#they aren't number one; they aren't number two; but a secret third thing

[mellosdrawings]

Oh love your losers forever number 2 group doodles. Seeing the doodles, I realized Leona and Vil are together longer than with Jamil.

Well, even on the off-chance that they weren't already dating before, they've still known each other for a while longer, while Jamil was off in his corner pretending to be mid and trying not to attract attention.

In both cases, Leona and Vil would already have their own habits/banter and Jamil, who is barely getting used to standing out and competing against "higher status" people, would take more time to feel comfortable.

(I have paragraphs of potential dynamics between those three, I could talk about them for hours haha)

[dianawinchester03]

Season 1, Episode 13 - Route 666

Series Masterlist

Third Person POV

The trio are currently at a gas station. Y/N is on the phone taking an urgent phone call while the boys are looking at a map, spread out on the roof of the Impala. "Okay, I think we found a way we can bypass that construction east of here" Sam tells Y/N as she hangs up the phone and walks towards the boys. "We might even make Pennsylvania faster than we thought" Dean adds and notices the sad look on her face.

"Yeah. Problem is, I can't come with you guys" She says in a serious tone and they look at her confused. "Wait what?" Dean asks her as she looks down at her phone. "I just got a call from an old friend. His father was killed and he thinks might be our kind of thing" She tells them.

"If it's okay with you guys. I can take a bus back to Indiana, get my bike, deal with the situation and meet up with you guys next week" She suggest and Dean shakes his head. "What?" Sam asks her confused. "We'll go with you" Dean insists. "Look fellas, I don't wanna put you two out of your way..." She trails off but Sam cuts her off.

"No, Y/N. We're family. We're not gonna leave you just like that." He assures her and she sighs. "Believe me, he never would've called, never, if he didn't need us" She says exasperated. "Okay...here" Dean hands her his keys. "You take us there" He tells her and she nods, taking it and jumping in the front seat, Dean gets in shotgun and Sam is still there stunned.

"Come on. You coming or what?!" Dean calls out for his brother who sighs, getting in the back as Y/N starts the ignition, putting baby in drive and they're off.

Some time later while Y/N is driving to Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Dean, who's residing in the passenger seat. His curiosity got the best of him and he asked, "By 'old friend'...you mean....?" He asks her, cocking his eyebrow suggestively. "A friend that's not new" She retorts sarcastically with a sheepish smile.

"Yeah, thanks" Sam shoots back sarcastically chuckling as Dean rolls his eyes. "So his names Christian, huh?" Dean asks pressingly, crossing his arms over his chest. Sam's eyebrows quirk up in the backseat at this, now realizing that his brother is jealous. "You never mentioned him" Sam adds teasingly.

Y/N gives her best friend a knowing look in the rearview and he hides his snicker. "Didn't I?" She responds dryly, not daring to look at them as she drives. "No" Dean says. "Yeah, we went out" Y/N confirms causally. "You mean you actually dated someone? For more than one night?" Sam asks her surprised.

Not trying to offend her but just surprised because Y/N was never much of the dating type as far as he knew. Y/N knew he didn't mean this offensively but still, "Am I speaking a language you two aren't not getting here?" She scoffs annoyed. "Jeez, sorry." Sam chuckles, putting his hands up in surrender.

"I was working a job in Athens, Ohio. He was finishing up college. We went out for a couple weeks" Y/N explains vaguely as the boys chuckle. Dean however was getting that burning feeling in his chest again, he clears his throat before asking.

"And..?" Y/N shakes her head, basically saying 'Nothing more to say'. "Look, it's terrible about his dad but it kind of sounds like a standard car accident" Dean tells her honestly. "Yeah, I'm not seeing if it fits what we do" Sam adds and a thought pops up in Deans head. "Which by the way, how does he know what we do?" Dean asks curiously.

Y/N looks over at him with a straight face, not answering. This look alone informs the boys how he knows. Their faces contort in disbelief and Y/N prepares herself for the chewing out she's about to get. "You told him? You told him, the secret?" Dean asks shocked and she doesn't answer. "Our big family number one rule: We do what we do and we shut up about it!" Dean shouts in frustration and disappointment.

"For a year and a half, I do nothing but lie to Jessica. And you got out with this dude in Ohio a couple times and you tell him everything!" Sam rants just as disappointed as Dean. Y/N clenches her jaw at his statement. "I did say I'd go myself. So can it with the slut shaming" She shoots back and Sam snaps his mouth shut.

Not realizing how what he said sounded. "Princess...we're not slut shaming you" Dean says apologetically. "Yeah, Y/N. I would never do that. I'm so sorry for making you feel like that. It's just- you told him" Sam apologizes sincerely.

Y/N sighs knowing they're right, turning up the music on the stereo to drown out the tension in the vehicle.

(Authors Note: Just a quick option of who you want to imagine Christian as. I initially went with Rome Flynn. Or you can go with Désiré Mia. Readers choice.)

________________________________

The boys and Y/N pull up to the office where her ex-boyfriend worked at. "Jimmy, too close to this. Those guys were friends of yours" A man talking to two African American men says. "Again, I'm very sorry for your loss" He tells Christian sincerely before walking off.

Christian turns around disappointed, his face dropping when he sees Y/N. Y/N gives him a little nod with a small smile. "Y/N" He says surprised. "Hey Christian" She says softly as he walks towards them. The two former lovers share a long heated lingering stare, Deans eyes glance between the two of them, his heart dropping.

The burning sensation he usually feels in his chest is back but this time. It's worse, like hot molten lava bubbling up. His jaw clenches. Sam slightly smirks at the exchange between Y/N and Christian, realizing he probably meant a lot to Y/N for her to tell him about their secret. He then glances over at his brother who is desperately trying to hide his fuming.

Y/N clears her throat before introducing the boys, "This is my best friend, Sam. And his brother, Dean. We all grew up together" Y/N tells him and he reaches over to shake their hands. "Christian" He introduces himself, extending his hand to Sam, who shakes it with a smile.

Going over to Dean, he takes his hand, clenching his jaw a bit, he squeezes it harder than he meant to. Christian winces a bit at the grip but recovers, now a bit uneasy by Deans presence. "I'm so sorry about your dad, Chris" She says sincerely. "Yeah...me too" He says sadly. The two can't stop staring at each other and Sam notices this, a slight smirk on his face.

________________________________

Later that night, they're at Christian's house. "My mothers in pretty bad shape. I've been staying with her for a couple weeks. I wish she wouldn't go off by herself. She's been so nervous and frightened" Christian explains them, walking into the living room with a tray of hot tea and four mugs.

He rests it down on the table to pour it for them, his back towards them as they sit on the couches. Sam and Dean on one and Y/N on another. "She was worried about Dad" He tells them. "Why?" Y/N asks. "He was scared. He was seeing things" He tells her. "Like what?" Y/N asks.

"He swore he saw an awful looking black truck following him" He tells them, turning with two mugs in his hand. "A truck? Who was the driver?" Sam asks. "He didn't talk about a driver. Just the truck" He tells him, handing one mug to Sam and another to Y/N. "He said it would appear and disappear" He continues to explain.

Going back for another mug for Dean, handing it to him. "Thanks" They all say gratefully. "And, in the accident, Dads truck was dented, like it had been slammed into something big" He finishes and takes a seat next to Y/N. "And you're sure this sent wasn't there before?" Dean asks.

"He sold cars. Always drove a new one. There wasn't a scratch on that thing." Christian tells him firmly. "It had rained hard that night. There was mud everywhere. There was a distinct set of muddy tracks from Dads car leading right...to the edge where he went over" He explains, tears brimming in his eyes, his voice cracking.

Y/N rests her mug down immediately, placing her hand on his shoulder comfortingly. Deans jaw unconsciously clenches at the gesture. Christian looks at Y/N with a tearful gaze, she offers him a small sad smile that he returns."One set of tracks. His." He tells her. "Okay. And the first person killed was a friend of your fathers?" She asks him calmly.

"Best friend. Clayton Soames. They owned the car dealership together. Same thing. Dent. No tracks. And the cops said exactly what they said about Dad: 'He lost control of his car' " He explains to her and she nods, taking her hand off of his shoulder. "Now can you think of any reason why your father and his partner might be targets?" Dean asks him.

"No" Christian responds shaking his head. "And you think this vanishing truck ran them off the road?" Sam asks a bit confused and Christian scoffs. "When you say it aloud like that...Listen. I'm a little skeptical about this ghost stuff...or...whatever it is you guys are into" He says a bit warily, his gaze moving over to Y/N.

Chuckling humorlessly, Y/N looks at the boys. "Skeptical? If I remember. I think you said I was nuts" Y/N says a bit bitterly, her mind flashing back to memories of their break up. "That was then" Christian says firmly, an apologetic guilty look on his face. "Hmm" She just nods, swallowing the lump in her throat, as the boys shift in their seats awkwardly, sipping their teas simultaneously.

Christian then sighs and says, "I just know that I can't explain what happened up there. So I called you" He tells her and the sound of a door opening interrupts their conversation. A middle aged, Caucasian woman walks through the door, surprised by the presence of the three hunters.

"Mom" Christian says relieved, getting up from next to Y/N. "Where have you been? I was so worried" He says worried. "I had no idea you had invited friends over" His mom says. "Uh, mom. This is Y/N. A friend of mine from....college" He stutters a bit introducing Y/N, making her heart drop. "And this is her childhood friends Sam and Dean. They're brothers" He then introduces the boys.

"Well, I, uh, won't interrupt you" His mom says, before going to go upstairs but Y/N stops her. "Mrs. Robinson. We're sorry for your loss" She says sincerely, offering her a small smile as Christian puts a hand on his mothers shoulder comfortingly. "We'd like to talk to you for a minute, if you don't mind" She says sweetly.

Mrs. Robinson, clearly distraught. "I'm really not up to that just now" She says quickly before walking up the stairs. Christian is hurt seeing his mother like this and Y/N sighs, a bit disappointed. Looking back at the boys who give her a look of sympathy.

________________________________

The next day, Christian called Y/N and informed her that Jimmy was killed. The boys and Y/N go to a crash site and as they approach the scene to see Christian arguing with Todd, the man from the office "Jimmy meant something to this town. He was one of our best. We don't be the same without him" Todd tells him.

"Our best seem to be dropping like flies. Clayton, my father, Jimmy" Christian snaps at him. "What is it exactly you want me to do?" Todd asks him. "Well how about closing this section of the road, for starters" Christian shoots back in anger. "Close the main road, the only road in and out of town?" Todd scoffs.

"Accidents do happen, Christian. That's what they are. Accidents" Todd assures him firmly as the boys and Y/N approach them. "Did the cops check for additional denting on Jimmy's car? See if it was pushed?" Y/N asks the officer, her tone serious. "Who's this?" Todd asks Christian.

"Y/N L/N and her friends, Sam and Dean Winchester. Family friends." Christian introduces them. "This is Mayor Harold Todd" He introduces the mayor to the trio and he nods at them. "There's one set of tire tracks. One. Doesn't point to foul play" Todd tells them as they look at the wreckage.

"Mayor, the police and town officials take their cues from you. If you're indifferent-" Christian argues but Todd cuts him off. "Indifferent?" Todd bellows offended, knowing where he's getting at. "Would you close the road if the victims were white?" Christian blurts out, his face stone cold as the mayors face drops.

The boys and Y/N glance between the two, unsure what to say. "You're suggesting I'm racist, Christian" Todd says in disbelief. "I'm the last person you should talk to like that" He says. "And why is that?" Christian snaps. Todd looks as if he's contemplating whether or not to say anything and just says, "Why don't you ask your mother?" Now walking away leaving Christian is confused by this.

________________________________

Later the boys and Y/N are at their motel room, putting on their suit and ties while Y/N is already dressed in her white blouse with her black blazer and pencil skirt. Currently by the window, smoking a cigarette as the boys button up their shirts. "I'll say this for him, he's fearless" Sam tells Y/N.

"Mhm" she responds dryly, taking a drag from her cigarette and dusting in in the ashtray. "Bet he tried to kick you ass a couple times and lost" Dean shoots her a smug grin and she rolls her eyes, scoffing in laughter as she exhales the smoke from the corner of her lips.

"You'd win your money" She says, laughing. "What's interesting is, you guys never really look at each other at the same time" Sam teases her. "You look at him when he's not looking, he checks you out when he looks away" Dean adds, trying to hide his bitter tone and Y/N glares at the both of them.

"It's just an interesting observation..in a ...you know...observationally way" Sam says sheepishly. Fixing his tie. "You think we might have some more pressing issues here fellas?" She snaps, tired of hearing about her ex. She outs the cigarette in the tray, huffing in annoyance. "Hey, if we're hitting a nerve-" Dean goes to say but Sam cuts him off.

"-maybe Chrissy can do it for you" Sam adds with a laugh, making mock kissy faces at her and Y/N blushes, throwing a pillow at him, which he quickly dodges, laughing hysterically. Not often Sam is the one teasing Y/N, usually it's Y/N teasing Sam like an annoying little sister but Sam has his brotherly moments with Y/N, relishing in her discomfort.

"I hate you two!" She groans, walking out of the motel room while Sam snickers. The whole time Dean was wreathing in disgust at the thought of Y/N and Christian together for some reason, he knows his feelings are growing day in and day out for Y/N, to the point he can't deny them, even to himself.

Would he ever admit that to her? Fuck no, she'll probably reject him on spot is what he keeps telling himself. Meanwhile Y/N is conflicted about the two men. Seeing Christian brought up some old feelings that weren't really resolved the day of their break up when she left town.

She solely believes in her heart that Dean would never look at her that way, chalking up her feelings for him as a childish crush. Yes, Christian was her first love. There's no doubt in her mind about that. But what she used to feel for Christian couldn't compare to what she feels for Dean.

She hasn't admitted her feelings to herself yet, but sooner or later, she's gonna have to face it.

________________________________

The boys and Y/N walk down a pier to see two elderly men eating lunch, "Excuse me, are you Ron Stubbins?" Dean asks the man in a ball cap, sitting next to African American man. Ron, the man in the ball cap nods in confirming? "You were friends with Jimmy Anderson, sir?" Y/N adds sweetly. "Who are you?" Ron asks them.

"We're with Mr. Anderson's insurance company. Just here to dot the I's and cross the T's" Dean says. "We were just wondering, had the deceased mentioned any unusual recent experiences?" Sam asks. "What do you mean 'unusual' ?" Ron responds confused. "Well, visions, hallucinations.." Y/N begins to explains.

"It's all part of a medical examination kind of thing. Very standard" Dean adds to lower their suspicions. "What company you say you were with?" Ron asks suspiciously. "All National Mutual" Y/N responds, pulling out a badge from her blazer to show them. "Tell me, did he ever mention seeing a truck? Big, black truck?" Dean asks.

"What the hell are you talking about? You even speaking English?" Ron scoffs rudely but Y/N notices the man sitting next to Ron, his eyebrows shoot up in recognition at the description. "Son, this truck, a big, scary monster looking thing?" Ron's friend asks the three hunters.

Dean looks over at Y/N for confirmation and she nods, "Yeah, actually. We think so" Dean responds. "Hmm" Ron's friend nods. "What?" Y/N asks. "I have heard of a truck like that" Ron's friend says. "You have? Where?" Sam asks intrigued. "Not where, when." The man states.

"Back in the 60's, there was a string of deaths. Black men. Story goes, they disappeared in a big, nasty black truck" The man explains and the three hunters share a look. "They ever catch the guy who did it?" Dean asks. "Never found him. Hell, not sure they even looked" The man chuckles ironically and Y/N's heart sinks at how poorly they treated the deaths of these men.

"See, there was a time...this town wasn't too friendly to all its citizens." The man states, glancing at his friend and back to them. "Thank you" Y/N says gently, thanking them for their time before walking off with the boys.

"Truck" Dean says. "Keeps coming up, doesn't it?" Sam responds as they walk towards the Impala. "You know, I was thinking. You heard of the Flying Dutchman?" Y/N asks them. "Yeah, a ghost shit, infused with the captains spirit. It was basically part of him" Sam nods. "Yeah, so, what if we're dealing with the same thing? You know? A phantom truck? The extension of some bastard ghost reenacting pat crimes" Y/N suggests.

"The victims have all been black men" Dean agrees. "I think it's more than that. They all seem connected to Christian and his family" Y/N says. "Alright, well, you work that angle. Go talk to him" Sam tells her. "Yeah, I will" She says. "Oh and, you might also want to mention that other thing?" Sam says, hiding his grin.

She turns to him confused, "What other thing?" She asks him. "The serious unfinished business" Sam teases chuckling and she rolls her eyes, looking down guiltily. "Y/N, what is going on between you two?" Dean asks, swallowing the lump in his throat. Y/N glances up at him, biting her lips nervously before responding.

"Alright, maybe we were a little bit more involved than I said" Y/N says vaguely. "Oh, okay" Sam nods, giving her a knowing look and she sighs, glancing back at Dean with a smug look on his face, trying to hide his jealousy before admitting. "Okay, a lot more. Maybe" She says and Sam chuckles.

"And I told him the secret about what we do and I shouldn't have" She admits, Sam nods understanding. "Look, girly, everybody's gotta open up to someone sometime" Sam says gently. "Yeah, I don't" She retorts back. "It was stupid to get that close. I mean, look how it ended" She says sadly, looking back at the boys.

Dean couldn't help but feel a bit bad, now realizing she loved Christian. Envious at the fact that Christian won her heart and he probably never will. Sam has a smug knowing look on his face, Dean covering up his discomfort with a smile. "Would you two stop? Blink or something" She snaps at them. "You loved him" Sam voices their realizations.

"Oh, God" She groans, turning to open the backseat door to the impala., only to realize it's locked. "Open the door" She orders him. "You were in love with him, but you dumped him?" Dean asks her, a bit confused at this. She looks at him, a grimace on her face while swallowing the lump building in her throat.

She doesn't answer them and realization dawns on them again. "Oh, wow" Sam says lowly. "He dumped you" Dean says with a bit of pity in his voice while Sam's stands there, his mouth agape in shock. "Open the door" She clenches her jaw, Dean nods quickly. Opening the door with the key, and she jumps in, slamming the door shut a bit angrily but not too hard.

"Get in the car fellas!" She bellows, snapping Sam out of his shock and he quickly gets in. He feels terrible now for teasing her so much about Christian, knowing that he broke her heart doesn't sit too well with him. The protective side of him just wants to break Christian's face but at the same time, he thinks about if he ever told Jessica the truth.

Would she have reacted the same way? Probably. But would she have dumped him? He doesn't even want to think about the possibility. Meanwhile, Dean tightens his grip around the steering wheel while pulling out of the spot he was parked in. The knowledge of Y/N getting her heart broken by that dick just builds a fury inside of him.

God knows he doesn't deserve her love but how could someone who earned her love, just toss her away like that. Both him and Sam know Y/N isn't one to fall in love easily. But when she does, clearly she falls hard because she told Christian the big secret.

"You don't have to go talk to him, we could do it for you" Dean tells her gently, looking at her through the rearview mirror as they drive to Christian's house. Her gaze falls over to him, she gives him a thankful smile before shaking her head, "It's okay, honestly. I'm a big girl." Y/N assures them. "You sure?" Sam asks her and she chuckles nodding.

"I'm sure. It's water under the bridge. And to be frank, I'm wary of the fact that now you two know who dumped who, that you might want to break his pretty face" She snickers and they laugh, shaking their heads.

"Good point" Sam chuckles, giving her a reassuring smile. He pulls over to the front of Christian's house and she gets out. "If anything goes sideways, give us a buzz!" Dean shouts from the car as she walks up the porch, honking his horn. She turns and gives them a mock salute, a wide smile on her face.

They wave before driving off towards their motel, as the Impala disappears into distance, she allows her fake smile to drop. Sighing as she turns to Christians house before walking up the porch and knocking on his door. A couple seconds later, Christians answers with a partial surprised look on his face.

"Y/N. Hey, come on in" He invites her in, the tension already thick in the air. "So, you busy or...?" She asks him. "Uh, the papers doing a tribute to Jimmy. Uh, I was just going through his stuff..." He tells her, sighing as he walks to his desk with his work and she follows behind him. "..his awards. Trying to find the words" He says sadly.

"That's gotta be tough" She says pitifully. "For years, this family owned the paper. The Dorians. They had a whites only staff policy. After the sold it, Jimmy became the first black reporter. He didn't stop until he became editor." Christian explains to Y/N, showing her the work, she gives it back to him and he rests it on his desk.

"He taught me everything" He tells her and she nods. "Where're your friends?" Christian asks her curiously, a bit on edge still by Deans presence. He's not stupid, it's obvious Dean has feelings for Y/N. He's seen the way he looks at her and the way Y/N looks at him. Clearly there's mutual feelings there but with the time he knew Y/N.

He can tell she has feelings for Dean too, though she might not have admitted to herself yet, but it's there. Even though they might not be together anymore, he can't help but feel a bit envious knowing that they way Y/N looks at Dean, couldn't compare to the way she looked at him.

"Not here" She stutters, struggling to come up with a good answer. Christian relaxes a bit and chuckles, "Alright. So what brings you here?" He asks her smiling, his eyes trailing up her body slightly, taking in how sexy she looks with that office attire on.

Her curves hugged in just the right places by that skirt, a bit of cleavage that's peeking through her blouse. "Trying to find a connection between the three victims" She tells him. "By the way, did you talk to your mom about what Todd said about not being a racist?" She asks him and he nods. "I did. She didn't wanna talk about it" He tells her.

"Right" She sighs, disappointed. They both stand across from each other in the hallway. The tension in the air is thick. A thought then comes to her head. "So just then, why'd you ask where my friends where?" She asks him, cocking her eyebrow curiously. "Nothing. Not important" Christian answers quickly, covering it up with a smile.

"Could it just be, without them here, it's just you and me. And not you, me, Sam and Dean. Which would be a lot easier" She points out bitterly. "It's not easier" He says defensively and she rolls her eyes. "Look-" He goes to assure her but she cuts him off. "No. Forget it. It's fine." She snaps.

"We'll keep it strictly business" She says, giving him a curt nod. Going over to his desk and picking up some papers. He scoffs in disbelief. "I forgot you do that" He says ironically. "Do what?" She asks him confused, turning to him. "Oh...whenever we get— what's the word? 'Close' ? Anywhere in the neighborhood of emotional vulnerability, you back off." He shoots back sarcastically.

"Or make some joke. Or find anyways to shut the door on me" He finishes and she chuckles humorlessly. Tossing the papers on the table, getting up in his face, "Oh that's hilarious, see I'm not the one who took that big final door and slammed it behind me" She retorts bitterly and his face drops.

"Wait a minute-" He goes to say but she cuts him off. "And I'm not the one who took the key and buried it!" She growls angrily. "Are we done with this metaphor?" Christian says calmly and she sighs. "Look, all I'm saying is I was totally upfront with you back then and you nailed me with it" She says and he starts.

"The girl I'm with, the woman I'm hoping might be in my future tells me she professionally pops ghost!" Christian retorts and Y/N's heart sinks, the argument growing as their faces get closer and closer to each other. The heat of their bodies merging slowly.

"Those aren't the words I used!"

"And that she has to leave to go find who killed her mom!-".

"I did!"

"All I could think was. If you want out, find, don't tell me this insane story!-"

"It was the truth, Christian! And I noticed it didn't so sound insane the minute you thought I could help!"

Y/N screams in frustration and pain, pulling away as Christian continues his defense.

"Back then, I thought you just wanted to dump me" He says, putting his hand on his forehead and she chuckles ironically. "Woah, now let's not forget who dumped who, okay?" She retorts sassily, a angry smile on her face. Christians eyes snap down to hers, "I thought that was what you wanted!" He argues. "Well, it wasn't!" She argues back and guilt succumbs Christians heart.

"I didn't mean to hurt you" He say apologetically, his voice cracking. "Well, you did!" She retorts pained, clenching her jaw, a habit she picked up from Dean over time. "I'm sorry!" He apologizes sincerely. "Yeah, me too" She snaps back and the two share a heated stare. The tension in the air is thicker than ever. Their eyes glances from each others lips back to each others eyes before they start making out furiously.

(CUT!!!🎬 Warning⚠️: There's smut below here. I was contemplating whether or not to write smut of Y/N and Christian, but I decided to go with it cuz why the hell not lol. Skip if you'd like, it doesn't really add to the plot. Please be kind as it's my first time posting smut I've written and I'm intentionally writing it bad because this ain't Dean so💀. Okay, back to the story. ACTION!!🎬)

The second Y/N kissed Christian. It didn't feel quite right, not how it used to be. They pulled away from passionate angry kiss, staring into each others eyes breathlessly. Her mind flickered to Dean for some odd reason. She pushes him to the back of her head, reminding herself that it will never happen and allowed herself to get lost in the lust and passion with Christian, reattaching her lips back onto his.

They walk back towards the desk, still making out furiously. She pushes off his sweater and pulls off his T-shirt as he unbuttons her blouse, her ass hitting the desk as he slides the skirt down, sitting the ground. She tosses her blouse to the side and Christian attaches his lips to her neck, moaning almost instantly as he nibbles on her all too sensitive spot.

Her hands fumble with the buckle of his jeans and she quickly slides it down, leaving him in his boxers, he presses his clothed erection against her drenched panties and she moans softly. "Chris.." Biting her lips, he unbuckles her bra and buries his face on her exposed chest. "Always so fucking gorgeous" He groans, attacking her erect nipple with his mouth and she rolls her head back in pleasure.

She quickly pulls his boxers down, allowing it to drop to the floor. He steps out of it and Y/N fists his erect cock in her hand. "Bedroom. Now" she orders his and he nods quickly, out of breath. He puts his hands at the back of her thighs and she wraps her legs around him as he hoists her up, walking upstairs to his bedroom. He locks the door behind him with one hand, holding Y/N up with his other.

She jumps down and pushes him onto the bed, fully naked. She slides her panties off, straddling him and reattaching her lips back onto his. She grinds against his hard shaft slowly and teasingly, circling her hips. "Fuck babe. Always a damn tease" Christian groans, holding onto her hips as she smirks down at him.

She lowers herself down onto him, the familiar feeling of him filling her as. They both roll their heads back, moaning as she bounces up and down his torso. "Oh god, Chris!" She moans his name. "That's it, y/n/n. Just like that" He urges her, guiding her hips up and down his shaft. She leans down and kisses his chest before working her way up his neck and back to his lips.

He then flips them over, rolling Y/N onto her back, now taking control. She gasps at the sudden change in position, gripping onto his back. Digging her nails into his flesh as he moves in and out of her. Hitting her special spot. He buries his face in her neck as he quickens his pace, moaning and whisper sweet nothings into his ear like he used to.

Usually it turns her on but right now, Y/N just wanted a release. "Don't stop" She moans as he thrusts into her quickly. He then pulls her up, now sitting as she straddles his hips. She lifts off of him and back on, riding him quickly as she rubs her clit. The familiar feeling of her orgasm climbing up to her.

"Fuck, I'm gonna-" She gasps. "Yeah, me too baby" He groans. Looking deeply into her eyes, "Soooo fucking tight" He moans, loudly. The coil snaps inside of her at the sound of him moaning. "Fuck! I'm cumming!" She screams in ecstasy, pushing Christian over to his own climax. Filling her up with his hot seed, his muscles tighten from the feeling on Y/N's wetness clench around him.

(End Of Smut!!)

Usually times like this, she'd be freaking out but thank god for the pill, right? They both fall back onto the bed, breathlessly. Christian reaches over into his nightstand and grabs a towel below. Taking it and wiping off his remnants from Y/N. She chuckles slightly when he does her. He was always big on aftercare.

"Thanks" She says softly and his gaze moves over to her. "No worries, love" He assures her with a smile and then wipes himself off. Grabbing the blanket that's on the base of the bed and throwing it over the both of them.

He then wraps his arm around Y/N, as she lays her head on his chest. Silently trying to catch her breath still. "We should fight more often" Christian mutters, breaking the silence. Y/N chuckles at this. "Absolutely" She responds in a sultry tone, her minding drifting to Dean again.

She can't shake the guilt she's feeling right now. I mean, she shouldn't feel guilty right? Deans not her boyfriend and he doesn't see her like that. So why is her mind on him, when she's in bed with another man. "Actually, we were always pretty good at fighting. This, we were good at" Christian points out, acknowledging their current position.

"It's all the other stuff...not so much" He adds and she sighs as he runs his hand up and down her arm gently. "Hey, I tried. I told you who I really was. It was a big first for me" She defends and he nods. "Why'd you tell me?" He asks curiously. "I don't know" She chuckles and so does he. "I...I guess I couldn't lie to you" She says softly.

"Y/N...You told me that story. It scared the hell out of me. I thought you were nuts. Dangerous even." He tells her honestly, looking down at her. She looks up at him and she scoffs lightly. "Actually.." He pulls himself up, her with him, now leaning against the bed head. "...maybe I was looking for a reason to walk away" He admits.

"In your work...um...You told me you see some horrible things. Things that can't be explained. You deal with them. But working things out with you?" He says jokingly and she chuckles. "Im a scary one alright" She says humorously and he laughs softly nodding. They both sigh as she lays her head back on his chest.

Christian runs his hand up and down her arm. "Well, usually, things get worked when you really want them to" Christian says and Y/N sighs. "Yeah, but I'm still really involved with my dads work" She tells him honestly and he sighs. "No more excuses okay? From you or me" Christian says and she looks down at his lips before nodding.

"Okay" She says and they share a kiss. The ringing of Y/N's phone interrupts them. She reaches over for it to see Deans contact, before answering it.

________________________________

Ten Minutes Earlier:

Sam and Dean are in their motel room. It's been hours since they dropped off Y/N and she hasn't called or texted. Sam assumed that the former couple probably made up and so did Dean. However Dean is fuming at the thought. Currently pacing the room nervously while Sam sits on his bed, reading a book.

"You can't pace your feelings away" Sam assures his brother, not looking up from his book. Deans gazes snaps over to his brother. "What?" He feigns confusion and Sam rolls his eyes, giving his brother a knowing look. "You know what? I'm sick of this, I'm gonna just say it" Sam groans exasperatedly snaps his book shut, resting it next to him.

"You have feelings for Y/N, Y/N has feelings for you. You two dumbasses are too stubborn to admit it so you hide it from each other. And when one sees the other with someone else, one gets jealous" Sam breaks it down to Dean as if he's talking to a 5 year old. The elder Winchester looks at his younger brother stunned. Unsure what to say.

"Look man, I get it. You're scared to admit it. I saw the way you were when she got electrocuted. You were heartbroken. You comfort her when she needs it. She does the same for you, you two are good for each other. Y/N is not gonna wait around for you, man." Sam advises his brother and he sighs, looking down.

"And you getting jealous every time she's with someone not is healthy, vice versa. So either nut up or shut up, cuz you're gonna regret not telling her." He finishes in a fatherly tone, one hand on his hip, his other finger waving it at Dean slightly. Dean raises his eyebrows at his brothers new found wisdom about relationships. Dean being Dean, refuses to believe that Y/N would see him like that.

"Are we done with this touchy feely crap now?" Dean snaps, clenching his jaw and Sam sighs, rolling his eyes. "Whatever man, be like that. Don't say I didn't warn you" Sam huffs in annoyance, going back to reading his book. Dean looks over at his brother apologetically, hesitantly taking a seat next to him.

"Look man. I care about her. She's one of the most important people in my life. I can't let some stupid crush get in the way of our friendship" Dean admits and Sam looks back up at his brother in disbelief. "You're kidding me right?" Sam scoffs. "Yo knucklehead, she's been-" Sam goes to spill the beans about Y/N being in love with Dean her whole life but Deans phone rings.

"One sec" He puts up his finger and answer it. "Hello?.....Okay sir thank you." Dean says into the phone firmly and Sam looks at him confused. Dean hangs up the phone with a curt nod and informs Sam. "Todd's dead" He tells him. "Holy crap" Sam gasps. Dean quickly dials Y/N's number and a couple seconds later she answers.

Back at Christian's house:

"Yeah?" Y/N answers and Dean tells her Todd was killed. "You're kidding" She gasps and Christian looks at her confused.

________________________________

The next morning, Y/N approaches the crash site that's swarming with police while Sam and Dean are talking to a deputy. They spot her and Sam informs the officer, "She's with us". She walks up to the boys. "Where were you last night?" Dean asks, clenching his jaw. She doesn't answer and Sam gives her a sly grin.

"You didn't make it back to the motel" Sam points out. "Well.." She sighs, looking over at Dean guilty. His eyes drop to the floor to avoid the contact, something he never does. "I'm guessing you guys worked things out" Sam says smugly and she shoots him a swift side eyed glare as she puts his hands up in mock surrender chuckling.

"We'll be working things out when we're 90" She scoffs and Sam laughs while Dean feels like his heart is gonna explode. "So what happened?" She asks them, changing the subject. "Every bone crushed. Internal organs turned to pudding. The cops are all stumped. It's like something ran over him" Dean explains. "Something like a truck?" She asks him.

"Yep" Sam answers. "Tracks?" She asks. "Nope" Dean answers and she sighs."What was the mayor doing here anyway?" She asks the boy. "He owned the property. Bought it a few weeks ago." Sam informs her. "But he's white, doesn't fit the pattern" Dean says and Y/N nods in agreement. "Killings didn't happen up on the road. That doesn't fit either"Sam tells them

________________________________

Y/N, Dean and Christian are back at the office doing research. Christian pours two cups of coffee. Handing Y/N one, "Here" He offers her with a smile and she smiles back, "Thanks" She responds and Christian goes to hand Dean the other one but he shakes his head, showing him  his already fresh made cup of coffee. "I'm good" Dean says, giving him a tight smile. Doing a terrible job at hiding his glare.

Christian just nods, feeling a bit awkward while Y/N is oblivious to the two men glaring at each other. Christian takes a seat next to her and rests his hand on her shoulder, slightly rubbing her arm comfortingly. He could feel Dean's daggers practically go through his hand. If his eyes had actual daggers, Christians hand would need to be amputated stat.

Christian smirks victoriously at Deans discomfort, looking at the computer that Y/N is researching on. She subconsciously shrugs Christians hands off without realizing and reaches to the back of her next to rub out the soreness from their activities last night. Dean snickers lightly and smirks into his cup of coffee. Christian goes to help her but she puts her hand up indicating she's fine and his smile slightly drops.

He nods understandably and sighs while Dean basically giggles into his cup. "So I'm trying to find some link between those killings back in the 60's and what's going on now. There wasn't a lot about it in the paper. You got anything, Dean?" She asks him, sipping her coffee and he shakes his head.

"Nah, not much here" He responds. "Not surprising. Probably minimal police work too. Back then, equal justice under the law wasn't too literal around here" Christian tells her and she sighs. Suddenly her phone rings and she gestures to Dean to come closer to hear, it's Sam.

"Yeah?" Y/N answers, flipping the phone up and putting it on speaker. "Okay. The courthouse records show that Mr. and Mrs. Mayor bought an abandoned property. The previous owner was the Dorian family, for like, 150 years" Sam says into the phone, Y/N's eyebrows quirk at up the mention of the name Dorian.

"Dorian?" She asks. "Yeah" Sam confirms. She then turns to Christian. "Didn't you say the Dorian family used to own this paper?" She asks Christian and he nods in confirmation. "Along with most of everything else around here. Real pillars of the town" He tells her. She gives Dean a nod and he leans forward on the computer and starts searching.

He then pulls up an article labeled, 'Dorian Still Missing'. "That's interesting" Dean mutters. "What?" Sam asks over the speaker phone. "This Cyrus Dorian. He vanished in April of '63. The case was investigated but never solved." " Dean tells him. Y/N notices something and nudges him.

"Look at the date. Thats right around the time the string of murders were going on" She points out and he gives her a look of impress. "Sharp eye princess" He smiles and she tries to hide her blush, "Thanks charming" She smiles back, Christian taking in the exchange between the two "friends".

"Well, I pulled a bunch of paper up on the Dorian place. Must've been in bad shape when the mayor bought it" Sam tells them. "Why's that?" Y/N asks confused. "The first thing he did was bulldoze the place" Sam informs them. "Mayor Todd knocked down the Dorian place?" Y/N asks Christian and he nods.

"It was a big deal. One of the oldest local houses left. He made the front page" He informs her. "You got a date?" Dean asks Sam. "Uh....the 3rd of last month" Sam tells them and Y/N looks up the article of the mayor bulldozing the house. "Mayor Todd bulldozed see the Dorian family home on the 3rd. The first killing was the very next day" She tells them boys.

Y/N and Dean share a knowing look at this.

________________________________

Later at their motel, Dean and Y/N are doing more research on the Dorian family while Sam is out getting dinner. Y/N could feel Deans pensive stare on her and finally breaks the ice. "What's wrong, Dean?" She breathes out. "What? Nothing" Dean catches himself and lies causally. She doesn't bite the bait but instead presses.

"You've been giving me that judgmental look all day" She urges, twirling her pen in her hand and he sighs. "Do you still love him?" He asks bluntly. Y/N is taken back by this. Expecting a lecture or an 'I told you so'. But not this. She stutters on her words and his heart drops a bit. "I- No" She answers confidently.

"Not that it would matter. But no. Do I care about him? Absolutely. But the love I had for him slowly died the day he tossed me aside." She assured him and Dean is relieved by her answer. "I mean, I can't really blame him. I would've thought I was nuts" She adds, chuckling a bit but Dean doesn't find it funny. "Come on charminggg" She teases him, taking her fingers and turning his frown upside down.

He snickers, lightly swatting her hand away. "You're lucky you're cute" He mutters to himself but she doesn't catch onto it. "What was that?" She asks innocently, tucking a lock of her hair behind her ear. "Nothing" He shakes his head, smiling. Her stomach starts to grumble a bit and as if on cue, so does Dean. "Damn, where's Sammy with the grub?" Dean groans and Y/N huffs.

"I swear, I'm taking the next food run" She groans in agreement. Y/N's phone then rings and without looking at the contact she answers. "L/N" She says into the speaker. "Y/N! Y/N!" Christian screams out of fear for Y/N, her instincts kick in and she looks over at Dean.

________________________________

Not too long after Christian called, Sam came back and they all immediately headed for Christians house to be informed that the big black truck was outside Christians house revving it's engine. Now all in the living room with Christian and his mom. Y/N hands him a cup of tea and he nervously takes it.

"Maybe you could throw a couple shots in that" He jokes lightly, giving her a weak smile but Y/N knows he isn't joking as she takes a seat next to him. "You didn't see who was driving the truck?" Dean asks them. "It seemed to be no one" Christian tells him and he sighs, looking over at Y/N as he sips his tea.

"Everything was moving so far. And then it was just gone. Why didn't it kill us?" He asks them. "It seems like. Whatever is controlling the truck, wants you afraid first" Y/N tells him apologetically. "Mrs. Robinson. Christian said that your husband saw the truck before he died" Sam says to Mrs. Robinson softly and she has a look of horror and recognition in her eyes.

"Mom?" Christian calls out for his mother. "Mhm. Oh, Martin was under a lot of stress. You can't be sure about what he was seeing" Mrs. Robinson tries to quickly cover it up. "Well, after tonight, we can be reasonably sure that he was seeing a truck" Y/N presses. "Mrs. Robinson. What happened tonight, you and Christian are marked. Okay? Your son could die. So if you know something now would be a really good time to tell us about it" Y/N pleads with her gently.

"Yes. Yes, he said he saw a truck" Mrs. Robinson shakily admits it. "Did he know who it belonged to?" Sam asks. "He thought he did" She says. "Who was that?" Dean asks. Mrs. Robinson took a deep breath before saying, "Cyrus. A man named Cyrus" She tells them, the three share shocked looks.

Y/N then pulls out a paper of the printing of the article and held it up to her. "Is this Cyrus?" She asks her. She nods but doesn't look at the picture. "Cyrus Dorian died more than 40 years ago" She tells them and Y/N looks up at her. "How do you know he died Mrs. Robinson?" Y/N asks and she looks up guilty. "The paper said he went missing" She adds and the boys catch on.

"How do you know he died?" Dean presses. "We were all very young. I dated Cyrus for a while. I was also seeing Martin. In secret, of course...because interracial couples didn't go over too well then" She begins to explain and Christians face drops. "When I broke it off with Cyrus and he found out about Martin....I don't know, he changed. His hatred...His hatred was frightening" She adds fearfully.

"The string of murders" Sam says. "They were rumors. People of color disappearing into some kind of a truck. Nothing was ever done" She says tearfully taking a deep breath. "Martin and....Martin and I, we were gonna be married in that little church near here. But uh, last minutes we decided to elope because we didn't want the attention" Mrs. Robinson tells them, Christian battling the tears that are threatening to fall from his eyes.

"And Cyrus?" Y/N asks. Mrs. Robinson tears up, holding her hand to her chest, "The day we set for the wedding was...the day someone set fire to the church..." She explains sobbing, "There was a children's choir practicing in there. They all died" She finishes, sobbing as Y/N's heart drops at the thought.

Christian wraps his arms around his mother protectively. "Did the attacks stop after that?" Sam asks gently. "No. There was one more." She sobs, "One night, that truck came for Martin. Cyrus beat him something terrible. But Martin, you see, Martin got loose. And he started hitting Cyrus and he just kept hitting him and hitting him and..." She bawls into her sons arms.

"Why didn't he call the cops?" Dean asks and she laughs humorlessly. "This was 40 years ago" She says and he nods understandably. "He called on his friends. Clayton Soames and Jimmy Anderson. And they out Cyrus body into the truck and rolled it into the swamp at the edge of his land and all three of them kept that secret all these years" She explains tearfully as Christian comforts her.

"And now all three are gone" Sam says. "So is Mayor Todd" Dean adds. "Now he said that you of all people would know he's not a racist. Why would he say that?" Y/N asks gently. "He was a good man. He was a young deputy back then investigating Cyrus disappearance. Once he figured out what Martin and the others had done....he....he did nothing. Because he also knew what Cyrus had done" She tells them.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Christian finally breaks his silence, tearfully. "I thought I was protecting them. And now there's no one left to protect" Mrs. Robinson sobs. "Yes there is" Y/N says. Causing Christian to look over at her and Mrs. Robinson to hug her son tighter.

________________________________

"Ah, my life was so simple. Just school, exams, papers on poly centric cultural norms" Sam chuckles dryly as the trio lean against the Impala outside of Christians house. "So I guess we saved you from a boring existence" Dean jokes as they laugh. "Yeah. Occasionally, I miss boring" Sam admits.

"So, this killer truck-" Y/N goes to start but Sam cuts her off laughing. "I miss conversations that didn't start with 'This killer truck'" Sam chuckles as Dean and Y/N nod laughing in agreement. "Alright, well this Cyrus guy" Y/N retorts jokingly. "Yeah" Dean responds. "Evil on a level that it infected even his truck" She begins.

"And when he died, the swamp became his tomb and his spirit was dormant for 40 years" She finishes. "So what woke it up?" Sam asks. "The construction on his house...or the destruction" Dean points out. "Right" Y/N agrees. "Demolition or remodeling can awaken spirits, make them restless" Sam says.

"Mhm" Dean responds. "Like that theater in Illinois?" Y/N asks. "Yup" Dean responds nodding. "The guy who tears down the family homestead, Harold Todd, is the same guy that kept Cyrus' murder quiet and unsolved" Dean says. "So now is spirit is awakened and out for blood" Y/N says.

"I guess. Who knows what ghosts are thinking anyway?" Dean scoffs. "You guys know we're gonna have to dredge that body up from the swamp" Sam informs them and they look over at him with sly grins. "Man, you said it" Y/N chuckles as they laugh. "Yeah" Sam laughs and from the corner of Y/N's eye, she sees Christian walking towards the car.

"Hey" She greets him. "Hey. She's asleep" Christian informs them. "Now what?" He asks. "Well, you stay out and look after her. And we'll be back. Don't leave the house" Y/N instructs Christian and he smirks at her. "Don't go getting all authoritative on me. You know it turns me on" He teases her and she begins to blush lightly.

Sam behind them is snickering while Dean is clenching his jaw. She turns and shoots Sam a quick glare, who still still snickering, "Don't leave the house, please?" She pouts cutely and Christian chuckles. "You're killing me woman" He jokes and leans in to kiss her. She hesitantly returns the kiss, Dean glares daggers at Christian who is staring right back at him with a triumphant look in his eyes.

Dean clears his throat loudly while Sam smirks at the two and Y/N puts her hand up behind her, indicating 'One second'. Although the kiss didn't feel like it did before, she allowed it to consume her. When they let go of the kiss, Y/N takes a deep breath. "You fellas coming or what?" She says smugly as they let go.

Walking over to the Impala and jumping in.

________________________________

Later they're at the swamp, "Alright, let's get her up" Sam says as Dean hauls the black truck out of the swamp with a tractor. "Little more. Little more!" Y/N urges him to move forward a bit more. "Alright, stop!" Sam stops him as the truck reaches the edge and he puts the tractor in park.

Dean jumps down from the tractor, "Nice" Y/N compliments his driving skills. "Hell yeah" Dean retorts back cockily. "Now I get what he sees in you" Sam smirks. "What?" Y/N asks confused. "Come on, girl. Admit it. Even if you don't love him, he still loves you" He teases and Deans heart clenches.

"Aw, could we focus, please?" Y/N scoffs annoyed, opening Baby's truck. "I'm just saying, Y/N" Sam chuckles. "Yeah, well less saying more doing" Y/N snaps rolling her eyes as Sam chuckles. "Hold that" Dean hands Sam a flashlight. "Alright, what am I getting?" He asks, changing the subject. "Gas, flashlight" Y/N tells him.

"Got it, got it" Sam tells them and they walk to the truck with the supplies. "Alright, let's get this done" She says and they begin slowly approaching it, flashing the lights over the mucky rotting truck. Y/N share a look with the boys before quickly opening the drivers door to reveal the decaying corpse of Cyrus Dorian. They all groan in disgust.

"Alright, let's get to it" Dean says and they take the body out of the truck and begin drenching it in gas and salt. Lighting it aflame. "Think that'll do it?" Sam asks when suddenly in the distance infront of them, is a apparition of the big black truck, flashing its lights at them and revving its engine.

"I guess not" Y/N mutters ironically as they all stare at the vehicle in shock. "So burning the body had no affect on that thing?" Sam asks in confusion. "Sure it did, now it's really pissed" Dean shoots back. "But Cyrus' ghost is gone, right Dean?" Y/N asks. "Apparently not the part thats fused with the truck" Dean says and begins walking to his car.

"Where are you going?!" Y/N asks him confused and concerned. "I'm going for a little ride. Lead that thing away" He tells them. "What?!" Sam and Y/N exclaim in disbelief. "That rusted piece of crap. You guys gotta burn it!" He tells them as he jumps in baby. "How the hell are we supposed to burn a truck, Dean?!" Y/N yells.

"I don't know! Figure something out!" He yells back, tossing his duffel to them and driving away in baby, the truck following behind him. "What the hell are we supposed to do?!" Y/N whisper yells and Sam gets an idea. "You got the case report and a map?" Sam asks her and she nods quickly, pulling it out of her jacket. "What're you doing?" She asks.

"The church he burnt down, it's hallow ground" He tells her and she catches on. They lay it across the ground and use their flashlight to look for whatever Sam is looking for in it. Meanwhile the truck is chasing Dean down an empty stretch. Y/N's phone rings and she quickly answers, "Hey, you gotta give us a minute. We're onto something" Y/N tells Dean quickly.

"I don't have a minute! Whatre we doing?!" He bellows through the phone urgently and Y/N puts it on speaker. "Uh, let us get back to you" Y/N hangs up and calls Christian. "Hey, Christian. Okay, I need some information and it has to be exactly right" She says into the phone and he obliges.

After the quick phone call for the church's location, Y/N calls Dean back. "Alright, Dean" She says quickly. "This better be good!" Dean shouts, the truck on his tail. "Where are you?" Sam asks. "In the middle of nowhere! With a killer truck on my ass. I mean it's like it knows I put the torch to Cyrus!" Dean retorts panicked.

"Dean, sweetie. Listen, it's important. We have to know exactly where you are" She tells him. "Decatur Road, about two miles off the highway!" He informs them, she can hear the truck in the background. "Okay, headed east?" Sam asks. "Yes!" Dean yells and suddenly the truck rams into his bumper, causing him to skid a bit.

"Son of a bitch" He grumbles. "Okay, uh.....turn right. Up ahead! Turn right!" Y/N tells him and Sam nods in confirmation. "You make the turn?" Sam asks. "Yeah I made the turn!" Dean yells. "You're gonna need to move this thing a little faster!" Dean urges them to hurry, the truck high on his tail.

"You see a road up ahead?" Y/N asks. "No!....wait! Yes! I see it!" Dean tells them. "Okay, turn left!" Sam instructs him. "What?!" He yells in confusion but listens, making the turn. The truck goes in the other direction. "Alright, now what?" He asks. "You need to go exactly seven tenths of a mile and stop" Sam orders him.

"Stop?!" Dean asks confused. "Exactly seven tenths, Dean" Y/N instills. "Seven tenths, seven tenths" Dean mutters to himself, tracking the distance with the speedometer. When he reaches seventh tenths of a mile, he swerves the car. Stopping in an empty lot. Now seeing the truck come into view. "Dean, you still there?" Sam asks.

"Yeah" Dean responds. "What's happening?" Y/N asks concerned. "It's just staring at me" Dean tells them. "What do I do?" He asks as the truck just stays there. "Just what's you are doing. Bringing it to you" Sam tells him. "Yeah" Dean says unsure when suddenly the truck revs again, driving straight towards Dean.

"Come on, come on" Dean stays, standing his ground as the truck comes crashing into the lot, disapparating into a white smoke around the Impala, he covers himself in fear only to see it's gone. He then takes a deep breath and puts the phone back to his ear. Sam and Y/N still on the other end. "Dean? You still there?" Y/N asks worried.

"Dean?" Sam calls out to his brother. "Where did it go?" Dean asks them confused and they breath out relieved. "Dean, you're where the church was" Sam informs him. "What church?" Dean is confused. "The place Cyrus burned down. Murdered those kids" Y/N tells him. "There's not a lot left" Dean says looking around.

"Church ground is hallowed ground, whether the church is still there or not" Y/N tells him. "Evil spirits cross over hallowed ground, sometimes they're destroyed. So, we figured maybe that would get rid of it" Sam further explains. "Maybe? Maybe?!" Dean yells frustrated. "What if you were wrong?!" He yells.

"Huh" Y/N now realizes they didn't really consider that. "Honestly, that thought hadn't occurred to us" Sam says ironically and Dean hangs up.  "Well, it honestly that thought hadn't occur to me" Dean mocks his brothers statement, hitting his steering wheel in anger.

"I'm gonna kill 'em" His voice cracks.

________________________________

The next day, the boys are in the Impala waiting for Y/N as Christian walks her to the car. "My mother says to tell you thanks again" Christian tells her gratefully. "This is a better goodbye than last time" He tells her and she smiles sadly, the boys out of earshot.

"Yeah, well, maybe this time it'll be less permanent" Y/N half promises but Christian chuckles, giving her a knowing look. "You know what? I'm a realist. I don't see much hope for us, Y/N" He tells her honestly and she sighs, nodding understandingly. "Well, I've seen stranger things happen" She jokes and he smiles.

"Besides, I think someone else has got their eye on you" Christian smirks, nodding over to Dean who's shooting daggers at him lightly. Y/N realizes what Christian is getting at and scoffs. "Please, Dean? He's family" Y/N tries to lie but Christian sees through it. "I've seen the way you look at each other, Y/N. Gotta admit, I'm a little jealous myself because you never looked at me like that" He teases her and she looks down guiltily.

"Goodbye, Christian" She says sadly, giving him a hug. "I'll see you, Y/N. I will" He returns the hug, laying a kiss on her forehead. They share one last goodbye kiss before breaking the hug and Y/N walks over to baby, jumping in. Sniffling back a bit of tears, "Y/N.." Dean goes to comfort her when he notices it. "I'm fine, just drive" She assures him with a small smile as Sam looks at her, his heart grieving.

She knows that it wasn't meant to be either way, this is the way it's meant to be. Maybe now after finally resolving her feelings for Christian, maybe she'll finally come to terms with her feelings for Dean?

Only time will tell, I guess.

________________________________

[descendant-of-truth]

Well guys I did say in one of my tags that the Prime!Shadow analysis would be for another time and that time is now because I'm mentally shaking him around like a ragdoll trying to figure out his secrets

What I want to highlight is just, the sheer number of ways he's been set up as the odd one out in the first third of the season alone, and why I find that so interesting. So let's break that down for a minute:

The first thing we learn about him is that he's not Sonic's friend or enemy, but a secret third thing - his rival, as specified later

But despite having a clear label for it in episode 2, Sonic finds this particular dynamic "complicated." Shadow is the only person in his life that falls under that category, and it shows in how he describes him.

"He's a real buzzkill" (negative), "and he rollerskates!" (said with admiration). Sonic complains about Shadow and compliments him in the same breath, which is hilarious but also good for character building

In that same scene though, Shadow momentarily breaks into Sonic's narration to tell him that they're air shoes, not roller skates, which is ALSO funny but once again, he's the only character to do this. Even if it's for the sake of humor, Shadow is given a sort of... protagonist privilege, if you will. He's the only one to break the "Sonic POV," something he does not just this once, but multiple times over the course of a few episodes.

Now, there are other scenes that are from the perspectives of characters that aren't Sonic, but what makes Shadow's scenes different from theirs is that his are used specifically to show that Sonic can be an unreliable narrator.

The very first scene in the show after Sonic happily describes his status quo is the event with the Paradox Prism. A moment that Shadow was 100% there for, albeit towards the end, but who is conveniently left out until we return to the scene in later episodes.

And the framing is just. so deliberate on a rewatch that it hurts, because this is one of the very first shots we see of the show:

...and it takes place directly after Sonic knocks Shadow into a wall and runs away.

Literally the INSTANT Sonic takes his eyes off of Shadow is when the show's story begins, and it starts with Sonic narrating and completely glossing over Shadow's existence

(Is anyone else going insane over this. is it just me. does the implied mental gymnastics happening here make anyone else feel like they're vibrating)

Anyway as I was saying, removing Shadow from the scene with the Prism (even cutting out his voice when he shouts "Chaos Control") keeps us in Sonic's perspective just enough to share in his confusion when he starts to remember the incident more clearly.

(It also implies that he didn't consider Shadow to be important enough to take note of in the first moment we watch the scene, which. oof, sorry Shadow)

He's also missing in the scene where Sonic is first traveling through the void, despite showing up like two seconds after him - another instance where we're kept in Sonic's perspective just enough to miss the bigger picture that has Shadow in it.

Meanwhile, scenes from Shadow's point of view give us all sorts of information; the fact that Chaos Emeralds exist, more detailed effects of Sonic's speed-amplified explosion (it gave him a vision of some sort, which I'm convinced is implying something important about it beyond "it blew up part of a mountain"), how exactly he ended up in the void, why Sonic was late to the fight with Eggman, all that good stuff

It's a pretty consistent theme with Shadow, actually. He's always there to represent the bigger picture that Sonic isn't seeing.

...partly because Sonic keeps forgetting about him, in contrast to Shadow being the only other person to remember who Sonic is.

(I didn't know where else to fit this point in, but Shadow's lost in the void while Sonic is bouncing back and forth between worlds like it's a professional sport. Narrative foils and all that, we love to see it)

But there's another way that Shadow is made distinct from everyone else Sonic knows from the original world, that I think is going to have a big effect on his character development: Shadow doesn't care about sparing Sonic's feelings.

A lot of the conflict between Sonic and his friends is based on the fact that Sonic doesn't listen well, but another thing to consider is that his friends don't really... tell him when he's made a mistake, or what their point of view was, or what exactly he was doing wrong.

Tails? He could have explained that telling Sonic there was a trap was supposed to be a cue not to attack Eggman, and that he thought Sonic knew that, and so him attacking anyway felt like blatantly disregarding his warnings.

Instead, he brushes it off with an "it's fine."

Amy tries to explain that the palm tree gift has a lot of sentimental value to everyone, and yeah that whole situation went poorly, but it doesn't seem like she ever communicated to Sonic that him disregarding it hurt their feelings.

If he was just told that he messed up and explained how he did, you know he would have tried to make it up to them, like how earnestly he apologized to Tails. He could have been working on these problems a lot sooner, but because the others want to preserve their friendship with him and don't like getting into arguments, they don't communicate with him.

Shadow has no such hangups about their relationship. He tells Sonic exactly what his problem is.

...even if Sonic doesn't seem to hear him, and Shadow should really work on the whole "punching to get his attention" thing.

There's a lot of room for improvement here, but my point is that Sonic needs someone to be this upfront and honest with him. Straightforward communication is clearly what he understands the most - Thorn simply asking him (albeit rudely) what he knew about togetherness was all it took for him to really start thinking about that, though admittedly the circumstances around the question probably helped.

And because Shadow has been set up as the only person who still knows and remembers Sonic, the one who has a wider perspective on things than he does, and cares enough about him as a person to try to get through to him in the first place without being held back by a need to maintain a friendly stance with him... he's the perfect person to help accelerate Sonic's character arc.

And, y'know, hopefully Sonic can do the same for him - though it's hard to say what exactly Shadow needs help with (beyond Not Punching People) that Sonic could contribute to, given his little screen time so far.

Case in point: this show is setting up Shadow to be Important in a way that only Shadow can be and I for one am hyped to see it all play out

[empresskadia]

I think the most powerful gifts you can give a Spartan is one that reminds them of you for when you're aren't there. Sometimes they're off doing missions, and you're separated, and they really miss you. Having that little reminder always makes it better.

Like, say, for Naomi, her partner has an Ace of Spades playing card on the pauldron of their armor like their uncle did back when the Human-Covenant War began. Luck was important to him, so it was important to you. Naomi was just as important to you, so when you couldn't always be together on the same ship, you gave her two things: A copy of the card on your shoulder and a magic eight ball to keep in her room. You may or may not have replaced the die inside with things you would say, so it was like you were there in spirit when you couldn't be there in person.

Not when you're getting scouted for some big secret project led by a guy whose name you forget but a number that reminded you of hers.

096?

First, I got chills reading this! Second, I gasped so loudly my dog came to check on me to make sure I was okay. Third, I was like ‘fuckin Musa! Naomi’s gonna murder you.’ Like I didn’t know how the Spartan IV program started. I lowkey went feral for this ask, you’re spoiling me and I adore it.

I love this so very much and this is canon in my head now. How cute is this!!! Spartans don’t have personal things but the item their partner gives them becomes their prized possession and they would break bones if someone tries to take it.

Like for Linda, she has pressed flowers that you gave her and kept on her dog tags at all times, when she’s thinking about her partner or missing you, she grasps the chain and feels a little closer to you. Or a small charm on Nornfang that you made for her that Linda never takes off. Whenever she takes down targets and sees the charm, she thinks to herself that she can’t wait to hear about the mission you’ve been sent on or just to see you in general.

There is a ring that your grandmother passed down that you always wear on your pointer finger and end up giving to Kelly because it fits on her pinkie/places it on her chain because you wouldn’t see her for a few months. When Kelly’s thinking about her partner/missing you, she subconsciously spins the ring, and later, ends up seeing her name/spartan tag engraved inside the band. Or give her one of your earrings that your father gave you, so she had half of something that was super important to you and feels very protective of the jewelry because she knows you adored your father.

For John, it’s the exchanged dog tags, one is his and the other is yours. Sometimes he takes it off and runs his finger across your name and service number, he doesn’t realize that his expression softens just a bit but Cortana and Blue team know he’s thinking about you.

Everyone on Blue team knows that Fred has a favorite combat knife that you gave him and if something happens to it, he is going to kill someone, and no, it’s not an exaggeration. Kelly witnessed him panic about losing it once and horde of brutes didn’t even have a chance to blink before they were dead. There are personalized words written on the inside of the knife from you and it will be over his dead body before someone tries to take it or use it.

But also! Luck is important to Naomi because it reminds her of John too and we see how worried she is for Chief in the books, this is very important to her! So you give her the card and tell her about it, she’s putting that on her armor in the same spot that you have it in. It makes her feel closer to her partner and her eyes soften anytime she glimpses it from the corner of her vision. Especially once she gets recruited for Kilo-Five and you get sent on a secret ‘mission’ that she can’t know about. Naomi knows there is something you’re not telling her but she won’t push because it’s classified, which kind of worries her.

When Serin tells her about the whole Halsey thing or finds out about her dad, she shakes the eight ball wishing you were there to talk with but quietly laughs to herself when she reads the message because it’s 100% something you would say. Naomi constantly starts asking BB if there were any messages sent to her, getting antsy when he tells her no every time to the point BB shares this with the captain.

Eventually, Naomi asks Serin if she could find any information about you, giving her your full name, service name, rank, and all the important things to find your file. If anyone could get into classified mission files, it would be BB and Serin.

It's BB saying, "Oh that's rather somber to find out." that has Naomi wanting to panic. Did something happen? Was her partner hurt? Were you hospitalized? Did you get killed? She knew she should've upgraded your armor with those last bits of data, what was she thinking?! Naomi's thoughts are spirling but nothing prepared her for what your file read,

'SPARTAN-IV Lieutenant - pending transfer to REDACTED'

'Augmentation Procedure - Successful'

'AI Partner - Pending Compatibility with REDACTED'

'Stationed - UNSC REDACTED'

'Notes - Expand'

"What does it mean by Spartan-IV?" Naomi had to ask, she had to know because all she recalled was her own augmentation, the pain, the recovery, the loss of her sisters and brothers in arms, something that she might've just lost her partner to.

[dr-spencer-reids-queen]

The Angel Marker: Part Three

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~2.3k

Summary: You still feel guilty for what happened to you and Hotch even though you shouldn't. If you had seen that bomb before getting blasted back, then maybe you wouldn't have so many problems with your "abilities".

Warnings: canon violence, canon language, canon talk of death, methods of kill

Author’s Note: I do not own anything from Criminal Minds. All credit goes to their respective owners. If there are any warnings that exceed the normal death/kills from the show, I will list them. If you’ve seen the show, then it’s the same level of angst unless otherwise stated

x

You and Rossi are going to talk to a woman named Shara, but the entire car ride is silent. Rossi is driving but you can feel his eyes on you the entire ride there.

"Did you lose something over here, Rossi?" you ask without looking up.

"What's going on?"

"Nothing."

You get out of the car and put on your sunglasses to counteract the brightness of the sun.

"How are you doing?"

"Why does everyone keep asking me that? My head hurts, I had stitches, but they're out now. It'll get better."

"That's not why they're asking. What happened to you wasn't your fault."

"It kind of is. I connect with energies and see things that aren't there. I went with Kate and Hotch because I felt like I needed to protect them. My abilities told me to go with them, but Kate still died and Hotch and I still got hurt. Now, I wasn't able to see that our unsub is a woman. Normally, I would have seconds after arriving."

"Knowing our unsub is a woman earlier might not have changed anything. We're still in the dark about who she is, and we have no leads. You're doing everything you can."

It's like you're not listening to what he's saying. You shake your head and walk towards Shara's work building. Rossi called her before you two left, and she is expecting you two.

"Shara Carlino visited Ryan over seventy times. She waits an average of three hours for a ten-minute visit and a mandatory strip search," you move on.

"Would you endure that for a guy?"

"For Spencer, always," you say truthfully. "Shara was a marketing VP in Cincinnati until '99, then she moved here and took an outside sales job. It was a serious pay cut from what she was making before."

"I'm guessing she came for the view."

You and Rossi walk into the building and head to her office on the third floor. She greets you with firm handshakes, and you two take a seat at her desk. You remove the logs from the prison that show how much she was visiting Cortland when he was in prison.

"According to these logs, you were the Angel Maker's number-one fan."

"His name is Cortland, and I wasn't a fan."

"How would you characterize your relationship?"

"We were lovers."

"Last time I checked, they didn't allow conjugal visits on death row," Rossi comments.

"It wasn't about physical interaction. When you take away the flesh, there's only the soul. Everything was understood. There were no secrets. Cortland made me feel alive, in a way no free man ever could."

"Where were you on the 16th of this month?" you ask.

"Why?

"We believe this copycat killing was committed by a female fan, someone who knew Cortland very well."

"I was out of town with the company. Ask anyone here," she shrugs.

"Do you know of another woman who--"

"There were no others," she cuts you off.

She's very adamant that she and Cortland were exclusive, but you know that's not true.

"Ma'am, I can show you prison logs, copies of fan letters, and items that women have sent Cortland dozens of times."

"They didn't mean anything to him."

"Whatever connection you had with Cortland was severed when he died, not the copycats. Every time she kills, it reinforces their love. That is unless you help us stop her."

The gears turn in Shara's head, but she ultimately gives in.

"He sent me a letter a few months before he was--" She can't say the words, so she quickly moves on. "I knew it wasn't meant for me, because it was addressed to 'My Dove'. He never called me that."

"Do you still have it?"

"No, I burned it."

"Did the text reveal anything about the woman?" you sigh in frustration.

"The text was a joke. Usually, his prose was seamless and beautiful, but this was pedestrian and crude."

"You never asked him who this dove was? I thought there were no secrets between you," you shrug.

"You've never been in love, have you?"

"I have and currently am, but thank you for your time."

You're not going to get anything useful out of this woman, and Rossi knows it. You two leave her office with more women to talk to. They were all a bust, and the rest of your team didn't have much luck either. Whoever this unsub is, she's not on your list.

By the time you got done talking to every woman on your list, it was nightfall. You picked things back up in the morning, but as soon as you walked into the police station, there was news of another woman dead.

Her name is Maxine Chandler, and you find it weird that this is the only female victim from this copycat. You, the sheriff, Hotch, Emily, and Derek head over to her house where Maxine is still inside her home. The crime scene is fresh, so it must have been discovered not that long ago.

"What can you tell me about Maxine?" you ask one of the officers who is already there.

"Her neighbors say she's lived here her whole life, all twenty-eight years of it, anyway."

"How many kids does she have?" Hotch asks.

Inside her house is filled with children's toys, so one can only assume.

"None of her own. She runs a daycare. The guy that called 911 came here to drop off his toddler and found Maxine in her bedroom. Coroner's in there with her now."

"Did you check all entry points?" you ask, shoving your sunglasses further up your nose.

"Yeah. There was no damage and no tool marks, so the same as the first."

"Now that we have two victims, we have data we can compare. We should see what victimology can tell us."

"I'll get JJ to bring us the files on the first victim," Derek says and takes out his phone.

The coroner comes out of the bedroom and heads over to your team when he spots Hotch.

"What did you find?"

"Well, I put the time of death around two in the morning. The victim was struck multiple times with a blunt object, and there are signs of penetration with fluids."

"Does she have the same post-mortem mutilation?"

"Yes, it's the same but different."

You frown and head inside the room where Maxine is lying on her bed for everyone to see. Her abdomen is on display, so it's easy to spot the marks made by the unsub. You put on some gloves and move her clothing out of the way so you can see the pattern clearly.

"There it is again," you mutter.

"What is it?" Hotch asks.

"This looks like the Carina Constellation. Did you find paper in the wounds?" you ask the coroner.

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"Our unsub needs to use a template. These marks mean something. The Angel Maker didn't need to use a template because he knew exactly where to put the markings. That's why there is paper found in the wounds."

"We need to go back and re-examine each of the patterns. Where's Reid?" Hotch asks.

"He's at the station going over the notes."

Spencer is reevaluating the notes that were addressed to "Dove". One of the letters is as follows: "Weather is good here. Out in the garden all day. Bids land on the fence. The moon is full now." It doesn't make sense because Cortland only got an hour a day in a concrete yard. There was no garden or birds. It sounds like a death row haiku and a bad one at that.

Spencer thinks Cortland did that on purpose. Cortland tries very hard to put each word and letter in the right word. It's a code. The steganographic method would allow him to write letters that don't appear enciphered. The real message would be hiding in plain sight.

Spencer can do it. He's very smart and the team doesn't realize just how amazing that is. They all tease him about his intelligence, and you kind of hate it even though you know they don't mean anything bad by it.

You gather with everyone in the living room to discuss the next steps.

"Small towns suck for victimology. There's too much overlap," Emily sighs. "I've got both women at the same church, same doctor, and same grocery store."

"She's mimicking the Angel Maker. Maybe we should look at his victims," JJ suggests.

"Yeah, but there's a disconnect. The Angel Maker chose women because they excited him sexually. The copycat's satisfaction isn't sexual. It's about perfectly re-creating the murders," Hotch says. "

"So, what she looks for in a victim is someone who's easy to kill," you explain, "which, for her, means easy access to their homes. What did Delilah do for work?"

"She made jewelry and sold it out of her home," JJ answers.

"So, they both had home-based businesses. A stranger could walk in off the street and be a prospective customer. The unsub poses as a client, uses the bathroom, and cracks the window so she can get back in later."

"Let's check their business records and see who came by on the day of the murders."

Everyone shuffled through the case file for that kind of cross-reference, but nothing pops up. You're getting really frustrated, so without another word, you get up and leave the house. The neighborhood is quiet, so the front porch seems like the perfect place to go.

Moments later, someone walks out to check up on you. You know exactly who it is based on the energy you feel.

"I'm sorry, Hotch," you sigh and sit on the porch steps.

"For what?" he asks, taking a seat next to you.

"If I had just seen the bomb earlier, then maybe Kate might still be alive and both of us wouldn't be hurt."

"I never blamed you, Y/N. You shouldn't either. What matters now is getting better. Kate would have wanted that."

"I hear you, and I'm trying, but when you have the ability to help prevent something, then it's on you to do something about it before the bad thing happens. But you don't, so you don't understand," you sigh.

"I know. I don't fully understand, but the best thing any of us can do is try, and you tried. That's all I can ever ask of you. You can't predict everything."

You look up at the night sky in thought, but you pause when you notice something about the stars in the sky.

"I knew it," you mutter and get off the step.

"What is it?"

"Both Cortland and our unsub were puncturing constellations in their victims. That's the pattern I keep seeing." Both you and Hotch head back inside the house. "The puncture wounds on the victims represent constellations."

You go through the files of every victim and prove this by using pictures from the internet of each constellation.

"Constellations? Don't tell me this guy was following the zodiac," Rossi states.

"No, these are from a family of constellations known as the Heavenly Waters. It's probably why the windows are open after each kill so their souls can be released into the sky." You take out the files from the Angel Maker's victims to show each and every constellation. "Delphinus is the dolphin and Equuleus is the little horse. There are nine constellations in the Heavenly Waters. The Angel Maker killed six. Our unsub continued where he left off. First, she did Vela and last night she did Carina. The only one left is Columba, the Dove."

"One more kill and she completes his set," Rossi says. "She knew the meaning of the stomach wounds. That's something even we didn't know."

"She must have been a lot closer to Ryan than we thought."

"They weren't just close. They were in love," Spencer says with copies of the notes in his hands.

"How did you crack it?"

"I profiled the author. Cortland Ryan was on death row with several high-ranking members of the Aryan Brotherhood. He either got the code from them or he read a lot of 16th-century literature. The Aryans liked to use a cipher based on a four-hundred-year-old code written by Sir Francis Bacon."

"So, it's a binary code?" you ask.

"Yeah. Bacon used a twenty-one-letter alphabet. This one's twenty-four. Each letter is assigned a bit string of five binary digits. This combination yields thirty-two possible encodings. Normally, you'd use a computer to run all these combinations, but it was quicker just to do it longhand until I found the right one."

Emily reaches out with a shocked expression and pokes Spencer on the cheek.

"He's so lifelike," she jokes.

Spencer rolls his eyes and moves on, but for a split second, you can feel his annoyance towards her.

"Emily," you say in a stern tone, but Spencer has moved on so she doesn't have time to respond.

"Now, we don't have a complete record of their correspondence, but I was able to make a chronology. The woman he calls 'Dove' established contact shortly after the trial."

You take the letter the unsub wrote back to him, and you read it out loud.

"My dearest Cortland, thank you for writing back to me. The day the verdict was read, we shared a silent moment. I knew then there was a force willing us together. Every time I see you, I feel warmed as if by the sun, and yet, I fear if I come too close, I'll be consumed by your fire. Already, you've entered my dreams. Each time you appear to me, I'm embraced by a feeling of trust and belief, as if I've known you all my life. As always, I am touched by your words, but I long to see you again. Days pass quietly, one into the next... If only they would let us marry... I could finally hold your hand... But I can't leave this world before seeing your face one last time. I will bring a part of you back into the world, and forever you will watch over us from the stars."

"What do you think she meant by that last line: I will bring a part of you back?" JJ asks.

"Maybe the murders? She brought him back to life."

"What if she was talking about his child?"

"Well, she did say, 'Watch over us from the stars'. She used the semen samples to plant evidence and to get pregnant. If she actually had his kid, we might be able to track her through birth records."

"Agent Hotchner?" the sheriff asks, coming into the living room. "We just got a report of a woman attacked in her house by a female assailant."

"Is she okay?" JJ asks.

"It sounds like it, but I can't say the same for the attacker, though. Neighbors heard cries for help, and pretty soon half the block was on her."

x

Follow my library blog @aqueenslibrary​​​​​​​​​​ where I reblog all my stories, so you can put notifications on there without the extra stuff :)

[serenanymph]

wip intro - beast, witch's book

Five long, excruciating seconds pass. Bit by bit, Icarus pulls Crys up, till they’re both collapsed and wheezing in the snow, safe on the clifftop, the Witchrisen far below them. ��Well,” Icarus says, still out of breath, and he eyes the last of the rope as it goes over the side, eliciting an angry shriek a moment later when the Witchrisen finds no prey on the other end. “That was not fun. Thanks for the save, though, uh…” He turns towards the hooded figure, packing away the short length of rope they’d manage to hack off and salvage into a small satchel sitting in the snow. “Oh, don’t thank me,” they grouse, “ruined my day and my rope. What I want to know” – they whirl, finally tugging down their hood to reveal the freckled, scowling face of a young girl – “is just what the fuck did you do to piss of a Witchrisen that size?”

GENRE: YA high fantasy

POV: third person, multiple, present tense

STATUS: ongoing (first draft)

FEATURES:

flashbacks. tragedy. tragedy flashbacks

we got snow. we got mountains. we got more snow

secrets!!!

more magic, shapeshifting, undead creatures

the Journey continues

mine tunnels, mysterious underground labs, auctions

basically ten thousand different things because I'm overambitious but it's going to look cool. promise

(synopsis, characters and other stuff under cut. it's a lil long)

SYNOPSIS:

The Khujsa Mountains. Cold, unforgiving, and housing one of the Anti-Magic Army's biggest strongholds, it might also just be the most dangerous place anywhere in the country, especially for Beasts.

After a week of travelling, Crys and Icarus have finally reached the Elai Pass. From there, they're supposed to pass through to Riel, and then it's (mostly) smooth sailing all the way to Tel, where Icarus's contact resides.

But upon arrival, they find that things may not be as easy as they seem.

A Beast rebellion group. A Halfling in the AMA. And a young, brash girl who seems to hate the AMA just as much as she hates Beasts, and who certainly has something of her own to hide. Throw that onto the fact that Elai is an AMA stronghold, add in a Knight Captain from the Order of Klysmos, plus sprinkle in the hint of a conspiracy…well, they've certainly got their work cut out for them.

On the other end, after an equally stressful two weeks, Beatriz Das-Reille has finally reached Crys's village… just to find out Icarus is already long gone. However, she soon gets her own set of problems to worry about - joining up with Dahlia Reistveil brings to light that a certain poacher group has come back to town, and that this entire operation may run deeper than she's ever imagined. Does she go after Ink, now that she knows where he is? Or does she pursue this deeper and unearth what's going on, despite the risk it brings and the fact that she'll have to abandon her original goal?

Crys had picked to save someone in the face of an impossible choice. Icarus just wants to get home. Beatriz had never asked for any of this, and Dahlia only wants to do the right thing, but  one thing is true for all of them.

No matter their intentions at first, they've just been pulled into something that might be far bigger than them - and if they aren't careful, that something will swallow them whole. No country is without its secrets, after all, and Kosei has quite the number of skeletons in her closet…

POV CHARACTERS

Crys Averwell - 16, human, archer. sharp tongue and even sharper wit. walking personification of "I'm fine", needs sleep and therapy but is getting neither because I keep putting him in Situations

Icarus "Ink" Kal-Nira - 17, Beast (Crow), dual-wielder. ray of sunshine and genuinely the nicest person to ever exist. giant golden retriever energy. Trying His Best

Dahlia Reistveil - 17, human, daughter of a tavern-owner. Crys's childhood friend. often seen as the Mature One, but underneath all that she has a boatload of her own Issues

Beatriz Das-Reille - 16, Beast (Crow), Icarus's sort-of-but-not-really-little-sister. fast flier, wields a rapier, and is made up of only anxiety and more anxiety.

+

Rhyme - 14, human (???), apothecary from the mountains with a lot to hide. picks all her herbs and medicines directly from the wild so she knows her way around. extremely angry. will make your ears bleed

Carrick "Sol" Solder - 15, Halfling (Wolf), soldier in the AMA. commonly known as the Witchhunter's Mutt. often addressed as either "Sol" or "soldier". anger issues 2.0, never stops arguing with Rhyme the instant he meets her

taglist: @sapphos-scientist, @allianaavelinjackson

gen tag, wip tag

okay so my wip intros are kind of a mess right now, and I still haven't made a page for beast, but since I'm working on book 2 right now and there are a lot more new characters, I figured I should at least attempt to clear up some of the future confusion.

anyway, this is the wip intro for book 2, and there's another one here that's more a mashup intro between the overall series and book 1...? yeah I'm gonna remake that. just bear with me here I don't really know what I'm doing. also!!! there is a taglist now!!! let me know if you want to be added, not like I'm really sure how it should work.

[tobiasdrake]

Ace Attorney 4-4 - Turnabout Succession, Investigation 1

The grand finale to Apollo Justice begins with a surprisingly scrutable case.

Turnabout Serenade did a lot of hinting at Phoenix's secret mission. With the start of Turnabout Succession, it's finally time to find out what he's been doing all this time.

Phoenix has been away working on revamping the entire court system of Ace Attorney. Moving away from the methodology that the franchise has always operated under and reinventing the mechanism by which innocence or guilt is judged.

Stretches credibility that he, a disgraced former attorney who was disbarred for forging evidence, would have the political capital to accomplish something like this. This would make more sense at the height of his career. But with friends like Edgeworth in his corner, it's at least somewhat believable that he might be able to do this.

For the purpose of his demonstration, Phoenix has picked out a nice open-shut murder case for us to lose in court tomorrow. THANKS. But, to make sure we aren't resting on our laurels, our Obviously Guilty client will be receiving a real sentence based on the verdict of this test.

Phoenix is seemingly setting Apollo up to fail, and the cost of that failure will be someone's life. Great. Appreciate that. THANKS.

This is, however, the same man who orchestrated for the killer in 4-1 to be his defense attorney. Papa Beanie Phoenix knows exactly what he's doing, every step of the way. In 4-1, a critical piece of evidence relied on how the court interpreted the amount of poker chips Phoenix had in play. But this time, he really is going all in. This one's for every chip on the table.

So. Let's talk about the facts of the case Phoenix seemingly set us up to lose.

...I mean. Two out of three poisoners in this franchise were men, Ema. And the third also used a knife and a live wire to kill people too. So. Maybe cool it with the Women Be Poisoning.

I don't have any numbers on what the most common methods of murder in Japan are. Ema might be right here. But the idea that women favor poison above all other methods is common in pop culture, as it plays into the idea that women are weaker and need more insidious advantages to have a chance against powerful men.

I can say that in the U.S., according to the FBI's homicide reports, women are statistically far more likely to shoot someone with a gun or stab them with a knife than to poison. Though the number of male killers outnumbers female killers by an order of magnitude, the proportions for what weapons women use maps pretty closely onto the proportions for men.

Getting stabbed still sucks even if it was a woman who stabbed you. A knife is no less sharp in a woman's hands. But maybe it's different in Japan, IDK. Different cultural values and gender norms.

Ema's unnecessary sexism aside, she provides us with our initial understanding of the case at hand.

Drew Misham was a reclusive hermit. He lived here in this studio and didn't leave the house for anything - Communicating with the outside world solely by paper mail as he carried out his... um... particular line of work.

No, not that one.

There it is. Harkening back to our brief stint as a mob lawyer, Drew Misham was is another victim whose dangerous line of work seems to have caught up with him. Drew's been running a successful and lucrative business doing forgeries for a long time now.

So the obvious conclusion to draw would be that his line of work finally caught up to him. The same thing that happened to Dr. Malpractice. At least, that's one explanation, but the facts of the case paint a much simpler picture.

This is what Phoenix was talking about when he said this was an open-shut case with an obviously guilty defendant. Drew lived in this enclosed space with his daughter Vera. No one else in the entire world had access to him, except by mail. One day he dropped dead. Not a wide list of suspects for that, is there?

So, obviously, she poisoned his coffee. Open-shut case. If two people are in a situation together and then one dies of a gunshot and the other owns a gun then it's not hard to piece together what happened there. Who else in the entire universe could have killed him?

Well, except for the lack of poison in the coffee. That's a bit glaring.

It's kind of hard to poison someone's drink without leaving any poison in the drink. This is, of course, such a gigantic oversight for the prosecution to make that it can't possibly be that simple, right?

Yeah. No. Vera's not getting off that easy. Though the coffee is inexplicably clean, there's still clear traces of poison on that cup all the same. There is no doubt that this is the murder weapon.

Well, that or whatever was in this teeny tiny little frame.

It's surprising how on-the-nose this little frame is. It's called out with a bright neon glow. There's deadly atroquinine in that there picture frame. As clues go, this is obviously meaningful in an obvious way - Well, if you can figure out what was in the frame, anyway. My first time through, my dumb ass was sitting here like, "...a very small photo? Why?"

Nonetheless, what's interesting here is that this mystery is... surprisingly straightforward, in a sense. But the pieces are there. Eagle-eyed mystery solvers may already have pieced together what happened to Drew Misham.

There's enough evidence here at the scene of the crime to make a deduction for how Drew ended up poisoned in an enclosed space with only his daughter for company. There isn't enough to prove it or who did it or why, but the puzzle pieces for what happened are here and can be assembled.

It's a stark difference from 4-2 and 4-3, which take a lot of effort to assemble a basic picture of what the case looks like. As is often the case with grand finales, there are going to be a lot of moving parts here. But for the question of what killed Drew Misham, the answer is right here in plain sight for players to find.

Drew's art studio is the only physical location to inspect for this investigation. Again: Fairly open-shut. One location, clear evidence, obvious culprit, Guilty. As long as we're resigned to lose, Vera can be in and out of the courtroom in five minutes.

Moving on ahead, let's talk about the participants in this case's events.

[lasi-nariyoyoreads]

hellooo 🫶 can i request a reading for EXO's soulmates / twin flames? maybe details and their journey together <3 just curious cause they're my favs 🖤

Xiumin, Lay, Chen's soulmate reading

Hi fellow eri!!! They are one of my fave groups too, so this reading was super interesting but also a bit hard. I need to say that soulmates/twin flames aren't always romantic partners, they can be a friend, a relative, anyone who allows us to grow as humans. There can also be several soulmates, so this reading really felt like looking for a needle in a haystack for some members. Since there's 9 of them, I decided to divide the reading into groups of three members, hopefully it won't take me too long to post all of them.

I wanted to divide by age groups, but then I decided to begin with these three because I feel that they already have this soulmate in their life and I could get more clear info and I wanted to post Chen's reading asap because it's so cute, so sorry to the third oldest who got his place stolen lmao.

I also wanted to use only tarots, but while for some members (these three btw) the reading was pretty clear, I really needed more info for the others, so I picked some oracle cards. I still decided to pick some oracle cards even for XiuLayChen simply because I like to give everyone a similar number of cards lmao

Disclaimer:

My readings are made for fun and you should read them for fun too. So don't take them seriously.

Xiumin

Cards: rev high priestess, rev 8 of pentacles, rev 8 of wands, equilibrium, cheerfulness, bridge

They seem a very different person from him, their personality might be opposite of each other. Minseok is generally a calm person while his soulmate might be more chaotic or out there.

I feel this might be an actual love relationship because I can sense a lot of sexual attraction that they want to keep under control.

They probably have to keep their relationship a secret, not weird since Minseok is an idol.

I’m getting a lot of chaotic energy from this, so I’m sorry if what I’m saying doesn’t make much sense.

8 of pentacles is generally tied to work and effort so this might have two meanings: 1) this person works closely to him, they might be a fellow idol or a celebrity 2) it’s a relationship that will need a lot of “spiritual work”, if they’re keeping it a secret then they might be putting a lot of effort into that, they are careful when they meet, they try to choose places that aren’t crowded or that would attract the attention. 

It’s possible that the “spiritual work” I talk about is actually caused by the two of them being celebrities, he has direct experience of what idols go through when they date, even with non-celebs, so imagine the scandal if he’s dating with a fellow idol. You need a lot of mental strength to go through that and it’s possible Xiumin doesn’t feel like dealing with it atp

8 of wands indicates that it might’ve been love at first sight, or at least an attraction that began pretty early on. They instantly clicked, despite the different personalities. They might have similar interests, similar values, they might have fun together or they simply thought they’re hot and just decided to hit on the other.

I have this feeling that everything is a bit out of control, like they were overwhelmed by their own feelings and they’re kinda working on putting everything under control.

Maybe it’s also because all the cards are reversed, but I sense a lot of “let’s do things properly, let’s fix this”.

It’s possible that the imbalance I felt at the beginning also derives from this: Minseok might truly want to be careful, but the other person is careless.

It's funny that the first oracle card I picked was equilibrium while the other is cheerfulness.

I think this might point to these opposite forces, Minseok being the one who wants to be careful and balance properly all the aspects of his life, while the other person is cheerful, a burst of positive emotions that could be dangerous if they're leaked to the public.

Bridge is probably what they both need to aspire to, being more open with each other, Xiumin expressing his worries and the other person should listen to them, but also Xiumin shouldn't get so anxious and probably he should trust more his partner.

Lay

Cards: rev ace of swords, rev page of swords, rev death, self care, courtship, fight

They might be someone related to their past like a relative or a classmate.

I don’t think it’s a love relationship in this case.

This person is someone he can talk to. If he has any worry, if he has ideas or dreams.

Ace of swords makes me think of someone who is generally ready to have good theoretical conversations, but being reversed I think they’re better off just listening rather than giving advice (lmao).

I tend to lean toward someone either younger than him (so they lack a lot of experience), someone totally unrelated to his job (so unable to give good advice because they don’t know how it works) or someone who is just naive and with their head in the clouds.

I feel a very tender energy, like Lay probably doesn’t reach out for this person because they’ll offer him valuable help, but he probably just really cares about them and he just likes talking to them.

It might be something like a younger brother, or a nephew or a grandparent. There’s this very nice familial love. Even if they don’t understand him, they still love each other.

I don’t really know anything about his family so I can’t really say how close I am to the truth.

With the oracles I picked self-care. As I said above, he doesn't hang out with this person because he gain anything from them, but only out of love for them. I think he might just feel relaxed whenever they're together, like receiving healing.

There's a lot of love, probably they often exchange small gifts with each other (if this person is a grandmother, which is the main energy I'm feeling now, she might cook a lot for him for example), they might be the type of person who tells him to find a girlfriend asap and get married because he's an adult or something similar.

But as I said, these two live in two completely different universes. It's possible in the past they used to fight or they had moments where they were apart from each other. If the grandmother theory is true, she probably didn't want him to leave his country to train in Korea or he didn't want him to become an idol at all.

Courtship and fight are essentially two opposite forces and I get a lot of these opposite dynamics going on between these two. They lack mutual understanding, but love and respect won over any possible disagreement.

Chen

Cards: rev 3 of wands, 10 of cups, 4 of wands, attempt, cheerfulness, harmony

I love that these tarot cards appeared for him lmao This is seriously so perfect, I'm shocked lmao

Ten of cups is represented as a couple with two children.

4 of wands symbolizes weddings and families, so yeah I think we might have a vague idea what this is referring to, I don't think you need me to say anything more (btw congrats on his recent wedding ceremony!)

Reverse 3 of wands might imply that the path to reach their current happiness was very complex. They probably felt there were too many obstacles between them, it was probably hard to visualize an actual future together, there might have been some communication issue and it was probably hard to get a good balance between Chen’s job and his wife needs.

The oracle cards just fit very well with what I could see in the tarots, they probably had to work hard in order to be together as a couple and resist all the pressure they felt these past few years.

Cheerfulness is back (maybe a good omen for Minseok too? he might've found a stable partner too) paired with harmony (again reminds me of what Minseok wants to achieve with his relationship).

For Chen this means that he found his own balance. It's not easy for sure, but he made a choice, he knew the consequences and today he can probably say that he did the right thing, that he's happy in his private life and still holding on in Exo.

[rowanmgrey-author]

works in progress

I decided to put up all my wips for writing. I have quite a few, but only some that are very serious and I am focusing on right now. This gets kind of long and rambling so take care to read the bold text, that's where you can find the most important bits.

The Witch in the Ruins

STATUS: Third Draft is 100% complete in the story, however it's being beta read now and will likely have a final revision or two.

GENRE/S: Dark Fantasy

MICRO SYNOPSIS: A nomadic mersinos new to town is hired to kill a ruthless witch terrorizing the town of Atavis.

This is a Sapphic dark fantasy story featuring some horror elements, action, gore and violence. It also has sexual content, though minor and is heavily inspired by things like Dark Souls and The Witcher.

A Night at the Brass Sword (Book 1 of Creatures of the Night)

STATUS: Not complete, I am about 70% through the first draft.

GENRE/S: Paranormal/Supernatural Fantasy

MICRO SYNOPSIS: Kaz, his sister Ziva, and her girlfriend Kat head out for a winter break road-trip to Pike, Massachusetts. When Kat convinces them to stay at the old family resort, they find that the rumors about The Brass Sword being a hotbed for paranormal activity aren't rumors at all.

This one features several queer characters, bipoc and disability rep and is filled with both horror elements and comedy. It will also have a subplot for two romantic relationships. Found family dynamics abound and platonic friendships too. Oh, and these hills and definitely haunted so expect spooky elements and terrifying scenes with ghosts/possession etc. Also this is NOT A SERIES, or rather it's a companion series. I have the first four kind of figured out, generally, and none of them have recurring characters between them.

The Wilds Ones: Bloodlines (Book 1)

STATUS: Draft number 84657 (seriously I don't know, but I have been writing this for like 7 years), this is practically finished, however it needs some serious fucking revision. It is not suitable for beta eyes yet.

GENRE/S: Urban fantasy

THE ACTUAL SYNOPSIS: Ariane and Eron Ward are shapeshifters who work for an age-old Order of Hunters sworn to protect innocents from the supernatural. They work in a modern day New York earning a paycheck to be the most efficient killers they can be, and keep their family’s legacy going, until what they thought was a simple job ends up nearly killing them both. A demon of all things saves their hides and offers them a deal. In exchange for protection against his greatest foe, he will help them find Eron’s father; a man they thought long dead. In their desperate struggle to save him, they collect a pack of wayward allies and get caught up in a war against a coven of blood mages.

This one will have loads of queer characters, the MC is asexual/homoromantic with sex repulsion but does like to date. There is a lot of tragedy, some mystery, loads of action, it's urban fantasy but there is not "Secret World" aspect, so the humans know about the supernatural, also the demons are not based on any religion specifically so they don't come from the devil or anything like that. There is some religious aspects, but I personally am not religious so I don't have an emphasis on that. There are a lot of bipoc characters, and I also have some disability and neurodivergent rep. Also lots of mental illness/health rep and metaphors, specifically most of the supernatural creatures represent a mental illness or feeling I have had. (I am mentally ill myself and this series is therapeutic for me) Found family everywhere! Morally grey characters too, literally everybody in this series.

The Shroud (Book 1 of the Edge Series)

STATUS: In progress. I have a lot planned and figured out, but I only have a few chapters done and I have not looked at it in a year or two. Low-priority.

GENRE/S: Science Fiction

Tilurus is the fifth world humanity has claimed in their quest for colonization. Though it’s been anything but smooth. In the last thirty years a recurring, and seemingly random set of environmental hazards have ravaged the planet. These occurrences, most notably the multi-cyclone tornadoes, have been named: The Shroud.

Meanwhile, in the city of Rival, a bounty hunter and his partner are asked to search for the son of a legendary soldier. General Heller’s son is missing, and soon after they start their hunt, Logan Wilder and Darren Gunn quickly realize the ex-Militia soldier they are after has a target on his back, hitched to him by a gang of cannibals.

I don't want to spoil too much since it's still so vague but I will chat more about it later.

Godslayer (not sure if it will be standalone or not)

STATUS: Not even an outline yet, this one will be very complex so I plan on taking my time. This is low-priority.

GENRE/S: Science Fiction Fantasy (SFF)

MICRO SYNOPSIS: Not sure yet still, but let's just say it has godlike creatures in space with dragons and an MC who is half-dragon and hundreds of years old.

taglist: @anonymousfoz​ @schepper-wubs-wips​ @dyrewrites

[manyminded]

the parallels between king dice and ms chalice in the cuphead show (+ a bonus mini theory)

okay. this is me drawing a line of similarity between my two faves... but like. im not the only one who noticed this right.

also SPOILERS FOR ALL SEASONS!! Proceed with caution!

-

FIRST!

The most obvious - the charm, the razzle dazzle. They're dancers, performers at heart. They sing to get what they want.

And, okay, secret theory here - I think they have inherent magic? Like even with the deal with the devil, Chalice probably had magic before then. Think of them as sirens, if you will.

The way the cup bros struggle to get past security but Chalice so easily slips by... and, okay, we haven't seen MUCH of how King Dice uses this power, if it even exists in the first place, but in "down & out" the way Dice sings and attracts everyone nearby, definitely has me thinking that if this theory is correct - dice has magic too.

The difference between them is that Chalice knows. Even if she doesn't think its actual magic, she uses it well and manipulates it to her benefit. King Dice probably doesn't - he thinks he's just a good performer.

that leads me too...

-

SECOND!

the hard times they've had.

Listen. For all we know, Chalice is homeless. We never see her house, and when we see her escape the orphanage, she isn't shown to get one. Let alone an apartment.

Sure, she makes the best of it. Doing a darn good job at it, I'd say. But she's still homeless.

Just like Dice!

If my theory is true, Dice probably would've been very good at charming people like Chalice does - but he didn't know.

Thats besides the point - they both have lows. Chalice was the orphanage, and Dice was being dropped by Devil.

now, every character has lows. So let me expand!

-

THIRD!

They both narrate an episode.

In "Down & Out" and "Dance with Danger", KD and Chalice narrate at least some of the episode respectively.

I'm pretty sure this is unique just to them? While I haven't rewatched the entire series recently, just a few choice episodes, it seems these are the only episodes with any narration at all. (Besides the intro, of course.)

What's important - these characters aren't cup and mugs. Sure, they're recurring, but the only 'main' characters are the cup bros! To have an episode narrated at all, especially by a supporting main cast, is really interesting to me.

-

FOURTH!

This is two points combined into one really, because they're so minor - They are both associated with the devil somewhat, & They are both called "Number One".

Chalice and her deal, of course, and King Dice being - well - King Dice. You've seen the fandom.

This is where they diverge, Chalice dreading The Devil, and King Dice... well, it's weird, but it's generally positive.

(And, side note, the only time the Devil is truly 'scary' to me is in "Roll the Dice" where Devil threatens King Dice, and "Dance with Danger" where he makes the deal with Chalice. If he were that terrifying all the time, the show would be MUCH shorter.)

And the "number one" thing - They both call themselves Number One. Chalice in "Dance with Danger", where during her narration calls her that a good few times, and Dice in... almost every ep he's in.

The thing is, Dice is the only one others call "Number One." Devil often refers to him that way in response to Dice himself saying it, but in "Down & Out" cuphead and mugman call him something like "the number one star in showbiz?" or something like that. While it isnt just Number One, I think it counts.

Chalice on the other hand doesn't get called by it from anyone but herself.

-

Finally, we're done ... sorry for referencing the same few episodes over and over again, lol. take a shot every time i reference down & out lol! I just really love them. I hope you liked this!

[chibitantei]

Oh, this rank has... checks script ...the line.

Rank 6, or a crumb of Naoto background is spared.

In my rank 2 post, I mentioned I had some personal beef with the Shirogane estate being in Inaba, and this is one of the moments.

Naoto makes a big deal about finding the card in her mailbox, but the estate was robbed. If the estate was located in Inaba, it wouldn't make much sense for Naoto to be so surprised that the phantom thief who robbed her house knew where she is currently. That's like a negative IQ level move.

Of course, there are moments in the main game script that contradict this, such as Naoto stating she promised her grandfather she'd go home right away when you first see her at Yasogami, and at the culture festival's conclusion where she, rather excitedly, says that if she's staying at the inn, she should call her grandfather and let him know. Both of these could suggest the estate is in Inaba, but since this is about her Social Link, we're not going to debate this.

As she notes, the mysterious man must have a reason for giving Yu the card. The choices are the same again. Picking "Because I look reliable." or "Because I looked useless." prompts Naoto to laugh heartily.

The second one... well.

With that out of the way, we see the next riddle of the phantom thief has to offer, which reads:

When the banks close, the fruit tree grows. By the large seven at the third is the spot I chose.

It sounds like complete gibberish, but luckily, the game doesn't require Yu to actually solve it because that's Naoto's problem. Regardless of what you pick, Naoto finds the answer; however, the third option ("The numbers are important.") is the best one.

As Naoto so eloquently says:

When you find the item, the watch, Naoto has a whole speech ready.

The item in the previous rank, the detective badge, didn't do anything besides show the great dedication and desire Naoto had to step into a detective's shoes. This watch feels more like spy gear than it does detective, but Naoto is a private investigator, her dungeon looks like a secret agent base and.... she probably watched too much Conan as a kid. Regardless of what influenced her to make this, Naoto is pretty talented at fiddling around with machines and creating her own things.

Her liking robots and having a secret base in the trees had influences on her dungeon, with berserk form of Shadow Naoto being a robot and well, the Secret Base.

Besides the fascinating character dump, we get Naoto wishing she were a guy. And this is one of the lines that gets people to throw a fit and you know what I'm talking about.

I'm not going to talk about that. I'm going to analyze this while keeping in mind what Atlus intended for her character.

Naoto says this after Yu and friends beat her Shadow: "What I should yearn for...No, what I must strive for isn't to become a man. It's to accept myself for who I really am..."

From this admission, Naoto knew she never wanted to be a man. However, a lack of women in the detective world and strict gender roles, just to name two, made it hard for her to stand up and ignore what society sad. When you look at Naoto disguising herself as a man, she is conforming to what society expects.

Not everyone plays the silly PQ game, but in one of the strolls, Naoto has this to say:

Although she knew that trying to fit into expectations was silly, she ended up forcing herself into a box.

But what about Naoto's mom? She was a cool detective lady, right? Doesn't she count as a role model?

Yes, obviously, but she's also fucking dead and while you can find inspiration from someone's memory, nothing's better than being able to talk to your role model and lean on them for support. If Naoto wanted advice from her mom, she can't ask that because she's fucking dead. That, and we aren't given any info on Naoto's parents. Was Naoto's mom respected on her own, or was she just seen as an accessory to Naoto's dad? Naoto can look up to her grandfather as a role model (and it's obvious she does), but he can't exactly give her the same kind of advice her mom could have.

I know I must have linked this video a bajillion times by now, but I still think it's relevant, even though it was made in 2018. Since I don't live in Japan, things may have improved since this video was made, but if the game originally came out in 2008 and the year this was set in was 2011, I think the video is telling that the problems happening in 2008 were happening in 2018. Watching this is great, but ain't nobody got time for that. So I'll just say that imagine achieving so much, only to have people downplay it just because you're a woman. While Naoto's arc focused more on sexism in the workplace, it's sort of hard to just focus on that, when it's..... everywhere.

When Naoto wishes she were born a man, she doesn't really wish to be a man. Like she says in literally the next line, being a guy would allow her to pursue what she wanted (a detective) without hearing any remarks or critiques or but find a job more suited for women. It doesn't indicate that she genuinely wanted to be a guy.

Unfortunately for me, I'm not done with the worm can because there's one more thing to talk about, and that's the romance flag.

You see, Naoto is special and you need a certain phrase to trigger her romance route. Failing to select this option means you don't get to romance her, even if you do the second romance flag.

Right after Naoto says that, Yu has three choices. Can you guess which one triggers a romance flag?

If you said the second one, you're fucking WRONG BABY IT'S THE FIRST ONE!

Atlus has a track record of high highs and low lows, this line is probably garbage and doesn't make sense. However, perhaps, maybe???, somehow????, there was a reason for "I'm glad you're a girl." to be the romance flag.

It could just be typical Atlus putting that option there to waifu-ify Naoto. However, for this next bit of analysis, I am being generous and assuming that Atlus had a reason that WASN'T waifu-ifying Naoto just because.

When you pick 2 or 3, Naoto reacts accordingly:

The third option has an 'it is what it is' vibe, and it doesn't do shit to make her feel better.

However, even if you choose the second one, Naoto still smiles sadly, much like the third option. Perhaps Naoto is sad because of society had the attitude Yu displayed in that option, she wouldn't be so miserable and is reflecting on a more optimistic world.

However, this line doesn't really solve her problem. She's known for a while that her gender doesn't matter when it comes to anything. It's just what society has a problem with it.

However, it's not what she wants to hear.

She knows Yu thinks it's silly, but to her, this is easy for him to say. He hasn't been in her shoes, doesn't know her struggles and hasn't experienced any hardships because of his gender. He can say that gender doesn't matter, but if he wanted to be a detective, nobody would complain because he's a man.

It's not as if nobody understands her and the effect gender roles have, it's just that in this particular context, this isn’t what she wanted to hear.

In the first one, it's uh.....

Yeah, there's nothing deep in here.

But if I'm being very, very generous, this is a clunky way of saying "I'm glad you're you". What makes Naoto who she is... is herself and nothing can change that. With this, Yu is able to say that there is good in being who she is, even though she can't see it yet. More importantly, he appreciates her as she is. And seeing someone other than her grandfather or Yakushiji, even her dead parents, say that to her, makes something in her mind click, that she's worth something, even though she doesn't correctly hit all the "acceptable" boxes society has laid out

okay fuck I can't anymore but tl;dr it might have be an awkward "i'm glad you're you" thing.

Anyway, Naoto realizes she was being an embarrassment again and changes the subject to asking about Yu. IIRC, she's the only IT social link who asks about Yu.

Considering how it's very obvious she had no friends growing up, this can be seen as an effort on her part to reach out and form bonds. It's difficult with the rest of the team, but with Yu, something just clicks.

[linagram]

I cant wait for yurika's vd to be like trial 1 Mikoto where she just goes apeshit on the guards (i know she cant, but the thought is funny nonetheless.) Also, could we get a general map of your prison? Is it exactly like canongram, or a bit different?

well, uh. well about that. um. a-anyway, her vd is gonna be fun <3

okay, so i suck at drawing maps, soooo instead i just wrote down some things about how the prison looks!

this prison doesn't have eleven cells and only has ten. so yeah, it doesn't have a secret eleventh prisoner or anything like that. it doesn't mean that eiji and miki were always supposed to be the guards though. all cells have the same numbers as the prisoners.

the way the cells are located is a bit different though: on the map it looks like they aren't that far from each other, but to get to each cell, you will need at least five minutes. in fact, sometimes it feels like those cells are actually pretty far and eiji and miki may need more than ten minutes. and considering that one of the guards is very physically weak for understandable reasons, walking there can be really painful for eiji. why would they even need to make these cells so far apart from each other and why would they try to make it look like you will need less than two minutes to get to each cell? it feels like they're making fun of the guards, honestly.. or do they just want to see how loyal they really are? it probably doesn't make a lot of sense because the cells are most likely supposed to be exactly next to each other, BUT THIS IS MY VISION.

the wiki says that the canongram cells are supposed to look like these white rooms with everyone's height charts, but in my head the linagram cells look much darker and overall have a more scary atmosphere. it's not really related to the map, just something i wanted to share jdkslsls.

BOY THIS PRISON HAS SO MANY HIDDEN THINGS. first of all, lots of cameras. it's really hard to find them and they're basically not visible, but it is possible that someone will notice them one day. the cameras are there to keep an eye on eiji, miki and the prisoners, but they're also there so that the third guard can watch them without having to leave his room. of course, he's not the only one who uses them.

in the corridor, you can also see a small screen hanging on the wall and there's also one in the dining room. eiji and miki's rooms have screens as well, but they're only used to talk about everyone's verdicts. eiji and miki have never found the fact that even the dining room has a screen weird and just thought that it's supposed to be like that. some prisoners thought they could watch tv here and were disappointed when they found out this is not the case.

the dining room, the storage room and the shower rooms are also there and eiji and miki have their own rooms as well. their rooms actually don't look much like es' room and both of them are unique, show their personalities and have everything those guards might need. it looks like whoever is in charge of everything really wanted these two to feel at home. well, they already do.

this prison has a lot of hidden rooms though and they're made to look like all of them are actually a part of the wall. basically, they have the same color and texture as the wall, they don't have any doorknobs, they don't stand out in any way. so naturally, no one notices them. one of those rooms is the third guard' room, jackalope's room is also there. most of those rooms are locked, but not all of them.

[takaraphoenix]

Because it's late and I'm bored, Charmed for the Top 3 Fandom Ask Game if you're still doing it??? Lol (I'm a little late but still... hehehe)

Since I baaarely got asks for it, no no you are not too late! I'm happy to answer :) And yaaay, Charmed!

3 male characters I love: damn there aren't many dudes in this. I mean, considering how long the show ran, there aren't all that many significant characters in general, surprisingly enough. But mmmh. Number one, obviously and without question, Cole. Number two, I guess I'm inclined to Leo yeah. He's a good boy. And three would be a tie between Andy and Darryl I love them both

3 female characters I love: oh that's an easy one, to be honest! PHOEBE, top spot, unquestionable. Prue, second favorite sister, I adore her. And third would be Piper. Sorry, Paige, in a top three ask, you can't make the cut...

3 romantic ships I love: Aaah very easy one!!! COLE/PHOEBE ALL THE WAY. One of my top OTPs. Andy/Prue, I love them so much. And third would be Leo/Piper, which is also a top tier ship. Again, sorry, Paige, you and Henry on fourth place got cut off :/

3 platonic dynamics I love: Well now, that one's harder. First of all, the OG Charmed Ones, Prue-Phoebe-Piper. Obviously. Second one, the second Charmed Ones, Phoebe-Piper-Paige. And third one, mh, Darryl and the Halliwell sisters. But, again, so few characters, kinda baffling, I was always disappointed that they didn't make some significant witch friends, they only tried the local coven once and it ended with a lot of murder

3 favorite moments in canon: Mmmh that's a tough one, it's been a hot minute since I watched the show. Definitely the Prue-Cole team-up in cowboy town, I loved that and I felt like it brought them closer. Time-travel apple-picking, because Cole watching Phoebe's true love's first letter was bloody adorable. And thiiird, the season 7 finale with how the door closed itself like Prue had don it? I always loved that as an ending and I really think the show should have stopped there

3 favorite headcanons: Confession: I have a whole family tree mapped out for them for like five generations down the road. But favorite, that Phoebe and Cole's son lives, and his name is Parker Benjamin and he gets to grow up with his cousins. I also, as a kid already, had this headcanon that if Prue lived and they still met Paige, then they would unlock some secret four-sister-power that would enable each of them to control one element and they'd become powerful elemental witches. I stand by that and ignore comic continuation canon bullshit fully, fyi. Third one, mh, I always thought it'd be cute if Melinda ended up marrying Darryl's youngest son Michael, because then the Morris family would be part of their family and Melinda and Michael Morris would start their own naming tradition of M first names

3 least favorite things about it: THE FACT THAT COLE DIED INSTEAD OF STAYING GOOD AND HIM AND PHOEBE COULD HAVE HAD EVERYTHING, GODS DAMN IT. Also, the death of Prue - I know, I know, it was all ~behind the scenes~ stuff that drove it, but gods damn it, I loved Prue. The lack of platonic relationships to other witches. I really do love the focus on the Halliwell-sisters, but I wish they'd gotten... friends. Local other witches that have recurring roles.

Top Three Fandom Ask Game

[millenialfanfictionaddiction]

👑 Being Seijoh's Manager 👑

Miss Manager Secretly Dating Iwaizumi Hajime

Iwaizumi Hajime featuring Seijoh x Female Manager

Warnings: Swearing, kissing, Toru Oikawa

AN: This is an Anon request!

🌠 Please Like, Reblog and/or Share to help support my writing 🌠

Ok Tiffany YN

Sorry habit 😅 🤸‍♀️

You are the luckiest bitch to ever exist 💓

And I mean that with all the pettiness I hold in my heart

Seriously YN?

FREAKING IWAIZUMI HAJIME

As in future, timeskip IWAIZUMI HAJIME, 27, ATHLETIC TRAINER 🗣

God I can not STAND YOU 😭

It's always hard seeing people living out your dreams 😢

Anyways enough of me being a petty jerk

Let's move onto you

Freaking gorgeous? No spectacular? No amazing?

All of the above ✔️

The fact that you landed at Seijoh and Seijoh landed you as their manager?

Where do I even start??

You are a transfer student your third year

Ouch 🥴

But never fear YN, the welcome wagon is here 🥳

The welcome wagon includes Oikawa and that's it 😅

So maybe you should fear

Anyways, Oikawa approaches you and sits across from you at lunch

"Hello gorgeous and who might you be?"- Oikawa

Eww gag 🤢

"Umm I'm YN"

"YN is such a pretty name. Has anyone shown you around school yet? Maybe I could-"

"LOSERKAWA WHAT THE F-" Iwaizumi, stopping dead and staring at you 👁👄👁

Freaking spectacular 😍

He's never seen someone as gorgeous as you

You smile and wave at him because 🤤 ughhh he's so hot 😭

"Iwa-chan!! I was just about to show YN around the school!"- Oikawa

"Ummm no you weren't"- you

Iwa 👉🏻 instant love ❤️

"YN- chan 😭😭😭"- Oikawa

"Shut it shittykawa"- Iwa

Thus begins a blossoming friendship 😍

On that regularly involves bullying of one Toru Oikawa 👐🏻

When you find out you need a club, you ask Iwaizumi for suggestion

You tell him the swim team needs a manager but you aren't sure

Iwaizumi is not, I repeat NOT going to let you manage the Swim Team YN 🙅‍♂️

"You know we could use a manager on the Volleyball team"- Iwaizumi

"REALLY 🤩🤩🤩"- You behind so freaking adorable

Iwa is melting bro

He has the biggest freaking crush on you

So when you ultimately become manager, the crush only intensifies

Serious he will growl at Mattsun and Makki for even touching you

If Oikawa touches you, he's going to cannonball a volleyball so hard at his head you aren't sure Oiks will recover

Better make sure your first aid training is up to date YN 😅

The final straw for Iwa is when Oikawa asks you to come over to his house and watch tapes to prepare for the prelims

No way in HELL is that happening without Iwa there

"YN can I talk with you?"- Iwa, already pulling you the hallway

"Umm sure Haji"- you

God he loves when you say his name 😭

He doesn't even stop before he's pulling you into kiss him

Seriously man is bold ✋️

When he pulls back, he does that adorable thing where he lays his forehead on yours and you literally melt

"Go out with me"- Iwa, our dream man

"Ok"- you 🥺

Thus begins the ship that is IwaYN

When you start dating, you do it on the down low

Because you and Haji enjoy spending time just the two of you

Iwaizumi does not like that you are keeping your ship a secret

He would rather everyone knows your his

Literally this man is into PDA and the fact that he can't touch you 👀

It drives him insane!

Also the fact that you made him promise to not murder Oiks everytime he talks to you 🤣

That takes some serious restraint!

Nevertheless, you manage to keep your relationship secret for 2 months

Then it finally happens

You are at the interhigh prelims

The boys are practicing when you decide to quickly sneak out to use the restroom

You think nobody will notice your gone

Thing again

Within .02 seconds Iwaizumi has noticed

He's frantic 😳

"Have you guys seen YN?"- Iwa

"Dude chill she probably just went to fill up water bottles or something?"- Mattsun

"Who knows, maybe she went to talk to that guy who asked for her number earlier?"- Makki says shrugging

Wrong thing to say 😃

"What guy?"- Iwa clips, literally radiating bad energy

He stomps to the gym doors and out, Makki and Mattsun follow

"Hey were are you guys going?"- Oikawa

Oiks never wants to be left out

Meanwhile you just happen to be leaving the bathroom and walk straight into the back of Karasuno's Ace

"Oh my gosh I'm so sorry!"- you

"Oh no! I shouldn't have been just standing there"- Asahi

You go to side step him when you see Iwa blazing through the crowd, the crew behind him

"Haji what's wrong-" you

"Is that the guy who asked for your number?? I kill him!"- Iwa

Whoo what??

"Haji nobody asked for my number! What are you-"

Before you can even say another word, Iwa's mouth is on yours and you are being kissed like your life depends on it 🥰

Makki and Mattsuns jaws are dropped 😲

Oikawa is passed out on the floor 💀

The other teams are just staring 😳

Iwa pulls away and says "alright listen up! Yn is my girlfriend and anyone, and I mean ANYONE, who so much as breathes in her direction will get a face full of my fist"

Ok then 😃

Makki and Mattsun are both smirking now 😏

Oikawa is still on the floor

Someone check on him

Or don't

"Come on YN, we have a game to win"- Iwa, pulling you to the gym

Don't fight it YN, there's nothing you can do 🥰

[ashesandhackles]

Reading Marauders Dynamics in SWM

By @thecat-isblogging-blog and myself

The fact that SWM happened after the werewolf prank lends an interesting colour to the dynamics we see in text.

We'd like to start with the two differing ways Remus responded to werewolf jokes. Number one:

Did you like question ten, Moony?' asked Sirius as they emerged into the Entrance Hall.

'Loved it, said Lupin briskly. 'Give five signs that identify the werewolf.Excellent question.'

'D'you think you managed to get all the signs?' said James in tones of mock concern.

'Think I did,' said Lupin seriously, as they joined the crowd thronging around the front doors eager to get out into the sunlit grounds. 'One: he's sitting on my chair. Two: he's wearing my clothes. Three: his name's Remus Lupin.'

Wormtail was the only one who didn't laugh.

To

I'm bored,' said Sirius. 'Wish it was full moon.'

'You might,' said Lupin darkly from behind his book. 'We've still got Transfiguration, if you're bored you could test me. Here ...' and he held out his book.

In the first instance, Remus feeds into the werewolf joke and laughs at his own dry joke - and in the second instance, he reacts slightly negatively.

We know from what Remus says in HBP that he is not averse to these jokes. He laughs when Harry says fiercely, "But you are normal - you've just got a problem!". Remus says in nostalgia-tinted affection, "Sometimes you remind me a lot of James. He called it my 'furry little problem' in company. Many people were under the impression I owned a badly behaved rabbit."

The difference, especially given the light of what happened in the werewolf prank (James saves Snape and by extension Remus, Sirius endangers him), is the presence of James. (Reference our meta here as to understand why he sees James and Sirius as his protectors in wolf form, which James unconsciously still fulfills here)

Remus feeds into the joke when James is around, and the moment James is off doing his own thing with the snitch, Sirius' own reference is met slightly passive aggressively. Remus is simultaneously telling Sirius his boundary is being crossed while redirecting his boredom somewhere else (hey, test me?).

[An important addition by @dragonlordette here: The dark "you might" response could be seen as Remus remembering the prank. The first joke is a joke among friends about his condition, the second one is reminder that Sirius still doesn't truly grasp how much danger he put Remus in during the prank. Hence "you might" - like, reminders that Sirius Doesn't Get It aren't appreciated the way other jokes are. It serves as a marker of how Remus might feel Sirius has burned him before - he is forgiven, and still loved, but it's not forgotten. Whereas the way he talks about James forever demonstrates that he clearly feels James never let him down.]

Cat goes further to describe Remus handing the book to Sirius as "a handout before the other person can respond to the initial negative response". (Remus and his hyper awareness of social situations is underused in fics!)

The third werewolf reference looks very different in the light of POA:

'How thick are you, Wormtail?' said James impatiently. 'You run round with a werewolf once a month--'

'Keep your voice down,' implored Lupin.

Yes, Remus is reacting to his secret, but given he just made the joke about himself being a werewolf ("Three, his name is Remus Lupin"), his primary concern feels like something else. He seems more sensitive about the Animagus secret - it is the same fact he actively hides from Dumbledore in POA, manifesting in one of the worst things he did: not informing Dumbledore of that secret when he still believed Sirius to be a mass murderer.

Here is how he describes it in POA:

"All this year, I have been battling with myself, wondering whether I should tell Dumbledore that Sirius was an Animagus. But I didn't do it. Why? Because I was too cowardly. It would have meant admitting that I'd betrayed his trust while I was at school, admitting that I'd led others along with me. . . and Dumbledore's trust has meant everything to me. He let me into Hogwarts as a boy, and he gave me a job when I have been shunned all my adult life, unable to find paid work because of what I am. And so I convinced myself that Sirius was getting into the school using dark arts he learned from Voldemort, that being an Animagus had nothing to do with it.."

Moving on, it's also interesting that when Sirius declares he is bored, both Remus and James offer ways out.

Remus asks him to test him (which he rejects), while James offers going after Snape (which he accepts). This dynamic establishes Sirius as the instigator - he begins the werewolf joke ("did you like question ten, Moony?"), he is the one who is bored which both James and Remus try to address. However, when it comes to attacking Snape, after Sirius accepts, James takes the lead whereas Sirius falls back on a supporting role.

Peter also is exclusively attached to James through the scene - cheering him on, which James enjoys and doesn't challenge Sirius's disparaging, "Put that away, will you. Before Wormtail wets himself in excitement." (Peter turns pink, and James does put the snitch away with, "If it bothers you" xD)

Essentially, Sirius keeps pushing boundaries (begins werewolf joke, is bored, the prank), but it is James who sets them (joins in the first joke which makes Remus join in without any passive aggressiveness, offers the attack for boredom, and has his actions save his everyone from dire consequences in the prank).

James Potter is essentially the center of the Marauders, who is everyone's favourite. Sirius is James' favourite - which other two are aware of.

[still-a-morosexual-help]

tbf some ppl are annoyed that the seasons have had too many mammon centered moments and while my bias is him, i honestly feel like i desperately need some moments with asmo, beel and belphie. sorry but mammon gets way too much attention lmao. but he's my fave so. doesn't help that solmare shoves him down my throat but still. my fave.

Yeah, I definitely understand that. Like I'm not gonna complain cause I think it's pretty obvious at this point where my bias lies and I'll happily welcome more of those moments but yeah for people who aren't interested or who want more of the others I can completely understand how frustrating that'd be. If this was an anime the competition would be between Mammon & Lucifer given how much more focus and development they get

I think the reason it's so focused on Mammon is cause despite being an otome game, MC's relationships with the brothers aren't equal. Because Mammon was always predetermined to be MC's "Sidekick" according to the devs. Even before we started playing his role in MC's life was set so if they don't interact a lot it wouldn't fit with what's already been set in place. It's why MC takes such an active role in Mammon's 2020 birthday event while they more or less took passive roles in all the other 2020 birthday events. The devs decided beforehand 'this is what their relationship is gonna be like' so Mammon always had a headstart and now to fit with that characterisation they need to frequently interact and be close.

For context, in a different otome game, Mammon would take the role of the 'childhood best friend who lives nextdoor' while the others would be the new characters that MC would meet during the story aka there'd be an established pre-game relationship with Mammon while the others have to catch up throughout the game

But because we only have a limited number of lessons it means the others get cut. I'm not saying that's a good thing, it's just what it's been like during the past 3 seasons, though there's always a chance S4 will change that.

Overall, for general MC to fit the limited characterisation given by the devs they need to have a bias too. A point that's acknowledged in the game as well:

• MC's dialogue options for Mammon have always been more carefree than they are for the others during the beginning of S1. MC's relationships with the others must improve before they can get to the more teasing/playful dialogue options. But with Mammon, MC's very first dialogue options are friendly/familiar (I believe one of the first things they can say to him is "Yo") and then later teasing/carefree

• Beel in S1 says that MC seems to like Mammon given that they seek him out and frequently talk with him rather than with the others

• By Lesson 4? of season 1 MC and Mammon have already spent time behind the scenes that we weren't able to see that develops their relationship & makes them comfortable with each other to the point that they're clearly regularly sharing a room/bed (this is so early wtf???), as Beel notes that Mammon now leaves his phone charger and toothbrush in MC's room. A series of chats reveal he also leaves his cologne there

• S2 (officially) starts with MC talking to Mammon on the phone?

• Levi in S2 complains about MC always favouring Mammon and asks if it's cause they made a pact with him first (or something to that extent)

• One of the others (Asmo?) complains about a similar thing near the end of S2

• Belphie in a chat explicitly tells MC not to mention what they're doing, to Mammon despite MC not even asking about it

• Mammon says MC and him are close, once in his birthday 2020 event and once in his birthday 2020 UR. He even implies they're so close that they don't keep secrets from each other

• Satan in S3 uses getting Mammon in trouble as leverage against MC to make them stop teasing him

• In a devilgram, while with Mammon, Asmo and one of the others Mammon asks MC who their favourite is - two of the options are dismissive of the question. The third is "Mammon". It wasn't one of Mammon's cards. Pretty sure it was a memory card... the other two options could have been the other two brothers in the room with them?

• The number of times MC was called out for being too soft on Mammon

Additionally, it's Mammon's message written on MC's RAD ID card, Mammon who's a default on the game home screen, Mammon's voice that's used for all the notifications, Mammon who calls you back to the game cause he wants to spend time together once all your AP is restored, and I'm pretty sure the first card we all ever get from nightmare is "The Mammon Way"??? Cause it'd be an insane coincidence if both times that I downloaded and started a new game that was my first card? And the thing is, obviously, this is not Mammon doing it - it's the devs. MC has a predetermined bias because the devs have a bias.

The character notes say that the creator already had a soft spot for dark skinned characters with light/white hair. Mammon's also the only character I know who has "prototypes" who turned up in other solmare games (Zeus from Wizardess Heart & the king from that one discontinued game). Not that those characters were created to be prototypes, it just worked out that Mammon became the newer, more "developed" version of those characters. It's why they didn't have to do any changes to his initial character design too, they already knew what they wanted. And maybe down the line there'll be another newer, more developed solmare character who fits this trope and who Mammon would act as a prototype to.

tldr: Mammon has so much content cause general MC is written to have a bias towards him because the devs have a bias. And while I'm eternally grateful it's completely understandable if others are pissed off and frustrated by this

Disclaimer:

Obviously, everything about the devs and their thoughts/motives are assumptions & my own personal theories based on what is said in the character notes and there's no way for any of us to know for sure why Mammon gets more screentime than the others (for all we know they just needed to pick a 'mascot' character) so despite any (reasonable) frustrations pls don't go after anyone - it's just a game also pls don't sue me Solmare I'm broke, poor & currently without a stable job/income💀