#and i didn't realize it was sort of crossover with some of her other stuff

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Indie Bookstore Day 2024!

I can hardly be expected to have shelf control if Indie Bookstore Day and my birthday are within, like, a week of each other, right?? ESPECIALLY not if one of them was doing a Buy 3 Get 1 Free on paperbacks (evidenced by the bottom row), and if ARCHANGELS OF FUNK and TRANSLATION STATE were Birthday Gifts To Myself (pre-ordered in December and everything!)??

Anyway! Great week for books! Good thing we gave up on the moderated book buying ban, huh.

[ectonurites]

Are Tim and Cass Cain actually close in canon? Or is that more of a fanon thing that gained canon status?

Alright, so the tldr answer is that yes pre-reboot they were close—but it wasn't something that happened immediately/right off the bat, it took time, and they didn't always perfectly see eye-to-eye. But like, it's not just some totally fanon thing, they were absolutely close.

I'm using past-tense in the above though because it's like... all the actual content with them becoming/being close is pre-reboot. Anything post-reboot with them either had them back at square one (during N52 stuff) or like, just sort of handwavey 'oh they're close again' without much actual elaboration/explanation. Theoretically nowadays everything's canon again so all the old stuff applies, but as far as I'm aware nothing has really dug all that deep back into the two of them/their dynamic.

Now, to give a brief crash course on Tim & Cass's relationship in canon...

Early on they weren’t all that close because Tim was absolutely intimidated by her & her background and like, in general seemed to just find her kinda off-putting:

(Robin (1993) #73)

However Tim eventually gets over himself & after working side-by-side with her a little bit realizes he shouldn't let being intimidated by her stop them from being friends and working together:

(Batgirl (2000) #18)

After this point they work together on several occasions, definitely communicating much better than in their initial appearances together and clearly getting along well. They're a fun lil duo:

(Superman/Batman Vol. 1 #5, Superboy Vol. 4 #85)

Then… after a while, War Games happens. Gotham goes to shit, Steph dies (well, we nowadays know she didn't really, but they sure were both grieving) and so they both independently move to Blüdhaven, which leads us to the Robin/Batgirl: Fresh Blood crossover. Which has some fun little moments with them:

(Batgirl (2000) #58)

As well as some on the more tense side, as they both navigate mourning Steph and the clashes in their ideologies/approaches to hero work—the fact that Cass wants to be & be like Batman, and the fact that Tim absolutely does not:

(Batgirl (2000) #59)

After the crossover they mostly do their own thing staying out of each other's ways in Blüdhaven—though they do get another little story together in this timeframe in Batman Allies: Secret Files & Origins that sort of rehashes the above conflict during some training together & a team-up.

And we DO also get the cute (and oft-mentioned by the fandom) moment where Tim mentions she frequently breaks into his house to shower & steal rice krispies (just for clarity sake, while fandom almost exclusively calls her 'Cass' largely to avoid confusion with Cassandra 'Cassie' Sandsmark, within the comics themselves both Cassandras get called 'Cass' and 'Cassie' at various points—considering Cass is the one who lives in the same city as Tim at this point in canon, that's definitely who he's talking about here)

(Robin (1993) #138)

So like, at this point they are absolutely comfortable with one another and pretty close, but just, they don't see eye-to-eye on everything so it's not some flawless friendship (and I say friendship specifically because at this point we're still a few years out from them actually becoming siblings). But it's absolutely an interesting dynamic!

Then… after Infinite Crisis we get to the One Year Later/OYL era which is... bad for Cass. Terrible horrible character assassination we all refer to as the 'Evil Cass arc' which began in Tim's book. I don't wanna pull panels from it because it's just... it's bad!!!!!!!!!!!! There's a reason it got retconned into Cass having been brainwashed—because it was bad.

I guess the only thing worth bringing up here in relation to Tim & Cass's relationship though (because as mentioned, Cass gets retconned into it having been brainwashing so anything from her in this era is irrelevant/moot) is the fact that Tim was obviously very upset about the whole situation because Cass is someone he cares about and he even says he considers family.

To fast forward through that mess, when we get to the end of it and the 'oh it was brainwashing haha!' retcon, Tim was the one to have on hand a counter-serum that could free her from Deathstroke's control:

(Teen Titans Vol. 3 #44)

Once Cass is no longer forced to be evil and ooc, she gets a little mini at the end of which Bruce formally offers to adopt her (and Tim, who had earlier been adopted by Bruce, is present for this—so from this point on they go from a more general 'we're like family' to actually 'we are adopted siblings').

Buuuut then Final Crisis & Battle for the Cowl both occur and Cass gets extremely pushed aside by DC, giving up the Batgirl mantle to Steph and heading off to Hong Kong.

At which point we find out that Tim & Cass have actually kept in contact (just... off-panel) during this time when she's been out of Gotham and he's been off doing all sorts of stuff:

(Red Robin #17)

When they see each other in person again, Tim urges her to be a Bat again. Maybe not Batgirl if that's not what she wants, but to wear the symbol and be part of the family. (Which she does take him up on, keeping the suit he brought her and becoming Black Bat).

She pops up again at the end of Red Robin to save Tim & also help him pull off a fake assassination attempt on himself—ya know standard stuff.

And then right before the reboot we get to see them working alongside Damian and Dick in Gates of Gotham, and see one final time that yeah—these two have kept in touch after everything, and are definitely far more on one another's wavelength nowadays than they were back in the 'fresh out of War Games' era:

(Batman: Gates of Gotham #2, #5)

So like, does fanon over exaggerate them and their relationship? Aaaaabsolutely—that’s what fanon does. But they did definitely become close after everything they went through and had a fun dynamic together!

Sadly though, as I mentioned at the start of the post, the n52 wiped everything back to a clean slate. And while nowadays post-Infinite Frontier everyone’s histories have been restored their dynamic has never really been the same again.

[postal-ech]

Alright no, I need to go into detail on this shit cause I swear to god, it lives rent free in my head. I'll split the post off here cause there's gonna be some spoilers for Lisa the Undone as well as a few other Lisa Fan Games that are on my mind

I'm also giving a CW here, cause Lisa covers some dark topics, and I want to unload it a bit here, especially given what I've seen out of Lisa the Undone.

Buckle up, it's gonna be a long, very autistically hyperfixated post.

So

I initially never really got into Lisa when it first came out. I was a shitlord that saw the fan content first, especially this project known as Interlopers - essentially, a Lisa-Undertale crossover featuring Buddy Armstrong and Chara Dreemur.

It piqued my interest a bit, but I never realized how one sided it was in exploring this stuff, especially given it was this crossover AU. It focused mainly on the Undertale fandom and some of the things that were popular at the time. It WAS going to explore its own version of Olathe on a sequel series but that was canceled later on, and the idea has become dormant since.

Later on, my curiosity grew and I looked into the Lisa side of things more. I discovered Lisa the Pointless, Lisa the Hopeful, and then I started looking into other fan projects here too.

Why this pretext? Because that was the gateway into Lisa proper.

I only got Lisa the Painful and Lisa the Joyful after its definitive edition released. At this point, I was pretty well versed in Brad's story - his trauma and pain, the struggles he faces after, the Joy abuse to numb the pain - so when I saw the campfire scenes between Brad and the other party members, especially with members like Terry or Queen Rodger, Bo and Olan, it sparked something there that's for fucking sure.

And then I got to the secret boss.

I'm a dude thar enjoys reading into shit, looking deep at the meaning of written projects be it games, movies, books, etc - Lore is my god damn drug, to put it in a TL:DR.

Seeing this huge call back to Lisa the First, Seeing the symbolism of joy spiders worshipping a Blue Eclipse above Brad's childhood home, fighting the manifestation of Marty Armstrong and reading the deeper, personal stuff that's said afterwards

That song, too, towards the very end of the sequence, with the music that's reminiscent of s church choir singing as Brad's childhood self descends into the darkness

That's what truly sold me on Lisa.

I know everyone has mixed feelings on Lisa the Joyful of course, especially in the way it handled Buddy - Some people were fine with it, and others didn't like the way she became this bloodthirsty girl out to murder shit indiscriminately

I say fair enough honestly, Joyful was a bit of a slog to get through compared to Painful

HOWEVER

There were two things I still enjoyed about it:

One, Dustin. Dustin was and still is the goddest boy despite his own flaws, and I was upset it wasn't explored more before his untimely death. Buddy actually starting to care about him before it all went downhill was tragic in its own right

Two, the DE content. Again, a lot of people were still mixed on it, but personally I saw it as a better expansion into Buddy healing from her trauma, understanding that- while Brad certainly was in the wrong in the way he raised her, he still tried his best in a world that definitely wanted to exploit her in the most horrific ways imaginable.

I'm fine with her even mentioning Lisa cause let's all be real here, she's definitely at least heard of her through Brad in some way, shape or form, and the ending bit where he explains the dead flower to her only reinforces that for me.

The more supernatural side of things feel interesting too, cause maybe it's just me, but reading into things, The Flash always had this sort of supernatural spin to it - how Olathe got so fucked up, how time doesn't seem to be entirely right in some areas or how everything got all mountainous and the likes. Probably just headcanon stuff but fuck it, I enjoy the speculation.

AND NOW, THE MOMENT YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR: LISA THE UNDONE.

So, with that context out of the way, I'll get into my proper thoughts with Lisa: The Undone.

Firstly, again I know not everyone will really agree with the ideas the Definitive Edition put out, especially in the case of Joyful with its Lisa the First callback and Buddy just slamming on Buzzo the way she does. That being said, I love the way Lisa the Undone tackles these ideas Joyful initially set our and explores them more.

The idea of Buddy being less hateful at first, just wanting to genuinely explore the weird and wacky world of Olathe despite its darkness is very welcome. With Dustin especially, this is only amplified.

A lot of the headcanoned and original stuff feel like they can fit right into the base Lisa games too honestly, and that's another thing I really appreciate about this fan gams

But the most important thing to me is the found family relationship between Dustin and Buddy, as well as the two other companions you can recruit.

Dustin is by no means perfect. This is undeniable enough given his actions in Painful and Joyful - He wants to do good, but it becomes a bit of a messiah complex especially for Buddy - who mind you, is only a pubescent kid during all of this shit. This is still translated well in this fan game, just less of a prominent character point - He still wants Buddy to have a good life and to be safe, but there's a clear struggle with seeing her as the Future of Olathe

And seeing her as just Buddy. Just Her.

And the fact that over the time, throughout the chapters, you see Dustin refer to her less as this important figure for the world and more as like a sibling, or just straight up family, that right there is what sells me on this.

Especially towards the end, where depending on your choices in the game, Buddy does eventually admit she can't help but care about people like Dustin.

That hits. That hits a good fucking bit.

And that's what I love to see in this. Sure, it may end with one of the two dying in part 2 of Undone, or depending on your actions it may end with tragedy for either of them

But the fact it works this found family dynamic so God damn well here, with how Buddy and Dustin care for each other AS that family despite Brad's own fuck-ups between the both of them.

Fuck man. It's good, and I hope this fandom explores it more here - especially with DE putting things into an interesting context too.

On a side note, God I also hope it explores DE's Warlord skills mechanics in the future, it's some god damn martial arts shit I love. Sure it may be Mega Man-esque bur god dammit the idea of Buddy learning and incorporating some ideas given from how each Warlord fights is SUCH a good idea and if there's ever a fan game that had Buddy exploring the greater world of Olathe, meeting the likes of Alex Churchland or Beltboy and shit like that, I wanna see her develop her own form of martial arts with or without the katana she's grown accustomed with god dammit.

God, I love Lisa. I love these games as much ad Undertale and Deltarune, and I need to write out some more shit for this series.

Thanks Austin Jorgensen you god damn mad man, and thanks to the Fandom for putting out such genuine bangers.

[yetanothergreyjedi]

Left and Returned: Definitely Nothing Wrong

Danny Phantom x Supernatural Crossover

Part 2

Ao3

Chapter 3

After the angel heckling, Danny stuck around for the initial explanations. But as the explanations moved from recounting the events into... theological debate... yeah, Danny bailed on that. Look after winning fistfights with a certain amount of beings who claim to be gods, it's hard to be reasonable about that stuff. Danny's opinions on the afterlife are not super helpful to people who aren't living in ectoplasm rich environments.

For now he has a job to do. His ghost sense goes off before he opens the door. So he's not surprised to find the electronics are as fried as you'd expect after a being with the power to cause electrical surges spent a few months running around in it. At least his carbon monoxide detector stays silent.

Little fun fact: carbon monoxide makes spirits restless. Restless spirits cause electrical surges. Continued electrical surges, cause long term electrical fires. If you have the first problem, getting the other two problems becomes a lot more likely.

Less fun fact: Danny has never met a hunter who knows this.

How many hunters have died of carbon monoxide poisoning while they huddled in a salt circle to avoid the angry dead? How many HVAC guys have gotten possessed or murdered? How many people get lucky enough to have both problems sorted only to have something start on fire?

It's a whole thing. Yes, he gives this rant to every hunter he encounters. Hopefully, it sticks with at least some of them. Sam had said he'd do it. Bobby had pulled them over at the nearest hardware store and bought three detectors.

At least he knows it sunk in for someone.

But here the air is clean and normal and smells a little like ectoplasm. He's able to talk down the ghost without the thermos, but she has an electrical core, and he can't replace this much wiring in the time he has. He shows the owner, shuts down the power to the rooms that absolutely will start a fire and gives her some reputable local contacts. It's not ideal, it rarely is. But both the house's owner and the ghost know what they need to do to keep surviving and that's better than things were this morning.

He wishes it felt like victory.

He eats, takes a nap in the back of his van, and when he wakes up he's missed a dozen calls.

Someone is killing hunters. Of course there is.

He forwards the message to Jazz, Sam, Tucker, Valerie, and Wes, in case he's gotten mixed up in something new. They all check in. They all mention ghosts behaving... oddly. They agree they have it handled. Jazz asks about Sam.

Danny calls the Winchesters. They don't pick up.

 

---

Regret coils as Dean realizes who's ghost stands before him. He understands exactly why so many friends fell to this, stepping out of reach as she swings at his face. It's hard to do, she has every right to hit him, it's his fault she's dead.

That is why she is here. She's here to get her revenge, and he doesn't even know if the name he knows is her real one.

"It's okay, I'm not a demon."

"You're the girl the demon possessed."

"Meg Masters. Nice to finally talk to you when I'm not, you know, choking on my own blood. It's okay. Seriously, I'm just a college girl. Sorry — was. I was walking home one night and got jumped by all this smoke. Next thing you know, I'm a prisoner... Now, I was awake. I had to watch while she murdered people."

"I'm sorry."

"Oh, yeah? So sorry you had me thrown off a building?"

"Well, we thought— "

She shoves him, not with the strength of a girl puppeted by a demon, not with the strength of a ghost. She shoves him with the strength of a young woman who never lifts more than her college books. That's why he stumbles to the ground. "No, you didn't think! I kept waiting, praying! I was trapped in there screaming at you! 'Just help me, please!' You're supposed to help people, Dean. Why didn't you help me? "

"I'm sorry. "

"Stop saying you're sorry!" She approaches quick, ready to kick him. He's going to let her too, but the blow doesn't come.

She screams in fury as she's lifted by her waist. "Do you have any idea what it's like to be ridden for months by pure evil?! While your family has no idea what happened to you?!"

Danny holds her arms, stopping her from continuing her assault.

Meg continues, "It wasn't just me, I had a sister. A little sister.  You know how little siblings are, right? How they depend on you. She was never the Same after I disappeared. She just... she just got lost. And when my body was lying in the morgue beat-up and broken..."

She stops struggling, going limp as she tries to continue.

"Say what you need to say, we're listening." Danny tells her.

"She killed herself, she needed me and I wasn't there." Tears pool in her eyes. "All he was thinking about was his family, his revenge, his demons! 50 words of Latin a little sooner, and I—

She chokes on her sobs, "and I'd still be alive. My baby sister might still be alive."

Kid holds her up as she crys. Wet, gross, snotty crying, not like the pretty tears on TV. Kid whispers comforting things and lets her shout accusing things at Dean until she cries herself out.

"Do you remember your door?" He asks her when her breathing's evened.

"Yeah... it's blue, has some stickers..." she murmurs. And Danny gestures to the door across from them, which does not match Bobby's decor.

"Go home, Meg. Go rest." She reaches for the handle ugly brand on her hand turning green and vanishing as she turns it. As the door closes behind her, it's Bobby's door again.

"Dean!" Sam's voice echos from downstairs.

"Here!" Dean responds, grabbing the kid and pulling him after him as he goes to find his brother. "The symbol on her hand, you recognized it?"

"They have no right." Danny snarls.

"I'm gonna take that as a yes."

"What symbol?" Bobby asks, and he looks pretty okay for a guy who went missing when all the other people who went missing had their hearts ripped out. Sam scrambles to draw it for him.

The kid starts to pace the room. "They were at peace . This didn't call the restless dead, it woke the sleeping. They had. No. Right."

"The mark of the witness? " Bobby asks, "I'd have to double check."

"That's a name for it." The kid really sounds completely different when he's this mad.

"Follow me."

 

---

 

"...coated in salt, 100% ghost proof."

Dean watches the kid stumble across the threshold. He'd miss it if he wasn't looking for it. Yesterday, Danny had been wearing his pain on his face for all to see, it made it easier to look past it now. But Dean had seen his dad wear that expression, seen it on his brother, hell, he'd worn it himself a thousand times— Danny was in pain, but determined to push past it. He'd been fine a minute ago. Bobby's bunker was hurting him.

And Dean didn't say a word about it.

Kid had grabbed a ghost, picked her up and sent her home with nothing but himself and some words. Dean didn't know of anything that could do that. He did know that there was a chance Danny had saved him from getting his heart ripped out. Dean probably would've thought of something, but still. He wasn’t gonna kick the kid while he was down, definitely not while he was as determined to stop this as they were.

For what it's worth, he has no issue prepping rock salt for the shotguns as Bobby pages through the book, the silence is enough time for Dean's mind to wander back to earlier.

"See this is why I can't get behind God." Dean tells them.

Sam sighs.

"Still debating theology?" Danny asks.

"If he doesn't exist, fine. Bad crap happens to good people. That's how it is. There's no rhyme or reason — just random, horrible, evil — I get it, okay. I can roll with that. But if he is out there, what's wrong with him? Where the hell is he while all these decent people are getting torn to shreds? How does he live with himself? You know, why doesn't he help?"

"This is really bothering you."

"It's not bothering you?"

"What I asked Castiel, it was a genuine question."

"What?" Sam asked, they hadn't relayed the amount of angel-poking they'd done.

"He said he was an angel of the Lord. I asked which lord."

"I mean, if he's an angel then he meant God." Sam pointed out.

Danny shrugged. "You've fought gods before. You've told me."

"Pagan gods, Not God."

"I fought a Stormbringer once. When it angered it formed a lightning storm over half the continent. One minute there were clear skies, the next hail like golf balls, tornadoes, floods."

"That freak storm?! That was years ago, boy, how old were you?"

"Fourteen. That's not the point. The point is, that the people who summoned him called him God's wrath, but he called himself Vortex, among other things..." Danny quiets, lost in the memory for a moment. Then he starts back in on the salt rounds, packing them with increased efficiency.

"It was barely an effort for him to bring the country to its knees, and it wasn’t a human who defeated him, when it came down to it." Dean notes the careful phrasing. "I've seen a lot of weird. I think that if Castiel's Lord is the god you're worried about, then he's probably worried about the things strong enough to fight him."

"Danny," Sam says, "that makes this whole thing a lot less reassuring."

"Yeah, that's freaking terrifying, kid."

Danny fits the last of his salt rounds into a bandolier and drops it on the table with a clatter. He grins. "I can make it worse if you want?"

"Let's not, for now. You're right about the mark." Bobby announces. "They witnessed the unnatural. None of them died what you'd call ordinary deaths. See, these ghosts— they were forced to rise. They woke up in agony. They were like rabid dogs. It ain't their fault. Someone Rose them... on purpose."

"Who?" Sam asks.

"Do I look like I know? But whoever it was used a spell so powerful it left a mark, a brand on their souls. Whoever did this had big plans—"

"Is there a way to find out?" Danny asked, the murder back in his eyes. They weren't turning colors this time though,  they stayed normal human blue.

"Not that I have here, and we have bigger problems. It's called "the rising of the witnesses." It figures into an ancient prophecy."

"Wait, wait. What kind of prophecy?

"Revelations kind. This is a sign, boys."

"A sign of what?"

"The apocalypse."

"Apocalypse? The apocalypse, apocalypse? The four horsemen, pestilence, $5-a-gallon-gas apocalypse?"

"That's the one. The rise of the witnesses is a -- a mile marker."

"Okay, so, what do we do now?" Sam asks.

"Road trip. Grand Canyon, Star Trek Experience—"

"Can we focus?! We find a way to send them to the keeper of tales so they're story will be heard and they can be appeased."

"Well, I don't know about all of that... but I've got a spell it just says it will put them back to rest... if I've translate—"

Danny is out of his seat and looking over the book before Bobby could finish.

"—ed it correctly..." he pushes the book so the kid can get a better look.

Dean raises his eyebrows at Bobby, but he's too busy watching the kid to acknowledge.

"This is really old." Danny mutters, "Some names are out of date, but it mentions the roll they fill in the spell so it should work."

"Names out of date... you know better ones, for... the ancient spell?"Dean asks.

He didn't expect the kid to say, "yeah," and pick up a pen.

"Subject matter expert does the spell," Bobby offers, okay. So, Dean missed something, since when does Bobby hand off this stuff? Since when is Danny the 'subject matter expert?'

"I can... or... look, once we start, all the witnesses who haven't been appeased are going to be compelled to stop us. I can add a clause at the beginning, draw them off while you finish the spell."

"I don't know..."

"I'll go with you." Sam volunteers.

"Are we sure we should split up?" Dean asks.

"You'll have a better chance to complete it if you aren't being swarmed by angry ghosts." Sam points out.

"Maybe we should be the bait," Dean suggested, "Both of you know the spell and can troubleshoot if there's problems, Sam and I can't help that."

"Do you know your true names?"

"What?"

"Do you know the name that encompasses all that you are? And can you write it in a way that covers it but prevents it from being stolen."

Dean turns to stare at him, he doesn't look up from the book.

"If you can,  then sure, if not, then we really shouldn't make those bargains and we don't have time for that."

"Is this related to how you're older than you are?" Dean asks, because he was starting to think Danny hadn't actually been delirious after the seance.

"Yeah."

"You gonna explain that?" Bobby asks.

"There was a summer that didn't happen, and some time travel."

"Time travel." Dean repeated.

"Oh, yeah, I think I'm older than I am too..." Sam realizes.

"That doesn't—"

"Remember the timeloop, Dean? I know you don't remember the six months after the timeloop in the timeline where the Trickster refused to let you live."

"What?!"

"I'm done modifying the spell." Danny said firmly postponing a conversation Dean will be having with his brother.

 

---

Once the fire is started, Bobby burns the paper with Danny's sigils and begins the spell. Dean follows orders, he gathers materials from the near-empty house. Nothing bothers him. He doesn't need the shotgun or the iron fire poker. The spell takes three minutes.

It's another five before Sam and his friend return. They're battered and dirty, but they're alive and they have no serious injuries.

Bobby makes dinner.

They try to help but get kicked out of the kitchen after all the chopping is done.

Sam doesn't tell him about whatever he saw. Dean wonders if he knows what's up with Danny and just won't tell him.

Dinner is hearty and they dont talk because they're too busy eating.

It's been a long day. Yesterday was long too.

Questions can wait till after they sleep, and Dean really wants to sleep.

It's a shame the angel doesn't want him too.

[raevenlywrites]

Raev's Fic Masterlist

Since tumblr can be a little allergic to links, I thought I'd take a second to ramble about all the various little (and not so little) fics I have up on Ao3

Den of Shadows

Jaguar's Midnight: Currently a single chapter of me exploring ideas of a Midnight that is more blatantly BDSM and less human trafficking. Maybe more to come? Who knows

Unpublished Turquoise thing about her time with Daryl (pester me about if it you're interested)

Hawksong/Kiesha'ra

Ties that Bind (ongoing, 30 chps) A queer, polyamorous, Romeo and Juliet with shapeshifters set on a backdrop of the first tentative peace in a thousand year war. Canon's hotter cousin. Not currently explicit but plans to potentially get there

Frayed Knots (ongoing, 20 chps) The place where all the scenes I thought would go in TTB but didn't wind up. Some one offs, some deleted scenes. A mixed bag of spicy adult stuff and just fun character exploration. Iirc spicy chapters are marked as such

Dasi High (abandoned, 4 chps) Highschool AU of Maeve and Kiesha and Co, if their story was on the CW

Forbidden Skies (hiatus, 2 chps) Crossover with Forbidden Game. Julian is a falcon and Jenny and co are avians and serpiente. Basically FB's chars and plot cosplaying as K'r

Forbidden Game

Forbidden Skies, see above

Holy Fire (one off) A sort of song fic where Zach thinks way too hard about Jenny and tries to become a magician

Hearts Desires (ongoing, 2 chps) Still playing with Zach the magician, this one is meant to be a fairly short exploration of magic/runes, Zach's obsession with Jenny, his inability to readjust after the game, and coming out to himself. And tree sex. It's a weird one.

Unpublished pre-canon Jenny thing where she's kind of aware of something (Julian) watching her at night (spicy, pester me about it if you're interested)

Longer descriptions under the cut

Ties that Bind: A queer, polyamorous, Romeo and Juliet with shapeshifters set on a backdrop of the first tentative peace in a thousand year war. Anticipated f/f, m/m, and many other shapes of m/f/m and/or f/m/f, potentially kinky if I ever get it there. Also potentially ace/qpr stuff if I can ever figure out my MC and what is true in this fic vs what belongs in side projects. Canon's hotter cousin with more magic, more setting development, A LOT more romance, and a distant relation to the original in the way that Vaporeon resembles Eevee. It wants to still fit in canon's clothes but really needs to admit its grown too big for that.

This is the big one. I realized revisiting my favorite childhood series that the big epic romance I always remembered was mostly in my head. So I decided to get it out of my head and onto paper. That is... not what happened XD It follows the basic Romeo/Julietness of Hawksong, but I decided to really explore the world and characters and so made a lot of executive decisions bc there actually isn't that much about the world/characters in the original. It's diverged wildly, spiraled out of control into a 30+ chapters novel (lets be honest) and isn't ending any time soon. It's the one I most want to work on so send me asks and encouragement about it so I can get working on it again :P

Basically, Zane and Danica are still deeply dedicated to peace. They think the idea of getting married to achieve it is ridiculous, but they're desperate enough to keep it on the back burner. Dani gets to know Zane (and Adelina) as friends. She explores her relationship with Rei. She struggles with bureaucracy and a well-meaning mother that doesn't always support her in the way she needs. Also there's a bit more magic, a lot more setting, and a bunch of characters I kinda made up to help flesh things out (hello Vasili's made up cousin). Current plans include finishing it with some sort of marriage, but I haven't decided if Zanica is endgame or not (the dynamic currently in the lead in my head is Dani takes Adelina as her Alistair, Zane takes Rei as his Nag, and the four of them all kinda co-rule. We'll see. Everyone is going to kiss everyone else before its done that's for sure)

Frayed Knots (ongoing, 20 chps) The place where all the scenes I thought would go in TTB but didn't wind up. Some one offs, some deleted scenes. A mixed bag of spicy adult stuff and just fun character exploration. Iirc spicy chapters are marked as such Current offerings include: abandoned TTB starts, some BDSM scenes with Z/D/R/A, Dani getting herself off and thinking too hard, an alternative Snakecharm opening from Kel's POV, some Oliza stuff, some Marus/Urban stuff, and some Dasi High stuff. Really, Frayed Knots is a great place to start if you wanna read TTB but are kind of intimidated by its scope. Most FK entries are 1-3 chapters. A sampler platter of my nonsense basically :P

Dasi High (abandoned, 4 chps) Kiesha and Co Highschool AU, basically what if the Dasi was a show on the CW. A fun idea, but not actually my cup of tea. Would probably be more fun to ramble about in discord than actually write

Forbidden Skies (hiatus, 2 chps) Crossover with Forbidden Game. Julian is a falcon and Jenny and co are avians and serpiente. Basically FB's chars and plot cosplaying as K'r. I really loved the idea, but I don't know if it grabbed me enough to make want to wrestle it into submission like I do TTB. With TTB, I don't know the story yet, so I can trick myself into working on it bc I wanna know what happens. With FS, I know what my intended plot will be, so this one would need a lot of outside hype to get me working on it again. But I think it could be really really cool if I did. If this crossover sounds like your cup of tea, pester me for more

Forbidden Game

Forbidden Skies, see above

Holy Fire (one off, post canon what if) A sort of song fic where Zach thinks way too hard about Jenny and tries to become a magician. I have these ideas about Jenny half light faerie, hence Julians obsession with her. In this fic, Zach is trying to learn magic to protect Julian so FB doesn't happen again. He winds up getting the attention of a light faerie, who tasks him with being Jenny's knight until they're ready to come bring her home. Basically, the song Holy Fire by Seeming wouldn't leave me alone one day and this fell out.

Hearts Desires (ongoing, 2 chps, post canon what if) Still playing with Zach the magician, this one is meant to be a fairly short exploration of magic/runes, Zach's obsession with Jenny, his inability to readjust after the game, and coming out to himself. And tree sex. It's a weird one. Basically, I woke up one morning with the ending of it circling around in my head, wrote that, and am now trying to build up the beginning so the ending has anything to jump off of for impact.

Unpublished pre-canon Jenny thing where she's kind of aware of something (Julian) watching her at night (spicy, pester me about it if you're interested) This one I do have plans to publish, I just need to get it (and myself) ready to show to the world. It asks the question "What if Jenny kinda like the idea of feeling watched all the time and deliberately got off for her imagined (or so she thinks) Shadowman?"

[contrasting-realities]

"Simon Finds ANOTHER Little Girl" AU

This is a crossover between girl from the other side and infinity train, spoilers for both.

Some background knowledge, you can skip parts of this if you already are familiar with the series in question.

Girl from the other side is a manga about a little girl named Shiva who lives with a horned guardian called 'Teacher'. Teacher is what's called an outsider, beings that spread a curse which slowly turns humans into outsiders upon contact. Eventually Shiva is touched by a different outsider but doesn't seem to be effected by the curse... at least until later when she is captured by soldiers and brought to the 'inside'.

Infinity Train is an anthology series where the main setting is an infinite train which exists to help people sort out problems in their lives. The main way of doing so is by having people go through cars with entities created by the train, called denizens, and by having a number linked to their issue, they are let off once their number reaches zero.

Simon is a character from the third season of infinity train, and alongside his friend Grace, they run a ground called the Apex. The Apex misunderstood what the numbers meant and thought that it was a sign of power and strength. Their goals is to get their number as high as possible, regardless of anything else. They also think denizens are worthless because they don't have numbers.

I call this "Simon finds another little girl" because early in season 3 a girl named Hazel and a denizen who acts as her mother figure, a gorilla named Tuba, join Simon and Grace after they get separated from the Apex. But Simon eventually kills Tuba to 'protect' Hazel, this only causes the girl to be traumatized and Grace begins to question the ideas of the group she founded, before Hazel leaves them and Simon betrays Grace when she tries to get him to stop with his behavior.

AU Starts here.

Simon leaves to reunite with the Apex and this is where the AU properly starts. While traveling between train cars, Simon comes across Shiva after she winds up on the train soon after being brought to the inside. Since she is a little girl who is alone, and he doesn't want what happened with Hazel trusting a denizen to repeat, he takes Shiva under his wing and tries to indoctrinate her with his ideology. Shiva doesn't buy any of it and winds up telling him about her past with Teacher and all that stuff from her dimension... which confuses Simon since he hasn't heard of anything like that.

But then something strange happens... when it comes to the curse Shiva is effectively a typhoid mary, so Simon beings to turn into an outsider and loses his humanity. Usually humans who turn into outsiders turn into trees within a few days because the curse rots their souls, but since Simon is from another universe and is more like the primordial form of life created by the god's of Shiva's reality before everything was destroyed and rebuilt as humans and outsiders, which is what caused the curse in some regard, the curse effects him much slower and he is able to remain alive for much longer.

Simon is not happy about any of this and neither is Shiva! She didn't want to curse anybody and now Simon is mistaken for a denizen most of the time, even though he does still have his number. Simon realizes that he can't carry on the torch that Grace 'abandoned', not just because he looks like a denizen but also because he could spread the curse to others, and so just wanders the train with Shiva looking for any way to fix what was done to him.

I find it likely that he somehow found a way to get himself and Shiva full body hazmat suits and he went back to the one person he wished he didn't have to, the cat aka Samantha, a denizen who he was friends with as a child but who abandoned him to save her own hide, as a desperate attempt to find a cure.

As for what will happen when Grace finds out that he isn't with the Apex or finds him again, or if Teacher winds up on the train, I'm not entirely sure.

[sunny6677]

My Little Spooky Month: Season 1.

(An MLP X Spooky Month Crossover Fanfiction)

(Disclaimer: Yes, I am aware that this could be considered cringe-worthy. But I personally do not care, for I like writing about my interests. And I like writing crossovers. If this type of stuff isn't for you, you can always scroll past.)

(Oh, other disclaimer by the way. This takes place after the first and second episode, counting the part 2 of the first episode, of MLP.)

Summary: A portal transports a few citizens of the town in Spooky Month into a land that would change their lives forever.

Chapter 1: An Unexpected Situation.

TWS: IMPLIED PANIC ATTACK/ANXIETY ATTACK, ATTEMPTED ATTACK.

————

How Lila had gotten here, she could recall. And yet, it was hard to believe. For she had been laying upon on the ground, on her back, her limbs spread eagle. She had fallen onto the ground when.. when..

...yes, yes, that was it. It had been a normal day in her town, when unexpectedly, something happened. Something she had never seen before had formed into the sky, and had sucked everyone into its core. It had sucked herself, and.. and her son into its core. She could recall yelling and screeching for help as she was whipped around inside of whatever had appeared, feeling and hearing the call of the void from behind her.

Her son.

Where was her son?

She tried to open her eyes, finding her vision to be blurry and hazy. She could make out all sorts of different colors. Divergent shades of brown, dark colors scattered among what looked to be shelves, a circle of blue that had been nearby which she only guessed to be a window of some kind. Lila didn't know where she was, or where the portal had taken her. She let out a grumble of slight pain, falling onto her side and trying to lift up her head. "S—Son.." She uttered.

"Excuse me, ma'am.. are you alright?" She heard a feminine voice speak from in front of her. She heard footsteps approaching, and a figure slowly began to appear, though the figure before her wasn't exactly visible yet. Lila's vision remained blurry, as she attempted to look in the direction of the voice.

"Wh—What.." Lila wasn't able to find the words. She had no idea where she was, where her son was, or who this voice was. Though as she looked up, her vision cleared. And she quickly realized that something was.. off. Violet purple eyes before her blinked, peering down at her with a look of concern. A horses muzzle was curled into a frown, for it somehow had expressive lips. A horn was visible at the top of the figures head. And.. she slowly realized it was a pastel purple color as well.

...It was a pony that was before her. The figure began to try and speak again. "Hello? Are you—"

Lila let out a shriek. She flung herself backwards, stumbling onto her back once more. She felt her head smash against an item, of which she could only assume to be some kind of book from the way it had felt. It was a pony! A pony who was sentient and could talk! And it had a horn? But.. unicorns weren't real. Was she hallucinating? Was she dead? She did not know. Panic was overwhelming her greatly. For she felt a pounding of her heart, a shivering in her limbs.

Whatever it was, the pony seemed to be in shock at her sudden shrieking. It's eyes were wide, and piercing as it looked directly at her. It only stood still for a moment, before speaking again, "Woah, woah, woah! What's the matter?!" It inquired, genuine confusion in its tone as it still stared at her. Lila felt a chill run down her spine, and she could only helplessly utter, "I—It's talking.."

"...yes, I'm talking. Is everything alright? Why did a portal suddenly appear? Why did you fall out of it?" It questioned, taking a few steps foward. Like any horse, it appeared to have hooves. Of course it did, considering it was a pony and all. Perhaps Lila could attempt to defend herself? It wasn't like it could grab at her or anything. She didn't even know if it really wasn't hostile or not. She could hear her heart pounding in her ears, and she felt a dramatic thudding from inside her chest.

Lila tried to grab for something, anything at all to throw at the creature. But it was unsuccessful. Yes, she felt items near herself as she extended out her hoof—

...her hoof?

She glanced to the side, and saw what had changed. She couldn't feel her fingers. In fact, she had no fingers. In place of it.. there was a hoof. Lila let out another scream, scooting to the opposite side as if it would do anything. She didn't have fingers! Why did she have a hoof?! She had no idea what was going on or what was even happening! What was she to do in a situation like this?!

Lila scrambled her limbs around. As she looked down, she realized there had been more physical changes to her body. She saw where her feet had normally been, and they had not been there. Her legs had somehow been changed into the back legs of a pony. She didn't have toes, or feet.. but instead hooves. And she even noticed something else as well, which hadn't been there before. It was what appeared to be a tail of some kind, the tail of a horse. But it belonged to her. No matter how much she moved, she realized it was stuck to her. She had a tail now.

The tail was the same color as her hair, and even appeared to be in the same style as it. For the ends of it looked just like her bangs, and it was straightened just as her hair had been. But if all this had happened, then what had her hair looked like?

She only finally saw the answer to her question as she looked at a nearby mirror. It was what should have been her reflection, but it was not. Normally, she would have seen her head, her eyes, her nose, her lips.. her body. But she did not. Instead, she was greeted with something entirely new.

It was a figure in the mirror. Another pony, in fact. A pony with eyes similar to her own, a muzzle, hair that looked like her own—but tossed on the end, for it had been on its neck. It looked to be its mane. And it even had a horn of its own as well. It's fur coat looked to be a white color. And as she gave a shocked reaction, the figure in the mirror gave one as well, completely synced with her physical reactions and facial expressions.

It was then that she realized the figure in the mirror was her now.

Lila began to breathe heavily, trying to grab at her face. But she could not. For she had no fingers, but hooves now. They clopped at her face as she tried to feel for it. On her hooves, she could only feel what felt like her cheeks, but with fur. Fuzzy, horse fur on her cheeks. On her face. She was a horse now. She wasn't a human anymore. But why? How had this even happened?

"Ma'am—ma'am! Calm down!" The figure that had not been in the mirror, and that had been standing before her right now had tried to say. But Lila could not do as it requested, for she let out a panicked whine. She looked to the ground, though all she saw other than her lower body were a few books. As she looked up, she saw what looked to be multiple book shelves surrounding herself and the environment around her. Despite her panic, she could recognize that she was somewhere entirely new. From what she had guessed, it must have either been a library or a house of some kind. Though why would anyone have such an unneeded crowd of books in their home?

Either way, she didn't care. She was close to collapsing to the ground, and she knew it. But then, she heard a familiar high pitched voice groan from another direction. Immediately, her head swiped in that direction, and if she felt her eyes begin to feel as if they were going to collapse with tears of anxiety and slight relief.

Even if his figure seemed different, she knew who it was. It was her son. He looked different, physically anyway. His figure was contorted into that of a pony, and yet he kept a small size. Yet she recognized the mask, the costume.

It was her son, Skid. He groaned again. "..Mom?"

Lila tried to get to her fee.. well, hooves. But she stumbled and wobbled, swaying from side to side. She called out, "So—Son!"

Despite her clumsiness, she began to try and go in the direction Skid had been, the thudding of her hooves hitting the ground being heavy and loud against the wooden flooring. Lila found herself beginning to try and race in his direction, but as she tried, she was quickly met with pain against her face. Of course, as expected, she had fallen onto the ground. Anyone would if they had suddenly been magically transformed into a horse without any explanation.

She raised her head. Despite having fallen, she was now somewhat closer to her son. Lila began to scoot herself closer with her hooves, despite her horror. She dragged herself across the floor, feeling the slight pain pounding in her back legs. "Son.." She uttered, looking down. Her sons eyes began to squint open more, and though he had been wearing a mask, she could clearly see them. "Son, it's me! It's me.." Lila whimpered.

"Sweet Celestia.. what's going on here? Did somepony transport you two here?" The pony figure had asked, it's voice still speaking. It trotted closer to them both, and like a mother bear, Lila felt the instincts of a maternal figure kick in. Despite not having any figures, she shrouded Skid in her hooves, trying to hold him close so the figure couldn't harm her son. "Dont you dare come any closer to my son! Get away from us!" Lila yelled, furrowing her brows angrily at the creature. Her tears blinded her so, and yet she was ready to protect her son against anything.

"Hey—hey—woah.. I'm not gonna hurt you or your son. Can you please just tell me what's going on?" The figure tried asking again, taking a slow step closer. Lila felt soft relief creep into her chest, and yet she resisted it. What if this had been a bluff? She couldn't trust this thing so easily. For all she could have known, it might have been the one that transformed both her son and herself into horses. Well.. she was transformed into a unicorn, but still.

"Why should I tell you what's going on?! Why are my son and I ponies?!" Lila frantically asked, holding her son closer. Her son was still barely awake, his ears going downwards as she yelled at the figure before her. She tried to scoot away from the creature, while still clinging onto her son.

The figure seemed puzzled by this. It raised a brow, which was surprising, considering it was a pony. "...isn't everypony a pony? What do you mean by that?" It inquired.

Lila paused for a moment, before grunting. She then shot out her hoof at the nearest thing she could find, and attempted to try and hold it the best way she could despite having no fingers. Somehow, she did. But it nearly slipped out as she held it out as a sort of shield against the creature. She.. literally just grabbed a book in her hoof, but she assumed it would probably do damage if she threw it hard enough.

"You better answer me or I'm gonna make you regret ever doing any of this! Tell me why I'm here! Tell me why we're ponies already!" Lila screamed, anger beginning to fuel her greatly. The creature did not reply for a moment, it's mouth only being open in slight shock. It's eyes were wide, and it slowly took a few steps back. It tried to speak, but Lila could barely hear it over the roaring of her own protective madness.

She could not take it anymore. She had to fight. Or she was not going to get any answers if she did not.

She flung her hoof holding the book backwards, preparing to throw it forth as if it had been a ball at a sports game. As she did, she felt her son cling onto her more. She grunted, "Urgh, you little—!"

...

Lila then heard a strange, indescribable noise surround both her and her son. But not only that, her vision changed as well as she heard the sound. Everything around her had suddenly been tinted a hot pink, and for a moment, she thought that maybe she was dreaming or really was hallucinating. Though that thought was then put on hold once she realized something else.

She was floating. And her son was too, for he clung onto her still. Skid quietly mumbled in amazement with stars practically in his eyes, "Wow..."

Immediately, Lila began to feel her breathing become heavier, her breaths shivering as she whimpered and whined. She tried to move, but she could not. She was almost paralyzed, it felt. Because of.. whatever she had been placed in, she had been paralyzed. She began to feel as if she were going to scream once more, for it was building up like a charge in her throat.

But then, the strange pony spoke from outside whatever she and her son had been trapped it. It's voice muffled, it said in a stressed and almost frustrated voice, "Listen, I'm not the one who put you here. I didn't even summon a portal! And I don't know why you apparently don't think you're ponies, but I'm only assuming something must have happened. But I'm not gonna know what happened if you just keep screaming about it!"

Lila was completely quiet, though Skid only looked at the creature in slight awe.

The pony then sighed. "I'm sorry.. but I don't think I'm gonna know what to do if you don't give me an explanation. Would you mind telling me your names?"

Lila was hesitant for a moment. "I—"

"I'm Skid! And this is my mom!" Skid grinned, seeming somehow less exhausted than he did before. Like always, he remained unpredictable but enthusiastic. Even in a situation like this where his mother was terrified, he remained brave in the face of something neither of them knew. In front of something that Lila didn't even know was dangerous or not yet. But to Skid, of course, nothing was dangerous.

Lila then finally spoke, "I'm Lila.. but.. wh—who are you? What are you?"

The pony let out a small sigh, before answering, "...well, I'm Twilight Sparkle. And I'm—"

Then, what sounded like a door creaking surrounding the room, echoing softly. Lila didn't really know where the noise was coming from, but as she saw that her son was looking in a new direction, she looked over to where he was looking. She only really trusted her son with this stuff, since he was strangely good at surviving situations where he was in danger. It was surprising that he had still been alive in all honesty.

Then, a new figure entered the room, but it had been small in comparison to 'Twilight'. And it didn't look like a pony either. It resembled an iguana or a lizard almost. It's scales were purple, it's spikes were green, and it's underbelly was a pastel green. And it's eyes with a black slit between them had been an emerald green. Lila's eyes widened as she looked at it, her mouth agape slightly. But Skid on the other hand had been looking on in amazement, his mouth agape as well. If he hadn't been paralyzed, his hooves would have been on both sides of his face to further amplify his shock.

It then began to speak. "Hey.. Twilight? Applejack says she wants us to come by tomorrow and—"

...

The new figure was looking directly at them now, it's eyes widened as well. It had gone completely still, looking at them.

Twilight had sighed for the third time so far. "Spike, this is Skid and Lila. Skid and Lila, this is Spike."

/////////////////////////

I have an MLP hyperfixation rn leave me alone /j

[zeemczed]

You know about homestuck? Man I don't wanna sound demanding but I would really to know what you think of a EGS/HS crossover. Because I really like the idea, either the EGS cast dealing with sburb and troll bullshit or the HS cast dealing with magic. Of course if you don't have any that's fine.

I was there DAY ONE. I got into Hussie's stuff vis-a-vis Team Special Olympics and And It Don't Stop, I was reading Problem Sleuth live through the last 500 or so pages, and I was STOKED to see Homestuck start. BUT YEAH I have extensive EGStuck thoughts. FIC IDEAS POST-BREAK.

So I have two ideas, one leaning EGS flavor, the other leaning more Homestuck flavor. The first is THE UNIVERSITY.

Sburbless. The game constructs (IE Sylladexes, Strife Specibi) are a kind of magitek, same as the TF gun. The EGS crew and the kids knew each other via the internet through their formative years (Rose was Ashley's internet girlfriend), and arranged to go to college together at ANDREW HUSSIE UNIVERSITY (home of the Fightin' Weasels!). The trolls landed the year before, refugees of a broken empire that was in its death throes... oh, and they used the same magic. Publicly. Though some forms of transformation (EG bloodcaste alteration) were punishable by death before. The Uryuoms (who ARE interdimensional space aliens, same as the Alternians) had tangential contact with them and were able to sort of guide first contact so it didn't end in immediate war (and the Uryuoms come out of concealment at that point).

The story is mostly a slice of abnormal-life, with Tedd's magic lab trying to get to the core of what makes magic tick, Rose writing treatises on troll culture and how it's adapting to earth, and Karkat inadvertently (or possibly deliberately?!) flirting pitch with Justin (spoiler: they do, and it's messy and weird and awesome).

Other loose ideas for this setting:

Vriska is WAY more comfortable with human culture than troll culture after a very small amount of time. She's part of a small and vocal "fuck Alternia, we're earthling trolls now" movement.

Grace's origin is almost unchanged, BUT they used troll genetics for some of her brothers. Damien had tyrian-based mind control abilities that he used to make the researchers submit to his will.

Terezi decides she's going to be Sarah's friend five seconds after she meets her when Sarah slings Dresden-level snark back at her.

Sarah, meanwhile, is part of a WEBCOMIC CLUB... that only has her and Dave in it. She does The Wizard Sarah. Dave does Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff. The club does very little.

Elliot and Nanase take over the college STRIFE! club. They need to get a prof to be the official head of the club... and Tensaided isn't doing anything...

The JUST/HEROIC rule applies... to any fight with strife specibi involved. Hence why there's a STRIFE! club. You can't die in a college club sparring session. That would never be heroic, and if it's just you must be an INCREDIBLE piece of shit.

Vriska steers clear of the club. She knows what she's done.

No god tiers.

Idea two is a lot less... structured right now. Basically, the EGS crew sit down to play a game at the same time as Egbert and company. Things change dramatically from the Homestuck we know.

Tedd - who is really good at speedrunning - manages to save the Earth by functionally captchaloguing the entire planet before more than a few meteors hit. It's safe in his sylladex the entire story.

Ellen is Elliot's alchemized ecto-clone. It shouldn't have happened. It did. She's irritated about that, but... y'know... EXISTENCE, can't be too pissy.

TF happens via alchemization. There is a LOT of human alchemization in this timeline.

John and Tedd are the heads of the "Totally Cisgendered 100% Men Yup Totally Club Also This Isn't A Club". This goes about as well as you can expect, with John becoming June less than halfway through the story and Tedd realizing their genderfluidity.

Grace is TECHNICALLY Gracesprite^2, but ain't no one gonna remember that. She's Tedd and Sarah's sprites.

The looming threats in the background - Lord English and Lord Tedd - obliterate each other before they can become more than lore and signal noise.

By all means, GIVE ME YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS.

[eldritch-queern-magicat]

As it would happen, we were still fracturing from other things when Mom died. It's what made us so fragile that we shattered when it happened. Losing Grandma was a very harsh blow and put me under even more emotional pressure. I suppose the one blessing is that she didn't have to watch me let our family tear itself apart over the abuse reveal.

I fused back with the part once named Zero, who changed it to Rhodes. Era makes for a funny name, but Rhodes literally means rose. And yes, that makes all the difference. When I first got into fandom spaces, I literally just called myself Rose until I was comfortable with myself online.

And the only reason we did that was that we were using our daily name, Cari, for the main character of a 130 chapter-long heroic vampire girl epic. It was the most fun I'd had writing stories, based on how I spent about fourteen months regularly writing it so I had many chapters already done and ready to post on a weekly or so basis. It was a messy as hell Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy crossover of sorts, and a totally unashamed self-insert adventure. At the time, my primary crush from Kingdom Hearts was Zexion (this was around the time we got Re:Coded across the globe). I did finish the story in early 2012, so Mom got to see our satisfaction at finishing that crossover fanfic epic. She was incredibly supportive of my ultimate dream of being a published author, and we talked through new ideas a lot.

I also had my crisis around my sexuality at that time, because hey! I'm finally in a place where I can safely explore myself. I had, through my corner of the Quizilla Kingdom Hearts community, discovered I had a crush on Kairi. To be honest, I had a crush on most of the KH original characters. Definitely except for Vexen, because he was basically my main self-insert's dad whenever I was working with her in my fanfics. It was part because it's funny, but there was also a very sincere affection for the character.

There have been dividing lines between us for ages, and of course they coincided with our characters and stories more over time. But they didn't reach all the way through us back then. We felt largely stable, even though we were still pretty brittle. The cracks had slowed significantly before Grandma died, then it got worse a lot faster. I wasn't even close to properly opening up in therapy about much of anything at that point. Even when things seemed to be looking up, it was still just a massive downward spiral from there.

My writing slowed significantly over the years as my mind just split over and over again. I tried so many things to get the creativity flowing again, but I only delayed my inevitable crash. I don't think it helped that I became progressively bitter as time went on. I got mean again, and it's hard to create when your mind has been sharpened into a blade. Though what I did write did become progressively darker as time went on. It was part of coping, mostly, which is what makes some things I came up with so uncomfortable in retrospect (though I did come to understand my love of horror a lot better). My stories were already a mess of my unprocessed childhood trauma, even during high school in its entirety, when awful things were still going on.

It's very likely I put my writing down because I couldn't handle what it was all from. And with the other things that happened, it was made worse by me misunderstanding the source of it. I literally didn't realize how much of it was just internal conflicts. My descent into madness was intense, but maybe now I can finally unpack what happened.

Honestly, there was at least one good thing that came of that mess. There was a decent amount of spiritual healing at that time. My cards, both tarot and oracle, gave me a structure for understanding some stuff. My first Fool's Journey was with my darling Herbal Tarot. I met many dissociated parts that I mistook for spirit beings, because that's how deeply shattered I was. I literally had no sense of self at that time.

So much of my identity at that time was tied to Mom and our tested, unbreakable relationship. It legitimately felt like I wasn't anything at all anymore. Charles saying it was like something in me also died still hits me pretty hard. Even when he said it, I knew inside that he was right. But back then, I just wasn't ready to admit it. Still not easy, but it's getting better. And that's enough, for now.

-Rhodes 🗝️😻

[kncrowder88]

You know, every time that SVU or OC gives me the plot lines that could easily cross with the other show I'm just here smirking at how it could go down.

Like, I LOVE that kitchen scene and "Stabler is bringing Noah home right now" moment. It speaks so much to Liv's level of trust (Fin took him to safety, Stabler brings him home to her). But the first time we got told about BX9 I clocked how it could easily classify into a OC episode if the writers wanted and then bam here it is again with Liv as a target and that was a perfect time to up the group into that and bring in the OC crew.

On the flip side, on OC we get groups that have done sexual assault and episodes that could easily qualify for bringing in SVU if they wanted. Occasionally they have for a quick sort of "Captain Benson says" thing and we've gotten some great moments on that show as well when they do stuff..... but .... but ...

Where is my overly protective duo? We witnessed them go through so much on SVU, be protective and defensive and even struggle with the realization that they were both willing to die and not watch the other die (bit more to it with that one on that ep but still). There is a reason Liv stated she didn't call because she didn't want him to protect her. I 100% suspect he hasn't contacted her for similar reasons. They know.

But I want the ep where they don't have a choice and HAVE to work together during a situation like we've been seeing where we know if the other was there it be .... guys. Come on I want it so bad. I just want to see them called together for a good crossover, where they have to confront that protective/defensive nature finally and not just ignore it.

[crystallhamptonhersheykiss]

Watching the Villainous season 1 trailer, I'm excited for the show to officially start, and I was thinking about some of the stuff I'm hoping to see in season 1 and beyond.

1. Having the Instagram stories being important to the first season. We know that Penumbra was captured and Sunblast has been looking for her. I hope that storyline will continue in the show. Maybe Sunblast will realize that he can't rescue Penumbra by himself, so he's forced to ask Flug for help. It does look like Heed will be the main threat of the season, so maybe Flug, Demencia, and Sunblast will work together to stop Miss Heed and rescue Penumbra.

2. Seeing characters being painted in more than just black and white. We already have characters like Sunblast and Penumbra, where Sunblast is considered a hero, but he acts more like a high school bully. And Penumbra is more of an anti hero then a hero or villain. She isn't "evil" like Black Hat and co. She tried to help others that were affected like her, but her solution was to block the sun. I hope we get more characters like that, where a hero tries to help but makes bad decisions or are a little selfish. And have villains that aren't evil just because they can be. Let them have some morals or be empathetic to other people. I'm sure we will get characters like that, I hope it's more then just those two.

3. Learning more about the main 4 pasts. With this being the first season, I know we won't get all the answers this early, but I hope we get hints about it here and there. We know Flug has a brother, what was their relationship like growing up? Did they get along? Did one or both of them care and love each other at all? Or was his brother one of the people that used to Bully Flug? Does Demencia have any family? Or was she maybe a foster kid that aged out of the program, or ran away? How was 5.0.5 created? Etc.

4. Seeing Demencia, Flug, and 5.0.5 work together and get along. We know from the pilot and the orientation videos that Flug and Demencia are definitely villains, there's no denying that. In the pilot Flug was in charge of the mission and didn't want to try any of Demencia's ideas etc. I hope we do see Flug listen to Demencia's suggestions and try to use them in their missions, while having a back up plan if they need it. We also know from the livestreams that the three of them do consider each other a weird (dysfunctional) family of sorts. I hope we have moments of them somewhat getting along. Maybe having scenes of them hanging out together at home watching t.v. having a meal together before they go on a mission. Or all them enjoying a victory together etc. You don't need to have scenes like that every episode. But I think it would be nice seeing that once in a while.

5. References or another crossover with Victor and Valentino. Victor and Valentino have had some references to villainous since the crossover. The top hat has appeared on magazine covers, and Don jalapeno (The shop owner Dem and Vic bought the salt from.) Has a file on Demencia. And unless I missed him in the background, I don't think the hero that Flug and Demencia captured in the crossover, has been in the show since then. If nothing else I hope we at least find out what happened to him.

6. Finding out what happened to Aldo. Aldo was the young man that was invited to join Black Hat's cult and presumably used as a sacrifice at the end. Someone has already pointed this out but it looks like from the Instagram posts, that Aldo disappeared that night and someone reported him missing. This is probably something we won't get answers to for a while if at all. But as far as lore for the show, this is something I hope we get answers to one day.

This is some of the things I hope we see in the show. There are other things I hope we see (Flug face reveal, exploring the city and hat island etc.) Depending on how long season 1 is, we probably won't be able to explore until later on, but I'm still excited for the season to start. And I hope it's worth the wait.

[wannajointhecrabcult]

Masks and Music

(Part 1)

Part 2

I didn't think that my last post would've gotten ANY notes at all, so imagine my surprise when I find out that people actually liked it. After that suprise I thought why not and make another one so here we go! This is a Miraculous/Batfam crossover.

Imagine that Damian gets sent to Paris because the fam doesn't want him to become an emotionally constipated sad boi like Bruce and think that a change in scenery would help.

They don't know about the whole Hawkmoth situation because SOMEONE from the justice league decided that the while thing was a prank DESPITE that it was an ENTIRE CITY calling instead of a single person.

Like, aren't you guys supposed to be the world's greatest heros or something?

Who hired you?

Damian being the grumpy lil kid that he is holds a grudge and decides to not accept any calls or video chats from his family or tell them about Hawkmoth because that's what you get when you send someone across the world against their will.

(and because of plot convenience shhh)

Anyways, Damian goes to school as instantly adds Lila onto his mental list of people he needs to get rid of.

I mean, seriously, he's only been is the room for what, 15 seconds and he's already getting a migraine?

Great. Juusssttt great.

He sits in the back of the class with what seems to be the only person with brain cells in this room.

The dark haired girl just looks over and sees the disgust at Lila written all over his face and gives him a silent empathetic nod.

'This is unfortunately normal here.' she tries to convey through the small action.

He just nods back to show his understanding before turning around to observe the others.

In a few minutes Ms. Bustier walks in the room and asks him to introduce himself to the class.

It looks like the teacher never told the class that they were getting a new student because they all have to do double takes when they realize that there's a new face in the room.

He gives them the bare basics, telling them that his name is Damian Grayson, he's from America, and that he doesn't want any of them to talk to him before sitting down.

Clearly the teacher wanted him to say more or scold him for being so rude but a glare shut her up.

Later during a break period Lila tries to flirt with him and brags all about how she's met so many different celebrities and her achievements.

He tells her off and tries to move away but her nails are digging into his arms as she tries to convince him that he should stay away from Marinette.

Before he can maim her, the dark haired girl comes out from behind him and starts spraying Lila down like an unruly cat with some sort of strong smelling liquid from a spray bottle.

Lila screeches and stomps away.

When he turns to his hero the girl explains.

"It's a mixture of shredded lemon, expired maple syrup, vinegar, and pomegranate juice. I call it People Repellant but Thot Begone works too. Oh, and I'm Marinette by the way."

He eyes her hand before shaking it.

"Damian, though I assume you already know that. Can I get some of that by the way? I know a couple insufferable annoyances that would benefit from a spray down.

Marinette just blinks for a second before she bursts out laughing and that was the start of a great friendship.

Together they:

Make fun of Lila in the back of class.

Help eachother with homework (they only cheat off eachother when they REALLY need help)

Prank Lila in odd ways (Hey, just because she found hundreds of furbies hidden around her house that turn on one by one in the middle of the night effectively scaring the crap out of her when she's trying to sleep doesn't mean that it's their fault. She had it coming.)

Break a couple laws (shhhhhhh. Those toy stores don't need those furbies anyways).

Dare eachother over stupid things (they still insist that the cereal incident was caused by the other).

And overall become closer as friends.

They bring out the overdramatic chaotic gremlin child in eachother.

One time when Damian goes over to Marinette's place to work on a project he finds her singing a Disney song to herself on her balcony.

This isn't the first time they've caught eachother singing.

One time Marinette caught Damian in the art room at school humming one of the many annoyingly cheesy and catchy songs that Dick likes to listen to.

Despite him explaining the embarrassing situation to her she still teased him for weeks after.

He'll never get to live it down.

Damian shakes his head to get rid of the flashback when a devious smirk spreads across his face as a revenge plan comes to mind.

After carefully placing his stuff on the floor he sneakily makes his way across the space until he's right behind her.

That's when he joins in.

Screaming at the top of his lungs at first, effectively giving her a mini heart attack before eventually quieting down to a normal singing volume.

She glares at him, annoyed by his loud and obnoxious entrance before she starts singing again.

They eventually end up full Disney movie dramatically performing around her balcony with dance moves and over dramatic acting.

Is it bad that actual birds and other animals are appearing and joining in?

Damian totally kept one of the pigeons.

He named it Dolores.

(He later trained Dolores to attack Rossi on sight.)

When they're finished they end up on the floor out of breath.

They stay like that for a few minutes before Damian sits up.

"That. That was fun. I don't think I've actually ever sang before."

Marinette jolts up in suprise and turns to face him.

"Really? I never would've guessed. You have a really nice singing voice."

He would deny till his dying breath that he blushed when she said that but he covers it up with a smirk.

"Well I guess that's just because yours is so terrible in comparison."

He squawks when she jabs a finger in his side.

"Pshh. As if. Besides, my singing skills can't be worse then your gaming skills." She challenges with a cheeky smile.

"ExCuSe mE?!"

And that's how they spend the rest of the day playing video games, leaving the unfinished project to be completed on a later day.

Good thing it isn't due until 2 weeks time.

After a couple of hours playing video games, creating many possible Lila murder plans, eating pastries, and joking around, it's time for him to leave.

As Damian left for his place he got a feeling that something big was gonna happen.

Marinette also got the feeling but they both ignored it.

Little did they know, someone just happened to walk by and starstruck by the amazing singing they recorded the performance before posting it on the internet.

Imagine the duo's suprise when they wake up the next day to find themselves trending on the internet.

Luckily the video quality was pretty trash so their faces weren't identifiable but the audio was loud and clear.

The world was talking about the cute couple singing to their hearts desire on a balcony. If that's not cliche and adorable then the world doesn't know what is.

The assumption about their relationship status left them looking like tomatos but that didn't stop them from wonder why they didn't notice a creep recording them.

Damn Disney songs and their unnatural ability to distract people.

Of course Lila took advantage of the rising popularity of the video and talked about how she taught the two people in the video how to sing and gave them tips.

The two just walked past the idiot squad and sat down in their seats, making a mental note to come up with a prank later, when the akuma alarms came on.

They fall into their normal routine of Marinette running out to find a place to transform as Damian covers for her.

Oops did I forget to mention that Damian found out her identity because she crashed through his window in the middle of the night still transformed and asked him what's the answer to question 24 in their science homework because she just defeated an akuma by herself and was running on 20 minutes of sleep?

My bad.

Anyways it turns out today was the day Marinette had officially had enough of Chat's bullcrap.

It was gonna be a normal akuma situation.

Ladybug trying to fight the poor butterfly victim while chat noir either doesn't show up, tries to do everything on his own to impress her and ruins the whole plan, or just watches and complains about how she needs to get over her denial and date him BUT

This time he decided to actively try to push her in the akuma's way therefore putting her in SO MUCH MORE DANGER than she was already in.

Now she had to dodge out of the akuma's way AND CHAT'S!

WhAt ThE fUdGe?!?!

You think possibly killing Ladybug and trying to force her to beg for you to save her is gonna make her like you?!?

Just how hard did you hit your head when Gabriel dropped you on the floor when you were 2?

After the akuma was eventually defeated Ladybug told Chat to meet her on an abandoned rooftop that night because they needed to talk.

Chat being the oblivious person that he is (I swear I don't actually hate chat noir, this is for the plot I'm sorry) thought that it was for a love confession and became overly smug before leaving.

Making sure that he isn't following her, Marinette meets up with Damian at his place (school's over because of the attack) and asks him to help.

Later that day when the two miraculous holders meet up Ladybug distracts the Catboy by flirting with him while Damian uses his ninja skills for something other than sneaking up on her and giving Marinette mini heart attacks.

From behind he quickly hits a pressure point causing the other boy to fall unconscious.

Using her ALMIGHTY GUARDIAN OF THE MIRACULOUS powers, Ladybug takes Adrien's ring away and places a spell on him that makes it so he will never be able to use another miraculous ever again.

After they take Adrien home Marinette gives Damian the ring and Night Prowler is born.

He promises to do everything in his power to make sure that Selina and his family doesn't find out for the sake of his pride.

We'll see how that goes.

Night Prowler first officially appeared during an akuma named 'Break Dancer'.

Ironically, she was a ballerina that had to drop out of the finals in a competition because she broke her right leg the day before the show.

She could turn civilians into back up dancers and forced them to perform against their will.

They also worked as minions who would attack the duo for her while she stayed a safe distance away.

It was pretty obvious that the akumatized item was the music box held inside the bag that Break Dancer had slung around her shoulders but the real question was how could they get to it without becoming attacked by the backup dancer or becoming one of them.

Luckily (eheheh), a car with an open window playing music just happened to pass by before driving off.

Before it drove off, the music coming from the car was loud enough to play over the music box which caused some of the minions to become free again and run off.

Ladybug called her lucky charm and a Bobby pin landed in her hand.

As she looked around she noticed a store a couple blocks away that had a couple radios.

Unfortunately, the store was locked and closed.

Fortunately, she knew how to pick locks and a Bobby pin did come from her lucky charm soooo......

Who is she to deny literal gods.

They break into the store and grab a radio, and a speaker and rush over to where the akuma was causing chaos.

They turn on the radio, connect the speaker and turn the volume on as loud as it can go before flipping through the stations for a good song.

If they're gonna fight with music in the background they're gonna be picky about it and wont settle for anything other than epic.

While fighting they eventually get swept up in the music and end up singing along.

It's nothing less than full on majestic.

When the fight is over and the akuma is purified they find out that someone recorded it and posted it on the internet as well.

Now everyone knows that the beloved hero of Paris and her new partner were the two people singing on that balcony.

Ummmmm.....

Good thing that the video quality was trash right?

If it weren't for that their identities would've been busted the moment they started singing in hero form.

Luckily there aren't many people other than Damian that know what Marinette's singing voice sounds like so they're okay.

Well.... They WERE okay,

Until a certain rockstar and his agent came across the two videos and put two and two together.

So now King Sting (bee!jagged) and Peridot (turtle!penny) have joined the team.

Poor Penny, now she has to deal with two gremlin children and a some sort of bizarre man-child.

The next akuma confused the group quite a bit.

He didn't really do anything but sit on a rooftop waiting for the miracle team to show up.

They were all suspicious of him at first but when they did reveal themselves to him he explained his situation.

He was akumatized because his favorite rock band broke up but he didn't really want to take their miraculouses away.

He just asked if they could perform another song for him and he would give his akumatized item to them.

They all sorta looked at eachother and collectively went 'screw it why not' and sang another song.

If they were great before, they are absolutely AMAZING now.

Well that's what happens when you add a famous rockstar to a team of singing superheros I guess.

The akuma was blown away and true to his word handed over the rolled up picture in his pocket and was purified despite of Hawkmoth's nagging.

Haha screw you Hawky.

This time the ordeal was recorded by a news station and the 'hand over the akuma in exchange for a song' thing became a trend.

There were still normal akuma's that didn't follow follow it but those were far flung between.

It seems like Hawkmoth was getting annoyed by this so there started being less akuma attacks over the months.

Because of this some people were actively trying to get upset to attract one of the purple butterflies.

They traded one good thing for another I guess.

To stop that from happening the group started performing in public as superheros during concerts and festivals.

Because of this they became quite well known outside of Paris as well.

Is it ironic that more people know them as a band rather than a superhero team now?

When Marinette learned that they could change what their superhero costumes looked like if they put enough will into it she squealed.

Marinette designs superhero performance costumes for them whenever they have a festival to play at.

Whenever asked about their outfits they always reply with MDC.

Marinette's business gets really popular after that.

And since no one knows who MDC really is, she doesn't have to worry about the whole "Oh no me and my family are gonna be in danger!" thing

It's a win win!

Overtime they basically become a second (or third for some people) family to eachother.

Damian becomes more 'kid like' and open to others,

Marinette becomes more confident and overall happier,

Jagged gets to hang out with his awesome niece and her 'maybe more than just a friend',

And Penny gets a new outlet for stress and has so many more crazy stories to tell people.

One day while she's in the living room on the sofa watching 'The AristoCats' Damian just barges into the room and dramatically flops over onto of her.

He just lays there with his head in her lap and the rest of his body sprawled on the couch.

After everything that has happened this is normal for them now.

Without asking any questions or talking at all they just watch the movie together with the occasional remark or quip between them.

Around half way through the movie Jagged kicks down the door, effectively scaring the crap out of the two teens, while Penny follows behind him with an apologetic look on her face.

At first Jagged was yelling about something having to do with'Fang' and 'Dragon' and 'Miraculous' but after taking in the domestic atmosphere of the room he just sits down on the floor and joins in on watching the movie.

Penny, shaking her head in both amusement and exasperation, sits down on another chair and does the same.

While combing through Damian's hair with her fingers Marinette looks around the room.

'My life can't get any more complicated, can it?'

Oh boy, she just jinxed it.

This is just an idea I've had bouncing around in my head for awhile and I couldn't resist the urge to write it out. I AM planning on making a part 2 so if you like this keep an eye out for that. I'm by no means a fast writer though so it will take a while. But then again not many people will probably read this soo.... Yeah.

[nullanythorm-ao3]

More Fae/Changeling Camilo - BUT CANON NOW

Hi so a while back I did some crossover shenanigans with the concept of Camilo being Fae/a changeling. I thought I'd add some more, except this time it's within the bounds of canon!

This is a little less fantasy than the crossover with Trollhunters I helmed earlier. I'm keeping it a little closer to canon. The world is mostly non-magical with little magical things like the miracle and Madrigal magic, and things like the Fae that exist kind of beyond humanity, but most humans see them as just stories. The folks in the Encanto believe, even if they've never seen magical creatures like Fae, because well -- the Madrigals.

I want to work on a fanfic centering around this idea so I don't want to spoil too much. This is mostly going to be background for the AU, so pre-movie details for fae Camilo's place in the family.

○ Before getting into proper au stuff - let me say something I like about this! Each side of the family is kind of split into three, and the fun of this AU is that each trio has: the oldest/golden child (Julieta, Isabela, Dolores), the "magic powerhouse" (Pepa, Luisa, Antonio - let's be honest, tiny Antonio can use his Gift for all sorts of things the Madrigal's haven't realized yet), and the outsider/oddball (Bruno, Mirabel, and Camilo).

○ Okay so I feel like they discovered Camilo was swapped through one of Bruno's visions. My feeling is that one day baby Camilo just suddenly started acting up and they asked Bruno to see if he could find the reason for it -- they didn't like the answer.

○ There was a storm that lasted for days after the news was broken to Pepa and Felix. However, with no clue how to get the real Camilo back, they decided to raise the baby. Abuela pressured them not to let on about the family's sudden change in mood -- and insisted the storms were only because Pepa wasn't used to such a mischievous baby, as Dolores had been so well-behaved.

○ That first point taken into consideration, Camilo and Mirabel are super close in this AU. Camilo, Mirabel, and Antonio are sort of a trio here. Mirabel and Camilo grew up together, and while Camilo had no idea why people were keeping so much distance from him, he knew he could always rely on Mira to be there for him when he needed it.

○ The family was very guarded and distanced themselves from little Camilo at first - though Pepa did eventually get attached. At first, they were worried about whether or not he'd even get a Gift - but he did, and it was one of the most ironic gifts he could have gotten. While it was a slap in the face at first, they considered themselves lucky he even got one.

○ When Mirabel failed to get a Gift, Abuela assumed the reason was because the miracle had somehow realized Camilo had "tricked it". She was hard on him for some time after that. Eventually it subsided, but he still struggled to get recognition, and his mischievous streak was absolutely frowned upon.

○ While Pepa and Felix did still think about the baby that got swapped on occasion, they eventually fell in love with little Camilo. He enjoyed being doted on, and it seemed had no clue of the truth to his origin (rather, like many fae, he simply forgot at some point). Pepa called him all sorts of little fae-themed nicknames and he never seemed any wiser to the truth.

○ The nicknames include - her mischievous little changeling (he always thought that one was because of his Gift), little wildflower, little fae troublemaker, flighty faerie, things like that.

○ Dolores figured out the truth quickly due to hearing the adults talk with her Gift. Like Pepa and Felix, she does her best to make sure Camilo is comfortable. Whether he was the baby her mother gave birth to, or a faerie that was traded for him, she still loves him.

○ Mirabel's side of the family, particularly is a bit cagey with him (other than the cousin in question). Augustin (being "un-ceptional") is unsure how to handle dealing with a fae child (especially compared to Pepa and Felix, who take his mischief head on and deal with it). Julieta is often a bit exasperated with him, but still one of the most gentle with him. Isabela has honestly had it with him, his troublemaking, and feels he's a bad influence on Mirabel. Luisa mostly doesn't worry about it, but is still unsure how to handle the truth when she's told.

○ Camilo shows no signs of his fae heritage other than his voracious appetite and mischievous nature. The Madrigal Magic has sufficed perfectly fine, so he never really had a reason to tap into fae magic (hint hint - wink wink).

That's about all I have for now. Happy to answer questions/elaborate if anyone wants. I'm absolutely in love with this AU already and I expect to create some amount of content for it (I already have at least one one-shot and TWO multi-chapter fics [one for the Jim/Camilo trollhunters AU and one in cannon centered around the movie] planned). Thanks for reading!

[plasticnightmaredoll]

(art commission by the lovely and talented @curious-menace)

It is a time where I would like to see what my followers think about various concepts I have in mind pertaining to alternate versions of one my fics. It may take some time to write out any alternate versions since I've been busy and stressed out so much lately, but I am very curious as to what others would find intriguing to read.

But first, some backstory so be patient. We'll get to the voting at the end of this post.

I've been having a lot of bad days lately, and my mood has plummeted to a major low. This includes my self-esteem, which has always been in the dumps but is now basically a dumpster fire.

However, I don't want to be entirely cruel to myself. I deserve some sort of happiness, some sort of reprieve, and writing can be a good coping mechanism. I put a lot of my own thoughts, emotions, struggles, opinions, etc. into my works, as they serve as a way for me to get things off my chest. Sometimes, it's just cute and funny stuff, other times angsty but eventually fluffy stuff, and other times it's quite depressing and dark.

One fic, in particular, stands out, and that is the Mortal Kombat/Batman Arkhamverse crossover, "Volunteer," (trigger warnings: mentions psychological torture and suicide...more about this fic in a bit for those who would rather not read it because of those triggers) which features Arkham Knight Edward Nigma and Jonathan Crane, as well as a lady friend for Edward named Sara. It also features Erron Black and Cassie Cage from Mortal Kombat (Cassie is only mentioned in the story a few times).

If you read the blog intro/self-introduction post pinned at the top of my Tumblr, you know very well how I feel about Cassie Cage (particularly in MK11) and the Erron Black x Cassie Cage (BlackCage) pairing. Those negative feelings are mostly due to a very bad experience with a pushy BlackCage fan who just wouldn't relent one bit on their stance and it was emotionally and mentally draining to try and talk to them, including providing counter-arguments.

I've come up with alternate versions for "Volunteer" recently due to the spike in stress, depression, anxiety, and insecurities I've been dealing with as of late. This is where my followers come in!

I would like people to vote on which alternate take on "Volunteer" they would be interested in reading. Now, I can't guarantee when I'd get to it because, as I mentioned already, I've got a lot going on. However, I really want to try and write at least one alternate version of that fic, just to get some insecurities and negative thoughts off my chest.

Now, for those who are wary of reading "Volunteer" because of the trigger warnings, here's my advice: Just read the first chapter, if you want to. Chapter 2 deals directly with the sensitive subject matter, although, you can probably guess what happens anyway just by reading Chapter 1 and if you know anything about Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow...well, he likes to mess with people...mentally. To put it very mildly.

Now it's time for the voting. I have three different scenarios I've come up with that are variations/alternate versions of the current "Volunteer" fic's concept/storyline. I'd like followers to select 1 (one) alternate telling of the fic. I will open anonymous asks again, so if you are shy or just want your vote to remain a secret for some other reason, then that's fine by me. Otherwise, you can reply to this post with your choice.

Edit: if you are turned off by the idea of a Mortal Kombat/Batman Arkhamverse crossover, I get it. I don't read crossover fics myself, and that's usually because the crossovers either make no sense or do make sense but the ideas are poorly executed.

This crossover I'm talking about, though, isn't a full-on crossover of MK and Batman. There's no world-building, no larger plot, and no other characters in MK even appear or are mentioned except Erron Black and Cassie Cage.

If anything, it's more of a Batman Arkhamverse standard AU with Riddler and a female oc, and Erron and Cassie are the only concrete elements of MK brought in. I mean, yes, the other MK characters exist, I guess, but they have no purpose in this crossover I've written, and won't make any appearances.

So, if you had any concerns about the crossover aspect, I hope this clears things up

Choices below the cut!

A) "Don't You Wish"

This version is inspired by a song from Pink, called, "There You Go." In this alternate telling, Erron manages to survive Scarecrow's fear toxin, and escape (most likely because Erron is out of his mind and panicking, thus not a threat, and he has no one to help him, so Scarecrow doesn't give a damn what happens to the dude). The first thing Erron does is go to Sara's place, having already broken up with Cassie after realizing dating her was a mistake, and Sara means more to him than he thought.

Well, it's been several months since Sara basically pushed Erron out of her life for his poor choice in women, and (Arkham Knight) Edward Nigma has proven to be a much better (and, wiser and more sensible -- yes, I know, but he's not a skirt chaser, Guys) friend to Sara. While Erron ran off with a blonde selfie princess, Edward offered genuine comfort and companionship, and now Sara has been in the process of moving on from Erron even further.

Sara humors Erron and lets him tell her -- while sounding terrified, confused, and conflicted beyond belief thanks to the fear toxin -- what happened to him. Now, Sara doesn't know Edward asked Scarecrow to take care of Erron as a means of getting revenge for her. Doesn't matter anyway. She's unsympathetic towards Erron's plight, feeling as if he didn't even give her a chance to confess her feelings towards him, nor did he even seem to notice how she felt; it was like he was too busy with thinking with his privates to realize he had someone in front of him who would have treated him better.

Sara tells Erron -- in a flat, disinterested tone -- that his situation is tragic and all but wtf is she supposed to do? Why not go to his dumb blonde gf? Oh, they broke up? Well, how predictable. And Crane is also a (sort of) friend to Sara, which shocks Erron and leaves him feeling worse than before.

Sara sends Erron on his way, and he wanders off in a daze, unsure of what to do with his life now.

Sara and Edward meet the next day, and they have a pleasant time, obviously moving towards becoming a couple. She chooses not to mention Erron as she is completely severing the cowboy from her life.

B) "I Don't Even Miss You"

This alternate telling is similar to the previous one, but this time it's inspired by a Miley Cyrus song, "WTF Do I Know" (Hey, her Plastic Hearts album is actually fantastic!), and Edward is with Sara when Erron arrives at her place in a distressed state. At first, Sara deals with Erron in the hall of her apartment building, unsympathetic to his plight and basically telling him, "I told you so," and "too bad." Erron is getting more and more upset, even angry at Sara's callous tone, and starts to raise his voice, demanding to know why she is being so cold at a time like this?

Edward overhears Erron raising his voice to Sara, giving her a difficult time, and he gets pissed. Edward steps out into the hall and not only mocks Erron in various ways, but demands that he leave immediately, or what Scarecrow did will seem like a trip to Disney Land. Erron has caused Sara -- who is currently moving on and growing closer to Edward -- enough problems and heartache.

Edward reveals he set up Erron, and while Sara is stunned to find this out, she handles it better than expected. Edward said it was his way of getting revenge for her, and he'd do it again if need be. Erron is sent away feeling so much worse, feeling lost, hopeless, and betrayed.

Sara and Edward talk and she admits she's upset that he did something like this without speaking about it to her first. However, he explains that he genuinely did it for her and he doesn't want her to feel pain at the hands of some "idiotic cowman," who doesn't consider the feelings of others and who behaves like a greedy, violent Neanderthal. (And yes, Edward does care for Sara, and he didn't send Scarecrow after Erron out of jealousy -- maybe a little jealousy but it was mostly rage over Erron causing Sara so much emotional pain)

Sara means more to Edward than he can express, and he may not be the best when it comes to emotions, but he does care about her and wants her to be safe.

Sara forgives Edward, understanding that, through his heartfelt but very nervous and shy confession that he is sincere about his feelings for her, and they make amends. She of course tells him to never do something so extreme without consulting her first, though, because what happened to Erron -- while she doesn't care what happens to him in the slightest -- was a bit too much.

C) "Listen When the Devil's Calling"

Another title inspired by a Miley Cyrus song, "Night Crawling," and this alternate telling involves Telltale Riddler and no Scarecrow. Almost a year has passed since Erron went with Cassie and Sara, out of bitterness and heartache, refused to speak or see him. This didn't sit well with him as she was his only friend, and his relationship with Cassie dies within a few months.

He goes looking for Sara, realizing she has moved out of her apartment. It doesn't take him long to find out where she is, and she's with The Riddler, a notorious criminal genius and one of Gotham's elite villains. Erron is worried for Sara and seeks her out.

Turns out, Sara's just fine. This isn't one of those scenarios where the girl is with a guy who just using her and taking advantage of her vulnerability. No, Edward does actually love her and takes good care of her. He finds people like reckless, selfish, and ignorant people like Erron to be a disgrace but also amusing because of how pathetically primitive they are.

Edward also doesn't appreciate how Erron pushed aside a good thing in Sara to pursue a girl who is a social media brat and has more selfies on her phone than brain cells in her, well, brain. It defies all logic to Edward, but he's also not surprised because of how much of a disappointment Erron is as a human being (hey, this is Riddler we're talking about, and he's not one to be sweet and gentle to those he can't stand). Edward doesn't say these things out loud, though, as it's a bit too vulnerable and personal for him to do such a thing with someone he doesn't know or trust.

Sara is upset that Erron has resurfaced and she remembers how heartbroken she was when he went after Cassie Cage. She wants Erron to leave her alone like she asked, so she can move on. She can't trust him anymore, because he's just a skirt chaser in her eyes.

Erron tries to plead his case, tries to apologize to Sara, and expresses how he really feels, but this just distresses her further. Edward steps in and tells Erron he's done enough to Sara, she clearly doesn't want to see him, and he needs to take his leave.

This isn't a request.

Edward pulls Erron aside, telling the cowboy that the only reason he's going to walk away from this alive is that Sara hasn't asked for him to be killed. Should she tell Edward to take care of Erron, well, you all know what Telltale Riddler is like.

And those are the three variations on "Volunteer."

If you could be so kind as to:

leave a comment with your choice or

send an ask (even an anon ask) with your choice or

suggest your take on this story.

I'd appreciate it immensely!

Thank you all so much for supporting me and my writing and being patient with my sluggish publishing schedule!

[cocastyle]

The In-Between - Prologue

Stranger Things x It Crossover

with some Bill Denbrough x reader

Word Count - 3,967

Warning - cursing? (if people don’t like that kind of stuff), some Stranger Things Season 3 spoilers? (don’t know if they would still be spoilers or not)

A/N - this is officially the beginning of my The In-Between series! I’m so excited to get this thing started and wanted to have a prologue so you could see how Y/N meets the Losers’ Club and what her relationship with The Party is like.

reminder that this series will take place in 1987 where the kids are all 17. however, in this prologue, the year is 1985 which means they are all 15 and the events of Stranger Things season 3 just occurred (I switched some things up like I’m not having Hopper die that way Eleven and Will stay in Hawkins).

since the year is 1985, that means the events of It are going to have taken place the year before in 1984. to have Beverly in the group, I basically had her move back with her aunt in the earlier half of 1985 and her and Bill have decided to stay friends (this allows the Bill Denbrough x reader part of the series). anyways, I hope you all enjoy!

also, since Mike Hanlon is homeschooled, he will not be in this prologue. Y/N meets the Losers’ Club at school which is why he will not be mentioned at first. he will be in upcoming chapters though!

if you would like to be added to the tag list, let me know!

T H E I N - B E T W E E N

Intro The Losers’ Club The Party Prologue 1 2

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Epilogue

August 1985

Hawkins, Indiana, the one place Y/N thought she would stay forever. Having been born and raised in the town, it was hard to imagine a life where she didn't live there. But then the events that had taken place during the summer of 1985 had occurred and the unimaginable suddenly became reality.

Fright was the main reason they were moving. Not that Y/N was scared or anything. It was her parents who were scared, scared that the unusual events that occurred in Hawkins would harm their family and ruin their lives.

After all, their daughter had barely been able to escape the forces of the Upside Down the previous couple of times, so when she came home with blood stained clothes and news of the death of Billy Hargrove, her parents were convinced that the only thing they could do was move away.

Y/N did not agree with her parents' decision in any way, shape, or form. Her life was in Hawkins. Her friends were in Hawkins.

Her family was in Hawkins.

However, her parents' minds were already made up and within two weeks their house was already sold and they were packing up their final things as they prepared for the journey to their new home in Derry, Maine.

The sky was filled with grey clouds on the day Y/N was supposed to leave Hawkins, a gloomy atmosphere falling over the town as if it could sense the girl was leaving and was genuinely upset about it. Y/N hardly noticed the weather seeing as her own gloominess was worse than that outside.

She almost didn't want to put the last of her things into the giant cardboard box that sat on the floor in front of her. Everything was already out of her room, leaving it so barren that she felt as if she were in a completely different place.

The only thing left had been her pictures that had decorated the walls with her memories throughout the years. It physically pained her when she had to take down the last picture—one of her with all of her friends where they were all laughing and looking at each other instead of the camera.

Now she held fast onto that picture, her hands shaking as she looked down at it with an almost longing expression on her face. Knowing it would only hurt more the longer she took, Y/N quickly looked away and set the picture in the box before closing it up. She only let out a shaky breath when the deed was done.

Y/N then picked up the box that held the last pieces of her life and began to make her way to her bedroom door. It was when she was about to grab onto the door handle that the door suddenly slammed shut, causing her to jump back in surprise. She hesitated for a second before going to open the door. However, it quickly slammed shut again before it was even half way opened.

This continued for a few more tries before Y/N let out a small sigh and turned to look behind her where her friends were all sitting on the floor looking upset. Her eyes flickered over the group that liked to call themselves 'The Party' and she stopped on Jane Hopper, otherwise known as Eleven, who had blood trickling from her nose.

The young girl wiped the blood away and stared at Y/N with wide eyes as she tried to act innocent. Y/N gave the girl a sad smile before looking around at her other friends who were all visibly upset. "I have to go," Y/N announced, the words earning a few head drops and shakes of heads.

Y/N kept her eyes on Eleven as she went to open the door again. "I have to go," she repeated as she began to pull the door open. However, Eleven wasn't having it and quickly shook her head and slammed the door shut again with her abilities.

Y/N let out a small sigh and dropped her head slightly. This was just as hard on her as it was on them. "El-" she began in a whisper, but before she could even get the words out, Eleven had jumped onto her feet and was throwing her arms around her.

The cardboard box fell from her grip and onto the floor and Y/N silently thanked herself for having only put pictures and posters in there. Her arms were quick to wrap around her friend while she dug her face into Eleven's shoulder, tears filling her eyes as she realized this was pretty much going to be their goodbye.

"Don't go," Eleven whimpered. "Please, don't go."

Y/N squeezed her eyes shut and tears rolled down her face as she hugged Eleven harder. Her body began to shake as she started to cry, but she hardly noticed it because Eleven had begun to cry as well. Arms began to wrap around the two and Y/N looked up slightly to see that her other friends—Mike Wheeler, Dustin Henderson, Lucas Sinclair, Will Byers, and Max Mayfield— had all joined in on the hug.

Y/N closed her eyes again and leaned into her friends' embraces, trying to enjoy this moment where she was with them. She didn't know when she was going to be able to see them next, but she knew she would never lose them. They had been through too much to allow that to happen.

It took a minute, but Y/N eventually got them all to let go so that she could look at them. They didn't mean to, but they had ended up forming a small circle and Y/N looked around at each of her friends before letting out a shaky laugh.

"I love you all, you know that, right?" she whispered. The Party was quick to nod their heads and Y/N smiled softly. "Good. Never forget it."

There was a silence before Y/N said, "You all stick together and take care of each other, okay? And if you all are ever in any sort of trouble, you get Dustin on his radio and have him contact me, okay? Cause you can bet your ass I'll be back here in a heartbeat."

"We don't doubt it for a minute," Max replied, the others all nodding their heads in agreement.

"I know you're going to Maine, but if anything happens and you need us, just know the same thing applies. We've got your back," the young Wheeler boy said.

"Got it, Wheeler," Y/N said with a small smile as she sniffled and wiped away her tears.

"Y/N! It's time to go!"

A look of dread washed on each of the kids' faces and Y/N reached down to pick up the box she had dropped before saying, "That's my cue."

The group was silent, but when Y/N opened the door that time, no one stopped her. Together, the Party all walked out of the girl's bedroom and made their way outside where Y/N's parents were waiting by their car.

Y/N furrowed her eyebrows in confusion when she saw someone talking to them, but her eyes instantly lit up once she recognized the person to be Steve Harrington. His parents and Y/N's parents had been close in college, so Steve and Y/N had practically grown up together despite the five year age gap between the two. He was like the older brother she never had and it was only in that moment that she realized saying goodbye to him was probably going to be the hardest goodbye she would have to face.

Trying not to dwell on the fact, Y/N smiled and called out, "Harrington, is that you?"

Steve instantly perked up at the sound of her voice and muttered something to her parents before looking over at the girl, taking his sunglasses off in the process. "Yeah, it's me. Don't cream your pants," Steve jokingly told her.

Y/N chuckled and walked over to where he stood by the car before quickly putting the box she was carrying in the back seat. She glanced over at her parents and gave them a sad smile before asking, "Can I have a moment to say goodbye?" Her parents nodded and began to get in the car, but not before her father nodded at Steve and her mother patted him on the shoulder.

Once the car doors had closed, Y/N hesitated for a moment before turning her head to look at Steve. He was already looking at her with an unreadable expression while his hands were placed on his hips. He stood there in silence before saying, "The day is finally here."

Y/N's smile disappeared and she looked down at her feet as she nodded. Steve titled his head slightly and watched her for a second before reaching out and placing a hand on her shoulder. "Listen, squirt. You're going to do great things, okay? Hawkins. . .all it's doing is holding you back," he told her.

"I'm moving to Maine," Y/N pointed out as she gave Steve a look that told him all he needed to know.

"You never know, maybe Maine is going to have just what you're looking for," Steve said as he gave her shoulder a light shake.

Y/N looked over her shoulder and at her friends who were all standing at the bottom of the staircase watching her with sad eyes. They gave her shaky smiles which she returned before looking back at Steve. She studied him in silence for a moment before lightly shaking her head as she stared at him fondly. "I don't think so," she told him, knowing that Maine would never be able to replace the people she loved so dearly.

Steve flinched slightly at her words and his face contorted in pain for a second as he looked as if he were about to cry. However, it quickly disappeared and he inhaled sharply as he tried to put on a brave face for the girl in front of him.

"Okay, L/N, serious talk right now, okay? I know this whole move is tough on you. Trust me when I say it's going to be tough on all of us. But you got to make the most of it, you hear? You go to Maine and you show those shit heads just who the hell moved to their town," Steve told her. He then reached out and poked her shoulder as he pointed at her. "Cause they have no idea how lucky they are to have you."

The tears that she had been trying to suppress since she walked outside began to fill her eyes and she couldn't stop herself from launching herself into Steve's arms as she started to cry. Her grip was tight and she balled her hand into fists around his shirt as she tucked her face into his neck.

Steve stumbled back slightly, but didn't hesitate to hug her back as he felt tears began to fill his eyes. He was going to miss her a hell of a lot more than he thought he would. She was practically his sister and one of his best friends. Age had never mattered to them, only the friendship they created had.

So the fact that he was going to have to go through a good chunk of his life without her? Yeah, it was going to be hell.

Y/N tucked Steve's shoulder under her chin as she hugged him and let her eyes flicker over to her friends who were all watching the two with tears in their eyes.

Max was leaning against Lucas who had an arm around her as both struggled to keep it together. Then there was Eleven who was holding hands with Wheeler as she hugged his arm with tears streaming down her face, Wheeler looking pretty much in the same state. Finally there was Dustin who had a hand on Will's shoulder as the two looked to each other for support seeing as the couples were busy comforting each other.

Steve eventually pulled away from the young girl, knowing that it would only be harder on both of them if they didn't end the hug now. He used his shirt to wipe his tears away before he gave Y/N a shaky smile and reached out to swiftly wipe her tears away with his thumbs.

"You'll be okay," Steve assured her. "You're going to be just fine."

Y/N gave the boy a smile, her lips quivering slightly as she forced herself to hold back a sob. "I love you, Harrington," she whispered as she stared at the boy in admiration.

Steve softened slightly at those words and leaned forward to kiss the top of her head. "I love you too, squirt," he told her.

Then, before either of them could start crying, Y/N went over to the car door and opened it up. She hesitated and turned to look back at all of her friends, her eyes scanning over each of them. It was in that moment that she realized just how much she was going to miss them.

She was going to miss Lucas who had been her first friend back in elementary school and the one who had introduced her to the other members of the Party. She would miss Wheeler and the times they would spend in the record shop looking for the right music to play at the karaoke nights they hosted for the group.

She would miss Dustin and being able to talk science with him as they worked on creating their high-range radio from scratch. She would miss Will and playing D&D together when no one else would play.

She would miss Eleven and how the two would have sleepovers and stay up all night giggling before making Eggo waffles in the morning. She would miss Max and the girls days they would have at the mall as they tried every flavor possible at Scoops Ahoy.

And she would miss Steve and the moments she knew would never get to happen. She would miss the times when they would have contests to see who could eat the most ice cream without puking and when they would team up and pull pranks on the others.

She would miss the arcade trips, the late night adventures they would have, and the times they spent together. She would miss each of them. She would miss their friendships. She would miss her family.

Y/N knew they were all thinking the same thing just from the tears that were in their eyes. Steve was the first to raise a hand and wave goodbye, everyone else quickly following suit. She let out a breathy laugh before waving back.

Then, with a heavy heart, Y/N stepped into the car and closed the door. She had just buckled up when the car began to pull away and she was quick to look out the back window at her house and her friends who were all walking out into the middle of the road to watch her go.

Her father glanced back at her in the rear view mirror, but she didn't notice, her attention on her friends who were getting further and further away. As for her mother, she grabbed ahold of her father's hand and kissed it lovingly before saying in an almost excited and slightly saddened voice, "Goodbye Hawkins, Indiana. Hello Derry, Maine."

Y/N didn't look away until her friends' figures had disappeared in the distance.

- - -

"I'm bored," Richie Tozier announced for what had to be the tenth time in the last five minutes. He looked between his friends who were all obviously ignoring him as they ate their lunch and tried to talk about other things. He momentarily saw Beverly Marsh glance his way, but she looked away and turned her attention back to Ben.

Richie had been surprised when Beverly moved back to Derry with her aunt only a year after moving away. But what had surprised him even more was that Bill and Beverly had decided they were better off as friends and Beverly had since grown closer to Ben of all people.

Richie shook away his thoughts and let out a loud sigh before he turned to Eddie Kaspbrak who was sitting beside him. "Eds," Richie whispered. When Eddie didn't respond, the boy poked him not so lightly in the arm. "Pssst. Eds, I'm bored," Richie whispered.

Eddie clenched his jaw and gave the boy a sharp look. "I know. I've heard you the other twenty times you've said it. And don't call me Eds," he said.

"Fine, Eddie Spaghetti," Richie told him with a small smirk. "But it's not my fault I'm bored. It's this shitty town! There is literally nothing to do around here!"

"Weren't you just complaining the other day about how you felt like you never had time to just do nothing?" Stanley Uris asked with a raised eyebrow as he looked at his friend.

"That was the other day, this is now!" Richie exclaimed. "And right now, I'm bored."

"S-s-shut up, Richie," Bill Denbrough muttered in annoyance as he stared blankly at the ham sandwich in his hands.

Richie rolled his eyes and let out a groan as he smacked his head against the table. "But I'm so-"

Before Richie could get that sentence out, the noise in the cafeteria virtually disappeared causing the boy to stop mid sentence. He furrowed his eyebrows and sat up before following everyone's gaze to where the cafeteria doors had just opened up. His mouth dropped open a little and the others all looked to their friend confused as to why he had actually shut up for once.

Seeing his shocked state, the group followed his gaze and their eyes landed on a girl around their age who had just walked into the cafeteria. Her eyes were wide due to the sudden attention and Bill could see the small blush creeping onto her cheeks as she nervously brushed a strand of h/c hair behind her ear.

Bill blinked in surprise as he stared at her, instantly stunned by her beauty just like all the other kids were. He could practically sense the jealously radiating off of all the girls except for Beverly and the boys were practically drooling at the sight of her.

The girl then began to walk forward and her shoes clicking against the ground seemed to echo throughout the whole cafeteria. It was only when she had taken a few steps that everyone seemed to snap out of their spell and go back to whatever they were doing. Well, everyone except for the Losers’ Club.

"Who is that?" Ben Hanscom asked, none of the boys taking their eyes off of the girl while Beverly just shook her head and laughed quietly to herself.

"She must be that new girl I heard Jane Greenwood talking about in math class," Eddie suggested.

"You knew there was a new girl and didn't tell me?" Richie asked as he looked at his friend in shock. "Come on, man. I could've been working my Richie charm on her already."

"Yeah, you won't be doing that," Beverly Marsh told him as she rolled her eyes at the boy. "Let the poor girl have a chance to breathe before you annoy her to death."

Richie made a face at Beverly which Bill barely noticed for he was too busy watching Y/N who was trying to find a seat. He watched as she attempted to sit down at a few tables, but each one either had girls that were too jealous of her to let her sit there or guys that were too stuck up to allow a girl to sit with them. It was only when he saw her passing their table without even trying that Bill called out to her.

"You can s-s-sit with us."

The Losers’ Club all froze and glanced over at Bill in surprise while the young girl paused in her tracks and turned to look at who had talked to her. Her eyes locked with Bill's and she gave him a breathtaking smile that had him blushing a little under her gaze.

"Thanks," she said as she walked over to the only empty seat that happened to be in between Bill and Richie. "Seriously, thank you. I was afraid I would have to sit by the trash cans. It's kind of hard trying to find a seat when you're new and know literally no one."

She was rambling a little, but Bill couldn't help but smile as she talked. "N-n-no problem. I-I-I'm Bill. B-B-Bill Denbrough," he introduced himself, stuttering a little more than usual due to the fact that a pretty girl was sitting next to him. He then gave the rest of the group looks that told them to introduce themselves as well.

"Beverly Marsh."

"Ben Hanscom."

"Eddie Kaspbrak."

"Stanley Uris, but people call me Stan."

"Richie Tozier, but you can call me the man of your dreams."

"Don't call him that," Beverly instantly said as she sent a small glare towards Richie. However, the girl had turned her gaze on Richie and was staring at him with wide eyes.

"Look guys. I'm so handsome she can't even speak," Richie smirked, but it disappeared when the girl poked his cheek and moved his face so she could look at him better.

"Incredible," she whispered. "You look exactly like one of my friends back home! You two could be twins!"

Richie frowned at that and muttered, "There is no one like me, but me!"

The girl just shook her head in amazement and stared at Richie for a moment longer before looking away with a blink of her eyes and looking to the rest of the group. "Sorry. I'm Y/N L/N," she introduced herself.

"Where did you move from?" Ben asked while Richie sat muttering something about he was unique and there was no one someone looked like him.

Y/N's smile made Bill's heart flutter a little and he mentally cursed himself for being affected by her smile when he had just met her. "Hawkins, Indiana," she replied.

"Hawkins?" Stan questioned as he scrunched up his nose. He then shrugged and looked down at his food before saying, "Never heard of it."

"Most people haven't," Y/N chuckled. "Which is probably a good thing now that I think about it."

"Why's t-t-that?" Bill asked, genuinely curious.

Y/N let out a nervous laugh as she almost seemed to be recalling some memory, "It can be a pretty weird place."

"Well you obviously haven't been in Derry long," Eddie muttered.

"Trust me. Nothing can be weirder than Hawkins," Y/N assured them. "It's like a shit show on steroids."

Richie rolled his eyes. "Trust me. Derry can and is," Richie argued.

Y/N raised an eyebrow as the corner of her lips turned up in a small smirk. "Want to bet?" she asked as if she knew something they didn't.

Richie glanced at his friends and Bill chuckled softly to himself knowing that nothing could beat what they had been through. It wouldn't be until after Y/N explained her whole story that he would realize he was wrong.

"You sure you want to do this, L/N?" Richie asked. "We wouldn't want to scare you away."

Y/N smirked and set her backpack on the ground and her lunchbox on the table.

"Try me, Tozier."

* * *

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