#Dog Gone Scooby | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dewwinchester · 3 months

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done. | d.w.

summary: you wake up to an empty bedroom, which isn't usually a good sign. but what you might find might not be too bad. OR, dean wants a normal life.

pairing: dean winchester x reader

word count: 1.7k+

warnings: fluff, surprise sam appearance, no specific pronouns used, no use of 'y/n'

a/n: it has been years since i've written any kind of fanfic, so please be gentle with me.

The moment your eyes fluttered open, you knew something wasn't right.

The air was a little too still, and your bed was a little too cold. There was no noise except for the gentle drip, drip, drip of the tap in your bathroom and the occasional rumbling of the bunker's old pipes. The light from your alarm clock illuminated the room in a dim red glow, and after rubbing the sleep from your eyes, you could just make out the time: 03:26.

You sat up slowly, squinting through the darkness to make out your surroundings. Your bedroom was in the same state you had left it in when you'd gone to bed, but there was something missing.

Rather, there was someone missing.

Dean's side of the bed was empty, the sheets strewn around haphazardly. There was no sign of him anywhere, not even the slightest thing to point you in his direction. You wondered if he'd had a nightmare and left the room to clear his thoughts.

You threw the blankets off your legs and shivered as the warmth from the covers instantly left you. Sliding your socked feet into your slippers, you wrapped your robe around your body, sighing in relief as the newfound warmth spread through you.

Despite being the only one in the room, you made sure to sneak out, careful not to make any noise. You tiptoed past Sam's room, knowing the smallest sound would wake him up—pure instinct.

There was no one in the library. Nor was there anyone in the kitchen. For the first time in what felt like a very long time, the bunker was empty. Normally, you were lulled to sleep by the faint clicks from Sam's keyboard or the light chatter from Cas or Jack, both of whom never needed to sleep –

A pang in your heart caused you to stop in your tracks.

Things were different now. The bunker was different. Two of the most important people in your life were gone, and you had no way of seeing them again. Despite your success in literally killing God, you couldn't help but mourn what used to be. You missed your little family, the little life you all made with each other.

You saw a faint flickering light from underneath the door to the "Dean-Cave" and heard a few familiar voices that made a smile creep onto your lips. Pushing the door open, you were greeted with the sight of just the person you were looking for.

Dean was fast asleep on one of the recliners, legs stretched out in front of him and neck craned at an awkward angle. A beer barely rested in his grasp as an episode of Scooby-Doo played on the flatscreen TV. Miracle was protectively curled around his feet, his big brown eyes staring up at you curiously.

You knew better than to wake Dean outright. For all you knew, there was a weapon expertly concealed and within arm's reach. Instead, you tiptoed into the room, reached for the TV remote, and turned down the volume slowly. Then, you took the beer from his hand and placed it on the side table before resting a gentle hand on his pyjama-covered knee, careful not to step on the dog.

"Dean," you whispered, thumb tracing gentle patterns.

Ever alert, Dean's eyes flickered open slowly. He looked around, confused for a moment, before his green eyes landed on you. For a moment, you worried that waking him was a mistake—he needed all the sleep he could get—but the faint smile that tugged on the corner of his mouth told you that you had done the right thing.

"Hey there, sleepyhead."

"Did I wake you?" His voice was laced with sleep, low and gravelly. If it wasn't three o'clock in the morning, your heart would have skipped a beat.

Oh, who were you kidding.

"No, no. You're okay," you smiled, standing back as Dean readjusted his position on the couch. He sat forward and winced as he stretched out his neck, finally rubbing his eyes. Miracle stood up, leaving the room with a huff, no doubt going back to your bedroom. "I woke up and you weren't there. I got worried."

"I'm good."

You raised a sceptical eyebrow.

"I'm good, promise," his tired eyes softened. "Just couldn't sleep before. Couldn't switch off."

You nodded in complete understanding. "Right."

You were going to try and get him to come back to bed—selfishly, you slept better when he was with you—but he just looked so damn comfortable in the recliner, you couldn't bring yourself to do it.

"You stay here," you said, voice still soft as a whisper. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I'm gonna go back to—"

"No, I'm awake now," he said, shooting you a pointed but playful look. He sat back in the recliner and patted his lap before stretching out his arms. "C'mere."

You used every ounce of energy you had to not run over and completely melt into his arms.

You moulded into him like a perfectly crafted puzzle piece, your legs and arms finding the most comfortable position almost instantly. Your head found its perfect spot somewhere just under the dip of his shoulder, and you couldn't help but breathe him in: smoke, beer, linen, and Dean. Your Dean.

"What were you thinkin' about?" you asked gently, wrapping one of your arms around his neck, your other hand intertwining with his. Dean was never really one to share his feelings, and though (with your help) he was starting to get better, there were times when you had to fight tooth and nail to bring down the steel walls he had put up.

According to him, it was one of your best strengths—being able to accept someone in their entirety, despite their faults, no matter how large. Your ability to empathise was beyond anything Dean could imagine. It was one of the reasons he loved and trusted you so deeply.

"Everythin'," he said with a sigh.

"Everything?" you repeated with a furrowed brow.

"Just," he began. "Everything that's happened. To Sammy. To me. To you. It's been a hell of a ride."

You nodded, trying to let your mind flick over the happier moments instead of the darker ones.

"It's been a lot," you agreed.

It was the understatement of the goddamn century.

"And I think about the people we lost," he paused, looking down at your interlaced fingers. "I think about every single one of 'em, all the goddamn time... And I wonder sometimes why I keep goin'."

You frowned, lips parted as you attempted to find some kind of response.

"But then I realised," he continued. "It's you."

You blinked. Once. Then twice. "Me?"

"After everythin', you're still here. I mean, you look at me like I'm some kinda hero or someth—"

"You are, Dean," you reassured. "I mean, you saved the entire world. More than once. You gotta stop saying you're not."

Dean sighed, the ghost of a smile playing on his lips. "See? All of that, and I’ve got nothin’ to give you."

"You give me everything just by being here. By coming home every day."

"You deserve more."

You rolled your eyes, sitting up to look at him directly with a firm, but loving look. This wasn’t a new conversation; in the past, the two of you had argued over whether or not you deserved Dean, or whether you deserved a life that was a little more sane… a little more normal. A life where you could wake up every day knowing that you didn't have to look over your shoulder and defend your every move.

These arguments usually resulted in screaming matches between the two of you.

Dean raised his hand, stopping you before you even got the chance to speak. "I didn’t mean that... I’ve been thinkin’... after tomorrow, that’s it.”

“What?”

“After tomorrow’s hunt. I’m done.”

You shook your head, disbelief quickly washing across your features. “You mean—?”

“I’m done.”

It felt like the air had been completely knocked from your lungs.

Done? You didn’t think such a concept existed for Dean. He had lived one way his entire life. Hunting was all he knew, all you knew. The idea of starting anew, starting fresh, was… oddly terrifying.

“I got a job application. I’ve filled it out—gonna hand it in at the end of the week.”

You could only shake your head in utter bewilderment.

“I’m tellin’ Sam tomorrow. He’s been thinkin’ about hanging it up too... for a while, I think.”

You had officially forgotten to breathe. You sucked in a deep breath, disguising your shock by clearing your throat. With wide eyes, you looked at Dean, thousands of words on the tip of your tongue, but none of them amounted to what you truly wanted to say.

You couldn't imagine it—waking up in the morning, working a 9-to-5 job, then heading back to a two-bedroom apartment in the middle of some city, drinking coffee, and going to meetings. You couldn't imagine leaving it all behind.

But then you looked at Dean, and for the first time, you noticed a hint of something different in his eyes. A spark of something that you just couldn't put your finger on. It was a look that made your insides buzz with a mixture of excitement and anxiety.

"Okay," was all you were able to say. "One more tomorrow. Then we're done."

"Deal."

You fell back into Dean's embrace and listened to the steady thump of his heartbeat. Your brain was filing through a hundred different thoughts at a million miles an hour, but the heaviness of your eyelids began to take over.

After tomorrow, everything would be over.

But everything would begin.

+++

When Sam woke that same morning—mind you, at a way more reasonable time than 3 a.m.—he also woke to a quiet bunker. There was no quiet chatter from you and Dean in the kitchen, no breakfast being made or coffee being brewed. It was silent.

He eventually found the two of you, curled up together on one of the recliners. He couldn’t imagine the position you were in being comfortable in any way, all squished together on the tiny couch, but the peaceful looks on both your faces made him pause.

It was still early, and you hadn’t planned on leaving for another few hours anyway. So Sam left you there. He could get everything ready himself.

Besides, it was only a simple vamp hunt.

a/n: that job application will continue to haunt my dreams

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sp0o0kylights · 1 year

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Part Six / Part Seven (YOU ARE HERE) / Part Eight

A03

If the odd, small sounding Steve had been a weird pill to swallow, then the loudly swearing, furious one might as well have been a different person.

Worse?

He wanted Gareth and Eddie to stay behind.

“You are not going to the lab by yourself.” Eddie deadpanned, blocking the door while Steve acted like an agitated snake in front of it.

“You don’t understand.” Steve hissed, weaving back and forth on his feet, like he was trying to find a way out without bowling Eddie over.

Or breaking a window.

“Then help us understand!” Eddie shot back, throwing his hands up.

Which was just the crux of the issue--because Steve seemed fine to talk about the lab being a horrible place, but kept refusing to answer why.

“You don’t have to tell us the full thing man, but give us something.” Gareth pleaded, hoping it didn’t come off as desperate as he felt.

Not his fault Steve was setting off his own anxiety.

The jock stepped back, running a hand through his hair and making a mess of it.

"I don't have the time." He stressed, anger, worry and pure fear mixing together in his tone.

In a mutter he added; "You wouldn't believe me anyways."

Tentatively, Gareth reached out, putting a hand on Steve’s shoulder.

For the first time since they’d known each other, Steve didn’t react to being touched.

"Eddie and I are gonna go no matter what. So you can either give us a heads up now, or you can be mad at us later when we just follow you anyway.” Gareth said, a hell of a lot calmer than he felt.

Steve had turned partly to glare at him, but seemed to at least let the words sink in. To get through that no, really, they were going, and all this arguing was just wasting time.

Not that Gareth trusted it.

"I don't want you guys getting hurt." Steve burst out, and it looked like it cost him to admit even that much.

Like it was inevitable and all this was a Hail Mary attempt to keep them from that future.

Eddie seemed to pick up on it too, because he caught Steve's gaze and held it. "You're a part of Hellfire now. If you were in that lab, we'd be all coming for you. Not one of us--all of us.”

He followed it up by invading Steve’s space, jamming a finger into the jock's chest.

“I don’t know why you think we’d be okay with you getting hurt." Eddie stared hard at him, voice as serious as Gareth had ever heard it. “You’re our friend, too Steve. We’re not abandoning Tiff and the rest of the Scooby Doo gang, and we're also not letting you do something that has you this freaked out, alone.”

Which is what this all seemed to keep coming down to. How Steve was willing to throw himself at problems, how he kept wanting to handle his own issues, while trying to manage everyone else so that he was the only target.

The only person in the know, the only one in the line of fire.

Like he was a burden instead of a person.

Gareth kept wondering how the hell that had happened. If this had been anyone else he would have written it off as some macho bullshit, but Steve wasn't like that. He'd didn't need to be the one white knight.

The fear he spoke with had always been too real, for that.

It wasn't like they--or at least, Eddie and himself, hadn't picked up that something was happening, either. Something big.

Given the weird, hushed conversations Steve kept have with Nancy, and Jonathan and even the kids sometimes…

Once, just once, Gareth had seen Steve talk to the Chief of Police. The asshole had looked awkward as hell, giving Steve a few pats to his shoulder, and Steve looking equally as awkward, leaning into it--but they looked like two people who'd gone through the same shit and now were stuck together. Not a police officer giving a warning to a teenager. Not even a family friend catching up.

Something was up in Hawkins and now wasn't the time to dog Steve about it, but Gareth still wished he'd give them a hint.

A tidbit, a morsel, of what the fuck had him so riled up.

“And if all this means our friends are in danger, then we're absolutely going too.” Eddie continued, nearly nose to nose with Steve.

Steve put his hands on his hips, frustration written all over his face--but he didn’t step away. "I don't think you'd be okay with it, it's just-- I'm just--already involved! This is how it’s been."

As if that wasn’t fucking alarming.

"And now, so are we.” Eddie threw back, pointing at the phone. "It’d help if you at least told us what to watch out for, but if not then we need to stop arguing so we can go help.”

That definitely got through.

Steve tapped a foot, blowing out a breath and overall acted as if Gareth and Eddie were the ones being unreasonable here.

(Or a pissed off single mother of six, not that Gareth was voicing that image.)

"Fine." He snapped finally, pinching the bridge of his nose and backing away from Eddie. “Fine! But you listen to me when we get out there, and if I tell you two to run, I need you to trust me and run.”

A grin tried to blast across Eddie’s face, the smug one he wore when he won and he knew it, but he covered it up before Steve saw.

Gareth doubted it’d take much to slide Steve right back into trying to keep them at the trailer, or straight up pull some dirty ass move to force it.

(He belatedly wondered if he should worry about Steve trying to stab one of Eddie’s tires out, but didn’t think the older teen would go that far.

Not yet, anyway.)

"I wasn't kidding when I said you wouldn't believe me." Steve spoke over his shoulder, blowing through the door the second Eddie got out of the way, marching down the steps to his Beemer. "But let’s just say that lab did a lot worse than create shit like rabid dogs, and a few of their creations might still be there. Grab a weapon!"

“I thought there wasn’t any rabid dogs!” Gareth protested at the same time Eddie said;

"So the cops can get us on felony charges? What is trespassing not enough for you?"

Eddie shook his head, following Steve down to the gravel. "No thanks, man!"

“I never said their weren't rabid dogs at all, I said--wait, who told you that?” Steve asked, trying to turn and face Gareth but Eddie simply pushed him forward, kept him moving.

“They’ve waited for us long enough.” He whispered lowly, as Gareth scrambled about for something to use.

Managed to fetch the fire poker he knew Wayne kept around to scare away coyotes, or rival drug dealers, or anything else wandering about.

If Steve said bring a weapon, he'd bring a damn weapon.

Felony charges or not.

"The cops won't charge us. Not as long as Hopper’s the one who gets there first.” Steve said and the desperation in his voice had faded a little, revealing something hard and self-assured underneath.

Not cocky, but with the strength Hellfire had when approaching a boss or baddie they had conquered once before and were familiar with.

"And if El's involved? He will get there first." Steve said firmly, whipping the backdoor of his car open and yanking a bag out.

A bag that had muffled squawking coming out of it.

Steve snatched a walkie talkie out from it, interrupting a stream of high pitched, upset nonsense coming out the tinny speakers.

Gareth caught someone half asking, half yelling if "-literally anyone could pick up!" before Steve hit the talk button.

"What's happening!?" He demanded, as he slammed the car door and stormed to the trunk.

"Steve!" Several voices yelled at once, the speakers shrieking in static feedback.

One beat out the others, as its owner screeched into the walkie in a tone that only children under fourteen and small dogs seemed to be capable of. "Where the hell have you been!? We called a code red an hour ago!"

"Bitch later Henderson, explain now." Steve commanded, picking out a bat with fucking house nails hammered into it.

Several of which were stained a rusted, blood-red.

Eddie stopped dead in his tracks, eyeing Steve with his mouth ajar as the nails gleamed lazily in his porchlights.

Gareth couldn't blame him; his own heart had just picked up speed.

Steve gave the bat two experimental twirls, flipping it easily in his hand, before he seemed satisfied. Both the weapon and the movement worked together, elevating Steve into something straight out of the fantasy novels Hellfire traded around.

Like a fucking paladin come to life.

Gareth felt his breath hitch at the way it highlighted the guy's biceps, already on display since Steve had shoved his sleeves up. The movement was so smooth and well practiced that it was clear this was his weapon of choice--and that he’d definitely used it before.

Gareth wasn't even attracted to Steve Harrington, but one couldn't be blamed for having eyes.

"Mike insisted he saw lights on at the lab, and Will thought he might have felt something--" Henderson started, before being abruptly interrupted by someone on his end.

"He did feel something, Dustin!"

"Shut up, I'm talking to Steve!”

"Stop arguing and give me the short version. You're all in the lab?" Steve cut in.

‘It should be illegal to sound that annoyed while moving like that.’ Gareth thought idly, as Steve dropped the bat to the ground, then propped it up against his car.

He waved Eddie and Gareth over, one hand going to cover the walkie talkie’s speakers as it spat static. ‘Pick one.’ He mouthed, in the exact same way Gareth’s mom did when she was trying to talk to him and someone on the phone at the same time.

With a short glance at each other, they went.

"--we got to the lab and El and Max were already here--" Dustin tried again, and once again was talked over, making the conversation extremely hard to follow.

Kids, God.

"-You told us to meet you here-"

"-and there were these older kids running around-'

"-excuse you, tiny bratling, we are not kids-"

"Was that Grant?" Gareth found himself asking, as Steve waved a hand above his open trunk distractedly, like a vendor showing off wares.

Except instead of trinkets, it held a gun, a knife and a fucking candlestick.

The latter of which sported another suspicious red stain.

There was a second explosion of noise, and what sounded like multiple walkie's being fought over before a young, female voice came on, its owner having apparently won the tug of war.

"The idiots thought they saw something but it turned out to just be some teenagers breaking into the lab for fun." She scoffed, and sounded suspiciously like a Tiff Jr.

It took a second, but Gareth finally placed the voice to the redheaded girl--the one who rolled her eyes a lot.

"The wall and part of the floor collapsed, some guy fell through a hole into a locked room and El thinks the collapse wasn't an accident." The words were spoken rapid fire, like a front line soldier relaying information. "She and Will both feel something."

Eddie picked up the knife while Gareth simply held up his fire poker.

Steve nodded to them, and closed the trunk.

"Can you all get out of there safely?" He asked.

"El thinks if we leave, the--thing here will attack the guy that's stuck."

'Thing' Gareth mouthed to himself.

Not a person.

Not a dog, or bear, or--anything else.

A thing.

"Fuck." Steve spat, taking his hand off the talk button so no one on the other side heard.

"She and Will aren't sure what it is yet but they're thinking it's from the Upside Down."

After a brief pause wherein someone could be heard shouting in the distance, she sarcastically added; "Honestly I'm happy to leave the guy that's stuck here, he's really annoying--"

"No sacrificing Stewart!" Steve snapped instantly, and despite all the swearing and dramatics, having contact with the kids seemed to ease something in him.

His movements were no longer frantic, back and shoulders looser.

Even the way he talked seemed to unclench, like he'd been told the worst had come and now that it was finally here, he could deal with it.

"If you're sure, because I'm pretty sure Billy is gonna start looking for me soon." Max argued.

Steve groaned. "I'll handle him if he shows up."

For the first time since Steve had picked up the walkie, silence descended.

Gareth wasn't exactly an expert in such things, but it felt judgmental.

"Are you gonna handle it like the last time you handled it? Cause we don't have anything to knock him out with and I don't know if your head can--"

"Thank you Max, but I can deal with him." Steve cut in immediately, face flaming and yeah, they were definitely out of whatever protective crazy mode Steve had started off in. "This time I have my bat and backup. So unless your brother has taken to carrying stacks of plates around, I think I'll be fine!"

"Step brother." Max corrected immediately, huffing.

Then in a slightly quieter voice, she added: "Hey Steve? Get here fast."

"I'm coming. Steve over and out." He said firmly, like an older brother reassuring a younger sibling.

How the hell the guy had ever managed to appear like a heartless asshole was beyond Gareth.

Apparently it was beyond Eddie too because the guy was practically drooling with heart eyes in Steve's direction.

The kids signed off, before quiet, blessedly descended.

"Can I ask one question?" Gareth asked, as Steve cursed at the finally silent walkie talkie.

Steve stopped, entire chest heaving in a sigh.

"Yeah, one." He said, as though even that cost him a lot.

Out of the corner of his eye Gareth watched Eddie shake himself to awareness, and then try to flip the knife with the same move Steve used on the bat's handle.

He fumbled it immediately, chasing the blade as it clattered to the ground.

"Why a candlestick?" Gareth asked quickly, before Steve turned and witnessed Eddie's awkward, scrambling retrieval.

"Jonathan tends to grab the weirdest shit as a weapon." Steve responded. "He's used a trophy, multiple chairs, a lamp," he made an etc. all gesture, as if any of that actually explained things instead of causing about ten more questions.

"The candlestick actually worked pretty well so I kept it." He finished.

"Jonathan Byers?" Eddie said, holding the knife once more and clearly pretending he'd never tried to copy Steve. "How very Cluedo of him."

Steve frowned, nose scrunching in confusion. "Cluedo?"

"He means the game Clue. It's called Cluedo in Europe, Eddie's just a tabletop snob." Gareth rambled anxiously, because throwing Jonathan Byers wielding a candlestick into the mix was just the icing on top of the weird cake.

Part of him wondered if it would be rude if he asked Steve to spin the bat again, while the other part vaguely wondered if any of this was actually happening.

Maybe Eddie had accidentally laced the pot with a hallucinogenic.

(Frankly he wasn't sure how he'd have missed the addition of extra drugs, but hey; you couldn't say that made any more sense than Steve Harrington, small town golden boy, parading around with a fucking bat with nails in it, using a walkie talkie to speak to children about how a thing might try to attack one of their friends.)

The kid’s involvement at least, made a little bit of sense.

They were young but they weren't that young--and they also weren't as quiet as they thought they were.

Particularly not when they were riled up at the arcade.

Gareth knew the lot of them thought one of the girls had superpowers. He also knew they often pretended Will Byers, the kid who'd gone missing, had spent some time acting as a "spy" for whatever evil they all pretended to be battling.

He'd mostly assumed it was a D&D-slash- LARP kind of thing, or even just traumatized kids playing pretend to cope with what had happened, but now?

"I might have lied about just having one question." Gareth admitted as Steve picked up his bat.

"I'll explain some of it later, after we get them out." Steve said, as if Gareth might actually trust him to do so after doing his damndest to dodge giving an explanation.

"Lead on, Sir Harrington." Eddie said before Gareth could say just that, like the lovestruck idiot he was. "We're going to need both cars to carry our wayward friends home, so Gareth and I will follow your lead."

Eddie spun his keys around his fingers, and given the smirk on his face, Gareth would bet money he was hoping it looked as cool as Steve's bat handling.

It didn't.

"Provided you promise to try not to lose us, because I've lived here all my life, I know where the lab is." He finished, and somehow managed to make the words sound fun and not the blatant warning it was.

Steve nodded once, hard. "Alright. Stay close to my car, and flash your high beams twice if you run into any problems--or see like, people in suites."

"People in suites?" Eddie asked, the knife still clutched awkwardly in his hand.

"Government agent kinda dudes, they're easy to spot." Steve said, like he was cautioning them to look out for deer darting across the road. "They usually look like they shouldn't be wherever they are."

"Alright." Gareth said, before his brain could come up with a list of questions regarding that.

Steve slung himself into the front seat of his car, Gareth claiming shotgun in Eddie's van shortly thereafter.

They waited to let Steve out first, and then stayed right on his tail as Steve promptly broke multiple laws to get to the lab.

"So this is all ominous as hell, right?" Eddie said, metal music pouring from the vans speakers and eyes on the taillights of the beamer.

"Oh dude, incredibly ominous. There was blood on that candlestick. " Gareth said, still in disbelief.

Whose candlestick had that even belonged to, originally? At what point in all this had Steve decided to hammer nails into a baseball bat?

Nevermind the weapon he was trying not to think about in the trunk of Steve’s car.

The gun.

Gareth knew instinctively why neither of them had gone for it. Eddie's father had drilled into him that the extra charge for carrying was never worth it and Gareth's own father had a firm "if you point it then you might as well have used it" mentality.

Steve didn't look like the kind of person to handle killing someone well himself, and yet the gun remained, locked up in the back of his trunk.

An option he'd offered to both Eddie and Gareth without bothering to fully fill them in.

"Blood on the bat too." Eddie said, dragging Gareth's attention back to the present.

Which at least, gave Gareth an opening for familiar ground. "I'm surprised you noticed that, given you looked like you lost all the blood in your head when he started swinging it around."

"Shut up." Eddie grumped, and though normally Gareth would tease him more, he found he just...couldn't.

Not right now.

"I'm more worried that they all kept calling whatever the thing was…well. A thing." He said, because God was it bothering him. “I mean I guess it could be an animal still but the way they were talking about it…” He trailed off, uncomfortable.

"Personally I'm hoping for monsters." Eddie said.

Gareth turned to shoot him a look. "Seriously Ed’s?"

"Mmm. Because if it's not monsters Gareth, it's humans," Eddie tapped the steering wheel in time with Metallica's For Whom the Bell Tolls. "and humans scare me more than anything."

Gareth leaned back, letting the seat absorb him, his own eyes sticking to the back of Steve's head. "I guess."��

Not that he wanted to deal with either.

Best case scenario in all this?

Everyone got out safely, and they drilled Steve into what the hell had happened to him, later.

Not that life was ever that simple.

xXx

Tiff met them outside the lab.

The place was desolate. Abandoned with the kind of tell-tale signs that boldly stated something awful had happened there.

Papers and a chair were still left in the guard shack and a phone dangling off the hook completing the look. The lab itself was dotted with broken windows, the corresponding shattered glass glittering all over the ground.

All it was missing was some lightning and it would be a great location for a slasher film.

One set of odd, claw-like marks on the ground later, right near where they all parked, and Gareth abruptly decided he'd rather focus on Tiffany rather than follow that thought more.

Her arms were crossed tightly over her chest, her expression annoyed, but the dead giveaway to her freaked out status was the way she couldn't seem to stop moving. Not even after they’d gotten out of their respective cars and started towards her.

Gareth hadn't seen her this bad since the day she temporarily lost her SAT guide.

It didn't bode well for the adventure ahead.

"Finally." She complained as the trio approached. "Did you three stop for milkshakes on the way!?"

"Traffic Tiff, you know how it is." Eddie said with an easy smile and a wave of his hand.

She simply gave a pointed look at her watch before glaring back at them.

"Steve!" Someone yelled, and Dustin promptly launched out of some corner at the older teen, babbling a mile a minute.

“Slow down, God!” Steve interrupted, doing a clear head to toe sweep of the kid. “You okay? Everyone good? Nobody dead?”

“Not yet!” Dustin said chipperly, which caused Steve to swat at his hat.

“Are you okay?” Gareth asked Tiff, as Steve and Dustin began talking rapid-fire, in the kind of way that spoke of past events and made little to no sense to anyone not in the loop.

"Yeah." Tiff nodded stiffly. “Would have been a lot happier if Stewart had listened to me for once, but.” She shrugged, her version of ‘it is what it is.’

Eddie reached out, squeezing her shoulder gently. “Is everyone else in the lab?” He asked, peering about.

He got another nod. “The room the idiot’s stuck in is just up the stairs and down the hall a bit. I’m amazed he didn’t get hurt, he fell through the ceiling.” She shook her head, clearly worried and trying her best not to show it. “Everyone’s kind of been wandering between there and here, but the random children who showed up are insisting we all walk around in groups.”

She turned to eye Dustin, before looking towards the entryway to the lab.

“Probably a good thing given the wall collapsed, but they all think there’s some,” She huffed, arms shrugging helplessly. “monster lurking about.”

Gareth stared at the lab entrance for a moment, once again taking in random stains and smears that were all around them. Spotted a few more of those weird, elongated claw marks raking down the stairs, spread more like fingers than anything else, and the group of them that surrounded a suspiciously large stain in the entryway.

“What made you guys want to explore the lab tonight anyway? It’s Thursday.” Eddie asked.

This earned him a more animated eye roll.

“Would you believe me if I told you I owed Jeff a favor, and he owed Grant a favor, and Grant got into it with Stewart over whether or not the lab had glowing goo hiding inside?"

“Glowing goo?” Eddie and Gareth echoed as one.

“Like what Mikey the bartender was saying last time he was drunk? The whole thing with that weird green goo that fell out of some truck?” Gareth asked, and it wasn’t the stupidest thing that had riled up Stewart and Grant but by God was it up there.

Tiff sighed a second time, sounding pained. “Yeah. That goo. Stewart kept insisting Mikey got a “hot tip” that some military guys knew it was here,” Her fingers came up to make the quotation marks, somehow managing to make the movement sarcastic. “and wanted it moved over to that new mall they’re building. Starcourt.”

“So Stewart had to come see it.” Eddie finished, as if he wouldn’t have also been dying to go get a look.

Frankly, Gareth himself was slightly annoyed he and Eddie hadn’t been called upon as it were.

“Mikey also apparently believes something else wants the goo and chased the military guys who were here out of the building. That part must be going around, because the kids here are pretty insistent there’s a monster inside.” Tiffany added, waving a hand towards Dustin.

Eddie made a move to slung his arm over her shoulder, giving her a full body squeeze before letting her go.

Tiff allowed it, and for the briefest of seconds, even seemed to lean in.

“Hello Steve, nice murder weapon.” She greeted loudly, entirely unphased by the nail bat in his hands as Hellfire’s jock and his favorite small annoyance stepped up to them. “Having met your children, I have to say, your parenting skills are utter shit.”

Dustin frowned up at her, instantly offended. “Steve’s our friend.” He corrected, angrily emphasizing ‘friend,’ right over the top of Steve’s loud protest of;

“It’s not a murder weapon, jeez!”

“If anyone is lacking in skills it’s your little group’s!” Dustin cut in, waving a hand around. “Not one of you was prepared for breaking into the lab! No weapons, no back up, you’re the only one who even had quarters and one of you isn’t even wearing a jacket. If we hadn’t shown up you guys would have been in some real shit!”

Tiff stared flatly down at Dustin, ignoring Steve entirely. “Sure, pipsqueak."

“What are you guys even doing here?” Steve asked, before Dustin could fuss more.

“Glowing goo, apparently.” Eddie answered, moving with him.

Tiffany took the hint, starting to walk towards the stairs as Dustin trotted forward next to her, clearly intending to “lead” just as much as she was.

Gareth watched from the corner of his eyes as Steve automatically stepped to Dustin’s right, making sure the kid was surrounded on all sides.

‘Fuckin’ softie.’ He thought fondly, even as he gripped the fire poker he held in his hand tighter.

Eddie had managed to stow the knife away, making it vanish somewhere among his jacket and Judas Priest shirt, so it was just him and Steve looking like lunatics.

Thankfully, Tiff had spared Gareth her opinion on the fire poker.

“Goo?” Steve asked, and unlike the rest of them, he sounded downright alarmed.

“So there’s this bartender at the Hideout.” Eddie started, launching into the story with a lot more pizzazz than Gareth thought it really required. He and Tiff traded glances, and Gareth got to see the exact moment Dustin’s eyes caught sight of Eddie and went dinner plate wide.

Gareth would have nudged Tiff, maybe made a joke about how Eddie was gaining a new sheep just by his terminal need to be the loudest person in a room, but a movement on the left caught his gaze.

Gareth stopped, as something unmistakably fleshy slunk back in the shadows, one weirdly shaped paw flashing as something caught the light.

Fear raked through him, freezing Gareth dead to the spot, hands tightening on his fire poker.

“Hey, guys? He asked, interrupting whatever story Eddie had inevitably gone off of (likely one of the many, many backstories involving Mikey the bartender’s belief in UFOs) “That monster the kids think they saw. What uh, what’s it supposed to look like?”

“Why?” Tiff asked, at the same time Eddie yelled at him to; “Keep up, Gary, god!”

Gareth didn’t answer, instead staring deep into the shadows.

Nothing moved.

‘You’re seeing things.’ He told himself finally. ‘Unless it went through solid fucking wall, you would still be able to see it. You're just stressing yourself out because Steve’s being weird.’

Fuck knows it wouldn’t be the first time he thought he saw something when his anxiety started acting up.

"So Gare, did you bring the fire poker along because of the monster?" Tiff asked, amused, as she briefly dropped back towards him.

Clearly, she'd just been waiting for an opening to tease him about it.

He flushed scarlet.

"No!" He spat, hugging the thing closer.

A grin unfurled on Tiff's face, Cheshire-esque.

"I'm serious, Steve told us to bring it!" Gareth insisted, trying to look manly with it.

He knew he failed as badly as Eddie had earlier.

"You know, I'm starting to think Eddie's not the only one gone on our human fighter…" Tiff trailed off, raising one eyebrow, and causing Gareth to flip her off.

Thankfully that train of conversation was interrupted by loud arguing.

“We’re not cats Steve, you can’t just put us outside!” One of the kids was bitching, the group having caught sight of Steve and hustling over.

Jeff was seated on the floor in the hallway, one hand holding up his chin while Grant leaned against the wall next to him, both looking incredibly bored.

Across from them was a door that had looked like it had survived a full-blown seige. Cracks ran throughout the wood, and with the entire center of it bowed inward it was clear why no one could manage to get Stewart out of the room.

It was completely wedged in the frame, with thick enough edges to make it impossible to just pop it out by hand.

The hoard of gremlins were harder to make out now that they were all clumped together, but Gareth quickly made out their very….unique outfits.

Only the girls had dressed normally, while the boys looking like they either were planning on robbing a train.

Bandana’s over their faces and all.

“Yes, I can actually.” Steve retorted in the exact same bitchy tone. "Tiffany can stay with you guys by the cars while the rest of us figure out how to get Stewart.”

"Thanks for volunteering me." Tiff said flatly, but alas, was ignored by the group at large.

“Really? So you don’t want El to, you know. Help.” The terminally loud one spat.

“El’s gonna dump your ass if you don’t stop talking for her, Mike.” Steve warned, making the girl puff up proudly while Mike immediately cut a fearful glance to his girlfriend.

“And if El could have helped before, why wait for me to get here?” Steve continued, one hand on his hip, the other resting the nail bat over his shoulder, cutting in before Mike's scrambled apology derailed the conversation.

“I cannot move the door.” El admitted in that sort of flat, blunt way she spoke. “There is something here that is making my powers unstable.”

Steve pointed to her, face morphing into a clear “see?” gesture.

“Now unless Dustin is going to science the door open somehow--and I’m not saying you couldn’t,” Steve spoke the second part quickly, as Dustin’s mouth popped open, “then all of you are going to wait outside. Where the demo-the thing, isn’t.”

Gareth really, really hated how he kept referring to it as a thing.

One of the kids rolled their eyes and muttered; “We literally said we don’t know if it’s a--” and promptly got elbowed in the stomach for it.

Right.

Not suspicious at all.

“But we can help!” Dustin protested furiously.

Gareth wasn't sure if it was because Dustin truly thought he could help, or if it was because he wasn't used to the pushback.

For all that he was an only child, Steve had clearly inherited an older brother's prerogative of letting kids do stupid shit so long as he supervised (and typically, laughed at the outcome.

Gareth still fondly recalled the time Mike declared himself man enough to smoke.

Steve had conned him into chainsmoking outside the arcade until the kid finally threw up in the bushes on his fourth cigarette and declared Steve's smoking habit disgusting.)

“El could help.” Steve countered calmly. “Max probably, if I gave her my bat, but the rest of you are just moving targets. So make like a drum, and beat it.”

"That was lame, Steve." Dustin sniffed, while the other kids groaned loudly. “A real low effort pun.”

Steve just flicked his hand out in a shoo motion before leaning his bat up against the wall.

Jeff stared it before making immediate eye contact with Gareth, every inch of him screaming ‘what the hell!’

With a sigh, and an unfortunate side glance at Tiff, Gareth explained; “It’s for the monster.”

That at least, was easier than explaining Steve knew what was here and was doing his damndest not to tell them what it was.

Even if it made Tiff grin manically in his direction.

His only relief was that Steve got her attention right after, calling "Heads up!" before tossing her his car keys.

Because her hand eye coordination was superior to Eddie’s, she caught them easily.

If there's an emergency, get them out." Steve warned, voice just over the edge of too serious, losing the banter he’d kept up since they’d arrived.

"If there's an emergency we're coming back on to save your ass." Dustin snapped back, arms crossed, because of course he was listening.

“No.” Steve told him simply.

“Yes.”

“No, no, no-!”

Tiff let out a sharp whistle, the sound piercing in the echoing hallway.

"Gremlins with me!" She commanded, before catching Steve's eyes over their heads . "You fucking owe me, Harrington."

He nodded, before dropping a glare to the kids. "Just don't let them drive my car."

“God I can’t believe he’s still upset about that, it’s not like we fucked up the Camaro.” Mike complained loudly, allowing himself to be herded back outdoors.

“Max did hit a mailbox.” Lucas retorted, and then yelped a loud; “Ow, Max!” as he was presumably punished for voicing the fact out loud.

Their voices faded slightly as they went down the stairs, and Gareth managed to drag his attention back to the problem at hand.

One very fucked up door.

"Do you think we could kick it down?” Steve asked, as Eddie bent down to examine the door.

Refusing to look anyone in the face, Jeff said; “We may have tried that already.”

“My darling lambs, you’re approaching this wrong.” Eddie cooed, and got several glares for it.

“The door might be fucked by the hinges here, are not. Looks like all I need is the right screwdriver and lucky for Stewart!--” He yelled his friend's name, banging on the door and no doubt hoping to spook him.

A muffled shout of “Screw you Munson!” was all he got for his efforts.

“--I have my toolbox in my car.”

“Do I want to know what you have a toolbox for, Ed's?” Steve asked.

“Perfectly legal avenues only, I assure you.” Eddie replied, batting his eyelashes up at Steve innocently.

Grant and Jeff both gagged.

“Would the two of you gentlemen be so kind as to fetch me my box?” Eddie said, pulling out his keys and offering them up to Jeff. “I want to try one more thing. I don’t think it’ll work, but I can test it while you boys are gone.”

“He’s going to try to kick it in himself.” Gareth tattled flatly.

“I am not!” Eddie immediately denied, eyes wide in feigned hurt.

It was fake as shit.

“Let him!” Jeff said over as he got up. “That way I won’t be the only one getting made fun of for doing it!”

A car suddenly honked from outside, startling them all.

“Check that the shitheads aren’t murdering Tiff while you’re out there!” Steve called as Jeff and Grant took off towards the entrance, before moving out of Eddie’s way as he surged upwards.

“It’s more likely she’d be murdering them.” Eddie replied, and sure enough he was backing up like he was going to try and kick the door.

“Do you see how thick that thing is? The indent, here?” Steve sassed, pointing towards the giant dent slightly off center, where the door bowed inwards. “I’m pretty sure Jeff wasn’t the one who did that. These things are built to hold, man.”

“Ah but you’ve seen Jeffery's legs. Our beloved new cleric should stick to punching things, he’s not made for kicking.” Eddie said, tongue peaking out of his mouth as he sized up the door.

An odd, low chittering caught Gareth’s attention, the noise like nails on a chalkboard as the older teens continued to argue.

“Have you seen yourself?” Steve asked point blank, hip cocked and bitch mode on. “You aren’t either.”

“Don’t be mean, Steven, just because I don’t have jock muscles--”

The chittering got louder, and Gareth found himself taking a few steps away from his friends, in the opposite direction of the stairs as he tried to figure out where the fuck it was coming from.

A light at the farthest end of the long hallway gave out, barely noticeable. unless one was looking for it. Gareth hadn't even internalized the hallway had lighting, he'd been too busying with everything else--but it did.

Likely the place had a backup generator, but that didn't explain why the lights in this hallway were on--and now, suddenly, giving out.

'Maybe the kids did it...?' He thought, still trying to figure out why the chittering sounded like it was getting closer.

“You’re going to break your leg.”

“Has anyone ever told you that you need to believe in people more Stevie? Have some faith?”

“I have faith that you’re face is about to hit the floor, does that count?”

Another light failed, giving the appearance of the hallway warping. Not all of it, just one weird wall, that seemed to stretch like something was trying to break out.

"Okay but if I kick the door and it busts in, you owe me ten bucks."

"If you kick the door down not only will I give you ten bucks, Eddie, I'll go see that stupid new movie you won't shut up about with you."

"Oh we'll be seeing Fright Night with or without my door busting talents--"

Another light, out, and now Gareth could see a shape taking form. Later he'd swear it had actually, crawled out from the wall.

(Later, he'd find out the Upside Down creatures had a habit of doing that.)

He thought it was a tiger at first.

It has the same overall shape--long body with muscular shoulders, head low as it prowled forward.

Except the tail curled up over its back, hanging like a scorpion’s and its face…

It took a second for Gareth to make sense of what he was seeing.

The huge, oddly shaped bulb, like a flower’s before it unfurled.

Thick liquid drooled out from red tinged edges, dripping onto the floor. It was too far away to hear, but Gareth imagined the little plinks of noise it made anyway.

"Guys." He said, voice pitched impossibly high.

The Not-Tiger stepped further into the light, revealing it to be hairless.

Its skin was flecked red and grotesquely gray, with odd, thick folds of flesh hanging off its sides. Those pieces moved in weird little jerks and flutters, almost like another appendage entirely.

Another step forward, the weird, folded pieces of skin moving out and out and out on either side of it, hitching up in a U shape and oh, God.

They were wings.

'Lion body, scorpion tail, dragon wings.' A far off part of Gareth identified. 'It's missing the human face, but otherwise that's pretty dead on for a--"

"Manticore!" Gareth screamed, right as the things head split open into five petals filled with rows of fangs.

It screamed right back, then lunged at him, claws and teeth and tail all extending to attack.

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travelingtwentysomething · 1 month

Text

✨Are you new here?✨

#WRITING - (Hailey on AO3)

Let's Be Honest, If You Could Hop Dimensions, You'd Save Eddie Munson Too (AO3 // REBLOG // My Art: Eddie in Disguise/Comparison) - A Steddie+Original NonBinary Time/Dimension Traveler Character Fix-It Comedy/Adventure

Devotion Tastes So Sweet On Your Lips (AO3 // REBLOG) - A Spooky Steddie Horror One-Shot (Maybe Series...) Steve Prays To The Old Gods And Eddie The Banished Answers

A Sticky Situation (AO3 // REBLOG) - A Harringroveson x Spideypoolverine Crossover Comedy One-Shot

+Some Bonus Tumblr Ficlets+

+Steve Definitely Doesn't Have A Type, a Steddie Tale in Gifs (+Because I Can't Leave Well Enough Alone, Emotional Damage) (Learned how to make gifs for this post lol took me hours give it some love, my first sort of popular post🤘)

+Steve Throws Eddie His Yellow Sweater, Eddie Throws Steve His Vest. It's a Whole Thing (w/ Inspo Post, Steve Throws Eddie The Yellow Sweater™, It's Canon. Gone a bit Viral, this one🤘)

+Eddie Realizes Steve Is More Than A Babysitter (w/ Inspo Post Steve Slays Demo-Bats, Eddie Reacts, this one has Gotten Popular, but I mainly attribute that to Steve's Titties 🤘)

+Stephanus Concubinus, Emperor Geta's Vita (a Steddie x Gladiator II au blurb inspired by kingsandsaints ' gorgeous painting of Joe Keery wearing laurels and a white sheet)

+Famous!Eddie, Meets Server Duo Stobin, is an Asshole and Gets His Just De'Soup- Later Eddie Comes Back to Apologize and Gets Steve's Number- Then, A Misunderstanding and a Proposal (I added onto the ficlets of two very talented writers sabbathbloddysabbeth and estrellami-1 with romantic ramblings at 5am, blurbs become ficlets)

+Steddie!Little Mermaid AU Blurb-let (It started with a whisper- *Steve Herrington* and ended when Prince Eddie kissed he- er, uh, no wait- that's actually Henry the Sea Witch with Prince Steve's stolen voice... Violence and Magic and A Happily Ever After, Oh My!)

+Rogueddie Famous!Steddie, Eddie Reads Tumblr RPF of Steve, Steve Gives a Rec (Rogueddie Wrote A Blurb, I Wrote A Blurb)

+Intothedysphoria Polled "What Random Animals Does Billy Try To Bring Into the Harringrove Residence?" - Most People Said Cat, I Say Raccoon (A Blurb Explaining My Thesis)

+Eddie Doesn't Give A Fuck About Sleep Paralysis Demon Steve (a bit personal, turned into a Steddie prompt)

+The First Time Little Eddie Munson With The Buzzed Hair Gets Called A F*reak, He Is Too Stunned To Speak (Literally, just a sentence ✨with gifs✨ but now I need 100k words, on my desk by Monday morning. Prompto.)

✨everything else you need to know under the cut✨

#My Original Posts In Need Of Some Reblogs# #op

+My Singular Piece of Art (Eddie in Disguise/Comparison)

+If I Were Going To Be Famous For A Quote (this is it)

+My Epitaph (lil clever wordplay that reeks of Philosophy, It's A Banger™)

+Jack Whitehall Incorrect Quote/Shipping Gays is the Glue That Holds Fandom Together

+Joe Quinn Interview Mag Pics Part 1 / Part 2 / Whole Shabang

+Joe Quinn is Dating Doja Cat? A Tale in Gif (It only took me a couple minutes to make this gif, skill issue defeated)

#Some Gems Just Because#

+15 Minute Roast Beef and Potato Soup (I make up easy recipes sometimes, ask me about my rotisserie chicken enchiladas with cilantro lime sour cream sauce)

+My 2010 1D Tumblr Origin Story (🤣The true story of how I ended up on Tumblr)

+My Ridiculous Laptop Sticker Collection (feat. Some Steddie Stickers from Raynecreates)

+🍯My Dog Honey Watches Scooby Doo / Honey Cuddles Then and Now / Honey Plays Then and Now 🍬 /

+I'm Allergic to Cats, But I Would Get A Blue Russian to Name Them Comrade, Nickname: Commie (Big Brain Name Game™, Give me some credit and reblog this post🐈‍⬛)

+My High Thoughts About Pyramids (Higher Thoughts💭)

+Inspo Post for A Sticky Situation

👇Check the #Tags below to narrow down the fun👇

I RECOMMEND:

#op - posts that I created or I contributed a significant comment to

#personal - if you're trying to see more than just fandom- really get to know me 🥹 also #is it me, #tism, #tis me

#trauma dump and #dream journal - the drama, the tea, the weird dreams that are so ridiculous I had to tell someone, even if it is just shouting it into the void to hear the echo, basically over sharing

#interest - anything that is of interest to me, stuff like #therapy, #linguistics, #anthropology, #sociology, #psychology, #archeology, #movies, #film theory, #politics, basically anything that interests me outside pretty people and shows

#thoughts - my own comments/thoughts or posts that made me think, try #high thoughts, #higher thoughts

#comedy - anything that made me #lol

#writing - my own fics and posts I actually contributed commentary to or a lil blurb, or writing inspo and prompts I am interested in, as well as writing resources, tips, etc. #fic prompt, #inspo

#steddie - probably my most common tag I love them but there's a plethora of tags #steddie art, #steddie fic, #steddie comic

#pretty - it's the boys and the girls and the #aesthetic stuff too

#boys - any of the pretty boys I like to reblog

#femme fatale - pretty girls, alternately #laissez faire

#smile - if you wanna smile, I heard they're contagious and this tag has some beautiful smiles 😁 and a few things guaranteed to bring joy

🍂🧛‍♀️🖤💀🐈‍⬛🎃🏚️👻🦇🧡🕷️☠️🕸️🧛‍♂️⚰️

#spooky - It's #spooky season baby and #halloween is in my veins. We got #spooky art, #house hunting, #halloween decorations, and best of all #spooky steddie

✨🌚🕯️🔮🕯️🌝✨

I go a lil ham with the tags, trying to be thorough, search my blog for any of your own interests, you'll most likely strike gold 😂 give it a try if you're curious, or scroll on down and click on a tag

🤌Like this post and I will definitely follow you (*except minors soz)👀

✨REBLOG✨ and we will be ✨MUTUALS✨

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hurgablurg · 2 years

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completely unironic scooby doo adaptation where the gang are all late 20′s (they all had a VERY busy post-grad decade) best friends who all met in high school and reconvened to bum around and solve mysteries across the world in a gaily painted van

dogs can talk and are legally people, have jobs and responsibilities and stuff, some just prefer to be au natural and quadrupedal while doing it, some don’t, and many more are inbetween.

sometimes the monsters are real, sometimes not, which keeps the gang and audience on their toes. an entire WoD-esque undercurrent of monsters and magic and ghouls and things eventually unfolds and comes out into the open. most common crime is still financial and property fraud. the world is otherwise identical to our own

Shaggy and Scooby are lovable hippie cowards - they bring the comic relief and handle all the physical running and wrastling and stuff, despite both being rather stringy and appearing out of shape. the events of ghoul school are canon, shaggy and scooby were gym teachers, and are family friends with some very real monsters

Daphne is a horror-mystery writer and cryptozoologist on hiatus, does all the pop-culture research and is a fine detective a la Jessica Fletcher, but isn’t all that interested in the folklore side of things. Has a thing for Velma.

Velma is a multi-PhD genius who left omnidisciplinary science behind to chase around capitalists with her high school friends following a mid-life crisis. Giant nerd and staunch skeptic who is always keen on local history and folklore, possessing fantastic reasoning skills. Is gay but oblivious.

Fred is a himbo jock and engineer, adores complexity, and the mechanical workings of traps. Is both the designated driver, the charismatic Face who schmoozes with locals, and the trapmaster. The only one allowed to swear (rarely).

Flim-Flam (gotta be a better name for him?) and Scrappy are canon, The 13 Ghosts and everything in it happened, both are grown-ass men hiding out in various locales after a heist gone bad. Sometimes they pop up and help out in mysteries.

they are all fast friends, and despite playful ribbing and genuine arguments over the paranormal and the fate of the average small town, would never dream of breaking up the gang

no unnecessary edginess or adult content, no need to completely reimagine or change them.

#scooby doo #just make a normal scooby show #no need to complicate it

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myfictionaldreams · 11 months

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I know it's already november but i've been so behind and off tumblr BUTTT what do you think our little mafia!stucky trio went as for halloween 🤭🤭🤭 i think there was def some public costumes and some just to wear at home

Sorry, it's taken me a few days to answer this! I absolutely loved trying to think of answers for this, as there were so many options I could have gone with! Thank you for sending this ♥

“Please come out of the toilet; I promise the others won’t laugh. You’ll look great!” you shout through the thick bathroom door, cheeks aching from the amount you’re smiling.

A snicker echoes across the room, and you glare pointedly at the man adjusting his green shirt, hardy attempting to hold back his laugh. You were trying, which was difficult, considering you hadn’t even seen Bucky’s costume yet. Still, even the imagination of it was enough to have you wanting to collapse to the floor and laugh until your belly hurt.

“I don’t believe you, Doll. If I come out and hear one laugh, I’m not going to this stupid Halloween party”. You try not to roll your eyes at Bucky’s dramatics, but if you were in his situation, you’d refuse to leave the house. In fact, you were shocked he had even said yes to the outfit in the first place.

Turning towards the others in the room, you pointed your finger and demanded, “No laughing at Bucky. I really want to go tonight and win this prize for best dressed, and we can’t go without Bucky, so keep yourselves contained!”

“I can hear you smiling, Mama. You’re just as bad as them”, Bucky muttered, leaning onto the other side of the door. You smack your hand over your mouth, hiding the grin and try to compose yourself.

“Please just come out; we’re going to be late!” you say, stepping away from the door and picking up your tiny orange purse that matched the shade of your wig. Approaching Steve, who had remained by the door, you straightened his scarf, which also matched the shade of your wig, as he casually leaned against the door frame, admiring your outfit.

“Right, I’m coming out there. I don’t want to hear a single noise out of anyone; otherwise, you’re fired”, Bucky jokingly threatened as he opened the bathroom door and stepped out to a flood of laughter. In your fairness, you did try to hide the laughs, but looking at the little dog collar around his neck, you were beside yourself with laughter, doubling over and holding onto Steve so you didn’t collapse to the floor. “I hate you all”, he drawled, crossing his arms so the fluffy material of his Scooby-Doo outside stretched to its limits.

“I don’t know, boss, I think you make an excellent dog, especially the tail brings out the blue of your eyes., Natasha sarcastically reasoned with him as she grabbed his tail, but Bucky was swifter to grip her wrist and pushed her away.

“You’re the first to be fired, Romanoff”, he grumbled, adjusting the hood of the onesie with Scooby-Doo’s face on.

You move away from Steve, your heels clicking along the floor as you move, which captures the attention of the grumpy man before you as he admires your Daphne costume. “I’m sorry for laughing! You just look so cute and adorable! We’re definitely going to win the competition!”

You were surprised he had even agreed to it anyway, but you’d promised a separate costume awaiting his and Steve’s return from the party, which you knew would compensate for his embarrassment. Looking around the room, everyone was dressed to perfection. Steve as Fred was the obvious choice, and you loved nothing more than seeing Steve in a tight-fitting jumper, and his little scarf was adorable.

Natasha had initially argued with you, stating she wanted to be Daphne, but you quickly reminded her that in most versions of Scooby-Doo, Fred and Daphne were a couple, so it was only fair that you got to be Daphne. Anyway, Natasha didn’t even have to wear a wig to be Velma, so this choice was easiest. Then came the argument over who was going to be Shaggy and Scooby-Doo.

Bucky initially tried to pull rank over Sam, insisting that there would be many other gangs, dangerous people and high-powered individuals at the party so they couldn’t see him in such an embarrassing costume. You reasoned with him that Sam was the obvious pick for Shaggy, with his wit and sarcasm and that Bucky was still a menacing Second leader for the Rogers mafia, no matter what he wore. Additionally, the promise of a special costume in return had Bucky reluctantly agreeing to be Scooby and Sam, therefore, could be Shaggy.

“I promise this will all be worth it”, you whisper to Bucky, flicking the gold jewel on his dog collar and necklace.

“It better be, Doll”, he smiled finally, staring at your lips before clapping his hands, “Right, everyone gets into the Mystery Machine”.

“You know Buck, you look kinda adorable with a dog collar around your neck”, Steve jokes, attempting to reach for the necklace like you had, but Bucky ducked out of the outstretched hand and then shoved lightly into Steve’s chest.

“You can’t say much - Cute scarf, by the way”. Even though Bucky had been attempting to tease Steve, this only had both men smiling, wrapping arms around each other, and walking towards the exit.

Later that night, you were stuck between multiple costumes for them, having seen at least six different options in the shop that you knew would drive Steve and Bucky mad, so in the end, you wrote all the possibilities down and let them randomly pick which one they’d prefer. The choices ranged from cheerleader, sexy nurse and fairy. They were all stereotypical sexy costumes, but they were all ideas you knew would drive the two men crazy.

Steve reached into the pot first and then Bucky, reading their own pieces of paper and grinning devilishly.

“So? Which would you both prefer?”, you asked, standing before them, having removed the Dampne heels and hair.

Steve shifted his position from where he sat at the end of the bed with Bucky, already feeling his desire swelling between his legs. “Mine says Red Riding Hood. Oh baby girl, you know I would love to be your big bad wolf and chase you through the woods”.

You tried to ignore the pulse that bloomed in your core as you looked to Bucky with a raised eyebrow, waiting for him to talk. “Mine is Professor and Student”.

Stepping closer to Bucky, you plucked the piece of paper from his hand and then the same with Steves. “We can do one tonight and another tomorrow. Here’s the thing with the one you picked, Bucky. I’d like it if I were your professor and you were both my naughty students; how does that sound?”

Bucky’s mouth dropped open like he would say something, but no words came out, so he silently nodded. “Good! I’ll go and get changed, and both of you just wait here”.

#mafia au #mafia!stucky #mafia drabble #mafia steve rogers #steve rogers #bucky barnes #mafia bucky barnes #mine*#stucky

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winchestergirl2 · 11 months

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It's Halloween

Dean Winchester x reader

Summary: Charlie and Y/N try to convince Sam, Dean, and Cas to go to a Halloween party.

A/N: Just a little idea I had that I thought might be fun. Hope you enjoy!

Warnings: None

Divider by @silkholland

"Come on Sam it’ll be fun," Charlie said, still trying to convince him to join them at the Halloween party. "Do I have to?" Sam replied. "Cmon man, it's Halloween," Dean added, entering the room stuffing candy in his mouth, "Yeah, and you know how I feel about Halloween... ok, fine, but I'm not dressing up!"

"Yes!" Charlie exclaimed, hugging Sam in excitement. Turning to y/n, "Come on I’ve got an idea," pulling you towards the stairs of the bunker.

"Do you really think we can convince the guys they need to dress up for this party? I really don’t think Sam is going to go for this." "He will when he realises what little effort he has to put into it," Charlie said, turning around and holding up a selection of costumes.

"Are you sure about this?" Y/n asked, looking at what Charlie was holding, "Absolutely it’s going to be great! Go try your outfit on," Shoeing y/n off to the dressing room. "Charlie, do we really need to buy them though couldn’t we just rent some costumes?"

"Of course we need to buy them this way you get to wear it again whenever you... or someone else likes, " she teased with a knowing wink. Y/n rolled her eyes at her friends comment with a grin and headed back into the changing room.

Ignoring Dean and y/n Charlie turned her attention to Sam. "Come on Sam it’s almost like you’re not even wearing a costume," she pleaded with him. "Yeah, and you’ve already got the hair for it," y/n shouted, earning a smirk and chuckle from Dean. "Please, Sam," Charlie continued. Sam looked between them and finally relented, "ok fine I’ll wear it this once!" Charlie squealed in excitement as she and y/n jumped up to hug him.

Later back at the bunker, Charlie produced the costumes for the guys. "Group costumes, really?" Dean asked while Cas stood with his head slightly cocked to the side in confusion. Y/n looked at Dean and just shrugged, "It might be fun."

"Perfect!" Charlie exclaimed as they emerged from their rooms dressed as the Scooby gang.

"I’ve gone from fighting heavenly battles to dressing as a talking dog," Cas mumbled, "that’s the spirit," Charlie said, smiling.

Sam, Dean and y/n laughed.

"C’mon I look good in an ascot," Dean said as they all started to walk off, Sam laughed, shaking his head as he went.

"Yeah, you do," y/n whispered as she leaned in, winking at him. Dean grinned, grabbing you round the waist. "And you make a very hot Daphne," he said, leaning in to give you a kiss.

#dean winchester x reader #dean winchester fic #dean winchester drabble #spn fic #spn drabble #supernatural fic

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batsyforyou · 9 months

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Shaggy

Pairing: Shaggy x reader

Tags: One bed trope, platonic relationship

Author’s Note: For real y’all Shaggy + Bed = Nightmare Material. Just saying.

He is down to share his bed with you for the night.

Especially if Scooby isn’t there (it's much worse when Scooby is there)

However I warn you there is great peril ahead.

Crawling in you immediately cringe.

Food crumbs everywhere.

It's a feeling comparable to you thinking a spider is on you when really it's your hair but with the paranoia that it's ants instead.

Even worse, the bed sheets don’t even feel remotely clean. I don't even know how to describe that feeling but y’all know!

He is literally a furnace which leaves you in a sweaty mess and paired with everything else so far its makes you wanna puke

Of course that's when you notice the amount of dog hair in the bed

And the bed smells horrible

Deciding against covers you just throw the covers off and lay on top of them

What breaks you is when he falls asleep on his back and his freakish loud snoring

Y’all you just get up and leave

Whatever social anxiety was keeping you in that bed is gone by the time frustration and disgust rears its ugly head

You just grab your things go to the bathroom and borrow his shower

Which is also covered in dog hair and smells like it too

You sigh and grumble and stay up the rest of the night on the couch

Forget that, you think.

Overall y’all to save yourself from the trama, don’t do it

It is sooo not worth it

And we aren’t counting the amount of food randomly placed around his room, molding food in some cases when they've been out with the gang too long.

And the random french fry under the pillows.

Gross

You love Shaggy (and Scooby) but you would never bunk with them again

Masterlist

#I made myself gross out with this #Daphne be like #over my dead rotting corpse lmao but same Daph #scooby doo #shaggy rogers #shaggy #shaggy and scooby #shaggy x reader

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bestanimatedmovie · 5 months

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Welcome to Revenge of the Underrated!

Some of you asked me to put a "haven't watched both" to be more fair to the more unknown movies, but I've seen other tournaments doing this and I think it limits too much who can participate in the polls. So what I decided to do is a double elimination!

What does that mean? That means a movie has to lose twice to be eliminated. In other words, there will be a sorts of losers bracket that'll be part of main bracket. I'm undecided on whether to do this for only one round or the whole bracket, as it would make the tournament very long. Do let me know if you have any opinion about it.

Anyway, Revenge of the Underrated, Round 1:

Miss Hokusai vs Happily N'Ever After

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children vs Tiger and Bunny: The Rising

Ballerina vs Book Girl

On-Gaku: Our Sound vs Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal The Movie Part 1

Cats don't Dance vs The Flight of Dragons

Dragon Ball Z: Cooler's Revenge vs The Girl Without Hands

The Twelve Tasks of Asterix vs Flatland: The Film

Felidae vs Pokemon the Movie: The Power of Us

An American Tail: Fievel Goes West vs Unico in the Island of Magic

Rock and Rule vs Rock-A-Doodle

The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning vs Freddie as F.R.0.7

The Plague Dogs vs The Magic Riddle

Pokemon Heroes vs The Pebble and the Penguin

Strange Magic vs Sea Prince and the Fire Child

Help! I'm a Fish vs Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs

16.Azur and Asmar: The Prince's Quest vs Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer

17.Titan A.E. vs Ico, the Brave Horse

18.The Adventures of Mark Twain vs A Troll in Central Park

19.The Case of Hana and Alice vs Once Upon a Forest

20.Underdogs vs Long Way North

21.Mars Needs Moms vs The Twelve Months

22.Phineas and Ferb: The Movie: Candace Against the Universe vs Blinky Bill

23.Robot Carnival vs Revue Starlight: The Movie

24.One Piece: Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island vs Winx Club: The Secret of the Lost Kingdom

25.Ruben Brandt, Collector vs Samurai Jack: The Premiere Movie

26.Lupin III: The First vs Pippi Longstocking

27.The Three Caballeros vs The Legend of Manxmouse

28.Princes and Princesses vs The Snow Queen

29.A Letter to Momo vs Seven Days War

30.The Wild Thornberrys Movie vs The Rabbi's Cat

31.Night on the Galactic Railroad vs The Boy who Wanted to be a Bear

32.The Swan Princess vs Planetarian: Hoshi no Hito

33.Patema Inverted vs Bartok the Magnificent

34.Next Gen vs Padak

35.Asterix: The Mansions of the Gods vs Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland

36.Thumbelina vs Catnapped!

37.Early Man vs Rainbow Magic: Return to Rainspell Island

38.Junk Head vs Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie

39.Charlotte's Web (1973) vs The Princess and the Goblin

40.Shaun the Sheep Movie vs Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius

41. Redline vs Balto

42. The Addams Family vs Inu-Oh

43. Epic vs Mary and the Witch's Flower

44.The Girl Who Leapt Through Time vs Vivo

45.Barbie: Princess Charm School vs Kronk''s New Groove

46.Waking Life vs The Transformers: The Movie

47.Barbie in the Nutcracker vs Barbie as Rapunzel

48.Pokemon: The First Movie - Mewtwo Strikes Back vs Cool World

49.The Land Before Time vs When the Wind Blows

50.The Secret of NIMH vs Summer Wars

51.The Black Cauldron vs All Dogs go to Heaven

52.The Red Turtle vs FernGully: The Last Rainforest

53.Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas vs Ron's Gone Wrong

54.The Boxtrolls vs Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade

55.Arthur Christmas vs One Piece Film Red

56.Barbie of Swan Lake vs The Rescuers Down Under

57.Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole vs Secret of the Wings

58.The Castle of Cagliostro vs Pokemon: The Movie 2000

59.Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust vs Arthur and the Invisibles

60.Tinker Bell vs Barbie as the Island Princess

61.Mind Game vs Tekkonkinkreet

62.The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh vs Dragon Ball Super: Broly

63.Mirai vs Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero

64.The Lion King II: Simba's Pride vs Scooby-Doo! and the Cyber Chase

#revenge of the underrated #best animated movie #round 1

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poseidonsdaughterthesiren · 6 months

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You're Losing–You Lost Me

A/N: So uhhh this experiemental. I'm trying to create Della and Luke's past. So obviously for my nonbooker readers...Spoilers. Ummm So we drift from Della to Percy to Luke's POVS and they're not all linear. Think of them as if you're sporadically going through memories.

Della sits by the lake as fireworks and torches flicker across the waves. In the distance, she hears a splash of water. Clarisse and a bunch of other campers toss her brother and her best friend into the lake.

It’s about dam time he told her.

Della smiles but it crumbles when she thinks about what she’s been through the last year and a half. Her memories had recently all been fixed thanks to the Hypnos kid Clovis. She takes a deep breath…and meditates for a moment

⬳

Della opened her eyes to a dimly lit room. She tried to yell for help but realized her mouth was gagged.

Where is she? How did–the battle with the manticore, Dr. Thorn came rushing back to her. She and Annabeth tackled the beast as it fell over the cliff. Shit, Percy was going to kill her–if whoever captured her didn’t first.

“Well, well if it isn’t Della Jackson,” a voice called

Della stilled at the voice. She knew that voice. Luke.

Luke creeped out of the shadows into the light. He smiled but it made Della flinch in terror.

He looked pretty beat up. Good.

Luke crouched down in front of Della.

Della tried to scoot back from him but didn’t get very far. The rope around her ankles and wrists was also bound to a pillar.

“Hey,” he whispered, I won’t hurt you. Trust me.”

Della narrowed her eyes at him.

Luke moved forward and reached behind her head. He undid the knot holding her gag and removed it.

Della tried to scream but Luke placed a hand over her mouth.

“Hey, no, come on now, none of that,” he whispered, “Besides no one will be able to hear you.”

Della leaned back and glared at him.

“Where am I?”

“Safe,” Luke said.

“Pfft, not with you I’m not.”

“Del–”

“No, only my friends call me Del.”

“We are friends–”

“We were, past tense.”

Luke grinned at her. He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

“My offer still stands Del, you can be more–”

“No, no this isn’t you.”

“Still don’t have your own opinion, still emersed in everything Percy believes.”

Luke leaned over maneuvered her ropes and pulled her towards him. He lifted her up and led her towards the darkness he emerged from.

“Come on,” he whispered in her ear, “time to see what we’ve been working on.”

Della felt shivers run down her spine. She hoped Percy would find her soon.

⬳

Della and Annabeth were gone. They fell with the manticore–the only thing left of Della was Leda. Mom is going to kill him.

Percy paced around as his thoughts tortured him. It had always been his job to protect her, and he failed.

“Percy,” Grover said. He placed a hand on Percy’s shoulder.

Percy shrugged the hand off.

Thalia was pissed. She white-knuckled Annabeth’s Yankees cap.

“Percy, I’m sorry–”

“No,” he snapped, “Don’t say you’re sorry for my loss. They’re not–She’s not dead.”

“Percy,” Grover said. There were tears in his eyes. “There’s no way they survived that and if they did, Luke–”

“No, they’re alive, I can feel it! They…can’t…she can’t be gone.” A tear escaped from his eye.

No Della was alive. He couldn’t explain it–but he could feel it like a thread connecting them. And if Del was alive so was Annabeth.

“Percy Jackson,” Zoe Nightshade called, “Come with me Lady Artemis wishes to speak with thee.”

⬳

Luke leads Della up a dark hill. There was little to no light. It was black but there were whisps of blue light. Black charred ruins are scattered almost as if there had once been a battle here.

Della felt like she was in a demonic episode of Scooby Doo. Doesn’t help that Luke led her on a rope like a dog. Bet Scooby never used a leash.

Luke paused near the crest of the hill. He turned toward her.

“What I am about to show you,” he said, “Is your fate if you don’t cooperate.”

His face twitched and sniffed almost as if he were about to cry but he stopped himself. He turned back toward the hill and pulled her rope hard.

Della glanced around when she felt the air leave her lungs–at the top of the hill was Annabeth holding up what appeared to be an invisible ceiling.

“Annabeth!” Della screamed.

Luke yanked her rope and pulled her against him. He used his free hand to angle her head at the sight.

Della closed her eyes as Annabeth screamed for her.

“See that could be you,” he whispered, “but I think I have better use for you.”

Della choked back a sob refusing to open her eyes.

“Della,” Annabeth groaned, “No let her…go”

“Say bye to Annabeth, Del,” Luke said, “We’ll see her later.”

“NO! ANNABETH!” Della yelled. She struggled against Luke.

“Aww,” Luke cooed, “come on Siren, we have more work to do.”

Della screamed as he picked her up and led her away from Annabeth.

“LUKE! LUKE!” Annabeth shrieked.

Della sobbed as Luke dragged her away from her best friend. She felt spots flood her vision before everything went dark.

⬳

` Percy sulked into his cabin and threw himself on his bed. He rolled onto his side to stare at Della’s empty bunk. Nestled in her blankets was a plush blue whale who’d seen better days. Mr. Finn. Della’s favorite stuffed animal.

How could Mr. D refuse to search for her or Annabeth?

Percy sighed slipped out of his bunk and grabbed ahold of the whale. Its big black button eyes stared up at Percy. He pulled it close to his chest and squeezed. After a moment he placed him in his bunk.

He heard water running. He looked around before in the back of the cabin he spotted a new item. A fountain–obviously a gift from Poseidon.

Percy made his way to it and noticed it was heated as it created a mist with tiny little rainbows. He looked at the bottom to see it was full of drachmas. He realized what this was for. It was a reminder to keep in touch with his family.

Percy scooped a coin out and ran his fingers along it.

“Iris, oh Goddess of the Rainbow,” he said, “please accept my offering.”

He knew he should call mom and tell her what happened, but he wasn’t ready for that yet. Until he knew more about where she was he was going to hold off telling Mom.

He could call Dad, he hadn’t talked to him in two years. But could you call a god or would that be an insult? Besides, he had a feeling Poseidon knew about what had occurred only a few hours ago. Hopefully, if she asked for help Dad would be there.

He suddenly knew exactly who to call.

“Show me Tyson,” Percy said, “At the forges of the Cyclops.”

The mist shimmered to show his half-brother Tyson surrounded by fire. Tyson was bent on an anvil, hammering a red-hot sword blade. There was a marble-framed window behind him, and it looked out onto dark blue water–the bottom of the ocean.

“Tyson,” Percy yelled.

He didn’t hear Percy at first due to the hammering and roar of the flames.

“TYSON!” Percy yelled again.

He turned his one enormous eye brightened. His face broke into a crooked yellow grin. “Percy!”

He dropped the sword blade and barrelled at Percy trying to hug him. Percy lurched back. “Hey, Big Guy, this is an Iris message, I’m not really there.”

“Oh, yes I knew that,” Tyson said. He seemed embarrassed for a moment. He then looked around Percy. “Where’s Della?”

Percy’s smile faded. “She’s not here right now buddy.”

“Oh, tell her I say hi! Tell Annabeth I say hi!”

“Okay, Buddy will do,” Percy swallows the lump in his throat. “Hey Tyson, do you hear from Dad?”

Tyson’s smile fell a bit. “Not much. Daddy is busy. He is worried about the war.”

“What do you mean?”

Tyson sighed and placed the sword out the window, where it erupted in a swirl of bubbles. When he brought the blade back in the metal was cool and silver.

“Old Sea Spirits making trouble. Aigaios. Oceanus. Those guys. They’re protecting the bad boat.”

“The Princess Andromeda? Luke’s boat?” Percy asked.

“Yes. They make it hard to find. Protect it from Daddy’s storms. Otherwise, he would smash it.”

“Smashing it would be good,” Percy agree.

Just not with Della or Annabeth on board.

“Yeah. Don’t worry about bad boat. It is going away.”

“What do you mean?”

“Panama Canal. Very far away.”

Why was Luke all the way down there? Last theyd seen he’d been near the East Coast recruiting demigods with grievances against their godly parents.

“Well that’s good I guess. Hey tell Dad I–”

Before he could finish the message dissolved leaving him alone in the cabin again. Percy sighed and shuffled back to his bunk.

He slipped under the covers and held Mr. Finn close.

“Where are you Del?” He whispered before drifting off.

⬳

Della opened her eyes to see she was nestled in a makeshift cot. She was wrapped in a thick blanket. She glanced around to see she was in a dimly lit room. Not like the apocalypse she’d been in earlier.

There was the cot she was in. A small chestnut drawer, a desk, and the door. Whoever’s room this was they were a very extreme minimalist.

She sat up and stretched when she realized her hands were untied. She froze–where’s Luke?

The handle of the door jiggled and opened into the room. Revealing the man in question.

Luke closes the door behind him. And tosses a map on the desk before he turns to Della.

“Oh, good,” he said, “You’re awake.” He sat at the end of the bed.

Della examined his face. He looked like he’d aged ten years since the last time they’d seen each other. There were heavy streaks of grey Della could hardly see his black hair.

Luke’s eyes were examining her..

“What happened?” She asked. She glanced down at the floor.

“You blacked out,” he said as if it were obvious.

“Doesn’t explain why I’m in your room.”

“You really don’t get it?”

Della glanced up at him. Her eyes narrowed.

“You’re here,” Luke said, “Because you’re the key to winning this damn thing!”

“What do mean I’m the key?” Della yelled at him. “I thought Percy was your Golden Boy.”

“It has become quite clear your brother will not join me, but you,” Luke said. He reached out to touch her cheek. “You could counter the prophecy. You could be mine.”

Della flinched at the contact.

“A half-blood of the eldest gods

Shall reach sixteen against all odds

And see the world in endless sleep

The hero’s soul, cursed blade shall reap–”

“A single choice shall end his days. Olympus to preserve or raze,” Della finished. “I know but what that’s between you and Percy–”

“It would seem the fates have made it so, but with you by my side, it’d be an equal fight. Come on Del, I’ve seen how Percy treats you on quests.”

“First,” Della said, “Quit calling me Del. Second, I’d never betray my brother. And Third, my brother loves me.”

“Does he Della? I remember the last time I saw you two he treated you worse than the Cyclops.”

Della looked down at her shoes. He had a point even on this last mission Percy had been a dick to her.

Luke tucks a finger under her chin and makes her look at him.

“It’d be you and I against the world.”

Della doesn’t pull away this time. She’d always been attracted to Luke. The two of them against the world didn’t sound too bad.

A loud ruckus stomped above them. Luke pulled back and growled in frustration. He then looks back at Della. “I’ll be back. There’s tea on the desk. He moved towards the door which clicked shut behind him.

Della sat up and on shaky feet grabbed the tea cup. She hobbled back into the cot pulled the blankets up to her chest and sipped her tea.

What if she stayed? Switched teams. Maybe then people wouldn't doubt her ability. They’d always compare her to Percy she’d always known that. She’d finally get to be with Luke–then she thought about Annabeth in the invisible cavern–no she would never stay with him.

The door opened again to reveal Luke. He didn’t look as pissed, but he certainly wasn’t pleased. “Change of plans I have a meeting to attend. But I’ll be back soon.”

“Where–”

“Doesn’t matter, but you’re going to stay here aboard the ship.”

So she’s on the Princess Andromeda….her mind went fuzzy fast. Luke was just a blur when he left.

“I’ll be back I promise Del.”

⬳

“I should throw you in the pits of Tartarus for your incompetence,” the General said, “I told you to bring me the boy, not the scrawny Athena girl.”

“But,” Thorn sputtered, “I brought you one of the Big Three’s children! I brought you the Daughter of Poseidon!”

“Hmmm,” the General nodded, “She may be useful…but right now she’s a prize to you Boy.” He looked straight at Luke.

Percy felt his heart thrum in his chest. The girls were alive. What did he mean Della was a prize to Luke?

He’d missed bits of the conversation when–

“Della will serve her purpose in time,” Luke said, “It just needs some pushing.”

What the hell? I mean yeah Della was his twin but the prophecy referred to him–or at least they’d always assumed it was him–what was Luke doing to her?

⬳

“Della, hey come on now Del,” a voice sighed.

Della is met with the sight of Luke bending over worry evident on his face.

He smiled a bit at her. “Hey Sleeping Beauty,” he cooed.

Della grinned in response but then realized she didn’t remember falling asleep. “What time is it? I thought you just left–wait I’ve been asleep–what’ve you–”

Luke’s face fell a bit as he tried to calm her. He pulled into him,

“It’s okay, Della–hey it’s okay–”

“No!” she yelled. She pushed against him. “What have you been doing–”

Luke sighed he grabbed a bowl and passed it to her.

“What is this?”

“Oatmeal.”

“Is this magic oatmeal?”

“It’s apple-cinnamon.”

Della sniffed it and indeed it was apple-cinnamon oatmeal. She takes the spoon from Luke and eats a couple of spoonfuls.

“There you go,” Luke said. He ran a hand through her hair.

Whatever anger Della felt vanished. She couldn’t even remember why she was mad. She set the bowl down.

“There you go Della,” Luke whispered. He took the bowl placed it on the floor and tugged her close to his chest. “I love you,” he murmured.

⬳

“Ah, how touching,” A voice said.

The group turned to see the General standing there in his brown silk suit. At his side was Luke and half a dozen dracaene bearing the sarcophagus of Kronos. Annabeth stood at Luke’s side. Her hands were cuffed behind her back, a gag in her mouth, Luke held the point of his sword to her throat.

Percy met her eyes seeking answers. The only message was clear RUN!

“Luke let her go,” Thalia growled.

“That’s for the General to decide,” Luke smirked, “But it is good to see you again though Thalia.”

Thalia spat at him.

Percy whipped his around and realized someone was missing.

“Where’s Della? Where is my sister?” He yelled.

A tear escaped Annabeth’s eye.

“Where is she?!”

Luke’s smirk disappeared a single tear dripped down his cheek.

The General however laughed. “She’s alive Son of Poseidon, for now.

More tears sprung from Annabeth’s eyes she shook in Luke’s grip.

Anger bubbled in Percy’s veins and he unleashed Riptide.

⬳

Luke looked over the railing at the sea. They were just a bit away from the camp’s borders. He stretched and felt his back protest. He sighed, fighting Thalia was not easy to come back from. But the plan had to go. The concoction of poppy seeds and a drip of Lethe to keep Della here worked too well. He knew she liked him but–he didn’t think he’d catch feelings for her. He has to get her out of here before Kronos makes him do something awful–or even worse kill her.

He went below deck and opened the door to his room to see her asleep just as he’d left her. Luke picks her up bridal-style. He carries her up to the deck.

He drops her into the water and watches as she sinks. The Old Sea Gods push her back into Poseidon’s territory.

⬳

When Della came to she was no longer in Luke’s room, no instead she was–well–she had no idea where she was.

She was situated in an actual bed, not a cot. The room reminded her of the cabin her mom rented every year. The room was in natural beach tones. She could see a window encrusted with sea glass that looked out into blue water–wait blue water?

Della sat up and slid out of the bed. The floor was freezing but she didn’t care. She was almost positive she was close to her Dad or at the very least Percy. She stumbled for a moment not used to being on her feet.

There were two double doors a few feet away. Della grabbed a handle and bolted from the room.

The hallway was fancier than her room, but the architecture told her all she needed to know–she was at her Dad’s place.

Two mermaids spotted her and gasped.

“Miss Della you should be in bed,” one of them chastised. She had a shimmering pink tail.

“I’ll go inform Poseidon,” the other said. Her tail was multicolored like the rainbow fish book.

Rainbow Fish swished back down the hall they’d come from.

Pink Tail swam towards Della and placed a hand on her forehead.

“Well, you definitely look better,” she said. “You looked like death when the patrol found you.”

“What do you–”

“DELLA!” a familiar voice boomed.

“Tyson?” Della asked.

The Cyclops tackled her in a giant bear hug.

“Wait till Percy hears you’re okay! He’s been worried.”

Della hugs her half-brother back.

Percy’s been worried about her?

“He was so sad when they didn’t find you!”

“Alright Tyson,” Let her breathe there Kiddo.” A masculine voice laughed.

“Dad?” Della breathed.

Tyson let go of her. And moved out of the way.

At the end of the hallways stood her father Poseidon. He looked similar to the last time she’d seen him. Same fisherman’s getup, the same beard, the same everything really–except now he looked incredibly exhausted.

She moved towards him but stopped just a few feet in front of him. She didn’t really know what to say to him.

“Hello, Della,” He smiled. He and Percy shared the same smile. “You’ve been so brave.”

“Not that I’m not happy to see you but why am I here? I don’t remember–”

Poseidon’s smile fell. “There is much to discuss but you need to get home to your mother and brother.”

“But–”

“I am very proud of you Della,” Poseidon said. He pulled her into a hug. This was the first hug she’d ever had with her dad. He held her similar to Mom–a hand at the back of her head and the other between her shoulder blades.

“Never forget little Siren, you are my daughter, not just Percy’s sister.”

⬳

“The sword, Della,” Annabeth muttered, “Your sword…Hero…cursed blade…”

Della and Percy looked at each other. Percy nodded at her.

Della looked at Luke his lip trembled.

“Del…please…I’ll be good I promise…”

Della felt tears stream down her face.

She raised her sword but then she looked back at Percy.

“Together,” she said.

“Together,” he said.

They passed the blade to Luke together.

Luke without hesitation snatched Leda and he undid his chest plate. He aimed Della’s sword under his left arm and he stabbed himself.

Leda, Della’s sword clattered to the ground as Luke fell backward.

Della caught him before his head could hit the hearth. She cradled his head in her lap.

“Del…”

“Hey, no none of that,” Della whispered.

Annabeth, Grover, and Percy surround them. They crouch over the pair.

“I–I’m sorry Beth…”

“Shh, you were a hero at the end, you’ll go to Elysium.”

“Did you love me?” he asked looking at Annabeth.

“At one time but…you were always a brother to me.”

He nodded and coughed red painted his lips. His eyes gazed up at Della.

“Del, no matter how much I hurt you…I want you to know I meant it when I said…I love you.”

Della’s tears cascaded on his brow. She leaned over and kissed his brow.

“It’s okay…” he said, “it doesn’t hurt.”

“Luke I love you.”

He smiled up at her. His eyes went to Percy. Luke brought himself up a smidge and gripped Percy’s sleeve.

“Ethan. Me. The other unclaimed, don’t let it happen again.”

“I won’t I promise,” Percy said.

“Good,” Luke breathed. He fell back into Della’s lap and his hand went slack.

Della choked on a sob. Grover closed Luke’s unseeing eyes. Annabeth clutched onto Percy’s shoulder.

“Percy…Della,” Their dad called, awe in his voice, “what…what is this?”

Percy turned and faced the Olympians.

“We need a shroud,” he announced, his voice cracked. “We need a shroud for the Son of Hermes.”

Della tried not to scream.

#oc character #percy jackon and the olympians #percy jackson #percyjacksonxsister!reader #fanfic #heroes of olympus #percy and annabeth #luke castellan x reader #della jackson

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missanious · 2 years

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After what I’ve heard about the show Velma, I thought I’d write the characters in modern high school setting:

Fred- football jock with ?undiagnosed? autism, special interest in traps and monsters, ascot is silk and the texture grounds him

Daphne- rich prep girl, core of the drama program, has gone from one obsession/project to another in her life,

Velma- youngest, skipped grades to be a freshman, has read all the books while helping out at her mom’s bookstore, is vocal about things she finds are ridiculous, her correcting people is initially her trying to make friends

Shaggy- oldest, was held back and other friends have graduated, diagnosed anxiety disorder with prescribed cannabis and therapy dog, volunteers at local animal shelter

Scooby- Shaggy’s therapy dog, always around there to help when owner is overwhelmed

Running jokes: Shaggy constantly has weird snacks that are strange flavor combinations, Scooby is used to it and enjoys the occasional treat. Daphne is always revealed to have a secret skill every episode(“Where did you learn to pick locks?” ‘I had a rebellious phase’) except one case where they go to a ranch(“Every girl has a horse phase.” ‘I didn’t!’). Velma constantly misplacing things, usually cause she got caught up in something else.

Fred initially had a running gag about not realize when people are flirting with him before Daphne asks him about it. After the two work on his social cues, with one late episode having him mask himself into a stress ball and having a lesson of ‘your normal doesn’t have to be like everyone else’.

I don’t know if I’ll do anything with these brain sparks, but they’re in the internet aether now.

#scooby doo

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capitalisticveins · 1 year

Text

Solaire Clan Headcanons (Ft. Tank and Quinn)

- Lovely knows how to fence

- Vincent had a goth phase in the 6th grade, and grew out of it a month before he was turned

- Fred dyed his hair blond after Fred from Scooby Doo

- Sam owns a reclining chair and a rocking chair

- Vincent will step into the sun for 10 seconds for $50, and has

- William can crochet

- Alexis wears leather religiously, you can fight me on this

- Bright eyes has done the Tide Pod challenge

- Quinn was a marathon runner in college

- Before Tank got the keys to Sam’s house, they’d shift into a wolf and sleep on their back on his porch until Sam got home.

- Lovely thought the shades pouring into the stadium was a part of the congratulations display, and was excited to see how it’d play out.

- Bright Eyes wears glasses

- Fred watched 10 minutes of Velma and proceeded to cry his heart out

- William’s favorite part of history is the French Revolution

- Before the Sam incident, Alexis and Vincent would tie each other to a stick during the sunrise and see how long it’d take before the other whimpers out for fun

- Fred can drive joystick

- Sam had to hitchhike his way to Dahlia when he first ran away

- Tank was forced to wear a “get-along” shirt when they were a kid whenever they argued with the other pack kids. They still own it and wear it whenever they’re having a lazy day with Sam

- Lovely can and will do a full step-out on the spot if they feel like it

- Vincent can’t make toast

- Bright Eyes hates the Michael Myers movies because Fred has logically proven they would die in each one

- Alexis owned a dog once, but forgot to feed it

- Lovely has made their own grave after Inversion, and visits it every month. Vincent doesn’t know about it.

- Vincent DESPISES “My Babysitter’s a Vampire”

- Quinn and Tank used to vandalize buildings and steal from stores as dates before Tank found out what he was really doing

- They’d call each other “Bonnie and Clyde”

- Sam can’t do push-ups

- William only likes the first Hotel Transylvania movie. The rest are “disgraceful”

- Lovely doesn’t wear Vincent’s sweaters when he’s gone, so he forcibly puts the sweaters he owns on them and “pretends” they had it on the whole time

- Sam hates cats, Tank loves them

- Fred can jump fences smoothly, Bright Eyes tried to do it the way he does but their leg got caught and they face-planted on the ground, broke their glasses, and their leg.

- Sam still has Vine on his phone

- Lovely does ballet

- So does Vincent

#Im feeling more confident writing ngl #Redacted ASMR #Redacted Audio #Redacted Solaire Clan #redacted vincent #Redacted Sam #Redacted Lovely #Redacted Tank #Redacted Darlin #Redacted Bright Eyes #Redacted Fred #Redacted William #Redacted Alexis #redacted quinn #I forgot Adam used to be in the clan #should I add him in part 2?

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alphashley14 · 6 months

Text

One of Us

A Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated/Mystery Skulls Crossover

Chapter 23

Hellbent

“Shitshitshit- LEWIIIISSS!!!” Arthur shouted from the driver’s seat! He turned the steering wheel frantically to and fro as he struggled to regain control of the van careening across the desert. The squealing wheels sent orange dust flying, shrouding the monstrous cattle around them in clouds of ginger. And that same dust invaded the open back of the vehicle, even as the corpse of the dead skull cow tumbled out of the back, slamming into its’ brothers behind it, and Vivi Yukino struggled to get the back doors shut once more.

It occurred to Cassidy to help her, but her battered body protested and it was all she could do to keep herself from tumbling out of the back of the vehicle after the beast. The dust was all-encompassing. Every breath burned as it invaded her lungs, and she had to shut her eyes tight to keep the fine particles out of them. She held on tight to her shotgun and to the bars of one of the shelves in the back of the van, struggling to keep herself as still and secure as she could.

Then there was a flash of pink light behind her eyelids. And suddenly, abruptly, unnaturally even, the van lurched to right itself and there came the telltale sound of the back doors slamming shut. Then Cassidy dared take a breath, she realized the air had become clean. Her eyes fluttered open, and the sight that greeted her didn’t make any sense.

The interior of the van had completely transformed. The purple fabric upholstery had been replaced with bright carmine leather, and the rest of the van’s interior, which had previously been oranges and deep reds, was now entirely black with tasteful gothic touches of purple and bright magenta.

And this did not seem to concern the other occupants of the vehicle in the slightest. Vivi leaned back against the now-redwood shelf and breathed a sigh of relief, wiping orange dirt and bits of yellow gore off of her face with a spare towel. (Not that it did any good for the rest of her.) “Thanks, Lewis. Good catch.”

Wait. Lewis! As soon as Vivi said it, Cassidy realized that Lewis was no longer in the van. But again, the Mystery Skulls didn’t look the slightest bit perturbed about this. And no sooner was Angel sitting up to investigate, any question she could have asked was answered with another flash of pink.

“WHAT IN THE GODDAMN-”

“Ah, shit. Forgot about you…” The skeleton that had appeared beside Vivi sighed.

“I- WHAT THE- YOU-” Cassidy stammered, bewildered beyond words.

“This is Lewis,” Vivi said in a complete deadpan. “You met him a minute ago. Long story short he’s my boyfriend, he’s dead but didn’t exactly go anywhere, so now we solve ghost stories… with a ghost.”

“Not even the weirdest thing we have going on here,” Lewis sighed, and in a flare of pink fire that engulfed him from head to toe, the ghost transformed back into a handsome teen in a vest and ascot - with not a speck of dust or gore on him.

“We’re happy to have him with us,” Arthur added from the front seat. “Lewis is a really great guy and you should definitely not be scared of him.”

“The hell I shouldn’t!” Cassidy strongly disagreed.

“Alright then, be scared of him. But ya gotta ask yourself: are you more scared of him or Bessie the murder bull and his five thousand friends?”

And almost on cue there came a particularly loud MOOOO from the Devil’s Herd, still stampeding after them.

Cassidy opened her mouth, but immediately closed it. She pursed her lips, then after a moment she came to a conclusion: “Bessie. Definitely Bessie. Fuck that.” And she began to aggressively brush and flick as much of the blood and chunks off of herself as she could. Vivi handed her a clean towel too, which helped.

“Amen,” Arthur agreed.

Then the dog, who had gone very quiet up until now, spoke up. “Lewis, get ready to open the passenger side door. We’re approaching the hive.”

The atmosphere in the van immediately shifted (except for Cassidy, who was out of the loop and along for the ride), the trap returning to the front of their minds.

༻˚⁺･⚉｡○✼༓☾⦾♫෴♡💛♡෴♫⦾☽༓✼○｡⚉･⁺˚༺

“The trap?” Fred exclaimed with glee.

“Yes Fred,” Cassidy sighed fondly, “the trap.”

“What kind of trap?” He asked, tapping his fingers together and bouncing lightly in his chair, a giant grin on his face.

“A big, crazy, stupidly dangerous trap that I still can’t believe worked,” Cassidy groaned, some of that old anxiety returning just at the memory of it.

“I’mma be totally honest with you: if we didn’t have magic it probably wouldn’t have,” Vivi shrugged.

“Would 100% not recommend for your own investigations,” Mystery agreed.

“-And if you do attempt it for one of your own mysteries, you’d better hope you don’t survive because I will kill you,” Cassidy growled.

Ricky knew that tone. “Fred. She means it!”

But the master trapper was hardly listening. “Less lecturing, more trapping!”

And with another exasperated yet fond sigh, the storytelling continued.

༻˚⁺･⚉｡○✼༓☾⦾♫෴♡💛♡෴♫⦾☽༓✼○｡⚉･⁺˚༺

Cassidy had absolutely no idea what she’d been (quite literally) pulled into, but she was about to find out.

“You have the flare gun at the ready, right Vivi?” Asked Arthur.

“Got em’ right here.”

“And the dynamite?”

“That too.”

“And Lewis? Remember, you have to get out not long after Mystery.”

“Just tell me when,” the ghost said.

“It won’t be long. The hive’s just ahead! Get ready!”

Cassidy craned her neck to look between the two front seats, and she could see them approaching a system of canyons and gorges. They had just entered them when the song on the radio changed to an intense set of crescendoing, pulsing chords.

“Hellbent? Oh Hell yeah! Now this is ‘fuck shit up’ music!” Vivi cheered.

“It really is the best car chase song,” Lewis agreed.

“Easy for you to say,” Arthur gulped. And Cassidy got the distinct impression that there was a story there, but she didn’t exactly have any time to dwell on it. Because that was when the shaking ground beneath the van’s tires began to tremor. “Here they come!” Shouted Arthur!

And that was when Hell poured out of the mountainside. Like a mob of angry ants, the Devil’s Herd came from every cave, crack, and crevice. But instead of driving away, the van turned and began to drive around the perimeter of the hive, stirring it up even more, prompting the cattle to come out after them.

“Lewis! NOW!” The dog shouted! And by itself, the door swung open and the dog leapt out of the van with a flash of red light.

I’ve been Hellbent, baby,

Cassidy shouted after him. “DON’T! DID HE JUST- OH MY GOD!”

Hellbent on lovin’ you all day long,

“Don’t worry about him, Vivi said dismissively. “He’s a professional.”

Hellbent on drugs ‘cause it turned you on,

“-Not to mention he’s more dangerous than anything he’ll find in there,” Arthur added.

Don’t know what else to do,

“But-”

Mmm~

“I’ll tell you what. You want to be helpful? Get in the front seat and start throwing sticks,” Vivi said.

I’ve been Hellbent, baby,

“Alright,” Angel groaned as she heaved herself between the seats and onto the passenger side.

Hellbent on makin’ you love me, too, Even though not what I’m supposed to do, I don’t give a damn, Mmm~

“I’m up here, but I don’t know what you mean by- OHMYGOD!” And Angel had never in her life rolled down a window so quickly as when Vivi Yukino suddenly dropped a lit stick of dynamite into her hand. The BOOM that followed after she threw it brought even more angry cows out after them.

“WHAT IN THE- OHSHIT-” (She chucked yet another stick out the window just as fast as Vivi handed it to her) “-HELL?!”

“We’ve got to get as many of them out of the hive-” BOOM! “-and to the trap as possible!” Vivi shouted over the wind as she took another stick out of a box, held it out for Lewis to light, and passed it to Cassidy - who promptly threw it out the window, much to the displeasure of the cows. “Not to mention the fewer of them are in there, the easier Mystery’s job is.” And as soon as she finished talking there came another explosion as the stick Cassidy had just tossed went off.

Immediately after, over the roar of the wind surging in through the open window, there came a sound from the radio like the cocking of a shotgun, and the song launched itself into a call-and-response verse.

I’ve been hellbent, baby (I’ve been hellbent, baby)

“Aaand the most effective way to do that-”

It’s been too long, baby (It’s been too long, baby)

“-is to make them mad,” Arthur added just as loudly as Vivi. But unlike his friends he was sweating bullets and looked even closer to a panic attack than Cassidy.

My eyes wide shut (My eyes wide shut)

“Well a little bit of damn warning would have been nice!” Cassidy retorted, throwing out yet another stick.

And I feel your touch (I feel your touch)

“Would love to but we’re on a time crutch,” Vivi disagreed over the resulting BOOM.

I’ll prove you wrong! (I’ll prove you wrong!)

“Here - this last one should do it. Make it count.”

You make me strong! (You make me strong!)

Grumbling, Cassidy took the last stick of dynamite and threw it out the window as hard as she could.

I said all I need is, all I need is, all I need is you!

The explosion that followed brought out the biggest swarm yet.

“-Aaand that should do it. Lewis, get us the blazes out of here.”

And as the music carried on into more of those intense beats, Cassidy’s vision was engulfed in blinding pink light and if she could have screamed she would have! It felt as if her battered body was being forcibly sucked through a very long tube. When it finally stopped, the van was a great distance ahead of the herd (but not so far that they weren’t still being chased) and the Mystery Skulls’ attention was on her.

“What the hell just happened?” Vivi demanded from the back seat.

“Oh no - you’re hurt!” Arthur cried.

“No shit,” Cassidy groaned. And she would have said something snarky, but she broke out into coughs and when she took her hand away from her mouth her palm was covered in blood.

“Lewis, did you-”

“She must’ve been more seriously hurt than we thought before we picked her up,” Lewis said. “I’m so sorry - I never would’ve teleported us if I’d realized.”

“S’ fine,” Cassidy gritted out, clutching her even-more-broken ribs and struggling to keep her composure. “I’d already be dead if you hadn’t grabbed me.”

“We’re gonna have to talk about this later,” Vivi said. “And you? You will tell us how this happened. But for now? Lewis, you have to go.”

“Will you be alright-”

“That’s why we have the contingency plan! Now go!”

And in a swirl of pink, he was gone. And not a moment after he disappeared, there was another slurry of pink light across every surface, and everything reverted back to the way it had been before Lewis possessed it.

“How much further to the gorge?” Vivi asked, as if none of that was unusual at all.

“Just ahead! You need to switch places with- uh…” Then Arthur turned apologetic. “Sorry. I don’t think we ever asked for your name.”

“Angel,” Cassidy groaned, already moving back into the back seat.

“Angel- haha. What a coincidence, right?” Arthur said, awkwardly looking away so he didn’t make direct eye contact with Cassidy’s ass as she passed him. “Well- nice to meet you Angel. Sorry if we’ve come across as rude but given the circumstances-”

“Not the time for niceties, baby. Jus’ drive!”

“Yes ma’am.” Arthur said quickly, right as Vivi hopped into the now empty seat beside him. She rolled down the window and the gale that filled the van assaulted Cassidy’s ears, even as Vivi hopped to sit on the window’s edge with her entire upper body outside of the vehicle.

Cassidy, having laid down in the back of the van, felt the terrain beneath the vehicle tilt downhill and Arthur shouted over the wind, “This is the gorge! Fire the first flare!” And distantly, Cassidy heard Vivi fire it with a bang and a loud hiss. Unbeknownst to her, the blue light was visible for miles. Vivi tossed the now useless thing. And right as she was readying the second, the edges of Cassidy’s vision started going dark.

She was vaguely aware of a walkie talkie cutting on, but she couldn’t focus on the words being said. And right as Hellbent was coming to an end with one final dramatic chord, she blacked out.

༻˚⁺･⚉｡○✼༓☾⦾♫෴♡💛♡෴♫⦾☽༓✼○｡⚉･⁺˚༺

“How bad was it?” Ricky asked tensely.

“Wipe that concerned look off your face Ricky, I was fine!” Cassidy waved him off dismissively.

“Internal bleeding is not fine, Cassidy! If we didn’t have magic you may have needed surgery!” Mystery scolded.

“I’m a little lost,” Fred scratched his head. “How did you get hurt?”

“The particle displacement that occurs during magical teleportation isn’t easy on the body,” Lewis surmised. “Basically, in Cassidy’s case, suddenly displacing her weakened, injured body from one place to another worsened the tears in bruised tissue, reopened cuts, and as for her bones? The displacement puts pressure on your entire body at once, so you can only imagine what that does to bones that are already cracked or broken. Imagine if someone has broken ribs, (which Cassidy did) and some asshole walks up and squeezes them around the middle as hard as they can. But on your whole body.”

“Jeepers. I’m glad you’re okay, Cassidy. That must’ve really hurt!” Daphne cried.

“It’s water under the bridge now,” Cassidy shrugged. “If I had a nickel for every time Lewis apologized afterward… But he never would’ve done it if he’d realized I was injured and I’m still glad he did, given that we had the Devil’s Herd right on our heels.”

“How did the rest of the trap go anyway?” Fred asked giddily.

“Long story short,” Vivi explained, “We reached word of the third herd while we were still cleaning up the mess from the second. So before we had set off from there, we harvested an organ from the second queen’s carcass - the one whose head is mounted on our wall. That organ produces highly potent pheromones. That’s how they communicated - like bees.

“We put those pheromones in gas canisters all over the van that continuously released small amounts, which made the cattle think we were another queen. So their instinct was either to destroy us or to take us back to their hive - either way, they’d have to catch us first. So Arthur and I lured most of the skull cattle into a deep gorge, and beyond a certain point the people of Tumble caused a carefully orchestrated rock slide with dynamite to close them in. Then, long before they could dig or climb their way out, Mystery showed up, luring the rest of the herd into the gorge.”

“That was my objective when I leapt out of the van,” Mystery explained with a hint of pride. “My job was to slink through the hive, kill the queen and any of her daughters, rip out her pheromone organ, and use it to lure any skull cattle left in the hive back to the trap with the rest.”

“It’s a shame you missed that bit Cassidy because it was really cool,” Vivi said excitedly. “He jumped right off that cliff and they all followed. Most of them were either dead or close to it when they hit the bottom, save those who landed on the corpses of those who jumped before.”

“Rou jumped?” Scooby exclaimed. “What about the landing?”

“Kitsune are shape-shifters, remember?” Mystery smirked. And in a flash, he transformed into a large white raven and perched on the top of the chair behind Vivi’s head. “I flew- oh. I’m sorry, Ricky. Is this alright?” The kitsune-turned-bird asked, apologetic and concerned.

“Oh- yeah it’s fine,” Ricky said sheepishly, rubbing his eyes and sitting up from where he’d been laying his head on the table. “I think what freaked me out yesterday was that you turned into something too similar to a parrot, and I wasn’t expecting it. But this is alright.”

“‘No parrot-like things.’ I’ll keep that in mind.” Mystery said with a pleased fluff of his feathers.

Then he hopped off of the top of the perch, turned back into a dog, and landed squarely in Vivi’s lap - who couldn’t resist the urge to give him a cuddle. Which, if his wagging tail was anything to go by, had been his plan all along.

“So once they were in the gorge…” Velma prompted.

“The townsfolk poured hundreds of gallons of molten tar down on the cattle,” Lewis said grimly, igniting a single flame on the tip of one finger, “-And I burned them alive.” Monsters as they were, Lewis could still hear their screams. And he felt no satisfaction in their deaths.

“Like, zoinks,” Shaggy gulped.

“Jinkies,” Velma gulped in agreement. “That’s… dark.”

“There were too many of them to euthanize them humanely,” Vivi said sadly. “We tried that in Idaho and it cost us dearly. We didn’t even try in California because the Redwoods were in danger. Not to mention, obviously, all the people and wildlife who were also at risk. Then in Arizona a whole small town was in danger. And like the others, that herd had already caused a lot of damage and killed a lot of people. We didn’t even consider doing it humanely at that point.”

“Good,” Ricky said gravely. All heads turned with their undivided attention. “I can’t even begin to imagine how many people those things hurt. So even if they suffered, it’s better for them to not exist anymore. They never should’ve existed in the first place. God, why did I-”

“Don’t.” Mystery said. His eyes narrowed, flashing red, and his voice was very firm and stern, only to immediately turn gentle. “Come back, Ricky. Turn around. Don’t go down that path. The regrets, the what-ifs, the should-have-dones, the self-loathing. You’ll only drive yourself mad. Believe me… I know.”

Ricky sat back in his chair a bit, sullen, and said no more on the matter. Though everyone could tell, and Ricky knew they could because he could see the concern on their faces, that particular battle wasn’t over just yet. Finally, he could take the silence no longer and put his head on the table, his face hidden in his arms. The table was awfully comfortable. And his eyes were growing so… heavy.

“Cassidy!” Lewis said suddenly, which made everyone jump including Ricky, who quickly sat up and ran his hands over his face. (This went unnoticed by everyone except Mystery.) “Now you need to tell them what happened after you woke up.”

And that made Mystery stiffen. Ah, yes. That.

“Why? What happened after you woke up?” Fred asked.

“This one damn near gave me a heart attack and killed me, that’s what!” Cassidy shouted, jabbing an accusatory finger at Mystery. The “dog” batted his eyes and innocently looked away as if he had no idea what she was talking about, except he was also smirking as if to say, ‘I did it and I’ll do it again!’

“Why am I not surprised?” Velma said dryly.

“Oh they didn’t tell ya’all shit,” Cassidy laughed. “Just wait until you hear what the first damn thing out of his mouth was!”

༻˚⁺･⚉｡○✼༓☾⦾♫෴♡💛♡෴♫⦾☽༓✼○｡⚉･⁺˚༺

When Cassidy awoke, the first thing she registered was the pain. Her whole body protested with either stiffness, discomfort, or jabs that came with every little movement and adjustment. Next came sound - the hustle and bustle of movements and voices all around. Then the dry heat of the desert that clung to her skin, and the coarse, stiff bedding beneath her back. Then, finally, she blinked her eyes open.

The light was dim and orange. Late afternoon sunlight just permeating the tent’s fabric above her head. Cassidy turned her head to and fro, taking in her surroundings. She was laid on a pop up cot with a very thin mattress inside of what appeared to be a medical tent. The other beds were empty, a monitor stuck to her arm kept track of her vitals, and a fan in the corner was trying its best to combat the Arizona heat. Aside from that, she was alone. And she could see her bag sitting on a makeshift bedside table, though her rifle was nowhere in sight.

As what had happened before she passed out came back to her, Cassidy sat up as carefully as she could with a groan. Ghosts, magic, and skull cattle? Were the mysteries not limited to Crystal Cove?

Careful not to jostle herself too much, Cassidy reached over, pulled her bag over into her lap, and started digging around looking for her weapons and to check that all of her stuff was there. Surprise surprise, her pistol, shotgun, mace, and knives were all missing. As were her notes and files on the Mystery Skulls.

Just then, Cassidy’s head snapped up at the sound of someone entering the tent, and Arthur Kingsmen jumped when they locked eyes. “Oh! You’re awake! It was… Angel, right?”

“Yeah. That’s right. And you’re Arthur Kingsmen, synth player of the Mystery Skulls. And… also a monster hunter apparently,” Cassidy said with a groan as she hefted her bag back onto the table. There wasn’t a single thing in there she could use at the moment anyway.

“Yep. That’s me,” he smiled and rubbed the back of his head, an embarrassed blush coming across his face that reminded her painfully of Ricky.

Three kids and a talking animal… could there be a fourth? Even if there isn’t it’s too close to be a coincidence but there’s just no way…

Just then, Vivi popped her head into the tent. “Hey Artie, how’s- Oh! You’re up!” Vivi Yukino said happily. “Hey Lewis! Miss Dynamite is awake!”

Which led the ghost (apparently wearing his human disguise) to stride into the tent after her. “How are you feeling?” He asked.

“Like that skull herd trampled me,” Cassidy said in the least-pained tone she could.

“Sorry,” Lewis said guiltily.

“From what I gather, you didn’t do it on purpose. All the same, I’d say we have a lot to talk about.”

“That’s for sure,” Vivi said. “For starters, let’s properly introduce ourselves. I’m Vivi Yukino. This is Lewis Pepper, and this is Arthur Kingsmen. But you apparently already knew that, Miss… Angel Dynamite?”

“Yeah, that’s my name.”

“No it isn’t.”

Angel whirled around just in time to catch a glimpse of an enormous shadow on the other side of the tent dart out of sight.

“What was that?”

“Mystery…” Vivi warned sternly, but her tone went unheeded as a huge snout forced its way between the Mystery Skulls, followed swiftly by an absolutely gigantic beast.

“SWEET lordy…” A gasp forced its way out of her and as much as every instinct she had was screaming at her, Cassidy found herself frozen in place. Not that, as hurt as she was, she would have been able to do much else anyway. The kitsune’s seven tails fanned out magnificently behind him like the tail of a peacock. Snow white fur was stained and splotched with orange mud and the golden blood of the cows, and when he shook himself speckles of it misted into the air around him. “What- that the hell-?” She asked shakily.

“Angel, this is Mystery,” Vivi said in an even, measured voice. “You’ve actually met him, briefly, in the car before he jumped out.”

“That was a cute little dog!” Cassidy all but shouted. “Not some dog- wolf- fox- whatever-you-are! I- eep!”

Cassidy jumped, shaking, when Mystery abruptly leapt up, his front paws on either side of her body, absolutely towering over her. His red eyes glowed in the dim light within the tent, and the sheer intensity of his glower through his gold spectacles locked all of her limbs in place.

“What’s your name?” The creature asked. And his voice was all-encompassing, reverberating into the deepest parts of Cassidy’s chest in such a way that it shut all of them right up.

“I- it’s Angel Dynamite,” she replied. Panic fluttered in her stomach. Why would he think otherwise?!

“No it isn’t,” he snapped, hackles raised and teeth bared. “I do not know your face as I once did. But if there’s one thing I never forget it’s a smell. Especially one I pursued with such passion as yours. ‘Angel Dynamite?’ Ha! No, that’s the name you had to give yourself. I remember now. That’s what he used to call you, isn’t it?”

Cassidy’s heart seized inside her chest, and the lovestruck face of the boy she’d loved once flashed before her eyes. He knew. He knew! But how? And the other Mystery Skulls didn’t, if the bewildered looks on their faces were anything to go by.

Cassidy nervously swallowed. “You know me,” she said, as evenly as she possibly could. An admission with deniability if ever there was one. But Mystery would not have it.

“What. Is. Your. Name?” He barked. And the force in his tone and the desperation in his eyes was so powerful that she had no choice but to give in.

“... Cassidy Williams,” she admitted quietly.

And at those words his entire demeanor changed. His lips dropped over his fangs in a gasp of awe. The hardness vanished and the tension in his shoulders let out like a deflated balloon. He looked- relieved. So relieved he looked as if he might cry. “You’re alive,” he muttered, disbelieving. But then tearfully, he laughed. “I knew it!”

“You know me,” Cassidy repeated, and he must have heard the fear and confusion in her voice.

“I do,” he said, and his voice had become very gentle. Melancholy, yet fond. Reminiscing. “And you knew me. A version of me, anyway. But you would not remember me. My children and their families, you knew as well,” he said, gesturing to the other three Mystery Skulls. “But that doesn’t matter right now. The others! Ricky, Judy, Bradley. Are they alive as well? Do they still live?”

Cassidy was so flabbergasted by his enthusiasm that it didn’t even occur to her to lie. “They are! They are!”

At that news, Mystery became so excited that it took a whole twenty minutes to calm him down enough for him to tell them a story that Cassidy had only thought was familiar. And for Vivi, Arthur, and Lewis, that revealed wounds so old and so painful that no one around them had ever been able to bring themselves to tell the whole thing - until now.

༻˚⁺･⚉｡○✼༓☾⦾♫෴♡💛♡෴♫⦾☽༓✼○｡⚉･⁺˚༺

Once Cassidy stopped talking, the table fell very quiet.

Then silently, five heads slowly turned to look at the little dog, sitting solemn and silent in Vivi’s lap. And he had that same expression on his face as that day in the desert: Joy and sorrow blended together in a tapestry of painful memories.

Finally, Ricky swallowed the knot in his throat. “... You knew us?” He asked quietly.

And the dog looked right at Ricky and replied, “I did.”

“... H-how?”

“I don’t blame you for not piecing it together yourself,” Mystery said. And his voice was forcibly even as he wrestled his own feelings under control. “A lot has happened in the past twenty-four hours. You all had so much more on your minds.”

“That doesn't answer my question,” Ricky said. And he was forcing himself to stay calm too.

“Do the math,” Mystery said simply. “You disappeared a little over twenty years ago. Vivi, Arthur, and Lewis were all born in Crystal Cove and are all twenty-seven, twenty-six, and twenty-five years old respectively. And their families lived here for some years even before that until they all moved away, almost two years after you left. I am the guardian spirit of the Yukino family. I was here too. Vivi, Lewis, and Arthur were so young they hardly remember Crystal Cove. But me? I remember. And yes, I knew you. I knew your families, your friends, your neighbors. The Yukinos lived not two blocks away from the Owenses. Five from the Williamses. Four generations of Yukinos lived in Crystal Cove, and for all that time I was here too. I was there when Vivi’s parents and grandparents congratulated yours on your birth. Both of your births. Brad and Judy’s too. I watched you grow up. I followed your mysteries - they were the only exciting thing that happened in Crystal Cove back then. And I was there, sniffing in vain around in the brush, when your father and Cassidy’s parents led volunteers to trudge through the caves and waterways with sticks… looking for your bodies.”

That last bit had Ricky’s throat closing and his eyes burning.

Dad…

Ricky and Cassidy both did not like thinking about their families. How much their disappearances must have hurt them. Even now, with the Freak not a threat anymore, neither of them had looked up or approached their families. It had been twenty years. Surely, they had moved on. Surely, showing up now would only hurt them more. And seeing them from a distance without being able to reach out would surely mean only more pain on their end.

“... Why are you only telling me this now?” Ricky asked.

“I did not get to finish my story last night,” Mystery reminded Ricky gently. And, it’s as I keep saying: A lot has happened. There have been other things to talk about. And… I do not mean to diminish your pain when I say this. But would you believe me if I told you that it is painful for me too? Remembering everything that happened back then?”

“Then why don’t I remember you?”

“I was the guardian of the Yukino family. I tried not to get too involved in the lives of humans that were not mine, and it was in my nature to be forgettable. But I think, once reminded, you may yet remember.”

“Then start talking,” Ricky said firmly. “And don’t you dare leave anything out.”

“I will,” Mystery said. “But I believe a more comfortable setting would be appropriate, as it is quite the long story. And I need to get something from my chambers anyway. Vivi, Lewis. Why don’t you lead our guests to the family room? I’ll meet you there.”

“If that’s alright with Ricky,” Vivi shrugged.

And if Ricky had a bit more pep in his step right at that moment, he may have fought it. But at this point, he already felt so exhausted and utterly drained that he simply sighed, “Sure.”

And so, Mystery hopped from Vivi’s lap and skedaddled out of the room, while the humans got up and silently picked up stacks of dishes from breakfast and carried them into the kitchen to be washed later. Then, awkwardly quiet, they followed Vivi and Lewis into yet another unexplored part of the mansion.

Ricky kept quiet, his head swimming, and it was all he could do to keep his eyes trained on Cassidy’s back walking just ahead of him. Her shirt fit her well - he could see her toned muscles and defined shoulder blades shifting beneath the fabric with each step. Beautiful, he thought to himself. Even now, part of him feared that if he took his eyes off of her for too long she’d disappear. Or worse: he’d wake up to find that the miracle of this morning had been nothing but a dream.

As for Cassidy, there were a lot of things that were yet to be explained to her, but for now she was content to hear what Mystery had to say until Ricky was ready to tell her the truth. Some things about the kitsune’s role in Crystal Cove twenty years ago had been explained to her back in Tempo, but she was looking forward to having a lot of gaps filled.

“So like,” Shaggy cleared his throat after a while, “how exactly did you guys know Mystery Incorporated back in the day?”

“Yeah. And why didn’t you mention it before?” Velma asked. Curious - not accusatory.

“Our families knew each other from what I understand,” Lewis said.

“More than knew each other,” Cassidy corrected gently. “After spending some time in Tempo, I managed to find out more than what Mystery told us. Ya’all ain’t gonna believe this: Fred and Vivi are related.”

At that, everyone abruptly stopped walking and turned around. “What?!”

“Wait- how?!” Vivi exclaimed, just as shocked as everyone else.

“What’s your Momma’s maiden name?” Angel asked.

Vivi thought for a second, then smacked herself on the forehead. “Reeves! Of course!”

“I thought Vivi was Japanese,” Fred said, confused.

“Half Japanese, on my Dad’s side,” Vivi corrected. “I mostly take after him, but my Mom is definitely white. Like she is blonde. And- actually, come to think of it her hair is the same yellow as Fred’s. Anyway - all I know is some sides of Mom’s family had lived in Crystal Cove for a very long time. So I guess I shouldn’t really be surprised. How are we related, by the way? Specifically?”

“Your Mom and Judy’s Dad are cousins,” Cassidy explained. “Which makes you and Judy second cousins, and you and Fred are second cousins once removed.”

“Wow. Small world,” Fred said.

“I didn’t even know my Mom had a cousin,” Vivi said.

“They apparently don’t talk much anymore,” Cassidy shrugged. “And Fred and Vivi aren’t the only ones with a connection. I don’t know if anyone else is related, but apparently the Owenses, the Kingsmen, and the Yukinos were pretty tight. But I didn’t hear a lot about how or why that is, apart from that the Yukinos became fast friends with the other two families when they first moved to Crystal Cove, and the Kingsmen and Owens families were friends even before that. Then when my parents moved to Crystal Cove a few years before I was born, the Nocedas and the Peppers were the first to welcome them to the neighborhood, and the Yukinos weren’t far behind.”

“Wait- who are the Nocedas?” Daphne asked.

“My birth parents,” Lewis said quietly.

And a sympathetic silence followed as the eight of them continued on before Vivi pressed through the awkwardness. “Anyway- Arthur, Lewis, and I really couldn’t tell you much about back then. I was only six when the Original Mystery Incorporated disappeared. Arthur was five, and Lewis was four. And we moved away like… a year later? I have a few fleeting memories that are relevant. But they’re mostly glimpses, feelings, or single moments. The adults back home in Tempo who do remember everything only have parts of the puzzle, and even then talking about it has become a sort of unspoken taboo. Mystery has more of the story than anyone else, and even he doesn’t like talking about it. All the hurt that happened in Crystal Cove 20 years ago… a lot of people have either forgotten about it or tried to. But Mystery sure as hell hasn’t.”

“No kidding,” Cassidy agreed.

“It’s frustrating,” Vivi sighed. “Mystery’s become more and more open with us since he first revealed himself as a kitsune and started actually talking to us, but his days as Kit and Koa are the only really important part of his life that he won’t talk about.”

Ricky had been starting to nod off, but something about what Vivi said caught his attention. “His days as what?”

“Those were the names he lived under during his time in Crystal Cove,” Vivi explained. “Throughout his days as a guardian spirit, he’s assumed whatever name the family gives him. Usually during and after a period when he takes the form of some companion animal and decides to live among the family for whatever reason instead of watching over us unseen. He’s been Mystery for a little over eighteen years, if memory serves me right. But before that, he took the form of a border collie and my grandma named him Koa. If you remember him at all, that would be the name and form you knew him by.”

Koa… something about that name rang a bell. Where do I know that name from??? Ugh, it was only nine in the morning, and too much had happened already. What Ricky really wanted to do was lie down and take a nap. But there was still too much to do and too much to talk and think about.

He didn’t ask any more questions, and kept trudging along with the others.

At last, they came upon a spacious yet cozy lounge with dark blue wallpaper and red and orange furniture. Apparently the “family room,” where Mystery had for some reason decided to hold this discussion.

Ricky plopped down on a large, L-shaped couch and leaned back, arms over the back of the couch with his eyes closed, intending to mentally prepare himself. Cassidy spared him a worried look before she sat down on the other line on the “L” beside him. While the kids walked around the room and looked at the pictures.

Only then did it become clear as to why this was known as the “family room.” Because that’s what all of the pictures were of: The Mystery Skulls, along with their families. And quite a few of the older ones, the kids recognized, had been taken in Crystal Cove! They were so busy looking around and asking questions, especially about the pictures that included Vivi’s Mom’s side of the family, that they hardly noticed when five minutes went by. Then almost another five minutes. And right when they were starting to wonder what was taking Mystery so damn long, in the kitsune trotted, looking a bit too pleased with himself, carrying a large book-shaped package in his mouth.

“Apologies for the wait,” the kitsune said a bit too merrily as he set the package down on the coffee table.

“No kidding. What took you so long?” Cassidy asked suspiciously.

“Ah, silly me. I’d misplaced my photo album. I’ve accumulated so many things over the years, you know. I was beginning to fear I’d left it back in Tempo when I found it under my pillow of all places. Imagine that.”

“You’re up to something,” Vivi stated.

“Up to something?” Mystery cried in his most offended possible tone. “Vivi! I am shocked and appalled that this is your opinion of me!”

“Hear that, kids?” Lewis asked. “That’s the sound of bullshit.”

“Yyyep,” Fred agreed.

“Rullshit,” said Scooby.

“‘Bullshit?’ ‘Up to something?’” The Kitsune balked teasingly, “From the way you all talk, you’d think I was some sort of shady vagabond!”

“What. Did you do?” Vivi asked dryly.

“Very well,” Mystery sighed. “But you can’t be mad at me.”

“What. Did you do?”

“Technically,” Mystery said, “I didn’t ‘do’ anything. But… let’s just say that my story is going to have to wait until this evening.”

And right as Vivi was about to demand why, she was cut off by the sound of a soft snore.

Ricky. Had fallen asleep. Right where he sat, leaning back against the couch.

“Ricky?” Cassidy called him and lightly shook his shoulder, but he didn’t so much as stir. “Ricky?”

“No no, don’t wake him,” Mystery said. “I’ve been waiting for this all morning. It was only a matter of time.”

“Why? What’s wrong with him?” She demanded.

“Don’t fret, little Angel. Nothing is wrong. Sleepyhead’s medicine simply hasn’t worn off yet.”

Lewis smacked his forehead. “The sleeping potion! Of course!”

“The what now?” Cassidy cocked an eyebrow.

“Ricky couldn’t sleep last night,” Vivi explained, “So Mystery gave him a potion. He really needed the rest. That’s why he slept in.”

“I told him to go take it right away, or at least I thought it was implied,” Mystery sighed, slightly irritated, “But instead he bumped into Velma on the way back to his room and stayed up for another few hours. Then took it.”

“Okay,” Cassidy said, confused, “That still doesn’t explain…”

“Have you ever taken nighttime medicine?” Vivi asked. “It can be difficult to get comfortable and fall asleep when you’re sick, so a lot of nighttime medications have stuff in them to help their patient sleep. But those medicines are supposed to wear off by morning. So if you take it late and wake up early without the effects wearing off, you feel super lethargic for the first half of the day. The same thing has happened to Ricky, but he took a potion instead of ‘normal’ medicine so the effect is a lot stronger.”

“Poor dear. It’s likely that the only reason he’s been awake as long as he has is due to the stress,” Mystery said. “But with magic, even stress can only hold it off for so long. Then we likely sped it along by feeding him.”

“Like, why by feeding him?” Shaggy asked.

“Eating a big, comfortable meal like that would be enough to make anyone satisfied and drowsy,” Lewis said. “Add a dreamless sleep potion into the mix and it’s no wonder he’s zonked out.”

“Oh for Pete’s- you planned this!” Velma cried accusingly, jabbing a finger at Mystery.

“I did not plan for Ricky to take his medicine late. But just now, did I intentionally have Vivi and Lewis take him to the most comfortable lounge in the house then stall long enough for him to doze off? Yes I did,” Mystery smirked mischievously. “Because I didn’t want to argue with him when I told him he needed to go back to bed before anything else. Just like Cassidy is about to.”

“What- me?” Cassidy snapped.

“You’ve been awake and on-the-move for over twenty-four hours,” Mystery said, bending his neck down to her level. “That, and we won’t urgently need you for anything for another few hours anyway. So yes, Cassidy. The others and I will be going out into Crystal Cove to make some preparations, and in the meantime you and Ricky will remain here. Not that you’ll miss us - we should return at about the same time you wake up - at around 3:00. Five hours still won’t be nearly enough rest but for now we’ll have to take what we can get.”

“The hell I do!” Cassidy stubbornly spat, indignant at the mere suggestion. “I still haven’t-” But mid-sentence, Mystery exhaled a cloud of red smoke in her face. Cassidy abruptly stopped talking, her eyes rolled over, her entire body went slack, and she slumped over on the couch beside Ricky.

With a red flash, Mystery took the form of the man with long black hair he’d shown them last night. Except of course, his seven magnificent tails were still showing from under his kimono and his tall pointed ears were sticking out of his hair on top of his head. Twenty years later and they’re still so adorable, the kitsune chuckled to himself, fondly remembering a time long ago when this very pair of sleepy meddling kids fell asleep on the Yukino’s couch.

“Jeepers! What did you do to Angel?” Daphne cried.

“Just a simple sleeping spell, Daphne. Fear not,” Mystery said dismissively. And gently, tenderly even, he lifted Ricky’s upper body from the back cushion and moved him to lie longways on the couch. “I believe I mentioned that we kitsune have some power over dreams. Which makes us skilled in all sorts of sleep-related magic,” Mystery continued, and he picked up Ricky’s legs from where they hung over the side and put them onto the cushions. “This one will only put her out for a few hours. Assuming I’ve estimated correctly, Ricky should wake up an hour or two before her, but I’m sure he’ll be fine as long as we leave a note explaining things.”

Rolling her eyes, Vivi came up behind him with a couple of blankets as Mystery moved on to Cassidy. “Why did you put Cassidy to sleep?” She asked. “Her needing the rest can’t have been the only reason.”

“I mean, she couldn’t exactly have helped much until this afternoon anyway,” Lewis guessed, scratching the back of his head.

“-But knowing her, she would have tried to regardless,” Mystery added, having now moved Ricky and Cassidy to each lie longways on the cushions. “And when we didn’t let her, as if we could stop her, it only would have bothered her while she waited. So I felt it was best that she sleep until then.” And he took the blankets from Vivi and draped one over each of them.

“Why’s that?” Scooby asked.

“Because,” Lewis announced, a piece of paper magically appearing in his hand, “I went to see Arthur last night, and he has a plan. But he needs our help to pull it off, so we’ve got homework and the deadline is in less than 48 hours.”

“And all of it involves going out into Crystal Cove,” Mystery added. With a flourish, a long ornate gold kiseru pipe appeared in his hand and he began to smoke kizami while he spoke.

Unnoticed by Mystery Incorporated, this caused Vivi and Lewis to spare each other a very worried look. Being a spirit, smoking wasn’t bad for Mystery in the way it is for fully mortal beings. But while it wasn’t harmful for him, he knew second-hand smoke could be bad for humans and that the habit had become increasingly frowned upon in the past few decades. Which meant these days, wanting to set a good example for the younger ones, Mystery never smoked in front of them anymore unless he was extremely stressed about something. In the three years since he’d revealed himself as a shape-shifter, this was only the third time they’d ever seen him do it.

All of this to say, if whatever Mystery was going to have to say about twenty years ago was affecting him this badly, then it was extremely concerning indeed.

“But,” Mystery continued, blowing out a long, beautiful red stream of smoke, “it would be extremely unwise for Cassidy to go into town with us. If she did, she could be spotted on one of Mr. E’s cameras. And if our enemies saw her, then best-case scenario there goes our element of surprise and one of our wild cards. Worst-case scenario, we end up with kriegstaffebots at our door trying to finish what they started.” And as he finished talking, he began blowing lovely red smoke rings as he listened to the others.

“Zoinks! Like yeah, those are good reasons!” Shaggy gulped, his eyes nervously following a trail of smoke that went by his head.

“-Not that they could get into the house anyway if they tried!” Vivi added quickly. “Not with our defenses, remember?”

“Yeah but it’d be annoying. And since we’d be essentially under siege it would become near-impossible for anyone aside from Mystery, myself, or maybe you to leave. That, and this is a great spot. I’d rather avoid having to move the house if I can,” Lewis pointed out.

“That’s true too.”

“Rud reasons,” Scooby agreed.

“So what’s the homework?” Velma asked eagerly.

“The two main keys to success in Arthur’s plan are physically escaping Destroido and ditching Pericles, Brad, and Judy. Then getting the cobra larvae removed. As you could guess, the second part is the tricky part and also what we’re going to do today,” Lewis said. “Because the capsule is pretty deep in there, and it’s like a centimeter away from Ricky’s spinal cord. The only way it’s coming out is if Arthur’s sedated and someone cuts it out, and that’s not something we can do safely. Which means we need a surgeon, equipment, and a place where that surgery can be done.”

“Uh, why don’t we just take him to the hospital?” Scooby asked.

“It’s too obvious and too dangerous,” Lewis replied. “Removing the cobra venom will probably be Pericles’ first guess about ‘Ricky’s’ next move, and the hospital is the most obvious place that could be done. And the last thing we need is them dragging Arthur back right when we think we’ve won. Or worse: bringing killer robots into a hospital full of sick people.”

“So,” Fred surmised, “We need somewhere equipped with surgical equipment and someone who can perform surgery, but it can’t be at an actual medical center.”

“Not only that but it has to be the right kind of surgeon. Or at least a surgeon with the right training,” Velma added.

“This is where you come in, Mystery Incorporated,” Mystery smirked. And he blew an enormous, beautiful red smoke ring that encircled the four kids and their dog before it dissipated, filling the air with the smell of tobacco.

“The Mystery Skulls aren’t established in Crystal Cove,” Vivi explained. “We don’t know anyone here. We don’t have any connections. You guys on the other hand have been meddling around this town for years. You probably know just about everyone by now. So finding the answer to this is going to be up to you.”

“I think I might have an idea of where we could do the surgery, but I don’t know about a surgeon,” Velma said thoughtfully.

And Fred, Shaggy, and Scooby didn’t have any ideas either until, with a defeated sigh, Daphne raised her hand. “Actually… I think I know the exact person who can help us.”

And HERE IT IS! I'm sorry for the long wait, and I hope the long chapter and the fanart makes up for it! I didn't mean to make you all wait this long for this chapter. I went through a bit of a rough patch the past couple of months because of school stuff. I picked the wrong major. BUT! I'm on a different path now that's much better for me and my mental health. I can't promise when the next update will be, as my current schedule doesn't leave me with much spare time. But I don't intend to make you wait another three months either. On to talking about the chapter itself and its future, I don't know how they keep ending up this long but no one particularly seems to be complaining about it. Cassidy still doesn't know what happened to Ricky, Mystery has revealed yet another can of worms to open so expect lots more flashbacks ahead, and we're finally going to see our heroes actually start contributing to Operation: Free the E in the next few chapters. As for my song choice, I wasn't originally planning to use "Hellbent" for this part of the story, but as I was writing the flashback to Arizona I realized no other song could possibly be this appropriate for a car chase. That, and the past several chapters have been God, Pay for My Sins, and Angel. So why not continue the trend and put all of the songs with Christian/heaven/hell titles in one place? I would also like it to be known that Hellbent will most likely be used as a chapter song/title again in the future. I had been planning to use it for another chapter anyway, and tbh I'm running out of good Mystery Skulls songs that remain fitting to what's happening in the plot. I'mma try to have song repeats be few and far between tho! I would also like it noted, some of you may have noticed, that I have added "previous" and "next" buttons to the format of my posting. I got the idea from Morningmark's comics he posts here on Tumblr. I can't promise how consistent they are to every single post though, because some of my chapters have proven difficult to find. I'll work out the kinks eventually, and I hope they make reading 'One Of Us' on Tumblr more manageable. Just don't forget to run over to Ao3 to leave a kudo or a comment too! Seriously, do share your thoughts and possible theories. I never grow tired of them and they're what encourage me to keep going! I stay busy with school so I don't know when I'll have time to post chapter 23 to Ao3 but you can bet it'll be posted there by this weekend!

Chapters 1-22 of 'One of Us' are presently posted on Archive of Our Own!

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delopsia · 10 months

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del 💐 what about grocery shopping adventures with the floytts?!

i wish they weren’t so regionally different because the idea is so domestically dreamy 😔 but let’s try anyway...

*whispers* actually, let me first say that reader is technically a blank slate existing around these two hot dogs, so any additions you’d like to make regarding them and the ideas i have yet to present is up to you 💫

rhett-ington 🌻

does he actually not mind holding onto the cart? does he ever learn to not silently walk off when robby and reader’s backs are turned? or maybe it’s second nature because he really doesn’t mean to wander off and get himself lost (often times in plain sight because sometimes he’s just very quiet and still) while reader and robby speedwalk around like a scooby-doo montage...

is he holding a hand when all they need is a basket? does he ever absentmindedly try to pull whoever’s hand he has laced with his along to see something on a shelf that catches his eye—maybe not to buy necessarily, but just because it looks wacky or interesting?

i feel like rhett is the resident *points to item on top shelf* “hey cowboy, can you get that for me please?” even if it’s robby, who is only an inch or two shorter than him, asking? and rhett just 😌 “of course, baby.” because he loves being needed...

do you headcanon him adding anything else to the grocery lists besides his usual snacks? i feel like rhett is a creature of habit when it comes to the meals he does like, especially since reader and robby have since introduced him to different and more flavorful meals, again, unless it’s on a plate that doesn’t belong to him per saaay, but to someone who knows him and then he’s like “that looks tasty...” but to me, rhett seems more like he just mindlessly goes with the flow on grocery trips...

he will, however, in my humble opinion, absolutely annihilate a farmers market. i think the cowboy is a mental math, recipe remembering, time efficient lunatic when faced with booths of fresh produce, flowers, and baked goods. he’s even better with a list, of course, and definitely won’t miss out on a chance to drown in reader and robby’s kisses and hugs when he comes home with seasonal pastries or slices of cake or pie and a fistful of sunflowers...

rob-ington 🌷

is robby the opposite? a time efficient, recipe remembering, mental math machine in a fluorescent-lit grocery store rather than a farmer’s market? i think out in that busy outdoor market he’s the one who dilly-dallies and lallygags and sometimes walks off, because he’s checking out nearly every booth that is selling ready made food 🤭

but i think robby keeps a grocery list as organized as reader keeps their pantry and kitchen? (which! i felt that so hard because SAME) but maybe it’s reusable, in a way? like they always cover all basis for their cooking lifestyle, robby has his own special homecooked recipes he got from his mama that he loves making his beloved partners, so they just check inventory and keep buying what they’re low on or out of? he does strike me as someone who bypasses the boxed / pre-made baking aisle no matter how much rhett whines that he “jus’ wants to see!” because again, his mama raised him up with a couple recipes for batches of big chewy cookies and a chocolate cake so decadent that it even knocks him on his ass for a nap after a slice and a glass of milk...

but maybe he folds around holiday times when reader and rhett plead so sweetly for those ridiculous (his words) seasonal cookies 😂

The way in which I was standing in a grocery store, checked my phone, and saw this 😭

Currently renaming the Hawthorn AU to the Hot Dog AU 💃

Rhett never learns; the problem is that he only means to step away for a second. He's standing by the cart and realizes that, "Oh! We need sugar; that's just around the corner. I'll go grab that." But then he comes back, the cart is gone, and he can't find them again. He only intends to help, but he's never fully in sync with the plan that the other two have.

Sometimes, he'll look up and see them darting past, having no clue he's standing right there, and he'll just let it go on until they finally spot him. He gets a kick out of standing there, sugar in hand, watching them struggle to find him.

If they only need a basket, then he'll sometimes curl his finger into Bob's belt loop and just follow along that way. It doubles as an excellent way of not losing each other in crowds, so long as you don't mind the soft tugging. But he does just forget he's got someone's hand in his.

"Don't you see it?"

"You're pointing our hands at about four different things, Rhett."

Bobby can fully reach that bag of chips on the top shelf and they all know it, and that just makes Rhett's content grin grow larger. Bonus points if they both struggle to get it and the Reader finds the little step ladder the employees use.

Rhett's definitely a big creature of habit when it comes to food; if it weren't for Reader and Robby, he would eat the same ten meals all the time. Sometimes, he makes a big deal out of it; if Bob says no to hot dogs, then he'll annoyingly burst into a "What, are you too good for hot dogs now? Will the cheese start a revolt? Ham can't handle another type of meat in its presence? I can't believe how you've changed🙄"

But he will just...find these odd foods that pop up from time to time. Once, he disappeared and came back with Dorito-flavored beef jerky. Another, he wound up with canned jackfruit, didn't know what it was, but it intrigued him. Nobody could find where he got them. Then there were the Froot Loops Cereal Straws, when he doesn't even eat cereal that often, and the countless odd, frozen meals that were too intriguing not to try. He doesn't like most of the things he finds, but it always makes dinner a little more interesting.

He only finds these things if he's with Bob and Reader, though. Otherwise, he's in and out within ten minutes. He isn't one for browsing unless he's glued to the cart, free to look at everything, while the other two fuss over which brand to buy.

Rhett and farmers markets! He can always spot the good stuff; he used to follow his momma to the market every Saturday as a kid and picked a lot up from just watching. How to spot the good, avoid the bad, what a scam looks like; the only time he slows down is when he winds up in the baked goods section. It's the only thing he's not familiar with; just because it looks like it has apple in it doesn't mean it's not another fruit in disguise. He learned that the hard way when he accidentally brought home apricot turnovers.

That's how he learned that he hates apricot.

Always picks out things he knows Reader and Bob like, even if he doesn't enjoy it himself because he loves the excited smiles and thankful kisses he gets wrapped up in. Of course, he will always overpay for his favorite lemon bars, even if Bobby does roll his eyes and promise he can make them at home, too.

Robby is the kind of guy who has a whole damn game plan for shopping. It's a little bit funny. Start with the non-food items, the things that won't get warm while browsing, and then straight to the back of the grocery section, slowly working back toward the front. He organizes the items on the list to come in chronological order so he never has to hunt to cross something off. The Reader falls into the habit pretty easily, but Rhett's brain just doesn't work like that, which is why he gets lost so often.

The way that Bob can look at a package and figure out the price per ounce, all in his head, deeply frightens Rhett.

The only problem with Bob in grocery stores is the overstimulation. Those bright fucking lights and the music and the people and the squealing tires and wondering where the hell Rhett got lost; it all gives him a killer migraine by the end. Farmer's markets confuse him because the layout is rarely the same; just because Mrs. Betty was here last week doesn't mean she is this one. And for once, he's quiet, letting Rhett lead the way and trying not to get lost.

There's someone who always sells fresh chicken at a hell of a deal, but they also bring live chickens with them, and something about it just makes Bob pass up on it. How can he buy meat when that chicken's best friend is looking back at him?

Nobody can convince me that Robby doesn't have a damn pantry inventory spreadsheet. While the Reader has free reign of where everything goes, Bob has an elaborate tracking of what they have, how much, and how much has been used. That being said...there's a pattern. The list looks the same, aside from a few items, always needing to get cornmeal mix for the cornbread, red beans, and long-grain rice for the...red beans and rice (who could have guessed?). Same seasonings, always needing two dozen eggs, always this, always that. It's how Rhett knows they need sugar without seeing the list.

The only reason Bobby starts allowing those damned "Easy to make" boxes into the house is because Rhett genuinely gets a little upset. He wants to help bake so bad, but he messes up the recipe every time :( The only thing he can make is in the pre-made box mixes. The breaking point is when he realizes he misunderstood Bob's instruction and put too much flour, thus forcing them to remake the entire thing. He sat in the corner of the couch, face hidden in his knees, misty-eyed as he kept apologizing for always messing it up.

"The only thing I can make is in them boxes," he chokes, squeezing his knees in a little tighter, "but you don't like those."

But Bobby does like those; he just didn't see the point in buying them when he could make a better version from scratch. So now it's a mix of both. Bobby's got his homemade recipes that have trickled down his family for generations, and Rhett gets to make those boxcakes and treats so that he doesn't feel so left out.

He still draws the line at those damn store-bought icings. He'll help Rhett make those from scratch every time because he cannot stand those damn things. It's an easy compromise; Rhett always gets food coloring on him and spends the rest of his day elaborately colored.

He absolutely does fold for those seasonal cookies; it's the one recipe he can't fully nail; for every attempt, there is a box and a cowboy on standby, snacking on the chocolate chips that he was supposed to stay out of. The assistance tax, he calls it 🍪

#rhett abbott #bob floyd #bob floyd x reader x rhett abbott #hawthorn au #milesmillergf #💐#robert bob floyd

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