#this should technically belong to the shs series

[becca-e-barnes]

all i can think about is bucky literally BEGGING to eat your pussy. just on his knees, calling himself a needy slut, just looking up at you with puppy dog eyes while he just begs for your pussy on his mouth. ugh.

Men who are this into eating pussy have a special place reserved for them in Heaven. Hearing someone beg to go down on you is life changing when they know what they're doing 🙈

But you're so right, Bucky would be so willing to degrade himself like that just to be allowed to go down on you. He'd be on his knees, trying to ignore how full his balls feel, begging for you.

"P-please." His voice is so quiet you almost start to question if he said it intentionally. "I need to taste you. I can't think about anything else."

His cock twitches despite how heavy it looks, flushed and angry against the pale skin of his thighs.

"Really?" You tease, tilting his chin up with two fingers so he's looking at your face, rather than your body. "Tell me exactly what you're thinking. Describe it to me"

He doesn't miss a beat. "I'm thinking about how soft you are, how warm and silky your cunt feels under my tongue. I'm thinking about burying my tongue as deep inside you as I can reach and still wishing I could get deeper. I want to feel how wet you are but more than anything, I want to taste how wet you are. I want to dream about it for the rest of the week. Every time I stroke my cock I want to be able to remember how you taste."

Precum drips from his tip and you're not sure you can deny him much longer. Not when he's making it sound so appealing.

"Do you even hear yourself?" You do your very best to act like you don't love the sound of every word that has just come out of his mouth.

"I do. I sound like a shameless, filthy, desperate slut. The type of slut who wants to kiss and lick and worship your sweet pussy until you're so sensitive you have to force me to stop." His hand wanders between his own legs, tugging his stiff length to the mere thought.

He's not above begging and you know that. He'll draw this out as long as he needs to until he gets his way but there's very little sense in that when you want this just as much as he does.

"Lie on the bed." You give him time to make his way over before following, lining yourself up just above his face.

You take a second to smooth his hair, enjoying the feeling of his freshly shaved face against the sensitive insides of your thighs.

He's looking up at you, your eyes meeting his. "Thank you." The relief in his voice is clear right before he grasps your hips and pulls you down onto his mouth.

Fuck, he's incredible. This is the mouth you dream about when you're alone. His tongue massages your clit, stroking back and forth before dipping into your fluttering entrance. You swear he must feel what he's doing to you. You feel your cunt clenching and rippling, your muscles contracting in response to the pleasure and for a second you wonder if he can tell.

He's hungry for this; he has been for hours. He's moaning and slurping obscenely, his tongue buried in your cunt. You don't even need to look over your shoulder to know that he's alternating between fucking his own fist and gripping the base of his shaft tight enough to stop him from spilling his release all over himself too soon.

It's very hard to tell which of you enjoys this more.

[urbanqhoul]

Are OCS that get featured in the background technically considered canon?

Also, how do you pronounce your name? I've been pronouncing it Urban-Cwol

Not 100% they're just used for background extra's .3. The only fully 'canon' ocs are ones that belong to personnel buds of mine cuz they got all the lore info on the series n the stamp of canon from me :3 Ya guys can just do whatever ya want with your wrw oc's don't feel pressured to make em as canon correct as possible especially cuz I haven't revealed everything about Dream trippers yet~ n even that making oc's should be about having fun not stressful so just HAVE FUN THRIVE YA GUYS GO NUTS

ANNND my username is pronounced Urban Ghoul- i just spelled g with a q cuz thats what all the cool kids were doin' back in the day lol~ N then i made it a uppercase Q cuz the uncapitalized annoyed me which kinda defeats the purpose but sh

[butterflydm]

contains explicit spoilers through The Gathering Storm but implied spoilers through A Memory of Light

So, this is another post talking about Mat & Tuon, lol, but this one is show-focused -- this is more about which ways did I feel that Mat and Tuon didn't work for me, narratively, and how that could be tweaked to work better in the show (should they get that far). Disclaimer: personal opinion, etc. and so forth.

I was thinking about this as I've been rereading The Gathering Storm and (belatedly) realizing that on a technical, narrative level, Jordan was trying to pull the same trick in Crossroads of Twilight/Knife of Dreams with Mat & Tuon that he did in The Shadow Rising/The Fires of Heaven with Mat & Rand (Mat says over and over in his head that he should leave and that he wants to leave, but he never does) and yet the Mat & Rand example works for me and the Mat & Tuon one doesn't. And that realization made me think about how Mat & Tuon pluck from a lot of the same tropes that were used with Mat & Elayne earlier in the series... yet Mat & Elayne work for me and Mat & Tuon don't.

So I'm going to go over why Mat & Tuon didn't work for me and a potential way that the Prime show could approach them that would make me less inclined to be annoyed and/or bored with them.

First, the issues:

Mat's conflict about staying with Rand in TSR/TFoH calls on one of the great narrative conflicts -- his heart (loyalty to his friend) vs his head (Rand is dangerous). By contrast, the situation with Tuon is heart (loyalty to his friends/homeland) and head (Tuon is dangerous) vs... a prophecy. This simply does not have the weight of the heart vs head conflict for me. Especially since Jordan has Mat surrender to the prophecy way too quickly to feel like it fit in with the rest of his characterization, without really giving us much in the way of concrete reasons as to why Mat would be doing this. Due to Jordan wanting to hurry things along, Mat feels way more passive around Tuon than he does around any other character that he interacts with.

Another key element in what makes Mat's conflict work is his long history with Rand -- this is a lifelong friend! There's a lot of time and emotion invested in the relationship. This is another place where there's simply no narrative weight in Mat and Tuon -- they are strangers to each other and we witness every step of their 'relationship' as it happens. There's no hidden history to call on for pathos and emotion. Again, everything is resting on the prophecy here and Jordan just didn't sell it well enough to me.

Moving to Mat and Elayne -- while Mat & Elayne and Mat & Tuon are both set up as "at odds because they don't understand each other until they see who the person really is and open their eyes", Mat and Elayne have surface-level differences with each other. While Mat sees Elayne as a ~haughty noble~ and she see him as an ~irresponsible rogue~, once they are able to look past the surface, they are both good people with good hearts. Mat and Tuon have deep fundamental moral differences. Tuon is a slaver and Mat is (in Winter's Heart) a man who frees slaves. And Jordan deals with this in CoT & KoD by tossing away Mat's morals so that he's no longer in direct conflict with Tuon. This was not a solution that I found satisfying on any level -- narrative, emotional, characterization, ethical, etc. Again, this goes back to making Mat feel like a much flatter and more passive character in CoT & KoD than he was in earlier books.

Mat and Elayne also had history -- several books where their misunderstandings of each other deepened until they came into prolonged contact in A Crown of Swords. Again, everything with Mat and Tuon is just so fast by comparison.

And, of course, an always pertinent point is that Jordan was just better at writing ~romantic friendships~ than he was at writing romance.

Lastly, Tuon really suffers from only belonging to Mat's storyline during the entire ~romantic lead-up arc~. The first time she has interactions with any other major character is The Gathering Storm. And once she finally DOES interact with someone who isn't Mat, her character comes alive and is much more dynamic, because she actually feels like more than just Mat's (Evil) Love Interest. Suddenly, in that scene with Rand and Nynaeve, Tuon actually feels like a real person, who has wants and fears and personal drives, and that's at least in part because Rand and Nynaeve respond to her like a real person would. I felt so much more invested in Tuon as a character after that scene with Nynaeve and Rand than I did after two whole books of her interacting only with Mat.

Obviously, there are multiple ways to go about making the Mat & Tuon relationship... better. This is just a suggestion that I have. These are the steps I would suggest:

Introduce Tuon earlier! A major reason (it seems) why Jordan decided to throw away the idea of character growth for Tuon is that there just wasn't time to get into it before the Last Battle. But that's really no one's fault but his own. He could have introduced Tuon a LOT sooner than Winter's Heart. For the show, I would suggest she be introduced in S3, as essentially our first 'post-invasion' Seanchan. Our 'it's more complicated than them just being villains' character, essentially.

Have her connect with other main characters early on, so that she feels connected to the cast as a whole, and isn't just Mat's Evil Accessory. If she's introduced in S3, post-Falme, she could meet the Wondergirls and actually begin to deal with the sul'dam/damane issue right out of the gate. This connects her to the rest of the story and gives her a history and timeline in the Westlands.

If you're familiar with the show Avatar: The Last Airbender: make Tuon more like Zuko and less like Azula. Instead of Tuon being the favored Golden Child who is next in line to the throne, have her be the disgraced scapegoat who was put in charge of the invasion in order to prove herself to her mother (maybe with her mom half-hoping that Tuon would get herself killed in the process). Give her an internal character conflict that we explore on-screen! There's really no need for Tuon to be the favored heir when we first meet her, since she becomes empress when her entire family gets killed by Semirhage. Last-in-line becoming empress because everyone else is dead is a LOT more movement than 'favored heir ascends throne, as was always planned'. And this gives also gives her more of a "at heart, she is similar to Mat" vibe than she has in the books, where she's more Veruca Salt vibes (especially in CoT/KoD).

She absolutely MUST channel on-screen. There is no point to making her a sul'dam if she doesn't channel. That unused Chekhov's gun in the books annoyed me so much. It was just another thing that made Tuon feel like a complete waste of my time as a reader.

If you keep Selucia, make her more than Tuon's slave/echo chamber. As it is, in the books, Selucia is basically just another excuse for Tuon to never question slavery, because the brainwashed-since-she-was-a-wee-tot slave is always eagerly reinforcing to Tuon that Slavery Is Great, Actually. Either get rid of Selucia or give her character growth beyond just being Tuon's busty minion.

Now we're actually to the Mat & Tuon relationship! First, have Mat kidnap her without knowing that she's the Daughter of the Nine Moons -- in CoT, he thinks about how they 'needed' to take her with them in case she raised an alarm but this was zero part of his thought process back in WH. Have that ACTUALLY be his reason to take her, without knowing that she's prophecy wife.

Mat should actually argue with her about slavery. All of Tuon's conversations with anyone about slavery are behind closed doors with Setalle Anan, and we don't hear any of it! MAT should be the one challenging her. Instead, all Mat ever does is coddle her while she acts like a spoiled brat (if I were Mat, I'd feel more like her babysitter than her husband by the end of Knife of Dreams). I kinda understand WHY Jordan did this, since he was committed to no character growth for Tuon at this point (the outriggers are the bane of my life lol) so having Mat actually arguing against Tuon on an ethical level would point out how nonsensical it is that we are supposed to believe he's willing to kiss her at this point in their 'relationship development' and if we don't bring it up then we can just pretend the conflict doesn't exist, lol. But a slaver is who Tuon is, and not being honest about who Tuon is was definitely part of what made going through CoT & KoD so jarring for me. In Elayne's storyline, we're seeing the horrible emotional damage that the Seanchan empire has done to the damane AND the sul'dam, and then in the storyline where we actually have the future LEADER of this empire of slavery... all slavery-related debates are discreetly behind closed doors and the reader is shut out of hearing any of them. And there are two weird things about this point: (a.) sometimes Tuon does do or say something that makes Mat blink... and then he suffers profound memory loss and never thinks about it again after the moment passes and it has no impact on his opinion of Tuon as a person, and he instead thinks bizarro-world things about how Tuon is ~one of the good nobles~, thoughts that don't reflect with his actual experiences with her in any way and (b.) in Rand's visions of Mat, he actually does see Mat arguing with Tuon but that... doesn't ever really happen in the actual narrative that we get in Mat's PoV? Like, on some level, it does almost feel like maybe Jordan was planning on pulling a big rug out from under the Mat & Tuon set up at some point but... he never wrote it down, at least not from the information that's been shared publicly. So if he did have a plan, any knowledge of it is gone forever. But it's just this weird thing where I'm not sure if Tuon is slave-breaking Mat or Mat is gaslighting himself because of the prophecy or Tylin broke Mat's spirit or... it's actually bizarrely supposed to genuinely be affection? Some mix of all of those things? It doesn't feel like Jordan actually was willing to commit to whatever Mat and Tuon actually WERE and we ended up with this big tangled mess that just doesn't make much sense. As can be seen from the length of this subsection, failing to do this is really what Jordan did in CoT & KoD that bugged me the most!

Have him find out that she's the Daughter of the Nine Moons either partway through the trip (after Renna dies?) or at the very end. Let them actually develop some kind of emotional connection BEFORE he knows that she's his fated wife (Tuon stalking him in Ebou Dar while he's vaguely creeped out does not count as an emotional connection).

Have HER be the one to actually reach out to him on occasion, instead of their relationship being entirely Mat appeasing Tuon in desperate attempts to make his future married life less miserable. The sad thing about this one is that the very end of WH seemed like it was set up to go this way (with her mysterious smile when he does the marriage vows and says he'll take her with him) but then she just devolves into a bratty annoyance who needs constant appeasement in CoT & KoD.

Most of my steps are about Tuon because if Tuon herself is a fuller, more realized character, then the romance will feel more like a real relationship too. Mat is already a full and realized character (before his characterization flip in CoT & KoD) so all the show would need to do there is simply... don't have him throw away his moral integrity for no apparent reason. Let Mat stay in character and actually have him come in conflict with Tuon in a natural way. The main thing is giving Tuon enough character growth that it doesn't feel like a moral breaking point for Mat to be willing to kiss her. In the books as it is, Mat choosing to kiss Tuon feels like a betrayal of everything his character was in Winter's Heart and earlier, and just generally felt like bad writing. That's the main thing to fix.

Anyway, those are my current thoughts. <3

[calpalirwin]

Super Dork

Summary: With great power comes great responsibility. And trauma. No bad guy Spidey-Ash ever fought could compare to the demons in his own head.

A/N: I got yelled at for more again. Which is fine cuz I fuckin love this AU.

Content: Big sad. Fluff landing.

Word Count: 1.5k

And away, and away we go!

__

Part 3

“You got any clothes in this bag of yours you can change into? I can wash your suit for you,” she offered, nudging his backpack with her foot.

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it. You already did so much. I sh- I’m just gonna g-“ his voice broke off and his face scrunched up in pain as he leaned forward to pull himself up off the couch.

“You are staying for overnight monitoring,” she said, helping him lie back into the cushions. “Doctor’s orders.” She picked up his bag and started to rummage through his belongings. “Sweats, good. C’mon, let me help you get changed and in bed.”

“I’m fine on the couch,” he said, lifting his hips to tug off the bottoms of his suit, revealing- unsurprisingly so- more bruising. “You don’t have to give up your bed for me,” he added as he eased his way into the sweatpants.

“Don’t flatter yourself, Ash. I’m not sleeping on my couch for you.”

“So both of us are going to sleep in your bed? Together?”

“Not like we haven’t done it before.”

“If I recall correctly, we didn’t exactly do a whole lot of sleeping, sweetheart.”

“Oh, the charm’s back. How nice…” She rolled her eyes sarcastically as she gathered up his suit. “There special instructions on how to wash this, or…?”

“Yeah. You can’t.”

“I can’t?”

“Self-cleaning technology. To- he developed it with the help of Wakanda technology for me.”

“That old suit was rather smelly,” she commented, not wanting to press the issue of how he had gotten his new fancy suit.

“Try living in it,” he chuckled with only a small trace of humor as his mind took him to a dark place against his will.

“Hey, come back to me, Ash,” she coaxed softly, resting her hand on his bicep, her voice fighting to reach him through the fog that was welcoming him.

“Can we go to bed now?” he asked in a voice that reminded her of the boy he used to be, shy and uncertain. A far cry from the confident charm possessed by the man he had grown to be.

~~~

“Hey, Ash, I’m gonna need you to hold this building for me, kid!” Tony’s voice sounded in his earpiece. It was calm amidst the chaos raining down around them. A skill that Ashton had yet to learn from his mentor. “I’m sending you my location. Stay low. Get people to safety. Do not engage, do you understand, me?”

“Roger,” he replied, eyes darting around for her. She was here. He could sense it. And he couldn’t leave if he knew she was in danger. And Tony had told him to get people to safety. And she was people. So he wasn’t technically defying orders…

“Yeah, kid?” Steve’s voice was in his ear now. Breathless with exertion, but steadily calm. If they could remain calm, so could he. Time to prove he was more than neighborhood friendly.

“Not you, sir,” Ashton responded, allowing a small chuckle.

“Copy that.”

Ashton chuckled quietly again to himself as he finally found her. “What are you still doing here? Run! Get out of here! Get to shelter!”

“Come with me!” she begged. “Let them fight this!”

“I have to help them! I have orders!”

“Now’s not the time to play hero, Ashton! You’re no good to anybody dead!”

“And I’m no good to anybody standing here arguing with you when I have a job to do! Get to safety! Don’t make me tell you again!”

“Ash!” she continued to beg. “Don’t leave me! Come with me, please!”

“You need to get out of here!” he screamed at her.

“No! I’m not leaving you!”

“Get out!”

“No!”

“I can’t save you from this!”

“I don’t need you to save me!”

He shot his web, flinging her out of harm’s way, cutting her cries out of his mind.

~~~

His legs kicked at the blankets in his sleep as the dream held him captive. “No…” he called out weakly, his body twisting.

~~~

“That way!” he directed. “Keep running that way and don’t look back! There’s shelter ahead! Keep going!” He tried to keep his voice upbeat, friendly, as he raised it so it carried out among the stampede of people running past him.

“Building’s evacuated and secured, Mr. Stark,” he reported into his earpiece.

“Keep clearing out the city. We got to get all these people out.”

He swallowed the surge of anger. Throwing a fit because he didn't like his assignment wasn’t going to prove he wasn’t the same kid he was when he had first gotten his powers. He didn’t have time to be angry for long as all his senses rang loudly like a fire alarm pounding in his head. A building three blocks away was about to come down with people still inside.

He let his senses take control of his body, taking it to where it was needed.

He quickly took in the scene and set to work. He prayed the webbing would hold as he did his best to secure it to the buildings around it. The muscles in his arms screamed in protest as he gritted his teeth and planted his feet. “Tony! This building’s coming down!”

“Is everyone out?”

“There’s a family still inside. 4th floor, 7th window. Tony, I can’t hold this building and get them out at the same time… there’s still people below. Why are there still people?! You gotta get out of here!”

“Hold the building, I’m on my way.”

Ashton heard the soft ping of a tendril of webbing breaking off. “No. No, no, no…” he whispered, his voice climbing high as he frantically shot out more webs for more grip. “Hey, Cap? Your shield strong enough to prop up a building?” Ashton joked as he fought against the panic threatening to seize him.

“You’ve been spending too much time with Stark, kid,” Steve chuckled. “Hang in there. He’s on his way.”

“On your left, Grandpa,” Tony said and Ashton looked up to see the red blur.

“Howard was older than me, Tony…”

The tendrils continued to snap, almost faster than Ashton could fling them. “Tony, my webbing’s not holding. I don- Tony, what do I do?”

“Hey, kid?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m about to ask you to do something and I just need you to do it, okay?”

“Okay.”

“The building’s structurally damaged. It’s coming down and there’s no stopping it. I’m going to do my best to get these people out that are still trapped. But I need you to let go and get somewhere safe. Can you do that?”

“Tony, no! I can hold it until you get the people out!”

“Let go, kid. Your job’s done. Clock out. Go home.”

“NO!” Ashton screamed as the building started to fall, his webbing breaking in a series of rapid snaps.

~~~

“TONY!” The cry tore out of Ashton’s throat as his eyes flew open, panic and terror in his chest. He fought for each breath as his senses grounded him. He was safe. In bed. Alive. Tears spilled a path down his cheeks as his shoulders heaved with the sobs breaking free.

“Hey,” a voice called out in the darkness and a soft hand was on his arm. “Shh, it’s okay. It was only a dream.”

“No, it wasn’t…” was the broken whisper. “I was supposed to secure the buildings and get everyone to safety. It was a simple fuckin’ assignment and I couldn’t even do that, right… If I had been faster, I could have saved them. Your parents. Him. Everyone.”

“My parents were already dead on the other side of town. You and that building had nothing to do with their deaths. As for Tony? He was a genius, Ash. He knew he wasn’t getting out of that building unscathed.”

“I should have tried harder! Been better…”

“You did everything you could. You made all the right calls. Ash, it was an accident. An accident that you were part of, sure. But it had nothing to do with you.”

“People died because of me!”

“People died because of Loki’s army. People lived because of you. I lived because of you.”

Her admission lifted some of the weight pressing down on him. He could live through the villain smackdowns. He could live through the loss of life. It wasn’t easy, but he could do it. But the loss of her? Well, let’s just say that if it came down to her or his powers, he would choose her and never think twice. “Of all the things I’ve lost, you’re the one thing I can’t bear to lose,” he told her, reaching out to grab her hand in his, letting the memories of all the times he had done this before flood out the rest of the weight.

“Then maybe you should stop letting me go,” she replied, squeezing his fingers with hers.

“I’m never letting you go again,” he promised, lifting up their hands to brush his lips against her knuckles.

__

Tag List

@goeatsomelife @flameraine @cashtonasff5sos @here-for-the-uproars @cxddlyash @1-irwin-94 @baldcalum @sparkling-chaos @tea4sykes @youngblood199456 @5-seconds-of-obsession @gosh-im-short @aquarius-hood1996 @talkfastromance4 @itjustkindahappenedreally @philthepegacorn @kikixfandoms

[crystalninjaphoenix]

Chaos Theory

Part Ten

(Finale. I scheduled this whole series so the final part would go up on Halloween. This fic is my spooky special! Hope you guys have enjoyed reading as much as I’ve had fun writing <3)

"I hate this guy so much,” Marvin muttered. “He gives us no information, then makes us climb stairs.”

He also tried to kill us, JJ added.

“Well, that’s a given.”

Chase didn’t participate in the banter. He was too busy making sure Schneep was getting up the staircase well enough. A difficult job, when his friend kept stumbling and tripping over the steps. Chase was going to make sure nothing happened to him. Because god, he’d spent the last few hours terrified and grieving and he wasn’t going to let that repeat ever again.

“Huh. There’s a door. The last staircase didn’t have a door.” Marvin stepped aside so the others could see the metal door blocking their way to the third floor.

Chase frowned. “That looks...ominous. But, well, we have to open it, so do it already.”

Marvin nodded, grabbed the handle, and with a heave he pushed the door open. The four staggered into the room beyond.

A voice rang out. “Welcome, everyone, to the final challenge!”

The room was brightly-lit, studio lights shining into every shadowy corner. Cameras were set up around the walls, and the walls themselves were lined with screens. A few were linked to the cameras in the room, but many showed areas around the city, including the exteriors and interiors of all the buildings that the group had visited during the course of this twisted game.

“Guys!” A voice shouted, followed by a clattering rattle.

Part of the room was blocked off, a wire mesh reaching from floor-to-ceiling, caging off a corner. Inside the blocked-off section was Jackie, fingers poking through the mesh holes as he shook it.

“Jackie!” Marvin shouted, distressed.

What happened? JJ asked.

“What happened was this fucking coward decided to shoot me with a dart and I passed out,” Jackie said, scowling. “But nevermind about that. Are you okay? Wait...wait, Henrik?!”

“Surprise, he’s alive!” Chase said, smiling despite the situation. Schneep managed to focus on Jackie and give a small wave.

“Oh my god.” Jackie shook his head, grabbing his hair with his hands. “Oh my god,” he repeated with a breathy laugh and a smile. But that relief faded to confusion. “How, though? I-I saw—”

“What you saw was no more than a clever—and expensive—ruse,” a voice said. “Believe it or not, finding really good fake bodies is pretty difficult. Especially if you’re not going to explain what you’re using them for.”

Everyone’s attention turned towards the source of the voice. On the opposite wall, an especially large screen was mounted on the wall, displaying a blank red image. Underneath the screen was what looked like a makeshift control panel, a desk with all sorts of electronic, technical devices, wires running from consoles of buttons and disappearing into the walls. In front of the control station was a simple swivel desk chair. And sitting in the chair was a man wearing a mask.

“Oh my god, it’s him,” Chase gaped, unconsciously shifting his body so he was in between the man—the gamemaster—and Schneep.

“Oh great! I’m gonna fucking kill him!” Marvin’s eyes flared bright green.

“Whoa, hey, before you go any further, let me explain why you’re not going to want to do that.” The gamemaster picked up a device from the table, one resembling a remote control. “Now, you should notice how you four are standing on tile, but the floor beneath your friend Jackieboy’s feet is made of metal. Do you see that small box near the ceiling? That’s wired up to deliver 6 amps of electricity through that area. Which may not sound like a lot, but—” He laughed. “—is actually definitely enough to kill a human being. And that’s going to go off in, oh...let’s see, how long is it until your time’s up for the game?” A timer popped up on the screen behind him, showing 22 minutes, counting downward. “Oh yeah, that long! Unless I deactivate it with the code that I keep stored inside my head and nowhere else.”

Marvin’s eyes dimmed back to their normal blue. He looked the gamemaster over. He didn’t look like anything special. Wasn’t taller or heavier than average. His hair was ordinary brown, and wild like someone had messed it up in a fit of rage. He wore a black jacket, blue jeans, and a black t-shirt with that symbol—red skull inside a circle divided in four parts—on the chest. But then there was that mask. That red mask with that white smile, and black eyes that you could feel staring at you. Not to mention how this guy apparently planned out everything. “Fuck you,” Marvin growled, but he made no further move.

But there has to be a way to get Jackie out of here! JJ signed. Is there some way to get that code?

“There has to be,” Chase said. He looked at the gamemaster. “Look, there’s gotta be a way for us to win this, right? You wouldn’t put us in an impossible situation! That would kinda defeat the purpose of this being a game.”

“You’re right!” The gamemaster twirled the remote like a baton. “You guys have gotten farther than anyone’s gotten in a long time, but can you go all the way? Why don’t you all take a seat? I bet you’re getting tired of carrying your doctor friend around, and I can tell you that’s not going to wear off for a while.”

Schneep had the presence of mind to flip the gamemaster off.

“Second time tonight, that’s a new record.” The gamemaster leaned back in his chair. “Alright. Here’s how it’s going to work. I’m going to ask you four riddles. You can work together to solve them. If you get them all right before time runs out, then you win! If you don’t get them all before the time limit, then that current’s going to set off. And if you give me a wrong answer at any point, you get a warning shock. Alright?”

Chase had never before wanted to shoot anyone so badly. He looked around at the others.

“Guys, we’re not really in a position to negotiate,” Jackie said. He was surprisingly calm, for being told his life depended on getting the right answers on a riddle quiz.

“Negotiate with my flaming—ugh, fine,” Marvin grumbled. He sat on the floor, crossing his legs. “Might as well get comfortable.”

I suppose we have to, JJ sighed.

“Yeah.” Chase looked back at the gamemaster. “Okay, we’re ready for your riddles.”

“Great!” The gamemaster clapped his hands once, then stopped halfway before clapping again. “Here, first one’s a freebie. What walks on four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon, and three in the evening?”

Oh that one! JJ signed. I know that one.

“It’s like, the stages of life, isn’t it?” Jackie asked, biting his thumbnail. “Baby, then adult, then an old person with a cane.”

“Technically kids walk on two legs, too,” Marvin pointed out. “And teenagers.”

“It’s simplified,” the gamemaster said. “But anyway, you got that one right! Good job, point for you.” He pressed a button on the control station, and a green checkmark appeared on the screen beneath the timer. “Now, second riddle. Listen carefully to the words: Can you answer this? If there’s a room with seven people, then you walk in and murder four, how many people are in the room?”

There was silence for a moment. Then Marvin spoke, “Five, right? Cause you’ll stay in the room, the four dead bodies will stay in there too, but the three people would probably run away.”

“Are we counting dead bodies as people?” Chase asked.

I think we would, that would make the riddle more difficult at first glance, JJ added.

“Yeah, so five?” Jackie asked.

“Five. The answer is five,” Chase said.

“Oh, I’m sorry ‘bout that.” The gamemaster pressed a button on the remote.

Jackie suddenly shrieked, jumping and stumbling back. “Sh-shit,” he stammered. “That—that—I wasn’t expecting—”

“Oh my god, are you okay?!” Chase asked, half-reaching towards the mesh wall before realizing it might shock him too.

“I-I-I’m fine,” Jackie said, shaking his head. “I just...that felt...weird.”

“Do we not count the bodies, then?” Marvin asked, pulling his fingers nervously.

“I mean, I guess we don’t?” Chase guessed. “But I don’t want to get it wrong agai—ow! Schneep, did you poke me?”

Schneep had. “Words...” he said. “Listen...listen to the...word...ing.” Even that small phrase had taken a lot of effort to push through whatever haze of drug was in his system, and his head immediately fell forward. Chase staggered a bit as Schneep leaned more weight on him.

“Listen to the wording?” Marvin frowned. “The riddle was ‘if there’s a room with seven people, then you walk in and murder four, how many people are in the room?’ What could you hear in the wording there?”

JJ’s eyes widened. No, that wasn’t all! he signed hurriedly. There was a first question. He asked, ‘can you answer this?’ It’s a yes or no question!

Chase’s jaw dropped. “Oh, you bitch. Alright, then. Yes, we can answer that question.”

“There you go!” Another checkmark appeared on the screen behind the gamemaster.. “Doing pretty good for time. Now, this one’s a simple format of a riddle, pretty standard. Now...what belongs to you, but other people use it more than you?”

“My fucking...YouTube videos, I dunno,” Chase mumbled. He laughed suddenly. “What about ‘my life’!? That’s totally the answer, guys.”

“Chase, please, don’t fall apart now,” Jackie said softly. “We can do this. We have plenty of time left.”

“My...breath when I’m giving CPR,” Marvin mumbled, rubbing his head.

JJ frowned. I don’t think it’s anything that specific.

“Well, obviously, we’re just throwing things out there right now,” Jackie said. “Gets you warmed up.”

“What, you weren’t warmed up by my last four sets of puzzles?” The gamemaster sounded slightly offended. He shook his head.” Well, that was three wrong answers in a row.”

Chase’s eyes widened. “Wait, no, those don’t—”

Jackie screamed, falling to the floor. A few loose blue sparks danced around the mesh. Once it was over, he lay on the floor, panting. JJ dropped to the floor beside him and started asking if he was alright. Chase would’ve done the same, if he wasn’t concerned he’d drop Schneep. Marvin, meanwhile, shot to his feet. “Those clearly weren’t serious attempts, you fuckwad!” he shouted.

“But they were attempts!” The gamemaster laughed. “And any attempt is a good one. Unless, of course, it’s wrong.”

“I’m going to kill you. I’m seriously going to kill you once this is over,” Marvin said in a low voice. “You better hope you can run fast enough.”

“Kill the body all you want, you’ll never be able to get rid of me.” The gamemaster’s tone shifted suddenly, becoming dangerously serious. Then it returned to normal. “But hey, you still don’t have the answer. How much time do you have left again?”

JJ suddenly looked up, and made a simple sign. It was like a flick; he touched his index and middle finger to his forehead, then twisted his wrist until his fingers were facing in front of his face.

“‘Name’?” Marvin repeated, confused.

“Oh, wait, that’s the answer!” Chase said excitedly. “Your name! It’s yours, but you don’t really use it except to sign papers, other people use it for you all the time.”

“Oh, very good.” The gamemaster sounded impressed. Another check mark appeared on screen. “And now...your final challenge.” He stood up, and recited:

“Only one color, but not one size. Stuck at the bottom, yet I easily fly. Present in sun, but not in rain. Doing no harm, and feeling no pain. What am I?”

“Ah fuck, it’s a multiple clue one, I hate these,” Marvin mumbled. “What’s present in the sun but not in rain? Like a—”

“Don’t say anything!” Chase shrieked. “Any answer counts!”

Well, he can’t understand sign, JJ said, suddenly grinning. What if we talked so he couldn’t know if we were guessing or not?

Marvin’s eyes widened, and he smiled as well. I like the way you think, he signed. His hands were slower than JJ’s, but somehow elegant. I was thinking some kind of insect or animal.

Jackie slowly stood up, shaking off the effects of the shock and processing the conversation. No, that wouldn’t make sense for the color and size clues, he signed. His movements were slower and bigger, but they got the point across. What animal comes in different sizes but just one color?

Besides, animals feel pain, JJ added.

So now we know it’s an inanimate object! Marvin argued. That’s a start.

“...You know, I feel like you’re plotting,” the gamemaster suddenly said. “Maybe I should...stop that.” He took out the remote again.

Marvin’s head whipped toward him. “No—!”

Too late. Jackie screamed again, falling against the mesh wall this time, muscles spasming. For a moment, his mouth opened and closed silently, and then his breathing resumed.

“Okay, we’re gonna have to...figure this out on our own,” Marvin said, stunned.

They all fell silent. JJ knelt by Jackie, checking on him again. Marvin scrunched his eyes closed, pushing his hands against them and swaying as he thought. Chase, for his part, sank to the floor. Schneep leaned against his side, a few mumbled words escaping as he tried to figure out the riddle too. But Chase could only watch the timer count down.

Was it going to end here? There were worse places for it. But still, if it was going to end, he didn’t want it to be here. There were cameras recording, this sick gamemaster would probably get some amusement from it, and everything was brightly lit. There wasn’t even a shadow to hide in—

Chase stopped. Wait a minute...he glanced over to Jackie, who didn’t look too good, still slightly trembling from the last shock. If he was wrong, then...he looked back at the timer. And he took a deep breath. “It’s a shadow,” he said.

The others looked at him.

“The answer, it’s a shadow,” Chase repeated. “It’s always black, but it changes shape depending on what’s making it. It’s stuck on the ground. You need the sun to make one. And it’s not alive, so it can’t do harm or feel pain.”

Silence. And then, the gamemaster began laughing. “Well, done, Mr. Chase Brody!” He began clapping. “Well, guess you’re better at this than your name would have you think.”

“Gee, thanks,” Chase said dryly.

“You’re welcome!” The gamemaster typed something out on the remote’s keypad. The timer on the screen stopped, three and a half minutes left. There was a slight buzz, and a previously unnoticeable door in the mesh wall swung open. Instantly JJ darted inside, lifting Jackie up and half-dragging him out.

“I have to say, I’m impressed.” The gamemaster dropped the remote. “You’d be surprised how many people don’t finish this game. A lot of people watch just because they want them to fail, but I think it’s a lot more interesting when someone wins. I applaud you. All of you.”

“I’m sorry, ‘people watch’?” Chase repeated. He looked at the cameras around the room.

“Of course. You don’t think I go to all this effort and then just don’t show off?” The gamemaster chuckled. “Besides, I need funds for this. And the easiest way to do that is to make people pay to see it.”

Jackie suddenly burst into laughter. “You’re a Dark Web vlogger,” he giggled. “I-I’m not surprised.”

“I am not a vlogger, I just make games for people to enjoy. There’s a difference.”

“Can we shut up about this?!” Marvin turned to the gamemaster, approaching him before stopping halfway. “What’s going to save you now, huh?!” His eyes turned green.

“Nothing, really.” The gamemaster shrugged. “But you won’t. Not because you’re a good person, but because...do you really want the others to see you do something like that?”

Marvin stiffened, looking over his shoulder at the others. They were all staring at him. “Fuck,” he muttered. He turned back to the gamemaster. “You, sir, are an absolute dickface of a DM. You stalk us for two years at least, and you expect to just get away with it! You may walk out of here now, but will you in the future?”

“That’s a good question. I mean, some people are always up for a sequel, aren’t they?” The gamemaster tilted his head. “And for the record, I’ve been following you for three years.”

“Why?!” Jackie suddenly blurted out.

“Well...I was actually originally interested in your friend Jack.” He laughed at the shock on their faces. “Oh yeah. Those interesting little moments in his videos, October three years ago? I thought that was his own little ARG he was setting up, and I’m not one to turn that down. But then I realized, it’s no augmented reality...for you it’s just reality.” He paused. “It’s...interesting, how many people attached to YouTube find themselves staring into an evil that wears their own face. Whether that’s a pair of demon twins hunting the souls of your listeners, a rogue virus that’s copied your face—or mask, in that case—or a twisted entity made out of the dark twisted souls of a pair of siblings you wronged in your past life. It’s almost like something about the platform attracts the supernatural and unexplained...” He shrugged. “But that’s just a theory.”

Jackie got to his feet. “So...you expect us to just let you walk out of here?”

“Actually, I expect you to walk out of here and leave me alone. And, well, if you won’t, I do have this.” He reached inside his jacket and pulled out a gun. “Can’t hurt to be safe.”

JJ shook his head. You’re mad.

“Oh hey! I know that one!” He imitated the sign. “I should really learn more of that, or maybe ASL. That could be useful. But that’s for the future.”

Chase narrowed his eyes. “Are you going to leave us alone after this?”

The mask’s smile seemed to widen. “What do you think?”

Silence.

“Well, now.” The gamemaster sat back down in his chair once again, taking the safety off the gun. “I think you know the way out, don’t you?”

And with nothing else to do, and a feeling of unsatisfaction, they left.

— — — — —

“We can’t seriously just let that guy go!” Marvin said the moment they were out of the building. “He could come after us at any moment!”

“Marvin, yes, I agree,” Jackie said tiredly. “He’s a danger to us and to other innocents. But it’s nearly 6:30 in the morning. None of us have slept. Schneep’s still fucking...I dunno, half-unconscious, and I’m feeling pretty shitty myself. We can’t do anything right now.”

Marvin actually stomped his foot. “Fine. Yes. But it sucks!”

It does, JJ agreed. Honestly, as soon as we are able, we should go after him. 

Jackie bit his lip. “That’s gonna be tough...I’ll bet you anything this guy’s good at covering his tracks. Maybe I could do some hacking, try to find whatever Dark Web website he’s posting these...games on. But I don’t know.”

“Guys, please, not now,” Chase said dully. “I...I want to go home.”

Jackie sighed, then gave a small, exhausted smile. “Yeah, me too. We should also maybe return the stolen car.”

“We can do that tomorrow, now let’s go the fuck to sleep,” Marvin said, climbing into the passenger seat of said stolen car.

Jackie laughed. “That sounds like a good idea.”

JJ, Jackie, and Schneep ended up in the back of the car, with Jackie sandwiched in the middle. Chase was still driving, turning on the car and setting off through roads that were starting to fill up with early morning traffic. The sky overhead was a dark blue, no longer black.

Jackie wrapped an arm around Schneep in a one-handed hug, pulling him close. He was really here. He saw him die, but he was really here. “Don’t you ever scare me like that again,” he muttered, blinking back hot tears. Schneep laughed under his breath, mumbling something about how he would try not to.

They had no way of knowing if this was over. Jackie was tired, burnt out from a night of adrenaline.

But they were all here. They were all okay. His friends were going to be okay.

Jackie sighed, closed his eyes, and it only took a few seconds for him to drift off.