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avatar-news · 3 years

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The Fire Nation Awaits 🌺 An in-depth look at the ever-elusive islands in the era of Korra and when we will finally pay them a visit

[Artwork by Avatar News; not official.]

Note: This article was published before the official announcement of Avatar Studios at the Paramount+ investor day.

“Water. Earth. Fire. Air. Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked.” We’ve all heard those words a million times. The four elements, and the power to control them bestowed by four subspecies of giant lion-turtles, are at the very heart of the world of Avatar. The balance between them was once upon a time broken by one of the four, the Fire Nation, forming the main conflict of Avatar: The Last Airbender. For much of Aang and the Gaang’s quest at the close of the Hundred Year War, the Fire Nation was a forbidden, far-away location, until the curtain was finally drawn back in the aptly-named Book Three: Fire when our heroes entered the inferno, undercover behind enemy lines. A dramatic tropical destination! New outfits! Culture shock! Needless to say, it was a big deal.

→ 🌺 The big reveal of the Fire Nation in Book Three: Fire had its own marketing push, matching public anticipation.

When the Hundred Year War ended, the newly-instated Fire Lord Zuko dedicated his life to righting the wrongs of his forefathers and working with Avatar Aang to bring the Fire Nation back into the fold under peace. By the time Aang’s successor debuted as the next Avatar in the titular The Legend of Korra, Zuko had abdicated the five-pointed crown and his daughter, Fire Lord Izumi, took the stage leading a reformed, rebalanced Fire Nation.

There was no more war, no more enemy lines, yet the Fire Nation became more distant and mysterious than ever before.

Korra’s close encounters with the land of fire

To this day, Korra has never visited the Fire Nation, nor has it been seen at all, nor do we know anything about it in her era. In fact, practically the only thing we do know is that its leader is a noninterventionist, which conveniently gets it out of the way of making an appearance in Korra’s journey as the Avatar so far.

The closest we have come to seeing the Fire Nation in The Legend of Korra was in Book Two: Spirits, Chapter Five: Peacekeepers. In the midst of the Water Tribe Civil War, Korra sets out across the sea to get help from the royal family, however, she is intercepted by a dark spirit and never makes it to her destination. In the next episode, she washes up on a secret island home to the Bhanti sages, which probably technically counts as Fire Nation territory, but as we know from The Shadow of Kyoshi (more on that later), this faction predates the Four Nations themselves so it doesn’t really count.

→ 🌺 Korra washes up on the beach of Bhanti Island in Book Two: Spirits, Chapter Six: The Sting.

No, as cool as that location and the events of the Beginnings two-parter that happened there were, it wasn’t the main draw of seeing the Fire Nation that we’re still waiting for: seeing how the Fire Nation, which was already industrializing in Aang’s time, changed over the decades, compared to places like Republic City and Ba Sing Se; meeting new characters; visiting new and familiar locations; worldbuilding both new and expanding on what we already learned.

After this aborted tease in Book Two, we never come close to the island country again (at least not with this Avatar and in her era; yes I’m leading up to something...). Instead, the focus turns strongly to the Earth Kingdom in the third and fourth Books, and beyond.

Keep in mind that The Legend of Korra aired for about two-and-a-half years total from 2012 to 2014. Since then, the story has continued in comics. The comics era has lasted from 2015 to present-- seven years to the animated series’ two. In that time, there have only been two comic trilogies due to various production troubles, and neither have touched the Fire Nation. Instead, they directly continue the Earth Kingdom-focused threads started in Books Three and Four of Korra, both originally airing in 2014. Or, in perspective: we had a focus on Republic City in 2012, the Water Tribes in 2013, and the Earth Kingdom from 2014-2021.

Will we finally see the Fire Nation in the next graphic novel trilogy?

This question comes to mind every time new Korra content is supposed to roll around, and the powers that be know it-- it’s a pretty obvious gap in the world of Avatar right now. This franchise is iconically built around four elements and the Four Nations based on them, so one of them being MIA is quite glaring, and for that reason everyone is understandably always asking about it.

The most concrete confirmation we’ve gotten was this AMA answer from franchise co-creator Michael Dante DiMartino in 2016, two years after the show ended and a year before the first graphic novels did come out:

“Yes, hopefully in the [Korra] comics, we’ll have a chance to go to the Fire Nation and see how it has changed since A:TLA.”

Since then, as previously discussed, two comic trilogies have come and gone, obviously not getting closer to the Fire Nation-- and I would actually argue entrenching themselves further away from it.

I want to make it clear that I’m against fan entitlement. Creatives telling the tales they want to in service of the story and the artform is how the industry should run. I’m just hoping to offer some perspective on how we got to where we are almost a decade into the era of Korra and the metatextual pacing of the franchise itself.

Either way, the next Korra comic trilogy has been official confirmed by the editor for Avatar at Dark Horse Comics in this informal statement on Twitter:

We’re not ready to announce any details yet, but we are working on the next trilogy. I really appreciate your patience and hope it’s worth the wait! ✨

There’s currently some kind of holdup for which we really have zero context or information, and we of course have no idea what this next trilogy will be about. (I do speculate a bit on what it could be a few paragraphs down.)

But, like what turned out to be Ruins of the Empire before it, I faithfully made a mockup graphic for my post announcing the confirmation of the next The Legend of Korra graphic novel trilogy. And like before, I chose to completely speculatively and blindly make it Fire Nation-y, as if the next comic could/would(/should?) feature it. This is mainly because I feel like that’s what most people’s eyes would be caught by and thus result in the most successful post (hey, at least I’m honest), but also because it’s just fun.

Here are both images, from 2018 and 2020 respectively:

→ 🌺 Speculative edits I made for my posts on the announcement of previous and upcoming Korra comics before we knew anything about them.

In both cases, the response was huge, and people were super excited about the prospect of Fire Nation content just from my quick speculative mockups. I am of course hoping that the new artwork I made of the Krew for this post will have a similar effect (it’s the first time I just straight-up drew it instead of editing existing images) but again it’s really mostly just for fun.

Anyway, until the next trilogy is properly revealed, we’ll just have to wait and see.

However, that’s not the only place this could happen.

Are they saving the Fire Nation for an animated movie?

With Avatar’s HUGE success on Netflix last year, interest in the franchise rocketed to an all-time high. The streaming wars have begun, and Avatar’s owner and its parent company, Nickelodeon and ViacomCBS, have finally started to notice.

ViacomCBS is launching Paramount+ on March 4th, a relaunch of its existing streaming service CBS All Access. Paramount+ is meant to be a big expansion and refocus to compete with the big hitters: Disney+, HBO Max, and, yes, Netflix. (There’s quite an entanglement there, with Netflix being the home of Avatar’s big year and the upcoming live-action series.)

One of the keys to a successful streamer today is high-profile originals to drive new subscribers. ViacomCBS knows this and they know Avatar has just become among the highest profiles a property can have, breaking records and going toe-to-toe with other big-hitting sci-fi/fantasy/genre franchises. This knowledge goes right to the top of the food chain: the CEO of ViacomCBS mentioned Avatar by name when discussing potential originals for Paramount+.

I have previously discussed how The Search relates to this. The Search was the second ATLA comic trilogy, focused on the search for Zuko’s mother in the thick of the Fire Nation, and if you didn’t know, it was originally pitched by Bryke as an animated movie after the original series ended.

I just want to be clear that what I’m discussing here is purely speculative, but this is the only other piece of the Avatar franchise that we know was optioned for animation besides the shows themselves. It’s possible they would be interested in going back to this idea as a Paramount+ original (and it would certainly be popular among audiences), but it is of course set during the era of Aang and thus covers both a time period we’ve already seen, and also by nature of already being released as comics, events we’ve already seen too.

However, the whole point of this article is that there is one major, huge thing we haven’t seen yet, with massive anticipation building for a decade behind it: the Fire Nation in the era of Korra. So, again, this is just speculation, but it’s also possible that they could return to the very smallest seed of the original idea for a The Search movie, and do a Fire Nation-focused Korra movie now.

→ 🌺 ATLA’s Fire Nation-focused The Search was originally pitched as an animated movie.

You can skip this next part if you don’t want to see me embarrassingly promote my fan idea 😆 but this is where the artwork I made for this article comes into play. The general idea for it, and the reason I tried to replicate the show’s style as much as possible, is that it’s what a Fire Nation-focused movie could maybe look like. Something as standalone and unrelated to Earth Kingdom drama as possible, with fresh new looks for the Krew to get people excited for something fresh and new! I really feel like the Avatar franchise has so much potential for expanded content like this, that’s why I have high hopes that Paramount+ will make the most out of it! You can see the individual characters’ artwork in larger size here. Ok I’m done back to business.

If the idea of a movie seems too impossible to you, we can also take a deeper look at Bryke’s involvement with upcoming comics instead.

After Korra ended, they officially each went their separate ways. They vaguely consulted on Avatar stuff, and Mike of course wrote the Korra comics, but Bryan was planning on writing and drawing his own original non-Avatar comic series and Mike was releasing his own non-Avatar novels. This all appears to have come to a stop when they signed on to showrun the live-action retelling of ATLA at Netflix, officially reuniting the partnership and committing to Avatar again in a big way. Of course, they ended up leaving that project over creative differences, but it did result in a big, lasting change: this time they remained official creative partners and have indicated they’re still working on Avatar now, together. This is a far cry from the official breakup after Korra, so it begs the question what exactly they’re working on. I of course have my fanciful predictions of a sprawling expansion of the Avatar franchise at Paramount+, but what if it’s actually a combination of the ingredients from before the live-action series...

More speculation, but what if the reason for all the mystery behind the next Korra comics is because they will be made by Bryke, with the two of them co-writing and Bryan doing the art for the first time? If that’s the case, they could want to make them a bigger deal than the other Avatar comics have been so far, and maybe that’s why it’s taking so long to iron everything out, have a more significant story, have more of a marketing push, etc. If they’ve been saving the Fire Nation for something big, this could be it.

I personally think this is less likely than a show or movies or something, but it is possible. Anything is possible right now since we know so little about the large-scale direction of the franchise moving forward, just that it’s gonna get big.

⛰️🌋 The Fire Nation in the era of Avatar Kyoshi

We’re not done! Despite everything I’ve written here, believe it or not, the Fire Nation was actually the star of the show in the last year.

With the debut of the Avatar franchise’s first original novels, Kyoshi made a huge splash (in a way only she can). If you haven’t read them yet, you NEED to-- they’re some of the best Avatar content EVER. The Rise of Kyoshi hit shelves in 2019 and The Shadow of Kyoshi followed in 2020. The latter is of particular interest here, because it was almost entirely set in the Fire Nation and featured practically everything and anything you could want from a visit to elusive islands. Though obviously set in a historical period some four hundred years before Aang’s time, Kyoshi’s sojourn in the Fire Nation gave us a huge amount of new information, a depth and breadth of worldbuilding, culture, and character we’ve never really seen in Avatar before. It truly makes the most of the literary medium, so hats off to author F. C. Yee for the passion and effort he put in.

In The Shadow of Kyoshi, we learn about the era of the previous fire Avatar before Roku, Avatar Szeto. Through Kyoshi and her own Team Avatar, we learn about the different clans and islands of the Fire Nation, as they experience the fraught early reign of Fire Lord Zoryu and the conflict between the Keohso and Saowon clans, culminating in the Camellia-Peony War. We get a multitude of fleshed-out perspectives from the upper crust to the flea-bitten underworld, matching the heights of the worldbuilding quality of Republic City. It’s such cool, intricate stuff, and really shows Avatar’s potential (and that’s all just the worldbuilding-- the character work is also top-notch).

That’s not the only place the Fire Nation has shone recently. One of Insight Editions’ awesome scrapbooks, Legacy of the Fire Nation, gave us a tour through the royal family’s history, including never-before-seen looks at young Iroh and Ozai and much, much more.

All this just goes to show that the Fire Nation has been a hot ticket throughout the ages and there’s one conspicuous gap in that history: the era of Avatar Korra. With so much recent expansion and development of the Fire Nation in our world, it would be perfect to see the culmination of it all in the current time period in the world of Avatar too.

If this made you excited for the potential of what the Avatar franchise could look like in the coming years, same boat!

The next concrete date where something could be announced is February 24th, when ViacomCBS will host their investor day and present their streaming strategy, including Paramount+ originals. There’s no guarantee Avatar is mentioned, but I’m keeping a hopeful eye out.

As for comics, Dark Horse’s schedule marches to its own beat, so there’s no way to know when the next drop of information is coming our way.

Could this finally be the comics that take us to the Fire Nation, or could the much-anticipated visit be in another medium like animation? Stay tuned-- as always I’ll post as soon as we learn anything new!

#korra comics #paramount plus #the fire nation awaits

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fictionalnormalcy · 3 years

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Thoughts that literally kept me up last night. I always browse my explore page on Insta before I finally stow away the phone. The last post I saw was one where something pointed out a cameo in a Disney Pixar movie. That thought came to a tangent where it came to Tales of Arcadia and their cameos. And I swear to goodness, I still have the continued insistence that this series in set in the same universe of How to Train Your Dragon.

In 2018 I made a post where I literally went through all of Trollhunters and drew out each cameo and compared them to DreamWorks Dragons. I’ll admit, I can’t think of any right now that stood out to me in 3Below and Wizards. But the fact that 3Below and Wizards are literally still set in the same universe with the same characters, I feel it still applies.

And to this day, I’m still trying to fight myself. Debunk it that it’s another DreamWorks thing, and it’s essentially what Disney does with their movies and shows. DreamWorks movies do their handful of cameos as well, but I’d like to say not as extensive as Disney, and to a further extent Disney Pixar. I guess you can say this will be a DreamWorks vs. Disney post.

It’s not like Disney where we catch a glimpse of Rapunzel and Eugene as they walk through the opened gates in Frozen, or the Woody and Buzz piñatas in Coco, or the little elephants wearing Anna and Elsa dresses in Zootopia, or the Pizza Planet car in Monster’s Inc. and a majority of Disney Pixar movies.

DreamWorks movies, perhaps I haven’t paid as good attention to detail, but there’s few I remember. If someone remembers any, please tell me. I strongly want to know. Of the few I think of Penguins of Madagascar where Classified says to release the sheep and what’s shoved out of the barn is a sheep that looks like the ones from HTTYD. Then in Rise of the Guardians, where in Jamie’s bedroom you can see a dragon plush, said to be a Monstrous Nightmare, so also HTTYD. But otherwise they’ve slipped my mind.

Sorry I’ll bring this back to Tales of Arcadia. Okay, so I say that they are in the same universe because of the many DreamWorks Dragons cameos. I’ll give the link here as to the cameos I found in Trollhunters. There are seven I listed in that post, and there are two more I’d like to add now. In the literal first episode of Trollhunters, you see Toothless on the screen of a laptop.

The most notable one is in Season 2 when Draal, AARRGGHH!!!, and Blinky play Maces&Talons together. That one, when I saw it is when the notion started forming in my head. Because even though they do cameos, you never see the characters actively engage with it. And that’s what these characters did! They were so engaged in this game that they called attention to themselves with the yelling! Although I do have the inkling, that they probably weren’t playing it right. In the few scenes of Race to the Edge where we see it played, I don’t remember seeing cards beside the board. Heather and Fishlegs simply moved the pieces without much discussion. In the live person game Viggo and Dagur played it seemed like chess, I move this piece and now these players are vulnerable, then your turn. How the trolls played it, it gave off the vibe of Dungeons&Dragons. I’ll post the visual so y’all can see.

Which with my mindset implies this: The trolls may have found a game set of Maces&Talons with these cards alongside it, and interpreted the game was played in a different way. Or even provided their own additions. Because in RTTE we definitely never see dice, and there were never cards visible. I will concede that we weren’t given a detailed explanation of how exactly the game was played. But look at the board, those are the same figurines we see, the same placing of the rock and mock water. There can be no mistaking it’s a game board of Maces&Talons.

The only other cameo I can think that sort of compares to this one is when Boo hands Sulley a Nemo squeak toy in Monster Inc. Engagement with a cameo. But that was a single second where it squeaked he put it in his hands and that was that.

The other was a very active scene where you first heard the yelling and the cries, hear Blinky’s enjoyment and then the pounding of the table. It was intentional in getting your attention, and if you’re a viewer who’s also seen RTTE, you would’ve thought “OMG that’s Maces&Talons, these trolls are playing it in this modern day?”

Individually, I will admit you could say there was another reason the cameos were included. But the reason why I believe the strong suggestion that they’re the same universe is because there were so many, and so obvious too. Toothless obviously put in the shot so you couldn’t miss it, then AARRGGHH!!!, Blinky, and Draal, playing a game so obviously that you knew it was important. (if you had seen the other show). Here’s the thing though, the cameos were strictly of HTTYD. Not of other DreamWorks shows or movies. I will admit there may have been a Madagascar one, from the scene where Otto said they had a piece of the Bridge sent over from Madagascar. The mention seems like a cameo, because they really could have chosen any cryptic place but chose a place where DreamWorks has had a hand in.

Then another thing that I consider a cameo, was actually one of the new characters introduced in Wizards. I am going to be writing my thoughts again if I write out the whole thing, so I’ll link another post where I talked about it here. To summarize, it discusses Archie the Familiar, how the voice actor is Alfred Molina. Who voiced Viggo Grimborn in Race to the Edge. Evidence provided in the post where the familiar could be Viggo reincarnated. To me it makes sense. And it really does seem utterly convenient that they cast Molina for another character with the exact same voice he used for Viggo.

I mean Mark Hamill who voiced Alvin the Treacherous in DreamWorks Dragons also voiced Dictatious but the voices don’t sound similar in the least. I don’t hear Dictatious and say omg the voice is uncanny to Alvin. But with Molina, I hear Archie and I can picture those words seamlessly coming out of Viggo’s mouth. Nothing differing in the voices. While with Hamill and the characters he voiced, yes he indeed used different voices. But Archie and Viggo legit sound the same.

I will also admit it this as it crossed my mind, when you reincarnate you don’t remember anything from your past life. And usually, I can bet you don’t sound like the person in your past life. However I do want to outline this. In Wizards there really isn’t a mention of Vikings, suggesting it’s after the Viking times. And here’s also another thing about reincarnation. The new life you’re born into, it’s certainly distanced enough where you aren’t around anyone who knew your past life. So there is the possibility that your voice is the same as your past life. There’s no one around who can point it out.

I also can bring this to another extent. As is a voice actor, it depends on the crew you’re working with to determine how you bring a character to life. For RTTE, of the little that’s been released for behind the scenes it was revealed that the voice actors were allowed to improvise for their characters, as they knew who they voiced best. Meaning Molina was given the freedom to voice Viggo as he saw fit, hence why we were given “My dear Hiccup.” So the voice we heard for Viggo was how Molina wanted to animate this character. Yet, we have no way of guessing if Molina was allowed that same courtesy when voicing Archie. Based on the similarities these two characters had, perhaps Molina was asked to use the same voice.

But I have to say that even if he chose it or was asked to use that voice, it fuels my belief. Because the crew of Tales of Arcadia put in all those HTTYD cameos. To wind into specifics, the Maces and Talons board. And then later they put a character who sounds like the character who wound that board game into reality. It locks it in for me.

But yeah, this was why I struggled to fall asleep.

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uncommoncold · 3 years

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Blind Date with Destiny

Summary: As Yeosang prepares to meet his soul mark, he's torn between what society and his parents tells him is right and what his heart wants - Seonghwa. As any grown man should do when faced with such a situation, he runs away from home.

Word Count: 4k

Content Warning: Drama and Angst with a side of boys kissing

The car pulled up out front of Yeosang’s parents house. His grandmother had insisted that her driver take him. He sat in the car looking up at the house he had grown up in. It was the nicest on the street and the largest. He hadn’t ever really given any thought to how showy it was, how well manicured. He hadn’t ever really given much thought to the fact that everything was all for show with his mother. If she couldn’t show it off to other people, it didn’t have any worth for her. It wasn’t that he thought that his mother bore no love for him, he was sure that she did in her own way. It was just that perhaps she hadn’t ever really known what love was, her ability to give it fell short. His grandmother was rich because she spent her life working beside his grandfather to build the family fortunes. Their children had been left largely to nannies and the boarding schools they were sent off to.

It was hard to imagine his grandmother as a distant and non-present maternal figure. Both she and his now deceased grandfather had always been there for him. Even now when he had presented her with the fact that he liked a man, she had been nothing but supportive of him. He had no such illusions of his parents having the same reaction. However, that wasn’t even an issue yet. He had told his grandmother about Seonghwa to gauge her reaction and because she was the safest choice.

The battle for today in this house was about his soul mark and what was more important to his mother, Bo Seulhee’s money and position.

“Are you alright sir?” His grandmother’s driver was watching him in the rearview mirror.

Yeosang smiled and sighed, “I’m fine, just thinking.”

The man had been his grandmother’s driver as long as he could remember and he had known him his entire life.

“Your mother is probably waiting for you.”

While true, it certainly didn’t make him feel any better, “You’re right. Thank you for the ride Mr. Han.”

The man smiled, “No trouble at all. If you need a ride back to the train station tomorrow, give me a call and I’ll take you.”

Yeosang climbed out of the car and walked up the long drive. He hesitated before walking in. As soon as the door opened, his mother popped out of the side room. She hurried over to him and peeled his coat off of him and took his bag. “Where have you been? You’ve been keeping your guest waiting.”

“I had to stop by and see grandmother first.”

His mother scoffed, “She could wait, Bo Seulhee has been waiting to meet you. Is that what you’re wearing?”

Yeosang looked down at his clothes and back up again, “Yes?”

“Go change. I won’t have her thinking you’re some sort of street person. Go clean up and change for dinner.” She all but pushed him toward the stairs.

Oh boy, his mother was in fine form. Still, he knew where to pick his battles and this was not a hill he was willing to die on. He went to his room, took a quick shower and changed his clothes into something appropriate for meeting one of his father’s business acquaintances and made his way to the dining room. Given his druthers, he would have greatly preferred looking like the street person his mother claimed he was when he showed up, he didn’t want to make himself look any more appealing than necessary.

“Ah, there he is. Come in.” Yoo Dan-ah rose and held out her hand to Yeosang. “This is my son, Kang Yeosang.

An absolutely stunning woman with waist length auburn hair stood up and turned to meet him. Her smile was radiant. She was one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen and he felt … nothing but a pervasive creeping dread. His dad shot him a small sympathetic smile and shake of his head.

“Yeosang, this is Bo Seulhee. Here, you two sit together.”

Yeosang gave his mother a warning look but she was oblivious or simply didn’t care. He took his seat next to Bo Seulhee and reached for his drink. He was hyper aware of the woman sitting at his side. He could feel her eyes on him. He focused on his father who was seated across from him. “How’s work going father? Are you still going to London?”

His father opened his mouth to answer but his mother interrupted, “Oh who cares about him. You talk to your father all of the time, you should talk to our guest.”

He cast a half glance at Seulhee before looking down at his plate. He fiddled with one of the chopsticks sitting beside his place setting.

“I’m sorry, he’s a bit shy.” Yoo Dan-ah said by way of excuse for his reticence to speak.

He had never been one to take instantly to strangers and small talk and chit chat were skills he simply didn’t possess. He looked at his father and gave him a pleading look. Dohyun subtly shrugged his shoulders.

“So, I was thinking that the wedding could be in the spring. I’ve already spoken to your mother at length. When do you think a good time to get the families together would be?”

Yeosang’s head snapped up, “What?!”

“There’s no need to raise your voice.” His mother gave him a disapproving look. “She’s your soulmate after all, it’s obvious that your two will be married. There’s no point in delaying it.”

“Don’t you think you could at least ask me about it?” Never mind that this woman was a total stranger and while she supposedly had the same mark as him, he hadn’t ever seen it and had no reason to think that it couldn’t be a mistake.

“Yoo Dan-ah, don’t you think that you’re rushing things a little? They haven’t even had a chance to get to know one another yet.” Dohyun said, casting a look at his son from the corner of his eye. He looked like a skittish animal who was about to bolt if he heard one more sound he didn’t like.

Dan-ah flashed him a look of irritation but after a moment of glaring at her husband she sighed, “Alright, we don’t need to make the plans now. I just thought the spring would be a lovely time to hold the wedding.”

“Kang Yeosang hasn’t even graduated yet, I think we should at least wait until he’s graduated. A newlywed doesn’t have the time to dedicate to their studies. They can get to know each other during that time.” Kang Dohyun was often the voice of reason when it came to Yeosang’s mother.

“I’m sure he can manage. Speaking of his studies, he should probably change his major to business so that he can be involved in his new family’s company. I’ve spoken to Bo Seulhee’s mother and there are considerations with their business as well as the family trip that they all take during the summer. If we don’t start planning now then the entire affair will be rushed and I don’t want people to think we didn’t plan this wedding properly, there are so many things to take care of…”

“Yoo Dan-ah, they haven’t known each other five minutes yet.” Dohyun could see the look in his son’s eyes. He was going to snap. It didn’t happen often, only a handful of times in his life but when things got to be too much for him…

Yeosang jumped to his feet. He looked first at Bo Seulhee, “You seem like a fine person but I don’t know you and I have no intention of marrying someone I don’t know.”

“Kang Yeosang! Sit down and apologize right this instant. She is your soulmate and you’re going to end up with her regardless, there’s no point to this nonsense of yours.”

“Are you so greedy that you’d just write off anything about what the fortune teller said? Are you so greedy that you don’t care anything at all about what I want? I’m not marrying her, not in the spring, not ever!” He threw down the napkin that had been in his lap and stormed out of the dining room.

“Yeosang!” Dan-ah started to go after him when her husband grabbed her wrist.

“Sit down.”

“But-”

“You’re just going to make it worse, let him be.”

Seulhee watched Yeosang thunder out of the room, his steps retreating up the stairs. From the moment she laid eyes on him, she was smitten. He was stunningly handsome and there was just something about him that drew her to him. She assumed it was because he was her soulmate. She cast an angry eye at his mother. Yoo Dan-ah had chased him off and set him against her with all of her talk of marriage without at least letting them get to know each other first. She was sure it would be the same for him if he was allowed a chance to feel it. He hadn’t even had a chance to even look at her properly.

Seulhee was fairly sure that if someone showed him pictures of three different women who looked similar to her, he wouldn’t even be able to pick her out so brief had their meeting been. She wasn’t entirely sure what his mother’s rush was, Kang Yeosang had accused her of greed. She had to know that even with their families joined, she wouldn’t have the family’s money. However, the connection might give her a boost in status. She suddenly didn’t like her future mother-in-law very much, however she would need her onside for Yeosang.

After a few moments of silence, footsteps came back down the stairs.

“Oh good he’s come to his senses…” Dan-ah said and smiled toward the doorway.

“I doubt it.” said Dohyun.

In confirmation of his father’s statement, Yeosang walked straight past the door to the dining room and into the front hall. Seconds later, the front door slammed and he was gone.

“Where did he go?” Dan-ah turned to her husband.

Kang Do-hyun sighed and reached to take off his glasses and pinch the bridge of his nose before sighing. “I dare say we won’t hear from him for a while.”

“Are you saying he went back to Seoul?” Dan-ah’s tone was incredulous.

“No, I think it’d be too easy to find him there.” Do-hyun had a pretty good idea he knew where his son had gone but he wasn’t about to tell his wife. Yeosang needed time and while he couldn’t really prevent his fate, he could buy him the time he needed to come to grips with it.

***

Yeosang sat on the end of the pier and stared out at the water. The surface was frozen over and that meant no fishing. Not that it mattered, his grandfather had rarely fished when he had come out here himself. It was just time he or his grandmother needed to be away from each other. They spent their lives living and working together, it was inevitable that the time would come when they would need space.

Besides, he was a lousy fisherman.

It had been nearly two weeks since he had left his parent’s house. He had gone to his grandmother’s and borrowed one of her cars. She hadn’t asked him where he was going or why he wanted it. She had only asked him to call her when he was ready. He was not ready.

He thought about going back home to Seoul but he knew that Seonghwa was already gone to visit his family for the holidays. As eager as he was to see Seonghwa, he was equally hesitant about the talk that they would have to have.

If he hadn’t met Seonghwa first would he have just gone along with his mother’s ideas for a rushed marriage? Bo Seulhee was an astonishingly beautiful woman and she was rich but he honestly didn’t care about that. Was she kind? Was she generous? Was she sweet? From everything that dramas had told him she would be a selfish bitch but he knew enough not to believe everything that dramas said.

When he saw her he had felt nothing but dread. He thought that when he finally met his soulmate there would be something akin to being struck by lightning, something that would make him forget that she was supposed to be the reason for his grief and pain.

He had felt more the first time he had seen Seonghwa and he wasn’t his soulmate. Granted, most of what he had felt the first time he had seen Seonghwa had been supreme embarrassment and guilt for walking into a stranger’s house. It was only in retrospect that he had thought about his slender muscular body and the way little drops of water fell from his hair over his shoulders to run in little shimmering rivulets down over his bare chest.

A biting wind kicked up, sending leaves skittering over the surface of the frozen pond. He reached up and adjusted his scarf so that only his eyes were uncovered. He knew he should probably go inside and make something to eat but he didn’t want to leave his spot just yet. He stared down at the surface of the water at his feet. He pictured himself just pitching forward into the deep dark frozen depths. That would solve all of those pesky little problems he had wouldn’t it? No more greedy mother. No more fiancee who he knew nothing about. No more worries about the fact that he cared for a man who wasn’t his soulmate and cared nothing for the woman that was.

“It’s not as glamorous as they make it out to be.”

The voice behind him startled him and he squeaked as he whipped around ready to fight for the life he had just idly contemplated throwing away. Park Seonghwa walked down the pier toward him. He hadn’t heard him approach at all.

“What?” Yeosang tugged his scarf down as he gaped at him, not entirely sure he wasn’t hallucinating.

“Suicide, it’s not as glamorous as they make it out to be. I’ve heard you shit yourself. Imagine, all of your friends and family standing around and you there with your pants full.”

Yeosang blinked once, twice and then he started laughing. He laughed until his sides hurt. When he finally stopped he looked up at Seonghwa who had crouched down beside him. He was smiling back at him. God he was a sight for sore eyes. He didn’t realize how much he had missed him until just this moment. “Wait, what are you doing here? How did you know where I was?”

Seonghwa stood and stretched, “I just happened to find it.”

“You just … found it?” Yeosang clearly didn’t believe him.

“Your grandmother called me and asked me to come find you.” Seonghwa had been tied into knots the entire time he had been home. Various members of his family must have asked him two dozen times if he was alright. He hadn’t been able to get Yeosang out of his head for even five minutes, even at the memorial.

It had surprised him greatly when Yeosang’s grandmother had called him. He didn’t know that she even knew he existed, let alone knew his phone number. She said she thought that Yeosang needed a friend and that if Seonghwa was his friend, then it might be best if he went to find him. She had told him where he was and offered him a driver to take him out there. She claimed he probably wouldn’t find it without help. After seeing where it was, he had to agree with her assessment. He never would have found it without knowing where it was.

“Why?”

“She said you needed a friend.” Seonghwa turned and looked at him. He was quiet for a long time. The wind blew through the trees, an eerie whistle carried down across the water. “I owe you an apology, I pushed you when I shouldn’t have. I’m sorry for that. I know I probably scared the hell out of you. You can take all of the time you need, just- Come home.”

Yeosang looked back into the pleading warmth of Seonghwa’s eyes. He said so much with his eyes, they showed his truth, his soul. He wanted him to come home. He truly wanted him there. If he needed more evidence, it was right there in the endless depths of those eyes he wished he could fall into forever. He didn’t care anymore. He leaned forward and kissed Seonghwa.

At first, he didn’t respond, he just stared at him in shock. Yeosang started to question himself, there was no way he misunderstood that kiss they had shared before he left in a panic. Had he crossed a line? Had he offended him? He tried to think of something to say to heal the unknowing breach he had opened when Seonghwa leaned back in and returned his kiss, his hands lifting to gently cradle Yeosang’s face as he tenderly tasted his lips.

When they parted, Yeosang gave a shy smile and glanced down before peeking back up again.

“Can we go inside?” Seonghwa asked, shrugging against his thick coat with a shiver.

“Sure.” Yeosang stood up and winced as he realized one of his feet was asleep. “Ow.”

He reached out and grabbed onto Seonghwa’s shoulder as he shook his foot. Seonghwa chuckled, “How long have you been sitting out here?”

“I’m not sure exactly. I’d ask what time it was but I don’t know what time it was when I came out.” He paused and caught Seonghwa’s eye. “I’m sorry for making you come all the way out here.”

“I wanted to come.” He reached and dragged a gloved finger over the curve of Yeosang’s cheek. “I missed you and I was worried about you. I didn’t mean to put more stress on you than you already were feeling.”

“You care more about my comfort than my mother does… Thank you. It’s not your fault though, I’ve been stressed for a while.” Yeosang put his foot down and led the way back into the cabin. It was warm and homey. Yeosang took off his extra clothing and hung it up, standing by to watch as Seonghwa did the same. There was a certain freedom that came when you decided that you no longer gave a shit and he, he no longer gave a shit. He felt like he hadn’t been able to take a deep breath in years. He felt light. He felt free.

“You might have been stressed for awhile but I didn’t have to add to it.”

“You didn’t really add anything, I was already so convinced that I had ruined our friendship by what I had done that I couldn’t even wrap my mind around that kiss. That was a hell of a kiss.”

Seonghwa looked surprised and then blushed, looking around before looking back to Yeosang and smiling. “Is that what’s been going on with you?”

Yeosang shagged a hand through his hair and gestured toward the couch in the living room, “I’m not sure where to start or how much to say. It’s kind of embarrassing.”

“What is?” Seonghwa sat on the overstuffed leather sofa and turned to watch Yeosang in the kitchen as he made them both hot chocolate.

“I feel like I should tell you everything, so I will. The nightmares I had- I had more of them than I told you about. I don’t know exactly what I dreamed but I always was left with a profound feeling of loss. I felt like I had lost you, like you had died or something. I still don’t know what it was I dreamed. But there were other dreams too.” He focused on his hands because he still wasn’t sure about saying what he was about to say. “Dreams of … being with you.”

Seonghwa cocked his head to one side as he listened, “Being with me?”

“Those I remember, those I can’t seem to get out of my head. They were…” Yeosang’s voice dropped so low that it became indiscernible.

“What?”

Yeosang looked up and then back down at the hot chocolate, “Do you want marshmallows?”

“Sure.” However he wasn’t going to let Yeosang off that easily, “The dreams were what?”

Chewing on the edge of his bottom lip, he took a deep breath and decided to just say it, “They were deeply sexual.”

A teasing smirk slipped onto Seonghwa’s lips, “They were sexual or we had sex.”

“Both.” It was Yeosang’s turn to look around in embarrassment. “They weren’t like anything I had ever imagined or even thought of before.”

“Of being with a man?” Seonghwa reached forward and moved a few of the things on the coffee table so that there was room for the tray that Yeosang brought over.

“That too.”

“What do you mean?” To think that Yeosang had been dreaming of their being together all this time. He would have been lying if he said he wasn’t thrilled by the thought.

“It was…” An image of Seonghwa holding his bound wrists up over his head as he impaled his unready body, his lips smothering his scream flashed behind his eyes and he shook his head, trying to free himself of it. “Different.”

“Different?” Seonghwa pressed.

“I- I’ll tell you about it later.” Right now he just couldn’t. He was trying to explain why he had been strange and now about the kinky dreams he had. He hadn’t even realized that he was kinky, let alone that kinky.

“Okay, you’ll tell me later. I’ll hold you to it.”

There was something in the way Seonghwa said that which made it sound almost as much threat as promise. For a moment he forgot everything and just looked back at Seonghwa who was watching him with rapt attention. Finally he cleared his throat and continued, “I didn’t know that … I mean I hadn’t ever…”

“You didn’t know you liked men?” Seonghwa offered.

“I haven’t ever before. I hadn’t even ever thought of being with a man before and here I was thinking about not just a man but my best friend. I panicked and I think I might have hurt you, and I’m sorry.”

“I wasn’t really hurt, just confused. I knew you were upset, that something was wrong but I wasn’t sure what or why. Except after that night we slept together, I had a feeling you were avoiding me because of what happened that morning.” If the workmen hadn’t showed up when they did then they would be likely standing in a very different place to where they were.

Yeosang sighed and nodded, “I was. I didn’t know how to face you after what I had done. I was sure you were going to be disgusted with me and kick me out.”

“Why? I kissed you back. You made me very happy, I didn’t think you felt that way about me and I wanted you to. Why did you kiss me then?”

“I hate to admit it but I was half asleep and I think I was dreaming about you. It just sort of extended into reality but ... I wanted to. I wanted to kiss you and, and then the repairmen came.” Yeosang hesitated for a long moment and then added, “I realize now that… I like you.”

Seonghwa reached over and took Yeosang’s hand, lacing their fingers together. “I like you too.”

Yeosang looked down at their laced fingers and smiled brightly, “What do you say we stay here tonight and then head back home in the morning?”

“I’d like that. There’s one other thing.”

“One other thing?” Yeosang queried.

“Now that I know you like me and I like you, I won’t hold back anymore. I don’t care if that woman has a mark like yours from the trick of birth and fate, I’m going to fight for you. I’ve never felt about anyone the way I feel about you and I feel like that’s worth fighting for, that you’re worth fighting for.”

Yeosang opened and closed his mouth and let out a shuddering sigh, “I don’t think anyone has ever really fought for me before. Thank you. I’ll fight for you too. I don’t want her, I don’t know her. You’re all I think about. You’re the only one I want.”

“Good.” Seonghwa lifted Yeosang’s hand and kissed the back of his fingers. “We’ll fight together.”

NOTE: Other works can be found on my master list.

#ateez #ateez angst #ateez yeosang #ateez seonghwa #ateez fluff #ateez imagines #kpop angst #kpop fluff #kpop imagines #seonghwa #yeosang #ateez kang yeosang #ateez park seonghwa

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wwhkimseokjin · 5 years

Text

highway to hell - chapter 3

pairings: bts x reader (bit of member x member too)

genres: seven deadly sins!au, devil bangtan!au, fluff, angst, smut

warnings: future smut, violence, death, swearing, NSFW, literal hell

summary: Y/N had always been the perfect daughter, the perfect student, the light in people’s life. She had always believed that she would never do anything wrong, be a perfect little angel. Until her life turns upside down, and she meets seven very handsome, very dangerous men.

The last two weeks had gone by quicker than Y/N had realized. Getting accustomed to university had been rough. Getting to sleep when there were no morning classes? Utter heaven. On the other hand, having to drag yourself up after a long night with your friends as someone forgot about their early schedule? Not exactly ideal. But alas, that was the way of the university life. Y/N promised herself to enjoy these days though, before the dreaded no-sleep, caffeine-inhaling days would commence.

Two individuals were still present on her mind however, Jeon Jeongguk and the blond stranger - who she now knew as Kim Taehyung. Her days would’ve been a tad bit more tranquil, if she hadn’t constantly been on the lookout for the two boys. To be frank, it was almost like they had disappeared. But according to Y/N’s newly acquired friend Yein - self-declared gossiper of the campus - it wasn’t actually that odd. Y/N had met Yein at another party, which she had foolishly attended, hopeful to see the boys once more. There the two girls had struck up a conversation, realizing they had a few mutual friends. But the small talk had soon turned into gossip, and a familiar name had struck Y/N’s ears. Jeon Jeongguk.

From there the conversation had steered onto him, and the rest of his friends. Because apparently there wasn’t just those two. There was seven of them. Yein had clearly noticed the look on Y/N’s face, for she instantly delved into a extensive description of the seven individuals. Apparently, it was “shocking” that Y/N didn’t know about them yet, as quote on quote Everyone knows the seven, that’s like, their whole image, but Yein would kindly let it pass since she was new. If Y/N had to be frank, “the seven” honestly just sounded like a truly bad boy band. Momentarily after Yein had started talking about them though, a peculiar feeling had crept over Y/N, like she was being observed. She had looked around, but no one was watching them, so she promptly blamed it on having too much to drink. After Yein’s whole speech, Y/N was sure, that she was more than knowledgeable about the subject: Jeongguk and friends.

There was Kim Taehyung, the blond man that had ensnared Y/N. He was apparently the most popular, pretty much being friends with everyone he encountered. But you shouldn’t let that fool you, underneath the sweet mask, he was a flirt. Taehyung had, according to Yein, slept with over half of the girls at the school. That did hurt a bit to hear, but Y/N wasn’t that surprised over it, considering you could practically sense the sex oozing from him. He was, surprisingly enough, a pretty decent friend, (that is, if you weren’t on his ‘to bed’- list), but you shouldn’t always be certain of the sweet nothings he would whisper in your ear.

Next on the agenda was his best friend, Jeon Jeongguk. The one Yein had dubbed “the cute, reserved guy, who definitely watches anime instead of studying”. (Also the one Jihyo had declared unspeakable of) He wasn’t the most outgoing apparently, but that didn’t mean, that he didn’t get around. Referencing Taehyung’s metaphorical ‘to bed’-list, rumor had it, Jeon Jeongguk genuinely had one. Maybe not precisely a list over the people he was going to bed, but that didn’t transform the fact that the boy very much so, had a register of names around campus. Also, well-known words from him consisted of That’s mine, I’m not sharing, and one Y/N could resonate with deeply, Hey, are you going to eat that? It was a mystery how the ate as much as he did, and still had a body like the gods.

Then there was Park Jimin, a Sophomore like Taehyung. He was “the cutest in the group” and immensely talented in his major which, to Y/N’s surprise, was dance. She had never encountered someone who had such a major, but seemingly Jimin wasn’t the only one in the group majoring in dancing. A certain Jung Hoseok also had dance as his major, but more on him ahead. Jimin was cute but sexy, had an amazing body, his personality was amazing and so on it went. You had to be lacking in the brain cell apartment if you hadn’t understood who Yein’s favorite was. It wasn’t like she was trying to disguise the obvious crush she had on him. Y/N had inquired about his bad qualities, since it seemed to be a recurring tendency, that the boys had at least one personality trait that wasn’t exactly ideal. But no, no, someone as flawless as Park Jimin “couldn’t possibly have anything bad about him”. And then Yein moved to the next one. Kim Namjoon.

Namjoon was the cleverest of the bunch, being in the lead in all his classes and a favorite to the professors. But apparently, he wasn’t content being one of the greatest, he had to be the greatest. He constantly desired more, and it was especially satisfying for him, if receiving number one, meant beating someone else to the ground. All in all, he gets what he wishes for. You worked hard to win this debate? Suck it, Kim Namjoon wants to win this. And each time someone takes something from him, he comes swooping in and takes it from them with a power even sturdier than before. What Yein described as his extreme ambition and determination, seemed more and more comparable towards an unhealthy greediness to Y/N.

Then there was Jung Hoseok. As previously mentioned, he was majoring in dance too. Y/N admired both him and Jimin, herself not exactly being gifted in the area of dance. Moving on, Yein described him to be a complete sweetheart. He would always aid his friends, was awfully extroverted and could light up a whole room with his smile. Nevertheless, you had to tread wisely around Hoseok, he seemingly had vendetta against everything that didn’t go his way or went as planned. He had broken a guy’s nose once, because the dude kept messing up his dance steps. After that, everybody walked on eggshells round Hoseok, which in hindsight seemed to piss him off even more. People learned to just settle with whatever Hoseok wanted - but not too much, or he would get angry too…

Second-to-last was Min Yoongi. Yein claimed that he was typically the scariest out of the group (when Hoseok hadn’t preferred to wake up with a complete hatred for everyone and everything). He hadn’t actually done anything for people to fear him, it was just sort of an automatic response when you met him. He gave off an aura that said “you could die right now, and I would continue with my nap” – if you could describe a person like that. Min Yoongi just didn’t care. He was generally the one that disappeared the most, gone for weeks at a time, not even bothering to show up to his classes. If you questioned him about it, he would give his signature glare, and folks usually left him alone afterwards. On top of that, he would hardly ever be seen out with his friends, and the six other boys would continually claim he was taking a nap. Either Yoongi adored snoozing his life away or the boy was jammed in some shady shit – or perhaps both.

At last, there was the Great Kim Seokjin. The boy had an appearance prettier than all the girls at university combined – and he knew. Seokjin could possibly be quite pleasant to hang out with, and a great deal of people on campus spoke of him as the dream boyfriend everybody wished for. Yein said she would approve, if it wasn’t the circumstance, that Kim Seokjin couldn’t go five fucking minutes without speaking about himself. It was like he had trained over numerous years, to be so good at sneaking compliments for himself into every single pompous, arrogant, self-absorbed sentence that left his infuriatingly pretty mouth.

Yein practically had to gasp in air after her amazingly passionate outburst about Kim Seokjin, and Y/N opted to take a sip of her beverage, instead of questioning the topic any longer. Y/N always told herself to never judge a book by its cover. She always believed people were good and kind, but in all honesty, she didn’t really get why these seven boys were so popular at school, they all sounded horrid honestly. But then she was reminded of Taehyung, and how even after hearing about him from Yein, Y/N already yearned for their next meeting.

She had never really assumed she would be one of those girls pining after guys, that they knew would leave them in the end, but perhaps she was. Yein claimed that it was like dark magic. Those boys drew everyone in, and spit them back out again, after they were through with them. You didn’t choose to come into their life, they picked who they desired, and they had nothing against breaking a couple of hearts when they threw people out of their life again.

“Seriously, you think you know them! Turns out they are someone completely different, I don’t even think they have a real self! They’re all like a bunch of devils with too much confidence. Expect for Jimin of course! He shouldn’t hang out with them, he…” Yein continued to ramble on, but Y/N wasn’t listening any longer. She believed she had seen a tuft of blond locks out of the corner of her eye. But disappointment shortly filled her, as the room turned out to be vacant of both Kim Taehyung and Jeon Jeongguk.

•

After copious amount of begging, had Jihyo finally succeeded in dragging Y/N out of their dorms, but only after the promise of lunch on Jihyo’s side. Walking across campus, the two girls discussed where to consume their next meal, a heated dispute between pizza and burgers.

“Hey, what if we just mix them! A pizzaburger, a purger!” Y/N looked at the other female with repulsion, before fake gagging at her. “You are out of this world Park Jihyo, truly” Both snickered, before Jihyo halted completely and let out a stifled groan, puzzling Y/N.

“Don’t look to the side, Jeon Jeongguk and the freaks are sitting there.” Regardless of the notice, Y/N still twisted her head to gaze at the boys. Only four out of seven were present, but she didn’t really mind, only gawking at Taehyung. He hadn’t seen her yet – not that she desired him to see her salivate stupidly – but the guy across of him had caught her eyes.

Now, if she hadn’t listened to Yein’s painful rants about him, Y/N would undoubtedly have been clueless about who she was sharing excruciatingly awkward eye contact with, but there was no denying it. That was definitely Park Jimin. Y/N would rather not disclose, that viewing the boy, she didn’t have a doubt where Yein’s crush derived from. Jimin was endearing; his cheeks prodding out slightly and his eyes scrunched. Sadly enough, had his continuous gaze at her, made the other guys present, alert of her too.

Swiftly turning her head, Y/N pleaded that Taehyung hadn’t realized it was her. But by the widening of Jihyo’s eyes and the indistinct sound of footsteps behind them, it would appear her prayers hadn’t been heard. Turning around, Y/N came face to face with the grinning face of Kim Taehyung. That stupidly attractive face. Considering what she now knew about him, she shouldn’t surrender to him so effortlessly, but as the boy in front of her presented a huge smile, she couldn’t help but dissolve.

“I haven’t seen you around, princess” Jihyo shuffled awkwardly beside them, and Y/N turned to give her a panicked expression, inaudibly asking for aid. Jihyo raised her hands slightly, as to say, ‘What am I supposed to do!’, before catching Taehyung’s eyes and abruptly starting to murmur incoherently about how she had to go. Y/N looked at her staggered, confused about why her friend would abandon her, but Jihyo only gave her look to say Sorry, before turning to tread away. Y/N was dumbfounded over the bizarre exchange but remembered the boy behind her. When she turned around to stare at him again, he hadn’t shifted, and was still blatantly ogling her.

“I think- Maybe I- I probably need to go after her…?” Y/N stammered, evading making eye-contact with the striking flirt in front of her. “Just stay a bit, princess. She won’t mind. Alright?” Taehyung draped his arm over her shoulder, directing her over to the three other males, who appeared to have resumed their previous conversation. Damn her helplessness. Damn her inability to say no. And Damn Kim Taehyung.

She inserted herself in between Taehyung and the other guy, while being embarrassingly aware about the multiple sets of eyes on her. Bracing herself, Y/N elevated her gaze slightly, only to encounter the eyes of Jeon Jeongguk. He was looking her up and down, practically like she was a meal offered to him, which – not to lie – made her greatly uncomfortable. Possibly Jihyo hadn’t been so mistaken about him. The other guy beside her, was unexpectedly offering her a smile. He had a mole dotted just above his upper lip, and his cheeks displayed cute dimples.

“Y/N” She looked at Taehyung once more, finding him pointing to her, as to introduce her to the others. Then he began pointing at them one by one, identifying them. “Hoseok. Jimin. Jeongguk. There you go” Y/N smiled awkwardly at them, rubbing her neck, feeling warm under their gazes. She heard Taehyung chuckle behind her, almost like he relished in her uncomfortable suffering. Well, this wasn’t awkward at all.

Only after almost three excruciating minutes of agonizing silence, decided Y/N, that she really needed to find Jihyo. Coughing softly, she gazed towards Taehyung, making an explanation about how she had possibly forgot to turn off the oven. He quirked an eyebrow at her, before allowing her to depart. Standing up to press a kiss to her forehead as a farewell, and his smug expression came forth again, after seeing her stiffened and panicked state. A hasty goodbye was ushered, and Y/N quickly made her way towards the direction Jihyo had went.

All four of them observed the girl hastily making her exit, and Hoseok chuckled before adding a slight remark. “She does know, that the dorms are the other way, right?” Taehyung turned to stare at him, both grinning. “Yup” He sat down again, fishing up his phone, before being interrupted by a dainty voice. “Why did you introduce us? It’s not like she’s anything special, you’ll forget her name soon enough.” Jimin’s eyes were pointed at the boy, and he huffed slightly before crossing his arms. “Calm down, Jiminie” Taehyung winked at him, before bending over to tousle his hair. “I don’t like her” No one in the group was surprised about the comment. “You never like any of our partners” Jimin glared slightly at Jeongguk but didn’t contradict the statement. “I don’t like when you touch them. They don’t deserve you. They’re nobody” Jimin seethed inaudibly, glaring at Jeongguk and Taehyung. Hoseok clicked his tongue and snickered at his three juniors. “Watch out, pretty boy, you’re turning a bit green” Jimin snapped his head towards him but chose to remain quiet. He wasn’t up for a quarrel today, and even though Hoseok seemed content right now, Jimin wouldn’t put it past him, that he wouldn’t mind delivering a few punches if someone talked back.

Taehyung eased the tension by patting Jimin on the back and laughing. “Don’t worry, darling. I practically had her the moment we met. I’m only toying a bit, she’s too innocent to say no. I’ll have a new one by the weeks end” He leaned back again, and their previous conversation issued once again.

Tags: @d-noona @rottenratatouille @bts-edits-bitch @chims-kookies💕

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hookaroo · 5 years

Text

Vocivore, Ltd. (15 of ?)

A OUAT WINTER WHUMP FIC

Also on FFN and AO3 (ack I need to update there!) (ListerofTardis)

Tagging @ouatwinterwhump, @killian-whump, @cocohook38, @killianjonesownsmyheart1, and @courtorderedcake <3

***THE MOST WONDERFUL COVER ART BY COCOHOOK38 HERE!!!!!******

****NEW!!!!!!!!!!!! Chapter 12 animation and art that will absolutely astound you!!! THANK YOU MY WONDERFUL COCONUT FRIEND!!!!!!!!!!*************

Present (Wednesday, continued)…

Jones got as far as the medical unit hallway, Killian’s open door in sight, before hesitating. He wanted to help, he wanted updates on his friends… but maybe his presence would be more disruptive than it was worth. Would it be too stressful for Emma to have her husband’s doppelganger nearby while she tried to process his condition? Not to mention the worry over her father and the worse, ever-present terror of missing Hope… she wouldn’t want him there, surely. She would feel remorseful, being reminded of his injuries; he should just go, and wait to be contacted with news and requests for help.

His abrupt about-face set him squarely in the path of a grim-faced Whale. With a sheepish nod of apology, Jones stepped to the side, intending to let the physician pass. But instead, Whale stopped, looking him over with a critical eye.

“What are you doing out of bed?”

“Er, well, I’m not actually… I’m… I’m not that Killian.” He waved in the direction of the deputy’s room and felt a vague sense of the knots holding his arm together, though the majority of the pain was still being kept in check by the nerve block.

“Obviously,” snarked Whale. “But you still look like you’re about to collapse on my linoleum. Why aren’t you down in the ED?”

“I was released,” Jones informed the self-important man. “All fixed up.”

Whale looked doubtful, but he came to the obvious conclusion regarding why the detective was here rather than on his way home. “You wanted to see Hook?”

Jones rolled his eyes and nodded. The physician pursed his lips in thought.

“I don’t know that you qualify as family, even though technically, I guess you share the same DNA…”

“I’m here more in an official capacity,” countered Jones, deciding to go in after all. He’d come this far; he wouldn’t be intimidated away by Dr. Whale.

With an annoyed shrug, the physician relented. “Whatever. Come on, then. If you do feel faint, try not to pass out near anything that might split your head open.” He pushed past and headed for Killian’s room. Jones followed cautiously.

Killian lay unconscious amidst a tangle of equipment, looking shockingly corpse-like. Blankets and bandages covered the worst of his injuries, and most of the grime had been removed, which only served to highlight the colorlessness of whatever skin remained free of cuts, abrasions, or bruising. The absence of the collar was a major improvement, but the dramatic wasting of his flesh gave the impression that he suffered a terminal illness. Technically, Jones mused, that wasn’t too far from the truth.

Emma sat beside the bed, sandwiching her husband’s skeletal hand between both of her own, simply watching the rise and fall of his chest. She tensed as the two men entered, looking immensely sad and weary. Her only acknowledgement of Jones was a brief glance in his direction, a quick sweep of her gaze assessing his well-being, and then she turned her attention back to Whale. The physician stopped at the foot of the bed while an awkward Jones hung back near the doorway.

“Still waiting for confirmation on the MRI,” Whale began without preamble. “But from my interpretation, I’d say he’s not as far gone as I had expected, given how long he’s been enslaved. Definitely some signs of deterioration, but with rest and support, he may recover on his own, or at least remain stable until we figure out an effective treatment.”

Emma looked as if she were about to say something, but Whale continued his spiel.

“As you might expect, his blood work is all over the place; lots of organs showing signs of stress. He’s anemic, which we’re obviously going to attribute to blood loss, so we’re working to correct that…”

Still feeling slightly uneasy about listening without an express invitation, Jones broke in,

“You could give him some of my blood, if that would help anything.”

He caught a small flash of gratitude from Emma before Whale fixed him with a derisive look.

“You’re not that far from needing a transfusion yourself.”

“Wake him up.”

The physician turned his startled gaze back on Emma. “What?”

“I want you to wake him up.”

Whale frowned. “That’s not a good idea. The victims that stayed sedated seemed to--”

“He might know something about Hope,” Emma stated flatly, emotions carefully under control. “Wake him up.”

Dr. Whale stared at her for a long moment, then sighed. “Be right back.”

The room fell into an uncomfortable silence in the physician's absence. Despite feeling like he might need to take a seat soon, the light-headed Jones remained where he was, watching Emma watch Killian. He drew a breath to speak, changed his mind, then changed it back.

“You okay?”

Emma nodded a lie, not looking at him. “You?”

“Fine.” He let his own falsehood stand for a beat, hesitated, then asked, “And… David? Have you heard…?”

“Looks like he’ll pull through.” Emma rubbed a hand down her face, adding, “The sword struck his shoulder blade, didn’t hit anything vital. His unconsciousness had more to do with a blow to the head.”

Jones couldn’t suppress a smile. “Lucky bastards, the both of us. I’m relieved to hear that, Emma.”

“Yeah.”

She appeared remarkably calm about everything, but Jones could make out well-hidden signs of tension and could certainly relate. He had never found it easy leaving Alice to go on supply runs, even knowing she was “safe” in her imprisoning tower. Later on, when the poison in his heart had prevented any contact, he was always worrying about her: whether she had enough to eat, whether she was sleeping all right. Whether she was truly safe from harm. Whether she’d been able to achieve some degree of happiness. But at least he’d known her whereabouts. Until she’d escaped the tower, anyway. Emma, though… to have no real clue where Hope was, how to go about getting her back, or whether she was even still alive… it had to be consuming her soul, the uncertainty. And Hope so young, as well. Not old enough to fend for herself in any way. The thought chilled him to the marrow.

Even worse was the possibility that Killian had been right, and that this nearly dead figure before them may have life-changing knowledge to impart. Jones shuddered, refusing to believe it.

“Look,” he began, “I know I’ve said this before, but… we’re going to get her back. I will do anything in my power to help. Anything.” He straightened, ignoring the sharp twinge from his damaged sternum, and went unsteadily to Emma’s side. “You’re not alone in this.”

Jones placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Emma looked up with watery eyes and nodded her thanks.

How many times had he heard similar words? How long before they had started to feel like empty platitudes; something that brought more comfort to the one offering than the recipient?

From this distance, Jones could see more detail in his other self’s condition, none of it encouraging. He noticed again the missing earring, a fact that had flashed into his awareness during their earlier encounter, but at that time could not have been less important. Now he saw the reason for its absence: a dark pink line extending from the now-healed-over pierced center of the lobe to its edge, signifying traumatic removal. Three similar scars adorned the rim in various places, with the intersecting white lines left by sutures. Ouch.

Drifting past visible marks elsewhere, some freshly dressed, Jones’ gaze inevitably settled on the obscene mutilation of Killian’s blunted wrist. The closest look he’d gotten before was its explosive introduction to his cheek, which stepped up its throbbing in reaction to the memory. The limb had been carefully bandaged with enough padding to ensure everyone’s safety, but the shape of the curved handle remained visible beneath the linens. Jones cringed and felt a very real pang in his own wrist when he pictured the brutality that must have taken place.

Emma likely wouldn’t want to think or talk about it… and yet, perhaps it was better than allowing constant speculation and gruesome imaginings about her missing toddler. Jones cleared his throat, stepping back a pace to set a more comfortable distance for conversation.

“Did they, erm, say anything about…” He trailed off and waved awkwardly toward Killian’s opposite side.

“The livestock nose ring, you mean?”

Jones nodded weakly, hastening to add,

“You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want; I only thought--”

“It’ll need surgery to remove,” was her blunt response, void of emotion. “There’s bone shards and things to deal with. But since it’s not really causing problems right now, it isn’t urgent, so they want to wait until he’s more stable.”

Jones nodded again. Thankfully saving him from more discomfort, a nurse came in, followed by Dr. Whale. After one final look at Emma to confirm her intentions, the physician gave approval for the nurse to administer the contents of a syringe into Killian’s IV port.

“It could take a couple of minutes, or not,” warned Whale. “Just try to go easy on him; give him a little bit of time to orient himself.”

Killian’s heartbeat and respiration were already beginning to speed up a bit. Jones slipped back further out of the way in case something unexpected required the medical personnel to have quick access to their patient.

The first sign of broadening awareness was the faintest of noises deep in Killian’s throat; a question or a quiet complaint, it was hard to tell. Jones saw Emma’s hands tighten around her husband’s as she watched his gaunt face.

“Killian?” she called softly. His only response was a slight twitch, barely distinguishable from the tremors being heightened by consciousness. She tried again. “Killian, it’s me. I’m here.” Dismayed to feel him flinch and try to pull away from her grasp, she said, “You’re safe; you’re in the hospital. You’re okay.”

The raspy whine sounded again, fractionally louder this time and with a definite note of displeasure. Watching his vitals closely, Whale interjected,

“Can you hear us, Hook? Do you understand what Emma’s saying to you?”

It looked as if Killian were still trying to free his hand, a small scowl on his face, though his eyes stayed closed. Emma remained stalwart in her grip as she tried a different tack.

“I know you want to go back to sleep. But I need to talk to you first.” Her tone was gentle but solemn. “It’s important.”

Responding to an oddity on the heart monitor, Whale snaked his stethoscope beneath Killian’s gown to have a listen. Killian’s reaction was a feeble attempt to bat it away, but Emma still had a firm hold on his hand.

“Shhh, Killian, it’s okay,” she soothed. “It’s just your best friend Whale being his usual irritating self.”

If she were hoping to get a response from him--a smile, a groan, or protest--then she would have been disappointed. Killian stopped squirming and lay still. Jones began to wonder if he’d fallen back into unconsciousness. But then he spoke, his voice nothing more than a minute whisper.

“I must return.”

Emma froze, just for an instant, then schooled her features. “Screw that. You’re not going anywhere. Whale’s going to fix you up, and then--”

“My… Master…” Killian wheezed, a little bit louder this time. Squeezing his hand so hard that he winced, Emma hissed,

“Can kiss my ass. I don’t know what the hell you were thinking, going there in the first place, but I’ll be damned if I let you crawl right back into that bastard’s clutches.”

Killian had dragged his eyes open during her tirade, and now lay squinting at her, pained by the lights. With no hint of shame, remorse, or even anger at her tone of voice, he repeated his statement.

“I must return to my Master.”

Emma swore quietly and ran a shaky hand down her face. “You wanted to forget her, didn’t you? You went in case he had her. But if he didn’t, then you knew he’d suck out your brains to stop it hurting. Your… your failure. Is that it?”

Stunned by the vitriol in her words, Jones felt as if he should step in, say something before irreparable damage was done. But before he could devise the right words, Emma spoke again.

“Does he have her, Killian? Can you tell us anything useful?”

Glancing painfully at each face in the room, expression devoid of emotion, Killian murmured,

“I… I can’t… I need…” He made as if to reach for his throat. Then he stopped, resting back on the pillow and closing his eyes in a wince. Emma growled, obviously exasperated and frantic for information about her daughter. Dr. Whale, who was making somber notations in Killian’s chart, pressed his lips together. Then he said,

“Maybe we should try again later. This is stressing him out; I don’t like it.”

“Just… give me a few minutes alone with him.”

There was nothing ominous in the statement, but it was obviously not a request. Whale scowled, displeased at being ordered around on his own turf.

“That’s extremely ill-advised, Sheriff; too much excitement could overload his system, causing seizures and who knows what else… he needs to rest if he’s going to have any chance at getting better…”

Emma’s glare wasn’t quite enough to convince the physician, but it did shut him up. Grimacing, Jones broke in with gentle counsel.

“I hate to say it, but perhaps we should listen to Dr. Whale. You know as well as I that extracting information sometimes requires patience, no matter how urgently it’s needed.”

She seemed determined to ignore all good advice, fixing each naysayer with a glower of irritation. Turning back to Whale, she said,

“15 minutes. I’ll press the button if he starts acting weird.”

“5,” he countered. “And we wait just outside the door.”

“Yeah, like you have so much time to spare.” She rolled her eyes. “10 minutes, Detective Jones acts as door guard. If I can’t get anything by then, you can put him back to sleep for as long as you want.”

“A lot can go wrong in 10 minutes,” grumbled Whale. He cast a grumpy eye on Jones, then back to Emma. “Him? How do you know he won’t faint the minute we leave him unsupervised?”

Jones was starting to see why Killian wasn’t particularly fond of the man. Emma didn’t say anything, only crossed her arms and waited. She must have let go of Killian’s hand at some point, and he was using the newfound freedom to rub wearily at the raw skin of his bare throat. Dr. Whale heaved a dramatic sigh.

“Fine. But I have two witnesses that this is your decision. Any negative outcome rests squarely on your shoulders.”

“Done.”

Dr. Whale huffed and scrawled an emphatic note in the chart, then beckoned the nurse to follow him out the door. Jones turned to join them, but hesitated.

“Maybe he should be restrained in some way…?”

Emma looked askance at him. “Really? An armed law officer vs. a bedridden model for Mr. Zombie Universe?”

Jones remained uneasy but didn’t press the issue. “Call if you need anything.”

#ouat fanfiction #killian jones #emma swan #wish realm killian #victor whale #hospital #drugged #brainwashed #angst #serious illness #Vocivore ltd

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neriad13 · 5 years

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Best of the Best - Media Consumed 2018

Books - Fiction

The Lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch

I devoured the entire series in a series of months this year and what I’m about to say holds true for all of them (probably more than for the latter two than the first)...but I have a particular soft spot for the plot twists and humor of the beginning. So, it’s my choice for the year, though it is representing the series as a whole.

This is the series that showed me what inclusive fantasy can be like. It’s a story predominantly about straight white dudes written by a straight white dude (a comfort zone I am struggling to break out of) and yet, it is one that purposefully skirts the tropes of the genre and plays with them in such a way that it makes the world feel welcoming to a reader who is neither straight nor male. There’s lesbian pirates, multiple queer characters, copious well-written women and non-white characters as major players in the narrative. This was a book that gave me hope and help as I struggled to bust out of my old patterns of thinking and writing. And yet, it was familiar enough that it was enough of a comfort zone to retreat to in times when I needed to seek comfort in fiction.

And it’s so much good fun. Half a year later and I’m still cracking up at “Nice bird, asshole.”

Books - Nonfiction

Dictator Style - Peter York

This book was weirdly heart-wrenching. There’s something so melancholy and strange about surveying the living spaces of these paragons of human misery and trying to figure out what they were thinking through medium of their wallpaper choices. That, and the knowledge that even the seemingly all powerful are far more tacky and slipshod than commonly believed, stuck with me.

Fic

Batya - Valya

I didn’t read a whole heck of a lot of fic this year and only counted those that were above a 30k word count. There were plenty of short fics that I loved, but alas, I did not write them down. Goals for next year!

So, Batya, BioShock fic - AU in which Ryan discovers Jack far earlier than intended and decides to adopt him as his son. Once this fic gets going, it’s intense. And sad. And beautiful, all of which apply heavily to the relationship between Jack and Kyle. The final scene between them is pure poetry and had me thinking of them dancing as Rapture fell apart around them for days afterward.

Film

I saw so many hecking good movies this year. I’m just barely able to pare it down to a top three.

Black Panther - Ryan Coogler

This movie was exhilarating. The design, the energy, the acting, the humor, the primal drama of two types of activism duking it out in the bowels of the earth...I walked out of the theater in a daze, hardly believing that I’d seen what I had.

When Marnie Was There - Hiromasa Yonebayashi

This movie contains the most accurate portrayal of social anxiety I have ever seen in fiction, period. It hit especially close to home for me, as this year was the one in which I faced and struggled with my own lifelong anxiety. I watched it wondering how on earth filmmakers half a world away got the details of my own childhood down so precisely on film. When the credits hit and “Fine On the Outside” played, I bawled at my computer screen.

Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse - Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman

This movie was a staggering technological accomplishment. It pushed the boundaries of animation and filmmaking in ways I have flat-out never seen before. It was joyful, it was dramatic, it was tragic, it was gorgeous. It was a celebration of everything animation is capable of. And the fact that a brown kid is at the center of it?

Stunning.

Comics - Webcomics

Alethia - Kristina Stipetic

This is beautiful world in which the characters are forced to make terrible choices, as the main character struggles to find the meaning in such things.

Also, it’s all lesbian robots. The artist drew the comic specifically because she wanted more women in fiction that she could relate to. It’s a fascinating, meditative piece of work.

Comics - Fiction

Akira - Katsuhiro Otomo

This manga is a masterpiece of destruction and resurgence. The art is stunning, the characters are charming and the action is absolutely unbeatable.

But my favorite section was the one which focuses on Chiyoko - an unapologetically masculine woman with an arsenal of heavy weapons - while she’s on desperate rescue mission in hostile territory. My eyes were glued to the page as she blew away her foes and struggled against them in turn, her plight given the gravity and intensity that is so rarely bestowed on female action heroes.

For that alone - best fiction comic of the year.

Comics - Nonfiction

Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo and Me - Ellen Forney

I read so many fantastic comic memoirs this year. It was difficult to choose from among them - almost all of them were highlighted as among my favorites of the year. But there’s something about a seasoned artist drawing and talking about her own battles with mental illness after a long (and ongoing) war that stood out to me.

It’s a tale of seemingly endless medication adjustment, therapy and the breaking down of personal stigmas surrounding mental illness and the drugs used to treat it. Though I don’t share the artist’s diagnosis, it was a book that gave me confidence in choices about the treatment of my own mental illness.

Shows

A Series of Unfortunate Events S2 - Barry Sonnenfeld, Bo Welch, Mark Palansky, Allan Arkush, Loni Peristere, Liza Johnson, Jonathan Teplitzky

What can I say about something that is perfect? Every joke hits. Every bit of wordplay makes me burst out laughing. The absurdity and surreality of the situations are a sight to behold. The acting is phenomenal. The writing improves upon the books in every possible way. And in all of this, not an inch of the story’s darkness is ever given up.

Games

This was the year I played the first Fallout (the ending destroyed me), That Dragon, Cancer (very much hit home), 1979 Revolution: Black Friday (can you make a historical game that both teaches, entertains and reveals the human cost of a complex conflict? Yes. Yes, you can.) Pillars of Eternity (A well-written Atheist in my video game? It’s more likely than you think.) and Tales From the Borderlands (the humor! The art! The voice cast! The rock-solid writing!). All of them were top contenders and yet...there was really only one choice for me.

Papo and Yo - Vander Caballero

This is a game about the relationship between a boy and his alcoholic father. It is heavily based on the lead developer’s own experiences. It’s a fraught relationship - torn between the sober moments when the hero’s father loves him, protects him, takes care of him, plays with him - and the moments when drinking turns him into a monster of rage.

The hero sets out to find a cure for his father’s addiction and after great trial discovers…

*spoilers, though the answer is probably pretty obvious, though no less painful for its obviousness*

...that no such cure exists and that the only thing he can do is let him go.

I sobbed uncontrollably at the ending of this game and sniffled long after. The message stuck with me months after I’d played it.

All of the hurt, confusion, anger and grief of letting go of my own toxic person - there it had been, on the screen right in front of me. This game helped me come to peace with that decision in my own life and for that, I am astounded and humbled by the simple artistry of this game. If you have your own toxic person in your life - be the problem alcohol, religious fundamentalism, intolerance or any other form of abuse - play this game and know that it’s okay to leave them behind.

#gentlemen bastards #studio ghibli #black panther #spiderverse #akira #asoue #papo and yo #my writing

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dragonkeeper19600 · 6 years

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Bendy and the Ink Machine: The Big Questions

Yo!

There’s only one chapter left of Bendy and the Ink Machine, which means the story will most likely conclude sometime this year. So, as we settle in to the long wait for Chapter 5, I’d like the chance to go over some of the bigger mysteries that I feel need to be addressed before the story ends.

1. What, or who, is Bendy?

Bendy, the game’s main antagonist and mascot both in and out of universe, seemingly emerged from the ink machine when Henry turned it on. But, what is he?

When I first played the game, only the first two chapters were out, and by the time I had played through both of them, what I thought was going on was that Bendy was a real demon. Like, an actual, honest-to-God, hellfire and brimstone demon that had been summoned through the cartoons produced by Joey Drew Studios. The pentagrams on the floor in Chapter 2, commonly associated with pop culture ideas about satanism, are what led me to this conclusion. This idea was partially based on the hysterical fears of fringe evangelicals in America who were obsessed with the so-called satanic imagery in cartoons.

This book is not a parody.

However, subsequent chapters have made me rethink this theory. If Bendy were indeed a demon summoned to our mortal plane, that wouldn’t explain the existence of the other ink creatures. It is true that Bendy seems to be the most powerful and terrifying out of all of them. This theory could still work if Bendy’s demonic powers included the transformation of the studio employees into monsters and the rest of the tomfoolery that happens in the game. But, what much of the fandom, including myself, is beginning to suspect is that the Bendy monster actually has the same human origins as the rest of the ink creatures.

The Lost Ones that debuted in Chapter 4, as well as the first Alice Angel, Norman Polk, Jack Fain, and Sammy Lawrence are all characters that we know for a fact were once human. We also hear an audio log of Grant Cohen’s transformation in Chapter 4, and if Jack Fain’s transformed form looks identical to a swollen searcher, then it’s logical to assume that all the searchers are former humans.

So, if Bendy is a transformed human, then who is he?

The man the fandom widely accepts as the most likely candidate is Joey Drew, the CEO of the company and the man who invited Henry to the studio in the first place.

P.S. Bring booze.

Joey is the character most frequently mentioned in the game’s audio logs, and even though he (maybe) has yet to appear in person, his antagonistic role seems to be as great as Bendy’s. He is the one who insisted on the implementation of the ink machine as well as the placement of the six items needed to keep it running. His unsound business practices and total disregard for his employee’s well-being is strongly implied to be what ran the studio into the ground, if only in the sense that his prioritizing the ink machine above all else led to the above-mentioned tomfoolery. TheMeatly recently released a new trailer for Bendy updated with all the game’s current content, and said trailer includes several lines in a row from various characters complaining about Joey.

youtube

“Where’s my paycheck, Drew?”

But, Joey shares more than just an antagonist role with Bendy. As has famously been analyzed by many a fan, in Chapter 3 Henry is presented by a fork in the road between two options: the “Angel’s Path” and the “Demon’s Path.” Taking the Angel’s Path will lead players to an audio log from Susie Campbell, Alice Angel’s original voice actor and the woman who turned herself into the monstrous Alice from the chapter. Taking the Demon Path will lead players to an ink filled room from an audio log from Joey Drew, the first time in the game his voice is actually heard. Considering the first voice of Mickey Mouse in real life was Walt Disney himself, it’s plausible that Joey was the voice of Bendy within the game, considering all the other parallels he shares with real life animators.

Fans also compare Alice Angel’s fearful insistence that she “will not let the demon touch me again!” to the game’s implication that Joey Drew had an affair with Susie Campbell.

Finally, there are a few damning pieces of evidence at the end of the very first chapter. When Henry steps into the pentagram at the end of the chapter, he appears to have a series of visions before collapsing. The first depict the ink machine, the second depicts a wheelchair, and the third depicts Bendy emerging from some kind of bright space.

The idea that that wheelchair belongs to Joey and that he used the machine to turn himself into Bendy was an idea floated at least as early as Chapter 2, famously represented in the comic dubbed below.

youtube

What I haven’t really seen anyone draw attention to - and this was only brought to my attention by TV Tropes - is if you look at Bendy’s character model, he has a twisted leg.

Despite his speed, Bendy walks with a noticeable limp. This is pretty suggestive, since it supports the notion that Bendy used to be someone who once needed that wheelchair.

The properties of the ink may be able to reconstruct a non-functioning limb to enable someone to walk again. Chapter 4 confirms that ink can be used to recreate solid objects such as pipes and coffee mugs, and Joey’s audio log in Chapter 3 contains the line, “With enough belief, you could even cheat death itself!” All this, the theory goes, would lead Joey to turn the ink machine on himself through some misguided attempt to attain immortality, turning him into Bendy.

The only thing that trips me with this theory is that nobody, not a single audio log or line from Henry, ever mentions that Joey needed a wheelchair. And that seems like a pretty big omission, especially since, to put it frankly, the studio doesn’t seem handicap-friendly. Thomas Connor complains in one audio log how the elevator is unreliable and dangerous to use, and some areas, such as the break room, are only accessible via stairs.

It’s possible Joey didn’t always need the wheelchair, if it is indeed his, and only needed to use it after some kind of illness or accident, hence motivating him to use the machine.

But, here’s the thing. As of Chapter 4, Joey has become a character that’s a little bit harder to get a hold of. The first three chapters portrayed him as a sort of eccentric Wonka-like figure. Someone fascinated with the occult and unconcerned with practical matters. His devotion to the ink machine made him seem an otherworldly or dreamlike figure, and his audio log in Chapter 3 gave him the voice of a man whose wife probably asks him not to talk in the bedroom.

However, in Chapter 4, we find out it may all be a front, as we get an audio log from Joey about overcoming your failings before he switches to a cynical, decidedly unwhimsical tone.

It may just be my own personal interpretation, but that kind of barking CEO voice doesn’t seem to jibe with what we know of Joey’s behavior. The slow unveiling of who Joey is has been a major focus of the narrative up until now, and it’s clear from this audio log that he’s not who he appears to be. Instead of a quirky dreamer who’s mind is too big for this mortal world, Joey just seems to be an asshole.

Here’s another thing: Joey has been a red herring at least twice. When Henry first sees the dissected Boris, his horrified line, “Oh my God. Joey, what were you doing?” led many players to assume it was Joey who had dissected Boris. It turns out it was actually Alice Angel.

And again, the pentagram at the end of the first chapter led some players to conclude Joey was participating in occult activities. However, unless I’m remembering wrong, those pentagrams are only visible in Chapter 2 and the end of Chapter 1. Since the latest version of Chapter 2 has a pentagram around the post where Sammy was planning to execute Bendy, that would lead me to conclude that Sammy, not Joey, is the one who drew all those pentagrams.

So if Joey didn’t dissect Boris, and he didn’t draw the pentagrams, then what else has he not done? Is all the evidence pointing to Joey being Bendy just another red herring? If so, then whose wheelchair is that? The only one who might know that is Henry.

2. What does Henry know?

Henry’s behavior has been weird since the first chapter. Who the hell, when entering an abandoned studio with a mysterious satanic machine, has the immediate impulse to turn it on?

“I want to touch that.” - Henry, presumably

Henry was not at all prompted by Joey’s letter to turn on the ink machine. In fact, the letter doesn’t mention any such thing. And yet, Henry seems to already know what it is. In previous versions of Chapter 1, Henry’s line upon entering the machine room was, “So this is the ink machine, huh? Wonder how you turn it on.” This line would imply that Henry didn’t see the ink machine while he was working at the studio but already knew about it somehow, which is weird. Interestingly, that line has actually been removed from the most recent update, instead replaced with, “Let’s see what you’re hiding down there, old friend.” So, it could be that someone caught the error and changed the line

Even outside of that weirdness, the game likes to hint that Henry was more involved in these events then he’s letting on. A hidden audio log in Chapter 3 implies that Henry is actually the creator of the Bendy character, and if Bendy truly is a real demon, then the reason that’s problematic should be obvious. But even if that theory is false, it could mean that the game’s famous quote, “The Creator lied to us,” is actually referring to Henry.

We have no idea what it is that made Henry leave the studio. The rough working conditions would be enough to drive anyone away, of course, but in that case, it seems weird that more people didn’t walk out. Thomas Connor vowed not to do anymore repair jobs, but his audio logs keep cropping up, which would lead me to believe he ultimately stuck around. Wally Franks also frequently promises to quit but he stuck around at least long enough for the park assets to get put into the warehouse, a part of the building that apparently didn’t exist while Henry was working there. Why didn’t more people quit? Why was Henry the only one?

It’s also hard to pin down exactly how long Henry was working at the studio. The Chapter 1 update has Henry smugly remarking it must have taken several animators to replace him after he left, which would indicate that production continued for a while after his absence. But, Henry is recognized by both Sammy and Alice Angel. That Alice recognizes him is particularly weird since Susie claims she was only working at the studio for two months before being cast as Alice. It leads one to wonder how much of Susie’s mental breakdown Henry was present for. Was he there when Alice was recast? Was he there for her obsession with becoming Alice? What is the exact timeline for the employees’ descent into madness?

When she recognizes him, Alice shouts, “I know who you are, Henry! And I know why you’re here!” Maybe I’m overthinking, but “I came here because Joey invited me,” doesn’t seem like a dramatic enough reason for Alice to be shouting like that. Henry’s wandering though the studio doesn’t seem to have any purpose at this point except “Escape!” but Alice’s line implies there might be another reason Henry is here. But, does Henry know what that larger purpose is or is it solely the doing of Joey Drew or whoever it was who really sent that letter?

There’s also the matter of Henry’s visions. I already went over the glimpses of the wheelchair and Bendy’s creation. If those images are flashbacks, then Henry might know better than anyone what Bendy truly is. The images continue in Chapter 4 after taking a break for two chapters, with Henry getting an image of hands flailing in a hallway before they all vanish.

I really have no answer as to what any of this means. The wheelchair could at least be understood as a flashback, but the hands have no context that I can understand. All this is made even more confusing by the fact that the effect that accompanies the hand vision also appears over events that are definitely happening currently, such as the fight between Bendy and the Projectionist.

The only thing that hints at an explanation is the name of the achievement on Steam for finding Henry’s hidden audio log in Chapter 3: “Long Forgotten Self.”

Some fans have used the title of this achievement to theorize that Henry is suffering from some form of amnesia. If that’s the case, then his true purpose is a mystery even to himself.

Yay.

3. What is the true nature of the religion surrounding Bendy?

Sammy’s devotion to Bendy, drawing pentagrams and sacrificing coworkers to him, is what initially convinced me that Bendy was a real demon. But, whether Sammy is indeed worshipping a demon or a cartoon character, like many of us losers on this website, the wording of the phrase, “He will set us free,” implies that Bendy has more than one devotee.

Well, as of Chapter 4, that seems to be confirmed.

These lovable chaps are called the Lost Ones in the game files. Unlike the hostile searchers, they are not aggressive and able to speak, although none of them seem to feel they have anything worth saying to you. There was a time when I assumed Sammy was mutating into a Boris clone the same way Susie turned into Alice, but now that I’ve seen these guys, I assume that Sammy is just another Lost One who found a mask and overalls to cover his shame. Because if he still has a fully-formed human torso, then there’s no basically no chance that he doesn’t have some kind of ink dick.

Please hold that image in your mind.

Anyway, while the don’t attack you, the fact that they have the same mad scribblings on the walls in the room where they hang out as Sammy has in the music department leads me to believe the Lost Ones are more followers of Bendy, convinced that Bendy will free them somehow. How exactly they came to that conclusion is still a mystery, but let’s take at what they could mean by “free.”

Sammy’s wording about what exactly he wants Bendy to do is a little unclear, so much so that when I first played Chapter 2, I assumed that what Sammy wanted was to be killed by Bendy. His talk of being swept into Bendy's “final, loving embrace,” seemed evocative of Christian talk of “joining with the Lord” after death. However, Sammy’s pleading and screams while Bendy comes after him led me to rethink that conclusion.

Instead, Sammy seems to expect Bendy to turn him human again. Again, I have no idea why he thinks Bendy can do that, but let’s take a minute to look at what Bendy actually did to Sammy.

“Don’t spill me!”

In the first release of Chapter 2, this is what players saw after the credits finished rolling. This, presumably, is all that’s left of Sammy. With the release of subsequent chapters, this image is no longer shown, but the implication that Sammy was turned into a puddle is still present in the most recent update for Chapter 2, which has a small puddle of ink forming under the door Sammy walks through to meet Bendy.

Sammy’s transformation into an ink puddle is weirdly evocative of Alice Angel’s monologue in Chapter 3, “Do you know what it’s like living in dark puddles?”

In fact, all of Alice’s dialogue in Chapter 3 is fascinating, if you can get behind the stilted theatricality of it all. She mentions how she was “born from the ink” twice, once as a blob and the second time in her current form. She also expresses a fear of “being pulled back” through encountering the Butcher Gang, even hysterically siccing Henry on them to prevent “being dragged back to the darkness.” It seems that Alice fears, not death, but returning to the hive mind of the ink, which she describes as a “buzzing, screaming well of voices,” where “bits of your mind swim like fish in a bowl.” Alice wants to remain an individual, separate from the primordial ooze of the ink.

The idea that Alice doesn’t fear death is supported by her line about heaven. “I don’t think I’ll ever get to see it.” This could mean that she’s done such terrible things she can't enter heaven, but I always took it to mean she’ll never reach heaven because she’ll never die.

Recall, once more, Joey’s line about “cheating death itself.” Do ink creatures truly die when you kill them? Their death animation involves them melting into puddles. You get it? They get pulled back.

I propose that ink creatures are locked in a permanent state of death and labored rebirth. Rather than find peace, ink creatures that lose their form return to the ink, losing what little sanity they had in the process.

This is the fate that befell Sammy at the end of Chapter 2, the fate that Alice Angel most feared. He wanted to be free, but instead he got sent back. Sammy Lawrence isn’t dead, but he might have preferred he was. Hell, maybe that’s what he truly wanted from Bendy. Not to be human again but to sleep at last.

Which brings us to the next question. Why did Bendy punish Sammy?

Other than jealousy of his sweet bod, of course.

Well, to answer that, let’s see if we can look at why Sammy tried to sacrifice Henry to Bendy. If you recall, after the fight with the Projectionist in Chapter 4, Bendy drags his corpse out of the room through a wall. We haven’t found out where he was going with that body, but Alice’s obsession with collecting body parts might hint at an answer. It is possible that Bendy is gathering the bodies of ink creatures for some kind of purpose, either to augment himself as Alice has done or for something else.

Bendy’s other followers may be as devoted to bring Bendy bodies as Sammy was. Remember the shot of Sammy’s remains after Chapter 2. Well, Chapter 4 has its own post-credits image.

Yup, those are the Lost Ones, gathering around Alice’s body. I could be wrong about this, but I’m guessing they’re going to bring that body to Bendy. The believers must honor their savior, after all.

If all this is true, then it could explain why Bendy lost his temper with Sammy for trying to sacrifice Henry. Henry is human, not an ink creature, and thus useless to Bendy’s purposes. It could also explain why he discarded the Projectionist’s head after he tore it off. The inky part is what interests him, not the mechanical part.

Speaking of mechanics, there’s one final question I feel needs to be addressed before this story ends:

4. What’s the deal with Wally?

Wally is the only character to have at least one audio log in every single chapter. His audio log was part of the first chapter before we even knew his name. He was there before Sammy, before Susie, before Allison, before Joey, before we even saw Bendy. At the dawn of time, there was not light, but Wally.

Wally has been a consistent and soothing presence throughout the game, and I always look forward to his adorable Brooklyn accent and comic relief amidst the madness of the studio and the other employees. But here’s the thing, Wally seems a little too cheerful. Susie, Norman Polk, and Grant Cohen all had audio logs detailing their descents into insanity the chapter after they debuted. Sammy Lawrence jumped aboard the crazy train the same chapter we met him. But Wally, so far, has shown no signs of the mental deterioration the other employees have suffered. He even comments on the fact that everyone seems to be going crazy around him: “Everyone’s walking around here like grandma just died!” Everyone else is morose and suffering because of the terrible conditions at the studio, but Wally, though he’s definitely annoyed by the situation, isn't losing his grip the way everyone else is.

His immunity to the maddening effects of the studio gets even weirder when you take a closer look at the blueprints on the ink machine.

Look in the lower left corner: “attn: Wally Franks”

Wally is the attendant of the ink machine, which is mind-boggling to me. The ink machine is the source of all the supernatural occurrences at the studio and the engine that drives everyone’s madness. So, why the hell is the attendant of the machine, the person who would presumably be around it the most, show none of the negative effects the machine causes?

The obvious, joking answer is that Wally is so lazy and hapless at his job that he actually isn’t attending to the machine, so he’s not actually near it all that much, but that doesn’t seem to fully answer the question. Grant Cohen’s job wasn’t to look after the machine, and neither was Norman Polk’s, but that didn’t seem to save either of them. What is it that’s protecting Wally?

Another question: The ink machine was off when Henry arrived. Henry had to turn back on. The machine was presumably on in all the time Wally was working there. In fact, I’ve seen YouTubers claim they can hear it running in the background of his audio log in Chapter 3. Since Wally was the machine’s attendant, is Wally the one who turned it off? Why did he do that and why not sooner?

All of this speculation about Wally leads me back to his last line in the most recent chapter of the game. “If these guys don’t start realizing who the real genius is, I’m outta here!”

What are you hiding, Wally?

#batim #bendy and the ink machine #theory #fan wank #joey drew #sammy lawrence #alice angel #susie campbell #henry #wally franks #lost ones

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nutmegthings · 6 years

Note

Story about an angel helping pilots in crisis?

I’venever really been one to interact with the humans much personally. They’re allso loud, so destructive, so selfish. However, many of my siblings have foundtheir place on earth among these people. There’s angels for just abouteverything now, for fire, for ice, for mobile phones, and those funny littlecotton swabs on sticks. There’s an angel for just about every major animal youcan think of, personally I fin the ones for insects rather… Strange. Some of ushave traded in our wings for tails to sim in the deep oceans, or swapped outour halos for hats and wigs to walk among the humans unnoticed.

They saythe old gods are dead, and mostly that’s true enough, but what they nevermention is that where gods fail, Angels pick up the slack. Gods are things ofbelief you see, stop believing in a god and they’re as real as Fake News. Seewhat I did there? I’ve even started picking up some of the human’s new slang.But Angels? Well it takes a lot more than just not believing in us to get ridof us. We’re here for the long haul so to speak. Most of us believe that seeingas we’re here to stay we might as well pick our thing and stick to it. Theytell me you’ve gotta be an angel of something, and you know, recently I’mstarting to understand what they mean.

I’vealways been a flyer you know? I mean, if the gods bestow upon you the gift offlight, you may as well fly and all that. Recently the humans have once againlaughed in the face of their gods. They were not given the gift of flight, butdoes that stop them? Ha! No, no it does not. The first time I met one of theirgiant metal birds it damn near tore me out of the skies themselves the damnthing. I was so shocked, they say I didn’t shut up about it for years, though Isuppose I never really have shut up about it yet. I ended up following itaround the sky for hours before it landed, and Lo and behold when it did landout came two cheering humans.

That wasthe very first time I found myself understanding a human, or that I everthought that perhaps a human could understand me. They too loved these skies,they to sought to feel the rushing icy air between their feathers, metal orotherwise. They, perhaps, weren’t so awful after all. I mean what being couldpossibly love these skies and still be awful.

As theyears passed they developed their flying machines. I met a few of their earlyengineers hovering over shoulders as blueprints were drawn, gifting inspirationas the small hours of the day drew in, lending energy to tired hands and tiredminds so that this next model may yet be better than the last. I followed thesmall humans whose passion for flight drove them into the cockpits of thesemetal birds, so brave, to be so sure that something so heavy could ever soar onthe wind. I saved as many as I could, turning turbulent skies peaceful, willingtheir tiny rivets and screws to hold, keeping birds out of their flight paths.I wasn’t always successful, but the humans had such spirit, they never stoppedtrying.

Soonenough my skies were filled with these soaring beasts, wars were waged in myskies, many pilots met their end flying through the clouds. During these times,I became far too familiar with one of the very few remaining gods. Hades, as hesays, will never want for belief, everyone eventually believes in death. Ithink it’s rather a point of pride for him and his wife, who herself stillviciously demands belief from the people of this earth. Spring and winter, iceand fire, fruit and flower, honey and nectar, they all belong to her. Quite thepair they are, life and death themselves. I also met many of my siblings duringthese times, the Angels of death, come to ease the passing from this mortalland. I do not envy their task, I myself consider I have already born witnessto far too much death, I cannot ever hope to imagine the strength my siblingsmust have to carry out their tasks.

With war,however, came innovation. The humans excelled at making more machines to gracemy skies, all different types. Tiny little things, so aerodynamic, so agile, sofast, they could travel around the world in hardly any time at all. Then therecame the goliaths, massive beasts of airships, holding in their guts cargo aslarge as houses, fitting within themselves scores of smaller flyers. It wastruly incredible to see the diversity these people could create. Now if only itwasn’t diversity they were using my skies to wage war on, but then humans willbe humans.

Now Ihave found a place of my own, it’s called an ‘airport’. This is where planesland to rest, where they are kept and maintained, where young humans come tolearn about my skies. Where people congregate and board planes that will takethem across the world, all these people choosing to travel in my skies. Many peopleare terrified. I understand. I’ve seen enough of the carnage they can encounterin these machines to know their fear is warranted. I try to ease their minds asmuch as I can, touching their hearts to bring reassurance. It’s been many yearssince any plane from this airport has had issues thanks to my intervention. Allthe engineers are well rested when they work on my planes, all the pilots alertand filled with my passion for flight. No plane has ever taken off from myairport with any issue that could ever cause their boarded people harm. Theyeven changed the name of the place to Angel Airlines. That was truly an honour,though I know the people don’t know of my existence.

Keepingthese people and this airport safe though has become more difficult recentlywith the new change of owner. Though he had ultimately been behind the changeof name, that doesn’t excuse the other changes he has instigated. Pay cuts allround, longer working hours, less benefits, shorter breaks, and lower qualityfood. I even had to stop a man with allergies enjoying an unmarked dinnercontaining peanuts the other day. Nearly all the food is wasted now. He evenmade it against the airlines policy for the staff to take leftovers, probablyin case they made their way to somewhere useful like a shelter. One of mysiblings had words with me about that one; their shelter had been relying onthe few employees here that gathered up the best of the leftovers after eachshift. There’s not too much I could really do though. People are people and aslong as my planes are safe, I told myself I would not interfere.

Thisthough, this is the last straw. I will not have planes from my airport flyingbroken. I. Will. Not. Allow It. I could hardly do anything as one of theengines blew out, just calm the panicked mind of the pilot, keep the heart ofan unwell passenger pumping as the pilot, bless him, managed a rough butlifesaving emergency landing. The passenger held out until the emergency peoplecame for them, and aside from some minor bumps and bruises everyone was safe inthe end. My plane however, was ruined. He had allowed this, had caused this,with his corner cutting, his disrespect and disregard for my planes, for mypeople. He had done this and by the gods, dead and alive, he is going to fixit.

We arenot supposed to show ourselves to people, an agreement all of my siblings hadmade. We are to stay in the background of things, unseen, unheard, only everguiding, never leading. It makes sense, it made sense, but now I cannot stand bymy agreement. I cannot stay in the background as this man dismantles myairport, I will not.

It takesmere minutes to return to my airport after the crash, after I’ve ensured mypeople are safe. Planes may be fast now, but they are nothing compared to anAngels speed, and I use my agility in full for the first time in many manyyears. This man must pay. My rage fills the hanger as I land and I feel thepeople around me react to it subtly, a small change in their demeanour, nolonger casually polite but instead unthinkingly cruel. That I will have to dealwith later. I storm past them hoping they will be relieved of my persuasion asmy presence grows distant. I find my way quickly to the obnoxiously largeoffice in which I know the head of the airport resides. I take a moment tosteel my heated rage into cold fury before opening the door. I close it behindme and let my glamour fade, revealing my true form as I step forward, slammingmy fists onto the desks and watching as the office chair turns away from thelarge window overlooking my airport.

As itturns, I begin my tirade “you! You complete and utter bastard! Youimbecile, you moron, you, you, you douche bag!” Before I can even reallyrelease some of my pent up anger the man turns to me calmly, and smiling says"An angel with a potty mouth, I guess there is a first foreverything”. A Demon, he’s a fucking demon, of course he is, of course.It’s so obvious. They’re everywhere on earth, mostly in politics and largecorporations, but with a company as successful as mine I should have known itwas only a matter of time. My rage renewed as I continue “you demon!” Theman merely smirks and extending a hand replies "guilty as charged, thenames Mike, a pleasure to meet you I’m sure”.

I hearthe pictures on the wall begin to shake as my anger rolls off me in waves, andbetween gritted teeth, I hiss “get out of my airport”. Genuinesurprise lights Mike’s face as he replies “oh? No I think you’ll find infact, that this airport belongs to me, and come now”. Mike stands andwalks to a gently shaking table with a kettle and mugs lightly rattling on top,he pours us both something and holds one out. He can’t honestly expect me totake anything from a demon can he? When I don’t take it, he sets it down on thedesk in front of me before continuing “it’s not as though I’ve actuallydone anything wrong you know”.

The mugin front of me shatters and a dark steaming liquid pools into the carpet below,littered with shards. “Haven’t done…. HAVEN’T DONE ANYTHING WRONG??? Younearly killed a dozen people, on my aeroplane today. Get out, get out of myairport right now!”. I shout and the pictures fall from their hooks on thewalls and shatter on the ground, mingling their glass in with the shards ofbroken pottery on the now soggy carpet. I can feel my chest heaving and mywings twitching in agitation. I haven’t been so furious since the last time Iwatched a plane be shot down. Mike just shakes his head and takes a sip of hisdrink before saying “no. I only did all this for you anyway”.

Shockhits me and I falter confused “for m-me… What?” Mike beams at me andclicks his fingers, the debris from my outburst fixing itself in an instant,the pictures mending themselves and returning to their hooks, my mug now gentlysteaming again in front of me. I resist the urge to just smash it all again,that would be petty. "Of course”, there’s a gentleness to Mike’svoice that seems so out of place coming from him, coming from a demon.“Well flattery didn’t work, and neither did bribery, and I so thoughtyou’d like that new hanger too. All” he gestures with his arms neverspilling a drop from the mug still grasped in one hand, fingers closed just alittle too tight “bright and clean and angelic, you know, I even boughtyou three new planes to fill it with”. “The Wings of Light? That wasyou?” I find myself asking. He beams at me and nods, his vice grip on themug relaxing a little at the acknowledgment.

“Ofcourse” he sighs sitting back in his chair and taking another sip,“and of course, it wasn’t until the violence started that you startedtaking notice”. I reach out and take a sip of my own drink before settingit back down with a grimace “tastes like carpet”. Mike laughs andwalks back over to the table and brews a new drink saying “of course nowwe can actually get this place back up and running again properly now. Finally,it was practically killing me you know, stunting the place like this. Really ifyou’d just come to see me sooner”.

The newdrink tastes of chocolate; it’s far nicer than carpet “what in the skiesare you on about. You want my airport to run well? Why?”. “Ourairport” Mike corrects “and because, believe it or not, demons needhobbies too, it’s all well and good hanging around hell for all eternityindulging in the greatest of sins, but it’s not like Hades Town you known? Youstart to miss people, demons can be so…. Boring”. I take my seat andtake another sip of my drink, it’s actually rather lovely “why then didn’tyou just… Say something to me? Instead of doing all this?” I gesture tothe window which I notice is in fact overlooking the new hanger that is indeedcurrently housing the three brand new air cruisers, the Wings of Light.

Mikeshakes his head sadly “I would have given you them anyway you know, butit’s in the rules really, ‘no demon on earth may willingly reveal her or his orits identity to any persons of an angelic nature, else may they lose all powersof hell and indeed cease entirely to exist.’ A real bummer that’d be you knowso… I improvised. Now whaddya say partner? Shall we get this place back up toscratch?”. I hesitate a moment before grasping his hand, I know a passionfor planes in a soul when I see one, even a soul as dark as Mike’s. But thenreally, what being could possibly love these skies and still be awful.

By Meagan. A. D. (NutMegTales) for @asdfjasklfjdkla

Read my other stuff here: Elsewhere University, Blood Tales, Dark Ones, Misc, Poetry

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nutmegtales · 6 years

Text

Skies

I’ve never really been one to interact with the humans much personally. They’re all so loud, so destructive, so selfish. However, many of my siblings have found their place on earth among these people. There’s angels for just about everything now, for fire, for ice, for mobile phones, and those funny little cotton swabs on sticks. There’s an angel for just about every major animal you can think of, personally I fin the ones for insects rather… Strange. Some of us have traded in our wings for tails to sim in the deep oceans, or swapped out our halos for hats and wigs to walk among the humans unnoticed.

They say the old gods are dead, and mostly that’s true enough, but what they never mention is that where gods fail, Angels pick up the slack. Gods are things of belief you see, stop believing in a god and they’re as real as Fake News. See what I did there? I’ve even started picking up some of the human’s new slang. But Angels? Well it takes a lot more than just not believing in us to get rid of us. We’re here for the long haul so to speak. Most of us believe that seeing as we’re here to stay we might as well pick our thing and stick to it. They tell me you’ve gotta be an angel of something, and you know, recently I’m starting to understand what they mean.

I’ve always been a flyer you know? I mean, if the gods bestow upon you the gift of flight, you may as well fly and all that. Recently the humans have once again laughed in the face of their gods. They were not given the gift of flight, but does that stop them? Ha! No, no it does not. The first time I met one of their giant metal birds it damn near tore me out of the skies themselves the damn thing. I was so shocked, they say I didn’t shut up about it for years, though I suppose I never really have shut up about it yet. I ended up following it around the sky for hours before it landed, and Lo and behold when it did land out came two cheering humans.

That was the very first time I found myself understanding a human, or that I ever thought that perhaps a human could understand me. They too loved these skies, they to sought to feel the rushing icy air between their feathers, metal or otherwise. They, perhaps, weren’t so awful after all. I mean what being could possibly love these skies and still be awful.

As the years passed they developed their flying machines. I met a few of their early engineers hovering over shoulders as blueprints were drawn, gifting inspiration as the small hours of the day drew in, lending energy to tired hands and tired minds so that this next model may yet be better than the last. I followed the small humans whose passion for flight drove them into the cockpits of these metal birds, so brave, to be so sure that something so heavy could ever soar on the wind. I saved as many as I could, turning turbulent skies peaceful, willing their tiny rivets and screws to hold, keeping birds out of their flight paths. I wasn’t always successful, but the humans had such spirit, they never stopped trying.

Soon enough my skies were filled with these soaring beasts, wars were waged in my skies, many pilots met their end flying through the clouds. During these times, I became far too familiar with one of the very few remaining gods. Hades, as he says, will never want for belief, everyone eventually believes in death. I think it’s rather a point of pride for him and his wife, who herself still viciously demands belief from the people of this earth. Spring and winter, ice and fire, fruit and flower, honey and nectar, they all belong to her. Quite the pair they are, life and death themselves. I also met many of my siblings during these times, the Angels of death, come to ease the passing from this mortal land. I do not envy their task, I myself consider I have already born witness to far too much death, I cannot ever hope to imagine the strength my siblings must have to carry out their tasks.

With war, however, came innovation. The humans excelled at making more machines to grace my skies, all different types. Tiny little things, so aerodynamic, so agile, so fast, they could travel around the world in hardly any time at all. Then there came the goliaths, massive beasts of airships, holding in their guts cargo as large as houses, fitting within themselves scores of smaller flyers. It was truly incredible to see the diversity these people could create. Now if only it wasn't diversity they were using my skies to wage war on, but then humans will be humans.

Now I have found a place of my own, it's called an ‘airport’. This is where planes land to rest, where they are kept and maintained, where young humans come to learn about my skies. Where people congregate and board planes that will take them across the world, all these people choosing to travel in my skies. Many people are terrified. I understand. I've seen enough of the carnage they can encounter in these machines to know their fear is warranted. I try to ease their minds as much as I can, touching their hearts to bring reassurance. It's been many years since any plane from this airport has had issues thanks to my intervention. All the engineers are well rested when they work on my planes, all the pilots alert and filled with my passion for flight. No plane has ever taken off from my airport with any issue that could ever cause their boarded people harm. They even changed the name of the place to Angel Airlines. That was truly an honour, though I know the people don't know of my existence.

Keeping these people and this airport safe though has become more difficult recently with the new change of owner. Though he had ultimately been behind the change of name, that doesn't excuse the other changes he has instigated. Pay cuts all round, longer working hours, less benefits, shorter breaks, and lower quality food. I even had to stop a man with allergies enjoying an unmarked dinner containing peanuts the other day. Nearly all the food is wasted now. He even made it against the airlines policy for the staff to take leftovers, probably in case they made their way to somewhere useful like a shelter. One of my siblings had words with me about that one; their shelter had been relying on the few employees here that gathered up the best of the leftovers after each shift. There's not too much I could really do though. People are people and as long as my planes are safe, I told myself I would not interfere.

This though, this is the last straw. I will not have planes from my airport flying broken. I. Will. Not. Allow It. I could hardly do anything as one of the engines blew out, just calm the panicked mind of the pilot, keep the heart of an unwell passenger pumping as the pilot, bless him, managed a rough but lifesaving emergency landing. The passenger held out until the emergency people came for them, and aside from some minor bumps and bruises everyone was safe in the end. My plane however, was ruined. He had allowed this, had caused this, with his corner cutting, his disrespect and disregard for my planes, for my people. He had done this and by the gods, dead and alive, he is going to fix it.

We are not supposed to show ourselves to people, an agreement all of my siblings had made. We are to stay in the background of things, unseen, unheard, only ever guiding, never leading. It makes sense, it made sense, but now I cannot stand by my agreement. I cannot stay in the background as this man dismantles my airport, I will not.

It takes mere minutes to return to my airport after the crash, after I've ensured my people are safe. Planes may be fast now, but they are nothing compared to an Angels speed, and I use my agility in full for the first time in many many years. This man must pay. My rage fills the hanger as I land and I feel the people around me react to it subtly, a small change in their demeanour, no longer casually polite but instead unthinkingly cruel. That I will have to deal with later. I storm past them hoping they will be relieved of my persuasion as my presence grows distant. I find my way quickly to the obnoxiously large office in which I know the head of the airport resides. I take a moment to steel my heated rage into cold fury before opening the door. I close it behind me and let my glamour fade, revealing my true form as I step forward, slamming my fists onto the desks and watching as the office chair turns away from the large window overlooking my airport.

As it turns, I begin my tirade "you! You complete and utter bastard! You imbecile, you moron, you, you, you douche bag!” Before I can even really release some of my pent up anger the man turns to me calmly, and smiling says "An angel with a potty mouth, I guess there is a first for everything". A Demon, he's a fucking demon, of course he is, of course. It's so obvious. They're everywhere on earth, mostly in politics and large corporations, but with a company as successful as mine I should have known it was only a matter of time. My rage renewed as I continue "you demon!” The man merely smirks and extending a hand replies "guilty as charged, the names Mike, a pleasure to meet you I'm sure".

I hear the pictures on the wall begin to shake as my anger rolls off me in waves, and between gritted teeth, I hiss "get out of my airport". Genuine surprise lights Mike's face as he replies "oh? No I think you'll find in fact, that this airport belongs to me, and come now". Mike stands and walks to a gently shaking table with a kettle and mugs lightly rattling on top, he pours us both something and holds one out. He can't honestly expect me to take anything from a demon can he? When I don't take it, he sets it down on the desk in front of me before continuing "it's not as though I've actually done anything wrong you know".

The mug in front of me shatters and a dark steaming liquid pools into the carpet below, littered with shards. "Haven't done.... HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING WRONG??? You nearly killed a dozen people, on my aeroplane today. Get out, get out of my airport right now!". I shout and the pictures fall from their hooks on the walls and shatter on the ground, mingling their glass in with the shards of broken pottery on the now soggy carpet. I can feel my chest heaving and my wings twitching in agitation. I haven't been so furious since the last time I watched a plane be shot down. Mike just shakes his head and takes a sip of his drink before saying "no. I only did all this for you anyway".

Shock hits me and I falter confused "for m-me... What?” Mike beams at me and clicks his fingers, the debris from my outburst fixing itself in an instant, the pictures mending themselves and returning to their hooks, my mug now gently steaming again in front of me. I resist the urge to just smash it all again, that would be petty. "Of course", there's a gentleness to Mike’s voice that seems so out of place coming from him, coming from a demon. "Well flattery didn't work, and neither did bribery, and I so thought you'd like that new hanger too. All" he gestures with his arms never spilling a drop from the mug still grasped in one hand, fingers closed just a little too tight "bright and clean and angelic, you know, I even bought you three new planes to fill it with". "The Wings of Light? That was you?" I find myself asking. He beams at me and nods, his vice grip on the mug relaxing a little at the acknowledgment.

"Of course" he sighs sitting back in his chair and taking another sip, "and of course, it wasn't until the violence started that you started taking notice". I reach out and take a sip of my own drink before setting it back down with a grimace "tastes like carpet". Mike laughs and walks back over to the table and brews a new drink saying "of course now we can actually get this place back up and running again properly now. Finally, it was practically killing me you know, stunting the place like this. Really if you'd just come to see me sooner".

The new drink tastes of chocolate; it's far nicer than carpet "what in the skies are you on about. You want my airport to run well? Why?". "Our airport" Mike corrects "and because, believe it or not, demons need hobbies too, it's all well and good hanging around hell for all eternity indulging in the greatest of sins, but it's not like Hades Town you known? You start to miss people, demons can be so.... Boring". I take my seat and take another sip of my drink, it's actually rather lovely "why then didn't you just... Say something to me? Instead of doing all this?" I gesture to the window which I notice is in fact overlooking the new hanger that is indeed currently housing the three brand new air cruisers, the Wings of Light.

Mike shakes his head sadly "I would have given you them anyway you know, but it's in the rules really, 'no demon on earth may willingly reveal her or his or its identity to any persons of an angelic nature, else may they lose all powers of hell and indeed cease entirely to exist.' A real bummer that'd be you know so... I improvised. Now whaddya say partner? Shall we get this place back up to scratch?". I hesitate a moment before grasping his hand, I know a passion for planes in a soul when I see one, even a soul as dark as Mike's. But then really, what being could possibly love these skies and still be awful.

By NutMegTales for @asdfjasklfjdkla

Read my other stuff here: Elsewhere University, Blood Tales, Dark Ones, Misc, Poetry

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mst3kproject · 6 years

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Babes in Toyland

This review represents a fairly important milestone for me – back in January I decided to start doing Episodes that Never Were on a schedule, and I've kept it up for a whole year! I'm hoping I can continue in 2018, since there are a lot of bad movies in the world and it would make me giddy if a few Episodes that Never Were became Episodes that Actually Are. The closest I've come so far is Reptilicus and its curious accident of timing.

Anyway, it just wouldn't be the holidays on the Satellite of Love without a messed-up acid trip of a Christmas movie. This is one a lot of people my age remember being traumatized by as children, and is probably the only time you're ever going to see Drew Barrymore, Keanu Reeves, or Pat Morita on this blog. Reeves frantically driving a pink bumper car with flowers on it is a sight not soon forgotten, I assure you.

Our heroine Lisa is eleven years old and wants a blender for Christmas, although a sled will do as a consolation prize. She and her sister get in a car accident in the middle of a musical number on their way home, and Lisa hits her head and wakes up not in the ER, but in a magical land of balloon trees and furries. This is populated, Wizard-of-Oz, style by fairy-tale characters played by the same actors as people in her real life. Lisa arrives just as the beautiful Mary Q. Contrary is about to be forced to marry evil Mr. Barnaby instead of her true love, Jack B. Nimble. Obviously only Lisa, with help from Georgie Porgie and the Toymaster, can defeat Barnaby and save the day – but first she has to learn to believe in toys!

This is the kind of movie that actually makes you cringe watching it. I spent most of it wanting to cover my face so I wouldn't have to see the actors embarrassing themselves. Everybody came across kind of stagey and uncomfortable in their roles as ordinary people in the real world, and it gets ten times worse when they're dressed up as nursery rhymes. Every single person looks like they're wondering how they got here and trying to remember how much they're getting paid for this. The dialogue is bland and obvious, and the characters over-emote at the same time as they have no conviction whatsoever.

I'm even embarrassed for the prop and costume people. Toyland probably isn't supposed to look real – that would defeat the point – but it shouldn't look like plywood. And then there's the people in the animal costumes with the immobile faces and empty eyes and visible joins between the head and shoulders. I've seen better costumes at ComiCon and some of those were in diapers. Are the silent teddy bear cops supposed to be intimidating? Because they're less scary than the donut cops from Wreck-It Ralph. Barnaby's army of trolls look like a cross between the Blood Beast and the Killer Shrews.

A large portion of the budget seems to have gone into creating or buying the wonderful wooden toys that fill the ToyMaster's workshop. A few of these are actual works of art, designed to turn the heat rising from a candle into whirling motion. Too bad they're only onscreen for a few seconds before we move on to half-assed stuffed animals and creepy-eyed tin soldiers. These impressive toys are way too good for Babes in Toyland, as is Pat Morita as the ToyMaster – I suspect he agreed to be in this movie only on condition of being allowed to hide behind that fake beard. His helpers are supposed to be elves, I think, played by children who are also wearing fake beards. This is distressing in ways I cannot quite describe.

The jokes are so terrible that I'm not sure some of them are meant to be jokes. Lisa tells the Toylanders about Cincinnati and pretends its a magical kingdom ruled by King Pete Rose... is that supposed to be funny? Georgie Porgie complains that he wasn't cut out to be a hero and Jack says, “they could cut three heroes out of you, old buddy!” Is that a compliment or a fat joke? I think Barnaby's bowling ball-shaped house, which he rolls down the street to knock people over whenever he has a tantrum, is a joke, but it's kind of a setup without a punchline. There's a sequence in which Mother Hubbard is introducing her children and she can't remember the last one's name. That's not funny, that's horrifying!

I can't even bring myself to write about the musical numbers. Anybody who has a hard time with secondhand embarrassment really shouldn't watch this movie.

The plot of Babes in Toyland is a list of tropes, but this is entirely appropriate for the type of story we're being told. Barnaby is evil for the sake of being evil, Justice Grimm allows himself to be tricked and locked up in his own jail cell, and various characters show up to reference their fairy tales and then wander off again. It should work because it's exactly what we expect, but instead of feeling natural, there's a sense of obligation about it. “Yes, we're Jack and Jill. We have to fall down this stupid hill, so we might as well get on with it.” The characters never appear comfortable with these situations, so the cliches become awkward instead of seeming like the natural order of the story's universe.

(One of the rules is that, as Mary explains to Lisa, it is always daylight in Toyland. We're never told when anybody sleeps, although we do see a couple of beds. We also see a sun, meaning that to have eternal daytime Toyland's planet must be tidally locked. There ought to be howling winds as the warm air on the day side rises and sucks in cold air from the night side, which would be a frozen wilderness of perpetual night. But only a nerd would worry about something like that.)

Toyland's tropes are based around characters and situations from Lisa's life in Cincinnati – Mary, for example, is her older sister, who is subject to sexual harrassment by her greedy boss, the tyrant of the toy store where she works. One would therefore expect that the situations Lisa encounters in Toyland would teach her to deal with what's going on in reality, like how Chihiro learns courage and confidence through her experiences at Yubaba's bathhouse. In Babes in Toyland, however, it's the other way around. Lisa has already convinced her sister to tell off her boss and leave the toy store, and it's this she applies to Toyland in stopping the wedding of Mary and Barnaby. Lisa already enjoys fun things, as evidenced by her happiness at the gift of the sled, and already believes in true love, as her first major act in Toyland is intervening in the wedding. The lessons the plot is set up to teach her are ones she does not need to learn.

The other characters likewise seem to have their arcs done for them. Mary insists that she will rescue Jack herself, saying “it's time I did something besides cry!” We have literally never seen Mary crying – in fact, the only time she's come across as a weeping damsel was at the wedding, and there she thought she was doing what was best for her family. Georgie is supposed to be a coward who wants to be a hero, and yet he keeps doing brave things from the start. And what's with the subplot in which Lisa matchmakes between Barnaby and Mrs. Hubbard? Does she want her mom to marry the creepy toy store owner? Eww.

Besides the wooden toys, there are a couple of other things in the movie that do work. Barnaby has three main minions – two of them, called Zak and Mak, are basically the porcupine guys from Highlander 2 (not that I've seen Highlander 2 or anything), and the third is a bird named Trolla. This beast is played by a little person in some kind of unconvincing shaggy pterodactyl costume, but it does have a single large eye that Barnaby uses as a crystal ball to watch what other characters are doing and stay one step ahead of them. For some reason, the eye is really quite disturbing and its image tends to stay with you – YouTube comments suggest that it's the thing a lot of people remember best about the movie. The worst part, however, is that when the ToyMaster wants to subdue Trolla he does so by painting over its eye. Oh god that must sting!

Then there's the Bottle of Evil. When Barnaby uncorks it, a green mist comes out to envelop the characters. It's not a great effect and you don't believe in it any more than you believe in anything else in the movie, but it's a scary idea and realized just well enough to make you worry. Then they defeat it by singing a song about Cincinnati. No, really, that happens. It doesn't come across like a great moral victory, it's just a giant what the fuck. How do the other characters even know the song?

The idea of being knocked out and awakening in a magical land or another time is a very common trope in itself, going back at least as far as A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, written in 1889. I know we're not supposed to worry about it, but when watching or reading such stories I always wonder what's going on in the 'real world'. One of the things I really liked about Life on Mars was how the storytellers actually devoted time and thought to the fact that Sam is in an ICU hallucinating all this, and things in that outside world can affect the world he's imagining. We don't get anything like that for Lisa. At the end she just wakes up on the sofa and everybody's glad she's okay. Why is nobody calling an ambulance?! A loss of consciousness of more than a few seconds is a medical emergency! Call a doctor, for heaven's sake, concussions do not make for a very merry Christmas!

The thing I'm maddest about, though? Is that Barnaby wasn't defeated by getting crushed by his own bowling ball. I waited the whole damn movie for that. How dare it disappoint me!

#mst3k #reviews #episodes that never were #babes in toyland #holiday reviews #80s

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meditatemoremedicateless · 6 years

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Something Wicked: Moonlight (Part II)

Art by @flowersonpaper

Fandom: Life is Strange

Pairings: Christward, Amberchrist, Victaylor

Major Tags: Fluff, magical girl, witch, magic, polyamory

Words: ~ 10,000 (oops)

Summary: Taylor pulls off a heist in Nathan's room. While she's busy uncovering the secrets of his phone, a monster follows her to the outskirts of the town. Taylor has her second showdown with a shade. A new witch reveals themself.

Read the full story on Ao3

Rachel and Taylor were severely tardy and giggly by the time they entered the gym. Luckily, that meant that they'd missed stretches, and people had already arranged themselves around the small badminton nets from last week. This time though, people were paired up to hit volley balls back and forth. There was one empty mini-court, though, and Dana and Juliet were standing against the wall next to it, Dana with a volley ball tucked under her arm.

Taylor unlinked her fingers from Rachel's, nodding her head over to Dana and Juliet. As they approached, Juliet took notice, smiling and waving. Which was . . . unusual.

"Sup?" Rachel asked once they made it over.

Dana shrugged. "I guess we're all tardy, but whatever. You're lucky we managed to talk you down from a truant, though."

Taylor smiled, clasping her hands in fake prayer. "Thank you, almighty Dana."

Dana looked the both up them up and down quickly, smirking. "Well, you two look happy."

Juliet butted in suddenly to ask, "So are you guys dating?" She stood up from against the wall, swishing a little. Taylor wasn't sure she had ever seen her so animated.

Rachel smiled nervously, and she and Taylor both made the nervous tic to fix their hair. "We're . . ." Rachel started, then immediately faltered. She raised her hand up towards Taylor, adding an, "Um . . ." but that just faltered as well.

"Are we dating? We never talked about it."

Taylor wasn't exactly sure whether or not kissing meant they were dating, but rule of thumb said no. But they had gone on a date? "We're just . . ." but she quickly gave up trying to finish that sentence either.

Dana looked back and forth between the two of them as awkwardness beset all of them. Then she said, "Welllll, we'll come back to that one. Why don't we just-"

WHAM!

A volleyball slammed into the wall over their heads, rebounding just behind Juliet, who screamed for a second before realizing what happened. When they checked who it had come from, though, Zach waved from the other side of an adjacent court. Quickly approaching their little group, though, was Logan. Taylor immediately took a step back, and she wasn't the only one - only Dana didn't seem to flinch, instead taking a few steps over to pick up the ball.

He raised a hand now, greeting her with a, "Yo."

"Hey," Dana replied curtly, tossing the ball a little too high so Logan had to step back to catch it.

Once he'd caught it, he took another step towards the four of them, but Dana immediately pivoted towards Taylor. "Hey, so, want to play volleyball?"

"S-sure," she replied, taking a look over at Rachel before the two of them moved to the other side of the court.

Unfortunately, this brought their path a little too close to Logan, who muttered, "Bitch."

Rachel turned to glare, but Taylor couldn't even bring her eyes up. He was back in his court by the time they got set up, and Taylor had to look up.

On the other side of the court, Dana stood alone, Juliet sitting back against the wall, unable to play thanks to never changing. Dana lifted the ball to about stomach height, then looked over at Rachel and Taylor. "You ready?" she called.

"Literally never."

"Lay 'em on me, girl," Rachel called back, clasping her hands together.

Taylor snorted, knowing her wrists were probably going to be sore by the time class was over. Dana was a server for the girls' volleyball team. This was going to suck.

At least it was better than playing with those football assholes.

Taylor: hey vic.

Victoria: Hey T what's up?

Taylor: not much Taylor: just wondered if we could hit up nathan and smoke

Victoria: I've got my own if you just want to chill and do homework

Taylor: nah i kind of want to hang out with nathan. maybe we can do homework during lab tomorrow? i don't think it's gonna take us long to take a pic of the mountains

Victoria: Sure. Victoria: I'll hit up Nathan and we can hang out tonight

Taylor: cool

Taylor switched over to her new group text, Nancy Drew 1.2

Taylor: yo so i'm gonna try and get nathan's phone tonight.

Juliet: You sure? I mean, even if you get it, it's going to be locked you know. Juliet: He's not dumb.

Taylor: i think i've got that worked out, don't worry Taylor: or maybe do, who knows

Taylor's plan was, in fact, ludicrous. She was pretty sure she had mind controlled Logan somehow Thursday night when she got him to back off. At least, she had proven way more persuasive than she was before she had super powers, so that was close enough.

Dana: Good luck Dana: Text me if you need anything

Taylor: yeah Taylor: and thanks for helping me Taylor: i know i've been super shitty to both of you guys Taylor: but seriously thank you

Juliet: If you end up getting Nathan expelled for dealing roofies we can call it even?

Taylor: ha yeah Taylor: shit wow that's what might happen isn't it Taylor: that sucks

Juliet: It kind of already sucks, honestly.

Taylor: ha Taylor: well if i die or disappear you'll know exactly who did it Taylor: literally any member of the AB police department or Blackwell staff

Taylor's heart was already racing by the time she left her room that evening. The inevitability of her embarrassing failure when she tried to control Nathan only seemed clearer and clearer throughout the day until now she was actively blocking out her constant warnings to give up. Luckily, her body rarely seemed to communicate well with her head, and soon she found herself climbing the stairs up to the third floor of the dorms.

As she reached the first landing, the third-floor door opened and Samuel stepped through, dragging his cleaning supplies with him. The dormitories weren't very old but they were designed like shit, and accessibility changes had only started last week thanks to a local grant. As such, Samuel had to carry much of his supplies up and down the stairs every day. It was a damn uncomfortable thing to watch, as the cart was obviously not made to be carried, and yet he pulled it off several times a day, six days a week.

"Hey Samuel, do you need any help?"

As Taylor reached the top of the stairs, Samuel turned to look at her, the heavy steel door closing behind him with a loud ka-chung. "Why, I don't suppose so, Taylor, I'll manage. Do you need any help?"

See, now, this is why Taylor didn't usually talk to Samuel. She may not have the same visceral reaction as Victoria just because his voice made it sound like he was trying to tell a ghost story 24/7, but he rebounded everything you said in uncomfortable ways.

"Ah. Um, no, I don't think so. Just going to go hang out with some friends." She kept her arms close to her body, scratching to remind them to feel sensation.

Samuel nodded. "It's good to have friends," he replied. "They keep each other safe in dark times. At least tonight is bright."

"Uh . . . yeah." Taylor looked him in the eye, hoping she could get some peek into this guy's mind. Still, no voice appeared, so they just sat there in silence.

Without breaking eye contact at all, Samuel said, "I need to keep vacuuming now."

"Oh, yeah. Sorry." Taylor walked around the cart so he could access the stairs, still clutching her own body.

Samuel pushed his cart closer to the edge, then got on the stairs so he could lift it. But before he did, he paused and said, "It's a beautiful night tonight. It might be nice to take a walk.

"Yeah," she replied. Once he lifted the cart, though, she just pushed through the door and headed for Nathan's room.

Smoking in Nathan's room was always, inevitably, a little uncomfortable. The bondage art on the walls was one thing - Taylor had accepted long ago that what was creepy for her was 'artistic' to some people - but it was really the wall of foreign slasher films that Taylor didn't like. There's no way you watch that many people get murdered in French and walk away intact. Taylor barely managed to keep her mind intact when Victoria thought it was bourgeois to say random idioms in French. Still, there was one use to the room that never wore out: no matter how much it smelled like pot, you'd never get busted if you were in Nathan's room.

Taylor really would have liked to be high for this. But for some reason, no matter how much she was smoking, she wasn't really feeling it right now.

Victoria and Nathan were chatting about this football season, which Nathan was compelled to care about and Victoria somehow, genuinely cared about. Like most conversations when the three of them were together, Taylor sat out of it, played on her phone, or just sort of looked around the room and pet soft objects.

"Hey, that reminds me," Nathan said, (Taylor had no idea what preceded that) "how did you get chosen as the number two for that photo contest? I didn't think that was how that worked."

Victoria grimaced. She and Nathan sat next to each other on the couch under the projector, alternating between trying to relax and hunched over smoking from their pipes.

"Well, I'm not sure, but I was probably on the table to begin with, and when Max didn't show, Mark just made an executive decision. Especially if we were the last two in deliberations, I don't think anyone would question it."

Honestly, Taylor had been trying not to question that very thing. As much as she wanted to believe that Victoria was the obvious second, there was no way Evan and Rachel were far behind. Even taking family influence into account, the Chases didn't have much of a leg up on the Harris family in terms of artistic renown or the Ambers in community goodwill. The only thing that made Victoria seem like a sure second, only behind Max, was Jefferson's preference - he adored Max, and Victoria had been kissing his ass since day one. No one would want to say that out loud, and it certainly wouldn't be Taylor.

Victoria blew out a thin stream of smoke like a sigh. Then she said, "Guess I can't compete with a pet project, huh?"

Nathan side-eyed her. "Pet project? What makes you say that?" His hands twitched as he talked. Not that that was unusual for Nathan, but it still caught Taylor's attention.

Victoria returned the glance, then rolled her eyes. "Oh, just, when you're in class with him you can tell. Lets her off the hook, gives her lots of praise, tells her about photography opportunities after class, lectures as if it's just for her. Well, her and Rachel. The two of them together are the worst."

"Oh. Huh." Nathan looked at the floor. He didn't even reply with some witty, derogatory comment. Then he looked up at Taylor and asked, "You went to the party Thursday with Rachel, right T? Like, she asked you out."

Taylor shrugged. Then, she realized that was a question with clear answers. "Oh, yeah, I guess. She asked me, but then she couldn't make it."

Nathan raised his eyebrows. "Yeah," he said, "that sounds like Rachel all right."

I need to put out a notice that no one is allowed to be mean to Rachel while we're dating or else I'll mind control them into the swimming pool.

Taylor drummed her fingers on her jeans, criss-crossed on the bed. "I mean, we still went out Sunday. She didn't just flake."

"Oh, okay," Nathan said, suddenly grinning. "And just why'd she bail on the party, then?"

Taylor gripped her jeans as well as she could as she became flustered. "She - she had to do a thing with her mom."

Nathan chuckled. "Oh, okay, sure."

Victoria swatted his shoulder and shot him a look somewhere between an eye-roll and a glare. "Just stop it, Nate."

He held his hands up in surrender. "Sure, sure. Look, I'm's glad Taylor's getting some ass as we all are." His eyes rolled up as if he were picturing something. "Kind of a lot of ass, actually."

Victoria flushed, but that was far enough that Taylor stopped feeling so flustered. "Shut. Up. Nathan," she growled. "I don't want to hear what you have to say about Rachel's ass. Or Rachel at all, actually."

"Fine, fine." He leaned back on the sofa, but he wouldn't get rid of his pleased smirk, and that was what was pissing Taylor off the most, honestly.

A few more minutes passed by while Victoria and Nathan talked and Taylor sulked, wondering if she was going to have to defend Rachel against all of her friends, sooner or later. The only people who were being happy for her were Dana and Juliet, unlike everyone else who basically just agreed to back off. She wondered if Rachel was having to do this same thing on her end, hound Chloe and Max about being mean for . . . well, Taylor had no idea what they'd choose to be mean behind her back for, but she knew she wouldn't want it said about her. Why wouldn't people just get that all of this bullshit high school drama was going to disappear the second they graduated, but Taylor's chances for love and companionship and all that stupid Disney bullshit were never going to stop being limited? What was the point in treating a nice girl badly?

Thoughts of Dana and Juliet began to pool in Taylor's mind, and she wanted to think about anything else.

Victoria spoke up. "I'll, uh, be right back," she said as she got up.

Taylor latched onto the distraction. "Where're you going?"

"Uhh, bathroom. You need to go?"

This is perfect. Although Taylor did kind of have to go.

Taylor shook her head, "Nah, I'm good."

"Okay."

Once Victoria was out of the room and definitely out of earshot, Taylor turned her attention to Nathan.

"Hey, Nate," she said, scooting forward on the bed, "I need a favor."

Nathan immediately looked irritated, but he held it back enough to ask, "Like what?"

Taylor took a quick breath to prepare herself for the practiced lie, what she had been banking every possibility of not outright trying to steal his phone on. "I want to buy something you don't normally sell. But I know Frank used to have it."

Nathan just quirked his eyebrows, waiting for her to finish the request.

"Oxycodone. I know Drew used to run it, and I need some."

Now he looked concerned. "Is this . . . about your mom?" he asked.

Taylor looked down, rubbing her arms like she did when she was anxious. And she was anxious, just not for the reasons that she wanted to look anxious. "I don't want to talk about it," she said. "I just need it quickly. Can you get it for me?"

He exhaled slowly as he thought about it, hesitating. Or maybe he just really was concerned about her mom, it wasn't that easy to tell. Taylor wasn't picking up anything from his mind, after all.

"Yeah, yeah, totally. How much do you need?"

Taylor licked her lips, working out the smoothest option for her plan. "Not a lot right now, but I'll probably need more."

He nodded. "Gotcha. I gotta tell you though, T, this stuff's not cheap."

"I know. But I'll pay."

He shrugged. "Alright, then. I'll set something up."

"Thank you."

She waited for a few seconds while they sat in awkward silence. When it became clear he wasn't going to get something set up right now, though, Taylor said, "Could you do it as soon as you can? I don't want to be pushy, I'd just prefer Victoria didn't know about this."

"Totally," he replied, waving his hand to dismiss the possibility. "I'll get it going tonight, you'll have your oxy in a few days. I won't be able to take a tab for something like this, though."

Taylor nodded . . . but that still wasn't enough. "Could you do it right now? I'm just really worried, is all."

Finally, Nathan seemed to catch on, and his eyes narrowed in suspicion. "I . . . could. But I think I'll just do it after you two leave."

Taylor was frightened that she was going to fail. Luckily, it was easy enough to channel that into frustration. "Nathan - I know you deal, and I know you're buying from Frank. You don't have anything to hide from me - would you just do it? Please?"

They entered into a staring match, while Nathan's mouth hung slightly open in irritated disbelief. Still, Taylor was small and harmless and, hypothetically, a friend to Nathan, so she kept up the stare as long as she could.

And Nathan was the one who finally caved. He sighed and rolled his eyes. "Fine, whatever. Just don't fucking talk to anyone about how I do business, okay?"

Nathan grabbed the bottom of his couch and scooted forward, dragging the whole thing with him an inch. Then he turned around and reached over it, pulling something from the backside. When he turned back around, Taylor could not believe her luck - it was a cell phone, but not his regular one. She hadn't even thought about that. He opened it up and, with another discontent sigh, started typing a message.

God, I hope this works.

"Nathan, I need you to give me the phone."

His eyes flicked up to her. "What the fuck?" He didn't seem to be sure exactly what tone to use, so it came out as muddy confusion.

Taylor took an unsteady breath. She gripped her knees and tried to remember the feeling she'd had when she stood up to Logan.

"Nathan . . ." she lifted her right hand, slipping it into her pocket. She dragged a finger over the surface of the cold stone. "Give me that phone."

She almost yelled when she saw his pupils dilate suddenly - it looked even freakier in bright light than it had in the red of the End of the World party. He looked down at his phone, then up at Taylor.

He shrugged. "Yeah, whatever, take it." He held out his phone, but otherwise sat still.

Taylor scurried on all fours to the edge of the bed, then reached out and snatched his phone. He was mid-message to an unknown number. She hit up a few times to feel secure that the phone wouldn't go to sleep mode, then stood up.

"Yeah, thanks Nate. And when Victoria gets back from the bathroom, just tell her I went to bed."

"Roger."

Taylor began to walk as fast as she could as soon as she was outside of the room, making her way into the stairwell. Then she pulled the phone to her face again, trying to figure it out as quickly as she could. She hit End until she got to the home screen, then found the Settings. Settings to Personal Information? No, that was a profile. Back, down to Security. Yes, perfect - Password settings. Change Password. Input current password to change password.

Fuck! I should have thought of that first.

She didn't want to try and go back to the room. First, she had no idea if she could pull the Jedi mind tricks on Nathan a second time, and secondly, getting caught by Victoria sounded like one of the most uncomfortable, nevermind unexplainable, situations Taylor could imagine. No, she would just have to get all the information she could without letting the phone die or fall asleep. If Nathan wasn't the dealer . . . she was going to be in for some total shit.

Taylor thought about actually going to her room to figure this out, but there were two issues: one, she needed to make a call (and Victoria might check on her sooner or later), and two, she had no idea when Nathan would be capable of realizing what he'd done and come to get his phone.

You're going to be okay. Just get somewhere you won't be found.

It looked like it was time to take a walk.

Dana: "Wait, holy shit, you got the phone?"

Taylor: "Ha, yeah! But I can't change the password so I'm just kind of tapping buttons every few seconds to keep the screen lit. I don't know how much longer I'll have it, so, I need you and Juliet to take notes or something. Is she nearby?

Dana: "Yeah, we're just hanging out in her room. Can I put you on speaker?"

Taylor: "Please don't. Do you have headphones?"

Dana: "Yeah, sure. Who do you want to talk to?"

Taylor: "I, um. Not sure."

Dana: "Juliet says she'll do it - she's a better note-taker than I am. Give us a sec."

Taylor: "Mmhm."

Ever since she'd left school property, Taylor had gotten the feeling that she was being followed. Still, Blackwell was not that far from downtown and it wasn't late enough for no one to be on the streets, so she couldn't tell if the feeling had any merit. She walked as quickly as she could without looking like a total freak, alternating between looking at the phone and up at her surroundings.

Juliet: "Hey, Taylor, I'm here and I've got my notepad. What do you want me to write?"

Taylor: "None of the contacts in the phone are labelled, so I just need you to separate them and we'll work it out, okay?"

Juliet: "Sure, sure. What's the first one say?"

Taylor: "Okay, so, the first one looks like Nathan setting up a deal to buy something called 'G.' He made deals on 9/10 and 9/25. The first time, he complains that he got sold water."

Juliet: "Water?"

Taylor: "Like a watered-down product, I think. I don't know what G is - maybe Dana can look it up? I'm going on to the second one."

Juliet: "Okay. I got the drug, dates, and the complaint down."

Taylor: "Cool. Second contact, all the messages are more recent. Nathan asks repeatedly if there's any parties going on. The other person tells him to go to one of the parties 'his daddy' pays for. He says that's not enough and he needs a rager. Other person tells him to get bent. That was . . . oh, last week. 10/9."

Juliet: "Okay, weird, but whatever. What's next?"

Taylor: "It's literally just Nathan buying weed every few days for like the entire summer. I think this is just Frank's regular phone he's texting or something."

Juliet: "Okay, sure. Anything else?"

Taylor: "Yeah. Okay, wow - fourth contact is a lot. It's three messages that Nathan sent. "Here's the first one: 'Hey whore. Keep your fucking mouth shut or else. I know where you sleep.'"

Juliet: "Jesus fuck, Nathan. But, yeah, okay, go on."

Taylor: "The first one was last month, 9/16. Second one: 'Next time it won't be pig's blood. Feminazis will be exterminated.'"

Juliet: "Nathan's such a fucking red-piller. I really hope it's him." Juliet: "Oh and real quick, Dana wants me to tell you that 'G' might mean 'GHB', which is a muscle relaxant. It's a party drug that - come again? - can induce comas or death when mixed with alcohol. So it's a depressant, that's all we've really got there."

Taylor: "All right. The third message reads, 'What the fuck are you?' That's it."

Juliet: "Hmm. When were those last two messages sent?"

Taylor: "The second one was on 10/8. The last one was on 10/10."

Juliet: "October 10 . . . that was Thursday, right? What time did he send that?"

Taylor: "Um, about 11:30pm."

Juliet: "Wow, okay, ominous. But I guess we know what he was doing instead of going to the Vortex Club party, sheesh. Uh, is there more?"

Taylor: "Unfortunately, yeah."

Taylor had gotten through most of the town and was starting to walk along the hybrid of low-income homes and dirt roads that made up the northeastern corner of Arcadia Bay. And now, when she checked over her shoulder, she knew she was being followed. Not just by a person, either. She could see the flicker behind her, but it was making no attempts to catch up with her. Sooner or later, she was going to get cornered by this thing, and she was going to have to fight her way out.

I can get to the park. Maybe I'll have enough time to call someone if I can't figure out how to get my staff back. God, I don't want to do this.

Taylor: "Um, so, fifth contact. Only one message, real recent - 10/12. It says verbatim, 'Nathan, I know this must be a confusing time for you, but you have to believe me that this is for your own good. I wanted to wait until you were ready to receive this gift, but circumstances demanded more of both of us. Don't fuck it up.'"

Juliet: "So like, quick question - what the fuck is Nathan's life? Who has messages like this in their phone?"

Taylor: "Ha! I super don't know but I'm freaking out, to be honest. And there's one more. This one's got a few messages."

Juliet: "Okay, just lay them on me. Try and stay calm, Taylor, we'll handle this."

Taylor glanced back. The thing was staying almost a full block behind at all times, but it was getting harder and harder to see anything but its flaming eyes and fear made it hard to breathe.

Taylor: "Yeah, yeah, I am, I'm good. Here we go. The first one is from Nathan, and it says, 'Everything went great. Meet me in 30.' But about an hour later there's a message from the unknown contact that says, 'I don't know how you managed to ruin this, but consider yourself on probation. I wish to share my wisdom with you, but as long as you continue to behave like a tweaked out teen instead of the man you tell me you are, it's wasted. This will not happen again.' Nathan's message is from a little after 11:00 on 10/3, the other message is just past midnight on 10/4."

Juliet: "Hm. Yeah, okay, Dana would like me to say, 'what the fuuuucckkk what the fuck what the fuck?'

Taylor: "Ha! Yeah, same. And, hey look, I think I have to go, could I say goodbye to Dana?"

Juliet: "Oh, um, sure. One sec."

Taylor was on the path up to the park, and she was really banking on having a dramatic flip-around-to-face-her-opponent moment. She felt like hanging up immediately before a fight would give them the upper hand and, well, she needed any sort of help that she could get.

Dana: "Taylor?"

Taylor: "Yeah, hey Dana. I just wanted to let you know that I have to go. I'm being followed and I'm, uh, I'm going to call the police now. But I wanted to say thank you for helping me! You and Juliet are so sweet."

Dana: "My god, Taylor, are you going to be okay? Where are you?"

Taylor: "I'm in the city park like a mile north of the school. But I'll be okay, don't worry! I can take care of myself."

Dana: "Okay, just call the police. Juliet and I can come get you and-"

It was time. Taylor couldn't put this off anymore.

Taylor: "Don't come. I've got to go now, love you! Bye."

Taylor hit 'end', and immediately winced. She did not mean to say that. But maybe now was not the time to be worried about embarrassing herself in front of Dana when she had a demon or whatever to embarrass herself in front of.

Taylor reached into her pocket, made sure the gem was right where she left it, and paused. "You haven't been very stealthy, you know!"

She pivoted, expecting to find the shade coming up the path and into the field where she stood.

But she didn't. It was Logan. He had his hands in his letterman's jacket pockets and didn't even seem to realize Taylor was there - it was like he was just out for a stroll in the park one night. It was late enough at night that, if he weren't such a recognizable giant and the moon weren't nearly full, Taylor would probably have no idea who she was looking at. She refused to believe it was a coincidence that the shade was gone and Logan was here.

After a few more seconds, Logan's eyes fell on Taylor, and he stopped walking.

They stood about thirty paces apart - far enough that Taylor felt uncomfortable about having a confrontation out loud, but she'd also much prefer to keep him at a distance for the feeling of security.

"Oh, is that Taylor?" he called. "Weird meeting you here, huh?!"

Oh god. She hadn't been prepared for the pre-fight banter.

"Ha, yeah, too weird." Fuck, no, say something witty. "Kind of like your relationship with Dana."

What!? No! That's just going to piss him off!

"Oof. Y'know, really, that hurts right here," he said, tapping his fingers over his heart. Then, he snapped his fingers and pointed at her, as if he'd just remembered something. "Funny you should mention that, though. I think I happen to remember you having something to do with that going sour." He took a step forward, put a hand up beside his face and stage-whispered (about as loud as you possibly could, honestly), "Speaking of which, how is her and Justin? I've never seen someone try so hard to get cucked before."

"What? What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Taylor actually, literally didn't know what that meant, but she would have been equally confused if she did.

He just shook his head. "Taylor, Taylor, Taylor. When are you going to learn that you wouldn't have so many problems if you just shut up and stayed out of people's way? Maybe then you wouldn't come off as such a schizo bitch."

Taylor could feel something around her now. It was like a thin fog seeped from her person and slowly made everything hazier, the moonlight dimmer. The longer this conversation went on, the more sure she was that she could kill this thing.

"You know what, Logan? You were just fucking irritating when you were some football player. Even when you were hooking up with Dana you were never anything but some dumbfuck linebacker who had to beg his way into a relationship. You weren't even worth manipulating because you were too fucking stupid to take instructions."

She could feel the light of the moon fading away, and there was little she could see in the field except for Logan - the fog wasn't just a blur now, it drifted over the grass and blot out the stars like LA smog. She wasn't sure if she should be scared - but she wasn't. Not anymore.

She started to laugh. "But now? Now that you're some monster? I'm happy, Logan. It's finally worth it to hurt you. And I'm so, so glad that I can." She drew the red stone from her pocket and clasped it tightly in front of her heart. It didn't feel so cold anymore - she could feel some heat, some energy leaking out of her, comforting her.

Logan grinned, placing his hands on his hips. "Well, all right, you're real scary." He tapped on his chest with both hands. "Give it your best shot."

It was like a heart beat that started from her hand. The gem began to glow, and a ripple ran through the fog, pulling some of it in, towards her. It began to swirl around her body, much like she had seen happen to Warren, only she wasn't drowning in it. When the pulse came again, the fog lifted from her, and the clothes were back. The robe, the lace glove, the gaudy bangles that no one in their right mind would wear. And so was the staff.

"Cool," Logan called, deadpan.

How the fog would behave became apparent to her immediately, though not in any rational way. All she knew was it only took a small motion.

She gripped her staff with both hands and swiped it through the air. A wave formed in the fog, dense and utterly black. She knew it was dangerous, and for a second, when she saw only Logan in front of it, she wondered if this might kill him.

Just before the mass struck him, however, a gout of flame appeared in front of him, and the wave broke. When Taylor recovered from the flash of light, at first she thought that Logan had disappeared.

Instead, he was replaced. The shade that stood where he once stood wasn't like the first - it was so much larger, more than eight feet tall at least, and the fire wrapped around his strange arms as well. But the one thing that was the same, the same it had been every time, was that Cheshire smile like a window to Hell.

Well. Fuck.

"Well, I was just getting-"

The distorted, horrible voice came across the field as if distance couldn't weaken it at all: "Shut up now, Taylor."

The fire that snaked around the shade's arms began to shift and squirm, then drop from its body like weights. He caught the ends of them while the rest plunged into the earth.

"Well, okay."

She wasn't sure quite what to think about that until the ground in front of her blasted itself into the air, and chains of fire emerged and wrapped themselves around her legs. She managed one shocked look up at the shade's grin before she was pulled forward, landing on her back as she was dragged over the field. She hit her head but managed to keep a grip on the staff.

She could see the chains of fire all the way back over at Logan, coiling around his arms as it fed up from the ground, pulling taut. She used the few, painful seconds she had before she reached him to come up with a plan, the only plan she had: jab him with the staff. It had worked last time.

He was laughing when she finally reached him, the chains unraveling themselves from her body and back onto his. She jabbed the staff up at his chest hoping some magic would happen, but he just grabbed the head of the staff.

Fuck. Why did her magic have to require motion? That was so stupid and now she was going to die and-

"Hey, dickhead! Paws off my girlfriend!"

The shade froze, glancing over its shoulder at something Taylor couldn't see. When she tried to use the distraction to pull the staff free, he ripped it from her grasp and threw it away. She tried to scramble to her feet, but the fire just snaked its way off of his arm again and grabbed her ankle. She couldn't move, and she was only feet away from her staff.

Rachel stood at the end of the path to the park, wearing what was probably her only warm vest. Her hair was pulled up in a ponytail like it was time for gym, and she looked about as pissed as if it were gym with Logan, too.

The shade turned to face Rachel, the same smile never fading from its face. "Another one?" it asked.

"Yeah." Rachel reached into the vest's breast pocket, and drew out a huge, shining white gem. "Another witch."

In a flash of light, everything about Rachel changed. Light that looked silver and liquid wrapped around her body. The gem shined, and beams of light seemed to grow from it. The dark fog that covered the field split where she stood, basking her in the light of the moon even once the flash was over.

In the darkness, Rachel shined, and a bow carved from pale wood sat in her hand. Her clothes, too, had vanished, replaced by a gray dress (with buttons down the center for no clear reason, and a faux belt. It looked kind of ridiculous) and black boots.

Luckily, Taylor was the only one who was distracted by the clothes. Rachel turned and lifted the bow, raising her hand to the string. She actually looked like she knew what she was doing (which was a relief, because Taylor had been pretty convinced they were both about to die).

The shade raised one of its massive hands and beckoned Rachel with a hand. "Fine then. Bring it on."

Once Rachel's hand touched the string, a bolt of light coalesced, knocked on the string. As she drew it back, its light radiated further, brighter. Taylor could clearly see her take a deep breath.

At the last second, Rachel pivoted just a little, and loosed the bolt. Another burst of flame rose to protect the shade. But it came like a flash and rent the chain that held Taylor and the fog around her alike. Taylor stumbled forward to her staff, catching herself from topping over entirely.

By the time the shade realized what had happened, Taylor already had the staff in her hands again. It spun around to face the blade of darkness that formed this time, Taylor charging at the giant, hoping to catch it by surprise.

The flame rose again, and Taylor's attack was dispelled into nothingness.

"Fancy trick, but-"

There was another flash, and then a shining arrow pierced through the shade's body.

Its hands fumbled along its body, wrapping around the arrow where the fire inside only seemed to glow brighter. "No," it said, little more than a whisper.

Rachel didn't seem interested in moderation. When the second arrow emerged from the shade's torso, it began to scream in that horrible, horrible voice. The fire inside its body grew and grew as the darkness burned away, and soon all there was was a tower of flame. Taylor fell back in awe and fear.

And then, the fire extinguished, and Logan fell to the ground. Taylor placed her staff against the ground and pulled herself up from the ground, no longer afraid as Logan gasped, the darkness pouring out of his mouth and forming a mist around his body. Taylor just held her staff aloft, and let the darkness spill out, drawing itself into the gem atop her staff.

And then it was over.

"Taylor, you were amazing!"

Taylor hadn't even heard Rachel approaching, but suddenly Rachel had flung her whole body onto Taylor, and only by sheer luck and Rachel's cooperation did she keep them both from plummeting to the ground.

Rachel started to plant kiss after kiss on Taylor everywhere she could reach - her neck and her jaw and her cheek - and she held on so tightly that Taylor couldn't even turn to hug her back. "Are - you - okay? Did he hurt you?"

Taylor just opted to drop the staff, grab Rachel's hand, and pry it off her. That way, she was able to pivot and pull Rachel into the tightest hug of her life. "No, no, no, I'm all right. What are you doing here?"

Rachel didn't reply until their hug broke, and she started to stab pokes into Taylor's chest. "I was saving your ass, genius! And I was damn good at it, too!"

Taylor grinned, and pulled her into another hug. "You're a witch!" she exclaimed.

"I'm a witch!"

And for once, things were so weird that they both got to laugh about it.

When the hug ended, Taylor still left her hands on Rachel's shoulders. "And you called me your girlfriend!"

Rachel's eyes went wide. "Aaahh, I did! I'm sorry, I got really caught up in the rescue and-"

"No, no, no-" Taylor wrapped her hands around the back of Rachel's neck and pulled her into a kiss. She had absolutely never had a high like this moment, and every single touch felt weightless, easy, and electric. When their kiss broke, Taylor finished, "Please let me be your girlfriend."

Rachel's face was bright, shining like the light she conjured. Her eyes were wide and filled with the same wonder that suffused Taylor's whole body.

Rachel nodded, and didn't stop nodding. "Okay, yeah." More nodding. "I wanna date you."

"Same."

Another kiss - this one interrupted by a squeal that gradually grew in Rachel until she just had to let it out.

"I JUST FUCKIN' KILLED A DEMON, DID YOU SEE THAT!?"

They let each other go just long enough to lace their fingers together. Taylor let herself get just as loud. "I DID! YOU'RE A BADASS!"

"I'm so excited, oh my god. Just - just, make out with me. Holy shit everything is-"

They kissed until their witch costumes faded away and they had real clothes again, and once their hearts had settled down a little.

Rachel asked, "So we just have to do that like, like a bunch more times?"

Taylor nodded, still refusing to let go of Rachel's hands (and Rachel didn't seem interested in letting her). "Yeah, basically. We're supposed to get one more person in the team, I think. The Raven said there were two others."

"Okay, okay - cool, cool cool cool." Rachel leaned down, slipping her arms around Taylor's waist and pulling herself against her chest. "Oh, god, that was scary. When I saw that he had you I-"

"You saved me. You're a rock star, seriously."

"God, I love you."

Taylor grinned. She was starting to be able to tell the difference between the sound of someone talking and them thinking.

"Hey," she said, "I love you too."

"You heard-?"

"Yeah. It's okay, it's okay. I'm happy. I get it."

"Okay."

They stood like that, holding each other, for quite some time. The conversation mostly died after the 'I love you', but it was okay - Taylor was so happy she was dizzy, and holding Rachel just drew out the best moment of her life.

But sooner or later, someone had to break it. And that someone was Rachel. "Is he . . . gonna be okay?"

"I . . . think so? Zach was fine."

"Maybe we should . . . get him somewhere safe?"

"How?"

Rachel shrugged, finally breaking the two of them apart. "I guess . . . I guess we'll need a ride." She blinked. "I'll give Chloe a call, and we'll get you home."

Taylor smiled. She wished the moment never had to end, but one fight didn't end everything. Or anything. It just kept them going.

"Okay."

Chloe hadn't brought up anything strange about the situation as they'd all worked together to load Logan into the bucket of bolts she called a pickup truck. In fact, she was pretty short on conversation until they were scrunched up in the cab, Rachel without a seatbelt as she wedged between Taylor and Chloe. It wasn't until they drove past Blackwell that Taylor thought it might be a good idea to figure out what was going on.

"Um, Chloe, right?"

"Mhm."

"Hey, so. Where are we going?"

Chloe leaned comfortably against her window as she drove, as if she did this sort of thing all the time. Her eyes flicked over to Taylor for just a second. "The beach, I guess. Kids from Blackwell show up there passed out more than you might think. And there's no way I'm trying to explain this to David right now."

"Oh."

Back to quiet in the car. Taylor had been anticipating either the most confusing explanation of her life or stubborn denial and deal-making, but she hadn't expected to just pretend that nothing was happening.

After a moment, Chloe said, "So, you're Taylor, right?"

"Um, yeah."

"One of Victoria's friends, right?"

Taylor shrugged. "I mean, yeah."

"You don't have to say it like that," Rachel's mind grumbled.

"I heard she got some photo award because Max didn't show up, right?"

Taylor winced. "Yes, technically.

Chloe nodded. "Cool. I know photography is a big deal for her - she'd never shut up about it."

Taylor was rapidly getting confused by the conversation. When Chloe brought up something good in Victoria's life (ex. Everyday Heroes) it sounded mean, but when she brought up something negative (ex. Victoria talking too much), she came off as genuinely interested in her life. Did Victoria and Chloe actually know each other? And if they did, why didn't Taylor know that they did?

Taylor swiped hair behind her ear. Rachel noticed and smirked, leaning against Taylor's shoulder.

"I hope Max isn't too disappointed she didn't get to go. I know her photography is really important to her."

Chloe chuckled. "Yeah, no, she'll live. The two of them, though . . . huh."

Rachel peered over at Chloe. "What is it?"

As they pulled into one of the beach parking lots, Chloe said, "They should just bone already. It's got to be insufferable for Jefferson to teach when they're so competitive."

"Um, gross? Illegal?" Rachel high-talked, sitting back upright as they parked.

As they were dumping Logan out on the sand, Chloe said between strained breaths: "So - are you two - like - an item?"

Rachel hasn't said anything?

They dropped Logan's body like a mattress, then looked around at each other. There was a general aura of, 'this is very criminal, and the less we talk about it, the better.'

Rachel looked at Taylor for a second, then back at Chloe. Just the same as she had in gym. Only this time, "Yeah. Like, literally fifteen minutes ago, actually."

Chloe snorted, stuffing her hands into her pockets. "Well, you know what I say. Nothing to bring girls closer together than killing a man."

Taylor stuffed her hands inside her jacket and in her armpits, hoping to keep the smallest portion of warmth to herself. "Um, he's not dead."

Chloe quirked her eyebrows, and asked, "Logan?" Then she kicked Logan's side experimentally. "Shame."

As they arrived at Blackwell, Rachel was back to laying on Taylor's shoulder (!!!) and starting to look very sleepy. However, once she recognized where they were, she said, "Babe?"

"Hm?" Taylor and Chloe hummed in unison. Taylor did her best to hide her embarrassed smile, staring out the passenger-side window.

"I know I said I was going to come over, but I think I want to stay close to Blackwell tonight."

Chloe's eyes darted between Rachel and Taylor for a second before she shrugged and said, "Sure."

Unfortunately, there was someone to greet them in the parking lot. As they pulled up next to the curb that would lead them up to the school, David Madsen, the school's head of security, came down the steps. Chloe didn't seem that troubled, although she did roll her eyes when she parked.

Taylor unbuckled her seat belt and opened the door. She wasn't really sure what the consequences for being out late were, but at least she wasn't drunk.

"Beep beep. Late night delivery," Chloe called as David approached.

Initially, David looked pissed. But once he noticed Rachel getting out of the car after Taylor, he just rolled his eyes and sighed. "Whatever," he said. "Just get to your rooms, okay?"

Rachel grabbed Taylor's hand with her left and gave a two-fingered salute with her right. "Can do."

As the two of them basically jogged hand-in-hand into the school courtyard, Rachel started to laugh once they reached the school fountain. She twisted around and grabbed Taylor's other hand, tugging it around as she gesticulated excitedly. "We are going to own this school!"

The feelings were kicking in immediately now that they were alone again. "Oh? Does the school have a new power couple?"

"Super-power couple, maybe."

Rachel pulled Taylor's hands down to her hips, standing on her toes to lean into a kiss. The sound of the fountain was all there was for a second until Taylor's gripped tightened and she pulled Rachel closer, prompting a soft moan.

Which completely short-circuited Taylor's brain.

Once they broke apart, all Taylor could say (or think) was, "I really like doing that."

Rachel, delighted, began to walk her fingers up Taylor's arm to her shoulder. "Oh yeah? Well we don't have to stop anytime soon."

There was a new smoothness in Rachel's tone that made Taylor shiver excitedly, but it also prompted questions. "What - what do you mean?"

Once Rachel's fingers reached the top of Taylor's neck, they gently began to slide down her neck, over her throat. "I mean . . . well, you could sleep in my room, if you wanted to."

The fuses in Taylor's brain went from just malfunctioning to shooting sparks and potentially starting very dangerous fires.

"Um, like, to . . . sleep? Or . . ."

"That's up to you."

"Hhhhh," was the only sound Taylor could produce in response, clearly freezing. A proposition for sex was absolutely not something she had been mentally or otherwise preparing for. Nothing had ever prepared her for the possibility of physical chemistry with somebody she really liked. She hadn't even thought she'd like kissing as much as she did, and she thought about kissing a lot.

Rachel's expression sank from seductive to nervous. "Or - or not, like, don't let me pressure you, I'd super just like to-"

"No, no, that's something we should talk about."

Rachel quirked her eyebrows, obviously stuck in a state of anomie.

Taylor took Rachel's hand and continued their walk towards the dorms.

"So. Shit, I should have brought this up earlier, but, uh, I'm not . . . super interested in the sexual part of a relationship."

Rachel tilted her head. Her thumb worked comforting circles into Taylor's palm, which helped with the 'don't totally shut down and blow everything' thing she was trying to do.

"I'm ace," Taylor said, only making quick side-eyes at Rachel to watch her reaction.

"Oh . . ." Rachel said, looking ahead now. Her face pinched as she thought. ". . . okay. Hm."

Taylor should have expected as much, but these seconds of hesitation still made her want to be invisible. Rachel held her too tightly for that, and for that she was grateful.

"So," Rachel said, "I'm just gonna be real with you - I really like sex, and it's important to me. But I also like you." She looked up at Taylor now with a smile, while Taylor's lungs struggled to continue to breathe.

"I like you too," Taylor replied. She had to force her smile, even if that was a genuinely good thing to hear.

That broadened Rachel's smile, and she nodded. "Good. So we'll work something out. Together."

Taylor was flushed red as they entered the dorm courtyard. Rachel looked like she was in much the same state, her mouth crushed into a flat line as she tried to hold back an awkward grin.

"Because we're together," Rachel tacked on, like the most awkward fuck on the planet.

"Mhm," Taylor replied, trying just as hard not to grin.

That basically immediately failed once Rachel held up their linked hands and yelled at the dorms: "TAYLOR CHRISTENSEN'S MY GIRLFRIEND!"

"Ssshh shh shh!" Taylor tried to bring her mouth over Rachel's face, but she wasn't having any of it - once she was done yelling, she just started to cackle at an inappropriate volume. "Stop - stop it, you'll embarrass me!"

Rachel broke their hand hold to make as big a 'whatever, man' pose as possible on the steps of the dorm. "Yeah? And I can do that now, because you're my girlfriend."

"Stop."

"Make me."

Taylor smiled, settling down a little. "Okay." She started to raise a hand to tuck her hair behind her hair again (that infernal tic!), but Rachel beat her to it, reaching out to brush it back and stroke her cheek at the same time.

Taylor took a hesitant step forward and kissed Rachel one more time.

Before they entered the dorms, Taylor leaned her forehead against Rachel's (they were almost the same height if Rachel stood on one of the dorm steps), taking a deep breath. "I think . . . I think I want to sleep by myself tonight," she said. "But . . . maybe this weekend . . . we could have a movie night in our pajamas or something? And then, maybe . . ."

Rachel closed her eyes and smiled. "I'd like that."

"Cool."

They stood like that for a moment, foreheads touching, eyes closed, basking in the orange light of the courtyard and the excitement of a new relationship. It was more than Taylor had ever imagined, and it was only just beginning.

"Come on," Rachel said, lifting her forehead away and planting a kiss on Taylor's. "It's bed time."

Taylor nodded. She didn't want the night to end, but she also couldn't wait for tomorrow to come. "Yeah . . . and I should probably tell Dana and Juliet I'm okay."

"Yes, you should," Rachel replied as she dragged Taylor inside.

They said good night once, came to the shower room to brush their teeth at the same time, messed around, kissed some more with the overwhelming taste of mint, and said good night again. When Taylor went to bed that night, she thought not at all about the things she'd found on Nathan's phone, even when she sent Dana a few text messages to say everything had worked out fine (the guy ran off when the police showed up, after all. She just got a ride home). She fell asleep dazed by the light in her life now.

End of Arc 1: Light and Dark

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floraexplorer · 5 years

Text

Fishing for Litter: A Plastic Clean-up Mission in London’s Canals

Today I’m going fishing – for litter and plastic.

It’s a sunny Saturday morning in East London, and I’m sitting on a stationary canal-boat-turned-cafe, sipping coffee (in a reusable cup!), and listening to a woman called Cal Major speak about plastic pollution.

Cal Major is a champion stand up paddle-boarder from Devon, England, who’s founded an initiative called ‘Paddle Against Plastic’ which aims to get people caring about their environment through adventure. She’s been working with a variety of organisations – including KEEN, the outdoor shoe brand – to amplify the message that we need to be doing more to clean up our water systems and reduce plastic pollution.

Which is why KEEN invited a group of people (myself included) to spend the morning helping to rid London’s canals of their plastic litter.

It’s no surprise that people like Cal, who are passionate about the outdoors, are becoming eco-warriors in a very real sense. I follow plenty of these folks online – surfers, kayakers, rock climbers, long-distance runners, and generally record-breakers of all kinds.

They see the devastating effects of pollution directly in front of them as they travel, and witnessing such blatant disregard for the environment pushes them to campaign.

But I’m not exactly a record-breaking adventurer – so where do I come into all this?

Read more: the biggest ethical travel mistakes I’ve made abroad

The hard-to-swallow facts about plastic pollution

I’m not exactly an outdoor person. By which I mean: I love being outside, and plenty of my travels have involved long-distance hiking, polar swimming, underground caving and walking around fire for eight hours. When I’m back home though, adventurous activities in my daily life are not really the norm.

But when it comes to plastic pollution? As a long-time traveller, there’s no escaping the increasingly obvious fact: pollution is visibly affecting every destination I travel to. Like last year in Bali, a country famed for its ‘beautiful’ natural landscapes, where the most common sight was a beach absolutely thick with tidemarks of plastic litter.

More than 8 million metric tons of plastic finds its way into the ocean each year, and that’s on top of the estimated 150 million metric tons which are already circulating through the world’s waters.

It’s a surreal, disgusting, horrific amount – and a staggering 50% of this marine litter is comprised of single-use plastic items. Yet companies keep churning it out: drinks bottles, takeaway boxes, cutlery, cotton buds, and the ubiquitous plastic bag.

Why? Because we keep buying single-use plastic.

I know the topic of plastic pollution gets a lot of attention (and it’s for good reason!). But now I’m sticking my oar in too. Because when you’re actively looking for this level of plastic pollution, you see it absolutely everywhere.

Those clean plastic bags at the supermarket check-out? Those polystyrene boxes filled with steaming food at festivals? Those plastic bottles in a cafe fridge? Put them in a different, more natural setting (like a picturesque canal in England) and suddenly you’re emptying out grey-green river sludge through an upside down McDonalds cup, squishing a muddy plastic bag peppered with holes, or fishing brightly coloured bottle caps from the surface of a river while baby ducks swim past.

Read more: Ten eco-friendly travel products I use (and re-use!)

In the UK we use over 7 billion plastic bottles every year and only half actually get recycled. In London alone, the average adult buys three plastic bottles every week, which adds up to 175 bottles per person a year.

And where do all those bottles go?

Well, a recent study found that there are traces of micro plastic in every single waterway in England, so clearly a lot of it gets dumped into rivers, canals, lakes and the sea. We don’t yet fully understand what effect this level of plastic pollution in our water has on human health either, but it’s pretty clear that animals are not doing all that well: those same micro plastics have also been found inside every single marine mammal stranded on UK shores.

It’s time to do my part and start actively helping to reduce plastic pollution.

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Plastic Whale: a new way to positively recycle

“Did you know that plastic is one of the most durable man-made materials ever?”

After Cal Major had finished speaking, a man appeared wielding a net. He works with a Dutch social enterprise called Plastic Whale, who fish out around 60,000 PET plastic bottles a year from the canals of Amsterdam. They then separate the PET from the collected plastic, turn it into flakes and fibres, and use these components to make boats.

The more plastic they collect, the more boats they make – and the freshly-made boats then sail along the canals collecting yet more plastic. It’s a perfect plastic-collecting cycle.

Plastic Whale initially began in 2011 to prove a point: by successfully constructing a single boat made entirely from canal plastic, they planned to demonstrate how polluted the waters of Amsterdam were. But it quickly became apparent that fishing for plastic could allow thousands of eager participants to regularly clean up the canals, and spread awareness while they did it.

Now they have a fleet of a dozen boats picking up plastic in the canals of Amsterdam and Rotterdam, and this summer they’ve sent the bright yellow boat (seen above) on a mission around Europe. Plastic Whale are proving that single-use plastic doesn’t have to be disposable waste: instead, it can be a useful raw material.

But we still needed to experience Plastic Whale’s initiative for ourselves, and start picking up some plastic. It was time to get out onto the water.

Collecting trash in canoes on the Hackney canals

After we were kitted out with life jackets, paddles and the all-important bin bags and litter picking devices, we manoeuvred our way into a series of canoes at the edge of the canal.

Being out on the water was lovely. I used to live in East London and occasionally I’d spend a day walking along the canal – but I’d never got closer than that. Now we were parallel with the houseboats and barges, pulling our paddles through the calm water and gliding beneath the bridges.

I’d boarded a canoe with Caroline, a fellow blogger who I’d just met, and it didn’t take us long to start spotting plastic. Our canoeing skills weren’t the best, but once you’ve seen a piece of plastic its hard to ignore – so we awkwardly paddled ourselves back and forth, shimmying the canoe into the gaps until we could reach across with the litter pickers and grasp whatever it was possible to reach.

It was hilarious! – or at least, it was to start with.

Once I’d settled into ‘noticing’ the rubbish, I could see it literally everywhere. Stained bottles caught in the undergrowth. Circular flashes of colour floating on the water’s surface. Tiny chunks of foam and polystyrene, leaving a trail of tiny bubble-like white dots as they broke apart. Beer cans nestled in the hollows of canal barricades, slowly dripping stale liquid into the canal below.

And most disturbing? The glimpses of tattered white plastic swaying eerily in the water beneath us. With the movement of every boat above, more strips and fragments continually tore off, and the bags were so firmly embedded in the silt below that there was no hope of grabbing them.

Our bin bags soon contained bottle tops, sweet wrappers and scrunched up balls of tinfoil, merging with the brambles and weeds. Most of the thin plastic had broken apart so badly that it was difficult to identify what it might have once been.

Unfortunately, some rubbish is all too easy to identify – especially when it still has its lid, striped straw and internationally recognised logo.

(Just FYI: these McDonalds cups may look like cardboard, but they have a thin layer of polyethylene plastic inside to prevent leaking which means they’re fundamentally non-recyclable)

Amongst all the trash there were still reminders of nature growing in the wild, and I tried hard to see the beauty in this environment.

I spotted clusters of blackberries in the bushes and half-considered picking a few to snack on – but almost immediately I wondered what they’d taste like, seeing as their water supply was coming from the filthy canal?

And my vain attempt at positivity all came tumbling down when I saw a pile of shredded plastic which, as we drew closer, turned out to be a bird’s nest. Somewhere close by, a poor creature had used ragged strands of filthy plastic to make its home instead of twigs.

Newsflash: there’s a LOT of plastic trash in London’s canals

After an hour of litter collection we headed back to dry land and heaved our trash bags up to the water’s edge. It was a sobering sight. In just one hour, a group of two dozen people had collected 63kgs of plastic – and there was a lot more rubbish besides.

One group had found a condom, a sanitary pad, and a nappy floating in the water. Others had picked up a Chinese patterned vase, a zippered suede boot, a fluffy slipper, a pair of shorts and a little plastic toy teacup.

When it was all piled onto Plastic Whale’s bright yellow boat, it was a pretty depressing sight.

But as I looked out at the canals, it was somewhat bolstering to see a dozen more people on paddle boards, criss-crossing the water with paddles raised and buckets filled with rubbish.

Another group of plastic trash collectors were also operating on the same stretch of canal, and they were still working on the clean-up job even after we’d stopped.

How to raise awareness about plastic pollution (hint: it involves you!)

There’s no denying that I saw on the canals really shocked me. I won’t get that plastic-filled bird’s nest out of my mind for a long time.

But perhaps that’s a good thing? Perhaps it’s necessary to receive a jolt of cold reality occasionally – as now I feel doubly invested in cutting down on my single-use plastic usage, and getting more involved in clean-up operations wherever I can.

The war on plastic might feel never-ending, but there are plenty of people passionate about collecting and recycling the world’s plastic, and raising awareness too.

Here are some ways to reduce your plastic use

Use a reusable bottle for your water and stop buying plastic bottles!

Use a reusable coffee cup — even the disposable ones you get in a shop often have a plastic lining

Carry a reusable bag and stop taking plastic bags when you’re in the supermarket

Avoid using plastic straws (unless a disability requires using them)

Try to avoid buying fruit and veg packed in plastic for a week

Try to walk at least half an hour a day — hopefully through somewhere green to connect with nature

Try to pick up ten pieces of rubbish a day (keep an old plastic bag in your usual bag for this – and maybe a rubber glove too if you’re unsure about the dirt factor!)

Pick up plastic and cans on the street (or in the water!) and put them in a recycling bin

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NB: I was kindly invited to this plastic clean-up event by KEEN, for which I’m seriously grateful. Getting my hands dirty in the name of plastic pollution has really given me a necessary kick into action – so stay tuned for more conservation activity. I hope you’re equally inspired to start reducing your plastic usage, too!

The post Fishing for Litter: A Plastic Clean-up Mission in London’s Canals appeared first on Flora The Explorer.

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