#thanks to bat for putting up with this mEME

[shurisneakers]

unsolved (xi)

Summary: Bucky doesn't even believe in the paranormal. So who the hell thought it was a good idea to stick him in a series about everything haunted for the internet's amusement? With his loose-canon of a teammate who has no concept of subtlety or shits left to give, to make things even worse. (Buzzfeed unsolved AU)

Warnings: swearing, frustrated bucky, obnoxious reader, ghosts,

A/N: hai. we're into the double digits. thanks for sticking around this long!! jsyk there are like 17 parts planned to this series so

Previous part || Series masterlist

This is a dream scenario.

It’s the weekend, which means he should be out somewhere fighting off bats in a haunted cave or sitting in a dark room muttering Bloody Mary’s name fifteen times like a broken tape recorder because you insisted the first three didn’t work.

Instead, by 5 p.m., he’s in bed. With a book. There’s even a cup of coffee sitting beside him, growing cold. 

Really, he should be enjoying this. It’s rarely this quiet, and especially as the sun went down, the absence of your shenanigans, the lack of you dragging him into another bullshit horror hunt should be greatly freeing. 

But something feels wrong.

Because something went wrong in his childhood, and then something very definitely went wrong in his adulthood, Bucky feels uneasy with the peace.

He turns a page. At least, he thinks he does. He’s not sure he’s actually read a single word. Gun to his head, he would not be able to tell you the plot.

By 6 p.m., his eyes have zeroed in more on the door than the actual book in his hands.

His phone is on full volume, waiting for a notification. He made sure his floor access was open. His windows are not blacked out. He has even left his door cracked open slightly, which feels wrong to the fundamental fibres of his being. 

Nothing.

By 6:30 p.m., his coffee is still half full and lukewarm. God, he did not like that drink. The only thing he's done is flipped through pages for the sake of feeling like he’s accomplished something.

By 6:37 p.m., he’s out the door.

His grumbling is only half-hearted, which he hates. There is something much heavier that sits in his chest. Anticipation. Worry. Fucking blergh. 

He’s never been on your floor before. He knows you share it with Nat, the way he does with Steve, but he's never actually visited it. Sure he regularly makes sure you're dropped off to your floor now , but he hasn't actually stepped foot there, no matter how much you invite him in to your bedroom.

He assumes it’s similar, just with fewer World War II relics and less The Price Is Right. 

By 6:45 p.m., he’s knocking loudly on your door.

There’s no answer.

His jaw tightens.  

He wouldn’t blame you if you had just upped and left. He just thought Maya would beat you to it, because the second the article dropped, it was like the Avengers personally made it their mission to have the next week become a shitstorm of them making headlines for the most insane things. He thinks she's on sick leave. Or she should be, at least.

Clint posted a picture from inside a JP Morgan bank vault. Nat walked straight into a national live broadcast and joined in on a debate she had no context to. 

Sam did something. Bucky wasn't sure, but he saw Maya rubbing her temples and assumed it was bad.

Then, after Steve gets in an argument online and matches donations to Planned Parenthood and ends up donating nearly 100K, Maya declared a state of emergency. 

Every single one of them was put on lockdown, all social media passwords were changed, and every future press interview was canceled.

Bucky never even got the chance to plan what his disaster would be.

But even after all that, he had heard from you. Big, congratulatory messages flooding the group chat. Dumb memes. Responses to inside jokes no one else understood.

So where the hell were you now?

He bangs his fist against the door again.

Nothing.

A muscle in his jaw twitches. He raises his metal hand, just one second away from really turning the door into a pile of splinters-

It swings open before he gets the chance.

And there you are, staring at him like he’s the crazy one. The audacity. 

“Wha– oh.” You blink at him. “Why are you trying to break into my room?”

For a moment, it is just two idiots staring at each other.

Finally, he lets out a low, “What’s wrong with you?”

You raise a brow. “Could you be more specific?”

Only then does he really look at you.

The skin under your eyes is darker than usual, your arms crossed tightly over your oversized sweatshirt. Official Avengers merch, two sizes too big and the same colour you got him because you insisted you had to have matching fits. There’s a slump in your shoulders that wasn't there before.

“No video today?” he asks gruffly.

“Nah,” you sigh. “You’re free to do whatever.”

He stares.

You stare back.

“What?” you demand.

“Is this because of the news?” he asks slowly.

“I’m just tired, Buck.” You rub at your temple, like you're already exhausted with the conversation. “Haven’t I annoyed you enough this week?”

Logically, he should be happy about this. You did annoy him. Constantly. Every day. Even off the clock.

So why the hell is he still standing outside your door?

“Don’t you have something better to do?” you ask, leaning against the doorway. “I thought you were watching True Detective with Steve.”

“Dunno where he is,” Bucky mumbles. Which is a lie, because Steve was very much in his room, waiting for him but Bucky had ghosted him to instead come be a clown outside your door. 

You squint at him. “What are you doing here?”

He shifts his weight. “Thought you were dead.”

A snort escapes you before you can stop it. “Why? ‘Cause I didn’t come knocking today?”

He doesn’t respond.

Your jaw drops slightly. “Wait. You came looking for me because you missed me?”

“I didn’t–” he starts, then immediately gives up halfway through the sentence because he already knows he’s lost.

Your grin is too smug. “You came all this way because you missed me.”

His entire body tenses. “I just came to check.”

You press your lips into a thin line, fighting back laughter. “That is so cute. Just say you’re in love with me. I’ll even kiss ya if you ask nicely.”

Bucky turns immediately on his heel. “Goodbye. You can die now.”

You laugh outright at that, and he shakes his head as he stalks back down the hall. Which is good. Which means things are back to normal. He can go find Steve and get done with the stupid fucking vampire show or whatever--

“Actually--” your voice calls out behind him. “D’you wanna come in?”

His body actually stops.  Turns back slightly, warily asking over his shoulder, “…Why?”

You shrug, leaning against the doorframe. “No pressure. I was just gonna watch old conspiracy theories and figure out whether they’re legit or just old Avengers missions. You can sit in the corner and brood or whatever it is you do.”

“I do not brood,” Bucky says, brooding. 

“Sure, buttercup.” You wave dismissively. “See you next week, then.”

Bucky stares for a second longer, then pivots.

Then pivots again.

Finally, with a deep sigh, he walks back toward your door.

Bucky doesn’t expect your room to look like his room. His room, by standards, was the second worst room in the Tower, only second to Clint’s fucking swamp dungeon. 

But he also doesn’t expect it to look like this.

It’s too empty.

A bed, a desk, a laptop. A single, half-empty mug on the nightstand.

The only thing that makes it yours is the box shoved in the corner overflowing with fan mail, little gifts, and trinkets from people. Stickers, keychains, neatly folded letters– even a framed cross-stitch that says "if we die, we die together."

Which he doesn’t remember you saying, but sounds exactly like something you would. The thought makes his chest feel weird. 

But beyond that, it looks like a room doesn’t require much time to be packed up.

Something about that sits wrong with him.

“You’ve done a lot with the place.”

“Finally get you into my bedroom, and the first thing you do is insult my interior design,” you say. You gesture at the lamp on your desk. “Look at that lamp. I got it from the same trashcan I found Alpine in. It’s got character.”

Bucky squints at the lamp. Now that you mention it, the shade is bent at a weird angle and the base is slightly burnt.

“Really livens up the space,” he tells you.

“Thanks, I try.”

You flop onto the bed, stretching your arms overhead with a sigh. 

He hesitates for a beat before finally settling onto the floor, knees pulled to his chest.

You blink. “Why the hell are you sitting on my floor?”

“I’m comfortable,” he grumbles.

“You– I have chairs.” You gesture to them. “They’re free, I swear. You do not have to do this.”

“I’m good.”

You narrow your eyes, but let it go, shifting to sit near the edge of the bed. Your knee almost bumps his shoulder.

For a moment, there’s just the hum of your laptop, the faint flicker of the TV waiting on a selection screen.

“How are ya?” he asks, voice lower than usual.

“Mighty fine. You?”

He gives you a look.

You blow out a breath, arms crossing loosely over your stomach. “I’m fine.”

“Then why do you look like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like you haven’t slept in a week.”

Your lips curve up in the corners. “We can change that. Wanna sleep with me now?”

Bucky doesn’t react. At all.

Which is worse. Because he should roll his eyes. Should scoff. Should grumble some insult under his breath.

But he doesn’t. Your smirk falters slightly.

You clear your throat. “God, you’re no fun.”

“Why’d you call off the video shoot?”

“Why must I work all the time? Why can’t I take a simple break without being interrogated?”

He just keeps looking at you. It’s that new kind you’ve noticed him doing now. The kind that lingers half a second too long, that feels heavier than it should.

You shift. Rub at the edge of your sleeve.

“It’s…” You hesitate. “Not been the best week.”

Bucky adjusts how he sits. He doesn’t doesn’t dig, only keeps his eyes trained on you. 

You take a deep breath, then force a grin. “Been watching Glee compilations till, like, 1 a.m. Pretty sure that’s the real issue.” 

Bucky makes a low, unimpressed noise. Still, he lets it go—for now.

Instead, he asks, “So what’s your plan?”

You blink. “Huh?”

“For making yourself feel better.”

That makes you pause. What’s the plan? Like he’s already factored himself in, as if whatever comes next includes him.

You open your mouth, then shut it.

“Paranormal shit.”

You weren’t even thinking about it. It just… happened, probably because he’s here and it’s the subconscious working in mysterious ways. 

But Bucky’s reaction is not what you expect.

He does not shut it down instantly. Call it nonsense. Leave the room. All of which he has done before, to varying degrees.

Instead now he looks at you like he’s used to it. Like he’s thinking about it.

Something in your stomach tightens. You beat it down with a stick. 

You grin. “Oh, you want to.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

He exhales sharply through his nose. “What paranormal shit?” 

“Well, I don’t know. I didn’t expect you to agree.”

“I didn’t agree.”

“You told me so with your eyes. You gave me signals.”

“You’re insane,” he mutters. "I did not give you signals."

But you suddenly perk up like it’s given you an idea. 

“What?” he demands.  

“You ever talked to ghosts?”

Kinda.

“No.”

“Well, that’s what we’re doing today.”

“What?”

“Ouija time, baby,” you say, already moving towards the box in the corner. “Now I don’t have a board but fear not. I shall make one. Custom-built. And then we will auction it off for a lot of money when you fake your death.”

“Why do you already sound like you’re prepared for that?”

“Because I am.” You rummage through the box. “Let’s see. We’ll need a marker, some cardboard–”

“You got a ring we can use?” he asks with a sigh.

“No, ‘cause you haven’t put one on me yet.” 

Bucky shuts up after that. 

You grin, pulling out a shot glass and wiggling it between your fingers. “Classy, right?”

Bucky stares at it. “Has that been used before?”

“Any remnants are just a little treat for the ghosties” you reply, flopping onto the floor and immediately getting to work, drawing out letters in marker.

Bucky watches you, something unreadable flickering across his face.

This is so fucking stupid.

Still, all he does is shifts to sit properly, arms crossed over his chest, watching as you finish drawing out the board with little squiggles decorating the corner and everything. 

He doesn’t even realize how close he’s leaning until you glance at him, something teasing and careful in your gaze.

And for a second– just a second- maybe he forgets how to breathe.

Then you smirk, knocking him right out of it. 

“Alright, soldier,” you say, grinning. “You ready?”

Bucky gives you a flat look.

The room is quiet, except for the hum of the TV and the scritch-scratch as you add in finishing touches. 

You hold up the board.

It’s terrible.

The letters are uneven and the numbers are already smudged from where you’ve dragged your sleeve over them.

You sit back, admiring your work, before grabbing the shot glass and plopping it in the center.

You nod solemnly. “It’s ready. Now put your hands on the planchette.”

Bucky sighs deeply, metal fingertips touching the top of the glass.  

You clear your throat dramatically. “Spirits, if you are here, make yourselves known.”

Silence.

Bucky nods. “Guess that’s our answer–”

The shot glass suddenly shoots out.

His muscles tighten immediately. His fingers twitch like he’s ready to grab a knife out of thin fucking air.

You, however, fail miserably in hiding a grin.

Bucky’s eyes narrow immediately. “You’re pushing it.”

“I am not,” you lie.

He stares.  

“…Okay, maybe a little.”

Bucky groans, dragging a hand over his face. “I cannot believe I am wasting my night on this.”

“You’re just mad that the ghosts like me more.”

Bucky does not dignify that with a response.

“Put your hands back there, boy.”

So he reluctantly places his fingers back on the shot glass.

You clear your throat again.

“Oh great and powerful spirits, what secrets do you have for us?”

Silence.

Bucky watches unamused, watching as the letters spell out in lightning fast speed:

Y - O - U - R - 

A pause.

M - O -M.

Bucky lifts his hands and leans back.

“That’s the ghosts talking, not me.”

Bucky just sits there, silent.

You wiggle your fingers dramatically over the board. “Maybe you’re the problem. Maybe the ghosts just don’t like you.”

Bucky snorts, “Right. I’m the problem here, not the fool who used a shot glass to talk to them.”

“The shot glass is genius, alcohol is an ice breaker in most social situation."

"What about this is a social situation?"

"Well it's you, me, and a couple of babes from the underworld. By definition it's a social situation, and a cool one at that."

“Why aren’t your ghosts talkng to us then?”

“Maybe they’re ageist.”

Bucky glares at you.

“You’re practically ancient. Maybe they just hate old people.”

“Maybe if I was a centuries-old spirit and the first thing I heard from the afterlife was your voice, I’d go straight back to hell.”

Your mouth falls open, before you let out an outraged scoff.

“Oh, that’s rich coming from–”

You stop mid-sentence when Bucky shifts, leaning back slightly, arms stretched behind him, his body loose and relaxed. 

There’s a stupid smile ghosting at his mouth. 

“Oh my God.” You latch onto it instantly. “You’re enjoying this.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are.”

The sleeves of his hoodie are pushed up just enough to expose the solid cut of his forearms, the angle of his jaw sharp against the dim glow of your terrible table lamp. 

His expression is too neutral, too blank. Like he’s waiting for you to react.

Something about it catches you off guard. It’s not intentional. It’s not even anything. But your stomach tightens anyway.

And suddenly, you’re aware of how close you’re sitting, how he feels bigger in the small space, how there’s this awful, annoying sense of recognition curling at the edges of something you’re not ready to name.

Bucky notices the way your expression shifts even if it was just for a second, his eyebrows knitting together. 

You clear your throat immediately. “Anyway. Let’s ask them something real.”

“Oh, now we’re asking real questions?”

“Spirits!” You slap your hands onto the board. “What is Bucky’s deepest, darkest secret?”

He rolls his eyes.

The shot glass has not moved in half an hour.

It’s honestly humiliating at this point.

You refuse to acknowledge this.

Bucky, however, has fully accepted it.

“So what now?” he asks, leaning back against your bed, fingers drumming idly against his knee.

You stare at the board. “Maybe it’s a slow connection.”

Bucky blinks. “Slow how?”

“Like two bars, not four?”

“You think ghosts have bad WiFi?”

“I don’t know, Bucky, I’ve never died before.”

“I have. WiFi’s not the issue.”

You shove his shoulder. 

Bucky’s stupid smirk does not fade. 

 “Can we pack this up, or are you going to keep going until your humiliation kink ends?"

"I see you've been thinking about me and kinks in--."

"Stop talking."

You narrow your eyes at him, muttering something that sounds suspiciously like ‘fascist’, but place your fingers on the shot glass.

Bucky does the same.

You inhale deeply. “Spirits, is there anything you would like to say to us?”

Silence.

“Maybe they don’t know English.”

“Sure.”

“Should we try Morse code?”

“No.”

You hum, ignoring him. “What about—”

“Hey spirits. What’s the real reason why this one’s hiding from everyone?” Bucky cuts in smoothly.

It just slips out.

He looks as surprised as you do, but he recovers way quicker. 

He keeps his eyes on the board, like maybe if he doesn’t make a big deal out of it, it won’t become a big deal.

The shot glass doesn’t move. Of course. 

But you pull your hands away first.

Bucky watches, quietly, as you sit back, pressing your palms against your thighs.

“That’s a dumb question,” you mutter.

Bucky hums. “Yeah?”

You exhale sharply, shaking your head. “Yeah.”

A beat.

You force a grin and shove the Ouija board aside.

“Well,” you announce. “That was disappointing.”

He stretches his arms over his head, not looking at you as he says, “You’re avoiding.”

You pause mid-movement. “Avoiding what?”

“You know.”

You freeze for just half a second, then shake your head, laughing awkwardly. “I haven’t–”

“You have,” he says simply.

It’s the certainty in his voice. Like he already knows the answer, and he’s just waiting for you to say it out loud.

You sigh. “It’s stupid.”

Bucky shrugs, looking back at the board. “Not what I asked.”

A moment passes.

“It’s the name thing,” you say finally, voice flat.

“The name thing?”

“Maya’s trying to relaunch me. Or, like, reintroduce me. Whatever.” You wave a hand. “She’s planning this whole… thing. New identity, new codename, new brand. Something public-friendly.”

Bucky doesn’t say anything.

“She’s just doing her job,” you say quickly, like you’re cutting him off before he can say anything reasonable. “I get it. I do. But it pisses me off.”

Bucky hums. “Why?”

“It’s dumb,” you mutter, kicking at a loose thread in the carpet. “I shouldn’t care this much. But now, instead of just letting me deal with it, I have to make it a thing. I have to let everyone see me deal with it. They want me to launch like I’m some new product. Like they get to decide what version of me gets to exist.”

Bucky is silent for a long second.

Not because he doesn’t get it, but because he does.

Finally, after a while, he leans back slightly, “So what do you wanna do?”

You blink. “I don’t know. That’s the problem.”

Bucky raises an eyebrow. “You don’t know? Or you just don’t like your options?”

Your mouth presses into a thin line.

Because hes right-- it’s not that you don’t know what to do. Stay silent? People fill in the gaps themselves. Let Maya spin it? You become someone else’s project. Reject it outright? You’re the problem.

It’s not even a big deal. It’s just a name. A stupid PR campaign. But every option feels like losing. Like a trap.

You exhale. “I just don’t wanna think about it right now.”

Bucky nods. Like that answer’s good enough.

And for some reason, that makes your shoulders loosen a little.

For the first time all week, it feels like someone actually heard you.

You shift, stretching your arms dramatically. “Anyway. That’s my tragic backstory.”

Bucky exhales sharply. “More tragic things have happened to you.”

“Yeah, like some blue-eyed Avenger-boy not asking me out.”

“No.”

“Let me have my moment.”

A silence rests lightly. 

“Alright,” he mutters. “What dumb shit are we doing next?”

“I don’t know. You want pizza?”

“I meant about your situation.”

You sigh, stretching your legs out in front of you. “Nothing. It’s fine. It’s not like I have a choice, anyway.”

Well that’s not entirely true. 

It’s an idea that creeps up a little too fast. It makes him worry about how much influence you’ve actually had on him. 

Bucky hums. “You’ve got one more option.”

You quirk an eyebrow. “Oh?”

He tilts his head, casual, almost lazy. “Yeah.”

When he finally tells you, your entire expression changes.

Slowly, deliberately, a grin spreads across your face.

“Oh,” you say, “you are evil.”

Bucky just leans back on his hands, completely at ease. “I had nothing to do with this.”

Twenty minutes later, the board is still on the floor. 

The shot glass is still doing absolutely nothing.

You and Bucky are back to arguing over whether or not ghosts have good taste in movies when your phone explodes with a call.

You barely have time to read the caller ID before--

“You released a fucking internet poll?!” Maya’s voice bursts through the speaker, loud and borderline hysterical– but not in a bad way.

Bucky immediately presses his lips together, suppressing a smirk.

You, however, grin like a criminal.

“Define released,” you say, like this is the most casual thing in the world.

“Oh, you know exactly what you did.”

“I do,” you agree easily. “But I like hearing you say it.”

Maya groans. “You put your entire name change up for a public vote.”

Bucky coughs into his hand.

You tilt your head. “And?”

“And?!” Maya lets out a breath, “They're all chaotic fucking names and the poll already has two hundred thousand votes.”

Bucky immediately stares at you.

You blink, turning to look at him dramatically. 

“Two hundred thousand?” you repeat, voice too calm.

Bucky raises an eyebrow.

You grin.

“Oh, I’m so famous.”

Bucky groans, while Maya is losing her mind on the other end.

“Oh my God,” she mutters. “Why are you like this.”

You shrug, flipping onto your back, staring at the ceiling. “I would say I was born this way but I was created. In a test tube and everything.”

Maya scoffs.

And Bucky, for some reason, has a look on this face, like he’s enjoying this more than he should.

Then, after a second, he mouths, “Have an actual conversation.”

You roll your eyes but tilt your head back toward the phone.

“Alright, fine,” you sigh. “Lemme step out. Yell at me in private.”

Maya exhales. “It’s not yelling.”

“It’s a little yelling.”

You roll onto your feet, shuffling toward the door

“Back in a sec,” you tell him.

Bucky just nods, watching as you disappear into the hallway.

And just like that he’s alone. Sitting on the floor. Next to a completely useless Ouija board.

And he doesn’t know why, but his fingers twitch.

Not because he believes in it. Not because he thinks it’ll work. 

But… just because. 

Instead, he just shakes his head, rolling his shoulders back. 

“You’re losing it, Barnes,” he mutters under his breath.

But then, without warning-

The shot glass moves.

Bucky immediately stiffens, staring at the door but you’re still having an animated conversation with Maya, fingers pressed into your forehead. 

Bucky’s gaze drags back to the board. 

He doesn’t move an inch. Doesn’t even breathe.

Just watches as the glass drags itself across the board, slow and deliberate.

One letter.

Then another.

J.

Bucky’s jaw tightens.

A.

His stomach twists.

Then–

M.

And the shot glass tips over. 

His heart stops.

And suddenly, he’s not in your room anymore.

He’s eight years old, sitting on the floor of a Brooklyn apartment, scribbling nonsense into a notebook while Rebecca Barnes, all of six years old, with messy braids and jelly-covered fingers, sticks a homemade label on his lunchbox.

“Becca.”

“What?”

“That’s not how you spell James.”

“Yes, it is.”

“No, it’s not.”

“Yes, it is.”

Bucky presses a hand against his face. “Mom—”

 He blinks.

The board is in front of him again.

The shot glass is still. He doesn’t know how long he’s been staring at it.

His head feels weirdly light. His chest feels too tight.

The door clicks shut behind you, and Bucky keeps still, in a way that says nothing happened.

Because if he doesn’t deal with it now, then it isn’t real. And if it isn’t real, then he doesn’t have to think about it.

You flop onto the bed, letting out a long, theatrical sigh.

“Well,” you exhale, dragging the word out. “That was a wild experience.”

Bucky registers the words, but not the meaning.

It’s like he hears you, but the sound is coming through the wrong frequency.

“Yeah?” he mutters, barely processing it.

The sound of your voice fills the space, but it doesn’t quite pull him in.

“Oh, yeah.” You roll onto your stomach, kicking your feet behind you. “First, she yelled at me. Then she was impressed, which honestly I think pissed her off more.”

Bucky nods. Because that’s what he’s supposed to do.

You’re still talking. That should ground him.

And yet his mind is somewhere else entirely.

The air feels off. Like the word JAM is still written in front of him.

“--already drafting apology emails before I even hung up.”

Bucky blinks once, twice.

He knows he should be engaged, responding, moving.

But instead, he just mutters, “Yeah.”

“You’re not listening to me.”

Bucky blinks. Finally, he fully snaps back.

His eyes flick toward you, registering you properly for the first time.

The way you’re watching him now, eyebrows raised, like you’ve been waiting for him to catch up.

He searches for the last thing you said.

Finds nothing.

Shit.

You press a hand to your chest, looking deeply entertained. “Are you ignoring me?”

Bucky scoffs. “Not right now specifically.”

“What was the last thing I said?”

Bucky opens his mouth. Then closes it. 

“Wow. Incredible.” You clap your hands together once. “I’m heartbroken. Betrayed. Ignored.”

Bucky shakes his head, dragging a hand down his face. “Jesus Christ.”

“Yeah this must be what he felt like."

"Wow."

"No, no, it’s fine.” You wave a hand, mock casual. “I’ll just go die then.”

Bucky groans. “I’m back.”

“You sure?”

“Yes.”

“Because if you need to space out again, just know that I have an open window–”

Bucky balls-up the ouija board and tosses it at your head.

You shriek.

He’ll think about it later.

Whenever later is. 

The laptop screen flickers in the dim room, casting weird shadows against the wall.

You and Bucky are back on the floor, legs stretched out, backs leaning against the bed, watching one of the most ridiculous conspiracy theory videos you’ve ever seen.

The narrator speaks with the conviction of a man who has nothing to lose.

“--and that’s why I’m telling you, there’s no way the Pentagon incident was just a gas leak. Witnesses reported a mysterious figure in black who allegedly disappeared into the shadows–”

“That was Nat.”

You pause the video. “What.”

Bucky doesn’t even look away from the screen.

He gestures lazily toward the blurry figure circled in red.

“That’s her. Right before she cut the power and knocked out two guards. The whole thing took, like, a minute.”

You stare at him.

Then at the screen.

Then at him again.

“I fucking knew it.” You gesture vaguely at the screen. “I called this years ago. Everyone told me I was an idiot. ‘Oh, the footage is too blurry, you can’t even tell if it’s a person.’ Amateurs.”

“Feel validated?”

“Oh, hugely.”

He shakes his head, amused.

You squint at the screen. “What else? What’s real, what’s bullshit?”

Bucky thinks for a second.

He points to another clip.

“Alright, see this?”

A new segment starts playing, showing grainy footage of someone scaling the side of a high-security building.

The narrator’s voice kicks in again. “--but the real question is, who was this shadowy figure? And how did they evade detection when–”

“That’s me.”

You blink.

Bucky nods. “Stockholm. 2012. Whole mission went sideways, had to improvise.”

You exhale, pressing a hand over your face.

“Oh, my God.”

Bucky smirks. “Something wrong?”

“You’re telling me that a significant percentage of government cover-ups are just you and Nat running errands?”

Bucky shrugs. “I wouldn’t call them errands.”

“What would you call them, then?”

He thinks about it for a second.  

“Side quests.”

You nod slowly.

“Right,” you say. “Of course. Are the lizard people real?”

Bucky huffs a short laugh. “I’m not answering that.”

“Wow. Interesting.” You stroke your chin. “You didn’t say no.”

Bucky rolls his eyes. You grin.

The videos keep playing, but neither of you are really watching anymore.

The narrator is still droning on, something about classified operations and shadow governments, but the energy has shifted.

Your eyes feel a little heavier now.

Bucky can tell.

You’ve stopped fidgeting, stopped making comments, stopped cracking jokes at his expense.

You’re just there, leaning into his side, slowly sinking deeper into the moment.

He exhales, tilting his head back against the bed, letting himself relax, too.

The silence between you is comfortable. Easy.

And before he fully registers it, your head is in his lap.

Bucky freezes.

It happens so smoothly that for a second, he wonders if you even realize what you did.

You don’t say anything.

Just curl up slightly, tucking your arms under your head, pressing your cheek against his thigh like it’s nothing.

Like this is normal.

Bucky forces himself to breathe.

To not react too much.

To not make it something. Because it’s not.

Right.

The glow from the laptop screen flickers, illuminating the soft edges of your face.

Something in Bucky’s chest tugs.

You sigh, voice quiet, almost lazy.

“Thanks for hanging out with me,” you murmur. “I needed that.”

Bucky swallows.

“Don’t mention it,” he mumbles.

And then before he can think too hard about it, his fingers brush lightly over your scalp.

A small, absentminded gesture.

Barely there.

But you don’t move.

Just breathe slower. Sink deeper.

Bucky knows he’s going to regret this later. His back is already complaining, his brain is already filing this away for future analysis.

But you look too at ease to move.

So he stays right there.

here’s my ko-fi if you’d like to support my writing!

to those who comment and tell me what u think-- i love u. ur the sole reason i haven't abandoned this lil fic. thank u for everything mwah <333333

Next chapter

to know when this fic updates, please follow @shurisneakersupdates and turn on post notifications! it's the only way tumblr will let me have a taglist and i don't post there at all except for fics </3

[rtv-puzzlevision-studios]

☆ THE RTV!PUZZLEVISION TOUR [Part 6 - Final]

Man it’s been one hell of a ride!

I can’t believe we have reached the end. Thanks to everyone that participated and all that gave this story a chance!

Participant’s actions:

Becky

Lilith

Lucas

The Scammer

Nira

Grinnames

Marie

Rayas

Lari

Creature

Nia

Harley

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

The dark channel was thick with tension as the participants stared up at the at best 24 ft tall TV head who still loomed over their way home, ready to cut them off.

A few people were taking a fighting stance, ready to take Puzzles on to manage their escape out of this dimension and the studio.

SMG4 now watched as Sci stepped in front of Little Puzzles, shielding him as she summoned her trident once again.

To the side, he could see Grinnames’s tentacles return, now in a pair of six and far more stronger than he had seen them before, as well as the cat eared girl grabbing her axe as her hair turned into a bright pink and wings spread on her back and even the Scammer using the figure she offered previously as a makeshift bat.

However, there were also some people like the brown haired girl that attacked him before who straight up gave up, the sight of their exit being blocked enough to rob them of hope.

Even though SMG4 understood the feeling all too well he really hoped they would at least try to stay alive because Puzzles certainly wouldn’t hesitate to take them out at this point.

With his only weapon now probably empty and owned by another person, the meme guardian himself was left without weapons.

Not good.

Even though the sight brought back some really unwanted memories and although he didn’t have his friends with himself like last time, SMG4 was not ready to just go out like that.

Least he could do was put up some fight.

He would be damned if he let that psychopathic prick win again.

With that in mind, a determined look settled on his face as he grabbed some pebbles off the ground.

Nothing special, certainly nothing strong but it was all he got.

RTV meanwhile had watched their reactions with a cold expression, before sneering as he now stepped over the portal, blocking it completely.

“Well, at least you don’t make it BORING…”

With that he suddenly charged forward, the participants quickly scattering before they could end up as a pancake beneath his feet or backhanded by his broken hand that he now let fly through the crowd.

Some were unlucky and not fast enough, getting impacted by the metal hand and thrown against the nearby walls, floor or scattering dangerously close to the edge of the cliff.

The blue meme guardian managed to throw himself to the floor just in time, feeling the wind of the attack pass over him and having a view of the unlucky one horned girl, Lilith,l next to her getting hit and slapped against a rocky wall, knocking the protest right out of her.

Soon as the hand flew past him, SMG4 quickly got back to his feet, scrambling away from the tall shadow of the TV man casting over him.

He now observed as the one horned girl transformed into a dragon, protectively moving in front of a group of people that was unfortunate enough to have landed in RTV’s sights.

What followed was a bright explosion between the beam fired from Puzzles finger gun and the fire spewn by the dragon girl as she tried to hold it off, but RTV didn’t back off.

SMG4’s hand tightened around the pebble as he watched the girl’s flames slowly extinguish.

Sure, they started off rocky back in the Social Media Department, but like hell was he going to let her die too.

Taking a deep breath, SMG4 prepared himself to do something really stupid, taking aim - and throwing the pebble right at RTV’s head.

There was a small pling noise as it harmlessly bounced off RTV's head, but the reaction was still immediate. Slowly the TV head turned into SMG4’s direction, the screen having turned to showing only a set of eyes that was now piercing through the meme guardian.

Then, he pulled his functioning hand away from the group he had just targeted and charged in SMG4’s direction instead, fingers clawed, ready to tear him apart as soon as they got a hold of him.

“Shit, shit, shit, shit-”

Now running for his dear life, SMG4 was thrown back by the huge blow that followed as the hand hit the ground behind him, sending him rolling down the cliff and onto the next platform.

“Uuugh…”, SMG4 groaned, really missing his usual endurance right about now, but a lot had changed ever since Mario…

Mario.

Yet another victim of this shitbag.

Gritting his teeth, SMG4 now started kicking at his attacker as his metallic fingers grabbed him by his overall, slowly pulling him in the air and back to the main platform.

“Oh don’t glare at me like that, you actually make it seem like your silly actions even DO something…”, RTV mocked, raising SMG4 higher, leaning his own head back as he started up at the meme guardian.

His screen changed to display a pool full of molten lava.

"Let's see how quickly the flash will melt off your bones-”

“HEY!”

RTV’s screen flickered back to an annoyed expression as he turned to face Sci who had just thrown her trident at him, its three sharp ends pinning his broken hand to the rock he had rested it on.

“Really?”

The Siren simply glared back, taking a stand now.

“Let him down, safely.”

A wide grin spread on RTV’s face, as he made a mocking half bow.

“But of course-”

In the next moment he let SMG4 drop the whole 24 feet.

“...whoops.”

In the matter of moments Sci reacted, dashing forward as her body started turning, shirting in size into a pitch black Siren form with blue fins and markings.

With the help of her tail, she caught SMG4’s fall, putting him gently safely back on the floor before glaring at RTV and now ripping the trident out of the stone.

Removing his hand, RTV now took on a more wary stance as Sci was now able to measure up with him.

Raising his hand, he wanted to strike with his fist as a grapple hook wrapped itself around his arm and a small figure came into view, determined expression on her face.

RTV saw how Harley now raised a hand to something she held in her hand and in the next second a full spray of soda hit him in the face, the confusion momentarily allowing Sci to use it to her advantage and pierce actual skin along his side, causing RTV to flinch back in pain.

That was when he was additionally hit by a star that the Scammer had now flung against him in true baseball fashion, leaving yet another crack in his screen.

Scowling, Puzzles first rammed his knee into Sci’s stomach who had taken yet another approach, before grabbing the grapple hook around his arm Harley still clung to, freeing himself from it and using the wire to fling the kid into the air, before kicking the Scammer to the side, nearly sending her over the ledge if SMG4 didn't grab her just in time.

Maybe it was a bit overkill to send a child of all people flying like that but he still had his version which was considerably less problematic and Little Puzzles being a part of him, he remembered the whole conversation they just had.

Including the hug.

And he hated the feeling that he felt as well when that happened.

He didn’t need friends.

He let go of that subject a long time ago.

With that, he charged back at Sci.

While the battle of giants ensued, some participants had tried nearing the portal only to quickly take a step back as a very motivated squirrel started to lunge at them.

Having seen what happened to Sci when Nira had touched her, C!Animsay quickly took a step back, letting the white squirrel target another participant instead.

Being a non-organic Bunnybot would be fine.

Probably.

The head of the SM Department now turned back to the portal, making a step towards it.

Another look around.

She could do it.

RTV was distracted, Nira too and she knew how to deal with Wr3n.

In fact she owed none of these people anything, so why not just-

Time’s up.

☆

“SHIT!”, C!Animsay cursed as a gloved hand grabbed her by the ankles, making her lose balance, her jaw hitting the floor.

Not again.

Turning around, she kicked one of the Puzzles clones that took a hold of her, several more TV heads now slowly climbing onto the platform as well, joining Nira in her effort to keep the participants away from the exit.

One of them now jumped onto the rock Lucas was sitting on, grabbing the camera they held for whatever reason and crushing it in its hand before tackling the participant ensuing in yet another fight.

The RTV clone that was dragging C!Animsay along the floor despite her best efforts to free herself, was now getting dangerously close to the edge, ready to throw her right off.

Usually, one would probably just break the invisible wall of the channel and fall into the next channel.

But this was the LAST channel.

So how big were the chances that one would just fall, fall and fall for eternity?

She wasn’t keen to find out.

As C!Ani was dragged past over the rocky floor, she grabbed a small stone, before smashing it with all her might against the clone’s knee.

Using her chance as it lost balance, she then raised a foot, kicking it back - and straight over the edge.

With grim satisfaction she watched it disappear in the void below, growing smaller and smaller.

Oh, how she wished this could have been the original.

But alas, she had better things to do.

Unfortunately her hopes of making a clean escape after all were quickly diminished as she saw the battlefield the area had turned into in front of her.

On top of that, RTV had now stumbled back with his opponents in their direction as well, making it way too risky for her to take the chance on an escape now.

That ship has sailed.

She tried not to think too much about the ominous words of the author, instead getting ready to run as she saw another pair of clones now coming towards her.

How she wished she had a weapon right now besides a few measly stones, but RTV had been smart enough to keep those from her at all times.

Either Wr3n had stopped her from getting one or the author who never could make up her mind if she was on C!Animsay’s side or RTV’s.

Snarling at the clones who now had started running as well, she jumped over a few rock piles quickly trying to get some distance.

Behind her she could hear them charging up.

Not good.

In the next second, she let out a yelp as someone grabbed her from behind, dragging her into a nearby cave and out of sight.

“It's just me, Ra-Other Rayas," her kidnapper now whispered in reassurance into her ear. "You’re safe here."

Right, Rayas.

That fox girl with the dead twin.

Rayas now removed her hands from C!Ani’s mouth, much to her thanks.

"Where's SMG4 and Little TV boy?", she then asked.

Right, the kid version of RTV.

Last time she had seen him, he had been hugging that other girl, Harley, before running off.

"Hiding..., but... thanks.”, C!Ani now replied dryly, supposing she owed Rayas one. 

Her gaze then fell upon the word assemble of ingredients behind the fox girl.

"What is that?"

"Um,", Rayas muttered, a shy smile now settling on her face. "Animsay... would you like to help... hold on. Do you like Mario Kart?"

"I never thought you where this creative, Other Rayas. But crazy creative.", C!Animsay commented, looking a bit flabbergasted at what could only turn out to be some weird makeshift item of said game.

"It... it just popped in my head,", Rayas explained. "So, when we have the clones all lined up, toss the Spiny Chicken until it seeks the very first person; which is us. We drop behind them at the right time, and let the "shell" do its thing. Kaboom! The blast will be bright enough, Mr Puzzles will have no idea what just happened."

"Hm... if you say so…”, C!Ani replied, skepticism clear in her voice.

How high were the chances that this would explode in their faces?

Apparently that was a risk Rayas was willing to take as she now activated her sigil and spread her wings again, flying back into the air.

"But one thing,", Rayas added. "I need to do this quickly and run back to Real Me. To check on her that no one has found her."

C!Ani was about to question why RTV would even be interested in a corpse or why Rayas was so interested in her dead real self, but held her tongue.

 "And because I need some rest. If I don't stop with the stress going, I'll pass out. And don't want that to happen in midair."

Wonderful outsight.

C!Animsay just huffed, crossing her arms.

 “You better not let me drop. Dying like this WOULD be embarrassing…”

The fact that Rayas did not give her any reassurance was not lost on her and left a slight nervous feeling in her stomach as she now was raised into the air with the fox girl with the help of her cord tail.

At least she was now handed a weapon…or a shield?

She had trouble putting an umbrella in any category but it did help her deflect the shots that the clones immediately started firing upon them.

With each deflected shot, she slightly moved around a bit stronger in the air, she grabbed on more tightly to the cord, fearing what may happen if it snapped.

That was when she noticed music playing from above, specifically from Rayas ears.

“Music? Right now? Really??,”

However, she quickly shut up again when Rayas now took a turn towards the bigger battle, C!Ani now spotting that RTV had managed to get a drop on the Siren, now turning his attention towards his younger version that was unfortunate enough to be in the area right now.

That’s when Rayas threw the spiny chicken which immediately started making it’s known round of doom that had cost many racers their victory.

And probably a few limbs now that she thought about it.

Even more reason why she started no tugging at the cord tail as Rayas froze up.

“Hey, Rayas, it’s coming back, HEY-”

A second later her heart nearly leaped out of her body as Rayas made a sudden flip.

Yep, she was going to die of a stroke at this point.

Heights were not her friend.

At least the flip avoided them getting hit by the explosion that now went off below, taking out a few clones in the process and hopefully no participants.

“Animsay, I'm going to drop you off! I'm sorry, but I'm not feeling too good! But, you can keep the umbrella! I can make more later...", Rayas now spoke up again, making C!Ani freeze up as she suddenly uncurled her tail.

Wait, wait, wait, they were still flying, how was she supposed to-

Oh right, the umbrella.

Opening it, she managed to float down safely to the floor just in time as Rayas loosened her grip fully.

C!Ani watched her fly back into the direction of the cave again, before turning back to the matter at hand.

Still the same chaos as before and no winner in sight.

Taking a deep breath, she now took the umbrella in both hands.

It was not much but it was something and sure, she didn’t own anyone here anything, but as long as she was stuck…she supposed she may help the others out as well.

☆

Having shielded himself from the sudden explosion with his coat, RTV growled in frustration as he realized that Little Puzzles once again had run out of his sight.

An annoyance and a dangerous one.

Right now, the last thing he needed was that pest poisoning his own mind. 

Well, at least there was a silver lining…

His gaze now landed back on Sci, still in her Siren form, startled from the sudden explosion as well.

Slowly striding over, he now picked up the trident that had fallen next to her, as RTV previously had thrown her across the platform.

The three stab wounds she had managed to inflict on his side were shallow but still stung like hell, so who was he not to return the favor?

Sci of course quickly got back up with the help of the rocks next to her as she noticed RTV arming himself with her weapon.

The TV head weighed the trident in his hands for a second, before tilting his head at the Siren.

“I can see why you use it. Fancy AND powerful.”

He spun it to his side, the familiar devious smile growing on his face.

“You just HAVE to allow me to try it.”

With that he dashed forward, aiming to strike, but Sci quickly dodged to the side, her long body wrapping around the nearby stones, using it as shielded before dashing forward and tackling RTV.

The TV head had fallen back with a grunt, but quickly spun the trident towards Sci’s neck, forcing her to back up and enabling him to get back on his feet, stumbling slightly as his malfunctioned hand landed wrong on the floor.

As Sci immediately used the chance to slashing at him, RTV displayed a triumphant grin as he got her close enough again to switch positions of the trident by clutching it under the arm with his broken hand, exactly where Sci was aiming for right now.

Due to the missing strength, the slash that followed on her torso wasn’t deep but it still was enough to draw bright blue blood and catch her temporarily off guard.

RTV being the gentleman he was of course couldn’t refuse such an offer presenting itself.

Grabbing the trident with his functioning hand again now, he raised it like a bat, before slashing it right across Sci’s head sending her falling back, a significantly more bleeding wound now in the form of three slashes across her face.

RTV made a sound similar to clicking his tongue.

He had aimed for the eyes, damn it.

Well, still plenty of time to correct that mistake-

-or so he thought as he raised his finger gun, until the floor beneath them suddenly started crumbling and a white scaled toothy dragon suddenly broke out, tooth filled jaw grabbing RTV’s arm.

Feeling the teeth dig into his metal, but also flesh, RTV flinched back but was promptly thrown back against a rock formation.

His head hit the stone, as his hand quickly grabbed the rough surface behind him, boosting himself back up as Sci now took a stand next to the snapdragon shifter Marie, reclaiming her trident that had fallen back onto the floor.

Now this….was a slight problem.

Ignoring the warm blood trickling off his arm, soaking the white sleeve, he took yet a stand again, folding his hands as he cooed.

“Aww, the monstrosities are teaming up…how MOVING…”, he spat out the last part.

“I don’t think we are the monsters today.”, Sci now spoke, pointing her trident at RTV. “Just look around.”

The TV head tilted his head, not taking his eyes off them as his smile grew condescendingly.

“As if you didn’t plan BACKSTABBING me all along.”, he chuckled, raising his hand but quickly diving to the side as Marie charged forward and sizing down momentarily  as a trident buried itself barely over his head.

Sneering, he seized up again, grabbing Marie by the tail, ignoring the spikes scratching using his robotic hand and launching her in Sci’s direction who quickly dodged the dragon coming at her.

A blast suddenly hit his screen out of nowhere, but RTV had no time watching out for the new attacker, as he had to dodge yet another attack from the dragon.

Instead, knowing that the other would probably use that to take another strike, he allowed his screen to become akin to those in the TV dimension, the next blast getting absorbed right through and causing havoc in whatever cha

Next thing he knew, he felt something crawling up his leg and sinking its teeth into the metallic part of his torso where, hilariously enough, it did almost no damage.

As soon as the creature bit down, their previous spell of invisibility fell off, revealing the culprit as Lari to him.

Of course.

Shoulder checking Sci, he then grabbed Lari off his torso, holding her in front of him with an unimpressed expression.

“You SOMEHOW are more FOOLISH than the other one."

"HISSSSSSSSS!"

Additionally to that, this Lari continued to be just as much of a menace than his version had been by showing her fangs and attempting to use her stinger to pierce his arm, her glance reflecting the same amount of contempt he also held for her.

"Disgusting.", he growled, before he started tightening his grip, crushing Lari and causing her to scream out.

“Go...To hell.", she growled at him to which he replied with a sneer.

"This isn’t the first time I hear that...Now do me a favor and PERISH!"

With that, he threw her down against a rock, content with the crack upon impact.

Unfortunately, his actions only fueled the other two to attack with even more ferocity, specifically Marie whose pine shot forced RTV to quickly jump over to a neighbor rocky platform to avoid getting impaled by the spikes.

Some of them still put a hole through his already battered coat, one managing to graze his leg, leaving a scratch across flesh and metal beneath clothes.

Further irritated by the fact he even was taking hits, RTV balled his fist, ready to once again take hold of the Screaming Death that was now flying straight towards him again, maw opened to charge up fire inside.

That was until a loud bonk could be heard as a stalagmite hit the back of RTV’s head, sending him stumbling forward and no doubt leaving a dent.

"HA! YOU CAN'T CATCH ME!~”

Of course…he forgot how irritating Lari’s regenerative ability could be.

Attention temporarily divided, he ultimately decided to instead dodge the row of fireballs that was now shot into his direction as well as the trident that tried pinning his neck against another rock formation.

"Tch- as if I want to waste my time in capturing a vermin.", he growled for Lari to hear.

"Uhum right...like you definitely didn’t waste a LOT of that just attempting to capture a certain blue guy, a rat and even a kid- and still FAILED!!! What silly me to think you had any chances in catching me~"

Simple provocations, RTV would be a fool to fall so easily for such tricks.

“-Because obviously you can't do that even in your own dimension...do you really need your guards for everything? Damn you're pathetic- have you considered training? It may help that lack of skills-"

But alas this one had a death wish and he just really, really hated her snarky tone.

With one hand he boosted himself over the rock formation, putting temporarily some distance between him and the Siren, Screaming Death duo and instead charging at the lizard-like creature who only now seemed to register she maybe bit more off than she could chew.

“NOW YOU COME HERE PEST!", RTV barked, foot stomping onto the ground, sending her flying into the air though she still unfortunately was able to avoid his kicks and turned invisible to avoid his strikes and instead continued to appear and reappear, no doubt trying to distract him.

And he was really tempted to give in to it just to eventually crash and crush her right beneath his shoe sole.

For a few seconds, he tried chasing her, his hand decapitating the occasional rock as he tried to catch or hit Lari.

Though it was becoming quickly clear to him as he looked at his surroundings that she was trying to lead him away.

"HEY LAMPPOST! I'M RIGHT HEREEE!"

His gaze snapped back to the black lizard creature, scowling for a second as he hesitated, before his gaze snapped upwards at the stalagmite filled ceiling.

“Oh, I know.”

His hand then sped upwards, crashing against several of the sharp stony formations and sending down on Lari in a hail.

While she now scrambled to not get impaled, RTV now turned his attention back to the battlefield behind him.

Sci and Marie were starting to make their way back over to him together with a few others now that had gathered.

His gaze landed first on Nia, now with pink hair for some reason flying in the air with an axe, before falling onto Nicknack and Grinnames now with six tentacles and rushing forward at him.

“Let's GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-”

Grinnames managed to get close to Mr. Puzzles with the boost of her tentacles, and grappled him with them, yanking his hand to the side before he could fire a shot.

RTV snarled, trying to get her off before he had to deal with the others arriving too, shaking his arm to fling her away, only for her to manage to climb onto it and face him directly.

“Listen. Here.”, Grinnames now spoke, eyes narrowed at the TV head as she held on.

“You killed, not one, not two, but- you killed two of my friends. I should kill you right here and now. But then I’d be a hypocrite.”

RTV scoffed at that, trying to hit her with his broken hand, but she avoided it.

“Whatever you’re trying to do, it isn’t worth it. I know from experience. You'll continue being just as miserable as you are now.”

Grinnames looked back up to RTV, eyes locking with him.

“Please. Let us leave quietly.”

“Quietly? Have you looked at yourself and the others? You think they would go QUIETLY?”, RTV laughed, but there was slight hesitancy in his tone.

This was turning out to be a lot more of a struggle than he thought.

His emotions getting the better of him, Little Puzzles free, getting injured-

But this wasn’t just about them potentially talking or running his reputation, oh no, it would take a lot more than this for them to achieve that.

No, the problem was that he had to set a sign.

A sign that he wasn’t just some character those people past the 4th wall could toy with how they liked.

Treat his life, his property like theirs.

Pretend like this whole world belonged to them when HE was the one who invited them.

So he was testing how far he could push it and maybe finally venting some of that frustration that he had bottled up over the past months.

Sure, if he killed everyone here, the people behind the screens would eventually return in another shape.

It's not like this was their lives on the line.

But if he started with a clean slate, well, there would be far more mistakes he was able to fix next time.

“Apologies, but they started this and I don’t LOSE.”, he now gave back, hesitance moving out of his voice.

“Heh, worth a shot. Oh whatever. I guess you're only gonna change when it really, really, hurts.”, Grinnames chuckled a wide but pained and bitter grin, before slashing her tentacles across RTV’s neck and aiming for the neck next. “Oh, and thank you for the meal.”

The TV head quickly shielded it with his injured arm, grimacing as it earned a few additional slashes, and not just on the robotic parts, before using his coat, grabbing it to throw it over Grinnames, blinding them temporarily and turning his attention towards Nia, deflecting her attack with his hand and pushing her back.

A shot of fire hit his already burned neck as he tried to tackle Sci who had arrived back at the scene, causing her trident to impale his leg, sending him staggering back.

His hateful sneer now landed on Nicknack who had her finger raised, giving him the same glare back.

“I should have taken your OTHER eye too, maybe then you would have lost that spine completely.”, RTV spat at her, growling as Sci now pulled the trident back, leaving three holes in his leg.

He didn’t notice the effect his words seemed to have on Nicknack, her hateful stare turning into a downright ferocious snarl as she finally snapped.

The following loud screech made everyone in the area flinch, before Nicknack’s body started to bend and break a sickening crack.

Even more spikes on her body appeared, tearing at parts to show pink and sizing up into a monster shape with large claws and sharp tails and teeth.

Then with a sudden motion she zeroed in on RTV, jumping at him though he quickly managed to dodge, but temsed at the sharp pain.

Nicknack landed on the rock behind violently thrashing before now jumping at Grinnames, Nia and any other participant that was unfortunate enough to be in the area, unable to tell friend from foe.

While it did have the fortunate effect of keeping them off RTV’s back it didn't stop Sci and Marie to now hit him together with full force, sending him flying back the way they came and rolling over the floor.

Grunting, RTV quickly sat back up only for Nicknack who had let off the other two now jumping on his back, claws digging deep into the skin.

“AGH-”

The TV head was cut off as Nia now hit his screen, Grinnames joining in and using her tentacles to slash at him as well with Marie who had caught up with them again sending a row of fireballs right towards him with Sci behind him raising her gradient, ready to aim it right at his screen.

Too much.

He took that and he was going to lose-

In a split second decision, RTV snapped his fingers, effectively stopping time in the whole dimension.

The  first fireball halted right in front of RTV’s face and he quickly scrambled out of reach, now staggering back to his feet, ignoring the pain in his leg.

He had seconds, maybe half a minute.

The longer he stayed like this the more he was draining himself.

He already was injured so that was an additional strain.

Being the only unaffected by the time freeze, RTV now quickly started moving Marie around, ignoring the fact that his hand got scratched by her spikes, facing her towards Sci.

Then he shot Nicknack in the eye, knowing she would feel the effect as soon as time set back in, before grabbing both Grinnames and Nia and throwing them both towards a rock formation that was sure to kill them upon impact if they didn’t react fast enough.

He would love to deal with them more permanently but he only had a few seconds left.

Running, he now moved back towards the main platform, back towards the portal and putting distance between him and the chaos that would erupt in a second.

Almost immediately time set back in, the fighting continuing with Marie’s fireballs now hitting Sci and sending her staggering back, Grinnames and Nia now flying through the air and Nicknack letting out a loud screech and letting go of him as the effect of the shot hit her.

She blindly began running into walls, tail swinging around dangerously.

RTV meanwhile felt exhaustion crawl over him as he had expected, holding on to a rock formation as his wounds started burning like they were on fire.

This was taking way too much out of him.

But damn it, he didn’t want to give up.

It didn’t help that these people kept talking to his younger self.

First the hug from Harley, now that damn fox girl attempting to soothe that crybaby, making him feel this icky affection and comfort as well.

He didn’t want it.

He was killing these people, not learning to treasure them.

Letting go of his blood soaked arm, he then pulled the coat more properly over his shoulder again, almost if to comfort himself, before turning to the clones.

Two of them now were nearing RTV, dragging the unconscious body of Rayas with them.

Due to his connection to Little Puzzles, RTV knew that she had fainted after talking with his younger version.

Right after helping him escape with that explosion she caused.

So needless to say, after the whole TV hijack, that she had the audacity to forgive him and now this, he was quite done with her.

Charging up his finger gun, he was ready to put her in the grave right next to her doppelganger.

The affection of his younger half be damned. 

"...Know ...your ...place-"

“STOOOOOOOOOOPPPPP!!”

Startled, RTV momentarily stopped, looking from one side to another, trying to locate Rayas voice.

"WHAT...? WHERE??"

"I- I'm SORRY!! PLEASE!!!"

His gaze now landed on one of the clones, eyes narrowing as he saw the default screen had changed into a much more familiar one of a fox girl.

Oh, she was really trying her luck.

"You......... AGAIN!?" , he spoke through gritted teeth, before shooting and turning the clone into a pile of scrap.

However, the expression now flicked over to the second one which quickly picked up Rayas body before starting to run.

"GET BACK HERE!" , he shouted in rage, turning around to follow them.

“I'M SORRY. WHY are you mad at me and her so much?!", Rayas instead replied, before disappearing suddenly under the surface.

She could not be serious.

“Are you daft? YOu and the REal brat of you touched my TVs!," He yelled,   "And you are begging forgiveness now, when you should have when I caught the two of you?! AND now you just take my likeness to wear?! I THINK NOT!!" 

A stomp on the ground that sent cracks through the floor forced her to exit back to the surface again.

“I WAS AFRAID!!,", she shouted, "I thought defending myself with words was pointless!! I'm SORRY for Touching your TVs and possessing this body. I'll give it back!!"

She dove back under the surface again, causing RTV to grunt in frustration.

Right, because hijacking his property certainly heightened her survival chances right now.

"NO POINT ANYMORE! And maybe there wasn't one," he said the last part in a mocking tone. 

Stopping right above her, he then took a step forward.

"I WOULD let one offense pass. BUT THIS... THE Final STRAW, YOU!! YOU... ARG!!" 

He scrambled for once, before simply stomping onto the ground again, forcing her back out once again.

Why was he even trying to explain this to her?

Precious time wasted.

With clear distaste he now watched as she used her wings again to escape through the air.

"WE WERE TESTING THE NEW CORD TAILS TO THE TVS, TO FIND A WAY OUT FOR EVERYONE!!," she shouted in midair, now dodging the shots he gave in her direction.

"And I stated correctly, that NO ONE IS LEAVING HOME BECAUSE ALL OF YOU ARE RUINING EVERYTHING! After seeing what you did, YOU and Her are actively TRYING TO FIGHT ME!!", RTV barked back, following her.

"What?? Who said I and she wanted to fight you!?,", Rayas asked in confusion. "Please... just listen to me, Mr Puzzles!"

But RTV was done listening.

On his command yet another clone tackled her, sending her scuffle to hide in a nearby cave.

"I don't need to hear another WORD!”, RTV snarled as he now loomed over the cave.

“I MEAN IT! We would never GO FURTHER THAN THAT!," she shouted back. "I did all that because I had to; TO GET EVERYONE OUT OF HERE! And I DON'T WANT TO FIGHT YOU!! What other choices do I have?!"

Now there was none.

With a swift motion, RTV broke the roof off the cave and Rayas started running, before he backhanded her, sending her flying back.

His hand immediately curled into the fingergun, starting to shoot at her while stepping slowly closer, watching as she deflected one after another, before he kicked her right off her feet.

Her legs took damage with one of them getting shot right off thr clone’s knee that she was still possessing in the next second, the shot grazing her side as well.

Another kick and an arm was broken off as well. RTV knew these clones, so he also knew where to hit.

Still, despite the harsh treatment, Rayas still has not let go of her body.

At least he assumed that it was hers because it didn’t have a hole in it.

Suddenly, the clone's head slumped, falling backwards towards the floor and straight on top of Rayas.

Instead, the fox girl now opened her eyes again, immediately trying to run only to discover that the heavy clone body was pinning her to the floor.

Chuckling in glee at her circumstance, RTV now stepped closer, raising fingergun one last time.

Time to even the score.

"Now," RTV cackled maniacally. "I will teach you this time, the LAST TIME. NOT. TO SHOW. ME UP!" 

However, as soon as he shot, it was suddenly deflected by another familiar fox girl, now up and running again without a hole in her body.

RTV was stunned for a second, questioning if he was being tricked right now.

It had to be a trick because the other explanation he could only come up with was that plot armor actually existed.

And that this girl acted the whole time like her twin had been dead on purpose.

His surprised face turned slowly into a scowl at that.

"Um... hi guys... Um, how much did I miss?,", Other Rayas now asked, looking in the round.

“Me...," her twin muttered, looking about to cry.

Other people in the area now spoke up as well, one of them being the meme guardian.

"I... I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!," said SMG4 in disbelief.

"Um... my death was... greatly exaggerated?", she looked back at Rayas. "Are you okay Me?" 

Helping herself, she now pushed the clone to the side, helping her get back up, all while ignoring RTV who still stood there, scowl deepening with every second.

It felt like they didn’t take him seriously, immediately slipping into their own little world again, forgetting he was about to just kill the other.

All because of a happy little reunion.

"Why...," he  growled, turning everyone’s attention back to him. "NOBODY stays dead these days, do they?”

He now straightened again.

 "Now... You Little..”

He stopped mid-sentence.

What even was he wasting monologue for at this point?

Shaking his head he instead slammed his hand down, caging both Rayas to the ground, ready to just turn them to one with the floor beneath.

However, this time the others weren’t just going to let history repeat itself.

SMG4 was the first to jump onto RTV’s back, somehow trying to hinder him with the others quickly joining in, slashing on him, pulling, biting to get him to let go of the two and avoid another loss of life during this off-tails tour.

The TV head was forced to let go of the Rayas when the transformed participants now joined in as well, their strength managing to make him lose balance on his broken arm and forcing him to the floor.

He could spot Nira, still under mind control, trying to somehow reach him but Bunnybot had grabbed her, able as a non-organic to hold her in place.

Speaking to her to calm her down, he fought against her trying to break free, but still remained an iron grip to avoid her coming to RTV’s aid.

Still the TV host didn’t stop fighting, squirming and snarling, his free hand clawed towards everyone in his vicinity, viciously trying to get them off in any way, the pain of his injuries only adding to his determination.

He couldn’t lose.

He never did and he sure as hell wasn’t starting to now.

A small black silhouette stepping in front of his screen tone caught his attention and his expression switched to a hateful sneer as he saw Little Puzzles standing there, wringing his hands anxiously as his TV head was looking back at his older self.

“You.”, RTV spat. “This is all YOUR FAULT!”

It was his younger self, that stubborn part of his subconsciousness that kept projecting his weaknesses onto him.

That spiteful empathy, that sickening vulnerability, comforted by traitors and enemies alike-

And yet, no matter how much he tried to snuff that parasite out, here he was, preserving, haunting him.

Puzzles hated how he looked from the kid’s perspective.

He hated that he looked like a maniacal, raging monster.

Broken when he was supposed to look perfect without flaw.

RTV’s hand dug into the floor, as he tried to shove those unwanted feelings, thoughts away.

What he was doing was…justified.

He couldn’t lose and yet-

With an exhausted groan, RTV let his screen flop onto the floor, hiding his face of conflict from the participants.

And yet he couldn’t deny that this wasn’t going anywhere.

He was exhausted, he was injured… he didn’t even know anymore what he was doing and the only reason they had not tried to kill him yet was no doubt because they feared what would happen if he died in his own TV dimension.

For a split second, just a tiny one, RTV considered just dying and dragging them all with him out of spite - Little Puzzles flinched at that - but then he still lost.

So there was only one solution to somehow try and fix this in a way that they both won.

“Fine.”, he now spoke up, anger slowly leaving his voice. “You can leave.”

With a nod of his head, the remaining clones in front of the portal disappeared and Nira stopped fighting, leaving a free way of escape.

“Under one condition: Puzzlevision property stays and that’s my one and FINAL offer.”, RTV continued, now trying to get up again. “Alternatevly, we can ALL just stay here. You could, of course, just kill me being the BRUTES you are, but let’s see what happens to the TV dimension when the host dies.”

Hesitantly, he now felt the participants letting go and he quickly shot up, tensing at the pain of his injuries, before shaking the remaining ones off.

Now changing back to his normal 12 feet, he limped over to a rock, leaning against it as he watched them now turn towards the exit.

“What about Wren?”, SMG4 asked, not having moved yet and eyeing the TV head with suspicion. 

“Wr3n won’t attack, no worries.”, RTV growled back. “The lockdown is still lifted and I don’t need anyone seeing a giant pile of bodies on my studio grounds. So take your lucky chance and LEAVE.”

A cold grin spread on his damaged face as he tilted his head at the meme guardian.

“I will catch up eventually…”

The threat was not lost on SMG4 who frowned, giving RTV a glare before turning around and walking towards the portal.

RTV continued to glare dagger in his back, watching how one participant after the other now stepped through, a few of them quickly jumping to the side as the monstrous Nicknack nearly ran them over.

He would have to retrieve her later.

His voice could only be heard again when a certain former TV head tried to walk as well.

“Animsay, you stay. We have things to discuss.”

The head of the Social Media Department froze, before turning around, her eyes narrowed at him.

“If you think I will stay after everything-”

“I wasn’t talking to you.”, RTV sneered, making an impatient hand gesture. “I meant the other one. Come on now, you had your FUN. What are you going to do with her when she escapes? After this whole…fiasco I am much more open to discuss potential plot elements.”

He was sure to make it sound like something that someone who probably had been writing this disaster would find interesting.

And sure enough, he could spot that wave of fear wash over C!Animsay’s face before her posture completely changed and a grin that he usually never saw due to the TV head spread in her face.

“Hey, what do you mean she can’t leave?!”, Lari now growled who had taken notice of the whole conversation.

“Yeah, workers rights!”, Grinnames chimed in, tentacles once again tensing up if this developed into yet another fight.

“I said everything leaves except the Puzzlevision property. They ARE Puzzlevision property.”, RTV replied, the faint sign of his usual smug demeanor showing as he waved towards Nira and Animsay. “Besides, it’s not like they WANT to leave, right?”

Nira simply shook her head while Animsay made a declining hand gesture.

“Appreciate it, guys and the other probably does too - though I’m not going to include her curses and yelling in this story - but there isn’t much out there for me. I will stick with the boss!”

She made a salute before shrugging.

“Thank you though for making him realize that he needs me after all.”

RTV scowled at that, before turning around, head held high as he moved towards Little Puzzles.

One more thing to take care of.

With RTV finally giving free the way out of the TV dimension and the group starting to help up the injured or checking up on others before making their way over to the static square,  Little Puzzles who had stuck with the other participants before now remained standing as the rest of the group moved on.

The child stood next to a hunched creature with cat ears, one eye half lidded staring into nothing. Blood coated the wall behind their head that they leaned against.

Not every participant was lucky to have survived this fight.

Little Puzzles slowly reached forward, carefully poking the participant, only for his hand to lower again as no reaction came.

He flinched as RTV suddenly grabbed him by the arm with his functioning hand, dragging him in the opposite direction without another word.

The kid however immediately began fighting against the grip, managing to surprise RTV and slip out of his grip before he could catch him again.

A few seconds later Little Puzzles had reached Sci, quickly hiding behind her again from his older self.

The fish, now back in her normal form, watched with a tired expression as the tour participants left through the static portal, clutching at whatever wound that was on her as she rested just for a bit.

She supposed she should be heading in right about now, seeing as almost everyone began walking to the exit with eagerness to leave. And yet, as much as she was trying to escape before, the Siren remained still, unsure and hesitant to step through when she shouldn't be.

All because of...

As soon as Sci tried to turn around and look back  at Little Puzzles, she suddenly jolted at seeing him back with her, cowering like he initially did when—

The fish frowned and fully turned to look at RTV behind them, piecing together he must've tried to take his kid self back to the room they first found him in.

Sci nervously looked at the TV head, then down at his child self as she sighed sadly.

"Kid..." She muttered in a solemn tone.

RTV watched the scene with contempt, his back slightly hunched again now, a consequence of having claws dug into it. 

His gaze momentarily flickered back to the dead participant. 

Collateral damage, that’s all this was. Nobody would probably miss them. 

Yet…this wasn’t what he wanted either.

It was messy.

Taking a deep breath, he now turned back to the other two, eyes narrowed as he spoke.

“You do realize that’s ME, right? Where do you think you will take him? Outside?”

He gave a strained chuckle. Everything hurt, he was so goddamn tired. The fact that he had the nerves to talk was a miracle alone. “Give him to me.”

The kid continued to cling to Sci, not moving an inch though flinching as RTV spoke up.

Despite knowing that he couldn’t leave, he still did not let go.

Sci glared at RTV through the corner of her eye, remaining silent at his order before continuing to look down at Little Puzzles with a guilty look.

She knew that... It'd be fruitless to even try, it's just his conscience, after all. Just some mental projection.

Not. Real.

That's what she tried to tell her heart at least. 

Starting to feel heavy from the little hands clutching at the fabric of her pants despite her brain yelling the exact same thing RTV said.

She tried to gently tug her leg away, trying to get him to let go in her own soft way rather than the harsh words from the TV host.

"Come on, kid... You know I can't stay..."

The TV head watched with a scowl how his younger self only tightened his grip as Sci tried to move away. 

Why did he want to stay with her so badly? 

There was nothing special about this one.

No use to her, only trouble.

Small drops of static now started dropping out of his TV head again as he silently begged Sci not to go. 

He didn’t want to be alone anymore.

She cared, so why couldn’t she fix this? Fix him?

Her frown quivered as he still refused to let go, a sudden pang of pain and guilt going through her heart. 

As she tried to open her mouth to say something again, she felt a lump start in her throat causing her to look away from the kid and RTV as she closed her lips in a tight frown.

Sci could feel the waterworks start in her eyes, becoming teary-eyed as she tried to hold the tears back.

Come on... Not like this... She can't do this.

She can't just leave him like this here, but what choice did she have?

Even if RTV let them go, who knew what he'd do if she did attempt staying.

The Siren sucked in a breath, looking back at the child as her hands gently placed themselves on his shoulders.

"I'm— I'm sorry. I really am— But I... I ca—..." The words eventually died in her mouth, hands becoming shaky as Sci tried to keep herself together.

RTV remained ominously quiet at the scene, his hand moving to his chest, grabbing the ripped suit as he felt a slight ache as Little Puzzles now started to cry.

 Damn it all.

 But he still didn’t move, fearing what could happen if he upset his younger self even more.

”Either you GO or you STAY.”, he now hissed.

Little Puzzles looked up at those words, before turning Sci as if hoping for her to actually agree. Agree to stay with him in the lonely channel.

... She couldn't keep it together anymore.

The Siren suddenly dropped to her knees, breaking the last of her defenses down entirely as she brought the little Puzzles in for a tight hug.

No longer seeing him as the smaller version of RTV, but one she's met countless times through other Puzzles. Ones she loved and cared about.

Sci hiccuped as heavy tears fell down her cheeks, the weight of her guilt and the grief for Michael catching up to her all at once as she sobbed.

She could care less for the stares on her, not when she was leaving a child to fend for themselves against a monster after fighting to protect him.

"I-I'm s-so sorry... I'm so-... so... sorry, litt-le o-ne..."

Sci muttered in a broken voice as she buried her face in the little kid's shoulder, staining his little shirt even more as she held him tight and trembled.

The kid froze for a second at the sudden hug, before relaxing, wrapping his small arms around Sci and hugging back tightly. As if he was afraid she would disappear any second.

The TV head flinched as he felt a stinging in his heart and yet the odd feeling of comfort mixed with longing. 

For more affection, for someone to ca- 

NO. 

No, this was exactly what he had been avoiding. 

His expression changed from a previously vulnerable one into a sneer as he now stomped over to the two, only to stop as he felt a twinge of fear.

 Fear about what he could possibly break by ripping him away.

“En- enough of this.”, he seethed, cursing his voice temporarily breaking.

The fish only hugged the little kid tighter and closer to her, glaring through tears as the TV host approached, as if warning him to back off and leave them alone.

Sci remained like that for a moment, rubbing soothing circles into Little Puzzles' back as she sniffled and slowly calmed her tears.

She had to listen eventually... Not at RTV's pace however.

Sci slowly pulled away from the kid, staring into his screen as tears continued to fall down her tired and bruised face.

She took a slow breath in and exhaled a sigh, rubbing his little arms up and down to comfort him.

"Listen... I-... I can't protect you anymore... No matter h-how much I want to... But you're strong, kid. It's not a coincidence you still exist here..." The Siren weakly smiled, putting a hand to their case as she softly held their head.

"You're stronger than he ever will be... Just keep fighting that big bully." She scoffed a small laugh, side-eyed RTV with a small motion with her head, not even caring that he can listen or that he's standing right there next to them.

With a small shaky breath, she looked down with a thoughtful furrow, a small metallic glint catching her eye as she stared at her spiked cuffs.

The Siren's hands fall from the little Puzzles and start to take off her punk bracelets, the last remaining part of her she could leave to him... She takes the kid's wrists and puts them on him instead; they dangle and slide down his arms, as they're too big and not tight enough to fit him, but the thought is there.

"Here... These always make me feel tougher, maybe they will make you too..." Sci shrugs with a small, fond, and teary smile.

The kid’s shoulders visibly slumped at Sci’s declaration and he pulled his hands back, fumbling with them awkwardly as the Siren attempted to comfort him. 

He then glanced over to RTV who was still watching, his face expressionless.

However, Little Puzzles attention quickly fell back on Sci as she now gave him the bracelets. Looking at them, he ran his finger over the spikes before looking back up at Sci.

RTV started shuffling when he felt the same wave of misplaced comfort again that he had been cursed from with everyone that helped his younger version. 

He hated it. 

Even if most of these people saw them separate, they still were talking to RTV at the end. And he hated that he still reacted to such gestures.

“Last chance or the deal is off.”

Black genuine leather with shiny and silver metal jewelry, one with spikes and the other with metal squares, both decorated with stars.

Sci finally looked up at RTV, her expression emotionless towards him too before she looked back at his child self again and shuffled up.

 She wiped her tears away and sniffled, reluctantly taking a step back with clear hesitation to leave him.

"I'm sorry, kid..." Sci muttered an apology a final time before forcing herself to step away and walk to the portal, gaze looking down with mourning.

Before the Siren stepped into the portal, she clenched her jaw and looked to check on them a last time. 

RTV remained rigid, staring at Sci with a look that couldn’t quite be placed.

It wasn’t quite hate but certainly also not appreciation. 

Then, he grabbed Little Puzzles by the arm and started dragging him away.

“Nira, get to Health. Animsay…you stay.”, he ordered without turning to the people he talked to.

The small Puzzles stumbled over his feet at the fast pace his older self was going before turning around to Sci, giving a last small wave.

The Siren smiled as the corners of her lips trembled, tears starting to swell in her eyes again as she gave a small wave back.

She then finally turned back to the portal once the kid looked away, stepping through it as her smile painfully faltered.

The portal brought them right back to the Health Department where Nira immediately went to work, walking to Lucian in a corner who was guarded by Chris, barely reacting at the participants making their return.

Swag was in the next bed, still unconscious from his encounter with Beeg and Mickey.

When Nicknack came crashing through the portal, scattering to the nearest exit, Chris tensed up to stop him but was halted by the hologram of Wr3n that now appeared in front of the participants.

In contrast to his robot host, this version has detached arms that ended in pixels and no mouth at all.

“Don’t bother, Chris. I will make sure she doesn’t run into anyone.”

He then tapped his head at the group, soundwave below his eye shadow moving with every word.

“Puzzlevision thanks you for coming and hopes you enjoyed the tour thoroughly.”

He tilted his head before reappearing to the side of the hallway, letting them step through.

“Remember, we always enjoy watching your lovely creative process and all those great ideas you come up with.”

“It’s been fun.”

With a last wave, he then opened the emergency exit for them, before disappearing.

Epilogue:

It’s been several days since the events at the RTV studio.

By a miracle, SMG4 had managed to get back safely to their base where along the way he had also managed to meet up with a battered Beeg and a nearly ink puddle turned Mickey.

The latter one proceeded to spend the following days staying put and drinking any source of ink he could find and having the most horrible of moods.

In general the mood among the Resistance was tense, given they nearly died for absolutely nothing.

After this world’s Lari and Marie nearly strangled them for going through with that, all of them were left with even more questions when SMG4 mentioned the alternate versions of them that he encountered.

What exactly had RTV been doing with that tour?

Where did these people come from?

Of course, the aftermath of the tour had played out exactly in RTV’s favor.

Who controlled the press also controlled the narrative and so the next headlines were all talking about that VIP tour that Puzzlevision Security bravely defeated against the Resistance's attack, with several staff members hurt.

If any of the participants ever spoke out, they were either silenced or drowned out.

All in all, things were back to normal, it wasn’t like their reputation could sink any lower.

Sighing SMG4 leaned against the tree trunk they had built up a camp next to, staring up into the sky. Sometimes he even wondered if this was getting him anywhere.

Sure, he survived but all that risk had been useless in the end.

A sudden rustling made him quickly jump up, hand grabbing the gun he carried with himself ever since he realized how important it was to always be armed.

Instead of Puzzlevision security however, a familiar egg shaped dog appeared that looked like he wandered wilderness for days, which he probably did, with a small package wrapped around his neck.

“...Eggdog?”

Beeg was the first to run over and hug the dog sith the rest keeping in the distance, expecting someone else to now come out of hiding.

But nobody came.

Hesitantly, SMG4 now reached forward, grabbing the package and slowly unpacking it.

Hey Idiot,

I know it was you who I met on that weird tour. Needless to say, I’m still pissed at you and this is not me apologizing or forgiving you. However, I have realized that maybe not everything is as clean about this whole story as I first thought. I don’t know who to trust, hell, I don’t know if I can even trust myself at this point. I have questions.

Why you did what you did, what the story between you and Puzzles is, but that’s something we can’t talk about right now.

Don’t respond to this letter, don’t help Eggdog back, he can find his way alone.

Don’t make me regret this, baka.

Three

With the package came an USB stick, the same one Beeg lost on the tour with a small note.

I took the liberty to put a file with all my current credentials on that and from that weird room in the Social Media Department. I hope this was worth the risk. 

Deep in the lower levels of the Puzzlevision headquarters, following the railing next to the deep cliffs leading further below, sat RTV in one of the rooms on the other side.

“Hand me the screwdriver.”, he spoke to Wr3n, who back in his robot host, now handed Puzzles the tour, watching as he screwed the panel to his now newly fixed hand shut.

That had taken way too long, even longer than fixing his screen, though he had optioned to just a completely new TV with that one.

He just wished his actual flesh wounds would also heal that quickly.

Sighing, he now threw the tool to the side, standing up as he tested his fixed hand.

His eyes fell for a millisecond on the spike bracelets that he had left lying on the nearby desk a few days ago.

Taking a deep breath, he quickly looked away, promising himself to stuff them deep down in a shelf in his office later.

Things at the studio had quickly returned back to normal with the only things aside from RTV that had needed to be fixed being a few holes that Nicknack left and he blamed on that round SMG4 copy and some of the employees memories.

Nira thought the whole TV dimension trip to be a bad dream and Swag and Chris simply remembered doing their jobs.

Lucian was still out and recovering, nearly having bled out from his injuries but sticking to the story that RTV created.

As for Animsay, she had agreed to being monitored through the TV head again after they had made a small deal to work together more properly again.

She got an engaging plot for “her” AU and he got less leaked information about himself.

The true owner of the body she was using hasn’t showed herself ever since Animsay pushed her onto the backseat again at the end of the tour.

“I have matched every user that has ever interacted with our account to their participant if they had one.”

Wr3n said, showcasing a list of all employees next to usernames.

“Great, have you also checked up on my little theory?”, RTV asked now moving next to Wr3n watching as he accessed their blog.

“Of course, boss. As you can see, you were right. Animsay has been writing about almost every event on the tour. If a post didn’t align with her given rules, it was never accepted and never happened in our reality.”

He showcased the end of an event post where Animsay mentioned to not let anyone write RTV’s defeat.

The TV had felt the old spark of irritation rise up in him at that, but he was more interested in the proof at his hands.

“In the end I was defeated, but it never was THEM writing that but her.”, he hummed, as he scrolled through the others' posts.

“Exactly. It seems that only Animsay’s narrative only applies to our world and others only with her allowance. Meaning if you have her under control-”

“I can also control the other inserts' influence in MY world.”, RTV ended the sentence with a grin spreading back on his face. “All I need is to give her ideas she finds appealing. She sees us all as one big STORY she amazes others with. Morals don’t play a role when the victims are fictional.”

He chuckled, now leaving the room to lean down over the railing, gaze landing upon the structure in front of him.

A wall full of pods, most empty but a few occupied by a few familiar faces.

A pink haired rude girl, an always hooded idiot with blades for hands and, of course, a red certain Italian plumber.

“We shall make some changes to this world. Let’s show them who it REALLY belongs to.”

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

We actually made it!

Well almost all of us /silly

I want to thank you all again for participating and following this silly story of mine, I’m honestly blown away by the effort that’s been put in this!

I also want to thank you for being so patient with me because I will wholeheartedly admit, I improvised most of this plot spontaneously based on your decisions lol

I will leave it up to you if you want to write an aftermath for your character or not!

General RTV AU content will now be posted again as usual over at my main SMG4 block:

Thanks for participating and stay tuned…

Animsay

Tag List:

@niranutcake @fenicearts420 @leirom71000 @entityarts @alelathedragon @mylifeisfakeenjoy @lari-the-dragon @lislelycan-i-am-dumb-lol @rat-n-atty @nia1sworld @untitled14360 @Irayasostripes @theclosetcreature @jovialoddity @purpdrawsthings @varian-the-alchemy-boi @beckycat19 @runrabitrunrunrun

[quartergremlin]

Sleepover.

what would a turtle top surgery look like? we have our answer.

I spent so long designing Donnie's room and then drew. none of it.

first/previous/next

transcript:

Leo: Heeey Don! Have fun on your special date?

Donnie: Move over.

L: It's been forever since we've had a sleepover!

D: Whatever satisfies your hyperactive nesting instinct.

L: ...

D: And stops you from stealing my stuff.

Meme: Donnie after sleeping in their mask

Instagram monologue:

It's trans Donnie hours. Currently batting around questions of turtle gender, kappa sexual dimorphism, and human vs yokai gender presentation. bc in regular turtles females are flat on bottom and males have a slight concave plastron (so they can valance on top of the shell when fucking) so I made it canon that in kappa (turtle yokai within the rottmnt canon, that the turtles are sometimes referred to as even though they are mutants (so I'm assuming they're similar enough plus the origins of yokai [is] basically the same, since kappa evolved through generations where the turtles took humanization steroids and speedran their evolution)) - gets read as masculine.

/however/being top-heavy like that reads as female to humans. the turtles were mostly socialized as humans and in human culture (as much as they could ve in kind-of hiding, but now they can very much belong in yokai culture

they /are/ afab (kind of, its a bit complicated - turtle chromosomes don't work like human chromosomes and if we run under the assumption that they /did/ get a sry gene from yoshi, something something something no matter how you look at it they're some flavor of intersex), but how much of their turtits situation is coming from their turtle or human side is up in the air

PAIRED. with the opposite yokai/human gender presentation scales here, can make being! any gender kind of complicated! nevermind a trans mutant ninja turtle. so the /real/ question kind of boils down to. when considering presenting a certain gender for society, which side do the turtles put more stock in? (plus the island question)

asking that with leo was easy - he asked what Top Surgery For Turtles^tm and donnie told him that he'd be transing in the wrong direction. Since Leo's never really had a problem with his body anyway he took it at face value and he's fine. Donnie, however. is nonbinary plus transmasc. if talking it from a purely yokai standpoint, he's doing pretty good. but donnie's always put a bit too much stock in others' approval. see: the purple dragons, big mama, etc. and being nonbinary under normal circumstances is shit like. usually.

Some people just. shoot for confusion. but how do you even start when both sides are pretty certain they're right in opposite directions. anyway the concludes my Trans Donnie Hours, thank you for coming to my TEDx talk.

[just-french-me-up]

Hi! Any advise in what to comment on a PWP fic? 🙈

Oh ABSOLUTELY!

One thing to remember right off the bat: writers who write PWP put a lot of thought and time into it, especially when it comes to wording things, and would love to hear from you! Scared you'll be spotted at the devil's sacrament? No one cares you're there in the first place! It's fun to explore things! And no user can actively track the things you're reading, so go forth!

Really shy? Emojies work! You can add a few words with it, like "really liked this!" "So hot!" "Thank you for sharing!"

Raunchy puns or fun relevant fandom memes also work there!

PWP can also have some interesting character studies hidden in there, so if you enjoyed bits of characterisations, you can point that out! The writer most probably intended for it to be there and would be delighted you picked up on it!

Anything along the lines of "those two (or more, we're not against polycules in this household) do unspeakable things to my reward system" is great and appreciated

Overall screaming is fine

Copy pasting sentences and phrasings you really enjoyed is a must and a sure way to make the writer feel seen!

At the end of the day PWP is just a genre of fanfiction, if you enjoyed what you read, notifying the writer is always a good idea and it will make their day!

Be aware that it's also a GREAT way to get MORE of that thing you liked, especially if they link their tumblr and you go the extra mile of slipping into their inbox telling them how you really enjoyed that trope

[izunias-meme-hole]

*takes a deep breath* Here goes some bullshit.

So I've been looking back at Steven Universe, a show that I haven't fully seen again in literal years, and it's as flawed as everyone says... but it's also infinitely better than I remembered. The Pink Diamond/Rose Quartz stuff is an arc that makes sense, Steven's character isn't absolute peak but he's also not the utter meme people make him out to be, the gay space rocks are indeed cool, and for every last fumble there is there's somehow something to counteract it. Overall the show is a really good show with obvious cracks, but we're not going into a full in-depth analysis of the show, movie, and spin-off. We're taking a look at one character specifically.

Yep. This is a White Diamond post.

For context, White Diamond has been the main villain of the entire show as far back as season 1. Granted she never made an in-person, hell the show outright never mentions her in the earlier seasons, but through the introduction of characters like Lapis, Peridot, and Jasper, there were enough pieces to put together that there was indeed an empire. Eventually, as the show would progress we'd learn more about the Great Diamond Authority, more about the imperialistic system that the Crystal Gems fought against, more about the corrupted gems, more about Blue Diamond and Yellow Diamond, more about Pink Diamond, until we finally see White in the flesh for around 6:35 minutes of screentime, and god she is terrifying.

Then we get to her background, where we can basically gather that she's the Gem equivalent to a god, complete with the power to mold and manipulate the identities of other gems. So she's already the furthest thing from an actual person in comparison to Blue, Yellow, and Pink who are more like two queens and a princess that just so happen to be related to her. Though that doesn't mean that White is just absent of personality, oh no. Thanks to her "god" status, she has the complex to match it, is a literal giant control freak (Not even her fellow Diamonds were safe), and cannot see herself as anything other than flawless, something that the show's creator, Rebecca Sugar clearly showcases in the show and elaborates on:

"White believes that because her Gem channels white light, she is essentially a Gem light-form all the time. All Gems are made of light, and she is light manifest. She sees all Gems as her, sees herself in all Gems, and judges them as she would judge herself. She believes she is everyone—which is why she speaks for everyone. But the truth behind her identity and powers is that she has no identity at all. She needs other Gems to behave as she would—she is very poorly differentiated. And any Gem's behavior can be construed by her as a personal attack if they are not behaving as she would. Her identity is so fragile that she can only judge: If she were to act or feel or want, she would open herself up to her own criticism. She has traded that chance to be someone for the power to be everyone, a decision so miserable that everyone on the planet has to suffer for it." - Rebecca Sugar, Steven Universe: End of An Era

With this knowledge in hand, it's clear that White isn't just a tyrant, she's a divine tyrant that's never been a person. Unlike the gems she commands, she has no true self that she hides, she is simply god... a hollow, controlling god. There's nothing more dehumanizing than that.

That's pretty much White in the main show in a nutshell before her defeat. However said defeat is... let's be honest it's a crack on a perfectly fine finale.

First of all, Steven definitely wasn't super fond from the Diamond's, but after he at least got Yellow and Blue to chill the hell out and introduced them to the corrupted gem problem that's irreversible without White's Diamond's help, he goes to Homeworld. So right off the right off the bat, Steven HAD to at least try and get White to change her mind, which after one of the most chilling moments on the show and a breakdown, she did change her mind... a bit too quickly.

IMO the root problem (keyword root) with her turn is just that, she changed to quickly. If anything it would have made more sense for White to be mentally out of it for at least a year or 5 at the notion that she isn't flawless, that way we could at least come to the whole "Diamonds healing the corrupted gems" bit more naturally, while also granting the catharsis of the Great Diamond Authority being defeated.

Then there's her characterization after the main show ended which pretty much can be summed up as this:

She's still as narcissistic as ever, and still holds herself in a high regard, though it does make sense. She can never get rid of that aspect of herself, mostly thanks to what she is, but she's at least more willing to learn how to manage it. So it's not like she really changed a lot, she's just more focused on self control. The only real changes are the fact that she's more of a symbol than a divine leader, and her powers, which are less about controlling others and more about letting others voice their feelings through her. It's quite development, but it works for who she is now.

So what we have here with White Diamond conceptually is this. An entity that was actually born on an entirely different level of existence compared to everyone else, gained power because of that existence, and ultimately has been an amoral, terrifying, "perfect" god and nothing else for the past 20,000+ years. She's had nothing but that for a long time, and once she finally looses control and realizes she has "flaws," her perception of herself and her kind is shattered. From there, she pretty much begins keeping herself in check

On paper and in my head, I get what Rebecca Sugar was going for with her, on some levels I can see where she tripped on the finish line, and ultimately I can appreciate what she tried doing and what did work. White Diamond if anything is a reflection of the show, flawed but also really great.

Thank you for attending my yap sessions, hope I got my thoughts across clearly.

[batwritings]

Hii, I hope you're doing well! Can I please ask for headcannons for the brothers and dateables (if not everyone, you can choose, but please write for Lucifer, mammon and barbatos) would react if MC offers to put chapstick on their lips.

I know it's a strange ask, but imagine this scenario: It's gotten really cold suddenly (in? On? At?) the devildom and MC notices said character has chapped lips and seems very uncomfortable with it. She offers them her (can be gn!reader but I'm using she/her for better explaining) chapstick and they deny, but she insistist in putting on them, and they feel giddy because she's caring so softly for them 😭😭😭

I in the vibe of soft casual love, stay warm and hydrated 🫶🩷🩷🩷🩷

I don't think this is strange at all! Soft caring actions like that are honestly cute as fuck to me. Enjoy!~

Lucifer The absolute quickest to deny you. The great and powerful Lucifer? Receiving a smidgen of help??? The greatest travesty in all the realms, clearly. But bat your eyes and maybe bring him some Demonus and he might crack. Once you get it on, he didn't realize just how badly his lips were chapped. You'll be offered a small thanks, and a promise of something more substantial for a reward once he has more free time.

Mammon How could the cold affect the great Mammon so much? He simply didn't believe you at first. Fun fact, he knew damn well his lips were chapped as fuck. He just really didn't want to admit he needed the help. Simply subdue him with a kiss after putting on the chap stick and he'll be a puddle of grimm in your hands.

Leviathan <Insert MC doing the inhale "BOI" meme here> Being a shut-in means Levi doesn't exactly get out into the cold much. Therefor, he's a little more susceptible to the effects of the cold than his brothers. One trip to get a new Ruri-chan figurine and he's got chapped lips for days. Thankfully he has you to thoughtfully apply chapstick to his lips which leaves him with a persistent blush every time the two of you cross paths.

Satan Oh? It honestly hadn't crossed his mind. While he's no Asmo, Satan does take pretty good care of himself. He's actually the most lenient of the brothers in letting you help. If this were the Nightbringer universe, he's fight you a bit more. Yet the wrestle session would be a nice release for his anger, even if he couldn't go full force on you. He'd thank you by letting you put the chapstick on, blushing in denial of enjoying the attention.

Asmodeus Asmo, sweetheart, darling, you can't use lip gloss as chapstick, I'm sorry. And that'll be his excuse, mark my words! You have to explain to him that sadly, most gloss doesn't cover the chapping and he'll be more than amenable to let you put it on him. In true Asmo-chan fashion, of course he'll need to test it on you, just to be sure. A reward for helping him always look beautiful.

Beelzebub This man's gonna try to eat the chapstick, and no, you cannot convince me otherwise. You know how people see a big animal and go "if not friend, why friend shaped"? Beel, sweet himbo lad that he is will legit ask you, "if not food, why food smelling?". Did you have to reapply it multiple times because he kept licking it off? Yes. Did he complain to you every time that it didn't taste nearly as good as it smelled? Also yes. Did he learn his lesson? Nope!

Belphegor He spends ONE (1) NIGHT up in the observatory and ends up with chapped lips. It's rather annoying to him, and he genuinely doesn't hear you the first few times when you offer to put chapstick on for him. Belphie will deny it at first purely on the basis of "I'm not a little kid just because I'm the youngest". Just wait til he gets too tired to fight you on it and you'll get a mumbled little "thank you" before becoming his favorite pillow. Hope you have nothing to do for the next few hours.

Solomon Unsurprisingly enough, it wasn't the cold that got him! It was a spell gone wrong in trying to make a chapstick that would never let your lips chap again. Solomon sighs very defeatedly and sits back with a pout as he lets you put the balm on his lips. For practice purposes, he has you sit down and look over the ingredients to see where he went wrong. May or may not purposefully mess it up again to have you so close again.

Simeon You can't tell me this man wouldn't absentmindedly pick at the chapped parts of his lips. He can't be perfect forever ya'll, he's gotta be a little weird like the rest of us. (/j) You actually catch him in the act which makes Simeon fluster and admit to forgetting his chapstick in his room. His denial of attention and care for you is half-hearted and he very quickly crumbles at the chance to be so close to you. Maybe he'll have to forget his chapstick more often.

Barbatos This man is far too busy to realize his lips were chapped. It was one of those rare instances that you two crossed paths that you noticed and offered to put some on for him. In another rare instance, you notice Barbatos blush slightly because he didn't realize he'd looked so out of sorts. He had meetings with Lord Diavolo later that day as well, so yes! Please! Quickly! You make sure to add a generous amount in the hopes that it would last him through his meetings.

Diavolo His lips were chapped? Truly? It's only then that the demon lord to be realizes how absolutely flooded he'd been and that Barbatos had even told him about that earlier in the day. When you offer, Diavolo tries to politely decline, asking you not to waste what you have on him. It only takes a few minutes of remembering how busy he'll be and how this is absolutely a chance to know even a smidgen more info about you that he relents and lets you apply it gingerly to his lips.

[callalillywrites]

Fic title: Sweet darkness

Based on this ask meme.

Oooh, I really like this one. This one lends itself to so many possibilities that's almost hard to choose.

But...

I'm really digging the angsty vibe potential with this one, and I think I know the perfect guy for this one.

Sweet Darkness

You and Jake were friends before you ever became lovers. The two of you shared such a wonderful, beautiful connection since the first awkward hello you shared.

So, it nearly killed you when you learned that he'd been killed during one of his missions.

He'd been your dream guy. He'd been your meant-to-be.

Now, he was gone.

It took everything in you to continue your days like you weren't breaking, like you weren't shattered by loss.

The nights at their darkest were the only reprieve you had to the overwhelming emotions that screamed at you. The unfairness of life. Just the totality of everything you'd lost and the dreams that would never be now.

It was late at night that you would make it as dark as you could in your shared apartment. You'd make sure not a sliver of light snuck its way in, save for the single candle you sat on the floor in front of you.

Focusing on the dancing flame, you could almost conjure up the love of your life. You could almost make yourself believe he actually sat across from you as you talked about your day while he cracked one of his corniest puns. You'd laugh at it because it's what you used to do.

That hour you allowed yourself made it easier to get up the next day when the weight of reality bore down upon you once more.

This continued for months until you finally found yourself falling asleep and sleeping through the night. It wouldn't happen daily, but sleep slowly reclaimed you. It allowed you the chance to finally accept that he was really and truly gone. It was what you needed to pick yourself back and move on.

You had no real interest in dating. Not yet anyway, but you had a fleeting notion that you might try again someday. It just wouldn't be any time soon.

Almost a year has passed since you learned Jake's fate.

Darkness swept through your apartment because you couldn't bring yourself to move. Sleep was slowly working toward claiming you one night when the softest of noises roused you.

Grabbing the bat you always kept nearby, you stepped into the darkened living room where you spotted movement. Your swing landed against something solid. A yelp escaped your intruder, and you readied another swing when their voice rang, calling your name.

The bat dropped from your suddenly ice-cold hands. You'd never gotten around to changing the locks, and this intruder had used a key to get in.

Only one other person had a key to your place.

And he was gone.

Fumbling for a light, you flooded the room to find your supposedly deceased love standing there looking quite sheepish and a little worse for wear but alive. He was alive!

You whispered his name, then you swung your fist, landing a decent blow to his middle.

"You owe me one hell of an explanation, Jake Jensen. Do you realize the hell you've put me through?"

*****

And I'll let it there to whether they get their HEA or not. 😘

Thank you for this one. It turned out a lot more fun and even had a twist that I hadn't been planning as I wrote it at the end. But then, it's Jake. I don't know if I could make it truly a sad ending.

Jake Jensen Masterlist | Main Masterlist

[solar-wing]

⚣ BatBro Incorrect Quotes: TikTok 🤳🏻

⚣⏰ A/N → Literally in the middle of brainstorming and writing the 100-follower Conner Kent fic, and this came to mind. If it's good or not, I'm sorry, I just had to get it out. Thank you for understanding.

⚣⏰ Summary → BatBro has introduced TikTok to the Wayne Family...

REBLOGS and replies are greatly appreciated, please! 💛

⚣ ENJOY 🤳🏻

BatBro: And if you let that motherfucker Shanon once, best believe they gonna Shenanigan.

Source: Mya Monaco

Cass: Is Being Gay An Illness?

Cass: Yes, it is. How come every time I kiss a girl, my stomach hurts?

Dick: Those are butterflies.

Cass: Well, they're gay too.

Source: Farha Khalidi

Stephanie: He is not the love of your life!

Stephanie: He is literally just a guy!!

Stephanie: HIT HIM WITH YOUR CAR!

Source: chrissy

Damian: Why do you hoes act like if yeen ain't in no relationship, you gon die? Y'all be weak in the knees. Stand up! STAND UP!

Source: Leezy V

*BatBro with Jason in his weekly therapy session*

Jason: I was silent, ummm...

BatBro👓: Were you silent, or were you silencedSST?

Jason: ...

Jason: The latter.

Source: Beni2.0

Dick: I'm sorry. Not everybody fits in the bad bitch JAN-RAH. IT'S A JAN-RAH. Not everybody fits on the RAS-STA.

Source: Ms.PressureCooker

White people chillen in their house:

*Silence*

Black people chillen in their house:

*Silence*

*Beep*

Duke: I don't know why, but I am offended.

*Beep*

Duke:😯

Source: shaelovve

*Damian chastises his siblings*

Damian: Stop acting like a fucking hooligan! I know your momma raised you in a barn, but around these parts, we have some decorum, okay.

Source: KHAENOTBAE

Jason: No! Hear me out!

Jason: Why would I write the two essays that I had due 38 minutes ago rather than catch up on my fanfiction?

Jason: A bitch can not be academically sound AND lonely!

Jason: I can't where–I can't wear both of those hats. I'm gonna read a fanfiction in 20,000 words or less by a 15-year-old named Sarah who likes Supernatural. I'm gonna do that.

Source: anania

*Tim hanging out with BatBro and Conner*

Tim: And I ain't never seen three pretty best friends.

Tim: It's always two of them motherfuckers gotta be gay.

BatBro:*screams*

Conner: cUt ThE cAMeRaS!

Source: reganladd

*Bruce tells Tim he needs to get more sleep*

Tim: Duh! DUUUUHHH!!! Okay, duuuuuhhh!

Tim: You. Stupid! FUCK!!!

Source: HRH Memes

Jason: Therapy isn't enough. I need to punch that bitch today. Tomorrow is never promised.

*Walks aggressively towards Bruce's office with Wii Sports fencing music playing*

Source: B. Lee

*BatBro threatening Conner forgetting the Kryptonian is bigger and stronger than him*

BatBro: How you gon snap my neck off? Bitch, you weigh 95 pounds. I'm 5'8 almost 200 pounds. You can't snap my muthafuckin neck off, bitch. You'll be dead by the time you think about snapping my neck off, bitch.

Source: KB AND KARLA

BatBro: It is OTOM🍂. *pose✨*

🐦:*squeak*

BatBro: ¡Callate!

BatBro: My husband is cutting the backyard. So I decided to bless him with my company, even though he DOES NOT deserve me.

*walks in Spanish*

BatBro: I HAVE ARRIVED! 👑

*Conner used to these antics but still looking confused*

*BatBro stands in glam while Conner continues mowing the lawn*

BatBro: Good job!

*glam*

BatBro: Yeah, that's enough.

Source: SHIADANNI

*arguing with BatBro*

Damian: Next time you fucking put your hands on me, I'ma fucking rip off your face, bitch!

Dick: What did he do?

Damian: CAUSE HE FUCKING PUSHED ME...

Source: Nikkibussy084

☀️ | Bat Family | ☀️

☀️ | Masterlists | ☀️

[blushblushbear]

BEAR'S EPIC BLOGGING

so I already feel bad for the anon who asked my opinionated musical theater ass to look into Epic.

Gonna attempt to keep my thoughts succinct and all on the same thread/under read more--

but with that said if you wanna avoid this all together, which is very fair, I'm gonna be tagging this as bear's epic blogging

with that all said DOWN INTO THE CUT WE GO

So right off the bat I will say the musical IMMEDIATELY looses points cause the majority of the songs are 3-4 minutes long

I'm very much of the mind set that all big feelings and plot points SHOULD have a song, but the issue with a lot of modern musicals is that they think all songs need to be 'song' length (so about 3 to 4 minutes long)

they're wrong and I think my favorite example of how to do 'give a feeling a song but don't let it over stay it's welcome' is I guess this is Goodbye from Into The Woods (side note if you saw disney's movie of this musical, I'm so sorry, that was insulting, go watch that PBS recording with Bernadette Peters, she's amazing)-- it's about fairy tale characters, this is Jack of Jack and the Bean stock fame and this is the moment he's saying goodbye to his beloved cow in exchange for magic beans. This is a big moment for Jack and is the driving force for his actions for the first half of his story so it's important, and since it's an important beat in a musical, we sing! -- for about 30 odd seconds and then we continue with the plot cause we have A LOT of story to get through.

And on the note of A Lot of story to get through---

SO-- I'm a broke bitch, so how I experience musicals is I read through the plot summary on wiki, and as songs come up, I listen to the song.

This approach is especially apt here since there is no stage production and low key THANK GOD cause this opening number is actually pretty bad as opening numbers go.

But put a pin in that cause we'll come back to it, NOW--!

I actually gave the wiki a dry read before putting music into anything cause--- well, admittedly it's partly curious but also low key uh--- so I'm not as Hot on The Odyssey as everyone else seems to be? It's a story about a captain who gets mad lost, and losses most of his men, and cheats on his wife, and yeah I GUESS it's an epic tale of his journey home or whatever but like----

I feel like it puts a damper on things when you take some details into account--- like how it's mostly just HIS journey, fuck all the dudes he brought with him I guess. This ain't about them meme. Also 'Her white arms round him pressed as though forever' does loose some cache for me when I know cha boy like---- full on cheated on his wife on the way there. He never gave up coming home! Buuut he did take a break to get laid and loose a lot of his men on the way.

I know it's like-- cunning and he out smarts the odds and blah blah blah but like-- he's still an asshole ya know??

So I was curious how they were gonna spin this, so I read the wiki. I still have not finished the wiki cause HOLY SHIT this thing is long. I know it's supposed to be An Epic but like--- I feel like things could've been stream lined SOME. ESPECIALLY when the songs are 4 minutes a piece BRUH.

I'm going to try and have an open mind here but the odds are already against this thing from word go.

BUT OKAY, the opening number.

I know it's not a stage production but like---------

If you're gonna call something A Musical, on some level you have to treat it like one.

A lot of musicals lately seem to want to REMOVE the theater aspect of musical theater (god forbid we have some incidental music or like------ A THEME or anything)

At the start of this I'm already missing the sort of Establishing Song that's in a lot of my favorite musicals.

Or I guess I should say like--- the establishing melody or stanza or something. Not all of them are full numbers but they help set the stage (sometimes literally, fucking the way the Beetlejuice musical has all it's pieces like light up or roll in and just like the scene fades in MWAH glorious I DROOL)

But yeah, Prologue: Invisible from Beetlejuice, Overture from The Producers (which I only just realized has a bit of Prisoners of Love in the full version WHICH IS THE SECOND TO LAST SONG they really said MEDLEY! with their whole chest lol), Little Shop of Horrors from Seussical the Musi--- JUST KIDDING IT'S FROM LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, No One Mourns the Wicked from Wicked, The Ballad of Sweeney Todd from Sweeney Todd (2012 London cast my beloved), Seasons of Love from RENT, Alexander Hamilton from Hamilton (which say what you want about Miranda but DAMN this musical is so efficient and well crafted ARGUE WITH THE FUCKING WALL) HELL, EVEN HOLD ME, BATBOY FROM BAT BOY THE MUSICAL

Ever single one of these starts with a song or a bit of music that sort of Vibe Checks the audience into the world we're gonna be living in for the next 2 to 3 hours and if they don't also act as a whole on establishing number (aka a Welcome To This World song or Here's The Start of The Plot song) then it's the very next number in the show and usually follows IMMEDIATELY after

(Opening Night from the Producers, Rent from RENT, The Whole Being Dead Thing from Beetlejuice, Aaron Burr, Sir from Hamilton, No Place like London from Sweeney Todd, AND Downtown/Skid Row from The Little Shop of Horrors MY BELOVED, HAZBIN HOTEL FUCKING WISHES SHE COULD BE YOU SO BAD, MY BEAUTIFUL FLAWLESS, DARLING!!! {okay but seriously Happy Day in Hell wanted to be Skid Row so fucking bad but she tripped over the starting line and broke her neck, deadass. Though to be fair Hazbin sweetie, you never stood a chance, Skid Row does SUCH an AMAZING job introducing it's world, establishing it's characters and their wants and feelings, No One can beat it. THAT FUCKING PART WHERE THE BUMS ARE CLIMBING THE DAMN FENCE LIKE FUCKING ZOMBIES you live in my head rent free! You and the lady who starts the song-- DAMN! Sing it child INDEED.})

But yeah, back to Epic.

I'm not going to hold the fact that it doesn't sound like Full Musical Theater deal against it since it's basically a handful of people headed mostly by One Guy (there is no pit, there is no orchestra, it's not a whole ensemble of singers), but I WILL hold the fact that it basically doesn't have an establishing number at all at it's start against it.

No Vibe check, no settling in, just BAM! In medias res! Hey dude, I know you're in a war right now, but you gotta kill this baby dude, trust.

It really did just smack me in the face with it's plot. (full palm)

AND THE FACT THAT THIS IS GREEK MYTH LIKE-------

HELLO??????? GREEK CHORUS??????? WHERE ARE YOU GREEK CHORUS??????? GODS AND OR MUSES???? OUTSIDE OBSERVER TO TELL THE STORY THAT COULD'VE GIVEN US A PROPER ESTABLISHING NUMBER???????? THAT CONCEPT IS /LITERALLY/ FROM GREEK MYTH?!?! ESPECIALLY SINCE THE GODS ARE APPARENTLY ALREADY HUDDLED AROUND WATCHING ANYWAY?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

like.......................................

Like I said at the top of things I literally feel so bad for that anon. They probably did not know I am Mad Opinionated About Musical Theater but I am. And they did not know the land mine they stepped on by low key suggesting me to give it a listen.

Unfortunately I am Anton Ego here. I don't LIKE musical theater-- I LOVE IT.

THIS ALL BEING SAID---

I will say I think a saving grace for me during this is that Jorge Rivera-Herrans has a pretty solid singing voice.

It's very modern musical pretty boy which I'm not the hugest fan of by I can def see why people want to draw a face to match it and/or apply it to their blorbos and ocs.

This ride is already starting out bumpy for me, but my butt's probably just sensitive, so take my bitching with a grain of salt.

Also know that just cause I'm complaining doesn't mean I hate it. I complain about Blush Blush all the time in the discord and I basically spend most of my free time doing shit on here so--

Alright, I'm gonna get through a few more songs before I tune back into yap some more

I'd say stay posted, but like--- maybe don't I'm always a complainer when it comes to modern musical theater <XD;

[the-batacombs]

Ooh okay this looks fun. Thanks to @zahri-melitor for tagging me in the TBR meme. Let's go!

--

Okay meme for people to take their mind off today.

If you have a To Be Read list/pile (comics, books, whatever):

What title(s) are you currently reading?

"Currently reading" is fun because there's a lot of stuff I stalled out on when I got busy and am going to get back to. Right now the top of the list is The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson and The Ionian Mission by Patrick O'Brian (Aubrey-Maturin #8). I'm a bit of the way through Green Lantern (2005) and The Flash (2016), which are the top long series I'm trying to push through at the moment. I'm currently partway through Justice League Rebirth Deluxe Edition #3, which is just Justice League (2016) #29-#33, because I wanted better context for the Legacy arc.

What title(s) are up next on your reading list?

Up next is definitely going to be Treason's Harbour by Patrick O'Brian (Aubrey-Maturin #9) just as soon as I've finished the previous book. I'd really like to get to Cory Doctorow's Red Team Blues and N. K. Jemisin's The World We Make in the near-ish future. In comics, the last volume of Gerry Duggan's Invincible Iron Man: Iron & Diamonds, Ostrander's Suicide Squad, and then getting back to where I'd stalled out in PKJ's Action Comics Warworld Saga and Green Arrow (1988). Also, picking up Robin (1993) from where I left off.

What title(s) are your emotional support TBRs and you’re planning to get around to them. One day. When the stars align?

When the stars align...K. J. Parker's Saevus Corvax Deals with the Dead and especially Parker's Engineer trilogy. John M. Ford's The Dragon Waiting. Samuel R. Delaney's Tales of Nevéryön. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville. The Inugami Curse by Seishi Yokomizo. Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick. I could go on and on.

For comics...the last part of Tamaki's Detective Comics run, which at this point I think is the Shadows of the Bat arc. The space-era Green Lantern/Green Arrow stuff. Alan Moore's Swamp Thing. One day I'm going to cave and go to DCUI and read the rest of Batgirl (2000) and The Books of Magic (1994), but as long as I've got so much unread I can still access for free from the library, I'm trying not to spend the money on it. Also, it's nice to know that I have issues of Batgirl (2000) waiting for me on a bad day. Dawnrunner (2024) by Ram V/Evan Cagle is also very much on the TBR. I stopped reading Ram V's Detective Comics when my schedule got disrupted and I'm still not caught up, but that's my number one rainy day story tucked away in my boxes.

I've never run into the phrase "emotional support TBR" before and it's making me laugh. That's fantastic.

Have you taken anything out of your TBR pile recently, and why?

I...am very bad at taking things out of TBR, but I did finally decide not to put pressure on myself to finish Saga (2012), because I was already getting frustrated with where they were taking it and don't really want to get reinvested. It's such a good comic but it was already on the edge of my comfort zone. Maybe once it's all finished, I'll take a week to read it...but maybe not.

I don't know if it's quite the same thing, but it has the same impact on my TBR, so: dropping Batman and Nightwing and Birds of Prey as ongoing titles. I've stopped trying to push myself through Green Arrow: Year One, because it's not clicking at all, and I also stopped actively pursuing Green Arrow (2001), because I got to the Winick era and stopped enjoying it.

It turns out I have taken exactly zero novels out of my TBR in recent memory. I only add new books and shift priorities around.

Okay, ummmmm, tagging @faillen @aurpiment @venomousmaiden @galacticlamps if you feel like it! (Hi, it's 1968-100a reporting from the DC sideblog.) I would bet good money some of you have cool books on your TBR and I would love to Hear About Them.

[karasong]

get to know your mutuals!

thank you my love for tagging me @moonlight-prose 💗🌸

🌱what’s the origin of your blog title? my friend called me ''meme queen'' in german & i loved it so much, so i put it on my blog :D

🌱favorite fandoms: star wars, the good place, borderlands, & portal (i don't dig discourse, i ignore it a lot)

🌱OTP(s)/shipname: clerith, zutara, cheleanor, charah, murven, hellcheer, & rick/evie

🌱favorite color: green & all shades of green

🌱favorite game: the curse of monkey island :) i've played that game since i was a kid so many times that i could play it blind

🌱song stuck in your head: heaven up there by palace. such a beautiful song, my goodness

🌱weirdest habit/trait? i don't ever sleep with tidy sheets. i'm only comfortable if the duvet is crumpled and the blankets are everywhere but where they're supposed to be. do NOT tuck me in, i find that to be a hate crime

🌱hobbies: cooking, writing, video games/board games/card games, songwriting, video editing, gif making, jewelry making, & professional pirate insulter

🌱if you work, what’s your profession? desk job in admin. not fun at all, but it's a good spot, so i can't complain

🌱if you could have any job you wish what would it be? tbh i would rather be unemployed but still getting paid, but if i had to choose... maybe an employee at smosh or a chef in a test kitchen

🌱something you’re good at: making hyperspecific memes at the drop of a hat

🌱something you’re bad at: replying to text messages, remembering anything in general, & feeling comfortable in crowds

🌱something you love: my friends (hi eastview hiiii), homecooked meals, & laughter

🌱something you could talk about for hours off the cuff: nbc's chuck, nicholas podany's lucids, any of my ocs, & the stewjon au i wrote back on my fic blog (it's literally nestled a home in my heart)

🌱something you hate: people who dump on other's interests & who don't treat children kindly

🌱something you collect: any sort of ticket (train, plane, concert, etc.) i keep them in a tin box

🌱something you forget: literally everything, i have terrible memory & zero spatial awareness

🌱what’s your love language? quality time. i adore parallel play & feeling heard

🌱favorite movie/show: so many good stuff. i've always said my movie is labyrinth & my tv show is chuck

🌱favorite food: potato bake & scacciata

🌱favorite animal: bats!! i think black fur is beautiful

🌱are you musical? i think so. i used to play the flute & tried the guitar, piano, & kalimba. i sing, but not very well, & i write songs

🌱what were you like as a child? a chaotic gremlin that threw fists first & asked questions later

🌱favorite subject at school? english, film making, & drama

🌱least favorite subject? math (mainly because no teacher seemed to care that my level of learning was slower than others)

🌱what’s your best character trait? empathy, i suppose. i'm a shoulder & listening ear, & i'm going to try to comfort you in the way you need

🌱what’s your worst character trait? i need my alone time, which usually results in isolation

🌱if you could change any detail of your day right now what would it be? that i'm home instead of working

🌱if you could travel in time who would you like to meet? probably beatrix potter. she'd be great to sit by a stream & chat for hours with

🌱recommend one of your favorite fanfics (spread the love!): omg recently "I'll Hold My Breath & Count To Ten" on ao3 by the incredible harbour. such a fantastic piece by a fantastic person <3

np tags: @obixwan @blushingfish @harbours-lighthouse @justbeingbuck @veneskaa @bongilicus & whoever wants to join

[asirensrage]

Saudade - Chapter 18

Rating: Explicit Pairing: Mikey x OC, Hanma x OC, Ran x OC, Mikey x OC x Draken Fandom: Tokyo Revengers Warnings: swearing, violence, threats of violence, murder, smoking, sex, consensual sex between teenagers, alcohol, recreational drug use, mention of trafficking, torture, family neglect, mentions of sexual violence. isekai OC. memory loss. unbeta’d **warnings are not exhaustive** Summary: No one seems to realize she doesn’t belong until she finally runs into her “new” brother, Hanagaki Takemichi. Now, hearing his story, Takara makes the choice to help him and hopefully find her way home, but faking it til you make it only lasts so long when you start losing the memories of the life you had before. As Takemichi becomes the only family she’s ever known, how far will she go to protect him?

notes: One of my favourite bits is in this chapter. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. I also really want to make more memes for this fic. It's so funny at times. I adore writing Takara. Thanks for reading! Please let me know what you think.

also on ao3

fic masterlist - prev chapter

It takes longer than she’d like to get there. Between the snow, dodging cars, nearly wiping out a few times, and having to actually run instead of skate, she gets there too late for her comfort. All she can think of is the fact that Takemichi might be dead and she’ll be left alone, faced with people who have no idea who she actually is. She can’t let that happen. She has to protect her brother. She has–

She skids to a stop. The lot of the church is filled with bodies. Ones wearing the uniform of the Black Dragons. She skates around them slowly, getting a sense of deja vu from the last time she was in a parking lot after a big fight. 

“Oi! Takara!” 

She looks up and sees Draken sitting on the steps of the church. She races forward, walking as best she can where the snow has started to gather. If it keeps falling like it is, she’s going to have a hell of a time getting home. “What the fuck happened?”

“Mikey went inside to see what was going on. I dealt with the mess out here. What’re you doing here?”

“I came to find Takemichi. Save his ass from getting himself killed.” She moves up the steps quickly, seeing Draken’s surprise at the ease in which she moves. She pauses on the step below the one he’s sitting on, careful to balance herself in place. Draken looks like he’s ready to grab her the moment she slips. Not that she will. “What are you doing here?”

“Mikey heard Mitsuya’s bike. Made us come check it out. This what you called about?” 

“Yeah. You didn’t answer.”

“Just saw the missed calls now.” 

She glances up at the doors of the church. “They still in there?”

“Yeah, shouldn’t be long now. Just wait. Mikey’ll look after them.”

“That doesn’t work if he’s too late.”

“Mikey’s never been too late,” Draken says. “Did you skate here? Aren’t you freezing?” 

The door opens before she can respond to that. She looks up to see the giant she cracked her bat over stumble out, calling on his men to fight. She glances back, just to make sure she didn’t hallucinate them all being knocked out. Draken says something and she turns to see Taiju fallen to his knees and one of the others follow him out. 

Draken gets up and heads inside and Takara follows. The sight of her brother has her moving before she even thinks. He’s battered and bruised, looking like he’s been put through hell. She doesn’t even respond to the way his eyes widen at the sight of her. Takara turns automatically and heads back out, ignoring whatever they’re saying as she moves to Taiju who’s still kneeling in shock. She lifts her foot and slams it into his face, rollerblade and all. 

“Hey!” someone yells. 

“What the fuck did I say?!” She snarls, kicking him again. “What did I say?!” She catches him under his jaw, sending him flying back. “I’ll fucking kill you!” 

She’s grabbed before she can skate forward, an arm around her waist pulling her back. “Let go!” She slams an elbow back to make them release her. 

“Takara!” Multiple voices call out to her, but her focus is simply on Taiju who’s barely moved from her last kick. 

“I’m going to stomp his fucking face in!” She snarls, still trying to get out of whoever’s holding her. They’ve lifted her up slightly, ensuring she can’t reach the ground to gain traction.

“Takara! Stop! Please!” Her tunnel vision is broken as Yuzuha steps in front of her. “Please! He’s my brother.” 

“He’s an fucking piece of shit!” Takara snaps, but she slows in her attempts to be freed to stomp on him. “Look what he did to my brother!”

“I know!” Yuzuha snaps back. “I know.”

There’s something about the way she says it, the look in her eye that makes Takara stop. She inhales sharply. “Fine. But only because you asked.” She doesn’t really want to lose one of her only female friends. Even if he does deserve it. 

She’s slowly put down and the arms around her retract once she takes another deep breath. Takara turns, glaring at Draken who was the one holding her. He stares back, unimpressed. 

“We did it!” The others finally cheer in relief and she looks around, noting that Hanma and Kisaki are nowhere to be found. It thrums under her skin. Fuck any of her plans. They wouldn’t be able to hurt her brother in the future if she killed them now. She knows she should probably be alarmed at how fast she’s willing to commit murder.

Her thoughts are suddenly stopped as Takemichi passes out. “Take!” She lunges forward but Mitsuya gets to him first. “What’s wrong? He needs a hospital!”

“He’s okay,” Mitsuya says. “He just got knocked around.”

“Too many head injuries can lead to brain damage! He’s stupid enough already!” Takara protests. 

“He’s fine,” Chifuyu tries to reassure her. “He’s strong. He’ll wake back up soon.”

She feels her throat tighten in worry, eyes burning with tears she refuses to shed. She was so worried about him. 

“Come Kara-chan,” Mikey offers her a hand, helping her stand as Mitsuya moves Takemichi onto his back. “Why don’t you tell us what happened?” She lets him pull her to her feet. He holds onto her hand as they go down the stairs. She’s a little grateful, feeling a tad unsteady after watching her brother pass out. She keeps her eyes on Takemichi, even as she tells Mikey and Draken about being told their plan and how she remembered while she was at Hina’s with Emma because he broke up with her. How it was another stupid plan of his. 

“I got an idea.” 

Mikey gets on his bike and both Mitsuya and Draken put Takemichi on behind him. 

“Is that safe?” Takara asks. “What if he falls off?” 

“He won’t,” Draken assures her. “Mikey’s shorter so Takemitchy’s going to be leaning forward. We’ll be behind them to make sure nothing happens.”

“We will?”

“You wanna skate in this snow?” he asks, motioning around. “‘Sides, looks like Mikey has a plan.” 

She looks over to see Mikey tucking his phone back into his jacket. “Let’s go!” Mikey calls out. 

Draken helps Takara get on his bike, offering her a hand so she doesn’t wipe out in her attempt to get on with rollerblades. He gives her his helmet, checking that she locks it properly before getting on in front of her. It’s awkward. She’s left wrapping her arms around his waist and trying not to breathe in his scent as she tries to keep her rollerblades out of the way of his feet and the wheels of the motorcycle. He’s solid under her hands and she feels tiny in comparison. It makes her stomach flip in ways she wishes it wouldn’t. She closes her eyes and tries not to think about it as they take off.  

“So Hanma and Kisaki were there?” Draken asks once they’ve all parted ways, aside from Mikey. 

“Yeah, they were planning the thing with Take,” Takara yells back. “Ran into them in my fucking house.” 

“Didn’t see any sign of them when we got there.”

“A fucking set up,” she says. “Probably wanted Takemichi to take all the fucking hits.” 

He doesn’t say anything else until he finally informs her that “Takemitchy’s up.” 

⛸️

Emma’s still there when they finally stop in front of Hina’s place. Takara moves away from Draken, not wanting to cause any complications. 

“What–why did you bring me here?” Takemichi asks, looking back at Mikey. Mikey just shrugs. 

“Go talk to her, idiot!” Takara smacks the back of his head. “Honestly, how hopeless can someone be?”

“This coming from you?”

“Yes!” she snaps, shoving her brother towards Hinata. “Go!” She rolls her eyes as Takemichi stumbles forward. She snorts as she watches her brother struggle to talk to his girlfriend. 

“They’re so cute,” Emma says, grabbing onto Takara’s arm. The sudden weight nearly sends her sprawling. She catches herself before she ends up pulling Emma down to the ground with her. 

“They are,” Takara agrees, smiling at the younger girl. “I can’t believe he broke up with her.”

“I know!” Emma looks at her. “What about you and Ran? Are you dating?”

“What?” Takara freezes and tries not to look back at Mikey and Draken. She can feel their eyes on her now. 

“You were with Haitani again?” Draken asks and Emma’s hand flies to cover her mouth when Takara winces. 

“Sorry!” she whispers quickly. 

“It’s fine,” Takara whispers back before turning to look at the boys. “Yeah, I ran into them while shopping, before Hinata messaged me.” 

“Shopping where?”

“Shinjuku. They said they were meeting someone and saw me,” she shrugs. “Ran helped me shop.” 

Draken looks over at Mikey who’s still watching her. He hasn’t said anything though. “That’s too close to our territory.” 

“They left after we parted ways,” she says quickly. “Went back to their area.”

“How long were you with them?”

Takara shrugs. She doesn’t want to admit she spent a couple hours shopping with Ran, that he kissed her again, basically asking her on another date. 

They’re all distracted suddenly as Takemichi falls to his knees, calling out Hinata’s name. He starts ranting, promising that he’ll protect her no matter what. When he starts giving examples…they all include the ways he’s told Takara that Hinata’s died in the future, it makes her cover her own face with her hand. 

“Oh my god, Take…” she mutters, embarrassed for him. No one seems to find his rambling too strange though and by the end of it, he’s made up with Hinata and Emma is crying at the sight of the reconciliation. 

Draken’s teasing of Emma’s tears makes Takara laugh. Mikey moves forward, claiming her brother again before Takara can get to him and she’s left with Draken, Emma and Hinata in the snow. 

“Well fuck,” she mutters. She knows how this is going to go and she officially has no ride. Which means she’s going to have to trudge through the snow and wreck her blades even more. “I’m going home.” 

“Hey, Takara, wait! You can’t rollerblade in the snow…can you?” Emma calls out to her. 

“I am capable of many things, Emma. More than you can imagine.” It’s something her aunt…not her aunt, someone else. Maybe her aunt’s boyfriend? It was something he used to say before he’d disappear. She doesn’t remember what he did though. She doesn’t remember what her aunt did…or her parents… 

“-kara?”

She jolts out of the memories that won’t come and looks over, seeing Emma and Hinata looking concerned. Draken is frowning a bit. “Don’t worry. I’ll message you when I get home.”

⛸️

It takes Takara two days before she has the time and energy to actually look through the bags that Ran gave her. 

Most of it are clothes that he made her try on, but some are things she definitely didn’t grab including some lacy-looking underwear that she quickly shoves to the back of her drawer. She texts him quickly that he’s an asshole and continues looking. She pulls out a dress that she’s pretty sure she’s never going to wear. 

“What is going on in that head of his…?”

Her phone beeps with a text and she looks, seeing a response from Ran: <been wondering when you’d go through it. Get my gift?>

<Aside from the clothes?> she texts. 

<Keep looking.>

Curiosity spurs her on and she digs through the bags, looking for what he’s talking about. She finds it in the bottom of the bag she’s looking through. It’s a folded knife. It’s really fucking pretty with the folded steel and chrome handle that changes colour between purple and gold when she twists it.

<a knife?!>

<in case you run out of bats>

That makes her laugh. She sits on her floor for a moment, staring at her phone before she sighs, texting back a thanks before turning her phone on silent. Takara leans back, resting her head on the side of her bed. 

It’s strange how easy it is with him. She’s never been involved with someone before, her brothers always chasing off anyone who was interested. Sometimes she was grateful for it, but other times it left her feeling sidelined again. It was fine for her brothers to be involved with girls, but the moment she expressed interest in someone, they rallied and ensured she didn’t get the chance. It was fine, she really was generally too busy to date with the amount of sports and recreational activities her parents put her in, but it was another weight added to the unfairness of being a girl in her family. It was different here. Takemichi didn’t seem too involved to stop her and her parents let her do her own thing provided she stayed out of trouble and kept up her grades…but even then, the only time they feigned concern was when she got the cops involved. 

It makes her feel untethered. Free as she is to do what she wants, not what’s expected of her, she’s not used to it. She feels like she’s going to be swept away in a current, drowning despite how much she swims. It’s easier then to go along with it and adjust her course as necessary for her survival. For Takemichi’s survival. 

Ran is not part of the current. He is a makeshift liferaft, one that she suspects will sink her the moment she thinks she’s safe. It won’t be his fault. His lifestyle is the same as the boys around her. Takara is surrounded by people whose hands are covered in blood, one way or another. She’s not sure there’s any way for her own to stay clean. 

She knows she’s never done this before. Any of it. In the life she had, she was violent in the way one becomes with contact sports and older brothers, but she’s never gone out of her way to draw blood and cause injury in revenge. Her aunt once taught her how to make someone bleed and the ways to keep a man from taking her life from her, but she’s never used it before. Not like she has here. Her unwillingness to compromise, to fail in keeping her brother safe, is fueled by her desperation to keep someone who knows her. Her. Not the life or role that they shoved her into, but her. 

Not that…she remembers everything about who she used to be. Her memories are fading and it terrifies her every time she realizes it. She knows it’s wrong. The way it slips from her mind the moment she’s pulled out of her thoughts should alarm her. But it doesn’t. She is letting herself disappear like sand fighting against the tide. 

She can’t let it. 

She moves before she can be distracted. Unlike her brother, she’s as organized as ever and it’s easy to find and pull a notebook out. She sits with her back against the bed, opening to the first page and starts writing anything she can remember about who she used to be. Memories. Descriptions. Facts about her and her family. Anything. She wants to keep it in some way before she forgets that she ever lived another life. 

It’s less than it should be. 

Takara doesn’t even manage to fill the single book. She tries. She digs through the pieces she remembers, the way she knows their faces were shaped and their best features…but a lot of it is blank. She can’t remember her brothers' names. She can’t remember her first kiss or the first goal she made. So much of it is fuzzy, like a movie she saw in childhood and now she’s grown and never watched it again. She knows it's there, she knows she’s seen it…but she can’t remember the details. 

She throws the book at the wall, eyes burning as she tries to stop herself from crying. It’s not fair. It’s not fucking fair. She spent years trying to catch up to her brothers, trying to prove that she was just as good as them, that she could do the same things they could…and it feels like it’s stolen from her. Not the skills, but the reasons why she has them in the first place. She doesn’t remember who taught her how to skate and it breaks the dam. She buries her face in her hands, bringing her knees up to her chest, and cries. 

tag list: @raith-way @zeleniafic @veetlegeuse @chickensarentcheap @residentdormouse

@themaradwrites @kingsmakers @thatmagickjuju @awkwardchick87 @hayatoseyepatch

tr tag: @mitsuwuyaa @blackfire2013 @bleach-your-panties @reiners-milkbiddies

saudade tag: @thisbicc @scythegal @maraya-007

network tag: @pixelcafe-network

[returnofahsoka]

S U N F L O W E R if you like for the ask thingy <3 Love you!

girl that's crazy. i love you too! thank you omg

sorry if a lot of this will be about tmnt 2003 it's just taken permanent residence in my mind

S - Show us an example of your personal headcanon (prompts optional but encouraged) - this is a small thing but i like to think april (certified girl in stem with a degree and a lab assitant job) donated all her old college textbooks to donnie (self-taught science nerd who mostly learnt from whatever people had thrown out). they're among his most treasured possessions.

U - Three favorite characters from three different fandoms, and why they’re your favorites - i could never pick a favourite turtle so i'm gonna go with other fandoms for this one lmao. though you already know this. but whatever. zero star trek prodigy my favourite little guy (gender neutral) EVER, with their kindness and curiousity and shit ton of issues. ezra bridger star wars rebels i miss you every day. and rocket, of course, he's come so far and his past does not define him but he's still kind of an asshole and i love him for it

N - Name three things you wish you saw more or in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice) - more fucked up/insanely devoted/complicated siblings relationships!!! in any fandom!! in EVERY fandom! i'm normal about this trope don't look at my blog

F - What’s the longest you’ve ever been in a fandom? - see that's tricky because i'm never continously in a fandom. maybe the longest i did that was good omens for a solid half a year? but some fandoms i periodically return to and in the meantime they're on the backburner but i'm never not in the fandom yk? if that counts than star wars lmao, since i was a kid

L - Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves. (Characters you’re neutral about are fair game, as are characters you merely dislike. Characters that you absolutely loathe with the fire of ten thousand suns are exempt, as there is no point in giving yourself an aneurysm over a character that you hate.) - mhhhmm character i'm neutral about..... casey! i'm putting my faith in rise where i'm sure i'll love him more but for now he's just meh, but you gotta hand it to our resident big dumb jock that he's so ride or die for his friends. and also that he doesn't fucking care if he's beating up petty street thugs or straight up evil immortal alien warlords, if there's bad guys he'll be there with a baseball bat and hockey stick

O - Choose a song at random. Which ship or character does it remind you of? - i'm gonna say the kids aren't alright by fall out boy and the prodigy kids because season 2 got to me, okay???

W - A trope which you are virtually certain to hate in any fandom - another one besides what i already said... pair the strays. get this heteronormative bs away from please and thank you

E - Have you added anything cracky/hilarious to your fandom? If so, what? - i do make memes occasionally (my jttw ones went big because it's a small fandom) but really, i haven't made them in a while. well maybe i'll have to change that :p

R - Which friendship/platonic relationship is your favorite in fandom? - you cannot ask me this omgggg there's so many!!!! for the sake of my sanity and also yours, i'm gonna interpret this as current fandom because otherwise we'd be here all day. but then i still have to think about it because i love all the turtles and their relationships are all so many different flavours. but i'm gonna maybe say donnie and raph. idk they're just. so so so good. builds dangerous shit for fun + fucking loves shiny new dangerous toys. pacifist + the first to start a fight. gets distracted in battle + always has his back. they really said "hey watch your back!" "i thought that's what you were for" and i'm so so so here for it

ask game

[afterdarkprincess]

9. "I want to ruin you" for samijey 😊

Thank you so much! Prompt list can be found here

Ruin(ed) Pairing: Sami/Jey Rating: Explicit Word Count: 730

fic tag list: @feelschicken @elementaldoughnut12 @imabillyami @harmshake @jeysbvck @southerngirl41 ===

Backstage Sami stares at the monitors depicting the scene in the ring, Jey mid-fight against Dominick Mysterio, whipping his shirt up and over his head before tossing it at his opponent and slapping the younger man across the face.

Rhea whistles over the cheers of the crowd, loud and exaggerated to get Jey’s attention.

Sami rolls his eyes; he’s seen the buzz online, the memes and the edited photos of Rhea and Jey together. Some that Jey himself shared on instagram, all feeding into the storyline of the Judgement Day trying to recruit him into their fold since Jey’s return to Monday Night Raw.

Jey plays into the flirting, turning with his whole body to face Rhea, who smiles and waves, batting her long eyelashes and pressing her boobs forward in ways that will surely set the internet ablaze. Jey waves back, putting on his most ridiculous face, and Sami feels his blood pressure rising.

He knows this is just an act, they talked about it extensively when the storyline was pitched, but each time he’s forced to watch his boyfriend flirt with the beautiful Australian he can’t help but get jealous.

It’s silly of him, since it’ll be him that Jey goes home with at the end of the day, but that logic doesn’t help when Jey turns those beautiful brown eyes on someone else on national television. He understands, but it still stings.

In the ring Rhea’s distraction proves effective, as a completely distracted Jey gets knocked down and rolled up by Dominick, the three count thundering through the arena.

The crowd boos, but Sami just can’t get those looks Jey was giving Rhea out of his head, and he’s filled with an irrational fury, his temper getting away from him. He sees a close up on Jey, sweat dripping down his face and Sami hungers like he’s never felt before. His rage and desire feel primal, like an animal that needs to mark their territory, and the ache throbbing in his dick can’t be denied.

Sami storms out to gorilla, paying no attention to those he sees along the way, with a one track mind to find his man and stake his claim.

He arrives just as Jey comes through the curtain, wiping at his face with his hands, and Sami’s hand is on his arm without a second thought.

“With me, now.” Sami says through clenched teeth with no room for discussion. He tries not to grip Jey’s arm too tightly as he drags him along, searching for any open room with a lock.

They crash into a supply closet, and Sami pulls Jey inside before slamming the door shut and pushing Jey back into the door.

“Whas’ goin’ on babe?” Jey says, bewildered by this turn of events but the warm length that rubs against Sami’s thigh tells him all he needs to know about how into this his boyfriend is.

Sami zeroes in on Jey’s neck, sucking and biting at the soft flesh underneath his earlobe until a pretty mark forms. “Reminding everyone who you belong to,”

He can feel Jey swallow thickly, his breath turning into hot little pants as he nods. “Yours- yours, Sami.”

“That’s right, Jey. Mine.” Sami growls as he smashes their lips together, moving his hips ever so slightly so their hard lengths press together through too many layers of clothing. It’s good, but not enough and Sami shoves his hand down pushing clumsily at first Jey’s pants and then his own.

When both of their dicks are free, he wraps them together in a loose grip, easing the way with a mixture of their precum, drinking in the gorgeous little noises that escape Jey’s mouth for only him to hear.

“I want to ruin you,” The words fall out in hot breaths between them. “I wanna ruin you for anyone else, Jey. Mine, mine..”

Jey’s lips capture his again, his hips stuttering into Sami’s grip as they both chase release.

Neither of them last long, first Jey then Sami toppling over the edge groaning into each biting kiss between them.

As they catch their breath, foreheads leaning against each other, Jey chuckles.

“What’s so funny?” Sami asks.

“Jus’ maybe I should flirt with Rhea more often if this’s how it turns out.”

Sami nips at Jey’s neck where the hickey he left earlier blooms.

“Not a chance.”

[dootznbootz]

I plan for Penelope and Helen to be little shits but it's in different ways.

Their husbands' differences are pretty clear in how while they're both badass simps, one is feral and one says his please and thank you's.

But for Helen and Penelope, it's a little more complicated. Kind of was looking at silly memes and textposts once more to have fun and "point out who's who" but realized I thought of both Penelope AND Helen for the same one often. And I was thinking "Why is that?" as I KNOW I plan for them to be different and it made me realize that while they may view things similarly in a way, how they'd HANDLE the situations would be different if that makes sense. It's like having 2 triangles but they're different colors.

I think it's because in a way, it's like they've been "given certain cards to deal with and that affects how they handle things." Penelope is the youngest and smallest of her siblings and likes "playing people into her hand." She's 3/4 Naiad but so many people around her have Naiad blood and many would be able to tell if she's using it to fuck with people. (or at least can tell it's being manipulated) so she has to be sneakier with her "tricks" and usually won't use water. (until she's on Ithaca where she's basically the only naiad among humans) She also loves playing dumb to "who did it?" and won't take credit. She likes making people believe it was either an act of the gods so therefore "you deserve it" and also just still being on people's "good side".

Helen on the other hand, being a daughter of Zeus and powerful herself, is pretty straightforward with her "schemes". She can change her voice and will use that when she's sneaking into the stable to make Pollux and Castor's horses look silly with their manes and tails to make the stablehand go off somewhere else because he believes he's being called so then she can get away. So while she'll "hide", later on when she sees her brothers' faces, she'll openly laugh out loud and take the credit. She kind of doesn't care about getting into trouble and feels things "are deserved and I'm not gonna hide that." She's one of the few people (other than one brother) who can do what she can do and she's intimidating and she knows that. Plus she can bat her lashes a few times and get away with things... Theseus' kidnapping her was a moment of "Oh shit, I sometimes CAN'T get my way outta things" and yeah. :') She's changed by the whole thing Remember Theseus was going to WAIT for her to be at marriageable age. I'm not gonna put our girl through more shit.

Penelope makes waddled-up threads look like bugs and leaves them in a place for them to get scared by where she can watch. Who knows who did it?

Helen will look you dead in the eye as the air pressure changes and your ears start popping. She'll poke your arm and you'll get a static shock. "Sorry! That sometimes happens! 😌 Anyways, what did you say about Menelaus?"

Kind of plan for them to be a lot like sisters (I'm basing this on me and my own cousins relationships :D ) as they're both clever and want to mess with things.

Helen has always had an interest in potions and probably just brewing and cooking as a whole (let me have fun. Let her COOK) even before she was in Egypt. She'll be like

Helen: "Psst, Penelope put this in Castor and Pollux's drinks" Penelope, already taking it: "What is it? What will it do?" Helen: It's gonna make their voices sound funny. >:) Penelope: Fuck yeah >:D

Also the fact that Menelaus is calmer than his wife but Odysseus and Penelope encourage each other to be messed up.

[alliskit]

WIP Whenever...

Thank you, @tynithia! Love 'The Promise', so I'm excited to read Griffin and Allora's story.

The week's chapter is a doozy. As I mentioned in a previous post, my chapters this month are dropping at random because I'm out every weekend this month.

Snippet under the cut! ✂️

"I watched Sylas smile happily up at Astarion, who was smiling down at him kindly, before they disappeared once more. My heart clenched in my chest. For someone who acted as if he didn't like kids, he was doing a terrible job showing it.  They were gone for several minutes as we continued on. The monastery grew closer in the distance. We stopped at the top of a small flight of stairs leading to a very old lift station. Astarion was attempting to pull on some kind of wheel.  "I thought vampires were supposed to be super strong?" Sylas asked as Astarion pulled again.  His smile had turned to an irritated glare, "Full vampires, sure. But, I'm only a spawn." "So, you're not super strong or super fast?" I bit my cheek as I walked onto the landing. Astarion moved his jaw, eyes narrowing. "I'm better than many," he replied. Sylas put his hands on his hips, squinting at him in the late afternoon sun, "Can you even turn into a bat?"  Astarion snapped an exasperated look to me. I snickered. Some of the others smiled. "Well, can you?" Shadowheart teased.  "No," he murmured. "Are you even a real vampire?" Sylas scoffed. Astarion turned and slashed a terrifying smile at my son, "These fangs aren't for show, if that's what you're asking." Sylas seemed unfazed, "Do you even drink blood?" Astarion leaned into a hip as a sneer spread his lips, "Ask your mother." Sylas eyed me, waiting on an answer.   I shot Astarion a warning, then said to Sylas, "Yes, he does drink blood. He can eat food too, but it's not as tasty as blood." Sylas looked Astarion up, reprovingly, "You're not scary." The group laughed in full this time. All but Astarion. He leaned over Sylas, "I'm not so sure about that. You should ask your mother how scary I can be." The laughter died out, the rest of us remembering the night he attacked me.  "Mom?" Sylas asked carefully, taking a small step from the vampire. I paused. That night had been terrifying. He was fast and had almost overpowered me if it hadn't been for Gale. But ever since, he had done nothing but use his true nature to defend me. I locked eyes with Astarion, "He isn't safe, but he is good.""

Tag you're it to: @denesmera @bloodinwine @preciouslittlebhaalbae

A while back I saw a meme about who would actually fight with a little kid (Astarion, Minthara, and Gale) and I knew I had to add it LOL

There is more to this little discussion when my chapter drops!

Also you'll get to see 'scary Astarion' in action. 🧛