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fancyfeathers · 5 months

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Society of Protection (Yandere Bungo Stray Dogs x reader x original characters) (normalized yandere au)

Chapter six

To Dust You Shall Return

Prologue and oc intro

Chapter one

Chapter two

Chapter three

Chapter four

Chapter five

You sat in the lounge, a cup of tea in hand as you listen to Miss Jane and the rest of her organization explains everything. They started as a close knit friend group of Jane, Gaston, and Dr. Stevenson when Jane returned to Europe after her divorce with Fitzgerald or in other words, she got the divorce without him knowing, changed her name, and immediately ran away back to her home continent, and stayed hidden with her close friends help while they rebuilt her fortune. After that the three of them found other friends who were like them at galas, garden parties, and so on. They began working together and began this organized secret society with a shared goal, changing the society of the world.

You sat in stunned silence for a long moment, staring down at the brown liquid of the tea. Everyone sat for with you while you thought, waiting for you to say something, anything. You thought on what you have learned recently, Gaston’s words, Victor’s words, they both echoed in your mind…

“You can, you can, you just cannot let them get to you, (Name). They may run this society we call life but they do not own us .”

Don’t give up, no matter what happens. Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.”

“Love, jealousy, hatred, burst out around us in harrowing cries. It is we who should be able to have control over those emotions for they are ours, ours to feel, ours to live, and ours to give.”

Are you really just gonna sit here and hear this and not want your life back, you wanted to have dreams, you wanted to have your own life.

Miss Jane places her gloved hand on your shoulder and spoke in her comforting, elegant voice. “Miss (Name), I understand. This is a lot, you can leave and forget all about this. If you want to go back to normal life you are always welcome for tea or-“

“I want to join.”

There was a silence in the room before Gaston chuckled and looked up, pushing his glasses up and leaning back on the couch. “Called it.” The youngest in the room, Alexandre you learned, groaned and reached into his pocket and handed Gaston a wadded up roll of cash. This earned Alexandre and Gaston a glare from both you, Jane, and Dr. Stevenson.

“Are you sure about this, you don’t have an ability. This will be dangerous, extremely dangerous.” Miss Jane asked, her voice worried but strong. “You will be risking everything, your livelihood, friends, famil-“

“Miss Jane, my family is gone, I don’t know where they are anymore. My friends are either kidnapped or dead. While I love Ms. Haruka, I work at a flower shop that gets five customers a day. I want to have a life, I want to go to college, get a degree in… something, I don’t know. But as of now I can’t… so to the world I say fuck you.” You rant on for a minute before taking a breath and heavily sigh. “I want in cause I have a dream, a dream to have a life. I know I don’t have an ability but I want to be of some use and not just sit on my ass and just let these things happen to me.”

Miss Jane reached out her gloved hand to you and smiled, almost a plotting smile, but not towards you, as if to someone not in the room “Well then welcome to the Society of Protection.”

You shook her hand, sealing your fate in this society.

—————————

Over the next few days you made a call to Ms. Haruka and you told her that you couldn’t continue your job at the flower shop for the time being, you told her that with your recent break in at your apartment that you were staying with friends while you waited for things to die down. She understood and went on a rant about how things aren’t the way they should be and you agreed with her and that you were always welcome back at the flower shop any time, you need only stop by.

You had also rode with Alexandre back to your old apartment to pick up a few essentials, since you officially moved into the guest bedroom at Miss Jane’s apartment. You grabbed a few sentimental items, family photos, childhood stuffed animals, and so on, but no electronics since those could easily be bugged or clothing since tracking devices could have been attached to the fabric. Miss Jane and Baroness Emma told you that they would be having a wardrobe made for you that fit the society’s standards of dress because in there words “just because we’re at the bottom of the food chain doesn’t mean we can’t camouflage to fit in.”

So you returned to the apartment building, and now to your realization headquarters, and up to Miss Jane’s apartment. She was sitting on the couch looking over a few files laid out on the table in front of her when you walked in. She didn’t look up to you when you came in but spoke up. “(Name) dear, they’re a few dresses and other outfits on your bed. Try them on and let me know which ones fit so I cam have more made in those measurements. Then at need to talk you, I have a job for you, Emma, and William.”

“Sure, just need to set this box down in my room first, Miss Jane” she only hummed in response as you left the room and into yours and on the bed stood stunning gowns and put together outfits, all laid out to match, but there was one that caught your eye, it was a simple outfit but lovely, a white button up with a red bow, green sweater vest, a long blueish gray coat, black pants, and brown leather boots. You slipped it on piece by piece and then looked at yourself in the full length mirror beside your bed, you looked like a strong independent woman, ready to take on the world, and that was perfect.

—————————

Now, all dressed up in your new clothes, you sat in the lounge with Miss Jane, Emma, and William. Miss Jane had laid out files out on the table, photos of guild members, notes, and a photo of a ship. Miss Jane glanced down at them before looking up at the three of you. “This is a simple reconnaissance mission. I have received word from our mole in the Port Mafia that they are going to eliminate Guild assets. Your job is to stake out at the docks today while they reload their ship and figure out if this rumor is true so just another passing by in conversation, or if this was a set up and our informant is a traitor. Since the detective agency has gone into hiding, anything could be on the table.”

“The detective agency has gone into hiding?” You were shocked, only a few days ago you were at their office, watching Victor loose it at the president. Miss Jane nodded in response to your question.

“Yes, Alexandre had stopped at their office only two days ago to see it completely empty of anyone. We were hoping to make some sort of alliance with them but I’m not so sure anymore between that out burst Victor had and Gaston’s research onto them we’re not sure if it’s wise to do so anymore.” There was a silence in the air before Miss Jane snapped herself back into it. “That’s besides the point you three are to stake out the…” Jane pauses before continuing. “The S.S. Zelda, and make note of any destruction that happens to it or to a Mr. Nathaniel Hawthorne or Ms. Margaret Mitchell. Split up if you must but you are by no means to engage in combat and only do so if it’s your only way out. You can take the files to read in the car on the way there. This meeting is concluded you are dismissed.”

—————————

You, Emma, and William sat on the second floor of a warehouse, you were set up in a window that faced the ship so while you had a clear view you could also duck if spotted. Before leaving the apartment William had given to a gun in case you need it and a vial of purple liquid in case you get caught, you weren’t sure what it was but everyone in the society always had one on them, apparently it was connected to Lewis Carrol’s ability that you didn’t know about.

As you three watched, nothing was happening, William had even pulled out another one of his plays to read to pass the time, then you noticed something, one of the workers was giving a letter to Nathaniel, interrupting an argument between him and Margaret you had no hope of listening to from this distance. You stepped your fingers at your coworkers and pointed out the window to the conversation none of you could hear.

“That letter from the Port Mafia?” William questioned, adjusting his glasses as the three of you looked out the window.

“Hard to say from this distance, since we don’t have any ears on that ship we’re out of luck, my dear.” Emma said with a sigh and ruffling the wrinkles in her dress. You paused at this and looked at the two of them.

“My dear? Are you two a thing?”

“We’re married.” William answered bluntly. “Well sort of. See no church would allow two darlings to married, not legally anyway. So we had a secret wedding between only the two of us, we said our vows, exchanged rings, and kissed, no one pronounced us husband and wife so we are only married in our hearts.”

Emma reached up and took his hand, brought it to her lips and kissed the palm of it. “One day my heart, one day we will have the wedding we deserve.”

You looked away with a slightly sad expression back to the window and watched once more. You hoped my joining this organization you could bring a wedding to William and Emma, giving them what they deserve. You watched as Nathaniel finished reading the letter and looked around the doc… wait there was no sense of urgency in his or Margret’s face, if anything they looked happy. It was unsettling, what did that letter say? The you saw it…

Nathaniel’s eyes were fixed on the window, your window. You panicked and grabbed Emma’s arm. “This was a set up, they know we’re here guys.”

Emma and William looked out the window, panic clear on their faces. You watched as Nathaniel took a sharp edge of a cross and cut his had letting the blood flow, but you didn’t pay to much attention as Emma was dragging you away from the window. “We have to get outside, I can use my ability to get us out of here once we’re outs-“

The shattering of glass of the window cut Emma off. You spun around and saw blood like blades almost had shattered the windows, was that Nathaniel’s ability? You looked close and saw words in it, what was this. You screamed as they approached you but luckily William pulled you out of the way in time. He pushed you and Emma behind him as you three ran. You and Emma pushed open the door, one street leading the the ship the other away, turn an alley and you’re at the car. Emma took the dagger that she kept on her and drew a slit on her arm, leaving a thin red line of blood behind. This blood began to turn into a fog and or mist like substance, red in color. “(Name) stay close to me you have never experienced my ability befo- AHHHH!”

Emma was cut off by her own scream when one of these blood like ribbons from Nathaniel came and wrapped itself around her bleeding arm, stopping the mist, and the hand that held the dagger, stopping her from cutting herself again. You could hear the sound of footsteps approaching as William threw himself in front of you and Emma, you could barely process his words, letting you to run until you were already a block away, panting and gasping for breath.

—————————

Emma could feel her throbbing arm and heartbeat with Nathaniel’s ability wrapped around her arm. She saw you running, listening to William’s words. She could head the footsteps of Nathaniel and Margaret approaching but she couldn’t do anything anymore. She dropped the dagger as she felt Nathaniel’s ability drag her back towards him. She tried to reach a hand out to William but she just wasn’t strong enough, and now she was restrained in front of Nathaniel with Margaret walking towards William. Nathaniel kneeled down to her who had fell on the ground while begging dragged over to him. He reached out his hand to Emma’s face caressing it gently before his eyes narrowed at something. He trailed his thumb up over Emma’s lips, smudging her lipstick off. He rubbed the red material between his fingers before sighing. “We’ll be having no more of that. I don’t need my darling dressing herself up like a harlot.”

“DON’T YOU DARE CALL MY WIFE SUCH THINGS!”

William was fueled only by rage now, his mind blank to Margaret walking towards him. Nathaniel heavily sighed and looked over the Margaret. “Take care of your darling, William was it?”

“With pleasure.” At Margaret saying those two words, William drew the silver thin sword that rested on his hip, and as soon as he drew it vines began to grow on it, along with roses at produced a red sap, a deadly poison that only William could cure, this was his ability, Roses and Thorns. Emma smirked as she watched Margaret stop dead in her tracks. “How dare you draw that blade, hurt me, Buttercup, and you will be punished.”

“Not until my wife is free, for she is my light and my life!” William shouted, he gripped the hilt tightly before lunging at Margaret, his sword aiming at her gut. Out of the employees that were watching, one of them jumped up and shoved Margaret out of the way. Margaret and Nathaniel watched in horror and Emma with hope in her eyes as William’s sword drove through the employee’s flesh like butter, and coming out in the back of the employee. He spat out blood as William pulled his sword out and let the body fall to the ground. William pushed the body over with his foot so Margaret and Nathaniel could see the body, veins turning purple and black from the wound, the poison already taking affect. William looked up, a shadow cast over her face, his eyes dark, an expression of pure rage. “Will you provoke me? Then have at me, m’lady!”

“You have one job in life, do it and you live a perfect life. Instead what you do is fight for what? A disgrace of a woman that is not yours?” Margaret said, her voice pissed off at the sword wielding man. This knocked William over the edge, he raised up his leg and kicked Margaret in the ribs, knocking the air out of her lungs. She fell to the ground, gasping for breath and before she could get up there was a sword pointed right at her neck, William’s sword.

“I will not hesitate to kill you, slit your throat so that my poison reaches your brain, killing you almost instantly. Luckily I am not in the mood to spill anymore blood today, so I will offer you two a deal.” William glanced over to Nathaniel who was still restraining Emma. “I will spare Ms. Margaret Mitchell’s life, it you free my rose, my Emma.”

“How dare you, you have ground to stand on, you have no-“ William cut her off by tilting her head up with the dull end of his sword.

“I hold your life in my hands, it is you Ms. Mitchell. That is what I stand on.”

Nathaniel cleared his throat and pushed up his glasses, his eyes fixed on William and Margaret. “Lady Margaret’s favorite bible verse is simple.” A confused expression came across William’s and Emma’s faces as Nathaniel speaks. “And to dust you shall return.”

With that a wicked smile came across Margaret’s face as she looked up and made direct eye contact with William, sending a shiver down his spine. Margaret snapped her fingers and almost instantly William’s sword, his ability, disappeared before his eyes, turning into ash. Now William was left vulnerable, without a weapon to act as a medium William had no ability. Margaret stood up from the ground, dusting off her dress. “Now that is better, buttercup. Looks like I will have to teach that behavior out of you. Now…”

Margaret snapped her fingers and a few of the employees of the guild came running and restrained the shocked and horrified William then and there, cuffs were placed on his hands. Margaret strutted forward and grabbed William’s chin, her fingers digging uncomfortably into his skin. She looked him over and sighed. “Seems like we have some work to do. Come along now.”

With that the guild men began dragging William along. Emma was dragged to stand up by Nathaniel’s harsh hand on her arm, her own wrists, restrained by his ability. They were lead up onto the deck of the ship, then Nathaniel saw something, he took Emma’s hand and roughly snagged off the wedding ring she wore. Emma’s eyes grew in horror as she watched Nathaniel throw it over the edge of the ship, into the waters of the sea. Emma was stunned into horrified silence. Soon Margaret did the same with William who was just as horrified as his wife as he watched his wedding band fall over the edge, lost to the water. A tear fell down his face as William spoke, it was a line from a show he had been in, one that Emma knew well “What angel shall bless this unworthy husband? he cannot thrive, unless her prayers, whom heaven delights to hear and loves to grant, reprieve him from the wrath of greatest justice.”

Silent tears fell down Emma’s face as she heard this, and the two lovers were separated, looking over their shoulders to one another till they were out of view.

—————————

Emma was taken to Nathaniel’s room where had a bath drawn for her. He make her undress in front of him as to make sure sure was not hiding anything from him in her clothes, which were then taken from her because they were in his words, “inappropriate for the darling of a preacher.” He also ‘helped’ her bathe, this help in reality was harsh scrubbing to move sure she had not an inch of makeup on her skin, and scratching at her hair to get the unnatural curls and hairspray out that she had done this morning. It felt dehumanizing.

After all this, she was given a white bathrobe to wear while he had some of the guild men pick up some other clothes for her, it was comfortable and at least covered her body so that she may retain some of her dignity. Now she sat on Nathaniel’s bed while he combed out her damp hair. She did not speak to him while he made slight comments here and there about how wearing makeup conceals the natural beauty god has given you, or how she had been blinded by Miss Austen’s delusions.

“How did you know that we would come?” Emma broke he silence as Nathaniel took a ribbon to tie up her hair.

“One moment. Stay still.” He said as he was pulling up her hair tightly together as he began to wrap the hair up. The two sat in silence while he tied up her hair to keep it out of her face before he stood up and walked over to the dresser in the room and took the letter he had set on top of it and handed it to her. With shaking hands she took it and opened it and it read

Dear Sir and Madam,

I hope that this letter finds you in the best of health. At the risk of sounding presumptuous, I wish to inform you of the assets we are about to give you from an organization you may be familiar, the Society of Protection, or simply known as the Society. The full list of these aforementioned assets are as followed. First, the life of one Emma Orczy, second the life of one William Shakespeare, and third the Society escape strategy which is found with both Miss Orczy and Mr. Shakespeare. They will staking out in one of the nearby warehouses by the time you receive this letter, under the false truth that the Port Mafia is going to attack your luxury liner. I tell you this because we know that this “secret” organization will be just as much a thorn in our side as yours.

Sincerely, boss of the Port Mafia,

Ougai Mori

As Emma finished, Nathaniel took the vial of purple liquid from Lewis Carroll that Emma had tucked away in her dress and spun it around, looking it over. She looked up in horror as she then watched him open the cork, walk over to the window and pour it out. “We’ll be having none of that because I can only assume that was the escape strategy he was referring to, yes?”

Emma could only nod as she choked on a sob as tears welled up in her eyes as she realized there was no hope of getting out of this damned place. She could only watch out the window as the luxury liner set out into the sea.

—————————

As the ship set off into the sea a figure watched from the port. It was a young man dressed in a black coat that matched his hair, well most of it since the tips of it has gone white. With no expression he watched the ship get farther and farther from the port. He pulled out a phone from his coat and dialed a number. The person answered…

“It’s done.”

“Wonderful, those two are quite large threats to our organization, that whole society as a whole is but those two specifically have skills beyond just their abilities that could destroy us.” The voice… the doctor… but of course you had no idea this conversation was even happening.

“Yes, but there was one more person with them, a young woman. I believe she went by (Name). She got away, but I don’t think she has an ability.”

“Ahhh so the flower shop girl is a member of the society? How interesting. That explains why our spies haven’t seen her at work for the last few days. Looks like the Society has a new player entering this game.”

—————————

You had made it back to the apartment complex in one piece, rushing to Miss Jane’s side and explained everything between tearful sobs. Miss Jane held you in an embrace almost like a mother’s as you cried, reassuring you that this wasn’t your fault and how it was her mistake for falling into a trap.

“Why don’t you go take a bath and you can relax for tonight.” Miss Jane smiled and stood up. “I’ll have Joan bring a pot of tea to your room for you after.”

“Thank you, Miss Jane.” You said, wiping away the last of your tears. “Thanks for everything.”

“You’re welcome (Name), now I have a meeting with Gaston. I will be back in a while.” You watched as Miss Joan walked off into the front entry, saying a few words to Joan and then opening the door and stepping off into the hallway and down to Gaston’s apartment. You sighed and went off the the bathroom to relax for a bit. Meanwhile Miss Jane went off to Gaston’s apartment and knocked on the door. Soon Gaston answered to see Miss Jane, tears falling down her face but still standing tall. “Can I come in, old friend?”

Gaston’s eyes widened and let Miss Jane in and walked her over to his couch and once the two of them sat down she started sobbing in Gaston’s arms. He held her in his arms, like that of an older brother holding his little sister. Her wales echoed off the halls and her voice sounded like she was just stabbed in the heart. Gaston knew she would come, he already had a hunch that something like this would happen as soon as the society received word about the guild, but it still hurt. Miss Jane offered you comfort and now she needed it. The society was like her family, her kids, and when her kids get hurt, this mother gets hurt.

Gaston held Miss Jane until she eventually cried herself to sleep, he called Alexandre over to carry Miss Jane back to her apartment and tucked her back in bed. On their way out they heard your voice. “Alexandre, Gaston, is Miss Jane alright?”

The two men looked at each other, unsure how to answer. Gaston sighed and spoke up, shaking his head. “No, I’m afraid not. She… she has been a lot. Fitzgerald is probably going to throw more low punches, trying to knock the wind out of Miss Jane’s sails, until she gives up.” Gaston sighs and jams his hands in his pockets. “Look I’m gonna go for walk, might get a drink, I just need to get out of here for a bit.” Gaston turned his back on the two of you, his mood completely different from the Gaston you first met, it’s almost like the life has left his body. “Don’t worry I won’t get drunk.”

You walked Gaston leave the apartment leaving you and Alexandre in the dark apartment, only lit by the mood light. Alexandre looked out the window and out over the city streets before the two of you. “The Guild has really knocked Gaston down, I haven’t seen him like this in a long time.” You looked over at Alexandre with a curious expression and saw his face completely serious, but his blue eyes dazzled in the moon light like sapphires. “Last time I saw him like this was three years ago, I was sixteen, and just lost everything to my name. My money, family, friends. Miss Jane took me in and at the time Gaston was helping the European Union hunt down a man, a mad genius, his mind rivaled Gaston’s and they were running circles around each other. Then the man got away and Gaston couldn’t live with himself, he stopped his work in the Society and focused only on his music… he almost lost himself.”

“What was the man’s name?”

“Gaston never actually met him, he was always just out of reach but from what Gaston told me his name was…” Alexandre looked from the moonlit sky over to you, his dazzling blue eyes making contact with yours. “ Fyodor Dostoevsky”

The name itself sent shivers down your spine, what if this work leads you to one day face Gaston’s old foe? You pushed that thought aside and continued on your conversation. “You also said Miss Jane took you in, are you like her son?”

“Kinda, she is my adoptive mother on paper. When she first came back to Europe after her divorce she came with Dr. Stevenson to an orphanage cause they heard a gifted child was there. Me.” He paused and lead you down the hallway to a room you have never been to before, Miss Jane’s study. It’s what you would expect from this place, beautiful, but on the fireplace stood a large portrait, it was of Miss Jane with a younger looking Alexandre by her side. “She was the first real support I had after loosing everything and over the course of the next year she helped me get it back from the dirt up. I reclaimed my family’s land, fortune, and title, I am the Count of Montecristo. Miss Jane’s and my relationship is the Society’s best kept secret, not everyone in this building knows about it, only me, Miss Jane, Gaston, Victor, Dr. Stevenson, and now you.”

“I see, but why are you telling me this?”

He looked at you with a smile and placed his hand atop your shoulder. “Cause I trust you, you are taking back what is yours just like I did, I see myself in you. Along with that Miss Jane trusts you, and I trust Miss Jane more than anyone on this damn planet.” He sighs and pats you on the head with a smile and an eye roll. “Miss Jane taught me when you compare the sorrows of real life to the pleasures of the imaginary one, you will never want to live again, only to dream forever. The things is that people like us can’t dream so that we only know this world of sorrows, my hope is that one day we can have the freedom to dream once more and shape this work so that we’ll want to live again and dream both in the day and at night. If I had a dream that would be it.”

“I see, I think I’d like that.” You said smiling, looking right into Alexandre’s blue, sapphire like, eyes. “I think I’d like to help you make that dream a reality.”

“Good cause we’ll need all the help we can get.” He smiled and gave you one more pat on the head. “Training starts at 7:30 tomorrow morning, if you want a better future you need to be able to fight for it. I mean that both literally and figuratively.”

—————————

Gaston had made his way to the streets of Yokohama, to the train station taking the train to Ginza, Tokyo, now he finds himself at a bar, Bar Lupin. It was an odd place, in a basement, no windows, and a strange cat lurking nearby. Gaston ordered a whiskey, he usually drank while he composed, a glass on wine while he writes music notes. He was all alone in this room besides the bartender and the cat, the underground design of the place reminded Gaston of the vault of the Paris Opera House, oh how he missed that place, it was home to him.

Gaston heard the door open and someone came and sat down at the bar, next to Gaston. “Didn’t think you would be here, composer.” Gaston knew that voice, it was Dazai. “Haven’t seen your flower friend since she stopped at the detective agency, heard from her boss that she quit after her apartment was broken into.” Gaston smirks and raised his glass to his lips as Dazai spoke, just listening to him. “I also found out about your work with the European Union but still haven’t figured out your ability.”

“I figured.” Gaston said setting the glass down, now empty. Gaston glanced over to Dazai with a wide smile. “Sad your agency didn’t look into the break in, I suggested to (Name), just to help you bunch with what comes next.”

“Hm? What are you on about, darling.”

“Va te faire enculer.” Gaston swore at Dazai in his native tongue and sneered at that nickname and rolled his eyes. “Thought you would have picked it up by now.” Gaston set the payment on the counter for the bartender to collect and slipped off his jacket from the back of the chair. “I’ll let you put it together, my work for the European Union, that apartment break in, Miss (Name) leaving her job…”

“…You mean-“

“Yes, I do.” Gaston said as he stood up and slipped on his jacket and began making his way to the door of the bar, glancing over his shoulder to look at Dazai. “The demon Fyodor Dostoevsky, is in Yokohama.”

(A/N- Va te faire enculer- go fuck yourself)

#yandere bungo stray dogs x reader #yandere bungou stray dogs #yandere bsd #original character x reader #bungou stray dogs oc #bungou stray dogs #bungou stray dogs x reader #yandere dazai #yandere chuuya #yandere mark twain #yandere mori ougai #yandere Fukuzawa #Yandere Edgar Allan Poe #Yandere John Steinbeck #yandere fyodor

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atlasscrumpit · 2 years

Text

Moon knight x reader

Asylum

“Dear, I’ve brought you some food.” You heard a voice say as you whimpered as hid under the blankets on your pristine white bed.

Even just is voice made you shiver with fear.

“Oh come on Y/N, you don’t need to be afraid. I brought your meal to you today, I know after our session yesterday you wouldn’t have wanted to see all of the other patients.” He said as he sat the food down of your desk.

“Can you come out from under the covers?” He asked as you shook your head and kept them tightly around your body.

“Go away.” You muttered hearing him sigh.

“Sweetheart, I thought we had gone through this. I know your mind perceives me as a threat, especially after everything you went through with your father.” He said as you felt him place his hand on your shoulder.

“I’ll leave you to eat alone. Jenny will come by soon to come get you for recreation time.” He said before leaving, making you feel safe once more.

You uncovered yourself and got your food.

—

One of the nurses came by and led you to the main room where you saw all the usual people.

But there was one new person in a wheelchair in the corner of the room.

“Who’s that?” You muttered looking over at him as Jenny got you to sit down at a table.

“Don’t worry about him, Y/N. He’s very ill.” Jenny said before leaving. You scoffed and waited for her to leave before you went over to him.

He looked very dazed.

“Hi, I’m Y/N.” You said as he groaned and looked up at you.

“Y/N, don’t bother our new patient.” You heard Dr. Harrow say as you looked up to see him entering the room.

“I was just introducing myself.” You said crossing your arms and looking away from him.

“He needs to be left alone for the moment, come have your medicine.” Harrow said, you were about to walk away before the strange new patient muttered something.

“Y/N.” He muttered ever so quietly as you looked at him.

“I think he wants me to stay, can’t I just sit with him?” You said as Harrow stepped in front of you.

“Y/N, I said no. Go sit down.” He said as you huffed in annoyance.

“You said I should make friends with…”

“Go sit down!” Harrow shouted as you flinched and shut your eyes.

You quickly ran away and went to your usual seat.

Harrow leant down to the patient and smiled.

“I know Khonshu sent you here to take her away from me. I’ll make sure you don’t get out of here.”

—

There was a movie playing as everyone watched, you just sketched on some paper, ignoring the other patients.

One of the nurses came up to you and said it was your time for a session with Harrow.

“I don’t want to go.” You muttered as he sighed and looked down at you.

“Come on, Y/N. Don’t make this hard.” He said as you sighed and stood up following him out of the main room and down the long white hallways.

You wrapped your arms around yourself as you followed him until you were met with Dr. Harrow’s door.

The nurse opened it and you saw him sitting as his desk as the nurse basically pushed you inside and closed the door.

“It’s okay, dear. You can sit down. I wanted to apologise for raising my voice at you.” He said as you cautiously stepped forward and sat in the chair across from him.

“It wasn’t very nice of me, Y/N. With this new patient everyone is very on edge, he’s a bit dangerous and when I saw you near him I was afraid he would hurt you.” He said as you nodded but still didn’t look up.

“What’s his name?” You asked as Harrow looked at you.

“His name is Marc. But sweetheart I need you to promise me that you won’t talk to him anymore.” He said as you sighed and nodded.

“Okay…I just wanted another friend, I don’t like any of the other patients.” You muttered making him chuckle softly.

“I know, dear. Are you ready to start the session?”

—

By the end of your session you had your knees to your chest, showing vulnerability.

Harrow came around to where you sat and knelt in front of you.

“Are you still with me, dear?” He asked as you nodded a little.

Suddenly the door swung open as you jolted in fear.

“Get the fuck away from her, Arthur.” The man growled as you looked up to see Marc.

“Y/N, stay behind the desk okay?” Harrow said as you nodded and stood as far away as you could.

“Marc, I know you’re confused. Especially after having the sedation wear off. But I promise you’re safe here.” He said as Marc chuckled.

“None of us are fucking falling for that. We know about Y/N and that you’re keeping her here against her will. Making her believe all of these twisted lies.” He growled as you looked at him in shock.

“H-Harrow? What is talking about?” You muttered as Harrow turned to you.

“Don’t listen to him, dear. He’s very sick.” He said before you looked back to Marc.

“I’ll give you bloody sick, you kidnapped someone and you’re keeping them in a mental simulation.” He said, his accent changing.

“Y/N, it’s alright. We’ve been sent here to save you.” He said as you shook your head and closed your eyes.

Suddenly two nurses came up behind the man and injected a sedative into his neck.

“T-This isn’t real, Y/N.” He said before falling unconscious.

You felt tears in your eyes as you began to panic.

Without you looking Arthur grabbed out a sedative and came over to you.

“It’s okay, sweetheart.” He whispered before injecting it into your neck as you yelped in pain.

“Shh, you’re okay.” He whispered catching you before you fell to the floor.

—

You woke up a few hours later and groaned looking around to see you were in your room.

You held your head in your hands, you couldn't shake the headache you had.

Your door opened suddenly and you gasped and looked up to see Marc.

"Y/N, we have to go." He said holding his hand out as you shook your head.

"No, Harrow said I shouldn't be around you." You replied as he sighed and knelt down to you.

"I know none of this makes sense, but I also know that somewhere inside you know none of this is real. I was sent in here to bring you back, you're very powerful and Harrow is keeping you here for his own personal gain. I have to get you out." He explained as you looked at him in shock.

"O-Okay." You whispered as he grabbed your hand and pulled you out of your room.

"Y/N stop!" You heard Harrow yell as you looked behind at him.

"Don't look behind, we have to keep going." Marc said pulling you along as you ran away from Harrow.

"Y/N!" Harrow shouted as Marc burst through big red doors you'd never seen before.

Everything went bright and then dark suddenly.

You gasped and woke up seeing yourself in a dark stone room.

"Marc?" You whispered looking around to see Egyptian symbols around.

"Y/N!" You heard someone shout as Marc came running through one of the coridoors.

You swang your legs over the table you were laying on.

"I remember everything now." You whispered closing your eyes.

You weren't a patient of Dr. Harrows, you were an enemy of Arthur Harrow and Ammit.

You were also a goddess, that's why he kept you trapped.

You jumped off the table and wrapped your arms around Marc.

"Thank you." You whispered as he stood still awkwardly.

"We can celebrate later, there's still a big fight ahead of us."

#moon knight #steven grant #marc spector #jake lockley #Arthur harrow #Dr harrow #Moon knight asylum #Moon knight x reader #Harrow #Marc Spector x reader #Fic

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ibbywondrous · 4 months

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Ah so Will o’ the Wisp is a really interesting antagonist because he has basically no appearances… because he’s got one very good self contained arc so there’s no reason to really touch him.

Basically, Jackson Arvad was the head of Brand corporation’s electromagnetic division. His boss wanted results now, so he pushed Jackson to take more and more overtime under the threat of being fired. One day this got so bad that he collapsed, and similarly overworked his machine started to fail. He tried to fix it but instead had the bonds between all his atoms destroyed. Brand decided to recoup their investment by stabilizing him just long enough to question him on the incident’s implications and then left him to die when his atoms drifted too far apart and killed him. But instead of just dying, he managed to weasel himself through the atoms of the tube they were keeping him in.

Somehow, he winds up going to a Dr Harrow to fix this. Harrow was pitched as the guy villains that aren’t geniuses or with corporations get their tech from. Anyway, Harrow says he’ll help and implants a chip in the back of Arvad’s neck. It’s unclear if this helps with the falling apart of it all, but it does mean that if Arvad doesn’t do what Harrow wants he presses a button and the chip painfully rips him apart.

So Wisp robs people as nicely as he can under the circumstances until Spidey shows up and he’s ordered to kill him. Wisp tries to fight Spidey but… he’d rather die a human that live as a monster. So he gets exploded.

Turns out though, there’s no level of separation of Wisp’s molecules that will kill him. So over 4 years of publication, Wisp pulls himself together. Once he’s got enough of a blob to try and contact Spidey he tries to do that, but Spidey doesn’t recognize him until it’s too late and shoos him off. So instead, he takes over the battle suit of the villain Killer Shrike to puppet him around to kidnap the scientist who was hired to replace him, Dr Marla Madison.

Dr Madison is extremely cool as it turns out, because by the time Spidey catches up to free her, she’s just annoyed at him because Wisp does genuinely need her help. So Spidey does his best to help because even though he doesn’t know Wisp’s history before Dr Harrow at this point, Wisp is still pretty clearly a nice, if very desperate, guy.

However, now that Wisp has a body again and doesn’t have his imminent death over his head, he decides that the only solution is to destroy Brand corporation so they can never do this to anyone ever again. Exploding their buildings is working out swimmingly until he accidentally interrupts Brand’s attempt to give the villain Tarantula Spidey’s powers, turning the Tarantula into a giant spider instead. After a quick fight with Spidey him and the Tarantula go tumbling into Jamaica Bay and when they don’t come up, their presumed dead.

This notion is dissuaded when he and the Tarantula show up at the house of the boss that did this to both of them and after a really good monologue Wisp goes to kill him. Spidey of course saves the day, and after a long fight convinces Wisp that it’d be better to get legal justice for what happened and turn his boss over to the police.

After a brief misunderstanding brings a bunch of Spidey’s reformed foes together to beat the apparent law breaking out of him, said former foes form the superhero team the Outlaws. Unfortunately, because Wisp’s whole ghost thing freaks out most of the team and he’s not great at following orders when he thinks they're unjust he only ends up going on one adventure with them.

Then he shows up for one last storyline where Harrow has reactivated the chip still in his neck and the current Spider-Man at the time, Ben Riley, has to rip it out. Wisp leaves on good terms….

…and then after that none of the writer’s who used him researched who he was so he just became the butt of jokes about c-list Spider-Man villains and occasionally cannon faughter.

Sorry can you tell this guy is a special interest? Anyway, I unfortunately have ideas about how to adapt him to your AU but because it is Your AU I will leave it at this thank you for reading this horribly long thing.

Not gonna lie I wasn't expecting you to post basically a wiki article, and it did take me a hot minute to actually read all of it. At someone here is passionate about c-list spiderman villains.

#ask

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jackjolene · 1 year

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BioShock/Sinking City/Vampyr: Taking Control

One thing I’d like to point out before I get into the story about the Mutants: They are basically the pre-concept art Splicers. They look like something straight out of the Dead Space games. You can look them up if you want; be warned, they are nightmare fuel.

Once Jack and Co. are apprised of the situation in Rapture, they decide the best thing to do is to recuperate and resupply at Minerva’s Den. Without their guns, which were left on the Mary Catherine, they need replacements. And while bullets don’t one-shot Mutants like a dart of SERPENT, they are certainly more common than darts.

Subject Artemis, Dr. Reid, and Lady Ashbury lead Jack and Co. to the safety of Minerva’s Den. Whenever they run across some Mutants, Jack and Liz do their best to aid their guides, Porter (who actually brought his weapons), and Eleanor from the sidelines. They have no intention of being useless escorts.

After some harrowing encounters, the party of seven makes it back to the safety of Minerva’s Den with a bathysphere. There, they find a welcoming party of non-spliced survivors waiting for them. After Porter cleaned out Minerva’s Den of splicers, no new ones moved thanks to it being cut off from the rest of Rapture.

While awaiting Tenenbaum’s return, Artemis found as many non-spliced survivors as possible and escorted them to Minerva’s Den. They passed the time by cleaning up, making repairs, organizing the supplies that Artemis brought in, fortifying Minerva’s Den, and also preparing to evacuate once rescue had arrived.

The welcoming committee, happy to see Artemis, Reid, and Ashbury return safely, are stunned to learn of their companion’s identities: Jack Ryan, the Son of Andrew Ryan; Eleanor Lamb, the former “Daughter of the People”; and Charles Milton Porter, who made their refuge possible. (Liz isn’t miffed that she isn’t recognized; her role was behind the scenes after all)

The moment of stunned silence gives way to cheers, which only increase in volume when Jack confirms that he and the others are there to rescue them. The survivors are only too happy to provide them with weapons, ammo, medical supplies, and security bots equipped with lasers, electricity, and rockets (Jack, Liz, and Eleanor are a mixture of impressed, surprised, horrified, and delighted at these bots).

Jack and Eleanor are both surprised at how much these people look up to them; as far as they’re concerned, they abandoned these people to escape by themselves to the surface, leaving them to rot in the ruins of Ryan’s dream and Lamb’s nightmare. Instead, for the most part, these people see them as heroes for daring to escape Rapture, doubly more so for coming back to save them!

Amongst the survivors, Eleanor is surprised and delighted to find her old childhood friend and playmate, Amir, who has survived Rapture and grown into a young man (and a handsome one, she thinks). He’s happy to see her again as well, and that she has managed to cast off her mother and her teachings (In his opinion, she is an angel that ascended from Hell into Heaven and then returned to save the damned).

Once they’ve resupplied and rearmed, Jack and Co., now also including Artemis, Reid, and Ashbury, take the bathysphere to Hephaestus. Jack allows himself to think that it’s going to be easy for once. Last time, he was on his own and he had to go on a scavenger hunt to make an EMP bomb to get past Ryan’s fancy electronic lock. This time around, he has his stealthy wife, a Big Sister, two Big Daddies, and two stable Splicers on his side, and an open door right into his dad’s office.

Turns out, it’s not easy, thanks to the few dozen Mutants prowling the halls and offices of Hephaestus. The fight that ensues the moment they walk through the front door is ferocious, but the party of seven is able to make their way through the nightmare of teeth, claws, and monsters to the Office of Andrew Ryan himself.

Once in Ryan’s sanctum of power and control, Jack gains access to Rapture’s security thanks to his father’s DNA and shuts off the anti-ship defenses. He then radios Tenenbaum to let her know that it’s safe for her to come down, before giving everyone in their group top-security access and also Vita-Chamber usage (just in case). He looks at the corpse of his father, still laying where he fell nine years earlier, and then tells everyone to head back to Minerva’s Den. He’ll be right behind them.

Back at Minerva’s Den, the Party (sans Jack) arrives just in time to see the submersible dock and Tenenbaum disembark. She is even more flustered at the welcoming committee’s greeting than they were, but she is quick to get down to business. She’s not at all happy to learn about the new ADAM, the resulting Mutants, and SERPENT’s lethal effect on them.

In Tenenbaum’s absence, Artemis and the robotic Little Sisters gathered a truly disgusting amount of ADAM, giving her plenty of material to work with. Additionally, Dr. Reid has been studying the Mutants and their variant of ADAM for months now, and he is more than happy to share his findings with Tenenbaum. Between her, Dr. Reid, and the gathered ADAM, they have what they need to make a new version of SERPENT to cure the Mutants.

As Tenenbaum is settling in and the supplies are being offloaded from the sub, including their actual guns, Jack returns to Minerva’s Den with a very unexpected guest in tow: Andrew Ryan himself.

Back in Ryan’s Office, after everyone left for Minerva’s Den, Jack turned the Office’s Vita-Chamber back on (Ryan had turned it off nine years before Jack confronted him), bringing his father back to life. When Ryan realized he was alive again, he attempted to use WYK on Jack, which earned him a bloody nose.

A mob quickly appears, looking to get revenge on Andrew Ryan. Jack intercedes, pointing out that his father has been dead for nine years, plus killing him wouldn’t do anything; he’d just resurrect in the nearest Vita-Chamber. Eleanor points out that they could torture him to death again and again, but shuts up with a look from Jack.

As far as Jack is concerned, the best punishment for Andrew Ryan is to see the depths that his city, his Rapture, has fallen to. Before bringing Ryan back to life, Jack cut him completely out of Rapture’s systems with the exception of the Vita-Chambers; Ryan isn’t taking back control of Rapture, and he is going to see exactly what his dream has become.

While Jack and Co. continue offloading the sub and making plans, Andrew Ryan is left to wander Minerva’s Den. He sees firsthand the ruin and decay that the Den alone has fallen into despite the repairs and cleaning up done by its new residents. Thanks to Jack’s speech, the survivors either ignore him or glare at him; he is persona non grata with them.

He sees how malnourished they are, how they jump at the smallest sounds despite being safe for months now from splicers. Many have turned to religion to gain some semblance of hope, openly worshipping in what was once Ryan’s cathedral to himself. He sees the people sharing their food and medicine with each other, engaging in the altruism he hates so much.

Finding that people avoid the airlock for some reason, he goes there and looks out into the ocean. He’s shocked to find dozens of corpses floating outside; as part of cleaning up the Den, the survivors tossed every corpse out the airlock and into the ocean. Their mutated and mangled bodies, now being chewed on by the local marine life, seems to mock him as he beats a hasty retreat.

Finally, he finds a seat and window where he can just look out at Rapture, his dream, and think about all he has done and how it has led to this.

#bioshock #bioshock 2 #minerva's den #vampyr #sinking city #jack #jack wynand #elizabeth #elizabeth dewitt #Jack x Elizabeth #jackabeth #protector trials #dr. jonathan reid #lady ashbury #andrew ryan

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puns-and-musicals · 2 years

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Okay. Okay I’ve recovered enough to talk about it.

Moon Knight Episode 5 Spoilers!

But it’s only the things I can think about without crying :’) in no particular order as I remember it all.

Steven being so calm about this once he’s on the right track? Honestly yeah he’s seen weirder recently.

The bandaid!!! I love that for Marc, even if it was only briefly.

The whole thing with Marc is… killing me. The fact that he’s starting to believe Dr. Harrow, just a bit? It’s breaking my heart.

“No. Oh no, no, surely not. …All of them?” Absolutely broke my heart, he was so… whatever that Was. Disappointed? Confused?

The way they overlayed Marc’s breathing over the memory, by the way was… harrowing no pun intended. Beautiful and so so heartbreakingly awful.

Marc seeing Steven, standing there, soaked through, and running to get to him- I’m never going to recover from last night.

The way that Steven suddenly understands, just that gentle. “He was manipulating you from the start.”

“Not worth it? Marc, you are about to lose everything- do you understand?” Steven, love, he’s not trying to protect himself I’m begging you to understand that this is all for you.

Steven?? Being a sassy bitch with Harrow?? YES KING GET HIS ASS

“It wasn’t your fault.” This. This is such good writing, this is such good characterization- it would have been easy for Steven to be angry for all this being kept from him, for not knowing so much. But he knows, here, what’s important. He knows what Marc needs to hear, and he wants to provide that reassurance, that comfort.

Marc spending this whole episode trying desperately to protect Steven only for Steven to swing back and protect him- for it to be the souls Marc killed that Steven’s protecting him from, that he’s fighting for Marc, that he sacrifices himself, for Marc, after everything Marc’s done for him? For them to be separated. Like. I know it won’t last but Marc doesn’t know that and the absolutely visceral screaming out for Steven will haunt me forever.

Anyways Oscar Isaac continues to absolutely amaze with his acting- and Ethan Hawke once again did an astounding job, Harrow is such a fascinating antagonist for the Moon Knight system and his calm through all things stood out once more.

The story, the aesthetic, the dialogue, the acting, the sets, sound design, the costuming- it’s a hit on every front as usual, and I don’t know how I’m supposed to make it until next week.

#Moon Knight #Moon Knight Spoilers #Steven Grant #Marc Spector #Arthur Harrow #Oscar Isaac

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beautifulbows924 · 2 years

Note

the latest ep had me all WHERE'S JAKE JAKE COULD BALANCE IT JAKE SHOULD BALANCE IT and when Steven was taken by the Duat - gOds i screeched

MARVEL/DISNEY BETTER BE PAYIN FOR OUR THERAPY OR I'M SUING/hj

That was my theory the second I realized the hearts weren’t balancing. Since it seemed like last episode, Marc recognized there was a third alter, but didn’t tell Steven. After this episode, I’m honestly not sure we’re going to see Jake this season, but I do believe Marc & Steven will be reunited in some way.

Moments I need therapy for:

Marc’s mom blaming him for his brother’s death & abusing him.

Steven finding out he’s the protector of their system.

Marc’s breakdown when Steven was getting too close to extremely painful memories.

Steven crying while Harrow is calling his mom, only to finally realize his mom is dead and that she didn’t love him.

Finding out that Marc let Steven keep all their good memories, while he lived through all of the bad ones, just so that he could protect Steven from feeling the pain of their trauma.

Steven getting taken by the Duat- after successfully shielding Marc from them, “But if I’m you, that means I’ve got this too.”

Steven & Marc’s hearts somehow balancing at the last second and Marc ending up in the field of reeds.

Theories

If Marc's heart is unbalanced, then I don’t think taking Steven's out of the equation rectified that- especially since, we know that Jake is somewhere too, so wouldn’t his heart also have to be weighed? But I do believe that if Marc is going to get Steven back, he will have to accept Steven & his disorder in it’s entirety.

The little nods to the lemire run, Marc’s busted nose when he’s with Dr. Harrow & the bird bones that made Steven pause before entering the cave, seem to be insinuating that like in the comics: Khonshu was watching him his whole life & pushing him toward becoming his avatar. I think it’s very possible that Khonshu is the reason Marc’s brother died that day. Which brings us to what Harrow said: “Your torment forged me; I owe my victory to you.”, Arthur may have found out that Khonshu messed with something in his life (caused him some type of trauma- like Marc) that made him the man he is and that’s why he hates him so much.

The foreshadowing we got at the beginning of last episode (Osiris looking at all of the god statues like he feels regret for locking them away), may be insinuating that he’s going to play a big role in helping Marc out of the underworld.

All I know is, I have lots of questions & not a lot of answers- And I have absolutely no idea how they are going to wrap this up in just one more episode.

#rose’s personal #Moonknight #Marvel #Theories #Asks #Steven Grant #Marc Spector #Khonshu #Arthur Harrow #Jake Lockley #Layla El Faouly #Episode 5 #Ammit

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howlsmovinglibrary · 2 years

Text

Mid-Year Reading Update

@logarithmicpanda tagged me, so ok! let’s see if I can still do a booklr!

Amount of books you’ve read so far: 22, and this is better than any year since before the pandemic

Best book you’ve read so far in 2022: I really enjoyed Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher, my favourite thing by her yet.

Best sequel you’ve read so far in 2022: I haven’t read a sequel this year that wasn’t a comfort reread, instead I’ll say Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson bc all her books are standalones so I’ll imagine they count.

New release you haven’t read yet but want to: Siren Queen by Nghi Vho, as I loved The Chosen and the Beautiful last year.

Most anticipated release for the second half of the year: The Daughter of Dr. Moreau by Silvia Moreno Garcia as I’m excited for more specifically Gothic content from her. And the Island of Dr. Moreau is ripe for a postcolonial retelling.

Biggest surprise favourite new author (debut or new to you): I was surprised I liked Lote by Shola Von Reinhold. I had to read it for GTA work, and it was the first ‘literary’ fiction novel I’d consumed in literally years. But it was actually really really good, I devoured it in a day, queer black perspective on eurocentric academia.

Newest fictional crush: I reread The Falconer trilogy by Elizabeth May and not to be a basic bitch but Kieran could still get it. Broody dark haired fey emo bois (written well) remain the classic for the reason, bonus points for him being the person who taught the protagonist to use weapons.

Book that made you cry: I am in a place that means I am currently allergic to books that make me experience negative emotion, but the Hugo nominated short story “Unknown Number”, by Blue Neustifter (told as a twitter thread) made me cry in a good way.

Book that made you happy: I reread The Demon’s Lexicon trilogy by Sarah Rees Brennan and you know what? 13 year old me had excellent taste, it remains a very good series of books. Also shout out to the fanfic ‘Heal Thyself’ by astolat, which genuinely was such a good example of a perfectly executed redemption arc that it left me buzzing with serotonin for days.

Most beautiful book you’ve bought so far this year (or received): My copy of Her Dark Wings by Melinda Salisbury arrived in the post today! The cover looks like this.

What books do you need to read by the end of the year? I’m so out of the loop with book releases that I genuinely don’t know. I would like to read Nona the Ninth but will also need to reread Harrow to do so as my last experience of forgetting the content of the previous book did not go well. Juniper and Thorn also looks good to me. And The Bone Shard Daughter and The Unspoken Name have been on my shelf for a while so I guess I’ll add them.

Not tagging anyone but if you see this feel free to take it as an invitation! :)

#booklr #book tags #mid-year book tag

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adultswim2021 · 8 months

Text

The Venture Bros. #40: “The Family That Slays Together, Stays Together (Pt. 1)” | August 17, 2008 - 11:30PM | S03E12

The best episode of season three, and one of the best Venture episodes period: The Family That Slays Together, Stays Together (Pt. 1) is a fairly straight-forward episode that is so goddamn well-made. This is the payoff of a comparatively limp season.

This one picks up directly where the previous episode left off, with Brock having just finished his fight to the death with his own car. Brock won. Moltov Cocktease shows up to confirm what Brock already knew: the OSI is looking to terminate Brock. Why? This isn’t totally clear; in fact I thought I was missing something. It turns out there’s more to the story that we don’t really know yet. What’s important is that Brock is on the run from three assassins. Brock tries to separate himself from the Ventures, but things don’t go as planned. Brock manages to get over on all of the assassins, which is good, because he’s a good guy and the assassins are bad guys.

Meanwhile, The Monarch and co are raiding the Venture compound after the events of The Lepidopterists have left them with probable cause to go after Dr. Venture. There they find Sgt. Hatred, Rusty’s previously Guild-sanctioned arch. He’s despondent over his impending break-up with Princess Tiny Feet, and is planning to just hang out in Venture’s bathroom until he or Brock find him and kill him. Dr. Girlfriend and him have a heart to heart while he sits on the toilet. Also, 21 needs to pee really bad.

The first assassin is visually inspired by Klaus Kinski, and is said to be inspired by Udo Kier’s character in My Own Private Idaho, which I’ve never seen. His character is seemingly sexually obsessed with his motorcycle and guns and is very excitable. He’s freakishly intimidating. This is maybe the best scene in the episode. The entire fight takes place around the strip club, where Brock is visiting Hunter Gathers yet again. Hunter helps Brock get a passport and a contact list of OSI members who went off the reservation, as well as the keys to his car. The Venture Bros’ special airplane gets shot down in the scuffle, so Doc and the boys wind up crash landing. HeLPER heroically acts at the plane’s landing gear and saves them. It’s legitimately touching! I coulda cried!

We catch up with Shore Leave and Mile High, who are now a pair of Youth Pastors going by different punny names. They do a Bibleman reference, which, unlike My Own Private Idaho, I HAVE SEEN. Brock squares off with the second assassin, a guy who looks like Robert Shaw from Jaws. This scene involves Brock using a shark carcass by dressing it up to look like him. He quickly sheers off his hair enabling him to use it as a wig for the shark, I guess. There’s a lot of cartoony stuff in this one, but I forgive it, because it’s all awesome. It’s like, the perfect balance between cartoonish nonsense and grounded character stuff. It’s the goddamn reason you make a show like this animated in the first goddamn place!

The third is a guy who, I had to google to figure this out, is based on Marvel Comics' Kraven the Hunter. This fight is maybe the most harrowing, as Brock winds up a nipple down. After fighting for their lives, they are annoyingly arrested by just some normal-ass cops.

Speaking of nipples, eagle-eyed viewers watching the blu-ray will note a Dr. Mrs. The Monarch nip-slip in one scene, which was not in the broadcast version at all (censored or otherwise). We also see Hatred’s D while he weeps on the toilet. Also: this episode originally aired with the TIKI TAKI MOTEL sign pixelated out. Can’t find a straight answer as to why after six minutes of googling, but I found out that the iTunes version, which came out soon after it aired on television, was in tact, and it was a source of confusion as to why it was blurred on TV but helped solve the mystery of what was under those pixels. My guess is it had to do with some kind of legal clearance panic that wound up being unnecessary.

MAIL BAG

What are your Man Show memories. I have a few. Here they are.

Hey, your memories got deleted, dude.

I did not purposely leave my Man Show memories blank! Apparently not only can you not show naked women on this website you can't even talk about them. Oh well. Sorry, but I won't be visiting this blog anymore! The uncanny Orwellianess is simply too much. Let me know if you go to substack.

Damn. Well, I was so addicted to cleavage (I still like it TBH) that I watched way too much of this show, even though the comedy was frustratingly uneven. I maintain that if you took the best 60 minutes of Man Show sketches that it would actually hold up as pretty funny. I remember taping and saving the sketch where they tried to cut in line at one of the Star Wars prequels, and one where Jimmy Kimmel bothers people in the bathroom stall next to his. He does a trivia question and then awards him a plate of brownies, which he passes under the stall. Legitimately very funny.

OTHER MEMORIES:

I always maintained that the show was meant to be more self-deprecating than it often wound up being, and I cite this one moment where Adam and Jimmy are showing a slideshow of people tailgating, and he shows a group of obviously gay guys as though they just took a picture of them covertly. The payoff was Jimmy and Adam gleefully join them. I get that it's still insensitive/problematic; it's still understood that the gay people are a punchline which wasn't really even that cool in the late 90s/early 2000s. But the studio audience all instinctively booed when they first showed the first slide AHH!

The German version of The Man Show aired a sketch called GAY BUSTERS, a parody of the Ghost Busters song. The music video showed the hosts using a protopack to just zap gay guys into nothingness. The sketch ended with the host addressing the camera, appearing to say something uh, angry-seeming. It was pretty scary.

And I like the Juggies! I think they're cute!!

#adult swim #adultswim2021 #the venture bros.

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tyrramint · 2 years

Text

Oh boy, do I have something for you

So, I asked my friend (@dragonfruit-7) what they knew about TLT, based on what they’d seen me post but also the vibes they’d gotten, and what followed was one of the most entertaining 45 minutes of my life. Reading this within context of the series is a whole other world; they had absolutely no idea the layers of the series they were swerving way too close to, lol

My notes; what they knew combined with their takes(and for reference, most of it is purely their takes, not based on actual plot they know):

Everyone’s personal title is in the ‘[blank] the [blank]’ format(ex: Gideon the Ninth)

I was sad about something that happened to the 6th; they weren’t quite sure on the house though, it might not have been the 6th[it was so many houses; you don’t even know, my dude]

Gideon and Harrow have an “interesting” relationship; recently something has happened and their relationship has fallen on hard times(to put it mildly), which is a combination of circumstance and emotions, which might not get resolved

There are necromancers

There are lesbians

There is space

They feel that Nona gives off the vibes that she knows something that everyone else doesn’t, which is unhelpful for the other characters

They feel that Nona would like sheep

People in the fandom like saying “one….something”

Characters have definitely killed people

They are in short solidarity with Harrow

Nona emotionally destroyed people

There is a war going on that’s stemming from more condensed fights with specific people

These characters are the type of people that would become extremely unhealthily emotionally attached to someone very quickly

Everyone has died at least once without meaning to; there is some confusion with characters thinking that someone else is dead, but they aren’t, some thinking that someone’s not dead, but they are, and some being really hard to convince and accept that someone’s actually dead

Mental gymnastics are going on with characters convincing themselves they’re not in love with someone

They’re emotionally repressed

Gideon, Harrow, and maybe also Nona have a superiority complex that’s at odds with a inferiority complex

Peaceful moments are quickly ruined by devastating emotion(“Someone’s like, oh look at how beautiful the sky is, and then someone dies”)

People say deep stuff like, “We are one being” and then everyone else is like, shut up, and then people fight

Someone gets fed up with all the sad lesbian drama and is like, “COMMUNICATE”, but then one of them is just like, “but it’s hard” and then doesn’t

Every time you think “…well, this is good at least” something bad happens; the further you get into the books, the less fooled you are by the happiness

Someone says something about the Ninth’s face paint being dumb[it’s Gideon]

The characters in this series are the type of people who aren’t morning people but get up early just to spite themselves

Some of them are buff, some are hot, some are buff and hot, some don’t get that luxury

Everyone hates toast because the fact that the bread is hard annoys them

Gideon, Harrow, and Nona are all the type of people to deny that they’re dehydrated and need to drink water and then like pass out(they’re like bleeding out and are like, “I’m fine”)

Harrow would deny liking bubble baths but would like them; she would sit there contemplating life

Gideon would vent via baking(Harrow would not because she cannot cook)

Gideon would really want to shoot Harrow out of a cannon, and Harrow would be firmly against it but it would still end up happening

Gideon and Harrow would be the type to be covered in blood, but it’s hot

Nona’s book is more mysterious/unclear in terms of her character than the others, because there’s more stuff to be revealed about her; she’s either really inexperienced or really wise

They’ve all cried over an inanimate object because of an emotional connection before

Ianthe is morally grey, chooses to help people when she feels like it, selfish, observant, enjoys drama, likes to watch suffering but only intervenes at certain points, talks about people as if they’re just for her amusement; the fandom feels very conflicted about her

The fandom also feels conflicted as to where Harrow and Gideon’s plot line is going to go

Most characters parents just aren’t there, you get some mentions and some reveals, but in the beginning you don’t really know what’s up

They’re hoping that there’s a character that is a chosen one but rejects it and still doesn’t want to accept it; namely either Harrow, Nona, or Gideon

Cows are more important than you think they are

Harrow and cows have the same color scheme going on

At least one of the characters hates God; if God’s a leader, he’s a shitty leader; an interesting character, but not a good person

Gideon would ride a motorcycle

Gideon’s like(to Harrow,) “at least I look cool with my sunglasses, you just look stupid”

Everyone would look good in suits

There are multiple lyctors, and one of them was like, “actually, no” and then left, and God is mad at them for leaving; that character proceeded to make more decisions God didn’t like

Harrow does, in fact, pull off the skull face paint

[This is just a side, but at one point they commented that it looked like one of the skeletons on the HTN cover they saw on the back of GTN looks like it’s wearing aviator sunglasses, which as I frantically checked, it’s not, but when I tell you that I *lost it* at that comment]

God is holding something over Gideon or Harrow which is a large source of conflict

In regards to Gideon and Harrow’s relationship, one of them does something that the other can’t forgive them for, but whichever of them did it claims that it was for the other’s own good

Gideon is better at flirting than Harrow

Nona deserves/wants to have a quiet life

They’re most intrigued about Nona; they feel there’s some aspect of romance in NTN, but it’s more *her* story; it’s intertwined with others

Nona maybe sees Gideon and Harrow and is like, “I went through this before, it did not go well”

God really has it out for that one person

God is just that one character you really want to punch; he occasionally makes good points and you hate it

One character dies in another’s arms

Finally, their concluding thought was that they feel that the series may not have a happy ending, but that it won’t end completely hopelessly

#I was SCREAMING #tlt #the locked tomb #gideon the ninth #harrow the ninth #nona the ninth #the locked tomb spoilers #nona the ninth spoilers #tw caps lock #tw death #tw blood #tw violence

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tiptapricot · 2 years

Text

MK liveblog thoughts, Asylum

Why does this have another boring title music section uGh

The main themes being right at the beginning w the cave n Wendy,,,,, Oughhh

THE EDITING IS SO GOOD

God god god

Marc looks so beat up n confused babe I’m so sorry I’m so sorry

I still don’t think this is Jake y’all sorry I rlly just never will ok

His accent doesn’t change it just gets stronger bc he gets more upset

Dr Harrow you suck so bad

“I took the bus” “hmgggggg |:-/“

Also why does his face look totally diff Oscar why do u shift ur face

DONT BRING UP THE LITTLE BOY SHUT UR YAP

Also again… Marc’s trigger is roro n he gets mad when harrow brings it up

Taweret my love

Taweret’s painted nails n how she licks her lips o baby oh yeah

Also the fact that she’s gotta read off cards n is awkward bc this isn’t her job

Autism overrides fear of being dead, category 6 event two dead and are mad ab it

Untethered consciousness is such a fun way to describe souls

Just watching Marc fall back into old habits of thinking n self hate n being trapped in his medical trauma agghhhhh

“Mahc… mahc….”

“BingoOOOOH MY GOD”

The Duat music is amazing n the colors r LOVELYYY

Poppa-ed ya hearts out hehhehe

Steven grabbin him boobies no heart there anymore

Also how what happens when ur souls don’t balance is diff bc Ammit is entombed n cant eat them

“Kill the hippo, steal the boat”

THEYRE INCOMPLETE BC JAKE ISNY THERE U FUCK LET HIM OUTTT

“You two guys” so real they rlly are guys

“Yeawrrite”

I love Steven n Marcs bickering ab killing Taweret or not they’re so

They’re so

I love the memory rooms hey don’t go into they’re so cool looking

N the music that’s like a muffled n floaty version of the main theme ouYghH

“Woah… that’s wild”

Marc seeing the shiva n brushing it off is so…

I didn’t think anything of it the first time but knowing now is just uUggGHh

Steven’s collar is lower cut than Marc’s n that vibes

The way Steven looks when he asks “All of them?” Is so heartbreaking

Marc baby Marc baby Marc bABY I need to holD YOU OH SHIT RORO HIIII

“Why is there a child in a room full of people you’ve killed” GOD BUT HES ALIVE HES THE ONLY ALIVE ONE ITS NOT THE SAME

THE WAY MARC BANGS ON THE MEMORY BC HE KNIWS WHAT UT IS IUGGHHHHHH

“Draw wing”

Layers gators in awhile crocodile

THE SHOT OF MARC THROUGH THE HALL MIRROR THE GREENS OF THE TREES N THEN IT GETYING DIMMER AS IT RAINS

The music swelling n shifting still light n then getting heavy n deep when Steven realizes what’s happening

Marc searching so hard n Steven’s panic rising n Marc looking rigid n scared n tense as his own fear rises

Steven yelling even tho they can’t hear him the water rushing in w Marc’s memory n his breathing over the top of it Steven diving n n Marc’s breath shivering over all of it GOD GOD GOD GOD

Steven at the shiva…. He looks so shaken and empty

The room is warmly lit but the contents are not

The water dripping in the silence

Wendy’s hair going from wavy to straight in grief

Baby Marc… baby….. go back to your room

God

Steven’s face I’m

God Jesus fuck the emotions this instills just holy shit holy shit

DONT GO UP THE STAIRS

The way each level almost gets more desaturated….

Steven continuing to climb n Marc only being able to watch

The score dude… I’m just…:.::::::::

Their vices when they’re fighting

Teen Marc…. Steven just watching and the tears on teen Marc’s face and Marc pulling him away into a worse memory

Spitting up sand..

OH HEY STEVEN INSEE UR SHOULDER

Marc……. Man

Hey I… care ab these guys a lot

“What happened to you?” And Marc is already moving towards it

ALSO THE SHOT OF THE TEMPLE IUGGHHHB JTS SO COMICS IT MAKES ME YEL

I can’t even

I can’t even describe the feelings of this scene we all know

But like the score doesn’t stop immediately when Khonshu starts talking his voice cuts through it and silences things and makes Marc pause

Khonshu I hate u

Also so many shots r uneven n weird this scene in a good way

“Marc he was… taking advantage of you”

The way we see through Marc’s eyes the edge of Khonshu’s staff before he says yes and then Khonshu is finally visible OUGGHHHH

HAHA THEY SAID THE TITLE YEAHHHH YEAHHH OH HEY HIS CAPE IS GLOWINH DUDE

TAWERET ILYYYY

Marc’s…. Rlly strong n panicked reaction to maybe having to relive the bedroom but Steven just can’t get it bc he doesn’t know he is unable to know and then Steven says it’ll b all his fault n it triggers Marc and he has a mini meltdown just… fuck man

The way the diff Dr Harrows act diff n have diff rules

Proves the psych ward isn’t reality immediately between the sedating vs the not sedating

Again Dr harrow asmr is begrudgingly v nice

Marc just responding by looking at him like 😕

The tomb buster figures… the stuffie, the astronaut on the shelf. The car bunk bed…. I think

Baby Steven…….

And the way Steven copies along bc he rmrs…

Steven being a fictive is still one of my fav things but also it makes sense he does not have a good reaction bc he doesn’t know what it means n his sense of self is so strong n just

God….

PUNCH HIS ASS

Steven… oh baby

I’m like

Listen guys I’m rlly fucking emotional it’s hitting harder than usual rewatched uh um um

Marc’s voice breaks even when he’s so angry and I’m just I

Oh I’m im rlly close to crying lol

Steven’s initial reaction to her being dead is just heart shattering n he’s mumbling n his world is coming down n Marc is trying to calm him bc he realized what he did but Steven can’t hear him through the panic

Steven still being brave in the face of gaslighting n illusions n not believing that Dr harrow is real like Marc did

“Oo nosy…”

Dr harrow I hate u

Steven’s breakdown as the realization of his mother is brought to the surface n he tries to deny it but he can’t the way his dont do that becomes a pleas j his face breaks oh the tear oh god

“My mum is dead” And the line is dead too

“I was just a little boy”

Oscar Isaac the actor you are Jesus shit

The way Steven just watches the memory n breaks n the tears come n he gets it

And the taxi drives away someone mentioned the Jake parallel god

“Marc… all those horrible things that’s he said to you, she was wrong, it wasn’t your fault.”

“Hey… hey… you were just a child. It wasn’t your fault.”

My chest is like twisting n it’s in my throat guys just… Jesus

THEYRE UNBALANCED BC JAKE ISNT THERE N ITS TWO HEARTS N IT WORKS DIFF THAN SINGLETS BABY CMON

This fight hurts so bad just

The faceless sand creature….

Steven working so hard to save Marc

The way Steven covers his mouth when Marc gets hit n he looks so purely scared

AND THEN HE ATEPS UP YES BABY YOU GOT THIS

“SIIIIX!! I prefer cricket :-)”

BEAT THAT THING UPPPPP

Marc’s proud happy in awe face n then he gets grabbed and it is that moment and—Steven falls

And Marc’s voice is hoarse and it’s so distant for Steven and then he realizes and tries to run but it’s too late “stop the boat!” “Wait!” But it doesn’t they can’t n Marc is yelling and Steven reaches out and says his name and is gone

The way that Taweret gasps a lil when the scales balance and then the music just.. lightens… and Marc looks so destroyed in the soft light of the field of reeds, alone and warm and broken….

Yeah I…. No wonder this put me in a shit emotional state for a week Jesus Christ

I never want to relive the wait between moon knight episodes 5 and 6 ever again but truly what the fuck dude that…… episode just

Christ

#the fruit is talking again #MK liveblog

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a-system-and-fanworks · 2 years

Note

Hey! I was wondering if you could explain more about inner worlds? Also do you think the “Dr Harrow” scenes of Moon Knight were part of Marc’s inner world or just more of the afterlife thing?

Inner worlds! Well, we could go on and on about them just in general, but if you haven’t read it before, here’s an article on inner worlds that is fairly accurate to our experiences, since we don’t have time for a full rambling essay: https://did-research.org/did/alters/internal_worlds

Since the scenes with Dr. Harrow only happened after they were physically dead, I figure that can at least partially be chalked up to the Duat interacting with their subconscious. It seemed like everyone in the system was surprised by the setup they found themselves in, and when they asked Tawaret, she just seemed mildly surprised by the format than anything else.

If they had an inner world before that, it most likely didn’t look like that, even though there seemed to be an intuitive sense of what was there (especially for Marc). It might’ve been changed, or maybe it never existed, or maybe afterwards they used that as a “base” for a new inner world. There’s a lot of possibilities there.

The way we’re thinking about it, for now, is that the psychiatric ward was formed by the Duat interacting with their subconscious, in order to create an inner world-like structure for the purposes of soul weighing. For the most part it plays by the patterns of inner worlds (symbolism in the construction- but oddly Egyptology focused?, specific sections dedicated to memory storage, and things happening that are impossible irl), but not all of them (Marc and Steven lost time and seemed to skip back and forth in sessions with Dr. Harrow, which… doesn’t really happen in inner worlds, in our experience and as far as we know).

Dr. Harrow himself was likely neither an introject alter nor actually Harrow himself, in our opinion, since I don’t really see a reason for their brain to go “Oh yeah what we need is Harrow, but as a therapist.” And yeah, he had a connection to death, but he was busy with other things too at the time, and the whole interaction only took a handful of seconds in the real world. He also didn’t seem to have a genuine understanding of DID and trauma, even a loose one, whereas Dr. Harrow did. So again, probably the Duat pulling from their memories in order to weigh their souls easier.

As for the last scene where Marc and Steven talk with Dr. Harrow again, we’re not sure? It may very well have been more of a daydream than anything, since they definitely weren’t in the Duat anymore, but did seem to keep consistent with what had happened in the real world (Harrow getting hurt). Could’ve been something else, but we don’t think that was part of their inner world since they had to actively switch out.

That whole thing is a bit of a grey area for us, to be honest. There’s a lot of interpretations we’ve seen that are semi-plausible, but those are our thoughts on it!

#moon knight #moon knight fandom #moon knight fanworks #dr harrow #moon knight duat

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atlasscrumpit · 2 years

Text

Corrupted Steven

Things hadn’t been too crazy lately, the three of them had just been doing regular normal things.

Steven had been a lot quieter later for some reason.

Marc returned to their apartment with new groceries, he was about to put them all away when he felt odd for a moment.

“Marc, help.” He heard a voice call out, he knew it was Jake. He quickly put everything down before rushing to the bed, he laid on his back and took in a deep breath focusing so he could lose control of the body and see what was wrong with Jake.

He succeeded and was within their mind, but it was different he was in a vast dark space.

He heard a voice and looked up to see Steven and Jake.

But Jake was tied to a chair while Steven was above him covered in blood with a knife.

“You’re the reason he isn’t mine, you hurt him and us it’s always been you.” He muttered going towards Jake with the knife.

“Steven stop!” Marc yelled he tried to rush forward but he couldn’t move his feet.

“Marc.” Jake muttered out, he was barely conscious.

“Steven, buddy stop hurting him.” He said as Steven turned and looked at him smiling.

“Marc, Marc I did this for you. I did this for us.” Steven said walking towards him and smiling. Marc looked down at him in fear and worry, he reached forward and slowly took the knife away from him.

“It’s okay, let’s just get this away from you okay?” Marc said, suddenly Steven’s face changed.

“You’re not happy?” Steven whispered looking down.

“Steven I’m worried, I don’t want you to hurt Jake okay? Why do you want to hurt him so badly?” Marc asked as Steven looked up at him.

“Because he hurt you! He tried to take you away from me!” Steven yelled making Marc flinch a little.

“He didn’t do any of that Steven, he’s our friend remember? Maybe it started off pretty rocky but we’re all on the same page now. I think there’s something wrong Steven, you’re not acting like yourself.” Marc said, in an instant Steven grabbed the knife from Marc again and went back over to Jake.

“I just need to get rid off the parasite and then you’ll love me.” Steven whispered, Marc managed to break free and ran over tackling Steven.

“Forgive me for this Steven.”

—

“Steven? You okay?” Steven heard a voice say as he opened his heavy eyes to see Dr. Harrow in front of him.

“Where’s Marc?” He muttered as Harrow looked at him.

“Marc’s safe, I’m sure he’ll come to visit soon.” Harrow replied as Steven looked at him in confusion.

“Visit me? But, but he is me. Where’s Marc? What have you done to him!?” Steven shouted as Harrow backed away.

“Steven it’s okay, you just need to calm down and reasonably speak about this.” He said but Steven wouldn’t calm down, someone rushed in behind him and sedated him.

—

“You sure this is the right decision?” Jake muttered watching through the window where Steven sat unconscious in ‘Harrow’s office.’

“It’s the only option we have, maybe somehow this will help him. I don’t know what happened to him.” Marc replied looking at Steven sadly.

He entered the room and looked down at Steven.

“We’re gonna help you buddy.”

#moon knight #marc spector #steven grant #jake Lockley #corrupted steven au #fic

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dylanwritesgood · 2 years

Text

Ghost of You | 5

masterlist | ko-fi | ask

Part: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven

Summary: Eddie was so full of life, so full of fire, Gareth thought he was invincible—until he wasn't. After the accident, Gareth can't let go. He's determined to talk to him one last time. The universe has other ideas though.

Rating: Mature (no sex, just a lot of death and heavy themes)

WC: 1,388

Warnings: Death, nonexplicit missing person/sexual assault/murder, grief, the occult

A/N: Wrapping up Heather's story here, so it's still a little rough. And don't even ask me about how tarot works in this fic (I mean, do ask me more if you want to know in real life, but don't look for sense here). I'm working with a combination of "ghosts know what the cards mean" and "ghosts are choosing based on the picture" so like, don't look too close. lol As always, message me for a TL;DR if you think you should sit a chapter out, okay?

It’s been a harrowing few days as investigators from out of state descend on the clearing and set up camp in the Hawkins PD’s small station while Heather’s bones are carefully exhumed and preserved as evidence. She’s been positively identified by the necklace she’d been buried in. There isn’t enough of her left to corroborate the tale Gareth had told Hopper, but at least her family knew now that she is gone.

And Gareth’s aunt and uncle confirm that not only was he at their home in Ohio the entire month, but he’d been dragged into helping at a carnival their church had put on the day Heather went missing—so he is solidly dismissed as a suspect. He and Hopper had decided on the way back to the station that the official story was that Gareth was on a walk when he came across some partially covered remains and reported it. Nothing terribly inexplicable about that.

Heather hasn’t left him yet—he isn’t super sure how it works, but he’d have thought that she’d have passed over or done whatever it was that happened when spirits tied up their loose ends. Maybe she’s waiting to be buried, or for them to catch the guy who did it. But she’s reflected in the glass over his left shoulder as Gareth stands outside a nondescript storefront and considers the small sign on the door— Madame Genevieve, Clairvoyant. Tarot, Aura Readings, Palmistry, Spiritual Communication. Walk-ins Welcome.

He’d driven almost all the way across the county to get here—which was nerve-wracking because Gareth’s had his license for just a few months and it had always been Eddie who drove when they went out of town—but Madame Genevieve was the only psychic he could find in the phone book. He has to admit, he was expecting a little bit more… mysticism. He locks eyes with Heather in the reflection and she shrugs at him. Fuck it, it’s worth a try.

The silver-haired woman reading a paperback romance novel in one of the waiting area seats doesn’t look up at the bell clattering as the door closes behind Gareth. He thinks she might be another customer, and shoves his hands in his pockets to wait for someone to come.

“You don’t need my services. I’ll take your money, kid, but you don’t need me.”

Gareth startles and looks down at the woman, still curled in her chair and flipping a page of her book. She’s not at all what he was expecting. Her jewelry is delicate and understated, she’s wearing jeans and a cozy cardigan, thick glasses perching precariously on her thin nose. She doesn’t exactly conjure the image of a medium, but it’s oddly comforting.

“If you know that, then you’re probably the person I’m looking for,” he counters.

The corner of her mouth quirks in a subtle smile as she finishes her page and marks her place. Madame Genevieve sets down her novel and regards him owlishly through her glasses. After a moment of studying him, she nods once.

“Well then, great little one, what can I do for you?”

Gareth’s brow furrows at her choice of words, but he shrugs it off. Gareth the Great had been Eddie’s nickname for him, but it doesn’t matter now.

“I need to know why something is happening.”

She uncurls from her seat and gets to her feet, making a slow circle around him as she assesses him.

“Does it have to do with the wet girl?” She asks him, still somewhere behind him. Then she seems to be addressing someone else, “Oh, hello. I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there.”

“Sort of,” Gareth answers, standing still under her curious gaze, “That’s Barb, by the way. She drowned. I go to school with her best friend. And Heather. We went to school together.”

By the time she’s finished her circuit of Gareth, her expression has shifted to confusion, a little crinkle forming between her brows.

“Do you see them?”

“Only Heather. Barb’s more… in my head,” He answers, cocking his hip and shifting his weight to one leg.

“And you’re trying to figure out why you?” She asks, even though they both know.

“Why me. What I can do to handle it, what I should know… y’know. Seeing Dead People 101,” he mumbles with a shrug. This isn’t something he thought he’d be asking for help with, but well… he also hadn’t thought that Eddie would die or that he’d find out he could talk to dead people.

“This is pretty new to you, isn’t it, honey?” Genevieve gestures for him to sit with her in one of the seats nearby. Gareth does, feeling the heaviness of relief like all the adrenaline’s gone out of him. She gets it.

“Couple weeks like this,” he says hesitating to share the rest, but she’s looking at him expectantly. “Maybe my whole life, though, and I just never noticed because people said I was anxious for always feeling like there was someone watching me.”

She hums sympathetically. “It’s scary, isn’t it? How did it start—the whole thing?”

“My best friend died,” Gareth says, fighting to keep his voice steady, “and we’d gotten a ouija board like, ages ago—his idea, just stupid kid stuff—but it had been in my basement ever since and I just thought… maybe…”

“He died just before that, didn’t he? It’s still really new, isn’t it?” She asks, voice so gentle. If this is what she sounds like relaying messages from the great beyond to her clients, Gareth can sort of see the appeal. Gareth just nods, not trusting his voice.

“Sometimes grief breaks down the barrier—it makes you more susceptible, especially if you’re already sensitive,” she explains in that quiet, gentle tone.

“I can’t find him, though,” Gareth admits. His voice cracks. “There’s Barb and Heather, and the little girl that follows the Chief, and I know there’s gonna be others but… I can’t find him.”

Her fingers lace into his, squeezing in solidarity. She knows what he’s trying to do—to find one soul in a sea of billions—is beyond what anyone should reasonably expect of a grief-stricken sixteen-year-old, no matter how gifted they might be. Even she can’t reach into the aether and pluck out who she needs on command. All you can do is call for them and hope they come. All you can do is practice so you get better at calling them in. He hasn’t even had the time to practice.

“What you’re trying to do is incredibly difficult, even for someone who’s done this for years. It’s not impossible! But I need you to understand it might take you years to find him. Things aren’t the same on the other side. They don’t exist in a linear time like we do. A year could be a moment, an afternoon could be a century. And while many stay close to where they lived… nothing is guaranteed,” she explains gently, thumb rubbing his knuckles, “All we can do is call for them.”

It breaks her heart, the look on his face. So she makes a decision. She’s going to help him, this shattered, gifted kid. He’s trying to do the impossible, but he’s not going to face it alone.

Three hours later, Gareth is leaving with just about everything she knows, a pendulum, and a deck of tarot cards to experiment with. Genevieve thinks he could be good. Great, even, something in her mind whispers. He’s already sensing more than most do when they start training their gifts. He’s already sensing more than most professional psychics she encountered. And at least now he knows how to keep himself safe.

When he pulls out his wallet to offer her some money for her help, she waves him off.

“I won’t take your money, Gareth the Great.”

He freezes, giving her a strange look. “What did you say?”

“‘I won’t that your money, Gareth’?” she repeats, voice lilting up in a question. Her brow is furrowed.

“Never mind, I must’ve misheard you,” he mumbles, “Anyways, thank you. For the help. I needed it.”

Genevieve flashes him a sweet smile. “Drive careful, Gareth. Don’t speed.”

As her door falls closed behind him, Gareth looks up to the sky and whispers, “Eddie? Are you here?”

Gareth knows Barb is around when he sees that image of a blank test, an empty line at the top waiting for a name. He’s doing his own homework, sprawled on his soft tummy on the floor of his room, but he sits up once he sees it.

“Your name is Barb, honey,” he murmurs. Barb Holland appears on the test before it disappears from his mind. “Atta girl. Whatcha need?”

Barb doesn’t really have an answer for him. He can sense a shrug of sorts. She’s just here to be here.

“Wanna hang out with me? Cool, there’s something I wanted to try with you.”

He fumbles for the deck of cards he’d dropped on his nightstand and pries open the cardboard box. As Genevieve showed him, he fans them out face down on the floor.

“I’m gonna point to them in line, you tell me when to stop, okay? Show me a card for um… Nancy! Show me a card for Nancy.” He explains. As he traces his finger over them, he gets a flash of a cherry-red stop sign. He moves his finger back until it happens again, and tugs the card Barb had selected out of the deck. Queen of Swords. He has to look at the booklet to know what it means, but it makes him laugh. Perceptiveness, clarity, complexity. Nancy.

“That’s her, isn’t it?” He chuckles as he tucks it back in the spread. “Okay, again, but this time let me figure out who?”

He drags his finger along until he pulls out a card that makes his fingers tingle like they’re cold in the icy winter weather Hawkins gets every year. It’s the Hierophant, but he’s upside down. Reversed, Genevieve had said. Gareth can’t figure it out. Isn’t that card about tradition?

“Gimme another hint?”

This time, it’s the Fool he pulls, teetering precariously along the edge of a cliff. That doesn’t clear it up any.

“One more?”

It isn’t until the grinning face of the Devil is looking back at him that Gareth pieces it together. He reaches for the book, flipping through it.

Nonconformity, free spirit, playfulness. And well, the grinning devil face on his Hellfire shirt that’s draped over the edge of his hamper.

“Eddie?!” Gareth yelps, looking around the room as if he might catch a glimpse. “Is he here? Eddie?”

There’s a cold, still pressure on his wrist, regretful and comforting. Oh. No Eddie. Gareth feels the pull to draw another card, and he does. The Hermit, reversed.

“Who’s this, Barb?” He ponders aloud. He’s rewarded with a glimpse of himself—more of an impression than a picture. The fluffy outline of his curls, red plaid, a crooked grin, soft rolls of flesh around a waist.

“Did you just call me fat, Barb?” He laughs, too amused to be offended. Is that how she perceives him? She doesn’t answer but she urges him to pull another card. The Lovers. He lays it between the Hermit and the Devil. He can feel her question in the air around him.

“Oh, um, no. We weren’t. I mean, I love hi—I loved him, but not like that. More like two halves of a whole.”

Eddie had been his best friend, and maybe they had looked like lovers sometimes, but it was only because they shared one soul, split neatly in two. Now the other half of Gareth’s soul was gone.

“Thanks for letting me talk about him, Barb. I’m sure everyone else is sick of my crying.”

There’s pressure on his shoulder as if someone has laid a comforting hand on him. It lingers for a moment before it fades and the slightly smothering feeling is gone from his room. Gareth gathers up his cards and stretches out again to finish his homework. He’s still got to keep moving forward.

#gareth emerson #gareth the great #gareth stranger things #stranger things fic #st4 #ghost of you fic #eddie munson #horror fiction

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