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creativeashproductions · 3 years

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In the Beginning // Alive!Luke Patterson

Summary: Reggie (Rhodes)’s older sister is the epitome of cool in his, and his friends, eyes with her in a band. Pushed by a hazel eyed brunette with a huge crush on the eldest Rhodes teen the boys decide to start a band. While at first the band is for Luke’s dream of landing you he finds his passion with music.

Warning: Swearing, angst, fluff, dad!Luke

Words: 4.1k

A/N: I couldn’t resist writing another alive!Luke fic with Luke crushing on his band mate’s sister. Ugh, just imagine Luke suggesting a band to impress his crush only to fall in love with music instead. For my fics it will be Alex Mitchell and Reggie Rhodes until JATP reveals their canon names.

Masterlist

Los Angeles, 1992

The guitar case was a familiar heaviness as you walked into the home for the first time in months after a practice. You ached from the long travel, and all you wanted was your bed. The yawn came first, then the startled yell at the living room.

Four pairs of eyes met the girl standing in the entryway, surprised at a sleepover with her brother and his full friends. Eyebrows coming together you shook your head wondering why they had come here instead of the typical Patterson home.

“Hey!” Fourteen-year-old Reggie beamed towards his older sister excited she was back from her weekend band practice. Your eyes blinked at his usual upbeat personality before switching to the brown eyes from Bobby, too shy to full meet yours.

Spread around the living room watching a movie was Reggie’s best friends; the socially awkward Alex, the shy Bobby, and the Patterson boy Luke. The young typically spent their time at Luke’s place, so seeing them in your home was strange.

“Reg, what’s up?” You asked crouching to untie your shoes confused at the sharp audible gasp coming from Luke. Standing straight up, you saw Luke awkwardly looking away with bright red cheeks.

“How was practice?” Reggie inquired with the smile he got from your mom and his dark hair from your dad.

Reggie usually wasn’t interested in your band leading you to wonder what the hell was going on with them. Being sixteen you didn’t socialize with Reggie’s friends, thanks to the two year age gap, but you were happy he had good friends. Well, less than two years between you and Luke.

“It was good. Since when are you interested in Crimson Queen?” You questioned moving more into the room with the four young teens, “You haven’t even touched your bass in years.”

One eyebrow raised you individually looked at the boys in the room all with sheets of paper around them. From a distance, you couldn’t tell what was on them, but it couldn’t be homework. They all attended the same high school while you had done correspondence with the band and a tutor.

“Luke’s parents got him a guitar,” Reggie spoke gesturing to the decent brand new acoustic guitar on the floor beside the Patterson. Luke’s hazel eyes widening as you came closer to the group.

Your hand picking up the guitar to look it over finding it was decent for a beginner, but it was definitely not tuned. The sheer sound made you wince.

“So, you guys want to be a band?” You questioned sitting on the floor beside Luke. The boy shifting nervously, you weren’t blind that he got shy around girls, “Do you guys even play instruments?”

“I got the bass, Bobby can play rhythm guitar, Alex plays dru-“

“I wouldn’t call it proper drumming. It’s just something my therapist suggested with my anxiety and frustrations.” Alex raised his hand leading to everyone in the room looking at the tall male, recently had a growth spurt, with the backward black hat.

“And Luke will learn guitar as well.” You added, looking at the quiet, “How well can you play?”

“I don’t even know how to properly tune it,” Luke admitted playing with his fingers adorned with a ring.

Luke had chosen a cutoff shirt in an attempt to gain your attention to his arms he hoped had gotten more muscled. He had a massive crush on you but with the guys your own age he had step up; he started working out. He actually enjoyed it, but he’d enjoy it more if you were checking him out.

“You’ll need a place to practice.” You mumbled glancing out the window at the ocean waves thinking. The house was on the prime real estate edge of the beach all thanks to your well off parents; Dad, a doctor and Mom, an interior designer.

Your fingers tapped on the ripped blue jeans you had chosen that day with the flannel shirt opened over the black AC/DC t-shirt. You started standing up, grabbing Luke’s hand to pull him up as well; the boy’s cheeks grew pinker, and his heart fluttered.

“What?” Luke spluttered, staring at his hand, caught in yours in sheer awe.

“You’ll need a place to practice.” You answered, dropping is head to reach in your pocket for your key chain.

The key chain had a few keys on it: one for home, one for your car, one for the band van for gigs, one for the garage, and lastly one for the house the garage belonged to. The boys piled into the car, apprehensive for where you were taking them. The only sound was the radio playing local greatest hits, your foot slammed on the brake at the house of your bassist.

“Well Marty, this song has blown up on the charts. New band Crimson-“

“Holy shit.” You breathed staring at the radio. Your door opened as you sprinted down to the steps that led to the garage. The footsteps of the boys following.

The garage was open already with your band members lounging around the space filled with instruments and amps. Their heads swivelling as you frantic turned the radio on.

“Come on.” You mumbled, turning the radio station to the right one, “Guys listen!”

“-Crimson Queen is an LA-based band making waves in the LA Nightlife and hit the top ten with their newest song Sorry Now.” The radio host spoke, “If you haven’t heard the song before, this is the band’s new single.”

The song was blasted from the radio leading to the four girls screaming the song out dancing around the room. Euphoria was the only way you could call the feeling rising in the bodies of the girls in the place. The room burst into more screams as your drummer. Faith switched the radio station.

“Today history was made, Crimson Queen is an all-female rock band fronted by Y/N Rhodes. They started as a hobby at fifteen, but a year later at sixteen they’ve made waves.” A hit radio station, the second one so far, was talking about your band. Holy shit.

“Lucy, this band is going places. My daughter is seven years old, and she’s telling me this band is the talk of her school. I can’t tell how much Lucy listens to their demo.”

Your eyes saw Reggie having a meltdown of excitement for older sister and her band, and you were so unbelievably happy you should care the moment. You rushed over to Reggie to pull him into a hug.

“Girls…and boys.” Mrs Taylor spoke furrowing her brows at the young boys in the garage her daughter had begged to use for the band. Shaking her head, the middle-aged woman turned her attention to her daughter.

“Hey, Ma.” Dawn, your bassist, spoke spreading her pink painted lips to her perfectly straight teeth too hyped up on energy, “What’s up?”

“First congratulations on the single. Secondly, we’re gonna need to get a personal line for the band because our phone is blowing up.”

A sharp gasp from Dawn before the three of the four girls rushed to the house of the Taylor’s. You hung back to look at your brother and his band.

“So? What do you think?” You inquired with the group, “This idea of yours has to be one hundred percent what you want. It won’t be easy in LA, it will come with hardships, and Reggie Mom and Dad won’t let you drop out.”

The four boys nodded their heads because the excitement they saw in your big break was something they wanted. To be able to connect with people cemented their decision.

“Feel free to hang around.” You suggested glancing around the garage that started it all, “I’ll be back in a bit.”

The Orpheum, Los Angeles, 1995

The crowd screamed as Crimson Queen, the song that started this road played with the girl crouching to grasp the hand of fans. At the beat of the chorus, you stood up eating up the energy of the last show of the tour. You went jumped on the drum riser rocking on the guitar as Faith did her magic.

Dawn on her bass made her way to rock with your rhythm guitarist Sara sharing grins with you still feeling the euphoria of this success. As the song came to an end, your entire band went to the front of the stage.

“We’d like to thank our fans for the last nine months of our world tour. We started this band in LA in 1991, so we thought it fit to end our tour at The Orpheum.” You spoke to the crowd, feeding off the energy as the concert came to an end.

The road crew would load your instruments up in the van to take home after months of travelling. You were so excited to see Reggie, who would be seventeen now, having celebrated his birthday while you had been in Europe. Too excited were shocked as Reggie backstage.

“Reggie!” You exclaimed tugging the teen into your arms, leaning back to take him in, “Damn you grew!”

Reggie grinned not giving a shit you were coated in sweat from performing your setlist, but your eyes went over his shoulder. Standing close and just as excited was Reggie’s friends. Alex was taller, Bobby looked more confident, and Luke could meet your eyes. Luke also had changed, no longer baby faced.

“Sunset Curve.” You spoke, stepping back to look them over, “I haven’t seen you guys in months, how did you change so much!”

“That’s what happens when you go on tour for almost a year.” Luke teased tugging you into his arms for a tight hug.

It was odd seeing Luke taller and more muscled than when you left for tour, and the confidence was honestly hot. You had seen Luke as anything other than your brother’s friend, who tended to stare a little too long.

“You played the fucking Orpheum!” Alex screamed, holding your shoulders with a wrinkled nose at the damp red thin flannel shirt. The girls wandered up behind you each with a grin at the guys.

“Well if it isn’t Sunset Swerve,” Sara spoke swinging her arm over your shoulder with a teasing smirk plastered on her face. Her blonde hair swept up in a bun high on her head from a recent shower.

“Sunset Curve!” The male quartet snapped at the name before they fell back into a happy demeanour. Luke and you both staring at each other with a pink-hued face.

Faith was quieter in the group leaning closer to your band to whisper in your ear, “Jay scored us some drinks. But MJ got us into a party.” Faith’s textured hair tickling your neck.

Grins split the three girls at the suggestion each excited for the party with fellow musicians and plus ones. Sure, the parties had drugs and alcohol, but they were fun and part of the scene. Half of you wanted to go, but the other wanted to spend time with your brother.

“I’ll think I’ll pass.” You spoke up to the girls motioning to the guys, “I’ll head back with them. Meet you at the house later?”

Your black vans moving backwards as you moved to be closer to be flush against Reggie’s side grinning as he bumped his hip against you. Sara, Faith and Dawn each raising an eyebrow at your response since you often dragged them to parties.

“Orrr…we could each take one of them.” Faith cajoled mocha skin gleaming in the light with her hands, tugging her hair into a thick braid.

“You want me to take my seventeen-year-old brother and his friends-“

“-I’m like two weeks from being eighteen-” Luke cut into the conversation buzzing at the possible date, but not date, with the girl he had been crushing on for years. He was pretty sure he was in love with you at this point; he did date a little, but nothing stuck.

“-To a party in Hollywood.” You finished pinning your gaze on the three girls ahead each with mischievous grins. Your cheeks puffed as you breathed out, thinking of the positives and negatives.

Bobby was bouncing on his heels with Reggie leaving Alex shifting uncomfortably in his place. His partially relaxed when Luke squeezed his forearm through the distressed black jean jacket that bought his outfit together. Luke himself was apprehensive on your decision because either way, he got to spend time with you.

“Come on.” Dawn implored, pulling out the big guns with her ocean blue eyes widening into the puppy gaze that did you in each time. Her curtain of short dyed pink hair framing her heart-shaped face.

“I’m going to pass this time. Do some shots for me! Not tequila though, that was a huge mistake.” Faith’s grin widened at having you carry you out of the house in the early morning after a wicked party.

“Did you ever find your tho-“

“Faith!” You hissed turning a bright red at her revelation that you definitely didn’t want Reggie to know. The atmosphere turned awkward as everyone realized what the sentence would end with.

Okay so maybe you had hooked up with a few people over the last three years but nothing permanent. It was fun, drunk fun, but still fun and nothing had gone wrong. Your eyes avoided looking at Luke for a reason you couldn’t decipher.

“I’ll see you later.” You spoke motioning for the guys to follow you to the dressing room you had settled in early in the day. The corner of your lips quirked at the awe on each of the boys’ faces.

“I’m in the dressing where bands become legends.” Reggie gasped circling the room with wide-eyed interest. Alex was interested in the band posters on the walls from previous performers.

Luke, however, was more interested in your curves covered by your sweaty stage clothing that stuck to your form. His Adam’s apple gulped as you grabbed your shower bag moving towards the connected bathroom.

“I’ll grab a shower, and we can head out.” You supplied, “I’ll just need to stop at Rudy’s office for our portion of the concert.”

The guys mumbled a response finding a place to wait without hushed conversations of when they would get to play. Luke’s eyes found yours at the low call of his name from the bathroom; a crack opened he walked over.

“Do you have a sweater?” You mumbled at the taller teen with widening eyes as he realized that you were naked behind the door.

Luke stumbled over his feet, retrieving the black pullover Crimson Queen merch he had had for months now. He had saved up money to buy the merch to support the band. The door closed as you tugged the sweater in the bathroom momentarily before walking out.

“Thanks Lu. I forget to pack a shirt.” Luke awed as your nose scrunched up adorably to the amusement of his friends, “So, do you wanna hit the beach? Or maybe give me a concert in the garage?”

Luke intertwined his fingers in yours as he tugged you out of the room with your bag in hand. His heart fluttered as you held on to his hand even in the little office of the Orpheum’s management for the thick envelope of money.

“Thanks, Rudy!” You called over your shoulder at the short, stout man going over the financials and upcoming performances.

The smell of Sunset Boulevard brought a smile remembering the first time you performed and the small group that had waited outside. The first night of autographs and recognition.

“So, Reg how’s my car?” You questioned the teen who impishly grinned tugging the key chain from his black jeans. You had given him the keys when you revealed Crimson Queen had a world tour.

“Right there.” Reggie pointed leading the group of five to the car that would take them to the garage. Reggie drove with Alex in the passenger while you were crammed between Bobby and Luke; Luke was delighted in your warmth against his side.

While your band members partied, you got a first-row seating to Sunset Curve’s talent in the garage where you had started out. It was amazing to see how much they had accomplished in the three years since they started.

The sudden knock on the door had you flailing off the couch onto the floor with a sheet of paper stuck to your cheek. Your spine cracked as you sat up glancing at your watch, finding it was after midnight, only an hour of sleep after inspiration for a new song.

The door was knocked on once more and coming close the sound of crying could be heard, and you wondered if it was Luke. He had been over a few days in the night following a fight with his parents and needed to crash; helped you were giving dating a chance after his well-rehearsed speech.

Imagine your shock when it was Reggie sobbing, “Reggie.”

“C-can I stay here?” Reggie whimpered cuddling himself into the leather jacket he received at Christmas from you. You had inside in your arms in moments, “I couldn’t sleep.”

“Are they fighting again?” You murmured to your younger brother content to hold him as he cried. Bringing him to the living room, you held him as he cried humming under your breath the first song you ever let him see.

“Yeah. The music doesn’t work anymore.” Reggie murmured leaning back to wipe his tears off, “Sorry for crashing. I can go stay with-“

“Here. Reginald, you can always stay here.” You soothed the seventeen-year-old boy with sad eyes and a sombre look. His sad eyes shattered your heart, knowing he had suffered the fighting for months alone, “This house is empty Reg. You can move in here.”

His lip quirked up, “Can we play country music?”

“And eat breakfast at night.” You teased him grinning as his lips pulled up into his trademark grin, “The guys can come over whenever they want. I’d actually prefer they know they can stay here, they deserve a safe place to stay.”

You knew that Alex endured living with his parents, who had gone out of their way to avoid him after he came out. Luke couch surfed at your old house, never at Alex’s home; after coming out, Alex didn’t feel comfortable bringing anyone over.

“Good, because they’re outside.” Reggie sheepishly admitted raising his thumbs-up, “Go thinking ahead!”

Snorting the human version of a golden retriever you opened the front door to the house finding two guys in strange positions. Alex was inspecting the light fixture, and Luke was leaning against the wall with his elbow, foot across the other.

“You guys need lessons in the art of pretending you weren’t eavesdropping.” The sigh fell stepping aside for the two to enter the home—each carrying a backpack and small duffle bag for wherever they would have crashed.

The male trio got comfortable in the living room curiously glancing at the mess of papers, sticky notes and pencils. While with good intentions, they didn’t follow boundaries well, even for Alex.

“Whatcha working on?” Luke inquired, leaning closer to a sheet of paper. His pout coming over his face when you quickly tidied up the papers.

“Nothing. I fell asleep on the couch. The label wants new songs.” You groaned rubbing your eyes, “I got inspired last night. Oh! Hey, I took a message for you guys.”

Jogging to your office studio for the band you quickly grabbed the envelope along with the note that you had been given.

“So, Rudy called me, and I had a meeting with him.” You started sitting on the coffee table in front of the trio. The trio leaned forward.

“Rudy?” Luke questioned, pursing his lips together at the male name. While you and Luke were dating it wasn’t official, he was just really nervous with his dream girl liking him back.

“He’s the management for a venue. He asked if our band was available for a concert, but we collectively decided to focus on songs and recording, which you can’t tell anyone about, but he’s in dire need. So, I might have given him something. Specifically a demo of yours and knowing your home situations I gave my information.”

“Okay…so?” Alex questioned, leaning forward. His eyes growing wide as you pushed the envelope in his hand.

Alex quickly opened the cream envelope finding inside a paper along with a mock-up promo poster with Sunset Curve. The squeal was shocking from the teenager as he read the letter and note out loud.

Y/N,

I gave the demo a listen, and we usually wouldn’t do this, but Crimson Queen has been gracious with us. Always mentioning where the band got its start and closing the tour here. To repay the favour, we would formally like to invite Sunset Curve to perform. In the envelope is a mock-up poster as an option for the promo. Get the Sunset Curve’s people to get in touch. I can get the word out to some friends from some labels to come for a listen. Get in touch as soon as possible.

Manager of The Orpheum in Los Angeles,

Rudy West.

“The Orpheum?” Luke screamed, yanking the paper from Alex to re-read it in complete shock, “We don’t have people!”

“But Crimson does.” You smirked, “On a temporary basis Crimson Queen formally offer our manager’s help.”

In his excitement, Luke lunged to pull you into a kiss freezing the room in shock.

“He got the girl.” Alex breathed elbowing Reggie in the side who’s mouth was open at his best friend kissing Reggie’s older sister. The older sister who was the driving force behind Luke wanting to form a band to impress her, “We need to tell Bobby!”

1995 was the best year for Luke Patterson. He got the girl, his band made it, his parents finally saw his dream was worth it.

The sound of music hypnotized the woman as she wandered down the hall to the open door of the large home. Nothing too over the top like Bobby’s mansion, but it was a nice size in a gated area. Your neighbours being Reggie on one side and Alex on the other side with his partner Willie; Willie had skated into Alex and into a love story pretty much.

Resting against the door edge of the designated home studio you saw Luke had moved a rocking recliner in. Softly playing in the room was a soft acoustic song recorded months previous as a surprise for you.

“When are the lessons starting?” You questioned bringing Luke’s attention to your soft smile and the love in your eyes. Luke’s grin widened glancing down at the miniature version of his love-filled eyes.

“Given her legendary parents, I think at two.” Luke chuckled shuffling the baby to the crook of his arm shifting, so you could curl into his side as well. Both eyes gazing at the little baby you had welcomed what felt like yesterday.

Stevie could fall asleep only to the lullaby her father had created during the pregnancy, and he had written. Stevie had Luke’s eyes, and so far her blonde hair had yet to darken so the question of if she’d take after your hair or his hair was unanswered.

“Hey sweetheart.” You whispered to your daughter falling asleep to the sound of her father’s voice in the room. An adorable yawn pulled from her little body as she nestled into Luke’s arms.

“She’s so gorgeous.” Luke breathed tears welling up as he could understand the reasoning behind his parents’ opinions in his teens. He truly felt terrible at hurting his mom now that he felt the love for his child.

“We did good Patterson.” You murmured back to the man who had held your heart since you were nineteen and back from tour. Your finger tracing Steve’s soft cheek, “I think she has your mom’s mouth.”

Luke’s lips lingered on your cheek heart full of love for his family with you and his little girl. He had known since his eleventh birthday he would marry you even if you were a year older. A year that made the difference when he was months older than his friends, so the year felt like two for you. At eighteen when was tentatively dating you, he knew he would marry you. He never anticipated the sheer amount of adoration for the little girl he would have at twenty-one.

God, he loved his life. He made up with his parents, his best friends, had the girl of his dreams, the most beautiful daughter and it all thanks to music. Can you see why he lives and breathes music?

Tag List Underneath (PLEASE SEND AN INBOX TO BE ADDED!)

@safehavenmuse @siennanoelle01 @whiterose291 @mell-bell @blackhood5sos @ficrecsideblog @ifilwtmfc @deadpoolgirl23 @crappy-unicorn @sunsetcurve-h @elioelioeli0 @lovesanimals @popcrone818 @lolychu @deepsleepnat @tenaciousperfectionunknown @aunicornmademedoit @just-a-writer-here @simp4reggie @parkeret @faithiebrock01 @overlyhypedup @differentsoulrascalsalad @aesthetic-lyss @versaceapa @carleywhittaker @lostgirl219 @itsalexx21 @elllaoo4 @merxxleighann @mediocremunge @fantomlovesjuke4ever @dpaccione @oswin05 @kaylinfayezink @aberette13 @faithie-brock-gillespie01 @eharvey0218 @overlyhypedup @benstormy @auriandthepussicats @sarcasticsagittarius1998 @whothefuckstolemykeds @kcd15 @siriuswvrld @princessvader15 @xoxbloodreinaxox @heimdoodle @joshy-obx @lovesanimals @oopsiedoopsie23 @am3l1a-24 @flying-solo-without-you @jaskiers-sweetkiss @lostrandomfangirln @must-be-a-weasley-92 @jatp-holland @ilikealotofpeople-younotsomuch @dxlanhxlland @dasexydevitt13 @ifilwtmfc @arianagrandes-things @kinda-really-lost @marinettepotterandplagg @ssprayberrythings @morgandamrose @thedarkqueenofavalon

#luke patterson imagines #luke patterson x reader #dad!luke patterson #julie and the phantoms imagines #charlie gillespie imagines #alive!luke patterson #jatp luke #caitsy and ash productions #jatp au

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allieisnothere · 3 years

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More Julie and the Phantoms headcanons

A while ago I made this post of my JatP head canons and I thought of some more so here they are!

- The scene where Luke is asking Julie what is in her dream box and all of their responses got my thinking:

Luke is an only child (obviously thats canon, but this highlights the ‘everything in this house is fair game’ mentality of people who grew up as only children and never had to share - he has to know what is in the dream box cause he has never had a sibling tell him no. I know we were all sobbing, but did you see how many presents there were under their Christmas tree in the Unsaid Emily scene??? he wasn’t sharing; those were all for him!). And his little “girl stuff” line; boy does not see murder when it is right in front of him - anyone with a sibling would not have egged Julie on like that unless they were ready to fight.

Reggie’s little glitter line: He has siblings and they are all brothers so he understands siblings, but is clueless about sisters. Reggie is a middle child. He has an older brother Harrison (everyone call him Harry) who was 19 years old when Reggie passed away, and Lawrence (Lance) who was 14.

Alex has a little sister so in the dream box scene he’s just like I am so sorry my friends are idiots who know nothing about girls and privacy

- Reggie’s older brother Harry left home when he turned 18 years old and Reggie never heard from him again. He eventually forgave him for leaving Reggie to deal with their parents, but never forgave him for leaving their little brother Lance.

- Harry did return for Reggie’s funeral.

- When Lance was in middle school, Reggie would pick him up after school and bring him to hang out with the guys in the studio. When Lance got to high school he joined the track team and stopped hanging out with the guys as much, but there was always an open invitation.

- When Alex’s parents weren’t home, Alex and his sister used to have the most epic dance parties alone in their livingroom. (Luke’s judgment be damned this is an ABBA household)

- After he came out, Alex still went to church every Sunday with his family (even if Sunset Curve came home late from a gig Saturday nights); partly because his parents like to keep up appearances, partly because his faith isn’t nonexistent just... complicated, but mostly because after church service he can hang out with his little sister in youth group without their parents hovering over them.

- Alex’s coming out to his parents did not end a fight. It ended with a “no you are not; you’re just confused” and dinner continued as if nothing happened. They act like it never happened. Still eat dinner as a family every night, still bring him to church, still try and set him up with nice church girls, but now there is a definite... tension in the room. Alex spends a week living in the studio after he comes out just to get away from it.

- He figures to best way to deal with it is to live his life as out and proud as he can; he was never ashamed of who he was, but he just can’t believe his parents (who supported him joining a band, helped him with his anxiety by getting him on meds and his drums) would not put their beliefs aside to support him being gay. (Sometimes it feels like they love the idea of their perfect little family more than they love him.)

- In Alex’s fanny pack (in no particular order) is his inhaler, Epipen, anxiety meds, extra guitar picks (Luke and Reggie never have extras and Bobby is sick of them asking him for his), packet of tissues, sticky notes and a pen (in case Luke is struck by lyrics and doesn’t have his journal, or Reggie and Bobby just have to give this girl their numbers), bandaids, 7 loose dollar bills, and a Photo Booth photo the boys took down at the pier the day after they formed Sunset Curve.

- On Fridays, if they don’t have a gig, after practice Julie and the Phantoms have a movie night to catch the boys up on all the iconic movies they missed. Alex loves Mean Girls, Reggie is obsessed with Shrek, and Luke pretends he isn’t in love with Lemonade Mouth (they totally do a cover of Determinate at their next gig).

- Speaking of things they missed, you should have seen them when Julie showed them Green Day’s American Idiot album - they lost their MINDS! She found a bootleg of the Broadway production and Luke totally cried.

- I’m also realizing they opened for Panic! At the Disco and the boys had no idea who that is??? One day while Julie is at school they borrow her laptop (google still makes no sense to them, but she showed them Spotify and they’re learning) and they find the song Dying in LA; after listening to it they are quiet for a while and put the laptop away.

- When Julie and the Phantoms finally put out an album, the last song is a cover of Dying in LA. Julie still thinks it’s a little too on the nose, but the boys insisted. In interviews when asked about the song, Julie says its to thank P!atD for giving them their first official performance.

- In terms of the KOCU (Kenny Ortega Cinematic Universe) High School Musical and JatP takes place in the same timeline, but Descendants is a movie franchise within that timeline

- Nick is a little terrified of his Aunt Sharpay, but Carrie adores her.

- Julie and the boys are watching Descendants and Alex totally has a crush on Jay - Luke jokes that he totally looks like Willie and Alex is Deceased™ (x2)

- Reggie tells Willie this, prompting Willie to steal borrow a Jay costume from a halloween store and wear it to their next movie night. Alex is Deceased™ (again).

- Reggie and Willie are the most chaotic ADHD duo - with Reggie’s disaster bisexual ADHD energy and Willie’s ‘be gay do crimes’ ADHD energy, only chaos follows - and they love it!

- When they are all together Luke and Alex become... the responsible ones *shivers*

- Reggie and Willie are never left alone together after the Candy Store Incident™ (Luke: Reggie, we’re ghosts, you can’t even eat candy??) (Alex: Willie, why do you even have a lighter???).

This is all I can think of for now so if i think of more I will add to this later.

#julie and the phantoms #julie and the himbos #jatp #alex mercer #luke patterson #reggie peters #willie jatp #willie nolastname #alex jatp #reggie jatp #my jatp headcanons #allieisnothere #mine #renew julie and the phantoms #no unfinished business

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11037-378-kohl · 3 years

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Fazbear Frights sexuality

Sorry for grammar and spelling mistakes

(This will only be for that FF characters that are important to my AU and that I feel like I should do their sexuality)

Disclaimer: this is my opinion and if you are homophobic please get out. We don’t tolerate that behavior here

To Be Beautiful

Sarah: Straight

Though she has thought she may have been a lesbian or bi because of her observations on other girls. Then she remembered she’s never been romanticly attractioned to woman.

Abby: Questioning

Abby doesn’t have an interest in dating, though she has had a crush on a girl in 1st grade once, though she doesn’t think she’s lesbian. Abby thinks she might have a small crush on Sarah’s brother.

Mason: Bi

Mason has dated a couple girls but he’s also dated some boys. He decided to go to a psychic and ask what’s his sexuality, told them about the dating, they said that he was Bi so—

Lydia: Lesbian

She does have a boyfriend but they are both just faking it. Lydia has a crush on Tabitha her boyfriend is chill with that, we stan Lydia’s boyfriend for in my AU.

Tabitha: Bi (prefers girls)

Tabitha does have a boyfriend, who she loves, but also has a small crush on Lydia. She doesn’t like boys as much as girls. When she does like a boy it’s genuine.

Jillian: Straight

Jillian really only like boys romanticly. Though Jillian may be a bitch but she’s no homophobe. Jillian fully supports Tabitha even though Jillian wants to murder her.

Emma: Bi (prefer men)

In fourth grade Emma had a crush on her best friend Valerie. She did once had a crush on Abby, but Emma usually dates/crushes on boys.

Count the Ways

Millie: Bi

This one is self explanatory.

Dylan: Straight

Dylan is convinced he is straight. He has never liked a boy romanticly. Though he still loves going to Pride Parades with Brooke and Millie. He is very supportive of the LGBTQ+ community even though he isn’t in it.

Brooke: Pansexual

Brooke, though never said anything in the book, feels like the kind of person to love somebody based on their personality.

Hannah: Omnisexual

I- I have no idea how to explain why. I just don’t know how sorry

Lonely Freddy

Alec: Straight

Alec once did have a crush on a girl named Alyssa (not canon). His parents told him to ignore her. spoiler alert! He didn’t. He’d always stare at her during classes they shared. Never dated though-

Hazel: Lesbian

When Hazel got to age she wanted to start ignoring romantic feelings she only seemed to have romantic feelings for girls. After a while she developed a crush on Charlotte (it was after they both changed their names to Vanessa).

Charlotte: Pansexual

Vanny likes people based on personality, it just feels like it’s canon to me. Charlotte in highschool would get crushes on people who had attractive personalities male, female, nonbinary, Charlotte doesn’t care about gender.

The New Kid

Devon: Straight

C’mon not even Devon could convince himself he liked a girl that much. After death he’s still in love with Heather.

Mick: Pansexual

You all have to understand this one.

Kelsey: Bi

At some schools Kelsey likes a boy at school. Usually he doesn’t like someone romantically at school, but sometimes it happens.

Heather: Straight

Heather likes boys! She usually doesn’t realize she likes a boy until it’s too late. Either get taken, go missing or they move. She realized she liked Devon romantically too late.

Gabriella: Straight

She canonly straight.

Valerie: Pan

Valerie is the over energetic friend most people (who actually has friends) have. Shes too energetic and bubbly to care about things like gender.

Juliet: Lesbian

No explanation, sorry.

Quincy: Straight

Another canon sexuality!

Step Closer

Pete: Questioning

He loved Maria but Pete wasn’t sure if he’s completely straight, he knows that he’s Bi or straight.

Maria: Straight

She’s a fucking cheerleader and her crush was on a American Football team, of course she’s straight (I known that it’s stereotypical but it’s true). It’s just like Teen Beach Movie but not.

Bunny Call

Tyler: Gay

Fourteen y/o Tyler realized this is ten year old Tyler. Yup a high schooler in the 1980’s is gay in my AU. Tyler and I died because we had to gay forbidden love from a disapproving world.

Hide and Seek

Toby: Straight

He just seems like he’s straight. He’s also was raging because his minecraft girlfriend broke up with him two years ago.

Tabitha: Bi

Are you going to look at me and tell me she isn’t completely straight?

Reggie: Straight

He had developed a crush on Tabitha in the five minutes she was there.

The Breaking Wheel

Shelly: Straight

Reed: Straight

Pickle: Straight

Julius: Straight

(No comment on these ones)

He Told me Everything

Chris: not into relationships

He only likes science. Like to the point it’s unhealthy. He hasn’t even thought of crushes since kindergarten.

Brooke: Bi (prefers woman)

She just gives that vibe.

Sanjeet: Straight

This nerd in my HTME rewrite is obviously crushing on Brooke. Like he used a completely different tone talking to Brooke then anyone else.

Malcolm: Straight

Malcolm doesn’t usually think about crushes and dumb shit like that. Though he’s convinced he’s straight.

#FNaf #Fazbear Frights #To Be Beautiful #Count the Ways #Lonely Freddy #The New Kid #Step Closer #Bunny Call #hide and seek #The Breaking Wheel #he told me everything #FNaF opinions #Fazbear Frights Headcanons #Headcanons #Broken Souls AU

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join-the-joywrite · 3 years

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How can we not talk about family (when family's all that we got)

@jatp-week Day 5: found family

(Please be aware that there is exactly one dirty joke in here but I think it's subtle enough to pass under the radar and I'm cackling at it so it stays. And I broke a bit of canon but shh.)

For @zo2paintedlady. I know it's not the sad you were looking for but this sort of ran away from me. What I planned and what I wrote are two very different things skjxnxns but I still need to give you credit because without your post, I would very likely not have even had this idea oop

@kat-maybe-not it is done :>>

Rose was eighteen years old when she met Sunset Curve. She thought they were incredible. The music they made was magic.

Rose was eighteen when it hit her that life was short, temporary and full of risks -- and she owed that realization to Sunset Curve.

She had genuinely liked Bobby back then. They did agree on a date and she was already planning her outfit. But then the rest of his band never showed and the next thing she heard was that they were gone. Just like that.

As she sat with Bobby and did her best to console him, she vowed to never give up what she loved. Music was her life, as it was theirs, and if she would continue playing for anyone, it would be for the boys whose music sounded like magic.

It never did work out with Bobby. They just couldn't look at each other without remembering Luke, Alex and Reggie. But they stayed friends. She could do that much for him.

Bobby was actually the one who introduced her to Ray.

Rose and Ray took a while to bond. Ray couldn't quite wrap his head around the fact that Bobby's closest friends were gone, let alone that a girl they'd met that night couldn't seem to let them go. He thought it was strange that she was so attached to them. He'd gone to school with them and even he wasn't so affected. He understood Bobby, but Rose . . . she was puzzling.

Eventually, when he realised how much music meant to Rose, he understood why remembering Bobby's friends would be so important to her. The greatest curse to befall any musician was being forgotten.

None of them knew what was happening. One moment, Ray and Rose were helping Bobby hold unofficial concerts, showcasing Sunset Curve's music, and the next, Hollywood swallowed Bobby up whole.

As Bobby drifted from Rose, Ray floated closer. He didn't really get music the way she did, but he thought her voice was the prettiest sound in the world. She said she didn't think she could perform for people, but he always caught her humming to herself, drumming a beat on a table with her fingers, or whispering songs to herself.

Ray wasn't a musical person and he didn't quite grasp the impact it could have on someone, but he was starting to. Every moment spent with Rose, watching as her entire demeanor shifted whenever music was involved, helped him understand. Even if he never did fully understand, the sparkle in Rose's eyes or the bright smile she wore whenever she even talked about music would have reeled him in soon enough.

When Bobby resurfaced as Trevor, Ray barely batted an eyelid when Rose dropped everything for him. He understood Rose. To her, music was everything and what Hollywood had done to Trevor was despicable. He, like Ray and Rose themselves, was still a child. A child who didn't know any better and now that he did, it was too late.

Trevor talked to them about what to do next. Neither of them knew. What they did know was that Trevor was stuck and he needed friends. So they stood by him, come what may.

And in return, Trevor stuck by them, come what may.

Rose quickly learned that there were things more important than music and it was thanks to Ray that she learned it. She found that listening to Ray enthuse about cameras and photography gave her the same swarm of butterflies that playing a new song did. It took her a while to realise it, but she joined the dots eventually. Ray and music gave her the same fluttery feelings because she loved them both. And one day, she realised the butterflies for music were so much calmer than the butterflies for Ray.

Trevor thought it was hilarious that it took her so long. Trevor thought it was incredibly hilarious that Ray was still oblivious. So, obviously, Trevor set them up on a date.

Ray and Rose were the most awkward couple Trevor had ever witnessed. They were as comfortable as can be talking about what they loved but the moment it was a date, neither knew what to say. So Trevor did what any good friend would do and he dropped everything to help them ease into the idea of dating.

With time, Ray and Rose got closer than anyone had ever been. Ray always carried a camera because he thought Rose, even in her most candid moments, made any scene prettier simply by being part of the photograph. Rose had started writing her own music again, most of it just lyrical love letters to Ray. (Trevor teased them both about it; Ray by recreating every Rose photograph and Rose by horribly performing her songs about Ray for her.)

When Ray proposed to Rose, Trevor nearly physically fought Ray to help him buy the most expensive ring he could. Rose laughed when she found out and had to reassure Trevor that the ring Ray got was more than enough. Trevor sulked about it, but he brightened considerably when he was informed that, as part of his best man duties, they would let him completely plan the entire wedding.

They didn't tell him it was because neither of them knew a damn thing and both of them just wanted to escape all the drama of planning a wedding.

Nearly a month before they got married, Trevor purchased a new home for himself. Rose teased him about it being a status thing to impress his current girlfriend. Ray teased him about it being a compensation thing.

None of them said aloud that Trevor had been itching to escape his house ever since September 1995. Rose felt that being in the house kept her closer to his past as Bobby and to the boys, but Trevor couldn't even find it in himself to enter the studio without guilt eating up his insides.

Rose and Ray were stunned to discover that Trevor's wedding gift to them was the very same house. He might have hated living there, but he knew that Rose wanted nothing more. They promised to look after it and Rose specifically promised to look after the studio.

When Trevor got married, Rose performed in front of a crowd for the first time since she'd met Sunset Curve. Ray told Trevor he would handle photography free of charge but Trevor wasn't having any of it.

Nine years after they met, their daughters were born more months apart. Little Caroline Wilson and Juliana Molina were inseparable since the moment Carrie laid eyes on Julie. Even in their infancy, they'd already decided to stay by each other. Ray thought it was a hilarious echo of the relationship between Trevor and Rose, especially when, five years later, Trevor's house was always filled with the sounds of two toddlers hosting concerts, one-year-old Carlos clapping and laughing with no idea what they were doing except that it was entertaining.

They never met up at the Molina's. Rose and Ray never tried to bring Trevor back to his old house. They never wanted to bring back all that trauma and guilt when he was already looking so much better.

Much older now, Trevor talked about coming clean about his music. He was old enough to understand what that meant and he was old enough to take it in his stride. But Ray wondered what the backlash would do to Carrie. Purely out of fear for her, Trevor kept quiet. But he vowed to never let the same thing happen to her. If she chose to walk into Hollywood, he was going to make sure she did it on her own terms.

Carrie and Julie were eight when Carrie's mom left. Carrie didn't quite comprehend what was happening except that Aunt Rose came over more often and sometimes she stayed for dinner that she made and sometimes she tucked Carrie into bed and she always told Carrie that she loved her and Julie got to sleep over now and then.

Rose refused to let Trevor spiral without Carrie's mom. Most days she was gentle. Some days she was firm. She wouldn't let Carrie lose another parent and she wasn't about to lose a brother.

Carrie and Julie got a lot closer after that.

When Rose got sick, Carrie and Julie were old enough to understand what was going on. Julie started visiting Carrie less often. Carrie started visiting Julie. Trevor still couldn't find it in himself to go back to the house he left. Rose never blamed him. He was only seventeen when he lost his band, his friends, his family. To go back now would open floodgates that Trevor had worked to seal up.

But Trevor didn't give up on Rose. He brought her the best doctors money could buy and he took care of Julie and Carlos so Ray could be by his wife no matter the time. On the days when Carrie visited them, Trevor would send whatever he thought they might need. He heard Rose's sister, Victoria, had moved closer to help out too. It made him feel a bit better, knowing Rose had more people in her life that cared than a coward who couldn't face his past.

When Rose died last year, Ray and Trevor fell apart. Both believed that Rose was all that held them together. Now, all that kept them in minimal contact was the passed greetings via a visiting Carrie.

But eventually, Carrie stopped visiting. Julie withdrew within herself and Carrie struggled to break through for months. It was when Julie fully gave up music, the one thing Rose always told them to cherish, that Carrie snapped. Trusting that Julie would have Flynn, Carrie left. To her, nothing was more important than music. Rose made sure she knew that.

But it's true that you never turn your back on the family you built for yourself. Rose had built her family up one person at a time and she wasn't going to let her absence allow it to fall apart. She was going to fight and she was going to make her family fight to stay together.

So one morning, when the fall winds tried to turn him away, Trevor Wilson marched on and rang the doorbell. What was he going to say? He hadn't planned further than driving to his old house -- mostly because he thought he'd chicken out before he got there.

Rose had redecorated beautifully. He barely recognized the front of the house. He had no idea what he was doing.

So when Ray opened the door, the first thing Trevor did was blurt out something that had been sitting on his mind since he saw the video on Carrie's laptop. "The boys in her band. They're-- they're. . ."

"I figured."

The two of them stood awkwardly for a moment.

"I was just packing lunch leftovers away. I could take some out if you want to sit?"

"I. . ." Trevor hesitated. He didn't really want to go inside. He hadn't been in there since he left the house in Rose's hands.

"Or," Ray said slowly, "you could visit Julie in the studio. I think she has some friends lurking around who'd wanna hear the truth."

"But Carrie is with her now and--"

"And Carrie deserves the truth too. She's old enough." Ray held Trevor's gaze. "Rose would've said the same thing. You know that."

It was the mention of Rose that weakened Trevor's resolve and he mutely followed Ray down to the studio.

"This is ridiculous!" Carrie cried from inside. "I can't believe your dad doesn't know about this. Either you need a shrink or I need a shrink. Whichever it is, I'm telling your dad."

Flynn and Julie's protests overlapped while a soft giggle came from Carlos as Ray pushed the door open. "Julie?"

Carrie, in all her concern for Julie's mental health, bounced right back to where she'd been a little less than a year ago. "Julie's lost her mind, Uncle Ray! Wait . . . what are you doing here, dad?"

Trevor, who was looking around at the studio, jumped slightly.

"Yeah," Luke said, leaning towards Julie, "ask him what he's doing here, Jules."

Ray leaned against the door that was still closed. "Bobby has something to say. To all of you."

While Carrie's face scrunched up and Flynn slightly frowned in confusion, Carlos waited patiently and the boys fell silent, the gears in Julie's head slowly ticked until they fell into place. "You already knew. . ."

Ray folded his arms and glanced at Trevor, nodding his head towards the kids in the garage. In stark contrast to Ray's casual stance and easy air about him, Trevor had never been more tense in his life -- well, aside from the two days where he lost his brothers and then his sister.

And once Bobby started, he couldn't stop. The words spilled out of him like a broken damn whose water gushed forward with no way of stopping anytime soon. He cried a few times. They cried too.

And as he watched Julie and Carrie crawl up to the seated Bobby and envelope him in a tight hug, Ray thought he could see Rose sitting behind the piano, smiling at them all. And then, Julie said she had something to show -- someone. With the boys in front of him, Bobby broke down again. Had she not been sitting with the boys to keep them visible, Julie wouldn't have hesitated to fall into Uncle Bobby's lap and wipe his tears the way she did when she and Carrie were little.

Ray sat down beside his brother and just like that, Rose's family was whole again.

They say you can't choose your family, but Rose had chosen to love these people and even in her absence, she was still what strung them all together and kept them like that. They were her family, and she would make sure they stayed together until she could bring them home, to her. But until then, all they had was each other and honestly, that's all any of them ever needed.

Mara's masterlist

#julie and the phantoms #julie and the himbos #julie and the fat ones #jatp #ray molina #rose molina #jatpweek #day 5

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yikes-xander · 4 years

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self indulgent luke hc no one will care about

Note: this is kind of all over the place because I just spent like 2 hours this morning writing it (it’s not even 10 am yet) but I hope u enjoy!!

It’s canon that Luke is an only child

I have a feeling maybe he wished he had siblings growing up

Sunset Curve is literally like family for all of the boys, they’ve said it multiple times and they make it very obvious when they interact in the show

Also,, I was talking to @sunsetcxrve about this,, max said that he thinks the age order of the band is Luke/Bobby/Reggie/Alex,, I 100% agree

Luke and Bobby are pretty close in age, maybe like a month or two apart then Reggie and Alex are quite a bit younger (still all 17 though obviously)

He just wants to be a big brother! he loves the band so much and wants to protect them and offer them all the support he can 🥺🥺 I love him

Trans Luke HC time baby!!

Even before he came out I think he still would’ve presented more masc (from personal experience, I knew I wasn’t cis from a pretty young age, I always felt Off yknow? I just didn’t have the words to explain it so I was a ‘tomboy’ or whatever because I felt comfortable in masc presenting clothes, etc.)

I think he would’ve told the band before anyone else, they would have multiple talks about it, just be there to listen to Luke and try to help him figure things out (also I feel like Alex isn’t cis either,, but Bobby/Reggie give me cis vibes, they gotta teach Alex/Luke the ways of ✨ Boy Things ✨ that was dumb, sorry anyway continuing now)

This is where ‘My Name Is Luke’ comes in

I said before that I think he would’ve written it when he was coming to terms with his identity (it’s always a struggle, but especially growing up in the 90s) he was afraid of how people would react, mostly his parents

I think Alex came out as gay first (IDK if in the show it was said he came out around 16 or if that’s just in my brain?? But I think it would’ve still been a fairly recent thing when they died), so Luke would’ve been so scared to tell his parents knowing what happened to Alex

He used the song as a way of coming out instead of having to face his parents directly. At first, I think they would be kind of confused and take a bit to come around but ultimately support him.

In the show they’re portrayed as very loving parents, they care about Luke so much, and even though he was mad at them for not supporting the band 100%, they just wanted him to have a sure way of supporting himself yknow? Music doesn’t always work out for everyone and they just want what’s best for him, the three of them just didn’t see it the same way

I think if his parents knew about the band playing with Julie and how successful they are currently? They would realize they were in the wrong and they would fully support his choice to do music because they love their son and everything he does!!

So that’s why they would be so supportive of him being trans (to me at least,, to each their own though I guess)

They just want him to be happy and comfortable in who he is

Emily would cut his hair for him (so he doesn’t have to keep tucking it into his beanies when he leaves the house)

His dad would give him some old clothes to wear (flannels baby!! He loves em) in the time before they go shopping to get some more things for Luke

Also just want to add in that I don’t think he’s told Julie that he’s trans

He just hasn’t felt the need to yet

But they’re getting closer and closer as time goes on so I think he would tell her sooner than later, he just wants to find the right time

But she would support him so much!!

I don’t know if she knows that Alex is gay? Because she wasn’t there when it was first mentioned, and she hasn’t met Willie

So maybe off camera they could’ve talked about it and she does know, or she might find out later (meeting Willie maybe?? That would be cool but IDK if she would be able to see him)

Anyway back on track sorry

I love the idea of Julie telling Luke and Alex about how much things have changed since ‘95, about how most people are more accepting now, gay marriage is legal, media representation for LGBT+ is more frequent, etc.

Obviously could still improve, but progress!!

They would be so happy too

Sorry I went off on a lil tangent back to the song

It means a lot to Luke, it’s probably one of the songs that have the most emotions poured into it (Unsaid Emily takes the cake of course), and that’s why he was so angry when he found out Bobby recorded it and made so much money off of stolen work

Bobby was his friend so Luke has every right to be mad

But also!! We don’t know the whole Bobby/Trevor story yet so no Bobby slander here!

That’s all I love trans Luke

No one in this show is cishet because I’m not and I said so thank u for listening goodbye

#julie and the phantoms #luke patterson #jatp luke #julie and the phantoms fic #luke patterson fic #luke patterson headcanon #jatp luke headcanon #julie and the phantoms headcanon #alex writes stuff #i still dont know how to tag properly oops #trans luke #trans luke patterson

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e-vasong · 4 years

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Leverage AU ideas

Submission (Hey, it looked like tumblr sent this to me under your real name, so I’m not gonna say who submitted it just in case that was an accident, but @ submitter if you want credit feel free to hit me up with a URL or something, or reblog this and @ me or whatever!):

Idrk how tumblr works but, for your leverage au: Vanya is Reggie’s real daughter which is why she has the violin but she was neglected bc reggie was obsessed with the others. The others are jealous of Vanya for her normal life/being Reggie’s real kid.

Eventually however she comes to the for help (probably bc of Lenard) and she helps them and they become a real family.

Maybe at some point she gets infected with a bio weapon that could kill everyone (maybe lenard tries to sell it to the commission) or learns dangerous information and they all have to save Vanya!

Oh God. (Presuming these are about the Reginald-As-Archie-Raises-The-Kids-As-Criminals AU.) These are so good.

The others are all homeless kids or kids from the system that Reggie plucked out and adopted because he saw tendencies in them that he believed, with training, could make them the best team of criminals around.

And this all translates so well to the canon dynamic where Vanya/the rest of the family both don’t really process the abuse endured by the other party.

Reginald neglects Vanya in favor of the others; tells them they have potential. And when Vanya asks to join in on the lessons he tells her that she has no talent at all. He tells her again and again how he chose the others, and the implication is clear. That if it had been up to him, he never would have chosen her at all.

Meanwhile, the others are jealous of Vanya, Reginald’s biological kid. They’re always aware, on some level, that he only took them in because he thought they might be useful--that it was money and power that brought them into his care, as if he’d bought them. That he could always just...put them back, in a way they feel he can’t do with Vanya. They look at Vanya, who spends her days practicing the violin and studying normal school subjects while they have to devote their days to things like disabling laser grids, swindling people out of their funds, and getting beaten into the ground in martial arts training, and they’re--they’re jealous. Of course they are, even if they don’t know it.

It takes them a long time (though not as long as in canon, I think) to realize they never should have blamed each other. It was always their father.

Instead of writing a tell-all book, Vanya turns over a bunch of information to the FBI. Their father gets arrested, a handful of the siblings get their covers blown on an important job and almost get killed by the mark’s henchman. It’s a shitshow all around. Their dad’s the only one to go to jail, though before he serves any real time a sniper takes him out through a courthouse window. They can’t figure out who did it; the mystery haunts them all for years. The others don’t get caught, but they’re still furious that Vanya almost got them killed.

(And later, much later, Vanya will join up with her family to run a con. Some of them haven’t let go of their suspicion and hurt yet. She doesn’t quite blame them, but it still stings. But here’s the thing. There are always people out there looking to exploit weakness. And Vanya will argue with her siblings. Diego will snap: don’t pretend like you care, you almost got us killed!

And Harold Jenkins will be waiting. Once a young homeless thief and grifter himself, Harold heard of Reginald Hargreeves collecting prodigious young criminals off the street and begged, begged Hargreeves to take him in. Hargreeves had sniffed, shouldered the child out of the way. If you really had any talent, Hargreeves had said, you would have conned me into it.

But Reginald Hargreeves’ vision had always been flawed. Harold is no perfect criminal, but he’s a dangerous one. And when Vanya storms out of the team’s homebase in the torrential rain, Harold pops his hood up, plasters the gentle, personable smile of Leonard Peabody onto his face, and sets his con into motion.)

They all split ways for a while, the way I described in my other post. Allison keeps grifting. Falls in love with a mark, Patrick, at one point. It ends badly. Ben and Klaus are a hacker/thief duo, except Ben has more scruples about who they victimize than Klaus, and it makes things tense as hell between them sometimes. Diego is working as a ‘retrieval specialist’ with an intense moral code and a willingness to turn on anyone that hires him if they prove themselves shitty enough. Luther gets out of the life and goes to live in the same apartment complex as Vanya. They end up staying close the whole time, with Vanya giving music lessons out of her apartment and Luther teaching martial arts classes.

And then they all get a missive. An invitation, a promise of a job. Luther almost throws it away, but Vanya stops him. We should check it out, she says. And so they do. And there they find all the others: Diego, Allison, Klaus, and Ben.

And Five. Five, the brother they’ve long thought dead. He looks tired. And after he fields their frantic embraces, their questions, and even lets them cry on him a bit (though he doesn’t look very happy about it), he leans back, and he tells them he has a job to offer them all.

He gets a chorus of rejections almost immediately. Vanya presumes she isn’t invited. Luther says he’s out of the game, and Allison says she’s trying to get out. Diego mainly seems skeptical that Five has anything worth offering. Klaus wants to go back to his apartment and not take jobs that are like, hard, or anything. Low risk only, please. Come on, Ben, let’s go.

Ben shoots Klaus a furious glare. Actually, he says. I can make my own decisions, Klaus. I want to hear what Five has to say.

Five has to repress a grin. Ben has always been Five’s favorite brother.

Five puts a manila folder on the table. His siblings pick it up, start passing it around. It’s not long before they’re frowning, clearly distressed by what they’re reading.

“His name is James Moore,” Five says. “He’s seven years old. He has a rare blood disease, but there’s a new experimental treatment that his doctors believe could save his life. His insurance company is refusing to pay for his treatment; they keep forcing the family to jump through loopholes. It’s a, uh, company policy that they didn’t include in the contract. Stall paying for treatment until it’s too late. Commit a moral atrocity, let innocents die, profit. Y’know how it goes. Age old story, really.”

“I don’t con sick people,” Diego says, and Five rolls his eyes.

“Good, because that’s not what I’m suggesting.”

“The insurance company?” Allison catches on first. Ben follows suit, eyebrows shooting up as he realizes what Five is saying. “You’re suggesting we con Perseus Insurance? Owned by one of the most powerful men in the world? That Perseus Insurance?”

Five leans forward, rests his elbows on his knees. He’s planned this speech. He has a plan to take down the Commission, but it involves moving a lot of pieces very, very slowly. And if he can take down some other bad people along the way? Good. But he needs a team he can trust. He needs his family, which means this pitch needs to work.

“The rich and powerful take what they want,” Five says slowly. “Right now, James and his family,” he gestures to the Moore file, “are suffering under an enormous weight. I’m suggesting that we provide...leverage.”

#long post #tua #the umbrella academy #leverage AU #WHOOPS #i want to say the vanya situation doesn't get that far? theyre closer in this verse #but harold very much is trying to destroy their family #luckily the others catch on and wreck his shit first #is five the sniper that killed their dad?#[sips tea] PERHAPS #submission

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holy-trinity-of-one-braincell · 3 years

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So someone made a post about Willie and Noah Czerny being skateboarding ghost buddies and it got me thinking for some reason of an alternate reality where ghosts were more like Noah. Flickering from being alive to just being mute and hallow.

So look, the boys die and when Julie plays their demo they reappear. Only more gruesome. They look exactly like the second they died with empty eyes and sickly pale skin and clothes covered in the dirt from the alley and blood (because for some reason I imagine them throwing up blood don’t ask) Naturally Julie freaks out because this fucking Conjuring just appeared in front of her. She runs from the studio screaming. Once she gets the courage to come back she doesn’t find them again.

But they are still there. Just invisible and mute. They can hear each other and see each other but not by lifers neither can they interact with the world of the living. See the rules are that all people with unfinished business come back to resolve it. But they are literal phantoms of themselves. The longer they interact with other ghosts or the lifers (however one-sided) they gain back their humanity. They can start interacting with the real world. Most of the ghosts, however, try to contact their families after they come back. The trick is the dark room Reggie talked about. Because it’s a time warp. So many when they come back to come to a different year if not a decade. In most cases, the unfinished business is connected to their families but this also raises problems. See, one scenario is that the ghosts follow their loved ones around regaining their humanity and sometimes eventually crossing over. But usually, they just get discouraged or angry because they are very much not corporeal and they cannot be heard so they just get frustrated or resign and go back to their hollow form. Other scenario ties with revenge or anger that turns the ghosts into poltergeists which are extremally dangerous to both the living and dead.

So the boys are fairly lucky because they have at least each other to talk to. Not being able to interact with Julie they decide to check on their families. Luke goes back to his parents and it gave him some sort of comfort knowing that he was remembered. So he spends there most of his days. Reggie checks on his family but his house is sold and turned into a bike shack. He’s not angry. He’s sad and little disappointed but not angry. In a way, he saw it coming. But Reggie is also a people person. He’s shy at first especially with adults because adults were rarely reliable and trusting in his experience but nevertheless, he’s a people person and loves to interact with lifers. Even if it’s one-sided. Also alternatively Reggie has a younger brother because I adore that idea, fight me. So this is the two out of three. But not Alex. Alex doesn’t want to see his parents. But he wants to track his siblings because he gives me big brother vibes. So he looks for them.

The boys occasionally, mostly Reggie, hang in the house. They flicker on from time to time and Julie can see them for a second. It freaks her the fuck out. Because there are three very dead-looking boys in her house. But they look a bit better. The blood is at least gone. She goes back to the demo she played and finds the picture, then she googles Sunset Curve. She doesn’t know why three dead band members are in her house but she needs some answers.

When she plays their music they become visible but are still unable to communicate so the conversation is very based on yes and no questions. But they start hanging out more. Julie is still pretty freaked out but once she got the initial shock it’s not half bad.

At some point, the boys start to sing just messing around I guess. And she can hear them! They talk about music and how Rose loved it. This makes Julie reconsider singing again. So she does. And the boys join her. And something happens. They are not only visible and Julie can hear them but also they don’t look so hollow anymore. They still look phantomish but not as much as before.

They figure it is the music that brings them back to their old selves. And now they can interact with Julie more so that also helps. So Julie and Luke write some songs and they find a way to pick up things so they can talk more freely and the boys look almost as when they were alive only a bit bleached and transparent. So overall considering their situation it’s ok.

But then the shit hits the fan. One, the boys learn that Bobby stole their music. They are all pissed. Luke goes all poltergeist and it’s pretty terrifying. Julie rushes to Trevor’s house to stop it however she can. It’s chaos. Eventually, she salts them (because I watched Supernatural and I say so), because Reggie and Alex are not as fuming as Luke but they are still pissed and their combined energy is just pure chaos. It makes them disappear for long enough so they realise what is happening and get a grip. They could have hurt Julie in the process!

The other thing that happens is that Julie is obviously mad but also scared of what has happened. Because those sad boys just did that. And it’s scary as shit because what if you anger them and they lose control? So the are left to cool off. Luke goes off to his parents to ground him or stays behind and plays some music with Reggie because Reggie cannot go back to the house to hang with Ray or Carlos because it would upset Julie and also he’s scared that he might fuck something up like they just did with Bobby. Also, Carlos reminds him so much of his younger brother, this is canon now fite me!

But Alex, Alex needs to clear his head (and look for his siblings). So he walks down the Sunset Blvd and he meets Willie. More like Willie crashes into him but you get the point. And Willie, he is so ALIVE. He could be mistaken for a lifer if he hasn’t just phased through them. They talk and Willie offers to take Alex to Hollywood Ghost Club where they can be back to their old selves. No more hollow shell. They can interact with the real world. And Caleb can make them visible. It’s a tempting offer that he has to stomach so he tells Willie that he will meet him again when he decides.

Alex tells the boys about it and they immediately decide they are in. Luke is tempted by being made visible so he can get back at Bobby. The anger has dimmed but it’s still eating him inside. Luke can hold a grudge. Reggie just desperately wants to interact with people. He loves his friends but he wants to make people laugh and to make jokes so he won’t be left alone with the dark thoughts in his head. And Alex above all just wants to see Willie again.

So they agree and meet Willie who takes them to the HGC. And it’s amazing. Because for the first time, apart from when they played with Julie, they feel ALIVE. They are bright, and vibrant, and feel like they belong. Like it hasn’t been 25 years since they walked the earth. Of course, Caleb knew they boys are visible to Julie when they play but this is not the major point here because although he plays on their ambition to be successful musicians (because they can do it here with Caleb) it’s more about being alive than just a shadow of a person. And the boys know that they need to be grounded and connected to someone to stay the way they are. This place is filled with other ghosts and lifers that can see them so it’s so easy to find their place in the world. Out there, outside the HGC there is Julie and her family (and Willie) but that’s it. And in fact, Julie is the only one that can see them. That’s why this offer is so tempting. Because outside of Julie who might get bored of them, who will grow up and move on, they have no one. Luke has his parents but it’s not for forever either he knows. And they have each other but would it be enough? And on the top of that, there is their unfinished business that they have no clue what it is so they might spend an infinite time on earth just searching.

So it’s fucking tempting to just stay here. But they miss Julie. They brought music back to her life and she literally brought them back. They owe her. So for now they decline Caleb’s offer. But that tricky bitch is having none of that because it’s not about boys being visible to others when they play. No. It’s about trapping their soul here because it would make Caleb more powerful. He needs the souls to keep up this whole place and himself because he has no connection to anybody. So he feeds off souls to stay ‘alive’. If not for that he most likely let the boys go and let them whiter on their own, turn back to hollow shells or angry spirits. But he needs a fresh supply of souls to keep him ‘alive’. Willie is forced to help him and he is one of a very few, in fact, that is ‘alive’ contrary to how it looks like. It’s all a show. An illusion. Because Caleb is sucking the ‘live’ force out of the ghosts he has trapped here. So he stamps the boys.

The time passes, not considerably but it does and Julie sings with her new ‘hologram’ band. They start getting popular but of course, things go wrong. Because of the stamps. It’s different than in the show because it will not destroy them by the jolts. It’s not either crossing over or joining his house band if they don’t want to be erased. No. They are left free to be but Caleb will still take their ‘live’ force. They just don’t get the benefit of being a member of the HGC. The only indication that something is wrong is that they are being drained. Even when they play with Julie they are more transparent on the borderline of hallow. Playing and singing give them a boost that sustains them for a short while but then disappears again. And it shows when they appear while playing. They are no more almost alive happy himbos they are almost a scene out of a zombie flick. Which would be fine for the Halloween gig but not in ordinary circumstances.

Then Willie comes to the rescue. He explains what is happening and the only option to stop it is to end Caleb.

So I slept like 3 hours and I woke from a fever dream and I wrote this. It makes no sense. Please accept my contribution to the phandom.

#jatp #i'm back at my jatp bullshit #julie and the fat ones #julie and the himbos #julie and the phantoms #julie molina #luke patterson #alex mercer #reggie peters #willie #jatp willie #willex #caleb covington #caleb jatp

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mychemicalxmen · 4 years

Text

The Umbrella Academy College Theatre Kid AU Plot

Alright bitches, ask and ye shall receive.

Here’s the 6k summary of this ten-chapter monstrosity I almost wrote a year ago and just now attempted to flesh out.

Canon divergence from the point of their birth onward. The Commission doesn’t exist here, it would just make everything a little too complicated. No Luther/Allison either, personal preference. If anyone would want to try writing or drawing a scene from this universe, I would be over the heckin moon, please feel free to do w/e if any part of this inspires anyone. And if anyone just wants to shoot hc, pop off!

But yeah. This is a crack concept treated dead seriously. Buckle up.

Chapter One - “Overture”

-I wrote this chapter, but it’s Really Not Good. I had just watched the show and hadn’t written fic in a Hot Minute.

-Welcome to Umbrella University, a top-tier school with a sacrilegiously large budget for the fine arts!

-They’re all freshman atm.

-Basically, all of our kiddos (except Five, we’ll get there) are cleaning the theater between shows in the fall season. Allison is acting House Crew Chief and is overseeing the whole thing. The others are on House Crew for various reasons - tech class credit, volunteer hours, etc. No one is actually studying theatre for their major except Allison, who’s double-majoring in acting and something else

-They’re essentially strangers (except Ben and Klaus, who are assigned roommates). They’re all aware of their own powers, but not any of the others’.

-As they clean, the host on the radio is going on about the one-year anniversary of his favorite “Hargreeves Five” (the current Academy, made up of different kids from the 43, and definitely not based on the ASBO Five) battle, apprehending a robber named Erick Webber in New York City. He was a starving actor who stole from large donation funds that were supposed to be distributed to other starving artists. The battle got violent, and fire got involved. What a spectacle!

-Vanya, who has accidentally skipped her meds that day, sees a rat and screams, prompting Luther to drop the lighting equipment he’s working on. Loud sound. Telekinetic energy starts going.

-There is a comically convenient chain reaction in which all of the siblings’ powers are triggered at once - Diego throws something, Klaus levitates, the Horror has to hold up the light rig, Allison has to rumor to memory-wipe the witnesses, etc.

-Once they have the situation under control, they realize it’s… weird. The odds are absolutely astronomical. How the hell did they all end up in the same place??

-There’s no reason to believe anyone brought them together on purpose, except maybe fate, or whatever Mysterious Space Magic caused their birth in the first place. They have a private House Crew meeting with a lot of freaking out and questions and bonding.

Chapter Two - “God I Hope I Get It”

-Fast forward to junior year. Since that fateful day, the theater has become the siblings’ home base. Luther is the shop foreman this year, Allison is seated at the right hand of the theatre department director (a sharp middle-aged woman who directs half of the shows), Diego knows his way around lights, and Klaus frequently builds and paints in the scene shop. Allison’s the only one of them who actually performs.

-The fall season includes Hair and Othello, and the joint audition for both is quickly approaching.

-Vanya, however, has been drifting away from it all for some reason. Allison finds her in the quad one day and encourages her to audition for Othello. Apparently, the theatre director has observed Vanya’s love of reading plays from afar and asked for her specifically. Vanya doesn’t want to go anywhere near the theater, but she’s touched by Allison’s belief in her and reluctantly says she’ll think about it.

-Diego is going through his classes and can’t help but feel like there’s this one freshman that’s just… following him. Looking at him funny. Keeps showing up in all his usual spots. Must be one of those obnoxious wiz kids - there’s no way in hell that he’s eighteen years old.

-Vanya has a monologue in her back pocket, her favorite from Winter’s Tale, ready to go. But when the day of the audition comes, she walks into the theater for the first time in months, and she breaks down and runs to the bathroom. Allison is too busy helping the director to console her, so she sends Klaus to check on her.

-Klaus talks to her through the door and tries to hype her up for the audition. Ghost!Ben tells him to reel it in.

-Vanya eventually admits that she drifted away from the theater because it was always a special place for the six of them, but after Ben died in a car crash in sophomore year, thinking about it just broke her heart all over again.

-Klaus doesn’t quite have the tact of language to bring her comfort, but Ben does. Without revealing he can see Ben, Klaus just echoes his words. Saying that Ben would still want her to be happy here. Saying that it’s okay to take time to work through all those feelings. He stays there until Vanya’s calm enough to come out of the bathroom, hug him for a really long time, and then go into her audition.

-The cast lists go out, and all the siblings run to see the one for Othello. Allison is the stage manager, to the surprise of no one, and has already seen that she’ll be playing Dionne in Hair. The headmaster’s kid (who I never gave a name, so let’s just call him Ollie) is playing Othello, some guy named Leonard is playing Roderigo, and Vanya is playing Desdemona. While they’re leaving to celebrate, Diego sees The Weird Freshman sign his initial on the cast list, confirming his role. He takes a peek at it later and wonders how this five-foot-six gremlin was cast as Iago, and what kind of a name is Five, anyway?

Chapter Three - “Good Morning Starshine”

-Production on Hair has begun.

-Diego is still a vigilante, but like, specifically for the college’s organization for fighting sexual harassment. Make no mistake, he is not endorsed by the club in any way, shape, or form. But when fellow criminal justice major Eudora Patch gets catcalled on a late night walk home from the library, a fraternity douchebag gets his hoodie pinned to the wall with a knife and receives an extremely harsh talking-to.

-Eudora just sighs into the darkness like “Diego was that really necessary” and keeps walking and Diego runs up to meet her like “yes??”

-Insert exposition here about how they’re exes but there’s still that Tension and fond bickering from the show. Eudora thinks he should get involved in other things on campus, but he immediately rejects it. No. Nope. Nothing else going on. Just lights. And Batman.

-Luther and Allison often hang out in one of the hallways of the theater for lunch. Allison complains that she’s in charge of a lot of little projects in the program, and it’s hard to get people to listen to her. Luther complains that Diego hasn’t been showing up to help in the shop lately. Even though Diego’s not officially on set crew, it’s a little suspicious that he hasn’t been around.

-The mainstage theater has been going through a very fancy refurbishment, and a new chandelier just came in. How the department has the money for a chandelier, no one has any idea. There’s an inside joke that the theatre director must be having a scandalous lesbian affair with the headmaster.

-After a while, Luther enlists Klaus to help him to figure out what Diego’s hiding. With their single shared braincell, it takes them a little too long to realize that Diego’s name is on the Hair cast list. But that can’t possibly be right.

-Luther and Klaus sneak into the blackbox (a smaller, more intimate theater) in the middle of a Hair rehearsal and, sure enough, holy shit, Diego is actually onstage as one of the tribe people, lowkey having the time of his life.

-Enter UT Dallas transfer David Katz in the role of Claude. And it’s just. On sight. Klaus is down for the goddamn count.

-“Who is that??” “I know, right? Like, that’s our brother.” “No, no, not him. The really pretty one.”

-At the end of whatever song they’re doing, Diego locks eyes with Luther and almost dies of embarrassment right then and there.

-Cue big long childish argument of “why didn’t you tell us you had any interest in being in the musical?” and “I didn’t know I had any interest either oKAY you weren’t supposed to find out” “how wouldn’t we have found out you IDIOT we LIVE HERE.”

-At the end of rehearsal, Diego is feeling entirely beaten down. As is Allison, up to her eyeballs in responsibility. They sit on the loading dock and Diego admits he didn't want to make a big deal out of the fact that he was in Hair. But he’s actually really digging the songs and the messages and the comradery. Even though musical theatre is dumb. Allison assures him it’s nothing to be embarrassed about.

Chapter Four - “What’s the Buzz?”

-Production on Othello has begun.

-Fluffy opening that’s just a montage of Disaster Klaus repeatedly trying to justify sitting in on Hair rehearsal. “Sure, Allison, let me cut out those gels.” “Sure, Dance Captain, I can record the choreography.” “Shut up, Ben, I’m just really into American military history.”

-Meanwhile he’s just…… watching the show, listening to Dave sing, waiting for the right moment to strike up a Totally Casual Conversation with him.

-And it happens! Eventually.

-Diego meets Eudora on the loading dock and comes clean to her about the fact that he’s in the musical. Eudora is shocked and amused and teases him a little for it, but she’s ultimately supportive. And endeared. Cute bickering.

-When she leaves for her next class, Five is six feet away sipping coffee like “Oh, you’re both the same major? Aww that’s adorable.”

-Diego finally confronts him and asks him what his deal is and Five says something cryptic about “Reggie’s bastards”. Diego grabs him by the arm and drags him to the empty dressing room and interrogates him on everything he knows.

-Five is somewhere in his thirties, he can teleport, his body’s been screwed up by time travel complications, he knows about all the others, and he’s “played a game of hopscotch with an unsympathetic god”. When asked why he came back to this time in particular, he dodges the question with some snarky reply of how he’s not sure he made the right call.

-They decide not to tell everyone else all at once, until they hear faint movement. They find Klaus buried under a throw blanket on The Couch that every theater has, a little stoned, stirring from a midday dressing room nap.

-”I’m a BOY in LOVE, leave me aLONE.”

Chapter Five - “No One is Alone”

-Once again, Allison is overwhelmed. She had rumored her way into the double major when she didn’t actually have the high school credits necessary to graduate on time, but since meeting the other siblings, she’d sworn off using her power. If she was caught, it could start a breadcrumb trail to the others and expose all of them. And like, they just want to get out of here with their degrees, man.

-The theatre department director has had to assign her the most incompetent freshmen in the world to manage with assorted housekeeping tasks. They have an attitude, they don’t know how anything works, and Allison simply doesn’t have the time to lead them. She comes to the theatre director to explain this.

-And for the first time in a long while, the director expresses sternness to her. And it hurts.

-”Come on, Allison, we both know you’re good with people. You can be very persuasive when you want to be. You will work this out.”

-It’s very pointed. She will work this out. There is no other option.

-And. Not to be self-centered, but the spring musical is going to be Cabaret, and Allison has been convinced she had Sally Bowles in the bag. But if she gets on the director’s bad side halfway through junior year…

-It’s a particularly tense day, ten minutes before she has to sign in for Hair rehearsal. Some poor freshman is organizing the costume closet and just doesn’t get it and doesn’t want to be here and the director demands that this is done by the end of the day.

-So. It’s just one. It’s no big deal. She just heard the oddest little rumor that the student could make the closet perfectly tidy within the hour.

-Five and Vanya are at rehearsal for Othello. Now that he’s actually talked to Diego and Klaus, he feels a little more at ease being in this place and time. The two have plenty of time to chat while on breaks. And because Vanya is such a chill, calming force compared to the stubborn and impulsive Diego, it goes a lot smoother.

-Neither of them can stand Ollie, the headmasters’ pretentious son who’s playing Othello, going on and on about his actor step-brother in New York. Whatever. He likes to creep around the scene shop, too. Like he’s judging the tech. I’d like to see YOU pick up a drill, sir.

-He’s also really close to the theatre director. No one’s ever heard them interact, but they’ve sure seen them together. And he’s not even putting in all the hours for her that Allison is.

-Vanya and Five probably get coffee before rehearsal. Run lines. Five rambles about the flaws in Shakespeare’s philosophies over an americano. And they eventually tell each other their stories.

-Pogo had gone with Sir Reginald to examine the children and their potential prior to adoption. Reginald’s technology sensed great power in Vanya, even as an infant. After Vanya’s mother refused to sell, Pogo went behind Reginald’s back and made contact with the mother, advising her on how to suppress Vanya’s powers (but not emotions) with medication whenever they couldn’t be internally controlled. Vanya was good at self-control for much of her childhood, but the adjustment to college and grief of losing Ben put her back in a risky zone, so she’s been leaning a little more heavily on her medicine these days. She knows the adrenaline she gets onstage is good and natural, but it makes her nervous about forgetting a dose again.

-Five’s mother was quite a character. The name came from the fact that, during birth, Five first hit the air at exactly 12:00:05.

-Five had practiced his time jumps all through his childhood. (With none of the spite and rush he had in canon, he had no need to leap years right away, so he took it slow.) Sometimes he would get stuck in a place for a while, but his mom was cool and understood this. He would adapt to the new environment, anywhere between hours and weeks, and jump right back when he got enough rest to use his power again. There were some bugs, some problems with exact accuracy of destination, but he was always working on it. He was very lonely, though, never getting to meet with any of the other 43 and being discouraged from doing so by his mother.

-There was a portion of the future he got stuck in as a teenager in which the nation was governed by a tyrannical organization called “The Macbeth Enterprise”.

-Vanya immediately tries to shush him at this point in the story because he said the Bad Theatre Word. The director is very superstitious. She takes it deadly seriously and has threatened to actually penalty anyone who says it in the theater. Five just chuckles.

-And luckily, they’re rehearsing in the blackbox today, so even if the director could hear, it’s not “in the theater”.

-The future he saw was a century ahead of them, far beyond their lifetime. He was able to glean a little information about the origins of the Enterprise, but he shares none of this with Vanya. Firstly, those in power had high-tech augmentation that gave them a perfect replica of the kind of superpowers the 43 had - mind manipulation, immortality, etc. And secondly, they were credited with destroying the Hargreeves Five. As if the Hargreeves Five were a danger to society.

-What he does tell Vanya is that he’d never made any attempt to change the timeline before, but that’s just what he decided to do. With what little information he had, the only thing he could think of was to ruin the Enterprise’s namesake.

-Five spent literal years of his life, traveling from city to city across centuries, dooming various productions of Macbeth with Commission-level pragmatism until the name of the play itself became the taboo we know irl today.

-Vanya’s laughing. Five is too, honestly. It’s crazy.

-But he didn’t do what he did out of a ridiculous dare to himself. He did it out of desperation to not only to save the country, but to save his family as well. The family he’d never known. The kids all across the globe who went through the same strange hell of differentness that he had since birth. The Hargreeves Five, of course, needed to survive, as they’re responsible for maintaining peace on earth anyway. But if the Hargreeves Five were hunted down, why would the Enterprise stop there? Wouldn’t all 43 of them be in danger? Would all their gifts be harvested from them, and would they then be thrown away?

-But who knows if Five actually made a difference? He prays that it did. But the years of isolation in his personal mission convinced him of one thing - he should know his family. He had no idea when the country would start falling to shit - if it still would - but he could keep an eye on it alongside people who understood him. And with his foresight, maybe they could rise against the evil together.

-And maybe he was just so tired of being alone.

-So, digging was done through the Internet and several libraries in several eras. He found his insertion point at the University. He knew he’d have to look a little younger to fit in.

-But naturally, he got some equations wrong.

-Eventually, Five is formally introduced to Luther and Allison, who welcome him with slight skepticism, followed by a strong bear hug. Five’s not sure how to take the physical affection. He nods, which is a completely normal response to a hug, wraps his arms back around them, and tries to keep his eyes from leaking.

Chapter Six - “Whispering”

-It’s tech week of Hair, and because he’s been blowing his voice out in rehearsal from underdeveloped technique, Diego is on vocal rest.

-Most of this chapter is Diego Is On Vocal Rest and Everyone Gives Him Shit About It in a Loving Way.

-“Everyone” includes Eudora. She just bought her tickets for opening night.

-One early afternoon, Luther and Klaus are back in the scene shop together - Luther’s moving some lumber around and Klaus is carefully painting a setting onto a flat - and Luther vents that he’s not looking forward to running spotlight on Othello. He knows he can do it, but he wishes the theatre director would trust him with more authority and let him be Technical Director.

-Ben is eternally rolling his eyes and bitching about how entitled Luther sounds. He’s already the goddamn shop foreman. Klaus tries not to laugh at how annoyed Ben is about this.

-“But Diego could totally go back to lights for Othello! Hair will be over by then! He’s the pro! If I were TD I’d put him back on in an instant!”

-Dave wanders into the shop and says “hey” and Klaus nearly drops his wet paint brush onto the floor.

-After the brief succession of clumsy attempts Klaus had made to connect with Dave, Dave is actually bothering to return the effort.

-Luther is oblivious as hell while he’s toting the lumber around just like “Oh hi! Welcome! You’re new right? I’m Luther. I’m the shop foreman. You ever been on a tech crew before?” and this whole cringey spiel of small talk he usually gives to new students.

-About a minute into the small talk Luther finally sees how awkward Dave feels and how tense Klaus looks and he’s just like ohhhhh.

-He moves his task about eight feet further away to give them some space to talk. Even though that’s definitely not where the lumber is supposed to go. He just doesn’t want to make it weirder.

-Anyway. Insert fluff that isn’t obscenely flirtatious but is like… flirting with flirtatious.

-Later on that day, Leonard is tapped by the headmaster to join Student Government. Must’ve been one hell of a GPA. The new commitment forces him to give up the part of Roderigo in Othello.

-Leonard tells Allison this. Shit. Just what she needed today. She turns to her assistant stage manager and murmurs, shrugging off the guilt as she says it: “I heard a rumor you broke the news to our director as gently as possible.”

-After an eternity of assembling, dusting, and re-dusting, the Umbrella University theater chandelier is finally risen, ready for the first show of the season.

Chapter Seven - “The Life of the Party”

-After a hurried round of reviewing the audition tapes from the beginning of the year, Dave has been cast to fill the part of Roderigo.

-The technical director of Othello quit. No one’s really sure why. He was solid. But Luther’s been asked to step up, and he’s been trusted to pick anyone he wants to fill his previous spot on lights.

-Cue super petty conversation about how they both know Diego’s bomb at lights but they still annoy each other just by existing. Nonetheless, Diego agrees to hop onto Othello crew.

-Guess what, y’all, it’s opening night of Hair.

-Hard cut to Eudora, Luther, and Klaus, standing awkwardly together in the theater lobby, holding bouquets of various sizes and colors, convincing themselves that it’s a totally platonic gift to give to an actor.

-The show goes great. At the end of opening weekend, the cast and crew and friends go out to celebrate at the local bar and grill.

-At some point, the drinks are on Ollie, and everyone knows he and his mom are loaded. So. More drinks are had than ought to be had.

-ESPECIALLY by Five. He starts rambling about this girl named Delores in his quantum physics class and how he’s not sure if he’s allowed to find her attractive because of how complicated his age is.

-Vanya needed to get drunk. She deserved it. Now she’s yelling about this girl named Sissy in her chamber orchestra. What is happening.

-I’m not saying that Klaus and Dave had their first kiss while buzzed and behind the TUA equivalent of an Applebee’s, but I’m not not saying it.

-Luther has like two beers and starts getting emotional about how pretty the moon is.

-In classes the next morning, everyone’s hungover as shit.

-Except Allison, who was the extra careful Mom Friend and made sure her siblings made it home safe.

-Except Klaus. Who. Y’know. Didn’t really make it home. Ben goes to his 8 AM and takes Ghost Notes for him.

-Sometime that week, Luther comes into the director’s office with a question and sees her finishing a phone call, looking distraught.

-He asks if she’s okay. She doesn’t want to explain, but it eventually comes out that her son was in an accident of sorts three years ago. It’s almost the anniversary. He just got another treatment for the burn scars across half of his face. The director is still grieving the fact that it’s highly unlikely he’ll find success in his dream to be a Broadway actor.

-Luther warns Allison that the director might be in a worse mood this week. So that’s great.

-At an Othello rehearsal, Allison is calling cues from her promptbook. She pretty much has them memorized. But apparently, as the theatre director tells her, she keeps getting them wrong today?

-Allison could swear that last time she was at rehearsal, her book was different. What she’s reading is unfamiliar - lefts instead of rights, blue-outs instead of black-outs, etc. So she’s stumbling.

-On break, the theatre director expresses her frustration to Allison. We’re almost in tech week, for God’s sake. Allison apologizes and promises it won’t happen in the run.

-Allison blames her screw-ups on the stress of her overcommitments. Vanya sees she’s a little upset after the exchange and invites her to hang with her and Five after rehearsal.

-Vanya and Five have actually opened a pretty decent dialogue on mental health as it relates to their abilities, with Five’s powers damaging his psychological state and Vanya’s mood being an element of her telekinesis. Vanya reminds Allison that she’s got a lot on her plate, so she should try to take it easy where she can.

-Vanya still has anxiety, and it tends to flare at the part in the play where Othello smothers Desdemona with a pillow. They had worked out a safe plan in rehearsal. The pillow is thin and held at an angle so Vanya can still breathe, and it is only going to be held for a count of twelve. No longer, no shorter.

-Vanya and her siblings also take some more time to bitch about Ollie, too. Did you hear him accidentally call the director “mom” the other day? How embarrassing. What a dork.

-Hair closes and Othello tech week begins.

-A new batch of freshman House Crew members are cleaning up the theater one day with the radio on.

-It’s now the three year anniversary of the host’s favorite Hargreeves Five battle, a showdown against aspiring actor and convicted robber Erick Webber that went up in flames.

Chapter Eight - “Brush Up Your Shakespeare”

-The twelve-hour cue-to-cue tech rehearsal for Othello is a nightmare. But aren’t all cue-to-cues nightmares?

-They are.

-There might be some fluffy sibling stuff here, but nothing important. Luther, Diego, and Allison are speaking on headset with each other (“on com”). The channel also includes the assistant stage manager and assistant tech director.

-About five hours in, Luther and Diego get real sick of each other. Luther is redundant with his directions. Diego knows what to do. Diego keeps jumping the gun on cues. Passive aggression ensues.

-Allison has had it up to HERE and says “Look, if you’re gonna be children, can you please do it on a different channel?”

-And they do. They dedicate a whole other radio channel to Luther and Diego arguing where the rest of the crew can’t hear it.

-It’s during the cue-to-cue that Allison screws up the calls one too many times - is someone editing her promptbook when she’s not around? - and gets one more comment from the director. It’s worded like encouragement but spoken like a threat.

-“Allison, you were doing so well with the freshman. Just tell yourself you can do this. You’ll be perfect.”

-At lunch break, she wants to collapse. She goes to the bathroom, locks the door, and looks into the mirror.

-“I heard a rumor that you followed that promptbook perfectly.”

-The day after cue-to-cue, Vanya realizes she’s lost her meds. They have to be in the theater somewhere, but she can’t find them. Her siblings assure her that being in the show has improved her overall confidence, and they’ll all come running if she starts to have a meltdown for any reason. She’ll be able to control her emotions until she can get a refill. This warms her lil heart.

-The final dress rehearsals come to pass. Vanya continues to flourish. Five continues to impress and confound. Allison is flawless. Luther and Diego get over themselves. Klaus and Eudora get front row seats for opening night. It’s going to be a packed house. The local news are coming and filming segments to promote the program. As if the program needs any more support. The chandelier still boggles the mind.

-Opening night. The show is going spectacularly until Act V, when Ollie starts pressing the pillow over Vanya’s face.

-This is always the hard part. But it’s just a count of twelve, underscored by two bars of music.

-Until it isn’t.

-Ollie keeps pressing. This wasn’t what we rehearsed.

-Allison sees this from the booth and almost feels like they should call a hold, but her rumor kicks in and she can’t help but keep calling the show as normal.

-Vanya starts to hear the music amplified in her ears and starts to lose control of her power.

-Luther and Diego are both in Allison’s headset as the building starts to shake. “Allison, you need to call hold. Right now. Call hold!”

-Panicking, Vanya sends a pulse of energy out, knocking Ollie halfway across the stage, sending the flats crashing down, and shattering a row of stage lights. When she stands up, Ollie is smiling.

-The news crew caught it on tape. The audience is freaking out. Most of them try to flee but are trapped inside at the back of the house.

-Allison’s next call is the newest and strangest unauthorized edit she’s seen in her promptbook. It’s for the wrong play.

-“Spot B to Macbeth.”

-At the first time that its trigger phrase has ever been uttered in the building, the chandelier starts to glow and expand. Then, it drops, lower and lower, until it is right in front of the stage.

-It was never just a chandelier. It’s a piece of extra-terrestrial technology. Standing on the shelf on top of it are the director and the headmaster.

Chapter Nine - “The Point of No Return”

-I don’t know exactly how I’d reveal all of this, but here’s the gist.

-By the way, this is them coming out as extra-as-hell supervillains. So the way this is revealed is probably extra as hell.

-The director’s son is Erick Webber, a starving artist who resorted to a life of crime to pay his bills and got himself tangled with the Hargreeves Five, who are responsible for half of his face burning in the heat of battle.

-The director and the headmaster actually have been romantically involved for a few years, all but legally married.

-When the directors’ son was forever barred from the career of his dreams, the director and very wealthy headmaster first got together. The headmaster got her a job at the school.

-They wanted revenge for their son. But they also deduced that the Hargreeves Five were too immature for their powers and potential to ruin lives. They were just dumb kids. Their powers must be taken from them and placed into more capable hands.

-The couple had done extensive research, learned about the power potential in the 43, tracked down as many of them as they could find - preferably those already living in America - and hired all sorts of people and services to promote Umbrella University to them. They offered each one of them a sizable scholarship.

-They got seven of them.

-And they arranged meetings with characters that Hargreeves had done some shady deals with so they could acquire the otherworldly technology needed to set their plan into motion.

-And Macbeth was the trigger word for the invention - the story of an old celebrated king slain to make room for the rightful leader, as plotted by an empowered and bloodthirsty woman - so they had to put it in a theater. They had to ensure the trigger wasn’t spoken in the room until the correct time.

-Five realizes at this point that the efforts he made to change the past didn’t stop the Macbeth Enterprise, it just gave them a way more convenient origin. God dammit.

-The siblings realize Ollie was in on the whole thing. He had to make sure all seven of the kids were in the theater at the right time, so he snooped around and reported back to the Evil Moms. They let Luther be TD so Diego could cover lights. They cast Five, made Allison recruit Vanya, and made Allison SM. They took out Leonard and cast Dave to ensure Klaus and Ben would be there for opening. Ollie hid Vanya’s pills during the cue-to-cue.

-Allison realizes the director knew about her power all along and really was suggesting that she use it. Allison had done exactly what they wanted her to. They must’ve had someone re-do the promptbook each day and everything.

-The point is, there’s now news footage of a girl with unpredictably dangerous powers ruining a perfectly good school play and two women making a solid case that these children can’t be trusted with their gifts. The chandelier machinery revs up to perform its task - stripping all of their powers away.

-Five knows it won’t end there - the powers will be turned against the Hargreeves Five. Their abilities will be harvested too. And the hands that they’ll all end up in will be military-minded and will seize control of the nation, ruling by fear.

-There’s an extensive fight scene here. One that, again, I have no idea how I would write. It’s something that involves a level of family teamwork that they would not have if the theatre program didn’t bring them so close together in the first place. So it’s pretty ironic and kinda sweet.

-We find out that Dave and Eudora are absolutely ride-or-die for their idiot boyfriends that they just found out have terrifying superpowers, and they each have a moment where they contribute to the takedown.

-Ben is summoned because he legally has to be. The Horror can do some serious damage to the machine, and he finds he’s unaffected by its drainage because he’s dead as hell.

-Vanya grabs a violin from the pit where the underscoring was being played and shreds away at it to channel her power.

-The fight has heavy parallels to the prologue scene, where everyone’s powers went berserk because Vanya saw a rat and freaked out. Except there’s obviously a lot more at stake and a lot more direction in it.

-All of that gets resolved, somehow. Any of their power that gets drained gets returned to them once they get the machine shut down. Luther effortlessly snaps the tape of evidence in half.

-Allison uses her last rumor of junior year to memory-wipe and send away the cameramen and the witnesses.

-Except Eudora and Dave, who are surprisingly chill about this and promise to keep it all secret.

-The gang has no idea how to explain all the damage to the authorities, but the Criminal Justice Duo knows how to detain the bad guys in the costume closet and highlight some evidence to draw the focus to the less-than-legal dealings they made to set up their plot in the first place.

-Corruption? In college administration?? Pssshhh noooooooo never.

-The story embedded in the rumor is that the chandelier overheated and combusted, so everyone ran out. The police will discover the alien tech and go from there.

-Still, the superpower squad realizes they should lay low. Play dumb if interviewed. Skip class for a couple days and stay far away from the theatre department.

-Diego is up on the catwalk - the walkway above the audience where they maneuver the spotlights - collecting his stuff. He hears some footsteps on the ladder and sees Eudora climbing up to meet him.

-Diego starts to say something snarky and casual and Eudora’s like “No. Shut up. Just. Please. Shut up.” and kisses him.

-After weeks of pretending not to care as much as they really did and a solid half hour of having no idea if the other would live or die, here they are, standing over the decimated theater, finally at ease in each other’s arms

Chapter Ten - “Curtain Call”

-And that’s… it. When the siblings start coming back to classes, no one comes after them for whatever happened.

-Needless to say, the rest of the run of Othello has been cancelled. All theatre classes will be moved online or converted to classroom formats until repairs can be made to the building. There’s a new interim headmaster and theatre department director.

-It’s going to take forever for them to fix the damage done to the theater, and even when they do, it doesn’t feel right to keep that as their home base. So, where to now? How are they gonna fill the rest of their electives?

-All of the fine arts buildings are stacked close together. Music major Vanya has an idea.

-Second semester, Diego takes beginning percussion. Luther joins the marching band (and far exceeds the athletic demands for it). Klaus picks guitar back up. Allison ventures into vocal jazz. Five is a natural at composition.

-Sharing practice rooms. Cramming for theory exams. The entire works. They’re music kids now!

-They’re thrilled when they find out that all of their respective ensembles will be featured in the spring concert.

-But does the conductor of Vanya’s chamber orchestra seem a little… eccentric to you?

...

im a broken woman from this. god dammit.

#tua #the umbrella academy #what the hell else to tag this as #diedora #klave #Reginald They're Thespians #the chapter titles are semi-relevant names of show songs ha get it??

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secret-engima · 4 years

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How would it go if certain people (who is up to you) found out that Ardyn and Nox are from a future that went so completely to shit that there are no words to describe it, that Nox is actually Noctis, who's so happy and bubbly that they can't quite imagine what happened to make him like that. A few of Nox's traits and quirks would definitely make more sense though, as would some of Ardyn's.

Hmmmm hmmm ohhhhh this is- hmmmmm. Okay heads up NONE of this is considered canon atm for Nox but if anyone found out it would be Cid, Weskham, and like- Prompto (this may change, depending on how much I feel like making Nox suffer, but for now these are non-canon).

-For Cid- he’d find out that Nox was from the future when he accidentally walked in on Nox sharpening his Ultima Blade. Now- Cid might not be THE most observant person, but he knows his own handiwork like its a part of his soul and THAT SWORD, that sword that looks like its been dragged through the depths of the abyss and back, that sword that Nox cradles like its his child as he polishes and sharpens the blade-

-That is his handiwork. His blade. His tweaks and mods and balances and bits of flare to the point he could already tell you every step he went through to make it.

-He’s never seen that sword before in his life.

-Or ... not this life.

-Nox looks up at him with too-old eyes and a weary, frightened face, “I ... I can explain.”

-Cid stares, stares at the face of Reggie’s eldest and can hear the unspoken I really, really don’t want to and knows that what he is going to hear is going to break him even more than losing Mid and Melba.

-He’s right.

-Nox doesn’t tell him much, tries so HARD to keep the final pieces from clicking, but Cid is no fool and he can hear the gaps.

-The gaps that Nox is NOCTIS. Reggie’s little bright eyed boy. That Nox was the Chosen King and that everything went to the pyre when he was just a newly turned adult. That whatever happened between him and the Accursed (the way Nox uses the title only and no names makes Cid think of Ardyn’s own bitter declaration of past abuse toward his nephew and feel cold) ... broke him.

-Then Nox tells him, honest and quiet, that he died. Nox, this boy, this child Cid has helped raise and helped put back together (yet not a child at all, if what Nox is saying is true, and it is) went and died so that the world would be saved, even though there was so little left TO save at that point and then ... woke up. Younger and different and here.

-And he doesn’t want to believe it, except despite the inherent insanity of the story it MAKES SENSE. All of Nox’s odd “similarities” with Noctis, the secrets and the way Nox stares at Reggie like Reggie is a ghost come back to life.

-The blade that started this entire confrontation.

-Cid has no words to explain what he feels in that moment, looking at the fragile, sharp-edged remains of what could have been (hopefully will never again be) Noctis’s future. He just pulls the boy close and doesn’t let go for a long time.

...

-For Weskham, he puts the pieces together because he is both smart, openminded and ... something of an outside observer. He meets Noctis and Nox at the same time, with fewer preconceptions, and notices the oddities. The similarities that go deeper than “oh just like their father” or “what a coincidence” and instead go screaming off the edge into creepy.

-They like the same foods and hate the same foods, though Nox is better at being mature and eating it anyway. They have many of the same tells in the way they blink, or look away, or rub the backs of their necks. He hears of the marilith attack and through various accidental circumstances happens to see their scars.

-Nox and Noctis have identical scars on their backs, though Noctis’s far more faded and small, and Weskham has this- moment where he thinks of the identical scars and the story of how Nox heard “rumors” and rushed headlong to defend family he supposedly didn’t even know, from an attack that “just happened” to be identical to one he had suffered around Noctis’s age and something inside him goes OH.

-He watches for a long time and tells no one, and while he can’t fathom why he’s indulging the theory it ... makes sense. The tells, the similarities, the face shapes. He imagines Nox with short hair and almost creeps himself out with how identical Noctis and Nox would look if the elder did not have his long hair and earrings and was a few years younger.

-He already knows magic can do many impossible things. Both good and bad. So he keeps the impossible theory to himself, nursing it and compiling more and more little bits of evidence in his head, never intending to SAY anything until he stumbles across Nox during a Quiet Day, watching the world with too-old eyes and blurts, “How did it end?”

-Nox looks at him slowly, like Weskham’s only a dream, “What?”

-Weskham doesn’t like the dead look in Nox’s eyes, not when he mentally compares it to little, cheerful, bright-eyed Noctis and wonders what could have possibly destroyed him and remade him into Nox in just a few short years, “Whatever sent you back. How did it end?”

-Nox stares at him with knowledge old and terrible, then laughs, rusty and slightly unhinged, “Father died. Clarus died. Luna -the Oracle- died. Insomnia burned and the world soon followed. The night devoured the day and the daemons roamed unchecked, people died in droves while I SLEPT in Crystal and when I woke up all I could do was say goodbye to my brothers one last time and then let the Old Kings kill me so that whoever was left would at least have a dawn by which to rebuild the civilization of the world. And then I woke up.” Nox faltered, swallowed hard, “I woke up, and I’ve been wondering why ever since.”

-Weskham breathes past the knife-sharp feeling in his throat, the horrible memories of WAR he can see reflected in Nox’s eyes.

-He manages to walk away without stumbling by sheer dint of will. Collapses in his suite to shake in a chair and wish he had never noticed, never asked. Never known.

...

-For Prompto, the biggest clue was their first meeting. When he was crying over his camera and Nox was desperate to cheer him and babbled and called him “Prom” as warm and loving and familiar as if they were family and not a little crying boy and a nice stranger on the street.

-He never forgot that meeting. Never really believed Nox’s excuse of memorizing who Noctis’s classmates where.

-Nox is weird. Nox is ... really weird. Always has been. But that’s okay, because he’s Nox, he’s Noctis’s big brother and kinda Prompto’s big brother after Cor adopted him so ... so it’s okay.

-Except for the time it isn’t.

-Except for the time Prompto makes the mistake of binging way too many sci-fi shows in one sitting and then spots Nox and Noctis together and notices how similar their voices were now that Noctis wasn’t a little kid, how they wrinkle their nose in the same way when they’re baffled and- and-

-It’s a really dumb idea okay? He gets that, he KNOWS that. Except ... it makes a lot of sense too. The more he thinks about it, the harder he shoves the preconception of “of COURSE they’re two different people” in a little box, the more he realizes it MAKES TOO MUCH SENSE.

-Nox’s habits, his ticks, the way he KNOWS Noctis and Ignis and Gladio and Prompto. The way he looks at them sometimes like they’re fragile glass pictures that are going to shatter. The way Axis has said once that he wasn’t Nox’s FIRST Shield, but that Nox’s original Shield was gone-.

-Prompto maybe spends the next week hyperventilating in his room when no one is looking and trying very hard to NOT blurt out the question “are you a time traveller” whenever he sees Nox.

-Eventually he can’t resist, eventually he tests. Runs up and slaps Nox on the shoulder with a friendly, “Yo, Noctis!” when they’re both alone in a hallway of the Citadel and something in his stomach drops out when Nox doesn’t go “huh?” but instead just chuckles and goes, “Hi Prom,” before Nox FREEZES.

-Its the freeze that really sells it in Prompto’s mind, the look of confusion and devastation on Nox (NOCTIS’S) face that makes him instantly regret trying anything. Prompto babbles something about tongue slip and meaning Nox, OBVIOUSLY, because OBVIOUSLY they were two different people, being brothers and all and seven years apart and-

-And there is something so very sad in Nox’s eyes as he murmurs, “You always were a bad liar, Prom.”

-Oh. Oh dear. Prompto swallows and hunches in on himself without thinking, “So ... I was right then.”

-Nox nods slowly and the silence is ... awkward. Tense. Filled with something Prompto can’t name or describe and suddenly he’s apologizing. He’s apologizing and almost in tears and when Nox, baffled and alarmed, asks why-

-“I don’t remember you. You look at us and you remember, and we’re your brothers and we PROMISED ‘ever at your side’ but I don’t REMEMBER you and Iggy and Gladio don’t even know-.” He stops, he sniffles and another horrible thought comes to him and since today is the day for turning off his brain to mouth filter apparently he whispers, “Did we die? Is- is that why we didn’t come with you to the past?”

-Nox takes a shaky breath and runs it through his hair, “No-, no you all- you all lived. As far as I know. Up until the point I ... came back, you were all alive and ... well. Just a little banged up, but okay.” Nox (Noctis, a broken Noctis, a Noctis from a future that had to have been horrible because Prompto’s SEEN some of the scars and he doesn’t want to think about that-) blinks wet eyes and suddenly blurts, “Don’t tell anyone. Please? Especially not- especially not the others.”

-Prompto nods, because of course, he’s not an idiot and he doesn’t think they’d believe him anyway. Nox coughs awkwardly in his throat and starts to walk away with hunched shoulders and Prompto will never know why he opened his big mouth again or why, of all things, he chooses to say, “Yo, Nox?”

-Nox (not Noctis, because they ARE two different people now and Prompto prays it stays that way) blinks over his shoulder and Prompto musters up his biggest grin as he blurts, “Thanks, you know? For ... everything. You’ve really Walked Tall.” He doesn’t know what those words mean, or why he chose “walked tall” of all things but he knows in a second his words MEAN something more than he can ever comprehend because Nox’s eyes go wide-

-And suddenly Nox is hugging Prompto. Clinging to him like he’s an anchor in a storm and all Prompto can do is hug back as fiercely as he can while tears drip onto his shirt, and Nox shakes like he’s about to fall apart and somewhere in the harsh breathing of the time-traveler-brother-friend in his arms, Prompto could swear he hears Nox whisper, “I miss you so much, Prom- I can’t-,” but then Nox goes silent, and astrals Prompto’s crying too, because he always was a crybaby and something inside him hurts in a way that makes it hard to breathe (is this what Nox was feeling? Is this what he felt those days he looked at them with too-old eyes? No wonder he always left the room, Prompto wants to scream already and Nox has felt this for years-).

-Nox pulls away, rests his forehead on Prompto’s for just a second and it feels like a thank you.

-It feels like a goodbye. But not to him. It’s a goodbye to the weight falling off Prompto’s shoulders, like hands letting go as a shadow fades away.

-Nox retreats, disappears around the corner without a word and with a too-bright-too-old look that means Prompto’s set off a Quiet Day and Prompto-

-Prompto goes back to his room and hugs his old chocobo plush tight. He’s not in the mood to go play video games with the others right now.

-Days later Nox finds him again and wordlessly, gently, passes him a leather-bound book. A memento, Nox calls it sadly, I’ll want it back when you’re done, he murmurs before slinking away.

-Prompto hides it where even Cor wouldn’t think to look because he doesn’t dare put it in armiger (the armiger Noctis gave him, the armiger Noctis might find it in accidentally). He hides himself under his covers like he’s a little kid again, holds his flashlight tight in one hand and his chocobo plush under his other arm as he flips it open and sees-

-Photos. His photos. His style, with all of them (Ignis, Noctis, Gladio, himself) in them. He doesn’t know the context for them but- it’s a journey. It’s a roadtrip in film and Prompto spends hours carefully flipping through each page, staring at snapshots of battles not fought and fishing holes not visited and silly moments not laughed at anymore. It’s Nox’s life in a nutshell, Prompto thinks as he looks through photos taken in dark dungeons and sunlit deserts. Injuries and health, insomnia and energetic smiles. The last photo is of them, on a campground he recognizes. It’s the one just outside Insomnia, where you can see the bridge leading to the island and the lighting is usually amazing. This one is at night, and they all look older, thirty or more whereas in the others they are only twenty or so. Noctis- Nox, is in the center, smiling with the soft, sad eyes that Prompto remembers from that first meeting, Gladio looming behind him and Ignis at his side with a visor that doesn’t hide the scars on his face. In the middle, one arm slung over Ignis’s shoulders and the other over Nox’s like he can KEEP them there, forever safe and happy if he just holds on tight enough, is himself.

-There are no other photos.

-Prompto doesn’t need to be told why.

-He returns the book to Nox the next day, and refuses to acknowledge Noctis’s puzzled look when he hugs Nox tight and doesn’t mind when Nox hugs him back. Then Prompto smiles, because that’s his job in the group, to be the one who smiles when things are dark, and he drags Nox over to play Kings Knight with the four of them. And maybe things aren’t perfect, because now Prompto KNOWS and he can never un-know, but things are better. Because Nox is here, and Nox fixed things, and Nox is never going to let Noctis become him, so Prompto doesn’t have to worry about that and can instead focus on keeping both of his kings smiling and laughing and happy.

-He can hold on, and this time, no blood or road trip or daemon-infested future will be able to make him let go.

(hgfdhg congrats I just made myself cry. Everyone suffer with me. @wolfsrainrules @hamelin-born @ean-sovukau @rayearthdudette @sparklecryptid COME SUFFER WITH ME.)

#SE asks #faeconstellation asks #Secret Engima Rambles #Nox verse

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the-ghost-of-jason-todd · 3 years

Text

Dark Klaus Fic Summary/Synopsis

So this is going to be long and Weird and I’m writing fast so I’m sorry about the quality, rip. Anyway, basically it’s an exploration of Klaus’s powers and how he might cause an apocalypse. It starts the night of the rave with Luther, after Klaus dies for the first time, when Klaus tells Ben that he died and came back. Then it jumps to the main story, which is canon-divergent from S1E10 onward, and specifically splits off at the bowling alley where the commission agents are shooting at them. Klaus is shot. He gets in the way of Luther and Diego when they’re going to attack Vanya. Vanya and Allison have their moment. The shooters come. Vanya protects them, and then finishes the concert and passes out, the world still intact. But Klaus is still shot--he dies. But he’ll come back, right?

Yes. But because the bullet has to work it’s way out of his body first, he doesn’t come back before they autopsy him and bury him. He comes back in his casket--which is iron, because [spoilers] daddy dearest suspected this power and specified that he be burried in an iron casket. So there’s Klaus, buried alive.

Meanwhile the family is trying to deal with everything. Pogo is dead, Grace is offline (though Five is trying to fix her), Klaus is dead, and Vanya is unconscious. The house gets rebuilt, and they all use it as a sort of home base, sticking close. Five is obsessive. Tensions run high a lot. It’s not good.

Then there’s Ben. He’s still sticking around, and he’s not quite sure why. Five figures out that the cold spot in the house is Ben and they develop a sort of twenty questions system, with yes or no answers. And then, one day... Ben feels Klaus come back, his powers (which always emanate a spectral energy, when he’s alive and not high) coming back online. And Ben is like FUCK and tries to get Five to help, but Five just isn’t asking the right questions. He can’t figure it out. So Klaus is stuck in the ground for... a while.

He talks to god a lot, and comes back a lot, and dies a lot. Like a LOT. It’s gruesome and not fun, and also god is an ass who won’t let him see Dave. But eventually, he manages to astral project out of his casket, scaring the shit out of Diego. The family realizes that Klaus is still alive and dig him out, and they have their brother back, hooray!

Cue Klaus realizing that he’s... a little different now. He has better control of his powers, but his temperature is colder and his body is different and he feels divorced from life. He doesn’t know what to make of that yet.

And then... enter Daniel. The reincarnation of Dave. He’s been having dreams about Klaus calling him Dave for a year now (coinciding with the date that klaus travelled back in time to vietnam) and he’s finally like fuck it, I’m talking to this guy I keep dreaming about. And so he does. And it’s weird, because Klaus is different than his dreams but he’s also the same and Klaus is like thirty/thirty-one but Dave is only twenty-two, and if god brought him back why did she do it like this?

Klaus meanwhile is having nightmares. He has a really bad one where his powers go to MAX and he basically opens a portal into the afterlife through his own body, and the ghosts on the other side are crowding through trying to get out. The house nearly freezes. It’s bad. So the family (and Dave) starts looking through what’s left of Dad’s notebooks, finding all kinds of shit. Like stuff about Reggie’s theories about all the kids and the mausoleum and stuff. Klaus finds one about contingencies about what to do if Klaus went off the rails. He steals it and shows no one.

From there it’s a slow slide off the deep end. He and Dave have a fight. Klaus has a lot of nightmares and a few meltdowns, and he starts to feel this distant pain and he knows he’s going to die again, he feels it coming, but he doesn’t do anything to stop it. He doesn’t want to fight anymore.

But he doesn’t die. The others realize something is up--it’s his appendix, and they save his life. Diego realizes something is wrong and brings his concerns to Five, who is just like ‘I’ll look into it’.

Klaus takes a few days off, and then he approaches Diego like I know you still go out on vigilante missions. And Diego is like SO? And Klaus is like take me with you. Me and Ben. And because Five is preoccupied and Diego thinks having a purpose might help Klaus, he lets him. But then he realizes that Klaus has no regard for his own life, like he LETS himself get in the way of attacks and dies and comes back. And Diego doesn’t know what to do.

Ben, though... Ben has figured out about Dad’s journal. And he’s like Klaus, tell the others or I will. And Klaus is like nah, and stops corporealizing Ben to talk to the others. So Ben goes back to twenty questions with Five, and this is the second time that someone has come to Five with concerns about Klaus and he’s starting to put the pieces together. Klaus is causing a cold spot on the map, one that he suspects might turn into an ice age as ghosts cross over from the other side, more ghosts than living people, the channel between the afterlife and the human world wide open. Klaus will literally freeze the world in a cold, awful death.

So he calls a family meeting and they all go, including Klaus and Dave, and they figure out that Klaus’s powers are like... a rot, a cancer, inside of him. The very first time he died, it took root. And the kicker? He died as a baby. Stillbirth. He’s always been like this. It just accellerated after the casket incident. So they have dear old dad to thank for that.

So they’re trying to figure out something to do. And Five is like okay... what if I use time travel to rewind your body back before you first died? And the family is like that is... not ideal. They have no idea what that will do to his mental state if he’s trapped as an infant. So they make a compromise--they reverse him in time to before his second death, an OD that happened when he was 19. And he’s back, babey! Just a little colder than average, a little touch of death, you know how it is. And he and Dave are now only three years apart, look how that worked out.

#30th #October #2020 #October 30th 2020 #31st #October 31st 2020 #my writing #synopsis #dark fic #uhhhh #idk how to tag this really #rip #literally rip #liveblogging tua

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wwwafflewrites · 4 years

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Quality FanFiction Recommendations!

Quarantined? Bored? Itching to read? I have just the thing for you. I have around 100+ fanfic recommendations with descriptions!!! Yay!

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Disclaimer: None of what is below is mine. Not even the descriptions. :)

I have read all of these though and I can promise they are very good!

WARNING = Possibly triggering. Rather be safe than sorry, but you can certainly ignore these.

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Fics for Superwholock, Supernatural, Doctor Who, Avengers, Merlin, Sherlock and Miscellaneous below.

Superwholock (and Variations)

Second Chances: When Sam Winchester finds himself stuck in New York City with new abilities he doesn’t know how to use and a recent life-changing event he can’t remember, the last thing he expects is to find friends and allies in the city’s resident heroes. But Sam isn’t the only new arrival to New York: the supernatural world doesn’t want to let Sam go, and their plans extend beyond just Sam and the city. Sam is going to have to bring together every hero he can to save New York—and maybe along the way, he can save himself, too.

New York City has been referred to as the City of Dreams, but for Sam Winchester, it’s more than that—it’s also the City of Second Chances. (VERY VERY GOOD AND STILL UPDATING; I’M STILL READING IT)

Breaking the Cycle: The TARDIS materializes at the Broward County Mystery Spot on a Tuesday.

The Other Loki: There’s a new Trickster in town. Tony and the other Avengers aren’t sure what to make of him.

The Tomato in the Mirror: Loki body-swaps with Sam. Later, things get weird.

Don't Blink? No Problem: Castiel meets a Weeping Angel. It's not a fair fight.

Supernatural

Road Song: Dean attempts to calm the reader with a drive in the Impala after a night filled with nightmares.

WARNING Cabin Fever: When you’ve been cooped up with the Winchesters for too long your plan to get an hour away from them takes a terrible turn for the worse.

Cold as Ice: After an accident, Dean and the reader find themselves stuck in the woods during a storm.

Counting the Days: The world was overrun by the Croatoan virus, Sam said ‘yes’ to Lucifer, and Dean hasn’t talked to his brother in five years. One of these things is not like the others.

WARNING You Bleed, I Bleed: Dean confronts you, and tells you that from now on, anything you do to yourself, he will do to himself. Because he just can’t stand to see you hurting, alone in your pain.

Imagine Winchester Saving You From Jack Frost: (no description) “Ice crystals blossomed across your skin, growing and claiming your body as it’s own. You were glistening, the frost reflecting the evening sun like millions of stars. The beauty of winter dominated your body, sprouted from your neck, your neck that had gelid fingers curled around it.”

Tired and Scared: So, backstory is that the reader is doing some sort of a quest and it’s doing bad stuff to her, sort of like Sam and the trials.

I Think I Might Need You: Dr. Jade Thorpe is a strong, independent woman. It’s how she defines herself, the lens through which she views the world. So when everything she knows and has drops out from under her, she has nowhere to turn but to three men who she’s never met, who she will grow to know as, “the f****** Winchesters and that goddamn angel.”

NSFW All Your Pretty Lies: The first time you meet Dean Winchester he almost kills you. Don’t all healthy relationships start with attempted murder?

WARNING You are the Blood in my Veins: You’ve been dealing with self harm for years, the brothers don’t know yet and you don’t know how much more you can take.

Long I Stood: [Endverse!AU] After his phone call with Dean in “The End,” Sam is exhausted. Still recovering from his near-relapse when hunters Reggie Hull and Tim Janklow tried to force him to drink demon blood and unwilling to fall into bed because Lucifer is waiting in his head, Sam sets off running.

He runs straight into the end of the world, where Zachariah tells him that this is where his choices will inevitably lead him unless he plays his part. Sam finds unexpected allies in the survivors at Camp Chitaqua, and maybe―just maybe―there’s still reason for hope. Maybe they won’t always wind up here. Not if Sam has his say.

When Summoning, Please Watch the Wording: (A strange crossover of Supernatural and Good Omens. I don’t even know if it’s canonically correct but it was very entertaining.)

Find the Light: This is the first part of a series! Sam and Dean discover Y/N as a victim of a Djinn.

In the Quiet Moments: Being stuck in your own horrible inner thoughts is hard. It’s even harder to when those thoughts feel more and more real. Sometimes, you need someone to pull you back to reality and remind you of your worth.

Waiting: The reader is seriously injured on a hunt. Sam and Dean take you to Bobby’s so he can patch you up. Dean is freaked to Hell.

WARNING Chink in the Armor: Dean Winchester, in the years following Sam’s departure for college, was not a very stable individual.

WARNING Trust Us: You get kidnapped by the two mass murderers you’ve seen on TV, Sam and Dean Winchester. But are they as bad as they are made out to be?

Heavy Sleeper: Imagine Sam and Dean finding the reader asleep in the impala after a long hunt.

Period Pains: The reader has her period worse than usual and Dean takes note, taking care of her in anyway he can. (so cute)

Headache: Reader has a migraine and Sam and Dean don’t realize it and are annoying.

Through the Dark: You finally go on your first hunt, accompanying Sam and Dean. The experience leaves you haunted and Dean does his best to comfort you.

WARNING Be Free: AU from end of Southern Comfort. Sam takes Dean’s words to heart, his mind throwing in its own two cents. Believing it is what will make Dean happy, Sam runs and becomes untraceable until it is almost too late. Dean calls in any help he can to find his brother, including angelic assistance. But finding someone with the knowledge Sam has, and who doesn’t want to be found, the remaining members of Team Free Will better pull out all the stops, and fast.

Imagine Falling Asleep While Watching TV with Dean One Shot: Exhaustion. That was the sign of a hunt well done.

Finding Out You Made a Crossroad’s Deal to Save Him: (no description; preference)

Selfish Motives: Imagine taking a bullet for Dean and he gets emotional while patching you up.

WARNING Reflection: A dark time from the reader’s past comes to light.

Shattered: “The one you shattered? I can fix it.” He said, hand already hovering over your hip. It wasn’t the first time you’d had this conversation, you had the unfortunate feeling it wouldn’t be the last. (tooth-rotting fluff)

Protection Detail: “You’re okay, you’re safe.” The man driving spoke softly. Something about the deep timbre of his voice sounded familiar and strangely comforting. You’d heard it before, but couldn’t for the life of you figure out where or when. There was sincerity in his tone- he truly believed what he was saying. Safe. Too bad he’s wrong. He couldn’t possibly know who you were running from or what they’d done to you. Even worse, what they’d do to him for getting in the way. He was in far over his head and it would only get him killed.

WARNING If Anything Happened to You: After jumping in front of the gun one too many times, the Winchester’s are wondering if there is something more to it than just saving them.

He Isn’t Heavy, He’s My Brother: What happens when the boys are stranded and one of them becomes violently ill? (it’s dean)

You Can’t Rule with a Broken Upper Hand: Successfully killing Lilith and keeping Dean out of Hell has the brothers ready for a good, old-fashioned, hunter-on-demon brawl. It’s time to get back to the basics, back to the way things used to be, when monsters got ganked and that was the end of things. That said, they are not ready for a new kind of creature to appear in the middle of their fight, covered in blood and begging for mercy they aren’t supposed to give.

Meanwhile, Castiel is panicking. He’s been tortured senseless for four decades straight, and now he’s been thrown down in front of two hunters. If he thought his brothers were bad… well, all angels knew how cruel hunters were… and Castiel has no idea how to convince them he doesn’t need to be, in the shorter one’s words, ganked.

Forgotten: Sam and Dean are working a case in Wyoming, but are distracted by news of a dangerous angel called “Castiel” who they can’t remember ever having heard of before. The name seems a little bit familiar, but neither of the boys is sure why. (THIS ONE IS SO GOOD)

Bronco: Reader goes on a hunt alone and hides more serious injuries from Sam and Dean. She heads to Bobby’s to recover only to have the boys show up shortly after. (I love this one)

WARNING We As Human: Sam has been struggling with depression since Stanford. Well, not really struggling. Excelling. He’s been excelling at depression since Stanford, and it’s only gotten worse since he started hunting again. Unfortunately, the relapses from John’s death and Dean’s trip to Hell were bad, but they had nothing on the downward spiral triggered by Sam starting the Apocalypse.

But Sam has never come clean before, and he isn’t about to start. He’s self-medicating, he’s suppressing, and he’s handling things in the Trademark Winchester Way. He can do this. He can totally do this.

Spoiler: No, he can’t.

WARNING Stop the Clock: Being cooped up in the bunker with the Men of Letters archive at your fingertips, you’re now the go-to person for help with lore. But having so many hunters depend on you is overwhelming. You don’t have enough time for yourself and you’ve reached a breaking point. (Dean holding you after a panic attack and comforting you.)

WARNING Chance Encounters: You are running. As a hunter, it seems like you are always running. Whether it be toward an enemy or away. You find yourself in a bar and are saved by Sam and Dean. As Dean gets curious about you, you start to fall for him. With all that is going on with the boys, you offer to help.

Come Hell or Highwater: Oneshot where the reader is stranded on a little boat in the middle of the ocean with one of the boys, and has a super repressed fear of water.

Blood and Tears: The reader is having really bad period cramps, and Dean doesn’t know how to help. (vulgar)

Deep thoughts: When the Winchesters find her, strung up and tortured by a demon, they realize she’s something more than an average human. Sam’s curious, Dean’s apprehensive, and Elise knows everything - because she can hear their thoughts.

Walkie-Talkies: The reader and Dean have to wait out a blizzard at a motel. Question is: will things heat up or not?

Ruination: The night Dean kicks him out of the bunker, Castiel has to find shelter from the rain. But he unwittingly stumbles across a monster’s lair and is caught…and as far as he knows, no one’s looking for him. Meanwhile, Sam’s not buying Dean’s story about why Cas left, and he won’t be satisfied until he finds some answers. Assuming the ex-angel lasts that long.

One Saved Message: After a hunting accident puts Sam out of commission for a couple of days, Dean decides to surprise his brother with a new phone, since his old one is toast. Even better is when he finds that he’s been able to save all of Sam’s old information and restore it to his cell. That’s when he discovers an old voicemail that Sam has kept saved for the last two and a half years… (Voicemail fix-it)

Stargazing: Sam used to want something for himself. Voicemail and amulet fix-it.

Desolation Angels: She slides into the passenger seat and shuts the door as he throws the car into drive. He speeds down the empty highway, deftly avoiding the dead cars dotting the asphalt. // AU starting at the end of AHBL Part One. (An exercise in character study.)

Lullaby: Imagine TFW finding out that the sleeping pills you take every night don’t stop the nightmares; they just keep you from screaming.

Worth It: Tag to Plucky Pennywhistle’s. When they get back to the motel room, Dean discovers Sam’s been hiding his injuries.

Avengers

Fallen Hero: A five part story of Peter and Tony’s relationship beyond what we’re shown in the MCU. If you’re into having your heart shredded and crying yourself to sleep, this is for you.

Five Times Peter Said ‘Sorry’ to Mr.Stark: …and the one time he didn’t have to.

Marvel Masterlist: This Masterlist includes Avengers and the Hell’s Kitchen Boys (Defenders and Punisher).

WARNING Dumb Luck: Having a panic attack during your flight wasn’t part of the plan. Lucky for you your seatmates are there to save the day.

Identity Theft: An organically developed, platonic slow-burn of Avengers-fam dynamic with a heavy hand of Irondad & Spiderson. Throw in an overdose of whump, a couple of cunning villains and a big-bad hiding in the shadows, and you got yourself this hot mess.

WARNING The Homes We Make: Peter Parker isn’t the type of boy to run crying to Tony Stark because he can’t handle a punch. Michelle Jones and Ned Leeds aren’t the type of friends to ignore Peter’s rapidly declining health. Eugene “Flash” Thompson isn’t an idiot.

Division of the Heart: Tony Stark is sick. Surely that’s not going to be a problem? When he doesn’t tell the team a normal cold is a little more complicated with the Arc Reactor, things get a little out of hand.

Doctor Who

WARNING Reasons: The Doctor comforts his companion when she sees a familiar face, a face she wishes she could forget.

Time to Let Go: ANGST ANGST ANGST :)

Flowers for Words: This is a little… darker than my usual. There’s kinda graphic descriptions of bloody things, so this ain’t for the squeamish.

WARNING Trust: After running away from your abusive father, you find yourself in the dark and all alone. That is, until a strange man approaches you.

Stolen: The Doctor left Rose in the other universe with the Meta-Crisis Doctor to give her a chance at a normal life. Now he’s come back to get her, and the knowledge of what she’s been put through will drive him temporarily mad.

Vision: (no description but I can tell you it’s good)

Waving Through History: The Doctor will never see her again, but that doesn’t mean she can’t see him again. // Seven times Amy and Rory visit the past Doctor and one time Amy sees the future Doctor. Post-Angels, 1930-1988.

Trapped in an Elevator: You are late for work when you become trapped in an elevator with the Eleventh Doctor.

The Curious Case of the Doctor and the Cat: Master of the Seven Blocks Rusty Grr'wa is a cat, a Good Boy with a simple life. He must protect and patrol his Seven Blocks, generously let select People pet his incredible fur, and look after the Stacy, the Mum, and the Dad. Then he runs into not-People the Doctor and the Doctor’s Clara Oswald. And then they must all deal with the Sky-thing. (crack)

Afraid of the Dark: It was quiet. That was the first thing that truly caught your attention.

Reality: A more realistic story of a whovian getting stuck in the “Doctor Who” universe. This isn’t the typical “Yay, I met the Doctor” story. If you suddenly found out the Doctor was real, wouldn’t you be a little scared? That would mean all the monsters were real too!

WARNING Psycho Savior: A young woman contemplates suicide by power steering fluid. An attempt to subvert the fan cliche in which the Doctor talks someone out of suicide.

Cold Comfort: The Doctor had his back turned, so he didn’t see how badly Rose’s hands shook as she wrapped them around the thick mug.

Human: The doctor decides it’s not safe for you to travel with him anymore, so he tries to push you away.

Pretty Girl: (no description) “I’m not beautiful,” you say one day.

WARNING: Knock Three Times: Two perfect strangers wake to find themselves being held in adjacent prison cells with no memories of who they are or how they got there. It isn’t until they are faced with agonizing trials that push the limits of self-sacrifice to new horrific heights, that they realize just what they’re facing and how much they will need to trust each other in order to survive.

WARNING Better Now: (no description)

Stellar Storytime: (no description)

Merlin

Deep in the Diamond of the Day: What if Merlin was the one to sustain the mortal injuries during the Battle of Camlann, not Arthur? Will the Once and Future King be able to save his friend? More importantly, will he WANT to after finally discovering Merlin’s secret? A fix-it fic for the series finale, which shattered my soul.

Allow One to ‘See’: When the King is attacked in his tent on patrol and falls into an unending sleep everyone is worried. What they don’t know is that Arthur is fine. In fact he is standing right here next to them, watching them all fret over his prone body. To stave off the boredom whilst a cure is found Arthur takes to wandering the castle and soon discovered a hidden side of Camelot he never knew about.

Or: Arthur’s soul gets trapped outside his body and takes to following his servant around. He gets an interesting insight into Merlin, his servant’s life and just how much Camelot needs the man.

Peace for Our Time: Merlin froze for several seconds before squinting at Arthur across the table. “I feel like I’m definitely misunderstanding the situation here.”

Arthur sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. “I really don’t think you are.”

“You want me to learn magic?”

In a Name: In the middle of some quest or another, Merlin, Arthur and the knights find themselves stuck in the middle of a shrine being told that, if they wish to proceed unharmed, they need only speak their true names and titles. Straight-forward enough, right? Wrong. Merlin really hates the Old Religion sometimes.

Sherlock

WARNING Write Love on Her Arms: (no description)

Spiderman Into the Spider-verse

Ground Zero: Basically, the plot of Spider-Man; Into the Spiderverse if they all got sent to Peter B.’s universe instead of Miles’

Stranger Things

Bleeding: Hopper confronts Reader seven weeks after she left Hawkins.

Timeless

All These Tears I’ve Cried: A snapshot of Lucy’s nightmares, and the aftermath of each. Loosely set between 2x05 and 2x06.

Detroit: Become Human

Skip-able NSFW Leap: Amanda thinks she’s won, but Connor has one last trick up his sleeve. He’s determined to find someone who can fix him and get rid of CyberLife’s influence once and for all. And of course that person is a human woman, the owner of a small android repairshop in downtown Detroit. And she’s not happy about the deviant android who’s just broken in, but necessity dictates she help CyberLife’s most sophisticated prototype escape his chains. With her help, Connor soon discovers what fills the void between the lines of his code.

The Good Doctor

Do No Harm: Shaun is a doctor. He heals the sick and injured, and he takes care of people that need his help. He made this vow in full, understanding the responsibility he was taking on. So, when the bus swerved, when it crashed and flipped, it came as second nature to him. Despite his pain, and despite his injuries, he still pushed himself to do as much as he could for those around him. And he did. Without hesitation, he tried to save as many people as possible. And in doing do, he wasn’t able to save himself.

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in-tua-deep · 5 years

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Have you seen stranger things? Because literally all I can think about is a stranger things umbrella academy crossover

I may or may not have bingewatched the entire new season yesterday (the scoops troop has all my uwus I thought there was going to be forced romance but instead there was canon LGBT+ rep #bless) but you’re very valid but there are many ways to do a crossover!!

Like a general crossover where both shows are still separate and, for example, when Five jumps he accidentally brings his siblings to the past in Hawkins, Indiana where they have to deal with the general absolute nonsense that being in the town entails while probably being mistaken for escaped experiments by the party after calling Five by his name ? I can just picture the kids trying to catch Five or something to take to El because they assume he’s her brother or something goodness (and also this one would probably differ depending on whether the squad was deaged to thirteen again or stayed at 29)

or an integrated crossover where, after numbers one through seven left/were failures Reggie-Papa (as an integrated person? the same person?) and say he joined the government (or maybe always was?) and started experiments anew with ?? both kids they find and maybe the kids of the original 43? because Kali was what, number eight? and El is eleven so technically it could line up if you just bump Kali’s age up a tiny bit (from 25 to 29) and pretend El’s mum was much younger when she was born (and of course if you fudge up timelines a little bit, but that isn’t too difficult considering despite being ‘present day’ the Umbrella Academy universe’s tech is pretty on par with Hawkins era stuff) which would mean that El actually IS their little sister that none of them knew about (and presumably that they have three more on top of that that are who knows where)

wait in an integrated au maybe Five got stuck in the upside down instead of the apocalypse hello yes and maybe instead of the Commission and stuff and him jumping back, maybe Eleven pulls him out of the Upside Down or opens the door and Five decides to take his chances and jump through himself or something and because time works differently in the upside down that’s why he’s still a kid/his powers were goofed up over there idk i’m just kind of spitballing here tbh

Klaus, looking at a demodog or demogorgan or mindflayer or whatever: wow Ben you didn’t tell me your cousins were coming round to dinner

I genuinely can’t tell whether Five/some other Hargreeves would cheerfully allow the party into life threatening danger or try and keep them away from it because, to technical adults the party must seem awfully young but also they were superheroing and yeeting themselves (or rather, being yeeted by Reggie) into danger soooo

but if they did try protect the kids, also pointing at Nancy/Jonathan/Steve/Robin like “babies. you all are babies. children.” because the difference between 17/18 and 29 is a whole world tbh and then honestly Joyce and Hopper are looking at the Umbrella Academy like “y’all are too young for this as well idk why y’all are being hypocrites” because they’re both like,, in their forties and the umbrella academy are in their twenties (even if only barely)

and if you wanted to switch up the squad’s ages as well to make ‘em different and do away with the whole 43 children born randomly bit and fully graft the umbrella squad into the stranger things universe you could probably get away with that as well in which case I have no idea how old they would be tbh though presumably Five would stay physically thirteen (or ten depending if you wanted to go comics or show canon)

heck i dunno if you want to yeet me a more specific ask about a crossover I can probably spitball up an au for that but there are just too many possibilities to get into on a single post oops

(Steve is my fav stranger things character based solely on s2/s3 since i hated him s1 lmao but Robin has also clawed a space for herself in my heart what a blessed friendship,,,, I absolutely adored the new season up until the end which ripped my heart out :( i miss alexei)

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divainity-a3 · 4 years

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topic: reggie + family ( relationships & dynamic ) spoiler tw: archie afterlife, reggie & me, archie comics (2015) GENERAL TW: ABUSE, ABUSE MENTION, MENTAL ILLNESS !

abstract: it’s no secret that reggie’s parents play an absent role, both in reggie’s life & overall in most of the original, campy archie comics. we see lots of mr. & mrs. andrews, we never get enough of the coopers & the lodges, and we get glimpses of gladys & jellybean jones, but never really the mantles ——— why is that ? what do we even know about ricky and vicky mantle, his alleged parents, if anything at all ? and what little do we get from the comics and wikipedia to give us clues ? in this essay i will be going through the things that i know and accept as canon for my reggie’s relationship with ricky and vicky mantle and why reggie having a brother according to wikipedia makes absolutely no sense !

SECTION I. THE MANTLE FAMILY TREE

i. the mantles are an upper - middle class family. more upper than middle, given how reggie spends his allowance, & ranking - wise, i headcanon the mantles to be the second richest family in riverdale right below the lodges. since the dawning of the original archie comics in the 50s, we’ve known richard and victoria mantle as ricky and vicky mantle, the well-off parents of their son, reginald victor mantle.

ricky canonically owns riverdale’s most popular newspaper the riverdale gazette and while vicky’s profession isn’t specified, i assume she either works in the secretarial portion of the paper along with the mantles’ other enterprises. y’know, the way heteronormative rich couples do. while the paper’s popularity generates a significant amount of revenue for the mantles, it isn’t their main source of income— investments & other business deals are. using their hard earned (not) inheritance and what they’ve made from paper circulation and subscriptions, they turn it into more profit by investing it in the right places. fiscally, the family is very well-off and happy. in every other department ? debatable.

ii. the mantles are more or less, absent parents. and always have been. for starters, as i said it earlier: we don’t ever see them in the damn comics. even in cw’sriverdale— ricky and vicky are nowhere to be found. even according to reggie’s wikipedia, we don’t know all too much about his mother and father aside from their professions but the archie reboot comics offer a different perspective that i choose to adopt.

exhibit a. reggie and me (2015) / issue #2 context: reggie coming home distressed after having accidentally pushed archie into a pond. betty went off at him, he ran home crying to an empty house. his dog, vader, is narrating, recalling how reggie describes it as one of the worst days of his life.

exhibit b. reggie and me (2015) / issue #4 context: reggie attemptng to make an effort with his dad only to be rejected immediately.

exhibit c. archie (2015) / issue #6 context: reggie’s coming back home from a failed attempt at persuading hiram lodge to let him into his inner circle.

exhibit d. afterlife with archie (2015) / issue #9 context: in a dystopian take on archie comics, reggie is reflecting on his entire life existentially while confessing his sins to kevin keller, someone he’s come to trust.

conclusions drawn:

coming home to an empty house wasn’t and still isn’t uncommon for reggie. across the multiple comics i reference, the narrative seems to be the same. his parents consistently don’t show up for him. are constantly working, and more importantly never home. and even when they are home, they pay no mind to their only son, seen in how reggie attempts to get his fathers attention after seeing archie and his dad play ball. i can also assume that reggie had to raise/take care of himself, given that there’s no maid to be seen in any of the scenes where the ricky and vicky aren’t there. while the mantles clearly make sure he doesn’t starve, they don’t exactly do… anything else. as we see when reggie comes home crying, no one’s there to hold him. no one’s there to tell him he’s okay and that he’s valid. so he has to tell himself. and as he gets older and more self-sufficient, his parents start giving even less of a fuck about him being on his own. furthermore, reggie also has to teach himself what is right and wrong as a result, having little to no guidance from the people who are supposed to fulfill that role. obviously, we know how that works out.

ricky and vicky missed out on a lot of reggie’s milestones. being out on business trips all the time leads me to believe that the mantles missed out on a lot of reggie’s overall life and more importantly accomplishments (even if he doesn’t have a lot of them). to name a few things, i headcanon the mantles to have missed his middle school graduation, his first football game, multiple recitals through the years, and the day reggie got deemed captain of the football team, something he actually considers one of his bigger achievements in life. i also headcanon that reggie had to teach himself how to drive, shave, ask a girl out and all the other cheesy, heteronormative stuff rich families instill. the mantles sure do come back to reap the benefits though, happy to use reggie for bragging rights.

reggie blamed himself a lot for his parents not being around and developed deep-seeded insecurities about it growing up.i think it’s reasonable to think that a child as young as he was used to believe that something was wrong with him with his parents never seeming to want to be around him. that shit hurt him and that is where reggie’s need to constantly be around people and have companionship comes from—— it’s an underlying desire to be wanted for once. but he’d never tell that to anyone.

reggie acting out started out as an attempt to get attention from his parents. the only time parents will really be forced to pay attention to their children is when they have to answer for them. so it’s reasonable, i think, to assume that a lot of his bad behavior started out at least as a way to get his parents to give him the time of day. i don’t think the same applies to reggie in the present day, but nonetheless, —————old habits die hard. more on that, later.

SECTION II. THE MANTLE LEGACY

i. reggie is, and always will be, an only child. according to reggie’s wikipedia, he also allegedly has a younger brother named oliver mantle that made a brief appearance once in a single issue like 40 years ago. in my canon, i’m choosing to ignore this for two reasons: a.because it literally just doesn’t make any sense for reggie to have any siblings. ricky and vicky can barely take care of reggie, god forbid they abuse and neglect another child. the idea is nice and it would mean that reggie would have someone to confide in, but alas i don’t think the mantles would be so … kind.

and b. because there’s absolutely no significant information and/or canon attached to thisalleged oliver mantle and so i have to conclude that he was just thrown in at some point during the original archie run because the writers realized they didn’t develop reggie’s family background in any aspect.

ii. however, reggie does have two cousins. the writers do this on multiple occasions to all the characters, throwing in relatives here and there and they actually did give reggie two cousins which i actually do accept in my canon. their names are regina(first cousin) and may (third removed cousin), both of which are from vicky’s side of the family. reggie doesn’t care for may all that much but regina is someone he actually can get along with as they share the same kind of humor.

other than that reggie’s the only mantle heir, putting immense pressure on him to marry rich and carry on the family name———— but that’s a different meta for another time.

SECTION III. PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL ABUSE & NEGLECT

ii. reggie himself is a victim physical and emotional abuse, mainly from his father, in addition to overall parental neglect. now don’t get it twisted, i’m not saying ms. vicky had absolutely nothing to do with reggie’s childhood trauma, but ricky certainly had the more prominent role as an instigator and we get proof of that on several occasions. i headcanon that vicky never laid a finger on reggie and truly does love him deep down, but her passiveness & allowing the abuse to happen has made reggie view her just as antagonistically as he does ricky ( and for good reason ). she’s a bystander and nothing more, a spineless bitch that never intervened, only spoiled him in hopes it would make up for his emotional scars. she pretends she’s not as bad, reggie thinks and knows otherwise.

exhibit a: afterlife with archie (2015) / issue #9 context: in a dystopian take on archie comics, reggie is reflecting on his entire life existentially while confessing his sins to kevin keller, someone he’s come to trust. the first page of the issue is titled ARCHIE & REGGIE, all about comparing the two and their different persona’s but more importantly, their different upbringings.

conclusions drawn:

while the sentiment of this side-by-side is aimed to highlight the fact that reggie is a spoiled kid that likes to act out, what stands out more so to me is what looks like intense pressure to perform from ricky. while i did say earlier that reggie’s parents have a very absent role in his life, obviously there are public appearances to keep up. the mantles can’t come across as unsupportive an absent, they need to put on an image. while you’d think this is a good thing that would force the mantles to show up more, my concern here comes from the reason for the fight being over the fact that reggie’s team, not just reggie, not winning a baseball game. despite never being there to emotionally support reggie, to me it seems like ricky expects perfection. i believe the pressure might be more so for athletic performance than academic, given that reggie’s wikidoes specifically cite reggie’s natural-born athletic excellence. i think it’s also worth noting as well that since my reggie is asian and i firmly believe this pressure is present (i’m asian myself, the struggle is real). reggie has slowly cared less and less and we’ll get to that later but, you get it.

the panels also have drastically different interactions between parent and child, ricky’s looking borderline abusive and more importantly, public. one could argue that it only looks like ricky only has a tight pinch on reggie’s ear, but i also have concerns about the extent of ricky’s expectations and what lengths he’d go to make them known, especially when reggie didn’t fulfill them as a kid. this leads me to my next piece of evidence.

exhibit b: archie (2015) / issue #30 context: ricky has recently bailed him out reggie out of jail, having been charged with vehicular manslaughter. despite ricky having pulled several strings to get him out, reggie’s still acting out and in getting ready for the riverdale spring dance, has taken it upon himself to go through his father’s wardrobe without asking to dress himself for the occasion.

conclusions drawn:

reggie has an unforgiving memory. rightfully so, as he’s been going through this vicious cycle for as long as he can remember, but take note his ability to citeextremely hurtful things that ricky has been guilty of saying about his own son and, in some cases, said to his own son’s face. he plays it off as a snarky comeback, but to me, that’s a cheap coping mechanism and speaks to a greater desensitization on reggie’s end towards constantly receiving such disappointing and demeaning remarks from his own father. he expects it, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt to hear.

ricky has a horrible temper. i say this because his temper is shown to go from 0 to 100 extremely quick (literally read any of the new archie reboot, you’ll pick up on it) until reggie puts him in his place. i honestly headcanon that ricky hasundiagnosed bpd (disclaimer: my mother has bpd) and that this extreme range of temperament is something reggie has had to develop a defense to and it’s taken years for him to do. it’d take a lot of convincing to try and tell me that this temper has never escalated into physical altercations. especially from a toxically masculine man like ricky ? no chance.

the abuse is physical as well as emotional. absent parenting aside, look at the way ricky’s holding onto reggie’s collar. that grip is like ice and furthermore it’s also the first thing ricky does in confronting his own son. immediate physical invasion of space isn’t promising in parental maneuvers and yeah, we might’ve laughed all the time at how archie’s parents would grab him by the ear and drag him home when he was in trouble in the classic comics, it was all in good fun back in the day but reggie didn’t get the same, comical treatment. in fact, far from it.

it’s happened before. the way reggie cuts his father off right in the middle of his alleged apology, simply telling him to get out of his personal space? the fact thatreggie has to tell him to stop makes it seem like ricky is a creature of habit and that he defaults unhealthily to physical confrontation. and honestly who would be surprised ? reggie’s immediate, nearly nonchalant defense makes me think he’s done this many times before. whether or not ricky’s willingness to back off comes from him trying to improve himself as a father, his efforts don’t seem to be working.

reggie’s acting out has become a method of survival. this argument is bit of speculation on my end and comes from what makes sense to me, but in my eyes reggie’s acting out as an almost-adult is both an act of defiance and an act of survival. i headcanon that once reggie grew up and became more aware of his family’s ‘clout,’ he began to weaponize it. remember the ‘mantle family image’ thing i talked about earlier? jackpot. while reggie might have had to put up with abuse silently growing up, he soon figured out that if his father was gonna do anything, he couldn’t leave a mark. otherwise, people would ask questions. i mean, imagine if he went to the press with a sob story about all the times conglomerate boss ricky mantle hurt his own son… what would his family do then ? reggie doesn’t give a fuck about the family, and for that he has leverage. the mantles can’t have a scandal, that’s bad for business ! reggie holds that over his father’s head, knowing it’ll get him to back off the way he does in the last panels and ricky knows better than to test his son’s boldness. so reggie doing whatever he wants, knowing ricky can’t do jack shit to him ? that’shis power source. that’s what gets him out of bed every day. it’s where his hubris comes from, his arrogance. knowing he’s the shit because he is. this is where he finds his ground, making sure he never gets hurt again, and if he does it’s only on his terms. no one elses.

tl; dr: ricky and vicky mantle aren’t shit, there’s absolutely no way reggie has a brother, reggie raised himself for the most part since he was about 9 years old, reggie grew up and continues to grow up in an empty house, a good portion of reggie’s insecurities come from his childhood when he blamed himself for his parents not being around, and reggie is a victim of emotional and physical abuse as well as neglect.

so have mercy on him. he isn’t inherently evil and while his actions aren’t always excusable, it’s worth remembering that no one was there to teach him otherwise.

#I. ❰ HEADCANONS / METAS. ❱#reposting this bc im remaking reg's old blog

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sweetdollfromhell · 5 years

Text

Chilling tales of Riverdale, a crossover fic

Chapter 7 of a old fanfic but stil alive that is a mix of Riverdale, CAOS and Archie horror. Located in season 2 and will have differences with the canon for both shows.I'm more than happy to jump the whole fake love triangle between Betty, Jughead and Toni (because Bughead, Choni and the friendship between girl and boy exists). The same goes for the drama Betty and Veronica. But I give you friendship and sisterhood instead + Cameo surprise. Ps Don't worry, he won't have an Archie x Sabrina but I really liked the comparisons people made between Archie and Harvey, so I put him here. (I'm reserving another parring for Sabrina).Also because we have nothing of Toni's life except that she has a grandfather who is nice but who doesn't live with her and an uncle who is an asshole who locks her out sometimes, I hope the backstory that I will be okay for you. Warning: there is a cannibalism involvement in a scene but it's not graphic, very short and you're free to skip it if it bothers you (It's in Jughead's dream) and in my defense, it's canon in CAOS and a reference to one of Archie Horror's titles.)The creature for its is a mix between different native American monsters and the real form of witches in the CAOS comic book. Sorry to make my warnings so long.

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

The routine settled in with Jughead's new roommate; Sabrina kept the place clean, often cooked and was polite to everyone who showed up at the trailer. Jughead had to admit that his presence bothered him a little when Betty came, but Betty refused to do so when Sabrina had offered to spend the night outside for their privacy leashes. The rest of the day, Sabrina was usually away for most of the day, coming back exhausted in the late afternoon or evening and otherwise staying locked in her room even though she tried to be social with the guests. The cat, on the other hand, was a little more complicated: he and Hotdog hate each other or at least Salem didn't like him. If Jughead was honest, the dog would always growl in the presence of the cat, but rather than attempting the attack, the dog would show itself threatening, but back away as soon as the cat approached. If Hotdog had been a puppy or Salem a cat mastodon, he would have understood, but now... At least, like his mistress, Salem seemed to like to travel around the city and Jughead had been surprised to see him sometimes in incongruous places and often with human food in his mouth although he was probably as well fed as them. At least he had a necklace with his name on it, if not the rest of the information. He had also made progress in his Serpent initiation contrary to his investigation into the Blackhood. He had passed the test and was bitten by a snake from which his venom had previously been removed. He would not have a scar according to Toni (most of the others did not) and because Sabrina, despite having sworn many times not to know anything, had nevertheless prepared two bottles labelled respectively: antivenom and repairing cream.

At one point, Jugh had ended up asking:

-Are you still looking for a job?

-Do you have one for me? Because I admit that things are not going well, everyone asks me questions like why I'm not in school or comments on the numbers because it's southside.

-The only place I had found to close then...

-Don't worry, I'm not going to impose more than I expected, and I still have some reserve.

-That's not the problem. I was just thinking you shouldn't have to wait like this. I don't know, maybe ask the snakes to say you're someone's cousin or whatever so you can at least go to school.

-Mmm, the same school where you got beat up, where the drugs are flowing and/or my friends the ghoulies are going? I'll pass through. Far be it from me not to finish high school, but I can recover when everything is settled. And I feel bad about asking your...clan for favors? Say Sabrina hesitant.

-Clan? Repeated Jughead vaguely amused.

-It's more than a gang, I noticed that. I wouldn't call it a family, but....

She had a funny laugh without joy before saying:

- Would you find me strange if you told you that your Serpent remind me of my congregation?

-Actually, yes. Because unless your priest rides a motorcycle....

Sabrina laughed again and Jughead thought he might have some new crumbs of information about the girl.

-It's until... I don't know, the united side against all? Being a weirdness by the other side of town? That even younger members are encouraged to participate? The fact that like you I too have an important foot with this one?

Jughead understood that he would not have much chance of these questions not looking too sharp and just curious, but he tried anyway.

-I don't know that they had religious tensions in Greendales.

-Oh, that's so ridiculous. I shouldn't have compared myself to you, there are just two congregations: Protestants and we are a variant of Catholicism. It was bloody 300 years ago, but now nobody think about it except us unlike you, I recognize that it's to play the victim.

-What is your legacy in all this?

-My father was a priest before he defrocked to get me. And the rest of the family remained quite involved.

She smiled when she talked about her progenitor, before getting stuffed. As much as Jughead was skeptical as much as he was in comparison, he had a new path to explore.

-It's still a pretty thin link," said Jughead before asking:

-Is that who you want to find? Your father?

Sabrina seemed to realize that she had said too much and retorted:

-Is it that important to you? I would have thought you'd have handled worse right now.

-You live in my house," Jughead coldly recalled.

-I can leave, only on request. I was doing very well on my own.

-I'm trying to help and in case you haven't noticed, there's a killer who...

-I am clearly not his target and I know how to defend myself. In addition, I'm sure my safety is more questionable in a caravan without adult supervision, or members of gangs known for drug trafficking and the kidnapping of at least one teenager regularly come to hang out so LEAVE ME ALONE!

Jughead then heard a loud noise that brought them both back to reality. The young man rushed to the source of the noise, in the kitchen where plaster had begun to crack. Confused, Jughead had just enough time to hear you slam the door. Returning to the main room, he saw that Sabrina had taken off.

-Great, complains Jughead.

Betty didn't know what to do anymore. The black hood had promised her a clue if she cut off ties with her relatives, not to mention her threat on Polly. She probably thought she was protecting her unborn children, but because of Betty, she had a target drawn on her back, especially knowing that the serial killer had no problem getting out of town to find his prey. Not to mention the farm, which Betty didn't trust at all. A commune, my eye, a cult disguise yes! Archie and Kevin were already up to their necks in there, but she could at least protect Jughead and maybe Veronica. Yes, you had to see the threat of the black hood as a blessing in disguise. By pushing Ronnie away, she was keeping her safe, right?

Maybe if she repeats it enough, she'll believe it eventually.

Veronica couldn't be more excited; seeing her old friends in New York could only fill her with joy. She was still disappointed that the Cabots could not be there: according to the last email Alexandra sent, she and her brother had been detained by the university.

-You know us Ronnie darling, we'd come here with a snap of the fingers, but if Alex can finish 2 years before everyone else, he'll do it. And I must spend my classes or at least pretend to find me a young first in an Ivy league for Dad to let me go. But as soon as it's settled, we'll come: I have enough scandals and bottles worthy of the name for everyone (it will impress your country friends). Oh, and Alex says to send the demo of the three little kittens so he can see what he can do!

XOXO

Lexa

She will never change, Veronica thought as she read the message. Is that why she didn't tell him about Archie? Anyway, it was nice of Alex to be willing to help Josie, Valerie and Melody if he could.

At least Nick would be there, and she would die eager to introduce him to her Riverdale friends: Archie, Betty, Josie, Valerie, Melody, Kevin, Cheryl and Reggie. She had also invited Jughead who had refused to have anything planned already, Ethel who her mother would no longer let out because of the black hood (and even more if she knew it was to spend the evening at the Lodges') and the mysterious Sabrina who had politely declined to her frustration, really curious to know more about the girl. Looking back, maybe inviting her to a party full of people she didn't know wasn't the best idea, but she wouldn't give up. Her curiosity was piqued, and she wanted to know more.

How was he going to do that? Archie thought so. Betty had asked him to offer Jughead a break, trying not to hurt him. Why had he even accepted?

(You know why!) His unconsciousness screaming at him. It wasn't just because Betty was a good friend or he was worried about Jugh too. Since that summer, everything had become so complicated: with Betty, with Jughead, with Veronica, with her parents and many others. He didn't want to hurt anyone, and yet he felt like he was hurting everyone unintentionally. And probably was going to do it again because his trackreccod was deeply horrible in there.

He saw Jughead and several young Serpents, he felt angry. He didn't trust them: Joaquim could shout his love from the rooftops for Kevin, he had when he was manipulating when he left, FP loved his son no doubt about it, but it didn't give him a pass for everything he had put on Jugh or his best friend's shoulders: alcoholism, theft, kidnapping, drug trafficking, etc... The situation with Jellybean was not easy for anyone, but it didn't give anyone a pass (including Jughead's mother if it was up to him). Until now their acts of kindness had been rare and often interested... And yet Jughead had thrown himself into their arms without a look back for these former friends. Archie may not have been able to understand what Jughead was going through, but he would be there to help no matter what.

Jugh saw him too and rushed to his friend.

-Archie, you're just in time! I need you! I need you!

Surprisingly, Archie forgot both his primary mission and his resentment at the worried look.

-Of course, what is that...

-Sabrina is missing and I have no idea where she went! I don't have time to look for her, but she left all her things, so she can't be far away.

-Jughead...

-Please, I really can't, but I don't want her to do something stupid! I know Riverdale's is a big town, but she'll come home at least to get her things. At worst, stay by the trailer and tell her it's okay if she doesn't want to talk about it when she gets home? Jughead asked, looking worried.

And Archie Andrew aka Pureheart the mighty gave in.

-All right.

-Thank you again, Archie, I owe you one!

And he moved away to join the young Serpents to Archie's frustration.

Sabrina was lying on Pop's bench, occasionally sucking her milkshake for an hour before putting her head on the table. Focusing on these dark ideas, she did not see the person approaching her.

-What's going on?

-Huh? Says Sabrina surprised when she sees the owner, Pop approaching her. -Uh, yes, sorry, just... tired. I have enough to pay you, don't worry! She continued, searching through her pockets.

She had money in her pockets before she fled Jughead's house. We should go back at some point and choose what to do.

-I have no doubt about that. You can stay until closing if you need to. I'll refill your glass. More caramel?

-Yes, please," smiled Sabrina.

Pop comes back with his milkshake and when Sabrina still wanted to pay for the two milkshakes right away.

-The second one's on the house.

-What?

-It's a promotion, a second milkshake free for all those crazy enough to come back here after the incidents.

-Are you talking about the black hood attacks? Sabrina asked.

-One in the restaurant and another involving volunteer employers. It seems like this place is cursed," says Pop sadly.

Sabrina looked at him silently for a few seconds before answering:

-Or the opposite.

-Pardon?

-The opposite; they survived even if their injuries were extremely serious. No one is in a wheelchair or severely disabled. His other victim can't say the same. It's a chance to survive in such good conditions after such a close encounter with death.

Sabrina put her head on the bench before saying:

-So I don't think this place is cursed, I think it brings good luck, I feel it in my bones. Luck is powerful, but it can't make the bullets disappear. For example, it may result in serious injury rather than death.

Pop stared at the teenager with surprise before laughing and concluding:

-I think we'll have to find a better argument to encourage people to come back, but if someone orders a burger, the house could continue its promotion and offer him an extra ring onion in addition to the French fries.

-I'll think about it, thank you," smiled Sabrina.

The people of this city were definitely welcoming.

Suddenly she heard a noise against the restaurant window and turned around. Salem, sitting on the hood of a car with an obvious mewing and trying it, caught his attention.

(Not today) Sabrina decided, turning around and ignoring the cat. If she was honest, it was small and petty. Salem had it was her rock during her last weeks, but Sabrina was physically, mentally and especially emotionally exhausted. Now she wanted to be a normal teenager eating junk food and pretending everything was fine. Just like old times.

Salem meowed loudly as a sign of challenge before leaving.

Cheryl had continued to peel the box and more particularly the notebook. Written by a certain Narcisse Blossom (bravo for having succeeded in mixing the two favorite themes for first names in the Blossom clan: flowers and Greek mythology). The first Blossom arrived in America with his family and his servants straight from the old English nobility, nothing more than WASP. Understood the fact that he left his beloved England because of scandal.

Her notebook was not exactly a diary, but Cheryl found some interesting information in it. He seemed to have had a strong influence on the region even before the town of Riverdale was founded: an iron fist, charisma and an incredible business acumen. Once again, all the most common things he had about the Blossoms.

But that didn't prevent the misfortune of the strike and he almost lost control. It was at this point that two things began to come back more often: the village on the other side of the Sweet River that would become Greendale and the name Sara Spellman.

Spellman? Wasn't that the name on the wedding photo?

Before she could continue, Cheryl heard the sound of a door opening violently, making her jump.

Would it be paranoid of him to pass by and look for his bow before he saw who dared to disturb her?

Archie wondered what he was going to do: find another opportunity to carry Betty's message to Jughead, find Sabrina and find a way not to hit the first Serpent in the face that fell under his hand.

But one of his problems was going to be solved...

-MEOW!!!!!

Archie looked down at the black cat who was now at his feet.

-Hey, hello there," he said, bending over to confirm his suspicions.

Around the cat's neck, a red necklace with a medal or the name Salem was visible. If he was there, chances are Sabrina wasn't far away.

As Archie bent down to caress him, Salem moved a little further before reuniting him a little further.

-Hey, you don't have to be afraid.

These words were stupid because the cat must not have understood it and now that Archie was observing it, it didn't seem to scare him. More annoying and full of contempt...a normal cat look is enough. But Archie noticed that the cat stayed in sight and was waiting for him.

(He wants me to follow him?). A dog, Archie would have understood, but a cat? Maybe it was true that cats are as smart as dogs, they are just too proud to be trained.

Salem guided him to Pop's chocolate shop and started meowing again under one of the windows where he saw Sabrina. Of course, the cat couldn't come in. Archie bent over to flatter the cat who this time if he let it.

-Do you want her back outside? No problem, I must talk to her anyway.

It may have been a play of light, but Archie felt as if the cat rolled his eyes. He came home anyway, trying to silence the impression that he was running out of air. Remain calm, greeted Pop who was in no way responsible for the whole situation and suffers as much as he does before going to the table or eating blonde.

-Hi!

Sabrina jumped, almost choking.

-Archie? Oh, it's been a long time. I didn't think I'd see you here, but please sit down," she said, pushing her plate towards him.

-Thank you, I’m here because Jughead asked me for help to find you.

Sabrina then had an expression of discomfort that combed herself on her face:

-Ah. He is...

-Worried. I don't know what happened between you two....

-Nothing! Just... just a fight. I guess we both have our nerves on edge. I'm not going to act like I'm not a burden.

-The little I've seen, you don't seem to be a burden. Jughead wanted to look for you, but he couldn't have caused...

-From his initiation! Oh, that's right, it's today! Oh shit, I must get everyone ready! She said in a panic.

-Are you going to participate? ask shocked Archie.

-Unofficially, I have no idea what's going on in the past because it's only for members, but I'll just prepare a few things just in case. Never heard of an initiation genre that doesn't physically, mentally or emotionally destroy you, so I want to have a first aid kit, the complete series of twilight zone downloads and enough comfort food for an army.

Archie reprimanded himself, which made Sabrina feel obliged to ask:

-You don't have any plans, do you?

-What are you talking about?

-You and the red circle, you're not going to follow them or something like that?

-There is no more red circle, we had to dissolve.

-Oh, sorry.

-No problem. But I still can't believe Jughead decided to join them," Archie said with cold anger.

-He probably has his reasons. I'm not enthusiastic, but I don't trust any gang, brotherhood, commune, fraternity or anything that involves going through trials and following up on settlements.

-Are you including the American Scouts in this?

-Yes! 2nd organization with the most sexual assault on children reporter, laughs Sabrina. -Note that maybe I shouldn't be so judgmental; my decision making is far from being the best.

-Do you count the fact that you came to Riverdale?

-Only the period when I arrived, people are mostly nice here, I think.

-Including the Serpents?

-I didn't have a brunch with the whole gang. I saw maybe five, six if you count the dog and I didn't even interact with all of them. I tend to prefer to stay in the room when people come. In order: Hot dog, the dog is nice even if he and Salem hate each other. There's a kid who came 2 or 3 times to see a hot dog, I don't know his name anymore and I'm not sure he saw me. There's also a guy with a really original nickname, Tall Boy who was his father's right-hand man who didn't see me either. It's tense between him and Jughead, probably because as his right-hand man, he would have taken Mr. Jones' place, but many hope the son will be in charge until he returns. I'd be suspicious if I were him. And the three with whom I interacted....

Sabrina sighed before continuing:

-Toni is incredible and she really wants Jughead's good, I don't doubt it for a second, but I think we're too like get along ironically. And if she started, I am the one who burned any chance of progress when she tried to reconcile," she says with regret.

-Fang looks like a bully, but if you dig hard enough, there's something fluffy and pink that just wants to be loved and surprisingly cultivated. And finally, Sweet Peas, whose real name is Olivier, also looks like also looks like a shallow brute... but that's because he is, she said, smiling at Archie.

-Seriously, this guy is a mean fool! Admiring a serial killer and wanting to build a bomb? Oh don't worry, I doubt he can make a baking soda volcano without help, so a bomb, Sabrina mocked when she saw Archie's expression change.

-I'm starting to regret that I didn't give him more than one black eye. Gronda Archie

-So much was probably deserved in his case, didn't you have someone who claimed to have stabbed himself on your side? I'm not a pacifist, but I'm not sure this battle will help anyone. And then Jughead keeps an eye on things... I think that's one of Toni's motivations. Better a leader who can keep them on a leash, than a Caligula who will set the city on fire and to death. Or ghoulies. They seem to be more dangerous than expected.

-You have a lot of opinions about everyone for someone who doesn't want to get involved," Archie said.

-In my defense, what is happening in this city is more interesting than any TV show. It helps to relative.

-Relativize?

-I prefer the slightest hindrance to an imaginary happy ending.

-With help, maybe you can get your happy ending, Archie said with a smile. -Besides, your cat's outside Pop's door. I think he's worried too.

-Yeah, I saw it. But I had a moment without anyone including Salem.

-Do you still need it? Because if you're not ready yet, I can leave you alone or we can go somewhere else before we go home. At Betty's, at my house or even I don't know if you know, but my girlfriend Veronica is having a party at her house and she said you could come if you want tonight instead of waiting alone in the caravan.

Sabrina looked up at him and had a difficult expression explained giving him back his smile but having a look of someone ready to cry as she contemplated Archie.

-It's amazing how you remind me of my boy... my ex," she ends up saying.

-Did it end badly between you two?

-Yes, you could say that. He... he was great, and I miss him.

-If you're not together anymore, he probably wasn't that great.

-No, it's my fault. I wanted help, but.... hell is paved with good intentions and it exploded in my face.

At that moment all Archie was experiencing was Betty after her sister left, Jughead after her mother left and Jellybean, Veronica after learning the consequences of her father's actions, Kevin the manipulation of Joaquim and Cheryl that fateful day on the lake was freezing.

-We're going to pay and go for a walk, okay?

-Mommy? Nana Rose? Who is there? Who is there? Asked Cheryl suddenly regretting that she didn't have her bow with her.

-Hello, sweetheart," suddenly said a voice of an unknown woman.

Cheryl turned around to find a woman who must have been in her late thirties, small in stature with a round face and blond, curly hair. Everything about her feel like cookies from the oven and long hugs. Yet Cheryl still wanted her bow.

-Hello, person the police will arrest in ten minutes if they haven't left my house.

-Oh, am I scaring you? Sorry, your mommy brought me and my sister in. She's treating her, but we'll be able to see her soon if that's what you're worried about," replied the woman in the same tone as if Cheryl had been four years old rather than seventeen. -I'm Hilda and you're Cheryl, right?

-I don't care about...

-Cheryl, that's enough!

Penelope was standing there in much better shape...much too well. Only a few burns remain near his neck and one of his hands. She still seemed a little physically weak, which was the reason why the woman accompanying her seemed to support her. With the same expression as if Penelope were an open garbage bag, but still. Hilda's sister was much taller and had a pointed face, these hairs were Venetian blond and for her part, she released more of a schoolteacher expression ready to make you sink your exam.

-Zelda, you were quick!

-Of course, I was quick," replied this one in an icy tone. -It's not that difficult to fix.

Then his eyes crossed Cheryl's.

-Come here," said this one, as if Cheryl were a dog.

-Pardon? Who thought you were old-fashioned bi....

-CHERYL, you come here right now! Shouted his mother with a surprisingly nervous expression.

Cheryl hesitated before moving forward with no turtle to the point that Zelda called her moved forward to join her and without hesitation grabbed her face to force her to look at her.

Cheryl felt paralyzed, wanting to scream, but unable to do anything while the woman observed her pupils like two then bottomless wanting to swallow her soul.

-No," she said disappointed when she released her grip.

-Seriously, Zelda? How incompetent do you think I am? His sister got angry.

-Not incompetent, just naive. She must have had that from someone.

-Yes, from his mother! Hilda got angry.

Zelda had another expression of disgust before addressing Penelope.

-Don't forget the payment. You are on credit for the moment!

-You would have it, didn't worry.

Zelda had one last look of contempt as Hilda shakes her hand goodbye before leaving mother and daughter alone.

-Mommy, what is it...

-Listen to me, Cheryl! Your little crisis in the hospital was the last straw. One gesture, one gesture, and I send you to the sisters of quiet mercy, am I clear?

And Cheryl lost what little control she never had.

The cat meowed his displeasure when he finally saw Sabrina go out with Archie. She took him in her arms and rubbed his forehead against hers.

-Sorry, I needed some time for myself. Do you forgive me? I have leftovers!

The cat sniffed the bag before jumping out of his arms and without moving too far away, he stayed at a distance by shaking his tail and following them.

-Does he sulk at you? Archie asked.

-Yes, not that it's not deserved. So, you have an idea where to go? Sabrina asked, changing the subject.

-Well, I'll think we could go to my place....

-You remind me of my boyfriend, but not this ...

-Oh no, Archie cut it off by understanding his misunderstanding. - I wanted to go see my father. I'm worried about him after what happened, so I was saying we could pass.

-Oh of course, sorry I thought the worst. I tend to see the devil's tail everywhere, Sabrina apologized.

-It's okay, everyone's been paranoid lately. And besides, I admit that maybe I do have a favor to ask.

-Well, ask," said Sabrina amused. -Worse, I'd say no.

-Betty said you have talents with plants. Do you have any ideas for something that might help my father? It comes at the end of the prescription period and even if he says otherwise, he is not getting better. So, if you have any idea of anything that might help.

-Oh of course! You can show me what he was taking, and I'll see what I can do. I can't promise something that strong, but maybe I can find something that can help it work.

-Thank you, said Archie.

As they arrived at the Andrews' residence, Salem began to run and passed them to go directly into the yard.

-Salem? Salem's come back! Cries Sabrina.

The cat returns, but comfortably seated in Fred Andrew's arms, purring.

-Hello Arch, are you coming home already? And you brought a friend? Fred asked more curious than anything else.

-Yes, it was faster than expected with Betty.

-What about Jugh?

-Also, Archie answered a little quickly. -This is Sabrina

-Hello Mr. Andrew," said Sabrina nervous.

-You can call me Fred," said Fred kindly, freeing his hand to shake Sabrina's hand.

-Sorry about Salem, he has a strong personality.

-Is it yours? Says Fred surprised. -It doesn't matter, he's quite friendly except maybe with Vega. He's just asking for table scraps.

-Are you sure you can hold him with your allergy? Worried Archie.

-He must be hypoallergenic because I've seen him dragged around the house for a week and no symptoms.

-Probably, he's a bastard so it's that or having one of the cats with special hair in his genes, Sabrina said quickly. -Sorry again, he considers that he needs these eight daily meals and I refuse to serve him more than three, so he has got into the habit of begging," Sabrina mocked.

-It's nothing and then he actually paid the last time. I thought he had a dead bird or smile in his mouth and imagine my surprise when I found a $50 bill in his mouth.

-Uh... yeah, he brought back stuff he thinks people like like candy or money sometimes, you're lucky it wasn't Monopoly tickets, Sabrina laughs nervously as she looks at her cat.

Archie noticed his discomfort and tried to change the conversation.

-We just stopped by to pick up a few things for tonight's party and for Sabrina to get some rest too.

-I will also punish my cat by giving affection to your dog, Sabrina joked.

-Make yourself at home, Fred answered.

-There they are, said Archie once his father had left them alone to lie down.

If Fred tried to hide it, he was still weak from his attempted murder and as much as he tried to ration himself so much, Archie had understood that his father was more dependent on them than he wanted to show him.

-Oh dear," said Sabrina in shock. -This thing is strong, but the amount was ridiculous. Shit, the American health system sucks!

-Do you only believe in traditional medicine? Archie asked.

-No, I believe in modern medicine...in Canada and in the Scandinavian countries," she says with a little smile. -And a lot of traditional medicine is shit too. It's an in-between that would be necessary. But good for if I can reproduce what's in there, I doubt it... Not legally anyway. For example, maybe I can do something that would help you sleep and reduce your pain without causing you to become addicted. Does he drink herbal tea?

-He likes coffee more, but I've seen him take it before, Archie says.

-Perfect, give me three days and it'll be ready, Sabrina says with pleasure.

-Thank you again, said Archie.

-Nothing and I'm... I'm sorry about earlier with my ex. I didn't want you to feel uncomfortable and I'm not trying to hit on you....

-It's nothing, honestly. I'm just starting to think I have a very common face.

In front of Sabrina's questioning face, he explained:

- Mrs. Blossom saw her son through me. For a while, it even seemed like they were trying to get me to replace him.

Archie expected a sarcastic or disbelieving comment, but for a moment Sabrina's expression seemed a mixture of horror and disgust before answering:

-It's twisted and disgusting even for them.

- I must admit that thinking about what Mr. Blossom did...

-His wife too, turn you into their sons for what next? To get you married to their daughter? What kink of fuck up you must be to even think about that, Sabrina continued, as she seemed to have trouble keeping her cool.

-Hey, it's okay, I think you read too much in there. And Cheryl has a good heart. If you change your mind, she'll be at the party, tried to calm her down Archie.

-Yeah, I'm not going to blame a child for their parents' crime. Thank you, but I'll pass. Maybe another one when he gets fewer people. I'd like to meet Veronica, Betty says a lot of good things. For the tea, like I said give me three days and it will be ready and... Thank you again for today.

-It made me happy. Are you ready to go home?

Betty felt like she was going to die. The black hood had ordered her to break off her relationship with Veronica at the risk of making Polly pay if she refused. He had also promised a clue to his identity, but sociopaths were not exactly known for respecting their words. She had already had to part with Jughead. And who knows who would follow: Archie? Kevin? Everyone until she was all his? It holds back a shiver of disgust.

For now, she had to concentrate to give a convincing performance. And to her great misfortune, she had a good idea of what would push Veronica to the limit: throwing her past in her face and comparing it to her father. Would only remain accumulated the anger she should release. All you have to do is look around her: see the others consumed by the jingle jingle as idiots when they knew the effects, Nick who seemed to him a pretentious idiot and who didn't miss a chance to rub Archie in the wrong direction, the loss of Jughead, his parents, Polly, to have missed Kevin's distress and finally his future treason. Forgive me, Ronnie, I don't want to lose you.

While Veronica, who had noticed Betty's coldness and her withdrawal from others, rang her phone.

(No please, not yet) thought Betty as she retired to be able to answer.

Hello? -Hello?

-Betty! I'm so happy to talk to you! Polly wrote on the other end of the line.

-Me too, Betty says, shares between the desire to hear from her sister and the fear of not respecting her contract with the black hood. -Why are you calling me so late? Is there something wrong?

-Oh, it's not much, I just needed to talk to you a little bit. It's probably my hormones that are screwing up, trying to rationalize her sister.

-You call me at almost 10:00, it must be important," Betty said against her best judgment.

Polly sighed, but eventually gave in:

-I think I think I feel and see things.

-Go on.... say Betty confused and worried.

-It's just a kind of discomfort, like sometimes I feel like we're watching, or I think I see something from the corner of my eye.

-Do you have someone watching you? Cries Betty horrify when she hears her words and remembers the threats of the black hood.

-No... probably not. Look, I just don't feel well, and I just wanted to call you.

-But did you see anyone? Insisted Betty.

-I saw something! But I don't think it was a person... it had the right size, but nobody moves like that, Polly continued.

-What do you mean, what do you mean? Betty continued confused.

-Oh, shoot, I think I woke up the others. I'll call you back when I can.

-Wait, you can go back to the...

She hung up.

-Home, Betty concludes, looking sadly at the phone in her hand.

-Betty," Archie shouted. -As soon as you saw Veronica?

Toni was helping Jughead as best he could, and he got into the caravan in the poor state he was in. Damn, Sweet Peas hadn't gone soft for him. It was better if he didn't go to bed right away to avoid the risk of a concussion.

As she opened the door and supported Jughead, she heard footsteps rushing to open it. She was wearing pink pajamas and a worn apron unknown to Toni.

-Oh, there you are! Sabrina wrote as she opened the door wide. -Back home, I have plenty of good food for you.

If Jughead's condition shocked her, she didn't show it. Psycho or hardened? Couldn't help but wonder, Toni asked herself.

-Glad to see you, whispered Jughead.

-Me too, even if I wish I had seen you in better shape. Sorry again about this morning and Toni? Good to see you too," Sabrina sincerely said. -Do you want to stay and eat?

-Of course, Toni stays," continued Jughead.

-Awesome!

Toni had to give her this: this girl could cook. The meal was delicious and despite her best judgment, she reserved herself. After that, she and Sabrina took care of Jughead. This was not the first time Toni had taken care of someone in a bad state, she even remembered having to take care of Joaquim when he had spent his initiation with his mother six months ago. Sabrina also seemed to have experience and Toni had decided to give her a pass for her strange products.

-More ice? Toni asked as she headed to the fridge to wrap it in the damp cloth.

-Please, say Jughead.

-It's impressive, but you shouldn't have a scar," says Sabrina admiring. -So, Serpent prince, what would please his royalty?

-Don't overdo it, it's not a monarchy, Toni replied.

-It's cool as long as Jugh doesn't order me to give him a bath and make him macaroons, that's fine with me.

-What?" Jugh asked.

-Who would ask that? Continued Toni

-A girl I know. For a festival in Greendale, we had to elect a queen and I had to take care of all her whims. And that's not the worst part, she even tried to organize an orgy in my room.

-Liar, said Toni.

-I swear," continued Sabrina, who seemed amused as she told the story. -Six people, it counts as one orgy, doesn't it? I mean, if I'm honest, by digging under the layers of badness, he had a pretty cool person. Or maybe Stockholm syndrome has finally started, Sabrina says with a sincere smile on her face.

-It's your ex?" Toni continued.

-What? No! Just sister-nemi, I suppose? Tempted Sabrina clumsily. -Not that it would be wrong, I consider myself as a fluid, but it's her as an individual, not as a girl that I...

-Hey, a simple no would have been enough. But whatever you decided to come out of the closet, I like both too. Even if I may lean a little more towards the girls, recognized Toni. -Are you Jugh?

-Oh, I'm going through it too?

Sabrina and Toni would nod in unison.

-Well then I love Betty, but I don't think I have a desire for other girls or guys for what it's worth," Jughead admitted.

A little lie, Jughead had had feelings for another person, but the sex itself? He hadn't wanted to watch playboys at puberty or had the same questions from others. Nothing until I fall in love. And even then, it was more the connection with Betty than the act itself that attracted him.

-Demisexual? Toni asked.

-Probably, said Jughead.

-I think I would go in that direction for myself too, Sabrina continued. -Finally, I have all my life to be sure," said Sabrina, looking a little sad. -Did you choose the episode you want to watch?

-I hesitate between Time Enough at Last or A World of His Own," says Jughead.

-Maybe, look at both, since I'd like you to stay up late in case you have a concussion, said Toni worried. -Besides, I asked Hack if he could fix the hole in the kitchen. You really have no idea what caused this?

-None, we were both in the main room when it happened.

-A mini earthquake or someone who sent an object against the caravan tried Sabrina.

-No, the ground didn't move, and the sound didn't come from outside. It looked like someone hit the wall with all their strength from the inside.

-I don't see what it could be like in this case.

Liar thought Jughead then. But before he could try to dig into the question, he heard Toni say while looking at his phone:

-Oh, shit.

Betty and Archie found Veronica pale and trembling with anger.

-Ronnie, are you okay? Asked Betty right away.

-I'm sorry, but the party is over, can you warn the others," replied this one, trying to control an adjacent anger.

-Ron, you worry me, what are you...

-Archiekind, please.

Archie reluctantly obeys, leaving her with Betty.

-Ronnie, what's wrong?

-Later, please. I'll explain later....

The dreaded ringing of the phone then began to play, forcing him to obey. She withdrew separately to answer.

-Evening.

-You disobeyed me! You didn't come.

-I was held back...

-I don't care! You should have listened to me, someone will have to pay for it, maybe your dear sister!

Suddenly, anger flowed through Betty's veins.

-You're not as good as you thought you were. Three of your victims survived and Polly saw you running around ready. She notified the police, she says defiantly.

-What?

His reaction took Betty to class; he seemed...surprised? That his sister saw him? Or... Oh, of course.

-I'm really a poor excuse of detective. That's not the real Black hood talking, is it?

The person at the other end of the phone was passing the surprise tried to regain control of the conversation, but it was too late.

-Of course, I'm the real Black....

-Oh, that's right. Who is really calling? Chuck? A ghoulie? You know what? I'll tell you what. It doesn't matter! You played with my nerves and tried to separate me from my loved ones. If I were you, I would get down on my knees and pray that I wouldn't find it, BECAUSE I WILL BE MY PLEASURE TO DESTROY YOU!

And she hung up without him, giving him time to answer with a surprising sense of satisfaction.

Toni couldn't go home tonight. It wasn't the first time and it wouldn't be the last time it would happen until she was eighteen. Her parents had died when she was four years old: during a battle in a bar, a guy hit her father with a glass still in his hand, seriously injuring him in the throat. His mother panicked, had tried to go to the hospital with him rather than wait for an ambulance that only arrived once in three times in time. Drives too fast and not exactly sober, killing them both. The person in charge had gone to prison, sentenced to five for assault and making only two for good conduct and blaming Mister Topaz.

After that, she had lived with her grandparents. It was perfect until Grandma got her fatal cancer and Grandpa became too sick to take care of her full time. Grandpa have to send her to live with his uncle Timothy. He was okay when he was taking his meds, the problem was that it only happens once in a blue moon. He was unstable, and nothing could cause him mood swings that often-had explosive results. Refusing to let Toni in the house was for a more or less long period was usually her reaction to punish her for whatever she thought was wrong. In this case, forget to buy orange juice.

Impossible to go to Grandpa's tonight, Joaquim was absent and she could not see her knocking on his mother's door who still blamed them for her son's situation without his presence, Fang's parents were nice, but with the uncle, aunt and their children being recently settled in their homes in addition to their already large family, they didn't even have a closet or install Toni and going to Sweet Pea meant facing the mad drunk who was his mother. So yeah, she was screwed.

-You can stay here says Jughead. -You only have to share the bed with Sabrina.

- Thank you, Jugh," said Toni, hugging him.

-Or you can have the bed and I'll take my sleeping bag to sleep somewhere else, Sabrina continued.

-Okay, seriously, what's your problem? Are you afraid I'll strangle you in your sleep or what? Toni got angry.

-It's not that! It's just... I have night terrors, okay? I thought you'd like to avoid it," said Sabrina embarrassed.

-So, what, you might kick him and whine in your sleep? Because I don't remember ever hearing you scream in your room," says Jughead.

-I'm not screaming, it's closer to paralyzing her from sleep. When I regain control of my body, yes I may kick and if I don't scream, I cry and mumble.

Toni sighed before saying:

-On the bench seat of a car into a metal scrap, under Sweet Pea's bed among her dirty socks and behind the Whyte Wym bar where I know for a fact that people have vomited, pissed, spat and fucked because I had to clean more than once. These are the three worst places I had to sleep and I had a lot of people with whom I had to share a bed or a room that snores, talks or moves in their sleep, I even shared a bed with Fang's little sister who regularly peed in bed while his other sister who slept in the room made her teeth for a month. I can survive to your worst trust me.

-Okay, fine then, but Salem is sleeping with us. He can sleep outside the bed....

-MEOW! Shouted the surprising cat Jugh and Toni, but not Sabrina.

-Okay, Salem has to sleep with us, but he won't move on my side," Sabrina said.

Everyone had left the party and Archie was taking Betty home.

-Veronica told you what happened? Asked the ginger.

-No, but she said she'd call me. Don't worry, I'm sure she just didn't want to talk to everyone around her.

-Her father's return stressed her out, Archie continued. -Maybe it's related to him.

-Maybe.

They continued walking in silence until Betty broke the silence again:

-I'm sorry for what I asked you. To break up with Jugh for me.

-Yeah, speaking of which... I couldn't do it, at the time I had the opportunity, an emergency arose and he was already gone.

Archie had expected a lot from Betty after telling her the truth, but certainly not that little nervous laugh.

-It's perfect, it's just perfect.

-What did I miss?

-Nothing. I think the guy who called me and said he was the Black hood was an impostor. Then it's just as well that you didn't say anything.

Jughead was dreaming. A dream without any real logic that seemed to place him in three places: running through the free and princely woods knowing that he was the master of the place, then sitting at a table eating a most exquisite buffet that never seemed to be finished and finally with Betty, beautiful and smiling, dressed in a white dress, flowers in his hair, he kissed her so happy. The fantasy changes every time he blinks until they start to mix: he runs into the woods with Betty, licks the sauce with his fingers and lips, stops in the woods to pick fresh fruit and eats the still warm flesh of a deer. He was free, he was strong, he was hungry, he was in love, he was controlled before he lost him. The images continued to melt and mix with each other. Until Jughead found himself in a forest above Betty lying in the grass with his hair spread like a halo around his head, his lips slightly ajar as if to sigh, these green eyes watching Jughead feast on the best meal of his life. Meal that found in Betty's abdomen.

Jughead woke up with horror and had just enough time to rush into the bathroom to vomit.

-What are you doing here? Says a voice in the woods.

-It's not your home, go home or the chance to be the meal of its real inhabitants," continued another.

Toni kept walking through the forest trying to ignore the voices that could have mixed with the sounds of nature yet seemed to scream in his ear. She continued to walk despite everything because backing away seems out of the question. Too close, too close, but to what?

The answer came quickly.

There's a... person in a clearing? So tall and thin with a skin too pale, almost off-white, but which seemed hard as a bark with hands where it was hard to know where the nails were finished, and fingers started giving him long black claws scraping something off the ground whose nature Toni has no desire to know. These fluorescent eyes shone behind her long grey hair and it has a mouth that stretched from ear to ear filled with sharp yellowish teeth that refuse to stay hidden. Finally, his legs seemed to be tucked in like those of a quadruped with a kind of long protuberance at the foot that held as much of a hoof as of a claw.

-What do you want? Asked the thing with a surprisingly feminine voice.

-I... I... I... I

-If you're here, it's because you want something, or can you be useful for free? I would be very happy to do so.

-Useful? Suddenly said Toni, whose word had finally brought her out of terror and brought her to anger.

The thing shook his head to confirm his words.

-This is not your land and you are not my race, I don't owe you anything. But maybe you want to change that?

She put her hand through her hair, cutting a handle with her claws: as she fell to the ground, they turned into snakes.

-Finally, be what you want to be: sure of your choices or why not be at the crossroads?

Immediately the snakes began to crawl towards Toni, she from disgust struck the nearest one so the sound of the shock woke her up!

Covering her eyes, another blow was heard, and Toni turned to the side of the bed that she discovered empty. Following the ground cover trail, she found Sabrina lying on the ground, her eyes wide open and a huge blue starting to appear on her forehead. Her cat rests against her trying her best to calm her down by rubbing against her.

-Sabrina, what happened? Says Toni while trying to get it up.

-I... I hit my head... and I fell, says this one flatly.

Toni then noticed with horror that she was bleeding from behind her head.

-Oh, shit. Come on, let's get you cleaned up.

As soon as they were out, Toni heard Jughead vomiting in the bathroom and left Sabrina on the couch to meet her.

-Jugh, what's going on? Do you need to go to the hospital?

Jughead turned around and tried to reassure her:

-It's nothing. I guess food too rich and blow to the head doesn't mix well. Did I wake you up?

-Han, miss albino did it. She managed to blow her head off in her sleep. Don't ask me how she did it. At three years old, I don't say, but at sixteen?

Jughead finished cleaning up and Toni took care of Sabrina's head. It was just a cut that, like all head injuries, had just bled a lot.

But after their respective nightmares, none of the Serpents wanted to go back to sleep right away and that also applied to Sabrina in case she had a concussion. Perhaps it was better to continue the twilight zone marathon.

-If you don't mind, I might do some laundry while I'm up.

-Are you sure that's a good idea? Asked Jughead. -Maybe it's worth sitting still.

-Oh, come on, just the towels. They're full of blood thanks to both of us and it's going to be awful to clean them if you wait too long. I will make a quick promise," she insisted.

-Just, if your head turns, you stop and come back.

Sabrina bought it and headed for the washing machine. She started to classify the different clothes and towels, throwing them in the machine before stopping at what she was looking for.

She checked that the other two were busy (more discussed the future of the snakes than looked at the screen) before turning her attention to the towel: it was the most stained of all and it had only Jughead's blood on her. In this state, claiming that it was too damaged to be washed and had to be thrown away might work. Discreetly, Sabrina took it and waited for Salem to approach. The cat knew exactly what to do and took the towel between his teeth to take him to the room to hide it while waiting for the right time. Hot dog wanted to follow the cat, but he emitted a rumble too low for the human ear, but cataphoric for the dog who immediately backed away. The cat seems to have an expression of satisfaction and Sabrina went to join the others.

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atruththatyoudeny · 7 years

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Monthly Reads | August 2017

OMG! August was such a good month - I’ve read lots of amazing fics! Please make sure to also check out the fics under the cut! ❤ THANK YOU TO ALL WRITERS FOR YOUR HARD WORK AND FOR SHARING YOUR STORIES! ❤ Top 5 6 + 11 more under the cut:

Pray for some sweet simplicity

by delsicle | a/b/o | enemies to lovers | 237k Louis is the only omega to ever make it in the cut-throat world of competitive motorcycle racing—that is, he would be if anyone actually knew about his identity. Now, his sights are set towards competing in—and winning—the European Grand Prix, the biggest and most difficult race of the entire year, so he can disappear underground for good. He’s close enough, too, until an alpha sports journalist is assigned to follow Louis’s every move as he prepares for the event of his career. Or, an AU where motorcycle racing is the biggest sport in a heavily divided world, Louis is trying to take control of his own destiny, and Harry is in for more than he bargained for.

[*edited*]

Chasing Empty Spaces

by domesticharry | historical AU | 1930s | 79k The year is 1934 and Harry Styles was to inherent the largest tobacco firm in the south. His parents have picked out the “perfect” girl for him to marry and he has the privilege of receiving the highest education possible. The problem was, Harry hadn’t realized he didn’t actually want any part of that future until he met a mechanic named, Louis Tomlinson.

We’ll Be Seamless

by dinosaursmate for HL Fic Fest (2017) | Tumblr AU | pining | exhibitionism | voyeurism | 52k Green reblogged an old photo of himself. It was from back in October, a Halloween special. A pulse shot all the way through Louis because this photo was his absolute favourite, and it had taken the rest of the year for him to wean himself off of it. Green was on his knees, arms stretched out in front of him with his fingertips digging into the surface of his bed. He was wearing a pair of cat ears on his head, his curls falling forward. His back was arched, and in the foreground of the picture, Green’s bum was high in the air, a long, black cat tail sitting neatly between his cheeks. — Louis spends all his spare time scrolling arty nude blogs on Tumblr but amongst them all, Green is his favourite.

Given a Chance

by Fabby | Future Fic | canon compliant | slow burn | coming back together | anxiety attacks| 173k Five years after One Direction took their last tour, the last thing Louis Tomlinson ever expected to happen while on a tea run at the local Piggly Wiggly was to run into his ex-boyfriend and ex-bandmate Harry Styles. The odds of them ever running into each other again had to be super slim, right? Wrong. What happens when you mix ex-boyfriends with a large serving of Small Town America? Will Louis and Harry be able to set aside their differences, or will Louis be able to stay breezy as fuck in the wake of Harry’s arrival? (or, the one where Louis and Harry run into each other five years after One Direction ends and learn how to love each other again. Featuring: Reggie as the overweight labrador, Niall as Louis’ last grip on reality, and Nowheresville, North Carolina as the setting for Louis’ worst nightmare to come true.)

No sooner loved (series)

by benzos 1| As the winter to foul weather Trans character | mpreg | abortion | hurt/comfort | 45k AU. An unplanned pregnancy throws a spanner into Harry and Louis’ relationship. It wasn’t supposed to go like this. 2| You and you are sure together Trans character | eating disorder | hurt/comfort | 48k AU. The first day of fall term, Louis hits one of his residents in the face with a door. Later that day, said resident seeks refuge after a fight with his roommate. It becomes a thing. And then it becomes something else. 3| Baby, i’m speeding, and red lights are run pwp | 7k Louis really would’ve liked to just order the damn thing off the internet, but Harry insists that anything going inside your body ought to be thoroughly researched, which, apparently, mandates going to a sex shop. Knowing how ludicrously uncomfortable Louis is with the whole thing, Harry devises the ingenious solution of bringing Eleanor along and having her pose as Harry’s girlfriend who’s interested in trying out pegging, with Louis tagging along as a supportive best mate. It’s not Harry’s worst plan to date, but it’s somewhere in that range.

Under me, you

by hazzafrazza | friends to lovers | superheroes | 12 k You Won’t Believe Who Was Spotted Leaving Harry Styles’ Primrose Hill Pad! If Harry was being completely honest, it probably wasn’t the best idea to be a world-renowned popstar and an infamous vigilante. (Especially when all the comic books said never reveal your secret identity to keep your loved ones safe – which was all well and good, until Louis.) Or: Harry wants a lot of things – fame, glory, Louis – but that last one is particularly hard to get when everyone thinks you’re dating your secret superhero alter-ego and suddenly you’ve become your own worst cockblock.

Such Good Luck

by casuallyhl for HL Mpreg Fic Exchange | Historical AU | 1910s | mpreg | secret relationship | class difference | 66k Louis smiles at Harry’s words, leaning into his touch. “Tell me again.” Smiling, Harry takes Louis into his arms. Pressing gentle kisses to his face, Harry murmurs, “In six months’ time, I will have my twenty-fifth birthday. On that day, my portion of the inheritance will become legally mine. And I plan that very day to announce to my family that I have found love.” Harry chuckles as he runs his lips lightly along Louis’ cheekbone. “That, in fact, I found love when I was twenty-one years old, and that I have loved and been loved every day since.” Or, an Edwardian AU where Harry is a young aristocratic lord and Louis is a working class dairy farmer. Secrets are a necessary part of their relationship, but Louis has one that could topple their whole world.

What A Life I’d Have Missed

by harioandlouigi for HL Mpreg Fic Exchange | mpreg | established relationship | 27k It all started with a prank, tears, and guilt. Louis has been pranking Harry since the day they met. Now, seven years later, Harry has finally come up with the perfect plan to prank his husband back. He has a borrowed positive pregnancy test in front of him, he’s perfected his facial expression, and he’s dead sure Louis will fall for it. He doesn’t exactly get the panicked reaction he expected, though. As a matter of fact, nothing ever seems to turn out the way he expects it to, but that’s for the best, really. Or, the one where an insensitive joke soon becomes a very real, happy pregnancy.

Small Doses (Loving You It’s Explosive)

by Anonymous for HL Summer Exchange 2017 | personal trainer Harry | boxing | dom/sub undertones | 38k Louis Tomlinson finds himself at Vitality Fitness to try and turn his life around after having left his cheating boyfriend of four years. The gym’s owner, Liam, quickly becomes a good friend, but his right hand man is rude and dismissive from the get-go. Louis and Harry continue to clash all while Harry is trying to move his way up the ranks in Manchester’s amateur boxing circuit, but they can’t seem to stay away from each other.

Sound Like a Song

by allwaswell16 for HL Fic Fest (2017) | 14k In high school, Louis Tomlinson lit up Harry’s world like nobody else, even if Harry did most of his pining from the safety of his tightly knit circle of friends. Ten years later, Harry is ready to make some changes. He’s tired of having so many regrets and not taking charge of his life, and he still hasn’t forgotten how brightly Louis shines. He’s about to get a long awaited second chance. Or the one where Harry helps out at a farmer’s market and gives Louis free vegetables.

Take Me Back to Where We Started

by amory | exes to lovers | famous/non-famous | 27k Harry and Louis haven’t spoken since they broke up four years ago. As boarding school sweethearts they once spent every waking moment together, but now they can hardly stand to be in the same room. When their five year class reunion comes around, both boys decide against their better judgement to return and (hopefully) have a good time. The only problem is, they’re both still hopelessly in love. Starring Harry as the petty ex, Louis as the new James Bond, Niall as a boy genius and fake boyfriend extraordinaire, and Liam and Zayn as two friends just trying to make it out of this weekend alive.

Tightrope

by Anonymous for HL Mpreg Fic Exchange | mpreg | exes | friends to lovers | 33k Louis knows he and Harry are going to be together for the rest of their lives and one day they were going to get married and have three point five children, a dog, and two cats. But life hasn’t matched up perfectly yet and that time is not now. So they are both happy to be best friends and casually date other people until life decides they really should get their shit together. aka Louis gets pregnant from “one last time” sex and he and Harry somehow think they’ll be able co-parent without it being weird for anyone (most especially their new boyfriends).

Souls; Plural, Parallel

by Anonymous for HL Mpreg Fic Exchange | mpreg | soulmates | 19k Soulmates are rare, the sort of rare that means everyone has a story about a friend’s sister’s coworker or a brother’s roommate’s cousin. But the fact of the matter is that most people never meet theirs. It’s unfortunate then, that Louis finds out the hard way that he met his soulmate in a club, and the guy never texted him back.

Friend Request

by Anonymous for HL Summer Exchange 2017 | 11k This was written for Kassio as a pinch hit for the HL Summer Exchange, from the prompt: “ Louis is bored on Facebook and in the “People you may know” suggestions, he sees the name Harry Styles. The profile picture doesn’t show the person. He thinks it’s an old family friend who he misses – maybe a middle-aged or elderly former neighbor or babysitter who he was fond of as a child - and sends a friend request. Turns out it’s not old man Harry from their old neighborhood, it’s hot young Harry (who he’s never met before) who accepts his friend request…”

If the Surface Begs You Home

by Anonymous for HL Mpreg Fic Exchange | mpreg | mermaid!Harry | 17k Harry is a mermaid from the underwater kingdom of Mercadia who is a little too fascinated by life above the surface. He’s kicked out of his home after he winds up pregnant, and has to figure out how to make his way in the world. Louis is the darling of the small neighbouring seaside village who came home after university to take over their local library, and can’t seem to stay away from the mysterious pregnant mermaid his friends introduce him to.

Out of the blue corner

by fallingaway | boxing | slow burn 85k Louis is a boxer banned because of doping. Harry is a journalist following the story. * * * “It seemed like a normal morning, but he had a feeling it was the quiet before the storm. And by storm, he meant getting involved in Louis Tomlinson’s life.”

#pray for some sweet simplicity #chasing empty spaces #we'll be seamless #given a chance #no sooner loved #hl mpreg fic exchange #hl summer exchange 2017 #hl fic fest 2017 #fic rec #monthly reads #my fic rec #pairing: larry #completed fics #my reads

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