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beetlegoose01 · 3 years

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Frostbite Chapter 4- Broken Promises

AN: Happy Friday everyone! I hope you all enjoy Chapter 4. :D

Previous Chapter: https://pepperimps01.tumblr.com/post/646112113682710528/frostbite-recovery-chapter-3

Summary: Casey and Donnie struggle with their feelings. Leo reunites with the new mutant, and finds more info about them.

~~~

Casey grunted and grumbled as he wandered downstairs, still in his pajamas. Predictably dad wasn't in the kitchen, so he fixed himself and Riley a bowl of cornflakes. Dad was rarely ever at home, usually cruising through different bars to stay occupied, so Casey had to step up. He wasn't really a cook, not that he would have time to make a meal.

"Riley, breakfast!" He hollered, running his hand through his messy curls.

The chipper girl skipped down the steps two at a time. She plopped down, inhaling her cornflakes like she hadn't eaten in days. She was already dressed in a blouse and skirt, the uniform required at her middle school.

Casey joined her, eating his cereal a bit slower as he fixed his hair. Not that he cared too much about his appearance.

"You know a comb would be more effective." Riley teased, mouthful of milk and cereal. "Something really weird happened last night. I almost thought it was a dream but it couldn't be."

Casey raised an eyebrow.

"I ordered food from Murakami's. I was so hungry, you know." She continued. "And I walked home with my noodles and these assholes started attacking me."

Casey dropped his spoon so loudly it made a clanging noise. "What? Did they hurt you?"

She scoffed. "No, that's the best part. Sure, I was holding my own, but this guy with his sick karate moves saved me! And Sparky too! My pet racoon."

He wanted to tell her that a raccoon didn't qualify as a pet, and heck, he didn't even see the little rodent, but he was too concerned about his sister's wellbeing. "You're lying. You just did your homework last night."

"Except you know I never do my homework." Riley said snarkily. "No...he was really nice. Actually he was a bit strange. Donatello was his name." She perked up. "You wouldn't believe what he-"

"Shut up Ri, stop talking nonsense." Casey rolled his eyes. "Get ready for school. April's walkin' with us today."

"But he-"

"Riley!"

Riley frowned, slumping over, but complying as she grabbed her backpack moodily.

He chewed at his lip. He knew he was being a total jerk, but he also wanted his sister to just be lying. She was known to tell tales but he hated being so dismissive. He'd have to ask later.

After getting dressed and actually combing through his hair, he heard a knock at the door.

"I'll get it!" Riley shouted, clumsily leaping over a bookbag, nearly crashing into the wall as she ran towards the front door. "Hi April!"

"Hiya Riley," The redhead said. "You guys ready to go?"

"I am. Yo Casey, are you?"

"Yep." He grabbed his bag.

"Let's go then."

The trio headed out the door, Riley chattering mindlessly about something.

"I'm gonna stay late today." She said. "Baseball practice."

"Baseball?" April looked at her quizzically. "I thought you played hockey."

"I play both. Duh." Riley rolled her eyes, avoiding a crack in the sidewalk. "I'm the best player on the team, even though I'm the only girl. Hockey..." She cringed. "I prefer to watch, I think." She stopped, crouching down to watch a raccoon scurry through some trash.

"Come on Riley, we're gonna be late." Casey said.

"But he's so cute." Riley cooed. "I missed you Sparky!"

"How do you even know that's the same possum?"

"Racoon. And I just know." She scratched his furry head. The creature's big black eyes widened, accepting the pets happily.

"Ugh, no, he could have diseases or rabies or something-" Casey grabbed her by the backpack straps and pulled her away. Ignoring his sister's struggles, he looked at April: "Did you do Ms. Thompson's homework?"

"Yes, last night." She hummed, glancing back at him. "No, you can't copy it."

"Damn. Can you help me with it?"

April chuckled. "Sure thing."

"You're the best, Red."

She smiled, taking his hand in hers. "I've missed you, Casey."

"I've missed you too."

"Guys!" Riley interrupted. "Stop ogling and take me to school already!"

They blushed, April easily slipping her hand back in her pocket as if nothing had happened between them.

Thankfully, her school was just around the corner, giving him and April plenty of time to talk on their way to the high school.

"So...Red," Casey said, fixing his hair self consciously. "There's a new Beetlewoman movie comin' out on Friday."

April nodded. "There is."

"I heard it's even better than the last one."

She hummed. "I heard that too."

"Do you wanna go with me?"

"Are you asking me on a date?" She asked bluntly.

"That depends, are you gonna say yes?"

April stared at him for a moment, contemplating her answer carefully.

"It's a no, isn't it?" He sighed, defeated. "I could have sworn this would be the day."

"Jones," She said firmly. "Casey, you know I like you a lot."

"I have an annoying feeling that there's gonna be a 'but' somewhere..."

"But, I need to focus on myself right now. Dating is just another thing to worry about. My life is crazy enough." She laughed weakly. "You do know I like you and Donnie, right?"

Casey made a face. "What does this have to do with Donnie?"

"Everything." She looked away wistfully. "You'll figure it out eventually."

"Whatever you say, Red. Come on, the bell's about to ring."

~•~

Peace and quiet was all Donatello craved. The brief moments of silence he received when working on a project were always savored. Even as a curious little tot, he loved blissful quiet. Which was difficult when living in the same sewers as three other rambunctious turtles- but he made do.

Hunched over his desk, he carefully followed the instructions written down. Deja vu was a common occurrence now, and it certainly didn't help with the gelatinous blob form of Timothy watching him work.

"Don't worry Tim," He said through a yawn. "I won't rest until you're cured, buddy."

The floating eyeballs blinked back at him. Looking at him too long was sure to make anyone squeamish, but Donnie could only feel guilt and pity.

"Nothing will stop me from-"

"Yo D!"

Donnie massaged his temples, recognizing the voice immediately. For once, he wished it was Mikey who had interrupted his work.

"Don't you have school?"

"What are you, my mom?" Casey scoffed. "Nah, school's out." He flopped onto the lab table, sitting directly on Donnie's notes.

"What do you want now, Jones?" He still couldn't forget his brother's teasing, and he wasn't looking forward to dealing with his own feelings. If they caught him talking with Jones, there was no doubt they would make fun of him.

"Oh, nothing." Casey took a seat on the table. "Check it." He slid a disc towards Donnie, who examined it. He couldn't believe what he was looking at- and that it was real.

"No. Way." He breathed. "The Electric Skullz's Dynamite album?" He had to bite his tongue in order to prevent himself from squealing.

Casey grinned. "You know it." He placed his hands in his lap, thinking. "I figured we could...listen to it sometime. Together! Since we both like it." He paused, scrunching his face. "Stupid idea, probably."

Donnie's features softened. This kid...he did something nice for him. He didn't have to, but he did. And Donnie was touched. But also midly infuriated. How dare Jones make it so difficult to hate him?

"It's not stupid.. That's what friends do, don't they? Listen to music together?"

Friends...it sounded weird out loud. Not that either teen disliked it.

Casey raised an eyebrow. "Wait...we're friends?"

Donnie shrugged. "I don't know. But arguing is exhausting. And you had a point. We both love this band, so why not?"

"Sounds good to me."

Donnie eagerly popped the disc into his homemade music player, turning the volume up. Timothy pitifully stared through the glass container, as if he wanted to jam too.

"Listen Don, I meant to, well," He rubbed the back of his neck. "Talk to you as well."

Donnie stopped the music abruptly. He glanced at Casey, who looked uncomfortable. "Yeah?"

"Oh- er- uh." This was proving to be more difficult as he stared at the tall turtle's mahogany brown eyes. "I don't hate you."

"Thank...you?"

"No, wait. I feel like we got off on the wrong foot. Ever since we've met. But I don't want to fight anymore. I like talking to you about music. You're kinda cool."

Donnie didn't say anything.

"Red doesn't want us to fight. And if you do care about her like I know you do, then you'd respect what she wants. Right?"

"Yes, I agree. The trouble is..." Donnie looked down guiltily. "I don't know what I feel. About us." He gestured at himself, then at Casey.

"You don't have any answers?"

"No. For once, I don't."

Casey exhaled. "I don't either."

Donnie hummed, waiting for anything to ease the awkwardness. Before he had a chance to return to his work, Casey spoke up again.

"My sister said something weird." He rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably.

"Oh?"

"She said some guy named Donatello saved her from some creeps. Is that true? Or was she just makin' stuff up?"

Donnie paused, a small smile revealing. He looked as if he was debating if he should tell Casey or not. "She wasn't. I did, though I didn't know she was your sister at the time." Donnie replied honestly. "Riley, right?"

"She didn't mention you were a turtle though." He joked.

"She didn't seem to mind."

"Guess those things don't really matter, huh? It's all about...what's in there." He patted Donnie's scratched up plasteron. Brown eyes met darker brown, and he backed up slowly, unsure if he should move closer. "Sorry. But thanks for helping her. She means everything to me. I'm sure you know how that feels."

Donnie's breath was caught in his throat. He gulped. "I...of course."

"Oh shoot." Casey checked his phone as if nothing had happened. "Sorry dude, I promised Raph I'd ride bikes with him. Catch ya later?"

"Yeah!" His voice cracked. "I'd love that."

As Casey left with a cheeky grin and wave, Donnie felt a sinking feeling in his stomach.

He glanced at the jar of guts that once resembled another teenaged boy. "Tim, I think I'm in trouble."

~•~

That sinking feeling in his stomach didn't leave even hours later. Donnie had tried to push it off, move forward and continue like normal. It wasn't even a big deal. He saved Casey's sister, and that was that. He would have saved any other human just the same. Then why did he feel so weird? He wouldn't lie, he wondered how Casey would react if he knew. Would he be proud of him? Maybe their friendship could expand and their infamous rivalry could finally end.

They had more in common than either boy had realized. They enjoyed the same music and food at least, and according to 'bro code' that's all one needed in a friendship. They did have fun bonding over the Electric Skullz...

But then there was April. She clearly didn't seem enthusiastic in dating either of them. Donnie's pursuit of the beautiful redhead seemed to lose interest as time went on. Each look she gave him was not one of admiration, but of pity. He still liked her a lot though.

'I don't have a chance with her.'

Did Casey? Casey had the added benefit of being human. But he was also charming, handsome, had curious chocolate brown eyes and...and...

A really cute smile with little dimples on each cheek. And confidence to boot, something Donnie had always secretly admired.

Donnie rolled over in back, staring at the wall. What was he even saying? Casey wasn't...he didn't.

'Don't think that. You're not gay. You like April. You like April. You like April.'

He heard Raphael's voice in his mind. 'Who are you even trying to convince? Me, or yourself?'

Who was he trying to convince?

He slid out of bed as quietly as possible. He wasn't going to get any sleep at this rate. Might as well work on the retromutagen and get his mind off Casey for once. And it would be less of a time waster than staring at the ceiling and tossing and turning.

'Casey's still human, you know.' The little voice reminded him as he stepped out of his room, blinking blearily. 'You've got the same chance of impressing him as you do April.'

"I know." He muttered under his breath, this time aloud. "I don't like him like that. He's just a friend. I think?"

If he was human, he wouldn't have this problem. Maybe he could have dated them both. Though even for humans that was considered taboo.

He shook his head, glancing at the lab clock. 3:32am. No point in going back to sleep. His laptop had been left open too from a few hours ago. He sighed, typing into his old friend Google what exactly his feelings were.

Article after article, the only sound being the ticking clock, he found his answer. But not in the way he expected.

What is...bisexuality?

Hamato Donatello knew a lot of things. But one thing he was always going to struggle with- was romance. The best course of action was to simply avoid these emotions and put them off until he couldn't take it anymore.. Little did he know, he wasn't the only turtle struggling. His hand stopped moving the mouse, hearing shuffling noises from outside. He came to recognize each individual footsteps his brothers and father made. Mikey usually had a bounce in his step, Raph dragged his feet or stomped about. Splinter's paws were very quiet and had his tail dragging behind him. But these steps were nearly silent, as if he was standing on his tip toes, eager to not wake the remaining members of his family.

"Leo?" He uttered, careful to keep his voice low. He didn't need to turn around, he knew exactly who it was.

But when he saw the distraught, bloodshot eyes of his oldest brother, he moved closer. Leo flinched.

"Leo?" He repeated. "Why are you awake?"

"I couldn't sleep." His voice sounded hoarse. "And you?"

"Same as you, I guess." Donnie quickly slammed his laptop shut. "You look exhausted."

"I can't stop thinking about her." Leo murmured, nearly inaudible.

"Her?" Donnie stared blankly, wondering if Leo was sleepwalking and somehow stumbled inside the lab. "Karai?"

He shook his head. "Sorry, I'm talking nonsense aren't I?"

"A little bit, yeah."

Leo chuckled softly, then turned somber. "I was thinking about the mutant. I'm worried. I mean, she could cause some serious destruction."

Donnie's eyes widened in realization. "You were going to try to find it...her, weren't you? That's why you're wandering around at 4am."

Leo didn't answer. He didn't have to. His eyes told Donnie everything.

"You're dead on your feet. You definitely shouldn't go searching for a deranged mutant when you can barely stand. And alone, of all the crazy things. Come on, Leo, let's go back to sleep."

Surprisingly, Leonardo agreed, as if Donnie was the older sibling and not the other way around. "You're right. I don't know what I was thinking. But you should sleep too."

Donnie relaxed, grateful that there wasn't an argument involved. "I think I will."

"I'll walk with you to your room."

"And you promise you'll go to bed?"

"I promise." Leo vowed, leading the way back to their individual rooms.

Donnie slipped inside his room, practically melting into his bed, exhausted. His eyes fluttered close.

"Oyasumi." His brother whispered.

"Hai, oyasumi." He mumbled under the blankets, instantly comforted.

"See you in the morning, brother." Leo tucked him in gently. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

And for the first time in his life, Leo had broken a promise to his brother.

~•~

The moonlight glowed over the cityscape. Leo tumbled to the ground of the rooftops, checking the area, knowingly being followed. He wasn't afraid, but he knew he had to keep alert. This enemy was unknown, and if he made one false error, he couldn't rely on his brothers for help. Each sense perked up anxiously, waiting for any sign of attack.

Another movement came from behind. He stopped abruptly, skidding to a halt.

"Show yourself." He commanded, one katana raised high, its brother still in its holder.

"Oh, but that would make things less fun..."

Leonardo turned around fiercely. "Every moment you hide in the shadows you only prove your cowardice."

"Cowardice? We'll see about that. You're the one who's afraid."

"I'm not afraid." He said defiantly.

"You soon will be..."

And then it crawled forward. Slowly, claws stepped towards him, revealing the hidden mutant reptile that resembled a crocodile. Her voice, though menacing, still had a feminine tone that made his heart race. Her body was a beautiful emerald green, with piercing gold eyes and cream undertones. She flicked her long, thick tail back, fangs curling into a sinister smirk. Though she was bigger than he was, he wasn't about to show any sign of fear. She then circled him like a predator with her prey. Though he had dealt with much deadlier villains, he still felt uneasy.

"Miss me?" She snarled. "It's been a while."

Leo narrowed his eyes. He recognized her of course, though they had never spoken. Their last fight had ended less than pleasant. Both he and Mikey had to make a hasty retreat. Leo had regretted it ever since.

"I don't think I ever caught your name." He growled. "If you have one."

"I didn't throw it." She said, then relented. "Nova."

"What are you?"

She licked her lips. "The last thing you see before you die. The banter was cute, sugar, but I'm hungry. That's all I need."

Beyond her wild eyes was a look of fear, and true hunger. She wasn't lying, she looked as though she hadn't eaten in days.

"Nova please. I'm- I'm Leonardo."

She pounced forward, pinning the turtle to the ground. "So long, Leonardo."

"I don't want to hurt you." He wheezed.

"What a shame, because I so want to hurt you. Your pathetic attempt at kindness only shows how weak you truly are."

"Nova..."

With his free leg, Leo kicked his shin upwards to hit her underbelly. She yelped, falling backwards. Her malnourishment was proof she needed help. But clearly she didn't want any.

"So much for not hurting me." She spat, acid leaving her lips and barely avoiding Leo's toes as he lept away. When she moved closer towards him, he softened slightly. He avoided staring at her shark like teeth.

He held out a hand. "I meant what I said. I can help you. Food, shelter, a chance to be with other mutants. I don't want to fight you."

For a brief moment, she looked as if she was going to comply, even eagerly with his convincing tone. Her muzzle grazed his cheek, vulnerability clear in her gold eyes. Then she turned away viciously, reconsidering.

"I don't want anything to do with you, Leonardo. Any hope of happiness is finished., My humanity is gone. I'm a freak, like you." She spat. "I had everything. Fame, fortune, my beauty..." Her claws extended. "All of it is gone."

He shook his head. "No it isn't. There is still hope. I promise, I'll help you."

She rolled her eye slits. "How very noble of you." Her tongue slid out, resembling two separated spiky parts.

"It's not just about being noble. It's about doing what's right." Leo held out his hand once more, echoing the wisdom of Captain Ryan. "Are you willing, Nova?"

"I..."

Snapping her jaws back, she raised a claw to swipe at him. He flinched, waiting for a swift but agonizing feeling. But nothing happened. She had moved away. He didn't even need to draw his swords.

"That's your answer. See you soon...sugar." She hissed, disappearing into the shadows once more.

"Wait!" He cried. But she was gone.

#tmnt 2012 #teenage muant ninja turtles #jonatello #fanfics #ot3 #capril #apriltello #casey jones #donatello #april o neil

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paperhatcollection · 4 years

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A Duke and A Dad.

A fanic based solely on THIS picture by @honeycapp

To be fair, it’s not like they’d set out to get along from the beginning.

Which, and let’s continue to be fair here, wasn’t even the beginning from the start. But after years of ignorance and denial and paranoid thoughts that whispered across the mind at four in the morning- you had to start building a relationship back up from somewhere, and sometimes that work began in the middle of the story. Sometimes you had to dust out old cobwebs, and clean out the clutter, and find the cracked frame of a portrait you forgot you even had. Because remembering was painful, and it was the natural instinct of any part-of-a-human to avoid painful situations at all cost... or so you thought. So you thought.

You also thought nobody would ever willingly put another thinking, feeling being in pain when they had the power to help. But repression could be dangerous, and ignorance tenfold.

At first, nobody even knew where Patton had gone until he’d burst from Remus’s room in a full panic, with nothing but the echo of the Duke’s laughter following him down the hall. The idea had been quite simple in the beginning, really. Patton had wanted to meet a side of Thomas’s that he’d ignored and pushed down for far too long, had wanted to understand him in a way that wouldn’t leave him grasping for straws at every intrusive thought that wiggled and wormed its way into Thomas’s head. Remus had been excited at the thought of disturbing someone he’d never gotten a chance to disturb before, a side that (in his mind) had previously sat so ‘high and mighty’ atop a throne of acceptance, no matter what he seemed to do.

But then Patton came back and sat down on the only clean spot on Remus’s bed, ignored the way something was licking his ankles, and asked Remus through nervously gritted teeth where exactly he’d gotten the idea to wear an octopus on his head from, it was really- no thank you, he really doesn't want any blood. Yes, yes… he was very sure.

Patton didn’t know what he’d been hoping for, at the time. Peace, maybe. Of the mind, or the heart, or in general. He didn’t know. He’d been coming to realize he hadn’t known a lot of things, lately. More important things than he’d thought, anyways… Sometimes, out of the corner of his eye, he’d catch Janus watching him closely, but every time he’d turn his head to look, the snake-boi would have returned his attention to whatever else he had seemed to be doing. Patton had considered approaching Janus and asking him but- whenever he thought about it, his mouth felt dry and his throat felt closed off, and he was positive it had nothing to do with Janus’s own abilities at play. Remus would be… there, too. Not that he ever paid Patton any attention.

But to be fair, no one gave anyone Remus any attention back. He was there. Always in the background, a consistent chatter to be tuned out, never the focus.

The next time Patton visited Remus, he took a stab in the dark and brought some homemade spaghetti, along with some garlic bread in his other hand. He watched Remus turn the tub of pasta over in his hands, as if trying to figure out what the hippity hoppity Patton had just given him. Then he’d popped off the lid, grabbed a handful of noodles, and shoved them into his mouth while grinning at Patton with far too many teeth. Patton had simply smiled back and remembered the last time he’d given Roman pasta. Sometimes, the twins looked more alike than they seemed to realize. After realizing he wasn’t getting too Patton this time, Remus had huffed and started to pick at the garlic bread, occasionally tossing chunks towards his dresser where they were snatched up by the jaws of… something Patton would rather not get a closer look at. Besides, who was he to go snooping in Remus underwear drawer?

(Remus caught him staring anyways, and figured hey if that’s what you wanna see pops- Patton excused himself while Remus was half undressed, but this time he left at a much calmer pace. He once again came back, at first to ask for the tupperware back, but spent all of five seconds watching Remus through the doorway before telling him he could keep it.)

It was a start, he supposed, and Patton soon turned it into tradition. He brought little gifts with him- first things based on what he knew Roman liked, but soon turning to things he guessed the Duke would enjoy, based on their slowly growing conversations and the things he saw littered around Remus’s room. (And Patton thought he’d been the messy side…). He’d tried bringing him a color book, but Remus had just eaten all the crayons and still somehow colored all the pictures in to be inappropriate images, and he’d tried giving Remus a fidget spinner but within five minutes of him having the thing it was made of knives and had an eyeball in the middle and followed Patton’s movements around the room. He swore it was blinking at him.

Then he tried branching out into a different direction- he brought Remus this newfangled thing he’d found called a ‘squishy’- this one designed for you to put slime inside so that when you squeezed it it came out through the mouth like… you know. And if when Remus squeezed it, it smelled a little too foul to be slime, well, his room kinda already smelled bad as it was. And then, after making a questionable gift decision at four in the morning, he got Remus a coffee mug shaped like a toilet. That very same morning, Remus showed up to breakfast drinking what Patton really hoped was coffee from that exact same mug. He’d also gotten Remus a plush shaped like an octopus with a little mustache, but he didn’t see it again the next time he’d visited, so he figured Remus must have torn it to shreds.

One day, Patton had an idea that he… really wasn’t sure would work, but he figured it was worth the shot. Instead of bringing Remus something, he’d grabbed Remus and brought him to an empty room with some paint cans. Patton had handed him one- a green can of paint, and told him he’d always wanted to try just throwing around paint and seeing what would happen. So of course Remus threw the can of paint directly onto Patton.

So Patton threw a can of blue back on Remus in retaliation. And then Remus had laughed- dripping with blue paint, pushing it out of his face and winking at Patton, before tipping directly backwards and hitting the ground. Remus had spread his arms and legs back and forth- he was making a paint angel, Patton had realized, and he could only laugh cause… seriously, that was the most innocent thing he’d seen the Duke do up to that point.

And if the two of them received a couple odd stares when they finally left the room a couple hours later- gosh the time had flown by- covered in more colors than Patton had thought possible, laughing at a joke that only made sense between the two of them... well, it was worth it in the name of mental health. Except…

Patton wasn’t sure when something had changed.

Maybe it was when Remus had stopped waiting in the shadows of his room, under his bed or clinging to the ceiling above his door. Stopped watching every move Patton made, his eyes never leaving the moral side, morning star clutched a-little-too-tightly to his chest despite the little-too-wide grin he always wore. When instead his door would fly open when Patton got near it, or when Remus shoving a fistful of bugs in his face had shifted from trying to scare Patton to a genuine excitement at the new little… scuttle friends he’d found to add to the collection. Maybe it was the time he’d accidentally walked in on Remus sleeping- and yeah, it was always a surprise to see someone as chaotic and bursting with energy as Remus sleeping- and found him clutching a plush octopus to his chest, stitched up and patched where it had been ripped before.

Or maybe it was those times when Remus would find wherever Patton happened to be- sitting on the couch with a nice book, or stirring something in the kitchen, or at work trying to corral some of Thomas’s more runaway emotions- and suddenly Remus would be curled up at his side, clutching at Pattons arm, or his shirt, and not say a word. And slowly, piece by piece, Patton learned how to help Remus- push Remus too much, and you’d get snarls and scratches and screeching while the lights flickered. But a little nudge here, and a guiding hand here, and somewhere it wasn’t too bright and wasn’t too quiet- he’d found that Remus hated silence far more than he ever hated sudden or apprasive noises- and it would… help. Not magically make everything better all at once, but help.

Maybe it was that day Patton hadn’t been able to make it out of bed- everything had been too heavy. His arms, his legs, his eyelids, his thoughts. All he could do was wear his cat hoodie and fiddle with the edges of the sleeves, wondering if he should be feeling more… more something than the icky, heavy stone settled somewhere deep in his heart. When he’d been screaming at himself to get up, to do anything, as he watched the shadows slowly crawl their way across his wall. And then there had been a knock at the door- a quiet, timid knock, and then there was someone in there with him. A hand on his forehead, and then his cheek, and red eyes looking into him. And arms wrapped around him, and a warmth that made him shutter and cling to it, running his hands down fabric covered in glitter that clung to his hands and made them sparkle like a scattering of stars.

Maybe it was the time Remus had snuck up behind him once, in the living room, and grabbed Patton suddenly to spin him around in a circle. And Patton had just laughed, and called out Remus voice in a voice as cheerful as a bell, and everyone had suddenly looked at him like they suddenly realized something Patton didn’t. Maybe it was the way Remus would act around him- loud noises and sudden movements and grabbing his hands to bolt to the other side of the house just to watch Remus throw himself headfirst into the trash- maybe it was the way Remus never treated Patton like he’d break if he rose his voice a little too loudly.

Maybe it was the time Patton had casually mentioned that he didn’t really know how to dance, and Remus had laughed, all high pitches and barking, and said that it was easy. That he could teach Patton lickity-split. Then he’d licked Patton’s cheek. And Patton had accepted, cause why not, while rubbing the drool off his face with the back of his hand, and when he’d finished doing that he’d looked up to realize they were suddenly in a ballroom. And Remus had taken his hands, and led him through the basic steps- except Remus had two left feet, probably literally, and Patton couldn’t help but think of an old saying about the blind leading the blind. And Patton had laughed, and pulled Remus closer, and hummed an old disney song as he fell in rhythm. And maybe they weren't the best dancers- maybe they stumbled and occasionally tripped over each other, and had to brush themselves off and start from the beginning- maybe they weren't perfect. But maybe.

Maybe.

Maybe sometimes you’ve cleaned out the cobwebs, and rebuilt the walls, and fixed the frame- and you make something new, and better, and something you cherish so much more than all the old things you miss.

Maybe you can make something magical, between a joke-cracking side and a side-spliting Duke. Maybe

Only one way to find out.

#sanders sides #remus sanders #patton sanders #intruality #remus being remus

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kunstpause-archive · 4 years

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FFXIV Write Prompt #5: Matter of Fact

Apparently today’s theme is sisters! ❤ Have some Cassia and Adriene.

“Maker’s breath, Cassia, why do you have a giant eye with arms hovering behind you?”

Adriene had jumped up from her spot next to the fireplace where she kept the first watch for their small camp.

“Hush,” Cassia admonished her sister, looking over the quiet tents behind them. “No need to wake anyone, and this little fellow is just lost. I’m just going to return him to where he came from.”

She was rummaging around in her backpack for the small vial of void-tainted blood she knew was still in there somewhere, ignoring Adriene’s still unsettled look for a moment.

“Return him back to where exactly?” her sister asked carefully.

“To the void of course,” she said matter-of-factly. “I closed the portal he came through a little bit too early so I’m going to take him to another one.”

“Excuse me, what?” Adriene sat up straight, her voice dangerously low. “The void?”

Cassia thought her explanation had been sufficient, but by the absolutely shocked look on Adriene’s face it clearly hadn’t been.

“Uhm, yes?” she said, sounding a bit more careful. “You know how I’ve been travelling around closing those void portals to prevent certain doom and everything?” Something suddenly came to her, putting a sheepish look on her face. “Didn’t I tell you about that?”

Adriene’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly. “You did not!” she pointed out dryly and Cassia let out a nervous chuckle.

“Oh, must have gotten lost, terribly sorry about that!” It didn’t surprise her completely, given how busy each one of them had been lately. “Anyway, I have to be off now, portals and void creatures and what not,” she said hastily, gently nudging the still confused void creature behind her further away from their camp. “Come on, blinky, we have to go!” With a quick wave to Adriene she hurried off. “I’ll be back for second watch, promise!”

“We are going to talk about this, Cass!” came Adriene’s exasperated voice from behind as Cassia did her best to pretend like she hadn’t heard her sister.

“Cass, we talked about this!”

Adriene looked at her, full of disbelief.

“When?” Cassia asked, puzzled. The miniaturized version of Titan ran tiny circles around them as Cassia tried to make sense of her sister’s look.

“After you conveniently failed to tell me you were dabbling in all that void stuff,” Adriene huffed and Cassia shook her head.

“First of all, that ‘void stuff’ is called black magic and it has a long, if a little hampered lately, tradition. And second of all, this is completely different!” She nodded emphatically, as if that alone would be enough to make her sister see her point.

“You summoned a primal!” Adriene said in that moment, eyeing the small Titan suspiciously.

“To be fair, it is a pretty tiny one,” came Layanna’s dry comment from the side. “It’s kinda cute when you look at it closer.”

“It’s an old, totally valid fighting discipline, “ Cassia protested. “And they are not comparable to the things we fought. Not really!”

“The things we fought, that is exactly my point,” Adriene said in that moment. “We fight primals. We talk day in and day out about the dangers of summoning and you just go out and take it up as a full time profession…”

“You were the one that suggested I look for help with my magic and learn to control it better,” Cassia pointed out.

“I sent you to the Arcanists,” Adriene huffed, “Not to do this!” After a moment of silence she let out a deep sigh. “Look, Cassia, I am glad you got the hang of your magic this well. I really am. I am just also really worried about you!”

Cassia could see in Adriene’s eyes that this was the whole underlying issue. That all the tiny complaints and small critiques lately came from a place of concern and she smiled at Adriene.

“I know you can’t stop worrying, but I promise you, I am doing fine!” She put a calming hand on her sister's shoulder. “I’m not doing any of this alone, I have great teachers. And besides,” she nodded at the tiny primal, “this little guy isn’t even my first try.”

The last bit seemed to be just a little bit too much again. “Not your first?” asked her sister wearily and Cassia had a sheepish look on her face again.

“I may have failed to mention it, but Y’mhitra also taught me how to summon a small Ifrit!”

“Oh, show us! I bet he is adorable as well,” came Layanna’s voice full of enthusiasm. It nearly managed to drown out the exasperated sigh of Adriene.

“Of course you did,” her sister mumbled. “Why not? Let’s just have an army of miniature primals run around. There is nothing that could go wrong…” With a shake of her head she sat down, leaving Cassia to wonder when would be the best time to bring up her and Y’mhitra’s plan to add Garuda into the mix.

“This Red Magic sounds like a very smart idea,” Adriene mentioned as she handed the bread basket over to Cassia. “Getting in and out of danger quickly while having some healing magic as your back-up… I must say, given the previous things you’ve learned it sounds downright reasonable.”

“It does, doesn’t it?” Cassia replied with a wide smile. “I knew you would think so.” For once she had had no qualms telling her sister all about what she had gotten up to in the time they hadn’t seen each other. “My teacher is a bit overly serious from time to time, but we’re getting along well and I even have sort of a student of my own by now. You’d love her, she is quite amazing!” With a small sigh she added, “She also makes me somewhat understand why you keep being so worried about me all the time.”

Adriene’s wide eyed look turned to amusement and she started to laugh. “Amazing! For that alone I am glad you picked up yet another discipline.” She was still chuckling as she gave Cassia a fond look. “It’s not that easy, being the one that worries, isn’t it?”

Cassia nodded gravely. “It really isn’t, and I feel I should apologize to you!”

“Ah,” her sister said good-naturedly, “Not necessary. But if it leads to you being just a little bit more carefully even, I am definitely happy about all this.”

Cassia hummed in agreement. “I swear, I was going insane with worry for the girl at some point, but after we faced that void queen and took care of that whole possession business I think she will be a bit more careful as well.”

“Void queen? Possession?” Adriene looked at her with wide eyes before she shook her head in disbelief. “I take it all back, you are not reasonable at all and I am right to worry day in and day out!”

“Says the woman who took up jumping off the highest spots she can probably find for thrills,” Cassia replied dryly before taking another piece of bread. One day she would learn how to leave out the more worrisome bits, she vowed.

“That is different, and you know it!” Adriene protested, but it sounded half-hearted at best.

“Uhuh,” Cassia said, her eyebrows raised at her sister. “And how exactly is the possibility of getting eaten by a dragon or falling to the influence of some magical eyeball less dangerous than what I do?”

“Your food is getting cold,” was all Adriene answered as she decidedly ignored Cassia’s question and kept her eyes on the table.

‘We are eating bread, Adriene,’ was on the tip of Cassia’s tongue but she only smiled to herself as she took another bite. It didn’t matter how much either of them trained or how long they had already been at this, she knew that Adriene would always be a little bit worried about her. Would always be her big sister, if only by a two minute head start. And if she was honest with herself, she wouldn’t have it any other way.

#FFxivWrite2020 #FFxivWrite #ffxiv #Warrior of Light #oc: Cassia Hawke #oc: Adriene Hawke #sisters are the best

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unicyclehippo · 4 years

Note

Prompt if you want it, polymorphed cat/dog!Jester ends up spending the entire hour being fussed over by Beau who has no idea it’s Jester

It had been going really well, you know? And she’s done it dozens of times over now, changing her form or someone else’s so there’s really no trouble to it at all. Or. There shouldn’t have been any trouble to it at all.

Here’s the thing though: she’d been thinking first of all about changing into a big dog, like the ones they’d seen around town, specifically like the one she had seen wandering around on the outskirts of the market, and she had been thinking about that one in particular because it had had a lovely black coat at one point, she could tell because of the snout where it was sleek and black like their sweet and so, so ugly moorbounders, but it had rolled at some point or another in the grey yellow dust here in the city of beasts and so the rest of the coat was now this kind of coarse grey brown, but still a very handsome dog and also very clever because she had seen it wait for the shopkeeper to be distracted before it ran away with a whole fish! And that’s the dog she had been thinking about specifically, only it was just as she was casting it that she kind of wondered if maybe stealth was the thing, you know? And if maybe she should pick a smaller creature, something that would be good at being sneaky, like a cat! Except what if they ate cats around here? She didn’t want to make presumptions or anything but it was called the city of beasts for a reason (probably because of the beasts, let’s be real) and she hasn’t seen any cats around the place except for Frumpkin and as lovely of a cat as he is, he doesn’t count. And so she had gotten stuck, you see, between being a big dog and being a stealthy cat, and when the spell had taken effect she ended up as...this.

She’s not entirely sure what it is. Kind of a dog, kind of a cat. Her fur is mostly a sandy grey, but if she crosses her eyes she can see her about is black (though these eyeballs don’t enjoy crossing as much as her usual eyes) and that her paws are black up to the knees. Of which is has four. That’s a good sign—she’s definitely a creature of some kind. Looking into the smoky, somewhat reflective surface of the brilliant obviously Kryn building she has hidden beside, Jester can see that her form is squat and strong, with the big shoulders of a dog and a narrow cat-like face. Her tail is long and fluffy but the rest of her fur is short and sleek, besides a few tufts on the elbows. Jester spins to gnaw at one of them that dares to tickle and as she does, she can see—not in the poor reflection of the building but with her own eyes—that her fur is spotted and slashed with dark markings, like the patterns on Frumpkin’s coat and she has to laugh, realising that somehow she—or the Traveller—had turned her into some mix of a dog and a cat. The laugh surprises her, the way it feels in a creatures body—in a dog she might have whined, a cat might’ve flicked their tail, but this creature laughs a snickering high pitched laugh that seems oddly familiar, but Jester can’t quite place it.

It seems smart enough of a creature, luckily, and Jester trots out from the alley to find her friends. It takes no small amount of time—not because she has lost them but because the world is extraordinary like this. It unfolds around her in a hundred new and novel and wonderful scents—ones she might ordinarily have dismissed as bad, like the almost rotting fish and the manure shovelled from the stalls with buzzing flies working around them, aren’t bad. They’re interesting, complicated, and Jester has to keep reminding herself that she’s looking for something.

Right! Her friends!

Had they wandered off? Or had she?

She lopes back to the same alley, sure now that she had disappeared out the opposite end she had entered, and revels in the power in this creature—the lean, stocky form hosts powerful muscles that bunch and push and quickly she has eaten up the distance back to the alley and dashed through it—right into the legs of a human, who smells of sweat and dried blood, old meat and leather, of dry bark and dust.

‘Whoa, holy shit! Oh fuck—it’s—Fjord, pull me away, oh fuck,’

‘It’s not attacking you, relax.’

The human—Beau, of course—is accompanied by Fjord. He smells—and Jester knows this because she goes up to him and sniffs, entranced by everything her nose is telling her—he smells of the sea, still, despite their not having been back for weeks. His scent is heavy with brine, washing away most of any other scent that might stick to him, and she finds herself growling, not out of anger but of frustration. She wants to know!

‘Whoa, okay, nice doggy,’ Fjord yelps.

‘Ha! She hates you, Fjord, suck it!’

‘Ha ha, yes, very funny—now help me.’

‘Okay, okay, yeesh.’ Something soft wafts down before Jester’s face, grey and floaty, and she snaps out at it with interest. Before she can snag it, it is pulled below her and wraps neatly around her collar before rushing closed. A leash, Jester thinks, and as this creature, she rolls over and starts trying to gnaw at the fabric. Beau stands above her, a look of clear amusement on her face. ‘Aw, look at you, you’re cute! Hardly vicious at all, are ya?’ She rubs at the creatures belly with a foot, pulls it back with a bark of a laugh when the creature bites playfully. ‘You must have an owner or something. We could look for them while we’re looking for Jes,’ she says to Fjord, who agrees. ‘Also, she’s not a dog. She’s a hyena.’

‘Huh?’

‘She’s a hyena. They’re cool. Kinda weird, but cool. Matriarchal societies. Super powerful olfactory systems. Strong bite. Probably one of the coolest creatures that exist.’

Jester scrambles to her feet. She can feel her tongue lolling out the side of her mouth, which has opened into a big grin—it must be scary, coming from a toothy beast like a hyena, but Beau doesn’t seem scared. Properly wary, for sure, but fascinated. Carefully, she reaches out a hand toward her and when Jester allows her to put a hand on her square, furred head, she hears a low,

‘Whoa. Very cool,’ from the other girl.

‘Looks like we won’t be looking for the owner, huh?’

‘I mean. It’d be super wrong. To steal someone’s hyena. When we’re trying to help out the place,’ Beau says, haltingly, clearly eager to take the creature and book it. ‘But if we just happen not to find the owner...’

‘Great. A dying weasel and a terrifying hyena. Perfect.’

Fjord and Beau make a great team. Jester already knew that, but to see them in action without having to take part is something special. Fjord butters up a few people. Threatens a few more with a surprisingly cold and terrifyingly genial demeanour.

Beau cracks her knuckles a few times, or backs him up in such a way that it’s like watching a good play, seeing them bounce increasingly horrifying threats between one another before lobbing one them at the person they’re interrogating.

Jester likes to think having a hyena sat at the humans feet helps too.

It’s getting near to the end of her hour, she’s pretty sure, when a fur-clad individual—half elven, maybe, with the wine dark skin of a dark elf—approaches with a toothy smile.

‘Ah,’ they sigh, ‘I see you found my majestic creature. How good of you to bring them back to me.’

The half-elf smells of dozens of creatures, and of some sharp chemical scent that makes Jester want to growl and back up, hackles raised.

‘Weird. Doesn’t look like she wants to go with you.’

‘It matters little if the creature wants to go with me,’ they say, in the way someone might speak to a child. If that person were, you know, a villain. ‘I bought them, they are mine.’

‘Got some papers to prove that?’ Fjord asks, accent a deeply fake drawl once more. ‘Friend,’ he tacks on, unfriendly like.

‘Papers, of course. I have them in my shop, around the corner. If you come with me, we can sort this out with no drama necessary.’

It’s obvious it’s rubbing Fjord the wrong way, and Beau has a hand buried into the scruff of the hyena’s neck possessively, suspicion and upset rolling off her scent in waves.

It could all be fixed, Jester knows, by transforming back into herself—but doing so even in a private area of the market would risk too many eyes on them, could be taken as a threat.

She growls, deep in her throat. Feels Beau scratch reassuringly at her beck, behind one of her ears. Jester flicks that ear and hunches down, starts to step slowly back toward an alley. Beau’s hand tightens and then loosens and when Jester pulls mightily away, she sees with some amazement and pride that Beau pretends rather remarkably to be a clown and an annoyance, pretending very well to fall when Jester runs, and then tripping the fur-coated poacher, as Jester guesses him to be.

The sounds of an argument rise up loud behind her as she sprints away, and the magic strips from her bit by bit until she is an ordinary tiefling once more. For an instant, the world seems a little dull—her hearing dulled, her sense of smell a fraction of what it had been—and then she sees the blue sky and, returning to the street, the blue of Beau’s coat, and the green and purple in Fjord’s clothes, and is happy to realise she can see colours again.

With the hyena missing and nowhere to be found, Jester and Fjord are able to diffuse the argument—though none of them like the way the poacher looks at Beau like they’d like to take her in the hyena’s place, a human rarity—and they hurry her back to the quarters awarded them by the lady of Asarius, meeting with their friends who had returned not but ten minutes earlier. Fjord tells them all about their largely unproductive afternoon, ending with a fight over the hyena—

‘It was Jester,’ Beau tells him.

‘What?’

‘The hyena. It was Jester, right?’ She crooks a grin over to her. ‘I mean, the hyena disappears and Jester finds us a hot second later? Too much of a coincidence.’

Under Fjord’s surprised attention, Jester plucks at her skirts and curtsies, fakes a blush. ‘Oh well, you’re welcome, yes, it was me,’

‘Holy shit!’

‘I know, right?’

‘Holy cow!’

‘Yah. Yeah. My thoughts exactly,’ Beau and Fjord say to one another, and Jester can’t help but grin under the attention. If she notices—and she does—that Beau’s eyes remain focused on her for long after Fjord’s attention is recalled, she doesn’t make a comment on it just yet.

‘You did great today,’ Beau tells her later, as they climb the stairs to their room.

‘I mean,’ Jester laughs. ‘I got lost at first.’

‘Yeah but it all worked out so... you did great.’

‘I guess so! Sucks we couldn’t find out who is doing that plot thing the author totally is interested in.’

‘Yeah, we’ll definitely pick that up tomorrow so it’ll be fine, though.’

‘Right.’ Jester nods. ‘They can smell super good,’ she tells Beau. ‘Hyenas. I could smell, like, everything, it was pre-tty wild.’

‘Oh yeah?’

‘Mhm.’

‘That’s fuckin’ dope.’

‘I can turn you into one, if you want. I have one left.’

Beau’s eyes light up, but she shakes her head. ‘Another time. Maybe tomorrow, if we’re still hanging around the city. That’d be cool. Quick question, hopefully not weird—more of a comment than a question I guess but it wasn’t, like, weird that I was patting you, was it? Because I don’t want. To be weird.’

‘I mean, you’re being pretty weird now,’ Jester points out, because Beau isn’t quite stuttering but it sounds like she’s punching out the words through sheer force of will.

‘Okay, okay, fair,’

‘But I don’t mind. And didn’t mind.’

‘Okay.’

‘You’re still being weird, Beau,’

‘Yeah, it’s just because you’re like, super powerful and cool and brilliant and hyena’s are one of my favourite animals. Not that you knew that. It was like, one of those things where we had to research for hours in the archives when I was first starting out and I hated it but I read a whole compendium of animals from start to finish and now I’m rambling and,’

‘Is it because you’re covering for the fact that you called me cool and brilliant?’ Jester teases, and she isn’t sure what to do with herself when Beau grimaces and her cheeks burn with sudden colour. She doesn’t lie, or deny it. Which is. So so weird. And cool. And great, maybe. ‘I think you’re super powerful too,’ she blurts out, because she’s supposed to say something, and when Beau waves that away Jester frowns. ‘Really! And cool and so smart and you have beautiful hair and, and—‘

Oh Traveller, she remembers saying those words before, and the fluttering in her belly isn’t new but it is a lot more noticeable now. Beau laughs, smiles. Winks. Blows her a kiss, like she had that last time, obviously remembering the same moment. Jester flushes. Stammers for a second before pulling the door to their room open—stopping. Pushing the door to their room open.

#cr tag #tagging my stories #prompt fill

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cassiopeiassky · 5 years

Text

When Everything’s Made to be Broken (I Just Want You to Know Who I Am) Part 52

You guys are the absolute best, most patient readers ever. Thank you so, so, so much for waiting on this, and like every other slow update over the past year and a half that my life has been a raging dumpster fire. I love you all.

Also I am a needy carrot that needs love and affirmation please send love and affirmation

Plot: When you inadvertently become a witness to a murder and are suddenly a target for death, it takes a specially skilled soldier and his team to keep you and your family safe.

This will eventually be a is a reader x Bucky fic. The reader, by the way, is a civilian. No super powers, no fighting skills, and by no means perfect.

Word count: 2431

Warnings:

For the entire work: Language (I have a potty mouth), violence, and angst. This will probably get pretty dark later on, and there will be smut. If that’s not your thing, you may want to avoid this story.

Additional warnings specific to this part: Tooth rotting domestic fluff, some angst if you squint. PTSD mentions/symptom descriptions.

***I do not own any of the lyrics/music in this story, so please don’t sue me for using them***

Tags moved to the end.

WEMtbB Masterlist

Previously on WEMtbB:

Bucky joins you in the bathroom a few minutes later with a pile of clothes for you both. “Take as long as you need, Sweetheart,” he presses a kiss to the back of your neck as he wraps his arms around you. “Just keep in mind that every time your stomach growls, I’m gonna think you’re ready to pass out. You’ve had IV fluids but haven’t eaten since we were on the jet.”

You smile at his reflection in the mirror as you lean into him, intensely grateful for how much he cares for you and for getting back these little moments with him. “I won’t take too long, I promise. I just want to get comfortable.”

Eyes soft, he nods.

You both exhale.

Fingers entwined, Bucky leads you out of the bedroom exactly 18 minutes later. The gently lit hall leads to an elevator and one other door.

“There are two of us to a floor,” Bucky murmurs into the quiet as he gestures with a nod, “That’s Steve’s room.” He pushes a button and the doors silently slide open. “The kitchen and common area are a few floors down.”

You follow him into the elevator, doing your best to ignore the feeling of claustrophobia that sneaks up on you. This is new; tight spaces were never a problem for you before. Goddamn it. You suppose you should get used to it, at least for now. “Where are we exactly?” They’d mentioned it earlier, but you can’t remember all the details.

His gaze cuts to you but he doesn’t say anything about the sudden tightness in your voice. “Upstate New York, just off the Hudson.” When you nod without replying, Bucky pulls you into a tight hug and firmly rubs your back. “You’re safe here, Sweetheart. I promise. We moved you here because it’s quieter than the tower and there are a lot less people. No one here can or will hurt you.”

You nod into his soft t-shirt and breathe. Of course you’re safe here. Goddamn PTSD. The elevator door opens and the ominous feeling disappears. Mostly. “Whew, that sucked,” you mutter as you pull away.

Bucky nods with a half-hearted smile. He understands. “It’ll get better, Sweetheart.” He wraps his arm around your waist and leads you forward into another hall. “The kitchen is just around the corner. If you want I can make you something while you rest on one of the chairs,” he gestures to the breakfast bar as you enter the area.

“Um,” your eyes dart around the room, taking in the generous space, “would it be okay if I did the cooking? I just, I kinda –“

“Yeah. Yeah, of course. Just make sure you take a break if your leg starts to bother you.”

It was the answer you’d expected, but now you feel like you don’t know what to do or even where to start. Oh for fuck’s sake, you know how to cook, you chastise yourself. “Can…are there certain things I can use? Or –“

“You are free to use whatever you’d like, Miss Kiddo,” FRIDAY suddenly offers. “The pantries were freshly stocked in anticipation of your arrival, and Mr. Stark has asked me to inform you that you are to make yourself at home. In fact, the kitchen has been rearranged to match your home as closely as possible, so you should be able to find what you need without too much hassle.”

The gently accented voice startles you and you struggle to digest the unexpected information. “Miss Kiddo?” you blurt as Bucky ducks his head to hide a smile.

“Isn’t that your name?” It’s almost comical how the AI sounds confused.

“Kiddo - it’s what Stark calls you,” Bucky gently reminds you with a soft chuckle. “You’re free to correct her, if you’d like.”

Your mouth opens, closes, and opens again before you finally answer. “Well, yes. Yes he does.” It’s strangely comforting to hear, and after what you just went through it’s exhilarating that you have a choice in the matter. “Yeah, FRIDAY, that’s fine.”

It’s silent again as Bucky waits on you to start moving…and then your stomach growls again. Right. Food.

Finally stepping into action, you open the fridge to see what’s available and then quickly assess the pantry. Damn – it’s like an entire grocery store is at your fingertips. Okay, so you can make pretty much whatever you want, but you haven’t had chance to make such a simple decision in so long that it’s a little overwhelming; you have to make a conscious effort to slow your racing thoughts. It’s just food, you remind yourself, and you can have whatever you want. So, what do you want? Something simple and quick. Absolutely no potatoes. Your stomach growls again, protesting at still being empty. You definitely want something satisfying.

Mind finally made up, you set some water to boil in a large, deep frying pan as you pull out some pasta, butter, cream, garlic, a few seasonings, and a package of chicken breasts that looks like it’s already been grilled.

“You can thank Barton for that,” Bucky chuckles from the breakfast bar as he watches you, chin in hand. “He offered to make supper for the team after a mission, and everyone got food poisoning because he was in a hurry and undercooked the chicken. Stark has made a point of having ready to eat protein available since then. If you want, there’s usually fresh stuff on the shelf below, toward the back.”

“No,” you murmur, “this is fine.” It’s more than fine – grilled chicken would be ideal for your pan alfredo, and as happy as you are to be in a kitchen again, you’re also grateful for the shortcut.

Your mind quiets as you settle into a rhythm. Salt the boiling water and add the pasta. Cut the chicken into strips, set aside to mince the garlic. Grate the cheese. Drain the pasta into a strainer and return the pan to the stove. Throw in some butter and sauté the garlic, then toss in the chicken and pasta. Add a few generous splashes of cream followed by the parmesan. Just a few turns with the pepper grinder, a few sprinkles of parsley, toss everything together until the cheese is melted and…done.

Damn that felt good.

When you turn around you see that Bucky has set out two plates at the breakfast bar, a loaf of crusty French bread, and olive oil along with a jar of dried spices for the oil. “You’re perfect, you know that?” you smile as you dish out the alfredo. You feel relaxed. Peaceful.

He shakes his head with a soft smile as you finally take the seat next to him. “Nah, but I love that you think so.”

Sitting as close as possible, the two of you eat in silence. The familiarity wraps you in warmth and although it takes a few minutes, you recognize the feeling as contentment. Yes. This is good.

A yawn creeps up on you. “Hey, what time is it, Love?”

He finishes chewing before answering. “A little after one a.m.”

Ugh. It feels later…or maybe earlier? You don’t know. Jetlag, surgery, and a massively fucked up sleep schedule before that is making you feel like time is just an illusion. Then again, maybe that’s the exhaustion. “So dishes and back to bed?”

Bucky plants a kiss on your forehead as he stands. “I’ll get the dishes later, Doll. But first, dessert if you have room.”

“Bucky, I feel like a bottomless pit right now,” you admit as you ruefully eyeball your empty plate. You thought you’d made more than enough pasta, but Bucky clearly has his appetite back and you feel like your body is trying to make up for lost time.

He doesn’t bother with plates as he slides a pie onto the counter and cuts into it with his fork. Not wasting any time, you do the same. “God, I love you.”

His fork pauses midair as he watches you from across the counter. “Are you talking to me or the pie?”

“Yes,” you manage around a mouthful of flakey, buttery crust and perfectly baked apples. When he nods and chuckles, you take another bite with an appreciative hum. It’s not just that it tastes good – it’s delicious and is clearly from a bakery that knows what they’re doing – it also brings an immeasurable amount of comfort. The filling tastes like your mom’s; if you had to guess you’d say that these are probably Haralson apples like the ones she grows in her back yard. The best pie apples in your humble opinion. The sweet-tart bite that hits the back of your cheeks brings you back to the crisp October days of your childhood and you can almost feel the golden autumn sun and smell the fallen leaves. That’s where the resemblance ends, though. She can’t make a decent homemade pie crust to save her life.

You can’t believe how much you miss her, but you’ll get to talk with her in a few hours. And your babies. Finally.

“Hey, I have a question for you.” Bucky has stopped eating and is watching you intently.

“Okay.” You nod for him to continue as you take another bite – just because he stopped doesn’t mean you want to.

He looks down, hooks his hair behind his ears, then stands up straight. If you didn’t know any better, you’d say he was nervous.

“Well…”

Scratch that. He is nervous. That makes you nervous and sets you on edge, so you put down your fork and hold your breath. “Buck, what is it?”

Bucky takes a deep breath, but can’t shake the hesitancy in his voice, “Well, I know we have a lot going on, and I know that our relationship hasn’t exactly been conventional.”

“Okay…” The food you just ate starts to feel like a lead ball in the pit of your stomach as contentment gives way to concern and your insecurities rear their ugly heads.

He’s quiet for what feels like forever before he blurting out, “Can…can I start courting you? Take you out on real dates, like a normal guy would do for a girl he’s sweet on? I know it’s kinda backwards and all but I really wanna do right by you.”

Well, that wasn’t at all what you were expecting. Taken by surprise, you blink before you answer, “Yeah. I’d like that.” You both give each other dopey smiles as you continue, “I’d like that a lot.”

He takes both of your hands in his as his grin fades to earnestness. “I want you to know I’m serious about you. About us. That I meant everything I said at the safehouse, and since I got you back – every damn word. But I also know that we’ve been through a lot and things might get tough, so I thought that dating – real dates – might help with the transition.”

Nodding, you continue what you now understand to be his train of thought. “You and I – we are incredibly fucked up right now. Like, massively, absurdly, almost can’t believe our brains even function levels of fucked up. And it would be incredibly naïve for us to just assume that we could fly back home in a week or two and just go back to the way things were. It’s not going to be that simple.” You hesitate as an uneasy thought occurs to you. “You are coming home with me, right? You don’t have any, um, avenging to do?”

His nod immediately puts you at ease. “Yeah, Sweetheart – as long as you’ll have me, my place is with you. You are – we are – my priority. I’m taking an extended leave of absence from work so I can put my entire focus on us and getting better.”

You had hoped you would have some time with him, but you also realize that he does have a job, even if that job is nothing short of extraordinary. “Really?”

“Really. And Sweetheart, it might not be simple, but it’s not gonna be impossible, either. Maybe just a little complicated for a while till we get our heads sorted out. Being with you has been the easiest thing I’ve done in my life.”

You can’t help but nod along with his words – it’s the truth. And in realizing that, a small piece of your broken psyche glues itself back together.

“So…” Bucky is almost bashful as he releases one of your hands to take another forkful of pie, “I know it doesn’t give you much time, but what do you say to dinner and a show tomorrow night?”

It makes no sense at all that you have butterflies in your stomach, but you do. “I’d really like that.”

Bucky exhales as if he’s relieved. “Great! Great.” He flashes an almost impossibly bright smile. “I’ll pick you up at 5:00.”

Did you miss something? Aren’t you sharing a room with him? “You’ll what?”

He winks at you, causing those butterflies to take flight yet again. “It’s a date, Doll. I’m gonna give you the space to get ready – I’ll get ready in Steve’s room – and then I’ll pick you up at 5:00.”

“I…okay,” you laugh as you squeeze his hand, loving how light you feel.

“Speaking of getting ready, it it’s alright with you, Nat will come by tomorrow morning and pick you up to take you shopping.”

“Shopping?”

Bucky smiles so broadly his face could split in two, “I’m taking you out on a date tomorrow night. Finally. This is something I’ve wanted to do for months, and all I could manage was that night at the barn. But now? Doll, we’re on my turf, and you’re both safe and free. I’m going to take you on the first date you deserve, the one I would have taken you on if I had met you under different circumstances. So,” Bucky lifts your hand to his lips, “you’re gonna need a dress,” he kisses your knuckles, “and whatever else you would want to get ready that you don’t already have here. I want my girl to have everything she needs or wants to be comfortable. Besides, if things go the way I expect they will, the way I pray they will, you’re gonna need a drawer of your stuff here anyway so you don’t have to pack as much when we spend time in New York.”

You’d be lying if you said that last sentence didn’t make your heart skip a beat. “Okay.” You don’t bother elaborating – he knows that you’re agreeing to more than just a date or shopping.

“Yeah?” The happiness in his eyes is enough to make your breath catch.

“Yeah.” You take another bite of pie as you smirk. “You know, it’s going to be hard to top our first first date. That was pretty fantastic.”

“Is that a challenge?”

“Nope, just a fact. That was seriously the sweetest, most romantic thing anyone has ever done for me.”

He smirks, eyes smoldering. “Doll, you’re gonna get the full Bucky Barnes treatment – the barn date was me with one hand tied behind my back. I’m gonna knock your socks off tomorrow.”

Anticipation spikes your blood – somehow, you believe him, but you can’t miss the chance to gently tease, “We’ll see.”

Tags:

@hellomissmabel @howdoesoneadult @nykitass @danimuhle @iwillbeinmynest @shifutheshihtzu @passiononfire @learisa @widowvinter @kaaatniss @ladylizzieofdarbyshire @denialanderror @k-nighttt @givemethatgold @manders2487 @afangirlrambles @polkadottedpillowcase @bluebrrn @saysay125 @aikibriarrose @saharzek @mmauricee @imhereforbvcky @whenallsaidanddone @supernatural508 @scarlettsoldier @natalie-nightcourt @im-beautifully-sewn @lovemarvelousfics @feistytravel @tbetz0341 @nearly-whitches @jamie-leah @shliic @dessinemoiunehistoire @lucywinchester2000 @solarbarnes @a-proper-chicken @movingonto-betterthings @seekingkairos @jamesbarnesappreciationsociety @part-time-patronus @natashasnight @fairislesheets

#bucky barnes x reader #bucky x reader #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky barnes x you #bucky barnes fanfic #my work #when everythings made to be broken (i just want you to know who i am)#part 52 #wemtbb

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thedailyimagines · 5 years

Text

Imagine working at Freddy’s Pizzeria, and telling your dad something is wrong. (Part One)

Description: The reader just got a new job at Freddy Fazbear’s. He thinks something is up and is proven right on the first night. Maybe his dad can help? This is the family business...

So I’ve never played FNAF, but from one reddit thread I gathered that it takes place in Utah. Please let me know if this is wrong!

~~~~~~~~

Another day, another motel in Nowhere, Utah. Y/n was starting to wonder if his dad and uncle actually knew what they were doing or if they were just taking a break from their case. They had already been here three days.

“So...when are we leaving?” Dean didn’t look up from the newspaper he was reading.

“Sam said the guy we’re talking with could need us for about another week. Maybe two.” Groaning, y/n flopped back onto the motel bed. He was so bored!

“Can I help?”

“No. Too dangerous and I can’t be worried about you getting hurt while working.” Y/n started to pick at one of the threads on the comforter.

“Sam will be there, he can keep an eye on me too.” Dean finally looked up from his newspaper.

“Y/n. I understand you want to help but I need to know your safe. That means sitting out on this one, okay?”

“Fine. But I’m helping next time.” Dean smiled and nodded in agreement.

“Alright.”

<—>

Help Wanted: Nightguard; Details inside.

That was the sign that greeted y/n when he went on a food run. The pizzeria looked run down, but hopefully looks were deceiving; otherwise it was burgers again.

“Whatever. Anything is better than burgers again.” Y/n opened the door of the pizzeria and was greeted to possibly the saddest place he’d ever seen. The restaurant looked empty and outdated, and the animal robots—animatronics, y/n told himself—on the stage were...actually kinda creepy.

“Hi! Welcome to Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria, how can I help you?” A cheerful voice broke through the silent restaurant, and y/n found himself faced with a waitress probably just older than himself.

“Yeah. You guys are open, right? I didn’t walk in when you were about to close?”

“We’re still open!” Y/n nodded and almost took a step back from the waitress. She was almost scary perky.

“Okay, cool. I didn’t want to walk in at the last minute. Do you have a menu I could look at?”

“Yep, here you go!” Glancing at the menu, the majority of it seemed to be character themed pizzas. Y/n decided to make conversation as he looked for something the three Winchesters would all like.

“I saw your ad about the night guard position on the door—” Y/n was cut off before he could finish.

“Oh, are you going to apply? Here, let me get my manager!” Before y/n was able to ask for more details, the overly perky waitress had gone into a back room. She returned with a balding man who was smiling widely.

“Good afternoon! So, you’re interested in the night guard job?” Y/n shook his head.

“I was actually just curious. And looking for someplace to grab lunch.” The manager’s face fell.

“Oh, my bad. I thought you were hoping to apply for the position.”

“I mean, what exactly are the details? I might know someone who could apply.” He really didn’t, but y/n felt sorta bad for getting the older man excited for nothing.

“Well, it’s a temporary position. Five nights, and all you have to do is stay in the security office.” Temporary? Maybe y/n could do this job and get some spare cash. He could use some new tires for his bike...

“That’s it?” The manager nodded.

“Yep! It does have a low pay, but we are going out of business soon and don’t have the funds to pay much more than $200.”

“I see. Could I apply?” Placing his chin in his hand, the manager looked y/n up and down.

“It depends. How old are you?”

“I’m eighteen years old.” A lie, but y/n highly doubted the man would hire a sixteen year old. He looked old enough to be eighteen (at least, Sam said he did).

“Alright. And do you have any serious health problems or conditions?” That wasn’t something y/n was expecting. Wasn’t there paperwork for this kind of thing?

“Uh...no?” The manager grinned widely. It was a bit unsettling.

“Great! Can you start tomorrow?” Y/n’s eyes widened. Was this even legal?

“Wait, seriously? That’s it?”

“Yep! And don’t worry about buying a uniform, we’ll provide you with a shirt.”

“Alright then. What time do I come in?” The manger went back to his office, returning with a shirt and a sheet of paper.

“Just be here before twelve AM. Your shift ends at six. This paper has all the details and my number in case of emergency.” Y/n took the shirt and paper from the manager.

“Got it. And one more thing?” The manager raised an eyebrow.

“Yes?”

“Can I order a large cheese pizza?”

<—>

“That was possibly the grossest pizza I’ve ever eaten.” Dean pushes his plate away, one slice still left on it. Y/n took another bite of his and grimaced, wondering how exactly you screwed up a pizza this bad.

“Don’t blame me, I didn’t make it.” Sam set his plate down, all the cheese gone on his slice after it slid off.

“Where did you get it? So we know to avoid that place.”

“Place called Freddy Fazbear’s. Also I kinda-sorta-maybe got a temporary job there.” Dean choked on his soda and Sam had a surprised look on his face.

“Wait, what?” Y/n put his hands up defensively.

“So this place needed a night guard for like five nights and I figured since we’re going to be here for a while, it wouldn’t hurt!” Dean shook his head and turned to his son.

“Y/n—” Y/n interrupted before his father could finish speaking.

“Dad, it’s only five nights in a building that was empty in the middle of the day. It’s probably just as empty at night.” Dean rubbed the back of his neck.

“I’m not sure it’s a good idea...” Y/n rolled his eyes and took a drink of his soda.

“Seriously. It’s six hours of watching a restaurant in the middle of the night. What could possibly happen?”

<—>

Y/n parked his bike outside the pizzeria and chained it to the bike rack. Even at night the place was creepy, possibly creepier. Making sure he had the keys he received earlier, y/n headed inside.

It was eerily quiet without the music playing from the speakers. The animatronics were on the stage, and y/n couldn’t help but shudder as he walked by them.

“Creepy as hell, but entertaining to kids.” Y/n snorted, walking quickly away from the stage. He soon found the security office. From a quick look around, it appeared that all y/n would have were the cameras.

“Right. Let’s see...I guess I’ll just sit and play on my phone?” At that exact moment, the office phone rang. Y/n picked it up to hear the tone for a prerecorded message.

"Hello, hello? Uh, I wanted to record a message for you to help you get settled in on your first night. Um, I actually worked in that office before you. I'm finishing up my last week now, as a matter of fact. So, I know it can be a bit overwhelming, but I'm here to tell you there's nothing to worry about. Uh, you'll do fine. So, let's just focus on getting you through your first week. Okay? Thinking it was just a welcoming message, y/n began poking around the small office while the message played on. There really wasn’t much in there, and the doors had weird buttons near them.

“...So, you could imagine how having your head forcefully pressed inside one of those could cause a bit of discomfort...and death. Uh, the only parts of you that would likely see the light of day again would be your eyeballs and teeth when they pop out the front of the mask, heh.”

“Wait, what?” Before y/n could entirely process what the phone guy said, he accidentally knocked the phone down and unplugged it from the wall. Y/n scrambled to plug it back in but the message was already gone. “Shit!”

Slumping down in the chair, y/n ran a hand through his hair. Why would he possibly be at risk of dying? It was only a night guard job! That was when he spotted the note on the desk.

“Seriously, what the hell is up with this place?” Y/n decided to take a look at the cameras. Yep, there were all the animatronics—where was the rabbit? Flipping through each camera, y/n kept an eye open for the rabbit until—

“There! Wait, that’s down the hall. Is it coming here?” Y/n quickly jumped out of his chair and ran to the door, hitting the button to shut it. Not a second later the rabbit was outside, trying to get in.

It didn’t stop after the rabbit left. The whole night, each animatronic kept trying to get inside the office. At one point, three animatronics

At 5:57, y/n lost power.

“It’s fine. There’s only three minutes left.”

5:58. Two minutes. The fox animatronic entered the office, and lunged towards y/n. He ducked out of the way and bit back a scream at the hook cutting deep into his shoulder.

The fox turned around for a second go, and—

—it straightened, turned, and left the office, leaving behind a very confused y/n. As soon as the manager arrived, y/n booked it back to the motel he, his father and his uncle were staying at.

<—>

“Hey, did you see where I left my keys?” Y/n didn’t pay attention, too focused on his research to notice Dean talking to him.

“Y/n?” Y/n glanced up at his father, one eyebrow raised.

“What?”

“Did you hear what I said?” Y/n shook his head.

“Sorry, I was busy. What’s up?”

“My keys, do you know where they are?” Y/n pretended to be deep in thought for a moment.

“Uhh...your pocket?” Dean rolled his eyes.

“Very funny. What’s got you so occupied?” Y/n turned his laptop around to face Dean, a search for ‘Freddy’s pizzeria’ displayed on the screen.

“The animatronics at the place I’m working tried to kill me last night. Also I should probably look into getting a tetanus shot.” Sam peeked out from the bathroom door with a confused expression.

“What?” Y/n pulled the collar of his shirt to the side, revealing a bloody bandage to his father and uncle. Dean’s eyes widened in shock.

“What the hell happened to you?!?!”

“I told you, a robot pirate fox with a hook tried to kill me!”

~~~~~~~~

I don’t own the above gif, all credit goes to the owner.

#thedailyimagines #imagine #male reader #winchester!reader #winchester!son #supernatural #supernatural imagine #fnaf #fnaf imagine #five nights at freddy's #five night’s at freddy’s imagine #father!dean winchester x son!reader #father!dean winchester x son!reader imagine #uncle!sam winchester #dean winchester #dean winchester imagine

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burlybanner · 5 years

Text

Syzygy -6

Syzygy - An AU of Infundo (post-Infundo Chronicles).

Chapter 6: S**t Gets Too Real

Chapter 6 Summary: Tony Stark’s a genius. Sometimes he wishes he wasn’t.

Gentle warning: Slob stuff and multiple stuffings ahoy.

Link to Chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

** Surprisingly, Bruce got hungry pretty damn quick after Hulk's stuffing. He didn't think he'd feel hungry ever again but after eating a banana he'd soaked in a double portion of his gainer solution, his stomach roared to life soon after waking. Being so suddenly and frightfully hungry shocked him, but thank the chubby powers-that-be that Steve had a huge country breakfast waiting. Bruce gobbled multiple servings of buttery Belgian waffles soaked in syrup, several donuts, half a coffee cake from his favorite bakery, and a couple of spinach mushroom quiches.

Which, to be honest, was nothing near lunch a few hours later at a private buffet ("to celebrate new growth," Tony'd told the manager). Bruce had rolled his eyes. Of course Tony said something that stupid out loud. They'd brought some of the gainer formula to the buffet, shook it over Bruce’s food, and Bruce tore into the portions like a bull in a glass factory. And it surprised him. It took an hour of heavy gorging before he almost felt full and he'd never eaten that much for that long before. But it felt...great. No, more than that. He felt incredibly pleased. Sated. Beyond high.

His pants got so tight at the restaurant he'd had to undo his belt.

His fullness turned him on and he begged Tony and Steve to blow him in the limo, on the way back home. But they weren’t total heathens; they waited until they returned for stuffing sex,

where one of his boyfriends fed him sickeningly sweet desserts while the other blew him, effectively creating double orgasms.

God. They'd been ridiculously horny. Insatiable rabbits.

And then there was dinner. Holy shit, dinner turned into another orgy when they mixed the day's remaining formula into his meals. After several dishes and baskets of rolls Bruce couldn't suck in his gut to fasten his pants. His stomach bloated and swelled in his lap as he slurped down sweet sriracha chicken, Thai coconut curry, and on and on. Food continued coming as fast as he ate it and he barely choked one meal down before the next course presented itself. He'd spilled a ton of food down his shirt, but he didn't care. He mindlessly gobbled everything up like a sloppy, greedy piggy wallowing in mess.

Then they sated themselves with sex. Again and again.

Bruce's body quivered from the memories and his dick jumped in his pants. He wondered how the rest of the night would go which dampened his enthusiasm. He had to fall asleep and his body would be taken over, forced to consume whatever Hulk desired. Thinking about Hulk's "meal" worked like ice water on his libido.

Bruce sighed and nervously squeezed his stomach. "You really found everything?"

"Sure did, Pooh."

"I would've...no. I wouldn't' have asked. I can't imagine what you went through to get it. After everything I ate today, I thought you would've been sick of catering to me."

Tony smiled gently and gave Bruce a quick kiss on the lips while slipping on a pair of sweatpants and his nano shirt. "For you? I'd buy the moon, Pooh Bear. Besides, today's good eatin' was to slick you up for tonight. You don't think Steve and I noticed your apprehension? Perish the thought. You're stuck with us."

"And how," Steve sighed, coming up behind him. Steve was still floating in a post-coital glow and his high was infectious. He wrapped his arms around Bruce's shoulders and gently swayed him side to side, palming Bruce’s spare tire while bouncing his heavy overhang. "Betcha gained a ton today, Porkpie."

Bruce shuddered with lust and kissed Steve's arm. "We'll see."

"We still have the bonus round," Tony told them. He snapped his fingers. "Bruce, bed. Steve, get him sleepy." He checked his watch. "I've got caterers to catch."

Bruce suddenly perked up. "They're here? Already?"

"In an hour. But I need to set up for Hulk. He likes his food ready and he likes getting messy, as you know."

Bruce snorted softly. "I saw."

"I've got a few things prepared. No worries, Brucie, it's not about you now. Rest up for the nightly pig-out."

Bruce chewed the inside of his cheek. "Be careful, yeah?"

"Always, Brucie Bear. Always." Tony winked and skittered out, but Bruce wasn't convinced. Tony could be notoriously bad at self-preservation and he'd need all of his skills for the Hulk.

Please be careful, he thought as a silent litany, even as Steve kissed his neck and led him to their bed.

"Yeah, lay it out."

The caterer and their helpers looked confused. "On the--"

"On the tarp, yeah. Line up the steno and servers in a line. The tarp's fireproof," Tony explained, although he doubted they thought that was the weird thing. "Set it up. I'll take care of the rest."

"Of course, Mr. Stark."

Fortunately they didn't bat an eye. He figured they'd seen weirder things. Probably from him, come think.

He gave the catering crew time to plate everything but kept checking his watch. He still had to prep before Bruce showed up.

When they lit the last steno he clapped his hands. Only one startled. Good. "Awesome. All finished? Wonderful. Someone'll drop off your gear tomorrow, or you can bill us. Jarvis, see 'em out. Thanks." He shoved a bunch of hundreds at the nearest person.

"If you would, please follow the lights as I direct you to the exits." A few of the newbies blinked around the room, but most of them knew the drill; they'd dealt with Jarvis before and knew their way out.

When the last one left the kitchen, Tony let out a slow puff of air and stilled his breathing. "How're we on time, J?"

"The last caterer will leave the building in approximately two-point-six minutes, sir. From what I've been observing with Captain Rogers, I estimate Doctor Banner will enter NREM sleep in approximately six minutes."

"Perfect. You clear on the plan?"

Tony could almost hear Jarvis sigh. The minute pauses mimicked one enough times. "Of course, sir. Although if I may interject?"

"Shoot." Tony darted around, finishing the set up before Bruce-Hulk lumbered in.

"I assume Doctor Banner will want--"

"Nope, no," Tony said, cutting off his AI. "This is a need-to-know op only and Banner doesn't need to know. Not until there's conclusive proof. You cut the feed on my mark, got it? Don't go all HAL on me."

"Perish the thought, sir." Jarvis would be chuckling, if he were human. "But I felt I needed to voice my concerns, considering your current relationship status."

"Duly noted. Bruce will...well." Tony gestured flippantly. "Either way we'll know conclusively and I'll apologize to Bruciekins tomorrow. I'll have to drag the rest out of him later anyway."

"Easier to ask for forgiveness than permission?"

"You got it, J."

Within ten minutes of Tony's talk with Jarvis heavy feet slapped the kitchen floor. Not as heavy as Hulk's actual feet but it wasn't Bruce's footfalls either; Bruce's tread was normally softer and shuffled more. The new steps were definitely steps of purpose and power.

"Hey, Hulk, it's Tony. I'm over here."

"Tin Man?"

Bruce - no, Hulk - poked his head into the formal dining room. It was damn weird, but Tony had no problem differentiating between Hulk taking Bruce's body, and Bruce himself.

"Yeah, it's me. Have a seat. I got your grub."

Hulk snuffled and snorted the air, and plopped heavily next to Tony. "Smells good. What's that?" He poked a server, and Tony lifted it.

"Twice fried ostrich wings, like you requested. Cajun spiced, using a seasoning mix from that guy you remembered on TV."

"Prudhomme magic," Hulk rumbled, and Tony stopped short from reeling in surprise. No. Definitely not stupid. At all.

He'd have to keep on his toes.

"That's right. Chef Prudhomme's legendary seasonings." He watched as Hulk took an ostrich wing and sniffed it cautiously. Laughing, he stuck half in his mouth and crunched it, bones and all.

"Good. Good ostrich!"

“Some of the best chefs in Louisiana fried it up and sent it to you. We've also got your--" he tore off another lid, "--deep fried Rocky Mountain Oysters, swimming in white gravy, and..." he removed another server lid and stopped short of shuddering. “Crocodile and alligator tripe, simmering in an alligator head with the eyeballs still attached. Just like you wanted."

Hulk grunted his approval, scooped a hand in the warm stew, and slurped it. "Good. Very good. Where's main dish?"

Tony sighed deeply. "Big Green, you've got some unique tastes and I'm diggin' the vibe. But just know for Bruce's sake we couldn't serve it to you raw."

Hulk slammed his fist on the floor, but it was still Bruce's fist. So Tony called it a win despite his tantrum. "Cap said anything!"

"Yeah, he did. But think about it. You wanna do Bruce a solid, right? Make him big and cuddly, like you?"

Hulk snorted, but folded his arms in a childish pout. "Yeah."

"And you wanna make sure you can do this again, right?"

"Hmph."

"Then you gotta do right by him. You're in his body, so take it easy." Tony removed the last lid. "Ta-daa...frog and rattlesnake stir fry. Not quite raw but as close to raw as we could make it without making Bruce sick."

Hulk grabbed a handful of the hot dish and shoved it in his mouth. "Banner not get sick," he muttered. A frog leg tumbled from his lips as he talked with a full mouth. "Banner has Hulk's immunity. No poison can kill Hulk!"

"True, true," Tony said. "But it can hurt Bruce temporarily. He wouldn't want that, and he'd kinda hate you for it."

"Mm." Tony could tell Hulk was mulling it over as he continued shoving the food into his mouth with his bare hands. The last server had the deep fried andouille sausage with crayfish gumbo in it (crayfish heads still attached, of course), but Tony figured Hulk would get to that eventually. It was definitely the messiest of all the dishes. Who knew Hulk was such a foodie of weird foods?

"Andrew Zimmern ain't got nothin' on you," Tony muttered.

"Hmm?"

"Nothing, Hulk. Go back to feasting."

Hulk nodded vigorously and scooped fistfulls of one dish, then the other, and poured them into his mouth. A lot fell to the tarp, but Hulk scraped up the scraps. Waste not, want not, he supposed.

After five minutes of watching Hulk develop an easy eating rhythm Tony licked his lips. "Hey, Jarv," he said quietly.

Jarvis relayed his response to Tony's hidden earpiece: "Understood, sir."

Although Bruce pinned a GoPro to his robe Tony'd hacked the camera days ago. He had Jarvis loop the feed so it'd show Hulk chowing down. He knew he'd only have a few minutes before it'd look suspicious, so he had to hope he got everything he needed from Hulk in one take.

"Hulkie," he began. "You love Tin Man, right? Love all this great food?"

"Mm. Yes. Good food. More tomorrow?"

"Sure. Let me know what you want before we wrap up tonight. Can't promise you everything, but we'll do what we can. Like the rattlesnake. That fair?"

Hulk snorted and dumped a handful of the gumbo in his mouth. Which, of course, dripped down on everything. "Is okay. But not great."

Tony chuckled. "I get it," he said, then sobered. "I also get what you're not telling Bruce. You're workin' the system, Big Green. Not sure I'm okay with that, and I know Bruce won't be."

Hulk didn't respond, but continued stuffing his face.

Good. He knows I'm on to him.

"Pull back on the control shit - you're mucking around with Bruce's subconscious more than he's aware; I saw you at dinner today. Don't deny it."

Hulk laughed, deep and throaty. "Fooled you. And Banner."

"A little, yeah. But I know that's not all - you're not dumb but neither am I. You helped Bruce with that gainer cocktail, didn't you? I'm guessing there's more junk in there than Bruce realizes."

Hulk stilled, and for the first time that night Tony wondered if he'd have to activate the nanosuit. "I see what Banner sees," he murmured. His voice was oddly calm, oddly quiet. "But Banner doesn't see what I see. He doesn't know what I know."

Bingo.

"It's all an act, isn't it?"

"No."

A chill came over Tony and his brain overclocked. "Shit...Hulk isn't the only one in Bruce's head, is he?"

He almost smiled, but the expression wasn't Hulk's. Wasn't Bruce's, either. "Are you going to tell on us?"

Don't. Don't freak out. Don't. Freak. "Depends." Tony was surprised at how calm he kept his voice. "Who are you, and what are you planning?"

The Person sighed softly and briefly brushed away food from Bruce's robe. "Actually, I like being left out of things. I work behind the scenes, and I don't wish any harm. I'm actually the one helping maintain control over Hulk these days...I suppose in a pinch you could call me the lecturer-researcher construct." He paused, tilting his chin before sharply nodding. "Call me Professor."

Tony swallowed. "Professor? Like when Bruce works at NYU?"

Professor hummed. "I'm present at any event where he's teaching, or when he learns something new. But honestly, I'm harmless. You've seen me before - I was the first to touch the Tesseract."

Tony sat back on his heels and scrutinized Professor sharply. "Huh. Yeah..." he gestured lamely at Professor's face. "I can see it now, a little. I remember that expression." Burned forever in his brain, now.

Sighing heavily Tony licked his lips, pausing at whatever seventh hell revelation this was. "So, um." He shook his head. He wanted a drink. Several. Despite cutting back for his boyfriends' sakes he wanted to drown his brain in a tank of whiskey. "Where...?"

"Where does this put the four...hum. Five of us?"

Tony nodded lamely. "You outflanked me. Royally."

"Did I?" Professor seemed to take that in stride, and smiled coyly to himself. "It wasn't my intention. I simply revealed my hand because it was timely. There wasn't anything left to hide." He tilted his head and gazed at Tony. "It doesn't change anything. Of course you should tell Banner and yes, even Captain Rogers, but do ask yourself if this is the right time. Could be fairly disastrous for the three of you if your timing's off." Tony narrowed his eyes slightly. Was that a veiled threat--?

Professor stretched and yawned, and held his hands above his head for a beat. "I'm actually quite pleased Banner wishes to become immobile, Tony." He smiled softly and ran his hands over Bruce's swollen belly, imitating a mother-to-be's reverence. The image burned Tony's retinas and he felt sick - maybe a bit horrified. "I'm looking forward to reading all the books I've yet to read and I'm glad for the time I'll have to myself."

Professor checked his wrist, as if viewing an invisible watch. "By the way, you should tell Jarvis to turn the camera feed back on. It's been far longer than five minutes."

Tony snorted. "You sly motherfucker. You knew all along."

"Of course I did." He winked and saluted Tony with two fingers. "Be seeing you, Tony."

Tony watched as Bruce's body shook before returning to shoving food in its face.

"Good food! Hulk wants more tomorrow."

"Sure thing, Big Guy," Tony whispered. He let out a shuddering breath and ran a hand down his face. "Jarv, tell me you recorded all that."

"Yes."

The AI's response was curt and to the point; he probably had as much to think about as Tony did.

"What the ever living fuck."

"Sir. Doctor Banner's Person was correct in one sense. It's been far too long, and there's bound to be an interrupting glitch in the feed if closely scrutinized."

"Yeah. I know." Tony licked his lips and made a circular motion in the air. "Go ahead and turn it back to black, J. Shit. I have no idea what the fuck I'm gonna say tomorrow. Hell, I dunno if I can keep up pretenses tonight."

"Might I suggest trying your best, sir? Especially as we're going live in three...two--"

"Shit."

But somehow Tony plastered his showman's grin to mask his shell-shocked face pretending for all the world he didn't do a Prince of Bel-Air, Freaky Friday flip. He watched Hulk eat most, if not all, of the dishes and he whistled for the 'bots to clean up the mess before guiding Hulk to the shower and repeating what Steve had done the previous night. But his mind was split and he knew he couldn't maintain the act for long. Both Bruce and Steve'd know something was up but he wasn't sure how, or when, he'd tell them.

God. He hated covert shit.

Ch. 7

#polyamory #chubby bruce fic #infundoau #chubby bruce banner #steve rogers #tony stark #bruce banner #american pi #science bros #hulk #stark spangled banner #bhm #chubby kink #syzygy #starkspangledbanner syzygy #professor hulk

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drink-n-watch · 5 years

Text

Welcome back one and all. Have you been looking forward to this week’s Demon Slayer? We were right in the middle of a deadly fight after all. Sort of an awkward place to leave things. I know I wanted to see the conclusion. How about you Crow?

Absolutely (I say in bold print)! And — I don’t think is a spoiler or anything — we even get a brief replay of the final moments of the battle. In case we forgot. True to form!

Where are my manners… As always, I will be having the pleasure of discussing this episode with my friend Crow of Crow’s World of Anime and of course all of you! Not that there’s all that much to spoil, but we’re going to go into the episode in some detail, so if you haven’t seen it yet and don’t want to be spoiled, I suggest you tab out for half an hour or so and go watch it, Crow and I will wait. Also, I’m in plain text this week!

Are you proud of me Crow? I finally learned how to put all the proper disclaimers at the beginning of posts!

You can’t hear, but I’m clapping in appreciation. I knew you could do it!

I can hear it in my heart

Episode 9 wasted no time, we were brought straight back to Tanjiro and Yahaba

desperately trying to murder each other. I thought Yahaba was an interesting character, or at least potentially interesting. You know — interesting design, interesting power the creepy calm cryptic type. Triple C! But well, it turns out he was already done for! Were you hoping to see more of him, Crow?

Perceptive question! Yes, I was. There were hints of character richness there, to the point where I expected him to not be dead. It was only when his skull began to actually disintegrate that I figured yep, he’s dying.

awww man, that’s gonna leave a mark

I’m not sure exactly how it works but I’m assuming the water that Tanjiro summons is considered an extension of his blade since it could kill a demon. Did we get an explanation?

Not that I saw, but I agree with your theory. His sword’s water effects must be an extension of the blade, at least insofar as it affects demons. Back in episode 7, we saw his water powers rip the two under water (well, under swamp) demons apart, and they stayed dead. So I guess it’s the same thing?

I thought it was because they were shades maybe?

Despite get summarily dispatched, Yahaba actually managed to put up quite a fight for the few seconds he was still standing (well, less standing and more lying about evaporating…). I quite liked the aftermath. Like isn’t the right word. Seeing Tanjiro barely able to move from exhaustion and injury after his fight, just laying on the ground wheezing, went a long way to drive the impact of the confrontation home. I could almost feel it along with Tanjiro and what I felt was a great deal of relief with a sprinkle of pity and melancholy.

Wasn’t that great? So often, heroes walk away from a battle with a cut or a scrape. Tanjiro got pummeled, and he looked it. Were you impressed by how dedicated he was to getting to the other side of the compound where his sister and new friends were fighting? He took the sword in his teeth because his arms were too tired. Kinda reminded me of Violet Evergarden!

ok!

But of course, that was just half the story. Over on the other side of the grounds, the rest of them were trying to deal with Susamaru. I was a bit confused as to why Tanjiro was so panicked about this. Sure, Susamaru is very strong, but hadn’t they determined that she was weaker than Yahaba? And these were 3 demons she was dealing with. Then I remembered that Neuko was seriously injured, Tamayo seems to be a non-combatant, and my favourite Yushiro just grew back his head. Yeah…there may be some trouble there.

As happy as I was to see Nezuko alive and kicking(ha!) again, I have to say completely healing her off camera like that felt like a cop-out. Not only does it seem that she instantly recovered, but she can now kick those tamari without losing a foot, for… reasons. That’s a bit convenient wouldn’t you say, Crow?

If I had to point to one serious disappointment in this episode, it was that moment. You’re right! And as evidence, remember how Yushiro freaked out in the previous episode when Nezuko even looked like she was going to try to kick the ball? Sure, Tamayo said her serum gave Nezuko a power boost without human blood, but it seemed pretty dang convenient.

Though you’re also right about something else: Their soccer footwork!

just try to get one past me!

I liked that lightening of the mood by turning a battle for survival into soccer practice, it was a cute scene.

It was interesting seeing Susamaru gaining respect for Nezuko’s footwork!

Despite the fact that things seemed to be going quite well, Tamayo was worried. We learned two important facts. 1) Nezuko is gaining strength at a prodigious rate, especially considering she’s never eaten human flesh (allegedly) and 2) Susamaru was quite literally toying with them and Neuko wouldn’t stand a chance against her real strength. And so it was time for a grown-up to step in.

that hir is so perfect

Tamayo has been playing it coy. Standing back and acting very delicate. But she hasn’t survived all this time in defiance of Kibutsuji because she’s anything resembling weak. Her poise, power and words ripped through the unfortunate demon before she could realize what was happening. And those words struck a chord with me as well. Crow, do you think Tamayo was just trying to get under her opponent’s skin or was there some truth to that story of Kibutsuji living in fear? If so, it makes the character even more interesting!

There’s a lot to decompress from that moment, isn’t there? First, Tamayo has really impressed me. What a tragic character who chooses not to wallow in that tragedy but decides instead of fight in her own way to rid the world of a terrible evil. That’s noble stuff! Yes, I think she was trying to get under Susamaru’s skin (and doing an admirable job of it!), but I think there’s some truth to what she was saying. Remember in episode 8 where Kibutsuji was able to shrug off plain rudeness, but lost his temper completely when the poor drunk dude quested his unhealthy appearance? There was something driving that reaction, and I think it might have been an almost paranoid level of fear.

Good point…he did hate being called sick… hhmmm…

he’s afraid of responsibility!

Turns out the blood spell Tamayo was casting activated the Kibutsuji demon cells in Susamaru’s body and essentially destroyed her from within. Visually it was a visceral scene and possibly the most gruesome to date. It’s going to stick with me. And Tamayo calmly explaining that she had never been one of the 12 demon moons because she didn’t have a number on her eyeball, while pointing to sais stray eyeball on the floor, certainly didn’t make it any less gruesome!

[ A question: Was it merely Tamayo’s spell, or was there actually a curse from Kibutuji, where if a demon speaks his name, his cells within them rip them apart? Wasn’t Tamayo’s goal to goad her into speaking the name? I think that’s what I got from Tamayo’s description…]

I do know Kibutsuji’s curse gives him control over those who have his blood ad his cells eventually kill them. Didn’t they mention something about him keeping his identity secret and therefore making it impossible for other demons to give him away. That’s why the teeth grinding guy was so panicked a few episodes ago. I’m guessing that basically extends to speaking his name out loud. That’s how I’m taking it… I guess he is very paranoid!

Crow thought we should take his questions out but it’s good

Was that horrifying and pitiable all at the same time or what? The two demons had been deluded into thinking they were powerful and on the inside with the demon they revered, but nope.

In the end, Susamaru went like all the major demons have gone so far. Small, scared and pathetic. A lost child who ended up and a very wrong path. I understand why they are setting up this moral dilemma, trying to build up sympathy for the demons, but can’t we just have one of them that’s an actual bad guy? At this rate, I’m going to end up having a really difficult time cheering for the Demon Slayer Army.

Tanjiro’s parting words here were the final nail in the coffin (um sorry, poor choice of expression). There is no salvation to be had for demons. Their sins are too great, the burdens upon their souls cannot be lifted. A tragic realization that is sure to make Tanjiro even more eager to find a cure for Nezuko.

how?

I continue to like Tanjiro’s reactions. His push to understand puts him at odds with most of the other demon slayers we’ve met. At odds with the demons, too. He’s doing his own thing and he’s trying to maintain his core humanity at the same time. Tough balancing act.

You’d think that with those intense battles out of the way and all the useful exposition we got, the episode would be basically over. Nothing left but a quick, sweet wrap up to tie everything together in a nice little bow and send the audience away with a smile on their faces, ready for episode 11. In a way, it did exactly that! But it also did much more.

It was my favourite part of the episode.

Oh! Oh! I’m looking forward to this, because it was my favorite part, too! Go on!

all the cuteness

My two favourite characters are Yoshiro (because I love comedy relief and a proper foil character) and Nezuko (because I’m predictable). They both played important roles in this part. Yoshiro’s various intensely exasperated faces at getting patted on the head by Neuko, or at the horror of potentially taking Nezuko with them, were so much fun to watch. By contrast, the mundanely painful sight of seeing him wasting away from disease brought all the death we’ve been seeing back down to a terrifyingly relatable level.

What Irina didn’t tell you is that Tanjiro joined the other three in the basement after he’d finished with his vigil to watch Susamaru finally turn to ash. As soon as he entered, Nezujo ran to him and threw her arms around his neck. A perfect “awwwww!” moment. Then, she ran back down the hall and did the same thing to Tamayo! Even better, she patted Yushiro on the head! There was almost too much adorable in the room at that point!

awwwww indeed

For her part, Nezuko seems to almost be taking advantage of the suggestion she’s under. Relishing in seeing her family again. Overflowing with love for everyone in the room. Of course, the interesting part is that Tamayo and Yoshiro are not in fact human at all. But she’s decided to see them as such and therefore as part of the family. Which begs the question, how much is imposed suggestion, how much is willful self-delusion?

I really liked that Tanjiro finally addressed the question directly and acknowledged that he was uncomfortable with the situation as well, but that he’s accepted it because it seems that Nezuko has retained her free will. Thank You! That makes me feel so much better for some reason. Now we can all move on!

That free will bit? That was everything. It seemed to me that Nezuko is capapulting her mind off delusion into a greater truth: that Tamayo and Yushiro, by virtue of their choices, are in fact part of her family. It makes them human in the sense of members of the human community. I love that message!

when the lies are so sweet….

Tamayo and Yoshiro will be leaving town out of precaution, and Tamayo invites Neuko to join them, as they will know how to take care of her. Yoshiro is the one to watch in this scene. Despite acknowledging the wisdom of the offer, the siblings decide to stick together and Neuko runs out the door. Just as Tanjiro s about to run after her, Yoshiro calls him back and staying with his back to Tanjiro the entire time, admits that his little sister is a real beauty.

How adorable was that moment?

Very, very adorable! And did you see who drove the decision for them to stay together? Tanjiro wavered. He wants her to be safe as desperately as he wants her to stay beside him! But Nezuko took his hand and gave him a look that spoke volumes. It’s as articulate as I’ve seen her be so far!

that face!

If I remember correctly, Zenitsu was your favourite right Crow? Want to tell us about the closing scene?

Cool — thanks! Zenitsu is among my favorite characters in this series — and the list is growing! But, poor Zenitsu! Tanjiro’s on his way to his next assignment — his Crow being a real pest like only we Crows can be — when both of them stop because they hear this tearful voice. It’s Zenitsu! He’s begging this bewildered and disgusted girl to marry him because he could die at any time!

Zenitsu needs to work on his communication skills…

Where was his birdy?

Few away in embarrassment?

good guess

And another great episode down. Demon slayer has been consistently entertaining and does not seem to be losing momentum at all. I wish Tamayo and Yushiro could have stuck around a bit longer but I bet we’ll see them again. Any closing thoughts?

Isn’t Tanjiro supposed to gather tissue samples for Tamayo? Shouldn’t he have her forwarded address or something? Other than that, I’m still thinking of Tamayo’s tears as Nezuko hugged her!

Previous episode reviews

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Episode 01: Cruelty

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Episode 02: Crow will protect me

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Episode 03: Sabito and Makomo

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Episode 04: Final Selection

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Episode 05: My Own Steel

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Episode 06: A Friend fo All Humans

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Episode 07: Muzan Kibutsuji

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Episode 08: The Smell of Enchanting Blood

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Episode 09: It’s a Whole New Ballgame

Hooray for more pictures!

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Episode 10 – A Friendly Game of Kickball Welcome back one and all. Have you been looking forward to this week’s Demon Slayer? We were right in the middle of a deadly fight after all.

#action #anime #Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba #Horror #shonen #supernatural

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sam-lives-story · 5 years

Text

#SamLives - Chapter 10

“Can I Please Get A Waffle?”

[Previous|Next]

Also find the latest chapters of this story on [Archive Of Our Own]

“So...you show up, say you’re alive and well, and apologize for scaring people on the stream,” Mark was saying, running through his thought processes regarding Jack’s vlog plans. “You don’t outright say it was real, but you don’t say that it was purposely faked. Throw in a joke about losing your voice.”

Jack huffed out a breath with a smirk. Yeah, alright. Not a bad idea. He leaned back against the kitchen counter while he waited for his coffee.

“Then how about,” Mark looked up to Jack from his seat at the kitchen table, “to try and distract people from the stream, you don’t just make it about that.”

“What?” Jack raised his eyebrows and folded his arms over his chest. “What else would I make it about?”

“Me, obviously.”

Mark grinned up at him like an idiot, looking utterly too proud of himself for his own good.

“You.”

“Yeah!” Mark stabbed at a piece of waffle that was on the plate in front of him. He waved it around a little as he spoke. “I’m here, in Brighton, and clearly not in California. I’ll have to let my community know at some point because I only have a limited number of videos to cover the gap, unless I start recording some stuff here. Which is totally an option.”

“Oh, hell yeah, as long as I’m not in there feel free to record whatever.” Jack shrugged and turned to the coffee machine, retrieving his now-finished dirty bean water.

“I just have to watch out for glitch demons, right?”

Mark was joking, teasing; it was obvious enough in his voice without even having to see the amused grin on his face, but that didn’t mean Jack was laughing. He levelled his friend with a halfhearted glare as he sat across from him at the table.

“Not funny.”

“Sorry.” Mark smiled sheepishly, his fork drooping a little in his grip.

Instead of eating the bite of waffle himself, he held it out toward Tim, who was sitting on the table near Mark’s plate with his eyes locked on the YouTuber’s food as though he’d never eaten before in his life. The little box let out a happy sound and grabbed the waffle chunk between his hands, taking bites out of it every so often. Jack could tell that Mark spoiled him.

“But anyway,” Mark continued, “we could make some kind of announcement. Tell people we’re doing some collabs and that I’m visiting for a while. That’d be distraction enough to at least get some people’s focus off of Anti.”

Jack blew on his mug of coffee and took a sip, closing his eyes and letting the heat of it help soothe the ache in his throat. He let out a slow breath.

“...honestly it’s not a bad plan.”

“It’s a brilliant plan.”

“I wouldn’t necessarily say brilliant, but…” Jack snickered behind his mug and took another sip. He almost deserved the affronted look he got in return.

“Excuse me, I’m a fucking genius, okay?” Mark sassed. “I was majoring in engineering before my YouTube career got off the ground!” He pressed his hand to his chest and pulled on a mock-tortured expression. “I could’ve been an engineer!”

“And I could’ve been in hotel management,” Jack retorted, grinning. “So what?”

‘Jack?’

Jack saw Sam bounce into the room and his smile softened, his eyes brightening a little.

“Heya Sam,” he greeted the little eyeball. “You hungry, buddy?”

‘Mhm.’

“Want some of my waffles?” Mark offered, turning around in his seat, all mentions of his shattered dreams of engineering seemingly forgotten. “I think I made way too many.”

“I told ya you shouldn’t’ve made eight of them.”

“Your toaster has four slots! I had to try it out!”

“Twice?”

“Yes! That’s how science experiments work.” Mark was waving his fork around again, and Tim’s eyes were following its path with rapt attention. “You’ve gotta test things out more than once, or you won’t get accurate data.”

‘I’d like a waffles please, mister Mark.’ Sam’s cheerful comment effectively cut off Mark’s rant about “real science”, much to Jack’s amusement.

“You heard ‘im,” Jack smirked. “He’d like some of your waffles, mister Mark.”

“Well how could I possibly say no when he asked so nicely?”

There was a warm smile on Mark’s face, one that Jack had seen there before. It was one that Mark often wore when speaking to Tim, and now Sam as well. It was one that he wore the night before when they’d been talking after Jack’s nightmare. Jack had seen it, too, when Mark had called Amy yesterday afternoon to let her know his flight had landed safely and that he’d made it to Jack’s place alright. The smile was a caring one, a familial one. One that, Jack was sure, was associated with those in Mark’s life that he cared the most for. Family. Friends. Loved ones.

The fact that it was a smile he now shared with Sam...it was touching. Sam’s little bubble of family was getting just a little bit bigger, and Jack couldn’t help but smile softly from behind his coffee mug while he watched Mark separate out little chunks of waffles for both Tim and Sam to enjoy.

“Did you want some?” Mark offered across the table, looking up from the pair of familiars.

Jack eyed the waffles for a moment before making a face.

“...nah. I’ve got my coffee.” As if to emphasize this point he brought the mug to his lips and took a drink.

“But–” Mark’s brow furrowed a little. “You haven’t eaten anything. Last time you had a decent meal with yesterday at the cafe. And no, I’m not counting the banana you had for “dinner”.”

He made air quotes around the word.

“I had two!” Jack defended weakly. When Mark’s expression didn’t change he groaned and rubbed a hand over his face. “I’ll eat later, alright? After we’re done recordin’ that video. My stomach’s in fuckin’ knots just thinkin’ about going back into the recording room. I’d rather not projectile vomit on my keyboard and camera.”

“Gross.” Mark made a face, but he didn’t look concerned anymore. “Yeah, I don’t blame you. We can go out and grab something away from the apartment again for lunch, if that helped before.”

“Oh, yes please.”

Jack was more than eager for whatever time he could get away from his computer. Anti hadn’t so much as made the lights flicker since the incident during the stream, but that didn’t make Jack feel any calmer being here.

If Jack had thought his nerves were bad when he was sitting in the kitchen, it was nothing compared to staring through the open doorway that led to his recording space. He’d pushed the door open almost five minutes ago to get everything set up and hadn’t taken a step since. His hands were clammy, his pulse had skyrocketed, and it seemed to be harder to breathe. A constricting feeling had settled around his lungs and throat and no matter how many time he’d told himself there was nothing in the room right now, it didn’t ease his fears one bit.

‘Jack?’

Sam was settled on Jack’s shoulder, had been there since Jack had left the kitchen. Jack could feel his familiar’s concern in the back of his mind. He let out a shaking breath.

‘It’s okay to be scared.’ Sam’s words, as ever, were pure and friendly and kind. ‘I’m kinda scared too. But he’s not here this time! And we’re going in together, right?’

“R-Right.” Jack reached up to stroke the top of Sam’s “head”, the repeated motion helping to calm him.

“Hey, Jack, where’s the discs for this thing?” Mark’s voice called from the end of the hall. “It’s a pretty sweet Nerf gun.”

“Hm…?”

Jack was grateful for the distraction and he looked away from the door, sidestepping a little so he could see what Mark was holding. His eyes widened in surprise, some of his panic forgotten.

“...oh my god, where the hell did you find that?”

Mark shrugged.

“It was in a shopping bag in the bathroom closet, with a bunch of tea bags and easter candy.” He turned the gun over in his hands, examining it with a grin. “Pretty cool looking. I was looking for some makeup but found this instead.”

“That’s Chase’s gun,” Jack told him, slightly astonished at the sight of it. “I thought I lost that thing ages ago! I’ve been looking for a replacement online, for an Ego video, but apparently they don’t make ‘em anymore.”

“Chase?” Mark closed the bathroom door behind himself and brought it with him as he joined Jack by the recording room. “Is that an Ego? I don’t think I’m familiar with that one.”

“Chase Brody,” Jack shrugged. He saw Mark carrying something else, probably that makeup he’d been looking for, though Jack wasn’t quite sure why he’d needed it in the first place. “I did a video with him last year, a trickshot skit. Called it “Bro Average”...like a parody of Dude Perfect.”

“Oh my god, wait, I think I remember that!” Mark was grinning now. “The guy with the hat, right?”

“Heh, sure, the guy with the hat.” Jack found a smile working its way onto his face. “I’ve only ever done the one video with him though. That’s why I’ve been thinkin’ of bringing him back.”’

“Oh, cool.” Mark was quiet for a moment. Then: “...so where’s the discs?”

Jack snorted.

“Top left drawer of my dresser. Junk drawer. That’s the last place I saw ‘em.” He shrugged, careful not to knock off Sam. “Or whatever’s left of them, anyway.”

“Sweet! Be right back.” Mark turned to leave, turned back, and shoved something into Jack’s hands. “Hold this.”

While Mark was off fetching Nerf discs, Jack looked down at what he’d been handed. It was a makeup tube, one that Jack vaguely remembered his sister leaving behind during her last visit only because it had been sitting on the bathroom counter for a while. Some of the contents had already been used, and for some reason Jack had a memory of his dear sis complaining about how it didn’t last long enough then going out to buy a different brand. Something about changing the formula? Hell if he knew.

Before he could really delve into the memory, Mark was back, a victorious smile on his face and a ziplock of green foam disc in his hand.

“Why d’you need makeup?” Jack asked, eyebrow raised.

“It’s for you.”

“What?”

“You neck.”

...oh.

Jack’s free hand came up to brush against the bruised skin, wincing a little.

“Does it look bad–?”

“It doesn’t look totally gross yet, if that’s what you’re asking,” Mark chuckled. “Nah, I just figured you’d rather try and hide it if you’re gonna record a video. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure saying you’re fine while sporting a more-than-noticeable hand-shaped bruise on your neck, doesn’t exactly scream “everybody stay calm”.”

“Fair enough.”

There was a pause, a moment of silence. Mark glanced between Jack and the recording room.

“So…” he nodded toward the door, still standing ajar. “...did you get everything set up?”

And as easily as Jack had managed to forget about it before, his earlier panic came crashing back into reality. His breath hitched and he tensed, eyes flickering toward the door.

“...not...exactly.”

‘It’s a scary place,’ Sam explained, his voice quiet and a little nervous.

Jack could feel his familiar’s nervousness alongside his own, though the little eyeball’s fear wasn’t nearly to the same extreme that Jack’s was. That same suffocating tightness was back in his chest and his heart was pounding against his ribcage.

“Ah, c’mon,” Mark grinned and grabbed Jack by the elbow, half-dragging his friend through the door and guiding him towards the familiar green chair by the desk. “Don’t think about it too much. Nothing’s gonna happen, not with me and Sam and Tim–” Mark called out into the hall, “–hey Tim! You gonna join us in here?”

“Oh! Uh-huh!” Tim’s voice cropped up from somewhere else in the apartment, bright and cheerful and excited.

Jack vaguely registered the sound of a pencil clattering against a tabletop, and the sound of Tim jumping onto the floor with a soft ‘oof!’. But he wasn’t really paying much attention to it. He was tense, sitting stiffly on the edge of his chair with his eyes wide and his hands clutching his knees so tightly his knuckles had turned white. The room was the same - exactly the same - as he’d left it when he’d ended the stream so abruptly two nights ago. His headphones were on the floor and his mouse was hanging off the desk by its cord; the cup of pencils he usually kept on the corner of the desk had been spilled across its surface, and a half-finished mug of coffee sat, cold, to the right of the keyboard.

‘Jack?’

At Sam’s voice, Jack closed his eyes and focussed inward. Sam was there, in the back of his mind, a constant source of comfort and support that never left him. Just knowing that his familiar was with him, that his little buddy was keeping his eye on things, helped more than he was willing to say. A wave of concern and warmth washed over the mental link and Jack smiled weakly. Sam was being braver than he was. Surely he could pull it together for one stupid video.

“Jack? You good, man?”

Jack opened his eyes, blinking rapidly, and saw Mark in the doorway carrying one of the chairs from the living room. He stared at it, realized which one it was, and snorted out a soft laugh.

“Oh my god. Of course you picked the spinny chair.”

“Hell yeah I picked a spinny chair!” Mark grinned. “That’s the only kind I’ll accept in a recording session.”

“Pretty good motto to go by.”

They exchanged a grin - Jack’s a little more strained than Mark’s - then Jack forced himself to settle back into his own seat and turn it to face his computer. He cleared away the spilled writing utensils and scooped up his mouse and headphones, putting everything back in order before he set about booting up his computer. He didn’t remember turning it off after the stream...but he must have. Either that, or Mark had to have done so when he turned off Jack’s wifi the night before.

Whatever.

Jack started up his recording programs and turned on the camera behind his desk (God, why couldn’t his hands stop shaking…?), then spun his chair to face Mark. Mark, who was now lounging in the chair he’d brought in off to one side of the room, where Jack knew the camera wouldn’t spot him.

“...any...eh...any chance you were plannin’ on helping me with that makeup, Mark?”

Mark smirked.

“What? You don’t know how to do it yourself?”

“No,” Jack snickered weakly. He cleared his throat. Then in an attempt to lighten his own mood, he put on his sassy teen girl voice and pretended to flip his nonexistent hair over his shoulder. “I don’t need makeup! I’m beautiful just the way I am!”

“Have you tried looking in a mirror? Because I beg to differ–”

“Oh, fuck off!” Jack laughed and chucked a pencil at Mark’s head.

Mark responded by dodging it and aiming the now-loaded Nerf gun at Jack, letting loose a foam disc. The disc bounced off of Jack’s shoulder and roquochetted off at an odd angle, making Sam squeak and fly upwards into the air to avoid getting hit. He hovered there for a long moment, his tail wiggling a little behind him, then settled down onto Jack’s shoulder again once he was sure no more projectiles were headed his way.

“Hey, watch it!” Jack giggled a little, and the action was mimicked by Sam in the back of both YouTubers’ heads. “What’d Sam ever do to you?”

“Sorry, sorry!” Mark raised both hands in surrender, still clutching the Nerf gun. His lips twitched as he tried to reign in his smile. “I totally missed the mark. I was aiming for your face.”

“Pfft, oh, thanks, that makes me feel sooo much better.” Jack rolled his eyes, his words dripping with sarcasm.

“You aimed for my head first!” Mark pointed out. “It’s only fair.”

“You started it! You insulted me!”

“Did I?” Mark feigned innocence, chocolate eyes widening and a hand coming up to press against his heart. “Me? Why would I ever do that?”

“You did! You did!” It was Tim who spoke up this time, bouncing on the spot on the carpet beside Mark’s chair. He giggled. “You said a mean thing.”

‘Very very mean,’ Sam agreed, though his amusement was clear in the way he said it.

Mark’s jaw dropped.

“Are you seeing this?!” he gestured around the room. “Everyone’s ganging up on me!”

“Yeah, well, you deserve it,” Jack stuck his tongue out at the American, who hmphed and sank in his seat.

“Oh, shut up. Let me get this makeup on your neck and we can film this thing.”

“Hey guys! Zombie-septiceye here, back from the dead. Heh.”

Jack scratched at the back of his head. If you were looking for it, a faint shadow could be seen on his neck, a darker patch that was only noticeable if you really, really looked. A pattern that was clearly discernible as a handprint...if you were the type to analyse video frames for longer than a few seconds.

“No, I didn’t die, and I’m perfectly fine. I promise.”

Jack was smiling, the same brilliant smile he always wore...but he looked tired. A little bit of stress could be seen around his eyes, barely visible but there.

“I hope the stream didn’t scare you all too much. Some of you might not have seen it yet, but that’s okay. It seemed to be making its rounds. Fair warning: it was pretty…” Jack’s eyes dropped to his desk, and he seemed to struggle to find the right words. “...erm...intense. So...sorry ‘bout that.”

His eyes seeked out the camera again, and he pulled that same genuine smile back onto his face, this time with a touch of apology in his gaze.

“That definitely wasn’t how I planned on ending the stream, heh.” He chucked a little, then held up his hands. “But don’t worry! All’s good on my end. I’ve got a bit of a sore throat right now, but I’m feelin’ a lot better.”

He cleared his throat dramatically, then let out a practice scream, followed by an over-dramatic and very fake cough.

“Yup. The scream machine is still workin’. I know, I usually post something sooner after Ant...er...Ego videos, but yesterday ended up being a hell of a lot crazier than I thought it would be. Robin’s been havin’ issues with editing on his end and we decided it’d be alright for me to take a day off.”

Something green flew across the screen behind Jack’s chair, making an audible ‘thwack’ against the opposite wall.

“Fuckin’–” Jack spun in his chair and chucked a pen in the direction of where the green...thing...had come from. “I told ye to stop that! Shite…”

A quiet chuckle cropped up in the background, one that hadn’t come from Jack, and the Irishman let out a little bit of laughter in response.

“Behave! I swear, it’s like talkin’ to a fuckin’ child…” He swivled back to the camera. “Anyway! I’m alive, I’m well, I’m as loud as ever, and–”

‘Thwack.’

A second green projectile, this one flying forward over Jack’s shoulder and landing somewhere below the camera’s view. The Irishman shot his hand out in front of him and swiped it up, holding it up for his “attacker” to see – it was a lime green foam disc, maybe an inch and a half across – and turning to speak over his shoulder again.

“D’you want me to take that away from you?”

“No, Mom.”

The voice in the background was distant, too far from the mic to be picked up properly, but the deep, rapid laughter that followed the words was easily distinguishable to anyone who watched any of Jack’s Prop Hunt Collab videos.

“I swear to Christ, Mark…”

Despite his scolding, Jack was grinning as he turned back to the camera.

“You know what, screw it, we’re gonna skip to the other half of this video, because SOMEbody–” Jack chucked the green disc at the unseen marksman, who let out a loud ‘HEY!’ in protest, “–can’t stay fuckin’ quiet for longer ‘n ten seconds! By Jaysus!”

Jack slapped his hands down on his desk and took a dramatic breath.

“Okay. So the surprise isn’t so much of a surprise anymore, but I’ve got a guest with me today. He showed up on my doorstep yesterday lookin’ like a lost puppy and I decided to keep him for a while. Dunno how long he’s stayin’ but – Mark’s here in Brighton! Say hi, Mark.”

A second person slid into view, rolling across the room in a wheeled chair and grinning brightly at the camera.

“Hello everybody!” he waved a Nerf gun in the air (many of the viewers collectively gasped and squealed in excitement, instantly recognizing that gun for what it was) and scooted his chair closer to the desk, bumping Jack over a little so they both had room. “This was totally unplanned, so my apologies for not making an announcement.”

“By ‘totally unplanned’ you mean ‘Jack didn’t even know I was coming until I was knocking on his door’, right?” Jack chuckled.

Mark spluttered and gestured wildly with his hands, waving the plastic weapon around as he did so.

“Well – okay, we talked about me staying for a while to do some collabs! I just showed up early!”

“Two or three WEEKS early.”

The banter was familiar, teasing, and a wonderful change from Jack’s last appearance on screen. For many, as they continued watching the announcement video, it brightened their day and brought a sense of excitement. For many, they couldn’t help but wonder what plans Jack and Mark had made for future videos. But for some...for very few...the video held a completely different meaning.

“When did this video appear on the channel?”

“Two days, five hours, fourteen minutes, and seven seconds ago.”

“...interesting.”

“Should I update my current objective?”

“No...not yet.”

“Se̯e̋ w̎h̀a̞t᷀ I mėa̔n?! H̘e̘’̗s c̫h̗e̢a͑t̬i͉n̼g̀! E̻v̤eͤr̠ si͒n̜c̄e̮ h͌e͗ s͋ḧo̐w͝ed̈́ u̠p, I have̘n'͟t̜ eve̎n̫ bēe̋n̚ ãb̖l᷆eͯ ṱoͭ g̉et͎ c̨l̈òs̠e!͘ H̱e's̱ d͇i̟sṫra͐c᷇ti̞nͤg̴ t̂h̃e͋m͂ f̺r̙oͭm̷ m̐e͗, a̝n̰d t̗h᷄eͧ l̏o͏n̓g̹e͋r᷇ it̙ g̛oe̅s̭ o͈n̵ t̚h̎e͊ l̗e̢s͇s᷉ c̛O̕nͥt͞R͇o̓L͍ I͚ h̫a᷊v̈́e᷊.Th̪i͠s̡ i̱s͙n’̞t̤ h̲ōw̰ I pla͑n͒n̫e͓d᷉ t̴h̨e̴ g̵àme̓ to g͙ô! Yo̺u̹ k̭nͅo̬w̎ t̉hat᷁ Ī’d r͓a͟tͅher̹ bͥȇ a͇n᷅y᷅w̉h̛er̠ȇ e̵l̘s̻e̊ but he̍r̾ė,͆ b̐uͣt᷅ t̠h̶i̯s᷊ f̥uc̜k᷉in͚’ ch̲ange̖s̭ t̊h̊ing̯s.”

“I’m more than aware of your...opinion of me. In fact I doubt it differs much from mine of you...perhaps one of the few things we can agree on.”

A distorted scoff was the only response.

“H᷄oͦwe̤v̋e̼r͆.” Emphasis was put on the word, effectively cutting off whatever mockery had been coming his way. “I may be interested in helping you play your little game. What exactly do you require from me?”

[A/N] - Woot! Back from vacation! I had this written before we even left, but I didn't get the chance to post it because I had yet to edit the damned thing. But here we are! While this isn't my favorite chapter, I'm still pretty happy with how it turned out. ^^

As always, critiques and comments are always welcome! Let me know if you spot spelling errors...god knows I'm not perfect lol.

And thanks for reading!

Mark: Dude check it out I found your nerf gun, why didn’t you tell me you had a nerf gun??? Jack: . . . Mark: Where’s the discs, I need to shoot this thing Jack: ...wtf I've been looking for that, I need that for future videos how the HELL did you find it in ten minutes while I've been looking for it for weeks Mark: Cuz I’m a genius, clearly Jack: Haha, right, you’re so totally not Mark: Uh, yeah I totally am, I'm a fuckin GENIUS Jack: Dude no, I think the FUCK NOT Mark: I WAS MAJORING IN ENGINEERING Jack: SO WHAT?? Mark: SO I COULD'VE BEEN AN ENGINEER Jack: AND I COULD'VE BEEN A HOTEL MANAGER, WE CAN'T ALWAYS GET WHAT WE WANT MARK Sam: *bursts through door* CAN I GET A WAFFLE? CAN I PLEASE GET A WAFFLE???

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elizabethrobertajones · 6 years

Text

13x17 watching notes

*vague muffled noises*

Expectations: got to come down from an all-time great episode but it's Davy so I'm not worried about a huge drop off, and I'm legitimately intrigued, of all things, to meet Asmodeus written by someone other than Buckleming. Davy in season 12 briefly fooled me with 12x15 that the Crowley and Lucifer subplot might be worth watching, alas to no greater end as no one else wrote it for the rest of the year really. But in any case, he gets the honour of writing Gabriel so much better him to sell me on it than Buckleming :P I am therefore far more prepared to have Gabriel back on these terms and conditions...

The MoL recap skipped showing Cas with popcorn and I'm automatically deducting an entire out of ten score. This episode may end up being perfect in every other respect but would only get 9/10

They also didn't show Cas booping Ketch to sleep for no reason other than it being funny. 8/10

NOW: "1925"

This is super illuminati. Aka what Dean was worried about in 8x13 when they were first snooping around the Bunker... to this point, they never discovered anything worse than racist old men, or the weird British chapter. No signs of SERIOUS cult activity among the Americans, rather than it being a supernatural book club with a heroic purpose.

Leave that poor flapper alone.

Er are they literally doing the same spell? Terrified flappers make the WORST interdimensional travellers.

Honestly, though, the illuminati MoL aquarian star is super cool in a really spooky way

TENTACLE

Retroactively makes me wonder about 6x21 and if HP Lovecraft's friends were MoL and up to some nonsense. Obviously that was purgatory not an AU but it's all curiosity and who knows anything about all this stuff :P they all probably just want to see monsters, you know. The show's presentation of Lovecraft definitely made home look like the profile of a MoL they use later when these are a thing.

DEAN, LEAVE YOUR BROTHER ALONE. If he's sleeping on the table he's overworked and doesn't need this nonsense :P

Sam... go to bed.

Since their mom is still in an AU I'm taking over

Considering Dean has coffee he probably came in here with coffee, saw Sam like that, and went to get post it notes. If Sam was alert he'd be questioning that Dean's coffee was already on the table when Dean is pretending to just come into the room.

Oh no re: 6x21 - Dean called it Kryptonite.

How are there always more rooms in the Bunker? ... I have like 9 messages from Trisscar I haven't been looking at but suddenly I can guess :P

It appears to be opposite 7d, meaning this may be 7c, and a boring archive room rather than room 7b, which is the smaller archive room with a DUNGEON behind it

Dean is great in the research montage

Also that implies Sam had the post it notes the entire day, which given the half life of post it note glue is stretching credibility :P

Uh... They need to be more careful about just assuming random glowing rocks people dig up in the holy land are definitely the thing they are looking for.

I mean the cold open seems to imply it genuinely IS, but that's no excuse for being like glowing rock + glowing rock = success

Jinkies!

*sexy driving montage*

Okay this place is both spooky AND unlocked. Maybe because Jensen doesn't have another flip over a fence in him, but it's also pretty ominous about the useage of this place.

I love how in the modern age you just put the coordinates of your creepy destination into your phone and follow it and then get out at the first abandoned building dead on the spot and be like welp google told us to go get murdered by cultists here so

"Ask questions get answers" Are you not going to ask about the EYE?

That's a disturbing lack of concern for something essentially thematically "alter the sigil alter the spell" - the MoL vs the weird cultist chapter which clearly has a difference from the one they're used to because of the different symbol. Whatever level the MoL Sam and Dean know about, knew in turn about these guys, whether they disowned or quietly let them get on with it or what... this is not meant to mean the same as just casually finding another home base...

Just dropping in for a cup of tea and a seal of solomon

Uhoh the books all over the floor don't bode well

"Looks familiar, huh?"

*Sam finally spots an eyeball aquarian star* "Except for that"

you don't say

"Great. More books."

"You love books."

Honestly Dean kinda does and half of this goofing off from earlier was performative... He DOES find some types of research super boring but that doesn't mean he doesn't read for fun and also retain information well from books and hit the books when necessary.

Sam's just much more driven right now, meaning that Dean's being played off in contrast as mostly normal. Aka not wildly driven to do the reading himself, which in turn isn't just a usual character trait but shows how desperately Sam's at it.

uhoh those photos look like kidnappable flapper research

Sandy Porter :D

I hope that's supposed to say "age: 23" but I can't unread it as "eyes: 23" and the handwriting is weird.

SOLOMON 1917

I think we have found the thing... now the question is did this weird cult appear BECAUSE of the seal or was it they were already weird and they ended up bagging it for their experiments?

Their letter header already has the aquarian eye...

Sam/Jared casually breaking everything on the shelf

why did they leave that take in

Oh I guess he had to make noises to make Sandy start yelling for help

(I assume it's her or something that LOOKS like her)

I love Dean's photographic memory. And when we get flashes of him remembering stuff on screen like this

Sam's like What the Fuck

Aha it's Ketchmodeus time

Arthmodeus?

I love how Sam n Dean are wearing grey and they plop Dean's bi plaid over Sandy's grey flapper dress.

(She's called Sandy with blonde hair and Mary's middle name is Sandra)

Query: where WAS Dean keeping the plaid, or did he go up first, get a rope and a shirt and then we skipped all the stuff where they get a lil person who can't just hop up and reach the manhole cover again out of the hole in the ground :P

She's also skipped ahead in time from being a flapper and is now a millenial, possibly possessed by an Elder God hence the long life etc :P But she and Mary share the backstory in a way of being transported out of their right time

Is Ketch reading one of Crowley's old books from when he was raising Amara? Pfft. It's not uncle hoppity but it is obviously for a child, and is a way of demeaning him... He's reading it probably out of both boredom and spite... :P

... But the demons are apparently too fussed about cat videos to pay attention to him...

wha t is this episode

I have to admit at some undisclosed point I went to yoga, fell asleep on the floor in a rec hall and have since eaten my weight in chocolate avacado cake and coffee, so I am fairly addled :P

Oh, yep, Asmodeus is beefing himself up with angel juice, who EVER would have guessed it

it also reads like an addiction, and as this was introduced in season 9 around the time of Crowley's demon blood addiction and Dean with the Mark and Cas eating grace, it's almost surprising the needle was only ever implied to be for extraction.

But now we have Lucifer eating grace, and Asmodeus injecting it - the question is if he's addicted to it or not.

I'd assume as well if this was planned from the start, his colonel sanders look might also have been, social commentary aside, because the wanted a demon dressed all in white and looking clean and shiny like an angel

*demon minion comes blundering in a minute late* "I tried to stop him!"

This is absolutely 100%, no, 1000% vagueblogging Buckleming and how idiotic the Hell plot is and I am living for it

Poor squeaky Gabriel

They take Sandy to the most retro diner they can find... Inside, we meet patrons and staff with names immediately, before the Winchesters enter... The apparent owner, Joanne, amused by "Buck and Amy", one of her staff and a teenage boy, then says she'd hit it with Buck if Amy won't, which is SUPER creepy... Her cook apparently doesn't speak English or speak at all, so she feels free to say horrible things in front of him

Buck looks vaguely Jack-like just because he's a teenage boy with floppy hair

They really are easing her in slow with the modern age, this diner is decrepit, but just this many electric lights is enough for now >.>

Plus, they arrived in a car from the 60s

And she's messing with an ancient jukebox

This is adorable

i mean there's some high level creepiness in the diner, which I assume is Still Too Local and they ought to have crossed state lines...

I wonder at this point if their immediate vicinity to Asmodeus's lair is relevant. They'd know from Cas now that he's still using it. I mean, do you detour in your road trip to an ancient MoL bunker because you know the demon currently running Hell is camped out just down the road?

They're getting Sandy the meatloaf... Pretty sure that was what Mary said she got from the Piggly Wiggly in 12x02

Oh great, people who tattoo the aquarian eye on their arms. "Marco"'s name is in quotation marks.

HE CAN SPEAK

"Wait, these men of letters were the ones who... chained you down there?" Sam, you KNOW the MoL aren't perfect... are you really going to struggle with this? :P She was in THEIR secret Bunker chained up in the secret bunker's secret basement, surrounded by corrupted Aquarian stars. It's like 99% likely this was an inside job, especially as it's the longest pay off for a character defamation fraud ever otherwise :P

More tentacles!

Okay, look, you guys need Mary back and on your side because I swear to god if she goes into the bathroom and gets kidnapped because you're an all dude team then I'm going to scream.

you NEED women to support women because sometimes we really do go to the bathroom in a pack to avoid being kidnapped by cultists who want to feed us to tentacle monsters from another dimension

Oh no, they're all just being poisoned so they can be ritually murdered later

Aw "pet angel" again. Gabriel is overhearing this intel, so he knows the Winchesters are alive, doing shit, and Cas is still alive and doing shit with them... All good basic intel you should probably not let the one angel who cared about them in season TWO know. I mean, Azazel and Gabriel are the ONLY players who cared about them back when the status quo of the world was still in balance - from season 3 onwards everyone wanted a piece of Sam, and Dean's soul was rapidly heading towards breaking the first seal so everyone now had a stake in them. But Gabriel? He's a total hipster about bothering the Winchesters when they were wee little babby hunters to see if they were up to the task... and found they were.

Now he's back in canon I'm going to be evaluating him as carefully as I can with such a retconned and fandom beloved and fanon-bedecked character, and I think in our advantage for having him back, he's in a state we've never seen him before... genuinely in trouble :P

And Gabriel peers curiously through the bars as Asmodeus starts explaining their plans

"It's time we talk about us" please stop trying to make Ketchmodeus happen

A shot of them from a million miles away, a million miles between them, sliced off by a pillar. Ketch standing in the light. Asmodeus in the dark with yellow candles around him.

I am pretty sure this room is 10000x more candle-y than before.

When I was doing my rewatch of the early seasons a few summers ago I was so amused by the bajillion candles, a trend which died out with the colour format of the show changing, and any time a character shows up who needs a billion candles (e.g. Abaddon in 9x02) I get disproportionately excited that they *understand* the show :P

In this case, Asmodeus really needs all the links back to the start he can get, because he's a new, weak demon, one specifically called out in 13x12 of being the weakest of Lucifer's creations, and here shown juicing up on poor Gabriel, all a meta commentary on him being a rubbish character inserted as the last of the retconned princes of hell, his literal strength as a character weak and flimsy when it comes to caring about him, because after all the show has been through, retroactively adding ancient powers is a serious problem about "where were they before?" and so many of them need to have been lost, disinterested, locked away, buried and hidden and forgotten. In Asmodeus's case, possibly just looked over and neglected, and he's been having a pissy sulk about not being invited to the apocalypse for the last 10 years, since we know nothing about where he was before, but he's at least seemed to have his liberty and he waited out every single major player more powerful than him, and is appearing as a desescalation of a threat as a big bad so ridiculous the show is mocking him for being comically weedy, petty and out of touch or useless, or plain stupid. Even *Buckleming* seem aware he's an idiot at times.

And now Perez is writing this fucker and I actually have to character profile him >.>

Anyway Ketch is talking about their relationship, Asmodeus is trying to escalate his control over Ketch to "owning" him and pushing his luck really - Ketch being humiliated with the kid's book is a power play but Asmodeus really sucks at power plays and plans and all round... doing things...

I love watching Ketch get beaten up even if it is Asmodeus

Ah well

Was Asmodeus almost scary?

I mean, I suppose if we were supposed to care about Ketch a bit

After season 12 it's more like... Can we just have everyone beat him up once?

Dean is also stuck on the MoL being tweed wearing and harmless

And Sam avoiding carbohydrates... like... at least he ordered a couple of plates of food but he is a Big Guy, he needs to eat more than this!!

In some ways it reflects their endgame, e.g. Dean is still self-destructing and you could imagine either sticking a middle finger to any higher purpose supposed to affect him, or else bitter that he is never allowed off the ride... away from that, just the belief that it's winning to be killed by food rather than a monster. And he's been killed on the job enough to know the difference.

Sam, keeping himself sharp, suppoesdly (even if he is falling asleep on the table) and keepnig healthy long term, which may or may not be to some eventual endgame, that he plans on winning

I swear if anything skeezy happens to Buck...

Oh good, he's just noticed the cultists first while the professional hunters are busy eating... Maybe we all just get locked in here or something

Aaaand Sam's asleep on the table again. This is why you carb load

I guess no one's sticking post it notes on him this time

ALSO if it's that fast acting and the service is so slow here, you have a problem :P

The cultists' robes are similar colour to the wait staff uniform

I love the new fight coordinator

Cmon Sam, you only had one bite

Whoops he's being kidnapped

where is Sandy???

Nice one, eldritch flapper! :D :D

She has the "i just killed someone" look so I figure that whatever the monster did to her, she's not totally lost to it

Are they just keeping Sam as a hostage exchange? They're still just surrounding the diner...

At least Dean knows how to make a weapon out of anything

oh dear sweet cinnamon roll "we have to call the police!"

... Yep, one of the cultists is part of the local police. At which point me, having written a novel with red-robed cultists running around a town sacrificing girls and secretly being local authority figures is like... welp...

Aw, Dean, don't go charging after Sam. He already was like no don't go to the creepy bunker alone.

At least weigh your options and get a lay of the land first :/

I mean I would assume they want Sandy in exchange which means not happening, but...

Yep, they want the monster/god

Sandy is not very much of either :(

"our family was men of letters" "so was ours..." "kinda"

Okay so they want a clean start with this God, from another dimension, which is exactly what Michael wants, and it's currently in the Mary mirror.

Oh boy

"oh boy" indeed, it ate everyone and they bound it again, but it's still inside Sandy... Glowy purple eyes which is pretty ominous. She's also a Rowena mirror in a sense, including the monster, and there would be an interesting meta after this probably, when it's all said and done, to compare the scale of bound, hungry women

in this case, they accidentally made a devouring mother goddess which is more like... Amara... But it wants a mate

Aaaand the MoL banned all the members who were involved in this nonsense. See, you guys literally have the box of members who were banned... Bit of digging on the history of this chapter house and it would be like, dude, a dozen of these guys were banned for SUMMONING AN ELDRITCH MONSTROSITY

Ow, wow, Asmodeus has 4 vials of archangel grace knocking around... he seems to really have an issue here if he needs that much, constantly

menas stealing Gabriel from him will dry him out quickly, but also motivate him to get him back, unlike how he's just like pfft whatever about losing Cas and Lucifer

He and Ketch are getting deep and philosophical... First of all, I am a little concerned that Asmodeus is OOC for not having the depth of thought of a teaspoon, and very little will get me interested in their inner lives in any case because I refuse to let Ketch be made sympathetic on the grounds that he's a dick and I'm allowed to draw a line.

Anyway they're having a conversation about a MoL code which means these stories sort of metaphorically overlap and that's weird and I'm not certain how to handle thematic balance with them because we're actually exploring what it means to be a legacy here, and all the different toxic threads that each family is upholding etc

Fortunately Asmodeus keeps calling Ketch "boy" so the squicky Ketchmodeus I fear is just enough to keep me on edge through this scene :P

(to be clear, I don't fear it in the show so much as fearing that fandom will Kylux latch onto it and everyone will be shipping the shit out of it to an intolerable level, despite the aforementioned emotional ranges of teaspoons for these boring racist-coded white dudes)

But there's some blah about redeeming Ketch which is making me very nervous they're going to try

The was Asmodeus talks about Ketch belonging to him makes me wonder that whatever deal they struck to get into this partnership, there's some magical connection, more than just this emotional weakness that Asmodeus is talking about exploiting. Mostly because one is nuanced and one will be appropriate for Buckleming to play with, should they choose to acknowledge another writer's continuity.

(And I think half the reason Dabb's banished them to a separate plot is that they disrespect others' attempts to write the story that in leiu of collaboration, he's stuck them over here to do their own thing where they can't mess anything up...)

oh no don't send Buck out there with a kitchen knife

What is Dean doing? Amy and Joanne can't be in control of this situation??

That sounds very un-feminist of me but they did just send Buck out with a tiny weeny knife, like, not even a steak knife

Awhooops, the more the other MoL cultists talk, the more they sound like they're just managing a mistake their grandfather made, and Sam and Dean blundered into it as the bad guys, inadvertently "rescuing" Sandy (WHO I STILL LIKE) in their own quest for personal gain. Aka selfish actions beget consequences

Oh, that's a lot of dead cultists.

Oh, Sandy no don't eat Buck

RIP Buck

Dean is still distracted trying to do whatever to save Sam, and while stockpiling weaponry has missed both Sandy slipping away AND Joanne and Amy sending Buck out to get eaten

AAAH LEAVE DEAN ALONE

Also it's so unsettling having a monster wandering around in one of his most iconic shirts... I'll have to worry about that later but yikes. The imagery is unsettling to say the least. It's a really memorable one.

DRAMATIC EYE CONTACT between Ketch and Gabriel

Trying not to think about how that looked weirdly like the Claire Kaia intro eye contact

To be fair they've looked at each other a bunch and whatever Ketch thinks of Gabriel, they've had time to form their opinions of each other

He presents his undamaged side of his face to Gabriel while realising he has to free him

This is a hilarious rescue. Ketch isn't good at being a convincing good guy and Gabriel is freaked the heck out

Understandably, I wouldn't go with Ketch

Although idk maybe Gabriel is too traumatised to notice that Ketch was having a personal revelation of sorts

I am so disappointed that "if I had half your power" line didn't lead to Ketch being like "... but Asmodeus does" and grabbing the spare vials from the box he was keeping it all in. Maybe he took it with him

should have been a seduce the bad guy to steal the vials while he sleeps thing

... oh shit, they got me

Okay, the archangel blade works on other things... it's clearly potent

Sam nearly got frying panned by creepy Joanne

Meanwhile also in much older women going for young lads (proportionately), Dean has been picked as ideal mate material, in a season where he's already been whammied with a love spell, and just last episode Cas got married.

How comes all this imagery keeps hittnig them?

I ask the void

when today the void is represented by Eldritch Flapper Sandy from the void.

Okay, I don't know how to spell her eldritch name, but "star of madness ravager of galaxies mother of faceless hordes" is hecka cool

I'm sad that Sandy is dead but this eldritch thingy is still sorta badass

Mittens just told me this is set the same place as the open of 6x21, the same place HP Lovecraft is from, so that confirms my musings at the top of this :D I am delighted

She just misses her love from another universe.

"It's like a hallmark movie... with tentacles!"

that is not a deal breaker for Dean, I think

Anyway. Dean being confronted with this sweet love story. Now he will be the host to an epic, galaxy-crushing romance! Awww!!

She's gonna lay eggs in him though

i hope that's a dealbreaker

Also the whole... possession threat... when we've had spoilers jensen's playing something else

I assume not this guy

WHERE DID THE MOL GET THIS ANGEL GRACE BTW?

I feel like this has to be Gabriel again unless Raphael or Michael fucked up at some point and we're gonna find out later, just from the fact only one of them wasn't bound for most of human history or in Heaven, but actually slumming it on earth

We know literally nothing of Gabriel's history except that he dated Kali so there's that

Okay the tentacles are a deal breaker, Dean's grossed out

UHOH SPACE TENTACLES

Bye bye eldritch flapper... you were fun

(RIP Sandy)

Guess they will go back to ravaging stars together in the darkness

ALSO I really hope there's a way to STEER THIS FUCKING SPELL

elizabethrobertajones Huh. Tentacles are the dealbreaker for Dean who knew after 13 years there's something weird and kinky he isn't at least curious about :P

elizabethrobertajones Oh wait never mind "not that there's anything wrong with that" he is a consentacles guy

mittensmorgul BAHAHAHAHA

mittensmorgul He's not gonna kink shame

Also Dean is wondering if there's a way to steer the spell as well

Okay so they actually know how to work it - you can only go to AUs you already have a part of, and a time limit which will be for drama when they finally open this thing...

Do they have to bring this back to them afterwards? I hope so :P

Dean coming down the stairs joking about nearly being an interdimensional booty call after collecting one of the spell ingredients directly mirrors Cas coming down the stairs yelling about how he had to get married to get one of the OTHER ingredients.

I LOVE their Ketch reaction

Okay so Gabriel has said nothing all episode, and I assume Ketch is about to produce him, so the question is... how does Gabriel introduce himself? What's the play? These are the questions I am most curious about because this episode has been defining a lot of characterisation for the previously woefully undercharacterised Asmodeus, fleshing out WTF is Ketch's deal right now, and now Davy has the abilityto set the course (hopefully) for Gabriel.

We have 5 minutes to go

Oh hey he's still bloody and has his mouth sewn

he's just... hauling Gabriel into a chair

Like you do get how this looks suspicious, mate

And Sam and Dean are like uuuuh he's dead so wtf

Which is my reaction too so get to the backstory snap snap

Gabriel's eyes are so panicky I'm worried he's gonna be half-mad

Oh dear, "we need his grace" and Gabriel is like FUCK THAT SHIT YOU'RE NOT EVEN SAVING ME AND IF I'M ACTUAL ME AND NOT AN AU VERSION I FUCKING DIED FOR YOU ASSCLOWNS WHAT THE FUCK. UNSEW MY MOUTH AND LET ME HAVE A BATH

well "HMMM!!! HMM!!!!!!!!! !!!!!"

But I can read subtext

Ketch is just giving them EVERYTHING

they don't even know what that blade IS

Hey, gabriel, just smash your forehead on the grace vial and eat the grace

it's not dignified but who cares :P

Ketch came to the "only safe place he knew" aka a MoL bunker, which, after all, is very very safe. He has to bargain with Sam and Dean, knowing their spell, because "i saved this random archangel I found" isn't probably convincing enough on its own???

LOL "Dibs on the top bunk?"

"no"

"Deal"

Dean... sweetie... you do remember all your subtext with Ketch last year? You know you can't just agree to him taking the top bunk like that?

You're even negotiating either side of the war table again

ALSO WHY IS EVERYONE GETTING KETCH SHIPPING STUFF TODAY? UNSUBSCRIBE

And Dean will let pretty much ANYTHING happen to get Mary and Jack back

the question is, Cas must be at the farmer's market or something all episode because he wasn't there when they were researching and he wasn't there to stop Ketch coming in, so... where is he?

Anyway Dean is speaking on his behalf re: getting Jack back

Sam seems to want to do this on their own and Dean is making compromises again to get what they need

So, uh, Gabriel?

Aw, the Sastiel shippers will be happy, Sam was the one who ended up freeing his mouth, which is probably symbolic regardless, re: giving the Trickster back his main weapon

Omg Dean is ready to go before Gabriel says a word. Dean. Chill. Cas isn't even HERE.

And that makes me feel like whatever Gabriel has to say to break his long silence is even more important that Dean interrupted it (it's gonna not be, now, isn't it?)

"Shouldn't we wait?"

"Why?"

CAS YOU FUCKHEAD

"We have everything we need, everything else is just burning daylight"

Dean is again trying to leave Sam behind to manage things, and go in and do it alone. Dude, you literally nearly had eggs laid in you by an interdimensional flapper, you need to think about this.

LOL Ketch wants to go with them because it's safer than staying here being hunted by Asmodeus

I mean fair enough, and he's scarily competent

But it's making it look to Sam like Dean would rather have Ketch around than Sam???

Also WHERE IS CAS?

"I don't care if he dies. I'm sort of rooting for it."

Crack episode next where because Dean has interdimensionally travelled before, he ends back up in French Mistake Verse where he's Jensen and Ketch is DHJ (again? see also: 13x07 notes) and they have to get back before they can do the dramatic stuff

Anyway Dean is doing the sacrificial play, Sam watches his cholesterol so he has to stay on earth

I can't believe they're just opening a portal in the library and for 24 hours there's just a glowy back and forth hole there

But of course, as long as Dean finds Jack, the time limit doesn't matter

I can't believe Ketch is his BFF for the rest of the season

I can't believe Gabriel didn't SAY anything

What is he going to SAY next? I WANT TO KNOW

I am unbelievably frustrated, because now it passes it on to Buckleming again, and for all I know Davy thinks the whole Gabriel thing is silly, or is nervous of writing the iconic character so he just shoves it all off on them to break canon as they please and he gets something suitably dramatic and tension building and intentionally frustrating out of it but at the end of the day he doesn't have to directly ENGAGE with the Gabriel is back story, and it's all gonna be Bucklemninged next week

Aurgh.

Auuuurgh.

#13x17 #season 13 spoilers #my stuff

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officialdeathbycinema · 7 years

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IT Chapter One: The Losers Club REVIEW (SPOILERS)

Ok, so I got out of the picture last night, and these are my first impressions of sorts. I'm going to count this as my final review, simply because it was supposed to be a preliminary first impressions post, and it got way too long not to be a final review, so here you guys go.

Story/Loyalty to Source Material: There were things things that were different from the book. Georgie's death was pretty much the same as the book, except that when the young child's arm was ripped off in the film, he was then dragged down into the sewers by Pennywise. The dialogue and imagery is pretty much spot on however. The second is Richie in the novel is most fearful of werewolves, not clowns, and his first encounter of IT is different from the novel. There is no Teenage Werewolf in a letterman jacket in this film, which i'm fine with. Plus there's the obvious time setting change from the late 1950's to the late 1980's, this will ultimately make the upcoming 2019 sequel IT Chapter Two: Pennywise set in 2016.

The first encounter with Richie is also different in the novel than it is in the new film. In the novel, IT attacks Richie as a giant statue of Paul Bunyan from the town square after he was attacked by bullies. In the movie, he simply gets attacked by Pennywise in the wellhouse of Neibolt Street, as seen in the trailer. The scene where a giant vulture attacking Mike Hanlon, and the old decrepit woman offering Eddie Kaspbrak a little bit of....oral stimulation under the house at Neibolt street are also decidedly nowhere to be scene in the film.

The piece of silver that defeats Pennywise the Clown as a form from the novel is replaced by a bolt gun, and he no longer turns into a giant monstrous arachnid-esque creature during the first defeat like in the book. Not to mention that the entire section where Bill Denborough travels into the Dead Lights and meets Maturin the Turtle is completely gone, which i'm kinda worried about, and kinda just want to see in some shape or form in the sequel, especially since there were so many references to the turtle in the movie.

There's also a structural difference, but that can simply be chalked up to it being an adaption. There are bound to be changes, and this is a structural change that I happened to enjoy. Also, Bowers doesn't poison a dog in this one, and there isn't a child orgy in the sewers, so that's also a begrudging plus (because I would honestly be super amused if they left those parts in). But if the second film doesn't feature the scene where two bigots harass a gay couple to death and one of the lovely young homosexuals gets eaten by a pack of flying leeches, i'm going to be disappointed because that was an interesting and creative way to depict the return of Pennywise to Derry, Maine after the Losers Club defeats him.

None of these things bothered me in the long run. So as far as faithfulness goes, I give it a solid 7/10.

Effects: The effects in this movie were awesome, especially considering the movies rather low 35 million dollar budget. There were some parts where the CGI was rather...well, bad, but again, I simply chalk this up to the low budget. For the most part, almost everything is only enhanced by the computer effects. Bill Skarsgard did a rather brilliant job in the role. Pennywise has several scenes where he has to move his eyeballs around like an iguana, and there was no CG needed, since the actor can physically already move his eyes independently from one another. He also took (to my knowledge at least, I don't remember the exact amount of time) around 2-3 weeks of contortionist classes for a specific scene in the film.

There is one scene that replaces the photo album scene from the mini-series (the projector scene in the trailers), where IT appears in the projector, and simply attacks them by lunging out in the form of a giant version of his animalistic Pennywise form. There is a...I think it's a 3-4 second shot where I really want to say they made an entire giant animatronic just to lunge out at them, but then again, I could be wrong.

The depiction of the Dead Lights was fascinating, and really made me want to see more of the cosmic side of IT's origins, and Maturin the Turtle. There's also a really cool effect that really puts the catchphrase "You'll float too" and "We all float down here" into perspective, but I won't spoil that bit.

The camerawork in this movie is also astounding. I'm gonna say this...the use of dutch angles in this movie made me happy that Battlefield Earth isn't well known anymore, because this movie greatly benefited from dutch angles, high angles, and low angles.

Overall, I give the effects an 8/10, and that's only because I was really impressed with what they did with the budget that they had.

Acting: It was great, everyone was great. The chemistry between all the members of the Losers Club was awesome, and Finn Wolfhard was probably my favorite actor (mostly because he was funnier than Seth Green, and he's the only one I remember the name of.

I feel like this "bare bones" first impressions post is getting a bit too long, and you already know I freakin loved Skarsgard as IT, so i'm going to leave this with a solid 9/10.

OVERALL 8/10

#IT #Stephen King #movies #movie review #horror movie #pennywise #the losers club #Stephen King's IT #bill skarsgard #finn wolfhard

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witch-y-princess · 5 years

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A Classic In Modern Times

Chapter 1

It's Sept. 26th, there was a soft breeze coming through the window. A girl wakes up due to the chilly autumn air filling her room. She checks her clock, it reads 2:48 am, she looks around her room to find her window is open. The girl is confused for a moment then begins to panic and frantically tries to turn the lights on. As she is making her way to the light switch, she's tackled to the ground and is getting gagged by some sort of cloth. She tries to fight whoever is on her back, but as she does she feels her back getting warmer and warmer. Her clothes are getting soaked in something liquidy and warm. Before she realizes what's happening, with a crack her vision goes dark and she begins to feel very cold. Then there was nothing.

The sound of silence was only broken by the noise of crunching and tearing. The girl's younger brother has now awakened to go to the bathroom and on his way, he hears the strange sounds. Still a bit groggy from just having woken up he dismisses them. He finishes his business and goes back to bed. Although he tries to go to sleep, he still hears the unusual noises through the wall. Growing more and more curious, he gets back out of bed.

The cold air is starting to fill the rest of the house as he walks down the hall to his sister's room. Making sure to make as little noise as possible due to his growing anxiety, he carefully places each foot softly on the cold hardwood floors. He finally reaches the door and begins to slowly open it. The sound stops as the door opens ever so slightly. It's too dark to see anything so the boy turns the lights on. The sound of a blood-curdling scream sent throughout the house is broke the silence of the night aside from the wind blowing in through the window. What the boy sees is the sight of his sister brutally torn to shreds. Her head has been torn off with a half eaten face left on it, showing the bloody skeleton and muscle tissue underneath what used to be his sister's face. Her spine has been partially torn out of her back with a few vertebrates scattered about, the rest is held together by a few muscles as it rests in a pool of crimson blood. Her arms are missing from the biceps down and the skin is torn much less cleanly than the neck's. The stench of all the guts plus the unholy amount of blood pooled up or splattered about makes the kid vomit on sight. He didn't even have time to react to whatever else was in the room that was hunched over his sister gnawing at one of her arms. All he saw were the silvery-white pupils surrounded by a blacked out eyeball. The next thing the boy feels is a hand wrapping around his throat beginning to crush his windpipe. He tries his best to let out any resemblance of a noise but the being won't let him. Then he falls to the ground, but he notices his body didn't fall as well. It's still in the hands of who, or whatever the being is. His vision goes dark as he hears the panicked footsteps of his parents racing up the stairwell.

~•~

A few hours later a girl wakes up to the sound of her alarm clock. It's now 7:30 am and she'll be late for school if she doesn't hurry up and get ready. She throws her silvery-grey hair with black strands up in a bun as she's running to the bathroom to brush her teeth. She then makes sure she's got her necklace on while sliding a red gemstone ring on her right hand, a blank silver ring band on her left hand, as well as another gemstone ring, this one being blue. The necklace is a pendant of a crescent moon, in the crescent, there's a diamond shape and a circle with a dot in the middle of it hanging around her neck from a twine cord. She then throws on the nearest pair of black skinny jeans, her cleanest bra, an oversized death metal band t-shirt, and a pair of black converse as she runs out the front door with her pack in hand and purse flying behind her. The sun is out and is shining bright already. She runs down the flight of stairs, hurrying to the parking lot, and jumps in her car, a white 2018 Chevrolet Impala with tinted black windows. She hurries her was to her morning class, on the way she's listening to the local news.

"Mr. & Mrs. Langsworth, along with their two kids, Jacob and Lendsie were found dead this morning when a neighbor's kid who walks to school every morning with Lendsie found bloody footprints on the sidewalk outside the house. They told their parents who called the police, who so far only have said that it seems to have only been one attacker. There were no signs of robbery as nothing was taken. They also haven't been able to find any prints or evidence to get a lead on who it might have been."

As the girl pulls up to her uni's science building and frantically tries to find a parking space at 8:10 am she realizes she doesn't have class till 10 am. She parks anyways and heads towards the library. On her way she runs into a classmate, his name is Logan. His hazel eyes meet her silvery-white eyes for a moment. He's a little bit taller than her, standing in at about 5'8", an athletic build due to his years running in track, compared to her more average build and standing at about 5'5". He's got light brown hair that looks like he just woke up. His face has a few freckles speckled all about. The loose-fitting single colored dark blue t-shirt has a little bit of syrup on it.

"Good morning Lilith, how are you today?" He says with a cheerful smile.

"Still kinda tired, didn't get much sleep last night. What about you?"

"I'm doing quite alright. Seems like we were both in a bit of a rush this morning huh?"

"Haha, yea I guess so. Did ya forget class was at 10 am as well?"

He scratches the back of his head with a nervous chuckle, "Yea I did, but I was thinking about going to the library to get a bit of extra time for the homework we had."

"Oh shit!!! WE HAD AN ASSIGNMENT?!?!" Lilith shoutedly asks.

"Uh, yea. It was given to us two days ago. Have you started on it yet?"

"No, not at all.." she mutters.

"Well, I can help you if you'd like."

"Really?! That'd be awesome!!! Thank you so much!"

The two head off towards the library together. Logan talks about how he's excited for the next track competition in a couple of weeks, and how he hopes she's going to be there to cheer him on as usual.

They reach the library and he starts helping her find books about advanced physics. They start working on the assignment together and with Logan's help she's able to get enough done by 9:50 am for a passing grade.

As they walk to their class, a girl who is in a hurry trips over a curb and drops all her books and papers. Lilith rushes over and helps her up and gathers up the papers flying around and the books scattered about the ground.

"Thank you! My name is Emily and it's nice to meet you."

"Don't mention it. My name is Lilith, nice to meet you as well," she says, giving the girl a smile as she and Logan walk towards class again.

"You know we'll be late now right?"

"Ehhh, who cares, if class was at 8 am we'd have been late anyway. Besides, who's a couple minutes gonna hurt?"

"Haha, yea, fair enough I guess."

~•~

It's finally the end of the school day and Lilith is on her way home she passes by the park and looks at the autumn leaves' colors in awe. She pulls into her apartment complex's gated parking lot which is packed as usual with many cars.

"Alright, I got a couple of hours till I gotta go into work, let's see how many episodes of anime I can watch in that time." She thinks to herself as she's unlocking her front door and stepping inside her apartment.

Inside there's her living room with a flat-screen tv sitting atop a dark brown tv stand filled with movies and games, in front of a dark brown wooden coffee table with a circular glass center. A black 2-piece couch with a lot of anime plushies on top of it. Next to that, she's got a bookshelf full of figurines in all sorts of different sizes and poses. To the right of that, there's another big bookcase full of light novels, manga and normal books as well; there's even an entire shelf dedicated to her knife collection. She has easily two dozen different knives, all different styles. The walls are covered in many posters and artworks, as well as many swords hung up, so much so you can barely even see the creamy white-painted wall behind it all.

She sets her pack and purse next to the front door and walks to her kitchen, which is separated from the living room by a granite topped island. She grabs a can of soda from her fridge. She notices that she still has to do the dishes but shrugs it off thinking "oh I'll do 'em later," before she slouches down into her couch and turns on her tv. She calls over Midnight, her hell-hound familiar, he's a big black dog that's roughly twice the size of a German shepherd. His pitch black fur is silky soft, and he too has silvery white eyes after becoming Lilith's familiar. He jumps up into her lap and they snuggle as they watch tv together. She pulls out her phone and texts her partner, Miyabe

~•~

Before she realizes it its time to go in for work. She gets dressed and heads out, it's now about 7:30 pm as she drives. She arrives at work and as usual her the gm Linda greets her with a kind smile.

"How are you doing tonight Lilith?" She asks and Lilith puts her number in the computer to clock in for her shift.

"I'm doin a'ight I guess, school was a bit stressful today but it worked out."

"Well, that's good to hear it went okay, ready to have a relaxing night?"

"Totally, I love the graveyard shift." Responding with a slight chuckle.

The night goes pretty uneventful as usual, getting the normal 30 or so customers throughout her usual 8pm-4am shift at a local 24hr café/tea bar.

As she is getting ready to leave though there is a fight going on between a group of guys in the ally in between her café and the bar next to it. She at first doesn't want to intervene but then one of the guys hollers at her, which in turn gets the other guys to notice her. Some are still fighting but the most have stopped and are starting to walk towards her.

"Hey sweet thang, whatcha doin out here this late at night? Huh?"

They all look at each other and snicker before rushing at her. A few of them seem like regular drunkards with a beer belly to show for it, and a few of them are relatively well built.

As one gets close to her, she punches him straight in the jaw, breaking it and knocking out a few teeth in the process, knocking him down and out. The others hesitate for a second but then charge at her again. She runs to a different alleyway a couple of buildings down and gets cornered, but turns around to face them with a smile on her face. As the roughly 7 guys run after her into the ally they get frozen in place out of pure terror when they see her face; which now has been morphed to look something inhumane. With what to them feels like her silvery-white eyes are piercing their souls, they can't help but stand there utterly frozen.

She begins to punch, kick, and claw her way through them, leaving them with broken arms, legs, skulls, ribs, knocked out teeth, and gashes in their bodies so deep you could see bone. Just by looks, you'd think they got run over by a speeding semi or train.

She then calmly walks back to her car and drives home.

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autumn-elwood · 7 years

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Ricky the Vampire

Summary: Ricky has been alone in his house for a long time so it's hardly surprising when he goes to drastic measures to cure his loneliness. What is surprising is how well his stupid and illegal plan works out.

For those of you who were hoping for a scary story, sorry. This is a really fluffy piece.

Also available on: Blogger

First off, I plead insanity. And loneliness. I plead insanity and loneliness. That is the only way I can really justify the stupid- very illegal- crime I just committed. Okay, wait. I should probably explain who I am since you’re all wondering ‘who the hell are you and what did you do?’

My name is Ricky Galvez and I am an eighty-year-old vampire. Practically a baby in vampirical age and I have no friends. Kinda hard to make friends when you look like you’re twelve and you can hardly go outside or you’ll develop a rash. Well to be fair, I was allergic to the sun even before I became a vampire but still.

And when I say I have no friends, I mean I have any real-life friends. I have plenty of online friends but I don’t have any friends I can touch. I miss hugs.

Admittedly, since the magical world isn’t exactly a secret in this decade I could just reveal I’m a vampire but people get put off by the twelve-year-old appearance.

So a couple weeks back when I was staring at my book collection bemoaning my isolation and slurping a blood IV bag, I got the most brilliant idea of getting someone to come to my house. Internet friends were quickly scrapped because my online friends think I’m twenty and I think I’ve made it clear why that wouldn’t work out. I felt myself about to fall into another bout of depression before my eyes landed across the books “Demon Summoning” and “101 Safe Demons to Summon”. Um… Ricky, why do you have those books?

I don’t know and I honestly wish I had questioned that more before I went all out and summoned a fucking demon, an act that has been illegal for five centuries in the magical and normal communities since the last demon MASSACRE. “Ricky, you dumb-ass,” you must be screaming. “Why did you do that?!”

Because I am insane and lonely, and insane and lonely people do extremely stupid things.

Some of you more optimistic fools are probably thinking, “It couldn’t be that bad, after all, you summoned a demon from “101 Safe Demons to Summon”. WRONG! No demon is a safe demon. Demons are infinitely old and infinitely unpredictable. Even the most amicable of demons have been known to raze a few cities.

After skimming “Demon Summoning” and selecting demon #82 from “101 Safe Demons to Summon”, the demon of souls, I began to draw my circle. The demon of souls is a demon who rarely gets summoned and hardly anything is known about them. I thought it was sad they didn’t get summoned often. I thought they might be lonely because if I was incredibly old demon bound to the shadow realm who saw my fellow demons being summoned on a regular basis, I would be lonely too.

To summon the demon of souls is simple. Place a pomegranate in the center of the circle and chant:

“In umbra ab, Universo Regno resurgemus daemonium animarum tenetur ad me ipsum.”

The candles I put around the circle grew four feet bathing my bedroom in reds and oranges casting dark shadows along my walls. The ground shook and wood split as my floor cracked. Spector like projections rose from the floor, their ghastly shrieks permeating and saturating the air with fear and pain. I clung to my bedpost in terror and unfortunately, pissed myself (Note to self: Don’t summon demons on a full bladder). A hand reached up from the crack and slammed itself on the wooden floor in front of it, clawing at it, and pulled the rest of its body up from the hole.

I couldn’t see it yet but I began to scream. A deep unnatural voice boomed from the floor.

“The mortal, Richard Galvez, why have thou summoned me!”

I opened my eyes, startled that I had noticed I had closed them and beheld the demon I had foolishly summoned. The demon’s appearance perplexed me. It was that of a late teen in a tweed suit. Their vessel appeared to be that of an Asian male but in my stupefied state, I could not recall the specific branch. When I regained my mental facilities, I guessed Japanese but my ability to guess ethnicity has always been spotty at best so don’t trust my judgment.

“I wanted to hang out,” I squeaked out, cursing my prepubescent vocal cords.

The demon blinked in bewilderment. Then they blinked again. They looked awfully confused.

“You wanted to… hang out?” they said slowly.

“Yes,” I replied timidly.

The demon’s face shifted to one of annoyance.

“You idiot,” the demon scolded. “You can’t just summon demons because you’re lonely. How stupid are you? If you had messed up, you could have been eaten or had your body reduced to its atoms! And why would you choose a demon of souls to summon? Do you even know what a demon of souls is? You shouldn’t summon things if you don’t know what they are!”

“What is a demon of souls?” I asked meekly.

The demon glared. “Don’t interrupt me. I’m not finished yet.”

“But–”

“Shh!”

The demon looked about five seconds away from slapping me. I shut my trap.

“You would think at your age, you would have learned to think things through better but you’re still as thick as your average teenage mortal. And look at your room, it’s a mess.”

“Well, some of it is your fault.”

The demon made an agitated zip gesture at me.

“I was not referring to that, brat. I was talking about the rest of it. Your laundry is piled a mile high and you have food growing eyeballs in here. Also, do you ever dust? It’s so stuffy in here. And about the crack in the floor, that’s your fault. You forgot the stability ring.”

I ducked my head in shame. I couldn’t believe I was being chastised by a demon about things I should have known to do. I’m eighty-years-old. I should know not to summon demons. I should know to dust. I should Know to do my laundry. I should know to throw away my food. I am so irresponsible.

“You’re right. You are so irresponsible.”

Oh shit. Had I said that out loud?

“No, you did not. It’s written plainly on your face.”

“Um… I’m sorry, demon of souls.”

The demon grinned flatly. “I’m sorry’s not going to cut it, Richard. I think you need to learn some consequences.”

The demon snapped their fingers and went up in a poof of black smoke. I coughed and waved my hand through the air. When the mist cleared, a small five-year-old boy in suspenders stood where the teenager had been yelling at me.

“What?” I said in confusion.

“I’m going to teach you some responsibility,” the boy-demon replied.

“Um… what?”

The little demon snorted. “Congratulations, for the foreseeable future, I’m your new little brother. You have to enroll me in school, take me to school, feed me and go to school yourself. After you take a placement test, I’ll age your body up.”

“You can do that? Wait, you want me to take care of you and go outside? I have a sun allergy.”

“I can fix that.”

“I can’t take care of you, I–”

The demon exited the circle and stalked up to me like a lion would stalk towards its prey.

“Stop acting like you have a choice. You’re learning responsibility. That’s your punishment for being such an ignoramus. Also, be prepared to get to know the cops because bodies are going to drop.”

“You’re going to kill people,” I shrieked hysterically, my voice cracking on ‘people’.

“No,” the demon rolled his eyes. “My presence agitates people and causes people’s murderous thoughts to amplify in order to collect souls. It’s less active in hospitals since people are already dying but you can’t really just leave me in a hospital all the time.”

“Can you turn it off?” I pleaded, having no desire to see a corpse.

“Sadly, no,” the demon said, not sounding the least bit sad but their eyes looked guilty.

I had nothing to say to that so I changed the subject.

“So, what’s your name?”

“It is impossible for your mortal vocal cords to replicate so I will have to think of something else,” the demon responded, putting their tiny fist under their chin. “Well, I would have to think up another name anyway. My real name isn’t exactly a mortal name.”

I sat down on the bed and stared at the demon as they paced the room. I didn’t understand the demon’s reasoning for the punishment they had selected but I was afraid that the next time I protested they would set me on fire or throw me into a pocket dimension to be torture. Observing their pacing for a while longer, I wondered if I should offer them a chair or a glass of water. All that shouting must have been exhausting. I shook my head. Why was I thinking these things? An attachment spell?

“Elliot.”

I hummed. Elliot wasn’t exactly the most popular name right now, not that I remember it being exceedingly popular back when I was actually twelve.

“You seem skeptical. I think the name works well. After all, you’re named Richard but go by Ricky and siblings often give each other nicknames. I could go by Ellie for short.”

I bit my lip to stop myself from laughing. The infinitely old demon who could probably rip out my soul without moving a muscle, wanted me to call them Ellie. Okay. I could deal with that. There was literally nothing that could make this situation weirder than it already was.

“Yeah. That works.”

The demon nodded stiffly and materialized a packet for me.

“Here’s your placement test. We’ll get you sorted before we do my registration forms. Hopefully, you do well enough to be listed as an emergency contact,” shooting me a smirk at the last part. It felt like a challenge like an “I dare you to mess up”. I didn’t want to know what they would do if I failed to meet their expectations.

Taking that bogus placement test was a nightmare. I know I understood most of it but there was a lot that just went way over my head. Fuck landing a grade that would put at me reasonable place to be eighteen. I only hoped that I got enough right to land high school because there was no way I was going to be stuck in middle school again. Watching the demon grade the damn thing was, even more, nerve-inducing. There is something truly frightening about a five-year-old going over your test making displeased noises every now and then, especially when you knew that this five-year-old was a mercurial demon.

After an hour, the demon-boy looked up at me. They picked up and straightened the papers in that strange solemn way only authority figures can replicate.

“All right, let’s get started. Your Reading and Comprehension is post-high school. Your History is okay but overall unremarkable. You did well in your chosen foreign language, Spanish. Nowhere near bilingual but well enough to fulfill the two-year minimum requirement. Your Sciences could use improvement and your math and algebra is shit.

“I’d put you at junior year of high school to freshmen in college. Although if you want to do the college route we’d have to do some tutoring in math and algebra I think senior in high school would be the best due to your placement test and it’s reasonable for most seniors to be eighteen. With you being eighteen you could legally have custody of me.”

“Um… How does that work since Elliot Galvez doesn’t legally exist?”

They patted me on the knee.

“Leave that to me, Ricky.”

Unsurprisingly, that did not make me feel any more confident. Guess I’d better add forgery to my criminal record because no court on Earth is going to try the demon how actually did the forgery. Additionally, the child-demon’s partialness to vagueness didn’t make me feel any better either.

“Fine. I suppose senior will work but what am I supposed to say when people inevitably ask why I have custody of you instead of our parents.”

“We’re half-brothers. Your father left when you were twelve and Mom died when I was born. My father was a one-night-stand so he’s not in the picture and there’s no name listed for father on my birth certificate. We have been living with our grandfather until he died of cancer this summer. You’ve been homeschooled your whole life but after taking custody of me, you decided to enroll me in public school and yourself in the local high school.”

“That’s sad,” I said without any inflection in my voice after he finished explaining our tragic backstory to me.

“Not as much as my original idea. I had thought of having our imaginary parents murdered during a home invasion but I thought this was better,” they shrugged carelessly.

I gaped at them completely aghast. I hoped they wouldn’t say anything like that at school. I had a vision of child services sweeping the house and shuddered. The demon chuckled awkwardly like they were embarrassed although I doubt they were.

“Okay. Let’s get your body aged up,” they put their hand on my shoulder. “A duodenum octo mortalium incerta. Solis, nocere puer iste amplius.”

I gasped. My body felt like it was burning. I felt dizzy and weak. I could feel my bones shatter and reassemble themselves. I choked up two of my baby teeth I had never lost, blood dripping out of my mouth like when your body forms too much saliva. Most of it landed on my jeans while the rest dried to my feverish body. I could fill my skin stretch as my bones grew rapidly and how it broke in some areas causing more of my blood to exit my body. I was screaming but it was a note so high my vocal cords couldn’t hit it. My heart pounded against my chest like I was having a heart attack. At one point I threw up, my acidic bile searing my throat and splattering against my floor, mixing with my hemoglobin. When I landed on the ground during the convulsions, I barely avoided landing in my crimson sick. I felt like I was dying. The pain made me feel like I had been suffering through this for hours. At a later point, Elliot kindly informed me the whole transformation had taken place in a matter of three minutes.

For the first time since meeting the demon, they looked scared. Their eyes looked glassy and they had their arms wrapped around their waist like they didn’t want to look at their hands. I don’t think they realized how much growing like that would hurt me.

“Are you okay?” Elliot cried, panic evident in their voice.

“I’m–” I flinched at the sound of my deeper voice. “Fine, Ellie. It’s okay. It didn’t hurt that much.”

The last part was a total lie but seeing the demon so scared was unnerving. Elliot shook their whole body like they were forcing themselves to calm down.

“I should have given you some other clothes before casting the spell,” they remarked absently.

I lowered my eyes to my clothing. They were all ripped up and I was suddenly aware of my boxers digging painfully into my hips. I stood up to strip and almost landed in my vomit as I got vertigo from standing up. I felt so clumsy and awkward with my new long legs.

I glanced at one of my mirrors and was shocked at my appearance. Gone were the chubby cheeks and scrawny shoulders. I looked like a man. I didn’t feel like a man. I still felt like the small twelve-year-old I had been stuck as for sixty-eight-years. I could already feel all the door frames I was going to run into.

I felt a tap on my knee. I looked down at Elliot.

“You can go online and if you find anything you like, I’ll magic it up in your size,” they threw something at me, which I barely caught. “That’s our debit card. It’s mostly for groceries but you can buy anything with it as long as it’s reasonable. It works in all ATMs if you need cash.

I nodded blankly.

“I’ll find you some clothes for you too.”

Elliot looked surprised but didn’t comment.

It did not take long for me to discover I was absolutely shit at filling out paperwork. I won’t bore you with the details but kindergarten registration forms are a bitch when you have no idea what you’re doing. Thank god, Elliot filled out mine. Also, back-to-school shopping is horrible. I bought all the stuff on the recommendation lists and then some, and I still feel terribly ill-prepared.

And then, I also wasn’t sure if I was supposed to make Elliot’s lunch or not. There was a form for free and reduced lunch but I had no clue how to fill it out or if we’d even qualify with our access to Elliot’s freaky debit card. Elliot’s a demon and probably very independent but this whole exercise is supposed to be a lesson in responsibility for me. In most of the sitcoms I’ve had the misfortune to watch, the mom makes the kids lunch but there’s no mom in this scenario. Am I expected to act as Elliot’s dad, mom, and brother? I’m not ready to be a parent!

“What’s with the panicked look on your face?”

I let out a high pitched shriek.

“Panicked? I have no panicked look on my face. Hi, Elliot. How are you?” I stuttered.

They gave me a puzzled expression like they didn’t believe me. Understandable, I wouldn’t have believed me.

“Humans typically take their dinner around 17:00, correct?”

17:00? What did he mean by–?

“Dinner! I forgot dinner! People need to eat,” I stumbled towards the bedroom door and past Elliot.

What should I make? Did I have enough ingredients? I presumably should not serve blood. Elliot’s vessel is doubtlessly human in needs. Mac n Cheese? Spaghetti? Soup?!

Accursed agony. I had tripped down the stairs. I forced myself up, thankful my accelerated healing had taken care of my broken bones and careened towards the kitchen. I slammed open the cabinets expecting meager supplies but was astonished to find the cupboard fully stocked.

“Where the fuck–”

“I bought groceries online earlier.”

I squawked again, startled by Elliot’s sudden appearance.

“Jesus Christ, Ellie. Don’t sneak up on me like that. You just stole twenty years off my life.”

They blinked up at me angelically.

“I thought humans avoided using profanity in front of young children,” they teased.

“Typically, yes but I don’t think I could ever accomplish censoring my language especially when I know you’re not actually five.”

They hummed neutrally but didn’t voice any approval and disappointment.

After checking over our bountiful supplies, I decided to make some vegetable soup with grilled cheese. I burnt the grilled cheese and I had somehow managed to put a hole in the bread. Elliot seemed to enjoy it anyway but I don’t think they have much experience with human food to provide a reliable critique.

At first, I was quite terrible at this big brother gig but as the school year drew closer I began to get the hang of it. I repainted one of the guest rooms and bought new sheets for Elliot. I did a significant amount of cleaning and rearranging in order to make the house livable again. I fixed a laundry schedule and repaired my floor. I disposed of all the garbage in the house. That took forever. I’m so proud of myself and Elliot seemed to approve.

And then the dreaded first day came. I walked Elliot to school extra early, at 7:15, so we wouldn’t be late and so I could meet their new teacher, Ms. Rita.

“Hello! Welcome to room three! My name’s Ms. Rita. Now who’s this sweet little boy,” she sang.

“Well, this is Elliot. I know it’s weird but he’ll be in both the morning and afternoon classes because there’s no one to pick him up.”

She blinked rapidly, seemingly perplexed by my explanation.

“Okie Dokie but I’m sure you could have worked something out with the After School Program instead of enrolling him in both classes.”

After School Program?

“I wasn’t aware that was an option,” I confessed.

Ms. Rita smiled at me sweetly. It felt like a “you poor idiot” smile.

“That’s okay, honey. Elliot can be my little teacher’s aide in the afternoon,” she crouched down to Elliot’s level. “How does that sound, Elliot?”

“Delightful,” they smiled politely at her.

For some reason, she gawked at Elliot’s reply. I wasn’t sure why until I remembered kindergartners do not usually use phrases like delightful. I glanced at my watch and cringed.

“I really should be going, Ellie, Ms. Rita. Ellie, do you have everything you need?”

“Yes.”

“And your lunch?”

They nodded.

“I'll pick you up after school. Have fun.”

Hesitantly, I kissed Elliot’s forehead. He beamed at me and waved good-bye. I felt a tug at my heartstrings and a feeling of fear in my gut. I briefly wondered who I was scared for. Myself? Elliot? Ms. Rita and her classes?

High School was weird to put it simply. I knew no one and somehow they all knew I was new. How they could possibly notice one new face in hundreds astounded me. Students in all my classes kept coming up to me and asking me questions. How old are you? Elliot’s voice echoed in my ears. Eighteen, I answered. Why did you transfer here? I didn't. I was homeschooled before, I replied. Why? I don't know. I've been homeschooled my whole life, I lied. Do you have any siblings? One, Elliot. He's five. Cue awe’s from the girls. I felt like an animal in the zoo.

The syllabuses we received seemed promising and I was really excited. It all whirled by so fast and I was soon walking back to the elementary school. Ms. Rita and Elliot were waiting for me by the gate. Elliot ran up to me, bouncing all the way. He looked happy to see me. I wondered if he was genuinely happy or faking it.

“Hey, Ellie. How was your day?”

“Great! I made three new friends in the morning class; Maria, Chris, and Alex. They're super duper nice. They've been friends since preschool and they invited me to join their soccer game when they saw I was all alone,” Elliot babbled. “I didn't make any friends in the afternoon classes yet. Ms. Rita says I will soon. They're just confused why I'm a teacher's aide and don't know how to approach me.”

My heart clenched. The demon most likely knee the afternoon class was jealous of him. I wondered if he cared, if he felt hurt by their resentment or if he even liked his new friends. Was he using them as a part of the act, or did he genuinely enjoy the children's company? I felt despicable thinking it because I liked Elliot a lot and I hoped he cared for me too and not out of necessity.

Our walk home was, unfortunately, eventful. Elliot and I had decided to have a race home and Elliot tripped over a body. Neither of us dared to move for approximately ten seconds.

“I should have expected this,” Elliot muttered resigned.

I didn't know how to feel. We had just found a body. Elliot was lying on top of it. I felt numb. I picked Elliot up and deposited him next to me. I grabbed my cell phone and punched in 9-1-1.

“9-1-1, what is your emergency?” the operator asked flatly.

“I… We found a dead body on… William St. It appears to be a woman.”

“A body, on Williams?” the operator questioned, sounding more awake.

“Yes.”

“Sir, please stay there. May I have your name and any of your companions’ names?”

“Richard Galvez and my little brother, Elliot. Elliot tripped over the body.”

The dispatcher made an annoyed sound.

“I'll be sure to let forensics know. We'll need to take samples from your brother to separate your brothers DNA from any of potential DNA left behind by the killer if it turns out to be a murder.”

Less than ten minutes later, the cops arrived on scene. They had some kind looking younger cop interview Elliot while I got the third degree. It took them an hour to track down the dead woman’s identity. June Clark, a businesswoman from out of state and registered lycanthropic. I heard one of the cops mutter about a possible hate crime. A few of them who recognized that I was a vampire scowled at me suspiciously. I hate Hollywood for festering that stupid myth that vampires and werewolves hate each other. One of the cops looked like he wanted to drag me to the station and book me but the inspector sent us on our way and thanked us for providing information.

I was asked to hand over my number in case they had any more questions at a later point. I internally groaned, knowing in a couple of weeks, I would know most, if not all, of their names.

Next time a body dropped around Elliot, I wasn’t there. I got a call from the elementary school during my lunch hour explaining I needed to come pick Elliot up. One of the janitors had taken a misstep on the roof and had landed in a bloody heap in front of Elliot and his friends. The school helpfully informed me of a good therapist and that school was canceled for the rest of the day so the police could conduct an investigation. I ran to my school’s attendance office so fast I practically left a dust cloud in my wake. I must have said something about the incident because the office lady looked completely distributed. She literally threw the note at me.

“Get going, boy!” she urged me.

I easily complied, racing to the elementary school like there was a psycho with a stake on my ass. When I got there, most of the children were gone. Elliot stood over by the group of three he had introduced to me earlier in the week. Maria was crying into Chris’s shirt while Chris was trying to stifle his own tears. Alex sat on the ground rocking slowly back and forth like a pendulum, staring off at something only he could see. I assumed it must have been the janitor’s corpse. Heaven knows Mrs. Clark still keeps me up with only the apathetic moon to keep me company. Her empty eyes staring into me, dry blood masking her right. Her face left contorted in a scream.

Elliot stood behind them, murmuring softly. His words appeared slow and hesitant like he didn’t know what to say and I knew he didn’t. His poor attempts to comfort me after the first corpse lingers in my mind. He had told me there was no need to be sad because I hadn’t known her, that her soul had moved on safely and she was resting before being put back in the reincarnation cycle. I observed him for a long time before gathering my thoughts into words and even then I felt my explanation lacking.

“I’m not upset she’s dead. I’m upset someone decided to play god, that someone thought they had the right to steal her away from her life, her family, and her dreams. That, someone, believed she had done something to deserve death. No one deserves to die, Elliot. No one,” I finally articulated.

He was struck speechless by my statement and walked away with a pensive expression.

Back to the present, Elliot put his hand on Alex’s shoulder and began to rub circles on it. Alex did not respond. Over by the steps, Ms. Rita was hunched over with her head in her hands. I walked over to her and sat down.

“I don’t understand how this happened,” she whispered.

“I don’t think anyone could find an explanation for how or why this happened. It just happened and we can’t fix it no matter how much we want to.”

She looked up at me, her make-up smeared and eyes red. Dry tear stains were prominent on her cheeks.

“The kids shouldn’t have had to see that,” she cried.

“No one should have to see that,” I breathed subdued.

She let out a short sob. I wanted to sob too. I was as good at comfort as Elliot, that is to say, not at all.

“It’s not your fault and kids bounce back fast. Most of them will forget about this in a couple of weeks.”

“And will Elliot be a part of the most? The body almost landed right on top of him. He was almost crushed, he could have died.”

“This is hardly the first body Ellie has seen.”

“WHAT?!” she whisper-yelled at me, stunned.

“He was the one who found Grandpa,” I fibbed. “And a couple of weeks ago he tripped over a body when we were on our way home.”

“Oh my god,” Ms. Rita gasped.

I nodded, as I often do when I have no idea what to say.

“But there was so much blood,” she fretted.

The poor woman. I doubt any amount of blood could phase Elliot but I still felt the desire to placate her concerns.

“I keep blood IVs in our fridge for my condition,” I gestured at my teeth. “And I drink the bags in front of him. He’s well desensitized to blood.”

“You’re a vampire!” she exclaimed in surprise. Then she flushed like she had something rude, which in some ways it was rude but I didn’t mind. “I’m sorry. I just never noticed… um… is Elliot one too?”

I shook my head.

“He’s human. A bit psychic though,” I lied.

“He can see the future?”

“No, not as far as I know. He can make stuff float and other stuff. Neither of us knows the full extent of it. He only started showing signs of it a couple weeks before Gramps passed.”

We sat peacefully in the silence for a few minutes, only broken by the upset noises from the children.

“I should take Ellie home. See you tomorrow.”

“Bye,” she said, determination springing into her eyes.

“Children, how about we all go inside and color for a while until your folks get here?” she shouted, forcing any of her feelings from before out of her mind in order to present a strong front for the little ones to cling to.

I admired Ms. Rita for that. I know I could never push my emotions down like that.

It was a struggle to get Elliot to leave Alex but I did it. I felt like the worst human being on Earth but I did it. I thought Elliot was going to send me to the shadow realm when I dragged him away. Seeing him like this made me feel guilty for ever doubting the sincerity of his friendship with the kids. He would obviously protect those kids like a mama bear would her cubs. Excuse me for being cliched, but I pitied the poor son of a bitch who attempt to upset one of them, let alone all three of them.

It was at that point I seriously began to consider if Elliot saw me as a good brother. Guardian? I tried my best but I didn’t know how well I succeeded. I couldn’t help but ask myself whether or not Elliot would leave when he declared my punishment complete. I didn’t want him to leave. The house had been so quiet before, so lonely and although Elliot was often soft-spoken, everything felt oddly better, more alive, with someone else’s breathing.

With Elliot in the house, there was more laughter, more energy. I wanted him to stay even if I had to put up with bodies dropping whenever we leave the house. I wanted to be his big brother despite him being unbelievably older than me. I wanted to see him smile and grow. I wanted to praise him for every good grade and encourage him through every bad grade. I wanted to see him go on dates and be happy. I wanted to be there for him and be his friend.

“What happens when I pass your test,” I questioned that evening at the dinner table.

Elliot paused mid-bite of my shitty casserole, which he seemed to enjoy for some unexplainable reason.

“I guess I would go back to the shadow realm,” Ellie muttered wistfully.

My grip tightened on my fork, steeling myself for rejection.

“Could you stay?”

Elliot’s fork clattered on his plate and he looked at me in shock.

“You’d like me to stay,” he blurted out, incredulously.

“Yes,” I answered without reluctance. “I would love it if you could stay.”

“Thanks. I would really like that,” he smiled at me, a small nervous smile that made me feel like I had done something amazing like save a life.

I didn’t save a life but I think I just changed his for the better. I hope he knew he had changed mine in the same way.

I hope you all enjoyed the Halloween Special. I may choose to expand on this story at a later date so, be on the lookout for that. I hope you guys enjoy the new blog set up. Don't forget to follow or subscribe (whichever damn on it is) for regular updates. Ask box is open for prompts :)

#autumn writes #halloween #writting #orignal #ricky the vampire #ricky galvez #elliot galvez #demonn character #fluff

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