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streets-in-paradise · 1 year

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Hope - Clay Miller x Reader

Friday 13th (2009) Oneshot

Warnings: Some cringy dialogue ( let's face it,the group are all cringy stereotypes lol). Allusions to Jason's story and some grim warnings regarding him. I'm also expanding the new rule introduced in the 2009 film, where sense of familiarity with his past not only distracted him but also made him spare a life for a while.

Summary: You are the only person who has given Clay any hope on the desperate search for his sister. Unlike most of the locals he had approached, some mysterious reason keeps you convinced that she could still be alive and on this determination you join forces with him.

Nobody else seems to mind about it and when the blatant disrespect from a tourist really pisses you off, you stand up for Clay giving him a frightening show exposing why he should care.

Tags: @drum-bot-brian

It was weird for Clay to find a self presented volunteer when the entire community was ignoring him, but when you approached him with the missing poster in hand offering your help he felt slightly relieved. At least he wasn’t completely alone and although you were a bit odd, you had a strong will to support him. Looking at Whitney’s picture, you simply stated that she looked like a sweet girl and that could possibly mean she could still be around. When asked about it, you acted as if some intuition based on practical knowledge would be telling you that. You wouldn’t tell him why, but you were convinced that she was still to be found.

Of course, it was not going to be easy and the shitty attitudes you would find in the way were unnerving. The handsome, soft tempered boy you were following had the patience of a saint, but you wouldn’t stand it. The tone deaf blond guy at the gas station was the moment when you knew you had enough.

After a very brief argument Clay was just going to leave, but you had other plans.

“ He will wreck you.” You casually told the stranger in a sinister tone. “ Mock us while you still can, blondie. I believe his sister has a chance ... You? Not so much."

Everyone was weirded, but he thought you were just looking for a fight.

“ Yeah, I don’t think so.” Was his self satisfying reply. “ You, him and who else?”

It made you chuckle and you struggled for it not to turn into a full loud cackle.

“ You aren’t from here, aren’t you? " You followed, giving a few steps closer to him with a weirdly intimidating demeanor. “ People don’t get to be jerks here and walk out harmless, the forest has eyes and its guardian loathes people like you the most..”

The asshole clearly didn't get to fully comprehend the meaning of your words. Still, you managed to creep him and his girlfriend, what was enough vengeance for you. The most inmediate reaction you obtained for Clay was a bit of hard to hide laughing, probably thinking that you were just messing with the guy, but he did capture some underneath intentionality in your strange warning.

He trully thought it was a joke, untill he later referenced it again in a lighter note and your face let him know it wasn't a funny little scheme he should feel thankfull for.

" You don't have to thank me, it's all real. " You cutted him off. " Weird things happen arround here, the kind that nobody would believe. People go missing to never be found and we pretend is not our problem … I need to help you because i really like you and you HAVE to get out from here as soon as possible. "

Your hand was shaking and he held it as as a reassuring gesture before inviting you to continue.

" If you know anything that could make this easier, please share it. "

Your soft look adquired a glimpse of skepticism.

" It doesn't matter. Even if i try to explain you, it would be impossible to make you understand. One does not believe it untill you see it and very few survive to tell the tale. "

He smiled and you couldn't help to internally melt to the softness in his expression.

" I promise i will believe you. Or at least I will do my best, anything that may help me understand would be amazing ríght now. "

The indirectly mocking tone in the last part made you smile back, then you swallowed hard ríght before starting your tale.

" To many persons he can mean different things, but I see him as a guardian of the forest. Not necesarily of the enviromental care type, but we know he hunts down people for doing stupid shit. It's a sort of local legend: a bullied kid who died back in the old summer camp and now remains as an undead watcher of the area. Legend says that once triggered he can't be stopped, but i believe different and that's why i feel your sister could be alive. "

He wasn't getting it, but kept himself loyal to the promise and didn't question you. His guess was in myth and reality mixing up to end up covering the activity of a serial killer whose victims were attributed to the legend by the locals.

One way or another, it wasn't the hopefull take he once expected.

" What made you think that? Besides from an obvious bias coming from your interest in me."

You felt a bit embarrased, but it didn't ruined your disposition to continue.

" I believe he is capable of sparing a life only when coming across things he finds familar. I saw it happening with my own two eyes. "

It wasn't easy, but you had to tell him the truth.

" Back in highschool I wanted so badly to belong, to feel how was like to be a part of something. I was hanging out with people who just wanted to make fun of me, fooling myself into believing someday i could be friends. "

You began to cry, pausing for an instant untill the sobbing would be slow enough to allow you finish.

" … They are gone and i'm still here. Common sense would be thinking i just hid myself well, i fooled him. I didn't, i can't help thinking he just pretended not to spot me. The pathetic, lonely, bullied looser must have have hitted close to home. "

You hugged him out of sudden and he didn't protest about it. Of all the weird things you said, he only understood you were admitting to be the only survivor of a massacre.

" Your sister seems like a lovely girl. If i'm still breathing, you can count there is hope for her. "

He had no words that could possibly express any processing of what you just told him, but trully appreciated the deep comfort of your embrace.

#friday 13th #clay miller #jared padalecki #clay miller x reader #jared padalecki x reader #friday 13 th 2009

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eleni-cherie · 1 year

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among thieves ✨ || bts • pjm

- chapter 1.8

"what even am I to you? your rival, your lover, an obstacle or am I supposed to be your coffin?"

about two thieves who can't live with nor without each other. and a joint past that comes back to threaten them.

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masterlist: here

— genre: thief au, gangster comedy, adventure, romcom, humour, angst, fluff, very flirty jimin, friends/rivals/exes to lovers (it's complicated, ok?!) f2l e2l ex2l all members play a role in this story!

ALTERNATIVE UNIVERSE. CHARACTERS NOT NECESSARILY LIKE THE REAL PERSONS. ALSO VERY UNREALISTIC PLOT LOL - JUST PRETEND READING A MANGA/COMIC OR WATCHING A FILM, REALLY.

SUGGESTIVE THEMES. MENTIONS OF VIOLENCE & BLOOD (BUT NOTHING TOO GRAPHIC, IT'S STILL A COMEDY!)

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The gang didn't waste any time. Climbing down the rock, they made their way around the bay to the old pirate ship. From up closer the signs of the timeson it being even clearer. It had surely lost the shiny glory it once had hundreds of years ago, it was only part of their imagination now. The ship's back was partially underwater while a big whole on the side was gracing the front part of it.

After a short dip in the water, they eventually reached it. The gigantic whole providing them with a good spot to climb up and get inside where everything was inclined due to the ship's prone posture, making navigating through the old wooden space rather difficult.

"Alright, where's the treasure now?" "Let's simply devide since it's such a big ship. And whoever finds it, calls the others." They nodded, everyone going seperate ways. Jimin went to the ship's bow towards crew's quaters, Arabella went to the back to the officer's quaters, Yoongi upstairs to the main deck and Taehyung decided to go downstairs to the supply decks.

Shoving some wooden boxes aside, Arabella opened the door to what looked like a small bedroom. Most furniture was decaying and covered by a thick layer of dust and dirt. She entered with help of her flashlight. The floor underneath her creaked with every step she took while scanning over the shelves and drawers when a wooden box on the desk caught her interest. She opened it carefully, afraid it might crumble into dust at a wrong move. Her eyes widening when seeing its content, beaming with joy. Inside was a pearl necklace with a golden pedant. The pedant itself decorated with countless tiny diamonds. She couldn't help but squeal happily, taking the necklace and putting it around her neck, covering it under her jacket. After roaming around the rest of the place, not able finding anything else of value she sighed and stood up straight. Brushing off the dust from over her clothes when suddenly hearing the clicking of a gun getting cocked behind.

"Not so fast, Arabella."

The blood in her vessels froze when hearing that voice again. It had been years. Over a decade actually, but even so she'd never forget it. She hadn't been able to, as much as she'd wished to.

"How did you even find this place?" She did her best in looking as unfazed as possible as her hands rose, although internally she was boiling with rage.

"It wasn't too hard," Kir smirked while pointing her gun at her, "While searching up the forest, we found the entrance to a tunnel. We simply followed your tracks, as you had also figured out the traps for us. So really, it wasn't hard to find this place." Arabella pressed her jaw together. Yeah, 'searching up'. Rather blowing up everything until randomly finding something. She began weighing out her options then. Concluding she needed some kind of distraction to be able reaching for her berretta. "I wonder if my men took care of your friends yet.." the older women wondered our loud then, "They surely did."

Arabella's face remained stern, no sign of emotions. She knew she had to keep her cool and stay focused if she wanted to get out there alive. Not exposing any weaknesses or letting her mind get clouded in any way. And she tried her best not to think about the possibility that Kir's men did 'take care' of the guys. Of course Jimin, Taehyung and Yoongi were skilled, she knew first hand, but Kir's men were in the majority. However, she needed to suppress these kind of thoughts. She couldn't allow herself to think of Jimin and the possibility of him - "Anyway," Kir interrupted her thoughts and much to her surprise, lowered her gun. "I actually got a proposal for you."

Arabella arched a brow at her. "I doubt a good one," she snorted.

"Oh, I think it's a pretty good one," Kir smirks, "I don't think you'll be able refusing it." "Try me." Clicking her tongue, the older woman shrugged non-chalantly. "What about you rejoining us? Would make all of our lives easier, don't you think? No hunting you anymore, no attempts of eliminating you.. Doesn't that sound tempting?" "It'd be a cold day in hell if that ever happened." Kir shook her head disappointedly. Humming then. "Not even if we told you your real name?" She saw a small sparkle in her eyes, taking it as a hint to continue. "Tell you all about your parents. Their names and where they live.. How about that?" A smile filled with insincere sympathy spread over her thin lips. "It sounds nice, doesn't it? To finally know where you come from. Your origin. I know first hand how much you've always wanted that."

For a moment, Arabella's mind went blank. It was true after all, she'd wished for an opportunity like this for all her life. Having forgotten everything about her past life and identity almost killing her at times. With the only remaining memory of her parents being the silver bracelet around her wrist and her name on it. There had indeed been a time where she would've done anything to gain her memory and past life back. However, she knew it was too late now. Having this information would be useless now. She could never go back to that short-lived life she once had. It'd be impossible to ever go back to that, especially if the price for the information was to rejoin the organisation that made her lose this life in the first place. The cause of her getting ripped out of it. Perhaps it was better this way. Arabella Valentine had now become her true self. Her true identity. The one she'd carried for most part of her life. "No, thanks," she eventually replied with a bored yawn then. Catching the older woman off-guard. Her gun raising again. "Well, then. How about I don't kill your friends instead if you return? Think about it. Either all of you die or you all stay alive. And all you gotta do is join the organisation again." "You know what, you must think I'm pretty dumb for believing anything that comes from your mouth," Arabella retorted then, getting fed up with her lies. She knew Kir would kill them either way, no matter her choice. Only giving her false promises and hope. "There's only one person in this world I trust and it sure as hell ain't you. So go ahead, shoot me! Let's get over with this. Because I'd rather die than having to work for you ever again."

The sudden tremor of a loud explosion caused the ship to quake in that moment. Kir losing her balance, which Arabella immediately took advantage of. With a highkick she threw her opponent's gun into a corner. However, Kir wasn't just anyone. The two started physically fighting without their weapons. And although Arabella had been trained by these people, Kir managed to pin her down after all. Reaching for her gun. "Silly girl. You should've taken the offer." And with that she pointed at Arabella underneath her foot whp struggling freeing herself. "Y-you can't kill me. Isn't that why you ordered Jimin to do it?" Kir shrugged, her lips tucking into a devilish grin. "And who'd snitch me? You? You'll be de-" Another commotion. Smoke entering the room as shouts and yells echoed from upstairs. "Fck, what's going on?" Kir muttered through gritted teeth, taking a glance behind her. In that moment, Arabella raised her legs and twisted them around her, toppling her and snatching the gun away in a swift move. "Gun powder, you idiot," Arabella said then and got up taking out her berretta as well. Both guns aiming at Kir as she started walking backwards towards the door. "The ship must still be full of it." She shot a few times, purposely missing her and ran off while Kir took cover. Disappearing into the smoke.

Unknown sillouettes were running through the corridors and she pressed herself against the wall to stay unnoticed. It was obviously Kir's men. They were shouting and yelling. The word 'fire' having fallen as they panickedly hurried upstairs.

A fire, of course, Arabella thought and coughed. Cautiously making her way to the deck. Some of her idiot men must've shot, igniting the gun powder that was spread all over the place.

As she reached the main deck, she heard another smaller explosion from the bow and the ship trembled underneath her. Kir's men were jumping off the burning wreck, one after another into the water in an attempt to escape. Arabella looked around then, not able spotting anything but flames in the further back. She bit her lip as a gleam of fear washed over her before she shook her head. Running her hands through her orangy-dyed hair. Pull yourself together, she ordered herself and she made her way to the rear despite the fire. Seeing a big hole in the wooden ground, her eyes caught something shiny down there behind the curtain of smoke. Taking a deep breath she jumped down, coughing when the smoke hit her lungs. It being must stronger down there. And she covered her lips with her hand, taking a look around. Not able containing her awe at the sight of the objects around her.

There it was. The treasure.

The thing that brought them there in the first place. The thing that had caused all this. The whole ship's hold filled with golden objects, artefacts, coins and jewels. And despite this having been the main reason for all this journey - from the document to the sapphire to the organisation hunting them again, the puzzles, Jimin getting shot, abducted and conditioned to kill her and them crossing the whole globe in search for it - depite all they had gone through, her heart sank when seeing it all now. Because right in that moment, she couldn't care less for all this gold.

Another cough escaped her lips and she began making her way deeper inside, through the piles of treasures, broken boxes and cannons. Small fires burning in between of gold. Eventually she reached a big door with ornaments blocking her way and she tried kicking it open, even more smoke hitting her then. "Guys?" she called out, waving with her hands to get the smoke out of her face. The room contained even more treasures and was decorated with golden statues, shining dully behind the smoke. Something cold prickled her side for a second when she heard Jimin's voice and her heart eased. "Bella?" The metallic tip instantly disappeared, Taehyung stepping out from the smoke. "Fck, Arabella. I almost shot you," he sighed and slid his gun back into its holster. "Nice way of welcoming your rescuer," she huffed to which he rolled his eyes. "Thought you were one of these jerks," he shrugged then. Yoongi appearing beside him then. "Yeah, they tied us up and locked us in here." "Bella, are you alright?" Jimin asked worried, shoving his friends aside to see her from close up, making them frown. He grabbed her shoulders as his eyes were looking at her concerned. Making sure she wasn't injured. "I'm fine, I'm fine," she calmed him with a smile, "But we should leave. The whole place will explode any minute."

They followed her out. Another concussion swaying them to the side and they hit some of the golden objects. More smoke clouding their vision than before now and they crouched to avoid breathing in too much. Yoongi cut some boxes that had turned and blocked their way. Suddenly gunshots were fired through the smoke. Everyone crouching behind the mountains of gold.

"I know you're somewhere here, Arabella!" Kir's yells echoed from inside the grey fume, followed by some gunshots. "Come out, come out, wherever you are!" "This maniac will blow us all up," Yoongi muttered quietly, glancing at Arabella behind him. "She's too obsessed with you." her jaw clenched as her glance fell to the ground and she frowned. "You're right," she said then and took a deep breath, making a move to stand up. "I'll try destracting her and buy you guys some ti-" "The hell are you talking about!" Jimin hissed and grabbed her arm, pulling her back down. "Don't you dare get out there!" More gunshots were heard along with a small explosion going off near them. "She won't let us go," she argued, pulling her arm out of his grip, "I am the reason she's still here and hasn't fled like the rest of them. This ship will explode any minute, Jimin, either we all die or you let me buy you som-" "Bella, no! You know I won't let you, that'd be pure suicide." Her eyes were holding some kind of sorrow as she bent forward, placing a kiss on his cheek. It was one of those moments again. Those inescapable moments where they reached a standoff and the possibility of them not making it was high. Not all of them at least. And Arabella knew this, even if Jimin was still in denial. Her lips curled up into a smirk then as she pulled back. ' "Call it devotion." And with that she grabbed her berretta and ran out, disappearing into the smoke before Jimin could even react. His hands failing in catching her.

"She has the guts, I'll admit that," Yoongi said in an almost admiring tone, making Jimin frown. "That's not having guts, that's being irrational!" he yelled frustrated and pulled his walter ppk out. "I'll go after her, you two leave." "You know we won't do that," Taehyung said sternly. "Besides one against four is better than only two." Jimin wasn't able arguing with that. But he had to. Giving his friends a sad look. "No, you gotta make it back safely to Cassandra." Taehyung's lips parted for a moment. A scowl spreading on his features then and he shook his head. "No. She wouldn't deserve a coward." After all, she was someone who always put others before herself and helped anyone in need. How would he be able to ever look her in the eyes again if he bailed on his friends in a moment like this. "Look, this is something between me, her and that damn organisation. You two have nothing to do with it and just got sucked into it." "Cut it out already," Yoongi scoffed and got up. The grip around his sword firmer. "We won't leave, whether you like it or not. We chose to get sucked into it. So let's not waste any more time!" Jimin was about to object when another gunshot was heard, making him instantly jump up. His heart racing fast as he looked at the direction the woman he loved had disappeared to. Praying she had been the one firing that shot. "Come, let's save your girl," Taehyung smiled and patted his shoulder. A firm grip around his magnum. And Jimin simply nodded with a determined look. Gripping his gun tighter as they ran into the thick smoke as well.

Their vision got clearer as they went further due to the light peeking from the hole above them and they eventually spotted Arabella in a close scuffle with Kir. Pushing away Kir's hand from her as the other was trying to shoot. Instead hitting the wooden ceiling. Provoking another fire to break out. The ship beginning shifting again and the two women slipped to the side. Hitting a pile of coins. Jimin's eyes quickly wandered around, catching a net full of gold dangling close above them. Only held by a thin rope. "I got a plan," he said then, glancing over his shoulder to the other two, "When they get under that net, I'll push Bella away and in that moment you'll cut the rope." Their glance followed the direction of his eyes, seeing the construction and they nodded. Jimin saw Arabella holding her head as she got up, probably having hit it. She was walking in the direction her gun had fallen to, not noticing Kir behind her also getting up while holding her gun and heaving it towards her. His eyes widening in panic and without thinking much, he started running and pushed Arabella away. Landing on the ground with her in the same moment that Yoongi cut the rope. And the net filled with precious golded objects dropped right on Kir, crushing her.

Arabella felt her head spinning, confused of what had just happened. Her eyes slowly blinking open then, growing round when seeing Jimin on top of her, shielding her body. Their noses touching. He didn't say anything. He was just silently looked at her with an intense glare while propping his arms on each side of her face. As if his eyes urged her to never do something as dumb as this ever again. And she swallowed while they remained like this for a second more, just holding each other's gaze. Slowly, he began to lift himself and got up, his eyes never leaving hers. Holding his hand out for her, which she took without saying a word. Arabella faced Yoongi and Taehyung then, giving them a small nod. "Thanks." They gave her a small nod back. Nothing more being needed to say.

She took a last glance on the inanimate Kir underneath the gold, an overwhelming feeling of liberation and devastation flowing in her chest before she turned her back to her. And they made their way upstairs onto the main deck.

Yoongi was the first one climbing onto the ship's railing. "God, I hate getting wet," he whined and squeezed his eyes shut before taking a deep breath. Eventually letting himself fall into the cold water with a splash. Taehyung following behind, seemingly less hesitating. Landing right next to him. And the two began swimming towards the cave's opening. Jimin and Arabella climped the railing up as well. Standing there and watching them for a moment when Arabella suddenly took his hand. Squeezing it firmly, catching him off-guard. And he looked at her with raised brows. "If we actually make it out alive.." she began and her eyes found his. ".. and we reach a point when we can't do this kind of job anymore.. let's give it another shot." "You mean.." He couldn't finish his sentence, being too taken aback by her unexpected offer. She simply nodded. And he smiled, squeezing her hand back and guiding it to his lips. Kissing it. "I promise."

And they jumped. Diving into the cold sea water.

They swam out of the cave, reaching the rocky shore where the other two were already waiting for them. Leaving the cave behind them as they walked out into the setting sun. Kir's men, or at least the ones who had managed escaping, were nowhere to be seen. Probably having left already, not minding whatever happened to their boss.

By now all four were quite exhausted, however, they couldn't just rest now. They needed to get back to their car and get the hell out of nowhere and back to the city.

As they returned to the forest and they stamped through and they chopped their way through the undergrowth, the sound of a detonation in the distance caught their attention. It must've been a big one to be heard all the way from the cave. And they were even able to sense a slight vibration in the air. A swarm of flushed birds flying out of the trees. It was most likely the ship, getting wrecked completely now and leaving it undiscovered for some more decades or even centuries.

Taehyung's hand slid into his pocket then, taking out a golden coin and holding it against the light. "Got myself a small souvenire," he chuckled proudly and observed it from all sides. The engravings dating it to 1708. "Oh, same," Yoongi said, revealing a gold coin as well, "So this whole adventure wasn't totally for nothing." Jimin laughed out loudly, revealing a third gold coin. "I like how your minds work!" The three snickering happily over the coincidence, making Arabella roll her eyes. "Noobs," she said and zipped her jacked down. Revealing the pearl necklace she had got herself. Causing their laughter to abrubtly die down. And they stared at her bewildered before Taehyung snorted. "Of course, why am I not surprise." "When did you even.." She shook her head at them disappointedly and giggled. "Noobs."

After awhile they eventually reached their jeep, exhaling in relief since they wouldn't have to search for it in the dark and they opened its doors when the clicking of unlocking guns behind them was heard. "Hands up, you're under arr- What the fck happened to you?"

Jimin groaned, turning around with his hands up. Seeing none other than Seokjin, Jungkook, Skylar and some other officers there. "Seriously, pops? Very bad timing." "No really, what happened to you? You look -" "Like crap?" Taehyung finished, glancing at his partners. Bruises, cuts, scratches and dirt covering their bodies and clothes, "Yeah, we also feel like that." Jungkook couldn't help but stifle a laugh at this, to which Seokjin only coughed annoyed. "I wanted to say 'beaten up' but I assume 'crap' also fits." "Oh, you know.. some traps here, some exploding pirate ship there.." Jimin shrugged. "So I assume those guys we caught earlier weren't total lunatics then," Jungkook mumbled, peeking at Seokjin for confirmation. "Yeah, seems so.." The four exchanged a look. "You caught some guys?" The older agent nodded as he put handcuffs on Jimin. "Yeah, we were here since city residants reported explosions and smoke across this area to local police. And we knew you guys had something to do with this. And then we saw those suspicious vehicles racing through the forest. So we obviously stopped them." "And arrested those men," Skylar added as she handcuffed Arabella. Seemingly enjoying it a little as she was smiling while doing so. In a way it was her revenge for Mexico City.

"Good. You know these guys were from -" "That ominous crime organisation?" Seokjin laughed out. "Yeah, we figured that out. Kim and Jung from special victims and organised crime are taking care of them, while we take care of you guys. And Valentine? The two would also like to ask you some questions." Arabella just mumbled a 'whatever' as Skylar lightly pushed her to the direction of the van, the rest following behind.

"Seriously, pops.." Jimin sighed then as Seokjin led him to the van, "You know we'll just escape anyway. Why not skipping the whole 'arresting' part?" "Oh, c'mon. What kind of interpol agent would I be if I'd make it so easy for you guys? I gotta do my job, too, after all." "Today was really tiring though. Just make an exception." "Oh don't worry, you can rest as much as you want in your detention cells." "Will we at least get some food?" Yoongi asked then, feeling his stomach growling, "I'm starving." "Yeah, yeah. You'll also get food. Don't worry," Seokjin ensured him as they got pushed inside the van and closed the doors.

And the four sat there, exchanging glances as the vehicle began moving.

And they laughed.

What an ironically lame ending to such an adventure.

However, the next one was right around the corner, waiting for them already.

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next chapter: epilogue here

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drfeelgreed · 3 months

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alba can you give us a list of ur top ten favorite baccano character lines / pieces of dialogue ?

OKAYYY okay this is not going to be in any particular order. spoilers WILL be present in this because i'm incapable of doing things like this without also yapping for 10 hours. okay here we go!

"You ain't [seen/heard] nothin' yet!"

This is a short but sweet one. Multiple characters say this in Drug & the Dominoes because a minor throughline of that novel is the then-recent development of silent movies into features with sound. The line is a reference to the first line in the movie The Jazz Singer, which features prominently in the backstory of Kate Gandor, who loses her job as an organist for silent films shortly after the release of the movie. It doesn't really carry too much meaning to any of the characters who say it, but I love repeated bits that are snuck into stories and this one is no exception. As far as I remember, Claire, Isaac, and Miria are the ones to say this prominently, and both in the context of a show; Isaac and Miria when they're showing off their dominos to Firo, and Claire when he's putting on a show during a fight!

"You saved the butterfly. Nothing wrong with that."

Isaac Dian said this one. It happens during one of my favorite exchanges in general during Volume 10: 1934 Peter Pan in Chains! The context is that Isaac and the homunculus hivemind Sham are on a train together, and Sham is curious about Isaac, interrogating him with some philosophical questions. He poses a hypothetical to Isaac---wherein a person walking through the forest saves a butterfly from the spider's web, but in doing so causes the spider to go hungry. Isaac says this as rebuttal, then says that both the butterfly and the spider could get lucky or unlucky to get that kind of help at any time, so individual action doesn't matter. It's very insightful on paper but he kind of talks around himself explaining it to try and make it seem less insightful than it is.

"Drat. I went and left my wallet in the storehouse when we were helping them clean this afternoon." "Eek! We're penniless!" "I think it's probably still there. Could you run out real quick and get it for me?" "Okay! Hang on just a minute, Isaac!"

This one is, as you can probably guess, Isaac and Miria, from Volume 8: 1934 Alice in Jails: Prison. It's longer than the rest of these are going to be but I couldn't leave it out! In this scene, Isaac and Miria are at the Alveare when a cop who recognizes them as thieves sits down with them under the guise of taking them both in and tricking them into admitting their crimes. At some point during the conversation, Isaac sends Miria to get his wallet (which he didn't actually lose) because he KNOWS this guy is a cop and is sending her to safety. She leaves, and when she gets back, Isaac is already gone; the cop is taking him in so Victor Talbot can use him as a pawn in Alcatraz. Miria breaks down sobbing. Rough scene. I think about the wallet exchange OFTEN.

"Maiza. Thank you ... for ... not ... eating ... me ..."

This one's also from Drug & the Dominos. It just has some of my personal favorite lines, haha. This is technically said by two characters on two separate occasions, but I'm specifically talking about the epilogue where Begg says it to Maiza. Begg is one of Maiza's old friends from the 1700s---at least, they were both alchemists at the same time in the same city. Begg was a drug addict and manufacturer and was obsessed with creating the perfect, happy world for himself and others by creating a drug with a permanent high. By the 2000s, his use had put him into a near-catatonic state despite his immortality, and he was barely able to move and generally only spoke as though sleep-talking. Maiza enters his hospital room in the epilogue and considers devouring him out of mercy, but when Begg starts talking out loud to indicate he *has* found happiness in reliving his days before 1711 while he was Czes's guardian, Maiza decides not to eat him. Begg says this as he's about to leave the hospital room. Fucks me up.

"See you around, puppet. I'm going to become 'human' soon."

It's not really a secret that Melvi Dormentaire is one of my favorite characters in all of Baccano!, so a lot of my enjoyment of this line from Volume 21 comes from the intense overanalyzing of it that I've done. It's interesting, because normally when Melvi talks about his fate, he very decisively says he's going to become the next Szilard Quates. And he does say that after this line and a break in dialogue, but... It's just interesting to me, combined with some other characters' estimations of Melvi's character, to look deeper into the thought that his real desire might just be to experience feeling the way a human would, since he wouldn't have ever gotten that opportunity before ...

"I'd like to request a more logical conversation." "Denied. I'm pretty sure I couldn't beat you at logical conversation."

This one's from Volume 8 again. It's an exchange between Huey Laforet and Victor Talbot, and I mostly picked it to represent the entire conversation because it's a particularly funny exchange. Mostly, it's just Huey reminiscing about why Victor had locked him up below Alcatraz in the first place and Victor taking the most swear words possible to say the fewest logical things. These lines sum the whole dynamic up pretty well. I think they should kiss tbh but that's off topic.

"You don't have to keep your promise, either."

Ouch. This one is from Drug & The Dominos too. Two of my favorite characters who got removed entirely from the anime cut of this arc are Edith and her drug-addicted boyfriend Roy Maddock. Roy has a strange hypersensitivity to drugs, and he's tried and failed multiple times to get clean, and because of that his relationship with Edith is hanging by a thread. During the climax of the story after being separated throughout, Roy has resolved to himself to quit for real this time when he's approached by Begg, who's been secretly using Roy to test out his drugs unbeknownst to both of them. When Roy refuses to take his latest prototype, he holds Edith at gunpoint so Roy will shoot up, which has the potential to kill him because of his sensitivity.

Edith is big on promises, and had previously promised Roy that if he got off drugs, she'd stick with him. Roy declares he can't keep his promise as he takes the drug and tells Edith she doesn't have to keep hers either. Begg loosens his grip on Edith... And then Roy uses some shattered glass on the ground to slit both of his wrists to get the drug out of his system or die trying. Thankfully, he does survive and is fully clean as of early 1935.

"Wonderful. You've put on a very interesting show here."

It's a pretty innocuous line by itself but like most of these I'm generally referring to the scenes they take place as part of. This one was also Melvi, from Volume 18, and it's the start of the absolute most BM shit anyone has ever done in all of Baccano!, and I think about it every single day. Melvi, having walked into Firo's casino on one of the most batshit fights of all time, comments on it. Ladd makes a snide comment back that he should pay to watch, and Melvi goes "hm? oh, like this?" and then proceeds to rig 7 straight slot machines in the casino to hit the jackpot. It's the one time Melvi manages to look cool across the whole 1935 arc but damn does he pull it off.

"What's the difference? Even I lived in the usual way---and when I'm dying, I don't want to die... Somebody tell me... What is it? What's the difference?"

This one is Christopher Shaldred, in Volume 7. He's bleeding out on the floor when he says it, having been hit by an attack from someone he hadn't killed at the beginning of this novel. Christopher in general has a strange relationship with humanity at large, considering himself separate from it and therefore having no issue killing people, really. This line marks a change in him, where he begins to question whether he and humanity are really so far apart, and after this he actually struggles to kill people unprovoked because he's finally experienced what dying like an ordinary person feels like. It's important to me. Ok? Ok.

"My gun---is in my heart!"

A classic from Volume 2. It would be a crime not to put this on here. I'd even go as far as calling this the best one of the list! You've seen the anime so you probably remember, but this was said during the fight between Jacuzzi and Goose! Earlier in the story, Isaac and Miria had inspired Jacuzzi to take initiative by telling him a REAL cowboy keeps a gun in his heart ... And Jacuzzi points it at Goose, who mocks him for trying to stop him with literally nothing but a single small cherry bomb from Nice. It's amazing, spectacular, perfect, no notes. Jacuzzi is an icon and the moment.

I love you for asking me to do this. Never ask me to do it again.

#afterword. / out of character.#effigist #drug use #addiction #suicide #honorable mention to claire's 'i support gender equality!' in volume 7

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saintsofwarding · 11 months

Text

BURIAL

Chapter 14

On and on.

A fall through darkness.

Elena didn't let go. She wound her fists into Donna's jacket and held on. Glass rained around them, cold against her face, and then nothing at all, both of them drifting in the dark like it was water, like they were sinking, not falling.

Hours, seconds. Elena couldn't tell how long, just that they had at last reached some kind of bottom. Elena's boots sank into water, calf-deep, cold and dark as ink. They settled, together, wound around another, Donna's hand still clenched around the scissors deep in Elena's shoulder.

Each breath hurt, but it was a real hurt, not a spectral one, red and raw, tearing a little. Elena's eyes filled with tears as she curled to her knees, Donna draped over her, her breathing sharp and ragged.

For a moment- silence.

Then, a thin voice-

"Where am I?"

Elena lifted her hand and cleared the veil from Donna's face. She stared into the dark with her single eye. "I don't know. The bottom, maybe."

"Are you real?"

"I hope so."

She buried her face again in the crook of Elena's shoulder. She felt like a drowned thing saved seconds from death, shaking and shuddering and bony and pale. Elena's hand stroked down the channel of her spine, settled against her waist.

She felt her ribs against her palm, expanding and contracting with each breath. Fragile, but they'd served her this far.

"I stabbed you," Donna said.

"Yep. It really hurts."

"Oh-!" She pulled back and with a single sharp jerk, yanked the scissors free. Elena yelped; blood pulsed from the puncture, but it slowed after a moment. It wasn't as bad as she'd thought, just a gash to the top of her deltoid.

She heard fabric tearing and looked round to see Donna pull her veil from her head and tear a strip off the front panel, antique black lace ripping like paper. Deftly as a trained nurse, Donna rolled up Elena's sleeve and bandaged the wound.

"Better?" she asked, tying off the silk.

"Yes...sure."

Donna pressed her fingertips to her lips, then to the silk, over the wound. "There's nowhere else to go," she whispered.

"Out."

"She's out there. I hear her." She slid her fingers into the matted gray-black tangle of her hair. "Waiting for the right moment. Like a blood clot in the brain. "

"Then..." Elena let out her breath. "We'll just have to go back past her. Together."

"...Together?"

"You're stuck with me, Lady Beneviento," Elena told her. She touched Donna's face, brushing her thumb over her eye growth. Its pulse fluttered at her skin, calming as a lullaby. "Whether you like it or not."

Donna gave a weak little laugh. "Good thing I like it."

"Now think. This is the bottom. The end. The deepest dark. Where do we go from here?"

"We don't," Donna said. "It's safe in here. It's good. She won't bother us in here. Nothing will. We're so far down it's like we don't exist at all."

Light speared the dark. Elena looked up. A beam. It made a circle on the darkness, a circle of white light, and in it: shadows. They were gray, indistinct, blurry as a reflection. Elena watched they sharpened, becoming not shadows but two girls, black-haired and pale, as alike as beetle shells. They played in a sunlit birch forest, laughing and dancing hand in hand, braiding flowers into one another's hair. All in silence, save for the faint click-whisper of the film.

Donna watched it with a soft look in her eye. A smile touched her face.

"I loved her, you know," she murmured.

"I know."

"I wanted only to protect her. Like Mother tried to protect us. But I learned my ways from her, and Mother only knew fear. So she taught me that fear in turn. And in the moment, the last moment before I realized she had stopped struggling, you know what it was I felt?"

"What?"

"Perfect love. Pure and innocent. Because I knew I would do anything to protect her. And I had. I took her from Miranda. I took her far away. And she can never be touched now, can she?"

Elena shook her head. Young Donna and Claudia whirled through the sunlight, a day lost forever, a day that was a memory, an echo. Again, and again. Around, and around. It would never change. It would always be perfect.

"She's dead, Donna," Elena told her, gently.

Donna's mouth quivered.

"She's gone," Elena went on. "You're not. Don't die with her." She took her cold hands in her own. Her fingers were rusty with blood, dark crescents trapped under her nails, her palms a mess of scrapes and scabs.

"I can't do it," Donna said. "It's too much. It's too heavy."

"Not between the two of us."

"Us...? No. No...just leave me here, you can't want-"

"Shut up," Elena said. Donna flinched and looked up at her. "You don't tell me that. You don't get to tell me that. Like you don't know me. You think I'm going to abandon you in this hole?"

She gave Donna a little shake. "Can't you see I want it? All of it? All of you? I want to see you in the sunlight. I want to see you dancing, any way you please." She gripped a handful of Donna's sleeve. "Now listen to me. You think I'm going to decide, now, that I don't want anything more than to drag you out with me even if it kills us both?"

Donna blinked. "...No."

"Good. Because I didn't fight my way up here for the fun of it. I came back for you. For you. Understand?"

"I think I'm beginning to."

"We're getting out of this together, you and me," Elena said. "Or not at all."

Donna blinked. She gave a tiny nod.

"You control this. This is your power. Your dream." Elena looked toward the circle of light, the children playing in it. "So change it."

Donna lifted her eye. The light flickered in it. Her lashes fluttered shut, spiky against her cheek. A wind picked up, warm, not cold. It smelled bittersweet. Like flowers.

The circle of light brightened. It eclipsed the memories of Donna and Claudia; they faded into the brightness. It intensified, carving into Elena's vision, so bright she had to look away, so bright it was like looking into the sun.

"She knows," Donna said. "She'll find us. So hurry."

"Come on, then."

They dragged each other to their feet as the sunlight grew. The edge of the circle bit into Elena's palms; it felt like glass. She clambered over, tumbling down the far side, into the light. Donna fell by her side, a flutter of black fabric, then nothing, her vision reduced to a field of pure white.

They landed ankle-deep in snow. Elena's breath shot from her; she stumbled a little. Donna steadied her.

"Where is this, now?" she asked, her voice prim and puzzled.

Elena looked around as the last of the spectral light vanished, the white void smoothing over into snowy sky, frozen ground. Mist lay heavy over the snow, over the ramshackle fences rising around them, painted in peeling red and blue and deep green. The houses rose beyond, shutters creaking in the wind, bone charms jangling as it soughed past them. Past the low-hanging mist, an impression of Castle Dimitrescu loomed, but it was distant, unreal, more like a child's watercolor painting than the real fortress.

All was bitterly cold, but clumps of yellow flowers still grew at the base of fences, at the corners of houses.

"It's..." Elena's mouth was numb. "It's home, it's the village, it's..."

She trailed away. Donna cast her gaze around. "Is this the village? It's been such a long time since I've seen it. It's..."

She paused.

"This is your dream," she told her.

The world shuddered; snow flurried in the aftershock, the wind picking up. On it, echoing from all around, came Angie's laughter and her taunting little song. Fear jolted Elena and she grabbed for Donna's hand.

"We have to get inside," she hissed.

"Elena-"

She jerked Donna forward before she could say more. Through gaps in fences, under trees, around corners; she ducked and weaved through the maze of the abandoned, misty streets. Her heart raced. She knew what she was looking for, at last. Where was it?

Searching your whole life...

She skidded round the next corner.

...never seemed quite right, did it? The way things happened.

It was there, at once. Firelight lay golden on the snow. The windows were illuminated, and past her glimpse of the familiar lace curtains Elena heard the echo of voices, the smell of cooking. Ciorba and sweets, bacon sizzling in the pan, cabbage rolls and spices and baking dough.

Tears filled her eyes. She ran through the gate, pushing herself along on a fence post, up the front path. The door opened at a touch, and she spilled inside, breathing hard, Donna at her shoulder.

"Elena..." Donna whispered.

"We'll be safe in here." Elena stepped over the threshold and into warmth. Firelight, candle-glow, deep shadows. Her home, familiar in a way that it no longer was. This was her memory of the place, a child's recollection, colors too bright, no grime or cobwebs or disrepair. No poverty here, nor grief. Nor loss. The table stretched before her and it was full of people.

Her mother, alive and smiling, crows' feet crinkling at the corners of her kind brown eyes.

Her father, younger and unbent, a red kerchief knotted at his throat.

Andrei, fidgeting in his chair, and Violeta, her long golden hair shining like beaten metal.

Other people, too, strangers she didn't recognize at first. A man and a woman, dark-haired and pale and smiling, dressed in shabby finery. And a little girl, a reflection of Donna, her long plaited hair swinging as she told a story, using her hands to make shadow puppets on the wall.

"We'll be safe in here," Elena whispered, her mouth quivering. Her eyes were warm. Her mother looked up and beamed, lifting her hands.

"Darling," she called. "Elena. There you are. Come in, come in, you must be freezing."

Elena's feet were already moving. Donna's hands clenched down hard on her wrist, tight as a manacle.

"Elena, no," she urged. "This is a trick, it's all a trick."

"What are you talking about? She'll never find us here."

"Who, darling?" her mother said, brows drawn together.

"No one, Mama," Elena whispered.

But Donna yanked at her, so hard she tottered back a step. "This is another trap-"

Elena wrenched her hand from Donna's grip. "Elena!" she cried, but Elena stepped inside, her voice melting away, her terror and her pounding heart and the ache of all her wounds fading as the firelight enfolded her, as she took her place at the foot of the table. It was spread as if for a midsummer feast, an impossible bounty- all the good things she'd smelled, the porcelain glister of egg wash and the deep caramel tone of perfectly-baked bread, stews and bright crisp vegetables and fruits like she'd never before seen, shining like gemstones on intricately-painted china.

Yellow flowers were arranged in vases, and the air glimmered with their pollen. It winked like small stars.

"I'm so glad you could be here," her mother went on.

"She's a good guest," Claudia said, pausing in her shadow play. "Isn't she, Mother?" The dark-haired woman stroked her head, but did not speak.

"The very best," Elena's father said, with a wink. "The best daughter anyone could ask for. Isn't that right, 'Lena?"

"I try, Pa." Elena reached for his hand, but he sat a little too far away, and her fingertips grasped at nothing. She lowered her hand.

White flickered in the corner of her eye. She glanced over. A curious doll sat on the sideboard, long and spindly, dressed in aged white lace.

"Do we have another guest?" she asked.

"Darling, don't you remember?" her mother said. "Your father made you that doll."

"I...no, he didn't. Did he? I don't...you never made me any dolls." "He made so many dolls," her mother went on.

"One for every day of the year," her father said.

"That's too many dolls," Violeta muttered, plucking a sprig of yellow flowers from one of the vases.

Had he made her dolls? Her memories felt like water in her hands. What did it matter, anyway? Elena smiled.

"Elena, please, listen to me."

"Come," her mother urged. "Have something to eat. Rest here a while. Doesn't that sound good?"

"Yes," Elena admitted.

"You can. We don't have to talk...about the past, about anything. You've done so much talking, so much pleading, bargaining, begging. It's good to be silent, to not say anything and simply allow yourself to be loved. And you are, my sweet girl. You're loved, here. Everything precious is here. Everything that was taken from you, that should have always been yours. Doesn't it feel that way? Like your future was stolen from you before it even had a chance to exist?"

Elena inclined her head. "Like a dream," she murmured. "Like it was waiting for me. Beyond the borders...beyond the...the warding-saints..."

"Hush, now. You don't need to worry about running," her mother said. "About what waits for you beyond. Why would you need to run? It's here, it was always here. Deep down. And now you've arrived, and we're all so pleased to have you, so pleased you've joined with us at last. We can catch up in the morning, and for now..."

"Rest," her father said.

"It's safe here," Claudia told her.

"It's good, here," her mother said.

"Nothing to frighten you in the night," her father said. "Nothing waiting in the dark beyond the door. Only what you know. Isn't that right?"

"This is the way it should be," her mother said. Red shining in the darkness. The drip of heavy liquid against stone. She smiled, softly this time, her face a mirror for Elena's in the candlelight. "This is the way it always should have been."

***

"Let her go."

(Let her go? But this is what she wanted!) Angie gave a derisive snicker. (Look how fast she fell for it)

"No. You tricked her. You didn't play fair."

(Nothing's fair, Donna. She's an interloper. A cuckoo. A traitor. She messed it all up and this is really her just desserts, mark my words)

"This...this isn't what I want!"

(I don't care what you want! You stupid, silly little thing, I care about what's best for you! And I know best!)

Donna paced back and forth, back and forth, tension building in her every nerve. The darkness of the well room shivered as if caught in an earthquake

(The well room? Naive Donna, this has been inside your mind all this time, how you cling to the talismans that make you safe and destroy you all at once)

and all the while, Angie perched on the lip of the old stone well, eyes rolling back and forth, following Donna's movements.

(Come back to me, Donna. We can be together again. You and me hiding away. That was good, right? That was the way it oughta be, really. We don't need anyone else. Anything else. That useless old groundskeeper and his nasty little children, poking and prodding like they could be of any help. Simpering Violeta who couldn't handle a couple parasites. And now this one. E-LAAAAAAY-na. A plain brown mouse caught in a trap. Crush its head under your heel before its squeaking gets too shrill)

Another shudder. The stone walls seemed to writhe and squirm around her, the darkness full of eyes and teeth and horrors beyond imagining, all that she feared. Donna clutched at her own arms, her black nails biting deep into the fabric.

(Let me take care of her)

(Feed her to the flowers after)

(All can be like it was before, Donna)

(All can be like it should be)

Donna lifted her head and looked at Angie, right in the eyes. Like looking in a mirror. She lowered her arms.

"All like it should be," she echoed.

She stepped forward.

***

"Do you remember?" Elena asked quietly.

Candlelight, warm hands. Her mother's scent, rosemary and lemon. All good things, none of the shadows.

At the head of the table, her mother blinked. "What, darling?"

"When you left. You said...you told me I would barely have time to miss you." Elena lifted her head. "But I did. Every day you were gone. And every day since your suitcase came back without you. I looked for you everywhere. Not just...not just searching, I mean, I knew you'd died in the castle. In other ways. In the smell of fresh herbs, cut from the window-box, like all of summer contained in the palm of my hand. Another woman's laugh- not quite right, but almost, so close I might pretend it was yours. The sound of footsteps on the front porch. The peace I felt the moment before I fell asleep. Like you'd just finished telling me a story. Like you had just left the room. I thought nothing could touch me there."

A smile touched her lips.

"And in my own face," she murmured. "I watched it change, and I was glad, because as I grew older I looked more and more like you. And in that small way, I could keep you alive."

She met her mother's eyes. The others, her other beloved ghosts, shifted and whispered alongside her.

They were thin, like painted paper.

Like moth wings, trapped in amber.

Like shadows on the wall.

"But you're not," Elena said. "You're not. And you never will be again. I think I never stopped searching for you. Like I could fix the world if only I could make what happened to you right. But it won't, will it? It's not right. You'll stay dead, and gone. It'll all stay empty. Trapped in that circle of light."

"Elena..." her mother murmured.

The smell of rot and damp. The thick, sweetish fug of decaying organic matter. The dring of thick liquid grew louder, and in the corners, where the light didn't touch-

None of this was right.

None of this was as it should be.

"I miss you so much, Mama," Elena said. Her voice trembled, her eyes warm. A tear broke down her cheek. "I don't want to go. I don't want to leave you."

"Then don't, sweet girl." Her voice was soft, a soothing whisper, the way she'd told Elena stories to lull her to sleep. "It's cold outside. Stay with me. Stay with all of us. You said it yourself. It's safe in here."

"I know," Elena said.

Her fist tightened on the arm of her chair.

"But it isn't real," she said.

Her mother's pale gaze hardened. Had her eyes been that color before? They glittered like glass in the candlelight, and when she smiled, something was wrong with her teeth.

"Wrong move, Elena," she said, and Angie began to laugh.

***

(It's too late, anyway, Donna. She's lost. Buried so deep she'll never get out, no matter how much she digs)

"I know you were trying to help me, Angie."

(...What?)

"All these years. You, taking me far away. You, by my side, in my arms. Whispering to me the right thing to do so I stayed safe. I know I made you this way, Angie, and it's not fair of me to turn on you now."

She shook her head, wistful and wan. "How else could you be? This was the way you were supposed to act. You did everything right. But now it has to end."

Angie cocked her head.

(Don't be stupid)

"I'm not," Donna told her. "I know all you did was out of love."

(Don't do this, Donna)

"I have to."

(You're not brave enough-)

"That's not going to work on me anymore. I am more than enough. And I think you realize now what I'm truly capable of."

(Please Donna please, I'm sorry, I'll let her go. Okay? She can live in your house and I won't bother you again. Oh, please, please, please, you can make her doll clothes and give her flowers and anything you want and I'll be quiet, I'll be good, I promise)

"Oh, Angie, my dearest," Donna told her. "You and I both know that's not true."

She stopped before the doll, hesitated, and reached out. She lifted her, then cradled her to her chest, rocking her back and forth, humming to her under her breath, a slow, sweet lullaby. She felt the pulse of the Cadou in Angie's head, the way it harmonized with its elder sibling implanted deep in her chest cavity, its tentacles twining like strangling vines round her ribs.

It had been there so long it was a part of her, nested deep. How cold the scalpel had been, parting muscle and fat, cracking through bone, carving a place for the gift to take root. But now all she felt was warmth, the soft hum of the tandem pulses, the way Angie's comforted her. In all her monstrousness, in all her mutilation, she would never be alone.

(Donna)

"Yes?"

(Do you love me)

"With all that I am."

(Don't go)

A cold hand traced the line of Donna's cheek.

(Don't leave me to the dark)

Donna bent. She pressed a kiss to Angie's porcelain face. "It's all right," she told her. "You're a part of me. You always will be. And I will never, never, never go away."

And she whirled, and opened her arms, and she flung Angie into the depths of the well.

***

"Elena!"

She stood. The shadows around her rose, too, glittering doll eyes trained on her. The view outside the windows was one of blazing golden light. Underfoot, the house began to shake. Her mother stared back at her, Angie's cackle going on and on and on, ringing deep into her skull.

Elena jerked back, but her father reached out, hand snapping over her wrist; his fingers bit down.

"Stay with us," he said.

"Stay," Claudia said.

"Stay," Violeta echoed, tipping her head to the side.

"No- let me go-" She twisted at her father's grip, but he was strong, too strong for her to break free. She reached for her rifle, but it was gone, too; the cutlery on the table melted under her touch. The walls began to melt, too, the world swirling into haze at the edges of her vision. Only her mother's grin was real, slick and red.

"Elena!"

That voice. It was so familiar. Elena remembered in a burst like a kick to the gut. "Donna!" Her voice broke from her, raw and ragged. "Donna, I'm here."

"Hold on-"

And she was there. Her pale hands on Elena's. The house around them broke apart, Elena's ghosts swirling away into nothingness. Her father's grip vanished, and she stumbled against Donna. She was stronger than she looked; she held Elena up, kept her from falling. Angie's laughter became a shrill scream like a buzz-saw; cracks shot through the house, through the table and floor, bright white light streaming through.

"Are you real?" Elena mumbled.

The whisper came against her face, between kisses to her cheek. "Yes."

The dream broke apart. The light seared over them. A swirl of yellow petals, a swooping wrench in the pit of her stomach. She wasn't standing, she was laying down on something hard. A table? Her arms and legs wouldn't move; something restrained her. A vase of yellow flowers was placed by her head, the smell of their bittersweet perfume sticky on the back of her throat. The light stabbing into her eyes- that wasn't dream-light. It was a lamp, hanging over her face. She recognized it in an instant as the lamp in the doll workshop.

It caught a thread of silver light on the edge of a blade.

Elena took it all in. Angie, standing over her. The doll's mouth open in a gleeful, sinister grin. Her arms raised.

The scissors, clenched in her hands.

Elena gasped. Her eyes sprang wide.

The scissors arced down.

The crack was like thunder, like an old land mine had gone off behind Elena's eyes. The side of Angie's head exploded in a spray of porcelain fragments and pinkish, glutinous flesh. It calcified in midair, shards of crystal raining over Elena as she stared, mouth open, unable to move.

Angie screamed. The sound sheared through Elena's skull, on and on- no, that wasn't just Angie, it was the thing in her head, fetal, curled, pulsating, tentacles whipping free to claw and writhe at the air. The scissors spun and clattered to the table as Angie swayed back and forth, tearing at the hole in her cranium with her fingers, like she could put it all back together.

With a sound like crunching glass, the thing in her head turned cloudy, then gray, then to glittering crystal. The scream sharpened- then died. It trailed off in a wheeze, and Angie shuddered, and stilled.

She collapsed. A marionette with strings cut. She fell to the table with a clunk, nothing more than a heap of old lace and lifeless porcelain.

Elena looked back. Donna stood behind her, Elena's rifle aimed at the place where Angie had just been. A wisp of smoke curled from the barrel.

"Oh," Donna said, her voice small.

Elena made herself speak. "Are you sure this is real?" she managed.

Donna blinked, then tossed the rifle aside and rushed to Elena. She scrabbled at the ropes binding Elena to the table, then went for a knife and sawed her loose. She was crying, Elena saw, tears streaming down her face from her single eye, turning her cheek red. "Sorry, sorry," she kept saying. "This dratted old rope, it's so tough- sorry-"

And then she was free, and Elena grabbed for her, and Donna flung her arms around Elena's neck. She was crying, now, in earnest. The both of them were, and Elena began to laugh when she realized yes, this was real, this was happening, and she felt all at once unable to comprehend the moment, the pure, drowning relief of it.

Elena felt something crunch under her hand, and lifted it to find the remnants of the yellow flowers crushed against her palm. She must have knocked over the vase in the struggle.

"Where is she?" Elena asked, brushing the crushed petals from her skin. They left smears of pollen behind. "Angie?"

"Gone."

"Oh, saints- Donna-"

Donna gave her a shaky smile. "It's all right," she said. "I don't need her anymore."

***

They limped up together, arms over one another's shoulders. A four-legged beast, hunched and haggard and bloodied. Donna's beautiful black mourning clothes were all ruined, a couple buttons torn from her jacket, the skirt in tatters. Her veil was gone, hair hanging loose around her sweaty face. Elena couldn't stop looking at her.

"What?" Donna panted, as they collapsed against the side of the elevator, on their way up from the basement.

"Nothing. You're so beautiful, is all."

"Oh." She picked at her skirt, a little smile playing over her face.

"It's true." Elena took a short breath. It hurt. Her vision was ringed with black, creeping in from the edges. "Don't...don't...tell me I'm..."

She crumpled. Donna swooped to catch her up again. "Shh. Just breathe. I'll fix you up. Make you feel all better."

"Just a minute to sit down."

"Yes, that's right. And a cup of tea."

"That'll fix me right up. Do you have any whiskey to put in it?"

Donna stroked her hair back from her sweaty forehead. "I think I can figure something out."

They limped from the elevator, down the corridor, heading toward the main hall. Elena's body was too cold, too heavy. White danced through her lashes as the hallway whirled around her like she was dancing. She tasted blood on the back of her throat. Little wonder, considering all she'd been through in the last few hours. Her fall down the well, her fight with Heisenberg, her flight through the nightmares. What time was it? Near dawn, surely. The long, long night, nearly spun itself out.

Maybe they could watch the sunrise together.

"It'll look..." she started.

"Hmm?"

"...beautiful, coming over the mountains..."

"Hush. Save your strength."

"Donna. I want you to know-"

"I love you, too."

Elena let out a hiss of a laugh. "How did you..."

"I've been inside your head, Elena," Donna told her. Her smile swam in Elena's vision. "I know all your secrets."

She pushed through the door and into the front hall.

It wasn't empty.

Feathers rustled, and spread, unfurling in a glistening, glorious fan of iridescent black. Eight vast wings, the bitter reek of mold, the glow of gilt in the firelight. She had removed her mask, her face beneath pale, beautiful, composed.

Miranda.

Donna jerked to a halt with a sharp gasp. Elena hung from her grip, arm hooked around her neck. She quivered from the exertion of staying conscious, but inside, calm settled down at the pit of her stomach.

"Child," Miranda said. Her eyes settled on Donna. "I've been waiting. And you've been far more interesting than I could have ever anticipated."

"Mother." Donna's voice sounded small, crushed down to a whisper. "I...I did not expect a visit from..."

"Quiet." Her voice rang through the house; it shuddered, like it was frightened, too. Mold glistened in the corners, snaking over the walls. She faced them, fully, those impossible wings radiating from her back. The Black God's prophet, come to do her holy work.

"Leave, Donna," she commanded. "Wait for me elsewhere. Do not wound yourself by watching as I take your servant's life."

Donna lifted her chin. "No."

"Child." Miranda's eyes brightened. "You've defied me enough. Don't you understand? There are no more of your flowers in here. Nothing for you to fight with. And without your dreams, what are you? Not a monster. Not a god. Not one of the Black God's chosen, no longer. Just a frightened child, her time swiftly running out."

"No," Elena said, softly.

Miranda's head whipped toward her. "What?"

Elena could no longer speak. Her strength was gone. All she could do was lift her hand, dripping with dark sap.

And the golden haze of pollen drifting around it, winking like stars in the gloom.

"Poor Miranda," Donna said, sing-song, a ferine grin curving over her face. "Never stood a chance."

The air turned bittersweet: a sudden flare of floral scent, overpowering in these confines. Pressure dropped. It crackled in Elena's ears, aching in her bones. Miranda snapped rigid; her eyes were wide, staring, darting from side to side. She quivered, drawing in her taloned hands. They gripped at her upper arms. Her lips fluttered. A prayer, maybe. Or a plea.

"Deeper," Donna whispered. "Deeper."

"P...please...child..."

"Hush," Donna breathed. "Further down, Mother. Safe down there. Warm down in the dark. Shhh."

The bittersweet smell of flowers strengthened. Prisms refracted in Elena's eyes. She watched as Miranda shrank back, as she curled in on herself, crumpling down to the floor. Her wings curved over her as if they could shield her, but they melted away like ice in the sunlight, becoming a pool of black mold that squirmed and writhed around her.

Fear shone in her eyes. "I...I'm not done...such a long time, such a long way still to go..."

"Shhh," Donna said. She stepped forward to stroke Miranda's hair. It was blonde, Elena saw, under the ornate black and gold veil. Pale blonde, perfectly ordinary. Strange, to find that out, here at the end. "Rest, now. Oh, I see her. Do you see her?"

"...Yes," Miranda said.

"She's with you?"

"Yes." A hint of a smile touched Miranda's face. Her arms moved, as if to cradle an infant to her heart. "My little Eva."

"Good. Now. Sleep. Dream." Donna let out her breath. "Forever."

Miranda slumped from under Donna's hand. The look in her eyes emptied. The pollen swirled in the stillness, the silence, drifting to settle on Elena's skin.

***

"What..." Elena breathed, at last. "What did you do to her?"

"I put her away. Hid her deep," Donna said. She let out a long breath, the look in her eye bright, far away. So far Elena thought she might not come back.

But she did. Her eye focused, and turned to Elena, full of warmth. "I buried her so far down she will never get out. She won't bother us anymore."

"Oh." Elena nodded. "Good."

"Very clever, with the flowers."

"...Donna."

"Yes?"

"I- I think I'm-"

She never finished. Elena's legs gave out. The last thing she saw was Donna reaching for her, Donna's face, her wide eye, her mouth shaping her name.

And darkness fell.

#resident evil village #re8 #re8 fanfiction #re8 fic #donna beneviento #elena lupu #mother miranda #karl heisenberg #claudia beneviento #angie beneviento #re8 oc #donna beneviento x elena lupu #donna beneviento x oc #gothic romance #gothic horror #chapter 14 #resident evil #resident evil village oc

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aita-blorbos · 1 year

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AITA for singlehandedly ruining my brother's life with my complacency?

For context, I (20NB) was frequently psychologically tormented by an entity that takes the form of a forest/state park near my town (no clue how old it is or if it has a gender) for a few years when I was a teenager, and once it had eroded my humanity enough it turned me into an extension of its power. It let me keep my free will, if you choose to believe in things like that, so when I was eighteen I fled to a different state under the guise of going to college, hoping that distancing myself would weaken the entity's grip on me. It didn't, but at least I was 600 miles away from it now, and I made sure to keep myself isolated from everyone else at college so I couldn't hurt them.

Fast-forward to last January. After two years at college, I found out about a kind of... medication, we'll call it, that I thought would loosen the entity's grip on me. The medicine functions by fogging over your memories of supernatural things existing, inducing a sort of... weaponized executive dysfunction, for lack of a better phrase? Anyway, that stops you from acting on your knowledge, which exploits the fact that these sorts of entities don't care about much other than how people who know they exist choose to act on this information- so, if you're physically unable to act on your knowledge they exist (which you barely remember anyway), they can't affect you. After giving the medication a trial run, I went back to my hometown to visit my brother N (17M).

Since I'm not all that human anymore, I found out early on that the entity retained its hold on me and was able to pull me back towards the state park even when I was medicated, but it never did anything once it'd got me there, so I got cocky and figured it must not be capable of affecting me past that. Plus, the entity had never done anything to anyone but me before, at least not that I knew of, so I'd spent years figuring I was its only victim and getting complacent because of that... and if it did finally kill me one of those times, I honestly think I would've welcomed it. Things were fine at first, though the entity somehow managed to break down the medication's effects once or twice, and I got to feel like a normal person again for the first time since middle school. But after a few weeks, the entity broke through the medicine's effects again and revealed to me that its real target had been N the whole time. That was why it kept pulling me back to the state park while the medicine was preventing me from consciously realizing what a bad idea that was: it wanted to get ahold of N, who I'd been bringing with me the whole time like an idiot because I still thought I was the entity's sole target. To make matters worse, when it told me this it was referring to N with the same kind of title it'd given me, which I knew it wouldn't have done if it wasn't absolutely sure I wouldn't be able to remove its influence from him.

I panicked and rushed N back to his car, which was when I had the idea that maybe if I overdosed him on the medication I'd been using, he'd go from mere brain fog to outright amnesia. I was still panicking and didn't take the time to think that idea through, so I just tackled N, shoved a bunch of my pills down his throat, and ran. I was too afraid of what I might see if I stuck around to make sure he was okay long-term (I guess it was kind of a Schrodinger's cat mentality or something?), so I went back to college and tried to pretend none of it happened. I did keep an eye on the news from our town and didn't see anything alarming, and that was enough that I could lie to myself that maybe N was miraculously fine.

N did end up forgetting the time I'd spent back in our hometown as planned, but I forgot to account for the fact that he'd been recording videos during almost all of the times we went to the state park, wanting to use them as B-roll for a film class project. He didn't even make it a month before finding those recordings on his camera and starting to piece things together on his own, during which his mental health and personal life started falling apart for obvious reasons. (He also started getting intermittently stalked by an unrelated entity during this time, but it's more a pest than anything else, I've already got plans for disposing of it.) Once I found out about all this, I came back to our hometown to clear things up for N, especially making sure he was aware that all of it was my fault: I wasn't about to pretend I'd been controlled by the entity the whole time or something, he deserved the whole truth. I'm pretty sure he's only tolerating my presence now because he needs my knowledge about how supernatural things work. It hurts, but it's not like I was expecting him to take it well, so I'm not planning to stick around once I've made sure he knows everything he needs to.

That's everything important. The answer seems pretty obvious, if you ask me, but... AITA?

#aita #am i the asshole #unreality #NONCONSENSUAL DRUGGING

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softquietsteadylove · 2 years

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Hello there! Love the actor au very much! How about Gil is watching Thena while she is doing a scene? Pretty sure he is mesmerized by her look, her presence and acting skills too!

Gil was staring. Everyone was.

Thena was in the middle of a few glamour shots, meant just to capture her natural beauty in their current work. It was a fantasy thing--she was a beautiful creature of nature, with massive wings they would CGI onto her in post.

A flower crown sat on her perfect sunshine hair, there were a few real little bunnies hopping around. A few green blobs were also scattered around in order to animate them into more fantastical creatures. It was quite different from the roles he had done with her before.

He was playing a royal guard, in charge of protecting the queen, who would turn out to be evil by the end of it. He hadn't had many scenes with Thena yet, but even just being on the same set with her put him more at ease.

"Sometimes," Thena murmured in the scene to her little bunny friends, as well as the young actor playing the fish out of water who had stumbled into her little forest. "People want for things they know they can't have."

"But why, your majesty?" the kid asked in - to his ear - a pretty mediocre accent. They couldn't find an actual English accent?

Thena sighed, stroking one of the bunnies that seemed to have really taken a liking to her. Gil had to keep his laughter in; furry animals weren't really Thena's thing. She was staying in the scene really well, but he was certain they would have to get them all off her once they cut before she freaked out.

"We are not so different from humans," she murmured, extending her vowels in a received pronunciation that she had mastered early on in her career. "They are capable of insatiable greed. But do we not also want for things just out of reach?"

Gil sighed.

"But, your majesty," the kid scooched a little closer on the fake forest floor they had constructed. "You are the most powerful fae around."

The kid's tiny hand floated up, stroking what would be a shimmering white feathered wing in the final film. For now, it was just the empty air between them.

Gil smiled; Thena moved her shoulders faintly, as one would when a part of their body was adjusting itself. It would look great when the wings were 'on her'.

Thena pursed her lips (a personal habit that made its way into her characters every once in a while). "Power does not equal strength, and strength does not guarantee things going the way you might like. There are things I want that my power will never help me attain."

She looked off into the distance, longing written all over her face. Although her eyes landed on Gil, in the distance, behind the blinding lights on the scene. Her lips twitched into a smile. "The heart wants what it wants, child. It longs for things it once had, no matter how you tell it not to."

"And...cut!"

Thena smiled as the kid was pulled away for a mandatory union break. She remained sitting, still encircled by free roaming little bunnies.

Gil chuckled, walking right up to the soundstage and being careful of any wandering cotton balls. The wranglers were already rushing out to collect up the vulnerable little creatures. Gil knelt down beside her and reached out a hand, "your Majesty?"

"Very funny," Thena chided him lightly as she took his hand. "My legs are asleep after all those takes."

Gil waited in that position until all the rabbits were collected up and clear from danger. Once the wranglers were all clear he moved back to his feet, pulling Thena up with him. She laughed as he swung her around in his arms. "You got it?"

"Ah!" she bit her lip as she tried to firm up her knees, "pins and needles!"

"Okay," he laughed, as if he needed that excuse to sweep her up in his arms and walk off with her bridal style. "Let's go."

"Gil!" Thena laughed as he made his way down the stairs and towards their chairs. They initially weren't anywhere near each other, but they had both moved them together subtly over the course of several days.

"Well, we can't have the fae queen wobbling around like a fawn," he teased, and received a poke in the cheek for it. She could have smacked him on the arm but he was in his 'armour' for his scene.

"You are supposed to be allied to a different queen," Thena pointed out as he deposited her right into her chair, flowing white dress and all.

Gil sat himself next to her, as he always did. "Well, she does turn out to be plotting, like, magical mass murder by the end of this. So maybe I should reconsider some shit in my guard life."

Thena just shook her head at him, pushing back the mane of hair she had, and which was made even longer by the extensions they had woven into it. "I won't miss this, I can say that much."

Gil helped her sort the mass of hair out of her way as she picked up her script and her bottle of water. "What did make you take this?"

"Hm?"

"Well," he shrugged, the replica armour he was wearing clanking faintly against itself as he did. "It's not really your usual thing. Especially the benevolent fairy queen part."

Thena raised a brow at him with a smirk, "are you saying being the beautiful queen of the enchanted forest doesn't suit me?"

"Come on," he gave her a nudge. Their laughter died down and he lowered his voice, "really, though."

Thena tucked some of her hair, and what was attached to it, behind her ear. Her smile became bashful as she looked down at her open scrip on her lap. "Well...I wanted something in between action films. And...when you told me you were signed on-"

Gil's eyes lit up visibly.

"Stop it," she murmured, sticking her finger in between the plates of plastic armour on his shoulder just to give him a good poke. "Why did you take this, then?"

Gil shrugged. "I mean, my part is relatively small. I was told my shoot time would be half of what it usually is. And I get to be a literal knight in shining armour!"

"Well, you do come over to my side by the end of it," Thena murmured, flipping through her pages. It was only briefly mentioned, and it would be ultimately up to the director and how things looked onscreen the day of the shoot, but it was implied that the queen's guard would defect by the end of things.

"See?" Gil wiggled his pinkie at her. "You're still my queen at the end of the day."

"The poor, lonely fae queen will finally have a soul to match hers?" Thena rested her chin in her palm, batting her lashes at him.

"Well, I'm sure she'll be in need of some," Gil mirrored her playful body language, leaning forward until they could practically touch noses, "protection."

#Thenamesh Actors AU #behind the scenes is going to go feral with this footage #big ass production like this #Maleficent meets LOtR vibes?#and of course they got Thena and cast her as the sparkling white fairy queen #and she's like I kind of just wanted like a side part #and they're like no you're too pretty sorry #so she gets the opposite lead #but then promo has all these shots of her and the queen's guard??? being cute together????#like he picks her up and carries her?#they're best friends?#they're like literally always flirting?#yeah the guard is going to defect at the end of the movie #because they're going to get one singular shot #Gil is going to see what the queen is doing and say NO! This isn't Right!#he'll take up his sword against her #and then there will be one little shot of him and Thena looking at each other #and they're going to be like shit maybe this guy has been falling in love with the fairy queen the whole time?#think one-off film that somehow has off the charts shipping potential #from this one shot

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bonetrousled · 2 years

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I'm a little late to the OC questions, but may I know a bit about Quizmaster? Big fan of characters that are barely feigning being hinged for the sake of the public. Love your work!

FUUACK entirely forgot to answer this apologies. idk if this is meaning Backstory wise or fun facts so you get BOTH!!!! under a cut bc he has a lot going on. warnings for unreality/manipulation, christianity, and Gratuitous Murder

ok so BACKSTORY wise. this is as condensed as i can get it bc he has SO much occuring w him

he was a 80s podunk wisconsin farmboy named carter winsall who grew up in a Suffocatingly traditional christian household w like 12 siblings. he wasn't a complete outcast in high school, but with no real athletic ability or any stand out qualities, along w being looked over in the family by his mother he definitely felt Unseen

he LOVED television, though. movies and tv were a prime form of escapism to him and he dreamed of being center-stage on a show one day. a host of his own program where, even if there were others being interviewed or playing for prizes, he'd be the star. when his family found out that he was planning to go to film school after graduating, they were furious, and the event ended in him leaving home at 19 to live in a trailer he found in the woods that he modified into a shitty little studio.

armed with nothing more than a camera and some poorly thrown together props, he attempted to film his own pilots for a game show he named "quizmasters", using volunteer peers from high school as contestants. all the while, the woods around him felt strange- almost holy ground, like this was his rebirth. he was eventually approached by an "angel" -

(sidebar. "angel" in question in actuality a separate oc of mine named malice. they're a cosmically-powerful 6th grader who picks up some of my characters to try and Help Them and usually ends up ruining their lives and plays w them like barbie dolls. additionally they feed off of negative energy and do NOT realize it which usually results in more disaster)

-who offered guidance, reassurance, and advice, telling him that he could become WILDLY famous if they listened to him.

following this meeting, he became more and more irritable and on-edge, always looking and sounding completely drained, seeming paranoid when his crew asked him what his plans were for filming, frequently running off set to god-knows-where to convene with his "helper". but the pressure was mounting.

his crew hated the production, and some of them had even begun to walk off. the headaches, the feeling that he was trapped there, in that trailer, in those woods, the pressure to BE something, to DO something with himself- it was all mounting. malice recognized this, and decided to try and be helpful.

he really liked god, right? what if they told a little white lie, helped him do this in the name of "god", or something, and he tried just a little harder? maybe they could even pull some strings, subconsciously, and help him that way. it couldn't hurt, could it? he just needed a little shove, was all. so, shove they did. and that shove broke him.

carter louise winsall killed all eight members of his crew over the course of a week, filmed it all like he was running his game show, and was found headless in his trailer, sitting in the bathtub. the body was taken in for examination, but there was never any concrete proof as to what killed him. after another week, the body vanished, and the trailer burned. no suspects were ever found, and the case went completely cold.

seeing what had happened, malice decided to help just a LITTLE bit more, giving the failed icon who never got a break a second chance. with a little bit of tape, some hope, and good intent, a new star was born.

even though the trailer is gone, if you're in the forest, alone and tired, you'll find a television studio. completely empty, untouched, and unlocked- but the lights are on. if you go inside?

you'd better pray you know enough trivia to save your life.

#ask #yourmcboy #sorry this is SO LONG i tried to cut it down as much as possible but there's so many Interwoven things going on #mayhem ocs #my ocs: quizmaster

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sebsxphia · 1 year

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Sebbie, I've finally wracked up the courage to send this your way. I don't know if I'll write this little blurb as a fic or as headcannons, but I'm hoping either way that it comes out ok. I really wanna share this with everybody too but I know there's been some trouble sharing the same blurbs with others and I don't wanna get into that kinda hot water (lol).

I don't think it's any secret that Bob's a Disney kid. Growing up when Meemaw used to watch him and his siblings after school, they'd watch Disney movies all afternoon when the weather was horrible and they couldn't go outside.

Growing up, one of Bob's favorite books/movies was Robin Hood. The first time he ever saw the animated movie, he was five and absolutely loved it. When he got to be a little bit older, Bob took up archery at summer camp and wanted nothing more than to run around in the woods with a bow and arrow. When Bob got to be a grown up and joined the Navy, he saw all the adaptations, even the early ones (his favorites were always the 2010 version with Russel Crowe and of course the Disney version).

When you and Bob found out you were expecting Baby Auggie, you and Bob decided what you were gonna do for the nursery and of course Bob couldn't resist (plus his painting skills are un-fucking-believable, lol). You painted the walls a pale green along with trees and scenes from the books and films to make it look like the forest with Robin, Marian and his men all in the trees and bushes. You even crocheted Auggie's baby blankets out of sage green and white yarn, but also made some little needle-felted toys that were the characters (Bob's favorite was a little needle-felted figure of Friar Tuck with a tiny little beer stein in his hands, lol).

But you bet that when Auggie gets older, he's a mini version of Bob who watches the Disney version of Robin Hood and wants to do the same things Bob did when he was that age and whenever he sees you and Bob, you both remind him of Robin and Marian.

AWEEEEE this is so, so sweet! 🥹 and also, so, so real! he’s just like me watching beauty and the beast for the millionth time on VHS when i came home from school :(

the comparison to you and bobby, being robin and marian is so sweet 🥹 i love this so much! thank you so much for this thought my love! 💌

#💌you’ve got mail #robert bob floyd #auroralightsthesky <33

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thebunnyremix · 1 year

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You should tell us about a thing you like

Hmmm…what’s a thing I like that I wanna gush about for a few…there’s so many things I like that I can ramble on about for literal hours…

Oh, I know! Let me talk about Legend, an 80's fantasy film directed by Ridley Scott, and featuring Tim Curry at his finest.

Along with Willow, this dark and glittery film pretty much set my standards for the fantasy genre.

Truth be told, it scared the crap out of me as a kid. (Then again, i frightened easily at that age.) Child me could not handle the goblins and the amazing practical effects that brought them to life. They don't bother me now, but I couldn't even look at them as a kid. They creeped me out.

Anyway, I saw this movie as a kid because my sister had a horse obsession and she couldn't get enough of the unicorns. And who could blame her? I mean, damn. Look at them.

This is Jurassic Park level of amazing special effects. I'm still not convinced those weren't real unicorns Ridley Scott somehow smuggled on set. (Just like Spielberg totally smuggled real dinosaurs on set. Fight me.) Also, they make whale noises for some reason. I dunno why, but I like it. It's cool and adds to how ethereal they are.

The story revolves around Princess Lili and her forest-dwelling boyfriend, Jack. The Lord of Darkness wants to kill the unicorns, and use their horns to reshape the world more to his liking. So, he sends a trio of goblins to hunt the unicorns down.

Real talk? The makeup job on the goblins still holds up. I love their designs.

Anyway, Jack wants to show Lili the unicorns, which happen to be passing through. Lili unwittingly becomes the perfect bait to lure in the unicorns into a false sense of security when she can't resist petting one.

This leads to the goblins darting one of the unicorns, cornering him once he collapses, and cutting off his horn, sending the world spiraling into an eternal winter, and thus leaving his mate the last of their kind. Guilt-ridden, Lili sets out to make things right, while Jack bands together with his forest brethren to go after the Lord of Darkness...who now has the hots for Lili and has her captured along with the remaining unicorn.

And just when you think this can't get any more weird, we get a creepy, yet sexy dress dance.

Child me did not know why I liked this scene so much. Adult me knows why, though.

Now, there are two versions of this film. The director's cut, which is generally considered to be the better version, as it's more organized and has all the cut scenes intact. I grew up seeing the theatrical cut, which has a slightly more jumbled plot due to cut scenes and other meddling.

If the theatrical cut has any redeeming quality in my opinion, it's the soundtrack by Tangerine Dream. It's so...captivating. Just listen.

God, I just...I love the pretty noises so much...

But, there you go. That's a thing I like. 😁

To me, Legend is basically the movie equivalent of comfort food. But let me tell ya, if you like a good 80's aesthetic, the fantasy genre, and anything with Tim Curry, I recommend giving it a watch. Maybe watch both versions too. Decide which you like better. (Spoiler: The director's cut is better story-wise. But the theatrical cut has better music. Fight me.)

#ask #legend (1985)

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mickgaydolenz · 2 years

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SO I JUST REMEMBERED THIS DREAM I HAD

seriously this is gonna be fcking crazy buckle up

I was walking through a really really lovely neighborhood, looked like it could've been up north of where I live, the sun was setting but it was still bright out, I was like, this adult lady, and I was going to my dad's house to visit him, and he's my dad so I don't knock I just walk in and instead of my dad it was three strangers. dressed like members of the mafia. two guys and one lady (beautiful, might I add) and they stood up all fast and pulled me into the room and sat me on the lady's lap (I swear to god dream me is a lady killer and I had this dream like two years ago). They asked me who I was, what I was doing here, etc. then they just told me they were gonna kill my dad. naturally, I didn't wanna hear that, but then they kicked me out of the house and I ran all the way to the tennis court (apparently dream me knew that he was there) and I literally saw him playing tennis, I was running like hell so I was crazy out of breath and couldn't say anything and I was also across the street, but a car drove by and shot him. they literally drive by-ed my father. so I screamed and ran in the opposite direction, trying to get out of range if they decided to kill me, and eventually ran all the way into this forest thing, saw a hole in one of the tree roots that could fit me, and still thinking they were chasing after me, I crawled in, and on the inside, it was like this hallway, but I still had to crawl in it, but the hallway was nice. it had a very peaceful orange light and the walls had the kind of wallpaper hotel hallways have, and at the end of the hallway was a door, so I crawled towards it and opened it, only to reveal the same thing, only slightly smaller. and I kept crawling through these over and over until I was completely stuck and unable to move forward or backward, in the crawling position. and I knew I was never ever going to be able to get out of this. cause i'd been trying forever but I was wedged between the walls and stuck. and I'm an extremely claustrophobic person, so I start panicking, hyperventilating, and began smashing my head against the door in front of me to kill myself. I do that, to kill myself. because I'd rather be dead than stuck in between that. over and over I kept smashing my head against the wall, I can literally feel the dent in my head and there is blood everywhere but I'm not dead, I start screaming and crying and doing it harder and harder but I just don't die. then, all of the sudden, I'm my age again. and I'm jogging down the middle of the road at night in a suburban neighborhood. and eventually I stop and look at one of the nicest biggest houses in the neighborhood (it wasn't even a real neighborhood, just so you know) and think 'I wonder what it's like to kill someone,....' ????? so I opened the door to the house, grab a knife from the kitchen, and go upstairs to where an old lady was sleeping. now I don't know what I did exactly just that the next thing I was doing was burying her body IN HER OWN GARDEN. then I live my life for a few days but then there are cops at my door, who play a video on my TV of me burying the old lady's body in her garden, next thing I know I'm in a court room being sentenced to 24 years in prison. and while I was being taken away there were kids there who started singing "shes going away! oOooh she's going away! she'll be back in 24 years!" all cheery and I yelled at them "you are horrible kids!" then I woke up

AM I A CYCLE PATH????

*said in cheesy film noir voice* you lived long enough to see yourself become the villain kid 🕵️

BUT ALSO UUUUUUUUUHHH!?!?!??!!!?!?? gotta say the worst part of that whole dream was when you alice in wonderlanded yourself in the increasingly smaller hallways and decided to smASH YOUR HEAD IN!?!?!? ooooooooooooooooooof 😩. i like how murderer raya still thought she had the right to pass moral judgment on those kids 😂

#raya this dream went from sad to terrifying so fast dude #raya’s dreams :)#rhubarb asks

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eleni-cherie · 1 year

Text

among thieves ✨ || bts • pjm

- chapter 1.7

"what even am I to you? your rival, your lover, an obstacle or am I supposed to be your coffin?"

about two thieves who can't live with nor without each other. and a joint past that comes back to threaten them.

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masterlist: here

ALTERNATIVE UNIVERSE. CHARACTERS NOT NECESSARILY LIKE THE REAL PERSONS. ALSO VERY UNREALISTIC PLOT LOL - JUST PRETEND READING A MANGA/COMIC OR WATCHING A FILM, REALLY.

SUGGESTIVE THEMES. MENTIONS OF VIOLENCE & BLOOD (BUT NOTHING TOO GRAPHIC, IT'S STILL A COMEDY!)

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Barranquilla, Columbia

After weeks of other circumstances interrupting their initial plan, they had eventually found their way to Columbia where the last clue had let them to.

'Los Ladrones' was the name of a beach in a big forest area right next to Barranquilla. The Rio Magdalena deviding the city from it. Big lakes and swamps filling the well vegetated area. And north-east of it in the middle of a lake, there was 'Isla de Corazón'.

However, they hadn't been able to come too far, when unexpected visitors having distracting them once again. Although perhaps they should've foreseen them not leaving them alone for too long.

"I see eight." Jimin lowered the binoculars and sat up from his laying position. Propping his back against a rock. "How did they even find out?"

"Maybe you told them when they drugged you?" Yoongi shrugged, also lowering his binoculars. Glancing at him with raised brows to which the younger guy frowned. Becoming insecure about himself for a moment. "You think so?"

"Maybe, who knows. I wouldn't blame you though."

Honestly, he didn't remember doing anything like that. He did remember offering the info in exchange of them dropping the 'job', but since Kir had refused, he hadn't revealed this information. As far as he remembered. After all, his memories went blank when it came to anything after that pill she had initially given him.

"I also count eight men," Taehyung mumbled then, zooming in more, "No, actually ten."

Another loud explosion went off in the distance. Smoke rising among plants. They frowned at the sight of it. "These idiots are just using explosives anywhere huh?"

"I knew even pops wouldn't be able keeping them locked up for too long," Arabella sighed, "Their mates probably helped them escape. They always got backup plans."

She snatched the binoculars from Taehyung then, earning a groan from him. However, she got curious and also wanted to see what was going on exactly. Zooming into the large group of black-dressed people when her eyes fell on a particular person. Her brows knitting together as she kept herself from gasping. "Is this - is this the woman you were talking about?"

"Yeah," Jimin responded, hand gliding through his hair at the unpleasent memory. "Her name's-"

"Kir, I know."

"Oh, you know her?" He didn't know why he sounded so surprised. After all it wasn't the first time she had recognised someone of them. After all, she had spent a large part of her life as one of them. And yet, when he noticed Arabella's jaw clenching at his question, he couldn't help but wonder if there was more to it.

"Yeah, I remember her," she eventually spoke up. She swallowed hard then as a flood of memories ran in front of her mind's eye.'From now on, you don't have a family. You don't have anything.' - It was hard to forget someone like that.

Lowering the binoculars, she handed them back to Taehyung. Absentmindedly staring to the direction of their opponents, then at her silver bracelet and Jimin eyed her worried, noticing the drop in her expression.

"The only good thing is they haven't reached the right area yet." He nodded at Yoongi's remark, averting his eyes from Arabella. He stood up then, offering his hands to his friends to pull themselves up. "They're close though, so let's keep moving before they do."

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'Heart-Island', which sadly wasn't heart-shaped nor had anything else that would indicate the choice of its name, was as it seemed, just some kind of entrance. A deep cave leading them subterranean into catacombs, with the occasional sounds of explosions and small quakes accompanying them. Meaning Kir and her men weren't too far away from their position and nearing them faster than they had expected.

"Creepy pirate statues - check. Carved stairs - check. I think it's save to say we're in a pirate cave," Taehyung chuckled as they climbed down the stairs.

The rocky ground and narrow paths making it difficult at some parts, but they continued past chasms and pointy rocks until reaching a dead-end. Reaching a wall with a small hole on one side. It looked like you were supposed to put your hand in it, so Jimin reached inside and frisked around. "A little slimy but.. there's a lever."

"Then give it a pull."

He frowned at Taehyung. "It might be a trap!"

"So what?"

"I'll lose a hand??"

His friend grinned. "So we'll get you a nice hook. Like a real pirate."

Yoongi and Arabella couldn't help but stifle a laugh at this, contrary to Jimin who was quite unamused by that option. Shooting him a dead glare.

"Just give it a pull already," Yoongi complained then, getting tired and inpatient of standing there instead of continuing.

The younger guy rolled his eyes. "Nice hook.." he repeated Taehyung's words under his breath, peeking at Arabella who was staring at him with expecting eyes. And he gulped. Eventually doing as he was told with a shaky sigh. "Alright, I'll give it a go."

Thankfully pulling the lever didn't cost him his hand. The only thing that happened was the wall giving in, revealing a door which they entered. On the other side being another wall with an imposing looking contraption, giant stone-wheel and chains running from it to cogs, blocking their way anew.

'For those proven worthy, the treasure awaits. For those who prove false, behold your grim fate.' Arabella read out loudly the inscription on a pillar.

"Oh great, another puzzle," Taehyung mumbled under his breath, taking a closer look on it. There was another hole in the wall with probably another lever inside. This one clearly being a trap this time. Obviously, otherwise there wouldn't be that big contraption next to it. His eyes caught something like a string hanging out of the hole and without thinking much, he pulled at it. An eery scratching echoing came from behing the wheel then, flowing through the cave.

"Taehyung, what the fuck!" Arabella exclaimed panicked, taking a step back and went behind Jimin - who really took pride of that.

"What?" Taehyung rolled his eyes and shrugged then. "Suck it and see."

Another clicking noise was heard then, getting everyone's attention back.

"Are we gonna die now?" Yoongi nervously joked, looking around to see if there was any sign of danger. The grip on his sword tightening. However, all their worries seemed redudant, at least for now, because nothing seemed to happen after all. Only the inner wheels of the mechanism turned, revealing symbols on the stone-wheel.

Taehyung took a step forward, inspecting them from his lower position. "Okay, these are clearly the zodiac signs of someone, but who?"

Arabella shrugged as she stepped forward to take a look at them as well. "I'd go with the one who hid the treasure here in the first place - Anne Bonney."

"That'd be one. But whose are the others?"

"Calico Cat's and Mary Read's, obviously," Jimin said then. "Does anyone remember which belongs to who though?"

They looked at each other, shaking heads. "I did read their birth dates when we first researched about them, but I forgot," Taehyung admitted shyly, scratching his neck. Yoongi sighed then, taking a small notebook out from the back of his pocket. "I knew noting down would be helpful.." He browsed inside, stopping at a page then. "Oh! Anne's was one day before mine."

"So pisces like you," Jimin remarked with a smirk, which the older guy chose to ignore. Continuing, "Jack's was 26th December."

"Oh!" Taehyung exclaimed enthusiastically then, "A capricorn, like me!"

"And Mary's.. unknown."

Arabella snorted sarcastically. "Like mine."

They exchanged a glance. The coincidence quite astonishing, and a little bit creepy, in a way.

"Well, that makes me the misfit, I guess," Jimin laughed under his breath. Redirecting his focus on the cypher. "But that means the pisces one should be on top. The capricorn on the right and.. the third one's.. a taurus?"

"Maybe Mary was a taurus after all."

"When did Mary die?" Arabella asked then, looking at Yoongi who quickly checked his notes.

"28th April."

She hummed, making a thinking expression which Jimin couldn't help but find incredibly attractive. "That'd be taurus. Perhaps she took her date of death instead?"

"Possible."

"My smart girl," Jimin grinned, making her blush for a moment before she waved him off.

"Anyway," Taehyung said then, taking a glance at the wheel again. "The signs are in the wrong positions."

He walked up to the cogwheels then, noticing a handle on them which he simply spun. And indeed, by turning them he rotated the puzzle wheels until reaching the correct positions. It clicked again. Everyone waiting expectingly.

"Is it solved now?" Arabella asked confused.

"Not sure.."

"Well, there's only one way to find out. Someone has to pull the lever in the hole there," Yoongi said, pointing at it. To which Jimin shot him an annoyed look. "And with 'someone' you mean me."

"Obviously."

Dragging a sigh, Jimin walked up to the hole. Taking a deep breath then, trying to trust in them and their puzzle solving skills. "Here goes my hand," he nervously chuckled before pulling it. The wall around it giving in again, revealing an exit much to his relief. And they left the area and walked into a cavern.

Sunlight illuminating it from its open end, sea water flowing in there as well. Creating a bay inside the cavern. It seemed like the underground path had led them all the way from the forest to the shore. And as they neared the edge of the cliff they were standing on, their eyes grew wide.

There it was, the ship.

Another explosion above them interrupting their awe, shaking the ground above them. The others were also near.

"Let's go."

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