#their costumes were all nightmare before christmas inspired | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

sadsoftserve · 11 months ago

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-Rebellion- An EE 'mini'-fic

(This is 10,506 words long, not mini at all. This is the fanfic I've been working on for the past couple days. Mainly Parker and Percy centric. The Fruit Basket quintuplet (yes that's what they're called) is in here too. My Google doc made this look way better, I was going to properly fix the spaces in-between each paragraph but Tumblr was lagging and I'm lazy. Inspired slightly by the twolooween stream.)

Halloween was the holiday Parker hated the most. Not because she was scared or didn't have friends, she had plenty of those. It was the fact she wasn't able to participate in it. The last time she went trick-or-treating, she was eight. Ever since the diagnosis, she’d been living with her aunt. Percy. Parker didn't understand her aunt. Sure, the ADHD and autism solidarity was there, but Percy was strange with how she dealt with children. Most holidays, besides Christmas and Thanksgiving, weren't celebrated. And Halloween was the one Percy forbade Parker from participating in. It bothered her. No matter how much Parker tried to persuade Percy, the answer was always:

“No.” Percy's voice was deadpan as usual. She crossed her arms as Parker fell to her knees and clasped her hands together like some pathetic guy begging a girl to go out with him.

“Auntie, Please!” Parker gave her best puppy dog eyes as she begged. “Just this once! All of my friends are going out! Please?” Percy was not swayed. She stood there, her arms still crossed as he exhaled, hard.

“Parker,” Percy said, her authoritative tone frightening Parker. “We go through this every year. And what is my answer every time you ask?” Parker slowly got off of her knees and sighed before she answered.

“No…” Parker mumbled out. As she hung her head, staring at her feet. She sighed again. She was fifteen, not a child, surely she could handle a couple hours out with her friends. But Percy made her stance and wasn't gonna change it. It was like this every year. Parker would beg, Percy would say no, and Bonnie and Sabrina would have to share their candy with her the next day. She just wanted one year, just to revisit and feel how it is.

“Exactly,” Percy answered back. “My answer is always no,” Percy's voice was painfully monotone. At this point, Parker felt like Rapunzel. Trapped in the same boring life with the days blurring together. Even locked in a house. “You never know who, or what may be lurking in the dark. Or the sorts of costumes you will see. Like, sexy mustard.” Percy said with a scornful voice and look in her eyes.

“Yeah... I know.” Parker replied as she rolled her eyes slightly, a detail that did not go unnoticed by Percy.

“Don’t sass me.” Her monotonous voice rang through the room, like a dripped-out truck with speakers that fizzled with every bass drop. Parker didn't even bother arguing, she knew that Percy would find a way to make herself right. Thats what cops do.

“I’m- Nevermind. I’m going to bed.” It was around her ‘bedtime’ anyway. Percy nodded.

“Don’t-” She was cut off by Parker.

“Don’t forget to brush your teeth. I know. G’night Auntie.” Parker said as she rounded the corner into the hallway.

“Goodnight, Parker.” Percy responded as Parker went to get ready for ‘bed’. Parker had a wack sleep schedule, but she was normally able to shake off her sleepiness in the morning. She normally stayed up till three on her phone, then went to bed, sure, school started at eight in the morning, but four hours of sleep was better than nothing.

Parker lay in bed, scrolling through her phone, when she got a notification from the group chat. Sabrina and Bonnie were probably arguing about something. When she saw Sabrina’s sugar glider profile picture and Bonnies snake profile picture she figured she’d join the conversation.

Nightmare endurer- And yet YOU think sneaking into a college when they reject you is justified???

The creature-

IS IT NOT THOUGH????

I MEAN

IT MAKES SENSE

NOT LIKE THEYRE GONNA KNOW

@moth bby

BACK ME UP DALIA

Boy kisser- ?????

What are you yapping abt????

Nightmare endurer- Bonnies being an idiot again

Shes the Ramsey of the group

Rat

>:)

Dalia isn't gonna help you

Because unlike us

She has a healthy sleep schedule

The creature- NUH UH

And my uncle is a respectable man

Nightmare endurer- HE EMBEZZLED MONEY???

The creature- Nobody perfect

Boy kisser- my aunt arrested him

He is NOT a good man

The creature- GRRR

Nightmare endurer- Bonnie stfu

Anyway

What’d Percy say?

You allowed to go with us??

Boy kisser- She said no

Like she does every year

Idk why she does this

Nightmare endurer- I think its the autism

Damn

So no parker again this year??

The creature- Damn

Just sneak out???

Its easy

Doubt she’ll notice anyway

I do it all the time

Nightmare endurer- well we don't live with a washed-up felon

Bozo

Its not that easy

Slow one

The creature- Shit

Rat alert

Talk to you later

The creature went offline

Boy Kisser- Damn

Imagine

She probs got her phone taken

Nightmare endurer- nah

Probably for the night

Ramsey’ll give it back

Anyway i should go too

Even though i cant sleep

Boy kisser- goodnight <3

Nightmare endurer went offline

And just like that Parker was left alone. But Bonnie's words hung in her head. Maybe she could sneak out… but how does one sneak out? Bonnie knew all about sneaking out. But did she really want to go through with this? Was she that desperate? Maybe. She would have to ask Bonnie tomorrow if she showed up to school. As the tall, scrawny, blonde girl lay in bed, her frustration grew, as if it were a kettle, on the verge of spilling over. Maybe this is what she needed. A little bit of rebellion never hurt anyone.

The night came and went, as Parker got her dosage of a total of five hours of sleep. For the first time in a while, she was excited to go to school. Today was Halloween, and even though they had school, most of the teachers didn't care about their jobs enough to teach or show up on a holiday. So that meant the quintuplet could goof off as much as they wanted without their grades feeling the punishment.

The ride to school was silent. Parker was in the passenger seat of her auntie's police cruiser, the very same place she had seen multiple people in before. Cops weren't something that scared her necessarily but being incarcerated did. The day Parker would be cuffed and in the backseat of a police vehicle would also be the day Percy lost her shit, either in anger or sadness. The reason she showed no emotion most of the time was that her emotions boiled over the second she got angry or scared. Two emotions Percy never showed often.

The ride’s silence was interrupted by Percy's monotone voice. “Parker, please stop shaking your leg. It's causing the car to shake.” Parker hadn't noticed she’d been shaking her leg. She quickly stopped.

“Sorry…” She mumbled into her hand as she rested her elbow on the car door.

“It's quite alright,” Percy responded back, her signature half smile on her face. “I know you cannot help it. But please do consider I am driving. I want you to arrive safely to school, sweetheart.” Parker smiled a bit at her aunt’s precautions. She understood why she did it, but that was for driving. Not the whole, ‘not being allowed to participate in Halloween’ thing. But maybe Parker could discreetly ask how Percy would feel if someone (hypothetically her) snuck out.

“Auntie, quick question,” Parker spoke. “You know Bonnie right?”

“Yes. I know her, why do you ask?” Percy knew Bonnie alright. From being Ramsey's niece to being in juvie multiple times, Percy knew her well.

“Well I was wondering, do you know that sometimes she sneaks out? I don't think her uncles caught on about it yet. But if you were in Ramsey's position, how would you feel?” Yes. Asking how Percy felt about anything by relating it to someone else always stumped her. And Parker made sure she focused on the Ramsey and Bonnie bit.

“Well. Certainly a good question.” Percy said before she thought about it. “Im not sure how I’d feel. One part of me feels betrayed and the other feels disappointed, or upset. It's hard to word. My apologies.” Percy quickly focused her attention on the road in front of her. “I certainly hope you wouldn't go that far and sneak around behind my back, Parker.” Ouch. That stung Parker straight through the chest. “I'd be disappointed.” Double-whammy, jeez. Parker was feeling really anxious about this whole thing now. The day her aunt was disappointed would be the day Parker’s condemned to hell. Once Percy was disappointed, she was disappointed. She would give you the silent treatment and everything.

“Yeesh. A disappointed auntie is not a happy auntie.” Parker joked trying to hide her anxiety. “Anyway… do you work tonight?”

“Yes, I’m on the schedule. Patrol, 3 pm-12 am.” Percy said as she pulled into the school.

“Oh, okay!” Everything was falling into place, Miraculously Percy's work hours happened to fall in when she planned to sneak out. If she had the balls to do that. Percy pulled into the car-rider line and stopped the car, letting Parker get out.

“Have a good day, Parker. Be safe.” Percy said as Parker grabbed her bag and smiled at Percy’s words.

“You too auntie.” She flung her bag over her shoulder as she shut the car door, and ran to the front of the school. The quintuplet was always here 15 minutes before the bell rang, so they could talk before class started. Dalia, Bonnie, and Sabrina were already there. Bonnie was perched sitting on the metal bar fence, while Dalia and Sabrina stood next to her.

“Im just saying hypothetically, if the world was flat, do you think the water would spill off the sides and go into space?” Bonnie was back to asking nonsensical questions. Parker was walking up to the group as she heard the conversation going on.

“The world is round,” Sabrina stated as she whacked Bonnie upside the head with a peice of paper. “Dumbass.” Sabrina looked at Parker as she was walking up to them. “Will you tell this simple-minded weasel right here that the earth is round?”

“Bonnie,” Parker said with a twinge of cringe. “What are you on about?”

“Coke probably,” Bonnie replied with a shit-eating grin as the three girls in front of her mentally facepalmed. “Anyway, why are we talking about me, when we need to be talking about Parker? Her aunt is holding her hostage!”

“Hostage is certainly a descriptive word. I don't think its hostage.” Dalia inquired. “Besides, Percy isn't that strict… right?”

“You’d be surprised,” Sabrina replied. “The first time Parker had Wendy’s is when my dad took us after colorguard a month ago.” Both Dalia and Bonnie looked at Parker with a surprised look. Was Percy really that strict?

Bonnie got off the blue metal bar fence put her hands on Parker's shoulder, and shook her. “You have got to rebel. Do something about this! You're a prisoner in your own life! Percy is holding you hostage!”

Parker rolled her eyes. “She’s just… Protective. It's nothing… really!”

Dalia and Sabrina exchanged glances before Dalia spoke. “She's… kinda a helicopter parent… and she's not even your mom. Doesn't it get old?”

Sabrina’s eyes widened. “Helicopter parent? More like an authoritative parent, she wants Parker to be like her… monotone… and bland. No offense. You aren’t able to have caffeine. Or fun...” Sabrina said her voice feeling bad for Parker, which was rare, she hardly felt bad for anyone.

“She's a cop… she means well.” Parker tried to defend her aunt's parenting style, but she knew that it was useless to do so.

“Cop or not, you're in a prison! And I know a lot about prison.” Bonnie replied as she shook Parker again. “Yknow what, meet me at our spot at lunch, we're gonna get you freedom, by any means necessary.” Bonnie looked Parker in the eyes, the same look an army general would give his men before battle. Parker admired her friends, especially Bonnie for her candid ‘we're gonna do this no matter the consequences’ attitude. And right on cue the bell rang, and the girls went their separate ways. Bonnie to Science, Dalia to Math, Sabrina to History, and Parker to P.E.

The Periods blurred together, it was the same thing every day. But 4th period was Parker's favorite, Art. It was a class she shared with Sabrina, besides 8th period. The art classroom with Ms. Wade. She was an eccentric individual, and one Parker trusted with anything (besides Mrs.Cox, she’s the nicest teacher at SJHS). Ms.Wade’s flowy blue hair and silver round-rimmed glasses made her quite the person. Not to mention her small stature. Sabrina was barely shorter than her.

“Parker…? Something wrong?” Ms. Wade asked as Parker snapped out of her daze, unaware she was staring directly at the boy across the room.

“Ah- !” Parker snapped back to reality as Ms. Wade's high-pitched voice rang through her ears. “I’m fi-”

“Then why were you staring at Micah?” Sabrina cut Parker off, as she moved to take one of her black colored pencils.

“I was zoned out, Sabrina!” Parker spoke through her teeth in an annoyed manner. Parker huffed as she turned around in her seat to speak to Ms.Wade. “As I was saying before I was rudely cut off. Im fine. I zoned out.” Parker picked up her pencil again as she stared at the blank paper in front of her.

“You don't seem alright.” Ms.Wade stated as she leaned over and looked at Parker's blank page. “Having trouble with the prompt?”

“You could say that. How do I take an insecurity and draw it? Arent those just thoughts?” Parker asked. Sure she had insecurities, everybody did, but how does one translate that onto paper? It seemed impossible.

“Well, you think of something you're insecure about, like me, im insecure about my height. You take that, and you imagine a picture that speaks without speaking. Like a picture with meaning.” Ms.Wade did her best to explain, but she had no idea how to describe the prompt.

“Is being afraid people will be disappointed in you an insecurity?” Parker asked ideas slowly coming back to her.

“Sure, you can do that. I look forward to seeing what you create.” Ms. Wade gave Parker a gentle shoulder pat, as Parker resumed looking at the paper. As Ms.Wade walked away, slowly Parker began to run her colored pencil across the page, drawing a large silhouette of a woman with one hand holding a smaller sadder girl, and the other hand on her hip. She flipped over the page and quickly scribbled some writing in her chicken-scratch handwriting. The most notable thing about the drawing was the fact that the large woman had a striking resemblance to Percy, and the smaller girl looked like Parker, even though they were blacked-out silhouettes.

“Is that supposed to be Percy?” Sabrina leaned over and asked Parker, as the girls put down their pencils. Parker picked up her drawing and held it up tilting her head to look at it at another angle.

“Huh, it does kinda look like her… thats weird,” Parker stated as she put the drawing back down on the table.

“I’d say. Wanna see mine?” Sabrina asked. Parker nodded. Sabrina held up her drawing. It was two people both that looked like her, but one was blacked out and looked like something from a horror movie. “Cool right?”

“Thats creepy. What even is that?” Parker asked her face turning into one of slight disgust.

“It's my nightmares... OooOOOhhHHh… spooky… isn't it?” Sabrina asked with a sly grin on her constantly tired face.

“Jesus… how do you function?”

“I don't,” Sabrina replied. “Im constantly on the verge of a mental breakdown.” Even when saying something like that, her grin never wavered. Parker was slightly concerned but knew Sabrina was just like that, so she let it slide. “What’s that supposed to represent anyway?” Sabrina pointed to Parker’s drawing.

“Uh, disappointment? Im insecure about people being disappointed?” She said with uncertainty. Parker wasn't sure what it conveyed exactly, but she knew it conveyed something. Sabrina raised an eyebrow and playfully punched Parker.

“You need therapy.” Sabrina jabbed.

“I'll get it when you do,” Parker responded. Soon enough, the lunch bell rang, and Parker shoved the drawing into her bag. She and Sabrina hurried from the art room in the 400 hall to outside underneath the bleachers in the football field. It was a colder day, rounding out at about 50-ish degrees. The chill hit the duo as soon as they walked outside and to the football field, where Bonnie and Dalia already were. Bonnie had a paper in front of her along with a poorly drawn blueprint map of Parker's home. And a neighborhood it looked like. Dalia was munching on the expensive school Snickers from the vending machines.

“About time y’all showed up.” Bonnie crossed her arms, as the two climbed under the bleachers sitting around the paper.

“Bonnie, maybe don't be mean-” Dalia went to say but was quickly cut off by Bonnie, who quite frankly does not give a shit.

“Hush, lemme speak.” Bonnie playfully slapped the side of Dalia’s arm. “Okay. Now you may be wondering why I have all this paper spread out.”

“We aren’t,” Sabrina said.

“Hush Dumbass,” Bonnie said glaring at Sabrina, who was now on her phone. “As I was saying, the reason we have all this paper is because we are gonna help goody-to-shoes here gain her freedom.” She held up the poorly drawn map of Parker's house. “And I have the blueprints to help.”

Sabrina looked up from her phone at the blueprints. “Those look like a four-year-old drew them.” She said mocking Bonnie's terrible art skills. “Isn't your uncle an online artist? I thought you could do better than that.”

“Kill yourself and let me speak, dickhead.” Bonnie retorted. “If you would let me speak, I would tell you what the plan is.” Parker and the rest of the girls sent their attention to Bonnie. “Finally, now here's what's goin’ down. Whenever Percy leaves the house, you're gonna make a fake you out of pillows and stick it underneath your blanket. Then all you gotta do is walk out of the house and meet us at Greengage Gated Community.”

“It’s that easy?” Parker asked as she fiddled with the hem of her black denim shorts. She honestly thought it was gonna be much harder, but the way Bonnie was describing it made it sound so easy. “I thought it was gonna be harder.”

“It is that easy. Plus you live in a one-story house, so it'll be even easier.” Bonnie spoke cockily. The girls murmured and mumbled to one another before all collectively agreeing on something. Sabrina spoke up.

“I live in GreenGage, you can meet us there Parker. And if push comes to shove, I'll throw myself under the bus and say it was my idea.” The girls all nodded in response.

“Really? Wow, I didn't expect you all to be so… open to this. Are you sure though, im sure my aunt, if she found out, she would chew all of you and your parents out.” Parker said, her voice full of slight guilt and embarrassment, like a child confessing to breaking something.

“Nah, it'll be fine, my uncle knows how Percy is.” Bonnie shrugged off Parker's worries and gave her a pat on the back.

“Yeah, my dad and Sabrina’s are pretty lenient. I’m sure it'll be alright.” Dalia added, trying to soothe Parker's worries rather than brush them off like Bonnie just did. The four girls looked at each other, and all grinned.

“Last one to the lunch line is a rotten egg!” Bonnie said quickly before dashing back into the school building. The other three girls quickly ran after her, Sabrina being able to catch up with almost no difficulty, Dalia and Parker following close after.

(insert break line here)

Percy had a few hours to spare before needing to even leave for work. She sat at the empty kitchen island in the empty kitchen. Normally she didn't mind being alone, but today something was eating at her. She clutched her glass of butter water and sighed. She could not place it but an empty pit of dread was in her stomach. Why? She couldn’t explain.

“Maybe I’m being too harsh on her…” Percy had a knack of talking to herself when she was alone. “She's growing she needs to learn… but what if im stunting her social-emotional growth…? I don't want her to end up like me… a social recluse…” Percy sighed. She was probably just overthinking things again. Seems like thinking as all she ever did. Percy was awoken from her overthinking state when she heard a knock and a shout from her door.

“Per-CY!” Ah, Rose, right on cue. If it wasn't for that ungodly voice crack, Rose would've felt confident right about now. But in returning Percy's badge that she had accidentally left over at her place, she had forgotten what Percy did to her. At this point, she wouldn't have been surprised if Parker started calling her “Auntie’. At this point, she hung around Percy so much that the girls even started to suspect something was going on. At this point, Rose couldnt deny it.

Percy quickly answered the door. “Rose?” Percy opened the door and stepped out on the porch. “What brings you here?”

“Oh- ! Uh, right…” Rose fiddled inside her cargo pants pockets, trying to find Percy's badge. When she found it she held it out, letting Percy take it back. “You left that at my place. I figured you would need it, for your job. Not like you don't have like three spares but, I figured I might as well return it.”

Percy looked at the badge before softly smiling at Rose. “Thank you. I was wondering where this went. I was afraid I was going to have to wear my spare.” Percy said as she swapped this badge with the one she was currently wearing.

“It's no problem really… I pass this way while going to work so I figured I might as well return it.” That was a lie, she took a fifteen-minute detour to get here, she just wanted to see Percy, hopefully, that would give her some motivation for the shift upcoming. Hopefully the same could be said about Percy.

“Well thank you. I appreciate it.” Percy gave her small half smile to the tan woman in front of her. Before it dawned on her. Rose had siblings, multiple actually. “Rose, may i ask you something?”

“Oh, yeah, sure, go ahead,” Rose responded as she shifted her position to lean against the column on the porch.

“Is it wrong to shield a child from the outside world?” Percy asked as she crossed her arms, trying to comfort herself. Rose thought about it for a moment before responding.

“Not wrong, but it's not good either. The more you shield a child from the world, the more curious they get, and the more likely they are to rebel.” Rose said giving the best answer she could. “Kids need some form of freedom, keeping them shielded, while it is safe, it's also a recipe for disaster.” Percy took this into account. Parker would go that far. She was a good kid, she wouldn't rebel… right?

“Hm, I’ll take that into account. Thank you.” Percy said uncrossing her arms and fixing her rigid posture.

“No problem, I’m always-”

BEEP BEEP

Roses pager was going crazy. She quickly took a look at it before chuckling to herself. “I guess thats my cue to leave. See you around?” Rose returned around as she walked down the steps of the porch.

“See you around Rose.” Percy waved back to the tanned woman who was now walking to her car. She waved one last time before getting in and pulling away. Rose's answer only brought up more questions for Percy.

It was safe yes, but what did Rose mean by ‘recipe for disaster’? Surely Parker wouldn't do anything that drastic. Percy began thinking again as she walked back inside. She looked at her watch. Still, an hour to kill. She sat back at the kitchen island thinking again. She’d been doing a lot of that lately. Thinking. Mostly about Parker. The very child she was sworn to protect. Thats what she told her brother. She would take care of his daughter, no matter what. But lately, she’s been more protective.

Maybe it's been the string of kidnapping cases thats been going around the police station. Parker was a young, blonde, blue-eyed, and as much as Percy hated to admit it, a curvy young girl. She was also a mundie, if she were to be abducted, she’d have no means to defend herself. The subject matter was important to Percy, she would defend, protect, and ensure Parker's safety, even if that meant keeping her inside. Percy didn't feel much remorse for saying no to Parker's pleas to go out, she knew it was for the best.

‘It was for the best’, was what Percy kept saying to herself. She didn't want Parker to end up like Bonnie, poor girl. Why was she comparing her niece to a girl who has gone through more than her? She was trying to prevent what happened to Bonnie, from happening to her. She needed to get her mind off of this subject. She decided to bite the bullet and go to work early, maybe that would help her get her mind off of this. So much for taking Roses advice.

(Insert another line break)

When Parker arrived home Percy was already gone. Perfect. This was the most opportune time for her to be gone, it's like the gods responded to her multiple prayers about being stuck inside with the same boring life. It felt good. Around 6-ish Parker left, in an old Hyena hoodie she had. It had a few loose stitches, and a couple of stains on the back, but the hoodie combined with her black leggings made the last-minute costume come together. At the end of the road was Sabrina, Bonnie and Dalia, all waiting for her. Upon seeing them she picked up the pace, and walked faster meeting up with them.

“Y'know, for someone who doesn't celebrate Halloween normally, you look like you've done this multiple times before.” Sabrina said with sarcasm. She was talking about Parkers costume. Out of the four of them, hers was the most last minute looking. Sabrinas looked the most put together, she had face paint and everything. “I'm a skeleton, spooky, right? I plan to scare some children and take their candy.”

“That’s kinda mean Sabrina. They worked hard for that candy.” Dalia spoke, fiddling with her hands a bit. Sabrina looked at her as they all walked to GreenGage Gated Community. “What if we get in trouble?”

“Dalia, you sensitive soul. I'm not taking just any children's candy. I'm aiming for Stink and Stonk. They're the ones who avidly look to steal candy. I'm simply helping.” Sabrina tried to justify her actions.

“The seventh graders? Why waste your time on those guys? They're probably still believing in cooties.” Bonnie said, adjusting the headband to her rat costume. Fitting, especially for her. Sure it was a gray t-shirt and jeans with a headband, but it got the job done.

“Are cooties still a thing?” Parker asked.

“Yeah. I heard that last year one of the Roughhouse twins sold a jar of their ‘thooties’ to Stink and Stonk at the Halloween store. They got 50 bucks.” Dalia responded to Parker's question as she twisted her wand in her hand. Dalia was a wizard, she had on a black shirt and pants, along with a cartoony purple cape with silver stars on it. All equipped with a pointy wizard hat.

“Sounds like something me and my uncle would do.” Bonnie responded. The girls had walked a good distance now, as the arrived at the gates of GreenGage. The place was really nice actually, to most of the girls surprise. “Did you take us to a neighborhood with full size candy bars? Because that's what it looks like”

“Of course I did.” Sabrina smiled. “My friends deserve nothing less.” She was full of herself. Sabrina took them here to flex on Sylvie that she has friends. Unlike him. “And my dad just so happens to be giving out said full size candy bars.”

“No shit.” Parker replied as the girls started running into the neighborhood.

“H-Hey! Wait for me!” Sabrina shouted as the girls nearly knocked her over. She ran behind them as they walked into the nice neighborhood. Lights from all the identical suburban houses, and the bustling sounds coming from children and adults alike rang throughout the place. It was beautiful.

“I was missing out on all this?!” Parker exclaimed as she threw her hands up.

“Yup. Aren't you glad your friends talked you into this?” Bonnie said as the group began walking through the road.

Sabrina and Dalia were having a conversation about smart people things, talk that Parker and Bonnie wouldn't and didn't want to understand. “Hey Parker, I know a cooler place than this.” Bonnie said to Parker as the two were walking down the road. Bonnie's grin was mischievous, and Sabrina and Dalia would shut down any idea she had. But they weren't here right now. And Parker was gullible.

“Really?”Parker asked falling for whatever Bonnie was planning.

“Mhm hmm. Yup.”

“What is it?”

Bonnie looked around a couple times, as if she was looking for any sign of an adult. She grabbed Parker's hand and led her out of the community. The border between the community and the other neighborhoods was unclear. So Bonnie could be leading her anywhere. Soon enough she led her to another Neighborhood, one that wasn't as nice. In fact it kinda looked like the ghetto. But the nice part of the ghetto. “I don't do all that Richie stuff. Sure, I like the large amounts of candy, but it's the experience that counts.” Bonnie said as she led Parker through ‘her part of town’. All sorts of people were there, along with all sorts of food, and smells. It was almost homey.

“I like it. It smells nice.” Parker said as the two walked.

“It does, doesn't it? Oooh! Just wait till we get to Mama’s food stand. She makes the best food.” Bonnie said enthusiastically.

“Okay! You have money, right?”

“Duh! I may be a delinquent, but I'm not a criminal.” Bonnie rolled her eyes. “You wait here, I'm gonna find Mama.” And Bonnie was off. Parker leaned up against the wall of one of the buildings. She pulled out her phone, and started to play an offline mobile game, not paying much attention to her surroundings.

Before long, a lanky man leaned up against the wall next to her. He was wearing a stained wife beater, and a pair of jeans that were a weird tan color with stains around the hem. “What's a lady like ya’ doin' out here?” The man had a breathy raspy voice and weird stubble across his pale face.

“I-I’m not alone… I’m here with a friend.” Parker responded as politely as possible but found it a little unnerving a man like him was talking to her, a teenager. The man let out a small grunt of acknowledgement.

“Where is them?” The man's lack of grammatical correctness, also through Parker off.

“Getting… food.” Parker responded with a bit of hesitancy. He let out another noise of acknowledgement. The man glanced at Parker, his brown eyes staring into her skin. His whole vibe was off. Really off.

Parker tried to ignore him, by continuing to play her mobile game. But the man scooted closer to her. She scooted farther, trying to maintain the distance between her and this man. “Why ya’ runnin’?” The man said as the shink of a pocket knife was heard. Before Parker could react, the knife was up to her neck.

“AH-!” The man quickly covered her mouth with his grody hands.

“Don't make this any harder than it has to be.” He said as Parker started to cry and try to squirm herself away from this man. “You know what I want.”

No she didn't. What did he want? What did it have to do with her? Where's Bonnie? Sabrina? Dalia? Anybody? She felt hopeless. She should've stayed home, she wanted to be anywhere other than the grips of this man. She shook her head, she didn't know what he wanted. The man took the hand that had the knife and gently ran it down Parker's face, and slowly down to her torso leaving small holes in her Hyena hoodie. That's what he wanted. Her. No. Tears started spilling from her eyes as she tried to scream and squirm her way out. It was all in vain. The street was so crowded, but no one was helping, and the few who did notice were too scared to help or didn't care enough.

“Hey Parker! I got some-!” Bonnie stopped dead in her tracks. The food that was in her hand dropped to the ground as she looked at the man and Parker, who was trying to free herself. So Bonnie did what she does best. Scream. She screamed loudly, loud enough to be heard from a good half mile. Her own experiences would not let this happen to her best friend. She'd been in Parker's position before, but she didn't have anyone to save her. So, she did what baby Bonnie would've wanted. She was going to fight.

Bonnie, after her lengthy scream, moved quickly. She didn't have an Epithet either, but she did have pure will and fists. And to her that's all you needed to fight. The teenager lunged at the man, giving a good punch to his gut. He didn't barrel over in pain like she hoped he would. Instead he used the pocket knife and slashed her cheek. Thankfully It wasn't her eye.

Bonnie doubled back in pain as she winced uncomfortably. “Dammit…” She touched her cheek, the blood trickled down her face, dripping onto her gray shirt. She delivered another punch, but he quickly deflected it. He sent a punch to Bonnie's nose, sending her backwards and onto the concrete.

By now the authorities were called. People were recording, but not doing anything to actively help. Most of them were cowering in fear walking as fast as they could away from the scene and the more braver ones were recording.

“Attention all units, attention all units. We have a possible 240 and a possible 261A in progress. All units in the area of Armen Avenue and Outland Road please report immediately.” Percy’s radio went off. She quickly picked it up and answered it as her police cruiser sped up slightly to get to the named location.

“This is Officer P. King reporting in, what exactly is the situation?” Percy's monotonous voice was heard over the radio.

“Two female teenagers in the hands of a dangerous man. Multiple witnesses have called in about the disturbance. Man seems to be armed with a pocket knife.”

“10-4.” Percy quickly responded as her cruiser turned onto Armen Avenue. The shrieking wails could be heard through her car, even with the windows up. With her sirens blaring the crowd around the man and Parker quickly aired out, leaving Bonnie and the man to their own devices, not far from them Was Ramsey. Trying to desperately get through the crowd to his niece and Parker.

Percy's eyes widened as she saw just who exactly was in the arms of the dangerous man. Part of her wanted to freeze in place, the other wanted to beat the man until he was dead. Percy, instead of reaching for her sword, reached for her gun. Her Glock 19 was firm in her hands as she hissed. “Put the child down! I will open fire!” Parker was still crying In the man's grasp. This was the worst possible outcome. Not only was she being held hostage by a man, but the cop who had to stop this situation was her aunt. And Parker could see Percy's anger plastered on her face.

A familiar voice rang from the crowd behind them.“Damnit..! Move!” Ramsey was shoving his way through the crowd, pushing anyone that was in his way. He must've heard Bonnie's scream from that dingy apartment not far from here. “Bonnie!” Bonnie was trying to hold her own. Out of all the fights she’d been in, this one was the hardest one. She should've expected it, she was picking a fight with a man who belonged in prison.

“Put the weapon down!” Percy gripped her gun harder. Her arms were flexing so much to the point of shaking. “I will open fire! This is your final warning!” Her usual monotonous voice was full of emotion. Anger and fear. Her gloved finger was on the trigger, ready to pull. The man simply gave a twisted smile. He lifted Parker up by the collar of her hoodie.

“Ya’ wouldn't shoot a kid, right officer?” The man adjusted his position to be holding Parker up in front of him, still by the collar. Her hoodie was slightly small on her and this action caused the hoodie to start choking her slightly. She let out a gasp for air. “Not especially yer daughter… right?”

Percy out of instinct lowered her gun. “Put her down. Now.” Her voice was still stern as ever but it held a great amount of fear. The man simply put his pocket knife up to Parker's neck.

“An’ if I don't?” The man asked with his twisted grin. Percy couldn't respond. Her mouth went dry. She looked around. No other officer was here. She was the only one. She felt hopeless. If her niece were to die she would never forgive herself.

The red-headed rat man came barreling out of the crowd. “Listen to the damn cop, jackass!” He stumbled out of the crowd and next to Percy, who was surprised by his sudden entrance. “Put the kid down, an’ you'll leave with your face still intact.” Ramsey raised his arms, and got into a fighting stance, his arms were made entirely of gold. Bonnie was on the verge of passing out. She stood next to Percy as well.

“Put my best friend down. You have no business with her.” Bonnie said her voice filled with resentment and anger. The man was outnumbered, three to one.

The man gave a laugh, an unnervingly hearty one. “This girls comin’ with me. She's too purtty to be left out here… alone.” The man gave a weirdly unnerving smile. Percy has just about had it. Her gloves came off and her sleeves went up.

“You'll find that my daughter is coming with me.” Her voice hissed. Ramsey and Bonnie exchanged glances but didn't think much of the statement. “As a police officer, I have full jurisdiction to use force if I'm forced to. And you'll find I am an excellent boxer.” Percy got into a fighting stance, throwing all weapons to the side. No sword or gun. She had her fists and pure will.

Thean gave another unnervingly hearty laugh. “I'd like to see ya try.” As soon as the man finished his sentence, Percy swung. She delivered a swift yet powerful punch at the man's jaw, sending him backwards. He dropped the pocket knife, moving both of his hands to his jaw. “What the hell!” He let out a long wince. Before he was able to recover Percy kneed him in the gut. He barrelled over in pain. The pocket knife that was on the ground he picked back up. And lunged at Percy. Percy caught the man's arm before it stabbed her, but the lanky man was surprisingly strong. She wouldn't be able to hold it forever.

“L-Leave her alone!” Parker's heart wrenching cries rang out as she tried to attack the man who was currently trying to stab her aunt. “Stop it! Please!” Parker tried her best to fight the guy off of her aunt. The man threw her off of him, and sent her stumbling backwards onto the ground.

That distracted the man long enough for Percy to knee him in the jaw. His jaw made a loud popping noise. She dislocated it. The man grabbed his jaw, clenching it in pain. “You whore! God damnit!” He winced out. He turned away about to book it out of there, before his ankle was grabbed. The grip was as strong as it could be from Parker. Her tear stained face, and her pitiful voice didn't sway the man, it only agitated him more.

“No… you're not going anywhere…” Parker said as she gripped the man's ankle.

“Let go of me, bitch!” The man tried shaking her off, but quickly realized that wasn't going to happen. In a last ditch effort to get away he kicked Parker in the face, knocking her unconscious. Her grip loosened as she passed out, leaving the man to be able to run away. Percy wasn't letting that happen. Quickly summoning a wizard tower to paralyze the man.

The lighting sprung out of the tower and electrocuted him. Making him black out. Percy threw the eraser cuffs to Ramsey and shouted. “Deal with the man, I'm getting Parker!” Ramsey, noticing the shocking amount of worry on her face agreed. He ran over to the man, quickly cuffing him, as Percy ran to the unconscious teenager, laying face first on the concrete. Shouting her name as she ran, Percy felt herself grow more worried. Tears were forming in her eyes as she crouched to Parker's level. “Parker…? Sweetheart please, don't do this. Parker?” Percy felt her throat closing up as she tried to shake Parker awake. She was out cold. Percy checked for a pulse, out of worry. Thankfully one was still present. “Parker, love, you gotta wake up. Please.” Percy was begging for her to get up, give her a sign she was alright. Before Percy knew it tears were streaming down her face. There was no stopping her emotions, she was already melting down.

Ramsey handed the guy over to the other officers who finally arrived at the scene. He quickly ran over to Percy who was bawling now. “Aye, Percy. You alright?” He asked crouching down next to her, he put a caring hand on her back.

She shook her head no. How could she be alright? She let her niece get hurt, if she hadn't got there sooner it would've been worse. Percy knew this was her fault. “No…” She sobbed out. Ramsey really didn't know what to do in this situation. He'd never seen Percy so distraught. Ramsey quickly called Bonnie over, to see if she could do anything about the situation. The two brought Percy over to the other officers, handing her over so they could hopefully do something about her state.

Soon enough the scene was filled with ambulances, cop cars and news anchors. Percy wanted nothing to do with them. She wanted to crawl under a rock and die. She wanted to be away and just cry. She knew this was her fault and she was responsible for Parker getting hurt. No matter how much Ramsey and Meryl tried to soothe her.

“Percy, it'll be alright. She's in good hands. Please calm down.” Meryl said as she stroked Percy's hair. The two were crowded around Percy, who was sitting in the open back of Meryl's police cruiser.

Percy kept crying. “I-I failed… I didn't make sure she was safe… it's all my fault…” She wiped her face, smearing her mascara across her face.

“It ain't your fault Percy. You didn't know this would happen.” Ramsey tried to soothe her now. He knew that Parker wasn't able to go out at night, let alone Halloween night. So he knew who's fault it was, but he wasn't going to bring it up. Not now at least. “Like Meryl said, she's in the hands of the hospital. That's the safest place she can be right now.” Percy cried into Meryl's shoulder, getting wet mascara all over her white coat.

“I'm… I'm supposed to be the safest person for her… I failed…” Percy’s cries dissolved into soft sobs as she spoke.

“Why was she out alone anyway?” Meryl asked as she continued stroking Percy’s, now messy blonde hair.

“I don't know… she was supposed to be at home…” She responded.

“I think I know what happened.” Ramsey glared over to Bonnie who was currently giving her statement to an officer. “Parker most likely snuck out. With the help of Bonnie…” He pinched his nose bridge.

“W-what..?”

“You heard me Percy.” He responded. “I took Bonnie's phone last night, all the girls, except Dalia, were online talking about Parker and how they wanted her to come with ‘em tonight.” He sighed as he looked over at Bonnie. “I can't believe she'd go this far.”

Percy hung her head. She knew this would happen. “I- I figured…” she sniffled. “I'm too hard on her, I- this I didn't want this to happen.”

“None of us did Percy.” Meryl comforted. “It'll be okay though, just keep your head held high.” She placed a caring hand on Percy's shoulder. She looked at her watch. “Let's get you out of here. Your shifts about over anyway.” Meryl helped Percy up, and led her to her police cruiser. She held out her hands for the keys, which Percy willingly gave. Meryl started up the police cruiser and drove away, leaving Ramsey and Bonnie at the scene, they lived close by, they'd be able to get him easily.

“Bonnie Lynn, get your ass over here!” Ramsey shouted as she gently tapped his foot against the ground. Bonnie heard his call, and heard her middle name. It was serious, but not as serious as her full name. Bonnie walked over, her hands in her pants pockets. “Just what the hell were you thinking?!” Ramsey spoke. Whenever he started a lecture like that, Bonnie knew it was going to br ranty and lengthy. “I gave you the benefit of the doubt, and assumed that those texts were just jokes, but no. You deliberately go behind not only my back, but Percy’s as well. Tell me Bonnie, what the hell was going through your mind when you decided to help Parker sneak out?”

Bonnie hesitated. “I thought I was helping. She always seems so sad she never gets to do stuff with us. I'm sorry.” She hung her head, as her uncle continued his rant.

“Bonnie, look at me.” He paused letting Bonnie lift her head to look up at him. “Percy does that for a reason. She doesn't want Parker to get hurt, like I do with you, she does with Parker. Yes I'm aware I'm not a perfect figure, but I'm better than a lot of people out there. But the point is, that was dangerous, dangerously stupid as well.” He paused, catching his breath slightly. “Bonnie, you're a good kid. You mean well, but when it comes to people's lives, you gotta let stuff happen. If Percy says no to something, either let it slide or come to me. Okay?”

Bonnie nodded. She looked up at Ramsey. “Is Percy mad at me?”

“Percy doesn't do mad, disappointed, yes. But she'll never be angry at you.” He reassured. As he looked at Bonnie he noticed the cut she had gotten from the fight. “That's a nasty scar, hey, you match your old man.” He pointed to his own eye scar.

“I guess.” Bonnie sighed. “I just really didn't want Parker to- y'know.” Bonnie's voice held a bit of guilt. Ramsey knew exactly what she was referring to, and found it admirable Bonnie was trying to save Parker from that.

“I know, kid.” He pat her back with affection. “You did good tonight. But don't let it happen again.” He warned.

“I won't, old man.”

“Good. C’mon, let's go home, the police have a lot of work to do.” Ramsey wrapped his arm around Bonnie's shoulder and led her away. The walk back to their dingy apartment was mostly silent, the two walked side by side, all was silent for most of the walk, but then Bonnie's standard ringtone went off. She was ignoring the first time, but they kept calling and calling, to the point she had to answer it. The caller ID was Sabrina. She answered it and was met with the loud sounds of the tired girl's voice.

“WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED??? IS PARKER OKAY???” Sabrina shouted from her line of the phone.

“Parker's fine. She's in the hospital right now, but she's fine. Why?” Bonnie asked.

“The news dumbass! It's all over. ‘Local teen fights of creep, authorities get involved.’ WHERE DID YOU TWO EVEN GO ANYWAY?” Sabrina shouted through the phone. She was clearly concerned, and her volume was starting to make Bonnie cringe.

“We went to Armen Avenue.-”

“ARMEN AVENUE??! ARE YOU INSANE?!” Sabrina shouted. Murmurs of Dalia and Mr.Ashling could be heard in the background. Before Bonnie knew it, Dalia took Sabrina's phone and started speaking.

“Is Parker okay? We heard she took a good kick to the face. What about Percy, is she okay too?” Dalia asked, her volume much more manageable than Sabrina’s.

“Yes, Parker should be fine. Percy was crying a river though.” Bonnie replied. The other line was silent for a good moment before Sabrina shouted again.

“PERCY WAS CRYING?!?! WHAT DID YOU-”

Click.

Bonnie hung up and put her phone on silent. She already had to speak about the situation to the police. She didn't want to do the same thing with her friends. She sighed. She wasn't gonna hear the end of it for a while.

Percy and Meryl were in a silent car ride. Originally Meryl wanted to take Percy straight home, but Percy voiced that she wanted to get the statement and paperwork out of the way. Percy was fiddling with her gloves the entire ride, her leg bouncing as she did so. Meryl noticed Percy's state of anxiety. She knew it was from the previous situation but she felt the need to ask anyway. “Percy, are you alright?”

Percy shrugged. “I'm not sure. I'm conflicted. And worried. Half the police force saw my meltdown, they're gonna put me in mandated therapy before I'm able to work again.” She sighed. Talking about feelings were hard for Percy, and with a stranger it was even harder.

“That's okay. Maybe it'll help.” Meryl tried to make light of the situation. “I'm sure the therapy will help you get rid of feelings you've been avoiding.”

“Avoiding? I don't avoid my feelings.” Percy said, defending her way of feeling.

“Yes, you do. Ramsey told me you called Parker your daughter, despite the fact you know she's your niece.” Meryl said. “You don't just do that. If you say something it has meaning. With that, I think that you're avoiding the fact you think of Parker more than just your niece. She gives you a maternal feeling, doesn't she?”

Percy went silent. “What does that feel like?”

“Well. It varies, I'd assume.” Meryl started. “It's like when you really want to be there for someone, and look over them like they’re family. Which Parker is, but, I think you see a part of yourself in her.” Meryl said as she looked directly at the road in front of them.

Percy thought for a moment, thinking about what Meryl said. “I'm not sure if I do. We're two different people. How can we be alike?” Percy asked.

“I'm sure you'll figure that out. You always do.” Meryl smiled. The drive went silent again. Maybe Meryl was right. But how? Percy thought about it and just couldn't find an answer. The car pulled into the police station, and the women got out. Heading inside. Percy knew she didn't want to be here, she wanted to be with her niece, even if it was in a hospital.

The cadets stared at Percy as she walked through the police station. She was disheveled, her hair awry, her mascara smeared across her cheeks, and her uniform wrinkled and dirty. Percy immediately got to her paperwork. The statement was the most daunting part. Her penmanship, which was mostly neat, was barely readable. The pen ink smeared as she moved her hand across the page. Her leg bounced underneath the desk. Her breathing was uneven, and her eyebrows were furrowed the entire time. Minutes turned into hours as she did the paperwork. It was almost three in the morning when she finished, and she had been up since 6 yesterday. She had been awake for almost 21 hours. She felt like passing out. She turned in her paperwork and left the station, walking out into her police cruiser, and getting in. She sat in the driver's side seat, just sitting. She was in no state to drive right now and she knew that. She sat there, for a good minute. Before resting her head on the wheel. She sighed. “What is wrong with me?” She asked herself out loud. She felt like crawling under a rock and dying.

After a good minute, she finally started the car. She was in no state to drive right now, but she didn't care. She started to drive, following all the proper road laws and obeying every light and sign. She drove a good twenty five minutes to the hospital, and parked. She knew visitor hours were over. Even so she still stayed in her car, to tired to drive home now. She leaned the seat back the farthest it could go and laid back. Sure it was uncomfortable and the bright lights from the hospital and lights from the parking lot were unbearable, but being at least this close to her niece made her feel at ease. She moved her arm to cover her eyes, hoping to block out some of the lights that were coming from the parking lot. Percy's thoughts spiraled as she sat there, each thought different and contradicting one another. She blocked them all out. Soon enough she fell asleep.

Hours passed and the sun started Percy in the face as she woke up. As she sat up from her uncomfortable position in the seat her back cracked. The car clock read 9:12. Five hours of lousy sleep that she didn't even count as comfortable. “Damn.” She winced as she fixed her seat to be in the upright position. She stretched the best she could, given the small space she was in. Visitor hours were from 10am-10pm. She had a little over half an hour to kill. Though she didn't feel like killing it. Percy, even though she knew the hospital wouldn't do anything about letting her in, decided to start walking up to the hospital anyway. As she was walking through the parking lot she pulled out her phone. It was almost dead, not having been on the charger for almost a day. There were a couple of texts, ones of which she was too tired to answer right now. Walking into the hospital she was met with the sounds of a man panicking, however, this wasn't just any man. This was her brother.

“Who cares if I'm early! My daughter is in there, injured! I swear to God I will sue!” He threatened.

“Daniel. Put the empty threats away.” Percy commanded in a tired tone. Daniel turned around at the sound of Percy’s voice.

“Percy? What the hell are you doing here?”

“I was going to make sure my niece is alright. Now move.” Percy's tone was cold. Colder than normal.

“I-Im sorry to intrude but visitor hours aren't until ten…” the small older receptionist lady behind the desk stated with a wavering voice.

“I am aware. I was going to wait.”

“Wait?! Percy! Parker is in there!” Daniel shouted. “She could be dead!”

“She's not dead. I know that, because I was there.” Percy’s tone got colder. Her brother's lack of common sense always bothered her.

“Oh, if you were there why the hell didn't you do something?!” He said back, his voice getting louder. He widened his stance, his six-foot frame trying to intimidate Percy. She was tired, anxious and upset. She didn't have the time or the patience for his shit today.

“For your information, I did. I was there, I fought him off, and I did my job as an officer and a caregiver. Something you wouldn't know about because, for the last seven years, you and Harper have been in Glassport doing God knows what.” Percy snapped. Her tone didn't raise, but it got cold and harsh. “And only when it's convenient for you is when you do anything for Parker. When was the last time you spoke to her?” Daniel didn't reply, he stood there. His arms crossed. “Exactly. I didn't think so. I have done my damnedest for this girl, trying to do everything in my might to understand and connect to her. The only reason you sent her with me is because of her neurodiversity damnit. God forbid anybody in this family be different.” Percy was surprisingly gentle with her rant.

“So I'm not allowed to make sure my daughter is alright?” Daniel retorted.

“She's not your daughter anymore when your sister has been her goddamn caregiver for seven years!” Percy was getting loud. She felt slightly bad that she was arguing in a hospital, but she needed to tell her brother her thoughts. “Tell whoever the hell you want, but Parker is my daughter! I've fed her, clothed her and put a roof over her head for the last seven years! And I've done all that while still maintaining my job, my social life and my own neurological condition!” She breathed heavily. “So no, you have no right to call her your daughter.”

Daniel scoffed. “What the fuck ever Percival. That damn autism still making you a stubborn little shit.” He rolled his eyes and left the hospital. He wasn't gonna deal with her shit, to him she was still a child, one who couldn't do anything on their own. She was viewed like that by all the King men in the family. Percy being left standing there, breathing heavily, looked at the clock on the wall, 9:44.

The older receptionist lady behind the desk quickly scribbled on a pink piece of paper and handed it to Percy. “Here, love. If anyone asks, tell them you've been waiting for a while and I let you in early.” The piece of paper had the receptionist's name on it, a time, and the room number for Parker.

Percy nodded. “Thank you.” Percy took the paper and held it in between her index and middle fingers. She wasn't expecting to argue with her brother this early in the morning, hell she wasn't even expecting him to be here at all. But she meant every word she said to him. Percy walked through the quiet, cold halls of the hospital. The smell of stagnant death in the air. The smell was off-putting, so much so that she resorted to mouth breathing.

Parker's room wasn't much different, the smell and vibes were the same. Percy didn't bother knocking or anything. Parker was seen on the bed tapping her fingers together. She noticed Percy walk in and went to speak, but before she could Percy walked up and hugged her. This hug held more meaning than the other hugs they had shared in the past. This one was tighter, and full of protective love. When Percy pulled away she placed a gentle hand on Parker's cheek and spoke. “Are you alright?” Parker nodded.

“Yeah, I'm okay, Auntie. You look tired… Are you okay?” Parker asked back as Percy held her hands.

“I'll be fine. Just a little shocked is all.” Percy responded.

“I'm sorry. About everything… I should've-”

“No, don't say anything.” Percy hushed her. “I know what happened. And I was expecting it. You're a stubborn girl, and you're a problem solver. You sneaking out wasn't as much of an issue as it was what happened last night.” Percy squeezed her hands in her own. “I know you weren't expecting it, but you did well holding your own.”

“If I did well, why am I in a hospital?” Parker asked. “And if you're not bothered by it, why do you look so stressed?”

“I'm stressed because I'm worried. About you. And the way I handle things…” Percy admitted as she sighed. “I know I'm not perfect, I'm far from it. But I try. And what happened last night scared me. And I'm sure it scared you just as much.” Parker nodded. It gave her one hell of a scare.

“It did.” Parker said. “Why do people like that exist? I was minding my own business.”

“I'm not sure, sweetheart. Just know he's behind bars now.” Percy softly smiled as she moved a strand of Parker's hair from her face. “Did the police come speak to you?”

“Yes ma'am. They did. I gave them my statement and everything.”

“Good girl.” Percy smiled. “I'm glad you're alright. I don't know what I would do without you.”

“Die?”

“Who knows? Glad I won't have to find out.” Percy laughed a bit. As she gave Parker a side hug. The two went on, carrying on conversation for a while. Soon enough a doctor came in.

“Ms. King?” He said. Both girls perked their heads up. The doctor looked at the two and asked Percy, “You're Parker's mother, correct?” Percy was going to correct him, she was her aunt, but figured she might as well just accept it.

“Yes.” Parker gave Percy a confused look.

“Here's her discharge papers. Fill these out, give them to the front desk and she's able to leave.” He handed her a clipboard, then promptly left the room.

As Percy was filling out the paperwork she could sense Parker's look of confusion. “Parker? What's with the look?”

“Why didn't you correct him? You always correct people.” Parker asked as Percy continued the paperwork.

“Simple. Didn't need to.” The confused Parker more. Percy went on to explain. “If I take the role of a mother, I might as well accept it, right?”

“I assume?” Parker said. “So… I'm your daughter…?”

“Not biologically. But yes.” Parker let out a noise of acknowledgment and happiness. Percy wasn't usually this open with how she felt. But she wasn't objecting to it. “Paperworks done, grab your stuff.”

“Yes mom” Parker said jokingly as she grabbed what few things she needed to.

“Let's not go that far.” Percy responded.

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gaykarstaagforever · 8 months ago

Text

MOVIES I AM SURPRISED I HAVEN'T SEEN

Predator (1987)

This is weird to me, because I love the Predator(s) as a monster, and I've seen a bunch of terrible Italian and Hong Kong movies that were shamelessly ripping this off. And I love Arnold more than I should. But I was 5 when this movie came out, and by the time I was old enough to see it without it giving me terrible nightmares, I didn't have an older brother or cousin to illicitly show it to me (which I'm pretty sure is how most people around my age saw it). Plus it was immediately eclipsed by all of the "Xtreme" 90s action movies it inspired, many starring Arnold, so it kind of immediately got lost in the shuffle of that VHS world.

Going into it without nostalgia and only an eye-rolling regard for most of the other movies in the franchise (most of which I also don't remember seeing more than bits of), I can say that it is a better movie than it has any right to be. But it is also kind of a mess. Basic B-.

The performances are pretty good. Carl Weathers (RIP) is fantastic as always, and Arnold is Arnold, though he seems like he's playing three different characters at various points. Which makes sense, because this feels like it is at least three different movies edited together.

One is a serious war movie about big men killing in a jungle, because they got tricked into doing it by the CIA. Another is a goofy macho over-the-top action blockbuster parody, where Arnold does one-liners and everyone else is hamming it up with random sex jokes and wacky character beats. Then the third is an action-horror movie where a lone desperate man is hunted and hunts a murderous alien monster. Accompanied by a score from a hypothetical Steven Spielberg movie about toys coming to life to save Christmas from a mean old troll.

No part of any of this gets to work on its own for more than 3 minutes, before another part of one of the other movies, or the godforsaken score, elbows its way in to throw it off. There is absolutely no tonal consistency. Which isn't automatically a bad thing, but kind of is here. I'm supposed to care about these characters enough that I care they are being murdered by a Space creature; but I don't, because I'm too distracted by which movie is doing what to them right now. If I was 14 I probably wouldn't have cared, but as an adult, I just can't get into it.

Especially not with that score. Oh my god. It's a good score, just for a totally different movie. This story needed some incidental drums and maybe a synth hook as a theme for the Predator. What it gets is a full orchestral score that has to scream the intended emotion of a scene at me like I'm not paying attention. It is unbearable and ruins everything, constantly. I very nearly watched the last 20 minutes on mute. It is just...stop. Leave me alone, inappropriate string section.

Another highly unnecessary thing is the stupid "Predator vision" sequences. The Predator is only on screen for like 15 minutes of the hour, 47 minute runtime, but I swear it feels like 45 minutes of this movie is eye-straining incomprehensible fakey thermal vision POV shots from the Predator's helmet cam.

Was this exciting new technology in 1987? It must have been, because why else would there be so much of it? And no, it doesn't build tension or reveal anything notable about the Predator. It serves no structural purpose. It just wastes valuable time that would be better used actually showing the Predator. There is exactly one cool shot using it, and that shot would have been just as cool as a regular camera shot:

As for the legitimate good, the special effects - the practical Predstor costume, his invisibility shield and weapons, all of the gory killings and explosions and gunfire - are great. As I said, Carl Weathers is the only character who is tonally consistent throughout, and I have no doubt that is mostly due to his skill as an actor. It is a genuine shame he isn't the one who survived long enough to force the Predator to rage-quit.

The last 20 minutes are the absolute best part and should have been most of the movie, where Arnold is unarmed, caked in mud, using the jungle and improvised traps to confuse and abuse the Predator. It unfortunately raises questions about how skilled the Predator actually is at the one thing he does, since with all his advanced alien tech, he can't see you if you're muddy for some reason, and he also won't kill you with a gun unless you have a gun, even if he's been hunting you and you've been seriously wounding him with sticks for like 2 days. I realize he has to folllow these kinds of rules to make the fight fair. But it also makes me wonder if the Predator is just a big narcissist whose hubris makes him a shitty hunter. You're whole thing is hunting sentient creatures in swamps, you boob. Probably get mask goggles that can see them when they get dirty?

Especially when the movie makes it clear that he, or other Predators, have been doing this shit in this exact area for decades, at least. Like, figure it out already, guys. You have interplanetary space flight, but Earth mud kills your laser / nuclear advantage? Please.

Also, how does the "fair fight" crap apply when you're strapped with both an advanced first aid kit AND a suicide vest? Those are a perpetual unfair advantage. Being weird about things because the prey dropped their gun or ran out of ammo seems arbitrarily pedantic.

Also also, you as a species are 8 feet tall, can leap from tree to tree, and have massive punching daggers mounted on your wrists. Tossing your own gun to wrestle a tired human man isn't being fair, it is cheating a little differently. Why bother? What do you gain by this?

Especially when you know that if you lose, you're going to explode, and take several surrounding acres out with you?

It is still a cool premise and a cool monster, and the movie overall is way, way better than it could have been. It has parts that are good, and lots of fun, idiotic 1980s action movie lines that we have been rightly quoting for 37 years. It is gratuitous fun, and that feels like all it intended to be, so good on it. But it's no RoboCop or Total Recall or anything. Paul Verhoeven always nails the hambone tone of these kinds of things, even when he's making something awful like Showgirls. That's hard to do, and Predator doesn't quite manage it.

I think a lot of the intense love for this movie is simple nostalgia. And that's fine. But that doesn't make it a great movie.

#arnold schwarzenegger #carl weathers #predator 1987 #movie review #movies i am surprised i haven't seen

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trialbymagicks · 1 year ago

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A Spooktacular Witch’s Brew: The Real Magic of Scary Godmother

It's that spooktacular time of year where the magic and the mundane merge once again for a night of tricks and treats! Just what is it about the Scary Godmother movies that makes them such an enduring cult classic?

The Part Where We Act Like This Is The Inspirational Personal Essay On A Recipe Blog

As someone who has always loved the spooky season and held a fond place in my heart for Halloween, I was drawn to stories – particularly movies – that suited the occasion. To name just a few: the Halloweentown movies, Hocus Pocus, The Little Vampire, Twitches and its sequel, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and of course Scary Godmother were all top of the very long list.

Perhaps not-so-surprisingly, as I revisit these tales from my childhood I’ve noticed that they seem to share common themes. Families or found families of outcasts celebrating their individuality in an environment that seems hand-crafted for them, often using Halloween as a time to openly hide in plain sight during a merging of two different worlds (the magical and the mundane) and ultimately fighting for their right to coexist when a closed-minded force threatens to destroy them. As I engaged with these stories growing up, I often found myself feeling like I was coming home just as the protagonists did when they embarked on their journeys of self-discovery and acceptance.

My own personal journey with the season has been a bit of a bumpy one. For the majority of my childhood, I adored the idea of getting to dress up as whatever I wanted to be and live out a magical fantasy. Once I reached my teenage years and struggled to understand who or what I was through the extremely confusing “socially-acceptable” lens of my peers, Halloween suddenly became the one day I felt like I could wear a costume and be as weird as I wanted to be because no one could judge me for it. Then depression soon hit me like a sack of bricks and that spark of joy the season had brought me began to wither away, the only saving grace being that I could still watch the movies I’d grown up with and feel at least a little like I was home again in my own skin, though I longed to be a part of those worlds instead. Now, a decent way into my adulthood, I have started to return to my roots and discover an even deeper appreciation for the occasion.

The Recipe For A Halloween Cult Classic

Scary Godmother started out as a hybrid comic-novel book series created by Jill Thompson for her niece as a way of spreading the Halloween joy to readers of all ages in a market that she felt was lacking the material. Two of her original stories were adapted to the screen in 2003 and 2005, both of which received her supervision and guidance during the creative process.

Step 1: For a unique and easily identifiable look, toss two art styles in a blender and pulse until satisfied. Be careful not to over-blend!

Mom says it’s Hannah’s turn with the eyes!

First things first, we have to address the elephant in the room: The mix of CGI models on 2.5D backgrounds is wild to look at and the internet has been abuzz with reviewers, reaction channels, and casual viewers alike commenting on how hauntingly unsettling it is. They point out the soullessness of the eyes on many of the human characters. There have been frantic questions about why the movies weren’t animated in 2D like Jill Thompson’s beautiful storybook illustrations. Was it only because CGI animation is quicker and cheaper to produce?

Luckily for our curious minds, the answers to these questions are simple. This was Jill Thompson’s vision!

The movie designs are accurate adaptations of her original illustrations and in fact the CGI was her decision. When discussing how to approach the style of the movie, she specified that she did not want live-action and she absolutely did not want 2D “because I’m doing 2D. Nobody else should be doing 2D, just me.” (Yes, she really did say in a Comics Bulletin interview that that was her reason. No, I’m not sure I understand it either.)

Perhaps a 2D animated movie would have looked less jarring, but I’ll say it – these movies are extremely charming in a storybook way largely in part due to that animation. The 3D characters perform highly energetic visual gags that often make them look as though they are leaping off the 2D pages of their world. Much like turning the pages of a pop-up book, it looks unreal and quite a bit magical, and may have been what first drew the attention of channel-surfing kids every year.

Step 2: Sprinkle in a Found Family of “weirdo” character types that you enjoy coming back to every year. Go ahead, really make it feel like a home away from home~

I always looked forward to catching this movie on TV every year because there’s something so sweet about Hannah’s found family journey with the inhabitants of The Fright Side. I mean, what Halloween-loving kid wouldn’t be drawn to a whimsical spooktakular adventure into a world of feel-good Halloween vibes? They welcome her into their home and encourage her to be her authentic self the way they live their own lives openly among friends who understand and appreciate them.

The three “broommates” in charge of the monster house are Scary Godmother, Bug-a-boo, and Skully. Their quirky trio truly is the backbone of the group.

Oh my god, they were broommates.

As the monster under the bed, Bug-a-boo is the quintessential misunderstood “looks intimidating on the outside but is a huge softie inside” character. If Boo immediately getting attached to Sully in Monsters Inc. got you right in the heart as a kid, then you’ll understand what makes Hannah’s friendship with Bug-a-boo hit home. She spends the first movie steadily realizing that they share interests and favorite foods, which makes him far less scary and allows her to appreciate his fun-loving nature. When he easily breaks down all the stereotypes Hannah had been taught to believe, it becomes clear that he’s looking out for her more than the guardian she had been told to depend on. To kids who were considered “weird” enough to like monsters, this dynamic feels personal.

Scary Godmother is like the cool aunt who always has her pockets filled with candy for the niblings. She takes a no-nonsense approach to her broommates’ shenanigans, making sure they don’t frighten Hannah too much before she gets the chance to adjust to the new setting, and you just know that if you ever had trouble at home she would be there in a heartbeat to take you in. There’s something about the good witch who can be a little bit bad when the situation calls for it that strikes a personal chord with a lot of misfits.

In the human world, Skully Pettibone is a skeleton in the closet, but in The Fright Side no one is pushing him to stay in any closets! He is out and proud and extremely loud about it. In fact, the first time we see him he’s flamboyantly busting out of the closet with the dramatic flair of a stand-up comedian ready for his grand debut. Somehow, he is both too much and not enough at the same time, so you’re already expecting it by the time he spontaneously breaks out into show tunes.

Oh, and they have the most adorable ghost cat named Boozle who occasionally hacks up scareballs. I love him.

Of course they also have an assortment of friends who have been invited to the party.

The most controversial is undoubtedly Harry the werewolf, a theater kid if you ever saw one. He is like the weird uncle who always shows up intoxicated to family gatherings (or he will be soon after he gets there), believes pajamas count as casual clothes, and has a serious case of the munchies. His fourth wall breaking humor flies over the heads of most everyone in the room and, though these facets of his personality consequently makes him the butt of every joke, he’ll read comics with you, howl at the moon, and make you laugh as he dramatically recites dialogue from your favorite scenes alongside the characters during movie night… even when he overstays his welcome.

Naturally, every band of monster misfits has to include a vampire or three! Orson and his parents are the old-fashioned goth family that gives HOAs nightmares.

Max is the socially awkward Nosferatu out of time with a morbid sense of humor, reminiscing about the olden days of vampire royalty and struggling to adopt already outdated slang in order to fit in with the younger generations. Ruby is the better-adjusted Queen of the Night who finds herself caught between supporting her husband’s preference for tradition and encouraging their son’s individuality. It’s a tough job trying to get them to meet somewhere in the middle, but she has learned to go with the flow. As for Orson, he is the stand-in for every kid whose parents unintentionally embarrass them in front of their friends with cheesy jokes and an awkward amount of affectionate doting.

Step 3: To build the plot, mix 3 parts sugar for your Pure-hearted Hero with 2 parts spice for your Unrelenting Bully and voila! If the Bully gets comeuppance and Good prevails, you’ve done it right! Don’t hold back; make it cheesy!

Did anyone else notice his ears got hairy? His parents let him throw out all but two pairs of clothes they never wash and his friends think he stinks… Just how unkempt IS he?

The premise for the first movie is pretty simple: Jimmy and his friends don’t want to babysit Jimmy’s little cousin while they Trick-or-Treat, so they decide to pull a mean prank to scare her by locking her in the Spook House after filling her head with tales of child-eating monsters. In response to Hannah’s tears, Scary Godmother shows up to whisk her away to The Fright Side and show her that monsters are people too!

While Hannah has the most spooktacular Halloween of her life, the older kids realize that their determination to ruin Hannah’s night caused them to miss out on all the Halloween fun they had hoped to have without her as they spend hours worrying over why they can’t hear her screams of terror from the Spook House.

The comedy lies in the eyeballs!

In the end, Hannah’s new friends help her scare her bullies in return and paint her as the brave hero of their little act, thereby winning over Jimmy’s friends for the sequel and leaving Jimmy with a full year of unresolved psychological trauma that he winds up channeling into a desire to destroy Halloween forever.

Hannah is clearly the glue that holds the entire human world together. Like many young protagonists, her wide-eyed enthusiasm for the holiday and willingness to think of everyone she meets as her friend the instant they’re nice to her is a large part of her charm. It is easy to put yourself in her shoes as she meets the denizens of The Fright Side for the first time or imagine yourself similarly solving the world’s Halloween-related problems with unquenchable optimism. She thinks outside the box and appreciates the charm in the homemade aspect of the holiday that has been overshadowed by the commercialism of the season for too long.

Someone smashed all the pumpkins in the pumpkin patch, jeopardizing that farmer’s livelihood? That’s just the mouth for their jack-o-lanterns!

Someone vandalized all the Halloween costumes and tampered with the candy in the store with no concern whatsoever for the employees whose paychecks might be at risk due to product loss? Just recycle last year’s costumes and make your own treats! Who needs candy anyway?

Someone TP’d the Spook House, littering and making it someone else’s problem to clean up later? That’s not toilet paper, that’s ghost decorations! How thoughtful!

Meanwhile, Jimmy was so traumatized by the experience from the first movie that he became a paranoid Home Alone style shut-in with a vendetta against an entire holiday… and no one was concerned about this. It’s honestly amazing how these human kids overreact to everything and yet their friend having a trauma-induced breakdown wasn’t even a blip on their radar.

He’s hallucinating monsters in his spaghetti, kids. I don’t know what else to tell you. This boy needs therapy.

Jimmy’s gradual descent from casual trespassing and bullying in the first movie to full on vandalism and destruction in the sequel is a character arc with real stakes for more than just the humans. No longer content to simply pick on his cousin, he nearly destroys The Fright Side in his attempt to rid the world of monsters and ruin his friends’ fun. But of course all it takes is an invitation to join the party he tried to crash and a chance to meet the source of his nightmares in a less scary setting to heal his mental and emotional scarring, thereby officially welcoming him back into the friend group and ending the story on a happy note.

Step 4: Bind it all together with an “anything goes” magic system and you’re done!

As the resident witch, Scary Godmother is the primary magic user of the movies and she can do whatever the plot calls for – or whatever looks the coolest to impress the children watching. The way she uses her magic can be boiled down to a few basics: flight, teleportation, levitation, telekinesis, materialization and dematerialization, and some classic illusions.

Her preferred methods of travel appear to be flying on her broomstick for long distances, teleportation for snappy appearances, and using her wings to fly around the house when walking just won’t do. She often uses telekinesis to move objects and get the house ready for Halloween or to levitate a particularly lazy werewolf out of bed.

She will materialize a spider web handkerchief to dry Hannah’s tears and one of her favorite tricks is materializing decorations on a whim for the house parties, but she summons all manner of items when needed and dispels them just as quickly once they have served their purpose. Only once or twice does she ever chant a spell while doing so, most likely for dramatic effect, so it’s safe to presume her magic doesn’t require it.

Perhaps she is at her most terrifying when she summons ethereal skeletal arms that shoot out from her hands to do her bidding against pests or when she uses her illusion magic to appear to melt her whole body into a puddle a la the Wicked Witch of the West. But most of her illusions are beautiful spectacles like releasing colorful trails of magic from her hands or hat to light up the darkness.

The Fright Side itself is a highly magical place with a mostly whimsical take on the concept of a magic system. According to Scary Godmother, it is responsible for such tasks as changing the color of the leaves each season, painting the clouds into the sky, and knitting spider webs. And you don’t need a magic broom to travel there either, since there is a magic key that creates a portal to The Fright Side when used on any door. But the most interesting detail is the thread that holds it all together.

You may be familiar with the concept of certain monsters or nonhuman entities that only exist if enough people believe in them. Or how about the idea that these entities’ power is determined by how many people believe in them? The Fright Side seems to work in a similar way. As seen in The Revenge of Jimmy, its magic is directly linked to how much Halloween spirit exists in the human world – particularly this one town where the main characters live, for plot reasons – because if the holiday was ever retired, not only would Scary Godmother lose her magic and the monsters become their human world counterparts… the magical world around them would disappear into the void altogether.

Final Food For Thought

So, with all that in mind, I really do have to wonder…

The magic calendar showed us that, if humans stopped celebrating Halloween or believing in it, October 31st would cease to exist at all and The Fright Side would disappear. But if the hard work of Scary Godmother and The Fright Side are responsible for such basic things as clouds in the sky and the changing seasons, how would that even work? Would what humans call science suddenly take over again to fill the gap in the universe? Or maybe what humans call science is the same thing as the magic used by The Fright Side to perform those tasks and nothing would change at all.

That’s not even addressing the fact that the complete erasure of October 31st would somehow transition the human world to a 364-day calendar. When it comes to the universe, there is usually a give and take, so would February 29th become a permanent day in the calendar to replace it and February 30th be declared a new Leap Year day to even things out?

These and many more are not questions we are meant to ask as casual viewers of the movies, but it sure is fun to think about!

Note: This article was originally posted on WordPress on October 31, 2022.

#Scary Godmother #Jill Thompson #movies #children's movies #posts on trial

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starlingsrps · 2 years ago

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nicest kids in town.

adam is going to kill his friends. all of them.

he sent very simple instructions to the group chat a week ago announcing the switch of the group costume from stranger things to the cast of the corny collins show (he had been struck with a bolt of inspiration after coming across hairspray on a hungover sunday). there had been ample time for people to switch their costumes but as people arrive at his apartment to meet for their bar crawl it becomes apparent that none of his friends can fucking read.

“okay but you changed you mind like five times before you even settled on stranger things,” grady points out, in full eddie munson gear. the wig is a nightmare but adam can’t fully say he isn’t kind of into the rest. “how the fuck were we supposed to know that you would change it again?”

adam gives him a dark look in the hall mirror as he combs his hair back again. just because they’re phoning it in doesn’t mean he will - he doesn’t know when he’ll wear a turquoise brocade suit jacket again but he’ll figure it out. “if any of you read my fucking texts-“

“you text us like thirty times a day,” maiya says from her post in the doorway. she’s dressed as nancy wheeler, another one of his friends with the worst fucking wig he’s ever seen. “i mostly tune you out unless it’s in caps or you send a moira rose gif.”

“fuck both of you, my texts are a delight.” the doorbell rings and he glares at it. “well let’s see if anyone else can read.”

there’s a sleep paralysis demon and a giant at the door. when the rage fades, he realizes that it’s lane wearing all black with christmas lights strung around him and the alphabet taped to his shirt and eve in a full body one piece unitard.

“goddamnit, you didn’t read my texts either?!”

lane shrugs and edges past him. “you didn’t put it in caps. beer me, mai!”

“and what the goddamn fuck are you?” he asks eve, barring her from entry.

“the depiction of untreated mental illness,” she says, her voice muffled until she pulls off the hood. “it’s a statement.”

“we’re supposed to be the cast of the corny collins show.”

“i thought it was golden girls?”

“three weeks off, babe,” grady yells from the couch.

he needs liquor.

after two shots of tequila, the rage moves to a simmer but spikes again as there’s a polite knock at the door. cecelia. only cecelia knocks like that and he knows cecelia has to read his texts. with hope in his heart, he sails to the door to open it and almost cries.

cecelia, wearing a vintage fifties dress that she probably purposefully bought for this and a perfect beehive, hands him a bottle of wine and kisses him on the cheek. “happy halloween! it was corny collins, right?”

he accepts the wine and wraps her in a bear hug. “it was!” he spies oliver behind her, wearing a sweater vest with his hair combed back and he guesses that’s close enough. “thank god you two can read. UNLIKE THE REST OF YOU.”

“fuck off cornelius!”

“fuck off munson!” he yells back. “thank you, cee. get in here, we’re just waiting on gus and phoebe.”

“where’s-“

“trick or treating, migraine, has better things to do, handing out candy and will maybe meet us later,” he says, ticking off matthew, naomi, alexei, and irene’s current locations.

“phoebe says she and gus are outside,” the specter of untreated mental illness announces. “they’ll meet us downstairs.”

cell phones and go cups are gathered for the walk to the bars. grady slaps him on the ass and eve needs lane to guide her down the stairs with her hood up but they’ve had more eventful trips down his stairs - he’ll take it.

“are you fucking kidding me?!” he yells as they burst out of his front door. “do any of you read anything i ever send?”

phoebe, wearing some selkie creation with elbow length gloves and a little tiara, cocks her head. “weren’t we doing bridgerton?”

“i am going to rip all of you to fucking pieces.”

gus shrugs. “we found the vest and had to use it.”

he’s grown out his sideburns for this.

jesus christ.

“i will choke you with that vest.”

“i think he looks handsome,” phoebe says, her arm around his waist. god he hates couples. straight couples mostly but dear god.

“fuck all of you,” adam says, marching down the street. “i’m going to go get drunk enough to forget what traitors you all are.”

#type: writing #s: the brunch bunch #yes i am so behind on posting here that this is the halloween short on the heels of the christmas one shut up

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thetownwecallhome · 2 years ago

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OOC: Trick or' Treat ((Tim Burton's lost project that has NO LostMediaWiki page))

(( I've posted about it before with less-than ideal quality images to boot, but me now having both The World of Tim Burton and The Art of Tim Burton books means I have more art to piece together for it.

As you all probably know, around the time Tim was crafting Vincent, Frankenweenie and also conceptualizing the original The Nightmare Before Christmas poem, he was pitching a lot of concepts art for shorts at Disney, many of which never saw the light of day or were only ever test-animated. The one I and others are most curious about is a series of concept art for a film project called "Trick or Treat", which was obviously going to be a Halloween-based film. "Trick or Treat" stands out to me because the concepts Tim envisioned for the project, as well as some of the creatures designed for it, clearly are the prototypes for some of the citizens of Halloween Town in Nightmare Before Christmas and possibly also Beetlejuice's netherworld.

But the bigger question I and everyone else has is...what was the plot or story of Trick r Treat?

From what I know (and have tried to place in chronological order therefore): Trick or Treat would have been about a human child (the one in the top image) and his sister at home on Halloween night. Somehow, someway they (if that is also his sister with the promo vamp bros) find themselves in a Halloween based world were monsters are throwing their own party, and appear to dress up as humans for Halloween...I think (???)

The whole thing seems very Dr. Seuss/Where the Wild Things Are inspired, with the short being a showcase for setpiece after setpiece of different, possibly hostile monsters and aliens ((the AoTM book says the blob creature w a blond woman as it's costume is titled "Alien with a Woman Hat", so I'm assuming aliens were gonna be a thing here)).

That candy-made monstrosity in the center of the pic, between the stacked clowns and the Jack-o-lantern patterned man also showed up as the subject of one of Burton's sculptures (see below).

That's all I have for now. More than anything, I'm just surprised this project doesn't get talked more about, especially when LostMedia wiki showed my lil know-it-all-butt and found bits and pieces of Tim's unreleased films, such as Stalk of the Celery Monster.

To all the lost/unfinished media junkies out there- you have yourself a good one here. Don't miss this opportunity~!

..well, anyway. Have a happy Halloween as it is, kiddies!))

#the nightmare before christmas #nightmare before christmas #tim burton #citizens #halloween town #Lost media #tim burton's art #tim burton art #tim burton style #OOC

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thatsthat24 · 4 years ago

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Sanderstober Art Prompts 2020

Amidst all the editing and business, I haven’t forgotten to at least begin a list of Inktober prompts for you all this month! I’ll be adding more as I go! And, of course, like always, even if we’ve passed by a certain date (like, for instance, if it’s October 9th, but you wanna share a prompt from October 1st), that’s, of COURSE, fine! And, also of course, you can always join and do prompts at any time, this is purely for fun! The list has now been completed!

Oct. 1st - Take your profile pic or a favorite profile pic in the past and create a spooky version! Double dog dare you to use it as your actual profile pic.

Oct. 2nd - Create a Suit or Dress inspired by a specific candy bar wrapper design!

Oct. 3rd - This year could almost BE a scary movie. I shudder to put this as a prompt… but what would a poster for that movie look like?

Oct. 4th - Because I think the world just needs more of this, I want you to try and create the most wholesome or cute image you can. Little animals? Yes please. Feel-good scenarios? YES PLEASE. This one’s vague, but I don’t care! Lol

Oct. 5th - Take a traditional scary tale (“The Headless Horseman”, “Frankenstein”, “Dracula” ) and portray a plot point or poke fun at a character or characters from the story in the form of a MEME!

Oct. 6th - Nightmare Before Christmas was a tale about if Halloween took over Christmas and made so many traditionally Christmas-y. What if the reverse happened? What would Christmas make Halloween to look like?

Oct. 7th - Avatar: The Last Airbender experienced a renaissance this year! So, in tribute to that, take any character from any other piece of media (animation, TV, movie, etc.) and depict THEM if they also were an uber fan of ATLA this year!

Oct. 8th - What do you think the Sanders Sides characters’ Halloween costumes would be this year??

Oct. 9th - What if the personification of the Moon came to Earth to experience the daytime? What if the personification of the Sun came to Earth to experience the nighttime?

Oct. 10th - Take your Zodiac sign… and make it FASHION!

Oct. 11th - Please depict any Halloween monster, traditional or from a movie, and how they’re currently dealing or adapting to life in 2020

Oct. 12th - Take any character from a fave piece of media of yours and create a Tarot card for that character!

Oct. 13th - Many of us have stories we’ve created in connection with certain songs we’ve heard. For this day, try depicting even just a scene of that story and what song inspired it! If you can’t recall any story connected with a song you’ve heard, maybe just make one up in connection with a fave song of yours!

Oct. 14th - Take a famous painting from any time in history… and October-fy it (Halloween-y or Fall-y would be awesome)

Oct. 15th - Take an ordinary, every day location or refuge (a playground, a library, a treehouse, etc.) and depict the landscape of an entire world based on that location

Oct. 16th - Two games that have helped distract us and gave us much-needed entertainment this year are Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Among Us! What if the characters from Animal Crossing… were in Among Us?

Oct. 17th - Contrarily… what if the characters from Among Us… were in Animal Crossing?

Oct. 18th - A perennial favorite - Depict your OTP and how they’re enjoying Halloween this year. Coordinating costumes? Maybe 2020 is affecting how they celebrate?

Oct. 19th - Take one of your favorite characters from any piece of media. What piece of social media would they thrive on? You could depict either what their media might look like if you’re seeing it on your phone or you can depict them filming or writing for that piece of social media!

Oct. 20th - draw your home state, province, county, or country... if it were a PERSON

Oct. 21st - I definitely have been seeing an upsurge in Uno card usage this year, especially the Reverse card. Take one or several characters, maybe all from the same series, or different characters from different series, and depict them on Uno cards that best reflect their personalities! Make a super cool Uno deck or just one cool Uno card!

Oct. 22nd - Take one (or more) of the Seven Deadly Sins [Greed, Wrath, Gluttony, Sloth, Lust, Pride, Envy] and personify them!

Oct. 23rd - There’s been a lot of movies that have taken fairy tales and modernized them for present day. What if we took a fairy tale… and put it in the distant future??

Oct. 24th - Take a non-human character from any piece of media, and depict how they’d look as a human!!

Oct. 25th - POETRY PROMPT - I wanted to include something on this list that focused a bit more on writing than art, but you are MORE than welcome to create artwork to accompany this. I think we all have one or two specific moments from a piece of media (tv show, movie, video game, book, etc.) that has affected us in such a poignant way that it lives in our minds rent free. Create a poem describing the events of this moment, trying to capture the very magic that impacted you so much.

Oct. 26th - What would a Disney character’s outfit be if they were a member of the Avengers?

Oct. 27th - What would a specific Avenger’s look be, if they were in a Disney movie??

Oct. 28th - There are traditional fears, the ones that comprise many a horror movie… and then there are more niche/unconventional fears, specific to you as a person. They can be potentially silly, or irrational, or conceptual… what would a movie poster look like with that fear being the main featured threat??

Oct. 29th - WRITING/POETRY PROMPT - Wanted to throw at least one more of these in here! Through writing (and, of course, artwork, if you’d prefer!), detail a beloved memory you have connected with either Autumn or Halloween.

Oct. 30th - There has almost been a Pokemon made to pay tribute to almost every animal or inanimate object (sword, lawnmower, sandcastle, key ring, magnets, etc.). Nevertheless, create a Pokemon from SOME object or animal that hasn’t been made and give it a name! Bonus points if you can then create an evolved form of it!

Oct. 31st - It is HALLOWEEN, baby!! Take any character(s), from media or your own OCs, and depict them celebrating Halloween!! It can be them celebrating in quarantine, or out and about since it’s fantastical, just aim for it to be wholesome and Halloween-y. We could always use a bit more of that on the 31st of October!!

I hope you all enjoy this list! Can’t wait to see what you all make! It’s always so much fun to see your creations. If you’d like me to see them, you can use this weird hashtag name #Sanderstober.

#Sanderstober

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jerzwriter · 2 years ago

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Newlywed Games with Bree - Halloween Edition - Tobias & Casey

Old-school-ish fandom members remember these! I completely redid mine since I had a different FC last Halloween, and I was at the beginning stages of creating an HC for Tobias & Casey - I didn't even know if they were endgame! Can you imagine? So, they needed a redo (so do Ethan & Kaycee, I'll be working on that next!) Thank you again to @jamespotterthefirst for this magnificent template that inspired so much creativity!

Their "interview" takes place just after their first Halloween together. So they're dating for about 7 months, but the two fools were in love a good 3 months before that. By this time next year, they're engaged with a baby on the way. They moved fast. lol

More below break...

Tobias loved Halloween as a kid, mostly because of the free candy and the legendary parties his mother would throw. Momma Vivian was very, very extra about his costumes. But his mom's costumes were not as much fun once he started school. Fortunately, his dad (Charles) stepped in and asked his wife to tone it down. Tobias was then able to simply be his favorite superhero or ballplayer, and Vivian no longer had to call in favors from her friends from Broadway.

As a tween/teen, he would get into trouble on mischief night (I know, you're shocked!) In his later teens & college, he'd plan an attention-grabbing costume in advance, hitting up local bars where he took home many best costume prizes and usually a pretty fellow contestant as well. This only amplified when he hit med school and got Ethan on board. Though most of those antics were behind him once he became an attending, he still loved a good Halloween party and a good costume.

Casey grew up with parents who doted on her and made a full event out of Halloween each year. It wasn’t just about the day but the hayrides, corn mazes, and pumpkin carving parties that led up to it.

Her love for the holiday carried on into her college years and beyond. There has never been a year where she did not have a costume, and on most, she had 2 or 3. One was usually a fun/tamer choice for daytime, and another racier option for the parties she attended and sometimes hosted. Dating Casey meant you’d have a couple's costume. It was not up for debate.

These two are a match made in Halloween Heaven. Unfortunately, the first year they knew each other, Casey had broken up with him before Halloween, so they didn't spend it together (I have a fic coming up about that). The following year, they went all out. They had a couple's costume ready, and they had numerous parties to attend, but they only made it to one... you can imagine why. In year three, they were weeks away from their wedding (though secretly married) and had a baby on the way, but they still celebrated. Then after that, it was always a big family affair.

Favorite Song: (Tobias laughs) C: What’s so funny? T: Nothing, It’s just that I went 36 years of my life not realizing that I never really lived until I saw you doing the Time Warp. C: Hmm. (Grins) But it’s the pelvic thrust that really drives you insane? T: No comment. C: And let me guess, your favorite Halloween song is... Ghostbusters? T: (Shocked) How did you know? C: Please, I caught you prancing around the bedroom pretending you were Ray Parker, Jr. T: What can I say? Bustin’ makes me feel good. (They fall into a fit of giggles.)

Favorite Movie? T: Don’t say it. C: The Nightmare… T: I said don’t say it… C: The Nightmare Before Christmas. T: Yes. Christmas. It’s a Christmas movie Case. C: Tell that to Jack the Pumpkin King. T: I’d have to talk to myself since that’s what you have me dressing up as this year, Sally. And I say, it's a Christmas movie. C: And what are you dressing up for? HALLOWEEN! You just proved my point! So what’s your favorite? T: Ha! Clearly, I win because you don’t know my answer. C: It’s the Adams Family. T: Wait! How…. C: It could be because you always want to roleplay Gomez and Morticia. T: Hey, Gomez is my man! We have a lot in common. C: Such as? T: We both know what we’ve got, and we appreciate it! (He winks and pulls her close, trailing kisses up her arms.) C: (Laughing) And I don’t even have to speak French!

Favorite Candy?

C: (Immediately screams) Kit-Kat!!! T: Then why do you always steal my Butterfingers? C: Because they’re equally delicious. T: Then share your Kit-Kats with me! C: No.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE FUNNY COSTUME ON YOUR PARTNER?

(Casey flips over a picture of Tobias dressed as Prince.) T: OK, you need to tell me what is funny about Prince. C: There is nothing funny about him, but you dressed as him... that’s a whole other story. T: You told me I was sexy, we ... you know what we did... for hours. Now it's funny? C: It's funny in a very sexy way. T: Whatever. (Shakes his head and flips over a picture of Casey dressed as Elle Woods.) C: Now, what’s funny about Elle Woods! T: (Picks photo up, leers at it lecherously with a lecherous grin on his face) Not a damn thing. C: (Smacks his shoulder to bring his attention away from the picture.) So why did you pick it? T: It’s just funny to think of you in law school.

C: I can't really disagree with you on that. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE HOT COSTUME ON YOUR GIRL/BOYFRIEND?

(Tobias tries to flip his picture of Casey over first, but she beats him, dropping a photo of him dressed as a shirtless baseball player.)

T: Wait, this was the year before we were dating. C: I know. T: But we were at that party together... I knew you were checking me out. C: I was not checking you out. T: Casey, we're together now. You can admit it.

C: OK, I was not checking you out... much... until you took your damn shirt off.

T: (Chuckles) Pretty irresistible, right?

C: You're an ass. Of course, YOU were all over me that night, and you didn't even know it was me.

T: I knew it was you. But I had to pretend I didn't know it was you because you weren't talking to me at the time. C: But I knew it was you. That makes no sense. T: Can we get back to how hot I looked shirtless. C: No. T: Ok, so let's talk about how jealous you were of that nurse who was flirting with me. C: I was not! T: Were too. What was her name again? C: (Instantly) Sophia. And I was not jealous. T: Which is why you recalled her name instantaneously. Sorry, Case, you just should have gone out with me sooner. C: (Appears annoyed but laughs.) Yeah, we probably missed out on a hell of a good time that night. T: I’m sure. At least you eventually came to your senses. C: (Swatted at him and laughed) So what do you have to share? T: (Flips a photo of Casey dressed as a very sexy angel.) C: T!!! (She grabs the photo). That wasn’t a Halloween costume!! T: Oh? Do you mean our roleplay costumes don’t count? Damn it. (He laughs.) C: You know damn well they don’t! (Raises her eyebrow at him.) Because I know damn well you have some others you liked more than this one. T: Yeah (grins), but I’m not sharing them. (Both laugh) WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE COUPLE’S COSTUME THAT YOU HAVE WORN WITH YOUR BOY/GIRLFRIEND?

(Tobias tries to flip his first, but Casey wins again.) T: Damn it! C: That’s the thing about youth; we’re quicker! T: I’ll remind you about how dissatisfied you are with your old man's moves later. What have we got here? (He picks up the picture). C: T, we’ve gotten dressed up together once; we haven’t been together too long, remember? T: And whose fault is that? (Grins) C: That’s why I was so anxious to go first, now I have shown the world our amazing Beetlejuice & Lydia costume, and we’re done here. T: Yes, it’s amazing, but no, we’re not done. C: We’re not? T: No. (He flips a photo of them dressed as Aladin & Jasmine.) C: Oh my God! I forgot about this! T: You lie like the rug we were sitting on. C: It’s a carpet, T! I just didn’t think of it because it wasn’t Halloween. We were just cheering the kids in peds up. It was so nice of you to offer to be Alladin after Raf got sick and couldn’t come. (She kisses his cheek.) T: Yeah, I’m just that kind of guy. Do you know what my favorite part of this picture is? C: The cute little therapy dog on my lap? T: No. He was a nuisance. I was thinking positioning. C: (Smirks.) Really? T: Don’t act all innocent! Look at that hand action going on there. And in front of the children, Casey! I'm disappointed in you! C: It was nothing inappropriate! I was holding on because we were on a magic carpet ride and… T: Heh, heh, heh… C: Well, we did start dating shortly after this. T: Yep. POSITIONING.

Monster Mash or Thriller?

In Unison: Thriller. T: If there were any question, we’d have to break up on the spot. (She hits him.)

Apple Treats or Pumpkin Treats?

C: Pumpkin! (Simultaneously) T: Apple! C: That’s only because you’ve never tried pumpkin. T: And I never will. C: Yes, you will. T: How? C: Food play. T: (Shrugs shoulders) OK, maybe I’ll like it. (Casey laughs)

Fruit Candy or Chocolate Candy?

In Unison: Chocolate. T: Again, if there were a question, we’d have to split. C: You’re so full of it. T: What? I have standards!

Trick or Treat, or Hand Out Candy?

C: Both. T: I’ve never handed out candy before. But I have been informed that I like it now. C: Damn right you do. T: You see.

Horror Movies or Kid-Friendly Movies?

C: If I had to pick, kid-friendly. T: Casey hates horror films. C: I HATE them. T: That’s what I just said. C: I was emphasizing. T: OK (he rolls his eyes)

Creepy Costumes or Cute Costumes?

T: I can go either way. They both won prizes for me in the past. C: Hmmm. T: What? C: Prizes. (In air quotes.) T: (Lifts her hand and kisses it.) Long before I met you, dear. And like you never had "prizes" of your own. C: Next!

On your partner: Sexy or Funny Costume?

T: Heh, heh. C: His answer is sexy. T: And yours? C: It has to be sexy, baby. You’re sexy in everything. T: So, if I got a Fred Flintstone costume, you’d… C: Let you go all caveman. T: (Smiles and shakes head). God, I love her.

Perma All: @a-crepusculo @aishwarya26 @animesuck3r @annfg8 @annoyingmillenialnewbie @bex-la-get @binny1985 @bluebelle08 @bluerosesbloom @cariantha @coffeeheartaddict2 @crazy-loca-blog @danijimenezv @different4strawberry @differenttyphoonwerewolf @doriopenheartt @fayeswiftie @forallthatitsworth @genevievemd @inlocusmads @jamespotterthefirst @jennieausten @kingliam2019 @liaromancewriter @lilypills @lucy-268 @mainstreetreaderr @mysticalgalaxysstuff @ofmischiefandmedicine @onikalover @openheartforeverinmyheart @peonierose @peonyblossom @potionsprefect @quixoticdreamer16 @rookiemartin @schnitzelbutterfingers @secretaryunpaid @socalwriterbee @tessa-liam @toadfrog26 @trappedinfanfiction @uneravine @youlookappropriate @zahrachoices @jerzwriter-reblogs-asks @openheartheadcanons

Tobias Only: @icecoffee90

#open heart #tobias carrick #tobias x casey #tobias carrick x mc #open heart choices #semi-mature content #i guess?#not really - but people...

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slasherparadise · 3 years ago

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hello! i love your blog! i would like to request for a s/o who is like sally from the nightmare before christmas (michael myers, jason voorhees, bo sinclair, and thomas hewitt)

i loved your emily s/o and was inspired to ask for sally!

thank you so much!

Slashers with a S/O who is like Sally from 'Nightmare Before Christmas'

Michael Myers

Walking through the woods after his latest kill, Michael stumbles upon a few peculiar doors. He’s walked through this part of the woods before yet he3′s never once seen them before. His curiosity got the best of him when his eyes landed on a door that had a pumpkin on it, Halloween being sentimental for Michael he couldn’t help but wonder what could be beyond the door itself.

After opening the door, he found himself on a very odd place filled with creatures that looked as if they were from the nightmares of children. That was until he seen you, your hair flowing in the wind as the stitches covering your body seemed to gleam in the moonlight. It was then that Michael knew he had to have you as his own.

He watched you from a distance until that was no longer good enough for him, Michael followed you back to your home which he broke into shortly afterwards. He wanted you to see him, to feel him.

Reaching out Michael grabbed your wrist pulling you towards himself, but you resisted and this angered him more than the teenagers he slaughtered earlier in the night. He yanked you with a force that caused you to fall before his feet, looking up at him a deep growl came from within him as he said harshly in a gruff voice “you’re mine”.

Bo Sinclair

Getting into a heated argument with his brothers was the last straw, Getting into his truck Bo started driving into the night needing an escape from Ambrose. A bump in the road combined with his speeding was all it took for his truck to flip over, falling into a pit, or so it seemed at first. upon landing on the hard ground, the collision caused Bo to pass out.

Waking up he didn’t know where he was, he certainly wasn’t where he should have been. Convincing himself that he had a concussion an was dreaming when his eyes landed on you. Tending to his wounds from the crash Bo couldn’t wrap his mind around this, you looked like a doll, a living doll that was so beautiful he has never seen anyone like you before.

You assured him that he wasn’t dreaming, that his truck had fallen out of the sky into what you told him was Halloween town. The way you talked to him made him feel strange inside, he didn’t understand what this feeling was but he never wanted it to stop. Although Bo being the workaholic that he is, he knew he had to get back home to finish what he started in the garage. “So uh, how exactly do I get outta here?” he asked as you explained to him about the doors that were deep in the woods. Offering to accompany Bo so he wouldn’t get lost along the way, Bo ultimately agreed having a plan in mind, reaching the door that would take him home you were prepared to say your goodbyes. That was until Bo grabbed your arm and pulled you through the door with him, Taking you back to Ambrose.

Jason Voorhees

Chasing after trespassers, he seen them run through a strange looking door that had a pumpkin on it. Normally he would’ve let them go at this point since they were no longer on his land, but he couldn’t get over the door where did it even come from?

As he passed through the door he felt the temperature change as the cool wind surrounded him, walking through this strange new land he discovered he seen a plethora of new sights. Then he seen you, you were so beautiful unlike most of the girls he’s seen wondering about the campgrounds. Expecting you to be harsh towards him like so many before you had been, but you were different, you were kind to him. Admiring his mask, asking where he got it from and what his costume was supposed to be, confusing him for one of the occasional trick-or-treaters.

Jason was in awe of you and followed everywhere you led, showing him all of Halloween town. He had no clue this place even existed but now he wonders why he never ventured through the door before. Finding you was one of the best things he’s ever experienced, he didn’t want to leave but he knew that he would have to eventually.

Not thinking that you would ever be interested in him the way he was in you, he started to head back to the door he had come through to get to this magical place. That was until he felt you tug on the sleeve of his shirt, asking him to show you where he came from in return, Jason happily complied as he opened the door for you.

Thomas Hewitt

you had always heard the rumors of the doors that were deep in the woods, doors capable of taking you to different realms, tired of the same old routines you wanted to have an adventure. Setting off you decided you wanted to see for yourself if these doors were real.

Finding out they were in fact real, you stumbled on one that had a heart o it, pushing the door open it seemed to almost suck you into the new realm. After landing you found yourself inside of a large field of overgrown grass, you could vaguely see a silhouette of a house up ahead. Getting up and dusting the dirt off of yourself, you headed towards the house wondering what kind of creatures live in this new world.

Stumbling upon the porch of this house, you admired the rustic look of it. Knocking of the large door in front of you, you were met by an older man who addressed himself as Hoyt. Seeing that you were in fact a woman he invited you inside and called for Thomas to come meet the new house guest. Laying eyes on the large man in front of you, you were taken back by how large he was compared to you but you admired him nonetheless.

You heard Hoyt order this man that he called Thomas to show you the rest of the house, not know the malicious intent behind his words. Thomas on the other hand had different plans for you, he would in fact show you the house but not to kill you. He planned on keeping you here with him, it wasn’t often a beautiful woman came around here, and ever rarer that they weren’t afraid of him. I hope you weren’t planning on returning home, because you’re now the property of Thomas Hewitt.

#slasher love #slashers #slasher x reader #michael myers x reader #thomas hewitt x reader #jason voorhees x reader #bo sinclair x reader #sorry if this is bad

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reidandweep · 5 years ago

Text

Stitching

Spencer Reid x Reader (female)

A/N- Much like Adam Driver, I have been a huge fan of Matthew Gray Gubler and criminal minds for years. With quarantine, I decided to re-watch the show from the beginning and I had some inspiration. My writing tends to take a while but if you have any requests or idea for Spencer Reid, please send them my way.

Word Count- 6286 words

Warning- Angst, mentions of violence and torture, fluff, tears, and the usual criminal minds details.

If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge? -William Shakespeare.

QUANTICO, VIRGINIA

“Good morning my lover and friends. As of 8:45 am, yesterday morning, four bodies have been found across the Washington State area. Locations confirmed to be Pomeroy, Baker City, Salem, and Mill Creek. All victims were very similar in physical appearance; Caucasian, red hair, brown eyes, approximately 5ft 4’.”

Garcia swiped her tablet to display family photographs of the victims on the screen. The team watched, in the debriefing room, as they scanned through their own tablets; reading through the details. Spencer’s eyes flittered over the images as his fingers scanned across the words in his paper file; still adamant on not working with technology like the rest of his team.

“What about the cause of death? How were they found?”

Garcia shivered at Rossi’s question.

“It’s not a pretty image. Each victim was dismembered at the elbows, knees, neck, and stomach. Further cuts were made vertically down the stomach and across the face, arms, and legs. Not deep enough to cut through bone, but deep enough to bleed out. Where the unsub cut our victims, he then sewed them back together.”

Emily looked up at Garcia.

“Are you saying the lacerations were made before the victim’s died?”

“Precisely. Each autopsy report came back the same with the cause of death pointing to the direction of blood loss; specifically, from the throat.”

The team looked at the new images before them. Multiple pictures appeared on the screen, showing the bodies of the victims. The pictures showing the women laid out in the same pose, thick thread holding together the pieces of their corpses. All had their eyes closed, except one.

“Garcia, the last victim, zoom into her face.”

Garcia did as Spencer asked.

“Her eyes are closed.”

Spencer nodded, glancing towards JJ as she spoke.

“Meaning that he felt remorse for this murder.”

Derek scrolled through the pictures on his tablet.

“The other three victim’s eyes are open, indicating that he wanted them to look. To watch what he was doing, whatever it may have been.”

Spencer looked across the table at the questioning faces.

“So, what changed between the third and the fourth victim?”

Hotch stood from his seat, indicating the others to grab their belonging.

“We can discuss further on jet. Wheels up in thirty.”

WASHINGTON STATE

Being greeted by the local police department in Clagstone, Spencer and the team began their investigation into the murders. Spencer did not know what it was, but the stitching on the bodies felt familiar. Like he had seen them before.

Looking up from his files, Spencer watched as Derek walked into the room, ending a call with who he could only presume to be Garcia.

“Garcia has just completed background checks on our latest victim. Lily Trent visited local film screenings at the Southview Centre religiously, to watch horror movies in particular. Seems like the girl loved anything horror and Halloween; according to her roommate and her computer history. It seems that are other victims did also.”

Spencer stood from his seat and walked towards the whiteboard at the back of the room. Writing down the details Derek stated, his brain began to filter through the relevant information needed.

“Halloween is ranked the ninth most celebrated holiday in the world. With different interpretations of the holiday occurring according to country and culture. Wearing costumes at Halloween did not even become an occurrence until 1585, with the first instance recorded in Scotland.”

Derek chuckled at Reid’s excitement. He knew the boy loved Halloween.

“Well it all looks like they were pretty huge fans of the holiday and horror films. Maybe our unsub was too.”

Spencer looked down at the photos in his hand, scanning his memory for any correlation.

“Maybe, it’s not just horror, but a particular film. If all the victims were presented in a certain way, maybe the unsub is trying to replicate what happened to a character in a particular film.”

Derek crossed his arms over his chest.

“I’ll call Garcia to search through all the victims search history to see if any particular horror films come up in each one. Do you know of any films that the unsub could have replicated?”

Spencer shook his head.

“I can collate his actions to hundreds of films but, the method of torture and look of the victims, I can’t think of one horror feature that pinpoints all that the unsub has done.”

A thought unexpectedly popped into Spencer’s mind. Derek cocked his head at the sudden halt from the resident genius.

“But I know someone who might.”

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON

“The importance of genre in film alters many of the other aspects. The characters and their narrative arcs, the music score, cinematography, the edit, and so much more. Sometimes genre even dictates the director who signs onto the project. Dennis Dugan would not have a directing career if Adam Sandler stopped making comedy movies. Because that is what he directs. He doesn’t direct comedies; he directs Adam Sandler comedies. Which, in my opinion, are a whole genre on their own.”

The class chuckled.

“Genre plays a part in everyday life. Sometimes, your day will be led by romance, or grief, or action. There may be drama, or comedy, or even silence.”

The class looked on in concentration as Y/N walked across the floor. If someone who did not attend the college walked past the classroom, they could’ve presumed that she was a student. She looked young enough.

“It controls the way the characters talk, act, and move. How the plot thickens and pushes forward and…”

The doors at the back of the auditorium opened. Y/N looked up at the sound of the intrusion to see figures that she could not recognise, and one that she did.

Clearing her throat, she continued.

“And how it even ends. We shall leave it at that today. What I want you to do in the meantime is research a genre in particular and come up with examples that counteract the stereotypes that have been enforced upon the genre itself. Hand it in to your professor first thing Monday morning. Thank you.”

Y/N watched as the students collected their things and filtered out of the room. The figures waiting till she was only left before they walked down the steps.

Coming to a stop in front of her desk, Y/N crossed her arms and waited. Spencer stepped forward with a crooked smile on his face.

“Hi Y/N.”

Y/N couldn’t help but giggle.

“Long time no see stranger.”

Spencer’s cheeks burned at Y/N’s words. The team shared looks between them at the unfamiliar display. They had seen Spencer blush at people before, but not for a long time.

Spencer cleared his throat, preparing himself to act professional.

“This is Dr Y/F/N Y/L/N. Y/N travels across the country to guest speak at different universities on her topic at hand. She specialises in film studies, more importantly the focus of characters and genres. If I can’t connect the unsub’s actions to a film, Y/N most definitely can.”

Y/N smiled at Spencer’s praise.

“Nice to meet you all. So, what are you here to talk to me about Doc? Obviously, you’re here on a case and if you are asking for my help, I’m guessing it’s going to be pretty gruesome.”

Spencer blushed at the nickname; caught off guard by the word slipping of her tongue.

Sending a raised look towards Reid, Hotch began to explain why they were there.

“Were looking into a case of connected murders. All victims were found to have been mutilated and tortured in the same way. As well as showing resemblances in their physical appearances. With research, we’ve found that each victim was particularly fond of horror films and Halloween. We would just like for you to take a look and see if you could recognise if the ways in which they were harmed stemmed from a film in particular.”

Y/N nodded her head.

“Of course, anything to help.”

She reached for the files from Spencer’s hands, ignoring the tablet pushed in her direction by JJ.

“Sorry, I prefer to use paper. I only really use technology for my lectures or to watch films if they cannot be purchased in physical form.”

Derek smirked, shooting looks to his team, as his eyes landed on Spencer. He never thought he would meet a technophobe like Reid.

Y/N scanned through the pictures and documents, looking in detail at the lacerations at hand. She identified the similarities between the victims, as her mind swirled through the images and characters from the films, she knew held similarities.

“What were the names of all the victims?”

Emily looked towards the woman.

“That information is classified.”

Y/N did not blink at her abrasiveness.

“Were any of them called Sally?”

The team looked perplexed at her question.

“No. Why that name in particular?”

Y/N continued to scan the pages as Rossi questioned her.

“Because the unsub isn’t replicating anything from a horror movie. The unsub is replicating the physical appearance and staging of a character from an animated movie. A Disney one to be more specific.”

A light bulb flickered in Spencer’s mind as he stared at Y/N in realisation. The hair colours. The stitches. It made sense now.

“The Nightmare Before Christmas.”

LOCAL POLICE DEPARTMENT

“The Nightmare Before Christmas is a 1993 American stop-motion animated musical Halloween-Christmas fantasy film directed by Henry Selick and produced and conceived by Tim Burton. It became a cult classic during the early 2000s with orchestral concerts occurring every year to celebrate the spectacle of the film.”

Spencer indicated for JJ to change the monitor as he and Y/N stood in front of the team to explain the information.

“Originally, the story began as a poem written by Tim Burton. Both narratives follow the protagonist, Jack Skellington, into his journey to Christmastown, and how he tries to make Christmas his own. The character in question that your unsub is replicating is the love interest of our protagonist. Created by Dr Finkelstein, Sally is a ragdoll-esque character whose body is covered with stitches to keep her together. The form in which all the women were found is identical to this scene in the movie.”

The screen changes to show the scene in question; paused at the precise moment to prover her point.

“All red haired, all Caucasian, all eerily the same. The stitches are exactly the same and the pose in which they are in the pictures are also.”

“We now know which film our unsub is mimicking, but how can we produce a distinguished profile of our unsub? All we can say is that between his third and fourth victim, he suddenly began to feel remorseful of his crimes.”

Y/N looked towards Spencer, waiting for him to speak as he knew more details about the case.

“Garcia checked into the victim’s computer histories and found that all four victims attended a horror convention in the Washington state area over the course of the past month. The convention in particular runs every other weekend, focusing on different horror films to highlight. However, they always make an exception for one film; The Nightmare Before Christmas. Whilst reviewing receipts for the tickets, they were all brought through the convention’s website, which is run by its board of organisation every year. Up until recently, the board has held the same members.”

Derek tapped on his tablet to the convention’s website.

“Last month, the website released details stating that a distinguish member was no longer part of the board due to unforeseen circumstances.”

It suddenly dawned on Y/N who Derek was talking about.

“Dean Faulkner.”

Spencer whipped around towards Y/N.

All eyes laid on her as her breath increased.

“You know him?”

Y/N nodded at Hotch.

“I guest spoke at a panel with him a few years back at a separate university. We were both there, amongst others, to talk about the works of a genre that are expertise were in. I was there to basically provide loose ends for what they could not answer. Dean’s specialised area was horror. The whole time he spoke about what he described as the true villains of horror and of the world.”

Y/N gulped, her mouth going dry.

“Women.”

The wheels began to turn in the team’s heads.

Spencer stepped closer towards Y/N in assurance, seeing that her thoughts were becoming overwhelmed. He quickly stepped back after he realised what he had done.

“He went on a raging tangent about the damsel in distress and the final girl. Going on and on and on about how women are weak and would never be the last one standing if faced against the monsters in real life. How they manipulated the men and made the monsters seem worse than they truly were. The only time he spoke positively about women was when we finally calmed him down and, during a Q&A session, a student asked him who the perfect horror movie character was. He said Sally because she was forgiving and would do anything for Jack; even if that meant falling apart and being sewn back together. I tried to justify that the film does not necessarily fall into the genre of horror. But he rebutted saying that it most definitely did, because of the fact that Jack’s dream did not come true.”

The room was silent for a second, taking in the information.

Suddenly, Y/N grasped the pen from Spencer’s hands. Her finger scribbling across the whiteboard.

“I need to know the names of the victims. Get Penelope on the phone and tell me the names.”

The team shocked at her erratic movements, sat in silence.

“Do you want to capture this guy?”

Spencer licked his lips and repeated the victim’s names.

“Susanna Cole, Alice Dawes, Liberty May, and Lily Trent.”

Y/N swiftly wrote the names on the boards. Each name below the other. Underneath the last name she wrote the letter Y.

“Can you ask Penelope to track any females with the first name beginning with Y who have purchased a ticket to the next convention?”

Derek quickly began to type to her. The rest of the team looking on in disbelief.

“There were twenty-three purchases, but with cross referencing with the similarities in the other victims, one matched. Her name is Yasmine Driver.”

Y/N wrote the name on the board. Circling all the first letters of each name, it became clear there was another connection with the victims.

“Their initials spell Sally.”

Y/N nodded at JJ’s disbelief.

“Reid, when is the next convention being held?”

Spencer diverted his attention to Emily.

“Their schedule every two weeks, so that would make it… tomorrow.”

The team swiftly moved into action.

“JJ bring together the police force for a debrief. Derek and Rossi, go to the convention centre and question the board about Dean. Ask them how often he visited and if they have any knowledge of the victims visits to the convention. Spencer and Emily, contact Penelope for Faulkner’s address. Once you have visited the home, if he is there, bring him in. We’re going to try and catch him before he gets close to his goal. I will locate Yasmine and bring her to the station for safety. We don’t know how far he is going to go and what the end goal of his fantasy is. But we are going to stop him.”

The team swiftly did as they were told, leaving the room with only Spencer and Y/N behind. Just before the door shot, Hotch leaned back in.

“Thank you, Dr Y/L/N, for all your help. If possible, could you stay here with JJ and look through the documents? You know this guy more than we do, so any more information that comes to mind, please let us know.”

Y/N and Spencer watched as Hotch left the room, the door shutting behind him.

As the silence engulfed them, Y/N and Spencer were hyper aware that they were now alone and had been for the first time in weeks.

Spencer swiftly walked towards Y/N and embraced her in a tight hold. Wrapping her arms around the slender man, Y/N breathed in his scent.

“I’ve missed you.”

Y/N chuckled at Spencer’s muffled words, as his head rested on top of her own. Pulling back, Y/N slowly released Spencer, letting her hands drop to her sides.

“I’ve missed you too Doc. We can catch up later, I will be waiting right here. Now, go and save the girl.”

Spencer chuckled at her words but did as Y/N said. Throwing her a smile, Spencer quickly walked out the room, leaving Y/N behind.

Y/N sat in the room, looking over the files as the time passed, waiting to see Spencer return with the rest of the team. A knock on the door startled her from her search.

Looking up at the door, Y/N saw JJ walk into the room with two cups of coffee in her hands. JJ outstretched the one hand, placing the cup in front of Y/N, as she took a seat and began to sip at her own.

“I didn’t know how many sugars you took so I estimated.”

Y/N smiled at the woman’s kindness.

“Thank you. Have you heard anything from the others?”

JJ sat up in her seat as she watched Y/N look over the documents. Her fingers moving across the pages ever so quickly. Her hand that wasn’t tapped continuously on the table in a rhythm.

“Spencer and Emily located Faulkner’s home, but it was vacant. They’re looking around the premises for clues for where he may be; as we speak. Hotch and Derek just called saying they are on their way down with Yasmine now.”

Y/N nodded at her words. Glad to hear that the girl was safe, but the main priority now would be to locate Faulkner. She wanted to truly help them, before anyone else could get hurt.

JJ grabbed her tablet and began to search through the files for any missed out information. Silence befell across the pair, until JJ could not help but ask what they had all been dying to know.

“How did you and Spencer meet?”

Y/N had been waiting for the question. She had seen the looks the team had shared throughout the day. The questioning gazes towards the pair.

“Spencer and I were both guests speaking at the University of California a few months ago. He must have finished his lecture early as he was wondering the halls when he came across the class I was teaching. I was stood on the desk, encouraging the students to do the same. Spencer thought I was a student causing trouble whilst the professor had left the room. He ran in sprouting facts about the percentage of people who fall and severely hurt themselves whilst standing on tables. Telling me that I should get down before he reports me to my professor.”

JJ chuckled at Y/N’s story.

“Sounds like Spence alright.”

Y/N giggled in agreement. As she spoke, Y/N couldn’t help but smile at the memory of their first encounter. JJ noticed the smile on the woman’s face. She knew what that smile meant.

“So, I told him that he better stay there to catch me, just in case I fell, as I was trying to teach my students about the importance of character actions, and how doing something as simple as standing on a desk can amplify the tone of the scene. Like in the film Dead Poet’s Society. Spencer finally realised that I was also a guest speaker and he actually stood there for the next 40 minutes of my lecture. I didn’t need to stand on the desk that long, but I wanted to see if he would stay. Once the lecture had finished, he apologised for jumping to conclusions. I apologised for making him wait for 40 minutes in case I fell. He told me I didn’t make him wait; he chose to. We’ve been in contact ever since.”

Just as Y/N finished her story, the door to the conference room opened once more. Looking towards the door, Y/N watched as Hotch entered, followed by Yasmine. The young woman looked scared, but unharmed.

Y/N stood from her seat, unsure of what to do as Hotch insisted for Yasmine to take a seat.

“Do you want me to leave?”

Hotch nodded his head.

“We shouldn’t be long. The rest of the team are outside in the bullpen. You can go ahead and join them. JJ and I will take it from here.”

Y/N nodded her head, leaving the room. She watched as Hotch and JJ questioned spoke to Yasmine through the glass, before she turned and walked down the corridor to find Spencer and his friends.

Turning the corner, Y/N failed to stop herself before bumping into a tall figure. Looking up to apologise, her eyes suddenly widened at the familiar face. Before a sound could leave her lips, a blunt force knocked her out cold.

Spencer and the team discussed where Faulkner could be when Hotch strode into the bull pen.

“How did it go?”

Hotch walked towards his team, ready to answer Derek’s question.

“It seems that Faulkner had been stalking the victims for some time. Yasmine detailed seeing him turn up at the conventions, even though he was no longer allowed. She had previously complained about his behaviour to the board before his dismissal. Stating that Faulkner had sexually harassed her. Rossi, did anyone at the convention mention anything about Faulkner that we don’t know?”

“It seems that Yasmine wasn’t the only one. The other board members went into detail about why he was fired. It turned out that all of our victims, including Yasmine, had filed lawsuits against Faulkner for sexual harassment. The charges were ultimately dropped and never recorded to keep the convention’s reputation clear. But they fired Faulkner and banned him from being able to attend any further conventions. Taking away the Nightmare Before Christmas dedicated stand was just a coincidence. They felt that the convention needed something new as they had been celebrating the film for over eight years.”

Just as Hotch was about to declare what the next step would be in finding Faulkner, JJ burst through the ball pen.

“Guys, you have to come quick.”

The team, in shock, watched as JJ ran back towards the conference room. All quickly on her heels. Entering the room, she took control of the laptop, streaming the image to the projector.

Spencer could no longer breathe as he looked at the image on the screen.

“Y/N.”

The screen showed Y/N tied to a chair and bent forward; clearly in pain. Her surroundings empty and dark.

Suddenly a voice was heard.

“I sense there's something in the wind. That seems like tragedy's at hand isn’t there Dr Y/F/N Y/L/N.”

The team watched in horror as Dean Faulkner yanked Y/N’s head back, her body letting out a strangled cry at the pain caused by his actions.

Spencer felt sick, he felt like he was watching himself when Tobias Hankel had held him captive.

“Emily, call Garcia to track his location. We don’t have much time.”

Emily did as Hotch told her to. Talking as quickly as she could on the phone.

“She can’t track it; he’s re-routing the IP address every thirty seconds.”

“She needs to track it. She needs to find her now!”

They all jumped at Spencer’s outburst, watching as tears filled his vision and his hands began to shake.

“Spencer, you need to calm down, we are going to find her. He can’t have taken her far.”

Spencer took in Derek’s words. Taking a breath, he looked back at the screen as he tried to distinguish any recognisable features of where she may be.

Faulkner moved his face to rest against Y/N’s hair, smelling the tresses. She tried to pull away only for him to yank her back again.

“Why did you kill them Dean?”

Faulkner let go of Y/N’s hair. Walking to her side, he grabbed her face in a vicious grip. Yanking her to look at him.

“Why? They ruined my life, everything I ever worked hard for. You all did.”

Y/N looked at him in confusion.

“I did nothing to you.”

Y/N’s breath increased at the vicious look he sent her way. Her eyes flickered to the camera, knowing that Faulkner was streaming what was happening to Spencer and his team. She had to find a way to tell them where she was.

“You made them question my authority. My position. My integrity as a member of the board. You ruined my reputation by belittling me in California.”.

“That’s because you know nothing about horror Dean. You think you know everything about it, but you don’t.”

Spencer couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Why was Y/N taunting him?

“Garcia’s looking to see if there’s any abandoned properties around the area that he could have taken her to.”

Spencer didn’t even acknowledge Emily’s words.

Faulkner reeled back at Y/N’s taunt.

“I know everything there is to know about horror. I’ve seen it all. I’ve lived it. I’ve created it. Ask me anything about it, I know the right answers.”

“But you don’t. You have an idea of horror, your own idea, that is wrong. You believe that women are the reason you lost your job and became the monster that you are. But they’re not. The reason you’re a monster is because of your sick and twisted fantasies. You made those girls feel small and weak, didn’t you?”

“Shut the fuck up.”

The team watched in apprehension.

“Garcia, the location, we need it now.”

Rossi looked between the screen and the phone in Derek’s hand.

“I can get the area he’s holding her, but not the specific building. The whole town is basically abandoned. She could be anywhere from a shop to a house.”

“Keep looking.”

Spencer chewed on his lips. He had to think rationally. If the unsub was upset about the changes and losing his job, what could have been the last straw?

“Derek what was the film they replaced Nightmare Before Christmas with at the convention.”

Derek and Spencer shared a look.

“Cabin in the Woods.”

Spencer ran across the rooms to the files at hand.

“In the location that Garcia has tracked her too, there are three cabins, all within a walking distance of the other.”

The team began to rush out the room, transferring the livestream to a tablet so they could monitor Faulkner and Y/N.

“You’re weak Dean. You’re just like all the horror movie villains. Ghostface, pinhead, jigsaw, all of them. You feed of fear and feeling in control. But the only thing you have in common with them is that you’re not going to win.”

Faulkner scream in rage. Pulling Y/N’s head back, he punched her in the jaw. Striding to the camera, he pushed his face to the lens.

“The party’s over!”

Spencer watched in horror as the feed went off.

“Hotch we have to hurry!”

Hotch sped up the car. Quickly arriving to the location, the team split up into pairs, taking a cabin each to inspect. Hotch and Derek, Rossi and JJ, and Spencer and Emily veered off to their targeted locations. Spencer followed Emily, trying to stay calm, as he slowly walked into the cabin to find it empty, when suddenly a gun shot was heard. Looking in the direction, the pair ran to the cabin that Derek and Hotch had been assigned. The rest of the team already there, looking into the cabin in shock.

“No, no, no, no. Y/N.”

Spencer pushed in front of them, tears pooling in his eyes as he a waited to see the horror before him. He looked in disbelief as Y/N stood from her position on the floor, the gun dropping from her hand as they shook. Faulkner laid a few feet away, in a pool of blood, no longer breathing.

Y/N looked towards the team. Raising her shaking hands towards Spencer.

“I didn’t want to kill him but he was going to shoot whoever walked through the door.”

Spencer rushed forward, grabbing her in a bone crushing hug. His hands stroking her hair as he soother her cries. Leading her out of the cabin, he allowed his team to sort out the rest as he continued to calm Y/N down.

The movement of the team were a blur as ambulances and police cars came. Taking them to the hospital as they sat in the waiting room as Y/N was checked over.

Spencer sat in the waiting room, his leg bouncing up and down with nerves.

Derek excused himself from the groups conversation as he went and sat next to Spencer. Clapping him on the back, Derek squeezed Spencer’s shoulder in re-assurance.

“She’s going to be fine pretty boy.”

“Physically, she has a concussion, bruising along her jawline, and needs stitches on her forehead. Mentally, I don’t know how she is going to handle this. When I suggested asking for her help in the case, I didn’t presume the risk of her being hurt. I should have.”

“Spencer, listen to me. We would have done everything to make sure she lived okay. She not only saved herself but she also helped save Yasmine and this team. Any one of us could have been shot if she had not thought fast and got the gun out of his hands. You know, better than anyone, how to help her deal with this.”

Spencer took in Derek’s words, nodding his head in appreciation, as he leaned against his friend in a comforting hug.

“Probably wasn’t the ideal way to introduce your girlfriend to the team though.”

Spencer stuttered at Derek’s teasing.

“We’re profilers Spencer. We’ve all noticed how you’ve been happier these past few months and seeing how persistent you were for us to consult Y/N, it gave us all an idea why. Seeing you together only confirmed our suspicions. So, how long has pretty boy had his pretty girl?”

Spencer chuckled at Derek’s words. Ringing his hands together as he spoke to Derek.

“Tomorrow is actually our six-month anniversary. She was going to be flying back today so we could celebrate; unless I got called on a case.”

“We can still celebrate.”

Spencer looked up as Y/N walked through the waiting room, fresh stitches on her forehead and an ice pack resting in her hands.

“The nurse said that there was no internal damage. That my body will just be sore for a few weeks. My concussion is light, so I am alright to travel home.”

The team gathered around to check on her. But her eyes could not leave Spencer’s as he rose from his seat. Spencer walked forward slowly, his eyes never leaving hers. Carefully he cupped her face in his hands, and to the surprise of Y/N and his team, Spencer bowed his head and placed a careful kiss on Y/N’s lips. Slow, protective, and full of love.

Pulling back, Spencer wrapped his arms around her as he looked at the beaming smiles of his teammates. Y/N couldn’t help the blush across her cheeks or the giggle that followed. Soon, everyone was chuckling at the pair.

“I would like to thank you Y/N. From the entire team. Your actions saved a young woman’s life, and what could have been one of our own.”

Y/N smiled in appreciation at Rossi’s words.

“You’re Spencer’s family. I would do it all again if I had to.”

“Statistically speaking, around 2,000 people a day are reported missing in the US. Approximately, 600 of those would be reported or considered kidnappings. It is highly unlikely for you to be put in a situation like that again.”

Y/N looked up at her boyfriend.

“I never thought I would say this, but your talk about me being kidnapped again is really attractive.”

The team laughed at the girl’s statement, seeing Spencer become physically embarrassed.

“Just to inform everyone, the jet will be ready to depart in forty-five minutes. As I was informed that today you would have been heading home, Y/N we have sent for your belongings to be collected; you can fly back with us.”

Spencer smiled at Hotch in gratitude, the older man knowing he would have only worried if she had flown home alone.

“Thank you, Mr Hotchner.”

Hotch let out a brief smile.

“Call me Hotch. Your part of Spencer’s life, that means your part of this family.”

BAU JET

It had been an exhausting few days for the team, and it showed, as they all were sporadically asleep throughout the jet. Silence encompassed the steel capsule, with only the sound of sleep filled breaths being heard.

Y/N laid fast asleep, with her head on Spencer’s shoulder, as the boy genius sat up wide awake. Looking down at the woman next to him, all Spencer could imagine was what could have happened if they weren’t quick enough. How many days he would have lost with her. All the things he wanted to tell her.

As though she could sense his deep thoughts, Y/N slowly awoke, rubbing her eyes as a yawn escaped her mouth. Blinking her eyes rapidly, she waited till she was fully conscious before she spoke.

“What time is it Doc?”

Spencer jostled out of his thoughts to check the watch on his wrist.

“It’s 2:36 am. You’ve been asleep for approximately 3 hours and 22 minutes.”

Y/N quickly sat up in her seat, wide awake.

Spencer turned towards her in worry, wondering what had made her so alert.

“What wrong? Are you feeling nauseous? Do you need some painkillers, as your due to have…”

Y/N grabbed Spencer’s face and placed her lips flush against his own. Their mouths moved in unison, as Spencer’s own hands moved to circle around her waist, bringing their bodies as close as they could be in the small space they had. They hadn’t kissed since the hospital, and before then it had been weeks. Spencer never realised until then, how much he truly missed her touch, her taste, her as a whole.

Coming to a point where they both lacked breathe, the pair pulled apart. Their eyes fluttering open as Y/N’s hands caressed Spencer’s face. Her one hand travelled to his hair, feeling the tresses that had grown since she had last seen him. She looked at him in a way no one had before. Spencer shared the same expression.

“Happy six-month anniversary Spencer. I love you.”

Spencer looked at Y/N in disbelief.

“Before you start spouting of facts about transference and how I am probably only saying this because you saved my life, you’re wrong. Because then I would be telling Hotch and Morgan the same thing.”

Spencer couldn’t help the watery smile that graced his face. For the second time in the past day, his eyes filled with tears. But this time, they were good.

“I’ve known I have loved you for a long time. For five months actually. I knew I loved you when we made pizza in your apartment and we ended up burning it, so we ordered one instead.”

Spencer laughed at the memory. It was the first time Spencer had initiated their make out. He had watched her cooking, in his apartment, and he had never found her more attractive than he did seeing her in his home.

“I knew that whilst you were spouting of facts about the invention of the pizza that I loved you and that I could listen to you forever. I love you Spencer.”

Spencer pulled Y/N closer to him as he rested his forehead against her own. The pair basked in each other’s presence.

“Past surveys show that men wait just 88 days to say those three little words to their partner for the first time, and 39 percent say them within the first month. Women, on the other hand, take an average 134 days. You knew after 31 days that you loved me. I knew after our first date that the way I felt when I was with you is a feeling that I could not even describe with my vast vocabulary. I knew after 8 days that the way I felt was stronger than liking you and that was a frightening thought. But its scarier to think what could have happened to you yesterday. That I could have lost you without you ever knowing. I made that mistake before. I will never make it again. I love you too.”

Y/N couldn’t help the smile and giggle that overtook her. Spencer, feeling high of the serotonin that was coursing through his body, couldn’t help his laugh either. Soon the pair were a giggling mess, unaware of the team who had all begun to awaken whilst the pair were talking.

The team congregated to the back of the jet, allowing the couple to stay in their own bubble.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve seen him truly happy.”

The group nodded at Emily’s words.

JJ smiled as she watched her best friend rattle of the possible movies that he and his girlfriend could spend their anniversary watching as she recovered. Her smile growing even wider at Y/N’s enthusiasm to watch the film’s in their original language. None of them could miss the look of adoration beaming between the pair.

“Yeah, it really has.”

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. -Lao Tzu

A/N- It isn’t the best but I really enjoyed writing this one.

#spencer reid imagine #spencer reid #criminal minds #spencer reid x reader #criminal minds imagine #matthew gray gubler #matthew gray gubler imagine #matthew gray gubler x reader #criminal minds x reader #spencer reid imagines

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makeupinthedrawer · 3 years ago

Text

what happens in a haunted house…

sparks fly when you find yourself spending halloween with your university’s football star and your long harbored crush niall horan | college!niall x fem!reader

authors note: hate the ending but i hope u guys like this!! sorry it took so long to post something new, classes have been really crazy

word count: 2.7k

my masterlist

upcoming content: fluff, suggestiveness, spookiness!

“Nightmare Before Christmas is a Halloween movie!”

“The word Christmas is literally in the name!”

“Oh my god…”

You giggled at your two friends, Sean and Aimee, glancing at your surroundings as the other people in line turned to see what all the screaming was about.

“They’re so embarrassing aren’t they?” Jack spoke, dressed in plain blue jeans and a Scream shirt. You shrugged your shoulders up at him, not really wanting to engage in conversation. Jack recently became part of your friend group and he wasn’t a bad guy really, you just didn’t see what everyone else apparently did. He was boring to say the least, and a little pretentious, always letting out such carefully calculated remarks that you didn’t even realize they were insults until it was keeping you up late at night. You think your friends only kept him around because when you tune his voice out, he really was an attractive sight to look at.

“I guess, I think they’re both just very passionate about everything spooky.”

Jack crinkled his face for a second before looking back down at you, “Yeah, but if they really want to talk Halloween movies” -he started with finger quotes around halloween- “then it‘s Stanley Kubrick all the way. The Shining is a classic. The cinematography is just so masterful. Have you ever seen it?”

You just shook your head at him and he began to go into a deep dive about how the elements of the movie were an inspiration to horror movies everywhere. Your other friends, Connor and Lisa, rolled their eyes and tapped out of the conversation, mindlessly scrolling on their phones, but you didn’t want to be rude so you just nodded at the times you thought you should, when Jack was interrupted by a chorus of “excuse me’s”

“Excuse me, mate!”

“Sorry!”

“Lemme just get by you!”

“‘Scuse me! Oh sick costume!”

Your ears perked up at the sound, a voice you could recognize everywhere.

“Niallllll maaaate! Where’ve ya been?” Sean asked, arms raised ready to give his friend a hug and a smack on the back.

“Sorry I’m late! I didn’t miss anything did I?“

“Just Sean being stupid and aggravating and challenging me on purpose, so just the usual!” Aimee let out, rolling her eyes and biting back a smile as Sean put his arm around her.

Niall just laughed and turned to greet the rest of your friends and you let yourself take in his outfit, breath hitching in your throat. Niall came dressed as a pirate, shirt flowing and unbuttoned, plastic sword sticking through one of his belt loops, and his soft brown hair was spilling out of his pirates hat and it was everything you had to not run your fingers through it.

“…So anyways like I was saying-“ Jack began to speak again, the frustration evident in his tone that your attention wasn’t focused on him.

“And who are you supposed to be?” Niall asked, eyes twinkling, reflecting the goldish orange jack-o-lantern lights strung up around the line.

Your cheeks heated up as you looked down at your outfit instinctively, “Oh I’m Wanda Maximoff, the scarlet witch.”

Niall’s grin widened as he took in your costume. Red leather clinging to your skin, and he ran his tongue over his teeth. He reached out and felt up the crown you were wearing, inadvertently running his fingers over your hair as he put his arm down.

“Nice, y’look very powerful! Very bewitching, if I do say so myself.”

You giggled and were sure he could hear your heart beating faster, the proud smirk that crossed his face at your reaction didn’t help.

“I’m a pirate, if ya couldn’t tell.”

Jack snorted at this and you remembered he was standing there the entire time. “What else could you possibly be?”

Niall’s smile faltered before he feigned cluelessness and shrugged his shoulders, “Nice to see ya again mate, who’re you supposed to be?”

“I’m dressed as myself. I don’t own any costumes.”

Your friends all looked at him as if he was speaking a different language, “What’dya mean you don’t own any costumes?” Connor said, his frown clear over the red smile he painted on his cheeks for his joker costume.

“Not even for Halloween?” Niall added.

Jack furrowed his brows at this, “No? Also, why else would someone own a costume if it weren’t for halloween?”

Niall answered with a smirk and a waggle of his eyebrows which caused all the boys in your friend group, save for Jack, to let out howling laughs and whistles as they smacked him on the back.

Jack scoffed and rolled his eyes and you were still staring up at Niall, cheeks still hot from the two of yous little moment a minute ago and now your thighs were clenching at the implication.

“Very classy, Niall.” Jack said and Niall didn’t bother with a response as the line was moving significantly, he looked down at you and shot you a wink when he caught your stare on him and you quickly looked away.

“Y’gonna protect me in there, Wanda?” Niall asked as the haunted house entrance came more into view.

You sputtered and looked up at him. Niall was a good few inches taller than you, his boots shooting him up a little more, and him being on the university’s football team gave him a muscular advantage too.You would know out of anybody from the almost concerningly amount of time you’ve spent admiring his biceps. “It’s just a haunted house Ni, I hardly believe you’re gonna need me to protect you.”

Niall’s face dropped in faux shock. “But I’ve never done it before! And, and you’re a superhero! Do I need to call S.H.I.E.L.D. on you, y/n?”

You laughed again and shook your head. “No! But come on Mr. Pirate, you’ll be fine!”

“So you’re saying you won’t be there for me if I get scared, hmm? Won’t let me wrap my arms around you and use you as a human shield?”

You knew he was joking but even the mention of being wrapped in his arms was enough to send tingles down your spine.

“You can wrap me in your arms any time, Niall.” You replied simply and you looked up at him hesitantly, gauging his reaction.

Niall’s eyes darkened and he showed off his perfect teeth in a wide smile. You both looked ahead of you as the line moved forward once again, standing in the flirty atmosphere, toeing the line between friends and more once again.

“Good to know.” He muttered, just as the two of you stepped through the entrance and let the darkness over take you.

🎃🎃🎃🎃

You were sure you were about to throw up.

The immense amount of halloween candy shaking around in your stomach as you were swung side to side. You quickly realized Niall wasn’t lying when he said he was going to use you as a human shield and now you were practically mowing down the scare actors as the two of you moved throughout the house. You were sure the scare actors and other guests thought the two of you were crazy, and with good reason, your feet weren’t even touching the ground as Niall thrusted you in front of him, lifting you effortlessly, and letting out a scream so loud it was comical.

“Niall! P-put me down!”

“I can’t! You’re too short to hide behind!” He cried, letting out another scream as someone jumped out at him.

“Take her first!”

“Hey!”

You never thought he’d be so scared going through the haunted house, the group of teenagers ahead of you were unimpressed at best, but you didn’t want him to be in distress, so you let him thrash you around, besides there were definitely worse places to be than pressed against his chest.

He was warm, and his cologne was taking over your senses, hoping it’d linger on you when you eventually parted. His hands, large and rough, were placed firmly on your hips and you let yourself think, only for a second, if his fingers would be able to touch if he spread them across your waist.

As the two of you neared the exit, you were smiling in content, trying to tamper down the hearts in your eyes, when you looked back at your pirate when you saw he was already smiling down at you.

Even in the dark hallway, only lit by cheap glow in the dark arrow stickers, Niall saw how you tucked your cheek into your shoulder as he gazed at you. He didn’t want to leave, he was more than content with staying with you in the haunted mansion for the rest of his life for all he cared. He couldn’t believe his luck tonight, having you tucked into his side, his hands (respectfully) traveling your body, making you laugh, it really was all he could ever ask for since he first met you when you transferred to his university.

Niall remembered the day he first saw you, sitting at one of the picnic tables with his mates, talking to Sean about the movie they saw that weekend when he saw Aimee storming up to the table, dragging someone along behind her.

“Guys! This is y/n, she just transferred here from the states.” Aimee said simply but nothing about this was simple to Niall. The way his heart rate picked up at the sight of you was confusing him, the way he deliberately shook your hand when you ordered it to him was out of character, he was rough, it wasn’t on purpose, he just treated most things like a soccer ball. But weren’t the kind of girl to put your heart in his rough hands, and he wanted to change that.

The two were snapped out of their daydreams by the chatter of their friends outside.

“Horan! What the fuck was that?” Sean yelled as he stood with Aimee, Connor and Lisa, and Jack.

“What?” Niall asked innocently.

“All that screaming in there! I thought you were dying!”

“It was scary! That’s the point!”

Aimee scoffed at this, “We’ve been going through this shit for years now, how were you even surprised?”

You looked up at Niall at this new piece of information, thinking back to when he told you he’d never gone in a haunted house before and caught the blush painting his cheeks as he rolled his eyes and started to walk along with Connor and Sean across the park.

You, Lisa, Aimee and Jack followed; Lisa and Aimee in their own world comparing their fairy costumes, leaving you to be paired up with Jack once again. He began again, going on and on about the history of halloween you assumed, not really paying attention. You were more focused on the pirate in front of you, currently standing between the joker and jack skellington, taking what looked to be an orange jello shot.

Your mind wandered to what he said earlier, how he looked at you in the darkness. Why would he tell you he’s never gone in before? You bit your lip in thought, not wanting to get ahead of yourself but all you could think of was that he wanted an excuse to hold you.

Throughout the night, you and Niall never managed to get some alone time again. And between the amount of drinks Aimee has given you and the way Jack never left your side and seemed to have an unlimited amount of things to talk about, you were ready to just go home.

Niall stood scowling as he watched you and Jack talk, completely ignoring his friends and not bothering to cover his jealousy. He wanted to talk to you and every time he tried one of this dear and lovely mates interrupted him and when he looked back up you were gone or already in conversation. His brain unhelpfully told him that besides, if you really wanted to talk to him, you could always come too, but all your attention seemed to be on Jack.” What did you see in that prick?” He thought, wondering if he read all the signs wrong earlier.

“Aww, is someone cranky?” Connor cooed, pinching Niall’s cheek.

“Fuck off.” Niall shot back.

“Oh Nialler, we were just joking about earlier, it really did seem scarier this year!” Sean said, the drinks in his system making him overly sympathetic to his friend over their teasing earlier.

“Oh it's not that you eejit.”

“Then what is it?”

Niall opened his mouth to speak but closed it again, darting his eyes over to you and looking away a few times.

His friends were definitely tipsy, but got the hint. “Oh dude! Don’t even worry about it!”

Niall’s brows furrowed in confusion, “What?”

Sean and Connor shared a look and a nod, “Your wingman’s got this!”

Niall’s eyes widened at his friends, who he loved more than anyone but jesus if they weren’t the biggest idiots he’s ever know. “No no no, don’t even think about it.”

Connor and Sean were already strutting towards you, shooting Niall a thumbs up and a wink that could only mean trouble.

He couldn’t watch, it was like a car crash. He buried his head in his hands and braced himself for the incoming embarrassment.

“Oi, Jacky baby!!!” Sean drawled, slapping his hand on Jack’s back.

“Hey Sean, you good?”

“Couldn’t be better!”

“That’s great,” Sean spoke with a fake smile, “we’re kind of in the middle of something here tho-“

“Ahhh come on! Come get a drink with us!” Connor offered.

“No I’m alright, I was just talking t-“

“Hey, that thing you were talking about earlier, what was it? It was so interesting! You should tell us again!” Sean said and you could see the dread fill his eyes at voluntarily asking to hear one of Jack’s lectures.

“Oh! Oh yeah, well” Jack began, going over something you heard mere minutes ago and started walking towards the bar with Sean.

“Thanks for that.” You said to Connor.

“Don’t thank me just yet,” he started, and you quirked a brow, “the pirate has requested your presence” he finished in a fake fancy accent and you giggled, heart rate picking up as you spotted Niall watching you, biting on his nail, stare darting away when you made eye contact. He was nervous.

“Hey,” you said quietly.

He looked at you with a sparkle in his eye that always seemed to shine no matter where you were. “Sorry…” He breathed out, softer than you’ve ever heard him speak before.

“Sorry? For what?”

“Whatever those bloody dicks said to ya”

You giggled and he leaned in, as if he was chasing it. “I actually have to thank them, they helped me escape from the biggest dick of them all.”

Niall outwardly laughed and you felt your exhaustion fade and spirits lift. Niall was comfort and joy and you couldn’t get enough.

“Was wondering why you were spending so much time with him tonight.”

You took a deep breath and rolled your shoulders back, looking Niall right in the eye, focusing on the gold specks that wove through his midnight blue irises. “Would have much rather spent the night with you.”

Niall broke out into a face splitting grin, “Yeah?”

You nodded your head shly and his grin widened even more. For all your sweetness and shyness, you were electrifying. You were right in his reach, and he wasn’t going to let you go.

“Good,” he began, moving closer, resting a hand on your shoulder -his long fingers rubbing up and down your arm, making you shiver wonderfully- “I want to spend the night with you too.”

You smiled up at him and he swore it was the most adorable sight he’s ever seen. “Should we go back to mine then, show you what this sword can really do?” He said, and ran his tongue across the blade of the plastic sword and you busted out laughing as did he.

“That was terrible, Ni!”

He shrugged, lust and adoration filling his eyes, “Bad enough to actually work?”

“Definitely. Let’s get out of here, Captain.”

Niall groaned, wrapping his arm around you as you both started walking to his car, and you laughed once more. “You’re gonna be the death of me.”

“Happy Halloween, Niall.”

“Happy Halloween is right.”

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