#we knew he likely wouldn’t stick around for long but YIKES this was fast

[jimmywilsonschutzpah]

Oh GODDAMMIT Julian Fellows!! Why do you love to kill off a romantic interest and to make your female characters suffer? You better fix this before the end of the season

[myboipotterimagines]

Oblivious - Draco Malfoy/Fred Weasley x Reader

Request:  Could you write a Draco Malfoy ×plus size reader imagine where the reader is oblivious when someone flirts with her and Draco just gets secretly jealous and finally snogs her and makes her realize that he was jealous when other guys flirted with her?

(A/N: So I got a little carried away and this is about 50% a Fred fic. I hope that’s okay bc I really like how it turned out. Also I think I’ll be making a part two of this fic. I really love it.)

“Are you going to the Quidditch game tonight?” Fred asks, leaning over to you when McGonagall isn’t looking.  “Wouldn’t miss it. You better take ‘em down.”  “I’ll send a bludger Malfoy’s way just for you,” he smiles.  You smile back. “Good.”

When the aforementioned bludger slammed into Malfoy, you cheered. Fred met eyes with you for a moment before being knocked by a bludger himself. “Yikes,” you murmured. 

He was fine, of course. After the obvious win, you all returned to the Gryffindor common area, a feeling of victory heavy in the air. The night slowly calmed and you retired to a love seat in the corner, finishing the last bit of your potions homework. When the right side of the couch declined, you look up to see Oliver. “Good game,” you smile. “It was a tough one but I think everyone pulled out the stops tonight,” he laughed. He paused, “do you want something to drink?” “I mean, if you’re offering,” you shrugged with a grin. He returned a moment later with two Butterbeers.  “Thank you very much,” you say before taking a swig.  “You’re very welcome,” he replied. The two of you talked for a few minutes before he was called in by his other teammates. 

The next day was far less exciting. You had potions with the Slytherins which was always more scarring than exciting. Harry sat beside you today, abandoning his usual seat next to Ron. Today’s potion was particularly difficult and when Harry’s exploded you heard laughs behind you. You scowled at Draco and his partner, who were both throwing insults at the boy beside you. “That’s really unnecessary,” you respond before Harry wraps an arm around you, pulling your attention away from the two boys. 

The laughing immediately stopped, the room now filled with an awkward silence. You were more than relieved to leave when class was finally over. When you left, you met eyes with Draco whose expression changed only slightly before Harry pulled you away. “If you want to come to practice with me I’ll give you some flying lessons when we’re done,” Harry offered once you had gained some distance from the potions classroom.  “Hmm, that is a good offer,” you considered.  “Is that a yes?” he asked, gently knocking into you.  “Yes,” you said with a laugh and a return shove. 

Practice didn’t last long. Apparently both Gryffindor and Slytherin were booked for the field. Instead of alternating, the teams decided to practice together. This, of course, led to a fight between Harry and Draco, and thus both teams. Eventually it became out of control and one of the Slytherins got knocked straight into the bleachers you were sitting on, knocking you off balance and down several rows. “Ow,” you groaned, holding onto your ribs. “Alright, that’s enough!” Oliver yelled, trying to break up the fight.  Fred flew to you, extending a hand for you to get on his broom in front of him. “Come on, I’ve got you.” You leaned back against him, your ribs still throbbing in pain. Fred wrapped both arms around your side, holding onto the broom in front of you. You felt safe riding with him.

Fred took you to the infirmary, carrying you once you reached to ground. He stayed by your side as Madam Pompfrey cast enchantment after enchantment, slowly healing your wounds. Every so often you got the strength to look up at him. He would smile and mouth, “you’re doing great.” When she was done, you felt an urge for sleep wash over you. “Thank you,” you murmured before your eyes fluttered shut. 

When you woke up, Fred was gone and Draco was in the bed beside of you with a bloodied nose. “What happened?” you asked, slowly pushing yourself into a sitting position.  “It’s honestly none of your business,” he says, a tone of annoyance in his voice.  “Wow, you’re a jerk even when wounded. It’s nice that you’re consistent.” “I’m sorry, I’m just hurting. I shouldn’t have taken it out on you.”

An apology from Draco Malfoy. You were about to comment about how absurd it was when Madam Pompfrey approached Draco, now casting healing spells on him. It only took three before he was ready to go. She then looked you over and released you as well.  “I’ll walk you back,” Draco suggested. 

You began walking down the corridor, an awkward silence falling between you two.  “I’m sorry you got hurt,” he finally said. “It was really foolish of us.” “It’s okay. That’s just how you all are. I knew the risk when Harry invited me I guess,” you laughed.  Draco’s mood immediately changed. “Of course it was Potter.”  “Sorry, I know you guys hate each other.”  Draco sighed, “Will you just come with me?” Instead of turning left to head to your common room, Draco let you right, and before long you were at the entrance of the Slytherin common room. Two doors down is his room. You enter it, immediately drawn to the dark wood and dark green linen. Draco motions for you to sit on a bed as he rummages through a drawer. He finally finds what he was looking for - a dark gray vial.  “Here, this should help with any pain in your ribs. I made it in potions class.”  “Thank you,” you say, placing the vial in your pocket. You stand. “I better get going, I’m studying with Fred this evening.

Before you reach the door, Draco grabbed you, pulling you flush to his chest. The action was swift, leaving you shocked for only a second before realizing what he had actually done. “How are you so oblivious?” he asks, his breath hot against your cheek. His hands move to the back of your head, his fingers intertwined in your hair. Your eyes meet for only a moment before he moves in. You lips meet fast, both moving as if this is the last time they’ll ever touch. The kiss is messy and all encompassing. You grab onto the back of his robes, pulling the fabric into a fist as Draco pushes you into a wall, his neediness growing by the second. You’re only distracted a second by the knocking at the door before Draco swiftly pulls out his wand and spells it locked, his wand then dropping to the floor. 

He uses his now free hand to push you onto the closest free bed, quickly climbing on top of you. He removes his robes, leaving him in only a bloodied white shirt and dress pants. You grab onto him, pulling him down to meet you once more. In one swift motion, he flips the two of you so you’re on top of him. You lean down to kiss him but he pushes you up, undoing your outer robes. He begins on your shirt, but you grab onto his hands. “We’re moving too fast. I don’t want to go any further.”  Draco’s hand falls to his lap. “Okay. I’m fine with just this,” he says, pulling you close once more. 

Returning to the Gryffindor dorm after spending the night with a Slytherin was by definition - the walk of shame. You tried to avoid everyone but were immediately met by the trio. “Where were you?” Hermione asked, running into your arms.  “I’m okay, I promise. I just had a weird night.” “What does weird mean? You didn’t come home. We all thought you were kidnapped,” Harry responded.  “Or worse,” Ron added. “I know. I’m sorry, it’s just really unexpected and I don’t want you guys to be mad at me.” “Why would we be mad? We’re just worried, (Y/N),” Hermione said, rubbing your arm.  “I know. I was with Draco.” 

At that moment, you thought Harry was having a heart attack. He stood still, eyes wide. “You were with Draco all night?”  “Why Draco?” Ron asked. “Of all people?” “This is why I didn’t want to tell you guys. I know how much you hate him.” “I hate that you stayed overnight with anyone. But with him? I’ve got to go take a shower or something before I vomit on sight,” Harry said before retreating upstairs. It wasn’t a minute later when you heard a door slam and a familiar voice yell, “Draco?!” “We’re gonna go,” Hermione said, pulling Ron away as Fred quickly stumbled down the stairs. 

“Is it true,” he asked. “Yes, it’s true. I’m sorry. I know that the Quidditch team hates him. But it was really unexpected and-”, before you finish your sentence Fred is leading you out of the Gryffindor common room. He swiftly grabs his broom from the Quidditch supply closet.  “Get on, please,” he said, his eyes softer than before. You obliged, sitting down in front of him. He used one hand to steer and one hand to wrap around you. Pulling you tighter than he had the day on the field. He didn’t talk the whole time, just gripped onto your stomach and steered, his knuckles white on the stick.

Fred landed on a patch of land a good ways away from the school, but still on the grounds. He jumped off the broom first, walking in a tight circle then returning to stand in front of you. “How could you?” he asked, his voice hot with tears.  “He kissed me, Fred. I’ve never had anyone kiss me before. And I didn’t care that he was in another house. I didn’t know that you would all care so much.”  Fred looked confused for a moment. “You really don’t know?” “Know what?” Fred took a step closer to you, his hand reaching out the hold yours. You look up, trying to meet his eyes but his are focused on his hand. He slowly unclasps your hand and moves up, his hand grazing your arm, then your shoulder, then resting on your face. His eyes meet yours and your heart flutters in your chest. “Can I kiss you?” he whispers, the words barely meeting your ear. You nod. 

For the second time in your life, a pair of lips met yours. He’s gentler than Draco, softer. You gasp against your will, aching for closeness to the redhead. You pull closer to him, pulling one hand around his back and using the other to grab onto his fiery hair. He began trailing his kisses down to your collarbone, hitting a sensitive spot you didn’t know you had. You pull tighter to him and his hands move to pick you up. You wrap your legs around him, in bliss as he kisses you. He kneels down, laying you down on the soft grass. He hovers over you slightly before leaning down to kiss you once more. 

Regret latches onto you quickly and forcefully. You pull away, gasping for air. “What’s wrong?” Fred asks.  “I kissed both of you. Why would I do that?” you ask, panic overwhelming you.  “Hey, it’s going to be okay,” Fred said, trying to console you.  “He’s going to kill me.”  “No he’s not,” Fred said, placing both hands on your face. “It’s going to be okay, whatever you choose to do.” “I don’t know what I want, Fred, or who. I never thought that I’d be in this situation. I’m so confused.” Fred held you tight, pulling you into his chest. 

How could I be so oblivious?

[volturialice]

me: i’m not gonna write any more of the drugged!human alice au

also me:

it has a title now too I guess. posting in a huge rush because I was supposed to be out the door ten minutes ago, so it’s even more unbeta’ed than usual. oh well

2,180 words

warnings: drugs, discussion of date rape, vomiting

rating: T

pairings: jalice

part 1 here

perihelion 2/?

It’s hard to tell visions from dreams. Sometimes, Alice doesn’t know which is which until a vision is coming true right in front of her, and then it’s like, okay, too late to do anything about this now. It means all of her dreams are high stakes—any nightmare could become a life-ruining disaster, any good dream could be made or unmade real by some hidden catalyst she doesn’t know about. She’s pretty sure she almost bombed the PSAT because she didn’t wear the blue top she had on in the dream where she scored a 189.

But her inability to tell the difference was never that big of a deal until Forks—until she started dreaming about the Cullens, and Jasper specifically. She wishes she could tell which of the Jasper dreams are real. They’re just so…well, horny. If Alice knew they were visions, and not her subconscious making a complete, desperate idiot of itself, she could be less embarrassed about the whole thing.

Tonight she dreams of Jasper and Rosalie in a room with green walls and shiny wood floors. They’re different in the dream, somehow—more still. Rosalie doesn’t sit. Jasper doesn’t blink.

Between them, an open doorway gapes into darkness. Just visible in the room beyond is the silhouette of a prone figure on a bed, unmoving. They watch it for an uncomfortable amount of time before Rosalie speaks.

“If she were any other human, I would have hunted you for sport, you know.”

“I know,” says Jasper, sounding impossibly old and tired.

“I would be off absolutely wrecking your shit right now, and then I would take care of the liability, because that’s how it works in this family. But she’s…this.” Rosalie grimaces, gesturing to the figure on the bed. “And why was it you told us you were following her, again? To ‘ensure her silence?’ Right,” she scoffs, evidently too disgusted with Jasper to keep looking at him.

“She hasn’t said anything. She won’t.”

“No, she won’t, because you’ll stop her at all costs, will you?”

Jasper’s face doesn’t betray the slightest twitch, but his eyes harden almost imperceptibly. “Not that way.”

Rosalie whirls back around. “You were supposed to be the one person I could count on to do what’s necessary! And now you’re telling me you won’t? Listen to yourself!”

Jasper throws up his hands. “Why are you here, then, Rose? Why are you helping her?”

“I’m helping you, you jackass! I know you all think I’m this narcissistic bitch, but I’m not…not inhumane, okay?” Rosalie levels a contemptuous glance at him, then looks away. “I don’t want some girl to be date-raped, however dangerous she is. And I’m not about to sit by and watch you make a complete mess of things.”

“I appreciate the vote of confidence, but I think that ship may have sailed,” grumbles Jasper.

“I’ll say. I drive up and she’s going on about how you’re stalking her and claiming you’re dating? She should have been killed the moment she figured out what we were, but instead you’re following her around protecting her because of some bizarre psychic connection she claims you have? Make it make sense, Jasper.”

“Edward confirmed her ability is real.”

“Great, so she’s a bigger freak than us. That makes it all ok,” snaps Rosalie, dripping with sarcasm. “Wonderful to know your abysmal taste in women hasn’t altered after all these years.”

Jasper ignores both the jab and the implication. “Earlier you made it sound like you were on her side.”

“I just think you ought to admit what’s really going on here. You won’t let us kill her—fine. It’s utterly irresponsible and stupid, but I can accept that. But it’s not like we can allow her to keep existing out there as a human, knowing what she knows.”

Jasper barks out a humorless, incredulous laugh. “Are you advocating that we should have Carlisle change her? You, Rosalie Hale, want to ‘take away her humanity?’”

Rosalie shrugs. “I’m not saying she wouldn’t be better off dead. But she’s not a very good human, is she? I gather she’s not exactly thriving. They have to pump her full of drugs just to keep her functional, and her human peers still think she’s insane. Be realistic. Her life was over the moment she learned the truth about us.”

Jasper’s only response is a slow shake of his head, like he still can’t believe what he’s hearing.

Rosalie’s eyes narrow. “Don’t tell me you’ve never thought about changing her. Don’t tell me it wasn’t your first thought, when you realized you didn’t want her dead. I may not be the mind reader in the family, but I know that’s a lie.”

It takes Jasper a beat too long to answer. “Of course I’ve thought about it.”

“Not enough, apparently. Right now, we’re in as much danger as she is. If she were one of us…well, her life is already ruined anyway. At least then we’d have her oh-so-special ability on our side.  Surely you can see the strategic advantage,” Rosalie rebukes. “Better Carlisle changes her than the Volturi. Has it occurred to you that if they ever find out she exists, the decision will be taken right out of your hands?”

“It’s not in my hands.”

Rosalie rolls her eyes again. “Hers, then.”

He sighs. “The possibility did occur to me.”

“You think she wants to learn Italian and live in a sewer? Eat tourists?”

“I have no idea what she wants.”

Rosalie laughs. “Right, because she’s playing it so close to the vest. She called you a simp. Do you know what that means?”

“We’re not talking about this.”

“Funny how you never want to confide in anyone, yet here we are.”

Jasper’s look says that isn’t what’s going on here, but he doesn’t respond. They settle back into tense silence.

“What are you going to do about the man? The one who drugged her?” asks Rosalie after a while.

“Eliminate him. Quietly.”

Rosalie nods. “Carlisle won’t like it.”

“He doesn’t have to.”

“Can you actually do it, though? Without slipping?”

Jasper doesn’t answer, which is an answer in itself.

“I could do it.” Rosalie’s voice is quiet.

“It’s not your problem.”

“Exactly,” Rosalie insists. “It wouldn’t be a problem for me. If you slip…well, we may not have to move, but you won’t be able to come back to school for months. Going to trust the rest of us to babysit your human?”

“I won’t slip,” says Jasper, but for the first time, he sounds uncertain.

Alice’s dream chooses this moment to blur and shift. Jasper and Rosalie melt away, voices distorting until they’re drowned out by other voices, other sounds and images that crowd in and pull at her, like being tossed around in a rough ocean. They come one after another, too fast to make sense of them—muddy tires, a burst of cut-off music, a slow, dark ooze crawling over pavement, an echoing splash. Familiar red eyes, looking down at her.

Then Alice is awake, and the eyes looking down at her are black. Wait, no. There are no eyes looking down at her. It must have been part of the dream.

She’s lying on something soft—a bed. Above her is a white ceiling. Her head throbs with a confused, cotton-y ache, and her mouth tastes disgusting.

What the hell happened? Alice isn’t great at piecing together chronological sequences at the best of times. She remembers being in Port Angeles…splitting up with Bella in order to meet her friends from the art show at a bar, and then…people talking, her legs sticking to the green leather barstool.  The lights getting blurry around the edges, the cool, slippery feel of condensation from the glass in her hand, and…oh. Oh, shit. Jasper.

Jasper had been there. The last thing she can recall is Jasper approaching, his face twisted in rage so murderous that she’d thought, huh, I guess he really is a vampire.

She rolls over and—speak of the devil—there he is, standing kind of a weird distance away, halfway between the bed and the door. He looks far less murderous than she remembers.

“Good morning,” she croaks, struggling into a sitting position. “Um. Where the hell am I?”

“Port Townsend,” says Jasper, which means absolutely nothing to her. She’s only been in Forks a few months—is she seriously supposed to know Washington geography?

To Alice’s immense relief, she’s still fully clothed. She does a surreptitious check to make sure her boobs aren’t falling out of her shirt, and when she looks back up there’s a glass of water in front of her face. She takes it and chugs the whole thing down in a few gulps. Why does she feel so hungover? She had only had, like, two drinks last night. Certainly not enough to make her black out and forget the whole evening. No, this big, empty gap in her memory feels more like when they used to drug her at the hospital. In fact, it feels exactly like that.

Jasper takes the empty glass from her and hands her another full one. He’s still watching her in a way that makes her want to squirm and fidget. Why had he been so angry last night?

She chugs the second glass of water while her sluggish brain tries to add it all up. Angry Jasper plus no memory plus waking up in a bed in a strange place, equals…yikes. Maybe she shouldn’t be drinking whatever he hands her.

“Uh,” she taps her fingers against the empty glass, “why do I feel like I’ve been roofied?”

“Because you were. Here,” says Jasper, handing her something else. Her own phone, somehow fully charged. One new voicemail, from…herself.

Future Alice, this is Past Alice. You’re probably pretty freaked out right now, but it’s okay! Jasper didn’t drug you. I repeat, Jasper did not drug you. Be nice to Rosalie; she’s there to help. Now put the phone down, you’re about to hurl. Bye!

Alice has just enough time to think, Rosalie? before a violent wave of nausea hits and she’s throwing up into the waste bin that appears in front of her face. “Ugh,” says the person holding it, and sure enough, there’s Rosalie.

There’s something extra humiliating about throwing up in front of two vampires, one of whom she kind of has a thing with and the other of whom is his super-hot sister who hates her. Thankfully, her stomach was empty except for the two glasses of water.

Rosalie blurs out of the room—damn, she’s fast—and reappears without the waste bin. It’s weird being on the bed while Rosalie and Jasper are standing, so Alice gets to her feet, already feeling way better. “Whose house is this?” she asks.

“Mine,” says Rosalie, practically shooting laser beams of resentment from her eyes.

“You wouldn’t let us take you home or to the hospital,” explains Jasper. “This is Rosalie and Emmett’s beach cottage.”

“Cottage” seems like the wrong word for this place, now that Alice gets a look at it. It has eight- or nine-foot ceilings and the view out the window—a vast, gray body of water that might be the ocean or some kind of bay—looks like a default computer desktop.

“Oh. So, then…someone else drugged me last night?” She tries to remember who she was talking to before Jasper came over, but she’d talked to so many people at the bar that they all kind of blur together in her head.

Jasper nods.

“Like we’d ever need to drug you,” says Rosalie. Oh, right. Vampires.

“So you just…watched me sleep?”

“Yeah, it was riveting. I had no idea snoring like a lawnmower was a side effect of rohypnol.”

So Alice was supposed to be nice to Rosalie, huh? Easier said than fucking done.

Something pushes at the back of her mind—Rosalie and Jasper watching her sleep. She, Alice, had watched them watching her sleep—from outside her own body. A vision, then, and not a dream.

She tries to remember the rest of it on the drive back to Forks, staring out the back window of Rosalie’s BMW like a kid with the two vampires up front. There had been something else in the vision, something besides the disjointed set of images. Jasper and Rosalie had talked about her, about whether or not she should be a vampire. She sneaks a glance at Jasper in the car mirror, at his downcast, shadowed eyes. Had he ever actually said whether he wanted Alice to be a vampire or not?

His eyes snap up to meet hers in the mirror, so suddenly she almost jumps. Alice looks away, guilty for no real reason. The vision, think about the vision.

There had been something else in it: a plan. They were going to…something. Something about slipping, something Rosalie thought she could do better than Jasper…

Right. They were going to kill someone.

.

.

rosalie @ human bella: noooo don’t become a vampire you’re so fertile aha

rosalie @ human alice: yeah nobody’s impregnating this little gremlin. bite away

[mk-empress]

Battle Against The Missile Maestro

The Boss Fight

Mario and Olivia climbed up the stairs to the roof of the tower. The shortage of confetti was annoying, but they finally made it to the first streamer. They saw the spool of the red streamer. 

“There’s the end of the streamer! And that’s my brother’s face right in the middle. He’s really making sure everyone knows this was him. Should we try to detach it somehow? Ooh! Maybe if you jumped into it from below?” Olivia suggested.

I heard footsteps then a heard a small thud.

“Hmm. Is that the most powerful jump you can do?” Olivia asked. I decide that this was a good time to end Mario. I summoned and fired two missiles. I heard them explode. 

“Yikes! That was way too close. I wish those sticks would stick to their own business!” Olivia exclaimed. They survived? 

“Aw, man! You were almost out of the picture...for good.” I said to them from behind the pole the streamer spool was attached to. I jumped out from my hiding place and tried to shoot Olivia with my hand gun, but Mario threw her out of the way as I pulled the trigger.

“I’m sick and tired of Philistines like you ERASING all of my hard work, man. You probably haven’t heard of me, right? Figures. When was the last time you even went to a gallery? Pfft. Don’t answer. I’m gonna give you an art lesson for free. The name’s Jean-Pierre Colored Pencils the 12th. I represent The Legion of Stationery, I’ll have you know! Anyway, I’m guarding this streamer, and I’ll scribble on your face if that’s what it takes to stop you.” I explained.

“The Legion of Stationery?! Jean... Pi... Pi... That’s too long for me to remember! I’m just gonna call you Colored Pencils, okay? I suppose my brother sent you to try and stop us, right? Well, Colored Pencils, you talk tough and you draw REALLY well, but have you even HEARD of Mario? Yeah! That’s what I thought. Mario is tough and he’s got a mustache and he’s gonna mess you up! ...Right, Mario?” Olivia said. Time to get to work with the philistines! I summoned twelve missiles around me, ready to fire. 

“Feast your eyes upon my art-senal! Twelve colored pencils, ready to make your bodies my canvas!” I boasted. My missiles pointed at Mario and Olivia, and my eyes locked on them. “Locked on targets!”

Mario pulled out his hammer. I launched four of my missiles at him. Mario jumped out of the way of all of them.

“They ALL missed?! No...my missiles are flawless! It’s the target that’s all wrong!” I shouted.

I fired the other eight missiles at Mario, and he somehow dodged ALL of them AGAIN! I was starting to get rather agitated. I waved my hand around me and twelve more missile appeared. 

“Reload complete! And I have plenty more where these came from!” I boasted.

I fired all twelve of my missiles at Mario, but he just kept dodging them. Before I could summon more missile, he charged at me with his hammer beside him. I raised my arms and Mario slammed his hammer into me, but I stood my ground. With one hand, I pushed the hammer off me, and with my other hand, I punched Mario in the face. Mario stumbled back, and I jumped back, reloaded, then fired four more missiles at him. Mario dodged three of the missiles. He swung his hammer into the fourth one and it soared back toward me! I moved to the side and it exploded behind me, barely missing me. I despawned my missiles and replaced them with dud missiles instead. These wouldn’t explode, but they would still impale him. I launched the duds, then he jumped on top of them! He landed behind me, then I turned around before he smacked me in my chest. It hurt. I tumbled back, but I regained my footing rapidly. I gazed at Mario and Olivia as I stood back up, holding my chest.

“Ugh. Everyone’s a critic. I won’t let my work be disrespected like this! Time to roll out my masterpiece... Behold my Rainbow Roll!” I exclaimed. This was my special.

I summoned all twelve missiles in a circle around each other. I stepped back and stomped the ground. I reeled my hands back, and the missiles rolled around each other, spinning at high speed. A red aura started to explode from me. I stared Mario in the eyes as my eyes glowed brightly. I saw Olivia get behind Mario, and then I saw him gain the legendary 1000-fold arms, but I was not intimidated. I knew they were no match for my masterpiece. I locked my eyes on him once more, before firing my special at them. 

Before the Rainbow Roll could destroy them, Mario somehow grabbed the ENTIRE THING! The missiles continued to push against Mario, but he had them under his control. For the first time in my entire existence, I felt truly terrified. I could only watch as Mario aimed my special back at me and let them fly. There was nothing I could do, it was too fast. My own Rainbow Roll hit me, and I was launched back into the spool of the streamer. I had felt the flames of the explosion searing through my flesh. I collapsed. The pain was paralyzing. It hurt so bad. It was hard to breathe. I was severely dazed and injured. I laid there motionless for a while.

I heard the sound of Mario smashing the spool with his folded arms. I faintly heard the sound of the streamer shredding itself, falling apart and disappearing.

“That was amazing! And we both did something! Hey, like I said before...we DO make a pretty good team. All right, that was all really exciting, but we’ve got a lot more streamers to unravel. Now, which color of streamer were we going to head to next? Oh yeah! The blue streamer on the red mountain. That’s as good a place as any. Maybe even better! Because it looks so pretty from here.” Olivia said.

No. I won’t let them. I won’t let them move on. I won’t let them get Rubber Band. I WON’T FAIL KING OLLY!

I slowly began to shift. The pain was so intense. I slowly started to get up. I used all my strength and will. Mario and Olivia heard me, and they turned around and saw me. I was scorched. I knew I was dying, but I’ll take these two down with me, even if it curses me to The Underwhere! 

“He’s not dead?! Gosh! How are you alive?!” Olivia shouted.

“I...will not... fail...” I weakly spoke. I pulled out my hand gun and attempted to shoot Mario. He dodged the bullet and hit the gun out of my hand with his hammer, then he smashed me with it. I tumbled to the side. Mario walked to me and raised his hammer. He was about to finish me off. I wasn’t ready to die. I didn’t want to die, not like this! I covered my eyes and raised my hand in fear.

“No! Please!” I cried. I was so scared. I just wasn’t ready. I wanted to live to enjoy time with my siblings again. I didn’t want to accept that this was the end of me. Mario halted.

“Mario, wait!” Olivia screamed.

“I don’t want to die. Please... I’m not ready...” I begged. I never thought I would stoop this low, much less to Mario, but I didn’t want to die. I didn’t want to go. I didn’t.

“Come on, Mario. Let’s just go. We have more streamers to take down.” Olivia said. Mario sighed, and began to walk away. They both went back down the stairs into the interior of the tower. They were gone.

I was left there. Left there to die. This WAS it, as much as I wanted to deny it. I just laid there, struggling to breathe. My body felt warm, too warm. My flesh burned. It felt like I was there for hours. I was clinging on to what little life I had left. I thought about the good times I’ve had with the others, with my siblings, my family. I started to cry. Soon, it became too difficult to breathe, and my vision began to fade. I hoped that one of the others would stop Mario and Olivia. I tried so hard, I even got back up, but- in the end- the red streamer still fell anyway. I still failed my king. I...I’m...

I’m sorry.

[refinedbuffoonery]

Riley + Sunglasses + Undercover (3)

masterlist.

Read it on AO3.

*****

Riley burst into the hotel room, making Bozer jump, and he scrambled to get out of his chair before Riley shoved him out of it. She didn’t bother to return his “hey” upon entering. He frowned. Rude. 

“What’s going on?” Desi questioned. Lately Desi’s questions sounded more and more like accusations than genuinely asking for information. If she kept it up, things were going to get ugly. Fast. Bozer did not want to find himself in the middle of it. 

Riley finally managed a “hang on” before ignoring them completely. Bozer watched as her fingers flew across the keyboard, eyes slightly squinted the way they did when she was really concentrating. Her focus didn’t last long, though. Barely two minutes passed between her walking in, typing furiously, and now unmuting her comms. 

“Mac, I looped the hallway cameras around the storage room. There aren’t any in the room itself, so you should be good to go.” 

“Storage room?” Bozer asked. “Why is Mac breaking into a storage room?” 

Finally acknowledging him and Desi, Riley sat back in her chair and said, “We’re stealing the chip.” 

“What happened to buying it?” Desi asked. 

“I met the seller at the pool. Turns out to buy the chip you have to place the winning bid on an old locket at tonight’s auction. The chip is--”

“Inside the locket,” Bozer finished. 

“Of course it is,” Desi muttered. 

They called Matty to fill her in. She wasn’t exactly pleased. As much as Bozer would rather avoid field work, not having to experience Matty The Hun in person was definitely a perk. 

Movement on the computer screen caught Bozer’s eye. Security guards swarmed the camera feed. “Uhh, guys? They’re blocking all the exits.” 

At another time, he would’ve thought Desi’s flat “what” reaction was funny, but right then he was more worried about the number of big dudes with big guns who kept multiplying out of nowhere. 

“Mac...” Riley said over comms. He must have set off some kind of silent alarm. 

“Coming in hot,” Mac warned. His form jumped from camera feed to camera feed as he made his way to their suite, until he finally burst into the room the same way Riley did. 

Mac locked the door and raked his hands through his hair, making it stick up in all directions. Bozer glanced between him and Riley, studying the way they both breathed a sigh of relief as soon as they saw each other. 

“I brought you a present.” Grinning, he pulled an old-fashioned gold locket out of his pants pocket and handed it to Riley with a dramatic flourish. 

Her grin mirrored his own. “Why thank you,” she replied coyly.  

Were they...flirting? 

Bozer was torn between wanting to congratulate them for acknowledging their feelings and wanting to smack them upside the head for not staying focused. Now I’m not focused. Dammit. 

Riley opened the locket and swore. 

“What’s wrong?” Bozer asked. 

She held the chip between her thumb and index finger. “It’s a fake.” 

That’s not good, Bozer thought. 

She continued, “Well, not a totally-useless piece of plastic fake, but it definitely isn’t the fancy state of the art thing the CIA said it was. This came from an--”

“iPhone,” Mac finished. Riley nodded. 

“An iPhone? You’ve got to be kidding me,” Bozer said. He wondered, why bother to put in a fake when the buyer was someone who would immediately know what it was? Why not just leave it empty? 

Mac smirked. “I can crack open your phone and show you if you don’t believe me.” 

Bozer planted both hands over his pocket, guarding his phone. “Absolutely not! I believe you.” His best friend had the nerve to look mildly disappointed. 

“Now what?” Desi asked. She gestured to the guards swarming the computer screen. “The sale is a scam, and it’s not like we can call it a day and leave.” 

Mac and Riley exchanged a wicked grin. “Guess we just have to stay here,” Mac said. 

*****

Desi studied the way Mac and Riley circled each other. There was a distinct push and pull in their words, tone, body language. As coworkers, their partnership was seamless. They grounded each other, bounced ideas off one another, and executed stupid plans together. Mac would’ve said they were in-sync the way a pair of gears was, or something like that.  

This new dynamic was almost...magnetic. It was as if the universe, after so many years of conspiring against them, finally decided it was time, and now they toed the line between their covers and reality. 

The team decided carrying on as if they didn’t already have the locket was their best bet. Determining the identity of the seller became paramount after learning the chip was a fake. Ever the dutiful bodyguard, Desi would accompany Riley and Mac to the auction that night, which was being held in the hotel’s first-floor ballroom. Bozer would stay behind in the suite, watching their backs and running facial recognition on the seller using the security footage from the pool. 

Desi dreaded the inevitable PDA spectacle she was about to witness. They were just doing their jobs, but that didn’t make it any easier to watch her ex seduce someone else. Even if that someone else was her friend. 

She didn’t envy Mac. He had to fake-seduce the woman who he had unrequited--as far as he knew--feelings for while his ex watched his every move. Yikes. As for Riley, she did a better job of hiding her feelings, but Desi knew it was only a matter of time before she cracked. The woman had an uncanny ability to hold herself--and everyone else--together when shit hit the fan, but there’s only so much one person can carry. 

Mac unnecessarily put his hand on Riley’s back when he squeezed behind her to fix his hair in the mirror. Desi narrowed her eyes. The bathroom wasn’t that small. 

Desi knew they were both playing, but how the hell did neither realize the other person wasn’t just playing anymore? 

Watching them help each other get ready was nauseating. It was all longing glances and looking away before the other could catch them staring. While Riley was busy redoing her makeup, Mac watched her, lips curling into a small smile. Riley caught his eyes in the mirror, and he quickly looked away, hurt briefly clouding her pretty face. Desi pitied her; Mac looked at Riley like she was a well-stocked science lab, and she had no goddamn idea. 

Desi was pretty sure Mac had never looked at her like that. Not even once. 

She felt like she was standing too close to a fire. Her body was burning, yet she couldn’t make herself look away. Bozer mercifully tugged her into a different room after they both watched Riley fix Mac’s collar, her fingers all business, but then Mac stepped closer, and her hands lingered on his shoulders, and he murmured something too quietly for Desi to hear, and it was suddenly all too much.  

“Are you okay?” Bozer asked. 

Desi exhaled. “I will be. They’re just doing their jobs.” 

Bozer made a face. “You and I both know they aren’t ‘just doing their jobs.’ Do you want to talk about it?” 

“Not really.” Not ever. 

“Well, I’m here if you change your mind, because we both know that--” he gestured toward the other room--- “is not going away any time soon. As much as they swear they are ‘just friends,’ you and I both know ‘just friends’ don’t look at each other like that.” 

He was right, whether Desi liked it or not. “Thanks, Boze.” 

She heard his stomach grumble. “Someone’s hungry,” she teased. 

“Dude, I’m starving! Do you think you could smuggle me some snacks from the party?” He gave her his best puppy dog eyes, even though they both knew it wouldn’t work on her. 

“We’ll see.” Even though the rest of the night was going to suck, Desi suddenly felt a little lighter.

[virryth]

Doctor!AU Jihoon

a hbd to Jihoon;; love him so much can’t wait to see him in Jan

tw// mentions of wound, blood, mild violence

Read Doctor!AU Junhui | More Jihoon au | More SVT au

1.7k | Fluff | Bullet | Not proofread

Vice-head chief doctor for the ER (trauma unit)

Famous for his quick, spot-on judgement for emergency care and his blunt personality

Can be reckless at times and gets scolded so many times for jumping the fence on hospital protocols

Did he maybe hit the patient with his fist in an ambulance to get their heart moving because they wouldn’t make it to the ER? Sure.

Performed emergency surgeries at the scene of the incident? A few times.

but hey his methods worked and he saved countless of patients in the end so really who’s losing

Rumored to have a criminal record

Not many people know but Jihoon has a pretty strong sense of justice, he once punched the daylight out of a guy when he found out the dude sexually assaulted his patient

Actually spent a day in jail and had to get bailed out by Wonwoo, but the other guy ended up in jail too so it’s worth it in his book

Honestly looks so good in the scrub, fills it all up, hair slicked back, clear translucent skin with the face of an angel 

Possesses such a cute smile and the most pleasant laughter, one of the reasons the nurses and his fellow colleagues adore him (also very popular with the elderly)

Except when there’s an unusually busy night, catch Dr. Lee looking like hell, hair is either disheveled and messy from running his hands through them when he’s frustrated or just plainly under a rubber headband and kept out of his face

Scrubs either has specks of blood or some sort of dirt from wrestling restraining rowdy troublemaker visitors in the ER

Usually spotted resuscitating a patient while kneeling on top of a moving crash cart, or running around giving consultations for other trauma on-call attendants

Do not even breath the wrong way around him when he’s busy trying to figure out the cause of a patient’s symptoms

Dr. Lee will sit there and think until he’s found a solution

Will sometimes venture to other wards to consult with the other doctors if he has time. Jihoon can be stubborn, but he knows how valuable the experiences of his colleagues can be, especially when it’s as important as accurately diagnosing and treating patients

Both new and long-time interns are terrified of Dr. Lee from trauma unit, they all avoid him like the plague because those who worked with him have only claimed it to be one of the most stressful nights of their medical career

Some came out so shocked they ended up transferring

But;;; it’s not all bad, he’s hard on the interns because residency is the only time period where mistakes are allowed, he has to make sure they know that lives are at stake if they’re going to become good doctors in the future

The very small few who survived his supervisions all ended up learning a LOT from him because scary or not, everybody and their grannies have the utmost respect for Jihoon

The ER is the most hectic and traumatizing place in the hospital, on top of the physical strains there’s also a lot of emotional stressors that get him down once in a while

And those moments are when his true personality shine through, boy is sweet and so soft, but only to you and his close friends though, anyone else see that and he’s all hardass hauling the interns again

“He was worse in med school,” pediatric surgeon Junhui spilled at a team dinner, “one semester during exam season, he wouldn’t come back for three days and we find him passed out in the library with textbooks under his head.”

“We thought he had fainted or something, turned out he was just hungry,” medic Soonyoung chimed in, nudging Wonwoo to continue spilling the tea.

“He woke up so angry because he missed hours of study, we had to deal with that attitude for a week. He was such a d*ck.”

“Yeah, that’s my reason. What’s yours?” Jihoon countered, taking a shot.

(am i saying ‘96 line went to med school and spent their residency together yes I am)

You know the boys from way back when you were interns during your residency

In fact, on his first day of work, Jihoon was admitted to the hospital due to an explosion injury

He wasn’t even directly involved, he was just a bystander rushing in to help when he spotted multiple MVCs (motor vehicle collisions) on the highway on the way to work, and while working on the injured patients, one of the cars had exploded nearby

Still has a decent-size burnt scar on his back to this day, but doesn’t regret it one bit

Jihoon does anything and everything in his power to save people, even if he has to put his life on the line

Patient bleeding out during transit and there’s not enough blood in the ambulance? Here, take his if it matches.

Need a hand shouldering debriefs from a collapsing structure to rescue a patient? On it.

Vernon from ortho came by once, “hey dude your wrist is bleeding.”

Jihoon: cut myself pulling an earring out of someone’s throat, what’s up?”

Vernon: yikes,,, anyway still up for lunch? :D

That’s kind of his main philosophy, and yours, because you didn’t hesitate one bit when you head straight into the fire to save him

It’s because of this mild case of recklessness that you both often get sent to dispatch on evac copters to save people at extremely remote locations 

And you’re amazing at it, but more often than not you both usually end up in Junhui’s pediatric ward getting bandaged up while looking at babies

Really popular with the kids by the way, everyone loves getting a piggy-back ride from Dr. Lee when he comes by

Knows all of the the long-term patients by names and is so loved by the kids it’s honestly not fair

Medic Soonyoung knows Jihoon the longest and apparently he was even more reckless way back then as an EMT, but he’s mellowed down a lot since he became a doctor

As head chief, you cut him waaaay too many slacks and all the residents know it

But they also know he’s the best in the field so they just let him do whatever 

But that doesn’t mean he gets away all the time, you still scold him when needed, and Jihoon has actually toned it down a lot since you became head chief because he knows ultimately you’re the one shouldering the responsibilities for his actions

He knows you would stick up for him no matter what because of how much you value his skills, and he doesn’t want to disappoint you in any way

“You know they’re not doing this just for your skills, right?” 

“Don’t do that shrink thing on me, Wonwoo, it gives me the creeps.”

“He’s right and you know it,” Junhui teased.

“Shut up.”

Jihoon is so shy about his feelings for you, hence he speaks more with his actions 

Often takes you out for dinner, or brunch, or home, after your shift when you’re too tired to drive

Brings you breakfast in the morning after a night shift and tries to shoulder most of the traumatizing cases when he can

Honestly he’s still doing his job, but during breaks, he makes sure to hang around and is always ready to come in three seconds max if you ever call his name 

And sure, although he puts himself in danger way too many times, you know he only wants to help

But that doesn’t stop you from worrying, his mindset of giving his all to save others is what’s gonna get him killed one day

On your day off, you often meet up and hand out, running errands and going to the movies to catch up on whatever pop-culture content you missed during the busy on-call shifts 

And it’s so platonic, or at least that’s what you keep telling yourself because you honestly never know sometimes

One moment he’s resting his arm over your shoulder, softly speaking to you about what to order from the fast food menu. It’s so intimate you could hear your own heartbeats in your ears

Then suddenly he’s getting shy and conscious of how close you are

But then he holds you much a little too close to shield you from the rain as you share an umbrella

And you thought maybe that’s just who he is, he’s protective and skinship may come unexpectedly and unconsciously when he feels comfortable around people

Jihoon would say you were starting to sound like Wonwoo if he knew what you were thinking

It wasn’t until half the movie that you caught him staring

You had thought he had something to say, so you leaned in and waited 

Truly, you didn’t expect to be kissed

And brief as it came, Jihoon had diverted his attention back to the big screen, picking up popcorn and chuckling when he saw the expression on your face

True to his profession, Wonwoo was the first to notice, he had been making jokes about how you two would end up together one day–a common topic among your circle of friends–and Jihoon choked on his coffee

They had kept it on the down low since the both of you had decided to keep it out of work

But things have definitely changed with the glances you noticed whenever he’s in the same room

There was so much affection in his gaze that you start to think maybe he’s been doing this for some time, it just took you this long to notice

You also find out that Jihoon is a lot more daring than you’d pegged him to be, and oh so subtle with his touches

Hand hovering on the lower part of your back to catch you in case you stumble, stolen kisses in the elevator, head touches and comforting hugs in the break room when you had time to take a breath

And yet you never got caught, it’s amazing how quick he turns back to strict Dr. Lee around the intern the moment he parts way with you

Occasionally Jihoon would join you in the empty corner near the supply’s closet, cooling your heads and leaning on each other to regain a sense of comfort and familiarity when things didn’t go well in the ER

He would hold your hand, leaning in to you and softly whispering into your hair about the gains and losses in life, sometimes about the future, where you would travel on your next vacation and what you would do together

The ER is a tricky placement, sometimes you witness the miracle of life, sometimes the end of it. It’s a battlefield almost every single day, but you wouldn’t trade it for the world

Not with Jihoon by your side.

–V

Read Doctor!AU Junhui | More Jihoon au | More SVT au

[ohnohetaliasues]

Stones to Abbigale {Ch. 3+4}

(Kat)

I’m doing chapter four also since chapter three is so short.

I hate this book thoroughly.

But here we go.

Briefly after I fell asleep that night I had a dream about Abbi,

Please don’t go the way I think this is going.

it was the first dream I had experienced in some time. I'm not normally the type of person to be deeply impacted by dreams as more often than not I can control them. I can recognize the fact that I'm in a dream and twist things around so that whatever is making me afraid becomes afraid of me. This tactic however could not possibly work in this soon-to-be nightmare, as there was no living monster waiting around the corner. There was no emotion in this machine that was about to reveal itself to me. I could only watch without a physical form. I was just a helpless spectator in my own mind.

Okay so that was actual word salad.

The dream began without any sound; only a deep hum accompanying what appeared to be Abbi laughing in a field of what looked like gray grass from a far. As my view of her revealed more detail I began to realize that what I thought was grass was actually long slender claws.

So this girl is just...

In a field of claws?

Experiencing a more alarmed spectrum of emotion, the audible hum cut out and was replaced by Abbi's screams. The sounds echoed bouncing off the walls of my mind splitting me in two and engulfing the core my being.

I’m so fucking confused.

She was not forming any words in her screams and I began to understand why the more I analyzed every detail. I shifted my perspective to a new angle. I was now above her looking down and could see the claws were pulling her into the ground. She showed no resistance to being dragged into the ground, she didn't even cry for help, she would only scream in pain as she slowly sank beneath the surface. I began to distinctly hear blades and gears violently turning just beneath her.

I cannot fucking picture this happening for the life of me.

It's difficult to explain, but in her eyes I could see she didn't want to be saved as she genuinely felt she had earned the suffering she was enduring.

Edgy as fuck, okay.

She believed she deserved to be ground up until there was nothing left. Once she was pulled completely under I was finally given a physical form in the dream. Dropping from above I landed on the soil she disappeared in. I immediately dropped to my knees and began digging with my bare hands to get to Abbi. I was only inches deep before the ground ripped open forcing me to jump back.

Okay uh.

I have no valid words that could express how I feel right now.

A deep canyon began to form central to where I had begun digging. The splitting and groaning quickly gained momentum. Ripping and screeching sounds erupted all around me as the earth divided before me at a now crippling rate. A hellish sight consumed my eyes as I looked down on the collapsing landmass below. Powerful machines wielding massive blades swung violently scraping dirt and rock with a sound so tremendous I could only faintly hear the screams of countless desperate humans below.

This is just.

Not okay.

I quickly realized the terrified voices beyond the ripping blades were no illusion.

But this is a dream.

Which means it’s an illusion.

Thousands of lives were being devoured in piles, no person among them begging for life rather, like Abbi, they screamed only from pain delivered not just by the roaring blades and gears, but their very existence itself. Suffering & consciousness had become one in the same.

You are not poetic.

Shut the literal fuck up.

I then woke up to my room filled with sunlight, but it could not change the darkness my dream left me with. I felt something inside me change, almost as if I had seen something I was never meant to and now had to find a way to lose the thick cloud freshly looming over my head.

I hate you.

It is as I said briefly before, I feel like a visitor here, like I'm in this world but not a part of it like everyone else.

Shut up, you pretentious asshole.

I study people and situations to find out how they work and sometimes my dreams fill in the emotions and thoughts I missed while I was awake.

Yes, so you’ve said, in a very creepy non-human way.

Not having to go to school that day due to my suspension I decided to write a letter to Abbi.

Cool. Awesome. This won’t be cringey at all.

It read:"When I look in your eyes... I at times feel a level of sadness I have never felt, as if we, despite barely knowing each other, have been apart for far too long.

Excuse me, that’s incredibly creepy.

When I talk to you it is like I am listening to a voice I've ached for yet haven't heard in a lifetime. Every other experience I have with you seems familiar but at the same time, it hurts, like you would feel if you begged for something and only received it when you had already given up hope.

More word salad.

These feelings are all so strange and evolving at a rate that scares me as they are for someone I am only just now truly getting to know.

Even with my brief presence in your life I've picked up on so much suffering and almost feel powerless to create any change.

This is so alarming and creepy and you need to stop.

There are so many wounds, so many scars, so much I only know enough about to fear. I'm trying to understand. Abbi, you have more pain in your life than I can imagine. I hear it in your voice, I see it in your eyes and in the way you move. I just want to see you smile without there being an ocean wall of tears behind your eyes. I want to hear everything you have to say. I want to find a way to heal the damage done until you can forget it ever existed.

THE ONLY FUCKING PROPER REACTION TO THIS LETTER IS TO MOVE TO ANOTHER CONTINENT.

I sent the letter to her email address, moments later the phone rang. Answering the phone I heard Abbi's voice on the other end.

"Hey, can you meet me at the Quick Shop?" she asked.

I responded, "Did you see my email?"

She replied "Nope, why didn't you just call?"

I said, "It would've been really hard to say over the phone, I had to find the words."

She replied, "Ok, I'll look and then I'll head over."

I then confirmed "Sure, see you there".

Yikes.

Shortly after, I got dressed and skated over to meet her. I arrived quickly, thanks to what seemed to be a record speed for me. However once I arrived I found myself waiting for someone who now had no intention of meeting me. I could only assume I had just made myself look like a huge jerk to her. I attempted to call her from the nearby payphone and she didn't answer.

What did you expect? That she wouldn’t find that fucking creepy?

As I skated home, in my mind, I went through the letter I wrote over and over. I began to blame myself, concluding based on her absence that I must have dug too deep too fast.

I scared her away because I reacted on the emotions I experienced in that dream before actually considering the human being on the other side of the letter.

Yeah, at least you’re fucking self aware for once.

I felt like I was just about finally connect with someone only to ruin everything at the last minute.

That’s your own fault. Don’t bitch about it.

Okay, chapter 4.

My suspension had been lifted and I had just arrived back at Lakewood High. Approaching my history class I could hear people snickering as they watched me walk by.

Someone screamed "Wuss! Learn how to fight!" behind me but I just kept walking.

I feel like I’ve read shit like this before.

Oh.

Yeah, it reads like any angsty Wattpad story ever.

As I sat down in class Mr. Hanson walked up to me, he placed his hand on my shoulder and spoke under his breath so others would not hear "Don't worry about the work you missed, ok James?"

It would be preferable that you didn’t use ‘ok’ instead of the word ‘okay.’

But this is terrible, so I don’t have high expectations. I don’t know what I expected.

I looked up at him and he gave me a slight smile. I suppose it's because he felt bad that I was beaten up shortly after trying to get Jason to leave the class alone. It was a lucky break too considering Mr. Hanson's class was one of the few I didn't stop by to see what work I would miss before beginning my suspension.

No. No. That isn’t this teacher’s job. He needs to grade something, and if James didn’t do the work, it would be immoral to put good grades in the grade book when this is the case.

I approached the art trailer feeling panicked over what to expect. I hated that I said anything to Abbi, that I overstepped my bounds and acted like I knew her when I was only going off my own dream-influenced emotional intuition.

Intuition my ass. That dream means nothing at all. Shut your pretentious mouth.

I felt a conflicted hatred towards myself for jeopardizing a relationship with someone that was so important to me.

MY FUCKING GOD YOU’VE HAD THREE CONVERSATIONS WITH HER.

If she did give up on me, I could only blame myself.

Yes. You can.

Opening the door I could see Abbi wasn't inside, instead there were just pieces of my bear sewn to pieces of her bear sitting on her desk. Maybe I was reading too far into what it meant, I could really only hope that there was something left to us that I could sew back together.

If I have to read another bullshit waxing poetic thing, I’m gonna scream. My eyes are already glazing over.

Walking closer I could see something sticking out just beneath the bear.

It was a note that read: "James, meet me behind the church when you get this."

Immediately, I thought of the church neighboring Lakewood High.

I find it bullshit that James was immediately able to figure out what church Abbi meant when she didn’t even specify which church she was talking about.

I stuffed my backpack inside the desk

Your backpack fits in a desk? Either the desk has a large compartment, your bag is nearly empty, or your bag is very small.

I’m going with the last option because it’s the funniest.

and quickly made my way off campus to meet Abbi.

You left your bag in class and just left?

What is wrong with you?

As I approached the church there was a strong forceful wind blowing behind me that made it feel as if I was being pushed to her by nature itself.

I really hate you pretending to be deep, Onion.

I felt like a fool for thinking that, I'm far too unimportant for any significant force to consciously influence my life. I walked around the church only to hear Abbi say loudly "James!" I turned to see her standing under an overhang that reached out from the church.

That is called an awning.

I walked over to her and began to apologize for the letter, but she cut me off saying "Why did you write that to me?"

A valid question.

I responded "I wanted to separate myself from everyone else in your eyes. I wanted you to know I was trying to understand you, all of..."

She interrupted "How messed up do you think I am James? How screwed do you think my life is exactly? Because if you had any social skills, you might know that saying to someone what you did, is... I'm not damaged goods... I'm not broken!"

Her voice was giving out as she began tearing up. "I'm sorry... I was..." I said, helplessly watching tears fall down her face.

This is a confusing and mechanical interaction.

"I was wrong... but I'm here, and I will be as long as you let me." I said.

She wiped her tears and struggled to speak. "The reason you saw what you did, in my eyes, my voice..." she continued to struggle as she cried "You saw the bruises from my ex, but you wanted to know everything."

You two have known each other for two fucking days. Like, you’ve only spoke four times now.

She paused to wipe her tears again. I listened carefully as she continued to speak "James... I haven't been beaten just one or two times..."

I would care more if there was any buildup to this moment or any character development that would make me like this girl.

But there isn’t.

So I feel nothing while reading this, and that is both incredibly boring and unfulfilling, as well as genuinely kind of creepy.

The fact that this does not evoke emotion in me when I should be feeling some form of empathy instead of the apathy I feel disturbs me.

Abbi said as she looked at me as if every word was agonizing for her to say.

I would like to know why she’s telling this to a guy she barely knows.

With tear soaked eyes she continued, "I've been violated beyond that James... by people who called me their friend, people I trusted took advantage of me and that killed so much of who I am... who I was."

I am so concerned that I don’t feel anything here. Are you guys feeling anything?

Her face was consumed with stress, her body shook but she managed to continue, "My mother abandoned me and left me with my father who doesn't even care if I live..." before she could finish I wrapped my arms around her.

She dug her fingers into my back as she pulled me closer and cried into my chest.

As we held each other I said, "You were never damaged, only changed. Any part of you that you think died is just hidden, waiting to come out when it's safe..."

I want to actually die.

Abbi squeezed me even tighter.

I continued, "Every time I see you, you become more beautiful to me than before."

She gripped me more tightly than anyone ever had. She was finally hearing everything she wanted someone to say to her and I was saying everything I wanted Abbi to hear, that is, most everything.

Okay, cool.

I just... This is such a gross fetishization of abuse? It makes my stomach twist. I also feel strange that I can’t feel any form of emotion for these characters beyond annoyance.

It actually bothers me deeply.

This is the opposite effect you want to have on your readers, Onion. you want your characters to be relatable and real so your readers can connect with them and feel something for them. Well written characters are ones you can get attached to.

These characters are poorly written, which is why I cannot relate to them or get attached to them. I’m not saying I’m any kind of master at writing characters, but Abbi has no personality of her own other than the fact that she’s an abuse victim, and the fact that that is all is concerning. I don’t even know what she looks like.

James is the most pretentious, condescending narrator in the world and it makes me physically recoil while I read from his point of view. He is nihilistic, bleak, creepy, and very flavorless. He’s boring as all hell, and again, I don’t even know what he looks like.

Does Onion just forget to describe his characters? It makes it very hard to visualize anything with them.

Okay. I’ll see you guys in chapter five.

This book is actually repulsive.

~Kat

[listlesslady]

Mary Sue, the legend

Fun lil thing I wrote some time ago to get out of my writer’s block. It’s amusing enough that I’d consider continuing. What do you think?

Warning: cursing and shenaniganery

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

I'm sure you've heard about me. I'm special. I'm the chosen one. I'm who your boyfriend thinks about when he's with you. I'm the friend you don't want to leave alone with your dad.

My name is Anastasia and today is the day I die.

The sun is shining high in the sky, of course, it is blue and without clouds. There is a light breeze, the trees are green and the birds are chirping. I hate all of it. The bus is even on time. My MP3 player plays my favorite songs one after the other but nothing could cheer me up. The stupid prophecy told at my birth is haunting me. It's the third week after my 16th birthday. I'm supposed to die today. What a crock of shit.

"Ana! Happy birthday!!!!"

My best friend, Lorie, is waiting for me at my locker, as usual. She's so noisy. "You're late."

"I know, I'm just trying to be annoying."

I throw my bag into my locker and sigh. It's so hard to pretend that everything is alright. I wish I could tell Lorie about the dark thoughts plaguing me but she wouldn't understand. Just then, a spicy shiver runs up my spine and I turn to look at a boy standing at the end of the hallway. He's tall, dark and handsome of course. If he's my murderer I guess I don't mind too much. Annoyed with his typical antics, I close my locker and ignore my best friend to stalk towards him.

"It's polite to come up to someone and introduce yourself instead of staring from across the hallway like a creep."

He smiles. His teeth are sharp as fuck. I kinda wonder what they'd feel like embedded in my neck. Yikes. "Hello, Anastasia."

Of course he knows my fucking name. "Sup, dickwad. Are you the specially chosen murderer?"

He's smiling really wide now, pleased that I've identified him. "Yes, that's me. Shall we get along then?"

I sigh deeply but nod. Might as well get this over with, right? I get to miss math. Lorie appears next to me in an instant like she wasn't just standing behind us and spying on every word.

"Ana, where are you going? Who's your friend?"

I look expectantly at my new friend. I'm not dealing with the explanations here; if he wants to take me away he's gonna have to find all the excuses.

"My name is Ryan." He places an arm around my waist. "I'm just taking... Ana here for a little surprise date. I missed her birthday."

I resist the urge to shrug his arm off and look at Lorie. "Cover for me, okay?"

She watches me go with this strange boy, mouth agape. Within a few minutes, we're walking into the little strip of forest that surrounds our school's football field. I just want to get this over with honestly. I want this stupid dark cloud that's been hovering over my head for the past decade to go away!

"This should be fine." Ryan's voice is in my ear and it takes everything in me not to exclaim 'thank God'. "Any last words?"

"...I got nothing."

I hear the sound of a knife being drawn from its sheath and I am so ready for the knife to pierce my flesh but before that can happen, I hear an 'oof' and the sounds of wrestling. This wasn't in the prophecy, what the fuck? Another equally tall, dark and handsome boy is fighting Ryan, keeping him from executing his devious plan. I almost tell him to let it happen but honestly I'm vaguely intrigued now. Usually, a normal girl would run away now, right? But nah, class is far from over and I could use some entertainment. Eventually, Ryan snarls and disappears into the foliage. My savior stands panting for a while looking after my assailant in case he returns I assume. Eventually, he turns back towards me and I'm struck and smitten in an instant which honestly is so stupid cause who is this man?! He smiles at me.

"Sorry I'm late."

"...right." What the actual heck. "Who... are you? Where do you come from?"

"They didn't tell you?" He seems alarmed. "I'm your guardian angel."

A guardian angel? Fucking great. "You're kidding me, right?"

"Shit." He mutters to himself for a little bit. "Alright. Okay. Listen... I'll talk to you later, alright? There's some... things I have to check out."

I shrug. "Sure, I guess."

He's gone in the next few minutes and I'm left wondering what the hell just happened.

My name is Anastasia. My 16th birthday was three weeks ago and today was the day I was supposed to die. So... what the hell just happened?

The bell rings, signaling the end of math class and my unfortunate return to normal. Lorie is waiting for me wide-eyed at my locker. I can sense the questions fighting in her mind.

"He was a prick. Don't ask questions."

She flails her arms around. "What do you mean don't ask questions?! You disappeared for an entire class somewhere with some mysterious man!"

"Yeah. It was not at all what I expected it to be and honestly, I would not do it again."

We go to our next class, Lorie still sputtering for words next to me. The end of the day cannot come fast enough. My guardian angel is leaning against the fence as we walk out, smoking a cigarette. For a second, I can see the ghostly outline of wings on his back, they are huge and mottled gray, but they disappear as soon as he turns his gaze towards us. Again, I am struck by how my body reacts to him. It's a tingle between my legs and a laser focus, everything falling away but his face. This is super annoying.

"Holy shit, Ana, who's this hottie? Is today your real birthday or?" Lorie is outwardly as excited as I feel on the inside.

He smiles. throws his cigarette to the ground and watches us approach. He's fucking sexy, what the hell. I wanna mash face with him real bad.

"I see you're in one piece."

"Thanks to you." Jesus, am I flirting? "I never did get your name."

"I'm James." His smile makes me want to bite into his lower lip. "We should get you home."

"Yeah, um," I turn towards Lorie. "This is my best friend Lorie. I'll see you later?"

She's too busy staring at him to say goodbye but she still waves at me. James puts his arm around my waist and steers me away. The day is still beautiful. If I didn't know better, I'd think we were a normal boy and girl out on a date. Of course there's the nagging sensation that I'm supposed to die at any moment now that really takes away from the idyllic scenery but honestly, James' presence makes me feel... safe. Which is actually terrifying. Suddenly I wonder if maybe he's the one sent to kill me. Hm, I wouldn't actually mind. Next thing I know, we've made it to the cemetery.

"Uh. Why are we here?"

He smiles again. I feel all kinds of melty. "I wanna show you something."

Yikes. "Actually, I should get home."

His grip around me tightens. "Come along, now, don't make this hard on yourself."

I fucking knew it, how frustrating. I sigh and roll my eyes. "You couldn't fucking do this in the woods?"

He seems surprised by my lack of fear but this doesn't stop him from pulling towards the cemetery. I feel like I'm about to cause a scene cause I'm done with today, I just wanna go home and take a long ass nap. "Nah, listen you lost your chance and I wanna go home now."

He pulls harder now and I nearly fall to the ground. "You're a real brat, aren't you?"

For fuck's sake. "You bet your ass I am!" Just as I'm taking a breath to yell for help, another dark shape shows up out of nowhere and barrels into James. Another savior I guess? But this time I don't stick around to make acquaintance, I just book it all the way home. It's a really good thing I live near the cemetery ‘cause my cardio is pretty terrible for my age. My mom is sitting on the couch with her head in her hands when I barge in.

"Ana!" She gasps and runs to me, looking me over. "Y-you're okay, you're alive!"

"Yeah! Weirdly enough. I mean, I have two murder attempts to my name but I'm... all in one piece?"

"Oh wow, this is.... oh wow." She seems at a loss for words. Honestly so am I; the day's nearing its end and I'm alive and well. "We should celebrate!"

"Let's wait ‘til tomorrow at least." I calm her. "Day's not over yet."

"Right, right, of course." But I can tell that she's overjoyed by this. We've been waiting for this day for years and years, since I'm old enough to understand the concept of death. It made for a pretty rebellious and daredevil childhood. We settle down in front of the TV with drinks and a shotgun, y'know, just in case, but pretty soon it's 11 PM and we're both nodding off.

"Now can I throw you a party?" My mom asks sleepily.

Before I can answer, there's the sound of breaking glass from somewhere upstairs. Immediately, we are both alert and ready, the shotgun is in my mom's hands before I know it.

"Alright, you fucking bastards. Come at me." Not gonna lie, she sounds like a fucking badass.

A few minutes later, a bad boy strolls casually down the stairs, still brushing glass from the sleeves and shoulders of his leather jacket. A pair of black wings are neatly folded at his back, they're almost as big as the ones I've seen on James. I'm startled by this boy's red eyes as they settle on me. He has fangs when he smiles. Mom cocks the gun.

"Get out of my house."

"It was really hard to find you, Anastasia. You should give your guardian angel a break."

Another one? "Thanks but I already have one and he tried to kill me."

The intruder stops in his lazy casual stroll. "James is here?" He looks towards a window, whispering to himself. "Fucking asshole."

"Yeah, so you can go ahead and leave." My mom gestures with the gun towards the door. "Go on, get."

"Listen, there's been a misunderstanding." He resumes his lazy stroll down the stairs. "I'm your actual guardian angel. My name is Bast. Like the Egyptian godess. James is my annoying twin brother and he's a prick so."

My mom and I exchange a look. He's a persistent little fuck, isn't he? But before she can shoot off a warning shot, there's another sound of broken glass. This is gonna cost a fortune to fix, as my mom colorfully remarks. James is flying down the stairs in the next instant, looking mightily pissed off.

"Oh, Bast. How awful to see you again. Thanks for leading me to the girl."

Bast makes a face. Mom and I exchange another look. Things just got way weird, this was not part of the prophecy at all. "Wait, wait." Mom waves the shotgun between the both of them. "What is going on? Who are you people?"

At the same time, both boys put their hands to their chest and lean forward exclaiming; "I'm her guardian angel!"

They glare sideways at each other. On the one hand, it's really nice to be so desired by two cute boys but on the other hand one of them is clearly insane and wants to kill me and the jury is still out on the other. I wish there was a clear sign as to which one I should trust if any. ...Granted, I'm less inclined to trust James after the whole cemetery thing.

"I can't have two guardian angels, that makes no sense."

"You're absolutely correct, it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever."

I look between the three people in my living room for a while. "Do we.... do we have a written copy of this prophecy somewhere? Can we talk to the person who made it? Cause I mean... I remember it by heart. At least the part that I heard but uh.... apparently it’s incorrect or incomplete."

Mom sighs, lowering the shotgun but brings it back up almost immediately, eyeing the boys suspiciously. "Mythril disappeared not very long after your birth so honestly, I'm not sure how we could even get in contact with her. You know how it is with those people."

"...Actually, I don't."

She ignores me by staring down the two boys hard. "If any of you causes any kind of shit I am going to put a bullet in your face faster than you can cackle."

They both nod and mom goes to the kitchen to get herself a drink. I can hear the clink of glass and the splash of alcohol at its bottom. Man, I could go for some booze too. Bast is staring at me with his red eyes, completely impassive. He looks like a large feline sizing up its prey. James, on the other hand, is still looking gorgeous and nonchalant. Mom comes back with two glasses and hands me one. She is a blessing, I love her.

"Cheers." She doesn't wait for me to chug hers in maybe one or two gulps. I raise my glass to empty air and then to my lips when the door slams open by an unseen force. There's a dark silhouette in the doorway. Somewhere in the city, the church chimes midnight.

"Well, well..." A sultry, smoky voice drifts out from under the wide brim of the silhouette's black hat. "Have I come at the wrong time?"

Mom lowers the shotgun she's lifted to the door with a sigh. "Speak of the devil."

"That's vexing both to me and the devil." The woman walks in like she owns the place, elegantly removing her long gloves before she takes off her hat and shakes out long dark curls. "I thought you'd be happier than this to see me." She pauses when she sees me and the boys pretending to be my guardian angels. "Oh, what's this then?"

"We were kinda hoping you'd tell us." I take this opportunity to chug my drink. The burn seems to spark some life back into me.

"Who is this?"

The woman smiles, her beautiful lips are painted blood red. "It's nice to see you alive and well, Anastasia. My name is Mythril."

So this is the famous Mythril! She looks like a black widow waiting for her next prey. I'm certain she's had multiple marriages that all ended in terrible and tragic accidents if you know what I mean.

"Yeah, so we have a lot of questions." I shoot back. "First of all, what's up with these guys?" I point at James and Bast. "I feel like you didn't tell us the whole prophecy, tee bee aetch."

"Young ones are so impatient these days!" She exclaims as she settles on the couch. Mom has put the shotgun down for now. I assume Mythril holds some kind of power and can intervene if anything goes south. "I couldn't reveal the whole prophecy when you were born because of... well, this. Had I told you then, this might not have happened and you would almost certainly be dead at this point."

"Not for lack of trying," I mutter under my breath. "You're talking like that wasn't the whole point of the prophecy."

Mythril sighs. "The prophecy, or at least the part that I told you, goes something like 'on the 21st day of your 16th year, your life will end'." Sounds about right. "What I failed to mention was that the arrival of your death day also heralds the arrival of your guardian angels, one of light and one of darkness. You must make a choice but choose wisely. Your chosen will determine your fate."

You have got to be kidding me. I don't have the best taste in men as Lorie can attest. My ex is kind of a mega douchebag. "Oh yikes. So um. How long do I have to choose?"

"Now." Mythril's eyes are glowing and she opens her arms towards the two boys. "The telling of the prophecy is the opening of the poll. You have to make a choice."

"That's not fucking fair!" I stomp my foot like a child. "Don't I get a free trial or something?! I barely know these guys and at least one of them already tried to kill me."

James scoffs. "Not likely."

"Your choice must be made."

"Oh yeah?" I cross my arms. "Then I choose neither and you can fight me about it."

Mythril's glowing eyes slowly lose their shine and she lets her arms fall. She gives my mom a look. "You raised a real brat, Gen."

My mom shrugs. "I raised a smart kid."

"Unbelievable." Bast is chuckling. "You won't choose me even though my sweet brother almost killed you? You are one strange girl."

"And you're one ginormous asshole, get out of my house." I look around at all the strange kids giving me strange looks. "Actually, all of you get out of my house." I catch my mom's eyes. "Right, sorry, our house. Get out. We can talk again once I've slept off the fuckery of anxiety that was today. Until then I won't listen to reason and you'll all get on my nerves so get out."

"You heard the girl, out miscreants." Mom picks the shotgun back up and uses it to usher the supernatural creatures out of the front door. "Business hours are between whenever we decide to wake up and never. Take care."

There is a tense moment of silence when we slam the door shut behind them then we both let out deep sighs. Man, what a day.

My name is Anastasia. I am 16 years old. It’s been 22 days since my birthday. I was supposed to die yesterday. Now I have to choose a guardian angel to ensure my survival?

[elizabethrobertajones]

14x01 watching notes

RIP Kip, we hardly knew ye.

Well hey, returning friends and people who unwittingly clicked on this not knowing exactly what they're in for. Blowing off the dust and starting a new season of Dabb fuckery, which I spent way too long trying to think of a portmanteau for when I already have the episode downloaded

It's 5am, let's DO THIS.

-

So they start with Dean's Hi I Am A Cop On The Day Before I Retire speech re: hula girls and hawaiian t-shirts which is remarkably prescient of me to have been irrationally upset about that one detail after I binged most of season 13 last night to get me back in the mood. So now I have to elaborate on my one line textpost >.>

Because yes, that is the perfect note to start the season on: Dean thought the good times had rolled, allowed himself to hope, assembled himself a family with mom and step-pop (Bobby counts as a full father but AU Bobby is step-pop), brother, husband, kid... Said kid was promising A World Without Monsters aka Dabb's showrunning tagline for an endgame he teases them. And Lucifer was tucked safely away in an AU with the murderous Michael... And then in a series of events it all came crumbling down and with this amount of goodness in his grasp, he gave up what even when the real Michael was hounding him for it, he couldn't before.

Because in season 13 it is beyond obvious that Dean is tired, an Old Hunter, the best of his game but ready to bow out on that note, and yet for him it's not a matter of stepping back and letting someone else handle it because when Michael and Lucifer were involved, it was beyond personal. He and Sam only EXIST because Lucifer and realMichael wanted them to. And so there was no way this trouble would come to someone else's door, when it was the nasty angel on his shoulder and the devil on Sam's and we have Nougat as their collective responsibility who's the nexus of it all anyway.

-

Eeee the Road So Far text is glowy grace colour on a dark blue background. I'm JIZED for the title card.

-

Goodness, the Road So Far is a weird journey because we see Jack being all useful and magic and then callbacks to 13x01 and 2 where he was a messed up 2 day old and Dean just wanted to murder him.

I haven't outlined any expectations for this episode or even this recap but I suddenly realise that I should probably be wondering how much DeanCas we're gonna get in it, and this rage against Jack is subtextually motivated, for sure, but for me the first 6 episodes of Dean's grief arc were wonderful character stuff but removed from the main plot and therefore in my head I keep boxing them off like a bubble season, like 10x01-3 are, and I legit wasn't even expecting to SEE content from them in the recap, because brilliant as they are I sort of just forgot they were a part of this season despite watching them yesterday. The season for me became so much the Jack And Mary Search that this hiccup at the start didn't meet the requirements to be in season 13 :P

They're just That Time Dean Was Really Sad About Cas Then He Came Back And They Were Cowboys

-

Oh good there was "everybody we've lost" and then a recap of Cas dying and then - oh, we're recapping plot again? Er... everybody? Dean? Who else? DEAN?

this was the thinly veiled subtext of that line anyway since Dean waved off Mary and made it all about Cas anyways but. Yikes, editing team.

-

Jesus I watched season 13 yesterday and I forgot about Asmodeus. You know what, this is pre-coffee AND the 2 types of anti-brain fog medication I gobble in the morning.

But he's that much of a useless lump

Also too much Lucifer nipple on screen pre-coffee. Ick.

-

Nice recapping of Not The Levitating Fight.

-

NOW

Stock photo Nyoom of the season!! Hi Baby! You aren't in this episode because Eugenie said the car wasn't being used this season

-

Sam's got his Vengeance Eyes on but he's all scruffy and grown up so I trust him 10000% to get the job done.

-

OW. FUCK. OW. OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW. GOOD USE OF INTERSTITIAL MUSIC

Why were you even listening to Dean's tapes if they fuck you up that badly? IS THIS YOUR VENGEANCE PLAYLIST? I'VE BEEN WAITING 10 YEARS

Actually, I haven't, I binged 4-5-6 as one unit after thinking the show was cancelled during the writers' strike but the point is that Sam and his ipod in 4x01 is immediately in my head because he was listening to his own music and being a hipster douche, but now he is not on demon blood he has not installed an ipod dock because he's GETTING DEAN BACK, DAMMIT but at the same time he's also realising that this means a heavy toll that the only driving music in the car is Dean's stuff...

-

Oh no, this must be the guy from the SDCC clip we hadn't seen because Osric Chau is banned forever for illegally uploading them all for us in the past, and all I know is that Deanchael is going to Fuck Him Up and I feel very bad for him

*raises my mug to Osric* I'm sure you tried, dude. And thanks for the previous years.

-

Hi Deanchael. I noticed in a promo pic that his tie has that sacred geometry type pattern on it which is a detail I made a mental note to type out literally anywhere in the like month between there and here and did not so here it is at a hopefully appropriate place.

Based on every other scene setting detail I suspect that this faithful man is actually still within the USA because this is literally the cabin set they re-use for everything. The spoilers made it sound like Deanchael was globe trotting to raise his army but now I see what's around us... Yeah no he's as focused on the US as every other big bad before.

-

Anyway they really specifically chose this prayer to Allah because of how pointed it was about being only for Allah and how he was the best, so I'm assuming Deanchael is here to be like yo God's gone and I'm your last chance of faith

-

Like just ruin his day and he got up at like 4am or whatever the first prayer is to do it and all

-

I hope, like, no offence to any Muslim viewers or anything >.> They sure play fast and loose with a lot of this stuff because Christian cultures are full of bitter non-believers raised in the culture and looking to kick up at the big guy in the sky, which is not an impression I get that Islam is as used to cultural flippancy, regardless of personal beliefs of residents of predominately Muslim countries and cultures. I'm not 100% sure though, because the closest link I've got is my raised-Christian Iranian friend who applies Christian eye-rolling to the issues with being in Iran and heathen so I still get that perspective of middle fingers up at Organised Religion from our discussions about it all... anyway big diversion, still waiting for coffee to kick in :P I just swallowed the last of it so I can only get more jittery from here on out!

-

It's so fuckin weird to see Dean's face confidently reciting verse in Arabic

I mean you don't need the hat, sir. I get it. It's not you in there.

-

Well so far anyway he's playing on the fact that the guy does pray to god and his angels.

-

Lol @ this man guessing his way through God AND Gabe to Deanchael's annoyance that he's the 3rd guess and he has to clarify that he's the better one.

Man, Gabriel worked on his reputation. I wouldn't have been able to tell you who Michael was because there wasn't even a kid in my class with that name when I was age 4 busy portraying Gabriel in a nativity play with full impish glee that the real deal would have been proud of.

-

Uhoh things aren't looking good for Jamil D: Asking for peace and love is good, you funky little hippy.

Is Deanchael implying that the Syria insurgency is the route to peace? I honestly don't know enough about the American foreign policy politics to know what sort of stance this is though from a liberal leaning show (I mean come on Bobo is a card-carrying socialist, I've seen it on Twitter :P), though to an outside viewer well aware of how fucked up it all is should this have been said on a British program, this is a vast over-simplification.

But we know Michael's main traits are Likes War and then also Warmonger and of course, spoilin' for a fight. So this may be a personal judgement and as much as they're bringing politics into their show I'm just backing right on out and going with this :P That he thinks it is more honourable to stay and fight and that Jamil is a hypocrite for not sticking around to work for peace actively.

-

Oh Jamil hooked up with a woman called Darleen. He is FOR SURE in America.

-

It's so funny to me that Deanchael can fly anywhere and they could have set this anywhere but it still ends up being a wooden cabin in the US. This has to turn out to be a lead to follow with a news report about the poor guy or else this is just hysterical that they couldn't be arsed to mock up even a hint of another country :P

-

He knew all this about Jamil beforehand so I have to assume he's really just here to drag him.

-

Man, that throw was GOOD. I'm assuming they either spent all summer playing with wires and stunts or else they've gone back to the drawing board on all this flinging people around business.

-

"A better world" oh we are so on for this World Without Monsters malarky still. This lines up with the clip from Dean they opened on so well - the dark irony of he and Michael working on the same project but from different angles. Dean wants to sort out monsters and bad things so he can go on a beach, aka his version of paradise, and Mikey wants to smush all the sinners, and clean up the planet, which is HIS version of paradise.

-

HECKIN GOOD TITLE CARD

now photoshop those wings on everyone

-

I LIKE SCRUFFY BULLET MAKER FROM THE AU.

He's like so happy to be in a world where you just casually have resources.

Meanwhile poor Maggie has become the de facto nurse and hates it.

Ugh the Bunker is a place where people just show up who yell "Soup's on!"

In my redshirt betting pool, Soups On is the first guy who dies.

-

Promo sceeeeene

I'm so happy Sam and Mary are doing this together. Last season Sam was so upset that Dean got to have a relationship with her, and he had missed out, but without Dean around - no offence to him - Sam and Mary may be focused on FINDING him but this is the work they also need to do for their relationship to start to ground it in something real. It's taken this long with all the separations, but remember that Mary also worked through some of her issues about Sam only last season in the AU with 6 month old Jack. And if she needed that sort of reminder and relationship to warm her up for Sam, her suddenly-grown 6 month old, then there were still a LOT of underlying issues that dated back to the start for her to overcome. Hopefully this puts them on a level playing field, though there's a new conflict brewing for them, with Mary's determined optimism vs Sam's pessimism, born of that depression from last season that never really got treated or resolved, they just managed to power past its current main triggers. Of course now it all just shifts in a Deanward direction.

-

I love how Ketch has been punted to London, at Buckleming discretion to drag him back. This wasn't even Bobo punting him out the door, and he and Buckleming have a violent back and forth over favourite characters, started in 9x06 with Bobo's very first episode when he banished Professor Morrison forever.

-

MARY TRIES MOMMING SAM TO GO TO BED

THEN SCRUFFY GUN GUY IS LIKE "CHIEF"

Chieeeeeeef.

Sam runs the shooow here and I love it. He's their badass MoL hunter leader, a scruffy saviour from another world.

Given Sam is wearing the same shirt and jacket in the promo pics I'm guessing he does not sleep, though I hope he gets to eat the soup.

-

"Maggie can you hack the traffic cams?" "um. no."

I love and support Maggie. She is a normal person who happened to live in apocalypse world and she just wants to flirt with the guy from the Gas n Go who probably hasn't talked to her since that got blown up and Jack attacked him over her... I mean, this is better than the AU world but maybe she just wants to be normal? Did anyone ask Maggie what she wanted??

-

SAM. You can eat your soup and run things at the same time! Get back here and eat that soup!

-

"yes sir"

Goodness, this is wonderful. Sam's doing what he was born to do, and then not because that was leading a friggin demon army, but then yes because he's got inherent leadership traits that he defers to Dean all the time because, well, he's there, and he's big bro.

Look, sometimes you need big bro to murder Satan's ass for you forever, but you also should be calling the shots. There's a balance here, where Dean can be the older brother, but Sam can be the boss. Work/life balance. Dean's got your back but you command an army of hunters, like we've all been salivating over since like season 8 when they first said the MoL ran the Bunker as the hub of operations dictating stuff to trusted hunters and the like.

Of course, if Sam is the Bobby here, then who is the AUBobby? I hope we see what's up with that soon, I've been wanting them to bristle those beards in an alpha way at each other for months, because AUBobby was their leader before Sam because Sir Chief.

-

"Sam."

"i'm good"

*mothering intensifies*

"i'm GOOD"

*mothering intensifies*

"How's Jack"

You aren't used to being mothered and it's murdering me completely to my soul. Dean's got SO MUCH MOTHERING all through the show compared to you. He even sees Jody as a mom friend while you crush on her like crazy so you haven't even got that!!!!

Because Chief Sam is the boss of this lot but at the SAME TIME he's getting all these soft tender mom moments he's never got to have before. It's a wonderful balance of nuances to his current life. He's overworked but surrounded by a supportive care team that respects him, gives him soup, and holds his hand, literally in Mary's case. And yet he's the scruffy macho competent boss who knows how to call all these shots, deputise, set up missions, but still knows more than them, how to do traffic cams, I'm sure years of lore over most of these hunters who only learned to deal with what got thrown at them in the apocalypse by trial and error because when do they get lore books? Mary and Bobby and other pre-apocalypse hunters would be few and far between to offer competent training to a populace suddenly all turned hunter.

-

Oh, AUBobby is beating up Jack. Perfect.

-

AAAH DIRECTED BY TJW

WAS NOT ADEQUATELY HOLDING ONTO SEAT

WARN A GIRL

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I love finally seeing the training room but I'm deeply conscious that this is where Put Up Your Dukes starts and I can't get that fan fic out my mind so I'm just like, Jack, don't lie on the floor, your dads have banged there.

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I'm so happy that AUBobby is nurturing a grandson, because this is the difference between him and Bobby - that our Bobby had that with Sam n Dean, but AUBobby never did. Though he DID have Mary Campbell to crush on, I doubt it would have softened him and rounded out the harsh places in his soul the same way raising Sam and Dean did, because he had an unrequited love and she hadn't gotten over John, while this recently widowed Mary Winchester actually has made better progress just because of the circumstances of the loss. Anyways Jack has no preexisting history with Bobby so there's nothing weird about him and AUBobby stepping into a nurturing relationship, that Sam n Dean would find uncomfortable in a way, given their relationship with Bobby. And Jack gets yet another strong figure to teach and guide him.

AUBobby looks slim and stands tall compared to Bobby, which I'm largely putting down to posture, and not being drowned in layers. I like this difference - Bobby almost never voluntarily dressed in 1 layer, but AUBobby has a more military slant, and this training sergeant routine with Jack is a good fit to show a difference in his character, that isn't surly old Bobby behind his desk, that he's involved in teaching Jack to fight, rather than helping hunters with lore and swigging whiskey.

I'd assume given the lack of availability in his AU, he's considerably less alcohol dependant, so this is a very different character thing. If Bobby were doing this training, and nothing else was different, he'd be taking a breather to pour them both a whiskey as he imparts wisdom.

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Demon in nice shoes and dark sunglasses at night to indicate that yes I am a demon I have black eyes :P I assume this is a demon anyway not just because of this detail but pre-season spoilers

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Ah hearing Cas's name is enough to make my heart pick up. MY GUY!

But then, "Castiel, darling"

Stop trying to make Good Omens happen, it's not going to happen. You can't just "darling" up to an angel and expect that good good romance. Crowley took years to wear Cas down and Cas never actually LIKED him, down to their last real interaction where Cas was just "WTF???? LEAVE ME TO ROT AND DIE" when Crowley saved him in 12x12

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God I miss that

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"Oh god."

Same, buddy.

You do, however, realise this is your first words of the season gifset line, though?

Someone ought to write to Dabb and inform him that people make first and last word gifsets and to be more careful.

Especially if in the last episode at the end of the season, Cas's last word is "Dean"

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Anyway Cas has said 1 line and I can tell he's on top form. Unlike 10x01 he's in a hipster hogroast joint.

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This demon, with dark black sunglasses inside at night (douchebag) just ordered a coffee, black. WE GET IT, ENOBY DEMENTIA DARKNESS RAVEN WAY, YOU ARE GOFFIC AND IT'S AS BLACK AS YOUR SOUL

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LOL Cas is sitting under the JACK'S sign.

Demon douche sits under Schultz, which is the death beer. And lemme tell you, TJW is well-versed in this. So well-versed in it he's sat Cas in front of a classic El Sol flyer with the subtle touch required to tell Dean that Cas is his dream girl. He knows his shit.

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This seriously seems to be implying that the rise of hipster food joints is an effort from Hell to spread chaos on earth

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Cas sitting with his back to the fire is such an interesting visual, but this is just a note to self for later to guess what it all means

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THIS FUCKIN DEMON TOOK  HIS BLACK SUNGLASSES OFF TO SHOW OFF HIS BLACK EYES

Dabb is so good at incidental characters, and making me hate this guy for nuanced nonsensical reasons is amazing. This is... art...

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This is a callback to 5x08 and Dean ranting about hating procedural cop shows then him and sam taking their sunglasses on and off at night every time they made  a pun and I'm 100% convinced since 12x01 and Cas busting through that Mystery Spot sign that Gabriel has been subtly influencing events

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Okay so we know exactly what is written on demon bathroom walls. I'm taking that as a sideways confirmation that Cain knew full well that Dean had his Colette because he'd seen crude doodles of them doing it

Anyway douchedemon just outright told Cas that all the demons assume he and Dean in particular are banging. Not that Cas bangs Winchesters, as some have implied, without knowing all the details. They've narrowed this info down.

I assume this is also in the Winchester Dossier that Barthamus studied from before meeting them. I love that demons probably do have a filing cabinet somewhere of all the notable assholes they run into in their work, and the Winchesters take up a whole cabinent, but the refresher file summarising them in a paragraph if you don't have time is like, Sam: Lazy boyking, will stab you. Dean: fucking Castiel, will stab you.

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Cas doesn't even move an eyebrow. Incredible.

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Cas rarely gets hit with these compared to Dean in the history of the show, and Dean is full of bluster or anger or confusion or alarmed eyebrows. Cas is like... no. fuck you. i'm party!Cas, I have my shit in order.

Though this is from a demon. It's an entirely different thing when Heaven is involved, as they also have their dossier on the winchesters.

Sam: abomination. will banish you. Dean: fucking Castiel. Will stab you.

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*loud coffee slurp* "what's in it for moi?

Cas, stab him. Stab him now. This is not worth the information. You can find another guy.

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I'm starting to think Cas with his back to the flames is his unwitting danger from this hellish hogroast place.

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They use Shultz beer containers to hold the sauces and menus on the table. DEEEEATH

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Cas speaking slower and threatening to burn him to ash "right here and right now"

this is a gifset that will get a lot of notes from thirsty Cas fans

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Whaaaaaaaa the entire joint turned out to be owned by and filled with demons who would ever have guessed based on one open fire and that metal hogs head from the promo pics :P

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Stop hurting him!!!! Misha can't stage fight! This is really unfair!!

I wonder how the poor new awesome fight coordinator took to Misha

"let's just... um..." "hide him behind all these demons?" TJW suggests The fight guy nods sadly.

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Aww Sister Jo got back to work. Good for her.

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Sister Jo has no fear and can stroll down a shady alley counting her money

*t-shirt meme* One fear: *flappy wing noises*

"Hey Jo."

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GHOLY SHIT TRUE FORMS TYHUEOJDSHGFSH DS TRUE FORMS WE SEE WHAT ANGELS SEEE OH MY GOD OH MY GOD SCIENCE HAS CAUGH T UP TO THE DIVINE, SPN CAN FINALL Y SHOW US WHAT ANGELS SEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

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Holy shit I want the gif of this as my blog header. That's shitting amazing.

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Burning HALO

ALL HIS CHI POINTS LIT UP EVEN WHEN IT MAKES IT LOOK SILLY TO HAVE HIS CALVES GLOWING

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I wonder if this is what Danneel sees when she looks at Jensen all the time

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"Why would he say yes to you?"

"Love"

I'm dying and I am dead. I gather that Dean is 100% absent from this episode, but that one comment puts him front and centre and I am in paaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaain. Everything happening around Michael and because of Michael is because Dean loves his peeps. From Sam staying up hacking traffic cams on vampires to Cas getting his ass handed to him by demons.

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I bet Cas looks like that single glowstick he had on in the cave when angels look at him.

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Party!Cas

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I ruined the fun

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Jensen gently touches Danneel's face and that's just rude because that's all his tenderness for his wife being turned into a scary villain move between Deanchael and Jo. Don't do this to them!!!

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Oooof Deanchael pulls from Dean's memory of Anael about what she was like, describing her in the most Cas-like terms, then cuts through her hilarious bull about wanting handbags (this is so meta about sticking middle fingers in the faces of people who think she's a well-paid beard) and then starts telling her she wants love and a family.

Deanchael has used the word "love" twice in a scene and it's horrifying to see the word come out of his face, when Dean is so guarded. Now Deanchael is just looking through Sister Jo and analysing what she wants - and she's playing this game very well but this move of his might still beat her. Because ow. Telling her she wants belonging and family. When she's very much established as a Cas mirror by the reminder she ran away from Heaven and doesn't want to play by their rules.

"It's very, very human of you. And so disappointing." Did all those times Lucifer sucked her grace bring her close to feeling it? To the point of permanent damage? I only ask because I know another guy this might apply to.

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I wonder how much Deanchael is projecting based on conjectures because he knows Cas through Dean's eyes.

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"But if they're all these sad, lost, fallen things..." Ya, that's Cas too for suresies

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SAM AND JACK SAM AND JACK

Jack sitting quietly in meditation, clearly unsettled. A parallel to 13x23 when Dean came rushing in to him having a nightmare, now Sam is having a crack at parenting the boy.

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Jack lying about how things were fine. Nougat. Hon. You're human now. But not that good at being human. Sam knows your tells :P

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Sam interrupted mid pep-talk by Mary with some nonsense.

Jack is always so ugh... accepting and kinda flippant. He knows parental figures can be disappointing and get dragged away mid peptalk by some business.

Which he's apparently not involved in. I guess after we see him going on hunts with them in 13x23, he's grounded until he goes through basic training so not only is he useless to help with his powers to find Dean, but he can't even do the easy hunter stuff because he's just a kid.

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Aww my poor baby Nougat :( He's so angsty. He's a TEEN. Lookit him! All growed up!

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Uuugh I guess this is Nick. "I didn't talk to him. I can barely look at him."

What I'm getting from this sequence mainly is the sound of Triss's rage at the Bunker layout.

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*Mary pats Sam's shoulder supportively and walks off*

You're on your own, Chief.

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Ugh I am not ready for this bull if it's Nick but I have to keep watching to be sure :P

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Ew it is. EW. What does Mark P HAVE on you all.

At least TJW is shooting the heck out of this to show us how gross Sam finds this all.

Sam's shadow falling over Nick.

I really want to know how this bullshit happened. And yet. No, not really.

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Oh gross AND they're making Mark P take off his shirt. The nipple I didn't want to see in the Road So Far was not warning enough.

Pre-season ugh speculation was that whatever Crowley did to Nick made him stronger and more permanent apparently even than Lucifer being stabbed out of him.

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So yeah anyway I guess Jack is in part also sulking about this and I'm with him, because Sam being pulled away from their pep talk time to deal with Gross Man Associated With My Father But Not Actually Him Because Biologically I Am The Son Of A Non-Historical President...

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Making Sam the one who has to care for Nick is utterly cruel. He has so many deputies. Maybe this is just his personal fear that Nick's still a bit Lucifery. Maybe he just sees this as a gross burden, a manifestation of the ongoing trauma from Lucifer, that even when he's dead he lingers.

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Plus, it's giving us some reassurance that an angel can be ousted from a vessel without killing them, to throw some options into the Deanchael pot.

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Still. Nick. Really.

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I bet Jack is sulking because some little cosmic part of him regenerating deep down in his core, that one lil gold glowy chi point in his big toe, knows that Eugenie forgot his name at SDCC and called him "Nick" and this shit from your creator just weighs on you. Jack is an entity beyond Buckleming and yet born from them, and this is what they beget: forgetting their own child in favour of this old carcass.

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bitter? moi? *sips coffee noisily*

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Actually, that's not true but I need some tea because I'm sulky so I'm taking this ragebreak to go make some and then I will sip it noisily in Nick's direction. :P

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Everything henceforth is under the jurisdiction of hot drink no.2

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"I don't understand how Lucifer could die and I could live"

I hate you

Eurgh, I bet you anything Dabb pulled a Buckleming and just took the post-it note they gave him when he asked, er, HOW does this happen? and transliterated it into dialogue because 1: all the writers shade Buckleming all the time because I can literally see it ooze out of Perez and Yockey and Bobo's writing but this is the showrunner, guyses. 2: it's such a dumbass convoluted explanation that it only burns out the archangel but if you non-fatally stab it then the guy is fine.

Which begs the question of how the fuck is Gabriel because if we get anything good from this, that fucker is in one hell of an interesting vessel situation compared to Old Nick.

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PS: I am not sure how culturally saturated this is so we are all clear that Old Nick is a historically used name for Satan and his name has been a joke since 5x01 thanks to Kripke, and now we have to actually deal with that.

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And then Nick is actually sympathetic to how Sam feels looking at him. I guess Mark P really wants us to feel sympathetic to his new dude.

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"And Michael... did he tell Lucifer anything about his plan?"

Listen, we NEED acknowledgement that for a month or so Lucifer and AUMichael roadtripped together to assemble from their AU the key of solomon, the fruit of the tree of life, and the blood of a most holy man.

There was a lengthy downtime while people settled in and Dean was allowed to think the Good Times were rolling, and all that time, the weirdest brother roadtrip show ever was going on in the AU, mad enough that I would actually find it hilarious to watch despite enduring Mark P as a result of it.

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SAM DOES NOT DESERVE THIS

He's not allowed to rest, ever.

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I bet this is douchdemon phoning him from Cas's phone.

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"Hello Sam!" says a perky voice down the phone. It's INCREDIBLE how unlikeable this demon is making himself. He's actually my favourite character now.

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Oh no, Nougat is wearing a different grey shirt. He's really depressed. Someone help him.

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"He just told you he was a demon?" "he seemed proud of it too"

Sam hates him as well. I can't wait for Sam to come scowl at him.

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"What do we do?" Maggie asks, completely wide-eyed. Oh honey. Poor, innocent, sheltered Maggie. What were you doing all apocalypse until we caught up with you? You aren't hardened, you're adorable.

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AUBobby and Rufus (his gun)

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"I'm coming too!" YAY JACK. Your father is in trouble, he's on a hunting trip and he hasn't been home in a few days, but what a different world all the rest is

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"I'm not as strong, but I can help," he says, looking tiny beside Sam, bruised up from AUBobby's training, a single layer to make him look even smaller...

(we do not talk enough about how all these jackets are a sort of alpha being shoulder plumping thing like when you make yourself look huge to scare off a mountain lion but that's 100% what this is)

IT MADE JACK SMILE yey he's allowed to feel useful! Pop is allowing him to go on a mission to rescue Dad who was looking for Papa when this all went down.

Grandpapa is not so pleased, because AUBobby has been measuring how useful Jack is and I feel like lil Nougat bab is going to do something mildly heroic for Cas or else get pasted for his ongoing character development for the season...

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"He needs this, Bobby."

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Dear LORD does he not quit? We don't even know his name? "Are you sure I can't get you anything... hot... or black?" FUck OFF

No wonder by the promo pic Cas looked so utterly done. This is exhaustingly annoying for him. Cas's personal hell is just irritating people. A line of Crowleys and Lucifers and this jerkwad chattering at him.

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And yet Dean runs his mouth all the time and Cas is in luuuurve

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Oh lordy are we really doing this coffee metaphor now? "Coffee has no effect on me" (but he once acquired the taste, and it was a core part of him being human and learning to human in the opening shot of 9x06 for him as his metaphor for how he was learning)

"me either *sluuuurp* not any more. But it's like saltwater taffy or infants. I just like the taste."

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"I'm just being a good host like mother would have wanted"

Cas stops mid eyeroll to eyeroll HARDER at meeting ANOTHER demon with mommy issues. Like, please. Don't. I like Rowena now but can we NOT.

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Party!Cas of Dabb era is my favourite iteration of Cas by a country mile.

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"Why are you using me as bait?" "it's kind of what you're for"

Oh Cas. Now he's just the damsel in distress, which I guess is a step up from being an attack dog, but still isn't that great for the ego stroking about his role and use within the Winchester family, an ongoing source of stress for him, this reminds us.

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Cas's faith in Sam is wonderful. like, as soon as douchmon says he needs something from Sam, Cas just SMIRKS like, OH BUDDY. BUDDDYYY. No, I'm not gonna say it. I'm just - "you think he'd make a deal with you?" I'm ... I don't laugh as a rule but inside? Hilarious.

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"Somebody asked me what it was that I wanted" You know, I think Deanchael is INCITING people. he's not killing any of them, just using the revelation of his appearance to motivate them - moving Sister Jo to do what she wants, which is to re-organise Heaven with the ideas she had as a button pushing functionary... visiting world leaders and holy men, and this douche...

To what end, though? Chaos? This is a roundabout way to make a better world.

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"Destroying, Drinking, Defiling, you know, the 3 Ds" they absolutely have posters up in Hell with this on for the newbies to learn.

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We've seen Heaven's staffroom, I DEMAND to see the break room in Hell, with all its lurid Destiel smut doodled on the walls and so on

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Anyway it's a hell of a question, pun intended, because demons have no real purpose, even the named baddies have largely been slaves to someone else's will (Lucifer or Crowley) and Crowley could not have answered that question from the start of season 6 through to the moment he chose to sacrifice himself... I don't think any of TFW 2.0 or Bunker Squad could answer it fully. Cas can't, and that's the question that's been bugging him since 9x06 -

EPHRAIM Shh-shh-shhh. It'll be over soon. I'll take the pain away.

CASTIEL I want to live.

EPHRAIM But as what, Castiel? As an angel? or a man?

and it's what his entire crisis in season 10 was over... Who ARE you Castiel? What do you WANT?

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Dean wants a Beach Vacation Ending. He figured it out and as narrative punishment, he's Deanchael. No one else has sorted it out, though, but Sam got close - he had his pizza dream and was immediately punished with being eaten by vampires and resurrected by Lucifer and all that drama... Sam's work isn't done. Though his growth has taken a huge leap, now he has to figure out what he wants in this NEW setting, and we're only just MEETING Chief Sam in this iteration, so he's got a lot of work to do.

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"I gave it a good think and I worked out exactly what I wanted. Everything."

Deanchael definitely is planning for this, so watch out buddy.

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SAM DRIVING, MOM IN SHOTGUN

RED ALERT

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Uhoh Sam's snapped because of the optimism Mary exudes. Yep, he really was nearly at the last straw in their earlier convo when he scoffed at her attempts to cheer him up.

Look, she's trying to mom you with no experience except adopting Jack. Work with her.

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Sam is spiralling with the depression, this time all the bad things that could have happened to Dean and how they're never going to find him, throwing these horrible scenarios at Mary to stop her trying to comfort him.

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"I know. I know he's out there, scared and alone." She sees lil 4 year old Dean. Because, I mean, that is the soul Dean bears to her when they have moments sometimes. And her optimism is a wall against thinking of her toddler in this scenario.

"I know. I know he might not come back. Never think I don't know that. But I can't - I have to think about the good, Sam. Because if I don't, I will drown in the bad." I wonder who that directly relates to who is currently driving this car.

I really hope this is a bit of vindication for Mary - or redemption to the eyes of the people who don't like her - that she does care, and she's spelling out her approach to all this. In the start of season 12 when she was trying to keep afloat she used a lot of optimism and furious paddling on the surface, because she has been doing that her whole life. When she was being raised a hunter, when she was a housewife with no clue what she was doing, a mom but he marriage beginning to fall apart... And then thrust into the present day, and it's 360 degrees of combat and loss and sadness and a ill-advised hook up with Ketch... Furious doggy paddling on the surface.

"For Dean's sake, I can't do that. We can't do that." And she shows that she is prioritising Dean, that she's driven and motivated to keep going FOR him.

Come on, give her a chance.

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Nyooom.

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Meanwhile in the Jack and Bobby truck, Jack is the one angsting and Bobby is the one driving.

Jack is one years old and not legally old enough to drive.

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Bobby peptalks him with the reminder that when Jack had his grace he did hero things for these people, which is why he can ride shotgun, and even if he feels useless now, they'll have his back, that he has earned this squad even if he can't be as awesome as he used to.

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Maggie is like, I'm getting a reaction shot... Am I going to develop feelings for Jack? That would be super weird, he's one years old. I hope no one is implying this even though I'm in a bunch of scenes getting character focus.

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Eeeeeeee Sam trusts Mary with the demon killing knife. I am sure they don't call it Ruby's knife to her and he has never, ever told her about that time that thing happened with Ruby.

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This fucker had his back turned for Sam to enter just so he could turn around dramatically. God he's repellent.

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An extra was hired to pat Sam down. What a job.

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"The shoulders. The hair! You are my Beyonce!" I mean, same. Except. Cas is Agent Beyonce so this fuckhead has totally misread this situation.

This gives Sam a moment to look over at Cas and Cas silently says, yes I know he's a total fuckhead, I've been dealing with this all day. I'm so sorry bro, can you just stab him so we can go home and follow a different lead. I don't even care what this one knows, I can't handle him another minute.

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"I'm more embarrassed than I am hurt" I understand this to my core, and I'm so sorry, Cas.

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"Kipling. Kip for short."

"Cool. Kip. I'm here." Sam being exactly as "fuck you" as I wanted towards Kip.

Sam is now standing with his head in an El Sol sign. TJW what are you up to bud?

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Oh no Jack and Maggie got caught skulking. Sam and Cas have the same "my boy!" reaction when they see Cas.

Maggie is here too, you monsters.

But Kip has missed Mary and AUBobby

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"It's just late capitalism, you understand" Yeah, and fuck you Kip.

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How is Kip so irritating that he can make tapping a stool somehow the most obnoxious thing a man could do? He's WONDERFULLY well-cast. I love this actor. He's chewing scenery and it's incredible.

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"What do you want?" Ow, Sam being twisted into asking the same thing Deanchael asked Kip

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"Ass-modeus Kentucky Fried" listen you are still the worst but that drew a sympathetic smile and I hate it and I hate you.

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Oh, Sam just Sammed something from that side glance, random demon side-eye. Oooh. Oooooooh.

But yeah, Kip asking for the "Crowley Deal" as if it's a package that can be bought from the Winchesters, and not something that Crowley wormed his way into via much back and forth power plays and drama. The Winchester have always had a back and forth with Hell, and since Crowley there have been a lot of demons, like Bart, trying to figure out what exactly it WAS that they all had. But someone has to be in charge, and the Winchesters are the top dog destined hunters with their fingers  in all the world-saving pies, so clashes come naturally. Approaching them like this, first Bart, now this douchenozzle, is meta, presumptuous, overstepping what builds naturally... An attempt to leapfrog to the end where the equilibrium is established.

But Crowley had time to build a long game. These new pretenders are working in a world where the Winchesters' actions have devastated Heaven and Hell alike, and are, like Mary, just trying to keep afloat on the whole thing.

"We never gave Crowley that deal." Because yes, that's how it seemed to play out, and from outsider eyes that's how it may have looked... But each and every interaction came about naturally through the plot, there was no wrangling it. That's just how the Winchesters and Crowley ended up.

And that hole can't be filled by someone just leaping into the chair and asking for it.

Though it is nice if Motown Meats is the new seat of Hell on Earth instead of the outdated exterior asylum interior castle dungeon look Crowley set up.

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"You're no Crowley. I know that. So do they." I think that was what Sam Sammed out of the demons, and also true, and ALSO is this the boyking accidentally exerting himself, knowing what's good for Hell? I always get a lil tingle in my thumbs when Sam gets too involved in knowing what's up with Hell.

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Holy shit Kipling was a Mongolian warlord who rode with Genghis Khan in life. PLEASE survive this episode, I want to hate you all season. PLEAAAASE I BEG YOU.

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Oh my god this insecure whinging asshole, chowing down on the scenery like there's no tomorrow. "I'D EAT YOUR HEART" *turns to weepy and quiet* "before I show you who I really am..."

This is Eddie Redmayne in Jupiter Ascending levels of scenery eating. He's gonna pick up a barstool and take a bite out of it now.

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Sam is doing this all unarmed, which is something to remember, because this is the fucker who talked his way into killing the Alpha Vamp while MOSTLY unarmed for a majority of that chat.

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Sam Fucking Winchester.

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AUBOBBY AND RUFUS!!!!

Also mary.

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But AUBobby gets a slow mo for Rufus shooting demons.

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HOLY SHIT MARY'S SLOW MO

I am pregnant

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MARY THROWING SAM THE KNIFE

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TJW was like this fight is too fast, my guy. We need to slow it down.  You're so good at your job no one's gonna see what happened unless we go slow mo.

he and the fight guy high five

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"Aw, balls."

Hey, Nougat tried. He's got a squishy hero centre.

Looks like he weighs nothing and now he's human he goes down in one punch. Owie.

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"Here take this. You know how to use it?" "Uh! Stab them with the pointy end!?" "pretty much"

Maggie you precious girl why are you HERE. Why is Soups On or Gnarly Gun Guy not here?

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Cas you fucking damsel in distress

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Fight guy is like "uuuuh do I have to"

Misha is like "I'm good here, tbh"

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SAM FUCKING WINCHESTER

(Aw, Kip's dead, he was fun)

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"ENOUGH"

YES SIR

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"There will be NO NEW KING OF HELL"

You are gonna get demon minions like fucking ducklings you ass

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"Not ever. And if anyone wants the job, you can come through me" Sam is technically immortal so long as Rowena is alive and vice versa you know. Also, how long is he planning on defending Hell? Ever?

I'm stalling from how much I have to scream about how badass Sam was throwing down that declaration that he's now essentially the trial a pretender to the throne has to pass to take the job.

Because if I was a demon... FUCK NO would I want to tangle with this fucker.

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Sam's file, updated: Current King Of Hell. Will Kill You. AVOID.

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Sam is fucking terrifying. I love it. He scared demons out of their meatsuits. Sam walking into a room is now a reason to eject and abort mission. God. This guy.

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Remember in season 1 when demons were scary? Oo er this isn't our sort of thing... halp.

Now Sam looks them in the eye and is like, fuck off. I'm scarier than any of you.

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"That's what I thought"

Cas is literally giving you the reverse look of in 4x16 when you marched in and fried Alastair's brain.

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SAM GOT A NEW SHIRT thank god.

I should amend: he did all this wearing blue plaid with orange stripes.

Sam Fucking Winchester.

The BMoL definitely didn't have the right birth certificate because that's his legal middle name.

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Sam n Caaaaas my GUYS. I hope this is the 10x01 convo but, like, not. Flip flip flip those pancakes, Dabb my guy.

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Cas, hon, you're still so beat up you have blood trails coming out of your nose. There's not really caring about your meatsuit because it heals eventually, but there's also washing your fucking face, because Sam's had time to change his shirt and get a beer so what were you doing?

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Probably staring at a picture of Dean on his phone and sighing.

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Anyway he's here to ask how Sam is, rather than care about himself. Symbolism.

"I've been better. And worse." Worse is 10x01.

Or 4x10's flashbacks. For sure those are the worstest.

Though, this time you are the king of hell and you're wearing a dark shirt and I don't think you have thought this through.

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The most well-meaning accidental king of hell ever.

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Sam and Cas share the "to find Dean I'd do anything" look. Be CAREFUL. Cas is literally choosing to wear hubris on his face because he feels bad about his fuck up with going to Kip.

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Mary! Casual Mary chilling in the kitchen!!

Although, with everyone in the bunker, these rooms are taking on different meanings. The people are chasing out the heavy shadows and ghosts of all the oppressive silences Sam and Dean have filled these corners with.

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Aw it's Mary and AUBobby. I was half-hoping we'd have her giving beer to Jack, but I guess we need to set up the forward momentum on their relationship for this season.

"Not bad today, old man." "you too, Sunshine."

You do realise that Mary is sitting in the exact same spot as where Dean was when he called Cas "Sunshine" You do know that right I mean you KNOW? This is TJW, he knows. He's a Destiel Shipper of the highest order.

-

Cas pops in on Jack, staring at his busted up face in a mirror, now filling more Winchester angst tropes to make up for lost time. "I'm fine," he says without being asked.  Because 10x01 or 10x02 was where Cas defined "fine" for Hannah and explained to her it's what humans say when things are really not fine but they can't admit it.

-

"You did well." "All I did was get punched. In the face."

I love snarky teen Jack.

"To be fair, we all got punched in the face," Cas says, still covered in hubris.

He has a POINT. He has full right to pull the "I should feel more useless than you" card on Jack.

-

Jack doing the "i'm useless" thing that Cas had to go through when he lost his grace, and Jack was allowed to stay in the Bunker. Is this how Cas would have felt had he not been kicked out?

-

Jack says Michael's out there and he still feels responsible to stop him. There's a very, very very very ver very weird Hamlet vibe from Jack, being forced into a position of emotional responsibility to kill his uncle, but Cas is his once dead now back and not a ghost father, and Jack couldn't kill Michael and so Dean got possessed... I mean, it's not a neat overlay, but Jack wants to kill an uncle, an AUncle, and I feel like in terms of uncle-killing narratives, AU Michael making off with Dean fits about as well to Hamlet's uncle marrying his mom as we're gonna get... I'd love to see how this shapes out because these family narratives since season 11 are becoming deeply shakespearean in the amount of nonsense going on. This sort of supernatural drama is a modern world way to have this kind of heightened emotion and the stakes you find in Shakespearean tragedies, and to force the sorts of reflection on the world and self... I really really dig it. Watching season 13 yesterday really hit me with this feeling all over and I'm delighted that Jack has this arc because I'm so amused/interested to see where this weirdo Hamlet parallel goes for him.

-

"I don't have anything." "Oh Jack" thanks Cas that's what I said out loud "you have me. You have all of us. You have your family." *SHOULDER GRASP*

No hug. Fuck off Cas, with your reassuring shoulder grasps. I know that's the language you've been taught but Dabb era is hug era and you suck.

-

I love that with all of Sam and Mary's doubt and Jack's lack of self worth, it's down to CAS. CASTIEL. CASTIEL WINCHESTER. CASTIEL FUCKING WINCHESTER. PARTY!CAS. to give the actual pep talk of the episode which has ANY conviction behind it. Cas has been fuelled with something MAGNIFICENT since the Empty, and he's turned it up to 11 for Jack here :')

-

Jack makes the smallest smile, then turns back to his mirror.

-

Sam opening the door to his bedroom, framed in darkness. 10x01 parallels again - this shot as well as the demon dean one were repeated a few times through the 3 episode arc, and the demon dean one became iconic but Sam did it too, to Dean's room. Now he goes into his own... empties his pockets... he still has the fucking engraved money clip from Tall Tales because Gabriel is not only not dead but telling this entire story for us... He has the phone, that's off, because Dean is not there, not communicating with him, blah blah. And he has the keys to the Impala. Because he's the chief.

Well, the King of Hell. Damn, it took 14 years to get him there. Azazel is fucking spinning in his grave.

-

Ooh, phonecall! Is it Deanchael? "What do you want?"

Nope, it's Sister Jo! :D She's been standing there ALL NIGHT weighing her options and working out what she wants.

SPIN THAT CHAOS, DEANCHAEL.

-

Deanchael approaches a vampire, and it's that purity of Purgatory, that just wanna eat that fuelled so much of the badass stuff in season 7 with the Leviathan, everything Dean's struggled with when it comes to the black and white world of killing monsters no problem that dates back to Gordon in 2x03, that draws Deanchael to them. Because this is Dean's safe space with Benny, a real relationship based on a bond forged in pure, kill or be killed, eat or be eaten purgatory. Deanchael has the same inner machinery as Dean, because Michael is the worst version of Dean, engineered to be Dean but without love. Dean as a monster. And so it all leads here... D:

-

Well this will be fun :D

[reddielibrary]

Riding Lynda Carter

Prompt: young eddie falling over and breaking his leg in the barrens and richie has to find a way to get him out and to a doctor

Written by: Alexis | @quixoticquest

Word Count: 4288

*click title to read on AO3

For the last twenty years since he had moved away from Derry, Richie had left a majority of his childhood crap at his folks’ place. There wasn’t any real purpose for it in LA. But recently he had an encounter with his past again, and the people in it. Now just seemed like as good a time as any to revisit those old keepsakes, go through what he wanted to donate, or keep.

Keep in preparation for moving in with his boyfriend, that is.

“Yikes, this inflatable pool has got to go,” Eddie stated, gripping the great rubber monstrosity with both hands, shielded by yellow gloves.

“Aw, why?” Richie whined, for no other reason than it was fun to be contrary. “That’ll make a great centerpiece for our dining room table. Just gotta find one big enough.”

Eddie trashed the pool, eyeing his boyfriend the whole way into the black garbage bag. Richie just smiled and carried on flipping through a box of pictures from some party or another.

“Hey, what’s this?” There were only so many things that Richie expected to find in his parents’ garage besides his dad’s tools and rat poop. Imagine his surprise when Eddie dragged a big hunk of old wood out from behind Went’s workbench. A set of rusty, crusted runners hooked under the cobweb covered slab, which meant it could only be one thing.

“Oh, shit. That.” Richie rushed over, tripping over Eddie’s trash bag as he yanked the old sled away from him (and boy was it heavy!). “This we can burn. I mean there’s no way to throw it away responsibly and with global warming running rampant it won’t serve any purpose if we donate it.”

“Wait, I remember this.” Eddie gasped, eyes flashing brighter than Richie expected anyone else pushing forty. “Your Flexible Flyer, from ‘87. I can’t believe you didn’t take better care if it. Don’t you remember, Richie? Oh my gosh.”

“Yeah, I remember,” Richie grumbled, staring ruefully at the dreaded sled. That was one memory he wished not to keep.

***

Patience was not a virtue Richie Tozier possessed, but today, he was actually giving it the old college try. Watching Mrs. Kaspbrak fret and dote over her nylon-clad son, pulling buttons and zippers and strings until he looked like a bright red Michelin Man, was its own kind of torture. Richie couldn’t groan, couldn’t sigh. He couldn’t even laugh when Mrs. K  asked if Eddie had remembered his thermal underwear (though he would definitely tell Bill and Stanley later).

One wrong move, and he’d be sent off without Eddie for the rest of the day - maybe the rest of winter break. Who knew when Derry was going to get another perfect eight inches of tantalizing snow again? Probably on a school day in February for the jerk principal to keep class in session.

“I want you back before it gets too dark, you hear me?” Mrs. K commanded, while Richie struggled not to fidget in the doorway. And here he thought he could avoid all this consternation if his mom called and asked the night before. Like they were six and still needed to schedule playdates.

Eddie nodded, with a good deal of swishy noises between the hat, earmuffs, hood, and scarf all competing to swallow up his face.

After a drawn out goodbye session full of wet cheek kisses and smeared lipstick stains, they were off, stepping through the snowtracks Richie had already made on his way to the door.

“You don’t have to pee, do you?” he asked Eddie, when they were out of earshot. “I dunno if I can wait any longer if you do. You might have to take one for the team and shove a bottle up your pants.”

Eddie made a noise that sounded like a lot of hot air against wool, his mouth muffled by his scarf.

“Pardon?” Richie asked, cheesing.

Eddie growled, shoved his scarf down, and ripped off his hood. “I said shut up, Richie,” he snapped, wiping his mother’s lipstick off his cold-nipped cheeks.

Walking was a lot faster when they reached the street, where the snow had been scraped away the night before in preparation for what the perky blonde weather lady on channel five was calling the biggest snowfall of the season. It certainly seemed to be true, with the fluffy white stuff climbing up Richie’s legs to chill his shins. Perfect weather for playing (so long as Eddie’s mom decided to be reasonable).

“Check it out,” Richie gushed, shuffling backward to pull his brand spanking new Flexible Flyer out from the bushes where he had tucked it away. Had to hide it before he got to the Kaspbraks’. No way Mrs. K would let Eddie participate in any winter activity more strenuous than a snow angel, if she knew about it.

“Wow,” Eddie exclaimed, all bright-eyed excitement as he bent toward the sled to glide his mittens over the red runners and smooth, finished wood. “This is so awesome, Richie! Is it the newest model?”

“Yeah, Santa really pimped me out this year.” Richie grinned smugly from behind his glasses, and crossed his arms - best he was able in his stiff, puffy snow jacket.

“Did you name it?”

“Her , Eds, her. You know what Bill says. And yes, I did. Wanna know what?”

“Well, that’s kind of why I asked, stupid.”

“Her name is Lynda Carter,” Richie proclaimed, patting the flat seat of the Flexible Flyer with his gloved hand, “because she’s fast, and strong, and the minute I saw her I knew I wanted to ride her all day long.”

Eddie must not have been a fan of Wonder Woman, because he levelled a dry glare at Richie. “Gross.”

“Get your own sled if you don’t like it, Eds.”

“I can’t!”

Eager to put Eddie’s house far behind them, Richie grabbed the rope on Lynda Carter and started off on their winter trek, Eddie in tow. The number one spot for sledding in Derry was behind the library, where the slope was flat and steep and teeming with every stupid idiot from school, pushing into one another and taking forever to get back up to slide down again. With that many people, the snow was bound to get worn through too.

“The library’s in the other direction, Richie,” Eddie pointed out, shuffling along behind Lynda.

“I know,” Richie chirped. Their walk was pretty slow-going, but there wasn’t much he could do dragging a sled with almost a foot of snow on the ground.

Eddie made a flabbergasted noise that sounded like his voice had been caught in the back of his throat. “Then where are we going?”

“You’ll see!”

It didn’t take very long to see. Richie was still trying to master the art of anticipation, but one thing he did know was that if he told Eddie where they were headed, he ran the risk of derailing his whole operation. Sometimes Eddie could be just as persnickety as his own mother.

In no time, toes chilled through boots and two layers of socks, they arrived at the road up to the Kissing Bridge. Richie waited like a good little boy for a car to pass before he crossed the street, but Eddie yanked him back by his collar and nearly choked the life out of him.

“The Barrens?” Eddie demanded, while Richie lamented (not even a hundred feet away from their glorious destination!). “You wanna sled in the Barrens? It’s all trees, Richie. You’ll break your sled.”

“Lynda,” Richie whined. “And I can steer clear of trees! Don’t you have any faith in me, Eds?”

When Eddie stared him down silently for too long, Richie waved his arms and relented.

“Okay fine, we can go to the dumb old library.”

“Good,” Eddie stated, grinding his heel into the snow to turn around.

“Where everyone else is gonna be,” Richie went on.

“Probably!”

“Bumping into each other, hogging the slope.”

“Oh well!”

“Waiting like sitting ducks for when Henry and his chuckleheads come and ruin everything.”

All Eddie’s forward momentum ceased. Bingo.

“I think we could take ‘em though,” Richie went on, patting his scrawny bicep through his coat. “A little fisticuffs never hurt nobody - well, just so long as you can dodge some punches, otherwise your mom’s gonna have a hissy-”

“Just cross the street already!” Eddie shoved both hands into Richie’s back, and he grinned triumphantly toward the heavens as they headed to the Barrens.

The slanted plane of land leading down into the trees was a lot steeper than Richie remembered from the summer. Maybe it evened out toward the bottom, he wondered. Not all the snow would stick to the top of the slope, and fell to the end of it, to create a bigger cushion, all because of gravity. That was just basic physics, after all.

“How ‘bout here?” Richie asked, stopping after they’d walked on for a few minutes. “Looks pretty clear to me.”

“Richie, there’s like seven trees all down that direction,” Eddie said, motioning toward the pristine blanket of snow laid before them - or it would have been pristine, if not for the spindly trunks shooting into the sky.

“Uh, I count five,” Richie retorted, hauling Lynda over the bridge barrier. “And I told you, I can steer past them. All I have to do is lean a little. It’s barely steering.”

If Eddie meant to say something back, he floundered, helpless while Richie went about settling Lynda where she wouldn’t slip too soon, and mounting with the rope in his hand. When Eddie didn’t come sit his stupid butt down immediately after, Richie waved him over.

“I don’t know about this, Richie.”

“Come on, Eds! What are you, a pussy?”

Eddie’s eyes flared indignantly. Richie was doing a damn good job with his kicks in the right direction today.

“I am not a pussy.” Eddie dropped onto Lynda with a creak of wood.

“You can put your arms around my waist if you want,” Richie gushed.

“Just shut up and push off!”

Richie did just that. Lynda and her load slid through the snow with amazing agility, gaining speed as the incline disappeared behind them. Richie yanked on the string and wrenched his body around the thick trees scattered across the hillside, usually in the nick of time, to the tune of Eddie’s shrieking. Richie matched him in volume, only he was laughing instead.

They came to a gradual stop at the bottom of the slope, grinding into the snow-covered field that banked off into the stream where the sewers emptied out. A couple more feet and they might have been skidding across the frozen, rocky water.

Red-faced and panting, mostly from shouting their lungs out, the two of them climbed off Lynda, just a little eager for a surface that didn’t move and rumble beneath them. Richie grabbed onto the rope again, while his stomach let loose their butterflies, and his joints relaxed from being clenched so hard.

“See? That wasn’t so bad!” he exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air.

Eddie wasn’t hyperventilating, or curled up on his side in the snow - a good sign. “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” he said, while Richie did his best to look mock offended. “You steered alright, Richie. If we do it from that spot every time we should be good.”

“See? And you doubted me.” More smug than he deserved to be, Richie slung an arm around Eddie’s neck, nearly tripping him. They hauled Lynda back up the slope, and did it all over again.

“Should we have a philosophical debate, like Calvin and Hobbes?” Richie called over his shoulder as they tipped off their starting point.

“I dunno if that’s a good idea.”

“Why not?”

“Well, for starters,” Eddie went on as they whizzed through the trees, “what do you know about philosophy?”

“Lots!”

“Well I don’t.”

“Then I’ll teach you, and that’ll be the debate.”

“Second, you don’t want to be like Calvin and Hobbes when they sled, Richie. You know at the end of every comic, Calvin and Hobbes start arguing, fly through the air and-”

A thick crack sent the Flexible Flyer - well, flying - arcing over a shallow rock ledge Richie had managed to avoided before. The two of them lost their grip far too easily, airborne for a half a second that felt so much longer. Long enough for Richie to register his dad would kill him if he broke Lynda.

The impact threw him flat into the snow, harsh and hard, the icy powder biting into his face as his frames dug into his skin. The wind got knocked out of Richie for a moment, and he squirmed, choking, until there was air in his lungs again, and he could sit up without dying.

If it wasn’t Lynda, then he was definitely toast for his specs, he decided, when he pulled them off his face to find thin cracks splintering the glass. Richie whined, more bummed out than sore, really, and lumbered to his feet to survey the damage on his beloved sled.

“Ow ow ow.”

Pausing in his literal tracks, Reddie shuffled in the snow to find Eddie hunched over in on himself. He was breathing hard, tilting back, and forth.

“Asthma?” Richie asked, wide-eyed as a new panic set in.

Eddie shook his head, eyes screwed shut. “I landed funny on a tree root. Over there. I think I sprained my knee.”

“Lemme see.” Richie knelt down beside him, hovering hesitantly. Eventually he worked up the nerve to grab Eddie’s leg with his gloved hand - only to reel back, when Eddie howled louder than he’d ever heard before.

“That hurts!” Eddie snapped, tears dotted along his eyelashes.

“Holy shit,” Richie breathed, wary. “For real, Eds?”

“You think I’m making it up?”

“Well you’ve freaked out about smaller stuff!”

“I’m freaking out because it hurts so bad!” Eddie swore, mouth twisting up on itself as he fingered his knee. He whimpered, a small, scared sound. Richie had never heard anything like it before.

“Maybe we should take you to the doctor,” he said, forcing a single logical thought into his head.

“No!” Eddie’s head flew up, eyes wide. “No, I hate the doctor. They’re just going to call my mom and she’s gonna pitch a fit, and I won’t be able to hang out with you guys ever again! If we go to the pharmacy we can get stuff to make a splint. I can hide it under my pants and pretend I fell at home, later.”

“I don’t have any money, though!”

“Neither do I!”

“Then why would you suggest the pharmacy?!”

Richie thought long and hard, jarred by every pained noise that left Eddie’s mouth. No Mrs. K, no doctor, no pharmacy. Where the hell were they supposed to go?

A new idea dawned on Richie, and he gasped. “Wait, we could go to my parents’ house. They know how shitty your mom is, they’ll know what to do.”

Eddie stared at Richie, suspicion written across his distraught face. “You think so?”

“Yeah, my dad could probably figure something out. He’s a doctor.”

“He’s a dentist, Richie.”

“Everyone’s a critic, ain’t they?” Glancing around, Richie eventually spotted Lynda through his broken glasses, and went to retrieve her where she had capsized. Wasn’t broken, thankfully - but that was the least of his worries.

“I can pull you out on the sled,” he explained, situating her rightside up, before returning to Eddie, beckoning with his hands. “Come on. You can prop your leg up.” The nerves must have been getting to Richie, because he finished off with his best cowboy. “Don’t you worry, little lady, doc’s gon’ be ‘round to patch you up real soon.”

Eddie stared glumly, only to wince and his as he moved to get on the sled a second later. Richie’s guiding arms could only help so much. Each noise was like hot and cold, in regard to how much pain was being inflicted. A small breath was cold, and screaming OW OW OW was hot hot hot.

They eventually got Eddie set up with his leg propped in front of him, the other tucked under his butt. Like that, there wasn’t any room for Richie, but he had to pull anyway.

“Hold on tight,” he chirped, heaving the flimsy rope to drag Eddie, and Lynda, out of the Barrens.

There was no reasonable way to leave the way they came, which meant they had to take the long way out, following the more gradual incline of the land, past the sewer. Hauling over snow-laden grasses, rumbling across stones embedded in the ground, Richie really put his arms to work. He thought just Lynda had been bad - add a hundred pounds of injured pipsqueak, and it was downright torture. His knuckles ached in their grip, and the muscles in his arms seared. But hey - at least his knees were in tip-top shape.

“What did I tell you?” he mentioned at some point, huffing for breath as his heart worked itself into a tizzy behind his ribcage. Now that D in gym class made perfect sense. “We didn’t hit a tree, did we?”

Eddie’s pained groan was answer enough. Eventually they got themselves up and out of the Barrens, back into Derry proper, where the path was even and flat. Still, there was a whole neighborhood to traverse before they reached Richie’s house.

“You gotta admit, it was pretty fun, right Eds?” Richie asked hopefully. The silence behind him was deafening. All he could ever hope for, at any point in his life, was a reaction. Struggled noises didn’t really fit the bill. “And someday, we’ll laugh about this. How you hurt your knee riding Lynda Carter.”

“I’m not laughing about it now,” Eddie grit out.

“Well, we could laugh about something else.”

“No jokes. My stomach hurts.”

“Jeez, your knee hurts, your stomach hurts, there’s always something with you, isn’t there?”

Wondering, maybe for the first time, if he had gone to far, Richie decided he was better off shutting up - also for the first time.

They finally came upon the Tozier house, and Richie picked up the pace for the home stretch, boots grinding into the asphalt road as he hauled ass to his own front lawn. He went up the driveway, and “parked” Lynda in the yard (which Mom had said not to do, but desperate times and all that). Eddie grunted and grimaced all the way up, even with Richie taking one arm over his shoulder and his own hand around Eddie’s waist, so he could limp his way to the front door.

Before they could even make an attempt at the porch steps, though, the door flew open. Richie’s mom stood there in her thick Christmas sweater, a rag from some abandoned chore in her hand.

It didn’t take much to assess the situation, with Eddie propped up on Richie, his leg suspended in front of him.

“Richard, what did you do?”

“Eddie hurt his leg!” It’s not my fault rose to the tip of Richie’s tongue, but he swallowed it back. He wasn’t a hundred percent on that statement yet. He was pretty sure the anxious feeling rattling around in his skull was some form of guilt anyway.

Mrs. Tozier helped Eddie inside, over to the couch in the parlor no one was supposed to go in unless guests were over. Without any hesitation, with what Richie could only call Mom Mode fully activated, she took his boots off and rolled the leg of his snow pants up as gingerly and carefully as possible.

Richie’s eyes flared wide, his pulse picking up at the sight of the bulbous purple bruise spread across Eddie’s knee. He flicked his gaze into the corner of the room, where everything was much less grotesque.

“Oh no,” Mrs. Tozier murmured, trying not to touch Eddie’s knee too much. The red spread across his freckled face had little to do with the snow now, Richie figured, but Eddie set his jaw all the same.

“I think it’s broken. We’ll have to call your mom, Eddie. She can drive you to the hospital.”

“What? No!” Richie and Eddie said - almost in unison.

Mrs. Tozier gave each of them a look (the one for her son slightly more scathing). “We can’t do anything here, Richie. Eddie, you need a doctor. You need to get an X-ray, and probably some kind of cast.”

“Then what if we take him to the doctor?” Richie asked.

“They would still have to call Mrs. Kasprak,” his mom answered, almost exasperated. “And we don’t need to be at the hospital right now. I’m sorry, Richie. Eddie is his mother’s responsibility, not ours.”

She moved to leave, only for Richie to fling himself at her, clutching around her waist.

“You can’t do that, Mom! Mrs. K is gonna ruin his life! He’s going to be stuck with her big fat ass all winter break and not be allowed to leave the house!”

“Richard! Language!”

“It’s fine, Richie.”

Who would have thought it would be Eddie to stop the commotion. Richie paused, still latched onto his mom like a baby koala.

He expected Eddie to look so small and sad from the couch, what with the latest turn of events, but the opposite was true. He sat up, leg out, expression hard. If his knee weren’t busted, Richie thought he might shoot up and march right over.

“I gotta go to the doctor with my mom, that’s all there is too it.” Eddie huffed, fingers fiddling in his lap. “We tried, but if my leg is broken then I can’t really hide it. Thanks for getting me out of the Barrens, though. You really helped me out there.”

“The Barrens?” Mrs. Tozier demanded. “You brought your sled to the Barrens? What’s wrong with you, look what happened! Not to mention how much we paid for it, not for you to go crashing into things!”

“It was my idea, Mrs. Tozier,” Eddie chimed in, lying as easily as he would to his own mother. “I told Richie we should go play in the Barrens. It’s always so crowded behind the library. I thought it would be more fun.”

Richie stared at Eddie in disbelief. Eddie stared back, confident, despite the pain that twitched on his face.

Behind them, Mrs. Tozier sighed. “We’ll talk about this later, Richie. Right now, I’m going to call Eddie’s mom.”

She slipped right out of his grasp, striding away, into the kitchen. Richie stood there defeated. He hadn’t felt sorrier in his entire life.

Mrs. Kaspbrak came soon enough, spittle flying as she shrieked. Not just at Richie, but at his mom, as Eddie waited by, face turned away. She took him away, far away, to the hospital - and after that, home. His piss poor excuse for a home, where he stayed until school was back in session. Richie got grounded for playing in the Barrens for about the same amount of time.

He never rode Lynda Carter again.

***

“I felt so fucking betrayed by my mom that day,” Richie explained, shaking his head, laughing when the memory took a somber turn he had not been prepared for. “I couldn’t believe she did that. But I guess, in the end, I sorta betrayed you more, huh?”

“What?” Eddie asked, face twisting up.

“I delivered you into the hands of the enemy! I told you you wouldn’t have to go to the doctor or your mom and look what I did. I was a real snot-nosed brat.” Richie stared at the sled - Lynda - accusingly. As if she had made the decision to go play in a dangerous place.

Suddenly, Richie’s gaze was jarred by Eddie’s hands, forcing their eyes to meet.

“Don’t be stupid, Rich. We were kids.” His gaze turned a little soft. “I broke my knee, we couldn’t just avoid the hospital, as much as we wanted to back then. It was a mistake, yeah, and definitely your fault-”

“Thanks,” Richie said, voice muffled by the squish of his cheeks as he stooped down in front of Eddie.

“But I still agreed to it. And I turned out okay.”

“But your mom. I just wish there was something me or my parents could have done-”

“There wasn’t.” Eddie shook his head. “We were kids, we were at the mercy of everything. We didn’t have control over anything except where we went to fucking sled. And I was my mom’s responsibility, even if she was shitty about it. Not yours, or your moms.”

“Funny,” Richie mumbled. “My mom said something like that, I think.”

“Probably because she was an adult for way longer than you.”

“You callin’ my mama old?”

Eddie rolled his eyes, and tilted forward. Their lips met, easing Richie’s troubled mind. His boyfriend was right, anyway - there was little they could have done back then. You couldn’t exactly call CPS on a mom keeping her son home about his broken leg.

“Besides,” Eddie said when they parted. “Mom’s in a retirement community, and it’s just you and me, now. Together forever.”

Richie gasped, delighted. “You’re right! That means you’re my responsibility.”

Eddie frowned. “That’s not what I-”

“Worry not!” Setting Lynda down, Richie clutched his arms around Eddie and swooped him into a dip, his boyfriend yelling all the while. “I will protect you with my life, fair sir! The evil, wretched, corpulent Sonia-beast can never touch us again!”

Richie pulled Eddie in for a sweet, enveloping kiss, the annoyed noises eventually dying down until there was nothing but soft lips, and an eased conscience.

Hell. Maybe one day, Lynda Carter would ride again.

[buckychristwrites]

Just A Touch | Part 5 | b.b.

Pairing: Bucky x Reader

Summary: Your powers? Controlling any feeling a human can have, from emotions to pain, with a simple brush of your fingertips. Your mission? The traumatized soldier with sad stricken eyes and scream filled nightmares.

Word Count: 3.5k

Warnings: Yikes

A/N: I regret nothing I regret everything

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 |

Masterlist

The Tower had been pretty quiet this morning, until now, when your squeals could be heard echoing through the halls of even the first floor.

You were jumping circles around Bucky, who was standing still with his arms crossed around his chest. If you weren’t so excited, you would’ve noticed that he was tense and apprehensive as he stared right at Tony. You stopped, grabbing Bucky’s arm and jumping up and down.

“Did you even hear him, Buck?” You asked him excitedly. “They’re letting me go on a real mission!” He glanced at you, his face softening for a second before he turned back to Tony.

“I don’t think this is a good idea,” He said, making you stop and stare at him. Everyone in the conference room followed suit. The words stung you so much that you let him go, dropping your hands back down to your sides. He closed his eyes for a second, but opened them again without looking at you. He reeked of guilt.

“It’s just surveillance,” Tony said. “We intercepted word that some members of HYDRA are doing an exchange in the mall tomorrow, and we want her and Sam to be inside, just watching them, and we’ll be just outside, waiting in case anything happens.” The room was silent for a moment, the air filled with tension. You were still staring at Bucky, crushed at his words. Did he not believe in you?

“I’ll go,” Bucky said suddenly. You scrunched up your face.

“Sam’s already going…” Tony started, looking at the papers in his hands, but Bucky shook his head.

“No, I’m going,” He said, shaking his head. Tony turned around, looking at Sam and Steve. Both of them looked just as confused. No one understood this sudden outburst. Bucky was usually the one to just roll with plans as they’re given to them. It was usually you arguing about them, mainly about how you were not included.

“Okay…” Tony said, turning back to Bucky. “You can be on the inside, and Sam can be outside as Big Bird. That’s fine too.” He turned around to the rest of the group. “Does anyone else want to make any unprompted changes to the plan? Anyone? Now’s the time. Speak now or forever hold your peace.” A hand flew into the air. “I swear to God, Parker, if you don’t put your hand back down…” The hand slowly lowered.

The meeting was called to an end, and you were the first one out of the room, walking so fast that you were just shy of sprinting. Your bedroom was in sight, and you were almost there when you heard your name being called, but you didn’t stop. Instead, you broke out into a sprint, and fled to your room, angrily slamming the door behind you. Flopping on your bed, you huff into your pillow and lay there for a while. After a few minutes, there was a quiet knock on your door, and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who it was. You lifted your head, turning it towards the door before laying it back down, but you said nothing. He could sweat it out for a while.

After falling asleep for a little while, another knock at your door startled you awake. Slowly rising up, you took your time getting to the door before throwing it open to find Bucky, head down with his hands behind his back. He stilled emitted guilt and that should’ve made you feel better, but it didn’t. It just pissed you off more.

“What do you want?” You asked, your voice sounding tired and not correctly portraying the anger you felt, which made you angrier. When he didn’t say anything right away, you rolled your eyes and went to close the door, but it was stopped by his foot.

“Don’t be like this,” He said. “I’m sorry, okay?” You scoffed.

“What are you sorry for?” You asked coldly. “Is it for the part where you said it’s not a good idea for me to go on a mission? Or the part where you inserted yourself in like you’re my fucking babysitter?” You shook your head as you walked away from the door, him following you inside and closing it behind him.

“I didn’t mean to make it seem like that,” He said, raising his hands in defense. “I was just-”

“Just what?” You demanded, whirling around to face him. “Do you not trust me or something? I’ve been working hard for a long time for this. I’ve been waiting for the chance to actually feel like part of this fucking team, and you tell them that you don’t trust me to be part of the mission, and then force your way into it so you can watch over me. How am I supposed to feel about that?” His face scrunched up in confusion.

“I never said I didn’t trust you, is that what you think?” He asked. You opened your mouth to speak and then closed it again. The frustration that you felt was making it hard for you to think.

“Well do you?” You finally asked. He looked at you as if you just asked him if he liked to stick his head into toilets for fun.

“Of course I trust you,” He said, like nothing had ever been more abundantly clear. “I trust you more than I trust anyone else in the world.” You felt yourself melt a little inside. Sometimes Bucky would say things like this to you, and you never knew how to respond. He sighed, taking a couple of steps towards you. “I didn’t mean to make you feel like I don’t believe in you. I just…” He looked up at the ceiling, as if the next thing he was going to say was the hardest thing in the world. He looked back to you. “I just don’t want anything to happen to you.” He said it slowly, as if he didn’t want you to miss a single syllable. “I fucking care about you and I don’t want anything to fucking happen to you, is that what you want to hear?” You bit back a smile as you shrugged slightly.

“Maybe in a less aggressive way,” You said with a slightly playful undertone. “But yes, I guess I’ll take that.” You walked closer to him, stopping just a couple of feet away and looking up at him. “Nothing is going to happen to me.” You narrowed your eyes at him and smiled slightly. “I’m a part of this team now, and I can’t have you following me around on every mission. That can’t be how this works.” He nodded. “I know we’ve been through a lot together but I’m not the defenseless, broken girl you protected back in HYDRA.” He lifted his hand and pushed a piece of your hair out of his face. His fingers grazed your cheek and you closed your eyes at the touch.

“I’m sorry, doll,” He said gently. Despite your best efforts, you smiled at him.

“You better be the best damn surveillance partner I’ve ever had,” You warn him. “Or I’ll make sure I’m partnered with Sam for every mission I go on from now until I die.” He playfully leaned back, throwing his hand over his heart.

“I’m hurt,” He said in a joking voice. “How could you ever believe I’d let something happen to you?”

_________________________________________

“In position,” Bucky said quietly into his comm. The food court at the mall was crowded enough to keep you guys hidden enough, but you could still see the man across the room, waiting. A suitcase was resting next to his feet on the floor. You tried not to stare, focusing on the rest of the room. The food court was huge, with ceilings so high that you almost couldn’t believe it. It had been a long time since you had been to a mall, and it reminded you of a time where things were normal, and you’d go to the mall to shop and meet with friends. It seemed like a lifetime ago. Maybe it was.

Bucky and you were sitting at a booth, sharing the same side. You were wearing a beanie and a pair of fake glasses that Natasha insisted on. Bucky was wearing a baseball cap with the visor low over his eyes. You both wore dark hoodies and jeans, trying not to stand out. Both you and Bucky were wearing comms connected to the rest of the team.

“Do you see them?” Steve asked through the static of the comm.

“Eyes on target,” Bucky replied, staring the people down.

You laid your head onto the back of the booth. The excitement for this mission had worn off, and now you were just bored. The two of you had walked around the mall for a while until you caught the assailant in the food court. Bucky had stuck a microphone to a trash can a few feet away before you guys grabbed a table on the other side of the room. And now you had been there for an hour, and honestly you would’ve rather been at home. If you had known surveillance was this boring, you wouldn’t have made such a big deal about not being included on missions.

“Are missions always this boring?” You whispered to Bucky, your head rolling so you could look at him. His hair was pushed back under the hat, a look he never wore around the Tower, and honestly you loved it so much that you had couldn’t stop looking at him. He side eyed you, and you could tell he was trying to bite back a smile.

“Did you think we were just going to throw you into a combat mission, first time?” He asked you, before shaking his head. “No, you have to work for that.” You puckered out your lower lip and pouted, and he pretended to ignore you. You reached up and flicked the visor of his hat.

“You should wear a hat like this more often,” You said, making him look down at you.

“Can we keep the comms open to just conversations regarding the mission please?” Tony asked in an annoyed voice. You shut off your comm without turning away from Bucky.

“You should wear a hat like this more often,” You repeated and Bucky laughed.

“Why’s that?” He asked, continuing to not look at you.

“Because you look really good in it.” This got his attention, making him turn fully towards you in surprise. You shrugged. “It’s the truth.” He opened and closed his mouth again. It made you feel good sometimes that you were able to make him speechless.

He was about to respond, but you sat up suddenly, your face turning serious. Across the room, two more people joined the table with the suited man, and you couldn’t recognize any of them from the angle you were at. You started hitting his stomach, not able to make a sound. Bucky followed your gaze, and he grew tense.

“Rollins,” He growled into the comm. There was a slight pause. “Yes it’s him, I’m looking right at him.” His body grew cold, and he turned towards you, his face filled with horror. You looked over your shoulder. Now that they were sitting, you could see the men better, and you didn’t recognize which one was Rollins, but your heart dropped into your stomach, the sight of one of them hit you like a train. “Steve, Karpov is here.” His breathing started to increase. “Yes, I know Karpov is dead but he’s fucking here, Steve.” There was a pause, and Bucky rolled his eyes. “Now’s not the time to be patrolling my language, Rogers.” The men at the table began scanning the room, their eyes falling on you.

“We have to do something that won’t make them suspicious of us,” You said, looking at Bucky. “Be cool.” You scooted closer to him, and then lifted yourself onto his lap. His feelings went from tense to alarm almost instantly.

“What are you doing?” He hissed at you, as you brought your face closer to his. For a second, you felt embarrassed, but you powered through. You knew what you were doing.

“Natasha said that public displays of affection make people uncomfortable and they won’t pay attention to us, and they keep looking over here so we need them to stop,” You spoke quickly as you leaned towards him. “Just be fucking cool.” You began to pepper his face in kisses, holding both sides of his head with your hands. He was filled with so much anxiety that you took it away, and suddenly it was replaced with confidence with no help from you this time. At first his hands were on your torso and it almost felt like they were pushing you away, but now they moved to your hips, pulling you so that your entire body was pressed into his. This was the closest you and him had ever been. His face had been scrunched up in confusion but now he was smiling and laughing, the sound like music as you forgot that you were on a mission, and now it was just the two of you. Without thinking, your mouth was suddenly on his, and the world melted away and it was just the two of you. His hand shot up to the back of your head, as your hands pressed into his cheeks, your thumbs stroking his rough stubble. He was holding you so tight that you wondered if he would ever let go. Long ago, when she was alive, your mom would say that kisses like this were equal to magic, and you never believed her until now.

But the magic disappeared when you remembered where you were and why this kiss was happening, and you slowly pulled away. Bucky leaned forward with you, his eyes still closed long after you had parted. When he finally opened them, you bit your lip and tilted your head. Despite your comm being off, you could hear a voice calling through his.

“Hello? Is anyone home? What’s going on in there?” Tony’s distant voice yelled out. The both of you looked over in time to see the men standing up, Karpov heading a different direction than the others with the suitcase.

“They’re done, Karpov is heading towards the north exit while the other two are heading towards the west,” Bucky said as you jumped off of him and quickly climbing out of the booth. You were in a daze from the high of your kiss, and you kept reminding yourself that you were on a mission and now was not the time.

“I’ll follow Karpov,” You said, turning and quickly walking in his direction before Bucky could argue with you, which you could tell he was by the panic that grew in him as the distance between the two of you grew.

“Be careful!” Was all he had a chance to say before you were too far away.

You kept a reasonable distance from Karpov as you followed him through the crowd of people. Adrenaline was rushing through you as you realized that this was it, you were earning your place in this group. All that you wanted more than anything was to do this right, to make everyone proud. Being apart of something this important was everything you had ever wanted.

Karpov turned into a store, shocking you slightly, but you followed him inside. The store was huge, and you wished you had been paying more attention when you walked in. What was the name? You should’ve noted that before walking in. But it was too late now.

You kneeled down a few inches as you weaved your way through the shelves while keeping him in sight. There was quiet elevator-type music playing, and it took you awhile to notice that there was no one else in the store. Suddenly you felt really anxious, and you slowed down. Instinct was telling you to leave, to go find Bucky and tell him that something isn’t right. But you knew that the mission was the first priority, and there was no way you’d be the one to abandoned your post and mess it all up.

Karpov turned down an aisle, but when you turned to follow, he was gone. You stopped walking and looked around, and it was in that moment that you realized that all the shelves in the store were empty.

You stopped breathing.

The lights shut off, and you dropped to the ground, desperately crawling in the opposite direction. You couldn’t remember where the exit was, but you needed to get out. You reached up to turn your comm back on, but you realize then that it was gone, having no recollection of taking it off. The floor of the empty store burned the skin of your knees even through your pants as you started crawling faster.

“Where are you, moya lyubov’?” Karpov’s voice called out and you had to put your hand over your mouth to stop yourself from crying out. The sound of the name you were called during your days at HYDRA made you nauseous. “I see zat you have been reunited with the Winter Soldier hmm?” You could hear him close by, making you crawl faster away and turn another corner. “I have been looking for you for a very very long time, moya lyubov’.” You saw a slight stream of light, and you frantically began crawling towards it.

“Zee, I know zat I cannot control him anymore,” He continued, his words bouncing off the walls. But his voice was distant, and you were thankful. The light was getting closer, and you couldn’t go any faster. “Those people in Wakanda have a technology beyond us, and I must commend them.” You felt like it was one of those dreams where you were racing to the finish line but the closer you got, the further away it would get. The pounding in your chest made you feel like you were having a heart attack and you couldn’t tell if you were breathing. But you couldn’t stop.

“But one zing I do know is, you can still be controlled,” His words hung through the air as you stopped, your eyes widening.

No.

“A shame, really,” He continued. “It would’ve been a beautiful love story.”

You got to the door, jumping back to your feet and yanking on the door handle. Locked. You pulled and pulled frantically, until you realized that you were making noise and this wasn’t doing you any good. You fell back down, tears streaming down your face as you really began to panic. Where was Bucky? Where the fuck was your comm? Why did you shut it off in the first place? Why did you let your feelings for Bucky distract you?

This was it. This was why you didn’t belong on the team. You were so focused on impressing everyone, that you forgot that you needed to focus on the mission itself.

You wished that there was anything except the shelves. Something that could be used as a weapon against Karpov, or, if the time called for it, on yourself. Anything was better than being  back in the hands of HYDRA.

“Come back to me, moya lyubov’,” He called out. You sat in the corner and cried, begging to some God that Bucky would find you. Was he looking for you? Did he know that you were missing? You focused on him, and you felt that he was focused, but he was also panicked. He knew you were missing, but he couldn’t come find you.

How could you ever believe I’d let something happen to you?

“Zhelaniye.” Longing.

No.

“Rzhavyy.” Rusted.

No!

You were programmed to the same trigger words as Bucky.

“Semnadtsat'.” Seventeen.

But they never had to use them on you.

“Rassvet.” Daybreak.

They always just used fear to control you.

“Pech’.” Furnace.

For a while, they would use your life against you.

“Devyat’.” Nine.

Until they realized you cared about Bucky.

“Dobroserdechnyy.” Benign.

And then, they would threaten you by using him.

“Vozvrashcheniye na rodinu.” Homecoming.

And you would do anything they said, as long as they used him.

“Odin.” One

You never wanted him to die.

So you tortured and killed others to spare him.

You let out a loud scream.

“Tovarnyy vagon.” Freight car.

Your mind shut down, and then you felt nothing. You stood up straight, looking around blankly.

“Come here,” His voice called out, and you wordlessly began to walk. When you found him, you approached him, stopping about ten feet away. Karpov stopped breathlessly when he spotted you, walking up and soaking you in. “Remarkable.” He said quietly, walking a circle around you before stopping once again so the two of you were facing each other. He cocked his head to the side and smiled at you.

“Come, moya lyubov’,” He said. “Let’s go home.”

_________________________________________

Tags

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[analisegrey]

For @badthingshappenbingo

@vanquisherofsnails asked: “Shiro and "carved mark"?”

Yikes, y’all. This one is partially @unforth-ninawaters‘ fault. She sparked an Idea (tm). So blame her, and brace yourselves. Heed the tags.

Also, fun fic fact! Shiro’s prisoner number is 117-9875.

God, he’d been so close.

Shiro struggled against the hold the sentries had on him. He’d been Champion for close to a month, now, and even though he’d been pretty sure it would end poorly, there had been a split second of lapse between one cycle of guards and the next for his block in between Arena matches, and he couldn’t not take the chance.

He’d run.

He’d known he was on a ship, a huge ship, bigger than he really had a concept for, mentally, but he’d figured if he could run far enough, fast enough, maybe he could find an escape vehicle, or steal a gun, or something.

He’d barely made it down two floors, still no sign of the hangars, or anything else, and he was pretty sure he’d been on a maintenance floor when the guards caught up with him, yelling in a language he quickly starting to pick up words in.

But he knew the words for ‘stop’ and ‘don’t move’. Those words had been beaten into him within the first couple of weeks. Still, he’d run, trying to to stay free for just a bit longer, even one more hallway. He’d turned a corner and ran straight into the chest of a guard- an actual Galra this time, not a sentry- coming from the opposite direction. The guard was almost a foot and a half taller than him, and Shiro had bounced off the armored chest plate like a ping pong ball and ended up sprawled on the floor, partially stunned. Unyielding metal hands grabbed at him and pulled him painfully to his feet.

“Bring him.”

The guard he’d bounced off of turned and headed back the way he’d come, and the sentries holding him pulled Shiro along after.

He only really started to worry about the consequences of his actions when they reached the prisoner containment area, but instead of being tossed back into his cell, he was dragged along further into a room with a table that had straps on it. He didn’t know what they were going to do, but he really didn’t want to find out. He’d been going along with the sentries for the most part on the way back, but now he started to fight, twisting and dropping his weight down, trying to slide loose, but they tightened their grips, metal grips near unbreakable. He was dragged to the table, and he hadn’t thought he could fight harder, but he guessed enough fear and adrenaline could let a person do a lot of things.

“Grab him! Hold him still!”

The guard was yelling at the two holding him, and he knew they were having trouble keeping their hands on him; if he could just get free enough to run again, maybe-

The guard had apparently had enough of Shiro’s rebellious attitude, and stalked over and jabbed him with a crackling control stick. Shiro screamed, doubling over as much as he could, and it was all the sentries needed to get him on the table and start strapping him down.

“No. His right arm out.”

They finished tightening the straps on his legs and left arm, and pulled his right arm out to the side, one of the sentries holding his wrist in a bruising grip when they couldn’t make the straps work in that configuration.

“You think you’re so clever.” The guard’s voice rumbled, dripping with malice. “You might be clever enough for the Arena, but it doesn’t matter how clever you think you are.” The guard jabbed at Shiro’s ribs with the control stick, and all Shiro could do was scream again- he couldn’t move enough to struggle. “You belong to us, and you will learn your place. But don’t worry,” The Galra grinned, mouth full of sharp-looking teeth, and Shiro couldn’t help but shudder. “I’ll help you remember.” The guard reached down and used his claws to shred the right sleeve of Shiro’s prisoner uniform, pulling the tatters away until it was bare and tossing the scraps of fabric to the floor.

“I want to be sure you’ll see this, to help you remember.”

The grip on Shiro’s wrist tightened, grinding the small bones together, and it took a moment for what the guard was going to do to register. The guard put the point of one claw tip against Shiro’s forearm and pressed down slowly, until blood began to well up, then dragged his claw slowly down in a line, Shiro clenched his jaw tight, trying to keep any sound from escaping. When he was done, the guard lifted his claw out of the bloody furrow he’d left, and moved slightly to the right, repeating.

Shiro thought he was just going to keep making lines until the third time where it looked different, and then suddenly it clicked. God, the guard was carving his fucking prisoner number into his arm. At the nine and eight, Shiro couldn’t keep quiet anymore, and started cursing at the guard in every language he could think of. By the time the guard finished the five, Shiro’s arm was covered in blood. His arm throbbed, and he swore he could feel each bloody line burning like his arm was on fire.

The guard wiped his hands off on a towel the other sentry had handed him, and smirked down at Shiro.

“Take him back to his cell. I’m finished with him.”

The sentries unstrapped him and then hauled Shiro up off the table. His legs gave out, but they just dragged him between them, not caring if he could walk or not. They got to his cell, and tossed him in, slamming the door on his howl of pain when he hit the floor right-arm first.

The next few days were...rough.

He’d almost bitten through his lip trying to keep quiet while cleaning his arm at the small sink in the corner of his cell. He didn’t have any towels or bandages, so he had no choice but to let his arm bleed. He only had one fight, two days after his escape attempt, and though it was a narrow victory, it was still a victory.

The third day after, he noticed his arm was getting warm around the gouges, and he knew that definitely wasn’t good. He tried cleaning it again, but he could only do so much with just water. He’d tried the first day to wrap his arm in the purple overshirt of his uniform, and that had helped some, but he only had the one shirt, and once it was soaked through with blood, it was hard to clean, and hard to get back off his arm.

By the morning of the fourth day he knew he was running a fever, and the edges of the wounds had gone red and hot, spreading outward in streaks, and fuck, if they didn’t do something, he was going to die from blood poisoning, and that would just be stupid. He didn’t want to die of something stupid.

The afternoon meal came and Shiro couldn’t keep it down; he knew he had to risk asking for help. When the guards came around to collect the trash, Shiro tried.

“Please...I’m sick, the- the wounds are infected. You have to do something.”

The guard considered him, grunted, then left.

Shiro collapsed back against the wall of his cell, enjoying the feeling of coolness from the metal. He’d tried his best.

He quickly re-evaluated his decision when his cell door opened again a while later, and instead of a doctor, it was the witch- Haggar. He’d heard some other prisoners talk about her, and had seen her once or twice at the Arena. She’d given him the creeps from the stands, up in Zarkon’s box, but that was nothing compared to how he felt with her up close. Every part of him wanted to crawl as far away from her as he could, as quickly as he could.

“Champion.” She floated across the floor to him, dropping down next to him silently. He could feel himself shaking harder the closer she got, and he knew it wasn’t his fever. He was scared. So scared. Possibly more scared than he’d been since he and the Holts were captured. She just felt wrong.

Haggar reached down and grabbed at his wrist, still colored with bruising from being held down after his escape attempt, and turned his arm over so she could see the damage.

She hummed in thought, moving his arm around, and Shiro was frozen, unable to move. He wished he was brave enough to strike at her, to pull his arm back, but he had a feeling that even if he’d been in full health, he wouldn’t have dared. He was like a rabbit pinned by a wolf; he knew he couldn’t win this fight.

She let go of his wrist and straightened, turning to one of the masked Galra Shiro had heard referred to as druids.

“That will not heal quickly or easily, which is unfortunate. We cannot have the Champion out of commission so long. It does however afford us an opportunity.” She briefly looked down at him with the hint of a smile. “Take him to my lab. We will remove it, and replace it.”

[sweetlysilent]

Alone

Requested By: Nobody

Pairing: Stan Uris x Reader

Description: You had gotten lead away from the group, leading you to get locked in a room with Pennywise, portraying as your greatest fear, making you vulnerable and alone.

Warnings: Swearing, sadness, kind of violent??

Word Count: 1,916

A/N: So I was going to write a Wyatt Oleff fic but then I decided to write a Stan Uris one instead bc why not?? I also apologize in advance yIKES.

You could have sworn you were right behind everyone, they had clearly stated ‘DO NOT SPLIT UP’ or how Richie rephrased it 'DO NOT SPLIT UP OR YOU’RE FUCKED' and that was the last thing said outside the abandoned house.

You were all carefully looking around, the house wasn’t in great condition, it was old, dusty, overall super unsanitary, something Eddie was surely having an issue with.

“Guys, this place is so gross, can we please leave?” Eddie whined, as everyone huffed and or rolled their eyes in response.

“No, we need to keep looking.” Richie urged on, but deeply regretting ever entering this hellhole of a house.

“We just have to stick together alright?” Beverly spoke up, as everyone nodded their heads quickly.

You all were walking down a hallway, it had many doors, everyone was walking into one particular room when you heard a nose from the other end.

Your gut told you to say put, but your mind was overly curious as to what it was, but your heart told you not to go, that it was dangerous, and to listen to the group rules, 'do not split up.’

“Y/N.” The voice echoed, instantly catching you in a trance, everything and everyone around you vanishing, except the voice.

“Y/N come help me please!” The voice pleaded, it sounded familiar, it sounded like someone you knew, this instantly made you rush down to the other end of the hallway.

You ran into the room, only to see nobody in there, but you could of sworn you had just heard someone in here.

The door behind you suddenly flew closed, startling you, making you panic and try to open the door.

“Help! Someone let me out! Please!” You screamed, your fists colliding with the door, hoping someone would hear you.

“Y/N.” The voice appeared again, making you turn on your heel in an instant, revealing Stan.

Did he accidently wander down to this side of the hall too? Maybe he had heard the voice as well.

Your eyes widened slightly at the sight of him, a small smile appearing on your face as you realized you were now okay, that he was here with you, you weren’t alone anymore.

“Stan, thank god you’re here, I got lost somehow, I thought I was alone and..” You were talking fast, unable to stop the words from falling out of your mouth, until you realized he hadn’t said anything back.

“Stan?” You hesitantly questioned aloud, your eyes searching him over as he stood completely still.

“H-How exactly did you get in here? The door..” You turned to look back at the clearly closed door, then back at the boy, your brows furrowing.

“You’re wondering how I got in here.” Stan finally spoke, as you nodded, your breathing starting to pick up slightly.

“You see that’s the thing, I was in here, I called for you, and you came.” Stan smiled, making you smile slightly, you couldn’t help it, it was Stan, you’d always had a soft spot for him.

“And then when you came in, I wasn’t here, no, I was gone, and then the door closed, and now, here I am.” He smiled, his arms spread out as he motioned to himself being in the room.

“But.. But that’s not possible, there’s no other entrance in the room, you had to of been in here before.. otherwise..” You trailed off, your breath hitching in your throat as your eyes widened slightly.

“U-Unless y-you’re not him..” You whispered, your feet slowly backing you up to the door as you watched him intensely.

“Y/N, what are you talking about? It’s me. It’s Stan.” He smiled, starting to walk towards you, your breathing now more hectic.

You started banging on the door, screaming for anyone to come and help you.

Your brain was being played with, making you feel vulnerable and weak.

“Y/N, stop. Nobody is coming. Nobody cares. You’re alone.” He whispered in your ear, his breath hitting your neck, sending shivers down your spine and goosebumps down your arms.

“N-No, they d-do care!” You shouted, your eyes closed tightly as you felt his hand touch your shoulder gently.

“If they cared about you, why’d they leave you? Why’d they leave you all alone?” Stan taunted, as you choked out sobs.

“They w-wouldn’t do t-that.” You whimpered, making him laugh and turn you to face him, keeping you pressed against the door.

“And yet they did. They left you to die. They never cared about you Y/N, can’t you see that? I never cared about you.” He spat, his eyes narrowing as your heart slowly shattered.

This is what IT wanted, it wanted to make you feel vulnerable, alone, it wanted to portray as the person you cared about most, to make it seem as if they didn’t want you anymore, and whether it was really him or not standing before you, you believed him.

Your heart was shattering, your wall was crumbling down around you, tears were falling down your cheeks as you watched the boy in front of you smile wickedly.

“Stan wouldn’t leave me.” You whispered, trying to convince yourself, but only making the Stan in front of you laugh.

“God Y/N, you’re such an idiot! What don’t you understand? I don’t want you anymore, I never did, I only hung around with you because I felt sorry for you.” Stan spat, making more tears slip down your face as he grinned at you.

He knew he had finally cracked you, Pennywise had won.

His true form was now evolving before your eyes, his body becoming bigger, his white face with a evil red sharp toothed smile, along with his orange fire looking hair.

Fear spread throughout your whole body, this was it, this was how you were going to die.

You couldn’t believe that after everything you had been through, this was how your life was going to end.

You attempted to hit the door with your fists one last time, screaming at the top of your lungs for someone to hear you, they couldn’t have left you.

You screamed until the moment Pennywise’s hand wrapped around your throat, cutting off oxygen to your lungs, as he dangled you in the air.

Your hands gripped his arm harshly, trying to pry it off your throat, as he gave a sinister smile, his teeth becoming rows, making your eyes widen with pure and utter fear.

“Guys you really shouldn’t be touching anything, you don’t know what kind of diseases are on any of this, exactly why I bring my hand sanitizer.” Eddie ranted on, annoying the rest of the group.

“H-He has t-t-to be h-here.” Bill spoke, looking around the room, before entering a new one along with Richie.

“Hey guys I think I found something!” Beverly shouted, making everyone stop and go over to where she was.

It wasn’t much, just a random hole in the floor that lead to somewhere new, but it was something, it was progress.

“Hey guys.. Where's Y/N?” Stan spoke up, now noticing your absence from the group.

“I swear to god they were just here.” Mike commented, looking around the room for you.

“How long have they been gone?” Ben questioned, as everyone shrugged in response.

“Shit. We need to find Y/N now!” Stan shouted, as everyone started rushing out of the room, beginning to search everywhere.

“Y/N!”

“Y/N where are you!”

“Y/N can you hear us!”

They all shouted, but there was no response, fear was starting to take over everyone.

“Shit where did they go?” Richie shouted, before glancing at one door that he could of sworn was open earlier.

“Guys, wasn’t that door opened earlier?” Richie pointed out, as everyone glanced at each other before sprinting to the door.

“Y/N!” They all shouted, trying to open the door while banging their fists on it.

“Y/N open the door! It’s us!” Beverly shouted, while everyone else was too.

The other side of the door was quiet, you were still dangling in the air, your vision starting to become blotchy from the lack of oxygen to your brain.

You barely noticed when the door flew open, all of them rushing inside, their eyes widening at the sight before them, Pennywise holding you in a death grip.

They all started to attack him, making him drop you in the process before disappearing down a hall.

“Y/N! Oh my god are you okay?” Beverly frantically questioned, looking at you with concern.

“Shit is Y/N even breathing?” Richie questioned aloud, making Stan’s eyes widen as he placed his head down next to your nose.

“It’s faint, but they are breathing.” Stan told the group, making everyone even more worried than before.

“I can give mouth to mouth!” Richie volunteered, making everyone snort in response.

“No, I’ll do it.” Stan rolled his eyes at Richie before placing his lips on yours, blowing air into your mouth, hoping it would help you regain consciousness better.

He did it a few more times before you gasped loudly, your chest heaving as you quickly scooted away from all of them.

“N-No.” You whimpered, breathing heavy as you cowered against the wall.

“You all left me!” You shouted, tears falling down your cheeks as you started to panic.

“No, Y/N, we didn’t, we’ve been here the whole time, we would never leave you.” Beverly tried to explain, crouching down next to you carefully.

You glanced up slightly, looking at her before your eyes drifted to Stan, your heart breaking once more.

“Y-You said everyone left me.. That nobody cared, that you didn’t care about me..” You whispered, not once breaking eye contact with Stan, who’s face expression dropped.

“No, no, no, Y/N, that wasn’t me.. Hey.. Look at me..” He carefully sat down in front of you, placing his hand gently on your chin so you’d look him in the eyes.

“We all care about you, you know we’d never leave you. Never.” Stan explained carefully, placing his other hand on your knee softly.

“You know that I’d never leave you, I care about you too much to ever do that.” Stan whispered, rubbing his thumb gently on your knee as your eyes flicked back and forth while looking at his.

“Y-You said I was alone.. That you only hung around with me because you felt sorry for me..” You whispered, a tear falling down your cheek.

Stan’s heart broke the second those words left your mouth, he should of known this would happen, that Pennywise would use him as a way to hurt you.

“Y/N, you know that isn’t true.” Stan whispered softly, his own eyes now watering.

“That wasn’t me, this, this is me.” Stan grabbed your hand gently, placing it on his chest where you felt his heart beating, convincing you he was real.

“Stan..” You whispered once more, your lip quivering as you wrapped your arms around his neck, sobs escaping your lips.

Stan held you tightly in his arms, a tear falling down his cheek as well as everyone else’s, if they had only been a few seconds later you wouldn’t be where you were right now.

You felt Stan’s hands rub your back gently, trying to help you relax, which he knew would take some time, he knew how bad Pennywise had gotten to you, so he said the one thing he knew you needed to hear.

“I will always be here, you’ll never feel alone again.”

Tags: @the-crime-fighting-spider

[yukiwrites]

Morgan, Blending In

Thank you so much for commissioning me again, @xpegasusuniverse! I’m really glad with this one came out, so I hope you like it! :D

Summary: Morgan managed to follow her brother Owain to Valla and, under the alias of Linfan, now tries to blend in with the people of that strange and new world on her own Morgan-like way!

Commission info HERE and HERE!

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4  - Part 5

After Morgan, now Linfan, was accepted in Corrin's army, not much apart from fighting happened -- or rather, could happen. That place called Valla was crawling with enemies, to the point that even the people keeping watch at night had to be armed to the teeth since they would most certainly fight a battle or two before the sun came up.

That upside-down world was vast and hard to travel -- they had to make sure they stepped on the right bridges after the area had been scouted by flying units. It seemed like their guide, some Anthony fellow, wasn't very well liked amongst the entirety of the army, so Morgan's arriving right after Anthony’s made things a bit complicated to her side, or at least they should be.

"COMBINED..." She took a deep breath, holding her Thoron tome with one hand, the other one pointing to the sky.

"SIBLING ATTACK!" Odin yelled at the same time Linfan did, they tomes' magical powers swirling around them before exploding at the group of enemies right ahead. "YEAH! That was soo cool, Linfan!"

"Heehee, that was actually fun, Brother!" The siblings shared a high-five. "And since this place is crawling with those things, we can try out a lot of different magic!"

Odin had to hold his cursed hand in an extravagant gesture. "Yess! That's what I'm talking about! This is the place where we can truly use our full powers!"

"With my trusty Thoron, no enemy shall be left standing!" Linfan winked, doing a side peace sign over one eye. Odin almost shed a tear of pride. Finally... finally someone who understood and enjoyed his antics!

"... Don't you guys feel any shame?" Selena approached, her battle stance completely drained up due to second-hand embarrassment. "This isn't a joke, you know! They're here to kill us!"

"You wound me, silver-tongued maiden! This is serious business, I'll have you know! Isn't that right, Lin-"

Linfan giggled, "why don't you try it too, Selena? It's so silly, it's fun!"

"LINFAN!" Odin fell on his knees. "Betrayed... by my own blood..."

"Hah! I knew Linfan wouldn't let me down like that." Selena nodded, putting one hand by her hip.

From their posts, Corrin and Leo observed the interchange, both of them smiling at differing scales. "It's really lively out there, isn't it?" Corrin commented after felling the last enemy at their premises.

Leo sneered. "Humph. It's like we got another Odin; I got my work cut out for me."

The dragon prince scratched the back of his head. "Haha, I'm sorry for dumping her on you, Leo. But I thought that since she's Odin's sister, making both of them be deployed side by side would be better for her to fit in faster..."

"Please, don't apologize for that, Brother." Leo dismissed Corrin's worry with an uninterested wave of hand. "She is... a bit too eager for my tastes, but I AM used to having the most eager one, after all." He bobbed his head. "Besides, her talent for magic is real. So much that even by looking at her from this far I can still feel her inane power, waiting to explode. Very intriguing."

Corrin smiled. He knew how much his little brother loved to talk about magic, AND how competitive he was. He would probably push himself harder so as not to 'lose' to Linfan. "Just don't overdo it, okay?" He let out part of his thoughts, making Leo raise one eyebrow.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Oh, um, why don't you go talk to her, then? This can be a great opportunity to make new friends!"

"Hah, hear yourself, Brother." Leo scoffed, urging his horse to move. "I'm simply interested in her potential for combat, not in to suddenly invite her to our inner circle. Come, let's rendezvous with Camilla." He extended his hand to Corrin, who promptly took it so as to mount on the horse.

"Alright, but I still think that you two would get along if you wanted!"

"Yeah, yeah."

At the same time, Linfan, Odin and Selena arrived at the camp after clearing out their position. For the past few days, Laslow has been deployed far from Linfan, surely Xander's way of saying he didn't trust her yet.

At the entrance, Linfan unconspiscously looked at all sides, squinting as though she wanted to see something invisible. "Do you think he's here now?"

"Yikes," Selena shivered, "are you looking for ghosts or something? Aren't the invisible enemies we fight everyday enough?"

Without missing a beat, Linfan looked at the other side. "No, I mean the guy who likes masks Lord Corrin told us about."

"Oh." Both Selena and Odin cleared their throats, ever aware that the ninja could be anywhere around them at any moment. "If you keep being indiscreet like that, he'll stick around even longer!" The mercenary said, slapping her friend's back.

Linfan's eyes sparkled. "Will he?! Maybe this time he'll actually fall into one of my traps!"

Odin snorted. "You never even got Father to fall for them, Linfan!"

The apprentice tactician puffed her cheeks. "Well, YOU did."

Selena pointed and laughed as Odin retorted. "I was indulging my own blood, a-alright? The sacred vow of heroes always tells us to be kind to our kin!"

Morgan put one hand over her chin, her eyes wide in thought. "Will I have to marry him, then...?"

"WHAT? NO!" Both mage and mercenary yelled, slapping her shoulders. "Mor-Linfan, we need to play nice here, you understand? Stop digging these stupid pitfalls!"

"B-b-b-b-but," her voice trembled as Selena aggressively shook her, "but what if I dig deep enough that I can see the sky from below? I need to find out!"

"Linfan!" Odin exclaimed, making both women shut up in shock, the random passerby also staring unbelieving. "Don't do anything reckless, please..." He held her hand. "I won't bear if anything happens to you."

Feeling a bit guilty but also nostalgic, Linfan smiled. "That brings back memories, heehee." She brought Odin's hand to her face. "Sorry for worrying you, Brother; but it's going to be okay! This time, I won't bang a tome on my head or walk around looking up instead of down. I just want to catch him!"

"Aaand we're back at where we started." Selena groaned. "Listen here, Linfan..." She pulled her friend as they walked, leaving Odin behind.

He didn't follow out of pure shock, since Morgan had spoke not only of a new memory they made, but of an older memory of when they were children: She had the habit of looking up to the birds and clouds when she was very small, to she always hit her nose on trees, posts and walls, to the point of Owain needing to hold her hand at all times whenever they walked.

The feeling from way back then flourished inside his heart, making a relaxed smile sprout on his lips. She remembered more each day, and also learned more and more about their lives in this new world.

She would be fine. Sure, not without supervision, but would be fine nonetheless.

The sun took a lot longer than usual to set in that strange world since the sky was upward and downward as well, which only made it even more interesting! What would happen if Morgan started digging a pitfall during the sunset over her head while it was still bright under her feet? Would she be able to catch a glimpse of the blue sky all the while having the stars shining on her head? She simply had to find out!

And no, watching the sunset at the edge of an island did not cross Morgan's mind, nor would it: She was so focused on digging during dusk that she lost track of time. Although it was still clear out, she had dug so deep she leaned on the wall to catch a breather.

It was then that she looked up. "Oh, wow, that's my new record! Someone's REALLY gonna hurt themselves if they fall. Look at the sky wayyy up there, just a tiny round bit." A few moments of rest later, she placed one closed hand over her open palm. "Oh! I'm stuck!"

Laughing, Morgan slid down the wall to sit on the wet earth. "Heeheehaha! That's a first! I didn't know this island was so deep, whoops!" After calming down her giggles, she took a deep breath. "Welp, let's come up with a plan to get out of here! I won't disappoint you, Father!"

Morgan looked on her person for something that could help her up: her levin sword, her Thoron tome, a carving knife, a few samples of masks she always kept on a pouch and the shovel she was using to dig. "Aw, if I had brought a wind tome instead, I could fly myself out of this hole." She crossed her legs, looking at the items in front of her, trying to come up with a connection. "Father, I barely started and I already failed you... how can an aspiring tactician NOT walk around with a rope? This will haunt me to the grave!"

More worried about her lack of preparation than her own situation, Morgan kept thinking by herself, as the sky darkened and the temperature dropped. She didn't notice the time pass by, mind, since she was too busy thinking of what her father would do if he were in her shoes. Faraway whispers could be heard from above a long time later, breaking her concentration.

"Look, Sakura! The sky is soooo bright because of all the stars!" Princess Elise twirled around herself, pulling the shy hoshidan princess with her so they could watch the stars under that big tree over the hill.

"N-not even in Hoshido did they shine so brightly," Sakura commented, huffing to accompany the eager princess. By her own nature, Sakura always walked looking down -- in contrast with Elise, who always looked up -- so she noticed a big enough hole to swallow them both approaching at a fast pace as Elise happily dragged her. "P-Princess Elise, watch out!" She pulled her friend back with all she had, making both of them roll away from the hole.

"Wah- Oof!" Elise fell on the grass right beside the enormous hole that was simply there in front of the tree they were going to watch the stars under. "Whoaa! We could've really hurt ourselves there! Thank you so much, Sakura!"

The hoshidan princess sat up, patting the dirt out of her white clothes. "O-of course... I'm glad you're alright, Elise."

"Weh? Is someone up there? Heeey!" Both princesses heard a voice from below.

"KYAA!" Sakura shrieked, hugging Elise with everything she had. "G-g-g-ghosts?!"

"Whoa!" Elise laughed, bending towards the hole. "Ghosts? From this hole? Helloooo?"

"Oh, there really was someone!" Morgan got up, fastening her sword and tome back at her belt. "You're Lady Elise, right? I can barely make out your face since it's so dark, haha!" She opened her hand, channeling the thunder from her tome to her fingers, lighting the hole she was in. "Do you happen to have a wind tome with you? I'm a bit stuck in here!"

"O-oh, so it was a real person..." Sakura breathed out in relief. "A-are you okay? You fell down from such height..."

"Oh, no, I dug this! Impressive, isn't it?"

"Oh, wow!" Elise put one hand over her mouth, her hair dangling beside her face as she popped her head into the hole. "You did all this? Amazing! But what's this 'wind' tome you speak of? I never heard of it!"

"Oh, so they don't have wind tomes in this world? Whoops..." Linfan bit her tongue with a smile, thanking the heavens that her brother wasn't there to scold her.

"What was that? I didn't catch it!" Elise yelled, lying down at the edge.

"Um, if you don't have it, then it's okay! Do you happen to have a rope or something? I think I can work with that!"

"D-don't you think we should get help, Elise? We shouldn't be having such a leisure talk while she's in such predicament!" Sakura gripped at her friend's sleeve, worried about the new girl.

"Oh, yeah! Wait here, Linfan! We'll call for help!" Elise sat up.

"Oh, no, no, no! Please, no!" Linfan laughed nervously. "If my brother and friends find out, I'll be in deep trouble! I need to get out of this on my own."

"B-but what can we do? I don't think both of us can pull you out by ourselves..."

"Oof, yeah, I can barely flex without getting tired." Elise concurred, feeling sympathetic to Linfan since she, too, didn't like getting in trouble with her siblings. "Maybe if I call my brother? Leo's super good with magic; he can think of a way to get you out of there!"

"L-Lord Leo? Oh no, if he finds out, so will my brother!"

Elise deflated. "Oh, yeah..."

"U-um, maybe my sister Hinoka can help? She's strong, so she'll be able to pull you out in no time!"

Linfan put her free hand on her chin in thought. "Hmm... And she's hoshidan, right? There's no need for her to be a snitch to the nohrians..."

"I-I don't know about 'being a snitch', but Big Sister Hinoka is responsible and strong! I'll bring her here!" Sakura got up too fast for her own legs to follow, her feet wobbling as they tried to get a proper foothold.

They found none, as she was too close to the hole. Elise widened her eyes and yelled a "watch out!!" as Sakura felt the ground slip away from her.

Morgan closed her eyes, scooting to the side to give Sakura room to fall, but she never did. When she looked up, the princess was safe on a ninja's arms.

"Hah... For how long will you two keep this up?" Saizo groaned, putting his princess on the ground. "I won't stand idly if you endanger Lady Sakura any more than this."

"S-Saizo!" Sakura managed to let out her voice. "T-thank you, thank you, thank you so much..." She trembled as Elise breathed out in relief.

"Pheew! That was a close one! Thanks a bunch, Saizo!"

The ninja glared at the nohrian princess, then downwards to the foreigner. "How long do you plan on staying there, woman?"

"Oh no! MASK! IT'S THE WRONG TYPE!!" Linfan yelled, the sparkle on her hand getting out of control and spiraling upwards before flashing out. "I thought it'd be covering the eyes, not the mouth!"

The ninja sighed deeply, getting tired of watching that girl run around in her own little world and staying stuck inside a pitfall for hours.

"P-please, help her out of there, Saizo..." Sakura grasped at his scarf.

Once again did the ninja sigh and, faster than the eye could see, he jumped into the hole, surprising all three princesses. He landed soundlessly besides Linfan, grabbed her by her waist and jumped out.

"Oh, wow, that was easy." Morgan blurted out, grabbing Saizo's scarf as he pulled away from her. "Wait! You're him, right? The Saizo fellow? Lemme take a look at your mask!"

"Unhand me, woman!" Saizo pulled his own scarf back as Linfan studied his face with scrutiny.

"Oh, that sounded familiar, heehee," she giggled, remembering Lon'qu from her world. "But that's not it! Lemme just do this..." with her free hand, she grabbed one of the masks she had made previously and stuck it on Saizo's face. "Aw, I got the size wrong!"

Saizo flicked the mask away, managing to whisk himself out of Linfan's hold. "Do not do this again, girl, lest my blade finds itself in your gut by accident." He said and disappeared into a curtain of smoke.

"So he really was watching..." Linfan crouched to get her mask back, deep in thought. "Guess I'll have to relearn how to make them, huh? Now, to cover the mouth instead!"

"Wow, did you make this yourself, Linfan?" Elise picked one mask up -- since Linfan's pouch wasn't properly tied due to the surprise, it fell down when Saizo pulled away from her. "This is so pretty! What kind of paint is that?"

"Oh, there's one here, too..." Sakura picked one that looked like a fox. "So cute!"

"Do you like it? You can have it! I need to make bigger ones to fit Saizo..." She smiled, gathering the remaining dozen so as to tie them back on her pouch. "I can teach you to make it, if you want? With three heads, we can come up with more designs than me alone!"

"Really? You'll teach me?!" Elise trotted to Linfan's side, the foreign girl only one head taller than the nohrian princess. "I'm very good with my hands if I may say so myself! I love to make flower necklaces and crowns!"

"I-I don't like handling knives, but if it's only to carve, then..." Sakura shyly wore the fox mask, her cheeks flushed under it.

Elise and Linfan laughed. "It really does suit you! You really should keep it, after all." The apprentice tactician said. "C'mon, I'll teach you two right away! Let's get back to my tent for some light!"

Both princesses giggled, taking Linfan's extended hands. Their older brothers had advised them to steer clear of that girl, but she looked like such a fun person to be around! They surely would get along well from then on!

[sticks-and-stone]

Hampton Tract

October 10, 2019 - October, 12, 2019

So we did Hampton Tract this time for our second round of monthly camping. Hampton is in the same water management district as Potts, but on the western side of the Hillsborough Nature Preserve. Prepping for this trip was wildly different than prepping for the Potts trip for several reasons. The first being that we had done the camping thing and now knew what we were missing and what we needed to get to prep. We were also given a lot of gear by family and friends. So a lot of our upgrades became major game changers. 

We also planned for two nights instead of just one this time. We figured since we had proven that we wouldn’t die in the woods, it would be safe to try for a second night. A quick overnight is mostly setting up and taking down anyway. Not a whole lot of time to just enjoy the trip. This meant that I also needed to make sure that there was plenty to do so we wouldn’t get bored and just drink too much. So I introduced the concept of a “toy bag” which is basically just a bag of crafts, card games, coloring books, and such. This way, if we got bored or it rained, we would have options. 

In addition to the toy bag, our gear had improved drastically. We got ourselves more organized and more prepared. It didn’t feel like our second trip at all, it felt more like our 9th or 10th. Still not quite perfect, but we felt ready. We organized our gear into categories, researched what other people pack with them for this time of year, and made so many lists. 

We had two main categories for gear this trip. Hardware and software. Hardware included the tent, the chairs, and any other structural pieces for the campsite such as clips, ties, and stakes. The Software bag was for things like flashlights, bug spray, first aid, etc. this separation helped a TON with staying organized on site. 

We added a small amount of gear to this trip. Smaller than I would have expected, but the items we added were complete game changers. This time around we had more coolers. I went to dads and cleaned out his shed in exchange for taking whatever old camping gear I could find. I didn’t take much, but I did take all of his coolers. The first one was a typical, 10 gallon wheeled guy. The second was a five gallon water spigot cooler from our soccer days, and the third was a tiny square spigot guy that might hold a six pack of beer. We used the big wheeled guy for beer and our pre-made coffee supply, the five gallon spigot for our ice water supply (a new thing that made all the difference) and then I continued to use my roommates cooler for our food. Being able to separate the drinks from the food was huge. The first time we went, they were all in the same cooler and the ice we needed for the drinks melted and got water all in our food. So this time, we only used ice packs in the food cooler to protect against moisture and then just loaded up on the ice in our drinks cooler. So our beer was ice cold and our food stayed dry! 

I also got a folding shovel from my dad. This came in very handy with the fire pit which was full of someone else's garbage (including an old diaper) when we arrived. Jenna borrowed fireplace gloves from a friend of hers too. Just those two, easily forgotten items, made a world of difference when it came to fire maintenance. 

As far as other borrowed supplies go, Jenna also borrowed a headlamp from that same friend. I had never thought about using one before, but I will never go camping without one again. We arrived very late at night, so having that made setting up in the dark a breeze. 

My roommate gifted us with a hammock. Again, this was a piece of gear that I had never thought about adding to my pack before, but it was the most relaxing part of the entire weekend. Being able to sway softly and read a book (even one I didn’t enjoy at all) was amazing. 

So here we were, gear-wise, having an epically better camping trip than the last and I haven't even begun to explain the game changers I actually spent money on. During our Potts trip, we realized that we needed more lighting at our campsite. After the sun went down it was very dark and we could see next to nothing. We definitely didn’t want any booming spot lights or anything, but just some soft background lighting to help us out. So I went on Amazon and bought two tiki torches, and a string of battery powered fairy lights. At Hampton, we were able to use the tiki torches not only to illuminate our area and square it off, but also to help repel the bugs which were still kind of bad for October. And the string lights helped us avoid tripping while we found spots in the woods to pee, but also made our entire little set up look very cute. I hope to continue to work on the aesthetic of the site during future trips. 

Beyond the lighting, I also bought an air pump that plugs into the car, so we didn’t have to sleep on the ground! Small, but significant game changer. I bought rope (paracord) but we never used it. I’m keeping it in the gear kit though because every blog I’ve ever read tells me to. I’m sure it will be just a space taker until I actually need it and will be grateful to have it. 

On the way down, we stopped at a dollar general for additional supplies (toys). We bought bubbles and glow sticks to mess around with after dark. We got a TON of extra bug spray and a citronella candle for bugs. 

So gear-wise, we didn’t do much, but the things we did buy were such game changers that it made the Hampton trip so much better than we could have expected. We did things a little bit differently this time as far as execution goes. Two nights is drastically different than one so we had to think in advance, plan for the worst, and just mostly roll with the punches. And there were definitely a few punches. 

We arrived at camp at about 11pm at night on friday. Way too late if you ask me, but we had not thought through it too well, I guess. The first thing we did was unload the car. We were much better this time about making sure that our hardware was easily accessible so that we could set up as fast as possible. We got the tent up first. It took us mere minutes and once it was up, I ran to check out the bathroom facilities. 

The bathroom was a good ole fashion outhouse. A concrete building over a hole in the ground with a bucket and a lid covering the hole. The room was filled with dead and living love bugs and a broom in the corner to (I guess) sweep the massive layer of bug bodies out of your way? The toilet paper was damp (thank god I brought my own) and there was a smell that I swear could make you cry. I figured I would just pee behind the tent in the cover of the trees most of the time and only use this outhouse if I absolutely had to. At least this time I was not on my period. 

Once the tent was up, Jenna went to work on the fire. Since it was so late, we didn’t need to eat, just needed to get the fire up and get settled in for the night. So we spent the evening around the fire, taking shots of gin (why did I have that?) and drinking beer. At some point I think we broke out the guitar and sang probably too loudly for our fast-asleep neighbors. There was a camper just across the field from us who I’m sure hated our guts by morning. Otherwise, we had plenty of space and privacy for this trip. Which I loved a lot. We stayed up far too late and finally passed out around 3am. I woke up before Jenna at about 7am. The air mattress was a game changer so I slept like a rock. It also didn’t get that cold (for October) during the night, so I was very comfortable. 

I couldn’t get the fire started - I do not have the skills that Jenna does. So when she finally got out of bed (about an hour after me) I threw my hands up and told her it was her problem now. She got it going in no time (I was bitter) and we got to work on breakfast. It was about 10 am by the time we had breakfast on the table and our day was underway.

After breakfast we decided to go for a drive and check out the area a little. We left the site around noon after we got dressed and secured the site for our departure. This was the first two night trip and the first time that I really realized how slow you can actually go and I loved it. We left the site and drove down the long country road until we got to another corner of the Hillsborough Nature Preserve. The guy at the gate said that this was the hunting portion but that if we were just driving through we could do so. Apparently we didn’t strike him as the type of girls to sneak rifles in and hunt illegally. So off we drove. The man told us that it was just a few minutes to the end of the road and we would find ourselves back at the primitive campground. He was very wrong. After driving for about an hour through the woods and passing very sketchy looking groups of hunters with rifles (yikes) we finally got back out to another major road. Not our camping ground. We caved and broke out a phone to GPS our way back to where we needed to be. We were about 45 minutes away. So we tracked ourselves to the spot and stopped for gas, more beer, and snacks on the way. 

We finally got back to the campsite around 3pm and took to doing our own things. We hung the hammock and Jenna took the first turn while I went to the picnic table to try my hand at whittling. I got comfortable enough with the knife and small piece of wood I found and relocated to the fire which I was able to get going and keep going on my own. I made a pencil!

Before we had left for our venture, the couple in the camper across the way offered us their leftover firewood, so we had plenty to get us through the rest of the trip. I whittled away and Jenna swayed and napped in the hammock. After a while, a car pulled in and two lesbians and their dog made camp in the spot where the couple in the camper had been. They drove a small sedan and unloaded a small tent and two chairs. They used their car to block our view of their entire set up which was disappointing. We enjoy scoping out other people’s set up to get ideas of our own. 

Around the same time, we started to notice the sound of a small dog barking on the other end of the campground - about 100 yards away. We didn’t think much of it until it began getting louder and more annoying. We made comments to each other about it - mostly sarcastic, but didn’t honestly think anything of it. 

Finally, Jenna got tired of being interrupted by the noise and offered me my turn on the hammock. I was eager to try it out so I grabbed a book and some extra bug spray and headed over there. I realized very quickly that this was my new favorite camping activity. The book I brought with me was a novel from Scotland that I never got around to reading. I figured I would give it a go and try out at least the first few chapters. As it turns out, I hated the book. It wasn’t broken into chapters at all and the language was difficult to keep up with. I gave up on it and just dosed in and out of a light sleep while I swayed softly. The dog - which I now realized was two dogs - grew louder and louder as more people piled in with their campers, tents, and dogs of their own. I wondered why the owners wouldn’t shut them up. 

Jenna and I decided to start working on dinner. We brought steaks and potatoes with us to cook over the fire and the first thing we needed to do was get the coals hot enough which would take a bit of time. So I did that while Jenna started “marinating” a steak. We brought nothing to do this, but she managed to use the single packets of ketchup and BBQ sauce to make-shift a marinade. Honestly, I was wildly impressed. Don’t tell her. So we let the marinade soak in the tupperware container and just enjoyed a couple beers by the fire. 

Suddenly, a woman walked up to us and presented us with the best drama. Apparently she had arrived around 1 or 2 that afternoon and from the time she got there until the time she walked over to our camp (around 5pm) those dogs had been barking nonstop and she wanted to know if we knew anything about the people camping there. Of course, we didn’t, but I did tell her that I noticed a car there this morning that was no longer there. Which made the woman (I cannot for the life of me remember her name) feel a lot better. Her concern was that someone was dead inside the camper. She said that it was about to get dark and that she was growing concerned for the animals. We agreed that if it got to be 8pm and no one showed up to the camp, we would take a closer look and possibly call the police. 

So 8pm rolls around and she comes walking back over. This time, one of the lesbians from across the way and her dog are with her. Block party. So they tell us that they want to go look into the camper to see what the situation is but are afraid to do so alone. Me, being drunk, decided to be the brave one and lead the search crew. Jenna at my side. We walk over there with our flashlights and shone them in. There was a Jack Russel on the bed which was walled with a bug screen (so he got fresh air). His teeth were barred and his hair stood up on his back. He was not happy at all that we were there.  Behind him (or her) there was a cage on the counter next to the bed. Inside were 4 Jack Russel puppies. And on the floor of the camper was a litter box and two black cats next to it. So what we thought  was one or two dogs ended up being 7 animals just left alone in this camper. According to the woman whose name escapes me, they had been inside for at least 8 hours, maybe longer. So we decided to call the police and see what they could do. 

Jenna did that while the lady and I walked around to the other campsites and let people know that the police would likely be showing up soon. Before we could make it back to our own site, a forest ranger showed up in her truck. Super nice lady. She asked us to go back to our sites and that she would handle this. She drew her weapon (I had no idea that they armed rangers) and her flashlight and started looking around the camper and trying the door - which was locked. Me and Jenna, the lady, and the lesbians all watched from our perspective sites. As the ranger looked around. Right as she was about to get back in her truck, a car pulled up next to the camper and a woman and a young man got out. Apparently it was their camper. They talked to the cop for a while then went inside and the barking stopped for the rest of the night.

A little while later, the lady whose name escapes me came back over to our site to gossip. Apparently she was really nervous that we had pissed off the people for calling the cops. We agreed not to tell them who called (Jenna) if asked and to just say that we were all really worried about them thinking that they were dead inside. The lady told us that she was newly divorced and was trying camping out as a new hobby. She didn’t want a lot of people to know, but she was solo camping. Trying to find her independence I guess. She was nervous now and said she was going to sleep in her locked car. We told her we had a huge tent and she was welcomed to stay with us, but she refused and said that defeats the purpose of her trip, but that she thought we looked nice and she wanted to let someone know she was alone and scared. I have so much respect for her. I wish I could remember her name. 

Jenna and I finished our dinner in peace and played music for a bit. We went to bed earlier than the night before (thank god) and got a great night’s sleep.  

We woke up the next day and just kind of took our time. I slowly started repacking our bags and bins and would take frequent and long breaks in between. We had done this trip so much better than the last time that I wanted to saber it. I decided that I wanted to brush my teeth and get myself ready for the repacking of the car and the drive home. 

While I was brushing my teeth, the lady that owns the dogs in the trailer came driving up to introduce herself to us and apologize for her animals. We explained to her that we were just concerned that there was a human in there that needed help. She explained that she was “on campus writing a paper all day” and that she would be again today but this time she was going to leave her adult son behind to watch over the animals. 

Needless to say, that was a strange encounter and we were sufficiently creeped out. Who goes camping when they have a paper to write? Who brings their adult son to campus to write a paper? We had so many questions but figured that most of them were better left unanswered. We quickly finished packing and just left before she came back 

Besides the neighbor drama and the really gross bathroom, this was a pretty good trip. Gear-wise, we really stepped it up and I am pretty proud of us. 

Get Outside, 

Stone

[kdenbibi]

Endless Chapter 1 Damian Wayne x Reader ( x various)

Summary: Gotham wildin’, you wildin’ and there’s definitely something off about that Damian kid.

Warnings : Cursing and relentless sarcasm. 

Authors note: Guy’s!!! This story is my brand new baby, if you enjoy it please let me know!!! Okay i’ll shut up please enjoy. :’) -Admin A

Little known fact, the best time of day in Gotham was before the sun rose, people were asleep, too busy dreaming to make noise and cause problems.

I can’t tell you how much of my life I’ve spent up here watching the day roll by me. Watching the sky change into different shades of grays, I sighed watching the puff of air escape my lips with a lazy smile. This was my happy place as cheesy as it sounded, no matter how crazy life got or if some weirdo with a god complex held the city hostage, I could always crawl up here and let go of it all for awhile. I closed my eyes leaning against the cold metal railing, trying to relax my mind, distract myself from the bubbling pot of anxiety in my stomach, I tapped my nails in anticipation, ever since I woke up this morning I’d been waiting for something to happen, I wasn’t sure if it was good or bad, I just knew it was big, life altering big. Usually I could tell what would happen but but not today, something was coming, and I knew I had to prepare myself for it. Why am I not brushing this off as a simple case of hebijebis? Well that’s because I know better than to ignore my gut.

 Ever since I can remember I’ve had some kind of help whenever something bad would happen, now I can see how it be confusing so let me elaborate as best as I can. The earliest memory I have of this ‘Helper’ if you will, was when I was five, it was actually my birthday and at my party these little assholes (who I was forced to invite mind you) decided they wanted to play a little trick on me, they put firecrackers in my cake disguised as candles, and as soon as my mom went to light them a haze of golden yellow light enveloped a glass of water next to me, it was like time slowed down and in that moment I somehow knew what to do, like a bat outta hell I dumped the water all over my cake much to the shock of everyone, as my mother lectured me I pulled out the fake candles and handed them to her. After that it kept happening, I used to call 'it’ Nadi for some reason, my child brain saw it as a helpful friend and it deservend a name. As I got older I learned it wasn’t some imaginary friend, it was some otherworldly force at bay keeping me out of trouble, and for a while only I knew about it, I figured I was one of those anime protagonists who get chosen to be special for no particular reason, it excited me, I had no idea the risks it came with.

 I found out though.

 Picture a tiny me, my hair in puffy buns sitting on my head, an avenger backpack on and not a care in the world, ah yes middle school when my biggest worry was making it to the lunch line early before the other Gremlins could get all the good food. Now usually after my classes let out I’d walk the short journey to my house, stopping for hot coco on the way at this little hole in the wall restaurant if it was particularly cold, and be on my merry way but this afternoon, something wasn’t sitting well with me, all day long I had the looming feeling of danger hanging over my head like a over filled balloon waiting to burst, I tried to ignore it, I really did, but it lingered in my mind, once I stepped foot out of my last class the hair on the back of my neck stood on end, goosebumps rose to my arms, I felt eyes lurking in every dark corner, my knuckles were white with how hard I gripped the straps of my backpack, the yellow light appear as it always did when I was in need, it swirled and pulled me back to the school but it was like my feet were glued to the ground, I looked up to see a man, just a few yards away, not moving, but staring, something told me he was responsible for my inability to move, just as a full blown panic attack began to appear, out walked my English teacher, her warm hand gently shaking my shoulder brought me back to reality, “(Y/n) honey, what’s wrong? You gotta talk to me sweetheart.” “I-I there’s a man and- ” I began to hyperventilate, unable to finish my sentence, I tried to point out where he was but he was gone, and so was the unnerving hold he had on me. “Hey- listen you can’t walk home like this how bout’ I give you a ride?” I nodded nearly snapping my neck with the force, I just needed to get away from there. As soon as I got home my teacher insisted on calling my mom, I didn’t want to worry her but I figured I owed her that much, ten minutes after the call was made and the situation was explained my mom burst through the door, her eyes wide with worry. After checking over me for injury’s she asked me what happened. “I dunno’ things were super weird all day, then some creepy guy showed up and then poof! He was gone and so was the bad feeling I’m okay Mama.” She chewed at her finger, nervously pacing around our small living room. “And you’re okay now?” “Mhm” I nodded half listening, most of my attention was on the TV. Unlike most kids my age the news caught my interest, there would always be some crazy story on. My mom quickly stepped in front blocking my view. “(Y/n) (L/N) you listen to me when I talk to you.” Oh god not the mom voice, she had all my attention now, she never used that voice on me, on my siblings sure but me? I was the good kid. She got down to eye level, laying her hands on my shoulders, “Listen to me baby, if this ever happens again you call me right away.” “Mama it’s okay, I talked to my teacher about it on the way home it was just an anxiety attack.” She sighed rising to sit next to me on the couch, “Tell me exactly what you were feeling.” I racked my brain trying to put it into words “I just.. I don’t know it felt on edge all day, like it was building up and then the lighting tried to take me inside but-” “A light? What light.” My throat instantly dried up, how could I tell her? She’s put me in Arkham if I told her the truth.“ "Is…is it a yellow light?” I snapped my head from the floor to meet her eye. “How’d- no way how’d you know?” She sighed, leaning back against the couch. “I guess I never thought I’d have to go through this with you.” Before I could question her she rose, then offered me her hand. “Well? Come on we have a lot to cover.” “Where are we going?” “Grandma’s.” A blaring alarm from my phone quickly snatched me from my memories. I checked the time, “Shit already?.” It was time to get ready, time to leave my little bubble of comfort and face reality. I shook a curl out of my face with a puff of frustration leaving my lips, of course I wasted my alone time going down memory lane, I rolled my eyes at myself, turning away from the city just now starting to wake itself up, after jiggling the door open I took one more glance at my safe place before rushing inside, I had a feeling this would be my last time up here for a while.

 I flicked a stray french fry between my hands, my lunch lost its appeal long ago, at this point I was waiting for my friends to wrap it up, half the day had gone by and I still had no clue what was coming, if only I could- “(Y/n) are you even listening to me?” “Huh-what yes, of course I am mhm.” I quickly rested my hand in my head with a smile. Dana squinted at me, “Oh yeah so what was I talking about?” I shrugged my shoulders, “Knowing you it was probably something about that Wayne kid and how he makes your heart flutter.” I finished with a laugh and a dramatic bat of my lashes. Her face flushed as our other friends laughed in agreement before going back to their conversations. She reached over and smacked my hand. “Shut the hell up he’s at the table behind you.” I snorted at her whisper yelling before clearing my throat “What? Who’s behind me?” I yelled earning another smack from the girl. “I’ll never understand why you’re so hung up on a guy like that.” She sighed tossing a braid behind her shoulder. “You wouldn’t get it, he’s got that mysterious bad boy who’s secretly a good boy with a heart of gold thing going on.” I snorted a laugh before turning around to look at said 'heartthrob’ Heavy on the quotations. He sat at the table next to his only, not to mention loud, friend, arms crossed, face locked in a perpetual 'Fuck off’ expression. His eye snapped up meeting mine , I turned around quickly after. “Sure he’s a pretty boy but if the insides ugly why bother?” She smacked her lips in shock “How do you know he’s not a nice guy?” I scoffed, raising my brow “Do you not recall any interaction anyone’s ever had with him? You’re the one who had to be his lab partner, and what did he say when you sat down to work?” She grumbled “He refused to work together and told me 'Let me do it, I’ve seen your grades.’.” “Exactly! nah man fuck outta here with that that 'holier than thou’ attitude.” I finished my rant with and angry bite from the French fry “Okay I don’t know why you’re gassing me like that, I just think he’s fine is all.” I nodded cleaning my hands on my uniform skirt. “Yeah, sure alright.” She threw a balled up napkin at my head, having saw it coming I grabbed it mid air. Dana pouted “I can never catch you off guard can I.” “The day you do that is the day Damian gets the stick out his ass.” We shared a laugh before the ringing bell demanded us back to our individual classes, as I rose I felt a wave of fear crash over me. I felt the familiar tug pulling my body, something was about to happen ,here  at school. With all these people. Shit. I closed my eyes and let the sensation pull me towards the back of the cafeteria, 'yikes alright (y/n) think, how to get these kids outta here fast, can’t exactly explain yourself so think quick.’ my eyes scanned the room before a glimmer of yellow pulled my focus, perched on the wall in the corner of the room was the bright red fire alarm, the yellow glimmer pulled me in like a magnet and I could tell by the rising panic in my chest I needed them out of here quick, there no way I  can get there in time with all these kids in the way. A bright idea popped in my head and before I could consider the embarrassment I was gonna face once this was over, I jumped on the nearest table. I heard Dana call out over the chatter of voices. “(Y/n) what the hell are you doing up there?!” I ignored her and made a break for the alarm, I hopped from table to table side stepping leftovers and garbage before finally reaching out and slamming down on the lever, instantly the sprinkler system poured down upon us. “Everyone run!” I screamed causing a chain reaction of panicked shouting, everybody in the room squirmed to get out over the blaring alarm and screams, all but me and Damian, who now stood on a table glaring at me through the water. He stormed over grabbing my arm and pulling me down from the table, nearly making me bust my ass on the slippery bench. “What the hell was that?” He yelled over the noise, trying to pull me back towards the doors leading back inside. “Listen to me we need to leave!” I yelled trying to tear my arm away from his iron grip. “You’re going straight to the principal’s office, you think you can get away with this?” He snarled down at me, I finally managed to rip myself away “I’m trying to help you asshole, if we don’t leave we could seriously get hurt- or die!” He rolled his eyes, the green really contrasted really nicely with the dark of his lashes - noW’S NOT THE TIME (Y/N)

“How would you know that?” He questioned, still trying to yell over the blaring alarm, by now the entire cafeteria was empty except for us. “You wouldn’t believe me of I told you.” “Try me.” I opened my mouth to answer when the doors we were headed to were kicked open. Faster than I thought humanly possible we were on the floor behind a pillar, our bodies we’re squashed together, his pressing mine against the wall, his finger silently pressed against his mouth, I nodded, to busy trying to remember how to breathe to talk.

In flooded a group of three men, all armed with something, all wearing cheap party city masks. “We have arrived!- wait where are the brats?” The one in the middle asked, “Fuck if I know it’s a Monday, they should be here.” The first guy stomped his foot in anger. “How are we supposed to get J’s attention if there’s no hostages to take eh?” He sounded like a toddler throwing a fit at Walmart, difference is usually Walmart toddlers don’t have guns. Damian drew my attention by bending down to whisper in my ear. “How many of them?” It took me a moment to respond, my throat had gone dry. Damn fear, damn pretty boy all close to my face.

“Three.” “Do they have weapons?” “Yes one has a gun the other two have bats.” “Where are they, be specific.” “Uh- uhm two by the snack bar and the gun guy is by the door.” He nodded eyes serious and calculating, to be honest it was kinda freaky how he was acting. “Stay here, no matter what you see.” Before I could voice my confusion he rolled his eyes “I’m serious, (y/n). Stay. Here.” His voice was too authoritative to argue with so I put my hand up in surrender. He nodded before. Crouching down and rolling off toward the guy with a gun, his back was facing me but the other two idiots were trying to figure out the vending machine. “Fuck this.” Thing 1 said taking his bat to the glass, all the while being cheered on by thing 2. This sudden distraction is what Damian was waiting for because like a bullet he launched his body at the man holding the gun, a swift punch to the neck send the guy down, his gun skirted away as he hit the ground. A cringe worthy battle cry left the throats of thing 1 and 2 as they charged Damian, I nearly ran out there before remembering his very strict warning. I watched Damian block and deflect their hits all while trying to stay balenced in the drenched room, my eyes frantically followed the fight trying to wrap my head around how this asshole rich kid could fight off three fully grown men and do it well. The yellow glow caught my eye directing me to the gun and the figure slowly crawling toward it. Without much consideration I leaped over a table grabbing a disregarded lunch tray along the way, as the man shakily raised his hand to aim at Damian I managed to whack down on his hand with the metal tray as hard as I could, his hand squeezed the trigger regardless of my hit but he managed to knock his buddy in the arm. I quickly brought the tray down on his head before he could rise up, then again for good measure. And once more for fun. When I looked up both goons were knocked unconscious, Damian stood above them, a cut in his cheek and a slightly busted lip but all in all he seemed okay. “What happened to staying still?” He panted out “Oh so your mad I saved you from a bullet hole, by all means next time I’ll let it happen if you so desire.” The corner of his mouth rose slightly before falling back down to it’s natural state. “How’d you know to pull the alarm.” I rubbed my arm quickly getting cold, my wet uniform clinging to my body providing no help there. “It’s hard to explain.” “I’ve got time.” “How about this, you tell me where you learned to fight like that and I’ll tell you how I know what I know.” He pursed his lips, letting his mind chew on my offer. “How about this, I don’t tell anyone about you, and you don’t tell anyone about me?” I snorted at his obvious avoiding of the question but stuck my hand out regardless.

“You got yourself a deal pretty boy.”