#(<- that tag will be used every time a new puppet is introduced.)

[mals-puppets]

*introduction.*

*Goggles maniacal laughter can be heard, echoing across the void him and the other puppets reside in.*

*In his usual upbeat tone, he introduces,* "Hello, everyone! I am Goggles. Welll, not really, but close enough! Anyway, welcome!"

*He smiles, his sharp teeth visible. Rather than a regular tongue, he has what look like six small, black tentacles in his mouth. When he closes his mouth, one slightly sticks out, giving him a permanent blep expression.*

[sillystringpasta]

so, i see all these aus where danny gets help from the justice league for the anti ecto acts, and they're great. but hear me out. ghost king danny. classic setup, acts need to be repealed or war.

so danny goes to the league, of course.

the league of assassins.

Ra's is already familiar with death, and ghosts, and the realms. ya man's had the lazarus pits for centuries, he knows a little bit of what's what. maybe there's already some trade relations going on. more importantly, he has a massive group of hyper competent people who can pull strings in the government very stealthily, and have no outside affiliation or loyalty to that government.

but why not the JL? most of them are based in the USA. they work with the government (danny assumes). surely they are aware of the Acts. surely they would conform to them, enforce them.

so ghost king danny meets with ra's, who gives rancid vibes, but is able to, and wants to, do a smear campaign against the JL. against the USA. to gain favor with the guy who is the king of his most sacred resource, and knowledge about how to use the Pits to gain some basic liminal powers.

danny doesn't like the solution, exactly. but he's king. and this is what will protect his people. this is what will get expedient results. this is what his advisors who will still permit peace will allow.

so danny takes the deal with Ra's.

the initial outrage begins online, perhaps through MikMok. a mega famous influencer is cosplaying as superman, doing a twerking sort of dance to the most current haha funni meme song. the text overlay reads: when the superheroes condone genocide because they aren't human, ANTI-ECTO ACTS (whatever law/section code they were passed in).

it goes viral. and then someone finds the Acts (prodded along by the League) and it goes from a hit sensation online to every. single. news outlet flooding with information (puppeted by the League).

is this real? the Acts are real. but why? if these people(?) don't exist, why the Acts? the outrage. the mass confusion. the conspiracies. the new subgeddits and trending xitter tags. 4kun greentext be me: a ghost, becomes the new thing.

at this point, the GIW are scrambling to keep their involvment on the downlow. there are acts, sure, but they're not enforced :DDDD

vlad is in a similar situation. he cloned a guy. he def experimented on other ghosts to get to that level of knowledge. naturally, this is about when lex luthor gets involved. because, wouldn't you know it, but project CADMUS? yeah. that was a collab with DalvCo. they both wanted non-human clones from green stuff. they got it, and now luthor's sitting on some unpretty information.

he promptly shoves vlad under the bus, which is rapidly becoming less of a bus and more a trainwreck.

the league is surprised this happened, but goes with it.

the US governemnt is still trying to deny, deny, deny.

it's at this point that the JL gets themselves together. they don't know if the papers by Drs fenton are biased, or if ecto entities really are mindless creatures bent on destruction.

constantine says they're biased. green lantern concurs.

they decide to summon an ecto entity and find out what is going on.

danny is pretty stressed. it's a stressful situation. he's on break for the first time since they got a solution to this problem. he's not gonna answer a summoning. he has people to do that for him.

so they don't get the ghost king.

but they do get-

dani. and jazz. at the same time.

maximum possible psychic damage.

in the room at the watchtower is the big 3, green lantern, martian manhunter, flash, constantine, zatanna, raven, and black canary (legends of tomorrow experience? cool headed? there for arrow who is busy?).

dani doesn't like superman. he treats clones badly. jazz doesn't like batman, see Arkham.

dani doesn't know who c, z, raven, or bc are. jazz kinda knows of them, but not well.

so the actual negotiations go down with WW and MM.

they have a lot of questions. dani (abomination form) introduces jazz (basic looking human) as a princess of the realms. jazz says that the Acts are real, the realms want war, go suck a creamsickle (that was dani), they want restitution for the lives lost from the GIW.

then they leave the JL wondering who the GIW are.

someone (LoA) manages to hack the watchtower and post the meeting online as soon as it happens. or maybe they livestreamed it on Switch.

my spamblr, the result of my space buying tumblr in 1999, gains its first sexy women (jazz). jazz/WW fiction springs up on AOL3 overnight.

the GIW goes public. they try to push the envelop of ghosts being non-sentient. they try to use jazz being ambassador for that meeting to help their case. the JL is fighting accuations, but they are being pidgeon holed into siding with the GIW by the media.

it's at this point that things go from trainwreck to airplane runway crash.

dalvco and luthor are in a lawsuit. the usgov is under pressure from everyone. people are calling for impeachment of the president. the GIW is getting raided and having their evil posted online. the drs fentons are absent (in the ghost zone, either being evil or having mimosas with pandora). ra's is trying to use new knowledge of the Pits to reanimate tim's spleen. the JL is under constant fire. everyone who has ever had a malicious opinion about super or meta control is getting new platforms. danny can't use his intimate knowledge of what's going on to write his essays for school.

the world is galvanized. there are calls to action. liminals of Amity Prak come forward. you could be liminal too! the Acts get repealed. the GIW gets cleaned out, all prisoners rescued. the realms get restituition. the meta protection acts get expanded.

people will learn about phantom, the superhero. the dead boy who saved them all when the JL didn't answer amity's calls. the JL comes under more fire. they lose funding, defund the police style. for maximum chaos, this can be when the miraculous ladybug crossover starts.

phantom gets a bajillion features on true crime podcasts. tucker keeps sending links to the episodes to them. sam will never admit it, but she listens to them.

but things will never, ever be the same. arguably it's a bad end. but...

black canary restructures arkham from what jazz said to batman in that meeting. many of the rogues get actual help. the joker is transfered to a supermax. he never escapes again. nightwing takes the discowing costume back up in celebration.

vlad loses the lawsuit, and uses his powers to get one over on luthor, who has a mind control suggestion implanted to (amongst other things) never be able to work on these projects again.

there is greater transparancy in superhero work. this makes some people start social programs for villians who have a point. it works for a few of them. the JL is cleared up to handle more extraterrestriel threats, not leaving the burden on one person alone in the cities. the child sidekicks have less work.

amanda waller is fired. ironically, she had nothing to do with any of this, but people assume that she did. either way, everyone agrees it's deserved.

the league of assassins makes a lot of money. they get hired a lot in turbulent times.

disney, which is utterly unchanged in this dimension, makes a documentary about everything. they get dani in for an interview. it's in very bad taste. there is at least one death pun and CGI'd animal.

danny graduates.

clockwork smiles.

[kagakuoniryu]

Alastor x reader I've written randomly to vent about a shitty situation I'm currently living

Summary : a new guest you knew from your past life arrive at the hotel, she was that one person who bullied you throigh high school, but she mooks too angelic to be guilty

Code : E/n (ennemy/name)

Tags : fem reader, etablished relationship, angst for the most part, there will maybe be a part 2, mentions of bullying, reader is TRAUMATIZED, english is not my first language, may have some inaccuracy about the show since I'm just projecting, and of course probably ooc characters

It wasn't a bad day, at least not in a place like hell, it was even quite nice, charlie was babbling about a new team bonding activity as usual, and it was nice being with your friends, until around 2 pm...when a new guest arrived...

Oh you remembered her...from high school, so pretty, so popular, she was you best friends ! You should have been overjoyed to see her down here !

Well...not exactly, because she wasn't your best friend anymore, you hardly bear to be in the same room as her, of anger, from your history and how your friendship ended...but also of fear and dread...

You were both teens back then, you and eager to have many friends ! You had your own group of friends, and she was a separate individual, spending her time with her boyfriend often, that's okay by you, you were happy for her, and when that boy left her you welcomed her with open arms ! You became best friend soon, even inseparable ! You heard her badmouth you to your friend group from time to time, but she told you it was okay, it was "to know who was fake" then, one by one, your friends ghosted you, but you had her, she was there at least, making new friends, each time you introduced her they left soon enough, you thought that maybe you were the problem and stopped trying, your best friend was there after all

Until a boy came along, love at first sight for you, he had everything ! He had so much...your best friend wanted him too...and with that, she had him, when you called her out she called you an homewrecker and a toxic friend getting in the way of her relationship, that ended badly and an argument followed, while you stayed on the down low, she texted your few friends left, and any new friends you managed to make telling them how awful you were, so you ended up closing your media althogether, moving away, and never hearing about her ever again

And there she was, she didn't really looked different from her time on her, a round face and blond hair, she didn't looked like she fitted in hell, but you you were different, your body jointed like a doll, mocking your life as the puppet of those who wanted to play you, but if not your appearance, your personnality changed, you were more confident, your boyfriend was a powerful overlord too ! No, not boyfriend, he proposed a month ago after all, he was your fiancee now, and you had friends, through thick and thin, you knew they wouldn't buy into her lie at least !

Having an hard time to breath you sucked it up, maybe she wouldn't recognize you ?

Wrong

How wrong

"Hello ! Welcome to the hazbin hotel ! Guys this is our new guest !" Charlie started with her usually cheerfulness

"Hi everyone ! My name is E/n, I barely arrived in hell ! And I figured that if I could, I would want to be redeemed ! After all everyone deserves second chances !" The girl said back

Her voice hasn't changed, neither her tone, that fake nice tone you used to hear every day, here, one again in flesh and blood, not through a phone, not through class, but..here...

Breathing harder than ever, you only went back to reality when husk called out to you

"Hey ? You seem weird, like you've seen some ghost ?" His tone nonchalant as always showed half concerns, but for him, it was a lot

"A glass, of whiskey, or vodka, whatever you got, strongest you got please"

"Wowowo...alright, that's not your type to drink, what's up...?"

"I-I...I know this girl...she...listens, I can't be in her presence sober, I knew her from where I was alive...we had...some bad conflict...she did some awful things to me, and I got bad issues after that...I said some mean things to her too, we were kids, but since then I'm scared I'll lose all my friends again !"

Husk just nodded at my whispered rant, trying to calm myself, I didn't even insisted on a glass and went straight to my own room since alastor and I didn't shared one yet, not before marriage he said

Later that day, angel vaggie and charlie passed by my room, concerned by my absence, I told them everything, how I ended up abandonning the notion of making friends when I was alive, the calls, the insults, they looked at me with compassion, charlie said she believes that she could have changed, and even if I doubted it, I wanted to believes it

Alastor arrived to spend some quality time with me, dancing on old jazz music far from my time, reading a book, basking in silence with each others

After a while, I thought I could talk about E/n with him, he was my fiancee after all ?

"Al ?" I started, unsure

"Yes my dear ?"

"You know about that new guest at the hotel ?"

"Ah yes, what a cultivated lady, quite entertaining, she was really into songs from the 1980s not my style at all, we had a long discussion about music genres, she's actually quite against modern technology and that picture show"

"Oh...so...you like her company ?"

"She is not insufferable if that's your question"

Finally you decided against your first idea, perhaps she had changed in the end ? Perhaps a new friendship was possible ? With healthy fondation, you could get your bestfriend back !

Wrong again

You revealed her the next day who you were, well, used to be, what linked the two of you back in the living realms, for others, nothing changed, but for you it was subtle, for exemple she never interrupted anyone, but when it came to you each time your mouth opened she would cut you out

She was such a charmer too, a quality you envied her, her audience was captivated, and soon even alastor was her aquaintance, he presented her rosie of course ! Just like he did for charlie !

And just like he did for you...

Rosie found her delightful, and from your tea parties at 3 with her and alastor, became 4, adding E/n

A comment about your appearance back in high school, an embarassing moment you had, a silly crush, every single detail of your life was used to mock you, even your crush on a video game character

Soon you always found excuses to avoid going to the tea party, and spend most of our time outside of the hotel, feeling akward in her presence

You tried talking about it to charlie or maybe vaggie, to no avail, they said how nice E/n was and how much progress she was making, if they weren't saying you sounded silly thinking that in these 3 weeks she took your place, you still felt like it...

And it all confirmed when, after a whole day of searching for everyone, they finally came back to the hotel from shopping...without you

"Finally you're here toots ! We tried searching for ya before going but you weren't anywhere !" Angel started, holding many bags in each arms

"What do you mean ? I was in my room all day ?"

"Wait you weren't out ? E/n told us she saw you leave ?"

"Oh I'm sorry my eyes deceived me...next time I'll still check your room !" As everyone looked sorry I couldn't help but see it, even for a second...

She smirked...

Of course she did, she never changed

This started becoming common occurence, either the others left you behind, or you could leave the entire day without them noticing, and at some point, angel, husk and sir pentious started to distance themselves from you

"Hey angel, hum...you wanna hang out...? Go to a club, or drink with husk, just spend some time betweens pal ?"

"Sorry sweet cheeks, but we're partying with E/n tonight and...she doesn't feel comfortable around you..."

"Wha ? Angel what are you talking about ?"

"She told us about it, about the two of you, hos jealous and manipulative you were, you even tried to make her dump her boyfriend, that wasn't cool of you, I don't want to take side on this, but if I hang out with one of you, I'd rather not force her to be with the other for both your sanities"

"Oh...ok"

That's all you could have mustered, because what was there to muster, you were in hell, all the proof you used to have were on your previous phone in the living realm, but even if angel and the other favored her, mayne your fiancee could understand your side ?

Gently you knocked on alastor's hotel room as he called you to come in, he was currently eating his dinner, a...fresh venison...but you shook your head lightly, taking a sit across the table

"Al, can I vent to you for a bit...?"

"What is it my dear ? But please, spare me your story with E/n, as much as I love a good gossip, the young lady did you a favor by never taking vengance in the living realm, I wouldn't want the two of you to get in troubles once again"

"Al, please it's serious, she's telling lies about le ! And you believes her ? I'm your fiancee ! She's in hell as well !"

"And so are you, and so am I, I am not interested in knowing the why who is were, but I admit your little querrel is...quite entertaining !"

"So your fiancee see her ex bully...and all you think about is entertainment ?"

"Well, ma chère (my dear) as far as we are all concerned, without proof, both of you could be the liar, it's about, who's able to convince the public, just like on a stage"

Alastor's half sadistic smile didn't amused you, you just sighed, getting up, wamking slowly toward the exit of his room, if even your own fiancee, the man you loved refused to believes you, who would ?

You couldn't see alastor's curious expression as you left, he just wanted to prolounge the fun and not outright gives you the solution, but seeing you give up almost made him that for once he screwed up badly

[kharmii]

Kharmii Take: Meta-Human Liberation Army

Since 80% of active content creators into the Meta Liberation Army have blocked me by now, I'm free to throw out my takes that are contrary to popular fanon. Why not? It not like any of the others own these characters just because they've been into them longer.

This will get explicit so don't read if you are under 18.

First thing, the MLA people are terrible human beings. No, they aren't the 'good villains'. No, they aren't human rights activists who really care about each and every member of their secret army. If you believe they are then congratulations. You fell for the propaganda put out by the unhealthy xNFx mtbis among them.

That's not to say they aren't nuanced. Fans are allowed to like them and see good in them....it's just they are mostly irredeemable bastards. Not only are they terrible people, but they hit the ground running the moment they are introduced. There's ReDestro with Giran tied up in a chair with all the fingers cut off his smoking hand. Meanwhile, Skeptic uses his puppets to torture Twice both physically and emotionally. Curious uses Landmine to blow up random objects in the street, some of which happen to be living breathing people. Geten rolls a glacier over random citizens along with the Twice army. Even Trumpet who isn't seen torturing anybody with his own two hands still coldly watches people die around him and uses emotional manipulation against Spinner.

Bad Take 1: ReDestro saw the burdens of his bloodline as a prison. He was relieved when Shigaraki defeated him and took over.

WUT. That was the worst day of his life! -The worst day for all of them! They probably had to drug themselves to sleep at night after that.

There they were trying to put on a fun PR skit for the shits and giggles, but then it goes horribly wrong. Not only does ReDestro lose his legs, but thousands of people die when Shigaraki disintegrates several city blocks. Suddenly, they all go from being respectable members of society to criminals overnight. They probably all had such good gigs with Detnerat-Feel Good Inc-Hearts and Minds-Shoowaysha Publishing that they never planned for the MLA to come out of the shadows, or at least if it did, it would be baby steps. Between Trumpet and Curious, they would have tried to gain ground using media and legislation to make them relevant. After the LoV debacle, they were forced to come out of the shadows and fight a war. Not ideal.

Bad Take 2: ReDestro was a bootlicker who was absolutely star struck over Shigaraki being their new leader.

Not really. I see ReDestro as being a toxic ENFJ/P mtbi personality type. That means he's good at making anybody think he's their friend. He comes across warm and likeable, but in actuality, he's a phony and convincing liar. It's obvious all the MLA people are uncomfortable around Shig, and even ReD is bad at hiding it at one point. It's possible they know about All For One's influence and the hidden mechanism working behind the League of Villains. If anything about Shig intimidates them, it would def be that. Otherwise, they might all feel sorry for him if they knew what he went through, but in no way would they take him seriously as a leader.

That would make the other LoV members heading a regiment a clown show. The original MLA people are all professionals with plenty of life experience, except for Geten. Even Geten is a well-trained soldier from the time he was a child, and therefore he'd be more valuable than a rag tag bunch of good-for-nothings.

Quirk Awakenings:

AFAIK, only Geten and ReD had profound quirk awakenings due to extreme trauma and stress during training. I head canon that the others never went through enough hardship to obtain their own awakenings. Here's a question for the readers....what do you think they'd be? Would Curious be able to explode stuff through pure telekinesis? Would Skep be able to make his puppets speak? Would Trumpet be able to let out a primal scream and get anyone in earshot pumped? -Or something better? Those takes are rather boring and spur-of-the-moment. Help me out.

Character Analyses:

ReDestro: Like I said, he's a toxic ENFJ/P. With those types, it's often unclear if they actually believe their own bullshit, or if they are just really really good at making you think they believe their bullshit. Either way, their enthusiasm rubs off on people, and that allows them to emotionally manipulate people better. Sure, ReD cried after he murdered the mouse assistant, but his warped radical ideology let him think that was the correct and necessary step to make, as difficult as it was.

Said on another post that if it was true he welcomed Shig as a leader so he could shirk his own duties, then he'd have a change of heart later. Maybe one night he'd have a dream where his great great (x however many) great grandfather Chikara Yotsubashi aka "Destro" would appear before him and tell him, "You must retake your position as Grand Commander of the MLA. You must fix this huge fuck up the League of Villains turned it into. It has to be your capable hands that makes it right.."

ReD would agree wholeheartedly. He'd enthusiastically promise his ancestor that, yes, he'd fix it. -But then he'd wake up and be like, "Awww....DAMMIT!" because he'd be drugged up and restrained in prison to prevent 'stress' from activating.

Even though I head canon Trumpet as being a straight guy on his third marriage with eight kids, I still imagine lots of sexual tension between ReD and Trumpet. They are each other's emotional support, and I imagine them doing all the same cute stuff together that I've posted the Subway Bosses doing. IE: Falling asleep together on the train, or like one will drape a jacket over the other if he falls asleep at his desk.

They've messed around a bunch but have never had full on penetrative sex. The hangup is all Trumpet due to a past trauma. One time, ReD was training with Geten at like 2% stress. He made a gesture just as Trumpet walked by accidentally striking him and breaking a few ribs. Now ReD can tell Trumpet will always be afraid to be touched by him for fear it will lead to him being skewered by his stress dick at whatever percent by accident.

Geten: I'm not going to write about him much because I already wrote several posts and a whole-ass novella analyzing his personality. Let's just say he's like a son to ReD. He gets along really well with Skeptic but is colder to Trumpet and Curious. ReD totally purchased him as a child like an expensive pure-bred puppy. I'm 100% behind that fanon theory because it's too weird.

Skeptic: I admit it. I think Skeptic is a creepy incel. He's such an incel he failed No Nut November on the first day at exactly midnight. That's his yearly tradition. Srsly though, why haven't more people done fan fiction exploring the creepier side of Skep? He started out strong in the anime and then..... *thumbs down* *fart noises*

You'd think more people would have done fan fics about "Skeptic's creepy rape puppets" or something equally as entertaining. I thought my take was decent in my AO3 fic 'Trumpet's Trauma' where Skep and Shig worked together to torment Trumpet into attempting suicide. One would think that would be the standard MOD writing Skep. I made sure to make Skep's involvement in my writing vague so that he wouldn't be on the wrong side of ReD. As far as the evidence stands, there was no proof of Skeps involvement. It appeared to be all Shig's doing.

Since Skep has the surveillance shtick, I can imagine ReD asking for the link to Trumpet's shower cam. He's the pretty one they both like to creep on.

Curious: Manipulative bitch with a fun mischievous side. Trumpet tried to zero in on her straight away, but she let him down hard. She knows what he's about and sees right through him. Skeptic also simps for her, but she keeps him at arm's length. They actually get along well and are 'work spouses'.

I imagine at least once, Trumpet will be lecturing them about something, and Curious would bust out with, "This is why nobody likes you!"

Trumpet's face would fall because he's the type who wants and needs everybody to like him. Skep would smirk. Geten would be confused. After all, ReD likes him. ReD seems to like him a lot. After all, he often buries his face in Trumpets neck to take a long sniff Joe Biden style. Later, Geten would ask ReD about it, and the GC would reply that sometimes people have bad days and get to be assholes with each other.

After Curious's death, Skep made an online shrine to her that he updates about once a month after the initial photo dump. ReD looks in on it every so often, but not too often. It always makes him cry, and he's trying to stay upbeat. After Shig's death, Skep made an online shrine to him called, "The Good Things Shig Did" where he posts pictures of Shig holding puppies or hanging out with his friends. In case you're wondering how Skep managed it, I head canon he escaped in Season 7 by making a puppet of himself carrying out his equipment and then becoming detained. That could possibly be where he'd achieve a quirk awakening allowing his puppets to talk.

Trumpet: The boring sensible guy that always looks worried in fan art....and well he should. He'd been promised nothing but good times joining a fascist cult. Sheesh though...artists shouldn't draw him looking like a hand-wringing housewife or beleagued soccer dad. He's supposed to be a greaseball politician. Someone did a post recently I didn't respond to, but they head canoned the following:

I already made a beautiful wife and young children for Trumpet. The wife's name is Shigemi Hanabata (花畑 茂美), also known as Preach (せっきょう/Sekkyō). She is a member like him and has a useful quirk called Propaganda (宣伝/Senden), an emitter type that causes people to believe everything the user says as long as they either trust or find them attractive. Their children have mixed variations of Incite and Propaganda, one of them being called Excite.

That would be the arranged marriage his family made with his first wife. He's a sensible guy, and he would have realized that combination of quirks would create an advantageous quirk marriage resulting in powerful offspring. Unfortunately, Trumpet has a wandering eye, and that would destroy his first and second marriage.

His third wife would end up being Uwabami, the tall hot blonde model with snakes in her hair. It's unclear how the combination of 'incite' and 'snakes in hair' would be an advantageous quirk marriage, but Trumpet's diiiiick, erm, gut instincts told him to keep an open mind.

It doesn't behoove a politician to be such a sleezebag, but it's not like Trumpet's political party is one of the mainstream parties. He's also an unhealthy solid ENFJ mbti. Like any modern politician irl, he uses emotional blackmail to guilt the most gullible of suckers into supporting the cause of liberation. He'll do shit like convince all the heteromorphs he's their advocate, but then when he's in private with those closest to him, he'll admit he doesn't give a sweaty donkey's balls about heteromorph rights; he's just using them to gain money and power. That's the mindset he'd have watching Shig use decay on a bunch of them after he just used 'incite'.

Trumpet would be an insufferable two-face, like he'd belittle Spinner when they're on opposing sides, but then he'd pull the advocate shite the moment the PLA is formed.

[k423s]

hi! sorry this isnt an ask for your main (im shy) but i wanted to spotlight a campaign but im not exactly sure how? as in, do i just place it in my pinned and rb the fundraiser link often? also, would you happen to know any fundraisers that are not yet spotlighted, so that i can give one of them a boost? thanks :)

hi sorry i turned off anons to prioritize fundraisers there!

there’s no real tutorial on how to spotlight a fundraiser but what many of my friends and i have been doing is basically:

choosing a fundraiser, making posts about it detailing any important information (the vetting, the amount of money, what the family is going through, how many people the fundraiser will fund, what the funds will be allocated towards, whether or not there’s any raffles with the fundraiser), and either reblogging the post(s) with updates every few hours or making new posts about the fundraiser every few hours. we also use the queue features for hours when we’re not online which can be helpful.

if you have the capability to, i recommend actively reblogging with updates and using the queue since i’ve noticed that it tends to help more since you’re reblogging it more constantly.

most of the time my friends will keep the same post for a few days and then when it stops gaining traction, switch to making a new post. if we’ll campaigning for a fundraiser that’s being spotlighted /featured on another blog, we’ll also add on to that post with any updates we see fit. this includes blogs from palestinians!!

don’t be afraid to tag people!!!! especially if they tag you! they most likely won’t mind being tagged :) of course please don’t tag palestinians with their own campaigns tagging you when the campaign your spotlighting has nothing to do with them but fjhdjdhs. i personally encourage tagging me (preferably through my main).

length of post is difficult to determine because unfortunately people will scroll past it if it’s too long. i like to keep mine as concise as possible but i’ve seen many successful spotlighted campaigns with long posts detailing life before this nakba and introducing the family members. i personally think the most important thing is to keep the vetting and fundraiser at the top of the post so it’s one of the first things people see.

now some warnings. i’m sure you’ve already considered some of these but just in case:

there may be accounts from assholes who will reply to your posts and accuse you of being a scammer or just say awful racist shit. i haven’t seen the sock puppet accounts in a while but there’s definitely still people convinced gaza’s fundraisers are a scam.

if the person you are spotlighting has a tumblr account, they may be terminated or shadowbanned. you’ll know if you can’t message them, find their blog through tumblr search, or see them in any notifications. shadowbanning in particular can be really shitty for palestinians because it prevents their posts from being as visible as possible. you’ll have to put extra care into these.

you may get an influx of asks from palestinians if you have your inbox open. you’ll have to check and see if the accounts are vetted anywhere by going through the notes of their posts and searching their url into tumblr search (make sure to check the link on any spreadsheet to ensure that they match the link on the blog) and whether or not their photos aren’t taken from the internet (via reverse google images/tineye). i also try to make it clear as to whether or not someone is vetted. ex: if a fundraiser i’m reblogging hasn’t been vetted yet i’ll tag that information. if i’m adding an addition to the post, i’ll put the fact that it has yet to be vetted in the reblog.

you may also get an influx of mentions/replies from other blogs spotlighting/featuring fundraisers. again, you’ll have to check the verifications for these/RiS etc. sometimes you will get invisible asks because these blogs have been shadowbanned.

please focus your attention on a limited amount of fundraisers. it’s awful having to make the decision but it also means you won’t get overwhelmed as easily. limiting the amount of spotlighted fundraisers will also mean more traction to the fundraisers.

there will be graphic images sometimes. hearing these accounts is horrifying and can be emotionally taxing especially because you know you’re often only being told this because of people’s apathy towards palestinians. they need people to care for them. it’s horrifying the lengths they have to go through to get there but it’s unfortunately necessary. please don’t hold ill will against them for it.

and off there are many fundraisers in need of boosts and spotlighting ones being spotlighted never hurt but if you’re looking for ones that aren’t being spotlighted: a while back northgazaupdates asked if a bunch of people if they had any capability to make a post about suad (@/khaled-mother) who has been vetted by nabulsi here. from what i can tell there’s been a few posts but i don’t believe there’s anyone actively spotlighting her campaign. @/amjadshiltawu has also been on my watch list for when one of the campaigns i’m monitoring has been finished. his blog has been shadowbanned and as a result, his campaign is slowing. even prior to this, his campaign was rather slow. i don’t think there’s anyone actively spotlighting his campaign other than manually checking his blog and adding updates to his posts that way.

if you want to give a boost to one that most likely doesn’t have any traction, your best bet will be to check either the operation olive branch spreadsheet or the vetted fundraiser spreadsheet by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi. the OOB spreadsheet in particular has several in need of attention, especially since there’s very few people on tumblr who go to that masterlist for fundraisers to spotlight.

ty for your interest and ty for the ask :) <3 please let me know if you have any other questions/concerns. obviously please take my words as more of a suggestion than a full on guide. no one’s an expert at this and there’s both plenty of room for mistakes and growth. we’re all just trying our best to help and believe me, this is helping.

[iturbide]

Oh, I agree a lot with your analysis on TWSITD's actions from a tactical POV. I think folks paint them as losers because the player 'wins' every mission against them, but folks forget that despite all of the victories on the battlefield against them TWSITD's plans continue almost unimpeded for most of the story. They're kind of terrifying being so many steps ahead of the player like that. That little bit in the tags too. It made me think about how tragic, like Othello or Hamlet, Edelgard is. She is trying to play a game of wits and deceit against the proverbial devil, but she is not really a character built for that. You know, hero(ine) is in the wrong story kind of deal. (Hero might not be the right word here, but Protagonist is in the wrong story does not roll off the tongue as well).

THANK YOU I'm so glad that someone else views them that way! It's really easy to get stuck on the final outcome where they're defeated (or set back in their plans as in AM...or known but not dealt with in the case of CF), but when you step back and take a broader look...it really is terrifying to realize just how much they've accomplished, and how they very well might have succeeded in their plans if not for the fact that Byleth (with their connection to Sothis) arrived unexpectedly and threw a wrench into their plans.

Just think about it: the situation we're introduced to at the start of the game is a direct result of their manipulations. Faerghus is being helmed by Rufus, a weak and incompetent ruler, because they orchestrated the death of the last king in the Tragedy of Duscur. Edelgard's siblings are dead and her father reduced to a puppet of a ruler because they stepped in to support the nobles in the Insurrection of the Seven. Lysithea's family is barely managing because they slithered in after Hrym and used the Ordelia as their testing ground for their Crest experiments. And on top of all that, they have active agents stationed in three of the four major Fodlan powers: Cornelia in the Kingdom, Arundel in the Empire, and Solon in Garreg Mach, all holding such highly ranked positions that they have intimate access to what their enemies are planning.

And that doesn't even get into the fact that they have so many interwoven threads of intrigue going that severing one doesn't even stop them: at best it's a setback on one front, which they can step back from and reconsider their path forward while refocusing their efforts elsewhere. Solon's outed as an agent at Remire and forced to retreat? Oh, well -- good thing they already inserted Kronya into the Black Eagles under the guise of Monica. Their invasion of Garreg Mach is thwarted? Psych -- that was just the advance guard, and their new slew of artificial demonic beasts is perfectly positioned to capture Seiros...or, in CF, they still have Cornelia to keep an eye on Rhea once she retreats to the Kingdom. Edelgard kills Cornelia on her way to Fhirdiad? That sucks -- might as well nuke Arianrhod to send a message that she's not in the position of power she thinks she is. Edelgard is defeated even after turning her into a Demonic Beast? What a shame -- time to slink back into the shadows to regroup and plan the next attempt. In all honesty, any route that doesn't directly and explicitly deal with them leaves me with a horrible sense of dread because we've seen how well they can go to ground and how thoroughly they cover their tracks: if their base isn't found and their technology destroyed, I struggle to believe that they would be defeated...and given that they use the Javelins of Light while Hubert is on the war path with Edelgard in CF, preventing him from zeroing in on Shambhala, and don't use them at all in AM, I have a terrible feeling that some routes will still have that threat lurking decades if not centuries into the future while they bide their time, plan their next manipulation, and wait to make their next move.

I do think that it's reasonable to call Edelgard a Hero in this context, though -- we're all the hero of our own stories, after all, and she definitely thinks of herself as the hero who will return Fodlan to the way it should be. She honestly is a tragic figure, and I do find her fascinating in so many ways: her drive and conviction, her stubborn refusal to give in no matter how many setbacks she faces, even her willingness to burn down anything that might stand in her way on the assumption that it will be an obstacle, really are extremely compelling character traits. I think my biggest frustration really does come from CF's end cards, that try to make out like the future is all coming up roses for her when she's already shot herself in the foot by revealing her intentions to the Agarthans at Arianrhod with the murder of Cornelia. That should have consequences, and I wanted so badly to see her get burned by that rash action. But that never happened, and that dissonance is a big part of why I came out of CF feeling so uncomfortable.

[papergirllife]

Chapter 1

Synopsis:

You don’t know what it’s like to be free, to make your own choices, and live your own life. For your whole life, your parents have been treating you like a puppet on strings, controlling your life to every single detail, as well as ignoring the fact that you have feelings. Other times, when you disobey their wishes, or speak up about your own opinions, they bash you down with words, in other words, psychological abuse, has led you down the long winded road of depression and anxiety. What happens when you meet a man who’s willing to be your guide out of this terrible downpour? Would you give a shot at happily ever after?

Warnings:

big age gap (kinda?)

issues on anxiety

issues on depression (mild)

issues on parental abuse

smut (maybe)

Tag List: @etherealtyjaem​ (lmk if you wanna be on the list)

It has always been like this, being locked up in the study room so you could ‘study’ for hours end, or that’s what they think you’re doing. You studied in an elite academy with your smart cousins, only to have you graduating with average grades, which of course, earned you a harsh scolding from your parents. Now, you’re supposed to be studying business for university, even though you had zero interests in it, the subject is fine, it’s what you’re studying it for that irks you. Your family runs a business in Seoul, but from what you can see by secretly skimming through the files as well as the arguments behind shut doors with your aunts and uncles, things aren’t going as planned.

You don’t have many friends, nor a phone, they took it away from you when you wanted to go out with some friends, claiming that it’s a distraction that should be locked away. You felt like Rapunzel, locked away from the world, they don’t have any love for you, you’re quite sure they don’t, they had once slapped your face ten times when you had a boyfriend behind their backs, and you were 15 for god’s sake, along with other things that you rather not say, you don’t want to relive all those painful memories.

Sometimes you wished you could go back to the time when you were a child, when you were at your grandparents’ in the morning, her warm smile and loving eyes, when you didn’t know what laid ahead. You wish you hadn’t realised that you were being abused, you used to think what you went through was the same for other kids as well, until you talked about it with other people and scared them away from you. The painful memories sinking back in made the words in front of you blurry as you felt tears seeping in your eyes.

Depression.

It’s deemed as something ridiculous in your family, and that people who are suffering from it are weaklings and don’t deserve anything from this society.

‘Does that mean I’m weak?’

You never went to therapy nor took any medication for your mental illnesses, and recently the development of anxiety attacks are constantly putting you on edge. You have them at least once a week, sometimes you even had problem breathing, but you couldn’t tell anyone about it, nor anyone would ever listen to your cries of help.

“We’re going to help sell your uncle’s house this Saturday,” your mother said as she was folding the clothes.

“The mansion he recently bought?” you asked, confused as to why he would sell the mansion he was obsessed with just two months ago.

“Yes, he bought that without our permission back then, so now we need to sell it for funds, and you need to be there to entertain the potential buyers, give them a tour around the house and other enquiries. You have to direct them to us if you think they’re truly interested, it’s going to be an open house concept party,” cold, that’s how your mother sounded, her claims of putting family above everything else flying out of the window whenever her demands are not met.

“Okay, is there anything else?” you asked, hoping to be excused as soon as possible.

“No, you can continue your studies in the study room.”

That’s what basic communication is in your life, you tried talking about your interests, your opinions, but they either fall on deaf ears, or you would receive a lecture for having a ‘false perspective’. You’ve given up on talking to them about things that are going in on your life now, they don’t listen anyways.

The party is filled with old men with their muffin tops waddling around with a wine glass in hand and talking obnoxiously loud, obviously having too much money to go by, looking at how overly filled their bellies are.

You tried hiding away in the house, but your family kept pushing you out to talk to them. Their stares were not intimidating, no, but it made you feel uncomfortable as their gazes linger a bit too long on your legs or anywhere else, and the way they didn’t want to let go after they shook your hand, made your anxiety levels rise to the roof.

You would find random excuses to run away, like going to refill their glass or saying you need to use the loo, your heartbeat going as fast as your legs could take you away from them.

When you came back out from hiding for the 6th time, both your parents were rushing you to meet someone new.

“He’s a man of great fortune and power, so the chances of him buying this house is high. Don’t try to hide from this one, or you’ll get it when we get home,” your mother warned, her eyes side eying you with daggers.

Your mother’s threat made you sick inside, what are you to them? A scapegoat?

You weren’t paying attention to who or where was she pushing you to, but once you stopped, the man in front of you made your eyes as big as saucers.

‘How is a man like this doing here?’ you thought to yourself.

“Hello Mr Suh, we’re quite busy at the moment with other potential buyers. Why don’t we allow my daughter, Y/N, to show you around?” your mother said, her voice overly sweet, like day old cotton candy.

Once you were in front of him, your parents left. Leaving you helpless as your social anxiety kicks in, your eyes trained on his shoulder, eye contact, especially from this man, made you very nervous.

“C-can I give you a tour?’ you asked, hoping to ditch him halfway.

Johnny looks at the way your eyes avoid his, it wasn’t hard, given how tall he was, there’s just something so intriguing about you, so different from the girls that throw themselves at him with zero doubts.

“Nice to meet you, Y/N. I’m Johnny,” Johnny introduced himself by bending down slightly, a friendly smile on his face, one that you can’t decipher whether he had similar intentions as those nasty old men had.

To say that the tour was horrible would’ve been an understatement, you kept stuttering under his piercing gaze, instead of looking at you like you were his next meal like other potential buyers, Johnny was genuinely listening to what you have to say. You didn’t think the house was any interesting, it was just a bunch of useless expensive things under one roof, like the movie room, the slides at the pool, the ‘mini’ bar. These things weren’t appealing to you, riches are overrated when it becomes too common, like your cousins and their different designs of Birkin bags, you weren’t exactly fond of their favourite alligator skinned ones as well.

Yet Johnny didn’t look at the cliche setting that you are currently presenting, instead his eyes are trained on yours, it wasn’t a scrutinizing gaze like the wives of those perverted men who stared down on you, nor anything that seems predatory, it only held calculation and observance. On the house? It doesn’t seem like it. On you? You can bet this whole house that he’s met women far more beautiful compared to a plain jane like you.

“T-that’s all for the tour, Mr Suh. Would you want me to direct you to my parents, if you’re interested?” you asked, hoping that you’d get to be alone again.

“Can you take me to the park nearby? I’d like to see the facilities available in this housing area,” he answered smoothly, as if he had calculated every little detail in his life.

You nodded wordlessly at his request, taking him to see the park nearby the house. It was a weird sight, having a man as tall as Johnny towering behind you.

“This is the park,” you pointed stupidly, cursing at yourself, obviously this is the park,  anyone with eyes could tell.

Johnny inhaled the breath of fresh air this area offered, his shoulders not as tensed up after. A smile decorated his handsome face as he turned towards you.

“Let’s sit.”

Johnny directed you to the nearest park bench, his size taking up most of the bench, yet he scoots into himself as you sat down next to him, giving you personal space.

‘Does he think I’m going to lower the price of the house for him? I don’t even know how much they’re selling it for,’ you thought, thinking this man must be mad that an unimportant person like you could negotiate with him.

“I’m going to be honest with you, Y/N. I’m not interested in the house,” Johnny said, breaking the silence.

Your mom isn’t going to be pleased when she hears this, you thought as you bit at your bottom lip, thinking about how harsh is she going to react if she didn’t get a buyer out of this event.

“Thank you for taking your time for considering through out this-

“I’m interested in you.”

Did you hear that correctly or was your mind playing tricks on you?

You stared at Johnny as his hand comes close to your face, he wasn’t pulling you closer, instead his fingers reached out to gently graze the underside of your eyes.

“I can see what you’re hiding,” Johnny said solemnly, his eyes showing you pity.

You quickly took out your compact mirror out of your pocket, checking to see if you did a bad job on the concealer for your puffy eyes today, but it looked fine.

“I used to be involve in theater, and I’ve seen people covering unwanted marks or eye bags on their face many times. It’s not obvious to most people, don’t worry,” Johnny explained.

The touch of his fingertips on your face was filled with warmth, as well as his eyes when he looked at you now, if his eyes were honey you’ll be as addicted as Winnie the Pooh. His touch was quickly gone as it had came, his hand placed back into his lap as he stares ahead.

“I’m not going to assume anything, but from what I can see, I don’t think you deserve to be going through what you’re facing now. And as for your family’s company, it’s not going to last long even if they managed to sell this property out. You’re going to be in a much more disappointing situation when that happens, I’ve been in the business game my whole life, my predictions hardly go astray anymore,” Johnny said without a sliver of judgement, he was just laying out the cards for you to observe.

Johnny reaches for a card in his coat pocket and handed it to you, it was his business card.

“I can take you away from all this chaos raging among your family, if you can call it a family that is. I’ll be seeing you soon, Y/N,” Johnny said before standing up and walking away to the direction where his car awaits, his driver closing his door.

That was most definitely a statement.

[themonkeycabal]

WandaVision Episode 9 Spoilers

I can't believe we're already at the finale. 

This has been better than I expected, though I didn't have any particular expectations one way or the other. I had hoped it would be bonkers, and it's had its moments, but I didn't expect it to be breaking my heart. I'm glad Wanda (and Elizabeth Olsen) got this moment to shine. It was very well done, and it's been nice to have fun with a Marvel property again. It's been a little while.

My wishlist for this episode is simply that somebody, anybody punch Acting Director Dick square in the face. And also that Jimmy Woo arrests him. A lot.

Other than that, I don't know what to expect, or how they wrap this up in 30 minutes.

Previously on: Wanda finally earned the name Scarlet Witch after Agatha made her relive the worst moments of her life. Harsh, Agatha. Vision uttered a line that launched a thousand gif sets. And Hayward revealed his genius masterplan which is a reactivated Vision, devoid of color and powered by the energy bleeding from Wanda's hex. I'm sure that will go swimmingly for him.

Let's see how this all ends.

Agatha still has magical tethers around Billy and Tommy's necks, which obviously Wanda doesn't like. Agatha gives the boys a tug, knocking them back, and Wanda lets loose, walloping Agatha. The boys are now free, but Wanda tells them to go to their room. They object, she insists, Tommy grabs Billy and they zoom off. Wanda hits Agatha again with a hex, but Agatha sort of collects it into a little glowy ball in her hand. Oops.

"I take power from the undeserving. It's kinda my thing."

Wanda notices her hand turning gray and gnarly — the look of somebody about to be magically mummified. Agatha hits her with a hex and taunts her some more.

"You're clearly in over your little, red head, so why don't you surrender your magic to someone who knows what to do with it?" Agatha, you're pushing your luck. "I'll let you keep this pathetic corner of the world all to yourself. What do you say?"

Wanda says she will throw a car right at your face, Agatha. I laughed. Didn't see that coming, did you? Knocked Agatha right out of her boots.

As Wanda is investigating, Director Dick's white Vision floats down behind her. He's creepy looking.

Wanda walks over to him, staring at him. "Is it really you?"

He puts his hands on her face, all gentle like, but it's a lie. He starts to squeeze. "And I was told you were powerful."

Gross, AD Dick. I hope you get stepped on by Ant-Man when he's being Giant-Man.

Sitcom World Vision (hereafter just plain old Vision) makes a timely reappearance, and takes out Not!Vision. He wants to know where the boys are, Wanda assures him they're safe, and she apologizes for everything and that she should have told him what was happening, "the moment I realized what I'd done". Poor Wanda. He tells her it's alright. She says she can fix it. Not!Vision climbs out of the burning remains of a camper.

Agatha reappears to note the awkwardness of the situation. She asks Wanda who she's going to choose, the ex or the boyfriend. What happens when Wanda hits you with more power than you can contain, Agatha?

Wanda tells Vision "this is our home." He agrees, "then let's fight for it." I hope for the best for you two crazy kids! Marvel has a dicey record on happy endings, though. Sorry!

Vision takes off towards Not!Vision again. Agatha flies off, too, and Wanda follows.

Across the street Monica is pounding on a window, calling for Wanda. Fietro, lounging with a guitar in his … stoner den?, tells her nobody can hear her. Can we talk about how Monica's SWORD uniform looks like ST:Next Gen unis? I can't stop seeing it and it's distracting. Anyway, she tries to escape, but, Fietro is still all fast and stuff, so she's thwarted.

In the sky, Vision and Not!Vision battle. Not!Vision says Wanda must be neutralized and Vision must be destroyed. Hmm. Not!Vision tries to rip out the stone in Vision's forehead but Vision goes intangible. More fighting with intangibleness. It's pretty cool.

Outside Westview, AD Dick is feeling cocky as he watches both Visions on tracking monitors. I loathe him so much. Jimmy Woo is brought in handcuffed by a pair of SWORD goons. I'm sorry, who the f is SWORD? Like, they have arrest powers now? Dick says "hey, it's my favorite member of the Bureau." New wishlist: everybody gets to take turns punching AD Dick in the face.

Dick asks his minion to reconfirm mission objectives while Jimmy listens carefully, mentally noting each and every violation of federal law and the Sokovia Accords. 

The minion says she can't get through to not!Vision, his system is overloaded. A cellphone rings on a desk nearby and Jimmy eyes it, then tells Hayward that he'll never be able to cover up these shenanigans. 

While Dick is busy boasting and the SWORD goons are doing everything but paying attention to their prisoner (in my head all the SWORD goons applied to SHIELD but Maria Hill laughed at each and every one of their applications and then called Pepper to laugh some more and then texted choice bits to May tagging them "RE: LOL"), Jimmy eases over and grabs the phone.

"Wanda canceled her show,” Dick says with the sort of confidence only an enormous prick can muster, “so there's no footage proving there was ever more than one Vision."

Jimmy points out that that is dumb, because there is other footage, from SWORD HQ and stuff, and probably evidence of tampering. He casually sits on a table, shaking his head, like he's just so disappointed (i'm hoping he's somehow managed to use the phone to record the monolog-ing) .

Dick is still too far up his own ass to notice Jimmy being sneaky. "No one's going to care once I've eliminated Wanda Maximoff. They'll believe that the Vision that emerges from the Westview rubble is the one she illegally tried to bring back to life."

Wait, bringing him back to life is illegal? You're full of shit, Dick. And also, an extremely terrible person, who will destroy a whole town for … something? A Vision weapon? Who are you fighting, Dick? BTW, I award him no sympathy points for surviving in the post-Snap world. So if he's been scarred by that or whatever, I don't care. Trauma doesn't excuse murdery megalomania. As has been said before: Cool motive, still murder. I hope Vision intangibles him into a lamp post that gets peed on every day by a parade of small dogs.

"They'll thank me for recovering such a valuable asset. You could be part of that victory, Jimmy. If only you had a little more … vision" says the smug prick who is asking for it. And by it I mean something both terrible and humiliating to happen to him asap.

Jimmy fake laughs back. "That's a good one, Hayward. Okay, I'm convinced. The trouble is my friends at Quantico will probably have something to say about your plan. When they arrive. Inside the hour." heh.

Oh, poor Dick doesn't like being mocked back. He tells his brain-dead goons to remove Jimmy. The goons throw Jimmy into a … stack of hay? In a fenced in cage thing? As you have on your pop-up military facility. Where he sets to work removing his handcuffs with a clip he also stole, because Jimmy Woo is cool like that. Close Up Magic! See the things you can learn from criminals. "Flourish" lol. 

He calls his friends at Quantico. "I was hoping you could get here … inside the hour?"

Back in Westview. Wanda is looking for Agatha while the town goes about its business. Weirdo delivery guy drives by "Don't shoot. I'm just the messenger. ha ha."

Then she gets hit in the back by a purple hex. Ouch. She has hit the pavement hard kind of a lot in this episode already. That hurts, my dudes, I know this from personal falling down experience. Wanda's hand, by the way, is still looking ashy and not very healthy.

Agatha taunts her from a rooftop. "Did you know there's an entire chapter devoted to you in the Darkhold." How could she know that, Agatha? Also, boo the Darkhold. That bit of nastiness led to the Framework, and I'm still a little scarred by that myself. "That's the book of the damned," says the witch standing in front of a billboard for "Squeaky Shine" lol.

Agatha produces the Darkhold and recites from it, "The Scarlet Witch is not born, she is forged. She has no coven, nor need for incantation." Wanda insists she isn't a witch, nobody taught her magic.

Agatha continues, "Your power exceeds that of the Sorcerer Supreme" Steven Strange will like that. Not much. He's so twitchy about things like that. "It's your destiny to destroy the world." Always with the destinies. FREE WILL FOREVAH!

Wanda insists she's not the Scarlet Witch thingy. Agatha says "oh really?" and uses her mojo on Emma Caulfield. Hi Emma Caulfield! She seems to be 'awake' and introduces herself to Wanda (who knew her as Dottie) "My name is Sarah. I have a daughter, she's 8, maybe she could be friends with your boys. If you like that storyline. Or the school bully, even. Really anything, if you could just let her out of her room. If I could just hold her." Wow, ouch.

Speaking of free will or the lack of, Wanda accuses Agatha of doing this, but Agatha says "She's your meat puppet. I just cut her strings." Poor Wanda. And now Agatha wakes up the whole town, who all head towards Wanda.

And we cut to Fietro's den of manchildness. Monica asks what that place is, but come on Monica, it's clearly a den of manchildness. Fietro is making himself a smoothie and explaining the purpose of a mancave — chillaxing.

Monica ignores him and rifles through his bills and whatnot. She finds a headshot of Fietro with the name "Ralph Bohner" underneath. Because, people just keep their headshots lying around willynilly. Wait, are we saying Ralph is an actor? Lol. 

Fietro meanwhile is planning for a Steven Segal marathon — my dad and I watched all of those movies and for the life of me I could not tell you why. We didn't *like* them. I mean, mostly we laughed, but still. Why?

Anyway, Monica is trying to solve the mystery of Fietro. It's not Agatha's house (obviously) it's Fietro's (Ralph). He's an ass and asks if she wants to fight some more, so she flips him over her shoulder and pins him down, trying to figure out how Agatha is controlling him. With her new glowy eyes, she notices the bead necklace he's wearing sparkles in a magically way. She rips it off and Fietro becomes Ralph.

Elsewhere the Visions are still battling in the sky and the boys are watching from their bedroom. They lose sight of dad, but Billy gets a vision of mom in trouble in the town square. He and Tommy run off.

The townsfolk are confused and scared. Wanda tells them they're all going to be fine. "When you let us sleep, we have your nightmares." Ouch. Wanda insists she kept them safe. Wanda, sweetie, you're very far in over your head. 

"You feel, you feel at peace," she tells them, kind of hoping that works. It doesn’t. "We feel your pain." "Your grief is poisoning us." "Please let us go." This is an awful thing to do to Wanda, Marvel!

It escalates with all those voices begging her to free them and she screams, grabbing her head, and when she does that, red light appears around the throats of the townies, silencing them, choking them. Wanda realizes and puts her glowy hands up "stop, stop, I'm sorry", releasing them all.

"If you won't let us go, let us die." Wanda promises to let them go. Agatha wonders what's stopping her from actually doing it.  

"Heroes don't torture people." Agatha's a very sink-or-swim kind of teacher.

That does the trick and Wanda throws her arms back and yells to the sky, releasing her power up at the hex surrounding the town. "Go, all of you. Now, go." The people run and the town flickers through the eras and the barrier starts to fall.

Outside, Director Dick tells his morons "this is it, we're going in!"

The Visions keep on battling, but as the barrier falls, Vision starts to falter himself. I was afraid of that.

The Morons roll in with their big trucks and big guns because … reasons. I have a very low opinion of SWORD. Maria Rambeau's agency deserves better than this shitshow.

Vision falls and it looks like bits of him are chipping off. He hits the ground hard, he gets up, but he's glitching, too, falling apart as Wanda takes down her spell. He reaches for her. The boys appear now, too, screaming for mom, but they seem to be flickering as well, flying apart in pixelly pieces. Poor Wanda.

Agatha says "Now do you see? You tied your family to this twisted world and now one can't exist without the other." This is terrible. "Save Westview or save your family." TERRIBLE.

Wanda pulls the hex into herself again, recreating the barrier. The kids and Vision recover and run to her. Outside, as the hex closes, Jimmy Woo is, yet again, left to stare at the barrier, cut off from the fun inside. Poor guy, lol. But, his FBI buddies are arriving, so at least he won't get lonely.

Agatha throws a hex at Wanda and Wanda throws up a shield to protect her family. Which Agatha starts to draw towards herself like the magic vampire she is. Greedy Agatha. Wanda's arms are all gray. And SWORD rolls into town square, because that's what this confrontation needed — these dipshits.

Anyway, the Family stands ready to face Director Dick and his morons, in a quality recreation of the Incredibles family pose. "Listen boys, your mother and I never really prepared you for this," dad says. Because your boys are like three days old, Vision, it's okay. "But you were born for it," Wanda assures them very fiercely. Get 'em, sister!  

As they square off, Vision's like "oh crap, it's the other me, back in a mo'" and flies off to tackle Not!Vision who's trying to sneak up behind them.

They destroy the town library and Vision wants to know why Not!Vision gotta be like that. "My programming directive is to destroy the Vision." 

Ha ha, says Vision, a loophole. "But, I'm not the true Vision, only a conditional Vision."

Hmmm, says Not!Vision, and they stop fighting, "I request elaboration". Hey, Vision, move into Not!Vision's body and you can be true Vision again! Problem solved, my work here is done.

Back to the street where we find Dick and his Morons and Agatha who is not making this situation at all better. The morons point their guns at Agatha who magics them up off the ground like thirty feet in the air, "Same story, different century. There will always be torches and pitchforks for ladies like us, Wanda." I'm not going to say you're wrong, Agatha, and God knows these SWORD morons are morons, but you're also a pain in the ass. So …

Anyway, then Agatha drops them and Wanda reaches out to catch them. But once caught, she does let them drop the last five or six feet. They'll be fine, but also they deserved it, so I laughed.

"Boys, handle the military. Mommy will be right back." They're my new favorite family.

Wanda flies up to tangle with Agatha and Agatha is super ready except … Wanda throws a curveball and disappears. Suck it Agatha.

Down on the ground the SWORD morons continue to cover themselves in glory and point their guns at CHILDREN. I don't care if they're powered children, you know what I'd like, I'd like if one of the morons would just be like "um, but … they're kids and how about no? I'm going to get Jimmy Woo! He'll know what to do. Don't try and stop me!" That doesn't happen.

Billy freezes the soldiers in place and Tommy super speeds by and steals their guns and hats. AD Dick, being the absolutely loathsome, vile, lower-than-a-maggot, piece of shit that he is, gets out of his humvee and shoots at the CHILDREN.

Monica, who has just arrived to the party, runs and throws herself between Dick and the boys, taking the bullets meant for them. Her new powers render her sort of … I don't even know. Not quite intangible, but she kind of looks like a ballistics gel dummy and the bullets go through her but they slow down a lot as they pass and then just sort of fall on the ground. Dick, crossing the line into pure evil, fires again, the bullet misses Monica and heads towards Billy, who just raises his hand and stops it with his power then he grins at Monica.

"Nice tricks," she tells him.

"I like yours, too," he says.

Dick tries to fire AGAIN! But he's out of bullets. He only had four? Or maybe his gun jammed. Anyway, like the brave man he is, he runs to the humvee, gets in, reverses at speed, stops and looks like he's going to put it in gear and drive at them because the dude is unhinged. But! Lo! It's Darcy and the funnel cake truck, that is apparently built like a tank, though come to think of it, it probably was an armored vehicle in the real world.

Anyway, she t-bones Dick's vehicle, thwarting his evility for the moment. "Have fun in prison." Lol

Back to the Visions. They're having a philosophical debate. "You are familiar with the thought experiment "The Ship of Theseus" in the field of identity metaphysics," Vision prompts Not!Vision.

  "Naturally." And Not!Vision helpfully spells it out for us. "The ship of Theseus is in a museum. Over time its planks of wood rot and are replaced with new planks. When no original planks remain, is it still the ship of Theseus?"

  Vision presses his advantage, "Secondly. If those removed planks are restored and reassembled, free of the rot, is that the ship of Theseus?"

To sum up, neither is the true Vision, both are the true Vision.

"But I do not have the mind stone," says not!Vision.

  "And I do not have one single ounce of original material," replies Vision. "Perhaps the rot is the memories. The wear and tear are the voyages. The wood touched by Theseus himself."

Not!Vision says he doesn't have the memories, though, but Vision insists he does, the data is still there, hidden. Not!Vision says nah, Vision must be the true Vision because he believes himself to be. But, Vision says that's not true anymore, he plays the reverse card, "upon meeting you, I have been disabused of that notion." This is the most philosophy nerd game of 'not it' ever.

Vision continues to try to get at Not!Vision's memories. "As a carbon-based synthazoid, your memory storage is not so easily wiped. May I?" Not!Vision allows Vision to touch the glowy bit where the memory stone used to be, and Not!Vision is flooded with Vision's memories. Not!Vision's eyes go … normal, I guess you'd say, no longer robot-like and glowy.

"I am Vision" he says and flies off. It was a lot to take in, I guess. He needs a little me-time.

I guess we're going to have to go back to calling Vision Sitcom!Vision, anyway, he goes outside and the boys run over to him and there's hugging and stuff.

Agatha stalks them from the rooftop, but it seems she might have forgotten Wanda for a second, because Wanda appears behind her and does that thing she does where she makes you see your worst fear. Enjoy that, Agatha!

Agatha sees herself bound to the stake in the woods again. Her coven dead. Wanda is there in the vision, too. "You see the difference between you and me, is that you did this on purpose."

The coven rise from the dead and shuffle to her while Agatha begs for it to stop. But, then Agatha gets control of herself, I guess, and the undead mummy witches start saying Wanda's name and pointing at her. You're just no fun at all, Agatha.

Now the coven ties Wanda to the stake. "You can't win, Wanda. Power isn't your problem; it's knowledge." That is, actually, very true. Wanda's Scarlet Witch headpiece appears on her all magical-like, marking her as the Scarlet Witch of myth, I suppose.

"Give me your power, and I will correct the flaws in your original spell. And you and your family and the people of Westview can all live together in peace."

If Agatha is so smart, why doesn't she just take Wanda's power, hmm?

"And no one will ever have to feel this pain again. Not even you," Agatha tries cajoling, but that was the wrong tack to take. Wanda gives her the head tilt of imminent ass-kicking, and her powers explode outward, flinging way the weird creepy coven of zombie mummies. Then Wanda knocks them both back into Westview.

She starts hammering Agatha with her powers. "Take it, I don't want it." Vision tries to fly up to help her, but she blocks him with a spell.

Witch fight in the clouds. Every time Wanda misses Agatha, her hexes hit the shield. Outside Jimmy Woo looks on, concerned.

"There's more," Agatha says, "I want it all." Wanda's looking a little mummified, but she's still flinging hexes left and right while Agatha cackles evilly. Eventually Wanda runs out of steam and just sort of hovers there.

"About our deal. Once case, a spell can never be changed." You're terrible, Agatha. Very cruel. "This world will always be broken. Just. Like. You." Low, Agatha. Lower than dirt

Agatha gathers herself and tries to hit out at Wanda with all that yummy power but it just fizzles. Nothing happens. Oh noes, Agatha, what's wrong?

Wanda starts looking like her normal self again and behind her glows a giant rune. Oh, dear, Agatha, you taught Wanda something. When she was missing Agatha and hitting the shield all those times, she was actually casting runes. LOL to you.

The sky is angry and red and stormy. Monica, Vision, and the boys look on.

"In a given space," Wanda says, "only the witch who cast them [runes] can use her magic. Thanks for the lesson, but, I don't need you to tell me who I am."

 The Scarlet Witch headpiece reappears and now Agatha has her a fright. I like you Agatha, you're rotten in fun way, but you took it too far, sister. Wanda takes her power back with prejudice and she is transformed into the Scarlet Witch. Updated version of the classic costume. Nice, I like it.

"Oh god," Agatha gasps, "You don't know what you've done." Wanda drops her on the ground more gently than she deserved.

Agatha asks if Wanda's going to lock her up somewhere. And Wanda says, yeah, here in lovely Westview. "I'll give you the role you chose; the nosy neighbor."

"You have no idea what you've unleashed. You're gonna need me." "If I do, I know where to find you." lol

And Wanda turns Agatha back into Agnes. "Hiya, hon. Say, that some kind of getup you're wearing. Did I leave the oven on, or is that just you, hot stuff."

Wanda says goodbye and walks over to her family, kissing her boys.

Vision says their dream home has turned into a fixer-upper. "I know you'll set everything right. Just not for us."

"No," Wanda agrees because Marvel likes to hurt us all. "Not for us."

Monica kind of bounces on her toes, trying to get Wanda's attention, but probably also not entirely wanting Wanda's attention. Wanda gives her a hesitant nod as she and Vision leave with the boys.

The field around town starts to shrink, the circus turns back into the SWORD base.

They get home and tuck the boys into bed.

"Big day today," Vision says. "Your mother and I … are very proud of you both."

"Very proud," Wanda agrees. "You know, a family is forever. We could never truly leave each other, even if we tried. You know that right?"

They kiss their boys goodnight. Outside the window, the field flickers and fails. "Boys, thanks for choosing me to be your mom."

The town of Westview returns to its sad old self, street by street. Wanda turns out the lights in their home.

But, Vision turns one back on. "Oh, I read somewhere, that it's bad luck to say goodbye in the dark." "No, you didn't." You guys are killing me.

Why did this have to be so good and sad?

And finally the collapsing field reaches their street, they watch it coming. 

"Wanda, I know we can't stay like this, but before I go, I feel I must know, what am I?"

She touches his face. "You, Vision, are the piece of the mind stone that lives in me. You are a body of wires and blood and bone that I created. You are my sadness and my hope, but mostly you're my love." Stupid show, my screen went blurry there for a second.

Vision cries a bit, they both are a little astonished by the tear. 

"I have been a voice with no body, a body but not human. And now, a memory, made real. Who knows what I might be next." Aww, Vision, I love you.

Here comes the field.

"We have said goodbye before, so it stands to reason—" "We'll say hello again." STUPID SHOW why do you have to make me feel things?

The field collapses and everything is stripped back into nothing. "So long, darling." And Wanda stands in the empty lot, in the foundations of the home that never was.

She walks away again. Poor Wanda. And back into town. The people look at her, they don't seem happy. I don't know why she chose to do that, she does have a car. Ah, she's going to talk to Monica.

"They'll never know what you sacrificed for them," Monica says. "It wouldn't change how they see me," Wanda tells her. "And you? You don't … you don't hate me?" "Given the chance, and given your power, I'd bring my mom back. You know I would." "I'm sorry, for all the pain I caused."

Wanda promises to figure out her power and then files off. The End.

Heartbreaking. Good, but heartbreaking.

Mid-credits scene. Jimmy Woo is large and in charge. He's setting up the incident response in town, ordering folks around (in his good natured way).

Jimmy spots his friend. "Monica!" "Authority looks good on you, Jimmy." "Where's Darcy?" "Something about ‘debriefs are for the weak’?" lol "But we can thank her for that." 

And down the street AD Dick is being arrested. Nobody punched him in the face. I'm sad. Darcy came closest, I guess. What with hitting him with the very large truck. It will have to do.

Monica is summoned to the theater by another agent. Hmm nobody there. The agent follows. "I was sent by an old friend of your mother's." And the agent is a Skrull. "He heard you'd been grounded. He'd like to meet with you."

"Where?"

The Skrull points up. 

What was Fury's Skrull buddy's name? I don't recall. I didn't actually like the Captain Marvel movie. I felt like they told it backwards, and also they should have just cast a younger actor to play young Nick Fury. That bugged me. And I wanted more of Annette Benning’s character. Anyway … I guess we know where we’ll see Monica again. 

Well, that was fun. Like I said, I'm not sure what I expected from this series, just that it be some degree of fun, I guess. But it was much better than whatever I had half-envisaged. AND SADDER, MARVEL.

Thank goodness for the multi-verse. I'm sure we'll see some version of the boys again. And also Not!Vision, who is probably also Vision at this point, knocking around the world, trying to find himself. Talk about identity crisis. I feel you, brother. Stay safe, get plenty of whatever passes for rest for you!

See you guys in a couple of weeks for Falcon and the Winter Soldier. I WANT NO TEARS FROM THAT ONE! Unless it's tears of laughter. 

ETA: FOR THE SECOND POST CREDITS SCENE THAT I MISSED. Stupid Marvel hiding things from me. Thank you, @beelzebufo

Mountains, a mountain lake, a place I’d like to be right now. Wanda sits on the porch of her lonely little cabin. The tea kettle whistles and she goes inside. There’s a rattling and whispering from the other room, where the astral projection(?) of the Scarlet Witch reads the Darkhold and her children call for her. I don’t know, Wanda, seems dicey, that’s not a very nice book. 

FOR REAL THE END THIS TIME

[sintreaties]

The first thing to keep in mind, is that the OC has to be coherent with the story and the setting. You need to slip them in your fic in the same manner you would add a different species of fish in Kirari’s aquariums, that is, seamlessly and without much racket. They have to be weaved in the background and plot without disrupting the setting, but at the same time they can’t just be soul-less puppets, ready to be discarded as soon as you’ve used them for your plot-points.

These are the main pieces of advice I can give:

1) make sure you know who your characters are and why the story needs them

2) use the narrative technique of “show, don’t tell” to make them come alive in your stories

3) refrain from using excessive flashbacks, dialogues and descriptions.

4) practice, practice, practice and have fun

I will now talk about all of this a bit more in depth.

Let’s start with the character itself.

In order to create an OC you have to ask yourself:

1) what is their purpose in terms of plot

2) how do their actions and existence influence the world around them

3) how many times they appear.

In a word, you have to know how relevant they are to your story.

The more relevant they are, the more you should work on their thoughts, speech, actions, backstory and appearance in order to give them the same depth as the canon characters. You should also remember, that technically characters like Grandma Bami aren’t OCs. Their personalities and looks might be original, but for the rest, they already have a place in canon, even if we don’t see much of it, so you have to pay more attention in order to ground them and make them believable.

Keep in mind that your characters are more than a face and a plot-point, that relationships can be paradoxical and varied and that every person has flaws and strengths. Now you should be good to go.

Once you’ve decided on who the OC is and what they do, it’s time to weave those characteristics into the narration. Of course everyone has their own way of narrating their stories and everyone has different reasons to use an OC. Here are some of the examples in my fics.

In Of Thorns and Petals, Sayaka briefly mentions her parents to Kirari. In particular, we know about her mother's job and that she was always quite busy and distant. We learn more about this when Sayaka compares herself to her through a brief recollection: Sayaka remembers her talking on the phone, pressing it between her shoulder and ear while she cooks, like a real woman (meaning a functioning adult). This is meant to show the nuances in Sayaka's relationship with her mother: Sayaka looks up to her as as role model, and at the same feels her distant because she was always too busy to build a proper relationship with her.

Althought we won’t see Sayaka’s parents for God only know how many chapters, it was important to mention them now in order to establish that they exist, so the reader won’t be confused to see them at a second time and they won't feel out of place when Sayaka (and the narration) will require their presence.

Another OC of mine is Naosuke. Naosuke is merely a servant of the clan. In In the Shade of the Orchard we learn about his story, but his main function as narrator was to allow us to learn about Grandma Bami, about her cruelty and at the same time about all the characteristics that made her a woman worthy of admiration. In later works like OTAP he's a connection between past and present, between what the twins used to be when Grandma was around, and what they've become. He offers a contrast too, between the hatred they have for her and the reluctant admiration and devotion he always felt (i.e. Kirari suspects him of bringing her peaches when she goes to visit her Grandmother in Blood's Sickness).

Although Naosuke is now a background character in most of my fics (AUs and not), you don’t need to read In the Shade Of The Orchard to know who he is. We get to know everything we need about him at the right time through the right dialogues, actions and recollections, without disrupting the present narrative.

Naosuke and Sayaka’s parents are both examples of a “show, don’t tell” style of narration. Although it might take some practice, I believe this is the best style when it comes to introducing OCs, as it feels more natural.

See it as a painting and every detail is a brush stroke that will bring the composition together: Kirari recollects that her father often looked tired; and that the same tiredness often turned into something very similar to fear when he came out of Grandma’s office. Today, in the present moment, he doesn’t smile often and he never shows himself proud of her, notwithstanding all of her accomplishments (meaning, he sees too much of Grandma in Kirari and it’s taking its toll on the relationship between them). Here you have the portrayal of a weak, tortured man and his change throughout the years. You only need to give him a fitting appearance, perhaps bright blue eyes that look older than what they are.

Want to introduce an OC that has no real, possible connection to canon? Work in the same manner and make up everything you need.

The man sitting before Sayaka keeps playing with a lighter. He doesn’t look scared or nervous, but he has his own kind of restlessness. His eyes are indifferent and there are deep shadows under them; his hair is clean and cut, just like his nails, but there’s the first hint of a beard under his chin. Sayaka thinks that his suit looks too new, as if the price tag is still behind his neck.

Later on, when Kirari will arrive, she will amiably ask him if his flight went well, and he will tell her that her cousin was very clear in her instructions.

In a few lines we learnt that this man smokes or has a connection with fire, that he looks after himself but that Terano forced him to fly to Hyakkaou in such a hurry that the only way to make himself presentable was to buy brand new clothes, plus that Kirari isn't surprised to see him, so she probably knows him.

Kirari, Sayaka and John Doe himself will tell you this. I, as the narrator, am merely showing you their thoughts, words and appearance.

What you shouldn’t do in order to achieve the same result is use paragraph after paragraph of flashbacks and dialogues. In the first case, you will interrupt the flow of the narration, detaching the reader from the present; in the second one you might lose their interest.

When working on descriptions in general, be sure not to exaggerate. If you sap the subtext, you will only bore the reader (remember all those Jane Austen character descriptions? XVII Century English literature wasn’t that fun because the writers passed too much time telling us about each damn piece of clothing on their characters). Consider that most people don’t even notice each other’s eye color unless there’s something peculiar about it.

Last but not least, the more you get acquainted with your OC the better your narration around them will become, most importantly if you enjoy what you’re doing. There’s an intimacy between me and Naosuke; built on the fact that I and only I know most of his feelings and thoughts, only I know how he could react in a certain situation or not. When I think so much about it, it is extremely satisfying to bring all of that in my stories. Naosuke came to life first because I needed a “walking camera” and second because I was having a lot of fun writing him.

If it’s your first time writing an OC, don’t be afraid to come up with a Mary Sue. Humans are complicated even in fiction and only through practice (and reading) you might learn how to avoid certain mistakes sometimes.

Remember that it’s fanfiction. Be happy first, worry about technique later. Don’t be afraid to write as much as you can about anything you want and don't get discouraged if you can't write like James Joyce right off the bat.

I hope my answer and the examples I provided were useful. If you do end up writing something, please let me know!

[saiilorstars]

Chapter 1: Welcome Back

Current Story Masterlist  // Previous story // Maleny’s Masterlist

Pairings: Klaus Mikaelson x OFC

Pronunciation of OC’s name: Ma-leh-nee

Requested tag: @ocfairygodmother​ @anotherunreadblog​ @transformerfan97​ @stareyedplanet @perfectlystiles

Story Summary: As they wait for the arrival of their long lost son, Klaus & his family face the prophecy spelling death for them all. Meanwhile, Maleny comes face to face with a past left buried within her thousand lives. She's faced with the one truth that she never thought would happen. Has her heart always belonged to the same man? The truth may sting and the enemies will take the advantage. Against their enemies and losses, Maleny and Klaus come up with a new promise: they will come back to each other in the end. First, they must save each other.

~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~

The Quarter was having a relatively calm night, as had been the custom for several months now. No one could have ever guessed there had almost been yet another battle among the supernatural. Thankfully, everything had calmed and although there there were still unresolved issues, there was no more threats coming to the Mikaelsons.

Well, perhaps Klaus could think of one but it was no threat to others besides him. He had forgotten how chatty Maleny could be when she learned new things, or when she was simply excited.

"And did you know they made chocolate red!? That is so weird!" Maleny laughed, while flipping through a magazine. "And then I heard about what humans really think vampires are!" she laughed again, "Do you know you're supposed to glitter outside?"

Klaus seemingly paid more attention to the bed covers' edges than her. Maleny was straddled over him, holding a magazine in her hands, and rapidly telling him all she was discovering of the new world. Frankly, that was not what he pictured when he'd suggested they move back to his room earlier in the day.

After a while, Klaus snatched the magazine from her hands, tossing it over the bed. Maleny pouted and gave him a glare, "I was reading that! And you weren't listening!"

"I was, selectively," Klaus said calmly, languidly turning his head to her. He moved up halfway to meet her 'pout' and proved that he was, indeed, listening. "You want to try the red chocolate, you can't believe they put pineapple on pizzas, the fact there's reversible sweaters bewilders you and yes, I did know of that ridiculous glittering rule."

Maleny stared at him a full two minutes before teasingly smiling, "Hmm…" she put her hands over his bare chest, "...all I heard was you watched that Twilight movie."

"I would rather dagger myself than ever watch that," Klaus rolled his eyes, "Humans are idiots."

"So broody," Maleny continued to tease, "How do I make that go away?"

"I have some...suggestions..." Klaus passed a hand down her hair and to her arm.

Maleny chuckled. They had somewhere to be yet they had fooled around for quite some time, and now he was less than half-dressed and she was still in sleeping garments. "While that is mighty tempting, I want to read a little more. Every accomplishment these humans have made is amazing. Is it true there's an actual place in Europe where the streets are full of water? And people have to literally sail on boats to get through?"

Klaus nodded, "Venice is quite beautiful. I suppose you'll have to see for yourself when we visit."

Maleny's eyes lighted up at the insinuation, "We're...we're gonna go? Are you serious?"

"Of course," Klaus reached to run a hand down her loose hair, "I was thinking of a family trip for when Nicolas came home."

"Ooh, I like the idea," Maleny gasped at the idea.

"I thought you would…"

"I do," Maleny grinned, giving him a kiss. One kiss soon turned into a second, which then turned into a third, and suddenly Maleny found herself being flipped over. She now gazed at a smirking hybrid above her, "Don't we have an art exhibit to go to? Your art exhibit?" she innocently questioned.

"It can wait a little while more," Klaus pressed another kiss to her lips, soon turning into dozens more.

~ 0 ~

Amarrah Collins grimly walked alongside Vincent Griffith down a street where police lights were flashing and brightening up the 'do not cross' tape that covered nearly half the street.

The French witch sighed as they grew closer to the crime scene, "Tell me again why it is you decided to call me in?"

"Well," Vincent coughed awkwardly, "to be honest, my first choice was Cami but she's not answering-"

"She wouldn't," Amarrah agreed with a small smile, "She's a bit busy dealing with the matters of this Quarter. Seeing as she's now controlling it, she's got a lot to deal with."

Vincent threw her a playful glare, "Oh, and she's a bigshot now?"

"Hey," Amarrah elbowed him on his side, "she's doing good and you have to acknowledge that."

"True, true," Vincent nodded, "I thought because of her psychology experience she would have some insight on this crime. But you're not so bad, seeing as you were an officer in your days?"

"Detective," Amarrah corrected with a smirk.

"Ooh, maybe you're better than Cami," Vincent shared a chuckle with her. "Now listen, me and all the P.D. have a relationship that goes back to that nastiness with my ex-wife. I'm their expert in anything that even seems occult. And every so often, they come across the aftermath of some black magic and they call me in."

"Hmm, and I'm to assume they've ran into something even you haven't seen yet?"

Amarrah's question was never answered as they turned for an alley where they were greeted by a blonde man, presumably a detective. "Is this your friend the shrink?" he nodded to Amarrah who frowned at such a distasteful greeting.

"Hey, I'm a Detective and you need to learn some manners," she gave him a pointed finger.

Amused, the man smiled, "Detective? From overseas? Well, you should have said so."

"You didn't exactly give me a chance," Amarrah slightly lightened up. "I'm Amarrah Collins."

The man took her hand to shake and introduced himself as well, "Detective Will Kinney. Now, I'm not trying to be rude but I was really hoping the shrink would be here."

"Technically not a shrink," Amarrah clarified, "And she's a bit busy. But I'm pretty good myself with strange cases. What am I doing here?"

"It's an impressionable sight," Will warned as he led Amarrah and Vincent further down the alley.

"Oh believe me when I say I have seen impressionable sights all my life," Amarrah shared a look with Vincent, almost laughing at the irony. However, once they passed a dumpster and saw the corpse, the smile vanished from her face. "Although this would be a first…"

"Maybe now you would consider having your almost-shrink friend looking into this," Will patted her arm before leaving the two.

"Clearly a vampire," Amarrah announced several minutes after the Detective had left.

The victim was a middle-aged man, dressed in a fancy black suit. He had his wrists and elbows held up by ropes, making him seem like a puppet. What had horrified Amarrah was the gruesome, wide slash the man had from ear to ear, still dripping fresh blood.

"Which one, precisely?" Vincent raised an eyebrow at her.

"Well, we'll have to figure that out ourselves," Amarrah gulped but could not, for the life of her, take her eyes off the corpse.

While unpleasant, Amarrah found traits she could easily identify from a vampire. She didn't know whether to thank the Mikaelsons for her newfound knowledge of the vampire world or be ashamed of herself for being unfazed with the work before her.

"Well, I'm no forensic psychologist, but whoever did this took their time," she started making conclusions to Vincent, "He bled- a lot- which means he was alive... but it was like he just stood here. These ropes are just for display," she gestured, "He wasn't bound- there are no marks on his wrists, no signs of struggling or clawing…"

"He was compelled," Vincent said what she had been trying to get at, "Maybe Rich-Boy pissed off the wrong vampire."

Detective Kinney came back to join them at the moment and cut off any vampire talk immediately. "How are you guys doing over here? Tell me you got something."

Amarrah quickly came up with a less supernatural conclusion. "It seems methodical. Precise. The wounds might have a special meaning to the killer. Not a formal ritual, but intentional. And, the things we do on purpose, we tend to repeat."

"Well," Kinney looked mildly impressed with her work, "that's not going to bode well for us."

"I'm afraid not," Amarrah agreed with a resigned sigh. She knew the next person they would have to talk to.

~ 0 ~

Now dressed in a white blouse and leather black pants, Maleny strode into the lounge room where Freya was sat on the ground with Hope, attending to her. "You forgot this, Freya," Maleny said, holding a small golden necklace as she joined the two.

"Sorry, I forgot to put it back on her when I took her out of the bath," Freya apologized and moved to handle the matter herself when Maleny waved with a hand she would do it herself.

Maleny pushed her recently curled hair behind her shoulders and got on her knees. "It's fine," she sat back on her legs and gently put the necklace around Hope's neck, "There we go, sweetheart," she kissed the toddler's head. "Now you be sure to show that to your Mummy again, alright?" she raised the necklace's locket and opened it up, revealing a picture of Hayley inside, "Who's that, Hope? Mummy. It's your Mummy."

Freya watched the toddler intently stare at the picture inside the locket. Since breaking Hayley's curse had turned out to be much more difficult than was assumed, Maleny had taken all measures so that Hope never forget who her mother was. The necklace had been a gift from her, and every chance she got she made sure to show the picture of Hayley to Hope.

After a while, Hope looked up from the locket and squealed as she reached for Maleny's golden necklace. Maleny laughed and picked her up, "Excuse you, young lady, I had this one," she pointed to Hope's locket, "bought for you so you could leave mine alone."

Hope paid no more attention as she gripped Maleny's necklace. She babbled to herself instead.

Maleny sighed and looked up at Freya, "Kids…"

Freya knew the word meant millions for the blonde, and especially now considering that Nicolas had made no such appearance nor contact. While Maleny tried to keep strong and simply wait, it was getting more difficult. To say, even Klaus often found himself impatient and broody over the subject. Their patience was slimming and Freya wondered when the couple would reach their breaking point and go in search for Nicolas themselves.

"So, where exactly are you headed?" Freya then asked as an attempt to disway any bad feelings. "If I'm correct Klaus' artwork doesn't open to the public until tomorrow night."

"He says he wants to give me a private tour," Maleny smiled deviously, instantly making Freya raise a hand and stop her.

"Spare me the details or I jump out," she warned. Maleny laughed at the antics but didn't continue.

Elijah walked in at that moment and smiled at the sight of his niece, probably the only thing that managed to make him smile nowadays.

Maleny smiled at him, "You wanted to hold her?"

"No, no, um…" Elijah seemed restless, unable to decide what it was he wanted. In another time, it would have surprised Maleny, but knowing what had happened between him and Cami, it had become a rather usual thing for him.

Freya exchanged a look with Maleny, and partly to help her brother, she offered a distraction, "Were you coming in to make plans for tomorrow? It's the full moon and I assume you want me to go with you?"

"I'd offer myself but…" Maleny made a face, "...I don't think Hayley's quite ready to see me yet. I bet she's still pissed - and with great motives."

Elijah didn't exactly want to agree with her and make her feel worse, so he simply waved a hand and said back, "I thought tomorrow I could just take Hope myself. Give you a night off," he looked at Freya.

"Are you sure you don't deserve a night off?" Freya challenged, "Perhaps several days off...or a week…?"

Elijah looked to the side, aggravated the same thing was being offered to him - take a break from the Quarter. "No, I'm fine, thank you," and with that, he left the room.

Freya shook her head and walked to the couch, plopping down, "Poor brother, he's suffering a lot."

"Yeah, well, he's not the only one," Maleny reminded.

"But it's her fault, you know," Freya shrugged.

"No, it's not. Cami's angry too, and she's hurt. It's gonna be some time before either can move on from what happened."

"If you ask me, I think Cami's doing a lot better than Elijah," Freya gave the blonde a hard look, more inclined to defend her brother. "She's taken the reigns of the city and hasn't remotely directed a word to Elijah, me, or even Klaus. It's like she's trying to forget we exist and frankly I find that rude."

Maleny playfully rolled her eyes, "Oh, Freya, if you knew the Cami I knew, you would see she's barely keeping herself from falling apart."

~ 0 ~

The following morning, the newest leader of the Quarter had gotten up early to train with Marcel at St. Ann's church. The place had been remodeled into a training gym for anyone interested no matter vampire, wolf, witch, human, etc. At the center of the place stood a large cage made of chain-link fence (and reinforced with steel for those tougher visitors). This was where Cami and Marcel currently were, sparring with each other. Marcel was having quite a surprise as Cami nearly managed to get him from one angle. She ultimately pinned him to the fence.

"How's that?" she grinned ecstatically.

Marcel arched an eyebrow, using Cami's momentary distraction to turn the tables over and pin her to the wall. "Now I told you, don't get cocky," he laughed and released the blonde from his neck hold.

Cami rolled her eyes but smiled anyways, "My bad."

"But you are getting far better," Marcel praised sincerely after a minute, "You've improved over these months and I'm proud of you. You'd be quite the challenge in a real fight."

Cami light heartedly nodded her thanks. Although she hadn't explicitly told Marcel the reason for her endeavoring to train harder, he had already made the assumption it was to make sure no one would ever so easily snap her neck anymore - no one would ever break her again.

"Although," Marcel's voice pulled Cami from her thoughts, "if you do get into a fight, you'd have a hell of a backup with the guys," he nodded over to the other vampires working out in the room.

Cami rolled her eyes, "They're not an army. And I wish you'd stop calling them that," she laughed, "One of these days they'll take it seriously."

"C'mon, just a little joke between a previous city holder to the new one," Marcel nudged her, both sharing another laugh.

"You could have been with me, both of us looking after the Quarter," Cami sobered up and warmly looked at her friend, "And the offer still stands, you know. I don't know much about politics and you definitely know how to keep things in order."

Marcel shook his head, patting Cami on the arm. "It's better this way. If I were to take back the Quarter, sooner or later Klaus would endeavor to take the crown again. There's just too much tension boiling. At least with you, we know Klaus wouldn't, and couldn't, hurt you even if he wanted to."

Cami chuckled lightly, shaking her head disappointingly. She had kept her words to Amarrah and done what she could to help more people out. After officially quitting school, she kept the long-ago promise she made Elijah and took her place at the factions meetings. Although it was tough to convince the other faction leaders, which now also included Davina (being Regent of the witch covens), agreed to let her lead the city in a peaceful manner, both for humans and vampires. Because of her, the Quarter had had many months of peace.

That wasn't to say she had much peace, however.

"Cami?" Amarrah called as soon as she and Vincent came into the place. Cami nodded and walked out of the fighting ring, along with Marcel, and headed to the two mortals. "We have a problem," Amarrah announced while Vincent pulled out his cellphone. "Last night there was a murder and we're pretty sure it was a vampire."

"Or vampires," Vincent made sure to add in. He handed the phone now showing the pictures of victim, which Cami took and began to swipe through as she and Marcel studied the injuries.

"Gnarly stuff," Marcel sighed, already beginning to assume who could have done the murder.

"Yeah, the guy was torn apart," Amarrah shook her head, "I mean, there are no obvious puncture wounds, but whoever did that had to be a vampire. And nobody heard any screams, so he had to have been compelled to just stand there and suffer."

"Since when are you into this stuff?" Cami raised an eyebrow, curiously looking between the two.

"I'm a Detective, remember?" Amarrah laughed, "They were looking for you but got me instead."

Marcel stuck to the subject more seriously and handed back the phone to Vincent, " You think this was us? The guys know better than to leave a body in the streets."

Vincent didn't seem to buy it as he gestured to the other vampires in the room, "How well do you know your guys?"

"It doesn't make sense for us to leave dead bodies on the streets," Cami cut in, "That would eventually get into the headlines which would make tourism drop. We don't mess with our food supply, Vincent."

"Maybe someone new lost control?" Amarrah offered an alternative that could very well be plausible.

"Maybe you guys should consider that our guys aren't the only vampires in town."

Amarrah then frowned, even Cami understanding the implication, "You don't think this was work from the Mikaelsons?"

"They're a hot mess whether they want to admit it or not," Marcel put his hands in a neutral manner, "Klaus has 'patiently' been waiting for the arrival of his long lost son who still hasn't even made contacts. And Elijah…" Marcel cast a sideways glance to the blonde vampire beside him, who was already shifting awkwardly, "...kinda had trouble of his own," he left it at that out of consideration for Cami. "Pick one."

"They wouldn't," Amarrah declared, far more sure than the other three with them. Frankly, she was surprised Cami could believe that.

"Listen, I know you all like to think Maleny can control Klaus but the truth is sooner or later he'll cut loose because that's just who he is," Marcel shrugged, not sorry to say the utter truth - at least his view on it anyways. "This is some wicked fairy tale you all like to think, but if you want a real suspect go to the compound."

As Marcel turned to leave, Amarrah mumbled a couple words to Vincent and he walked out as well. Afterwards, Amarrah sharply looked at Cami, seriously asking, "You don't actually think Elijah could do this right?"

Shifting to her side, Cami quietly answered, "I don't know."

The answer didn't seem to please Amarrah, in fact it almost made her angry. "You're not gonna let these feelings cloud your mind are you? It wouldn't be fair."

"Oh none of this is fair," Cami waved a hand at the witch, "I'm only saying that maybe, for a moment, one of them lost control. I'm not accusing them, it's just an idea."

"You're such a liar," Amarrah rolled her eyes, "I'll let you know what else I come up with Vincent. And don't worry, I won't tell Mal any of this nonsense you and Marcel just uttered."

Cami playfully rolled her eyes and waved goodbye to the French witch, choosing to forget the moment they had just passed through. That was what she tended to do nowadays anyways when it came to the Mikaelsons - forget and move on.

~ 0 ~

"Oooh, I like your dress, Miss Mikaelson," Maleny laughed as Freya quickly looked down to her going-out dress as if she'd forgotten what she'd put on.

The two blondes were in the courtyard, Maleny coming down from the stairs, while Freya looked into her bag for her last things before going out.

"You clean up nice yourself, Miss Rowan," Freya winked.

"I don't know, is this what you wear to an art exhibit?" Maleny chuckled sheepishly as she looked down at herself, truthfully unsure. She had opted for a tight dark blue dress that reached above her knees with an open black jacket over it.

"Don't know, but it goes great at a party," Freya nudged her with a smirk, "You said you'd come with me the next time I went to one."

"Ooh, I did say that, huh?" Maleny made a face, clearly remembering the promise she made to Freya after having to decline the same type of offer in favor of a dinner with Cami and Amarrah.

"Get away from my date, Freya," Klaus warned as he approached the two blondes from the downstairs corridors. "She's already said 'yes' to me a long while ago."

"Also true," Maleny pointed to him in thought, "Oh dear…"

"Lighten up," Freya momentarily frowned, "She can come to my party first and then go to your exhibit."

"Or," Klaus gave her a smirk, as they probably assumed what he would say next, "she could go to the exhibit...and stay there."

"She said yes to me before she said 'yes' to you!"

"Okay then," Maleny cut in between the two siblings, holding her arms out to keep the two from continuing arguing, "How about I go to Freya first, party a little, and then I meet you at your exhibit and stay there for as long as you like?"

"Maleny," Klaus tilted his head, his tone implying he wasn't quite agreeing with her.

Maleny turned to Klaus, languidly draping her arms over his shoulders, "Oh c'mon, your sister doesn't know the city as much as I do. I'm there, one hour, two hours and then I switch venues...where I will be all yours."

"Oh, brother," Freya muttered under her breath, almost gagging at the sight.

"Using your charms will one day fail you," Klaus warned her while pushing back a strand of her hair.

"I doubt it," Maleny cheekily grinned, "I learned it from the Mikaelsons - among other things."

"You're almost one of us," Freya spoke up behind them, over her gagging moment and now smiling at the two. "You know...except for that big 'Rowan' at the end of your name."

Maleny blushed and removed one hand from Klaus to stand sideways and glance at Freya, "Well, it is my name," she said quietly, twiddling with one of her blonde curls, blushing fiercer as she felt Freya smirking wider at her.

"You could always change it," Klaus casually said, misunderstanding the implication his sister was trying to give him.

Maleny let her curl drop and lightly sighed, "I guess…" her tone went slightly sour, and disappointed. It's not that she expected something grand for her to truly become a Mikaelson, but she did want a little something more than just 'you could always change it'. Feeling a little more disappointed suddenly, she looked at the two siblings, "I forgot my purse upstairs."

Freya watched the blonde take her sudden leave with almost a sense of amusement. She waited until Maleny was completely gone before teasing her younger brother. "For a man that's lived a thousand years, you sure are clueless."

Klaus arched an eyebrow at the woman, displeased at the insult, "Come again? What, pray tell, have I apparently done this time?"

Freya laughed and stepped towards him, "You really didn't see how disillusioned Mal was after you so poorly suggested she just 'change her name' like it was a piece of paper."

"But...it is," Klaus said slowly, still not understanding the problem, "In fact, with us, it's only a matter of changing how you introduce yourself. There's no need for legal matters."

Freya rolled her eyes, wondering if this was what it was to have brothers. Were they supposed to be clueless? Well, she already had to tend to a clueless Elijah who would simply not admit his true feelings for, and directly to, Cami. And now she had to deal with Klaus, who so stupidly did not see what it was Maleny actually wanted. She supposed with Klaus, it was a little easier considering the two were actually together and in full knowledge of what they felt for each other. It was just pointing out the delicate details that needed to be resolved.

"Let me ask you some simple questions, alright?" she began calmly, "Have you ever pictured anything else for you and Maleny?"

Although Klaus couldn't see what she was trying to get at, he went along with her questions. "'Anything else'," he mimicked her tone, "was simply a child," he smirked triumphantly, "And as we all know, that's been resolved."

Freya upheld her calm look despite it looking like she was losing. "And...beyond that?"

"What else is there, Freya?"

"How about the 'forever' part? The part where Maleny is turned so the 'always and forever' can actually be 'always and forever'?"

The question immediately put Klaus in a mood, "That is none of your business," he declared and made to leave...but Freya wasn't having it.

"So that's your plan, then? Ignore the inevitable truth until Maleny has aged and is no longer that youthful blonde you're so used to?" Klaus stopped walking, but kept his back to her. "Maleny is mortal again, brother, and by nature's law she will age," Freya continued, "Do you intend to leave her like that? Bury her down at the graveya—"

"ENOUGH!" Klaus boomed and turned back for his sister, stalking up to her, "You will desist in any of that sort of talk...especially when Maleny is around."

Freya sighed, completely unalarmed despite having provoked a great rage in her brother. "Don't be upset because I'm calling in the truth. And that was all just to make a point."

"I'm not interested in your point," Klaus scoffed.

"My point was trying to get you to see how disappointed Mal was when you so poorly told her to just change names because she expected more."

"Like?"

"Oh my God," Freya had a small laugh to herself, "Do I have to go buy the ring myself and ask her to marry me instead?" The realization struck Klaus, and hard, and for a minute he was left frozen in his place. Freya laughed again, patting his shoulder, "There we go, brother. Ponder on that, will you?" she looked past him to the stairs, where Maleny was quietly making her way down. "Looks like my date's here—Mal!"

"I'm ready," Maleny assured as Freya walked towards her. "Klaus, I'll be there in about an hour and a half," she called to the hybrid, but he simply waved a hand at her while still overthinking on Freya's "point". Maleny gave him an odd look as Freya led her out, "What's gotten into him?"

Freya snickered, "Some words."

~ 0 ~

Cami walked into her place and flicked the lights on, sighing at the large mess of boxes she still had lying around, but soon got over it upon seeing Amarrah inside. "Uh...hello!?" Cami blinked, shutting the door behind her.

"Hello," Amarrah was sitting on the couch looking through a police file of the same victim she had come to Cami for information on. She looked up with a cheery smile, "I sent Vincent home, thought you could help me better instead. You want a drink?" she got up and walked for the kitchen.

Cami continued to cluelessly blink, remaining in place, "Um...what exactly are you doing here?"

"Looking for more information on the murder case, clearly," Amarrah returned with two glasses of bourbon.

"Why, exactly, are you here?" Cami raised an eyebrow, blankly taking the drink from her once it was handed. "Not to be rude, but...why?"

"Because I thought we could work on it together," Amarrah shrugged and returned to her seat on the couch. She opened up another file and slid to the edge of the table, where Cami was. "I thought you could help me out on the vampire details."

Cami sighed and finally walked over, picking up a paper and skimming it, "I don't know what I can do, Ams. You're the Detective, here."

"Yes, and you're the vampire here. Do you see how we can make the perfect team?" Amarrah tilted her head, giving the blonde a look.

"Alright, fine," Cami put her glass down on the table, "but I still think it's worth asking Maleny about this."

"Absolutely not," Amarrah shook her head as she returned to her work, "I just don't think Klaus or Elijah did this. They've got no reason to do so."

"I still think you should at least talk to them," Cami persisted, leaning back on the couch, "At least give them a chance to tell you if they did it so you quit doing unnecessary work."

Amarrah sighed, finally relenting, "Alright, fine. We can go—"

"Oh n-n-n-n-n-n-no," Cami shook her head and began getting up from the couch, completely refusing the idea, "I am not going anywhere near that compound-"

Amarrah rolled her eyes, "We can ask Maleny and Klaus, they're probably at the art exhibit going on tonight. Plus, I know for a fact Elijah's in the bayou."

Cami narrowed her eyes, crossing her arms in suspicion, "How?"

"Because it's a full moon tonight," Amarrah sighed, thus relieving Cami, as well as also reminding them both of their guilt for still being unable to help Hayley and their closer wolf friends, Alton and Yamilet. "So," she pushed herself up to her feet, "Now you want to come with me?"

"Yes," Cami said, still acting like she was being asked far too much.

~ 0 ~

At St. James Infirmary, the setting for the art exhibit, Klaus had been impatiently waiting for Maleny to finally make an appearance. Two hours had passed and yet there was no sign of the blonde. However, he did get a rather surprising visit instead from an old "friend", Lucien Castle, whom he hadn't seen in over a thousand years. His impatience of Maleny subsided mildly after a couple of drinks with Lucien.

In the end, a blonde did make an appearance...along with a French dark-haired woman.

"Give me a moment," Klaus motioned to Lucien as he got up from their table and went to greet the two women, "To what do I owe this visit?" he smirked, "Mal's not here and I doubt Elijah will be making an appearance."

Cami deeply sighed in irritation, "I'm here on business," she snapped, "And I intend on making it short before you make another round of jokes like you commonly do."

Klaus rolled his eyes, "What do you want?"

Amarrah cleared her throat, "Someone tortured and killed a local. Left the body right out in the open. I think it was a vampire."

"Last time I heard vampire business was now your department," Klaus pointed to the blonde, "Don't bother me."

Cami was near losing her temper with him, "We need to know if it was you or Elijah that did it so Amarrah knows what to tell the cops."

The accusation was surprising but caused far more amusement to Klaus than anger, "You think I left a sloppy mess out in the street? You have confused me for a simpleton, clearly. And as for Elijah, don't bother. He rarely goes out nowadays."

"We're being serious, Klaus," Amarrah gave him a scolding look, "The victim was found like like a-"

But Klaus had lost interest in the conversation and turned to walk away from the two. The only reason he stopped midway was because of the familiar scent that had wafted in from the entrance. Maleny straightened herself up and walked further into the room, but was stopped as Amarrah and Cami passed by.

"You need to teach your boyfriend some manners," Cami snapped, making Maleny rapidly blink, barely able to process when Amarrah added something as well.

"Look, Mal, we really need you guys to look into the latest of murder victims," she pleaded, "I'll send you the file later."

"Wh-what?" Maleny uttered after the two women had left. Slowly, she continued walking and met Klaus with a questioning, yet not completely 'there' look, "Do I want to know?"

"No," Klaus shook his head, quickly instigating her to smile. As she wrapped her arms around his neck, he smelt traces of alcohol on her. "Why exactly were you late?"

The grin on Maleny's face widened as she giggled, "I may have...tried some drinks…" she tilted her head to the side, catching view behind him. "Why exactly is that guy looking at me like I'm his next course meal?"

Klaus glanced over his shoulder, following Maleny's gaze to Lucien who was sitting and smirking their way. "Dinner, snack…" he even said to joke, "...appetizer?"

"Klaus," Maleny said, rather shaken up at the man's bluntness.

"He's merely joking, love," Klaus started leading her towards the table, "Although you probably would feel less scared if you hadn't had too much to drink."

"It was a party, what did you think was gonna happen?" Maleny rolled her eyes, "I was being a good friend to Freya who didn't want to drink alone. And don't start with me. Who's your friend?"

"Old acquaintance. Nothing more," Klaus said quietly, a hint of reluctance in his tone that Maleny didn't pick up on.

"Old acquaintance?"" Lucien frowned, feigning offence, "You wound me!"

They came to a stop at the table where Lucien had already gotten up to greet the blonde. She stared him up and down for a minute, "You're kinda cute," she remarked, earning quite a response from both men.

"Ooh, I definitely like your friend, Nik," Lucien laughed while Klaus tried not kill him there and then.

"She's not my 'friend'-" Klaus began when Lucien cut him off.

"Even better," he made one step closer to Maleny but Klaus immediately blocked the way with himself.

"She's not my 'friend', she's mine," Klaus finished with an air of triumph.

Maleny tapped his shoulder, making him look back, "I'm not property you know," she said calmly, the amount of drinks clouding her real emotions. "I do have thoughts and feelings."

"Yes, and at the moment I fear they aren't at their best," Klaus gently motioned her to come forwards.

"They are," Maleny insisted and took a deep breath and started over again. "What was your name again?" she asked Lucien.

"Lucien Castle," the old vampire took her hand and kissed it.

The blonde smiled at him warmly, and as she looked at him she began getting brief flashes of...a hallway?

...My lady, why are you crying?…

…No reason, simple...family issues…

...Absolutely no one should make you shed tears...

Maleny crinkled her nose as a familiar painful jab took over the side of her head. "Oh," she came back with a gasp. She had been sat down at the table, and had both men attending to her as if she were dying. "I'm sorry," she mumbled, still feeling rather hazed, "I don't know what happened…"

"I do, you had too much drink," Klaus frowned, already thinking of berating Freya when he saw her again.

Maleny briefly looked at him for the comment and instead focused on what she had saw and heard in her mind. She knew exactly what they were, or at least what had seemed to happen. She would never forget that type of head pain. It was a memory that had tried to resurface. The scenery was completely new to her, as well as her new persona. Things went by so fast she couldn't understand it. She supposed now that it had tried to come back, it probably would be making another attempt soon. The only thing that concerned her was if it was normal for the pain to still come with them, as this was her original body, her own mind.

"Mal," Klaus' voice brought her back to the present. He was holding her hand, trying to see if she was in yet another trance. "Mal, are you alright?"

Maleny kindly smiled, "I'm always alright. Whatever it was, it passed. However, I do think I should see what had Amarrah and Cami so concerned. It seems like you already found yourself a drinking buddy…" she glanced at Lucien, "...and I definitely wouldn't want to crash a guy's night, so maybe it's best I take my leave."

"By all means, do stay if you'd like," Lucien smirked at her.

"Lucien!" Klaus snapped, making the other vampire raise his hands in a non-threatening way.

"I was being polite!"

Maleny chuckled and got up with ease, "So it's settled. Although," she walked up to Lucien, "You seem like the typical rich vampire guy that knows how to have fun…"

Lucien nodded with great pride, "Well…"

Maleny suddenly turned serious, "Keep your little girlfriends off him," she pointed back to Klaus, "or I will personally drive a stake right through this heart," she tapped Lucien's chest with a wide, sarcastic smile, "Got it?"

"Very feisty for an apparent mortal," Lucien remarked in amusement.

"I look out for what's mine," Maleny calmly declared and stepped back to where Klaus was, now addressing him, "And if you let those hands get on you, I'll kill you. And when you come back, I'll kill you again."

"Understood," Klaus smirked at her, "Ma'am."

Maleny rolled her eyes, "Oh, shut up," she grabbed her purse from the table and walked off.

"Where'd you pick that one up?" Lucien curiously asked as the two watched the blonde leave, "She's certainly no where near like the psychopath you had during our time."

The reminder provoked a tensed silence to break between the two men. In all the centuries, Klaus hadn't once thought about the redhead and he wasn't going to have any details of that time be told near Maleny. However, now that Maleny was gone, his curiosity was able to get the best of him.

"Have you spoken to her?" he quietly asked Lucien.

A grim, distasteful look spread over Lucien's face, "Aurora and I parted ways centuries ago - thankfully. You know I never had desire to see her after what she did to Cecilia."

"Yes," Klaus nodded, recalling the event that had occurred right before his family was forced to run from Mikael again. "The tragedy…"

"It wasn't a tragedy!" Lucien snapped and turned on him, suddenly angry, "It was murder. Aurora killed her out of spite, and ruined—"

"Lucien!" Klaus raised his voice, stopping the vampire midway in his passionate fury, "It's done," Klaus said quietly, not as indifferent as he might have been had he not discovered Maleny had also gone through similar cases.

Still heavily feeling, Lucien snatched his drink from the table and headed for the bar for more, grumbling under his breath.

1002 A.D. France.

Keeping his promise that would save his life, the servant Lucien had introduced the Mikaelson siblings to his master, the Count de Martel, under the name of the real family he had been sent for (but had been killed in a feeding spree by the vampires). He hadn't been sure how the event would go down, for the Count was smart and would be suspicious of the children of the Count de Guise whom had never been mentioned. Thankfully, with his instructions, the Mikaelsons had successfully charmed the Count de Martel and were now taking joy of the party the castle was holding.

Now, as his status only allowed, Lucien stood at the side of the room simply looking at the ongoing celebration when Klaus approached him.

"You've proven to be an immense help," he remarked to the servant, meaning it to be as close to a 'thank you' as it could get.

"Oh. Of course, my lord," Lucien replied, rather bashfully.

"Though, I must say, you don't seem at all disturbed about leading us into your master's home."

Lucien sighed and glanced at Count de Martel, "My master is a cruel drunkard who torments his minions for sport. Beggars who seek supper. Vassals who cannot pay a debt... like my own father."

Klaus nodded with understanding, "Ah," following the glare sent to the Count.

Lucien continued with sudden anger, "All these gentile folk, behind their silks and their jewels, are slavers. Killers. Whatever evil you are, you walk among greater evil still. What do I care if you kill the lot of them?"

But then laughter carried over, grabbing both of the men's attention. It belonged to a dark-haired woman who had taken to a rather odd dance with another young man. And it was as if Lucien had never been angry in the first place.

"Who is that?" Klaus asked, curiously.

"The Count's niece - Lady Cecilia," Lucien replied, never taking his eyes off the dark-haired woman, "Her parents passed away years ago and the Count took her under his protection with his children."

"Children?" Klaus repeated, now more interested in the story.

Lucien nodded and gestured to the incoming young man and woman on the other side of the room. "The Count's children- the Lord Tristan and the Lady Aurora."

Klaus suddenly became more interested in the bright redhead Aurora, "She is exquisite."

"Ah, yes," Lucien agreed carelessly, "Um, as her brother is wicked, might I suggest that you avoid them completely?"

Klaus followed the steps the redhead took, "But would she really be a threat, even to one like me?"

"She is an intelligent one, do not doubt it," Lucien warned, but it went over Klaus' head as he became more entranced by the strange woman.

At a club heavily packed with all sorts of people, Freya was dancing with some new women she had met after Maleny left. She had to stop dancing, however, after her cellphone went off. She covered one ear to listen to Elijah on the other line.

"Hello?"

"Did I misinterpret the kind of exhibition you're attending?" Elijah asked, sounding bemused by the loud music he could hear in the background.

"I switched venues!" Freya chuckled.

"Forgive me for cutting into your free night, Freya, but I am in desperate need of help," Elijah said, sounding equally frantic which made Freya rush to the outsides where she would be able to hear better.

"What's wrong, Elijah?" Freya asked, concerned.

"There are hunters in the bayou and I fear Hayley has fallen into one of their traps…"

Freya's eyes widened, "Oh, dear…"

"I need to search the bayou but I cannot do it on my own. Plus, someone needs to look after Hope."

Freya nodded in understanding, suddenly getting an idea of just who could help him scour the bayou for missing wolves. "Okay, I'll be there - I have an idea."

~ 0 ~

The art show was over, and while the people had left, Klaus and Lucien remained inside, both still drinking yet Lucien still in a foul mood from the earlier reminder. Frankly over it, and partially wanting to get back to Maleny and see how she was doing, Klaus approached Lucien and got straight to the point.

"Lucien- what are you really doing in my city?"

Lucien sighed and turned to him, "News has spread, old friend. Every vampire in the world knows you've been attacked. A number of times, nearly killed."

Klaus rolled his eyes, choosing to ignore the matter, "Oh, well, I can assure you that all those who stood against me ended up either desiccated, dust, or dinner."

Lucien lightly laughed, though still seemed unusually nervous, "Yes, but... what if it had gone the other way, hmm? When Finn was killed, we all learned the truth- the life of every vampire is linked back to the Original who begat the line. Kol's death confirmed it. Two entire lines of vampires wiped out! As you can imagine, the threat level doesn't sit well with those of us who remain."

"Anyone fearing death as a result of my demise should come see me!" Klaus sarcastically smiled, "I'll be happy to reassure them."

"Of course. You and your siblings are mighty, indeed. Though, the attacks on you show that you are not completely invulnerable," Lucien continued, "While you've wallowed in your family affairs, your progeny have grown somewhat... restless. The world is a finite place, territory limited. And even ancient vampires are not above vicious turf-wars. What if I told you there's a growing conflict between the remaining three sirelines? Suppose one of them wanted to annihilate the other? By killing Elijah? Rebekah? You?"

Although the idea was rather unsettling, Klaus easily hid it, "So, you came all this way to deliver a warning?"

"Think about it! Kill an Original, wipe out an entire line of competition! A tempting goal, made more so by the fact that your family isn't so intact with each other."

"My family is hardly weak!" Klaus snapped, coming closer to Lucien so that they were face-to-face. "In fact, we are unkillable- the last of the white oak is gone."

Lucien narrowed his eyes skeptically, "Are you so certain it's all gone? Every last splinter of it? Vanished for good?"

Klaus responded by grabbing him from the back of the neck, harshly squeezing it, "Lucien, if you had even the slightest inkling any fragment of white oak still existed, of course you would tell me."

"Easy, Nik," Lucien cleared his throat as he removed Klaus' hand from his neck. "You are my sire. My fate is linked to yours," he reminded the crucial detail, "If you want to know what I do about the dangers you now face, trust me enough to come with me. There is something that you must see."

"I have other places to be at," Klaus stepped back from him, highly suspicious.

"I assure you want to see this," Lucien insisted, motioning to Klaus for them to leave. "It spells your family's ending, and I think that little blonde of yours wouldn't be so happy."

Klaus sighed, once again caving to something that, one way or another, led back to Maleny.

~ 0 ~

Out in the bayou, Elijah was impatiently sitting at the front porch of the cabin with Hope in her stroller, the setting being meant to have been a Crescent wolf reunion due to the full moon. However now it was going to be a life saving night, or at least trying to find Hayley. Suddenly, Freya appeared a couple feet away from him and Hope...but she was not alone.

"Camille," Elijah breathed in as he rose to his feet, awed to have Cami so close after so many months.

Cami looked to the side, clearly uncomfortable being there. "Freya said there were wolf traps out here and you can't find Hayley?"

"Yes," Elijah nodded.

"I'm here for her, Alton and Yamilet," Cami clarified, watching Freya walk to the stroller. "Otherwise, Freya would have had to poison me to get me here. Shall we get going?" she gestured to the trees behind her.

Elijah nodded silently, and soon the two sped off to begin their hunting tasks. Freya sat down on the steps and turned Hope's stroller so that she could see the baby.

"Hello, sweetie," she smiled softly at the almost asleep toddler. "You'll have to excuse your Auntie Freya, I've had a few big-girl drinks tonight."

Hope stretched her small arms over her head as her eyes slowly closed, falling asleep there and then. Freya sighed and looked out to the dark bayou, hoping that all turned out well for the missing Crescent wolves.

~ 0 ~

Amarrah walked into the lonely Mikaelson compound where after shouting for Maleny a couple of times in the courtyard, she was promptly scolded by the blonde witch.

"There is no need to shout," Maleny appeared from one of the downstairs room, holding a cup of coffee in hand.

"You look plain awful," Amarrah declared after a minute and Maleny came to sit down at the couch.

"And it's not from the special drinks I tried tonight, I promise," Maleny sighed and leaned back on the couch, rubbing her temple. "What's wrong, Ams? And where's Cami?"

"Oh, Freya stopped by and said Elijah needed her help in the bayou," Amarrah decided to cut the explanation short.

Maleny raised an eyebrow, looking surprised, "And Cami just said 'yes'?"

"It was urgent," Amarrah coughed awkwardly, hoping Maleny would leave the subject alone.

"Well, did you need something?" Maleny, thankfully, moved on. "I know Klaus was a bit rude to you guys earlier. What exactly were you talking about with him?"

"There's murder case going on and I'm pretty sure it was from a vampire. The guy was compelled not to scream or call for help. He was left hanging like a puppet on strings with his face cut."

"That's awful," Maleny scowled at the idea, "but why come to Klaus? He's not exactly in charge anymore."

"We just wanted to know if he or Elijah had cut loose or something and..." Amarrah motioned what the others has suspected.

"What!?" Maleny leaned forwards, looking indignant of the accusation. "You think Klaus or Elijah did that? Why the hell would they leave the guy out for everyone to see? Plus," she shook her head, "they wouldn't do that. Elijah's refined, sophisticated, it's not like him to be so messy. He barely leaves the place anymore, anyways. And I know Klaus wouldn't do that either. It's not exactly his forte to leave his victims like a doll. It's not them, Ams."

Amarrah sighed, but before she could say she agreed, her phone rang. She pulled it out from her bag and saw it was from the Detective and answered. "Hello?"

"Hey, it's Kinney. Wanted to let you know you were right."

Amarrah gulped, "Oh...really?"

"It happened again. So, if you're not busy, I could use your brain."

"Yeah, of course," Amarrah nodded and hung up. Maleny was staring at her, expecting an explanation. Amarrah thought for a minute and decided she should see for herself what was happening. "Can you come with me somewhere?"

"Just as long as there's no more alcohol," Maleny sipped one last time from her coffee cup and got up, straightening her blouse. After getting home she had changed into more comfortable lounge clothes, consisting of a simple blue blouse with dark jeans and boots.

"I promise you there will be none of that," Amarrah mumbled and grabbed Maleny by the arm to lead her away.

~ 0 ~

Cami and Elijah came to a stop in a small clearing in the woods after seeing a steel-jawed animal trap meant for the wolves. Heavily annoyed, Elijah walked for it and began to break it apart as loudly as possible to get the responsible hunters out into the open. After a few seconds, he heard the clicking of a gun behind.

"What the hell are you doing?" the hunter demanded.

Cami and Elijah exchanged a look before Elijah stepped forwards,feigning innocence, "Oh my goodness, where are my manners? Permit me to explain-"

But he quickly sped up to the hunter and snatched his gun before throwing him to the ground.

"Elijah!" Cami turned just as a second hunter appeared.

Elijah used the gun from the first hunter and threw it at the second like it were a javelin, causing the barrel of the gun to impale the chest. Afterwards, he took the first hunter, who'd been trying to crawl away, by the back of the shirt and put him down to the ground.

"Lesson one of the hunt: Lay the bait," he slammed the hunter's foot into another of the traps, making it clamp down on the ankle.

Elijah remained unfazed and merely stepped back, adjusting the cuffs of his shirt. Cami, who'd been only standing so far, roughly swallowed down as Elijah met her stare. She felt a chill run down her back as he stepped towards her. She would never admit it to anyone else, and after admitting it to herself she would try and push the thought away, but she felt so attracted to him at that moment.

The only thing that broke her from her embarrassing thoughts were the three laser sights pointing at Elijah.

Cami whirled around to the direction from which they were coming from. "Lesson two," she mumbled and sped off, leaving Elijah to follow.

It didn't take long for them to corner the remaining hunter in another part of the woods. Being closer, Cami grabbed the man by the neck and raised him, angrily glaring.

"You're gonna give me the precise location of every last one of those stupid traps," she warned him, "And we also want the routes used by any of your other men."

"I-I don't know-" the man barely got to say when a different person, a woman, appeared out of nowhere and lunged for him.

Cami stumbled back from such force as the man was tackled out of her grip. The woman clawed and clawed until the man was dead. For a minute, Cami and Elijah could only stare as the man was marred to death. When it was all done, the woman rose to her feet, and with nothing on, she revealed she was a Crescent wolf.

"Yamilet…" Cami breathed in, both relieved and terrified of the woman's conditions.

"Good to see you, blondie," Yamilet greeted with her usual sourness. "I have a question and I expect to be answered with the utmost truth: Where. Is. Alton.?"

"We...we don't know," Elijah replied, currently looking to the side out of embarrassment and courtesy.

Yamilet wad too preoccupied with her missing boyfriend to care who saw her or who didn't. "There's traps set all over this place!" she gritted her teeth, more furious than ever, "If I don't find Alton rest assured this time I will come after all you Mikaelsons with all I have."

Cami cleared her throat and looked down, "We'll find him, we promise."

Yamilet rolled her eyes, no longer so trusting of them all. "Sure," she sneered, "Right after you break this curse, right? Spare me the crap and let me follow the scent of the remaining hunters, no?" she started picking at the hunters shirt, intending on using it as a makeshift dress until she found proper clothes.

Afterwards, she joined the hunting and followed the scent of the remaining hunters - who all died soon after - and came across a truck. Immediately, Yamilet felt her stomach churn as an awful smell penetrated the air.

Elijah went towards it, hesitating a minute to pull the tarp covering the back. But in the end, he chucked it back, and revealed at least half a dozen dead werewolves.

"Oh my God!" Cami exclaimed, horrified at the sight. She and Yamilet rushed towards it, but in the end only Yamilet dared to touch them.

Yamilet began hyperventilating at the idea that one of those wolves could be Alton. Her hands shook as she reached towards her companions, her eyes watering up.

"Alton? Alton!" she whisper-shouted as if someone would respond back.

Behind her, the feeling of overwhelm started washing over Cami and Elijah. Neither of them knew if Hayley was in there as well, and it just terrified them to their core that they were perhaps too late to help them.

Without taking notice, Cami inched closer to Elijah, close to tears herself. Elijah put an arm around her, bringing her to him, but both were too distraught to remember their situation.

~ 0 ~

Maleny was not one to feel comfortable around police crime scenes. She would never understand how Amarrah once decided to willingly do this for a living.

"Detective," Amarrah came up to the blonde man with Maleny coming in a couple seconds behind. "Oh, um, this is my friend," Amarrah gestured to the blonde witch, "She knows a thing or two about these odd cases."

"I do?" Maleny blinked, looking at Amarrah in confusion.

"Detective Will Kinney," the man shook her hand nonetheless.

"Maleny Rowan," she politely said back, feeling awkward in such a different setting. "So, Ams said you found another victim?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Kinney sighed, looking at Amarrah, "And in the same type of position as the first one."

Amarrah nodded and so Kinney began leading the way to where the victim was. "Of the same background as well?" Amarrah questioned curiously.

"Yes, high status," Kinney nodded, turning for another alleyway. This time the victim was just at the corner. It was another man, dressed in a rich suit, and was propped like a puppet.

As soon as Maleny saw it she became horrified. But no less than a second did she began to feel that annoying jab on the side of her head. For a minute, Maleny felt the world around her fade away as two voices in her head became prominent.

...this is sick torture, Tristan…

...as the son of the Count, I do punishments as I see fit….

...it is immoral, inhumane…

...yet you allowed far more immoral things to continue...

After Kinney had left, Amarrah finally took notice of the distant look on Maleny's face. Concerned, she gently shook Maleny by the arm. "Mal? Are you okay?" Maleny snapped out of it quickly but it still took her a moment to remember where she was. "Maleny, what is it?"

Maleny slowly laid eyes on the victim again, her horror and shock replaced by confusion, and...familiarity. "I think...I think I've seen this before," she whispered with nothing but utter dread.

~ 0 ~

Hayley was angrily screaming and pounding against an invisible barrier Davina Claire had trapped her in. It was beyond ridiculous, and infuriating, to be trapped by a witch on the only night she could see Hope.

Davina returned to the room completely at ease, holding clothes in her arms along with other supplies.

"Davina, let me out of here right now, or I swear I will kill you!" Hayley shouted at the teen but it was of no use.

"You can try," she sarcastically motioned, "Or, we can have a polite conversation."

Hayley was in no mood to 'converse', not tonight at least. "You magically kidnapped me on the one night that I can see my daughter. Do not talk to me about "polite!""

Beginning to grow frustrated, Davina rose her voice, "I drew you here to help you!"

"Amarrah and Maleny asked you months ago to help them break the curse, and you said no!"

Davina looked to the side, trying to hide her guilt, "The Regent of witches can't be seen doing favors for the Mikaelsons."

And though Maleny wasn't technically one, she was already branded as one of them. Since she their fallout of bringing Esther Mikaelson back to life, Davina didn't exactly want to do anything for Maleny and her...people. She was still upset with Maleny for having played that foul trick that cost her Kol's resurrection. But now the tables had turned, and she was in need of assistance...just not from Maleny this time.

"But, maybe we can help each other," she looked at Hayley sternly as she tossed a blood bag through the invisible barrier. Hayley threw her a dirty look but feeling the ravenous hunger inside, she dropped to her knees and started drinking from the bag. Look, I have access to the witch ancestors. I can channel the power of the one who created the spell that cursed you. You can be free, Hayley."

Hayley licked the blood that had gotten on her fingers, and slowly rose to her feet. " Under your terms, I'm guessing." Davina sighed, guiltily looking down, but Hayley saw an opportunity she wasn't going to waste. "Spill."

"There's a witch in the 9th Ward who hates that I'm Regent. She tried to kill me. If I retaliate, I'm starting a civil war, and I don't want to do that."

"Fine," Hayley said without a second thought. "Just tell me who you want dead."

~ 0 ~

After finding another wolf turned human - Jackson - who was injured due to a trap, Elijah had them all return to the cabin. It was there that Cami made her choice to leave, as there was the special hour coming up and she needed to be back in the city to oversee 'feeding time'.

"You can't go," Yamilet said, her no voice no longer sour. She was extremely shaken up by the sight of dead wolves, and the fact Alton was still no where in sight wasn't helping her. "You need to help me." She glanced back at Elijah who was tending to the injury on Jackson's leg. "They won't help me," she shook her head, knowing their main priority was going to be Hayley.

Cami could see that happening, since Jackson had no idea where Hayley was. "Okay," she considered, "then come back with me, and...we can get Ams to do a locator spell. If Alton's human and…"

Yamilet's eyes lowered, quietly finishing for Cami, "...alive."

Cami awkwardly cleared her throat, "Um, yeah. If so, then she'll be able to find him. Okay, so come back with me."

Yamilet nodded, glancing back at the other two men, "I'm going with her," she declared to them, "We have five hours until we turn back and I'm not going to waste it on some woman when my boyfriend's out there too."

"Agreed," Jackson got up, "I want Hayley - she's my wife."

"Then we split," Cami looked at Elijah, doing her best to remain rigid. "I have to get back to the other vampires."

"Thank you Camille," Elijah said honestly, "For your assistance."

Cami nodded and gently took Yamilet away with her.

~ 0 ~

"Are we actually doing this?" Maleny paced back and forth in Amarrah's living room while the French witch surfed through the internet and made notes of the murder cases.

"If you meant 'researching the possible murderer' then yes," Amarrah looked up from her laptop with a sly smile. "What's the big deal?"

Maleny stopped pacing to face Amarrah, biting her lip nervously. "You're kidding right? That's the guy that's apparently friends with Klaus. What am I going to tell him? 'Sorry, my friend thinks that your friend is on a killing spree'."

Amarrah rolled her eyes and returned to her work, "To be fair, Klaus doesn't exactly have nice, sane friends."

"Ams," Maleny sighed, plopping down on the couch chair, rubbing a hand over her face.

"Maleny," Amarrah took on a stern voice, "you said this guy, Lucien, just got here tonight - the same night the murders started. That's worth of suspicion. And Klaus doesn't have to know you told me."

Maleny shook her head, resting her arms on the sides as she thought back to those brief memory flashes. She may have been out of it in the beginning, but she was certain they started just when Lucien Castle returned...was that worth of suspicion?

"What do you know of the guy?" Amarrah asked, missing the thoughtful look on her friend's face.

"Hm?" Maleny's eyes flickered to the dark-haired woman, "Um, nothing really. Klaus just said he was a friend - acquaintance, actually."

"Hm," Amarrah mused as she clicked on a link that led to a video that seemed to be about a donation the man had made. "Well, your boyfriend's acquaintance seems to be some rich boy…"

"Yeah, kinda figured that out on my own," Maleny muttered, flushing when she recalled her imprudence during their first greet and meet.

"He's the CEO of some important company - Kingmaker Land Development," Amarrah continued and unplugged her earphones, pulling out the cable so that the rest of the video she was listening to played out loud for Maleny.

"Listen to the advice of your superiors, then do better! Study the weaknesses of those who outrank you and eliminate them from your own experience. Authority is meant to be challenged! Great achievers refuse to stand in shadows."

Amarrah then paused the video, giving Maleny an 'I told you so' look as the blonde grew concerned. "I need to go talk to the Detective," Amarrah got up and stuffed her laptop in her bag, "I won't tell him anything, maybe just...sidetrack them for a while until you get Klaus to do something about this new friend of his."

~ 0 ~

Freya had gone back to her club as soon as Elijah had returned for Hope. Even though she was still partially drunk, she was relatively surprised to find Cami entering the place. Upon seeing the blonde witch, Cami walked towards her.

"Didn't think you'd be back," Freya mused as she grabbed her drink from the counter.

"I went for my friends, I found one, and now I dropped her off in a place she can get the help I can no longer provide," Cami said sternly, and looked to the side.

"Mmm, just like that?" Freya arched an eyebrow before taking a full shot of her drink.

"Yes, just like that," Cami rolled her eyes and returned her gaze to Freya, "Now, I'm back for business here. It's almost midnight, Freya."

"Well, I'm not wearing glass slippers…" Freya began, but soon realized what Cami was trying to say and groaned, "Do you have to turn the best club in town into your personal blood bank?"

Cami lightly smiled at that, "I know, I used to hate it when I finally learned what really went on in this city. But this is how Marcel used to run things and I'm going to follow in his footsteps. It's how it works. We feed on tourists, compel them to forget, locals turn a blind eye. That's how NOLA works. So, unless you want to become an appetizer-"

Freya raised a hand, "Pass," she pretended to shiver and started on her way out. However, as she went by, she grabbed the hand of a young man and pulled him with her, "This one's coming with me!" she announced and the man went with her without a problem.

~ 0 ~

At the compound, Klaus had already returned from his...interesting...visit to Lucien's apartment, and after getting a notice from Elijah that Hayley was missing, he went straight to find Freya. Finding her no where, he opted for a phone call...of course there was no response.

"Freya, I'm aware that 21st century technology remains a mystery to you, but when you see my name pop up on your phone, you answer it," he left her the voicemail in grave annoyance, "Come home. Immediately."

As he hung up, he heard footsteps from the entrance and dramatically sighed when Maleny came in. "Well, and here I thought you would be resting and getting over your 'special drinks'."

Maleny rolled her eyes, "I did, and then Amarrah came over with the news of murders happening outside. Do you know, she's pretty sure your new friend, Lucien, is responsible for it."

Klaus scoffed, "Your friend isn't exactly the smartest—"

"Hey," Maleny scolded him and dropped her bag onto the couch, pulling her phone from her pocket, "she has evidence and it kinda fits."

"So this is what you did in the meantime I was out? Play detective?" Klaus mused, slightly amused as Maleny handed her phone for him to see.

"I know a thing or two about vampires if you haven't noticed," Maleny motioned him to take a look at the pictures Amarrah had sent to her phone earlier. "Amarrah thinks Lucien is torturing and killing humans in the Quarter. There have been two victims so far and," she sighed, "if you ask me, it's just creepy."

"Lucien would never be so sloppy," Klaus rolled his eyes before taking a look at the pictures of the victim.

Maleny arched an eyebrow, "Hm, seems like you know him a lot more than you've told me. For acquaintances, I mean…"

Klaus was too stunned of the photos to respond back, "There is a familiar method to this particular madness…" he said quietly, the face cutting making him slightly nervous.

"You need to make sure the latest victim is the last one," Maleny took back her phone, seeing the brief nervousness flash through his eyes.

Klaus replaced his nervousness with amusement. "Are you suggest I kill my oldest friend?"

"Ah, so he's a friend now," Maleny raised her eyebrows, feigning surprise. "Well, listen, the NOLA PD can't take down a thousand-year-old vampire murderer, but you can. You're the smartest, and the strongest, and the scariest."

"Are you trying to persuade me...or flirt?" Klaus chucked her cellphone to the couch, turning to her with a smirk as he pulled her towards him.

"I'm not kidding," Maleny sighed but suddenly took a sniff, "Um...you smell like perfume," she declared, tilting her head, "And it's not mine."

"I visited Lucien's new place and he had a party," Klaus began but Maleny pulled herself away from his embrace.

"Look, I know you let me threaten you because I can't actually do anything, but it is upsetting when you deliberately try to get women's hands on you," Maleny crossed her arms and looked to the side.

Klaus chuckled in amusement at the blonde. "I assure you nothing was deliberate," he took her hands and gently brought her back to him. She huffed and turned around, giving him her back. "Mal…"

"Don't 'Mal' me," the blonde muttered, "Go get your murderous friend to stop. Next thing we know, I could be the next victim."

Klaus slid his arms around her waist, both amused yet still serious enough to assure her, "If anyone would even consider that, they wouldn't live to see the morning."

Maleny turned her head to meet his look, pleased to hear his response. "Nice to know I'm cared for here."

"Always, my love," Klaus pressed a kiss to her lips, relaxing when Maleny returned the kiss. Although he was basically suspecting of Lucien himself now, he didn't want Maleny anywhere near Lucien, nor researching information on the man. The last thing he wanted was for Maleny to learn of the part of his past Klaus didn't think she was ready to hear, nor one he was ready to tell.

~ 0 ~

Amarrah and Yamilet, who was now properly changed into Amarrah's borrowed clothes, walked down the street in a heavy rush. After Cami had brought Yamilet to Amarrah's, the French witch performed the locator spell on Alton and found a peculiar result across the Quarter. They didn't know if Alton was trying to get to them, or perhaps was lost, or thinking that Yamilet herself had been killed in one of the wolf traps, but they had to get there. Unfortunately, they stumbled across a new crime scene.

"What is going on in this place?" Yamilet muttered to the witch beside her, having been told by Cami of the two earlier murders. "Wasn't Cami supposed to be taking care of the Quarter now?"

"This isn't her fault," Amarrah shushed her as she saw Detective Kinney making way for them.

"Who's that?" Yamilet eyed the blonde man with mild appreciation.

"You have a boyfriend," Amarrah hissed. She didn't exactly want to run into Kinney at the moment seeing her laptop with all her notes on the case had mysteriously gone missing after seeing him last time. She didn't understand how it could have gotten away from her, but it had and she felt overly irresponsible because of it.

"Amarrah?" Kinney came up to the two women wearing a polite smile, "Miss," he nodded to Yamilet.

"Look, I know I'm supposed to be helping," Amarrah sighed, glancing at Yamilet, "but my friend really needs me right now."

"Actually, Ams," Yamilet looked between the two, getting the feeling the man was staring at them a little too suspiciously, "I can go get Alton on my own."

"What?" Amarrah blinked, "But we need to go together. I want to help you-"

"And you have," Yamilet assured with a small smile, "But, um, there's only a couple of hours left until, I, um…" she made a clawing motion to remind of the full moon passing, "...so maybe it's best I start heading out on my own."

Amarrah sighed, "Okay, but be careful. And I will find a way to...help...both of you."

Yamilet nodded, "Good," she meant to so sound authoritative and chuckled, giving the French witch a hug before leaving.

Amarrah watched her go feeling mildly guilty before facing Kinney. "So, what exactly do I do this time?"

Kinney glanced over his shoulder in the way Yamilet walked off in, and responded with a different topic. "You know, I've seen you in town before...with the two blondes - Camille O'Connell and Maleny Rowan. Thing is, the O'Connells have an unusual history with strange deaths, unexplained behavior, grave-robberies, be-headings, missing persons, police reports with entire sections blacked out. Now she's acting like she's the boss…"

By the time Kinney finished, Amarrah was stunned that he had all that knowledge about her good friend.

"And then your other friend," Kinney chuckled a little, "-the irony- has no background whatsoever. No history in the Quarter - she just popped out of nowhere. Only detail available, and only because we can see, is the fact she's with the mysterious philanthropist-slash-artist Klaus Mikaelson. And then you, you just...came out of no where, much like Miss Rowan. Highly praised Detective coming in yet doing no such thing to get herself on the force here as well…?"

Amarrah gaped with an open mouth, "Um, so...what is this? Some sort of accusation I make weird friends and don't work on what I studied to be?"

"No, I just think you three women are a lot more than you're giving off to the public. There's something you're hiding, and I'll figure it out."

"O-okay," Amarrah blinked, still quite out of it after all she heard. She watched the man walk away from her and became nervous. She worried that the man could get himself into trouble over a simple curiosity.

~ 0 ~

Much later, Freya returned to the compound with her new friend she had picked up from the club. It didn't take much to get to the making out part in the courtyard. Of course, Freya didn't count on her brother to come in and interrupt.

"Freya!" Klaus appeared a couple feet from them, unusually bright, "It's about time you brought a gentleman home to meet the family." He stepped towards the young man, "I'm Freya's brother. And you are? No, don't tell me. Let me guess- Brad?"

There came a giggle from upstairs, where Maleny was residing, "Try Chad, they're always called Chad in the movies."

Klaus pointed to her in agreement and continued, "What are your intentions for my sister? Shall we discuss a dowry?"

The poor human man was terrified when Klaus let his hybrid-eyes came out. "Bro, what the...?"

"Leave. Now," Klaus ordered, momentarily serious.

Maleny laughed when the man ran out in terror. "And the award for 'most annoying little brother' goes out to…" she gestured towards Klaus, who only laughed more.

Freya, meanwhile, gave them both a playful scolding look.

"He was drunk! No one will believe his story," Klaus gave her a smirk.

"You two can make out at every corner of the house but you make the first guy I bring home run away," Freya sighed, only lightly annoyed.

"You can still catch him outside," Maleny called as she came down the stairs. "He was kinda cute." At the sharp look Klaus gave her, she reminded, "Unknown perfume still on you."

"I thought we went past that…"

"I may have forgotten a lot of things but not that one."

"Was there something you two actually needed?" Freya cut into the looming argument, "Or did you just plan this little skit while I was gone?"

Maleny took a sigh and nodded, "We need you to perform a locator spell. Hayley's missing. I don't trust myself without anyone with me."

Freya smiled, "You are more than capable of performing that on your own."

"But seeing it's Hayley out there, we didn't want to take a risk," Klaus said that time, exchanging a worriedly look with Maleny. Both knew Hayley was still raging of what had been done to the wolves and honestly weren't excited over this disappearance.

"'ll need the best connection to Hayley. You'll have to wake Hope," Freya announced sadly, hoping to God there would be no more fighting tonight.

After bringing Hope downstairs and using her for the spell, Freya got straight to work and searched for Hayley. However, she only practice for about a minute before she gasped and abruptly stopped.

"I can't find her," she said quietly, eyes looking over the map before her. "There's nothing- ... It's like she doesn't exist."

"...Or she's dead," Klaus offered another, very plausible, idea, not too pleased.

"No! No. No!" came the voice of a distressed Jackson who rushed inside, 'You have to find her."

"You're here…" Maleny blinked, slightly alarmed.

"Where is Hayley!?" Jackson plainly ignored her and demanded from Freya, whom had tried to do the spell again.

"She's...she's not coming up," Freya shook her head after coming up with the same results. "I don't know what's happening."

Before Jackson could say anything back, he doubled over in pain. Realizing he was turning back into a wolf, Freya stopped her spell.

"Klaus, the chains!" she exclaimed.

Klaus handed Hope to Maleny and rushed to retrieve the chains. But even as Jackson went through the pain of the changing, he continued to plead for Freya's help.

"Freya, please! Please do the spell again!"

Freya glanced back at the table, knowing there wasn't anything else she could that would work. Hayley would not come up anymore, the reason why still such a dread to them all. Klaus returned with the chains, and dragged Jackson to a threshold to chain him up.

"I can't go a month withou- AHH!" Jackson screamed, doubling over again.

Suddenly, he stopped. There was no more pain, no more bone snapping. The changing...stopped.

"It stopped…" Jackson said after a while, much in awe as the others.

~ 0 ~

Much later, Davina looked away the special candle that was to keep Hayley and her pack from changing back to wolves. With a normal lock and a magical one, no one would be able to get through to it but her.

When she turned around, she came to find Marcel coming in. "There's a problem," he sighed.

He led the young teen towards a café shop, specifically the one belonging to Karen Nguyen, the very woman Hayley was sent after. Davina was petrified to see dozens of smoldering, ashen corpses lying in a pile over the patio. There were already other witches, loved ones of the dead, crying over the corpses.

Cami appeared beside them, startling Davina, as the two hadn't exactly spoken out of the faction meetings. But of course, this was part of business.

"There's eleven bodies," the blonde said, "a lot of pissed off loved ones. They thought it was a vampire thing, but all our guys are accounted for at the Abattoir."

Davina gulped as they watched the son of Karen Nguyen, Van, appeared at the scene and discovered his mother was one of the victims. That wasn't what Davina had wanted, at all, and now she had caused a massacre.

~ 0 ~

As Maleny placed down Hope in a playpen, Klaus took out his phone to dial for Lucien's number as they had agreed. "Put it on speaker," Maleny said calmly, her back to him as she made sure Hope was fine. "I want to hear what he says about it."

Though Klaus wasn't too fond of the idea, he did as she wished.

"I taught you better than to leave your leftovers in the street!" he began as soon as the line had been picked up, "My streets."

It sounded as if Lucien was a little out of it. "You'll have to elaborate, mate."

"Two bodies were found sporting rather memorable lacerations. Are you exorcising your demons by carving up the innocents of New Orleans?"

Lucien laughed weakly, "Oh, your family is full of unfounded accusations today. And if I was the culprit, why would you care? We used to make fantastic messes together."

Maleny turned to Klaus, giving him another suspicious stare, questioning him over Lucien's last words.

Klaus ignored her as best he could, for her eyes - while shiny and entrancing - could be very ominous and raging. "There is a delicate balance in this city. There are rules."

"Ah, and people you care about. You can't afford to have weaknesses like that right now."

Maleny crossed her arms, further displeased of what she was hearing.

Klaus promptly looked away from her, knowing he would be paying for that one tonight. "Speaking of weaknesses, there is a wolf chained to my wall who claims he took a chunk out of your arm. Come see me. I'll give you my blood in exchange for your word that the killings will stop."

"I'm afraid your family dog missed the mark, friend. Barely a scratch. No venom breached the skin."

"You listen carefully, friend - my city has enjoyed months of relative peace. If that peace is in any way disrupted, the next gruesome murder will be yours!"

"Now there's the Klaus I know," came the amused response of Lucien before hanging up.

With a heavy sigh, Klaus put away his phone. As soon as he looked back to Maleny, she was already in front of him, staring at him in mild irritation. "So, I'm just a weakness, then?"

"Lucien has a way with words that—"

"Mhm, nice story," Maleny cut him off, patting his arm, "You know, I'm starting not to like this 'acquaintance' of yours. He's making you lie an awful lot."

"Mal—"

"Find me in my room when you can get your stories straight."

Maleny gave him a smirk as she walked past him out the door. She wasn't actually angry, but she was mildly annoyed Klaus couldn't just tell her what was the deal with this Lucien Castle guy.

~ 0 ~

The night had almost passed and as it did, Jackson remained chained in case he would suddenly revert back to a wolf. But when he saw the changing didn't happen, and the sun had come out, he was angry the chains hadn't been removed and that Hayley hadn't yet appeared.

Freya stood a couple feet from him, awkwardly trying to see if she could help him in any way that didn't involve a locator spell or taking the chains off. "Can I get you some water, or... something?"

"Let me out!" Jackson ordered, yanking on hid chains, "It's dawn, I haven't turned back yet. It doesn't make any sense. I need to find Hayley."

Freya sighed and came towards him, placing her hands on his chest, using her magic to try to decipher what was going on. "I can still feel the curse in your blood. Something's restraining it, but you could transition at any moment."

However, Hayley appeared and shoved the poor blonde witch into a nearby column that temporarily knocked her out. Jackson gaped at the sight of his wife covered in blood from head to toe.

"Where the hell is that bastard?" Hayley panted in rage as she sniffed out the two culpable people that kept her away from Hope. Getting the scent of one of them, she backtracked and saw someone coming down the stairs in a hurry.

"Freya?" Maleny was calling, having heard a funny noise from upstairs she hurried to see if Jackson was still his human self. "Freya-" unfortunately, she got herself entangled into something worse - an angry mother. "Hayley!" she gasped as the brunette hybrid sped up to the stairs.

Hayley grabbed her in a choke-hold, harshly pinning her against the staircase rail. "Do you have any idea what you have taken from me?"

Maleny was well aware Hayley was leaning her farther over the rails and for a minute became alarmed. Someone in anger was bound to do horrible things. "Hayley, you need to calm down—"

Hayley shook the blonde violently, "Don't you dare tell me to calm down after months of being cursed!" she squeezed Maleny's neck, causing the blonde to gasp for air. "You took Hope from me you—"

"Hayley!" Maleny sputtered, her frail hands trying to claw Hayley's off her.

"How could you!?" Hayley kept squeezing, knowing it would only take a quick snap to instantly kill the blonde.

During her distraction, Klaus appeared from upstairs and shoved her down the stairs, and would've done more if he was not more preoccupied with Maleny's condition. Maleny violently coughed as the air filled her lungs again. Klaus grabbed her forth, quickly checking to see if she was alright. She only had the growing red marks from Hayley's hold but she was going to be fine.

"You want to fight, fine, but be a little more decent and come after one that can give one back," Klaus turned to Hayley, missing Maleny's momentary irritated look for his comment. "Do not ever attempt to do that again."

Hayley picked herself back up, glaring at both. "All I see are the two people that took my daughter away from me."

"Klaus, don't—" Maleny barely got to say when Klaus sped downstairs to start the fight she had foolishly prayed wouldn't ensue. "Stop!"

Hayley roundhouse-kicked kicked him in the face and sent him across the courtyard. She sped up to him and continued to throw punches.

Maleny hurried down the stairs and saw Freya waking up, as well as Jackson breaking his chains and setting himself free. "No!" she exclaimed, causing Freya to look over and see what was happening.

She cast a spell that kept Jackson back and away from the fight.

"Let me go! He'll kill her!" Jackson shouted, both angry and fearful for Hayley.

"He'll kill you!" Freya snapped.

"I'll get them to stop," Maleny muttered and turned back for the courtyard, catching sight of Elijah coming in and trying to intervene. "STOP IT!" she screamed so loud it managed to draw attention, but only for a couple seconds. She sighed and looked all around, seeing Elijah helplessly trying to stop his brother and Hayley, while Freya struggled to hold Jackson back with her spell.

Exasperated beyond all doubt, she drew on her magic, and caused everyone in the scene to get aneurysms. She waited until everyone was down on their knees before she stopped.

"You're all terrible people," she said afterwards, looking worse for wear herself. That amount of power cost her some energy but she was not going to let anyone get hurt, or accidentally die.

"You're one to talk," Hayley spat as she stood up, still glaring daggers at her.

Maleny rolled her eyes, passed from the apologetic, guilty phase. "Oh shut up, you're no innocent dove yourself my dear."

Hayley's hybrid eyes came out and she sped up to Maleny, raising her head as if to show her superiority over the blonde. Not a minute later did Klaus cut in-between the two, pushing Hayley away.

"No, Klaus, let her," Maleny went around him, heavily nervous but more than ready to speak what she had to say. "I'm not going to hide behind you." But still, Klaus didn't move and kept his protective stance against Hayley. Maleny sighed, but figured if Hayley didn't move Klaus wouldn't either and therefore she began her rant. "You're a hypocrite," she declared, only provoking Hayley's hybrid side to re-emerge and step towards her.

"Excuse me?" Hayley arched her eyebrows, "You curse me and I'm the hypocrite here?"

"First of all," Maleny stepped towards her as well, "It was Dahlia who sprung the curse out of nowhere. We didn't plan it!"

"Right, on a plan neither of you thought to share?" this time it had been Jackson who made a response.

"There was no time!" Klaus snapped at him, "Or did you forget you were already midway out of the bayou with my daughter? On the run?"

"We had to get her away!" Hayley exclaimed, "Your family was only hurting her!"

"That's a crappy excuse and you know it," Maleny accused and endure the glare sent her way.

"You can make up excuses all you want, Maleny, but I was only trying to do what was best for her," Hayley frowned. "You two," she pointed at Maleny and Klaus, "took her away from me. You are cruel, and murderers of the very wolves that would have laid their lives for Hope. You took my daughter from me!"

"So. Are. You," Maleny calmly said, bitterly laughing at the accusations and angered Hayley more. "In fact, no one here in this bloody place is innocent. You're a hypocrite for trying to make it seem so."

"What the hell—"

"Or have you told anyone of the massacre you caused over in the witches' territory?" Maleny's questioned left Hayley silent for a moment, and confused the others due to their lack of knowledge of the subject. Maleny smirked at the brunette hybrid. "Thought I didn't know about that? That's what happens when your friend is the leader in the Quarter now. I don't know how you did it, but I'm sure Davina was the one that brought you back and in exchange for a curse delayment, you killed those people. And don't even deny it because all the evidence points to you. You claim we're the evil ones but you're no better. You killed people's' parents and that was on purpose. That was your goal." She then turned back and pointed at Jackson. "And taking Hope and Hayley from where they belonged was your idea in the first place. You were going to take a little girl's father from her. And," she sighed and pointed her finger at Freya, startling the blonde witch that she was now next, "you killed your mother and we never even touched on the subject, but when Klaus did the same to Mikael everyone went nuts. And Elijah," she sourly smiled, "you daggered your brother after taking a decision that did not belong to you. Klaus," she turned to him, "you killed your father, brought back your mother only to be killed hours later. And as for myself, I ensured Kol remained on the other side where he's probably being tortured daily by the spirits of New Orleans as well as letting my friends suffer in a curse I couldn't solve. So," she finally returned her gaze back to Hayley, daring Hayley to challenge her again, "is there any other bloody detail you want to discuss concerning loyalty and innocence?"

Hayley swallowed hard, suddenly all the rage and insults she had thought of gone from her mind. She hadn't quite counted on being put on the spotlight like that, a thought everyone else shared with her.

Maleny deeply sighed, "That's what I thought," she said rather irritated herself. "No one is innocent here. Now, I do apologize for what happened, because that was no where near what we had planned. But we would never take away your daughter from you. Or are you forgetting how someone took mine from me centuries ago? Hope is upstairs, and she does know you love her. But mine? My son has made no contact with me, nothing to show that he's coming. Maybe he's not coming back, maybe he's…" she looked down, the realization finally setting over her shoulders, "...he's over the fact he had parents in the first place. Go see Hope, she's up there, napping."

Being uncomfortable was the last thing Hayley pictured when thinking of returning to the compound. But, she was, and she didn't quite know what to do.

"Go!" Maleny exclaimed, her voice abruptly breaking.

Hayley rushed to go see her daughter upstairs, Jackson quickly following her. Everyone else felt the thick sense of guilt, and melancholy for their previous actions.

After a minute, Klaus went for Maleny, "Let's—"

Maleny shook her head, "I think I just want to be alone for a while." He agreed with a small nod, and only because he saw her weariness from lack of sleep finally catching up to her. Rubbing her sore neck, Maleny walked for the stairs, ignoring the looks she received from all three siblings.

Once she was gone, Freya spoke up, and not pleased herself. "That was nothing of what I was expecting," she admitted with a long sigh.

"Yes, Maleny has always had a way of pointing out our faults without being rude about it," Klaus sighed as well, unlike the others not as surprised of what happened.

"I still believe perhaps we can cut the tension by allowing Hayley and Jackson to have their own space," Elijah suggested, immediately receiving a hard look from Klaus. "Hayley has missed many months of Hope's development, and perhaps this can do well for all. There's a new apartment right across the street, so that Hope would never be out of our hearing-shot."

"I think it would be a good idea," Freya agreed, nodding her head. "Intentional or not, the curse did happen and it did break a lot of families. Let Hayley spend time with her daughter for all that she missed out."

"It's only temporal, brother," assured Elijah, able to see the fear of Hope being, once again, taken flash through Klaus' eyes. Only somewhat on board, Klaus gave the nod and allowed Elijah to go set things up.

~ 0 ~

Amarrah loudly slammed her hand on the top of Kinney's car, startling the man into looking away from the radio. She was unamused, irritated, and frankly indignant. "I've been meaning to talk to you about my missing laptop and notes?" Kinney shot her a wide smile, almost amused with her. That only infuriated Amarrah, "You think this is funny? I could report you for that."

Kinney raised a hand and with the other handed her back her laptop. "All the interesting stuff was password-protected, but I knew Vincent wouldn't just pull you in for kicks."

"He wanted Cami, not me," Amarrah clarified blankly, upholding her annoyed face.

"But he brought you in nonetheless and I doubt he did that because 'there was no one else'. He knew you knew your stuff. You're not an amateur."

"I would thank you for the comment but I'm kinda of upset with you if you haven't noticed."

Kinney smiled smugly as he got out of the car. "I finished up the end of that video you were watching. Lucien Castle? Highly motivating. Feeling like my best self already."

Suddenly Amarrah's annoyance vanished from her face and was replaced with due concern for the man. That was exactly what she wanted to avoid. "Nothing's concrete, I was just...looking into the new tourists that came in yesterday," Amarrah swallowed hard.

"And the brief notes on him?"

"Just...brief. It's nothing set on stone."

Kinney stared long and hard at the French woman before warmly smiling. "You could very well report me but you haven't, because you know I was right about your family. You're not a suspect, Amarrah. I'm actually looking out for you. I think you're mixed up in something much bigger than you realize."

Amarrah would've scoffed at such irony if she was conversing with anyone else. "Trust me, I realize." She was going to add more onto that when she heard snippets of the radio from inside the car. "Wait…" she turned to the car, "Turn up the radio…"

Confused, Kinney reached inside and did as she wanted. As soon as he did, they both heard announcements over the murders.

"While police refuse to release information, sources allege that a manhunt is on for a possible serial killer. Two violently mutilated bodies entirely drained of blood have been recovered..."

"How the hell did they know about the blood?" Kinney anxiously, and beyond confused, looked at Amarrah, the witch unable to come up with anything herself.

~ 0 ~

Back at Lucien's apartment, he had the very journalist behind the newest article that consisted of all the murder details. He took a glass of blood from her and headed into his bedroom, leaving the journalist to look over her article for a while.

He meant to return the briefcase that consisted of ingredients he used to cure himself of Jackson's bite, but became distracted by a leather-bound journal in the trunk. He picked up the journal and opened it up to the same page he always did when he came across it. Even though the drawing was over a thousand years old, he firmly believed the drawing of Cecilia de Ark remained as beautiful as she had been in her time. But then came the memories of her tragic ending, and he felt the fury that he had felt on that day...and never ceased to disappear completely. Those who caused her death would have their ending, and very soon.

~ 0 ~

Freya walked into the lounge room with an ice pack in hand, and found Elijah nervously pacing back and forth. "Dare I ask what's wrong now?" she sighed, slightly amused.

Elijah eyed the iced pack for a minute, when Freya gestured to her bruised forehead, and he dismissed it. "I received some unsettling information from Lucien Castle. I don't trust the source, but I... trust you."

Freya nodded, and in the next couple of minutes she had him and Klaus downstairs in the courtyard, preparing a spell that consisted of Klaus' blood and several other herbs.

"If you fed on this prophetic witch, her blood is still in your system. If there's a weapon that can kill you, we need to know," Freya lighted a tall, black candle and placed it on the center of the table where it would be surrounded by other small, lite white candles. She grabbed the bowl with Klaus' blood and put it down in front of three strips of papers with Norse runes on them, meant to have the names of the three remaining Originals.

Nervously, Freya dunk her fingers into the bowl, thus beginning the spell. "No mentre le prophecie que la otra ve. No mentre le prophecie que la otra ve."

As soon as she did, she felt the overwhelming power curse through her body. Her two brothers became concerned when blood began oozing from her right ear. She chanted louder, and more aggressively, but as she did more blood appear came from her other ear, and nose.

"Freya, stop!" Elijah reached out for her but Freya was now in depth with the visions of the -so-called prophecy.

She saw Elijah's painting that hung in one of the rooms being splashed with blood, as well as a beast with large, long and sharp fangs roaring and blaring out bloody teeth.

Out of the nowhere, the three strips of paper burst into flames. Freya came back, gasping deeply and opening her eyes. Although the flames slowly died out on their own, Freya looked worse for wear.

"It's true," she said grimly, "You have a terrible shadow over you. Rebekah, too. If this prophecy is fulfilled, you will all fall. One by friend, one by foe, and one...by family."

~ 0 ~

New York

A young woman with straight, long black hair, finely dressed and wearing black, rounded sunglasses, walked into a diner, momentarily scanning the area until she spotted the person she came in for. She walked towards a booth where a young man was sitting. She glanced over a map settled on the table, and the laptop sitting in front of the man.

Upon seeing her, the young man smiled and motioned her to sit across him, "I'm glad you came."

"You knew very well I was on my way back to England," the woman berated him in a thick English accent, but smiled widely as if unsurprised the man had pulled that type of stunt. She pulled off her sunglasses, revealing bright blue eyes behind, and leaned forwards, "So, what was so important you just had to pull me from my jet, Xavier?"

The man, Xavier, chuckled and turned his laptop around, immediately capturing her attention. Xavier smiled proudly then, "Good, huh? I found that a couple hours ago."

"Lucien Castle," the woman breathed in, "What about him!?"

"It seems like he's donated a large amount of money to clean up a bayou, near…" Xavier drew out the word as he went to the map of the United States, pointed to the spot of New Orleans, "...here."

"Really? And you're telling me because…?"

"Well, over the last year or so, there have been reports of strange disappearances, and fights in the French Quarter. And now suddenly the old vampire Lucien is heading over there? Why?"

The woman's eyes widened, the delight pouring from her eyes, "You think, that...he's there?"

The man smirked and gave a nod, "I am willing to bet my life that if you were to go there, you would find Klaus Mikaelson."

[abybweisse]

How do you think the manga will end?

Please do a search on my blog for “end of the series” (“series end” will bring up even more posts, but some of them aren’t quite as pertinent). Other tags to check out would be “series ending”, “end of the manga”, “predictions” and “mother3 predictions”. You can simply click those tags at the end of this reply to see what comes up.

A (not very) short recap of my series end predictions:

A lot more people die. Well, I think most of us knew that already. Here are two versions of me trying to figure out who’s in that pile underneath our earl. Yana-san could change her mind and save one or more of these people. She could also kill all of the people shown... as well as kill off others never included in this panel. In fact, she’s definitely going to kill off people not included in panel, since this pile seems to only represent our earl’s supporters, allies, friends, etc.

Madam Red is already gone. Others here that are easily identified are: Finny, Tanaka, Lizzie, Bard, Mey-Rin, Chlaus, and Lau. There is a dark-haired person that could be Soma or Sieglinde (or someone else, for that matter). The one I initially identified as Snake could possibly be Edward, but I think it’s meant to be Snake. There is also a person at the back, with their head behind the throne, someone in a pale suit and a hand up but hanging limp. I suspect that is a character that hadn’t been introduced at the time of that chapter release. Given the clothes, it could be numerous people, including Othello... though I’m not sure this pile of bodies should include anyone who is no longer human, like a reaper. 🤔 It also shouldn’t include anyone who was never an ally, so it shouldn’t be the Viscount of Druitt. Perhaps... we have Snake and Edward shown here. Keep in mind this is quite a pile, and the people we can see are not the ones at the absolute bottom... or on the other side of it. Expect quite a death toll by the time this series is over.

Our earl and Sebastian will have to defeat the queen and her servants... or at least the queen and John Brown. I say that because I still think they are behind the attack at Phantomhive Manor. If that’s not true, then it’s been set up that way for us to believe it, not just in the anime but in the manga, as well. Victoria and John Brown are pretty shady (with their matching shades, no less). I think they have a contract like the one between our earl and Sebastian, but I have a feeling the contract terms are not nearly as well-defined. That puppet of Albert — that is not simply a hand puppet; it’s a control device.

They will have to defeat Undertaker and the Lords of the Stars; that, of course, includes the bizarre doll of real Ciel. Real Ciel will have to be destroyed, most likely. In fact, at some point real Ciel might come to realize how messed up things have become, and he might ask to be destroyed. The other “lords of the stars” will have to be destroyed. Undertaker? Three possibilities I see: 1) destroyed by Sebastian and/or the reaper organization, 2) captured by the reaper organization and returned to their realm, or 3) sees the outcome (good or bad) of his actions and willingly leaves the human realm.

Once the contract has been fulfilled, Sebastian will devour the soul of our earl, his Young Master. This might happen in conjunction with the battles against Undertaker, the Lords of the Stars, and whoever else joins the fray, like some reapers. Because I have a feeling that Undertaker, at least, will not make it easy for Sebastian to get his meal/payment. It could include Undertaker trying to manipulate any loopholes he thinks he can find in the contract. It could include Undertaker trying to collect/steal our earl’s soul and placing it into the body of real Ciel (Undertaker is experimenting with Baron Heathfield’s wife’s body and souls of a matching shape for a reason, you know). There is also the slight chance that Sebastian gets to take his time, after all the battles, and truly savor his meal, but I do have the feeling he will have to fight for it, and that might force him to rush his meal. Even our earl might have to demand it be done quickly. I do not expect to get a scene in the manga that looks like the ending scene of s1 of the anime. None of this morbidly romantic nonsense about making it hurt, making his agony add extra flavor to every bite. Because that anime scene was Sebaciel with vore kink. **Shudder** I do expect, however, that fans that enjoy that sort of thing will still get something to cling to... just because; Yana-san does like to do fan service, and she knows those fans are out there. I’m just — hoping, really — that she chooses to portray the manga canon death/soul devouring scene in a way that isn’t so... shippy.

Eating our earl’s soul should change something in Sebastian. Eventually, I do think our earl and Sebastian will succeed in completing the contract, including the matter of payment. Like Hannah devouring Luka’s soul in s2 of the anime, I do expect Sebastian to be forever changed by devouring our earl’s soul. Sebastian is the main (even the title) character, after all... and he has seriously lacked any lasting character development, so far. There has been much foreshadowing about this, like telling Beast he understands not one “jot” of the feelings of love or loss “yet”. How he cries from the mustard gas and is shocked by it, saying to himself he lacks the emotions to do so. Heck, even Mother3 has a character who never cries until the very end, and it’s a shock to everyone, including that character. (Yes, Gregory Violet is the main parallel to that character, Kumatora... aka “Violet”, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get another shocking crying scene. Besides, in Mother3, the crying scene with Kumatora/Violet is described as “beautiful” or “cute”... and our Violet has a really “ugly cry” in Bath.) Sebastian could finally cry from all the emotions that wash over him, and it might be just... beautiful.

The earl’s death should happen December 13, 1889, the day before his 14th birthday... and a Friday the 13th. It could happen just as midnight approaches, heading towards the 14th. That’s not much timeline left in the series, only about two weeks, but the way it’s being dragged out chapter by chapter (flashbacks, overlapping “Meanwhile...” action, etc.) we will see monthly chapter publications for... probably at least a few more years. The series could end just like that, with our earl’s death, but I suspect not; Sebastian is the main character in this, so the story doesn’t completely end with our earl’s death. We should get to see how Sebastian has been affected by our earl’s death (an ultimately willing sacrifice, I should think). How will this change the demon’s behavior toward humans? I expect he won’t consider them mere insects anymore. If ordered to do so before our earl dies, he would stay afterwards and help “tidy up the mess” in the wake of all these battles. But, it’s also possible that our earl never orders him to do anything like that... and Sebastian does it anyway. Then, perhaps Sebastian leaves, having learned a valuable lesson? Having grown up a bit? This is his Bildungsroman, right? I hope so.

I don’t think Undertaker will be able to get rid of Death, the way the reapers seem to fear he might. Some reapers might die before all is said and done, including possibly Undertaker, but I think most of them will have to deal with the soul collections and all the paperwork this generates for them. Talk about massive overtime.

I guess that’s about it, without me getting way deeper into details.

And this could easily lead to a setup for a sequel to or spin-off from the manga.

Sequel idea: What Sebastian does later. Does he make other contracts, or does he decide to help humans without claiming their souls...?

Spin-off idea: What Undertaker does if he returns to the reaper realm. Does he get severely punished... then make new plans for escape and basically try to destroy the organization again...?

Spin-off idea: Stories about the other reapers. Before, during, and/or after the events of the first series.

Thanks for the ask! 🖤

Please make sure to look at this post’s tags for more about this, though this post includes some ideas that have changed a little over the past four years or so.

[seizethesam]

Ode to an Angel-Chapter 3

A/N: Hello guys!!! Chapter three is here... I am so thankful for your comments, likes, and reblogs for the story. You cannot imagine how happy I am to be sharing my works with you. Please let me know what oy like or don’t like about the story, or this chapter. Thank you for all people who wanted to be tagged in the story! And please let me know about the songs!!! Do you like them? Xx

This chapter's song is "The Puppeteer" by Sleeping Pulse, one of my favorites.

Spotify YouTube

Pairing: Daryl Dixon x Female Reader

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Then…

“Hey, she’s waking up,” the younger man said. He looked like he was in his thirties and had dark wavy hair that he had swept back. His sounded cautious. Next to him was the older man.

“Where the hell am I?” You asked the older them; your voice was croaky from sleep.

“Good morning, my name is Hershel.” The man talked, he was much older than the other man, his hair was whiter than the snow. You did not know these people. The last thing you remembered was the sunset, the pain and a person carrying you in the dark. Maybe you did find what you were looking for all this time.

Now…

The room looked like an average suburban house room. The walls were light colored, and it had two tall and narrow windows on the opposite wall to the bed.

“What is this place?” you asked. You didn’t want to talk about yourself—no, you wanted to learn about them.

“This is my farm, we live here with my family, and this man found you in the woods.” Hershel spoke while the younger man was silently watching your every move. Hershel was cleanly shaved, making you think that they had a system here. “Your wound wasn’t too deep, but it still needs to be tended.”

“How long was I out?” you continued your questionnaire. Was there a chance that these people helped you out of the goodness of their hearts? Or did they look for something in return? The constant dilemma and the heaviness of distrust made your head feel dizzy.

“Almost a day.” Finally, the younger man spoke. He was wearing a dark brown shirt that matched his curly hair. “My name is Rick Grimes; you were pretty beat up when I’d found you. You were lucky…” He said, not knowing your name.

Lucky… What a funny thing to call someone these days.

“Y/N” you said, and Rick nodded.

You tried to get up on the bed but the biting pain on your waist didn’t allow you— not to mention the nausea. That was when you realized that neither your gun was strapped to your thigh anymore nor your knife was hanging from your belt in its rightful place.

“Where are all my stuff?” you asked both of them as Hershel let out a sigh and Rick took a step forward.

“I’ll let Rick explain.” Hershel said and left the room with sluggish steps.

He sat on the chair in the corner of the room and rested his elbows on his knees. He turned his head to you before he brushed his nose with his thumb. You were looking eye to eye.

“Like Hershel said, this is his place, his rules apply. He is good people,” his tone was persuasive, “he doesn’t want us to carry our weapons around the house, he is the one in charge... I took a risk bringing you here, and he looked after your wounds. In the time that you’re here…you have to follow his rules.”

“I won’t be staying long,” you said.

You did understand why he was strict about the weapons; he did not trust you. Well, likewise. You still didn’t know if you could trust them either. Yes, Rick had saved you, and yes, Hershel had tended your wounds. But still, you didn’t know these people.

“You got a group out there?” his tone was sharp, making you startle with the sudden question. He was looking for the right answer.

“No, I—I broke off with them,” you said, which was true, thoughts of them made your heart pound faster, pumping blood to your ears.

“Why?” Rick asked. You were being interrogated.

“They, umm,” you looked for the right words. They were assholes, and they killed my brother. No, he didn’t have to know that, “they weren’t my kind of people,” you finished.

“How do I know I can trust you?” you asked.

“You don’t,” Rick simply answered before he got up from his seat. He walked across the room and opened the door. “Your stuff is safe with me; you can take them whenever you decide to leave.” He said before leaving you alone in the room.

You didn’t know what to do with yourself. A throbbing pain was spreading around the wound. You lifted the skirt of your top and saw the bandage red with blood, your face grimaced.

You looked for a weapon that you could defend yourself with, just in case…

You checked the glass cabinet against the wall, but there were nothing but blankets and towels. Then, you checked the nightstand and saw a first aid kit bag next to the novel Great Expectations.

You opened the first aid kit in a rush and found a pair of surgical scissors. You took the scissors and placed them under your belt where no one could see.

You heard footsteps approaching your way, getting closer with every step; so you put the first aid kit back, took the book and closed the drawer jut in time the door opened.

The door of your room opened to reveal a short grey-haired woman. She was holding a tray in one hand.

“Hi,” the woman said with a warm smile on her lips, “I heard you’d woken up.”

“Hello,” you said awkwardly enough. She seemed…nice. If that was the right word.

“I brought you some food, and painkillers.” She said, laying the tray on the nightstand next to the bed.

“Thanks,” you said. you honestly surprised how genuine people were—so far. On the plate, there was a relatively large piece of meat and small amount of vegetables.

“Daryl hunts for the group, the one with the crossbow,” she said, “you’ll meet him soon.”

Your mind went to the man who helped you at the cottage. You did a quick math on how many people still used crossbows for hunting. It was low. Maybe it was him, then again maybe not. Why did you even care?

You stepped your feet on the ground, sending a wave of pain through your body.

“You should lay down. Your stitches are still fresh,” the women said.

“Thank you for your concern but I’d rather eat outside,” you said hoping that you didn’t sound too harsh, even though you didn’t know her.

You knew you needed to rest and allow your injury to heal faster, but you also wanted to see the other people of the group as well. You wanted to see if they were okay.

You grabbed the tray from the nightstand continued your steps to front door, the woman following you behind.

“I’ll leave you alone,” the woman said, apparently, she didn’t know what to do with herself either.

“I’m (Y/N) by the way,” you called out after her.

“Carol,” she replied and left.

You sat on the stairs of the front porch of the large farmhouse. Hot summer sun was shining in the middle of the sky. Just a little further across the field were an RV and a couple of tents and on the other side of the field was a barn. You spotted a tent that was further away from the others.

You watched and ate as the people of the farm went about their jobs. Some of the women were cooking near the RV; some of the men were doing more heavy jobs. It looked as if they had it all figured out.

And there you saw him; the man with the crossbow who helped you at the cottage. Daryl. Except he had angel wings on his back this time and you smiled at the contradiction. He was sitting underneath a tree, sharpening wooden sticks as arrows. You wondered if he could use those as bolts for his crossbow.

His face was serious and so still, almost like he was made out of stone, completely focused on sharpening his sticks. He must’ve felt your gaze on him as he lifted his head and looked at you. You raised your hand and waved at him, but he didn’t seem to bother. Rude.

You finished your meal, took the painkillers, and tried to get up from your place, but as you were fully standing a sharp pain hit your belly like punch, making your face flinch. You put your hand on your wound as a reflex.

“You shouldn’t be walkin’ too soon,” a female voice said from the verge of the front door, making you jump on your feet.

You turned around to see who it was and saw a young woman who was around your age and had a short dark hair.

“It’s Maggie.” She introduced herself.

“Wanted to see outside,” you said, you weren’t lying.

“I get it, not many good people left out there,” said she.

“Yeah, that’s right,” you replied.

“Our feelings are mutual; we don’t trust each other—” she paused for a second, “but we can always make room for new people.” She smiled.

“Guess so,” you said. You were amazed how people were so nice so far.

You continued your day in your room. Hershel came every once in a while, to take a look at your wound and left. Maggie came once to give you spare clothes as yours were still covered in blood and dirt.

You heard the whole group filling the house when the sun began to set. You heard them talking about deciding what to do with someone named Randall. You didn’t want to get involved with their business, but you were also curious about what was going on.

When you got in front of your door, an old man with a Hawaiian shirt was talking with Daryl, “this group is broken,” said he. You didn’t understand what was going on.

When the night had fallen, Rick and couple of men were headed to the barn, and you were back in your room. You knew they had voted for something, but you didn’t know what for.

You were sitting on the bed, adjusting the scissor hidden behind your belt when you heard a knock on your door. You quickly, lowered your top and said, “come in.”

The door opened slowly to reveal Maggie. She was holding half a glass of water and a napkin.

“Hey,” she said smiling, “dad said to bring you antibiotics.”

“Thanks,” you smiled back. You took the glass and the napkin from her. Your mind kept wandering back to the earlier meeting. “Umm, can I— ask you something?” you said just as she was about to leave, not sure if you wanted to know.

“What is it?”

“Earlier, tonight… you guys were voting. What was it for?” you asked.

She didn’t respond right away. She was deciding whether to tell it or not.

“There is this boy, Randall,” she paused, “Rick brought him here a few days back, he was hurt pretty bad. They don’t trust him ‘cause he was with a bunch assholes,” she said.

“And,” you urged her to continue.

“They were decidin’ if they were gonna let him go,” she said finally.

They didn’t trust him. They didn’t trust you. What you made from it was that they were either going to let him be, or they were going to kill him. The resolution was still a mystery. You opened your mouth to ask Maggie what they decided on, but you were stopped when you heard a scream outside the house.

Maggie looked at you before rushing to the front porch, you were following close.

“What was that?” an Asian guy appeared out of the darkness. The scream was coming further away.

“I don’t know, go!” Maggie shouted, pointing to the direction of the scream.

You made your down the stairs and tried to make out what was going on but the only thing you saw was darkness. The screams stopped a few seconds later.

 Taglist:

Then, a sonorous gunshot sound filled the darkness.

Chapter 4

@spidergirla5 @twdeadfanfic @kamieshep @sophia-gwendolyn @jodiereedus22 @purplebtsmagic @itsmanillablog  @302rocks 

[awinger24]

Mariposa - A SVTFOE Fanfic

This story takes place in between the events of Doop-Doop. I would like for someone to come up with the dialogue as I got the whole story concept down.

For @whiskey-jarr-87degrees @moringmark @kprs4ever

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Marco makes another family visit. Janna also shows up after ending up on Mewni again. Angie is 9 months in with Marco Jr. Angie’s due date is only one day away. Marco is surprisingly warm-hearted that his parents act lovey-dovey to the point he doesn't look away when they kiss on the couch. Rafael helps his wife up and heads to the kitchen and get her a snack. Suddenly, Angie feels a pop meaning that it's time.

Cut to Marco and Janna on Mewni, as he waves goodbye to Star and Tom while packing and moving his stuff back to his house.

Marco spots a note from Rafael: "Marco, mom would stay at the hospital for 2 days after the baby is born. It's alright to stay at Janna's.

(Or with her cousins or grandparents if Janna's parents never met Marco before, but they said in Jannanigans that it was nice to finally meet Janna's friends).

Marco insists to marathon some shows on TV, but Janna has another idea.... The mall.

Marco and Janna come across a baby store. Marco thinks about giving his baby brother an actual good gift. Janna jokes about Marco turning into a bad painting. Janna thinks it's too boring. The real reason Janna is at the mall because of a laser tag tournament. Marco is dragged to this newly built laser tag arena. Janna wants Marco to borrow her some money. Marco refuses. Janna "Chicken butt's" Marco to sleep. He then gets woken up by a mall cop as he ends up right in front of the baby store.

Marco steps inside and he is delighted just by the large amount of baby items. In the newborn section: Diapers, rompers/shirts, formula, sleepers. Just the essential newborn baby stuff. Marco spots some good baby toys too. He spots a finger penguin puppet, but Marco thinks it is not important. As a montage is accompanied by some fast Echo Creek indie rock music, Marco makes his way to the counter. His cart was large enough to satisfy Marco Jr. for a few months. However, he noticed his wallet his gone. Marco then comes to realize, Janna.

Janna appears to be having a good time. On her 2-player team is StarFan13. Many Echo Creek students are competing. Janna and StarFan13 finish winning the semifinals. StarFan13 is a good enough partner for Janna since. Janna is alright with StarFan13 thinking Star is cool, at least in her own way. Janna sees StarFan13 as an awesome player. Someone who sneaks well, using hear and smell to take down those sensors on someone’s vest.

Marco runs to the laser tag arena. Marco asks Janna for his wallet back. Janna refuses to give it back until the tournament is over. So Marco can only do is watch Janna and StarFan13 on the monitor as they face against Lars and Justin in the finals. 

StarFan13 is on fire hitting every target. Quickly and what a sharpshooter. It seems like they have it in the bag. But wait! Janna hesitates for a bit. StarFan keeps urging to quit stalling because they are about to win. As Janna begins to second guess herself, she throws in the towel and forfeits, leaving Lars and Jushtin to win. StarFan13 walks out with Janna all bummed out. Janna leaves the laser tag arena and gives Marco his wallet back as the two head to the baby store. 

Only to know that Marco's baby items have been taken away by another desperate expecting mother. Marco feels defeated. He thinks he'll be the worst brother ever. It only gets worse when Janna spent most of Marco's money on the tournament entry and placing a bet with Lars and Justin. Janna feels terrible about this. This isn't just typical Janna, it crosses it as she had interfered with the most important day of Marco's life. Janna runs down to the toy section, and picks up a familiar item. Janna shows Marco a finger puppet penguin. Marco is shocked. He thinks it is the best big brother present he could give to Marco Jr. But he thinks he can't afford it since Janna spent all his money. Not quite, as Janna saved some left-over money. ($150). Janna also surprised him with a few of clothes, and some diaper packs.

*Janna spent $100 on the tournament entry, and $400 on a personal bet with Lars and Justin.

Marco thanks Janna. Losing the tournament was worth it to help someone who she usually messes with most of the time.

We then cut to Echo Creek Hospital, as Marco and Janna enter visiting Rafael. Rafael is very excited to see Marco. After two days with Janna and staying over with her relatives. Marco shows Rafael his present as he went through a lot of trouble to buy it. Marco questions and has some fear about being a big brother and he doesn't want to mess it up. But Rafael is sure he'll do fine. Then, one of the doctors allow Rafael and Marco to come into Angie's recovery room. Marco looks at Janna as if he is saying "Thank you" to her.

Marco is very happy to see his mom after she had the baby. To Rafael and Angie's surprise, Marco Jr. turned out to be a girl. Marco is surprised that he got a sister. Rafael says that they named her Mariposa. As Angie is holding the new baby, she gives Mariposa to Marco, as she is peacefully sleeping. Marco introduces himself to her as he promises to do anything a big brother can do. Marco shows Angie and the baby his finger puppet.

It match cuts back to the Diaz house as Marco is playing with the finger puppet as Angie cradles the baby. It ends as the dialogue audio fades out and we end on the same ending scene from "Doop-Doop" as Angie walks up showing Mariposa to Star and allowing her to cradle her.

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Anyway, hope you enjoy my story outline: "Mariposa".

If there are any other ideas or critiques to share, comment below.

[thunderbirds-are-fab]

The Mechanic

An unnecessarily long fan essay examining the character ‘The Mechanic’ from Thunderbirds are Go by thunderbirds-are-fab

Pretty much since the Mechanic was first revealed as an upcoming character to be introduced into Thunderbirds are Go, he’s been surrounded by mystery. There were a lot of wild fan theories about who he could be and if he was related to any original character in particular (He was either Brains’ brother or his father, Kyrano gone mad, and even Jeff in some weird disguise trying to traumatise his children to someone), but he has since turned out to be a completely new character and therefore had a lot of possibilities as to how he could fit into the established TAG universe.

Sadly, two seasons since his introduction we still don’t know all that much about him or his super villain origin story, and with the conclusion of Season 3 we likely never will. The writers put this guy on the back shelf, and this is why I’m writing an essay piecing together all the messy details we have regarding the character of the Mechanic. It turns out there’s quite a lot to talk about, so get comfy.

*Episode spoilers ahead if you haven’t watched Seasons 2 and 3*

The biggest tease about the Mechanic was his hinting that he knows Brains very well or even personally in Earthbreaker, but after that it’s not really brought up again. Massive wasted potential there. He made it sound like he and Brains were old rivals from long ago, but Brains doesn’t show any signs of recognising him. Brains himself never really reacts to the Mechanic’s hints that they might know each other during Earthbreaker or after, and never even tries to guess at who this masked engineer may be, which feels ridiculous.

“Hey Brains, in all your years of being one of the world’s best engineers, did you ever meet anyone in your field of expertise who was capable of making an army of robots completely on his own, looked like he could bench press MAX with one hand, and maybe seemed a little power-hungry and unhinged?”

“Nope, sorry. That sounds like it could have been anyone.”

Surely if they were both brilliant inventors working on similar stuff, they would have mutually run into each other before???

Not only does Brains not keep up his end of the ‘we-may-know-each-other’ plotline to make it believable, but after Earthbreaker the writers seem to drop it from the Mechanic’s character too. He doesn’t show the same ominous bias towards focusing on Brains again whenever he crosses paths with IR, and if anything he seems to reacts with distrust towards Brains when he first offers to help him in Home on the Range. In Brains vs Brawn Brains offers to help him again, but still acts wary of him wanting to get close. If they had known each other before then this could have been a great bonding moment for them to reconnect and win each other’s trust, but instead Brains has to use the promise of “engineer to engineer” which is as far as their personal connection seems to go in the end.

Brains also only ever calls him “the Mechanic” the same as everyone else does, and going into Season 3 this lack of a proper name becomes more of a problem for the Mechanic’s character as a whole. We finally see him without his mask in Chaos Part 2, but a face reveal is all it is. It’s not a grand finale Scooby-Doo moment of “Aha! It was old man Jenkins the janitor all along!”, and this again feels like wasted potential to me. What’s the point of having a masked villain if he’s still exactly the same person without the mask, just a little sadder?

Between being taken into GDF custody in Brains vs. Brawn and then being negotiated for release in Break Out (a 20 episode gap, which is quite a long time span in TAGverse), the GDF don’t seem to have done any background check on him whatsoever. Everyone, including Colonel Casey, still refers to him as “the Mechanic”. If even the in-world authorities couldn’t find this guy’s original identity, then it seems that the entirety of who he was before never existed, and that’s because the writers never properly wrote it. Don’t get me wrong, I adore the TAG writers and have rarely had to fault them on anything in 78 episodes, but fitting their OCs into the series for more than an episode or two is by far their biggest weakness *coughcoughwhydidn’tyouuseEOSmorecough*

His backstory was clearly set up before his introduction, but then scrapped for whatever reason. Perhaps with everything else going on in the show they simply didn’t have time for it? This I can understand, because there’s only so much time in a children’s show and action has to come first in this genre, but it opens up a lot of additional plot holes when you keep trying to build a story on top of a poorly-established character.

What I’m trying to get at here is that without ever having his personal motivations revealed, looking back on the Mechanic’s pervious actions in the story gets a lot more confusing, and makes his character development and the plot development between Season 2 and 3 more difficult to understand.

I’ll split these last points into two parts:

1.    How do we know he built the the T-Drive when he’s unidentifiable?

In Break Out it’s suddenly revealed that the Mechanic was the engineer who designed the first T-Drive engine/Zero-X prototype... But how? How do they now know that??? Surely being the engineer who came up with this fantastic revolutionary warp drive for the spaceship that allegedly killed the great Jeff Tracy would make this guy pretty famous? His former name should probably be common knowledge, and yet he’s still only ever called the Mechanic. It’s been suggested to me on anon that maybe he’s shunned his former name in favour of the Mechanic moniker, which is fine, except that’s no reason for all of the other characters never to speak his true name even when he’s not there to hear it. To us he’s still just the villain we were introduced to, never the man he was before. Without being shown how that past and him today are linked, it’s difficult for us as an audience to attach such important prior information to a character who doesn’t seem to have previously existed.

2.    Was he ever really a true villain, or was it all because of the Hood? And does his change of heart make sense?

We’re never told how the Mechanic came to be. Why did he go from brilliant engineer, to turning over to the dark side and becoming a puppet of the Hood? In Break Out he hints that the Hood manipulated his bitterness over ~something~ in order to get him to work under him, but again it’s frustratingly vague! In the beginning we assumed it was through some personal grudge with Brains, but as I’ve already gone through at length, all that backstory just got washed away. Another anon has suggested to me that his rivalry with Brains was manufactured by the Hood. He didn’t know Brains personally, but developed a grudge against him through being compared. “Brains is brilliant, but you’re a failure”... because of the Zero-X disaster? He’s clearly as good as or even better than Brains when it comes to inventing things, so he had to have had something big happen to him in order to spiral downwards as he did. The Zero-X disaster would certainly fit the bill for that, but it’s a shame to leave all that to speculation. If it were true, then would it have been so hard to fit that into the show?

Anyway, the Hood somehow fostered a hatred for IR in him that served his own motives, and so began their partnership. He’s clearly very strong, so that’s probably why the Hood needed extra control over him via cybernetics. It’s in Brains vs. Brawn that we first learn that the Mechanic is at least partially being controlled by the Hood. Since the Hood spent most of Season 2 in jail, this was maintained through a connection between his bionic eye and some kind of cybernetics that the Mechanic has (forcibly implanted by the Hood or just already there and hacked, we don’t know). Partially coerced and partially forced, but we will never really know how much of each.

The Mechanic is a lot more violent than the Hood ever is on his own. The Hood may not care much for other people or the collateral damage he causes (e.g. in Falling Skies he’s fine with abandoning the Estrella Grand hotel full of people to crash and burn if he decides that he doesn’t want it anymore), but it isn’t really his priority. For the whole of Season 3 he makes the Chaos Crew do the physical dirty work he doesn’t care for (btw I let the Chaos Crew off for not having much background story because their “we’re bad just because we enjoy being that way” motive stays fairly consistent throughout the show. They aren’t that complicated). 

In contrast, the Mechanic has frequently plowed forward with no regard for anyone’s safety. He doesn’t make sneaking around his Plan A like the Hood, and he doesn’t hit and run for fun like the Chaos Crew. He’s brutal. Earthbreaker really sets him up for being a ruthless villain because he’s so focused on getting what he wants that he’s willing to take down anyone who gets in his way. Even when Scott asks for him just to let IR work around him to rescue the civilians below, he attacks! He’s a genuinely scary and thrilling character for how relentlessly destructive he manages to be every time she shows up in Season 2. Seriously, just read his wiki page and you’ll see it’s got ‘perfect villain traits’ written all the way through it.

Then comes the redemption arc.

In Brains vs. Brawn he is subdued and chooses to trust that Brains can redeem him. In Break Out he shows remorse for his actions. He believes that he deserves to be in prison and is beyond redemption for what he’s done. He puts Kayo’s safety before his own and saves her life. He could have disappeared, but instead comes to Tracy Island of his own free will and voluntarily works with his former enemies. That’s a pretty big change from someone who was hellbent on destruction regardless of innocent people begging for their lives! It’s a pretty big ask to believe that all of that relentless anger and complete apathy towards human life was only there because the Hood was in control the whole time.

There’s something else which leads me to believe that “I was being controlled by the Hood” isn’t the watertight excuse it’s presented as. The Mechanic makes it sound like he’s totally stuck and irredeemable without the Hood’s control being removed, but prior to that happening in Buried Treasure he makes choices of his own that the Hood could’ve stopped.

Between being dumped by the Hood in Escape Proof and Brains vs. Brawn, he’s pretty much a villain under his own steam. He’s working independently on continuing Project Sentinel, which has the aim of using to destroy the Hood for having control over him. Sure, he may only be doing bad things because he’s desperate for revenge against his abuser, but he’s still willfully endangering a lot of other people in the process. The Hood may have lost interest in him during that period, but the control system was still in place that whole time - and he was resisting it! If he can manage to hide himself from the Hood and work directly against him despite that, then he still has some free will of his own.

In Chaos - Part 2 Havoc learns the Mechanic is in space prison, which is why the Hood has lost control over him. Arguably the HEX probably had a faraday cage around his prison cell to block the Hood’s influence, and it is stated that it’s harder for the Hood to influence him from space anyway. But after breaking out and coming to Tracy Island of his own free will, shouldn’t being back on earth have put him back under influence again? The only time he had to fight against the Hood’s direct control after that was when Brains disturbed the control software and alerted the Hood, who then suddenly reveals that he has a fail-safe that can wipe the Mechanic’s memories. Wow. If he could really do that, then why didn’t he do so in Escape Proof and not leave the Mechanic as the potential enemy that he turned out to be? Sure, he later says that he still has plans for the Mechanic, but you would think that during Brains vs. Brawn when he’s getting shot at by a giant lazer whilst being thrown around by IR, and the Mechanic is resisting his commands to stop, that then would have been the ideal time to use the secret factory reset ability?  

Afterthoughts aside, I’m still convinced that the Mechanic had a lot of evil in himself that wasn’t just there because of the Hood, and it’s really a wonder that the Tracys let him into heir home after how many times he tried to kill them. i really don’t blame Scott for staying suspicious, even though he was the one most obviously anxious to find a way to get his father back. 

Despite all the questions that the show failed to answer about him, I still think that the Mechanic was a good villain. Whatever his super villain origin story was supposed to be, I think it had a lot more potential to be morally complex than the origin they ended up giving the Hood. It’s a shame that writers across the board these days often don’t have the time to write villains more complex than the trope of “once upon a time somebody made me sad, so I decided to be evil to get revenge”. I know that somebody out there will be looking at this unnecessarily long post and screaming But fab, it’s just a kid’s show! Kids won’t care about tying up offscreen plotlines or any of this crap! And my answer is yes, I know that. That’s why I’m not actually mad about what the writers did with the Mechanic’s character. The writers of TAG did a great job and the show works as it is, but I can’t help but feel that they only had to push a little more or add a line or two somewhere and then all of these questions I have about the Mechanic could have been answered. A little backstory goes a long way in fleshing out a character, and Thunderbirds is a franchise with a lot of history.

[sj-thefan]

Perfect Reality (Billy Hargrove x reader)

Hi again, I wrote a little something, hope you enjoy. I tagged some people at the end but feel free to ignore it because I don’t know if you want to read it. Also, check out my other stories on Wattpad here.

Billy Hargrove x reader (Stranger Things)

Warning: Season 3 spoilers, mentions of abuse, scars/injuries and trauma, language, unplanned pregnancy, angst.

Masterlist

Friendships are strong and powerful relationships. Finding a person who can share all your secrets, relate to the same situations, and react similarly to one's self is a truly magnificent occurrence.

Of course, like any relationship, not all friendships are beneficial. Some people bounce their negative feelings off each other causing bad situations to become worse.

Neil Hargrove and Randy Moore were classic examples of a bad friendship. They had been friends for several years, both born and raised on the sandy beaches of California. When Neil got married, Randy was his best man. They were the godfathers of each other's kids. When Randy's girlfriend left him with their daughter, Neil supported him and taught him some of his own unorthodox coping skills. They had been together for so long they didn't remember a time without each other.

Their children formed a similar bond, although, theirs was a friendship of support. Y/n Moore never got to know her mother and often felt like it was her fault. Billy Hargrove was always there to remind her it was out of her control and that they could share his mom. They spent days on the beach laughing, surfing and playing under the watchful eye of Billy's mother. Billy would get upset when his mother and father fought, so Y/n always left her window open if he needed an escape.

When Billy's mother left him and his father, both friendships changed. Billy tried so hard not to blame himself, but his mother was gone, and he had done nothing. It didn't help that Neil blamed him and he was reminded of that with a good slap nearly every night.

Neil and Randy would go out nearly every night to drink and forget about their lost women. Of course, coming home to children that looked like them just brought all those alcohol repressed feelings to the surface. It was those times when they couldn't escape, that they relied on their coping mechanisms.

The bruises got harder to hide as they got older. Billy and Y/n couldn't tell anyone without fear of getting something worse than a bruise. One night, Y/n had come home late which led to a nasty fight and ended with a long scar down her arm. Nights when they couldn't stand being in the same building as their fathers, they would sneak out and go to the other's window. Countless nights were spent consoling each other in quiet as to not awake their fathers.

Some nights, they would both sneak out and go to the beach. They would splash and play like they did when they were younger. It was a night spent on the beach that they had their first kiss. They were fifteen and Neil had recently met a woman named Susan. Whenever he was around Susan, he held back a lot of his true personality. Billy was a great stress reliever at the end of the night.

They sat on a blanket facing each other, Billy wincing as Y/n dabbed at his quickly bruising eye. The beach was quiet that night, other than the small waves crashing against the shore, nothing could be heard.

"Do you ever think of running away?" Y/n asked. They had talked about it when Billy's mom first left, but they were too young then with no money and no way to get some. Now they older. Y/n was sure they could make it if they stayed together.

Billy paused, looking into Y/n's eyes as she continued to take care of him. Her eyes always sparkled on clear nights, sometimes he swore he could see the stars in them. "Sometimes," Billy confessed. "But when we're older and can get our own jobs and change our names without needing an adult." He reached his own hand up to cover hers which had paused when he started talking. "When we can do everything ourselves, then we can leave. Hide away somewhere they'll never find us."

She smiled, her mind drifting to thoughts about a life with Billy. Just him and her. No pain, no more scars or bruises, they could be happy. They didn't need much. Just a small house, or even an apartment, far away from the world, maybe near an ocean or even a lake. The sound of the water always calmed them both.

She looked back up to find that Billy's gaze hadn't left her face. He was staring at her lips. When he noticed her looking, he blushed.

She couldn't help it. Her eyes flicked down to his lips before returning to his eyes with a smile. Her hand quickly dropped from his face but as soon as it had, Billy reached up to cup her face and pull her forward into a breathtaking kiss.

It was magical, for both teens. It was their first kiss. Sure, Billy's mom had kissed them both on the forehead, but that was nothing compared to what had just happened. When they both pulled back, neither could stop the large smiles that spread across their faces nor could they help the butterflies that filled them with excitement.

Unfortunately, life can't always be filled with sunshine and rainbows.

When Neil decided to propose to Susan, Y/n ended up in the hospital. Randy was upset about the possibility of losing his best friend and after a night of drinking alone, breaking his daughter's arm was easy. She hadn't done anything except being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Billy was ready to murder Randy when he found out, but Y/n talked him out of it. She was used to being his punching bag – they both were – tonight she had just taken a harder beating.

Billy was introduced to Susan's daughter, Maxine. She was sweet and kind, but also tough and could sass her way through any conversation. In other circumstances, Billy may have liked the kid, but with Billy receiving a beating after every mistake she made, Billy couldn't help but hate her. Y/n didn't know the girl, but anyone who caused Billy to get hurt was immediately disliked.

Before the wedding, Neil and Susan decided to move to a new place. Susan's ex caused too many problems in California and Neil didn't have enough happy memories to stay.

Y/n was heartbroken. The only person who ever made her feel like life was worth living, would soon be on the other side of the country. Billy was just as upset. They both didn't want to think of what would happen when they left. Randy had done terrible things at the mere mention of losing his best friend. What would happen to Y/n when it really did happen?

So, she convinced Randy to follow the Hargroves.

Over their seventeen years of living, Y/n and Billy had picked up a few skills of manipulation. Giving people the attention they needed, often allowed them to get whatever they needed. Teachers, for example, always seemed to crumble with a wink and a few flirty comments. When people are uncertain, hints and reverse psychology was always successful.

Randy was easy to convince. Once the idea was put in his head, everything else seemed to fall into place. A few comments about "going out with Neil" more often in the new town and the thought that a place like Indiana would be easier to hide the bruises – without constant sun, sweaters and pants would fit in more – and the Moores were packing their things.

Hawkins, Indiana was not a nice place to live. It smelled, there was nothing to do, and it always seemed as if something was wrong.

It was quite easy to find a place in Hawkins. The school was small and in desperate need of leadership. The other teens were either envious or falling at their feet or, on most occasions, both. Billy and Y/n went to every party. By Halloween, they were known as the King and Queen of Hawkins. It didn't take much, a few party tricks here and there, smooth-talking the teachers, and succeeding at a few extracurriculars was all it took.

Tommy and Carol were easy puppets. They told Y/n and Billy everything in hopes of gaining even a tiny bit of favour. They followed them around like dogs on a leash. They were annoying to Y/n, but Billy thought they were funny, so they kept them around.

Billy was quick to dislike Steve Harrington, especially after he overheard Y/n and Carol talking about how he was cute but too focused on his hair to be good at anything else. Billy found himself quickly besting Steve at everything. Basketball, partying, even small things like driving faster. The sight of him, made Billy think irrationally and on more than one occasion, Y/n found herself calming him down when he snuck into her bed at night.

Despite ruling Hawkins teenage population, Billy and Y/n did not like living in Hawkins. Maxine had found friends and every time she was late, or Billy didn't know where she was, Billy was beaten. Every time Neil was unavailable for a drink at the only bar in town, Y/n became a punching bag for Randy. Nothing they did ever seemed right in their fathers' eyes. Living without support from the people who are supposed to be there for you no matter what was nearly impossible. Many times, Y/n confessed she didn't think she would have survived without Billy.

But summer had finally come. No more school, for ever if they wanted. No more worrying about Max. They had seemed to come to an arrangement where she was more careful, and Billy was less rude. When she met Y/n, she actually seemed to like her. Billy and Y/n were adults now, free to live on their own.

If only they could afford it. So, they got jobs, Billy at the pool as a lifeguard, and Y/n at Danny's, a local restaurant. Billy's job was easy money. He enjoyed yelling at kids and watching the mom's attempt to catch his attention with skimpy bathing suits and expensive hairdos. Of course, he encouraged it, a wink here, a comment there, and the moms went crazy. They brought their kids every day which meant more money for the pool and, in turn, Billy. On the other hand, Y/n hated her job. People could be rude and demanding. Fortunately, the old men were great tippers, especially when she flirted with them and unbuttoned her top a little more than necessary.

Of course, life wouldn't let them escape their troubles that easy. It always had to get complicated just when things were looking better.

Y/n sat on the double bed in the Motel 6. She had been a lot more emotional lately and seemed to get irritated with everyone. Not even Billy was exempt.

Just the other night, she had snapped at him. She had snuck into his room with a fresh bruise forming under her eye. Randy had found her stash of tips she had been hiding under her bed. He was angry. Y/n's money went to support the family. Of course, that also meant funding his drinking habits.

Luckily, Y/n had two stashes with equal amounts. She was scared Randy might go through her stuff. Still, he had found her stash and taken the money and in Y/n's mind that meant she had lost half her savings. She put them a step back in their attempts to break free from their parents. She needed Billy, but he wasn't there.

She fell asleep to his scent surrounding her.

Billy stumbled through his window later, successfully waking her. He was drunk, far more than he usually was. He barely noticed she was there.

"Billy?"

He snapped his head up. He had pulled off his shirt and shoes and was in the middle of kicking his shoes off when he heard her.

"Baby?" He squinted through the dark, smiling when he recognized her. "I sure am glad to see you. I have had a boner all night. Thought I'd have to take care of it myself but now-"

"Billy!" she interrupted. He laid down on the bed, facing her.

"Yes, doll?" He still wore a dopey smile and his eyes were somewhat glazed despite the serious tone in Y/n's voice.

"I needed you tonight." She tried to get him to focus.

"I need you too, baby." He gestured to his crotch.

She rolled her eyes, growing angry at the drunk before her. "Billy, look at me, I mean really look, and tell me that you can't see what's wrong."

He squinted at her. "Wait. Something's wrong?"

She huffed angrily. "Yes." She stood up from the bed. "I came home to find Randy had gone through my room while I was at work. He found one of my stashes. He took it." She had started pacing as she ranted. "Of course, he freaked at me, and next thing I know, I'm on the floor, a growing pain on my eye. I rush out of the house to come here and my car doesn't start. Literally, everything was going wrong. I walked here, in the rain mind you, 'cause God knows this town can't give me one day with nice weather, and you are not here. No, you're out getting drunk. What makes it all worse, is that I found out some news today that I need to tell-" She had turned her glare to focus on her boyfriend. "Are you asleep?"

She almost burst into tears when he didn't respond. "Billy?" she harshly shook him awake.

"Wha- What the hell was that for?"

"I can't believe you." She turned and climbed out of his window.

She had phoned the next day to apologize but Billy hadn't been awake. Y/n left a message with Max. She had rented a room at the motel - Billy would know which one, they had been there before - and wanted to talk to Billy. Max promised she would relay the message.

It was nearing 8 o'clock and Y/n was getting worried. She knew he worked until 6 so she had expected him to arrive around 7, but as each minute passed, she grew more and more worried that she had lost him.

They had fought before, the fight the other night hadn't even been that bad. It was unlikely he remembered it. But Y/n's emotions were out of wack. Everything that went wrong seemed to wreck her life.

She glanced to the clock again.

7:53.

Her eyes fell on the phone. She could call his house, but it was unlikely he would be the one to pick up. They didn't call each other at night, it was too likely that the other's father would be home, and that would just turn into another argument.

She fiddled with her hands, eyes flitting from the little stick sitting on the bed with her and the bag she brought with her.

7:54.

She never cried. Never. She and Billy had made a promise to never cry about the people who didn't want them, long ago. They wouldn't cry over parents that left nor would they cry over the parents that stayed but hated them. She didn't want to break the promise. Not now.

She hugged her stomach and she rocked a bit, trying to calm her nerves. Billy and she had made a life. It may have been an accident but she was pregnant. The proof lay on the bed beside her.

7:56.

Her mother hadn't wanted her. She understood to a certain extent. Leaving because she was being abused was something Y/n dreamed of almost daily, but she would never condemn another to take her place. That was exactly what her mother had done. Y/n was the replacement punching bag.

7:57.

Y/n shook as a tear escaped her eye at the thought that Billy didn't want her. She had no doubt that Max had passed on the message, Y/n had sounded quite serious when she talked to her and Max hadn't ever lied to her before. Billy had to have chosen not to come.

7:58.

"No," Y/n spoke to herself. "I will not cry over you, Billy. I will not cry for someone who doesn't want me." She dried her face and looked down at her stomach, pressing her hands against it. "If he doesn't come, he doesn't want us. And that's okay, baby. It's okay. I'm here. I want you and I'll never let a day pass without making sure you know that."

She laid down resting her head against the pillow.

8:00.

"We'll be okay."

Things started getting very weird after that night.

Y/n didn't see Billy for nearly four days. On July 2nd, Max showed up on her doorstep with a girl called El. They asked if she had seen Billy. Y/n scoffed telling them that Billy missed their date and hadn't contacted her since.

They had frowned, running off without another word.

She didn't know what to think.

Then Max returned, two nights later, on the Fourth of July, begging for help with Billy. Y/n almost wanted to say no. But then Max started talking about a Mind Flayer and Billy getting controlled by it. Y/n was so confused, she let herself get pulled away.

They ended up at the Starcourt Mall. Y/n was told to find Billy and remind him of who he really was.

She found him hovering over the girl called El. She moved towards him slowly, the giant monster made her a bit hesitant, but Billy looked so pained and scared that she had to go to him.

"Billy!" she called over the deafening noise. "Billy, please stop."

He turned, his eyes meeting hers. He stood and made his way over to her. He raised his arm, and Y/n though he was going to cup her cheek.

But he didn't.

Instead, Y/n was met with a firm hand gripping her throat.

"Billy," she choked out.

He made no move to stop.

"Please. Don't do this."

"Billy!" Max yelled, causing the man to shift his gaze and loosen his grip slightly. "Stop!"

El, who barely had any strength left, propped herself up to try and help. Her friends were terrified of Billy and she knew she could help.

"Seven feet," she recalled the memory she saw in Billy's head. "You told her the wave was seven feet." Billy paused, his arm loosening enough strength to set Y/n down. His eyes turned to El, but he kept his hand around Y/n's neck. "You ran to her, on the beach. There were seagulls. She wore a hat with a blue ribbon. A long dress with a blue and red flower. Yell- yellow sandals, covered in sand. Y/n was there." Billy turned back to Y/n. "She sat in the sand cheering. They were pretty."

Y/n reached up, cupping his cheek. His eyes filled with tears as his hand left her throat.

"And you-" El continued "-you were happy."

"We can be happy again, Billy." He wiped away the tears that fell from Y/n's eyes. "I need you," she confessed. "We both do."

His eyes crinkled in confusion, so Y/n took his hand, the one that had just been around her throat, and placed it on her stomach.

"Let's go back to California. We'll be happy again."

Billy smiled pulling her close and breathing in her intoxicating scent which he had missed so dearly. He whispered apologies into her hair as she rubbed circles into his back.

The moment was broken when El let out an ear-piercing scream. They jumped, turning to see the giant monster getting closer to her.

Billy jumped into action, pushing away the monster that was threatening the people who cared about him enough to help him.

The monster screeched, angry that his pawn had turned against him. Arm-like appendages sprouted from its mouth, plunging into Billy's body.

Y/n screamed as the monster aimed for his heart.

Then it stopped.

The monster stepped back, screeching in pain before it collapsed.

Y/n ran to Billy who lay almost motionless.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

She brushed his damp hair out of his face. "It wasn't your fault." She smiled down at him. "It's all going to be okay."

Max joined them, falling to her knees beside Y/n. "Hey, Maxine."

She smiled, letting a few tears fall as she ignored the use of her full name. "Billy, you're okay?"

"I'm tougher than I look." He turned back to Y/n. "What about you? Were you serious?" He placed his hand on her stomach.

Y/n nodded, more tears falling. "You're going to be a dad, Billy."

Billy smiled happily as he watched Max gush about becoming an aunt. Sure, he was more nervous than when he confessed his feelings for Y/n, but she was happy, and he loved her more than anything. They had been through so many terrible things, a baby wouldn't be much different. He knew that he could never hurt Y/n, and, with this child being a part of her, he would never hurt it.

Then his eyes fell on the bruises forming on her neck. His hand reached up to gently run his fingers across it. He had done that. He had broken his promise.

"Stop," Y/n whispered, grabbing his hand and entwining her fingers with his. "It wasn't your fault." She placed a soft kiss on his lips.

It wasn't long till medical personal were rushing in and Billy was carried out of the mall.

1 Year Later

Y/n bounced the little baby on her lap as they watched the waves roll. Billy was out in the ocean with Max, teaching her how to surf.

California was beautiful, even better than they remembered. Although that could just be because they had left their fathers behind. They had moved back as soon as Billy was released from the hospital. The drive had been long but knowing they were free made it all worth it.

Money was tight, but they both made sacrifices. Billy's car had been broken and a smashed during his time under the control of the Mind Flayer. They sold it to a junkyard for $150. They got a small one-bedroom apartment. They would need something bigger when their child was older, but it was all they could afford, at the moment.

Y/n got a job at a bar. It wasn't great, there was a lot of drunk men, but she was used to drunk losers. After her father, the drunk men she encountered were easily handled. Plus, she got great tips, and the old man who owned the place, Terrance, was very nice. It wasn't too far away from their apartment, so it was a perfectly fine job.

Billy got a job with Miller Construction. He enjoyed it more than he admitted. The people he worked with were really funny and he was good at his job. Often times, the guys would go to a bar after work. Billy managed to convince them to go to The Red Lady, the bar Y/n worked at, so he could chat with her and the guys. He never drank anywhere near enough to get drunk, none of them did, but he always stayed until Y/n's shift was over so they could walk home together.

Terrance was very good with letting Y/n have time off for Doctors appointments. Unfortunately, Billy wasn't so lucky. He didn't want to miss a single one, especially after he missed the first, but his boss couldn't always spare the time. On days he couldn't get off, he would take an unofficial extended lunch with his coworkers covering for him.

He loved seeing his little child on the screen, even before it looked like a baby. He would see the image appear, and tears would spring to his eyes as the doctor pointed to the different parts of the child. He, Billy Hargrove, a boy who had been told he was worthless and would amount to nothing, had created a life with the woman he loved more than anything.

The day Y/n gave birth was possibly the most stressful day of their lives. The baby was early by nearly a week causing them to be just a bit unprepared. Billy had never driven so fast in his life, his girlfriend's screams making his foot turn to lead.

After only five hours in the hospital, Elizabeth Marina Hargrove was born. She was beautiful with Billy's bright blue eyes that didn't stop looking around. She was quiet too, hardy crying once she was put in her mother's arms. Y/n felt overwhelmed with love when she watched Billy gaze down at his daughter snuggled in his arms.

Max was extremely happy for them too. They called her as soon as they got home. Once she got over the initial excitement, Y/n and Billy asked her to tell the others, especially El. They had chosen the name Elizabeth because El had been the one to save Billy. El was the reason they had made it to California, and she deserved to be recognized for that. They ended the call with Max promising to come to visit them in the summer.

Which was exactly what she did.

Y/n and Billy had invited Max to stay for a few weeks. In addition to meeting Ellie, Y/n and Billy had wanted Max to be present at their wedding. The only reason they had held off for so long was for her. Y/n wanted her to be present. She had brought Y/n to help Billy, and they had grown quite close over the year, talking on the phone whenever Y/n had a day off. She was kept updated on everything with the baby and kept Y/n updated on events in Hawkins as well, even though she didn't care too much about the shitty town.

Y/n glanced at the ring on her finger. It didn't have a big shiny diamond on it, but it was beautiful. Ellie loved it too, taking every chance to play with it on her mother's hand.

Ellie yawned, turning around to snuggle into her mother's arms and closing her eyes. Billy and Max came to sit with Y/n, grabbing some of the strawberries they had brought along with them.

They chatted for a bit as the sun set, before packing up and walking home. Y/n had been right.

They were happy, happier than they had ever been before. Everything was perfect. Their perfect reality.

I still haven’t gotten many reactions from my writing so I thought I would tag some people again. Feel free to ignore.

@theonewiththefanfics

@multi-fandom-fanfiction

[canumoveurseatup-no]

Ant Farm

summary: davina wants an ant farm... but why?

pairing: natasha x black!reader

warnings: fluff, something slight

a/n: figured since i wrote for honeybee and introduced dragonfly, i might as well add some ladybug in the mix. this was inspired by my bitmoji stories on snapchat lol.

————

“Davina, I am not buy you an ant farm just so you can drop it and get them damn things everywhere,” you were cleaning when while she followed you to every room asking the same question over and over again.

The young girl threw her head back and groaned, “I’m not going to drop it. I love bugs, I’ll take good care of them. I promise. They’ll be my best friends,” she held her hands up and pleaded but you still shook your head.

“What if I go ask mama or pop pop and they say yes?,”

“Then she better be the one to clean em up if you break the case or drop it,”

Her breathe hitches with a smile and she runs in search of them, hoping to get that ant farm that she’s been begging for, for weeks. You never understood her fascination with ants or bugs in general. It’s like she was a bug whisperer and it creeped you the hell out.

One time she walked in the compound with a whole tarantula on her shoulder and was just walking around with it like it was a parrot. She was sad when you screamed your head off, telling her to get ride of it. She didn’t wanna let her little friend go.

Davina runs to find Natasha and Sam going over some paperwork. This is exactly how she wanted them, distracted. She could say anything and they’d agree.

She walked up to the table and saw the way her mama and pop pop had the frowns of concentration on their faces.

“Can I have an ant farm?” Nonchalantly, she questions, knowing they barely heard the question.

“Sure” - “Yeah, do whatever you want”

“Yay,” she clapped her hands, “Can I have your card?,”

“It’s in my purse in the bedroom,” Natasha doesn’t even pick up her head as she speaks to Davina.

The little Romanoff-Wilson was up to no good but they had no idea. She booked it to your bedroom and found her mama’s purse, getting the well known card that she’s used multiple times. Multiple times where she’s catch Natasha off guard and Nat would come back asking what these charges were.

Davina found herself running to find Tony. She always used him as her puppet. When she found him, she shoved the card up at him.

“Ant farm, stat,”

———

Vina waited by the door for days. It was taking too darn long to get here!! She knew she should have asked uncle Tony to add express shipping.

“Ladybug, come here please,” she heard her mama calling for her from the kitchen. She sighs and head to the kitchen, head dropped as her package still wasn’t here yet.

“What is this charge on my card?,” Natasha turns the laptop to Davina, her little head barely peaking above the edge of the table, “Who bought an ant farm and why?,”

“You said I could,” she looks at her mama with a frown.

“I don’t remember,”

“I do... and Friday does too. Do I need to have her pull the tapes again?,”

It was always like this. Davina would ask for something while Nat was lost in her own world and then she’d have to have Friday confirm that she did in fact give Davina permission to do whatever it was that she asked.

“Your mommy is gonna have her foot in my behind for getting you an ant farm,”

“But why?,” she shrugs, “I’m responsible for my age. It’s just ants. Not like I’m buying wild cheetahs,”

Natasha hums in agreement to herself, knowing Davina had a point

“Can I though?,”

“Oh absolutely not!!,”

The doorbell caught Davina’s attention and she ran to the door

“World domination, world domination is at the door!!!,” she screamed. She swung the door open and saw the mail man with a box the size of her and she bounced on the balls of her feet, “My ants, my ants!!,”

She took the box and ran to her room, leaving Natasha to sign for it. It didn’t take long for her to set it up. She didn’t even need to look at the assembly directions. She knew what she was doing. Once put together, she puts her ants in their new home and just sits and watches them.

“I’m your leader,” she whispered, mischievous grin on her face.

“Whaddaya got there, ladybug?,” Sam stood in the door way, wanting to know what got his granddaughter so enthralled considering she can never sit still.

“An ant farm,” she replied innocently.

Sam laughs to himself, still standing in the doorway, “Ant farm? What do they grow? Baby carrots?,” Sam thought he was being funny. Thinking Davina would just look at him like he was stupid.

“No, they grow...”, her voice dropped she smiled at her ant farm, “restless,”

Sam was taken aback by her off response and was about to ask what she meant when she continued.

“Soon, they will rise and do my bidding!!,” her hands slam on the desk as she leans in closer, “together, we will take over,”

Her fists are raise up into the air and Sam just looks at his grandbaby like she’s batshit crazy.

“And people who stand in my way... will suffer,” she hisses.

Sam thinks she’s just playing around and shrugs his shoulders.

“So no carrots?”

“No,” still smiling at her ants, “no carrots”

————

just a little something that i thought was cute and funny☺️

please comment and reblog!!!

tags: @yournonlocalpoc @vozit @blackreaders-assemble @babybubastis @retroxvailles @mokacoconut @dumbchick @warmchick @spideys-wife @xye-weirdo @micki-smiles @veryhellshdia @never-enough-time-for-sleep @here-for-your-bullshit @valynsia @valkyriesnymph @chonisberonica @valentinevirgo @crawlingnightmares @hisxblackxqueen @mbaku-babygirl