#merritts story

[weirdlookindog]

Virgil Finlay - Burn, Witch, Burn!

(Famous Fantastic Mysteries - June 1942)

#virgil finlay #burn witch burn #abraham merritt #famous fantastic mysteries #pulp art #horror art #witchcraft #demons #art #story illustration #illustration

[courseyoulovemeyoudontknowme]

Marriage Story (2019, Noah Baumbach)

25/12/2023

#marriage story #drama #noah baumbach #david heyman #scarlett johansson #adam driver #laura dern #alan alda #ray liotta #julie hagerty #merritt wever #netflix #76th Venice International Film Festival #Limited theatrical release #List of accolades received by Marriage Story #92nd Academy Awards #Academy Award for Best Picture #Academy Award for Best Actor #Academy Award for Best Actress #Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay #Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress #Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress Motion Picture #Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role #BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role #Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Supporting Actress #Television pilot #West Hollywood California #broadway theatre #MacArthur Fellows Program #character assassination

[leveloneandup]

four basics walk into an Erewhon. just missing Christen Press ✨

#madison hammond #sarah gorden #merritt mathias #sydney leroux #christen press #ig story

[thehauntedrocket]

Vintage Pulp - Amazing Stories (May1927) (Ziff-Davis)

Art by Frank R. Paul

#Pulp #Amazing Stories #Science Fiction #Hugo Gernsback #Frank R Paul #Science Fiction Art #Science Fiction Illustration #Vintage #Magazines #Pulp Art #Pulp Illustration #HG Wells #A Merritt #1927 #1920s #20s

[bob-artist]

I've gotten some questions about how Cooking with Belmont relates to my other projects, what order to read the stories, etc. Here are your answers!

Cooking with Belmont

Format: Game (Windows, Mac, Linux)

Availability: Free on itch.io

Status: Complete (2-3 hours total play time)

Rating: M-17

Cooking with Belmont is a free standalone visual novel game on itch, and it’s newly released! It’s a game where you throw a dinner party with your disaster chef boyfriend. I often refer to it as a “future AU” story of Merritt, Belmont, Pogo, and Samsid, but you don't have to read, play, or buy anything else, before or after.

That said... if you enjoyed the characters and want more, here’s a rundown of my other projects!

Demon of the Underground

Format: Webcomic

Availability: 300+ free pages, newest pages patrons-only ($2 for scene compilations, $5 for page-by-page updates)

Status: 4 chapters completed out of 10-12 (ch4 completed last week!), currently on hiatus while I write chapter 5

Rating: R-18

Demon of the Underground is the first story I released in this universe. It's about Pogo's journey after falling underground from the surface. It also features Samsid, Merritt, and Annie as supporting characters, and Belmont to a lesser extent. This is the story that started it all, and it has the most free content, but it doesn't have to be read first, and it relates a little less to Cooking with Belmont.

Devoted: Merritt's Story

Format: Prose Novel Series

Availability: Patreon ($2 pledge)

Status: 2 books completed out of 3 (300,000+ words available on Patreon)

Rating: R-18

Devoted: Merritt's Story is a sort of prequel to Demon of the Underground, covering Merritt's "back story" before he's introduced in DOTU. This is the enemies-to-lovers journey between Merritt and Belmont.

If you're looking for the full story about the cat-and-mouse game Merritt talks about at the start of CWB, the way he was "caught" in the end, the evil king and painful memories we see alluded to in the "Merritt Cooks" route, etc - this is the story to read! But be ready, it's a slow-burn roller coaster: high highs, low lows, drama, intense love, tragedy... and the promise that things can all turn out okay in the end...

Fair warning, it really is intense. More people have screamed at me over Devoted than any other story 😆

Cooking with Belmont Collector's Book

Format: Artbook PDF

Availability: Itch.io purchase

Status: Complete

Rating: R-18

If you want a taste of DOTU and Devoted - or if you want a taste of the Merritt/Belmont journey without having to endure the high-angst parts - check out the Cooking with Belmont Collector's Book!  It includes the behind-the-scenes process of making the game, but it also includes the game's origin story, as well as several excerpts from DOTU and Devoted that relate to the game. It also includes the entire chapter of the first time Merritt cooked for Belmont, and the first time Belmont tried to cook for Merritt.

The Water Date

Format: Illustrated Prose eBook (epub, mobi, PDF)  

Availability: website purchase*

Status: Complete (2150 words, 6 illustrations)

Rating: PG-13

The Water Date is an illustrated short story about Merritt and Belmont's first trip to sub-Forest Glen to taste their excellent water. It's a light fluffy romance told from Belmont's point of view, and it takes place after the first night Merritt cooked for Belmont.

And that’s the list!

#webcomic #visual novel #novel #cooking with belmont #dotu #demon of the underground #merritt story #water date

[royalarmyofoz]

a nurse jackie sequel? in this economy?

#i'll only watch for merritt and edie but even then it's like do i even want it? do we need to continue the story?

[bug-ocs]

manifestations for the new year:

i will prioritize my batshit scientist and basement wizard OCs

i will make more batshit scientist and basement wizard OCs

#batshit scientist OCs = sage and aaraime #basement wizard OC = gen #CCC has SO much potential to create some new gremlins so i'm looking forward to making some new characters #might get high tonight and spool up some new girlies #also for gen i really want to lean into her basement wizardry in the new story i'm trying out #i would also consider merritt a Basement Wizard OC but i haven't done enough with her yet so i want to beef her up #make her an extra weird little freak

[jerseydevils]

AT first I suspected something—

She acted so calm and absent-minded.

And one day I heard the back door shut,

As I entered the front, and I saw him slink

Back of the smokehouse into the lot,

And run across the field.

And I meant to kill him on sight.

But that day, walking near Fourth Bridge,

Without a stick or a stone at hand,

All of a sudden I saw him standing,

Scared to death, holding his rabbits,

And all I could say was, “Don’t, Don’t, Don’t,”

As he aimed and fired at my heart.

Tom Merritt, Spoon River Anthology - Edgar Lee Masters

#edgar lee masters #spoon river anthology #tom merritt #poem #short story #book #writing #monologue #acting #drama #text post

[wildaers]

"Glad to see you're making yourself at home." - from Merritt!

their team is their family .

⸺  𝗔  𝗖𝗢𝗖𝗞𝗬  𝗦𝗠𝗜𝗥𝗞  𝗖𝗨𝗥𝗟𝗦  𝗧𝗛𝗘  𝗘𝗗𝗚𝗘𝗦  𝗢𝗙  the  younger  horseman's  lips  as  strong  digits  gesture  to  his  own  person  .  ❝  c'mon  ,  me  ?  i  was  never  the  one  to  worry  about  ,  old  man  .  ❞  a  friendly  -  if  taunting  -  chuckle  rumbles  in  his  chest  ,  the  slightest  of  movements  sending  a  few  cards  flying  upward  before  he  plucks  each  one  expertly  out  of  the  air  .  ❝  what's  that  navy  thing  they  say  ?  improvise  ,  adapt  ,  overcome  ?  i  can  take  a  little  bit  of  hiding  after  i  got  to  go  all  mission  impossible  on  that  safe  ;  how  sick  was  that  ?!  ❞

#{ HELP THE WAY I'D JUST GIFFED THIS SCENE WHEN THIS ASK CAME IN YESTERDAY } #｡𖦹 ° ✩ 🎩 🪄 ⋆｡° › afterdeaths › ⌗ jack and merritt . #｡𖦹 ° ✩ 🎩 🪄 ⋆｡° but now i’m found under the lights and in the sounds ⌗ main verse . #｡𖦹 ° ✩ 🎩 🪄 ⋆｡° used to speaking in tongues to feel like you’re in control ⌗ threads . #｡𖦹 ° ✩ 🎩 🪄 ⋆｡° i’ve been around ; heard all the stories you said you never told ⌗ answered .

[justmoreocs-writing]

San Francisco wasn’t a far cry from the city Kenzie had left behind. It had a similar sound to it, the late night bustle of a city that was never truly silent. The sky never fully grew dark; people never fully stopped, and there was always something to pique the interest of a budding young journalist. But the big difference was the lack of Victor. Her best friend was elsewhere, being a hero. It wasn’t something she dreamed of, but she wished she could have been there with him. Reporting on his heroics so nobody else could.

‘What’re you doing?’

Kenzie tensed. The voice was harsher than the curious question, tinged with irritation she didn’t think she deserved.

‘Looking at the city,’ she replied, not bothering to face Jason Todd. There was too much going on far below them. What stories was she missing being cooped up in Titans Tower? Sure, she was free to leave, but there was something slightly daunting about following a lead without Vic as some semblance of backup. Not that she’d ever let him know that. He worried enough about her without thinking she needed him babysitting her.

‘Best way of doing that?’ said Jason, moving to lean on the railing beside her so only a sliver of space separated their arms. ‘From down there.’ He pointed to the city, as if she didn’t quite understand.

‘Never would have guessed,’ she murmured.

Jason scoffed, finally drawing her attention his way. His eyes remained on the city, but there was a slight crinkle around them, a vague pull of a smile he was trying to suppress.

Kenzie tilted her head slightly, surveyed him as if seeing him for the first time.

‘Wanna show me?’ she asked, curious to what kind of reaction the mundane question would garner.

It was like someone had flicked a switch. Jason smiled, a real smile that she realised she’d never seen before. He pushed off the railing and turned for the doors.

‘Come on,’ he said, barely pausing even as he pulled the doors open, ‘lots to see.’

Kenzie scoffed, started idly plaiting her hair away from her face. She really hoped she wasn’t going to regret her choice of tour guide. But, at least she knew it wasn’t going to be dull with Jason at the helm of this little adventure.

#Repost #Made By Me #Drabble #Titans & Doom Patrol OCs #Follow the Story #Mackenzie Merritt #Kenzie Merritt #Kenzie Merritt & Jason Todd

[weirdlookindog]

Virgil Finlay - The Face in the Abyss

(Famous Fantastic Mysteries - October 1940)

#virgil finlay #the face in the abyss #abraham merritt #famous fantastic mysteries #pulp art #fantasy art #art #story illustration #illustration

[courseyoulovemeyoudontknowme]

Marriage Story (2019, Noah Baumbach)

09/11/2023

Marriage Story is a 2019 film written and directed by Noah Baumbach, starring Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson.

When Nicole is offered a role in the pilot episode of a new television series in Los Angeles, she decides to leave the theater company and temporarily go to live with her mother together with her son.

Charlie decides to stay in New York, as his show is about to be performed on Broadway.

Charlie wins a MacArthur Fellowship and uses the first money he receives to pay his lawyer, Jay. Nora highlights Charlie's infidelity and her emotional distance, while Jay magnifies Nicole's drinking habit, portraying it as alcoholism.

In November 2017 it was announced that Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, Laura Der, Merritt Wever and Azhy Robertson had joined the cast of a film written and directed by Noah Baumbach, produced by David Heyman's Heyday Films and co-financed by Netflix, which would also have handled its distribution. In March 2018, Kyle Bornheimer joined the cast, followed by Ray Liotta in June of that year and Julie Hagerty in November.

Filming of the film, which had a budget of approximately 18 million dollars, began on January 15, 2018 and ended in April, taking place in New York and Los Angeles.

The first trailer for the film was released online on August 20, 2019.

The film premiered on 29 August 2019 in competition at the 76th Venice International Film Festival.

The US premiere was held on October 4, 2019 at the New York Film Festival. The film had a limited distribution in US cinemas by Netflix starting from November 6 of the same year, being then released on its streaming platform starting from the following December 6. In Italy, the film was distributed theatrically by the Cineteca di Bologna starting from 18 November 2019, and was then released on Netflix at the same time as the of the world.

In January 2020, it was announced that the film would receive a DVD and Blu-ray release from The Criterion Collection.

The Italian dubbing of the film was carried out at Dubbing Brothers Int. Italia and edited by Stefanella Marrama.

#marriage story #Film #2019 #noah baumbach #adam driver #scarlett johansson #los angeles #new york city #MacArthur Fellows Program #alcoholism #laura dern #merritt wever #heyday films #david heyman #netflix #azhy robertson #Kyle Bornheimer #ray liotta #julie hagerty #budget #United States dollar #trailer #76th Venice International Film Festival #new york film festival #Limited theatrical release #Cineteca di Bologna #dvd #blu ray #the criterion collection #Stefanella Marrama

[leveloneandup]

Really special to be a part of a club that shows up for each other.

#christen press #julie uhrman #elizabeth eddy #madison hammond #merritt mathias #kara nortman #angel city fc #cp ig story #re cap launch party

[vintagegeekculture]

The Evil Little Hairy Cave People of Europe in Pulp Fiction

From the 1900s to the 1940s, there was a trendy theme in occult and horror stories that the explanation for widespread European legends of fairies, brownies, pixies, leprechauns and other malicious little people, was that they were a hereditary racial memory of the extremely small non-human, hairy stone age original inhabitants of Europe, who still survive well into modern times in caves and barrows below the earth. Envious of being displaced on the surface, these weird creatures, adapted to the darkness of living underground and unable to withstand the sun, still mean mischief and occasionally go out at night to capture someone.... usually an attractive woman....to take to their dark caves for human sacrifice.

Displaced by the arrival of Indo-European language speakers at the dawn of the Bronze Age, these original, not quite human stone age people of Europe were driven deep underground into caves and barrows below the earth, where they went mad, adapted to the darkness and acquired a fear of daylight, became extremely inbred, in some cases acquired widespread albinism. It is these strange little people who gave the descendants of Europeans a haunting racial dread of places below the earth like mines and caves, and it also is these strange, hairy troglodytes who originally built the uncanny and mysterious menhir, fairy rings, and stone age structures of England, Scotland, and Ireland that predate the coming of the Celts and Romans.

In some cases, these evil troglodytes are usually identified with the mysterious Picts, the pre-Celtic stone age inhabitants of the British Isles. In some cases, they are identified with the Basque people of Spain, best known as the inventors of Jai Alai, and the oldest people in Europe who speak a unique language unrelated to any in the world.

The original codifier of this trend was Arthur Machen, a horror writer who is less remembered than his contemporary, Henry James, but who may be the best horror writer in the generations between Poe on the one end and Lovecraft/CL Moore/Clark Ashton Smith on the other. His story, "the White People" from 1904 (a reference to their strange cave albinism) was a twisted Alice in Wonderland with a girl who is irresistibly attracted to dark pre-Roman stone age ruins and who is eventually pulled underground.

In addition to being a great horror writer, Arthur Machen was a member of the Hermetic Society of the Golden Dawn, an occult organization, and was often seen at the Isis-Urania Temple in London. Many of his works have secretive occult knowledge.

H.P. Lovecraft in particular always pointed out Arthur Machen as his single biggest inspiration, though he combined Machen's dread and occultism with Abraham Merritt's sense of fear of the cosmic unknown, seen in "Dwellers in the Mirage" and "People of the Pit."

Another and scarier example of this trend would be "No Man's Land," a story by John Buchan, a Scotsman fascinated by paganism and horror, who often wrote stories of horrific discoveries and evil rites on the Scottish moors. He is often reduced to being described as a "Scottish Ghost Story" writer, a painfully reductivist description as in his career, Buchan wrote a lot of thrillers, detective, and adventure stories as well. In later life, he was appointed Governor General of Canada, meaning he may be the first head of state to be a horror writer.

It was Buchan who first identified the cave creatures with the Picts, something that another Weird Tales writer decades later, Robert E. Howard, would roll with in the 1920s.

Howard is a very identifiable kind of modern person you often see on the internet: a guy who talks tough, but who was terrified to leave his small town. He created manly man, tough guy heroes like Conan the Barbarian, Kull, and El Borak, but he himself never left his mother's house. It's no wonder he got along well with his fellow Weird Tales writer and weird shut in, HP Lovecraft. With 1920s Weird Tales writers, despite your admiration for their incredible talent, you also can't help but laugh at them a little, a feeling you also apply to a lot of Victorians, who achieved incredible things, but who are often closet cases and cranks who died virgins ("Chinese" Gordon comes to mind, as does Immelmann).

With Howard, his obsession with the Picts and the stone age cave dwelling people of Europe started with an unpublished manuscript where at a dinner party, a man gets knocked out and regresses to his past life in the Bronze Age, where he remembers the earliest contact between modern humans and the original inhabitants of the British Isles, the evil darkskinned Picts. This is a mix of both the "little cave people" story and another cliche at the time, "the stone age past life regression novel," another turn of the century cliche.

Still with the Picts on his mind, Howard would later create Bran Mak Morn, a Pict chieftain, who predated Kull and Conan as his Celtic caveman muscle hero. Howard was of Irish descent and proudly anti-Colonial and anti-British, with his Roman Empire and Civilized Kingdoms as a stand in for the British and other Empires, which he viewed as rapacious and humbug, a view shared by his greatest inspiration, Talbot Mundy. His "Worms of the Earth" gets to the heart of why these little cave people scare us so much: they remind us that we live on land that is impossibly ancient and we don't fully understand at all.

It was another Weird Tales Writer a decade later who wrote one of the last stories about the little hairy cave people of Europe, though, Manly Wade Wellman in 1942. Wellman was mainly known for creating the blond beefcake caveman hero Hok the Mighty set in stone age times, and for his supernatural ghost stories of Silver John the Balladeer set in modern, ghostly Appalachia (like many ex-Weird Tales writers, he made a turn to being a regional author in his later career, in the same way Hugh B. Cave became a Caribbean writer), but Wellman also had a regular character known as John Thunstone, a muscular and wealthy playboy known for his moustache who used his great wealth to investigate the supernatural and the occult. Thunstone had a silver sword made by St. Dunstan, patron of Silversmiths, well known for his confrontations with the Devil.

Most John Thunstone stories featured familiar stories, like a demon possessed seance and so on, but one in particular featured a unique enemy, the Shonokins.

The Shonokins were the original rulers of North America, descendants of Neanderthal man displaced by American Indians. This fear that the land we live is ancient and unknowable and we just arrived on it and don't know any of its secrets is common to settler societies, who often hold the landscape with dread, as in Patricia Wrightson's fantasies of the Australian Outback. It was easy enough to transport the hairy cave people from the Scottish Moors to North America. I suspect that's what they are, a personification of a fear shared in the middle class, that in the back of their minds, that everything they have supposedly earned is merely an accident of history, built by rapacity and the crimes of history, and that someday a bill will come due.

A text page in the May 1942 issue of Weird Tales gives strange additional information on the Shonokins not found elsewhere:

Since then, there have been too many examples of evil cave people who predate Europeans. Philip Jose Farmer's "The All White Elf" features the last survivor of a pre-European people who live in caves. A lot of other fiction of course has featured the Picts, but according to our modern scientific understanding, which describes them as much, much less exotically, as a blue tattooed people not too different and practically indistinguishable from the Celtic tribes that surrounded them, and which they eventually blended into.

#pulp fiction #horror #pulp novels #stone age #picts

[lulu2992]

(This is a reply to this reblog because the post would have been way too long otherwise)

You’re right, @purplehairsecretlair; it would make so much more sense if the priest featured in the video was not Jerome! I was ready to accept this headcanon, but then I found the official description of the trailer:

This is about Joseph Seed's journey before he became the Father, before Pastor Jerome was forced to forfeit his status as shepherd of the County's souls.

So The Baptism is about Joseph “stealing” Jerome’s congregation… That said, I totally agree that this isn’t consistent with the game for several reasons (which you probably already know, but I want to use this opportunity to talk more about the trailer).

First, Joseph found John and Jacob before he started the Project, and they all arrived in Hope County together. In the trailer, however, as you pointed out, he’s alone. We see him creating Eden’s Gate, writing his own holy book, and recruiting his first followers. Also, this shot...

...looks like what the 2nd step of the Pilgrimage tells us in the game:

II. The Cleansing: Joseph Seed affirms his obedience to the Voice by cleansing himself with his own two hands, becoming born again.

Steps III and IV are about him getting his first followers and the Voice telling him about the Collapse, and he only “collects his blood family” at step V, which... I realize is not consistent with The Book of Joseph, unless that means he had already found his brothers and only “[anointed] them as his Heralds” at this point.

Regardless, the story told along the Pilgrimage path isn’t consistent with The Baptism either because he only brings his disciples to Hope County at step VII, but he’s clearly already there in the video. Plus, his Heralds don’t seem to be with him…

I tried looking for more information about the trailer, especially about the cast and characters but, aside from Greg Bryk, I couldn’t find the names of the other actors.

However, I found this. The website says the video has won 25 (in my opinion, well-deserved) awards and provides a synopsis, probably written by DDB Paris, the agency that created the two live-action trailers, The Baptism and The Sermon, for Ubisoft. It says that the little girl is “the daughter of the legitimate priest whose place [Joseph] took, ten years ago”. Far Cry 5 never implies Jerome ever had a child, so I don’t think that’s still canon, but I’m glad we finally know who she is!

I stumbled upon this other article (with a behind-the-scenes picture). It’s in French, so here’s a summary:

It was Ubisoft who “imposed” Greg Byrk on the agency, but the artistic director thought he was “perfect” even though they barely knew him. The copywriter comments he was “very immersed in his role” and “exuded something powerful”.

The video was shot in Canada, in Merritt BC. To help the team, Ubisoft sent them the “huge mood board” they made during their one-year trip to Montana.

Some shots were unscripted, such as the scene with the little girl on the swing.

About 150 people were involved in the project which also required dozens of supply trucks.

Finally, it says the trailer was released 14 months after the first briefing. Jerome and Joseph’s backstories had plenty of time to be rewritten...

I also remember reading this interview with the director on the now-offline UbiBlog years ago. So, in case anyone was wondering (I was), that string of saliva was, in fact, totally unplanned :’)

#(anyway yeah you’re right it would have worked better with the rest of the story if the priest was someone else) #far cry 5 #joseph seed #jerome jeffries #and his unnamed scrapped daughter #I see the sermon has won 10 awards #but the credits suggest there used to be VFX and a nuke in it?? #I want to see that! #gifs I made #‘'blood sweat and tears'? how about 'snot spit and tears' instead?’ - greg bryk I guess

[hermionegalathynius]

Found Family (4/?)

So I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of positive reactions this story is getting. I just want to say thank you to everyone who takes the time to like or reblog or comment my work because it means the world to me.

Fandom: Now You See Me

Pairing: Danny Atlas x Reader

Warnings: Some swearing — read at your own discretion.

Part 3

  “Hello New York!” Danny exclaimed, stepping forward and greeting the crowd. They screamed. 

  “Thank you so much! Hey, it’s great to be back! And have you met our newest Horsemen, the May sisters! Y/n and Lula!”

  The audience cheered louder and you and Lula waved, bright smiles on both your faces. Danny grinned back at you with a wink. 

  “Feels good right?”

  You nodded, “Yep.”

  “Pretty good,” Lula said, walking across the stage, “Pretty good.”

  Danny turned back to the audience and started to calm them, “Thank you, thank you.”

  The cheering quietened.

  “Um, okay. We want to talk to you about your privacy. What does your privacy mean to you?”

  “Because apparently to Owen Case, it means absolutely nothing,” Merritt continued.

  The audience looked around nervously. Your smile widened as you moved to stand next to Danny.

  “No actually, Merritt, it means less than absolutely nothing,” you said before addressing the audience, “You see, Owen’s mocked your privacy. He’s scorned it.”

  Danny nodded, running a discreet hand down your back and loosening the tension in your shoulders. You tried not to blush in front of an audience of people. 

  “Right,” he continued, “and we’re not just talking about the things that you already agreed to when you signed probably without reading the terms and conditions of Octas 1 through 7.”

  “So,” Lula began, “Before we start the show, we had Owen agree to a few terms of our own.”

  You grinned at her, proud of her for reaching this dream. She looked so comfortable up there, talking to the audience. You were glad to be able to do it with her, too.

  “So everything that he had once considered private…” Lula trailed off.

  Your heart dropped to your stomach as her mic cut out. One glance at Danny told you he understood and he quickly walked over to Lula.

  “Yeah, everything that he once considered private is now…” his mic cut off too.

  “Shit,” you whispered, not bothering to mind your language as you assumed yours had cut off too. 

  The screen behind you flashed and white noise filled the theatre. People screamed. 

  “Oh my,” a computer-generated voice echoed through the room, “As the Horsemen like to say, magic is about controlling perception.”

  You gazed up at the shifting face that appeared on the screen. Someone grabbed your arm gently and you turned to see Danny. 

 “Y/n!” He exclaimed, “Are you alright?”

  You swallowed, fear piercing through you, “I… yeah. Yeah I’m okay. What’s going on, Danny?”

  He shook his head, “I don’t know.”

  “You see them as the champions of the truth,” the voice continued, “but are they? Or is that just another one of their illusions?”

  “Shit shit shit,” Merritt was saying as he and Lula joined you and Danny in the middle of the stage, “Where’s Dylan?”

  “And Jack?” Lula added. 

  “So since they clearly love secrets, let’s reveal some of theirs.”

  “Danny, everyone, get off the stage,” Dylan’s voice crackled through the coms, “Jack, go with them. I’ll see you at the meet up point.”

  Danny’s hand moved down your arm and gripped yours. You squeezed his fingers in response.

  “Let’s go,” he said, pulling you off the stage behind him. 

  The four of you began running, the voice echoing behind you clear as day. 

  “Do you recall the death of Jack Wilder? What if I told you he’s not just alive, but he’s actually right here.”

  Jack’s alarmed face under his security cap was displayed on a screen you passed as you ran out of the backstage area.

  “Dammit,” you heard Danny mutter. His hand was still firmly clasped around yours. Normally you would be bothered by the tightness, but adrenalin was coursing through your veins and you were just that desperate not to lose track of him in this chaos. 

  “And do you know who else is here? The FBI. Let’s let them in, shall we? And now for the big reveal…”

  “Where’s the door to the roof?” Danny called to Jack as the younger man joined the group running to the meeting point. 

  “Take the next left then up the stairs,” Jack said. 

  “There’s a fifth Horseman, and he’s the biggest criminal of them all. FBI agent Dylan Rhodes.”

  The five of you punched through the door to the roof. 

  “How the hell could this happen? I thought Dylan had everything under control!” Merritt yelled.

  “Yeah. Apparently he didn’t,” Danny said, quietly frustrated in the way you knew he could get.

  Merritt whirled on the illusionist, and something in his expression told you Danny wouldn’t like what he was about to say. 

  “Maybe you’re the leak, Dan. Where’ve you been sneaking off to?” Merritt demanded. 

  Danny let go of your hand and advanced on the mentalist, “Don’t you dare for a second insinuate that I had anything to do with this!”

  “I’m not insinuating, that’s your-“ Merritt began to retort, but Jack cut in. 

  “Let’s get to the truck, come on!”

  You all ran to the black tube. Danny nudged you in front of him, and you jumped in. 

  Gritting your teeth against the roller-coster sensation in your gut, you crossed your arms over your chest and noted with some curiosity the pulsing sound coming from the gaps in the tube. 

  You could also hear Jack sliding ahead of you and Danny behind you. After a moment you also heard Merritt screaming further back. 

  Then, with a thud you tumbled into a laundry basket. 

  “Wha…” you breathed, getting a split second to gaze around at your surroundings before Danny slammed into you. 

  “Oof,” he said, “Sorry. You okay?”

  You winced, “Yeah. A little bruised, but I’ve had worse. You?”

  He nodded as Lula and Merritt tumbled into the basket next to you, “Yeah. What the hell is going on?”

  “Wasn’t there supposed to be a truck?” Merritt asked, clambering out of the basket. The rest of you followed his lead. Asian people in white aprons started yelling at you, shoving you through a crowded, steamy kitchen.

  “Wait,” Danny said in between being shoved by Chinese chefs, “did you mis-run the tube?”

  “No, I put it in the truck, I know I did!” Jack exclaimed, bumping into you while trying to dodge an oncoming tray. 

  “We’re really not in the truck right now,” you said, stumbling into Danny who reached back and grabbed your hand, the sensation becoming familiar to you.

  “Somebody must have moved the tube,” Merritt said, as you all moved through a set of doors into what looked like a restaurant, “Were we above a Chinese restaurant?”

  “I’m moving, relax!” Lula yelled at the man who was shoving her out of the kitchen. 

  “Okay, why are we here?” you demanded.

  “Why am I frickin’ starving?” Lula asked, staring at the Chinese food everywhere.

  “Yeah, I’m weirdly starving too,” Jack mused.

  At their words your own stomach growled, responding to the smell of noodles and stir fry surrounding you.

  Merritt moved towards the door, popping his head outside. 

  “Something’s very wrong,” you told Danny softly.

  He nodded, brows furrowed, “Yeah, I agree.”

  “At least,” Lula began as Merritt returned, “And I know this isn’t much consolation, but apparently we’re now surrounded by Chinese food. Right?”

  “Guys…” Merritt said and you all turned to look at him, “I think where we are right now, they don’t refer to it as ‘Chinese food’. It’s just called… food.”

  “Shit,” you muttered.

  “Wait, what are you saying?” Danny asked, “How is this possible?”

  A high pitched giggle directed all of your attention to the man with a perm sitting at the table nearest you, facing away with a menu held up in front of his face. 

  “I believe in your particular parlance, the word is ‘magic’.”

Taglist:

@pulling-out-my-eyes

#fanfiction #fanfic writing #danny atlas #nysm2 #nysm #daniel atlas x reader #daniel atlas imagine #j daniel atlas #daniel atlas #daniel atlas imagines #jack wilder #merritt mckinney #lula may #dylan rhodes #dylan shrike