#the others technically are too like they don't purposely try to be overwhelming but they kinda just are a lot if you first meet them

[withered--s0uls]

Adds to list of ideas

Hmmmm. It getting Daytime so they're stuck with them for the time being

We get a range of

- IC!Uzi after the two Ns arrive being like "welcome back also hi" - proceeds to take Ray from Rexim and announcing she's putting the baby to sleep. Then when she's done with that she locks herself in her workspace bc she got work to catch up on after watching 8 Kids by herself.

- GD!N probably picking up on her quickly barricading herself after his arrival so god forbid he now thinks she hates him

- the kids proceeding to try and bother him with a ton of questions (trying to find out the differences and similarities between their dad and Beanies dad)

- "Guess which kid was not named by Uzi"(IC!N pointing at the 4 code related kids, 3 are named after guns.) "Why did you pick Raven?"(GD!N) "Egg."(Raven) --- alternate ending being "Why did you pick Beanie?" "Fair enough"

- Raven getting put into "timeout" (thrown over their dads shoulder like a bag of potatoes) for actually trying to bite GD!N and probably scaring the shit out of him with the damn Solver teeth (even if they're filed down it's still kinda obvious)

- Circling back to Ic!Uzi, my homegirl overworked herself until her battery is on a whopping 3%. She leaves the workspace and kinda just collapses bc her battery hits 0% (Ic!N being like "not again")

- Rexim, due to not really using his visor optics as eyes, coincidentally looking as if he's staring straight at GD!Uzi before like GD!Nuzi take note of the fact his headband optics are the only ones actually in use Idk I think it'd be funny bc he does kinda just look like he's staring at random shit to people who don't know about his broken main camera

- Annika being made to apologize after saying GD!N looks mentally ill, he says its fine (spoiler alert: it isn't, she made it very obvious to him that he isnt hiding stuff well)

Now, should I be nice and have it be IC!Ns day off so GD!N isn't left alone with a bunch of kids or should I be an ass and have the poor mentally ill man somehow deal with the kids of IC!Nuzi whilst IC!Uzi is passed out and recharging and IC!N is off at work.

I mean the three Teens at least can look after themselves and probably would help (to various degrees of actual helpfulness) before & after school. But that still leaves him with 3 Toddlers/Pre-Schoolers and a Baby he doesn't know a lot about on top of his own daughter, one of the toddlers/Pre-Schoolers being dead set on pouncing him like a cat and biting him and another trying to act mature and like an adult and failing horribly bc she's like 5.

It would be kinda funny if he had to watch them and then when Ic!N comes back from work GD!N is like "what do you MEAN you run a Daycare on top of this?!" Bc like if Ic!N isn't there to keep his kids insanity in check then their curiosity and unhingedness will get the better of them.

(I just accidentally deleted a whole paragraph I'll go commit a murder)

Like? Without their dad keeping the kids I'm check we get

- Orita having inherited Uzis unhinged side, so one moment she will be sweet like N in Canonverse, the next she will smile wildly with hollowed optics and will talk about the time she chopped off her bodies original worker forearms to replace them with self made DD forearms. Even worse she might ask if GD!N wants to see the weapons she built from scratch (only for her 5yo adopted sister to be like "You aren't allowed to pull out your weapons without your mom or dad or V present!")

- Raven probably actually biting him when he's distracted and then after proceeding to cover him in stickers like Orita & they did to Beanie. Except Raven doesn't ask GD!N first, they just suddenly do it (it's even the glitter stickers, someone save GD!N from the IC!Kids) -- note them actually continuously trying to bite him (without breaking metal notably!) as they are around him more and then covering him in stickers technically means they like him so 😭 that's a win ig? (If they didn't like him theyd not hesitate to break metal)

- Rexim blasting music whilst doing his homework, how does his mom not wake up? Robo-Fod knows how. Probably her body being in forceful shutdown until she's fully recharged

- Annika saying whatever comes to mind without thinking (she accidentally says stuff she shouldn't again)

- Olivia and Zagi being the only ones not causing problems despite being literally 5-6 years old. Olivia trying to act mature and Zagi just following their dads order of "behave and be nice to the other N" Zagi probably brings him a dog plushy or something if they notice him being stressed from having 8 kids running around (Typically how they help their parents with stress is cuddles, but they don't know if GD!N is comfortable with that so they just give him a plushy)

- Ray is a baby the worst he can do is cry because he wants to be held

Eventually at least Raven would get all their energy out of their system and fall asleep, the IC toddlers/pre-schoolers *do* still take Naps because like, Raven is a ball of chaos, Zagi is just constantly slightly eepy & Olivia finds comfort in it.

- Also whenever IC!Uzi does wake up and IC!N does kinda just pull her aside and tell her he picked up on GD!N seemingly beating himself up (IC!N may suck at math but at least he can read body language) I feel some awkward exchange happens where she's just like "I like didn't want to make you uncomfortable or upset simply by being around. Idk I thought it'd probably mess with your head" like IC!Khan when she was younger got visibly upset seeing other families with kids where both parents are still around so that kinda made her come the the conclusion that ESPECIALLY with her being an alternate version of GD!Ns dead wife he probably would be upset seeing her and god forbid seeing her and IC!N being affectionate with each other like the moments she is around him pre passing out it's kinda obvious she is trying to act different from how she'd normally act, mainly with her hands like twitching towards her partner but then pulling back. She over the years did become way more comfortable with pda and actually started initiating it more often.

Also I just whilst typing realized that IC!Nuzi are likely a good chunk older than GD!N just bc of picking a point in the timeline where they already have all kids lmao. Like the twins are 15. The twins were uploaded to their Untrained Networks between episodes 4 and 5 and in this AU a good amount of time passes between them.

Those mfs are between 35-40 if not older 💀tbf in my take on drone ages that's still very young for them bc I feel they have a lifespan longer than humans but still.

Anyways back to me taking another nap or something idk I'm rambling nonsense into the void

Oh look it's another GD crossover

Ghost Drone AU - @electrozeistyking

You already saw all this art but shhh HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

This originally started out with me just wanting to draw Beanie interacting with the Intertwined Codes Kids but then I added some extra stuff lol.

If you're a reader of Intertwined Codes, this kinda sorta spoils future stuff bc only the twins have been mentioned in the Draft/Teaser fic but oh well. You have been warned.

IC!Uzi wouldn't like actually meet GD!N bc they'd kinda decide that "hey, let's not have the widowed man see an alternate version of his wife that actually got live." simply out of respect kinda?? So she would stick around at home with the kids whilst IC!N goes out to look for Beanies Dad after their kids drag her to them lmao.

So yeah she doesn't necessarily know the extent of the mans depression, the kids just mentioned there only being a dad so she just specifically asks about GD!N in this doodle

IC!N would quickly pick up on GD!N not being completely okay, even without being told any details. So he probably would end up sitting him down to talk on their way back to the IC!Doorman families place, wanting to help if he can in any way. (He runs a Daycare and tries to also be a support to any parent that needs it, so I feel he out of habit would lean into trying to do that with GD!N)

More/The kids under the Cut otherwise the post looks so long rip

I will go over each of these one by one (can'tdo close ups bc 10 image limit, I'll reblog this in a second with the close ups.)

Left are the Code-Related Nuzi kids, right are the adopted ones.

Code related kids

Zagi:

Not much to say, I'm still working out their personality - they're maybe 2-3 years older than Beanie, so they aren't too far apart in age. :)

Orita:

She's the sibling who started the trend of putting stickers on her siblings, so she DEFINITELY would do the same with Beanie.

She also probably originally was going to show her how to build a weapon, but her parents promptly stopped that lmao .

She would think it's really cool that Beanie has a custom core icon & in general is completely customized from the start! She herself was originally put into a regular worker body (just with the tail and headband being custom made by her mom), she had to build the DD forearms herself. She also has a sticker of the DD icon on her core, covering the WD icon :3

Rexim:

At this point he has enough siblings to be past the "ew a little kid" phase, so luckily Beanie gets spared that. His main camera is damaged, he only really uses his headband optics to look around, so he would kinda just look as if he's staring past her a lot. But bc of the obvious cracks in his visor I feel she would pick up on the fact he's not actually ignoring her.

Also he definitely would just play music to her, because IC!Uzi kinda always has music on whilst working in her workspace he kinda picked up some of her taste in music (Hence he's playing the same song that Uzi is shown to have been listening to in Ep7)

Raven:

First up THANK YOU Zeisty for helping me brainstorm silly stuff for them. They're a little ball of chaos now and I love them.

Anyways.

They would join Orita in bedazzling Beanie, and then they'd start talking about bird facts and also try to get Beanie to talk about her interests.

(Their height difference isnt 100% accurate bc halfway through drawing this I changed the IC timeline, making Raven about the same age as Zagi instead of them being a teen, so I kinda had to manually try and semi-fit their heights lol)

Adopted Kids

Ray:

Nothing to say. He's a baby. Tho whilst I was outlining this one I had to giggle because of how big he is in Beanies hands. She's so tiny 😭💕 /affectionate

Annika:

Oh boy. Ann.

Annika is the eldest kid & was adopted a while before Zagi was coded / whilst the parents were organizing the code copies for Zagi

She does NOT know how to talk to other kids. Never did. It made her stick out at the orphanage wing because she just avoided everyone. And it is very chaotic when Olivia and Ray first show up, because Ann's only idea of talking to other Drones is "well you got to be relatable" so she brings up the siblings dead parents bc like, her code parents are dead too. Both pairs dying to DDs. So yeah she probably would be the first, if not only one, in the whole household to just bring up GD!Uzi. She would do it like it's nothing either.

IC!Uzi would promptly get her to stop and sit her down having a conversation about "what did N and I say about trying to connect on that topic?"

Like IC!Uzi would actually feel really bad about it despite Beanie not knowing her mom. Bc she herself obviously didn't remember IC!Nori growing up but still didn't like the topic.

Olivia:

Olivia, as I said, was greeted with the topic of dead parents by Annika as well. So she probably would kinda interfere when IC!Uzi goes to sit Ann down to talk.

She would feel the need to apologize for the older girls behavior (which Ann would apologize for herself later too ofc) and would try to get Beanie to go play something together whilst IC!Uzi sorts that whole situation out.

She's also the closest to Beanies age probably, just was forced to mature bc of what happened to her parents, despite being taken in by Nuzi shortly after. She still obviously acts like a kid tho when comfortable, so I feel she would kinda ease up around Beanie and actually act more like a 4-5 year old around her.

Bonus? Bonus!

Needless to say Beanie would return home covered in stickers & hairpins (Orita & Raven have more than enough of those, they'd just let Beanie keep some)

RIP GD!N having to get her out of those stickers once they're back home

Also, for the "*humming*" variation of the picture I blame @k1k0oftheworld. Kiko was in vc with me when I was talking about how Beanie would be covered in stickers when she gets home, and saw the doodles as well.

He proposed the following scenario after seeing Rexim show Beanie IC!Uzis playlist:

Beanie humming dead batteries song & GD!N having a breakdown bc it reminds him of GD!Uzi

I do not take accountability for this, I was going to spare the poor widowed man.

(I scrapped the idea of him not knowing ab the IC!Doorman family and him getting a mini heart attack when Beanie goes "I met Mom today" in favor of him and IC!N meeting & talking - I WANTED TO SPARE HIS POOR HEART)

@k1k0oftheworld you owe him money for a therapy session now /silly

Anyways that's it, I'll put the close ups in the reblog like I said 👍

[adrian-sheppy]

ur timeline post is insane and fantastic do the others have a grasp on or figure out, or even believe, that the prime timeline is just that—the original? or is that just the naming system? how would they react to that sort of explanation? who wants to return to their timeline first/is that the goal overall for any of them? :’0

to preface, i tend to use timeline/universe interchangeably.. ok . long post time. be warned.

1. do the others understand they're in the prime timeline?

as of right now, this system uses "interuniversal" passports planted on everybody by gee-man as they enter the prime timeline. this was to get around the problem of people having the same name. I love freemanverse but i could not understand how they came to the conclusions of accepting our third-party naming conventions. why would freemind call himself freemind when his name is gordon freeman? martini (who can go by his middle name) doesn't get the "feetman" name joke until way later, so calling him that off the bat would be weird (his passport changes  from gordon "martini" freeman to gordon "martini" feetman when the feet pic bit occurs). No one's name is ACTUALLY barmey, mindrian, freerun, freemercy, etc... but it is on the passport! and they use these names when referring to each other.

okay, so. the naming thing was the main function of the passport, but it has other standard information on it

Dates of birth - explanatory

date issued - release date of their IN REAL LIFE series (I.e Gordon is Nov 19 1998)

date expired - res cas day according to the prime timeline

(These three dates are often conflicting and confusing, which is as intended. They all exist in different years BUT the events of their universes are taking place at the same time. Timelines are synced up.)

AND THEN! place of origin. Every timeline gets assigned a number based on when they were chronologically conceived (for the most part. it's not a strict rule. it can be bent for convenience or funny/cool purposes).

ips: 000

og gordon: 001

freemind: 002

gorgeous: 003

so on and so forth. i like to pair these letters with numbers (HL-001, M-002 (M, not FM, because it's "Mindverse."*) G-003, etc)  seeing as HL-001 is One, they can come to the conclusion themselves that it's the "prime" timeline. whether they ACTUALLY call it that is debatable. i just do it because star trek does, but this requires a more "robust" naming system since it's more than just "prime," "alternative," and "mirror."

*Mindverse technically has alternative timelines too, but we're going with the one where gordon enters the test chamber (not stark) and gordon would've been taken by g-man (not felix)

2. How would they react to that sort of explanation?

Everything is very overwhelming and nonsensical. Since the collisions take place (for the most part) over the course of the rescas, most of them are too stressed to try to fully grasp the situation. They have their interuniversal passports, which just materialized on their person/with their belongings when they get sucked into the prime timeline, so they know SOMETHING IS UP. Some care more than others, like Freemind and Martini (not a game au) both freak out. Freemind probably thinks he's high for a bit even though he doesn't FEEL high. Martini thinks he's going crazy or hit his head, which doesn't help when the science team acts like this is a perfectly normal thing (while it's not a game, they all have their "npc" quirks). The science team is also the narrative vessel which can help explain the phenomenon. emphasis on can. Coomer understands the framework, while Tommy has a more intimate knowledge. But neither explain anything too quickly. Coomer wants playcoins and Tommy would acknowledge the "glitching" and correctly identify it as dangerous and warn the others about it.

The timeline information is accepted. There's not much they can do. They're in an alternate universe? Ok. Well, first things first, don't die from rescas. It's not until later that the information is DIGESTED. This would be during any downtime they have while going through Black Mesa (think how the HLVRAI crew took the occasional nap) and then when they enter the domestic arc. For the most part, everyone thinks that they've somehow JUMPED universes, not that their universe and another have collided together. I guess this could be considered a "plot twist" and if I was writing a comic (comic ver 2.5!) there would be a somber moment where everyone who cares realizes that THIS is there home now. it's familiar and unfamiliar. they know it but they don't. No one is devastated, but it's a very aimless feeling. Characters like Freerun, Gorgeous, Freecat, and Freemercy are "emotionally detached"��  from their timelines, so their reactions range from not caring to easily adjusting.

3. who wants to go home and is that an overall goal?

I think Martini, Freemind, and Cicero would all want to go home, Martini more urgently since he has Joshie. No one really understands the depth that Cicero wants to go home due to language barrier, but it is assumed. Freemind wants to go home moreso out of paranoia that being in a different universe was harmful to him on a molecular/quantum level (it's not) and that having multiple of him around is WEIRD and he wanted to go back to being the one-and-only while reveling in the fact he was cosmically significant enough to have parallel universes based on him.

Everyone makes the assumption that there is a home to return to. Their first goal is to survive the rescas. Once they get through that, they awkwardly all move in together (where else are they supposed to go?). This living situation is considered temporary... but.. it's not.

(malmo by mook is one of THE freemanverse songs no i do not take criticism)

Their expectations are curbed quickly. At this point one of the gmen (likely mr.coolatta or gee-man) or tommy would just come out and say yeah there is no other (relevant) universe. it's just this one now. (the merging process is... difficult to explain so I'm not going  to try right now. maybe later..). Cicero wanted to go home because people understood them there and thats where all his friends were. but Molly and others (sugar man , corp) are here now, and his new friends are making the effort to break the language gap. Martini wanted his son and he got his son. Freemind has an actual group of people who care about and support him, something he's not used to having (and barmey is there too. giggles. grins.). No one is particularly upset at learning the prime timeline was now also THEIR timeline since their . liek. hierarchy of needs gets filled. it's like if your house burned down but it didnt ACTUALLY burn down, it just FEELS like it did, and then there was an exact copy in its place with miniscule (but noticeable) differences. like something changed and there's a feeling of loss but you actually haven't lost anything. it's sobering and might be upsetting for a little bit, but it's also familiar and comforting. its ok. they all have gained something now. f... family. found family . grins. smiles even.

[rmorde]

Trigun Manga Reaction

Here we go! Chapter 8 Volume... Huh?

Voulme 2? I thought this is still Volume 1. Am I tripping?

Anyway! Just a moment of appreciation for this parody page of he cover.

This while thing is so "busy" yet it still make sense. There's so many elements layering on top of each other. It should be a confusing mess. However, I can still easily pick out the four components that tells a story.

Component 1: Vash as a happy salary man being served a drink by a geisha (judging from the hairstyle and accessory) with shadowed eyes on the opposite end of the page.

Component 2: BDN at the dead center. The text makes it a bit difficult to confirm if he has a top knot, but he definitely is rocking a traditional Japanese look. He looks menacingly at Vash as he drinks.

Component 3: Meryl and Milly running in a hurry but for two clearly different purposes. Meryl looks like a traditional restaurant staff frantically trying to serve a lot of guests. Meanwhile, Milly doesn't look she's working anywhere near the food service industry with her get up and the tool that she has on hand.

Component 4: The Bad Lads drinking in celebration while an ambulance seems to be sounding its sirens as it parked near them.

Look. I may seem to be too obsessed with this gag page but it's crazy how its a fucking busy mess that still works at telling a cohesive story!

With just this two page drawing, I can infer easily that someone is in danger and may need to be hospitalized - so the ambulance was called and asked to stand by. Milly is probably the heroine about to save the day with the overworked yet eager to help Meryl. The party the Bad Lads are having is a big distraction at a possible murder attempt starring Vash as the victim, the geisha as the accomplice, and BDN as the mastermind.

I'M SORRY BUT HOW THE FUCK?!!!

And don't get me started on the scaling of each figure and the silhouettes. Just... I'll just repeat, Nightow is amazing for how pretty AND technical his drawing is. It's so clean. Wow...

Sorry for getting derailed. So, back to the chapter.

Ok. I lied. Let me just appreciate Winter Mery and Milly here. I love them so much and they so fucking cute here with their dynamic pose... solid silhouette... Clean fucking lines... Sorry... Give me a minute!!!

Sigh~

Interesting. So, '98 rearranged the sequence of events here. This happened a bit later... which I think is better. It adds more impact on Vash's duel against BDN.

These guys are no stormtrooper shooters. They having really good aim!

They didn't hit Vash. Okay. Maybe the tails of his coat now have fresh bullet holes, but aside from that, Vash is fairly intact. The Bad Lads have great accuracy.

This is an intriguing way of drawing a spinning gun. It's simple but effective in visually communicating that that is what BDN is doing. A good choice. Thinking about it... If three twirling guns in a blur of circles were drawn, it would be too distracting and BDN will be overwhelmed in the panel.

Cool foreshortening. Incredible detail on the filigree. And a bonus Goofy Face Vash!

So so fucking glad '98 was faithful to the manga with these scenes. Meryl and Milly were such badasses here.

Huh... Well that's a huge difference. There's not much:

GASP! It'S VaSH tHe STampeDE!

vASh ThE StAMpEdE?!

VASH THE STAMPEDE!!!

It can get a bit much... sometimes in '98. So, this is refreshing.

WHAT...

WHAT THE FLYING FUCK?!!!

So, those lines by Miss Purple Avenger from the filler episode were originally from BRILLIANT DYNAMITES NEON?!

I-

Oooohhh.... Pretty art... Wait no... I can't distracted. I'm mad!

I'M VERY VERY MAD!!!

OML! This is much more intense! IT ADDS SO MUCH WEIGHT TO THE DUEL!

Oh my goodness... This nuance... WHY WAS THIS CHANGED?!

Not to say that Miss Purple Avenger and the episode featuring her was bad. It was actually great! Her version of July was nightmare inducing... and her confrontation with Vash was truly tragic too but.... Uhm...uh... AAHHHH!!!! I CAN'T CHOOSE! THEY'RE BOTH GOOD!

Oh... break my heart into fucking pieces will you huh?!

LOOK AT THESE! Manga Vash getting cheered on by the people! People were supporting him! He is being treated nicely as he deserved.

Even in '98! It was not as overt at this page. However, that scene of the captain from the beginning of this chapter replaced these panels instead and is just as effective. '98 Vash has people believing the good in him.

TRISTAMP VASH WAS ROBBED!!! HE NEVER HAD THESE!!! That poor precious boy! The few precious people who supports him only showed up near the end... and... and...

Now getting even more upset again with the Jeonora Episodes in Tristamp!

It's so not fair!

Oooh. A cinematic page!

HOLY SHIT!!! THESE PAGES ARE AMAZING!

I can't believe this. This fight is better in the manga!

I am not dissing Studio Madhouse for what they've done tho. The '98 Duel was epic too! They did great! But all these crazy angles and perspectives in the manga just elevate the overall awesomeness of the gunfight. It's just more immersive.

Tbf to the '98 anime, this is a nightmare to animate faithfully. With the technology and techniques at the time, this would be so difficult to pull off beautifully - going topsy turvy in one smooth motion for two characters at the same time in a fight scene with a complicated moving background? Yeah... The animation staff would go insane. It's totally understandable that they simplified this duel into extreme close ups and strong facial + gun drawings instead.

I hope Studio Orange re-hashes this fight in some way tho... or does the Episode 1 duel count?

Sigh... With the my discovery that Miss Purple Avenger's lines were actually BDN's, and that the outrage towards Vash for not remembering anything about July belongs to the Bad Lads', these words have become so much more meaningful.

It's also now more effective at convincing me that Brilliant Dynamites Neon have hidden depths.

Oh... Ow... The detailing here is just ow for the hands of an artist. Perhaps I overreacting, but those fine lines in the crooks and crannies make me wince.

Once again tag responses:

@revenantghost

Yeah. The more I see his work, the more I'm awed by his skills. That's a cool detail that his design incorporate realism. I thought the glasses are for the light tho? But maybe it's like those the Olympian gunners wore during the competition?

The dead REALLY haunting the narrative? Looking forward to it!

@takeshidude

Ok. Monthly publication are still grueling but at least its not as nightmarish with weekly mangakas. No wonder the quality is consistent with the art. Nightow was allowed to breathe.

You make a good point. '98 did have a bit of a mystery woven into it. We know Vash the Stampede - we follow his misadventures and people kept saying who he is ad nauseam in every episode. However, we don't really know know him for quite a long time. It's a different, but no less interesting, spin to the story.

Which kinda explains I'm misremembering some scenes and characterizations? The last third of '98 made a long lasting impression that I kinda forgot about Vash's horn dogginess.

[lurinatftbn]

If you’re down to answer another question like the music one, what are the characters’ favorite in-universe cuisines/culinary preferences? Or, are there any fun reasons why some characters like/dislike certain things as we see in the glossary?

Off the top of my head:

Utsu dislikes fish because it's ubiquitous in Itan cuisine and had a lot of it served to her poorly-prepared as a kid. I think it comes up in the text at some point, but her favorite food is layered pasta dishes like lasagna. (I know what you're thinking, and no, I didn't do it on purpose.)

Kam is a vegan, but obviously only for health reasons since they don't slaughter animals for meat in the setting. She likes very spicy food like chilis and curry - her favorite is stuffed jalapenos. She also likes crepes.

Ran also kinda likes spicy food, but isn't super passionate about cuisine and mostly just goes for low-effort stuff. She eats a lot of stir fry and dumplings.

Theo also worries about his longer-term health which is why he's on a low-carb diet, but renders this pointless by eating tons of chocolate and sweets all the time. He likes hot fudge cakes the best.

Ptolema just really likes meat. Her favorite is just a really well-seasoned blue steak, probably with blue cheese, and she also probably really enjoys whatever the equivalent of brazilian barbecue is.

I don't think I ever decided what foods Seth likes best except that he eats a lot of junk food. I do remember deciding at some point that he really likes almonds despite being allergic to them.

Ophelia is a pescetarian for cultural reasons. Beyond that, she loves trying all sorts of foods, though shellfish and mushrooms are her favorite ingredients.

Lilith is a hyper-picky eater and doesn't like most vegetables or anything too complicated or mixed together. She probably most enjoys very simple things like chicken nuggets, and only takes small bites so she isn't overwhelmed.

As comes up in the story, Bardiya is a recovering alcoholic, which is the reason for his preference note. I think I put somewhere that kebabs are his favorite food.

Ezekiel dislikes onions because of their slimy and crunchy texture. He likes really straightforward food like Sunday roasts, which in-setting would mean he prefers Rhunbardic cuisine, though he'd never admit it.

Fang will eat anything under the sun, but also doesn't care that much about food in the grand scheme of things. Left to their own devices, they will cook everything into some kind of omelette and think it's great.

Linos doesn't like shellfish because, like Su, he ate a lot of it prepared badly when he was young. He enjoys participating in prestige/fine dining, especially for Ysaran and Viraaki food, more for the sense of being part of a cultural moment than the actual flavor.

Neferuaten likes foods like beyaynetu (or, like, pizza) designed specifically to be eaten communally. On her own she mostly just eats salad, though she has extremely specific opinions about wine and whiskey.

Durvasa likes to grow and preserve his own food, and his favorite is dal soup. He also has extremely specific opinions, though only about whiskey. He doesn't like red meat because he dislikes the idea that he's eating the flesh of a one-living being, even if it's replicated.

Zeno technically does not have a diet, and is sustained nutritionally by other means. He enjoys the taste of very indulgent foods like foie gras and controversial food like cultured human meat. He thinks Viraaki food is 'stinky' and 'greasy'.

Hamilcar does not eat except with company, which is why his entry says N/A. He can't taste food in the way he could when he was young, and he finds it upsetting.

Anna enjoys sushi, but is too old to eat much at all.

Mehit theoretically likes the kind of high-concept Saoic cuisine described by Ran early in the story, but is not a very good cook, so mostly eats things like baked potatoes and fried rice. This is partly why Lilith is the way she is, but only like, 20%.

Balthazar skips breakfast because otherwise he ends up overeating, since he's the type who can just keep going long beyond what's healthy. He's the sort of person who enjoys bizarre high-calorie flavors like fried squid dipped in ice cream.

[sugarywishes]

Could you go a bit more into your plans and the role of Elizabeth & Even in the future of your AU? I'm curious to learn a bit more about how their respective roles change things, as well as how it will end up playing out with Micheal & William also involved on the whole...

Of course! Answers below as usual.

So I'm trying really hard to not fully expose every detail of the Security Breach portion of this rewrite, but the gist of it is Glitchtrap/William, and the Afton kids return for a grand finale! And unfortunately Gregory, Vanessa, and GlamFred have to be in the middle of it all. (Which means HW 2, Secret of the Mimic or whatever games they'll be making in the future will likely not be added to this thing, unless I really like it but it's likely I won't lmao) (RUIN-ED is in a complicated situation in this rewrite, it's technically now an AU spinoff, that's not canon to the security breach section but is still related to it, but I'm over complicating things here, I'll explain it in other post!)

And as some of you know in this section of the rewrite/AU, Glitchtrap will use Gregory as a replacement body for Evan to inhabit to come back to Earth, and boy are they BOTH upset about this! (My Security Breach portion will include Gregory's family, the Casas, and they'll get a chance to interact with Evan a lot too, since they don't know that Gregory's kind of being possessed rn)

Speaking of the Casas, EVERYONE in that family serves as a 'mirror' to the Aftons (that does not mean they share the same personalities or anything, they're just the counterparts for story telling purposes, and I mean VERY important story telling purposes!) Julian is the 'William', Rebecca is the 'Clara', Gregory is the 'Evan', and Monica is the 'Michael'. You may notice that Elizabeth wasn't included in the line up (originally, before RUIN-ED came out, there were many theories that Cassie could be Gregory's twin sister and I was ALL for it because then I could finally have Lizzie have her own Casas counterpart, and then turns out she wasn't related to him, so I had to rewrite things unfortunately 😔) So now, VANESSA is the Elizabeth counterpart.

Going back to Evan, he HATED coming back, when he did originally wake up in Gregory's body, he had a full blown panic attack and was horrified by his surroundings, cause yk he was freaked out by Glitchtrap, an 8 foot tall gay ass bear, a white woman and a teenage girl who looked too similar to his brother whom he only remembers MURDERED HIM, that can really overwhelm someone! (Btw, Mike had been fully anticipating his father's return, but he didn't think Evan and Elizabeth would come back because he thought they moved on, they definitely did not!)

After a whole rescue operation (and losing someone during it, not a death though.) Gregory/Evan will go through a lot of trials and tribulations through family matters and trauma. Again, I'm trying not to spoil a lot about this section since it's pretty crazy, but they do become friends! They will be each other's first ever friends, actually, since Cassie won't be in this rewrite. SORRY ☹️ she will be important in the RUIN-ED AU/spinoff though! (Yk the one with the stupid ass kids/ocs)

For Elizabeth, she will end up attempting to possess Vanessa (although it was not part of William's original plan, and who knows? It could work.) I really want to say more details but I must restrain myself from doing so. She will be an antagonist along with Will, she's gonna cause some evil shit, and she'll get a redemption arc because it's what she deserves! (Yk after she learns her lesson) And there is actually a reason why she and Evan even have relationships with the MCI/KCI kids, even if Liz didn't actually meet them when she was still Baby. Let's just say, the afterlife prison for her was not cool! Thank goodness she managed to escape too.

And yeah, tons of Afton family drama is relevant in this too, it intertwines with the Casas family own trauma.

I'd really like to discuss more about what exactly will happen, believe me. But I'm saving all that for when I get to it! (And also because, I'm still working on it!)

[hbyrde36]

Chapter 9!

Steve Harrington: Vampire Hunter

Clandestine meetings at the Waffle House

ao3 link

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8

Steve merged onto the highway at the first possible opportunity. It served the dual purpose of getting them as far the fuck away from that cemetery as possible, while also getting them to their meeting on time.

“I’m surprised you didn’t want to stay back and try to kill as many of those things as we could. You’re usually more worried about leaving innocent bystanders in the line of fire and all that.”

“Well for one thing, Brenner is controlling them somehow, so I don't think they’ll go too far without orders. Alsooo…” Steve trailed off as he dialed a number on his cell, allowing the call to connect to the car since he was the one driving. 

“Preternatural investigations hotline, how can I help you?” An overly perky voice answered when the call connected.

“Hi, I'd like to report a pack of rabid ghouls at Thatcher’s cemetery.”

“Oh my, that is serious. Can you give me your name and a few details, sir?”

“Sorry, I might lose you, I'm about to go through a tunnel and..”

Click.

Nancy snorted. “You think the PD will be able to handle all that?”

Steve offered her a half shrug. “Hopper knows what he’s doing. Maybe if we’d have had a flamethrower or something we could have made a dent in their numbers, but otherwise they would have overwhelmed us in no time.”

-

Within 15 minutes they were pulling up to park in front of the Waffle House. Steve hadn’t really thought about it at the time, but the wide panoramic windows of this place left the diners inside kind of exposed, especially at night. He supposed he’d have to trust that if the wererat king was comfortable enough to suggest this location to meet, he must have thought it was safe. 

The bell above the door dinged as they entered the restaurant, and Steve quickly scanned the occupied tables for a familiar face, realizing a little too late that he had no idea what Gareth looked like in human form. 

He gently coaxed a little bit of his power to the surface of his mind. He didn’t really know what he was doing when he tried stuff like this. He was comfortable enough with raising the dead, obviously, and he knew he had a little immunity from vampire shit even before Eddie got his hooks in, but he also knew deep down that he had other abilities too, one’s he mostly ignored, and he could probably sense the wereanimal’s energy if he tried. 

Steve just…didn’t love that part of himself. It all felt a little too woo-woo to him, unreliable, intangible. He preferred to work in the physical world. You see a vampire, you kill it. Shotgun, silver blades, stake and hammer, you can feel what you're doing with your bare hands, and see if with your own eyes. He might have to start getting used to more of the mystical stuff though, because the way things were going in his life, he would need all the leg-up he could get. 

The magic flared to life, or that’s how he imagined it in his mind's eye, like a flame. He immediately sensed the presence of two supernatural beings in the corner of the room. Unfortunately, he sensed them a little too strongly, likely due to the boost he got from his link to Eddie, and it threw him quite literally off balance. Nancy steadied him with a strong grip to his upper arm, and he smiled at her inbashful apology. 

Every eye in the place was on them then, and Steve cursed himself for not practicing more. If he lived through this he’d have to find a teacher or something. Maybe Wayne would be able to help, of course that would mean being willing to explain about the whole human servant business. A problem for another day.

The two boys in the corner were looking right at him. Both had short to medium length brown hair, and slightly mischievous eyes, and yea they were definitely adults in the technical sense, but they reminded Steve too much of the kids he used to babysit for him to call them men in his own head. 

Steve tilted a nod in their direction and moved towards the table, knowing Nancy would follow.

On their approach, the taller of the two boys stood, extending a hand to each of them in turn. “I’ll spare us all the embarrassment of you trying to guess, and just tell you that I’m Gareth. I’m aware that you’ve only met me in rat form. This is my partner, Will.” 

The other boy, Will, offered them each a small shy smile and a wave, while he kept himself tucked tightly into his king’s side.

“This is Nancy, she’s working with me on this particular..project.”

Gareth waved them to the chairs on the other side of the table as he took his own seat.  Will, in an overly formal gesture considering they were in a hygienically questionable 24-hour diner, waited for everyone else to be seated before taking his own chair. It reminded Steve that Gareth was not just the leader of the wererats, he was their king, and maybe that distinction meant something more than he knew. 

Before they could get down to business, a server came by to ask if they were ready to order. Steve wasn’t sure if this would be that kind of a meeting, but when Gareth and Will each ordered a coffee and a meal, he and Nancy followed suit, neither having eaten all day. That was the moment Steve realized he didn’t feel the ravenous hunger that had been plaguing him recently. Was Eddie not pulling energy from him anymore? Had something happened to him? No, that didn’t feel right. Steve got the sense that he would know, somehow, if Eddie was dead. Maybe the vampire finally felt guilty about the whole thing. It didn’t matter, Steve reminded himself, Eddie was still a bad guy even if he felt bad for what he’d done. 

When the waitress finally walked away, Gareth asked, “So, what is it you think I can do for you, Harrington?” 

“I was hoping to convince you to lead us into whatever secret passageway you used to enter that basement room where you found me under the corroded coffin.”

“Not to be too blunt, but why would I do that? What's in it for us?” Gareth said, leaning forward to rest his elbows on the table. 

“You hate that Billy has power over you, right?

The rat king nodded.

“Show us the way in, and we’ll take care of that little problem for you.” Steve didn’t know Gareth that well, but he knew what it felt like for someone to have power over you, and he was willing to bet that the wererats would do anything to get rid of the master of the city.

Gareth tilted his head side to side, making a little show out of considering his offer. “You already know where he is. Just get in yourselves.”

“We can’t just waltz in the front door. Even in broad daylight, especially in the daylight, Billy will have guards there. We’d be killed on sight.”

“Hmm, true enough. How do I know I can trust you? If you fail, and he finds out we helped, me and my people will be in an even worse position than we are now.”

The waitress appeared, balancing a tray of coffee mugs and forcing them to put their conversation on hold. Steve smiled at the woman gratefully and sipped at his cup. He’d been tired enough on his own after waking from his too short nap, and his fatigue had only gotten worse with the fading adrenaline from the fight with Brenner’s ghouls. 

Nancy took the opportunity to speak up when their table was left alone again. “I know you don’t know me, and you barely know Steve, but this is what we do, and we’re damn good at it. When I say I can promise you we will end the master of the city, I mean it.”

Gareth subtly sniffed at the air as he looked her over, considering.

“I can only get you in there, we can’t help any more than that. I can keep the small rats and my people from coming to Billy’s aid for a while, but we wouldn’t be able to fight him beside you. His pull on our kind is too strong.”  

“That's no problem.” Steve was quick to comment. “Just sneak us in and we’ll do the rest.”

“Okay. I'll do it.” Gareth agreed.

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me, Steve. There's a part of me that truly thinks I'll be sending you to your deaths. If you survive this, I'll be shocked.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence there, Gare.”

The rat king blinked at Steve for a moment, and then burst out laughing. “When do you want to go in?” He asked.

“Tomorrow, after sunrise” He didn’t want to waste any more time. 

Gareth raised an eyebrow, clearly not expecting them to want to get to it so quickly. “I like you, Harrington, I hope you don’t die.” 

Their food arrived shortly after they finished making arrangements to meet in the city at dawn. As it so often does, the act of sharing a meal let the small group relax around each other a bit more than they might have otherwise. The only exception was Nancy, who remained quiet throughout. It didn’t surprise Steve in the least, she was one of the most private people he knew, and for good reason, though he was sure she was listening intently to every word the others shared. 

Gareth told the story of how he and the younger boy met. He had just won a fight against a challenger to his crown, and Joyce, Will’s mom, was the nurse who patched him up. Luckily, Will had taken his older brother’s place in assisting her that day. The two boys took one look at each other and the rest was history. 

Steve didn’t have much he was willing to share by way of a personal life, but he happily told a few stories about his years babysitting back in his hometown, finally letting slip that Gareth and Will reminded him of his young charges, a fact that made even the shy boy laugh. 

“Not to give too many of our secrets away, but we’re older than we look.” Gareth said.

Steve couldn't help but to tease them. “Oh I'm sorry. Here I was thinking you were a young spry 20 year old. What is it then, a decrepit 24, 25?”

“I’m only 35” Will said with a little smirk. “But,my king is…” Before the boy could finish, Gareth slapped a hand over his mouth. 

“You know it’s rude to share a man’s age!” He gasped with exaggerated offense.

Steve gaped at them. “You can’t be serious.” 

Jesus, he was younger than both of them. He tried to wrap his head around that fact as Gareth chuckled. “A little tip for you, Harrington, wereanimals age slower than humans. Don’t underestimate one of us just because we look young.”

“Duly noted.”

-

When all was said and done, Steve and Nancy decided to go back to her hotel in the city to get some rest before the morning, agreeing that it was the safer option than Steve's house with Brenner still on the loose. 

Her room housed only a single king bed, which would have been awkward with any of Steve’s other exes. The fact that it wasn’t was a testament to how nonexistent romantic feelings were between the two of them. Steve enjoyed his first dreamless sleep in far too long, and woke rested and refreshed. If he also rose with a vague sense of disappointment, he chose to just push that feeling way, way down. 

-

The meeting place wound up being, more specifically, behind a dumpster in an alley next to a restaurant, which was fitting, and sort of hilarious, Steve thought, considering they were about to be led underground by giant rats. 

Gareth and Will were there, which surprised Steve. He had assumed the king would put some lackey’s on the job. He was further surprised when the middle aged woman who joined them turned out to be Joyce. Steve took an instant liking to her, she was very friendly and simply exuded kindness. 

She toted along a backpack with her that, when he saw the first aid symbol on the outside, Steve realized must hold medical supplies. The wererats were clearly planning on him and Nancy getting hurt today, at the very least. He decided to view the gesture in a glass-half-full kinda way. If they were planning on administering medical attention, that must mean they think he had a chance, right? No point in bandaging a dead man, after all.

There was one more addition to their group, an older boy named Jonathan who quickly identified himself as Will’s older brother. It seemed this was a family affair. 

All present and accounted for, and heavily armed in the case of Steve and Nancy, Gareth led the way down through the cellar doors and into the basement of the building. From there, they entered the city’s sewer system through a grate near the floor. Steve grimaced as they sloshed through the foul liquid in the dark and tried very hard not to think about how gross it all was. 

Now that they were in the tunnels, Gareth, Will, and Jonathan all transformed into their rat forms, only Joyce remaining human. Their senses were stronger this way, that much Steve knew, and it would be helpful for getting the group where they needed to go. 

It didn’t take as long as Steve expected to reach their destination, only about an hour or so. The trip could have been made quicker if they’d been willing to run, but there seemed to be an unspoken agreement amongst the group to try and splash as little as possible, for obvious reasons. 

Gareth approached an opening, not unlike the one they had used to gain access from the other building, and waved Steve and Nancy closer. 

“The Corroded Coffin’s basement is through there. We’ll wait down here in the tunnels until dark. If you’re not out by then, I'll assume you failed. If you do manage to kill Billy, I'll know, and we’ll come out to help you if we can.”

Steve nodded at him and yanked on the grate, it was loosened just like the other one. The bars were meant to be welded in place, but someone had come along and cut it free. It could be propped up to give the illusion, but pulled away easily. 

He went through first, not knowing if the room would be occupied, though Nancy tried to pull rank as the better shot. The opening was small and close to the floor, and they had to all but crawl to get through. 

On the other side, Steve stood up and started across the room, coming to an abrupt stop as he stared at a point on the wall.

“What is it?” Nancy asked, hackles up.

“This is where Chrissy died, chained to the wall like an animal.” Steve’s voice broke.

Nancy clenched her jaw. “I’m sorry, Steve, really I am, but we can’t afford for you to be distracted right now.”

It would’ve been easy to get mad at her, in fact he wanted to. Anything to stave off the tidal wave of sadness and guilt that was building up inside of him for failing to save the girl.

But Nancy was right, and there was no reason to take it out on her. He did his best to push it all deep, deep down, to be dealt with at a later date. He felt like he’d been doing a lot of that lately, and he wasn’t looking forward to the day when he finally had to unpack it all. 

“Sorry. I’m good now. Let’s go.”

Steve took the lead again, quietly tiptoeing up the stairs and out to the hall. Luckily, the door wasn’t locked. They would have had to shoot the handle off otherwise, he realized, and that would have entirely defeated the purpose of the sneaky entrance. 

He peeked around the corner, shocked to find the immediate area deserted. The vampires would be asleep for the day, but still, he had expected someone to be lurking. Heather at the very least should have been around here somewhere. She was Billy's servant after all, and as a technical human she wasn’t a slave to the sun like he was. 

The pair took their time traversing the halls and checking doors until they finally found the coffin room. Each box sat on a little stone dais to keep it up off the floor. They were all different, some larger, some smaller. A few were made of natural wood, stained and adorned with cheap brass fittings. Others were painted and polished to a high shine, more like the modern one’s Steve was accustomed to seeing. 

They went for the closest box first. Nancy covered him with her shotgun as Steve opened the lid. He didn’t know this vampire’s name, but recognized him as Chrissy’s overly enthusiastic dance partner from that first night at the club, the one who had looked so perturbed when Steve evaded his mind tricks. He was also present for the debacle in the small graveyard the night of the freak party, and was definitely on Billy’s side of things.

Steve drew a long silver knife from its sheath and readied himself to plunge it into the thing’s chest. That, and a few twists of the blade would shred his heart. A shotgun would be easier, but it would also be messy and loud. He’d have to cut the head off at some point anyway, so the knife would be getting used tonight one way or another. 

Nancy stopped him with a hand on his elbow, before he could strike. “I might have an easier way. Have you ever used silver nitrate?”

Steve hesitated, lips pursed.“Like, from the movie Blade? Does that work?”

Nancy rolled her eyes, pulling a small vial of silver liquid and a syringe out of an inner pants pocket to show him. “Yea it works. Any idea how old this one is?”

“No more than a hundred.”

“Better go for a full dose then.” She filled the syringe, leaning over the body as Steve covered her with his own handgun full of silver bullets. 

Nancy unceremoniously jammed the needle into the vampire’s neck and depressed the plunger. The body began to twitch, startling Steve, but it fell limp again after only a minute or two of spasms. He stared at it, waiting for some sign that the creature was really dead. When it didn’t seem like anything else was going to occur, he finally took his eyes off of the body to look at Nancy.

“Is that it?” He asked, sounding more than a little disappointed.

“Pretty much, yeah. Why, what did you think was going to happen?”

“I don’t know, just, something more than that I guess?”

Nancy crossed her arms over her chest. “You were expecting him to blow up, weren’t you.”

“I absolutely was expecting that. Yes.” Steve grinned.

She shook her head but smiled back at him. “You’re an idiot, Steve Harrington.”

“Maybe, but I'm still cutting his head off before we leave here. I’m not taking any chances.”

“Suit yourself.” She shrugged. 

The next coffin they checked was empty. It probably belonged to one of the murdered vamps, Tommy maybe, or at least that’s what Steve told himself. Surely it was too early in the day for any of them to be awake

The next was similarly unoccupied, and then they found Neil. 

Again Nancy had pointed her gun at the casket while Steve raised the top. He curled his lip in a snarl when he laid eyes on the monster’s face. Not only had this piece of shit bespelled and threatened one of Steve's friends, but he bore half of the responsibility for Chrissy’s death. He almost regretted doing it like this, when the vampire was all but helpless. A real, god's honest fight would be much more satisfying to his craving for revenge, but it would also be needlessly risky.

This time, it was Steve who loaded up the syringe. Nancy had advised that at Neil’s age they should do two full doses of the liquid silver just to be safe. Steve stuck the needle deep in his neck, quickly administering the first shot, anxious to refill it. Before he could so much as pull the needle back out, however, Neil sat up, eyes still closed as if he were half asleep. The move would have sent Steve sprawling to the ground, but as the vampire surged upwards, he gripped Steve by the throat, lifting him clear off the ground.  

His ears started to ring as he fought to think through the panic of having his airway cut off. He grabbed on to the vampire's wrist with both hands, pulling to take as much of the pressure off his neck as he could. He kicked his feet, trying desperately to dislodge himself, but Neil’s grip was like a vice, and it became clear that Steve wouldn’t be able to get free unless he chose to let go, or died. Fuck. 

Nancy appeared suddenly on Steve’s other side, the only vantage point in the room that would give her a clear shot without risking him. She aimed, and fired nearly point-blank into the side of Neil’s head. Red fluid splattered across Steve's face, and immediately the hand that had been holding him up let go. He crumpled to the ground, sucking in greedy gulps of air as he wiped the  blood from his eyes. 

So distracted by his own situation, Steve didn’t realize for a moment that Neil hadn’t entirely gone down. His head was a red mess of meat and bone, but his body hadn’t quite gotten the memo yet, and it was grappling hard with Nancy as she tried to gain enough distance from the thing to get another shot off. 

Though he was still a little lightheaded, with spots dancing across the edges of his vision, Steve waded into the fray, carefully slicing through the air with his blade to capture the thing’s attention. He got a few good cuts in and it was distraction enough to give Nancy time to line up her shot. 

“Steve, move!” She howled.

He didn't need to be told twice. Steve threw himself down and to the side. He even put his hands over his head for good measure. Nancy’s second shot rang out, deafeningly loud in the enclosed space. He hadn’t even registered the sound of it the first time. Steve shuddered, realizing how close he must have been to passing out to have not noticed. 

Her bullet hit home, going straight through Neil's chest and out the other side, leaving an impressive exit wound. Finally, mercifully, the body fell limp to the ground. He was dead, permanently this time.

Nancy pulled Steve to his feet, scanning him top to bottom.

“How are you holding up?” She asked.

“I’m fine.” He said, voice rough from the damage to his throat. 

She stared at him silently, unblinking.

He sighed. “It looks worse than it is. Come on, let's get this done.”

Steve limped to the front of the room, where the final three coffins were placed. The one in the center, a glossy black lacquer number with gilded handles, had to belong to Billy. Not only because it was the fanciest of the bunch, but because the two that flanked it were wrapped in heavy chains with small crosses dangling from their links like some sort of twisted charm bracelet. 

He could tell Nancy was considering blasting a hole through the side of the box with her shotgun, anything to avoid another jack-in-the-box style surprise, but even if she did it would never be a killing blow. 

Steve approached the coffin, holding his breath as he lifted the lid. He wished he could say he was surprised when he looked down to find nothing but white satin, but he wasn’t.

“Looking for me?” Billy drawled from the back of the room. 

He and Nancy turned towards the voice at the same time, both lifting their weapons to eye level on instinct. 

“You didn’t really think at my age that I needed to sleep off the entire day still, did you?”

Steve gulped audibly. Up until he saw Neil’s form move in the daylight hours just a few moments ago, he had thought that. 

“Aw, it seems you still have so much to learn, Harrington. Why don’t you put those silly little guns down and we can work this out.”

“There’s nothing to work out, Billy.” Steve said through gritted teeth.

“Sure there is! Look, I know I killed your girl. I would say I was sorry about that, but I don't like to make a habit out of lying. As far as I see it, now that you’ve killed my father, we’re even! Trust me, I don't even mind that you took him out. Saved me the trouble of doing it myself some day.”

“Don’t move.” A female voice said suddenly to Steve's right. 

He glanced over to find the human servant, Heather, standing behind Nancy, holding an old fashioned pistol to the back of her head. Her arms were already in the air, and Heather snatched the shotgun from her with her free hand, tossing it to the floor. 

“You better drop your weapon too, Steve-O, wouldn’t want Heather to get nervous and shoot your pretty friend there by accident.”

Steve glared at him, but dropped the gun and the knife he was holding to the ground. He had other knives on him, they could have those. 

Brenner appeared in the doorway behind Billy. He didn’t look particularly happy to be there. 

“Oh good, you’re finally here.” Billy snarked, not turning around but still clearly addressing the man. ”Be a good boy and help Heather check these two over for more weapons.”

Brenner scowled at the back of Billy’s head, but quickly crossed the room to do as he was told. 

Heather started to frisk Nancy, while Brenner approached Steve. 

“Does he know what you’ve done?” Steve whispered to the older man.

“Shut up.” Brenner hissed as he kicked Steve’s legs apart, doing a much more thorough job at searching him than Steve had been expecting. 

He couldn’t be sure if Heather had found all of Nancy’s goodies, but unfortunately, Brenner had found all of his. Even the small knife that he liked to keep tucked in his boot was now living in the other man’s pocket.

“Would you like to see what we’ve been up to while you two were busy sneaking around and killing my father?” Billy asked.

Steve didn’t respond, it wasn’t like he had an actual choice in the matter, so why entertain the vampire with an answer?

“You really know how to take all the fun out of things, you know that pretty boy?” Billy huffed. “Escort them to the basement.” He commanded the two lackeys.

Steve and Nancy found themselves being roughly pushed out into the hall, and he didn’t need three guesses to know where they were going. Back to the same fucking torture chamber of a basement room he was becoming all too familiar with. He wondered if they ever called it a dungeon, it was a fitting name for the awful space.

The small group paraded down the stairs and stood in an awkward half circle.

“Come on out, sweetheart.” Billy called towards one of the dark corners.

There was a soft shuffling sound as something moved in the darkness. Slowly, a small figure with a petite frame and strawberry-blonde hair was revealed under the single dim light that hung in the middle of the room.

Steve sucked in a sharp breath. He should have seen this coming, in hindsight, but this was cruelty beyond his imagining, even for someone like Billy. 

“Chrissy?” His voice broke as he whispered her name, before rounding on Billy and shouting nearly right in his face. “Why?! Why would you do this?!”

The motherfucker smiled like a Cheshire cat. “To torture you mostly, why, is it working?”

Steve raged inside. He wanted to lay Billy out, to spit in his smug face, but he had no wish to set the guy off. Had it only been his own life on the line, he might have risked it, but with Nancy here he had to hold it in. He forced himself to take several steps back.

Billy laughed, so obviously amused with Steve’s struggle to control himself. “Actually, to be honest, I had Martin raise her before you arrived. As an animator I'm sure you’re aware that murdered zombies have a tendency to pursue their murderers, and since Neil landed the final killing blow… let’s just say, I thought I'd give Chrissy here a fair shot to get back at him while he was asleep for the day. Your showing up to witness her impromptu resurrection was just a happy accident.”

Steve gaped, somehow still surprised at the vampire's level of depravity. “He would have destroyed her all over again. That’s…sick”

Billy shrugged. “When you’ve been alive as long as I have, you have to find new and interesting ways to entertain yourself.” 

The vampire’s mouth twisted into a predatory grin as his eyes began to glow with blue fire. Steve averted his gaze. 

“Speaking of which.” Billy continued. ”Drop to your knees and crawl to me, human.”

Steve stared at the floor and braced himself for the pull of Billy’s power, though knew they had cleaned the bite thoroughly. He felt nothing.

The vampire growled, and Steve chanced a look at his face. He looked pissed.

“What have you done?”

“Just a little routine cleaning with holy water.

”I suppose next time I'll just have to keep you with me to stop that from happening. Or, if you prefer, I could make you into one of us. You could take Tommy's place. It’s really the least you can do since your lack of finding the vampire murderer led directly to his death.”

Steve shot a sideways glance at Brenner’s nervous face before he spoke. “I’d die first”

“One way or another that’s where we’re headed, baby boy.”

Chrissy, who’d been hovering near the edge of the group, mostly looking around in confusion, seemed to finally realize where she was. Steve heard her gasp as she ran her hands lightly over a spot on the wall. He watched in agony as she clawed at her throat, clearly remembering the moment it had been ripped apart, and screamed. She collapsed to the floor sobbing.

Steve tried to lunge for her, desperate to offer what little comfort he could to this echo of his fallen friend, but Heather grasped him by the back of his shirt, shoving her little pistol roughly into his ribs.  

“Do you really think i’ll just stand here and watch you torture that poor girl even in death?” Steve snapped, whirling on Heather with a vicious snarl. “You want to shoot me for it? Fucking shoot me then!”

Billy stepped between them, suddenly the picture of cool, calm, and collected. “Let’s just everyone calm down. Why don’t we play a little game.”

“Why?” Steve spat. He didn’t understand why they didn’t just kill him already. Billy knew he was never going to join him willingly. Was he really this enamored with playing with his food?

“Maybe i just want to see how good you really are, besides, if you win i’ll let you comfort poor Chrissy there.”

What other choice did he have? 

“Fine.”

Steve was given back one of his knives and told he was to fight Heather, who had apparently trained in many forms of combat over her years with Billy. The rules were simple. If she killed him, she won. If Steve drew her blood, he won. It almost sounded like a fair fight.

Heather looked like a small, unassuming young girl, but Steve knew now more than ever just how much looks could be deceiving, so he didn't let his guard down one bit as they circled each other.

He was pretty good with a blade, Wayne had insisted on training him heavily with them even more so than firearms, because ‘knives can’t run out of bullets, son’.

Still, Heather was better, and she managed several shallow cuts on both of his arms before he could get anywhere near her. She was fast, and she was toying with him. He needed to find a way to gain the upper hand here, and quickly.

“I know who the murderer is.” Steve said casually, never once taking his eyes off his opponent. For a moment, all movement in the basement ceased except for him, and Heather. 

“What did you say?” Billy hissed.

“I know who killed your vampires.” Steve reiterated.

Martin spoke over him. “Don’t listen to him, surely he’ll say anything now to save his own skin.” 

“Quiet, Martin. Tell me who it is, Harrington, or I'll kill your partner.”

Steve risked a glance at Nancy then, only to find that Billy had stepped up behind her, her hair fisted tightly in his hand. 

He opened his mouth to answer, but Brenner interrupted shouting, “NO!” As he pulled Steve’s own handgun out of his suit pocket and aimed.

The room fell into chaos. Billy dropped his grip on Nancy and appeared in front of Brenner like magic. The man had no time to react before the vampire reached up with both hands and snapped his neck. 

Heather had finally looked away to watch her master work, and Steve used the opportunity to step into her, and plunged his blade deep in her chest. She wasn’t a vampire, but she was tied to one, and Steve was betting she could be killed like one too. 

She stared at him wide-eyed, as she stumbled and fell to the ground. Steve plucked the weapon she’d been using out of her hand and slid it in Nancy’s direction. She caught it, and they both turned in tandem to face Billy. 

The vampire had dropped to his knees, weakened as his human servant lay dying. It was everything Steve had hoped for. He’d been told that a human servant would live as long as their vampire master. Which, if you thought about it, translated to, if their master died - so did they. Steve had thought if that was the case, then maybe the reverse could also be true. 

Billy tried to gather his power, Steve could feel it in the air, but he was too weak for tricks. Nancy made a go for him first, lunging and slashing but unable to make contact before Billy grabbed her arm, spinning her hard into the nearest wall. Steve came at him from behind as he threw her, aiming as best he could for the man’s heart. The knife penetrated his body, but he must have missed the mark. 

Billy heaved himself off of Steve's blade with a grunt, only to be met with Nancy once again in front of him, having recovered quickly from ricocheting off the wall. She jammed her blade down into his chest and he tipped sideways to the floor. Nancy remained above him, holding the knife in place while Steve scrambled for his gun where it had fallen out of Brenner’s hands. 

He leveled the weapon at Billy’s head.

“Nance!”

It’s all he had to say. She pushed with her feet, scooting back on her butt to get some distance from the half-dead vampire. 

Steve screamed as he shot round after round into Billy’s head until the gun clicked empty, and Nancy had to force it out of his hand. He’d lost time somewhere, he hadn’t seen her get up, let alone approach him. 

He blinked at her, and watched as she knelt by Heather's unmoving body to check for a pulse. 

“She’s dead.” Nancy said simply.

The vampire’s body was similarly still. His head was utterly destroyed and Nancy’s knife was still sticking up out of his chest. Steve would want to burn the body to make sure, just as a precaution, but it seemed Billy’s reign of terror was finally over. 

Steve made his way slowly over to where Chrissy still cowered in the corner, not wanting to spook her when she was already terrified. He sat down next to her and took one of her small hands in both of his. 

She looked at him with sad eyes, though she was no longer crying. “I’m really dead, aren’t I?”

Steve whimpered. “I'm so sorry.”

She fell against him, and Steve wound his arms around her, rocking them back and forth for a long time. There was so much he wanted to say to her, and none of it was good enough, so he just held her until she was ready to let him go. 

Eventually she pulled back and looked Steve in the eyes. “Can you put me back? I know I'm not supposed to be here, I want to go back.”

“Yea, I can do that.”

-

When Steve returned from laying Chrissy to rest, the wererats had come. Joyce wanted to treat him, but there were still a few things to be dealt with before his work here was done.

Brenner lay in the spot where he dropped, neck bent at a very wrong angle, but still alive. Steve didn’t know much about the magic that had been keeping this man alive, but he did recall an old rule of thumb he learned from a colleague. A spell can usually be reversed by the opposite of whatever is used to feed it. He’d always liked the idea, it had a certain amount of poetic symmetry. The power in Brenner's necklace was fueled by vampire blood, and what’s the opposite of vampire blood? Steve hoped he knew the right answer.

He knelt by Brenners head and held a shaking hand out towards the man’s throat. The necklace had fallen out of his shirt in the fall, and Steve dragged one of his bleeding cuts along the chain, making sure to leave a fat droplet of the red liquid on the cluster of stones that made up the pendant. 

Steve watched the light fade from Brenner’s glassy eyes and felt no satisfaction. He just felt empty. 

Joyce again tried to coax Steve to sit down and let her look him over, but he still refused and told her to check on Nancy instead. 

He felt eyes on his back as he climbed the stairs, but ignored them, he had one more thing to take care of before he could rest.

-

Back in the coffin room, Steve searched until he found a key hanging from a hook on the wall. He unlocked the chains from each of the boxes and dragged them off. He knew who was in the two coffins, he could have left right then knowing that when the sun came down Dustin and Eddie would finally be free to leave their confinement, but he couldn’t walk away. Not yet.

He opened the lid of the first coffin and sucked in a breath when Eddie’s face was revealed to the lamp light. His eyes were closed, and if he wasn’t so still Steve could have believed he was sleeping peacefully, but that sort of stillness wasn’t natural. This wasn’t sleep, this was death, temporary as it might be.

He stared down at the vampire's beautiful face and wondered what the right thing to do was. He thought he could save himself a lot of trouble in the long run if he took care of Eddie now. It would be easy to kill him while he was sleeping, while Steve wouldn’t have to look into those big brown eyes. While he wouldn’t have to listen as those pink lips that he’d become so familiar with in his dreams begged for his life. 

In the end it came down to Chrissy, and respecting her wishes. She wouldn't want this. She had trusted Eddie. He may have let her down as much as Steve had, but maybe he could be there for others, for Dustin. So, he replaced the lid and turned to the other coffin, hoping his decision wouldn’t come back to bite him in the ass. 

Dustin, Steve finds, when he opens the other coffin, looks a little more worse for wear than Eddie had. Of course, the younger vampire hadn’t had someone to feed off of while he was locked up. 

He knew he should go, but he couldn't stop staring at the boy’s face. Steve had been to a lot of funerals over the years, where the body of his loved one was put on display, but this was one of his kids. He knew Dustin wasn’t really dead, and that in just a few hours he would rise, and he would feed, and he’d be fine, but it still made Steve's chest tight to see him like this.

He heard the soft footfalls behind him as someone entered the room, but didn’t bother to turn around. He already knew it would be Nancy. 

When she reached his side and peered over the edge of the box, Steve tensed. 

“I hate that he’s done this to himself.” She said softly.

He watched her carefully through his peripheral vision. “Me too.”

Nancy frowned at him. “You can relax Steve, I'm not about to suggest we kill him or anything. I knew him too.”

He believed her, to an extent, but he also knew how much she hated vampires, and it worried him. She might let Dustin live for now, only to come back for him later.

“I’ve spent a little time with him over the past few days, Nance. He’s still Dustin. Almost infuriatingly exactly as you’d remember him, just, with fangs.” Steve explained, trying to keep the pleading tone out of his voice. 

“I know it might seem that way sometimes, Steve, but…”

“No, I'm serious. It’s him, and…you know I didn't talk to him, haven't talked to him since he transitioned. I thought I was doing the right thing, but all I did was rob us both of our friendship. Promise me you won’t go after him.”

“I won’t. I swear. I don’t think Mike would ever forgive me if I did.”

Steve wanted to say, I wouldn’t either, but he didn’t think he needed to.

“What about that one?” Nancy asked, pointing at Eddie's coffin. 

“That is, something I think I'll call - ‘better the devil you know’ - and all that jazz.”

“I hope you know what you’re doing there.” She said.

“Me too.”

-

Steve finally let Joyce treat him after that. The wererats promised to clean up the mess and take care of any remaining Billy supporters. Steve thanked them profusely, and soon he and Nancy were walking out the front door of the theater. He was forced to call Robin to pick them up, no uber or taxi would have stopped for them in their current state.

She picked them up, no questions asked, and she even let him get away with silence until they had dropped Nancy off at her hotel. They parted ways with a hug and Steve thanking her endlessly for her help. She assured him it was her pleasure, and that since the master of the city was in fact killed, she would still be getting paid by her client. If anything she should be thanking him, she assured him.

Once they were alone in the car, Steve filled Robin in on everything she’d missed. They didn’t even pick up his car, he was too tired to drive anyway. They could always get it the next day. 

He was still going over the play by play of their fight with Billy when they arrived at his house. Robin helped him inside and coaxed him right into the bath, sitting on the edge to keep him company and he finished his story. 

“What are you going to do about Eddie?” Robin asked, as she trailed her fingers through the bath water.

“I don’t know. Ignore him until I can find a way out of this mess?”

“Babe, is that, like, healthy?”

“I don’t know, I'm too tired to figure it out right now.”

All Steve could think about was getting out of the tub and falling into bed. He wouldn’t have minded some platonic best friend cuddles either, but he didn’t want to put Robin out even more than he had already. It turned out, he didn’t even need to ask.

“Do you want me to stay with you tonight?”

God he loved her.

“Please’

Chapter 10

Author's Note: This fic has two pretty definitive halves, since the au inspiration comes from two separate books. This chapter marks the end of part 1, and puts us at the halfway point of the original plans I had for this story. Now, I'm considering making this into a series to be continued past the end of the main fic. There will be a conclusion of sorts by the end of this, but there will still be so much that could be explored past that. Please, as we continue, let me know if you would like to see more when this main story is over.  As always, thanks so much for reading. I hope you enjoy this chapter, I can’t wait to dive into the back half of this fic!

[zannolin]

20 questions for fic writers

tagged by @beautyofsorrow, tagging @lordgrimwing @faebriel and anyone else who wants to do it!!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

publicly associated with my account, 45. in total, including a couple i orphaned before i knew you could put them on anon, 84 i believe. 85 if you count the two chapters of that leakira zine i wrote that are up there somewhere. i could be off. but i forgot how to get to where it shows me the total number and i can't be bothered lol.

2. What's your total A03 word count?

438,464 baby. maybe 500k in 2024? who knows.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

ones 90% of you have never heard of, at this point. it fluctuates depending on whatever i'm getting ideas for, but actively at the moment, the mullverse (mostly beyonders), resident evil, and lockwood & co, national treasure (might be done with that tho, i've exhausted my must-writes). i have other stuff knocking around, like life is strange, mona lisa smile, mlp, some more shazam, bendy and the ink machine, a tlou fic...but who knows.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

ugh. 1. in this fearful fallen place (i will be your home) 2. welcome home, theseus 3. sanctuary 4. i'll carry the weight of you, i swear 5. eat you alive. it says a lot that only one of those is still publicly listed on my profile. even then i'm tempted to put it on anon. they're only my top kudos'd by virtue of being from a big fandom. definitely not my best. at all. even within that fandom. free me and my stats page.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

not all of them, but i make an effort when comments are thoughtful or especially brighten my day. it's easier now because writing for smaller very niche fandoms you don't tend to get a lot so i don't feel overwhelmed or anything, but man responding is hard sometimes. i want people to know they made me happy, though, when they do. so i try.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

i mean there's that tododeku one where they both die brutally and were supposed to get married next week. there's also the batcat fic that i wrote solely for the purpose of killing bruce wayne (sorry). there's um. also the klance titanic (historical not titanic the movie) au i wrote ages ago. haha. yeah. anyway.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

all of them. hfdsjkhfs no i honestly couldn't tell you. i have a mike flanagan-ass idea of a happy ending these days. maybe three's a crowd? hell if i know.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

i've had a couple instances of people harassing me over them but never like. "your fic is so bad i hate it die". so maybe?? i'm too obscure to be getting hate at this point lol. who out here is gonna read beyonders fic just to comment mean things.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

i do not. i did try years ago. that notebook has since been put through the shredder and dumped into the recycling bin for good measure. (yes, it was that bad.)

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

technically no but i've thought about it sometimes. they've all promptly fled my head though so just trust me on this one.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

gee i hope not. there's been a lot of suspicious similarities in some old cases but like. that literally does not matter to me anymore idc. it's not straight up theft in any case so not to my knowledge ig?

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

again not to my knowledge but i do have blanket permissions for that if anyone ever wanted to. it's cool.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

back in the 2010s my friend and i were writing a warriors fic together. she did one chapter, i did one, etc. i've had collaborative aus as well (cat's cradle and whatnot) but not a collaboratively written fic for any of them. me and tam were writing the coma au together but we're no longer in the fandom for that anymore, rest in peace coma au you were genuinely wonderful. i'm not opposed to the idea of collab fics but they always feel like a lot of work and i'm way way way too anxious to approach anyone about them.

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

ah hell. i dunno. do i have to pick one?? like right in this moment i'd say locklyle and they've been here a hot minute (like. ten years almost) but i don't really have A Favorite I'd Choose Over Anyone Else.

15. What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

mm. penumbra anastasia au haunts me. i want it out of my wips folder. also wild geese is probably never getting finished ever. i do think i'll get split ends done eventually but that one's taking forever. as for ones not posted, well, rip the gospel tent au. i might try to convert it to a short story but lord. i don't know. and don't get me started on the final girl au or the empty grave possession au. throwing myself out a window. they'll never be done i'll never be free.

16. What are your writing strengths?

uh. i honestly don't know anymore. knowing exceedingly tedious canon details to the point where i can make all sorts of metaphors and allusions relevant to said canon? i really couldn't say. introspection i guess.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

yes. next question

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

i have an overbearing anxiety that i will fuck it up somehow since i am a monolingual american loser. if i ever did need to i would definitely see if there's any native speakers willing to help translate or whatever bc i am not relying on google translate for that.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

like liv, lord of the rings. i still have my first fanfic btw. it's written on tinkerbell notebook paper.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

it changes. if i were to be completely objective (or as close as i can get), completely removing my emotions on fandom from the equation, prob without anesthetic. because i think i constructed it just right. being a dirty little subjective, right now i think it's three's a crowd or swallowing jupiter or the swing of things. they're all wonderfully unhinged.

[astromechs]

hi! I wanted to make a request and you don't have to do it but, if it isn't too much trouble would you mind expanding your comments on Gamora's writing in vol 3 from an objective perspective?

I felt like you were getting at something I have been struggling with and that's figuring out a balance between what I didn't like and what was objectively not great writing. I saw the movie twice and both times left feeling like it was such a good film conclusion except for most of what happened with Gamora. A few friends said it's because Gamora technically isn't a guardian so she didn't get the same kind of treatment. But that doesn't make sense to me. From my understanding even villains need to be presented as fully realized people for it to be good writing. With Gamora it felt like she was given the most shallow character representation. It also felt like her main purpose in the film for most of the time was to be a physical manifestation of Peter's grief and something for him to work through that nobody else had any real attachment to or feelings about. Mostly because we were never given a good view of the inner workings of what Gamora had been through since coming to the future and what she's been feeling. And due to her relationship with Nebula getting as little development as possible. This seems like objectively bad writing to me. I also thought because Gamora has been the female lead and had a real purpose of her own in the movies, that was still something that could be done for her in vol 3 even if she's not exactly the same due to experience and even if she's not a guardian. It seems to me Yondu and Kraglin have had better writing in the past. Even when they weren't guardians in vol 2 they were presented as fully realized people who have complexity. Plus though she was reluctant and harsh at times Gamora still took risks for the team and I thought that deserved more recognition in the writing.

Also it felt like all the writing for her in Endgame was ignored. She might not be a guardian but she still stood up for her sister and took a stand against Thanos. She tried to encourage 2014 Nebula. All of the things Gamora went through in the movie were beyond overwhelming and they could have built sympathy around that. Instead I felt vol 3 often almost tried to villainize her so that she wouldn't be seen as the hero the guardians were and I want to be mindful of my words but some of the writing around that felt kind of sexist. She's not a villain. she's been put into a situation that's incredibly overwhelming and also awful because it comes on the back of her being previously murdered. In an interview Zoe Saldana said Gamora's dealing with a lot of confusion and Karen Gillian said Gamora's lost a lot of her healing and Nebula sees that and wants to help. I feel like these awesome possibilities were almost nonexistent in vol 3.

I apologize that what I'm trying to say is such an incoherent ramble. It's difficult to express what I'm struggling with and I'm trying not to jump to conclusions but a lot of the ways Gamora was handled compared to the other wonderful parts of vol 3 has me giving it a genuine side eye.

hi, no worries for the ramble! i enjoy reading all y'all's thoughts.

when you look at this story as presented from the first film, while this is generally an ensemble effort, there are three main characters that are focused on more than the others: peter, gamora, and rocket. they're the ones whose entry into the group you're following in the first film. in vol 2, each of these three characters is leading their own subplot, which all end up coalescing into the third act (as all good sets of subplots should), and each of the three characters have their own distinct character arc.

vol 3 has a big focus on rocket, but peter, as a main saga character, gets a well-articulated arc alongside rocket. these are two of the main players in these films, so that's well in keeping with the story that has been told thus far. but remember, gamora had a well-articulated arc in both vol 1 and vol 2, and was one of the three principal characters of this narrative, so suddenly... that's missing. gamora barely has an arc or really any focus at all, so the narrative structure that's been set up from the first film suddenly gets a bit wobbly, and doesn't quite feel in keeping with the rest of the story that's been told.

so i genuinely think, from a story perspective, this film merited more focus on gamora, as a main saga character. you can look at the whole story put together as a whole and peter has a throughline that makes sense, rocket has a throughline that makes sense, but gamora's is a total mess. and i think that makes the overall story just a bit weaker.

[traumasurvivorshelpingsurvivors]

TW: emotional/psychological abuse, dehumanization (<- main focus), neglect, physical abuse, mentions of starvation, mentions of sexual abuse, bad mental health(?)

Looking for: Advice, support, reassurance, to hear someone elses thoughts/reactions and resources if possible? (it's an oddly specific situation, so no big pressure on the resources!)



Sorry if this doesn't make too much sense, I know my situation is rather unique and unrelatable but I was hoping to hear some outside option please, I just.. am overwhelmed? I don't quite know how to be a real human.

With the first people I stayed in I wasn't allowed to learn to speak and I was given set tasks to do and there was a system. Didn't do the task? get punished. Make sure you stay in your room, don't make noise, don't have needs, don't try to be a person when you're a tool. Not saying it's healthy, but it made sense. I knew what to do and I knew what my role and position were. It didn't matter too much that they would forget to feed me or that my room was mostly bare and not quite.. clean, to put it one way. Or that they sometimes got too rough with me when punishing and nearly killed me multiple times. It just reinforced the rules. Do what you're told and leave the humans alone. Simple times.

The next people I lived with weren't as bad, comparatively. I'd say they're great, but compared to the average healthy parents I believe they'd be categorized as not so great? Out of all the kids that they had fostered eventually I was the last one remaining (rest got sent away because they didn't follow the rules enough). Once I had learned language enough I made a deal with them; I would do whatever they said as long as they didn't punish me. It mostly worked.

I did all the work they asked me to do, including helping raise my foster siblings (when they were still there), helping with construction work (power tools, lifting, design, etc), and helping with emotional support for the people (mostly the one) and her clients.

I was allowed a room and for a while allowed out of the house and when I was younger I was allowed to have full on back and forth conversations! But as I got older I was less worthy of privilege and deemed less human. According to them, and this is something I was (to a degree) raised with, I am "an alien subspecies masquerading as a human, and quite poorly at that".

It got to a point where I wasn't really allowed to speak much unless spoken to (no physical punishments, but I got many talkings to and told many.. unpleasant things, to put it one way), sometimes had my rights to things such as water or medication revoked when I wasn't completing my work fast enough (physical work outside), and for many years have had my diet semi-restricted to a 1-meal-a-day system.

It's odd, because the first people I lived with were far worse, but it seems more unfair the second people would behave in such a way?

But I managed to move out, literally by collecting all my things into a few suitcases and flying a far distance from them, and I don't know how to react?? Like I don't understand what people want from me. There's no clear rules in the expectations of behaviours, no orders or demands or anything of that such and I am very lost.

I'm well aware that I am technically human, but I don't know how to be a human. I was born and built to serve and take orders, I was literally a replacement for many, many other children that other adults didn't want (or could no longer have). But without the structure of clear expectations, no matter how badly they sometimes felt, I have no purpose.

What do I do without purpose? I don't have things I enjoy or hobbies or friends or a support network. I don't have wants or desires or dreams or goals. I literally cannot feel hunger, I barely feel the cold and I don't usually feel thirst. I can and have gone days without eating, I've gone days without drinking, I've gone days without sleep, I've gone weeks without ever speaking. But now I don't know what to do at all. I've managed to get a job so I do have income so I don't end up on the streets, but would that really be so bad?

I was 4 before I was taught how to speak instead of imitating the animals that raised me more than any human had up to that point. I'm used to it, it is what comes naturally to me. Humans make me uncomfortable, I don't like even knowing that they're in the same building as me, let alone seeing and interacting with them. I wish I wasn't expected to suddenly be one too, because I don't know how to do that, I was never given a guide. It's so draining and tiring, sometimes I wish I could sell myself to be a pet of some sort, at least I'd know what my role and how to fulfill it would be.

This is a bit of a mess, but do you have any guidance or advice or opinions or anything at all? I cannot really speak to anyone I somewhat know, especially any of the new people I may meet (and the rest I know are still in contact with the parents I got away from, and they all view those parents as amazing lol). Sorry if this is too heavy, I know that other humans never really understand what it's like to just.. not have such a vital piece of experience.

Hi anon,

I'm so sorry to hear about what you've been through.

It sounds like you were conditioned in various ways to essentially be subhuman. In your second living situation it sounds like you were subjected to child labor as well as parentification, and then as you grew up the punishments became more strict and cruel. I can see why you say this is more unfair in a way, especially considering the circumstances you came from.

I can't imagine how disoriented you must feel to be raised by people like that and then leave those spaces. I know it may be hard to believe, but most people, thankfully, aren't that horrible. I personally had a hard time realizing that most people aren't horrible after growing up around many reckless ones. It's very easy to fall into cynicism and nihilism with these kinds of experiences. But there is still the entire human population to compare them to, you know? I like to think that for every bad person there are two good people. This isn't to take away from your experience, but to help put things in perspective and hopefully provide some faith and hope in humanity.

I know it's not always affordable or accessible, but I think you may greatly benefit from having a therapist who can help you undo what you've been taught about your role in the world. Nobody else can define your purpose but you, and a therapist can help you wholeheartedly acknowledge this. You deserve to take up space, you deserve to do what you want to do. You don't deserve to be hurt or punished for human error.

I hope I could help. Please let us know if you need anything.

-Bun

[toa-arania]

At this point I just want to talk about Val more

My girl. My beloved Hot Mess Express. This fucking disaster of a woman.

Within a week of arriving in town, someone tried to murder her, and she responds by getting the closest anyone has ever come to actually knocking that bitch off her pedestal. Her friends made her promise not to keep fucking with her and now she is instrumental in their plan to fuck with her. She wants to punch all of them in the dick(s) but is too smug about having been right the whole time to say so.

She once accidentally contacted an eldritch entity.

She has given plants sentience and had to set them on fire because it ate a fairy.

Her sense of curiosity is cripplingly overwhelming to the point where she causes supernatural harm to people who try to obstruct her because she has a massive complex about how she absolutely has to know things.

She is one of the most arrogant people ever and is also incredibly jealous of how powerful the other witch is. She desires him carnally.

She frequently clarifies that she has never done anything stupid and is always right, and then proceeds to do something that was technically a smart idea but also goes catastrophically wrong. Technically she is right when she says she's always right and doesn't do stupid things because she agonisingly overthinks everything at mach twelve, but her magic is screwy and sometimes goes wrong in ways she can't predict. When this happens she tries to figure out how to do it on purpose.

There is a non-zero chance she will fall ass-backwards into lichdom.

She is planning to make a warlock pact with four demonstrably malicious gods and is utterly convinced that she will be in control of the situation.

She has the hots for a magic-resistant werewolf who has agreed to help her dig up a body if necessary.

She got left on read by a dead person while trying to do a seance.

She is (probably) going to kill that fucking clown.

Someone accidentally spread a rumour that she had a threesome and now she wants to have the threesome that people think she had so she is probably going to go along with it. Because of plans she is going to blame someone else for spreading it.

Monsterfucker Wrongs

My plan for her character arc is for her to end up losing herself to her evil magic pact but she will refuse to accept that she is not in control of the situation because it will intensify her magic power so much that it feels like everything has gone how she wanted.

She can and will drink undiluted blackcurrant squash.

The fairies are ignoring her for something that was technically not her fault.

One of her plans involves necromancy but the fucking ghost won't pick up the damn seance so she can't check if this is something the ghost will cooperate with in the first place.

She tries to ruin this one girl's life as a way to relax. In her defence, this girl is the one who tried to murder her. Val also desired her carnally but got bored because she stopped after one relatively mundane murder attempt.

She was completely fine after she touched a rock that made her feel soul-crushing despair but had to go and throw up after touching a rock that made her feel relentless joy.

I have joked that her middle name is hubris and the GM and I have decided to never reveal whether this is canon.

She cannot handle her drink at all but also makes incredibly strong drinks because she doesn't give a fuck.

Her cousin is a shapeshifter and the rest of her family are also completely unhinged.

She has a spell to stop someone from hurting people and the last time she tried using this on the werewolf (at his request to be clear) she accidentally put him in Plant Shibari and wasn't not into it.

Her (sort of) ex got sent to Superhell for being edgy.

She is a pathological liar and kleptomaniac and everyone is just kind of fine with this? They don't like the lying very much but they're used to it.

She has no idea how to process people just doing nice things for her for no reason, and the only reason she isn't completely convinced that this guy was doing it for an ulterior motive is because she doesn't think he's smart enough to have one.

She has green hair and pronouns.

[veebs-hates-video-games]

I was expecting to try to figure out what to say about The House in Fata Morgana today because I finally made it through it after basically an entire year (which is still pretty impressive for me considering the best estimates I could find for it's length are in the 300-400k words range, and there are entire years where I don't even read 100k words total combined across everything), but instead I was tired and couldn't get my brain to focus on any of the things I wanted to.

Solution? Play Unpacking instead.

Unpacking is now easily in my top five games I've played this year and also unexpectedly the saddest game I've played this year. No seriously, let me explain.

There have been plenty of other games or moments in them that I had strong feelings about or that made me cry. Unpacking didn't, but it did make me feel something totally different from what anything else has this year: strongly relating to a fictional character (which is a neat trick because you never meet her or are told anything about her other than the contents of the boxes she packs when she moves) and feeling happy for the progress she makes through different stages of her life, but also simultaneously an overwhelming sense of having lost something I probably never could've had in the first place and nostalgia for things that were never real.

At first it was just fun seeing what would come out of the boxes next and rearranging things in ways that made more sense or looked better, and I was impressed by how much of a story they were able to tell with no dialogue and technically not even any characters other than the ones implied by the environment. Just through the environment and gameplay they got me to feel so sorry for her moving in with that guy, like look how much of yourself you had to leave behind to try to fit yourself in somewhere that hardly has anything in common with you and doesn't want to make space for you. And I can't say I ever expected a game to capture the feeling of "crap, I hope this drawer is big enough to fit all my bras in", but here we are.

But here's some context I guess. I'm fairly close in age to the main character. A few years older, but similar enough to know and remember the same kinds of things from around the same ages. It starts out similar enough that I can relate all of it to my own experiences or my friends at the time. Sure I never lived in a dorm because I was too busy dropping out of school for various reasons, but I spent plenty of time in my friends', and then everything got back on track with the shared apartment with friends. Look at all the fun people you've found who share your interests! I could've been happy with something like that for the rest of my life.

I skipped the moving in with some guy (or person of any other gender) phase entirely though and went directly to moving back in with my parents, and that's what most of my life has consisted of. The apartment living on her own actually reminded me of my most recent attempt to live away from home a few years ago, even though that was with other people. It was amazing in some ways and terrible in others. For all practical purposes I started the pandemic with three particularly close friendships/relationships and "ended" it (as if it's actually over) with zero and a lot of things a lot more difficult for all of us. But in the game I see that table up against the brick wall in the kitchen with a menorah on it, and...yeah.

And for me that's functionally where my life ended in a lot of ways, going back to my parents' house yet again after that with my health continuing to decline at worst and not improve at best.

But the game keeps going, through more stages of life I've never really made it to and probably never will. Not in that way. Is that even what I would want from my life if it were an option? At one point I thought so and expected that to be what would happen, but even if I might want something different now it would be nice for a change to not do something because I choose not to, not because the choice has already been made for me by my circumstances.

Great game though, but I'm going to go be existentially sad for a while about the consequences of being disabled in a society that doesn't care what happens to me as long as they don't have to see it.

[ihavenopersonalityuwu]

I think my therapist expects me to work on this dbt stuff alone? On my own time? Which is not gonna work out very well, she def can't expect me to get anywhere with it then lol

[tartagilicious]

Hi, I've got a bit of a weird request for MLQC. What would be different with an MC who was a player of the game before somehow getting pulled into the first chapter of it? They don't have to have played through everything, but definitely at least up to ch 13, after Lucien's reveal. Which of the guys would notice MC acting weird? Would MC ever tell them? How would they react? How does this mess with the plotline?

😳 wait when I tell you I used to think about this on a daily basis- I’ve never gone into much depth with it though, so I guess now is a better time than ever! let’s say that for drama’s sake, this person has played up to chapter 29, since I think that’s the last chapter she reunites with them after being gone for 6 months.

Lucien:

- In my eyes, this always starts with the MC waking up confused in her apartment. She recognises the area around her based now what she’s seen in the game and is familiar with though she obviously thinks it’s a dream. Until, that it is, there are texts from in game characters that come from the phone on the bedside table. She’s more unsure then.

- She explores the apartment briefly and is freaked out when she recognises the kitchen, but decides that she should try visiting some other places she remembers from the game to try and confirm what’s going on. On the way out, she runs into Lucien, who’s leaving his apartment at the same time. 

- By chapter 29, the last we’ve seen of Lucien is when you’re reunited and he confesses those things to you while he thinks you’re asleep. Because of this, and also because of outside sources, this person understands his situation and his personality much more. There’s a lot less hesitancy, but she isn’t sure what Lucien knows at this point. At the very least, it’s comforting to her that she has the upper hand when he’s not quite smitten for her yet.

- I always end up confiding in Lucien because I’m biased, though normally, that’s obviously not a good idea T-T

- Though of course, early Lucien is very far from a threat, so he notices how bewildered she is to see him and is more concerned than anything. It’s hard to know what to say without completely revealing everything, but I can imagine she’d be struggling either way. She would probably slip up once, maybe referring to something personal between them that hasn’t happened yet out of nerves

- He’d be polite about it, not even a bit wary because I don’t even think the MC knew she had an evol yet, and he’d know that. It’d be better just to assume that she’s spewing nonsense than actually looking very deep into it.

- I have a feeling that this would end up messing with the plot pretty badly, actually. She knows a version of him that doesn’t exist yet, and this would be a singular issue imo. His personality is night and day when comparing to the beginning to how he is currently. It would get her into a lot of trouble either way, but could possibly also force Lucien go undergo development much much earlier

- I can imagine her trying to curve his betrayal. he tells her to meet him at the place he tells her his real motives (the news station?? that skinny and tall building idk ;-;) and she just flat out says no. you can’t leave me if I don’t let you >:)

Victor:

- this!!!!! I have such a soft spot for victor and it shows in how this plays out in my head. Without a doubt, the only person that I would trust with the information that I was pulled into the game is Victor. Throughout most of the game, mostly later chapters, Victor is kind of like her partner — she learns to trust him with almost everything, and they work through the situations they can together. They save each other’s lives countless times. This is a lot for one person to carry while the other is clueless of any of that ever happening.

- Next, I feel like it’s reasonable that she would try to seek out everyone else, and where better to find Victor at this point than LFG? Conveniently, once she gets in the office, Goldman hunts her down to tell her that Victor’s waiting for her in his office to discuss the final terms of investment. talk about nostalgia lol

- personally. I’d feel panicked going up to his office. Victor is a very intimidating guy when you aren’t close to him, and acting as you normally would around him will not only be possibly humiliating but also just not effective at all.

- she would devise a plan in her head and as they talk, would slip in small details that kind of further the plot without revealing too much. so for example, mention how the investment is so important to her because she was an orphan and wants to make a name and prove that anyone can do what they dream to. he’d probably try asking more about that, but if not, she could always go into further detail like how she was injured pretty badly trying to save someone else around that time, but doesn’t really remember why and wants to find this person to see if they’re doing okay. This would advance their relationship like 10 chapters, but it would be pretty hasty. This would just be to let him know who she is and what kind of things the future will contain

- Once he figures out what she’s doing, he’d ask what her purpose is — why did she seek him out? to this, she’d most likely reveal her dilemma, and how she was pulled into this world from hers, and knows what will happen for months in the future because of the circumstances

- whether or not he’d retain this affection that he has for the MC when knowing that she isn’t technically who he’s looking for is up for debate, but regardless, something like that is definitely too good to pass up. he’s always been connected to black swan, and knowing her and enlisting her help would most likely come in handy.

Gavin:

- I think I’ve implied that these events take place somewhere in the first few chapters rather than the first so :( I’ll just continue with that. that might even work better, because it gives them at least a bit of a connection to this person. I don’t really remember what happens in the first few chapters, ngl, but I think it’s pretty calm. 

- Gavin!!!! whether he��s your favourite or not, you can’t deny that this man is a literal pilar of support. he’s the knight in their dynamic, whereas she’s the queen. she knows he’s not as intimidating as he seems, and her immediate friendliness might throw him off a bit, but I think it’d be a good thing. 

- part of the reason he backs off so much in the earlier chapters is so he doesn’t overwhelm her with all of these sudden developments (like coming back to be her personal guard, about black swan, etc) In the original plot, Gavin knows much more than he lets on, always more than the mc does at the very least. 

- this would probably change their relationship a lot. I mean, obviously, whoever this is that’s been pulled into the game is bound to have a different personality to the normal mc. she’s more joking and doesn’t hesitate so much, and obviously is a lot smarter and confident due to knowing the future. she doesn’t have to rely on Gavin for information like the original mc does. instead, she acts with him. 

- this literally takes 27 chapters in the game. when she meets Gavin in that evol institution in ch27, that’s the first time they fight comfortably side by side. 

- Gavin would definitely notice such a drastic change in personality from the shy and kind girl he knew in high school. he might comment on it a few times, but I feel like a personality change is a bit easier to justify, especially since it’d been a few years. she technically has the mc’s memories, so it’s not suspicious or anything. he’d probably eventually let it go.

- though, I think it’s pretty plausible that he’d find out you’re not actually the mc he knows later, maybe by mistake or by you telling him. but by then, he’s also grown attached to this new version of her and doesn’t mind as much.

Kiro:

- you wouldn’t have to tell him you were pulled into the game. he’d know.

-  with his connections as Helios and also just his general memory of the mc, it wouldn’t take very long for him to figure out that she’s not the person he’s been chasing for years. and the mf would probably point it out too, scaring her half to death.

- of course, he doesn’t know how she appeared, just that she did, replacing the actual mc. but, despite how he’s very honest about knowing she isn’t who she says she are, he’s empathetic. it’s hard not to be when she has the mc’s face.

- she’d tell him what happened and how she appeared, partly because she wants to trust him and partly because he seems a bit threatening, but either way, I see him as an eventual ally. she knows the inner workings of everything and would be a great help to him in messing with black swan. they’d pretty much be an unstoppable duo with their combined knowledge.

- as they get closer, she feels it’s necessary to tell him that he doesn’t have to leave to protect her. she can handle herself, and him ever leaving would only cause more grief and make things complicated. he would probably tell her not to worry, that he wouldn’t just leave unprompted. 

- when he ends up leaving anyway, it stings more than it did watching it on a screen. 

- though, that also makes the reunion more memorable, and it would probably go differently as well. maybe kiro is this mc’s LI?? that would be cool asf

[niawritess]

The Lovestruck~ Chapter 31

TWO YEARS LATER

(11 October)

Standing infront of the mirror, you stared at your reflection smiling in satisfication. A blushy pink off-shoulder gown hugged your figure, while your blackish brown hair styled in a half updo and a flower crown was resting on your head. You smiled and wore your heels, before grabbing the flower bouquet from the bed and walked out of the room of the hotel where you were staying in.

Time flew by faster and it's already been three and a half years to your and Baekhyun's relationship. Lots of things happened in these past years, there were some moments of happiness and some sad but it was worth it.

After winning the bid, Baekhyun's game was launched and within some time, it became hotshot. Their hard work was getting paid off and currently they were one of the most successful gaming company in the city. You were currently working in a publishing company after getting accepted. You joined as an intern there but with your hard work, you got promoted and were working as an creative writer.

Ria was working as a history teacher in a high school as history always has been her strongest subject and continuing her dream career. Chanyeol's producing music was going well and was one of the best music producers in his industry.

Jaehyun was working under your dad's company and he had got engaged last year and gave you an amazing Sister-in-law. Daniel's high school was completed and he joined the college with a computer science major as he wanted to pursue his dream in gaming like Baekhyun.

Rowoon had started his career as a basketball coach in the same high school where Ria was teaching. Mark was doing great with his Art career as his paintings were getting filled up in Art galleries.

Sooyoung was working at the same company as you and was working as an editor. Your friendship with her got even more stronger and so with your others friends.

Kyungsoo's decision of opening his restaurant was a great decision as being a good cook, his restaurant was doing so well than expected and he was working as a head chef there. Yixing always had dreamed of be an artist and now he was living one. After going to China, he continued his passion with his hard work which was showing as he being loved by so many people out there.

Junmyeon, Jongdae and Minseok had completed their further studies and now were working in their own business. Jongin was doing great after joining the fashion industry as he was a head manager and known for his fashion sense but the luck of having girlfriend still hasn't knocked at his door.

Sehun, known as a best hacker and working with Baekhyun, after their first interview, he had been called several times for modeling as he always had that posture of being one. Coming back to his love life, Sooyoung and his love was finally blooming after flirting for two years. They were in a hidden relationship but Baekhyun, Chanyeol and Jongdae being themselves did a prank on them which led them to reveal it.

Technically, everyone had their own happy ending, with their love, career and life.

Opening the door of the other room, you entered Ria's room or say the bride's room, who was sitting on the bed, looking beautiful in a white wedding gown.

"So, Miss. Bride, are you ready?" You smiled, approaching her.

She looked up and shook her head sighing. "Too nervous."

You chuckled. "It's normal."

"Yeah laugh all you want, I'll ask you on your wedding day." She retorted.

"I'm still young, okay." You handed the bouquet to her and she scoffed.

"You're 24 and next year you'll turn 25, so you're not young anymore, just get married or else Baekhyun Sunbae will runaway." She laughed.

"Don't worry, he won't and we haven't decided yet." You replied before frowning. "Hold on, did you said yes because Chanyeol Sunbae would have ranaway?"

"No, he proposed me and I didn't see any reason to refuse." She trailed off smiling. "And you don't look for a reason to get married when you want be with the person you love always, you just go for it."

Her words took you by surprise, the more you thought about it, the more it felt right. You both have talked about this and planned lot of things together but never really decided when. However, if there's a day he would ask about it, you are definitely going to say yes, without any hesitation.

Your were snapped out, as you heard the door knock sound and saw your and Ria's mom entering with awe and teary eyes as they looked at her. A moment happened between Ria and both moms as they were sheding tears, seeing them you tried to held back your tears and joked to make them laugh.

Soon the wedding began and you as a bridemaid walked down the asile, as much as you disliked people's stare, you were still doing it since it's your best friend's wedding. You saw your friends and your seniors settled on their chairs giving you smiles including Rose and Jack too. Though you were feeling uneasy but still smiled at them and it vanished as your eyes stopped at the male infront you, who was dressed in a black suit looking perfect.

Baekhyun being Chanyeol's Best man, he stood with him and while talking to the nervous groom, his eyes went to the asile, where you were walking down and just stopped as he couldn't take his eyes off of you. As you approached them, Baekhyun came forward and held out his hand, a smile was plastered on his face. You smiled back placing your hand in his and he pulled you up gently.

Letting go of your hand, he stood beside chanyeol again and you stood opposite of them before giving a smile to nervous Chanyeol. You looked at Baekhyun who was already gazing at you while a smile was still on his face and you looked away as your cheeks were heating up.

Not long before, Ria was walking down the asile with her arm linked around her father's arm while her red flower bouquet was on her other hand. Her lips curved upwards seeing Chanyeol who looked stunned for a moment before his eyes were filling up with tears.

You smiled at the sight as your got blurry with tears while watching your best friend getting married and taking a new step in her life. In a blink of an eye, they were married and now it was your time to give a congratulatory speech to the wedding couple. You smiled as you stood in front of them before looking over to Baekhyun who smiling at you.

"So," You paused licking your lips. "First of all, Congratulations to you and Chanyeol Sunbae, I praise you for bearing her for two years and now for everyday."

Guests laughed at your remark including the groom while Ria gave you a glare as you reciprocated with a smile. "Okay, only sometimes. But that's what makes her Ria and you're lucky to have her because she's the most beautiful and kindest girl you'll ever meet."

"So, take care of her even when she tells you not to because that's how she is and live together happily." You smiled at him and Chanyeol nodded giving you a assume smile before you looked at your bestfriend sheding tears.

"Stop, you're gonna ruin your makeup." You warned her and she sniffled wiping her tears. "It's okay, it's waterproof."

You gasped. "What? Why didn't you tell me? I was trying so hard to stop my tears earlier."

"You didn't even ask."

"Excuse me? Ladies?" Kyungsoo, the host of the day, called you out gaining your attention. "We are still in the midst of wedding, if you forgot."

You bit your lip embarrassed as the guests chuckled at you two before getting down with Baekhyun behind you as the Groom had something prepared for her bride.

Ria was standing across him as Chanyeol was seated in front of a piano before smiling at her as he sang the song for her, All of me.

Ria's eyes welled up with tears feeling overwhelmed by the song her husband just sang for her. She couldn't wait and immediately hugged him tightly which he returned while the guests were watching in awe.

You smiled tilting your head as you stared at couple before feeling an arm around your waist and you looked at Baekhyun giving you a smile as you both stared at each other. The photographer who was checking the angle, suddenly came across you couple unaware of anything. He instantly took a photo which came out great as he smiled before someone stood behind him.

"They're not the married couple." Jongin spoke squinting eyes at the photographer who gave him a nod before walking away and Jongin looked back at you two. "Oh, hello! Staring contest couple, let's go!"

Minseok shook his head dragging him away and you giggled while Baekhyun rolled his eyes at him.

"Ria!" Sooyoung whisper-yelled gaining her attention as she gestured her to throw the bouquet at her and Ria did an okay sign while Sehun grinned shyly at her girlfriend.

You all friends stood there behind the Bride who was about to throw the bouquet while the photographer waiting to catch the moment. As she threw the bouquet and Sooyoung's hands went to catch it but to everyone's surprise it landed on someone least expected.

Everyone eyed Jongin who had was holding the bouquet with a pout before he looked at Ria. "You're doing it on purpose, aren't you? Because I don't have a girlfriend."

You all laughed together and Ria gave him a sheepish grin before Sooyoung with a pout took the bouquet from his hands and gave it back to Ria. The photographer counted to three before Ria threw it again and again it didn't landed in Sooyoung's hands but someone who was still thinking about the pose.

"Yes!" Mrs Byun and your mom exclaimed together grinning widely and you looked down at the bouquet before looking at Sooyoung who was pouting but smiled instantly.

Baekhyun turned to you and you looked at him as you both smiled at eachother while his arm resting around your waist before everyone posed together and the picture was taken.

"It's okay, Sooyoung." Sehun cooed wrapping his arm around her shoulder. "Even if you didn't got the bouquet, we're still going to marry before them."

He pointed at you two and Baekhyun slightly slapped him on the back and that moment got captured in the camera before everyone was laughing. You all friends excused yourself as the bride and groom's photoshoot began.

"So, next is Junior Y/n's turn to marry!" Junmyeon spoke and you cleared your throat before looking at Baekhyun who was standing beside him with his hands shoved in his pocket whilst a teasing grin was plastered on his lips as he was waiting for it.

"Junior Y/n, when are you getting married?"

"Did you guys decide the date?"

"The place?"

You were caught off guard by their sudden questions, heat rushed to your cheeks as you felt embarrassed. Seeing your reaction they couldn't help but laugh then Baekhyun advanced towards you wounding his arm your waist.

"Stop teasing my girlfriend now." His tone was stern but you could see the playful grin he was hiding and you shot a glare at him.

"Stop teasing my girlfriend~." Jongdae mimicked him. "We can see your sparkling face you know."

Baekhyun chuckled, then Chanyeol's dad called everyone and with that they walked away except you and Baekhyun. You looked down at the bouquet playing with the petals smiling before feeling his constant gaze on you.

"So, when are you getting ready?" He spoke after being silent for few minutes and you gave him a perplexed look. "For what?"

He gestured to look ahead and you followed his gaze to see the newly wed couple talking to eachother. Strange, as if he read your mind about what you thought earlier.

A warm smile formed on your lips as you met his eyes. "Whenever you want."

Baekhyun searched your eyes, if you were joking around but seeing your geniune smile, he got surprised.

"Really? Are you serious?" He held you by shoulders looking at you with his enlarged eyes and you nodded copying his movements before chuckling. "Double really."

In a second, you were engulfed in a tight hug by him where wrapped your arms around his waist before he pulled away still holding you close.

"I forgot to tell you something." He stared at you in serious expression and stared at him confused before a smile crept on his face.

"You're looking so beautiful." He whispered softly causing your cheeks to heat up and you giggled. "Well, you don't look bad yourself."

"I always look good." He smirked and you smacked his arm lightly while he laughed before pulling you in a hug again.

"Okay, tell me one thing." He trailed off pulling away to look at you. "You cried at Rose's wedding and your bestfriend's wedding too. Are you going to cry in our wedding too?"

You blinked pondering for a moment and smiled playfully. "Well, depends. If I'm happy or not."

"You little-" He reached out to flick your forehead where you closed your eyes but feeling nothing, you opened them to see him smiling fondly at you causing you look at him questionly where his hands instantly cupped your jaw as he leaned in.

"What-" A gasp left your lips as something crossed your mind and Baekhyun looked at you with concerned face. "Why? What happened?"

"This..." You trailed off, pursuing your lips as you noticed the familiar place around you. "This is exactly like my dream."

"Dream..." He paused as his lips curved into a smirk. "You had a dream of us kissing?"

Your eyes widened and your cheeks flushed before you attempted to walk away. "I just remembered...Sooyoung was looking for me."

"Where do you think you are going?" He instantly pulled you back, staring at you intently. "Let's recreate your dream then."

Before you could reply, his hands cupped your face where his lips met yours, taking you in a slow yet tender kiss with your arms wrapping around his waist, reciprocating with the same emotions making him smile against your lips.

Leaning his forehead against yours, his thumb stroked your cheekbone slowly. "See, I made your dream come true."

Opening your eyes, you glared at him before pulling away only to get pulled back as he giggled, before going for another kiss but a loud cough interuppted as your heads snapped towards its direction to see Daniel standing while covering his eyes.

"My innocent eyes." He whined and you tried to pull away but Baekhyun just tightened his grip making you look at him in surprise before he looked at Daniel with a done look. "Innocent, my foot."

"Why do I have to witness this everytime." He pouted and you groaned, closing your eyes but instantly opened them widely at Baekhyun's words. "Next time, do give us a sign before interrupting."

"Yeah, sure but everyone's calling you both, so let's go." He said and walked away with you both behind him as you kept lecturing him about how embarrassing it was where he just kept nodding at your every word.

__________________

The wedding continued till dawn as it was Ria's wedding and she wouldn't let her special day come to an end this soon. The guests were long gone while your close ones, family and friends were present at the yard outside which was decorated with tables and golden lights around the trees. There was a dance floor in the middle where two chairs were placed and currently the newlywed couple were seated there with their back facing eachother. They were going to play the wedding game trending nowadays as both were holding eachother's shoes in their hands.

The shoe game was starting as Yixing stood in the middle with a card in his filled with questions. "Okay, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to start."

"Why did he sound like we're having a battle here?" Baekhyun spoke leaning towards your side while playing with your hand on his lap and you shrugged. "Maybe, we're really having a battle here."

"Uh uh." Sehun intruded gaining both of your attention. "The battle of wedding couple. Wow! I'm going to ask the cameraman to highlight this part."

You both looked at him weirdly and shook your heads before looking ahead as the game was starting.

Yixing cleared his throat. "So, who is the better cook?"

Both of them raised Chanyeol's shoe and you all cheered loudly as they both were laughing before Ria's mother spoke. "You'll have to cook for life because she only knows how to cook noodles."

Her remark made everyone laugh as Ria pouted whining while you looked at her mother nodding and agreeing with her statement.

"Ugh! Chanyeol, you're stuck now. I told you to think before marrying." Junmyeon commented sighing dramatically and Chanyeol rolled his eyes while Ria gave him a glare.

"Next, question. Who fell in love first?"

Chanyeol instantly raised his shoe and Ria raised both causing everyone to awe loudly in the back before she smiled at Chanyeol shyly.

"I think I know, when it started." Baekhyun suddenly spoke as everyone turned to him questionly. "Back in college, we were in the music room and he kept asking about her from me. I think that's when it started."

All of you looked at Chanyeol with a drop jaw and Ria couldn't help but felt shy which Chanyeol pretended to throw his shoe towards Baekhyun who just laughed at his flustered state.

"Who is more likely to be running late?"

Chanyeol and Ria raised both of her shoes while laughing and making everyone laugh as it was an obvious question.

"I still remember our first date." Chanyeol spoke. "She was ten minutes late because she couldn't find her favorite lip glows."

Ria slapped his arm playfully as everyone started laughing before Jongin interrupted. "It's going to continue for your whole life, Hyung. All the best with your patience."

He said it without being funny but ended up having everyone laugh. The game continued and you were imersed in enjoying before Baekhyun casually took off his blazer and wrapped it around your shoulder making you look at him. Smiling at his gesture, you slid your both arms in his blazer wearing it properly as he rolled up his sleeves before taking your hand again.

"Last question. Who love the other one most?"

Both of them raised their both arms and looked at eachother turning around before standing up to hug eachother while everyone cheered loudly in the back. Everyone was laughing and talking about with their marriage experiences while enjoying the night with their loved ones.

Suddenly, a music erupted causing everyone to stop whatever they were doing and you smiled hearing the tune instantly recognizing the song as it has been in your Playlist nowadays.

Perfect.

The newlywed couple were already going to the dance floor and so were others with their partners. A hand was extended towards you which you knew who's it was as you smiled placing your hand in his before Baekhyun smiled as he led you to the dance floor.

I found a love for me

Oh darling, just dive right in and follow my lead.

Grasping his hand in yours, his other hand wounded behind your waist while yours behind his neck as he pulled you closer and stared at you lovingly while mouthing the lyrics with swaying your bodies together.

Well, I found a girl, beautiful and sweet

Oh, I never knew you were the someone waiting for me

'Cause we were just kids when we fell in love

Not knowing what it was

I will not give you up this time

But darling, just kiss me slow, your heart is all I own

And in your eyes, you're holding mine.

Baby, I'm dancing in the dark with you between my arms.

Loosening his grip a little, he twirl you around causing you both giggle together as you almost tripped but he instantly pulled you again in the same position swaying while smiling at eachother.

Barefoot on the grass, listening to our favourite song

When you said you looked a mess, I whispered underneath my breath

But you heard it,

"Darling, you look perfect tonight." He mouthed the last sentence a little loudly for to hear where you smiled widely as both of you were unable to look away from eachother.

Suddenly, a loud cracker sound erupted making everyone's attention to go there where you saw bunch fireworks going off together, full of colors like filling up their bright colors in your life. Averting your eyes to Baekhyun who was already looking at you smiling fondly making you smile back as he leaned his head forehead against yours and pulled you closer.

Indeed, It was perfect.

_______________

@wooya1224 @buttercupbbh @jddcfc-blog @usernameloaa @gominieni @shesdreaminginoverdose

[eryiss]

Ship: Freed x Laxus

Rating: Teen

Prompt: Demon in Disguise x Angel Undercover

Summary: Being a demon was boring, particularly in peacetime. For Freed, passing the time consisted of sneaking into nightclubs and forcing men off the moral path. Thankfully, the angel with beautiful wings and almost rigid set of morals was always there to make things interesting.

Notes: This is Day Two of Fraxus Week, hosted by @fuckyeahfraxus. Be sure to look at their blog, I'm sure there's lot of other great Fraxus content on there for the event already.

Links: Event Masterlist ||| Archive of Our Own, Fanfiction

Off The Moral Path

Year: 2025

Location: Paris, France

"Come now, Darling," Freed purred, gently stroking the raven-haired beauty on the cheek. "You know you want to."

To think he'd come to this. Freed Justine – Albion the Slayer, Absolute Shadow, The Nightmares of Angels – resorted to flirting with men in a bar. It was humiliating. He was a soldier, a demonic mage whose power was the stuff of legends, and by rights everyone in the damned club should be bowing for him, on their knees and begging for his mercy. He would have been kind to them, were they giving him the respect he was owed, and perhaps he would have made their night more interesting with a display of his power.

But he couldn't. The war between demons and angels had long since ended, humans had forgotten about the battles and all the people who had been part of it, and as such they didn't know him. To them, Freed was nothing but another human. Better looking of course, but otherwise no different.

Frankly, it was boring.

War between unkillable forces was fun. You didn't have to worry about being hurt, because you couldn't be, and a demon didn't care for guilt. It was simply posturing, and it had allowed Freed to show off the magic that he'd been slowly building from his creation. He was explosively powerful, and he'd sent many of the enemy forces back to heaven time and time again. It was fun seeing them disintegrate as they screamed, but now that was gone.

Technically speaking, he shouldn't have even been in the nightclub at all. Earth was off limits, but he was hardly doing anything too bad. He wasn't poisoning a water system, or luring a man to his death. He was just having a little fun. Nobody could begrudge him a little magically fuelled flirting.

Well, one angel might. But he hadn't arrived yet.

"I dunno," The raven-haired man shrugged, swirling his drink absently.

"I do. You want to do it and you know it," Freed smirked, and his eyes glowed red for a moment. He placed his hand on the mans exposed forearm, and magic flared in his next words. "I'll do it if you will. And you've got nothing to be ashamed of."

A lie, but a fun one.

"You know what," The man said, confidence in his words now. "You're right."

The man was standing up a moment later, walking towards the raised stage with a pole attached to it, removing his shirt. Hm, if the sounds of the cheering at the sight were reflective of the mood, Freed had been right about him having nothing to be ashamed of. It was good guess; Freed really had no idea what a human saw as attractive anymore.

Freed watched from the bar, drinking his wine with a smirk as the man began to gyrate over the pole. Men and women alike cheered, and Freed liked to think that he had done his good deed for the day. Of course, the dancing man might disagree when the spell wore off, but that was hardly a problem.

He'd dispel his magic as the man was dancing. It would be fun to see him crumple.

"The hell are you doing?" A loud rumbling voice came from behind, and Freed smirked.

Right on time.

"What does it look like, my dear," Freed said, not looking towards the angel looming over him. "Exercising my Devil given right to annoy you. Is it working?"

"Take the spell off him," The angel demanded. "Now."

"During his dance. Imagine the embarrassment, it would be debilitatingly humiliating," Freed laughed quietly. "Would he be able to look himself in the mirror? Would he be allowed back out of his home? Would he cry? Rather cruel, aren't you angel?"

"Shut it, devil," The angel growled.

"So rude," Freed tutted while grinning. When a hand planted itself firmly on his shoulder, Freed turned to look to the man. "Good evening, Laxus."

It was always disheartening to see Laxus disguised as a human. He was good looking in their terms, with broad shoulders, a thin waist, handsomely rugged features, and a damn cocky smirk when he used it. But Freed always missed seeing his wings. They were long stretching, tinged and scarred by lightning, with feathers so soft that Freed couldn't decide whether he wanted to stroke them or to pluck them out to see the man scream. He was a magnificent beast of an angel – the counterpart to Freed's demon – and very fun to annoy.

"Hypnosis on humans is fucking illegal," Laxus growled.

"Then it's good that I didn't use it," Freed dismissed, placing the wine on the bartop. "I only lowered his inhibitions. He's lost all doubt and regret, and he's simply doing what he wants to do. Hardly a war crime."

"Tell him that when the police come," Laxus murmured, and Freed laughed. Would the man be arrested before he was naked? Freed hoped not; human anatomy always made him chuckle. "You ain't supposed to be on earth. The hell is wrong with you?"

"You're here," Freed retorted, ignoring the question. "Won't you get in trouble too, angel?"

"I'm only here because I knew you were pulling this shit," Laxus whispered harshly, hand on Freed's shoulder tightening. "And I wanted to get you to cut it the hell out before," he jutted his chin up, "they figure out what you're doing."

"But the danger is half the fun," Freed smirked.

Laxus said nothing else, instead surrounding them both with a wave of angelic magic. As was natural for a demon, the overall holiness of the gesture sent a shooting of pain over Freed, but he grit his teeth and allowed the spell to take effect. A moment later, he was teleported to a blank, bland, nothing room nestled in the middle of limbo.

This was always how his little dance with Laxus went. Freed would sneak down to earth, annoy, and torment a human in a way with very few long-lasting consequences so that he could get a fill of fun, Laxus would somehow be informed of what Freed had done and would stop him before any other heavenly figures realised what he was doing, and he would be teleported away. It had happened hundreds of times, and always ended with Laxus yelling at him for his stupidity but never actually doing anything to stop him.

His face would soon be angry, and his wings would be spasming and flickering. Anger was a good look on the man.

But, truly, this dance was getting boring. They were all-powerful beings, opponents by very nature, who had met in the middle of battel and had underwent fights that would be studied for history in years to come. They shouldn't have gotten stuck in a rut. It was almost insulting.

"Why don't you leave me alone?" Freed asked before Laxus could begin shouting.

"What?" The angel asked, taken unaware.

"Well, I understand that your side likes to preach forgiveness and repentance and so on, so perhaps I can understand you trying to stop me the first ten or so times, but we've been doing this for years now," Freed smirked, leaning forward and leaning against a white table. He looked up at Laxus from under his lashes, flirtatious and smirking. "I'm not changing my ways, and you know it. So why not leave me to get killed by your darling overlords?"

Laxus tensed his jaw, grit his teeth, and let his wings shoot out from his back. What a lovely sight. Freed quickly removed his own human disguise, horns cracking from his skull and eyes turning a red and purple swirl.

"Everyone can improve," Laxus retorted. "I think that, given-"

"I've known you for centuries, Laxus, I know when you're parroting that ridiculous heavenly mantra," Freed cut off the argument before it could be made. "I want to know why you, angel supreme Laxus Dreyar, is being ever so kind to me so often."

He said nothing, and Freed grinned.

"May I offer my thoughts, since you don't seem to want to answer," Freed continued. "I think we're more alike than you think. You and I, you see, we're fighters. You can claim pacifism all you want, but I know you loved every moment of engagement. Showing off your power, proving yourself to be an overwhelming force of nature, it was everything you ever wanted. And then it was taken away from you, and you were at a loss of what you could do. Everything was peaceful and there was nobody to do battle with. Nobody to impress. Nobody but me."

"That ain't what happened," Laxus grunted. He walked towards a door Freed assumed would take him back to heaven, and Freed quickly intercepted.

"It's exactly what happened. I'm your opponent, in this little game we've created for ourselves," Freed smirked, took a single step forward so he was in Laxus' space and yet not quite touching him. "It was fun, as games go, but I think we should move past it. Flip the board and do something a little more," he smirked, and raked his claws over Laxus chest before hissing, "tactile."

Laxus' face held an expression Freed was familiar with. He was on the brink of doing something he wanted to do more than anything, but knew it was wrong. A look that, on humans, brought Freed a giddy thrill.

Seeing it on Laxus was euphoria.

The angel swallowed slightly, looking over Freed's face, his claws, his horns and then back to his face again. His eyes were dilated just a little, body tensing and muscles hardening as if he was trying to steel his resolve. He was so close to breaking, and making both of their lives both more pleasurable and much more interesting. He just needed a nudge. Freed was happy to oblige.

"That was the problem with the war, I feel," He purred, voice like silk and seductive. "Place men of unsurmountable power together and make them fight. It fuels passion. We were purpose built to feel strongly about one another. To obsess over one another. To rely on one another," He raised his hand and dug his claws into Laxus' jaw. "What did they think would happen when we could no longer fight? Falling for each other was inevitable."

"I ain't fallen, not for you," Laxus murmured as he leant close to Freed, tenseness giving way. He was even smiling, ever so slightly, and that was all the encouragement that he needed.

"Aren't you?" Freed grinned, stroking Laxus' cheek and loving the restrained mewling that bubbled in the angel's throat.

"No," Laxus murmured, bringing his lips closer to Freed, and his grin was just as unhindered as Freed's.

"Well," Freed purred, pressing into Laxus' chest. "Put your money where your mouth is then."

He closed the gap between them, and two millenniums of tension exploded to life in a slow, tender kiss. The mixture of magics gave their kiss a burning, fizzing sensation that spurred them both on. The contrast of their bodies stung and felt fantastic, addictively peculiar and driving them to kiss harder.

Laxus' wings outstretched behind him, then wrapped around them both. The comforting feathers tingled at Freed's back, and he leant against the man with a smirk as they pulled apart. Laxus was smiling at him, not a lingering sense of doubt in sight, and Freed grinned.

As fun as it would have been to taint an angel, bring him to his knees and make him turn his back on his culture, Freed had truly believed his words. They were fated to be together; it only made sense. Freed had broken countless rules set after the war, and he should have been struck down by lightning or burned at the stake for his crimes. Even with Laxus looking over him, the powers of fate were more powerful, and breaking of the rules came with immediate punishment. He hadn't been killed, despite his flagrant disregard of the rules. There was a reason for that, and he liked to think he'd been saved for Laxus. The fact Laxus had showed no regret, nor no fear about what he had done, seemed to suggest Laxus agreed with the sentiment.

Now, Freed was in a new game, a much more fun one. A game where it wasn't simply a demon fighting against an angel. No, this game had only one side. A flirtatious demon with an abhorrence for boredom, and his darling, virtuous fallen angel. Who would dare oppose them?

Le Parisien – 02.11.2025

Une Célébrité Populaire Prise Dans Le Scandale De La Nudité En Public.

Hier soir, le chanteur et danseur populaire Grey Fullbuster a été arrêté à Paris. Les rapports ont affirmé que, dans une démonstration de confiance ivre, il est monté au sommet d'une scène dans la discothèque Devil's Door, et a commencé à enlever tous ses vêtements et à danser contre un poteau. Les réactions à la situation vont du dégoût moral au plaisir divertissant. Dans une déclaration faite par le manager du chanteur, Fullbuster a affirmé que "Le diable m'a fait le faire".

[saintobio]

stop poor y/n :c my heart hurts for her, i truly hopes that she’s able to find asher soon because i really think that she needs someone else rather then the group with her. and it’s so sad that only osamu noticed her mood change, i cant i feel so bad for her. like i’m not even mad at suna because he said he was looking for her but i don’t think that anything could’ve prepared y/n for another heartbreak when they seen sophia there. she knew that she was going to be almost forgotten UGH. my baby deserves to at least find her brother and get closure on if he’s alive or not

Anonymous said

holy shit. i feel so bad for y/n!!!! omg :( id give her the biggest hug if i were there but then again im technically suppose to be her. BUT OMG!!!! if her brother is dead i am going to be so sad. the fact that they ALL ignored her is so shitty. ugh idk how to feel rn

Anonymous said

Listen I’m not saying yn should 🤜🏼💨 sophia but listen they r in the same house now like at least confront her about the letters but I doubt it because yns trying to be unproblematic but...

Anonymous said

GIRLLL I AM LIVID RN, I FEEL LIKE WHAT HURTS THE MOST IS THE BOYS NOT ACKNOWLEDGING Y/N AT ALL, AND OSAMU BEING THE ONLY ONE WHO SEES HER 😭 also that ending, man the amount of anger that built inside of me rn is INSANE. I sincerely hope ONE DAY the truth of the letter can be revealed bc I need a tiny amount of happiness in my heart after this chapter girl. What if rin recognizes y/n’s handwriting if she writes something in the further chapters?? I would die

Anonymous said

bruuuuuh Sophia is such a bitch, they're in the middle of an apocalypse how can she not acknowledge yn's presence the fuck. that's so mean for no reason. also, Osamu supremacy, the only man who deserves rights, the rest can go rot in hell. also, don't even get me started on sunarin, the lack of empathy I just fucking can't.

Anonymous said

they could have their little happy ending because honestly it’s not even worth itt. poor girl like no one genuinely cares about the MC and it’s so sad she’s the one who’s ALL ALONE and literally no one cares. they’re basically TOLERATING her it seems :( I would’ve just honestly fucked off lmao

all you nonnies have the same thoughts abt y/n being disregarded by everyone bc YES pls no one cares except osamu (at least in this chapter) and it just goes to show that she was never really seen by the others as something more to suna.

and yes, again, sophia is purposely ignoring her too. suna is too overwhelmed w her comeback that he fails to see how much it’s crushing y/n inside