#killian cipher

[billville]

Drew some demons. :3

[juliusthedressmaker]

Julius and Killian can torment Bill Cipher ruthlessly. Creepypastas are supposed to be ruthless after all.

What is a bill sypher?

:)<3

[newvegascowboy]

I’m late but. for the fallout oc asks: 3, 5, 30, and 32 for whichever OCs you want (or all)

Aw thanks! Sure, I'll do All, why not lmao. All least all that i know offhand.

Prepare for length

3. What is their SPECIAl?

Red - S: 5 P: 9 E: 8 C: 3 I: 4 A:6 L:7

The math on this might be bad, who cares. Scores also slightly change by endgame (endurance and strength increase with the addition of mechanical organs, and perception increases to 10 with the addition of the prosthetic eye, at the sacrifice of even more charisma and a little agility)

Killian: S: 10 P: 3 E: 10 C: 2 I: 10 A: 3 L: 1

Minmaxed to fuck

Cecelia: S: 5 P: 8 E: 7 C: 4 I: 9 A: 7 L: 4

This might differ slightly from other times ive posted, but hers sits somewhere around here. More agility/intelligence based.

Cato - S: 7 P: 5 E: 8 C: 4 I: 9 A: 5 L: 5

Strong AND smart, just a little lacking in the charisma and agility a lil

5. What is their highest skill? Lowest skill?

Red - highest: guns, lockpick, speech. Lowest: energy weapons or science

Killian - highest: melee, unarmed, science. Lowest: speech or barter

Cecelia - highest: medicine, science, survival. Lowest: unarmed

Cato - highest: science, sneak, melee. Lowest: barter, lockpick

30: what have they done that has affected their canon wasteland?

Red - game wise, just doing shit in thr campaign. They helped take down caesar and assisted the NCR in keeping control of the hoover dam, killing lanius (although the dam intake did all the work). Out of game, they were a semi infamous outlaw for a number of years, which continues to haunt them long after the Dustriders are gone.

Killian - Killian's story is a bit AU, since he gets out of the vault a few years earlier than intended and goes almost straight to Nuka World, taking over from coulter much quicker and shaping the gangs into something much more cohesive, for a time. The gangs fed into his drug addiction and he quickly became more of a figurehead/attackdog for the gang leaders to throw at various problems. Nisha eventually attempts ti assassinate him, which is where he's freed from nuka world and his story really begins. It takes him a longggg fucking time to even get around to the events of fo4.

He's present in Quincy when the gunners attack and assists the survivors when they flee, helping them along the way. In an attempt to atone, he helps Preston regrow the minutemen, although refuses/is not given the title of general. He kind of travels around, helping settlements out with their defenses and home militias.

Cecelia - since she's not a player character, most of what she affects happen pre and post game. She was also an outlaw, like Red, but she was much more in the background and never had the same price on her head that they did. After the game, she keeps a small group of Followers in the Mojave after the main group move on and they station themselves in Goodsprings, going out to help the people recover from the aftermath of Caesar's Legion. She personally helps in putting down the remnants that splintered after Caesar and Lanius' deaths.

In her courier 6 au, she does much the same, as well as campaign stuff.

Cato - also not a main character. Formerly a zealous and loyal Legionary, he suffers a crisis of faith and begins feeding the NCR information from the inside. He's in a position of relative power, controlling some of the points where information goes through the Legion ranks. Working with the Frumentarii, he manages communication lines and develops ciphers, as well as working to crack NCR codes. He's in an incredibly dangerous position to be a turncoat. When he's discovered, he's very nearly killed. After escaping and being rescued, he joins the final fight at the Hoover dam to help push the Legion out for good.

Finally free, he chooses to stay with the Followers who remain, stationing himself in Goodsprings with them and devoting himself to his passions, like falconry and animal care.

32 - what is their go to weapon or weapon class?

Red - Revolver, lever action rifle, melee.

Killian - Melee, unarmed, small guns

Cecelia - Repeater rifle, pistol, explosives

Cato - automatic rifle, melee

[zooterchet]

The War on Terror ("Chet")

Enhancement Drug Record:

CIA Gamers: "Gulch" LSD. Warren Foundation: Mexican Psilocybin. DEA Mississippi: "Blue" Psilocybin. Marlboro PD: "Cholo" Chronic Marijuana. Van Meter Skulls: "Blue Cheer" Vincebus Eruptum. CIA Orchard Hill: "Paisley" Muhijideen Psilocybin. Taunton MI-6: "Oolong" Wellbutrin. UMass-Amherst PD: "Sample Sheet" Chloroxipin. AFROTC Mental Health Police Station: Zyprexa. Norton Behavioral FBI Checkin: Abilify. Boston Chinese Triads: PCP laced marijuana. PLO Dr. Federman: "Rat Poison" Seraquel. IRA Dr. Killian O'Connell: "Hazelnut Concentrate" Trilophon/Perphenzanine. Marvel Comics Jim Shooter "Dr. Golden": "GHB" Respiradone. Russian Orthodoxy Boston: Depocate. Kennedy Foundation: Invega.

Confinement Record:

Taunton Behavioral Clinic: MI-6 Cipher Ritual, "ZAIN", and Wellbutrin, applied. Identified as homicidal, karate.

UMass-Amherst Mental Health Services: Assigned Skulls CIA psychiatrist, and political science psychologist, professor of literature (Nautical History, British and New England, East Seas Shipping Specialty). Police Chief Barbara O'Connor, brought on as advisor specialist. Chloroxopin, Zyprexa, applied. Identified as top film and literature candidate, historian Ghandhian.

Norton Rehabilitation Ward: FBI staff files given to merchant staff Slavic, assigned Abilify. Identified as drug user in natural state, cleared of charges given drug use with Jenna Williamson, in highschool, by externa (unlinked use of drugs in different social circles).

Coolie Dickinson Hospital: Given one week layover with MI-6 staffer councilor, Venezualan Army adjunct. Individuals having resulted in incarceration identified, among Hell's Angels Harvard, and warrants issued, through British Navy, office of "Rick Moranis", real name John "Logan" Waders. Retroactive withdrawal from second sophomore semester, cleared, on virtue of service to State of Massachusetts, captures or surveillance of Fugitive Slave Law Rockefeller Center, NYPD RCMP unit, linked to sales of Fentanyl intended for Rhode Island People's Center (Fascista International, Est. 1498). Identified as rapid recovery, ablative to antisocial and sociopathic disorders, natural criminal while law abiding; success of Hopkinton program noted, forwarded to office of Senator Barack Hussein Obama.

Federman and O'Connell: Identified as carrying both al-Saffah, compatible with Seraquel, and Hugh O'Neill, compatible with Trilophon. Staged into Seraquel, arranged for John Phillips, Boston PD, to take over Triads with financial data on M3, grant given to Sayed Adnan to escape prosecution in trial, name changed to "Jeffrey Lange"; CIA status restored, to family, since Iranian transfer of hostage, by Alice O'Neill, RCMP SIS. PCP hit, for Puerto Rican Mexica bloodline, given,to stage into Trilophon, theoretically dynamic #2, Wadi Hadid, tested on Carlos the Jackal, failure. Identified as having a father unaware of Nazi culture, despite abiding by it; investigation to father, Michael Charlebois, and ties to United Arab Emirates, begun.

START Program: Tested to see if able to quit marijuana, in favor of liquor and cigarettes. Full memory test complete of NA and AA and Scientology programs, from study at home dormitory over summer school, however proper hours and times and locations and paperwork study given and cleared, by START program submission and staff. Given access to Lutheran CIA dealer, back in Hopkinton, for a two hour road test, one way, then the other, to run an eighth of marijuana, to a waiting undercover officer, in Samuel dormitory. Cleared for Gotham project, COINTELPRO IDF. Identified as high functioning polygot, modeled on "Buster" from "Arrested Development".

Arbor-Fuller Dual Diagnosis Ward: Committed for dependence on marijuana and Seraquel, tested on full spectrum in AA programs with intended demise from MI-6 planned, as well as cross in to infiltrate CIA from Rhode Island PD, as well as attempted assassination from Attleboro residents having been rejected from marijuana smoking in congregant group with addicts active in the Spanish Mob, through Jenna Williamson. "That Fateful Lightning", historical fiction of Ulysses S. Grant, consumed, to select "Leaving Las Vegas", to cross Rhode Island PD, into MI-6 hit, getting Detective John Willie, crushed in a car compactor, as David Charlebois, UMass-Amherst PD. Identified as KIA, real name, Tiago Rodriguez; name struck from wall, of Judi Dench's hookups. "He had the sexual maturity of a Navy SEAL, Your Majesty".

Brockton-McClean Hospital: Distress call after Fentanyl poisoning, suspected to be Matthew Lennox, actually IDF phone taps from Boulevard Pizza, results in dozens of American intelligence and MI-6 operatives meeting on hospital, with FSU monitor Sean Peters, drafted State Police, through self, with phone number given to Boston Police, clearing as a Police Sergeant; return to duty, on M3 MUSH, as a journalist and FBI agent, returned to home bearing, after a decade on the street, jumped by FSU for being a pot dealer on the side. Identified as heterosexual, producing semen, reported by room mate, Dr. Golden, real name, "Jim Shooter".

Middleboro-McClean Hospital: Three visits, on standard commitment, three months coming down from a Thorazine hot shot ordered by Obama, and one final week to get life back together, after Dr. Golden got sued for being under influence of Korean Mafia, out of Taliesein Games and the Israeli Defense Forces, through Dogg the Bounty Hunter, attempting to prevent Daniel Monahan from taking power as a bail bonds man, however a person of colour; Korean-Viet, a high blood from the Korean Conflict, one leader per side, both military commanders, Kim Sung-il and Jynghman Rhee, a trapped CIA and a USMC irregular. Identified as Jim Madison by genetic build, Presidential Freemasonic Lodge of Langley, West Virginia.

Pembroke Military Hospital: Interred for three days, did one extra day due to courts being in process. Identified through as CIA coordinator, age 17, behind modification to federal healthcare legislation, and used as escaped. Visited by British MI-6 mercenary, Har Rosen, and met Andre Berube, real name, Andre Beatman, the CIA mercenary running the entire MUSH program from a lockup cell, after having been homeless. Met Steven "The Rifleman" Flemmi, and cured his Alzheimer's temporarily, getting the blessing to be a Boston Mafiaso. Identified as permanently shellshocked, took drop from college at declaration of Irish Republican Army ties, joining Winter Hill's future, instead of taking Marvel Cinematic Universe. Too long gone, with comics, and the Chamber of Commerce, the FBI Forensics Division.

SIS Field Team:

NSA: Charlebois, Smuggler. FBI: Ahlquist, Forensics. CIA: Daignault, Sharpshooter. NPC: Gagnon, Game Theory. IDF: Monahan, Bail Bonds.

MI-6 Team:

RCMP: Alex Fleming, Undercover Narcotics. Haverhill: Joshua Moen, Street Informant. Germany: Ellen Page, Film Deputy.

COBRA:

Steve-O, Lennox, Brick Remby, Cassie-Leigh, Stephy Tomasic, Jessica Bailey, Mike Hsu, Ahlquist, Larry Hama, Kara Daignault, Tom the Bagger, Jenna Williamson.

CIA:

Sayed Adnan, Roland Spencer, Christiano Marisco, Will Morgan Jr., Alexandra Rhzanova nee Gaetano.

The Chamber of Commerce (Department of Commerce Comics; DC Comics):

DC Comics, was formed as "The Crime Syndicate of America", by a Popalzai Afghan hog butcher, and pistol champion, aliased "Lucky Luciano", real name changed for successful act under provisions by Royal Canadian Mounted Patrol.

A child, is raised in creche care, in an advanced scholastic town, with a mother that's been caught in public as a NATO agent. He's placed as the opposite of his mother's profession, to specialize in ameloriating the condition least suspected by town.

Each unit recommendation, is contradictory a common media character, where the polyface, has a tradition in print, therefore the villain; nameless, of course, in terms of actual reference, their case references gathered through other report.

They are locked into a five set compartmentalized logic, non-sequenced, in research, to perform a set of field actions on a free report and then report to a printer's station, of any type, under American provisional codes of law, not title, however Italian Papist Catholic, a Laety's rank called an "Archangel", a "Morningstar"; the Turkish code of the spy jannissary, a playwright spy.

I've written for Batman, I've been modeled as 007, I've inspired Brian Herbert's House Corrino and Butlerian Jihad trilogy, I've been given the mission as "Neo" in The Matrix, and I've been featured as several Hasbro toys (Megatron, Gen1, Beast Wars, Hannibal: Reborn, COBRA, GI Joe Comics, among others).

I used Brookline Theater, in Boston's Metrowest, as my field set, after 9/11 and the World Trade Center attacks, the "fiasco" as I termed it in my paper after the attacks, for junior year English, having witnessed them live on television. "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind", the act film, "Adaptation", the technique writ, and "Fidel", the cover alias. See those movies, they're fun.

Personal Log:

I've been Irish Catholic, an O'Neill Druid (Solomon's line, cousins with Radu, U'Niall, Baldwin IV, The Witch of Endor, Prince Consort Philip, and the King of Jordan), my entire life.

When my mother mistook me as gay, for being initiated as a Rabbi (a ritual stolen from the Druids, to make us murderers of pedophiles, the homosexuals), and masturbating to pornography of black women receiving rim jobs from white men with Jewish perms (an old shot of Michelle Obama, her stewardess days for the CIA's sorority union she was in), she killed herself.

After the War on Terror began, I happened to read Herman Wouks "The Hope", about likening the Israeli military and struggles, to National Socialist Germany, however smaller and harder hitting, like a spear, an elite unit. Disillusioned after they thought I was gay and sided with Iran, the Leibman Program an Iranian spy program claiming Israel, I supported corporate America's takeover of the Ku Klux Klan (Jewish unions), Scottish Clans (British unions), Posse (Slavic unions), Panthers (criminal unions), and Nazis (labor unions), to remove Iran from politics, and support Barack Hussein Obama for President, was a bass line chop given to Ryan Lewis in Van Meter, my Air Force ROTC dormitory for airbase deployment training as officer's staff. The cadence appeared in "Thrift Shop", by Mackelmore and Ryan Lewis, forcing corporate America and MTV, on Barack Obama, ending the Jannissary (the homosexual) and the Rabbi (the fraudster), as a tradition, in America.

I have a long record of Warren Foundation narcotics cocktails, from our friend Elizabeth Warren, our state legislator behind vice and prostitution, and psychiatric medicines and paperwork movements against corrupt cops serving Lutheran and Anglican orders. Rumors remain of me being "French", for being Palestinian Arab (Charlebois, the Italian-Arab term for "bad luck", a disgratzia, a Canadian cop family) and "Frog" for being Danish-Druid (Paradis, the Boston Irish term for "Chinese crow", a moltisani, a royal family in hiding in Boston).

After the contract heist of DC Comics brands, FBI forensics, by the Israeli Defense Forces, however with the help of the Congressional Budget Office, through UMass-Amherst AFROTC and the police undercover unit (Mental Health Services), Israel has been destroyed, and Trump has bombed Iran, through a mathematical integer false positive in the "Gotham" television show, the takeover of the Boston Police Department by New York Fire Department SWAT, abolition of slavery and removal of contract fraud debt, through the IRS, through SWAT scion, David Masouz, fully trained at multiple Sandhurst military and martial arts, Boston's new protector.

I'm happy to have provided work for Gears of War, Grand Theft Auto 6, Cyberpunk 2077, Arkham Asylum, Epic Rap Battles of History, Assassin's Creed, Super Mario Odyssey, Left 4 Dead, and Dead by Daylight, all stories of the original Mossad, the one we had in the 19th century, the fight between the Haganah, the Jewish MI-6, that you know as Marvel, and the Sicilian Mafia, the Roman Lodge, that you know as the Skull and Bones.

I'm a Skull, 1/16th Iroquois.

[teeny-beany]

Cipher Triplets

Kill, Bill and Will

[yandere-toons]

Current Requests (Alphabetical)

You break it, we buy it.

Platonic & Romantic Headcanons:

Abe (Oddworld).

Adam (Hazbin Hotel).

Aku (Samurai Jack).

Alameda Slim (Home on the Range).

Allosaurus (Jurassic World: Chaos Theory/Battle at Big Rock).

Amaimon (Blue Exorcist).

Andrew Neiman (Whiplash).

Arthur Pendragon once he becomes king (Shrek the Third).

Astrid (HTTYD).

Baloo and Bagheera (The Jungle Book 1967).

Barbie and Ken (2023) share the reader who's a human that never played with Barbies but got wrapped up by the two doll's business and is just stuck with them.

Bart Simpson.

Beatcats in their normal and vampire forms.

Belloc (Firebreather).

Benson (Regular Show) with a reader who's a SUPER hard worker and works themselves to the bone without any regard for their well-being.

Berkeley Beetle (Thumbelina).

Bill Cipher.

Bill Dickey (The Eltingville Club).

Blue, Charlie, Delta and Echo (Jurassic World).

Bo Peep (Toy Story).

Brooklyn (Gargoyles).

Bunnymund (Rise of the Guardians).

Buzz Lightyear, Sheriff Woody and Jessie share a reader.

Candy Caramella, Etno Polino, Bud Budiovitch and Gorgious Klatoo (Space Goofs).

Casey Jones (TMNT 2012).

Charlie (Hazbin Hotel).

Chickenhare (Chickenhare and the Hamster of Darkness).

Chiro (Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!).

Chris McLean with a reader who is either one of his interns or a contestant on the show (Total Drama).

Claudia Wolf (Silent Hill 3).

Crane (Kung Fu Panda).

Damien LaVey and Vera Oberlin share a reader (Monster Prom).

Danger Mouse.

Danny Phantom.

Darcy (Pride and Prejudice).

Darth Maul.

David Kawena (Lilo & Stitch).

Dazai Osamu (Bungou Stray Dogs).

Deadpool.

Death (Puss in Boots: The Last Wish).

Demencia (Villainous).

Dinesh Chugtai (Silicon Valley).

Douxie (Trollhunters).

Dream Sans or Cross Sans (Underverse).

Dr Flug (Villainous).

Duncan (Total Drama Island).

E-123 Omega (Sonic the Hedgehog).

Edge (Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope).

Edward Nygma (Gotham).

Eli Shane (SlugTerra).

Eltingville Club.

Filthy Rich (My Little Pony).

Finn (Adventure Time).

Five Hargreeves.

Flain (Mixels).

Flintheart Glomgold.

Flint Lockwood (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs).

Frank Grimes (The Simpsons).

Fred Jones, Velma Dinkley, Daphne Blake, Shaggy Rogers and Scooby-Doo share a reader (Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated).

Fritz the Cat.

Gabe Lewis (The Office).

Garbage (Dogs In Space).

Gary Goodspeed (Final Space).

Gengar (Pokémon).

Ghidorah.

Gilfoyle (Silicon Valley).

Godzilla and Ghidorah share a reader.

Godzilla.

Good Cop | Bad Cop (The LEGO Movie).

Gordon, Waffle and Mr Blik (Catscratch).

Griffith (Berserk).

Gru (Despicable Me).

Gumball Watterson.

Hades (Hercules 1997).

Handsome Jack (Borderlands 2).

Hefty Smurf.

Hell's Chef with an affectionate reader (Gregory Horror Show).

Hiccup Haddock III (How to Train Your Dragon).

Hitchhiking Ghosts (The Haunted Mansion).

Hooty (The Owl House).

Hopper (A Bug's Life).

Horned King (The Black Cauldron).

Ice Bear (We Bare Bears).

Indominus Rex (Jurassic World).

Indoraptor and Indominus Rex share a reader.

Indoraptor.

Jack Frost (Rise of the Guardians).

Jack Sparrow.

Jason Grace, Frank Zhang, Piper McLean, Leo Valdez, Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase and Hazel Levesque as a group whilst on the Argo II.

Jeff the Killer x crime reporter (Creepypasta).

Jenner (The Secret of NIMH).

Jessica Rabbit.

Jessie (Toy Story 2).

Jimmy Crystal and Porsha Crystal (Sing 2).

Jinx (Teen Titans 2003).

Joker (Arkhamverse).

Julia or Slappy Squirrel (Animaniacs).

Kai (Kung Fu Panda 3).

Kai, Lloyd, Zane, Jay, Cole, Nya (Ninjago).

Karai (TMNT 2012).

Katz (Courage the Cowardly Dog).

Killian or Lance Sterling (Spies in Disguise).

King Sombra.

Kion & Rani. For platonic, the reader is a young cub (The Lion Guard).

Kovu and Kiara (The Lion King II: Simba's Pride).

Krampus (Red One 2024).

Krusty the Clown.

LEGO Batman.

Legoshi (Beastars).

Leonardo (TMNT 2012).

Lightning McQueen.

Lin Chung (Hero: 108).

Lord Garmadon.

Lucifer Morningstar with a human reader who hunts demons from hell (DC).

Luz Noceda (The Owl House).

MUTOs (Godzilla 2014).

Manny, Sid and Diego share a reader (Ice Age).

Marinette Dupain-Cheng (Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir).

Megavolt (Darkwing Duck 1991).

Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

Mike Ehrmantraut.

Mordecai (Regular Show).

Miles Prower.

The Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend with a henchperson reader (The Venture Bros).

Mosasaurus.

Mr Crocker (The Fairly OddParents).

N. Tropy (Crash Bandicoot).

NOS-4-A2 (Buzz Lightyear of Star Command).

Naughty Bear.

Neo Cortex.

Nimona.

OMGKawaiiAngel aka Ame-Chan (Needy Streamer Overload).

Once-ler (The Lorax 2012).

Owen (Gargoyles).

Papa Smurf.

Papyrus (Undertale).

Patrick Hockstetter (Stephen King's IT).

The Penguin (BTAS or 2004's The Batman).

Peppermint Larry (The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack).

Perry the Platypus.

Phineas Flynn and Ferb Fletcher.

Po (Kung Fu Panda).

Popee the Performer.

Porco Rosso.

Psychic Seven team-up with a reader whose love language is acts of service (Psychonauts).

Ratchet (Ratchet & Clank).

Ratigan (The Great Mouse Detective).

Raven (Teen Titans 2003).

Raymond with a masculine reader (OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes).

Reagan Ridley and Brett Hand share a reader (Inside Job).

Regina George (Mean Girls).

Ren and Stimpy share a reader.

Ren Hana and Strade (Boyfriend to Death).

Ren Höek.

Rick Sanchez (Rick and Morty).

Robin (Teen Titans 2003).

Robin and Starfire share a reader (Teen Titans 2003).

Robot Jones (Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones?).

Rodney Copperbottom.

Rorschach (Watchmen).

Rose DeWitt Bukater (Titanic 1997).

Salad Fingers.

Scorpios Rex (Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous).

Scourge the Hedgehog x hedgehog s/o who is very elegant and understanding, always patient with Scourge's attitude.

Scrooge McDuck.

Scroop (Treasure Planet).

Sebastian J. Cricket (Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio).

Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog, Silver the Hedgehog and Amy Rose share a reader.

Sharko (Zig & Sharko).

Sherlock Gnomes.

Simon Petrikov and Winter King (Adventure Time).

Sir Pentious (Hazbin Hotel).

Skipper, Rico, Private, Kowalski.

Snotlout (HTTYD).

Spider Queen and Lady Bone Demon (LEGO Monkie Kid).

Spinosaurus.

Squidward Tentacles.

Stan Smith (American Dad!).

Steven Universe.

Stranger (Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath).

Surge and Kitsunami (Sonic the Hedgehog: Imposter Syndrome).

Ted "Theodore" Logan (Bill & Ted).

Tenth Doctor (Doctor Who).

Thorin II Oakenshield.

Tirek in his Minotaur form (My Little Pony: Rescue from Midnight Castle).

Todd Tolansky | Toad with a mutant reader (X-Men: Evolution).

Toothless (HTTYD).

Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro).

Turanga Leela.

Tyrannosaurus Rex.

V.IV Rusty (Armored Core VI).

Velociraptors (Jurassic Park).

Verosika (Helluva Boss).

Vigo (The After Dark).

Vito Scaletta and Joe Barbaro (Mafia II).

Vox (Hazbin Hotel).

Wallace Wells (Scott Pilgrim).

Walter White (Breaking Bad).

Warner Siblings react to a storyboarder reader working for other studios or projects. As in, the reader moves on from Warner Brothers and goes to work for a different company like Disney (Animaniacs).

Xeni (Dream Productions).

Zoe (Monster Prom).

Platonic-Only Headcanons:

Angel Dust and Husk (Hazbin Hotel).

Apollo Cabin with a sunshine reader who is a child of Apollo, sometimes naive, and sweet to everyone (Percy Jackson).

Austin Powers.

Batman, Ash Ketchum, Yogi Bear, Sylvester or Daffy, SpongeBob, Robotboy and Professor Utonium with an abused child or a traumatized adult and their comfort character taking care of them like a parent/guardian should.

Beetlejuice with an emo and/or goth reader.

Captain Qwark and his team (Ratchet & Clank 2016).

Cerebella (Skullgirls).

Cesare (Bigtop Burger).

Chase Hunter, Leo Alvarez, Carl Hendricks, Flynn Moore, Tj Hess and Jenna Begay with a new member that loves researching the paranormal and is able to see supernatural entities. Maybe reader could use this ability to help some spirits move on from this world (Echo VN).

Cul-de-Sac kids (Ed, Edd n Eddy).

Dib and Gaz Membrane with a sibling who is almost the opposite of them and is extremely kind to people.

Dr Drakken and Shego as a team (Kim Possible).

Eddie Brock (The Spectacular Spider-Man).

Entrapta (She-Ra).

Fang (Primal).

Glamrocks with an Animatronic! Reader, and they just found out that their friend has been scrapped (FNaF: Security Breach).

Grim, Billy and Mandy share a reader (The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy).

Hargreeves family with a powered!reader.

Ink Sans (Underverse).

Jessica Rabbit.

Mane Six shares a reader (My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic).

Marvin the Martian is a father figure.

Mei-Mei and her friend group, Priya, Abby and Miriam, share a reader (Turning Red).

Mime Bomb, where the reader is just a civilian.

President Michael Wilson (Metal Wolf Chaos).

President Snow (The Hunger Games).

Reagan Ridley takes care of a kid reader.

Rob (The Amazing World of Gumball).

Sam & Max.

Senator Armstrong (Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance).

Steve with a reader who is a frequent customer (Bigtop Burger).

Tim and Moby (BrainPOP).

Twitch and Thrash (Transformers: EarthSpark).

Romantic-Only Headcanons:

Anxiety (Inside Out 2).

Applejack (MLP: FIM).

Boyfriend (Friday Night Funkin').

Chase Hunter (Echo).

Doctor Ivo Robotnik (Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog).

Doctor Eggman (Sonic X).

Emmet Brickowski with a very shy reader (The LEGO Movie).

Foghorn Leghorn.

Frank (Spooky Month).

Frank Fontaine (Bioshock).

Gideon Graves.

Goofball (Brain Dump).

Gregory Mama with a new guest to Gregory House (Gregory Horror Show).

Henchman 21 with a female reader (The Venture Bros).

Hydros (Hercules 1997).

Jack Spicer (Xiaolin Showdown).

Jailbot (Superjail!).

Jenny Wakeman | XJ-9.

John Constantine (DC).

John Silver (Treasure Planet).

Jonathan Crane | Scarecrow (Batman Begins).

Kyubey (Puella Magi Madoka Magica).

Lalo Salamanca (Better Call Saul).

Lance Alvers aka Avalanche with a mutant reader (X-Men Evolution).

Leo Alvarez (Echo).

Lila with a neighbour reader (Spooky Month).

Man Ray (SpongeBob SquarePants).

Metal Sonic.

Miles Axlerod.

Mojo Jojo.

N and Thad (Murder Drones).

Nome King (Return to Oz).

Polytheus (Mia and Me).

Princess Luna (MLP: FIM).

Raggedy Andy (The Adventures of Raggedy Ann and Andy).

Ron Staedtler (Inside Job).

Sheldon Lee (My Life as a Teenage Robot).

Syndrome (The Incredibles).

Turbo, where the reader is either a player or a character living in the arcade (Wreck-It Ralph).

Tzekel-Kan (The Road to El Dorado).

Victoria Everglot (Corpse Bride).

Zane and Lloyd share a reader who has social anxiety and is selectively mute (Ninjago).

Scenarios:

Addams Family adopts the reader. The reader isn't necessarily as peculiar as them, but they do feel different from others, so the Addams Family is convinced they're meant to be with them!

Aegon II Targaryen with a Stark reader who is similar to Bran Stark (House of the Dragon).

Aethelred x GNReader, who is a Viking Warrior from Kattegat and part of the closer group with Ubbe, Bjorn, Lagertha ... centred around Season 5 (Vikings).

Angel Dust with MC who is the most gullible and innocent person ever, talking to people like Alastor and Husk (Hazbin Hotel).

Arktos (Tabaluga).

Bad Guys where the reader is trying to avoid both the titular Bad Guys and the cops after being framed as an accomplice.

Benson from Regular Show, where the reader is a worker at the park who tells him they're quitting because of his anger issues.

Big Bad Wolf finds the reader, who struggles with suicidal ideation, walking alone in the forest during the night and takes them in and cares for them. The Three Little Wolves immediately get attached to the reader, seeing them as a second parent. The reader is convinced to stay, that they'll be happier with the wolves and be a family together (Disney's Silly Symphony).

Bill (Beastars) struggles and blames the herbivore reader because he is obsessed with them.

BoJack Horseman as a child, where the reader is a woman who found him sad and alone one day, crying about his home life. And reader got like fuck it, he’s mine now, and found a way to adopt him. And we see how he adapts and how different he turns out in the future.

BoJack Horseman with a reader, early to mid 20s, who has no idea who he is but got paired together for a commercial because of their agents, and BoJack learns the reader is a hotshot actor with their whole career ahead of them.

Chelsea x GN human reader who’s studying marine biology. The reader is not affected by Chelsea’s charm like everyone else is, and they much prefer to be around Ruby Gillman instead (Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken).

“Commoner” Reader eventually gains the attention of Pacifica and her parents because they manage to win all the competitions they enter into. Using less than legal methods, both Pacifica and her parents plan to make sure the reader keeps winning. Under the Northwest last name. Each and every time the reader is invited over, it gets strangely more difficult to leave the mansion (Gravity Falls).

Count D (Pet Shop of Horrors).

Darth Vader, where Padmé gave birth to triplets - Leia, Luke, and Reader. Reader is deemed ‘youngest’ (came out last) and grew up alongside Luke.

Dethklok finds out that the reader already has a partner (Metalocalypse).

Dr Cockroach where the reader was his old lab mate before his experiment, and they left him alone on the night he became a human with a cockroach head. Years later, the monsters save the world and he recognises them in the crowd.

Doctor Nefarious.

Drift (MTMTE) becomes attached to the reader in short order when they refuse to judge him for his past and generally treat him kindly. As his feelings darken, he tries to respect their choice to spend time with others, but his possessiveness inevitably spirals out of control, and people with whom the reader is close begin to disappear.

Emperor of Mankind (Warhammer 40k).

Emperor Zurg where Reader, who works for Zurg (2000’s cartoon version) as Darkmatter does, is trying to avoid Zurg the whole time they are doing their job.

Flippy is with his crush, but when he takes his eyes off them, they wander away and get mugged by Lifty and Shifty. When Flippy discovers this, Fliqpy comes out and destroys the thieves.

Goofball with a reader who is affectionate and doting towards him (Brain Dump).

Harley Quinn & Joker team-up. When civilian reader stubbornly rejects their attempts at winning their affections, the two work to ruin their life, driving them into the supercriminals’ “loving” arms by leaving them with nothing and no one else to turn to (Arkhamverse or Batman: The Animated Series versions).

HIM (The Powerpuff Girls).

Hoopa with a middle-aged, no-nonsense reader who owns a popular bakery and runs it with their Pokémon.

Hundred-acre wood residents (Winnie, Piglet, Rabbit, Eeyore) welcome a new resident to the woods, and they begin to develop feelings.

Hypno-Potamus (Rise! TMNT).

Invader Zim grapples with his feelings for a kind and doting reader.

Jesse Pinkman (Breaking Bad).

Jimmy's obsession happens upon the information that Jimmy fabricated evidence to get rid of someone who, in his eyes, "was in the way" of his and your love. The reader confronts Jimmy about this (Better Call Saul).

Johnny the Homicidal Maniac.

Kai and Cole (separate) become more obsessive towards the reader and realise their romantic feelings for them after almost losing them during a mission (Ninjago).

Kinito (KinitoPET).

Kratos (God of War).

Lightning McQueen and the reader race for the Piston Cup. In the last lap, the reader rides among the champions for the first time. While McQueen is in 1st place, the reader rides behind. Someone injures them or they lose control, but he finds out about it after the victory.

Lion King hyenas where the reader is sweet and kind to everybody, which causes adoration of them from the hyenas.

Mad Rat (Mad Rat Dead).

Mebh Óg MacTíre with an introverted Wolfwalker reader. The reader lives in a small cottage where they grow their food near town and much prefer living away from others and hunting alone, but they sometimes go into town to buy supplies. Robyn was the one who introduced them to Mebh, but Mebh, not liking the idea of that, keeps trying to get the reader to join her pack due to wolves being strong pack animals.

Megatron is infatuated with the reader, a friend of Isaac Sumdac’s who works as his assistant at Sumdac Systems, and unlike the professor, they are intensely wary of him (Transformers: Animated).

Mortimer Handee with a puppet reader where he confesses his feelings for them over tea, and they have no choice but to accept for fear of dying if they refuse.

Mr Wolf, Legoshi and Nick Wilde share a reader who isn't afraid to bite ironically for a human / alternative version where Nick is replaced with Death (Puss in Boots: The Last Wish).

Nyx with a reader who takes care of Gruff (Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast).

Nyx and Fawn team-up, with a reader who is a Tinker talent fairy (Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast).

Panchito and José lie to the reader as they did to Donald in "The Town Where Everyone Was Nice!" When the reader finds out about the lies, the two drop the kindness and just work together to keep the reader with them (DuckTales 2017).

PaRappa the Rapper.

Professor Pericles with the mystery gang's peer who is always hanging out with them.

Raz is super protective of an older sibling reader. He and the reader were close before he left the circus, but once his family comes to visit him, he notices that the reader is occupied elsewhere.

Reader can’t get a damn free day out of their schedule to see their friends because all of their time is monopolized (pun absolutely intended) by their overbearing business partner, Pennybags. Strangely enough, a surprise amount of readers’ friends are being sentenced for crimes reader is sure their pals didn’t commit… (Monopoly).

Reader is a new scarer at Monsters University and catches the attention of both Oozma Kappa and Roar Omega Roar.

Reader (kinda picture them as The Narrator from Fight Club; the whole vibe/personality) who works at Waystar (Season 3-ish; maybe in the media branch as an editor or in PR as an assistant) who catches the (not asked for) attention of Roman, Greg and Kendall (in that order); Reader is a dead-inside, overworked employee who's surrounded by stinking rich people (and Greg) who they despise with every bone in their body, but they HAVE to work there because their dad got them the job and have to somehow navigate being courted by Roman, Greg AND Kendall (who tries to lure them away) next to all the drama (Succession).

Reagan Ridley (Inside Job).

Ren Höek goes on a never-ending spree of manipulating the reader.

Ripto from Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage. Specifically the re-ignited Ripto. He successfully takes over Avalar and tries to convince the reader that they’ll fall madly in love with him since he’s already madly in love with them and to rule by his side. The reader rejects him at first, but then he kidnaps them and forces them to marry him.

Robinson Family with a new kid reader in town (Meet the Robinsons).

Rottmnt brothers with 2012 TMNT Reader who gets badly hurt from entering their world, and the turtles find them, take care of them, and want them to be their older sister because the reader is amazing towards them and completes their family.

Samaritan and the Machine rivalry (Person of Interest).

Scrooge McDuck and Flintheart Glomgold track down an orphan teenage reader who ran away after hearing about how these billionaires wanted to adopt them. The reader managed to escape them initially because those two were too busy fighting each other.

Spear (Primal).

Spinel struggles to remain calm after becoming convinced that the reader is going to leave her (Steven Universe).

Steve Raglan | William Afton with an accomplice of sorts (Five Nights at Freddy's 2023).

Sulley uses the scare doors to stalk a human and later kidnaps them (Monsters, Inc.).

Sun Wukong is defensive over the reader against people that he suspects of having malicious intent, who may or may not be demons.

Tom Lucitor takes the reader to the Blood Moon Ball.

Utrom High Council and Kraang Subprime, during "The War for Dimension X," while Knight! Reader and Bishop are together. At some point, Subprime manages to get Reader alone. Trying to convince Reader to switch sides, they attempt and fail to escape, but not without warning Bishop. The episode follows as is, but now they're trying to save a captured Reader as well.

Villainous characters with an eldritch reader.

Watterson Family, where the reader is Gumball and Darwin's younger best friend.

Word Girl x Student! Reader who is secretly a villain.

XL helps a robot reader survive on their own by teaching them how to scrap what they need from already decommissioned bots. However, the reader eventually must turn to the Fixer after they cannot locate a suitable replacement for their broken battery (Buzz Lightyear of Star Command).

Zach and Chris force themselves into the reader's home, inviting themselves over and making themselves welcome, wildly overstepping boundaries (Hellbenders).

Love Letters:

Jack Sparrow.

Magnus Hammersmith (Metalocalypse). Context: maybe the two initially meet at a concert with them part of the stage crew setting up equipment and then kept bumping into each other at other venues; set after he got kicked out, with mentions of his obsession having an unspecified illness (chronic pain & fatigue).

Marvin the Martian or Bugs Bunny.

No Specified Format:

6 (Shane Acker's 9).

Abijah Fowler (Blue Eye Samurai).

Amon (The Legend of Korra).

Amy Dunne and Nick Dunne with a kid (Gone Girl).

Anton Ego as a friend and then romance (Ratatouille).

Ash Williams, Brock Samson, Sam and Max, GLaDOS and Claptrap as a group obsessing over one person (Poker Night 2).

Aziraphale and Crowley found-family dynamic towards a teen reader with very neglectful parents, so the reader spends their time a lot in Aziraphale's bookstore (Good Omens).

Bad Ronald.

Banks Family (The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air).

Barbies and Kens unite in a town-wide alliance to stop the reader from leaving Barbie Land (Barbie 2023).

Batman (The Batman 2004).

Beep the Meep.

Benny the 1980-Something Space Guy with a space nerd s/o.

Bill Cipher with a reader who likes to collect bones and teeth.

BoJack Horseman is a father figure.

Bradley Uppercrust III (An Extremely Goofy Movie).

Brahms Heelshire.

Breakfast Princess invites the other princesses from the Princess Kingdoms, and the reader is there with Breakfast Princess. While Breakfast Princess is praising the reader, the other princesses start to fall for the reader and get jealous (Adventure Time).

Bugs Bunny and/or Daffy Duck react to the reader declining their offer to hang out or go on a date.

Bugs Bunny, Danny Phantom, Stimpy, SpongeBob SquarePants and Rocko Rama react to seeing their s/o sick or in pain.

Captain Rex (Star Wars: The Clone Wars).

Cell x Brief's daughter, who takes after Bulma to be very smart and is older than Trunks (Dragon Ball).

Commander Peepers falls for a citizen on a planet he invades (Wander Over Yonder).

Count Vronsky (Anna Karenina 2012).

Crawler Splicer (Bioshock 2).

Crypt-Keeper (Tales from the Crypt-Keeper).

Cyborg (Teen Titans 2003).

Daryl Dixon x gn! priest! reader around season 2/3. The priest might exhibit a very tranquil outlook on life and overall a peaceful and welcoming demeanour. They could not bear even the thought of hurting another living being, not even the living dead. To some, they would come across as soft, pliant, fearful and overall a burden (The Walking Dead).

Daryl Dixon, Rick Grimes and Michonne Hawthorne team-up.

Davros and the Daleks (Doctor Who).

Demon kings older sibling dynamic together with a human reader, perhaps an exwire. The demon kings accepted the human reader as a younger sibling and fully believe that they are despite no connection. The reader loathes demons with a passion (Blue Exorcist).

DoodleBob.

Donatello (TMNT 2012).

Drawn Together.

Dr Strangeglove (Moshi Monsters).

Ed, Edd n Eddy.

Ed with the reader trying to escape, or platonic hcs of the whole crew (Dogs in Space).

Edward Platypus with a Camp Kidney scout who rooms with them (Camp Lazlo).

Emerald with a reader who is Blue Diamond's Emerald (Steven Universe).

Fat Tony x reader who's one of his gang members/employees (The Simpsons).

Fawn with a scout reader (Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast).

Fleegle, Drooper and Bingo with a child reader (The Banana Splits Movie).

Flintheart Glomgold, Scrooge McDuck and John D. Rockerduck fight over the reader.

Flippy with a veteran reader who served in a different war. The reader meets Fliqpy, but he sees them as a comrade and thus starts to grow attached to them (Happy Tree Friends).

Fred Jones, Velma Dinkley, Daphne Blake, Shaggy Rogers and Scooby-Doo with an early teen reader who is around 13 years old (Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated).

Garfield the Cat.

Genie (Aladdin).

Greg Heffley.

Hatzgang (Spooky Month).

Jackson Storm (Cars 3).

Jay (Ninjago).

Jayce Talis (Arcane).

Kenai (Brother Bear).

Kevin (Spooky Month).

Kids in New Holland and a new kid, preferably with quite a bit of Nassor and Victor (Frankenweenie).

Killer Sans.

King Spade with a Darkner reader who is Lancer's parental figure (Deltarune).

Kira (Dogs in Space).

Kovu and Kiara with a lion reader who is Kiara's guard ever since the reader and Kiara hit adulthood (The Lion King II: Simba's Pride).

L (Death Note).

Lapis Lazuli x fem reader, who has a mental breakdown and panic attack in front of Lapis (Steven Universe).

Lightning McQueen is separated from his S/O due to the events of the first movie, so his S/O takes the opportunity to escape.

Lil Bulb (DuckTales 2017).

Lin Chung with a s/o who is extremely shy and mainly sticks to Mystique Sonia (Hero: 108).

Lloyd, Nya, Cole, Jay, Kai, Zane and Morro with a kid reader (Ninjago).

Lou (UglyDolls).

Luffy's Crew (Live-Action One Piece).

Lutador (Vivo).

Maka Albarn and Soul Evans with a weapon reader (Soul Eater).

Mammon (Helluva Boss).

Marvin the Martian believes that the reader is the protector of Earth (because they served in the military or something along those lines) and of course, wanting to take over Earth, would want to defeat them. He doesn't know that this turned out to be an obsession. He never stops thinking about the reader and spies and seems to be in the reader's everyday life because of it. Marvin convinced himself long ago that he is doing that just to defeat the reader. Yet, whenever he sees someone pose a threat to or anger the reader, he becomes protective because he is the one who will rule Earth and the one who will defeat them, not some puny earthling!

Master Jack (The Toy Shop 1996).

Master Shake (Aqua Teen Hunger Force).

Megatron with an S/O with ADHD, Autism and DID.

Member of Steve Smith's friend group during "The Witches of Langley" episode (American Dad).

Mezo Shoji (My Hero Academia).

Michelangelo (TMNT 2007).

Minions with a reader who is so reckless they are the No. 1 villain on accident, but in truth, they are a genuine person that is just way too sweet.

Mono (Little Nightmares II).

Morro (Ninjago).

Mr and Mrs Fox with a houseguest (Fantastic Mr Fox).

Mr Krabs and Sheldon J. Plankton rivalry.

Ned Flanders (The Simpsons).

Otto Mann (The Simpsons).

Papi Boulevardez (The Proud Family).

Pitch Black (Rise of the Guardians).

Powerpuff Girls share the reader.

Prismo (Adventure Time).

Professor Venomous with a reader who’s a civilian that acts as a parental figure to Fink (OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes).

Randal Boggs x lector humano, donde Randal está en la casa del lector cuando es un fugitivo.

Ratchet (Ratchet & Clank) who gets possessive over the reader after he gets jealous of other people trying to get near them (he/him pronouns for the reader).

Rattlesnake Jake (Rango).

Rhys Strongfork (Tales From the Borderlands | Borderlands 3).

Rin Okumura (Blue Exorcist).

Rise! Krang! Reader ends up in 2012! TMNT universe, and they are shaken when they discover just how long their "counterpart's" plans have taken to conquer Earth; while they're stuck here, helping them out might prove to be entertaining. However, the Kraang seem to be taking more interest in them than they'd like.

Rottmnt boys were on patrol, and they decided to check on Y/N. They look through the window to see Y/N hugging a plush version of the brothers and kissing the plush. "I love you... ugh, why can't I just say it straight to his face?!" said Y/N.

Sabretooth and Wolverine with the same mutant teen, who happens to be a feral mutant like them, but isn't interested in joining the X-Men, Brotherhood, or Acolytes.

Scourge the Hedgehog and Fiona Fox romantic team-up. Maybe the reader is good friends with Sonic and helps out with the freedom fighters. So that’s how Fiona gets close with them, and Scourge at first wanted to “take” reader because they had a close relationship with Sonic. But soon, he started becoming Yan for them, too, like Fiona, so inevitably, they team up to take reader for themselves or try to sway them away from Sonic.

Seymour Skinner (The Simpsons).

Smithers (The Simpsons).

Spear and Fang with a feisty neanderthal who doesn't seem to notice how small they are and tries to fight the two (Primal).

Splatter Phoenix, where the reader is a rival artist.

Spot (Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse).

Sun Wukong, where a shy and kind reader joins the group as a healer (Monkey King Reborn).

Team Avatar (Avatar: The Last Airbender).

Trevor Philips and Michael De Santa are surrogate dads! Maybe they meet the reader on a one-off mission or even almost run them over and are like, "Welp ... you're ours now!" and take it upon themselves to adopt the reader (GTA V).

Tributes of the first or second movie fight to prove they can take care of the tribute reader best, and whoever wins gets the reader (The Hunger Games).

Turbo (Wreck-It Ralph).

Viktor Humphries (Slime Rancher).

Webby, Lena, and Violet team-up (DuckTales 2017).

Wes with an extremely paranoid reader who loves and gets extremely calmer with his balloons. They just feel at peace seeing all of those colorful little shapes around them (Don't Starve).

Wilson and the reader come into The Constant at the same time, work together to get out, and the reader ends up making it to Maxwell first. After working together so much, Wilson is willing to try anything so they'll be freed (Don't Starve).

Wolf! Reader is best friends with the Penguins of Madagascar and follows them everywhere in the events of the movie, but now they caught Dave’s eye so they have to stop him from kidnapping and following her and destroying all penguins.

Wood Scouts minus Jermy with a reader who's not supposed to be a scout and is the opposite of what the tough, outdoorsy boys should be (Camp Camp).

Zane (Ninjago).

Zenitsu pursues a reader in hopes they’d get him out of the Demon Slayer Corporation (Kimetsu no Yaiba).

Zohakuten (Kimetsu no Yaiba).

The Big Ones:

A new animator for Warner bros comes in to work. They noticed the Warner sibling acting zany to the max and decided to doodle them one day. Once they finished their doodles of the Warner sibs, they went to buy a drink but left it on a table outside on accident. The Warner sibs see it and are amazed by it. But they are unknown to who is the artist behind these amazing drawings. The animator goes back to collect their sketchbook after getting their drink, of course, before the Warner sibs hide discreetly to see who the artist is. The animator sighs in relief to see that their sketchbook is back in their own hands. They quickly go back to their department before their lunch ends. The Warner siblings soon find their interest piqued in this animator, so they go to see them, but the animator has no clue on who “the Animaniacs” are because they were born after their show ended. They become good friends. Instead of scowling and getting mad at their jokes, they simply laugh and are patient with them. Eventually, one day, Pinky and Brain make a portal gun where if they shoot someone, they will be teleported to another timeline. The Animaniacs find this portal gun and start to shoot everywhere for fun and accidentally shoot their animator friend. They are distraught and ask Pinky and Brain for help. Animator friend gets teleported to Animaniacs 1993, in the year 1995. They take the role of temp nurse with Hello Nurse and Dr Scratch n sniff. Of course, finding Pinky and Brain to help them go back to their world (2024). From their animator friend disguised as temp nurse, meets the Warner siblings and start their friendship all over again except in the year 1995. The animator friend always laughed when the Warner brothers say “Hello nurse” and dot replying, “It’s hard to be the strong one.” Always greeting them with a hello and how are you. Animator friend even stuck up for them when the ceo and Dr Scratch n sniff was talking smack about them. Eventually, The Brain managed to find a way for the reader to go back home. The Warner sibs were sad, and that’s when animator friend told them that they were from the future and that they were friends in that timeline and that they will return but instead they will work there as a different profession. Animator friend returns, and all is back to normal. The Warner sibs don’t realize that animator friends and temp nurses are the same person. So after the day animator friend went back to their timeline, the animation department got egg-bombed, and all their equipment had stayed in the department, so all the animators had to take temporary jobs in the studio. Animator got the nurse job again, dr scratch n sniff recognizes animation friend (he knew it was animation friend disguised as temp nurse because they needed a disquise to stay in the studio so brain can get the portal gun ready to send friend home. Brain explained to scratch n sniff, and the 3 of them were a team temporarily). And since the Hello Nurse was away on vacation, Dr. Scratch n sniff needed the help. The Warner sibs decided to pay a visit to Dr Scratch n sniff and unknowingly see temp nurse (animation friend). They were ready to cry and jump on animation friend, saying how much they’ve missed them. Dr Scratch n sniff is confused going “guys it animator friend you just saw them 15 min ago”. That’s when they connected the dots and were like “what!” During the next 3 weeks, they were attached to animator friend like glue.

Riddler and Batman rivalry, with Riddler's obsession being more romantic and Batman's being more platonic (BTAS).

You used to work with Edward back at Competitron, helping out with the game a little bit (possible romantic tension between the two of you), but distanced yourself after the whole 'Trying to kill Mockridge' thing. Batman, at one point, had come around to ask you questions about him and your employer. After Edward got sent to Arkham, maybe you were writing to him, hoping he could get better, but really not visiting him, maybe just intimidated by the place or too scared to see fully what he's become.

Batman checks up with you frequently, making sure you're not too disheartened by Edward becoming the Riddler, along with helping you move on. Later, when Riddler gets trapped in virtual reality, it's the first time you really visit him, and you really start waiting for him to wake up — Batman is there of course, because he really doesn't like the idea of leaving you alone with him, coma-like state or not.

Eventually, when Riddler comes back, you help him get used to being back in his body — physical therapy and whatnot — helping him be on good behaviour — leading up to him being on parole.

Finally, Riddler's free, the Wacko Toys deal is going great, and he actually has the connection with you he lost long ago. Things couldn't be better! Until Batman comes in, knowing he isn't reformed at all. You fight against the idea, because why wouldn't you? You believed in Edward, and you hope that eventually Batman sees it, too.

Finally, the Wacko Toys party. Riddler and you are actually having the time of your lives — catching up, playful flirtation, all the fun stuff. Then Batman comes in again, telling Riddler in a one-on-one that he knows he 'can't help himself,' and how long does he 'plan on lying to you?'

𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐒 (Sonic, Shadow and Silver) 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 r𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫s who hibernates. 𝐒𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐬/𝐌𝐨𝐛𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐬𝐥𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐡𝐢𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 the 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐨𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐧. T𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐰𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐮𝐩 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐭'𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫/𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐝. I𝐭'𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐝, so w𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐩, 𝐢𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐮𝐩 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐡𝐢𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠. T𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐰𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐮𝐩, 𝐢𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐮𝐩, 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐡𝐢𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐞 (example: 2 days, a week), 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐜𝐚𝐧'𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐮𝐩 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐬𝐥𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 (2 weeks, month). 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐪𝐮𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐢𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐭es 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐢𝐜𝐞. 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐰𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐩, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞 𝐬𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐠𝐢𝐬𝐡, 𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐭𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐝/𝐥𝐚𝐳𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞 𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐨o 𝐡𝐨𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠!

[legends-and-savages]

legends-and-savages: semi-selective multimuse loved by Kitten (she/her).  30 in pst.  Featuring muses from multiple fandoms.  Replies generally queued from 12-7 on work days which is typically Tuesday-Saturday.

In regards to the odd glitch going around feel free to @ me in things or pop by my inbox if you think I've missed something.

Mobile muses and rules

Rules

Characters

Opens

Starter Calls

Memes

Mobile muses under the cut:

*Denotes Alternate FC

**AU Based Character

Aeval Mim

Ajax Fenrisulfur

Albert Wesker

Alice Jones

Alistair Hart

Anastasia Hamilton

Anastasia Romanov

Angie Bolen

Annie January/Starlight

Aphrodite

Ares

Artemis

Arthur Curry

Arthur Pendragon

Aspyn Wynter

Athena Grant-Nash

Atlanna

Aurora Decker-Morningstar

Barry Allen*

Belle French

Ben Solo/Kylo Ren

Ben/ Soldier Boy

Beta Lockwood

Billy Hargrove

Billy Kaplan

Black Hat

Blaine DeBeers

Blythe Wheeler

Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw

Bree Tanner

Brixton Lore

Brock Rumlow

Bruce Wayne

Callista "Callie" Ward

Cara

Cara Dune

Carlos Reyes

Carol Danvers

Casimir Cummings-Shaw

Cassie Lang

Chuck Hansen

Chato Santana

Cipher

Corinne

Cosmo

Daemon Targaryen

Daliya Tremaine

Danika Fendyr

Danika Tremaine

Dante Reyes

David

Deacon Frost

Derek Hale

Diana Prince

Dinah Lance

Dizzy Tremaine

Dorothy Harding

Drago Couture

Dracula

Drizella Tremaine

Druig

Eddie Diaz

Elain Archeron

Elsa of Arendelle

Emily Thomas

Emma Frost

Erik Killmonger

Eve Corvin

Evelyne "Evie" Maxwell

Evie

Felicia Hardy

Felix Fenrisulfur

Fen Udaku

Finn Drake

Flint Shaw

Gabriel

Gadreel

Gaige

Gigantosaurs (Paxton)

Grace Ryder

Gwen Stacy

Harley Quinn

Harry Hook

Hatter

Hela

Héra

Helmut Zemo

Heather Fox

Hope Van Dyne

Ilithyia

Indie

Indoraptor

Queen Ingrith

Iyla Steele

Jack Kline

Jackson Teller

Jake "Hangman" Seresin

Jakob Toretto

Jamie Tartt

Jasmine

Jean Grey**

Joaquín Torres

John Walker

John/ Homelander

Joyce Byers

Juna Carlos Ortiz

Kataleya Alverez

Kiara

Kieran Barnes

Killian Jones

Kitana

Kyra Steele

Laena Velaryon

Larissa Weems

Laurel Lightfoot

Lidia Cervos

Loki

Lucy Gray Baird

Luke Riordan/Golden Boy

Lyla Flag

Madelyne Pryor

Maggie Shaw/Queen Maeve

Major Lillywhite

Mal

Maleficent

Marcus Corvinus

Margaery Tyrell

Mary Winchester

Mateo Drake

Maverick Collins

Melina Vostokoff

Mighty Thor

Mileena

Mira Sorrengail

Morgan Crowder-Fitzgerald

Namor

Natasha Romanoff

Negasonic Teenage Warhead

Nesta Archeron

Newt Scamander

Nikki Shaw

Nikolai Lantsov

Odette

Olivia Moore

Onyx Hayes

Orm Marius

Ouroboros

Paige Cummings

Peter Parker

Peter Quill*

Pietro Maximoff

Queenie Goldstein

Quinlan Drake

Quentin Beck

Raleigh Becket

Ramonda

Ramsay Bolton

Rapunzel

Rebecca Welton

Regina Mills

Rexy

Rhaenys Targaryen

Rick Flag

Robert DuBois

Robert "Bob" Floyd

Robert "Bob" Reynolds

Rosalie Griffin

Rowena

Roy Kent

Ruhn Danaan

Selene Arslan-Davis

Sersi

Shuri

Stella Griffin

Sylvie

Tangerine

The Darkness

The Prince

Thena

Theo Raeken

Tiberius

Tyler Kennedy Strand

Thomas J. Hanniger

Thomas Shepherd

Vanessa Benson

Velkan Valerious

Vik Malikova

Vladislaus Dracula

Wanda Maximoff

Wendy Case

Wolf Payne

Xu Xialing

Yasmin Steele

Yelena Belova

Ygritte

Y'Mera Xebella Challa*

Zoya Nazyalensky

[charliedawn]

Hi, I take requests. If some people are interested. I would be happy to hear your ideas and give them life. So, don't hesitate to ask. 😇 I do imagines, one shots and fanfics of all kinds.

Here are the Fandoms I am a part of and I can write on:

- Teen Wolf

Derek Hale

Peter Hale

Stiles Stilinski

Scott McCall

Allison Argent

Chris Argent

Malia Tate

Lydia Martin

Jackson

Isaac Lahey

Theo Raeken

Liam Dunbar

Jordan Parrish

- Game of Thrones

John Snow

Daenerys Targaryen

Jorah Mormont

Sansa Stark

Arya Stark

Brienne of Tarth

Jaime Lannister

Cersei Lannister

Tyrion Lannister

Theon Greyjoy

Petyr Baelish

Sandor Clegane

- Divergente

Tris

Four

Peter

Caleb Prior

Eric

- The Witcher

Geralt of Riviera

Jaskier

Yennefer

- Grimm

Nick Burkhardt

Juliette Silverton

Eddy Monroe

Rosalee Calvert

Adalind Schade

Sean Renard

Black Claw

- The Hazbin Hotel

Alastor

Vaggie

Angel Dust

Charlie

Husk

Niffty

Sir Pentious

- Twilight

Edward Cullen

Bella Swan

Jasper Hale

Rosalie Hale

Alice Cullen

Emmett Cullen

Carlisle Cullen

Jane

Aro

Caius

Marcus

- Walking Dead

Daryl Dixon

Merle Dixon

Rick Grimes

Maggie Greene

Beth Greene

Negan

Dwight

Juanita

Mercer

Morgan Jones

Gabriel Stokes

Aaron

Alpha

Beta

Ezekiel

Carol

- Marvel

Tony Stark

Steve Rogers

James (Bucky) Barnes

Peter Parker

Bruce Banner

Wanda Maximoff

Pietro Maximoff

Stephen Strange

Clint Barton

Natasha

Thor

Loki

Carol Danvers

Deadpool

Moon Knight

Khonshu

The X-Men

- Justice League

Batman

Superman

Wonder Woman

Aquaman

Cyborg

The Flash

Green Lantern

- Encanto

Bruno Madrigal

Mirabel Madrigal

Isabela Madrigal

Luisa Madrigal

Dolores Madrigal

Camilo Madrigal

- Undertale

Sans

Papyrus

Toriel

Asgore

Chara

Frisk

Flowey

Asriel

Alphys

Undyne

Mettaton

Muffet

Grillby

Gaster

- Gravity Falls

Dipper Pines

Mabel Pines

Wendy

Stan Pines

Ford Pines

Bill Cipher

- Star Wars

Obi-Wan Kenobi

Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader

Padme Amidala

Luke Skywalker

Han Solo

Leia Organa

Poe Dameron

Kylo Ren

Rey

Armitage Hux

Finn

Rose Tico

Captain Phasma

Ahsoka Tano

Din Djarin/The Mandalorian

- Lost

James Ford

John Locke

Kate Austen

Jack Shephard

Sayid Jarrah

Charlie Pace

Benjamin Linus

Desmond Hume

- Harry Potter

Sirius Black

Remus Lupin

Severus Snape

James Potter

Lily Potter

Luna Lovegood

Harry Potter

Ron Weasley

Ginny Weasley

The Weasley Twins

Percy Weasley

Hermione Granger

Draco Malfoy

Lucius Malfoy

Narcissa Malfoy

Cedric Diggory

Tom Riddle

Bellatrix Lestrange

Nymphadora Tonks

- Hunger Games

Peeta Mellark

Katniss Everdeen

Caesar Flickerman

Effie Trinket

Haymitch Abernathy

- My Hero Academia

All Might/Toshinori

Eraserhead/Aizawa

Present Mic

Hawks

Hitoshi Shinso

Dabi

Tomura Shigaraki

Himiko Toga

Kurogiri

Twice

Ochako Ururaka

Izuku Midorya

Eijiro Kirishima

Katsuki Bakugo

Shoto Todoroki

Tsuyu Asui

Momo Yaoyorozu

Kyouka Jirou

Denki Kaminari

Toru Hagakure

Fumikage Tokoyami

Tenya Iida

Hanta Sero

Mei Hatsume

Mezou Shouji

- Naruto

Naruto

Sasuke

Sakura

Kakashi

Itachi

Obito

Orochimaru

Rock Lee

Tsunade

- Izombie

Blaine Debeers

Olivia Moore

Peyton Charles

Clive Babineaux

Ravi Chakrabati

- Sherlock Holmes (BBC series)

Sherlock Holmes

Mycroft Holmes

John Watson

Enola Holmes

- Once upon a time

Regina

Emma Swan

Mary-Margaret (Snow White)

Prince Charming

Killian Jones

M. Gold (Rumplestiltskin)

Belle

Zelena

Ruby

Jefferson

Archibald

Viktor Frankenstein

- Shadow and Bone

Kaz Brekker

Alina Starkov

General Kirigan (The Darkling)

Matthias

Inej Ghafa

Jesper Fahey

Malyen

- Rise of the Guardians

Jack Frost

Pitch Black

Tooth Fairy

Sandman

Santa Klaus

Easter Bunny

- All of Hayao Miyazaki's animes

- It (both generations) and other horror movies

Michael Myers (RZ)

Freddy Krueger

Bo Sinclair

Vincent Sinclair

Lester Sinclair

Jason Voorhees

Brahms Heelshire

Norman Bates

Hannibal Lecter

Jack Torrance

Penny (2017)

Pennywise (1990)

[ohmightydevviepuu]

for tonight you’re only here to know / part three

(artwork used with permission from carpedzem) part one | part two | part three AO3

A/N:   no beta on this one. we die like real small creatures from alpha centauri.

--

Sometimes on the rarest nights Comes the vision calm and clear Gleaming with unearthly lights On our path of doubt and fear Winds from that far land are blown Whispering with secret breath Hope that plays a tune alone Love that conquers pain and death

We shall never find that lovely land of might-have-been I can never be your king, nor you can be my queen Days may pass and years may pass and seas may lie between We shall never find that lovely land of might-have-been

Ivor Novello

There is applause and it is thunderous as it echoes off the rafters and the walls and sneaks into the crevices between the bookshelves where every manner of humanity is squeezed in, side-by-side; he feels as if he can hear them all breathing, or trying to, hung on his every word even as he is reliving it. Every second.

There is a voice next to him, poking at the edges of his consciousness, and he remembers.

Who he is.

Where he is.

Here, and now.

He shifts in his chair and glances with only the barest hesitation at the device on the table in front of him that records his voice and transmits it even farther, to those who are not physically present. He directs his question at the woman seated next to him, pert eyes and short hair and a beaming smile.

“Apologies, love,” he says. “Can you repeat that last bit?”

“How does it end? Do the princess and the pirate--?”

“Oh, aye. They get their happily-ever-after. It’s a thrilling tale, to be sure.” He suits his tone to match his words but the truth, of course, was rather more gruesome. He shuts his eyes, an attempt to stave off the flood of memories that threatens to overtake him, replacing the brightness of the bookshop’s event stage with the bleakness and the blackness of the dungeon and how it felt to fall, to catch his breath--his breath, he was breathing. His view of her was magnificent, her hand outstretched in defiance, the purple glow of the squid ink he’d given her--pressed into her hand in a moment of desperation and trust and love--enveloping the Evil Queen and binding her, immobilizing her on the spot. Emma twirled--dancing--spun on sure feet the three steps between herself and the Queen and caught his heart in her hands before it hit the stone floor.

“Killian!” It was a scream and sometimes he hears it, still, in his nightmares.

 He coughs, swallowing bile.

There is--as if by magic--a bottle of water being pushed at him and he braces it against his left wrist, bringing into view the black glove he wears on his left hand as he twists off the cap and sips greedily, wishing it was possible to wash away the taste of a memory. The Dark One’s laughter as he smiled, as his teeth glittered and he straightened, pulling a sheet of paper from his pocket and blowing gently across the page as the words disappeared and re-formed in the air and settled on the bars, causing them to vanish. As if the bars were nothing more than an illusion, a trick, a plan. The creature lifted a single finger--in warning, in disappointment--pointed it at the Queen as he spoke. “You should have come to me for help when the Curse failed,” he whispered. It was conversational and chilling and the Queen her mouth to speak but said nothing, moved not a single muscle as she was bundled into the Dark One’s cell and the bars replaced, as solid as they ever had been. “You should have listened when I taught you the proper casting of it. And what have you to show for it, Your Majesty, after all of these years? Nothing.” The creature sighed. “Whereas I have a deal to conclude with this lovely young woman. Emma.”

The way he said the name was a caress and it was Emma’s turn to shiver, blinking as her palm turned up--the hand not holding Hook’s heart--and her knife pointed at the Dark One.

“Put that away, dearie,” the creature said. “I have other weapons I prefer. And you have something I need. And as soon as we are done--”

 The plastic crinkles in the tightening grip of his fingers; sometimes the sound it makes still surprises him, soft and loud at the same time.

The water spills and the woman jumps.

“I’m quite all right,” he assures her, and she does not know enough to know he is lying.

She giggles, gives a grin that flashes the whitest and most perfect set of teeth he’s ever seen.

“So the princess, does she give Hook his heart back?”

He pulls at the chains around his neck as if it is a reflex, and maybe it is--maybe every time he feels the weight on it he thinks of nothing but her fingers and the way she smiled when she tangled her hand in the chains and pulled him upright, golden hair and glittering eyes as she smiled at him, the rush of success and victory coursing through her though he could not feel it.

“That would be telling,” he says, raising a single eyebrow and plastering on another smile as a wave of laughter rumbles through the audience.

(Her sad smile and the nervous way she said, “I’ve never done this before.”)

(“Held my heart in your hands?” Hook’s hand on her wrist, the warmth and the energy there. (“You’ve had it for longer than you realize, love. It is--and always will be--yours.”)

“We’ll just have to read and find out,” she laughs, gesturing at the bound book stood up for display on the flimsy table.

The Land of Might-Have-Been.

By Killian Jones.

 “So, Killian.” Her eyes flutter. “Tell us more about your main character. Hook. Where did you get your inspiration?”

He smiles, his hand rubs at the back of his neck before he leans forward, anchoring his elbow on the table and settling his hand under his chin. “In some ways I think of him as the man I used to be,” he says. “The man I would have been, if I had not found my way to a change.”

He put his life on the line for two things: Love and revenge.

Captain Hook had been forged in the fires of the former.

Killian Jones had been set free by another kind of flame.

“I had a brother once. And a first love.” He rubs unconsciously at his right wrist, though the thick fabric of his shirt more than covers the tattoo there--more than covers all of them, the details of his life inked into his arm like a sleeve, that told the story as easily as the book did and in fewer words. “I was hurting, and chasing after anything that might help me to overcome that pain, to regain control.” The octopus curling around his shoulder and down the side of his torso; the roped sailor’s knots; the tangled thorns of the vines digging into his bicep, dripping black venom. “I realized that I could be a better man. That I wanted to be, and what I needed was to try something new.”

 The Dark One’s voice was silk and oil, smooth and greasy. “--as soon as we are done, Regina, you are going to give me Belle. You are going to tell me what you’ve done with her. I will flay you while you speak, perhaps, or--”

“Rumplestiltskin.” It was the first time Hook had spoken the man’s name in decades.

Names had Power.

Such as the power of distraction; Hook struck as the creature turned, blocking Emma’s whitening face from his view as he stepped in between them and grasped the creature’s wrist with his hook, wrapping his hand around the other. Wrapping his hand and the object he concealed there--for while Hook may have been fatally unprepared for his first encounter with the Dark One, he’d vowed never to be without recourse again.

The creature screamed as the cuff closed around his wrist and Hook said, “Surely you did not think I only traveled to Neverland in my quest for your demise? Cora sends her regards, crocodile.”

The Queen’s gasp was audible--as well it might be, for she had banished her mother to Wonderland almost thirty years ago--and Emma’s face was blank, a cipher, as the creature whirled back to face her, clutching his wrist as if his hand had been sliced off, and pleaded. “Missy. Missy…”

Hook stepped in between them, blocking the princess from the Dark One’s sight. “You want to make a deal, Dark One? Then you’re going to deal with me. That cuff will block your ability to access your magic unless or until I decide to remove it, and not a minute sooner.” He turned to Emma. “Promise me, Swan, that you will see to it that Ariel truly got away safely, back to her prince and to her home. And perhaps you can do for Graham what you have done for me.”

“Killian.” Power. Magic. Fire. “What are you going to do?”

Lunacy.

 The room around him is fully silent and even the interviewer is holding her breath when Killian says, “I thought about what it would be like for him--for Hook--if he had a chance to be a part of something. Because I know a little something about that, about not being able to forget your first love, to believe that you can’t move on. But all it took was meeting the right person--”

And on his left shoulder blade, just above his heart, a swan.

 “It’s like he said. The Curse failed, love,” Hook said. “None of this was meant to happen--none of this is what he foresaw, or what she planned. Isn’t that right, crocodile?”

The Evil Queen moved as if to strike, as if she had--or would ever have again--that freedom of movement, but the Dark One merely smiled.

“It wasn’t just your parents that were meant to be swept away by the Queen’s curse,” Hook said. “It was all of us. This entire realm sent someplace else, into a Land Without Magic. That’s where Baelfire went when he left his father.” Hook paused before continuing. “When he left me. He believed it was the only place he would be safe.”

“What’s your point, pirate?” The Dark One snapped.

“My point is that all magic comes with a price. My point is that when the spell failed, something went wrong. And now is your chance, crocodile--to tell us. The truth. And in return--” he held up his hand, pointed it at the Dark One in attempt to forestall the protest that was surely imminent “--I will tell you where the maid is, your precious Belle. Where Regina has kept her all of these years. Perhaps I will even remove that cuff and allow you to do something about it.”

It took all of his strength not to mention the other thing, the object that consumed his days and his nights and his nightmares for the better part of three decades. The object that could kill the Dark One--his crocodile, Milah’s murderer. But Hook had made his choice.

He just wished he could feel it--feel her--the fire--the magic--because now he had a name for it, the way he felt about her--all of the things she made him feel and want and believe.

“Tell us, and I will use the portal to bring back the King and the Queen; I will leave, so long as you leave Emma out of this. Emma and her family will be free of you and all of your schemes, hereafter.”

The creature cocked his head and tasted the air with his tongue, considering, until--

“No.” Emma was definitive.

The creature giggled as Emma moved, deliberately switching places with Hook to place herself between him and the crocodile, so she could force him to look at her and her green eyes. “I don’t need saving,” she said.

Hook smiled and said, “That’s good. Because I’m not a hero.”

“I can handle it. I’m not a damsel in distress.” She was lying; there was distress written all over her face, but this--this was something he could do for her, something he wanted to do. Something with purpose, with meaning, something new.

“Emma, think of yourself. Of your family. Of your kingdom. You can’t leave--and even if you could--there would be nothing left for me here. Not even the pursuit of my revenge. I cannot be that man any more. Darkness and hatred have left my life empty.” He cupped his hand over her cheek and stroked the tear forming there, brushing it aside. “I do not want to end up like Regina. Please.”

It was then and not a moment sooner that the world he’d so carefully constructed over the long years shattered, finally--completely--to pieces. As he stepped forward and pulled her against him, a drowning man grasping for a rope. As he pressed his lips to hers and she kissed him as if he were dying and she alone had oxygen.

 “So, one last question, then, Killian. We’ll take it from the audience this time.”

In the crowd, someone rises--there is a flash of blonde and blue and Killian cannot--he cannot--

The woman’s eyes sparkle with amusement as she speaks. “Killian,” she says, “do you believe in True Love?”

Killian smiles. He forces himself to. He exhales a laugh.

He exhales a laugh to cover up the fact that all of his breath seems, suddenly, to leave his body.

Again.

On account of a kiss.

It wasn’t supposed to happen like that, slow degrees of feeling welling up inside him, coming from someplace deep and unfamiliar except for the heat and the magic that seemed to guide it; he had no defense for it, no protection against it, and it built into a wave so powerful that to feel it crest over him, exploding in sparkes of rainbow light, was nothing so much as a relief. He staggered back under its impact and braced himself against the bars of Regina’s cell and watched as a door formed before his--before their--eyes. His heart, so recently returned to him, pounding so hard that everything around him seemed to vibrate--his mind a thick haze of fire and light and magic. The torches in the dungeon ablaze and every kiss before this one merely a prelude, flint to light the kindling.

The door was three times the height of a man, taller than the dungeon as it seemed to pierce the ceiling. When it opened there was a lonely stretch of forest bisected by a strangely-paved path and a sign.

“Welcome to Storybrooke.”

At the sign--or more properly at the edge of it, just where it met the road--was a vessel unlike any Hook had ever seen before, heaving and steaming as a man kicked at it, swearing under his breath as if his invective would serve as fuel.

“Father,” Emma whispered.

And--from inside the vessel--a woman’s voice; “Mother.” There was the sound of something opening and closing as a piece of the thing swung open--a door--and a boy slid out.

No. Not a boy.

A young man.

The Evil Queen growled.

The Dark One hissed.

And Emma said, “Oh. Oh, shit.”

 The lights are dim and the crowd dispersed as he leaves, waving a hand behind him and walking away from the storefront branded Housing Works Bookstore. It’s dry--a rarity in this city, he has found--dry and cool and clear, and if he angles his head just so between the so-called ‘skyscrapers’ there is a faint glimmer of the stars that are very nearly the same here as they were there. He still remembers them, the way they shone in her eyes as the truth of what they were watching through the portal struck her.

“I have a brother,” she said, and her voice seemed to carry across the portal, across time and space, because a petite, dark-haired woman nearly fell out of the vessel as she looked up, looked around.

“Emma?”

It was a sound of disbelief and doubt and hope but it, too, carried; the man straightened, the vessel forgotten as he started walking unerringly toward the portal that surely he could not see.

Emma swore again and turned to her grandmother, to the Evil Queen, and said, “They remember?” Out of all the possible questions, of course she chose the least expected. How--why--what--none of them was as salient as the simple fact. They remembered.

The Queen raised in eyebrow in pure hauteur and Emma grabbed his hook and pulled him toward the door. “I must go to them,” she said, and he followed.

He would follow her to the end of the world and beyond; with a cry and a lunge she hurled herself at them, at her parents, at her brother.

Hook watched as Queen Snow took her daughter’s head in her hands and kissed the forehead, delicately--as King David pulled his daughter into his arms and cupped the back of her head, gently--as Leo introduced himself.

“Please don’t call me Leopold,” he said, and Emma laughed through her tears.

“This is Killian,” she said. “Captain Killian Jones.”

David’s eyes narrowed as he took in the silver prosthetic where Hook’s left hand used to be. “Captain Hook?”

But Snow said, “Now is not the time, David,” and her green eyes shone almost as brightly as her daughter’s as she looked at him, up and down from his boots to his eyes that were lowered, respectfully--as she stepped forward and took his face in her hands the same way she had taken Emma’s. “Thank you,” she said.

Hook blushed. “I--milady--gratitude is hardly necessary,” he said. His voice was low and gravelly and, for the first time in a long time, uncertain. He was uncertain and his hand reached, unthinkingly, for Emma’s, for the warmth and the comfort he found there.

“You found us,” Snow insisted.

“Emma found you,” Hook said.

“And I never doubted she would,” Snow said. “But I know what you did for her, why she is able to be here right now.”

“What--” Hook swallowed. “What did I do?”

Queen Snow looked at him, and looked at her daughter, at their hands clasped together and said, “True Love’s Kiss. It’s the only magic strong enough to break any curse.”

“Oh,” Hook said. Oh.

He dropped Emma’s hand and stepped back.

The King grumbled. “Let’s discuss this at home. We have a kingdom to take back.” Then, under his breath: “Again.”

The word hung in the air. Home.

Hook took another step back--turned away--opened his mouth--all he knew, with certainty, was that he could not go back there. He could not go back to that place and that person who carried around all of that darkness and anger and hate. He wanted to stay. He was a pirate, a Lost Boy; it would not be the first time in his life that he found himself in a new place with nothing but his wits and his hook and the things he carried.

But Swan--

Emma.

Princess Emma.

She--

He would follow her. Of course he would. He could just as soon live without air as he could live without her.

(He’s known that since the first morning he’d woken up to find her gone; he’s known that every night he’s dreamed of her and every morning since.)

“Oh,” Snow said. “Oh.” Mother and daughter watched each other, identical eyes matched in understanding. “Emma’s not coming home,” Snow said.

  It is very nearly midnight when Killian returns home, unlocking his front door with practiced ease and slipping the keys into the pocket of his leather blazer.

What he is not prepared for, or expecting, is her.

Waiting for him.

(Truth be known, he might never be.)

Emma Swan, his True Love, is waiting for him, her green eyes twinkling in the streetlights that are shining through the windows of their flat and still--always--nothing prepares him for the sight of her. Her golden hair is lighter now, streaked with very fine strands of silver; the blue leather of her jacket is bright and adorned with zippers instead of gemstones. She wears no jewelry, in this place--they sold most of it a long time ago. Her only adornment is a silver chain around her neck and the ring he gave her--his brother’s ring--between her breasts.

“You beat me home,” he says.

“You had your adoring fans to contend with,” she says, and laughs. Killian shuts the door behind him and inhales, slowly, savoring it the way he always does--sweet and spicy--and she watches him.

“Your eyes,” she says. “I love the way you look at me. Still.”

“Always.”

And it’s not a dream, but sometimes it still feels like one, when she grabs him and says his name and--somehow--he can feel the Power in it. She grabs him and he forgets where they are and when they are and he remembers the day she decided to stay here. With him.

“I didn’t ask for any of this,” she said, looking at her mother and her father and her younger brother, the heir-presumptive once the King and the Queen were back on their rightful thrones. Killian had no doubts that they would see to Regina, and to the Dark One. Snow would give Graham back his heart and make certain that Belle was safe and cared for.

For the moment, there were more important matters to attend to.

Snow White ran her fingers through her daughter’s hair. Her voice was somehow strong and brittle at the same time--understanding twinged with sadness. “No,” she murmured. “You didn’t.”

Emma didn’t cry when she said, “I want something free of all of this. Free of the past and all its scars. Something I’ve chosen. Away from--”

“Us,” King David--the man once known across realms as Prince Charming--said.

“No,” Emma said. “But--yes. I’m sorry.”

That’s when David took her in his arms. “You have nothing to apologize for. Not to us. Not ever. We love you. All that matters is that you know that, and are happy.”

And they were.

They are.

Together; they still make a good team.

“You didn’t answer my question,” she whispers. “Do you believe in True Love, Killian?” She stands on her toes and kisses him and it’s full of sweetness and love and he can feel it--the warmth and comfort and the magic that they were both told couldn’t exist in this place but which they kindled with the light they made for each other. The past, here, is nothing more than a bad dream from which he’s awakened, finding himself in her arms until the nightmares are banished and there is nothing but the two of them.

Killian lifts his mouth from hers and takes her hands and kisses them, the backs, each knuckle, before he settles them over his heart. It beats, hard but steady--so steady--as he holds her hands there. “Aye, love,” he says. “You are my happy ending.”

She pulls her hands away, pulls his hands in hers as she says, “That’s not what this is.” He feels it through the layers of her clothing as his hand rests over her abdomen--the flutter there--and he laughs, as she smiles a real smile, that same smile, from the night they met. “It’s a happy beginning.”

And that, surely, is nothing short of magic.

-30-

@profdanglaisstuff​ @katie-dub​ @thisonesatellite​ @carpedzem @captain-emmajones @kmomof4 @optomisticgirl @spartanguard @karl0ta @mariakov81 @tiganasummertree @stahlop @scientificapricot

[billville]

What's your favorite Doritos flavor?

[burning-ants]

"Killian Cipher, why are you such an asshole?"

"Why are you such a little bitch?"

[thecipherfamily]

Meet the Cipher Family, Part 1!

First up, twins Bill (William) and Will (also William) Cipher, a.k.a. future Kings of the Nightmare Realm.

These two were inseparable as kids...

Look at those two dorks. Their sister, Jill, holds annual "PleaseHugTheseTwoIdiots" days because she's convinced they need more... "social interactions". Surprisingly, the whole town comes anyway. Now, I wonder who always gets the most hugs...?

And they still were as young adults, to be honest. None could come between them.

Until...

Well, if I told you now, that wouldn't be very fun, would it? All in good time, folks!

But for now... any questions for the boys?

Next Cipher Family AU members up: Jillian (Jill) & Killian (Kill) Cipher, twins, and older siblings of Bill and Will!

[lovesoar-blog]

to celebrate me coming off hiatus, here’s a new starter call!! be sure to specify muse you want it from and for if you’re a multimuse!

KAZUO KIRIYAMA  (  battle  royale  )  -  (1/2) - max LIGHT YAGAMI  (  death  note  )  -  (0/2) CHA DOHYUN  (  kill  me  ,  heal  me  )  -  (2/2) - sunny, aloth. BILL CIPHER  (  gravity  falls  )  -  (2/2) - dave, gil. JASON  DEAN  (  heathers  )  -  (1/2) - loki. PETER  PAN  (  disney  )  -  (2/2) - killian, megara. LENA  DE  SPELL  (  ducktales  )  -  (0/2)

[captainswan618]

List of six characters: Snow White (OUAT) Rumplestiltskin (OUAT) Bill Cipher (Gravity Falls) Stanley Pines (Gravity Falls) Ruby/Red Riding Hood (OUAT) James Hook (OUAT)

FIRSTLY: Captain Hook’s real name, at least in OUAT, is Killian Jones, not James Hook. I’m disappointed. (😄 it's ok)

give a CapriSun and lay down for a nap: Stanley Pines (he needs it.)enlist to help build a pillow fort: Snow White (she would be so nice and positive about it! Also I feel like it’s a thing she would genuinely enjoy.)slingshot into the deep recesses of space: Rumplestiltskin. (He…kinda deserves it.)sing bad karaoke and play DDR at 3am with: Killian Jones (singing and dancing with Killian Jones?? yes please)smack with a rolled up newspaper: Bill Cipher (Bill wouldn’t die if I ejected him into space, so it’s not worth it. This would annoy him more.) let borrow the aux chord on a road trip: Ruby Lucas (I feel like she has good music taste.)

[artistic-writer]

Between Now and Nether :: Ch 13 :: A CS AU

Title: Between Now and Nether by @artistic-writer [full res fanart]

Summary: On their way to a Nolan Charity Gala, tragedy befalls Emma and Killian who is given just seven days to set things right.  Can he make Emma believe and escape the Nether before he is lost forever?

Rating: T+

AO3 Chapters: [1] - [2] - [3] - [4] - [5] - [6] - [7] - [8] - [9] - [10] - [11] - [12] -[13] Fanart Full Resolution: [1] - [2] - [3] - [4] - [5] - [6] - [7] - [8] - [9] - [10] - [11] - [12] - [13]

A/N: I am really sorry this post is late guys, but I have only just finished the fanart.  This week has been very busy for me and I could have left this until my next day off, but that is Wednesday and i didn’t want to let you guys down!  You are all so lovely for liking this story, and i promise you will not be disappointed in the ending.  And just a little clarification:  The ring will come up again.  Emma will be put into an interrogation room with Gold.  Leroy will get his just desserts for murdering our lovely Liam.  There will be a very CS-centric heart to heart love filled fluffy-angst chapter - you just have to stick with me a few more.  Also, as predicted, this story has AGAIN been extended, so even more, yay!

I hope you appreciate that this chapter took me over 8 days to complete because it took me 7 days to fabricate a code lol  Legit dedicated. ;)

Future updates will be Sundays AND Thursdays! (providing I can get the art made in time)

Forever thanks to @kmomof4 for beta’ing the shit out of this thing!  You are seriously the best!  And a massive thank you to @hollyethecurious who i very often whine to and for making me go do that thing last night...it made me feel so much better :)

Taglist: @mariakov81 @rouhn @hollyethecurious @kmomof4 @resident-of-storybrooke@hookedonapirate @galadriel26 @aye-captn @the-captains-ayebrows @yayimallamaagain @i-nvr-wrote-it @officerrogerss @kiwistreetswan @wellhellotragic @depechemode75 @distant-rose @yrellow-bugs-and-pirate-ships @courtorderedcake  @wellhellotragic

If you would like to be added please let me know for ch 14!

———————————————————————————————————

Emma had to hand it to Liam, even if she had only known him for a short while, he was exceedingly clever.  The code was one that he knew only his brother could break, never risking it falling into the hands of anybody else.  A pang of sadness had hit Emma as she took notes of the dots and dashes, realising just how engrossed in catching his parents’ killer Liam actually had been.  He had been in so deep, living a life behind what the world saw and it explained why he had never had a serious relationship or was social with anyone except his brother.

Graham had long since left the house, a mixture of tiredness and unsettledness overcoming him when Emma sat across from him, mainly talking with herself, but hastily scribbling notes.  The pages had been scrambled but they had managed to work out that they needed to be in reverse order for the code to work.  Killian had told them that much through Emma, and it gave them a good starting point to work out the rest.

Killian had, through constant contact with Emma’s belly, managed to tell them about the time they were kids when he and Liam were sent to live with distant relatives in England.  Newly orphaned, the boys were living with the family that they had never met before and it was clear from the way they were treated, that the family didn’t want them.  They took them in under obligation and the promise of an inheritance from Brennan’s estate, only the money never came and the brothers suffered for it.

In order to keep themselves sane, and to stop their communication from falling into the wrong hands and possibly earning them more abuse, Liam had devised a code.  It was a secret code, their form of communication, and to the casual observer, it would seem to be Morse Code.  Liam had always loved reading about the Navy and wanted to one day join, but at the time he was young, with a bleak outlook, so his imagination was all he had.  He devised an entire language for them, reversing the standard Morse Code and scrambling the messages into anagrams, just to make sure nobody but Killian would understand them.

Once Liam had taught Killian, it seemed they had suddenly become bilingual, talking in their own hidden language that Killian could still read as clear as day.  Emma had assured Graham she wouldn’t rest until they had worked out what the code meant so when he had departed for the evening, she retired to the bedroom with her notes.

It had also become very apparent as the evening had progressed, that Emma now believed so firmly in Killian being with her that he no longer needed to be touching her for her to hear him.  Just being close to her was enough and when Emma had shuffled her legs under the comforter, sitting crossed legged with her notepad resting on her knee, all Killian had to do was mirror her position on the bed in front of her for her to hear him.

“So it’s like Morse Code?” Emma asked excitedly, narrowing her eyes at the dots and dashes on her page.

“Yes!” Killian exclaimed, shuffling his body forward and watching Emma go wide eyed at the movement of the duvet.  “Except it’s reversed,” Killian nodded to the page.  

“So reversed like the words or the dits and dahs?” Emma smirked, poking her tongue out playfully.

Killian matched her smirked and made a noise deep in his throat.  “Dits and dahs?” He quirked his eyebrow and was a little disappointed when Emma didn’t respond.

“Oh, you know,” Emma shrugged.  “I may have been doing a little research.”

“Into Naval Morse Code?” Killian frowned suspiciously.  

“Your interests are my interests,” She beamed at nobody, watching the ripple in the covers shift again.

“Well, maybe we should get that boat,” Killian teased.  “So you can put your research into practice.”  They had been toying with the idea for a while, but Emma had always assumed he was joking, especially when he had declared the vessel would be known as The Jolly Roger and she was to refer to him whilst onboard as Captain.  She knew Killian had inherited his love of the ocean and ships from his brother, and while neither of them made it into the Navy, they had always dreamed of becoming sailors.

Emma rolled her eyes.  “At ease, Captain,” she looked back down to the page in front of her, trying to force the grin from her face but failing when the corners of her mouth twitched into a telling smile.

“As you wish,” Killian purred.

“So, it’s reversed,” Emma tapped her pen to the notepad and looked up again.  “Anything else?”

Killian nodded but quickly remembered she couldn’t see him.  “Aye, it’s also anagrammed.”

“Are you kidding me?” Emma huffed, falling back against the pillows with an oomph.  She exhaled hard and rubbed the side of her temples.  “And Liam made this up?”

“Aye,” Killian chuckled, watching her frustration.  Emma hadn’t known Liam for as long as he had, so her brief time with the second Jones brother obviously gave her no indication of his abilities to create and master any code.  “He was a genius.”

“Clearly,” Emma puffed, a strand of hair that had fallen over her brow flying upwards with her sigh.

“He wanted to captain a ship in the Navy,” Killian told her proudly.  “He spent so long trying to master everything he would need from a young age.”

“And he got into codes,” Emma finished Killian’s story with a roll of her eyes.  He always was one with a flair for the dramatic, including telling a story he really had no time to tell.  “So we work out the anagrams, then the words?”

“Aye,” Killian nodded again with his words, his voice a little unsure.  If Liam really did not want anyone to find this code but him, this wasn’t going to be easy.

It was well into the early hours of the morning before they had really put a dent in Liam’s code.  Working out the letters was easy.  Killian remembered it like it was yesterday and they were boys back in England, reversing the dots and dashes so that the words made sense.  Of sorts.  Killian distinctly remembered that when they were boys, with him being younger, Liam had taken pity on him and made the codes much easier to crack.

Liam must have been more lenient because as they sat in the dimly lit warmth of their bedroom, the small piles of paper in between them seemed to be much more daunting than they had first anticipated.  Each pile was a single phrase, that much they had worked out, but solving the anagrams with little in the way of clues was proving more difficult.

“So, let’s try this again…” Killian began, watching Emma stifle yet another yawn and blink away the watery haze in her reddened eyes.  “What did the first one say again?”

Emma blinked hard and pinched the bridge of her nose, wiping away at her eyes before reaching for her glasses.  She pushed the black rimmed frames up her nose and they immediately started to slide back down from the weight of the lenses, her nose wrinkling to catch them.  Killian smiled, watching her with a warmth in his chest he had missed feeling.

“hpme cbs ebe sfdsvju ljmmjbo - Shift by the brother,” Emma sighed, the words sounded just as ridiculous in a sentence now as when they had started.

“And the second?” Killian prompted.

“Umm…” Emma scanned her page again, tapping her pen down the curling edge.  “fcf iqnf ngcxg dqau - Shift by the sons.”

“I think they are instructions,” Killian said with a frown that Emma couldn’t see.  He tapped his finger to his lips and hummed to himself.

“To what?” Emma’s own brow knitted in confusion and she pushed the glasses up her nose again.

“To solving the messages,” Killian laughed a little when Emma huffed and headbutted the notepad in her hand.  “I think it's something called the shifted alphabet.”

“Are you kidding? You’re telling me Liam created a message, turned it into an anagram, then reverse morse code and then, after all that, he encoded it with a cipher?”  Emma nearly ran out of breath, gasping after her final word as her lungs emptied.

“Aye,” Killian giggled.  “But the anagram is probably redundant,” he beamed, much more confident than a few moments ago.  “Liam used to encode the messages to me in shifted alphabet in case I was unable to solve the anagram.”

Emma looked down to the slightly smudged writing once more and drew a thick, black line under the nonsensical letters in front of her.  “So, this mess of random letters is the original code but in a shifted alphabet pattern?”

“Aye, love, that’s it.”

“So why bother with the anagram!” Emma screeched.

Killian chuckled and rocked back, uncrossing his legs and shuffling forward towards her.  “A diversion,” he grinned, eyes flicking over the page on her lap.  It was just like Liam to create a decoy message, something that would send would be code crackers off in the wrong direction.  It was how they fooled their caregivers back in England and Liam had clearly hoped Killian would recognise his ruse.  “We just have to work out the number of times each message was shifted using the clues he provided.”

“The non anagrammed messages….” Emma clarified.

“Aye, what was that first one again?” Killian asked eagerly, his eagerness to solve this puzzle and get home to his family more prevalent than ever now that he felt they were actually getting somewhere.

“hpme cbs ebe sfdsvju ljmmjbo - Shift by the brother,” Emma yawned again, her eyes screwing closed behind her fingerprint covered glasses.

“Well, I’m the brother,” Killian scratched his scuff littered jaw.

“But it has to be a number, right?” Emma reminded him, half a statement, half a question.  She knew far less about this sort of thing than Killian, but damn if she wasn’t going to learn after this.

“Of course,” Killian agreed, shaking his head.  “It’s one.  I am his brother, of which he only has one.  It’s shifted by one.”  Killian grinned excitedly.  “If you take the jumbled letters and turn them into the previous one, it decodes them, so what does it say now?”

Emma’s pen went to work on the page, the almost silent, smooth sound of the pen filling her ears as it marked the page.  Killian watched her intently, smiling at the way her tongue poked out when she was thinking and the way she tucked her hair behind her ears so it didn’t obscure her view.  She was a vision, even in her sorrow, and he almost forgot himself as he reached for her face, quickly retracting his see through hand when he noticed and remembered his current state.

“Oh,” Emma said sadly, sitting back a little and lifting her head once more.

“Oh?” Killian repeated her words.  “Swan, what does it say?”

“Gold bar dad recruit Killian.”  Emma looked as though a light bulb had gone off in her head, the sudden realisation of the random words hitting her.  “Your dad owned a bar, right?”  Emma shuffled through some more of the papers in beside her, finding what she wanted and holding the deeds aloft so Killian could see.  “Did Gold go there?”

“Not that I remember,” Killian shrugged.  “You said the second one said ‘shift by the sons’, right?”

“Yeah,” Emma scrambled over her notes again.  “fcf iqnf ngcxg dqau - shift by the sons.”

“Well, my father had two sons,” Killian oozed confidence in his words.  “Shift that one by two.”

Again Emma set to work, quicker this time having got the hang of it already.  “Ok, that one says ‘dad gold leave boys’.  What does that mean?  Killian this doesn’t make sense!” Emma growled, throwing her notes aside and crossing her arms.  “We are getting nowhere!”

No, no,” Killian soothed.  “We are!  Liam always told me that Gold tried to get him to do things for him.  Illegal things.  Maybe he tried with both of us and my father found out.”

“That’s a reach,” Emma sighed.

“Please, Emma, just keep an open mind here.  I’m trying.”

A silence fell between them as Emma picked up the notepad once more.  She took a deep breath, closing her eyes and tilting her head back, stretching her neck muscles as she did so.  Killian watched, helpless to comfort her.  He knew she was hurting, her frustration evident through every fiber of her body. Each cell in every muscle screaming out for the touch he couldn’t provide.

“Emma?” He called softly, watching her look up but then the sadness invaded her features for the umpteenth time that night.  It seemed hearing his voice but not being able to see Killian was really starting to affect Emma, and each time she smiled weakly in his direction, Killian felt his heart crack a little more.

“Hmm?” She hummed, resting the tip of her pen to the paper as her eyes flicked around the space in front of her.

“Just making sure you can still hear me,” he smiled, but she did not see him.

Emma’s eyes fluttered closed as if she was imagining Killian there with her.  “I can hear you,” she smiled, head rolling sideways so her head rested on her shoulder.  “We can hear you.”

Killian watched as Emma flattened her palm over her stomach, scrunching the material of the comforter in her hands and grinning from ear to ear.  The burst of anger he had witnessed moments ago was gone and Emma was calmed by the thoughts of the little one growing inside of her.

“You look happy, love,” Killian said softly.  “Radiant even.”

“Yeah right,” Emma scoffed playfully, rolling her eyes.  “I’ve been crying for days, my skin is blotchy and puffy and I’m sitting in my bed trying to decipher the notes of your dead brother with my spirit boyfriend.”  

Killian’s lips twitched into a knowing smile and he laughed a little, the sound sending a welcome shiver through Emma’s entire body.  “Well, you should see me, I am actually glowing,”  Killian laughed and looked down at her hands in front of him, the faintest white grey outline to his fingers blurring the area around them.  “It’s surreal.”

Emma’s laughter faded with his and she stared directly at where he would be sitting.  “This whole week has been just that,” she said, a more serious tone to her voice.  “I’m not sure I can handle much more.”  

A silence fell between them as they both inadvertently diverted their gaze from each other.  Killian lifted his hand and rubbed the skin behind his ear, extending his fingers around the back of his neck and roughly brushing the hair there.  At the same time, Emma sucked in a huge breath, rolling her bottom lip between her teeth and scribbling a doodle on the page in front of her.

“I’m sorry….” Killian whispered, bowing his head.

“I miss you…” Emma murmured at the same time, lifting her head and sucking in a huge breath.  “Killian!” She gasped.

“Yes, love?” Killian’s head snapped up to meet her gaze but the pale faced look of confusion on Emma’s face stopped him dead.  “Emma, what is it?”  he asked concerned, clenching his fists because he couldn’t comfort her.

“Killian…” Emma gasped, her breathing becoming rapid and irregular as she swallowed a hard lump that had formed in her throat.  “...I can see you.”

[blessed-but-distressed]

#FindEmmaSwanAFriend

Feeling left behind by her more successful, settled friends, Emma Swan moves to Scotland on a whim. Sure, she’s winning at Instagram, but something is still missing from her new life. Fortunately, her friends back home are on it. #FindEmmaSwanAFriend goes viral. Enter Killian Jones, reluctant columnist, who is on the hunt for his newest subject, and may just have found her. CS AU.

also on ff.net

Tagging:  @katie-dub, @wholockgal, @kat2609, @whovianlunatic, @optomisticgirl, @ladyciaramiggles, @the-lady-of-misthaven, @emmaswanchoosesyou, @ilovemesomekillianjones, @cigarettes-and-scotch-whisky, @biancaros3, @ms-babs-gordon, @ab-normality, @andiirivera, @fangirl-till-it-hurts, @onceuponaprincessworld, @chocolatecrackle.

This chapter was a mess for so long, so big thanks to @wholockgal for helping me try to whip her into shape, and @lenfaz for always listening to my writing-related whining.

Emma

The next person who emails me asking for an extension on an assignment they’ve had ALL SEMESTER to do, I’m straight up murdering. ES

I think that’s what they call premeditation, Swan. KJ

There are 33 emails in my inbox right now asking for last minute extensions. 33! Justifiable homicide. ES

33? You’re quite right. Not a jury in the land would convict you. KJ

… This is the part where you chime in with your own work horror story, so I can see I’m being irrational. ES

Is it? As you wish. I just thought seriously about poisoning our illiterate sub-editor with expired milk I found in the darkest recesses of the break room fridge. All because she used a Daily Mail-worthy pun as a headline for one of my articles. And I might’ve done, if the work experience kid hadn’t just used up the last of it for his Ovaltine. KJ

Oh god. Is he okay? ES

For the moment. Looking a bit green around the gills though. I’ve a bet going with the Pictures Editor he won’t make it til lunchtime. KJ

Okay, so not exactly what I was going for, and yet, I feel strangely less like a monster. You, on the other hand, might want to get that kid to a doctor. And/or book yourself in for a refresher for that workplace sensitivity training seminar. ES

According to Liam, there isn’t an opening for six months. Believe me, he checked. KJ

Of course he did. So... 6 hours til happy hour at the Jingles. You in? ES

Oh? Are you buying? KJ

The first round, sure. But only if you promise me it’ll be an early night. I have 203 final assessments to grade. I DO NOT have time to be hungover. ES

Your proposal is acceptable. KJ

Emma saw the poster on the last official teaching day before Reading Week, tacked to the pinboard outside her office. Poorly formatted, and clearly the work of someone with little to no design ability, it nevertheless managed to stop her in her tracks.

End of Academic Year Staff Party

LASER TAG

School of Classics, Archaeology & History VS School of Social & Political Science

Has it ever rankled to be told we produce “Mickey Mouse” degrees? Have you ever been made to feel that your knowledge of Classic Greek literature was “too highbrow” to be relevant in today’s job market? Ever run afoul of Tracy from Social Anthro in the Library Cafe?

Here’s your chance to get your own back! Sign ups below.

Emma could feel something building in her gut. Something unpleasant and inevitable. Something like picturing herself strapped into a cheap plastic breastplate sometime in the near future.

Killian was going to have a field day.

Or, she thought he might, if she could just dig herself out from under the pile of term papers she needed to grade long enough to set up a meet with him.

It figured that all of the empty space in Emma’s schedule would evaporate just as soon as the weather turned. Living under so many layers for so long, Emma had almost forgotten the sun was supposed to have any real warming ability at all. But suddenly, just as the semester was drawing to a close, it re-appeared with a vengeance, and the city was utterly transformed.

Gone were the puffer jackets and tights, the Gore-Tex and the ugly sweaters Emma had long considered to be the unofficial national uniform. Instead the sidewalks became filled with pasty-limbed people displaying their newly liberated flesh with the kind of exhibitionist zeal Emma hadn’t seen since her first Spring Break trip to Florida.

She nearly tripped over a few as they lay sunning themselves out on the Meadows, oblivious to her sweaty, breathless approach. Not to mention the ten or so pubs she had to avoid on her walk home from work, the pavements outside bursting with mismatched outdoor furniture someone had scrounged up in a hurry. All of them packed with sun-worshippers in the most reptilian tradition, and none of them alone.

Who were these people? Emma wondered. Drinking Magners mid-afternoon and stripped down to the barest essentials, always an audience for their bawdy jokes. Where had they all materialized from? Didn’t they have jobs to go to?

In contrast, Emma’s apartment remained completely ignorant of the change in seasons, still cold as a morgue. Her south-facing windows not only had a great view of the brick wall opposite, but they also brought in precisely zero natural light.

It really was a shitty apartment.

And if she had to spend any more time cooped up in it, alone, wrapped in three sweaters while she read circuitous papers in defence of Andrew Jackson, she was going to go crazy.

She had to get out.

She discovered it by accident, really, one day last November when she’d been caught in a surprise hailstorm, and looking for somewhere warm and dry to scarf down the rest of her Greggs donut. Her office-mate had office hours, and the University library stacks were always too crowded with clueless undergrads or amorous couples looking for privacy.

But the City Library? There were whole floors where the only ones around were harmless old biddies working on their genealogies, and their peripheral vision wasn’t the greatest. It was the perfect place to devour a forbidden pastry, or wait out a hailstorm or two. Or run into the very Englishman you’d been meaning to text back.

Emma liked the Reference Library best. It looked kind the kind of thing a fairy tale Beast might gift to a reluctant new house guest to win her over: floor-to-ceiling shelves lining every wall, supported by cast iron balustrades reachable by spiral staircases, an imposing geometric dome that looked like it came right out of Versailles. For the nerds, original card indicies. And for the displaced American history lecturer: plentiful desk space, wi-fi and always somewhere to charge your phone.

Emma had always considered the place to be kind of her little secret. No matter the time of year or weather, it was never too crowded. But there was no mistaking the leather-clad figure sat alone in the second row, feet up on the desk, nose buried in a thin paperback.

He didn’t register her proximity as Emma made her approach, even as she bent down to get a better look at what had him so engrossed.

‘‘Codes, Ciphers and Secret Writing’?” Emma read aloud, perversely gratified to see him lurch forward in his seat, caught unawares. She clicked her tongue as she took the seat next door. “If you’re considering taking up a career as a spy, you might want to make yourself slightly harder to sneak up on. Just a tip.”

He set the book down on the desk, shooting her a somewhat annoyed glance. “Well this is a turn up for the books. It’s been so long between texts I thought maybe you’d done in one of your students, and were lost to the ravages of the criminal justice system forever.”

Emma made a face.

“No? Well, small mercies I suppose. And fancy seeing you here. I didn’t really pick you for a fan of French Renaissance architecture, Swan. Or was there some other marvel you’d come to admire?” He asked, batting his eyelashes in the kind of over-the-top way that would put a silent film ingénue to shame.

Emma rolled her eyes. “Sorry to deflate that massive ego of yours, but I’m not stalking you. I’m just here for the free wi-fi. How was I supposed to know you’d be here… studying spycraft?”

“So just a happy coincidence then?” He held her gaze for a moment, like he didn’t quite believe her. “Well then, as to the book, believe me, Swan, I have zero aspirations towards the Security Services. Callum, however…”

At that, a young woman a few rows down glanced up from her MacBook to give them the evil eye, and Killian ducked his head, slipping a piece of paper from out between the pages of the book, marked with an indecipherable jumble of numbers written in a childish blue scrawl.

“He’s off penguins for the minute,” he continued, his voice now little more than a hushed whisper. “Now it’s codes. Ciphers. Secret communiqués. Which wouldn’t be so bad, perhaps, if the lad hadn’t refused to communicate in any other way...” He scrubbed a hand over his face, his frustration plain.

By the sound of it, things might have been a little tense at the breakfast table lately.  

Emma whistled through her teeth, though she fought to match his soft tones. “Wow. I think when I was eight years old, all I cared about was ponies.”

He glanced up at her then, the unspoken ‘Is that so?’ making her cheeks color. Even when he said nothing at all, Killian still found ways to make her regret every casual remark, every tiny breadcrumb she unwittingly left behind of the childhood she’d tried so hard to forget.

“Let me see that,” Emma said hotly, snatching the coded message from where it lay before him, leaning forward to examine it.

Then without thinking too much about it, she plucked the red pen from her hair that she’d been using to keep her bun in place, and set about making a series of tiny scribbles.

Killian, his book apparently forgotten, leaned over to study her work. “Know a thing or two about ciphers, do we, lass?”

Emma shrugged. “A bit. It came free with my John Jay obsession. But Callum’s what? Eight, right? So it’s probably not anything too difficult…”

The numbers could mean he was using a book as the key. Each number corresponding to a page and paragraph in the book where the desired word lay. Jay had been a fan of that particular method. He’d favored a dictionary as his key, usually. But the numbers Callum had written…

Emma drew up the matrix, smiling to herself as the childish meaning behind the code slowly became clear. She twisted the paper back in Killian’s direction with a victorious flourish.

“Lachie... is... a…” she translated. “Well, you can see for yourself.”

Killian’s eyes widened looking from the paper, back to Emma, his mouth agape. “You’re bloody brilliant, Swan.”

Emma wasn’t sure she’d ever been told that before. By anyone. Certainly not by someone who’d never been on the receiving end of one of her blow jobs. It was a single stray thought that stuck uncomfortably in her thoughts, and had her barreling on in a hurry to fill the awkward pause.

“It’s a six-sided Polybius square,” Emma explained, keeping her eyes trained to the piece of paper. “I’m pretty sure I read somewhere POWs in Vietnam used a variant of it to communicate between their cells. But Callum’s numbers only go up to 6, so I… what?”

He was staring.

“Nothing,” he said with a cough, though she could see the tips of his ears turning pink.

“You okay?”

He shook his head. “Of course. I was just thinking…”

“Thinking what?” Emma asked warily.

Looking kind of like he’d rather the ground rose up and swallowed him instead, Killian sighed and met Emma’s eye, shooting her a look that was so direct she was tempted to scoot her chair back to give them some space. “I was just thinking that Dr Swan is quite a good look on you.”

Emma opened her mouth, to what? Scoff? Say thank you? Luckily, she never had to find out, the silence punctuated by a series of conspicuous buzzing noises.

Emma heard MacBook Girl’s muttered curse. As if she wasn’t just dicking around on Facebook, like everyone else.

“Forgive me,” Killian murmured, clearing his throat and reaching into his pocket and fishing out the device. Whatever he read on that screen, his face immediately pulled into a tight frown and he rose out of his chair all at once.

“Everything okay?” Emma asked, growing concerned.

“Hmmm.”

It was not the most convincing sound Emma had ever heard.

As if somehow sensing Emma’s frustration, he raised his gaze from the phone to look at her, his expression softening a fraction around the eyes. “Apologies, Swan,” he said with a pained smile. “It appears I’m needed elsewhere.”

He hovered a moment, his weight shifting restlessly from foot to foot. “I need to head back to the office first. Would you like to walk with me? Or is the lure of free wi-fi too good an inducement to pass up?”

Emma glanced down at her watch, which showed the time to be little past noon. She’d been planning on enjoying the silence of solitude of the library a little more. Make a dent in her grading somewhere with decent heating and what passed for natural light.

But given the look on his face right now, and the way he was clenching his jaw, the fact that he’d even asked meant he probably really, really needed the distraction. And Emma might be pretty selfish on her best days, but she wasn’t cruel. And it just so happened, she had a particular distraction in mind.

“Sure,” she said, letting some of her weight fall onto his proffered prosthetic, as she rose from her chair.

“Sure, I’ve got time.”

Yeah, he was a fan of the laser tag idea.

His mood wasn’t buoyant exactly, as they wended their way along Castle Terrace, dodging Chinese tour groups who were arriving by the busload, selfie sticks at the ready. But the idea of Emma making a humiliating spectacle of herself certainly seemed to hold some kind of appeal for him.

He was no longer actively brooding.

“I can just picture it now; Emma Swan: Jungle Warrior.”

Emma snorted. Then she opened her mouth to refute this, and then closed it again, considering her track record.

Killian considered her shrewdly. “Something you’d like to share with the class?”

“I don’t know…I don’t know if you know this about me, but I’m kind of competitive. The last time I did something like this, it got kind of… ugly.”

“Define ugly.”

“We went paintballing for David’s birthday one year and August ended up in the ER with a dislocated knee.”

Killian winced.

“He says he can still feel it when it rains. Of course, he’s a novelist, so he’s kind of known for being needlessly dramatic so...”

Encouraged by the prospect of mayhem, the usual mischievous sparkle was returning to Killian’s eyes. “I think this competitive side is something I’ve got to see for myself.”

“Too bad you’re not invited, then, huh?”

“I could be…?” Oh no. No way. Was he really pulling puppy dog eyes right now?

“No way. Not happening. You can put those eyes away. It’s a work event. The administration are already on my case about this whole thing enough as it is.”

“And if I talk them ‘round?”

“You’re not going to get the administration to change their minds about me with a winsome smile and pretty boy charm.”

“You think I’m pretty?”

Emma just rolled her eyes, and nudged him into the path of an oncoming tour group.

When I got back to the library I realized you left your book, btw. I returned it. Figured you didn’t need it anymore? ES

Indeed I don’t. In cracking his code, I believe you’ve exhausted Callum’s sudden passion for cryptography. At least, for now. Elsa would like to express her eternal gratitude. KJ

Wow. Look at me, extinguishing a young boy’s thirst for learning. Clearly I’ve got this whole teacher thing on lockdown. ES

Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that. I saw him googling nebulas on the iPad earlier. I dare say another obsession is in the offing. One that might drive his mother a little less insane. KJ

Well, that’s something. ES

Okay, so clearly the administration was into winsome smiles and pretty boy charm, because the next thing Emma knew, she was seated on a university-chartered bus headed out into the hinterland, her columnist stretched out of the seat beside her.

Because that was a super normal thing to bring along to a work event.

Emma found it easiest to ignore the curious looks of her bus-mates by picturing how she was going to wipe the floor with each and every one of them when they got to where they were going.

For the most part, the reluctant recruits they’d manage to scrape together from the School of Social & Political Science did not inspire awe. Emma was pretty sure she could take them. Between Tracy from Social Anthro with her scoliosis, and Glen from British Politics with his spare tire, they seemed a pretty ragtag bunch, not suited to roughing it in the great outdoors.

There was only one among them who looked like a contender, the bearded guy in the army surplus jacket dozing at the back of the bus.

His possible narcolepsy aside, he at least seemed to be in decent shape, if the cut of jaw was any indication. As if he could feel her gaze on him, his eyes blinked open, and Emma turned back to Killian, who’d suddenly trailed off mid-sentence.

“And you didn’t hear anything I just said, did you?”

Emma cringed inwardly. “Sorry. I was just sizing up the competition.”

“Oh?” He enquired, his tone lightening. “And how do they measure up, in your estimation?”

Emma shrugged. “I think it’s in the bag. Our combined youth-”

“Your fighting spirit-” Killian interrupted.

“And the fact the history department won against the Divinity School last year...  ,” Emma continued, ignoring him.

“What about Rambo over there?” Killian asked, raising his chin to indicate the same guy Emma had been caught checking out before. “He looks like he might present a challenge.”

“Yeah, well,” Emma said, refusing to follow his gaze. “We’ll see.”

If Emma thought she might be able to somehow avoid this handsome stranger, maybe she should have remembered that she was cursed. Because when they nominated team captains, somehow it was him that Emma found herself facing off against.

The two of them stood awkwardly, forced to wait while some teenaged employee scrounged around in the pockets of his cargo pants for a coin to flip to determine territory.

And he was handsome, there was no getting around it. Nice hair, just on the manageable side of curly. Admittedly impressive biceps peeking out from underneath an ill-fitting plastic breastplate. Not to mention the warm, friendly smile as he held out a hand.

“Best of luck,” he said.

Oh, and an accent. A very nice accent.   

“And to you,” Emma said graciously, accepting the handshake. She might have been naturally competitive, but there was no need to be rude.

“I don’t think I’ve seen you on campus before,” he mentioned casually, even as his hand still clasped over hers. “I’m Graham Humbert, International Relations.”

The way he said it, with his tongue peeking out to wet his lower lip, she wondered if he was flirting with her. She wondered if she wanted him to be.

“Emma Swan,” she replied, letting her hand fall back down to her side, palm tingling. “American History.”

Killian

Killian Jones was no stranger to using his masculine wiles to his advantage. Though he’d been something of an awkward youth, his university years had been their own sort of education, quite aside from his unfinished philosophy degree.

Now, as a mediocre journalist with few moral scruples, he employed charm and flattery as tools of the trade. What better way to put an interview subject at ease? Or finesse that long-guarded secret from someone’s lips?

True, Saorsa was hardly The Guardian. He wasn’t uncovering government corruption at it’s highest levels or netting himself any Pulitzers. Though he did manage to stir up a hornet’s nest in Parliament that one time, after he got a MSP to admit to an extra-marital affair. Necessary to the public interest it was not, but it never did the circulation numbers any harm.

It was these skills he thought might help secure him a spot on the team bus to Lugton Bogs, the aptly named quagmire that was home to Edinburgh’s premier, and only, outdoor laser tag centre. Or at the very least, might improve Emma’s standing with the university after a rocky start.

Killian’s first port of call? The Press and Public Relations department, tucked away in cobbled alley near Sandy Bell’s. And from the rising stink of it, mostly treated as an open latrine by some of the male patrons of said watering hole after one too many libations at the weekend.

The inside was decidedly more pleasant, sheltered from the stench by double glazed windows and a heavy steel door. The office itself was attractive enough, a hive of industry playing to the soundtrack of ringing telephones. He stopped to ask the way to the right office, and was directed up to the first floor, where cubicles gave way to actual offices.

It was a promising start, he thought. That is, until he seated himself in a rather uncomfortable chair outside his target office, and had gotten a good look at the nameplate velcroed to the door.

That Killian’s quarry turned out to be a male was regrettable, and a waste of Killian’s talents.  That Killian’s quarry turned out to be none other than Robert Gold, native Glaswegian and former husband of one Belle French, Killian thought perhaps it wasn’t too late to do the honourable thing and fall on his sword.

He’d never been stupid enough to name Belle directly, but realistically, how many Australian librarians in Edinburgh could there be? And here was the very man Killian had publicly outed just a few short months ago, as a man who’d chosen his pill addiction over his marriage.

This was the man he had sought?

Killian was already halfway to his feet, ready to skive off their meeting with great urgency, when the door opened and out stepped a slight, silver-haired man, leaning heavily on a cane.

Tink hadn’t been lying when she’d said he’d been older.

“Killian Jones, is it?” he asked, looking bored.

Hello, rock. Hello, hard place. Killian’s first temptation was still to flee, but seeing as he was half-standing in plain sight, it seemed that ship had long sailed.

Instead he straightened, and held out a hand, trying to keep his voice quiver-free. “Aye, Killian Jones. I believe you’re the man to see about getting oneself included on an employee outing?”

For all his vices, Robert Gold did have one thing to his credit; he did not seem to be a Saorsa subscriber. Indeed, Killian’s name did not seem to bring about any flash of recognition. Nor, to Killian’s immense relief, a sudden zeal to sue for libel.

Though now Killian knew what to look for, he very much doubted the man would have much legal grounds. From the sweat soaking through his dress shirt, to the sallow complexion, to the pupils round as saucers, there was no way Robert Gold wasn’t in the throes of some chemical cocktail. The single life clearly wasn’t working for him.

He did, however, seem for the moment to be all-business.

“Laser tag?” he enquired.

Not sure if he was asking for an explanation, or merely a confirmation, Killian hesitated. “Something of an annual tradition from what I understand. Pitting department against department, all in the name of friendly competition.”

Gold nodded, absently.

“And this…” He peered down to examine the form in front of him. “... Emma Swan. You’re writing a column about her personal life?”

“It’s more an exploration on the nature of adult friendships. How difficult it is to make meaningful connections when you find yourself separated from your familiar networks. Emma is merely a vehicle I’m using to…” Killian fumbled for a suitable word. “...illustrate the point.”

“Hmmm.”

With any luck, that “Hmmm” meant that Gold found the idea tedious, and never wanted to hear about it again. Still, Killian wondered how long it would take him to convince their IT guy to “accidentally” corrupt the link to February’s column online.

“And you feel it would be helpful to you if you ‘tagged along’ on this outing?”

Truthfully, now he’d gotten Ruby to confirm Emma’s ER story, he mostly just wanted to watch her in action. But something told him Gold wouldn’t be particularly sympathetic to his plight.

“I think it would lend my words a certain credibility, if I was actually present for the events, certainly.”

Gold looked thoughtful, as if he was actually entertaining the idea. Or perhaps he was just meaning to add his next date with his dealer to his personal calendar. At any rate, he didn’t make Killian wait too long.

“There’s a number of forms to fill out,” the Glaswegian declared airily, pulling a stack of papers from a filing cabinet. “And some insurance concerns. I imagine your employer can email through proof of that?”

Could they? Killian certainly hoped so.

“Aye, of course.”

“Of course, we don’t ask for copy approval ahead of time, we’re not totalitarian savages. But you should be aware that we are always looking for ways to promote the university as a diverse, innovative and enjoyable workplace. Sometimes this means entering partnerships with members of the fourth estate, and sometimes that means breaking off such arrangements, if we feel our aims are not in concert. If you understand my meaning?”

Don’t burn any bridges. Duly noted.

At Killian’s nod of acquiescence, Gold clapped his hands together. “Well then, dearie, it looks like we have ourselves a deal. Blue pen, or black?”

And you thought it couldn’t be done. KJ

You didn’t. ES

I did. KJ

Please tell me you’re joking? ES

Alas, the cramp I’m nursing after signing near a dozen documents in triplicate says otherwise. I am UoE approved, and ready to watch Emma Swan go full berserker. KJ

I hate you. ES

I know. KJ

“Players must keep two hands on the phaser at all time to activate it. This is a safety feature which prevents the phaser being held at an arm’s length,” Killian read the tiny warning sticker on the side of his gun aloud.

Well, wasn’t that just fantastic.

Killian looked around for some teenaged, zero-hour contract flunky he could flag down, but after the initial hubbub of the coin toss, they’d all but vanished. The stand of trees stood all but empty now, except for the handful of middle-aged academics in green vests, wheezing as they made their way over the rise.

Sod it.

His gun might be fucking useless, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t do what he came here to do: Watch Emma Swan kick arse and take names.

She really was in fine form. She might have been surprised by her appointment to team captain, but Killian wasn’t. She was the only one among them who actually looked like they knew what they were doing, and objectively speaking, she looked good doing it.

And as the reluctantly appointed leader, she was the one leading the charge to the enemy compound, organising her little band using military tactics she’d probably lifted straight from Che Guevara. This was exactly why people shouldn’t cross history professors.

Expending the last of his lung capacity, Killian caught up with Emma’s splinter group, just in time to hear the electronic sound effect that signalled a direct hit to the man to his left.

“Six o’ clock,” Killian bellowed, diving for the cover of the nearest tree stump. Emma was already there, pinned down by two more red-vests advancing from the other side.

“Alright, Swan?” he asked, wiping at his forehead with the sleeve of his useless arm.

To his delight, she actually seemed to be enjoying this, her face aflush with activity, her grin wide. She turned his way, tucking a stray tuft of hair behind her ear. “Give us the the tools, and we will finish the job.”

Churchill. She was quoting fucking Churchill.

But as she heard her compatriots fall to enemy fire, he could see the enthusiasm in her eyes visibly dim with each electronic squeal. If they stayed here too long, Rambo and the lasses from Gender Studies were going to pick them off, one by one.

Someone had to do something, and quickly.

And that someone might as well be the eejit with the gun that didn’t bloody work.

Nudging Emma’s shoulder, he pointed to a pile of boulders a little way off. “You make for those, and I’ll cover you.”

Emma looked from the pile, back to Killian. “Are you crazy? That’s like twenty yards. There’s no way we’ll both make it.”

“Only one way to know for sure,” Killian said, rising from his hiding place, and giving her no choice but to follow his lead.

“Aargh,” she cried, scrambling to her feet, rifle at the ready. “You know I hate you, right?”

“Aye, Swan,” he said, swinging to face his aggressors head-on. “I know.”

It wasn’t a drawn-out death.

To Killian’s satisfaction, a few of them had turned and fled when they saw him stand up. But Rambo, the bearded leader of the opposition seemed clue-ier than his friends. He saw the diversion for what it was. And as Emma darted out from behind the stump, he set his sights accordingly. Might have gotten her too, if Killian hadn’t stepped into the line of fire.

“You do know the purpose of the game is not to get hit, right?” Rambo called after him.

But instead of replying, Killian merely slung his rifle up onto his shoulder and headed back to the holding area, humming a song under his breath.

In the end, Emma decimated them, as he knew she would. All but Rambo, that cocksure son of a bitch. He had military training, of that Killian was certain. Or at least a stint in the cadets. He was a little too at ease, in Killian’s view.

Still, Emma managed to hold her own, waiting the bastard out until the clock ran down.

A draw.

He thought he might shout Emma a drink for this. Something tall and refreshing. But as she emerged from the stand of trees, still aglow with near-victory, he saw she wasn’t alone. Rambo strode along beside her, the two of them getting on suspiciously well for people who’d just been trying to “kill” one another.

Killian shrank back, letting himself fall back into a crowd of archaeology professors, comparing aches and pains. They certainly weren’t of the Indiana Jones mould.

He wouldn’t say he watched them. He merely observed them, like any other dispassionate member of the fourth estate. And how could he not notice his subject’s pleasure at this man’s company? The way her gaze dropped downward as they shook hands, a rare show of shyness.

Emma liked him. Rambo. Whatever his name was. Even a blind man could see it.

As far as the project was concerned, this was good news. Emma Swan, single and ready to mingle? Hell, it was a boon. Not to say one’s social life never suffered from embarking on a new relationship, but it was a damned sight better than Emma staying home every night with her marking and her Netflix.

So why did the sight of Emma typing her number into the man’s phone suddenly make Killian feel queasy? This was a good thing.

He should be happy for her.

Getting home took a little longer than anticipated. Not least because he stopped by the Jingles on the way and emptied out their stores of Captain Morgan.

“Maybe you should call it a night, eh?” the bar man suggested, just around the time Killian’s vision started going blurry.

Recalling Liam’s last lecture about “unnecessary expenses” he walked the rest of the way home, taking a somewhat circuitous route through a few back gardens.

He struggled with the lock, frustrated to find his keys kept slipping from his hand. He almost had it when the door suddenly fell in, and Killian with it.

“What the-”

Who else but Liam stood over him, arms crossed in that same look of quiet disappointment he’d been wearing for years.

“Good night was it?” his brother asked coolly, reaching forward to help him up.

“Geroff me, you judgy git,” Killian scowled, rising to his feet perfectly well on his own, with nary a wobble. “Would ‘ave been fine, you hadn’t opened the door like that.”

Liam stepped away, hands held up in surrender. “If you insist.” And then after a moment, “Why do you look like you’ve been at the Somme?”  

Killian looked down at himself, to the best approximation of combat clothes his wardrobe had to offer, now caked in mud to the knee, and streaked with dirt elsewhere.

“Laser tag,” Killian replied. “S’for work.”

“Hmm,” Liam hummed. “Let me guess, you weren’t on the winning side?”

If you wanted to get technical about it, it had been a draw. But deep down, Killian couldn’t kid himself on that front. 

Whichever side he’d been on had definitely been the losing one.

And how were drinks with Rambo? KJ

Graham. His name is Graham. ES

So it is. Does that sharp rebuke mean that in addition to guerrilla warfare, the man also excels at scintillating conversation over cocktails? KJ

Has anyone ever told you you’re a shameless gossip? ES

Once or twice. Though I much prefer the term “indomitable busybody.” That’s my favourite. KJ

Gee, I wonder why. And for your information, it wasn’t terrible. ES

Coming from you, Swan, that’s almost a ringing endorsement. KJ

23  25-32-33-45  51-33-43  42-33-33-25    42-22-11-42  12-26-11-41-42   16-33-36  31-15. ES

23’31  41-43-36-15  23 22-11-44-15  32-33  23-14-15-11  45-22-11-42  5-33-43  31-15-11-32. KJ

Whatever you say, buddy. Good night, Killian. ES

Good night, Emma. KJ