#they can’t do crossovers anymore but if they could they would have the opportunity to do the funniest thing

[morewonders]

It’s one thing (juvenile as fuck, but I digress) to respond to every picture/video of LFJ/Tommy Kinard with “jumpscare” or “I almost threw up”, but when an account mentions Tommy Vega from 911 Lone Star and all the responses are some variation of “name jumpscare” I get HEATED. My wife Gina Torres has nothing to do with your bullshit, you leave her out of this! Don’t perceive her!

[alphashley14]

One of Us

A Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated/Mystery Skulls Crossover

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Chapter 19

No One Ever Really Dies

After fleeing the lounge, Ricky and the kids hurried into Fred and Daphne’s room and shut and locked the door behind them.

Once inside, they stood around the door and listened. 

“I don’t hear anything. What about you Scoob?” Fred asked.

“Not a thing,” Scooby confirmed. 

“Even the best of friends argue,” Daphne said. 

“She’s right,” Ricky said. “They love each other too much to resort to violence. No matter what they’re fighting about.” 

The six of them backed away and sat around the room to talk.

“So like um…” Shaggy plopped down into a chair, “can we talk about… that?” 

“Shaggy’s right. We need to be on the same page about this,” Velma agreed. 

“I just can’t believe that sweet little dog turned out to be…” Daphne left the end of her sentence open-ended, but everyone knew what she meant.

“I trust him,” Ricky said, to all of their surprises. 

“Like really?” Shaggy exclaimed. 

“But why?” Scooby asked. 

“Whatever he was in the past, he isn’t the same guy who’s comforted me today more times than I care to mention,” Ricky said. “I don’t need to remind you all that I have regrets too. But I’ve realized that I was wrong and I’m doing something about it. He didn’t get to finish telling us his story, but it should be obvious to us all that he did the same thing. And unlike me he’s had centuries to do so.” 

“He’s right,” Velma said, thinking back to how Mystery had told her about magic. “If he was the same fox who did all of those things back then, I don’t think any of us would even be standing here right now. If he wanted to hurt us, he’s had infinite opportunities to do so by now. Not to mention that he wanted our trust enough to tell me what his achilles heel is.” 

“Yeah but like, that’s assuming he’s telling the truth,” Shaggy said. 

“I think he has good intentions,” said Scooby, remembering how Mystery had exacted justice on his behalf when the scary priest in the painting had come at him earlier.

“I think so too, just from what we’ve seen and what we’ve been told so far,” Daphne said. “But, I think it’s important that we all remember that we don’t have all of the facts yet. Mystery didn't finish his story.”

“Is it wrong of me to say that I’m kind of glad he didn’t?” Fred asked, anxiously messing with his ascot. “It’s- a lot.” 

“I feel exactly the same way,” Ricky agreed. “Also, adding onto this discussion, I would like to point out that even if we didn’t trust the Mystery Skulls, I believe that continuing to cooperate with them is presently the more strategically sound thing to do. If it weren’t for the Mystery Skulls, my old group would have us vastly outgunned and outnumbered right now. Not that I’m calling you kids incapable. Because it’s honestly impressive how difficult it’s been to get one up on you. But if they cornered us somehow…” 

“He’s right,” Velma said thoughtfully. “The Mystery Skulls actually have a pretty good chance of overpowering them, even without our help.” 

“But if they’re so strong,” Scooby said with a tilt of his head, “then why don’t they just barge in and rescue Arthur?” 

“Actually, yeah. I was sort of wondering the same thing,” Daphne said thoughtfully.

“The situation’s too delicate for that,” Ricky replied. “Right now to Professor Pericles, Arthur- or rather I, am a tool. But if we barged in and tried to rescue Arthur- or me, then we’d need to get the remote from Pericles. And he’s so smart that chances are he’d realize what we were there for before we could do that. He might even realize that the swap’s taken place. And if that happens, I can’t begin to describe how monumentally bad that would be. Because then Arthur’s not just a tool anymore - he becomes a hostage. And I think we all know what the first of his demands would be.” 

“The planispheric disc!” Mystery Inc. exclaimed at once. 

“Like he’s right. He’s totally right!” Shaggy cried. 

“And even if we gave him the disc, there’s no garuntee he’d give Arthur or Mr. E or whoever’s in that body back,” Fred added. “Because as long as he has a hostage, he’s got a way of making sure we don’t interfere with his plans.”

“Which means that as much as we don’t like it,” Ricky walked over to the window and leaned against the glass, looking out over the twisted forest. “The covert operation that Arthur has going on right now is the best chance we have of getting him back safely. I just hope he stays safe in the process.” 

Ricky talked with the kids for another twenty minutes before they bid each other goodnight and at last retired to their rooms for the evening.

As soon as he was back in the seclusion of his room, the entire day finally hit him all at once. Ricky felt like he hadn’t slept in fifteen chapters. He was suddenly so tired. Had it really been only a day? It felt more like seven months.

But as much as he wanted to collapse face-first onto that huge bed and pass out for the rest of this chapter (assuming nothing weird happened in his dreams this time and his insomnia hadn’t followed him to this body), Ricky knew he’d feel monumentally better after a shower.

Ricky looked over to the bathroom with a sigh and repeated what Fred and Mystery had told him earlier. “We’re both guys… it’s only as weird as I make it. Don’t make it weird…” 

The problem was that it was already weird. Ricky had grown more accustomed to what existing in Shaggy’s body felt like, but the shower really forced him to feel the difference. Then there was Shaggy’s hair. Washing Ricky’s hair was a process. Shaggy’s hair on the other hand was as easy as wash, rinse, fluff it with a towel at the end, and- oh wow. Hair’s basically dry already. All done. 

So. If he was looking for plus sides to this whole situation, he supposed he could add that to the list: showers were easy.

After he was dried off, Ricky got dressed to go to sleep, brushed his teeth, turned out the lights, then finally climbed into bed. 

As absolutely magical as the bed was, Ricky laid awake for a long time, letting his thoughts drift wherever they wanted to go. He thought a lot about today. But time and time again, his thoughts wandered back to Cassidy. Until finally, he gave up and stopped trying not to think of her.

She would have loved all of this, he thought to himself. Vivi’s a fighter, just like her. They would have gotten along well. She might’ve been cautious of Mystery, but he would have adored her. She wouldn’t’ve been afraid of Lewis either. And the Dead Beats would have made her laugh. A mental image came to mind. Of her. Laughing as the little pink spirits nuzzled and crowded around her for pets like they had to him and the kids earlier. The thought brought a smile to his lips. 

As nice a thought as it was, it was never going to happen. And it was all his fault. 

Are you here now? Could you have come back as a ghost? Like Lewis? 

No. Ricky didn’t want that for her. If she came back as a ghost, then what if she came back as a weak spirit, like the painting ghosts? Stuck in one place? Trapped where she’d died? Clinging to her humanity and always struggling to not be consumed by stronger beings? Like the wild world of yokai Mystery had described. God, no. Not Cassidy. After all she’d been through, she deserved peace. 

But… where exactly? 

The Mystery Skulls talked about life after death as if there was more than one. If that were true, then perhaps he and Cassidy would truly never meet again. But maybe it was better that way. Wherever she was… all he wanted was what was best for her. But what did he know? Basically nothing. He would have to ask one of the Mystery Skulls about it when he got the chance. 

“Wherever you are,” he prayed to her quietly, “I hope you’re at peace, somewhere worthy of you. And I’m- Oh Angel… Cassidy I’m so sorry…” 

Maybe Ricky was just that exhausted. And perhaps not being in the body of an insomniac had something to do with it too. The last words that slipped past his lips before Ricky cried himself to sleep came out barely a whisper. 

“I love you…”

༻˚⁺･⚉｡○✼༓☾⦾♫෴♡💛♡෴♫⦾☽༓✼○｡⚉･⁺˚༺

“It’s done,” Lewis said, popping back into the room through the table in front of them. Marcie shrieked and nearly sent Arthur’s coffee flying across the room, but Arthur reached out and caught it before it could spill. 

“Dude. You did that on purpose,” Arthur said dryly. 

“Maybe,” Lewis shrugged. “It was funny tho.” 

“It wasn’t funny to me!” Marcie protested. 

“Sorry,” Lewis said, not sounding remorseful. He flew up to Arthur’s head level and flipped upside down. “But to be fair, I don’t get people I can mess with very often. What’s the point of being a ghost if you can’t at least have a little fun with it right?” 

“Yeah,” Marcie half-laughed, “I guess so.” 

“Is there anything else I can do to help while I’m here? Anything at all?” Lewis asked. 

“You’ve done plenty,” Arthur said. “Seriously Lewis. We may not have been able to pull this off without your help. Just out of curiosity, how many different tracking devices and bugs did you find on the Enigma Machine?” Arthur asked. 

“Four,” Lewis replied. 

“And what did you do with them?” 

“Hid them in the ceiling above the vehicle. Just like you said. When you make your escape, the tracking systems will show that the van is still in the garage. They won’t be able to track it.” 

“And you weren’t seen?” 

“Come on man, you know me. I’ve had plenty of practice avoiding breathers and fucking with security cameras by now,” Lewis said, flipping over so he was upright once more.

  “How foolish of me to doubt you,” Arthur said jokingly. 

“Yeah Arthur. Why’d you do that?” 

They laughed, but soon broke off into silence as an unpleasant truth hung in their air between them.

“I don’t want to leave you,” Lewis said sadly at last.

“And I don’t want you to go,” Arthur admitted, pulling his friend into a hug. “But we both know why you have to.” 

“Your plan will work. It has to,” Lewis said. 

“And when it does, I’ll see you on the road the night after next.” 

“But until then, know that you’ll never be off my mind. Just- remember, Arthur. If you need me for any reason, you can send a message through the Dead Beats.”

“I know. Thanks, Lewis.” Arthur said. 

They pressed their foreheads together for a long moment, a final goodbye, before Lewis turned to Marcie. “Take care of him,” he beseeched her. “Arthur’s the smartest idiot I know. He could build a whole new world with that brain of his, but he’ll get so focused on it that he’ll forget to do important being-alive things. Like eating. Or sleeping. Or occasionally taking a shower.” 

“Hey! I- do not!”

“Oh yeah? How many meals have you eaten today?” 

Arthur opened and closed his mouth, then pursed his lips in thought. “...Does one singular donut count as ‘brunch’?” 

“No it does not. Eat something, Kingsmen!” Lewis barked. 

“All right. All right. You have my word. I’ll scrounge something together.” 

“And you’ll sleep?” 

“... Yyyyes…” Arthur groaned. 

“But you’re going to eat something first.” Lewis said. 

“Fine! Look, Lew! This is me, going to eat something!” Arthur said loudly as he marched into the kitchen. 

Lewis’ scowl softened into a smile as he watched Arthur disappear into the other room. Then he turned back to Marcie once more. “Hey. Uhm. I know you’re doing a lot as it is, but I meant what I said. Take care of him… please.”

“Don’t worry. I will,” Marcie nodded. 

“Seriously. Thank you. The only reason I’m not an anxiety-ridden mess is because I know he’s not totally alone in here.”

“You are an anxiety-ridden mess,” Marcie corrected. 

Lewis barked a laugh. “I guess that’s true. So… it seems like you’re taking this really well. You’re definitely less hesitant to believe all this than Velma was. Any reason why?” 

“I mean Arthur had the Dead Beats as proof of the paranormal from the get-go, so I guess I’ve had a while to come to terms with the whole ‘ghosts are real’ thing before I met you. Other than that, I did have my doubts as to whether he’s really not Mr. E for most of today. Until…” 

“What?” 

“I made one reference. Just one. And the next thing I knew, Arthur had to physically restrain himself from going on a rave about Smash Bros trivia. We got refocused back to the task at hand pretty quick, but that’s definitely when I knew for sure. Mr. E would never.” 

Lewis snorted. “Yeah! That sounds like Arthur!” When Arthur came back into the room, eating the final bites of a ham and cheese sandwich, he didn’t say a word about Lewis being gone. Marcie supposed that for them, just leaving was easier. Or else they’d never be able to let each other go. 

Marcie was tempted to ask Arthur if he was okay, but he spoke up as she was opening her mouth to do so. “You should eat something too. I would’ve made you a sandwich too, but I didn’t know what you liked or if you were vegetarian or anything like that.”

“I’m not vegetarian but yeah. I’ll eat something. Speaking of… it’s getting pretty late you know. Are you… going to sleep soon?” 

“Eventually.” 

“How about a shower?” 

Arthur snorted. “Not a chance in Hell.” 

༻˚⁺･⚉｡○✼༓☾⦾♫෴♡💛♡෴♫⦾☽༓✼○｡⚉･⁺˚༺

Ricky dreamed that night. Of her, of course. 

The last time Ricky ever saw her was in the forest when all five members of the original Mystery Incorporated met together for the first time in 20 years. After Pericles made his offer and flew away, Brad and Judy had left in a huff, at that time still pretending that they were acting in the best interest of their son. Leaving Ricky and Cassidy alone beneath the moonlit trees. 

“The nerve of that bird,” she’d scoffed, angrily kicking a tree root. “Who the hell does he think he is?” 

Ricky just scowled, trying to hide how tempted he was to take him up on his offer. He didn’t trust Pericles. Their relationship would never be what it was. But… he missed him. As hard as he denied it, he missed his old friend. Having lost his every friend and ally, Ricky was alone. He hated being alone. 

Unless… 

“He’s right you know,” Ricky had said. 

And Cassidy had whirled around to scold him, “You can’t possibly be considering-!” 

“Of course not!” (He’d lied both to her and himself that night, of course.) “I just mean that us, working together… we’d have a better chance at getting the pieces than we would by ourselves. My offer still stands, Cassidy. You’re smart. Resourceful. Strong. I want you back on my team.” 

Looking back, she’d looked almost hopeful at first. But as soon as ‘getting the pieces’ left his mouth she had turned sad, her disappointment in him evident. “And my answer is the same,” she sighed. “I told you already, Ricky. I won’t hurt those kids.” 

“Right,” Ricky had said bitterly, “Because they’re good kids. What was it you said? Better than we were?” 

“We were good once too,” she muttered.

“You were a child.” Wait- what was that? A newer memory, the voice of a newer friend, echoing in his ears.

“You were a good kid.” What was he doing? He could be good again. This didn’t have to end the same way it had been the first time. He could save her. She didn’t have to die! 

“And he took advantage of that.” But even as these thoughts occurred to Ricky, everything he wanted to say was trapped at the back of his throat. 

“Goodbye Ricky,” and then she was leaving. 

NO! IF YOU LET HER GO YOU’LL NEVER SEE HER AGAIN!  

Ricky tried to move but his feet were rooted to the spot. He tried to talk, to shout her name, but no sound would come out. He reached out, trying to catch her, but she was just out of reach. 

NO. NO NO NO NO! 

But he watched her walk away, just as he had back then. And as she vanished into the darkness of the trees the memory of another familiar voice, a more cruel voice, echoed in his ears.

“Would you like to know how she died?” 

“NO!”

Ricky shot up, wide awake in a cold sweat. He had to look around for several moments as he recalled where he was and why. He was safe. In Lewis’ mansion. The forest was but one in a long series of regrets. And Cassidy- 

She’s gone.

Ricky took several deep breaths and fell back onto the pillows. 

Fuuuuuck. 

Figures he couldn’t go one night without something weird or otherwise unpleasant happening in his dreams. Granted - he hadn’t ended up in another dimension this time, so this was arguably an improvement. Arguably. As in Ricky could also argue that he preferred the Sitting Room. Seriously, the realities of the waking world were unpleasant as it is. Why did his brain have to torture him when he was asleep, too?

Just then, his stomach made a noise akin to the sound of a dying whale. 

“Fuck you Shaggy,” Ricky grumbled in the dark. But he felt bad as soon as the words left his mouth. It wasn’t Shaggy’s fault that his body for some reason required breakfast, second breakfast, elevensies, luncheon, afternoon tea, dinner, and supper. It was genetics- some kind of disorder- something. In any case, something wasn’t right. 

Come to think of it, how is he not constantly shitting with how much he eats? And how is he not as fat as me while shitting all the time? Where does the food go? Is this kid’s stomach a portal to another dimension??? 

Ah, the thoughts one has while tired as fuck at- Ricky glanced over at the alarm clock to see what godforsaken hour of the night it had the audacity to be - 2:51 in the morning. 

Also, speaking of shitting, he kinda needed to go to the bathroom anyway. 

Grumbling in I-don’t-want-to-get-up, Ricky reluctantly left the bed’s warm comfort. Fuck, he’d been all cozy from his body heat warming the covers and the inside of the mansion was cold - especially at night. But what else should he expect from a haunted house? Ricky turned the bedside lamp on, retrieved his jacket from where it was lying at the foot of his bed, and quickly put it on. 

He used the facilities, then went to the door. He glanced over at the clock again. It was now 3:00 am - the witching hour. Was it a good idea to wander the halls of a haunted house during the witching hour? Probably not. But based on the off-key didgeridoo noises his stomach was making, this stupid body wasn’t going to leave him alone until he fed it. So he really didn’t have much choice if he wanted so much as a chance of getting a wink of more sleep. 

Ricky stepped out into the hall. Fuck - it was dark. Fortunately there were nightlights at pretty regular intervals in the halls for the living, so he wasn’t wandering completely blind. He was fine leaving the East Wing and the few turns after that. Living and working at Destroido meant that he was used to remembering his way through large buildings. He heard footsteps once or twice with no one attached to them, weird glowing orbs darted in and out of sight, and at one point he thought he heard voices muttering. But he didn’t meet any ghosts. That is until- 

Uh-oh. Which way was it again?

Left or right? Should he just walk to the end of each hall and see if anything looked familiar? Dammit, where were the Dead Beats when you needed- 

Scrrrrraaape

Such a quiet sound was deafening in the silent hallway. Ricky froze. 

Scraaape- Scrrrrrraaape

Ricky gulped and turned his head in the direction of the noise. 

Ding-dong Daddy-o… 

One of the suits of armor had moved. From its usual frozen position to leaning forward with its head turned in Ricky’s direction, glowing pink eyes beneath its mask fixed right on him. 

Ricky gulped. Lewis said they protect the mansion. “U-uh… I-I’m a guest…” he stuttered, fiddling with his fingers, feeling very silly and very scared. “I uh, I got hungry. Could you uh- tell me which way the kitchen is? 

Scccrrrape Scrrrraaape

The suit of armor moved again, pointing towards the left. 

“Oh-” Ricky had kind of not expected it to answer him, much less help. “T-thanks.” 

Scrrrraaape Scrape Scraaape 

The suit of armor briefly bowed to him, then motioned for him to be on his way. 

Heart pounding, Ricky’s whole body felt stiff with fear as he took the route to the left. He could hear the armor’s head turning as it watched him go. As he came to the next hallway (he remembered where he was now), he heard a bunch more scraping behind him as the possessed armor returned to its usual frozen position. 

Well that was terrifying yet helpful. 

Just as terrifying yet equally helpful, every suit of armor Ricky passed from then on pointed in the direction Ricky needed to go. Until finally, very creeped out and not wanting to make any more noise from the metal moving, Ricky told one of the suits of armor as politely as he could that he remembered which way to go from here, but that he appreciated all of their help. The armor bowed to him, resumed its original position, and none of them moved after that. 

Soon after that, came into the foyer, where he was happy to see a familiar troop of pink friends playing tag near the ceiling, zooming around the chandelier. As he stepped out of the doorway, one of the Dead Beats spotted him and pointed him out to his friends, who all made happy trilling noises as they zoomed down to give him nuzzles and demand pets. Trying to stay quiet, Ricky laughed, scritching their heads. “Hey you guys. Boy, am I happy to see you. I’m on my way to the kitchen for a midnight snack. Would you like to keep me company?” 

The Dead Beats were delighted to do just that. 

Then at last, Ricky made it into the kitchen. 

Ricky opened the fridge and squinted from the glare of the bright artificial light, his eyes having adjusted to the dark house. He was looking for a drink when- 

“Ricky?” 

Ricky jumped and banged his head on the top of the fridge with a curse. 

“Oof, you okay dude?” 

“Lewis?” Ricky turned around, rubbing the soon-to-be bump on his head. The ghost was standing by the doorway with a couple more Dead Beats. “You’re back. And- What’re you doing up?” 

“I’m a ghost,” Lewis shrugged. “I don’t exactly need sleep. What’re you doing up?” 

“Uh- couldn’t sleep. And I got hungry.” 

Lewis snorted. “You just missed Scooby. He was in here for a midnight snack not half an hour ago.” 

“Ah. That explains why the fridge doesn’t look as packed as it did earlier,” Ricky said. Right then, one of the Dead Beats floated over to him helpfully with a bag of pretzels. Ricky thanked him and then turned back to Lewis. “So. How was Arthur?” He asked, popping one into his mouth.

Lewis sighed with relief. “He’s okay. Thank God. Marcie’s on board, I helped with some things, and thus far everything’s going according to his plan.” 

“That’s good,” Ricky sighed, eating another handful. “So what exactly is his plan?” He asked after he swallowed. 

“Actually, I needed to talk to you about that…” Lewis rubbed the back of his neck and procured a flashdrive from a pocket in his waistcoat. 

Ricky abruptly stopped chewing. Why did he have a feeling that he knew what the contents of that were? He swallowed. “What’s that?” He asked. 

“Proof of what happened to you,” Lewis winced. 

“... Oh,” Ricky looked away. “Did uh… did you watch it?” 

“No,” Lewis said. “That would be a messed up thing to do. And I’m not going to let anyone else see it without your permission either. So… are you okay with me seeing this? Or anyone else for that matter?” 

“Um… let me get back to you on that. It’s- late. I know somebody should see it but- could I think about it?” 

“No problem man. Take as much time as you need,” Lewis said, tucking it back in his pocket. 

“Oh! Ricky. What are you doing up?” Mystery, in the form of a dog, trotted into the room and hopped up into one of the chairs.

“Ah- uh, bad dreams,” Ricky said, forgetting to lie about it. “-And a midnight snack,” he caught himself, shaking the bag of pretzels. He quickly changed the subject. “So uh, how are you and Vivi? All good?” 

“What happened with Vivi?” Lewis growled.

“Tensions ran high, and we had a moment. About three years ago. But we got through it, and we’re fine now,” Mystery said, hinting very strongly to Lewis that they would talk about it when not in mixed company.

Lewis fortunately caught the hint, because he reverted the subject back to Ricky. “Gotcha. So, Ricky. Bad dreams? Do you… want to talk about it?”

“I’ve just been- thinking a lot about Cassidy,” he admitted, setting down the now-empty bag of pretzels and opening a jug of yogurt. “I know you never knew her but, I really wish you had. She was… she really was perfect.” 

Ricky was too deep in self-pity to notice the panicked look Mystery and Lewis shot each other. 

“I said a lot of really shitty things to her,” Ricky sighed. “Things I didn’t mean. And I just wish I could take it all back, or at least tell her how sorry I am. For all of it.”

He was completely oblivious to Mystery and Lewis silently shouting at each other on either side of him. 

‘Should we tell him???’ Lewis mouthed. 

��No!’ Mystery mouthed back. 

“And she would have loved this.” Ricky laughed, “Knowing her she’d be like ‘hell no’ at first. But once she got over that initial hurdle I really think she would’ve liked to learn all of this, and to meet you. And you would’ve liked her.” 

‘He deserves to know!’ Lewis mouthed, gesticulating wildly. 

‘Don’t say SHIT!’ Mystery swiped a paw across his throat.

‘He’s heartbroken!’ 

‘It’s too much!’ 

“She would have been a big help too,” Ricky said. “She was so smart. One of the smartest people I ever knew… and the kindest.” 

‘I’m gonna tell him!’ 

‘Don’t you dare!’

‘We should tell him!’ 

“In the morning!” Mystery loud-whispered. 

Ricky looked up, and Mystery and Lewis quickly snapped into “totally-not-up to-something” poses before he could notice. “Did you say something?” He asked. 

“Oh- yes. Cassidy-” The dog cleared his throat. “Cassidy is a truly wonderful person. And uh- in the morning, I have a lot more to tell you and teach you that I bet she would really want to see.” Were it not past 3:00 in the morning, Ricky might have caught Mystery’s use of the word ‘is’ as opposed to ‘was’.

‘Smooth,’ Lewis mouthed at Mystery over Ricky’s head. 

Mystery shot him a glare. None of that was a lie. 

Just then, on its own, the radio on the counter turned on smack in the middle of a Mystery Skulls song.

“If I could do this all a-gain,  If I could start o-ver, and give you everything-”

The three of them turned around to the source of the noise to see the Dead Beats floating totally guilty around the radio. 

“-Yeah, I wouldn’t change a thing. As long as I have you baby- As long as I have you baby!” 

Ricky just looked at them confused and listened while panicked, Mystery and Lewis comically shook their heads, ‘NO!’ 

And the Dead Beats stubbornly nodded, ‘YES!’ 

“See?” Ricky sighed, completely misinterpreting what the Dead Beats were trying to tell him. “They get it.” 

As the strum of the keyboard and the thrum of the beat gave way to lyrics once more, Lewis flew across the room-

“-’Cause no one ever really diiies-” 

Ricky didn’t hear the rest because Lewis cut the radio off. 

“Why’d you turn it off?” Ricky asked, confused. 

“I- uh- it was way too loud. You- sillies,” Lewis turned to the Dead Beats with a too-wide grin. “I know how much you love music, but do you want to wake the whole house? We’re going to have to have a talk later,” The ghost growled at them. 

The Dead Beats just crossed their arms and turned away sharply. Foiled!

While Lewis glared at the Dead Beats, Mystery turned back to Ricky. “Speaking of,” the kitsune-disguised-as-a-dog said, “I really think you ought to get back to sleep.” 

Ricky scoffed. “I’m not so sure that’s going to happen. Sleep doesn’t exactly come to me easily. Not to mention I’m not exactly looking forward to another nightmare.” 

Mystery tilted his head, thoughtful. 

The dog made a flourish with one of his paws, and a small vial appeared on the table in a flash of his foxfire. 

Ricky jumped, not expecting it. The vial was half-moon-shaped, with a star-shaped cork, filled with a beautiful luminous midnight blue fluid. 

“Really? You’re gonna give him that?” Lewis exclaimed. The Dead Beats were still pouting behind him.

“What is it?” Ricky asked.

“Magic,” Mystery replied. “We're acquainted with a number of potion makers and regularly enlist their services. This,” Mystery said, motioning for Ricky to pick up the bottle, “is a half-dose of dreamless sleep potion. It instantly puts its drinker into deep sleep, then awakens the drinker fast enough that the mind never enters the stage of sleep in which dreams occur. This is a half dose, meant to be taken when one wakes in the middle of the night. So it should guarantee you another five hours or so of restful slumber.”

“Just don’t get reliant on that stuff,” Lewis warned. “Trust us, we know from experience: It becomes an unhealthy coping mechanism if you use it too often.”

 “So I will not allow you to use this tomorrow night under any circumstances,” Mystery added with a nod.

Ricky blinked at him for a few moments, so grateful and stunned that words failed him. “I- Thank you Mystery,” He stammered. 

“Oh pish posh. It’s such a simple matter it hardly requires any thanks. But I accept it all the same.” (Bullshit. Ricky could totally tell he was enjoying the gratitude.) 

“Also, don’t drink that until you’re already in bed,” Lewis cautioned. “It’ll put you out so fast that the flavor will still be on your tongue when you konk out. Arthur took it too soon one time and passed the fuck out right in the middle of the apothecary.”

“Sheesh. Strong stuff,” Ricky said, admiring the way the potion glittered. 

“Hardly. Just a little magic,” Mystery chuckled. “Now off to bed with you. The faster you fall asleep the sooner you’ll wake up. There’s much to discuss in the morning.” 

After Ricky finished his yogurt and two packs of popcorn, he bid Mystery and Lewis goodbye and the Dead Beats led him back to his room (Lewis discreetly made it very clear on their way out that they were still in hot water). As Ricky followed the pouting ghosts back to the East Wing, he turned the potion in his hands and wondered if Mystery had ever used it, or if he ever had trouble sleeping. He was centuries old, and had been through so much. Did he get nightmares too? 

The Dead Beats led him on a different route back to the East Wing than he’d taken earlier that took them past the library. Which was why Ricky stopped, confused, in front of the doors. 

The lights were on. 

Curious, he walked into the library and the Dead Beats followed, chirping something that he imagined meant: “Hey, aren’t you supposed to be following us?” But Ricky ignored them. 

The library was seemingly abandoned and dark, save a few lamps and the dull glow of moonlight shining through the windows. It wasn’t immediately apparent who was working this late until Ricky spotted an orange sleeve sticking out of a pile of papers at one of the desks. 

“Velma?” 

“TWELVE!” Velma shouted as her head shot up from the desk. Ricky and the Dead Beats jumped with surprise. She snorted and adjusted her glasses, reorienting herself back to reality from whatever she’d been dreaming about, then her bleary eyes fixed on him. 

“Shaggy-? Wait. No. Sorry. Mr. E- Ricky! Sorry. What are you doing here?” 

“Couldn’t sleep. What’re you doing here?” He asked, crossing his arms. 

“Who could sleep in a house full of books?” She shrugged. Then she yawned, rubbing her eyes beneath her glasses. 

“I’d get back to bed if I were you,” Ricky advised. “Mystery’s also awake and if he finds you in here he’ll probably scold you for neglecting your health and send you back to bed anyway.” 

“Are you going to scold me?” Velma asked. 

“Nah. I’m up at 3am too, so I really can’t talk,” He shrugged. “Come on. Let’s go together.” 

Velma straightened her work station so it wouldn’t look like a tornado had blown through it come morning, and the two of them followed the Dead Beats back to the East Wing.

Their walk was mostly silent until they passed a familiar portrait of a scowling priest, who gave them an extremely distasteful look but didn’t dare say anything out of fear of facing Mystery’s wrath again.

That was when it occurred to Ricky that they were walking along the same stretch of hallway where he’d had that talk with Fred earlier. Also he and Velma were alone. Which made it the perfect opportunity to ask her a rather delicate question. 

Ricky cleared his throat nervously. “Um, Velma?” 

“Yes?” 

“I uh, have a question to ask you… It’s not exactly a fun one, but uh...” 

Velma straightened her spine and squared her shoulders. “Okay,” she said thoughtfully.

“I need to know how Cassidy died.”

Velma’s face softened at the question, but he saw confirmation in her eyes of what he’d already suspected. 

“You were there, weren’t you?” 

Velma looked away, and she didn’t answer for several long moments. She took off her glasses to wipe the wetness from her eyes with her sleeve before she got a grip, put her glasses back on, and confirmed what he already knew: “Yeah. We were there.” 

Ricky’s throat closed. For her, and for the other poor kids who’d had to witness something so awful. He didn’t meet her eyes when he asked her quietly, “Did she suffer?” 

Velma hesitated in her answer. None of them had seen it happen, but they were all haunted by imaginings of Cassidy’s final moments. Had she been shot by the Kriegstaffebots before the self-destruct sequence completed? Was she blown up? Had the explosion killed her instantly? Or had she been covered in burns and injuries, forced to suffer before she faded away? Or had she lasted a bit longer and drowned? Supposedly drowning was a peaceful way to go, but she must have been so scared- 

“No,” Velma said firmly, no matter how much she doubted it. “It happened so fast. I’m sure she didn’t suffer.” 

Ricky’s entire body sagged with relief. “Thank you, Velma."

༻˚⁺･⚉｡○✼༓☾⦾♫෴♡💛♡෴♫⦾☽༓✼○｡⚉･⁺˚༺

Professor Pericles was a homicidal maniac. 

Both fortunately and unfortunately for the entirety of the human race, he was smart about being a homicidal maniac. 

He didn’t just kill people whenever he felt like it. He did so with purpose, waiting until the opportune moment to remove certain pawns or obstacles from his path. Which was good for Marcie and Arthur, because it meant that they likely had a bit of time to stop Professor Pericles from killing someone in the future. 

They had been working for a little under an hour after Lewis left when a stubborn little red light turned green. 

Marcie nearly spat out her coffee. “I’m in!”

“Seriously?” Arthur’s head shot up excitedly from where he was hunched over his own computer, sending a couple of pages of scribbled notes falling from the side of the table. One of the Dead Beats picked them up and put them back helpfully. 

“Yep. Alright, Arthur. Now what?” And with that they swapped computers, and Arthur’s face lit up in the artificial light as his eyes greedily took in the seemingly alien letters and numbers filling the screen. 

Seemingly alien of course, unless you were an expert of Arthur and Marcie’s calibur. For while to untrained eyes it may look like word salad, to the two of them it was like looking into the Matrix, and at a mere glance Arthur knew that Marcie really had pulled through. 

He was looking at the Kriegstaffebot program codes.

It was time to deliver the first strike. The question was: when was Pericles going to feel it?

༻˚⁺･⚉｡○✼༓☾⦾♫෴♡💛♡෴♫⦾☽༓✼○｡⚉･⁺˚༺

They went into Velma’s room to talk. 

It went about as well as it could have, as painful as it was for both of them.

After Velma finished recounting Cassidy’s final hours, Ricky thanked her and returned to his own room, where he laid back in his bed, the sleeping potion still corked in his hand, and stared at the ceiling processing what he’d been told. 

He blew up K-Ghoul. He. Fucking. Blew up. K-Ghoul. He destroyed her home and her livelihood, and he tried to kill her until he succeeded. 

Ricky was grateful for the potion Mystery had given him, because he was so angry right now that he was certain he’d never get back to sleep otherwise. 

K-Ghoul had been his gift to her when Angel Dynamite had returned to Crystal Cove. He used the excuse that she’d need a good cover to come back with her alias intact. But that wasn’t completely true. He could have just as well gotten her a job as a custodian somewhere if he wanted her to keep an eye on the town and the new Mystery Incorporated unnoticed. But she would have been miserable doing that kind of work. Angel Dynamite was a DJ, and Cassidy had always loved music. It was true that she came back to Crystal Cove for a reason. But he wanted her to be… happy. He also supposed, looking back, that he’d wanted to thank her for all the joy she'd brought him once. And to make amends in his own way, even if the words to apologize hadn’t come (yet another of his many regrets). 

Their breakup was his fault. As the years went by after Pericles’ betrayal, Ricky had grown bitter and angry. And the one who got the brunt of it was the very same person who stuck by his side longer than anyone else. He never struck her. As awful a human being as the curse had twisted him into, he didn’t think he’d be able to live with himself if he ever hit Cassidy. But all the same, he’d been so… mean. And of course, no matter how much she loved him, Cassidy’s self-esteem and strength of spirit was too high to deal with his bullshit, so… They broke up. 

And after all that time, Ricky had still regretted the way he’d treated her. But even though they weren’t together anymore, he… he wanted her to be happy. K-Ghoul had been his way of looking after her, as he should have done all those years ago. 

And Pericles fucking blew it up. Without even consulting me. How dare he? 

“He had no right…” Ricky seethed quietly, feeling more like his bitter old self than he had in a while. But this time his anger was directed at just one bird. Professor Pericles. Not the kids. Not the world. Not Cassidy- 

Cassidy… 

Maybe it made him a horrible person, but he couldn’t help but be a little mad at her. “Why didn’t you come to me?” He whispered into the dark, a tear falling down his cheek. 

I would have protected you. I never would have let him hurt you if I knew. 

But Ricky couldn’t be mad at her. Because he knew exactly why she hadn’t come to him. 

She had no way of knowing that I would have chosen her. I was working with Pericles. For all she knew, I was the one trying to have her killed. 

Imagining that broke Ricky’s heart all over again. That Cassidy died thinking-

Ricky sniffed and closed his eyes. 

Cassidy… died.

As angry as he was, Ricky was also overwhelmingly sad. 

They were in the Midnight Zone. She was surrounded by Kriegstaffebots. The lab exploded. 

No. No, she would never give up! There was no corpse so maybe- 

But their seal friend found her helmet. Even if she survived the blast, the weight of all that water would have killed her for sure. And even if not, there’s absolutely no way she would have been able to swim to the surface before she drowned.

There was no way out. Not even for her.

She’s gone.

In the back of Ricky’s mind, ever since he’d first learned of her death, there had been doubt. A small flicker of hope. Cassidy? Dead? It couldn’t be real. But Velma was no liar, and above that she was a realist. Hearing the facts of how it had happened from her made it… real.

She’s gone.

That was that. That was it. Ricky Owens was never going to see Cassidy Williams again and he didn’t even have a body to bury. The empty shell that had once been her was buried under rubble at the bottom of the ocean, the high walls of the trench the closest thing to a tombstone she would ever have. 

She’s gone. 

Pericles did it. He got rid of her. He pulled the trigger- 

But I put the gun in his talons.

The weight of his own grief threatening to crush him, Ricky redirected his energy into his rage. I never should have saved him all those years ago. 

He uncorked the potion and was immediately hit with an extremely strong smell. There was a lot of lavender but also other herbs and- whatever the hell that was. Ricky had no idea what he was about to ingest, but he trusted Mystery and needed to be well-rested. 

She will be avenged. Her death will not be in vain! I’m going to need every bit of strength I can muster if I’m going to help- 

But Ricky didn’t have a single other thought. For he’d tipped the bottle back and downed it in one gulp. And the instant after a light, minty, earthy flavor hit his tongue, Ricky’s entire body was going slack, the bottle was slipping from his fingers, and he was being enveloped in the welcome peace that slumber brought - completely dead to the world.

༻˚⁺･⚉｡○✼༓☾⦾♫෴♡💛♡෴♫⦾☽༓✼○｡⚉･⁺˚༺

Dawn came with deceptive tranquility. 

The sun was peeking over the horizon and a morning mist had settled over the forest, making the mansion and the twisted, jagged trees around it seem as if they were on an island at the center of an endless gray sea. 

The arrival of a long-awaited guest was marked by the rumble of a familiar engine, and the mist curling around a familiar silhouette like an angel’s wings.

Well. If any of you missed Ricky, you ought to be overjoyed with how Ricky-centered this chapter was. And you should expect the same from the next few chapters as well. If I were to map out the evolution of my plans for this chapter, they'd look like a roundabout with the number of directions this could have gone. At one point it was going to be heavily referencing the exorcist (have fun speculating what the fuck that means) (also that''s the stage I was at when I wrote the last chapter's author's notes, so sorry - I lied. It's gonna be a while before things get "nuts"), but then I realized that part would fit better later in the story. So a large chunk of this chapter was cut out, pasted somewhere else to be saved for later, and rewritten. So you guys have that to look forward to. But I'm happy with where this chapter ended up. I loved the humor and fourth wall breaks, angst is always fun to write, I liked further exploring some off-screen Rickidy interactions that may have happened in the show, and I think it ties up Ricky's grief arc in a neat little bow - right before it's smashed to pieces in the next chapter when You-Know-Who returns! (How did that accidentally become a Harry Potter reference? Oops. Lol. Though the dreamless sleep potion was inspired by the potion of the same name and function in the Harry Potter series. I just got back from Universal Studios, ok?! Harry Potter is on the brain.) Also. We got to meet the suits of armor, Lewis is back with the main group, and Arthur and Marcie have hacked into the Kriegstaffebots. What will they do with that? :D Finally, I just wanted to say that the next chapter of this fic has been living in my head rent-free for almost a year. It's one of the scenes I imagined that made me want to write this fic to begin with. So from the bottom of my heart, I can't even begin to say how excited I am to share it with you. That's all for now Warlocks, Witches, and Badass Bitches.

Chapters 1-18 of One of Us are presently posted on Archive of Our Own.

[nameless-brand]

Pinned Post:

Sato / 18 / she/her. I have moved on past an MS paint icon to a photo of myself.

Owner of an enterprise originating from New Jersey trying to get said company settled into where the Nameless City used to be, now called Gotham.

First thing that greeted me was some ugly Gothic tower from a big-shot company planted right where I died.

Rude.

Anyway, it's been an utter pain in the butt.

----

OOC:

Sato finally gets her own Tunglr blog. Only took the timeline to break to do so. This is the "A Lilium At the End of the World " timeline!

She's the only one that remembers the "Dream's Descent" timeline, given her identity as < Myriad Lights >.

The Dream doesn't exist here because in their first confrontation / the Dream's betrayal, Sato sacrifices her Spark of Godhood to banish it for good. She dies afterwards but not before she manages to set up contingences.

As a result, there's quite a few changes in the new timeline.

No gods, no masters.

-------

Law

No password.

Common decency applies. Don’t do something that you wouldn’t appreciate being done to yourself. We’re all here to have fun.

No sexual NSFW things here or any of my other blogs. Not really my thing.

Multi-fandom and crossover friendly. OC Friendly. 

I am Hika / Lilac. I am an adult!

If you need things tagged, please tell me so I can do so. I will try to preemptively tag for common triggers, but I can’t account for everything.

Given this is an in-character blog, most posts will be short. However, face-to-face will likely be multi-para length.

As I'm double-downing on the Gotham setting, Sato will not know Bruce Wayne is Batman and in fact will be highly resistant to the idea. To her, it's like hearing Elon Musk declaring he's Batman (not to mention other rich people claiming to know or assist the superhero). She doesn't particularly care about supervillainry and superheroism beyond it hurting her bottom line as she's a mostly normal person now.

------

Name: Sato

Moniker: koi, Myriad Lights

Age: 18

Pronouns: She/her

Personality: Determined, she's always been determined. Sure, she's a bit of a ditz and a blabbermouth - okay, more than a bit, but she's always been sincere. Her desires, her dealings with people, her affection.

She still thinks people can be better and be happy, so long as they have the environment to do so.

Problem is she's living in a world in late-stage capitalism, where companies, now giant insatiable organisms of their own, try and grow uncontrollably with no one to check and balance them out. It was like that in the prior world too, but it was so much worse here.

Of course, she already has a lot going on like trying to find her friend who is off god knows where, not to mention the others who are probably living very different lives in this new timeline. And now she has to tackle an enormous societal problem that encompasses the world?

Well, she'd know Levant would want her to do it. And the other factor is that she maaaaay have accidentally blown herself up in a fit of fury against the Dream, so she isn't really a Goddess anymore. But she could still accumulate Faith - and with it, she'll be able to do something to help save Levant when the opportunity reveals itself.

Furthermore, she needs to find the rest of the Nameless Church somehow. Find Lillian - or is it Chi again - especially - Lev would want that. She suspects Mirielle and Sasha escaped the timeline. Well, she knows. She had to literally push Mirielle out of the timeline before she strained it further trying to save her.

In any case, the best way to achieve her goals was to make a massive company on her own - money and resources to find the Nameless Church and Faith to gain the power to find Levant. She knows what major stocks will get big - she also knows all the market trends like Crypto and NFTs - and knows what to avoid too like Mt. Gox and Enron. And while she's at it, she'll be doing something about that rampant capitalism destroying people's lives thing.

If she can't kill it from the outside (without inciting mass deaths anyway), she could try to do it from the inside instead. No, she doesn't have a plan. She doesn't even know how to run a company, but she can learn.

What better way to gather Faith is to have a whole bunch of people grateful to you for providing a decent livelihood in this world?

Appearance:

[callivich]

FIC WRITER INTERVIEW

@energievie tagged me recently and this looked like fun so I decided to do it! Thanks Evie for the tag!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

I actually have two accounts (one for Gallavich and one I don’t use anymore for Star Wars). In total: 182. Gallavich - 50. Star Wars - 152.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

134,879 for SW and 86,308 for Gallavich. Total: 221,187

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Extraction (Gallavich) - 333

Nicknames (Star Wars - Han/Lando) - 323

Date Night (Gallavich) - 253

Flirting (Star Wars - Han/Lando) - 237

Time Slip (Gallavich) - 231

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

Yes! I always try to. I love comments.

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I don’t think I’ve written anything that has a really angsty ending….I write a lot of fluff so I think my work usually ends on a happy/hopeful note.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Pretty much all of them have happy endings 😅 - I do love writing fluff. Honestly not sure which would be the happiest.

7. Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you’ve written?

No. I’m not a huge fan of crossovers so I can’t see myself writing one. (Although - I do love the idea of Gallavich/Schitt’s Creek crossover but I don’t think I’d ever write one.)

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

No.

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

No. I wish I could because I have so many ideas…😈 but I’m just not confident enough in my smut writing. Maybe one day…

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes - I’ve been very lucky to have two translated!

Camping (Gallavich)

Heat (Han/Lando)

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

Yes - a fic where Ian and Mickey go house hunting - with @arrowflier (I’ve got a bit of writers block and I’m struggling with the next update but I will get to it!)

13. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Gallavich. I love it like I’ve never loved any other ship. It’s the most interesting one I’ve ever shipped and there’s so much canon to use compared to some others I’ve shipped, also there’s a lot of different dynamics and aspects to their relationship so there’s always something to think about. It’s inspired me to be creative more than any other ship and I think it’ll always be my favourite even though I’m relatively new to the ship.

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

So this gave me the opportunity to go back and look at my SW fics and I’d totally forgotten I had two WIPs in there 🙈 I don’t plan on finishing them or going back to engaging in that fandom so yeah, they’ll always be WIPs.

15. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue. I love writing dialogue and I think that’s what I’m best at.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Description and smut. I think I’m getting better with the description part though….

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I love when other people do it but I only speak one language so I wouldn’t do it because I wouldn’t feel confident enough.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Star Wars. I’d been in various different fandoms for years as a reader but I only plucked up the courage a few years ago to actually try writing. I never ever thought I’d try writing but I’m so glad I did. And since I’ve started, I’ve enjoyed it so much I’ve not stopped!

19. What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

I’m not really into it anymore but had I been writing years ago I would have wanted to write Spuffy or Spangel.

20. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Probably Roleplaying (Gallavich) because it’s silly and fun and makes people laugh. And Interruptions and Consequences (Gallavich) again because it’s funny and makes people laugh and it’s fun to write the brothers/brother-in-law dynamic with Lip.

~~~~~~

Thanks for tagging me Evie!

I know Evie tagged a lot of people and I’d like to also tag: @mickeyjetaime @good-then-dont @bardgf @sweetcresta @unbridgeabledistances @grabmyboner @iansfreckles @wildxwired @livinginsunnyhell @aeliagioia @twinklyylights @restapesta @ianrightsonly @gallavictorious @jazwritesstuff @thrillingdetectivetales @crazynadine (And anyone else who feels like doing this!)

Even if you don’t have the time to write out answers, I would totally suggest thinking about the questions because I found it a lot of fun to go back and look through my old work. 💖

[alfredosauce50]

The Place Beyond the Pines [2p! America x reader] 08

08 - Nightcall Wordcount: 3, 393 Rating: M for strong language, mature and ideologically sensitive themes. Chapter synopsis: Alfred witnesses something he wishes he didn’t. Even in tears, it gives him the resolve to call you one last time over the phone. Meanwhile, Allen drives you through the night to get the closure he always wanted. He tells you the truth about himself, his regrets, and everything he would’ve wanted you to know if he were to never see you again. The prospect is right around the corner as you’re forced to choose between the two. To cut one off forever and be with the other. Disclaimer: This is a crossover with the film, “The Place Beyond the Pines.” The reader is referred to as she/her.

The Place Beyond the Pines 08 - Nightcall

A/N: I was inspired by Kavinsky’s song “Nightcall”

Alfred looked for you outside the bathrooms.

When he walked into a clearing, he saw what he needed to see.

As he stood frozen still on the dirt, drowned by the excitement of festivities and laughter of strangers, his chest ached with the sobs he’d yet to cry. The ringing and buzzing of machines in his ears faded. He couldn’t feel Jason’s arms around his neck anymore. All he knew was you and Allen sharing a tearful reunion, then his own crushing betrayal.

|

He didn’t like eating out back then. He was a cheapskate. But just for the opportunity to strike up a conversation, he would spare a few bucks for a coffee or a bagel. And just like any other regular customer, the staff eventually came to know him by name—Alfred, the guy who only came in for a single cup of joe. And he’d always sit in the same place.

The counter in front of the kitchen door.

You burst through it with a tray in hand. Alfred glances up. You flash him a smile. Making long, purposed strides to one of the booths, you placed two plates in front of a couple sitting opposite each other. When you returned, Alfred found himself listening eagerly to your footsteps. Any second now.

“The usual?” You appeared behind the counter and picked up a jug of coffee. He nodded with a grin. Bending down to retrieve a cup and saucer, you added this in a strain. “You know, you stay awfully long for someone who just orders rocket fuel.”

His flickered his zealous eyes over you like he couldn’t wait for his turn to speak.

“Why, can’t I do that?”

“No, but you’re giving me the wrong idea.”

He brought his coffee up to his lips and sipped it. His expression and tone were both unreadable when he piped up again. “What kinda idea?”

You scoffed through your nose, struggling to stifle a smile. He was good, but you could do him one better. “Hm... That you don’t have anything better to do?” Alfred laughed airily. Honestly, you weren’t wrong. “Or a social life, for that matter. You come in every afternoon, Alfred. Why do you keep coming back?”

He shrugged, pursing his lips forcefully.

“I dunno, maybe it’s ‘cause I really like the coffee.”

“Really,” You rose your brows skeptically. You picked up the jug and watched the blackish liquid slosh in the glass. “Nobody likes the coffee.”

Alfred stared at you wordlessly. ‘Oops’ was written all over his face. He was never good at telling whether hot, bitter, bean water was good or not.

“I, uh, I actually have to tell you something.”

His cheeks grew rosy as he cracked like an egg.

“Can you meet me outside in a minute?”

You showed a coy look, having figured him out. It had been two months since you first met him in January. He was a charmer in his own right. Sweet, sensitive, well-spoken, and funny, it wasn’t hard to befriend someone like him. He never beat around the bush to say he wanted to go steady with you either.

“I have something to tell you too,” While you stood with him outside his car, he would dart his eager eyes over your face as you spoke. You quickly broke away from his gaze, unable to handle his scrutiny on top of the rising anxiety in your system. “I...”

“Take your time,” Alfred squeezed your hand. When he felt the light trembling in it, he frowned deeply. You were deathly afraid of something. His reaction, no doubt. And so, he forced this out with hopes of calming your shallow breaths. “Hey.”

You looked up quickly. His ocean blues stared at you with so much understanding, your racing heart slowed until your chest no longer hurt. Something about Alfred made you want to trust him. His kindness, his respect, he always had a way of making people feel welcomed, no matter the circumstance.

“Whatever you tell me, I promise I won’t hold it against you. So don’t be scared, okay?”

Alfred stroked your skin with his thumb.

“You can trust me.”

“I know I can trust you,” You shook your head lightly, causing a few tears to stream down to your chin. “But you won’t be happy either way. And you won’t deserve what you get into.” Reaching up to your face contorted with pain, you rubbed everything away.

“I don’t wanna do this to you.”

It was his turn to shake his head, albeit in dissent.

“Do what?” You turned away. He simply moved to face you again. “What could you do to me to make me unhappy? You have to tell me.”

“I’m pregnant.” You confessed.

His eyes went round from shock.

A suffocating silence ensued. You rubbed away more tears and tore yourself away from him before he could say anything. You didn’t want to hear what he had to say. You couldn’t handle it. Just when you felt the first sob rise in your throat, he shot out a hand and grabbed your wrist, stopping you abruptly.

“Is that a problem?” Alfred asked almost defiantly. Just like that, he turned your greatest sorrow into your greatest joy. He saw the love in your eyes, fierce and undying. He saw hope, the one thing you’ve been needing in this despairing world. “If you’re not together with them anymore, why is it a problem?”

You were in love with him then.

So why weren’t you still in love with him now?

He sat in the living room with Jason on his lap. All the lights in the house were off, save for a dim lamp on the coffee table. Alfred never cried, but thinking about it had quiet tears running down his face.

He screwed his eyes shut and hugged Jason.

The boy looked just like his father. And he’d always hated it from the bottom of his heart. Sometimes, a mere glimpse of his little face was all it took for his blood to boil. But he couldn’t go on like this forever.

“I’m sorry.” He sobbed into his hair. The child was quiet in his arms, having fallen asleep on the car ride back home. But his small hands never stopped clinging to his shirt, scrunching up the fabric.

“I’m sorry for ever being angry at you.”

I’m giving you a night call to tell you how I feel                                     I want to drive you through the night,   down the hills

Allen floored it and sped through the black streets. His eyes darted around every so often as he made sharp turns, swerving across the asphalt in loud screeches. There was no destination. No endpoint. Just the craze to get away from there. And he never knew how much he needed it until he did it.

Taking you far, far away from Alfred.

Far, far away had to settle for ten blocks down, however. Pulling into a quiet road, he parked the car next to the curb and turned to you.

“I know what you’re gonna say,” Allen stared at you warily as he raised his hands in surrender. “I know what you’re gonna say.” He shook his head.

“Do you?”

Your fierce glare on him had been unwavering, but as the pause dragged on, it faded into a look of terror. You turned away and covered your mouth in grief, only now just processing what had just happened. Allen couldn’t stop making mistakes. And you?

You kissed him.

“Yeah. ‘Fuck you, Allen. You’re the worst thing that’s happened to my life. I wished you never fucking came back.” He exclaimed, making you shrink into your neck from his intensity. His chest was rising and falling dramatically as he breathed. “I get it. Okay? I get it. And you know what? You’re right. And I’m sorry. But I just want you to hear me out.”

I’m gonna tell you something you   don’t want to hear I’m gonna show you where it’s dark,   but have no fear

“What? That you wished things ended differently?” You muttered, the whispered words barely in his earshot. Whipping your head to him, you showed your red face contorted with pain. “Well, guess what, Al? You can’t just, force everything to go your way just because you want to.” Bile had risen in your throat, and the tears returned in quiet streams.

“Come on, that’s not what I—” He winced.

You tried rubbing everything away, but to no avail. The tears just never stopped.

“—but it is. You brought me out here to do that, didn’t you?” Allen covered his eyes for a hot second; a last resort to hide the regret that ran through them. “So you did. But it’s too late for that, now. I’m with someone else, and I just left them by themselves at the fucking fair with Jason!” You choked.

“I know, and I’m sorry.” Allen pleaded, earning a furious look from you. As desperate as you were to push him away, to save everything you had without him, your life with Alfred, and all your dreams, what he added melted your anger in an instant.

“But I just wanna tell you something,” He squeezed your hand tightly. “Just hear me out, please.”

“No. I can’t.”

“One last time.” He whispered. “Then you don’t have to listen to me ever again.”

His words spoke of cutting conviction, and his eyes, an endless sadness he could never live down. When you heard it, you had to look to the window to avoid crying even harder, knowing a single glimpse of his face was all it took. His beautiful, ugly face that smiled even in the darkest hours.

Whatever happened between you both, what he was about to say could be the last thing he’d ever say to you. He knew that. You did too.

So you listened with bated breath as he gathered himself in a thick swallow.

While he searched his soul for the exact words, the past, present, and future converged into one.

“You’re right in saying that I wished things ended differently,” He said, his voice no higher than a whisper to hide the cracks. “It’s my biggest regret, leaving you behind. Always was and always will be.” The words were like stones in his heart. As he finally let them out, the weight was lifted, one by one.

It was the one thing he failed to do two years ago, and now that he could, he felt strangely at peace.

“I thought I could make up for everything by giving you money, helping you out, buying that crib, just, being there, you know?” Allen grinned, but joy was hardly the word to describe what he was feeling. You knew that all too well, so you had to cover your head with your arms to contain the trembling.

“And I’m glad I did. But I need you to give it to me straight,” He continued, lifting your face up with a hand on your warm cheek. “So tell me to go, or to stay. I wanna hear it.” He felt you tense up in his fingers, a sure-fire sign he hit the mark.

This was finally it, and you were the one to decide how it ended. “I’ll listen to you this time.”

You never managed an answer. All you knew was that you weren’t ready to see Alfred yet, so going home wasn’t an option. Allen took you to his trailer in the meantime. Ten minutes in, the tense silence was broken by a few knocks on the door.

He went to answer it. Robin had been standing behind it, leaning to one side.

“There’s a phone call for her,” He began.

You sat up.

“It’s some guy called Alfred.”

|

“So, who’s the guy?” He murmured over your head. “If you don’t mind me asking, I mean.”

You were laying on Alfred’s chest, feeling every breath go in and out of his body in slow rises. Your sweat-ridden bodies that pressed flush together never once repelled you. Every inch of his skin was another source of unlikely comfort. But upon hearing that question, cold feet settled in out of nowhere.

“Just some guy. Why?”

Alfred inhaled deeply, pausing to rephrase himself.

“Just curious,” You propped yourself up with your arms and loomed over him with a frown. “I promise.” He laughed breathily. “I’m not looking for a reason to be mad at you or anything. I already told you I don’t care about all that.” You sighed, then lowered yourself onto him again, albeit reluctantly.

There was no reason you couldn’t trust Alfred. But that didn’t make it any easier. After nearly a year, one would’ve thought you’d have moved on. But every time you thought about him, about Allen, your chest ached with the same pain on the day he left.

You thought you could hide it, from yourself and him, but Alfred was always more sensitive than he let on.

“It was just a fling, okay? I met him at the fair. He did the motorcycle shows.” While you unearthed old memories you wished to bury, he nodded tiredly.

“Oh, yeah. I’ve been to one of those,” Alfred yawned, resting a hand on your back. “They’re pretty cool.”

“Yeah. We weren’t anything, so can we please stop talking about it now?” Your voice was no higher than a quick whisper to mask the hurt inside it.

Reducing what you and Allen had to something so meaningless affected you more than you wanted it to. But it had always been this way. The soft spot for him never went away when he did, and instead, grew at every passing day he wasn’t here.

But you had to ignore it for Alfred’s sake.

Allen wasn’t here for you.

He was.

|

That was one of the few conversations you talked about your past lover. You never mentioned Allen first, so it was always him. As he waited for you to pick up the phone, he lingered on the fact for an epiphany that took him too long to realize.

That night in bed, you were hurting. He’d been too tired to notice. But what he couldn’t excuse himself from was throwing away what Allen gave you for Jason’s first birthday. Alfred convinced himself he did that for your sake, to help you move on, but it was more self-serving than anything.

A dick move to soothe his short burst of jealousy.

And it probably only made you miss Allen more.

You were still in love with the bastard, and there wasn’t much he could do about it.

“Alfred?” Your voice grounded him faster than a cold splash of water. “It’s me.”

“Hey.” He smiled softly. There were so many things he wanted to say, but everything was lodged in his throat in a convoluted mess. The night was a somber mix of anger and muddled emotions, but what stood out most was a heart-wrenching sadness.

What he forced out only captured it.

“I missed you.”

A long pause followed.

If Alfred knew you like he thought he did, you were trying not to cry. Unbeknownst to him, he was right.

“I missed you too.” You murmured faintly. His lips twitched up some more, but the momentary joy was short-lived. His smile trembled away as he predicted what you would say, word for word. “I’m sorry I left you at the fair by yourself. I don’t have an excuse, so I don’t... I don’t wanna ask for your forgiveness.”

The mood was somber and knowing. You both understood each other’s feelings without having to relay them. The phone call was just a formality.

“I know. I know you’re sorry,” Alfred reiterated, bringing a hand up to his eyes. What he was about to say would break the ice that formed, a phenomenon that happened every single time Allen was involved. “But he probably forced you to leave, didn’t he?”

“Yeah, but I—”

“—you kissed him. I know.” His voice became a little strained, but he forced himself to keep walking down this road he took. “I saw, (F/N). I saw.”

You tried your damnedest to not break apart right then and there. You thought it hit you before, but here you were, reliving one of your biggest regrets that would turn into your salvation or damnation. However Alfred took it was entirely up to him. And you wouldn’t be able to hold it against him.

“I’m really sorry.” You choked, unable to fathom how hurt he must’ve been when he witnessed everything. “I get it if you want to break things off. I’ve been unfair to you for the longest time, not being able to focus on you. I’m sorry for wasting your time.”

“Who said it was a waste of time?” Alfred muttered, shedding a few quiet tears himself. You covered your mouth to stifle any noises as you kept listening.

He’d been happy for nearly two years, being with you. Things may have turned a little rocky turn towards the end, but as sure as the sun rose, his love stayed constant. And it would stay that way as long as he breathed. “I don’t think it was a waste of time. I loved what we had. I loved dreaming with you.” Alfred sucked in a sharp breath to hold back a cry.

“And I love you, ‘kay? But I have to ask,” You closed your eyes as you prepared for the dreaded question.

“Did you ever love me?”

You would never forgive yourself to think he needed the reassurance. To think he wasn’t sure of something so true. But then again, what you did tonight, as well as many other nights beforehand, would’ve tested that and poisoned him with doubt.

“I always loved you. I fell in love with you the second you said you wanted to be with me,” You gushed. By then, you’d run out of tears to cry, but the outburst was the most emotional you’ve ever been. “I didn’t think I’d have a chance to be with anybody again. I was all alone when I had Jason. But you... You swept me off my feet. I was crazy about you.”

Blood rushed up to his face for a hot blush, and he was pleased to say it wasn’t because he was about to cry again. Not sad tears, at least.

“But you’re crazier about Allen.”

“Alfred, I mean it.” You huffed sharply. He chuckled on the other side, much to your relief. “I really do, Al. And I still love you, even if I don’t deserve to.”

“Then that’s all I wanted to hear.”

Allen drove you back home. Alfred had been waiting on the front porch. The second you saw the guy, you ran to him like the wind and plowed into his arms. While you both hugged, you both talked some more. As much as it hurt to let you go, he couldn’t force you to be with him when it wasn’t what you wanted.

But you made it pretty explicit it would’ve happened if the circumstances were different. He could be your lover in another life, just not this one. Allen was a little grumpy upon hearing it, but he didn’t have any complaints. What you had with Alfred was special, and he respected that—the guy looked after you in ways he couldn’t, so he ended up shaking on it.

Alfred gripped his hand crazy tight, a final display of his hot frustration with him after tonight, but they cleared a year-long feud nonetheless.

After all, they couldn’t be the only receivers of your love, no matter how fiercely they wished it.

You were at Alfred’s house for another week. Your mother decided to stay, which he was more than happy about. It gave you another reason to write him on top of being Jason’s godfather. Otherwise, you had a clear destination in mind.

Wherever Allen went, you followed.

“You ready to roll?” He asked, gripping your waist with untold affection. His smile on you was unwavering and spoke of endless possibilities. Allen was finally untethered from the past, and he would charge into the future with you, unrestrained and pining for more.

“Always.”

The feeling of his mouth on yours never felt so right.

Whether it was to his trailer or down to New York City courtesy of Mathias’s car, a favor he was doing him for something you had yet to find out, you were always by his side. Allen didn’t have to worry about leaving you behind again, and instead, he could focus on growing with you rather than apart.

[cyclone-rachel]

2022 Omniverse Rewatch + Episode Ranking

Part 7: Arc 7

assorted thoughts/observations:

• And it just happens to have a 5 on it. • That’s a lot of firepower. • I guess Solid Plugg moved on from Hokestar? • Oh my god. Why? • I love that Ben interrupts too. • Why not just not invite her there at all? Surely she could meet him in the RV or something. Unless he doesn’t have that anymore. • This guy is all over animation. • What qualifications does he have for going to the Plumber academy? • That’s a lot of plants. • How is it affecting morale? • Ben doesn’t have to try that hard to prove that. • So what do they wear instead of socks? • Damn. • He can’t be allowed to keep that, right? • He definitely did. • And you should talk. • Third occurrence of “do me a solid”. • You’re definitely not fine. • Yeah basically. • Are they actually friends? • And the Omnitrix shouldn’t be? • People have tried to take the Omnitrix many times. • What a coincidence. • Love the billboard up there that just says “Dang!” in all caps. • I don’t think Omniverse does full transformation sequences that often, but when they do, they’re really good. • That sounds like a terrible combination of flavors. • Never seen him do that with Feedback before. • It’s nice that she’s Max’s sister. • Yeah, she does. • Guess that’s a Revonnahgander saying. • And finally Jeff Bennett shows up! • So where would you take her? • Oh that theme song remix is so good! • Yup, you can see him getting on the ship. • Also that taking off looked really good. • People who go to airports have to arrive 3 hours early, probably. • Ben’s just going on Facebook? • I assume Ben has a lot of fan pages. • Rook Shar is so cute. • Why did it have to be underground? • Also what does “spoodle-heels” mean • It’s nice that they’re friends. • I don’t think he was talking about the smoothie, Ben. • That was unnecessary. • Rook, you’ve had your proto-tool destroyed before, it’s fine. • Also did he say it in the exact same way he did during Showdown part 2? • How is that less risky? • Obligatory joke time, Kundo voice: “this is why I HATE MACHINES!” • Those are definitely Pokemon. • So where’s he going to get new armor from? • Are you sure about that? • Yikes. • Way to go, you just polluted a river. • Did not know what that word meant until now. • A cool-looking abomination. • Awwww. • Is that even possible, for a class to be filled for 5 years? • That is a lot of people • Hex probably would have fangirls. • How big is this school anyway? • History 310? That’s an upperclassman-level class, Gwen is lucky she’s taking it as (I assume) she is still a freshman. • I mean, she has a lot of experience with that stuff, but I assume she had to get special permission. • “Professor Hex”, nice pun and/or crossover/fusion opportunity. • How’d she get there? • Not subtle at all. • The 9 realms? Is Norse mythology canon in this universe? • That wasn’t a long class at all. • You could at least leave her for the Plumbers to take care of. • Case in point. • Very smart. Also I’m glad he repaired his car. • Malt shop? • Ben needs to chill. Also I really like Hex’s new outfit. • So there were others before him? • Weren’t you working together in Alien Force? • I don’t remember if they interacted in Ultimate Alien. • I love those two nerds. • Were they really together for that long? • What does that really mean? • I always get nervous about people fighting in libraries. • Does Kevin have a Null Void projector in there? • That’s smart. • Awww, Zed is wearing goggles too. • Oh that’s terrifying. • A very good pun. • Kari, again, just killing it here. • Like Gwen was summoned by that word. • You are definitely not Invincible. • So how many books are left in there? • YEAH, GWEN • Aww. I love that you have a secret lair now. • So I guess his store got bigger once he started also selling alien food? • Gosh, I love even smoller Ben’s voice. • So he only just moved to Bellwood a little while ago and already he’s caused that much damage to his store? • Did shopping online exist back then? • Oh, it would’ve been real neat if this mermaid lady was voiced by Sue Blu (because of who she and Corey played in TFA, and their characters’ connection), although I’d understand if she wouldn’t want to do that for reasons. • WAIT THOUGH, if I had a nickel for every time Corey Burton and Gwendoline Yeo were in a thing together, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice. Because surprise they also interact in Clone Wars. • Ben, what are you doing. • Whose dog is that? • Come on, Ben, leave them alone, they’re not doing anything wrong. • You seriously need to chill. • That’s actually kind of nice • Also aww, Max bragged about him. • Would’ve been neat if we had gotten to see the Galactic Enforcers again. • So Max knows what’s going on here? • Did you really, now. • You don’t need to watch. • That is indeed very specific. And I’m surprised she was that coherent when falling unconscious. • Again, it’s nice that he trusts Max. • Yeah that’s real specific too. • You’re wasting his time; you should just leave him alone. • Come on, he deserves love too. • Fuck you, Vulkanus. • Oh man, OV-style Diamondhead in the OS timeline looks great. • Good job, Ben. • You really don’t need to do that. • What’s a Viscosian Polymorph? • Ben no. • So Vulkanus just literally put him in a Dumpster? • It doesn’t look like it’s grown back. • That seems like an exaggeration. • It’s been almost 8 full years and I still cannot fucking believe he met Azmuth. • So I guess Azmuth just gave him that suit from Secret of the Omnitrix, but repainted? • Also it would be interesting to compare how he says “Azmuth” to how Malware does. • I guess this is nice. • Seriously, Ben, what did you do. • I feel like if Malware and Maltruant had had a connection, this episode probably would have been set in the museum on Galvan Prime? Or like, involved artifacts from that museum being moved to this one or something. • Ben, you really should have figured out that she wanted that to be a date. • I’m sure at least Gwen would bring a date to a museum. • I love how Kai reveals herself to be not a hologram. • Gosh, Blukic and Driba are there in those pictures. • Shut up, Ben. • So her accent is supposed to be Italian? Or is it French? • Is Jimmy Naruto-running • You were losing? • That might be an exaggeration. • I’m sure Kai wouldn’t mind having Ester there as backup. • Spanner, back off. • You’ve only met twice. • This is so awkward. • You could at least try to eat them together. • Also you could make an effort not to call it junk. • And I’m sure that was on purpose. • Also please clean that stuff off your face. • How were you robbed of your dignity? • He can read? • Can’t believe they’re actually in a relationship. • Are you sure about that? • And now he comes out and says it. • What’s wrong with her being any of those things? • Definitely the thief. • Also if they wanted Ben to be interested in the museum, there could have been an exhibit on him/the history of the Omnitrix. • David Kaye vs David Kaye here, and not for the last time. • Again, Kai and Ester do have chemistry. • The key to time itself? Really? • Also do all Chronosapiens have German accents? • He’s wearing the wrong jacket, but yeah, it’s Ben. • I’m sure this must be real weird for the people getting robbed. • Is “ringing your chimes” a real saying? • He’s clearly stress-eating about it. • This seems very complicated. • So he is covering up the Omnitrix symbol. • Also maybe again you want to listen to Azmuth’s advice and be more gentle with it? And actually look at the Omnitrix before you choose an alien? • Gosh, someone is spraying the truck with graffiti. • How can they not see that? • He is literally a plant. • Do you even know what those words mean? • Obviously he’s not your bro. • That sounds like an argument for cannibalism. • He’s right. • Yeah that’s not going to work. • I mean, normally he’d never complain about getting Feedback, but still. • If Guy Fieri owned a spaceship, it would look like that. • So where do they want to go? • YEET • Must be weird, wearing a mask of your own face. • Oh, yeah they would figure it out. But at what point did they do that? • I don’t think he could ever go straight. • Where is he heading toward? • Okay, that is a fun power. • Whoa, Max. • Again, that was funny. • Maybe get out of the line? • Oh hey, Jennifer Hale. • Wasn’t Liam in jail with the rest of Fistrick’s bros? • What a terrible commercial. • Why, what’s he doing wrong? • How did he get free of Collectimus? • So, do you volunteer yourself as an employee? • Rojo is still cool. • It has indeed been a while. • Are they really friends? • That’s a lot of ice cream. • Very suspicious. • Simian is very soft-spoken now. • That would be offensive to him. • She won’t mind doing that. • The motorcycle is cool. • Yeah, Upgrade! • You can definitely upgrade it to make it fly. • That seems like overkill. • Damn, Argit. • Do we ever find out? • I can’t believe this worked. • I guess we find out now. • You really should lay down and take a rest. • Can’t believe that’s actually Steve. • So did they run out of names, or what? • I guess they did just divorce. • Oh good, Sandra is back. • Are they dating now? • Also could Ben and Rook not drive themselves? • Gross. • I guess there are public roads in and out of Undertown? That makes sense. • She really wanted both of them there? • I’m surprised she lets Octagon and Rhomboid even eat there. • He’s not a big fan of his own mother’s cooking. • So did he eat it all? • I guess not. • That would be the kraken. • Are you really? • Would’ve been fun if Ben had gotten a Vreedle form, and immediately hated it. • A lot could go wrong, as it turns out. • How did he get up there so fast? • Is this the first time we’ve seen that Bellwood has a zoo? • Are they trying to eat the bike? • Is that really him? • That was anticlimactic. And coincidental. • A lot of bubble wrap there. • They’re gonna run out of it at some point. • Is she really an intergalactic supervillain? • That was a good idea. • How’s it going to get back to the zoo by itself? • So did they die? • Goddamn. • It takes longer than that to shut off your phone. • You just had to say that, didn’t you? • Second time he almost killed Azmuth. • His lab on Galvan Prime? • How long is “a while” exactly? • That’s a lot of smoothies. • You believed something that someone said on the Internet? • Does the Omnitrix have a voicemail? I guess it does, it was used in Ben 23’s first episode. • “ticked off watchmaker’s emporium” is a good pun. • “major interdimensional crisis” is an interesting way to describe this situation. • He hadn’t heard Ben use his catchphrase? • XLR8 23 looks really good. • So, is Ben 23 just generally luckier than our Ben, and as a result more often gets the aliens he wants? • Was the intention to have Ben’s advice be contradictory to the aliens he gets? • That’s the best friend he mentioned, be nice. • Were you not also tech support for Attea? • “he is always too smart to be evil” okay that is interesting. • How does he know so much about alternate dimensions? Isn’t he just a time traveler? • You could only very loosely describe him as a hero in his debut. • Okay, good plan. • Classic sky-portal. • Very pointed use of the word “mad” here • Also how can Pakmar not notice that this is a completely different Ben from the one he knows? • Come on, don’t waste the water. • Maybe you might want to think about the obvious. • Does Ben 23’s Omnitrix have the original Omnitrix timing-out sounds? • If nothing else, this Ben has a great sense of style. • So, is “Vilgax the Benevolent” his universe’s version of Vilgax, or the prime version of him? • That was smart. • See, this could have been foreshadowing. • I like that Psychobos just jumped onto Maltruant. • Is that really a treasure? • Wait, it was already going, and you’re just gonna restart it? • So, did Mad Ben hear him say his catchphrase before, or has he met a version of Psychobos in his own timeline? • A pretty compelling argument. • I really like the design for this world. • Seriously though, what are they digging for? • And you use which term loosely? • I’d describe him as more than decent. • He does have a point. • Are they hiding out in a Mr. Smoothy? • Oooh no, so did Ben 23 originally not want to go on the camping trip with his Grandpa before he found the Omnitrix, or like did he complain the whole time? At what point in his timeline did his Max die, and when would he realize that he wished he could take back any complaints he had? • Were Malware, Khyber, and Attea really your lackeys? • That seems pretty self-explanatory. • Again, I’m sure Yuri was having a lot of fun doing this. • You literally said it earlier. • They don’t know each other’s aliens’ names. • I love how that’s a multiversal constant. • So where’s the water going once he turns back to human? • Missed the opportunity for the wildest Russian/Australian hybrid accent. Actually, it would be fun if all of his aliens had Australian accents in addition to whatever other accents they had. • Mad Way Big looks sick as hell. Also outstanding transformation sequence. • Can’t believe Ben still remembers/uses Nanomech. • Indeed. • It’s neat that the other Bens have different titles for their Omnitricies. Although I don’t think Prime Ben really has one, he just calls it “the watch” casually. • Also this is the closest thing he gets to being called “Mad Ben”, I guess. • Also Mad Ben has the Omniverse model Omnitrix? That’s very interesting, I wonder if this all happened fairly recently for him, or if he would’ve stolen that model from Azmuth or something. Also it would have been neat if maybe some of the other Bens besides Ben 10K obviously had worn different Omnitricies, like maybe one never let go of the Ultimatrix, one still had the Alien Force Omnitrix, one never took the OS one off, etc, all for different reasons. Although of course Albedo is a special case, and Gwen 10 and Ben 23 are the youngest of the Omnitrix-wielders there, so it makes sense that they’d have the OS model but in their colors. • Ben’s just like “hell no, I’ve had enough of my Omnitrix almost exploding.” • Anymore? You mean you’ve conquered wastelands before? • Awww. • “and do it like Maltruant” again, could have been foreshadowing. • Oh I would have loved to have seen that. • That’s very good. • Perhaps “or what”, sometimes. • God. Wouldn’t it have been neat if Mad Ben had been mentored by Khyber? It would’ve made sense, they have similar accents/aesthetics/vibes. • And again generally, where did Mad Ben’s Australian accent come from?

Arc 7 rankings: 1. It’s a Mad… Ben World, part 2 2. Charm School 3. Rook Tales 4. It’s a Mad… Ben World, part 1 5. The Ballad of Mr. Baumann 6. The Color of Monkey 7. Fight at the Museum 8. Breakpoint 9. Clyde 5 10. Vreedlemania

Basic thoughts: Again, a weird season? Had two very good episodes in the beginning, and a strong finale, and then some episodes that just didn’t hit? I feel like for the last 2 arcs of the show that were supposed to intertwine, they could have had at least one more plot episode, but that’s just me. Loved Charmcaster and Hex’s return, loved seeing Rook Shar as a Plumber and Jeff Bennett playing another villain in a show that has many of his fellow TFA cast members, loved seeing Ben 23 again and getting to see another Ben’s world, and most of the rest of the season was fine I guess and had funny parts, but overall I did not vibe with the lower half of that episode list. And again I’m reminded of a certain missed opportunity and unrelatedly how they did Kai and Ester dirty, but like. It’s fine. We’ll get to how they resolve that very soon.

Original rankings: 1. It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad Ben World, part 2 2. It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad Ben World, part 1 3. Charm School 4. Rook Tales 5. The Ballad of Mr. Baumann 6. Breakpoint 7. The Color of Monkey 8. Fight at The Museum 9. Vreedlemania 10. Clyde 5

[viper-commander]

Do you know what would be really awesome? A Peter Rabbit and Star Wars crossover. No.,,it’s not as cringy as it sounds, it’s actually very funny.

Alright, so remember how General Hux and Thomas Mcgregor are played by the same actor? Well, in this AU these two people are the same person but in different realities.

Hux is the character that lived up to his fullest potential (not as a person however) and became one of the most feared people in the entire universe. He’s rich, a total bastard, and probably owns several planets or something.

Armitage Hux is the unlucky guy that was born unwanted in an abusive household so never quite understood how to be a person.

Meanwhile, Thomas is this guy that could have done all of that but fell under the oppressiveness of capitalism so could never fulfill his dreams of building a corporate empire. Then fired from his job and thus forced to move to his late uncle’s house where he waged fierce battles against the clever little bunny named Peter.

Thomas was probably adopted or something. Isn’t that what people do when they want a baby but can’t quite keep it, they give them away? So Thomas here was adopted into this loving home that hated rabbits and stuff.

Now both of these characters have suppressed potential. In one, Armitage was never given the chance to grow as a person while in a different reality, Thomas was never given the opportunity to become powerful enough to grind people beneath his heel. So I propose this Crack! AU idea. This plotbunny has Armitage and Thomas somehow switch bodies or realities and trying to navigate this life as somebody else.

Thomas finally has the power to do what he wants (after ending a meaningful relationship because of accidents). He already has prior experience defending his vegetables from the vile claws of Peter the Rabbit, and can be under- or over-qualified for the position of general. All previous experience as a gardener and employee somehow helped him become a great strategist (I mean he already was a prodigy of sorts), combined with his more humble outlook on life. He’s less susceptible for being strung along by the likes of Snoke because that’s not him. So Thomas single-handedly causes the First Order to rise further in power and strength by wrestling control away from the manipulative evil Space Wizards. However he doesn’t know how to file paperwork correctly and enlists the help of Mitaka to help manage everything.

Millicent takes care of this new pet. She makes sure to show him all the ropes and unintentionally (perhaps) causes him to overturn the Rebellion and depose of the Final Order.

Kylo Ren doesn’t know what’s happening but it’s probably all his fault.

While in the other universe, Armitage gets to learn what healthy relationships are and CONTINUES THE EPIC BATTLE BETWEEN GARDENER AND RABBIT. FOR THE GLORY OF THE VEGETABLE PATCH!

Hux has been preparing for this moment his entire life. Years of training in the Academy and he will defeat this rabbit. The little game that Thomas and Peter played is Taken to the Next Level. Think dynamite is overkill? Well what about Literal Death Rays and shit. Hours memorizing DIY Weapons of Mass Destruction has not gone to waste.

Millicent in this reality probably raised Thomas so she’s not there anymore. She has lived her life and successfully raised her kitten. However the memories are there. So LOTS OF PICTURES.

Both redheads treat their adventures like some weird fever dream caused by over-exhaustion and overwork.

Both parties that knew them are Concerned. The First Order are confused by this veggie-centric, wildly anti-vermin, version of their general. Especially Kylo, Kylo Ren. While the rabbits and other little forest critters are Unprepared for the full might of General Hux, Starkiller, and adjust themselves accordingly. FOR THE GARDEN.

Then when the two redheads switch back, everyone is just relieved and ignorantly write off the new quirks Thomas and Armitage gained in their respective realities.

Thomas is now more commanding, merciless, and ready to fulfill his dreams as corporate Emperor. Hux has experienced the much needed VK he needed and is more relaxed, however he does miss the adrenaline-thrilling battles of wit he had with the forest critters and probably develops a craving for actual food and normal people.

Then with their new qualifications, both men work to make the world/galaxy a better place. One empire at a time.

[autisticsupervillain]

Judicious Reaper AU

Hiveswap/Death Note Crossover

Tyzias Entykk is going heading home for the night when she stumbles across a strange black book on the ground. She picks it up and reads the five rules, written in plain Alternian.

The troll whose name is written in this note shall die.

This note will not take effect unless the writer has the person's face in their mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected.

If the cause of death is written within the next 40 seconds of writing the person's name, it will happen.

If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart attack.

After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

She shrugs it off and stuffs the "Death Note" into her bag, figuring it's just some weeb thing that Tegiri dropped and she could return it to him tomorrow.

Later that night, she finds herself mulling over the Death Note with the TV on in the background, wondering what it could be from. Tegiri's never been shy about his interests, so it does strike her as odd that she's never heard him mention it. It's not like it could be new either, as Tegiri would've bragged about his new notebook the first chance he got. Just as Tyzias resolves to look it up, Trizza appears on the TV screen.

Trizza subjects her audience to another one of her narcissistic tyraids about how much better she is than everyone else and how she's definitely the rightful Empress. Tyzias, already tired from a long night of work and throughly fed up with Alternia's bullshit for that night, decides to write Trizza's name in the Death Note. Just as Tyzias dryly remarks to herself that "i wwwwish it wwwwas that easy", Trizza drops dead on stage. Tyzias drops her mug in shock.

Alternia is sent reeling on the inexplicable death of its Heiress and Tyzias is left staring mortified at the Death Note in her hands. She quickly throws the book in the trash and resolves to try and get to bed early that day, knowing she'll have a long night of work tomorrow. She doesn't get much sleep that night.

Predictably, Alternia has descended into absolute chaos by the time Tyzias wakes up. Trizza's death has inspired the rebellion to be more overt and violent, actively organizing raids and invasions while highblooded rebels like Fiamat try and seize control of the power vacuum. This leaves Tyzias swimming in so much paperwork that she barely has time to even think about the Death Note in between tending to the emotional needs of a shocked and confused Stelsa and trying to get her work done on time.

In the coming weeks, the Purples and Violets loyal to the Empire begrudgingly unite to try and get a handle on things. Chahut is elected as a stand-in heiress, as she's the only one persuasive enough to convince the castes to work together for the time being. Marvus, however, has a different reaction.

He knows for a fact that Trizza didn't just die. The Messiahs gave him the script, told him how everything was supposed to play out, and Trizza was much to important to drop dead. She was assassinated, she had to be. It was the only rational explanation, even if he didn't understand how just yet. His only choice was to find this assassin and play damage control to try and correct this timeline. Part of him knew that was impossible, that they'd gone so wildly off script that their timeline was doomed now, but that's what made the challenge so appealing.

It's only when her work load had died down several weeks later that Tyzias thinks to pull the Death Note out of the garbage. That's when she found Ryuk standing over her. After she panics and tosses her mug through his head, Ryuk laughs and intoduces himself.

He explains to her what he and the Death Note are and why he dropped it on Alternia. Sure, Ryuk is typically supposed to be one of Earth's shinigami, he's had a lot of trouble finding good entertainment sense "that Light kid died" and figured a more bloodthirsty species could provide it.

"You, however, seem to be an exception to that rule. Most trolls in your place would be thrilled to have this much power. But you seem almost afraid of it. Afraid of what you could do with that power and afraid of what that power could do with you. I can't say any if its human owners had that same wisdom."

Tyzias admits that she doesn't really know what to do with it. She'd always wanted to stage a nonviolent revolution, to reform the system from inside while killing as few people as possible. But, that was before she had the Death Note. With which she could control the Rebellion's body count, only burn down what she needed to so she could come and rebuild it into something better.

Tyzias decides to take her mind off the dilemma by chasing down a case that interests her. Lowbloods had been going missing in her area lately and she wanted to investigate. It would've been easy to just chalk this up to violence in response to Trizza's death, but there were no bodies. No signs of struggle even, suggesting that either the lowblood community had either taken the opportunity to evacuate en mass or they'd been abducted during all the confusion.

She finds her breadcrumb trail and follows it back to one Zebruh Codakk, who'd taken the opportunity to lure lowbloods to his hive with the offer of safely sitting out the violent rebellion. True to form, he immediately enslaved those who accepted his invite.

Unfortunately, this is where Tyzias' case would hit a brick wall. Highbloods enslaving Lowbloods wasn't illegal and it would take months for her to forge enough evidence to convict Zebruh of an actual crime. But.... Tyzias has the Death Note. With the flick of a pen, she could remove Zebruh from the picture and free all his slaves.

So, one night, Zebruh mysteriously dies of a heart attack while a strange troll in a cloak frees his slaves. She introduces herself as a "judicious reaper" and advises them to take as much of Zebruh's stuff as they can and run. Their hives aren't safe anymore, the authorities would likely pin Zebruh's death on them.

Marvus, meanwhile, has been blindly searching for leads on Tizza's killer and hears about Zebruh's death. Through this, he puts together that the assassin is a genuine revolutionary and not just someone grasping for power, given both their targets were cruel towards Lowbloods and killing Zebruh wouldn't likely solidy any kind of power base for them given how unpopular he was. After he tracks down one of the escaped slaves, he learns about the "judicious reaper" who saved them and deduces that the assassin might actually live nearby. After all, they didn't show up at the scene of Trizza's death, but they did show up here. Or, at least, sent one of their operatives here to free the slaves.

He decides to test this theory. He orders a squad of bluebloods to seize control of the town, cutting of the wifi and intercepting all incoming signals, before rounding up a random selection of five trolls from each caste. The plan is to publicly execute them in the town square under the excuse of "quelling rebellion". If the killer does indeed live in that town and they're as altruistic as Marvus suspects, they'll likely kill these executioners to prevent any deaths, inadvertently outing that they live in that small town.

The killer clearly has supernatural means available, as Trizza and Zebruh seemed to die of natural causes, which means that supernatural system likely has rules and limitations to it. This gives Marvus the hunch that the killer might need names and faces to kill people. As such, only some of the executioners will publicly announce their names or take off their masks.

Tyzias is unaware of the ploy and of the full extent of Marvus' knowledge, as she has no reason to believe that anyone suspects that there even was a killer. As such, she's trying to figure a way out of this situation that won't give anyone looking for patterns a reason to think that there might be a killer. Unfortunately, Stelsa is one of the trolls selected to be executed, so her hand is forced.

Luckily, Stelsa's executioner gave both his name and his face, so Stelsa was saved, but Tyzias couldn't save all of them and a good chunk of trolls were still executed. She suspects now that this was a set up, given how weird and candid it was that some of the executioners gave their names and faces but others didn't, but her attention is currently on comforting Stelsa.

Marvus is ecstatic at having his theory proven correct and decides to investigate. Not personally, but by proxy. He's a celebrity, so he can't exactly go asking around himself, nor could any of his associates without raising suspicion. So, he decides to outsource to the last kind of troll that the killer would suspect. Boldir.

Boldir has been a pretty open pain in Marvus's neck for awhile now. He knows she's constantly poking around where she shouldn't be and he knows she's good enough at it to not leave any kind of tangible, solid proof. He'd only been tolerating her because the script said he needed her alive, but now she can play into his hands a little more directly. Marvus tracks her down and meets her in person at her hive, both because she'd figure out he's involved if he tried to deal with her indirectly anyways and because it makes the statement of "I know who you are and where you and your loved ones live". Boldir initially refuses to cooperate, but her interest is peaked when he offers her a favor. Marvus knows about Fozzer and he knows about how his personality has changed. Marvus offers to use his chucklevoodoos to get to the bottom of Fozzer's strange behavior if Boldir investigates this "judicious reaper" for him.

Meanwhile, Tyzias is comforting Stelsa. She's hesitant to open up to Tyzias, as they're matesprites and not moirails, but ultimately, she has no one else to turn to. Stelsa nearly breaks down going over how, not only is Trizza dead, not only does the Empire seem to be collapsing all around her, but the very Empire she trusted just tried to kill her for seemingly no reason. She's scared. Exhausted. Confused. And she just doesn't know what to do.

Tyzias considers revealing that she killed Trizza, all she'd have to do is hand her the Death Note, but she doesn't. Tyzias and Stelsa have always just politely ignored each other's political leanings. Tyzias has never had to lie about it before.

Putting those heavy feelings to the side for now, Tyzias realizes she has to get out of town. Killing those executioners was a big giveaway towards her existence and even potentially her identity, and, if it was a ploy like Tyzias suspects, it's likely the Empire's noose is closing in right that second. Luckily, Tyzias finds her answer online.

It turns out The Mask is one of the trolls Tyzias saved from Zebruh's clutches, and, after going through her files on Zebruh's case, Tyzias is able to figure out she's Chixie Roixmr. Chixie had been singing about the "judicious reaper" who saved her and had gotten people to rally behind them as part if the rebel movement. Tyzias sends Chixie a letter as this "judicious reaper", using her position to fudge the paperwork so this can't be traced back to her, and asks Chixie to perform live in her home town in three nights. Chixie announces her schedule change to her fans online, which sends swarms of The Mask fans to Tyzias's town.

Tyzias spins this to the now very paranoid local government as a potential rebel invasion and gets them to agree to an evacuation. Boldir keeps Marvus updated on this process and Marvus realizes that the killer is making an effort to escape. Deciding this would be the perfect opportunity to just get rid of them in one swoop, Marvus uses his resources to hire Azdaja and Konyyl to attack the evacuation train and kill everyone aboard.

This turns out to be Marvus's fatal mistake. Azdaja abd Konyyl start arguing at a crucial moment, allowing Tyzias, Stelsa, and Boldir to escape unharmed. Boldir even realizes how badly Marvus has shot himself in the foot as now the killer will know for a fact that someone powerful is after them.

Indeed, as soon as Tyzias, Stelsa, and Boldir make it to the next town over, Tyzias looks into the two assassins who tried to kill her. Realizing how expensive their fee is, Tyzias realizes just how powerful the person hunting her is. They're clearly onto her and have no problem bringing as much of their reach to bear on her as possible. So, she decides she has no choice but to take the fight to them.

So, Tyzias writes Chahut's name in the Death Note, effectively beheading the pro-empire side of the conflict. The should force her pursuer to back off and focus on the chaos going on above them, and it does. Marvus has to address this new power vacuum because otherwise he'll be next in line to fill the Heiress' throne, which would put him next on the killer's chopping block. Knowing he can't leave Boldir to handle this case unsupervised, he decides to kidnap Fozzer and use him ti threaten her into line directly. Now, Boldir is forced to wear a recorder all night, every night to make sure she doesn't try to betray him while he sorts things out between the purple bloods and the violet bloods.

Unfortunately, Marvus doesn't have to wait much longer to get results. Boldir is able to pin down Tyzias's identity after she pickpockets the Death Note and gets a good look at it. While Boldir doesn't meet Ryuk, as ahe snuck off before the two could notice each other, she does see that the names written down perfectly match the killer's known victims. That, alongside the rules listed up front, gives her enough proof to pin Tyzias as the killer. Boldir quietly returns the notebook so to avoid alerting Tyzias before informing Marvus.

After getting the rundown on Tyzias's personality from Boldir, Marvus kidnaps Stelsa to strongarm Tyzias into surrendering, broadcasting his demands to all of Alternia. Tyzias calls him and sets up a time and place to surrender, agreeing to come unarmed. In Tyzias's last gambit, she bribes Ryuk into staying out of sight on the night of her execution before sending Chixie a letter containing a page of the Death Note and the front page instructions how to use it. Thus, when Marvus attempts to execute her live before Alternia, he ends up dying as Chixie writes his name in the Death Note.

Marvus puts the pieces together as he dies, realizing that the strange black book filled with names that Tyzias had was how she killed her victims. He laughs and congratulates her for putting on one hell of a show before his heart stops.

With the pro-empire side soundly decapitated and with no one as competent as Marvus or Chahut left to carry the torch, Alternia swifty falls to the rebellion. Tyzias is offically given the title of the Judicial Reaper after her rebel friends rescue her and offer to shower her with awards. But, Tyzias puts all if that to the side. She needs to talk to Stelsa.

Stelsa is hurt, bitter that Tyzias did all of this behind her back. For as long as she had known her, Tyzias had said that she wanted to change Alternia peacefully. And, as much as Stelsa tried to dissuade her, she respected that. But, Tyzias assassinated the Heiress the first chance she got and now, one sweep later, had effectively taken over Alternia.

Tyzias tries to explain everything to her. She didn't want to overthrow anyone until Zebruh and Marvus forced her hand, she even hands Stelsa the Death Note and introduces her to Ryuk to prove it, but Stelsa is done.

Tyzias had the chance to tell her everything. Explain everything. Maybe even convince her of everything back when Stelsa was looking for comfort when the executioners showed up. But that moment is gone now. Stelsa leaves Tyzias behind with tears in her eyes.

Boldir catches up to Tyzias drinking at a bar. She introduces herself, explains how shes knows her, and apologizes for everything. She explains how someone she cared about was threatened and how she was currently tryinf to convince the rebels to let Fozzer out of containment due to his imperial bootlicking attitude. Tyzias symoathizes and the two bond over shared stories. Ryuk is bemused by the fact that Boldir doesn't seem intimidated by him.

After being given a high rank in the Rebellion's new regime, Tyzias is able to bring about the world she'd always dreamed of. Turning Alternia into a better world, step by step. After Glybglob is killed and the Condescension defeated, Tyzias finally works up the courage to confront Stelsa again.

After Tyzias took over, Stelsa wasn't really sure what to do with herself. So, she hid and watched the world change around her from the safety of her hive. Fear turned to curiosity and that turned to wonder. Stelsa has, during her sweeps in hiding, seen the ways that Tyzias had improved upon life on Alternia and is, after countless sweeps, willing to forgive her.

Sweeps later, after the Alternian Empire has been reshaped from the ground up and after Tyzias's body finally starts to give out, Ryuk comments that Tyzias is probably the only person he's seen win when handed the Death Note.

"Most people I give this thing too tend to lose. Usually because they try to cheat death, play God, or win big. But you? You didn't do any of that. And you won because of it. Sure, it made things a bit boring in places, but ut made things pretty fun too."

Ryuk writes Tyzias's name in his book. "Well, Tyzias, so long. It's been interesting."

[bi-bard]

An Extra Dose of Chaos- Malcolm Bright Imagine (Prodigal Son/Criminal Minds Crossover)

Title: An Extra Dose of Chaos

Pairing: Malcolm Bright X Reader 

Requested: Nope

Word Count: 1,861 words

Warning(s): Violence in canon of both shows

Summary: (Starts on season 13, episode 7 of Criminal Minds) The BAU found themselves in a time of need after their final confrontation with Scratch. Though absolutely devastated by the loss of Stephen Walker, (Y/n) was somewhat excited to not be seen as the new kid anymore when Malcolm Bright was brought on to the team. Now, if he could just stop making such a mess of things...

Author’s Note: THERE MAY BE A PART 2 OF THIS BUT I’M NOTE SURE YET! It took a long time but... I found a way to connect them! I am so excited! Also, I doubt Malcolm would’ve lasted this long in the B.A.U but this is the best way to put him in the story without using two seasons that were airing at the same time (Season 1 of Prodigal Son and season 15 of Criminal Minds)

Please consider supporting my Ko-fi account. It would mean a lot to me. If I know there are people interested in it, I’ll get the monthly donation part set up. 

Buy me a coffee? https://ko-fi.com/khoward0 

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

I let out a sigh as I walked to the round table. Another day without Stephen. We had both joined the team around the same time, but I was still declared a new kid because he beat me here by about a month. Garcia had given Luke the official title but I still felt it whenever we were debriefed on a case. Stephen gave me someone to relate to. 

I looked over to the door as J.J walked in. She grinned at me.

“Emily hired a new agent,” she said. I nodded. “How are you?”

“Shaky but desperate to get some work done,” I replied, forcing a smile. I knew she was going to say more but luckily the team walked in before she could.

Emily stayed standing as everyone got settled in their seats.

“Everyone, this Malcolm Bright, he’s our new agent,” she said, pointing at the man standing next to her. He waved. Emily and him made their way to their seats. “Take it away, Garcia.”

Malcolm had sat in the spot right next to me. I glanced over at him while he read the case file. He seemed... giddy? That wasn’t the right word but I don’t think there was a better one. Something that should’ve disturbed him just... didn’t.

It was a strange case. Victims were kidnapped, had symbols carved into their faces, and then were found in their cars but miles away from where they were last seen. All without any memory of what had happened to them. 

“Alright, wheels up in 30,” Emily said before standing. Everyone followed close behind her.

“Hey, Malcolm,” I said, stopping the new guy before he left. “How are you feeling? I know some of this stuff can feel overwhelming on the first day.”

“I’m alright,” he replied. “Believe me, I’ve seen worse.”

“When,” I asked, my eyebrows furrowing together for a moment.

“Oh, y’know, research for school and such,” he shrugged the question off. “I’ve gotta get my go bag.”

“Okay, see you on the jet.”

“We have our own jet?”

--Time Skip--

“Spencer,” I said, looking at the photos of one of the victim’s injuries. “These can’t be taser or stun gun marks.”

“Why,” the doctor in front of us asked. 

“They usually burn the skin around the radius of the mark,” I replied. “There’s no burn mark.”

“Did the victim report a metallic taste in her mouth,” Spencer asked as Malcolm looked over my shoulder at the photos. 

“They’re probably snake bites,” Malcolm noted, cutting the doctor off a little bit. “Blood tests would show if there was any venom present.”

Spencer turned around and listed off a few blood tests that I could never remember. I closed the file. 

“A snake as a way to subdue a victim, that’s risky,” I said, looking at Malcolm.

“Hot day, lock the snake in the car, and wait,” he mumbled. “It leaves a lot to chance. This is the element that matters. There’s no way a snake is a weapon of opportunity.”

“If it’s a dangerous reptile, there’d be records of licenses,” I said as we followed Spencer out of the hospital. “Once we have the kind of snake, we could ask Garcia to cross-reference.”

“Except if it was bought on the black market,” Malcolm added. 

“You do not know Garcia,” I smirked, picking up my pace to keep up with Spencer. Damn this boy and his gazelle legs. 

“She seems delightful,” Malcolm shrugged. None of us spoke again until we were in the car. “So... why does this guy choose body modification? Why specifically the scarring? Surely tattoos would have a similar effect to the women’s self-worth.”

“I don’t know yet,” Spencer replied. “I say we relay what we know to the team and see what they say.”

We both nodded, waiting for him to start the car.

--Time Skip--

I wondered why my heart could beat so fast yet I could look so calm when we got to crime scenes. It was like my fear responses stopped halfway. I’m sure there was a reason for it but there are some things you think about but don’t really want the answers to. 

I took a deep breath as the car stopped. I unbuckled quickly. We had split up. Matt, J.J, Malcolm, and me in one car; Rossi, Spencer, and Luke in the other. Emily stayed back at the police station to help us out as much as possible. 

Matt and J.J went around the back to keep watch. Malcolm and I got to the front door. I was just about to lay my hand on the doorknob so we could be smart about this...

and then Malcolm sprinted in. No count, no warning, he just ran in without any warning.

“Malcolm,” I hissed, following him quickly. What the hell was wrong with him. 

I barely got there at the same time as him when he busted the door down. 

“F.B.I,” I shouted, actually doing my job. I followed him inside.

He didn’t have his gun aimed. Did he have it out when he first ran in? I kept my gun fixed on Desi- the unsub- who was just staring at us. Her mom tied to a chair and her sister trapped on one of the seats you’d see in a tattoo parlor.

“Desi, drop the knife,” Malcolm said, holding his gun up. 

“You- You don’t know what she did to me,” she replied.

“We do,” he nodded. “We know about the neglect and... and the abuse.”

“I was so scared,” she was whispering.

“Who wouldn’t be,” I asked. “You were just a kid-”

“I tried so hard to erase any sign of her,” she continued. “And there she is on the front page. They think she’s perfect.”

My eyes drifted towards the snakes in the room. 

“The perfect woman! The perfect mother! They don’t know what she’s capable of... what I’m capable of.”

“We know,” Malcolm nodded, grinning at her. “I also know that if you surrender and we walk out of here, everyone else will know too. She’ll have to live with that. Isn’t that what you wanted? For your mom to live with the shame of all of this?”

Desi went to move forward, towards the snakes.

“Desi,” I said firmly. She stopped... for a moment. She then ran at the container, shoving it towards the ground before sprinting out the other door. 

“Help her mom,” I shouted, walking over to her sister. “Hey, stay with me, yeah? We’re gonna get you help.”

I went to call for an ambulance, only stopping for a second when I heard gunshots. I shook it off, calling the ambulance before helping her sister up and out of the room. Malcolm had already left with her mom.

--Time Skip--

We were all on the jet later that night. Some of the team was playing poker, others just relaxing. I was lounging on the small jet couch, cradling a mug of tea. 

“Hey,” Malcolm said softly, sitting next to me. I nodded as a way to acknowledge him. “I’ve only known you for a few days but I can already tell that silence is not a good sign.”

“You ran into the house with any regard for safety,” I replied. “Your gun wasn’t drawn, you didn’t wait for back-up and was just lucky I was there, and you ran into an active crime scene without announcing that you were the F.B.I.”

“I did almost everything wrong.”

“Pretty much,” I sighed. “But you did a good job reasoning with Desi. As good of a job as any of us probably could.”

“Well, I’m sorry about what happened... but can I ask something?”

“Yeah.”

“Why are you so worried,” he asked. “I’d say you were angry but you aren’t displaying all of the signs of anger and you can’t just be nervous about the unsub because the event is over with.”

“I was the new kid before you,” I explained, already questioning whether or not I was ready to talk about this. “Around the same time I joined, Stephen Walker did. The team was looking for this serial killer that called himself Mr. Scratch. We thought we had found him and we knew the house was safe... we thought we were gonna catch him. Then, I think he laid spike in the road. Our cars crashed into each other. It was bad. Emily was kidnapped, the rest of us unconscious... except for Stephen. He died in that accident before they’d even found the cars. I had to tell his wife. I couldn’t even look to my right on my way home because her tears had stained my shirt. I lost the person I was closest to on the team.”

“Now you see another new kid running into snake dens like it’s no big deal,” Malcolm concluded. I nodded.

“It makes me really nervous,” I looked down. 

“I’m sorry,” he replied quietly. I shook my head.

“It’s alright,” I looked back up at him. “Just... please don’t do something like that again.”

“... I’ll do my best.”

I chuckled at his hesitation. If all went well, Malcolm would fit in just fine.

--Time Skip (In Between Seasons 14 & 15)--

“Hey,” I said as Malcolm walked over to his desk. He had yet another meeting with Emily and Cruz. This time it went a step further. “How’d it go?”

“I had a meeting to explain my actions,” he explained, grabbing his go-bag. It was pretty much the only thing he had at his desk. “And they fired me.”

“What,” I asked. I bit the inside of my cheek.

“Are you surprised that it happened or are you surprised that it happened?”

“You did punch a sheriff,” I trailed off. 

Malcolm nodded and started walking toward the elevator. I stood up and followed him quickly.

“Where are you gonna go,” I asked.

“Probably back to New York,” he shrugged. “My mom wants me back there anyway.”

“Oh,” I nodded. I wanted him to stay closer. I wanted to see him. I looked down nervously as we waited for the elevator. “It’s gonna be boring without you here.”

“Always kept you on your toes,” he chuckled. The elevator dinged. “You should come visit. Just give me a call.”

“Okay,” I replied. I was going to just wave but then jumped when Malcolm quickly kissed my cheek and stepped into the elevator. I could only watch in shock as the elevator doors closed. 

“Did that just happen,” Garcia asked, walking over to me.

“Oh my god,” I whispered, looking at her. “Oh my god!”

“Go talk to him,” she shouted as the other elevator opened. I ran in, waving at her and telling her to let Emily know where I went.

What I didn’t see was J.J walk up to Garcia after the elevator doors closed.

“What’s (Y/n) doing,” she asked. Garcia just grinned. 

“Proving that you owe me twenty bucks,” she replied.

“No he didn’t,” J.J said. Garcia nodded. “I’m waiting for (Y/n) to confirm that before I give you money.”

“(Y/n) might still be in shock when they get up here.”

...and maybe I was.

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

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[sirowsky]

The Flowers Always Know

Description: When a mad scientist uses you as an experiment while you’re on holiday, the Heroics only just manage to save you. And in your recovery you become very close to the leader of the group.

(Slow burn)

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Language, buried trauma, mentions of tortured and murdered children, furious Marcus.

Link to Masterlist

Comment: We learn a bit more history on the Heroics as a whole, and something Reader’s been supressing, that leads to some new developments concerning her powers.

(Again I apologise for the crossover GIF, but really Narcos just has the best ones. Also, let me know if it’s yours and I’ll credit you!)

Chapter 39

  Wisconsin was getting cold this time of year, and you were frustrated. Verity had really outdone himself this time. He’d positioned himself right smack in the middle of suburbia, on Barbara Lane, in De Pere, Green bay, forcing you to take twice as many safety precautions as usual, before you could see him.

  You’d asked Marcus after the first time you’d met the truth-seeker, if it wouldn’t be less dangerous and more inconspicuous for him to come to you, instead of you having to travel all over the country to find him. But Marcus had explained that he had adapted a lifestyle that meant that he was never in one place for more than two days, in order to stay ahead of any team that HQ might send out to investigate his energy-signature.

  He rarely used his ability to the extent that the new and more powerful sensors could detect it, but on the few occasions when he had, he’d found himself having company some time later. Their response time varied depending on where in the country he was, and whenever he was closer to the west coast, his temporary lodgings were always significantly shorter.

  Allen had been quiet for most of the journey, deep in his thoughts, but when you started getting close to your destination, the old man started talking.

  “I built most of HQ, you know. The Heroic organisation.”

  “Yeah, you were one of the founders, right? One of the first non-powered people to suggest that supers might need help to become actual heroes. You got them to talk to one another, start building relationships, creating the friendships that would ultimately turn them into a team.”

  “It was almost impossible to get those knuckleheads to coincide. There were only four of them back then, and they all wanted the glory and heroism to themselves, fighting for the spotlight every chance they got. We really thought our efforts weren’t gonna do anything.”

  “What changed it around?”

  “Anita Moreno.”

  “Hah… of course she did.”

  “When she came along, young and determined and confident, she elbowed out their failing attempts at leadership by actually taking charge, and making them listen to reason. By way of a beat-down if necessary.”

  “That, I can believe. And I’d have loved to see it.”

  “She was fearless of their powers and their masculinity, their macho-bullshit. And before long, she had them training to improve their skillsets, studying the politics of the world, saying that if they were gonna insist on meddling in other cultures, then it was also their responsibility to understand what the hell they were meddling with.”

  “And that’s where you took the opportunity, I’m guessing?”

  “I reached out to Anita, offering financial support in creating a training-facility for the supers, a kind of recreational area, where they could play with their abilities, test themselves against each other, without risking harm to anyone. She really liked the idea, and asked me to find out if anyone else would be interested in helping them, and over time, that’s how the Heroics were born.”

  “And now it’s been tainted.”

  “I don’t know that it hasn’t been completely destroyed already.”

  “Henry, the organisation can never be destroyed, not as long someone’s around to fight back. And you’d better believe we are.”

  “What have you brought me today, Rainbow?”

  A little while later, you finally stepped into the house, and Verity’s energy hit you. Since he knew you couldn’t use your power to greet him anymore, he called to you from the kitchen and you guided Allen there.

  The poor man was already pale.

  “Someone I really hope you’re about to tell me I can trust.”

  “A founder… this is a first. Your heart is filled with love, for your family, mostly, but that also makes you susceptible to great fear. Right now, you fear what will be left of your legacy once this mess is made public. You fear that the Heroics will be shut down, and that your life’s work will go down in history as nothing but a failed experiment. You love your creation, it gives you great pride, but you fear it too. The power it’s accumulated, and how the politics have gotten more and more in control of it. But you are innocent of any crime or conspiracy. You are, at heart, a good man.”

  Allen looked like he might vomit, so you helped him to sit down and brought him a glass of water.

  “Who are you?”

  Verity never answered that question, no matter who was asking, so you sat down next to Henry to explain.

  “He’s a very special super, that you can never mention to anyone. If you do, he’ll disappear, and we’ll have no way of knowing who’s trustworthy or not.”

  “He can tell the truth? I never even spoke…”

  “Verity sees the truth, like a web around people. I don’t know exactly how it works, but he can see everything, past and present. Every lie and every truth of your entire existence.”

  “Incredible. And really unnerving.”

  “Yes, but worth it. Thanks to him we have over 120 trusted operatives working for us all over the world, and that’s not including the Heroics.”

  “That’s… impressive. But I fear this enemy is going to need much greater numbers than that, to be defeated.”

  “Maybe. But 89 of those operatives are supers, and that evens the odds significantly.”

  “What? But… we scan for people with abilities all over the world, we would know if that many existed.”

  “Not if they’d been hiding their powers. We figured that anyone who was on the Heroics radar, would most likely be on SIC’s as well, so we focused entirely on reaching out to those that we knew were hidden. And in that process, we uncovered a whole community of powered people that want nothing to do with the fame or recognition, and once they understood the stakes, they all agreed to help us. And they, in turn, are reaching out to their friends, normal and super, to join the fight. Our numbers grow every day, Henry. We can beat these assholes; we just need a little more time.”

  Verity’s energy focusing on you, broke your concentration, and you turned to look at him.

  “What is it?”

  “I’m not sure. Something… something in your memories.”

  “If it’s my memory then why can’t you see it clearly?”

  “It’s been hidden. It’s a memory you can’t see yourself.”

  Your skin crawled and your heartbeat picked up, in an involuntary response to any kind of mention of your time with the mad doctor. Verity noticed.

  “A painful memory. Something you don’t want to remember.”

  “I don’t want to remember any of it, V.”

  “Tubes, wires, machines, syringes. Your body remembers. Your cells do.”

  “Pain… so much pain, your nerves remember all of it. You fought him. You bit him twice, escaped your bindings once, almost got out. He punished you for that by pouring battery-acid on your feet. He was so confident that his experiment would work that he didn’t care how much damage he caused you in the process.”

  Lost in his search into your mind, Verity slowly started moving towards you, centring all his power on you, desperate to uncover everything that was hidden. You weren’t sure if he was even aware of how overbearing he was in that moment. How threatening.

  He had never come across a truth he couldn’t see before, and it made him obsessive and ruthless in his pursuit of it. A part of you knew that, but your reptile brain was overcome with a sense of danger, and you backed away from him, but he followed you.

  “V… please, stop.”

  He didn’t even hear you.

  “You’re hiding from me. I can feel the memory so clearly, wrapped in a bubble I can’t penetrate. I need to know what it is.”

  He was pushing so much of his energy into your mind to try and break that bubble, that you started feeling unnaturally heavy. Your body suddenly felt like it was moving through liquid, meeting so much resistance that it exhausted you just to take a single step.

  You collapsed to the floor, struggling to breathe, and still he didn’t let up. He towered over you, and somewhere in the background you heard Allen trying to reason with him, but then a splitting pain shot through your head, and you passed out.

  “You stay the fuck away from me, V!”

  You woke up lying on the sofa in the living room, your head still throbbing and the light burning your eyes. But from what little you could make out, Verity was sitting on a chair right next to you, and it made the bear inside you wake up with full force.

  You launched yourself at him, placing a hard fist at his solar plexus, and when he involuntarily crunched forwards, his face had a very abrupt meeting with your elbow.

  He fell backwards, toppling the chair over and breaking it as he hit the floor, bleeding from his nose and cheek-bone.

  Allen rushed into the room from the kitchen, holding a pack of ice he’d apparently been getting for you. You wobbled over to him and swiped it from his hands to put against your right temple, while Verity slowly got to his knees.

  “I saw it. The memory you were hiding, I was able to break your defence the moment before you lost consciousness.”

  “I don’t care.”

  “He did it in front of you. He strapped children into that chair, and made you watch as he drained them. He made you watch their strength gradually leave them as the pain got to be too much. You saw the faces of at least nine of them, wordlessly begging you for help.”

  “I trapped those memories away for a reason, you asshole. Just because you need the truth like a fucking addict, doesn’t mean I do!”

  The images came to you as he voiced them. You remembered those faces, fifteen of them, actually. You remembered their pain, and how much you wished that you could have borne it for them. How gladly you’d have sacrificed yourself for them, if you could have.

  That was why your powers had manifested into what they did. That was why you couldn’t heal yourself, because in that time and place, you truly didn’t care if you died.

  You slumped against the nearest wall and slowly allowed yourself to sink to the floor. Your head was still throbbing, and you were beyond angry.

  “You do need to know this.”

  “You don’t get to decide that for me! You don’t get to torture me, V, that’s what the fucking bad guys do!!”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Oh, that is as close to a god damned lie as you’ve ever gotten! You don’t give a shit if your powers hurt me, as long as you get your fucking truth. If you’re sorry about anything, it’s that I’m not grateful for your efforts. Go ahead, tell me I’m wrong!”

  He didn’t speak. He just sat there, looking as unbothered about everything as he always did.

  “Allen, get me the hell out of here.”

  “Hermosa? What’s wrong?”

  You took a cab from the airport, and fell asleep about halfway home. The driver had a calm and rhythmic manner that soothed you, and he was listening to John Williams play the Concierto de Aranjuez, with the soft guitar notes making your frayed mind drift away to a warm and sunny Spain.

  He woke you by gently announcing that you’d arrived at your destination, and you paid him and thanked him for his kindness, before getting out and walking towards the gate in the fence. Your legs felt like lead.

  You could hear Marcus and Missy through the front door as you approached it, ingulfed in playing some boardgame, and you stopped and just listened to them for a while, leaning heavily against the door.

  Your darling Missy, the same age as several of those children. But alive and happy and such a wonderful person already.

  And Marcus. Your reason for living. The one that saved you, and kept saving you, despite the darkness that accompanied you.

  You hadn’t kept your word about checking in with him, so when you texted him while you were waiting at the airport in Green Bay, he’d been furious at first, wanting to know why he hadn’t heard from you in almost five hours. But he’d quickly calmed as you’d simply reminded him that since he was hearing from you now, you were obviously okay, and you’d tell him everything when you saw him.

  But now, standing behind that door, you didn’t want to tell him. You didn’t want to talk about it, and you didn’t want to burden him with knowing it. But you also knew that he’d see it on your face the moment you walked in. You were too tired and in too much pain still, to even try and keep up any appearances.

  You took a breath, and walked inside. Marcus was on his feet the moment the door swung open, and he swept you into a tight hug as soon as he got to you, but the mildness of your response immediately had him worried.

  “Could you just keep your voice down a bit, please. My head’s killing me.”

  “Where you in a fight?”

  He looked closer at you upon hearing that, and he realised that you were actually in terrible shape. He swept you up into his arms and carried you to the bedroom, while asking Missy to come and help him prepare a bath for you.

  She went straight to the bathroom and turned on the taps, and you could hear her going into the cabinets to pull out fresh towels.

  In the meantime, Marcus was helping you out of your clothes, and noticed a big black bruise on your elbow.

  “No… just felt cornered.”

  “By who?”

  “...Verity.”

  His whole posture changed, and you could feel a sudden rage emanating from him.

  “Tell me what he did.”

  “I’m too tired right now…”

  “Querida, look at me. Tell me.”

  “He… broke into the memories I’d hidden… the one’s he couldn’t see before.”

  “The one’s Prince had altered?”

  “No… the one’s I buried. The one’s that were too horrible… He forced them out, and now my head feels like it’s breaking apart.”

  “Why would he hurt you like that?”

  He picked you up again and moved you into the bathroom. Missy only stayed until the tub was full and she could close the taps, and then she hugged you gently and slipped out of the room.

  Marcus took the last of your clothes off before lowering you into the warm water, and when you asked him to join you, he did, holding you close and softly stroking your skin under the water.

  “He can’t stand lies, and apparently that applies to secrets as well. He just had to know; consequences be damned.”

  “He’ll regret that tomorrow.”

  “Don’t bother. He won’t admit to any wrong-doing. And we still need him.”

  “I don’t give a fuck. The only reason I agreed to let you go was because I thought you’d be safe with him.”

  “I don’t have anymore secrets for him to try and uncover now. So, technically I will be, from now on. Not that I ever wanna see him again.”

  “You won’t have to. I’ll deal with him.”

  “We’re still at war, honey. We’re gonna have to do a lot of things we’d rather not.”

  “Fuck the war, I’ll turn my back on the whole damned thing and take you to live with the fucking penguins if that’s what it takes. I’m so tired of seeing you in pain!”

  “Oh, please, keep your voice down…”

  “Sorry.”

  You sat in silence for a while, as the warm water started to open up your capillaries, easing your headache a bit.

  “Are you gonna tell me?”

  You knew what he was asking, and you really wanted to say no, but you also knew that you needed to tell him.

  “Prince made me… he made me watch.”

  The tears burned in your eyes, and you tried to chase the memories away, to lock them back into that little bubble where they couldn’t hurt you. But it was too late.

  “Watch what?”

  You didn’t want to say it out loud. It felt as though that would somehow solidify the images into reality, making them truly inescapable. He could feel your resistance, and tried to soothe you with his current, but it wasn’t enough this time.

  “The… ch-children. He made me… watch them die.”

  “Oh, my god…”

  The next morning you felt better. The headache had eased with some real sleep and you were starting to feel human again. Marcus was right next to you, his arms securely wrapped around you while he slept, but he stirred the moment you did. It was still early enough that your monday alarms hadn’t gone off yet.

  You felt him swallow repeatedly against the bile and grief that surged up in his throat as he realised what you were saying. He’d seen the lab. The extraction chair. And the freshest bodies that Prince hadn’t had time to get rid off before they found his lair. He’d seen how much pain they’d been in as they died, evident in their faces even after death.

  He didn’t say anything else, and you didn’t need him to, you just needed him to hold you, and he did.

  “Good morning, hermosa. Did you sleep okay?”

  “Morning. Yeah, actually I did.”

  “No bad dreams?”

  “I think my headache might have made that impossible. It’s gone now, though.”

  “Good. How do you feel about breakfast?”

  “I’m looking forward to it. I still haven’t eaten in our kitchen yet.”

  “Right. Eggs and toast?”

  “Please.”

  You went about your morning toilet and wash, before heading out to the kitchen together. Missy was already at the island, having cereal and flipping through a schoolbook, and since Marcus was already pulling out the frying pan to get started on the eggs, you sat down with her, before the school bus would get there.

  “Morning, angel. Test today?”

  “Yup. Maths. I got it, though.”

  “Oh, I believe that, you’re good at maths. Break a leg anyway.”

  “Thanks, alma. I’m aiming for top scores.”

  “I like your aim.”

  “Don’t worry, preciosa, her protection is in place.”

  Marcus had just sat down a plate in front of you when the bus honked, and Missy ran out the door while shouting she loved both of you.

  You kept staring at the closed door after she’d disappeared through it, and Marcus knew what you were thinking.

  “I know, but after yesterday… I just feel a bit more protective than usual.”

  “That’s entirely understandable, but please try not to stress over it. You have another one to protect as well.”

  “Right… Sorry.”

  “Don’t apologise, just breathe and eat calmly.”

  “So, Allen got the all clear, I assume. Does that mean he’s in?”

  You dug into the food and it was delicious. So much better than the airport food you’d eaten all day yesterday, even though it was just scrambled eggs and perfectly roasted toast, with those tomatoes on the side, that he’d promised you the day before.

  Marcus let you finish before he started talking again.

  “Yeah, he’s gonna coordinate for us at HQ, so we can keep our attention on the rest of the country, and world.”

  “Is he okay?”

  “Shaken, for numerous reasons, but determined to get his lives work back in order. He told me about the early days, and how he and your mom whipped the first supers into heroes.”

  “Really? Mom doesn’t talk about those days much. She’s told me a lot about my father, but not that much about herself.”

  “Well, she seems to have been a tour de force all her life, from what Allen described. And after what you’ve told me about your dad, I can see why he would’ve fallen for her. They were a good match.”

  “She always says that the best thing about him was how good he was at driving her up the walls, because it forced her to really look at him.”

  “I see what she means.”

  “I don’t drive you up the walls. Do I?”

  “Mostly just in the mornings, when you know I’m not susceptible to ‘fun’, but other than that, you’re pretty well behaved.”

  “Oh, no, the mornings don’t count.”

  “And why the hell not?”

  “Because your morning mood is way too amusing not to take advantage of.”

  “Hey! That is so not fair, I can’t help it that my brain just won’t start on all cylinders at once. And, for the record, this is the second morning in a row that I haven’t been cranky first thing.”

  His whole face lit up in a dazzling smile at that.

  “Wow. That’s more than just a record, babe, that’s almost worthy of a mention on CNN.”

  “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

  “Sorry to interrupt.”

  “What the fuck is wrong with you?! How could you do that to her?! I have always been your friend, protected you, guided you, helped you any way I could… and you almost kill my wife!!”

  A voice came from the living room, and with the way the house was designed, about half of that space was visible from the kitchen, while the other half was hidden behind the dining room.

  He didn’t need to step into view from behind the wall that separated the two areas, for either of you to know who it was. The truth-seeker had a very recognisable tone and rhythm of speech. But when he did appear, you couldn’t help yourself from getting out of your chair and taking a few steps back towards the kitchen counter, needing as much space between you as possible.

  Marcus, on the other hand, turned positively feral. He rushed Verity and wrestled him to the floor, while screaming at him.

  “I would never have let her come to any harm.”

  You’d never seen him angry like this. Usually he internalised it, afraid to let it loose because of what his powers might do, but this was more than anger. He felt betrayed by one of his oldest friends, and it enraged him in a way that didn’t even involve his powers.

  He had Verity pinned on the floor and was sitting on top of him with his hands around his neck, every muscle in his body was tensed to the breaking-point and there where visible veins pulsing in his face, neck and arms.

  “Are you seriously fucking lying to me right now?! You did harm her, you ignorant piece of shit! Just because she’s the strongest fucking person you’ve ever met, doesn’t mean you can’t hurt her! She could barely even walk!”

  “But she’s not damaged. Her mind is intact.”

  “I don’t believe this…I don’t fucking believe it!”

  He got off of Verity and dragged him up to standing before shoving him down on the nearest chair, still keeping himself in between you and the trespasser. He paced in front of him while he continued to rail at him.

  “Are you seriously telling me, that you don’t know the difference between physically harming someone, and hurting them? How is that even possible, with all the crap you went through as a kid? How do you not know the difference?!”

  “It was a memory. Hiding them away only ever hurts you, I was trying to help her.”

  “Did you see the fucking memory?!”

  “Yes.”

  “Tell me exactly how seeing those faces for the rest of her life is gonna help her!”

  “It already has.”

  His eyes shifted to yours, and you instinctively tried to back away further.

  “That memory has already made you understand why you have the powers you do.”

  His energy flowed through you, and it made you feel sick. You closed your eyes in a useless attempt to keep him out, but you felt him explore your mind again, bringing those images to the forefront of your thoughts.

  “Seeing their suffering solidified everything that you are. Through all his torture and experiments, all you wanted was to live. But for them… you wanted to die. You wanted to exchange your life for theirs. That’s your true strength – your armour and your weapon. Look at their faces, Rain. See them and know who you are.”

  “You think that just because you know the truth, you understand everything? Do you think you know how this feels? Do you think you have any idea how much this hurts me? Do you not even see how you’re manipulating me?”

  Your blood suddenly boiled with fury. Who was he to command your thoughts? To impose his perspective on you? This man that had hurt you so badly, only to uncover a truth he had no right to.

  The entire house shook as your powers awoke with a vengeance. You snapped your eyes back open just as Marcus turned back to look at you, realising what was happening.

  But you loved this house, you weren’t gonna put a single fucking dent on it.

  Reaching into that special place inside of you, where you’d learned you could find that sparkling dust, you drew it out and gathered it in large quantities on the floor in front of Verity. Then you allowed your mind to fill with the images of those innocent children, in their dying moments, and transferred those images into the dust.

  Fifteen lifelike sculptures appeared in the sparkles, perfect re-creations of the dead and long forgotten sacrifices, that Verity had never met, never known, and yet felt he had the right to use like string-puppets.

  He had the audacity to smile at your creations.

  His smile faded as you spoke, but he made no attempt to apologise.

  “You’re using my pain to force my hand. You know that my powers hurt me, and you force me to use them anyway. And for what? To try and prove you were right?”

  “No. If anything, my efforts should tell you exactly how much we need your powers in this war. You asked me to help you win it. That’s all I’m doing.”

  “And if our baby dies because of it, that’s just another sacrifice for the greater good?!”

  The sculptures collapsed into mere piles on the floor, and you glared at him furiously, daring him to answer you.

  “I don’t believe your baby will be harmed by your abilities.”

  “Your beliefs are of no fucking relevance to me. Tell me if you would care… at all… if another child had to die in order for us to win this war?”

  He paused, but not to consider his answer, only how you would react to it.

  “No. I wouldn’t care. Wars kill people, of all ages, it doesn’t discriminate. Many more will die before it’s over, and if we’re going to be outraged over each and every one of them, then we won’t have time to fight.”

  Marcus closed his eyes and bowed his head.

  “That’s not the point, V. The point is that we only win if we still care. If we stop caring about life and suffering, then we might as well join the assholes. Can’t you see that?”

  “I haven’t lived like you have, Marcus. Caring has never been a luxury I’ve been able to enjoy. I have nothing. No possessions, no family, one person I would call a friend, and whom, despite my best efforts, I do care about.”

  “Then it should matter to you whether or not my family is safe and well.”

  “It does, and they are. When I say that I don’t believe that your wife’s powers will harm your child, I’m not just guessing. I can see your powers, Rain, the core of them. And while they do damage you a little bit every time you use them, I don’t believe that that damage actually harms you. I believe it slowly changes you.”

  “Changes me… Why? Into what?”

  “I couldn’t say for sure, but I don’t think it’s that kind of change. I think it’s simply trying to make you stronger, physically. As in, superhumanly strong. Invincible. And if anyone’s body could – it’d be yours.”

Authors’ Note: I love criticism, please don’t be shy to let me know if there’s anything you like/don’t like/have questions about.

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[shes-an-oddbird]

A Very long list of Season 5 Predictions/Wish List

I tried to hit as many of the characters as possible so this is really really long

The trickiest thing about this show seems to be the ever growing cast creating several stories at once and the fact that it’s a show about first responders so even characters that don’t seem like they would follow that career choice end up there and those that don’t sometimes feel out of place.

This is not to say that I don’t LOVE AND ADORE FIREFIGHTER ALBERT HAN! (but really kind of thought it came out of nowhere and yet I’m not surprised because what else were they going to do with him?)

It seems unlikely they’d assign Albert to the 118 unless Bobby requests him like he did with Eddie, but I think Bobby might have some hesitations about that. They’re already as close as family and sometimes make dangerous decisions because of it. He might feel its better for Albert to be with a different fire house or maybe Chimney would.

But he’s a regular so putting him with the 118 would be the best way to give him screen time

I personally think he’ll be assigned to the 133 since we’ve seen a bit of them this season. I’d love if there was a fun rivalry between the two firehouses (whichever one Albert ends up at.) I’ve said it before that the 118 is probably notorious at this point for the weird situations they get into. The teasing and the taunting would just be so much fun to watch. Albert talking to Chim or Buck and just being like, so the guys told me about this time…

Actually can we take a moment to appreciate that the 118 got ANOTHER firetruck destroyed and this one wasn’t even theirs. The 133 spends FIVE MINUTES with Buck and Eddie and their truck is in shambles.

On a more serious note, we might meet Chimney and Albert’s dad. I’m thinking he’s not going to be thrilled about his youngest joining the fire department and show up to talk some sense into him and scold Chimney for letting him do it.

I’m so confused about how much time has passed? How long does it take to become a firefighter? They must have some sort of plan for him because cutting out him going through training seems like a lost opportunity. It’s a story we haven’t really seen through anything but montages. Is it difficult? Would he try to quit? I’d have liked to see him making the decision in the first place.

putting the rest under here because its really a lot

We’ll also miss Eddie recovering (and Bobby too actually), which I’m a little bummed about but not devastated. It sounds like we won’t see much in the way of the effects of either shooting but can’t do anything about that now unless they flash back and have them work towards that moment on the roof.

My biggest concern with the time jump is missing literally any of Maddie’s story. I don’t know much about PPD or if its called recovery or overcoming it but I do want to see Maddie work through that and Chimney and the others supporting her.

I think her leaving the dispatch center will be temporary but it may take half or all of next season for her to return.

Maybe she’ll take over for May, if she does go off to school

Or May might continue working at Dispatch and going to school.

If she doesn’t go to school Athena is not going to be very happy with her. But maybe we could get Maddie and Josh being big siblings to May which is an underappreciated dynamic. Maybe it will help Maddie cope with how useless she’s feeling with Jee.

I’ll need to rewatch to see if they say what May wants to do but maybe she’ll study journalism or something that will keep her in the loop of the main characters the way it does Taylor.

And speaking of Taylor, she is actually a very interesting character, whether you like her (morally) or not. I think we’ll see more of her in season 5 and I genuinely think she’ll fall hard for Buck. And I think everyone needs to chill about how it’ll destroy her character.  We’ve already established that Taylor is like the female version of Buck (with a bit more sense maybe but a mirror if him non the less). If Buck is allowed to grow and want an actual relationship, is anyone really surprised they’d have Taylor go through that too.

She’s just a few steps behind, like he’s in relationship phase and she’s just coming to terms with her own feelings for him

My big concern, since they like to break Buck’s poor little heart, is that she’ll leave. She’ll get a job opportunity and pick it over Buck. I think it would be a hard decision for her but in character. Or maybe they’ll surprise us and make Buck and Taylor endgame (I know a lot of people don’t want to hear that but I could see it happening that way)

On the flip side I don’t know what’s going to happen with Eddie and Ana. I know she’s pretty much hated but its super unclear what the plan is other than that they’ll eventually break up per what Carla implied. I suspect they’ll be together for a bit of season five until Eddie figures out what’s up with what his heart wants. I don’t think Ana is some awful witch so the break up will probably be mutual or at the very least Ana won’t be surprised.

But hopefully we get more than just that as far as Eddie goes. The episodes we do get that are focused on him are really some of my favorites. They are wrapping up his moving on from Shannon arc which is cool. The trying to be a good father to Christopher will always be there, that’s something that will never change and always be a growing/learning experience.

I’d love to meet one or both of Eddie’s sisters. They don’t have to stick around long term like Albert did but to have them pop up with some crisis would be interesting and we could learn more about Eddie and the dynamic with his family which seems loving but strained.

Maybe we will see Eddie working more with Hen too. I was wondering if they’d make Eddie a full paramedic to take over for her eventually, which I decided they probably won’t do. But one episode of Buck distressed over the fact that he and Eddie wouldn’t be partners anymore would be fun drama.

The two really are just at a loss without each other and I love that. They get so pouty when they’re apart.

I don’t know what other plans they might have for Buck next season. I suspect we’ll see him worrying over Maddie and I’d kill to see him watching Jee-Yun.

I don’t know how old she’ll be because of the time jump but can you imagine Buck watching the baby and it just being an absolute disaster. So he starts calling everyone in a panic and we get firefam taking care of Baby Jee, maybe while Chim and Maddie are at a therapy session or just a weekend away for themselves.

I’m convinced the Baby would love Eddie. I think its just me projecting my desire for Eddie and Maddie to interact more. But like Hen teasing him because of course the baby loves him, all the girls love Eddie, he’s got the pretty face. Buck being super jealous that Jee likes him more. Eddie being genuinely surprised because he felt like such a failure when Chris was a baby. 

Denny, Harry and Christopher are all getting older too so there has got to be a story there with at least one, if not all of them. Harry was sidelined this season but I love that kid, he is the spawn of Athena and Michael and we already know he’s a little trouble maker. Match that with Christopher who is sassy and too smart for his own good and Denny who is clearly the good kid of the bunch. I don’t know, it’s another lost opportunity if they don’t do something with that.

They could assign Karen and Hen an older foster kid who’s maybe not such a good influence at first. Unless they opt for just younger ones, I’m not really sure how that works. But they could get one that’s not as easy as nia and they have to work for that bond.

Might be they adopt them at the end

I hope we see more of Hen’s mom and med school friends but not like a crazy amount. The cast is already too big but I love them so an occasional appearance would be welcome.

I love David and Michael too but they always seem like the hardest to work in because, as stated, they are not first responders. David is a doctor though so maybe we’ll see some interaction with him and Hen. And all the Bobby and Michael content is welcome.

I NEED A WEDDING NEXT SEASON! Just pick a pair and marry them please!!! Maddie and Chimney!!! Michael and David!!! Someone, please! Even just a proposal?! Maybe? Please?

And there will be another crossover event which is exciting because I really enjoyed the first one. I wonder if they’ll come to LA this time and what would bring them there. With the scheduling of the shows next season they won’t have to tie them together so much time frame wise. They literally could just be popping in for a visit. I’m not gonna lie when I thought about another crossover I really wanted Bobby the self-taught chef to meet Charles the actual chef but now I can’t have that and it makes me so sad.

Putting all this out there is a really good way to insure it never happens, but still, they seem like logical places to go as of the finale.

[birlcholtz]

Fic Questions

tagged by @the-lincyclopedia thank you!! (fun game: watch my writing get progressively less formal as the post continues. by the end it’s like what is capitalization)

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

77!

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

434,378 as of this week but it does go up quite regularly

3. How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Okay so in terms of what’s on my AO3, I have Check Please, All For the Game, Sharp Zero, HP, and Miraculous Ladybug. I also have The Forbidden LOTR and PJO Fanfiction (as in, I’ve written it, but it’s never seeing the light of day)

(technically there is a PJO fic out there that has seen the light of day but I orphaned it because I was tired of getting comments asking about when it would be updated)

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

and then i met you (and the whole world changed)

for the better

Knew It Was You

come home (to you, to us)

sin bin schematics

All of these are Check Please and all of them except Knew It Was You are part of my Zimbits Airport AU!

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

I do! It’s actually a very recent thing that I’ve started not responding to literally every single comment. Mainly I respond because I love talking about my writing so I am going to seize that opportunity when it comes up

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Oh, DEFINITELY Happy Birthday (HP). Check out that MCD tag ahah. (I say HP but what I really mean is that I write fic about Regulus Black. The Regulus Black-centric tag is my home in the HP fandom)

fun fact: this is a very short fic that I wrote when I was 15 and basically forgot about until recently, and then I reread it recently and went holy shit?? I pulled NO punches????

7. Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the wildest one you’ve written?

Not a ton? I think a lot of the fandoms I write for don’t really mesh that well. That being said, the aforementioned orphaned PJO fic is actually a PJO/ML crossover, so there’s that

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Nope! Sometimes I get comments that are just.... really confusing? And a more common thing is that in my AFTG fic I’ll get comments from people who are so focused on Andreil (or the most common ships in general) to the point that like. they miss the point of what I actually wrote. Those are annoying but they’re not hate, they’re very enthusiastic, they’re just... enthusiastic about a story I’m not writing? So it’s a bit frustrating.

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

No sjflskgjhgf I struggle enough to write kissing, I think if I ever tried to write smut my brain would just shut down. I’ve managed some fade-to-blacks (which are mostly in WIPs that haven’t been posted) but they rely HEAVILY on the powers of implication

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of!

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, although I have occasionally made a brief go of it, not to post, more as an exercise for myself in a language that I’m learning. Anyway I never finish them so I’m gonna say no

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

Not really? I’ve definitely group brainstormed fics and then written them (the best example of this being Q&A (AFTG), which was the product of a truly off-the-walls group chat), but I tend to do all the actual writing myself. I think the way I write would drive a co-writer up the wall since it’s very disorganized and I don’t write stuff down because ~I know what’s gonna happen I don’t need notes~ and it would infuriate me if I was co-writing with me lmao, so I won’t inflict that on someone else

13. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

I regularly move through ships I’m SUPER focused on, like it’s kind of a rotation. I will forever and always ship Percabeth though.

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Okay so if you follow me at @birlwrites you may know this already, but i have this ‘warmups’ document that is just like, random ideas i get that i don’t necessarily want to finish but i just want to try out for a bit? and i have a rule that once a ‘warmup’ is more than 10 pages long (so 11+) then it has to be moved to its own document, just to make scrolling through the warmups doc easier. but usually, a warmup only passes 10 pages when i’m INTO it. so i have a bazillion wips i will probably never finish. i complain about this a lot. i have so many wips. i don’t need more.

here’s one: it’s titled ‘interrobang doesn’t know they’re dating’, it’s basically a full outline for a chowder/tango fic and it would be SO cool if i could ever like. get around to writing it. but i am constantly swamped with writing projects, so it’s probably not gonna happen. if anyone’s interested in adopting it though i’d be down for that!! i think it’s a fun idea i just almost def won’t write it myself

15. What are your writing strengths?

SNAPPY DIALOGUE AND SNARKY INTERNAL MONOLOGUE. my writing is COMEDIC, 90% of my ideas are based on a funny snippet that popped into my head, a lot of my worldbuilding is based on ‘hey you know what would be hilarious’ (whenever i explain how larai selects a chosen one in the rainfall universe i start laughing, which is a STARK contrast to how it plays out on the page), i love writing funny stuff!!

also i think my writing sounds nice, a lot of the time i pick words/syntax based on sound and flow so there’s that too. and i have lots of ideas! i don’t struggle much with writer’s block because a) i have a lot of strategies to deal with it and b) i have a lot of ideas to help get around it/work with it

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

PHYSICAL INTIMACY LMAO, sometimes in my end notes on shippy fics you can see me complaining ‘it took me literally 4 hours to write that very brief kiss’. also sometimes the humor in my writing gets in the way a bit, i have to very consciously put it away so characters can actually have serious, genuine emotions. also i don’t like outlining and i tend not to get betas for fanfiction so like..... i do my best continuity-wise but having really tightly plotted stories is just not my focus lol. (and i do put more effort into that for original stuff, it’s just fic where i kind of go wild)

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

If the reader’s supposed to know what it means, then writing it in another language is iffy for me. (stuff like terms of endearment which come up a lot in fic are fine imo, you can just put a note in to translate them and your reader will prob remember)

If the pov character isn’t supposed to understand it, and it doesn’t matter if the reader understands it, then ig it’s fine? but unless you already speak the other language (and i am NOT confident in my ability to translate english into literally any other language), then i think it’s way easier to just note that a character’s speaking x language and provide tone indicators, body language cues, etc. so the reader understands as much as the pov character.

That being said there are def times when it’s used super effectively--the dialogue in spanish in cemetery boys comes to mind! that’s not fanfic but it’s still creative writing so w/e

so i guess it comes down to: does actually writing out the dialogue in the other language serve a purpose? if it doesn’t, then you’re filling up the screen with words your reader isn’t likely to understand, which i try to avoid doing

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

so the first fandom i actually *wrote* for was PJO, but i distinctly remember creating warrior cats OCs when i was little. i never actually did anything w them but i had them and my favorite was a riverclan warrior named shellstream i remember this VIVIDLY

19. What’s your favorite fic you’ve ever written?

oh boy. okay so this is hard because i feel like i’m continuously improving as a writer. like in the sense that my writing is getting closer and closer to really matching my own taste? my favorites tend to always be my current projects as a result. and i do really love set those ghosts alight (HP) but it feels a little like cheating to say a fic i haven’t even finished writing yet. even though it’s def not cheating, that’s just the direction my brain is taking it.

i’m gonna say and then what? (OMGCP) because i’m super proud of the prose (especially ch 2 aka the first actual prose chapter), survived by (HP) for SUCCESSFULLY WRITING AN EMOTION and making readers cry :), and Q&A (AFTG) because i’m literally the one who wrote it and yet it still makes me wheeze. those are all fics i reread occasionally, because i’m big enough to admit i enjoy rereading my old stuff! (just like. to a point. some of my old stuff i can’t look at anymore because all the mistakes stick out to me like they have spotlights shining directly on them)

this was fun!! i’m gonna do an open tag because i just started my fall semester and brain tired. i know sometimes people see open tags and assume the op didn’t really mean it but I MEAN IT, PLEASE DO THIS AND TAG ME!!!!! YES YOU READING THIS

[herefromeden]

So we need to talk about the 5/13 Crossover

Firstly, the Simon plot seemed unnecessary. I like that the show FINALLY FOR THE FIRST TIME decided to use some continuity to deal with Olivia’s emotions in relation to a traumatic event. So that’s new. But it seemed as though they inserted his death as a possible connection to Wheatley to give Elliot and Olivia an opportunity to emotionally connect over something that happened when Elliot was absent. Instead, we got, “I’m sorry” and “Now you can move past it”. Like, okay bro. Thanks so much for the help?

Secondly, Angela Wheatley. That’s all. That’s the tweet. No, but seriously, WHAT THE EVER LIVING FUCK. I can’t say I’m shocked because OC has seemed to be setting up this possible romantic connection, but I honestly didn’t think they would pull the trigger on that because, again, WHAT THE EVER LIVING FUCK. I don’t know if I can even cohesively sum up my feelings about this, but I’ll try. In what world would it make sense for Elliot to be pining after a woman who is the ex-wife of the man he (thought) ordered his wife’s killing? Make it make sense to me. I see everyone trying to excuse this because he’s “traumatized and confused and torn and lost and has PTSD”. But not only was it a kiss between Elliot and Angela, but an admittance of romantic feelings and a desire to pursue a relationship. So it doesn’t hurt so much that it happened, but that he WANTED it to happen.

Meanwhile, he and Olivia are having sporadic cute moments like when Olivia is talking to the little girl as Elliot gazes lovingly on. Or when they speak in unison and look at each other and smile. OR THE FUCKING HAND HOLDING, LIKE COME THE FUCK ON. At this point, moments like this feel incredibly cheap and obviously a ploy to get viewers to continue watching for this empty promise we’ve been getting since ‘99. I’m just over it. 

Additionally, the theory I’ve seen a lot is that Elliot was using Angela as a rebound and he could never use Olivia like that. But anything between Elliot and Olivia wouldn’t be a rebound. They have way too much emotion and history for romantic action between them to be a rebound. It was real, genuine feelings he had for Angela and it breaks me that those feelings were strong enough for him to act on, while Olivia is always there serving as a rag doll for Elliot’s emotional shortcomings.

In conclusion, I just don’t know anymore. This crossover made me lose a lot of respect for Elliot and shined a stronger light on his view of Olivia as the fallback guy, the constant Plan B. And yet again, makes me realize that Olivia is absolutely in love with him and would do anything for him. 

[thespamman24]

Squarebob Spongepants 2: 2Square 2Spongey

Squarebob Spongepants 2: 2sqaure 2spongey

Meanwhile… in the cum bucket

Planton: Now, I think I’ve finally found the perfect way of stealing the Krabby patty Formula

Karen: Planton, it appears that Mr. Krabbs is being guillotined.

Planton: Krabbs? Being guillotined? Oh, this is the perfect opportunity for me to steal the secret formula!

Meanwhile...

Rocky : I’ll get yah, yah filthy commie! Sure as mah names Rocky Cheeks!

*Squidward freaks out and runs, pursed by Rocky and Sandy

Squidward: Help!

*Rocky and Pearl are surrounded by armed guards*

Rocky: God dang it! We’re surrounded!

Pearl: Do you have any more ammunition?

Rocky: Of course I don’t, if I did, i would have shot the bastard by now! But, anyways, I don’t need no gun!

*Rocky takes out a lasso and just starts fucking wasting the army*

Sandy: Hold on to your hats!

*Rocky wistles and a sea horse plows through the army. Sandy grabs Pearl and both of them ride off on the sea horse while being pursused by the army*

Pearl: Wait a minute, I need to avenge my Daddys murder!

Rocky: Yah can’t avange your Daddys murdered if yah dead! Now, hang on tight!

*Rocky rides the horse over mountains and stuff, till eventually they both lose the army. Cowboy music plays. This is like the film The Searchers. Eventually, Rocky and Pearl stop the horse.*

Meanwhile..

Spongebob: Why...

Squidward: Well, Squarebob, I never had the nerve to tell you this, but I always found you annoying. However I have a new sense of clarity and purpose, I will let you go free, you don’t have to work at the Krabby Patty any more, you are now free to live your life freely as you choose*

Squarebob: M-mr. Krabs... you k-killed him...

Squidward: Some people deserve to die, Squarebob. We live in a godless world, some one has to play the part of deity. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got other fish to free.

*Squidward leads his army of men into the distance, leaving Spongebob alone. Eventually, Patringgo Starr shows up!*

Patringgo: Hey, Squarebob! What happened!

Squarebob: Mr. Krabbs!

Patringgo: oh... sorry. I got you a jellyfish!

Squarebob: Mr. Krabbs is dead, and that’ all you can give me? A jellyfish?

Patringgo: ...oh, sorry, how about two jellyfish?

*Squarebob hugs Patrick and cries onto his shoulder. Patrick seems unsure what to do. Eventually, Squarebob stops crying and wipes his eyes*

Squarebob: So... what do I do now?

Patringgo: Will... you probably don’t have to go to work anymore, so that means we can go jellyfish hunting together!

Squarebob: I guess...

*Squarbob gazes at the Krusty Krab with stoic eyes*

Squarebob: Unless... I became the new manager of the Krusty Krab!

Patringgo: What?

Squarebob sees Planton trying to sneak into the Krusty Krab

Squarebob: Hey! What are you doing!

Planton: Uh, nothing, I’m just stealing the krabby patty formula...

Squarebob: How dare you...

Planton: Will, it sort of looks like Mr. Krabs just died, so I’m just going to go in, and...

Squarebob: You bastard...

*Squarebob lets out an inhuman cry and runs toward Planton while wielding two spatulas. He rains blows down upon Planton until Planton is a bloody mess*

Planton: Please... I don’t want to die...

Squarebob: Death is too good for you.

Planton: Ouch... my ribs...

Squarebob: Now, get out of my sight

Planton: I can’t move my legs

Squarebob: I said, GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!!!!!!!

*Spongebob screams so loudly that it launches Plankton into the air, causing him to crash through the window of the Cum Bucket. He lies there on the ground and stares up at Karen*

Karen: I’m guessing it didn’t go to well.

Planton: Fuck you, Karen.

Karen: You are receiving an incoming message

*Planton looks up at the T.V.*

Planton: Oh you again…

Dr. Doofenshmirtz: Hello, Plankton the planton!

Plankton: What do you want.

Dr. Doofenshmirtz: Well, Plankton the plankton, I was thinking, you know, both of our plans never seem to work out, so I was thinking maybe we could do a crossover episode!

Plankton: A crossover?

Dr. Doofenshmirtz: I help you steal the Krabby Patty formula and you help me take over the tri state area!

Plankton: Interesting… you know, you couldn’t have come at a better time.

Dr. Doofenshmirtz: Also, what happened to you? There’s blood all over you, I didn’t even know that Plantons could bleed!

Plankton: Mr. Krabs is dead, that means that if we want to get the Krabby Patty, we’ll have to go through Squarebob!

Dr. Doofenshmirtz: Oh, so maybe I could whip up some sort of inator that would trap SquareRobert or whatever you said his name is…

Plankton: Oh, we’re not trapping him. That motherfucker beat me to a green and red pulp. We’re going to kill Squarebob.

Dr. Doofenshmirtz: Killing Squarerobert? That seems a bit extreme, I don’t usually kill people…

Planton: We’re evil get over it. If you want to rule over the tri-state are then you’ll have to get your hand dirty…

Dr. Doofenshmirtz: I suppose so…

Plankton: Then after I kill Squarebob, I can send my sights to greater ambitions…

*Planton looks at a T.V. on it we see Squidward and his army. They’ve just guiollinted a bunch of fish and he is standing in front of a crowd*

Dr. Doofenshmirtz: Hello… what are you looking back

*We transition to Squidward*

Squidward: People of Bikini bottom, for too long you have toiled under the yoke of the oppressor. Today, you are freed. Worker fish of the ocean, unite! We have nothing to lose but our chains!

*The crowd cheers*

Squidward: All those that stand in the way of worker sliberation shall be crushed beneath our might!

*The crowd cheers again*

Squidward: Let us march on!

*The crowd goes crazy.*

Karen: They are hungry for blood. It seems as if the whole world is hungry for blood. Perhaps they always were, it’s just now that they have something to feat on.

Planton: Shut up, Karen.

[afaimsarrowverse]

Top 30 Arrowverse Storylines we never got to see:

30.  Ray and Barry as Friends hanging out and superheroing together (The Flash/Arrow/Legends of Tomorrow)

I am not really sure why this never happend. Grant wanted it, Brandon wanted it, the fans wanted it, but somehow Ray ended up not even getting invited to Barry’s Wedding, while Sara, who never even interacted that much with Barry before, did. „All Star Team Up“ did work very good and showed that Ray was quite a good fit for Team Flash, but when „Legends“ came along letting those two character interact outside of Crossover became a problem, but still the writers could have them have interact more during the Crossovers or at least, you know, have Barry invite Ray to his Wedding!

 29. Jacob finding out thaz Kate is Batwoman at a point where it still matters (Batwoman)

Seeing how Anti-Batwoman Jacob was, it would have been a very big moment when he would finally find out that Kate is the one wearing the mask. One can argue that is was still a big moment, but Alice telling him flat out when Kate is not around anymore does not have the same impact or consequences this storyline was supposed to have. It would have been interesting to see if he would have changed his tune (probably) and how much. In the comic Kate’s Father is actually one of her biggest supporters Batwoman-wise, and while I don’t think that we would have gotten to this point quickly, it would have been interesting to see the Crows working with the real Batwoman with Jacob’s grudging permission and what impact this revelation would have had on his relationship to his daughter.

 28. Laurel Lance Lives (Arrow)

Laurel was never supposed to die, but the writers were pressured into killing her of, so Oliver could be with Felicity instead. But you can’t just kill of the Black Canary! She is arguable one of the most important female superheroes of DC Comics, maybe the most important one right after Wonder Woman. Which is why we got a whole line up of new Black Canarys after her death. But the Original One (not counting Sara, who never actually called herself that on the show, I mean we don’t refer to Shado and her father as Green Arrow either, do we?) was the best one and was the Female Lead of the show and would have deserved to go to amazing places after Season 4 and would have gone there if she had had the chance. Too bad shipping is more important than storylines, characters, and legacy to The CW, Warner, and DC.

 27. „Green Arrow and the Canaries“ Spin-Off (Arrow)

We waited almost a year for the news that this is not happening after all, after everyone pretending it’s a go for a very long time. Which is a major disappointment. Not so much because the show would have been that great - the Backdoor Pilot did not look like it - but because many storylines remained unresolved and will probably continue to remain that way because of the cancelation, inculding William’s abduction, the question who gave JJ his memories back and why, the whole mystery about Dinah and the Black Canary, and the question what Laurel is really up to. It’s said that not the whole show would have taken place in the future and there would have been a Laurel Storyline in the present, but in any case it would have been „Arrow“s Legacy Show, where many of the characters from the old show could have popped up, not only those features in the Backdoor Pilot, and it would have finally given the Canaries the spotlight they deserve and the Shadowhunter-Fans another show to watch, so in short: Why make false promises for over a year, if you are not willing to deliver? Not cool.

 26. Kara‘s and Kate’s friendship replaces Barry‘s und Oliver’s after Crisis on Infinite Earths (Supergirl/Batwoman)

Marc Guggenheim promised us this when „Crisis on Infinite Earths“ aired and the world was still sane. Things were looking really good for the Arrowverse, and no one had any idea the world’s newest health crisis would turn life into „mere existing because suicide is bad“. At this point pregnancy, Shut-Down, unfinished seasons, Melissa not extending her contract, and Ruby Rose exiting hers were unthinkable. We should have at least gotten one more Crossover which would have delivered on this promise – in the current season to be exact. But someone decided not to recast Kate Kane because of their Super Ego, so no .. this only happend Off-Screen in Season 1 of „Batwoman“ and that’s it. I am not even sure Kate will be mentoned in the final season of „Supergirl“ at all, however even if the „Whatever happend to Kate Kane“-Storyline should get resolved in Season 6 of „Supergirl“ rather then in „Batwoman“ that would be the end of that and in no way be a worthy heir to the epic seven years spanning Olivarry Friendship.

 25. „Supergirl“ and „Superman& Lois“ airing side by side

 That was the dream. Has been the dream for fans since Season 2 of „Supergirl“ when Tyler first appeared, and has been the plan of the producers since around „Elseworlds“ when they started planning the Spin-Off. Now, Covid and Pregnancy combined and pushed Season 6 of „Supergirl“ backt to who-know-when, while „Superman & Lois“ got a much shorter season then it would have gotten under normal curcumstances, so they won’t air on the same night or even during the same period of time. Which also means that all those mini-crossovers we would have gotten – remember back when „The Flash“ first started and how many Characters from „Arrow“ ended up crossing over into the new show? – won’t be happening now. Which is a shame and very frustrating.

 24. „The Atom“ Spin-Off (Arrow/Legends of Tomorrow)

Now, this one was fist mentoned when Ray Palmer showed up in „Arrow“ back in Season 3. Instead we got „Legends of Tomorrow“ with him as the de-facto Male Lead in it. Which was probably the better Spin-Off then, but now Ray has left„Legends“, they did introduce Ryan Choi, and yes, if I could pick the Spin-Off I would want to see right now, it would be „Atoms“ starring both Ray and Ryan along with their wives. I have no idea how Fairy Godmother Nora would fit into „The Atoms“, but I am sure if one tried, one would find a way. But of course there is no way this is happening anytime soon or anytime at all. Not only because Brandon is now in „The Rookie“, but mainly because someone behind the scenes is clearly pushing for baggage-less Spin-Offs like „Wonder Girl“ or „Nomi“. We did not get „Green Arrow and the Canaries“, might not even get „Painkiller“, and are most definitly not getting an „Atom“-Spin-Off. Which is just wrong and missed opportunity in the size of the Moon.

 23. Harry and H.R.-Team Up (The Flash)

I never expected the Arrowverse Shows to be „Orphan Black“, but until recently they had all those Doppelgangers and hardley ever did something with them. Now Harry and H.R. are the only Main Characters ,with whom the writers actually did something with the fact those two are Doppelgangers and around at the same time, but to be honest, this makes it even worse, the carving for those two to meet, interact, and riff of each other. Because they actually worked well together, and it’s a shame they never got a storyline o rat least en episode where they had to team up and so something together. The Council of Wells is nice, but mainly just for fun. H.R. is the least Wells like Wells, and Harry everyone’s favorite Wells (Eobard does not count), so why did no one ever write something great for those two before they went and killed H.R. off?

 22. Sam sacrifces herself tos top Reign and Alex adopts Ruby (Supergirl)

First of all, I do like Sam, I didn’t want her to die. But the problem is that literally everything about Season 3 was building toward this. Normally everyone bitches about the writers killing off characters, but in this case, it was a grave mistake not to kill off someone. Sam’s Guilt about Reigns crimes, Alex’s bond with Ruby – all of this was literally for nothing and stopped dead with Sam not dying. Somehow getting rid of Reign magically solved everything for Sam (or not, because she was written out between Seasons, we don’t really know if she ever got over her trauma), while Alex’s Adoption Storyline went nowhere and was put on indefinite hold after that one episode in Season 4, where she almost got a baby. Worse, the writers actually admitted that they had planned this, but then changed their minds because they did not want to take a mother from her child. Which just means they were and are cowards – if you compare „Supergirl“ to the other Arrowverse Shows, there is one major difference and it’s exactly that one – only villains and side-characters die on „Supergirl“ (and M’yrnn whose storyline bascially was dying), in other words less heartbreak but also less courage is found here.

 21. Nora dates Spencer Young (The Flash)

Spencer Young was conceived as Nora’s Love Interest, who was to lure her into the Young Rogues at a later point of this season, but something went awry behind the scenes with the actress it seems, so the storyline was pushed back and back, and Spencer was replaced in every episode she was meant to be in after the first one by other characters, until she was eventually dropped alltogether and Bug Eyed Bandit got her gadget, so that a least some of that storyline could get a pay off. As for Nora’s Rogue Love Interest Weather Witch ended up getting this role, which just about works, but given that there is no real foundation there, the romance was only implied and never took off, which is too bad for the shows‘s Queer Record.

 20. Cat remains Kara‘s boss (Supergirl)

„Supergirl“ has changed so much over the years, that is actually kind of impossible to say how the show would have turned out, if certain elements would have sticked around. One of the biggest casulties of the change in style and tone was the loss of Cat Grant as a regular character, and it’s hard to say what the show would have looked like after the first Season, if she stuck around, but it would sure looked have very different. Now I am not so sure we would have gotten Lena Luthor the same way into the show we got her in reality, if Cat wouldn’t have left, but there is no telling, after all Lena quickly went from a kind of mentor character to a female friend, so maybe not much about this would have changed. However James‘ Storylines and all the back and forth with who is owning and running CatCo would of course not have happend like that either, and I think „Supergirl“ would in the end have been a more coherent show because of that. Plus Cat was the best character in the show and having her around would have made everything better anyways.

 19. Anissa meets the other Heroes of the Arrowverses (Black Lightning/ The Other Shows)

This could still happen in the next season or so, if the actress is willing to go to Canada and come back to Anissa Pierce after the end of „Black Lightning“, but even if it happens, it wouldn’t be the same. Due to curcumstances „Black Lightning“ ending up on Earth Prime was just for cosmetics, which is sad, because what’s the point of a Shared Superheroes-Verse if your characters can’t interact? Am I the only one who would have wanted Anissa to meet Kate (never going to happen now), Sara, Barry and Kara? I don’t think so. Sadly it wasn’t to be.

 18. Iris and Kara have a Journalist Team-Up (The Flash/Supergirl)

 This is the one thing fans have been asking for, the producers pretended to listen to, but still ignored. It could happen during the current season, but I have my doubts. The window has closed, and no one knows why this never happened. We did have Iris team up with Lois and Clark during Crisis though to recrut the Paragon of Truth, which was a Journalist Storyline, if you will, but all the fans always wanted both Iris and Kara to have actual Journalist Storylines, but we rarley got them. Yes, teaming up on an Inverstigative Story was always difficult while they were living on different earths, but it would haven been possible nevertheless. And on Earth Prime even more, but no, it was more important to do that endless Mirrorverse Storyline than to have, I don’t know, Iris and Kara break an Investigative Story about Lex to bring him down. Well, maybe we will get another Iris/Lois-Team Up with Journalism rather than Multiverse Saving Topics instead at a later point, but we sadly won’t get a Iris/Kara/Lois Team Up like that.

 17. Amaya meets Charlie (Legends of Tomorrow)

I don’t know why they did not do that. After all Charlie pretend to be Amaya in Season 4 so often, it kind of would be obvious to have them meet at some point. It’s the same actress for God’s sake! But I guess the main reason we never saw that was that „Legends“ has short seasons. Season 4 had only 16 episodes and Season 5 only 15, of which one was the Crossover, so only 14 they could use, and they just ran out of space to insert a meeting between those two ladies that would have had any reason to happen beyond the fact that fans would have wanted it to happen. I am normally all for things happening for storyline reasons and not only for them to just happen, but in this case, I would just have taken it happending without any compelling reason.

 16. Leo meets Leonard (The Flash/Legends of Tomorrow)

I would have payed extra-money for this to happen. But I do get why it didn’t happen, because if you come right down to it, we only had Leo for five episodes across two shows, two of those episodes being part of the Crossover, which left three episodes, that really had other things to do than to bring back Leonard just to have him meet Leo. On the other hand those two were so different, it should have been an obligation for the writers to make it happen somehow. Maybe at least in a vision or a dream or something like that. Gah, I wish Wenworth Miller would just come back in the flesh as any of those two to our shows….

 15. Joe and Cecile as Older Parents for a Newborn (The Flash)

This Season 5 Storyline was cut short, when Jesse L. Martin had to take medical leave from the show. Which is too bad, because it was the very reason why Cecile became a Main Character in the first place, and was an important part of the original Seaon 5 plan, which would have three sets (or rather two and a half sets) of parents: Barry and Iris, Joe and Cecile, and Orlin. Now we got a sort of aimless Cecile for the most part of the season, and the very problem the show actually wanted to avoid in the first place: Jenna merely existing, but not being there for most of the time (but this got way worse in Season 6, if we are honest). Real Life can really be a bitch sometimes.

 14. A Flashback about Sara joining the Legaue of Assassins (Arrow/Legends of Tomorrow)

We were promised this before Season 3 of „Arrow“ aired. Of course the only reason we were promised this was to obscure the fact that Sara would be killed of in the premiere. Same for all those fotos featuring her a part of the main cast and all that jazz. Still, Caity was contracted for Season 3 and showed up in a handful of episodes, but all we got was Maseo saying that he joined the League around the same time Sara did. Since then Sara came back to life, and we still have not gotten that flashback. Why? I know the initial statement was a purposeful lie, but that does not mean we did not want to see that. On the contrary we have been waiting for this since Season 2 of „Arrow“! And we are still waiting. But it does not look like we are ever going to get it.

 13. Oliver meets Jefferson (Arrow/Black Lightning)

I am kind of miffed about that. I wanted Oliver and Jefferson to growl at eacht other, showing us who is better at it. Jefferson only came into Crisis after Oliver was already dead and did point out in Part 5 himself that he never met the man. But he should have. The two oldest Arroverse-Vigilantes apart from the Bat should really have met, just because they are the first ones. But now it will never happen, even if Oliver comes back somehow. (Unless the the new Crossover Strategy is bringing back the characters from the shows that are not around anymore, and future Crossovers will feature Oliver, Kara, Jefferson and his daugthers in the still existing shows instead of having characters from the still existing shows meet, which I kind of doubt, but if that leads to them meeting, I will take it.)

 12. Pay Off for the Tommy Elliott Storyline (Batwoman)

Given how much of Season 1 built that storyline up, an actual pay off would have been nice. But instead the storyline got killed off in the first episode of the new season. And now, before you argue: no, that was not Pay Off. Pay Off would haven been someone other then Luke, who was close to Bruce and knows he was Batman (like his loving cousin called Kate, you know) interacting with Fake Bruce. For episodes. Tommy actually knew Bruce pretty well, so he might have been able to pull a long con. Maybe Kate would have believed him, but Luke would have gotten distrustful, or the other way around, and this would have lead to friction between those two. And maybe this storyline would have eventually even led to the real Bruce Wayne or at least to a clue of his whereabouts. Like I said: Pay Off and not Kill Off. Wouldn’t that have been something.

 11. Laurel comes back (Arrow/Legends of Tomorrow)

Everyone got resurrected in the last episode of „Arrow“, except for Earth-1 Laurel because of the whole „There can be no more Doppelgangers“ business. Now I really don’t see why we can’t just have both of them, but the real kicker is, that the main reason Laurel-1 was not brought back is the Spin-Off, that never was, „Green Arrow and the Canaries“, that was supposed to star Earth-2 Laurel. Now that Spin Off was not picked up after all, and Marc Guggenheim stated that they probably would have brought Original Laurel back in the Finale if it weren’t for the Backdoor-Pilot. Now of course Laurel 2 was the MVP of Season 8, so it would have been a mistake to let her cease into nothingness in the Finale. But they could have just shown her alive and well on another earth in a scene and have Earth 1 Laurel in the other scenes instead. But why did they never bring her back before that? I mean, there was a whole subplot around that in „Legends of Tomorrow“ which ended with Sara not bringing her back, which would be alright, if it weren’t for the fact that another lost sibling that couldn’t be brought back came back on „Legends“, namely Zari’s brother Behrad, which yes, deleted Zari from the timeline and replaced her with a new version of herself, so it wasn’t a cheap fix, but it is just one more reason to be miffed about the fact that Laurel obviously was not important enough to anyone to be brought back anywhen in „Arrow“ or „Legends of Tomorrow“. But maybe there is still hope, I mean two alternate Versions of Laurel were introduced in „The Flash“, so maybe she can still come back there, or at some point in „Legends“ as long as the show is still around.

 10. Ralph and Sue get together and become Partners in every sense (The Flash)

This could of course still happen sometimes down the road, if they do recast Ralph after all, or if Hartley is allowed to come back at some point. Or they could just say it in a random episode that only features Sue. However, it won’t be in the way the the show has beeing building toward since Season 5 (actually 4, but that’s not the point). Back when Sue was introduced, we were blown by the chemistry between those two, dreaming about their own Spin-Off etc. and what has become of it? 2020 destroyed so much….

 9. Two Zaris for Good (Legends of Tomorrow)

Tala wanted that, the fans wanted that, even the writers kind of wanted it and thought about doing it, but in the end, like I mentoned before, „Legends of Tomorrow“ is not „Orphan Black“. „Legends“ already is the most complex Arrowverse Show to shoot, having Tala do double duty for good would have complicated the shooting process even more. Still we love both Zaris, and while it’s understandbale and even right to focus on Zari Tarazi for now, Zari Tomaz is better not gone for good. We might get two Zaris at the end of Zari’s storyline anyway, but until then the best we can hope for is a Caitlin/Killer Frost situation, which might be a problem for both Nate and John, and also is not likely to happen soon, so, yeah, that would have been great, but we are never going to get it.

 8. Ronnie and Eddie return from the Singularity (The Flash)

Well, yes technically Eddie is dead, but his body was sucked into the Singularity, which did not need to happen, if they just wanted to kill him. And Ronnie never actually died, he just was sucked into the Singularity, never seen again, and assumed to be dead (well, without a Partner to replace Martin to merge with him, he should have died by now, but let’s ignore that for a moment). Anyhow the fact that those were sucked in, but Jay’s Helmet came through it, led to the believe that there would be consequences to those two being sucked into the Wormhole. But nothing ever came from it. Not even for one of those two. Season 2 did go down a very different route, and while we are still waiting today to learn what actually happened to those two, it does not look like we are ever going to find out. Which is strange, considering how much time was spend emphasizing this stroryline in the earlier seasons.

 7. Chas returns (Constantine/ Legends of Tomorrow)

It’s still not confirmed „Constantine“ took place on Earth-1, but we always assumed it. And also Chas was refered to in Season 5 of „Legends of Tomorrow“, and let’s face it: John Constantine without his Chas is just not right. Aside from the fact that Chas‘ „Constantine“ Storyline is still unresolved, John need his oldest friend in his life. So not only fans of the „Constantine“ Series would really love to see Chas Chandler on „Legends“. But sadly I doubt this will ever happen - with any actor that is.

 6. Lois and Clark as Parents of Baby Jonathan in „Superman & Lois“

This was after all the initial promise. That the show would pick up where „Lois and Clark“ ended, with the pair as parents, but as parents of a baby not of teenagers. And it was set up this way. Of course we know all the reasons: The claim that Action Series with Leads who have a baby do not work, the problems revolving around Babies and Little Children on Set, the need to write for actual characters instead of mute crying little things, and the fact that storylines for older kids are more interesting than for younger ones, but while we understand all of that and recognize „Superman & Lois“ will be the more interesting show with Teenage Sons in it, the fact remains it is not the show we were promised.

 5. Sydney Palmer (Legends of Tomorrow)

This was set up in Season 1, Brandon did talk about it with the writers and was expecting it to happen as much as we did, and then … nothing. Now he is gone from the show, and we will never get to meet his illusive twin brother. Everything concerning Syndey is strange, starting with the fact he never seemed to be around, even when Ray was a kid. Of course this might be because the Palmers had a „every parent takes one twin“ situation going on, but even if you consider the fact that Ray und Sydney obvioulsy weren’t on good terms, the fact remains everything about him is weird. There even is fan therory that Ray does not have a brother, and Sydney actually is his alternate personality. Which at least makes more sense than the fact that we never got to see him.

 4. The „Whatever happend to Mon-El“- Flashback in Season 3 (Supergirl)

Normally, if a main character disappears for a certain amount of time, and then turns up again, and the stuff he or she had beeing doing in-between is important for the current storyline of the season, we are told what he or she has been doing, and I don’t mean in words, we are talking about television after all, it’s show not tell. This is why I did assume that we would get at least one episode in Season 3, that would show us what happened to Mon-El in the future. At least a flashback subplot in an episode. Something for God’s sake! But I waited and waited and waited – and nothing, not a single scene. Now they did have the Legion Cruiser, they could just have used that set, and they could have only shown us Imra and Brainy, if there was no other way, but we did not even get that. I never understood why we have never ever gotten to see a single scene in the future, where three of our main heroes have spend a significant amount of their time in, why we never got to see someone from the Legion who isn’t Mon-El, Winn, Brainy or Imra (at this point we never even got to see Nura!), but this particular storyline was teased and actually essential to Season 3, and it still never happened via images, and that I really never understood. There is just no excuse for it.

 3. General Eiling hunting Meta-Humans (The Flash)

Whatever happened to this storyline? I guess the Singularity sucked it up. I don’t think they even picked it up in Tie-In Comics or Novels. It went away when Clancy Brown declined to come back, I guess, but I am not so sure they even asked him. You see, even if the argument was, that he was too traumatized from Grodd to go after Meta-Humans any more (which he wasn’t, we all saw the last scene with him), some underling could just as easy have taken over. I mean Eiling knew about at least two Meta-Humans personally, Barry and Martin, and had kidnapped Firestorm in the past, and cleary did not learn anything from his run in with Grodd, which only came about because Eobard thought he was too dangerous and knew too much to be running around freely, but Barry and the others did set him free at the end of Season 1. Even if he would have been too thankful to come after Team Flash, why wouldn’t he come after all the criminal Meta-Humans out there? This storyline was cleary set up for Season 2 and then dropped like pretty much almost everything else in Season 2 that had been set up to be continued before. Lazy! I know it’s kind of X-Men, but the military going after Meta-Humans kind of was a Must Happen that never happened. But there might just be something along those lines happening in Season 7. However  it does not invovle General Eiling or anything else related to the Earth-1 storylines, I fear.

 2. Green Arrow and Black Canary as Street Fightning Hero Partners – with an without masks (Arrow)

This was the initial promise of the Pilot and all of Season 1 and still remained a promise until that episode of Season 4, I guess. Everyone who knew anything about Green Arrow was expecting this from the show, instead we got what we got, which has not very much to with the actual Green Arrow or DC Comics. I mean. we kind of got a brief glimps at it in Season 2 with Sara and Oliver, but that didn’t last very long. However the writers were still fighting for that end-goal, when Season 5 rolled around, because it sure seemed like Dinah Drake was considered as a Love Interest for Oliver at the beginning. But nothing ever came of it, and Dinah even gave up the Black Canary inbetween, so … no, we never got this, only ever on Earth-2 with Adrian-2 und Laurel-2, where he even called her Pretty Bird. In the end this is the initial broken promise, the first lie of the Arrowverse, and it would be the gravest one, if it weren’t for a certain other Arrowverse-Show that bascially died between Season 1 and 2.

 1.      An actual proper Season 2 of „Batwoman“

Do I even have to say it? I can’t even blame Ruby Rose for that, if I were in her shoes, I would have left too. The person I blame is Caroline Dries. Not only did she not recast Kate Kane, no she also refused to make an established character into the new Batwoman. Politics is only one reason. Sophie Moore is black after all. The other reason is an oversized ego. She wanted to create her own superhero. Which is fine, if you make your own show, but not if you replace your main hero, who your whole show revolved around, after one Season with an Original Character and in the same instance kill off your own story. It would have been better to cancel the show than to do this. I mean, what’s the point? It’s not like Alice can’t function without Kate, but why should we care about the things she does anymore, when her main nemesis is just gone?( Ignoring the fact that she is going to be replaced by Black Mask as the main villlain of the show in this season anyway.) Literally everyone in the show was defined by their relationship to the Wayne-Kane-Family and/or the two Bats. Bringing in someone from the outside does just not make any kind of sense. I mean Luke has a sister in the comics, who actually was Batwoman in an Alternate Realitiy, just saying. So yes, this is the gravest broken promise of all the Arrowverse: The promise that we would actually get a second Season of „Batwoman“, which we did not get, no matter what The CW and Caroline Dries and even Greg Berlanti the traitor are calling the Adventures of Ryan WhatsherFace Wilder.

[emutionals]

Thank you for enabling me

Because like I highly doubt AH would be invited or try to join MCC. Their let’s plays are mostly survival worlds and the minigames they do play are made are mostly myatt maps (also the fact that they aren’t a minecraft channel, but in fairness the sapphire simmer, who’ve been in a fair amount of events, also aren’t minecrafters, so).

I doubt they would get to chose their team colour, but I would think lime would be their go to, but I can’t really think of anything that could go with lime that involves them or their brand (ex. the blue bats being replaced by the simmers whenever they play). My first go-to team name would be the aqua achievers, but I also like pink pimps (top, y’know?). Their logo being an aqua star? Or something? Or the joystick? Something of the sorts.

Since teams can only consist of four people, only four out of the ten (nine? eleven?? I don’t know anymore I’ll be honest) can participate in the event. Realistically in this fictional scenario I’m creating the ‘main crew’ would most likely be chosen, or the some of the more popular personalities at least, but I say fuck that noise. I think there’s two or three solid players in the team and a handful that could fit into the two other slots. I’m trying to take dynamics into account, along with their skills with the game because while they definitely not the best minecraft players, a few of them are better than the rest.

Matt, for example, is probably one of the more experienced players when it comes to minecraft and hopefully knows a fair amount about the game, for the most part (once again, achievement hunter). He’s a builder, which doesn’t help too much in MCC along with being a survival player, but I think he could do well in ‘SMP’ based games like bingo, build mart and maybe, if he practiced, rocket spleef.

Also for the sake of having duos in teams, Jeremy is also very proficient in minecraft, I believe he was an intern and made some maps as well? Also the building episodes that I can’t remember the name of. I think if he took the opportunity to, he could really excel in minecraft, though I would argue he’s probably as good as Matt is. Good team player imo, great support and would probably end up being the support of the team. I would argue that he’d be decent in PvP games, or the ‘sky’ games.

Jack is also up there, aside from Matt I think Jack streams MC as well? If Jeremy isn’t the leader of the group I can absolutely see Jack being it. Definitely the most competent when it comes to minecraft, but I think his situation is similar to Matt’s where they’re both survival players and would excel in SMP games.

The last spot is really up for grabs. After having those three, it’s really up to what kind of dynamic you want while playing.

Trevor most likely knows the most about minecraft aside from those three and would do research about the game. Another support member. It would create a trio of the stream team, but I don’t think it would dampen any dynamics between them and Jack. I could see him playing a good SoT sand caretaker or a pack mule in SG, but I do think I’m underestimating him.

Alfredo is my second go-to, but he’s much more of a wildcard. I feel like he could tip the scales to the team’s favour or against it. He was a professional gamer and has some history when it comes to playing in competitions. I genuinely think if he wanted to, he could tryhard in PvP and movement games (I don’t know the mechanics of Siege, but I’d assume he has good momvent abilities) and balance out the team a little bit more. Or! He could fuck around during the whole event. There’s an obvious in between, but the two extremes are more fun to think about.

On the top of wildcards, The Jones are more for the fun dynamic. Both of them aren’t the best when it comes to MC, but man would it be entertaining to watch them.

Either way, the team’s strength lies in team games. The advantage they have over other team is the fact that they’ve worked together for a good few years and know how the others work. Their weakness would most likely be in PvP games, as they tend to use more 1.8. fighting tactics (correct me if I’m wrong about that though). They’d most likely be the oldest team age-wise. Movement becomes worse with age, so I would also say that they might not be the best there as well.

In conclusion,

1. Achievement Hunter Please

2. It’d be great for clout

3. You could get a whole ass stream or episode potential for minecraft

4. The crossover of the century! Mcyt and AH

5. Please

6. I’m begging