think this one is really funny and a little spooky, but mostly funny. It has some absolutely amazing music (including a Bloodborne style opening theme). It's also the only game that I've been the "programmer" for, and getting music to work in Twine was not fun! Years later and I'm still really proud of this one.

That's all I'll link to for now. But I have worked on two other dating-sims, which you can find on my Itch page at witchhatnatalie.itch.io. Feel free to ask questions about these projects or share your thoughts! I hope people enjoy them and I can't wait to get back to making games.

[dinosaurtsukki]

The Search for the Mysterious Mothman | a HQ Buzzfeed Unsolved AU

AWWW YEHH BOIS Y'ALL HAV BEEN WAITIN FOR THIS HAVEN’T U

akaashi: in this episode of buzzfeed unsolved–

bokuto: *vibrating with excitement* MOTHMAN!! WE’RE GOING TO MOTHMAN CITY!!

akaashi: …yes. also, it’s called Point Pleasant, West Virginia

bokuto: Mothman City

akaashi: *stares at camera*

• akaashi isn’t much of a fan of a cryptids but he delivers a flawless intro anyway about the first mothman sighting with bokuto interjecting at certain points

akaashi: i’m just wondering,, why the name mothman?

bokuto: it’s a moth combined with a man. mothman

akaashi: but should we assume their gender?? what if they you know, they prefer to be called mothwoman? or moth-person?

bokuto: mOTHFELLA

bokuto: mothman sounds cooler

akaashi: admittedly,, yes

*cut to montage of the two of them packing their things to travel to west virginia. akaashi has a shit ton of equipment and bokuto’s suitcase is full of neon mothman shirts*

*insert clip of the two of them in a hotel, taken from akaashi’s phone*

bokuto: *lying on the bed in the dark with his phone* mothman call, take 53: eeeeeeeeEEEEEeeeEeeeeeeEeeee

akaashi: *hiding under the pillows* he’s been doing this for three hours

*insert clip of the two of them in a car*

akaashi: *singing along* WEST VIRGINIAAAA, MOUNTAIN MAMAAAAA

bokuto: *recording with his phone* he’s been doing this for 3 hours

akaashi: TAAAAKE ME HOOOOME, COUNTRY ROAAAADS

bokuto: if we’re going to west virginia, that implies the existence of a north, east, and south virginia

akaashi: there’s just virginia and west virginia, bokuto-san

bokuto: ,,,what the fuck?

fINALLY they arrive in mothman city and bokuto is tHRIVING

he drags akaashi to any store that sells mothman merch and that’s pretty much every store

akaashi tries his best to make everything still be as documentary-like as possible and introduce things relevant to the history of mothman

akaashi: and here, we have the original transcripts of the first mothman sighting by the four friends – *stares into the distance*

cameraman: *turns around and gets a shot of bokuto putting on mothman-themed boxers over his jeans*

bokuto: there wasn’t a dressing room and i wanted to wear them now

and then they take a million pictures with the mothman statue

bokuto tries to climb the statue so it looks like mothman’s carrying him but a guard tells him off

akaashi glanced at mothman’s ass and snapped a pic of it

they can’t end their day without having some mothman pizza

yes its a thing it was in the buzzfeed unsolved episode and it looks ePIC

bokuto practically cries at the sight it looks so beautiful

akaashi’s lowkey like ‘why tf does the pizza look like this’but he doesn’t have the heart to tell bokuto

finally they sleep at a nearby hotel that has a mothman poster and mothman-themed bedsheets (which akaashi didn’t know about beforehand but he suspected as much from bokuto)

akaashi: *staring at the mothman poster right in front of his bed* it’s… staring at my soul

bokuto: mothman call, take 86: eeeEEEeEEEEeEEEE

the next day they finally get down to Looking for Mothman

*cut back to the interview room*

akaashi: for this episode, bokuto and i have made a bet on who can get the best evidence of mothman’s existence. if i win, we’re leaving Point Pleasant the next day

bokuto: and if i win we’re staying one more day!

akaashi: are you sure you want to go through with this bet?

bokuto: i’ll have you know, akaashi, i have a killer strategy *raises eyebrows at camera*

*back to mothman city*

akaashi: *standing in front of a clearing in the forest* this is where the first mothman sighting was. my plan is to set up motion cameras all around the space and then use radiowave frequency on a satellite to lure him out

*insert clip of akaashi setting up cameras and him cursing when one of them falls over*

bokuto shows up later at night wearing a trenchcoat and akaashi proudly shows him his set-up

akaashi: with my motion camera set-up i’ll definitely get some evidence on mothman’s existence. 

bokuto: *takes off trenchcoat to reveal his outfit: fishnet stockings, a skirt, a crop top, really huge moth wings made out of paper, and a fuzzy antenna headband* I’M GOING TO SEDUCE MOTHMAN

akaashi: …

bokuto: because i dressed up as mothwoman

akaashi: …

bokuto: also i made my mothman call recordings into a CD and i’m blasting it from a boombox

akaashi: … a bit heteronormative but ok

*later on*

akaashi, watching bokuto shaking glowsticks and attaching them to himself: i sure hope this doesn’t awaken anything in me

it does 

akaashi goes first by playing his radiowave frequency thingy but the only thing it attracts is a deer and some teenagers smoking fUnny cIgaRettes thinking it was mothman

and then it’s bokuto’s turn 

bokuto: *stands in the middle of a clearing with his glowsticks and mothwoman costume and starts playing his mothman calls on his boombox*

akaashi: *watching from afar* this isn’t going to do any– oH MY GOD

his motion cameras pick something up and find a fLYING SHAPE IN THE SKY

Actual Mothman: eeeeeEEeeeEEEEEeeeee

Bokuto: OH MY GOD ITS MOTHMAN ITS MOTHMAN! 

akaashi: *surprised pikachu face*

Bokuto: MOTHMAN I’VE LOVED YOU SINCE I WAS A KID. I WROTE YOU 365 LETTERS. I WROTE YOU EVERY DAY FOR A YEAR 

Actual Mothman: eeeeeEEEeeEEEeE *flies away*

*the next day*

bokuto, looking out of a window dramatically: not many people will say that they got full, definitive proof that mothman exists. but, i was that man who caught that last night

akaashi: *lying in bed, clearly in a crisis* bokuto-san just dressed up as mothwoman and mothman came… bokuto-san just dressed up as mothwoman and mothman came

bokuto: i think we finally broke him

it takes five hours for akaashi to Accept Everything and they celebrate with even more mothman pizza and yes, staying in Mothman City for one more day

*back in the interview room for the closing remarks*

akaashi: we came to Point Pleasant to gather evidence on whether or not Mothman exists, and yes he fucking does exist and if anyone says no they can fight bokuto’s fishnet-stockinged legs

bokuto: yEAH

akaashi makes bokuto save that mothwoman costume for…purposes

check out my buzzfeed unsolved au here

[stillebesat]

Meeting Virgil (5x1) -Second Time

DECEMBER DRABBLES DAY 19 Sanders Shorts: Remy Sanders Sides: Virgil Blurb: A Special Delivery Prequel. -Five times Remy tried to give Virgil a child and the one time he succeeded. Inspiration: @book-of-charlie​ asked: What did Virgil mean by “the last 5 times?” Fic Type: STORK!AU, Winged!Remy Overall Fic Warnings: Bad Parenting implications, Injuries, Hitting, Spooky Themes  Taglist in Reblog. To Catch Up: First Time

Over the years Remy had found himself delivering children to their new parents in all sorts of places. In a variety of houses, the middle of camping trips, on cruise ships, and even one memorable moment on top of the Eiffel Tower. 

Remy grimaced as he ducked under yet another dripping branch of the millions in the forest he found himself in, the two month old baby boy, Henry, securely sheltered under his leather jacket to avoid getting soaked. 

At least the rain had let up an hour or so earlier, but he hated wandering through new growth forests like this. The trees and bushes were too close together for him to be able to effectively use his wings because the branches would snag them, slowing his already slow progress. 

He was vulnerable. And Remy didn’t like feeling vulnerable. Especially out here in a dark creepy forest.

“Who in their right mind would live in the middle of no---” An old dilapidated house suddenly appeared through the mists, like a creepy opening to a horror film. “--where.” Remy squeaked, eyes going wide, his wings wrapping around young Henry protectively as he hesitated on the edge of the trees. Was he about to encounter the Addams family or what?! 

But this is where the purple ribbon had lead, so it had to mean only good things would be found in that house. Right? It had to mean that the parents were--

A cold hand snaked out of the darkness slapping over Remy’s mouth muffling the scream that tore from his throat at the unexpected touch.

“Oh for the love of!” A familiar voice hissed in his ear as the hand dropped to his shoulder, brushing his wing as Remy was roughly turned around to see the glowering face of the Emo Edgelord who’d refused the baby girl back in NYC.

What the WHAT!? Of all the--

“What are you doing here?!” They both cried at the same time. 

The man growled, running a hand through his rain soaked hair. “I’m working, idiot, and heaven forbid if you’re the mysterious Mothman that’s been sighted I’m going to--”

Remy scoffed, pointing to himself. “Me? I just got here, genius.” His wings half spread before snapping shut. “I haven’t been in the backwoods of Virginia since the nineties!” And that had been a nightmare family vacation Remy would rather forget he had ever taken. 

“So what, you’re following me now?” The man demanded.

In retrospect...perhaps the purple line should have been an obvious sign, but how was Remy supposed to know it would be this guy when he chose the ribbon? 

Sure, he’d kept an eye out for purple ribbons to see if they would lead to him because Remy desperately wanted to prove his point that this Emo Nightmare would make an excellent dad.

But. 

He’d done over two hundred deliveries since their first encounter and while some of those ribbons had been purple and he may have followed every single one to see if they led to Mr. Rapunzel here--it wasn’t like he’d actively been seeking him out! 

Especially here. When they weren’t even in New York! 

Remy shook his head, scoffing. “Why in the world would I follow you---”

“Virge?” A distorted voice cracked over a walkie talkie at the man’s hip, interrupting them. “You still there, bud?” 

The man--Virge? Tensed, raising a warning finger. “Don’t say a word” He hissed as he grabbed the walkie, raising it to his mouth. He took a breath, voice getting slightly deeper as he spoke. “Still here, Mags, I haven’t died.” He glared at Remy releasing the button. “Yet.” He hooked the walkie back to his belt. “Why are you here ruining my investigation, Angel?” 

Remy rolled his eyes. “Not an Angel.” He smirked. “Nor the Mothman either.” Though if one of those was around he’d love to see this Mothman creature in person. 

“Riiight” Virge crossed his arms. “And your wings are white because…?” 

“I’m a S.T.O.R.K., Virge.” He pulled his black tipped wing to the side revealing the sleeping Henry. “Figured that one would be obvious to you.” From how he’d freaked out the last time, Remy doubted it would be something this guy would just forget. 

Virge tensed, going as pale as a vampire. “You brought a baby out here in the middle of nowhere?!” He hissed. “Are you crazy?! What if he catches a cold! Leather is hardly the warmest thing when it’s soaking wet and--”

Yadda yadda, Remy was well aware of the downsides to wearing leather. He’d been in his fair share of storms with that exact jacket afterall. “Well if you think you can do better.” He said holding little Henry out. “Then you take him, and wrap him in that grungy hoodie of yours. I’m sure that’s plenty warm.” 

Virge tensed but took a step forward, growling under his breath as he tugged at his hoodie, pulling it over his head. 

Huh. Was it really that easy? After how hard he had refused the baby girl, Remy had expected it to be more difficult to convince Sugarbee here to accept being a Dad--he flinched as the hoodie landed on his head.

“You shouldn’t be so smug.” Virge said tersely, rubbing his bare arms. “You look like a constipated cow. Now are you going to cover the kid or not?” 

A COW?!  

Remy let out his own growl of frustration, yanking the hoodie off to wrap it securely around Henry. He should have known. “Gurl! Why can’t you just take him?” He demanded. “I was led to you. You can’t deny that.” 

Red tinged the man’s cheeks as he glanced to the house, his grey eyes looking like the storm clouds swirling over their heads. “Oh sure, explain to my crew that I found a random baby in the middle of the woods while out looking for cryptids. That will go over real well.” Virge shook his head, taking three giant steps to the right, making a wide circle around Remy. “Get him to better parents than me, Eagle One, before he catches a cold.” 

Unbelievable. Remy whirled, wings spreading out. “He already has a good Dad, you Emo Nightmare, if you would just take him!” 

“Not a good Dad. I already told you.” Virge called back, the purple ribbon flashing to blue as he vanished deeper into the forest. 

Third Time

[halfgclden]

EPISODE 32: A MAJOR OCCURANCE

The sound of spooky intro music plays and fades out. As the microphone clicks on, faint sounds of water and traffic can be heard in the background.

JADE: Hello cryptwizzlers, cryptrackers, but never cryptormentors because we’re all friends here. Welcome to a very special episode of Cryptwins in which we are not actually researching a cryptid. But! Before you shut this off and call us hacks, we are instead researching the recent disappearance of social media fitness guru; Edison Major.

More spooky music plays. There is also the sound of fingers tapping a rhythm. It's typical Joel, unable to contain his energy as he taps the dashboard in time with their intro music.

JOEL: Weeeeeeeell...Maybe we are hacks. —a pause as he laughs— Nah, just kidding. This is the real deal. I'm not sure you're ready for this. This is some spooky, and excuse my French, spooky shit. Tell us more about this Major disappearance? —another laugh— Get it?

JADE: [A short laugh-sigh is let out at Joel’s joke.] Okay, before we begin, two things. One, get ready for the barrage of major and minor jokes, courtesy of Joel here.

JOEL: Got a whole list, be ready! He lets Jade finish, but listeners can still hear the tapping sound while she speaks.

JADE: Secondly, we’re still on the road here, so if the audio is bad or choppy... deal with it? —another small laugh— Anyyyyway. Spooky is right. This all began in September of last year, when @majored posted a picture of himself in a dark basement wearing a weird costume and then immediately went off the grid. And, you know, I’m all for a social media cleanse, people do it all the time. Buuut, what really brought this to our attention was a month later, on Halloween Eve of all nights, when a video popped up of him getting his ass kicked by someone in a Kakashi Hatake costume.

JOEL: Now, I know y'all are asking yourselves "Isn't he a fitness guru? Why was some weeb kickin' his ass?" And to that I say hey! Some weebs are strong, some are Super Saiyan, and others are Kakashi Hatake, the most talented ninja in Konohagukure.

JADE: lets out a laughing wheeze.

JOEL: We don't endorse fighting here. But I digress —a laugh— back on topic. So this guy just up and disappears out of nowhere? And there's not a peep of him until we see Kakashi givin’ him the business. What does this all mean?

JADE: Okay, so, let’s get the full story. @majored goes off the grid, comes back to get his ass kicked by a Naruto character, disappears again, comes back to spit on someone and call them a see you next Tuesday, and then disappears again. And he hasn’t come back online. So what’s up with that? Well... we did a little digging.

Another spooky noise plays over the sound of Jade organizing a stack of papers.

JOEL: Daaaaaaang. I’d say those are some fightin' words, especially from someone who keeps pulling a vanishing act, don’t ya think?

JADE: They really are! I mean, he is from New Zealand, but even so, I think you don’t use that word unless you want to attract some attention. -She clicks her tongue as she gets back on topic- The video was originally posted the night before Halloween of last year, by @ime.are on Twitter. Obviously they got a lot of hate and questions after posting this, but all of them were left unanswered. The only person in the video that was tagged was Major, but upon further examination, this Ime seems to follow and have pictures with someone who happened to be dressed as Kakashi that same night, which has led many to speculate that these ninjas are the same person.

JOEL: So we all know Halloween's a spooooky season. Perfect for parties and all that jazz. But all those costumes make it a perfect time for disguises. Was that even the real Major? Was the person who spit the real Major? Who is this Ime and how do they fit into the story? And who— a pause for dramatic effect and muffled laughter as he tries to stay serious— is this mystery ninja? Tell us more!

JADE: Alright, alright. So this mystery ninja goes by Abel, or @_kllledbycain on the Gram. At first glance, they look pretty much like every other TikTok e-boy; black and white photos, pet snake, the insinuation that they’re dead, whole nine yards.

JOEL: snorts when Jade announces their handle, and again at her eboy comment, wheezing. It's true, it's true!

JADE: And this stuff is so common right now, so nothing really raises any eyebrows, right? Right? Well, tell me, why would a Tik Tok goth go around beating the crap out of a random influencer? Stay tuned for the theory. First, we’re gonna take a step back and look at the whole situation, because, of course, it doesn’t end there.

JOEL: Ohhhh snap! I'm on the edge of my seat, and I bet our listeners are too.

JADE: [clears her throat] So if we go back to the original poster of the video, @ime.are, and we take a look at their Insta, who is on it but... @devinitely? Okay, so @devinitely is in the same place as @majored, clearly, and, for anyone that doesn’t know, she’s been doing a bunch of collabs with @loganvance. This places not one, not two, but three influencers all together in this place where weebs are running around assaulting people.

JOEL: Okay. Okay, I need to know! Where are they? What's bringing all these influencers together? Are @devinitely and @loganvance part of something much more sinister than it seems? [He makes a funny face at Jade and wiggles his fingers, before dropping his voice to a stage-whisper.] Is it some kind of twisted influencer cult?

JADE: Shhhh, Joel, spoilers.

JOEL: [He laughs.] Sorry, sorry!

JADE: [muffled laughter over the sound of more papers rustling.] So, any skeptics out there might say, oh, well, this Ime Are is just a lucky person who happens to be in the presence of more than one social media personality. However, Devin follows the weeb that may or may not have kicked Major's ass. And, according to a cast photo of Rocky Horror, on her boyfriend's Instagram, both the weeb in question and the hot man that tore the two apart were part of the cast. This would be a great time to mention that a link to the video is in the description, as are all the pictures from social media that I'm referencing.

JOEL: [to Jade but loud enough for the mic to pick it up at regular volume] Oh snap, you got everything together in a link? Like, I could click the link to check it out right now? — A pause as he does just that.— Woah, cryptwizzlers, she's not kidding. Click the link in bio, you won't be disappointed. Okay, Jade...hear me out. Given that it was Halloween, the night of nights. Do you think that...maybe it was all an elaborate event? Was it staged? Is any of this real?

JADE: Oh, my dear brother, always the skeptic. Don’t you think that it’s a bit much for him to stop posting entirely in order to get publicity? And we mustn’t forget the spitting on someone in South Dakota, that’s not exactly his brand. Unless he’s trying out something like Taylor Swift and Reputation but... I digress. No, I don’t think any of this is staged, and I’ll tell you why. Let’s go back to the weird cow print basement post. You know who also happened to post something about some cowboy party? Oh, um, Devin’s boyfriend? A picture of him, Devin, and Logan? Which... puts them and Major in the same place on the night that he disappeared.

JOEL: Not a skeptic! Just trying to get all these questions answered. —A laugh— You're right, that's 180 from the online presence he used to have. All theories aside, —a pause— I'd love to go to a cowboy party. Get me a glow-in-the-dark cowboy hat. You know they make 'em. —He laughs again, mouthing 'what?' to Jade.—

JADE: Oh, def. We're getting matching hats. Check out our merch in a few weeks —she laughs— Glow in the dark mothman themed cowboy hats, talk about a niche.

JOEL: Snap, we have to do that now, 'cause I want one real bad. But okay, back on track. This cowboy party. The origin of this theory, yeah? Oh snap...what were those three doing in the same place as Major? And all in cow print too? That's....majorly suspicious! [He trails off into laughter, his voice doing that wheezy thing when someone's trying to finish their sentence before cracking up. Recovering, he adds the following.] Wait, wait, wait. What about—

JADE: Yes, yes, yes. —she cuts Joel off as though he's finished his sentence, chuckling at his joke— Patience, my dear twin, we will get there. —the smile is evident in her voice—

JOEL: I feel like somehow, I ended up as your Padawan for this episode. — he laughs—

JADE: You heard it here, I'm absolutely schooling Joel this episode. — she laughs— First, we're going to backtrack all the way to the original poster again. You know we snooped their whole page, and they're pretty regularly posting pictures with this person, @rengaaay, who isn't an influencer but she makes some of those sick ass roller skating videos... this isn't sus, just cool, link in the description. —a slight pause as she tries to get back to her train of thought— Anyway, what is sus is that she tags two people in her photos all the time... But no joke guys check out their Insta profiles they look different in like every other picture. Which, uh, could just be editing but also could be something.... more sinister? Hold onto that thought.

JOEL: That's such a good handle, dang! Better than @lumberjoel, honestly. I have to say I'm jelly. We should get branded rollerskates, maybe @rengaaay can advertise for us if we ship them. JK...unless? —more laughter as he waits for Jade to get back on the train and pulls up the profiles in question to take a look for himself— Huh...is it editing? Are they masters of disguise? Makeup professionals? —He starts to say something else but is pretty sure he's figured out where Jade's going with this.— What could be more sinister than human chameleons?

JADE: [The sound of papers shuffling can be heard] Oh, yeah, so, it's weird but I think every time the siblings are in a pic together they look more like each other? I dunno if this really makes sense but seriously dudes check the post with this episode because it has a bunch of photos side by side and... yeah. You pull a photo of them by themself and it's like okay, I know what this dude looks like and then you put them side by side and... I dunno, makeup? Contacts? Cloning, mayhaps? And, just so that I'm not just holding on to one thing too much... check their post from August 12th, linked below. Their brother... doesn't have a shadow. Why would you edit that out of a photo? No way are they going that hard to be memelords.

JOEL: Okay, let me look at this. Wha— That's weird as hell. How much hair dye do these two use? Hm. Could be clones? —snaps his fingers—Definitely clones. —he snorts loudly, laughing before clearing his throat— Ahem, uh. No shadow? That's dedication! I dunno, maybe it's some new challenge for the 'gram. Oh...but wait. I found a video. Look, Jade. No shadow. In a video. What the—

JADE: A video, guys. —A moment of muffled laughter before her mic cuts out, but the sound of it clicking on again is followed almost immediately— This is a big family, guys, and a big weird one because their other brother @sleepyfinch... Okay, wait, he himself is pretty normal, super cute, shout out, but guys, ghouls, you know who he has tagged in a recent post? Yet another influencer. Except this one is from Italy? @gaborealis; essentially, he’s a medium, so if you didn’t believe that the supernatural were at play beforehand... buckle up.

JOEL: Wait, wait, I'm still on the video thing. Who has time to edit a video? —his voice cracks when he says video and he covers his laughter as he focuses—

JADE: [wheezing] Shut up —there is no malice in her voice, and she’s laughing too.—

JOEL: So weird, I love it. Oh snap— the @gaborealis? It's time to get ghosty! —echoes "ghosty" and hums the Cha Cha Slide tune for a couple seconds— Okay, so wait. Does this mean everyone's favorite medium is also in the same place as...three? Three other influencers and this weird family of....maybe shapeshifters? No? Too crazy a theory?

JADE: You know what they say, cryptoddlers; no theory is too crazy. Everything Einstein came up with? Theory.

JOEL: Bringing Einstein into it, huh?

JADE: Oh you know it. —a snort— Anyway, according to Devin’s boyfriend’s Instagram, it doesn’t end there. @spencerkeahi, a youtuber and disability rights advocate who comes from Hawaii is also there with that gaggle. Shout out to @elidrising for tagging people and location. So what are these influencers from all corners of the globe gathering together for? Well, let’s take a look at the original poster again. You go on their Twitter, and a few months back it’s all just videos of people... fighting? In some sort of underground place. Mayhaps... the same creepy basement that Major posted his last photo? —a small gasp, as though she’s surprised by this— No, that must be a coincidence... or is it?

Another spooky sound plays

JOEL: @elidrising is the man, dang! Are you tellin' me there's a...—he lowers his voice to a whisper— secret influencers-only Fight Club? I wouldn't put it past @devinitely TBH. Honestly, I'd join one...even though I guess I've broken the first rule but talking about it, huh? Actually— Jay, do you think we'd even be allowed to join? Are podcasters influencers? Poll in my story right now, let us know what y'all think.

JADE: Right now? Joel, this isn’t going up for another week, at least. —She’s obviously trying to sound less amused than she’s coming off— Once we get the blue check we’re influencers, so we’ve got a few million followers to go, I think.

JOEL: Yeah, right now! They'll hear that when the episode goes up and respond in real ti— Oh, no. You're right. Oops. No poll in my story, y'all. False alarm. Blue check, huh? You heard it here, cryptwizzlers, we're gonna get that blue check. Tell your friends, tell your family. Heck, tell that cute barista at your coffee shop to listen to our podcast! We might just do a giveaway when we get that lil' blue swoosh.

JADE: [clears her throat.] You know what’s a great way to get us that blue check, though?

A different, light sort of spooky music begins playing in the background, meaning that it’s time for the ad break

JOEL: Take it away!

JADE: Checking out a little app called Creature Comforts. Alright guys, not that this show isn’t one hundred percent real as it is, but for real, I love this app. A dating sim that features everyone’s favorite... for lack of a better term, monsters. Did you watch the Shape of Water and go, “Damn, I’d tap that”? Do you want to snuggle with a Sasquatch? Do you just wish you could find yourself a GF with more eyes? Well, have we got the app for you. Creature Comforts lets you do all this and more. A choose-your-own-adventure game where you can smooch beasts, marry Mothman, and ignore the outside world. It’s seriously all I want. And, if you enter the code cryptwins— that’s the name of the podcast you’re listening to, no capital letters, when you download the app, then it’s only 99 cents to play without ads. Which, trust me ghouls, is worth it. I don’t want anything interrupting my cut scene with the most stunning eyes in West Virginia.

JOEL: Don't forget that scuba diving date with Nessie! Or, or...that half-day hike with Bigfoot. —he's laughing again smh— There's a reason Jade does the ad reads and not me. But, I can tell you that Mothman is sure to sweep you off your feet. And it's not just because he can fly.

JADE: It’s the —a pause for finger snapping— alliteration for me. But that’s Creature Comforts, exactly how you think you’d spell it, don’t ask us ‘cause we’re dyslexic, and cryptwins, like the name of this podcast. Tweet us @cryptwins to let us know how far along you are, who you’re pursuing, and what mysteries you unlock about their backstories. Now... I think it’s time for a timeline, just to get us sorted out, what do you think, Joel?

JOEL: Personally, I'm still tryin' to land a date with the Creature from the Black Lagoon. I guess we'll see what happens. Aw heck yeah! Give us a timeline, give us the dirt. — a laugh — Give the people what they want!

JADE: Okay — the shuffling of paper is heard once more — We start in September: @majored goes off the grid after posting a creepy picture of himself in a weird outfit in a spooky basement. This is around the same time that the Scarlet Surfer was in NYC for fashion week, which @majored accompanied him to, meaning that it isn’t entirely out of the question for him to still be in New York. Also on social media at this time is @devinitely and @loganvance also both is cowboy outfits, though the creepy basement is absent from both of them.

JOEL: I guess September isn't too early for weird Halloween stuff to start? What with the spooky basement and everything. Right? And everyone loves a cowboy moment— or have cowboys become the new clown? I heard there was a clown renaissance and people like them now? I don't really know where we stand on the whole clown— what?

JADE: I see our next hot debate. Cowboys: Hot or not? Personally, I liked cow print, but I can see cowboys going out soon. Once they reach killer clown status is when it’ll be ideal for me.

JOEL: Personally, I vote hot. And uhhh, not to kinkshame you Jay, but killer clowns are a no from me.

JADE: [tsks] Kinkshamed, by my own brother no less.

JOEL: [a loud laugh] You know I'm just kidding. No kinkshaking, ya heard? I'd literally let the Jersey Devil step on me so. To each their own.

JADE: [snorting] Um, gross.

JADE: Now to October: There is a production of Rocky Horror, a cast photo is uploaded to @elidrising, the account of @devinitely’s boyfriend. This places not only @devinitely and @loganvance in Montauk, but it also places @crispyboiz and @_kllledbycain in Montauk too. These are two of the people that are suspected to belong in the video by @ime.are, in which (suspected) @_kllledbycain, dressed as Kakashi Hatake attacked @majored, only to be torn apart by good citizen @crispyboiz. This video is the first that we’ve seen of @majored since his last post, and he offers nothing in response to it.

JOEL: Okay. Okay. Now, you know I love a good shadow-cast of Rocky Horror. I've always wanted to play Frank. I would rock that part. Am I wrong? —he laughs— But okay, that's - count 'em - three influencers in one place? If @elidrising is there, we can assume @devinitely is too because she was in the same location as, uh, whatshername? Logan? And that's the same location as @ime.are. Who took the video of  Kakashi kicking @majored's ass. @_kllledbycain— more like killedbyKakashi, eh? Seriously why are all these people together?

JOEL: [as an afterthought] It's gotta be a cult.

JADE: November to December: Nothing happens with @majored, @ime.are also offers nothing except for quote unquote “#teamkakashi”, which is funny because they never tagged Kakashi, but anyways. Upon deeper inspection, there are videos on their Twitter from last May, of people in a fighting ring. And then people fighting on a lake? But the fighting ring looks super dangerous and I dunno, like you said, cult-y? Fight-club-y? Call it what you will. In any case, we are led to believe that this fighting has been going on for some time in the background.

JOEL: Okay, come on. That’s definitely a cult. I’ve seen the movie, can confirm. — he groans— Literally what is an Italian astrologer doing there? Wait, wait, wait. Montauk? You said Montauk. Montauk, as in on Long Island. As in like —he drops his voice to a stage-whisper— the part of Long Island that peeps believe to be the site of a government cover-up involving kidnapping, mind control, and time travel? The part that inspired Stranger Things? That Montauk? Snap. I can’t believe I didn’t put two and two together sooner. Jade, Jade. What if this is, I don’t know, like, MKUltra 2.0?

JADE: Yes, yes that Montauk, I’m glad you picked up on that. Look, I’m not saying that it’s an influencer’s-only thing, but I am saying that some might be in the area, and maybe involved. At the same time throughout all of this, we have a culmination of more influencers seeming to know this network of people. @gaborealis, an Italian astrologer, is seen in pictures of @sleepyfinch, who was also in the production of Rocky Horror, and has pictures with @crispyboiz and, god, this name is a freaking nightmare, @_kllledbycain. Not to mention this guy has many pictures of weird… family members? Who sometimes look alike? Okay, but seriously, @kodakola and @sonofpeter, how is your hair not straw at this point? Is it wigs? I think my hair would simply fall out. And y’all using Insta filters or what, cause… I’m not gonna get into it, let’s keep going.

JOEL: Maybe they're makeup vloggers or something. Gotta change up the look for views, right? Don't forget to like, comment, subscribe and uhhhh, smash that follow button— or whatever YouTubers say. —he laughs— Okay but seriously, yeah. @sonofpeter, @kodakola, whatever you two are doing to your hair, let me know because I'm trying to bleach my hair and dye it bright purple without it falling out. And since we're doing it at our next stop, well, your advice will probably be too late. But still, what are your secrets? Is it...clones?

JADE: Joel! —she’s laughing again.— Timeline and then theories. —she clears her throat— After that long silence, a Tweet emerges. January 8th. "Can’t believe @majored SPAT on me and called me a C-Blank-Blank-T when he checked into @SDFamilyMotel last night”. This places Major across the country from where we believed him to be, but acting so strangely that one must wonder… was that really him? Or was it someone that just looked like him? Or was it a cry for help? Nothing’s been heard since from @majored, which I guess… leads us to our theories. —a pause— You were saying… clones, Joel?

JOEL: Sheeeeesh, this is not @majored's year. I gotta say, this sounds totally different from the vibe that this guy used to put out on his social media. Obviously Instagram is fake blah blah blah, you know the spiel, but like. Damn. He spit on them? —a pause as he considers what his sibling has said— You know....I think that's a really good point. Was that even the real him? Will the real Ed Major please stand up?

JADE: I know. It just seems out of character, and terrible for a reputation, but it also would make sense if... One, this is a fake @majored, meant to stir up controversy before he goes underground again. And with an action like spitting on someone and calling them a name like that? Who cares what the dude does after that? Unfollowed, cancelled, whatever. And why would this guy want to go underground, well, I'm glad you're so interested. Well, the official Cryptwins theory is that maybe... just maybe, the crazy, government cover-up Montauk that we all know and love isn't that far from truth. We see that they have means of covering up shadows —she lets out a laugh— and people whose faces just change? And who else is there, @spencerkeahi, someone who explains rehabilitation, maybe someone who has experience helping people get used to being a clone? @ime.are, a nurse who enjoys taking videos of people fighting? It all adds up, people!

JOEL: Yeah, seriously. With the real @majored MIA, there would be no one to combat the backlash from this supposed...clone? Imposter? And maybe that’s what they want. Looks like Montauk isn’t the ideal vacation spot anymore, huh? Even if their seaside cabins are super chill and homey. But I digress. Something sinister is going on. Something bigger than we can even imagine. A secret underground facility that’s...cloning influencers? Training them? Your guess is as good as mine. And that’s why we’re on this road trip, isn’t that right Jade? To get some answers?

JADE: Exactly. —it sounds as though she is holding back a laugh or a cough.— Cross country roadtrip in which we explore different topics like this one, and on the way, we'll document our progress and any spooky encounters. Check out our insta, @cryptwins to get all the updates, and consider hitting us up on Patreon if you want us to be able to afford the gas to get all the way to the east coast.

JOEL: I’ll be posting behind the scenes content in the “ROADTRIP” highlight on my Insta throughout the trip so be sure to check my stories. You might get lucky and find some special codes for Creature Comforts but, hey. You didn’t hear it from me. -he laughs and there’s the distinct sound of a bag of chips being opened- What Jade meant to say is gas and snack money. So yeah, go go go! Check out the Patreon! We might even do a giveaway at the end of our trip, get you guys some cool souvenirs we pick up on our travels. Not a bad idea, eh?

JADE: Joel, my ears are literally bleeding right now. Thanks. Anyway, our second theory will also be exclusive to our Patrons, so be sure to get the full video there. Cryptwins... out...

Her voice fades out and the music from the beginning fades in, takes over, and plays until the end of the track.

[lemonietrinket]

03:13am ||| Chan x Reader

Summary: Chan is always overworking himself at the studio, so you decide to keep him some company Genre: Fluff, some attempts at humour Warning(s): Cryptids, especially the mothman Word Count: 1265 Theme Song: Call Out - Astro AN: It was unintentional but YN is fascinated by cryptids in this one. I don’t blame them, I find them really interesting even though I don’t believe in them but yeah. Meet one of the oldest drafts I have!

~~~

Glancing away from his desk at the sound of a text message, Chan’s eyes were plunged into darkness. The lamp was so bright in comparison that it left him squinting for his phone somewhere in his bag. 

Blinking then at the even harsher brightness of his phone screen he found a text from you.

Scoffing at your use at the meme, he was stumbling through the cold rooms of his studio without even thinking about it. His thoughts came slowly together as he went, eventually feeling very worried at why you were at the door and not at home sleeping as you should have been.

Rubbing his eyes as he fumbled with the lock, the door finally swung open to reveal your shivering figure wearing clothes that were nowhere near warm enough to protect you against the night.

“Y/N?” he spluttered. He was familiar with your strange escapades—he’d heard of them from the others accidentally letting it slip—but he’d never experienced one. Yet here you were, hair loose and shining in the automatic light above you and gifting you a strangely ethereal air.

“Hi!” you grinned, as if nothing was strange at all.

“It’s 3 in the morning?” He couldn’t help but feel the need to chide you as he spotted the damp speckles upon your jumper. It was raining, and you’d walked all the way here in it. He wanted you to stay safe and healthy, but he couldn’t deny how adorable you looked with your blushed cheeks and flushed nose that the cool wind had caught.

“I got sad after fever-writing an essay on why Area 51 contains aliens and why they’re hiding it from us—can I come in?”

He stepped aside without hesitation, letting you in and immediately leading you through the halls towards the only place with some heat. He rambled on and on about how it wasn’t smart to stay up so late and how you should be wary of overworking yourself as you went. Meanwhile you merely chuckled at him—a sound he secretly prized above all others.

“I knew you’d still be awake,” you said, as you finally reached his little lair, coming to perch on the armchair the furthest away from the buttons on the expensive equipment—you knew he would stress out even more if you didn’t, specifically after last time. You looked up at his figure in the dark, the lights dim and sinking into the soundproofed walls.

“And you shouldn’t be,” he insisted weakly.

“Don’t want my company?” You pouted, watching him fluster and quickly deny his words, before eventually chuckling at him. “Relax, I’m not going to leave you. I couldn’t sleep, and I didn’t want to wake the kids. Besides, I figured you could do with some conversation, if you’re pulling an all-nighter again.”

He rolled his eyes at you, not that he was irritated in the slightest and it showed in the dimples that refused to leave his cheeks. His day was always brightened by your presence, and this evening—morning?—was no different.

“Well, if you’re staying, you’d better come over to the side room.” He began to step towards the door that he’d left ajar, cocking his head in a beckoning manner.

“Is that where you’ve set up camp?” You pursed your lips at him playfully, “I don’t know, Channie, I think you should take a break before you get to work again.”

He sighed, raising his eyebrows at you and biting his lip, desperately trying to pretend to be cross. “Not even a minute in my studio and you’re already trying to distract me from my work!”

You didn’t answer him, because you both knew that you were doing it for his own good, and so instead you outstretched your arms, giving him an offer he couldn’t refuse.

And he knew he couldn’t. However, he also had to consider the ever-encroaching deadline, and soon his brain had worked out a way for him to have his cake and eat it.

He narrowed his eyes at you with a smirk, once again beckoning you to where he’d been working. He rarely resisted your charms so smoothly, and so, out of pure curiosity, you followed him to the tiny offshoot room—that was more of a glorified closet—to see what he had in store for you.

.

.

.

“Comfy, love?” he enquired, to which you muffled a ‘yes’ into his shoulder.

Chan had sat you on his lap where he sat at his desk, your feet slipped through the gaps in the chair and left swinging inches off the floorboards. It was more comfortable for you than you’d expected, and after nuzzling yourself into his chest for mere moments, you’d already felt yourself drifting off.

After having a quick nap, you’d awoken and leant back against the wood, slipping crisps between his lips every so often as in when you weren’t scoffing them yourself. 

Even though you were most likely his biggest distraction, you were simultaneously his biggest aide, as well as inspiration. You kept an eye on ihs breaks, made sure he didn’t stress too much, and always offered sound advice.

Having settled back against his chest, hand stroking the base of his neck as the other scrolled through your phone.

“Apparently there’s a new cryptid on the loose,” you piped up, “in Massachusetts. It rifles through bins and scares the local kids when they loose their basketball all ‘It’-like.”

Chan exhaled, discarding his mouse upon its mat haphazardly as he leant back into the plastic of the chair, shifting your weight on his thighs as his arms wrapped around your waist. Warm hands nestled into your sides he let his eyes close as he rested his head against your shoulder. “I bet you it’s a fox.”

You chuckled, eyes scouring over the grainy photo. “Probably.”

After a few seconds of comfortable silence, Chan spoke up, his voice clearly drowsy, “Do you believe these cryptids are real?”

A sly smile played on your lips as you shrugged. “I have to believe they are.”

“How come?”

You pulled away so you could meet your boyfriend’s gaze, your fingers gracing his jaw softly. “Because I’ve met one.”

He frowned at you, not entirely convinced. “A whole year of knowing you and hearing you ramble about cryptids and not once I’ve heard about your personal encounter? Something doesn’t seem right, love.”

“Don’t you want to know what I met?” you urged, starting to slightly worry he was warming up to your tricks and wasn’t going to allow for any execution of this one.

He pretended to think for a moment, though his mind was made up all along. Taking a hand and drawing circles upon the small of your back gently he finally answered, “Go on then.”

Your grin was as bright as the sun as you spoke. “You!”

Your boyfriend was stunned to say the least. “What?!”

“I met you,” you reiterated, finding probably too much joy in his bemused features.

“Why am I a cryptid?”

“You’re too handsome.”

He smushed his lips together as he grimaced, letting his head tip back in faux disappointment. “Oh what...? No! No, Y/N, aiishh...”

“Yes, Channie, yes,” you sang, sinking to rest your chin on his chest.

“And there was me thinking you were going to say that you’d met real goblins before because you know Jeongin and Seungmin,” he sighed exasperatedly.

“You really thought you’d caught up with me yet? Oh baby,” you squished his cheeks, giggling as he groaned. “Though I’ll admit you’re right there too.”

“See! I’ll catch up with you one day,” he declared, sitting up and prodding your cheeks in return.

And that’s the story of how the janitor, after investigating strange noises with a broom in hand just in case, found out that there were no cryptids or ghosts lurking in the siderooms, only two strange insomniacs canoodling at a desk at 5:50 in the morning.

~~~

AN: I’ve had this prompt in my drafts for so long—from before I knew how to make proper em dashes on here—and it’s finally seeing the light of day, I’m so happy

i hope it was worth the wait ?

[photo used in profile pic is not mine i sourced it from pinterest]

Masterlist

[where-theres-smoak-2]

Future Episode Titles

 So I have just discovered that the episode titles for 5x10 through 5x13 have been released so I figured and see if there are any clues as to what might happen in those episodes. All of these titles are in reference to various movies so be warned there are spoilers for all the movies the titles have. So if you see the name of movie and don’t want to be spoiled stop reading. 

With 5x10 we’ve got a bit of an advantage as we also have the synopsis for that one. But the title is ‘The Pincushion Man’ the title is a reference to a 1935 animated short film. It is also known as ‘Balloon Land’. The story is set in a land where everyone and everything is made of balloons. Two young balloon children are given the warning to beware the Pincushion Man who lives in the forest. The Boy and Girl don’t heed the warning and travel into the woods where they end up leading the Pincushion man back to Balloon Land. He pops a load of the residents before he is finally brought down by the army. So I actually have alot of theories around this one. Obviously in Riverdale I think the Pincushion man is going to represent a serial killer, in the cartoon when he pops the residents he essentially kills them. But who in the episode could be the Pincushion Man. I mean we have a couple of serial killers at the moment. There’s the Truck Killer, TBK and even potentially The Mothman, though we don’t know for sure if they are killing people. So which one could be presented as the Pincushion Man. Well I don’t think its any of them or rather it could be all of them. The Pincushion Man could be more of the idea of a s serial killer terrorizing a town and so could be represented by a number of different characters/ killers. I actually think it could also be in reference to either Chic or Charles or both of them. The synopsis says that Betty and Alice get unexpected visitors and my theory is that this is Charles and Chic. I also think there are clues in that short film that support this theory though obviously like with all the titles that Riverdale episodes share with films I don’t think they will follow the plot exactly but there might some common themes or symbolism.

 Like I said the Pincushion Man is lead to the town by a young boy and girl. In the episode 9 synopsis it says Betty has to make a difficult decision, which if you read my previous post I said that I thought that she would find out that Charles worked on cases relating to the the Truck Killer and is trying to decide on whether to reach out to Charles. It’s also worth noting that in this episode we know from released stills that Betty and Jughead will be interacting and maybe even investigating together. So as Charles is brother to them both Jughead might also be involved in reaching out to Charles. In this scenario Betty and Jughead would be the boy and girl that leads the killer to town whilst trying to escape. Also the title of episode 9 is Destroyer. There is a 2018 film of the same name. This film is about a detective who ends up investigating a case from their past and a criminal that re-emerges after 16 years. Again this could support my theory of Charles’ old cases being reopened as the killer has reappeared. Also in the film the law enforcement officers (a LAPD officer and an FBI agent who are partners working undercover) investigating the crime fall in love and decide to legitimately join in on the crime. Again this to me seems really similar to Charles and Chic with Charles being an FBI agent who becomes a criminal. 

Going back to the 1935 short film, another reason why I think the Pincushion Man might be in reference to Charles is because in the short film the Pincushion Man gains entry through the gate and into the town through hypnosis. He hypnotises the guard at the gate to gain entry. We know that Charles has an interest/ skills in hypnosis.  

But there is something else that is interesting. In the short film the Pincushion Man is finally stopped by the army. The synopsis talked about how Archie’s former general shows up in town with some surprising news. Now I do have a theory that its to do with the Military Base outside of Riverdale but now I have another theory on what it could be. There is a department called the United States Army Criminal Investigation Command aka CID. Now I am not going to pretend I’m an expert on this department but I did some research and what they basically do is investigate felony crimes where the Army is or may be a party of interest. So maybe the surprising news is that the Army or someone in the army is being investigated by the CID in Riverdale. We know that both Archie and Betty were doing stunts for episode 10 and I’m pretty sure this might be the episode Archie is wearing a Kevlar vest so we know its likely to be a pretty action packed episode. So maybe the FBI and CID investigate together. As to who they might be investigating I think it could be one of two. Either Eric Jackson really goes off the deep end and does some crazy stuff. Or it could still be to do with the military testing theory that Pop’s had.  

Episode 5x11 is titled Strange Bedfellows. This again could reference a 1965 film of the same name. In this one a couple impulsively get married then when they realise they have nothing in common and always fight they separate. Seven years later they reunite to finalise their divorce and end up rekindling things. The next day they are right back to fighting and so decide to carry on with the divorce. But then the male protagonist finds out his promotion relies on him being married. So he woos her back. Meanwhile the female protagonist is constantly getting involved in public protests. To me this just screams Chad and Veronica. So here’s what I think is going to happen. I think Chad and Veronica will have a big bust up in the next episode 5x08. They will end up separating at the end of the episode. Then Chad will reappear in episode 11 to finalize their divorce. We know that in those episodes in between that Veronica will likely continue fighting against her father and working to save Riverdale. I think Hiram will come up with a scheme and will offer Chad this amazing job but will tell him he can only have it if he stays married to Veronica and helps distract her/ keep her away from trying to save Riverdale.   

Episode 5x12 is titled Citizen Lodge. This one is actually really interesting to me. It is obviously to do with the 1941 film Citizen Kane. What’s interesting to me is the film has this theme about trying to solve a mystery/ find the truth but failing. The film is about a man named Charles Foster Kane who on his death bed whispers the words Rosebud before dying. A man is tasked with finding out what the significance of the word Rosebud was. He is never able to solve the mystery and resigns himself to the fact that they will never know the truth. I think this part will be to do with Jughead and his search for the Aliens/ Mothmen. It is worth noting that whilst in Citizen Kane the characters never find out the true meaning of Rosebud the audience does. I think this will be what happens in this episode we will find out something really important about the Mothmen but Jughead and the other characters won’t and maybe they will temporarily give up on finding the truth. It’s the idea that not all things can be explained. 

The other thing that’s interesting about this film is that it is also about the rise and fall of a newspaper magnate. How he rises up from nothing to become one of the most powerful men in his business before then falling back into obscurity. I actually think this will be in reference to Hiram. I have heard some rumours, though to be clear I don’t think this is confirmed, that episode 12 will be a Hiram flashback episode. So I think we will see how Hiram came to be as powerful as he is. But I also think this will be the episode where it either all falls apart for Hiram or at the very least begins to. But I do think Hiram is going to take a drastic hit in this episode. 

So lastly episode 5x13 is titled Reservoir Dogs. Again another film this time from 1992. This one is about a jewellery heist that goes badly wrong and leads those involved to think that one of them is a police informant. Here’s my theories about this one and they could be seen as a little out there but it makes sense to me. We know that Veronica is opening a jewellery store by episode 13 she should have that up and running. I reckon if I am right about Hiram taking a big hit in episode 12 then Veronica probably played a part in that. Hiram is known to take out revenge on her when she gets in the way of his plans like when he had her liquor license cancelled and smashed all the rum she had. So I think he will organise a raid on her jewellery store and this will go badly wrong. Some or more characters might get hurt. As to who might be the part of the police informant well in the film the informant gained the trust of the gang and become friends with one of them, they become really close and have a father/son like relationship and when that friend finds out he is a cop he is naturally devastated at the betrayal of his friend. I actually think Reggie is a double agent and will betray Hiram to protect his friends. Also I think Ted confirmed that episode 12 covers some of Reggie’s backstory so that would line up with this episode if in the one before we get to see how Reggie came to work with Hiram. I mean to me they seem kind of close. Reggie is clearly someone that Hiram trusts and he listens to his advice which we saw last episode when Reggie convinced him to delay the turnpike and let the Coopers search the swamp. To me it would make sense for them to show us how Hiram and Reggie developed a bond in episode 12 and then for us to see it be betrayed in episode 13. In the film major spoiler alert here but I think all but one of the thieves is killed. I am hoping that the story doesn’t go exactly the same way though because if it does it could lead to a situation where Hiram kills Reggie. In all honesty I don’t think they are going to kill a whole bunch of characters like they do in Reservoir Dogs but I could see either Hiram or Reggie dying maybe even both if Riverdale are feeling really ballsy. Personally I really hope that Reggie doesn’t die because I love his character as for Hiram I don’t know if Riverdale will kill him off but I also feel like there’s not much else they can do with his character. I mean we’ve already seen him in jail and we’ve already seen him as a villain about million times by now giving him an emotional death where he’s betrayed by someone he trusts could be a good way of bringing his story to a close. 

 As for who could be representing Mr Pink the only one to survive in the movie and who tries to sneak off with the jewellery I think this could potentially be Chad. In the film its a bit ambiguous what happens to Mr Pink but if you listen closing in the ending scene you can hear him struggling to start the car, and then police yelling at him. It seems to me like he gets arrested but does survive. I think Chad will attempt to get away with the jewellery but will ultimately get caught and sent to jail.

So yeah those are some theories I have based pretty much purely on the titles of the next few episodes and the plots of various movies.                        

[lucindarobinsonvevo]

This week, a record made and released by close collaborators Eerie, Indiana and Heart on a Chain received a re-release with a deluxe edition to celebrate its 20th birthday 

Though the front cover of Marshall’s Theory of Believably, the joint album by bands Eerie, Indiana and Heart on a Chain names only those two bands, the project was a collaboration between all the members of the Indiana seven. The Indiana Seven were a close group of collaborators who had a close working relationship in the 90s, creating iconic tracks and albums. The cover, which depicts a lone man in a ghost costume was shot by Sara Sue, an artist/photographer who shot most of the Eerie, Indiana’s album covers, and a track labeled ‘we gave this track to Tod’ features the enigmatic artist known as Tod, who also helped on the band’s delayed record Broken Record. The album art is different from the works of both bands, with Eerie, Indiana frequently having a sort of DIY feel to their photoshoots and Heart on a Chain tending to the more abstract kind. These particular photos (remastered for the deluxe edition) depict various band members in the dessert wearing a sheet over their heads with large black eye holes. The cover is Holmes, peering from behind a large unlit bonfire at the viewer. The title is written in the handwriting of Janet Donner, who also features as the figure on the CD itself. Teller features on the back of the album, and the back page of the liner notes, waving goodbye. Inside the liner, there are images of X, with Monroe being absent, apparently due to having a broken leg at the time of the shoot following an incident at a waterpark.

The album features twelve tracks, with many of them focusing on the idea of cryptids and other mysterious entities to make up the metaphors of the song. On the idea for the Album, Donner said: We wanted to talk about love as we knew it. This broad, mysterious concept that so many people in their twenties make love out to be.” On what she thinks of love now, Donner then remarked: Love is being glad the world hasn’t ended yet. I’ll leave you to make of that what you will. On the album, both X and Teller have cited the other as an inspiration behind the tracks, which will not come as a surprise to anyone who frequently listens to Eerie, Indiana as the pairs sometimes tumultuous relationship is often at the center of the most controversial and interesting projects done by the band. But this album is, more than anything else, a happy one. 

The first single released from this album was the track ‘Sometimes I Almost Miss You’ in the one-two punch style of Eerie, Indiana the track is titled like a break-up but is a love song. Over an energetic guitar track and drum machine, Monroe sings about the heart transplant she’d had some years before and how she believes that she can still feel the donor even though he’s (according to the lyrics) long gone and sweetly resting. The track is careful to avoid any religious implications, instead suggesting that the donor (who has since been identified as Devon Wilde) instead rests inside her chest. With X on the guitar and Holmes on the drum machine and (of all things) the triangle, Teller is free to singe verses from the perspective of the heart donor, viewing the world from inside Monroe’s chest while Donner provides very beautiful backing harmonies. The overall mood of the track is one of quiet love and happiness, as well as gratefulness to the young boy who gave her the second chance. Those familiar with the work of Heart on a Chain know that the transplant features heavily in their songs and it’s no surprise to see it here. 

The second track released in the work was ‘Me and My Jackalope’ and fueled rumors about a relationship between Teller and his bandmate, Dash X. At the time, both were closeted at the request of the label to avoid scandal. “Being in the closest literally almost killed me.” Teller would reflect later, interviewing for a project he did, releasing tracks for an LGBT themed album in the 2000s.”The funny thing is, I don’t think anyone who listened to us gave a damn. We’d go on stage, and we used to stand so close our knuckles were almost touching getting up in each other’s face and people would just go crazy.” Me and My Jackalope is, as you may have guessed, a song about impossible love. A love that the singer, in this case, mostly Teller, keeps hidden under his bed, only bringing it out to play when he’s alone. It’s a slow, sad track with Teller crooning to his animal “If they saw you, then they’d send you away.” Both Holmes and Monroe are credited as writers on the track, with the usual Eerie, Indiana flavor of complicated guitar playing set aside in favor of Donner and a violin and Holmes playing an assortment of other instruments. 

The third and final promotional single was meant to be Skylines, which lyrics from are also featured on the inside booklet of the album however at the last minute it was swapped out to the Meatloaf cover in the center of the album, Midnight at the Lost and Found due to ‘label meddling’ after it was decided they needed another upbeat track after Me and my Jackalope. The track is nothing special, a seemingly typical Eerie, Indiana cover. Eerie, Indiana frequently covered Meatloaf and Jim Stienman tracks, hoping to work with one or the other someday. Sadly, this collaboration never came to be. But it’s a fun song, much like the original version from the 1983 album by Meatloaf. Somewhat of a deep cut by today’s standards, but it’s fun. Which I think was probably the mission statement of this album if Dash X is to be believed (Yes, that’s his stage name, no I do not know his real name). ‘We were a bunch of 20 something friends given a studio and a year or two to do whatever we wanted. So we did whatever we wanted, which was being weird.’ 

Skylines and it’s reprise is a group effort, with every member of the group joining in with the writing process to produce something that could have gone astray but managed to come together into something coherent. Skylines covers the re-treaded ground of many bands, it’s a song set about missing people while on tour. Set against New York’s bright, iconic skyline the track is mostly led by Donner as she wonders what her lover is doing right now. Her lover, played by Teller wonders about if his lover will stay in New York, swept up by the bright skylines, and pleading for them to simply be theirs. The track has backing vocals from all of the members involved, including Holmes who mostly shies away from singing parts. ‘It’s not that I don’t love to sing.” He explains, “I’m just not very good at it. Marshall was always the singer, I’m much happier playing the drums, or a cello or something.” 

The final track on the album, clocking in at nine minutes, is Cryptids (I Still Believe in You and Me). This track shows off the impressive guitar skills of Teller and X, this time paired with the violin playing from Donner who shows she can keep up with the boys by playing speedy, intense sections with precision. This Dash X penned track also has extensive work by Holmes on the drums and a solo from a very jazz saxophone in the third act. Ultimately, the song doesn’t quite come together, feeling disjointed and a little over-complicated. But...Maybe that’s how it’s meant to feel. Dash was never brought into Eerie, Indiana as a writer, he was brought on to foil with Marshall on stage and because he was the only person the label could find that could play the punishingly difficult riffs Teller produces. On his Instagram speaking about pride X has suggested that a lot of his music was changed during production because it was too overtly about men, while Donner and Teller both proficiently changed pronouns in there songs, or stuck to calling their love interests you. 

The album has three tracks that feel like filler, the intermission track which is not unusual on the cinematic, large scale Eerie, Indiana albums, a seemingly ‘story’ track called ‘Lost in Time’ which is a piece of Holmes poetry performed by Donner and an odd little track called ‘We Gave This One To Tod’ While the enigmatic Tod was often credited on Eerie, Indiana albums and opened for them at live shows he never quite reached the level of recognition his peers did. However, seeing the bizarre and experimental nature of his work, and his goth and punk leanings I think it’s safe to assume he was happier underground than his friends were blinded by the lights of showbiz. This piece features heavy synths and a drum machine. It doesn’t hit for me, but perhaps for a fan of Tod, it could be a holy grail. 

On this version of the album, known as the deluxe edition, we’re given three additional tracks. A demo version of Elvis and the Mothman, which is lyrically the same slowed all the way down with the shouting chorus replaced with a mouth against the mic crooner style. The released, upbeat anthem style track is a far better fit for the album. Baba Yaga in Heels is a Heart on a Chain only track, perhaps why it was discarded. It features a techno style dance beat, with the lyrics being about a night out with Baba Yaga, a Banshee, and a harpy. Ultimately, the lyrics are not that impactful but they don’t need to be. The final listed track is a cover of Meatloaf’s Bat out of Hell, which lyrically and sonically is almost identical to the original. 

Overall, what Marshall’s theory of Believability tries to do is ambitious. It’s an album between two experiential groups of friends trying to make something that they enjoy. But it’s not the best work of either group, which is a shame because it could have been something very special if they were given a little more time to work out some of the kinks and if they pruned some of the tracks that are superfluous to the story of the album. I’m happy to have a copy in my collection, but honestly, I’d rather listen to something the group produced independently anyway. 

[meetthemidwest]

About Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio playing video game, I have to know what they said during the subspace emissary gameplay. May we hear about what happened? Please and thank you, you fabulous person

This took so long and I’m so sorry but finals week happened and I had to study for apush! There are spoilers, but the game came out in 2008 so I’m not too concerned. I still put it under the cut just in case someone didn’t want it spoiled. I really hope tumblr doesn’t cut this, there’s a lot here.

Subspace Emissary is a two player story mode in Smash Bros Brawl, and since there are three of them, Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio take turns. Indiana and Ohio play the first level.

Indiana: You know what? I kind of relate to Kirby.Kentucky: Please explain what the hell that means.Indiana: He inhales food and killed god.Ohio: Oh please, you haven’t killed god yet.Kentucky: Yet? YET??

After the whole fight with Mario and Kirby, there’s a part where the Halberd flies over the stadium and drops a bunch of shadow bugs.

Ohio: Those things look like the mold that was growing in my basement last year.Indiana: Glowing and purple?Kentucky: Delicious.Ohio: What the actual fuck Kentucky?Kentucky: No, you don’t understand, nature is delicious.Indiana: Oh really? I’ll be right back.She comes back in five minutes later with an armful of plants from Ohio’s backyard.Kentucky: *picks up a leaf* There’s a spider on this one.Indiana: Eat it.Ohio: DON’T EAT IT!Kentucky: Aw, it fell.Ohio: *jumps from his chair to the table* Fucking kill it already!Indiana promptly throws it at him and he screams like a girl. The video cuts there. It comes back to Indiana and Ohio arguing over who to save in the first boss battle.

Indiana: Zelda’s twenty times better than Peach you dumbass!Ohio: Peach is the original Nintendo princess! You respect the originals or I’ll put you in the goddamn dirt!Kentucky: You just got a game over.Indiana: No one asked for your input Bill Monroe!Kentucky: How the hell do you know who that is?The video devolves into screaming. It cuts to Kentucky and Ohio playing while Indiana eats a pot of Kraft macaroni and cheese. They’ve saved Peach and moved on.

Kentucky: Hey, it’s Pit from Kid Icarus on the NES!Indiana: Fucking nerd!Ohio: Nice redesign.Kentucky: Yeah, well, if we aren’t going to get Geno, it’s nice that an obscure Nintendo game is getting some love.Ohio: *looks directly into the camera* Localize Mother 3 you cowards.Kentucky: PLAYER TWO CAN TELEPORT HELL YES YOU’RE CARRYING THE TEAM OHIO!

Indiana: DOnkEy KoNG!Kentucky: Did Diddy Kong always have guns or is that a new thing?Ohio, drinking tea in the background: Neither of you have ever played Donkey Kong Country and it shows.Kentucky: Oh god, Danky Kang just sacrificed himself for his son!Indiana: Wish that was the relationship I had with Quebec but he just calls me his bastard daughter and I call him my asshole father.Kentucky: Oof.

Ohio: Oh shit, Indi, get your xylophone, we’ve got a pokemon!Indiana: *starts playing the original pokemon battle theme on the xylophone while Kentucky fights Rayquaza but dies because he’s laughing too hard.*

Indiana: That feeling when you’re kidnapped by a small primate in a baseball cap.Ohio: No, that can happen. Have you ever been to the zoo?Kentucky: Are you okay?Ohio: *voice crack* no.

*Lucas and Porky appear*Ohio, ripping the controller out of Kentucky’s hands: YOU LEAVE MY BABY ALONE YOU CAPITALIST FUCK!Indiana: Oh shit, he’s crying!Kentucky: And I’m the nerd?Indiana: Shut up nerd, Mother 3 was hard on him.

*Ness appears*Indiana: SNES is just a word scramble of Ness.Kentucky: Mother 3 confirmed?Ohio: NOOO NESS JUST GOT FUCKING KILLED BY WARIO!Indiana: Weak.

*Pokemon Trainer appears*Kentucky: ASH KETCHUM???Indiana: You’re so stupid. It’s Red, obviously.Ohio: Red and Ash Ketchum’s secret love child.Indiana: *Gets up* I quit.

*Battlefield Fortress*Ohio: You know what this looks like?Kentucky: Oh god please no.Indiana: *pulls out Kentucky’s xylophone* Ready when you are.Kentucky: Indiana, if you value our friendship, please don’t do this.Indiana: We’re not friends though.*Marth is introduced. Indiana starts playing Together We Ride on the xylophone. Ohio joins in on a green plastic kazoo. Kentucky slams his face into the table and gets a nosebleed.*

Indiana: Hey it’s Spanish Batman from Kirby Right Back At Ya!Ohio: Never say those words in front of me again.

*Ike appears*Kentucky: Please don’t-Indiana and Ohio: *Playing the recruitment theme With Us on their instruments.*Kentucky: *looks into the camera like Jim on The Office*

Kentucky: Luigi is my spirit animal because he’s a coward with a heart of gold, like me.Indiana: You’re a coward, but I know you had your heart surgically removed in 1847 so don’t even try that bullshit with me.Ohio: He had a heart before 1847? Damn. See, I relate more to King Dedede because he’s a king and his relationship with Kirby reminds me of Michigan and I.Indiana: Yeah, that sounds about right.Ohio: I don’t like the implications there.

*Link appears*Indiana, shoving Ohio and Kentucky out of the way and wearing a Legend of Zelda hoodie: Move bitches, it’s my time to shine.Ohio: Oh thank god Yoshi’s here because I’m not playing as Link. Kentucky, doing a scarily accurate impression of Yoshi: YOSHI!Indiana: What the FUCK Kentucky???Kentucky, coughing: If I do that for too long I lose my voice.Indiana: Then don’t do it!

*There are some enemies that I distinctly remember in this part that scared the hell out of me, and they’re called Puppits.*Ohio: Oh god, oh fuck, what are these things?Indiana: Kill it!Ohio: *dies* SHIT!Kentucky, eating gummy bears out of a paper bag: Why are y’all so bad at this? It’s just an enemy.Indiana: *throws her controller at Kentucky and hits him in the forehead.*

*The cutscene with the box*Indiana: Snake? SNAKE?? SNAAAAAAAAAAKE!!!!Kentucky: SPOILERS!

*Zero-Suit Samus*Indiana: I wish that were me.Ohio: Why? She’s not that much prettier than you.Indiana: Space guns.Kentucky: Of course.Indiana: Also I think a lot of girls would be into me if I had that ass.Ohio: There it is.

*Pikachu*Ohio: Did you guys know that this is how we powered the first rocket to the moon?Kentucky: Electricity rat.Indiana: Thomas Edison used Pikachu to power America, your history books have been lying to you.Ohio: We’re going to get killed by the government, aren’t we?Kentucky: Yeah, but not for this.

*The battle against Subspace Peach*Indiana: Mario’s going to be so pissed.Kentucky: Yeah, but Yoshi’s Mario’s lifelong friend, so surely everything will be a-okay!*Mario battle ensues*Ohio: Love blinds all.Indiana: Stop trying to sound wise, I literally watched you burn your tongue on your coffee and throw it into a wall.Ohio: You know what Indiana? Fuck you.

Indiana: Kirby Kirby Kirby that’s the name you should know!Kentucky: Kirby Kirby Kirby he’s the star of the show!*Both look at Ohio*Ohio, obviously disappointed in life: He’s more than you think, he’s got maximum pink.Indiana and Kentucky: Kirby Kirby Kirby’s the one!

Indiana: Ew it’s Ganondorf.Kentucky: Wait, I thought he was a pig?Ohio: Well Kentucky, people can be pigs without looking like them, like New York.Kentucky: No, wasn’t he literally a pig?Indiana: That was Ganon.Kentucky: They’re… they’re the same thing?

*Wario battle*Ohio: IS LUCAS DOING THE ARTHUR MEME?Indiana: HOLY SHIT HE IS!Kentucky: MOTHER 3 CONFIRMED!*they all start screaming incoherently. The video cuts to them actually fighting Wario. Ohio is Lucas, Kentucky is the Pokemon Trainer.*Ohio: My boy Lucas has seen some shit.Kentucky: Your boy Kentucky has also seen some shit, how about a little love over here?Ohio: No.Kentucky: Thanks.

*Bowser’s army attacks the castle Dedede is in.*Indiana: Oh my goodness he’s Dedede-dead!Ohio: I’m going to sew your lips together while you sleep.

*Bowser gets away with Peach’s trophy*Kentucky: This is so sad, Indiana play Ave Maria.Indiana: *plays Ave Maria on the kazoo*

Kentucky: I love how Ike, the youngest and most impulsive, jumps right off a cliff while both Marth and Meta Knight reach out to stop him.Ohio: Me with my bastard siblings.Indiana: Let me guess, Wisconsin’s Ike, Michigan’s Meta Knight, and you’re Marth?Ohio: No, because I don’t join them in their bullshit.Indiana: Oh? Then what do you call the time the three of you tied Illinois to a tree and left him there for a week?Ohio: It’s called knocking the wealthy down a few pegs.Kentucky: Guys, this was an appreciation of Fire Emblem characters and nothing more.

*Diddy Kong trophy*Indiana: PeRSonALLy I PrEFer ThE AiR!Kentucky: OH! GRAB THE FAN! *they proceed to get the giant Subspace Diddy Kong to 500% and launch him off the screen.*Ohio: The monkey’s kidnapping a bird.Indiana: I saw that happen in Florida once.

*Ridley battle*Kentucky: HE’S TOO BIG FOR SMASH BROS!*Kentucky then plays the Ridley theme on the xylophone while Ohio attempts to crawl out a window and Indiana screams*

*Olimar and Captain Falcon*Kentucky in the background playing Pikmin music on the xylophone: Isn’t this nice? Pikmin was one of the best games I ever played.*West Virginia kicks down the door and plays the F-Zero theme on an electric guitar*Kentucky: Get the hell out!West Virginia: While y’all were sitting in here playing video games I got arrested for tax fraud and broke out on my own.Indiana: Amateur. What’s your point kid?West Virginia: Get on my level. Get hobbies for god’s sake. You’re going to be killed one day, you gotta live in the moment.Ohio: I die when I decide, you little rat faced bastard. There’s a cupcake in the fridge, take it and get out.West Virginia: Alright, I’m going to elope with Mothman, see y’all later.

Indiana: DOnkEy KoNG!!!!Kentucky: Aw heck, I died.

*Ice Climbers*Ohio: That jumping noise definitely isn’t going to get annoying in the next few minutes.Kentucky: *slowly mutes the tv*Indiana: You guys are really dumb sometimes. You know that, right?

*the two groups meet up*Indiana: The gang’s all here!Ohio: If you play as Link again I’m going to suffocate you on camera.Indiana: With what?Kentucky: His Ohio State mascot body pillow.Indiana: What the fuck.Ohio: You’re next, Kentucky.

*Snake*Kentucky: Sometimes I just want to hide in a box while my problems run around without me.Indiana: Shame problems are like Lucario and can see right through your hiding place.Ohio: Guys, I dropped a hot pocket into the hole in the wall and I can’t get it out.

*Sheik and Peach*Indiana: I’m getting some strong Peach loves her strong girlfriend vibes from this.Kentucky: I’d love my strong girlfriend too if I had one.Ohio: No living organism would put up with you for more than a week.Indiana: YO PEACH IS SUCH A BADASS!Ohio: SEE???Indiana: Zelda’s still better though.Kentucky: Fox McCloud’s going down.Indiana: Do a barrel roll!Ohio: Shit, I want tea.Kentucky: Then make some!Ohio: Okay! Jeez, don’t yell at me.

Indiana: Where did Mr. Game and Watch even come from?Ohio: Hell.Kentucky: Actually, there’s a series of handheld games-Indiana: Shut up nerd!

*Subspace bomb factory*Indiana: American weapons storage.*the entire factory blows up*Kentucky:… American weapons storage.Ohio: It’s us when we try to get together for holidays.

Ohio: Kirby rides in on a fucking dragon to save the day!Indiana: Sakurai showing clear favoritism for his children.Kentucky: Virginia made West a pepperoni roll once and when I asked for one she told me that I could starve.Ohio: GUYS IT WASN’T MASTER HAND IT’S THIS ASSHOLE OLD MAN LOOKING GUY AND BOWSER’S DEAD STOP HAVING FEELINGS AND GET YOUR HEADS IN THE GAME!

*Everyone dies*Indiana: I want butterfly wings that kill people.Kentucky: Evolve and grow them.Indiana: Good idea.Ohio: LUCAS NOOOOOOO!

*Dedede, Ness, and Luigi**Ohio walks in dressed as King Dedede, Indiana’s dressed as Ness, and Kentucky is dressed as Luigi*Kentucky: I still think I should have done sexy Luigi, but whatever.Indiana: Ohio, say it.Ohio: I’m not going to say it, fuck off.Indiana: Say it.Ohio: No!Indiana: SAY IT.Ohio: I’m gonna clobber that there Kirby.Kentucky: That’s mama Luigi to you!Indiana: Fuck, Ness doesn’t have any funny lines. Ohio: Can we please play the game now?Indiana, clearly excited: OKEY

*Great Maze*Indiana: You’re going the wrong way!Ohio: You’re hogging the remote! Let Kentucky play!Kentucky: That’s the wrong door!*they start screeching at each other. Minnesota walks into the room about to say something, shakes his head, and leaves.*

*Tabuu fight*Kentucky: I’m vibing with this music.Ohio: Don’t try and sound young, we all know you’re old as fuck.Indiana: Ohio if you don’t stop dying I’m going to throw you out a window.Kentucky: SONIC SPEED! *proceeds to die* GOSH DARN IT!Indiana: WHY ARE YOU USING SONIC?Kentucky: HE WAS RIGHT THERE I HAD TO!*they die about twelve more times, but only one makes the final cut. At some point they beat the game*

Indiana: This was cute. I really liked the relationships in it.Ohio: Yeah, shame we’ll never get a wholesome and fulfilling story mode again, right guys?Kentucky: *plays the Smash Ultimate theme on the xylophone.*Indiana: I’ll go get my Switch.Ohio: You better.Indiana: I’ll hit you.Ohio: You’re in my house, that’s assault.*Indiana kicks Ohio out of his chair. The video cuts for the last time*

[thecomicsnexus]

Absent Friends

WATCHMEN #2 OCTOBER 1986 BY ALAN MOORE, DAVE GIBBONS AND JOHN HIGGINS

SYNOPSIS (FROM DC DATABASE)

Laurie Juspeczyk visit, or had to the Nepenthe Gardens retirement home to see her mother, Sally, the original Silk Spectre. She only came because she been forced to visit, transported by Jon since she hadn't wanted to attend the funeral of Eddie Blake. Sally shows a large sense of sympathy for Blake.

During her conversation with Laurie, Sally remembers the night that the Minutemen were taking their group photo in 1940. The group discussed about the war in Europe, until the original Nite Owl stopped the discussion and they all headed down to the Owl's Nest, except for Sally who stays behind to change her clothes. The Comedian stepped into the room and interrupts her, attempting to sexually assault her to which Sally clawed his face. Blake brutally attacked her, intending to rape her, before Hooded Justice walked in. He viciously attacked Eddie, but lets him go when Eddie says to him "This is what you like, huh? This is what gets you hot...".

At Eddie's funeral, Adrian Veidt recalls the first meeting of the Crimebusters, held by Nelson Gardner, Captain Metropolis, in April, 1966. Nelson attempt to recreate another team of masked adventurers since the Minutemen's breakup in 1949. However, The Comedian deride Nelson's plan as "bullshit" and accuses Nelson of trying to seek personal glory as akin to "playin' cowboys and Indians." Nite Owl II (Dan Dreiberg) defends Nelson's Crimebusters idea by saying that he and Rorschach had made some success together fighting criminal gangs. Though Rorschach agrees with his partner, but he sees the group as more of a "publicity exercise" and too unyielding. Ozymandias speaks in that the group only need the right person coordinating them. The Comedian continues to mock the group's intentions, especially Veidt's, and arguing the Crimebusters would not make a difference in a world heading towards nuclear apocalypse. He then burns Metropolis' presentation board and leaves the room with nearly everyone following. Nelson, in vain, begs them not to leave, telling them that someone had to "save the world."

Doctor Manhattan recalls "V.V.N. Night" - the celebration of America's victory in the Vietnam War due to Manhattan's intervention - in Saigon with Blake and discussing his strange attitude toward life and war, how he sees it all as a joke, although admittedly not a "good joke." He mentions how anxious he is to leave the country. A Vietnamese woman approaches Blake and telling him that she is pregnant with his child. She also asserts that Blake has a responsibility to the child. Blake doesn't seem to care, saying how he will forget them and their entire country. The woman angrily breaks a glass bottle and slashes Blake's face. Blake impulsively shoots her, while Manhattan stands watching. Blake then lash out Manhattan for not intervening to save the woman and accuses him that he doesn't care about human life. He then walks away to look for someone to heal his face as he laments over Manhattan's loss of touch with humanity.

Dan Dreiberg recalls how he and The Comedian worked riot control during the 1970's Police Strike in New York. The streets are crowded with angry rioters, but The Comedian and Dreiberg (as the Nite Owl) clear the streets after The Comedian throws a gas bomb into the angry mob. Looking at the devastation, Dreiberg asks Blake, "What's happened to the American dream?" Blake replies while starting into the foggy streets filled with riot gas, "It came true. You're lookin' at it."

As the funeral ends, Dan drops The Comedian's smiley face badge into the grave. A man in a trench-coat leaves flowers on Blake's grave and walks to his apartment. The man is suddenly ambush by Rorschach, who leaps out of the man's refrigerator. Rorschach identifies him as Edgar Jacobi, a former villain known as Moloch the Mystic. He questions him about Eddie Blake, and Jacobi explains that he attended Blake's funeral out of compulsion because Blake broke into his home one night while he was in bed, babbling about how it's all a joke that he doesn't get it. Blake mentioned an island with writers, scientists and artists, and he says that he did bad things before leaving. Rorschach doesn't consider the retired villain as Blake's murderer. He then informs Jacobi that he found him using Laetril, a faked cancer cure medicine that is widely illegal. Jacobi defend himself that he is diagnosed with cancer and was desperate. Rorschach leaves Jacobi alone but will be seeing him again.

Rorschach goes to the cemetery at night to pay his respects to Eddie Blake. Finishing with his journal entry, he leaves the cemetery with a red rose.

UNDER THE HOOD

Chapter III Hollis Mason becomes deeply interested in the Hooded Justice's actions and decided upon himself to become a super-hero, known as the 'Nite-Owl'. The name was based on his habit to work out as much as possible. Although his first exploits were largely unspectacular, it has aroused a lot of media interests simply because at the time dressing up in a costume and protecting a neighborhood had becoming something of a fad.

Within several months since the appearance of the Hooded Justice, several other costumed vigilantes began to appear: Silhouette, Mothman, the Comedian, Captain Metropolis, Silk Spectre (Sally Jupiter), and Dollar Bill. Hollis reflect on each of their background and how people thought of them. Regardless of the heroes' reasons and their faults, Hollis believed them to be "doing something because [they] believed in it."

Chapter IV On the suggestion of Captain Metropolis, Sally Jupiter and her agent Laurence Schexnayder, the heroes band together to form the Minutemen in 1939. However, the Minutemen did not last long. The Comedian's attempted rape of Sally Jupiter resulted in his departure from the Minutemen and Sally's decision not to press charges against him, as persuaded by Schexnayder for the group's image. The Comedian soon changed his flimsy costume for leather armor following an unconnected stabbing incident, and became a war hero in the Pacific Theatre during World War Two. Hollis personally hoped that America have a better class of hero than the Comedian.

Problems for the Minutemen further deteriorated. In 1946, a newspaper exposed Silhouette's lesbian relationship with a woman and the group was forced to expel her on Schexnayder's persuasion. Six weeks later, Silhouette was murdered along with her lover by one of her former enemies. In the same year Dollar Bill was shot dead by bank robbers. In 1947, Sally quit crime-fighting and married Schexnayder, and gave birth to her daughter Laurie in 1949. By then the villains that the group fought were less interesting to fight. Their enemies were either imprisoned or moved to less glamorous activities. Among those is Moloch, who began as a stage magician at the age of seventeen and became an flamboyant criminal mastermind before moving into impersonal crimes such as drugs, financial fraud and vice clubs. Hollis concluded that the Minutemen was finished, but it didn't matter. The damage had already been done.

REVIEW

Just so you get a sample of the level of detail in this novel, Rorschach’s speech balloons are normal in the flashbacks and are weird in present day, as he wasn’t unhinged at that time.

This issue is very strong. When these things happened in the film adaptation, I actually saw couples leaving the theater (I think the movie may have had the wrong ad campaign and people thought this was a super-hero story).

There is a vast use of mirrors and reflective surfaces in this issue, following the theme of “reflections” and “flashbacks”.

The use of flashbacks is also justified to understand the ongoing mystery as to who may have killed the Comedian. Usually Flashbacks are hated because they stop the story, but in Watchmen... some characters live everything at the same time, making the term “Flashback” inaccurate. In any case, the Flashbacks are part of the murder mystery, and so is the supplementary material.

To be continued...

[thiswasinevitableid]

For the meet-ugly prompts: #13, Indruck, SFW ? 👁️👁️

Here you go!

13: we make contact before trying to steal the last seat on the subway/bus/train and I end up in your lap and fuck you, I’m going to stay here because I’ve had a really long day and this seat was mine

The Phoenix Starport is a labyrinth, while technically made of chrome and touch-screens, is really made of lines.

Duck stands in line to show his ticket, to deposit his bags, to go through three separate security check-points and, when he gets to the section for the shuttle to take him to the Starliner, a fourth one because when your clients are high paying, you don’t want them getting blown to pieces.

He isn’t high-paying, he isn’t a seasoned space traveler, and he isn’t going to spend one second more on his feet than he has to. It’s been two solid hours of that just to get to this point. Unfortunately, every other passenger shares this sentiment. When the shuttle door opens a mass of lifeforms pile in, hunting for seats. Duck spots one, turns to sit, and finds it’s much fuzzier than it looked.

“Excuse me.” The creature whose laps he’s in reminds him of the pictures of Mothman scattered around his home state, “but this seat is taken.”

“Yeah, by me, because I saw it first.”

A click from inside the mothmans chest, “You are wrong. I saw it first, and did not foresee anyone being rude enough to use me in its place.”

Every other seat is filled, and it’s a fifteen minute ride to the Starliner. Duck crosses his arms, “you don’t wanna be a seat, you better get up.”

That earns him an annoyed chirr, “Not a chance.”

The shuttle ride is smooth, but his seat keeps prodding him with a clawed finger whenever he puts his weight on it. When they arrive, the two of them stand one after the other. The mothman shakes out his feathers, tosses a glare over his shoulder, and steps through the doors.

Unsurprisingly, the Sylvain Dream makes opulence seem subdued. There are rare flowers studding the fountain by the concierge desk, art from across the universe on the walls, and a sound dampening, shimmering carpet lining the hall to his room. He’s looking forward to some alone time; while all the suites at this level are technically two person, they’re so expensive that most travelers get their own rooms.

He keys open the door and comes face to chest with the same fucking alien from the shuttle.

“Ah. So we are in this timeline. Lovely.” The mothman says dryly, passing him to greet the bellhop who just finished scurrying up the stairs, “I see you have a message from minister Woodbridge. Kindly have someone reply and tell him that if it’s an emergency, they may contact me directly, but if the matter is anything else, they are to leave me in peace during my journey.”

“Yes, Seer Cold.”

“Thank you.” the seer drops a coin into his hand and brushes past Duck without another word.

Duck finally makes it past the entryway and gasps; when the people paying for his journey asked if he’d prefer forest, city, beach, or desert, he assumed it was some sort of vague theme. Instead, the carpet is lush, soft grass, there are flowers everywhere, and the furniture is all made to be woodsy and rustic. The bath and shower are like a mini water-fall and pool, his bed housed in a mock cabin.

“This is amazing.”

“If you are here purely for a leisure trip.” His suite-mate crosses both sets of arms, “some of us are being transported back to work.”

“Now look, this is a work trip for me too. You gotta admit this is pretty swank.”

“And an attempt to soften the blow.” Mothman mutters.

Duck rolls his eyes, decides this is not his problem to deal with, and goes to unpack for the month-long journey ahead.

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

For the first two days he and Indrid--which is what the aloof, perpetually touchy Sylph likes to be called--do their best to ignore each other. They’re stuck on the same dining schedule, which means Duck accidentally insults the alien by giggling when he sees him lick his dessert up with an absurdly long tongue. He makes it up to the next night by saving the pineapple soda delivered in their lunch basket for the Sylph.

On day three, he’s reading by the holo-fire pit when a white badge with blue writing dangles before him.

“Would you like to accompany me to the spa?”

“Uh….”

“Since I foresee you asking no, we do not have to spend the entire time together.”

“I, uh, I was gonna say sure, but was wonderin’ why you offered it to me.”

“Oh.” His antenna flick in a new way, “I, ah, they gave me two. I have no one else to go with and it seemed silly to let it go to waste.”

“I gotta wear anything special?”

“Since humans require clothes in all but a few scenarios, I suggest wearing your robe.”

The spa is just as elaborate as the rest of the ship, with cushy chairs and complimentary booze. The secretary hands them each a menu of treatments bigger than any Duck’s held at a restaurant.

“Sugar scrub….talon wax….rock massage. Do they mean hot rocks?”

“No, that treatment helps those with scales shed.”

“Huh.” Duck pokes his tongue in his cheek, “wish they said which of these were safe for, uh, squishy human bodies.”

Indrid reaches out a claw, tapping several on the list, “This ful massage would be good; you’re muscular, it will be nice to have those muscles tended to.”

“Oh, uh, thanks. Have been workin out more, nice to have someone else notice.”

The Sylph smiles, “you may also like the hair luxury add-on; I’ve always thought humans with salt and pepper hair should show it off.”

Before Duck can ask how Indrid developed that opinion or learned that slang, they’re ushered off into separate rooms. He’s scrubbed and rubbed until his body surrenders the last of it’s stress, the oils they rub on his skin and into his hair smelling pleasantly of pine and cedar. His session ends with one of the staff leading him to a small room covered in deep green marble, where he can rinse and dry off in his own time.

Indrid is in the same room, reclining in a chair with a sun lamp on his wings. They’ve been groomed, the feather straighter and smoother than this morning. Duck takes his first real look at them, notices how the black is iridescent and that there are two bands of deep grey on the inside close to Indrid’s torso.

He’s really quite stunning.

“I feel” Indrid murmurs, “as if we got off to a bad start.”

“You think?” Duck aims for a genial tone.

Indrid cocks his head, “Yes. That is why I said it. I, ah, I ought to apologize for my temperament over the last few days. I am so very fond of earth, of humans, and I’d hoped to be able to work there indefinitely. But Sylvain is in crisis, and so they need me near. Never mind that we have the capability to transmit messages quickly between planets.”

“What’s the crisis?”

“Our plants are dying or failing to produce the resources we need. The belief is that-”

“-it’s a leftover contamination or mutation from the earth plants that crossed through the gate before it was destroyed.”

Indrid blinks, then grins, “it is novel to be the one having their sentences finished. Yes, Duck Newton; the gate has been gone for over two hundred years, but both our worlds will feel it’s effects for many more years.” His antenna perk up, “you’re the one they’re bringing on to consult.”

“Yep. That’s why they gave me such a sweet deal on the trip; they know it’s gonna be fuckin exhaustin work. Even with all the other perks they’re offerin, I know a lot of folks didn’t wanna apply.”

“Why did you feel differently?”

He pushes to the other side of the little pool so they can be closer, “I spent my whole life in the town I grew up in. I love what I do, I love helpin forests stay healthy and regrow and I...I dunno, how often do you get the chance to go to space and see forests on another planet?”

“Once, if you are me.” Indrid closes his wings, clicks off the light, and offers Duck a hand, “and I am glad you will have the chance to do the same.”

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

“You know” Indrid passes Duck the plate of toast, “I am named for Sylph who was the second most recent seer after myself. He and I are the same kind of Sylph, and when my parents learned their mothling-to-be was the next seer, they decided I would be Indrid Cold.”

“Not gonna lie, people actin like your fate is set in stone from birth gives me the creeps.”

“Understandable. I would not admit this to the other ministers, but I am no longer content with reporting on the futures. I try to change fate when I can. In this way, I am also like the first Indrid Cold. He kept trying to intervene in disasters; that’s how he got seen when he should not have been.”

“Holy fuck, there really was a mothman!”

“Indeed. I also learned from his personal notes that he was so fond of humans, he ended up marrying one.”

“Damn” Duck passes him the sweetener for his tea, teases, “you share that habit too?”

Red eyes linger a moment too long on his body before Indrid grins, “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

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

“You sure you don’t wanna swim?” Duck treads water in the green lagoon of some distant moon. The cruise is docked for an activity day, Duck having selected to spend it snorkeling and Indrid deciding to spend it with Duck.

“The wings are not built for it. Though the water does look pleasant.” Indrid lazily sifts black sand through his claws.

“You could wade in. It stays pretty shallow there” he points to a sand bar.

“If I get in over my head, will you come to my aid?”

“You know it.”

Indrid wades in, chirping as the waves hit his knees. When Duck next glances at him, Indrid is glancing right back. He’s smiling, soft and secretive.

“I am glad you picked this spot. The view is spectacular.”

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

They’ve hit turbulence a handful of times, all of which pale in comparison to the jolt that sends him tumbling out of bed. There are stabilizer controls to lighten the gravity in the room so they won’t feel the bumps as badly. But when he wobbles over, he finds it’s already up to the lowest it can be without him floating.

He stumbles to the window, the curtains shut against the vast universe. Is turbulence this severe normal? If the gravity doohickey isn’t able to help, maybe that means they’ve never hit a storm this bad.

Opening the window is a terrible idea; there’s no cause of the turbulence to be seen, and now he’s in a dark room staring into the depths of space, it’s so big, he’s so small, they all are, the forces of nature still have it in them to crack this ship like an egg, killing them all.

“Would it help if I said there are no futures where this storm poses a threat to us?” Indrid whispers from behind him.

“Kinda.”

“Would it help to see something breathtaking?”

“Wh-”

Indrid taps the glass, drawing Ducks attention to two massive, starry shapes, “Celestial whales. At least that’s the human name for them.”

“Holy fuck.” They remind Duck of Whale Sharks, but impossibly bigger, skin coated in thousands of star-spots, “how can they do that? I mean, obviously they ain’t mammals, but fuckin nothin thrives in deep space.”

“No one is certain.” Indrid sighs, happily, “isn’t it wonderful to know there are such things in the universe?”

“Yeah. AHfuck” He hits the wall as the whole ship shudders, “fuck, sorry-”

“It’s alright. It can be alarming when you’re on your first trip through the cosmos. I, ah, I have something that may help, if you’re alright with me touching you some.”

“Fine by me.” Duck follows Indrid to the Sylph’s bed. The seer sits cross-legged with his back against the wall and instructs Duck to rest his head in his lap. The points of his claws begin rubbing his neck and the base of his skull, Indrid humming at a low, steady pitch until Duck’s eyes start to close.

The pressure points are helping, he can tell by his loosening spine. But what soothes him to sleep is the repetitive reminder of Indrid there with him in the dark.

When he wakes up the storm is gone. His body is still moving, rising and falling in time with Indrid’s breath as he sleeps. He pulled Duck atop him in the night, and at some point must have wrapped him in his wings, since once, is still half-flopped on Duck’s back.

Seized with affection, Duck kisses his shoulder. When this earns him a happy chirp, he does it again, then kisses a cheerful path up to Indrid’s cheek. Red eyes open, sleepy and full of tenderness, just in time for the Sylph to turn his head and kiss Duck properly.

“What a lovely thing to awaken to.”

“No kiddin” Duck kisses him again, “fuck, Indrid, this is the weirdest goddamn thing to ever happen to me and I’m thinkin it might also be the best.”

Indrid hugs him close, “We shall have ample time to find out, if you wish to do so.”

“Hell yeah. But we only got a few days before we hit Sylvain.”

“Yes” Indrid kisses his nose, “but I happen to foresee Woodbridge ignoring my request for peace and sending me a message saying I will be working closely with a certain, visiting forestry expert.”

[bounnostra]

monkshood O bams O grand whatever trial one O re: ana

A tie, huh. That was new. Not really what Bams had expected them to cap out at either, somehow; a vote more one way than the other still might confirm more than just settling halfway without any further clue, even just in vague Gambit bragging or jeering or similar. Maybe now they could start getting round to which confessions or otherwise were fake, and then go for a nap, because holy shit her sleep schedule was bad normally yes but it had been days-

Oh.

The group actually listened to her?

They were having a Grand Don trial Bams now realised in the light of day that she actually didn't feel prepared for whatsoever? She'd gone into the test with the same energy as her fifteen year old self calling a studying strategy washing down a sleep pill with an energy drink?

As strange a statement as it may sound, Ana's vague gesturing towards their previous discussions was the thing to prevent Bams from making like her fifteen year old self in that test and simply sitting there mentally repeating every swear word she knew by then, actually pulling a half smirk from her. 

"Getting me to do the dirty work, huh, Ana. I see how it is."

But the joking didn't last long: the realisation of the weight of what the two of them might just have started in this room was starting to make itself known much more, every single added gaze on this idea threatening to push Bams further down into her seat and tell them to forget the whole thing, actually. But she swallowed the concerns down, massaging her temples to loosen up her memory before folding her arms and gripping them tight for support. 

"...Okay. Let's see if I can do this justice. Really needs to be said in a more exciting tone, probably, but anyway. There's two facts we seem to know for sure. One, a group having a Grand Whatever is apparently unique to us. Two, there are other people lurking around this place that we've seen, more or less. Claire, Mothman, Benny, and we know Brandi and Mamoru were around at some point. The extra people in the Gallery, who knows. But for the sake of our sanity, let's work with who we know right now."

"Here's where it starts to get weird. With everything we learned - and some stuff we haven't seen - it honestly doesn't sound like an... awful guess to suggest that originally our group started as more people than we see in this room. We never did get that group size question right. We think our original group was all of us who started here except for the Don in being unique, plus Claire and Mothman, plus Brandi and Mamoru. Not plus Benny, because I heard she said she never had a codename..? Still never spoke to her myself. Was a bit busy being a mushroom after we heard about her. Anyway, I think that's 21, which is a number we didn't try for that question."

Her gaze flicked to Scourge, where she mouthed 'brace yourself' before continuing.

"...Anyway. We all get brought in, shit happens as it did here. Claire and Mothman die. Brandi and Mamoru think that's a bit shit, and do... whatever it was that they did. Something bad enough that Gamb had to ban it, and that game was fucked up, basically. Considering how long the murder circus has been going here, just a couple of deaths probably wasn't enough, so. He wipes our memories, plops us back in the waiting room to have a redo- because there is evidence Gamb can... rewrite memories. Like our first motive and our supposed time at Summit. But nothing to prove that he's able or willing to revive the dead, so our group got reduced by those who died in the first attempt."

"...Should probably get to the Grand Jackass, huh. Right. In that little story Ana just launched at my brain at high speeds and I probably butchered there, they get placed into our game to run interference and keep everything being managed. They're even possibly some kind of higher up than Gamb in whatever system out there is deciding to run murder games, here to make sure he doesn't let something like that... gambit slip again. Maybe even censoring him themselves- have we all been present every time Gamb's been stopped saying something..? I don't envy anyone having to try fight a murder owl, but whatever. Kinda combines with the fact that they surely have to have some kind of hand in this game, right. If they were a complete dummy here for whatever purpose, why have people they're working with? Why be reaching out to people..?"

I ran out of serious sprites to break this up.

"...And here's where the request to please be goddamn civil about all this for now comes in. Our current working Grand Mess identity theory is someone who wasn't part of our original group and wasn't memory wiped on the topic of what's been happening here, who might be at odds with our original class' theme for being inserted into it later - if they were even brought into Summit naturally at all. Maybe also sticking with the danger loving and confidence traits, considering this maintaining Gamb thing does require them to be part of the murder game as is. Unless they have a completely OP immunity built in, somehow. Magical luck, some enhancement, I dunno. I realise just how goddamn vague a starting point this might be, but. It's like Ana said. We need to hear other perspectives and knowledge about other people, probably, rather than just us two going batshit in the Gallery. And... it's not a wasted vote if we miss the mark. If we can clear out a bias that builds up, for example- yeah, if this was our last chance circumstances might be different, but... as it is."

...Goddammit. Okay. She had ignored the current conversation long enough to get her serious points across, but the bullshit quota was screaming out for some relief. 

"God. At least take her to dinner first." 

[phandomphightclub]

Lexxpocalypse Reveal 2: @lexosaveus

Dots was all alone in the Denny’s – Tali had reluctantly left, saying she had some kind of business to take care of, but Dots was pretty sure she was just finding somewhere to hide and cry about Kingdom Hearts 3 again.  Whatever the reason, the Denny’s at 3 am had ominous feel when no one was out fighting in the ring. The Denny’s wasn’t meant to be this quiet.  The only sounds were that of Dots’ footsteps on the dusty floorboards – Tali really needed to get the cleaning staff back in here.  

But that wasn’t Dots’ main concern at the moment.  She’d been pacing for approximately seven hours now, running on only tea brewed from fresh mountain dew to sustain her.  She briefly contemplated using the Denny’s kitchen to whip something up, but she wasn’t in the mood for Shrek-themed cupcakes at the moment, and she was even less in the mood to break her concentration.

Concentration.  Right.  The Lexxes.  The imposters.  The –

The door flung open.  Dots jumped a foot in the air and hissed, yeeting her magnifying glass at the intruder.

“Ow!”  Anri (@heyheyitsstillgay) rubbed their head.  “Dots?  Is that you?  What the heck are you doing in here?”

“What are you doing here?”  Dots challenged in return.  “The Denny’s is closed!  The security system’s supposed to keep any other ghosts out–” She gasped dramatically.  “Unless you’re one of the Lexxes and you hacked the security system!”  She flew up, seizing Anri by the collar.  “Are you one of them?  ARE YOU??”

“Geez, Dots, chill.  I already had the memes ripped out of me last month, I don’t need to molt for another year at least.”  They shook themself free and dusted themself off.  “Besides, I’m not one of the Lexx blogs.  I just ran across Tali on her way out and she said someone might need to keep an eye on you.  In hindsight, I can see why.”

“What?  I didn’t need Tali to send someone to babysit me!  I’m the first employee she hired!  I can take care of myself, I– VORUS!”  She suddenly screeched, jumping a foot back from the window.  Anri glanced outside and burst out laughing.

“That’s just your reflection, hun,” Anri said, gently (so as not to startle her) placing a hand on Dots’ shoulder.  “Vorus isn’t here.”

“I… swear I… nevermind,” Dots murmured.  “Well, if you’re here, you might as well help with the investigation.  Do you have any intel for me?”

“I didn’t wear my best Sherlock meme shirt for nothing,” Anri said with a grin, gesturing to their shirt that read A MURDER, YAY over a demented screenshot of BBC’s Sherlock.  “I’ve got some info on Lexosaveus.  I saw them hanging around my lair in the Nightmare Valley.  Then around the same time, I saw sonicgrl01.”

Dots frowned.  “So you think Lexosavus is sonicgrl01?  Just because you saw them both in a similar place at a similar time?  ...Wait, actually, that’s brilliant!  The imposters can’t keep up the illusion forever, it makes sense that their disguise could crack.  Could you take me to check it out?”

“I would, but…” Anri frowned.  “You look exhausted.  If you fall asleep in the Nightmare Valley – well, it’ll be exactly what it sounds like.  A nightmare.”

“I can–” Dots yawned, “--handle it.  I promise I’ll sleep right after.  Just take me, please!”

Anri shrugged.  “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

XXX

The Nightmare Valley wasn’t so bad, Dots thought.  Lots of stars.  A very nice space aesthetic.  Rather peaceful, actually, if you asked her.  Why had Anri been so worried?

“So where did you see–”

“Shhh!”  Anri shushed her before whispering, “You have to be quiet in these parts.  You never know what ghosts you could attract here.”

“Fine, fine,” Dots humored her.  It was Anri’s home, they probably knew better than her in this case.  But flying on in silence was boring.  And… well, a little bit tiring, with nothing to break the monotony of pinprick stars floating by on all sides… like a thousand tiny nightlights… or… or the eyes of a thousand Lexxes…

“They’re watching me,” she muttered, eyes widening.  “They’re here… oh mothman, they’ve found me!  They’re everywhere!”

Two of the eyes glowed bright red and grew larger – flying towards her.  

“Lexovorus!  I’m not – I’m not scared of you!”  Her voice cracked.  The eyes seemed to laugh; a toothy grin split between them.

“You should be.”

The cavernous jaw opened, and –

“Dots!  Dots, wake up!”

What?  What was–

Something whumped Dots upside the head, and everything went black.  When she opened her eyes again,  Anri’s fuzzy silhouette was staring down at her.

“What… what happened?”  Dots mumbled, rubbing her head.

“You fell asleep,” Anri deadpanned.  “Just like I warned you.”

“Oh…” Dots blushed a light purple, her namesake polka dots standing out even more.  “Sorry.”

“No, I’m sorry,” Anri surprisingly apologized.  “I shouldn’t have brought you here. But we’re almost to my lair.  You can rest there.”

Dots nodded, and they continued their flight.  Just before they could reach Anri’s lair though, another figure came into view.

“I didn’t fall asleep again, did I?”  Dots asked, recognizing the ghost as Lexosaveus.  Ironically, the Lexx hadn’t been there to save Dots when she’d needed it.

“Nope.  That’s our target.”  Anri grinned.  “Hey, Saveus!  We’ve got a crisis over here!  Help!”

“Huh?  Wait, but we’re not–”

“LEXOSAVEUS, TO THE RESCUE!”  Saveus intoned dramatically, puffing out their chest and flying over.  Their cape billowed out in the nonexistent wind. “WHAT IS YOUR AILMENT, MORTALS?”

“It’s Dots!  She’s nearly collapsed from fatigue!”  Anri played along, sucking up to the duplicate’s obvious obsession.  Dots caught on quickly, lying back in Anri’s arms and holding the back of her hand up to her forehead.

Saveus gasped.  “OH MY!  THAT LOOKS QUITE SERIOUS!  WHAT CAN BE DONE TO HELP?”

“There’s only one cure to this detective’s condition,” Anri said seriously.  “She needs… answers.”

“ANSWERS?  TWO PLUS TWO IS FOUR!  THE MITOCHONDRIA IS THE POWERHOUSE OF THE CELL!  THE MEANING OF LIFE IS–”

“No, no, a specific answer,” Anri clarified.  “She needs to know… who you are.”

“Me?”  Lexosaveus’s voice finally dropped to a reasonable decibel.  “I am… LEXOSAVEUS!  HERO OF THE GHOST ZONE AND…”

Anri fixed them with a harsh glare, one that held the power of the terrible memes and danno edits contained within their immortal form.  Lexosaveus, powerful as they might have been, was unable to withstand it.  

“OH… OH… ALRIGHT!”  They exclaimed.  “MY NAME IS… @sonicgrl01!  THERE!  IS DOTS SAVED NOW??”

Dots cracked open her eyes.  “Oh, yes, Saveus.  I’m very saved.  Thank you so much.”

“YAY!  LEXOSAVUS IS ONCE AGAIN DOTS’ HERO!”

And with that, they flew off into the depths of the Nightmare Valley.

“Way to go, Dots.”  Anri grinned.

“Hey, that one was all you.  Thanks.”  Dots smiled back before yawning.  “Now, I think what would really save me is some sleep.”

Anri nodded.  “Definitely.  Come on, let’s get you some rest.”

[thebigpapilio]

The Legend of Phalène: My Prompt For “Hero/Villain”

Hi again!

This is once again for Chloé Appreciation Week. For Prompt #2, I decided to consider the idea of Chloé being the (NOT THE BEE) wielder, and (SOMEONE IMPORTANT TO HER) being the (NOT THE CAT) wielder. What I thought was my best idea here, however, was the idea of two Miraculous wielders using one Miraculous. 

Curious? Find out for yourself!

Phalène wasn’t sure if it was a good day or not for it to be raining. The water always weighed on Paonne’s wings, so she expected this to be a tough battle. That said, it weighed down on Mauvaise Abeille’s too, so the battle was mostly on the ground for the Bee and Peacock wielders. Despite the new factor, Abeille was especially powerful this time, and Phalène had barely been able to save the depowered Marinette from becoming the victim of a particularly nasty bee’s sting. Paonne wasn’t faring much better. Phalène had to do something. She’d always wanted to stay out of the visual fight since the fateful day she and Nooroo met. This time, nothing could be done - Paonne was going to fall very soon, if she wasn’t already done; heaven knows what Abeille would do to her. Transforming back into Chloé, she fed Nooroo quickly. Once they were ready to go, Nooroo gave her a heart-melting smile, (Nooroo was such a ray of sunshine - the only one she knew who was more sunshiney was Adrien), and for what could be the last time, she became Phalène. She jumped out, wings immediately unfolding so that she could fly to where she needed to go. Alas, just when she had finally arrived at the battlefield to deal with Abeille, she saw the newly monikered Bee-tch (Phalène had always been able to think up multiple insulting names for anyone based on their name alone, which impressed Paonne and other temporary wielders) take a defeated Paonne’s brooch. In a burst of light, Paonne was gone, and Sabrina freaking Raincomprix, her best friend (and apparently, her girlfriend too when as a superheroine) was left there, unconscious and in severe danger. With a traditional evil grin, Abeille’s spiked gauntlets raised up, preparing to strike the Peacock (Peahen? Chloé wasn’t entirely sure, and from previous conversations, neither was Pao-Sabrina. Right, vengeance). Phalène saw red. Raising her staff, she shot a small energy beam at Abeille. Enough to distract her and do damage (hopefully), but not enough to wear Phalène out early. This definitely got Abeille’s attention. An interested face turned to Phalène, and the ginger supervillainess lit up like a criminal being practically given what she wanted on a golden platter. Actually, that was almost exactly what it was, wasn’t it? Only problem was for Abeille, she was not going to succeed. Not if Phalène could help the matter. “So you must be the famous Phalène.” The tension broke and reformed at once. “I thought children were supposed to be seen, not heard. Sweetheart, how about you yield? Hand over that Miraculous and you won’t end up like your formerly flashy friend here.” Of course the last bit was a threat - her theory on Abeille’s identity had always been Sabrina’s stepmom Sarah, a harsh woman who left M. Raincomprix a few years back in order to rejoin the theatre crowd, her longtime passion. Regathering her thoughts, Phalène spat her words like they would burn her tongue should she keep them in her mouth. “I should ask you to hand over yours, Sarah Raincomprix.” Before Sarah could even register the fact she’d been called the heck out, Phalène used her second power. “SWARM!” All wielders had more than one accessible power - some just were part of the package, some were there and not there depending on the user. All Moths could make Champions, varying from 2-3 per day (it also depended on the user) Phalène wasn’t able to use Hall of Fame, which was a Moth’s strongest ability, but she could use Swarm. With a snap of her fingers, what seemed to be thousands of chunks of Sociae-shaped pure energy teleported in, forming a humongous ball of energy around the tip of her staff. Phalène had to make a command, or they would just sit there. Kill was not a viable option, but Phalène still had her plan. “Distract, dear Sociae.” With that, hell descended upon Abeille in the form of a storm of moths. They seemed to explode like energy balloons around the striped evildoer. They were not enough to be lethal, but enough to distract her. Speaking of which… Phalène swooped in, and in movement smoother than silk, the hair comb that 100% belonged to the Big Bad Bee Boss was swiped right off her head. Phalène was ready to celebrate now. Early as it seemed, she was done fighting a bee-themed supervillain who was more decisive on her decision to do evil than her own hai- Dear mothman, that’s Mom. Audrey Bourgeois, who had divorced her Papa around the time Sarah Raincomprix divorced Sabrina’s, stood there in the distance. An evil smirk was on her face, and the way it looked fitting for her scared Phalène. A now-depowered Sarah managed to snatch the Bee Miraculous in Phalène’s moment of shock, and just before the police (Roger wasn’t with them, Phalène barely noticed, but she wasn’t surprised) could grab her, she chucked the hair comb with surprising strength. It landed right in the hands of blonde-haired Audrey. OH. OH, NO. “Pollen, do the sting!” With that, Mauvaise Abeille became a threat once more; the only thing changing was the holder. Things did look bad; a still unconscious Sabrina, who Chloé would later learn was taken somewhere safe, was clearly unable to fight. It was all on the generally weakest Miraculous wielder (who would depower in… about 7-ish minutes now) to protect her city. The odds were bad, weren’t they? Well, years later, Chloé would tell anyone who knew she was Phalène that miracles happen, don’t they? As if she’d known how to do it all along, her Miraculous’ power was concentrated in her hands. Abeille - no, Mom - was charging at her, without a care in the world for her daughter’s safety (whether she knew or not) and while she knew, she just knew that she should dodge, any major movement would break her focus. 3 she’s getting closer 2 that spiked gauntlet is NOT looking friendly 1 aaaaand… A humongous shockwave of energy blew Audrey away. The light ball of energy in Phalène’s hands was thrown to the sky like a volleyball (except it didn’t come down). When it died down, an entire army seemed to be on their way, Phalène could feel it. This… THIS was the HALL OF FAME. Clearly, though, her mother could not. A second try from Chloé’s pitiful excuse for a mother was stopped in their tracks by the sabre & giant dual needles of the Adrinette duo (Chloé had moved on after she and Paonne started dating); a third was wrapped up due to Alya’s electrical whip and electrokinesis; a fourth attempt was stopped because Nino’s water cannon blew her into a wall. More and more Champions joined, but while Phalène was touched, she also silently wanted Sabrina to help too. Phalène and Paonne had been together since the beginning, and considering she was Sabrina, it was even longer chronologically (Chloé had not counted Brat-Chloé’s time with Sabrina as real time spent together). So she took out her phone and went to the recording function, watching André’s psychokinetic powers twirl his ex-wife around like a drumstick in a musician’s hand. Chloé was unsure how much of Paris had joined, but she knew that there were outsiders alongside what was probably the majority of Paris - Marinette’s grandma and uncle, Jagged Stone, and others had joined in too. It was a miracle (heh) that the comb wasn’t broken to pieces by the time Chloé ordered the transformed civilians to stop. It wasn’t even the slightest bit cracked.

That’s magic for you, I suppose…

Her powers ran out just in time for her to hide after sending her Mom in a holding cell. It was simple and complicated from there, really. The resolutions for Sarah and Audrey were simple - they weren’t escaping their punishment if anyone could help it, and if they could get out of jail, they would be doing service or something like that for life. All their possessions went to Chloé and Sabrina - most of that, however, went to people that needed it - kids in bad situations, the poor, and whatnot. That was more complicated. Sabrina recovered very quickly - the Miraculous helped a lot, Chloé imagined. That too was simple. What wasn’t simple was the dealing of leaving their Miraculi with Alya Dupain-Cheng-Agreste-Lahiffe-Cesaire, who had been chosen as the new Guardian after some old man had passed the Turtle Miraculous to her. Her want for information about the Miraculi made her a good choice for the position, and her skill with patience and phrasing information was good as well. Chloé had not cried for too long with Nooroo before saying goodbye, but Duusu (apparently that was Sabrina’s peaHEN-themed kwami) and the aforementioned ginger had needed to dry the others’ tears for a while. Chloé knew she would have to do what Duusu could no longer do. Chloé and Sabrina had known each other since about the end of école, worked with each other as superheroines since the middle of lycée, and so help them if they wouldn’t stay together for as long as they could help it. After Chloé and Sabrina passed on, both stories would become practically immortalized; the legacies of Chloé and Sabrina Bourgeois-Raincomprix were more popular for adults in that time period, but the more popular story (and longest lasting) were the ones of Paonne and Phalène.