#but the blueprint was the original at least so that’s gotta count for something

[springfieldblues]

my long ass review for S32E03 Now Museum, Now You Don’t

warning: LONG because i rambled about history more than i thought i would

id been looking forward to this one because i like art history, especially after seeing how they tried their best to stick to historical accuracy in the previous episode I, Carumbus. this time however….they didnt try that hard. i dont know why i thought theyd go through that sort of trouble again LMAO

but its okay, i dont really expect the simpsons to be the paragon of historical accuracy or anything. especially in anthology episodes told through a particular character's lens (in this case, lisa, whos already feverish so whatever)

first i just wanna say that this is, i guess, less of a review and more of an accidental list of history fun facts. so im just gonna get my general thoughts out of the way first.

the episode was fun! to me at least haha. i mean it got me to think and do a lot of research on my own so that must count for something. besides a couple of really weird ones, the jokes were good. anthology episodes tend to be….not that good but i thought this one was one of the better ones so far. idk.

anyway on to lisanardo da vinky its the renaissance! jesus christ the italian accents in the beginning of this segment were annoying as hell but i also feel like that was the joke lmao. ill be real i kind of tuned out for a second there when grampa started rambling so idk what he said.

i told myself i wouldnt get nitpicky with historical accuracy if the jokes were funny (final edit: so that was a lie) but this meh bit with the pizza guys and mascots was really not worth ignoring the fact that its impossible for italy to have any tomato-based food in the 15th century (tomatoes were brought to europe from the americas in the 16th century, and pizza as we know it today—flatbread, cheese, tomato—originated in the late 18th century)

oh this next part was kind of legit tho. lisanardo, like the real leonardo, became andrea del verrochio's apprentice at his workshop. i loved this next bit:

"Whoever paints the sweetest cherub will have the honor of having MY name signed on their work. That's what great artists do!"

SO YEAH as it turns out, lisanardo painted the sweetest cherubs. the painting here is called The Baptism of Christ, and the real leonardo assisted verrochio in finishing it. specifically, he painted the cherubs in the corner.

this causes verrochio to quit and go someplace with less talented people: a music school (yes, verrochio did quit painting after getting owned by young leo and his mad angel painting skills. he never did anything with music tho, he was more of a sculptor)

alongside lisanardo, in mr largo-verrochio's workshop we have barticelli (botticelli bart), dolphatello (donatello dolph), ralphael (raphael...ralph) and mediocrito (no one that i know of. sorry milhouse) (and kearney i guess but they dont refer to him by name). botticelli and donatello are said to have also been apprentices at verrochio's workshop, but raphael came a couple of decades later so he couldnt have been there. and donatello was too old so that claim is a bit questionable. but anyway

it IS true that leonardo's peers envied him, to the point where he was anonymously and purposefully accused of being gay (a major crime punishable by death in 15th century florence) while he was still working at verrochio's workshop

we are then treated by what im pretty sure is the fourth time the show has used 'at seventeen' by janis ian, this time sung by a dejected lisanardo (man they really do keep making yeardley sing these days huh) who only wishes to be appreciated and not envied.

"I'll show them all! I'll show them all in a secret diary that no one will decipher for 400 years!"

some of lisanardo's future inventions. who wouldve known

so after barticelli, for some reason (revenge??? or something?? what was his plan here idgi) steals lisanardo's diaries full of blueprints of her inventions and takes them to mr burns who i have to assume is pope alexander VI here, they decide to use her inventions for war.

"With these, we can kill the most evil people in the world!! ....Slightly different Christians."

leo actually did this of his own accord. im surprised this is what they decided to do with lisanardo instead of talking about leo's love of nature and vegetarianism (not a single mention of that in this episode? come on...) then again, trying to do good only to end up indirectly making things worse is a very standard lisa storyline. i guess they didnt want to miss the chance to have evil pope burns (very fitting, especially for that era since they were all about money and controlling the people)

so lisanardo decides to leave for france, unlike the real leonardo who was more or less persuaded by his ultimate fanboy king francis I to move to france.

"Lisanardo, I have many questions. Why are you hitting yourself? A nerd says 'what'? And how is it possible that I am rubber and you are glue? Et cetera, et cetera."

that line may seem a little random, like hes just nelson saying nelson things (and i mean, obviously he is) but the real francis also "had an unquenchable thirst for learning, and Leonardo was the world’s best source of experimental knowledge. He could teach the king about almost any subject there was to know, from how the eye works to why the moon shines." so yeah, he did have many questions and lisanardo, finally being appreciated for her intellect, was happy to answer them all. its very interesting how lisa assigned this role to nelson in her retelling of da vinci’s life :^)

and so she lived the rest of her days in france, nat king cole's 'mona lisa' plays because duh, and they make a da vinci code reference because duh. and the segment ends. and not a single time did they show the actual mona lisa painting. the fuck?

(ngl i was fully expecting bart to say 'leonardo da vinky' for a second here)

so this next segment is about french impressionist painters, most likely the batignolles group, a name adopted by the early representatives of impressionism. its much more vague than the lisanardo segment since no one here is referred to by name (except moe, more on him in a sec) but i dont feel like it really matters in this case. bart is prrrrooobably claude monet but its hard to say, this segment is kind of a mish-mash of a lot of things. also i gotta say i really liked how lisa introduced the story to bart with an 'if you hate the formal study of art' and not 'if you hate art' because thats exactly my headcanon. i LOVE the concept of artist bart and whenever its referenced it just makes perfect sense to me.

anyway the segment opens in 1863 at the école des beaux-arts (back then it was actually known as the académie des beaux-arts), preserver of traditional french art styles. skinner reviews his students’ paintings one by one. praises the plain, unimaginative paintings depicting your typical european countryside landscapes. very run-of-the-mill (haha get it...cuz theres….a windmill) (although the real académie didnt approve of such basic stuff, they wanted artists to draw epic historical and mythological scenes) then he gets to barts painting and he gives him an F- because the painting made him think.

(the paintings in this scene arent real famous paintings as far as i know but they are inspired by real paintings enough to get the point across)

in comes barney dressed as bacchus as a model for the students to sketch, which i just loved:

barney: “You prefer robe open or robe off?” skinner: “Just cover your privates with this walnut shell.” barney: “Whoa!!! So roomy!”

skinner gasps in horror at bart’s sketch, which “looks nothing like him” and bart explains that “it shouldn’t; we’re making the art that we feel because we can’t compete with a camera.” damn, you go bart. take that, realism. draw what you feel!!

(also no, you didnt need to hold still for 17 hours for a daguerreotype. 30 min tops.)

nelson haw-haw of the week: FOIE-gras!

so here they are at the moulin rouge (“enjoy it before baz luhrmann ruins it” hey shut up. i love that movie), which wouldnt be built for another 26 years, but it is the most widely known gathering place for bohemians in the public consciousness so i can understand why they went with the moulin. nelson delivers this anachronistic line:

“This époque keeps getting beller and beller!”

which alludes to la belle époque, the golden age of france usually dated from 1880 to 1914. made me snort so ill let that slide

and heres moe! as henri de toulouse-lautrec, who was actually born a year after the year this segment is set in. yo moe szyslak he was just 1

toulouse-moetrec introduces himself as the chronicler of the demimonde (not an actual job). an iconic figure associated with the moulin rouge (largely due to his affinity for alcohol and prostitutes), toulouse-lautrec was also a painter, having illustrated a series of posters for the moulin himself. he simply had to be in this segment, anachronisms be damned, just because they decided to include the moulin. cant have one without the other.

and yes he did have a walking cane where he kept his liquor.

i love how everyone drinks absinthe in this place. theyre bohemians what else would they drink

toulouse-moetrec points out that barts paintings are the greatest thing hes ever seen (and hes seen like five things!) and that hes a genius. milhouse realizes that they should stop doing what the teacher says and use their own minds to instead...start doing what bart says lmao. to the easels!

next we have skinner hyping up chalmers about the art his students made for the salon de paris, an art exhibition that the emperor of france will attend. he assures him that none of these paintings will encourage debate, provoke thought or be out of place at a dentist’s office. when they unveil the art, theyre both SHOCKED at how scandalous the paintings actually are.

this reaction was kind of accurate. impressionism was severely rejected at the salon de paris, due to paintings not looking finished enough to them, they thought they were ugly and vulgar for depicting nudity in a contemporary setting (historical and mythological nudity was fine). these impressionist paintings were sent to the salon de refusés, which is. yeah. the place where they sent the rejects. the salon de refusés does not make an appearance but this scene makes a reference to it when the artists get expelled from the royal salon. also:

“What about our student loans?” “Oh they’ll be refunded. We are not barbarians, I mean, come on.”

(god if only)

so the painters are down because they want the emperor to actually see their paintings. toulouse-moetrec pipes in once again with an idea.

“There is one thing the emperor loves more than anything.” “France?” “No, he hates France.”

apparently the emperor really loves cheese, which makes sense since its napoleon III (who loved cheese) and homer (who loves cheese.) so the painters roll into the salon inside a giant wheel of cheese (obviously.) as lenny said, “Eh, you know French cheese. Very runny.” napoleon III chases after the wheel into a room, where the wheel falls apart after getting chomped on by the emperor. now that they got his attention, the painters proudly show the emperor their impressionist art, which he couldnt be more indifferent about because he just wants to eat his cheese dammit, and he awards them with the royal medallion just to kind of get them out of his way. skinner immediately starts kissing ass (as he does) until marge’s like ‘hey wait a minute. you expelled these students from the royal salon’ and an executioner immediately starts ominously measuring skinners neck.

“Uh, sir...is your tongue sticking out because you’re dead or because you’re mad at me?”

and thats the end of that lmao (gore in this episode, gore in the last episode, and next week we’re getting gore too cuz its THOH, what the hell is goin on)

we get a short intermission with maggie, who wants a story for her too! lisa tells her that renaissance artists loved to put babies in their paintings, especially baby angels.

here she is showing her The Triumph Of Galatea by raphael:

King David Playing The Harp by peter paul reubens:

and a very simplified version of pretty much any depiction of hell by hyeronimus bosch lmao:

not much else to say about this one, really. but i really liked that sky!

the last segment is about frida kahlo and diego rivera. or as bart puts it ‘the one about a fat guy whos wife is too good for him.’ i was REALLY looking forward to this one because i love frida and i thought itd be a cool opportunity for animators to go bonkers and do really cool shit with her art as inspiration…..but the segment is not about frida, its about diego and his selling out to capitalism. and its also yet another story with homer and marge drama. no funky cool animation here. sigh i guess i’ll take it

the story begins in 1929 at la casa azul, frida’s home (now museum dedicated to her life and work.) frida and diego are getting married. this courtyard definitely did not look this way yet back in 1929. also theres something very cringy yet funny about lovejoy saying spanish words the way he does, i honestly cant decide how i feel about that one

the writers know theyre being cringy with their gringoness so they go along with it.

moe: “Spanish for ‘best wishes’!” mel: “Spanish for ‘congratulations’!” bumblebee man: “Spanish for ‘muy bueno’!”

OH YEAH BUMBLEBEE MAN this is his new voice actor, eric lopez! hes not mexican but its still great to finally have a latino actor voicing a latino character and hes very excited to be part of the show so i hope to hear more of him!! im rooting for him

el barto/zorro makes an appearance which i am very confused about. he has jack shit to do with frida and diego and mexico in the 20s-30s. el zorro was set in the spanish california of the early 19th century. their use of the original theme song makes me think they just wanted to flex their disney privileges tbh

lets not talk about that that whole scene was bad

anyway diego announces he and frida are going to new york, without even asking her first. frida is obviously pissed.

“Don’t worry, as a woman, you’ll be treated with much more respect in America.”

so in new york, diego is having a bit of a business meeting with mr burns as one of the members of the rockefellers, who is commissioning him to draw a mural for the rockefeller center. its kinda funny how he refers to him and frida as socialists even though they were very much communists lmao its okay you can say it. ok so far, but then frida says ‘yes, we hate the capitalists! right now, a young socialist is being born who will take them down! mr. bernie sanders. i hope hes quick about it’ and that was a simple enough joke and couldve been left at that but then its immediately followed by this weird as fuck family guy-esque cutaway gag to bernie as a baby:

“Getting a cootie shot should not cost your lunch money. And if you don’t listen to me, listen to the Bernie Babies! What? Everybody’s got goons.” *larger babies start beating up this other baby* “I disavow that, and welcome it.”

this confused me so much that i had to ask one of my american friends to help me understand, but even she was like ‘uhhh yeah thats a weird joke,’ especially now that hes been out of the race for months (then again these episodes take almost a year to produce. i guess they couldnt be bothered to replace it with something more relevant.) whatever that was weird and confusing and unfunny moving on

frida is pretty irked that diego is going through with this deal. after all, it goes against everything they believe in. im not sure how the real frida felt about diego doing the mural, but she did feel a bit of rage during her visit to the united states, especially the obvious disparity between rich and poor. she hated having to interact with capitalists and found americans very boring. in this segment, frida seems to be acting more like the american communist party, which diego got kicked out of for accepting commissions from wealthy patrons. in any case, frida is pretty upset about this whole thing.

and finally we get the first and only kind of surreal frida moment. kinda. maybe. its more cartoonish than anything but im desperate ok

interesting how they felt like they had to add a “don’t smoke” in big letters after showing patty and selma flying away on their giant cigarettes. i wonder if this is something theyre making them do now? i remember hearing something about them toning down patty and selma’s smoking

diego comes home to frida, drunk as hell, followed by the marx brothers. i cant believe they didnt make a marxism joke come on it was RIGHT THERE. THE MARX BROTHERS. KARL MARX. COME ON

frida paints her feelings.

this makes diego realize that frida is a genius and he is not half the artist she is. he proclaims he will now show his awe of her by sleeping with other women, starting “an hour ago.” to which frida replies, “and i will start sleeping with other women, starting two hours ago.” yes this was pretty much their relationship. though im just wondering how the hell did diego not know frida was this kind of artist until now? i know homers an idiot but jeez. art was how frida and diego met, diego knew from the get-go that frida was an incredible artist. i guess the fame got to his head or something. again, homer just being stupid.

“well enough already, while the art is still deco, okay?”

its time for the mural diego painted, Man At The Crossroads, to be unveiled:

rockefeller examines it. good and great so far, and then...uh oh

“Who’s that fellow…? With the beard, and the bolshevik smile…” “That’s the founder of Soviet Russia, Lenin!”

“B-b-but he’s a communist!” “Oh he just attended a couple of meetings.”

rockefeller will not have this communist in the temple to capitalism that is the rockefeller center, so he orders diego to paint over it. diego stands his ground and refuses. despite rockefeller’s threats, diego says that theres only one person he wants to be proud of him no matter what and in true homer & marge fashion, frida is touched by this. they happily leave the rockefeller center.

now, the real story of Man At The Crossroads and the rockefeller center was actually not that different. as soon as the rockefellers found out diego had snuck in a portrait of lenin into the mural, they ordered him to paint over it, to which he refused. diego even offered to include abraham lincoln and even american abolitionists in the mural as a compromise, but the rockefellers simply did not want any references to communism whatsoever. they did not complain about the hammer and sickle, though. yes, they did know diego was a communist and hired him anyway. what did they expect? lmao. diego said:

"Rather than mutilate the conception [of the mural], I shall prefer the physical destruction of the conception in its entirety, but preserving, at least, its integrity."

so they decided to destroy the mural before it was even finished and they never talked to each other again.

diego then repainted the mural at the palacio de bellas artes back in mexico, this time known as Man, Controller of the Universe. this new version included even more communist leaders and a depiction of john d. rockefeller jr. drinking at a nightclub, right underneath a depiction of syphilis bacteria. cue nelson haw-haw:

this was the version they used in the episode also, since the original was, well, never finished and also destroyed. only a black and white photograph of it exists, taken by diego before it was destroyed so he could remake it.

right so, homer!diego then pulls a Barthood and finishes the episode with a large mural summarizing the entire episode. he says some rick and morty thing i didnt get because i dont watch the show idk idc

the end

ALRIGHT NOW ITS TIME FOR THE STORY OF VINCENT VAN MOE

#if you read all of this bless you #the imageless gdocs version of this is 8 pages long #hope you...enjoy?!?! these art history fun facts?!?! #dont let me do something like this again but also let me know if i should do something like this again #i was really only motivated to do this because im already passionate about the subject so idk if i could do it otherwise #anyway. this took me all day yesterday because the power kept going out #but im finally done #bye

[tw-anchor]

27. Very Busy Night

Anchor

Stiles Stilinski x Original Character

Episode: 3x02; Chaos Rising + 3x03; Fireflies

Word Count: 10,425

Warning(s): Mature language, canon violence + gore, character death

Author’s Note: I fit in the rest of Chaos Rising in this chapter because I thought it would flow with Fireflies better. I hope you like this chapter! Tell me what you think! Make sure to reblog and like!

Find the masterlink where’s it pinned to my blog!

Allison pulled her bolt cutters from where she was hiding them behind her back and snipped at the chain holding the front doors to Beacon Hills First National closed. Olivia quickly grabbed the chain before it could fall to the ground and make any nose, alerting the alpha pack that someone was breaking into the bank. The last thing they needed was to get caught right away; that wouldn't make a very successful mission.

Olivia and Allison nodded at each other before they opened one of the doors and slipped into the abandoned building. It was very dark inside, which made it hard to see, but at least the subtle glare of the full moon provided a little light to guide them around. The bank was just as Olivia saw in Isaac's memories, dusty and deserted. The lobby was full of mishappen furniture that was thrown about, including chairs, desks, and teller counters that would have been nice once upon a time. The whole feel of it gave Olivia the creeps—and it didn't help that the full moon was starting to affect the werewolves in her life.

She could feel five different struggles in her mind, each belonging to the werewolves she considered pack. It was a little distracting, having to feel a loss of control while having no side effects from the moon herself. She had to make sure that she wasn't focusing on her pack but on what she was involved in. If she didn't focus, she would lose control and act like she did in the classroom on the first day of school. She wouldn't be able to do anything and she wouldn't be able to have Allison's back or protect herself—not that she could do much fighting, anyway.

She clenched her fists as she and Allison walked through the lobby, dodging the old furniture, and made their way back to hallway that would lead to the offices. They passed a couple of file cabinets on the way, but they were only a quarter of the way through the hallway when someone attacked.

Allison was quick to defend them, drawing one of her ring daggers and blocking the woman who had pushed them. Unfortunately, Allison was too caught off guard and Olivia was practically useless in defending themselves; the woman pushed both of them up against the wall.

It was then that Olivia saw exactly who it was that attacked them.

"Ms. Morrell?" she breathed in confusion. She was the guidance counselor, for crying out loud. Lydia and Stiles literally had appointments with her every week. What the hell was she doing in the alpha pack's den?

"Keep your mouths shut and listen close," Ms. Morrell warned them. "You have no idea what you two just stepped into. Right now, you've got maybe twenty seconds to get your asses hidden."

"What are you doing?" Allison asked.

"Get in that storage closet over there and lock the door," Ms. Morrel nodded at the door behind Olivia and to the right. "When you hear the fighting start, that's when you come out."

"There isn't supposed to be fighting," Olivia stated; their plan was for her to calm down Boyd and the girl and get them out of there before the alpha pack even knew they were there.

"You're wrong," Ms. Morrel said. "You'll hear it. Now go!"

Ms. Morrell let go of Olivia and Allison and ran out of the hallway. They didn't waste any time as they rushed toward the storage closet and entered the room, quietly shutting the door behind them. It was pitch black in the room and as expected, the light switch didn't work. They were blind for the moment.

And then they heard the multiple sets of footsteps. Realizing what was happening at the same time, they both nudged each other away from the door and held their breath, hoping that the oncoming alphas wouldn't be able to hear them.

That didn't exactly take care of their scents, though.

As the footsteps started to pass by the closet, Allison knocked over a jug of cleaner. Olivia didn't know exactly what it was but it sure smell strong enough to hide their scents. Hopefully, it wouldn't be too suspicious that there was a strong chemical smell coming from the closet out of nowhere. It was a storage closet, though, so who knew.

Nothing happened, though. They weren't caught. When the footsteps faded away until they were sure no one would come back, Allison shredded her jacket and placed it on the puddle of cleaner, hoping to dilute the scent that burned their nostrils. Olivia quickly pulled her phone from her own jacket and turned on the flashlight; now there was enough light to at least get their bearings.

However, when Olivia spotted something out of the corner of her eye, she wished she wouldn't have turned the light on at all. When the beam of light hit Erica's body, her stomach heaved and her chest tightened. Her eyes stung as she looked at her former packmate; her body was already decomposing, her skin chalk white with spots of decay here and there.

"Oh, my God," she breathed shakily. She grabbed Allison's offered hand and squeezed it with all of her might, trying not to freak out and blow the whole operation.

Erica was only two months older than her. She spent most of her life without friends and riddled with seizures that brought her self-confidence down to the negatives. When she was given the bite, she was okay for less than a month before she was being hunted down by the Argents. She didn't get to live the life she deserved and it made Olivia sick to her stomach. Erica was good. She was good and she deserved better than what she got.

She hastily wiped her wet face with the back of the hand that held her phone. It was no use, more tears were already slipping down her cheeks. She felt like a piece of her was missing and she couldn't believe that she hadn't even known that Erica was killed because it was clear that it had been more than a couple of weeks that her body had been in the closet.

"I'm so sorry, Liv," Allison squeezed her hand in comfort. She hadn't been friends with Erica like Olivia had been but it was still upsetting to see her dead. They were classmates and had Erica been on the right side of things, maybe they would have been friends. They'd never know now.

-

-

Stiles stared out the huge window in Derek's loft, staring at the full moon in the sky. It had been maybe an hour since Olivia, Derek, and Scott left but he was already impatient for them to get back. He didn't like waiting, especially when his girlfriend and best friend were risking their lives at the moment.

"I can't take waiting around like this, you know?" he spoke aloud, hoping that Peter would understand his worry. "It's nerve-racking. My nerves are racked. They're severely racked. Racked."

Why would Peter care, though? It wasn't like his own daughter and nephew were in danger. "I could beat you unconscious and wake you when it's over."

Stiles rolled his eyes and turned away from the window, facing Peter where he was laying on the couch. "Do you think that Erica's really dead?"

"Do you think I really care?"

Stiles quickly moved on and changed the subject as he started pacing around the loft. "I just, I don't understand the bank, though, okay? What—like, why wouldn't they chain them up in some underground lair or something? They're an alpha pack, right, so shouldn't they have a lair?"

"They're werewolves, not Bond villains."

"Wait a sec, wait a sec," Stiles turned back to him. "Maybe they're living there, you know? Like, maybe the bank vault reminds them of their little wolf dens."

Peter opened his eyes and stared at him blankly. "Wolf dens?"

"Yeah, wolf dens," Stiles nodded. "Where do you live?"

Suffice to say, his girlfriend's father hadn't exactly invited him around for dinner.

"In an underground network of caves hidden deep in the woods."

Maybe that was why. "Woah, really?"

"No, you idiot," Peter rolled his eyes. "I have an apartment downtown."

Stiles almost felt a little disappointed. "Okay, fine, but still, that just proves that there's something up with the bank," he pointed out. "And why wait around for the full moon, huh? Why not just kill them whenever they want to?"

"Maybe they think it's poetic," Peter suggested casually.

He shook his head. "They've already had three full moons to be poetic."

"And here, you've only had one full hour to be so annoying..."

Stiles waited for him to go on complaining about him but he didn't. "No, go ahead and finish what you were saying. I'm—I'm annoying...What were you gonna say there?"

Peter didn't rise to his challenge. "What are the walls made of?"

"What?" Confused, Stiles looked around the loft. "Uh, I don't know, like, wood and brick, or—"

"No, the vault, the vault," Peter jumped up from the coach and headed over to the bank's blueprints that were still spread out on the table. "the walls, what are they made out of? Where would it say that?" he went through the various pages of plans. "This doesn't say anything. Where would it say the materials, the type of stone?"

"Oh! Okay, hang on," Stiles rushed over to the table and searched for the binder that held the details of the build; when he finally found it, he handed it over to the werewolf. "Here, it's gotta be in there."

He looked carefully as Peter swiped through the pages, looking for what kind of stone they used for the vault. When they finally came to the page that held the details for the vault, Stiles discovered the section of materials.

"There," Stiles pointed to the section. "That's it."

"Hecatolite," Peter read.

"Is that awful? That sounds awful."

"Get them on the phone," Peter demanded. "Call them, now."

"Okay," Stiles scrambled for his phone and quickly started dialing Scott. "why?"

"Because Boyd and that girl aren't gonna kill each other, they're gonna kill Derek and Scott."

Panic raising in his chest, Stiles pressed his phone to his ear and was relieved when Scott picked up.

"Stiles, now is not the best time."

"Scott, Scott!" he exclaimed frantically. "No, listen to me, okay? Look, you gotta get out of there. Look, the walls of the vault are made with a mineral called Hecatolite. It scatters the moonlight."

"What does that mean?"

"It keeps the moonlight out, okay? They haven't felt the full moon in months."

"Okay, think of it like the gladiators in the Roman colosseum," Peter took over explaining. "They used to starve the lions for three days, making them more vicious, more out of control. Deucalion has kept them from shifting for three full moons, diminishing their tolerance to it."

"Scott, they're gonna be stronger—"

"More savage, more bloodthirsty," Peter cut him off. "Scott, they're the lions. They're the starved lions and you and Derek just stepped into the colosseum."

"Derek, we have a problem," they heard Scott say. "A really big problem."

Then came Derek's surprised voice. "Cora?"

"Who?"

Stiles looked at Peter, wondering if he knew a Cora. The shocked look on his face made him think that he did.

"Cora?"

"Derek, get out," a female voice came from the other line. "Get out now!"

"Scott," Stiles spoke again, hoping to get Scott's attention. "Hey, Scott! Scott, are you hearing this?"

Vicious growling started out on the other line and they could hear the fighting start.

"Scott?!"

The dial tone started beeping.

-

-

The fighting started not long after Olivia and Allison discovered Erica's body. They waited only five minutes before they set out of the closet, afraid that they were run into any members of the alpha pack on their way to the vault.

From the loud growling, the vicious roars, and the painted grunting, Scott and Derek had to have been having a bad time in that vault. The crashing and bangs didn't bode well for them, either.

Olivia had to get in there, now.

She and Allison were quick getting to the vault. Olivia was quick to notice the circle of mountain ash on the floor and that was good and bad. It was bad because Derek and Scott couldn't get out of the vault but it was good because neither could the girl or Boyd. Believe it or not, it was safer for Beacon Hills if Boyd and the girl were contained in one place. It wasn't so good for Derek and Scott, though.

"Look out!" Allison yelled as Olivia jumped over the seal and into the vault. Derek and Scott jumped out of the way as the mystery girl and Boyd lunged for them.

Boyd hit his target with Scott, digging his claws into his stomach and rising him up into the air. Scott grunted and searched for the strength to get out of Boyd's hold but he was unable to fight back.

"Boyd!" Olivia rushed to a stop and held out her hands toward her large packmate. He was seething and out of control as he turned away from an injured Scott to glare at her. "Boyd, control yourself!"

He roared a her, furious. Honestly, it scared Olivia more than a little bit. For some reason, Boyd was more out of control than usual and she didn't know if she could do anything about it. Yeah, she had been practicing with her abilities and they've grown stronger but Boyd was only with her for a month. She didn't even know the girl, so it'd be hard to do anything to her.

Then Olivia was on the ground, a girl her age hovering over her. The breath was knocked out of her chest and she was pretty sure she was going to die but when she took a look at the girl's face, time seemed to stop.

She knew who the mystery girl was now and she couldn't believe it. Cora, her cousin who was born only a year before her, was supposed to have died in the fire. That's what they all assumed when she didn't show up after the disaster that ravished the Hale house and killed Olivia's aunt and mother, along with other members of the pack. They hadn't seen her for six and a half years and now, all of a sudden, here she was, trapped in a bank vault by the alpha pack.

How had she even survived?

"Cora?" she breathed in shock. "You're alive."

Cora's face only slight softened as she realized exactly who she had tackled. She didn't really get to think on it further when Derek plowed into her, knocking her off their cousin and onto the floor.

"Ollie, go!"

Olivia hurriedly got up and backed away from her cousins, heading toward Boyd and Scott. She said nothing, as to not give away her position, and slapped her hand onto Boyd's back. Her gaze was tinted purple as she concentrated all of her energy into calming Boyd down so he wouldn't end up killing Scott.

"Come on, Boyd."

He was fighting her and it was hard to get a hold of him. Just as she was only a second away from reaching him and getting him into control, Derek called out, "No, don't break the seal!"

Her concentration lost, she looked over at Allison just as the taller brunette crouched down to break the mountain ash barrier.

"Boyd!" Allison called, getting the beta's attention.

As Boyd let go of Scott, Olivia tried to wrap her hands around his huge arm. "BOYD!"

Boyd only faltered for a long second before Allison broke the barrier. He ripped away from her grasp and sped out of the vault, Cora on his tail. Olivia stared after them in belief; she was so close to getting to Boyd.

Derek angrily stormed out of the vault and grabbed Allison's arm.

"Don't touch her!" Scott pushed him away as he and Olivia approached.

"What were you thinking?" Derek growled at her.

"That I had to do something," Allison shot back."

Scott immediately jumped to Allison's defense. "She saved our lives."

But she could have put many more in danger, Olivia thought to herself. She didn't blame Allison for what she did; if she were in her shoes and was watching Stiles get beaten up by a raving werewolf, she'd break the seal too.

"Yeah and what do you think they're gonna do out there?" Derek brought up the point that Olivia made in her head. "Do you have any idea what you just set free?"

"You want to blame me?" Allison scoffed in disbelief, her eyes narrowed into daggers. "Well, I'm not the one turning teenagers into killers."

"No, that's just the rest of your family," Derek retorted.

It was totally not the time but Olivia was impressed by Derek's comeback. Until now, none of Derek's betas had been bloodthirsty or out of control. Allison couldn't say the same about herself or her family of hunters.

Allison slumped a little at his comment, seeming to know that Derek's words weren't exactly a lie. "I made mistakes," she admitted. "Gerard is not my fault."

"And what about your mother?"

"Derek!" Olivia hissed at her cousin. Did he really have to bring that up at a time like this? They needed to be out there looking for Boyd and Cora.

Allison, however, wanted to know what Derek meant. "What do you mean?"

Derek turned to Scott with a daring look. "Tell her, Scott."

"What does he mean, Scott?" Allison's voice trembled. "What does he mean?"

Scott looked hesitant to tell her and Olivia guessed that it was because she and Derek were with them. If it was her telling Allison about her mother's actions before she died, she wouldn't want Derek around to butt in with scathing and insensitive comments—even if Victoria Argent deserved them, Allison didn't.

"Derek," Olivia spoke up, catching her cousin's attention. "We found Erica. We should—we should go and get her."

Derek's face crumpled as he seemed to realize what Olivia meant. Her heart ached as she took his arm and clutched it tightly before leading him away from Scott and Allison. They slowly walked down from the second level and to the hallway that held the storage closet she and Allison hid from the alphas in.

"She's dead..."

"Yeah," Olivia confirmed quietly, her eyes starting to sting with tears. "From the...her body looks more than a couple of weeks old."

She wanted to prepare him; he would take the loss of Erica harder since she was his beta. Even for her, the loss of a packmate was hard. It was like losing a limb; it still felt like Erica was there but when she reached out to find her, the blonde wasn't there to meet her.

Derek tightened his grip on Olivia as they entered the storage closet. He completely shocked Olivia when he faltered after laying his eyes on Erica's body. Derek was literally the strongest person she knew so it was tough to see him in such grief. He wasn't quite as bad as when most of their family died but it was still hard.

"This is all my fault," he whispered, taking in the decay of her body.

"No, it's not," Olivia insisted. "It's not, Derek. The alpha pack did this, not you."

"I was the one who turned her."

"And you didn't know it would turn out like this," Olivia bit the inside of her cheek. "Derek, please...please believe me. This isn't on you and Erica...Erica wouldn't want you to think that way, either."

Derek shook his head and slowly let go of Olivia before taking the few steps toward Erica's body. In one swift movement, he picked Erica up and cradled her in his arms. It was so heartbreaking for Olivia to see the pure guilt and grief he felt on display. It almost hurt worse than the grief she felt for Erica.

"Come on," Derek's voice was hoarse.

They slowly walked back to the vault where Allison and Scott still stood together, discussing what really went on the night that Derek bit Victoria Argent. They arrived just as Scott was finishing, telling Allison that he couldn't have the memory of her mother trying to kill him be the last memory she ever had of her.

The both of them turned when they noticed that Olivia and Derek had arrived with Erica's body. Allison frowned sadly while Scott's face crumpled; Olivia could tell that he was very upset with Erica's fate and while it didn't make much sense because he and Erica weren't very close, it was Scott. He felt for people so deeply that his reaction didn't really surprise Olivia.

Derek cleared his throat. "We'll come back for her after we catch Cora and Boyd," he stepped into the vault and gently laid down her body before turning back to Scott. "Are you ready?"

Olivia swallowed down the lump in her throat and spoke up, "If I can concentrate, I think I'll be able to find Boyd."

Derek nodded at her and then looked back at Scott. "You go after Boyd and I'll try to find Cora. Olivia, you give Scott any information that you find. I'll Isaac and Peter and get them to help. We need to get to them before they hurt anyone."

Olivia and Scott nodded in unison at him. "Let's do this."

-

Olivia sat at a picnic table just outside of the campground part of the reserve, her hands clasped and her eyes closed. She was deep inside her head with her focus on Boyd, mentally following him around Beacon Hills. It took a lot of energy to keep on him but she didn't have a choice. It was either this so Scott could find him, or let innocent people die. Cora had already tried to terrorize the drive-in if Derek hadn't stepped in but unfortunately, she ran off before he could catch her.

Apparently, she was much faster than Derek when she went without feeling the full moon for three full months.

She sighed when she felt Boyd take off again; she had given Scott his last location but he must have lost him.

Sure enough, Scott was calling her. Her focus now gone, she answered the phone and looked up at Derek as he made his way over to her. She put the call on speakerphone—even though he could hear it fine—just in case he wanted to talk to Scott.

"Scott?"

"Hey," Scott greeted her breathlessly. "I lost Boyd."

"You lost him?" Derek asked, disappointed.

"Yeah, I kind of had to."

"That wasn't exactly the plan."

"I know, which is why I think that we should stick together," Scott stated. "Trust me, he's too strong, too fast, and way too angry for one person to handle. We've got to do this together."

"Scott, we're at the edge of the preserve campground," Olivia spoke up, exchanging a look with Derek. "Can you meet us here?"

"Yeah," Scott confirmed. "I just got to drop something off first."

Olivia furrowed her eyebrows. "What are you talking about?"

"I'll fill you in later. See ya soon."

Olivia ended the call and locked her phone, setting it on the table before looking up at Derek. "This is a nightmare."

"No kidding..."

Olivia winced as her hearing cut off and a loud scream took its place. This had happened only a half-hour earlier but this one was much more severe and terrifying. The first time she didn't even know where it came from but as the scream died down now, the whispers started.

Lydia's there, she heard. A picture of the community pool flashed through her mind, leaving a searing ache behind. Lydia, Lydia, Lydia. She found him. She found him. Lydia, Lydia, Lydia.

What the actual hell?

"Ollie, are you okay?" her hearing came back all at once. She grimaced at her sensitivity and opened her eyes, seeing Derek's worried face hovering over her. "Ollie, can you hear me?"

"I can hear you," she croaked; for some reason, her throat felt sore.

"You screamed," he told her, crossing his arms over his chest. "What happened?"

She hadn't known that she screamed. Why did she? Was that Lydia who screamed in her head? That's what the whispers seemed to imply. If Lydia was the one who screamed, how did she hear it and why did she scream too?

"I heard screaming and Lydia's name," she hurriedly picked up her phone and tried to call Lydia. As she pressed her ear to her phone, she added, "She found something but I don't know what. I don't know what's going on."

To her disappointment, Lydia didn't answer. The line beeped rapidly, informing Olivia that Lydia's phone was currently busy. She hung up the call and tried Stiles; she couldn't leave to go check on Lydia, so he would have to.

"Olivia, are you okay?" Stiles picked up almost immediately. "No one called me after and I was afraid someone got to you guys. Are you okay? Did Boyd kill you? Who is Cora, by the way? Tell me what happened. Is everyone all right?"

"Stiles," Olivia interrupted; as much as she thought his rambling was cute, now wasn't really the time to indulge him. "We're all okay. Boyd and Cora got out but Derek, Isaac, and Scott are out looking for them now."

"Okay, good," Stiles sighed in relief. "So, who's Cora?"

"She's my cousin, Derek's little sister—"

"Derek has a little sister?"

"Yes and we thought she died in the fire—"

"You thought she was dead? How the fuck is she here now?"

"We have no idea, Stiles. All we know is that she's alive and she's been with Boyd for months," Olivia answered. "but that's not why I called you."

"What's up?"

"I need you to check on Lydia. Something happened and I heard her scream—"

"How did you hear her scream? Is she with you?"

"No, she's not," if he didn't quit interrupting her... "Look, she's at the community pool. Can you please go check on her?"

"Of course I will. I'll go right now," Stiles confirmed. "I love you, be safe."

"Love you, too," Olivia stated. "Call me when you get to her."

"I will. Bye."

Olivia ended the call and turned to Derek once again. He was looking back at her with a half-irritated, half-amused look. Clearly, he had heard the whole call.

He shook his head. "I can't believe you're dating him."

-

-

The tires of the jeep squealed as it came to an abrupt stop next to Lydia's car. Stiles quickly ripped off his seatbelt and threw himself out of the vehicle in order to get to Lydia. From the way Olivia's voice trembled when she spoke about her cousin, and the fact that Lydia had called him in a panic over finding a dead body at the pool, he was quick to panic.

Not only did Stiles have to get through Olivia's occasional episodes but now Lydia was having them too. The Martin girls would be the death of him, surely. Actually, the whole supernatural thing would be. He didn't have a doubt about it.

"Lydia?" he called her name as he ran past the pool's gate and made his way toward the redhead. "Lydia, are you okay?"

Lydia had her arms around her, tightly holding herself. "I'm okay," she trembled. "That over there...not okay."

He followed her gaze to the dead body in the lifeguard stand. He could already see without moving that there was a lot of blood; it made him sick to his stomach. "Yeah, all right," he pulled his phone from his jeans. "I'm gonna call my dad."

"I already called 9-1-1."

Stiles paused and looked back at her while blinking rapidly. "You called the police before you called me or Olivia?"

"I'm supposed to call you guys first when I find a dead body?"

"Yes!" Stiles exclaimed loudly.

He changed gears, calling Olivia like she told him to. She quickly answered the call. "Hey, Livvy—"

"Is there really a dead body?"

"Yes, there is."

"Are you sure?"

Stiles rolled his eyes as he inched closer to the body so he could check it out for himself. "Yep, throat ripped out, blood everywhere. It's like the fucking Shining over here. If two little twin girls come out of the woods and start asking me to play with them forever and ever, I'm not gonna be surprised."

"Okay, okay," Olivia said quickly; she absolutely did not like the Shining when Stiles showed it to her. "Um, can you get a little closer to make sure it was them?"

"Make sure it was them?" he repeated in disbelief. "Olivia, who else is going around ripping throats out?"

She sighed. "Please just do it."

Stiles stepped closer to the dead body, stepping around the huge puddle of blood that had collected on the edge of the pool. Like he told Olivia, the guy's throat was ripped out. He bled a lot; his whole arm down to his purity ring wearing fingers.

"It was them," he confirmed for her. "Listen, Lydia called the cops so I'll call you when we're done with them."

"Okay," on the other side of town, Olivia pressed some fingers to her temple, trying to rid herself of the horrible pain her head was in. "Thank you, Stiles. Really."

"No problem. Love you, talk later."

"Love you," Olivia locked her phone and slipped it into her jacket before turning to Derek, Isaac, and Scott.

Derek shook his head in denial. "This doesn't make any sense," he declared. "The public pool is all the way on the other side of the woods. We haven't tracked them anywhere near there."

"Derek, they killed someone," Scott pointed out needlessly.

"How are they moving so fast?"

"Derek."

"But they can't be that fast on foot," Derek insisted.

"They killed someone," Scott said firmly. "Some totally innocent kid is dead...and it's our fault."

Derek was quiet for a moment, blinking slowly. "It's my fault."

"We need help," Olivia interjected. The four of them weren't getting anything done when it came to Cora and Boyd. They had no experience hunting werewolves and why should they? They didn't hunt their own kind. That was a whole new kind of barbaric. They weren't the Argents, for crying out loud.

The Argents...

"We have Isaac now."

"No, more help," she clarified, a plan forming in her head. "Look, they're too fast, too strong, and too rabid for you guys."

"We'll catch them."

"What happens if we do?" Isaac asked his alpha in response. "We're just gonna hold them down until the sun comes up."

Derek shook his head grimly. "Maybe it would be easier just to kill them."

Olivia immediately went to protest but Scott beat her to the punch. "Killing them isn't the right thing to do."

"What if it's the only thing to do?" Isaac replied. "If we can't even catch them, what else do we do?"

"We find someone who knows what they're doing."

They turned to Olivia, curious. "Who?"

"Someone who knows how to hunt werewolves," Olivia said decidedly. "Like Mr. Argent."

Derek scoffed. "You've got to be kidding me."

"I'm not. Mr. Argent isn't as bad as the others and we all know it," she defended Allison's father. It was true; Argent was probably the mildest of the Argent hunters, including Allison. "If he knows the trouble we're facing and about the innocent people getting hurt, I bet he'll help us."

"She's got a point," Scott backed her up. "Me and Olivia can talk to him."

"And if he says no?"

"Then we make him say yes."

-

With a call to Allison, they tracked down Mr. Argent to the grocery store. Derek and Isaac stayed in the former's car and let Olivia and Scott take the lead on him. Mr. Argent wasn't a big fan of Scott and he didn't adore Olivia, but he was more tolerant of them than the other werewolves.

Olivia and Scott waited for him to come out of the store behind the car next to Argent's SUV. When he came out, his arms full of grocery bags, they came out of hiding and watched as one of his bags fell to the ground.

Argent picked it up with a sigh. "It had to be the one with the eggs..."

Once the bag was safely in the back of his SUV, he shut the hatch and abruptly turned around. Olivia flinched away as he held a gun up to her and Scott, both of them immediately putting their hands in the air to show that they didn't mean any harm.

"Hi, Mr. Argent," she squeaked.

Mr. Argent pressed his lips together. "Olivia, Scott," he greeted them cautiously. "What are you doing here?"

"We need your help," Scott said before he started explaining all that had gone on that night so far, from the alpha pack, the bank, and the wild goose chase that Cora and Boyd were giving them.

Argent didn't look happy to be approached. "First of all, why would I care about anyone related to Derek?"

"Ouch," Olivia mumbled under his breath but Argent steamrolled on.

"And second, I don't know this kid, Boyd. I don't even know his last name."

"Boyd is his last name," Olivia informed him.

"What's his first name?"

"Vernon," she said simply. "and could you put the gun down, please? You're freaking me out."

Argent shifted the gun away from her and more toward Scott; Olivia sighed in relief.

"Yeah, just curious, is there a reason the gun is still pointed at me?" Scott was offended.

"Well, there's probably still some part of me that wants to shoot you," Argent answered honestly.

Scott raised his eyebrows and nodded. "I get that."

Argent sighed and lowered his gun, putting it back in its holster. "I watched my father brainwash my daughter and almost turn her into a killer," he shook his head. "That world—your world—decimated mine. My wife, sister, father, my entire family. Why would I ever step foot in it again?"

"Because people are going to die," Olivia said bluntly. "and because you know how to catch Cora and Boyd without killing them."

Argent hesitated for only a second before shaking his head. "I'm sorry. I can't help you."

He went to enter his SUV when Scott stopped him. "Uh, do you think you could do us, like, one tiny little favor?"

Argent lifted his chin. "What's that?"

"Can you give us a lift to the public pool? We're supposed to meet Stiles and Lydia there," Scott stretched the truth.

Olivia gave him an impressed look, immediately catching onto his plan. Argent would see the police and medical examiner at the pool to pick up the body and investigate the scene and hopefully it would sway him to help them catch Boyd and Cora. It was manipulative but necessary. Cora and Boyd could kill even more innocent people by the time the moon fell if they were able to go free.

"Get in."

Ten minutes later, they were pretty close to the community pool. The whole ride was silent and awkward and Olivia was nervous, hoping that Cora and Boyd weren't out terrorizing the town while they played carpool. If Argent would agree to help them, though, they'd have a significant advantage over them.

"Left or straight?" Argent asked.

"Left," Scott answered from the backseat. "Sorry, it's right about the corner."

Argent turned onto the street on their left and slowed down, looking for the pool. Olivia could already see the red and blue lights coming off the police cruisers.

"That parking lot there," Scott pointed to them. "Yeah, just a little further up, right here."

"Thanks again for the ride," Olivia said as Argent came to a stop and parked.

She and Scott watched Argent's face as he took in the scene. There was already an ambulance there, ready to take the body to the morgue, and it looked like the kid's parents were there, too, to identify their son for the record. It was a disturbing image, how heartbroken the parents were as they sobbed over their child.

It made Olivia's chest hurt a little. Erica's parents would soon find out that their child was dead, too.

Scott went to leave the vehicle first, but Argent stopped him. "They did this, Boyd and...?"

"Cora," Olivia supplied her cousin's name. "Yeah."

Argent lifted his gaze to look at her. "Where's the last place you saw them?"

Minutes later, they were meeting Derek and Isaac back at the campground, where they stopped Cora and Boyd from killing a girl their age.

Argent stood in front of the four of them, kneeling down over two sets of shoe tracks. "You're tracking them by print?"

It was Scott who answered him. "Trying to."

"Well, then, you've been wasting your time," Argent stated. "There's only one creature on earth that can visually track footprints and that's man. And if you're not trained like me, you have no idea that this print is Boyd's," he pointed at the large shoeprint in the mud and then the slightly smaller ones. "and these—"

"Are Cora's," Isaac assumed.

"Nope, they're yours," Argent corrected him casually. "You trampled Cora's as soon as you walked over here."

Olivia raised an eyebrow as she looked over at Isaac, who looked embarrassed.

"Listen, I know the three of you are focusing half your energy on resisting your own urges under the full moon but that puts you at a severe disadvantage to Boyd and Cora, who have fully given in," Argent addressed Derek, Scott, and Isaac. "They put the pedal to the floor where you three are barely hitting the speed limit."

"So, what do we do?" Derek looked annoyed that he had to listen to Argent's advice.

"Focus on your sense of smell," Argent told him. "Actual wolves are known to track their pretty by up to a hundred miles a day by scent. A trained hunter can use scent to track them. If the wind is with them, wolves can track a scent by a distance of two miles, which means we can draw them to us...or into a trap."

Argent reached into the duffle bag that he had brought with him and pulled out a net. "The full moon does give us one advantage," he threw it at Scott, who caught it easily. "They'll have a higher heat signature, which makes them easier to spot with infrared."

Argent threw two infrared binoculars at Scott and Isaac before tossing one to Derek.

"Thanks," Derek handed them to Olivia and flashed his alpha-red eyes. "but I've got my own."

Argent nodded. "Just remember, we're not hunting wild animals. Underneath those impulses are two intelligent human beings. Don't think they can't rely on that human side. It's suppressed but it's there, reminding them how to mask their scent, how to cover their tracks, and how to survive."

They moved from the campsite to the cliff that overlooked all of Beacon Hills.

"When was the last time you saw your sister?" Argent asked Derek.

"Six years," Derek told him. "We thought she died in the fire."

Argent didn't comment on the fire. "Do you feel like you have a lock on her scent?" Derek shook his head so he turned to Scott. "Scott, how confident are you in your skills?"

Scott scoffed lightly. "Honestly, most of the time I'm trying not to think about all the things I can smell."

Olivia wrinkled her nose in disgust. She certainly didn't envy him.

"All right," Argent turned back to the overlook. "The problem is when they breach the woods and hit the residential area. Once they're past the high school, they're right in the middle of Beacon Hills."

"They're not going to kill anyone they see, are they?" Olivia spoke up hesitantly.

"No but there is an important difference to recognize," Argent answered her. "Wolves hunt or food; at a certain point, they get full. Boyd and Cora are hunting for the pleasure of the kill, for some primal apex predatory satisfaction that comes from the ripping of warm bodies to bloody shreds. And who knows when that need gets satiated?"

"We can't kill them," Scott declared.

"What if we can't catch them?" Derek countered reluctantly.

"Then maybe we just need to contain them," Argent offered thoughtfully. "There's no one in the school at night, is there?"

Derek looked at him in surprise. "You want to trap them inside?"

"If there's somewhere with a strong enough door, no windows, or access to the outside."

"What about the boiler room?" Isaac spoke up. "It's just one big steel door."

Argent paused for a moment before asking, "You're sure the school's empty?"

"It has to be," Scott confirmed. "There can't be anyone there this late, right?"

"All right," Olivia mused. "So if we do this, how are we going to lead them into the school?"

"I have something."

Argent led them back to his SUV, where he opened the hatch and pulled out another duffle bag with hunting supplies. He took a large silver stake that had some kind of light and button on the top and stabbed it into the ground.

"These are ultrasonic emitters. It's one of the tools we use to corral werewolves, pushing them into a direction we want them to run," Argent pressed the button at the top; there was a light squealing noise as the light flickered on. "It gives off a high-pitched frequency that only they can hear."

There was a slightly uncomfortable feeling in Olivia's ear but she certainly wasn't reacting to the noise like Derek, Scott, and Isaac were. They were all bent forward, their hands smushed to their ears in attempt to block out the noise.

"God, no kidding!" Isaac grunted

Argent turned off the emitter and started grabbing more of them from the hatch. He gave two to each of the werewolves. To Olivia's surprise, he gave her two, too.

"These are gonna drive them to the school?" Derek asked skeptically.

"And then it's up to you to get them into the basement," Argent stated.

"Does anyone else want to rethink the plan where we just, uh, kill them?" Isaac wondered.

Olivia rolled her eyes at him. "All right, lazy bones."

"It's going to work," Scott said encouragingly. "It'll work."

-

-

"Uh, you didn't have to follow me home," Lydia told Stiles flatly as they walked into her bedroom.

Stiles shrugged awkwardly, looking around the room. Despite the many times he had come over to the house, he'd never been inside the redhead's bedroom. "I just wanted to make sure you got in okay."

"I had a police escort."

"I know the inner workings of that force, all right? They're not nearly as reliable as people think," Stiles defended himself. "And I wanted to wait for Olivia, okay?"

Lydia gave him a displeased look as she sat down at the end of her bed. "And you're in my room, why?"

"Because it's creepy for me to wait alone in Livvy's room," Stiles made up an excuse; the real reason he was in Lydia's room was because he wanted answers. Like, how she had ended up at the pool in the first place or the fact that she found a fucking dead body out of nowhere.

"You're lying," Lydia smacked her lips together and rolled her eyes. "Why don't you just ask me the question that you've been dying to ask?"

Stiles faltered. "Well, I'm not—I haven't been dying to ask anything. I—no questions here for Stiles. Nothing."

"I can see it on your face."

"Maybe my face just has, like, a naturally interrogatory expression."

"Well, your interrogatory expression is getting on my nerves," Lydia snapped. "The answer is that I have no clue how I ended up finding that body. I didn't even know where I was until I got out of the car."

"Yeah, but the last time something like this happened..."

"I know," Lydia nodded. "Liv's dad."

"Peter," Stiles sighed; his future father-in-law was a pain in his ass. Well, he was a pain in everyone's ass. He went to say something else when his phone started ringing. "Oh, hold on."

He quickly pulled his phone out of his sweatshirt, eager to see if it was Olivia, but it was Melissa instead. He answered the phone and listened carefully as Melissa explained that he needed to show him something peculiar with the body that Lydia found.

After Lydia insisted that she go with him, the two of them headed into the hospital. They made their way to the emergency room where Melissa had a night shift and stopped at the desk where Melissa was waiting for them with some paperwork.

"Hey," she greeted them, leaving her paperwork for another time. "Over here...and if you tell anyone that I showed you this, I swear to God, I will kill you painfully and slowly."

She led off down the hallway that led to the morgue, sneaking into the room before anyone saw them.

"Why do you want to show us a body we've already seen?" Stiles asked her.

"Because you haven't seen everything," Melissa replied as she gloved up and walked over to one of the bodies displayed on the tables. She uncovered the guy that Lydia found at the pool and pointed to his neck. "See this around his neck?" there was a dark bruise that encircled the entire front of his neck. "That's a ligature mark. That means that he was strangled with something, like a cord or rope—"

Stiles furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "Ah, okay, wait a second," he interrupted her. "What kind of werewolf strangles someone? You know, that's not very werewolf-y."

Melissa looked at him proudly. "My thoughts exactly," she confirmed before picking up the kid's head and turning it slightly. "And then there's this."

Stiles' stomach flipped nauseously at the sight of the kid's broken skull and exposed brain. "God, what the hell is that?" he gagged slightly. "Is that brain matter? Yeah, it's brain matter, of course."

Lydia gave him an annoyed look. "Seriously, Stiles?"

He honestly didn't know how she was so calm.

"See the indentation? He was hit in the back of the head, hard enough to kill him," Melissa stated as she carefully set down the head back on the table. "In fact, any one of these things could have killed him. I mean, someone seriously wanted this poor kid dead."

"So, this couldn't have been Boyd or Cora," Lydia assumed thoughtfully. "They wouldn't have tried three different ways to kill someone when they're that out of control."

"Maybe it's just one murder," Stiles suggested. "I mean, maybe it's a random coincidence."

Melissa shook her head. "I don't think it was just one murder."

"How come?"

"Because that boy over there, he's got the exact same injuries," Melissa answered Stiles, pointing to the table to their right.

The three of them shuffled over to the other body. When Melissa uncovered it, Stiles felt Lydia stiffen next to him.

"The M.E. said this one wasn't just strangled," Melissa started talking so Stiles didn't get to look over at the redhead. "Whoever did it used a garrote, which is a stick that you put through a rope and you just kind of keep twisting and—"

Lydia whimpered lightly, cutting Melissa off. Both she and Stiles turned to Lydia and were shocked to see that she was in tears, staring down at the body in horror.

"Lydia, are you okay?" Melissa asked her worriedly; Lydia shook her head. "Oh, my God, did you know him? I'm so sorry, I didn't even think."

She carefully pulled the sheet back over the body.

"I was...I practically grew up with him," Lydia whispered. "Liv and I were at his birthday party the other night. His name is Heath."

Stiles awkwardly patted her back, trying to instill some sort of comfort in her. His own eyes started to sting as he looked back down at the blonde boy on the table. Olivia had told him some of the conversation she and Heath had at his party after he kissed her. He really wished that things didn't turn out this way. He wished that Heath was alive and that he'd be able to drop his asshole friends and feel better. Who made fun of something because they were a virgin anyway? Dicks.

"Okay, we need to call the sheriff because you're a witness," Melissa smiled sadly at Lydia.

Wait, wait, wait...Stiles thought quickly, his mind racing. The guy at the pool was a virgin, he had a purity ring. And Heath was a virgin, too. That couldn't be a coincidence, it was just too major of a detail. And if there were two bodies already, that meant that there was probably another coming.

"Has anyone else been through here tonight?" he asked Melissa urgently. "Any—any other bodies or even anybody missing?"

Lydia and Melissa were understandably confused by his sudden behavior and question.

"Uh, no, no bodies but um..." Melissa hesitated.

"What?"

"Two girls," Melissa told him. "They brought the first one, Caitlin, in for a tox screen and then I overheard that her girlfriend, Emily, just disappeared. I mean, they were out in the woods and—"

"Nobody's found her yet?" Stiles cut her off.

"I don't know."

"Okay, the first one—"

"Caitlin," Lydia supplied for him.

"Right," Stiles nodded at her before addressing Melissa again. "Is she here? Is she here right now?"

Melissa nodded. "I think so."

"Okay, where?" Stiles went to leave the room but Melissa quickly stepped in front of him.

"Okay, okay, wait. Just wait a minute."

"I have to talk to her," Stiles insisted impatiently.

"Why?"

"Because I think I know what's happening."

-

"We weren't doing anything that bad," Caitlin, who was laying in a hospital bed with a sad expression on her face, told Stiles. "I mean, I've camped out there plenty of times."

"Right," Stiles acknowledged calmly. "but why tonight?"

"We wanted to be alone for one night. Emily lives with her mom and I have three roommates," Caitlin scoffed lightly. "Not exactly romantic settings, you know?"

Stiles smiled lightly; he did know. Olivia's aunt was a meteorologist at the local news station, so she was only gone in the morning and early afternoon and Lydia seemed like she was always home, especially during the summer when she was bringing guys home after her dates. It made getting intimate difficult there, so most of the time they hung out at his house since his dad was out at odd hours depending on what shift he took.

"I can relate," Stiles said. "How long have you two been together?"

"Three months."

Stiles nodded in realization. "And you wanted to make it romantic."

Again, Stiles could relate to Caitlin. He had been putting off having sex with Olivia because he wanted to make their first time romantic. Olivia was a virgin and he...was not. He took that swan dive the summer before. It wasn't anything special but he loved Olivia and he wanted her first time to be different than his.

"Yeah, you know, because..."

"Because it was her first time," Stiles finished for her.

Caitlin's face crumpled as tears welled up in her eyes. She turned to him with a pleading expression. "They're gonna find her, right? Aren't they?"

"I hope so," Stiles smiled sadly at her, his heart sinking.

-

-

Both Olivia and Argent met up with Scott and Isaac at the school once they were done setting up the ultrasonic emitters. After Scott and Isaac broke into the school to make sure Boyd and Cora would have a way in, Scott joined them.

"Do you see that?" Argent caught Olivia and Scott's attention, his eyes focused on a firefly only a foot or so in front of them.

Olivia furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. The fireflies in California weren't bio-luminescent, which meant that they didn't light up. It was weird that now, all of a sudden, there were some in Beacon Hills, of all places.

"Yeah," Scott gave him a strange look. "it's a firefly."

"No, no, I know that but..."

"What?"

"It's, uh, very unusual," Argent mused.

"California fireflies aren't bio-luminescent," Olivia informed Scott. "They don't glow."

Scott looked back at the firefly. "Does that mean something?"

Before Argent could answer, a loud howl broke out into the night. They immediately went into action with Argent getting into his SUV and Olivia and Scott settling themselves by the parked school buses.

"They're with Isaac now," Scott informed her quietly as they waited for Boyd and Cora. "and now they're coming this way."

Scott got ready as Boyd and Cora appeared, bending his knees so that he could lunge at them at a second's notice. However, Argent's SUV appeared and he blared his horn, causing Boyd and Cora to turn away from their direction.

"They're heading toward Derek," Scott said needlessly, as Olivia could still see them. To their shock, instead of plowing toward Derek, they jumped onto the roof. "They're not going through the school. They're going over it."

Olivia, Scott, Argent, Isaac, and Derek quickly grouped together.

"The red doors," Argent said urgently. "someone has to get them open."

Derek nodded, volunteering for the task, and started running back into the school.

"Someone has to drive them inside," Olivia pointed out.

"I'll go," Argent volunteered.

"No," Isaac shook his head. "I'm faster."

As he took off with a door blocker, Argent turned to Scott and Olivia. "You two need to get in there and lead them to the basement."

Olivia and Scott ran into the school side-by-side.

"Does this mean I'm your Robin now?" Olivia asked breathlessly as they turned into the English hallway.

"Nah," Scott shook his head. "Come on, Derek's in the math hallway."

They continued running through the school. The closer they got to the math hallway, the more they could hear the growls coming from Boyd and Cora. It sounded like Derek was already fighting with them while he tried to lead them into the basement.

They rounded the corner into the math hallway just in time. When Derek threw Cora to her feet, Scott and Olivia came to a stop next to him when Boyd looked like was going to fight. Trapped, Boyd and Cora would have no choice but to head for the basement.

That didn't mean that they were going to go willingly.

"Come and get us," Derek dared them.

At once, all three of them opened to the door to the basement and ran down the stairs. They went through the door that separated the rest of the basement from the stairs and ran in, heading over to the boiler room, which took up most of the basement and housed supply rooms.

Olivia couldn't see in the pitch-black boiler room but Derek and Scott could. Olivia made sure to stay out of the way as they did something to prepare for Boyd and Cora's appearance. The two out-of-control werewolves entered not long after and a second later, two fire extinguishers were going off.

While Boyd and Cora screeched and grunted from the ice-cold foam being sprayed over them. Olivia quickly went for the steel door. Soon enough, Derek and Scott were coming out after her, allowing the door to be slammed shut and locked into place.

They stood still, with Derek leaning against the door, as Boyd and Cora pounded on it to try to get out.

"Did that actually just work?" Scott asked, shocked.

Derek nodded at them with a relieved expression on his face. "It worked," as he answered, Scott slowly stepped up to the door, concentrating. "What are you hearing?"

"Heartbeats."

Olivia raised her eyebrows. "Two of them?"

"Actually, there's three of them," Scott's eyes widened.

"Who else could possibly in there?" Olivia hissed at him.

"Maybe a teacher," he shrugged.

Derek shook his head and grabbed the lock, preparing to open the door and run inside.

"What are you doing?" Scott asked him.

"Ollie, you need to come in with me. You and I can keep them calm until the sun comes up," Derek told his cousin, who nodded, and then turned to Scott. "Close the door behind us and keep it shut."

Scott gaped at him like he was nuts. "If you guys go in there alone, you're either gonna kill them or they're gonna kill you. And, if you haven't noticed, Olivia's not exactly like us."

"Okay, well, that's obvious," Olivia sighed.

"She'll be fine," Derek insisted, slowly unlocking the door. "Come on."

As soon as he opened the door and slipped into the boiler room, Olivia quickly followed him. Scott did as Derek told him, slamming the door shut and locking it behind them. Olivia followed Derek all the way to the teacher supply room, where Boyd and Cora were waiting for a teacher to come out.

Derek roared at them and they roared back. Olivia stumbled back as they attacked Derek. He fought back, dodging attacks and making blows of his own. Eventually, he had a hold of both of them at the same time, letting them claw at him.

Seeing Derek being ripped apart like that killed Olivia. It was time to get to work; her gaze went purple as she stormed toward the three werewolves as she sent as much calming waves over to Boyd and Cora. She was trying to anchor them and make them come down from their impulses to kill Derek, or anyone, for that matter.

"Boyd, Cora, stop," she carefully placed a hand on each of their backs. "Control yourselves."

Boyd growled viciously and then so did Cora. If it wasn't for the hold Derek had on both of them, they would have turned and possibly rip Olivia into shreds.

Control, control, control, Olivia repeated in her head like a mantra. You have control. Come on, come on, come on.

As if she wasn't already having a difficult time, the whispers started up, too.

Derek, Derek, Derek. Over and over again, her cousin's name was chanted. Derek, Derek, Derek.

She had to do something.

Gathering all of her strength, a scream came out of her mouth. "BOYD! CORA!"

She was shocked at the scream because she hadn't even been trying to do that but it seemed to work. As if a switch was flicked, Cora and Boyd fell unconscious and dropped to the floor. Derek almost went down with them is it wasn't for the fact that Olivia quickly grabbed him and let him lean his weight on her.

He was very beaten up, with horrendous scratches littered all over his whole body. His torn olive-green shirt was mostly brown from the blood he shed. Luckily, despite the fact that he was completely exhausted, the wounds on his face were starting to heal.

A ray of light coming from the window caught Olivia's attention. "The sun came up," she whispered to Derek. "It's over."

Unable to hold Derek's weight anymore, she allowed him to carefully drop to his knees. She still supported his upper body, letting him lean against her, but thankfully, most of his weight was gone.

Scott and Isaac came running into the boiler room only seconds later.

"There's a teacher. I'll take care of her," Derek breathed heavily, still trying to catch his breath. "Get them out of here."

While Scott and Isaac rushed toward Boyd and Cora, carefully picking them up and carrying them out of the boiler room, Olivia asked Derek, "Are you sure? You can go with them and I'll talk to the teacher."

"It's fine," Derek insisted as she helped him to his feet. "You go get some sleep. You have school in a couple of hours."

"Okay," Olivia was hesitant to leave but she was tired, especially after getting Boyd and Cora to control themselves. Derek seemed pretty insistent anyway, so she wasn't going to argue with him. "Be careful."

"I will," he promised her.

Olivia made sure that Derek was steady before pulling away from him. Just as she stepped out of the boiler room, her phone started ringing. It was Stiles.

"Hello?" Olivia knew how exhausted she sounded.

"Hey," Stiles croaked from the other line. "I need you to come to the hospital."

"Why?" she stiffened nervously. "Is it Lydia? Is she okay? Are you okay?"

"We're both fine, Livvy. We're okay," Stiles assured her; she relaxed, relieved that they were safe. "Just please meet me here and bring Scott."

"Okay, I will. I'll see you soon."

-

"So, Boyd and Cora might not have killed anyone?"

Olivia heard Scott but she didn't pay much attention as she sat by Heath's body, trying to control her tears. It was too much death in twenty-four hours and she felt like she was going to suffocate from the grief weighing down her chest.

She knew Heath since she was practically born. Now he was gone and Olivia had been so negative about seeing him again. She hadn't wanted to go to that party but she did and she was glad. She was grateful that she got to see him one last time but it also hurt. She didn't know who did this to him but he already had a hard life. He didn't deserve this—no one deserved this.

"You're gonna wish they did," Stiles said solemnly, letting Olivia grip his hand tightly.

"Why?"

"I'm not exactly sure yet, but...The other girl who was out in the woods, Emily? Eventually they're gonna find her," Stiles stated. "She's one of them. Emily, Heath, the guy that Lydia found at the pool. All three were virgins and they're all gonna have the same three injuries...strangled, throat slashed, head bashed in..."

Olivia sniffed and raised her head to look at him in disbelief. "The threefold death?"

Stiles nodded. "Yeah."

"So, if these aren't random killings, then what are they?" Scott wondered.

"Sacrifices," Stiles dropped the bomb. "Human sacrifices."

(Gif is not mine)

#teen wolf rewrite #stiles stilinski x oc #stiles stilinksi x reader #teen wolf #stiles stilinski #stiles stilinski fanfiction #teen wolf fanfiction #stiles stilinski x original character

[voidendron]

Deep Blue Sea: Ch. 16

Chapter 16: Abandoned Subnautica/JSE Egos Crossover

(( note: I haven’t played/watched gameplay for Below Zero yet, so please don’t spoil anything for me! Things from this fic might retcon stuff that happens in it, and I apologize if they do, but I don’t want to spoil any more of the game for myself than what already has been ‘til I can play the whole thing through myself ))

Warnings: Swearing Characters: Marvin the Magnificent, Jameson Jackson, Dr. Schneeplestein, Chase Brody, Jackieboy Man POV: Marvin the Magnificent

Silence.

Pale Faces.

Keen’s words hung in the air between them.

“…We need to help him.” Jackie’s voice startled the rest of them from their shocked trance.

Marvin swallowed. Shook his head. Oh, hell no. “Are you insane?!” He ran his hands through his hair with a shaky breath. “There’s somethin’ here! We need to get off this island!”

“I am not putting my life on the line for someone else,” the doctor growled.

Jameson signed something—Marvin had no idea what it was, but his frantic nodding had him figuring that the chef agreed with them.

“He’s in danger!” the security guard insisted. “The recording was recent—he could still be alive!”

“Jackie’s right.”

Marvin’s head whipped toward Chase when he agreed. “No. No, no, no. He’d been so damn calm in his other messages, and how he’s panicking! You really want to run into whatever made Keen panic?!”

Chase frowned. “It’s a small island. How bad could it be?”

Their three-against-two changed when Jameson ducked his head, then offered an agreeing nod. He was signing again—Marvin would really need to learn those, wouldn’t he?—and the other two so…hellbent on saving Keen sagged with relief.

“Really no other way to change your minds?” the entertainer asked.

“We’ve gotta find Keen,” Jackie repeated, “and hopefully Yu, too. There were only two of ‘em, there’s five of us.”

“Yeah!” Chase was tucking his flippers and Seaglide near some…ferns? was that what they were?

“And if something does come after us?” Marvin challenged, gesturing harshly first at the doctor, then Jameson. “Doc’s ankle is fuckin’ shredded and James’s got broken ribs. They’d be picked off easy.”

“Anything attacks either of them—any of us—” Jackie hoisted up his broken flare in threat; he didn’t have to say any more than that.

Marvin and Henrik glanced at each other. For once, it seemed like they were both on the same page: They did not want to meet whatever had gone after Keen. Did the other three just not understand self-preservation? God…

He tossed his flippers near where the others were putting theirs. His air tank and Seaglide followed, but he was far more careful not to throw those down.

Seeing Henrik’s flippers actually laying with everyone else’s made him double-take. Marvin had always thought he had big feet. Definitely made sense why both of them had needed more materials than the original dive suit blueprint had called for.

Deep breath. The others were leaving the beach, leaving the two of them behind. Well, Marvin would much rather stick with the group than be left alone on the island.

“Come on,” he grumbled. He really wished they’d brought survival knives. He’d feel a little better if he could at least defend himself. “So!” he called ahead—both Chase and Jackie glanced back at him. “Any plan for what we’re gonna do if we find whatever went after them?”

“Depends on what it is, I guess.” Chase shrugged; he was walking backwards now.

Marvin just frowned and shook his head, watched the path ahead of them.

Wait.

…Path?

Henrik was eyeing it, too.

“Please tell me you’re thinking the same thing.”

“Something has traveled this same route for a long while, yes.”

They were following the path, and Marvin couldn’t help the unease settling into his gut. The feeling only amplified when they came across an old habitat and its overgrown garden.

Glances cast around, and Jackie was the first to approach the settlement.

It looked abandoned. Falling apart. Broken windows.

It had been there a long time.

“…I don’t think we’re the first to get stranded here,” Jackie said, voice soft.

Then, he was suddenly yelping; Marvin and the others jumped and scrambled away. From the way Marvin saw it, he was acting solely on instinct when he swung his flare and the little ankle-biter of a creature went flying.

When he blinked at it, Marvin actually found it in himself to snort. Was that thing some kind of…crab?

“Scared the hell outta me,” Jackie muttered, “but there’s no way that’s what had Keen panicked.”

“Unless he got swarmed?” Marvin suggested.

“Maybe..? I’m don’t know…”

Chase cleared his throat, pointing to the habitat. “They had to have made it off the planet, right?” Chase was inching forward, toward the multipurpose room’s shattered window. It looked like a mudslide had caused it. “I mean, it’s clearly been abandoned a long time.”

Marvin’s eyes were scanning the old habitat. He didn’t like this.

“Yo, check this thing out!”

When Chase tried bolting in through the broken window, Marvin grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him back. “That window’s broken. You really want to step on glass with bare feet?”

“But look!”

Marvin’s gaze followed his pointing finger. There was…something, in the room. Glowing. It didn’t look like anything he’d ever seen before. “What is that thing..?”

“I mean. It looks like the mud’s covered all the glass?”

When Marvin’s grip slackened, he must have taken that as a go-ahead and ran into the room. He was careful while climbing through the window not to cut himself on any of the glass that still remained, and when he came back he had something in each hand.

“There was a data log, too. Also, this thing’s surprisingly light? Like…what is it?”

He gave the data log to Jackie to put in his PDA, then set the glowing whatever-it-was on the ground between all of them.

“Is like a tablet,” Henrik said.

“Yeah,” Chase agreed, “but it doesn’t look human.”

It seemed Marvin and Henrik had the same idea when they both reached for their scanners. Marvin’s scan finished first, and everyone’s PDAs chirped as the data was transmitted to all of them. When he read the information, he only shook his head.

“I really doubt it’s human. Estimated to being abandoned here hundreds-to-thousands of years ago? Yeah, definitely not ours.”

“Alien technology?” Henrik winced as he knelt down to pick it up, ran his fingers over the glowing purple symbol. “What were these people doing with it?”

“Well, from the sounds of it,” Jackie said—another chirp as the data log transferred from his device to the rest of theirs, “—they found it, and also had no idea what it was.”

“They? How many?”

“I count four people in the recording. Three men and a woman, but I’m relying on the PDA translating for me ‘cause they’re definitely not speaking English.”

Marvin opened the new file on his own device, listened for a moment, then shut it off to read over the translation instead. “Sounds like they were from a Mongolian settlement. I don’t speak it, but I’ve performed for one a few times.”

Four people had lived in this now-abandoned habitat: Two Torgals (probably related, he figured), Sepse, Maida. Where had they gone..?

When Chase and Jackie explored the rest of the habitat and came back with a few more data logs, it looked like where they’d gone was deeper. Much, much, deeper.

Apparently they were part of Torgal Corporation—no wonder the names were familiar. Paul was the head of the company and had gone missing about ten years ago. It hadn’t been the same since.

…Ten years ago. God. They’d never made it off the planet, had they? Would that be their fate, too? He could feel his stomach twisting.

Bart was Paul’s son and heir to the company, Marguerit Maid a hired mercenary, and Antony Sepse a microbiologist.

He could see it in the pale faces of his comrades they all feared the same fate, and it was Chase to break their silence.

“I…I kinda doubt we’re in the mood now, but I see two more habitats.” He outstretched an arm, pointing. “There, and there.” Perched oh so precariously at the tops of two mountain peaks were, sure enough, two more habitats clear even through the fog that seemed to have lifted some. “C’mon. We can still try findin’ Keen and Yu. Who knows. Maybe we’ll have better luck than that group did.”

Marvin closed his eyes and took a slow, steadying breath. They’d find a way off the planet. They had to. But…did that really mean rescue never came for that group..? No, don’t think about it, he scolded himself. Instead, he offered a hand to help Henrik back to his feet, and the five of them started for one of the habitats.

What they found didn’t lift their spirits any. A PDA, not a data log, met them. Bart and Antony—the other two were dead?—regretting going down so far. Bart was ill in the recording. With the scientist’s help, they were trying to find a cure, but failing. One of them mentioned that Antony was wearing a special suit—some sort of hazmat diving suit—that had kept him from catching the same illness, and now left him needing to be extremely careful not to touch Bart with his bare hands.

Then it was over. Nothing more to the recording; just a dying man and one of his crew members trying to save him.

“I’m really startin’ to hate this planet,” Chase growled. “What do you think he had?”

Instead of an answer, Henrik pulled his scanner from his hip and ran a scan on himself. The answer had Marvin furrowing his brow.

“Performing self-scan. Vital signs normal. Detecting trace amounts of foreign bacteria. Continuing to monitor.”

He aimed it at Jameson. Same answer. Jackie: Same. Every one of them ended up with the same results. “Trace amounts of foreign bacteria” just kept looping in Marvin’s head. That couldn’t be good. Right? How the hell would they even have it? They didn’t even know that it was the same thing Bart had, but a part of Marvin very much was suspecting that it was.

“Could just be…I dunno, some sorta alien flu?” Chase shook his head and stood a little straighter. “We’ll keep an eye on it, okay? Don’t let it get to you, though. We’ll worry about it if we need to.”

If we need to, Marvin’s thoughts parroted. As if they hadn’t just listened to a man dying in a recording.

“…Do we really want to check that last habitat?” Marvin leaned out the door to peer across at it. “Things are just getting fuckin’ worse and worse on this island.”

Keen and Yu attacked by something. Survivors from ten years before who’d probably died long before rescue could even hope to find them. Some weird alien artifact that Henrik and Jameson were taking turns carrying. An alien sickness.

“Whatever is there can only be the cherry on top, yes?” Henrik grumbled. He was leaning against the wall, foot held off the ground.  Jameson was sitting on the floor near him, eyes squeezed shut and hand pressed to his chest.

“Besides,” Marvin added, “those two clearly need a rest, and I am not resting on this island. Far as we know, whatever went after Keen and Yu could be, oh I don’t know, watching us?!”

Chase grimaced and gave Jackie a look.

“We, ah…” He ran a hand through his bleached hair, fingers catching the tangled curls. “What if we have them head back to the habitat? And…you can join ‘em?”

Jackie started nodding. “We can’t just abandon those two if they’re still alive. I’m not doin’ it.”

“And splitting up is probably the worst thing we can do,” Marvin muttered.

“We either split up, or all go to the next habitat together. I’m not leavin’ this damn island until we at least know what happened to them.” Chase crossed his arms, closing himself off for further debate. He’d made up his mind and there was no way Marvin was going to change it.

“Fine.” Marvin pinched the bridge of his nose. “Fine. I want them alive just as much as you do, but I’m not risking my life for them.”

Chase shouldered past him. “Then let’s get back to the damn beach so you can leave. Fuckin’ hell.”

Did Marvin feel guilty for it? Sure. Did he feel awful leaving just the two of them on the island while he took their injured comrades back to their habitat? Sure.

Was he going to risk his life for someone who sounded like they probably dead anyway? Hell no. Marvin knew his priorities, and that definitely wasn’t one of them. He felt bad for Keen and Yu, holped that whatever killed them hadn’t let them suffer, or that they had, by some miracle, survived—but he wasn’t going to stick his neck out for them.

He’d had enough near-death experiences these last few days to last a lifetime, thank you very much.

Flippers back on, air tanks attached to their masks, Jameson helped into the Seamoth, and they were off.

His only thoughts were “good luck” when he glanced over his shoulder, saw Chase and Jackie at the edge of the island now, watching for them to make sure they made it a safe distance away. Then the two of them disappeared into the brush.

Good luck, he thought. You’re gonna need it.

#fanfic #jacksepticeye #subnautica crossover #the septics #marvin the magnificent #chase brody #jackieboy man #dr. schneeplestein #jameson jackson #blitz indites #deep blue sea #dbs ch16 #swearing /

[duhragonball]

For the writer's ask, can you please do 26 and 27?

Sure.

26: What is the worst writing advice in your opinion?

27: What is the best writing advice?

Maybe this is a cop-out, but I sort of feel like any writing advice can be good or bad depending on who you're giving it to. People usually point to oft-quoted "rules" like "don't use passive voice!" or "don't use too many adverbs!" But I think those have some value. I imagine someone who actually needs to hear that advice, and they probably wrote like this:

The handrail was steadily grasped, and the stairs were decended noisily by the ruggedly strong limbs of the same man: Tex Danger, Robot Cowboy.

And you can do stunts like this, but nobody wants to read a whole story of clunky sentences. So I always assumed the "rules" about adverbs and passive voice originate out of necessity. A teacher whose students were just figuring it out as they went, and just throwing in words without considering how they look when you read them back.

Actually, I'll bet it was a word count trick. Adverbs and passive voice are great ways to pad out a book report, and short story writers do get paid by the word, so there's plenty of incentive to try it. Either way, I feel like someone needed to hear it, but now the pendulum has swung the other way, and novice writers worry about using adverbs at all, which is silly.

By the same token, I'm tempted to say the best writing advice is to just do it. Someone on Twitter asked Thunderbolts writer Jim Zub for advice on how to start a story, and he replied "Start". It cuts to the heart of the matter. People want a list of steps to follow, but this isn't like baking a cake. There's no ingredients to buy, no oven to preheat, just you and a blank page. Step one is writing. Step 100 is writing. There's smart ways to go about it, but organizing your gel pens and decorating your writing dayplanner isn't part of the process.

On the other hand, Jim Zub's run on Thunderbolts was fucking awful, so for my money "Start" was the first mistake he made on that book. He also wrote a tweet about how stories should always have a plan, rather than just improvising shit, like they did with the final episodes of Game of Thrones. Again, solid advice, but all I could think of was how lousy and slapdash those Thunderbolts issues were, and that this was apparently by design. It was supposed to be a shitty twelve-issue commercial for Secret Empire. He planned it that way. Fuck...

Sorry, I'm getting off-track. The problem with advice like "Just DO IT!" is that it's a little too dismissive. It overlooks why writers are reluctant to get started. Do they lack confidence, or do they just not have a proper handle on what they want to do? I've been Just Doing It since 2015, and I still get stuck from time to time, so it wouldn't help me much to hear that advice. I'm already taking it.

For what it's worth, I think the best advice I know to offer is to experience other stories, especially ones you have to read. Nothing wrong with watching a show, but I think it helps to see the printed words, so if you see a turn of phrase or an apt description you really like, you'll know exactly how to use it yourself in the future. Other people's stories are a great way to gain inspiration. The key is not to just get mired in one kind of thing. If all you ever read is Teen Wolf slash, then you're going to end up in a bubble where it's hard to write anything else well. I doubt your Teen Wolf fic will be any good either, because it'll end up looking like all the others you've read. You need some diversity in your head.

"Write what you know" is generally decent advice, although I really only benefitted from it as I got older and had more life experience to draw upon. It's shitty advice for teenagers and twenty-somethings, because it makes them feel like they aren't knowledgable enough to write anything, or that their raw imagination is 't good enough.

"Show, don't tell," is pretty shitty advice, at least where prose is concerned, because showing and telling are the same thing. I mean it makes sense when you think about it, but it's like the adverb thing. All it does is make writers paranoid that their show/tell ratio is out of specification. It's art, not science. People like to be told things once in a while, it's okay.

You can trust your readers to imagine the stuff you don't describe. If you're trying to describe things in extreme detail, you'll just bore them to death, or offend them, if the thing you're describing is a woman. If you want to tell your reader a woman is beautiful, just have her show up, and have another character go "She's beautiful!" Don't even explain why. You can even have another character go "Enh, I don't see it." Let your reader decide the hotness for you. I've seen too many male authors embarass themselves trying to explain why asses are sexy. Just acknowledge that asses are sexy and move on.

Other shitty advice: Outlines. I'm not saying outlines are bad across the board, but everyone hypes them up like they're required, and for a lot of writers they actually kill the creative process. Not everything needs a blueprint. Sometimes you just gotta screw around for a while before you can figure out what you're making.

Good advice: Don't just screw around. Fanfic has a bad reputation mainly because a lot of fic authors are more interested in gratification than quality. Even if you're doing it for free, take some pride in the craft. Don't just slap something together and post it so you'll get comments or kudos or whatever. Dare yourself to do a little better. I'm not saying don't have fun, but I think when you're passionate about something, you can take satisfaction from it even when it's not fun. Writing isn't always fun, so you have yo decide if you're willing to put up with the non-fun parts of it. And improving your skill gives you a way to make it worthwhile.

I think that'll do for now.

#ask duhragonball #/ #// #/// #//// #writing #i tag this way bc i don't want tumblr to rec me a bunch of writblr blogs or whatever

[callmeblake]

Kerrang Issue #1761

Magazine Release Date: February 20th, 2019

Issue Label: February 23rd, 2019

Photo Credit:  Jen Rosenstein

Illustrations: Brian Ewing

Partial Transcription (from pressreader.com) below:

Kerrang! (UK)

20 Feb 2019

words: emily carter illustrations: brian ewing

“MAKING MUSIC IS MORE FUN THESE DAYS…”

BREAKS HIS SILENCE

Since he was a kid, GERARD WAY has sought solitude in the world of graphic novels – first as a reader, and later, with the weight of the rock world on his shoulders, as a creator. But now, he explains exclusively to Kerrang!, working on the Netflix adaptation of his THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY series helped him reconnect with his love for making music, too…

Gerard Way keeps track of his personal goals using what he calls “the grown-up list”. One at a time, the 41-year-old will tick off these life objectives by means of self-care – a concept he’ll admit he hasn’t kept on top of lately.

“On the grown-up list are all these things that I have to do to start participating in life again,” he explains in a gentle, endearing New Jersey accent, dissecting a mysteriously methodical approach to his return to the public eye – though, it has to be said, still sounding very much like a big kid at heart.

For the past “two, three” years, Gerard feels as though he hasn’t been looking after himself while under the strain of his demanding career as a comic-book writer. And while his workload certainly isn’t slowing down any time soon – if anything, it’s on the increase with the reintroduction of music now, too – he is at least making his own positive changes little by little, “piece by piece”.

“Enough time goes by and you’re tired of feeling tired, and tired of feeling unhealthy, and tired of doing unhealthy things to yourself,” he admits. “I hit a point where I was like, ‘Enough’s enough. I gotta move my body and find a doctor.’ I hadn’t had a physical in I can’t remember how long. It was just time, you know?”

Undertaking this new journey, Gerard first started off by giving up smoking. He afforded himself just two weeks to ditch the cigarettes, before moving on to the next task. “You can’t do it all at once,” he explains thoughtfully. “I quit smoking before doing anything else – like change diet or going to see a doctor. I just take these things in steps. Even if I did have all the time in the world to attack the grown-up list, you have to take any major life change slowly and gradually.”

Had Gerard felt so inclined as to keep a similar grown-up list for professional targets when he first emerged as My Chemical Romance’s awe-inspiring leader in 2001, its trajectory would have accelerated significantly. Darting into the spotlight in 2004 with their astounding second record Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, the frontman quickly became uncomfortable with the intrusive – and borderline paralysing – nature of their fame. It’s no wonder that, between 2006’s triple-platinum The Black Parade, and the festival-headlining status that came with fourth and final studio album Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys, Gerard recently labelled the group’s journey as “uncontrollable”. The band’s explosion was just as dramatic as their eventual breakup almost six years ago, and it took Gerard just over a year to then return into view. An excellent Britpop-inflected solo LP, Hesitant Alien, followed in September 2014, and even landed at spot number four in Kerrang!’s top 50 records of that year. No grown-up list – no matter how fool-proof – could accurately record or predict those kind of whirlwind peaks and troughs.

In his life as a comic-book writer, though, Gerard’s accomplishments have kept up a steadier, but no less impressive, incline. As a graduate of New York’s School of Visual Arts and a former intern at Cartoon Network, his imagination and visual creativity was harnessed long before his audio talents came to light. While his comic-book debut in 1993, On Raven’s Wings, was cancelled after just two issues, Gerard’s near 100 (and counting) writing credits have just about surpassed his contributions in music; he even ran his own imprint under the legendary DC Comics banner for two years, Young Animal. And while its status is currently listed as ‘inactive’, Gerard has emphasised that it’s “not the end” of that venture. Now, his prominence as a fullyfledged award-winning comic-book writer is a marvel (no, not that kind).

“The thing about doing comics is nobody asks you about your personal life, they don’t ask you about the drugs you used to take, they don’t ask you if you’re breaking up,” he told Kerrang! while still with My Chemical Romance in 2010, openly battling with the allure of a life buried in books. “They talk about the work. I wish people would talk about the work in music. In music, people want to know what makes you tick – in comics, people don’t care.”

Given the appeal of a more serene existence, it’s clear Gerard’s current primary occupation perfectly suits him. Just as he helped change the face of rock 15 years ago, however, he’s beginning to make similar strides in comics. Once again, he’s got the big guns knocking on his artistic doorstep.

“If anybody ever asks me for advice about being creative, it’s always just to make the things you want to see,” he shrugs, either oblivious to his skills or just strikingly modest. “Make something that doesn’t exist, that you wish existed – that you wanna read, or see, or listen to. That’s the one thing that I’ve applied to everything I’ve done: all the art I’ve made and the music I’ve made.”

Following this surprisingly simple mantra, Gerard now has a tremendous feat on his hands: his apocalyptic comic-book series, The Umbrella Academy, has snowballed into a 10-episode live-action show of the same name, and hit Netflix last Friday. By now, you’ll probably have already watched the lot. For the programme’s main brain, though, while he may have spent release day just ticking off another box on the grown-up list (“I had a physical that day with a doctor, so…”), this marks the beginning of his “participation” in life again. Gerard Way is back.

Gerard Way is obsessed with comics. Across the span of our interview with the author-turned-musicianturned-author again, he says the word “comic” no fewer than 28 times – each utterance more passionate than the last. Yet it wasn’t until 2008, while still active with My Chemical Romance, that he began to feel the effects of his written works’ potential. And not just in the field of comics, either; he was suddenly struck with the realisation that he could make this his full-time work instead. When he and illustrator Gabriel Bá – a man Gerard credits constantly and with great

“I’VE ALWAYS AIMED TO MAKE SOMETHING THAT DOESN’T EXIST, THAT I WISH EXISTED” GERARD WAY

respect when discussing the project – were awarded a prestigious Eisner Award for The Umbrella Academy’s first mini-series, it shook him to the core.

“It was scary at the time,” he mentioned in a Kerrang! cover feature at a later date, “because it was another thing that said to me, ‘Hey, you could go and do this. You won’t have a huge career, but you could make a living. There was a part of me thinking, ‘I don’t have to be a singer anymore.’”

Just days after receiving their Eisner, Gerard and Gabriel’s graphic novel was optioned by Universal Pictures. Plans for a potential movie were in development “for quite a while”, until it eventually fizzled out and came back to Umbrella Academy’s publisher, Dark Horse Comics. Then, the idea for a TV show was conceived – and Gerard was instantly sold. Not that it was ever something he’d ever considered when first penning his comics all those years prior.

“You know, I tend to be a visual thinker,” he begins. “When I was first starting out, I was told to embrace the medium of comics: just make a great comic. I think that that’s a common mistake that people make – they see a comic as a film, and they’ll just present it as a film. And there’s a lot of things you can do in comics, and it would almost short-change that. You need to embrace what a comic can do, and then you’ll make a really fantastic one. If you’re just trying to present it as a film, it doesn’t work as well, in my opinion. I still follow that advice to this day.”

Gerard loved the idea of giving his painstaking and deeply intricate world a new long-form narrative, and a way of going deeper into the story’s characters (all of whom are either a reflection of people he knows, or himself). Before taking various meetings – including with Netflix – both he and Gabriel sat down with Universal Cable Productions executive vice president of development, Dawn Olmstead, and discussed their aims.

“My goal was to give those guys the material to make a really great show,” Gerard explains. “That way, if they made a show and it’s successful, they always have material to go back to. That’s always been my goal: to tell a really good story that I have control over.”

Nine years later after its original plans fell through, it was eventually settled that Netflix would be the way to go. Joining forces with a company that had both “the highest production value” and that was also “artist-friendly” made the most sense to all involved. “We knew they would let the show be what it needed to be,” Gerard nods.

By this point, the series’ creator had slipped away from the limelight to create a 20-page blueprint for show-runner Steve Blackman. The Umbrella Academy thus far has three volumes – Apocalypse Suite, Dallas and Hotel Oblivion – but Gerard will eventually complete the story through eight graphic novels in total, many of which are still to be finished (“I have it all planned out, and I’ve just got to kind of write it now…”). In advance of the show’s development stages, though, he needed to let his new colleagues know the whole plot.

“There were talks early on about how much of my involvement there would be – if I wanted to be a co-show-runner, if I wanted to write scripts,” remembers Gerard. “And I really put the emphasis on making the source material and making the comics, so I had to let go of certain things. I weighed in on a lot of them, but ultimately it was Steve’s call to make. I liked letting go, though, because it allowed me to keep moving forward in the ways that I wanted to, which is with the comics or anything else I want to do.”

Working with Netflix became a daily job. From set pieces to wardrobe choices, both Gerard and Gabriel would give extensive notes in the 18 months it took to produce The Umbrella Academy, ensuring a happy climate was reached between their individual artistic palettes. It’s not a giant leap to compare the birth of Gerard’s latest project to My Chemical Romance’s studio swansong, Danger Days. While still in the throes of The Black Parade’s overwhelming success, the frontman had moved to LA from New Jersey in 2008 and was focused on comics – not just The Umbrella Academy, but also a bold, bright new sci-fi spectacular: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys, a story of the aftermath of a battle against a tyrannical corporation. Having written and subsequently scrapped The Black Parade’s original follow-up, the frontman was then struck with inspiration on a family retreat in the wilderness, wracking his brains with what to do next.

“I had an epiphany, I had a vision,” he told Kerrang! back in October 2010, of how this new comic informed what would become My Chem’s fourth full-length. “I was writing all these crazy lyrics and they were fearless and fucking reckless. I had this vision in my head, and everything I had been working on in the comic – the masks, the laser guns, the cars, everything – started to swirl around in my head.”

So how does the creation of a comicinspired album measure up against bringing The Umbrella Academy to life on TV?

“You know, they’re both intense and stressful in their own ways,” Gerard smiles. “But one of the things I’ve learned as I get older is that being in the studio and making music isn’t nearly as stressful – it’s a lot more fun these days. Having said that, although things are a little more high-stakes on a film set, we had a lot of fun with that, too.”

Early last year, The Umbrella Academy’s primary architects headed to Toronto to oversee the first week of filming. They were there to “answer any questions and give a little direction”. Though their focus was undeniably on creating the best comic-to-screen transition

“AS I GET OLDER, MAKING MUSIC ISN’T NEARLY AS STRESSFUL – IT’S A LOT MORE FUN THESE DAYS” GERARD WAY

“I DON’T LIKE TO DWELL ON THINGS. I LIKE TO MOVE FORWARD” GERARD WAY

possible, Gerard also remembers the weather; it was snowing, a sight he hadn’t seen since touring Hesitant Alien three and a half years prior. Once more, his two worlds briefly reacquainted themselves.

While in Canada, he and Gabriel reviewed “dailies”. “It hit a point where it was like, ‘Alright, this train is going, they know what they’re doing,’ and I could divert my attention back to the comic,” Gerard says. “Then I was able to work on it remotely – most of the work from my end was done through email or phone conversations, so I could be anywhere in the world and I was still able to watch the footage on my laptop, or whatever computer I was at.”

Once that week was over, Gerard kept a distant watchful eye over filming, which carried on until July. Elsewhere, his time was split between writing more comics, drinking copious amounts of coffee, collecting vintage T-shirts and miniature painted figures, and watching his wife of 11 years, Lindsey – bassist of Mindless Self Indulgence – feed birds and squirrels at their family home.

Rather ironically, his days weren’t spent watching a great deal of television. Even now, he’ll partake in an episode or two of a binge-worthy programme if Lindsey wants him to check it out – but he’ll never consume the lot in one go. “I think that makes my opinion on what we’re making with Umbrella Academy, in a way, even more valid,” he suggests, “because I don’t watch all this stuff. I read a lot of books.”

Most exciting of all, though, is that almost every Friday, Gerard Way began to create music again.

Around 54 minutes into The Umbrella Academy’s fifth episode, there’s a mind-bending shoot-out featuring, among others, Mary J. Blige. While the action unfolds, a familiar voice quietly hits the eardrums. ‘ Imagine me and you, I do / I think about you day and night, it’s only right…’ croons Gerard Way alongside former My Chemical Romance bandmate and guitarist extraordinaire Ray Toro, in a cover of The Turtles’ hit Happy Together – both rich in personality, but also similarly honouring the original. It’s not the first time Gerard and Ray have teamed up in such a manner: last month, they unveiled another joint effort in the form of Hazy Shade Of Winter, originally by Simon & Garfunkel, for The Umbrella Academy’s official trailer. But this is arguably Gerard’s most epic comics-meets-music crossover yet.

Steve Blackman, says Gerard, “thought it would be really nice for the fans – both for fans of my work as a musician, and my work as a comic writer. He thought it would be really cool, and I thought it would be cool, too. It would be silly to not do a song for the show! We ended up doing a couple, which was really great. And I’m sure there will be more in the future.”

The music Gerard made each week last year wasn’t just for The Umbrella Academy – it was also for himself. Possibly over-ambitiously, the musician hoped to release these new sounds once a month, though his workload soon put paid to that. He does, however, now boast “quite the collection of demos”.

“Right now it’s just a stand-alone thing,” Gerard says, “but I think at some point – maybe for a vinyl or something – it would be nice to collect all these songs, just as a body of work for something that I did. With all the work and the show coming, it has been harder to try and do a song a month. And I knew that that would kind of happen back when I first mentioned the goal of trying to do that, just because of all the extra work that was coming. But we’re still making music every week.”

Gerard has enjoyed the process of juggling his own music and songs for Netflix enormously. His recent solo tracks – Baby You’re A Haunted House, Getting Down The Germs and a touching Christmas number featuring Lydia Night of The Regrettes called Dasher – have deliberately not been “overthought”, though music for The Umbrella Academy can be a little more laborious.

“It’s a bit more work, because it’s for something cinematic,” he explains. “It’s not that it has to reach a higher level, it’s just that it’s a different level. The solo stuff is just kind of up to me, and what I want that to convey, or what nature it has. Whereas with the show, everybody has to really be blown away by it. So maybe, in a way, it’s more a little bit of what Ray [Toro] and I and the guys in My Chem used to do; we apply a little bit more of that to what we do in these cover songs for Umbrella Academy.”

Is it a strange feeling to revisit that kind of creative process?

“It makes it really fresh and exciting,” Gerard grins. “It’s actually really nice to go back and do something like you once did it, because you have more experience and wisdom and knowledge. As you get older you bring all these things the way you used to do. It’s refreshing at times – especially if you’re doing a bunch of experimental things. It’s refreshing to go back to your core, and your roots, of what you used to do, and apply your new knowledge to that.”

Gerard Way’s musical future for now, then, will remain both blissfully free and totally spontaneous – a far-cry from his MCR days. But he couldn’t be happier about it.

“I like to move forward a lot,” he enthuses. “I don’t like to dwell on things very much. I don’t usually like to revisit them, either. I like to keep moving forward and putting out new things. I like to try new things and experiment.” Gerard repeats himself once more. “I really like doing that.” K!

THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY IS AVAILABLE TO WATCH NOW ON NETFLIX

#gerard way #K!1761 #kerrang #february 2019 #2019 #patch jacket #smithsonian institute shirt #jen rosenstein #kerrang art print

[sibillascribbles08]

OCxCanon week huh? Hey I’m down for that.

I’ve got two entries for day 1 too hah

This one is Frigidus and E, minor spoilers for a future fic I want to write but ah well. I’ll probably rewrite this when I actually get to that fic.

But here’s how these boys met

    Frigidus wasn’t sure what to make of this situation or this nindroid.

    He knew who E was. The events of the Sons of Garmadon weren’t something he’d forgotten, though he tried to stay uninvolved until Garmadon took over the city. He’d barely gotten his mom to safety in the whole mess. 

    Still, as far as he’d heard the nindroid got torn apart. Hadn’t heard about him since. Now he was being pulled into his lab, sparking at the seams, by a very irritated Nya. 

    “Fix him if you can, we have our hands full.”

    She didn’t explain any further, what the situation was, or why E was even here. 

    But he wouldn’t argue, he still owed all of them a few favors after what he put them through. 

    Still, he wasn’t sure this situation could get much more awkward. The nindroid didn’t say anything. There was a permanent glare etched on his face while Frigidus worked, repairing wires and joints. It looked like sword damage, and then water damage on some of the interior. He found traces of salt. Must have been near the ocean. 

    Still, he couldn’t deal with the silence forever. He’d never run repairs on a conscious nindroid before and it was a little weird tightening a joint while being watched. 

    “So,” Frigidus said. “Uh, when did you get put back together?” 

    E didn’t reply, just glanced at him. His red eyes were bright but almost hypnotizing. The marks over his eyes almost looked like eyeliner. 

    “Was your voice damaged?” Frigidus tilted the nindroid’s head up to get a look at his neck. “It doesn’t seem that way.” 

    E shoved him back a bit before moving his hands. “Don’t like talking.” 

    “Oh.” Frigidus said before signing as well. “I know sign too.” 

    That finally got the glare off the nindroid’s face. He blinked, brow moving up. “My name is E.”

    “Yeah I know.” Frigidus signed as he spoke, but needed to get back to work. “Your jacket is kind of iconic, though I guess it looks different now. Where have you been hiding?” 

    He made sure to move back long enough for E to reply. “Working for Ronin.” 

    “Huh, interesting.” Frigidus didn’t know what else to say to that. Maybe he should have predicted it. Ronin did sound like the kind of guy to do that. “That’s not why you got hurt though, is it.” 

    E shook his head.

    “I noted earlier it looks like it was from a sword. Water damage must have come from the ocean. Did you get wrapped into ninja business?” 

    E hesitated, having to spell out some of the words. “Djinn got out. Kidnapped Harumi. I just want to get her back.” 

    Frigidus frowned. A djinn? It wasn’t the one that used to sit in Echo’s memory was it? He’d only gathered so much information on them at the time, but it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. 

    “Well, it’s not impossible to take him out. I’m sure you can get it figured.” Frigidus finished the repairs on the right shoulder at least. “That feel okay?” 

E rolled his shoulder a few times and then nodded. 

“Okay, good. Just gotta take care of this stab in your torso then.” Frigidus put his hand on E’s chest without thinking as he tried to get a closer look. “Looks like I’m going to have fun with this though. That’s a lot of severed wires. That doesn’t limit your movement?”

He glanced up, not sure why E’s face being so close caught him off guard. Something caught in his throat while those red eyes stared at him. 

He moved his hand away and took a step back. 

“I’m built to take damage.” E signed. “I have a lot of circuits for movement.” 

“Huh, right.” Frigidus cleared his throat. “Wish someone had given me a blueprint to start in that case. You uh, cool with laying down? Make this easier.” 

He didn’t expect E to do so without hesitating, arms resting above his head. Frigidus felt his heartbeat pick up, almost questioning why it was. No, he knew why. He’d had more than one crush in his life, but why was he getting one now? 

He just tried to ignore it for the time being. 

“They never told me your name.” E signed as Frigidus walked around the table.

“Oh, sorry. It’s Frigidus. Frigidus Polaris.” He made himself focus, counting the wires. Sadly it wasn’t behind an open panel, so working around them would be tricky unless he unraveled a bunch of them. 

“Have you always worked with nindroids?” 

Frigidus hummed as he thought, glad for the distraction. “Well, no. I mean it’s a bit of a long story.” 

E just stared at him.

“So, it’s not widely known, but my grandfather was originally the master of ice. Then after a fight with Dr. Julien his powers got stolen. I always said I would get them back so…”

#ninjagoocshippingweek #scribbly fics #ninjago #these two crush on day one but it takes them like a year to confess lmao #tragic

[torterragarden]

For LOTR; 🎥, 💕 and 💔? (also thanks 4 sending some i will get 2 them im just lazee and sick rn 😘)

WOO thanks bestie ily 🥰🥰🥰

I'm putting this under a read more because I don't know how to be normal and so this got long and rambly. I'm so sorry

🎥 do you have any favorite scenes from your hyperfixation?

All right if we're talking books uuh... oh jeez it's really hard. Idk if this counts as a scene because it's more like a single paragraph that makes me unwell but I really like that moment before Shelob's lair where Gollum is watching Frodo and Sam sleep and he almost repents but then he. Doesn't. Idk it just always struck me as such a sad moment and it really lingered with me, particularly that one line about how if Frodo or Sam could have seen him just then he would've looked like just a very old and weary hobbit 🥺🥺 anyway I blame that line for making me insane

OH also I really like the riddle scene in The Hobbit (I assume I'm allowed to talk about that and not just lotr) I think it's so neat. I love how actually genuinely scary it is, at least as far as a children's book can be scary, but it's also just so very absurd that this is even happening, that Gollum would be like "idk what you are or if I want to eat you yet, want to play riddles while I decide?" and Bilbo is just like. yeah okay. I also like how we're not actually told much about Gollum but we are told just enough to know that he wasn't always Like This and there is something tragic and lonely about him. The whole chapter is simultaneously creepy and funny and sad, it's great

If we're talking movies it's gotta be the powerpoint transition into Rivendell

💕 tell us about one of your favorite characters and why you like them!

*my longest sigh ever*

all right so. okay. Gollum has been my favorite character since I was a kid, and originally that was because I thought he was cute lmao. I was also one of those kids who got really tearful and defensive over "ugly" or "creepy" animals so that explains a lot I guess. I don't know why I'm saying "was" as if I'm not still that person. Anyway, Gollum remained my favorite as I got older and more analytical but the reason for that became that I genuinely found him really compelling (but yes I also still think he's adorable and I would like to keep him as a pet). What I said before about the riddle scene evoking so many different feelings, it really is like. the blueprint for what I find so engaging and fascinating about Gollum. I love how contradictory he is. I love that he's simultaneously repulsive and pitiful, that he's as much a victim as he is a villain (and he's even kind of a hero on top of that, though in very unexpected and roundabout ways). I love the role he plays in the story and the importance of pity and mercy as it pertains to him, as he demands a very complicated kind of sympathy, and so much of the fate of the world hinges on characters taking mercy on this thing who may not even deserve it but who's so pathetic you know it wouldn't feel good to kill him either, plus the fact that even though he's not redeemed in the end it wasn't because he couldn't be, there was hope for him even if it was very small but... he made his choice and that's that. God there's just so much to unpack I could write a whole dissertation just on him I swear lmao. And you know how like, there are certain things you liked as a kid or throughout your life that you can point to and know that it was absolutely Taste Defining for you? Gollum is definitely one of those things for me, in some very obvious ways but also in some ways that are not obvious and probably only make sense to me but that's okay I connected the dots

I'm so fucking sorry this is so long hgghdfkj I guess I just spend so much time making dumb jokes about Gollum but I rarely have an excuse to get deep into why he's my favorite in the first place and I really will talk about him for hours if people let me which is probably why people usually don't let me

💔 tell us about one of your LEAST favorite characters and why you dislike them.

yeah uh. I guess my least favorite is Thorin hhfdskj honestly there aren't that many characters that I outright dislike but Thorin is one of them and I know you know that because it's why we're mutuals lmao. But anyway god Thorin sucks. The thing is tho... like, I never really liked him in the book, but I also wasn't supposed to? He's a very clear-cut "don't be greedy" message intended for children to understand. Like, he's a dick for a while and then he's dies. I didn't like him but I also didn't particularly care, you know? He served his purpose well. And then for some reason the movies decided that they were going to make him a sexy heartthrob while also making him even less likable than he was in the book which... well that was certainly a Choice lmao. I hate that I am now subjected to "sexy" Thorin content and how it become so much harder to find any good content for Bilbo because all of it revolves around shipping him with Thorin, who Bilbo didn't even care for in the book because Thorin was constantly a dick to him and also tried to kill him. I'm tired lol

#ask #spacebabe51 #thanks so much spacey also sorry lmao

[delkios]

A Secret Well Kept (DC TV)

I actually wrote this around six months ago but I guess I was originally envisioning it as part of something bigger. Re-reading it, however, I figure it's self-contained enough I can post as is. Title: A Secret Well Kept Fandom: DC TV Rating: PG-13 Word Count: 989 Characters: Len, Mick, some Lisa Summary: Another variation of Mick-stumbling-on-Len-in-a-skirt. The first time Mick had seen Len in a skirt was an accident. Restlessness and close scrutiny from Lewis caused Mick to branch out a bit, working without Len for the first time since they'd met up outside of juvie but the job fell through and he'd heard through the grapevine that Lewis had to bug out and lay low for a bit. So Mick decided to drop in on the Snarts for the first time in two weeks. The two had been watching some ridiculous thing on tv with Len putting braids in Lisa's hair and Len was wearing a skirt. Nothing flashy or frilly, just a dark gray skirt that wouldn't have been out of place on an office worker and Len looking mortified at being caught. Mick laughed it off- he knew Lisa always liked having things to her specifications and that Len would do whatever he could to please her when it was possible. Besides, she was 11 now. She was not only entirely aware of this fact but she was now old enough to take advantage of it for her own amusement. "Your secret is safe with me," he told Len with a huge grin, finding the entire thing hilarious. "No one else needs to know how much you're willing to suffer to keep Lisa happy."

Len laughed like something painful was caught in his throat and, off to the side, Lisa was glaring at Mick. "Yeah. Thanks, buddy." Mick offered to take them out to dinner and Len had excused himself to change. Lisa glared at Mick the entire time they waited and Mick thought it was because he'd interrupted their sibling time. He didn't really get it until Lisa barged into his apartment and demanded he watch a movie with her because Len was too busy to and she'd absolutely die if she was the last person in her class to see it. With a title like The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Mick popped it in, expecting some kind of boring princess Disney type shit and ended up being very, incredibly wrong. Despite all of Lisa's non-pointed commentary- "Aren't their dresses amazing?" "Why don't you drive a car like that?" "I wonder how you'd look with a make-over." -Mick knew there was a specific reason for her making him watch the movie. It wasn't until Tick was standing in front of his son, visibly uncomfortable in typical men's attire, that the reason struck him like a blow between the eyes. He sat silent, lost in thought, for the rest of the movie and that must have satisfied Lisa because she announced she was taking over his bed for the night, threw a spare blanket at him, kissed his cheek and bounced off to Mick's room. It took the better part of a month before Mick figured out a way to broach the subject and had the courage to do so. He caught Len before the younger man was about to dive into a new heist- before a crew was hired, when he'd just started an outline and was beginning to make a list of things he needed to research. Once Len got into planning, it could take months before Mick would have the chance to say it and he wasn't about to distract Len in the middle of a job. Len was standing there, hand tapping against a stack of papers he was just about to sit and read through when Mick got his attention. Mick cleared his throat and, as he always did when in doubt, went for it. "Are you a woman?" The irritated crease vanished from Len's forehead, replaced by confusion. "What?" "You know. A trans..." Mick waved a hand vaguely, "whatever it is." "No. Why would you think that?" "You like to wear skirts, right?" Len's expression shuttered and Mick hurried on because if he gave Len the chance, Len would shut down the conversation entirely and Mick wasn't sure Len would ever come back. "'Cause if you do and if you think you're a woman," he saw a hard look flash over Len's expression and backtracked quickly, "sorry- if you are a woman, than me saying you were wearing a skirt because Lisa forced you into it is pretty shitty. And I don't wanna make you feel like you gotta pretend around me. I don't want you to think you gotta be scared of me. You're my partner," he said, a little uncertain as to how this was going to end, "that kinda stuff isn't gonna change that." "Mick..." Len sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. "I'm not a woman, I just like to wear skirts some times. And I'm not a cross dresser," he added quickly, "at least not in the sexual sense." "But... why would- I don't-" "I just... I like skirts like," Len paused as he thought, "like you like wearing suspenders instead of belts sometimes. They're comfortable, I like how they look and sometimes I feel like wearing them instead of pants." Then his expression went hard. "I'm not a woman and you better not treat me like one when you see me in a skirt." Mick's eyebrows jumped, unexpectedly happy with this. "Does that mean you're gonna wear them around me? Not hiding when you do, I mean." If he didn't know better, Mick could've sworn Len was blushing. "I could, I guess. I'm not planning on it but if it happens, it happens." "Sure. Whatever. Clothes is clothes." They both nodded a little awkwardly but fell back into their normal routine quickly afterward. When Mick got back to the apartment a few days later to find Len had fallen asleep on top of his blueprints with a skirt around his waist, Mick ignored the weird flutter of joy that came with it and just picked Len up to lay him out on the couch, just like always.

#dccoldwave #pre-slash really #fic 2017 #a simplistic answer from len really #as back then he wouldn't have known the correct terms for himself #dc tv #leonard snart #mick rory #lisa snart

[ts-akhmim]

Episode 14 (Finale) | “All of this and more, but only in Autumn's World” - Autumn

So I figured out that Amir does have the idol and Jakey originally had it that round... damn I wish I looked a little more but I just didn't think Jakey had it. So that probably means that Autumn is going this round, and then I just need to find a way to win this next challenge over Amir. I know Kendall and I will vote together next round regardless, so worst case scenario next round for me is that I am in some kind of fire-making challenge, but I at least see there being a good chance that me and Kendall could be sitting in FTC together, and I'm just hoping at this point that it's Augusto sitting there with us. P.S. In the event that I make FTC... I really hope I'm not seen as a goat. Like, I don't think I am, but I'm not sure how much respect I'll get for my game. I'm hoping people see how savvy I had to be to continuously work my way back up after a couple blindsides and being pushed to the bottom, but you never know with this jury / cast. P.P.S. Please no pressure cooker next round. I'm not ready to have to beat Amir THAT way.

So I'll count that as half of a success. I was at least able to help convince Amir to play the idol he told me about to flush that, and with Autumn safe, the next option was to do Adam. Knowing that if Autumn did have the merge idol, she probably wasn't playing it on Adam, this was the next best option. I need Kendall and Augusto around because those are the two I'd like to bring to FTC if I can make it there. It makes sense to take them to the end as our games are all very similar, so at least we aren't against a winner at the end. Part of me thinks that bringing Amir may not be the worst thing in the world given he has screwed over a decent bit of that jury, but also, I'd rather not take that risk.

So now that that's done and I'm cute and immune, I can confirm it all. Yes I do have the merge idol, yes I've had it since Final 7 but planned not to play it until Final 5, and yes that makes me the most powerful person here. Deadass everyone wants my head on a stick and I don't give a single fuck. I'm chilling all weekend, letting them think they're doing something if/when I lose win immunity, and then I'm sending a man out on one vote Monday night. You think they hate me now? Wait til they find out they can't take a shot at me until Final 4 lmaaaaoo. Be blessed! 

So Amir blames me for playing his idol... I think that's a win for me then, right?

I'm so glad I was able to take this challenge win! I needed to win this to guarantee I wasn't some kind of contingency plan. But now, it's about how can I guarantee a winner goes home. I've already kind of told Autumn she was in trouble (literally 0 point in lying to her about it) and have explained to both Kendall and Augusto that we should find a way to split the votes / guarantee that Autumn and Amir have no shot of working with one another and sending home one of the two people I want with me at FTC. I feel so close, yet so far away from the title of Sole Tumblr Survivor. I want this win so badly. I can't describe how much I want this win. I didn't come back just to have fun; I didn't come back just for maybe an ounce of redemption from Guyana, I came to win this mother-effer. I have at least a 25% shot at the moment, but I want to increase that number. 

Final 5... it's so insane honestly because I never expected this of myself but I've played my ASS off (literally, that's why I'm flatter than a table top) especially these past few rounds. I'm kinda shocked that the clear targets are Autumn/Amir/TJ just given I have been a force in the game (subtly ofc) so its def a gag... but yeah. TJ winning the immunity was WORST case scenario because I wanted to come for that man's neck SO bad but we'll just have to get him next time. Amir having the merge idol isn't a SHOCK but it was interesting to say the least like rip telling me that but both his idol plays are gonna be kinda useless which helps my case! I know that Autumn said me and Kendall have been up Amir's ass but first of all... i'm a bottom so I would never BUT also I feel I've held my own this entire game so it isn't my truth in the slightest but I'll just have to prove her, TJ, and the jurors wrong if I got to. I've gone from flop (16th in Bhutan, 17th in Great Lakes, 12th in Socotra) to the top (6th in Flops, 2nd in Seychelles) but I am trying to WIN and wear my deserved crown, it's time I won something yknow. 

Amir and I when my plan worked and NEITHER of us walked into jury yet again https://twitter.com/abridrakegraham/status/1222552252357005313 The kids HURTIN yall and I will 100% respect their privacy at this time. Like they really thought!!! They really thought they finally killed me and were probably singing ding dong the witch is dead all day and now look at em. They done lost the boy they all wanted to go to the end with, got severely played by me, AND still gotta see my face everyday. Someone check on Jordan Pines I wanna make sure he's not still holding his breath waiting for my demise. And I've teamed up with his other least favorite person? HOES MAD. But it's not just him- Kendall ready to fight Amir in PM's, TJ in his feelings on call during tribal, Augusto couldn't even find the words he was that shocked. It's all so glorious and I truly fucking love wrecking everyone's games. Amir was like I've never felt these emotions before/ this is one of the wildest moves I've ever been apart of and tbh I agree with Amir. This was batshit crazy but you know what the gag is? This is literally just another day in the mind of Autumn Hill Jury mad, the mayos mad, Augusto mad, and I'm literally on top on the world right now. Like I love Augusto yes but that move was the definition of powerful. Like it's not just playing an idol correctly. It's the fact that Amir came to me begging that I forgive him and that we work together again, I then agreed and admitted to having the idol to A WHOLE ASS WINNER, convinced Amir to tell the kids he had the idol, got everyone to feel super comfortable around me all night and day cause I knew "I was going," snapped in the tribe chat at 2:00 because I "just wanted people to be honest about voting me," got the kids to essentially then tell on themselves since they listed all the reasons why they were voting me, and then idoled out their king using his once closest ally. Liiiikkkee?? STIFF WHERE?? DEAD WHERE??? Bitch I'm playing to win ok I hope yall enjoying this master class I've put on cause I'm hanging it up after this. Unless yall get serious about having a TS version of Winners at War, then call me. But otherwise, yes I'm going ham because I have every intention of walking into the 2 time winners chat. I WANT TO ASCEND!!! So PSA: if my funeral is public knowledge, that means I ain't dying hahaha. Apparently everyone has nicknames for me and that might actually be my favorite part. Jakey calling the game Autumn's World all merge to the boys and TJ only referring to me as the Godmother?? iconic! You know I'd hate me too if I wasn't me, which is why I'm flattered by it all. They know damn well they're almost out of time to get rid of me and they've spent the entire fucking game hoping and wishing and praying and still can't pull it off. And them not targeting me out the gate like Jordan wanted has gotten soooo many people killed. But most importantly I have successfully played an idol now TWICE at Final 5.. And I sure did win back to back immunities at Final 4 and Final 3 in Crossroads so finding out this season has a final 2? Perfect let me dust off the blueprint real quick

 https://twitter.com/rcgersnatalia/status/1168071613763342336

okay im going to work my ass of to win this but autumn and tj have both claimed they can do this really well, so like basically, tj cannot win immunity, i need to win or i may be absolutely screwed https://66.media.tumblr.com/583667e85060a36a2cccb8551baa27d5/tumblr_inline_oh5slaYgdO1tr4u58_500.jpg but as of rn, i was going no matter what if i didnt win immunity, i tried to make a story to autumn and we called for like 3 hours and i did my damnest to sell that tj is the problem with everything that happened last round and that i was down to vote augusto for real until tj really sold the plan out to augusto and i didnt want to go to rocks, but i played the idol out of fear that augusto-kendall-tj would 3-2-1 me so she believed there is a true rift in the beauties right now and has more of a reason to hate tj she is so fucking smart so she may have sussed it out and went along with it, but im hoping it worked??? idek but she said if she wins immunity she'll idol me she did admit she has the idol to me but maybe because she knew i already knew

I just... do I even have words anymore? Like, time and time again, I'm getting screwed over and I just... it's a good underdog story now. I just have to win this next challenge. I guess regardless I had to win this next challenge, but also, I was really hoping to not have to have as much concern as I do right now.

What was that?? oh cause I thought the yts who can't successfully kill me had said something https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Wux4HnZRY0 Another day, another body bag. THEY WERE SO SURE THEY HAD ME AHHHH I really have to laugh. Kendall was certain this was my funeral and I'm like nah baby it's yours. I'm still screaming that TJ would keep immunity for himself and let Kendall go to firemaking where she would 100% lose that's wild. Only for me to find out after that sis really was THE RAT??? Y'all set her up lmaaaooo. Now I really don't feel bad cause she ran from her karma long enough and if Amir had told me that shit before firemaking I really would've smoked her in the comp. Kendall had no business snitching to Jordan about an airtight unanimous vote and blowing up all her allies' games just to do right by an egom aniac. Then Jordan still died and she falls in love with his bestie boo TJ (he's playing you sis!!) who sensed she could die this round but didn't give a single fuck?? Absolute mess. She really got Devon, TJ, Amir, and Augusto to lie about it the whole game and they agreed because they knew if I ever find out the truth, I'd kill her on sight. Bitch I killed her anyway!!! So was it even worth it? Cause she still walked into jury but she got a better placement and a noble death, which miss Devon and Augusto cannot say. Too busy being lying https://media3.giphy.com/media/6DMfLQEhixGdW/source.gif I feel so affirmed though- every person who has come for me is either sitting in jury or is about to walk in. That's power- that's RANGE! Also I just wanna say to Devon while I'm here:  you really gave me all that grief for considering you could be the rat when you, Amir, and Augusto were in on it and protecting Kendall the whole time??? Fuck outta here. Like whose fault is it really that you died Devon? I wanna know. You mad at me and Amir when you need to be mad at yourself for picking the wrong girl, which is on brand for straight white men but y'all not ready to have that conversation. Anyway! Kendall trying to undermine me the ENTIRE merge and using all these men to do it only to still get killed by me in the end?? Fucking love that shit. All of this and more, but only in Autumn's World

https://66.media.tumblr.com/143402720bb2766ebe14eb1d657e2ca6/tumblr_inline_o8662rxDt11tr4u58_250.gifv

Me before the challenge https://peopletalk.ru/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/tumblr_n49eidw5Zk1rsrbdko1_500.gif 

Me after I went beast mode and embarrassed the men https://twitter.com/intoragnarok/status/1233477557565173762

I'm screaming at Amir asking me after if kept him strategically or out of loyalty and I'm like sis what do you think. I was not about to let the white knights get their way and give TJ the win all because he's a good car salesman. Like y'all should've seen that 1 hr plus discussion of TJ and Amir going back and forth on camera about who I have a better chance of beating and I'm just sitting there IMMUNE taking notes, knowing neither of them wanted this. The power that that has, the intelligence that that has, the clearance that that has, the access that that has. Amir and TJ planning to kill me and then being thwarted once again is arguably my two favorite storylines. TJ wanted to do this the ENTIRE MERGE and I never let him succeed. And Amir wanted to be the one to say he killed me cause he's Mr. Smith when I'm Mrs. Smith and my ass spared him and helped him several times. Now look at em, getting third and second. I made a joke at Final 5 that Amir and I are the movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith and it's so true. I adore him as a person and I know he loves me too but we're not above killing each other. Hell we genuinely want to kill each other but time and time again we chose to kill everyone else instead lmao. 

So please enjoy this visual walkthrough of our wild ass partnership

(when we met at merge) https://i.pinimg.com/originals/3f/48/5e/3f485e53a56fb43c62c22c0790e8afd7.gif 

 (when we voted together at Final 11 and Final 10) https://media1.giphy.com/media/l3Ucho9gtq4b7SLok/source.gif 

 (when I caught Amir in a lie and killed Devon as retaliation but still wanted to work with Amir) https://media0.giphy.com/media/l3UcotueAJQAW0zjW/source.gif 

(when Amir killed Ali and Adam to piss me off) https://66.media.tumblr.com/eebc1dc0a509a652ea543aba82bcb1c5/tumblr_ojjk22iVXM1uhcmrao1_250.gifv 

(when Amir tried to get back in my good graces at Final 5) https://66.media.tumblr.com/3b157a36601820370897ace6673af493/tumblr_n17egq7Hdq1r7fawxo4_r3_250.gifv 

(when I agreed to the winners pact and got him to kill Augusto and Kendall with me) https://thumbs.gfycat.com/DefiniteVapidDogwoodtwigborer-size_restricted.gif 

 (when he kept trying me at Final 4 and Final 3/ saying he'd kill me) https://i.gifer.com/3lie.gif 

(when I snapped and took Amir to Final 2, like I said I would, and we both knew he'd lose beside me) https://66.media.tumblr.com/d1f3506fc873a7d2393d705a7f58065d/tumblr_mgooqovRHw1qkdoj2o1_500.gif

mood after everything that's happened and me making FTC again- we out here. Coming out of retirement has been good to me https://twitter.com/emrific/status/1235072497055227907

(final 4) oh dear me this one is a tuffyyyy wuffyyy.... okay okay. so its f4, tj thinks im voting with him and kendall to vote autumn. Autumn thinks im voting with her against kendall to make it firemaking. basically, i was originally gonna vote autumn, and i told autumn and she was like fk no so i told her im convinced but i am STILL UNSURE So if I vote kendall: autumn has to win fire making which like statistically i do not see kendall beating autumn, but then tj takes me to final 2 over autumn, and autumn will take me to final 2 over tj, she also threatened to make jury hate me if I cut her now which doesn’t really scare me tbh if I’m next to kendall anyway, but regardless of that threat, me going with tj and autumn gives me a 66% chance of winning this game. If me or Tj win final immunity, I think I win this game. If Autumn wins, then uhhhhggg she will probs take me but like we will thee i just hope she doesnt win final immunity If I vote autumn: me or kendall have to win final immunity, because if tj wins, then I’m getting third place, and kendall would probably take tj as well, so like, yeah i would beat them both at the end but i would be putting myself in a position where i have to win immunity but idk . i think voting kendall is better as i type dis

final 3 oh my gooooodddd, the fact that i am here is so surreal 2 me, and idk idk this immunity is gonna be the deciding factor of my game and im so nervous but also happy and proud of myself however this game turns out. hoyoyoyooyoy

SO MISSS AUTUMN JUST UHHHHHHHH wooped me arse in immunity and me and Tj had to PLEAD for ourlives but she ended up TAKING MEEEEEEEEE so partyyy Honslee tho, while this is gonna make winning 90x times harder, I am pretty happy to be sitting next to Autumn cuz our end game mr. and mrs. smith alliance is highkey iconic af ewnfewkjfnewkjnf like we killed each others allies and somehow have been aligned since early merge and I lied to her and somehow we always came back and protected each other and if i don't win im happy she will <3 but with that said, i gotta take her DOOOWNNN

AUTUMN WINS 8-1

#BackWithVengeance

[imagine-little-imagines]

The Maze Game 1/?

THE MAZE GAME: CHAPTER 1 OF ?

Author’s Note: Hello! So this is my first imagine/fiction on tumblr. This is based on The Maze Runner trilogy. I’ll admit, I haven’t read The Kill Order nor The Fever Code. I felt like there was finality with the original trilogy which actually inspired my prequel of sorts prior to these two additions. “The Maze Game” is a prequel to the series; it focuses on Y/N, an Immune researching with WICKED for a cure to the Flare. I don’t want to spoil what I have in mind for the story, but this will be OC-centric as well as an OC/Newt pairing. Constructive criticism is welcomed! If there is something you want to see, please send suggestions my way! Thank you and enjoy!

NO WARNINGS.

RATED: YOUNG ADULT

PAIRINGS: OC/NEWT

SYNOPSIS: You only wanted to pick up where your brother started—to create an elite team of Immunes to cure the world of the Flare. But what happens when your subject group proves less than savory? You tip the scales, of course! Little do you know, your minor adjustment will have major consequences! It’s you or it’s them—who will fall in the Maze Game?

Disclaimers: I do not own the GIFs. I do not own the Maze Runner nor its characters.

What’s worst? To drown or suffocate? In either case, you end up gasping for air and no sweet relief is to come. There’s this burning sensation and it tingles all over. It’s like fireworks—no—like fire ants, biting at every inch of flesh and oh, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts like hell. And not a soul has a clue that here you are, ramrod stiff, on the verge of death while still somehow, very much alive.

They were going to take it all from you. You should’ve known this day would come. Minho placed his hand over yours and your fingers curled. No…You wouldn’t give up without a fight.

“We’ll eliminate the subject group,” Janson continued, “and start fresh. New subjects, thoroughly tested. I can assure you this time, we won’t be compromised.” He directed a pointed look in your direction, pouring the salt over your fresh wound.

“We’ll throw them straight into the field—no time wasted on training. We’ll be able to weed out the elite this way without diverting any efforts on the weak. We’ll have a true representation of their capabilities this way with little to no interference on our part.” He scanned the room for reactions from the others and sneered, evidently pleased at their agreeance of his proposal. “This is the best route for WICKED, Chancellor. We can’t take any more risks, not with so many lives at stake.”

You could feel it being pulled from your grasp. Everything you worked so hard to build, all the lives you meant to save but ultimately, led to a mass grave. You had to do something. You couldn’t let him win.

And it hit you.

And it brought you life, a voice, a final chance to rectify your mistake.

“The Glade…” The whisper slipped from your lips so softly, you were unsure if you spoke at all. “The Glade!” You ran closer to the projection of Chancellor Paige and held your hand up to take her attention away from Janson, the rat. “Chancellor, if you’ll let me explain, I think I have an alternative?

She raised her brow in skepticism—you had already failed her once—but nodded her consent to allow you to go on.

You motioned for one of the electronic workpads and projected a blueprint of the Glade for the others to see. “We can send them there,” you proposed.

Janson scoffed and nudged a colleague beside him. You did your best to ignore his derision. “Think about it,” you addressed the council. “The Glade was built to simulate the Old World, before the Scorch. Let’s see what the subjects are capable of in our replica of the New World—” You motioned to Janson. “—survival of the fittest. Little to no interaction on our part. They’ll have to exist on their own.”

“How exactly will we collect data from this study?”

You racked your brain for answers and snapped your fingers before pulling up a new projection. “The chips! We monitor them while the subjects are in the V.R. simulators—we’re able to test vitals and brain activity, the whole lot! We’ll do the same, keep the implants in while they’re in the Glade.”

“Do you really think simply surviving will provide us with the necessary data? We’re trying to eradicate the world of this virus, not see if we can simply live with it.”

You looked at Minho as if he���d have the answers. He looked as defeated as you felt. You couldn’t give up—this was your group and you wouldn’t let them down.

“Of course not,” you said quickly. “That’s only phase one.” Chancellor Paige seemed intrigued and nodded her head, allowing you to continue. You threw up the projection of the Glade again before sketching out your working draft. “This…” You motioned the addition to the Glade. “…is phase two.”

“We create a maze around the Glade—”

“And when they figure it out?”

“Each day, it’ll change!” You quickly reworked the draft, your brain working to keep up with your mouth. “It’ll be a code.” You animated the projection so the rest of the council could see what you envisioned. “We want them to figure it out but it won’t be an easy task. There are so many other factors to consider.”

“I’m still not convinced…”

Chancellor Paige twitched her brows, apparently sharing in your colleague’s sentiments. You could feel yourself losing her, losing your group, and worst of all, losing to Janson.

“Then listen to phase three,” Minho piped in, rising to stand beside you. “Sure, surviving against the elements in a simulated arena sounds easy. I get that; I agree.” You wished the wards were down; you needed to know what was going through his mind. But it was Minho, and you trusted him. So you nodded, urging him on. He took the workpad from you, taking away the projection of the Maze and replacing it with something more gruesome. His face was hard but he knew what had to be done; Chancellor Paige wanted a challenge and he surely delivered. “Meet the Griever.”

“The Scorch has horrors unimaginable and if we want a stronger simulation, one that mirrors the grit of the world, the subjects will need something to fear. The natural world has predators and so, the Glade will too.”

“It’ll be contained to the Maze,” you added, “at least, at first. Perhaps only at night?”

“At first,” Minho reiterated sternly. “They’ll slowly be introduced to the Grievers while exploring the Maze. Then, if they linger in the Maze for too long, they’ll be trapped with them until sunrise.”

He edited the draft of the Maze and projected it with his additions. “The Maze will have limited accessibility. The subjects will have to take note of that timespan. If they don’t, these walls—” He motioned to the four entrances to the Maze. “—will be shut until the next day. Chances of survival? Slim.” He sent a condescending scowl toward Janson. “Separate the ‘fit’ from the ‘unfit.’” He closed out the projection and nodded at you. It was time to seal the deal.

“If the subjects manage to maneuver through all three phases, they’ll be freed from the Maze. I assure you, Chancellor, the data from this experiment will be extensive. More so than what Sentry Janson is promising you, I can tell you that.”

“But can you promise me a cure?” Chancellor Paige pressed.

You bit your lip and shook your head. “You know I can’t. But I can promise you this: our alternative,” you motioned to Minho and yourself, “is more fitting than slaughtering more subjects needlessly. Don’t let Janson throw their bodies to the Scorch. They’re worth so much more than that…” You weighed her expression but she was rather passive. “And I know you believe that too, Chancellor Paige. I know you want a better world. We’ve gotta take the necessary steps to build that and it starts here.”

A heavy silence settled over the council. Minho set his palm against your shoulder and squeezed. You weren’t ready for condolences. The Chancellor couldn’t be so cruel.

She scanned the council as if awaiting their objections. Only Janson wore his vote with overt pride. She couldn’t read their minds; that was a talent left to her coveted Counselors. So she sighed and requested a vote.

“Those in favor of Sentry Janson?”

Wary hands took to the air. This time, you held your breath. You counted the votes and felt a sting in your eyes. How could you possibly win?

“And those in favor of Counselors Y/N and Minho?”

A divided room. Hushed murmurs.

And then, the Chancellor smiled.

She raised a sly hand; her alliance was set. “Congratulations, Counselors. Your project has been approved. Experiment: The Maze has been given the green light. I expect monthly progress reports. I expect success. Do not let me down.”

You choked on your small victory, fought back the tears of relief, and hugged Minho in gratitude.

“We did it,” he muttered.

You wanted to believe Minho more than anything. You believed the tighter you held onto him, the less things would likely slip through the cracks.

You had to right your wrong.

You had to hope for forgiveness.

There was so much at stake and yet...

It had only just begun.

#the maze runner #minho #newt #imagine #tmr newt #tmr imagine #the maze game #tmg #the maze game 1 #tmg 1