#and now he had 3 ghostly trio following him around after he helps them

[emacrow]

When Danny hides his corpses along with Elle and Dan.. those fucking Archaeologists are persistent little shits then shenanigans happens..

He hide them in the Antarctica, where barely any humans goes beside a couple groups of persistent scientists living there and the hidden society of cannibalistic humaniod yetis....

There was no way anyone could find their bodies under 60 feet of snow and frozen millennium ice...

Ancients be damned 4 months later, danny felt a disturbance in his hidden grave only to see History News found 3 preserved corpses perfectly intact in a solid crystallized looking coffin the God damn Antarctica.

Took him a solid 5 days to find the right God forsaken headquarters of those Archaeologists who already send their bodies to gotham...

He about to flip his lid, especially as it was getting to him very badly... by how sleep deprived his ghost side was being to the point that the disturbed.. eldritch part of his very being was slipping a bit..

Then the truck driving with their corpses got stolen by some low grade wanna be villain by the name of 'the penguin'.

Who has his goons trying to break the crystal coffin into pieces with how priceless it beholding.

Danny brought Elle and Dan into this because he doesn't know gotham and three heads work better then one with the search out.

By the time, they actually found the Right fucking Hideout; because how many fucking hideout does a fucking penguin needs.

They were too late by a fucking hour, because of course something had to take their coffin.

Penguins already look arrested and it seem Batman got their coffin, whom had sent it to the Watchtower to get analyzed after they found a heart beating after 40 minutes to the batcave..

Danny wanted to ghost screamed by then...

(Wayyy later in the plot that I'll never finish)

Constantine whom is about to drinking scotch whiskey before it slapped by the ghostly eldritch child who shoving an glowing green smoothie in his hands for the 3rd time.

He look at them with a begrudgingly look who glares back at him with the similar mom glare looks before he sighed and drink the smoothie.

He ain't admitting it taste so much fucking better then his usual whiskey for shit.

Meanwhile Elle is enjoying having a younger halfa to bother even if his core is all types of fucked up and looking worse then a apple that fell off the ugly tree, got shredded by a wood chipper, mashed back together and then peeled off by a potato peeler before stomped on.

[rey-129-fan]

Well, it's been a while since I've posted any fanfic... Let's change that.

Good news! I'm not dead! My brain did try to get me to do things that could unalive myself for a bit, and then I lost nearly an entire side of my family over the span of 3 years, but I'm still here and still kicking! And I have two new puppies who are adorable and so loving.

Now for this story, this is inspired by a few posts I saw on @theglamorousferal, mostly the one about Amity Parkers going to college in Gotham and buying a hotel (I'm making it a co-op student house, but I've never lived in one, so if something's unacceptably wrong, tell me, if not, artistic license), but also the one where our main Trio buy a building to set up shop there, and wind up adopted my Jason (I swear, I saw that post after I wrote the first chapter, but it just fit so well).

***

Honestly, Amity Park was weird long before the Fentons moved there- the original settlers named the nearby lake Eerie, and it wasn’t after the Great Lake.  It’s just that before the Fentons’ machine punched a hole through reality and created a permanent doorway to the land of spirits and ghosts, the weirdness was not as blatant.

Prior to that, Amity Parkers were some of the few that could move to Gotham without suffering a breakdown that was common for new arrivals.  Now there was a slight dip in newcomers for about a decade or two after the Bat made his debut and then the crazies that followed him, but then Amity Parkers got used to the spirits of the dead wandering around following the aforementioned punching through reality.

All this to say that Gotham Universities were a rather common destination for young Amity Park adults seeking higher education.

Now because of this, there were always apartments advertising themselves for people from the small town.  They, after all, tended to not have a breakdown after their fifth rogue attack and just pack up and leave halfway through their lease.  But it got very annoying having to sift through all the advertisements when looking for a place to stay- something Danny Fenton saw his older sister go through when she got in to Gotham City University.  The boy then shared what he was witnessing with his two best friends- Tucker Foley and Sam Manson.  Tucker offered to help filter out the spam, which Danny’s sister Jazz thanked him for but turned down.  Sam… Sam instead got thinking.

Sam had been to Gotham a few times in her life.  She had an idea of the areas closest to the schools and how much those should cost.  And looking at the letters Jazz was getting, the offers were a little too high for a regular college student to afford.  Sam was also familiar with how many hotels were not being used in Gotham- people building them in hopes tourists would come to stay while visiting the East Coast, tourists that could not be convinced to visit due to the high crime rate and the lack of activities or places of interest in the city itself.

She quickly went to work, looking in to these empty hotels.  She was rather upset by their numbers and put together a spreadsheet of them, with details like number of rooms, any amenities they may have, and nearby landmarks.  She then grabbed her two dorks and marched to Casper High’s Community Outreach director.

Now Sam’s presentation raised a few eyebrows, mostly because it was in a completely different state, but Sam shot back that because of the efforts to incorporate the town’s new ghostly residents and provide them with helpful ways to feed their obsessions- efforts led by the Fenton family- Amity Park had very few homeless, and those that were had a huge community safety net to help them get back on their feet.  Additionally, with how many people moved between the city and the town, helping the city could be argued to also be helping the town.

The Outreach Director just sighed and gave Same the green light to at least draft and send out a proposal to the powers that be in Gotham, saying that there wasn’t much that could be done before they got backing and approval.  Sam thanked them before leaving, Danny and Tucker trailing behind.

She was back the next day with a draft of her proposal and a list of who to send it to.

***

Since returning from the dead in the eyes of the public, Jason Todd was often contacted by groups trying to use the Wayne fortune to fund their own personal projects.  They thought Jason would be the easiest to con- sorry, persuade- since he was a former street kid unlike the rest of his family.  Thus surely he would know just how much this new building with low income housing would help the people of Gotham- it even came with a pool and gym!

Yeah, he did know how much the people of Gotham needed housing, but $2K a month was not affordable when you’re barely making $30K a year!  Oh and the pool and gym were only available for those who could shell out an additional $2K a month.  Jason knows, he read the whole document carefully.

God, sometimes it was hard to tell who was worse, the psychos in Blackgate or real estate investors.  And sadly, he couldn’t just pop a bullet in their heads and be done with it because 1) it would raise too many questions and 2) it would make Bruce get all sad and mopey- again.  Jason just did not have the mental energy to put up with that on top of the rest of his life as a crimelord/vigilante/long-lost adoptive second son of a billionaire.

All this to say, he was not impressed when he first glanced over a proposal to convert the unused hotels around the city into housing units- especially since it was from someone that did not live in Gotham.

Manson?  Wasn’t there a family with that name that would attend some of Brucie’s galas?  Oh yeah, their family made its fortune off patenting the machine that wrapped toothpicks in plastic, as well as a couple others.  And they had a daughter around Repla- Tim’s age.  Hopefully this wasn’t her trying to be a kiss-ass like her parents.

Jason finished reading and sat back.  The proposal wasn’t too bad.  Converting hotels into apartment buildings would be easier than office buildings, and the suggestion to use ex-convicts that wanted to turn over a new leaf as building managers certainly wasn’t the worst.  Also creating a fund for those that couldn’t afford rent, as well as community kitchens and gardens were certain plusses, though would need to have the right people in charge to make sure they actually worked as planned, and to keep the Court of Owls from messing with it.

Overall, it was something Jason would consider, after some research and maybe talking with the rest of the Bats and Birds.  And if this was from the Manson kid, maybe get Dickie or one of the others to talk to her next time there was a gala in town.  Or talk to her himself, if the Pit wasn’t too loud.

…Dick was probably the better option to talk with her if it came down to it.

***

There's the first chapter. I'm going to go write the next one. When I have a good log of them, I'll then go and edit them and put them on AO3.

This has no title yet because I suck at naming. Feel free to comment with suggestions for a name, both for the fic/au and for the eventual hotel/co op. As well as any shinanegans and majors/colleges/universities for our liminal young adults.

Part 1/? Next >

[writing-frenzy]

Airplane gets Ghosted~

Brain: :D

Me: Oh no, what did you do.

Brain: Let’s make another Airplane Harem~

Me. 🥺 why are you like this?!

Note: Inspired by A Crowd of Evil Spirits Lines Up to Confess to Me; pretty funny horror unlimited flow story, with some good scares that leave ya at the edge of your seat. (I really love the Protagonist, so good and pure and I headcannon as Aro-Ace~) So anyways, for those who don’t know, in the novel, the Protagonist Gu Wuji is a genuinely good person, an aspiring actor on hard times who suddenly gets pulled into this horror survival game. Here is the thing; while for others this is a truly cursed and terrible thing, for the protag this is just a regular day, just with some people who need some help; he will help Ghosts just as much as he would help a human.

Ghost: *being Scary*

Gu Wuji: Oh no, let me help you? *smiles*

Ghost: *either a blushing mess, happy to be helped, or can feel how strong this human is and is the one scared instead*

So yeah, here this man goes, bewitching everyone he meets, especially terrifying Ghosts who want him to die so they can stay together forever 🙃 Lucky he is so charming, and that with every Instance cleared, he can get points to get items and information/hints from the store.

And then I though about Airplane being in this position and I just grinned.

So, to preface this, I’m going to go on how I think Airplane has been raised in this AU.

Basically, since our favorite writer was young, Airplane was pretty much raised by ghosts. With two increasingly furious and arguing parents who couldn’t care less about him, they don’t notice at all how weird their kid is, not wanting to be reminded of old memories. So thus start’s Airplane’s growing up more comfortable with the headless car-crash victim who helps him know when his bullies are around then actual living people who only seem to try and tear each other apart more then most dead ever want to. Not to say he hasn’t met some mean dead too, but all they seem to care about is just scaring him off so they can be alone. Which, fair.

Just... Airplane is still Airplane, but for him, normal is dealing with the Ghostly Neighbor who will at least hear him out most of the time, especially since most Living people are assholes.

(Also, Airplane will have some of the strength that Gu Wuji is known for, but he mostly just has a really good head for intelligence, logistics, plots, and strategy... Let’s just say Airplane has seen and been through some shit in his younger years.) 

I am also being a gremlin and making Shen Jiu and Yue Qi be the friends Airplane makes in middle school, Shen Jiu being superstitious as fuck and Yue Qi going along with it, even as he because more WTF the longer they are friends with Airplane and fully realize ‘Shit, ghost are fucking real, nope, nope, nope.’ It is a beautiful, disaster of a trio and their friendship is eternal... (even if Shen Jiu will never forgive/hold over Yue Qi for leaving him with the ghost in the fucking burned down Mansion, even if Airplane fixed it; apparently it had something to do with their previous incarnations?)

So yeah, these guys are released out into the world, where Airplane writes really good, if bloody dramas, asking his Ghost Friends if he can use some of their stories and them either not caring or excited as they give him the go ahead. (The Police have some questions...)

Sure, he writes some bad porn on the side, but with some of his Ghost friends able to beta read for him, Airplane is able to stay a float nice and easy, if still anxious every time he has to pay the rent because human interaction is so hard when you’re dealing with the living. (Don’t have to worry about meeting someone’s eyes if they’re gouged out after all)

And then we get to the Instances :) (Now, besides the first one that does happen First, these others could happen with one or two between them.)

First Instance(Novice): The Traitor’s Secret~

The fresh new Players, with some older ones here, is part of a Merchant Caravan that they just have to ensure gets from point A to point B, and just live. Simple mission as this is a Novice Instance for innocents pulled in. And it would have even remained a simple one, only having to deal with the wondering dead that are manageable, as they have plenty of supplies to ration and work with, if one of the Older Players wasn’t here with ulterior motives.

See, this ‘Senior’ managed to buy information that there is a great item that can be obtained; the thing is, one must betray their comrades in order to get it, with the first betrayal making the difficulty rise from the Novice to Intermediate immediately, as this as awakened a terrible Boss.

It probably would have gone smoothly (maybe....) but here is the thing.

As it turns out, ‘Senior’ didn’t buy enough information; after The First Betrayal, the Boss Ghost will sneakily become a part of the Party, acting much like a helpful NPC when really he is a trap; if the Betrayer betrays him, it is game over.

But the game is different this time; No one expects Airplane, who has the ability and instincts of a cockroach who was completely willing to hug a Ghost’s (well, NPC’s) thighs

Cue Shang Qinghua who is very confused, because after he sneakily becomes part of the group, this human has decided to cling to him of all people, the Creepy/Grumpy NPC, and not his fellow group members... 

Airplane grows on SQH like a fugus, makes amazingly funny commentary, and even tells some interesting stories. On Airplane’s part, Shang Qinghua feels not only like the strongest guy here, but also the most reliably competent...

 Not to mention he feels comfortable to be around, which is weird since Airplane doesn’t usually feel to comfortable with the living~ (ha ha ha, maybe because he’s a NPC? Though he still freezes with those guys too...) 

As it is, because ‘Senior’ needs to betray everyone, he tries to get Airplane, who, again, is still a very, very morally ambiguous guy, sees this guy trying to kill him, and simply pushes them instead into a throng of the undead.

Airplane: Ah, sorry for the terrible sight Senior brother, but he was trying to kill us? Are you alright? Do you want a massage?

Shang Qinghua is incredulous, but becomes more charmed as time passes.

(Remembers, how his martial brothers, people who he had lived and worked beside all his life, so easily sold him out, trying to kill him only for him to suffer a fate worse then death. It was only so much time was passed, after having to spy and betray those who betrayed him before he finally had the release of death; but even then, his resentment was too strong, even the blood sealed onto his jade hairpin filled with resentment.)

It is this item he gives to Airplane, blushing as he does as he says if the other ever needs help, to just use the pin and it won’t lead him wrong.

When Airplane leaves the instance, he gets a system notice about the points he got, increased because of the Instance’s sudden level increase, as well as information on the item he received from Shang Qinghua 

Shang Qinghua’ Hairpin: A Hairpin with deadly secrets, belong to A Spy with a vast network of information, be able to uncover hidden secrets with ease and learn anything you wish of with loyal shades at your command,

 Level One: Summon two shades to gather information. (Each level up gets you another shade to do your bidding)

(He only has the information from level one, but once he levels it up, this is what else it can do)

Level 3: Your shades can now help you escape dicey situations

Level 5: Able to uncover the deadly poison hidden in the hollow of it, this deadly substance can poison Living and Dead both

Level: 7: Able to use the Hairpin like a deadly knife, the resentment enriching the wood to be harder and sharper then ever before.

(Past Level Seven, must full on stab someone in a vital place to discover this ability: Able to release one ensured fatal attack from the Hairpin; after that, it will continue to drop to a fifty-fity chance and before renewing each Instance.)

Level 10: be able to summon Shang Qinghua, the deadly competent Spy to your side to aid you; note, he will only help as much as he likes you and you are only truly safe from him for an Hour before he gets free range to do whatever he wants.

So yeah. this is Airplane’s first instance~ It was so terrifying, having to be around so many people and freaky monsters, but he thinks he made a friend? He hopes?

(He certainly gets one heck of an admirer.)(¬‿¬)

Second Instance(Novice): The Healer’s Broken Heart

So, next Instance, Airplane finds himself in an ancient, fantasy hospital with a group half novices and novices who at least survived two or three games after this. The challenge this time is two pair up into teams of two or threes and try and treat as many ‘patients’ in the hospital as one can. First, they have to collect all the medicine they need, prepare the Nursing rooms, and then, of course, treat at least five patients each, or face death for failing. 

See, the patients are sorta, kinda, Undead they need to treat as if they were living, so they Have to do things like bandaging sliced throats, sew back on sliced limbs, and drain puss and other gross gory things to give nightmares. Not to mention that they have to follow regular rules like in most hospitals, so no running in the hall, no loud sounds, things like that when their are Ghosts everywhere. (As long as someone doesn’t break the rules, the Ghosts won’t notice you.)

 As Airplane is a nervous wreck around people, and with this being a bad day for his anxiety, no one but one guy is willing to partner up with him, this gentle, sweet guy called Mu Fan, who’s amazing chill affects Airplane’s own chill and helps him feel a little better about the situation.

Ha~ Mu Fan is so nice and even knows so much about all the medicines and what to do here! He’s even helpful and nice when Airplane was about to have an anxiety attack, following what Airplane warned him about not touching him, but if he could, maybe hum if he could?

Of course Airplane can’t just let the other carry him the entire way! Mu Fan is just too nice and really helped him back there, so he wants to pay back at least a little. So, being this disaster that he is, instead of thanking Mu Fan and asking him if their is anyways to pay him back, Airplane uses his Hairpin instead to see if he could help the other out.

He gets an... interesting reaction...

Apparently, Mu Fan is actually Mu Qingfang, a Boss Ghost (tho Airplane only knows the other is a ghost) of this area, who can be activated in some ways; examples, if the Players try and hurt the Patients, if Players try and kill each other in cold blood, or try and steal Medicine. Mu Qingfang’s most sincere wish is to free his patients from this cycle of pain, hopefully be free from it for good.

This is the information that Airplane gets, what Mu Qingfang has been trying to discover for years with no luck.

Airplane: QAQ Mu Qingfang is truly too good, too pure for this world, wanting to help the other ghost past on and be out of pain.

On Mu Qingfang’s part, he saw this poor, distressed man and the doctor instincts in him went on fire as he did his best to help the other with their heart demons. But he was really, extremely impressed by them with how they treated his patients, taking care of their wounds like it was nothing, joking with the decapitated head as he sewed it back on, getting a breathless laugh from the woman as she cried happy tears from it. The doctor went really gooey though with how Airplane spellbound his audience of twins who needed to be separated after their parent had sown them together, the two young (very creepy as fuck) children begging for more, distracting from the pain of having to reattach their arms in the right places one more.

(Tries not to cry when this disaster of a Man says he has to do something first before he leaves after he finishes the five patients, only to bring a true gift back as he does. Mu Qingfang has nearly given up on his poor patients ever being free from this constant cycle of pain, their Bandit Killers, for such a small, evil group, never brought to justice only for Airplane to catch them all, bringing them to the hospital so that all their grievances can be aired out and payed back once and for all. It took a bit, and Airplane accidently raised the Level of the Instance himself this time doing it, but he got all the baddies round up and incapacitated as he did.)

Mu Qingfang is ever so grateful, even as Airplane offers to help the man finish up here before he leaves, the last doctor’s visit these ghost will ever need to have. He blesses Airplane with a powerful healing ability, along with a Doctor’s kit that is full of useful supplies, refilling ever day if needed.)

So, Airplane is back in his space, cleaning his hands and body because that was still gross (but not the worse thing he has dealt with) with new points and some good prizes once more, even if he isn’t sure why the level went up all of a sudden? The Bandits honestly weren’t that hard to trick and sabotage?

Mu Qingfang’s Medical Bag

Basically, like the Hairpin, full of goodies that can do more and more OP things the higher the Level it goes (and yes, has a secret poison function as well; Now Shang Qinghua can refill the Hairpin if he ever need to :D And yes, Mu Qingfang can be summoned with an Item in the bag once he gets to Level Ten..

Same with the Healing ability, it just gets more OP the higher the level, tho it doesn’t have a summoning ability, but will let you heal others as much as you want at Level Ten

So thus, this is Airplane’s second Ghost ‘Friend’~ (〃￣︶￣)人(￣︶￣〃)

Instance Three (Intermediate): Guards of The Icy Village

So, Airplane is confident in himself, seeing as he’s managed Instances that go from Novice to Intermediate all the time, thinks ‘why not try an Intermediate, since my Novice experience will probably turn out like that anyways? (the fact that all the choices he has left are either Intermediate or Hard does not matter!) 

Looking through his choices, he see a Limited Event One, with a Special Link to it; not knowing what this means but being effected by the Limited deal, he picks it.

(What this means is that there will be an Event in this Instance that will literally only be open this one time and can not be done ever again; Special Link Means that this Event will and can effect in even Higher Level Instances in the Future, depending on how Many +’s are in the title of it.)

This Event has a Max Number of +’s :)

So, he picks his choice and finds himself in this beautiful Icy wonderland with a group of other people. Everyone has to be set into teams here, guarding the snow village from evil spirits and monsters that would prey on it for five days and five nights. And because I want to, Airplane has been teamed up with Gongyi Xiao, Qin Wanrong, Qin Wanyue, and Qiu Haitang. As long as they protect their part of the Village, they will be able to pass the Instance and everything will be swell

(Is this me indulging in having some badass girls, and letting these characters not only get some damn scene time, but be able to be happy and live? Yes, yes it is, because let me explore these guys in this traumatic AU where they have to do all they can to live, and still be able to trust to have each other’s backs dang it) 

So, the Huan Hua High Schooler group have already been through two instances at this point, Airplane has been through a lot, and Qiu Haitang has had one game that turned from easy to hard in a minute that she survived with luck and her wits (and gave her a crap ton of points and a need for survival classes she took asap before her next game). Airplane, because he doesn’t trust the fact that they’ll be okay if other parts of the Village they’re in are invaded, sends his spirits and some nifty golems he got from the shop to help patrol everywhere. 

Because come on, if one place gets breached, of course the rest will be vulnerable! He’s played the Empire Building, Fortress Making games to prove it!

(Everyone nods, because this actually makes so much sense, how could they have ignored such an obvious trap! Intermediate Instances are no joke!)

Cue really scary as fuck ice monsters and evil spirits. Things are going good, Airplane and co are making it through, with Airplane discovering and making obsolete yet another trap unknowingly because he’s making sure everything is rationed(and using some points to actually buy some fooof) and checking in with villagers all over; because they are literally in charge of protecting and managing all these people, and with everything around here with the blizzard and seize, they have to make sure there is enough food and supplies for everyone. 

(That this prevents making evil spirits and monster from rising with the Village is a big thing actually, because some of them are made from the dead.)

So then, the forth day comes; it starts out nice, no more harsh snows, people are coming out of their houses now, Airplane is nearly tearing his hair out from stress and too many people, but he can make do. (has had to make do with worse really)

And then he hears some of the Villagers are about to riot, planning to go at something with stones and pitchforks. Panicking, thinking these NPCs that he has to protect are trying to go outside their weight class, Airplane gets the others in his team and other teams who are useful to hopefully get the weak peasant class NPC out of danger as he goes about handling the problem himself, only to stop and start at the literal child bleeding in from of him.

For a moment, Airplane blanks... (Sure, he knows, from experience, that Children Ghosts are in fact some of the most, if not the most deadly ghost out there... And yet... for all the pranks and cruelty they played, they were always the ones who understood Airplane’s loneliness the most, being the most truthful and blunt and just honest with him...)

So, when Airplane sees this light blue demon child with horns and nasty claws, tear stains on his still baby fat cheeks even as they scowl and bare fangs, fear and anger in their eyes as they tremble before him, Airplane does not kill the child or run them out of the village.

It takes some coaxing, and it’s mostly hunger on the child’s part that wins in the end, but with the last of Airplane’s Jerky being torn through, he is able to treat the kid with his kit in his tent, even get them some cold soup to eat before they sleep.

Airplane has enough time to possibly panic over the fact ‘Wait, if there is a child there must be a parent’ before said Child’s Father appears in the Village the next morning, KO’ing two teams before almost killing his own before Airplane shakily presents them their well treated and contented child... 

who doesn’t let go, until their parent raises an eyebrow, makes an amused huff, and easily grabs their child, even if it leaves Airplane with some nasty scratches and one less lucky charm necklace.

(The Future Mobei-Jun, still Mo Bolin, nearly cries, but stubbornly bites his lip as he does, glaring at anything and everyone around him, especially his parent and the warm person he has to leave here. He wants to keep them! They saved him when their was no gain for it, and even used much needed supplies to treat him, which Mo Bolin knows are important and guarded fiercely! They told interesting stories and had good food! He doesn’t want to leave them.)

Mo Bolin’s Father is very amused, and gives Shang Qinghua an ice power(shield) and a Teleporting Token.

So, when Shang Qinghua gets back from this instance, he gets some friend requests, a bunch of points for the best possible ending ever achieved in a game, and info about his new things.

he’ll only be able to make Shields and Barriers with his new Ice Ability, with the strength and number he can make increasing with each level.

With the Token, it allows him to teleport a limited range and places he either sees or has been. It can’t be leveled, but apparently, if he fulfills some sort of condition, it can be upgraded.

So, those are ideas I have for some of the Instances. Things not mentioned:

Time with the Instances is weird; Time still always moves forward, but it can easily skip around... So the next time Airplane accidently gets into a high Nightmare Grade Instance, He might see a fully grown Mo Bolin, now Mobei-Jun~ 

Another example of Time being weird with the Instances; Airplane obviously met Shang Qinghua first, but Shang Qinghua had been Betrayed and sold out to Mobei-Jun, the same Mobei-Jun that Airplane saved as a child :D

(Yes, Airplane will summon Shang Qinghua in an Instance with Mobei-Jun, and it will be gloriously awkward, even as Shang Qinghua is smug, because he can still see Airplane anytime the other wishes to summon him)

(This will probably lead to Mobei-Jun upgrading Airplane’s Token, making it to where it’s range is even greater now, and can summon him if Airplane wishes it.)

I am still on the fence of making Shen Yuan either a Ghost and part of the Harem, or a player who is bros with Airplane.

There is an Instance in their Real Life, where Qiu Haitang, Shen Jiu, Yue Qi, along with Airplane go along one hell of a Blast from the Past as they find out terrible secrets, things get resolved, there is much crying to be had, and everyone agrees to never mention the Instance ever again or so help them Shen Jiu will make them forget.

(Shen Jiu likes having a sister. Qiu Haitang likes having a brother she actually likes.)

Liu Qingge is a disaster; is he a player, is he a Ghost, is he a monster? Who knows, Airplane doesn’t. (I’m going to say he is a fellow player~ he just likes messing with Airplane.)

And thus, here is this AU~ Hope you guys like it~ EDIT: Noticed this was weird to read, so I added spaces: hope this helps.

[specter-speeder]

here’s a bad but wholesome horror fic by yours truly (angst, fluff, and v lil gore)

In which Danny pulls some true Paranormal Activity sh*t on his family. Only kind of makes sense, but let me be amused by this concept, okay? Post-reveal. Do I even have to say no Phantom Planet?

“I am a ghost. Fear me.”

Danny started to feel it a few days after his parents had closed the portal. It was time for the ecto-filtrator to go - when Jack and Maddie had designed it, they hadn’t anticipated the size of the Ghost Zone and its post-human population. It saw more traffic than it could handle, thanks to Danny’s fatal slip-up. They’d been working on a new containment system for the ectoplasmic waste the portal produced with each ghost that breached it, but installation meant disabling the machine for an entire week.

Without his ghost fights, Danny had become restless quickly. That much he could manage. He knew what would come next, though, and he wouldn’t dare let on to his family. Since becoming a ghost, he’d only felt this starved a few times before. It was one of his inhuman qualities he hated the most. His ghost half was yearning for fear. It was making him ill. Gave him a reason to miss his class’s 3-day team-building retreat. He’d insisted to Sam and Tucker that he had things under control— he wanted to think he did. Now, Sam and Tucker were gone, and Danny was battling fevered sleep for most hours of the day. He’d never felt so drained.

Call it intuition; Jazz knew this wasn’t the flu. Danny didn’t used to insist on hiding it when he felt like crap. In fact, the Danny she grew up with wouldn’t stop whining about it whenever he was sick. This had to be a ghost thing. She wondered if her parents messing with the portal was somehow hurting him, but Danny wouldn’t budge. He wasn’t going to help her understand. She’d been dialing Sam and Tucker all day - straight to voicemail. She’d just poked her head into Danny’s room, only to find him awake in bed and glaring at her, when she felt her phone buzz. She tiptoed further down the hall and checked the caller ID: Sam Manson.

Next thing Danny knew, his mom, dad, and Jazz were creeping into his room, forcing sympathetic smiles. Sh*t, what now? Maddie placed her hand on his forehead, he swatted it away, eyes narrowed.

“How’re you feeling, sweetie?”

“The same. Why are—“

“You don’t have the flu.” Jazz interrupted. Danny clenched his jaw.

“Jazz, maybe we could talk about this privately?” he muttered.

Jack crossed his arms. “Don’t be mad at your sister. We’re worried, too.” Danny’s eyes met Jazz’s, questioning. She sighed.

“Sam told me everything.”

Danny scrubbed his hands over his face and groaned.

“I told her how bad you were, and she’s on my side. You need help.” He shook his head, glancing at his parents anxiously.

“Look, guys... you can’t help me. Just get the portal up and running and—“

“You need someone to be afraid.” Maddie stopped him, her voice clinical.

Danny stumbled over his words, trying to answer quickly. “If the portal’s working, the ghosts can—“

“Danny, it’s not close to being done.”

Jack nodded in agreement. “Your friend said it would work, so... we thought maybe, you could scare us.”

Danny’s ears rung. They shouldn’t have offered. Sam should have shut down Jazz’s stupid idea, for his sake. He didn’t want to say yes. He really, really didn’t want to say yes. He blinked.

“You mean... use my powers to...”

“We’ll know it’s only you, so... how bad can it be?”

Everything in him was urging him to take the offer, against his own wishes. He could already feel energy prickling on his spine, cooling him off. Relief.

“Are you sure?” He asked blankly. Maddie was too quick to answer.

“Of course.”

“Really sure?”

She nodded hesitantly. Jack didn’t look so convinced.

Danny took a deep breath, cold anticipation churning in his lungs. It was all he needed, and there was no going back now. With a loud electrical pop, his room was pitch black. He sunk underneath his bed and let himself transform, the typical bright flash weakened to a dull glow. All was quiet.

“Danny...?” Maddie ventured.

Phantom’s ghost form appeared in front of them in a flash, for a fraction of a second. Wide-eyed and mouth ajar, both glowing entirely green and oozing fog. Expressionless. Maddie jumped, and the Fentons were in the dark again.

The lights flickered on, but Danny’s room was different. His bed was stripped down to the mattress. All that remained on his shelves were his model rockets. His books, other trinkets, his trunk— everything was gone. Maddie felt her heart pounding in her chest, Jack was frozen, and Jazz’s eyes fluttered open cautiously.

“Where...?” Jack breathed, inching toward his wife.

Jack glanced toward the ceiling, but as soon as he saw it, it all fell. Danny’s books slammed to the floor. His trunk was the loudest, hitting the ground with a bang and toppling open, sending various balls and sports equipment bouncing with supernatural strength. Everything glowed a faint green. Before the objects settled, the Fentons were struck by Danny’s sheets and bedspread, flying toward them at what felt like 100 miles per hour. Jazz couldn’t help but scream.

The force had shoved them through Danny’s doorway. When they finally threw the bedding off, Danny’s door slammed shut in front of them, cracking the frame. Maddie eyed the railing just behind them. She’d been sure Danny wouldn’t hurt them, but another foot and they’d have been hurled over it. She wasn’t so convinced anymore. Could he blame her?

Jazz knew this was her idea, but she hated what she’d unleashed. She felt anger bubble at Sam. Was this supposed to be a punishment for caring about her brother? She thought they were beyond that. How often was Danny like this? Did his creepy girlfriend encourage it? She didn’t know much outside regretting she hadn’t tried harder for another solution.

“Away from the stairs. C’mon, away from the stairs!” Maddie urged, grabbing Jack and Jazz by their sleeves and cautiously tugging them down to the living room. She could’ve sworn they left the lights on, but everything was dim now save for the light of the setting sun drifting through the windows. The trio huddled close.

Static crackled as the television switched on. “—has residents questioning the whereabouts of the infamous Amity Park ghost, known by some as Phantom. Next, we’re live with—” The nightly news quickly cut to a vibrant green screen, accompanied by a reverberating, high-pitched ring. Jazz clasped her hands over her ears as it grew louder, piercing the air. It filled her with an unmistakable sense of dread, hopelessness.

“Mads…” Jack whispered, raising a shaking finger. They turned to face the windows. One by one, each vertical blind swayed slightly, an unseen force moving across them. It’s just Danny—she repeated the phrase over in her mind, grasping for a sense of calm. The movement stopped.

“Is it over?” Jack looked to Jazz. She shook her head unknowingly, eyes fixed on the window. She could see people outside. Neighbors who wouldn’t think a thing of ghost activity erupting from their home. Jack held his breath as Maddie caught hers. Her sense of calm was torn from her as soon as she’d found it.

The sound of snapping wood thundered from the blinds as they abruptly slammed shut, sending Jazz scrambling back. Jack caught her as she tripped over the carpet, hoisting her back onto her feet. The din from the television was deafening, its screen casting a green light on the entire room. Where Jazz had slipped lay a smudged pool of glowing ectoplasm, reflecting bright green. Maddie was the first to notice. Her head tilted upward slowly.

Danny hung upside-down, slack-jawed. Thick ectoplasm filled his mouth, dripping from his lips and empty eye sockets. His ribs jutted from his barely-opaque torso, a mangled mix of white and green disappearing into a ghostly tail. Gutted.

Jazz and Jack followed Maddie’s gaze, only catching a glimpse of the horrific form before it vanished completely. Maddie shrieked Danny’s name, a piercing combination of anger and terror.

“Sh*t!” Jack wrapped his arms around Maddie and reached for Jazz’s hand. The growing pool of ectoplasm on the floor bubbled and crept toward them, forcing them toward the kitchen. He shoved his family through the door and slammed it shut. It oozed through the frame.

The kitchen looked normal enough, but none of them dared move. The lights had been spared, and everything seemed to be in its place. After a few seconds of silence, every cabinet was thrown open at once, omitting a hideously loud slam. Maddie yelped and Jack grabbed her protectively, every hair on his neck standing up. Jazz leaned against the table, on the verge of tears.

With the last bang, it ended. Danny reappeared in the corner of the room. A quick white flash and he was his human self again, hands pressed against the walls to stabilize himself. He looked up at his wide-eyed family, panting. They looked scared of him. Of course they looked scared of him.

“What the f*ck, Danny!?” Jazz shrieked.

“Language!” Maddie chided.

Danny’s eyes flicked toward the cabinets, still ajar. He’d seen too many scary movies. He raised both hands defensively, shrinking against the wall.

“I won’t do it again. Promise.”

A beat of silence was broken by Jack’s deep, bellowing laugh.

“What’s so funny?” Jazz hissed.

Jack shook his head. “Look at ‘im!” Danny furrowed his brow.

“This kid did all that? I mean, who knew you had it in ya?”

Danny shrugged uncomfortably, averting his eyes.

“I know you’re a ghost, but c’mon!” Jack chuckled, wiping his eye.

Maddie took a step forward. Then, another. She wrapped Danny in her arms and ruffled his hair. “You’re okay.”

Jazz relaxed, her shoulders dropping. She’d agreed to be scared. And sure enough, Danny had f*cking scared her. Less than a minute into the ordeal she’d forgotten why she suggested it in the first place. Now, in their mother’s arms, he looked so normal.

“Feel better?” she asked softly.

“Yeah…” Danny huffed regretfully, “I do.”

“Never again.” Jazz insisted, pointing a threatening finger. Danny shuddered and crossed his heart.

“Alright, alright. Leave him alone,” Jack intervened, cracking himself up. “Mads, you should’ve seen your face!” Maddie rolled her eyes and released Danny.

“Oh, you scared me, alright. I thought you were going for the china.”

“It’s a good thing I was there, eh Danny-boy?” Jack elbowed his ribs. Danny raised an eyebrow.

“Honestly? I can’t back that up.”

“No, really? Did you see me flinch?” Danny stifled a smile.

Maddie chuckled. “Enough jokes, Jack.”

“Not once!” he bellowed. Maddie gave Danny a slap on the back.

“Okay, back upstairs.” He blinked incredulously.

“I’m not cleaning your room!”

“Tomorrow!” Danny insisted.

“Tomorrow.”

Jazz smiled. Yeah, they’d be alright.

Jack shook his head. “How’d we end up with a kid like you?” Danny grabbed a bag of chips from the open pantry, his appetite returning. He waved a hand dismissively as he disappeared into the living room.

“Same way you ended up with a portal to another dimension in the basement!”

[cm8x-arts]

Fighting Dreamers Warriors AU

Buckle in, cause this is gonna include both of my main series and also some other odds and ends that never made it into a proper thing, but the Fighting Dreamers cast are the real protagonists. The whole reincarnating Alpha Trio thing taking more of a backseat to Ghost’s whole deal.

This is mostly so if there’s ever a Warrior OC Multi-Editor thing or I just want to play around with Warriors Lore but with my OCs, I got this as a baseline

I’ve put it under a Readmore so I don’t accidentally spam your dashboards (and if you’re curious my Tapastic is “Mannykat8x” and it has both series on there, although GG has been discontinued, but it should give an idea of what I’m working with as far as the main canon goes)

Guardian Ghost (my discontinued Webcomic) had it’s whole plot, or the Warriors AU version of it, and that got settled years ago in their clan, Lake Clan. Mothstar (Frank/Jerimoth, the Big Bad of GG) having Tigerstar levels of infamy especially after finding cats that are mutated for some reason (to match the ghostly crocodile-cat minions Frank has in the main canon) and using their unnatural strength and speed and unwavering loyalty to overtake all of the clans and kill off whoever questioned him

But with a massive effort from all the clans, they succeeded in killing Mothstar off, and (what they thought were) the last of these strange cats in the process. Twigtail (Max) and Blazepelt (Dave) were the two biggest players and the main cats of the prophecy, Twigtail being the one to take Mothstar down, and Blazepelt being a Star Clan cat that assisted where he could, even forcing Twigtail’s soul back into his body on two separate occasions to keep him alive.

Twigtail would later become Twigstar, and is still leader in the present day.

This battle was also in the era of Lilly (Frostpetal), Tamara (Sparksight), and Walter (Emberspring), the last “Alpha Trio” of the Forest Clan (FD) cats. The A3 reincarnations in this case happen way less often and are usually pretty spread out in the 3 clans (the First 3 being the Founders of Forest/Lake/?? Clans) and the souls of these First 3 just keep reincarnating into new cats. But Lilly/Tamara/Walter were the first to be in just Forest Clan in a while. So the cats lost their dang minds and anyone directly related to those 3 became minor celebrities.

The first half of their names aren’t always variants of “Frost, Spark, Ember” though. Sometimes they get renamed after the fact or their parents catch wind that the next A3 is due to reincarnate and everyone jumps the bandwagon so when their kit eventually gets claimed as an A3 reincarnation they can match with their incarnation counterpart

The tells mostly come from eye color and when they were born.

Cut to [??] years later, We’ve gone through the generations (skipping one, making Pickett and Mildred the daughters of Lilly in this AU)  to reach the era of Sandy (Frostsight), Patches (Patchpelt) and Stewie (Flamepaw/pelt). Sandy’s got the real famous grandmom Mildred (Icesight) who in this case was a Med Cat. Sandy adamantly refuses to follow in her pawsteps. But Starclan keeps screaming at her and giving her very blatant visions. One of them a vivid prophecy of a strange cat surrounded by an army. One side is clearly the Dark Forest (that the cats don’t know much about yet), the other looks like Starclan.

"A phantom army, led by one. Darkness or Stars, for a battle to come"

A few moons before Flamepaw (Stewie) would become an apprentice, Daisy makes her way into Forest Clan with a very young Ghost in her mouth, desperate for help after escaping from a rogue band of strange cats. Noticing the striking familiarity in Ghost’s appearance to the strange mutated cats from years prior, the oldest cats wanted nothing to do with them and even wanted to kill them. But Snowstar (Pickett) and her deputy Wisptail (Fiona) ultimately decided to bring them in

The weird rogues turn out to be the descendants of the strange mutated cats, only they’re completely feral and mindless now as they repeatedly assault the clans, having changed from their (mostly) solid white pelts and red eyes to black and gray (almost violet) creatures with bright yellow eyes that barely resemble cats anymore. They’re nicknamed Monsters.

The Good Ending would be Ghost being accepted into the clan, and using their mutated side for good as they fight off the Monsters, and later Dark Forest cats when they come to blows with Starclan

Bad End is Ghost being ostracized, and while they still fight off the Monsters, they also close in on themselves and eventually side with Dark Forest, ready and willing to crush the clans in their unnaturally long claws.

…..and no I have no idea what the third clan should be but they could just be my other tabletop and one-off characters just living their lives and also trying to combat the Monsters. They’re not the main clan anyway it’s fine.

[ruoyeming]

My Fav Books, another chaotic list

Another quarantine review fest! I know I ranked my top anime but this is seriously too hard so I’m just going to list them to avoid hours of debate. Enjoy!

1) The Skulduggery Pleasant series

This whopper of a series (now at 15 books jesus christ I didn’t know there were that many I’ve only read about twelve) has a special place in my heart. I was FULLY obsessed with it throughout my tween - and teen - years, and for a reason. This shit just butters my bread like nothing else. The story follows a young girl Valkyrie Cain (who eventually becomes a young woman through the series) and her partner in crime, a fashionable living skeleton called Skulduggery Pleasant. They’re MAGICAL DETECTIVES!!!! Bitch!!! They use elemental magic - water, earth, fire, air - to fight off magic-wielding bad guys and look good doing it. The duo is hilarious and seriously shaped my sense of humour, the dry wit and comedic writing style stuck with me and influenced my own writing style to this day! As the series progresses we get a massive cast of characters but to me they’re all memorable, likable (mostly) and well-developed so that’s not an issue. I have no fukcing clue how Derek Landy comes up with his stories because every book in the series has an absolutely wild (yet unique) plot with its own twists and turns. It gets REALLY dark and depressing at times, gory, brutal etc etc especially in the later books I have no idea why this is labeled as a kids series.

10/10 for badassery, humour, and MAD codependency issues

2) The Feverwake series

This bitch is one hell of a YA series. It’s actually only a 2 book-series which is rare, but that’s not the only thing that sets it apart from other creations of its genre. It’s hard to explain the setup without waffling so I’ll just quote the blurb of the first book: “In the former United States, sixteen-year-old Noam Álvaro wakes up in a hospital bed, the sole survivor of the viral magic that killed his family and made him a technopath. His ability to control technology attracts the attention of the minister of defense and thrusts him into the magical elite of the nation of Carolinia.

The son of undocumented immigrants, Noam has spent his life fighting for the rights of refugees fleeing magical outbreaks—refugees Carolinia routinely deports with vicious efficiency. Sensing a way to make change, Noam accepts the minister’s offer to teach him the science behind his magic, secretly planning to use it against the government. But then he meets the minister’s son—cruel, dangerous, and achingly beautiful—and the way forward becomes less clear.”

As you can tell from this, the series is heavy on its politics but in a grounded, realistic and relevant way which is different to many other YA series. Marxist theory is brought up, and you can make some pretty strong links between the books and real events. The magic also has a semi-scientific explanation which is cool and adds to the realness. Anyways this series is action packed and full of twists, plus there’s a bisexual main character and queer romance at the core!! Wig!!! Very good for moral debate - how far is it acceptable to go to protect the oppressed before you become one of the oppressors? Dark and exciting series.

10/10 queer representation and political themes.

3) Spin the Dawn

It’s probably obvious that I’m biased towards YA books but they’re just so exciting and cool! Anyways this is about a girl living in a kind of alternate universe ancient China where magic exists. Maia Tamarin is a skilled seamstress who dreams of being the Imperial Tailor, a position that can only be held by a man. She poses as her brother to go to the royal palace and enter a competition full of skilled tailors, all vying for the role of imperial tailor. She also meets Edan; a mysterious, annoying, but SEXY mage who seems to know her secret identity? Oho? IMO this would be an elevated book if Edan had been a girl but that’s just me being gay. As the final challenge Maia is tasked with making 3 dresses from the sun, moon, and stars - a mission that takes her to the ends of the world in search of these magical materials (obvs Edan goes with her and they kiss kiss fall in love). It’s a fairly classic YA plot and characters but the combination of Project Runway, Mulan, and kind of Lord of the Rings(??) vibes makes for a very entertaining read. It’s also really fun to imagine what the clothes look like, plus the romance between Maia and Edan is very cute. Second book is yet to be published but sounds lit.

10/10 magic fashion and romance (despite its heterosexuality)

4) Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Usually I steer clear of angsty gay stories because I’ve consumed too much of the depressing narrative which is all about suffering because of being gay, but fuuuuuuck this book is like the definition of bittersweet. Mostly bitter to be fair but it has a happy ending which was lovely after the emotional torment of the book. It’s about two teen boys - Aristotle is angry and repressed, Dante is eccentric but kind, and the two eventually form a strong friendship after meeting at the local pool. It’s kind of obvious that Ari is in denial about a few things, which leads to some real sad boi hours. There’s also a devastating moment around halfway (not sure) through with a car accident which makes the whole thing 10x heavier. Despite all this, the book has its sweet moments - parents play a big role, but not in the way they usually do in queer stories - and like I said the ending is the bandage for your broken heart. I’m not sure what it is about the writing style, maybe the way it just cuts between scenes randomly or perhaps the way the dialogue and actions are so realistic, but it’s so different to any other book I’ve read that it’s stayed in my mind for a while after reading it.

10/10 really good philosophy plus supportive parents

5) The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue

Okay if this was a ranked list, this bad boy would be on its way to the top spot. It’s got everything: historical setting, gays, pirates, alchemy, humour, adventure, angst, character development, and some healthy second-hand embarrassment. It’s not complicated or philosophical but reading this book all in one go is like taking five shots and diving into a pool. It’s exciting and witty, but deals with darker themes like child abuse too. One of the MCs also has a disability and doesn’t treat it as something to be cured, which is a lesson our protagonist has to learn. Speaking of protagonists, Henry ‘Monty’ Montague is a great main character. He’s obnoxious, oblivious, and hedonistic yet quick-witted and passionate, and he has a good heart. Sometimes you just want to grab him by the shoulders and shake him for being such an ignorant idiot, but throughout the book he grows and learns to open his mind more (as well as becoming more humble). He’s a great example of a flawed yet likable main character. He is also a bisexual icon.

Oof forgot to even talk about the story. Monty embarks on a tour of Europe, usually taken by lads his age to get all cultured before they settle down and inherit the family company or whatever. With him are his younger sister Felicity, a girl with a brilliant mind for science who isn’t taken seriously by anyone because of her gender, and the lovely Percy, Monty’s lifelong best friend (and crush). Monty ends up stealing a very valuable object that turns the Tour into a manhunt across Europe, and drags the trio into a big ol’ conspiracy involving something that may or may not be the philosopher’s stone????

Issues of race, gender, and disability in historical context are really well done, and it’s an absolute banger of a book.

10/10 very exciting adventure, plus GREAT GAY ROMANCE

6) Heaven Official’s Blessing

HOOOOOO BOY. This is probably my absolute fave on this list. It’s a webnovel (originally Chinese but the full translation is online). Set in ancient china in the cultivation world (difficult as shit to explain if ur not into all of that but I’ll try), basically there’s three realms - the heavenly realm, the human/mortal realm, and the ghostly realm. If a mortal reaches a certain point (good deeds, power etc), they ascend to become a god - or if they fall far enough, they become a ghost. 

I’ll just quote the author’s description again cause I don’t have the brain cells required:

 “Eight hundred years ago, Xie Lian was the Crown Prince of the Xian Le kingdom. He was loved by his citizens and was considered the darling of the world. He ascended to the Heavens at a young age; however, due to unfortunate circumstances, was quickly banished back to the mortal realm. Years later, he ascends again–only to be banished again a few minutes after his ascension. Now, eight hundred years later, Xie Lian ascends to the Heavens for the third time as the laughing stock among all three realms. On his first task as a god thrice ascended, he meets a mysterious demon who rules the ghosts and terrifies the Heavens, yet, unbeknownst to Xie Lian, this demon king has been paying attention to him for a very, very long time.”

It’s hard to describe the enormity of this story and all the emotions it encapsulates, you really have to read it for yourself. But bitch the undying, pure, Hozier-devotion-level LOVE is by far my favourite part of this story. If you’re looking for an epic, god-tier gay romance, then this is it baby!! This story has comedy, action, and downright harrowingly depressing moments, but throughout is this achingly beautiful love between fallen god and last believer.

I don’t wanna give too much away cause there are some big ol’ plot reveals, but oooh this shit made me cry. The protagonist is MY FAVOURITE EVER I didn’t think it was possible to like a protag so much!! He’s legit my fave character! At first he seems oblivious and carefree but he’s just doing his goddamn best after all he’s been through and he’s so fukcing kind and just wants to help everyone for fuckcs sake excuse me I need to go have a breakdown.

Okay I’m back, anyway there’s a great cast of characters, even the background characters are all incredibly memorable and all given their time to shine and develop. My faves include Quan Yizhen, a rowdy himbo who just wants to fight, and Shi Qing Xuan, a friendly genderfluid god who controls the wind. Read this shit I’m not joking it’ll change your life. 

10/10 for everything

[iwritesometimes]

northstarfan

replied to your post

“okay so!! who's got some Netflixvania prompts for me??? you know you...”

The trio vs Elizabeth Bartley! https://castlevania.fandom.com/wiki/Elizabeth_Bartley

ty so much for the prompt and link!<3 i spent the morning in a Castlevania research black hole because of it (i am not remotely complaining about this). i’ve still jiggered the timeline so Elizabeth can be alive during the Netflixvania time period, i hope that’s okay! :)

castlevania gen, 3800 words, cw for reasonably graphic violence on and off screen

still taking castlevania and vampire hunter d prompts here!

***

It’s only good fortune the likes of which Adrian is both unused to and suspicious of that the attack comes when Sypha and Trevor are paying him a visit. Then again, it’s hard to call anything “fortunate” that leads to the mutilated body of a local goatherd and his wife, as well as their whole flock, impaled on stakes around the perimeter of the Belmont estate in the cold light of a December morning. Adrian stands looking up at the grisly remains with a grim look on his face, Sypha beside him and Trevor already beginning the unhappy work of cutting down the pikes, horror and anger in every swing of the axe.

“We should tell the villagers,” Sypha says quietly. “They...might listen to me, and stay in their homes.”

Adrian says nothing for a moment; a stake falls with a sickening thud, frost and goat bones crunching. Then, quietly, he murmurs, “I’m afraid that won’t do any good.”

He’s right. He wishes he wasn’t. The last glowing embers of the pyre they built to burn the bodies are still smoking at dawn the next day when the three of them return to the castle after a night spent fruitlessly scouring the forest, only to find three more mutilated human bodies on the castle’s doorstep. Sypha swallows a cry; they are...they are only children, three young women no older than sixteen. Alucard learned enough about medicine from his mother and enough about human death from his father to know that the girls died horribly and slow, but he tells neither Belmont nor Sypha this. He suspects they already know.

There is a letter, clutched in the frozen, bloodied hand of one of the victims. Adrian takes it, not thinking of what he is doing, unable to allow his brain to approach it if he wants to remain in control of his fury, but it’s too much for Trevor, who turns on a heel to stride toward the treeline and heaves up the meager contents of his stomach before he can reach it. Adrian’s hand shakes as he breaks the wax seal, pressed with a mark he recognizes.

Their fear tasted so sweet, Alucard.

The crossroads at midnight. Bring the Dark Lord’s remains.

***

“I don’t like this,” Belmont says for the fourth time; it had been unnecessary even the first, and now it just makes Adrian’s teeth itch. Sypha beats him to the dirty, quelling look, and Trevor grunts defensively, hand tightening around the Morning Star. “Well, I don’t. We have no idea how many of them there are or what they’re capable of.”

“Oh, we can safely assume they’re capable of anything,” Adrian says, low and deliberate. “Erzsébet never quite learned the meaning of self-control.”

“Is everyone you’re related to so charming, Alucard?” Trevor rumbles, acid in his tone. Adrian bares his teeth at him and gets the satisfaction of seeing Belmont flinch. Before he can offer anything further, however, his ears prick to the faintest rustle in the undergrowth, and he peers with eyes hazing crimson into the inky blackness of the nearby stand of alders. Sypha and Trevor see his head swivel, each of them stiffening in readiness and alarm.

At once, a dozen wraithlike women all in black emerge from the trees, just eerily floating white faces and hands, and in their midst, a flame of red and gold and pink silk, is a taller, painfully elegant woman so beautiful she hurts to look at. Adrian hears both Sypha and Trevor sigh softly at the sight of her, snaps, “Be on your guard,” not loud, but commanding. A laugh like chimes fills the air of the empty crossroads as the retinue of ghostly killers moves across the open field toward them, too weirdly quick and smooth to be walking.

“Why, my dearest Alucard, are you not going to introduce us?” Erzsébet says, her soft, melodious voice seeming to be in their minds rather than actually spoken. “I won’t be seen to be rude in front of your traveling companions.”

“Cousin,” Alucard greets her flatly. “Unfortunately, etiquette is the least of my concerns at the moment. You must know I won’t give you what you seek.”

“What I know is that eventually Wallachia will run out of sweet fresh virgins for me to leave at your door, and I shall have to go further abroad for fresh meat.” She and her coterie have drifted close enough now to see the silvery glint of moonlight on her fangs when she speaks. Her heavy, dark eyes gleam back at them out of a face from a masterful painting, long, black hair falling over her shoulders like water, disappearing into the darkness around her. “My own lands are running a little dry, these days. These are the best they had to offer.” She gestures regally to the women in black around her, all of whom stare back motionlessly at the three hunters huddled close in the pool of light under the lamppost. All of them vampires, and no doubt deadly, if Erzsébet thought them worth sparing the usual ravages of her appetites.

“You’re not leaving Wallachia alive,” Trevor tells her, barely controlled rage trembling in his voice; for all that he is not quite the average Belmont, when it came down to it, Trevor still relished the hunt and the kill of Adrian’s kind. Adrian had found it distasteful in the past, but at present…

“And who will stop me? You?” Erzsébet says, her gaze swinging to Trevor, with all the heat and weight of centuries and thousands of dead innocents. She leans in toward him a little, the loose neck of her dress slipping down a fraction by design. Adrian knows without looking where Trevor’s eyes are straying; he feels the man shudder, and suddenly his sword is in his hand, a warning gleam in the lamplight as he raises it.

“And me,” he says, voice like the steel of his blade, at the same moment Sypha says, “And me,” as flame blossoms in her palms. Adrian can’t help the faint smile that tugs at the corner of his mouth; trust Sypha to recover her wits first. Trevor isn’t all that far behind, however, Morning Star jingling as he passes the weighted end into his ready hand and lowers his stance to attack.

Erzsébet’s beautiful, serene expression suddenly twists, and it’s hard to believe in that instant that she had ever looked anything but terrifying. Pulling back, she raises her hand high in the air, and immediately the white faces of her guards melt away into the night as four glowing points of light like stars burst into existence around Erzsébet. “Pitiful mortals,” she intones, rising into the air as her stars orbit slowly around her. Her fangs grow long and drip. “Traitor!” she hisses at Alucard. “I will see the Dark Lord’s unholy work completed if I have to snap every bone in your body to do it!”

A black flash from the corner of his right eye is all the warning he has, before a wraith tears through the midst of them; the lightning-quick sparkle of a blade, and he barely gets his sword up in time to deflect it, sucking a startled gasp through his teeth. Fuck, they’re fast. Another flash, this time from the left, and he swings his sword, but too late; pain blooms in his side from the bite of a dagger, slashed too quickly to see, and then there is another figure, and another, cutting blood-red gashes in Trevor’s side, in Sypha’s hood - nearly taking off her ear.

“Oh, fuck this,” Belmont mutters, the chain of his whip uncurling with furious grace in his hand, whirling into a defensive screen around him; there is the bright, startling ring of metal on metal, and a white face stares through the glinting coils, fury in the black eyes and bared fangs, sword upraised and vibrating.

“Indeed,” Adrian agrees wholeheartedly, and swings his sword out in front of himself to give them all a little more room, even as he shifts into his wolf form, with its lower profile and better sense of smell and - importantly - significantly improved bite strength. With a snarl he leaps out of the circle of light, following the faintest whisper of air as it breezes by and sinking his teeth deep into...something. Something that cracks very satisfyingly between his jaws, as a high-pitched shriek tears the night. He jerks his head hard, flinging the vampire like a ragdoll against the ground, whereupon he pounces before she can recover, teeth flashing into her throat. Then he leaps again, claws raking, but he mostly seems to be getting clothing and hair.

“Sypha, stay close,” Belmont says, eyes darting between the white-and-black figures circling them just at the edge of the light, and the radiant floating menace above their heads. Erzsébet seems to be gathering energy for something, the air around her growing thick and hot. Sypha was already edging closer, their hips bumping lightly within the relatively safe clear spot created by his whirling whip, but the respite can’t last for long. She quickly swipes the blood away from the side of her face, quick flicker of her eyelids the only indication of pain, then brings her index fingers to her lips and breathes intensity into her flames. She traces a wide circle with her arms and around them rises a wall of fire; chattering screams of frustration and pain rise from outside it as the assassins shrink away from the deadly flames, and Sypha smiles a self-satisfied smile.

More snarling and ripping sounds from beyond the firelight preface Alucard bursting back through the wall, quickly falling out of his wolf shape and tumbling over and over a few times in his human form, faintly smoking. Quickly he pats out the singed edges of his cloak and stands, golden eyes still a little feral. “She’s transforming,” he warns, but by the time he’s said it, it’s happening: Erzsébet’s form seems to stretch and grow, her shape shimmering in and out of existence.

“Ssso you can play with fire, too, little Sssspeakerrrr?” That voice that was so musical and bell-like before is now more the sound of fingernails scraping glass, and then it is not a voice at all, but a high-pitched, evil hissing, reverberating from the massive green-scaled coils of a gigantic snake spilling out from under the flowing red gown. Her fangs lengthen obscenely, face distorting into something not quite animal, but certainly not human, and she looms over them, flamelike dress transmuting to actual fire wreathing her body. Those rotating stars swing inward, spiraling into the heart of the flame and heat, and then burst out from her, four blazing streaks of light. Trevor shouts in surprise and flings an arm around Sypha, both of them crumpling immediately into the dirt as fire shoots overhead; Adrian leaps into the air, flipping backward over one simmering contrail only to be blasted earthward by a second. Lights pop in his vision and he feels his skin blistering, struggling to heal; from a few feet away, Sypha cries out in pain, black shadows descending upon the humans before they can get back to their feet, and for a moment panic rises in Adrian’s throat. But then he hears the wet, rattling gasp of a vampire solidly speared through the heart, and he blinks to focus his eyes in time to see a forest of icy spines thrusting up from the ground all around them as Sypha lies facedown, palms flat to the ground, willing the water in the soil and air to take deadly form. Two of the black-clad ghosts are dissipating into smoke and ash before they realize they are dead, and another has been pinned cleanly through the midsection and now writhes there like a beetle on a pin.

The towering gorgon screams overhead, flames reigniting between her hands as she readies another attack, but Adrian leaps to his feet, fear for Trevor and Sypha making him double-quick, and hops with animal grace right to the top of the lamppost, flips higher, calling his sword to his hand already singing downward, arcing cleanly through both wrists. The sound she makes then threatens to split Adrian’s head wide open. He staggers as he’s falling, only barely getting the sword stuck into her serpent’s body and using the drag through her flesh to slow his momentum, raking a long, ugly gash in her side. He’s still batted aside by the clublike end of her tail, but manages to land on his feet, winded, but alright.

Trevor and Sypha are up again, the Morning Star flashing once more with purpose to fend off the remaining wraiths while Sypha plants both feet wide and gathers herself for a monumental burst of energy. A black shape suddenly streaks into the light toward her, and Adrian springs, throws himself between Sypha and danger, just in time to catch the business end of a fucking spear, partly with his sword, mostly with his shoulder. He grits his teeth in pain and, arching, throws the woman back, blood pouring freely from his shoulder and a soft, agonized sound rattling in his throat. The assassin delicately twirls her spear, makes a show of licking a rivulet of his blood from her forearm all the way up the shaft of her weapon to the trident blade; he hisses at her, enraged, and lunges forward, right arm hanging dead for the moment while his shoulder knits. He’s almost as deadly with his left, but his opponent cleverly redirects the jabbing point of his sword once, twice, a third time with the forked end of the spear, and then she’s sliding it up the length of his sword, blades screeching together, her eyes glinting murderously. It comes to Adrian in a flash, the embarrassing memory jolting him to action, and just as she closes with him, he rams his forehead into the bridge of her nose and prays Belmont doesn’t see it. No one could have been more shocked at the son of Dracula braining an assailant with his skull than his assailant herself, who staggers back, eyes already swelling shut, just off-balance enough for Adrian to lop off her head.

A violent displacement of air at his back recalls Adrian’s attention to the hunter and the Speaker behind him, and he looks to see Sypha dwarfed by the gout of flame she’s conjured, right into the gorgon’s hideous face. Trevor visibly falters, eyes flying wide at the size and intensity of the fireball; the wind blows hot in his and Adrian’s faces, bringing the smell of charred flesh and Erzsébet’s ragged screaming, and then she’s...melting, or so it seems, diminishing in a mirage-like wave until she is, once again, a woman in red silks, hunched and panting, eyes blazing red and hair a shining black halo suspended around her. Her remaining guards gather behind her again - only four left, all of them looking tattered and a little wild-eyed. One of them even reaches out hesitantly for her mistress as if to pull her back, only for Erzsébet to snatch her arm in one bloody hand tipped with razor-sharp nails and twist it until it breaks. The black-clad woman whimpers in pain and draws away behind her fellows, all of them coalescing into a single dark shape behind the Blood Countess.

“If you strike me down here, you murderous whoreson,” Erzsébet growls in three octaves, gaze burning on Adrian as if she could incinerate him where he stands, “you cannot imagine the destruction I will rain down on you and yours in times to come.”

Something in her voice rings so certain that Adrian feels hot dread pool in his stomach, but he clenches his teeth and carefully stretches out his right arm, feeling the bones grind and pop back into place. He settles his sword again in his right hand, straightens, left arm folded neatly behind his back as he meets her eye. “So be it, Lady Báthory. Then I will strike you down again, and again, as many times as it takes.”

She says nothing and gives no warning; in the next moment, there are simply four of her, phasing rapidly in and out of existence, arrayed in a straight line before them. The spectral images flash disorientingly, and then one solidifies, in front of Trevor, who can only partially dodge the fireball that erupts from her hand and catches his forearms raised defensively. He staggers back with a pained oath and claws off his smoldering bracers. Sypha flings a smaller fireball of her own, exhausted from magical exertion but interposing herself between Trevor and Erzsébet anyway. But the woman is already gone again, and Sypha’s spell fires off into nothingness. Adrian tries to follow the flickering shapes of her illusory form, but the wraiths are back to harry him, all four of them now, darting in and away, each time leaving a new and painful little slice across his chest and belly and face. And then there is Erzsébet again with a handful of fire that Adrian only just ducks, ramming his sword forward in the same instant.

He thinks at first he’s hit her, because his sword seems to meet resistance, but then it’s wrenched out of his hand and discorporates as Erzsébet herself splinters into multiples again. Adrian calls his sword back from the ether, only for a ghostly hand to pass straight through it and knock it out of existence again. He growls in frustration and leaps backward, trying to create space enough to rush her again, but he feels the bite of cold steel in his back and gasps in pain as the wraith darts away, her dagger bloodied and gleaming in the moonlight. The countess reappears in front of the hunters, who fling themselves apart as fire blazes between them; Trevor hurls the club end of his whip toward her and it passes through thin air, her figure blurring so dizzyingly fast none of them can figure out where she’ll be in time to hurt her at all. And meanwhile, the assassins grow bolder, circling like sharks scenting blood, and Sypha is knocked to her knees, blood streaming from a dozen or more gashes in her cloak and one wound in her calf bleeding especially heavily. Trevor whips Morning Star around them again in a bid for a moment to breathe, and Adrian catches his dark, fearful look from across the road and knows they can’t do this much longer.

He steadies himself, ignoring the pain shooting up his spine, and recalls his sword again - or tries to, but it flickers in his hand without actually materializing, then disappears, then reappears. In Erzsébet’s hand. He ducks a wild, inexpert swing and makes a grab for the weapon, but she is already gone. “Ah, enough!” he shouts, diving toward the gleaming shape of the assassin’s discarded spear on the ground and raising it, then, gathering his strength for a final push, phasing out of sight himself. In this in-between state, he sees differently, registering time as slower than normal; he can see the afterimage of Erzsébet’s movements like this, bright outlines of where she’s disturbed the fabric of reality, where her body is displacing air and heat. He keeps moving, the two of them almost in a dance with each other, each looking for an opening while trying not to leave one of their own.

Then, like a premonition...there! Adrian thrusts the spear forward with all his strength, and he feels it connect - really connect, this time, metal in meat, and Erzsébet shudders. He feels it in the haft of the spear. She fades into existence with the spear lodged right under her ribs, breathing shallow and expression startled. Adrian doesn’t give her an opportunity to regroup, only shouts in anger and exertion and pushes. She staggers backward, her weight now mostly hanging on the spear, and then Morning Star whips in, glittering death, and crashes into the side of her head, splitting her skull with a resounding crack.

A final piercing scream rends the air and Báthory Erzsébet disintegrates in a flash of light and a spatter of blood, her voluminous crimson dress fluttering empty to the ground. Adrian can only stare at it for a long, flabbergasted moment of complete, ringing silence, his brain offering helpfully, What the fuck?

With a faint whoosh, suddenly the last of the shadowy assassins disappears, fleeing into the night. None of the hunters bothers to give chase - actually, it’s pretty uncertain any of them even could. But Adrian isn’t worried; without their mistress, the vampires won’t dare harass the nearby countryside, knowing the three of them are here to protect it. And, after all...they were themselves only Erzsébet’s most privileged victims. He doesn’t think any of them would willingly carry on her task without her there to terrorize them into it.

Trevor is kneeling next to Sypha, binding her injured leg with strips of her ruined cowl and slapping her hands away where she’s attempting to pour water from her canteen over his blistered fingers. Adrian walks mincingly over to them and leans heavily against the lamppost, still breathing shallowly against the pain as whatever internal damage that assassin’s dagger had done slowly begins to mend. “Well done, you two,” he says, voice rough. Sypha smiles wearily up at him. Belmont snorts.

“Any other bloodthirsty cousins we should know about, Alucard? Hm? Perhap a ghoul of an uncle chained up in your wine cellar?”

“No, only my thirteen feral and illegitimate children,” Adrian rasps, straightening and moving closer to help lift Sypha up off the ground. She shoots him a look of alarm, and he raises his eyebrows. “I’m kidding.”

“No, I know,” she says, and bites her lip to stifle a whimper as Adrian and Trevor lever her up and get one of her arms around each of their shoulders. “It’s just such a crazy thing for you to say I’m wondering if perhaps you concussed yourself while using your head as battering ram.”

Adrian almost winces, catches himself just in time to keep his face absolutely expressionless. “I haven’t the faintest idea what you’re talking about.”

“Whatever happened to having a little class, your lordship?” Trevor says, cracking a grin quite literally through the streaks of dried blood down his face. Adrian curls his lip and for a moment thinks he won’t dignify that with a response.

But, in the end, who needs dignity? “I figure if it works for a Belmont in a bar fight, any idiot can use it to his advantage,” he drawls, as the three of them pick their way back up the road toward the shape of their cart and, more distantly, home.

[blankdblank]

Sango - Thranduil Prompt Request Pt 7

Pt 1 - Pt 2 - Pt 3 - Pt 4 - Pt 5 - Pt 6 -

Tags –

@himoverflowers​​, @theincaprincess, @aspiringtranslator​​, @sweeticedtea​​, @ggbbhehe4455​​, @thegreyberet​​, @patanghill17​​, @jesgisborne​​, @curvestrology​​, @alishlieb​​, @jogregor​, @armitageadoration​, @abiwim​​, @jotink78​, @evyiione​, @sweetlytenacious25​

…

Step by step the winding crevice you led the confused Elf at your side through seemed to only grow longer while the sun in the sky never seemed to shift at all and yet you were suddenly coated in starlight bringing out a familiar set of swirls and dots across both of your skin bringing out your smile at the markings you had so greatly missed. With a sigh you both set down your bags and dug through them, in the dark you stripped and changed into your long since touched armored suit and weapons while Ecthelion to his surprise found his former set of mithril lined sleek armor and traveling clothes in a soft grey and pale blue. Securing the final straps on your arm braces his eyes scanned over the armor greatly resembling that of your kin in the start of the wars following the first Kinslaying.

In your bag you dug out the last of your breakfast bars and split it with him and continued guiding him through the winding crevice feeling the pulsing of the ring hidden in your boot as it wordlessly screamed to be taken back to its master. The hours passed and the longer you walked the more your smile grew as the flickering stars of Middle Earth sparkled above you brightly through your soft humming that Ecthelion happily joined you in reciting the traditional tune he and his Husband used to sing to you when you were younger. Together your hearts slowly stitched back together as the deepest holes you both had withheld from you in your parting was just how painfully you knew the other was missing and went in search of the but without any clue of what or who you were searching for, just knowing you could not give up.

Ghostly whispers floated around you stirring a giggle from you as you called out, “Come out, come out, wherever you are.”

At your side Ecthelion glanced at you curiously only to pause and flinch back when a swarm of the ghostly army that had been scouring Middle Earth for any trace of you these past few months bowed deeply as their King bowed his head to you, “Queen Echo, there are no words for how grateful we are to see you again.” His eyes scanned over your spreading smirk, “What are your orders for us?”

“Would you show me the path to Mordor?” With a bow of his head the King turned and led your through their fortress with a few pauses as a grouping of trunks were dropped behind you out of nowhere. Curiously you approached them and eyed the first packed with your clothes and shoes you had neglected to pack, another your books, and the rest with gold and your gifted jewelry for all that you had earned in your time in that life. Cautiously you secured each again, wondering why it had appeared at all, leaving you to assume all traces of you had to be erased in the transfer to this world again. Contently you left them and your bags you could spare in their keep and joined the forces on the long trek over the rocky ridges until you found yourselves at the base of a familiar set of dark climbing stairs.

With a sigh you peered up drawing their eyes to you only to draw a ripple of chuckles as you mumbled, “I hate stairs” while your hand landed on the first shoulder level step as your foot settled on the first slick blackened ooze and dust coated soul destroying step.

.

Aching and burning your limp body flopped against the ledge marking the halfway point as your eyes shifted over the wave of clouds passing overhead. On your chest a snack was set and you blindly snapped off a piece of the jerky and chewed it, feeling your energy growing again in your stillness. By what would be morning you had begun again and set your giant weapon on the top ledge and knelt off to the side allowing Ecthelion to sit beside you sharing the last of the jerky while the soldiers around you stalked into the cave and scouted out the caves ahead and waited for you to join them before they began the race through the cursed city. Easily you had crossed to the mountain and were carried back again to safe ground then followed them to the empty plains surrounding Gondor.

Above the hills a growing sound of shouting coming from both Orcs and Men mingled with Gondorian curses. The pair of you raced over the last hill and eyed the giant army separating you from a familiar set of banners mingling with the Gondorian forces. If there were any doubts as to your location they were released at the sound of a great whipping in the air bringing your Hiraikotsu into the momentary focus of all the Men you were separated from. In barely an hour the forces were decimated and a curious set of Brothers stared at you uncertain of just how you knew their names.

On their feet the pair both rested their palms over their chests to greet you sharing their names again before Boromir stated, “I am not certain as to when we have met, My Lady.” Raising his eyes to scan over your blackened blood dripped boomerang resting across your shoulders then met your eyes again before glancing again at Ecthelion in a darting pace as your faces clicked in his mind and he bowed his head again, “Forgive me, Lord Ecthellion, Lady Echo. Welcome to Gondor, and thank you for your aid.”

At your names Faramir and the Men around you did the same before Faramir stated, “Please, join us. You must be in need of food and drink after your travels. My Lady we had heard word King Thranduil had requested us keep an eye out for you.”

You nodded, “Yes. I should probably write to him when we arrive.”

Boromir chuckled softly, “No need. Grandfather will no doubt send an eagle straight away after you’ve been shown to your rooms.”

“Are we that off putting or are we to be flaunted?”

The pair of them smirked and replied, “Flaunted.”

A giggle left you as Ecthelion stated, “By all means then, lead the way, mustn’t waste the light while there’s so many to meet and impress.” Drawing their smiles wider through soft chuckles.

.

Hours had passed and sure enough in your freshly gifted gown and long robe and pants for Ecthelion you were flaunted about. Meeting each noble and Council member within the city after your trial of a bath causing you to wonder just how Thranduil would have taken to your nearly eight year absence and just how upset he might be still due to his continued request for any word of you. All these years and the pain of losing him had tore at you mercilessly, and in the crowds mingling around you each stolen glance and secret intertwining or caress of a finger left you on the verge of bursting into violent sobs just aching to break free. But through your escaping silent tears you watched the rainbow of a sunset sliding through your room, coating it in layers of rippling colors across the white stone walls as the calming darkness of night slowly followed bringing the stars to ease your pain with memories of your Love.

Through the following day you remained the topic of interest while enjoying your inspections of the vast city before slumping back to bed once the doors had sealed, freeing you both to melt into your heartbreak when freed to your separate bedrooms. The long day had been packed with the greeting of each and every one of the Elves that had suddenly appeared in the fields outside the great city with all of their belongings with a few children and spouses scattered in between set safely in all of the empty spaces they could to be rehomed in the Kingdoms of their choice later. The stars that night however brought the growing sound of hooves clopping on the cobbled path to the upper ring bringing you upright. A series of shouts were heard after of Elven voices ordering for guards to spread out along the Royal Wing and overlook bringing you to sit upright and look to your door. On your left the door attaching yours to Ecthelion’s opened allowing him to race inside just as your doors were opened bringing Glorfindel and Thranduil appeared through it.

With a hint of a glance at you Glorfindel paused unsure of who to race to only to race to his Husband claiming a fiery kiss and embrace while the doors closed again behind the approaching Elf King on his path straight to you. Warm trails slid down your cheeks as he stopped beside the bed and froze, dropping his gaze to your hands resting on his blackened chest plate from the orcs and wargs they had to slice through to get here. Unable to find words he agonizingly searched his mind through your hands shifting over his sides and found then loosened the securing straps and ties there with his help before he tugged it off from over his head and dropped it carelessly along with his gloves he’d tugged off before eagerly dropping the outer stained shirt you’d removed as well. 

In the moment it fell off him he stepped closer to you only to sway backwards from the force of your folding around him, slowly dropping your legs from the bed as he stepped back to steady himself and gripped you tightly. His eyes slammed shut as your hands fisted the material across his back while your arms tightened causing his to tighten in return. Against his chest your muffled tear stained whisper sounded out as the doors opened again when the armorless Dwarves burst through demanding to see you. “I thought you’d forgotten me.”

Pressing his cheek to the top of your head he replied, “I will never forget you.”

At their entering you parted and your eyes shifted over the now sheepish men that had led the charge. Weakly you released Thranduil who took steps after you to remain at your side only to pause a few feet away allowing you space to hug the trio struggling to meet your eye. With a nod you glanced at Thorin stating, “Firstly, you are the painfully obtuse one who praised my baking for hours.” A smirk eased on his face after the gentle hug you pulled him into that he quickly tightened, leaving a tear stain on your shoulder when he pulled away. As you shifted to Bilbo feeling a tear roll down your cheek as you shifted your arms allowing him to finally crash into you with a tight hug, and settled there while your hands and arms gripped him just as tightly in return, “Thank you Bilbo.”

When he released you he stepped back wiping his cheeks, “None of us meant a word of it.”

Dwalin nodded, “Aye. Not a one.”

Your eyes shifted to him, “If I wasn’t suspecting it before the ‘jam bags’ gave it away.” Stirring his smirk out as well while he stepped forward for a hug of his own, during which you said, “And by the way, I never stole your rum. Can’t stand the taste.” When he pulled back his eyes met yours with a curious furrow of his brows, “Nori did.”

His brows furrowed even tighter as he growled under his breath, “That lying little-…”

With a dab of his handkerchief over his cheeks Bilbo stated after a weak chuckle, “Well, where to begin. There’s not much you’ve missed past scrubbing the Mountain, oh, the Eagles agreed to help me move. Settled nicely. Not much to tell past that, just been the three months.”

Your eyes flinched wider as a soft squeak escaped you only to have your quivering lips being covered by your hands through tears welling up in your eyes, with a stern clearing of his throat Gandalf eyed Thranduil’s hands settling on your arms in concern through pressing up against your back. Firmly the Wizard spoke as Glorfindel and Ecthelion moved to your sides, stroking your arms and back gently to comfort you, “Between our worlds there is a difference in time.”

Thorin, “Meaning?”

Gandalf, “Meaning, a few hours here could very well amount to a great matter of days in that world. That is why sending any of you was such a great risk, and why you only had a few ticks of the clock to complete your task.”

Expressions dropped as well as the hearts of the men around you through Bilbo’s soft broken plea, “How, long-?”

Taking in a trembling breath your hands lowered as you felt another tear break free in your cracked response, “Nearly eight years.”

Lips parted and arms tightly squeezed you in a fierce hug through your tears until the meal the freshly arrived Elves had brought up for you the other Lords and Tauriel shared with you. All eagerly sitting around you to hear about what you were willing to share through the meal before the topic of the returned Elves came up, something stirring smiles on their faces at the return of their long lost kin. As the night inched on they all went to bathe and change before claiming their beds. From your spot on your bed beside the snoring bodies of Bilbo, Thorin and Dwalin taking up a half of your bed with Legolas sprawled out across the foot of the bed allowing himself to get as much sleep as he could to recover from the nonstop travel and small skirmishes along the way.

The door to your attached bath opened revealing the Elf King on his path straight back to you, tossing his towel away and crossed the room with a spreading smile to curl around your side allowing you both sight of the stars. Settling with you in his arms nuzzling closer against you mumbling, “You should sleep Love. No one is taking you from me again.”

In a soft whisper you replied through your tear escaping and dropping onto his arm from the ridge of your nose, “I don’t want to sleep.”

Softly his fingers shifted to dry your cheek as he eyed the glittering sky through the large windows and asked, “Did we happen to finish the tale of the great mare constellation?” Your head shook and he nuzzled closer to you sharing the story back from the start again holding you tighter as you eventually drifted off in his arms. Only going to sleep himself when you had turned and curled against his chest through your Brother and Glorfindel slipped into your room from theirs next door and claimed the empty section of bed behind you, forming a large protective pile around you.

Pt 8

[ask-joeydrewstudios]

((happy halloween! mun brings a short fanfic as a spoopy halloween gift xD it’s about the toons’ first halloween and how they celebrated despite not being allowed to leave the studio. here it is on AO3 if you’d prefer to read it there! enjoy~))

✮ Please don’t tag as kin/me - Please don’t use/edit/repost to other websites - Please don’t remove caption - Reblogs appreciated! <3 ✮

   The radio quietly played a static-strung tune to itself, as the only person around to hear it in the dimly-lit office space was otherwise lost in his own thoughts. The music director had been in a trance for almost an hour now, dead to the world as he blissfully wrote his music. It seemed to be a good day for him, he was getting a lot of work done and he felt like he was in a better mood than usual.

    That is, until there was a loud knock at his door. His concentration fell, as did his expression.

    "It was nice while it lasted, I suppose." Sammy muttered to himself, throwing his pencil to his desk in frustration. He turned off the radio, realizing it had at some point started playing more noise than actual music. Standing and shuffling over to the door, he wondered who was bothering him this time. Could it be a member of the band requesting his presence in the recording studio? Or maybe it was Wally coming to annoy him instead of doing his job. In all honesty he hoped it was Susie, he was growing quite fond of their little chats. He softly smiled for the briefest of moments and it was gone by the time he answered the door, finding the source of the unpleasant interruption to be...

    Oh. Them.

    The toon trio, Bendy, Boris, and Alice, all stood in front of his door. They were all wearing... costumes. Bendy had fangs and a long, collared cloak - he was a vampire. Boris cut some holes in a sheet, two for his eyes and two for his ears, and called it a day. His tail stuck out from under his ghostly costume, and Sammy would admit it was a little endearing. Lastly, Alice was dressed as a witch, complete with striped stockings and a pointed hat that went through her halo. They all had metal buckets, no doubt grabbed from a janitorial closet somewhere. While it was Halloween, he didn't expect them to be celebrating it. He certainly had no idea why they were at his office door, either.

    "Trick or treat!" They cheerfully shouted in unison. All he could do was stare at Bendy, the head of the group. Ever since Joey Drew brought the toons to life earlier that year, the studio had been an absolute madhouse. Unfortunately at this point he was used to Strange Happenings at this point. Seeing this, though? For the first time in a long time, he was caught off-guard. He stood in silence as he thought up a well-worded, straightforward response.

    "What?"

    "Trick or Treat. How loud d'ya listen to that darn radio, are ya goin' deaf or somethin'?" The little devil replied.

    "No, I heard you. I meant, what are you doing?"

    "What the heck does it LOOK like we're doing!? We're trick or treating, it's Halloween ain't it? Now are ya gonna hand over some sweets or not?" He held up his own bucket for emphasis.

    "I don't even have candy-"

    "Oh, don't lie to me Lawrence. I know you keep a ton of chocolate in that desk of yours."

    Sammy made a face. He hated when any of the toons, Bendy especially, called him by his last name.

    "I have no idea what you're talking about,” He lied, “Now scram."

    Bendy stared at him for a moment unimpressed, his tail flicking back and forth behind him. Just as Sammy was about to close the door, the toon started speaking again, causing the taller man to stop.

    He'd regret not slamming the door then and there.

    "Fine, have it your way. If you're not gonna hand over some treats..."

    He suddenly produced a fountain pen from behind his back, twirling it between his fingers before gripping it tightly and making direct eye contact with his new victim.

    "...then you're going to get some tricks, instead!"

    In the blink of an eye, the devil jumped up and squirted the pen in Sammy's face. A comedic amount of black ink spat from the pen, no doubt more ink than the pen could even hold, and the music director yelled and recoiled back as the door swung all the way open and slammed against the wall. Bendy started laughing as the man tripped over himself and fell on his back, only to sit up and rapidly start trying to rub the ink out of his eyes. It wasn't working very well, he only had so much sleeve to work with.

    "Oh - oh man, that was way better than some dumb candy!" He started laughing even harder.

    "Bendy, that was kinda mean, don't you think?" Alice asked in a hushed voice. Sammy didn't hear her as he'd given up on his eyes and instead moved onto coughing and sputtering furiously as he tried to get the ink out of his mouth. He’d be cursing and yelling at them otherwise.

    "What? No way, he had it comin'. It's Halloween, after all! If there's one day where throwing ink in someone's face for bein' a wet blanket is okay, it's today! C'mon guys, there's more offices to hit." He turned and started heading back down the hallway, whistling all the while. Boris followed, and Alice hesitated briefly to watch Sammy a little longer before following the two other toons. Now he was coughing and trying to get ink out of his eyes. She wanted to help him up, but-

    "Hey! You comin', Alice?" Bendy called. "We'll leave without ya if you don't move it!"

    "Sorry, Sammy!" She nervously apologized as she ran off to meet up with the group. He blindly found his way to his feet again after they'd left, swaying as the strong fumes from all the ink had started to make him feel light-headed.

    "I hate Halloween...” He coughed.

[naferty]

@louserzouis @lighthearted-liv @captainsuperpotato @thedaughterofsatan666-blog @crystallized-iron @arellaroth @accio-stark @liljeconvallaria @superhusbands4ever @sozuki @mariesbookblog @rinianitsocial @ndegenzuri @audre-w @definitely-nope @dragonsophie @avengergleepotterlife @kiernaserea @ksziggy @xissa-chanx @understandingthelyrics @ajanamyth @mother-shipper @eccentricrage

For showing interest on the au you got tagged! So here is part 3! 

Over the table Tony is calm and silent, deadly to anyone who doesn’t know him. Under the table, hidden from view, he’s clutching T’Challa’s hand, fingers turning an unhealthy white. The pressure gives T’Challa new coloring as well. Gregory is in front of them. Not outright grinning but you could practically feel the smugness radiate off his idiot face. Tony wanted to punch him real bad.

Jarvis stands at the edge of the table, next to the old man holding the will. Tony gains a small satisfaction at Jarvis standing by his side of the table, instead of Gregory’s. He’ll take any victory he can, no matter how small, and when it comes to Jarvis it means everything.

Even though the old butler still works for Howard and caters to Gregory Jarvis still made time to always call or even visit Tony and Maria whenever he could. Jarvis, dare Tony believe it, favored him over his brother. That was a victory all on its own.

Tony does everything in his power to ignore Steve and Bucky. To pretend they’re not there. If he doesn’t acknowledge them they’re not real, he tells himself. Thing is his peripheral vision is really good and he can still see Bucky’s frowning face and Steve’s confused glances.

“Shall we start then, gentlemen?” the old bat says, breaking the tension. Soon boring statements follows and Howard this and Howard that and future this, future that, blah blah blah. Tony stops listening the moment the old man said “In respect to Howard.” He leans back on his chair, trying to look casual. Gregory’s eye twitches but it’s Steve’s reactions that have a lasting effect. Steve frowns in disappointment, obviously not amused by Tony’s brother’s lack of respect. Tony wonders what Gregory had told them. What possible lie and excuse he had created before Tony arrived. The famous ‘Tony’ Stark’s brother that many don’t realize exists. Walks in with a t-shirt and jeans to their father’s will reading. Doesn’t show an ounce of respect in the old man’s memory.

Gregory probably told them he’s a bum or something. The black sheep of the family that Howard had disowned.

Then the actual important part, the whole purpose of why they were there, is said. “Now for what the late Howard Stark wished to leave behind to you. Gregory Stark, if you would stand.”

The whole room stops. Dead silent. The old farts scattered around the room acting as witnesses are quiet. No one moves and in Tony’s mind the only thing running in it is “Ooooooh, shit, you didn’t you old man.” He almost laughs when he sees Gregory’s face and his stiff posture. Obviously his brother didn’t expect for Howard to use his actual name because otherwise he would have never brought fucking Steve and Bucky, his supposed soulmates, with him. He's near giddy at the way Gregory's face scrunches up in an ugly manner. Tony can practically see him sweating.

Steve and Bucky stare him in expectation, wait for him to stand, believe him to be Gregory. Tony won't stand and they're going to be very disappointed, he thinks. A shock of a lifetime.

Time goes on and the stillness is becoming awkward now. Tony is still not standing and Gregory is still sweating. Eventually the old man gets impatient. “If Gregory Stark is not present or unable to make an appearance his inheritance will be passed to the next in line, as per his request.”

Tony nearly chokes on his spit. Howard fucking did that, gave Gregory no choice but to reveal himself or risk not inheriting anything Howard had left behind. Whatever reason Tony is there for, Howard really wants him to get it. He has a pretty good idea what it is and he knows it’ll only end in tears for one and an inconvenience for him.

Eventually Gregory figures out if he doesn’t move now he’ll lose most if not all his assets left by their father, so he finally stands and the record scratching that occurs over the room nearly makes Tony go deaf. The moment Gregory moves Steve and Bucky’s heads snap to his direction. That disappointed look Steve carried over him not moving and using up their time is quickly replaced by confusion. Those big, blue eyes of his are wide and Bucky doesn’t look any better. Gregory is barely holding it together as he just says “Stark.” Doesn’t even have the guts to admit his name is Gregory.

T’Challa squeezes back his hand in amusement and he knows his fiance wants to grin just as much as he does. T’Challa knew the story, knew about Steve and Bucky the moment the trio’s relationship was announced. There was no secret Tony could keep from him. Not when T’Challa knows him so well and demanded to know what was wrong. Now he and Tony are eagerly waiting how Gregory’s scene would turn out and it was safe to say Gregory was not happy. Not after the old man lists off the things Howard left in Gregory’s name and there's a very evident piece missing.

“That’s it?” Gregory says and the old man gives him an unimpressed look. “That is it.”

Gregory doesn’t give up. “No, there has to be more. My father wouldn’t just leave that for me. I’m next in line for the company. You must have skipped it.”

“I assure you, sir, that is all Howard Stark left. I did not skip anything.”

“You’re wrong! There has to be more.”

“Sit down!”

Gregory sits eventually and now Steve and Bucky had looks of betrayal. “Your name-” Steve hisses to him but Gregory cuts him off, “Leave it, Steve.”

They don’t leave it. Steve and Bucky are now scooting away from him. Gregory’s sitting in the middle and now looks so small without the big men sandwhiching him. Tony gains a twisted glee from that.

The old man continues. “Now for Anthony Edward Stark.”

Steve and Bucky stiffen at the name. The two look lost now and appear seconds away from bolting for the exit. Gregory stands again and Tony knew he’s going to make a fool of himself. “That’s me.”

The old man gives him a very impressive dry look. Tony is surprised the entire room doesn’t turn into a desert. “You are driving my patience.”

“I’m Tony,” Gregory continues and Tony doesn’t stop himself from pinching the bridge of his nose. T’Challa’s shoulders are shaking, no longer able to hold himself from laughing. “I am Tony Stark.”

“Sit down boy,” Jarvis snaps and Tony nearly clutches his chest at the sight. “You will not make a mockery of this. Now you either act like a grown man or leave this instance. Your presence is no longer required.”

If Steve and Bucky have been around Gregory for these past few months then they were well acquainted with Jarvis and therefore knew the man has no patience. If Jarvis is disagreeing then they knew it true, and once Jarvis turns to look at Tony in expectation there’s no escape from what’s to come. Steve and Bucky are now looking at him and so many emotions was twirling in their eyes. They look haunted now, as if months of burden have finally taken their toll, and since they were living with Gregory for who knows how long it’s probably not far from the truth.

Tony doesn’t get up. He refuses to, but he does say, “Present, though I go by Tony Carbonell now a days. Don’t know why the old man wrote that name down instead.”

A pin dropping on the ground echoes in the room. Steve and Bucky’s breaths hitch. He figured their hearts probably stopped, too. Gregory he knew was scrambling to figure out how to fix it. Steve’s hands are balled up on the table, turning a ghostly white. Bucky’s clutching his side with one arm, visibly shaking.

For the first time since graduating they were seeing Tony Carbonell again.

Tony half-listens to what the old man lists off. Stuff that are apparently now his. He does catch “- Stark Industries will be placed under your name -” and a very high shriek of “WHAT?” from Gregory. Tony gets up before the man finishes the sentence and tells him “I don’t want it. Re-write that will. Put someone else’s name instead. Give it to Gregory for all I care. He can keep SI, just leave me out of everything and anything that involves it or Howard or that idiot sitting in front of me using my name.”

He hopes it stings, hearing the truth finally said. From the way their mouths were wide open it’s obvious they didn’t know Tony is actually Tony, not Gregory. Jarvis must have kept a tight lip on it from either Gregory ordering it of him or just plain not liking Steve or Bucky to save them a nightmare.

“Now if you’ll excuse us we have important things to do that isn’t this.” Tony snipes and drags T’Challa along with him out the room and back home where hopefully they were done with the whole issue.

Which is why it’s only natural Howard’s will is blown up all over the media weeks later. ‘Howard leaves SI under second Stark heir: What does this mean for the firstborn son?’ ‘SI left under the care of Tony Stark, but not the Stark we know.’ ‘Trouble in paradise: Soulmates go after the wrong brother?’

Steve and Bucky catching him off guard does not help matters either.

[part 1] [part 2] [part 3] [part 4] [part 5/end]

[justanothercinemaniac]

Epic Movie (Re)Watch #220 - Ghostbusters (1984)

Spoilers Below

Have I seen it before: Yes

Did I like it then: Yes.

Do I remember it: Yes.

Did I see it in theaters: Yes.

Was it a movie I saw since August 22nd, 2009: Yes, #314.

Format: Blu-ray

1) The prologue of this film puts tone before comedy.

Set by Elmer Bernstein’s richly spooky score, the scene of the librarian encountering a ghost is not played for laughs which is why it (and, to a larger degree, the film) works so well. There is an ominous setting to the library and a genuinely tense tone. From the very start the film establishes that the danger/stakes of dealing with ghosts is VERY real (as opposed to ghosts just wanting to steal the world’s cats or something silly like that).

2) “Ghostbusters” by Ray Parker Jr.

I think the reason this tune has stood the test of time as well as it has is because its just fun. Its simple, energetic, and entertaining. Sure, maybe it ripped off Huey Lewis & The New’s “I Want a New Drug”, but it’s an infectious tune.

3) The ESP Test.

Beyond anything else, this scene introduces us to two important (yet similar) elements of the film: the comedy and Dr. Pete Venkman. You have to be good at balancing the spooky scenes with the comedy scenes, and this scene doesn’t go too heavy with the comedy too fast. It gives us just enough to know its okay to laugh while also giving us our first taste of Venkman as a character. Namely, it shows that he’s a bit of an asshole. But more on that right now.

4) Bill Murray as Pete Venkman.

Murray MAKES the part of Venkman. I don’t think Pete Venkman would be as an endearing character today if it weren’t for Murray’s performance. It’s natural, you have trouble seeing the line which divides performer from character (which I think is in part due to the heavy amount of improv Murray brought to the part). This means the character is naturally funny, fun, and (as mentioned above) a bit of an ass. But Murray does well of making Venkman an ass you are rooting for and losing the jerky qualities organically as the film progresses. Venkman is the doubter, the goofball (as Ray observes, he’s, “never been out of college!”), and at first is more concerned about the money than the science of ghosts. But as the film continues he maintains his trademark humor but the desire for money is replaced as a top priority with his care for Dana. One of the reasons the part is so interesting throughout the film is because there is development while the character is consistent. Constituency without boredom, supported by Murray’s acting chops.

5) Dan Aykroyd as Ray Stantz.

I will likely  mention this a few times, but this is a film which is elevated by the strength of its ensemble cast. The main trio of Murray, Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis are able to be totally unique while also playing off each other beautifully. Ray is a VERY different character from any of his friends. He is enthusiastic, largely innocent, but never naive. Aykroyd is able to mix those qualities with Ray’s intelligence beautifully, making him a dork but never an idiot. Ray is funny in a way different than Venkman. He doesn’t say funny things so much, he’s not a wise ass, but his enthusiasm is filled with humor and holds the audience interest wonderfully.

6) Harold Ramis as Egon Spengler.

In essence, Egon is the straight man of the group. But that doesn’t mean he’s any less funny. Ramis is in many ways chameleonic, allowing Egon’s eccentric personality to be exaggerated but never spoofed. His seriousness about everything is what makes him so interesting. He’s very rarely phased and when he is its all the more entertaining. More than anything else though he works with the rest of the cast perfectly. Its a perfect recipe for great characters, with the ensemble supporting and never overshadowing each other. I love it.

7) There are so many freaking iconic lines in this film I don’t think there’s any possibility I can jot them all down. Even if they’re not all as iconic as, “He slimed me,” they all stand out.

Venkman: “You’re right, no human being would stack books like this.”

Ray: “Listen. Do you smell something?”

8) The Library Ghost.

The Library Ghost is our first real example of ghosts in this world, and the key part of this introduction is its transformation. For one thing, the second form of the Library Ghost is frightening and shows that this film isn’t afraid to play with horror elements. But more than that it shows the audience we should never get too comfortable with what we’re seeing. Things are not as they appear in this world, things are always changing and the most mundane of things can become terrifying. The ghosts always have a trick up their sleeves, which will become very important towards the end of this film.

9) This entire monologue by Dean Jaeger to the trio of scientists which starts with, “Doctor Venkman,” and ends with calling them hacks is an important illustration of the elitist bullshit the Ghostbusters will put up with. From the Dean, from Walter Peck, from some members of the media. They’re constantly being questioned, doubted, dismissed, and disrespected because in essence they’re working stiffs. They don’t ACT like scientists even though they are crazy smart, so they won’t be treated with respect. It’s an interesting and all too real human conflict which helps the film.

10) Sigourney Weaver as Dana.

In lesser hands, the potential for Dana to just become a stereotype are boundless. She could’ve just been “Peter’s Girlfriend” or the “Girl in Trouble”, but through the direction of Ivan Reitman and Weaver’s performance she is elevated. Weaver gives Dana her intelligence, integrity, fear without cowardice, limitations (both with ghosts and with others), and heart. She is as integral a part of the film as anyone else and I think that is largely because of Weaver’s performance.

11) Annie Potts as Janine.

Potts makes Janine a wonderfully fun character, turning what could’ve been a dull secretary role into something wildly fun. Potts steals most of the scenes she’s in with heavy hitters like Bill Murray as her acting partners, a result of her handling of the role and the fact she carries herself in such a wonderful way. The voice, the mannerisms, its all wonderful. Potts MAKE Janine, I think, and I’m forever grateful for her part in this film.

12) I ship Janine and Egon, just saying.

13)

Dana [after Ray & Egon list possibilities for her apartment haunting]: “I’m sorry, I don’t believe any of these things.”

Then…why are you there?

14) Returning to Dana’s apartment.

Bill Murray makes Pete out as such a wonderfully lovable dumbass (for the most part) in this scene, which serves as the best early example of the chemistry he has with Sigourney Weaver. As of right now its a bickering chemistry but it’ll grow soon. There is a wonderful mix of humor and tension in the scene, combining the comedy and horror elements which have been introduced thus far.

15) Remember how I said this film had so many great lines?

Dana: “Either I have a monster in my kitchen or I’m completely crazy.”

Venkman: “I don’t think you’re crazy.”

Dana [after a beat]: “That makes me feel so much better.”

16) I appreciate Dana pushing Venkman out of her apartment because it is ALL acting in that scene. I bet you none of what they said was scripted but instead the director just said to Weaver, “You have to get him out of the apartment,” and to Murray, “You have to convince her of your feelings,” so they just took off from there. It’s great!

17) Everything in the Sedgwick Hotel scene shows off every element of the film at its best and gets to the heart of why this film holds up: it’s freaking fun! The near bumbling around the team does while on their first real mission is just wildly entertaining, mainly because of the mistakes they make and then how those mistakes are handled.

18) Slimer is this film’s most iconic ghost.

Lovingly referred to as the ghost of John Belushi, the gross out factor is key to the character’s design. It’s the design that really made him into a marketing machine, because you understand he’s a ghostly figure. You understand he’s not friendly but the character is still very VERY fun. By far the most iconic ghost of the franchise, Slimer is a lot of fun.

19) The ballroom scene.

The ballroom scene provides the audience with their first real taste of the film’s action. While it may not be super flashy martial arts or superhero action, it is still crazy fun. The stakes and goal are very simple: capture the ghost. This is the first time we’re seeing them actually CATCH a ghost so that right there means its interesting. The way the team goes about it is entertaining and has the audience 100% invested in what’s going on. All in all, it just works.

20) Choke this up to another great line.

Ray: “Don’t look directly at the trap.”

[Ray opens the trap]

Egon: “I looked at the trap, Ray.”

21) The following montage.

The key thing about this montage is that it covers an important aspect of the film’s story (the team’s rise to fame and the public’s reaction) in a sleek, fun, tight, and energetic way. Supported by strong editing, great music, fun visuals and cutaways, as well as the result of some deleted scenes being used in the final cut (like when Ray gets it one with a ghost girl), the montage just straight up works.

22) Ernie Hudson as Winston Zeddemore.

Winston gets a bad wrap for being the “weak link” in the group, but I think he still works. He mixes very well with the already established trio and Hudson plays him as he should be: an everyman. He’s not the super smart scientist, he’s the average joe being thrown into this very strange world. It’s easy to invest/get behind in him. Occasionally I think the film TRIES to make Winston come off as weasely (like when he wants his own lawyer after their arrest) but it doesn’t really work. Winston is a down to earth, likable character who still gets some pretty great lines (and one of my favorite scenes in the film). So I guess what I’m saying is, #StopBashingOnWinstons2k17

23) The fountain scene.

This is the key scene which helps to transition the chemistry Murray and Weaver have from a bickering one to a romantic one. You are able to get invested in their relationship because the pair treat each other not only kindly but in a caring way and - as Venkman observes - with respect.

Venkman: “I respect you. It’s corny but I respect you.”

It’s that moment that has me rooting for this pair to work out by film’s end.

24) There are a number of small moments in this film - like when Ray is showing Winston has to empty a ghost trap - which help with the world building. And I think that’s what has it stand up in the pantheon of pop culture. The world feels alive and unique through the way these ghosts are handled. I dig it.

25) William Atherton as Walter Peck.

Atherton plays Peck in a perfect way: as an elitist prick who is perfectly punchable. He’s the guy you LOVE to hate making him a great human villain. His shutting off of the power grid with literally NO understanding of how it works later in the movie shows how great his dumbassery can be when born out of fragile masculinity. There’s not much development to Peck’s character but there doesn’t have to be. Much like the dean mentioned in note #9, he represents the elitist shit the team has to deal with. Which makes it all the more satisfying when they triumph.

26) Winston still gets some great lines.

Winston [after Egon compares paranormal activity to a Twinkie and how much paranormal activity there has been lately]: “That’s a big Twinkie.”

Winston [after Peter shows up, to Egon]: “Tell him about the Twinkie.”

Peter: “What about the Twinkie?”

Also I love how freaking serious Venkman is. He needs no explanation. He knows what the Twinkie means.

27) Rick Moranis as Louis.

While the role was originally meant for the late John Candy, Moraines steals as many scenes as he’s in. Louis is - on paper - a small role. Dana’s nosy/nerdy neighbor who gets possessed by a ghost. But Moranis (much like Annie Potts) makes the part totally unique. The way he carries himself, his voice, what I’m sure have to be improvised moments, all make Louis totally unique to himself in a way only Moraines could do. I’ve said this about Weaver before, but Moranis is as memorable part of this film as the rest of it.

28) The scene where Dana gets attacked by her chair is the closest this film gets to pure horror. It is a genuinely tense and frightening scene which benefits from a slow build and the audience having information the characters don’t. Also, Weaver’s scream is incredible.

29) The dog demon attacking Louis right after the scene with Dana shows how the film is able to successfully switch from horror to comedy. It could’ve been jarring, the humor in that scene after such a frightening one, but it works. Totally and completely, even infusing some of its own scares when Louis finds himself at Tavern on the Green.

30) Weaver’s otherworldly performance as Zuul (especially juxtaposed against her more down to earth Dana) shows off her incredible range. Zuul can be crazy funny but never played as dumb, while Weaver just goes all out with the weirdness of the part. Rick Moranis does a similarly excellent job when Louis is possessed by Vinz Clortho.

31) So Venkman shows up this date with Dana and after finding she’s possessed tells Egon, “I just whacked her up with about 300cc’s of Thorazine.” Why did he bring Thorazine on his date?

(GIF originally posted by @heyman-cornettos)

32) I absolutely LOVE the scene where Ray and Winston are talking about judgment day.

It’s my favorite scene in the film which features a great discussion between the two characters. There’s this sense of darkness to it which is defining. It’s so ominous and kinda scary when they consider the fact they’re basically fighting the apocalypse. I just really love it.

33) FYI, this would totally be me if cops showed up to my place.

Janine: “Oh no, hold on, I’ve seen TV! I know you can’t come in here without a warrant or a writ or something!”

34) I love all the little Stay Puft ads you notice with a rewatch of this film.

35) Hey, that’s Reginald VelJohnson!

36) It too me way too many years to understand this joke.

Louis: “I am the Key Master.”

Dana: “I am the Gatekeeper.”

[They have sex]

37) The Mayor’s Office.

The moment of the film when you are most rooting for the team, this single scene as some of the most iconic lines of the film.

Venkman: “yes it’s true. This man has no dick.”

Venkman: “Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria!”

The scene is just crazy entertaining and sets up the climactic stakes of the film incredibly well. It’s just really freaking fun to watch (like the rest of this film).

38) There’s a small bit before the climactic encounter with Gozer when the Ghostbusters fall into  the street and the audience thinks for a second they might be dead. Only, there’s no way they would be. That ending would monumentally suck. It just messes up the pacing. It’s the one thing I have a big issue with in this film.

39) This is me whenever I try to work out.

Venkman [out of breathe, climbing stairs]: “Where are we?”

Ray [also out of breathe]: “Looks like we’re in the…teens, somewhere”

Venkman: “Okay. When we get to twenty tell me. I’m gonna throw up.”

40) Okay so, Zuul and Vinz have to have sex to awaken Gozer and then turned back into dogs right away. Only now do I realize…we never get an explanation for this. At all. Why sex? Why does that bring back Gozer? Of ALL things, THAT brings back this ghost?

41) Another crazy quotable line.

Gozer: “Are you a god?”

Ray [after a while]: “No.”

Gozer: “Then DIE!”

[Gozer attacks and nearly kills the Ghostbusters]

Winston: “Ray, when someone asks you if you’re a good you say YES!”

42) The climax of this film is incredible for a number of reasons. There is an incredible sense of threat and danger to it, endlessly quotable dialogue, and the constant surprises we keep getting thrown our way. It is this last idea that leads to the most brilliant part of this film.

42) The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

film has been building up to this. The suspension of disbelief which has been born out of everything changing. Ever since the Library Ghost suddenly became a scary monster this film has been pulling the carpet out from under us and changing the rules. And the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man - this wonderfully random and genius climactic monster - is the result of that. It’s absolutely beautiful and just gets me every time.

43) Defeating the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man by crossing the streams feeds into an idea I love in storytelling: if you have a rule, BREAK IT.

44) There is a nice question to whether or not Dana and Louis survived their encounter with Gozer and company. Meaning their survival is all the more satisfying.

45) I like the epilogue that plays out with the credits. It’s a nice touch to see these guys have their moment of victory.

Ghostbusters is a classic of American cinema primarily because it’s so freaking fun. The cast is A+, totally perfect in their individual roles and working off each other. The ghostly elements are great, you’re rooting for them the whole time, and it’s just...what else can I say? It’s Ghostbusters! Go watch it! :D

[delinquent-ghostboy-blog]

#2 The Bible

MAJOR CHARACTERS INFORMATION 

THE HERO / PROTAGONIST:

Name: Kohaku Takenaka

Age/Height: 19 / 5’6”

Introduction: The townspeople think he’s a cursed child. In reality, he is a kind hearted young man who trips over the smallest rocks and is tired all the time, a delinquent not by choice. He is able to communicate with spirits and enjoy their presence as they are the only ones who don’t shun him. However, there are some spirits who enjoy terrifying humans, whom, Kohaku steers clear of. He contains high spiritual energy which make spirits attracted to him so they can feed off his energy. Since he was young, he would have nightmares that would keep him up at night. Now, he is plagued by horrible visions that he could not make sense of except that they’re connected to his dreams. So, he set out to find the source of these visions and to find the bottom of this with his loyal friend Kiyoshi.

Backstory: Kohaku had loving parents who would’ve done anything for him. Sadly they were killed by a sudden appearance of a killer when he was a little boy. Unfortunately for Kohaku, misfortune seemed to follow wherever he went. Being an innocent child, he couldn’t differentiate between humans and spirits and would often be seen talking to nothing by others. To make things worse, he would have horrible nightmares that would make him drenched in sweat and unable to sleep. Abnormal activities started happening as well around Kohaku as the spirits began to take advantage of him. And so, everyone around him started to call him the cursed child. Alienated from his own home, Kohaku learned to live life alone and befriend the otherworldly beings who didn’t judge him. As a result, he started to be able to tell the difference between spirit and human as he grew up. One day at elementary school, he saw a boy his age getting beat up by some bullies. Kohaku, being the kind hearted boy he was, stepped in. From that day forward, him and the boy, Kiyoshi Himura, became best friends.

Specialty:

Eyes of the dead - Can see spirits. Heart of Gold - Although everyone despises and picks on him, he doesn’t hate anyone for it.

THE STRANGER:

Name: Rio Yamamoto

Age/Height: 27 / 5’7”

Introduction: A quirky young woman, older than Kohaku, who just moved back into town after graduating from the school of criminology in another city. She asks Kohaku to help with her investigation with her missing brother. She is strong willed and supportive despite not being able to see spirits but does her best. She’s very smart and knowledgeable.

Backstory: Born into a loving family, she had the cutest little brother who meant the entire world to her. Her mother was a genius when it came to solving crime, however when Rio was born, she and her loving husband moved back to her hometown, Yamnaimura. At the age of 12, tragedy struck when her little brother went missing, The police did little effort and eventually dropped the case, despite his sister’s claims as she was only a 12 year old girl. Filled with determination to find her little brother, she decided to become a detective.

Specialty:

Information gathering- Her detective skills aren’t to be trifled with and with her determination, she will stop at nothing to find out what happened to her little brother.

Immune to spirits- Her immunity allows her to escape from any possessions and spirits stealing her energy.

THE BEST FRIEND:

Name: Kiyoshi Himura

Age/Height: 19 / 5’9”

Introduction: A charismatic young man who’s a childhood friend of the hero.  He was saved by Kohaku from bullies when they were little, so he looks up to Kohaku and trusts him. The Himura family had been head priests for many generations and his father is the current head.

Backstory: Kiyoshi’s mother was always bedridden but her son was there to take care of her. She died soon after and as a result, Kiyoshi was left alone with his father at the age of 5. Being the next in line as a head priest, his father was very strict with him. Kiyoshi would often be bullied in school because they were jealous of his lineage. However, if it wasn’t for this, Kiyoshi would’ve never encountered his best friend, Kohaku. Captivated by how Kohaku stood up for him even though he was a lot smaller in stature, Kiyoshi became determined to become stronger in order to protect himself and his friends. And so, he trained himself in martial arts to achieve this goal.

Specialty:

Martial arts - He learned martial arts in order to protect himself and his friends.

Charisma - He’s a sweet talker and can talk himself out of any trouble. However he usually likes to show off his skills and gets into fights a lot. He likes to make fun of Kohaku most of the time.

THE SIDEKICK/HELPER:

Name: Enenra ( nicknamed: En)

Introduction: A yokai who is born from bonfires and is usually only seen by the pure of heart. It takes on a human form when it emerges which other humans can see. Kohaku saves it in from a sealed box in the junkyard and befriends it. He was once a familiar spirit used by the Himura clan, but was eventually sealed in a box and tossed away.

Species: Yokai ( a divine being of smoke and darkness)

Personality:  En is a playful familiar who is there to lighten up the atmosphere. He has an extreme attachment to Kohaku due to their similar conditions. He gives clues and is willing to help out Kohaku whenever. He doesn’t listen to others and has a distaste for anyone of the Himura blood.

Backstory:  En is a smoke yokai that was crafted by the Himura family a long time ago, back when they were a prominent Onmyouji (cosmology) family that dabbled in forbidden arts. He was used as a scout due to it’s freeform nature to spy on people. As the eras went by and the world became more modern, the use of Onmyouji began to fade. The Himura clan decided to seal all of it’s familiars and discard the ones that were no longer useful to them. Unfortunately, En was one of the abandoned ones and was tossed away at the junkyard.

Specialty:

Transformation - Can shapeshift into human form whenever. Any human can see him in this form.

Smoke Form - His natural state and in this form is able to freely travel anywhere as long as Kohaku carries the smoking pipe with him

WORLD SETTING

Set in Yamanaimura, a Rural town in Japan that is quite isolated from other towns with only a train station connecting to the rest of the city. Outsiders say the town is bound by superstitions and occupied by many otherworldly beings.

Mysterious murders, bizarre ghostly activity are prominent in this town. They say if you live there long enough, your mind becomes altered and people become abnormal.

The atmosphere of this world has a tint of a sepia feel to it and gives off a lonely and negative feel to the town.

LOCATIONS

( Area 1 ) University outside of the town

The university that contains the town’s only library.

Secrets lie beneath this university and is where the only library is.

This is where the trio will go back and forth to discover the secrets of the town

This is also where Rio works

( Area 2 ) Singular train station

The only train that connects this town to Tokyo city ( it is small and old, the train only comes once at a certain time)  

( Area 3 ) Junkyard district

Your typical junkyard where people dump their used junk in a pile. They say the place is haunted and if you go there at night, you won’t come back.

Kohaku and Kiyoshi’s main hangout spot

Where lots of spirits gather

( Area 4 ) Town Streets

Where Kohaku and Rio bump into each other for the first time.

( Area 5 ) Character houses

Kohaku’s small shabby apartment

Kiyoshi’s family house (temple)

Rio’s family house (house)

( Area 6 ) Park and Convenience store

Your go to place to stock up cup-noodles and snacks near the park.

Terminology

Yokai:- A Japanese term referring to  ghost, phantom, strange apparition. The term is mostly used for Japanese supernatural monsters and in folklores.

Onmyōji - were specialists in magic and divination ( very much like exorcists and priests)

Other INFO

Character Names are symbolic and contribute to their state and history

Each character has a route that merge to form the whole story, but their character are explored through these routes

Based on cultural folklore