#blake is a witch obviously

[goldenamaranthe-blog]

Ruby: Guys! Guys! There's a new ClickChat filter that has a quiz to see what kind of witch accomplice you are!

Yang: Oh, yeah! I've seen that one. It's basically between a black cat and white cat.

Ruby: We should all do it!

Blake: .....Seriously?

Ruby: (winces) Sorry, Blake.

Weiss: Obviously, I'd be a white cat.

Blake: .....Now, I have to play just to prove you wrong.

Ruby: Yes! Let's go, Team RWBY!

RWBY: (pull out their scrolls and complete the quiz)

Ruby: Hey! Look! (Shows everyone her picture) I'm a black cat!

Yang: Nice! (Turns her scroll for everyone to see) I'm a white cat.

Blake: Huh... (shows her screen) Me too. Honestly, I don't look half bad with white ears. Makes me feel better for when I start going grey.

Weiss: (seething in anger) What?! A black cat?!

Blake: (deadpan) What's wrong with being a black cat, Weiss?

Weiss: (sweats) Nothing!

#yang xiao long #blake belladonna #weiss schnee #bumbleby #ruby rose #rwby #rwby crack post #cat filter quiz #better run weiss

[commanderbuffy]

Sapphic Books Reccs

Here is my list of recommended sapphic books! There’s a lot of YA here since that’s a lot of what I read. Everything on this list I have personally read and can recommend. I’m sure there’s a TON out there I haven’t read or ones I have read and have just forgotten!

Contemporary

Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail by Ashley Herring Blake (Adult)

My favorite of Blake’s! Enemies to lovers. SO good.

Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake (Adult)

A woman falls for her step-sister’s best friend. Oh, and there’s a kiddo in the mix as well.

The Falling in Love Montage by Ciara Smyth (YA)

Two girls promise a summer of fun full of rom-com worthy dates. The only rule, no relationships. Just one summer, nothing more. Sure....

Forget Me Not by Alyson Derrick (YA)

Amnesia fic where a girl forgets she ever met her secret girlfriend in their ultra-conservative town.

Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating by Adiba Jaigirdar (YA)

Fake dating between the girl who wants to validate her bisexuality to her friends and the girl who doesn’t mind the popularity boost.

Her Name in the Sky by Kelly Quindlen (YA)

Best friends to lovers! A big piece of this is also the friend group involved.

Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli (YA)

Imogen thinks she’s just an Ally. Spoiler alert: she’s not. I loved the way friendship was explored in this. You see some really solid friendships as well as a subtly toxic one (that’s acknowledged as such).

Late to the Party by Kelly Quindlen (YA)

An ode to late bloomers and a journey to self-acceptance. A girl goes to her first party, befriends a gay guy who introduces her to new group of friends and one really cute girl

Margo Zimmerman Gets the Girl by Brianna Shrum and Sara Waxelbaum (YA)

Super fun involving a girl asking another girl fo “Queer 101″ lessons. Bi and Autistic rep too!

Perfect on Paper by Sophie Gonzales (YA)

A girl gives anonymous love advice and gets hired by a hot guy to help him get his ex back. Really FANTASTIC bi rep!

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston (Adult)

A sexy time-bendy romance with so much heart

She Drives Me Crazy by Kelly Quindlen (YA)

My FAVORITE rom-com. I reread it constantly. Fake dating, enemies-to-lovers between the cheer captain and basketball star!!

She Gets the Girl by Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick (YA)

Two girl team up to get their crushes to fall for them and start developing feelings for each other along the way.

Six Times We Almost Kissed by Tess Sharpe (YA)

Childhood frenemies forced to move in together for their best friend moms’ sake. Trauma filled and SO SO good.

Some Girls Do by Jennifer Dugan (YA)

A fun rom-com between an out queer athlete and the local beauty pageant queen.

We Are Okay by Nina LaCour (YA)

One of my favorite books of all time. A story about grief and friendship and love. A soft, quiet story.

Who I Was With Her by Nita Tyndall (YA)

A girl’s secret girlfriend dies and she is left to grieve alone until she finds herself turning to her girlfriend’s ex.

Science Fiction/Fantasy

Crier’s War by Nina Varela (YA)

A romance that leads to revolution by between two girls: one human, one Made

The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow (Adult)

This is historical and fantasy! Suffragette witches! Another one of those books I wish I could read again for the first time. Three sisters, one of them has a WLW romance

Thriller/Horror

Hide by Kiersten White (Adult)

A high-stakes hide and seek competition in an abandoned amusement park. One of my all-over favorite books of 2022.

House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland (YA)

No wlw romance in this one, but the main character and her sister are both wlw. My absolute favorite book of 2021. What I would pay to read this for the first time again.

The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe (YA)

The daughter of a con artist is finally allowed to stop running and faking her identity, only to get stuck in a bank heist with her ex-boyfriend and current girlfriend.

Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand (YA)

Three girls who shouldn’t have a reason to team up together against an ancient evil. The new girl, the pariah, and the queen bee who’s been helping the evil all along. I have reread this book easy a dozen times.

Throwaway Girls by Andrea Contos (YA)

When a girl goes searching for her missing best friend, she finds a trail of other missing girls and battles with heartbreak after her girlfriend leaves her for California.

Wilder Girls by Rory Power (YA)

Quarantined at her girl’s school after a gruseome Tox breaks out, a girl must find what happened to her best friend who’s gone missing

Historical

Great or Nothing by Joy McCullough, Caroline Tung Richmond, Tess Sharpe, and Jessica Spotswood (YA)

The queer Little Women retelling we all deserve with a SAPPHIC JO! Set in 1942. Beth’s POV still haunts my heart

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray (YA)

Two of the major supporting characters are WLW. This becomes more important and on the page in the later books in this series, but this is the first one.

Music from Another World by Robin Talley (YA)

1970s California. Two girls become penpals and bond over music.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Adult)

Hollywood icon Evelyn Hugo famously had seven husbands. This is the story of her wife.

#sapphic books #wlw books #Book Recommendations #book reccs #book list

[richincolor]

We have five books on our radar this week, and there's something for just about everyone here. Which ones are you adding to your TBR list?

Against the Darkness (In Every Generation #3) by Kandare Blake Disney Hyperion

This epic finale to the The Next Generation trilogy by New York Times bestselling author Kendare Blake ( Three Dark Crowns ) features the next generation of Scoobies and Slayers who must defeat a powerful new evil. For generations, the Slayer was supposed to be the chosen, the one girl in all the world with the power to stand against the vampires, demons, and forces of darkness. When Willow used the scythe to call up all the potential slayers at once, it changed everything. For years, the slayers have been working and fighting together as a team. Then the Darkness came, killing many slayers and trapping the rest in an alternate dimension. And Frankie Rosenberg, the world’s first Slayer-Witch, found herself fighting evil alone. Sort of. Sure, she has her new Scooby Gang, plus the help of her mom, Willow; Watcher, Spike; and even the brooding-but-hot Hunter of Thrace. But even though they have a master plan (obviously), the gang is more fragmented than ever. So maybe it really is up to Frankie—and Frankie alone—to stand against the darkness. With Jake’s wild werewolf brother back in town, Dark Willow threatening to return, and the Darkness preparing for the final stage of their attack, now is not a great time to wallow in teen angst. After all, she’s the Slayer. It’s time to slay.

And Then There Was Us by Kern Carter Tundra Books

A mother's death forces a teen girl to reevaluate their tumultuous relationship in this powerful coming-of-age novel for teens. For fans of I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter. Coi is just eighteen years old, but has already survived years of physical and verbal abuse from her mother. After being kicked out of her mother's house at age fourteen, Coi has lived with her father, and together they've created a peaceful life. That peace ends suddenly when her mother dies. While Coi struggles to find kindness in her heart for the woman who only hurt her, she starts having lucid dreams, forcing her to relive moments of abuse and emotional trauma that eventually led to Coi's abandonment. Her mother's passing also reopens the door to her mother's side of the family, including her beloved younger half-sister, Kayla, her stepfather and her grandmother. Each of them challenge Coi's long-held views about her mother, especially Kayla, who, Coi realizes, is taking their mother's loss hard. As she reconnects with her family, Coi learns to see parts of her mother she never experienced, and for the first time since she was abandoned, opens her heart to forgiveness.

Canto Contigo by Jonny Garza Villa Wednesday Books

When a Mariachi star transfers schools, he expects to be handed his new group's lead vocalist spot—what he gets instead is a tenacious current lead with a very familiar, very kissable face. In a twenty-four-hour span, Rafael Alvarez led North Amistad High School’s Mariachi Alma de la Frontera to their eleventh consecutive first-place win in the Mariachi Extravaganza de Nacional; and met, made out with, and almost hooked up with one of the cutest guys he’s ever met. Now eight months later, Rafie’s ready for one final win. What he didn’t plan for is his family moving to San Antonio before his senior year, forcing him to leave behind his group while dealing with the loss of the most important person in his life—his beloved abuelo. Another hitch in his plan: The Selena Quintanilla-Perez Academy’s Mariachi Todos Colores already has a lead vocalist, Rey Chavez—the boy Rafie made out with—who now stands between him winning and being the great Mariachi Rafie's abuelo always believed him to be. Despite their newfound rivalry for center stage, Rafie can’t squash his feelings for Rey. Now he must decide between the people he’s known his entire life or the one just starting to get to know the real him. Canto Contigo is a love letter to Mexican culture, family and legacy, the people who shape us, and allowing ourselves to forge our own path. At its heart, this is one of the most glorious rivals-to-lovers romance about finding the one who challenges you in the most extraordinary ways.

Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier Clarion Books

From acclaimed author Makiia Lucier, a dazzling, romantic fantasy inspired by Pacific Island mythology. In the old tales, it is written that the egg of a seadragon, dragonfruit, holds within it the power to undo a person’s greatest sorrow. An unwanted marriage, a painful illness, and unpaid debt ... gone. But as with all things that promise the moon and the stars and offer hope when hope has gone, the tale comes with a warning. Every wish demands a price. Hanalei of Tamarind is the cherished daughter of an old island family. But when her father steals a seadragon egg meant for an ailing princess, she is forced into a life of exile. In the years that follow, Hanalei finds solace in studying the majestic seadragons that roam the Nominomi Sea. Until, one day, an encounter with a female dragon offers her what she desires most. A chance to return home, and to right a terrible wrong. Samahtitamahenele, Sam, is the last remaining prince of Tamarind. But he can never inherit the throne, for Tamarind is a matriarchal society. With his mother ill and his grandmother nearing the end of her reign. Sam is left with two to marry, or to find a cure for the sickness that has plagued his mother for ten long years. When a childhood companion returns from exile, she brings with her something he has not felt in a very long time - hope. But Hanalei and Sam are not the only ones searching for the dragonfruit. And as they battle enemies both near and far, there is another danger they cannot escape…that of the dragonfruit itself.

The Smoke That Thunders by Erhu Kome Norton Young Readers

From a debut Nigerian author: a spectacular young adult fantasy rooted in West African mythology and brimming with adventure. In this mesmerizing fantasy rooted in Urhobo and West African folklore, sixteen-year-old Naborhi longs for a life away from her small, traditional clan in Kokori. But as her rite of passage approaches and she is betrothed to an arrogant young man, Naborhi feels her dreams slipping away from her. Then Naborhi becomes bonded to a mysterious animal and begins having harrowing visions of a kidnapped boy. She soon meets Atai, the son of an Oracle from a rival queendom, and learns that she is being guided by the gods. She and Atai, along with Naborhi’s eager-for-adventure cousin, Tamunor, set off across the continent to rescue the mysterious boy. But when they find him―and find out his true identity―Naborhi realizes there is more than just her freedom at stake: she must stop a war that has already been set in motion. With lush, unique worldbuilding and a dynamic cast of characters, The Smoke That Thunders is a gripping story of political intrigue, fierce love, and what it means to be free.

#against the darkness #and then there was us #canto contigo #dragonfruit #the smoke that thunders #new releases

[void-botanist]

Standing, Asalun, & Associates

An AOM &c. AU that nobody asked for, so I'm delivering!

This is me taking Mystery Incorporated, Dead End: Paranormal Park, Hilda, Mob Psycho 100, and let's be honest, the whole ghost segment of The Sword Interval that lives rent-free in my mind into one vibeful concept: Horatio and Marcus run a paranormal investigation business.

Due to all of their proposed names being terrible puns or just not catchy, they gave up and called it Standing & Asalun. They run it out of what is Horatio's Flowers in AOM, and they do extremely lackluster business. However, Celia thinks it's the most delightful fucking thing and inserted herself into the investigation so much that they essentially hired her. She still has a day job, like Marcus, and unlike Horatio MyOwnBoss Standing. Eventually Allison joined in, and even if they would hire him he doesn't actually want the job, so he's technically a contractor. Still, the addition of another regular meant that they finally felt like they had to change the name to Standing, Asalun, & Associates.

Season One

Season one is the alternate story to AOM and begins with things going poorly as usual - they're not actually that bad at their job, but they have a hard time finding people who actually need paranormal things investigated, or even stuff they can put on their video channel - until Sid blows into town, with his parents not far behind. Horatio is instantly convinced that something is Off. No one else agrees - obviously Sid is just having a bad time and is also sixteen years older than when they last saw him. Horatio is ready to acknowledge that he was just too hungry for a lead when Sid starts having dreams that are very clearly not normal weird but paranormal weird. On an island that seems to have nothing paranormal going on, there's nowhere they could possibly be coming from...unless Sid's recently arrived parents have something to do with it. But they're not even witches, let alone known to be capable of whatever this is. So why do they seem to make the dreams worse but their muddy message clearer? SAA - but especially Horatio and the newest associate, Sid - will stop at nothing to find out.

Starring

Horatio Standing

keeps the books

makes the pepe silvia boards

lives above SAA

brings the Fred Jones energy

Marcus Asalun

makes most of the money that goes into the books with his art

designs the ghost science experiments

lives elsewhere but if he could fit his studio into Horatio's place he'd probably just live there. it would cost less

brings the Velma Dinkley energy

Celia Standing

manages the morale

gives the pep talks

lives with Allison

brings the Daphne Blake energy

Allison Hughes

keeps to his own schedule

bakes the snacks

lives with Celia, but it's his house

brings the Shaggy Rogers energy (or Scooby, because wolf)

Sid Reid

keeps a log of his strange nightmares

makes all the food that's not snacks

lives with Horatio and also in fear of his parents, paranormal influence or no

brings the Mr. E energy

with additional appearances by

Avis Peynon

is not your fucking chauffeur service damn it

Sorian Shank

inherited Fred Jones's legendary trapbuilding abilities

Phil Shank

will be your chauffeur service if you don't kill her vibe

Leon Standing

has a book on that but no he doesn't know what the text means either

Edith Standing

banned from contracting with SAA because she pranked them too much

Donovan Reid

is obviously a paranormal intensifier because he's clearly the coolest guy in the world

Emma Reid

read a book about this once and yes she's sure she knows what the text means

#energy here is mostly role but there's also some personality stuff in there. you can't tell me Horatio isn't basically Fred #c: Horatio #c: Sid #c: Marcus #c: Celia #c: Allison #c: Donovan #c: Emma #c: Leon #c: Edith #c: Phil #c: Avis #c: Sorian #wip: aom #au: saa

[oflostinfound]

(from @autumna-potentia)

"Hax?..." Blake's words broke the quiet tension just like the realization broke the ice in their mind. The similarities were undeniable, even though they hadn't know each other for that long. They wanted to step closer and ask what was happening.

But what if this isn't Hax? What if this is Hax, but this monster was their true nature? What could it be capable of doing?

Cyrus wouldn't let them get closer. It was too dangerous, even if the one before them was Hax - the Hax they knew. Or rather, thought they knew.

"What's happening with you?" They asked, voice unsure but unwavering - to hide the fresh fear and total confusion in their thoughts.

So they stood there, awaiting a response, fingers still clenched around the handle of the revolver hidden in their jacket and thumb ready to pull back the hammer. Even their finger was on the trigger, despite knowing better trigger discipline. The sooner they were able to shoot, the better.

|| 💛 ||: ❝ Witch, w-what are you doing here? ❞ || 💛 ||: ❝ Great, another to disappoint. ❞

The voices speak in unison, one with a tremble, one with a snarl, as they crane their neck to glare and eyes back at them. Back turned, hunched over as claws dug into the ground.

Witch didn't know them well enough yet to have too many negative thoughts flood in about the past. What did flood in were the what ifs, the future that they would have obviously messed up. They had already built the perfect ruse, the mask of the baker. The happy go lucky giant who lived in a small town- living with their friend / sister.

Still, even if they were just starting to become friends...

A snide smile crosses half of their face-

|| 💛 ||: ❝ No- No! Witch, RU- Mmm-! ❞

They turn around, having pressed their palm over the saddened face's mouth.

|| 💛 ||: ❝ Why don't you come closer-❞

@autumna-potentia

#💚 || ask answered #autumnapotentia #💛 || the guardian #💚 || rp #💔 || the guardian's inner demon #body horror tw #self deprecation tw

[velmautism]

The Dreamlike Tint to the Shades of Secrecy

...Or, the rewrite of Witch's Ghost, if it took place in the Inception universe that I wrote for funsies.

Synopsis: Famous horror writer Ben Ravencroft finds himself the mark for a little-known but notoriously proficient group of information gatherers. Little do they know, he knows exactly who they are and what they do– after all, what author hasn't happened across sketchy information before?

What do they want? Can he make them help him find some information he's looking for, after he's had his fun running them in circles?

Word count: 12,097

Ben Ravencroft blinks back to awareness, having seemingly been lost in thought. He shakes his head to clear the lingering cloud of confusion around him and drums his fingers on the surface of his writing desk, which helps to bring back his clarity of mind. Was he writing? His keyboard is pushed off to the side, as if he needed the space clear for something.

"Before we begin our interview," one of the women in front of him says, and he raises his head as she extends her hand for him to shake, "I just wanted to say it's a dream come true to be here, Mister Ravencroft."

He recognizes this woman immediately, with her auburn bob and oversized square-framed glasses. An eager smile lights up her rounded features, and the redhead next to her rolls her eyes good-naturedly. Both are seated across from his writing desk, and the redhead seems to be armed with a handheld audio recorder.

He knows who both of these women are, but the pretense they're presenting him with obviously means they don't know that. They probably don't know he suspects he's dreaming, either.

Despite being dressed in professional suits and behaving otherwise, they're not journalists.

They're thieves.

Well, not the typical sort of thief he'd expect to see in his mansion– they're not after wealth. They're after something much more valuable. They're after information. He knows something they don't, and they're here to coax... no, extract it out of him.

What they're after, he isn't sure of yet. Better to play along and figure it out, rather than immediately lay his cards on the table.

"I am a huge fan of your work," she continues as he grasps her hand and shakes it firmly. "I've read all your books, which, in my opinion, are the best horror stories ever written!"

"Er, thanks," he responds easily, playing right into her ruse. He wonders why he's finally face-to-face with this particular group, and what they want to know. "That's very kind, Miss..."

"Daly," she asserts with ease. "Linda Daly." The name rolls off her tongue as naturally as it would if it had really been her name all her life, and he knows she must use this particular false name with everyone.

But he knows better, and he knows her name is not Linda Daly.

Her name is Velma Dinkley, and previous curiosity has led him to research as much as he can about her and her friends.

She's a mastermind in every sense of the word, plotting and planning the finest details of every job she runs with ruthless efficiency. She operates similarly to how he's already handled her, and has likely researched him extensively. He wonders if she knows he knows her. It's too bad he's made a larger public name for himself– she probably knows more about him than he does about her. Well, hopefully that's soon to change.

Velma is rarely, if ever, seen apart from the sort-of leader of her little team of thieves– Daphne Blake, the motivating drive and task manager behind extraction who allegedly knows everything there is to know about getting into someone's head. Even working as a pair these two are formidably deceptive according to past clients, but he knows that somewhere nearby their cohorts, Fred and... Shaggy, was it..? may be around. Maybe they're here in the dream as well, but he suspects they're up above.

That's why, he resolves, he's going to keep his mouth shut. Why ruin their attempt at secrecy before he knows exactly what they want from him? Why ruin Linda's Velma's expectations for him, if she thinks he's in the dark?

Plus, they're good at uncovering secrets. If he plays along, can they help him?

"Just couldn't help yourself, could you?" Daphne asks, blue eyes twinkling mischievously, and it's then that Ben realizes Velma's comment on his books being her favorite is genuine. "I'm Kelly Kensington," she lies.

Interesting! He can work with this, he thinks.

"Oh, I find it quite flattering," he responds easily, patting Velma's hand once before letting go. "I've admired the supernatural and the occult for a long time, Miss Daly. Research on them led me to try to unearth all of the secrets of the supernatural world, and that inspired me to start writing horror novels."

"And I have to say, they're a hit," Daphne says, and he knows what she's doing. She's the extractor– she's trying to use her tricks to keep his attention with her, to get deeper into his head. "With more people than just Linda, that is. They say you're reshaping the horror genre as we know it, with gruesome frights and often-graphic depictions of the supernatural, as well as fantastic characters. Plenty of authors of fiction, regardless of genre, claim they create their best characters when they use real-life muses as inspiration. Is that true for you as well, Mister Ravencroft?"

Interesting question, he thinks. She must be dancing around the heart of what she actually wants to extract, so he starts to formulate what she might be looking for– information on someone he knows? Could she even be alluding to Sarah? If he's going to pry the reason they're here out of them, Velma might ironically be the weak link. He wants to keep his attention on her, he decides.

He smiles. "Oh, absolutely. One has to draw inspiration from somewhere, right? I often find myself taking small traits, habits, and quirks I've observed from others and pepper them into my characters. It's a good way to breathe life into a story, to make the frights they experience that much more gripping for the reader. People-watching is probably a writer's best time investment. Now, if you don't mind me asking a question, I'm curious to know if you have a favorite character I've written, Miss Daly."

She flushes a bit pink at that, clearly not expecting him to try to hold her attention. He's set a trap, and she seems to be falling right into it. Since he's certain of who she is, he suspects that the detail-orientedness intrinsic to her job will help him deduce her motives. He just has to pick up the clues from her.

"Oh, how could I pick just one?" she starts. "Well... if I had to, I'd probably say that creepy jewelry store owner from 'The Dead Mall.' I just couldn't put it down until I understood her motives, she was an incredibly complex character!"

So she likes enigmas, he figures. She likes puzzles, and enjoys trying to solve people.

That's absolutely fascinating to him.

He enjoys the very same thing.

It's too bad, really, that she's trying to solve the wrong side of him...

"Oh, a marvelous choice. She was one of my favorite characters to write, but I was never sure if she'd be well-received. I'd think that since you work with the general public, you journalists would be fairly good at understanding people and what motivates them. If I kept you guessing, I'll take that as a compliment on my writing."

He means every word of that, too. If her job is research and deep-dives on her marks, keeping her guessing is a tribute to his writing ability.

She falls prey to flattery quite easily, he starts to suspect as she titters. At the very least, she obviously enjoys the chance to really be able to speak with him. Everything he's dug up on her only speaks for her skills and abilities– meeting her, he's gone in completely blind to her actual personality. He wasn't sure what to expect, but he's finding himself more and more fascinated by this analyst the longer he interacts with her.

"Wow," Daphne says, and her smile is just a little too tight-lipped to be genuine. "Who would have thought the author of such dark stories would be so charismatic? I would have thought you darker and more... well, brooding, being a famous horror writer."

He responds good-naturedly, "Aw, just because I write gruesome stories and happen to be fascinated by macabre subjects, that doesn't necessarily mean I have to be edgy and morbid."

Daphne laughs shortly, and it's almost blatantly apparent she doesn't entirely like dealing with him, nor does she entirely believe in this facade he's putting up.

"I agree, but I'm curious now that you've brought up your interests– what sort of research into, as you put it, 'macabre subjects' do you usually do? Do you do any, in order to make your stories more realistic?"

Of course he does. It's how he knows about them in the first place.

Velma shoots Daphne a look, one Ben can't decipher the meaning of.

"Well, of course I do, Miss Kensington," he responds. "Any author realistically would. After all, I can't very well write horror if I don't have an appetite for it."

The slightest hint of a knowing smile stretches across Daphne's lips, and she leans in closer to him.

"And have you ever come across anything... particularly dark or disturbing? Something no one would expect to find out, with any level of depth of research?"

If Ben's hunch is accurate, they are poking at the secret he's thinking about. Not like he's particularly ashamed of it, but he can see why it would seem particularly scandalous. But if he's going to play a single card, he has to make sure he has his 'in.'

"You two sound like you're getting at something," he says simply, then he lets that hang in the air. It works as intended– both tense, and Daphne leans back defensively. They share another quick glance at each other, but neither speaks. He chuckles, dissipating the tension in the air. "I'm an open book- whatever is on your mind, you go on ahead and ask."

They both look relieved, and Daphne looks to Velma again– a question without asking it. Velma nods once, very quickly and very briefly.

"Mister Ravencroft," Daphne says softly, as if informing him of very dire news, "there are rumors going around that you have... a bit of a dark family secret concerning your lineage and ancestry. Is this true?"

Bingo.

They aren't the first people to try to dig up that dirty little family secret, but they're certainly the most clever. But now he has the advantage of knowing exactly what their gambit is. He rarely gets asked about it anymore, and while the honest answer is yes he's always been very careful about keeping his lies vague.

Of course he knows about it– only the Ravencrofts do. It's a wicked family story, the story of the Scourge of Oakhaven. All public accounts and records of the incident were buried hundreds of years ago when she was imprisoned, in order to maintain and preserve the integrity of the family name. The Ravencrofts are an old family in Oakhaven, and even without the aid of evil sorcery they're very powerful.

Influence mixed with the passage of time has done wonders for the memory of the nightmare the town had faced at her hands. As years have passed, they've all forgotten what had happened.

But the living Ravencrofts haven't.

Ben ignores the tape recorder in Daphne's hand and gives a quick conspiratorial glance around the room, as if making sure nobody else is listening in. Then he leans in, folding his hands on his desk. His display of secrecy works, and the two women draw closer.

"Well," he murmurs, "as a matter of fact... I have an ancestor who lived here hundreds of years ago– Sarah Ravencroft." He pauses for effect, and the two wait silently for him to continue with rapt interest. "She was persecuted in the 1600s, here in Oakhaven... as an evil witch."

Velma gasps softly, but Daphne looks relatively unfazed by this confession.

"I don't believe a word of it, though," he continues, in order to lure them further in.

He can't quite give them what they want, not without getting something in return. By leaving them in suspense, he hopes he'll inspire them to do a little more digging to uncover the full truth. If this is a dream, he's willing to let them prod at his subconscious if it'll help him find what he's looking for– it's evaded him in the real world for far too long.

"The notion that she was an evil witch is ridiculous. Sarah Ravencroft was a healer, a medicine woman. She practiced natural remedies for patients who couldn't see a doctor, for one reason or another. Matter of fact, it's even said that she kept a journal of all of her patients and remedies."

Daphne and Velma share another look.

"Could we see this journal, Mister Ravencroft?" Daphne asks.

He laughs shortly. "If I had it, I'd be only too happy to show it to you, Miss Kensington. Sadly, she was found guilty of sorcery and sentenced to death by execution. All of her relics were lost. It's a shame– that journal could be instrumental in proving her innocence, but it may never again see the light of day."

Velma thinks this through for just a moment.

"Lost or destroyed?" she finally asks, and Ben can't help but grin.

"Only lost," he responds innocently, and if the spark in their eyes is any indication this was exactly what they wanted to hear. This is what they've been looking for.

Good.

Him, too.

~☆°~•~°☆~

These people are good, Ben thinks as he meanders alongside them, at what they do.

He'd expected them to be put off by his insistence on wandering Oakhaven after they had conducted their "interview," but now he sees exactly why they've taken him up on his offer.

If he hadn't known he was dreaming from the get-go, he'd have fallen right for it. He knows this with absolute certainty. Every landmark and point of interest he's passed thus far is exactly where it belongs– Molly Parken's Bed and Breakfast, Jack's restaurant, the post office, the bakery, the landmarks. The layout is nearly identical to the town he grew up in. But there's a subtle twist right in the details, something he wouldn't have caught if he wasn't looking: anything commercial and not of note; specifically skyscrapers and buildings where he'd expect to find a law firm, office, or other general business setting; is left completely bare and nondescript. His eye is automatically drawn to the points of interest, strategically placed so he's meant to ignore everything else.

He isn't sure if this is a strength in the design or a weakness. If it's a weakness, it's blatant why it would be– an entire town is difficult to replicate, even a small one. If it's a strength, he supposes it may serve to remind the dreamers they're dreaming. Either way, he's absolutely certain he isn't supposed to be looking this deep, with the way Daphne and Velma are struggling to hold his attention as they make their way to the town square.

He can only attribute this level of detail to their architect, Fred Jones. According to his sources, the man's aptitude for building entire dream worlds is legendary. Knowing what he's researched, it's likely that even if the lack of description in the town is a weakness, he's found a clever way to work around it.

All around them, there's more foot traffic than he's used to seeing in town. He wonders if it's their doing, or his. Every face looks unfamiliar but vaguely familiar, and occasionally one or two turns to stare at Daphne and Velma with what he can only describe as wary curiosity. They look completely unbothered by it– must be part of the job. But he notices the stares, and his eyes catch on everything they try to divert his attention from.

The idle chatter they engage him in is opposite to how what he's decided to call Faux-haven is laid out– mundane enough to keep him off his guard, but occasionally peppered with points of interest: Sarah, the history of the town, the record of her execution. Velma bombards him with idle chitchat about his books, and Daphne waits for the right times to ask the right questions.

It's a clever ruse, he thinks, but it's too bad he's seen right through it from the very beginning. Daphne is starting to look rather frustrated with her fruitless attempts to get answers out of him– he's good at dodging the truth without flat-out changing the subject. Velma, however, looks happy as a clam.

She doesn't look at all guilty of what she's trying to do, though.

Then again, he's sure he doesn't either.

This back-and-forth continues all the way up until they reach the City Park, and Ben spots a face he finally has every reason to recognize.

What's he doing here? Is it because of Ben, or because of them?

"Mayor? Mayor Corey?" he asks aloud, and the mayor turns around.

"Ben, my boy!" he exclaims as a grin stretches across his face. "I thought I recognized your car– I'm glad you could come home to help plan this year's Autumnfest! It's gonna be extra spectacular this time around, you just wait!"

Right, he thinks, Autumnfest. The biggest thing little-old-Oakhaven is known best for, but 'big' may be too nice a word to describe the event. It happens, the second weekend of every October, and draws in maybe a few extra leaf peepers looking for some spectacular fall color.

It isn't a bad festival by any means, and it's a nice tradition for the town. But it's... not the most popular.

Plus, it looks like it's currently late spring.

Mayor Corey has always been a little too excited about Autumnfest and the meager tourism it attracts, but never enough to try to plan the event six months in advance.

There must be a reason they've intentionally programmed Autumnfest into the dream. He just has to wait to figure it out.

"I see you brought some..." Mayor Corey pauses. His eyes land on Daphne and Velma, and then narrow slightly as they shift from the women to Ben, then back to the women. It's obvious he's just as suspicious of them as Daphne seems to be of Ben.

"Journalists," he responds calmly, and Corey seems to relax just slightly. "And hopefully future guests at Autumnfest. This is Linda Daly, and Kelly Kensington," he introduces them.

With Ben's willingness to let them in, it seems the figures in his mind are somewhat content to stay calm. Mayor Corey laughs it off and extends his hand, which Daphne takes first.

"Well, welcome! The more, the merrier!"

"But I have a question– what's going to make Autumnfest 'extra spectacular' this year?" Ben asks, just to skip past their farce and get to the heart of the matter. "Don't you think it's a little too soon to be thinking about something that won't even begin until October?"

"Well, I'm glad you asked," he says. "We've been working on a little project, in order to bring in more tourists year-round. We've begun construction on a recreation of a Puritan village, and we've been been digging up relics left and right. We finally found it– something big. We found Sarah Ravencroft's grave marker."

"Her grave marker?" he asks, feigning interest. Clearly, this information is entirely fictitious. Sarah's grave marker, in the real world, has probably been lost beneath centuries of mulch.

Velma and Daphne have added Mayor Corey to this world on purpose, as a means of benefiting their narrative. They must simply be depending on Ben and his memories to fill in the blanks on Corey's personality.

At least it makes sense now. They're using Autumnfest and the spookiness associated with Halloween to continue to drag on this Sarah business.

Still, it does work to his advantage.

"Aye-uh, we sure did!" He pauses. "...But nothing else, I'm afraid. No bones."

"What about a book?" he asks again, just to continue to appear like he's in the dark.

"A book?"

"You know how long I've been searching for Sarah's journal, Mayor, to..!" He pretends to compose himself, and takes a deep breath before lowering his voice. "To officially clear our family name."

He's been searching for that damned book for a long time, that much is true. But his reasoning certainly isn't.

"Well, hold on a minute, Ben, this secrecy about Sarah's true nature might be a good thing. Because that's what's going to make Autumnfest a better attraction– a publicity stunt, courtesy of the appearance of the Witch's Ghost!"

Ben almost doubles over with laughter, then and there. It's so absurdly like the real Mayor Corey, thinking of creating a hokey publicity stunt as a means of boosting popularity. It absolutely must be his mind supplying Mayor Corey with his personality– there's no way either of these two would be able to capture just how ridiculous he can be.

Instead of laughing himself silly, Ben falls back on his old standby of feigning ignorance and absolute innocence.

"Witch's Ghost?!" he asks indignantly. "That's ridiculous– I thought we'd gotten past all of this witch nonsense!"

In reality, they haven't– it's one of the biggest things he's still at odds with Mayor Corey about. Mayor Corey is right, of course, but admitting to it would lose Ben any sympathy he has in Oakhaven. No one in that pathetic town can possibly understand the true power he's capable of wielding, and it's such a mortal response to fear what can't be understood.

Mayor Corey has no idea that the truth is buried right there in the very town hall he occupies every day, the truth that was finally buried in the mid-1660s. The truth that Sarah was evil. The truth that Ben's potential power far outweighs what Corey believes his mayoral status carries.

All Corey has is his superstition. And superstition, even if true, is for fools.

"What can I say, Ben? It's undeniable that she was persecuted as a witch in 1657!"

"Unjustly persecuted!" he doubles down, taking a step forward just to drive his point home. "Sarah Ravencroft was a medicine woman who practiced natural healing, and was unfairly accused because of her eccentric ways!"

"Just like the Salem witch trials," Velma interjects, smiling calmly in spite of the tension Ben's pretended to create. "Many men and women who were a bit different, or didn't conform to the codes of the colony, suffered the same fate. As a matter of fact, Massachusetts legislature is even working to pass an act to exonerate the thirty men and women who were found guilty, and name them innocent. In the meantime, the descendants of the victims have been working to establish their ancestors' innocence. It's no wonder you've been searching for that book for so long, Ben. Whether or not Sarah was alone in this town in standing trial for witchcraft and sorcery, Oakhaven may never get the public recognition Salem did."

Ben's completely stunned by her spouting off this much information– does she actually believe him? Is it working out in his favor that he happens to be her favorite author? Or is it simply her will to pursue knowledge and fact manifesting in how she behaves?

Either way, he thinks, he can really use this to his advantage.

He was smart to keep his attention on her. He intends to keep it up.

"I'm impressed, Velma," he says, just to watch her eyes light up. It's almost adorable, just how wrapped around his finger he has her. Daphne rolls her eyes. "It means a lot to have someone on my side." He casts an annoyed glance at Mayor Corey, who feigns offense.

Real or not real, every iteration of him Ben has ever crossed has been insufferable.

Daphne gets over her annoyance.

"Well, I never knew that Oakhaven had its own witch trials," she says. "Is there anywhere in town to commemorate or acknowledge what happened? A public statement? It would make a good attraction to bounce to after visiting the Puritan village, I think."

Oh, interesting. His memory must reflect off of the people in his dream. Mayor Corey knows what she's talking about, but he looks a little torn between the two truths Ben knows. He knows what Ben knows, but Corey's not supposed to know.

"There sure is, my girl!" he finally exclaims cheerfully. "I'll walk you there, if you'd like."

"Would I ever," Daphne responds with just as much enthusiam. That's cute, Ben thinks. She thinks she's going to get any better information out of Mayor Corey than she's gotten out of Ben, and she thinks this is a good thing. But he figures working at suppressing what he knows has worked thus far, and he wonders if he can limit what she'll find even further.

But this does present him with a slight problem. She'll have to realize, eventually, that he knows what's going on. The clock is ticking faster, if he's going to have any hope of learning what he wants to know.

He's going to have to improve his tactics, he concludes.

He's going to have to work harder at cracking Velma.

This analyst has been so eager to demonstrate her intelligence. It's high time Ben gives her the chance to show him what she can do.

"Do you want to go too, Linda?" he asks, purposely addressing her more personally. "Or, I'm going to Jack's for lunch. You're welcome to join me, if you'd like. We can talk more about Sarah there."

A small inkling of him wonders if she'll forgive him for what he's planning to do.

Then he quells it.

What use is there in wondering about something so useless? Why would he need her forgiveness or understanding, if he has all the power he could ever want at his fingertips?

Her eyes light up again, but there's a distinct look behind them that catches him completely off guard. She looks thrilled, but in the same way he would think a spider would if something crawled into her web.

Then she beams, and the feeling is lost on him.

He's getting nervous, now that he's so close to getting what he wants. Velma isn't the people person. Velma isn't the experienced liar. Daphne is. Ben is.

"Would I ever!" she exclaims, clasping her hands together in front of her. "I'll meet up with you later, Kelly!"

"Okay," Daphne responds with total ambivalence, and then she's off with the fake mayor.

Ben steals a quick glance back at Velma.

The sunlight shines across her dark brown eyes completely innocuously.

Exactly the way he expects it to.

~☆°~•~°☆~

While the other people in his dream have been rather short with Velma and Daphne at first glance, Jack is his usual bubbly cloying self.

Ben has never thought of Jack as the sharpest tool in the shed. All he thinks about is cooking and generally acting a little too sycophantic for his own good.

So it's either that, or his conscious decision to continue to allow Velma to poke around in his mind has helped his subconscious, on some level, acclimate to her presence.

Either way, his influence completely shapes just how welcome she is in his dream.

He finds that completely fascinating. If he really wanted to, he could probably snap his fingers and see her torn to shreds by several angry faces.

But he doesn't want to.

He wants her to be completely off her guard, and comfortable enough around him to give something vital away.

So Jack's warm welcome is nothing but a boon, as well as his insistence on seating them near the back of the restaurant– his V.I.P. area, he's always called it.

The restaurant is immaculate, much like the rest of the hotspots he's seen within Faux-haven. Everything is just the way he remembers it– down to the ring stains on the tables he passes as Jack guides them to the booth in the back.

"Order anything you want," he tells her as she sits across from him. "It's on me."

"Oh!" she exclaims. "That's alright, I can foot my own bill."

Of course she can, he thinks with mild irritation. This isn't a real restaurant, after all. And even if it were somehow real against all odds, he supposes the work she does keeps her plenty stable financially.

But he's determined to keep playing to her good side, just to dig in a little deeper.

"No, really," he says, reaching across the table for her– he doesn't exactly grab her hand, that's far too intimate. He just rests his on top of hers, then pats it for emphasis.

Her eyes meet his, and he hits her with his most disarming smile. She seems to be trying to read his intention for a long moment.

While he keeps smiling at her patiently, he can't help it when his eyes flick downward very slightly and land on her slightly-parted lips– she's uncertain, in territory she's not used to being in. There's a certain appeal to throwing curveballs at her in an environment she's probably usually quite comfortable in. There's appeal in testing the limits of what she can control.

While he very much enjoys pushing her out of her comfort zone while in her own damn element, he knows he can't keep it up any longer than a few seconds. So he lets go of her.

"I insist," he says.

She's silent for another beat, then she finally shrugs.

"Alright, if you insist," she says, as casually as she would have if she hadn't been trying to solve him just a few seconds ago.

He can't explain why, but her dismissive attitude is mildly irritating. There's something about Velma that appeals to him much more than the other dreamer, and it's not just that she's likely to provide him with more information.

He doesn't just want to get into her head. He wants to get under her skin.

He wants to know what makes her tick.

But he exhales softly, then lets it go.

He can't have it both ways, and he wants that journal a thousand times more than he wants to figure her out.

He just smiles back at her. "I do– Jack always knocks a bit off my bill, anyway."

"Oh," Velma says, and he's not quite sure why she's using that tone. It sounds like this is news she wishes she'd have known. "That's awfully nice of him," she continues brightly, but he still can't help but wonder what's going on in that head of hers.

The two sit in silence until Jack comes by to drop off glasses of water for each and take their orders.

An idea crosses his mind, and he clears his throat as Velma lifts her water glass to her lips.

"I'll just have my usual, Jack," he says jovially, and Velma freezes mid-sip.

There is something going on with Jack that she's worried about. But what?

"Oh, quit kiddin' around, Ben," Jack says, leaning over just to nudge him lightly with his elbow. "Unless it's a cup of black coffee, you don't have a regular order with a rotating menu!"

Then he laughs heartily, and Ben's suspicion immediately dissipates. He had honestly been expecting this manifestation of his subconscious to make something up, but this is exactly how Jack would respond.

Velma seems to relax as she sets her glass down, and Ben can't help but wonder what that was about.

Maybe she had been more confident in Mayor Corey acting like himself– he does have a more distinct personality, and is a much more prominent figure in Oakhaven.

It makes some sense, at least. But if he's meant to fill these manifestations of people he knows with their personalities, why would she have any reason to worry?

Maybe it has to do with Ben himself, he figures.

But now that he's put himself slightly on blast for acting out of the ordinary, it looks like she's watching him more closely. So he just has no way to ask her about it, or figure her out.

That's fine– he has bigger fish to fry.

They both order, and Jack leaves them alone so they can finally start conversing again.

"So," Velma finally says after a moment, "tell me more about Sarah. She sounds like she was a lovely person."

"Oh! Where to begin?" He thinks on what lies he hasn't told her quite yet. "Well, she was lovely. Of course, she wasn't very popular with the town's doctors. Sarah was untraditional in her approach to medicine. She was a Wiccan."

Velma nods in understanding, and Ben can't help himself.

"I take it you know a good bit about them?"

She nods again, smiling. "I've done a good bit of reading about them. So when you said she was a natural healer, you weren't kidding. I take it that not only did she use natural and herbal remedies, she also practiced energy work– however that manifested back in the 1600s."

"Exactly. She believed in the power of the Earth and its gifts, and used it to heal the sick. She helped many people who simply couldn't afford, access, or abide by medical treatment. She practiced under an ancient oak tree, which she believed to have potent magical properties."

Velma's eyes light up brightly for a second.

"Well, I saw a huge oak tree in the town square. Would she bury her journal in a place like that, if she thought she was going to be persecuted?"

She's caught on to the possibility of the book being buried under an oak tree faster than he ever did, in spite of knowing Sarah frequently used the tree to draw power.

For some reason, her suggestion draws the attention of everyone sitting in their vicinity, but she completely ignores their burning stares while her eyes remain on him.

"I've already searched that very tree," he responds truthfully, "but never found anything."

At that, she falters.

"Oh..."

She sinks into her seat, and finally seems to become aware of the eyes on her. He isn't sure of what exactly she's done, but she must have jumped the gun in some respect and drew their attention without having all of the facts.

It was a good try at helping him, he thinks, even if she was a little too eager. She seems to be just as full of anticipation as he is, and now the two are watching each other with equal levels of suspicion. But unlike Velma, Ben has the added benefit of being able to enjoy watching her squirm under the hateful eyes of his own subconscious.

While Ben wishes he had his hands on that spellbook already, he's really beginning to enjoy this delightful game of cat-and-mouse with Velma Dinkley.

When all is said and done, he's going to savor every moment he's spent with her.

~☆°~•~°☆~

In spite of conversing with Velma the entire time, the meal proves to be no more fruitful in coming up with ideas of where that damned spellbook could possibly be.

That, and in spite of behaving normally otherwise Jack never knocked anything off Ben's total.

Which is fine, it's not as if it affects him in any real sense. But it's quite strange, all things considered. Everything else was perfectly right, save for that one little thing he missed.

Ben wouldn't have even thought to double-check his receipt, if Velma hadn't inadvertently brought it to his attention.

But that isn't the only thing.

While the other patrons in the restaurant had regarded Velma with an air of hostility, Jack had acted even more oblivious than Ben would have attested to him.

While he can't help but wonder why, he's still completely wrapped up in trying to pry answers out of Velma by answering her questions about Sarah.

And answers still aren't forthcoming.

As the sky begins to darken in anticipation of nightfall, he can't help but feel as if his time is nearly up. Surely, Daphne has found something by now that incriminates him, and that will give her a reason to back out and withdraw from her mission.

A double failure.

It would count as a success on Ben's part, he supposes, if he prevents the group from revealing the truth he's worked to bury... but it would be a bitter success, if he also ends up with nothing to show for their little visit.

But on the other hand, the more time Velma spends around him, the more it seems like she's buying into his Wiccan Sarah story.

He wonders if there's some level of personal attachment in it for her. Maybe not– he's heard that while her loyalty toward her friends in that extraction group isn't at all questionable, she's not as invested in finding what her clients want as much as she is in finding truth.

If he thinks about it from a logical standpoint, there are a lot more Wiccans in the world than there are spellcasters. So, in spite of what she's here to do, she's... on his side. She believes him, and she's almost as eager to find the book as he is.

Almost.

He's truly made the smartest choice in getting in good with her.

As the two exit the restaurant and start to wander back toward Faux-haven City Park, another voice he recognizes grabs his attention:

"Hey, Ben!"

He and Velma both turn around at the same time.

"Hi, Mr. McKnight," he greets the pharmacist, just as he casts a withering glare at Velma before deliberately stepping straight between her and Ben.

Velma steps behind him and shrugs at Ben, but makes no further attempt to approach him again.

"Welcome home! Mayor Corey said you were back, and I was hoping to catch you to say hi. Here, want to look at the t-shirt design I commissioned for this year's Autumnfest? I think they're going to be a hit!"

McKnight unfurls a sheet of paper, which he passes to Ben– it's the gaudiest design for a shirt he's ever seen, and he immediately knows it would absolutely turn a killer profit. A green ghost is drawn casting a fireball on the city below, with text above her reading 'I Met the Ghost of Oakhaven- And Lived!'

Ben silently folds the paper back up and hands it back to McKnight.

Velma looks amused from behind him, and Ben can't help but share it in silence.

"Didn't Mayor Corey already tell you I don't want you using Sarah's image as part of a publicity stunt?" Ben asks, feigning frustration.

"Ben..." McKnight sighs. "Please, just reconsider. The tourist trade has gotten so slow– haven't you said before that the supernatural always grabs people's attention?"

He sure has, once upon a time. But only to Mayor Corey, when he was still writing his early novels.

"Then make up a ghost that doesn't use Sarah's image."

"But Sarah is the only real tie we have to the supernatural in our town history," McKnight presses.

This is like him, Ben thinks wryly. Following along with Mayor Corey's stupid ideas, just because he can't think up anything better.

"You think I'm going to abide by you lining your pockets by dragging her name through the mud? After I've spent years searching for her journal just to clear our family name?"

"Her journal?" McKnight asks before shaking his head. "Ben, you've searched everywhere for that thing and come up with nothing!" He breathes in deeply to compose himself. "Maybe it's time to give up the search– if that book even exists, it could be anywhere from Miller's Creek to the Stumps!"

Ben knows this much is true, but hearing it from his own subconscious is absolutely infuriating. Before he has any time to process his frustration, let alone respond, something very visibly clicks in that head of Velma's and she gasps before straightening at the waist. Ben can practically see the gears in her brain turning, and he wonders what she's thinking.

"The Stumps?" she finally asks.

"Yes," McKnight says curtly. "The Stumps."

She turns to Ben with a questioning look in her eyes, and Daphne decides that moment is the perfect moment to zip out of the town hall with what looks like papers in her hands and Mayor Corey right on her heels.

"What does he mean, the Stumps?" Velma asks, oblivious to her cohort making an appearance behind her.

"Oakhaven used to turn a profit from the lumber in our forest, back in the 1800s. In 1973 the town finally voted to put a stop to local deforestation," Ben explains. "We never cleared that area, so we just starting calling it the Stumps."

"Well, Ben," she says as if she's made a revelation, just as Daphne rests a hand on her shoulder from behind. "You don't think..?"

"Hold that thought, Linda," Daphne interrupts. "I just got a memo from..." she decides to drops the ruse right then, and Ben can see it as she casts him a glare before shoving a the papers into Velma's hands. "Oh, forget it. Just look."

As Velma examines whatever is on those papers and Daphne stares down Mayor Corey, who stands by as if ready to pounce, Ben takes the opportunity to try to follow her train of thought.

Deforestation, the Stumps... OH.

Of course, it's so obvious! The answer strikes him like a freight train, how stupid he was to never consider that he had been searching around the wrong oak tree for years!

But it makes perfect sense– there must be remnants, somewhere in the Stumps, of what had once been an impressive oak tree.

And he had never noticed it, all along, because it had been cut down hundreds of years ago!

His mind starts to race at a thousand miles per hour.

If his thoughts have any influence on the dream, he can't let it warp to show them what he's thinking about. His memory of the forest will only give the book's location in the real world away! He needs to resurface, fast, before they get the information he wants. If Velma hasn't even heard of the Stumps, there's no way she'll know how to get to it!

He forces himself to slow down. This is a dream, and it's in his mind. That means he ought to be in control of it.

And control means leaving, now that he's ready to. If he wants to leave before time is up, he knows exactly how to go about it. That's the second-biggest piece of information he knows about dreamsharing, and none of his sources have been wrong.

Well, that's not entirely true. The only thing his sources have been wrong about thus far is just how versed in matters of the mind this team of thieves is. He's pulled the wool right over their eyes!

He closes his eyes and focuses his thoughts. He needs a way to "die," quickly. Cold metal finds its way into the palm of his hand, and his finger curls around the trigger.

There's no need to allow them to remain welcome, he decides, and it's as if a switch is flipped. From all sides, his subconscious turns toward Daphne and Velma and begins to converge on them.

There's going to be someone up above when he wakes up, he knows. Someone who administered whatever was allowing Daphne and Velma to tap into his dreams. He'll have to play this carefully.

"I have to hand it to you, Miss Daly," he sneers.

Daphne and Velma meet his gaze as their shoulders are gripped firmly by multiple angry projections, and Ben grins triumphantly at them.

"That information you've given me will be most invaluable," he says. "Thank you– you two have been so very helpful."

Before her face is obscured by the faces of an angry mob swarming around her and Daphne, Velma's eyes lock on Ben's.

Then he could almost swear she smiles at him. A pleased smile, one that matches the downright predatory stare she had hit him with earlier.

No. He can't let her continue to distract him.

He raises the gun to his head, and he wakes up.

~☆°~•~°☆~

His eyelids flutter before his consciousness snaps back to him, and he remembers to pretend he's still under.

There's a fire burning in his vicinity. Flames crackle softly, and the smell of wood smoke permeates the room. He's laying on top of a flat surface, but there's thin but plushy cushioning between him and solid ground.

He cracks one eye open ever so slightly, just to peek and see if anyone is awake in his vicinity.

Through barely-open eyes, he spots a head of yellow hair hovering right above him... that must be Fred Jones, in the flesh. It's too bad, he thinks, that the architect of Faux-haven never got to bask in the attention to his own detail!

He peeks off to the side, and sees the device they must be using to share dreams– a briefcase-shaped device, with a cluster of circuitry and tubing running out of it. One such tube runs directly out of the device and into his arm.

Fred must notice something off, Ben realizes as he looks back up. His sharp blue eyes snap over to focus on Ben, and he moves until he's hovering over him.

Fred crouches down, reaching right over Ben and fiddling with the drip line in his wrist.

Ben uses Fred's lack of preparedness and position to strike straight upwards with the heel of his palm. The hit lands directly on the underside of Fred's jaw, and stuns the architect unconscious.

Velma and Daphne groan softly as they both begin to wake up, and Ben quickly rips the tube out of his arm and sits up.

He's in his own study!

Daphne's quick to alertness, but as her eyes snap open Ben's land on the large red button in the center of the device– if he's right, that administers whatever put him under the first time.

He presses the button with haste, and both women exhale deeply as they're plunged back into the dream.

Perfect. He needs them all slowed down.

But he's only encountered three... where's the fourth? Where's..?

Oh.

His eyes land on Shaggy, who lays right between Daphne and Velma with a line in his own wrist.

He had been in the dream all along.

But where? Ben thinks, then he thinks on what Shaggy is known for, and it all makes sense.

Shaggy is a master of disguise in the dream, or so Ben heard. Usually preferring to take on nondescript characters, but occasionally known to disguise as familiar faces to retrieve more information by lulling his marks into a false sense of security.

Jack.

He mimicked the restaurant owner and his mannerisms flawlessly, but made a mistake when handling Ben's receipt.

That's why he was friendly with Velma even when the other figures in Oakhaven weren't, Ben realizes.

Ohhh, they're clever. They're very clever.

It's too bad he's more clever.

He springs to his feet, and his eyes rise above the mantle of the fireplace. Sarah Ravencroft's portrait stares back down at him, and it all comes rushing back to him.

He remembers finishing his writing and being ready to retire for the evening, but hearing strange noises coming from the mansion.

He remembers calling out into the dimness in the hallway outside of his study, asking who was there.

What luck, what fortune it is that it was a team of extractors trying to catch him off-guard, he thinks gleefully! And not just any team of extractors, but the very same ones he could find information on!

Oh, fate must finally be on his side, now that he knows where the spellbook is. He's right there in Oakhaven, right where he wants to be!

It must have been a matter of convenience to them– pry his knowledge out of him, then sneak off and find the evidence of it right in the real world.

But they've made a fatal mistake in trusting that his dark family secret was merely some dirty laundry.

They have no idea what he's about to unleash.

While the team is still unconscious, he makes a mad dash to his Cadillac. He doesn't know if they have a vehicle, but getting to the Stumps as quickly as possible will serve him best– and they don't even know where he's going.

He does.

Before he grabs his keys, he retrieves a shovel. He's going to have some digging to do, and fast.

He bolts out of the mansion into the stark autumnal moonlight, and his hands begin to shake as he unlocks his car.

It's finally going to be his!

Sarah's spellbook will finally be found!

It feels as if no time passes between when he leaves his mansion and when he arrives at the final stretch of the main road leading off into the forest, but time seems to resume normalcy when he arrives. He doesn't bother to lock the door when he steps outside. It's dark in the forest and the path is obscured by shadows, but a childhood in Oakhaven means he knows his way to the Stumps by heart.

Moonlight spills into the gap between trees as he arrives upon his former playground. Dead leaves rustle beneath his feet as he begins to survey the area for the largest, most impressive-looking oak stump.

All that time he had spent here in his youth, he'd played right over the burial spot of the most important artifact he'd ever come across.

It must have been destiny.

The spellbook was always going to belong to him.

His eyes finally land on what must be it– the largest remainder of a former tree, by far. The sides are rotted and decayed with moss and fungi sprouting up from beneath the bark, but there must be at least a hundred rings spiralling right into the center.

He doesn't know where to begin.

But, he thinks, he doesn't have forever.

So he picks a spot, and he starts to dig into the packed soil.

And dig.

And dig, until his shovel reaches a few feet down. His arms begin to ache fairly quickly given how deeply and frantically he's digging into the heavy earth, and his breath refuses to fully occupy his lungs. His palms begin to sting with the friction, but he's not even remotely close to any blisters cropping up.

It would be fine if his entire hand became a blister, he thinks, just as long as he manages to find that book to make it worth the trouble!

He can't afford to get tired, not while he's so close.

The first hole turns up nothing, but he has at least a solid 10 feet of circumference to circle.

Rather than go all the way around the diameter of the tree, he picks another spot a few inches away from the first hole and begins to dig again.

The second hole turns up nothing, and he continues along the side of the trunk with as much fervent energy as he can muster.

Then the worst sound he can imagine registers from a good distance away:

The slamming of car doors.

Third time's the charm, he thinks as he begins to dig again. If this is the extraction team on his heels, his time is running out.

Then his shovel thunks against something solid.

He raises the head, then pauses. Then he swiftly digs down again, and hits the same solid object.

It's not a rock. Hitting a rock with a shovel has a distinct feel and sound, and this sounds hollow when the shovel hits it.

But it doesn't feel like it could be the cover of a book, either.

A root, maybe?

No, it doesn't quite feel like that, either.

Curiously, he begins to widen the hole to try to get a glance at what he's struck.

It's too dark to make out what it is quite yet, so he reaches into the hole to see if he can identify it by touch.

His fingers brush against dirt etched into ancient and grooved wood, if the splintery feeling against his skin is any indication.

Carved wood, making a hollow thumping sound when struck with a shovel... A box!

He gasps in delight, springing back to his feet and grasping the shovel with renewed vigor.

He digs all around the box, until he finds the sides of it and can further unearth it. The closer he gets to being able to pull it free, the more he can see it– and the more promising it looks.

He isn't sure how deep into the earth this box is buried, but once he's cleared a few inches of dirt from around the sides he hears whispers in frantic voices and multiple people's footsteps heading towards him.

It's now or never.

He crouches down and reaches into the hole, and his fingers brush against a handle he can grab onto.

He begins to try to pull the box loose, but the remaining dirt caked to the handle causes him to lose his grip and slip back.

The footsteps draw nearer, and moving white lights begin to dance off the leaves– flashlights.

He gets a grip on the handle once again and braces himself, then pulls. The box stays firmly wedged into the ground, so he starts to wiggle it to the best of his ability.

The voices grow closer, the flashlight beams brighter.

The earth begins to give.

Then they enter the clearing– it is the extractors, and all of them immediately fan out in search of him.

He pauses for a fraction of a second to tighten his grip on the handle, and with one final pull he free the box from its resting place.

Alerted by the noise, one of the flashlight beams shines directly on him, then is cast downwards to land about two feet in front of him.

His eyes meet Velma's, and her expression is unreadable.

"I found him," she says aloud, though with no sense of urgency or anger. Just utter calm. Three more flashlights shine on her to locate her, then point away. She nods to him in acknowledgement of the box in his hands. "You find what you were looking for, Ben?" she continues, and her voice stays measured.

"I'm sure I have, Velma," he responds, glad he can finally drop the pretense of referring to her as Linda Daly.

Velma appears completely nonplussed by his statement, and flicks her flashlight off.

"How long were you aware?"

"Of what, who you are or the fact that I was dreaming the whole time? Because the answer, either way, is from the very beginning."

"Must've been pretty desperate to find that book, then," she says, "if you were willing to let us in."

Ben decides he likes her even more now that she's dropped the pretense of being a journalist. This stone-cold, analytical personality is exactly what he'd have expected from her in the beginning. Her nervousness seems to have dissipated, although he blames the fact that she doesn't know what he's retrieved.

The rest of the team approaches her from behind, but seems uncertain of what to do. Velma isn't the leader of this team by any means, but they must know she spent the most time around him and has the firmest grasp on what he's after.

"It seems fate was finally on my side. Because I knew about all of you before we met. Daphne Blake, Fred Jones, and Shaggy Rogers. You had me going," he admits, singling out the sandy-haired man in a crumpled suit jacket. "I didn't even realize you were posing as Jack, until I woke up and saw you."

"How did you figure that out?" Shaggy asks, genuine curiosity sparkling in his eyes.

"The receipt," Velma explains before Ben can. "Apparently, Jack knocks a few dollars off Ben's orders. Thanks for buying me lunch, by the way," she says dryly.

"If you hadn't tipped me off, I never would have thought to check. You know, I really couldn't have planned meeting the lot of you better, even if I'd have lured you here myself! But I just can't fathom who your client would be– what did they want?"

"The truth," Velma says. "About you. About your bloodline. The truth that must be in that little box."

Then she gives him a tight-lipped smile, and gestures at the box with her hand.

"So go ahead and open it, Ben. I'm not going to try to stop you."

Oh, she's about to wish she had.

Ben lifts the lid of the box, and it's exactly what he had hoped to find– an ancient tome with a massive skull etched into the cover, which glares at him menacingly as he removes it and lets the box fall to the ground.

He begins to flip through the pages, his heart pounding in his chest as he takes in the spidery handwriting scrawled across the ancient and withered pages.

It's finally his, in all of its wicked glory.

"That sure looks kind of evil, for a journal belonging to a Wiccan healer," Daphne comments from behind Velma, eyes narrowed.

"That's because it isn't a journal at all, is it?" Velma asks, and her strained smile remains etched on her face.

Ben grins broadly, glad he can finally drop his own pretenses.

"Of course it isn't, Velma. It's a spellbook," he sneers, drawing out the final word.

He waits for her to react, but all she does is take a single step back as her smile melts back into absolute neutrality.

"You see, Sarah wasn't a Wiccan. She was indeed a witch!" He hugs the spellbook to his chest, and while Velma keeps her eyes on him the rest of the team casts nervous glances back and forth.

"What did you guys find down there?" Fred asks, absolutely befuddled.

"The same thing I suspected from the beginning," Daphne says bitterly, fingers clenching around her flashlight. "That the truth existed, but was buried with Sarah. That she was a real witch. But he knew was I was looking for, and he intentionally redacted all of the relevant information."

"Of course I needed to at the time," he says, "because I couldn't just hand you the truth without getting what I want in return. But you helped me find it, and I don't care who knows anymore– Sarah was known at the Scourge of Oakhaven. And since her blood runs in my veins, I have the same prediliction for sorcery."

"So you lied to me the whole time," Velma states, and he wonders why she thinks she has any reason to spit any accusations at him when she's guilty of the same thing.

"And you didn't?" he asks.

"I never lied when I said I wanted to help you find it," Velma responded, and he's slightly dumbstruck. How can she admit to this, as if she doesn't regret being wrong?

Well, he needs to make her regret it.

"But there's more to it, more that you never even imagined," he says. "Because not only does this contain her power and every wicked scrap of knowledge she got her hands on... it contains Sarah Ravencroft herself. After her execution, her soul was bound right here within it– never dying, waiting for someone with her blood to free her. And that's exactly what I intend to do. I intend to unlock the power of the imprisoned Sarah Ravencroft!"

At that, Velma finally reacts. Her brows rise.

An inexplicable frustration seeps into Ben's bones. He's got exactly the reactions he expected from the rest of her friends, who tense to brace themselves in anticipation of imminent danger.

Does this woman feel anything at all?

She certainly knew how to fake it, at least.

Maybe he needs a different way to get under her skin.

"Why help me, anyway? Did you care for me, somewhere in that idiotic little head of yours? Believe me blindly, because you admired me? I always believed Mayor Corey, in his superstitious ways, was the biggest fool I knew. And then I met you. You, who so desperately clung to the belief that maybe Sarah was innocent, that I was innocent. You're incredibly naive. I tricked you into helping me, and it worked."

With that, a frown knits itself across Velma's brows, and she scowls at him. Her hands clench into fists, which she clutches at her sides.

Oh, so she only cares once he's made it personal.

"Oh, don't get me wrong," he simpers as he finally decides to flip through the spells in Sarah's spellbook, "I very much appreciate your help. It only worked to my advantage."

"The only thing I don't understand is why you let us in," Daphne says as she steps forward and rests a firm hand on Velma's shoulder. Velma pushes back, but Daphne keeps her rooted to the spot. "Why go through these elaborate smoke and mirrors? Why not just tell us you knew, and ask us to help you find the book? It would have helped all of us."

"Come on, Daphne," Velma snaps, pushing out from under the redhead's grip on her shoulder. "It's our job to lie. Besides, if he'd have asked, would you really have trusted him enough to help him?"

Daphne sighs, then shakes her head and looks back at Ben warily.

"I knew there was something about you," she says venomously. "Something I didn't like at all."

"It looks like you were the only one," Ben says as he finds the very invocation he seeks, "but you're too late now. It's time to unlock the power of Sarah Ravencroft!"

"Well, I don't like the sound of this," Shaggy moans, and Velma takes a step back toward Ben.

"Together, we shall reign supreme!" Ben declares before beginning the invocation. "Let the evil from the past breathe again with fiery blast!"

With just the single line spoken, lightning bursts forth from the book, and a dreadful wind begins to spiral all around him. The earth trembles beneath his feet, then splits as leaves are stripped from their branches.

Velma's eyes dart sharply upwards, at the trees beginning to bend and sway to the mere sound of his voice. She attempts to take another step toward him, but the sudden gale proves to be too strong for her to do anything except stay in place.

"Let the dark wind whip the night to blow away the force of light!" he continues, and the maelstrom grows stronger.

A nearby tree is ripped straight from its roots, and Shaggy turns right around to face it as it collapses and sinks toward him. He holds a hand up and over his face, then crouches low just as it crashes on top of him, obscuring him under thousands of dancing leaves and snapping branches.

The earth continues to rattle as Ben continues to recite.

"Now I summon ancient power!"

The earth continues to split in his wake, cracks in the dirt widening enough to swallow several stumps. The remaining three members of the extraction team he can see lower themselves to the ground, and Daphne and Fred reach out to hold each other in a desperate embrace.

Velma cries out in alarm as they're all swept back by the gusts beating at them, and Daphne and Fred shout as they're swallowed whole by the churning earth.

"This is evil's finest hour!" Ben finishes, and laughs maniacally as an eerie green light spirals upwards from the book and strikes him like a bolt of lightning, endowing him with strength and vitality he never dreamed possible.

His glasses feel wrong on his face.

The wind dies down slightly, but the earth continues to quake under Velma's feet as she rises and attempts to approach him again.

"NO!" she cries out, then tries to steady herself.

Ben laughs at her again as he takes his glasses off, then drops them to allow them to be swept away. He won't need them anymore.

"What's the matter, Velma?" he simpers. "Don't you like the new, improved Ben Ravencroft?"

"No, frankly I don't!" she snarls, and the earth begins to heave again.

Oranges and reds swirl around him violently, and bark begins to peel off of the trees to join the debris dance.

Ben just laughs again.

"Aww, try not to take it so personally. If it's any consolation, you were good. You and your friends were very, very good."

Then Velma straightens, standing tall even while being pelted by everything the maelstrom can lift and throw at her.

He can hardly see her anymore under all of the debris between them, but the small glimpse he catches of her is a smirk, and it's that moment that he realizes something is very wrong.

Then he sees her eyes, locked on his with that same wicked look in them as the one he had ignored before.

Why is she this calm?

What does she know that he doesn't?

"We were," she asks above the distinctly musical howling of the wind, "weren't we?"

Then a log, torn right off its parent tree, barrels into her from the side and sweeps her off her feet.

And the world continues to tear itself apart.

~☆°~•~°☆~

He wakes up in London, to the train lurching as it begins to move again.

He inhales sharply, his startled alertness snapping the traces of his dream from his immediate memory. He turns his head toward the window, watching the station and departing passengers slowly slide out of view.

He doesn't remember dozing off, but when does anyone ever? So he relaxes, resettles into his seat, and adjusts his arms on the armrest.

A lingering pinching sensation shoots sharply through him as his jacket sleeve catches on his arm, and he jumps slightly in his seat.

He remembers the sensation of having something in his wrist, and the memory comes back to him with absolute clarity.

How could he forget?!

That extraction team! They had probably been right there on the train with him, and they've just gotten off scot-free with..!

He pales.

They had been looking for the truth, and evidence about who Sarah Ravencroft had been. Velma had told him herself.

And now he's not only handed the family secret to them on a silver platter, but he's made them privy to his own wicked desires as well!

Now they know exactly what he wants to find in Oakhaven, and they also know where to find it! He led them right to it, because he had been too eager to consider multiple dreams!

And they've done it while he's in London, thousands of miles away from Massachusetts!

“Oh, those meddling sons-of..!” he curses, leaping from his seat. A scrap of folded paper, which he was unaware of having been pinned between his hand and armrest, flutters out of hiding and floats to the ground.

It's so bizarre to him, he forgets to be angry for a second as he scoops the paper off the floor.

What is it, a note? Is it for him?

He unfolds the note– it's been hastily scrawled on in the distinctly messy handwriting and scathing words of an intellect: Two sentences, mocking what he's said and insulting him while disguising as a compliment. Then a pair of initials.

It is for him.

His blood begins to boil.

It's a taunt. From her.

It strikes him right then, the whole time she had been playing him like a damned fiddle while he had thought he was playing her.

Every single sideways glance she had given him, every lie she had spoken with a bright smile on her face, she had known he was going to lead her right to his secrets.

She had never been wrapped around his finger, but he had been coiled around hers.

She had baited him with ease, hook, line, and sinker.

He feels so foolish. While he had thought himself wise for keeping his attention on her, she's played the exact game he did, and she seems so certain that she's won, the bastard! Well, while she and her friends may have extracted that information, they still have to be in London. They're just as far from the spellbook as he is, aren't they?

They may have a little five-minute head start on him, but he has wealth. He has connections. Well, maybe not connections that will just retrieve the spellbook for him without asking questions, but connections that can get him back to Oakhaven, the real Oakhaven, quickly.

The clock is still ticking.

He's going to catch them, if it's the last damn thing he does! He can't lose this, now that he's so close!

He can't..!

~☆°~•~°☆~

When all is said and done, he makes it back to Massachusetts in a record two days.

Jetlagged, worn out, and weary, he drives straight from the airport to the Stumps without stopping.

He follows the very path that he had recreated for himself in the dream, and stumbles upon the clearing he seeks. His sleepless fervency has left him mostly unable to feel anything, but his heart begins to quicken with excitement as he begins his search.

It takes a few moments for him to happen upon the most impressive former oak tree, and he eagerly approaches it...

Then his heart falls into his stomach.

Nestled between two roots, there's an empty hole with a distinctly rectangular divot in the ground.

He knows exactly what was there.

Anything that may have been buried in the past is long gone, and his secrets have been stolen with it.

It's over.

He's lost.

~☆°~•~°☆~

Things could be much worse, he reminds himself every so often over the next few months.

While he's lost Sarah's spellbook and the secrecy of his family's legacy, things really could have gone so much worse for him.

Because having his secret and the supporting, formerly-sealed record of Sarah Ravencroft's actions spilled to practically the entire world has had an impact he frankly should have suspected, but is still shocked by.

Stories about Sarah Ravencroft, the Scourge of Oakhaven, have circulated so wildly that his books are now legendary. His lineage makes his books pure gold within the horror community.

Her infamy has increased not only his fame, but his wealth as well.

He should be angry. But instead, he vindictively hopes the buyer who hired that extraction team is happy. He isn't unhappy, after all.

Because in spite of his loss of what could have been, things have only improved for him and his life.

Because now he has extra money to throw around.

Maybe he'll never be able to find the spellbook, but he can seek out the woman who caused him to lose it in the first place.

He doesn't care for any of her friends, not particularly. They didn't pick at his brain the way she did. The way she toyed with him in his own mind has added a whole new dimension of curiosity and desire to really understand her.

She's wormed her way right into his mind, where she refuses to leave.

So more than anything, he wants a way to return the favor.

In a way, she can be his new spellbook. His new quest. His new fascination. And this time, finding what he's looking for can be made into a game. Into a puzzle. One in which he'll inevitably come out as the victor of.

Yes, he thinks, this is what he wants.

He wants finding Velma Dinkley to be a game.

He wants it to be a long, convoluted, and frustrating game. He wants his efforts to be met with next to no payoff, just so that the day they meet again will be that much more rewarding.

Fortunately, it seems things will play out in his favor for once.

Because he has a clue as to her existence, a fact he can cling to until he can shove it right back in her face.

It's the only clue. It's the only evidence of her having ever been inside his head. All he has of her is that taunting scrap of paper she had left in his hand before beginning the chase.

And he's going to use it to find her.

Try not to take it so personally, the scrap reads. If it's any consolation, you were always my favorite. ♡- V.D.

#scooby doo #scooby doo and the witch's ghost #ben ravencroft #velma dinkley #daphne blake #scooby doo fanfiction #my writing

[lampmanliveblogs]

The impending disaster is delayed by the rest of the kids going places, doing stuff, beginning by asking around in this quaint little shop. I do like the ”Ghosts will haunt shoplifters” sign. I also spied another Hexas Holdem’ cameo on a table. Just how many of those bloody things did Eda dump in the Human Realm? Or maybe those are unmagical replicas, since the ones Jacob gave away became popular.

Anyways, moving on to this shot, I do notice Gus looking through that barrel of gems. Heh, gems in Gravesfield. I bet that doesn’t happen often. I bet there aren’t a whole lot of teenage criminal masterminds running around there either.

Also, that is a Ness costume to the left there on the wall. Which makes me think the other two ones are references as well, hm… I wanna say the witch costume on the right is from… Little Witch Academia?

I just looked it up, and yup, that’s totally Little Witch Academia. That leaves the middle one, which I have no idea what it could be a reference to. I’m not even sure if that’s a bow, or cat ears. Or maybe this is a Blake Belladonna situation, and it’s actually both.

Oh, and the shop is called The Magic Circle. Insert Engelsfors Trilogy reference here:____________________________.

Oh, now this is a beautiful frame to accidentally pause on. I just had to include it.

That candy that looks like it’s levitating. Willow looking like she’s about to tip backwards. Vee psyching herself up before a boxing match. The librarian experiencing some Grade A secondhand embarrassment. The girl with the Batman logo on her shirt. Amity faceplanting for the second time this episode. Seriously, that can not be good for your face Mittens.

But hey, let’s look on the bright side. Now Hunter and Amity have something else to bond over: facial scar and a broken nose respectively.

And while I’m paused: I also love Willow paying for the costume with a snail, like she’s Pippi Longstocking with her gold coins.

Willow & Gus also both take notice of the statues of the Wittebane brothers. They exchange knowing glances, both of them undoubtedly seeing the resemblance to Hunter… though at this point only Gus has the pieces to begin putting the puzzle together.

And thus one of the shows longest running gags comes to full circle as we finally see one of these demonic giraffes that much fuzz has been made about. Honestly? I don’t see what it was about, the fuzz. This looks fairly normal by Demon Realm standard. Unless the giraffe people were known for being unusually brutal and violent, I’m not sure why the kids are so spooked by this.

I do love this though, because giraffes have obviously been around on Earth long enough to be considered normal animals by humans. And surely someone somewhere at some point would realize that ”Oh shit, these long necked creatures can unfold their faces. That’s weird.”

Even if giraffes don’t do it in front of humans, surely someone dissecting a giraffe would find it. This leads me to believe that yes, it’s weird, but still considered to be an as of yet unexplained quirk in an others normal an unmagical animal.

It was at this point I went on a long tangent about evolution and biology, and I cut that out because this post is long enough as is. Let’s just say that giraffe taxonomy would be a huge pain for scientists in this universe to figure out.

Called it.

I do believe I said so even as far back as Yesterday’s Lie that we would return back to the Gravesfield Historical Society. I also believe I said I dreaded seeing Jacob Hopkins again, for obvious reasons. Though based on the sign, we might be spared that unpleasantness. Good, Philip is already sneaking around, and one crazy person is enough for this episode.

I’m assuming the previous managers of the Gravesfield Historical Society came back from their vacation, found the crazy man who had broken into the building while they were away, and called the police on him.

Even though this is a shot from behind, you can clearly see Vee looking nervous and uncomfortable, and of course she’d be. The last time she stepped foot (eh… tail?) inside this building, all her worst nightmares came true, all at once. She was captured and put back inside a cage. She was going to be cut open and killed by a madman. Her cover was blown to Camila. All in all, it was a rather stressful thirty minutes or so she had in there.

Ey, it’s the fortune teller from Yesterday’s Lie! Based on a comment or two I got, I had a sneaking suspicion they’d appear again, and would you look at that, I was right. It sure feels good.

And not to toot my own horn too much, but the nickanme I gave them back in Yesterday’s Lie was Mira. Which has the same first letter (M), same last letter (a), and the same number of syllables (2) as Masha’s real name. Which might not sound all that impressive, but try guessing the first and last letter, as well as the number of syllables in my (real) name. If any of you are correct, I’ll… be very scared.

So, are you the new new management here, Masha? I’d think not, since, well… you’re what, fourteen? Fifteen, maybe? I know Jacob didn’t set the bar high, but you know it’s a sad state of affairs when an actual child makes for a better manager at a historical society than a grown adult man.

#the owl house #liveblog #the owl house liveblog #toh s3e1 #thanks to them

[buffythecomicslayer]

Against the Darkness

Buffy: The Next Generation, book 3 of 3

Publication date: January 23, 2024

For generations, the Slayer was supposed to be the chosen, the one girl in all the world with the power to stand against the vampires, demons, and forces of darkness. When Willow used the scythe to call up all the potential slayers at once, it changed everything. For years, the slayers have been working and fighting together as a team. Then the Darkness came, killing many slayers and trapping the rest in an alternate dimension. And Frankie Rosenberg, the world’s first Slayer-Witch, found herself fighting evil alone. Sort of. Sure, she has her new Scooby Gang, plus the help of her mom, Willow; Watcher, Spike; and even the brooding-but-hot Hunter of Thrace. But even though they have a master plan (obviously), the gang is more fragmented than ever. So maybe it really is up to Frankie — and Frankie alone — to stand against the darkness. With Jake’s wild werewolf brother back in town, Dark Willow threatening to return, and the Darkness preparing for the final stage of their attack, now is not a great time to wallow in teen angst. After all, she’s the Slayer. It’s time to slay.

Author: Kendare Blake; publisher: Disney’s Hyperion.

#buffy novels #kendare blake #other media #books #the next generation

[bug-the-chicken-nug]

on my latest rwby au bullshit, which I think i will officially start to also tag as the "Silver Wolf" AU.

Silver Wolf AU: Premise

A combo of Ruby being a wolf faunus (on top of getting rid of the stupid rule about one trait because fuck that i want her to have the ears, tail, AND sharp teeth and nails) and having silver eyes, but silver eyed warriors now being considered like... this creepy-but-unfortunately-necessary group who barely anybody wants to really associate with, under fear of it "cursing" you. By extension, they are now known as "Witches" rather than "Warriors", regardless of gender. (This also makes it possible to just shorten it to 'Witch' and have it already be pretty obvious what a character is talking about, so it rolls off the tongue better, while also creating this uncomfortable implication that these people are put on the same level as Salem despite directly opposing her.) The "curse" is a more superstitious exaggeration of the unfortunate reality that associating with them really can put you at risk of becoming collateral when they're hunted down, on top of their eyes now being not all-or-nothing Grimm nuking, but instead having a sort of "level up" system, and the potential to unlock certain abilities that can affect people too. (the new common thread being that all of these abilities have to do with sensing and/or eliminating "darkness" and "negativity", not just Grimm) The fear of association, powers that can be directed towards humans, and the societal shunning would also do a lot to help explain exactly why Witches are so scattered and fragmented, and why people know so little about them. Because in canon, it just seems like they should be heroes who everyone should know about and have a vested interest in supporting.

Relationships:

Also, this AU would 100% be a Ladybug thing. Because I can just see Blake standing up for Ruby, and Ruby immediately being head over heels in response, but having no idea how to actually express it and also being paranoid that Blake will just think she's weird like everyone else. (And meanwhile Blake is paranoid about how Ruby will react if she finds out that Blake is technically a terrorist, and also friend/sister-zoning Ruby big time for the first few volumes, less out of a genuine lack of interest and more because of her subconscious fear of commitment)

Although there'd also be other fragments of Ruby ship teases, just because I imagine this version of her to have developed "gets a crush on anyone who's nice to her for five seconds" syndrome. (Yes I'm sorry, I know a ton of y'all hate Jaune but my Ruby's friendless, bullied, avoided, desperate-for-validation ass sees him being nice to her and unafraid of her for like ten seconds and is lowkey already thinking about a spring wedding.) This also includes a one-sided crush on Ozpin, just for how I think that'd be kinda narratively interesting and potentially a little fucked up. (Especially because the full nuance of why it's interesting can change depending on how grey this Ozpin's morals end up being. Is he subtly using it as leverage? Could this version of him be dickish enough to lead her on? Does he do it on purpose? Or does he even notice her feelings at all? Does he notice and subtly try to discourage it? What happens when he gets stuck in Oscar?) And a crush on Marrow, literally just because I think it'd be funny. Marrow: *obliviously friendly* Ruby: *practically ready to become Ruby Amin, just because he's a fellow Faunus, complimented Crescent Rose, and didn't say anything about her eyes* Blake, looking on: hmst,,, don't know why but. this is bad, actually. Weiss: *sighing deeply* you obviously know why. Meanwhile I figure Yang is human, because only Summer was a Faunus, and it kinda puts this weird Thing between her and Ruby where Ruby both greatly admires and envies her, but lowkey resents her, because she feels like Yang will never truly understand what she goes through, and gets to "have it easy". On her own end, Yang has had to sacrifice a lot of social opportunities to prioritize a good standing with Ruby, because even just admitting relation to Ruby makes people treat Yang differently anyway. So Ruby thinks of herself as a burden, and Yang is desperately trying to hide the fact that she *agrees* with Ruby, deep down. She thinks the burden is *worth it*, but she doesn't know a way of properly conveying "It's okay that you're a burden sometimes, I know it's not your fault, and I still love you even if I get frustrated with you sometimes" that doesn't make her feel incredibly guilty and paranoid that she sounds insincere. And finally (at least for now) I think this would be inch-resting for Adam because now Ruby has something that can actually give her something to do with him too, and make her feel more connected to the things that go on around her. She could even have weird mixed feelings on him, stemming from him seeing her silver eyes and not only expressing approval of them, but trying to get her to come around to his side, using the extra discrimination she's faced because of them to try and butter her up and manipulate her.

#rwde #rwby #ruby rose #silver eyes #Silver Wolf AU

[doudouneverte]

Special Bond | Chapter three: Chaos and Party (part. 1)

*not my GIF

Chapter Summary: You're in the party with your Agatha and you'll meet some interesting poeple...

Paring: Yelena Belova x Maximoff!Reader; Agatha Harkness x Maximoff!Reader; Wanda Maximoff x Sister!Reader x Pietro Maximoff; Avenger x Female reader (platonic)

| chapter two | serie masterlist | chapter four |

Zagreb, Croatia 6 pm in your hotel room

"So we'll not talk about earlier?" Agatha broke the silence

"About what ?" you feigned the confusion

"Your gay panic" she tried to restein the laught but it's impossible, she remind the moment where you pose your eyes on the blond and she can't contain more "you shoulded see your face you were totally blushing, you didn't find your words and you even couldn't argue with for your costume"

"That was not a gay panic" you groan but you it was "my mind just didnt want to cooperate" you tried

"Yeah yeah sur and i'm blond" you rolled your eyes you know she choose that color on purpose

"So about tonight what did you choose for you and don't tell me you will go with your dress 'cause i know you chosse something, i can sense your annoyance but i'll not comment it today" you remark

It's true, since you began to learn more about magic with Agatha she foud your mind was more open than any other human, that scare her a little becasue that mean you're more vulnerable at mind attack than anyone else. At the start you bith thought it was cause of you telepath power but it's more than that, so the older witch cast a spell on you, the spell increase your telepath power you can usually use them only within a radius of 15 meter (~46ft) but with up agatha gave you the distance up to 50 meter (~164ft) anf of course you contact her anywhere in the planete. You also train you telekinsis power, you can levitate 1 can tiny car now but you want to progress to be able to protect yourself and your sibling when you'll find them.

During this year you travel with Agatha to find a way to fortifie your mind and that why you are here in Croatia but her friend din't have a solution neither so you propose to visit the city to not waste youe time in europe.

Seeing you were blaking out the older witch grabe and look at you "we'll find a way i promise you and after that we wiln can focus on a way to find your sibling" you look at her and see her sadness and you're sad too, if you find pietro and wanda that mean you'll can't spend all your days with agatha and despite the fact you miss your family the brunette is like a second mother to you

"Yeah I know" you sight before smile again "but now let's focus on the party"

-------

2 hours later in Agatha's friend (little) tower

"So what are we going here" ask Steve to Tony but the billionaire don't seem to listen

"According to the details Mr.Fury sent us the agents who have been kill was protecting some one and we are here to find this man and try to figurate why they want to kill him" respond Vision, steve look at him then look at Tony again

"Again we're disguise because ... ?" he add

"Cause it's a Halloween party, it would be weird if we're the only who don't respect the dress code and it more easy to melt in the crowd" said finaly tony with a smirk when he look the captain.

He choose the costume for everyone obviously; rohdey was Superman, Wanda was princess Peach , Vision was Mario and Steve Luigi and Tony was Batman but with an armored suit.

Wanda was trying to explain at Vision why they wear a pink dress who is definitly not the type of our emo Wanda but she was cut by an little who bump into her back. She turn around and see a helmet with a teint glasse she was confuse and she hear a little 'sorry i can't reaaly see wher i go' she chucle and let the go.

You were trying to find Agatha you understand she scared that you'll be bother with your power tonight so choose a costume with a helmet wher sche can hide some run to prevent you for any attack tonight. You were near your mama/mentor when you see Batman, not the real one but some one suit like batman so decide to speak with them, their costume is too 'cool' you ant the same.

"Euh excuse me ?" Tony heard while he was try to find the host of the party, he trun around and look at you, more in your glasse but he decide to not comment and he smile gently to you.

"Can i help you ?" he respond

"Yes, i want to know where did you find your costume he's so cool, i want the same i try to convice mama to buy a batman costume but the doesn't want" did that seem you were excitaded because you were really, Batman is like your favorite fictional hero.

No need to see your eyes to imagine the sparkle when you talk so Tony replied "i made it, i have some experience withtechnologie and suit so"

"Woah, it's more cool now. Can i take... a picture please ?" you ask hesitantly but you really hope he accept

"Yes why not" you don't lost any second to pull up your phone and open the photo you took some picutre and after the man continue "so you are ?"

"Oh sorry i didn't introduce myself, i'm Y/N Harckness sir" you respond

"Call me Tony" he smile at you "so Y/N do you know the host of this tower?"

"Mister Loucas? Yes he's my mama's friend"

Do you know where i can find him ?

You look around you before poiting a cirner of the room "here and the woman next to him is" you notice the glare of Agatha and reminder why you search her before you find "she is my mama and she will kill me cause she has some important thing to say me" you laught

"Oh thanks and see you later" he said before leaving you

"You're welcome Tony and have a nice party" you add before rush to the witch you didn't heart him said 'you too kiddo'

You're now on the couch near your mama you tell her how you met batman and she see the excitement in your voice. You pull your phone to show her the picture and when you saw them you remark someone behind on one photo, it was the blond you met early. You were looking for her with your in the entire room, you saw her near the bar and excuse yourself to Agatha, you have one mission in your mind.

-------

10 minutes earlier in front of the tower

A group of girl are in front the main door and argue about something "You sure you want to do that alone Yelena ?" one of them said

"Don't worry it's just an in and out, and i would need some backup so you have to stay here, i'll come back in 30 minutes" before the others girls can argue she's enter.

Present

"Hey!" the blond turn her head and she face to an... astronaute ?

"Heu...hi, sorry but i don't have time now i have sometihing really important to do" she reply

You took off your helmet and look at her like she was the woman of your life and said "Oh it's seem you don't have any time for an astronaute but have you some time for a modest girl ?"

She stare you and look around and finally said "Okay maybe 5 minutes but i really have something to do after that"

"Oh don't worry 5 minutes is more than enought" you feint a laught to destresse you but she look at you with concern so you continue "i'm an astronaute and you are miss rapunzel in black ?"

She hesitate an instant and reply "a Black Widow ?!" she see your smile and the sparkle in your eyes (you really love superhero)

"Like the Avenger?" she nod with confusion and you add "oh and i'm Y/N by the way" she look around, she seem like search something or some one and sudden she find it "and you are..."

"I'm in a rush sorry" without more she leave, you stay here you analyze the situation, it was weird but not like when agatha fail a recipe it was and before youcan thinks to find your mysterious pretty girl you feel a hand you turn you head and meet the blue eyes of your favorite witch.

"Your... helmet ?" she said, you put your helmet on your head and apologize and she continue "you know i don't like to do that me too but it's the only way to prevent your headache and we don't if any witch or sorcerer try to invade your mind" you sight but smile

"Yeah i know ma, i'll be more careful in the future i promise. It's just i was talking to the womanf of the afternoon and she don't recognize me with the helmet so,"

She cut you "oh I see don't worry it's nothing" she look behind her you sens she was a little scared and she add "i sens a witch in here i don't know if she a oppenent or not so keep your helmet until we leave okay sweetie?" just like when you call her 'mama', when she call you 'sweetie' you can't really say "no" and you know it's for your own safety so you'll not argue.

Few second later your mama leave you had to talk withe friend so you wait her and you heart a gunshot peaople start to scream and just after there was an explosion in the tower. You hided yourself under the bar and call Agatha by telepathy but your hear an another voice in your head some one can hear you but your brain don't really reconize the voice. Before you could do anything you see some men with gun enter in the room and fear begun to increase in you.

#yelena belova x fem!reader #yelena belova x female reader #yelena belova x fem reader #agatha harkness x female reader #wanda maximoff x sister!reader #wanda maximoff x female reader #pietro maximoff x female reader #pietro maximoff x sister!reader #avengers x you #avengers x platonic reader #maximoff!reader

[empress-of-snark]

mid-year reading tag 2023

(copying @televinita cause it seemed like fun)

1. best book you’ve read so far this year

Probably Daisy Jones and the Six (Taylor Jenkins Reid). No, I still haven’t watched the Amazon series cause frankly, the book was exhausting and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to watch the whole story play out all over again, but I’ll get to it one day.

The book was really good, though! Ignored it for a long time because of the hype, but it was deserved.

2. best sequel you’ve read so far this year

I’ve only read two sequels so far, but I’ll go with Thunderhead (Neal Shusterman), sequel to Scythe. I wasn’t quite invested enough in the series to be very upset that my library doesn’t have a copy of the third (and final) book, but I enjoyed it.

3. new release you haven’t read yet

There’s apparently a book called A Song of Sin and Salvation (L. H. Blake) that came out last month and is quite literally published Hellcheer fanfiction (good girl x bad boy, set in the 80’s, music-focused, even the cover art looks like them lmao). Obviously I need to get my hands on it immediately.

4. most anticipated release for the second half of the year

Definitely the new Cormoran Strike book, The Running Grave (Robert Galbraith), which comes out in September (and hell yes I’ve already pre-ordered it). Was not expecting another installment only a year after the last one, but I’ve been addicted to this series since I started it last year, so I am not complaining!

5. biggest disappointment

Gotta be A Discovery of Witches (Deborah Harkness). I was expecting a spooky supernatural mystery but misjudged how much of the story would be devoted to the romance. It’s basically Twilight but with slightly more plot. Not bad really, just disappointing.

6. biggest surprise

Honestly, this hasn’t been a stellar book year for me so far. I guess that’s a surprise in and of itself? Hope it picks up in the next six months.

7. favorite new author (debut or new to you)

A lot of the authors I’ve read this year have been ones I’m familiar with, but Daisy Jones was my first from Taylor Jenkins Reid. I know she also wrote The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, which I’ve also heard great things about. I’ll definitely give that one a try when I get the chance!

8. newest fictional crush/newest favorite character

I dunno if I would go so far as to call them crushes, but I did love James from Longbourn (Jo Baker) and Moist von Lipwig from Going Postal (Terry Pratchett). Very different characters, but they were both great leading men.

9. book that made you cry

The Five People You Meet in Heaven (Mitch Albom). My best friend recommended it to me ages ago, and I finally read it (in one sitting) and got extremely choked up at the end.

10. book that made you happy

Going Postal was a great reminder of how much I love Terry Pratchett. While the prospect of reading his entire Discworld series is a little daunting, I’ve very much enjoyed the two that I have read (plus Good Omens, of course).

I’ve definitely enjoyed some of the books I’ve read this year, but a lot of them have just been a bit lackluster. Hopefully the second half of the year will be better!

#personal #it’s not that I haven’t enjoyed the books I’ve read so far #just that they’ve been a little boring

[purpleplaid17]

Jess Watches // Fri 5 Jan // Day 105 Synopses & Favourite Scenes & Poll

Orphan Black (rw with mum) 5x07 Gag or Throttle

As Westmoreland demands a more aggressive approach with Kira, and Sarah fights to save her daughter, Rachel discovers a dark secret that makes her question her place within Neolution.

What was the wig budget for this ep? Rachel's past and present, Alison's new purple-tinted do, and my favourite, the dead clone's blue mohawk. I actually felt sympathy for Rachel, which is a credit to Tat and the writers. The realization that the neos never stopped monitoring her and that she will always be a test subject to them. I had forgotten how graphic the eyeball-cutting scene was. Ouch.

Frasier (with mum) 5x14 The Ski Lodge

Roz wins a weekend at a ski lodge, and trades it to Frasier. Daphne invites along her friend Annie, a swimsuit model. Frasier is taken with her, but she is interested in Niles.

Not surprising that this is one of the highest rated episodes. The scene where they're stood in a row each looking to their right at the person they want to have sex with but no one is looking at each other lmaooo. All ski lanes leading to Niles Crane. I thought Niles/Guy and Daphne/Annie made the cutest couples.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (rw) 3x11 Gingerbread

After discovering two dead young children and bearing a symbol linked to the occult, Joyce spearheads a campaign to rid Sunnydale of witches.

The young actors looked so familiar but I couldn't figure it out without imdb. The little boy was also Andrew in Desperate Housewives (Bree's son). I thought the girl looked a bit like Renne Rapp but the ages obviously don't match up so I was thinking older sibling/cousin maybe, but no. And Amy's goth friend is Blake Sennet of Rilo Kiley! 🐀

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters 1x09 Axis Mundi

Shaw and May search for Cate and make a startling discovery. Kentaro struggles with his loss.

So this is the Hollow Earth people in the tags have been talking about. The Titans designs are so cool I'd love to know more about the process of creating them. And poor little Hiroshi losing all the parental figures in his life at such a young age, but then repeating the cycle by abandoning his own children. Also, May being more concerned about finding cate than getting electricuted. Also also, the scream I scrumpt when [spoiler]. Is it next week yet?

#orphan black #frasier #buffy the vampire slayer #monarch legacy of monsters #polls #tumblr polls #jess watches #day 105

[anthurak]

Some have pointed out that Adam hadn’t fully began turning until the Adam trailer.

Is when he started getting praised by the white fang and sienna that his ego began to take over, he started wanting in charge and be adored by everyone. He wanted to be “lionized”, it’s when it stopped being “getting what we deserve” and started being “getting what I deserve”

If it was really only about revenge he likely wouldn’t have bothered with something like beacon.

Honestly if he’d stuck to attacking the SDC he’d be a lot harder to root against “so long as he isn’t still abusive to blake obviously”

Sure, it's not as if Adam was a murderous, narcissistic egomaniac from the beginning, or even when he first joined the White Fang. The 'key point' I talked about in my previous post was simply the start of Adam's journey to being a villain, not the end. Adam's journey to being a villain was likely a long one comprised of many small steps, but each one a choice to stop, to recognize what he was becoming and step away. And likely not once did he ever make that choice.

And you're right that Adam's motivations are driven by his ego and desire for power and prestige just as much as revenge. It's a classic case of internalizing the trauma and pain one suffered at the hands of an oppressor so much that one desires the same power of that oppressor. Ultimately I think Adam's motivation by the start of the series can best be summarized as 'I have suffered, therefore I deserve X, because I deserve it', whether it be revenge, power, prestige, followers, Blake, etc.

It's all something that Adam grew into overtime, one bad decision after another until he was the leading an attack on Beacon alongside actual Grimm.

And funny enough, this is one of several things Adam has in common with Ironwood. Both are men who may have started with good intentions, but kept following a long, winding road to hell, until they turned on all the people they were supposed to help, started murdering their followers, and became an unwitting stooge to an immortal Witch.

#rwby #anon ask #rwby ask #rwby analysis #adam taurus #james ironwood

[aspoonofsugar]

Hola, me gustan mucho tus objetivos, son muy interesantes. Especialmente cuando trabajas sobre RWBY. Mi pregunta es: ¿cuáles son sus alusiones y referencias favoritas de cuentos de hadas que RWBY ha usado y desarrollado? En concreto, la forma en la que han trabajado esa ilusión dentro del programa.

Hello!

Thank you for the very nice words and I am so so sorry it took so much time to answer you! You see, I was writing this super long Weiss's meta on her Snowhite allusion and I have a meta (hopefully shorter LOL) on Cinder's allusion planned. In my ideal world I wanted to finish them both before answering, so that I had more material and thoughts to share :''')

However, the Weiss's analysis took A LOT, so I decided to actually answer you before writing the Cinder one!

In short, I love RWBY's allusions! They go right to the heart of the source material and reference it in original and complex ways. The writers usually choose 1 or 2 thematic elements and repeat it multiple times throughout the story. At the same time, this repetition ends up alluding to the original pretty closely both in terms of structure and theme. Add some inversion, some subversion and some deconstruction/reconstruction and you get RWBY allusions :)

I'll share some of my favourites right away, but before that, I would like to quickly highlight how rich RWBY's motifs are.

TEAM ALLUSIONS

Many teams share a specific way their allusions are used. This usually reflects some thematic concept explored by the group of characters.

RWBY are fairy tales, but they are also built on duality. Ruby is both the Red Riding Hood and the Hunter. Weiss is both Snowhite and the Knight. Blake is both the Beauty and the Beast. Yang is both Goldilock and the Baby Bear (hence why she has so much brown in her outfits :P). This shows our heroines' complexity and richness. They embody both the feminine (Little Red Riding Hood, Snowhite, Beauty and Goldilock) and the masculine (the Hunter, the Knight, the Beast and the Baby Bear). Not only that, but their concepts all explore the idea of the shadow or the inner beast. Blake and Yang do so directly since they both have a "beast" inside them (the Beast and the Baby Bear). Ruby and Weiss do so through their allusions. Ruby faces the Big Bad Wolf, while Weiss the Evil Queen.

JNPR are legends, but their allusions also have a genderbender motif. They allude to people of the opposite sex, who all had to genderbend at one point. This fits their arcs, which are all strongly intertwined with the idea of anima (and interestingly all 4 characters are from anima or have family there). Jaune's arc is about aquiring the positive feminine traits Pyrrha embodies. Nora and Ren instead must integrate with each other and their story is focused on their relationship and complementarity.

Ace Ops are Aesops, aka stories with a black and white morality (most of the time) just like the Atlas Ace Operatives, who are unable to think with their own heads once the world is revealed more complex than just "good" and "bad".

WTCH are what ifs... they are bad endings for positive characters.... What if Watson worked for Moriarty (but also what if Watson were jealous of Sherlock)? What if the Scorpion killed the Frog, but survived? What if Hansel lost Gretel? What if Cinderella were not saved? Interestingly, Cinder fits both WTCH and RWBY's motifs, in the sense that the answer to... "what if Cinderella were never saved" is "she would become an evil stepmother as well". Hence Cinder is both Cinderella (victim) and the Stepmother (abuser). Obviously Salem too fits both the "what if" and "duality" rule. What if the princess from fairy tales could not stay with her prince forever? She would turn into an Evil Witch.

SERIES ALLUSIONS

Each character plays multiple parts within RWBY. Many of them have their own allusions, but they also play important characters in others' stories. For example, Jaune is Joanne D'Arc, but he also plays Snowhite's Prince and Achilles's Patroclus. Moreover, there are some allusions that are so important that they kind of permeate the whole story. The Wizard of Oz allusion is exactly this.

Oz and Salem allude to the Wizard of Oz and the Evil Witch of the West. Qrow, Glynda, Lionheart, Ironwood and Theodore all play into this same allusion. That is not all, though. RWBY themselves can be seen as a new generation of Oz's characters.

Ruby is Dorothy with her personal silver slippers ("You have silver eyes")

Weiss is the Tin Man who has secretly more heart than anyone else

Blake is the Cowardly Lion (or the scaredy cat?) who is the bravest of all

Yang is the Scarecrow, who acts himbo-ish, but is really smart and subtle

In general, the whole plot builds on the Wizard of Oz one. The party goes around the world meeting their previous generation version only to finally go back home (probably the finale will be at Beacon). Not only that, but after the Wizard of Oz disappears (Ozpin's death), Ozma and Tip pop up (Oscar and Ozma).

So, meta-narratively, RWBY, Oscar and JNR are moving in an endless version of the Wizard of Oz. This is also why Ruby's character short in volume 4 has her going from wolves (aka Little Red Riding Hood's enemy) to this:

A very intelligent monkey Grimm (Wizard of Oz's allusion) with only one eye (like the Hound... or Cinder) :P If that is not foreshadowing, I don't know what is.

Anyway, this is precisely why the heroes stepping away from the yellow brick road is interesting:

They fall and leave the Wizard of Oz setting to enter Wonderland (Alyx's land). I am expecting next volume to reference the Alice novels and to be meta-narratively different from others.

FAVOURITE ALLUSIONS

So, now we arrive at some of my favourite allusions so far! Obviously this list may change as the character arcs progress, but also as I discover new things through analyses and metas.

Penny as Pinocchio

Pinocchio is the story of a selfish and lazy puppet, who slowly learns to prioritize others and to work earnestly to obtain what he wants. At the end of the book, he is tested by the Blue Fairy, who asks for his help. Pinocchio immediatley gives her 40 pennies he had worked hard to gain. As a reward for his hard work and generosity, he finally becomes a true boy and the 40 pennies come back to him as 40 golden coins.

Penny takes Pinocchio's premise and inverts it by also combining it with some alchemy metal symbolism. She is a true girl since the beginning, but the world around her refuses to aknowledge this. Ironwood, Salem, Cinder and Watts all think of her as someone with no will nor humanity, that can be easily controlled or manipulated. Meanwhile some of her loved ones, like Pietro, tend to be overprotective and to treat her as a child. Penny's arc is then about affirming her own humanity and independence despite the world being hell-bent on getting in her way. Because of this, Penny's own story becomes a complex and beautiful exploration of what being human (and growing up) means. It is about confronting your feelings, thinking with your own head and making your own choices. However, even if you do all of this perfectly, things may still turn out wrong because having feelings means you can experience friendship and love, but also pain and loss.

When it comes to how Penny's allusion is used in the story, the thematic element she is asked to face over and over is that of the Blue Fairy. She meets her 3 times throughout the Atlas Arc. She appears as Fria (1st), Ambrosius (2nd) and Winter (3rd).

Fria and Ambrosius's roles is to aknowledge Penny's humanity through the worldbuilding. Fria can give Penny the Maiden power because she is a true girl. Ambrosius gives Penny a body that mirrors her interiority. She appears as a human because she is human and has been human all along. At the same time, Penny's experiences with Fria and Ambrosius teach her things about humanity itself. Being human in soul means you have to balance duties and wishes. Having a human body means you can feel pain and are left more vulnerable. In other words, being human is awesome because you have friends and wishes and feelings! But it is also painful and heartbreaking... So is humanity worth it? In the final moments of her arc, when she is already dying, Penny answers that yes, it is... So, she herself chooses humanity, creation and love by making Winter the third and final Blue Fairy (just look at the blue fairy dust ice surrounding Winter's Maiden form).

In the end, RWBY's Pinocchio creates the Blue Fairy and completes her arc from creation (passive/child) to creator (active/adult). This crowning (and tragic as hell) moment is highlighted by Penny disappearing into a golden cloud. No idea if there are going to be plot related reasons for this. Still, symbolically this choice hits 2 sweet boxes.

Shedding the green to reveal the gold underneath it conveys that Penny is leaving behind Pietro's aura color to embrace her own. She is not just her father's daughter/creation anymore, but her own person.

Going from green to yellow is symbolic of Penny going from copper to gold, just like Pinocchio's coins in the novel. It is also a nod to alchemy and to the metal motifs shared by many characters. Gold is the most refined of metals, so Penny becoming gold indicates she has reached perfection.

Apart from all of this, Penny's allusion is full of references or easter eggs. She fights with Lampwick (Torchwick), meets the Cat and the Fox (Em and Merc) and is almost eaten by Monstra. Finally, her song directly references Disney Pinocchio's Wishing Upon a Star.

1) Cinder as Cinderella

I am planning a meta on Cinder's allusion, so I won't write much here. That said, I think it is clear why hers is among my favourites. It is a great exploration of Cinderella's story through the what if lens. What if Cinderella were not saved? What if she were not a good victim?

This question leads to a neat exploration of abuse, its consequences and how it is a cycle that perpetuates itself. Fitting to such a thematic core, Cinder's allusion plays on repetition in the sense that she keeps living it over and over again. It starts with Madam and Rhodes playing respectively the Evil Stepmother and the Prince/Fairy Godmother. It goes on with Salem playing both the Fairy Godmother/the Evil Stepmom and Ruby playing the Prince. Similarly, Cinder keeps going through dances, midnights and collecting slippers (the twin swords, the maiden power, Em and Merc). It is a cycle that needs and will be broken. Once this happens, the person Cinder really wants to be will emerge from the ashes and affirm herself.

3) Blake as the Beauty and the Beast

The Beauty and the Beast is at its core a story about love, romantic relationships and the integration between opposites. So, Blake's arc explores these ideas in several ways. It is a reflection on love that starts with toxic love (Adam), goes through one-sided/immature love (Sun) and arrives to mature love (Yang). At the same time, it is also a story about integrating with those different from you (Faunus and Human) and how this co-habitation can be difficult.

Structurally, it works because Blake goes through the basic plot of her fairy tale twice, but in opposite ways. In the first scenario, Adam is the beast and it is an inversion of the original story. In the second scenario, Yang is the beast and the allusion is played straight. As a matter of fact, the Beauty and the Beast is about a young girl separating from the Father and finding a new love and family in the Beast. To be more precise, Beauty leaves her Father to go live in the Beast's castle, but after a while she begs the Beast to let her go visit her dad, who is sick. The Beast lets her, but asks her to be back in a week or he will die. Beauty meets her Father and loses track of time, so when she goes back to meet the Beast, she finds him already dying. By this point, she realizes her love for the Beast, heals him and so they marry and live happily together.

In the inversion storyline, Blake starts as a member of Ghira's group, but leaves it and her parents by choosing to be Adam's partner. After a while, though, Blake chooses to leave the Beast and goes back to Menagerie. Only by reconnecting with Ghira and his ideals, she grows strong enough to go back to Adam and fight him off.

Similarly, Blake leaves both Adam and Menagerie and meets Yang. They grow together, but at one point she chooses to leave her partner, which highly upsets Yang. After reconciling with her family and growing stronger, Blake goes back to Yang and is forgiven by her.

Finally, I find it neat that her allusion makes use of all the members of team RWBY. Ruby is Blake's new Rose that introduces her to Yang and reconnects her with Ghira's ideals. Weiss is Blake's Beauty when it comes to the Faunus plotline. She starts off as prejudiced against Blake and her people, but mellows with time and is now ready to help. Yang is Blake's Beauty when it comes to her romantic plotline. Blake symbolically becomes able to love again and to be herself again through their relationship.

3) Weiss as Snowhite

Snowhite is the story of a child growing up and becoming a different person from their parent. When one is a child, they identify almost completely with their parent. However, once they start growing up, they discover they are their own person. This is what Snowhite appearing in the Evil Queen's mirror represents. In other words:

There's a part of me that's desperate for changes, Tired of being treated like a pawn But there's a part of me that stares back from inside the mirror Part of me that's scared I might be wrong That I can't be strong.

In the original fairy tale, Snowhite is the part who wants to change, while the Evil Queen is the part who refuses to evolve. The fairy tale can be seen as a metaphor for this inner process within an individual. This is also Weiss's story in a nutshell. It is a struggle between the Heiress (The Evil Queen) and the Huntress (Snowhite). They are just 2 sides of Weiss, who go through metaphorical parallel journeys and reconcile in the end.

On the one hand the Heiress has to face herself in the mirror. She has to struggle with her reflection and her undesirable parts until she grows strong enough to destroy the mirror instead of letting herself be controlled by it (so by Jacques).

On the other hand the Huntress has to tame the wild animals through her Glyphs. By doing so, she goes through Snowhite's iconic deaths and resurrections. The Heiress dies, but is reborn as a Knight (Arma Gigas). The Huntress is murdered, but comes back as a Queen (Queen Lancer).

In short, Weiss's journey through the Vale and Mistral arcs has her fo from a Little Spoilt Princess to a Wise Queen. Of course, then there are all the easter eggs and other references. Like The Finest of Them All Schnee Dust Company commercial, Klein as the dwarves and Jacques as the Evil Queen.

5) Ruby as Little Red Riding Hood

I am sure Ruby's allusion will be at the top of my list once it gets more focus and development. As for now, the setup is excellent. Ruby is both the Hood and the Hunter and her journey is bound to be about meeting many Big Bad Wolves. It starts with simple Grimms, it goes on with the Hound and it will probably reach its climax with Summer and Cinder.

In short, Ruby's arc promises to be a story about grief and loss, but also empathy and complexity and I can't wait to have more.

6) Pyrrha as Achilles

Pyrrha's story beautifully re-tells and re-interprets Achilles's journey in the Trojan War. Achilles is asked to choose between eternal glory and a normal life. Similarly, Pyrrha too is asked to decide if she prefers to be a normal girl or a maiden. Her answer is that she is both. She chooses to die a hero not to try and be more than what she is, but because that is who she is. Pyrrha Nikos is a Huntress and Huntresses do the right thing, even if it is hard.

Apart from that, her story is full of little details. Jaune being her Patroclus, but working in reverse, for example. Patroclus's death is what leads Achilles to fight, while in RWBY Pyrrha's death becomes Jaune's main motivation. Then there is the arrow hitting her heel obviously. Finally, the whole fight between Pyrrha and Penny can be seen as a nod to Achilles and Hector's battle. Achilles and Hector were the 2 strongest warriors of easch army, just like Pyrrha and Penny are for respectively Beacon and Atlas. Pyrrha shredding Penny apart can be seen as a reference to Achilles ripping Hector's limbs away, as well.

Honorable mentions

Yang as Goldilock: I have several ideas on Yang's allusion, but somehow I still miss that element which is gonna make it all click together and I wonder if it will be given to us in the next volumes.

In short, Goldilock is the story of a child lacking balance and not being able to fit in. This is the basic idea of Yang's arc. She is unbalanced initially and must learn that asymmetry and uniqueness are not the same as being extreme (hence Tai calling her out on her semblance).

Symbolically, she is initially too hot and needs to cool off (which interestingly she does thanks to Weiss aka the ice to her fire). At the same time, she also tries to be "too big" (hence people asking her both in the yellow trailer and in volume 4 if she isn't too young to drink). I wonder if the too hard/too soft dychotomy will play a part as well. Interestingly, everything seems to be going back to 3 key relationships: Ruby (too hot and too small), Raven (too cold and too big) and Blake (just right, but it would be interesting if they had a final conflict about too soft and too hard, but this is just a headcanon).

At the same time, differently from other allusions, Yang's seems to be cyclical and repeating itself over and over. It starts with her flashback in Burning the Candle, it goes on with the Yellow Trailer and it happens once again in volume 4 when she goes to meet Raven.

Hazel as Hansel: Hazel's arc was simple, but well done and so it's his allusion. Him getting a prisoner to the Witch without Gretchen, but finally being able to burn her up, like her sister does in their fairy tale is cathartic.

The Gods: Sorry, but them alluding to the Grimms Brothers is hilarious and well thought up :''')

Allusions for which I have headcanons I like very very much: Right now, I have theories and thoughts for Jaune, Mercury and Emerald. However, they are not canon as for now.

Allusions I am not sure that are there, but I still love: Emerald and Mercury as the Cat and the Fox, Winter as the Snow Queen (and so Weiss as Gerda), Emerald as Aladdin (I don't think she is meant to be Aladdin, but it is possible the popularity of this theory in the fandom made them consider integrating some bits of this allusion... I mean... only happy if it happens- as for now, it surely leads to some interesting thoughts about who the genies are in Em's arc >>> they are her abusers). I also like the theory of Oscar and the Little Prince, but I need more and tbh... I am fairly sure his allusion to Ozma and Tip too is a great one. It is just I don't know very well the source material tbh. Another one I don't dislike, but there is little evidence is Willow as the Swan Lake.

This is all as for now. I hope this answer brought some interesting thoughts even if it comes late and it is maybe not so well organized!

#rwby #rwby meta #asksfullofsugar #once upon an allusion #hello-crazynoahshipps-rg

[lgbtqreads]

Hi, I'm looking for books with an AFAB genderqueer character. Any genre, I just want some perspectives to read as I'm figuring myself and my gender presentation out. Thanks!

You got it! (I'm going to mix in some other identities that are not binary, as I think that might be helpful for you as you're still trying to figure things out, but obviously disregard whatever!)

Try Out of Salem by Hal Schrieve (genderqueer), The One True Me and You by Remi K. England (nonbinary), Love & Other Disasters by Anita Kelly (nonbinary), The Brilliant Death by A.R. Capetta (demigirl, with a genderfluid love interest), Man O' War by Cory McCarthy (transmasc, with an agender love interest), The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall (genderfluid or bigender), and a couple of books with AFAB genderqueer love interests who are actively going through gender journeys in the book: Like Water by Rebecca Podos and Girl Made of Stars by Ashley Herring Blake

#LGBTQReads #AFAB #Genderqueer #Nonbinary

[vincentcatagainsttheworld]

#Repost from Deborah Harkness FB page A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES REAL TIME READ, Chapter 40 “Hamish’s eyes drifted away, and mine followed. We both watched as Matthew’s white hands streaked through his hair before he disappeared into the barn. “‘Tiger, tiger, burning bright / In the forests of the night,’” Hamish said, quoting William Blake. “That poem has always reminded me of him.”.... “I did wonder if you would take him on, once you knew who he was–who he still is. It would seem you’re not afraid to have a tiger by the tail.” Wordlessly, I turned back to the counter and resumed my chopping. “Be careful.” Hamish rested his hand on my forearm, forcing me to look at him. “Matthew won’t be the same man where you’re going.” -A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES “The Tyger” is the companion to another poem, “The Lamb.”... Instead of a simplistic, binary juxtaposition of opposites (good versus evil, innocence versus experience), Blake contemplated the shared connections and coexistence among many seemingly contrary states and beings. He reminded his readers that the same immortal being had formed both of them: “Did he smile his work to see? / Did he who made the Lamb make thee? -THE WORLD OF ALL SOULS, pg 463 Deb has always said that when she started writing the books, she was struck by popular depictions of vampires and witches, and the popular assumption that it would be a delightful thing to be a vampire or to have one for a boyfriend. Obviously, she felt differently. Deb thought that dating a vampire (or a witch) would be much more challenging and complicated, and this “shadowed self” is a theme she returns to again and again throughout ADOW. Having read ADOW, which camp do you find yourself in? Still wishing for a vampire mate or not so much? Why or why not?? If you’ve read Blake’s “The Tyger” in TWOAS, did that help you think about the complexities of these creatures (and yourself!)? What else were you hoping to talk about after reading this chapter? Did you find anything else in TWOAS that you wanted to bring to the group? Cat #ADOWRTR2022 #ADOWRTR #adowrtrch40 #TheWorldofAllSouls https://www.instagram.com/p/CkWodqPo72D/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#repost #adowrtr2022 #adowrtr #adowrtrch40 #theworldofallsouls