#which fox would go for the baseball bat

[palmettoshenanigans]

Someone suggested Aaron deserves a chance in a rage room but now I'm just wondering... what would every Fox be like if offered an hour in a rage room? Like I know those things usually give you options so like,,, what would they do?

[television-overload]

'sh-boom' (an X-Files fanfic)

Like usual, I caved and instead of leaving my "someone should write this" post be, I wrote it myself. I'll tag some people that expressed interest in this prompt below the fic! Shout out to @baronessblixen who already wrote the perfect Scully-accidentally-kisses-Mulder fic. You can read that here!

Now, for Mulder accidentally kissing Scully cause he dreams about her all the time.... takes place February 1998, mid-Season 5.

Read on Ao3

There’s a trick to fighting insomnia, Mulder had discovered. Not a cure, by any means, but an improvement, nonetheless. All you need is a super off-limits best friend you’ve fallen stupidly in love with, spend practically every waking hour of the day with her, and then spend the rest of your time thinking about her until your exhausted and delusional mind has mercy on you and blesses you with her presence in your unconscious state.

A foolproof plan, really. Scully had even noticed he seemed more well-rested and happier in the last few weeks, so something had to be working.

Although, there were—he had to admit—a few rather notable side effects.

Despite what others might tell you, Fox Mulder was not one to have trouble distinguishing between fiction and reality. Usually. But in his defense, his dreams were very, very vivid, and there had been a time or two that he’d referred to something Scully had said, only to realize at her blank stare that it was the figment of her in his imagination who’d said it.

“Must have been someone else I was talking to,” he’d awkwardly say, thankful that she kept her mouth shut about the fact that there was no one else he’d have such conversations with, and they both knew it.

He’d also been on the receiving end of more than a few raised eyebrows and patented “what is wrong with you?” looks, which were well-deserved for catching him staring even more than typical. Sure, he was sleeping better at night, but his brain was now trained to find restfulness when thinking about Scully, which was pretty much an all-day thing too. Sitting across from her in their isolated little office for extended periods of time made his eyes glaze over and eyelids droop halfway shut. Oh, the horror… he probably looked like a drunk idiot. He hoped he at least looked somewhat normal, not like a drooling dope with a dumb smile on his face who was clearly not having a productive day at work.

What would old doctor Pavlov have to say about this sorry scenario?

His consolation was that Scully already knew he was weird, and stuck around anyway, so he had no qualms against going home night after night and picking up where he’d left off in Scullyland the night before. Let’s see, he was just about to their son’s first little league baseball game, of which Mulder was the coach, of course. “Scully, don’t forget, we signed up to bring snacks for the team after the game.”

Behind closed eyes he saw her raise her arm to show him the already packed bag she was holding, an exasperated but loving look in her eye. “Always one step ahead of me,” he said fondly. With practiced ease, they danced around each other in the kitchen of a fairly unremarkable house, grabbing sunscreen, sunglasses, water bottles, keys… “Alright, sport, get in the car! Bus is leaving!” he called out, smiling as the sounds of little footfalls preceded the sight of his freckle-faced son, clad in shiny new baseball cleats.

“Got your glove?”

“Yep.”

“Your bat?”

“Yep.”

“Spitting tobacco?”

“Daaaad…”

“Mulder!”

“I’m just kidding, get in the car, will you? Coach Fox can’t be late, it’s unprofessional.”

“Wait I forgot my seeds!”

A minivan. Perfectly unremarkable. Admittedly, very comfortable, and spacious.

“Fox…” Scully mused with a shake of her head as she buckled her seatbelt.

“What? All the great baseball legends have weird nicknames. I just happen to have been born with mine.”

“The Great Bambino!” a little voice piped up from the back, glancing out the window as they ventured forth into the miles and miles of farmland.

“That’s my boy. ‘Oil Can’ Boyd. ‘Cool Papa’ James Bell. ‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson. Did you know Lou Gehrig’s teammates called him ‘Biscuit Pants?’”

A giggle from the back seat.

“Alright you’ve made your point.” He loved it when she used that voice, the one that meant she was tired of his antics, but not really. Of course she loved his senseless rambling. She did it too sometimes, albeit with a few more hyper-specific medical terms thrown in there, leaving him unable to do anything other than smile and nod.

When they arrived, they piled out of the van, the messy brown hair of his son—already sweaty somehow, by the way—disappearing into the dugout with a gaggle of other overexcited little boys. “Good luck,” Scully spoke as she planted a kiss on Mulder’s cheek and made her way to the stands, setting up a cushion and portable fan that were sure to be the envy of all the other parents.

The field smelled like grass and dirt and the leather of brand-new baseball gloves just waiting to be broken in. It was a smell straight out of his childhood, of those summer nights on the Vineyard getting eaten up by bugs under the bright lights of the baseball fields. The crack of a ball against a wooden bat. Coming home covered in sweat and dirt and with a kid sister in tow who insisted on playing with the boys.

It was in this dream state where he found peace. Not in the past, but in some amorphous future. A future where he had a family again, a loving home. Where he wasn’t a coward and had a beautiful wife and partner who somehow made everything work. They fought monsters. They went grocery shopping. They filed paperwork with Skinner. He coached little league. They drove to work together. They picked up their son from school.

Baseballs went flying. Teams celebrated their first win. Little boys were tucked into bed, and he kissed his wife goodnight. That’s just how it was.

It was freedom. A freedom he didn’t think he’d felt since his life changed with a flash of light.

In the morning, he’d wake in a haze. With his brain on autopilot, he’d amble about his apartment, brushing his teeth, making coffee, tying on a tie… Caught somewhere in between these worlds of make-believe and reality. It was a benefit of his eidetic memory, he supposed, to be able to remember his dreams and stay in them even after coming to consciousness. Didn’t work out so great when he had constant nightmares, but hey, now that’s been solved too.

Somewhere along his drive to work was usually when reality really set in. He tried to not let it bring him down too much—it was his own fault, after all, that his life bore little resemblance to that which revealed itself in dreams. But he couldn’t help the slight pangs of disappointment he felt when he thought of the lonely couch he slept on every night and the sad state of his fridge.

“Good morning, Mulder,” Scully called out her usual greeting as she breezed into the office.

Mulder’s head lifted off the desk where it had been laying. “Mm—morning.”

Scully chuckled, setting down her bag in her chair and working to remove her heavy coat which she hung on the coat rack. His dream may have taken place in the heat of summer, but it was unmistakably the dead of winter in Washington, D.C.

“Not get enough sleep?” she asked, her amused tone not entirely disguising the genuine concern she felt for him underneath.

“I slept fine,” Mulder answered, “just… still waking up.”

Scully shook her head and let out another low chuckle, taking her seat across from him. She pulled out a file from her bag and began scanning through it, the lamp next to her providing most of the light, as the cloud-covered sky through the skylight threatened to dump a heap of snow on the city.

The day went on like that. Mulder managed to actually get some work done, finalizing some paperwork he’d been putting off (to Scully’s exaggerated shock and disbelief). She, on the other hand, was working on going over some medical reports a field office had sent over for her expert opinion, something that flattered her and made Mulder bloom with pride.

He didn’t even mind that much that they didn’t have a case to work on at the moment. That was another thing that had changed since he’d started indulging in these dreams: he could sit still for five minutes without vibrating out of his skin.

Of course, he’d never stop yearning for the truth, wondering what was out there waiting for him to discover it. But lately, he also found he enjoyed these quiet days where barely a word was spoken between them. It was comfortable. Everything unspoken didn’t need to be said aloud because it was a given—they both knew without saying everything that could possibly be said.

Lunch?

Yes.

Can you hand me a pen?

Sure.

The winter sun set early, and night was well on its way by the time Mulder looked up from his work to check the clock. Sure enough: quitting time. He stood from his desk just as Scully did, making his way over to the coat rack to grab both his and Scully’s coats. She snapped her bag shut with a click as he handed it to her before slipping his arms into his own coat sleeves.

Scully fluffed her hair out from under the collar of her coat. Mulder flicked off the lamp. She draped her bag over her shoulder. He grabbed his own briefcase and circled around his desk toward the door.

“Night, Scully,” he spoke like he did every evening, dipping down to place a quick kiss goodbye on her lips.

He froze.

Lips still touching, he swore he felt his heart stop and his fingers go numb. Somehow amid all the blaring alarm bells and internal screaming, his brain was able to send the signal back away, you idiot! to the rest of his body, and he obeyed, straightening up to look at her with what he knew she recognized as his ‘panic face.’

The only light now was coming from the streetlamps in the parking lot and the gentle snowfall reflecting it down into the office, the dim yellowish light making it difficult to tell what she was thinking. A wiser man would say something, apologize, explain it away, even leave, dang it! Get out of there! But Mulder was frozen. And apparently mute. Just perfect.

The seconds ticked by. Was that clock always so loud? That was it, he’d really gone and done it now, hadn’t he?

A smile formed across Scully’s lips, barely visible in the darkness. She blinked up at him with an oddly relaxed look in her eyes, sparkling in the faint light.

“Night, Mulder,” she replied before patting him twice on the chest above his heart and turning to leave.

It must have been a combination of her words and her touch that eventually broke him from his stupor, because he finally blinked and managed to stumble back to his office chair only to collapse into it, covering his face with his hands and letting out a muffled scream.

What an idiot. What. An. Idiot.

This was the price he had to pay for his risky little endeavor to sleep through the night. Dreaming of Scully had a cost, he should have known it was only a matter of time. He was messing with the delicate balance of things. Mulder and insomnia, insomnia and Mulder. They went hand-in-hand. Trading it in for the much more pleasant musings he had for his partner was too good to be true.

He sat there in horrified, humiliated silence for what felt like hours before finally heading home to what would inevitably be an appallingly horrible night’s sleep.

-.-.-

Mulder hadn’t slept. At all.

He laid awake most of the night staring at the ceiling and mentally berating himself over and over for blurring the lines so much that he’d briefly forgotten he and Scully weren’t actually together. He had every intent to call out of work the next day, and maybe the day after that, every day until he could come up with something to say to make things less awkward between them the next time they’d see each other, but then Skinner called.

His stomach dropped to the floor when the words “I need to ask you something,” crackled through the phone, the gruff voice of his boss sending a chill down his spine. It turned out all Skinner wanted was for Mulder and Scully to check out some reported aquatic dinosaur sightings in a lake in central Kansas, but Mulder still felt dizzy from the adrenaline the initial words had sent coursing through his system.

Against his wishes, he was dressed and in a taxi to the airport before noon, realizing too late that he hadn’t eaten anything either.

As he entered the bustling terminal, he saw Scully standing near the check-in point, dressed in her sensible heels and no-nonsense suit, her suitcase resting on the ground near her tapping foot. She checked her watch and glanced up to the departures sign before scanning the crowd. He winced as her sight settled on him, and picked up the pace.

“Jeez, Mulder, you look awful,” she said by way of greeting.

“Sorry I’m late,” he spoke, hoping to divert any conversation away from what had happened the night prior.

She wasn’t so easily dissuaded, however. “What happened to you? Are you sick?”

It seemed he would have to say something after all. He settled for, “Haven’t had anything to eat.” There. That would throw her off his scent.

Scully’s eyebrows furrowed and she grabbed the handle of her suitcase, beginning to pull it in the direction of their gate. “Well, you can have the other half of my muffin, it’s in my purse.”

He said nothing after that, choosing to follow after her like a lost puppy. They made their way through the metal detectors and had just enough time to get to their gate before they were boarding.

True to her word, just as soon as they’d reached cruising altitude, Scully extracted half a blueberry muffin from her purse and placed it on the tray table in front of Mulder, who was leaning heavily on the wall of the plane, staring blankly out the window. He mumbled his thanks and ate it in 3 clean bites, feeling only slightly guilty for inhaling his food like that in front of her.

Sensing that he wasn’t in a talkative mood, Scully posed a one-word question. “Insomnia?”

Mulder leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes. “Yeah.”

“I thought it was getting better?”

“It was,” he answered, hoping she wouldn’t read into it.

Mulder sat up again, reaching for a book in his bag, but Scully’s hand on his shoulder stopped him. Gently, she pushed him back until he was resting again, forcing his head to the head rest with the soft touch of her hand over his brow.

“Sleep,” she said, pressing a kiss to his cheek.

-.-.-

After the rocky start to the day and the awkwardness on his end throughout the flight, Mulder came to the conclusion that Scully was acting perfectly normal, so he might as well do the same. Well, she had kissed him on the cheek, but that wasn’t unheard of, was it? They’d done that before. Sure, it was rare, but she was worried about him. Aside from that, it was as if nothing had even happened, and if Mulder had been just a little more crazy, he might have believed it had all been a dream after all. It wasn’t though, and the touch of her lips on his still burned when he thought about it.

Against his better judgement, on the first night in the motel in central Kansas, he decided to employ his, now patently risky, sleep technique. It didn’t help that his subconscious supplied him with dreams of a family road trip and motels just like the one he was staying in. It took everything in his power not to say, “Wake up, buddy, time to hit the road,” to an invisible—and sadly, impossible—son in the morning. Even harder was it to suppress the words “Morning, beautiful,” from escaping his lips when he first ran into Scully in the lobby.

She seemed appeased that he had actually gotten some rest, at least, when she saw him at breakfast. The day went on without issue. Things between them were… normal. Conditions: good. Weather: frigid. Why they were investigating a potentially cold-blooded creature in the middle of February was beyond him.

He suspected this case would turn out to be yet another wild goose chase. Nothing was living in that water except maybe a very cold and very large escaped alligator from a nearby run-down zoo. Unfortunately, his recent contentment with boring, unexciting cases didn’t seem to apply here. Or at least right now.

To his relief, the local law enforcement decided to handle it themselves and even had the presence of mind to sheepishly apologize for having them come all the way out there. Flights were booked for the next day, following an almost four-hour drive back to Kansas City.

When they arrived back at the motel, Mulder fished out his room key from his pocket and inserted it into the door to unlock it. At the next door over, Scully set her briefcase on the ground before crossing the distance to him right as he turned the handle, stalling him briefly in the doorway. She stood there just long enough to reach up for a quick peck on the lips, the kiss as brief as he had done two nights before.

“Wha—” he mouthed silently, interrupted by Scully’s easy, “Goodnight, Mulder,” leaving him gaping at her in the doorway, his hand still on the doorknob, as she went off to bed.

-.-.-

It was getting harder to tell fiction from reality, and that was tough for Mulder to admit. Scully smiled at him in the morning when she climbed in the passenger seat of their rental car, and for a moment Mulder felt the gnawing feeling that they’d forgotten to put their son in the backseat despite knowing he wasn’t real. He shook his head to clear his thoughts, but that could only help so much.

Her humming half the ride home was straight out of his dreams too, a happy sound that he hadn’t heard much in the months since Christmas and Emily. She even held his hand during takeoff on the plane, not that that was uncommon, but still.

When they finally touched down in the snow blanketed capitol city, she offered to drive him home rather than have him wait for a taxi out in the cold. He gratefully accepted, unable to come up with a valid excuse not to. That was when it happened again.

Once was a mistake. Twice was a fluke. Three times on the lips, and Mulder had some questions. Namely, was he going completely crazy, or did he miss something?

As she pulled up to his building, she put the car in park and stretched across the center console to give him yet another kiss, finishing it with a smile and a, “See you tomorrow, Mulder.”

Unable to tear his eyes away from her lest she fade away like his dreams, Mulder fumbled for the door handle and pushed open the car door, stumbling his way to his feet.

“See you tomorrow,” he managed to respond, in a voice that he felt wasn’t his own.

He started his way toward the entrance to his building in a daze, screeching to a halt when he heard her call out, “Mulder!” through the opened passenger window.

He turned back, croaking out a very eloquent, “Huh?” as he searched for her face in the dark car interior.

“You forgot your bags.”

Oh.

Scully chuckled and popped the trunk for him. He rubbed his hand awkwardly over the back of his neck and trudged his way back to the car to retrieve his possessions, slamming the trunk shut when he was finished. Scully gave a wave out the window and took off into the night, and for a second night in a row, all he could do was stand there and blink in the direction she had disappeared.

-.-.-

Calling out of work would be useless, it wouldn’t help the issue at all. He was more confused than ever, but Scully seemed to be perfectly fine, so it must be his own problem. What if he’d somehow manifested his dream life into his waking one, that by some mystical force, certain elements of it were slipping through into reality? He could open an X-File. Test out his powers of manifestation—if he didn’t completely lose his grip on reality in the process.

In his dream last night, they’d celebrated her birthday, and now he couldn’t remember if they’d already done so, or if he ought to get started on planning something in real life. What day is it again? It was driving him crazy. Crazier than usual.

He would just have to talk to her. Ask her what was up with all the kissing, not that he minded. But was that actually happening? Was he imagining things? If he brought it up, would they go back to what it was like before? Would it get worse? What if he kissed her again? This time on purpose?

Every time he went to say something, his mouth opened and no sound came out. He was sure she’d notice at some point. How embarrassing. Hours ticked by, and before he knew it, it was the end of the day. An epic fail, as far as his attempt to talk to her went.

He stood from his desk with a sigh, resigned to another day of confusion tomorrow, and started toward the door with his bag and coat in tow.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” her voice called from behind him, and there she was, standing by his desk, arms crossed expectantly over her chest. That eyebrow. That darn eyebrow was doing its thing too, what does she mean by that?

“Scully?” he asked, brain tired and worn out from a tumultuous week.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” she asked again, uncrossing her arms and shifting in that way that exposed her well-masked nervousness. It was the first sign he’d seen that he wasn’t losing his mind, this really was unusual. And she knew it too.

Eyebrows furrowed, he walked toward her until he was standing right in front of her, desperately trying to read her expression as he looked down at her. Her eyes met his with determination, deliberately holding eye contact when every cell in his body screamed Danger! Run away! There was hope there, too, but Mulder didn’t want to guess what that hope might be for. This was not the moment for guessing.

She was still looking at him expectantly, though, and he couldn’t think of anything else.

Slowly, giving her plenty of time to move away or shoot him if he’d read the situation wrong, he bent toward her, placing one hand over her elbow and the other brushing lightly over the hair covering her ear. Her eyes fluttered shut and her breathing hitched, and there! She was leaning forward too! Not quite standing on tiptoes, but stretching to meet him, nonetheless.

Taking this as a good sign, he closed the rest of the distance between them and pressed his lips to hers, holding them there for one, two, three, four, five seconds before pulling back and letting his arms drop to his sides. His eyes remained tightly shut, afraid to open them and see the disgust or annoyance that would surely greet him.

He swallowed past a lump in his throat, his face pinched in concern, but he dared not move. After a moment, he felt two hands cup his cheeks on either side, the thumbs brushing out the lines of tension around his eyes. Something about the motion coaxed his eyes open, and what he saw wasn’t disgust or annoyance, but a content and relieved smile on the face of his partner.

He was entranced.

“Goodnight, Mulder,” she spoke softly, the same words from the other nights, but with a considerable amount of weight that hadn’t been there before. After a moment more, she began to pull away, and Mulder felt his heart stutter. Without thinking, he stopped her, grabbing her by the upper arms and pulling her to him. His eyes fell shut again as he dove toward her lips, stopping short by a few inches and pressing his forehead to hers instead.

“What is this?” he whispered, desperate to know, needing to put a name to it.

She let out a breathless laugh. “I was hoping you’d tell me.”

“Am I dreaming?”

She laughed again, and man, what he would do to hear that sound every day for the rest of his life.

“I just thought you’d decided to institute a new goodbye ritual, and went with it.”

It was Mulder’s turn to smile in amusement. He hummed.

“No, I’ve dreamt of this,” he murmured, nuzzling her forehead with his. “I thought I was going crazy.”

“If you are, then what does that make me?”

“I don’t know. If not crazy, then what other option is there?”

Reaching to cup the back of his neck, she pulled him ever closer, her next words brushing against his cheek. “I can think of something.”

His eyes opened to see her staring back at him, a flood of emotions he wasn’t sure he could name dancing there, reflecting identical ones in his own. Uncertainty gave way to resolve, and he hoped she would lend him some of hers, because he would surely need it.

He knew it was coming, and still it blew him away.

This time, her kiss was slow… purposeful. He melted into her, pulling her closer with an arm clutching to her waist and the other hand splayed across her shoulder blade.

The fog in his brain prevented him from determining how much time passed, but eventually they had to come up for air, identical smiles gracing their faces.

“I think I know what this is, Mulder, and I think you feel the same way. But if I’m wrong, this is going to be really awkward.” Her words were spoken with laughter, but there was an underlying sense of doubt. Doubt that by no means had any place there.

“No, I think you’re right,” he answered, cupping her cheek with his hand. “I think you’ve got it figured out.”

Her eyebrow went up again and a teasing smile played on her lips. “Can I get that in writing, or…”

He grinned and pulled her to him once more. “Oh, shut up.” And he kissed her.

---

Tagging @agent-troi @welsharcher @hippocampouts @invidiosa @whovianelle @captainsolocide @randomfoggytiger @today-in-fic

[daintylovers]

Young Loves

1.1 Wolf Moon

Teen Wolf x Aurora Young (oc)

A/N: Yay!! Another Teen Wolf Rewrite! But, this one comes with a twist. There isn't a set love interest because if I was in the Teen Wolf universe, I would be trying to slut myself out. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it!

"Stiles why can't you just knock on his door like a normal person," I said, already preparing for Scott to lose his mind at Stiles' antics.

"Because, Rory, he needs a good scare before I can convince him to come with us."

Sighing, I made my way behind Scott's front porch, crouching down enough to be hidden.

I hear Scott open his front door, and I can see he has a goddamn baseball bat in his hands. Super, I can't wait to get bashed in the head by my paranoid friend.

The wind brushes against the leaves right next to me, causing Scott to spin around frantically, and bat in the air. Looking up, I can see Stiles preparing to scare his friend to death.

Scott begins to get close to us, so Stiles jolts himself down from his hanging position on the roof. Two pairs of lungs scream themselves raw in a second flat.

Becoming aware that he knows the figure hanging upside down, Scott exclaims, "Stiles, what the hell are you doing?"

"You weren't answering your phone," I say, popping up front my position on the ground. Though, I should have thought that through because the next thing I know, the bat gets swung in the air, directly at my face.

Now three pairs of lungs scream through the air before Stiles pushes his free hand toward the bat coming for me. Losing his balance, his body flies toward the ground, while Scott takes stock of who he is about to maim.

"Rory! Seriously guys what the fuck!"

Getting up, Stiles offers his hands to help me up. Brushing ourselves off, we turn to face the bat-wielding manic.

"Wait, why do you have a baseball bat?" Stiles questions.

Scott looks to his newfound weapon of choice, then back to us, "I thought you guys were murderers or something!"

Scoffing, Stiles doesn't hesitate to get to the point, "Alright well whatever. Listen to this, I know it's late but I saw my dad leave like twenty minutes ago. Dispatch called in a body!"

Shrugging his shoulders, Scott looks uninterested.

"Stiles, please slow down and learn how to tell a story," I begin, "look, they called in every officer. Two joggers found a dead body in the woods."

Scott, being the intelligent young man he is, shrieks, "A dead body?!"

I look to Stiles, whose eyes almost pop out of his head at Scott's question. Not being able to help himself, he says, "No a body of water- yes dumbass a dead body!"

Not having it, Scott asks, "Well if they already found the body, then what exactly is everyone looking for?"

Stiles' lips split into a shit-eating grin, this was exactly what he was waiting for. "That is the best part!... They only found half."

Scott raises his eyebrows, then turns his attention to me. Knowing his question, I answer, "He's dragging us out to go find it."

****

Scott already isn't having it.

"Scott you're the one always bitchin' about how nothing ever happens in this town!"

Tagging onto Stiles, I say, "Yeah, remember how just last week you were wishing that Jennifer's Body was real!"

"Rory, I only wished that because Megan Fox is hot, not because I want the ritual sacrifice to be happening in our woods," Touche "Also, which half of the body are we even looking for?" Touche again.

Stiles stops, and then comforts us by saying, "Actually, I didn't think about that."

Feeling butterflies start to erupt in my stomach, I ask, "What if whoever killed the person is still out here?"

"Also something I didn't consider" Oh god, I might vomit.

Scott says something but I don't hear it. Instead, the blood rushing to my head drowns out most things as we continue our trek through the woods.

Noticing how quiet I've become, Stiles wraps a hand around my wrist, effectively pulling me to a stop. Also allowing Scott to catch his breath. "Hey, Rory, it's okay," he tries comforting me, "If the guy is still out here, you have Scott and I to protect you."

Locking eyes with him, I laugh a little, "Yeah, my heroes. The severe asthmatic and an ADHD nightmare."

Taking mild offense Stiles replies, "Hey, I could totally protect you! You are five foot nothing and probably weigh ninety pounds soaking wet. Alright, all I'd have to do is throw you over my shoulder like a bag of sugar and be on my way." Sometimes it's nice when boys are stupid.

I laugh again, a little more sincere than last time, then start walking, letting him know I was fine to keep going. However, I don't get very far before I get pushed to the forest floor by both boys. Then they both crash down beside me as I spot flashlights in the distance.

The lights start to go further into the woods, so Stiles clambers to his feet, yanking me along with him, "Come on!"

We don't get far before we hear Scott call out for us. Stiles and I stop and turn around, looking for our friend, but a branch breaking quickly pulls our attention back to its previous position. Then, a bright light beamed into my retinas, burning my vision, as I was once again pulled down by Stiles. To make matters worse, I hear a dog getting scarily close to biting my face off.

"Hang on- I know these little delinquents." and I know that voice.

Stiles helps me up, as I meet his father's eyes. "Dad, hey, how are you?"

"So, do you listen in on all of my phone calls?"

"Well, no. Not the boring ones." Yikes

"Hello to you Rory."

I give him a sheepish wave. He just laughs and then shines his light past us, towards Scott's direction, "Where's the final partner in crime?"

"Who, Scott? He's at home, resting up before school tomorrow. Yeah, no, it's just us here, all alone, in the woods, at night." Oh god, kill me now

Mr. S just looks at me for confirmation, knowing how amazing with words his son can be. "He's right, Scotts at home."

He takes my words as truth and wraps an arm around my shoulders. "Alright, well I am going to walk you guys to his car. And then Stiles, you and I are going to have a fun little conversation about privacy."

****

"We should go back and find him," I say, picking at my cuticles.

Stiles lightly smacks my hands, bringing my nervous habit to a stop. "Rory, he's fine. He said he was already on his way home. Besides, I need to get you home."

Not listening I argue back, "Stiles, we were out there looking for a dead body. What if tomorrow, it's Scotts we are looking for, not just some random."

"Aurora, Scott is fine." With that final statement, he turns up the volume and puts his hand on top of mine. We drive home with him moving his thumb across my knuckles for comfort.

We don't say anything until he pulls into my driveway. "I can stay with you for a little if you're still a little shaken up." he offers.

"I'll be okay. Besides, your dad will kill you if he's home before you are."

He lets out a tiny laugh and nods his head, "Yeah, you aren't wrong. Hell, I could be the next body out in the woods."

"There's the spirit, Stilinski," I say, reaching for the door handle. I step out and close my side of the door, before making my way around the car to the driver's side. Standing on the tips of my toes, I lean into the rolled-down window. "Well, thanks for the ride home. Good luck with your dad, and I'll see you tomorrow."

He offers me a small smile and motions his head to the door, You are welcome, as always. Now please get inside because it's cold and you aren't any fun when sick."

Rolling my eyes, I make my way to my front door, keys already in hand. Once I unlock it, I push the door open slightly before turning to wave goodbye. Stiles waves back, so I step inside and lock the door behind me.

While I get ready for bed, I still keep thinking about Scott. So I text him, asking if he got home safe, before putting my phone on the charger.

It isn't until 1, that I finally fall asleep. Only after Scott returned my text, which is weird considering Stiles had said he was already on his way home when we were also on our way home. That fucking liar.

****

"Alright, let's see this thing!" Stiles says, too excitedly for how early it is.

Scott had texted us this morning, telling us to meet him in front of the school before class to "show us something life-changing". I knew he was being dramatic, but Stiles was shaking with anticipation.

Lifting up his shirt, Scott shows us a massive bandage covering most of his side. Stiles tries to touch it, but Scott jerks away, "I'm not sure what it was, but if I had to guess, I would say a wolf bit me."

Stiles laughs in his face, and Scott visibly deflates. "Why are you laughing? I know it was a wolf because I heard a wolf howling."

"No way."

"No way- what do you mean no way?"

I chime in, "Because wolves haven't been in California for like fifty years."

Stiles corrects me, "Sixty, wolves haven't been in California for sixty years. But thanks for remembering my wolf phase Rory." How could I forget? For a whole year in fourth grade, Stiles latched onto wolves and learned everything he possibly could about them. If he learned something, he shared it, so I always learned something too.

Scott shakes his head, "Whatever, if you guys don't believe me about the wolf, then you definitely won't believe me when I told you I found the other half of the body."

"Are you kidding?" Stiles yells.

"No, I'm gonna have nightmares about it for months."

Stiles starts to ramble about how exciting this is while I search the crowd for my other best friend. Noticing her, I give Scott and Stiles a goodbye, before joining Lydia, our school Queen B.

As much as I love those nerds, I also love my girlfriends. Linking arms, Lydia and I made our way up the steps, as I tried to stop thinking about dead bodies and wolves.

****

At the end of the school day, Lydia introduces me to "our" new best friend Allison. The aforementioned girl is tall with great brunette hair and matching doe eyes. She's pretty, breathtakingly so, which I can acknowledge will probably become a problem for me. I can't help it, brown puppy dog eyes are my biggest weakness.

I introduce myself, and we engage in small talk briefly before I notice my other friends gawking from across the hall. Scott practically has drool seeping down his chin as Stiles talks to Harley, one of our classmates.

Zoning back in, I notice Jackson has joined our trio. However, Allison is trying desperately to not watch lacrosse practice. She turns to me for help, "Are you going too?"

I grimace and answer, "Yeah, Lydia will kill me if I don't. But also, my ride home is on the team."

Lydia smiles triumphantly and walks hand in hand with Jackson to the field. Giving Allison a smile, I link our arms together and drag her along, "Don't worry, it's not that boring. Besides, Lydia has to catch you up on Beacon Hills lore." That gives me a laugh from the pretty girl and I feel my heart flutter.

Once we find seats in the bleachers, Lydia joins us, and practice begins. I notice pretty quickly that Scott is in goal, which makes me feel like a proud mother. But that feeling turns to mild jealousy as Allison asks, "Whose in goal?"

"Scott, he's one of my friends."

"Oh, he's in my English class"

The coach's whistle cuts her off, and we watch as the boy gets knocked in the head by a ball. I try to stifle my laugh but when Stiles turns around we make eye contact and I break into hysterics. Allison starts laughing at my laugh, and I can't deny that I'm glad her attention to back toward me.

Though Scott wins again when he manages to catch the next ball, and the next after that. Jackson matches my jealousy as he tries to pump-fake Scott. But he is unsuccessful since Scott has suddenly become a decent player?

No way he got that good overnight.

****

"I don't know what it was, it was like I had all the time in the world to catch the ball."

Scott currently has Stiles and I trudging through the woods, retracing last night's steps as he rambles on about practice. As if Stiles and I weren't watching the entire time.

"Plus, I hear things that I shouldn't be able to hear. And smell things that I shouldn't be able to smell."

"Oh really," I start, "like what?"

"Like your heart beating really fast and the cherry vanilla perfume you're wearing." Oh!

Stiles and I share a glance, then he asks, "So all of this started with the bite?"

He continues, "Wait, I've heard of this thing before. It's a specific kind of infection."

Scott immediately stops and whips around to face us, "Are you serious?"

"Yeah, yeah, it's called lycanthropy." This asshole...

Though I'm no better, "Yeah, I know what you're talking about. It gets in your bloodstream and then manifests itself once a month. Every month. On a full moon." Stiles finishes up with a howl and Scott looks like he wants to murder us.

"Hey, you did say you heard a wolf last night." I reason.

"That's not funny Rory, there could be something seriously wrong with me."

Stiles continues, oblivious to our friend's fears, "Well duh, you're a freaking teenage werewolf!" Scott scoffs at him. "Okay- I am clearly kidding. But if you see me in shop melting all the silver I can, it's because there is a full moon on Friday."

Scott stops and begins looking around for his inhaler, the sole reason we are back out here. "I could have sworn I dropped it here."

Stiles drops down with Scott and the pair begin to dig around. Not willing to crouch down while wearing a skirt, I watch them fumble around before feeling eyes on me. I spin around and shriek immediately. About 12 feet away, stands a creep in all black, just staring at us with a blank expression.

Both boys immediately come flying up, Scott placing himself in front of me and Stiles angling himself to be a little bit behind me, but also curling around my side.

Creeper stalks toward us and asks, "What are you doing here? This is private property"

Scott answers, "Sorry man, we didn't realize. We were just looking for something."

In the blink of an eye, creeper tosses something at Scott who manages to catch it flawlessly. The creeper then turns around and walks away, as Scott reveals the exact item we were just looking for.

"Do you guys know who that is?" Stiles questions, but after receiving nothing he continues, "That was Derek Hale, from the Hale house fire a couple years back. Dudes only a couple years older than us, and his whole family like burned to death."

We continue walking and I know that Scott and Stiles are talking but I can't quite focus on their words.

I turn my head back one last time and can see Derek watching us still. Almost like he was waiting for something. Or someone.

****

Stiles meets up with me before practice, telling me some of the worst news ever.

They tested the body and found animal hairs on the body. That animal is a fucking wolf.

Stiles could barely get the words out before pulling me in for a quick hug, saying goodbye, and running to find Scott.

I can barely process the information before Allison finds me in a dazed state.

"Guess who has a date for Friday?" Oh great, more bad news.

"Is it me? Is this your plan to ask me to go with you to the party?" I laugh and see her smile get wider.

"No, but I promise to save you a dance. Scott actually asked!" She's so excited that I can't even hate Scott for a second. "I think he's really cute."

"Yeah. in a kicked puppy dog kind of way."

"Could you, possibly put in a good word for me? If not, that's totally fine, I don't want to make anything awkward." She's so sheepish that I cave in.

"Ally, of course I will. Don't worry, he asked me to do the same." This is true, and now I felt like a bad friend for not following up on the request. At the end of the day, I would rather them both be happy with each other than lose a friend while trying to date another.

The crowd starts cheering rather loudly, ceasing our conversation. I notice that the star of the hour is the cause of commotion. Scott is pulling out tricks I've only ever seen a gymnast achieve. What. The. Fuck.

It's like Stiles and I share the same brain, as he turns and meets my gaze. Scott just made the first line out of nowhere and suddenly the little werewolf joke doesn't feel all that comical.

****

"How much Adderall have you had today?" Scott questions.

"A lot- but that doesn't matter. Alright, what matters is that the little joke Rory and I made the other day? Yeah, not so little anymore okay. She and I have been searching for hours and you'll never guess what we've found."

Scott looks to me for confirmation and I just nod my head. His expression turns to anger and he says, "Are you guys seriously wasting my time with this? I have to pick up Allison soon!"

He turns to leave but I beat him to the door, blocking his exit. "Scott, please just let us explain. Okay, what we saw on the field today, was great. Too great. I know you practiced this summer, but this is completely out of left field." He just scoffs but turns to Stiles when he starts talking.

"Plus, the hearing and the smelling from the other day? It can't be a coincidence. And I'm sorry but your date with Allison tonight, yeah, no freaking way is that happening. You know why, the full moon is tonight."

Scott looks ready to bash Stiles's head in, which matches up with our werewolf research. Bloodlust is apparently a thing, and I do not want to be around when Scotts kicks in.

Stiles voices my concerns aloud to our fuming friend.

Things take a scary turn when Stiles tries to get Scott's phone to cancel on Allison.

"Goddamnit Stiles give it to me!" Scott explodes, slamming Stiles into the wall. The action has me frozen in fear, waiting for his next move. Scott clenches his fist and goes to punch him, but stops when he watches his best friend's face scrunch up in fear. He turns around and focuses his anger on the chair, knocking it back with enough force to have it collide with my shins. On impact I fall onto the bed behind me, thanking god I didn't just fall and hit my head against the floor instead.

Scott meets my eyes, and I can feel the regret coming off him in suffocating waves. He goes to help me up and stops when I flinch rather harshly.

"I'm- I'm so sorry Rory," then he looks at Stiles, his face morphing into the personification of guilt, "I'm sorry, both of you. But I really have to go."

As soon as he leaves, Stiles hits his head against the wall, making me flinch once again. Tired of feeling helpless, I get up and move the chair into an upward position. Once I finish, I can't help but let out a gasp. Stiles is behind me in an instant, eager to see what I'm seeing.

There it is, proof that we aren't crazy.

Three fucking slashes, from a werewolf's claws.

****

Stiles and I arrive at Lydia's together but quickly lose each other once the redhead finds me.

For the next hour or so, I lived like everything was totally normal.

But of course, it doesn't last very long.

Allison, bless her heart, ruins my buzz when she comes crashing towards me. "Rory, Scott just left. Like completely vanished, and when I tried to follow him, some older guy offered to give me a ride and said he knew Scott. I told him sure, but that I had to get my friend inside too cause she needed a ride. Please come with me so I don't get kidnapped alone."

"Ally, why didn't you just tell him no?"

"Because he was kind of cute, plus I figured you might like him."

It was terrible reasoning on her part, but nevertheless, I let her drag me outside and into the cold night.

She pointed out his car almost immediately and I felt my stomach sink rapidly.

There in all his creepy glory, was Derek Hale. The same guy from the woods.

To Ally's credit, he was cute. If this was different circumstances, I would have been excited to ride in his car. But now I felt like throwing up.

Against my better judgment, I let Allison drag me into the back seat of the shiny black sports car.

Stiles was going to kill me when he found out.

****

"What the hell were you thinking?!" Stiles exclaims.

He was driving me home after almost breaking down Allison's door to figure out if I was alive or not.

"I'm sorry, but I couldn't let Ally get in the car by herself. And she has a really strong grip."

"God, Rory, if you ever do something so blindly stupid like that again, I swear I will handcuff you to your bedframe so you can never put yourself in danger again, got it?"

I gave him a sheepish, yes, too exhausted by the day's events to argue with him.

For the remaining time we have, he tells me about his night's events. Including the confirmation of the goddamn supernatural.

That's right folks, Scott's actually a fucking werewolf.

****

A/N: AAAAHHH I did it! Omg it took way longer to write than I thought it would. Let me know your thoughts and thank you so much for reading!

Lots of love,

dainty

[randomfoggytiger]

"He Had Parents Who Loved Him"

(Fictober, Day 17)

Today's prompts (curtesy of my younger sister~) are: pitch, hash browns, and nightmare.

Wherein I attempt to humanize Bill Mulder; who, I believe, was a decent father before Samantha's abduction.

*****

“Fox, did you ever play baseball with hash browns?”

If there was an award for having the dumbest little sister in all of the United States, Fox Mulder figured he would have won it by now. Maybe it just takes a while to get through the postage. 

The Mulder family was entrenched in various claimed places on the couch, eyes glued to the screen as the Red Sox progressively lost their newest game. Fox sat scrunched between his father and his sister, half-listening to his mother’s house slippers glide to and from the kitchen in her ever-increasing search for tasks that kept her away from the tv set. “I’ll never understand your father’s fathomless loyalty,” she'd said once, shaking her head as she mopped up her son’s latest spill, “He seems to like watching other people lose….” The implied too was left off; but it itched away at Fox's brain for years.  

“Fooooooooooooooooox--”

“Stop yelling over the game, Samantha,” their dad cut in, admonishing her over the top of his son’s head. When she continued to mumble and started to wriggle, he sighed and nudged Fox. “Move over, son. I’ve got a problem to solve.” 

Both kids were delighted: Samantha launched at her father while chanting “Solve me! Solve me!”, and Fox giddily slid over, delightedly hogging the whole end seat to himself. 

Mom's slippers glided in. “Solve what, dear?” she asked, distributing the latest round of drinks and calling her son’s attention to the straw in his glass. Message received: no more spills on the living room rug. 

“Daddy’s going to solve me!” 

Fox felt his mother’s hand, which had been wiping the ketchup off his cheek, flinch. But by the time he looked up nervously, she was smiling reproachfully at the others, more amused than anxious. He must have imagined it. 

“You two,” she chuckled, dodging her husband’s inviting hand as she passed, yet again, out of the room.  

“You have to solve me, Daddy!” Samantha chanted, thrilled with this new game. 

“Sam, we’re watching baseball, not talking about hash browns,” Fox snapped, annoyed that she was monopolizing everything. Again.

Their father was always gone-- on the road, on a plane, or just plain gone-- and Samantha knew this-- wanted to be a fairy for Halloween so she could use her magic wand to wish he'd stay forever and ever and ever-- and yet she was wasting important, precious time with her useless questions.

“Fox, settle down. We’ll keep it quiet.”

Which wasn’t the point. 

“No one plays baseball with hash browns, sweetheart, because it would be too messy. You know how carefully Fox and I clean our gloves? Our shoes? Our gear?” At each question, Samantha nodded furiously. “Well, if someone tossed a hash brown to home base at ninety miles an hour--”

“Nine-tee miles?” she whispered, amazed.

Fox snorted.  Of course ninety miles.

“Yes, ninety miles an hour-- then there’d be cooked potato everywhere: on the bat, on everyone’s shoes, on all the gear, and likely all over the stadium. And if Fox were playing, your mom would be in one of those stadium seats with us--”

“And she hates getting dirty, right, Daddy?” 

"That's right. And we wouldn't want her mad on your brother's big day, now would we?"

Beaming uncontrollably with the faith his father placed in him, Fox burst from his seat, practically yelling in his excitement. "I'll be the best ball player they've seen in fifty years, Dad! And everyone will be yelling 'MULDER! MULDER!'-- and all the loser pitchers and slow pokes will watch me run right by them, feeling like they're caught in a nightmare because they can't catch--"

"Fox!” His mother's slippers glided in for the sixth time that afternoon; and she surveyed, with appalled dignity, her son stomping enthusiastically, mid-narration, on the forgotten couch pillows dumped unceremoniously on the floor. “Just what is going on here?” 

“The Sox are losing, Teena,” Dad said, waving them both back to the couch. “Fox’s just giving 'em tips."

"Well, he can give them tips without making a ruckus about it. Now Fox, come sit back down and finish the game."

He didn't bother to remind everyone that all his adoring fans would be screaming Mulder-- not Fox-- while he hit home run after home run.

Yet.

But he really wanted to.

The rest of the game passed without much comment; but, as Fox soaked in the warmth of a Mulder family moment, he decided that-- maybe-- Samantha's silly little question hadn't been such a big deal, after all.

*****

Thank you for reading~

Enjoy!

Tagging @today-in-fic and @xffictober2023 and @fictober-event

[trashyswitch]

Jeremy's Welcome Home Gift

Jeremy is trying to survive another night in the Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria. The one animatronic he's really nervous about, is the broken white fox. But Jeremy is caught off guard when they both tell him about a 'Welcome Home Gift' they have for the new security guard.

This fanfic was suggested by an anonymous user. I hope you enjoy! :D

Jeremy was at the office, keeping an eye on Mangle. The confusing mess of animatronic limbs and pieces was crawling around in the vents, trying to get to Jeremy. 

Jeremy kept an eye on the vents, and put on the mask as he waited for Mangle to leave. While he waited, he stared at Mangle with his flashlight on. He stared, and stared, and stared some more…hoping that it would give Mangle the idea to turn around and leave the vents. 

He looked at his watch to see the time. 

[3:00] 

He waited patiently for the vent sounds to occur. Surely Mangle will be getting bored by this point…right?

CLANG, CLANG, CLAng, clang-clang…

Jeremy sighed quietly and took the Freddy mask off of his face. He put the Freddy mask back onto the desk in front of him. He looked in the vent, and noticed how empty it looked now. He smiled to himself a bit as he turned off the flashlight. He went to the cameras and turned the music box, before going back to checking the vents on either side of him. 

He looked to the left vent and turned on his flashlight. 

The left vent was completely clear. 

He looked to the right vent, and turned on the flashlight. 

The right vent was completely clear. 

He looked towards the middle vent and turned on his flashlight. 

The middle vent was clear. 

He let out a breath of relief and turned off his flashlight. Everything was gonna be okay. Everything was gonna be fine. He looked at his watch. 

[3:30] 

W-Wait…How is this clock showing a half an hour time? Doesn’t this clock normally only change every hour? And how low is the music box-

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” 

Something screamed in front of him, and tackled him to the ground. Jeremy screamed and tried to fight off the metal thing that was on top of him. He used his flashlight as a baseball bat, bashing it across the metal head. Each time the flashlight landed on its head, the animatronic squawked and looked at Jeremy with its single orange eye. 

“GET OFF ME!” Jeremy shouted, smacking it with the flashlight again. He could feel the plastic flashlight cracking and breaking with every hit…so he stopped hitting him and instead, started blinking the flashlight rays into the animatronic’s eye. 

The animatronic let out an ear-shrieking scream at Jeremy right into the flashlight’s rays, before slapping the flashlight right out of Jeremy’s hands. The flashlight flew away and hit the wall really hard, crashing into pieces of plastic and glass. Jeremy yelped and moved out of the way of a strong punch, which made a huge hole in the checkered ground underneath him.

“Uh- WHITE FOXY!” Jeremy yelled. 

The fox animatronic screamed in his face. 

“I…POP? Pile Of Parts?” Jeremy asked. 

The fox animatronic screamed into his face yet again. 

“M-Mangled robot?” Jeremy asked. 

The animatronic stared at the security guard. Jeremy widened his eyes as he noticed the two animatronic’s lack of a reaction. “...Robot?” Jeremy asked. 

The bigger animatronic head squawked at him again. 

Jeremy squeezed his eyes shut and turned his head away. “M...Mangled?” Jeremy asked. 

The mess of animatronic parts looked at Jeremy with both its heads. The fox head stared at Jeremy, while the endoskeleton head nodded its head. 

“Mangled?” Jeremy asked. “Mangle?” He asked next, dropping the ‘d’ in Mangled. 

The endoskeleton head nodded again. 

Jeremy sighed. “Okay. So you have a nickname.” Jeremy said, looking away. 

“Yes.” The animatronic started to speak. “I wanted to wait until just the right moment to drop in.” Mangle told him.

Jeremy turned his head in front with shock on his face. “You-You can talk?!” Jeremy reacted. 

Mangle giggled at his reaction while the endo-head rolled its eye. 

Jeremy groaned and laid his head down. “So tell me this:” Jeremy lazily lifted up his index finger. “Am I going to die tonight?” Jeremy asked. 

Mangle looked at Jeremy…and then looked at the endoskeleton head. The endoskeleton head and the fox head looked at each other for a couple seconds, looking completely confused. Then, the two heads narrowed their eyes and opened their jaws…almost like they were smiling mischievously. 

The fox head and the other head then turned to look at Jeremy with their narrowed eyes. Jeremy stared at the fox head, before looking at the endo-head…then back at the fox head. “Uhhh…Is that a yes? Or a no?” Jeremy asked, chuckling nervously. 

Mangle was still standing on Jeremy, so the security guard wasn’t allowed to move even if he wanted to. Jeremy, hoping to get out alive, started to try and get out from under the mangle animatronic. But then Mangle’s lower hand grabbed his wrist sleeves. “Wait-waIT-WAIT WAIT!” Jeremy shouted, pulling on his sleeves. “Let me go! LET ME GO!” Jeremy yelled. 

“Don’t be afraid…” The fox head looked at the nametag. “...Jeremy. We’ll keep you safe.” Mangle said. 

The endo-head opened its mouth next. “And we have a welcome home gift just for you.” the Endo-head told him.��

Jeremy widened his eyes. A welcome home gift? “Uuuhhh…What do you mean by ‘welcome home gift’?” Jeremy asked, growing really nervous. He started pulling on his sleeves again, hoping he could keep from ripping his new uniform. 

Mangle lifted Jeremy’s hands up to the top arm near the head and the bow. Mangle laid Jeremy down, holding onto both the sleeves with the top hand. “Now close your eyes~” The fox-head said. The Endo-head closed its one eye, waiting for Jeremy to do the same. 

Jeremy closed his eyes and waited. “Okay. I hope this isn’t what I think thihis ihihis- HahahaHAHAHAHA!” Jeremy opened his eyes and shook his head left and right. “WAHAHAIT- WAIT WHAHAHAT?!” Jeremy shouted, throwing his head back and cackling loudly. 

“Enjoying yourself yet?” The fox-head asked. 

“PLEHEHEHEASE NOHOHOHOHO!” Jeremy yelled. 

“Can I help?” The Endo-head asked. 

“Of course you can!” The fox-head replied. 

Jeremy squeaked as he watched the endo-head lower itself down to Jeremy’s belly. “WAHAIT- STAHAHAY AWAHAHAY FROHOM MY BEHEHELLYYY!” Jeremy begged. 

While the fox removed its lower hand from the security guard’s hip, the endo-head moved to Jeremy’s belly with its mouth open wide. And right as Jeremy squeezed his eyes shut and tensed…The head bit down…

…Into the fold of Jeremy’s shirt and untucked it from his pants. Jeremy opened his left eye, relaxing somewhat as he looked down at the endo-head with confusion. The endo-head placed its head under Jeremy’s shirt and against the security guard’s belly. 

“eeEEEHEHEEEE! IHIT’S COHOHohohold!” Jeremy reacted, biting his lip to muffle some of the giggles leaving his lungs. 

“My my, what a ticklish belly you have!” The fox head reacted. 

“The better to tickle you with, Jeremy.” The Endo-head declared next, referencing Little Red Riding Hood. 

“Dohohon’t mahake fairytahahale referencehehes!” Jeremy begged, kicking his feet. 

“And why not?” The fox head asked. “Are you not a fan of fairy tales?” The fox head asked. 

“Nohohoho.” Jeremy replied. 

“What a sad existence…not enjoying fairy tales.” The endo-head told the fox head as it lifted itself out from Jeremy’s belly. “If we cannot retell old fairy tales…” The endo-head looked at the fox-head. “Then perhaps some stronger tickles are in order.” The endo-head declared. 

“Very well~” The fox-head moved the lower hand up to his hip and started squeezing it. “Tickles it is.” The fox said. 

Jeremy squeaked and pulled on his sleeves again, cackling and laughing helplessly. “HAHAHAHAHAHAhaha! WHYHYHYHY?!” Jeremy asked. 

“Because tickling is fun.” The fox teased. “And you seem to be enjoying it.” Both of Mangle’s heads added at the same time. 

Jeremy felt a slight blush growing onto his face. What did the animatronic know?! “NOHOHO IHIHI’M NOHOHOHOT!” Jeremy yelled back. 

“Oh really?” The endo-head turned to look at the fox-head before looking closer at Jeremy’s face. “Because your face tells us otherwise.” The endo-head winked with its left eye. 

Or did it blink? It was hard to tell with each head only having one eye each. Though, the fox eye technically had two eyes, with the white little light in the Fox-head’s eye socket. 

“What is your favorite ticklish spot?” The fox-head asked. 

Jeremy was snorting and pulling on his sleeves. “IHIHIHI- *snort* -IHIHI DOHON’T HAHAHAVE OHOHONE.” Jeremy replied. 

“Your hip is not your favorite ticklish spot?” The fox-head asked. 

Jeremy shook his head, blushing a slight bit more. His blush was about a faded, light red color by this point. 

The lower hand stopped tickling and retreated. He let go of Jeremy’s sleeves, letting Jeremy go. “Tell us your favorite spot, or else the welcome gift is over.” The fox-head told him. 

Jeremy bit his lip and looked at the two heads. He looked at the endo-head, then to the fox-head. To the Endo-head again, and back to the fox-head. “I…” He chuckled awkwardly and covered his face with his hands. “MMmmmMmMmmmm…” Jeremy hummed, trying to say something through his hands. 

The endo-head grabbed the big bear mask and gently threw it to Jeremy with its face. Jeremy yelped as he uncovered his face, feeling the bear mask hit his head. He groaned and held his head as he looked at the bear mask. “What are you-” Jeremy quickly put on the bear mask and looked at Mangle. “What I said earlier was…” Jeremy could feel the blush deepening with every millisecond. 

The fox-head looked at the endo-head, before looking at Jeremy. “Five.” The fox-head said. 

Jeremy widened his eyes. “Wait, what?!” he reacted. 

“Four.” The endo-head said. 

Jeremy gulped and started stuttering. “Uh-uh UH- Well-” 

“Three.” The fox-head said. 

“But- I don’t know! No one can possibly-” 

“Two.” The endo-head said. 

“Okay, okay.” Jeremy said. “My-my-” 

“One.” The fox-head said. 

“My favorite spot is my-my neck!” Jeremy yelled. 

Mangle stared at Jeremy with wonder and curiosity. “Neck?” The fox-head asked the endo-head. 

“I think he is referring to the area between his head and his shoulders.” The endo-head said, moving the lower arm up to the left side of Jeremy’s neck. “Right here.” 

Jeremy snorted and curled his neck into the white hand. “EEEheheheheee! Hehehehe, yeheheheah. Thahahat’s ihihit.” Jeremy replied. 

The endo-head stopped tickling his neck and gently removed the mask from Jeremy’s face. “It’s okay.” the endo-head told him. While the fox-head looked towards the door, the endo-head put the mask back onto Jeremy’s face really quickly. “We’ll keep your secret, and try to help you survive the week.” The endo-head clicked the mouse button on the rewind button, and rewinded the Puppet’s music box for him. Then, he gave Jeremy the mouse as the animatronic got up onto its three feet. “Good luck.” Mangle told him before running away. 

Jeremy adjusted the mask on his face, and got up onto his own two feet. He sat back into the chair and looked at the cameras again. 

Here we go again. 

It didn’t take long for Jeremy to start getting bored. So, Jeremy clicked the replay button on the phone. 

“I uh…I think I forgot to mention something to you yesterday. Uh…Just reading off this paper, here…“Mangle ーthe white fox animatronic in the back roomー is beloved by many kids. Though, he sadly lacks a larger memory drive compared to the other animatronics. While the other animatronics’ memories are wiped every 3 weeks, Mangle’s memory is reset every Friday, so she can be ready for Saturday, and uh- the-the rest of the week. So if you have any more questions, please call Mr. Afton on the number on your phone”. So…I hope that helps you out a bit. And if it doesn’t…then…I hope it’s at least helpful for you to know. Thank you, good luck, and I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” 

*Beep!*

[omegawhiskers]

Dynamite 29/11/23

The Jack Perry Conspiracy

Dynamite continues the Continental Classic with Jon Moxley vs. Jay Lethal. The only thing about this tournament I don’t like is that we’re told no one can interfere, and that everything is put into place to make sure we get clean matches. If this is possible to do in story, then why not do this for every wrestling match? It doesn’t make any sense. But I digress. Lethal loses the opening bout due to rear naked choke. Moxley leads with six points. Poor Lethal has zero.  

Eddie Kingston is disappointed in his defeat last week and here he said he will be ready for Bryan Danielson. Eddie has a lot more to lose in his tournament than everyone else. Bryan is on commentary – eyepatch and all – and he delivers some strong words for his preparation on Saturday. This match is going to be awesome.

Sting will have his last match on March 3 in Greensboro, North Carolina at the Greensboro Coliseum. Both Sting and Ric Flair talked about the match they had there 35 years ago at Clash of Champions for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. The match ended in a draw at 45 minutes. Take in as much Sting as you can because we only have 4 months of him left.

In the second Continental match of the night, Rush pinned Jay Briscoe to obtain his first three points. Jay – like Lethal – have zero points. Rush and Briscoe had better matches last week, although this was decent.

Toni Storm will be defending her title next week. Against whom? No body mentioned a name.

MJF comes out to the ring and praises Samoa Joe for his accomplishments. He said Joe paved the way for people like him and that Joe never got the recognition he deserved in WWE. MJF gets fired up for his match and breaks his cane in half. This is when the goons who work for the Devil make an appearance. Three masked men hold MJF as a large guy with a baseball bat threatens him. It’s worth noting when Wardlow comes out next, his hair looks quite messy; as if it could had been under a mask. Joe comes to Max’s aid just as he promised. The Devil requests a tag match with Max and Joe next week, and the challenge is accepted. I’m not sure if this is with two of the goons or with the Devil himself, who I still believe is Jack Perry. For a fun little dive in to the Jack Perry conspiracy, check out this thread on X.

Wardlow – with mask hair – came out to fight AR Fox. Fox gets some offensive early on, but Wardlow dominates most of the match and wins by stoppage. I don’t see Wardlow going into a solo feud with MJF. Wardlow is still getting his momentum back, so the feud wouldn’t really be strong, but if he is apart of this new group, then I think this would be a great way for him to get his match with Max.

Dante Martin is back from a horrific looking injury and he teams with his brother and Action Andretti to take on the Hardy Boyz and Brother Zay. Martin showcased some nice athletic moves while picking up the win. This match was built around the return and it worked for Dante. The Hardyz are floating around not doing much. It's fine to take the loss, but they gotta get them in some sort of story.

Julia Hart defended her TSB title against Emi Sakura in a decent bout. The ending was strange as Emi rolled as Hart delivered the moonsault which caused Hart land awkwardly.

Christian Cage called out Adam Copeland so that he could convince him to team up. He brings up their past and that Adam’s mother said she would have loved to see them tag again, but unfortunately, she passed away. Adam was contemplating the offer before Christian tried to hit Adam with the TNT belt, but Copeland knew his former best friend too well and deliver a kick to the balls sending Christian to the mat. Adam tells him to shine the belt up real nice for next week for their match and tells Christian to go fuck himself. This entire segment had me hooked. Christian is such a mean bastard, and I keep thinking of how low he can go each week.

Jay White and Swerve Strickland was our main event. Swerve picked up the win and continues his winning streak.

I like this episode of Dynamite. Matches were good and we have some excitement rolling into next week with this Devil storyline. Julia needs a new feud and something needs to be done with Matt and Jeff as they are not being used effectively.

[chryzure-archive]

im sorry abt your surgery, ill be there in spirit to hold your hand if you need it <3 wishing you the best and hopefully its just a scare and nothing to worry too much abt!!

as for asks...

i always love your music taste so, 5 songs youve had on repeat lately that make you think of chryzure + chrysijacks? also, if they were each a pair of unlikely animal friends (ie, a pig and a monkey lol) which ones would they be? def feeling rabbit and cat for chryzure.

this question is a very self-indulgent one cus ive been going thru a huge superhero phase but, if they were superheroes which ones would they be? this could either be made-up or existing superheroes-- personally, i think chrysi would be an AMAZING black cat/felicia hardy, she has the white hair and the dark aesthetic to match it :3 i def think azure would be a mutant/x-men (no particular reason, it just seems to match him?) and jacks... well, jacks is just giving me deadpool energy. slutty antihero? i think yes. it'd be cool to know what kind of superhero abilities youd assign to them tho :33

thank you 🖤 please hold my other hand though, they’re cutting up my right one 🤧 hopefully there’s nothing to worry abt since my family has a history of the weirdness w/o the cancer..

chryzure songs:

so good right now // fall out boy (wanted the whole album to make me think of chrysigil, then it jst wound up being chryzure and chrysijacks coded…)

xyz // technoplanet (vv specific vibe, idk why, but instrumentals like this make me go crazy, go wild)

anicent history // the crane wives (teehee! in agony thinking abt them separated)

in my head // mike shinoda, kailee morgue ((bonus song, still alive // demi lovato because screamvi brainrot real….. jst saying the au goes wild!))

cartoon people // billie marten (the vibes themselves……)

chrysijacks songs (he’s more annoying):

chapstick // coin (sorry, juno…:(( sorry jacks ruined this for you)

summer // circadian clock, baethoven (biting him!)

blood in the cut // k.flay (sorry juno pt.2)

hold my like a grudge // fall out boy (part-time soulmate, full-time problem too real for chrysijacks…)

121U // day6 (I DONT WANT TO WANT YOU I DONT WANT TO LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!)

chryzure is kittybunny lovers all the time… they are doing this right now:

chrysijacks is kitty and fox… sorry, the legend of the archer and the fox is actually abt chrysijacks and chrysi’s the archer and jacks is the fox!! idk what was going on in the books, get ur facts right!

((more proof is that i had a chrysijacks song called the fox before the book came out + the lyrics imply jacks not wanting to be the fox and hunted down by the archer… explain this 🤨))

oh my god, i looked up black cat and you’re RIGHT, that’s sooo chrysi??? esp the probability thing… explains why azure’s gotten such bad luck over the years.

if i were to make chrysi her own superhero, hmmm….. i feel like she’d summon ghosts and stuff… ??????? idk, i’ve never thought abt it 🫢 i mean, the funniest option is totally that she can bring back the dead and summon ghosts and stuff, but she never fucking uses that in favor of bashing ppl’s heads in w a baseball bat. OH, wait, her fated abilities include causing fear and giving nightmares, so maybe i could do something like that!!! she can keep the ghost summoning thing if she wants. idk what name i’d give her. it’s so hard coming up w a good superhero name. nightmare is too basic + i’m sure there’s thousands of ppl w that superhero name 💀 oh well!

AZURE WOULD SOOOOO HAVE X-MEN VIBES. he gets to go to a special little mutant school and have like minded peers… little special princess boy 🙄 SOME people learned they inflict fear on ppl and had to deal with it ALONE, but it’s fine. it’s rlly okay.

his powers probably are jst spatial manipulation, but he’s good enough at it that it looks like it’s jst telekinesis… and also teleportation :) jst the idea of him tricking ppl he has one power when it’s actually another makes me go crazy, go wild!!! idk what his title would be either. this is HARD, how do comic book writers do it!!!

yes. jacks is a whore. fuck him. i want him dead in a ditch. his powers are making ppl love him and want to obey him? rlly? he gets everything handed to him on a platter???? killing him killing him killing him!!!! he’d be the villain that chrysi and azure have to take down first, but they get there and jacks is jst rlly lameand they’re like, “…….. okay, guess we’ll leave you alive….?” and now he’s a thorn in their side that doesn’t leave ://////

[suckitsurveys]

Have you ever seen a fox in person?   Yeah, my husband hahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. And an actual fox, too.

Would you say you have a quiet mind or do you have a lot of thoughts?   Oh bro, there is always so much on my mind all the time always. 

When did you last do something brave?   Idk, existing is pretty brave of me.

Have you ever seen a magician?   Yes.

What’s something you remember from your childhood that you wish you could experience again?   Just, having the energy to PLAY.

Do you believe in karma? Why or why not?   KARMA’S A RELAXING THOUGHT, PANCHO EN FIESTA POR YOU IT’S NOT.

Do you have a tiktok account?   I dooooo go follow me dm me for the link.

Do you prefer the scent or color of lavender?   Both. It’s one of my favorite colors AND scents.

Would you rather live in a castle or a cottage?   Cottage.

What type of music do you listen to the least and why?   Religious-centered music.

When did you last visit a library?   Uhhhhhhhhhh good question.

What’s one of your favorite memories from staying up late? Oh man, I love staying up late. I used to be on a Rocky Horror shadowcast and they performed at midnight every month and then the whole cast and crew would go out to eat after at like 2 am and I just felt so COOL.

Have or would you ever wear a necklace with someone’s initial on it?   I would, yes.

What last made you laugh out loud?   My coworker and I keep quoting Ferris Bueller today for some reason.

Do you usually keep water by your bedside at night?   Yes.

What’s an interesting fact about yourself?   I don’t know. Define interesting.

What did you last heat up in a microwave?   Pad see ew for lunch on Monday.

Would you consider yourself lucky?   In some ways, yes.

What kind of pizza did you eat last?   I actually just ordered pizza for the office and that’ll be here in an hour or so. We’re getting Lou Malnati’s and I ordered their special (tomatoes, spinach, mushrooms, cheddar cheese), plain cheese, pepperoni, and sausage.

What kind of shampoo do you use?   Whatever is on sale.

How many blue objects are in the room you’re in?   Let’s see. Several pens, a Cubs towel from when they won the World Series, a Cubs magnet, a mini Cubs hat I have on my monitor, some thumb tacks, my headphones, 2 recycling bins, 2 storage bins..that’s all I can see from where I am sitting...

Would you rather visit an art museum or an aquarium?   Either sound fun but to my core I am a sea creature girlie.

Do you prefer sweeter cereal over unsweetened?   Either. I looooooooooove Cheerios but I also loooooooooooove Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Mmm that sounds really good right now.

If you could build a 5 artist/band lineup to your dream music festival.. which ones would you choose?   Harry Styles, Post Malone, Billie Eilish, Lana Del Rey, Vampire Weekend. Which is a wild line up hahahah

What’s a habit you have broken or are currently trying to break?   Overeating and just not taking care of myself.

Have you ever volunteered at an animal shelter?   Yes.

Is there anything currently bothering you?   Yeah.

How many stuffed animals do you have on your bed?   One. A bat Squishmallow.

How much is too much to spend on a pair of shoes?   Anything over $50 is pricey for me, but I’m willing to spend up to like $120 if they’re a good, quality pair.

What’s the strangest thing that you’ve ever seen someone collect?   Animal bones?

Have you recently been to a concert or live show?   I just saw John Mulaney back in February. It was the taping of his latest special Baby J.

Who did you last have a phone conversation with?   My boss.

What’s the most dominant personality trait you have?   Annoyingness.

Do you ever watch sports?   Yes, baseball and basketball on occasion.

What’s had the biggest impact on your day? Uhhh. .

What’s your least favorite cheese? Ricotta.

What did you last have as a snack?   BITCH, can I please, have, one snack?

What’s your favorite decoration in your place of residence?   I have this really cute poster of the Royal Tenenbaums house, like, dissected so you can see each room.

Would you rather read a book or watch a movie?   Movie.

What’s your plans for the upcoming week?   Tomorrow I have a swim class and my friend is meeting me after for adult swim, and then I miiiiiiiight watch Pete Davidson’s new show Bupkis, but I also might wait til Sunday and do that with my other friend. And then Friday I don’t have anything planned. Mark and I might have a fire. And the weekend is up for grabs because my sister needs help moving stuff and painting.

When did you last feel rushed?   Yesterday.

What was the last thing to scare you?   Health related stuff.

Have you drank enough water today?   I haven’t drank any water today OOPS.

What’s your top 3 favorite fruits?   Pomegranates, watermelon, avocados. Bananas too!

What season do you think is the most comfortable? Summer and early fall.

What website do you frequent often besides Bzoink?   I don’t go on Bzoink so lets start there.

Do you have anything due soon?   No.

What did you last consume that you thought was nasty?   I don’t remember.

What’s a song you feel describes your mood most right now? I don’t know.

[shesquiinnsane]

—☆   ????????   ||   THEASHEN-FOX   ♢ 

Gotham. A haven of depravity, crime, and decadence. A city where the closest thing to a “protector” was some lunatic who dressed up as a bat. Perhaps it was only a matter of time before such ilk as vampires were attracted to it. Of course, not all of the vampires in Gotham were out for the blood of the innocent. No, there was one particular vampire sent here to ensure that little to no chaos or loss of human life occurred.

Which was why he was currently in an alley, engaged in combat with a small group of shambling, corpselike beings. Actually, “combat” wasn’t the right word for it. If anything, it would qualify as “euthanasia”, given that they were in rather a poor shape when they had been infected, and had only been made by the other vampires as a distraction for him, evidence to destroy. Aiming a handgun at one of them, he fired three times, then moved to the other, putting them out of their miserable states, then tried to go for the last one.

This creature, though, proved to be quicker than the other two. Running to avoid his shots, it jumped at him, attempting to bite and slash at his face as it screeched. At that moment, just barely able to hold the creature back from him, the side of its face erupted into red and it collapsed. Panting from the surprise of the sudden charge, Ash nevertheless aimed his pistol at it, then took two more shots for good measure. It was then that he heard it: a heartbeat. Tentatively raising his pistol, he called, “I know you're there! Come on out, hands up!”

ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE INCOMING.   For fuck sake couldn’t she get a break ??   The Bats had decided she wasn’t worthy and sent his little asshole in his stead but she had to do something to get some attention to prove she was actually worth shit.   Maybe taking down a few people would release some of her energy.   She had been trying to cut back on her sugar intake but she was still way to fucking loud according to Ivy who had been trying to tend to her plants at the time.   Sending her out of her way was probably to make things a little quieter but all the pent up anger could be released as she smashed the head in of one of the locals   –   or ex-local that was more accurate.

❝ What the fuck are you ?? ❞   She asked herself as a noise that sounded worse than Selina trying to cough up a hairball.   That hadn’t been a pleasant image in her mind but she could hear shouting from someone around the corner.   Glancing around to make sure it had definitely been at her ,   the blonde raised her baseball bat.   After all he said hands up ,   never mentioned they had to be empty.   As she turned the corner she smirked.    ❝ Why is it my birthday or something ??   Y’know that ain’t ‘til July.   Ain’t seen yas in this city before ,   wouldn’t recommend trying to call the shots ,   or asking people t’ come out with their hands up.   We don’t give a shit about the assholes at the GCPD an’ ya might find yaself at the wrong end of a smushin’ because one of us got bored !! ❞ 

[headcans-oneshots-and-stuff]

Have you met my family? (Jason Todd x reader Headcanons)

Requested by the most amazing honeypot I’ve ever seen @sirkekselord​:  Hey Honeybee, it's 3 am and I saw you opened your requests. So how about some headcanons where Jason's S/O meets his family for the first time but somehow she met all of them already while helping them some way out on the streets and she just didn't know it and it's kinda chaos.

A/N: honestly I loved this and I hope you don’t mind that I added the part about how she actually helped them. I had so much fun with this and I could’ve done more for other bat-siblings but for length-sake I decided to go with our main bat-boys and papa-broosh. Love you

You had met Jason for the first time on your balcony

Well, he hadn’t actually been ‘Jason’ at the time, instead sporting his red hood persona

He had been too busy blickering with Bruce over Comms too notice that his Bat-claw was malfunctioning and instead of drawing him up on the roof of your builduing it just straight up slung him onto your balcony and made him crash right into your window 

Thank lord for deciding to invest in strengthened Gotham-glass because if not you’d have to clean up the mess

Alarmed by the ‘thud’ you grabbed your handy baseball-bat and went to check it out, finding the vigilante groaning and lying on the metal floor of your balcony

Of course you helped him up again and asked him if he was okay and from there on he just continued joking about in his usual manor

You had to admit that you found yourself thinking about the mysterious hero more often after that and you’d lie if you’d say that you didn’t hope he could crash into your window once again

It was also the thing that was on your mind when you went for your job interview at Wayne Ent. only to have the thought vanish when you found yourself being interviewed by the current CEO Lucius Fox himself

The thought only returned when you returned to Wayne Ent. as one of the new social media liasons, but it again dissapeared when you ran into someone who you immediatly recognize as Bruce Wayne himself

He looked somewhat distressed - even though he held his composure quite well - and even though he immediatly apologized (completely ignoring that you were the one who hadn’t payed attention), you noticed how he kept looking behind him and a certain chattering gave you a safe assumption of what he was ‘running’ away from

“Go, I’ll handle them,” you offered in spite of yourself and it was worth it when he thanked you and quickly jogged away, just in time for the hord of reporters to come up behind the corner looking for him

You put on the best customer service face that you had and started engaging with them to keep them busy long enough for your bosses boss to be able to flee

It was definitly worth it though because you ‘mysteriously’ got a raise on your second day in office

Once you got used to your new job, your little red hood crush returned but -yet again- it was quickly pushed away by a “different” man

of course at that point you didn’t know just how similar your two crushes were

Jason might have thought about you one or twice (or hundred times) too until it got to a point where he decided to try his luck even tho he knew that it was kinda stalker-y

So he went back to your builduing and like it was meant to be your were just leaving and straight up stumbled into his arms (that was becoming a habit of yours at that point) 

he started joking (and flirting) and not ten minutes later you had yourself a date

four dates later you had yourself a boyfriend

from then on your relationship went on steady and even though you kind of wished that Jason would be more open about his past and his family (which you knew nothing about at that point), you accepted that some wounds didn’t necessarily need to be reopened 

You also didn’t try to question his weird time schedueles too much because you trusted him to be faithful to you and you knew that once he trusted you too, he’d tell you what was behind it all

But because of that one friday evening he had to raincheck your planned cinema date so you decided you’d just take a stroll through the city when you came across a mugging in process 

For a second you were frozen in place but then the mugger came running towards you - or rather away from who you’d later learn to be a cop - and in a complete short-circuit reaction you kicked out your leg in front of him

He fell forward and not five seconds later he had cuffs on his wrists and the man who was arresting him introduced himself as Officer Grayson and thanked you 

The next instance happened when you went out with a friend of yours who was studying medicine and they needed to quickly stop by the library 

While your friend went to search a specific book you went looking around and found yourself in the computer section 

It was mostly unoccupied except for one girl tapping away at her screen and a man on the other end, near you, with his head lying on the keyboard and - even though you didn’t want to be noisy - you couldn’t help but notice the open word document full with random letters that you assumed his sleeping head had entered with the title reading ‘Hitory of Gotham and Wonder city’ and supported by this and the books lying beside the screen - all working with the same general topic - you felt save in your assumption that he was a student working on a paper for his class

You thought back to your own college-days and you knew that you hated it when you fell asleep shortly before you deadline and had to rush it out

So, taking a risk, you went to the coffee-machine, bought the biggest size coffee they had and went over to the young man

“Excuse me, I don’t mean to intrude, but I think you could need a little pick me up”

When the smell of coffee hit the brown-haireds nostrils his eyes widened in glee and he thanked yuo, giving you the title of ‘life-save’ before he got back to deleting the countless pages of random letters in his document while you went to find your friend

After that you found out who Jason really was and - while you were quite shocked and not very sure about what to think about it - you learned to cope ith it

Now of course you asked one or two questions about Batman and the rest of his ‘Team’ (even though he refused to call it that), but since you didn’t actually know about who his family was and he kept his answeres short, you didn’t really make the connection yet

It was another month or so before Jason finally decided that it was time for the big step and he told his family about you - or rather about him having a serious significant other who he planned a future with and who knew his secret

of course Bruce - as his father and as someone who was worried about the families secret - insisted on Jason bringing you over, but he adamantly refused, instead suggesting that they’d meet on neutral ground 

So Bruce reserved a table for seven (since Jason insisted on Alfred being there to even out Damian having to be there [much to both Jason’s and Damian’s dismay]) 

You were incredibly nervous and excited so of course you insisted that Jason and you arrived twenty minutes earlier just to get used to your surroundings but ten minutes later you found yourself almost shaking with nervousness and excused yourself to go out and catch a breath

You decided to walk around a bit until you caught sight of a kitten rushing into an alleyway and having a soft heart for all animals, you went after it 

But you weren’t the only one who had saw it because as you were knealing in front of the little kitten, reaching out your hand to let it smell you, another figure - a smaller one - appeared

He was wearing a dress shirt and black-suit-pant so you guessed he too had more important places to be in, but since you yourself were currently not really on track with what you actually came for 

“It doesn’t have a collar and it looks malnurished, I think it’s a stray,” you broke the silence, turning to the boy who looked at you with suspicion in his eyes and you guessed that he wasn’t the biggest sunshine to be around

“I agree,” he answered shortly and you decided that it would help no one to just let the silence flow back in

“There’s a good vet around here that should still be open, I’ll take her there so they can check her up,” you decided out loud and found yourself very happy when the kitten allowed you to pick it up without any panic

“Tt, so that they can sent her to a shelter where she’ll be put down?” the boy said with clear judgement in his voice, but you decided to be above it, because you understood his worry somewhere

“Of course not, I’ll leave them my number so they can call me once she’s been all checked up and I can make the adoption official.”

Now he seemed somewhat satisfied with your decision and gave you a nod before turning around and rushing away while you did the same, just in the opposite direction

You were halfway by the vet when your phone rang

“Where are you babe? I thought you just wanted to catch a breath. Are you getting cold feet?” Jason’s worried voice came from your speaker

“No! Of course not! I’ll be there in five to ten minutes I promise, please tell your family how incredibly sorry I am.”

Jason sighed - but in this loving way and not at all dissapointed and told you to take your time since he’d hold his family off and you fell in love even more

Ten minutes later you came rushing into the restaurant again and as soon as you arrived at the table you started to ramble: “I’m really sorry, I promise I’m not usually so late, I just-”

You stopped in your tracks when your eyes landed on the man sitting opposite Jason

It was Bruce Wayne - how did you not know that your boyfriends father was Bruce fucking Wayne?!?

Before you could react, your eyes wandered to your Boss’s right and in that order you found yourself faced with the boy from the alley, the student from the library and the cop you had helped arrest that one mugger

But most surprisingly was the man sitting between the cop and your boyfriend was Alfred, the man you met almost once a week on the farmers market that you had helped out at as a teen and kept visiting 

You stared at the people in shock and they stared back at you with Jason staring between the six of you in confusion

“Hello? Are you all okay?”

“Jason, your dad-” “Is Bruce Wayne, I know, he adopted me, I know I should’ve told you sooner, but-” “Your dad is my boss,” you interrupted him

A second of silence, then two, then three, before Jason turned to the brothers: “And what’s the big idea with you three? Have you never seen a girl before?”

“Well, uhm, Jason, I know all of them,” you answered for them. “What? How? When?” “She helped arrest someone.” “She bought me coffee.” “You now have a cat.”

“She did what?” Jason seemed to have whiplash as he looked between his older and first younger brother before he stopped and turned to the youngest, “And what do you mean with I have a cat now?”

“I believe while all of this is very interesting, We’re all here to get to know Miss Y/N better, arent’ we? So how about we all take a seat and get on with the dinner,” Alfred got order back into the round and it was only an hour later that Jason started to wonder about how he had known your name  and realized that your lifes were intertwined far more than he had believed

[sarcastic-sketches]

Kitsune!Anakin AU

-Shoves fist in mouth- I'm being so normal about this AU so have some more thoughts on this because free real estate:

When the fuck is this set. Or better yet, when does it start? I wanna say early war just so this transformation can be as inconvenient as possible for Anakin. WAIT NO, It happens while he's still a Padawan, right before he’s supposed to be put on guard duty for Padme. It almost has him taken off (Anakin nearly pitches a fit) but the truth is they don't have another Master/Padawan pair to put on it and Padme knows them so she's more likely to be accepting of it.

YES because this would change AotC in subtle ways (and give ME the opportunity to take a baseball bat to certain timeline events). It would also mean that the first time the clones meet Anakin, he's already foxed up and they just ... accept that shit at face value. They don’t know he didn’t used to have ears and tails. He grows his hair out in an attempt to hide his ears among the floof. It doesn’t work. Trying to curate this image of a badass General during the war is a little hampered by the ears he has no control over whatsoever.

I could have tied this to the Feral!Anakin AU but that's more to do with the amnesia and the fucky nature that is half of him being the Force itself. I can do more in that AU re: partial transformations/adaptability morphing. I am, however, going to mix in a lot of the stuff I had planned in the Intervention AU here because the fox characteristics would be a huge neon sign to his inner problems and how he is not working on any of them.

And we’re still going so under a read more it is.

It starts, as all good AUs do, with Force Temple interference. It feels Anakin walk in and goes, 'no, that human form is not becoming of you' and gives him an overhaul. Anakin is less than impressed because he now has to deal with two very fluffy tails that were not there before (he starts with two instead of one because bullshit power levels). Obi-Wan gives it his patented and classic consideration of ‘oh dear’ which only winds up his padawan further and poof full fox form. And it’s tiny.

The only reason Obi-Wan is not laughing out loud is because he has the control and patience of a fucking mountain. But he is literally just this on the inside:

This is what you deserve, Anakin. This is what you get for being a little shit. A trickster fox spirit suits you perfectly. Obi-Wan can pick up his Padawan like a handbag and Anakin is even less enthused about this. He doesn’t complain as much if he gets to snag a ride in the hood of Obi-Wan's cloak though.

To start with, the full fox form is smol, like a cat, but he gets bigger as he develops more tails. He can go back to being toy sized if he wants though through shapeshifter abilities. Ahsoka fucking LOVES being able to just cart her Master around it’s so funny, he can fit right between her montrals like a hat. He puts up with it because it makes her happy but he’s glaring at everyone over her head if they dare say a word. If Rex finds his fun-sized General taking a nap in his helmet, no he didn’t.

Christ how could I forget the screaming. The dramatic little bitch that he is just going off like a tea kettle at the slightest inconvenience. You want to annoy the enemy really fast? Fives wants to do a yell-off? Some asshole won’t shut up disrespecting the clones? Anakin just transforms, opens his jaws and screams. It’s just as unearthly as a regular fox screaming too.

More technical info:

Partial fox form keeps the tails (very fluffy, convenient cushions) but also ears, claws, and sharp teeth. His mouth gets unnaturally wide when he laughs, like he's shifting into a fox set of jaws.Theoretically, with shapeshifter abilities he should be able to make himself look fully human...should.

He keeps shifting between full fox and humanoid due to emotional instability.

His eyes stay blue, maybe almond pupils, or maybe the whole eye goes blue with intense emotion so you can't see the whites anymore. Fur colour is the same as his hair colour with dark point colouration. Maybe he gets that point markings on his arms and legs too.

Dark Timeline, Vader briefly hits seven tails but gets capped back at five because Obi-Wan cut off his last two that appeared during the fight on Mustafar. He has inverted colours, so dark fur and gold tipped tails (i'm just a whore aesthetically for black with gold highlights tbh). This AU won’t actually see the rise of Vader though because I dust my hands off with canon.

[thebeeduo]

Ranboo: I'm- I'm not..

Tubbo: *enters room*

Ranboo: Tubbo, were you outside by the tree?

Tubbo: Outside by the tree?

Ranboo: Were you outside by the tree?

Tubbo: What, if I was there just now? [?]

Ranboo: Yeah.. At any point.. tonight?

Tubbo: Yeah!

Ranboo: Wait, you were?

Tubbo: Yeah!

Ranboo: Wait, you were behind the tree?

Tubbo: I was on the swing

Ranboo: You were on the- when were you on the swing, when did this happen?

Tubbo: Like.. Ten minutes ago

Ranboo: Ten minutes ago.. Um..

Tubbo: What do you mean?

Ranboo: So.. Ok. So, you see how that branch, like, cuts off, right?

Tubbo: Yeah..?

Ranboo: There was genuinely another thing behind that

Tubbo: Wait.. There's someone behind that tree?

Ranboo: There was genuinely somebody behind that tree

Tubbo: No, dude, stop you're going to freak me out

Ranboo: I- I'm not trying to creep you out. I thought there was genuinely somebody behind the tree

Tubbo: No, dude, you're gonna fuck me up. Don't say that!

Ranboo: I'm just telling you what I saw!

Tubbo: Do I need to get, like, a bat and swing it? I got like a steel baseball bat underneath my old bed

Ranboo: Go swing at it, go swing at it

Tubbo: Swing at it? No, I don't want to! Come with!

Ranboo: I'm not- How am I gonna come with you?

Tubbo: Just leave

Ranboo: How am I gonna leave the stream-

Ranboo: There was genuinely something behind there.. I swear to God

Tubbo: Are you sure-

Ranboo: and when I opened up the door, there was nothing. There was nothing behind- It was like looking out at me. It looked like those stumps right, so that's what I thought it was. But then there was a third one, like right below it, and then..

Tubbo: It was a fox

Ranboo: It was half way up the tree!

Tubbo: You're fucking with me! Leave me alone!

Ranboo: I'm not! I swear! I swear I am not!

Tubbo: I just came here for an iPhone charger and you dump your trauma on me? Leave me be!

Ranboo: No! This is- This is fresh trauma

Tubbo: I don't- I'm gonna go and, like, fucking die now so uh.. wait- are you actually..

Ranboo: I swear there was something behind there..

Tubbo: Right, I'm getting a floodlight. Give me a second, I'm going out there..

Ranboo: Yeah, get a floodlight, I'll record this and upload it later..

Tubbo: Ok, wait, I'm getting my phone

Ranboo: ..maybe. This is- I wish that I was kidding! I really wish that I was- It is terrible. It is terrifying actually

Tubbo: Alright, I put my torch [unintelligible]. If I don't come back, like, call the freaking cops [?]

Ranboo: Ok, sounds.. sounds good

Tubbo: I don't wanna go out there!

Ranboo: Go out there! Wait, record it!

Tubbo: I'm recording it! [?]

Ranboo: Record it! So that I can use it as found footage when you get killed. I'm kidding, I'm kidding. You're not gonna get killed, I'm sure it was- I thought I saw it again

Tubbo: Ok, I'm gonna run around the tree and run back

Ranboo: Yeah, run around the tree and run back

Tubbo: *goes outside*

Ranboo: *silence*

Ranboo: *laughs* I just hear him around the tree

Tubbo: *rushes inside*

Ranboo: What?

Tubbo: There was nothing around there but I thought I was gonna be attacked

Ranboo: There's nothing- Ok, there's nothing there, we're good! It's gone!

Tubbo: I have completely wet socks now

Ranboo: We're good guys, it's gone!

Tubbo: I've got, like, really wet socks now. Oh, the socks have come off, you know what that means!

Ranboo: I don't know what- uh wha- Oh my god..

Tubbo: Hey, you taught me what that means!

Ranboo: No, I really didn't actually. You've got it out of context because your chat is sinful.. which is probably- this is punishment for the chat

Tubbo: That actually scared the living daylight out of me. Never ask me to go outside ever again!

Ranboo: I swear- No, I swear to God I am not joking! I legitimately saw something. It was a third- It looked like a third stump on the side of the tree!

Tubbo: My heart is beating so fucking fast right now

Ranboo: It was actually..

Tubbo: Oh my god..

Ranboo: .. it was genuinely there.. I-

Tubbo: Feel my heart!

Ranboo: *laughs* It is actually so fast! He is not joking

Tubbo: *laughs* Because you made me watch "IT"! You made me watch "IT" and I was [unintelligible]

Ranboo: I swear that it was there!

Tubbo: I was gonna run around that tree and (thought) fucking Penny-dickhead was gonna come grab my neck and put me in the hairy sink! I'm not cut out for that shit!

Ranboo: *wheeze* Do you want to find a haunted place and record?

Tubbo: Huh?

Ranboo: Do you want to find a legitimate haunted place-

Tubbo: Dude, did I not tell you my idea earlier?

Ranboo: Did you?

Tubbo: Yeah

Ranboo: Do you wanna do like a series?

Tubbo: Why else would I get an IRL backpack?

Ranboo: Do you want to do a haunting series? Do you want to do a haunting series on both of our channels?

Tubbo: It sounds cool, but can I do mine live?

Ranboo: Yeah, you can do yours live

Tubbo: You'll be recorded, and I'll be live

Ranboo: I'll do one recorded and you can do one live

Tubbo: 12 hours sleeping in a haunted mansion..

Ranboo: We are not sleeping there for 12 hours..

Tubbo: 12 hours stream sleeping in a haunted mansion.. Oh fuck! Oh shit!

Ranboo: We are not.. We are not doing that

Tubbo: Oh I realised I just picked your glass of water and panic ran back- I kicked over your glass of water

Ranboo: Nooo! Nooo!

Tubbo: Ohhh!

Ranboo: Oh God!- Do you actually.. 'cause I think it'd be really really fun

Tubbo: Yeah, we can!

Ranboo: I'm going to get so much demonic stuff

Tubbo: But oh my God, like.. I'm gonna be honest with you like.. I'm.. I'm feeling like heavy now

Ranboo: I swear! I swear that it was there!

Tubbo: I feel like, you know that feeling when you're about to need a shit but you don't yet?

Ranboo: "A dark shadowy figure is known as a shadow man", what does it mean when they are white? 'cause it-

Tubbo: I'm going back to watch Adventure Time, leave me alone!

Ranboo: Alright, have fun!

Tubbo: I've been binge watching Adventure Time with aimsey and you just ruined this for me!

Ranboo: Have fun with that!

Tubbo: But I'm sat in the glass conservatory so I'm [unintelligible].. That's so mean!

Ranboo: *laughs* Oh my God.. Oh..

Tubbo: And I was out on that swing earlier!

Ranboo: I don't think that it was you though.. that's the thing, 'cause it was like-

Tubbo: *fake crying* I was out on that swing.. I could've been kidnapped and you didn't tell me!

Ranboo: I am so terrified of that tree now- That's because it was after you were on the swing!

Tubbo: *fake crying*

Ranboo: It was way after you were on the swing

Tubbo: I don't feel safe in my own house

Ranboo: Uh oh

Tubbo: Can I just stay/sit in here with you? I'm just gonna sit here in the background

Ranboo: You just want to sit here in the background? I'm watching a spooky thing..

Tubbo: Ohh are you watching spooky things?

Ranboo: Well, no, I'm watching two dudes on an abandoned ship

Tubbo: Two dudes, chilling on an abandoned ship... um... wha- gay! (vine reference)

Ranboo: *sighs*

Tubbo: *leaves room*

Ranboo: and there he goes! Alright. It was genuinely there, chat. I- I- either that, or the feeling that I have, of just like.. maybe- oh boy.. ok..

[rebelbrat]

hands, eyes, hair, and your choice or other features

Hands

Tobias’ hands are HUGE. Not thick and bulky, like his father’s--instead they are very sleek and elegant like a pianist’s--but they are indeed massive and very good for holding. To give a sense of perspective, see this image of canon Lotor’s hand compared to Allura’s:

Yeah. That’s Tob.

In this screenshot you can also clearly see Lotor’s claws coming out of his fingertips--Tobias has the same claws, long, sharp and jet-black. When he takes his gloves off you can also see that he has hand beans, which correspond to the toe beans on his feet. When he was hiding on Earth, he wore gloves to disguise the fact that he had these alien features, even when it was hot during the summer.

Eyes

Tobias’ icons have brown eyes, but that was because I intended them to be used in multiple verses where he might have brown eyes instead of a supernatural color. (Which…didn’t end up happening but I’m not going to ask the person who INDIVIDUALLY COLORED these icons to redo all the eyes just to make them accurate to this blog.) Instead, Galra Tobias’ eyes are so dark that they look black at first glance but when they catch the light or are seen in strong lighting, you can see that they’re actually an incredibly deep, dark blue. His eyes are soulful and mysterious, especially with that particular color contrasted with his yellow sclera, beautiful and commanding, and bright with an intelligence that holds the entire universe within.

His eyes are also a slim, fox-eye shape similar to Lotor and Zarkon’s canon eyes and also to what I headcanon a lot of Galra have naturally. (When the fox eye trend rolled around, it did give him a confidence boost because he basically had that eye shape already!) His eyes actually look rather Asian, which is something he’s quite self-conscious of--he would much rather have wide doe eyes, like Western beauty standards. But what he fails to appreciate is that his eyes are fine and sleek, their shape just as and alluring as their color, and they help give him his characteristic “hot morally grey anime character with a dark and mysterious past” aesthetic.

Hair

Tobias’ hair is actually curly! He just has straight hair in his icons because hair textures that are anything other than straight really aren’t common in anime. My headcanon for his hair texture is that it resembles Lisa Edelstein’s, who is a Jewish actress. As his bio states, he has dark brown-black hair that looks purely black but when it catches the light, it has a purple sheen/undertones which he gets from his Galra lineage. It’s something very unique to him as a hybrid, since Galra don’t have black fur that have this sheen--even melanistic Galra just have plain black fur. And it’s super soft, too! Galra have incredibly thick and soft fur, and so Tobias’ hair is very thick and silky soft as well. You could put your hand into it and the feel is such that you’d think you’d be able to just keep going and pushing your hand down into the big, vast softness forever. (But you can’t actually do this, since Native people don’t let just anyone touch their hair.) Plus did I mention that it’s healthy as heck? Even if someone repeatedly took a baseball bat to that hair it would still come out the other end looking just as shiny and perfect as before.

Tobias has a love-hate relationship with his hair. When he feels good about it, he thinks it’s his only good feature and takes superb care of it--he treats it with essential oils and other moisturizers, he puts it in a ponytail before he sleeps to protect it, heck just like mainverse Lotor he even had shampoo that was custom-made specifically for his hair to keep it extra shiny and voluminous. When he feels bad about it, he gets it straightened (which usually always comes undone after a month or two because thick curly hair is INCREDIBLY stubborn and cannot be dominated by this insignificant little thing you call a “perm.”) His mom scolds the hell out of him every time he straightens his hair because she knows he only does it due to 342 years of internalized antisemitism and quite frankly she’s a strong beautiful woman who doesn’t take it lying down when he tells her that the features he inherited from her are ugly. At least after several decades of unbelievable self-loathing he’s come to a place where he’s not totally convinced that his hair is awful. Progress…?

Face

And of course, where would I be if I didn’t describe Tobias’s pretty, pretty face? Like we know what it looks like from his faceclaim, but since I love him so much I have to wax poetic about just how pretty he is because god damn.

Tobias just doesn’t appreciate the fact that he’s actually quite classically handsome. He has amazing facial symmetry. He has skin as smooth and flawless as the marble statue that he could be. He has a gorgeous V-line jaw and a firm chin that perfectly balances his tall, strong aquiline nose and just as perfectly complements his high, prominent cheekbones. He thinks his face is all angles and points because he’s a good deal more angular than Galra faces usually are, but nowhere is his face overly angular, everything has a sense of balance and harmony to it that makes him very nice to look at. Pidge often tells him that if the Greeks and Romans discovered America they’d be making statues that looked like him and honestly, where is the lie? There’s not a single person in the faceclaim world who looks exactly like him because celebs tend to look like boring white men with the exact same boring white hairstyles and not like hot morally grey anime characters with dark and mysterious pasts, but if I had to pick a RL faceclaim who looked at least mostly like him it would be Haatepah Clearbear (1, 2, 3). I’m kinda hesitant to use him because I have heard some nasty things about him (look in his tag on Tumblr and you’ll see) so Tobias doesn’t have an official faceclaim, but he’s all I got as a ref so there you go.

[princeescaluswords]

Could you do 17, 22 and/or 38 for Mason?

I'd love to!

17. What was your character’s favorite toy as a child?

Mason's toy as a child was an Einstein. (I'm doing a little self-projecting here, because I had one and I loved it.) It's a simple memory game, but it gets more and more complex. I spent hours on it, and I'm sure it would appeal to him as well.

22. What does your character like in other people?

I think Mason is attracted to honesty in a person, but not "brutal honesty" (which is usually a clever way of saying mean). I head-canon that he got to be friends with Liam even though Liam could be difficult to get along with because Liam never tried to pretend that he didn't get into fights. Liam may have blamed others during his I.E.D. episodes, but afterwards, he always owned up to what he did. Mason liked that. He grew to like Lydia after the scene in Smoke & Mirrors, because she admitted that fighting the Berserker was foolish but she was going to do it anyway "with a baseball bat." He grew to like Kira because she admitted that she wasn't doing that well in English when they were talking about languages. It's why he follows Scott because, probably through Liam, he recognizes that Scott freely admits when he screws up and still tries to do the right thing anyway. Ultimately, what attracts him to Corey seem to be that Corey doesn't try to impress him, but freely admits when he's scared, that his parents are neglectful, and that he doesn't feel at ease with Mason's other friends.

38. Is your character more likely to remove a problem/threat, or remove themselves from a problem/threat?

I'm not sure that remove is the best word here. Solve, I think, would be closer to Mason's approach. From the show, Mason's intellectual strength is in synthesis -- bringing together different skills and knowledge to create a new solution. He reads about berserkers. He is the one who diagnosis that it's not Kira but her fox spirit that's having trouble with the mnemonic novel. He's the one who connects the lore on the Wild Hunt with meteorological tools to predict their arrival. While others might be better at thinking on their feet, discerning motive, or analyzing a situation, his approach focuses on solutions.

[marmolady]

Homecoming: Part Three

Continued from PART ONE and PART TWO

Main Pairings: Estela x (f)MC, Graleister, Variego

Summary: Endless Ending. It's the final leg of Taylor and Estela's journey; taking them to Northbridge and old friends... but leaving others behind.

Word Count: 5905

Chronology: After ’The New Taylor’ and ’A Ride to Remember’, sort of midway through ’Inheritance’.

Tagging: @saivilo, @edgydepressedchoicesthot, @sceptilemasterr, @greengroove @mauvecatfic​

Thanks for reading!

The echoey halls of the long-since abandoned Celestial rang with grunts and the deafening blows of metal against concrete, marble and glass. The figure of one Estela Montoya-- sledgehammer in hand-- emerged from the billowing clouds of dust, pausing her onslaught only to check in with her wife, who’d been exerting herself more than Estela was completely comfortable with.

Taylor stood up straight, panting, and wiped sweat from her brow. The slight tremble to her knees did not go unnoticed.

“Mi amor, I think you’re done.”

“Done?” Taylor heaved. “I’m no-- yeah, I’m done. I am officially….” She leaned against a wall, and let her baseball bat clatter to the fall. “I’m officially… all emotionally-released out.”

“I’m happy to hear that, cariña.” Estela put her free arm around Taylor, steadying her. “How about I pull up a chair for you so you can keep me company until I’m done?”

“I would like that a lot.”

Soon, Taylor was peacefully reclining on a deck chair brought from the poolside, and sipping a drink from a coconut, while Estela kept up her demolition crusade around her.

Taking down the old resort was a laborious process, one that had begun many months ago when the Catalysts first began stripping the hotel of anything that could be utilised in the small village that had become their sanctuary at the end of the world. Soon after Taylor, Estela, Jake, Grace and Aleister returned to the island, the resort had been gone over with a fine-toothed comb, with anything to be saved carefully removed for safe keeping. Now, what remained of the resort was ripe for a smashing, and once Iris had identified load-bearing structures to be careful of, the bare bones of the once grand Celestial was the site of a purge of a thousand pent-up emotions. There had never been any doubt to Taylor that such an opportunity for catharsis would do the world of good for Estela… but she hadn’t anticipated just how much she herself had needed to expel from her body in screaming blow after screaming blow. She could not begin to count how many times she’d closed her eyes and seen the people she loved murdered at the hands of Everett Rourke… to set fire to every last piece of trace of his awful smug face had the effect of leaving her feeling about ten tonnes lighter. It was everything she’d needed, and as she laid back and watched Estela smash through her own demons, she had to hope… this would be a corner turned for them both.

“Hey….”

Taylor turned her head, and grinned at the sight of Diego cautiously coming towards her.

“Hey!”

“There’s no, uh… debris flying around here is there?”

“Ha. I think you’re safe for now. Estela would have me in a hard-hat if there was any danger.”

Unable to argue with that logic, Diego sat down in the space Taylor made for him beside her.

“I’m just, you know… watching ‘Stel catharting.”

“Yeah, I can see that. Your eyes are bugging right out your head.”

Taylor shrugged and relaxed back in her chair, her gaze still following Estela as she flexed her muscles… which were on fine display beneath a thin tank top. “It’s a nice view; what of it?”

Diego chuckled. “Oh, nothing; nothing at all. Your face is just an absolute picture.”

Every now and then, Estela would glance over her shoulder, and-- sure enough-- Taylor would still be looking at her with the most ridiculous exaggerated heart eyes. God, how Estela loved that dork. Happy that Taylor was taking a well-earned rest, she could focus on her renewed onslaught; slamming into walls, structures… and any little thing that carried that cursed name.

A gargantuan crash had Estela rush to the vast kitchens. The air was thick with dust, already coating the once sparkling bench-tops.

“Grace?”

She needn’t have worried. The woman who emerged from the dust clouds carried a look of determined strength and fierce confidence.

Grace pulled down her earmuffs, her expression softening as she met eyes with Estela. “I didn’t scare you? I, um….” She chuckled bashfully. “I think I had something big and angry I had to get out my system… and it was a little bigger and angrier than I anticipated.”

Estela gave a small nod. “Fair. Things things can just… take over you.”

She knew from experience what that could do to a person. And she had an indelible mark upon her face to prove it.

“Well,” she said, “if you need to talk or anything… I’m maybe not the best at that kind of thing, but I’m here, okay?”

Grace smiled broadly, genuinely touched. “Thank you. And so you know, the offer extends the other way as well.”

It seemed pretty inevitable that old hurts are going to come up amidst all this releasing of pent-up emotion. Surrounded by support, it was a challenge that could be faced. Estela was certain that whatever poison bubbled to the surface, whatever old hurt took her by surprise, it would not be her burden to carry alone. She shook herself back into the zone, and in one fell swoop, took out the last support holding up the bar, which crumbled with a satisfying crack. It felt good. And so, she continued smashing out her demons… whilst remaining just close enough that she could run to Grace’s aid should she get in too deep.

Slowly but surely, Estela got back into her rhythm. Letting herself feel, and hurt… and then letting everything come pouring out.

With a guttural roar, she brought the hammer down hard. Again… and again. For everything Rourke had done…. For the hope for a safe future the bastard had dangled in front of Estela’s mother. For how callously he’d brutally ended that kind, intelligent, beautiful life, then turned around and talked of love. How even when his own demise was inevitable, the sadistic determination he’d had to make his last act the one of killing Taylor. For all those terrible nights Estela had been woken up by her poor wife screaming over deaths at his hands playing out before her, again and again. That demon had blighted every single person he touched. Lies… cruelty… and in his wake a bloody trail. Oh, but if he could see his precious Celestial now… that wicked smug satisfaction would be wiped clean off his disgusting face. Faster, harder, Estela threw herself behind every blow, letting out everything… the hatred gushing forth deep and profound, an all-encompassing whirl that her straining body could barely keep up with.

Her chest heaved. Her arms ached. As Estela watched the last rubble fall around her, a deep exhale took with her breath the emotional torment that had for so long existed in her like a sickness. She closed her eyes, and lay down the sledgehammer. She’d yelled her voice hoarse; her throat burned, and she had no screams left to yell. Slowly, panting heavily while tears and sweat still dripped from her face, she collected herself... taking in the sounds of water spraying from a burst pipe, and the aggressive grunts coming from the kitchen, where Grace was clearly still working through some stuff.

“Stupid… blasted… counter…!”

“Are you okay in there, Grace?”

There was a pause in the frustrated bellowing, then came the voice that seemed too absurdly gentle to have come from the very same person.

“I think I’ve discovered the limit to my own strength.”

Thinking she might as well lend a hand, Estela picked up her hammer and-- carefully maneuvering herself over the mess she’d wrought-- made her way back to the kitchen. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Furball snuffling around through the debris-- more than likely, he’d come in with Fenix, who’d been following Taylor around. Estela gave a low whistle.

“Are you going to be helpful? I’m sure Grace will appreciate it.”

“Mrrp!” Furball cocked his head, looking worriedly at the tear-tracks upon Estela’s face. “Prr?”

Well, that’s kinda sweet. Estela knelt down and gave the little blue fox a reassuring scritch behind the ears, then pulled up her singlet to wipe her face. “It’s all right. I’m all right. Sometimes feeling things is good for you, you know?” Then she stood up, again all action. “Come on, then.”

“You’re, uh, having a little trouble, then?” she asked as she rounded the door.

Grace, taken by surprise, jumped about a foot in the air.

“Oh!” She laughed. “You just about gave me a heart attack!”

“Sorry. I’ve been told I have a bad habit of sneaking up on people.”

“I wouldn’t say it’s a bad habit. I’ve had much worse surprises, I can tell you.” Grace tapped a sturdy steel counter with the hammer she’d been using to smash up the kitchen. “You caught me trying and failing to take out my feelings on this hapless counter. But it looks like even my feelings about my mother aren’t cutting the mustard-- and I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t calculated the most efficient angle of attack.”

Estela couldn’t help but snort a laugh. “You do always think things through. Here,” she said, offering her heavy sledgehammer. “Between you, this baby, and Furball, I think you should be able to smash out a few more feelings.”

Grace took a moment to study her sister-in-law’s face, and it didn’t take long to ascertain that Estela wasn’t just doing fine… she looked really… very well. Lighter maybe. She grinned. This little foray into demolition had been exactly what the doctor ordered.

“I’ll certainly try.”

It was getting dark by the time Estela and Grace-- and Furball-- retreated back to the entrance foyer, ready to leave behind The Celestial for good. Aleister was having a nasty cut on his forehead seen to by Taylor, who had with her the miracle ointment made from the healing leaves.

This, Estela supposed, was what happened when you weren’t quite careful enough about where you directed a lifetime’s worth of anger. And exactly why she’d kept a close eye on Grace… some people just don’t have the competence to throw around a heavy bludgeon.

“Oh, Al, sweetheart!”

Estela forced herself not to roll her eyes, no matter how excessive the fuss. A bit of care and affection had done wonders for Aleister’s disposition, and she was not about to challenge it… especially when she was pretty sure she acted a damn fool herself when the love-goggles were on.

“I, uh,” he muttered, his cheeks pinkening with unmissable delight as Grace took him in her arms, “seem to have clocked myself about the head in an attempt at putting a poker through one of my father’s portraits. The mind boggles… how many images he needed of his own smug face in here….”

“I’m guessing Jake’s still off making sure we got them all?” The absence of the final member of the group had struck Estela-- the lack of snarky remarks and stupid nicknames was glaring. With his intended surrender to authorities looming, and along with it the inevitable facing up to Mike’s family, Jake would be feeling… a lot. If he needed space, his friends would give it, no questions asked.

Diego’s eyes were puffy, and Taylor’s soft with clear concern for her friend. But, of course, how could Diego be even remotely all right? That Estela was seeing him at all was something of a surprise; time with the one he loved was running out fast.

Perhaps he’d seen the question in her eyes, for he said; “I wanted to take one last look at the place before it’s all torn down.” He gave a weak laugh. “Take a moment to remember the poor fish from my beautiful old aquarium room… which became a lot less cool once they’d all gone belly-up. It now looks like Finding Nemo: The Horror Cut, and the smell is… pretty bad.”

“I could have told you that choosing a room with live decorations isn’t the best idea in an abandoned hotel.”

Aleister chuckled, giving his sister an appreciative glance. She might have been something of a brute, but he’d long since conceded that she did in fact hold a few of the family brain cells.

“Trust me,” Diego said, “I’m keeping it in mind for next time.”

It was a long and quiet trek back to Elyys’tel and Catalyst Village; each member of the group was lost in their own thoughts. Varyyn had only just made the journey himself-- he’d given his husband space to say goodbye to a piece of his life that he could never understand, but had returned for him. They strode side by side at the back of the pack… always touching. It was those little touches… the ones they both knew were always offered in a heartbeat, that would perhaps be missed most.

“Hey,” Taylor said gently, slowing so she could walk beside her best friend. “If you want to, you’re welcome to crash at our place tonight. I’m sure we can snag a mattress from someone else’s house so you’ve got plenty of snuggle space.”

“I don’t wanna disturb you, you know? You’d be just upstairs… and there will be crying. Besides, just camping out under the stars together… it might be nice.”

When they reached the village, Diego and Varyyn peeled off from the rest of the group, quietly settling on a secluded stretch of the cove where, for a time, it could be as though there were not a soul in the world but for the two of them.

“I feel like I’m wasting the time we have,” Diego mumbled guiltily. “You’re right here with me, and I can’t even make the most of it because it’s like I’m drowning in… in feeling sad.”

“We are together, my beloved,” Varyyn said gently. “That is, ‘the most’ of any time. The most there ever can be. You always give me the truth of you, and now, that is very, very sad.” He trailed off. “…As am I.”

Diego exhaled deeply, pressing himself against Varyyn’s larger frame and feeling safe. There was no shame in his emotions; he was understood, and cherished in all his raw edges. Varyyn had never asked for anything more of him. It was the reason he had to courage to follow his passion and give himself a chance to grow into what he knew was his truest self… but the road to get there would be testing.

“I will see you every day-- I have become very proficient at the ‘phone’. And we can talk many, many hours. Being elyyshar has some benefits. If I am with you, the council can wait.”

“Even if Seraxa has steam coming out her ears?”

Chuckling in spite of his deep sadness, for he had to do whatever he could to give his beloved what strength he could offer, Varyyn nodded. “Even if.” He squeezed Diego closer, and let his eyes flutter shut, focusing on the very feel of him there in his arms… the way it was meant to be. The way it would be again, for their spirits were irrevocably entwined. “And it will not be long before we are together again. You have heard Taylor talking; she is not going to rest until she finds a way for me to visit you, and in the meantime….”

“I’m just a call away.” Diego wiped away his tears, then brought his hand to Varyyn’s face and guided him into a slow and tender kiss. Just a call away. Just a call away….

Further up the beach, Jake had taken himself for a walk along the sand-- cold beer in hand, and looking up at a wide open night sky for the last time for… well, he didn’t really want to get up on how long.

“Do you want company?”

How long Estela had been lurking behind him, Jake didn’t have the foggiest idea… nor did he know how she managed to sneak up silently on such soft shifting sand. He shrugged.

“Be my guest. Might be a nice distraction from my own thoughts. It ain’t as if I won’t have plenty of time alone with those in the near future….”

“It’s a pity Aleister’s already gone to bed. There’s nothing quite like getting up his nose to keep you out of your own head.”

Jake smirked. Old Malfoy had his weird ways of expressing friendship. Guy would call you an imbecile on one hand and throw tens of thousands at bulking up your legal defense on the other. Something told him that the fights they’d get in over the stupidest goddamn things was just another one of Aleister’s wonky emotionally-repressed attempts at building bonds. And for what it was worth, it actually worked-- with Jake anyway. Any excuse to give Daddy Issues a well-aimed friendly jab.

Estela, on the other hand, didn’t dance around the point with petty jibes and pedantic exchanges. Straight to the point, as she knew Jake had come to expect.

“Look. You are going to clear your names. And Mike is gonna be remembered for the hero he was. We’ll make it happen, all right?” She held his gaze, fierce with resolve, and saw that same fire reflected back at her. “I swear to you… if I have to make it happen my goddamn self. When we’re done, people will be wishing Lundgren had a grave so they could dance on it.”

Jake clapped Estela on the shoulder. “Aw, Katniss. I know we always said Princess was queen of the pep talk, but between you and me, she ain’t got nothing on you.”

“Then make it worth my breath.” She pulled him into a tight hug. “I’m not fucking losing you, you hear?”

“Crystal, Ripley. Crystal damn clear.”

Her face buried in his unkempt hair, Estela fought back the tears that stung her eyes. “Good.”

Pulling away, Jake discretely wiped his own eyes, disguising the movement by running a hand over his stubble. He looked out over the world that had become his home and felt peace.

“You know what? I’m really gonna miss this place.”

Estela followed his gaze across the island, the towers of The Celestial just visible in the distance, and Atropo gently puffing smoke out into the night air.

“Yes. I think I’ll always come back. Maybe we could come here together for like… reunions. All of us,” she made a point of specifying, letting any doubt of her faith in their ability to bring Jake home be put paid to. “We should never forget what happened here.” Nor what we all meant to one another. Her eyes wandered back to her own home in the village, where she knew Taylor was waiting, already going through her bedtime routine. Estela’s heart thrummed with affection. How could they ever stay away?

“I guess, Katniss... I’ll be seeing ya at the reunion.”

Again, she found herself choked up. Enough of this. It was time for bed… before she was a complete mess.

“You bet your ass I will,” she growled.

___________________________

God, it’s cold; Taylor’s first thought as she stepped into the gate from the massive aeroplane. Straight from the tropical climes that had been her normal, even the Massachusetts summer  hit her as distinctly chilly. The very novelty of the crisp night air and the lack of her usual permanent layer of humidity-induced sweat was wonderfully exhilarating. This really was something new.

The flight, coming off the five hour journey to Costa Rica and a three hour stop-over, had been utterly draining for most of the group; Taylor was for once grateful for her recently-acquired ability to fall asleep at the drop of the hat. She’d spent most of the duration snuggled up with her head on Estela’s shoulder-- Estela never slept on planes-- and her legs tucked beside Diego’s while he distracted himself from his thoughts with the in-flight entertainment. Aside from the discomfort of sitting in a confined space for hours on end, the emotional onslaught took its toll. Jake had stayed with the group as far as Costa Rica, then left the others to take their flight to Northbridge. Public interest in ‘The Hartfeld Ten’ had waned somewhat, but if they turned up back in the country with a wanted man, an unnecessary hoo-ha seemed inevitable. At any rate, Jake had been adamant that he hit American soil as close to his home as he could swing it, which had put him on a plane to Dallas that left an hour after the Northbridge flight. There had, of course, been tears, but when Jake waved them onto their last leg home, he hadn’t been saying goodbye as someone dreading what lay ahead, so much as a man ready and determined to finally put everything right. For Mike, and for himself.

Through customs and baggage claim, Taylor took in everything; it was utterly bizarre that she’d never set foot in this country before, but so many of her friends’ life experiences-- the memories that had informed her very creation-- had created an impossible feeling of familiarity. It was as if she were seeing simple things for both the first time and the hundredth, simultaneously. She stayed close to Diego, who had been quiet from the moment the plane took off in La Huerta.

“That’s everything, right?” she checked in with him as she hauled a duffle bag off the carousel, only to have it promptly commandeered by Estela. That’s still too much for me to be lugging around? Point taken.

“Well, unless you’re intending to leave Madam and Fenix behind the Animal Arrivals desk in their pet-packs indefinitely….”

“I’ll have you know, wise-guy, that I haven’t forgotten them. Just… putting off having to deal with the foul mood we can expect from Madam Mierdita.”

Estela turned back to her wife with a smirk. “Her I’ll let you carry.”

“Gee, thanks.” Taylor caught Diego’s little snort of laughter at her expense. Okay, a laugh out of Diego is definitely worth incurring the wrath of the little monster.

Finally, they stepped out the Arrivals doors, trolleys loaded up with heavy luggage and two very curious furry travelers.

“Do you think they’re here ye--” Grace had been wondering out loud before-- “Sean! Michelle!”

Even in a bustling crowd, Sean was easy to spot, head and shoulders over most of the people surrounding him. An effusive Michelle darted into the walkway, sweeping both Taylor and Estela into an embrace, and guiding her small band of weary friends out the way of the rush.

“You wouldn’t believe how good it is to see you all!” She held Taylor at arms length, giving a quick appraisal and then going back in for a hug, satisfied. “You look amazing. Death’s door is all in the past.”

“Oh my god,” Taylor choked out, “it’s not even been a minute and my face is already aching from smiling so much!”

“I’ve been trying to convince Michelle not to worry about you too much,” Sean said as he came out of a hug with Grace to give Taylor’s shoulder a squeeze, “if there’s anyone who can pull a miracle comeback, it’s our Taylor.”

Perhaps it was guilt, but Taylor felt a violent swing of emotion. This wasn’t a victory yet. “We’ve just got to keep that lucky streak going a little while longer… bring us all home.”

A cloud of sadness passed over Sean’s eyes, but his warm smile remained. “No one’s throwing the towel in. Not by a long shot. But my Momma always taught me to savour the wins along the way… and seeing what it was you came back from, this is a big one.”

Taylor exhaled heavily. You’ve got to let it go… just for now. Letting yourself by happy is going to make you stronger when it matters. But it sure was hard. She could see that guilt reflected in Estela’s eyes… which she caught and was met with a tender smile that told her it would all, somehow, be okay.

“Right!” Michelle said. “We were thinking, Diego, Taylor, Estela in the big car with me-- there’s room for the pet carriers in the back. I am dying to show you the house! Aleister and Grace, if you want to go with Sean, he could either take you straight to your place or you can swing by and say ‘hi’ to the masses.”

Grace beamed. “Oh, we will most definitely be swinging round to say ‘hi’!”

“Please tell me Raj hasn’t thrown us some raucous, moronic homecoming party…,” Aleister muttered under his breath.

“You were joking when you said there might be something party-like waiting for us, yeah?” Taylor queried from the back seat of Michelle’s car as they turned onto the freeway.

“The ‘might be’ was only because I wanted to break it to Aleister gently. You’re going home to a party. Period.”

“They do know that we’ve been travelling non-stop for more hours than I care to count, right?”

“Oh, don’t even get me started!” Michelle huffed. “Before you completely panic, I’ve already laid down the law that whenever you’re done, it is done.”

Taylor chuckled nervously, exchanging a glance with an equally trepidatious Diego through the mirror. “I’m going to give Al all of five minutes before he high-tails it out of there.”

Michelle sighed. “The Raj party train is fairly unstoppable. But,” she added with a little twinkle in her eye, “no one is brave or stupid enough to stir up a sleep-deprived Estela, so I’ve been assured it will all be low-key.”

“You’re welcome,” said Estela.

The car pulled up a short while later in front of a big timber-clad house. A really big timber-clad house. Two storeys and --from what Taylor could see-- a window looking out of a loft space as well.

“Wow…,” she breathed.

“Damn,” said Diego, who’d been quiet for most of the journey. “You weren’t kidding when you said you splashed out….”

Michelle shrugged, but her delight in her friends’ reactions couldn’t be hidden. “You do remember that there’s going to be eight of us living there? Including one Craig Hsiao. We were getting a house with space, or we wouldn’t be doing this at all. Again, all credit to Estela for funding this. I’m still not convinced you’re not a little crazy, but there’s no way I’m complaining. This place is gorgeous.”

As she unloaded Madam in her pet-pack, Estela kept glancing up at the house, a curious expression on her face.

“Hey…,” Taylor said, giving her wife’s fingers a squeeze. “Are you okay, love?”

“Yeah, it’s just… weird. I don’t feel comfortable with thanks, I guess. We needed somewhere to stay, I’ve got money now… it’s not like it’s some noble deed or anything.”

Michelle gave a dry laugh. “I saved your life, you gave me money to buy a big-ass house… don’t worry, we’re even.”

Just then, the front door swung open and Quinn bounded out, the broadest of smiles across her face. “You guys! Welcome home!”

“Quinn!”  Taylor put Fenix’s crate on the ground and leaped into a waiting hug… and by the time she lifted her head, she was completely surrounded.

“You made it, brah!”

“Dude-- du-u-uude!”

Suddenly, the hugs were coming from all directions.

Okay, I’m definitely home.

The three new arrivals were quickly roped into a brief house tour, starting with the main lounge, which to everyone’s relief, was not in fact set up for a rager. A few streamers and a ‘welcome home’ banner was the extent of visible party. As Raj explained, the main housewarming shindig would be happening once everyone was actually awake enough to enjoy it. Maybe in a day or two.

“And this,” Quinn announced, after having left a wide-eyed and stuttering Diego to explore his new digs, complete with a enormous screen from which to call Varyyn and digital copies of what appeared to be every major movie and television release from the eighteen months he was away on La Huerta, “is yours.”

She opened a door to a staircase up to the loft-space.

“We really hope you like it.”

Again, Estela’s expression twisted to one of poorly hidden discomfort. Taylor gently took her hand and led the way, understanding. That strange mixture of what she was adjusting to… feeling part of a close group of friends who wanted to look after her and that awareness, now pretty hard to ignore, that she now had money to her name… it was all rather a lot, especially after a long day’s travel.

Quinn, either by reading her friend like a book or by plain instinct, gave the couple some space. “You just take all the time you need. If you want, I can bring Madam up here so you can settle her in? We’ll all be downstairs with hot cocoa waiting whenever you’re ready.”

Taylor turned and gave a slow nod. The emotions rolling through her were overwhelming-- to be once again surrounded by almost the entirety of her family was more wonderful than she could say, and yet, it made the ache of Jake’s fate hanging in the balance all the more obvious. She was excited, and drained, and so fucking grateful for the love she was receiving in spades. That was how she was going to get through. That was how they were all going to get through.

“Thanks, Quinn-- you’re the best. I think Madam will be really happy to get out of that box.”

They reached the top of the stairs and switched on the light.

“Wow,” Estela said softly, her cheeks flushing a little. “This is really nice.”

After what had been put together for Diego, neither of them had known what to expect, but Estela and Taylor’s huge room was wonderfully simple and homey. A big comfy armchair in the corner, a wooden bookcase to match the bed, and a lovely soft rug underfoot… all the essentials for their private bolthole. Two arched windows tilted up to a beautiful view of a starry night. They had their own ensuite bathroom, which both regarded as a definite plus with six other people sharing the house-- including one Michelle Nguyen who did have a reputation for taking her time in front of the mirror. What struck Taylor most, though, were the small thoughtful  touches scattered around the whole place. The many, many photographs that had been hung on the walls… a brand new knitting basket for all of her bits and bobs… fancy lotions that had come from The Elysian… the beautiful painting Quinn had gifted them upon their first anniversary… and perhaps Taylor’s favourite, a little plush dragon that had been propped up on the pillows.

Estela flopped backwards onto the luxurious mattress and exhaled, long and deep. Letting the feeling sink in… the feeling of being welcomed home with open arms. Known, and accepted, and loved. Without opening her eyes, she extended an arm, which Taylor wriggled under to be brought into a soft embrace. They were one more step closer to ‘happily ever after’. On their way to peace and healing.

Taylor saw it there already. Her sweet warrior, at ease with the world… and making her thrum with devotion.

They’d made it this far… so very far. Time for the next chapter.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Revolution Theme, Part 2: War of 1812

READ PART 1 HERE

Wow! Thanks @wdway! Love all this!

You’re right that that the Crossing of the Delaware painting makes a lot more sense, now. It also made me think of the more recent pilgrim paintings we’ve seen the past few years. I think we can work those in as well. The pilgrims were somewhat revolutionary in their actions. Not so much in a massive war or battle sort of way, but they left England (yes, Britain) to find freedoms their mother country wasn’t willing to give them. Which is revolutionary in its way.

But more to the point, that was the first step that would eventually lead to a war for freedom between Britain and the American colonies. So, you could see them as the precursor to the revolution. So, it makes sense to use that painting for TF and TWD right now, because what’s been happening the last season or 2 is the precursor to the final, big revolution.

When you got into talking about 2 revolutions, that makes tons of sense as well, and I totally agree.

When you talked about the white house and library of congress being burnt in 1812, about six things came to mind, lol.

When Eugene was at the Sanctuary (which I 100% believe foreshadows the final revolution, Beth, and what Eugene’s role will be in it) he played the 1812 Overture when he did the science experiment for Negan’s wives. (Including Amber, who looked like Beth and Tanya, who had a lot of Beth’s dialogue with Eugene). I’ve kind of low-key obsessed over that song and why they used it, but other than foreshadowing a final battle with Eugene as I’ve already said, it was hard to connect anything more specific.

The 1812 Overture was not actually written about the War of 1812. It was written in celebration of Napoleon’s retreat from Russia. Basically, he tried to invade Moscow early in 1812 but failed miserably and eventually had to retreat. Not so much because of being out-fought, but more because of weather, illness, lack of supplies for the army, etc.

Now, that’s not the same thing you mentioned in the British fighting Napoleon before turning their attention to the American colonists, but the link is still there. Napoleon/Russia>1812 Overture>Napolean/Britain>Britain/American Colonies. See what I mean? So, the idea of two wars or a war on two fronts really makes sense.

I’ve been trying to find out if the 1812 Overture has a d.c. al coda in it. I don’t think it does, but I’m having a hard time finding the sheet music online. You can find it, of course, but often it’s blurry or watermarked in such a way that it’s hard to read, and that’s because they want you to buy it to remove the watermark. I’ll keep looking.

But I do know it has a coda. Maybe not a d.c. al coda, but a coda of some kind. In fact, while I’m still not sure until I can clearly see the sheet music, from what I’ve read others saying, the final, super-loud, exuberant part of the song that’s often used in U.S. Independence Day celebrations IS the coda. And it represents Russia winning the war over Napoleon. Coincidence?

So, Napoleon fought many wars on many fronts. There’s that. But as you said, the British first fought Napoleon (perhaps that will be the Commonwealth) and then turned to the American colonists. And given what was said in 5x09 about a rebel group fighting against the “republic” using what amounts to guerilla tactics, that does line up with how the American colonists fought the British during the revolution. So clearly that’s the one that will involve Beth and TF (though of course they will probably be involved, at least to some extent, in the Commonwealth bit as well).

Also, also. You talked about the LIBRARY of congress being burned. I’m not sure how, but suddenly I feel sure all the books and librarian stuff must be connected to this. To the revolution theme. I still remember watching the beginning of 6x16 and thinking it was SO significant, but I had no idea why. It’s where we see Carl lock Enid in the closet to keep her safe, and she’s yelling at him things like, “what if you don’t come back?” And he tells her, “just survive somehow.”

Meanwhile, that scene is intercut with Negan’s guys chasing the librarian they end up hanging over the bridge with an X spray painted on his chest. And then he gets…burned?

I remember thinking that just FELT like a big war that was coming, but back then, I really didn’t know how to interpret it. Of course, AOW started soon after, but the librarian group wasn’t a big part of that. If we’re honest, they really were just random side characters, which was odd because that sequence FELT so important. So, I’m betting we ought to be connecting them to this as well.

The Native American Symbols

For the record, a couple of things I’ve been trying to look into and haven’t found much (mostly because I haven’t had much time to do so yet) include what role Native American tribes played in the American revolution. Some were loyal to the British, others to colonists. As I said, I need to do more research, but little tidbits like this one are interesting:

“Their biggest contribution was as spies going to Canada and returning with news of the English plans, and attacking English coastal shipping. The Indians played a leading role in preventing an English attack on Machias by sea from being successful. “

(AL’s voice coming out of the radio in 5x09: “At least 68 citizens of the Republic have been killed in four deadly attacks along the main coastal district. The group has continued their campaign of random violence, moving across the countryside unfettered, with the Republic’s military forces in disarray.” Just saying.)

The other thing I’ve looked into is Francis Marion’s (Swamp Fox’s) connection to Native Americans of the time. During the revolution itself, I’m not finding much. But we do know that he learned a lot of his battle prowess from fighting the Cherokee Indians as a young man.

What he learned there is what made him so effective against the British. So, I’m wondering if that will translate with Beth in that she’ll fight the CRM or perhaps even in battles with the Commonwealth early on and that will give her what she needs to triumph much later in bigger battles. Or maybe they’ll connect it even earlier back to early battles with TF and what Daryl taught her. The possibilities are endless. ;D

@wdway:

If you do a search, it's quite fascinating and well worth the time to do two searches. One on the burning of the White House and then the other one on Andrew Jackson and the Battle of New Orleans.

There are things that I just did not go into like the connection with Napoleon that we've seen hints of in the past couple of seasons and didn't know why. The Cherokee Rose, which has been a symbol for so long and I do not think it was their intention in the beginning but what most people do not understand is that the Cherokee Rose has a strong connection to Andrew Jackson.

Andrew Jackson had a singular focus on driving the Native Americans (mostly the Cherokee Nation) to the West. Lightbulb moment here, but maybe that might be same of the meaning of Indian symbolism.

Jackson had a major part in the Trail of Tears, which is basically the story that Daryl tells Carol after walker Sophia was discovered. Jackson was a brilliant military soldier, but he was not known as a compassionate person. His nickname was Old Hickory (a tree reference) because the hickory tree's wood is known for its hardness.

A few years back, tptb did a promotion showing nuts that had a hard outer shell. People didn't understand what that was, but I knew because it was a hickory nut. A very hard outer shell and then inside is the actual nut. Hickory wood was the favored source for making baseball bats back in the day because they would not easily break.

The other interesting fact about Andrew Jackson was his love for his wife, Rachel. It was a legendary love. He might have been an asshole to the entire world, but Rachel was the love of his life. When she died, he did not simply bury her. He entombed her in her own little Mausoleum at his home, The Hermitage, just outside of Nashville.

Jackson fought both in the Revolutionary War and the 1812 war, in the Battle of New Orleans. He apparently had been imprisoned by the British for a time during the Revolutionary War, which fired his hatred for them.

Am I the only one thinking about the connections between him and Negan? I'm thinking of the two wars, the Commonwealth and the war against the CRM. I want to think that the Commonwealth conflict is represented by the War of 1812. The larger, more overall important conflict with a CRM will be the American Revolutionary War, with Rick replacing Washington as the leader.

I was freaking out when you mentioned the Overture of 1812. I don't care if it was written for the war led by Napoleon with Russia. If anything, that makes it even as stronger clue that we're on the right track because of the Russian satellite and Russian dictionary that little Judith got from (wait for it) the library, for Eugene.

One other thing, @twdmusicboxmystery. I thought about this earlier today when I was reading about the 1812 Overture, but I wanted to do a check before I mentioned it to you. 

Two very famous pieces of music came out of the 1812 wars. The 1812 Overture about Napoleon and Russia, and The Star-Spangled Banner, our U.S. national anthem written by Francis Scott Key about The Battle of Fort Henry. Both Fort Henry and The Battle of New Orleans were fought in 1814 but were known as being part of the War of 1812.

Can’t wait to see how it all plays out.

Definitely very interesting! Thanks for all this research @wdway!