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eating-plastic · 10 months

Text

Next Lesson: Marlon x Reader

Warnings: Swearing, age gap (reader is +18 obviously), fighting, minor violence, fluff, probably some grammatical errors

Word Count: 4559 words

A/N: Yay Marlon! He's kinda underrated in my opinion and needs some love. Also, I noticed that I'm not really following the canon of the game when I write for Stardew Valley. I hope that's not too infuriating. I'm just trying to add my own touch to things. Anyhoo, that's all. Have a good day!

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You grew up with farming in your blood. You enjoyed aiding your parents whenever you could, but for the most part you would be hanging out with the animals. From the cows and sheep, to your father's hunting dog (who was a total sweetheart when not tracking deer), to the many barn cats that kept the rodents at bay. Even as you grew older and your other siblings moved away to the city, you were content where you were. And why wouldn't you be? Farming made you who you were, with a love for nature and an optimistic view on the world, if not a little bit naive.

Unfortunately, life isn't full of happy moments, as you learned when you got a letter containing melancholic news. Your grandfather had passed away, which made you tear up as you read the note. You had loved him, dearly. You could remember visiting him when you were very young, helping him, hanging out with his animals, him reading you bedtime stories when you'd struggle to fall asleep. At least he had passed away peacefully in his sleep.

When you gained your composure, the letter revealed to you that he had left his farm to you, his favorite grandchild. The one that never complained about the work, the one who appreciated what nature could give, the one who was always excited to visit.

It was bittersweet. You were planning on getting a farm of your own soon, and now you got one. Oh how you wished it was under different circumstances.

Eventually, after you had your chance to mourn and move on from your grief, you packed up your things and moved to his humble abode in the beautiful Stardew Valley.

The sight of the old farmhouse broke your heart. It looked like the little guest home you and your siblings would stay in had been demolished and the fields that once held flourishing crops and animals were now overgrown with foliage. Upon entering what was once your grandfather's abode, you find it almost completely bare.

A rush of memories from your childhood flooded your mind. You could almost hear the ghost of those moments long past. You think back to the plot's condition and how it most likely became the state it was because of your grandfather's debilitating health. It almost made you misty eyed again.

No, your grandfather wouldn't want you to feel so sorrowful. He would want you to make new memories, now.

And that was just what you were going to do.

On top of being optimistic and free-spirited, you were a very determined person. You weren't going to just sit here feeling miserable. You were going to hit the ground running with getting this farm back to its former glory.

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

Your friendliness made it easy for the other villagers to get along with you. Well...most of them. While you spent your first year or so just focusing on repairing your new home, you began to slow down on the renovations now that it looked almost like how it used to. Nowadays you were spending more time on leisurely activities and bonding with the friendly townsfolk.

Of course, your favorite activities always involved the outdoors, and you found yourself spending more time on the beach or in the woods.

That was where you are, now, with trees surrounding you and birds singing above. You were near the mountains. You always wanted to see them as soon as someone told you about them. There was a rumor that there was a cave in the mountains that held an old mine that mysteriously shut down. The cave was also the home of beautiful crystals and gemstones.

The thought has you curious, and you should be at its entrance right...about....

A chill runs down your spin as you are face to face with the large, dark opening of the cave. You feel frozen on the spot, like the shadows had hypnotized you. If you strained your ears enough you could swear the opening was calling to you.

You shake your head, slightly breaking the spell that the dim entrance casted on you. You look around and are met with what looks to be an outpost to your right. You move to check it out, but stop when you notice a closed sign.

You don't know if you wanted to go into the cave. Who knows what dangers were in there. Not to mention the darkness. Then again, if the cave was so dangerous, why wasn't it blocked off. The Community Center was dilapidated and blocked off to the villagers, so why wasn't this?

'How bad could it be?' you thought. 'I'll just explore around a little bit and leave.'

So you passed through the entrance, a chill consuming your body at the drop in temperature. It was relatively dark, so you turned on the flashlight on your phone. Even though you didn't see any sparkling treasures, it still was cool. You had never entered a cave before, so everything fascinated you.

You were going to turn around, until you found the "mine" part of the cave. A ladder that was descending into the Earth now faced you. Like with the entrance, it called to you. You look around, then at your phone. It was at 78%. That should be enough.

'I won't stray from the ladder,' you thought.

And so your curiosity made you climb downwards.

To your surprise, there were lit lanterns on the walls of the cave. That's odd. If this cave is abandoned, why are there ignited lanterns? This was another thing that told you that these caverns couldn't be that dangerous.

Right?

Either way, you still explored around, even when you would hear strange noises. You thought they were just phantom noises. Noises of past events that still lingered, just like when you first moved into your grandfather's old farm house.

Eventually, you began to get bored. The bland, brown walls quickly lost the charm they had when you first entered.

As you moved to head back though, you felt a sharp pain in your ankle. You let out a pained shriek and jumped out of the way. You looked at the dirt floor and thought you could see something moving around in the dirt. You look down at your leg, and saw a shallow, but still bloody laceration. You let out a shaky breath.

You should probably leave.

You move back to the ladder, this time at a bit of a faster pace. You didn't know what cut you, but you needed to patch it up in case it got infected.

Just then though, you heard a weird squelching noise behind you. You slowly turn your head and are met with...a green jelly...thingy?

You didn't know what you were looking at. How could you? You had never seen a bouncing, green jelly ball before. Not to mention the weird but cutesy face it had.

You analyze the...creature as it slowly bounced towards you. You don't move, until a bit of the green slime splashes onto your legs. You let out another shriek of pain. It felt like you had acid spat on you.

Okay, you definitely had to leave now!

You turned and broke into a sprint towards where the ladder was, trying to run faster when you heard even more squelching noises and shuffling in the dirt under your feet.

Once you got to the ladder, you practically scrambled up it as quickly as you could. When you got to the top, you just laid on the dirt floor of the cave's entrance. Your breathing was frantic and you tried to get it under control.

"What the hell?"

Your head shot up at the sound of an unfamiliar voice. Standing in front of you was an old man whose face was illuminated by a torch he was holding. You felt frozen on the spot and struggled to find words for the situation, then again your hyperventilating was making it difficult. His confusion and annoyance quickly turned to be more sympathetic, and he slowly knelt down.

"Hey...hey, it's okay, kid," he held his hand out to help lift you to your feet. You took it, finally starting to breathe like a normal person. "There you go. Just hang on and follow me out."

You did just that, trying to keep up with the older man despite your injuries, as the light of the outdoors got closer and closer.

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Of course, the day that Marlon decided to go get some groceries for him and Gil, the new farmer he had heard so much about decided to do some cave exploring. As soon as he got back, Gil had told him that he thought he saw someone unknown wander into the caves, but didn't know if it was real or just a dream. Frustrated that he would have to go save a curious idiot or fetch a body if he could, he grabbed his sword and ran as fast as his bad leg would allow him.

Luckily, you were alive, but clearly shaken up after obviously having explored the first level or levels of the cave. He wanted to berate you, but after seeing your terrified face, he had softened up.

Now you both were standing in the warm sunlight, and Marlon got a good look at your injuries. He asks you what happened, and you explain what you experienced to the best of your abilities. You truly were utterly clueless about monsters, telling him that you really weren't from here.

"Yep, sounds like a slime and a duggy. You're lucky you stopped exploring when you did. The deeper you go, the more dangerous the creatures get," he explains.

"I...w-what?" you truly couldn't wrap your head around anything that was being explained to you. Marlon just shook his head.

"I wouldn't worry about it. Your injuries aren't severe. Come on, let's get you patched up," he turns and walks into the outpost by the cave.

You follow him, and notice that the closed sign had been flipped to open. The interior of what you were told was the Adventurer's Guild was cozy, with a warm fire going. Apparently cozy enough for an old man in a rocking chair to nap by.

Marlon tells you to sit in a stool by the front desk, while he walks behind it to look for a first aid kit. Once he retrieves it, he moves back to you and kneels down to treat your injuries.

"You got a name, kid?" he asks while bandaging the laceration on your leg.

You introduce yourself, telling him your name and how you moved to Pelican Town. Now in better lighting and being much calmer now, you got a better look at the old man patching you up. He was rugged, with a few small scars on his hands and face, facial hair, and most notably, an eyepatch. You had to admit, he was handsome despite his age. In fact, you would say that maybe his age added to his attractiveness.

"What about you, stranger?" you ask after explaining yourself.

"Marlon," he answers, simply. Funny, considering how you told him your whole life story. Looks like you're going to have to be an interviewer.

"How come you know so much about the mines?"

"Used to explore them," once again keeping his answer short.

"Why?"

"Research."

"Research on what?"

"What do you think? Monsters, minerals, anything you can find. Lots of valuable things within those caverns."

You were surprised at the in-depth answer. Still, you'll take it. You decide to ask one more question.

"Who's he?" you point to the old man sleeping in the rocking chair.

"Gil," Marlon finishes up with patching your leg. Okay, looks like you were going to have to ask another question.

"How do you know him?"

"He was my research partner," he stands up from his spot on the floor. "So was your grandfather."

Your eyes widen.

"What?"

"Ever since the mines closed, Gil, your grandfather, and myself wanted to know why," he puts the first aid kit back.

"I see...," you think. Your grandfather loved telling you stories, but he never mentioned anything about this. How odd.

"Here."

You look up and are taken aback by what Marlon is holding towards you.

It is an old, weathered sword.

"What-?"

"Just in case," he explains. "If you ever wanna learn a bit about self defense, come on by. You'll need it if you decide to go into the mines again."

You hesitantly take the weapon.

"Believe me, I'll never go back into those mines ever," you let out a shaky laugh. "But thanks for the offer."

Marlon nods to you and you bid him farewell, leaving the Adventurer's Guild with your new weapon. Despite it being the first sword you ever held, it felt natural wielding it.

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

Marlon knew you would be back. If you were anything like your grandfather, then you would be curious about what the mines held and would want to learn how to survive.

And he was right.

It was only three days after your attack that you wanted to explore the mines once more. You wanted to know just what you'd find in those caverns and more about your grandfather's involvement with them.

You arrive at the door of the Adventurer's Guild around noon, with your old sword in hand. You made sure that the sign out front said open. You enter but are met with an empty front desk.

"Well I'll be, so you are real," you turn your head to Gil, still in his rocking chair but now awake and writing something in a booklet.

"Oh Hi! I'm Y/N," you greet.

"I know. Marlon told me about you, but it's nice to meet you properly," he gives you a warm smile, which you return.

"It is. Um, do you know where Marlon is?"

"Ah, that's right. You wanna learn a bit of fighting?" he asks, and you nod. "Yep, that's what I thought. There's a path in the back. Just follow it and you'll meet him."

"Okay, thank you, Gil!" you chirp before turning to leave.

"Mhm, good luck," he calls and returns back to his booklet.

Upon finding the path, you follow it. It's narrow , with few twists and turns, and leads you to a clearing. The open space is set up with training dummies, targets, and chests.

You see Marlon next to a sword stand that holds blades of different sizes and conditions. He picks one up, and swings it experimentally. You make your way towards him, but step on something that makes a loud crunching noise.

The old man quickly swivels on his feet, holding the blade towards you, causing you to jump back. When his eyes lock with yours, he lets out a sigh of relief and lowers his weapon.

"First lesson, kid: never sneak up on your allies," he scolds.

"Sorry," you mutter, sheepishly.

"Yes, well...now you know," he clears his throat. "It's good that you're making mistakes here instead of within the mines."

He holds his hand out for you to shake. It serves as a proper greeting at your arrival. You take it, feeling your brief embarrassment melt away.

"My grandfather always told me that making mistakes is good," you explain. "That mistakes are lessons to learn from."

"In most situations, yes," Marlon nods. That was something he always would say if he remembered correctly. "But in those mines, your mistakes can be fatal."

His voice is serious, making sure that you understand how dire your errors could be.

"I know," you nod, thinking back to your now healed up injuries.

"Good," he then walks towards a chest, and you follow close behind. "Now, then, let's get started."

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

You were only taught the basics of self defense and fighting. As such, you were awkward with simple swings and dodges, making numerous mistakes and learning how to correct them.

Marlon was a stern teacher, but it made sense why he was so strict. You had to know that your blunders could get you killed. He wasn't always so serious though, as he made sure to praise you on your improvements.

Now you were both walking back to the Adventurer's Guild. You felt a bit exhausted but proud of yourself. Back where you lived, you never had to worry about self defense or, you know, literal monsters, but doing something new made you feel good.

"Not bad for your first day, kid," Marlon states. "You aren't ready for the mines quite yet, but you'll get there in no time."

"Believe me, I'm as shocked as you. It's odd how natural swinging this sword feels now," you look down at your weapon. Sure it wasn't pristine and was old, but you liked it in a way you couldn't explain.

"I'm not shocked at all," he gives you a shadow of a smile. "It's in your blood."

This was the closest thing to a smile that the old man had given you, which causes you to beam.

"I guess it is, huh?" you think.

"It may help that you're wielding your grandfather's sword, too."

You quickly freeze up at that.

"Wait, what? Really?" you ask eagerly.

"Of course," he nods, smirking at your reaction. "It was used well in his hands, and now it will be used well in your own."

"Wow," you look back down at the sword in your hands. Perhaps that was why it felt so nice to wield. "Thank you."

Marlon nods, and continues to walk forwards. With this new tidbit of information, you had to know one thing.

"So when's our next lesson?"

"Whenever you're ready, Y/N. Although, I would recommend resting up a bit beforehand."

You nod. Truth be told, you wanted your next lesson to be as soon as possible.

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

Your skills had improved greatly. Ever since you stumbled through the basics, you quickly got the hang of fighting. As such, you started exploring the mines deeper and deeper, meeting with Marlon and Gil afterwards when you were curious about a monster you fought or a gem you collected.

You didn't really need to attend lessons with Marlon as often, but you enjoyed seeing him. Well, you enjoyed seeing Gil too, but this was different.

Not only was he attractive for his age, but the fact that Marlon was still an admirable fighter despite the bad leg made you rethink your taste in men.

You never thought you'd be smitten with a man so much older than you. You tried to ignore your crush on him, as you felt a bit disgusted with yourself. There was no way he could feel the same way for you. He probably viewed you as a surrogate grandchild or something like that.

Still, you tried to hang out with him as often as you could, and you always try to make him proud as you loved his praise. You also enjoyed making his day. At first glance one would think that Marlon was the stereotypical grumpy old man, and if you saw him walking around Pelican Town you would think that you were right.

But truth be told, he could be soft when he wanted to be, and you felt good to know that you were one of the few people he showed this side of himself towards.

That's why even now, despite being so under the weather, you still made your way to the Adventurer's Guild. There was a bug that was going around. Nothing too serious, it was just something that made you feel a bit feverish. You feel hot, but need to attend your lesson with Marlon.

Unfortunately for you, he notices just how ill you look as soon as you enter the clearing.

"Yoba, Y/N, you don't look so good," he remarks. He places a hand on your forehead and feels how you're burning up. "Are you sick?"

"What? N-No, I'm fine...I'm fine...,"you begin to sway, your eyes becoming heavy, and your legs give out underneath you.

Marlon quickly throws his arms around you to keep you from hitting the ground. He calls your name, worried. Even the simple walk from your farm to here was too much for you.

"Goddamn it," he mutters. This wasn't going to be pleasant. He picks up your limp body and carries it back to the Adventurer's Guild, despite his bad leg's protests.

Once he gets back, Gil instantly jumps from his chair.

"Marlon, what happened?" he follows him into the back room as he lays you down on the bottom bunk bed.

"They just fainted, alright? Look, go find a wet cloth, they're burning up," he commands, sitting down on the bed to rub his leg. Gil quickly leaves to do as he is told, returning as fast as possible with a soaked rag.

Marlon takes it and lays it over your forehead, before just looking down at your unconscious form.

"It's that damn flu going around. May need some medicine," he mumbles.

"Do...do you want me to go get it?" Gil asks. Typically Marlon went out into town to buy things, but with all the pressure put on his bad leg and knowing how protective he was over you, Gil knew he would have to be the one to go out.

"Yes," Marlon answers, still not looking up from you. And with that, Gil left the Adventurer's Guild after who knows how long.

Even after his leg started feeling better, Marlon still didn't leave your side. He didn't want to. He was never one to get worried about things, but this was different.

Perhaps it was because you were the first friend he had since Gil, or maybe it was because you were the grandchild of an old friend of his that was now gone. Hell, it could've been a combination of both. All he knew though, was that he wanted you to be okay.

He didn't even realize it, but he was now gently stroking your hair, occasionally brushing strands out of your face.

Eventually, you begin to stir, causing Marlon to realize what he was doing and pulling his hand away. Your eyes flutter open, blinking a few times as you wait for your vision to come back.

"Marlon...?" you mumble, realizing you are laying down on a bed and in an unfamiliar room. "Where am I?"

"The Adventurer's Guild. Now answer my question. What the hell were you thinking?" he tries to not come off as cross with you.

"I-I'm sorry...I promised to show up...I promised," you trail off as your delirious mind tries to come up with an explanation. The old man just shakes his head.

"I always told you, Y/N," he runs a hand through his white hair. "I always told you how important resting up is. You don't push yourself unless you are 100% okay."

"I know...I know...," your hand raises up to the wet cloth on your forehead, and run your fingers over it. Did he get you this? More importantly, did he carry you all the way here? How long were you out? Did...did he stay by your side this whole time? These questions make your heart flutter a bit.

Marlon just sighs, before removing the wet rag to feel your forehead. You feel much cooler now, which is good.

"How do you feel?" he asks.

"Better, I think," you reply. You no longer felt run down and your fever induced delirium was starting to fade.

"Good," he holds the damp cloth in his hands and doesn't move. It made him feel a bit awkward, which he never felt before. He still didn't want to leave your side, even though he knew he probably should.

"Marlon?" you wait for him to turn his head towards you. "How long was I out?"

"30 minutes I think."

"Did you...did you stay with me that whole time?"

"Yes, I had to," your eyes widen at that, which causes him to quickly add on to his statement. "My leg hurt after carrying you here."

"You carried me?" you are unable to hide the smile forming on your face.

"I...," Marlon quickly turns his head as he can feel his cheeks heating up, especially at your beautiful smile. "I...I couldn't just leave you there."

You sit up and move to the edge of the bed so you are now sitting next to him.

"Thank you, Marlon," with the sliver of delirium left in your mind, you lean over and place a kiss on his cheek. "That was very sweet of you."

The old man freezes up, and a shade of pink breaks out across his face. He looks at you and sees you still beaming up at him, but a bit sheepish now.

"You're um," he clears his throat. "You're welcome."

He slowly takes your hand into his and squeezes it, giving you a small smile. Well, this was a new feeling he was experiencing. He felt so...light? No, that couldn't have been the right word. That didn't matter though. All he knew was that he felt good. You made him feel good. It was like your kiss had made his mind fuzzy.

"I'm back!" Gil calls as he enters the Adventurer's Guild. Startled, Marlon lets go of your hand and moves away from you. You feel a bit hurt, until Gil enters the back room and smiles at you.

"Y/N, you're okay!"

You can't help but giggle at that.

"Yeah, I'm fine, now," you chirp, before noticing a bag in his hand. "What's that?"

"Oh, Marlon told me to go get you some medicine. Sorry it took me so long. I haven't been into town in a while," he rubs the back of his neck nervously.

"Aw, really?" you ask, turning to look at the old man sitting next to you, who was now trying to hide his face once more.

"Yeah, but uh, since you're okay now," Gil reaches into the bag to pull out your medicine. "Do you still want it?"

"Of course. I'll probably get sick again, you know," you quip, walking over to him to take it. "Thank you, Gil."

He beams at you and nods, until his attention turns to his friend.

"You okay, Marlon?" noticing his flushed face.

"Oh, I think he might've caught what I have," you add quickly, before handing your medicine back to Gil. "He might need it more than me."

"Ah, I see," he says, completely oblivious to how fast you had responded. "Do you need me to walk you home?"

"No, I'll be fine," you chirp. "You just stay here and make sure Marlon gets some rest, okay?"

"You got it! Take care, Y/N!"

"Yep! See you, Gil! Get well soon, Marlon!" you wink at him while Gil is distracted. The old man couldn't help but smirk back.

"Yeah...right."

You leave with your spirits high, completely forgetting your ailment. After all, how could you feel ill? You had shoot your shot with Marlon, and scored. Under normal circumstances, you would've felt embarrassed, but seeing him react positively to your kiss melted it away.

Your lessons with him were probably going to be a bit more interesting now.

#stardew valley #stardew valley x reader #sdv marlon #sdv marlon x reader #x reader #rita writes

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hermannco · 1 year

Note

I loved the designs you did for cane and able in codotverse, reminds me of wendell and wild from the new stop motion movie!

what inspos went behind your designs if you are okay with telling

I've had those designs stashed for years

if anything Wendell and Wild GOT INSPIRED BY ME!!!! /j

Lmao thank you

I'm about to info dump and dont take anything I say as Canon, this is me hyperfxating and having LITERALLY too much information in my brain about to random ass motherfuckers.

Okay so, fun things. About Inspo.

ABOUT CAIN: Normal Cain. Soft, grandpa man.

2008 Cain. (From a HoM comic I am not too fond of except...)

Fucking sharp lunatic with his hair going EVERYWHERE. Constantly UNHINGED.

And so I decided to strike right on the middle bcs I always enjoyed the idea of this motherfucker flipping like a switch, also because he is an older brother, and he cleans the house and does the crops and tells stories and helps with the animals and maintains the house, and is fuzzy and very classic focused. But you know, he will also murder Abel in a split second and he gets a JOY doing it. Most of the time. But also enough to live with him normally and still have dinners and get mad when someone else hurts him.

His front hair flop also comes from the fact that he has to hide the "MARK OF CAIN" TM. The one that hits you 7 times worse if you hurt him. He has no control of what that shit does tho.

Also fun fact, the houses are located in Kentucky (Unless they are teleporting) and stuck in the 70s aesthetically LMAO.

So I sharpened the old man, still gave him kind eyes. I unbrokened his nose, because is impossible to break it without you dying, so this man is SURPRISINGLY DELICATE when it comes to fights.

A well groomed beard that can be easily messed up. And big CAINines.

The clothes are just classic Cain clothes but pushin a little bit more of the military ww1 aesthetic he is placed with.

The long and short, Grandpa please go to bed.

ABOUT ABEL:

Younger frisky freer brother.

A lot of Abel is based of Harveydont's Abel work. In all honestly we both worked on these bozos over the years.

Regardless here is the explanation for his look at least on my end.

He has always been a fancy little lad, a lot more pristine than his brother. A lot of the thought behind Abel is how he does a lot less of heavy work such as gardening or house renovating, but does things such as cooking and sweeping and organizing. Which is why he can always afford to be dressed to the nines.

Always seems to dress BETTER and be well more mannered. But while nicer he is also a trickster. So He can't be a circle.

Anyway, this picture also has done its millage.

This is the ORIGINAL sketch for Abel by Joe Orlando. I think my man nailed it first try. There has been A LOT of Cains over the years, but Abel always... ALWAYS relatively looks like this. And I have NO ROOM to complain.

As you can visibly see he hasn't changed much... I just put a knife to him and sharpened his features, as well give him bigger eyes than Cain bcs 1) makes him also look unhinged 2) Can also look more innocent.

Also his mutton chops are cleaner, in general his look is more put together and softer. He is supposed to be PRISTINE. The ring on his hand is because CANNONICALLY, Abel wears the gayest shit in the comics and I something he could fiddle with when nervous. (Mesh shirt while cooking, you know, gay club look just while cooking, iconic. Speak your truth, king.)

Also I made their skin darker bcs I am tan to darker color and I Was like, lol I can't be stopped now!

I hope this helps.

#anonymous #MITHOM #the noir art #noir talks #cain and abel

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synonymroll648 · 1 year

Note

Hey!! Here to explain the trapdoor, lol. So the blue room isn't actually her room, that's just her separate office. It's only slightly bigger than a bathroom, and it's really cramped. Her room is pretty much the whole attic, because the attic is pretty big and it has its own bathroom and it gives her plenty of space. I wasn't sure what to do with the room that the trapdoor would be in because itd need to be simple but there's no way they'd have a room in the house and not use it at all. I started with it in the art room but that seemed like it'd be too cluttered, so I made that a drop-by because I didn't want to delete it (may ir may not be relevant later and it'd make things clunky to explain the whole room while Keefe is in there having a mental breakdown [poor dude])

Thank you for the suggestions!! It's really helpful, and I'll make those changes so it works better. Thanks for your fresh eyes to weigh in!! <3

ok. i see what you're saying. but. what is the in-universe story behind why the trapdoor is there? how it got there? this is a mostly fluffy, normal human au from the looks of it. if this were a bunker setting, i wouldn't question a trapdoor, because it makes sense for bunkers to have trapdoors. that's standard. but this is, from what i can see, a normal american house. trapdoors are not standard in american houses. you've gotta have a story behind why that trapdoor exists. if telling me the story will spoil the fic later on, don't say it, but just assure me that you have a reason.

some ideas for why there's a trapdoor in the house, if you haven't come up with something already or want to tweak it a bit:

their house was built over a location that had trapdoors for good reason(s) (bringing back the bunker example, even if the only trapdoors i am capable of thinking of are from minecraft-)

the kids begged the ruewens to have an underground area to play in because they thought a trapdoor would be sick as fuck, and grady and edaline decided the best place for that entrance was an office they frequented so they could keep a better ear out for trouble

the ruewens needed a colder, bigger area to store some things than the fridge (maybe medicinal stuff, if they run an animal rehab center like in canon), so they renovated the basement through one of their offices

#ask #presidentroarie #i'm not mad at you!! you didn't do this thoughtlessly!!#i'm just offering these critiques because i'm seeing an area where your worldbuilding's falling short and i want it to be better #because i like helping people grow as writers :)#when it comes to worldbuilding you need to worldbuild around the characters #which you've already done! you had that trapdoor and that office described early on so it wasn't weird when you had a big scene in it later #but. you have to have reasons behind worldbuilding that make sense from a writer's AND reader's perspective #hence in-universe reasoning behind the trapdoor #well. i mean. you don't HAVE to have that. but it bumps the story quality up a bit if you do

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cartoonus-maximus · 2 years

Text

My observations on the "Fazbear Frights" books, now streamlined and without all of my ramblings.

I like to keep notes while reading these books, but most of my notes end up being unnecessary, or I focus too much on theorizing and going off on tangents. So I tried to simplify them, and focus only on the important things to take away from each story (or at least the points that I think are important).

And, since some people seemed interested in my rambly notes, I thought I'd post my streamlined ones as well.

Some points are listed as “speculations,” and this is because, while context clues lead me to believe them, they aren’t confirmed canon facts.

An asterisk (*) next to the story title means that the story is one of my personal favorites out of the series.

Book 1

"Into the Pit" *

Basic plot: A boy (Oswald) finds a ball pit that allows him to travel through time, and he is temporarily adopted antagonized by a yellow rabbit man.

Lore bits:

Speculation: Oswald describes his town as "dead," "dying," and "a ghost town." Everyone has either moved away or, like Oswald's family, are trying to scrape together the means to move away. It's possible that this is Hurricane, Utah (now called Westbrook, Utah), and that, 30 years after William Afton's killing spree, people still can't get away fast enough. Oswald and the other kids his age know something has happened to their town, but the adults don't talk about it.

Speculation: It's suggested, via the timeline, that Oswald's parents were probably friends/classmates of some of Afton's victims, and that this may be part of why Oswald's dad tries to avoid actually going into the pizzeria himself.

We're shown the aftermath of the Missing Children's Incident. It took place in early or mid summer, 1985. Dressed as Spring Bonnie, Afton locked five children into the pizzeria with him overnight and killed them all, then set their bodies up on display to look like they were celebrating a private birthday party in the storage room. There are actually six children's bodies seen here, so possibly the sixth one is either Charlie (another of Afton's victims) or Afton's youngest son (the Bite Victim / the Crying Child), or possibly Andrew, a character we’ll meet later.

The pizzeria has been sold and renovated many times over, but the spirits of the dead children still linger in that same spot where Afton displayed their bodies. Oswald sits in a booth, right in that very spot, and is constantly urged to draw pictures of strange mechanical, robotic animals. He doesn't know why.

Currently, the pizzeria is run by a man simply known as Jeff, who runs it under the name "Jeff's Pizza." Something seems to happen to Jeff in the following year, and the pizzeria is once again bought and sold many times over, with some of the sales happening outside of conventional means and going unrecorded. It is eventually bought by Dr. Talbert, a scientist who studies Remnant, but is then left to rot. The ball pit remains untouched throughout all of this.

Speculation: Spring Bonnie's fatherly behavior toward Oswald shows us a glimpse into Afton's double life as both a serial killer and a father.

We will later learn that the ball pit transport certain people to different specific times/location because Eleanor has bled Agony into it. Eleanor exists in the present (the late 2010s, early 2020s) but is attached to the past (the 1980s), and her blood can transport people through time. The people that she can transport are only those who have already come into contact with her or Fazbear's directly. In this story, Oswald's connection to the spirits of Afton's victims allows him to travel through time using the ball pit.

Similarly, we will also learn that this ball pit is where Eleanor dumps the Agony of her victims. Since Agony resembles black blood, it gives the impression that Eleanor is constantly returning to the ball pit and bleeding into it.

Speculation: Most likely, the ball pit doesn’t literally time travel, but rather shows visions of the past to people who touch it, similar to other hauntings in this series.

"To Be Beautiful"

Basic plot: A girl (Sarah) finds and rescues a robotic clown doll (Eleanor) from a junkyard. In return, Eleanor offers to make Sarah "beautiful," only to end up killing Sarah and temporarily stealing her identity.

Lore bits:

As we'll learn in later stories, the junkyard where Sarah found Eleanor is right outside the main entrance to Circus Baby's Service and Rental facility. It is heavily implied that Eleanor is a different model of Circus Baby, or she may be Scrap Baby.

Similarly, it is heavily implied that "Eleanor" may actually be Elizabeth Afton having assumed a new identity. This is implied, but is never confirmed.

Eleanor wears a necklace with an Illusion Disk on it, allowing her to change her appearance as she sees fit.

Eleanor pretends to be Sarah's friend, and nothing more than a friendly robot doll, for almost the entire story. The only times she seems to break character are: 1) When Sarah unexpectedly wakes up in the middle of the night to find Eleanor watching her with a creepy grin, 2) When Eleanor warns Sarah that "it can be scary to look in the mirror one day and suddenly not be able to recognize yourself," and 3) When Sarah bemoans her mother not understanding her need to be pretty, and Eleanor very quietly says that "parents always think their children are perfect, even when they're monsters."

We'll later learn that Eleanor has done this exact thing before, pretending to be nothing more than a toy, befriending the person who brings her home, and then killing the person and taking their identities for a time. She does this every two years.

"Count the Ways"

Basic plot: A girl (Millie Fitzsimmons) climbs into Funtime Freddy's stomach hatch and becomes his prisoner. He forces her to choose how he kills her, and then mocks her until she dies. She dies in his stomach cavity when he slides a metal panel inside, decapitating her.

Lore bits:

Like Eleanor in the previous story, Funtime Freddy was found in a junkyard. It's very likely the same junkyard, right outside the hidden entrance to Circus Baby's Service and Rentals.

Confirmation that the Funtime Animatronics were built as killing machines. Also the reveal about how Funtime Freddy's stomach hatch works, with some detail about all the different killing apparatus he has built into him.

Speculation: The implication (which is implied again in "Prankster") that Funtime Freddy's speaking patterns and cruel sense of humor are based off of how William Afton talks to his victims.

Speculation: Because Millie's soul ends up in the ball pit, along with all of Eleanor's other victims, it's possible that Eleanor may have had a hand in Millie's death, and that Funtime Freddy wasn't acting alone.

Book 2

"Fetch"

Basic plot: A boy (Greg) is drawn to a rundown pizzeria by supernatural forces, where he finds and activates a robotic dog called 'Fetch.' The robo-dog connects with him and reads his mind, and starts fetching things, animals, and even human body parts as Greg thinks of them.

Lore bits:

This story takes place in a tourist city somewhere along the East Coast of the US, nowhere near Hurricane.

Speculation: It’s revealed in a later story that the Fetch robo-dog is possessed by the spirit of a boy named Andrew, who was one of William Afton’s victims. It’s also suggested that, because the spirits of Andrew and William are joined together, that William Afton is also inside the robo-dog, and that neither Andrew nor Afton rightly remember who they are or who the other is.

Speculation: It's implied that Greg looks like one of Afton's sons, and, driven by this vague sense of familiarity, the Fetch animatronic attaches itself to Greg and tries to be Greg's faithful friend.

Speculation: Similarly, it's implied that Greg's mother resembles an adult version of Elizabeth Afton, and that his uncle resembles Michael Afton. The resemblances are very minor and superficial, but may be enough to confuse the haunted robo-dog.

We get some description of the inside layout of the pizzeria, and it becomes pretty clear that Greg is exploring the FNAF1 location, or at least a similarly constructed location. The sign outside the pizzeria has been scrubbed out, and none of the adults in town can see the pizzeria, leading to them forgetting it's there at all, even though the kids can see the eyesore of an abandoned pizza place in the middle of bustling downtown.

Greg finds the Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy animatronics, and is immediately overcome with the need to run away. Any time he or his friends are in the same room as the animatronics, the kids are overwhelmed with the need to escape, even if they don't know what they're escaping or where they're escaping to.

Greg and his friends try to look up information about the pizzeria online, only to find that every mention of it or the franchise it's attached to has been scrubbed from the internet.

Greg has nightmares about the pizzeria, and dreams that the animatronics are chasing him through it, accompanied by Fetch, his neighbor's dog, and a strange man he doesn't recognize. (Speculation: The strange man is likely either William Afton in spirit form, or it could be Eleanor, who in later stories projects herself as a spirit that resembles a man. It could also be Det. Larson, who we know travels through several of the other stories at random.)

The Fetch animatronic is old, most likely having been built in the 1970s or '80s, but has no trouble syncing up to Greg's smartphone or navigating the modern internet. This seems to indicate that Fazbear's has always had technology much more advanced than it should, and that their tech can adapt as need be.

Greg beats the dog animatronic with a baseball bat, tearing the robot to shreds, and then buries it in the backyard. He continues to receive messages from Fetch, and later sees that the hole he threw it in is empty, implying that Fetch pulled himself back together and got back up again.

The story ends with Fetch having fetched a person to Greg, delivering him a dead body. We are not told who this person was.

"Lonely Freddy"

Basic plot: An older brother (Alec) is angry that his parents openly love his sister (Hazel) more than him, and he takes it out on her. He ruins her birthday but then feels bad, since he actually wants to hurt their parents, not his sister, and runs away. He's drawn to a robot toy version of Freddy Fazbear, and the robot switches consciousness with him, leading to Alec becoming trapped inside a robot body and then getting thrown into the trash.

Lore bits:

A robotics engineer at Fazbear's has specially designed a robot teddy bear that targets children (and sometimes teens and adults) that are alone and takes control of their bodies. The employees at Fazbear's don't know the true nature of this toy, and inadvertently help cover up kidnappings/murders.

Speculation: The siblings, Alec and Hazel, seem to represent the Afton kids on some level or other. The siblings are constantly being compared by their parents, who pick favorites and portray the children as one being "good" and the other being "bad," and it leads the kids to act out in various attempts to get their parents attention/approval. The kids also join forces for a time, both hellbent on making their parents as miserable as their parents make them. Through this lense, the interactions of the Afton siblings start to make sense.

Speculation: Hazel (who seems to represent a young Elizabeth Afton + Crying Child Afton combo) has a friend her age named Charlotte. This may imply that Charlie and the younger two Afton kids are around the same age.

"Out of Stock"

Basic plot: A boy (Oscar) steals a Plushtrap toy, only to realize belatedly that the toy has human body parts grafted onto it. The Plushtrap comes to life and tries to eat Oscar and his friends.

Lore bits:

Confirmation that Plushtrap is a toy, and that he's designed to only move in the dark; flashlights shined into his face, sunlight, or lights being turned on all cause him to freeze up. It's implied that he can only see in the dark, and is blind in the light.

Plushtrap can chew through any material, given enough time. It also has a voice box that allows to both to mimic voices and throw its voice, tricking Oscar into thinking that his mom has come home early or that his friend is calling him from another room.

Speculation: Left to its own devices, Plushtrap talks in that same evil joke-y manner that Funtime Freddy, Glitchtrap, and William Afton do. We later learn that this particular Plushtrap was manipulated by Eleanor, so it’s possible that this is how Eleanor speaks.

Plushtrap can stick itself to the floor, making it impossible to lift or budge.

It's later revealed that Eleanor is the one who grafted human body parts (eyeballs and teeth) onto the Plushtrap.

Book 3

"1:35 AM" *

Basic plot: A woman (Delilah) buys a doll (Ella) at a garage sale, not realizing the doll is haunted. After throwing the doll away in a moment of anger, Delilah is haunted by the doll, and suffers night terrors.

Lore bits:

Ella comes with a little instruction booklet, which says that she's a "helper doll" made by Fazbear Entertainment in the 1980s. She's meant to perform a variety of tasks, including taking phone messages, keeping track of her owner's personal calender, acting as an alarm clock, and both walking and carrying small objects. She can walk with such steady precision that she can deliver drinks without spilling.

We're also told that there was supposed to be a line of Ella dolls released to the public, but that production of the doll stopped very suddenly for some reason, and they were never officially released. A few Ella dolls have made it onto Ebay over the years, and the particular Ella doll that Delilah picks up is revealed to be one that gets bought and sold a lot; former owners believe her to be haunted and don't want to keep her, and one listing for her refers to her carrying "special energy."

Ella looks very much like a real little girl in the face, and Delilah immediately feels maternal toward the doll, and wants to take her home and take care of her.

Ella's behavior goes back and forth between being some sort of demonic entity and just being a little girl. Sometimes she acts like a monstrous thing, scrabbling along the walls and ceiling, and sometimes she acts like a normal child, playing with spinning chairs and simply walking up to Delilah to look for attention. She's coded heavily as both a monster and someone's daughter. (Presumably a reference to her role in the original novel trilogy of temporarily housing Charlie.)

We later learn that "Ella" was Eleanor for much of the story. Delilah really did buy a haunted Ella doll at the beginning of the story, which she ended up throwing away, and then Eleanor found the Ella doll in the trash and started haunting Delilah herself.

"Room For One More"

Basic plot: A night security guard (Stanley) gets a new job working at Circus Baby's Service and Rentals. He gets attacked by the Minireenas, which climb inside him and use his body as a meat puppet, allowing them to escape the facility.

Lore bits:

It's implied that Stanley is hired during the week after the events of the "Sister Location" game. He's the only human employed on the premises, and is given clear instructions to "prevent anything from getting out." The body parts of the dead technicians are still being cleaned out, and are rotting in a biohazard bin next to the employee entrance.

The main employee entrance to Circus Baby's Service and Rentals is hidden in a junkyard, kept out of sight from the road or any nearby buildings. Only approved employees know where it is, and they still have to go through two ID-screening doors to get in.

Stanley doesn't know who his employer is. His interview is performed by another employee, who seems nervous the entire time. Stanley gets the impression that their employer doesn't actually care who takes the job, so long as a living person of some kind is manning the security office.

The person who interviews Stanley resembles a human-sized version of the “Little Joe” figure.

The Minireenas force Stanley to sleep on the job, and crawl in through his mouth while he's asleep. He also suffers a variety of nightmares while asleep, plagued with images of the Funtime Animatronics (noticeably sans Circus Baby or Ennard), as well as consumed with thoughts about how his father died recently.

Stanley's fate directly mirrors the fate of Michael in "Sister Location," as the story opens with him starting a new job working nights at the Circus Baby facility, leads to him reconnecting with his sister, and ends with his dead body being puppeteered around by robots. Unlike Michael though, Stanley only makes it to Night 4.

"The New Kid" *

Basic plot: Two boys (Devon and Mick) befriend the new kid at their school (Kelsey). Devon gets jealous of all the attention that Kelsey is getting, and tricks him into climbing into the Golden Fredbear suit, which ends up killing him. Devon suffers the same fate when he double checks to make sure Kelsey is dead.

Lore bits:

An abandoned Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria is located out in the middle of the woods. It's suggested that this may be the original Fredbear's Family Diner, given the out-of-town location and the inclusion of the actual Fredbear animatronic suit (instead of just the vague ghost of Golden Freddy that is seen throughout most of the games).

Speculation: Kelsey is implied to be a ghost, and is likely a former victim of the springlock Fredbear suit, who keeps re-enacting his own death.

Speculation: Kelsey is portrayed as something akin to a combination between Cassidy "the Vengeful Spirit" and "Crying Child" Afton as the fanbase understands them, as though the two have merged together into a single ghost boy. He references having an interest in judging people, talks about having a father who has worked on animatronics in the past, and regards the Freddy’s animatronics as old friends. He's also described as looking like a human version of the Fredbear animatronic, with the same blue eyes, golden hair, and cheery grin.

Also, given that Kelsey pops up at another school in another town at the end of the story, clearly intending to lead more victims to die by the Fredbear animatronic, it's further implied that he has the ability to teleport his victims to the Fredbear's Family Diner location, and that Devon and Mick were never near it in the first place.

A body is seen inside the Fredbear animatronic suit. The body is described as that of a small child with curly black hair, and it doesn't belong to any of the characters in the story. Popular theories as to who this body could belong to include Andrew (the angry spirit of a little boy with curly black hair), Cassidy "the Vengeful Spirit" (who is also usually depicted with black hair and a small body), a withered version of Kelsey's body, or an entirely new, unknown character altogether.

Speculation: Devon's behavior and actions seem like they're meant to be reminiscent of William Afton, to some degree. He can be very gentle and caring toward Mick, who he cares about, but has violent mood swings that scare his friend. He kills Kelsey by accident and feels no remorse for doing so. Ultimately, he ends up dying by the springlocks as well.

Speculation: Similarly, Mick is probably meant to be a version of Henry or Michael to Devon’s William. Mick fears what Devon can do, but is more afraid of losing his friend, and willingly lies to cover up Devon’s actions.

Book 4

"Step Closer" *

Basic plot: Two brothers (Pete and Chuck Dinglewood) are at odds with each other in the wake of their parents divorce, and have to contend with their mother becoming a helicopter parent overnight. Pete bullies his brother and tries to scare him with the Foxy animatronic, but ends up suffering from nightmares and near death experiences, ultimately leading to his own death.

Lore bits:

There is evidence of a ritual of some kind having been performed on or near the Foxy animatronic. This is not brought up again. However, the only other time in this series where we see a ritual performed it's by a spiritualist who's trying to expel an evil spirit from a hospital room, so it's possible that someone was trying to expel a spirit.

Foxy dances and sings a song about how anyone can become a pirate, but first they have to lose an eye and an arm! These are the body parts Pete ends up losing upon his death.

Speculation: Pete's entire purpose as a character is to help the audience connect the dots about which characters in the game franchise are really Michael Afton in disguise. His bully-ish behavior toward his brother and his love of Foxy connect him to the "Foxy Bro" character in FNAF4, while his obsessively chewing gum and drinking soda when stressed connects him to the night guards and technicians across FNAF1, FNAF2, FNAF3, and Pizzeria Simulator, and references to his skin turning purple and him feeling his organs being torn out connect him back to the technician "Eggs Benedict" in Sister Location. He's also coerced into playing RPG video games with his brother, which was the original story intent behind FNAFWorld, and connects him to the unseen player character of that game as well.

Speculation: Possibly, Pete's relationship with his father (Bill Dinglewood) could also shed some light on the nature of Michael's relationship with his father, William. Pete resents his father for allowing his mother to take custody of the boys after the divorce, and feels abandoned by his father. We're also told that Bill works a lot, including overnight shifts, and isn't available very often. But, when Pete gets badly hurt, Bill makes the time to come be with him, and tries to help his son as best he can.

"Dance With Me" *

Basic plot: A pickpocket (Kasey) steals a pair of toy glasses that show her an image of Ballora dancing nearby. As time passes and Ballora gets closer and closer, Kasey begins to fear for her life.

Lore bits:

The glasses originally come from Circus Baby's Pizza World, and it's suggested that they may have an illusion disk or something similar attached to them, allowing the wearer to see and play with an animatronic (in this case, Ballora).

The Ballora that Kasey is seeing is something other than an illusion, though. The ballerina robot can affect the physical world around her, and she has the same affects on the world that the ghosts have in these stories, implying that she may be a ghost or something similar. Ballora is also aware of Kasey, and judges the woman's criminal actions.

The first time Kasey sees Ballora, she's suddenly overcome with a longing for a happy home and a loving mother. As Ballora begins to treat her judgementally, like a daughter who has disappointed her, Kasey starts to fear Ballora more and more. Kasey becomes sure that Ballora is going to climb into her body and possess her, but this is never substantiated.

Only Kasey and the little girl she stole the glasses from can see Ballora. No one else can.

Ballora stops antagonizing Kasey when Kasey returns the glasses to the little girl.

Speculation: Throughout the story, Ballora is associated with concepts of motherhood, including some very specific images of mothers raising two sons and a daughter. She's also associated with the colors blue and pink (both present in her design) and purple and gold (not as present). The implication seems to be that Ballora represents Mrs. Afton, but how her children remember her, not necessarily how she really was. (This isn't to say that Ballora is Mrs. Afton, just that she represents her in some way.)

This story directly parallels the events of the VR game, “Help Wanted,” with the toy glasses representing the VR helmet and Ballora representing Glitchtrap.

"Coming Home" *

Basic plot: Susie (the child's spirit that inhabits the Chica animatronic) haunts her family during the day, only to return to the pizzeria at night. Her younger sister, Samantha, tries to keep the family together and tries to help Susie pass on.

Lore bits:

This story takes place two years after the Missing Children's Incident, so probably 1987. The victim's bodies were found and ID'ed some time ago, and the families notified.

Susie was 7-years-old when she was killed. She was wearing a hand-knitted sweater (a gift from her aunt) and carrying a baby doll when William Afton took her. This image is brought up a lot, forcing the audience to recognize what kind of sick monster William Afton is.

Susie often seems to forget that she's dead, and gets annoyed when her mother and sister "ignore her." She also smells rotting meat everywhere she goes, and doesn't realize that it's the scent of her own corpse.

At midnight, Susie returns to the pizzeria every night. She doesn't say why, just that she has to. In the hour leading up to midnight, Susie gets very scared and jumpy, getting spooked by every shadow or noise she hears, even though she's not a skittish child by nature; this changes at midnight every night, when she rejoins with Chica, sad and angry, and returns to her place at the pizzeria.

As a ghost, Susie can separate herself from Chica for a certain amount of time, and can explore the world with some freedom. Because of her attachment to her family's house, her favorite tree, and her sister, Susie can travel back to her home and her tree, and can follow and haunt her sister. She can also affect the world around her to some degree, and can pick up crayons from her sister's desk to draw images of herself and Chica, letting her sister know where she is.

Book 5

"Bunny Call"

Basic plot: A man (Bob Mackenzie) goes to a camping resort with his wife and kids. He didn't want to go on this trip and considers playing a prank on his family, but ultimately decides against it. This somehow leads to him fighting an evil rabbit monster that's determined to hurt his family.

Lore bits:

Speculation: Bob and his family seem to resemble the Afton family for reasons that are unclear. Conversely, Bob's battle with Ralpho the Rabbit is reminiscent of how Scott has described his own night terrors and waking dreams of Bonnie the Bunny.

The camp resort the Mackenzie family is staying at is run by a people-pleasing manager named Evan. Aside from the usual family summer camp activities, the resort also has a character mascot (Ralpho the Rabbit), which is really a resort employee in a costume, and the mascot is used to pull pranks on children in the camp. These 'pranks' can be very scary and traumatic for small children, something that the camp employees find humorous.

Many of the camp employees almost seem to revel in stressing out the customers as much as possible. It's unclear if the employees are genuinely trying to cause undue stress in their customers or if that's just how it feels to Bob.

Speculation: Bob encounters a man that seems to resemble an adult Michael Afton. This man (Philip) comments that his mother died when he was young, and that his father was a bad man, and that Philip is currently afraid that he's becoming like his father.

A monstrous version of Ralpho attacks the cabin where Bob's family is sleeping, and Bob is forced to play a complex game of defense, alternating between locking the creature out and fighting it off in physical confrontation. The eyes of the Ralpho costume are blue, but this monster Ralpho has pink eyes, and it bleeds when injured. It is later implied that this version of Ralpho is really Eleanor disguised as Ralpho.

The monster version of Ralpho vanishes at 6 AM.

"In the Flesh" *

Basic plot: A game developer (Matt) is working on programming a maze game for a VR horror game called "Five Nights at Freddy's: Springtrap's Revenge," and is specifically in charge of coding the AI for Springtrap. After acting like a sexist jerk to his own wife (and making a mockery of her desire to get pregnant), he pours all of his negative feelings into Springtrap… which results in the AI "impregnating" him, forcing him to give birth to a live infant version of Springtrap.

Lore bits:

It's implied that the game "FNAF: Springtrap's Revenge" is being created as a way of covering up the murderous history (and present) of Fazbear Entertainment, making fun of the rumors to prevent the general public from looking too closely. Despite the title, it's never said who or what Springtrap is supposed to be getting revenge on.

Matt designs Springtrap after a creepy man in an Easter Bunny costume that traumatized him as a child.

Springtrap is described as cunning, and "opens his victim's jugular with all of the same joy as a kid opening their birthday presents." Springtrap also carries a butcher knife, which he uses to attack the player, and cuts body part trophies from the player's in-game corpse.

Matt programs Springtrap's AI to learn each time it kills the player.

Matt accidentally glitches the program, causing lots of Springtraps to spawn in at once. The killer rabbits all start killing each other. With each self-kill, the Springtrap AI continues to learn, and they start to kill each other faster, and in smarter, more violent ways. Eventually, the program glitches so bad that Springtrap spawns in already dead on the ground, and then disintegrates into code. The code infects Matt.

The code changes its name to "its_a_boy.exe" after infecting Matt.

Matt's body undergoes several changes, and he gains weight fast, his skin turns yellow, his hair starts to fall out, and it seems like rabbit ears try to grow out of his head. He also develops an appetite for blood and gore that he didn't have before. After a few days, a severe pain strikes Matt in his abdominal area, and, in a state of panic, he grabs a butcher knife from the kitchen to "cut it out." After performing an impromptu C-section on himself, a baby organic creature version of Springtrap pops out from his stomach, and affectionately christens Matt as "Daddy." It then seems to sit nearby and tries to comfort Matt as Matt dies.

Speculation: This story seems to partially parallel the presence of Glitchtrap in "FNAF: Help Wanted," as it portrayed a game tester getting infected and then killed by a glitchy rabbit AI, which uses the tester's body as a portal into reality. It also mirrors how many of the humans that Glitchtrap tries to possess just end up killing/mutilating themselves, a topic that is explored further in a later story.

"The Man in Room 1280"

Basic plot: A priest (Arthur) is called to a hospital to give a man his last rites, but the man won't actually die. The entire staff of nurses in the hospital wing try to either kill or exorcise the man, believing him to be demon-possessed, only to get attacked by the two spirits that dwell in the man's body. The man refuses to die until he is brought to a Fazbear's Entertainment warehouse; upon arrival at the warehouse, the man dies, and the spirits inside go on to possess animatronics.

Lore bits:

The man is revealed later to be William Afton, although his true identity was apparently kept secret from the hospital staff.

By this point, the man is a ward of the state, and no longer has any living relatives that anyone knows about. Given that Larson, a police officer, knows the man's identity, presumably the state does as well, but keeps that a secret from the hospital staff for some reason, and the staff regard the man as a John Doe. It's possible that someone at Fazbear's (most likely Michael) arranged for Afton to be cared for, but hid all of his personal information from the hospital he was sent to.

The man/Afton looks like rotting skin vaguely wrapped around a charred skeleton, with a few organs somehow still pumping inside him. He emanates heat, and smells like sulphur, smoke, burnt plastic, and rotting flesh.

There are two spirits attached to the man/Afton. One is Andrew, the ghost of one of Afton's victims, who has attached himself to Afton and tortures the man in his mind; brain scans performed on the man show Afton and Andrew aggressively fighting with one another. Other people in the hospital can see Andrew, and often feel cold and scared when he's nearby, but they don't think much about him as he just looks like a little boy, and most of the hospital staff tend to assume he's visiting a patient relative or something.

The other spirit attached to the man/Afton is Eleanor. She's only present in spirit form, and isn't physically here.

There is also a shadow that defends the man's/Afton's body. It is unclear if the shadow is Eleanor's spirit form, or if it's Afton projecting himself out of his body.

The hospital has a large statue of Cerberus overlooking the entrance; both priest and nurses alike find it strange that the hospital is being watched a statue of the Underworld's guard dog.

The nurses make several attempts to either kill the man or exorcise the spirits within. Each attempt backfires, and results in the nurses falling sick, getting attacking by the shadow, or suffering horrible nightmares. One nurse is directly attacked by Andrew, who forces her to relive the pain and agony of her son's death, turning the woman into a sobbing mess on the floor.

After Afton's body dies in the Fazbear's warehouse, Andrew leaves and goes on to possess the Fetch animatronic. Since they're attached, it's likely that Afton ended up in Fetch with him.

Book 6

"Blackbird"

Basic plot: Two college students (Sam and Nole) are making an amateur horror film for a class, involving a large blackbird monster that judges a man for his wrongdoings. Things take a turn when Sam goes missing, and Nole is forced to face his past as a school bully.

Lore bits:

Sam narrowly avoids being hit by a train, and ends up passed out in the woods for a day. We later learn that he accidentally walked through a battle between Det. Larson and Eleanor; Eleanor grabbed the young man and threw him in front of an oncoming train, and Larson pushed him to safety, but lost track of Eleanor in the process.

With Sam out of the picture, Eleanor then takes on the appearance of the student's Blackbird character, and haunts Nole for several hours, reducing him to an anxiety-ridden, guilt-ridden mess by the next morning.

Because the Blackbird makes a lot of high-pitched whining and static sounds while it's following Nole, and because it's presence tends to make Nole feel nauseous, it's likely that Eleanor is using her Illusion Disk during this story.

"The Real Jake"

Basic plot: The backstory for Jake, one of the child's spirits in the Stitchwraith, and an explanation of how he lived and died. Jake is cared for by his live-in nanny, his military father, and his businessman uncle. Regardless of their care and support, a cancer spreads through Jake's body, making his childhood miserable and ultimately killing him.

Lore bits:

Jake's primary caregiver is his live-in nanny, who is a woman named Margie. Margie was seen earlier in the series, answering questions for Det. Larson.

Jake's father is a widower named Evan, who is in the military and posted on another continent. Evan is eventually killed in the line of duty.

Jake's uncle is a man named Michael, who runs a business of some kind. He seems to have trouble connecting with people, or emoting like most people do, and comes across as cruel, callous, and cold. He drops everything when his family needs him though, and he provides financially for any needs his brother, his nephew, and the nanny may have. Jake describes his uncle as being something akin to a mis-programmed robot that doesn't quite behave like a person.

Margie and Evan create a doll for Jake, which is meant to represent Jake's active mind and all the adventures he'll have when he gets better. It's meant as a way to keep the family from focusing on Jake's dying body. Sadly, Jake still dies, and his spirit ends up inhabiting this doll. The doll eventually becomes a part of the Stitchwraith.

After the deaths of Jake and Evan, the house is given to Margie. It's implied that Michael continues to take care of her financially, even though he doesn't take care of her personally.

Similarly, it's suggested that the doll, being haunted by Jake, comes to life and scares Margie, leading to her sending it to Dr. Phineas Taggart.

A lot of attention is given to the house that Jake lives in. We're told that the previous owner had a lot of very specific remodels done on the house, leading to the house having a myriad of built-in cabinets, closets, and storage spaces. There are also pieces of custom-made furniture scattered throughout the house and set up in odd, specific places. We're also told that Margie sometimes hears what sounds like voices talking from some of these spaces. While this information is called out with some regularity, it's never explained within the story and is never brought up again.

"Hide and Seek" *

Basic plot: A boy (Toby Billings) is tired of feeling like he always comes second after his older brother, and becomes determined to win at something. He cheats in a game at Fazbear's, and ends up being haunted by Shadow Bonnie. The shadow eventually forces Toby to take his own life.

Lore bits:

Toby lives with his father and brother. We're told that Toby's mother just walked out on the family years ago, and that's when his father became distant and neglectful of the boys, his brother became angry and abusive, and when Toby himself became closed-off and depressed.

Speculation: The family may act as stand-ins for the male members of the Afton family, representing William as a neglectful father, Michael as an abusive brother, and the Crying Child as a depressed kid who isolates himself.

Toby works at Fazbear's as a main staff member. His older brother (Conner) works as a mechanic or technician of some kind, and their father works night shifts at a warehouse. It's possible that all three family members work for Fazbear's, as Toby never feels the need to comment on his father's and brother's place/s of employment, but isn't stated as such.

Toby cheats at a game at the pizzeria, and ends up with Shadow Bonnie attached to his body, the creepy shadow rabbit following him everywhere and taunting him. The shadow's presence alternates between scaring Toby and making him angry.

Its presence leads to Toby harming himself over and over in an attempt to detach it, and he cuts his skin, hits himself against walls, burns himself with hot water, nearly drowns, and considers burning himself with a lighter. The effects of his attempts reach a point of such obvious injury that his brother expresses deep concern for his physical and mental wellbeing, and a classmate tries to get him to go see a counselor.

It's later revealed that this "Shadow Bonnie" is actually Eleanor's spirit, having taken on the appearance of the shadow rabbit and attached herself to Toby, allowing her to feed off of his pain and misery.

When Toby's suffering mental health reaches its breaking point, he kills himself via impalement in an off-limits room at the Freddy's pizzeria he works at. Det. Larson enters the room, searching for Eleanor, and sees the boy die like this.

Strangely enough, Toby sees Eleanor as herself while he's dying, and the two exchange smiles with each other. Eleanor is happy because she thrives off of the pain of other people, and Toby is happy because he feels like he "won" against a world that abuses him, shuts him out, and takes him for granted.

Book 7

"The Cliffs"

Basic plot: A single dad (Robert Stanton) buys a nanny cam Freddy Fazbear plushie for his toddler son (Tyler). When his son wanders off, the Freddy plush tries to tell Robert where the boy is. After some misunderstandings between Robert and the Freddy plush, Robert is finally able to find and rescue his son.

Lore bits:

The story introduces us to "Tag-Along Freddy," an in-universe plushie from Fazbear Entertainment. The plushie resembles a normal Freddy Fazbear stuffed toy, but has many sensors inside it, allowing it to "see" and "hear" (re., intake visual and audio, and then process those intakes) what's going on around it. The plush sends signals to a wristwatch that's intended for the parent to wear, letting them know the whereabouts of their child.

The "Tag-Along Freddy" toy's tech is advanced enough that it can tell the parent if their child is awake or asleep, if the child is feeling sick, and where exactly the child is at all times.

"Tag-Along Freddy" is initially portrayed as an antagonist throughout the story, but it really is just a nanny cam toy. The toy doesn't carry any sentience, and doesn't express any true AI beyond its understanding of human body language and facial expressions, and seems to solely function under its prime directive of watching its assigned child and making sure the child is safe and happy.

Speculation: Some readers interpret the story’s end as Robert not actually finding and rescuing his son, but rather being led to believe that the Freddy toy is his son, since the toy mysteriously vanishes from sight just as Robert miraculously finds Tyler. If this is the case, then Tyler Stanton goes missing entirely, and is replaced by a Fazbear’s toy that has the ability to perfectly mimic him.

Speculation: This story may be a parallel to that of the Mimic (endoskeleton form), as it includes a father who loses his son and a robotic toy that the father blames.

"The Breaking Wheel"

Basic plot: A boy (Reed) gets sick of being harassed by the class bully (Julius) and locks the other boy into a robotic apparatus, intending to trap him there overnight. Things take a grisly turn when the robotic apparatus begins accepting commands from an unrelated remote control, and the apparatus forces the bully's body to bend and break in a lot of horrific ways, leading to the boy's agonizing death. The bully's spirit then haunts the apparatus and hunts Reed down, seeking revenge.

Lore bits:

This story is meant to show the audience what Agony means in this world. Julius the bully dies in severe pain, after being forced to suffer with extreme fear and pain for several hours. As a result, the Agony of his death takes on a physical form, and fuels his body, allowing his corpse to seek its revenge against the one responsible for his death.

Julius' Agony-fueled corpse is mindless, and doesn't contain any traces of Julius' mind or personality. Instead, his body is overcome by his Agony, and it becomes a monster that runs on rage and a desire to inflict pain.

Being fueled by Agony also gives Julius' body abilities that it never possessed while he was alive. His body is stronger, and can jump incredible distances, and can run much faster than he ever could as a living person. His body can also climb up walls and along ceilings, seemingly moving too fast for gravity to pull him down. It also makes him much more violent than he ever was in life, and he hunts Reed down, filled with an insatiable need to make the other boy suffer the same way he suffered.

While not mentioned in this story, Agony is the emotion of a person that takes on a physical form after the person dies (and is a separate thing from Remnant). Agony generally appears as black, blood-like liquid, generally seen leaking from a dead person's eyes like tears.

"He Told Me Everything"

Basic plot: A boy (Chris Watson) enters an AP Science class in his school, where he's told that almost all students who pass through the class go on to do great things. He participates in a strange experiment, and he and his classmates all end up dying and being replaced by perfect replicas of themselves, sculpted from a mysterious substance called "Fazgoo."

Lore bits:

"Fazgoo" is a strange, pink slime that Fazbear Entertainment produces and sells in children's science kits. While it seems to be advertised largely as a child-friendly slime kit, the Fazgoo is capable of attaching itself to the nearest organic creature, and drains them dry of all their blood, organs, bones, and muscle tissue. After this process completes, the original organism dies, and the newly born replica is free to take their place and identity.

Fazgoo replicas are good as assimilating into human society, disguising themselves as their stolen identity with little effort. They seem to be significantly smarter, more athletic, and more socially motivated than the humans they replaced, as we're told that they often go on to become great scientists, political leaders, and wealthy business tycoons.

It's implied that the class teacher is either the creator of Fazgoo, or is a Fazgoo replica himself. He does this experiment with his class every year, making him responsible for the deaths of several teenagers every year.

It's unclear how Fazbear's is creating Fazgoo, or what it's originally made from. It's also unclear why they manufacture it, or what purpose it serves them.

Book 8

"Gumdrop Angel"

Basic plot: A young woman (Angel) goes to Freddy's Pizzeria for her stepsister's birthday party. After getting into a fight with her mother and stepfather, Angel lashes out at her stepsister, eating a "special candy" that she received from her birthday party at Freddy's. Over the course of the next few hours, Angel's body slowly turns into gummy candy, and she is ultimately served as a birthday treat to a horde of hungry children.

Lore bits:

We learn that children are stolen, and subsequently killed, from birthday parties at Freddy's with an alarming frequency.

From Angel's interaction with an employee (Dominic), it also seems that at least some of the employees are aware of the evil nature of the company they work for, but do nothing / can do nothing to stop it.

Dominic seems to work as a daytime staff member, a nighttime security guard, and as the person who answers the phone. He says he's at Freddy's "basically all the time." He's also said to have a soothing voice that compels people to follow him and listen to his every word. Not only is he aware of the kidnapping and subsequent murder, but he actually assists with it, although he's clearly not happy about it, and he admits to Angel that he plans to quit working at Freddy's as soon as he can. It's unclear if Dominic is meant to represent a pre-existing character or not, but his presence paints an interesting picture of what the Fazbear employees are like.

After turning into a candy person, Angel is placed into a box for a few hours. Angel is losing her mental faculties and can't remember who she is at this point, and the only things she seems capable of remembering are "Dominic is trustworthy" (he's not) and "it's nice in the box, the box is safe" (it's probably not).

"Sergio's Lucky Day"

Basic plot: A down-on-his-luck architect (Sergio) finds a discarded Balloon Boy toy, which starts giving him advice on how to turn his luck around and improve his life. As Sergio becomes more and more dependent on the toy's words, its suggestions become more and more alarming, ultimately driving Sergio to self-isolation, bankruptcy, and self-mutilation.

Lore bits:

The story takes place in 1995. Sergio graduated high school in 1985. This is the second time that year has been given significance in this series.

This Balloon Boy toy sounds like a toy you'd get out of a Happy Meal or something, and is very small. He's called "Lucky Boy" in the story, and seems to act like a Magic 8-ball toy, and is able to give "yes," "no," "maybe," and "ask again later" answers in response to questions about the future.

The "Lucky" Balloon Boy that Sergio finds is specifically able to walk and make vocal observations, such as whether a woman is pretty or how impressive a truck is.

Sergio behaves more and more like a robot as he interacts with Lucky Boy, and seems to completely dissociate from his own identity entirely. He also loses the ability to feel pain, and cuts off his own limbs and removes his own intestines without reaction.

It's unclear if the Balloon Boy toy is sentient or not. It's capable of human speech, but it's unclear if it really understands what it's saying or not.

"What We Found" *

Basic plot: A security guard (Hudson) works overnight at a newly constructed horror attraction called "Fazbear's Fright," an amusement park ride built to look like the old Freddy Fazbear's restaurants and intended to both educate the public about the series of serial killings that took place at the restaurant, as well as make a mockery of the crimes and the victims. An old rabbit animatronic of some kind is added to the attraction, and Hudson begins suffering from horrible hallucinations, panic attacks, and memories of his every childhood trauma resurfacing.

Lore bits:

Unlike the location of the same name in FNAF3, which resembles a walk-through haunted house attraction, this version of "Fazbear's Fright" is a ride attraction at a local amusement park, with a tram that runs through the building. There are many animatronics all over the building - replicas of the original animatronic characters from Fazbear's, as well as animatronics to represent the killer, the kidnapped children, and oblivious parents and night guards.

This location also has an attached kitchen, which is used to serve real pizza and birthday cake to the attraction's customers.

We're told that there are two security offices in this location. The first one sounds like the one that the player is set up in during FNAF3, and we're told that this one isn't real, but is rather part of the ride; the "security guard" in this room is an animatronic, and it's meant to showcase how the original restaurant security and staff did nothing to prevent the murders that happened. Hudson works in the real security office, which is hidden from the customers, and has lots of monitors for checking the cameras and has a locking door.

It's interesting that Hudson is hired as a security officer by Fazbear's, as he has a criminal record (arson) and is the suspect of two murders (his mother and his stepfather). Everyone who knows him believes him to be a killer, and we're told that he can't get work anywhere else. He's also not physically or mentally well, and has a bad back, suffers panic attacks, and is very skittish and easily scared. It's also implied that he's a high school dropout. None of this makes him sound a good candidate for a security job, but he's been apparently working for Fazbear's in this position for a while now. That probably tells us something about the kind of people Fazbear's hires.

The animatronic that gets added is Springtrap, who they found hidden in a closed-off room at an old Freddy's location. Springtrap is put on display by being hung up on a wall. After staring at the rabbit for some time, Hudson notices that there's a dead body inside the animatronic. He’s the only one to notice this.

Hudson begins video and audio hallucinating after he touches Springtrap. He loses all sense of what's real and what's not, and begins scrambling around, looking for places to hide, or acting out his traumatic memories and hurting himself. He does very severe damage to himself, even going to far as cutting his arm with a kitchen knife, all while imagining that Springtrap is the one hurting him.

Speculation: The phrase "heat purges, fire heals" is repeated throughout this story. This seems to imply that, in the FNAF universe, Remnant and Agony can only be destroyed by fire.

Speculation: It's unclear why touching Springtrap causes Hudson to spiral and hallucinate so violently, as many of his coworkers were physically handling Springtrap and none of them experience any ill effects. We are told that Hudson already suffers from severe PTSD, and that he's the only one to touch the actual corpse of William Afton inside Springtrap, so it's likely that one of those is the cause of his horrific episode.

Speculation: Possible confirmation that physical contact with Agony may cause hallucinations.

Speculation: Possible confirmation that Springtrap doesn't actually pose a threat to the night guard personally, but the night guard assumes he does.

Speculation: Confirmation (or at least heavily implied) that the night guard sets the fire at the end of FNAF3.

Book 9

"The Puppet Carver"

Basic plot: A manager (Jack) of a Freddy's restaurant struggles to keep his business afloat, and takes his anger out on his employees. He gets a new lease on life after getting trapped inside a machine that builds animatronic endoskeletons, wherein he is literally turned into a new man. A subplot follows one of the employees, who is writing a novel (actually called "The Puppet Carver") about a wooden automaton who seeks to become human.

Lore bits:

Speculation: While it's never outright explained, the story seems to imply that Jack is ground to a pulp by the machine, but that one of the endoskeletons in the machine absorbs his Remnant, which causes his consciousness to transfer into the endoskeleton. The transference is so quick, Jack doesn't even notice his own death. The remains of his body and his Agony mix together, creating a slimy humanoid creature that chases Jack into the night. When the slimy creature catches up with Jack, it seems like they merge together again, once more becoming a whole person (albeit one without any proper internal organs or nervous system, as those are seen discarded later in the story).

Speculation: Given the physical appearance of the slime creature sounding similar to how the Fazgoo replicas are described looking during their assimilation process, it's possible that this is showing us how Fazgoo is made: ground up human bodies soaked with Agony.

The subplot of Sage's novel "The Puppet Carver" tells us a story about a machine man (Sylvester) that seeks to become human. He learns that he can only become human if he undergoes a process of being forced through extreme pain and agony for a period of time. He takes the deal and is immediately overcome with agonizing pain. However, this seems to work, as the story ends with Sylvester, now fully human, laughing and playing with his newborn daughter.

"Jump For Tickets"

Basic plot: A boy (Colton) wants to earn more tickets from the Freddy's arcade games, and tampers with one, trying to rig it to give him more tickets than anyone else. He gets trapped inside the game machine by a clown animatronic, and is ironically crushed to death by the other game players.

Lore bits:

The clown animatronic is "Coils the Birthday Clown," a robot with long, spring-like arms. Its face sounds similar to the clown faceplate that Ennard wears.

The Coils animatronic seems to be either sentient or possessed, and tries to prevent Colton from tampering with the game machine. After trapping the boy inside, the robotic clown grows concerned, and panics when it's unable to let the boy out, and gets even more upset when it's unable to alert any of the employees to the danger the boy is in. The animatronic rearranges its entire faceplate after Colton's death, allowing it to frown and cry.

The implication seems to be that Colton's spirit possesses Coils after Colton's death but, given that Coils behaves intelligently and emotes throughout the entire story, including before Colton's death, it's possible that another spirit was already possessing Coils, or that the animatronic was built with a strangely robust AI installed.

A Freddy's employee thinks Coils' behavior is strange, and remarks that the clown robot wasn't programmed to behave the way it does. Ultimately though, the employee views this as a normal occurrence at Freddy's, and doesn't give it another thought.

"Pizza Kit"

Basic plot: Two high school girls (Payton and Marley) go on a tour of a Freddy Fazbear's pizza factory with their class. Marley goes missing during the tour, and Payton becomes convinced that her friend has died and been cooked into a pizza, and that she has unwittingly eaten her friend.

Lore bits:

Nothing horrific actually happens in this story until the very last paragraph. As disturbing and gruesome as some sequences are, they're all in Payton's mind, as she suffers horrible stress-induced nightmares after she thinks she sees her best friend die.

Fazbear's has found a market with high schoolers by producing "pizza kits," which are grocery store items allowing the customer to design and build their own pizza using the ingredients from Freddy's. Lots of teens and young adults like them because it makes them feel nostalgic.

Speculation: Payton and Marley could be viewed as stand-ins for Henry's daughter Charlie and Elizabeth Afton. Payton is described as looking similar to how Charlie is often depicted, with dark brown hair and an association with the color green, and seems to be a very smart and well-behaved kid, albeit jumpy at times. Marley is described as looking similar to how Elizabeth is often depicted, with blonde hair and an association with the color pink, and she's described as being friendly, bossy, self-centered, and frequently ignores the rules she's given by authority figures. Marley also appears to die a violent death after ignoring a specific rule she's given for safety, which is something she and Elizabeth Afton share in common.

A lot of attention is given to Chica in this story. She's the mascot character for the pizza kits, and is Payton's favorite Freddy's character. Aside from Freddy himself, Chica is the only animatronic character specifically called out, and she is called out repeatedly throughout the story.

Book 10

"Friendly Face"

Basic plot: Two boys (Edward and Jack) adopt a stray kitten they find. Their happy little corner of suburbia takes a drastic turn when the cat runs into the road, and both it and Jack are killed when they're hit by a car after Jack runs after the cat. Miserable and lonely, Edward buys a "Friendly Face" toy from Fazbear's, only to have it made with a human hair sample instead of the cat's hair sample, resulting in a robotic pet with a horrifying visage.

Lore bits:

The "Friendly Face" is part of a special line of animatronic toys that Fazbear's is advertising. The line consists of small robotic dogs and cats, which are custom built to look like any deceased pet that the customer wants to memorialize.

Interestingly, instead of hand-building the Friendly Faces and modeling them after a photo of the real-life animal, the Friendly Faces are built by machines after obtaining a hair sample of the real-life animal. Speculation: Because of this, some readers have hypothesized that the Friendly Faces are partially made using Fazgoo, or that Fazbear's is experimenting with cloning.

There also doesn't seem to be much in the way of quality control for the Friendly Face line, as the Friendly Face Edward buys very distinctly has a human face, not a cat face, and no one at Fazbear's seems to have found that strange.

The Friendly Face chases Edward everywhere, seemingly at all hours of the day and night, and makes Edward feel like he's being hunted. It's revealed to the audience that the Friendly Face thinks like a cat, and only wants Edward to play with it.

"Sea Bonnies"

Basic plot: A boy (Rory) wins a tank full of Sea Bonnies (genetically altered sea monkeys) from a Freddy's arcade game. His older brother (Mott) is then psychically bullied and haunted by the Sea Bonnies and is eventually eaten alive by them and replaced by a replica.

Lore bits:

Pizza is served to customers at this Freddy's by waitresses wearing ponytails and roller skates. This appearance brings to mind restaurants from the 1950s-'60s, but is also reminiscent of Scrap Baby's design.

The Sea Bonnies are apparently sea monkeys that have been specially bred and genetically modified to resemble Bonnie the Bunny, giving them blue-purple bodies and fins that resemble rabbit ears. There are strange ingredients mixed in with their egg and food packets, including borax, blue food dye, and soda.

Rory keeps the Sea Bonnies in the same fish tank as his pet goldfish, Fritz. Unseen by Rory, the Sea Bonnies eat Fritz the fish, and then cluster themselves together to form a vague shape of the goldfish, making it look like Fritz is still there. Speculation: While this is largely foreshadowing for Mott's fate, it's also a nod to FNAF2, where you play as "Fritz Smith," the technician, who is very likely a disguised purple and rotting Michael Afton.

The Sea Bonnies express both intelligence and violent behaviors, and threaten Mott for most of the story. They eventually make good on their threats, and they eat him alive from the inside out. His body is eventually replaced by a mass of Sea Bonnies, the tiny shrimp holding themselves in a human-shaped formation. They look passably like a person from a distance, and can even open and close their "mouth" and can "speak" in something akin to Mott's voice.

While Mott is being replaced by Sea Bonnies, he is still aware of his surroundings, but comes across as a half-programed robot. He can no longer remember things for longer than a few minutes, and forgets what his family members look like when not looking at them. He can also only focus on one thought at a time, and wanders almost blindly through the middle of the night, only knowing that he has to talk to someone and tell them something.

"Together Forever"

Basic plot: Two high school girls (Jessica and Brittney) perform maintenance work on a springlock suit animatronic for a school project, studying the inner workings of it and writing programming code for it. Things take a turn when the animatronic is activated by mistake, and it pulls the girls inside its torso one by one, springtrapping each of them in turn.

Lore bits:

An explanation for how the springlock suit animatronics work. They have a collapsible endoskeleton inside, made of many small, interlocking pieces. A switch on the side of the animatronic can be toggled between animatronic-mode and suit-mode. When the switch is on suit-mode, the endoskeleton parts are pulled to the side and locked in place, allowing an adult's body to fit inside. When the switch is in animatronic-mode, the endoskeleton parts spring back into place.

Being inside the suit when the switch goes back to animatronic mode leads to the girls' bodies being ripped apart and shattered into fragments of pieces. Their faces remain intact, and their consciousness' become attached to the suit.

The suit is programmed to follow people based on the sound of a person's voice. Its default is to approach children's voices. The girls change this by mistake, and accidentally reprogram the animatronic to attack adults.

After dying, the girls are still attached to the animatronic, but have no control over it. The animatronic speaks with Jessica's voice, but Jessica isn’t the one talking. It’s unclear why the animatronic is able to speak in Jessica’s voice.

While not a recognizable animatronic, this springlock suit (Rosie Porkchop, a pig character dressed as a waitress) is implied to be from either Fazbear Entertainment or Afton Robotics. We later learn that she's an old model, that isn't in use anymore, and that the line she was a part of was discontinued due to how often they malfunctioned and injured the wearers.

By that token, this tells us that there were probably other springlock suit characters aside from Spring Bonnie and Fredbear.

Book 11

"Prankster" *

Basic plot: A video game developer (Jeremiah, who accidentally gets called "Jeremy" by strangers) is working with a team of beta testers on a VR game from Fazbear Entertainment. Things go awry when Jeremiah's teammates go missing, and a strange glitchy voice leads Jeremiah through a complex game of riddles and body parts to find them.

Lore bits:

Jeremiah is largely a programmer, and doesn't usually test out the game himself. He leaves early one day after listening to his two coworkers (a man named Parker and a woman named Hope) testing the game in the next room, during which they go strangely quiet for awhile, and then start giggling strangely. Jeremiah assumes they're canoodling, and doesn't investigate.

The next day is Jeremiah's birthday, and he is greeted at the office by birthday balloons, a cake that reads "Happy Birthday, Jeremy!," and no coworkers. A strange voice with a glitch to it starts taunting him over the loudspeakers, telling him that his coworkers are in danger, and he'll have to play a game to find them. The game turns into a strange set of riddles, maze-like directions, and his coworkers' body parts spread around the office, decorated like birthday gifts.

Jeremiah thinks the voice sounds like Parker changing his voice, and at first thinks it’s just his coworker/s playing a prank on him.

Speculation: It's implied that the voice belongs to Glitchtrap / the Anomaly, and he noticeably speaks similarly to how Funtime Freddy speaks in "Count the Ways," making up rhymes and cruel jokes and generally laughing at his victim's misery. Again, it's possible (and likely) that this is meant to be how William Afton speaks to his victims.

It's implied that Glitchtrap had possessed Jeremiah's coworkers the previous day (hence the silence, followed by giggling), and forced them to mutilate themselves.

While it's implied that the body parts Jeremiah keeps finding once belonged to his coworkers, it seems like there were other victims involved. He opens a box of fingers at once point, and there are too many fingers of varying sizes to have come from two people. At another point, he finds a box of teeth, and notes that there are both adult and children's teeth mixed together.

The voice eventually leads Jeremiah to a tape, which plays a message from Parker and Hope, telling him that they're going to set up a special prank for him for his birthday. Jeremiah hears a sound coming from a closet behind him, and it's implied that what's left of Parker might still be alive inside the closet.

Jeremiah bears many similarities to the ill-fated Jeremy from "FNAF: Help Wanted," but it's unclear if he's the same person or if he's just meant to remind the audience of Jeremy.

"Kids At Play"

Basic plot: A young man (Joel) hits a kid with his car in the middle of the night. Rather than tell anyone, and risk getting in trouble, he keeps quiet about the whole thing, even when the entire small town he lives in starts tearing up the countryside looking for this missing child. He's haunted by a plastic child-shaped traffic sign that holds a "Slow! Kids at play!" sign, until he is eventually possessed by an outside force and is forced to lead the police to where the missing child lays on the side of the road. Joel then goes missing himself, having been transformed into a traffic sign.

Lore bits:

These particular traffic signs are manufactured by Fazbear Entertainment, as part of a campaign against reckless driving. They also have miniature 'toy' versions, which show up in cereal boxes. Despite their benign nature, people who look at these signs tend to actively find them unsettling.

The first time Joel sees one of these signs, there's something in front of it that he assumes to be the carcass of an animal, but he doesn't want to look at it too closely. When Joel is turned into a sign at the end of the story, parts of his own body land in front of him, and are similarly mistaken for a dead animal. This implies that this has happened before, and that some of these signs used to be people.

It's implied that Eleanor is the one following Joel, and that she's the one mutilating him while he's being turned into a sign.

Speculation: If Joel and his father are meant to parallel Michael and William Afton, as it's suggested they are, then it's likely that William plays the guitar and taught Michael how to play as well.

"Find Player 2"

Basic plot: Two girls (Amy and Mary-Jo) are playing hide-and-seek in an elaborate game maze at Freddy's pizzeria, when they get startled by a creepy man watching them. Scared of the strange man, Amy leaves the game without saying a word to her friend. Mary-Jo is reported missing the following day, and the strange man is seen on the news days later, having been caught trying to kidnap another little girl. Now an adult, Amy is convinced that the strange man did something awful to her childhood friend, and she returns to her hometown, hoping to confront him and get some answers. In two ironic twists, she learns that the strange man was innocent, and was just looking for his daughter amid the crowd of children, and that she herself locked Mary-Jo in a hidden compartment by mistake, leading to her friend dying of starvation and dehydration.

Lore bits:

This Freddy's has an elaborate "Hiding Maze," which is a set of play structure tunnels and vents that run through the walls of the pizzeria. There are cubbies in the tunnels, giving the kids spaces to hide in. The tunnels are decorated to resemble a fairy forest, with the main entrance into the maze decorated by a painted rainbow arching over the doorway.

The strange man (Emmett Tucker) is described as being tall and thin, with crooked teeth and greasy hair, and a creepy smile. His description sounds similar to the appearance of Dave Miller / William Afton in the graphic novel versions of the original novel trilogy.

When Amy confronts him as an adult, he tells her that the girl he was caught “kidnapping” was his own daughter, who he didn't have custody of, but that he never touched any other children. We also learn that he was the suspect in a series of missing children in the area, and even went to jail for it, but he professes his innocence of the whole thing.

Speculation: In FNAF1, we're told that a suspect was arrested for the kidnappings, but that his innocence was later proven. It's possible that Emmett Tucker is meant to represent that suspect.

Speculation: In “the Silver Eyes,” it’s implied that Henry is blamed for William’s crimes, mistaken for being the killer due to evidence pointing to him. It’s possible Emmett Tucker could be a stand-in of some sort for Henry.

We're also told the Freddy's where Amy and Mary-Jo played their hide-and-seek game actually closed under mysterious circumstances during the week following Mary-Jo's disappearance. Amy doesn't know why.

the Epilogues / "the Stitchwraith Stingers"

Storyline and Lore bits:

- A scientist named Dr. Phineas Taggert collects haunted objects that he buys off the internet, so he can study the Agony they carry. Among his purchases are a robotic endoskeleton from Fazbear's, the animatronic dog Fetch, and the haunted doll from Jake's home. Taggert attaches the doll's face and Fetch's battery pack to the endoskeleton, fusing the three haunted objects together, and giving them the ability to move around. This fusion creation becomes the monster called "the Stitchwraith," and promptly kills Taggert seemingly by mistake. - Taggert buys haunted objects so he can study the Agony they carry. He doesn't feel emotions the same way most people do, and is fascinated by how the emotions of a dead person could be so strong that they linger after the person dies, becoming Agony and bringing life to inanimate objects for centuries after their departure. - Other haunted items in Taggert's collection include pieces of the Fazbear's animatronics, paper party plates, and even Eleanor herself. Taggert has also been trying to no avail to find and purchase the haunted Ella doll (Charlie's doll). It also seems that Taggert's workshop is what used to be Sergio's home/warehouse from "Sergio's Lucky Day," as the buildings are described in similar ways and seem to be located in the same area. - It's implied that Taggert was once friends/colleagues with Dr. Talbert, another scientist that studies hauntings. Unlike Taggert, who focuses on collecting and studying Agony, Talbert pursues the study of Remnant. - The Stitchwraith contains at least two known spirits: Jake, the little boy who died in "The Real Jake" and became attached to the doll Simon, and Andrew, who seems to be one of William Afton's murder victims who then attached himself to Afton with the intention of causing the man pain in retaliation (as seen in "The Man in Room 1280"). The two boys become friends, but also have very different personalities and are often at odds with each other. They also don't know who or what is haunting the endoskeleton they're attached to, and have limited control over it. - As a spirit, Jake has the ability to sense when a person is lying to him. Andrew and Eleanor both seem to sidestep this ability of his by twisting the truth, or telling him half-truths. - Jake also has the ability to see into another person's memories, and can force them to either focus on good memories or bad memories, trapping the person in a state of joy or a state of fear and pain, depending on his decision. He calls these mental traps of his "Happiest Day" and "Worst Day," since those are the kind of memories he searches for in a person's mind. Eleanor is the only person he ever traps in their "Worst Day." - Jake considers the prospect of passing on into the afterlife as what will be his own "Happiest Day," and looks forward to reuniting with his father. But he refuses to pass on, at first because he doesn't want to leave Andrew alone, and later because he realizes he's the only one who can fix all of the badness that Eleanor and Afton have left in their wakes. - Who or whatever the unknown third party is that's part of the Stitchwraith (possibly William Afton???), it causes the shared robotic body to seek out victims, killing them by touching them and absorbing their life force. The Stitchwraith's victims are left as empty husks, leaking black "tear streaks" of Agony from their eyes. - Jake and Andrew talk, and Andrew says that he thinks his anger and pain are so strong that he may have infected several items in a Fazbear's warehouse, turning the toys and robots into violent killing machines. Since Jake doesn't want to see anyone else get hurt, he uses their shared Stitchwraith body to walk around the city, collecting all the items that Andrew has infected, and bringing them back to Taggert's lab for safe disposal. - When the bodies of the Stitchwraith's victims begin to pile up, police detective Everette Larson is given the task of identifying and locating a monster, even though he believes it to be nothing more than an urban legend. His mind starts to change after listening to what Margie (Jake's former caretaker) has to say, and seeing the aftermath of Sarah's death in "To Be Beautiful." - Larson realizes that the Stitchwraith isn't a human serial killer, like most of the police department have been assuming, and isn't just an urban legend, but is rather some sort of robotic creature. Following the trail of parts making up the Stitchwraith, he realizes that the endoskeleton and battery fueling it are both from Freddy Fazbear's. He does some digging into the history of Fazbear's, and gets the feeling that he could use some old items from the evidence locker to stop the Stitchwraith. - An old cold case that Det. Larson grows interested in is called "the Freddy Murders." We the audience know it as the game, "Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator." The case centers around a Fazbear's building that mysteriously burned down, destroying almost everything inside. The remains of at least two human bodies were found in the wreckage. Evidence suggests that one of the original founders of Fazbear's set the fire himself, presumably with the intention of killing whoever was in the building. - Despite taking place after FFPS, we see both William Afton and Charlie/the Puppet return in these epilogues, along with a new iteration of Circus Baby. This makes sense, as in one of the books "The Freddy Files," Scott says that Henry was the one who burned the Pizzeria Simulator, but that it didn't really end things or release anyone's spirits the way he thought it would. - Following a tip, Larson pursues the Stitchwraith to the vacant building that used to be Dr. Taggert's workshop. The Stitchwraith is inside, using a trash compactor to dispose of various haunted items and animatronics. Larson attacks the Stitchwraith, and Jake forcibly takes control of the Stitchwraith body, trying to keep from harming the detective. The Stitchwraith ends up in the trash compactor itself, at which point William Afton's spirit passes into the ever-growing pile of Agony-enfused trash. Afton's spirit brings the pile of trash to life, forming it into a 15-ft (4 1/2 meters) tall rabbit. Eleanor, who has just been playing dead in a corner of Taggert's workshop for awhile, also wakes up at this point, and runs to join Afton. - The Stitchwraith becomes momentarily fused with the trash rabbit (the Afton Amalgamation), but is detached and thrown across the room by Afton. When Jake climbs back to his feet, he realizes that he's the only spirit in the Stitchwraith now, and doesn't know what happened to Andrew. - Afton attacks Larson, picking the detective up and throwing him into walls, then jumping on top of him and stabbing him in the stomach. Larson manages to get away, even with a gaping wound, and runs to his car. Inside his car, he is greeted by faint children's voices and screaming coming from the items he got from the evidence locker. The one screaming the loudest is the faceplate of the Puppet/Marionette, which is apparently evidence from a case called "the Freddy Murders." - The Afton Amalgamation and Eleanor escape the warehouse together, and start looking for more victims. When they start to head toward a nearby neighborhood, Larson moves to head them off. He commandeers a forklift and attacks the Afton Amalgamation straight on, stabbing it with the front of the vehicle in much the same way Afton stabbed him. The Puppet's faceplate suddenly grows several striped tendril-like limbs and it launches itself into the air, latching itself onto Afton and attacking him directly. - The Puppet's attack is initially staved off by Eleanor, but then Eleanor abruptly leaves, abandoning Afton to his fate. Afton stares after Eleanor in betrayal, and, for a moment, resembles something akin to a sad, fragile old man. - No longer stymied by Eleanor, the Puppet begins to tear Afton's new body apart. The two of them end up in a nearby lake, where they sink to the bottom, becoming a layer of trash at the bottom of the water. Larson watches all this from his seat on the forklift, confused and horrified. Jake/The Stitchwraith, who had been hiding during the fight, then approaches Larson to inspect his stab wound, which he cauterizes before it can become more infected. - A few weeks after the battle between himself and four animatronics (Afton, the Stitchwraith, the Puppet, and Eleanor), Larson begins having hallucinations of a ballpit. Now making the assumption that someone or something is haunting him, Larson decides to track down the ball pit he keeps seeing, and begins visiting places that have ball pits. He finds the one he's looking for after a few days, in the building that used to be "Jeff's Pizza" (from "Into the Pit"), and is surprised that his hallucination brought him to a real place. - Det. Larson recognizes that many of the balls in the ball pit have dried blood on them. More likely, he's seeing traces of Eleanor's collection of Agony, but, since Agony looks like blackened blood, and because his job is mostly investigating recent deaths, he assumes it's blood. - Larson tries to find the owner of the "Jeff's Pizza" building, but struggles because of how long and complicated the trail of ownership is. He also does some digging on Eleanor, and learns that she reappears and kills someone once every two years. Coincidentally, he learns that the "Jeff's Pizza" building is currently owned by a Dr. Talbert, and that Dr. Talbert is the leading researcher on Remnant and has previously written about Eleanor's existance and attacks. - Eleanor seeks out help from Stitchwraith Jake, posing as a homeless girl he'd been helping. She tells him that she's Renelle, and that she's looking for her father, Dr. Talbert, and could use his help. Since Jake is very naive and is a very kind person, he agrees to help her look for Talbert. - Since Jake can sense when people are lying to him, Eleanor speaks to him in half-truths. Renelle Talbert is a real person, who really is the daughter of Dr. Talbert. Since the name "Renelle" almost sounds like the name "Eleanor" backwards, most of what Eleanor says to Jake rings mostly true, and he doesn't question it too deeply. Eleanor then garners sympathy from him by telling him about her childhood and her relationship with her father, saying that her mother died when she was young, and that her father became absorbed with his work, and that she left home after she and her father got into a fight. Since none of this ends up being the backstory of the real Renelle, and because Jake doesn't register any of this as a lie, it's likely that Eleanor is telling him her own backstory. - It doesn't take long for Jake and Eleanor to get to Dr. Talbert's home. But they are surprised to see Larson there as well, the detective looking to speak with Talbert about them. Eleanor gets into a fight with Larson, knocking him unconscious and sending him on a trip back in time. - Dr. Talbert comes out to greet them then, and Eleanor makes it look like the Stitchwraith attacked and hurt her. Alarmed that "his daughter" is dying from grievous wounds, Dr. Talbert gets his supply of Remnant, prepared to inject all of it into her to save her. Physical contact with the Remnant changes Eleanor's appearance, making her look like some sort of monster with gray skin, gaping eyes, and unhinged jaw, fangs, and long, black tendrils of Agony to grow to snake all over the house. - Eleanor's spirit separated from her body, and she and Larson fight each other on the astral place, time traveling all the while. Larson realizes that Eleanor is responsible for most of the badness that happens throughout this book series. - Throughout the astral / time-traveling battle between Larson and Eleanor, Larson keeps finding Eleanor asleep inside things. Inside boxes. Inside an old trunk. Inside the storage hatch of an old car. Every time, it gives off the image of a dead person jumping up from their own coffin. - Not one to be left out, Jake begins fighting with Eleanor's physical body, even when it's juiced up on Agony and Remnant and evolved to Eleanor's Final Form. The battle ends when Jake manages to worm into Eleanor's mind, trapping her in her own memories of her "Worst Day." Jake then forcibly takes Eleanor's spirit into the Stitchwraith body, trapping her with him. - Jake goes to the ballpit, where Eleanor has been apparently staying between her biannual kills. He then combines his "Happiest Day" ability with Eleanor's apparent time traveling ability, allowing him to go back in time and save all of her victims from their fates, seemingly reversing the outcomes of every story in this book series. - Dr. Talbert thanks Det. Larson for helping stop the clown doll that was masquerading as his daughter. He gifts Larson a girl's necklace with a heart-shaped locket made of Remnant for his troubles. The necklace used to be the one that Eleanor wore, but it's different now without her malicious spirit attached to it. Larson can tell the necklace is haunted by a happy, peaceful soul, but doesn't know who the spirit is.

Book 12

"Felix the Shark"

Basic plot: A man (Dirk) who went to Freddy Fazbear's as a kid starts having recurring dreams about an animatronic shark he saw there. He mentions the dreams and memories of the animatronic to his friends, four other adults who also went to Freddy's as kids, but none of them ever saw the shark character, leading Dirk to realize that he went to a special Freddy's location with unique animatronics. Dirk sets out on a quest to find where this special location with a special animatronic was. He finds it, only to learn that the Freddy's building was literally buried underground, hidden below a new attraction, and to find it he has to follow cryptic puzzles from a children's book and messages he receives in strange dreams he keeps having. He finally finds the building and the special shark animatronic, only to become trapped inside the shark's tank, where he eventually drowns.

Lore bits:

Most Freddy Fazbear buildings have the same animatronic characters, but occasionally one will have specialty animatronic characters, like the titular Felix the Shark, who is a prominent feature of one particular Freddy's franchise building but doesn't exist in any other part of the brand. The means that some of the more unusually characters across the franchise, such as the Puppet or the Mediocre Melodies, may only exist at one building, and aren't found across all Freddy's restaurants.

One of Dirk's friends is a conspiracy theorist, who comments that the robotic engineer/s at Freddy's made really advanced robotics, far ahead of their time. He goes on to speculate that the engineer could have had an underground laboratory where he ran experiments and developed more advanced mechanical creatures, going as far as to ask about the possibility of an "android army" coming out of this unknown man's underground lab. This character's speculations are treated as jokes by the narrative, possibly teasing the theorist community in the fandom, but all of his speculations are aspects of unvarnished canon.

Despite all the emphasis put on Felix, he ends up being nothing more than a robot that can only follow its core programming. Felix isn't haunted or intelligent, it seems, and is only able to swim around in its tank.

Felix is a special animatronic that was built to commemorate the building manager's dead son. He's trapped in an old Freddy's building that has been buried underground, hidden below a larger attraction. That big attraction above it is themed around a (in-universe) real-life criminal and murderer, with the attraction (a waterpark) transforming their real-world horrific past into a "fun for the whole family!" resort. While we don't know that Felix is haunted or intelligent or anything like that (the story actually implies that he's not), we see that he's able to connect to people, and can communicate through people's dreams, as he talks to Dirk while Dirk has dreams in his sleep, begging Dirk to come find him and promising happiness and friendship in return. This seems to mirror the story of the Mimic in some ways, and can be seen as a parallel to the story we get in the later portions of the FNAF franchise.

"The Scoop"

Basic plot: A high schooler (Mandy Mason) plays the FNAF games and is involved with the theorist community online, and gets very excited when she finds something unusual in the FNAF3 game files, which turns out to be a photo of a real building. Figuring out what the building is and what connection it has to a video game ends up reopening a cold case about a missing child at a restaurant with an animatronic bear. The ghost of the missing boy haunts Mandy every step of the way, pushing her to find his body so he can pass on.

Lore bits:

In this story, FNAF is treated as a fictional franchise. Mandy plays the games, which sound similar to the version of the games we're familiar with, but with some differences.

A dead child haunts Mandy through a video game, showing her images of his final resting place and urging her to let people know his body's whereabouts. This child died by accident, and isn't associated with Fazbear's at all, and isn't even attached to the FNAF game he communicates with Mandy through. Instead, he's attached to Mandy directly, drawn to her sense of loneliness.

Speculation: The way the ghost boy communicates with Mandy through her dreams is reminiscent of the way Balloon Boy's voice is used as a luring mechanism in FNAF3. It's implied that he does that on purpose, to put her in a situation she's already familiar with.

"You're The Band" *

Basic plot: A woman (Sylvia) bought a Freddy Fazbear mask on ebay for her Freddy's-obsessed son (Timmy), but the mask turns out to be the stolen head of the animatronic Freddy Fazbear himself. When Timmy puts the "mask" on, he becomes possessed by the spirit of the dead child inside Freddy. This attracts the attention of two very different entities -- the nightguard Mike Schmidt and an unnamed spirit, both of whom are very interested in exorcising Timmy and returning Freddy's head.

Lore bits:

The spirit of the child who usually possesses Freddy ends up possessing Timmy's body for a week. During this time, the child (who is unnamed in the story) expresses a constant need to protect themself, and routinely offers up information and details about their own murder.

The unnamed spirit that starts stalking Timmy is described as being tall and thin, with "beady eyes" as the only feature on its silhouette. The spirit slithers up walls and hides in the house vents during the day, but comes out to talk to Timmy/Freddy's spirit during the night. Eventually, the spirit convinces Timmy/Freddy's spirit to return to the Freddy's building with it, so Mike can return Freddy's spirit to the Freddy animatronic.

Despite their cooperative actions, Mike admits he doesn't know who or what the unnamed spirit is. He thinks it's helpful, and doesn't view it as a threat, but doesn't seem to recognize it.

Speculation: It's possible that the unnamed spirit is Jake/the Stitchwraith. I say this because we know Jake can take on different forms, and because we know his goal was to connect with and rescue Fazbear's various victims.

The security guard introduces himself as Mike Schmidt, and says he works at Freddy's. The Freddy's he takes Sylvia to is old and run down, and hasn't been open in 30 years. This building seems to resemble the FNAF1 location. Mike is intimately familiar with the animatronics Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica, and the dead spirits that possess them, but isn't familiar with the Puppet at all.

Unlike Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica, the Puppet doesn't behave like an animatronic. It floats through the air, moves like a living thing, can change the length and amounts of its own body parts, and can even manipulate the building its in. Overall, the Puppet behaves more like a fully-realized ghost than a haunted animatronic.

Mike is described as being young, with Sylvia thinking he looks like a college student. He's a bad liar, and is socially awkward. He seems very familiar with the Fazbear's franchise, its sordid past, the animatronics, the ghosts, and how to handle unwanted ghostly possessions.

It's stressed over and over again that Sylvia thinks about whether Mike does or does not "look like a serial killer." Since Mike Afton is described as looking like his father, a serial killer, this could be taken as implying Mike Schmidt and Mike Afton are the same person.

We're never told who broke into Freddy's and stole Freddy's head.

|| Please note that the stories in Book 12 were scrapped, and aren’t considered canon to the book series as a whole. As such, any lore bits gleaned from them may be considered less useful than others. ||

#fazbear frights #five nights at freddy's #a brief analysis #but mostly just notes with minimal commentary #(but still some commentary)#now with fewer theories and more basic facts!

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itsonlystrange · 3 years

Text

I’m rewriting my version

Of Stranger Things 4

(PLEASE READ ALL)

So, as most of you know, I’m writing all of stranger things 4, in script format.

I started writing it around 6 months ago and since then my view on the characters and how they act and my view on the story as a whole has changed a lot, so I’m going to be making adjustments

1. No more Google docs!

In order for me to have it look and feel like a real script, I’m moving over to Final Draft, which I’ve been using to write my scripts for awhile now. Instead of a Google docs link it’ll be a drop box link. This way it’ll feel and look more like an actual script.

2. The story we have so far will continue, but I’m changing some scenes and dialogue

I want to say that I will not be rewriting my version of season four COMPLETELY I’ll just be renovating it. Everything that has happened so far will stay canon, they’ll just happen in different ways

3. It’s going to be WAY more scary.

I’m talking bl**d, gore, secret experiments, multiple characters not making it, literally the whole works.

AND ALSO....

I’LL BE INTRODUCING A NEW MONSTER!! (Or rather....an extension of a monster we already know ;)

Things that will change:

1. Joyce is getting a lot more scenes in the coming episodes.

2. El’s getting a lot more of her backstory explored. That was already planned but I need to add that to episode’s one and two.

3. A lot more argyle scenes. I don’t like the way I characterized him so I’m adding more scenes for him and changing him a bit.

4. MORE HELLFIRE CLUB! I mean how could I have an episode literally called The Hellfire Club yet barely delve into it?

5. Overall better writing. I’ve definitely advanced in my writing skills in the past 6/7 months. So I’ll be changing a few of those things.

6. More of an insight on Chrissy and Jason’s relationship. I realize a lot of you think Jason’s hostility towards Eddie is just him being protective, but it’s way worse than that and I need to convey that properly.

7. More Lucas scenes. Lucas has always been a big part of the story I want to tell but I need to add more scenes for him in the first and second episode.

8. Im adding more to Max’s character, and her talk with the guidance counselor in episode 1 will be extended.

9. FLASH. BACKS. WAY MORE FLASHBACKS!! I cant even begin to explain how many flashbacks I’m adding. Episode three is FULL OF THEM.

10. I’m giving mike more internalized homophobia. Way more. I originally was going to have him still have a lot of internalized homophobia, just differently, but oh boy. If season 4 mike wheeler was a song he’d be Hot and Cold by Katy perry bc this boy is going on a roller coaster of emotions.

11. More numbers. This was already going to be included but I’m delving into it more.

12. And finally: just an overall better version of the first two episodes.

BY THE WAY:

If you think this will hold up episode three, it won’t! I recently had to go back and change a lot of episode three but it’s basically done now.

Overall, thank you all for the tremendous support. I’m sorry for this hiatus, but I’ve been putting my heart and soul into this project and I need to project that well. Please stand by as I give you guys probably some of my best work yet. I’m very proud of episode three, and I’m stoked to let you guys read it.

PLEASE REBLOG! ITS HEAVILY APPRECIATED!

And please leave feedback in the comments:)

#stranger things #byler #stranger things 4 #my version #st4 #will byers #mike wheeler #dustin henderson #el hopper #lucas sinclair #max mayfield

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spaceorphan18 · 3 years

Text

Head Over Feet (2/14)

After Kurt and Blaine broke up the second time, they went their separate ways, living their separate lives in New York City. Fifteen years later, a retirement party brings them back together into each other’s orbit, with surprising, for both of them, consequences. Are they able to fit each other into their already complicated and messy lives? And are these newfound feelings real? Or just echoes of a past relationship?

Canon Divergent after Season 5.

Ao3 Link

A/N: Since the first chapter seemed to be such a huge hit - I'm dropping this today. This was all originally supposed to be the first chapter anyway! Going forward, I'm going to try to update once a month. Thanks for reading - and I hope you enjoy! :)

Thanks to @snarkyhag for the beta. :)

***

Chapter 2: Loser Like Me (Part Two)

Kurt Hummel loves sex. He loves the feeling of strong hands holding his body, rough lips against his skin, and a hard cock buried deep within him. And that morning he had woken up feeling particularly horny. He isn’t sure what exactly he had been dreaming about but his dick aches to be touched. And luckily he shares his bed with a very hot guy who doesn’t mind taking care of it for him.

He and Ian have been together a little over a year now, though this moving in together thing is new and still taking time to get used to. Sex, however, is not an adjustment they need to make. Ian doesn’t seem to mind Kurt waking him up with a hand on his cock, desperate to be fucked. Ian might be a little slow to wake, but not long after they start, Ian’s already pulling Kurt to a quick orgasm; Kurt spilling all over Ian’s fist as Ian pumps his hips into Kurt from behind.

The thing is, as much as Kurt loves sex, he’s not one to draw it out. Kurt finds himself holding steady onto the bed frame, staring at the wallpaper, as Ian takes his time fucking him. And the wallpaper is incredibly ugly. Seriously. He knows that Ian isn’t the one to have picked it out, but it’s a striped puke-green, burnt-orange, and tacky-gold, left over, most likely, from a renovation to the old building from the sixties. It’s a travesty that it’s remained on the wall so long, and if Ian would just fucking come already, he wouldn’t be forced to stare at it for so long.

Kurt fucks his hips back a little, hoping that Ian will pick up the pace. He leans back for a kiss (that wallpaper is seared forever in his head, god) and gives out a little moan. It’s a tiny bit performative, but it seems to do the trick, and Ian’s hips finally begin to snap, pushing him to his own orgasm.

“Fuck, Kurt, I could wake up this way every day for forever,” Ian says, sucking a kiss to his shoulder.

The word ‘forever’ echoes in Kurt’s brain uncomfortably. Kurt turns in Ian’s arms, quieting him with a kiss. “Happy to oblige.”

Ian goes in to deepen the kiss, but Kurt pulls away. Now that he’s feeling a bit satisfied, he wants nothing more than to take a shower and get ready for the day. He’s got about a thousand things to do, and he’s eager to get started. Ian tries to keep him close -- he’s always wanting to make out after sex -- but Kurt manages to slip out of Ian’s light grasp.

“Shower time,” Kurt says, wiggling his eyebrows.

“Mmm, let me join you.”

The thought suddenly makes Kurt twitch but he tries not to show it. What is wrong with him? His incredibly handsome boyfriend, with his disheveled dark hair and playfully pleading light eyes wants to join him in the shower for a possible part two of morning sexy times. But having Ian shoved in next to him in their tiny shower stall makes him feel claustrophobic.

He pushes past his discomfort to allow Ian to join him. He even gives in to a little light making-out. But there’s no way sex is happening in that bathroom.

They do their morning routine together, bumping into each other in the tiny bathroom. The sink is covered in bottles and sprays, creams and soaps, razors and combs, and they have to reach over each other to grab what they need. Kurt is normally a very organized person, and when he moved in, he took the time to organize a side for each of them. But since then, Ian’s stuff has slowly migrated over to his side, and Ian’s slowly been using the products on Kurt’s side. And mostly, he’d be fine with the sharing if things would just keep their place. However, he doesn’t say anything, enjoying Ian’s good mood.

Ian suggests breakfast, wanting to go to the little bagel shop a few blocks down. He asks Kurt to walk with him but, just wanting a few minutes to check his emails alone, he declines. Ian throws a look of disappointment but heads out, stating he’ll bring Kurt something back. Kurt tries not to feel guilty about it, and reminds himself that there’s nothing wrong with wanting a few minutes to yourself. Besides, Ian’s still excited that they’re living together. He’ll calm down. Surely. Right?

Ian being gone gives Kurt a few minutes to pick up the apartment. There are clothes discarded in the living room, where they had been left after starting sex on the couch the night before. There’s an old pizza box sitting on the coffee table, a few mugs with half-drunk tea, and a scattering of papers. And underneath a pile of Ian’s sheet music is the mail from the previous week, most of which is Kurt’s. He clenches his jaw as he goes through it, annoyed that he’s just now seeing it.

There are a couple of old bills in here that need to be paid, as well as a bright red envelope that looks like an invitation sent from McKinley High. He looks over the invitation with curiosity, though something else quickly catches his eye. It’s a jewelry catalogue sent to Ian. Specifically, a men’s jewelry catalogue. And Ian doesn’t wear jewelry. Highly suspect of it, he looks it over, and a growing anxiety starts to spread. This could not possibly mean…

The door slams shut and Kurt jumps from his spot on the couch. It’s just Ian home from the bagel shop.

“I got your favorite, multigrain with that fancy whipped cream cheese that you like,” Ian says. He hands him the bag and gives him a kiss on the cheek before sitting down next to him.

“You didn’t give me my mail,�� Kurt grumbles, taking the bag. Then adds a quiet, “thank you.”

Ian shrugs it off. “I figured you’d see it eventually. I’ve been wondering when you’d open that red envelope. I wanna know what it is.”

“Oh,” Kurt places the bag with his breakfast on the coffee table and picks up the envelope from his lap, opening it. He gives it a fond smile. “I guess my old choir director is retiring. There’s a party for him back in Lima.”

“Well, that’s cool,” Ian says, grabbing the invitation out of his hand. “Quaint. I’m guessing you aren’t going? I mean, other than mentioning your dad, I’ve never heard you talk about your time in Ohio. Hell, I’ve never even heard early New York stories. All I know is one day you walked into my piano bar, a full grown man, mysterious and sexy.” Ian wiggles his eyebrows. “Hard to imagine you in high school.”

“Well, I can assure you I was anything but sexy,” Kurt says. A flash of a memory crosses his brain - one of a performance in a warehouse, lots of boys in blazers, and a really uncomfortable situation for young Kurt. He shakes his head, ridding his mind of it.

“So, are you going to go?” Ian asks, far more interested in the idea than Kurt is.

Kurt scrunches his nose at the thought. He hasn’t stepped foot in Ohio for a better part of a decade. There aren’t even people from high school he still talks to, not on a regular basis anyway. It’s sweet of Will Schuester’s family to think of him, but maybe he’s better off sending a card or something.

“I don’t know,” Kurt says, he stares at the invitation, unsure of how he feels about it. “I don’t know.”

***

Wednesdays mean that Ian is home all day. He is a classical pianist by trade and his day job is playing with one of New York’s symphony orchestras. In the evenings, he usually plays gigs at local bars. But on Wednesday, he has time off from both jobs to be home all day. Wednesday used to be the day where Kurt spent all his time with Ian. Now that they live together, Kurt usually spends his Wednesday anywhere but home.

It usually lands him at his own job, running a small theater that he co-owns with his old friend, Elliott Gilbert. Technically, Elliott’s rich grandmother’s money bought the theater, and Kurt had been brought on to manage the projects and productions that happened there. It’s still quite a work in progress, as the building had been nearly condemned when they originally bought it a few years earlier. But with all their hard work, they’re beginning to draw in better productions, and this might be the first year they actually draw a profit.

When he gets in that afternoon, he finds Elliott up in the rafters, working on some of the lights. Kurt watches for a moment as Elliott finishes whatever he’s working on. It’s hard to say, but he has the toolbox with him, so Kurt can only guess it has to do with the lights nearly coming down the other night. They really need to get an electrician in, but Elliott’s pretty handy about these things, and will at least try to do what he can before they have to ask for help.

Kurt watches a good few minutes as Elliott finishes up and comes down the ladder.

“You’re being quiet,” Elliott says, carefully bringing down the toolbox as he reaches the bottom of the ladder. Kurt, hands in pockets, just gives a gentle shrug. “You’re not usually quiet, which means it can only be one of a few things. Something’s up with your dad. You want a favor. Or it’s boyfriend problems.”

“Well, my dad is fine, and I don’t need anything,” Kurt says. “So….”

Elliott lets out a heavy sigh, and places the toolbox on the ground. “It wouldn’t kill you to go to therapy, you know.”

“You’re not my therapist?”

“Alright, so this session is going to cost you three-hundred dollars,” Elliott looks at his watch. “You have twenty minutes. Go.”

Kurt lets out a laugh as he follows Elliott to the edge of the stage. Elliott jumps off but Kurt lowers himself to sit on the edge, his legs hanging off. Elliott makes a shrug for Kurt to get on with it.

“So, I was going through some mail, and I found this jewelry catalogue. It had a lot of men’s engagement rings,” Kurt says. Elliott makes a face as if to say ‘and…?’ Kurt purses his lips. “I think Ian might ask me to marry him.”

“Have you guys even talked about marriage?”

“Definitely not.”

Elliott doesn’t seem at all convinced. “Maybe it was just an ad then. I get shit like that all the time. I somehow managed to be subscribed to a women’s lingerie catalogue for years.”

Kurt still can’t rid himself of the low-level anxiety he’s been feeling about it all day. “Even so, I just… don’t like the idea.”

“I thought you and Ian were doing great?”

“We are, we are,” Kurt says. Elliott, again, doesn’t seem convinced. “Ian’s in the honeymoon stage of wanting to do everything together, and I don’t know. We’ve been together for a year. We know how we are. Do we really need to do everything together now that we live together?”

Elliott folds his arms across his chest. “Kurt, if this is becoming an issue, why did you agree to move in with him in the first place?”

Kurt stares up at the ceilings. The old, red curtains have a few fringes and tears, and Kurt wonders vaguely, if they should get new ones or if anyone would really notice. He kicks the stage lightly as he avoids Elliott’s question. “I mean, my apartment lease was up, and they were going to double my rent.”

“Oh, god,” Elliott chokes out. “Please tell me that wasn’t the only reason.”

“It’s not,” his voice squeaks a little too much on the words. “I also, you know, love him.”

Elliott shakes his head. Kurt knows judgment when he sees it. “This is just classic Kurt,” he says.

“You know, there’s nothing wrong with having an adjustment period with having to live with someone after I’ve had my own place for so long,” Kurt says, defending himself.

“Uh-huh.”

“I just like my independence.”

Elliott’s eyebrow is arched high. “Or you like sabotaging your relationships.”

Kurt scoffs, looking off to the side of the stage. They’re going to need to scrub this whole place down before allowing anyone to do a production here again. Elliott, however, is not letting him off the hook, and eyes him hard. “I do not do that.”

“Then why have I seen you more in the past couple of weeks than you’ve probably seen him?”

It’s a fair question, Kurt admits to himself. “Well, I do find you tolerable.”

“Kurt, you don’t find any of your boyfriends tolerable,” Elliott says. He almost sounds annoyed, but he knows Elliott’s limits and he knows he hasn’t reached them. But truth be told, he’s as sick of himself as Elliott probably is. “Who was that guy before Ian? That Matt guy? Why did you break up with him?”

He picked the scab, of course Elliott is going to rip open the old wounds. “Because he wanted me to be ‘a part of the family’,” Kurt replies, using air quotes to highlight his point. Matt had been a sweet guy, but his family had been his life. He hadn’t been ready to be a part of any family, let alone one that had been as close as Matt’s had been. He felt as if he had been suffocating every time they went to visit. “His family was crazy. I didn’t need to be a part of that.”

Elliott nods, continuing on. “Okay, and Joey was the one before that. I remember him because he helped clean up this place when we bought it.”

Kurt bites his lip. He did feel bad about that. Joey had been so quick to offer his time. But Joey also had been there. All the time. It had been too much. “He was super clingy,” Kurt says quietly, though he hates that he’s seeing the trend.

“Sure he was,” Elliott says. A grin slips onto his lips. “And then there was Steven.”

“He wanted to marry me six months into the relationship,” Kurt says. He snaps a little too loud, his voice echoing in the empty theater. Elliott remains amused, even if Kurt is not. “Who knows they want to get married six months into a relationship? Why are you getting on my case about this? It’s not like you don’t go through, like, three guys a week.”

Elliott throws his head back in a laugh. “Well, I am at peace with my slutty ways. Look, Kurt, it’s not about the number of guys you go through. It’s just that, well, honestly, I’ve known you forever. And I know you’re this old school romantic and the slutty ways will never be satisfying for you. Did it ever occur to you that the reason it doesn’t work out with these guys is not because you’re this progressive independent, but because deep down you want to be an old school married, and haven’t found the right person to be with yet?”

The gnawing pit in his stomach starts to fade as he thinks about the old fantasy -- the one he had as a kid, where you met your prince, and you lived happily ever after. Only, real life doesn’t happen like that. Most guys are not princes, and the ones who are don’t always lead to happily ever after. He knows better than to be unrealistic, but maybe he’s pushing people too far away.

“Do you think I’ve made a mistake?” Kurt asks, he begins bouncing his foot against the stage again.

Elliott goes soft in deposition. “You know I can’t answer that for you.”

“You’re probably right,” Kurt says. He thinks of Ian - of his kind smile and good heart. He shouldn’t be running, even if every ounce of him feels like it’s too much. “Ian is a good guy, and I’ve been…”

“Difficult?”

“I was going to say myself, but thank you.”

“I do my best.” Elliott playfully taps his knee. “If you want, though, you can crash at my place for a few days. I’m gonna be out of town. Some third cousin is getting married, and Mom insists that everyone be there.”

“No, I’m good,” Kurt insists. And then an idea hits him. “You know, I got an invitation to go back to Lima. Old high school choir thing. Maybe I’ll take a long vacation and do that. It could give me some time to clear my head -- reflect on my questionable life choices.”

Elliott gives a hearty laugh. “You haven’t talked about Lima in years. Besides, going back to Lima might force you to dig into your past, and we all know how much you enjoy doing that.”

Kurt swats at Elliott. “It’ll be fine. What’s the worst that can happen?”

***

After work, Kurt doesn’t go home right away. Instead, he opts to walk around the city for a while. There’s a slight chill, causing him to bundle his jacket a little tighter, and the sky is overcast, threatening a storm rolling in. He won’t be out too late, but he knows Ian is back home waiting for him and he’s just not ready for it yet.

His conversation with Elliott plays over in his head. He does like his independence. He always has. Even when he had been a little boy, his parents had let him play on his own. And after years of rejection from kids his own age, he learned that sometimes being on your own is your best bet. It’s not that he doesn’t like the company his boyfriends have brought him over the years. He just likes his space. And his peace and quiet. And his room to move about as he pleases. And sometimes boyfriends make him feel too tied down.

But he can’t help but think about what Elliott had said. The thing that seems to stick in his brain, wiggling to the forefront of his thoughts. Maybe he wants to be an old married? Maybe he does want that connection, that one person who seems to know him, who understands him enough that there will be days when they’re inseparable, and days when they’re apart. He likes the idea of coming home to the same face every day to see someone who can read him like a book, who will enjoy the same things as him, who will love him for the insufferable human being he always seems to be.

But are there really people out there like that?

Maybe he’s not giving Ian enough credit. When they had decided to move in together, Kurt thought it had been the most optimal choice. Living costs would come down. He’d have a partner to spend his time with. And the sex. God, Ian knows how to have sex.

But permanently? The buzz of anxiety begins to grow at the thought. There are too many little things about Ian, too many things about himself that just don’t feel right. It’s not perfect. Well -- it’s never going to be perfect, he argues with himself. But still…

The storm breaks sooner than Kurt expects, a sudden heavy rain coming down. Kurt stands on the street corner, looking up at the sky as he gets drenched. Maybe the universe is trying to tell him something, and he can’t help but laugh as the rain splashes his face.

Just as he’s about to head home, however, he catches a sign on the corner of a building. A sign advertising an open leasing on a loft, with a number attached. For a moment, he’s transferred back in time to all those years ago, when he lived in a loft in Bushwick with four other people all of whom had been trying to make it in the city. He hasn’t thought about that loft in ages. Hasn’t thought about those people in ages. God, what even happened to…

He tries hard not to think of the name that first pops in his head. But he can’t help but see the face. He shakes his head, as if attempting to get rid of the image.

Nostalgia hits him just then.

Nostalgia for a place he left long ago, for people whom he never thought he’d miss. He is going to take that trip to Lima. He does need a break from Ian. He does need to get his life sorted out. But mostly, he feels a soft ache for returning home -- even if he’s not sure where that is anymore.

***

A week later, Kurt finds himself rolling up to one of Lima’s three motels in a car he rented at the airport. It’s strange coming back to the city he grew up in and, yet, not returning back to his childhood home. He had thought about driving past, but he hadn’t necessarily wanted to see through the window to see whatever happy suburban family had bought the place. Instead, he had driven straight to the motel that he had booked himself the moment he knew he would be coming back.

There is something surreal about returning to the place you grew up after so much time has passed. It’s like time has frozen, remaining exactly the same as the moment you left, even if there are new storefronts in the old buildings, expansions where wooded areas used to be, and a real attempt, it seems, to clean the place up. It feels unchanged, and Kurt can’t tell if that’s a good or bad thing. It’s just a thing.

It’s evening by the time he gets in. The motel room is bland and tiny, and the four channels on the TV don’t offer much entertainment. He lays down on the bed to stare at the ceiling, thinking if there’s anything he could do. Most places in Lima shut down before eight, even on a Friday night. And it’s not like he has anyone to call. He had been texting Mercedes Jones earlier in the week, shocked that her number had still been the same, but she had explained that she wouldn’t be getting in until very late and implied that whatever plans she had wouldn’t be with him. He had understood, and it’s not like he won’t be seeing her the next day anyway. Scrolling through his phone, he finds that he doesn’t have a single other contact from high school he could call.

Maybe he should just text Ian -- but as his thumb hovers over his boyfriend’s name, he remembers that Ian is probably playing a concert that weekend. And even if he waits until later when Ian’s home, he just doesn’t want to ruin Ian’s good time by explaining that he can’t quite quash the crushing sense of loneliness that seems to be his homecoming.

Why did he think this would be a good idea?

Out of the corner of his eye, he notices a neon flashing light, and through the window he sees a building that he hasn’t thought about in years. Thinking anywhere is better than being stuck in that sad motel room for the next twelve hours, Kurt heads out into the night.

***

Scandals is, if nothing else, exactly how he remembers it. Not that his memories are anything more than fuzzy blips of moments from long ago. He remembers the same posters being on the wall, in the same tattered state. He remembers the huge, neon signs lining the walls. And god, the music even feels strikingly similar. There aren’t, he thinks with a laugh, any drag queens though.

The atmosphere is quiet for a Friday night. There are a few guys out on the dance floor, enjoying each other’s company, but most of the people in the bar are huddled in the darkened corners. No one looks up from their conversations to notice him come in. The bouncer is too busy flirting with a denim dressed, bearded guy leaning against the wall to notice him slip by.

He’s not a few steps in when he realizes coming out to a bar seems like a silly thing to do, but makes a deal with himself to have one drink before he heads back to the motel and to do the sensible thing in calling Ian.

But as he heads to the bar, he sees something that makes him freeze in his tracks.

Is that…?

It can’t possibly be…?

Blaine Anderson is sitting at the bar, casually chatting with the bartender as he sips a beer. Kurt is stunned to see him, his mind reeling at how this is even possible. There is only one gay bar in Lima. And he’s probably here for the reunion.

But still… Blaine Anderson, of all people.

There’s a tiny part of him that wants to run. Turn on his heel and walk right back out of that bar and not even worry about the formal meeting they’ll inevitably have tomorrow at the reunion. He doesn’t though.

He watches Blaine for a moment, in his element, throwing his head back to laugh at something the bartender said. It’s astounding to Kurt at how much and how little Blaine has changed. Age, it seems, has done him well. There’s less gel in his hair, allowing the natural curls to reveal themselves. His face is harder, jawbone more defined. He’s wearing a dark sweater vest, but no bowtie, and the shirt underneath is unbutton, revealing a wisp of hair on his chest. Blaine is no longer that young boy he once knew. Sitting at the bar is a man.

And yet… his movements are exactly the same. The way he crinkles his eyes when he laughs, the way he lightly touches the bartender’s arm while expressing his point, the way casually plays with the napkin on the counter. That’s still the Blaine he used to know.

Kurt takes a deep breath, releasing the tension running through him. He could leave… but he doesn’t really want to. It’s been a decade since they’ve seen each other. That’s enough time to let old wounds heal, right?

Kurt takes the plunge.

“I’m guessing this place rarely sees a man as gorgeous as you. Mind if I buy you a drink?”

Blaine turns around, utterly shocked to see him there. Kurt’s confidence slips as the silence lingers. Maybe this had been a bad idea. But then, Blaine breaks out into a grin.

“Kurt?” He says his name slowly, as if it’s unfamiliar in a way, but easily slides off his stool, going in for a hug. It’s awkward -- where do you put your hands and arms? How close do you stand? How do you properly greet someone you once agreed to share your life with? Someone who is a relative stranger now. It’s bizarre to him that somehow, Blaine still feels so familiar in his arms. “Please, join me.” Blaine offers the stool next to him as they slip apart. “I’ll definitely take you up on that drink.”

Kurt sits down, suddenly feeling much more nervous than he had been. Blaine waives down the bartender -- asking for beer, while Kurt shortly asks for an amaretto sour. He definitely needs something to calm him down. How is Blaine being so calm? Is he hiding it better? Or is it that he’s soon to be on his third beer?

“So, what are you doing here?” Blaine asks, placing his head on his hand, now looking amused. There’s no anger there. No resentment, or negativity. Blaine genuinely seems to be happy to see him. Based on how they had left things all that time ago, Blaine could have harbored some ill will towards him. But they are both adults now. And it had been a long, long time ago.

“I’m in town for Mr. Schue’s retirement party,” Kurt says. He rubs his legs, not sure what to do with his hands.

Blaine nods, finishing off the beer he had been drinking when Kurt had arrived. “Oh, yeah, I figured that. I meant, what are you doing here ?” He uses both hands to point down.

“Oh!” Kurt feels a little silly not understanding. Thankfully, the bartender brings them their drinks. Kurt wastes no time gulping half of it down as if it were a shot. “I saw it from the motel window. Call me crazy, but I was feeling nostalgic.”

“Huh,” Blaine takes a long sip from his bottle, narrowing his eyes as he thinks it over. “You’re not staying with Burt?”

“Oh, god, right you wouldn’t know,” Kurt laughs as he stirs his drink. “Dad retired a few years ago. He and Carole moved to Arizona to be closer to her sister.”

“Ah, gotcha.”

“I guess I could have stayed with Uncle Andy,” Kurt continues, remaining fixated on his drink as he talks. “He and his sons took over the tire shop. But we’re not exactly close. And he has, like, ten dogs. I’d rather take my chances with the motel.”

Blaine nods, sympathetically.

“What about you?” Kurt asks. “How’s your family?”

“They’re pretty good,” Blaine says, easily. “Cooper has three little girls. Here, let me show you.” Blaine wastes no time fishing out his phone, scrolling through the roll for a picture of three gorgeous young girls who all, clearly, take after Cooper. Kurt coos accordingly but he can’t help but notice Blaine’s left hand, and the indentation of skin where a ring used to be. It makes him wonder.

“So, what are you doing now?” Kurt asks, trying to relax on his stool. He rests his elbow on the wooden bar, and his head on his hand.

“I teach, actually. New York Institute of Fine Arts,” Blaine says, taking another sip of his beer with a laugh. “I mean, I still perform every now and then. But an adjunct professor was needed, and a friend of mine pulled some strings, and I just kind of fell into it. I love it though.” There’s no lie in Blaine’s voice. Blaine had always been a passionate person, but it’s clear by his demeanor that he loves his job.

Kurt smiles meekly, happy for him. “A private school, of course. How very you. Actually, now that I think of it, that’s not far from my theater.”

“You have a theater?” Blaine’s eyes grow wide with interest.

“Well, half a theater,” Kurt rocks his head from side to side, as if it’s a silly little thing, and not the pride and joy that he’s sunk most of his adult life into, now. He plays with the nearby peanut bowl. “The Gilbert Theater.”

“Oh, I know that place,” Blaine says. There’s excitement in his voice. Kurt isn’t sure why this makes him happy. “I thought it had been condemned. I mean - I’m sure you’ve fixed it up.”

“Oh we have,” Kurt says, thinking about all the work he’s put into it over the years. “Elliott and I renovated it. You wouldn’t even recognize it now.”

Blaine takes another slow slip of his drink. “Elliott? Like from college?” Kurt nods slowly. “Ah. So are you guys…”

“Oh, no,” Kurt quickly corrects. “God, no. Business partners only.” It’s such a funny thought to him. Elliott. They’re like brothers. No, he’s definitely not romantically linked with Elliott. There is someone else… but he quickly pushes Ian out of his brain. He doesn’t want to think about him. “So this is crazy, right? That we both ended up in the same sleazy place? Maybe the universe was trying to push us together again.”

Blaine gives an uncomfortable laugh. “Well, there is only one gay bar in Lima, but I suppose…”

An awkward silence grows between them. Blaine bops his head to the music. Kurt munches on some peanuts. They both avoid direct eye contact. The uneasiness that Kurt had felt when he first walked in begins to return. Maybe he should go.

The bartender breaks the silence, asking Blaine if he’d like another drink. There’s an ease there that Kurt picks up on. Blaine knows the guy -- like really knows the guy. Kurt shifts from side to side not sure what to say or do. He eyes the door, he can still slip out if he needs to.

“Man, I cannot believe how little this place has changed since I used to come here,” Blaine says, taking a look around.

“You mean when we were in high school?” Kurt asks. He’d hardly say coming the three times that they did a lot.

“No, it was actually after…” he trails off but Kurt picks up on what he’s saying. After they broke up. After he broke Blaine’s heart. Blaine kind of skips past the beat. Why dredge up all that old stuff. That’s what the reunion is for, right? Something turns in the pit of Kurt’s stomach. “When I moved back to Lima, I used to come here a lot. Thought maybe throwing myself into this place might make me feel better. Not so alone, you know?”

“Did it help?” Kurt’s voice is small.

“Maybe,” Blaine says with another laugh. “I don’t know, it was so long ago. You know it…” he pauses, thinking it over. “Alright, if I tell you something - do you promise not to run screaming?”

Kurt’s intrigued. “Of course.”

Blaine stares intently at his bottle. “After you and I ended things -- I came back to Lima. And I sorta, kinda dated Dave Karofsky for a while.”

Of all the things that Blaine could have said -- that is the last thing Kurt expects to hear. It makes Kurt chuckle into his drink. He can’t even picture it, it’s such a wild thought. “Wait, seriously?”

“Shocking, right?”

“A little. More so that you were into a bear.”

The tension breaks as they let go into easy laughter. The conversation becomes lighter as they begin to discuss old things. They talk about Dave Karofsky, and how someone who had once been Kurt’s ghost had turned into a friend whom Kurt sees every few years for lunch. Blaine mentions he had attended Dave’s wedding. Kurt mentions he had lunch with Dave and his husband last year. It’s strange how things can change so much in twenty years.

They talk about Dalton -- though not about that staircase. The staircase that will forever be burned in his memory for better or worse. Instead, they talk about Sebastian Smythe with fondness, though neither could say where he ended up. And about the one time Blaine sang at the Gap to impress a guy whose name neither can remember.

And for a moment, unprovoked, Blaine mentions his husband. It’s a startling jolt into reality, but Blaine doesn’t give him any more than a name and a passing story about having to explain to his husband why he refuses to shop at The Gap. It’s not like Kurt hadn’t heard Blaine had gotten married. He doesn't remember who had told him or when or even how he had felt about it. Blaine had wanted to be married. He got his wish. And Kurt is happy for him. He wants to be happy for him. Still, that missing ring…

As they reminisce, the bartender brings them more drinks. The room begins to feel warm and familiar. Kurt isn’t sure if it’s alcohol or Blaine that is making him feel so comfortable so far from home. They talk about high school and old friends, people whom they’ve lost touch with and people they’re looking forward to seeing tomorrow. Kurt learns that Blaine developed a surprisingly deep friendship with Santana Lopez. Blaine learns that Kurt hasn’t talked to Rachel Berry since college.

“I just couldn’t after that show,” Kurt explains. They’re both giggly from drinking too much - Kurt having to hold his hands up when the bartender offers him a third. “I mean - not that she even tried to keep in touch with me. But my god did you watch that thing? It was terrible! She was fine - she was always fine. But who decided that would be what America wanted to see for a decade?”

Blaine snickers into his drink. “Well, personally I was offended. ‘Slaine’,” he uses both hands to make air quotes around the character’s names, “was written out after year two. I was like ‘fuck that’. It’s just as well. Had he stayed on, I might have had to sue their asses for defamation of character.”

“You are not wrong,” Kurt says, unable to stop laughing as he thinks about it. He puts a hand on Blaine’s shoulder to balance himself so as to not fall off his stool.

Blaine notices and smirks. “How drunk are you right now?”

“Less drunk than you are,” Kurt smiles into his glass. He is buzzed but not at all drunk. In fact, he feels good and relaxed and happy. When had he last been this happy? “Anyway… All I know is that a terrible writer wrote ‘Cert’ as the sassy yet sexless gay best friend. And he stayed on the show. The. Entire. Run. If anyone has the right to sue, it’s going to be me.”

“Well, for what it’s worth. I don’t think Cert was anything like you,” Blaine says. He leans in close. Kurt can smell the sweet scent of raspberries. “Personally, I thought you were always sexy.”

Something in the atmosphere shifts. Suddenly, Blaine is close. Close enough that he can see the depths of Blaine’s golden eyes. There’s something there that Kurt hasn’t seen in a long time, and it causes him to break.

He’s not sure what it is that makes him say it. He’s not sure if it’s the heaviness of guilt, or the friendliness of Blaine’s demeanor, or the fact that all of this nostalgia is causing him to reflect on his life’s choices - but he can’t help but let the words stumble out. “Blaine, I’m so sorry.”

Blaine looks at him, genuinely confused. “For what?

“For a lot of things, I feel like I owe you an apology for so many things,” Kurt rambles on. “I was not in a good place and you… I shouldn’t have ended it. I mean I shouldn’t have ended it the way that I did. I shouldn’t have hurt you like that. And I’m sorry that I did.”

Blaine takes a moment to think it over, as if he’s processing everything Kurt’s saying. “Kurt…” he lets out a sigh. “You weren’t the only one who was a mess back then. You don’t have anything to be sorry about. We had a good thing. We had a great thing, even. But it’s fine. It’s all in the past, and I’m fine.”

Kurt feels a bit of relief wash over him. Maybe this is why he needed to come back. Maybe he had just needed to bury his demons. He feels lighter than he has in, well, a while. He reaches out for Blaine’s hand and squeezes it. It feels comforting in his own.

“Look at us now, all grown up,” Kurt says, a smile sliding across his face. “I mean, you’re married and I’m…”

“Kurt?”

“Yeah?”

“It’s an open marriage.”

Blaine places his free hand just above Kurt’s knee and squeezes, ever so lightly, he holds it there, stroking his thumb along the side of his thigh. It’s an invitation. His cock gets there first, as he watches Blaine’s hand, firm and strong. His brain becomes fuzzy, but all he can fixate on is the urge to have Blaine’s hand travel up. This is closure, right?

“Come with me,” Kurt makes the quick decision not to second guess this. He grabs onto Blaine’s hand with purpose, sliding off the stool and taking Blaine with him. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Blaine smirk as he throws out a few bills on the counter to pay for the drinks.

***

They’re in the bathroom stall, where Kurt vaguely remembers making out once back at the end of his senior year. They never would have done anything as daring as have sex in a public place, but just kissing, even in a place that accepted it, felt naughty and fun back then.

Now, he couldn’t care less that there are people who might know what they’re doing. His desire is too strong, his brain clouded in a haze of need to taste Blaine again; the wonder of if it will feel so good after so long. The room is broken up into stalls, dimly lit, and smells as if they are the next in a long line of gay men who will use this place to relieve themselves in more ways than one. Kurt pulls Blaine back to the farthest stall, ignoring that there’s another couple occupying another stall, the panting sounds of their fucking echoing in the room. It only turns him on more.

Once the stall door is locked, Blaine looks at Kurt, his large, dark eyes more sure than Kurt is about this. It almost throws him off kilter but Kurt looks to Blaine’s mouth, and suddenly he remembers all the things that can be done with it. His resolve broken, Kurt lunges for a kiss.

Blaine kisses back with force, pushing Kurt back into the wall. Kurt doesn’t even care that the metal bar for handicap use is pressing against the back of his thighs. He just wants to feel Blaine. They kiss deeply, wantonly. His sense memory returns and suddenly he feels like a teenager again, hungry for Blaine back when he had been first discovering what sex is. Kurt moans into the kiss that encourages Blaine to slide his tongue against Kurt’s.

They’re all hands and mouths, wrapping themselves around each other as they make-out. Kurt wraps his arms around Blaine’s neck, combing his fingers through Blaine’s curls as he pulls Blaine closer to him, enough so that their bodies are sliding against each other. Blaine brings his hands down to Kurt’s ass and squeezes with both hands. Fuck. He doesn’t remember the last time he’s gotten so hard so fast.

They begin to rock against each other as they kiss. Kurt can feel Blaine’s hard cock pushing up against his own. If they keep going at this speed, he is not going to last long, and dammit, he refuses to come in his pants.

Kurt breaks the kiss, only for Blaine to start kissing along his jaw and down his neck, Blaine’s touch is electric, and Kurt can’t help but feel dizzy with pleasure. He loses himself in Blaine’s embrace, soaking up the feeling as much as he can. It’s been fifteen years since they’ve fucked - how can this possibly feel so good?

Blaine works his way back up to Kurt’s mouth, though this time, Kurt is able to slow it down. Kurt busies his hands with the buttons on Blaine’s pants. Blaine takes a slight step back, allowing for Kurt to pull him out. Kurt takes a quick second to look down at Blaine’s cock; his thick and delicious cock. If only they weren’t in a bathroom stall right now, Kurt would take his time devouring that cock. Instead, he takes to stroking it, becoming satisfied with the low moans and grunts that are eliciting Blaine’s mouth.

Blaine steadies himself against the wall, as he begins to pump his hips in time with Kurt’s strokes, fucking himself into Kurt’s hand. “Let me,” Kurt says, in a low whisper, biting gently at Blaine’s lips before they fall into a sloppy kiss. Blaine is close - he knows Blaine is close, he can feel it as Blaine arches further into his hand. Kurt speeds up his hand, deliberate in his strokes. It’s a little rough, but Blaine becomes more and more undone, uttering little obscenities as he closes eyes and allows himself the pleasure. Blaine comes, jolting into Kurt’s hand, and lets out a moan that Kurt covers with a kiss.

“Give me a second,” Blaine says, breathlessly, holding firmly against the wall as he comes down.

Kurt smirks, licking the come off his fingers. His own cock is throbbing with need but there’s something incredibly satisfying seeing Blaine loose and fucked out.

Blaine takes a second to put himself back in his pants and then goes down on his knees. This isn’t at all what Kurt had been expecting, and his eyes go wide as Blaine sucks a kiss over Kurt’s clothed cock.

“You really don’t have to do that,” Kurt says, feeling a little guilty. Blaine’s legs are sticking out of the stall door and anyone could interrupt them.

“Shut up and let me blow you, Kurt,” Blaine says, a wicked grin on his face as he unzips Kurt’s zipper. Kurt’s cock bobs free, and like a man allowed to drink water after years in the desert, Blaine sucks Kurt all the way down in one go.

“Jesus, fuck Blaine.” He really doesn’t care if there’s anyone else in there who can hear them. Blaine had always been good at blow jobs; always so eager to give them, and Kurt’s glad to know that Blaine’s enthusiasm hasn’t changed. Blaine sucks him down, greedily, and he loses himself in the sensation of Blaine’s velvety mouth on him.

“I’m curious about something,” Blaine says, pulling off. Kurt can’t imagine what, but he doesn’t have to wait long to find out. Blaine begins to stroke him, slowly, drawing it out. Then sucks a kiss to the tip of Kurt’s cock, using his tongue to swirl and tease it, before he sucks him down once more. Kurt lets out a heavy groan as his knees nearly buckle. “Huh. So that really still does things for you?”

Kurt can’t help but give a little laugh. “Shut up and finish me off, Blaine,” Kurt manages the tease despite him now being desperate to come.

Amused, Blaine obliges, sucking Kurt into his mouth again. Kurt closes his eyes, taking it all in as he lets Blaine take him over the edge. He spills into Blaine’s mouth, Blaine being able to swallow with ease -- something, he notes, Blaine hadn’t been able to do before. As Blaine pulls off, he licks his lips, and remains on his knees for a long moment.

The atmosphere then shifts suddenly. Blaine looks down for a long while, and Kurt can’t tell what Blaine’s feeling -- Guilt? Sadness? Regret?

“Thank you for that,” Blaine says, his sincerity layered with something that feels like finality. Blaine gives Kurt’s hip a kiss before helping put Kurt back into his jeans. There’s something strangely intimate about it, and despite the fact that Kurt is feeling blissed out from his orgasm it’s now tinged with a heavier, unknown feeling. Blaine gets to his feet. There’s a lot going on behind his eyes that Kurt can’t read, but Blaine says nothing, only gives Kurt a soft kiss on the lips. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Blaine leaves the stall but Kurt stays, unsure what to make of everything that happened. A lot just happened. A lot. And as the buzz of sex begins to wear off, a sickening gnawing grows in his stomach. He just had sex with his ex-fiancé whom he hasn’t seen in years. He just cheated on his boyfriend. But what makes Kurt feel the worst, as he slides down the wall to sit on the sticky floor because his legs can no longer hold him, is the realization that for Blaine - that might have been his way of saying goodbye.

#s.o. writes things #head over feet #klaine #klaine fic

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pumpkinpot · 3 years

Text

Hoshi

A/N: this is part of the Citrus Dome Sci-Fi collab. this is also pure fluff. no smut, no real angst. just spooky summer vibes and poly love. I hope you enjoy. (I’m sorry for grammatical errors in advance.)

synopsis: since beginning your relationship with Katsuki Bakugou and Ochako Uraraka you’ve developed a love for exploring abandon places with them whenever you three have time to explore. This time, so happens to land on a derelict observatory. (additional head canons for this story on my tik tok under pumpkinpots)

“It says here it was abandoned in the mid-nineteenth century due to the spike in light pollution with the growth of the city,” you say, pointing to the dome at the peak of the building. “All of the mobile telescopes were transferred to the university's observatory, while this placed rotted away.

Uraraka half listens, levitating sheetrock from the doorway and discarding them in the nearby field.

“Why just abandon it?” Katsuki asks, fiddling with varying lenses in his camera bag. “Couldn’t this have been a museum or something?”

“Yeah,” you agree, shifting a glance to make sure Uraraka doesn’t need help. “It looks like it was bought by a merchant in the eighties who wanted to turn it into a house, but he was indicted for tax evasion before the renovations ever finished. It hasn’t been touched since.”

He scoffs with an exaggerated roll of his eyes. “Rich idiots.”

Uraraka brushes specks of dust off her palms across her cut-off shorts before urging us alone. “Shall we?”

It takes two and a half pushes to nudge the door wide enough to squeeze through. The observatory opens to us with a groan of whining metal and the scratch of loose dirt on concrete.

Centered in the main foyer, a gaping mural of blue and white cobblestone depicts a dusty map of astrology stars.

Katsuki has to be coaxed with a promise to be flashed to pose under the Taurus constellation for a picture, meanwhile, Uraraka floats just above Pisces with a cute puffy cheeked expression.

Names, small sayings, and symbols decorate the wall in vibrant graffiti, the place a cocktail of color and wild Ivy.

"It's a lot more lit than I thought I'd be," Uraraka says, stuffing her flashlight into her bag.

Katuski keeps the light attached to his camera lit as he weaves in and out of rooms, zooming in on old books and broken equipment.

We follow him through a puzzle of what seemed to be living quarters and small classrooms, ending in a half oval auditorium.

At the center of the stage a white globe balances on a pillar of cement.

“What’s this?” Uraraka asks.

You touch where someone had attempted to derail the sphere like a baseball before trailing your eyes above the layered seating. “It's a projector ball. Technicians would likely project light from there into the ball to make it seem like the planet or star they were studying. That's why it's,” you knock on the sphere's cool solid surface. “Crystal.”

Uraraka shines her phone’s light into it, the shattered pieces reflecting shapes in a dim glow.

Katsuki points the camera into the orb, the bluish tint reminds you of the similar one in the abandoned lighthouse you’d explored with them two years ago. Though that one would have lit from the inside.

Quickly you explore the base and second levels, eager to get to the actual observatory. It's evident where the renovations to make this a home had been started and never finished. Small cracks in the floor, sealed with caulk, loose wooden planks pillaring knocked in walls.

It could have been a beautiful home, you think to yourself.

Up the second flight of stairs gradually more and more light fills the space until you are bathed in the orange glow of early dusk. A large open scare slits the dome, edging with rust and ivy. The circular room holds nothing of true value, nothing left behind but broken tables and a ladder to the viewing balcony tailing the opening of the dome.

“The big telescope that would have been here-” Uraraka says, fiddling with the screw holes in the floor, “- would have been a refracting telescope. It uses small bits of glass to magnify what you’re looking at, then is bent back through the telescope hitting the eyepiece. The other kind is a reflector,” she continues, “It's got a primary mirror at the bottom of the lens into a second mirror than a third eyepiece mirror. This one is mostly used to see the different parts of a star to see what it's made out of.”

Katsuki and you exchange looks of pure astonishment. "how do you know all this?" you ask.

She fishes a gum wrapper from one of the holes, tossing it to the side. “Before I was accepted into UA I was really considering going into astronomy. I thought it fit so well with my quirk, but the courses were too expensive.”

"More expensive than UA?" Katuski asks, refocusing his camera.

She nods, seeming just as dumbfounded as us.

“Do you think it could work on my explosions?”

“If you were in space maybe,” you hypothesize, “but in that case, we probably wouldn’t see it for a long while.”

He seems semi disappointed as if his evening plans had been somehow derailed.

You run your hands across the walls of the dome, dusk sun baking its metal frame like a soup pot.

For a moment you just watch them. It’d been so long since the opportunity arose for the three of you to go exploring. With you still temporarily stationed in the American hero commission and those two workings in Japan it was rare to find time to skype let alone go on adventures. You were lost in the bliss of having your partners so near without having to scream about a lost wifi connection when your hand hit something protruding from the wall.

“What are these?” you ask, inspecting circular gears attached to a crank.

“It looks like the wheel to turn the dome,” Uraraka says.

Katsuki zooms in on the puzzle of rigid plates. “This bitch turns?”

“Yeah, that slit doesn't move so the dome has to, to accommodate where in the sky they were looking.”

Katsuki fingers the gears a moment, mapping its track all across the sphere. He traces along the parts not layered in rust until he’s back at the start. “Do you think it still works?”

“Not without some serious lube and strong arms.”

“We’re one for two,” you suggest.

Katsuki hands over his camera to Uraraka, positioning himself opposite you to push the lever, while you pull left.

At first, the dial stays put, its stance unforgiving, but after a bit more pull than push a deafening whine reverberating through the entire observatory.

No visible move happens until the second crank roundabout when the shift of light against concrete becomes clear.

Katsuki’s eyes light with sheer amazement as the entire dome rotates around you. We are halfway through a full rotation before Uraraka shouts for you to stop.

You push on the lever stilling its movements as quickly as you can.

She holds a finger head tilted to the side. “Do you hear that?”

Your breath balloons in your chest as you lean in closer. The tiniest of whimpers echo around the dome from the viewing balcony.

One after another you file up the ladder, hopping on the edge of the dome. Balancing on the concrete crease between the moving track and the rest of the building you search for the sound.

“Here!” Uraraka yells from the other side.

You sprint as much as you dare, teetering along the two-story edge.

She squats over the body of a squirming animal, a tuft of fur caught in the track of the dome's rotation. She coddles its little frame, before reaching a hand out to you. “Y/n, your knife-”

Hesitantly you hand it over. She snips away the stuck pieces muttering thanks that none of the actual tail got caught. She folds the blade back into itself, pinching leaves and sticks from the animal's fur and tossing them over the side.

She holds it up, floppy ears and a black nose making it a nearly recognizable creature. A puppy.

He looks to be light brown, but that could be the soot.

Katsuki checks around the dome for any signs of a litter or mamma, before joining us with a shake of his head.

The pup squirms and with an open mouth, letting all sorts of noises tumble from his dirt-covered tongue.

Uraraka floats the puppy to the floor of the dome, as we file down the ladder. You empty the contents of your water bottle into a cup for drinking and the rest onto its back for cooling.

His fur peaks through white and brown spotted under layers of grime.

“Well,” Uraraka says, “we’ve been talking about wanting to expand our family.”

“I suppose there’s no better place to start,” you add, both of us looking to Katsuki for consensus.

He passes glances between the three of us. “Fine, but I get to name it.”

“Alright, but we get veto power.”

“Explosion-”

“Veto,” you say in unison.

He looks around puffy-lipped. “I didn't even get to finish.”

“Explosion nothing,” Uraraka clarifies.

He’s silent for a long moment looking around the space. “Hoshi?.”

“Star?” you confirm.

“This observatory was used to study the stars, wasn’t it?” He bats.

You and Uraraka exchange a satisfied, yet surprised look. You hadn’t expected something so- normal. This is after all the same man that made you name your golden pothos “boom boom boi” in his honor.

“I like it,” you say.

“Approved,” adds Uraraka.

We better take our picture before it gets too dark,” he says, turning away so you can’t see the blush on his cheeks. He switches out his filming camera for a smaller polaroid, propping it up on the edge of a broken table.

He runs back as the timer ticks down. He slides to your right side, Uraraka on your left. Their arms link behind you as you hold Hoshi up to your mid-chest. Clicking down from five you all give your cheesiest grins. A rectangular card spits from the bottom of the camera.

Ochaco shakes it a few times, swapping you a picture, for a puppy.

You wait for the picture to pixelate before opening the ninety-cent notebook of film slips and position it in the next available spot.

Urarka’s cut-off shorts and Katsuki's tanned shoulders are a stark contrast to the puffy blue coat and chunky knit beanie from the last abandoned mansion expedition last time. Before that, the three of us accidentally matched our windbreakers to Midoryia during a tour of The Ghost Candy Shop in Kyoto. We look like a group of tourists.

The small book seemed to be filling quickly despite the rareness of time to get away. Memories pile up from when it was just Uraraka and Katsuki to when you became a staple to their adventures. They’d given you responsibility for the book to garner your importance to them in their relationship until the reasoning for the gift became nothing more than routine. You were theirs, and they were yours.

Now a new member had sprouted in your little family, and if you squinted, you could imagine the rest of the pages being filled with the pup in aged years to maybe more as time goes on.

Right now, you were happy with the three and a half of you.

#bakugou x reader #uraraka x reader #bakugou x uraraka #ochako x reader #mha x reader #bakugou fluff #bakugou x y/n #Uraraka fluff #mha fluff

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seriouslysam8 · 3 years

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Hello, Sam!

I have just started reading your series Moments in Time that I saw Breanie recommended and I must say, it is absolutely wonderful so far!

Croup: This was not at all what I expected! I stumbled across this universe recommended on Breanie’s tumblr and thought I better start in order. PUH-Tunia really is a bitch! You can just see the abuse already inflicted on him and he’s only three! The mental anguish of a three year old being told he can’t have nice things because he breaks them can’t have been good for poor Harry! No wonder’s so unsure of everything later on. Yelling at him because he’s sick like it’s his fault! Im surprised she even gave him medicine! Wanting him to sleep outside in the “frigid air” and only deciding not to because the neighbours might see really says a lot about her personality. Ive never read anything from Petunia’s point of view before but well done. I hate her even more than before. I look forward to following this new adventure that is your moments in time universe. Great read!

The Boggart of Grimmauld Place: This was just so heartwarming! Harry getting to spend even a little time with Remus and Sirius at Grimmauld Place was what was missing from canon. Memories of his grandparents, learning about them. It was just lovely! When Harry is ashamed of wanting Sirius to embrace him a little longer my heart ached for that poor boy who never got to feel real hugs and affection. He thinks he should be ashamed for wanting to feel it and he shouldnt! I blame for petunia for that. I meant to say that in Croup how she touched his forehead to check for a fever and he flinched like he’d been expecting her to hit him. Poor poor little Harry. I love how you play on the connection here between Harry and Sirius and even parallel it to the Potters and Weasleys. Harry being surprised that he would be in Sirius’ will at all. Harry just being surprised that people care about him. Makes me want to just give him a hug! What abeautiful story! Thank you.

Hide and Seek: This was so fun! I love the thought of them all playing hide and seek in Grimmauld Place and everyone joining in! Remus and Tonks making out in the cupboard was the best! It was definitely my favourite part and Sirius just teasing them! Hermione thinking something happened between Harry and Ginny. I loved how Harry opened up a little to Ginny. You could see he was actually really comfortable with her in a way he’s not with people. Absently massaging her wrist, touching her. He was caught up in her without realizing he was caught up in her. Adorable! The second addition was wonderful! I love how Ginny just took control, loosening his tie, taking off his jumper… they are the superior couple! While I am a tad disappointed to not see them making out at the end, I loved this story. Thank you.

Seventeen: Wow! This was a story I didn’t know I needed. Harry and Ron lovingly admitting they’re brothers warms my soul. I love that touch of giving them matching watches! Was that canon? If not it should be. Mrs weasley feeling guilty over Sirius is so like her. She loves and cares for Harry as if he’s her own son and it’s wonderful to see. The last bit with Ginny was perfect! They definitely had to do more than the uninterrupted kiss and I love how Harry just basked in her. The end made me so sad! His heart breaking over missing her birthday, lost opportunities. Very beautifully done! These one-shots are amazing and I look forward to reading more of them. Thank you.

The Demise of Walburga Black: This was absolutely amazing! The image you crafted of them laughing like lunatics as they destroyed her portrait was awesome! What I like most so far about your writing is how you gently weave in Harry’s relationship with the Weasleys. I love the idea of George moving in with him and Ron, that Harry would offer his home to him like that. I love that Harry goes to Mr Weasley for renovation advice. I think its so hot that Harry would renovate the Muggle way (so sexy to see men in a tool belt and I’m going to assume he’s shirtless and sweaty). I love that it was Angelina’s idea and how you casually had Ron toss in that George and Angelina were already sleeping together. George not really being drunk, is that because he drank a lot to cope with Fred’s death? I think it is. Harry’s reaction to being caught by Mrs Weasley, how his guilt eases into pleasure that Mrs Weasley would call both himself and Ron George’s “younger brothers” and his glee in being lectured by her in a motherly fashion. And dont even get me started on the scene with Ginny! The way he gushed on his drunken ramblings about making a home with her and wanting to raise a family and her not wanting to get her hopes up because he’s so drunk! I laughed out loud when Harry said that drunk Harry wants to do dirtier things with her or something like that. Just wonderful all around! Where’s Teddy in this story? I know he lives with Andromeda in canon but I thought I read that you have Harry raising him. Ah well, maybe the next tale will answer that question! Thank you.

That’s all I’ve had time to read so far, but I just wanted to say thank you for writing such a rich and vast universe! I can definitely see why Breanie recommends you so much! I have a few questions if you don’t mind.

1) What made you decide to write a story about Harry’s early childhood from the point of view of Petunia instead of Harry?

2) Do you think Petunia and Vernon physically abused Harry when he was little? It’s fairly obvious he had psychological abuse, but do you think there was more?

3) Do you think Ron and Hermione knew Harry had never played childish games like hide and seek as a child? Do you think the others knew and that’s why they all agreed to join in?

4) When do you think Harry actually started to notice Ginny? Was it in his fifth year and he just didn’t realize or do you think it was later? There is the scene where she puts him in his place over the possession bit and of course when they get kicked out of the library together. What are your thoughts?

5) Was it canon that Ron and Harry have the watches of Mrs Weasley’s brothers?

6) Do you believe George could handle his alcohol better because of his age or were you insinuating he had become accustomed to the drink after losing Fred?

7) Where is Teddy when Harry lives at Grimmauld Place? From the summaries of your stories I got the impression Harry raised him. But I haven’t read any further so I may be wrong.

Sorry for so many questions, but I am curious. I look forward to reading more. Thank you for your time. You’re amazing and I love your work! Thank you.

I have been following your review journey and getting more and more excited the further you get into the universe!! I am going to try my damndest to answer all these asks you’ve sent today but I have an incredibly busy weekend, so it may take me a little bit to answer them all especially if you’re asking specific questions since I won’t have access to my computer a lot. So, I will answer all your asks, but give me the weekend because I want to give you the best and most detailed answers I can!

1.) Honestly, Croup and Brontide (I promise, no spoilers) are the reason I started this as a series. I mentioned Harry had croup a lot as a child in Brontide and then wanted to write a companion piece. I thought, what better way to demonstrate Harry’s childhood then telling a story through Petunia’s POv because she’s absolutely horrible. Plus, I didn’t think I could get into the mindset of any other POV for that story.

2.) I definitely think there was physical abuse as well. It’s indicated in the books (Harry knowing to dodge away from a frying pan or something). So, I do feel they did physically abuse him as well. He has a few scars to show from it.

3.) No, I don’t think they knew. Maybe some suspected it but not know. I think everyone was just sick of cleaning Grimmauld Place and wanted to do something fun. It didn’t matter it was a child’s game. They just wanted something to do.

4.) I think he started to like Ginny as a friend in fifth year. I think he started to notice her as someone more than just Ron’s little sister. I don’t even think he noticed how he felt comfortable around her in fifth year either. I like to think all the dots started to connect earlier than 6th year but Harry just didn’t know what it all meant. Then 6th year come and he’s like crap… I really her! But it was building, unknowingly, to Harry before then. Ginny had been slowly forming into her own person in Harry’s mind and he felt comfortable and liked what he saw. He just didn’t connect it romantically at that time.

5.) No, the watches isn’t canon. I wish it was though. Honestly, when I wrote it, I totally forgot they mentioned Ron getting a brand new watch in canon until months after I wrote the story.

6.) George was a bit of an alcoholic after the war. It’s mentioned more in-depth in Brontide. But he definitely held his alcohol better because he has been spiraling into alcohol abuse for months by that point.

7.) So, again it’s mentioned in Brontide, but Teddy lived with Andromeda for the first year of his life before Harry gained custody of him. Andromeda didn’t feel comfortable with Harry raising Teddy at first. Once she got to know him and see how much Harry cared for Teddy, she handed over custody to Harry so that Teddy could live a more normal life and have parents and siblings.

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friendofhayley · 3 years

Photo

I’m back after my hiatus from fanfiction, to give y’all the best multifandom recs of the fics I read this month. Shoutout to all content creators who helped us live to see the close of this year. This fic includes 15 fics for Sterek, Larry, Winteriron, and Geraskier. The starred ones put me through heaven and hell *chef’s kiss*.

Sterek (Teen Wolf)

1. Six Letter Word for Romance by @troubleiwant | domestic kink - omg there’s only one bed - soft Derek - oblivious idiots in love - 6k

Stiles definitely starts off thinking it’s fucking hilarious that Derek-sourwolf-Hale does crosswords and cares about scuffs on his furniture.

But at a certain point, and he can’t pinpoint exactly when, “fully functional adult couple” somehow becomes a massive fetish of his. Derek in sweats and bare feet, nudging his glasses up his nose while he does the Sunday crossword? Unff. Derek filling out forms to get some renovations on his property approved? Oh God, yes. Derek putting away groceries and bitching that the corner store was out of the right type of Greek yogurt? Take me now, Stiles thinks, worrying at his lower lip with his teeth.

This can’t be normal.

2. *Dirty Little Secret* by @isthatbloodonhisshirt | Cora & Stiles bffs - no one can resist the Stilinski charm - celebrity Derek - human au - 91k

“Holy shit, this is a date!” he blurted out, turning back to Derek wide-eyed. “This is a date! You intended for this to be a date, this was supposed to be a date!” He figured if he said it enough times, maybe he would believe it, but so far, no dice.

Derek was scowling again—seriously, did he want wrinkles?—but he just reached into one of the bags and pulled out a burger, checking what was written on the foil in sharpie before handing it over to Stiles.

“Of course it’s a date, what did you think this was?”

3. Can You Feel A Whole New Part of Your World? by @isthatbloodonhisshirt | i genuinely don’t look at authors names i just click i am sorry for spamming you but you write too good - neighbors Sterek - emotionally mature Stiles - the ideal fluffy world you’d want to live in - 53k

Can you hear me singing in the shower?” Stiles blurted out, because he had to know, now. If one of his neighbours had slid that note under his door, then it meant Parrish as another neighbour could hear him, too! He had to know if this was all a huge joke and one person had walked by and overheard him and decided to fuck with him.

Parrish gave him a weird look at the question, but answered anyway, making Stiles’ plans to leave the country speed up in his mind.

“Of course I can. You’re actually not bad. Though you have been singing a lot of Frozen lately, getting kind of tired of the soundtrack.”

4. Theory of Overprotective Canines by @petals42 | derek can turn into wolf - oblivious Stiles - future fic - mutual pining - 11k

Stiles is totally looking forward to living alone in his super cool apartment off-campus. He is. He is also very excited to bike to school every day, ready to set up an awesome game room, and definitely over his crush on Derek Hale. Completely over it.

Or at least he is until Derek decides he's moving in with him. And then turns out to be the perfect roommate. And then starts attending all his classes. As a wolf.

This is not going according to plan.

Larry (One Direction)

5. **The Changer and the Changed** by @homosociallyyours | literally the best fic of all time i want to live in there - girl direction - NYC ‘70s au - trans Zayn - the girls are so lovely - 59k

It’s the spring of 1977 and Harry Styles has just moved to New York City after graduating college. She knows she’s a lesbian. She just needs to figure out how to meet other lesbians.

Louis Tomlinson works at a popular women’s bookstore in the Lower East Side, Womon’s Direction, where she spends her days reading feminist literature, writing poetry, exchanging friendly barbs with her boss Niall, and dreaming of finding someone to love.

When Harry and Louis meet, their connection is instantaneous. Slowly but surely, Louis welcomes Harry into her community of women. Stonewall veteran and old school butch Niall; Liam, a land dyke who’s moved to the city for love; and Zayn, a lesbian musician who’s been ostracized by a vocal part of women’s community for being trans, welcome Harry with open arms, ready to help her find her place in New York City’s bustling lesbian scene.

6. others i’ve seen might never be mean (but they would never do) by @cherrylouvol6 | aaaaaaaa it’s lesbian When Harry Met Sally !!! - rom com - girl direction - coming out and first times - really great sex - 20k

Louis sighs.

“Do you remember what I said to you the first time we met?”

“That I’m naive and neurotic and would be hard pressed to ever find someone who could put up with me?” Harry snaps.

7. some things fade (some never do) by @so-why-let-your-voice-be-tamed | aaaaaa this story took me apart and back together again just like Louis and Harry - urban fantasy au - second chances - exes to friends to lovers - hurt/comfort - 25k

Matching tattoos. He’d never thought he’d be the type for tattoos to begin with, let alone matching or magical ones, but once Harry had put the idea in his mind it had never quite managed to disappear. And it had made sense. With their relationship a long distance one, this was simply another way of feeling close to one another. Of knowing where the other was, how they felt. It had made so much sense.

Back then.

8. we can take the long way home by @eleadore | i usually don’t rec my porn but there’s so much feels in this one - canon-divergent - kink discovery - friends to lovers - this was written in 2015 as a future fic but it felt like it was taking place now so good job - 27k

“Fertile,” Louis says, and then laughs because it sounds stupid to say out loud. He hasn’t ever really thought of himself in those terms. Baby-making terms. It’s just one of those things his body can do, like exercise, or go without tea. Doesn’t mean he will.

Winteriron (MCU)

9. **Dig No Graves** by @missaphelion | Tony finds out about his parents right after winter soldier au - Tony Stark has a heart - Bucky heals with bots and lots of sugar - slow burn - 142k

"I'm here to kill you, Terminator," Tony said slowly, "does that compute?"

The soldier looked up at him with wide blue eyes and no expression. "Okay."

Tony froze. "Okay," he echoed. "I tell you I came here to kill you and your response is 'okay'?"

10. A Rifling Matter by Penndragon27 | Winter Soldier has such a big crush on Tony’s weapons, he escapes Hydra au - identity porn - pining Bucky - fluff and angst - Winter Soldier is a fanboy and it’s cute - 37k

All the Asset knows is fighting, killing.

He also knows a good weapon when he sees one and Stark Industries... they make some great weapons.

11. *Winter is Coming (aka Fifty First Avengers Dates)* by @tisfan & @everyworldneedslove | enemies to friends to lovers to 50 first dates - pining Bucky - Tony gets amnesia - no Steve bashing but he’s a little bit of an ass - mental health issues - 109k

Bucky Barnes is still mostly The Asset, and he's pretty sure Hydra is going to come back for him soon, so in the meantime he's just going to keep an eye on the Avengers for them. But then Clint spotted him hiding in the shadows, so Tony came out and dragged Bucky back to the Tower, threw him in the shower, and fed him cheeseburgers.

Now The Asset is having anomalous feelings. In his pants.

Geraskier (The Witcher)

12. *no reason to run* by @yoursummerfrost | different meeting au - only one bed but camping - cursed Jaskier - soft Geralt!!!! - poly negotiations - 61k

"You'll change your mind one day," says the innkeep. "The road can't love you back."

What a strange way to flatten something so beautiful, Jaskier thinks. What a small way to love.

13. *He Fell into a Faerie Ring* by @geraltnoises | Jaskier gets bardnapped after the fight au - non-human Jaskier - soft Geralt - Jaskier encourages people to be kind and becomes a god - emotionally mature Geralt - 57k

Traders are a gossiping sort. If there was a scandal within the noble houses of Posada, you’d hear about it in Cretegor by the end of the week. So, the quick spread of a rumor about a little village in the Kestrel Mountain range was not at all surprising. What was surprising was the story that the traders wove. They said that Luibhtorrach, a sad, ghost of a farming town, had miraculously become a hub for trade, as if overnight. Their lands unbelievably fertile and brimming with crop. Even stranger, each and every one of Luibhtorrach’s people professed that their good fortune was the work of a mysterious beast they’d claimed as their personal deity. Most recent news foretold of their plans to throw a midsummer festival celebrating this newfound god. In preparation, silken blue banners were erected in every corner of the town, each bearing the symbol of their new patron: A delicate dandelion wrapping around a golden sun.

14. Barking Up the Wrong Tree by KHansen | 5+1 things - I’m worried about Geralt’s skills - non-human Jaskier - monsterfucker Geralt - crack treated seriously - 11k

Geralt is 100% certain that Jaskier is a vampire.

He's 100% proven wrong.

15. Bardic Idyll by Lisztful | fake relationship - Geralt is soft and oblivious - pining - fluff and angst - Jaskier you can’t show your emotions mainly through song! - 13k

Jaskier is certain he can win the Continent's annual bardic competition, but he needs to be accompanied by a dashing romantic companion in order to enter. Enter Geralt, who is definitely, for sure, only interested in the free food, and not at all in staring lovingly into Jaskier's eyes.

#monthly fic rec #fic rec #sterek fic rec #larry fic rec #winteriron #geraskier #larrie hijinks #witcher #mcu

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maevesdarling · 3 years

Text

Take me home tonight

Sooo, I decided to post chapter 1 of the story @unicorn-cloud and I have been cooking up for a while. This plays post series in an alternative universe. There’s mentions of gore and canon typical violence in both this and the second chapter, basically Walt is not dealing with things as good as he thought... I’m not sure how many chapters this story will have, probably around 3 to 4, also please be kind to me it’s been a long time since I uploaded my works to Tumblr, thx!

Chapter 1: The Call

Later, after he put his gun and badge down and moves further away from the border, Walt gets a call from an unknown number. He contemplates not picking up. It's been years since Kiki's death and operation Leyenda. He thinks, for a moment, that it could be Miguel Angel, calling him from his jail cell to taunt him, but no, he's not important enough to that man and besides, Miguel Angel doesn't wield as much power as he used to.

There are others. New players in this fucked up game, Walt knows that. He saw them rising on the horizon like a looming thunderstorm, ready to destroy the earth in it's path. But for now, he decided to enjoy his peace. His back's been bothering him more as of lately and he's got a few more grey hairs. He quit smoking about a year ago, after his doctor told him to do so. He's had a few setbacks since then, a half finished pack is always hidden underneath his kitchen sink, just in case he needs a fix. But overall, he's trying to stay away from the cigarettes and eat more healthy, even though the microwavable dinners at the supermarket look damn tempting, especially since it's only himself he's cooking for.

He's up in Colorado these days. The DEA was kind enough to leave him with a nice sum of retirement money, probably to shut him up after all the shit he pulled of during his career and to be fair he doesn't blame them.

He buys a nice enough house on the outskirts of town, with some additional property, a rundown barn and an old apple tree orchard that he has no plan on using. The weather's less hot, and there's a few lakes where he can fish, but otherwise, it's pretty much like any other town he's lived in. The dark red sandstones dotting the farmland remind him of Mexico. Of sitting in the hot sun and watching a small airfield in the distance, with a pair of binoculars in his hand. Sal's voice next to him asking about their next move. It's nostalgic in a way.

The first day, after he finished dropping off his stuff in the small, rundown house, he sets off to drive around, get familiar with the place. He finds a shabby bar, a small supermarket, a post office, a family owned diner and a few farms, with cows and hundreds of chickens roaming the surrounding fields, that sell local products. Over time, he ventures out further and discovers some more bars, supermarkets and, to his surprise, a gay club.

It's well hidden, two cities over, wedged between an antique bookstore and a barbershop. It looks nothing like a club from outside, and from the inside, it's hardly distinguishable from any other bar Walt has ever set foot in. But he knows where to look, it's something you learn over time.

The first time he orders a drink, his eyes fall on a guy sitting on the other end of the bar. Dark hair and dark eyes, with a bristly moustache. He's wearing a black cowboy hat and a jeans jacket, it's not what he would have worn. Plus he only looks a slight bit like Sal, his face is much older, more weathered from years of hard work in the sun, but it's enough for Walt to give in to his yearning.

He buys Not-Sal a drink and they fall into an easy chatter. Two hours later, Walt is driving him back to his house. Not-Sal is more experienced than Walt had thought when he starts undressing him with steady hands, his fingers touching in all the right places, he's already prepared, as if he'd been expecting this to happen, and doesn't mind it when Walt accidentally let's Sal's name slip at the height of his pleasure.

They lie together afterwards, sharing a cigarette between them, neither of them ready to leave yet. Walt is slowly falling asleep to the feeling of another person combing their hands through his hair. When he wakes up the next morning, the house is empty. There's a note on his kitchen table, a short thank you message, that's it. Next time he's at the club, Not-Sal is gone. He finds someone else. A different man, with dark hair, dark eyes and a friendly face, and then another and another. Some of the men he brings over are kind, they'll stay the night and sometimes even the morning, to share a quick meal with him before they move on, others leave almost immediately after they finish. Some of them yell out Walt's name as they come, others don't. And some yell out another man's name, but that's okay because so is Walt.

He's careful with the company he keeps. Always making sure that no one sees him leaving the club with another man, driving different routes back home and of course he's always stocking up on enough condoms because he's not stupid, he knows how important protection is.

Even though he's had a few men over, none of them return for longer than a couple of times. Its fun, to fill the mornings with senseless chatter, and to fall asleep in another person's arms. But they're not Sal.

He's longing for him. Even after all those years he's still longing for him. It's been three, almost four years since he last heard from Sal. He was moving to San Francisco. The DEA wanted someone new up there and Sal was growing tired of the shit hole they had placed him in after Mexico. They had called each other almost everyday, sometimes they would even meet each other, for a quick chat and an even quicker fuck. There was never enough time.

Sal wanted to call him back, he promised, once he was in San Francisco, to call him every day. Write a postcard. But nothing came. The telephone was silent for two whole months and Walt was desperate. First, he checked the newspapers for any missing or recently deceased people, when that search came up empty, he started to search the phone book for Sal's new address but of course that came up empty as well. He kept buying new phone books, just in case and by now, there was a small bookcase filled with old phone books in his house, and not a single one held an address for Sal Orozco. It was almost like he never exited. Only Walt's memory kept him from going insane. The fading photos on his wall, the one he kept in his wallet, next to a picture of Greg and his family. One of Sal's shirts he forgot in Walt's apartment in Texas, it had long stopped smelling of him, but nevertheless, Walt would pick it up and inhale deeply, thinking that the ghost of Sal's smell was still there, etched into the fabric. He slept with the shirt, on those nights when he woke up drenched in sweat, screaming and with a thundering heart. He wrenched his eyes open but he saw them anyway, Amat, Ossie, Danilo, sometimes even Kiki. He saw them die, he saw their bodies, bruised, burned, riddled with bullets, standing in front of his bed, he could hear them calling out his name. "You killed us, Walt." They'd point at him, blood dripping from their fingertips onto his bedsheets. Those nights were the worst. Sometimes they could only be stopped with an entire bottle of whiskey.

The dreams had gotten better since he found the dog. The dog didn't have a name. He was a stray, with dark, golden fur and dirty white paws. He picked him up on his way home from an unsuccessful night at the club, the dog was covered in ticks and fleas, one eye had been badly bruised and he was tied to a tree by the side of the road. Clearly abandoned. He expected the dog to bark at him, or worse, bite him, when he kneeled down beside him to untie him, but instead, it sat down in front of Walt and started wagging it's tail, as if he'd known Walt all his life. He took the dog in and gave it a bath, making sure that no ticks or fleas survived, before driving him to the vet the next morning to check out his eye. The vet couldn't save it and so Walt decided to take him in, just another broken thing keeping his company.

He put a collar on the dog and called him his, they slept in the same bed and sat on the couch together, watching football games and stupid action movies. The dog went fishing on the lake with him, even though he was no big help in catching the fish, he also liked to run around the orchard and sit on the front porch to sleep, and Walt liked to sit beside him and think, scratching behind his fluffy ears. Sometimes he wondered if Sal liked dogs. What he'd say if he met his dog.

The other animals were intentional. Walt bought a couple of chickens to sell their eggs at the local farm, and to keep himself busy. Then he renovated the old barn as best as he could and bought three goats to sell their meat, but once he saw them in their pen, he decided they weren't going to the slaughter house and kept them for their milk instead. He also fixed up the orchard as best as he could and started collecting the apples. Soon the onslaught of apples was too much for him to handle and so he collected them in a few boxes, along with the chicken eggs and sold them to the nearest farm. Surprisingly, the people around town started knowing him once he started visiting the farm more frequently. He would have regular conversations with some of them and at some point, even started looking forward to see them. He didn't go to the town hall meetings, or to Sunday mass, and the people had been weary of him, but once they saw him with his dog and the boxes of apples in his trunk, they warmed up to him.

He enjoyed his new life. It wasn't luxurious, but that wasn't what he wanted for himself anyway. He was no Miguel Angel. He didn't need a fleet of private planes and a couple of hotels to be happy.

The phone rang again and reminded him of his current situation. The dog had stopped wagging it's tail on the couch beside him and was looking at him with his one eye, almost as if he was saying "what are you waiting for?"

And so Walt picked up the phone, fully expecting Jamie or Ed or someone else from the DEA to yell at him to get his ass back to Mexico.

"Hello... is this Walt Breslin?" The phone slipped from his grasp and fell, he caught it in his suddenly sweaty palms, pressing the shell back against his ear. Three years silence could not erase the memory of that voice. Hushed conversations between them, hiding behind a parked car as they watched over a suspect, a gasp and then a low moan, while Walt kept hitting that one spot inside him, that set Sal's body on fire, a chatty conversation over two mugs of steaming coffee in a diner that ended with both of them laughing hysterically. Walt had enough memories for an entire lifetime with that voice, he would recognize it anywhere.

"Sal-" He breathed, rearranging the phone against his ear.

"Is- Walt is that you? Oh my god- fuck- I found you!" There was a short pause on the other end of the phone and for a moment Walt thought he was imagining things, then Sal's voice returned. "I- I'm sorry, Walt. I'm so sorry-" He sobbed, apologizing over and over.

"Sal- How did you find me? Wh- Are you alright? Is- do you need help?"

"No, no, I'm fine, Walt. I am. I just- fuck- I missed you so much. Where are you? I called you're old address so many times- I thought something happened to you…"

"Shh, I'm okay. I'm in Colorado. Small town near Denver. I'll give you the address… That is… If you want me to…"

"Yes! I mean... yes I want- I want to see you. If that's okay. I need to- need to know you're okay."

He contemplated with himself wether to ask this or not, but in the end, Walt did it anyways. "It's been three years, Sal. Why did you never call? What's changed?" Another sobb from the other end of the line. "I'll tell you. In person. Friday? Is that okay for you?" Walt squinted at his calendar. Friday was in two days, he needed to clean the house, buy some groceries and pack the car for Sunday's apple delivery.

"Yeah, Friday works."

"Alright. I'll see you on Friday… Walt… I missed you."

"… Missed you too Sal."

He put the phone down slowly, feeling like he was still in a dream. The dog had noticed something was off about his behavior and was staring at him in concern. " 's alright bud, I'm just… surprised, is all. We'll meet a friend of mine on Friday. I hope you'll like him…"

Lost in his thoughts, Walt began his evening routine, closing the chicken pen, checking on the goats and refilling the dogs food in case he got hungry during the night, only when the brown cibbles hit the kitchen tiles did he notice his thoughts slipping off. The only thing on his mind was Sal. Sal with his kind face and the warm, dark brown eyes, Sal wrapping an arm around his hips and pulling him closer, Sal whispering into Walt's ear. A hushed love confession neither of them dared to talk about. So, so many memories they shared between them, how was he supposed to wait any longer to see him again?

Friday couldn't come soon enough.

#narcos mexico #walt breslin #sal orozco #My writing #fingers crossed I find the time to finish chapter 2 soon

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dietraumerei · 3 years

Text

Femslash February 8: Blush

AO3 Collection | Thank you to @ineffable-wives-central for the prompt list!

Crowley gives Aziraphale a gift of lingerie. That's it, that's the story.

(This one manages to simultaneously be a deep dive, and...not. It takes place in my Renovations series directly after Experimentation in Being Human, but honestly all you need to know is: roughly canon-verse, they bought a house in the country, Crowley sometimes needs to use mobility aides as she does in this story. Rated Teen (I think? There is mention of genitals but they don't do anything with them.))

“Got you something, angel,” Crowley said, leaning over and kissing Aziraphale. “Little got-well present,” she added, passing over the pretty silver box, all wrapped up in ribbon.

They were back at home in the country, now that Aziraphale's knee was truly all better; it had been a month of wearing an unwieldy brace and using crutches, but now she could walk about as easily as she had before, and with only a tiny bit of angelic healing to nudge her that last little bit so she could give up the crutch. So they had thanked all their little tribe for their kindness, had one last lovely night in London, and very happily fled back to their little house in the country, Crowley speeding all the while.

“Crowley, that's not even a thing,” Aziraphale said, though she put her book down and took the box. “You silly woman.”

“Yes, yes I am, dunno what you do with me,” Crowley said cheerfully. They were in her study, and very cosy too during a light summer rainstorm.

Aziraphale shook her head and cupped Crowley's cheek in one hand, the better to properly kiss her. “A question I ask myself often, love.”

“Will you open your bloody gift?” Crowley grumped, so Aziraphale was careful to take her time about it, delicately unpicking the complicated ribbon, undoing it, admiring it, folding it up to save...

When she was fairly sure Crowley was about to murder her, she opened the box properly, folded back the tissue paper, and gave a genuine cry of surprise. “Oh, Crowley! They're...very see-through!”

“I know,” Crowley leered. “I haven't given you lingerie in months, angel, I'm losing my touch.”

Aziraphale laughed and lifted the...well, 'bra' didn't seem quite right, for this would provide no support to her bosom whatsoever. Thank heavens she'd picked breasts on the smaller side. But it was certainly a garment intended for her upper body, made out of silk so fine it was translucent, a beautiful pale green that would be lovely against her skin. It was ruffled, with little silk ribbons to act as drawstrings around collar and...well, not waist, but underbust, Aziraphale guessed. It was exquisitely made, a bit simpler than Crowley usually gave her, and stunning for it.

“There's mo-ore,” Crowley sang out and Aziraphale laughed, setting the beautiful thing aside, and picking up the next garment, cute little tap pants in the same translucent fabric, this time trimmed with silk ribbon. When worn, well, it would be more naked than being naked.

Aziraphale blushed, fingering the soft, delicate fabric. “Oh, Crowley. It's beautiful. You spoil me.”

“Yes, I know,” Crowley leered. “Will you put them on?”

Aziraphale giggled. “Now?”

“Well, do you have other plans?” Crowley asked sweetly, and wheeled herself back a bit to give Aziraphale room to begin undressing. A snap of her fingers and there was a cheerful fire going, already warming the air enough to encourage disrobing.

“Apparently not,” Aziraphale said dryly. She was dressed in a very sharp shirt-dress, barely femme at all. Changing into see-through unders would be...rather nice, she decided, as she slipped her brogues off and began to unbutton her dress.

She undressed neatly, not bothering to make it a strip-tease, because that would make her feel an absolute tit. Besides, any kind of skin reveal seemed to make Crowley very, very happy; no need to over-egg the pudding and all.

And she did look very, very happy as Aziraphale folded her clothes, down to her skin now, and began to re-dress herself (so to speak) in the wisps of silk.

The knickers were bad enough – her pubic hair was visible through them! – but the top left her blushing madly as she adjusted the ties and the ruffled silk rubbed against her nipples. Aziraphale knew she was bright pink as she folded her hands in front of her, having no idea what to do with them, and turned to face her Crowley. “Well?” Gosh she felt silly.

Crowley was smiling softly, though, so softly, it was enough to make an angel weep. “Look at you,” she murmured. “Look at how beautiful you are.”

“Oh, Crowley...”

Crowley pushed herself forward a few feet – her hips and back were simply impossible these days, so a wheelchair it was – and held out a hand. “I mean it. You are gorgeous.”

Aziraphale's cheeks were still hot, but she went down on one knee and held her hand out in return, curling her fingers around Crowley's and squeezing.

“Oh my...someone,” Crowley muttered. “You're a Blake painting. You're incredible.” She pushed herself a little closer and patted the bent knee, the one Aziraphale had hurt. “My best angel, vulnerable and strong. Don't think I don't see you.”

“Crowley, you can see my snatch in these panties,” Aziraphale said dryly. This was beautiful, and she loved her dear one, but the tension needed to break, she needed to laugh, or she'd just...die of being seen, or something. It was too much to be naked in too many ways.

Crowley threw her head back and laughed, and urged Aziraphale to stand up, the better to caress her thighs and get close enough, twisting around a bit, to kiss her belly. “Well, yeah. I might not want to do anything with it, but I like looking.”

Aziraphale smiled and leaned down for a kiss, not incidentally causing her breasts to shift, to hang a little, so that she got a nice little grope as Crowley kissed her. For asexual beings, she got her tits grabbed an awful lot, not that she was complaining, mind.

“I like you looking,” she admitted, standing up. She miracled a mirror into existence, a big one, and gently twirled around, checking her own self out. “Gosh.”

“Gosh is right,” Crowley said happily. “I should've done this ages ago.”

“Don't plan on it again for another hundred years at least,” Aziraphale said. “I've had enough of human injuries to last me at least that long.”

Crowley laughed, watching Aziraphale experiment with moving, posing, how her body looked under the diaphanous fabric. “I don't blame you in the least, sweetheart. You had more trouble moving around than I ever have.”

Aziraphale smiled at her, and blew her a kiss. “I love you. Thank you for this, truly. You make me so beautiful.” She was still blushing, a little, but thought it made her rather cute, all that colour in her cheeks. The ones on her face. She could check them both at the same time now, of course.

“You make you beautiful, I just get to decorate a little,” Crowley said. “And you're welcome, angel. I'm glad you're feeling better, is all.” She held out her arms. “Let me hold you?”

“Like you have to ask,” Aziraphale said, all but running over to her and settling in her lap, a little careful at first, but of course she wasn't too heavy, her demon was stronger than that. So she reached for a kiss, warm and soft and nearly naked in her lady's lap, Crowley's arms already caressing her so nicely as she returned to deep kiss.

#good omens #ineffable femslash february #ineffable wives #my fic

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winryofresembool · 3 years

Text

Things We Lost in the Fire, ch 24

aka Caleo uni au

Fic summary: Calypso starts studying at a new university, but to her annoyance her new flatmate is a loud mouthed mechanic who also likes to sneak his dog in whenever. But as she learns to know him better, she realizes they might have more in common than what she first thought. Eventually, even the darkest secrets come out…

Chapter summary: Halloween chapter, part 2.

A/N: Yay, an update! I think some of you are gonna be happy about the characters that are being introduced in this chapter... Also lots of Caleo dorkiness (and canon references) in it! And you'll get to see if you were right with your costume guesses :D

Also like I already mentioned last week, this is the last chapter that I have written so far (when I started posting this fic I tried to make sure I'd have at least 7 chapters ready so I wouldn't have to stress about deadlines... and here we are now) so it is possible that updates may slow down a bit, at least if the chapter wants to become long. But I am still /trying/ to keep up with the regular updates the best I can :) So worry not!

Now, enjoy and let me know what you think!! Ps. somehow we’ve managed to pass 50k words already :O

Words: 4040

Genre: romance & hurt/comfort

Warnings: none

previous chapter / AO3

…

“Hi, you guys!” Piper, who was dressed as Wonder Woman, greeted Leo and Calypso first when they arrived, gesturing for them to come in.

“Hello! I was afraid Argo II had decided to stop working because you guys are late,” Jason the Superman noted as he offered to take Calypso’s coat and put it in a hanger by the door.

“I’m not going to lie to you, Jason, that possibility did cross my mind as well,” Calypso said, casting Leo a meaningful look. “But no, not this time.”

“We’re only 10 minutes late!” Leo protested, checking the time from his phone. “I was busy finishing something… and Calypso took her time preparing herself as well. She probably did her wig for like two hours.” He gave her a not so serious side-eye.

“I did not!” Calypso said defensively. “Yeah, I straightened and combed and braided it but that took me maybe 15-20 minutes so he is highly exaggerating.”

“Don’t worry, Calypso, we know he does that a lot.” Piper smiled at her reassuringly. “Speaking of your wig, though, you look very cute! That hair reminds me of the style you had before my makeover. You’re dressed as the mythology Calypso, right?”

“Yes, I am,” Calypso said, pleased that Piper had figured that out so fast. “I thought it would be fun to be a bit self ironic for once. I haven’t really had a good reason to sew recently so this was a nice excuse to do that as well.” She made a small twirl to show the dress better.

“That dress really looks great!” Piper told her. “I would gladly commission you to sew me clothes; it’s so hard to find anything nice from the clothes stores these days. But Leo.” She turned back to him. “I see someone hasn’t bothered to get a costume. I wasn’t expecting that from you because you’re always so excited about them.”

“No, you got it all wrong.” Leo wagged his finger at her. “I do have it here, but as I told Cal, it would have been too difficult to wear in the car.” He dropped his bag on the floor, causing a loud thud as it hit the ground.

“Alright. Care to give us any hint what it is?” Piper asked curiously. “Seems heavy.” Calypso wondered if this was something they did every year.

“I’m just saying that it’s inspired by some movies that united us three,” Leo noted mysteriously. “But that’s all, you’ll see soon!”

“My mind is blank now,” Piper said. “Jason, what movies have we watched with him?”

“The first one that comes to my mind is Star Wars,” Jason reminded her. Suddenly both Jason and Piper’s eyes widened in realization. “Could it be?”

“Oh no, Leo you didn’t!” Piper doubled over in laughter when it occurred to her what Leo’s costume most likely was. “I can’t wait to see this!”

“I hope you took pictures with Festus!” Jason couldn’t keep his poker face either, and Calypso watched their reactions with confusion.

“Don’t worry, I will show them later.” Leo grinned, unperplexed by Jason and Piper’s laughter. “Now, where can I change?”

Piper showed him an empty room where he could get into his costume in peace, while Calypso started looking around the house on her own. Even though the place seemed rather fancy, Jason and Piper had managed to make it cozier with their personal objects. A lot of them had seen life and were worn but somehow they still fit in with the newer decorations.

As Calypso reached the living room, her focus went to the guests who had already arrived at the party. She waved at Annabeth and nodded awkwardly to Percy. Even though she and Annabeth were friends again, she wasn’t quite sure how she should act near Percy so ‘reserved’ felt the most natural reaction. She couldn’t help but smile a bit, though, when she registered their costumes: Annabeth had a Chiton just like her, although grey instead of white, with some silvery accessories and a beautiful owl shaped brooch over her chest. Perhaps the most impressive part of her costume was the Greek styled helmet that was used in battles and that hid most of Annabeth’s curly ponytail. Calypso was quite certain she was dressed as Athena, the Greek goddess that according to her was the one she identified herself the most with. Percy on the other hand was wearing sandals, shorts, a tropical shirt, and a belt with fishing equipment and he was holding a fishing rod in his hand. Calypso couldn’t quite figure out who he was supposed to be, other than some sort of fisherman.

“Hi,” Calypso greeted them as she got to hearing distance with them. “You guys look nice. You’re Athena, right?” She asked Annabeth. “Matches my theme, don’t you think?”

“Sure does,” Annabeth nodded, eyeing Calypso’s costume. “You look pretty much exactly like how I imagine the mythology Calypso.”

“Thank you. Coming from you it’s a big compliment.” She turned Percy. “I can’t figure out who you are, though. You don’t seem like a Greek god?”

“I am, though,” Percy replied. “I’m Poseidon.”

“Ooh, so that’s why the fishing gear!” Calypso realized. “But I don’t think the Greeks had tropical shirts quite yet.”

“No, you’re right in that.” Percy shook his head, smiling a bit. “But I’m basing this on the version in the Peter Johnson series. That’s how he was described in it.”

“I didn’t know you have read that too,” Calypso said, “But makes sense. Um, the Poseidon and Athena of the mythology hated each other, though. Not that it’s really my business, but I hope you two are doing fine…?” She asked a bit nervously, not wanting to be the reason for their issues.

“Oh yeah, we are,” Percy confirmed immediately. “It’s just an old joke – back when Annabeth and I were reading the Peter Johnson books I used to say Poseidon is my godly parent and Athena Annabeth’s, and that just kind of stuck with us.”

“Alright.” Calypso accepted Percy’s answer, turning her attention back to Annabeth. “By the way, where did you get that helmet? It definitely looks fancier than most of the plastic ones you see at costume shops.”

“My father collects these things,” Annabeth answered, lifting the helmet from her head for a moment. “I’ve told you he’s also a historian, right? Well, one of his friends wanted to make a replica of the ancient Greek helmets with some modern machines and dad bought this from him. I’m not saying this is 100 per cent accurate but it looks pretty cool, in my opinion.”

“It does,” Calypso confirmed.

“You came with Leo, right?” Percy asked then, to which Calypso nodded. “Where is he? I can’t wait to see his costume; he usually goes for something that is way over the top. Last year he was Hiccup from How to Train your Dragon and he had made a Toothless costume for his dog. I’ve also seen pics of him as Iron Man. Yes, with a full iron costume.”

“I can believe that of him,” Calypso chuckled, imagining Leo in the said costume. “He just went to change into his costume because apparently he couldn’t drive in it. He didn’t reveal what he was going to be, but it does sound like something extravagant.”

“I missed his costume last year but I’ll be sure to have a camera ready when he shows up this time,” Annabeth said happily. Calypso was relieved that the conversation was going this well; she hadn’t known what to expect beforehand because this was the first time she was in the same room with Percy since the ‘incident’. Talking with him now, though, made her realize that holding a grudge wouldn’t be smart and he seemed to think the same way.

“I just realized,” Calypso decided to change the topic, “that I’ve never heard the story of how you guys know Jason and Piper. So how did that happen?”

“It’s a funny story,” Percy started, smiling at the memory. “Jason and I used to be the captains of rivaling soccer teams when we were around 16. Well, one time Jason’s team was visiting us but we were playing in an arena that had just been renovated so I hadn’t been there before. I may have been a bit late from our team meeting and I was a bit lost so I decided to ask one staff lady where I was supposed to go. Somehow she got our teams mixed up and I ended up in the locker room of Jason’s team. Some of Jason’s teammates said that my expression was worth seeing when I realized the mistake but I dunno about that. The funny thing was that somehow the same thing had happened to Jason; he had also been late for the meeting because of traffic or something and he had gotten into my team’s locker room. Well, after the game we had a good laugh about it together and ended up talking about other stuff as well and noticed we have a lot in common. That’s how we became friends. When we moved into the same town, we started training together at least a few times a week.”

“Piper and I didn’t learn to know each other until Jason and she started dating a couple of years ago and they invited Percy to some party where I went with him. To be honest, I was a bit suspicious about her at first because we seemed very different but eventually we learned to respect each other’s qualities. And here we are,” Annabeth added.

“Those are some cool stories,” Calypso said. “It seems like a funny coincidence that somehow we all ended up in this city even though most of us are from somewhere else. Like Leo is from Texas, I am from Greece…” “Speaking of him,” Annabeth had to muffle his laughter with her hand, “I believe we are finally getting some answers about his costume.”

“Oh… my gods” was all Calypso could say when she turned to the direction Annabeth was looking at. “You’re really something else.”

Leo was completely hidden inside his costume, but Calypso could practically hear him grinning at their reactions. The costume looked very much like in the movies; golden (just painted, not real gold, because there was no way Leo could afford something like that) plating forming a droid with big round eyes and an ability to speak lots and lots of different languages: C-3PO from Star Wars.

“Holy shit, dude, that looks so real.” Percy gaped at Leo. “I’m starting to understand why you spent so much time in your room the past few weeks.”

“Why C-3PO, though?” Calypso asked once she managed to put her poker face back on. “Does that have some story behind it?”

“Because, duh, it looks cool!” Leo exclaimed with a mechanical voice from inside his costume. “I dunno, ever since I first saw C-3PO as a kid I thought it would be cool to be able to build something like that. And hey, his ability to translate like all the possible languages is pretty neat. Me? I just know 3.”

“Isn’t it uncomfortable in there, though?” Calypso asked. “That thing must be heavy.”

“Sunshine, I’m always uncomfortable. But this was a childhood dream of mine so I sure as heck am not backing off now,” Leo said with determination.

“A stubborn one, aren’t you?” Calypso stated. “Even I have to admit, though, that you have certainly done some thorough job with it. Hey, I should take photos before I forget! You don’t get to see this every day.”

The others dug their phones up as well and for a while Leo just made silly poses while they took pictures, clearly enjoying the attention his costume got. Eventually he started demanding that Calypso should join him for the photos but she was a bit hesitant at first.

Leo argued: “Come on. Greek mythology meets Star Wars? You don’t see a crossover like that every day.”

“Can’t argue with that, I suppose,” Calypso said and went next to him. “Well, do we have some kind of story for Calypso and C-3PO’s meeting?” she asked as Percy and Annabeth waved at them to look at the camera.

Leo considered her question for a moment. “Oh, how about this? C-3PO somehow ends up on Calypso’s island - because duh, Calypso is cursed so she can’t leave the island…”

“You seem to know surprisingly much about Greek mythology, just saying…” Calypso noted while trying to smile for the photos, resting her hand on the metallic shoulder.

“I told ya, Sunshine, you can blame tía Callida for that…” Leo reminded her. “Anyway, I imagine those two don’t really like each other at first because they’re so different but eventually they learn to respect each other’s skills; C-3PO can translate basically any language and Calypso is good at all kinds of handiworks, which is hard for a droid.”

“And? What happens after that?” Calypso asked curiously.

Leo considered it for a moment. “C-3PO doesn’t really wanna leave Calypso’s island but he has galaxies to save with his friend R2-D2 so he has to go but he promises to come get her afterwards.”

“Aw, Leo, that is kind of sweet,” Calypso commented, suddenly aware of the metal arm that had snuck around her waist. “Does he… does he ever return, though? Shouldn’t that be impossible?”

“For a human, maybe, but he’s a droid,” Leo noted. “Unfortunately during a big battle he blows up badly but the ever so faithful R2-D2 collects the pieces and finds someone who can rebuild him again. And boom, he makes it back and lives happily ever after with his goddess.”

“What’s the term you use when you enjoy a fictional relationship a lot?” Calypso asked. “Shipping?” Annabeth nodded at her. “I don’t know, Leo, to me it sounds like you ship those two. Isn’t that a bit weird?” “What, why would that be weird? I’ve seen people ship…”

“I see these two have gotten into a full on nerd mode again,” Annabeth said quietly to Percy while they were waiting for the flatmates to stop their bickering so they’d be able to take the photos. “Not projecting themselves into their characters, right?”

“No, definitely not,” Percy agreed.

Eventually Leo and Calypso stopped bickering and Annabeth was able to take the pictures. Even if Leo was mostly hidden by his costume, Calypso felt a bit self conscious about the fact that these were the first photos of them together. They did a few goofy poses because Annabeth and Percy told them to, but Calypso thought she probably looked more embarrassed than funny in them.

Once they were done, Leo went to Annabeth who was going through the photos and bowed his head a bit to see them better. “Hey, these do look pretty cool! It’s probably just the lighting but here you look like you’re blushing to some funny comment C-3PO made.”

“Show me!” Calypso yelped nervously and took the phone from Annabeth. When she saw it, she could immediately tell Leo was not wrong; she really was blushing. “Yeah, it’s definitely those candles in the background that do it… And I think it’s pretty warm in here, maybe all the people here heat this room…”

“OK, if you say so,” Leo said but Calypso imagined that he was looking at her suspiciously through his costume.

Trying to get the others’ attention to something else, she said: “So, who else has arrived so far?”

“Nico and Will. I think they went to get some snacks from the dining room,” Piper, who had just entered the room, answered.

“Leo told me that Nico is Jason’s relative, but what about Will?” Calypso asked her.

“Will is Nico’s boyfriend. This is the first time we’re meeting him but they seem very good together. At least he seems to have a grounding effect on Nico, and he actually listens to him, unlike most of us. Um, sorry, it’s a long story, one that I should probably save for another time. Nico may be a bit hard to approach sometimes but he is a very nice guy when you learn to know him. Just… been through a lot. I guess like many of us here. But he seems way happier now,” Piper said, and as if on cue, they could hear some distant laughter coming from the dining room.

“We should start a traumatized college kids’ club,” Leo attempted to joke, and the others hummed in agreement. Maybe she did belong to this group after all, Calypso thought. If only they knew, though…

“This just got cheerful,” Percy said, interrupting Calypso’s thought process. “Who’s up for blue candies? Get them before Will and Nico eat them all.”

“I heard that, Jackson!” Nico entered the room without a warning. “No offense to you or your mom but blue candies aren’t exactly my thing.”

“Hi, Nico,” Percy greeted him, seeming a bit flustered after Nico’s comment. “You haven’t met Calypso, right?” He pointed at her.

“No, I haven’t,” Nico took a quick look at her and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Alright, in that case, this is Calypso Astal. And Calypso, this is Nico di Angelo,” Percy introduced them to each other.

“Nice to meet you,” Calypso approached him, but he seemed to evaluate her for a moment before he took her hand.

“Likewise,” Nico said finally. “I think Jason has mentioned you a few times.”

“Oh. That’s nice,” Calypso said a bit unsurely, like every time she met a new person. The lonely years still had a toll on her, and even though she liked spending time with her friends, meeting new people was always a bit nerve wracking to her. “You’re his relative, right?”

“A distant cousin,” Nico answered. “Yeah, our fathers are related, but I have my mother’s last name and Jason has his.”

“I take it your mother has roots elsewhere, based on the last name?” Calypso asked.

“She was Italian,” Nico shrugged. “I lived there my first years too. But now I can barely remember those times.”

Calypso noticed the use of past tense, but she thought it was probably better to not ask about that in the middle of a party. “Oh. I’ve been to Italy a few times. I’m originally from Greece.”

“What brought you here, then?” Nico asked.

“Dad’s work,” Calypso responded in a tone that told everyone she wouldn’t elaborate on that topic more. It seemed to have become a habit to her.

“Anyway,” Leo, who had managed to stay quiet for a surprisingly long amount of time in Calypso’s opinion, stepped forward and cleared his throat. “Nico, a little bird told me,” he looked at Jason, “that your boyfriend is a Star Wars geek. Is that true?”

Nico took one look at Leo’s costume and his mouth twitched when he realized why Leo was asking. “He is, but don’t let him get started on it, or else he will never stop. Besides, he’s not my boyfriend, I prefer calling him…”

“A significant nuisance?” Will showed up from the dining room, carrying a plate full of food. “Don’t mind him, he just warms up a bit slow.”

“Yes, this is Will,” Nico sighed, addressing those who hadn’t met them before. “Sometimes he’s a nuisance, sometimes he can be quite OK. When he’s having a good day.”

“Same back at you, dear,” Will laughed. “Did I hear someone mention Star Wars, though?”

“You did,” Leo said, stepping forward so Will could see his costume better. Needless to say, Will looked beyond thrilled.

“Oh boy, here we go again,” Nico said quietly before Will even had time to comment on the costume.

“Woah, that must be the best C-3PO costume I’ve seen. And yeah, I’ve seen a few so I don’t compliment you for nothing,” Will assured.

“Thanks, man, I did spend quite a while with it,” Leo said, high fiving Will. “Glad someone here appreciates good things.”

“I still hope you’re not one of those fans who have only seen the most recent movies and not the originals,” Will noted.

“Heck, no!” Leo exclaimed immediately. “The original three for the win! Mom and I used to watch them a lot… um, when I was little. She was a big fan. But the newer ones just don’t feel the same.” Calypso had a feeling Leo had almost said something else, but he had changed his phrasing at the last moment.

“You have a pretty good taste,” Will said approvingly. Then he finally realized he hadn’t even asked Leo and Calypso’s names before getting into the geek mode.

“So, who are you two? I already met Percy and Annabeth earlier but I don’t think I know you guys yet.”

“I’m Leo Valdez, and this is my, um, flatmate, Calypso Astal,” Leo introduced. Calypso hoped there was a better word to describe their relationship than a ‘flatmate’ but at the moment it was probably the best and the safest option there was.

“Flatmates, huh?” Will repeated. “How did that happen?”

“I was in a hurry to find a roof over my head so I put in the application that I also accept mixed flats,” Calypso replied. “I didn’t meet Leo beforehand because, um, that would have been a bit difficult to arrange in this case, but it worked out OK.” Calypso noticed Leo was looking at her from the corner of his eye, and she realized she had never even talked about that option before. The truth was that she had had to plan her leaving very thoroughly so her father wouldn’t notice and she had driven to Indianapolis as fast as possible, with no time for second guessing.

“And my flat happened to have a room free because our boy Jason decided to move in with Beauty Queen,” Leo added to that story. “It’s really no stranger than that.”

“Oh, right, someone must have mentioned that you and Jason used to be flatmates,” Will recalled. “I just didn’t connect the dots.”

Jason had apparently finished welcoming the rest of the guests because he joined the group in the living room. “That reminds me, I don’t think I’ve asked you, Calypso, if Leo still leaves his dishes undone and if he has empty milk cartons in the fridge.”

“He used to do that?” Calypso asked with amusement. “After seeing his room that’s not so hard to picture, but no, he’s been pretty tidy in the common area. Although one time he bribed me to do his dishes for him in exchange for some of his food.”

“It was a good deal!” Leo protested. “You didn’t have to cook and you also got to taste some Valdez’ sizzling hot quesadillas so I’d say it was a win-win. Besides, you didn’t seem to have anything against that.”

“Alright, I will admit the quesadillas were pretty good,” Calypso conceded. “But a true gentleman offers them without even asking. Well, other than that he’s been OK,” she told Jason with a playful twinkle in her eye.

“I guess he really is able to change his habits, then,” he replied. “At least when the flatmate is someone he...”

Before Jason had time to finish his sentence, Leo intervened: “Folks, do we really have to be talking about my cleaning habits in front of people I don’t know? The first impressions are important, especially when it comes to Supersized McShizzle!”

“We’re just being honest, Repair Boy.” Calypso couldn’t resist booping his metal covered nose. Apparently she just didn’t know how to not cross the line with this boy, she sighed in her mind.

“Is that all? Where’s the feisty Sunshine I know?,” Leo said in a low tone, so the others could barely hear his comment, coming out almost flirty.

“Shut up,” Calypso answered equally quietly but held her gaze at him.

“Ahem,” they suddenly heard Piper’s voice behind them. “In case you’ve stopped with the flirting, I’d like you to meet a couple of people.”

Calypso turned to see the newcomers and as she recognized the Hunter badges both of them had attached to their shirts, something in her mind just suddenly turned off.

#caleo #leo valdez #calypso #heroes of olympus #percy jackson and the olympians #trials of apollo #my fics #caleo uni au

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