#MAN JUST UGH TERRIFYING AND CREEPY

[aparticularbandit]

MOST TERRIFYING IMAGE IN THE GAME, I TELL YOU.

[buttercup12233]

Alastor is such a Gary stu that wants everybody to know that he's "sCaRy" because he can have black eyes and red pupils, turn big, and shoot out tentacles. Like bro. That's not creepy. And most of his lines fucking suck. How does he know about modern slang? Didn't this guy die during the great fucking depression? Not to mention, this guy swears a whole lot. It would've been perfect if the only time he ever swore was when his staff got broken apart. That would've really shocked the audience. I wouldn't mind him saying "fuck" a few times, but when that shit becomes a common thing, that's a problem. Swearing wasn't common in the 1900's. So why is Alastor using it on a daily basis. He no longer stands out from the cast. He's just another edge lord. He says the most corniest lines too like omg everytime he says ONE embarrassing word, I have to pause from watching the show bc the guy gives me second hand embarrassment. He's trying so hard to be terrifying that it's not working. For some reason, Alastor just wants power.... I'm not sure if it was planned from the start, but the execution is dog shit in my opinion. Pilot Alastor was done better than this. The reason why pilot Alastor was so creepy and overall an amazing character, at least in my opinion, was because you didn't really know exactly how he was feeling, or what was going on inside his head. The whole point of him volunteering to 'help' Charlie run the hotel was that he could see sinners fail and give himself some entertainment. He even flat out admits it in the pilot. But then you just have that gut feeling that there's something more going on with Alastor. That he's probably planning something else than just finding entertainment. Let the 'him wanting power' be like a b plot if THAT was the case (explain why he even wants power too bc if he just WANTS it for the sake of it, then that's boring). And I think what was the most exciting thing about his character, was that he was mysterious. Notice how the only times he EVER used his power or lost his cool was when Angel Dust claimed that he could suck his dick, or when Sir Pentious interrupted his song and threatened to literally hurt him. I swear, this guy used his title as the radio demon for times when it was appropriate. That's what I loved about Pilot Al. He wasn't trying to be creepy unless it was needed. In this show, he desperately wants people to fear him. He even tries to pick a fight with everybody, even the ones who are kind to him. He's a complete asshole and a dickhead. And I'm just like "boo, fucking corny, bitch". Idk, man. It's pro just me. But I hate Alastor so goddamn fucking much. At least in the show. He gives me headaches, he's a Gary stu, and I can't believe this mf got away with talking trash to the KING OF HELL like holy SHIT. Why didn't his ass get humbled at the moment there? He just got freewill the whole time during season one without consequences. Besides Adam tearing his ass up.

Alastor is just so- ugh.

I beg for you guys to let me know if some of my points were invalid. I would actively listen to them. I was just in rage the whole entire time while writing this, so my mind was just clouded with 'wtf happened to the cool guy I once loved' and just...RAAAAAH. so please don't hesitate to speak out. I'm aware that not EVERYBODY will agree with what I say. But it's great to hear y'all's opinions about this. Thank you.

[bwabys-scenarios]

SAW UR POST . FEITAN ICKS PLEASE IM ON ALL FOURS

YALL where do I even start. Ugh I love him but he’s SOO icky

pt 2

Feitan’s Icks

-goes days without bathing. he’ll bathe if you tell him to, but most if the times he’ll pull you into the bath/shower with him

-is so desensitized to blood that sometimes he forgets to clean it off of himself before he hugs/kisses you

-another man that knows NO personal space. but he doesn’t hug or kiss you most of the time, he just… hovers around you. if you didn’t love him it would be creepy

-watches you sleep 😭 like almost every night. it’s terrifying to wake up to him crouched down next to your bed with his dark eyes trained on your face

-he’s mean when he’s mad/frustrated, calling you names and yelling at you. he does feel bad about this later, especially if he made you cry. he won’t apologize, but he’ll steal buy you that dress you’ve been wanting for a while now to make up for it

-literally CANNOT stand hearing you cry and will leave the room. struggles with comforting you. he does get better at this after a while tho!!

-doesn’t brush/comb his hair after you do it for him once. now he expects you to do it every time

-isn’t romantic, like at all. he’s fine with just being near you for the most part, so don’t expect him to be buying you chocolates/flowers and taking you out on dates unless you ask

-he’s extremely insecure, but won’t tell you when you say something that hurts his feelings/makes him insecure. will just be cold and distant for a while

What icks him out:

-people who are too loud. feitan is soft spoken and HATES people that yell a lot

-rude/mean people are an instant turn off. he prefers people that are more soft and sweet.

-impatient people. it will take him a while to open up to you, so trying to force him into opening up will only cause him to close up more

-hates people that are flirty with everyone/too nice. he’s fine with you being nice, but he only wants your flirty behavior directed at HIM

-people who care too much about appearances/beauty norms

Random HCs!!

-doesn’t want kids, period. if you get pregnant and want to keep it, he won’t force you out of it, but he’s not cut out to be a father. tries his best though and eventually comes to love his kid

-surprisingly horny? He’s touch starved and sensitive, so little things like holding his hand or leaning your leg against him has him pouncing on you like a wild animal

-he’s very into your scent. sniffs you a lot, especially after you’ve just showered. enjoys just holding you to him and burying his face in your hair

-loves when you cook for him. he’s had to eat takeout and his own gross cooking for years, so he feels so… loved when you ask what HE would like for dinner

[xotrashratxo]

Nerdy Prudes Must Die Quotebook

Comment any I missed LMAO

⚠️NERDY PRUDES MUST DIE SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT⚠️

“I am only ONE MAN’s girl, and that man is JESUS CHRIST.” Grace Chastity

“SHUT UUUUUUPPPP.” Max Jagerman *Audience cackles* 

“THE ANSWER IS STILL NO….. by the way.” Max Jagerman

“RAAH” Max Jagerman and Grace Chastity

“the fucking BOW TIE KID???” Brenda the Cheerleader

“I know he’s RICH. But money isn’t everything! Looks are. “ Stacy the Cheerleader

“WAIFU MATERIAL” Richie Lipchitz

“SHE’S TOUCHING MEEE!! LUCKYYYY!” Ruth Fleming and Richie Lipchitz

“Woooow…. These toilets aren’t even in stalls! It’s better than I ever imagined!” Ruth Fleming

“Thats some cooool kid privilege right there.” Ruth Fleming OR Richie Lipchitz

“DESTROY HIM.” Grace Chastity

“God you suck, Grace.” Stephanie Lauter

“He’s made ALL OUR LIVES a living HECK.” Grace Chastity

“The most terrifying, HOTTEST bully in Hatchetfield” Grace Chastity

“BE COOL BEANS, KEEP THE BEANS COOL.” Grace Chastity

“We’ll fight sin with sin! Let the games begin!” ‘Nerdy Prudes’

“AM I READING AS GHOST OR LIN MANUEL MIRANDA” Peter Spankofvski

“YOU’RE FUCKING USLESS PETE.” (SO MANY PAUL REFERENCES.) Richie Lipchitz

“Ugh I gotta piss….” Max Jagerman

“Oh SHIT, where’s that creepy music coming from?” Max Jagerman

“Oh shit oh fuck it’s a fucking ghost!!!” Max Jagerman

“He thinks it’s real he’s just really fucking BRAVE.” Richie Lipchitz

“BOO HOO BITCH.” Max Jagerman

“I MAKE THE DEAD RUN IN FEAR! I AM GOD GOOOOO NIGHTHAWKS!” Max Jagerman

“Oh shit oh fuck I didn’t think there’d be a skele’in HERE!” Max Jagerman

“WOW… I uh… I thought you guys hated me. But uh, thanks! This was really great! No no no, this is the nicest thing anyone’s done for me!” Max Jagerman

“That was really special.” *bows* Max Jagerman

“And with MY luck, no one will even BOTHER making me their BITCH.” Ruth Fleming

“It was an act of god!” Grace Chastity

“Oh no she’s snapping again!” Richie Lipchitz

“Oh my asthmas back…” Richie Lipchitz

“I just cut off his nips.” Ruth Fleming FORESHADOWING??? 

“Steph, you can keep it. It would bring down my GPA.” Peter Spankofvski

“I’m tryna feel bad but it’s hard when everything is objectively better.” Peter Spankofvski

“Never thought I could open my locker without the fear running through me.” Richie Lipchitz

“N-IG-HT-AWE AWE- ks!” Everyone

“FUCK clivesdale.” Everyone, repeatedly. 

“FUCK YOU CLIVESDALE WE’LL KILL YOU!” Cheerleaders and Jocks

“Zeke! The fighting nighthawk!” Jason the Football player

“We support and love you, but you fuckin’ stink man!” Jason the Football player

“FUCK CLIVESDALE! FUCK EM STRAIGHT TO HELL!” Richie Lipchitz

“I love being alive!” Richie Lipchitz

“YA BITCH.” Max Jagerman

“Of course not! But you’ve lost everything.” Max Jagerman HIT SO HARD 

“Mama I’m cured!” Grace Chastity

“HWAELL they didn’t say!” Mark Chastity

“Alright ima need the 3 of you to shut the FUDGE up about Max Jagerman.” Grace Chastity

“SHUT. THE FUCK UP. RUTHY.” Stephanie Lauter

“People tell me to die everyday!” Ruth Fleming

“Don’t be ridiculous! Wait-“ Grace Chastity

“DAN!” Angry Adult Mob

“Suddenly the show is real upsetting!” Angry Adult Mob

“Fuckin’ transcendent…..!” Cop Corey

“I wanna remember who I YAAAMmmm…” Trevor, who’s only other credit is Barbecue Monologues Man 2 

“I turned 40 today.” *pours alcohol* Ruth Fleming in Barbecue Monologues

“Oh shit not Clivesdale!” Officer Shapiro

*heavy breathing* “…… thank you.” Peter Spankofvski

“MY DAD sells WOMEN’S SHOES.” Peter Spankofvski

“Dork at the beany’s counter has more balls than you.” Stephanie Lauter

“LEAVE ROOM FOR JESUS” Grace Chastity

“She’s bisexual and dead, where else could she be?” Grace Chastity, also GRACE DONT CALL ME OUT

“I’ve done horrible things! Like touching myself and lying to the police! I called god a son of a b word! Who am iiiiii…..” Grace Chastity

“Don’t comfort her, she’s fucking weird.” Stephanie Lauter

“KYUK KYUK KAH FUCK.” Max Jagerman

“I beg to differ, BITCH.” Max Jagerman

“I’ve got a gun.” Stephanie Lauter

“Are you a woman of god?” “Catholic.” “I’ll take that as a no.” Grace Chastity and Officer Shapiro (as a Catholic this is hilarious.) 

“I have no idea what I’m doing.” Peter Spankofvski (Me too Peter, me too.)

“My phone!” Stephanie Lauter

“WE DONT GIVE A SHIT ABOUT YOUR PHONE.” The Lords in Black

“Or fuck off!” The Lords in Black

“It’s you Steph. I’m into you.” Peter Spankofvski (IM CRYINGGGG)

“I just took a bullet for you bro!” Max Jagerman

“SO YOU DO KNOW THE BIBLE?” Grace Chastity

“But Jesus never threw a football like you Max.” Grace Chastity

“SHUT YOUR MOUTH HOLE SPANKOVSKI. I wanna hear this.” Max Jagerman

“FUCK. YEAH.” Max Jagerman

“GASP. That’s NASTY. I like it.” Max Jagerman

“WHAT. THE FUCK. IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW.” Stephanie Lauter (That’s so me, Steph.)

“GRACE IS HAVING SEX WITH A FUCKING GHOST!” Peter Spankofvski

“I paid the price. Now fuck off!” *Spins* Grace Chastity

“WHAT ARE YOUUU-“ Max Jagerman

“You’re in my world now. Bitch.” One of the Lords in Black (Pokey I think???) 

“I…. Am gonna get some fucking coffee.” Officer Shapiro

“Did you guys know JASON goes to my CHURCH?” Grace Chastity

Total quotes: 85

[paninicupcakke]

(Suggestive)

Sniper: That’s not even scary. That’s just a mannequin in a suit.

Scout: Dude he’s like 8 feet tall! Hey Spy, come look at this. Tell me that ain’t creepy.

*shows him a piece of fan art he drew of slender man*

Spy: Hmm. This man is slightly eery but not terrifying. He has a nice ensemble, I’ll give him that.

Scout: Ugh, whateva.

Smash or pass?

Sniper: Egh, pass.

Scout: Same. Pass-

Spy: Smash.

Scout & Sniper:

*stare at him in disgust*

Spy: What?! You asked!!!

…

And I’m keeping this drawing!

*grabs paper & storms off*

[s4lttted]

TETOCU + LOST IN VIVO

||Cover art was made by the amazing ;; @stinky-pizzahiney . As was the idea for the story. Originally meant to be a well! ,, but I changed it to a mix of my favourite game. Lost in vivo. Art by Lovleypink2005. Written by me.||

||This is just me experimenting my writing side of things ,, stories or small scenarios. Mostly for fun however.||

Chapter one ; Lost Companion.

A dull evening „ possibly past dinner time. But definitely last work hours , his corgi walking ahead of him , the lead wrapped around his hand once to have a firm grip on it , to ensure his pet didn't run away. Melvinborg looked around the street as he walked, it being a gloomy and dull evening.

As he walked „ the bright skies were slowly being overtook by miserable and grey clouds „ like a blanket of dust blocked out the light of the meaning brightness left and its chilly breeze of air. Stuck to a lamppost was a poster of a missing young woman. And the second , it on the floor in the grass , was a newspaper chronicling on about shocking , illegal experiments At a local research facility. leaked by someone named 'Doctor B.'

Interesting.

As he looked away , rain began to pour from the sky „ it not too heavy „ not too light. Eventually it becoming a storm , causing Melvinborg to loose his canine companion in a sudden swell of water.

It taking the terrified creature down a storm-drain. After a moment of panic, and persistence to find the dog, he entered the sewers system.

Underground.

The vulgar smells hit him instantly , causing him to grimace and scrunch his face in disgust „ holding one hand to his nose to block the smells.

The scurrying of rodents. Rats and mice. A few seconds passed and Melvinborg began whistling in hopes to hear from the canine.

Chapter Two ;; creepy Stranger.

Walking forwards , then making a sharp right turn around the next corner „ a flashlight he found to hand „ guiding and lighting the way in the disgusting sewer. After a second. then a third whistle he heard a Bark from the dog. Causing him to change direction and make a left. Trailing that way for a while , whistling. hearing barking.

Time passed and he was getting annoyed „ grumbling under his breath.

The pungent smell of the sewer didn't help either.

After a lot of whistling and receiving echoing barks from his dog , it was soon unheard. Making another turn and stumbling into a room. Stumbling across the residence of a homeless man 'a room? In the sewers? What the.' the half cyborg thought to himself, shaking it off with clear unease as he looked over. The room had a couch „ a red „ torn and old couch. An old TV with a large crack and break in the middle „ clearly it had no glass. Able to see inside of the TV.

It wasn’t a pleasant sight.

A man to his right „ rocking back and forth with a smile of craze „ probably from isolation , was sat on the couch. A red hoodie that had its hood up, staring directly at the broken TV. Completely focused. Melvinborg turned slowly to look at the item too , letting out an 'ugh..' of disgust , leaning closer and shining the flashlight on it. He was greeted with the sight of Bugs. And a lot. Eating rotten food from inside the TV. The crazed male seemed obsessed.

Completely. Engrossed in the disturbing sight of the bugs slowly eating the rotting flesh? Meat? It didn't matter. It was gross whatever it was. And definitely rancid.

He looked petrified. Crazy. Insane? Not normal.

Seeing a note „ set on the television set „ the mysterious yet crazed man wasn't paying attention to Melvinborg. And so he picked it up.

His eyes scanning over it , making sure to not miss anything.

The note read ;;

"There's not nuch on the TV nowadays, So I thought I'd make my own show, I started putting food and rancid meat in the useless old box and all sorts of little critters would come and play.

It was really relaxing to just sit on the sofa and watch them eat. But the small critters started attracting larger ones to the show.

Some horrid, putrid thing kept coming by to watch. So I would just pretend to be asleep till it passed. But I think it knows I'm awake.

I think it's watching me, not the show on the TV."

"..creepy.." he muttered under his breath.

He put it down instantly and looked around to ensure nobody was around. Luckily nobody was.

Walking into the conjoined room beside it was a sleeping bag in the middle of the room. The hygiene was so , very terrible. The smell was worse. Bags of trash in the corner „ and other things and items scattered around. His eye catching a rusty , yet item still of use. A sledgehammer. Picking it up and keeping ahold of it. Going to leave but dragged in by another note on the sleeping bag. Leaning down and picking it up , as he read it „ melvinborgs face was one of complete shock and horror.

"My eyes are useless.

All they do now is sting and show me stuff that can't be real,

If that rancid thing wants them, then I say let it have them."

[strangerstilinski]

𝐒𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐎𝐏𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐄𝐒 𝐕𝐎𝐋𝐔𝐌𝐄 𝐈𝐈 ✶ Teen Wolf Rewrite

Stiles Stilinski / Original Female Character

TW | S2

chapter four

summary; as if the last month and a half hadn't been stressful enough — now there were a few more werewolves, a kanima, and a seriously disturbed old man added into the mix. but amber, stiles, and scott could totally handle this. it would be fine. everything was great.

word count; 12,392

chapter notes; the jeep is in need of fixin'. a lacrosse game under the lights leads to a night with mildly creepy photographers, two paralyzed werewolves, and a few too many near-drowning experiences.

masterlist

c h a p t e r f o u r

abomination

There was a sharp pain in the side of Amber's head when she woke. With a groan, she attempted to reach a hand up toward the injury but found herself unable to do so, her arm trapped against her side by a warm weight. She cracked her eyes open immediately but her surroundings remained unnervingly pitch black.

A terrified tightness slithered its way into her chest at the familiarity of it all — the uncomfortable combination of waking with a throbbing in her head and the inability to move freely feeling painfully reminiscent of her time with Kate Argent.

When she took a shaky breath, the smell that met her nose was rank, like that of filth and rotting food. She shoved at the weight pinning her arm down and there was a quiet groan in response. Just as she managed to pull herself free, her sluggish mind seemed to catch up with the situation all at once and her heart began to thump rapidly in her chest with worry instead of fear.

"Stiles?" She asked frantically, reaching out in the black void toward the boy beside her. She located his hands and arms relatively quickly and followed their path upward until she held his head softly in her hands, "Oh, god. Stiles, are you okay?"

She traced over his face with a gentle but shaky brush of her fingers, trying to locate the place where she remembered Erica had bashed him in the head with the car part she'd torn from the Jeep. Amber's fingertips found a small bump at the edge of his hairline over his forehead and she prodded the wound softly.

"Ow." Stiles groaned in complaint.

It was like music to her ears and her heart nearly stuttered in relief at the conscious sound from the his lips.

"Sti?" She asked again. She reached toward his shoulder and cupped her other hand at the back of his neck supportively as she tried to pull him into an upright position, "Are you okay?"

He groaned again and lifted his own hand up to his throbbing head as he sat up, "Ugh. That bitch."

He grabbed Amber gently by her elbow and dragged them to their feet, throwing open the lid of the dumpster they'd evidently been tossed inside of. The sudden brightness from the streetlight in the alleyway had Amber squinting with a wince as her head throbbed. She brought a hand up automatically to where she'd been hit, fingers brushing the tender spot a few inches above her ear. Stiles caught sight of the movement in the corner of his eye and turned to her with a frown.

"Wh- Did she hit you too?" He asked quickly, gently moving her hand out of the way so he that could feel the bump on the side of her head.

"Well, yeah. I like you an awful lot, Sti, but I wasn't just hanging out in the dumpster while you slept," She grumbled, taking another slow breath and nearly retching at the smell of the trash under their feet, "Oh, god. It smells so bad in here."

Stiles sighed, dropping his hand from the bump on her head and beginning to look for the best way for them to climb their way out of the tall dumpster. He eventually settled for boosting her over the edge with her foot in his hands, climbing over after her.

"I cannot believe Erica just- Just tore out a piece of the Jeep." Amber shook her head, anger filling her body as she recalled the way Stiles had gone limp after being bashed over the head.

"Oh, man," He grumbled at the reminder, "I'm gonna have to call a tow truck."

They'd only been at the auto-body shop for an hour, but Stiles seemed to be having a really hard time sitting patiently in the waiting room, his anxiety-fueled restlessness carrying him back and forth as he paced the small room and peered out at the mechanic through the window behind Amber's head.

"Oh, come on! What is he doing-" Stiles groaned, voice carrying slightly louder than his previous grumbled complaints.

Without another word, he pushed out of the waiting room and headed over to where the Jeep was suspended on a lift as a young mechanic worked underneath the back end of the vehicle. Amber followed only a step behind as Stiles shouted to get the other man's attention. When they stepped beneath the Jeep, both teens peered up to look at what the young man was working on.

"What do you think you're doing?" Stiles demanded, squinting up at the underside of his vehicle as if he had any idea what it was that they were looking at, "All I needed was a starter."

"-And that's definitely installed under the hood." Amber supplied, frowning as the mechanic revved the loud drill in his hands once more before turning toward them.

"Yeah, but.. It looks like the whole exhaust system has gotta be replaced here." The mechanic said easily, using the drill again and drowning out any attempt at a response with the loud whirring of the machine.

The incredulous look on Stiles' face had a sigh falling from Amber's lips as she reached up to pat his shoulder consolingly.

"Why do I get the feeling you're slightly overestimating the damage?" Stiles asked in barely concealed annoyance when the sound of the drill faded out again.

The handsome mechanic didn't even turn to look at them as he spoke, "It's probably gonna run you like.. Twelve-hundred, parts and labor."

"What?!" Amber exclaimed with wide eyes.

"Are you kidding?" Stiles shouted, "This thing doesn't even have a catalytic converter! And, yes! I know what a catalytic converter is-"

"Do you know what a limited slip differential is?" The mechanic asked, finally turning to face the teens with a slightly smug expression.

Amber let her eyes drift over to Stiles and found his mouth gaping, jaw slack as he tried to think of something to say.

"No.."

"-Yeah, could be more like fifteen-hundred." The mechanic amended.

"There is nothing wrong with Roscoe's limited slip differential," Amber cut in, scowling at the young mechanic underneath the car in annoyance, "It's been taking turns perfectly fine."

Both boys blinked at her in shock and she shrugged under their attention.

"I did a lot of research when I got my car, but that is not the point-" She turned her attention to Stiles and her angry tone immediately softened, "Why don't you go sit in the waiting room while I talk to.." She paused, turning to the mechanic with a charming smile, "Sorry, what was your name?"

"Tucker." The guy supplied, still blinking slowly at her as if she were some sort of mystery.

"Right." She smiled, turning back to Stiles, "While I talk to Tucker about exactly what the Jeep needs done. Cool?"

Stiles frowned, looking between the girl and the mechanic behind her, "Yeah," He agreed after a moment, "Yeah, okay. I'll just be back here.. Feeling slightly emasculated and seething with impotent rage."

He left the two of them alone and Amber turned to face Tucker with an unimpressed eyebrow raise, putting an effort into channeling her annoyance into something else, deigning to take a slightly more flirtatious and manipulative approach.

"Do we actually need a new exhaust system?" She questioned softly, taking a page from Erica's book by leaning against the greasy backside of a tire and crossing her arms in a way that she knew would push her breasts up from underneath the low neckline of her shirt.

"I, uh.."

"Y'know.. That doesn't sound like a solid 'yes'" She noted slowly, licking her lips and grinning when the older boy's eyes seemed to rise from her chest only to track the movement of her tongue. "Look, we both know that this car is an enigma. It's kind of a shitshow. It's nothing but old parts and duct-tape, but regardless, it runs just fine.. And all we came in for was the starter."

"I, um.. Yeah," Tucker agreed quietly, "But, I already started installing the new exhaust system-"

"-And I'd love to say I'll bring my own car here if it ever needs anything done but.. It hardly seems fair for us to have to pay for something when it wasn't actually a necessary repair, does it?" She asked quietly, holding back a grin when the boy in front of her shook his head minutely, "So, what's this gonna cost us?"

Tucker sighed, "The starter would've been four-fifty, parts and labor.. I could maybe get away with just charging the parts for the exhaust-"

"And that'll bring the cost to-?"

The man shrugged, eyes dropping quickly to her chest once again before he responded, "Overall, like, nine hundred-"

"Six." She countered quickly, knowing her barter was absurdly low, but giving it a shot anyway.

The mechanic's jaw clenched and he reached up to wipe sweat from his face with his forearm, leaving a fresh trail of grease along his temple, "Six seventy-five."

She grinned, bouncing on her toes, "Great! Six seventy-five. I'll let you get that worked out on paper and we'll just wait for you to finish up then!"

She ducked out from underneath the car and spotted Stiles standing just outside the door that led to the waiting room. When he saw the satisfied grin on her face, he perked up.

"What?" He questioned quickly, "What'd he say?"

"It's still gonna cost more than it should've but-"

He grimaced, "How much?"

"Six hundred seventy-five." She bit down on her lip, watching for his reaction nervously.

"You got him to go down by eight-hundred dollars?" He asked in disbelief.

She nodded and Stiles pulled her in with a hand on the back of her head, mashing their lips together clumsily, teeth clashing lightly with the impact. She laughed as they separated and Stiles' lips parted in astonishment before he spoke again.

"You are the sexiest girl alive. D'you know that? You said that stuff about the slip differ-thing and then you saved me eight-hundred bucks and I honestly don't even care how you did it because you are insanely hot and I'm the one who gets to make out with-"

"Well why don't you take me into the waiting room and makeout with me while we wait, then?" She questioned teasingly.

He jolted into action quickly but fumbled when his hand slipped as he grabbed the door handle. He brought his hand up as the door swung open and frowned at the shiny lubricant coating his palm and fingers.

"Oh, nice. That's real sanitary." He grumbled with a wince, "Quality establishment you're running here!" He called out over his shoulder into the garage.

Amber snorted, grabbing ahold of his sticky wrist and using the hem of her shirt to wipe the slimy substance away from the both of their hands. While she worked at clearing away the mess between his fingers, Stiles' eyes caught on a framed picture hanging on the wall beside them.

"Figures." He muttered bitterly.

She laughed at his tone, turning her head to peek at the photograph of a slightly younger Tucker donning a maroon Beacon Hills jersey, lacrosse stick draped over his shoulder as he posed for the camera.

"What, now you're mad that he played lacrosse in high school?" She questioned amusedly.

"Yes," Stiles said easily, "Because he was probably stupidly good. Like assholes always are.. Like Jackson, for example."

She snorted, dropping the hem of her shirt back down over her stomach, "You're stupidly good at lots of things." She told him softly.

"Oh, yeah?" He questioned doubtfully, "Like what?"

"Hm," She hummed quietly, leaning up onto her toes to ghost her lips over his, "Well, for one, you're really good at kissing-"

Stiles was quick to pull his phone from his pocket with his newly cleaned hand, "Hold that thought. Just- Lemme just shoot Scott a quick text-"

She laughed and leaned back to give him space, watching as he opened a new message. He huffed a strained breath, his fingers twitching clumsily over the touch screen but not actually typing anything.

"What the-" He muttered under his breath.

"Sti?" She questioned, reaching out toward his shaking hands, "What's wrong?"

He let the phone clatter to the floor and looked down at his trembling fingers, "I can't move my hands.." He muttered quietly, "Wh- Or my arms."

She went to squeeze his arm comfortingly but her own hand didn't follow the command to tighten around his wrist, her fingers still loosely draped over his sweatshirt.

"I- I can't feel my fingers." She announced worriedly, head snapping up to where Stiles was gaping over her shoulder with wide eyes, "What? What's-"

"No." He murmured, eyes flicking back and forth behind her, "Hey!"

She spun around just in time to see a tail swipe down beneath the Jeep to scratch across the back of the mechanic's neck, a dark scaly creature crawling down the side of the vehicle lift as Tucker collapsed to the ground.

Stiles' legs seemed to give out all at once and he stumbled into her, sending them both to the ground in a heap. Amber's head knocked back against the floor with a soft thump and she groaned beneath the weight of his body sprawled on top of her.

His cheek rested on her chest and he reached out a shaking hand toward his phone on the floor beside them as a loud mechanical whirring sounded from the open door that led to the garage.

"What's that?" She questioned anxiously, her head frozen in its current position of looking up at the ceiling, unable to move her neck no matter how hard she tried. The boy on top of her was facing the open door but didn't respond to her question, "Stiles, what's that noise?" She tried again.

"You're not looking at the car, are you?" He checked quickly.

"What? No, obviously not. What's going-"

"Help me-" Tucker's voice called out weakly over the noise.

"He's gonna die." Stiles spoke quietly, his own voice filled with fear as Tucker continued to call out for help from the garage, "Ah, god. The mechanic is gonna die like this is a Final Destination movie and I'm gonna have to watch-"

"Close your eyes." She urged quickly, her own eyes dropping down to the top of his head, wishing more than anything that she could move her arms to hold him.

"I- I'm trying to call 9-1-1." Stiles said frantically.

"Stiles," She said again, "Stiles. Close your eyes, okay?"

Tucker was still yelling, voice thick with fear. There was a high-pitched mechanical whine before the loud echoing clink of metal on metal and then, complete silence filled the shop.

Amber took a shaky breath and she heard more than felt Stiles do the same where he was laying on top of her, still reaching for his cell phone to call for help.

Suddenly, the alien-looking scaly creature that had been climbing down the side of Jeep was crouched over the two of them, tilting its head curiously. Amber whimpered as she looked into the yellow eyes of the creature and it hissed in response, its mouth dropping open to reveal a set of small, razor-sharp, pointed teeth before it disappeared — the creature gone just as quickly as it had appeared.

Whatever small dose of neurotoxin had absorbed through their skin to paralyze them wore off within twenty minutes. Stiles and Amber both moved to stand outside the building, wrapped up in each other’s arms as they waited for emergency personnel to respond to their call.

Amber's trembling fingers traced soothing patterns in the short hairs on the back of Stiles' neck. She could feel his own hands fisting and unfisting the fabric of her shirt between his fingers, his cheek pressed against her forehead.

"Are you okay?" She asked quietly after a few minutes of silence.

He puffed out a breath into the cold night air, taking a moment before responding, "Yeah. Yeah, I think so."

"It's okay if you're not." She told him, tilting her head to press the cold tip of her nose into his cheek, "Did.. Did you close your eyes?" She questioned cautiously.

"I did- Kind of at the last second.. But," He sighed, tightening his hands against her back, "I looked.. After."

"Stiles." She scolded softly, rubbing her thumb along the smooth skin at the nape of his neck.

"I know." He sighed, "I know. I c- I couldn't help it. But now I can't unsee it-"

"Hey," She whispered, hands sliding up to cup his jaw. She pressed her lips softly to the smattering of freckles on his right cheek, "It'll be okay."

He nodded minutely and she pressed a second kiss to his cheek, a little higher up this time, just below his eye. Her lips moved up to his eyebrow next. She tightened her grip on his face, tilting his head where she wanted it and proceeding to press obnoxiously loud, smacking kisses to his forehead, temple, cheekbone, and nose before settling a final peck into the corner of his mouth.

Stiles laughed and shook his head in her grip, "Stop that."

"Mm, I don't think I will." She grinned, smacking another loud peck of her lips against the opposite side of his mouth.

The colorful lights of a Sheriff's cruiser flashed as it pulled into the parking lot and an ambulance was turning in behind it before the police vehicle had even come to a stop. Amber took a small step back from Stiles as his dad climbed out of the car and stormed toward them.

"What the hell happened?" He asked them quietly, a stern look on his lightly wrinkled face.

"We walked into the garage and the mechanic was- He was crushed. Underneath the Jeep." Amber said, voice shaky.

"You guys didn't see anything else?" The Sheriff questioned, looking between them skeptically, "You didn't see anybody else leaving, or-"

"No." Stiles answered, avoiding his father's gaze.

The Sheriff looked back and forth between the two teens for a moment before he sighed and gestured with his arm toward the back of the parked ambulance, "C'mon. You kids come sit while we check things out."

They did as they were told and Amber settled onto the cold metal tailgate of the emergency vehicle beside Stiles. He took her hand in his quickly and rested their clasped hands over his lap as they watched his father and another officer enter the auto shop.

The two teens locked their fingers together loosely, hands still weak and visibly trembling with lingering traces of whatever temporary paralysis had taken over their bodies.

Eventually, the Sheriff sat down on the other side of his son with a deep sigh, rubbing his palms over his beige uniform pants.

"Do you guys have anything else you want to tell me about what happened here tonight?" He asked gently.

"We told you. We just- We walked in and saw the Jeep on top of the guy." Stiles repeated quickly, attempting to tighten his fingers around Amber's but not quite able to do so, "That's all."

"What's wrong with your hands?" The Sheriff questioned with a frown, gaze locked on where their trembling fingers were resting over his son's thigh.

"Nothing," Stiles said quickly, dropping Amber's hand and tucking his own hands into the pockets of his sweatshirt to hide the way his muscles were spasming, "Can we just get out of here now?"

"Look," Sheriff Stilinski said softly, "If there's something you kids don't think you can tell me-"

"You think we're lying?" Amber's heart thumped in her chest anxiously.

"No, of course not," Stiles' dad told her quickly, "I'm just worried about you both."

He looked between the teens slowly and Amber shrunk back slightly under his gaze, watching out of the corner of her eye as Stiles avoided looking at his father entirely.

Sheriff Stilinski took a breath, "Now, if you guys saw someone do this.. If you're afraid that maybe they're gonna come back and make sure you don't say anything about it-"

"We didn't." Amber said quickly.

"We didn't see anything," Stiles reiterated, "At all. Can we go now? Please?"

His father didn't immediately respond, frowning at them with a disappointed look, "Sure. But not in your Jeep. We're gonna have to impound it-"

Stiles stuttered a jumble of soft, incredulous noises and his father plowed on.

"Sorry, kid. It's evidence." The Sheriff told him.

"Alright, well.. At least make sure they wash it." Stiles mumbled angrily after a second.

His father shook his head and stood from the back of the ambulance, looking between them, "I assume I'll see at least one of you at home?"

Stiles peeked over at Amber in question and she shrugged, "I could stay over and then we could take my car to school in the morning." She suggested softly.

"I'll see you both later, then." The Sheriff nodded, beginning to step away but turning back to narrow his eyes at the two of them seriously, "You kids better behave. Don't think I didn't see the two of you when I pulled in-"

"Dad-" Stiles groaned quietly in embarrassment, "Seriously?"

"Yes, seriously," The Sheriff told him, "I am not ready to be a grandparent."

"Ah!" Stiles squeaked in distress, reaching around to awkwardly cover Amber's ears with his shaky hands, "I get it! I hear you! For the love of god-"

This father lifted his arms in surrender before turning away to get back to his job.

Stiles dropped his hands from the sides of Amber's head and she finally gave in to the wince she'd been holding back in response the pressure he'd put on the sensitive bump on the side of her skull. Stiles watched her flinch and his eyes widened in realization.

"Oh, shit, I'm sorry." He apologized quickly, "Shit, is that where-"

"It's fine," She told him quickly, grabbing his hand when he reached up toward her head again and redirecting his movement. She pressed a soft kiss of forgiveness into his palm, "I'm fine, really."

He frowned at her, his thumb brushing softly over the edge of her lips, "We should ask Scott to pick up your car and come get us."

Amber nodded, dropping his hand to pull out her cell phone to shoot Scott a message with shaking fingers. She received a response almost immediately and sighed in relief, sending him one final text before pocketing her phone.

"He'll be here soon." She notified Stiles.

The boy nodded and stood up to slip into the space between her legs, hips bracketed by her knees where she sat on the tailgate. She dropped her head to his chest and took a deep breath as his hands settled over her hips, cold fingers slipping beneath the fabric of her shirt and ghosting over her warmer skin.

"Sti?" She questioned softly into the fabric of his shirt. He hummed in response and she continued, "Do I still kinda reek of dumpster?" She asked.

He laughed, burying his nose in her hair and taking a comically deep breath, "Honestly? Yeah, a little.." He said softly before stiffening against her, "Why do you ask? Do- Do I smell like garbage right now?"

She snorted quietly, nodding her head against his chest, "A little."

Nearly twenty minutes later, her bright yellow car finally turned in and Scott pulled into a parking spot at the edge of the lot.

She hopped down from the back of the ambulance and the two rushed over to the car through the cold drizzle that had begun to fall. As they approached, Scott slid over into the passenger seat and Stiles and Amber crawled in through the driver's side before settling inside the dry car.

"What took you so long?" Stiles questioned immediately.

"Amber sent me a list of like, a million things she needed from her house-" Scott defended, pointing to the duffle bag in the backseat.

"Sorry," She apologized, "I just figured it would be easier than driving all the way back over and I.." Her voice trailed off as she looked out the rain splattered windshield, eyes stuck on the reflecting flashes of blue and red emergency lights.

"You guys okay?" Scott asked softly after a moment, looking at his best friends with worry.

Stiles nodded from the center seat, dropping his left hand over the damp denim covering Amber's thigh as he mumbled assurances under his breath that they were fine.

"You were right," Amber told Scott softly, "It's not like you. I mean, it- Its eyes were almost, like.. Reptilian."

Stiles murmured in agreement, "But there was something about them-"

Scott's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, "What d'you mean?"

Stiles frowned in thought as he tried to come up with a way to explain what they'd seen, "You know when you see a friend in a halloween mask, but all you can see is their eyes, and you feel like you know 'em but you just can't figure out who it is?"

Amber eyes widened at the accuracy of the analogy, her head thumping back against the headrest for a moment as she recalled the way the creature's head had tilted curiously at them.

Scott looked between them in surprise, "Are you guys saying you know who it is?"

"No," Amber disagreed quickly, leaning forward in her seat again to look at him, "But I- I think that maybe it knew us."

Scott sat on the bench attached to one of the tables in the courtyard, rushing as he attempted to finish an assignment that was due later that day. Amber was sprawled out on her back over the tabletop beside his open notebook, happy to let the warmth of the sun soak into the exposed skin of her arms and bare legs on the blessedly nice March morning.

Stiles approached his best friends, backpack slung over one shoulder, and Scott nudged Amber's thigh to get her attention as he noticed Stiles' presence. Stiles sat down in the empty space at the end of the bench and Amber propped herself up on her elbows attentively just as he began to speak.

"I'm so sorry about the other day," Stiles started slowly, speaking with his hands as his eyes flicked between them, "I'm trying. We'll get through this.." He reached up to rest a hand on Amber's bare knee as he continued, "Uh, I know because I love you."

Scott's face broke into a giddy smile and Amber rolled her eyes fondly at the sight of her lovesick best friend.

Stiles took a breath before he started again, "I love you.. more than- Oh my god!" He exclaimed, cutting himself off in refusal to recite any more, "I can't! You and Allison just have to find a better way to communicate-"

"Come on!" Scott frowned in disappointment, looking between his best friends, "You two are the only ones we can trust. Is she coming to the game tonight?"

"Yes," Stiles answered quickly, hand tightening on Amber's knee, "Okay? Message complete."

Amber flopped down onto her back again to watch the clouds as they floated by, "Alright, Scott. Stiles is here now. So spill what you were waiting to tell us about your boss."

He looked around the courtyard cautiously before whispering, "He thinks that Allison's family keeps some kind of.. Uh, records. Of all the things that they've hunted. Like a book."

Stiles leaned back and lifted his hand from Amber's knee only to clap his palm back down over it enthusiastically, "He probably means a bestiary."

Amber hummed with a nod of agreement and Scott looked between them with wide eyes.

"What?" He hissed in surprise.

"A bestiary.." Amber repeated, tilting her head to look at him curiously.

Scott began to laugh hysterically, taking a gasping breath as he looked between his two best friends, "I think you mean 'beastiality.'"

"Nope," Stiles disagreed quickly, "Pretty sure we don't."

"A bestiary is kinda like an encyclopedia, but it's full of information about mythical creatures." Amber explained in amusement.

Scott's laughter faded quickly and he sighed in irritation, "How am I the only one that doesn't seem to know anything about this stuff?" He asked with a groan.

"Okay. You're our best friend..? You're a creature of the night..? It's kind of been a priority of ours." Stiles explained incredulously.

"You know we've been reading up on this stuff. I mean, what do you think Stiles and I are spending all night doing when I tell you we're having a 'research night'?" Amber questioned rhetorically, pushing back up onto her elbows.

Scott raised his eyebrows emphatically and looked between them.

"Wh- Seriously?" She exclaimed in surprise at the insinuation, "You thought that every time we said we had 'research night', we were just, like, hooking up?"

Scott shrugged, "Well.. Kinda."

"Dude." Stiles scolded, "Is that why you literally always blow us off? Because you thought me and Amber were-?"

"I thought you were warning me to steer clear without actually, y'know, saying it," Scott explained, "Like a code."

"And the research nights before Stiles and I got together?" Amber questioned in disbelief.

"Figured that was you guys's way of telling me you were planning on finally making a move.. I thought you both just kept chickening out."

They both blinked at him in disbelief for a long moment.

"Okay.. I-" Scott spoke up again after the silence had stretched for a bit too long, deigning to change the subject, "If we can find this beasty-thing, and it can tell us what this thing is-"

"And who." Stiles interrupted.

There was another moment of silence between them before all three spoke at once.

"We need that book."

Stiles continued to run interference between Allison and Scott all day, somehow managing to catch Amber off guard nearly every time he approached with a new message.

"Yes!" He yelled in the hallway after third period as he ran up behind Amber and Scott. He flung an arm around each of their shoulders to support his weight as he heaved in deep breaths, "Allison's seen her grandfather with a book like that. Old. Leather. She's seen it."

An hour later, before lunch, he threw himself against the locker behind Amber with a loud crash. He draped his overly-warm, sweaty body across her back and panted heavily into her ear as he looked at Scott over her shoulder.

"She says," Stiles choked out with a wheeze as he fought for breath, "It has to be.. Office."

He gasped for air and Amber tipped her head to look back at him, reaching around awkwardly to cup the back of his head and pressing her lips to his sweaty cheek in consolation.

The next time he surprised her with a sudden appearance, both he and Allison miraculously managed to reach her table in the courtyard at the same time. It was the end of the school day and Amber had been finishing up an assignment with the intention of not having to worry about it later that evening.

She was sitting with her legs sprawled out in front of her on the bench when both of them stumbled up to the table in the same moment. Allison threw her shoulder bag down onto the seats on the opposite side of the table as Stiles sprinted toward them from the other direction, doubling over as he pulled in choppy, labored breaths.

He dropped a hand down to support himself, fingers gripping tightly at the top of Amber's thigh, seemingly blind to the way his pinky dug into her flesh beneath the hemline of her skirt and sent thrilling a spark down her spine. Pulling one of Scott's old inhalers from his pocket with his other hand, Stiles took a deep puff from the device, holding the chemicals in his lungs for a moment before gasping and finally focusing on Allison.

"Y'know, drug dealers have been using disposable cell phones pretty successfully for years-"

Allison shook her head, "My parents check every call, email, and text message I send. Trust me, they'd find it."

"Talk about a helicopter parent." Amber mumbled in a weak attempt to make a joke, desperately trying to focus on something — anything — that wasn't Stiles' sweaty hand. Or the way his fingertips were slipping beneath his weight and beginning to dig intoxicatingly into the meat of her inner thigh.

"Alright," He told Allison, ignoring quiet Amber's comment, "Can you get the book?"

"Not without my grandfather's keys." Allison sighed.

"Okay.. Okay, so we get his keys." Amber shrugged, licking her lips in thought as Stiles lifted her legs to slide onto the bench beside her, dropping them back down over the tops of his thighs as soon as he was seated, "Take him with you to the game tonight." She suggested after a moment.

"What?" Allison asked, eyes wide, "You want me to bring him to watch Scott's game?" She clarified in disbelief.

"Yes." Amber supplied easily, fingertips drumming on the tabletop, "I mean, he'll bring his keys with him, right? And the temperature is supposed to drop super quick over the next couple hours.. He'll obviously gonna be bundled up in his winter jacket, keys probably stuffed in the pocket.. Then you just play up how cold you are until he goes all 'elderly gentleman' and offers up his coat! We swipe the keys from his pocket, sneak into his office, find the book, and get the keys back before the game is even over. Easy."

"Right," Allison swallowed nervously, "Easy."

Stiles blinked at Amber in amazement for a moment before leaning in to press his lips to hers in a sloppy, slightly sweaty kiss.

"I can't believe you just came up with that plan off the top of your head," He mumbled against her mouth, giving her one more quick kiss before sitting back again, "So hot."

She snorted in amusement, fighting against the pink flush that began to rise embarrassingly on her cheeks from his praise.

Amber rushed home to change into jeans during the hour that the lacrosse team did warmups before the start of their evening game. It wasn't long before she made it back to the school, plopping down in the empty space beside Ms. McCall the moment she spotted her best friend's mom sitting in the stands.

Instead of focusing on the start of the game on the field — which, by the sound of the combined shouts coming from both the crowd and Coach Finstock, was not going well for Beacon Hills — Amber's attention was focused on where Allison and her grandfather were sitting on the other set of bleachers.

It was ten minutes into the second half of the game when she saw Principal Argent finally slip out of his thick peacoat, draping it delicately over his granddaughter's shoulders. Amber sighed in relief as she stood from her seat, excusing herself with an mumbled explanation about needing to go inside to use the restroom.

She kept her eyes glued to the other girl, watching as Allison reached into the pocket of the jacket before nodding her head in a silent signal for Amber to approach. As Amber stumbled from the bleachers with her eyes still focussed on Allison, she collided with another body, a pair of arms reaching up to steady her as she fell heavily against the padded material of someone's lacrosse uniform.

"Oh, shit. Sorry." She apologized quickly as she tried to regain her footing in the grass, looking up at the person who'd caught her.

Matt Daehler only grinned at her, "Don't worry about it." He said easily, readjusting his large camera around his neck.

Her eyes dropped to the device in his hands and her heart sank anxiously, "Shit. I didn't break your fancy camera or anything with my clumsiness, did I?" She questioned immediately.

He fiddled with the camera in his fingers without really looking away from her, "Nope, all good."

Her gaze was drawn to the movement of his hands and her eyes narrowed curiously when she focused on the photograph on the tiny screen.

"Hey, is that me?" She asked, leaning closer and pulling his hands into her own as she tried to get a better look.

"Oh, uh.." Matt stammered, "Yeah, um-"

Her eyes raked over the picture in a slow trail as she studied it. The floodlights shining down over the lacrosse field were harsh and blinding, but somehow, the composition of the photograph on the screen made it look softer. The light shined around her loose hair in a way that looked almost ethereal. Angelic. There was a soft smile on her face that told her the picture had been taken a few minutes before, when she'd caught sight of Stiles waving at her. Her cheeks appeared flushed, both from the cold and from the attention of the boy who'd been grinning at her from his usual spot on the bench.

"This is incredible," She told him softly, glancing up at him before gaping at the picture one more time, "Seriously. You're really talented."

"Oh," He sighed in relief, "Thanks. I'm really glad you like it. When you first saw it I was kinda worried you'd think I was being a creep or-"

"No, no. I totally get it," She said quickly, "You just. You find art in what you see in the world around you. No biggie."

He nodded and smiled, "Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly it. Just- Capturing the beauty around me."

She nodded, the obvious compliment going straight over her head, completely unaware as she looked out at the game on the field.

"Well, make sure you get some pictures of this beautiful game," She laughed, taking a step back, "Hey, if you get any good ones of Scott, will you let me know?"

"Yeah! Yeah, sure." Matt agreed easily.

"Sweet." She grinned, moving another step toward the opposite set of bleachers, "I gotta go, but I'll talk to you later. 'Go Cyclones' and all that!"

He bid her goodbye with a wave and she moved around the stands to sneak up behind where Allison was sitting, the other girl's hand dropping down casually to dangle beneath the metal seat. Amber gathered the large bundle of keys into her fist silently before stepping back and rounding the bleachers to approach the player's bench at the edge of the field.

In an attempt to stay warm, Stiles hadn't even bothered to change into his lacrosse pads or jersey. Instead, he wore a maroon tracksuit with the zipper tugged up to his neck, arms wrapped around himself as he shivered on the metal bench.

Amber leaned over his back and wrapped her own arms around his shoulders to give the appearance of a casual hug as she whispered in his ear.

"Keys acquired." She murmured quietly.

He reached up to wrap a cold hand around her wrist where it was draped across his chest as he nodded, "I'll come with you."

She frowned, loosening her arms to peer over his shoulder and shoot him a curious look, "You don't need to do that. You should stay here. You're kind of on the team, you know."

Stiles stood and her arms fell as he rounded the bench to grab her hand, already beginning to drag her away before Coach Finstock could catch them sneaking off.

"Oh, come on. Like Coach is ever gonna put me in." Stiles scoffed, tugging on her hand as they rushed back toward the school building.

When they jogged through the dark parking lot behind the building, he pulled on her arm and skidded to a stop.

"Hey, isn't that Lydia's car?" He questioned, pointing to a vehicle that was parked with its interior lights on.

"Yeah," Amber confirmed, moving around the backside of the car with a frown. She spotted Lydia dabbing at her eyes with a tissue and her heart twisted sadly, "I, um. I'm gonna check on her real quick."

"But the book-"

"You go start looking and I'll be right behind you," She promised, pulling the jumble of keys from her back pocket and pressing them into his hand.

His face pinched but after a moment he nodded reluctantly, tipping her head toward him at an awkward angle to press a quick kiss to her hairline before he ran off toward the building.

Amber stepped up to the driver's side window and rapped her knuckles against the glass lightly, causing Lydia to flinch and turn to look outside the car with wide eyes, dark smudges of mascara dripping down her cheeks.

"Lyds?" Amber asked softly, "What's going on? You okay?"

"Go away." She sniffled, turning her head to wipe at the moisture beneath her eyes again.

"Not happening," Amber shook her head, leaning closer and tapping her finger against the window in an irritatingly fast-paced rhythm, "Not until you tell me what's wrong."

Lydia sighed and rolled down the window, taking a breath as Amber leaned in and rested her weight on her arms in the open space.

"You're gonna think I'm crazy." Lydia whimpered, tightening her fist around her tissue.

"I could never think you're crazy, Lydia, alright? I told you that already," Amber reminded her, "Everything has been so unbelievably insane over the last two months. There is not a single thing you could say that would make me think you're crazy."

"I've been sleepwalking," Lydia admitted after a moment, "Sort of. Not really walking but.. I broke a mirror the other night and I don't remember it. I woke up in the backyard a few nights before that-"

"We talked about this," Amber said softly, "And you are not crazy. It's normal to have nightmares and anxiety and.. And I don't think the thing with Peter Hale is all that weird either. You've been through.. A lot."

Lydia nodded and sniffled again, "I just want it to stop. I want things to go back.."

"I know," Amber frowned sadly, holding out a hand in offering and letting her lips pull into a small smile when Lydia took it into her own. "I- I'm sorry." She said quietly.

"No," Lydia snapped, sniffing once and shooting Amber with stern glare, "Not this again. It is not your fault and I don't want your pity."

Amber's smile faded, "I-"

"I'll be fine," Lydia huffed, releasing Amber's hand to flip down her sun visor and wipe more thoroughly at her smudged makeup, "I'm just going to go home, take a bath, watch Legally Blonde, and give myself a pedicure."

"I could- Do you want me to-"

"Go inside and have your hot locker room hook up with your boyfriend. I saw you guys in the mirror before you came over here. I know he's waiting," Lydia rolled her eyes, a mask of indifferent perfection already slipping onto her face, "I'll see you tomorrow. Make sure he wraps it before you let him tap it."

Before she could respond, Lydia was rolling up the window and Amber was forced to pull her arms back to avoid them getting caught as it slid closed.

"Rude!" She told her friend loudly through the tinted glass.

"Love you." Lydia shot back amusedly, shifting her car into reverse, taillights switching on as she prepared to back out of her parking spot, "I'll text you later, okay?" She promised in a gentler tone.

Amber nodded in agreement and took a small step away from the car as Lydia backed up and turned to pull out of the parking lot. The brunette watched her friend go, brain clicking all at once to remind her that Stiles was already in the principal's office looking for the bestiary.

"Shit!" She exclaimed, feet carrying her toward the school in a rush.

She threw open the metal door at the side of the building and took a quick steps down the hallway, running toward the main office at the far end of the wing.

"Stiles?" She called out as she stepped into the office.

The door to Allison's grandfather's office was open, the keys still dangling from the lock, but there was no sign of Stiles. Amber's gut twisted nervously at his absence and she immediately moved back out into the hallway.

"Stiles!" She called out louder, peeking into the empty locker room as she passed.

Huffing loudly, she noticed that the door to the pools was ajar at the end of the hall and she took off again. She skidded to a stop at the doorway and slipped inside, hearing familiar voices as she rushed around the corner toward the pools.

"Holy God.." Stiles exclaimed quietly.

Amber ran up beside him, stumbling to a stop and taking his left hand in hers as she looked over at Erica and Derek in confusion.

"What's going on?" She asked the two werewolves, directing a dark look at Erica before turning to Stiles, "Did you find it?" She asked more quietly.

"Tell us what you saw at the garage yesterday." Derek demanded, eyes flicking between Stiles and Amber.

"I don't know.. It was creepy." She told him vaguely, "Scaly? Like a giant lizard or something."

Derek raised his eyebrows, settling her with an unimpressed look until Stiles continued for her.

"Alright, the thing was.. Pretty slick looking. Um.. Skin was dark," He explained, "It's like she said, I-I think it had scales. Is that not enough?"

Derek and Erica continued to glare at them and Amber bounced on her toes as she tried to remember more specifics.

"I don't.. Eyes!" She exclaimed suddenly, turning toward Stiles as she spoke, "Right? The eyes.. They were yellow-"

"-And slitted," He continued, "Like a snake or something."

"A lot of teeth," She recalled, "Small and sharp and seriously terrifying."

"Oh, and it's got a tail too." Stiles finished, raising his eyebrows at the werewolves with an annoyed blink of his eyes, "Now, are we good?"

When he didn't get a response, Amber turned her attention back toward Erica and Derek. The irritated expressions that they'd both worn a few moments before were gone, replaced now with a wholly unfamiliar look of nervousness.

"What?" Amber asked, watching them flick their eyes behind where she and Stiles were standing for just a second. When she still didn't get a response, she focused solely on Derek and watched as he slowly uncrossed his arms from over his chest, "Derek. What's up?"

"Wait. Have you seen it?" Stiles asked them, "You both have this look on your faces like you know exactly what we're talking about-"

There was a quiet hissing from behind them that had Amber and Stiles both turning around cautiously, movements achingly slow with fear. The creature they'd only just been describing was perched atop the railing of the balcony above them, crawling it's way downward in a slow trail as it watched the group intently.

A sudden, ear-piercing shriek came from the creature in warning and Amber flinched at the shrill sound while Stiles grabbed ahold of her shoulder to pull her to stand beside Derek.

The creature dropped to the floor with another threatening hiss and before it had even touched the down, Derek was crouched protectively in front of the two humans. Only a few seconds of anticipatory hesitance passed before the creature made the first move by tossing Erica across the room with an easy flick of its freakishly strong tail.

The blonde werewolf hit the wall with a sickening thud and crumpled to the ground, unconscious and sporting a small cut down the side of her neck where the tip of the creature's tail had nicked her. Derek growled angrily in response to his Beta being attacked and turned to shout a warning at Amber and Stiles.

"Run!" He ordered sharply.

He'd barely spoken the words before the creature scraped the sharp end of its tail across the back of Derek's neck and disappeared. Amber made a small noise of panic when Derek stood upright again and looked around himself in confusion, his knees wobbling unsteadily.

"Derek, your neck!" She warned him as a hand that she didn't even realize Stiles had wrapped around her shoulder tightened its grip to hold her in place while his gaze searched desperately to find where the creature had gone.

Derek blinked a few times and stumbled on shaky legs, reaching up to brush his fingers over the cut on back of his neck in confusion as he began to slowly lose control over his limbs.

"Ah, shit-" Stiles muttered in realization, moving around Amber to grab ahold of Derek's waist and steady the werewolf before he could fall.

Amber was at Derek's other side in a flash and she slipped beneath his arm to support his weight in a familiar position.

"C'mon-" She pleaded with the two boys uselessly.

Stiles quickly moved to mimic her stance and the two of them began to drag Derek away, stumbling as they ran, rounding the large pool. Amber tasked herself with watching their footing while Stiles looked around them, trying to locate the creature that had seemingly vanished.

"Where is it?" He asked, still looking around frantically, "Do either of you see it?"

"No." Amber told him anxiously.

"I can smell it, so hurry." Derek demanded. "And call Scott."

"Right, yes! Let's call Scott!" Amber repeated, reaching her free hand around to her back pocket. She patted down her backside aggressively when she immediately didn't feel the familiar lump beneath denim, "Oh my god. Where's my phone?"

"It's fine. I'll call him-" Stiles said quickly.

She took a shaky breath and nodded as they came to a stop at the edge of the pool, turning to watch Stiles pull out his phone and allowing most of Derek's deadweight to shift to her as the other boy clumsily unlocked the device in his hands.

Stiles suddenly fumbled to keep a hold of his cell phone, throwing himself forward in an attempt to catch it as it slipped through his fingers and down toward the tiled ground. When he leaned forward to save his phone, he bumped Derek's limp body, and the soft nudge was all that it took to send the werewolf's weight crashing into Amber where she was already struggling to support him on her own.

"Stiles!" She screamed as she stumbled backwards and tripped over the lip of tile at the edge of the pool.

She and Derek seemed to fall back through the air in slow motion. She crashed into the pool only a fraction of a second before Derek's body followed, his heavy weight knocking the air from her lungs as he landed on top of her, both of them plunging into the water and beginning to sink down.

Her waterlogged clothes were heavy as she tried to swim and Amber cracked her eyes open underwater, stripping out of her jacket quickly before her gaze caught on Derek. He was still sinking toward the bottom of the pool, unable to move his limbs, and she pumped her arms and legs aggressively as she swam toward him.

She fisted the front of his shirt in her hands as she kicked off the bottom of the pool, pulling him up through the water. Derek's weight was lessened significantly in the water, but by the time they broke through to the surface, she still gasped at the exertion. She managed only a small breath of air before his muscular frame in her arms forced her head back underwater.

There was a loud crash of something plunging into the pool after them and Amber could just make out the dark maroon of Stiles' tracksuit as he swam toward them. She was trying to keep Derek's head above the water, her lungs beginning to burn already and the muscles in her arms trembled as she kicked her legs furiously.

Derek's weight lessened suddenly and she broke through the surface of the water with a sputtering breath, coughing from the unexpected lack of oxygen.

"Where did it go?" She gasped as she caught her breath, looking around the pool through chlorine bleary eyes.

"I dunno," Stiles said quickly, spitting pool water from his mouth, "D'you see it?"

"No."

"No."

"Okay," Stiles said as they splashed around at the center of the pool, "Maybe it took off."

His words were followed by another loud screech, the sound echoing off of the stone walls in a way that made it nearly impossible to determine which direction the shriek had originated from.

"Maybe not." Amber muttered, spitting a bit of water from between her own lips when her mouth sunk down into the pool.

Following the shrill scream from the creature, the school was thrust into silence, aside from the quiet splashing of water, and the heavy breaths that fell from Stiles and Amber's mouths as they swam in place. Fifteen painfully long minutes passed before Amber eventually broke the silence again.

"D-Did you call Scott?" She asked, shaking her head to flick wet hair out of her face as she moved one arm around Derek's back to brush her fingers against the wet fabric of Stiles' shirt.

"Well, y'see, I was about to when I looked over and noticed you were practically drowning-" Stiles snapped, pulling Derek's arm tighter around his shoulders.

Amber bristled at his tone, "Oh, I'm sorry I was having a little trouble swimming while carrying over two hundred pounds of pure muscle. You're the one who knocked us into the stupid pool in the first place-"

"It was an accident!" Stiles defended.

"Will you two save the lover's spat for later and focus on getting me out of here before I drown?" Derek asked blankly.

"Oh, now the werewolf is worried about drowning?" Stiles questioned in disbelief, "Did you notice the thing out there with multiple rows of razor sharp teeth?"

"Did you notice I'm paralyzed from the neck down in eight feet of water?" Derek bit back immediately.

"God, can we all just stop fighting?" Amber pleaded, mouth dipping beneath the surface of the water for a moment when the motions of her legs slowed involuntarily.

"Okay," Stiles agreed, breathing heavy as he looked around them again, "I don't see it, so let's-"

"Okay, yeah." She agreed easily.

They began to swim slowly toward the side of the pool, only a few feet from the edge when Derek began to shout in panic.

"Wait, wait, wait! Stop!" He yelled, taking a deep breath when they slowed and began to swim in place again, "Stop."

"What?" Amber questioned, rubbing her face against the werewolf's shoulder in an attempt to push back the wet hair that clung to her face and blocked her eyes.

When her vision was unimpeded, the creature had re-appeared at the edge of the pool, crawling along the tiles on all fours and hissing at them lowly, craning and tilting its head side to side as it seemingly studied them.

"What's it waiting for?" Stiles asked worriedly.

"I- I don't know." Amber responded weakly, eying the creature as it paced around them.

Yellow eyes followed them as the creature crawled around the perimeter of the pool, circling for a couple of unbearably slow laps and watching them curiously as they swam. Stiles and Amber spun in time with its movements to keep the creature from their unguarded backs while it slowly circled the body of water.

After the creature had completed its third lap around the pool, it stepped closer with another low hiss. It leaned over the water's edge and dipped a scaly, clawed hand into the water before immediately pulling back with a louder, panicked hiss. It backed away from the pool's edge in a rush to watch begin watching them from afar once again.

"Wait, did you guys see that?" Amber asked, turning her head and trying to look over at the boys beside her.

"Saw it," Stiles confirmed, "I- I don't think it can swim."

"So great, that- That means we're safe as long as we're in here?" Amber questioned in annoyance, "We've been at it for like an hour already, I-"

"I don't think I can do this much longer." Stiles agreed through heavy breaths.

"So- So what do we do?" She asked.

Seemingly every muscle in her body was exhausted — overworked. Her stomach was cramping painfully, her legs burned from the constant kicking to keep them afloat, her arms ached and trembled as she alternated between aiding her swimming and holding Derek up higher in the water.

Stiles didn't respond to her question but his eyes did seem to catch on something near where they'd tumbled into the pool in the first place, his gaze locked on the opposite side of the pool from where the creature had dipped a clawed hand into the water.

"Stiles, what-"

"No." Derek interrupted her, aiming his words at the other boy, "No, don't even think about it."

"Wh-" Stiles spluttered in disbelief, "Would you trust me just this once?"

"Trust you on what?" Amber asked in confusion.

"No." Derek said, ignoring her.

"Look, I'm helping keep you alive, right now," Stiles snarked, "Did you notice that?"

"Yeah, I did," Derek snapped, "And Amber can't hold me up alone."

"I- I can try." She interjected weakly.

"When the paralysis wears off, who's gonna be able to fight that thing? You guys, or me?" Derek asked without expecting an answer and Amber hated to admit that he had a point.

"What, that's the only reason we've been holding you up for the last hour and a half?" Stiles questioned incredulously.

Amber squinted toward where they'd been looking when the argument had begun and spotted Stiles' cell phone, abandoned and laying oh-so temptingly right at the pool's edge.

"Stiles. You don't trust me. I don't trust you. But you need me to survive, so you are not letting me go." Derek snapped.

Stiles ignored him in favor of peering back at Amber over his shoulder with a nervous, unsure frown.

While their paralysis at the auto shop had worn off quickly, it hadn't been injected straight into their bloodstream the way it had when the creature had swiped at Derek and Erica. There was no way for them to know just how long the neurotoxin would last this time around. It could be hours.

Her heart pounded anxiously, but knowing that calling Scott was currently their only real option, she gave Stiles a small nod of approval. He dropped Derek's arm from around his shoulder without a word and it hardly took a second for the werewolf to catch on to what was happening.

"Stiles!" He yelled angrily as the boy swam away.

Derek had, unfortunately, been right.

The loss of another person sharing his weight sent the two of them back underwater nearly instantly. She repositioned herself behind him as he sank and slipped her sore arms beneath his armpits to lock around his chest, kicking her legs painfully hard in order to bring them back above the surface of the water.

They broke through and both managed to pull in a single deep breath before Amber plunged back under again, leaning back and keeping Derek's body above her own as she pumped her legs aggressively. Her head bobbed above and below the surface, only able to manage quick intakes of air, listening to the sounds of Stiles splashing through the water as he swam to his phone.

"He hung up on me!" He shouted angrily after a long minute.

"Try-" She choked out, spitting water from her mouth with a hacking cough, "Again-"

She could only assume that he was following her order, because once she'd gotten the words out, she was no longer able to kick her legs with the force needed to keep her head above the water. She was trying desperately to keep Derek at the surface, but after only a few moments, she realized that the both of them were just a few feet from the pool floor. At some point, they'd sunk deeper and deeper without her tired body even realizing it.

Her lungs burned as she fought to continue holding her breath and when her feet touched down at the bottom of the pool, she locked her arms lower around Derek's waist and kicked off once again, her mind focused solely on making sure Derek didn't drown, because he was right. He was the only one who even stood a chance at fighting the creature once his paralysis eventually wore off.

She heard the soft sound of Derek's head breaching the surface and the gasping breath that followed, the noise muffled through the water.

Her brain was growing fuzzy from lack of oxygen, head feeling as if it might explode, lungs burning with the desperate need to take a breath. She had a fleeting thought of letting Derek go — just for a moment — so that she could get some air, but before she could make the choice, the movements of her limbs began to slow without her permission, her head filled with cotton as her vision spotted.

There was another muffled yell as Derek's head sank underneath the water once again, Amber's grip falling slack and her arms slipping from his waist unconsciously as her lips fell open, the soft sounds of splashing water filling her ears as her eyes finally slipped closed to welcome the vast darkness that speckled the corners of her vision.

It felt like no time at all had passed before she was coughing painfully, chest aching with the action, water spilling past her lips through choking gasps as she finally pulled air into her lungs.

"Jesus, I'm sorry." Stiles murmured against her ear, arms firmly wrapped around her as he held her back to his chest.

"Derek." She coughed, tipping her head back onto Stiles' shoulder, not catching the anxious look he shot her when he caught sight of her lips — a startling shade of blue tinting their color.

"I'm.." He sighed and shook his head, "Take a deep breath, okay? I'll go get Derek. Just- Take a deep breath and I'll be right back." He promised.

Her breathing was shaky, but she sucked in as much air as she could before the arms around her ribcage were gone and she slipped back underneath the water. It took a few slow seconds before she realized that she needed to swim, and weakly began to kick her legs again. She broke back through the surface of the water, pumping her tired arms and legs as she spun in place in search of Derek and Stiles.

There was a loud splash behind her as they broke through the water again and relief flooded her when she watched Derek pull a deep breath of air into his lungs. She swam toward them immediately and retook her previous spot under Derek's arm.

"Never. Again." Derek spoke sharply. He didn't specify which one of them he was talking to, but it seemed to be pretty accurately directed at them both, so neither questioned it.

A hand reached up to clumsily pat over Amber's wet hair and she peeked over to find Stiles frowning at her.

"Are you okay?" He asked worriedly.

"'m fine." She mumbled, voice hoarse in her throat, the passage aching from the coughing combined with the lingering sting from the chlorine of the pool. They kicked to stay afloat for another painful stretch of time before she had a sudden thought, "I.. I should've swam over to get your phone to call Scott," She stated in frustration, "You're stronger than I am-"

"Unbelievable," Stiles interrupted, looking between her and Derek, "I- Not one of us thought of that?"

"Stupid." Derek mumbled vaguely.

"So stupid." She panted, exhaustion settling into her limbs again, "I- I don't know if I can keep- We need to figure something else out."

Stiles' head whipped around until he seemed to get an idea, "C'mon," He prompted, tipping his head back in a gesture to swim in that direction.

Amber followed his direction and leaned back, beginning to kick her legs as they moved toward the diving boards.

"If we can hold on for a few minutes to give our legs a break-" Stiles explained as they swam.

"Yeah," She agreed weakly, actively fighting to keep her head above the water.

She watched Stiles take in labored breaths, her eyes drawn to the tenseness of his shaking muscles beneath his shirt. Since he'd dragged Derek back to the surface, he'd been holding up a majority of the werewolf's weight by himself, trying to lessen the amount of effort Amber was forced to put in as she visibly fought to simply keep herself afloat.

She'd noticed this, however, and she heaved in a shaky breath as they finally got to the edge of the pool, "Not sure if I can even reach, but your arms are longer. You should grab on first." She told Stiles, adjusting herself beneath Derek's arm to give the boy enough room to reach up toward the diving platform.

Stiles looked like he wanted to fight her on it for only a second before he was reaching a shaking arm up, his fingers catching on the metal rung while Derek's weight pushed her head underwater yet again.

Somehow, she hadn't quite been expecting it when her mouth plunged beneath the surface of the pool, taking in yet another infuriating gulp of chlorinated water. Her chest burned at the sudden invasion in her body and she coughed on reflex, gasping and inhaling underwater, choking harder as Derek's weight suddenly vanished from her arms.

She reached her arms above her head as she swam back up, a pair of hands wrapping around her wrists in a tight grip and yanking her from the pool entirely, tossing her to the tiled floor at the edge of the water. She immediately rolled onto her side to cough again, a truly disturbing amount of water coming back up her throat and spilling past her lips onto the ground as she gagged and heaved.

She could just make out the sound of Scott growling loudly over the noises spilling from her own mouth as she began to push up onto her hands and knees.

A dark blur rushed past her to tackle Scott from his perch on the diving board and she watched the two roll away at the side of the pool. The scaly creature and Scott crouched in front of one another, each sizing the other up, and they both let out loud angry snarls as they geared up for a fight.

Amber crawled the few feet of distance between herself and where Stiles and Derek had been tossed from the pool. She reached them and took hold of Stiles' sleeve just as the sound of shattering glass rang out. Her wide eyes went up to find Scott laying in a pile of shards from the large mirror that he must have collided with.

Stiles was already sitting up beside her and he pulled her underneath his arm protectively as he shuffled them back a few feet. Her eyes went to at Derek as they backed away, relieved to find his arms twitching minutely as they began to regain feeling.

Scott scrambled up into a crouch, clutching a large shard of the broken glass in his hand as a makeshift weapon while the creature began to move toward him again. Amber's heart thumped wildly in her chest as she watched her best friend ready himself to fight the creature, and she couldn't help but grip Stiles' arm in a tight fist.

The creature hesitated just as it closed the final distance separating it from Scott, examining the shard of glass in his hand curiously. It tipped its head to the side as it peered at the reflection the mirror was casting, staring at itself for a few slow seconds.

Scott's wolfy eyes met with those of his friends over the creature's shoulder and he looked at them in confusion, silently asking if they were seeing the same thing that he was.

The creature let out another sudden screech before it took off, scaling the wall in a quick horror-movie style crawl until it reached the ceiling and finally jumped straight through the skylight, shattering the window as it disappeared into the night.

Scott let the shard of glass in his fist fall to the tiled floor with a clink that seemed jarringly loud in the sudden silence, dropping his head as he breathed out in relief.

"Holy shit." Amber whispered.

Her fingers tightened around Stiles' arm and it was then that she noticed her whole body was trembling. She rose to her knees in a rush and turned beneath his arm, bringing a hand up to his jaw and using the other to wipe away a few drops of water that were beading down his forehead from his hairline.

"You okay?" He asked her quietly, free hand dropping to squeeze over the wet denim covering her thigh as his eyes were drawn to the blue hue lingering beneath her trembling lips.

"Yeah. Yeah I'm okay," She promised, heart finally slowing slightly in her chest, "Are you okay?"

He opened his mouth to respond but was cut off by Derek's voice behind them.

"Yeah, I'm alright. Thanks for your concern." He snapped quietly, pushing himself up with a quiet groan as he got back control of his limbs.

"I found the book." Scott announced, his face once again looking like his sweet, normal, human self as he approached to help his friends to their feet.

"Yeah, you sure as hell better have," Stiles snapped quietly, brushing away nonexistent dirt and debris from Amber's dripping body as they stood, "We almost drowned because of your inability to answer the phone."

"Where is it?" Amber asked Scott, attempting to comfort Stiles silently by taking his hand in hers. Scott held up a familiar keychain and she frowned in confusion, "It was in Argent's office?" She asked in confusion.

Scott shook his head, readjusting the keys to hold up the small USB drive hooked onto the loop.

"No shit," Stiles muttered in realization, staring at the device in annoyed disbelief, "The old man has a twenty-first century bestiary?"

"Did not see that coming." Amber agreed, rolling up onto the balls of her feet after a moment, "We gonna go plug that baby in and see what's on it?" She questioned excitedly.

"Definitely." Scott told her, moving around them to head back out of the school.

Amber hesitated, the action pulling on Stiles' arm as he moved to follow Scott. She turned to look at Derek one more time, "Seriously, though. You gonna be okay?" She asked softly.

He nodded, stretching his arms and shaking out his hands, "Gonna help Erica."

Amber and Stiles both looked over to where the blonde was still laying on the ground at the other end of the pool, her fingers only just beginning to twitch with regained feeling.

With a nod, Amber allowed Stiles to lead her outside after Scott, the three crowding around the hood of her car, laptop open as Scott flicked through the folder they'd pulled from the USB drive.

It appeared to be scans of what had originally been a hard copy of a book, each page filled with old calligraphy and drawings. Every scan they clicked through was completely unreadable, pages upon pages of information written using an alphabet that didn't remotely resemble the Roman one — Paragraphs of an ancient language that they couldn't even begin to determine the origin of.

"Is that even a language?" Stiles finally asked in frustration as Scott continued to click through the pages.

"I- I dunno," Amber muttered, squinting at the bright screen, "I mean, it's gotta be, right?"

Scott sighed, clicking at the trackpad more aggressively now, "How are we supposed to figure out what this thing is?"

"It's called a Kanima." Derek supplied suddenly, walking down the path to the parking lot with Erica at his side.

"You knew the whole time." Stiles accused, huffing quietly as Amber slipped a hand up to grip the back of his neck softly.

"No," Derek glared as he stopped in front of them, "Only when it was confused by its own reflection."

"It.. Doesn't know what it is?" Amber questioned.

Derek nodded, "Or who."

"Well what else do you know?" Stiles asked with a barely suppressed eye roll.

"Just stories.. Rumors." Derek told them vaguely.

"But it's like us?" Scott questioned, looking between himself, Erica, and Derek.

"A shapeshifter, yes. But-" Derek sighed, shaking his head as he searched for the right words, "It's- It's not right. It's like, uh-"

"An abomination?" Stiles supplied.

Derek nodded silently before simply turning and beginning to lead Erica away with a hand on her back.

"Derek!" Scott called, waiting until the two werewolves turned back around before continuing, "We need to work together on this.. Maybe even tell the Argents-"

"You trust them?" Derek asked in disbelief, his eyes flicking over to level Amber with a knowing look.

"Are.. Are you kidding?" She asked incredulously, voice rising, "Derek, nobody trusts anyone. That's kind of the whole problem!" She finally snapped, looking between her best friends and the older werewolf with wild eyes as her irritation peaked, "You don't trust them. They don't trust you.. And then, while we're all dicking around, wasting time arguing about who's on what side, there's something scarier, stronger, and faster than any of you and- And it's actually killing people!" She yelled, "And after all this, we still don't even know anything about it because we can't read the fucking book!"

Stiles and Scott had each dropped a hand onto her shoulders at some point during her rant and they pulled her back from where she'd absentmindedly taken a few small steps forward.

"I know one thing," Derek told her darkly as he began to lead Erica away again, "When I find it, I'm gonna kill it."

[qsphyxias]

ꜱʜᴀᴍᴇꜰᴜʟ, ᴘᴀʀᴋᴇʀ! ꜱʜᴀᴍᴇꜰᴜʟ!

if you fetishize mlm/nblm relationships, get the fuck out of here!

synopsis ; you + pete are dating, and you're about to have the house all to yourselves— but peter has to wait to do so, and he gets impatient. basically.

warnings ; m! reader (he/him), cussing, suggestive, a bit unorganized, unedited so probably typos, you have parents (lol he doesn't), also tom's spiderman

note ; this was going to go so much more different than i wanted it to!! i wanted it to be like peter was texting you and he was outside your window and like, frustrated bc he did not know if you liked him, and then you told him to come over or something and idk WHAT IS THIS . inspidered by the song below

words ; 1.2k +

⊱ ───── {⋅𝕝𝕚𝕜𝕖 𝕠𝕣 𝕝𝕚𝕜𝕖 𝕝𝕚𝕜𝕖 - 𝕞𝕚𝕟𝕚𝕒𝕥𝕦𝕣𝕖 𝕥𝕚𝕘𝕖𝕣𝕤⋅} ───── ⊰

It was a nice, warm winter evening— or at least, it felt warm to Peter considering how much he was sweating that day. With a disgruntled string of curses, Peter whipped out his phone as he balanced himself on a lamp post, ready to text Ned and ask him if he remembered how to turn on the air conditioning in his suit.

Despite the gross feeling of his suit sticking to his thighs and pits, Peter continued to hesitate on sending that shameful text message. Not because it was the middle of December, or how Peter could not (or would not) tell Ned the very irrational reason why he needed those puffs of air in his suit— no, it was because of love, that's why! That's why he was sitting on a lamppost, worriedly watching you outside your house awaiting your incoming text message.

"God, I sound like an idiot. Oh god, I probably look like an idiot too." Peter grumbled, with his hands resting on his face and fingers set strategically, so he'd still be able to see through them, and into your bedroom window. Not creepy at all, no.

Before you harshly judge Peter's actions, (and rightfully so,) let it be known why he was doing it in the first place!

Just a couple of minutes ago, you two were texting (passionately)—as hormonal teenage boys do—until all of a sudden, you sent the following;

"My parents are about to leave to go check out some real estate property. They probably won't be back until 10 PM, at the earliest— wanna come over? I've gotta beat someone at Smash Bros."

What!? Peter was ecstatic, he was just about ready to go—having already slung on his pants and T-shirt with his webbing with one hand as he watched his phone screen with the other, like a hawk.

"Oh but, maybe wait a couple of minutes because my mom lost her phone and she'll probably take a few. I'll get you back with an update."

Nooooooooooo!

Oh, you. You... Evil, teasing, handsome, mischievous, terrifying you. If only you knew what you had just unleashed.

Despite your friendly reminder that Peter had to wait before he could smash you- I mean, play Smash with you, he did not care. Instead, he decided that a couple of minutes in the cold, waiting outside your room would be nothing to the spectacular Spider-man.

Also, because he made a giant webby mess in his room and he did not want to be home when Aunt May sees it.

And now we're back here; back to Peter sitting and waiting out on a lamppost, alone, and sweaty in the cold—which was ironic because he thought that his major problem of today would be the weather, not his hormones. He thought the latter would come easy, and oh boy, to say it did not.

"Ugh, come on S/o's mom! Find your damn phone already!" Peter moped as he watched your mom roam your room, searching for her phone helplessly—

—until, he saw it.

Her phone! Peter near jumped off the lamp post to try and catch your attention and point at the phone resting on the window sill, until he luckily realized that that was not a good idea.

Instead, Pete opted for whipping his phone out, texting furiously with his cold, but clammy fingers. "S/O!!! TELL YOUR MOM TO CHECK ON YOUR WINDOW SILL!!!!"

Wait, no, try again.

"Hey, you know I lost my phone last week and I actually ended up finding it on my window sill hahah, maybe check there?"

Nice and smooth.

Peter internally high-fived himself as he watched you pick up your phone from his angle. Followed by your sudden diversion of your attention to your window, then your gasp, and then your funny reaction of rapidly pointing at your window sill like a crazy person, where your mom's phone rested. With a relieved smile, your mom kissed you on your cheek and waved you goodbye, to which you turned red and—to Peter's dismay—closed the curtains. Gee, looks like you really hoped no one saw that exchange of mom kisses.

"Fuck!" Well this sucks. Now Peter can't watch you from your window like a— Ding!

A notification from you! Hooray! Who cares about the window, now he'll get to see the real thing!

"Thanks for the tip, bro! turns out her phone was in the exact location you just sent me— isn't that funny? Anyway, she's leaving soon, so you should probably start getting ready to leave."

Peter sighed, "If only he knew."

The familiar sound of an engine revving up caused Peter to perk up, now paying attention to the car that just pulled out your driveway which could be no other than your parents. Mission complete, Peter could now take action and tame his hormonal tendencies.

"All clear!" You quickly sent him, thinking there was no possible way he was as excited as you were-

Until a knock interrupted your thoughts.

You opened the door, shocked at the sweaty man you saw before you. "Peter?"

"Hi." With a smile like that, you could never have known he had just stripped himself naked and stuffed his suit into his backpack in seconds flat, prior to meeting you.

"But I just sent you the message? How did you get here so fast?" You laughed exasperatedly, ushering him in quickly before your parents could come back and kick him out.

"Love... finds a way?" He chuckled awkwardly, hoping he wouldn't have to explain his stalker-ish tendencies.

You could only shake your head, and laugh as you wasted no more time to pounce on him, letting him pick you up and bring you to the room he was just staring into not long ago. "Wow, strong too." You commented, to which he reacted bashfully.

You patted him on the arm, signalling your desire to descend from the soft pillows Pete calls his biceps. "Okay, this is getting demeaning— put me down."

The bed gave a good tiny bounce as you both settled onto the bed, with you getting comfortable just sitting on his chest. ""Love finds a way," huh?" Peter could only shrug, "Yup." not wanting to say anymore.

"So you love me?" You paraphrased his once thought-through quote, and replaced it with "disastrous gay blurbs."

"Love? Oh, did I say love?- I just meant- I mean, if you want- but I thought we were at the "like-like" stage? But I mean, if you're uncomfortable I can totally just-"

You interrupted him with a cackle, "Like-like stage? You did not just say that." A deadpan expression rested upon your features, something that screamed, "You are better than that." —causing Peter to flush even more than before. "Shut up." He muttered dejectedly, flopping face-first into your pillows. "I thought you were actually offended!" his words were muffled, but the true embarrassment laced in his words still came through.

In your defence, "I was!"

"No, you weren't," Peter corrected, "No, I wasn't." You repeated.

"You're mean." He stated, getting up from his fetal position and throwing one of your pillows at you. "But you love me." You reminded, a shit-eating grin decorating your features, laughing before getting a mouthful of pillow and suddenly, not laughing anymore.

"Correction, I "like-like" you." Peter climbed on top of you, you who had been pillow-beaten to death. "Ugh, back to the "like-like" stage, so much worse than the bro stage!" You feigned despair, a ghost of a smile still peaking through your grimace.

It only took seconds for Peter to make the decision he usually has trouble with— the decision to kiss you.

And let's just say, thank god your parents decided to overnight it at the real estate building.

⊱───── ❝ thank you for reading! ❞ ─────⊰

[virgincels]

UR JUST LIKE ME CHERRY MONSTER DESIGN IS MY FAVE PART! I haven’t played funger what are your fave designs from it :3

umm this is going to be a long post …. sorry I get excited talking ab monster design and can’t really pick favourites with funger :3 sorry for yapping so much I got so excited ALSO tw for like weird little freaks idk they’re not that scary but just a little weird looking also I spoil some of the game sorry 😭

obvi I love crow mauler bc he’s directly inspired by pyramid head :3 I love his two headed form even more. honestly not a terrifying boss once u have a full team and a red vial to blind him..

I adore the first few phases of the god of fear and hunger and I love her transition from like a sort of Greek bust to an icon of sorts? like a statuette I really am so in love w the first form tho where she’s just a woman ugh it makes me so sad knowing what the girl has been through

a few general enemies I love from funger 1 the harvestman and uterus being directly inspired by nirvana is so cool.. I also just love gross and awful the harvestman is and im also obsessed w the idea of like mothers n monsters so I love uterus

same for the cave mother.. I love how she’s just feeding her babies I love that you have to cut her tits off I love.. her she’s gorgeous and I love how she’s made of stone omg the angel I love bc of the exposed heart! and I love the night lurch bc he’s hot sorry

termina enemies taking on like a more steampunk kind of direction is so fun to me :3 the village in funger has always reminded me of resident evil 4! same sort of concept really the mobs chase u around and then like dr Salvador the chainsaw man in re4 there’s a dude with a meat grinder lmfao. I mean funger heavily is inspired by other games bc the healing system in itself is totally ripped from re bc red herb green herb blue herb duh I think it’s so fun ack..

I LOVE VILE I have a thing for masks and the pig mask is so fucking cool also he’s so HUGE compared to the rest of the villagers it’s so hot

i adore stitches she’s beautiful to me and the reference to human centipede with her like mass of flesh that she adds you to is so cool.. also her being Elise adds so many layers to it bc daan seeing her face on that body ugh.. and needles being inspired by terrifier and also being stitches dad technically.. honestly needles is an easy feat once u have a strong enough team

rancid is so fucking cool. I love his spears I love his design so bad.. pocket cat is so cute hes such a gentleman I love him no one could make me hate him despite his creepiness .. sylvian trooper is here bc sexy bondage idk

KAISER… MY ALL TIME FAVE.. my princess hes everything 2 me actually .. I adore legarde so ofc I love Kaiser !! his rot form is also gorgeous I think it’s such a cool take on his yellow king form? like ugh idk he’s gorgeous. perkele being the actual villain is funny I also just love the feathers and hat and legs it’s cunty and the heartless one is so gorgeous the wings and the hair i love ..

Olivia’s moonscorch is very terrifying to me ? she’s so scary to play against and the way she fucking is just a hollow piece of metal makes me so sad knowing how Olivia’s story goes ack.. something ab how empty it is compared to the rest of the moonscorches yah.. KARINS IS MY FAVE it’s gorgeous she’s also the character who I main so im biased but the fact she references the word Valkyrie and then turns into one is so cool.. like ack

cocoon is just so cool.. Marina has been controlled and hidden all her life so the same happens in death .. also love the twisted limbs . THE GENTLEMAN I am so into him he’s so big and handsome to me I want to have sex with him but I am biased bc henryk is a blonde boy with similar hair to leon and I want him. chaugnar being how abella feels ab herself makes me sad.. poor baby also inspired by a Lovecraft creation. um her being as strong as a boss is so cool and the fact she never really dies? I adore abella that’s why I save her and not henryk bc god why would I want to deal w chaugnar

[phoenixkaptain]

If you're taking prompts, could you write something about Tim being the most spiteful, feral teenager ever and the rest of his family wondering why the hell everyone presumes he's the sweet, well behaved one?

This isn’t precisely what you requested, but I did have an idea of something similar a little while ago! Only, it’s Tim being terrifying and everyone in his family realizing it, but Tim not understanding what they’re talking about.

I never finished it entirely, but I’ll share the opener, since I think it has the vibe:

Tim felt like he was perpetually exhausted. He’d felt this way since he was three-years-old and trying to work out the confusing mess of emotions that came with watching two people die the first time he went to the circus. His parents offered no support. In fact, they seemed to believe he would just get over it on his own.

Really, and people wondered why he became Robin. As though he was normal. Ugh.

The exhaustion had only gotten worse over the years. With every problem he solved, more anxieties crept into his mind, poisoning his thoughts. He couldn’t sleep unless he passed out. He could barely breathe when he saw any of his so-called “siblings.” Ra’s Al Ghul was still sending him thinly veiled threats, or maybe they were abnormal declarations of affection? Bruce seemed to think so.

Anyway, Tim was tired. There were times when he wasn’t, of course. There were times when he fought alongside Kon and Bart and Cassie, just like old times, and they all devolved into acting like fifteen-year-olds. Fighting criminals still gave him a sense of living, something he intellectually knew was adrenaline but also didn’t care. There was the thrill of a case solved, a plan gone correctly, his teammates working in harmony with him.

He probably should’ve been worried about it all. The only times he felt alive were when he was in mortal danger, after all. But, he’d come to accept that he might’ve lost a few screws when he let Ra’s Al Ghul kick him out of a building without full-proof backup. Even before then, really. He kinda tuned into it when he realized that he was trying to pull a mad scientist and clone his best friend.

Tim was very aware of himself. He could be suave and charming, but he was mostly a perpetually slouching young man with his hair grown out and his clothes mostly being stolen from his friends. He could keep up his poker face all the way to his death. He could lie to Batman. He faced death every evening and ran towards it.

He still remembered when Kon muttered that he was creepy. Tim still maintained that Kon shouldn’t have gotten distracted to the point that he didn’t notice Tim’s presence until Tim was right in front of him. Kon retorted that he had been eating cereal at the Kents’ farmhouse and that Tim shouldn’t have dramatically appeared from a shadowy corner. Tim told him that if they didn’t want people to dramatically emerge from a shadowy corner, they shouldn’t have any shadowy corners to begin with. Kon asked if Tim thought the Kents could afford lamps to put in all the corners of their house. Bart told them to stop arguing because even he wasn’t capable of following their leaps of logic.

Tim didn’t believe he was scary. Not like Batman or Nightwing (Nightwing was occasionally scary… when Dick felt like being so). Definitely not on Red Hood’s level, because Tim would have to be a criminal to be on Red Hood’s level. He was criminally disadvantaged when it came to comparing himself to Robin because Robin carried around swords. Oracle was a force of pure evil when angered. Black Bat was just scary in general.

Honestly, compared to anyone else in Gotham, Tim believed he was the one rogues worried about the least. He hardly ever went out, honestly, so they probably all forgot about him.

(There were some rumours, spread amongst the criminal underground, that there was a Gotham vigilante who was never caught on camera. Who was impossible to see coming and even more difficult to keep track of. Rumours said this vigilante wasn’t human, was metahuman or worse. They said the vigilante must’ve fallen in battle, because the vigilante suddenly reappeared like a demon, attacking ruthlessly and yet… Still no images of him. The rumours said he was a ghost, a vampire, or maybe even a demon.

Tim figured they were just being dramatic and told Dick to stop telling him about weird things that didn’t relate to anything. He’d asked if Dick knew why Hood kept laughing at him every time Tim saw him recently, not if Dick knew any fairy tales among criminals. Dick had stared at him blankly for a long time, then turned on his heel and left. Tim wondered if it was a bonding tactic. He wondered why Dick thought he needed to use bonding tactics on him. Tim was pretty sure any extra bonding was just overdoing it.)

Tim didn’t think much of himself in general, but in comparison to the other vigilantes in Gotham? There was no way he held even a candle to them.

Or, at least, he assumed.

[bizzybkd]

The Walk Home

~ Itto x Reader ~ Pt. 2 (Fluffy, Slow Burn)

(Read Pt. 1 here!)

~~~~

I watched in slight awe of the man before me, enjoying the second meal i’d prepared for him which i had triple checked to make sure none of my bean like or based ingredients were in it i could only terrify myself with the idea of going out of business over a customer losing his life from my cooking.

he seemed ecstatic once again when i’d brought it out, his mouth practically drooling as he gripped his chopsticks from the previous bowl. i could already see half the bowl gone once id set it down on the counter. i had to fight back the grin as to keep up the “not so creepy restaurant owner” persona i used for business.

this time, with not so many eyes on me and an interest in the person who seemed to be so important (self proclaimed or otherwise) and let alone not even human who’d come to my shop. hugging my tray to my chest and ignoring the slight heat radiating from the spot the ramen bowl was on, tilted my head to get a better view of his face.

what i could see of it anyway, he was so busy stuffing it, it wasn’t until most of the bowl was gone and he had to pick something from his teeth that he noticed me.

“Ah! sorry, i totally didn’t see you there, this ramen is just.. ugh! it’s so good!” he grunted with a smile and a laugh, once again lifting the bowl and tilting back his head.

i swore i must check the quality of my bowls once he leaves i could hear the cracking and shaving of the porcelain.

i didn’t bother responding, continuing my people watch as i found my eyes drawn to his throat, the rapid movement of him swallowing the broth and whatever else was left into his gullet. it was impressive, almost scary, but i figured him not being human was the cause of that.

i scanned the rest of his body from what i could see from behind the counter, his toned figure down to the markings on his body and where they led. i wondered if his entire body was as toned as his upper half seemed. i wondered if he had tan lines from his clothing, it was obvious he was out and about a lot, and judging by the slight dirt stains along us arms, the shoulders and back of his clothes, i assumed he was one to be outdoors.

but, due to a lack of awareness and a quickly rising interest in him, i hadn’t noticed him watching me, same as he hadn’t noticed me before this.

i let out a small yelp in realization, looking up at his face as “be professional! be professional! BE PROFESSIONAL!” rang like alarm bells in my head. but seeing as i’d been caught there was no real way to deny it now.

“I am so sorry, i promise i don’t usually stare i’ve just never seen someone enjoy my food as much as you seem to.” i said slightly shakily, a little worried that i had offended him with my staring.

he rose a brow with a smirk, putting his chopsticks in his bowl and stretching up his arms behind his head, his mouth curling up into a content smile from the stretch.

“no need to apologize i know my presence can be star stuckening.. or is star strikening… star striking? whatever it is you like what you see.” he teased, earning a slightly less friendly smile from me but a smile nonetheless.

“i must admit you are very interesting, Itto, what are you if that’s okay to ask? i don’t mean to offend.”

“Oh!” he seemed surprised if even asked such a question. “well i’m an oni! arataki numero uno itto, the one and oni of course. i’m a red oni to be specific.”

“an oni? a full blooded oni? that’s incredible! excuse my ignorance but i thought that oni’s had.. y’know.. died out a while ago. i’ve never met or heard of one before.” i placed down my tray, walking closer to the counter to be more in tune with their conversation.

he seemed taken aback by my approach, leaning back from the counter as a result as he shrugged.

“nah! sure i mean there definitely aren’t as many but it’s not like there aren’t ANY left, i mean you’re looking at one!” he laughed, crossing his arms over his chest. “i was raised by my granny so i learned a lot about humans growing up, it’s why im such a hot shot with—“

suddenly, heavy, metal rattling footsteps could be heard from atop the wall that had the main roadway on the top, the Hatamoto guards making their rounds. they’d come every other hour or so, depending on the day. just walking around looking at different people who they found in the streets of the city.

but when the same man who had been busy bragging about his awe installing reputation practically leaped over my counter onto my side, grab my face with both hands with one over my mouth and the other at the back of my head, pull me down behind the counter with my back to his chest and sitting between his legs, i couldn’t tell if this would be my death bed or my next bleaching area.

my gasp was muffled by the sudden large hand over my mouth, smelling of dirt and slightly too fragranced soap which i assumed was used to try and get rid of the dirt smell. didn’t work well.

he held me close to him, his head facing the top of the counter as if he was listening for something. although, i couldnt really process what he could be listening for because i could barely process the fact a man i knew nothing of was currently holding me down and covering my mouth.

was it the guards? was he trying to avoid them? was he a fugitive? did he commit some heinous crime that they were going to throw him in prison for? would i be considered his accomllice simply for giving him the meal he paid for and having him hiding in my shop?

so many thoughts ran through my head until the sound of his soft laughter filled my ears, turning my head the little i could to look up at him and find his head hung, his nose practically in my hair as he laughed. my chest heaved with every breath, adrenaline slowly subsiding as it turned into confused anger. why was he touching me like this?!

i almost bit his hand before he removed it himself with a small gasp.

"oh gosh, i am so so sorry, i should've said something before i dragged you down," he said, his hands behind him at his sides as he looke down at me.

I turned my upper body to look up at him, realizing just how large he was, even if he was sitting down. then again, he seemed bigger close up with me sitting between his legs.

"you.. why did you.. GUARDS--"

"Hey! shhh!!" he slapped another hand to my mouth and held a finger to his lips, a slightly pleading look in his eye as he once again checked above him, his ears seeming to droop a bit when the heavy footsteps got louder, approaching the shop.

"please please i promise ill explain if you just tell them in not here," he quietly pleaded, his hand slowly coming off my mouth. "i swear on my oni blood that i will just please.. dont tell them im here." he repeated, clasping his hands together. his eyes became fuller, as if a cat's.

ugh.. i hate that it worked.

i stood up on my feet, finding two guards walking down my walkway up to my shop. itto sat by my legs, looking up at me as i talked to the guards. i could feel him lean against my leg, his cheek pressing against my thigh as his hand placed itself on the ground between my legs.

the conversation was short, the guards saying they heard a voice down here and came to investigate, and proceeding to ask if i had seen an oni that fit the description of itto a bit too well. with a knot in my throat i shook my head to tell them i hadnt. i couldnt remember the last time i had lied, not to a friend, not to a professor, not even my own parents. so lying to the authorities made my stomach churn and i could only pray that the guards wouldnt take notice of my nervous demeanor.

they didn't, and with a simply thank you and one taking a menu for what i assumed to be futher notice, walked away, so did the rest of the guards down the road until their steps became faint and then nonexistent.

i exhaled as heavy as a marathon running danuki. a hand over my chest as i felt the weight on my thigh remove itself and said weight stand to his full height.

"haha! phew that was a close one, i really owe you one i cant thank you eno... oh." he said, cutting himself off as i looked up at him clearly distraught.

"i suggest you get to explaining. im not above running to go get them back and say i found you squatting in my kitchen by the radishes and carrots."

"no! no! ill tell you, i swear im not a criminal and im not a robber, stealer, kidnapper, murderer or anything! i just might of uh.. set off my collection of onikabuto on the training ground of the Hatamoto guards and uh.. may have caused a bit of damage." he let out a sheepish chuckle as if that would entirely explain everything.

"... so youre just trying to get away from accountability." I replied, leaning my weight on the counter with my arms crossed. he released another sigh.

"of course not, well i mean i run from them a lot cuz theres apparently a bunch of different laws the shogun put in place that id never even heard of before until i broke them but the real reason is because that woman that was here a little while ago, shinobu? yeah shes tired of paying my bail so i promised id never get caught again! and well.. im not!"

he flashed that damned grin that i was starting to think he knew the effect of the entire time again, making me groan as i shook my head.

"well if thats your story then i guess.. but this is a one time thing im not gonna put myself or my business in danger because you want to be reckless!" i scolded him, as if i hadnt met him not even two hours ago.

he hung his head in defeat and nodded, accpeting the scolding and effectively dropping the topic.

he found his way back to the other side of the counter, sitting himself down as we continued to chat while i got another customer or two. soon, closing time rolled around and although itto had realized he'd not only the meeting shinobu had tried to remind him to show up to, but as the sun set and i told him i needed to close, he refused to leave until he "used his oni ability to make sure i got home safe! the owner of such a delicious ramen shop needed the utmost protection of course."

i was too entertained to say no.

closing time took a lot less time than it usually did, with itto's help of course. new crates were put safely in storage and any unused ingredients were either trashed or put back into storage. the bowls which did in fact have a few tiny insignificant fractures in them were cleaned. the counters and floors were wiped and swept and every door and lock (that could be anyway) was locked. i noticed the oni stare particularly hard at the rusted lock on the main door, but figured he was simply asking why i even had it still, which i often asked myself at times.

then came the treck home, walking home was a little more pleasant than that of the walk to the shop in the morning. the many monsters and creatures a like found sweet slumber in the blanket of midnight air. the moon illuminating all of what would need to see to walk peacefully.

the walk was silent at first, only the mismatched footsteps of us both as he struggled to keep at pace with me. his stride allowed him much more room to walk ahead, along with his obvious leg muscle which i could only imagine meant how far and fast he could run when it counted.

i started to notice how he'd always end up a few steps ahead of behind him, his tongue sticking out from his tightly pressed lips as he stared at my shoes, seemingly trying to match my speed and stride, although that was obviously a bit uncomfortable for him as he could barely pull his shoes apart from hitting one another in every step.

"what are you doing?" i asked with a soft laugh, admiring his focus.

"trying to walk with you." he replied matter of factly, still keeping his eyes on my shoes.

"but youre already walking with me."

"i mean walk in sync! like everytime your foot steps down so does mine. here," he put out an arm in front of me, stopping me from walking as i looked down at it in front of me, then running my eyes up to his shoulder. were the veins always there? i surely couldnt have missed them if they were.

"just wait a second, here," he removed his arm and held onto my shoulder, pulling me closer as he tapped my left thigh, telling me to take a step, to which he did the same.

he then tapped my right thigh and so on, sending me into a laughing fit from how articulated he was being compared to what he seemed to have been doing just a few hours ago.

"hey dont laugh! walking in sync is fun once you get the hang of it!" he chuckled, his hands on his hips and a smirk on his face as he shook his head.

another 20 minutes of laughing and joking about whatever came up, it almost saddened me as we reached my front door step.

"thank you for walking me home, itto, and for helping me close up the shop." i finally said, accepting the day was over, and i couldnt wait to get in the shower and wash the day's efforts off my skin.

itto smiled and took a step back, bowing with a smirk and a hand at his stomach. "my pleasure, m'lady! it was definitly worth the fright of having a mouse scatter across my foot."

i shrieked, jumping as i looked along the ground, itto letting out belting laughs as he held his stomach. i tossed a pebble at his horn and rolled my eyes, turning to my house. "good night, arataki itto." i smiled, waving as he stood up with a cheerful wave.

"good night!" he called, and with a small pep in his step, got a full ten steps from my door before he fell to his knees, only imagining how upset shinobu could be when he went back for missing the meeting. hopefully it wasnt anything toooo important.

[orbitaldeathwoomy]

[A few days later...]

"Hey, Urs... Are you feeling alright? You've seemed kind of off since the other day."

"It's nothing. I just thought I saw someone following me when I was on my way home from the Turf War lobby."

"Ugh, that's so creepy. If it happens again, let me know okay? I'll make sure whoever it was stops."

"Thank you for your concern, but--"

[Suddenly, there's a knock at their door. Ursula gets up to answer it, looking through the eyehole on the door... And immediately takes a few steps back, eyes wide and heart pounding.]

「N-No... It can't be...」

「Ursula? What's wrong?」

「It's my... my parents...」

「What? Really?」

[Kori gently moves between Ursula and the door and looks through the eyehole. Sure enough, there are two older Octolings standing outside -- a woman with hot pink tentacles and a beautiful face, and a man with blue rings spotting his deep purple tentacles. She can definitely see the resemblance between them and Ursula. Her voice then lowers to a whisper.]

「Okay... Okay. Let's just. Not answer it. Maybe they'll leave if they think we're not home.」

[She then moves to lead the terrified Ursula to her bedroom.. Until their door is literally kicked open.]

「Hey! The hell do you think you're doing?!」

[The two ignore Kori completely, their focus on Ursula as they approach her.]

「So this is where you've been.」

[Ursula nervously nods.]

「And your brother?」

[Ursula remains silent, much to the ire of her father. He forcefully grabs her, digging his venomous claws into her arm.]

「Answer me when I'm talking to you, traitor!」

[He slaps Ursula across the face hard, before pushing her to the floor.]

"U-Ursula!"

「Now tell me where your brother is.」

「I... I haven't seen him since I last visited Inkopolis.」

「And where exactly did you see him?」

「Like that's any of your--」

[Ursula shakes her head at Kori, effectively silencing the yellow Octoling before she hangs her head a little.]

「There's... a sweets shop he frequents, near the plaza...」

「Good girl.」

[Ursula's mother then gestures for her husband to follow her out the door, only looking back to give Ursula a wicked smile.]

「Don't get too comfortable. Once we've given him his just desserts, we're coming back for you.」

[Ursula's parents exit the apartment, leaving Ursula and Kori stunned in their wake. After a moment, Ursula shakily stands up and makes her way to the table where she left her cell phone.]

"Wait, you're father's a blue-ringed, right? We need to get you to a hospital!"

"I'll be fine. But I... I need to warn my brother..."

[katutsukushii]

Giran 📁?

i love love LOVE giran !!!! he's such a creepy nasty old man, ugh i love him.

but okay fic idea:

abused katsuki who runs away from home. attacked on the streets constantly. just so much pain and he can barely function as a normal person. he's so jumpy, terrified of everything and anything.

and giran who's there with him after and during every panic attack, using his quirk on him to make him forget, at least for a minute.

[edoro]

May I ask for your extremely normal thoughts on this episode?

takes a deep breath

dissolves into a screaming puddle of goo

things i am Extremely Normal About:

-Philip's continuing obsession with Luz

-the way her insulting his fashion sense clearly GENUINELY HURT HIS FEELINGS? oh my godddd bro she is not your friend she doesn't LIKE you but that's not gonna stop him

-the way he irritatedly corrects her from 'emperor of the witch hunters' to 'witch-hunter general' this man is such a bitch and also just SO deep in his own twisted little game of make-believe like. just really zero concept of what's going on here for real.

-he is so obsessed with her it's so fucking creepy. the way that it was her crying and begging while saying his Real Name that got him to agree with her? oh my god, Philip, dude.

-the way he just unleashed 300 years of barely restrained Bitch Energy on Kiki in one moment of nuclear weapons-grade cruelty because he's tired of being nice and he DOES want to go apeshit and it like visibly immediately improved his entire demeanor, there's not even anything physically wrong with him actually he is literally just such a bitch that the sheer effort of holding it back for that long caused him to experience the symptoms of every disease ever

-GRANDPA BODY HORROR GRANDPA BODY HORROR

-"Hunter why are you hurting me :(" shut the entire fuck up oh my god i'm going to put this old man in tupperware and leave him in the back of the fridge for a year

-Caleb name reveal + ABSOLUTE BATSHIT FREAKOUT GRANDPA BODY HORROR

-the Collector is genuinely fucking terrifying. immortal godchild kidthing with unspeakable cosmic powers and 0 concept of morality or that other people are real or can be hurt or that his actions have consequences. i love him so much. genuinely so much more frightening than Philip's banal malice tbh.

-the Collector is So Fucking Traumatized this kid is so fucked up holy shit they are NOT okay. cannot imagine what the last 300+ years of having no one but Philip "molestation Georg*" Wittebane for company has done to them

(*lives in a cave and has groomed or attempted to groom every child he's ever met jesus FUCKING christ someone put this man in a jar and put the jar in a lead-lined box at the bottom of the sea)

-The Collector Is My Sonthing Now. yes he has done everything wrong ever no i don't care.

-EVIL BODY HORROR GRANDPA GETTING TWIRLED UP LIKE A FORKFUL OF SPAGHETTI AND THEN SPLORCHED. "i'm not even mad tho" man he knew he had fucked up, i love how we finally got to see Philip Experiencing A Consequence

-obsessed with how brutal and unceremonious that was tbh. like. i was just sitting there like Is He Actually Fucking Dead. Is That How They Disposed Of Philip. Oh My God. everyone else watching in utter horror because that was incredibly fucked up. the way Hunter was crying about it because That Was His (evil and unspeakably abusive sure but still) Uncle and that's so fucked up for him to have to see. his hesitance in stepping in the goop puddle. the malicious goo dribble ugh ugh ugh Leave Him Alone Philip Please.

-GOO GRANDPA IN THE HUMAN REALM WHAT CRIMES WILL HE COMMIT

-i love Raine ripping off Eda's arm. i feel like, you know the bit where Darius stopped fighting bc Healing Coven Head was about to kill Eberwolf? i think Raine would have done the math on how quick they could get the replacement Beastkeeping Coven Head up there now that it was all underway and Belos was gone vs how much longer til the eclipse was over and decided they could bear that moral weight on their conscience forever if it meant they and everyone else lived to see the end of this

-GUS? CRYING?? THE WAY HUNTER WAS PROTECTIVELY HOLDING HIM? THEY MEAN SO MUCH TO ME AUUUUGH

-SNEAKY KIKI SNEAKY KIKI god i love her she's so horrible and so good and i simply adore her

-the pit of like DOZENS OF MURDERED GOLDEN GUARDS okay. what is WRONG with Philip like what happened to his brain to make him this way.

-the way they left Alador behind like he was going to Divert The Horde in a zombie movie LMAO it's okay Amity. it's better this way. now you can pretend he would have been a good dad instead of having to live with the ongoing realization that even his best would be crushingly mediocre.

-Alador trying to hit Hunter with the "loyal soldier of the Emperor" accusation and then trying to dad voice him immediately afterwards when that doesn't work. sir. pick one. also lmao love the Shit Dad Driving Experience. terrible driver gets mad when you point it out and actively endangers all of you because now he's distracted yelling at you. his Shit Dad Energies are just so huge, i love it.

-i'm just obsessed with Philip and the Collector oh my god. horror horror horror. there is so much wrong with both of them and they're so fucked up together jfc. never going to get over it.

-it took me literally four hours to watch the episode.

[starlightshadowsworld]

Danganronpa 3 Despair arc episode 7

Thonks

Oh so we're just gonna jump immediately into last time, which was Junko running into Ryota.

And interrogating him now.

Never thought I'd here Junko Enoshima utter the word weeb and yet here we are.

Rude, animators deserve more recognition and stuff.

The irony of an anime character going on a rant about how important anime is.

To another anime character who doesn't like anime.

The fourth wall is taking some hits this episode.

Wasn't expecting him to than show her his project.

And than for to cry.

I love how they had to include a *This is her personal opinion* note as Junko wacks down a bunch of manga with a bat.

Mukuro crying face was legitimately terrifying tho.

Oh no, don't tell Junko how to influence anyone's brains with subliminal messaging.

... Or with anything.

I thought this was just a bit but nope... This is bad... Oh no.

I'm gonna be saying that a lot aren't I.

This is what I get for wondering what Ryota was doing during all of this, because while apart of the 77th class, he's not apart of the killing game or the Remnants.

But he's part of the Future Foundation.

I am concerned about the casual conversation about using media to brainwash people and than Ryota ends it with making the world a better place.

And her smile, oh he is so gonna be a tool for destruction.

Aaannnd Gundam is doing poses with a bear.

Love to see it.

Nagito's still suspended... And was in a plane crash and ended up a deserted island.

Typical Nagito things.

.... Didn't need to see him showering in a waterfall...

And of course straight after that is Teruteru putting a banana through a donut.

I gotta hand it to these guys they really embodied high schoolers.

Gundam saying silence you perverts as a bear chomps on their hands, the best response.

And Ryota's been missing for a week.

I'm sure Junko had nothing to do with that.

Ugh Juzo's here.

Just when I had my hopes up I wouldn't have to deal with him for a while.

But fine, what you gotta say.

... Oh 20 staff members have gone missing... Nevermind that is important.

Juzo, you are the dangerous people. Maybe not specifically these dangerous people, but you do be dangerous.

.... Chisa why would you wanna lay your life down for Munakata?

Literally.... Why?

"Don't let emotions infer with the job you're here to do."

Those are bold words for you of all people to utter, Mr I damn near beat Hajime into a coma.

Get off you're high horse.

Ryota I get what you mean by the new equipment is great but you're always alone, how are you more alone here?

What cos Twogami ain't here to make sure your still alive?

Rude.

Mukuro casually kidnapping Mikan.

Typical day for both of them.

Given how Mikan... Talks about Junko... I am not looking forward to this.

Junko's analyse face is disturbing.

So she was able to, on the second watch figure out how the brainwashing works... Wow.

No yeah, ultimate analyst makes sense.

Oh look it's Izuru.

And she asked him out.

I don't ship it.

OH! I should've seen that coming but nope.

Just bodies hitting the ground, and the bloods pink again.

I guess that would be her version of a date, and Junko's the one doing the killing.

Which is somehow more terrifying

She's usually the woman in the chair, but seeing Junko be the one actively killing and torturing people is creepy.

I dunno if I've mentioned it before but I like Izuru's voice because it very much sounds like if someone had their soul drained out.

And it sounds similar to Hajime's but also not.

... Oh... Oh no...

There's kids in the classroom....and she wants to show Izuru despair on a bigger scale.

The student council too... Not just some random students.

Wait.

I had heard there were other killing games, or at the very least the 78th class wasn't the first.

So this is the first killing game... Ohh that is good.

Man the guy telling everyone to calm sounds so much like Ishimaru in both the sound of his voice and his words.

This is so much scarier than any killing game shown in the games... Holyshit Mukuro just shot a student and went you don't fall in line and do the same you'll end up like her.

No crazy executions.

No class trial.

No Monokuma.

This is terrifying.

Well at least we still have the motive videos.

Mukuro singing while this goes on is just yeah sure.

And it just keeps going... Fuck.

Also it can't be a coincidence that some of these kids loosely resemble the 78th class

I love that the chainsaw says Jason Freddy.

And the fact the last one manager to graze Izuru's cheek.

Typical hopes peak wanting to cover it up, even though Jin does want to say something.

Huh I wonder if that guy stuck with Kirigiri in the present because her father asked him to keep an eye on her if something happened to him.

Junko exposing the whole Kamakura project and the student council massacre.

And using Izuru as the scapegoat.

Clever.

So now the reserve course is coming for the main school.

"Where did you go Hinata?"

Oh erm... You don't wanna know Chiaki.

Trust me on that.

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

God Steve is so fucking creepy

I wouldn’t be surprised if he like planted cameras in poppys house and just stared at her doing the most mundane things

She’s like chopping a leak and he’s like ugh wife

She's doing a cross stitch and he's like wow absolutely perfect. Such a simple man and yet terrifying.