#I don't like to abandon little works where the plot is completed in my mind | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

caligvlasaqvarivm · 1 month

Note

ik you mentioned interest in writing out how you'd prefer homestuck ended (though obviously time and money makes that impossible lol), and you touched on it in your big eridan essay at the end, but would you ever consider maybe a more detailed outline? i really enjoy your thoughts on the characters and the abandoned plotlines, i'd love to get a little more of an in depth look at how you wish it went down.

Yeah sure!

For those who aren't sure what the hell I'm talking 'bout, please check out my blog and the various essays I've been writing.

Some of it is contingent on stuff I kind of still need to reread so I'm really sorry to the alpha kid likers but I'm still not totally 100% sure where I want to take them. I'm also going to include quite a few personal preference ships; I'm not interested in arguing what other people should ship or about arguing about the course of action for my dumb fanfic in general. I also tend to discover the plot I want while I'm writing it, which I don't have the luxury of here, so... some of it is going to be kind of sloppy. I'm also a big troll stan so unfortunately the kids are a little bit neglected (sorry!!!!). That said.

So the changes would take place directly after GAME OVER, which is personally the point at which I think the truncation/turning on the fanbase really starts - ships start to get turbo-sped at that point. I'm not even saying I dislike JohnRoxy or JohnRezi, but they just feel oddly rushed the way they're handled in the comic itself. IMO, anyway.

There's not too much I would rearrange during this interstitial segment; I think it's important for Jade to have the experience of loneliness, for Terezi to kick off the retcons by only feeling comfortable fixing her own mistakes. Moreover, there's no reason why other characters can't use her mind beacon abilities to ask John to rearrange the timeline, though their attempts, because they aren't backed by Seer of Mind abilities, are a lot sloppier and come with a lot more unforseen consequences.

But something I would change is that Roxy's deal with Nyx is not to just kind of... sit back and chill in non-space while John does all the work; instead, like Rose in Davesprite's timeline, Nyx puts her to sleep, and when the timeline ceases to be, GameOver!Roxy's memories get transferred to Past!Roxy via her dreamself (which wakes up early), fulfilling a "stealing from void for others" aspect of her abilities, and leads to some important interactions later on down the line.

Also, this timeline's ARquiussprite and Gamzee's corpse (heretofore referred to as (ARquiussprite) and (Gamzee)) need to come along for the ride somehow. Maybe they fall through the sky after LOLAR crashes into LOFAF.

This kicks off a series of retcons, as each troll that gets brought back successively asks for another troll/set of trolls to be brought back. This absolutely RIDDLES Act 5 with password pages, can't go two steps without running into a password page, there are password pages within password pages (which IMO is very funny and very Homestuck).

Meanwhile, a couple other plots are running concurrently - the GameOver!crew (heretofore referred to as (Name)) are now in the dream bubbles, completing their character arcs and preparing to defeat LE. Because time and space are weird in the Furthest Ring, every successive meteor trip that occurs as a result of John's retcons is the first time from the point of view of the meteor, but is a repeating event from the point of view of the people in the bubbles - eg those dead god tier Eridan and Feferi wind up healing the Mayor like seven times from their perspective.

(Aradia) is fluttering her ASS off to make sure everyone is in the right "place" at the right "time" for this, lmfao.

Roxy gaining future memories also means that the Alpha kids get to complete their arcs in a way they weren't able to prior to Game Over. Because what John's retcons are doing are functionally whiting out and redrawing the past, the Alpha kids are also only seeing a single linear timeline.

One last arc, which is running concurrent to the retconned!trolls and their new meteor trips, is that bringing back each successive character allows them ALL to grow a little more. So it is NOT like they bring back Vriska, and now everyone's problem are fixed and everything is fine; Vriska's still kind of awful, but she gets better after Tavros gets brought back and they have to character develop alongside each other, and same when Aradia and Sollux get brought back, so on and so on. Because it's about BEING FRIENDS and BEING A TEAM. They're all still having interpersonal problems right up until ALL of them get brought back.

But as a side effect of this and the questing done by the GameOver!crew, the Dancestors get more fully utilized as foils, and get their problems addressed. As the retcon!team goes through their character development, they start to tear the Dancestors apart, because the Dancestors represent shitty parents who force their kids to clean up after their messes, and refuting them works both literally and symbolically as rejecting their irresponsible way of being in lieu of responsibility, accountability, empathy, and compassion.

So here's the series of retcons, and the absolute bullshit that accompanies each decision:

Terezi asks John to save Vriska, and prevent herself from getting too spades with Gamzee, as these are her two greatest regrets.

Pretty much just what her canon iteration asked for; I don't see any problems with the actions she asks John to do for her.

HOWEVER, we'd get more than just a montage of Vriska's time on the meteor, because in this version of events, we're taking our time and letting plot points breathe. Neither does she magically fix everything just by being around when she's very much herself still going thru it by the time the Meteor trip pops off. In any case, she brings with her some new complications:

Karkat still winds up having to play moirail and keep Gamzee calm. This still ends up breaking down by the halfway point of the comic, because they're kind of just not good for each other, but Karkat's personal shitty relationships are going to become A Theme, so it's important to make note of it here.

Vriska and Terezi don't fully make up on this iteration of the trip, since from Terezi's point of view, she was still actively about to kill Vriska before John intervened; however, we get more hints, now that they have to spend three years together, that not only does Vriska really miss Terezi (which is pretty well-established, given how she can't seem to leave Terezi alone), but Terezi actually misses Vriska, too - she's just really bad at separating her own feelings and desires from her instinctive grasp of karma and justice, a very Mind player-type problem to have.

At least with Vriska around, Terezi's able to nip her Gamzee habit in the bud, but this kind of leads to Gamzee feeling worse and more alone.

Something Really Messy happens between Vriska, Rose, and Kanaya when Rose starts her drinking habit, and it's pretty toxic for all involved, and Karkat is kind of stuck playing auspice. Vriska already expresses not liking Rose much and develops some flushed feelings for Kanaya after being watching her murder Eridan, so "It's Really Messy" is kind of all I can say on the matter. The girls are fightiiinnnnggggg

Dave and Terezi get close again, but given the weirdo vibes he notices between her and Vriska, and the fact that he's really not down with quadrants (YET.), means they still end up not getting together.

Sorry DaveKat likers but I am not one. They do not ever get together, so if you are hoping for that, I am sorry and you don't have to keep reading if you don't want to, it's OK.

On a note about Vriska and Terezi - personally, I do think their moirallegiance is endgame; Vriska clearly misses her terribly, constantly trying to bug her into making the Scourge Sisters a Thing again, and she even expresses feeling really bad about the Team Charge Debacle to Terezi explicitly, before directly foreshadowing how awful Terezi will feel after killing Vriska:

AG: Cause even though you got all these highfalutin morals and fancy reserv8tions, you know as well as me that a killer is a killer is a killer! AG: There 8n't no ch8nging your ways for good, and one d8y you're going to flail that silly l8ttle cane of yours and not find n8thin to 8ump into, and fall f8ce first into the shit ag8in. AG: And you're going to do something t8rri8le to some8ody and wish you could t8ke it 8ack 8ut you c8n't!!!!!!!! AG: And then you'll work hard to win 8ack their trust, and you'll try and try and tr8, and you'll see how hard it is! AG: You'll seeeeeeee!

We know that she starts using 8's where they don't make sense phonetically when she gets really agitated, so it's pretty safe to say that she's displaying genuine emotional distress here. When combined with the way she tells John about feeling absolutely horri8le about killing Tavros, it's pretty clear she's genuine about feeling really bad about the Team Charge debacle, and sincere about wanting to somehow make amends and get back into Terezi's good graces, at times trying rivalry, at times trying to prove that she's trying to fix her mistakes.

Terezi also vehemently denies them having a kismesistude and directly mirrors Vriska's hesitance about all the murder:

GC: W3 4R3 SUPPOS3D TO R3V3L 1N BLOODSH3D 4S W3 GROW UP GC: 4ND SH3 S33MS TO B3 3MBR4C1NG H3R R1T3 OF P4SS4G3 W1TH R3CKL3SS 4B4NDON, 4S 1 WOULD 3XP3CT GC: GR4BB1NG TH3 BULL BY TH3 HORNS, SO TO SP34K GC: 1TS 4 L1TTL3 1NT1M1D4T1NG GC: B3C4US3 1M NOT SUR3 1F 1M R34DY FOR TH4T

AG: On my world, I would 8e completely vindic8ed for killing him! He is far lower on the hemospectrum than me. He managed to disrespect me time and time again, 8ut I kept letting him live! In fact, the amount of slack I cut him would 8e considered scandalous 8y those in my class. AG: I had every reason to kill him. And yet... AG: I feel 8ad a8out it like a lame weak fudge8lood, just like he was. AG: And the fact that I feel 8ad is why I'm sort of freaking out right now!

They're basically two toxic girls who CANNOT be honest with their real feelings, and wind up hurting each other. They need therapy badly, but given the fact that they also mirror each other positively - Terezi feels grateful to Vriska for blinding her, and Vriska mentions she ought to thank Terezi for killing her, which set her up on a date with the dead John Terezi also killed - I think they have a lot of potential to be genuinely kind to each other once they work through their individual issues.

Anyway. We're keeping the Roxy stuff under wraps for now - last we saw of her, she went to go see her denizen, and her planet exploded, and John was really bummed about it. HOWEVER, we are going to check in with our GameOver!crew, although only lightly for now:

Meenah and (Vriska) have fully disappeared, and (Tavros), (Nepeta), and (Feferi) are looking for them because they've got the FUCKING TREASURE???

Everyone else from the Game Over timeline has landed in the afterlife, to varying degrees.

Shortly after entering the afterlife, (Eridan) fucked off somewhere to be alone. Last anyone heard from him was (ghost!Sollux) and him being Erisolsprite, but neither (ghost!Sollux) nor (alive!Sollux) have seen him since Erisolsprite died in Game Over.

(Karkat) is also brooding off on his own, feeling really shitty and sorry for himself. He's always felt personally responsible for everything going wrong for his team, and now that his team is basically entirely dead, he feels extra shitty.

Mostly just setting up that these guys are still relevant to the story, despite now being (irrelevant).

That brings us to the second retcon. Vriska obviously had great regrets about killing Tavros, both pre- and post-retcon, so she asks for his death to be prevented.

Tavros is back.

Vriska's requested fix is a very simple one - after all, Karkat makes mention about how Vriska's always had a competitive streak with Terezi, admiring/being jealous of her ability to manipul8 people; I think an ultimate culmination of that is her insisting that insisting to John that he do a retcon to stop her from killing Tavros - which, as covered above, she regrets greatly - but to do a much sloppier job of it, simply having John pop into [S] Wake and knock Tavros the fuck out.

Vriska herself doesn't believe this will have any unintended side effects, because her opinion of Tavros is still really low despite her genuine desire to make amends, and she's wrong.

Tavros's stay on the meteor has a major effect on Gamzee. I'm not entirely sure how it would pan out exactly, but I think Gamzee would step in between Dave and Tavros, into a situation none of them are happy with. This starts Tavros on a path of realizing that his inability to stand up for himself not only hurts him, but people he cares about (Gamzee, whom he ghosted).

Vriska is mostly uninterested in Tavros now, as the moment has kind of passed, and Terezi keeps getting on her ass about going after him (which brings the two of them closer).

Previous Messy romantic situations are still active. Karkat is going thru it.

Dave feels bad about tormenting Tavros but he kind of can't help himself, especially because Tavros keeps going up to him for some reason. The fact that he gets trapped in an auspice with Tavros and Gamzee kind of reinforces that he does NOT vibe with troll quadrants. Dave becomes MORE xenophobic.

On a note regarding Gamzee and Tavros: while I generally try to avoid relying on Hussie's commentary too much, as he likes to play his cards close to his chest, his note about Gamzee in the Act 5 book is actually significant enough to me to include:

The best explanation for why Gamzee says he's scared of Vriska, in my opinion, is this: he's flat-out lying. It's a good way for him to maintain his cover as 'Soft Gamzee.' It also provides some ammunition for those who, against all sense of good taste and judgment, want to continue to believe and assert that Gamzee is a decent guy with sensitive emotions and vulnerabilities before he undergoes his Muderstuck awakening. He was none of those things, ever.

Hussie likes to play coy, and you can't really trust anything he says after Act 6 because he's fed up with the fandom, but I think this comment comes early enough, and is made assertively enough, that it can be taken at face value. I know that "Soft Gamzee" is actually extremely popular in the fandom, so this may be controversial, but I do think there's more evidence for him being kind of nasty and manipulative than not, and having that always be a part of him brings more cohesiveness to his character. For example, he seems to have a pale crush on Karkat, trying to assert that Karkat is his best friend and changing the topic when Sollux gets brought up and he recognizes Karkat is closer to Sollux than him, and if you read his first log with Terezi as if he's hiding being nasty under a soft veneer, then his comments do read as pretty passive-aggressive.

TC: yOu KnOw HoW iT iS wItH fAmIlY. GC: NO, NOT R34LLY! GC: 4DURRRR DURR DURP TC: Oh YeAh... ... TC: I sPaCeD oUt, DiD yOu KnOw HoW bEaTuFuL tHe SoUnD oF tHe OcEaN iS? TC: hAvE yOu EvEr EvEn SeEn ThE oCeAn? TC: oR i MeAn SmElLeD iT... TC: SoRrY. GC: >:[

Maybe most damningly, his narration calls dealing with Eridan's genuine emotional distress "indulge emotional theatrics," an implication of his true feelings. Karkat and Eridan are heavily foreshadowed to be moirails, and Gamzee seems to have a pale crush on Karkat. What does Gamzee do in this conversation? He chases Eridan away from comforting Karkat - using the same excuse as he uses to avoid dealing with Vriska.

CA: put kar on TC: UuUuH, i cAn't rEaLlY ThInK AbOuT InTeRvEnInG, tHe bLaCk fRoWnInG MoThErFuCkEr kInDa sCaReS Me

Moreover, he does NOT seem to like Jack comforting Karkat instead, either.

THIS IS NOT TO SAY I DON'T THINK GAMZEE ALSO DESERVES A SHOT AT KINDNESS AND REDEMPTION. Gamzee is clearly a very troubled youth, between his absentee lusus, his indoctrination into a fundie doomsday cult, and his sopor usage. The fact that having his faith shattered by Dave makes him snap implies that, one, he was already unstable and teetering on the edge, and having his faith fucked with was the last straw, and two, that until he lost that last shred of hope, he was still pretending to be nicer than he was for a reason, and given that his LE worship doesn't start up until after the snappage, I think it can be extrapolated that that reason is that he genuinely wants to get along with his friends.

Given that Gamzee's issues largely stem from his neglectful lusus, it's not a stretch to say that Gamzee does not take well to abandonment and isolation. So here's kind of where Tavros comes in:

Gamzee mentions that he feels "So aT ChIlL WiTh yOu" while talking to Tavros, and Tavros reciprocates the friendship and also - interestingly - acknowledges Gamzee's religion, calling it beautiful even if he doesn't necessarily believe in it. I call it interesting because Karkat's inability to do so is explicitly one of the reasons their moirallegiance broke down. Moreover, in their first conversation together, Gamzee explicitly praises Tavros for his "gumption" for stealing his clown nose, when Tavros's avoidance of his problems is one of his biggest personal issues. So yeah, personally, I'm all for moirallegiance.

But Tavros started ghosting him after Gamzee offered to make out a little, another symptom of his avoidance issues. I'm sure that, even in this meteor trip, the fact that Gamzee killed Equius and Nepeta really scares him. In his conversation with Terezi, Terezi outright says "NO WOND3R V4NT4S C4NT ST4ND YOU"; Equius is constantly yelling at him; lots of people on their team seem to genuinely just sort of dislike him.

CG: MIRACLES ARE LIKE POOP STAINS ON GOD'S UNDERWEAR. TA: eheheh makiing fun of people2 reliigiion2 i2 the be2t thiing two do.

So having one of the few people he does really like also ghost him probably did... bad things to his mental health. Especially so when said person wound up dead. But now that he isn't dead, I think they have a shot - they just need to address their personal problems. Tavros with his avoidance, and Gamzee with his resentment toward the world, and reliance on substances and religion to take the edge off. In this meteor iteration, that doesn't quite happen - their toxic auspicetism succeeds in letting them air out their dirty laundry to the audience, but doesn't bring full reconciliation.

In any case, this meteor trip is fairly short, and uneventful from the dream bubbles side, although I do think Tavros should get a talking-to from (Tavros) about real self-esteem and self-worth.

Still, being back in contact with Tavros again, even if in kind of a messed-up way, does make Gamzee start to reconsider some of his past actions. This brings us to:

Gamzee Asks for Equius and Nepeta back.

Gamzee's not as nice as he lets on, but he does genuinely care about his teammates, and for the people he really cares about, like Karkat or Tavros, I think he's willing to stick his neck out. Bringing back Nepeta and Equius is more for Tavros than himself, really, because Tavros is scared of him for doing that, and he motherfuckin' misses Tavros, okay? John mostly agrees because he's kind of scared of Gamzee.

Some really fun stuff starts happening this go around.

The Gamzee-Tavros situation becomes resolved because this time, Equius steps in as an auspice between Tavros and Dave, and this auspicetism is COMPLETELY HEALTHY (with the bonus of being extremely funny, and what is the point of a Homestuck ship if it is not deeply funny).

Gamzee and Tavros are able to enter into a totally healthy moirallegiance once the auspicetism builds up Tavros's self-confidence, much to Karkat's relief.

Being stuck in the auspicetism makes Dave go crawling back to Terezi on his hands and knees. I'm sorry, Terezi. I'll do anything if you take me back. Just don't let me die as the guy stuck in a threesome with the two worst trolls. Dave has overcome his xenophobia.

Dave and Terezi becoming official does make Karkat sad, however, so when Nepeta finally works up the courage to confess to him, he accepts the offer to date her, thus fulfilling Jaspersprite's musing that she might only be able to date him after she dies.

They also break up. We're keeping up this trend of Karkat and his disastrous relationships. He's still involved in the Rose/Kanaya/Vriska drama, too.

With GamTav and Dave/Tavros/Equius cinched, Tavros and Vriska reach a sort of truce with each other. Not really friends, since they kind of still dislike each other, but Vriska would genuinely be glad to see Tavros getting more actually confident, and muster up the energy to genuinely apologize for almost killing him, so there's a sort of mutual respect there now. Vriska and Terezi are even closer because of this, but still not fully over their problems.

On the topic of the Dave/Tavros/Equius auspicetism: Dave still can't stop bothering Tavros, but the lewdness of it sets Equius off, so he feels like he has to intervene. Dave also can't stop himself from bothering Equius, which ALWAYS BACKFIRES, and since Tavros has a weird fondness/rivalry with Dave, he'd find it within himself to ask Equius to back off (which would work, because of Equius's... Equius). And every time Equius gets too overbearing toward Tavros, Dave feels COMPELLED to intervene, because he's like, my fucking god, you are the two worst trolls, why must weirdos fight. Dave desperately wants out, but he can't stop staring at these two.

And weirdly enough, it's beneficial for all of them. With two people to yell at him for being weird, Equius becomes less weird. With a rival in Dave and more contact with Equius, Tavros becomes more confident. And Dave has two people to rap against and feel good about his art with, something he more or less had to deal with alone during previous trips.

On the topic of Karkat and Nepeta, there are quite a few implications that they wouldn't necessarily work out. For citations, let me just link my Nepeta essay, where I go over what the comic says about their relationship from a storytelling perspective; here, I'll talk about their relationship from a more interpersonal perspective.

Karkat's signals are mixed as fuuuuuuck. While I don't necessarily think this will be an issue for Nepeta, as - as a Heart player - she's preternatually gifted at understanding motivations, the thing is... I think Nepeta can do better, and deserves better, a sentiment echoed by Jasprosesprite^2. She certainly deserves better than being second to Terezi, at the very least, even if she states she likes his outbursts.

And the thing is, Karkat is pretty explicit about saying that he doesn't return her feelings; in a world where they date, there's always going to be a sense that she's his second choice. And, just... my girl deserves better, okay? Moreover, while he respects her personhood, he's also pretty nasty to her when he DOES talk to her, implying he doesn't necessarily respect her choices. And also, she's actually really bad at shipping, so there will be this extremely weird tension of like... a hobbyist vs. a professional. I don't think Karkat would be able to stop himself from mocking some of her shipping choices if she ever opened up to him about that.

But I think them getting together is important for Nepeta, developmentally - I talk about this in my essay for her, but shipping is something I think she does need to outgrow, since it's kind of a replacement she's using for her loneliness. Moreover, I say in that essay that the issues she has in her moirallegiance with Equius warrant relationship counselling - and that's what Karkat is uniquely qualified to dispense, as the team's Blood player. Although they end up not working out, Nepeta would take several valuable lessons from this relationship - that she's kind of bad at shipping, that Equius is being kind of a shithead to her, and that she needs to start making friends with other people.

Now then. We're finally getting into some drama in the bubbles.

Please imagine for me Equius and Horuss talking, and Equius being aghast at the way Horuss is so derisive towards his matesprit and moirail. Now imagine him pulling a mic out of nowhere and rapping at him about how his problem is that he does not respect his partners. Now imagine Tavros and Dave joining in, also out of nowhere, with Tavros adding bars about how the hemospectrum is, not a good thing, he thinks. And Dave adding bars about how he does not have a fucking dog in this race. He's not even a troll. He doesn't understand their hemospectrum. Let him out of here. The fine fucking art of Alternian slam poetry. I think Horuss would start crying. So would I if three people including my grandkid started rapping at me.

Nepeta's uncanny emotional acumen leads to her wanting to befriend Damara, but being unable to speak her language.

GameOver!crew is up to something, IDK, probably showing (Tavros) inspiring people and rebuilding the ghost army, to tell a parallel story to Tavros becoming more genuinely self-confident.

We check in with the Alpha kids, too, who have some group therapy sessions led by Roxy.

Vriska and Tavros confront Rufioh together, a final culmination of their no-longer-enemiesship, and together, they steal Rufioh's ones. Like, Tavros starts speak1ng w1th ones, something he always had in him, and they also roast Rufioh so badly that he stops speaking in ones. But the way it's presented to the audience, Vriska outright just says that Tavros should steal his ones. And Tavros does. This carries over to successive retcons, as it's implied that Tavros just kind of starts naturally being more confident as healthy relationships are established sooner and sooner.

Anyway, a final note about Equius - his problems are mostly due to being sheltered. Although he is probably the most casteist highblood, he's not really that casteist, as what's really going on is just that he's got a BDSM kink. But because he's sheltered, he does not realize that it's a kink. And a fetishist who does not realize that they're a fetishist has more power than God.

His protectiveness of Nepeta does come from a good place; preventing her from playing FLARP was actually in her best interest, given what happens to people who play FLARP. But he's very much going overboard with it, likely an extension of his own lack of understanding of how much sheltering is good and how much becomes detrimental. What he really needs is for someone to point it out to him, which I think he gets via Nepeta or via Karkat, and then have a reaaaaally long think about it. He's genuinely a polite and helpful soul, who doesn't WANT to make people uncomfortable. The auspicetism is very good for him in this regard, as is his moirallegiance once Karkat talks him and Nepeta through their issues.

The point is, once he's forced to reckon with the fact that the degeneracy is coming from inside the house, I think he'd have a LOT of regrets about the way he treated Aradia. Which leads us to:

Whoops That Robot Thing Was Really Inappropriate Huh

Equius approaches John to ask him to make Past!Equius reconsider the Aradiabot Thing. John's getting kind of impatient with all these trolls who keep asking him to go back through time, but given that everyone seems a little happier each time, he can't help but agree.

So he goes back to the past, before Equius can give Aradia her robot body with the love chip in it, and something really fun gets to happen here: first of all, Equius's Void status makes him really hard to place, so John winds up missing by a bit, time-wise, so Aradia's already in the body. This is the first time that retconning!John and Aradia have been in the same place together, and when she meets him and finds out that he can time travel without causing paradoxes, she demands (with her Aradiabot deathmurderkill intensity) to be taken back in time to before she died.

John's retcon powers explicitly ignore the usual rules of paradox space - he describes it as a "fresh start". Given that Breath is associated with choices and freedom, his retcon powers are kind of the ultimate culmination of his abilities as a breath player. Although doomed timelines can and will still result from paradoxes caused by players when John isn't there, anything he directly interferes with is totally a-okay.

So all Aradiabot asks him for is passage back in time, in order to sanction her interference in the past. After she dismisses him, she still more or less has to adhere to events in the original timeline, for two reasons - the first being that she doesn't want to risk a new doomed timeline, and the second so she can keep the timeline predictable.

So even though she's basically asked for passage to the time period before SGRUB, it's basically outright stated that the progression of events has to be more or less the same, up until the point where John's other retcons take place. So here are the cascading effects of Aradiabot preventing her own death:

Aradiabot takes Aradia's place in the Team Charge debacle, being blown up/"killed" (as a sprite) by Sollux's eye beams, so that she can take Aradia's place as Doc Scratch/the Handmaiden's servant and "carry out" their orders.

Meanwhile, Aradia seeks refuge with Equius, whose void powers keep her hidden from Doc Scratch's omnipotence.

Because Sollux never actually killed Aradia, and Aradia communicates with him via Equius's account, Sollux is less depressed and self-loathing. He no longer predicts a future where all of them die and he has to be blinded. It's left deliberately vague whether this future comes to pass because he's less pessimistic, so his Mage powers are calling a happier future into being, or if his future changed, so his Mage powers are prophesying something new.

Nepeta starts regaining memories of alternate timelines and past retcons, as an extension of her Rogue of Heart powers. This includes the relationship counselling she received from Karkat.

Between Nepeta and Aradia yelling at him, Equius's character development starts sooner, so he's squared away for future events, and ends up not making the creepy Aradiabot, making a non-creepy one instead.

Aradia and Equius do not strike up a relationship, and become uneasy enemies/friends.

Aradia secretly god tiers well in advance of Jack's arrival, and meets him at Derse rather than awakening on her crypt there.

Aradia and Sollux continue a loving matespritship, leading to Sollux settling into a moirallegiance with Feferi. He's devastated when she dies, which still happens along with the rest of Eridan's freakout; Aradiabot doesn't intervene because she's needed for:

Aradiabot winds up being the one to sacrifice herself piloting the meteor, allowing Sollux to stay with the rest of the team when he meets up with Aradia, (Aradia), and (Sollux) at the Green Sun. Aradiabot winds up with the GameOver!crew.

With the 1337 hackers back in commission, Sollux and Roxy are able to establish a server connection with each other, allowing them to communicate during the 3-year meteor trip.

Aradia involves herself in the Rose/Kanaya/Vriska Mess, and I kind of can't decide what I like better - a vascillatory pitch/flush threeway between Rose, Kanaya, and Vriska, now that Vriska's near the end of her character development, with Aradia serving as a stabilizing force as Kanaya's on-again off-again moirail, or Aradia stepping in as an auspice. Either way, it's out of Karkat's hands.

This has a knock-on effect of finally giving Vriska the chance to fully make amends with Aradia, which winds up cinching the Vriska/Terezi moirallegiance. The scourge sisters are back baybee. And between a healthy moirallegiance for Terezi and a healthy moirallegiance for Gamzee, I think pitch Terezi/Gamzee could work as a healthy ship this time around. I'm not married to it, but they did always seem to hate each other well before SGRUB.

Nepeta has LEARNED HER LESSON regarding dating Karkat, so that does not happen.

Karkat now has no quadrants. He winds up desperately throwing himself at Sadstuck Sollux to try and help him get over his breakup. It's not a good look. Sadkat. He also takes up talking to the alpha kids for emotional support, which puts them off, too. Still gives really good relationship advice. He's clearly one of the more unstable members of the retcon!crew at this point.

We're light on the dream bubble drama this time around because of how MUCH is happening for the retcon!crew, but there's going to be a reference in there of Nepeta learning East Beforan.

SO. NOTES TIME.

Aradia expresses outright that she hated the feeling that she was set up and that she wishes someone would have stopped her from being so reckless. And although she seems to find some satisfaction in being the stewardess of the afterlife, there's clearly some resentment there that she's been forced into that role, as she expresses that what she's really looking forward to is watching it all break apart. There's also kind of an orphaned plot thread where Aradia is spending a lot of time in the afterlife putting knowledge together, which never really directly pays off except to the audience, and I think a really good way to bring that back in would be for her to be communing with (Aradia) in the dream bubbles in order to make sure the timeline flows as smoothly as possible.

As for Aradia/Kanaya - they're actually really good friends, and Aradia expresses that she's flattered that Kanaya wants to talk to her so much. There is a tone here that matches the way Vriska thinks about Kanaya when Kanaya is still ostensibly Vriska's moirail, and Kanaya herself admits to being attracted to people who are reckless. In fact...

AA: i just wish AA: back when i was behaving recklessly AA: i had s0me0ne t0 tell me t0 st0p listening AA: even if i ended up ign0ring their advice AA: it w0uld have been nice

GA: It Must Be A Certain Madness Im Afflicted By GA: To Orbit Those More Reckless And Dangerous Than I And More Daring For It GA: I Guess I Want To Help Them But They Never Can Be Helped It Seems

So I'm just kind of saying... Aradia and Kanaya moirallegiance... is not entirely unfounded. And a moirail stabilizes a troll's other relationships; if we have a moirail for Kanaya and a moirail for Vriska, then the Mess that is whatever's going on with Kanaya, Vriska, and Rose would probably resolve itself, I think. Either way, Rose is surrounded by SUCH a girl's night of emotional support to help her with sobriety now.

As for whatever's going on between her and Equius, I tend to believe the comic when it tells me relationships don't work out, and Aradia expresses regret for kissing him during the Ministrife. I think they could be good vitriolic frenemies, though.

Okay, onto Sollux.

In the same panel where Eridan and Karkat are implied to be "hatched for each other" pale-wise, Feferi and Sollux are foreshadowed in the same way:

They also spend a LOT OF TIME curled up in a pile together talking about their feelings, which we don't see with matesprits, but we DO see with moirails. Nepeta and Equius do the same thing, and they are kind of THE moirails. So I think Sollux and Feferi were always meant to be pale, but because Aradia died, Sollux wound up taking Feferi on as a matesprit instead. Between EriFef, SolFef, and GamTav, people getting flushed and pale feelings entangled is like, a Running Thing, so it's not really surprising to me.

Now, here's the thing. We already know that Sollux likes to cope with a rebound, since he went flushed with Feferi after Aradiabot exploded and was presumed dead. And Karkat cares very fucking much about Sollux, to the point where Gamzee speculates that he's actually Karkat's best friend, and Karkat even calls him that (although Karkat also kind of just calls anyone his best friend, lol).

CG: GAMZEE WAS MY VERY GOOD FRIEND, WHO WAS THIS GOOFY LOVEABLE BULLSHIT CLOWN UNTIL HE WENT PSYCHO AND KILLED SOME PEOPLE. I LIKED HIM A LOT. CG: I DON'T KNOW, I GUESS MY BEST FRIEND IS REALLY JUST THE GUY WHO I HAPPEN TO BE FEELING MOST SENTIMENTAL TO AT THE MOMENT, IS THAT A FUCKING CRIME.

This crab's got so much love in him. In any case, I mostly just want to keep sticking Karkat in these extremely unhealthy relationships for a while. It makes it sweeter when he finally winds up with Eridan LIKE HE WAS ALWAYS MEANT TO... but yeah.

Cross-session communication is also entirely possible, as Sollux set up chat clients between the trolls and the kids in the first place, and even without that, Kanaya found Rose's old GameFAQs on a server in the Furthest Ring. With both Sollux and Roxy on the case, there's no way they can't somehow establish communications way sooner.

Regarding Nepeta regaining her memories, let me once more point you towards the Nepeta essay. She's on track to become the one who attains Ultimate Selfhood, and comforts people like Jade and John about not really knowing their friends or being lonely.

But yeah, obviously Sollux asks for Feferi to be brought back.

F-EF-ERI!!!! 38D

Mostly Sollux just asks to be prevented from provoking Eridan so harshly. Eridan still winds up blowing up the matriorb, and thus, still getting killed by Kanaya in retribution, but this means that Eridan is now the only member of the team left dead.

PITCH FEFNEP. PITCH FEFNEP. PITCH FEFNEP

Pitch FefNep leads to Feferi letting slip something casteist where Sollux can hear; he doesn't personally care because he's heard much worse, but puts them on a break while she sorts herself out. They get back together after that.

Karkat alone :'( he's mostly just talking to the alpha kids at this point, trying to hide from all the happy fucking relationships happening all around him.

If the last retcon was really heavy on the retcon!crew, then this one is much more about what's happening in the bubbles. We get most of our dancestor development this go around. Do not read if you like the dancestors! I go very in-depth about how most of them are horrible people on purpose here, so their arcs are mostly about them being pulled up on their abject awfulness.

Nepeta, who has learned East Beforan, is able to talk to Damara and have an earnest heart-to-heart with her about how awfully she was treated. They hug and cry. Damara, finally validated, gives everyone a big middle finger.

Feferi heals Mituna's brain injury, because literally why the FUCK has nobody else done that. Now once more in control of his faculties, he breaks up with Latula, pissed off that she took advantage of him all those eons to boost her own ego. He also gives everyone a big middle finger. Damara steals her skateboard and high fives Mituna.

Porrim's basically the only dancestor who grew as a person so I think she mostly escapes unscathed.

Latula gets chased around by Sollux and Aradia, who basically just bully her for being bad at games. This is a date to them.

Gamzee completely refutes Kurloz, with his newfound clarity about the real miracle being friendship and the real dark carnival being the world he and his friends will build, not that LE noise.

In a double team between Terezi and Rose, Meulin gets eviscerated for the way her own Issues have made her ships deliberately awful, that she could have simply Not, and she has a bit of a breakdown.

As Feferi is grappling with her privilege and internalized casteism, Cronus wanders up to try and hit on her, and she goes "oh my god... when people look at me, are you what they see? A friendless loser that nobody likes? A total waste of seawater who's only pretending to be cool with the lower castes? A totally fake poser? 38(" Cronus just goes "..." and starts crying and Feferi ends the convo oblivious to that, just going "wow... thanks for talking with me! really gave me a lot to think about" imagine how funny it would be -

Karkat finds and talks to (Eridan), where he fully admits to missing the guy. His mopiness is so extreme that (Eridan) takes issue with it and punches him, before basically yelling at him to get his shit together. Karkat then yells at HIM for him to get HIS shit together, and they both leave, intent on getting their shit together.

We also get an update on Vriska and Meenah at this point, where Meenah is starting to seem more into how they totally ditched their responsibilities than Vriska is.

So the thing with this update is that most of the trolls have sorted their shit out; even Karkat has had a lot of introspection about how he really just fucking loves his friends and should have been more honest about it, not worried so much about appearing weak or lame. With the double Aradias in play to kind of handwave that the timeline will be stable because they're ensuring all loops get completed and all necessary conversations happen, and with everyone's successful relationships on display, we can kind of truncate the next leg of the journey:

Karkat Fixes Everything

Karkat is the Friendship Troll. Karkat is the Romance Troll. Karkat is the Bonds troll. He is their team's Blood player, and as the Blood player, he's been shown to deeply love all of his fucking friends - yes, even the assholes. Maybe even especially them.

As such, it's vitally important for the last push - last leg of the journey - to belong to Karkat. Where would our Blood player be without his bonds? Well, we actually have the answer to that. It's knocked out and prevented from joining in any of the important boss battles. LAME!

So in the last retcon, Karkat hears from Nepeta about the retcons that have been happening, and he really starts digging through his own past. If every retcon so far has been each troll only feeling comfortable undoing their own personal mistakes, then what of the guy who feels personally responsible for everything, all the time, forever?

Look, I'm not saying that a shipping chart saves Homestuck, but... by the time this last retcon is through, every Alternian troll is alive and god tiered. And he is dating Eridan.

If you have any questions about him dating Eridan, please refer to the link above. That essay is nearly as long as this one. There's SO MUCH FUCKING FORESHADOWING.

I don't think the god tiering needs to be explained, because if we hear that Karkat basically made his past self a shipping chart, and we've seen everybody's character development as they've gone through this journey, and we have Aradias on timeline duty and Nepeta with memories of past retcons and her alternate selves, I think we can more or less gloss over exactly how they go about earning their wings while maintaining timeline integrity. The important thing is that Karkat is dating Eridan now.

Because that leads to the last few bits of dream bubble stuff, but before we get into that...

Miscellaneous Plot Things That Need To Happen But I Don't Know Where To Put Them

Yeah there's just some ideas that I have floating around that need to be placed somewhere but IDK exactly where, or exactly how they shake out.

Hal becomes a real boy. And by that I mean as part of their character development, Jake makes Hal "real" a la brain ghost Dirk, and then the rest of them have to scramble against the clock (Jake's ability to maintain Hal's realness) to god tier him and make his existence permanent. He's a Sylph of Mind, which allows him to negate Condy's mind control. And maybe a GCATboy?

(Tavros) becomes the new leader of the ghost army.

Davesprite winds up dead at some point in the bubbles and doesn't explain how he died, but he and (Dave) get to fight each other and hash out their Realness and Relevance issues, before facing their final boss fight as bros once more.

Jade and Nepeta get to talk, and Nepeta gives Jade the reassuring speech about Ultimate Selfhood and how she won't be lonely forever. Maybe it's flushed. Might leave it ambiguous.

Somebody needs to auspicetize Dirk and Jake holy shit. Dunno who. Maybe Karkat, but I kind of like him pitch with Dirk, so IDK really.

Dad needs to die. Sorry Dad. If I can find a way to kill off all of the sprites besides ARquiusprite, I will. It's explicitly stated that sprites are drawn to the battlefield during the Reckoning, presumably to die, as part of the coming-of-age themes - losing one's guardians. It's sad but it's gotta happen.

All the Godtier!Calliope stuff basically happens as-is.

Can you tell I need to do more research on the alpha kids...

Ok Back To Karkat And Eridan

I think I'm going to leave their moirallegiance fairly ambiguous, but when Eridan is brought back, he and Karkat are basically together all the time. Karkat's signals are mixed even on the best of days, so I don't know how easy it'll be to tell that these two assholes slinging death threats at each other are pale, but *I* will know, and that's what matters.

This leads to the last two dancestor takedowns:

Karkat and Eridan (mostly Eridan) round on Kankri. Eridan calls him SO MANY SLURS. The fact that Karkat not only condones this, but is DATING ERIDAN, kind of makes Kankri lose it a bit.

(Karkat) and (Eridan), who have reconciled in the bubbles, finally find (Vriska) and Meenah. (Karkat) gives the two of them the speech that retcon!Vriska gave (Vriska) in the comic's original ending, but this time around, (Vriska) actually agrees with him. This serves as a conclusion to (Karkat) and Meenah's arc, and causes Meenah to feel so bad that she walks back to the other dancestors in shame, as (Vriska) leaves with him with the treasure to finally fight LE.

When Meenah returns to the dancestors, the first one she finds is Aranea, who's really sad about her own little escapade, blaming herself for the way Game Over went. This prompts Meenah to go, no, it was probably my fault, shouldn't have let you run off like that. And this would, from all the sobbing dancestors, prompt a string of "no, I'm the reason we failed"s, eventually culminating in Meenah rallying them together to do one last good thing before everyone gets sucked into the black hole and go join the fight against LE. Everyone agrees.

(Gamzee) is revived by the life players and cursed with immortality, so he can go on to become LE and complete that time loop. He is immediately locked in the fridge. This is also why he can't fucking die no matter what you do to him.

This also leads us into the final boss fights.

VS. CONDY

The twelve trolls. The Condesce represents tyranny, the worst aspects of the trolls' old society, and as such, is most thematically taken down by them. While she did fuck up the alpha kids' lives, too, I just personally think it's so much more thematic and satisfying to watch her be beaten down by the trolls.

VS. THE THREE JACKS

The eight kids plus Hal plus Davesprite. With Bec Noir specifically, it's fucking PERSONAL, as this guy killed their parents. This is where Dave fulfils his destiny of killing an iteration of English with his sword, when he decapitates Jack English; the person in the middle of that sandwich is Davesprite, which is how he dies and winds up in the bubbles. The iteration of Jack that survives to date Ms. Paint is Spades Slick, as he's the most sympathetic out of all of them and didn't kill anybody's parents.

At some point during this fight, I like the idea that they get zapped away by Jack English, John zaps them to the Godtier!Caliborn fight where he gets sealed in the juju, and then we cut back to the fight with Jack English, where, inexplicably, they all zap right back in.

VS. THE FELT

The spares - ARquiussprite, (Gamzee) in the fridge (who has since been revived by the life players and blessed/cursed with eternal life so he can go on to fulfill his role in the timelines and become part of LE), Dad, and the other sprites (if any of them are left alive).

VS. LORD ENGLISH

The GameOver!crew, the ghost army, the dancestors (they have a Big Damn Heroes moment right near the end, buying Jake time to deploy the Weapon), Aradiabot, and Davesprite.

Jake fulfills his destiny to defeat the Lord of all Angels by being the one to deploy the weapon, which deposits the beta kids, who knock LE in to the black hole. They then zap out of there, collecting the alpha kids from after the Caliborn fight, and zap back to the fight with the Jacks.

This specific configuration of boss battles winds up leaving Lord English entirely up to dead characters, who are then implied to all eventually get sucked into the black hole - their memories to live on through the living characters via Ultimate Selfhood, which only Nepeta achieves on screen, but implies that they will all achieve eventually.

It's important to me that the GameOver!crew is the one leading the fight against Lord English, as they're the ones who were the most screwed over by LE and his machinations - manipulated into killing each other, used as servants of his will, dying ignobly in a doomed timeline filled with special stardust. Meanwhile, the retcon!kids and trolls prove what they've learned - about compassion, kindness, equality, and forgiveness - by beating the shit out of the Condesce, who represents the horrors of Alternia, and the Jacks, especially Bec Noir and Jack English - the latter of which is a shadow of what Lord English represents - immaturity, cruelty, hatred - and the former of which is a culmination of all the failures they committed to get to this point, a symptom of their universal cancer.

I wrote a little snippet of Aradia once, and I think I'll use that to end this essay:

(ARADIA): ok now that we are all done being stupid (ARADIA): im sure enough people here remember the plan that i dont need to explain it again (ARADIA): so instead i just wanted to say (ARADIA): leave your backs to us and face forward without fear (ARADIA): the dead and irrelevant will slay the demon of double death while you unmake the threats of the living (ARADIA): and personally i think it's very fitting that he will perish here as nothing more than a bad dream (ARADIA): this will be the last time we see each other (ARADIA): so on behalf of everyone that you are going to be leaving behind (ARADIA): live (ARADIA): and be happy!

#homestuck #eridan ampora #karkat vantas #nepeta leijon #feferi peixes #kanaya maryam #gamzee makara #vriska serket #sollux captor #aradia megido #equius zahhak #tavros nitram #terezi pyrope #unfortunately i was not able to get my actual project done so i'll save that for 6/12 hahaha #but have this meager offering instead

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catpriciousmarjara · 9 months

Text

Katekyo Hitman Reborn!: Namimori Location

(Documenting my research process so I won't forget and get confused why I did something in a fic during a later read through. Nothing serious really.)

Where exactly is Namimori in canon?

As I was writing a khr fic, I realized I needed the exact location of Namimori for one sentence. A sentence that wasn't even important in the long run. Rather than abandon that single sentence I decided to try and locate where the town of Namimori would be in Japan. Because apparently I like pain.

There is virtually no information on the actual location of Namimori anywhere. So I had went on a research binge. And I found something that gave me a starting point.

In 2009, there was a special KHR episode that was aired during the Jump Super Anime Tour titled, Vongola Style School Trip, Arrives!

Saying that I found it is not that accurate. Its more that I went looking for an episode like this specifically. This isn't the first time I tried to locate fictional locations on a map for the sake of the plot. And I've realized that episodes centered around trips provide amazing clues, especially where the trip starts, where it ends, the scenery outside etc.

Thats what I hoped for here as well. And the hunch paid off! Between timestamps 3:07-3:10, there's a map. Not very detailed mind you. Just enough to show the direction where they came from. But that's better than nothing.

So they're going to Nagoya city, which is in the Aichi Prefecture. Its in the Chūbu region. It also looks like they're coming from the Kanto region, possibly from the direction of Tokyo.

So that means we can leave out the Kansai, Chugoku, Shikoku, and Kyushu regions in the south. There's no way Namimori is in Hokkaido, or Okinawa, so those two prefectures are out as well. The most likely locations for the town to be in is in the Kanto, and Chubu regions.

Comparing the physical map of Japan with the short glimpse we get, I'm reasonably sure they passed by Mt. Fuji as well.

See that little protrusion under Fuji-san? I'm pretty sure thats what we see in the map shown in the episode. So yeah they passed Mount Fuji.

Another thing, see that arch like thing before the protrusion? Thats Kanagawa prefecture, and we can see in the very beginning of the video, around the 0.03-0.04 timestamps, that they don't start anywhere there.

See? They pass by it completely and started somewhere well before Kanagawa. So Kanagawa is out.

Lets go back to Fuji-san again.

The mountain lies between the Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefecture borders.

That gives us three possible routes:

Chiba-> Tokyo-> Yamanashi-> Shizuoka-> Aichi [Nagoya City}

Tokyo-> Yamanashi-> Shizuoka-> Aichi [Nagoya City}

Yamanashi -> Shizuoka -> Aichi [Nagoya City]

Why did I decide on Tokyo as the starting point in Kanto despite there being other prefectures in the region?

In KHR's seventh volume, Hot Summer Arrives!, we get chapter 57, Swimming at the Sea. Its a beach chapter.

The beach is described as being close by and the fact that Ryohei's boxing club senpai, Kuroda Eiji and his buddies Kisanuki Yukio and Ookura Takuya, apparently work there as lifeguards, supports this. (You know...cos they're in middle school and all and jobs at that age tend to be close by...for civilians at least.)

Which means that prefectures like Saitama, Tochigi, and Gunma, which are all landlocked as you can see on the map below, are automatically disqualified as locations for Namimori.

By that same logic, Yamanashi is also disqualified.

Ibaraki is not counted because despite the abrupt beginning and ending of the map scene in the episode, we can guess that the starting point of the trip wasn't quite that far back. By the curve of the arrow I mean. {Yeah I know this is a reach but I'm pretty sure I'm right.}

That just leaves Tokyo and Chiba.

The argument in favour of Chiba is a meta one. Tokyo is an iconic location when it comes to manga and anime. Most anime set in Tokyo shows several shenanigans centered around Tokyo's various landmarks. Even works not set in Tokyo sometimes have Tokyo episodes and Tokyo adventures. Like Haikyuu for example.

Considering how much shenaniganry and crackishness KHR has, it would be very strange if it was set in Tokyo and yet didn't have any Tokyo misadventures in it. Reborn would just go ahead and name Tokyo Tower Vongola Tower or something just like he named Nagoya Castle Vongola Castle. So Namimori might not be in Tokyo, but in Chiba instead...which is still part of the Greater Tokyo Area now that I think about it, so still Tokyo in a way?

I couldn't find a way to clearly articulate an argument in favour of Tokyo when a friend send me this link.

I was walking on a path well-tread! @ladydraculena had already slashed through the figurative jungles for me!

I went looking for the two locations marked in the map in their post but it seems like Namimori Steamed Buns has since closed down. Hibari Nursery School on the other hand is going strong.

With this information the argument in favour of Tokyo grew much stronger.

Thus canonically the town of Namimori is most likely located in Tokyo and if not in Tokyo proper, definitely in the Greater Tokyo Area.

(Please note that I left the Tohoku region out of this. The region is very distinct and neither anime nor the manga has shown a singular sign of being set in Tohoku. By that I mean that if a work is set in Tohoku, it would be impossible to hide its Tohoku, or mistake it as somewhere else.)

Edit: @rooigseix pointed out that since most of KHR's usual shenanigans strictly happens in Namimori, the usual Tokyo adventure trope meta might not be applicable in this case. Namimori might be far away from Tokyo centre like the Ota or Edogawa districts, which are close to the sea as well.

Edit: @lightning-will-bovino pointed out Kokuyo land and there is in fact a theme park called Noah Forest Amusement Park or Mori-no-Yeunchi near the Hibari Nursery School!

It seems very likely that Amano-sensei was inspired by the area. It might not be where Namimori is actually located but the existence of these establishments in close quarters lends further credence to the theory of Namimori being in the Tokyo area.

In conlusion, the most likely location of Namimori would be in Tokyo prefecture but close to the Chiba border. Not landlocked as well.

Thus, Edogawa ward is the most suitable location.

And after all of that, I decided that Tokyo wasn't a good fit for my fic's Namimori and by my magical writer powers shifted it to Mie Prefecture instead. ╥﹏╥

#Katekyo Hitman Reborn!#KHR #Khr meta #Namimori #Namimori location theory #Hibari Nursery cracked me up tbh #But a bit sad about the Namimori Steamed Buns #Hope they just relocated #Vongola

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defectivevillain · 5 months

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this winding labyrinth

chapter 1: suffocation.

pairing: Hannibal Lecter/Reader (reader is not gendered, race-ambiguous, and no physical descriptors are used)

summary:

You wish you never met Hannibal Lecter. But you yearn for his presence. You want to forget him. But he never truly leaves your thoughts. Now, you’re left to pick up the pieces of a broken design. A battle of instinct rages on in your mind—one of bittersweet relief and cloying grief, fearless resolve and poignant regret; a clashing between affection and antipathy, pride and pain. What will win, in the end? Only time will tell.

this is act 2 of this broken design. if you haven't read that, this won't make too much sense.

ao3 version | Spotify playlist

warnings: canon-typical blood, violence, gore, mutilation, death, & animal death. the animal death is pretty detailed, so please don't read this fic if you're triggered by that kind of topic.

author's notes: This first chapter is a little bit of a mess imo, but I wanted to post it to assure you all that I don’t want to abandon this fic. It may take me longer to post and update chapters, especially since I graduated from uni (mwahahah) and my schedule may get busy. Still, I really enjoy writing this story—and you all seem to enjoy reading it. Both of those things are enough to keep me going.

Something extremely ironic happened around the time I was writing the last few chapters of Act 1. So… if you remember, in Chapter 6, Hannibal and the reader go on an opera date (of sorts). During that date, the reader remarks that they “don’t know the first thing about opera.” Those words were pretty much taken directly from my mouth. Fast forward to about mid-fall, I get a call for an interview for an internship. I end up doing the first interview, then a second interview… Then I get the internship. The irony? This internship is at an opera house. (What’s even more ironic is that I’m now getting to the point where I do actually know things about opera—I know different productions and directors and technical terms… It’s absolutely crazy. The universe is making me eat my words, lol.

To make matters even stranger, I was in the office for the internship one day and caught a glimpse of a television, which broadcasts what’s happening on the stage. Imagine my absolute surprise and fear when I look up at the television screen with absolutely no expectations and see a single man in a beige jumpsuit with something over his face standing on stage, his shadow silhouetted against the wall behind him. Imagine my surprise when I see that, not only is he standing in an enclosure with iron bars (just like the ones at Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane), but it also looks as if he is staring right at me—and he looks exactly like Hannibal Lecter in captivity. It was simultaneously scary as hell and weirdly reassuring. Anyway, I’ve taken these experiences as cosmic confirmation that I should continue writing this fic. Lol.

Anyway. Back to the important things… I’m planning to borrow elements from both Silence of the Lambs and Red Dragon, but, similarly to the first act, there will be canon divergence and canon non-compliance. Also, as you probably discerned in the past act, there is some plot armor. But, this is fiction.

Your life currently takes two forms: before the Chesapeake Ripper… and after.

Before the Ripper, the leaf-stained pavement of the Bureau filled you with hope. Walking through the agency’s halls was a testament to the hard work that brought you there. Each assignment was an invaluable opportunity to further develop your interrogation and combat skills. You went to classes, completed assignments, trained, slept, and repeated the cycle the next day. Over and over and over again. But you were happy.

Life doesn’t feel so simple anymore. You feel like you’ve been fading for a while now, slowly deteriorating as you invest more and more energy into catching criminals. Your work has morphed into an exhausting mutual exchange, one in which you take murderers’ freedom and they take your restful nights. You can’t remember the last time you rested unencumbered by the horrors you’ve seen in the field.

By some miracle, Jack manages to keep the press relatively uninformed about the happenings behind the Ripper case. Everyone is too absorbed with the fact that Hannibal’s in captivity to remember to ask just how he got there, and you’re very grateful for that lapse in memory. You can just imagine the interactions you’d have with paparazzi. Is it true that he stabbed you? Is it true that he purposefully left you alive, only to surrender in your front yard and torment you with the constant knowledge that he will remain in the same place, lying in wait until the moment you will inevitably need him? You shudder.

Even with all the chaos that comes from the Ripper case—the media coverage of Hannibal and the attention the FBI gets—life goes on. Back at the Bureau, you occasionally lecture the new recruits and you take on assignments along with the rest of the Behavioral Analysis Unit. Jack is still wont to call on you at the most ungodly of hours; Beverly still trades lighthearted taunts with you; Brian Zeller still seems to hate your guts, for reasons you’re not quite sure of; Alana and you are back to a steady friendship, albeit with occasional beats of unexplained tension and awkward silence.

Criminality continues to occur in the Ripper’s wake. You’re not surprised: the imprisonment of one criminal doesn’t beget the imprisonment of another. Even so, it’s difficult for you to proceed as if things are normal. You see traces of Hannibal in each of the monsters you apprehend. Your emotions are starting to eat you alive from the inside. You don’t have a therapist to assist you with those emotions anymore. And, while you think therapy would be helpful, you also know that there’s no way in hell you’d be able to actually be honest with a therapist without being imprisoned yourself. The things you’ve done and the urges you’ve felt… Neither is even close to a semblance of normality.

You take a deep breath. You have no issue stopping other criminals, sending them to empty white walls and thin mattresses. Why was Hannibal Lecter any different? You suppose you shouldn’t fool yourself—you know the answer to that question already: you got to know him. Beyond the mask of the Ripper, beyond the bloodied skin and cruel smile… You started to see him as a man, perhaps even a friend. Perhaps, even-

You tear yourself away from that thought process before it gets too far along. The semantics don’t matter now. All that matters is that you’re back in the field, back popping pills for your headaches and blinking fresh horrors from your eyes. All that matters is that the memory of Hannibal Lecter begins to fade away in the face of work— so much so that keeping busy helps you forget the pain.

Meanwhile, a hundred miles away, a veterinarian walks into a stable under a farmer’s guidance. The two stand over a dead horse and the veterinarian frowns. The farmer explains the horse’s death before stepping aside, letting the professional work.

The farmer quickly becomes lost in their thoughts. They hadn’t expected the horse to die in the middle of her pregnancy. The farmer swallows past the tightness in their throat and tears their eyes away from the horse. They were looking forward to the birth of the foal, looking forward to helping the mother raise her offspring. The stable air suddenly feels suffocating and they take a look at the veterinarian’s turned back before stepping outside to get some fresh air.

Moments later, the veterinarian rejoins them. The doctor’s lips are drawn in a tight line and there’s a troubled expression on their face. The farmer feels any remaining composure promptly seep out of them, as the veterinarian suggests they come back into the stable.

“It feels like there’s something here,” the veterinarian says, their expression conflicted. They touch the horse’s womb with a gloved hand and frown.

“She was pregnant,” the farmer chokes out, their throat feeling tight again. It hurts to utter the words aloud.

“With twins?” The veterinarian asks, turning around to look at them.

“No, just one baby,” the farmer shakes their head. Why would they ask about twins? Surely, they don’t feel another baby in the womb. The thought of two deaths is morbid and distressing enough, but three? The farmer inhales shakily.

“There’s… something else here.” The veterinarian remarks, their face contorting as they feel the horse’s womb once more. They turn back to look at the farmer for assistance. The farmer feels a horrible, inexplicable sense of foreboding crawling up their skin. Despite that feeling, they nod to the veterinarian. The doctor nods in response and turns to the horse’s womb, before making an incision.

The veterinarian unearths the dead foal and places it on the nearby hay with infinite gentleness. The farmer’s chest begins to hurt as they come to terms with the sight before them. Their pain doesn’t end there, however. The veterinarian continues slicing along the skin before stopping and glancing back at them inexplicably. It’s as if they’re waiting for permission to continue. The farmer appreciates the gesture and they nod in affirmation. This mystery needs to be put to rest.

The veterinarian inhales sharply, sending the farmer’s heart racing. The farmer prompts them to step aside, revealing the horse’s womb. There’s… something there. The farmer squints at it, a gasp ripping its way from their lips as they realize just what they’re looking at. A human corpse lies on the stable floor, a stark shock of muted crimson against the golden strands of hay. The farmer brings a shaking hand to their pocket and calls the police.

Unaware of these occurrences, you slowly exhale and pinch the bridge of your nose, feeling a headache coming on. You busy yourself with grading your students’ papers, and you don’t learn of the corpse until a few hours later, when the medicine begins to kick in and you’re foolishly convinced that you’ll be fine. Before you can leave for the day, Jack is walking up to you and beckoning you to the lab. The two of you grab Beverly along the way, which leaves the three of you to enter the laboratory that Price and Zeller are currently situated in. When you walk in, you’re immediately assaulted with the scent of formaldehyde. Price explains the situation behind the corpse, how a veterinarian found the body within the womb of a horse. The notion is strikingly similar to the other deaths by suffocation that have been eluding the BAU for several weeks. Jack seems to think the same thing, as he rattles off what he knows so far about the killer. You add things here and there—small things you can notice from the state of the corpse itself—before Price gets the group back on track.

“I called you here because…” Price trails off, frowning before readjusting his stethoscope and placing it on the victim’s chest once more. The room is deathly silent as he concentrates. “...There’s a heartbeat.”

“That doesn’t come with the onset of rigor mortis—we all know that,” Zeller continues, looking down at the corpse with a somewhat puzzled expression. He seems to sense you staring and looks up, his eyebrows furrowing as his gaze meets yours. “She’s dead.” He announces with complete certainty.

“She was found in the womb of the horse?” Beverly asks. Everyone else nods and she pauses for a moment. “Make an incision and check the chest cavity.” There’s an unshakeable certainty in her voice and it throws you off for a moment, before you realize what she’s getting at. It’s not unfathomable that something was buried within the victim’s chest cavity. Suffocation seems to be a common theme with this killer. Did they put some sort of dead animal in the corpse? The thought makes your stomach turn.

“Alright,” Price acquiesces, after glancing at Jack for approval. Crawford nods, evidently attributing value to Beverly’s suggestion. The four of you—Crawford, Beverly, Zeller, and you—watch as Price leans in and makes a careful incision in the chest. For several moments, there’s nothing but a tense silence in the air as Jimmy works. The quiet is broken a few seconds later when Price takes a sharp breath. “I saw something.”

“Keep going,” Jack demands, bringing Jimmy’s attention back to the task at hand. Price nods and makes the incision a little bigger. All of you are watching in anticipation, waiting for something you’re not quite sure will appear.

All of a sudden, there’s a flash of motion. A yellow blur flits about the cavity, before reaching upwards and extending its wings to fly out. You watch in disbelief as the bloodstained bird stretches its wings and flies about the lab, colliding with the sheen of the fluorescent lighting and sending shadows flickering along the floor.

Jack is the first one to respond. He quickly paces over to the small window located near the ceiling and opens it, allowing the bird an escape. For a few moments, the bird doesn’t seem to notice: it’s too overwhelmed with the sudden change in environment to comprehend that it has just been granted an escape. It has a chance at true freedom, but it’s too busy taking in the laboratory’s flimsy promises to notice. The bird eventually notices the open window and flies out of it, before Jack closes the laboratory off from the outside world once more.

The group begins discussing what just occurred, but your mind is elsewhere. You feel a strange sort of kinship with the bird: suffocated beneath rows of ribs and walls of tissue and skin; banished to the space between; too taken with the small allowances to notice freedom within reach. You pinch the bridge of your nose. Your headache is returning, as pressure builds up in your temples and constricts your very skin. It’s significantly harder to breathe. Every time you blink, you’re greeted with the memory of that bright yellow bird bursting from its confines, greeting the stale laboratory air with beating wings. You step outside the lab to get some fresh air, trading your smaller prison for a bigger one—just as the bird did mere moments ago.

It doesn’t take long for Jack to find you. After all, you’re not hidden—you’re simply leaning against the wall in the hallway that leads to the laboratory. Jack strides up to you, his hands in his pockets and that familiar tight line drawn across his face. You suspect he’ll get wrinkles a lot sooner than everyone else his age—sheerly because of all the responsibility he holds and the pressure he’s forced to perform under. It must be exhausting to be the one calling the shots in these horrible situations. You had always assumed Jack had the easy job, but looking at him now, you think that assumption must be incorrect. He is suffering, just as you are. Perhaps… Jack has just grown better at hiding it.

The thought makes Jack’s remark slip in one ear and right out the other. You ask him to repeat himself and he sighs. “We need to go to the stable where the corpse was found. There are several police officers there already, but…” But we need to do a more thorough investigation , he doesn’t say. You hear him anyway and nod. Jack walks past you and paces purposefully down the hall, not even bothering to look and see if you’re following him. Perhaps he already knows you will follow him.

What follows is an awkward car ride. Neither of the two of you attempt to break the tense silence, leaving a suffocating air of uncertainty and indecision. You don’t know what to say to Jack, so you instead busy yourself with looking out the window. You resolutely pretend not to notice your boss’s gaze repeatedly flitting over to you and, after a painful amount of time, Jack is driving up the gravel path that leads to a modest farmhouse and a beautiful wooden stable.

The place is already crawling with police officers and FBI agents. Unfortunately, the police were the first ones to be informed of the case, which means the FBI is forced to share jurisdiction with them. You know Jack isn’t too happy about that, especially once you see the frown on his face as he watches the police officers clumsily investigate. They don’t have the right training for a situation like this and Jack is delighted to inform them of that fact—albeit with much more sugar coated wording than you would have utilized. A few minutes later, the cops are gone, leaving Jack, you, and the set of agents that Jack requested to follow after your car on the drive over. The other agents are quick to secure the crime scene, while Jack and you decide to explore the premises a little first.

The property features a small, rather unremarkable house with slightly dirty bricks and a well-loved bench swing on the porch. The front door is agape, revealing hardwood flooring and items strewn about. Jack and you exchange a glance before walking into the home. You don’t see any sign of life until you reach the kitchen and come across an older woman sitting at the table, stirring a cup of tea. You’re quick to show your badge and explain the situation to her. She doesn’t seem to have a great idea of what’s going on, so you eventually decide to leave her be and keep looking about the property.

Next to the house is a rather large stable, complete with several different stalls and a wide variety of tools. You have no idea what half of the tools could possibly be used for, but the majority of them look as if they’ve been used at least once. There are bales of hay in the corner of the room and various accessories hanging near the post of each horse’s stall. There are only a few horses in the stable—you think you could’ve seen a few in the pastures out back earlier. There’s a horrible stench pervading the air, and it’s not the typical odor that comes from a farm. It’s the smell of death. You look at Jack and he nods, inclining his head and gesturing for you to continue exploring the stable. It isn’t until you reach the last stall—one that is inexplicably larger than the rest—that you find the source of the stench. The rotted corpse of the horse rests at the back of the stall, the womb flayed open. The organs have been removed, but the smell of decay remains. Surprisingly enough, you’re not alone in this stall. A brown-haired man sits cross-legged on the floor next to the horse, a blank expression on his face.

“...Hello?” You decide to try. There’s no response. “Excuse me?” Still no response.

You glance at Jack and he raises his eyebrows, before turning to the stranger. “You must be Peter Bernardone,” Jack remarks. The mention of the man’s name seems to be enough to get his attention. On second thought, you remember Jack offhandedly mentioning that there may be a stablehand on site. It seems you’ve found him.

“That’s me,” the man replies flatly, staring ahead with glassy eyes. He looks as if he’s on an entirely different plane of existence, as he looks at the wall ahead of him with enough intensity to melt it.

“Jack Crawford, FBI,” Jack answers with an introduction of his own. He flashes his badge for a moment before putting it away. You can’t tell if Peter is even paying attention, but you do the same to make him more comfortable. “We’re just here to ask you some questions.”

“I want to talk,” Peter murmurs quietly, just barely loud enough to be heard. He pulls his knees up to his chest; his eyes haven’t strayed from the corpse of the animal in front of him. You feel your chest constrict a little at the sight.

“Good,” Jack responds with a nod.

“...To you,” Peter finishes with a gesture. To your complete surprise, he doesn’t point at Jack—he’s pointing at you. Jack blinks in equal surprise, looking at you for answers. You send him a helpless look. At first, you’re not sure why you seem more trustworthy than Jack. Then you remember Jack’s position and the intimidating aura he tends to give off. You think you’d want to talk to someone like yourself too, were you in Peter’s situation.

“Alright,” you agree. You don’t see the harm in having a conversation. You need information and, more importantly, answers. Jack stares at you for a long few seconds, before exhaling in evident exasperation.

“I’ll be outside,” Jack promises, before walking away. You wait until Jack is out of sight before you take a step closer to Peter, placing your hands in your pockets.

“What do you do here, Peter?” You hear yourself ask. Your voice sounds foreign to your ears.

“I volunteer here,” Peter responds, still facing the corpse. His voice sounds hollow, empty. “Sometimes.”

“Did you… know this horse?” You ask hesitantly, looking down at the corpse.

“Yes,” Peter answers without hesitation. There’s a hint of emotion in his voice now.

“Ridden her before?”

“I don’t ride the horses,” Peter replies, “I just like to brush them.”

“Okay,” you acknowledge. You begin pacing around the stall in an attempt to calm your restless nerves. “Peter, were you here on the day that the veterinarian visited?” Jack had briefed you on the circumstances of the horse’s death, how a veterinarian had been called to investigate before the corpse was found in the womb.

“I don’t remember a veterinarian,” he stares ahead with a frown.

“That’s fine,” you answer. He may not have been there that day. “The veterinarian was the one who cut open the womb and found the corpse… Did you know this horse was pregnant?”

At that question, Peter turns around and stares at you. His hollow gaze is enough to send a shiver down your spine. For a moment, he just stares at you, before huffing in amusement. “Obviously.”

“Obviously,” you echo. You suppose that was a rather dumb question on your part. “Were you… sad about the foal?”

“Of course,” Peter huffs again. “Why do you think I’m sitting here?” This discussion isn’t getting you very far.

“Fine,” you acquiesce. You take a deep breath. “This doesn’t seem to be getting anywhere. I’m going to give you my extension, and if you ever feel like talking about what happened, you can call me, okay?” Thankfully, you know for certain that Peter isn’t the killer—the psychological profile you built on this murderer tells you that much. Jack clearly doesn’t think Peter is the killer either, and those two facts are enough for you to rule him out as a suspect. However, you’re still contemplating the possibility of him tampering with the crime scene.

Peter clears his throat pointedly and you remember what you were supposed to be doing. You grab a notepad from your jacket pocket and quickly scrawl down the Behavioral Analysis Unit’s phone number, followed by the extension to your office phone. You take a step closer and hold it out to Peter. For a fraction of a moment, you think he won’t take it. Just before you can pull your hand back, he takes the paper and slips it into his pocket.

You turn on your heel and take a step towards the door of the stall, fully intent on leaving, when the door falls open of its own accord. Jack Crawford stands in the doorway, staring at you.

“Good, Agent,” Jack remarks. This must be important. “We have a lead,” he says vaguely, his eyes falling to Peter. You can’t discuss confidential information here—the details will have to wait until you’re both in the car.

“Excellent,” you remark in relief. “I’ll meet you at the car?” You can sense that Peter’s attention is piqued. Maybe you can still get something out of him. Jack nods and walks away once more. You then turn to Peter, who has turned his body away from the horse to face you. Somehow, he’s intrigued now. Something has caught his eye. “Sorry, Peter,” you apologize, taking a step backwards and emphasizing that you’re a moment away from leaving, “I have to go.”

“What is it?” Peter asks, “Did you find him?”

“It’s classified, I’m sorry,” you respond, ignoring the inexplicable sound of alarm bells blaring in your head. Peter isn’t the killer. “But we’re tracking down this killer. I promise he’ll be put away.”

“You promise?” Peter asks, a dangerous conviction in his eyes.

“Yes,” you respond without hesitation. You don’t have the authority to make that kind of promise, but you do anyway. The sincerity in your expression must convince Peter, because he takes a slow breath and the tension seems to fade from his form. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, Peter. It was nice to meet you.” Peter says the same and you turn to leave the stable.

“Price and Zeller found soil in the corpse’s throat,” Jack recounts to you as he drives along the highway, moving at a comfortable speed. His eyes are fixed on the road, but he recalls his conversation with Price with perfect consistency. “We traced it to a burial site about thirty minutes from here.”

“Great,” you remark, relief coursing through you. To your surprise, Jack doesn’t respond. Instead, he simply nods ever so slightly and continues staring ahead. Now, it seems as if he’s avoiding something. “What is it?” You ask. Something seems off about him.

“You may want to brace yourself,” Jack warns vaguely.

“Why?” You hear yourself question. Jack doesn’t answer, and he’s quiet for the rest of the car ride. When the two of you pull up to the supposed burial site, you’re filled with trepidation. This job always comes with the knowledge that blood and gore could be waiting at every corner. That’s the normal day for an agent. So… why does Jack feel the need to warn you? You grapple with the prospect as the two of you leave the car and join the group of agents circled around something.

It isn’t until you get closer that you recognize the familiar stench of rotting death. Sure enough, the group of agents is clustered around a hole in the ground—one that houses a woman’s corpse. You stare at the marks around her neck, the dirt caked under her nails and staining her fingertips. She was on the brink of death when she was buried. She was trying to escape. You stare down at the body for another moment, searching for any more abnormalities, before taking a step back to let the other agents resume their investigation. You exchange glances with Jack.

“She’s not the only one,” Jack says. You stare at the field around you—the grassy, open expanse. It seems to stretch on for miles now. You feel your heart steadily thudding in your chest, at a rate slightly faster than normal. Your head begins to ache.

“How many of them are there?” You murmur. The question is quiet, as you practically whisper it against the wind. For a moment, you think Jack doesn’t hear it. You then realize that he has comprehended it, but is simply declining to answer. Indeed, your boss stares out at the field with a conflicted expression. “Jack?”

“Sixteen,” Jack responds, turning his attention back to you. You feel something in your stomach twist and pull.

“That can’t be right,” you remark. It sounds as if the wind is picking up. It takes you several seconds to realize the sound is being conjured by your own mind, and that the air is damp and still around you. You swallow hard and take another look around at the field, suddenly understanding why the agents are now evenly dispersed across the space. They all have shovels and each sound of metal hitting dirt is enough to send a bolt of pain down your temple and through your cheekbones. Your teeth hurt as you watch the unearthing of sixteen different victims. They’re uniformly dispersed across the field. This is no happy accident—the killer meticulously planned for their graves to be close (but not too close). The thought brings a burning feeling to your throat and you feel your knees suddenly buckle. You place a hand on the ground, feeling the familiar horrible feeling of nausea climbing past your throat until you’re vomiting on the killer’s ground. It takes you a few minutes to stop, and even longer for you to fully recover. Your eyes sting and you can’t tell if you’re going to cry or pass out. There’s an overwhelming clarity in your vision and a rhythmic pounding at your temple.

This graveyard is a gruesome display, even to someone who has spent their entire career surrounded by carnage. You’ve seen your fair share of murder victims. You’ve never seen sixteen of them lined up in two neat rows of eight, buried in a nondescript field under layers of muddy soil. Moreover, you can sense the killer’s feelings—and it makes you sick. This was not a gesture born out of respect for the victims. The murderer did not dig up these graves to give these women a final resting place; he buried them to trap them, so that even in death, they would never truly be free. Their existences would be tied to him forever. They would never be allowed to breathe again. It’s nothing short of sickening. There’s nausea stewing in your stomach again, revulsion prickling across your skin, and sweat trickling down your neck.

You can’t seem to push yourself up to your feet. You’re grounded to the damp soil, to the wrong side of the earth. What deems you worthy of living? What deemed these women worthy of dying? Your hands are twitching at your sides. A deep breath causes your chest to hitch and you nearly vomit again. You look down on your body as you claw at the grass and tear it up, shakily pulling at the dirt and plants and grass and rot and death and injustice and horrible, terrible guilt and indescribable anger and vengeance -

There’s a hand on your shoulder. You instinctually tense, your movements beginning to slow. It feels as if you’re suddenly catapulted back into your body, forced to inhabit the itchy, dirt-stained skin and the endless remorse that wants to eat you alive from the inside.

“They’re dead; there is nothing left for them here,” Jack says. It’s his strange way of comforting you. It sort of works. After a moment, he takes a step forward and extends a hand to you. You take it, allowing him to pull you up. Jack seems to be fighting against the urge to say or do something, because his eyebrows are furrowed and his lips are pulled taut in a thin line. There’s dirt all over you, yet you are still privileged with life.

You don’t remember how you get back to the Bureau. All you remember is staring blankly ahead as you’re half-led through the halls by Jack himself, his hand on your shoulder providing equal support and increased pressure. All you remember is the worry on Alana’s face as you walk past, the way she gets up from her desk and walks over to you, how she leads you towards the far restroom with a gentle hand. It ends up being the same restroom where Zeller accused you of killing Franklyn. The memory of that encounter is far fresher than you want it to be.

Alana leads you to a sink and guides your hands towards the water.

“Allow me,” she remarks, turning on the sink. She steps away for a moment and you stare at the water dripping from the faucet. Alana returns moments later with a washcloth. She pumps some soap on your hands and helps you wash them clean. Your head aches. You don’t know what to think, what to say. All you can think about is the graveyard. It haunts your vision every time you blink, forcing you to think of suffocating under piles of dirt and debris. You inhale sharply, gasping. Regaining your breath is a chore. “I’m worried about you,” Alana soon admits. You hate that her concern makes you feel appreciated. Your relationship with Alana ended years ago. You don’t want to be hers again, but this very moment reminds you of the intimacy you no longer get to see.

“You shouldn’t be,” you remark. Alana laughs under her breath. You both know that’s not how it works. Emotions don’t bend to logic.

“What did you see?” Her hand on your forearm keeps you tethered to reality. You shake your head, unable to begin describing the scene that will most certainly haunt your nightmares. The two of you are silent for the remainder of your time together under the flickering fluorescent lights, as you try to come to terms with the terrible regret, revulsion, and rage threatening to spill over your frame and inhabit your every waking moment.

next chapter

endnotes: thanks for reading! i'm very excited to continue this story, mwahhahahha

here's a lil sneak peek for the next chapter: “Peter,” Clark practically coos. You hate him, more than you’ve ever hated anyone before. He is a bundle of contradictions: a fine-dressed man with a fine-dressed smile and fine-dressed lies and cruelty and violence and- “Why don’t you tell me what happened?”

hannibal taglist <3: @its-ares @tobbotobbs @xrisdoesntexist @gr1mmac3 @tiredstarcerberuslamb @yourlocalratwriter @kahuunknown @atlas-king1 @pendragon-writes @slipknotcentury @cryinersaved @the-ultimate-librarian @starre-eyes @pendragon-writes @peterparkeeperer @gayschlatt69

#Hannibal Lecter x reader #hannibal nbc #hannibal x reader #Hannibal Lecter x male reader #Hannibal Lecter x gn reader #transmasc reader #male reader #gn reader #hannibal x gn reader #hannibal x male reader #gotta cover all the bases

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vibrantbirdy · 1 year

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hi! i was hoping i could request a poe dameron x reader where he has a huge crush on the reader who works a small part of the resistance but he keeps making a fool of himself in front of them but the reader finds him cute anyways. thank u!!

Yes anon, thank you! This is such a cute request. I hope I've done it justice.

Requests for Character x Reader fics are currently open in my Asks. Please read the guidelines first before requesting.

-Birdy

Title: Crush Fandom: Star Wars: Skywalker Saga Genres: Sci-Fi; Romance; Fluff Setting: Sometime later on in the Force Awakens Characters: Poe Dameron; Reader Pairings: Poe Dameron x Reader Chapters: 1/1 (Complete) Warnings: None :) Perhaps extremely mild, fluffy, sexuality Word Count: 2805

Summary: You work for the Resistance at the Base on D'Qar. Wing Commander Poe Dameron has a crush on you and he's surprisingly awkward about it...

It's late, and you are walking the empty corridors of the Resistance Base on D'Qar. You like the base at this time of night. It's peaceful and your long trips between the various offices and briefing rooms and your own place of work, the records room, give you time to think.

You're making your final trip back to the records room for the night. In your hands is a box full of data sticks and holo chips. Every time there's a skirmish, a raid, or an offensive to plot against the First Order, Resistance Officers descend upon the archive, stripping it like locusts. They are looking for information, knowledge, maps, schematics anything that might help them understand the weaponry, tech, locations and terrain they might be up against.

You have tried to explain that if they really have to take records out of the records room, they really do need to bring them back. If this information gets lost, so too does the history of the Republic, the Resistance, the First Order and its Imperial predecessor, the Galactic Empire. No one listens. You don't mind that much. It is wartime after all.

So you spend your nights too-ing and fro-ing until you've gathered up all the records left abandoned in consoles and holo readers and on the tops of desks. You really have had to burn the candle at both ends recently and you think you know why. There are whispers spreading through the base that General Organa will soon need to launch an attack on the First Order's monstrous weapon on Starkiller base.

You take pride in what you do. It's not flying an X-Wing, but it's important.

Someone who does fly an X-Wing - and does it very well - is Wing Commander, Poe Dameron. But right now, he's scrabbling about on the floor with you, trying to salvage the precious hoard of information that went flying in a shower of little plastic bits when his droid barrelled into you from the opposite direction and sent the box flying from your hands.

"BB-8!" he exclaims, bending down to scoop up handfuls of data chips and throw them in the box he has righted for you, "C'mon buddy, how many times have I told you to watch where you're rolling!"

The little round ball of orange and white metal chitters indignantly. From your sitting position on the floor, you pause in your work to reach over and give BB-8 a reassuring pat on his semi-spherical head. The droid vibrates and makes a docile purring sound. You can't help the small laugh that escapes you. You've always thought he was the cutest little astromech around.

When you raise your eyes, Dameron is staring at you, slightly open mouthed. You're seen him around the base plenty of times, but this is the first time you've really looked at him up close. His handsome face is framed by a crop of brown curls and adorned with deep set eyes that are so dark they are almost black. Still, they sparkle like a night full of stars.

Wordlessly, Dameron reaches out a free hand to you and you take it as he pulls you back onto your feet. You pick up the box and he funnels the last of the data sticks balanced precariously in the crook of his elbow into the receptacle.

"So, how come I've not seen you around before?" He asks.

"Oh, I've been here," you laugh, "I think you've probably just been too busy to notice."

"Yeah, I'm busy, not blind..." he mutters, more to himself than to you, "Uh, I mean..."

He looks awkward and you cut him off to introduce yourself and save him from his unease. Still, you feel a pleasant blush creep into your cheeks at both his insinuation and the fact that appears to be slightly flustered in your presence.

"Poe," he responds, confidence returning with a dazzling smile that you are certain must get him into trouble.

"I know," you reply, allowing yourself to give him a cheeky smirk of your own.

"Do you always walk around the base this late at night?"

"Yes," you say simply, then, after a pause, you throw the question back at him, "Do you?"

"No," he chuckles wearily and rubs the back of his neck, "Couldn't sleep."

He does look tired. Upon closer inspection, there are dark circles under his eyes and a five o'clock shadow sits upon his well-defined jaw and creeps up towards his sharp cheekbones. There have been a lot of skirmishes with the First Order lately and a lot of good pilots have been lost, pilots under Dameron's command. You feel a flash of deep sympathy for him. You don't envy the responsibility he bears and it is clearly weighing heavy on him tonight.

"Well. Goodnight, Commander," you say after a lingering but not uncomfortable pause.

You hope he'll maybe get some rest tonight at least.

He nods at you and smiles softly.

"Goodnight."

BB-8 cheeps a farewell.

************************************************

In all the time you've been on D'Qar. You've never once seen Poe Dameron, ace pilot, in the records room. Yet here he is at your desk with BB-8 in tow.

"Hello Commander, what can I help you with today?"

"I..."

Poe draws the syllable out as he leans forward conspiratorially across the desk. He raps his knuckles on its cheap plast-cast surface. He's stalling for time. He's here to see you, you realise, and it sends a giddy little thrill through your body.

"...am here for some records," he finally says and you can tell he instantly regrets it.

He attempts to give you his trademark winning smile but it's really more of an embarrassed grimace. He looks away from you with a imperceptible shake of his head that sends a few of his rich, chocolate curls spilling across his forehead. He runs his hands through his hair, sweeping the dark tendrils back off his face.

You can see that he thinks he looks stupid. He's clearly not used to it, and you want to say something to make him feel better. You think it's sweet that he's come to see you.

Was he just passing, you wonder? Or did he plan it?

You never get the chance to ask. The sudden din of the pilot scramble alert swallows any potential words you might say whole. It is accompanied, as always, by the emergency lighting system which sets off flashing red pulses throughout the entire base.

Poe Dameron doesn't move. He's studying you intently with those endless eyes that are paradoxically both dark and luminescent.

"Uh. Commander?" You point upward to the nearest emergency light which is flashing just above your head.

Slowly, as if reluctant to tear himself away, his gaze leaves your face and follows your finger up to the ceiling.

"Right," he says, then starts and looks around wildly as if he is only just hearing the blaring alarm for the first time. "Right!"

He turns and sprints away from your desk at an alarming pace, BB-8 whizzing after him. He spins clumsily halfway down the room, momentum almost sending him barrelling into a row of desks where readers can, usually, study in relative peace and quiet. A haughty looking admin officer seated nearby rolls his eyes.

"I'll be back for those records!" Poe shouts back at you, as if it's the most important promise he's ever made.

It makes you laugh, and you hope to the Force he has the opportunity to do so as he and BB-8 disappear round the corner to prepare to take to the skies into some awful fray.

"Saved by the bell, huh?"

You jump, startled out of your reverie, and turn to see your colleague Marjane who has sidled up beside you. She's a gregarious, older lady with big heart and a preference for men half her age.

"That young man has never been awkward around a woman a day in his life," she says sagely, pointing to the spot where Poe had stood moments ago as if the outline of him were still tangible, "What spell did you use and can I have it?"

You grin and hold your hands up defensively.

"He's got a crush on you," she winks slyly and walks back to her desk.

**********************************************

The next time you see Poe Dameron it's milliseconds before he crashes into you at speed in the same corridor, on the same corner where BB-8 sent you sprawling only a few weeks earlier.

You've smacked your forehead right off his sharp, chiselled cheek bone and the two of you are are nursing your wounds either side of the corridor. You are resting your sore head against the nearest cool durasteel wall, and he is leaning his back against the opposite one, holding a palm to his face which is stricken with a comical expression of surprise.

BB-8, perhaps the most compassionate droid you've even known, rolls back and forth between you both, as if unsure of who needs the most of his sympathy.

When you finally feel like you can open your eyes again without seeing stars, you turn away from the wall and find that Poe has moved to stand directly in front of you. He's wearing a white tank top and lightweight cargo pants and he has clearly been running. His broad shoulders rise and fall from his interrupted physical exertion.

A lot of the pilots keep fit by jogging through the endless maze of corridors within the labyrinthine base during the heavy torrents of rain that occasionally lash the otherwise temperate D'Qar.

"Are you ok?" he asks, concerned, and he cups your face gently in his hands with exhilarating forwardness to examine the red mark that is blossoming on your forehead.

It's a surprisingly intimate gesture. You wonder if he can feel the heat growing in your cheeks, but his hands are already warm from exercise. You can feel the course pads of his finger tips exerting a reassuring pressure against your skin.

"Force, what a shiner, I didn't know my head was that hard!"

"You've got a good one coming in too," you say, snaking your hand up between the two of you to carefully press a finger against the clear point of impact on his cheek.

"Ow!" he breaks away dramatically and you both laugh. "I'm not sure we can blame the droid this time," you say.

BB-8 chirps and wobbles cheerfully on the floor.

"No, this one's on me. I mean you too, I guess. It takes two to uh...you know..."

"Collide in a corridor?"

"Yeah, that."

There's a stilted silence and you hope he might say something more, like, wanna hang out sometime? or I know this great place to watch the stars or let's go for a joyride in my X-Wing... but he doesn't.

"Well, I better ..." he makes a little jogging motion with his arms, "Sorry about the whole running and the crashing and the headache thing."

You smile, and try to hide the little twang of disappointment you feel.

"Of course," you say, "Good evening, Commander."

He taps two fingers off his forehead in a mock salute before jogging past you in the opposite direction from your way of travel.

BB-8 doesn't follow immediately, sitting at your feet for moment longer. You look down to see his dark, glassy photoreceptor fixed on you. You shrug at him and he gives you a consolatory whirring sound before rolling off to catch up with his master.

*************************************************

It's Poe's birthday and General Organa has given everyone strict orders to have a good time. The Resistance leadership are having to launch so many sorties against the First Order lately that she's had to place a complete ban on alcohol consumption lest the pilots have to enact an emergency scramble. This doesn't appear to have dampened the mood one iota and as you enter the hanger, the party is in full swing.

The whole base has turned out, as you'd expected. The hanger is packed with people chatting and dancing. Some of the engineers have obviously been hard at work wiring up whatever miscellaneous light sources they could find to hang rustic makeshift fairy lights from the durasteel beams and support columns. The upbeat music pulses through ancient, crackling speakers and is joined melodiously with people singing and raucous bursts of laughter.

It's a glorious feeling. Wartime hasn't been easy. You all need this.

Before you can even get yourself a drink or find your friends, someone takes your hand and leads you into the crowd of dancers. Your heart skips a beat as you realise it's Poe. He's a good dancer in that way some men are - all bent knees and elbows, but somehow able to make it rhythmical. You are grinning at each other like idiots, mirroring your energies, lost in the music.

Finally, you think.

Then, without warning, somebody jostles past you and grabs Poe around the waist. Then someone else comes. And another. And another. You soon realise it's members of his fighter squadron as they cart him away from you through the hangar and outside onto the landing grounds.

You laugh as you are swept along in the stampede of excitement that follows. Of course, you remember. It's tradition amongst the flyers to soak the birthday boy or girl with the emergency fire hoses.

Finn, the ex-Stormtrooper who has recently joined the Resistance, has the courtesy to give you an apologetic smile as he races past you to join in on the action. As a close friend of Poe, you have a suspicion that he is probably more aware than the others of the moment they have just interrupted. You don't mind. Not really.

Once outside underneath D'Qar's clear night's sky, Poe barely has the chance to ready himself when four powerful jets of water are turned on him. He jumps this way and that in a futile attempt to avoid the deluge. Any time it looks like he might escape, someone grabs him and spins him around so that he redirected back to his watery fate. He is wet through in seconds.

The gigantic, gruff but beloved Second Engineer, Toko, notices BB-8 by his feet and he picks up the little droid who screeches in alarm. Poe shouts over the noise, pointing at the big man with one hand as he skips around, trying to deflect a myriad of water blasts to his face and body.

"Not my droid! NOT MY DROID!"

Everyone laughs. The Engineer, only teasing, sets the wriggling mechanical ball down gently and gives him a pat on the head.

Finally, the hoses are turned off and Poe's squad rush towards him cheering and shouting. He shakes himself violently and flicks his dripping hands over his nearest assailants. His flyers drag him to the ground and they all collapse on top of him in a soggy, giddy heap.

*************************************************

There has been a skirmish with the First Order and the atmosphere on the base has been tense all day. The sun is setting on D'Qar and finally, finally, the fighter squadrons are retuning.

You count the X-Wings as they land, your heart racing. They're all here, you realise. Every single one of them has come back. It's so rare these days.

Your friend, Maya, claps you on the shoulder as she speeds past to greet her twin sister, Selina, the two young women colliding into a rough embrace as the latter leaps out of her X-Wing.

You are overcome with emotion and you clasp your hands over your mouth and fold in the middle. With a disbelieving laugh you put your hands on your knees and push yourself upright slowly.

Then, you are looking for him. For Poe. Your eyes scan the hanger and the landing pads beyond, a sea of orange flight suits. There. In the midst of the joyous commotion, there he is. He's checking on his flyers, slapping them on their backs, giving and receiving hugs, grasping arms tightly with comrades in relief and celebration.

As if he senses that you are looking for him, he locks eyes with you across the hanger. With a purposeful gait, he strides over until he's so close you can feel the victorious energy vibrating off his body.

He surveys your face intently with those deep pools of midnight, flicking his gaze between your lips and your eyes. He's trying to suppress a smirk, a muscle working in his cheek.

"I think I'd like to see you more often," he finally says.

It comes out funny, almost like an order, but it's the most direct he's ever been. Without hesitation, you grab him by the lapels of his orange flight suit and pull him into a deep kiss.

Fuelled by adrenaline and the heady jubilation of the moment, Poe drops his helmet, and without breaking your embrace, he circles one hand around your waist, and uses the other to support the nape of your neck. Then, he dips you almost parallel to the ground as you kiss like a scene from a romance holo.

A ripple of cheers and good natured laughter passes around the hanger as Poe sets you, breathless, back on your feet.

A dashing grin spreads wide across his handsome face.

"I'd like that too," you say as you lean in for another long awaited kiss.

#star wars fanfiction #poe dameron x reader #poe dameron x female reader #poe dameron fanfiction #poe dameron fanfic

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litnerdwrites · 1 month

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It's interesting how Nesta had to apologise for something she wasn't even in the wrong of doing while Rhys, who overreacted by threatening to kill her (for a mistake he made) and chasing her out of the city, did not have to. Especially, after it was canonically established by Feyre herself that he did not have the right to do that..

And for someone who claims to write about badass female mcs who crush patriarchy and choose the course of their own lives, shouldn't an apology scene for something in which a female's right to information on her own body was undermined be a fundamental part of the book?

I mean, she could add a bonus chapter about the characters in question fucking to make babies but had to keep the apology off-page? Weird.

The only somewhat sufferable part of the book was the scenes with the Valkyries and the smut (if you ignore the poor timing).

I don't know if it's my eldest daughter syndrome acting up but I feel strongly about this.

I agree completely. I won't deny that Nesta has some things to apologies for, but so does Rhysand, and Feyre and Mor. I'd even argue that the things the IC put her through negate the need for her to apologies, or at least makes it a little less urgent/important than the apologies she's owed. This is mostly due to the fact that Nesta's so-called crimes amount to a bad attitude (most on page examples of which are pretty understandable to me), and issues she had with Feyre in childhood. Meanwhile, the IC's actions are immature and ignorant at best, and extremely abusive at worst.

Honestly, I don't think any of them, much less Rhysand, see what they did as a mistake. If any of them did, they wouldn't have made her walk through those woods. Feyre would've demanded Nesta be brought back otherwise, but she didn't.

As for Rhysand, honestly the part where he hugged Nesta gave me ick. Especially when Nesta said he'd been acting like a brother the whole time because he hadn't. He abused her. He broke her down. He only showed any semblance of decency (even then it wasn't much) when she did something to benefit him.

Offering pity jobs for somebody else's sake without taking into account Nesta's strengths or passions into account isn't what a brother, or anybody who cares for her, would do. Staring at her like a circus attraction when she enters the room isn't something a brother would do. Forcing her to social events just to ignore her isn't something a brother would do. Financially abusing her, refusing to give her a salary for her work during the war, along with her inheritance, is not something a brother would do. Not caring for her wellbeing beyond how her sister feel's is not something a brother could do. I could go on.

I think, at the end of the day, this amounts to a simple fact. SJM clearly doesn't see anything wrong with the things she writes and narrative she creates. No matter how you argue that ACOSF is a healing story, not a redemption story, it doesn't matter. Through analysing the sext, the author clearly shows how she feels about Nesta. Looking at what she says about the book, the author clearly has little understanding of mental health, and hasn't done enough research on it to be able to write a healing arc that isn't straight up abuse/torture (seriously, the bar is in the crust of the earth).

ACOSF could've been the best book in the series. All of the material, the concepts, the potential was there. Nesta's story was set up in ACOFS, and perhaps I wouldn't have minded the actions of the IC as much (from a literary perspective anyway) if they had been acknowledged as wrong and the IC apologised. I don't think anyone would've minded the locked in the HOW plot either, if, at some point, the characters acknowledge how abusive it was. If the narrative itself acknowledged how messed up it was, and did something about it.

If Cassian apologised for abandoning her after the war, Cassian especially. If Feyre apologised for not trying to reach out in a way that Nesta was comfortable with. If Elain apologised for not being there for Nesta the way Nesta was for her. If Mor apologised for, intentionally or not, isolating Nesta from the rest of the court. If Amren apologised for her comments. If Rhys apologised for sticking his nose where it didn't belong.

Rhys apologising for the hike, or threatening to kill her would mean nothing because both he and the narrative don't see anything wrong with his treatment of her. If he did, then the forced training/library/stuck in the how part would've ended half way through the book.

The part that infuriates me the most, however, is that they don't see their wrong doings at all. They still think they're doing the right thing and that they know everything. It's messed up.

#anti acosf #anti ic #anti inner circle #nesta deserves better #anti amren #anti mor #anti rhysand #pro nesta archeron #pro nesta

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grandpuppyalpaca · 17 days

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I Want To Actually Write Some Fics

So, I'm finally moving to a dorm away from "home" in a few months, and I want to take the opportunity to finally start writing some of the fanfics that have been calibrating in the back of my mind.

Warnings in advance:

I will only be writing fanfic, not original works.

I have never shared or published fics before (Unless you count reading the occasional snippet in Creating Writing Club).

As of right now, I have no beta(s).

Don't know my college schedule/workload yet, so no ideas about how often I could post/update at the moment.

I likely won't be able to post anything until I have access to a computer at the college (presumably in August, sorry about that), because the closest thing I have to an unmonitored/unrestricted device at "home" is my outdated Kindle Fire tablet (where the secondary browser I downloaded to hide reading fics sometimes likes to crash every few minutes).

If you've read past all of that and are still interested in my possible future writings, here are the possible options for what I could actually post:

Azure Fingerprints: Title of a possible series based off of this idea (batman and megamind crossover). > (Time travelers have realized that Bruce Wayne will always, without exception, base his crimefighting persona on the first thing... – @grandpuppyalpaca on Tumblr)

Featuring (so far): a delayed start to "Batman's" career, SuperBat friendship, Bruce's poor social skills, the not-yet-"Batcave" getting turned into a babyproofed nursery, and lots of fluff and crack and FEELINGS. Not sure if other parts of the series would be other longfics in that world, or just little snippets of stuff.

2. Anna Elizabeth Wayne (Actual Title TBD): My take on an Annabeth is Bruce Wayne's daughter fic.

Featuring (so far): Show!Annabeth (Leah Jeffries is phenomenal), Reverse Batkids AU (with a twist or so), an Athena characterization based on Circe by Madeline Miller, GoodDad!Bruce, multiverse stuff (only a little at the moment), Siblings Bonding Over Weird Childhoods, and So Much ANGST. This one is reallllly complicated, so it might be a series just so I can include one of those "explanation of the writer's AU" pages. Not as much of a plot as it is ANGST, small ideas for individual scenes, and general vibes right now.

3. The Adventures Of Lulu And Hatchling: probably the title of first fic (probably backstory stuff) in what would likely be a series. Crossover between ACOTAR universe and PJO/HOO (I am NOT ACTUALLY merging the two worlds). Basic background is that Annabeth's mortal family are the descendants of an illegitimate child from a kept mistress of Tamlin's father, and Annabeth is the first person to have powers from their bloodline. Baby Annabeth gets sent to grow up with Tamlin (Watsonian reasons would be explained in-story), but Lucien unofficially becomes her main caretaker. She spends seven years in the Spring court (pre-Amarantha even coming to Prythian), then is returned home in time for all PJO relevant events to occur. This would NOT be a Complete Re-Write Of PJO Canon.

Featuring (so far): Multiverse stuff, Annabeth w/fae powers, Book!Annabeth description so she can look like Tamlin (Leah Jeffries is still phenomenal, fight me), Lucien's gradually increasing blood pressure, Found Family Fluff, Lucien being a good father/uncle/older brother figure, Tamlin not being a complete alphahole in the beginning, Eventual Tamlin Bashing anyway, Ianthe Bashing (once she joins the story).

Definite intentions for later parts of the story: Powerful!Annabeth High Lady!Annabeth, Consort!Percy (he refuses to become High Lord, especially when he can just vibe and technically hold the official title of Least Politically Important Person At This Meeting), Tamlin's manor getting abandoned and Annabeth employing people to help build a new one that she designs, Inter-Court Meetings between all the courts becoming a Regular Thing (bc I want to put all the little dudes in a jar, shake them up, and study the results under a microscope), Inter-Court politics, gradually undermining the patriarchy, Inter-Court friendships, Beron taking psychic damage from the sheer audacity of---, Everyone Bonding Over Hating Beron, Positive Social Change, and Me Adding My Own Additional Lore To The World Of Prythian.

Optional fun fact! The base story could take multiple paths after TTC, so it would be the most likely fic to eventually make me write one or more AUs of itself, so here's later random details of the story that may or may not be added depending on which timeline I write: Tamlin dies, Tamlin gets locked up in his own house and told that Annabeth is willing to talk to him once he's "being more rational". Beron has a brain aneurysm in the middle of an Inter-Court Meeting and dies, Percy and Annabeth somehow creating a plan to get away with sending Beron off for the Hunters and Amazons to hunt him for sport, Amarantha kills Tamlin and is shortly killed by Annabeth before ACOTAR would have happened, Rhysand and Annabeth become Very Fast Friends and make fun of people together, and Doreen Green (Squirrel Girl) becomes Annabeth's spymaster bc that would just have so much comedic potential, fight me (she's honest about that being her job [if not explaining the details of how she does it] and she's just so open and friendly and polite that it has to be a hoax, right? there's no way she's actually in charge of collecting real intelligence. she has a network of squirrels who pass info to her across the entire continent? oh right, because of the tail, very funny. some of us are actually taking this seriously, Tarquin).

4. Lightning Rod, Grounding Wire: Approximate title for a crossover AU where Agatha Heterodyne (Girl Genius) and Hunter (The Owl House) end up swapping places right before Barry would have gotten Agatha (exact explanations undecided, maybe Belos let the Collector get too bored?) and about the same time Hunter was created (with Hunter being a couple years older than her biologically). Longfic? Series? Who knows, not me(yet).

In the Boiling Isles: Agatha is initially raised by Belos in something a bit similar to the get in loser we're assassinating the emperor - elliptical - The Owl House (Cartoon) [Archive of Our Own] AU, but it's Agatha (Spark, Heterodyne, etc.) so she gets on the wrong side of the empire way quicker. I'm thinking that she wouldn't make it more than a couple years after her breakthrough (w/o Uncle Barry to build her locket) before she starts spouting Extremely Logical Treason in meetings. Mostly, Canon occurs but minus Hunter (I'm going off the theory that Belos had to reuse the same galderstone for each grimwalker, so in this he's permanently down one(1) clone child soldier) and with way more explosions.

Meanwhile, over in Europa: Barry quickly deduces that this Very Small Child isn't Bill and Lucrezia's, is definitely some kind of construct, and is likely part of some kind of plot by Lucrezia (the man's stressed, and 2ish out of 3 ain't bad). Barry's not the kind of spark who'll try to vivisect or euthanize the kid just to stop Lucrezia, so his best bet is hiding him away from the world. Hunter grows up considering himself a construct, in time gets left with the "Clays", and lives a somewhat less stressful life than Agatha would have pre-canon. Everything goes passably well for him until the first events of "The Beetleburg Clank".

Featuring (so far): The rapidly increasing blood pressure of Every Adult in this situation, young Agatha being a feral gremlin, Hunter actually having a childhood, if Eda had a a nickel for every time a semi-feral teenage girl built an interdimensional portal in her back yard she'd have two nickels, SO MANY mistaken identity shenanigans after Agatha and Hunter actually meet, eventual Huntlow and Agatha/Gil/Tarvek OT3, and Eda menacing All The Sparks.

Now that I'm thinking about it, the only one of these that wouldn't need an explanation page is number one.

I do have more ideas on all four of these (as well as other vague ideas still calibrating), but this post is pretty long so I'd need a request from someone before I give more info.

Please comment/reblog/@ me with your thoughts!

For future reference, my Ao3 account is:

Update: Okay guys, I tried to edit one of the words in the title of the poll and it wouldn't let me do that so I just remade the poll but forgot to set the length to one week. If you're still interested in voting, there's another poll pinned on my blog, or you can just comment what you're interested. Even after the polls end, I will be officially taking thoughts/questions/feedback up until August.

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aritsukemo · 2 months

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My Abandoned WIP Works #1

Summary: Just some works I'll ( most likely ) never finish because I lost motivation, didn't know how to end it, found the plot boring and didn't know how to spice it up, or similar problems like that.

Not what was expected | Mikey S. ( Problem: Lost motivation/Couldn't find a way to wrap everything up )

"So what do you think she looks like?" Chifuyu asked the captains and vice captains as he sat on one of the steps that led to the shrine; The place majority, if not all, of Toman meetings took place.

"Who?" Takemichi—better known in the gang as 'Takemitchy'—asked.

"Oh, you talkin' about her." Ken—more commonly known as 'Draken'—said as he finally connected the dots, "Well actually she's—"

"Bet she has a nice ass," Smiley interrupts, having no shame as he continues, "Or maybe a great set on her. 'Doubt boss would date some pancake."

"Huh?" Takemichi blurted out, feeling dumbfounded as he rapidly turned his head, hastily glancing at each one of them with a mixed look of astonishment and confusion which gets a small chuckle out of Mitsuya.

"They're talking about Mikey's partner. Y'know, the person we're supposed to be meeting today?" Mitsuya clarifies.

"Why else do you think only the captains were summoned?" Chifuyu added with an unnecessary roll of his eyes. Takemichi shoots him a him.

"Well if only the captains are supposed to be here, why are you here?" Takemichi retorts.

"I go wherever you go because you're too much of an idiot to be left alone," Chifuyu explained, earning a loud 'Hey!' from his best friend, "Plus, I got the okay from Mikey before I came. All of us did. Why else do you think only we're here and not everyone?"

Upon saying that, Takemichi looks around and finally takes notice of all the members who actually came. Besides the ones who spoke up, there was only Angry, who was standing off to the side next to his twin. No sight of anyone from the fifth division or any of the other vice captains to be seen.

"I hope she's not an asshole at least.." Angry mumbled after a while. His tone soft despite the scrunched, angry expression that gives off a completely different vibe.

"Actually—" Draken attempts to speak up only to be cut off again, this time by Takemichi.

"I've never heard of Mikey talk about any girls before," He said before murmuring in a lower tone, "I didn't think he'd be interested in dating at all.."

"Apparently they've been dating for a while," Chifuyu spoke up, "Or at least, that's what I assume. I don't think he'd put so much effort into us meeting them otherwise."

"They're pretty close," Draken confirms, "But I think you guys have the wrong idea. Mikey isn't—"

Before the words could leave his lips, the familiar engine of Mikey's CB250T steals everyone's attention. And as the sound grows louder, Mikey quickly comes into view with..

..a guy. Wait, what?

"Hey guys," Mikey greeted nonchalantly despite the multiple reactions of surprise he's met with. Behind him, his partner, a small—even shorter than Mikey—rather thin male cautiously steps off the bike and cautiously walks closer.

"Uhm.. Hi, I'm Y/n, Manjiro's..uh.. You probably already know.." The boy spoke softly, scratching the back of his head, "I- I've heard so much about you guys so I'm glad we finally have the chance to meet. Although I feel a little bad about Manjiro making you guys come all the way out here just for introductions sake.."

Silence.

Baking Disaster | Chifuyu M. and Kazutora H. ( Problem: Didn't think anyone would like the idea and eventually lost motivation all together )

"So, do either of you mind telling me why what just happened...happened?"

Silence. Chifuyu sighs, his eyes involuntarily drifting to the counter where an entire tray—of what he can only assume were cookies—sits atop a towel, the smell it's producing tingling his nose the more it invades it. He looks back over at the two people in front of him, his two partners, both of which covered in flour, batter, and bearing crestfallen expressions. He sighs again.

"It was my fault," Y/n is the one who ends up saying something first, speaking softly as they stare at their feet. And at the sound of their confession, the black and yellow-haired male beside them looks over at them.

"No it's not," He retorts before glancing back over at Chifuyu only to immediately look away as soon as their eyes lock, "It was all my fault. I wasn't paying attention like I should've and now the kitchen's a mess.."

"'Tora's lying," Y/n speaks up again, this time more firmly, "I was the one who set the temperature on the stove too high and burned the cookies. You should blame me."

"I was the one who pour too much butter into them which made them catch fire like that. I'm at fault here," Kazutora says, his guilt-filled eyes locking with his lover.

"We don't know if that's for sure what caused it. I accidentally spilled a bunch of flour into the bowl when you weren't looking and didn't tell you. Not only that, but I completely froze when I realized the fire. You don't have to take the blame for my sake."

"I'm only taking the blame because I'm the one who caused it, love."

"I was the one who caused the fire though, I should be blamed for this." Y/n retorts.

"You wouldn't have made any mistakes if it weren't for me dragging you to the kitchen instead of letting you rest. You've been swamped with assignments ever since your break ended and the moment you finally had a little free time to sleep, I came and bothered you."

"Now you know that isn't true. I offered to help you out since you said you were going to make Chifuyu something."

"Wait, wait, wait," Chifuyu interrupts, his words thrown out rather hastily as his hand waves on beat to his voice, "Those over there.. They're for me?" He questions.

"Well, they were for you, yeah.." Y/n says, voice growing quiet more towards the end of their sentence as they stare at the charred pastries from afar.

"You could say I- er..we wanted to show our appreciation by surprising you," Kazutora says, sounding more dejected as he adds, "But because of me, that didn't happen.."

"Why would you go through all of this trouble anyways?" Chifuyu asks, raising his eyebrow. Not expecting the look of bewilderment he got from the two of them.

"Are you seriously asking us that?" Y/n questions, "Yeah, are you serious?" Kazutora adds, "You do so much for us. You always try to help Y/n with her assignments even though you have no knowledge or experience on the material."

"You did everything you could to cheer up Kazutora when he lost his job at that convenience store a little while back. Hell, you even took on a second job to buy us those expensive ass gifts for Valentine's Day last week," Y/n adds, rolling their eyes as they ask, "The real question is, why didn't we do this sooner?"

Chifuyu chuckles, his hand coming up to scratch the back of his head, "Well all this meant so much to you two, I should thank you guys for your efforts.." Without any further hints, Chifuyu walks over to the counter, both Y/n and Kazutora's eyes widening behind him as he pries one of the black, cindered cookies off the damaged tray, "..It's only right that I give it a taste, right?"

"Chifuyu, wait/No, you shouldn't—" Before either of them could stop him, Chifuyu bites down. He struggles to chew the piece he bit off which cause Y/n to cringe, but it does little to stop him chomping through and swallowing it.

"Wow," He drawls, "This tastes as horrible as I thought it would, maybe even worse.."

"We tried to warn you.." Kazutora says, now feeling even more embarrassed and remorseful about the outcome. To his surprise, Chifuyu takes another bite.

"What are you doing?" He asks.

"What does it look like I'm doing, I'm enjoying my snack." Chifuyu replies, voice muffled as he gnaws at the cookie

"You just said it tasted awful," Y/n says.

An Utterly Devoted Familiar | Furina ( Problem: Didn't know how to wrap things up in the way I wanted to and eventually gave up )

Warnings: Spoilers to the Fontaine Archon Quest up ahead!!!

Knocks vibrate throughout the apartment, soft and simple only to become loud and incessant after a while without being acknowledged. The owner of the apartment—who had been so rudely awoken by the noise—arose from her bed with a sour look on her face. Her heterochromic, ocean-like eyes burning with fire as she scans her room for her slippers.

"Coming, coming..! Gosh.." She shouts in a rather grumpy manner when the knocking continued. Understandably so. It was the middle of the night and someone, who clearly has no mind for other people's sleep, was banging on her door like some madman. Anyone in her shoes would've been pissed.

Honestly, do people have no respect these days? To just disrupt someone's sleep without a care in the world what could possibly be so important?

After finally finding her slippers, Furina practically stomped out of her room and up to her door. She was planning on giving whoever was on the other side a piece of her mind for waking her up and then go back to bed when she cooled down, but as the door swings open and Furina is met with the perpetrator, all her anger is washed away like a seashell against a water current.

There, standing before her with their fluffy ears twitching eagerly atop their head and pastries in hand, was the Hydro Archon's—Furina's former companion, you.

"You finally answered, my lady!" You chirped, "I'm so glad! Heh, for a second there, I thought I had the wrong address.."

She was at a lost for words. Why were you here? And why did you seem so happy? After everything came to light and Fontaine found out she was a sham, she was sure she'd never see you again..

So why in the world are you standing at her doorstep?

"Y/n.." She mumbled out in disbelief, but you seemed rather pleased nonetheless. Your name always sounded so lovely whenever it came from her lips.

"May I come in, my lady?" You ask after a while of her staring at you as if she'd seen a ghost, "If not, I don't mind standing here."

"Oh! Uh- No! Come in!" What is she saying? She should be shooing you away, not welcoming you in! "Sit wherever you'd like!" She continues anyway, stepping aside.

Obviously pleased, a smile graces your face and you walked in without hesitation, marveling in awe at her home as if it was made of gold or something.

"This place is so cute! You've decorated well, my lady!" You praise and she has to resist visibly cringing in response to your praise. In all honesty, her place wasn't much to look at. In fact, the place was quite barren since she hadn't gotten around to decorating it yet..

"Thank you.." She forces out, avoiding your piercing gaze as it falls on her. She turns on her heel, showing her back to you as she slowly, hesitantly closes the door.

"So..uhm, what brings you here at this hour?" She finally asks after taking her time to lock her door and turn to you; silently gulping when she locks eyes with your slited ones. Your eyes were always so intimidating to her for some reason.

"I wanted to see you of course!" You gleefully say, "But I've been so busy with running errands for Monsieur Neuvillette lately so I hadn't had the time."

You look so happy. So excited to see her again and here she stands, surprised, looking almost petrified as guilt bubbles in her chest.

She can barely force a smile on her lips and when she does, Furina is almost positive of how crinkled it probably looks, but it'll have to do for now, "I see..so that's your reason.. Well, you've seen me now so you can go and—"

"I stopped by Café Lutece earlier today," You mindlessly rambled, "I cleared out my morning so that I could get your favorite cake.." A small sigh leaves your lips as you continue, "Unfortunately, by the time I got there all sixteen slices had already been sold out..but, I should've expected that. After all, my lady has great taste in dessert, it's no wonder they always sell so fast!"

You shake your head, your ears wiggling as a result of your attempt at physically clearing your head, "Anyways, I'm sorry I couldn't get your favorite cake, but I bought everything else you see here to make up for my blunder so I hope this can earn your forgiveness," While you spoke, Furina's eyes watched your every movement, narrowing in on the pile of small boxes of sweets as you stretched your hands out to dump the pile into her arms.

As she staggered to catch the boxes that threatened to slip through her grasp and splatter all over the floor, her eyes widened at the realization of the mere size of the pile. This variety of sweets isn't at all small. There were so many that even she would take at least a week or two to get through the majority of this. Just how much time and money did it take you to get all of this for her? Furina's heart sinks at the mere thought of you spending even a dime on her..

"H- Hey, how much was all of this exactly?" The question hesitantly, almost fearfully escapes her. Your ears perk up and your rambling comes to an abrupt stop. Nevertheless, your face easily gives away how you feel towards the question; genuine confusion.

"Why the sudden ask, my lady? Whenever I used to buy you sweets before, you'd never care to ask about the prices.."

"Well, you of all people know that..I'm not.." She couldn't even get the words out. To put it simply, the mere thought of the incidents occurred makes her shudder. Everything was so embarrassing it makes her want to lock herself in this home for five hundred years..

Hm, but with that curse lifted, thankfully she's not able to live that long anymore.

Dividers were made by me, pictures used are from Pinterest, post formatting is inspired by @xxsabitoxx

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frownyalfred · 5 months

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Hi, Res! Glad you're back! I love your writing (and your posting in general) and missed it. I hope everything good for you and your family!

I was wondering how you come up with fic ideas? That are so natural and realistic yet never came into my mind, like "let the light in" or "end of line" or "come morning light" or–

And also also!!! How you're able to write while you post (like post the first chapter and not have the rest completely planned) and not lose yourself on the plot/details?

Sorry if that's annoying in any way! I I just love love love your writing and I look up to you a lot!

Thanks 🥰🥰🥰

Hi! Not annoying at all, I appreciate you asking. For those fics, they kind of just came to me in slice of life moments? Maybe I can explain below a little better:

let the light in - this came to me while I was thinking about shoulder injuries (my parents both had rotator cuff injuries and PT afterward) and how it must feel very vulnerable for the human members of the League. Especially Ollie who would never want to appear weak because of his stubborn pride. Bruce as a foil/complement made sense as soon as I tried thinking it out. I knew I wanted to write a scene where Bruce inevitably confronts/witnesses Ollie's weakness, and the dialogue kind of spun out from there.

end of line - this fic bloomed into existence because I was pondering what would happen if you full-force punched Clark in the face. If you punch a normal person you can break bones, so what happens when you clock Superman? Again, this was another fic where the dialogue just kind of led the story forward. I knew I wanted it to be outsider!POV for added angst, and swiftly realized I could add in Bruce as Clark's "fixer" for even more hilarity.

come morning light - this one came from me pondering Clark's anxiety at his own near-immortality. I was trying to come up with the best scene to showcase that fear/anxiety, and the morning of his wedding made sense. It also allowed Bruce's careful adjustments and reassurance to shine through in contrast. I also wanted to challenge myself to write something with them both that was purely platonic, which I think I somewhat achieved (mixed reviews LOL).

so I guess a lot of these fics tend to come from "what if" moments, usually prompted by irl events.

As for being able to post a WIP and not know where the story is going, that might be because I am a "feel" writer. I don't think that's a good thing but I digress. I "feel" like I know where the story is going, but I don't know exactly what will happen between point A and point B until I'm writing dialogue. Usually it leads me to the right place, so I know if I post the first chapter without a solid plan for the next 3-4, I can still "feel" I'm on the right path.

Diving in to update is probably the easiest and hardest part of this method. I find that if I re-read the entire fic, my brain generally knows where it wants to go next and the story just naturally continues as I write. However, with borderline that meant I was rereading a 60k fic every few days and definitely wasn't efficient. Plotting the final act of stories generally requires me to abandon this method and reach out to my lovely beta, who is a mensch.

I'm not sure if that was very helpful, but that's kind of an overview of how my brain works while writing. It might not work for you, and that's okay! Try out some different methods and just keep writing! Do it as often as you can, even if it's stupid or never shared or only a few snippets here and there.

#asks #anon #myfic #theresurrectionist #fic #fic writing #fanfic writing #writing tips

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mixelation · 1 year

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I would love to see you rank Akatsuki by how shippable they are with Kakashi

oh my god. called out. but i will answer. CRACKS KNUCKLES

tbh this was kind of hard to write because even though i love akatsuki ships AND i love kakashi ships, there's not a lot of.... like..... easy/natural chemistry going on here??

least to most shippable

9. Zetsu - Does anyone ship Zetsu? No. Get out of here, Zetsu.

8. Pein - I think the connection here would be like. Similar Traumas (tm) and I know some people like this but I don't LMAO. That or missing-nin!Kakashi joins Akatsuki because he likes what Pein is selling philosophically, and it turns into one of those "loyal follower sets themselves apart in order for leader to notice them Romantically" which is another dynamic I know some like but I don't.

7. Kisame - Kisame is Chill For An Evil Villain and I think he'd admire Kakashi's philosophy of ninja who abandon their comrades being less than trash. He'd be annoyed but not lose his mind over some of Kakashi's more annoying traits. But, idk, this ship doesn't really have enough Spice for me.

6. Itachi - I like the fanon that Itachi and Kakashi were friendly in ANBU, and for a long time I liked the idea of them running into each other years later and reconnecting in a more shippy way. But I have rotated and rotated this and I cannot make it work in a shippy way. I've read some fics and they else seem to just not have.... a spark? a Spice? There's something missing. I just like them more with a platonic dynamic.

5. Sasori - There are some interesting parallels and contrasts and vague plot connections between these two, but oh my GOD is it hard to fit them all together in a compelling way. There's probably something in "Your father killed my parents and it fucked me up for life" vs "Yeah well, then he also killed my father and fucked me up for life" but you will have to work so hard to extract it. Sasori and Kakashi are antisocial weirdos in opposing ways and GETTING them to the point where you can do anything is so hard.

4. Kakuzu - Despite fighting each other, canon failed to produce any emotional connection at all between Kakuzu and Kakashi, which is unfair to us all. Kakuzu is ranked here because he's the first person on this list I can see getting into bed with Kakashi without the writer having to do a shit ton of work. Kakuzu fucks. Kakashi fucks. I think under the right circumstances they'd fuck each other. If I wrote it, I'd have a Catfishing AU where they're both trying to lure the other one out to collect Dat Bounty but they're doing it via the lonely hearts section of a newspaper. Anyway their public personas don't impress each other but once they switch to private letters they both realize they're both weird kinky freaks. Kakuzu WAS trying to catfish you in that he lying about his age and name and sent a fake photo, but somehow he was not lying about the tentacles.

3. Hidan - I think Kakashi and Hidan would make eye contact across a bar and then go hook up. I just think they're both like this. Maybe they run into each other again later and are like, "fuck it, why not?" It's a very straight forward relationship and both somehow miss all the ways the other one is completely unhinged. ALTERNATIVELY, Hidan thinking Kakashi's suffering and wallowing is so, so beautiful.

2. Deidara - Okay. Do you remember his "sees Itachi for the first time" face? I think Deidara would make this face at a raikiri. And as we all know, Deidara is at his cutest when screaming because someone is actively trolling him, and Kakashi loves trolling people. I don't think Deidara would be very impressed with Kakashi's dedication to a never ending mourning period, BUT I think there's room for interesting character growth on both sides here. Also I just think Kakashi should fuck him. As a little treat

I. Konan - Okay. Listen. My ideal Kakashi het ship is "weird damp man and woman who would crumple him up and wring him out like a paper towel." This is them. Kakashi literally only knows how to take care of his loved ones by going out and killing their enemies and Konan thinks this is so sweet. She doesn't NEED him to, but he does go out and kill people she hates and he's not even weird about it. Kakashi murdered more specific enemies of the Ame or Akatsuki than the Akatsuki. Very cute. Also they'd look good together. ALSO the pairing of her blank, judgmental stare and his trolly grin. Excellent vibes all around

BONUS RANKINGS:

Orochimaru (between Deidara and Konan) - They would hook up specifically for the psychic damage to everyone they know.

Obito (True Number One) - OBVIOUSLY. Rivals to friends to enemies to lovers! The mutual obsession! Bonus identity porn!

#missing-nin!kakashi is just so sexy #ship him with more weirdos okay #akatsuki ranked

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angelselene · 6 months

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I just had several Wreckage related thoughts (PTSD tw):

Ed and Roy are casually invited to a neighborhood BBQ, early in their time in the CM world, and they figure it's another phrase for a block party or something.

So, they get there a little early,.and then the dogs and burgers are put on.

Roy pales and his eyes unfocus and he starts to tremble. But he can't move. And he can't see the grill.

And their new neighbors turn to greet them, and *they* freeze, and Ed's like "i'm so sorry we have to go" and Ed drags Roy back to their place.

There are a handful of ways they can go from there, but I'm thinking Ed sticks Roy in the shower, because rain wasn't in Ishval, and even if it was, he's useless in the rain so he couldn't have been... working.

They so not go to bbqs after that.

Relatedly, Roy can't tolerate even the smell of meat for weeks afterwards, and they have to stay indoors for days.

But that's not to mention the fireworks that come that night, after the BBQ.

They... don't do well for quite some time.

(They at least know to expect fireworks on New Year's)

Ooooh, Ed and Roy taking a few days off on either side of July 4th to avoid going outside.

(And then fucking LABOR DAY why are they barbecuing today?!)

(Memorial Day is an issue too, but they miraculously miss it that first year)

Hmmm... I bet Roy can't eat most (maybe any) red meat...

Anywho. Had that thought and needed to share. C:

Okay, I have had this stuck in my inbox for like, almost six months at this point. Not because I didn't like the idea (I love the idea) but because I wanted to write it and surprise people and...

...I have tried. I tried to write it just as a one-off, to celebrate milestones on the series (1,000 public bookmarks, 5,000 kudos, both of which are amazing achievements I'd be happy to celebrate with), tried to write it for 10/3... and it's just... it won't come. I don't know if it's something about this particular emotional beat that I don't feel like I can write (I don't think it's that, because I've written similar to it), or if it's just that I marked the series as Complete and in my brain, the part of it that thought about the Wreckage-verse is just closed, but I've got like... 600 words of them buying their house, and nothing else.

And it is not a good 600 words. It is not a 600 words you'd want to be part of the Wreckage series. Usually, it's a sign I'd take to scrap it and start over, but after a still very recent irl upset, I just don't have the heart to push through and make myself write it. Writing anything right now is hard, and something I just couldn't make work before that upset is, unfortunately, not on the table right now. Sorry, Ryan, I really, really tried.

What I have been considering, if anyone is interested, is posting some of the original runs I did at an FMA/Criminal Minds crossover. I probably mentioned it in comment replies or maybe even in an author's note somewhere, but what became Wreckage is actually my third attempt at a FMA/CM crossover. One of them, I didn't get more than maybe a couple thousand words (I know, I know, only a couple thousand), but one, I got... quite a bit more done, and it's a pretty different angle because it has the BAU ending up in Amestris instead of the other way around.

That version required a lot more plotting, and when I realized that, I scrapped it (you all think I'm kidding when I tell you I hate writing plot), and moved on to a version where Ed and Roy ended up in CM 'verse instead. I have like... 16k of that. It's not all complete scenes, but if people would like, I can post what I have of it.

So... let me know.

#wreckagefic #royed #fma/criminal minds #crossover #angiewrote

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clarajohnson · 5 months

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the magicians s2e5

brakebills continues its tradition of fucking my shit

LOOKS GOOD! QC

i love that q gets sent to corpo email job hell and he still can't get professional enough not to lose his floppy hair never change you little freak boy

soup? the fuck?

kady and eliot should've gotten together to discuss curl care. i wanna show kady how to break a curl cast.

i don't subscribe to parts of a tv show being necessary or unnecessary or w/e but i always think jules's pregnancy plot is fucked. just horrible.

fucking eliot waugh is allergic to saying normal things "oh the miles we must walk" "to our violently attractive progeny" man either fuck quentin wordsmith coldwater or get normal

i love you pregnancy bunny

guess it's one of those situations where you wouldn't know unless it happened to you but i truly cannot imagine learning you're a magician and then abandoning it. abandoning other shit? yes. leaving literally everyone from brakebills behind? yes, sounds smart. but dude i would've just moved to another continent and cast little cantrips until i got old and died

margo's puffy gossamer sleeves and her dramatic wavy hair ohhhh

also her fuchsia lip is so iconic

i love how bloodthirsty abigail is

"i just don't actually know if you accepted my apology..." desperate pathetic man

who else saw the giant pile of knotted rope and thought you know what i wouldn't mind making that my task for the day

ugh i know the eye horror is coming and i'm going to HATE ITTTTTT

the fillory stuff is always tricky because fillory united is objectively right lol. sorry eliot and margo.

bayler. what a name. fu fighter. even better.

are people masturbating in their offices that often? i've worked in several offices and as far as i know nobody was jerking it. but i guess i wouldn't know, if they were doing it right.

q's email to alice's parents was very nice actually. this show kind of has to bluster past grief this season because there's so goddamn much going on (and then it will slow down for grief for ages and ages and ages later) but when you think about it, q thinking his beloved girlfriend has died to save him is like. whew. there's so much you could've worked through from just that, q.

i love stella maeve's crying face

how many times in his life do you think q was flirted at with the line "you're a fucking dork"

that's my favorite too AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH

i love that el and margo coordinate their outfits so often. similar fabrics similar palettes etc.

poor emily. jesus. god.

otd does a great job playing emily playing alice, but in large part it reminds me of some of the hallmarks of real-alice, particularly, the way her eyes are always SO active. SO bright and evaluating.

in political terms i respect eliot's decision. BUT as a matter of personal ethics i appreciate margo so much more. she's just-- she's right. she's kind of completely right.

unbelievable read from mayakovsky on "it's amuaoazing" so many vowels in that word

i love you fu fighter fen i LOVE YOU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SKIPPING THE SCENE IN THE CLINIC SORRY !!!!!

niffin alice lfg let's FUCKING go

#what a program #unauthorized magicians rewatch #the magicians #text

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mable-stitchpunk · 10 months

Note

Do you reckon there’s still a way for Steel Wool to make Mimic an interesting villain? Much as I also dislike his book lore (and the books in general), i will say imo his presentation in Ruin especially the ending reveal and chase was legit cool. Had to do my best to ignore the books in the back of my mind, but it made him more creepy and I’m glad SW didnt try to give his backstory - woulda been a super awkward exposition dump most likely.

I ask, because it seems likely the books are going to remain the source material you need in order to know where Mimic came from, and maybe this is a good thing? Not for the storytelling of FNaF as a whole, that’ll never not be a problem. but for SW and their games specifically, could this approach maybe give them the creative liberty to really *do* something with this villain? Or am i just grasping at straws here for a character that doesn’t deserve it?

The ending reveal was, admittedly, waaaay better than I was expecting. Because it didn't involve an info dump- save the little one Gregory had at the end- and it worked into the plot of Ruin. It felt a bit hasty and probably would've worked better as its own game- like as Security Breach proper- but it actually worked relatively well.

But I'm not entirely sure... The problem with the Mimic is that it's just sort of not that intimidating. In the books it's portrayed as an endoskeleton that blindly runs around and kills with an empty head, just vibes mentality. That could make an okay villain for one game, but... but if it's just going to turn into a constant guessing game of, "Oh, is this suspicious animatronic actually Mimic?" then it's going to get tired fast.

It's sort of the same issue I had with Eleanor. Save that at the very least, Mimic is more tangible. He climbs into suits and acts like various characters while Eleanor straight-up broke reality by just looking like whoever or whatever she wanted. Therefor inserting herself into scenarios where there was no indication she had ever been planned to be there.

Plus, after the Vanny situation, I don't exactly have faith that Mimic won't abruptly get abandoned for a completely different other villain. Switching villains isn't exactly a bad thing, but building up a character for games and then dumping them for the next idea is extremely anticlimactic.

At least Mimic's design doesn't allow for him to become as much of a merch magnet. That might actually do him well.

#The Mimic #Eleanor #Security Breach #Ruin #Vanny #Fnaf

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thiccowlladylife · 7 months

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Eyy, the Asmodeus/Fizzarolli episode is here!

Time to review Oops!

The Good:

-Ozzie and Fizz are wholesome, horny couple goals; Moxxie and Millie have been usurped after the disaster of last episode... (and holy shit, Asmodeus is CAKED)

-Some of the background designs of the incubi, succubi, and fish demons are really cool (I think I saw what looked like a triceratops demon Lady during Blitzø and Fizz's fight, and I love her)

-Fizz and Blitzø's interactions throughout the whole episode are fantastic; Fizz is such a mood, and I stan his pettiness towards Blitzø

-I... don't mind Blitzø's apology to Fizz? It's far from perfect and still full of 'pity me' bullshit, but Brandon Rogers' voice acting was phenomenal during the scene, and the whole self-pity even in an apology does seem in character for Blitzø. But he recognizes and owns that, accident or not, he still hurt Fizz and ruined countless lives, and that Fizz has every right to not forgive him. But that Fizz does, also doesn't bother me? It feels less like total forgiveness and more like the path to forgiveness, which seems realistic (and has plenty of chances for Blitzø to fuck up along the way)

-Fizz is phenomenal disability rep. It impacts him, but like he says, he's not broken because of it

-Some of the comedic stuff in this episode actually got a laugh from me; the whole busting out of the cage sequence was hilarious to me

The Bad:

-Stolas felt completely unnecessary in this episode. His appearance is clearly just to push the 'Asmodean crystal' plot point between him and Blitzø further along, but he doesn't really do anything. He says nothing during the ransom message (even though he clearly sees Striker, the guy that nearly killed him a week ago, as working with the guy who kidnapped Fizz; also, it's only been a week since then? And he's already better? And Asmodeus says nothing about that, but still mentions the club?), he doesn't contribute anything to the negotiation that Asmodeus couldn't have done on his own, and just... Leaves at the end. Completely useless this episode

-Oh Striker... Honey, they're butchering your character so much. Once you were a legitimate threat, now you've been reduced to a "we should somewhat improve society -- yet you participate in it, strange, I am very smart!" skit... And you're portrayed as the bad guy for wanting the change

-Asmodeus... you let yourself get insulted by some random Imp from Greed (one of the supposedly lowest races in Hell)... And go along with his ransom? You're the Ruler of Lust; who gives a shit if Fizz is also an Imp? You said the word and every demon in Hell would've been up Crimson's ass to rescue the partner of a Sin; what would Crimson do? Kill him? That would only assure he'd suffer tortures unimaginable before he was killed. You held all the cards, and you still folded so easily, it's unrealistic and pathetic.

-Also, why pair up Striker and Crimson? It's two totally clashing villain styles that don't mesh well and are totally random (also, does Crimson die at the end? That would be a shitty, anticlimactic way to go, but we only see that Striker survived)

-The song was shit. And it's such a shame, because Alex Brightman is just as great an actor as Brandon Rogers, and a fantastic singer

-Asmodeus' protective possessiveness at the end was... Too much, just on the bad side of toxic. But hey, I guess even the healthiest relationships in Hell are always a little toxic

Despite the bad, I was still entertained by this episode? It felt like a season 1 quality episode, where I could enjoy the good in spite of the bad... But this is 6 episodes into the second season, and I don't think we'll be lucky to have another of decent quality.

But at least Asmodeus/Fizzarolli did not disappoint! Keeping my fingers crossed that the Mammon episode will be even half as good as this, so I can finally abandon this series on a high note. Cuz guys, I don't think I can do it anymore...

#helluva boss #helluva critical #helluva boss critical #helluva boss criticism #helluva criticism #helluva critique #helluva boss critique #vivziepop critical #spindlehorse critical

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averagestudent03 · 1 year

Text

I Know The End: Chapter Nine, The King's Gambit (Pt. 2)

(A/N: Welcome to the second half of the Season Wrap! This was my longest chapter so far and it took me ages to write, so thanks for being so patient! As always, reblogs and comments are greatly appreciated- I love hearing about what you think and will always respond! Stranger Things dialogue, plot and all characters besides yourself belong to the Duffer Brothers. Will have a rough shape for Season 4 and some extra chapters up soon! Thank you so much for reading, and enjoy! Love you all!)

Word Count: 9.2k

Masterlist

Series Warnings: swearing, jealousy, fear of abandonment, era-relevant homophobia, mentions of nausea, mentions of blood, mentions of death, angst, One use of Y/N, canon-level gore, etc.

More warnings included in future chapters.

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

El.

There, the girl stood above it all.

Blood dripping from her nose, surrounded by the likes of the party. The kids stood behind her as if a defence as she carefully flicked the end of her hand, watching as the car flung with ease straight into the group of Russians, crushing them beneath its weight, shattering the pane of glass beside you all.

She'd never looked more inhumanely powerful, and she'd never felt it, either. She could do this- she could protect her friends. Just this once, she could be a hero.

You smiled, and the girl smiled back.

You crept out from behind the counter, followed by the others, watching as smoke hissed from within the car and Russians lay strewn across the floor. You didn't waste a second, rushing towards all of them as Mike helped El down a temporarily-paused escalator, immediately watching as El ended up in a hug, ambushed by Dustin.

"Ha, you flung that thing like a hot wheel!" He cried, wrapping his arms around her as Max and Lucas came to you, watching as you crouched down to hug them.

" 'S okay, it's alright, I promise-" You murmured, bringing them close and watching as Will sprinted to your side too, quickly pulled closer by your free arm. You practically giggled, ignoring the sharp pain radiating through your side and just focusing on the group of kids in front of you.

"Lucas?" Erica shrieked, looking over at her brother as he broke himself free from the hug, approaching her with a puzzled look on his face.

"What are you doing here?"

"Ask them," She started, pointing to the four of you, "It's their fault!"

"True, yeah," Steve interrupted, rambling and nodding quickly, "Totally true-"

"Our fault, our fault completely-" You joined in, nonsensical rambling.

"I don't understand, what happened to that car?" Robin asked, glancing hesitantly between you and Steve, quickly muffled by the uproar of the kids, muttering to themselves with their scrambled theories about where you, Steve and Dustin had been.

"El has superpowers!"

"I'm sorry?"

"Yeah, superpowers, she threw it with her mind, c'mon, catch up-" Steve mumbled, wincing slightly as you elbowed him in the side.

"That's El?" Erica cut in, seemingly amazed by the girl beside her.

"Who's El?"

"Yeah, little one in the yellow shirt's got like telekinesis or something." You started, quickly mouthing 'they're back?" to El in order to confirm that she was no longer powerless, met with a small nod, "Her name's El. Speaking of!" You interrupted, rushing to her side and quickly hugging her.

"Where the hell were you? Are you alright?" You gave her a once over, gaze fixed on the giant cut in her leg. She simply nodded again, wiping the leftover blood from below her nose, happy to see you all and learn that you were safe.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Nancy cut in, eyes widening when she noticed the state you were in, giving you a shy wave. You returned it immediately, mentally making plans to catch her up on everything the second this was over.

"I'm Robin, I work with Steve-"

"She cracked the secret code!" You grinned, smiling over at her as she quickly smiled back, eyebrows still furrowed in order to piece together the situation.

"Top-secret code." Dustin mumbled, subtly correcting you.

"Yeah, which is how we found out about the Russians." Steve muttered nonchalantly, eyes darting between you all, allowing you to lean on him and let him carry some of your weight as you both held the other steady. It was a given scenario, one you'd learned well after the several beatings you'd both taken over the years and the stumblings you took as children, wrapping a loose arm around the other's side to prevent either of you from fainting.

"Russians? Wait, what Russians?" Jonathon started, quickly taking in the state of both you and Steve, eyes catching on the dark crimson staining your white vest, raising an eyebrow.

"The Russians!"

"Those were Russians?" Max cut in, eyes widened and mouth open, the danger they were actually in starting to settle in the pit of her stomach.

"Some of them," Erica tossed in, gaze still focused on how calm her brother was seemingly acting.

"What are you talking about?" Lucas questioned, looking between you, Dustin and Steve for any possible answers.

"Didn't you hear our code Red?"

"Yeah!" Mike yelled, "And we couldn't understand half of what you were saying!"

"Godamn low battery," He cursed, immediately scolded by Steve.

"How many times do I have to tell you with the low battery!"

"Well everything worked out, didn't it Steve?" He looked up at him condescendingly, sarcastically smiling before shaking his head.

"Worked out?" Erica cried, "We almost died!"

"Yeah," Dustin turned to face the screaming child, "But we didn't, did we?"

"It was pretty damn close," You mumbled, watching carefully as El trudged to a corner, slowly spinning as the ringing in her ears increased, quickly turning to a high-pitched whining sound reverberating around inside her skull. She clutched her hands to her ears, screwing her eyes shut as the others continued to bicker.

Eventually she collapsed, letting out a small grunt as she hit the floor, the rest of the party immediately rushing to her side.

"El!" Mike questioned, quickly turning her on her side to face him, wincing at the girl's whimpering, "What's wrong?"

"My leg. My leg-" She breathed out, blood leaking from both sides of her nose as she hyperventilated, tears streaming from her eyes.

"Her leg, okay-" Jonathon muttered, Nancy helping him by quickly unwrapping the bandages around her leg, mumbling incoherent nothings as the crimson soaks through the white.

They winced, watching black and ivory lines pulsed inside her leg, stretching the skin as she screamed.

"God, that looks awful." Robin muttered, suddenly much closer to you than she'd been before. Her hand chased yours, brushing past each others for a few seconds, and Steve hesitantly moved away from you both, smiling at the lack of distance and the look in Robin's eye.

"Yeah, 's not fun seeing them in pain. Any of them, really." You mumbled back to her, trying to keep her distracted. All of you freaking out wouldn't help anyone, and it would only make El feel worse. Eventually, Jonathon returned, and all of them started panicking, watching her skin begin to writhe again.

"Okay, okay," Mike started, "Let's get her on this side- easy, easy," He mumbled, instructing all of you as you rolled her over onto her side, watching her curl in on herself.

"Y'know, it's not actually that bad-" Robin interrupted and your eyes widened as you realised Robin was about to start rambling. Jonathon looked stressed enough already, having practically shoved something wooden between her lips to bite down on, preparing to freely dig around inside her leg as the spoon muffled her screams.

"There was a- the goalie on my soccer team, Beth Wildfire, this other girl slid into her leg and her bone like came out of her knee, the whole bine, six inches or something, it was insane-"

Nancy's mouth fell open, staring over at you and Steve as Steve turned to Robin.

"Robin."

"Yeah?"

"You're not helping."

"I'm sorry-" Robin rushed out, trying to ignore El's muffled cries, her hand digging further into yours. You let her leave crescent marks on your skin as you figured another person, touch, anything, was something you desperately needed the first time around. You could give her that, at least.

"This is gonna hurt like hell, okay?" Jonathon tried to reassure, giving her hand a small squeeze as the others averted their eyes.

She nodded, screwing her eyes shut again.

"Need you to stay real still, alright?"

"Okay-" She sobbed, grabbing onto anything she could as Mike made sure the spoon Jonathon had grabbed from a nearby store was secure between her teeth.

"Do it." Mike insisted, hating seeing her in pain for a second longer than necessary. She whimpered, the others murmuring small phrases and quickly looking away as Jonathon dug the knife into her swollen leg,

She screamed immediately, Nancy having to cover her mouth with her hand as she gagged, watching the blade sink deeper into her skin. Jonathon winced before putting on gloves and jamming two fingers inside the wound. She twisted and writhed on the floor, as if trying to escape some terrible fate, and Robin looked like she was about to be sick again. You quickly grabbed her hand once more, pulling her behind you slightly, wanting to shield her from the sight. A horrifying mix of guilt and nausea settled in the pit of your stomach as you came to the swift realisation that the girl wouldn't be in this mess if not for your own selfish choices of wanting someone.

You were going to get her out of here the second it was safe to do so, and she was never, ever coming back. You'd drive her out of Hawkins if you had to. Even if it meant that you would never see Robin Buckley again, at least she'd be safe.

A sacrifice for the greater good.

"Stop! I can do it," El sobbed, "I can do it-"

Jonathon immediately backed off, scrambling beside Nancy and abandoning the knife, leaving them scattered on the floor as El raised her hand to her leg.

She hovered it above the cut for a second, gritting her teeth and screwing her eyes shut, clenching her fist and screaming louder than you'd ever heard. You wondered if she'd ever screamed like this when she was stuck in the lab.

Probably.

The windows around you shattered, leaving broken glass scattered everywhere and a floating, writhing creature coated in tar floating mid-air; quickly disposed of by a flex of El's fingers, tossed carelessly to the other side of the hall, crushed beneath a large shoe.

Hopper's shoe.

He stood guarded besides Joyce Byers and Murray Bauman, staring down your little group, tossing you a careful smile as he set eyes on his daughter.

Within a few minutes, you'd already formed a little circle, several of you pacing and trying to out-think the others, approaching the subject from any angle. You'd found that Billy Hargrove had been chosen as a host for the Mind Flayer, The Mind Flayer was back, and the others were now effectively caught up to speed regarding your little Russian adventures.

"The Mind Flayer," Mike started, taking a step towards everyone and weaving the tale as if it were a story, "it built this...monster, in Hawkins; to stop El, to kill her, and to pave a way into our world."

"And it almost did," Nancy weighed in, still trying to grasp the enormity of the situation, "That was just one tiny piece of it."

"How big is this thing?" Hopper asked, glancing over at Dustin as he stood closer to the rest of the party.

"It's big. Thirty feet, at least." Jonathon mumbled, looking up at Nancy as she confirmed.

"Mhm, it sorta destroyed your cabin." Lucas chipped in, eyes catching on Hopper as he attempted to gauge any sort of reaction.

"Sorry."

"Okay, so just to be clear, this- this big fleshy, spider thing that hurt El, it's some kind of gigantic...weapon?" Steve tried, looking slightly confused about the whole scenario.

"Yeah." Nancy answered, eyes locked on Steve for a moment longer than normal. She'd missed the boy, to say the least. He was comfort, a reminder of how she used to live, or who she was before all this. It was nice to just have him around. Same with you, a permanent reminder that despite everything, Hawkins still existed in the way it did before. Hawkins High was still Hawkins High, the kids were still the kids, and everything could be normal when this was over.

It didn't stop her eyes from leaving Steve's silhouette, though.

Robin had taken an entirely different approach to the oldest Wheeler, keeping her eyes trained on the ground rather than any of you. She'd curled herself up on the small fountain, knees tucked to her chest as she tried to regulate her breathing, still coming to grips with the whole 'Evil Russians and alternate-dimensional monsters' thing.

You noticed quicker than others, and you carefully made your way to her side, slowly pulling her to a nearby bench and sitting down with her as she looked up, confusion painted across her face.

"Sorry- you just looked a little stressed. We all get weirded out the first time." You reassured, smiling as she looked over you eyes catching on every scratch and cut that the man had left on you.

She decided that it would be a conversation for another day.

"So, the first time, huh?" She started, drawling off into the beginnings of a ramble as the other's voices slowly faded, "You make a habit of going 'round, fighting space monsters?"

"Upside-down monsters, Jesus, come on Robs, get it right." You corrected, chuckling as Hopper pulled El closer to his chest, Joyce sitting beside him. She caught a glimpse of the two of you, eyes flickering down to where your hands brushed, and made note of how you looked at each other. She smiled, and made a note to talk to you about it later, if you felt comfortable enough.

She hoped you would.

"But yeah, some shit went down like two years ago that started everything- then it came back last year, and now it's back again."

"Do you think we'll be able to stop it for good this time?"

You hesitated.

You didn't want to lie to her; to give her false hope the same way you'd fed off the blissfully ignorant words Hopper had whispered.

"I hope so." You said, and you meant it. You did hope so, but you couldn't promise her anything.

"So when you disappeared from Click's class for like a week last year?"

"Recovering from a bite on my shin, I was in hospital passed out for three days, scared the shit out of Steve. Dude stayed by my side the whole time and wouldn't stop apologising when I finally woke up."

"Harrington is..." She started, "something else, isn't he?"

You glimpsed over, seeing him debate so casually with Jonathon and Nancy, a genuine smile on his face when he took in the kids' state. Watching carefully as Hopper ran a spare hand through El's hair, and catching Dustin giving him a sly thumbs-up when Nancy stood a bit too close.

He'd begun getting better, and that was a start.

"Yeah. He's definitely something, Buckley."

He caught your eye, smiling slightly, and for the first time in a long time, you genuinely smiled back at him. He felt the air shift, and when Robin looked away for a second, he raised his eyebrow, giving you an awfully suggestive look.

You glared back at him and he simply chuckled, returning to his previous conversation with the rest of the group.

"How you feeling about all this, then?" You questioned, looking across at her, whispering amongst the mumblings of the others, in the midst of a plan beginning to form.

"And by this...you mean?" She trailed off, small smile flickering over her lips as she finally caught your eye.

"Well, the whole 'Harrington's not as bad as you think he is,' thing, that can be a tough one to sink in-" The older boy shot you a quick glare, replaced with a sigh of relief as he saw the corner of your lips quirk upwards in a gleeful grin. Robin elbowed your side, giggling along with you at the utter ridiculousness of the situation.

"The evil Russians were definitely a shocker, but the twelve-year-old with superpowers, that one's my favourite so far." She chuckled, hand creeping closer to yours on the bench with every passing second. You were hidden from most of their sights, (Not Steve, but you had to admit, with the way he'd been acting he seemed to be overjoyed at the thought of you two together), which made it slightly easier to show the subtle affection you had for the girl. You wanted nothing more than to slip an arm around her shoulder and tell her how safe she was, but you'd wait until the end of the night before you even considered an act so selfish.

"Having her show up at the Byers in the middle of the night wasn't exactly ordinary, but she threw a Lego spaceship at Dustin's head once, that was funny." You smiled, recalling the sweet memory. He'd whined about it the rest of the evening, but was utterly infatuated with the supernatural abilities the girl possessed, and with the way he was practically vibrating on the spot, you could tell that excitement was back.

"Are you gonna be safe?" Robin blurted out, taking both of you by surprise, eyes widening at her admission of nerves.

You hesitated for a moment, mulling the words over in your head before coming up with a suitable response.

"Define...safe."

"Not throwing yourself at supernatural monsters, safe."

"I uh-" You started, scrabbling to find the right words, no longer worried about impressing the girl, "I'll try to keep safe. Can't promise you anything at the minute, but I've got a lot to stay alive for if you hadn't noticed, Buckley."

"Good. It'd be really difficult to take a corpse out to dinner." She mindlessly babbled, only realising the true intent of her words a moment after she'd said them. She looked you over, shoulders relaxing almost instantly as she saw the sudden spark in your eyes, the intensity of your smile.

"Obviously not dinner, dinner," She began, starting to ramble, "Because dinner would be a bit hard given the fact that we're both, y'know, but like, dinner? Maybe you and I could go watch a movie, or order something in? If you wanted?"

You had never wanted to kiss the girl more in your life.

You squeezed her hand reassuringly, making sure to look her in the eyes as you said this. Your eyes darted to the others, making note that no one was watching, bringing your face to the side of hers and pressing a quick kiss to her cheek, mumbling under your breath.

"Buckley, I'd love to go to dinner with you after this. Whatever dinner looks like to you, I'll love it. I'm sure." Her grin widened and a thick blush spread across her face as she caught Steve's eye, smirk growing on his face as he took in the scene, both of you separating almost instantly.

"But, yeah-" You continued, "I'd love dinner. But that means you have to survive too, Robs. Stay safe and whatnot."

"Oh no," She whined, sarcasm heavy in her tone, "A gorgeous girl wants to take me out to dinner and all I have to do is live past tonight, what an awful thing-"

You chuckled, mimicking her friendly elbow from earlier as she giggled, evidently pleased with the situation. She'd never had this, before, or anything like this, and she was certain she was going to keep you.

No matter the cost.

"Yoo-Hoo!" The moment was broken by the ramblings of a rather bald madman, Murray rushing in waving large maps of Starcourt and other nonsensical scribbles. He rushed past, slumping down besides you all as you all surrounded him, pleased to hear whatever he had found in the moments he was away. You and Robin stood on other sides of the circle, avoiding each other's gazes as you tried not to burst into laughter at the absurdity of the thoughts.

"Okay, this is what Alexei called 'The Hub'" He started, pointing aggressively at a corner of the roughly sketched map, "Now, The Hub takes us to the vault room."

"Okay, so where's the gate?" Hopper interrupted, stood behind his shoulder like a proud parent.

"Right here. I don't know the scale on this, but I think it's fairly close to the vault room, maybe fifty feet or so." You took a step closer to Hopper, him running a hand up your back in a reassuring manner, something he'd done thousands of times before. Whether it was your shoulder, or a ruffle of your hair, he'd always made you feel seen and respected, even when you disagreed. (Or when he had to put you in handcuffs thanks to the few bottles of rum you'd smuggled into the back of a friend's Steve's car that one time.)

"More like 500." Erica cut in, stepping forwards slightly to face the almost-bald man.

"What, you're gonna waltz in there like it's Commie-Disneyland or something?"

"I'm sorry, who are you?" He asked, irritation painted over his face as the child began to waste even more of his precious time. Murray Bauman didn't have any time nor respect for small annoyances.

"Erica Sinclair. Who are you?" She retaliated, eyebrow raised, staring the man down as Dustin smirked behind her.

"Murray...Bauman." He spit out in confusion, eyes darting back and forth between you, Nancy, Jonathon and Hopper. He figured that you lot would rid him of whoever this pest, was, especially after your adventures together in the years prior. He'd been the one to push Jonathon and Nancy together in the first place, and had run into you at the bar a few times over the years, having arrived both with friends and individually between fighting monsters from a parallel universe. He'd been surprised when Jonathon and Nancy first mentioned your name, but then thought back to the unexplainable stories you'd told him, presuming they were imaginary, and he began to piece bits together. Since then, you'd taught the man how to make a few cocktails on his own (He'd slowly come around to Pina Coladas, not that he would ever admit that,) and how to win at darts. He was a fan of your sarcasm and quick wit, leading to short yet interesting conversations between you both.

Surprisingly, he was one of the first people you'd told about Robin. The only person, really. You'd gotten tipsy and started rambling about a girl, hesitantly giving him her name, and thus leading to an elaborate file created with his P.I experience hidden underneath a chest of drawers at his humble abode.

Just in case of an emergency or if she broke your heart, or something.

"Listen, Mr Bun-man," Erica started, "I've been down in that shithole for 24 hours, and with all due respect, you do what this man tells you to do, and you're all gonna die."

He looked over to you, and you simply shrugged, allowing the younger girl to have the floor for her moment. Lucas looked as confused as the rest of the group, eyes fixated on his sister that he had no idea was embarking on these ridiculous adventures.

"I'm sorry, why is this four-year-old speaking to me?" Murray questioned, looking expectedly at Hopper before being interrupted by the menace.

"Um, I'm ten, you bald bastard!"

"Erica!" Lucas cut in, eyes widened at his sister's behaviour.

"What? Just the facts!"

"She's right," Dustin began, "You're all gonna die, but you don't have to. Excuse me." He muttered, pushing his way to the front in order to address everyone.

"Sorry, may I?" He asked Murray, an aghast look on the man's face.

"Please." Murray grinned sarcastically, stepping back in order to give him access to the map.

He began his little rant, explaining all of the details of what he'd seen inside the Russian base, making you wince every time the place was even mentioned. Every other word turned to a flicker in your mind, an image of the man you'd stuffed into a cupboard after knocking him out. You wondered if he was still alive, whether or not he had a family. They weren't all monsters, you supposed.

Hopper looked expectedly between Dustin and Joyce, trying to formulate some kind of response, stepping closer to the boy to interrupt him but immediately dismissed and waved away by the boy's hand.

Dustin Henderson hadn't finished talking yet, and to hell with anyone who tried to stop him before he was done. Literally.

He was, however, interrupted by Hopper throwing a Walkie-talkie at his face.

"You can navigate, just do it from someplace safe."

"It's not that simple, Hop." You added, stepping in momentarily to try and make him understand.

"The signal won't reach." Erica confirmed, scoffing with Dustin as if they were aware of something that none of the rest of you were.

"Not with this. You'd need, what, something with a high enough frequency hand to relay the Russian's radio tower, but for that to work, you need someone who's both seen their comms room, and has access to a super-powered, hand-crafted radio tower, one already situated at preferably the highest point in Hawkins."

Oh.

"Oh wait, that's me."

Cerebro.

Fucking Cerebro, and Suzie Bingham, and his summer time adventures. Dustin Henderson had really outdone himself this time.

"If you want us to navigate, you've got us. But we need a head start."

Hopper nodded, seemingly pleased with his co-operation.

"...And a car."

Hopper still nodded, gritting his teeth, although notably less pleased than before.

The four of them began to head out, keys in Steve's hand, before Robin noticed your absence. She rushed back, pulling you to one side.

"You're not coming?" She seemed hurt, borderline abandoned at your lack of trust in her.

"What can I say, Buckley? They need me here. Keep yourself safe, alright? Tell Harrington and the other two I say the same thing." You muttered, sad smile on your face as you pulled her into a quick hug.

"...alright." She accepted, pulling away with more hesitance than she wanted. Robin Buckley didn't often get scared, but when she did, she was terrified. And right now, Robin Buckley was really, really scared.

"You'll be okay. Still gotta take me out to dinner, don't you?" You chuckled, looking over at her as she nodded.

"Yeah. It's gonna be one hell of a dinner, so you have to stay safe, too." The reassurance was more for herself and to ease her worries rather than yours, but you'd let her have it. Steve would keep her safe, you knew that much.

"Robin!" You exclaimed, watching her turn her back before spinning on her heel to face you.

"If everything else goes wrong- I just- you look really pretty tonight."

She smiled, nodding slightly with tears welling in her eyes.

With one last glance back at you, you let Robin Buckley walk away.

In the meantime, the others prepared for the very worst, and you made time to sit beside Will and have a small chat. He was older now, and you hadn't had as much time with him over the summer as you wanted. He was scared, too.

You practically pulled him away from one of Joyce's iron-grip hugs, apologising profusely, grabbing a spare milkshake from one of the abandoned shops for him. Chocolate chip, the same flavour he'd had every other time you'd taken him over the years.

"You okay?" You asked, even though you knew the answer.

"Yeah, you? You look like you got dragged through a hedge backwards." He quipped, sarcastic little smile on his face despite it all. It made you chuckle, which made you wince, hand moving to clutch the remaining makeshift-stitches in your side.

"Gee, thanks. Russians aren't nice- but you're real funny, kid. Should be a comedian, or something."

"I know." He left it at that, simply resting his head on your shoulder and enjoying the remaining quiet. He could feel what was coming.

Eventually, the adults herded you all into separate directions, the three of them preparing to take off. You knew Hopper had spoken to El, but that didn't mean you were ready to let him go without saying goodbye.

You engulfed him in a quick hug, throwing your arms around him as he chuckled into the top of your head, giving you a reassuring squeeze.

"You're gonna be fine, alright? You're gonna be fine." You muttered, and it sounded scarily like a goodbye.

" 'Course I am. I always am. Even when kids like you force me into going senile with your arrests and all that shit."

"Hop I swear on my life, I'll never drink again if you come back entirely unscathed."

"I'll hold you to that. See you soon, kid." He ruffled the top of your head, as per usual, before heading to the tunnels with Joyce and Murray. You offered the other two a quick wave, which they returned, before they walked away.

You could feel the stitches loosening, and a trickle of blood crept out from underneath the makeshift bandages.

You were a pawn in this game, and you weren't going to last long.

At least Robin didn't have to see it, if you did go, you thought. She'd be safe with Steve, and you'd have to rain check that dinner. All in all, it was better you than them.

It took roughly half an hour for things to start to fall apart. Mike had begun pacing around the Mall, rambling angrily into the walkie-talkie as you sat beside Lucas, watching as he aimed his slingshot, drawing it back with ease.

"Scoops Troop, do you copy? Billy has found us. He has disabled our car and we are trapped in the mall. Repeat: Billy has disabled our car and has us trapped in the mall." He trailed off, as you moved to crouch beside Nancy.

In the half an hour, you'd been graciously filled in on all the gory details, including the untimely possession of Billy Hargrove.

"You're gonna kill him, aren't you?" Max chimed in, looking down at the overly large gun in her hands. You had to admit, you see what you saw in the girl before you moved onto Robin. Not that you'd ever try anything, but she was absolutely gorgeous- Steve had been an idiot to let someone like her go. Though, you were happy she seemed content with Jonathon. She'd filled you in on all the other details too, and you'd let her know exactly how hard you'd slapped Steve after you heard about the incident at the cinema.

She seemed rather pleased with that.

"This is just a precaution, okay?" Nancy reassured pulling herself to her feet as you wandered around aimlessly, trying to keep pressure on your side.

"Do you copy?" Mike begged in the background, voice fading in and out of range as he slowly paced the size of the mall. It was interesting to see how long you could go before you had to hear his voice again, timing it so you didn't snap and break the walkie in his hands.

"No chance that thing'll drive, right?" Nancy chuckled, responding to one of the queries the kids had made. Something clicked in Jonathon's head as he looked it over, eyebrows furrowing as he stepped closer.

"We don't need it to drive- we just need the ignition cable." He grinned, watching as everyone ran over to attempt to flip the car onto it's side.

You all groaned, moving backwards as the truth sunk in; you couldn't move this car alone.

Fortunately, you all turned to a girl in a yellow shirt, more than happy to help. She stepped forward, raising her hand and attempting to flip the car, struggling slightly.

Her nose began to bleed and the car shook slightly, but didn't move in the way you needed it to. Luckily, her attempts seemed to dislodge it, and with some help, it tipped over. She shook her head, rushing over and rifling through a bin as you all looked confused, watching her. She eventually found a small, red, Coke can, placing it on the side and staring intensely at it.

Memories flickered back and forth of her in the lab, crushing the can with ease in her mind, but quickly interrupted by the grating sound of Mike Wheeler's voice.

"El! Are you okay?" He muttered, rushing to her side with Max trailing behind him. You ignored their antics for now, choosing to hang back and rifle through the car's engine, searching desperately for the ignition cable as the burning in your side began to grow.

Will reached for the back of his neck, feeling an indescribable cold wash over him; before he had a chance to warn anyone, the mall went silent, disturbed only by the terrifying thudding of something crawling over the glass ceiling.

You glanced over at Will, and he nodded, providing all the confirmation you needed.

The Mind Flayer was back.

You rushed to anywhere, hiding in the shadows of an abandoned store towards the left, crouched behind the car with the others, Will shuddering beside you and burrowing into your side. You bit your tongue, swallowing the pain, and allowed him to continue. He felt the blood slowly begin to coat your vest again, and looked up at you; you only shook your head in response, willing him not to mention it. It'd be over soon, anyways.

Dustin desperately pleaded through the walkie-talkie after their long-awaited arrival to the hill, crowded in a circle as Robin felt her stomach drop. Something was wrong, she could feel it. Steve caught her eye, and she could tell he could feel it too.

"Griswold Family, do you copy?" He begged, over and over, getting only a demonic screech in return as the Mind Flayer tossed it aside.

"Shit." He muttered, suddenly scrambling to get everything done a lot faster.

"Anyone, answer! Please, anyone just answer! Confirm your safety!" He begged, the voice falling on deaf ears as the Mind Flayer smashed it into pieces, stopping the transmission altogether. You all held your knees to your chest, prepared to bolt at a moments notice, not even breathing.

It moved to the right, stalking over to a large group of shops, sludging along and dragging limbless parts of its body behind it. It stopped directly over Max, El and Mike, hesitating for a moment before continuing, leaving a trail of black tar in its wake.

Rolling and twisting its joints, if you could even call it that, it slumped beside the gap, falling to the ground in order to comfort the small twitching organism that had been flung out of El's leg only an hour or so before. The smaller black mass grimaced in pain, squealing as the larger black mass screamed, shouting incoherent mumbles at the seemingly empty mall.

Dustin yelled at his own walkie, still pleading endlessly for any of you to pick up, and after a particularly nasty snarl echoed over the comms, Steve decided that he had had enough. Rather than explaining, he simply stood up, rushing back to the car.

"Where are you going?" Erica shouted after him, and Steve didn't pause his swift jog, only yelling back as he turned his head.

"To get them the hell outta there! Stay here, contact the others!"

Robin shook her head, gritting her teeth before standing and rushing after him, Dustin screaming after her.

"Robin! Stay in touch!" He yelled, quickly tossing her one of the spare walkies in order to allow her to contact them, her nodding and racing after Steve, locking herself in the car.

Meanwhile, the Mind Flayer paced back towards the car, and each of you took turns to stiffen, leaning back against the car, eyes wide with terror. Will began to hyperventilate and you took his hand in yours, feeling the energy seep out of you with every extra second you spent awake. It reminded you of the nasty gash across your leg that a Demodog had left, and the way you felt close to death in the tunnels, unwittingly accepting your fate.

At least this time, you had a chance to save someone. Even if it killed you, you could get Will Byers home and safe. In turn, keeping Robin safe, too. You could make up for bringing her into this mess in the first place.

That would be enough for you.

Nancy glanced over, risking a sneaky look in the direction of one of the car's wingmirrors, wincing as the Mind Flayer carelessly tossed a Russian's body into the wall. For fun, you presumed. Predators always liked to play with their pray before they killed them.

"It's turned away," Mike started, catching a glimpse of the monster before lowering himself back down, "if we run upstairs now, we'll make it."

"No way, not with El's leg." Max insisted, gesturing to the hurt girl.

"We have to try!" He whisper-shouted, glaring at the redhead, getting increasingly aggravated by the second. You managed to find them in a shop window's reflection, noticeably getting more agitated with staying still.

You knew they were going to move, and you prepared yourself to run, just in case.

A large metal rod that had been used to pry the car from the wall had been left alone near your feet, and you quickly leant forward to grab it, breath hitching in the back of your throat. They could use a distraction, if everything else were to go horribly wrong. Nancy seemed to notice your sudden movement, narrowing her eyes in confusion before turning her glance to the crimson slowly seeping out from the bottom of your vest.

She was aware that you were unlikely to make it, too.

"There's another way," El muttered, weighing in on the conversation.

"Out," She started, "Through the gap."

She gestured to the large store around the corner and Mike began to nod, a plan coming to mind. You could see them preparing to run, and moved yourself to another corner, out of sight from the mind Flayer and away from the others, as far as you could go. You refused to bring them down with you.

You remembered the raven-haired boy's words, the way he'd so carelessly knocked the pawn from the board as he taught you.

"Painless, swift." He'd muttered, as if the pawn had a mind of its own. He almost felt sorry for knocking it from its place. At least you knew that it would be swift, as the Mind Flayer didn't attempt to toy with its victims, as far as you knew. Even if it did, you wouldn't last long, now with two of the three makeshift stitches out.

The three of them bolted, rushing quickly towards the large doors of the store, brushing past a mannequin in El's clothing. This was really, truly, incredibly bad.

If you'd known where they were headed, you wouldn't have moved. In reality, they'd sat themselves down, tripping over broken glass less than five feet away from you. The distraction wouldn't be that useful anymore, especially if you were just leading it straight back to them.

"You little shits!" You whispered, pulling them close as the Mind Flayer stepped closer, hushing them as they hugged you. It quickly flung the yellow-coloured mannequin into the wall, and you muffled El's mouth to keep a surprised yell from escaping.

A tentacle reached out, large teeth protruding from the end, and it winded through the aisles of the store in search of the noise. You all kept deathly silent, and Lucas from his position behind the car, began to pull his slingshot back.

"What are you doing?" Nancy hissed, glaring up at him. He only nodded, mainly to reassure himself, and then turned and let the small stone go, hitting a balloon and causing the tentacle to retreat back to its body. You all breathed out a sigh of relief, clutching the three of them closer than ever.

You were more than aware of the dizzying feeling approaching, looming over you in waves, but your priority right now was the kids and keeping them safe. Though, you had to admit, you were incredibly pleased at not having to sacrifice yourself.

You were really looking forward to that dinner.

All of you, including Nancy, Jonathon, Lucas and Will, used this as a welcome distraction, rushing out the closest exit and dashing up the stairs. You had to clutch the railing, but you were safer than before, so that was a start. The four of them raced out the front exit, heading towards the nearest car at Jonathon's command.

Unfortunately, the rest of their collective silence was ruined by the roar of a 1979 Chevrolet Camaro.

More importantly, Billy's Camaro.

"Shit." Jonathon whispered, quickly interrupted by Nancy.

"Go, get the car started! Go!"

She loaded her gun and steadily pointed it at the car, preparing to shoot as Jonathon climbed into the Driver's side, trying desperately to start the engine. In another car, Billy Hargrove revved his own engine, slowly pressing his foot down on the accelerator.

Nancy shot once, and then twice whilst the car headed directly at her, splintering the windshield and shattering the windows. that didn't phase him, and only seemed to anger him more while the others began to panic in the backseats.

She shot again, and again, him speeding up with every second, and Nancy Wheeler prepared herself for the end. Much like you, her one goal was to protect the kids, and at least she was going out doing that. The impact would most likely kill Billy on the spot, and they would be able to escape safely.

This was it, she decided. She breathed in, out, relaxed her shoulders and shut her eyes, firing as many rounds as she could.

Though unfortunately, her body had not come to the same conclusion, letting out a sharp squeal as the girl ducked to protect herself, met with the crashing sounds of two cars colliding and shattering glass.

Steve Harrington had come to save the day, once again. He'd rammed Billy's Camaro head on, breathing heavily as Robin clutched the door.

"You okay?" He muttered, panting and still riding the adrenaline high. Robin Buckley, albeit terrified, managed to compose herself slightly and whimpered out a short response.

"Ask me tomorrow?"

Before either of them could fully acknowledge what had just happened, a snarling interrupted them, echoing from above. The shadow of a deformed creature sprinted across the roof of Starcourt Mall, stopping them where they stood.

In the meantime, Billy Hargrove pulled his broken body from the burning wreckage, grimacing with every step as he slowly trudged into the Mall. He didn't want to do this, but unluckily for him, he was no longer in control. A bone-chilling numbness had seeped into every pore in his body, flooding his senses with a freezing cold that he no longer recognised. Billy Hargrove was no killer, not ordinarily, but he wasn't the one pulling the strings anymore.

Billy Hargrove was whatever this thing wanted him to be.

So whilst you, Mike and Max helped El limp back to a safer place, Billy Hargrove roamed the halls of Starcourt once more. This time, he wasted no time in finding you all. He slumped through the white corridors, quickly facing Max in an empty room in order to get to El. You stepped in front of both of them, and he chuckled.

"Why's it always you?" He asked, a dark laugh slipping from his lips despite the obvious discomfort in his face.

"Billy, you need to leave."

He simply tutted, shaking his head as if he weren't in pain at all. The black veins crawled up his neck as he arched his head backwards, smirk growing and relishing in the silence.

"You're not taking these kids, Hargrove." You pushed, holding your ground.

"Shame, that's not up to you."

He quickly tried to push past you, and you retaliated by smacking him in the face as hard as possible. He recoiled, bringing a hand to the side of his cheek and wincing before bringing his fist back, hitting you in the face. You didn't even flinch, still chasing the adrenaline high before returning to fight him, pushing him further against the wall and bringing your knee up to hit his crotch, watching him grimace before digging two of his fingers into the wound in your side.

You cried out, still scratching desperately at his skin, before he caught onto the third and final staple, ripping it from your skin. Your eyes widened and he pushed you against the wall, giving your leg a sharp stomp for good measure, hearing something crack. You let our an ear-piercing wail, sobbing as he moved past and began the long walk to Max.

You tried to move but found you were unable to, stuck bleeding out on the floor, your ankle once again bent the wrong way.

"Billy," Max tried, "You don't have to do this- your name's Billy, Billy Hargrove," She begged, pleading with every syllable.

"You live on 4819 Cherry Lane, Billy please, I'm your sister-" She cried as he approached, backhanding her across the face and watching as she slumped to the ground too.

Mike tried next, rushing over to him and shoving Billy as hard as he could, and Billy retaliated by slamming his head against a metal pole before turning to El. She screamed, raising a hand up to try and do something, anything, but was quickly manhandled and shoved against a wall, things going black rather quickly. He picked her up, slinging her over his shoulder and began the walk back to the middle of Starcourt.

"Shit." You breathed out, making note of the way he'd abandoned the other kids, focusing solely on El, with tears slipping past your eyes. You could feel yourself fading but didn't want to give up yet, not entirely done helping.

You could let yourself be a pawn later.

You found an abandoned piece of cloth besides a mass of pipes, reaching for it and gritting your teeth, tying it around your waist. If you could stop the blood loss, you'd be fine. You'd deal with your leg later.

You glanced around desperately, trying to move yourself or at least prop the other two up, but found that quicker than you'd liked, it all went black. You spent a total of twelve minutes in-and-out of consciousness, eventually roused by the sound of Max attempting to wake Mike (and failing, miserably.)

You mumbled something incoherent, feeling the sharp stabbing pain in your ankle but finding yourself much more mobile, dragging yourself to your knees. She noticed your sudden commentary and breathed a sigh of relief, helping you up with a makeshift pipe as some sort of crutch as you both tried to wake Mike.

"Mike, can you hear me? Mike! Mike!" She yelled, practically pushing him over. He whispered in response, murmuring El's name as he woke, pushing himself up with his hands as his skull felt just about ready to split in half.

"C'mon-" She helped him up and you trailed after them, using the wall to help steady yourself, feeling slightly better now blood wasn't leaking from your side with every step.

"You okay?" She asked, Mike simply shaking his head in response, looking around to try and get his bearings. He stopped, eyebrows furrowing as he glanced over at both of you.

"Where's El?"

"He's got her." You chimed in, coughing slightly before moving to a different position, attempting to walk as quickly as possible. You wanted to help, even like this.

You rushed in, steadying yourself on a corner joined by Mike and Max at your side, staring as Billy Hargrove approached the Mind Flayer. Whatever El had said, perhaps the reminder of his mother or the fact that he was capable of good, something he hadn't known for a long time, had broken whatever possession the Mind Flayer had over him.

Now, he faced the creature as Billy Hargrove.

Just Billy Hargrove, and that was enough.

The creature came for him early, digging its limbs into his side as he fought it off, and he came to the untimely realisation that he wasn't scared. He figured he would be, when the time came, after all the drugs and the cigarettes, the drinking and the sex- he figured he'd want to feel something.

It was a substitute for the numbing cold he'd felt settled into his bones over the last few weeks and so just feeling anything was okay. He was protecting Max, something that he should've done this entire time but was too cowardly to do so, and that was okay.

He hoped this would make up for it in the end.

El scrambled backwards, and Dustin screamed commands into Cerebro from the top of the hill. Hopper saw the opportunity, and in what he believed to be his final moments, he saw all of you. He saw him and Joyce, dancing in the kitchen at midnight and fighting over useless things in the spring. He saw him and El, the Miami Vice flickering in the background accompanied by nights on the sofa. He saw you and him, watching you grow up and finally move out of Hawkins, escape to somewhere, anywhere; to finally just be happy. He saw him and Will, bonding over his drawing and talking about everything they could find.

He saw all of you, and Jim Hopper realised that he wasn't scared either. They were both going to go out protecting the kids, and that's all that mattered.

That didn't mean that Hopper didn't still want one last look at the woman he loved before he went, though.

Joyce watched as the flames engulfed everything, raging across the room as the gate sealed itself shut, slowly cutting off the connection to the other world. The rest of you saw the Mind Flayer slump to the ground, leaving an almost dead Billy Hargrove in its wake.

He chuckled, watching you and Max scramble over to him, pleased to see you all for one last time.

"Did I do good?" He mumbled, looking up at you as you held Max, bringing tears to your eyes. You didn't like it when anyone died, if you were being honest. Watching the life drain from a person's eyes- not a pretty picture. You saw it happen with Bob Newby, and even managed to get a good look at Barbara Holland's rotting corpse during your time in the upside-down.

It never got any easier.

"You know damn well you did, Hargrove. Ever the cocky son-of-a-bitch." You choked out, smiling slightly at the joy in his eyes when he saw Max. He wanted to apologise, to spend the rest of his days grovelling at her feet for the way he'd treated her. He wanted to make amends, but would never get a chance.

"Billy, please get up- please, please-" Max begged, whimpering at the sight of her older brother in pain. Despite it all, he was still her brother, and most of the family she had left.

"I'm...sorry." He slipped out amongst coughs, holding her hand and trying to pull her closer to him in his final moments. He really did mean it, this time.

"Billy? Billy, c'mon, wake up- this isn't- this isn't funny, Billy- wake up! Please, Billy you have to get up-" She sobbed, crying into your chest as you held her, rocking her back and forth, the both of you a mess.

She wept into his chest, pulling him closer before slumping back into you, and El, who'd walked over to comfort Max too.

"It's okay-" You both murmured, hugging her tight to your chest, sobs wracking through her body with unimaginable force. It only confirmed one thing in your mind; you never, ever wanted to see Max Mayfield like this again. You'd do anything.

Within twenty-five minutes, you'd all been escorted out of the building, and Robin Buckley was itching to find you.

You'd promised- You'd promised her, that you would stay safe. So, you had to be safe, she reasoned.

Eventually, her resolve came crashing down when she found you in the back of an ambulance, finally getting some proper stitches with tears streaming down your face, lollipop jutting out the corner of your lips with a sad smile. You caught sight of the Buckley girl rushing over to you, clutching and holding you close as you pulled her tighter to your chest.

"Hey, Robs." You whispered, chuckling into her shoulder as she let out a small laugh, leaning back and resting her forehead against yours. In the background, Steve Harrington watched the two of you closely and finally put two and two together. Or started to, at least. You looked happy, for the first time in a really long time.

"You stayed safe." She muttered, hugging you once more as the reality of the situation finally set in.

You were okay, and so was she.

You just about, despite the agony in your leg drove the both of you home after that, refusing to part with her until you knew that she was alright. Neither of you spoke on the way to yours, only living in a state of blissful silence as she escorted you to the door. She helped you inside, fully prepared to walk home, and you waved from your window. You slumped onto the couch with a small glass of water, turning the TV on to some mind-numbing channel. You'd heard about Hopper but unfortunately, had run out of tears to cry this evening. You'd let yourself feel all that tomorrow.

You had a feeling you wouldn't be sleeping much tonight. You never did, especially after nights like these. The monsters came for you in slumber, proving that you could've been faster, should've been stronger, and you got shown the kids splayed out on the concrete a thousand different ways.

You didn't want to sleep all that much.

You heard a knock at the door twenty-three minutes later, and figured it would be Steve- he often came after a fight, just so you could brave the night terrors together when you inevitably passed out. What you didn't expect to find was the Buckley girl stood at your door again, sucking in a breath.

"I don't know if you wanted to, but um- I don't have anything on tonight, and I just- fuck," She started, "I didn't realise it would be this hard. Okay, uh, dinner?"

She held out a large tub of vanilla ice cream and a small chess board, looking more beautiful than she'd ever looked before.

"God, you really are something, aren't you Buckley?" You grinned, pulling her in by the wrist and tumbling onto the couch together, her quickly pressing her lips to yours. It was far better than in constant duress underground in a Russian base, but was jaw-dropping then, nonetheless.

You winced, forgetting about the pain in your eye as she pulled away, looking down at you and laughing slightly.

"Oi, don't be mean-"

"I'm not! I'm not, I swear!" She chuckled, resting her head in the crook of your neck. You brought a hand up to run through her hair, and she relaxed, moving to a more comfortable position on the sofa where both of you could face the TV.

"Told you my dinners were good." She grumbled, grabbing the nearest spoon as you flipped through the channels, preparing yourself for a long night.

"Yeah, yeah, we're not finished yet- don't go getting cocky on me now, Buckley."

She smiled, and you smiled, and you spent the whole night watching Miami Vice, eating ice cream and playing chess.

You were alright, and in Robin's eyes, nothing else mattered.

Not anymore.

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

Taglist: @onceandfuturequeenofthecats

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ihvcmplnts · 4 months

Text

I hate the direction Poppy Playtime has gone in the past year. (Part 1)

Does anyone else hate the direction Poppy Playtime has taken this past year? and also not excited for Chapter 3? It really hurts me as I LOVED the first two Chapters! they felt really unique and special! I rarely get into new things, and when I do it's never as strongly as this!! So this may end up a little long, but I'd really appreciate it if people read this and understand the way I feel about this! (Especially you, MOBgames/MobEntertainment!)

Before I get into this, I have to admit that I'm terrible at writing, so this may be a little messy, but I'll try my best. Right, so there are many things I adored about Poppy Playtime: Chapter 1 & Chapter 2. We'll start with one of the things shared between both Chapters: Gameplay.

The gameplay in both Chapters is basically like this: Start Chapter -> do puzzles -> encounter living Toy -> do more puzzles -> encounter Toy again -> Toy chases you -> Toy dies -> End of Chapter.

I LOVE this formula! it works really well and is what the core of the game is: A cute, colourful & sometimes creepy puzzle game! (Too many games try to play up the horror aspect. the fact that these Chapters are cute, colourful puzzle games first, and creepy second, is something I really liked, as I'm personally not a fan of games trying to be "scary". games that try to be scary almost never are, and the thing with things that ARE scary? scares fade over time. creepy things though? those tend to stay creepy and linger in the mind for a long time! so yeah, creepy is miles better than scary!)

Next is the story. One thing I've noticed with many games over the years, is they try too hard to make a complex story. it always ends up feeling like things are forced in purely for "lOrE" and getting theorists to talk about it. this just completely ruins the story. see FNAF as an example. originally the plot was just "Man wearing yellow rabbit suit kills kids and stuffs their bodies in Animatronic suits, causing the children's souls to haunt said suits" nothing too complex here. very easy to understand. this was good. I liked FNAF a lot between 1 and SL. I think SL tied up the story perfectly. after that though, things started to change. now we're at a point where theres books that are apparently somewhat tied to the games? and games made after SL just don't fit in with the story previously told. it just seems very confusing to me and honestly puts me off the series. its just too complex at this point, so much so that I have zero desire to get back into the series. people just need to remember: simple is best! now back on topic: Poppy Playtime's story.

Poppy Playtime's story in the first two Chapters is simple. obviously there are two parts to this, so on to the first part: The Player's story - The Player, a former Playtime Co. employee, recieves a tape, and a note that states that the other employees, who disappeared in the factory 10 years ago, are actually still at the factory somewhere, but no-one has been able to find them. so the Player decides to go to the factory to investigate.

The second part - The Toys story: Toy Company finds a way to make living toys through the use of poppy flowers. minus Poppy herself, who seems to act more human, possibly due to being older and picking up on human behaviours, the living toys are like animals. Playtime Co. tries to teach, train & tame the toys. some, like Huggy Wuggy, are tame from the start, and some, such as Mommy Long Legs, are mostly tame, but also need a bit of training. then there are others who are more like wild animals that cannot be tamed. with the events currently taking place, many of the Toys, having been abandoned for 10 years, have reverted back into wild animals due to lack of socialisation and food. they're forced to eat their own kind in order to survive.

(Just a note I'd like to add is that one of my favourite things about Poppy Playtime is that the world inside Chapter 1 & Chapter 2 feels plausible. everything in those two feel like things that could happen in real life. The Toys being created, and the Toys themselves, with the way they act and the way they move. it's so good!!)

The second part of the story is facinating to me! a story of creating life that doesn't naturally exist, and the process of teaching them about the world they're in, and the roles they're given. it's SO unique and refreshing! the Toys being real, living beings, and not just a bunch of humans or human souls trapped inside a body that's not theirs was AMAZING!! Humans actually being the monsters in games is WAY too common, and honestly extremely boring. definitely a trope I am absolutely sick of. I know many others feel the same. genuine monsters are just SO much better! (more on this later)

Next thing I'd like to mention, which will be short: The look of the games.

I LOVE the look of both Chapter 1 (OG) & Chapter 2!! they look unique and have an amazing aesthetic. from these, you can easily tell what game you're looking at! cartoony, with a bit of realism. I've never liked realism myself, but the cartoony style with a hint of realism seen here really works!! its just a shame they ruined Chapter 1 a bit with the update they put out a few months back.

I also LOVE the Toy Factory setting!! normally factories in games are really ugly and unappealing, but Poppy Playtime Chapter 1 & Chapter 2 managed to make a factory that is adorable and colourful!! seeing the character art and colours everywhere makes it so appealing! with those and other things like the way the pipes on the walls look, and just how cartoony it all looks, including the machines seen in both chapters, the factory itself looks like a giant toy! it's wonderful and magical and I cannot praise it enough!

Now I'm going to focus on the things I liked about both Chapters individually.

Chapter 1: Short, to the point. a great intro for the game. Huggy may have had little screentime, but what he had was perfect. he was basically "tutorial monster", which really worked for him. his role has been fulfilled. overall, just a nice little experience. 10/10 experience for the original Steam version.

Chapter 2: A longer, more story-driven Chapter. All of the Toys in this one were great in the roles they were given, but of course Mommy Long Legs stood out. I absolutely LOVE Mommy!! her playful, childlike personality was always so fun, and she's utterly adorable!! I love that she talks! it made her so much more interesting, really adds to the cuteness of her character, and is the sole reason why she was also a bit creepy. The minigames of this Chapter were great fun! and the green hand is cool! I miss the red one though. :( red and blue go better than blue and green! anyway - Chapter 2 really is amazing, and basically took what we had in Chapter 1 & made it so, SO much better!! 10/10!! honestly, Mommy alone makes Chapter 2 deserve a 10/10 score! she's THAT amazing!! (I also LOVE that Mommy is the baby of the living toys!! it's so cute! I hope it stays that way as being the youngest really suits her!! she's very cutesy, has a somewhat child-like personality & way of speaking, and is the smallest of the bigger toys, so its perfect! I like to imagine she's like a little sister to other toys like Huggy & PJ! and I think there's enough reason to think she may have been close to those two in particular, especially Huggy, which I really like as those three are my favourites! Huggy, Mommy & PJ were the original Playtime Trio too. I miss that group so bad!! I'd love to see merch of just those 3 together! a blanket would be the best thing!!)

Next: Toy Designs The designs of the main cast of toys (Huggy, Mommy, PJ, Bunzo, Poppy, Kissy, Candy, CatBee, Bron & Boogie) are all great in that their designs actually look like toys that could exist in real life! Huggy, Mommy, PJ & Bunzo are easily the stand-outs. they're the ones I think look most plausible, and most interesting. Mommy's design is by far the best! super cute & pretty. she's absolutely a toy I would've LOVED to have when I was a kid. she and PJ feel very nostalgic to me as they actually do look like the sort of toys that were about from my childhood! I haven't got anything more to say about Huggy or Bunzo, but they're just great designs! I also don't have anything else to say about the other main toys - Candy, CatBee, Poppy, Kissy, Bron & Boogie. again, just great designs! Candy in particular I have a soft spot for. she's cute!

I will say though: Huggy's & Mommy's designs were totally butchered in Project: Playtime. Ugly and no longer look plausible as actual toys. (same for Bunzo's design at the end of the Easter comic, and now Kissy & Poppy.) not sure why they ruined them so bad in that game. they should've left them alone! I was REALLY hoping they didn't use them again, especially not in the main game. The person who made the redesigned models completely missed the point of the characters: they're meant to look plausible as actual toys, be cute, and in some cases a bit uncanny. also the inspiration for certain characters is lost in the redesigns. The GrabPack also looks bad. more on all this later. probably in a separate post.

I keep hoping they'll change them back to their original designs in the spinoff, (and now the main game) as it is one of the major reasons I've been completely put off of ever playing it. because they look so horrible!! actually, there's a LOT about Project: Playtime I don't like. Its actually the reason Poppy Playtime started to go downhill for me, due to it making so many changes, retcons and just not making sense. I'll get to that in a bit. first though: The Chapter 1 update.

My main issue with the update is it made the game too dark, which really ruins the experience. how can a game be enjoyed properly when you can't even see anything? it just completely changes & ruins the atmosphere, which is sad. I have other more minor complaints about the update, but I won't bother with those here.

I REALLY hope they don't update Chapter 2. or at the very least, visually. I understand if they want to add subtitles like Chapter 1, but Chapter 2, just like the original version of Chapter 1, is perfect as it is. I'd be so devastated and heartbroken to see Chapter 2 ruined. It's very important to me.

also, I really hope they bring back OG Chapter 1 someday.

I'm probably forgetting something, but for now I think I'm done with the stuff I loved & liked. now onto all the crap that I feel is ruining the game, starting with what started the decline: Project: Playtime.

Project: Playtime, as previously stated, is definitely what started the massive decline in the series. it made so many awful, unnecessary changes & retcons to the main game. I'm surprise I haven't seen as many people as I thought I would talking about all the issues it (and Chapter 3) introduced. here's a list of the changes & retcons made in this game:

1.The living Mommy being made before her toy. So she only had a matter of days to bond with the other living toys, the ones that she was so attached to? and the staff only tried to train her for a few days before deciding to move her elsewhere so they could condition her into tolerating & looking after or guiding kids with the hope it MAY calm her down? such a stupid retcon that makes no sense. I figured they'd at least try working on her behaviour for a couple of years, or heck, even just a few months, before trying this method! also I'm pretty sure its impossible to create toys, and send them to stores in less than a month. (If anyone is confused: Mommy's toy came out 2nd of February, 1991. this means that with Project's retcon, which states the living Mommy was also created in 1991, was made somewhere between 1st January 1991 to 1st of February 1991. it just doesn't work!!)

2.While on the subject, Mommy's personality. part of her profile in Project states "Mommy is best described as a spider-like psychotic murderer who kills for fun." I have multiple problems with this.

To start, I don't see how she's spider-like. Sure, there are some references, but her design is clearly human, and her personality is more cat-like with the way she watches & plays with the player.

Next, how is Mommy psychotic? sure, it was obvious in Chapter 2 that Mommy is mentally ill, the way she behaves and speaks feel like a young adult, who acts very child-like. but looking at what I can see from a quick search of psychosis, most of the symptoms don't seem to match. I thought her illness was either because her handler(or whatever they call the person/people who takes care of her) didn't treat her very well, (which, along with being taken away from the toys she loved, also caused her to hate humans) or just a random, made up illness that would never be explained.

Also, it called her a murderer. how is she a murderer? as far as we're aware, she's only killed Bunzo and some of the Mini Huggies, which could be justified. bear in mind the main game establishes two things: 1.The toys are starving due to a lack of food, and 2.There appears to be multiple different sides, or groups, amongst the toys. Mommy could've made a deal with Bunzo & the Mini Huggies where she'd spare them and find food elsewhere if they killed the player, or maybe they'd share the player's corpse, as I'm sure it would be plenty for all of them. as they failed, and she was starving, she could've chosen to eat them, so of course killed them. in regards to "sides", it seems to me that there are at least two or three different sides that the toys are on. Huggy & Mommy seem to be on the same side, as there's quite a lot out there that suggests the two are close, and also that they both seem to dislike Poppy. Poppy herself seems to be on her own side, though it wouldn't surprise me if she was secretly working with the Prototype. speaking of which, Prototype seems to also have his own little group. but again, wouldn't surprise me if Poppy's on his side. people wonder why Mommy didn't kill PJ. there are multiple possibilities, though the ones I think apply: He's too big for her to kill as he's much larger than her. he could also have been part of her group, and her friend. It also could just be that she didn't get time or was too focused on finding the player, but I doubt that. I think its possible that Mommy could've killed Bunzo & the Mini Huggies because they were of a different group, though I find that unlikely as they live where she lives, and she set the Mini Huggies free. It could've just been pure rage, but even if that was A reason, I think food is probably the main reason she killed them. I wouldn't call her a murderer for that. It was simply survival.

It also says she kills for fun….. No she doesn't. In Chapter 2 she clearly doesn't want to personally kill the player, as she has them play games with other toys in the hopes that one of them kills the player instead. it was only when she was out of options that she went after the player herself. It's true that she threatened to kill the player during her intro scene, but I'm sure that was purely to scare the player into playing her games. So yes, she DID want the player dead, and she may have wanted to watch it happen, but she still didn't want to actually do the killing herself! and to be honest, even if Mommy DID decide to kill the player herself instead of having other toys try first, I still wouldn't say she's a murderer, or that she kills for fun. We know the player was a member of staff as Mommy recognised them. Mommy hates the staff. if she was actually treated poorly, and I bet she was, especially with her "conditioning", killing the Player would both feel like vengeance for how she was treated, and give her food to eat. So yeah, Project's info is false. I really don't know why they wrote it that way.

I won't delve too much into it here, but I also don't like the nonsense abilities made up for the characters in the game. The Steam page also lists how the characters play incorrectly, but that's a topic for a different post.

Other things I don't like are: 1.The change in art-style. I can't pinpoint exactly why it looks so different, but it looks bland and ugly. though at least it still looks cartoony, so I'll give it credit for that.

2.The locations. they don't make sense and do not fit in the world. though I don't think they were meant to be canon, which is good, but I think creators should take care with spin-offs in making sure they fit in with their main series.

3.Boxy Boo. I think his design is bad. he doesn't look like a toy Playtime Co. would make, and doesn't look plausible. He just doesn't fit into the world. he also lacks the "cute" look of the other toys. his name is also awful, but just "Boxy" would've been fine. He honestly just feels like a rip-off of both Huggy (combo of eyes, sharp teeth, furry.) and Mommy. (stretchy, even if done differently.)

I also HATE his fleshy mouth. He's a toy! why is his mouth fleshy?? I could say more, but I'll leave it there. I may delve more into his design in another post.

This game is also the thing that introduced two things to the series: 1.The Bigger Bodies Initiative (BBI for short) & 2.The possibility that some of the living Toys are made using human parts. some people also think that its suggesting that the Toys are actually not just made from humans, but ARE the humans they're made from. PLEASE NO. (more on this in a bit.)

The first of the two, the BBI, is just so silly to me. I hate the name. it sounds stupid. and the whole need for a special title for certain bigger toys, when there was no need for the smaller toys or previous bigger toys doesn't make sense. also the game suggests that Boxy was the first living Toy created, but that doesn't make sense either. Prototype was suggested to be the first of something due to his name. I have an idea of what it is, but I'll be saving that for later. Next, its heavily implied that Poppy is the first ever living Toy. why another "first"? what else could he be the first of? the only thing I can think of is he's the first that used human parts. though the game seems to have retconned Huggy & Mommy into BBI experiments too, which I do NOT like.

This leads me into the next one: that some Toys are made using human parts.

I HATE this!! it's SO unoriginal and boring. it was far more interesting with them all being created using only poppy flowers! (and I'd assume lab created blood. though it could also be the poppy flowers mixed with some sort of water to make it look & function like blood)

The whole "The Toys are humans" thing is even worse!! it doesn't make sense and it completely ruins the characters and the plot!! it also completely removes any creepiness from the games! how is it even the slightest bit creepy if the Toys are just a bunch of people?? pretty much everything given in the first two chapters basically said that the Toys were exactly as they're presented: Living Toys. stuff outside the game also heavily suggested this. If the Ch1 & Ch2 Toys are people now, it's definitely a massive (and awful) retcon! one that, again, makes NO sense whatsoever! The Toys being simply just living toys trying to adapt to and navigate a world they weren't naturally made for is so much more interesting! I'll be talking more about this in a bit as I'll be talking about all the evidence for both sides.

Actually, I'm going to make a part 2 of this post to go over other things in more detail. I've spent hours writing this out and I'm so tired. so I'll leave it here for now, but I'll try to get part 2 up soon. I'd love to post it today, but I think its more likely to be within a couple of days or so. maybe longer. we'll see. anyway, if anyone had read all this, thank you! if anyone does read this and agrees with anything I've said here, please feel free to add your own thoughts on what you agree with as it's always nice hearing from others who share opinions. :) or alternatively, make your own post about your thoughts on the series! or both!

Just quickly going to add: I'm VERY disappointed in the Console version of Chapter 1. I was hoping for a normal port of the OG Steam version with the Steam picture for the console menu icon. this version doesn't look very good and the icon used for it is hideous!! bring back the iconic steam picture you cowards!!

I also have much to add about Chapter 3 aswell, such as:

1.The Smiling Critters have a bad design (why 8 identical designs with minor differences though??) and also don't fit in. (Especially the bigger ones)

2.How ugly the game and characters look.

3.The new hands are bad and again, don't fit in.

4.The fact that CatNap seems to be confirmed to be a human, which is a massive retcon for the series.

Also a couple of other things related to both Ch3 & Project:

1.How MOB have clearly lost sight of what Poppy Playtime was meant to be & what made it so special.

2.How MOB clearly doesn't care about pleasing actual fans and are only trying to pander to haters, and their clique of Discord users/Partners In Crime members/a particular set of theorists.

I've probably forgotten something, but I tried my best. I wish I could've posted this months ago (and also in complete form) but things kept getting in the way. Any questions? feel free to ask. bye for now.

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