#and probably have already been done before by loads of people anyway

[mrs-luigi-vargas]

Some of my coworkers made the mistake of asking me what I do for fun, so I talked their ears off about fanfiction for a bit. I'd mentioned something about how I write mario as nonverbal when most people don't (with reference to the mario movie, also) and one of them said something like 'what if you wrote a screenplay' and another was like 'or a silent film lol' and y'all could you imagine if I rewrote the mario movie to make mario nonverbal

[becauseicantthinkwritings]

Teeth

Part 12

Masterlist

Warnings: nothing, not a damn thing 🤭

There's a near painful casualness to the joyful way you greet him in the morning.

Standing by his car, arms crossed, his impassive expression seems to lighten when he catches sight of you leaving your apartment.

"Hey Billy!" You say, noting the subtle way his hands flex when he reaches for your door, opening it for you.

He says your name in return, a low sound, that goes straight down to your toes and back up before stopping in your chest.

You smile, thanking him as you duck into the passenger seat of his car, automatically pulling on your seatbelt.

You're vibrating with excitement, maybe too much, the knowledge that he touched himself while watching you gives you a power you didn't know you craved until now.

"I hope your night wasn't too bad." You knowingly tease, watching him swallow as he begins driving.

"It was actually pretty decent," he murmurs, eyes fixed forward, focused on the road, "Though, one of my neighbors gave me quite an eyeful."

You already have your response locked and loaded.

"Oh no," you murmur with false sympathy, "Must have been quite a shock."

"It was."

You hum, nodding your head.

"I guess, that's kind of a consequence of having neighbors." You turn to eye him, "Sometimes you just see things."

He spares you a glance, your expression calm and polite, as if you didn't touch yourself with your curtains open for him to see last night.

"Maybe you're right." He concedes.

"Of course I am."

He smiles.

.

"How have you two not fucked yet." Dani says, deep in thought.

"I don't knooooow." You whine, flopping onto your couch with a huff.

After thinking for a moment, you speak.

"Maybe he just doesn't like me." Your voice is muffled in the couch but she hears you anyway.

"We're not looking at this the right way." Dani suddenly says, which makes you raise your head curiously.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, when he first offered you the job, didn't you specifically say that you wouldn't take the job if he wanted to fuck you?"

You groan, burying your head back into your couch.

Was this what it had come to? Your own words being thrown back at you?

"Yes." You answer.

"So what if this is just him doing what you asked."

You let out another frustrated sound.

"You're telling me that I'm the reason I'm not getting fucked senseless right now?"

"...Yes?" Dani says, a little chuckle escaping her when she sees you wriggle angrily on the couch.

"What do I doooooo." You fake cry, raising your head to give Dani your best sad face.

She leans forward, a brightness in her eyes, that gets your undivided attention.

"Here are your options, one, turn up the heat, flirt with him, wear prettier clothes, make him notice you. Option two, get him jealous, turn your attention on someone else and then see if he tries harder to keep you close. Lastly," She leans back, steeples her fingers like the mastermind she is, "forget about him and maybe actually move on because there is a possibility that he's just not that into you."

You groan in frustration.

You didn't like any of those options, wearing nicer things meant being noticed by not only Billy, but other people too. Making him jealous implied that you had to be willing to get to know another person, which you were not.

And forgetting about him? Is probably what you should have done from the start.

"Can't I just parade naked in front of my windows for the foreseeable future?" You ask, watching as Dani's focused expression morphs into a grin.

"You could, but I doubt it would get you fucked."

You swallow.

"What makes you say that?"

"Because you would have been fucked by now."

Oh, how you hated when she was right.

.

"I overslept I'm so sorry." Is what you say to Billy when he sees you, rushing out of your aparment building. You do look slightly disheveled, as if you didn't have time to smooth your look into perfection like you usually do.

He smiles, opening his car door for you as usual, and listening to the breathless way you thank him.

When he gets into the car, he can still hear your overzealous breathing.

"You're alright," he tries to reassure you, "It's okay to be a few minutes late."

"Sorry, I just- I'm sorry if you were waiting long."

"It's okay, no need to apologize." He finishes, turning on his indicator so he can pull out onto the street.

"Do you mind- is it okay if I finish doing my makeup?" You ask, he can hear the worry still laced in your voice.

"Yes, of course," he says, keeping his voice even, trying to soothe you.

You breathe another word of thanks before pulling out your mascara from your bag.

Billy fights the urge to watch, with rapt facination. He finds the idea of it intriguing. He's curious to see your little routine, wonders how much it would differ from his own.

He quietly loves the domesticity of it all, him driving to work while you feel comfortable enough around him to apply your makeup.

At a traffic light, he can't resist turning to look at you.

You glance back, touching up your mascara before closing it.

"What?" You ask, rummaging in your bag for something else.

You're beautiful, he wants to say, with and without makeup.

Out loud he says,

"I'm just fascinated by the process."

You smile at him.

His heart stops when you pull out a tube of red lipstick.

It's not just red, red is an understatement. It's crimson, it's burgundy, it's the colour of spilt blood on fresh snow.

He swallows as you swipe the wand over the pout of your lips.

When someone blares their horn, he turns his head back to the road, driving off when he realises the lights have turned green.

He tries not to look, worries he might get lost in it.

The predator stirs within him, demanding he stop torturing them both.

He takes a shuddering breath.

"Are you okay?"

He's unable to respond, eyes fixed on the road.

The beast thinks about how the shade would look smeared across your mouth.

"Billy?" You say, concern heavy in your voice.

He sighs.

"I'm fine."

He's not.

.

It's a fast drive to work, and he avoids looking at you the rest of the way there.

When he parks, and you get out, he's already walking away from you, heading in the direction of the basement security booth, directly opposite from the elevators.

"See you this evening." Is all he says, not even sparing you a glance back.

You huff.

.

An emergency conference meeting puts you in his path once more.

There's an hour till lunch, and Billy tries not to fidget as he waits patiently for you and the rest of his team to show up.

He hears you laughing with someone outside as you draw nearer to the meeting room and his mood sours further.

When he sees you, he almost wants to fucking collapse.

Your mouth draws his attention, the vibrant shade catches his eye, makes his stomach flip.

You smile at him, and he nods evenly in return, looking down at his phone, trying to distract himself from staring at you.

Your mouth is divine, he wants to lean in, press his mouth to yours, feel the desire build inside of him until it has nowhere to go but out. He wants to rub his nose against yours, he wants your lipstick smeared across his cheeks, his jaw, his neck, his chest, his cock-

"Mister Russo?"

He doesn't startle, simply moves his eyes to stare firmly at the man that dared interrupt him from his thoughts of you.

The man in question swallows.

"What do you think?"

He sucks in a deep breath.

Turning to look at you, you meet his gaze head on.

God, that's a lot of fire.

"I'm assuming you can justify your actions?" Billy says to you.

"Of course I can." You say evenly, confident, like you know exactly what you're doing and everyone else is just in the way.

"Well?"

The corner of your lip twitches, you were just playing with everyone in the room, weren't you?

You turn to look at Phil, his IT managing director.

"If I told you what I was going to do, you would have taken action to stop me. Even indirectly, sometimes just the knowledge of a potential security breach would put you on edge, which puts your team on edge. The best attack is one done unexpectedly."

Phil shakes his head.

"You're the person designing the system, you work here, of course you're going to understand how to get around our protocols."

You pause for a moment, looking right at Phil, who, to Billy's credit, doesn't show any outward expression, despite the scent of intimidation rolling off of him.

You're playing with him, and you look so much like a predator in this moment that Billy feels his heart swell.

"It sounds to me, that you're making the assumption that security breaches are only ever going to come from people who lack the skills to beat the system. And while, sure, majority may not have the skill, we need to consider the possibility that one day, someone might."

Phil is unable to form a rebuttal, and after a minute he mutters.

"Someone should at least know when you plan to rip into the same system you design."

You nod, clicking your pen and pulling out your notepad to write something down.

"Noted. I'll send Mr. Russo a heads up."

Phil turns to look at him, and Billy feels the need to placate both parties.

"Not to worry, I understand the systems are still being set up and understood. Hopefully, we come out of this stronger."

He nods at both of you, feels a little bit more proud of what he's building.

"Have a good lunch." Phil bids, before walking out of the conference room.

You reel on him as soon as the door clicks shut, eyes full of passion that it startles him.

"Holy fucking shit Billy I just came up with the best fucking idea."

He stares at your animated form for a second, before he can't contain his humour, tilting his head back and laughing.

"There's no time for laughing, Russo! Get it together- look-" You move across to his side of the table, right into his space and drops your little notepad into the spot in front of him.

He squints, but your passionate handwriting makes zero sense.

"Did you make a note to tell me before you try to break into my system?"

He looks at you, your expression moves from one of excitement to confusion.

"What? No- fuck that- I mean, respectfully, sure I'll warn you but-" You glance down at the notepad, while he continues to just look at you.

"I've been thinking about it for a while, what if someone really good tries to hack the system? Better than me I mean."

Billy is seriously doubting at this point that there is anyone better than you.

"If we make it look like it's reasonably difficult, someone trying to get access won't question it. Someone smarter, will just think that we lack the brain power for a sophisticated system."

His eyes draw to your mouth, he's trying hard to focus but some of his essential blood supply is currently making his cock swell.

"So you're suggesting, we offer a fake room full of information to hide the real room?"

"Yesssss," You hiss happily, looking down before tapping your pen to your mouth.

The universe has no mercy for him, he watches the pen smudge your lipstick.

It's beyond him, he can't stop himself, his hands reach up to cup either side of your face.

You make a little sound of surprise, being distracted from your complicated thought processes, suddenly focused on him.

Your eyes are wide, and fixed right on him. He takes pleasure in that, wants your focus on him, and him alone.

.

His hands are warm, as usual, holding your face gently as he looks at you.

Was this it? Was he going to kiss you?

He sighs, takes a step closer so that your bodies are right against each others.

Your stomach flips, you almost want to beg.

"This colour is beautiful on you." He murmurs finally, his thumb reaching out to swipe gently at the edge of your bottom lip.

Your breath catches, you think about taking his thumb into your mouth.

Your brain stalls as you stare at him.

He tilts his head, smiles, deep in thought.

"What do we say?"

"What?"

"When someone gives a compliment, what do we say?"

"Th- thank you." You stutter out.

Ever patient, he nods.

"Good girl."

Your mouth parts in shock.

He pulls his hands away, taking a step back.

"Enjoy your lunch." He bids, before leaving you alone in the conference room with parted lips and damp underwear.

.

You lie in bed, staring up at the ceiling, fingers curled around your necklace, deep in thought.

You wonder who the panther is, wondering if you knew them at all.

You try to turn it over in your head but there's too many things you don't know, and not enough information.

You don't even know where to start looking for this information, searches online giving no real help beyond the realm of fantasy.

But this wasn't fantasy anymore, shapeshifters were real, a fact.

It made the world that much more dangerous.

Or maybe not, considering that most of your troubles had come from human roots anyway.

You sigh, rolling over, and sucking in a deep breath when you come face to face with the panther.

You raise your head, looking around.

Had you fallen asleep?

The panther hums to get your attention, leaning in until the top of his head brushes your cheek.

"Hey kitty." You greet softly, hearing the rough purring start up as the panther settles its body next to yours.

You sigh softly, pressing your face into his fur, giving his ear a little kiss, and feeling it flick gently.

His tail smacks against your knee as it waves in a haphazard direction.

You smile, tossing an arm over his back, sighing in bliss when you can almost feel the softness of his fur like he's really here with you.

You lay like that for a bit, on your side, curled against the panther when suddenly a human hand reaches for you.

It grips your jaw, turns your head up and away from the panther.

Billy, with warm fingers and a gentle smile, doesn't hesitate to lay his mouth across yours.

You groan, pressing your head up and firmer against his mouth, desperate for a taste of him.

He pulls back for a moment, before giving you another quick kiss and he's gone, leaving you tucked against the panther for the rest of the night.

You wake up in the morning, curled around a pile of your pillows, disoriented, looking around for your panther before the realisation hits you, that you'd only been dreaming.

.

.

.

[syrikif]

Gamer Etiquette

Kodzuken x Streamer!Y/N

Pairing: Kenma Kozume x Fem!Reader

Genre: SMAU, Written Elements, Strangers to Lovers, Romance, Fluff, Humor, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Streamer/Youtuber AU

Upcoming content creator/streamer, Y/N, has gone viral for lots of things. Her infamous dumb moments, her blended cookie recipe (which tastes better than it sounds), the way she rages at her friends during games, and about a hundred more.

But her most recent viral moment? Accidentally knocking famous streamer, Kodzuken, off the Bedwars map and making him lose his two year winning streak.

Now with more attention (and hate) than she ever asked for, her only option left is to go to the source: the man himself, Kenma Kozume.

Previous | Masterlist | Next

Chapter 4 (b): Guilt

Word Count: 2659

To be honest, Kenma is doing this entirely out of guilt. 

Sure it isn’t technically his fault that people have no self control and don’t know how to mind their own business, but his fans were probably the main root of the problem. So he felt some sort of responsibility towards her, regardless that they’d never met before today. 

“Are you loaded in yet?” He waits a few seconds, almost impatiently so, his eyebrows slowly raising as he waits even longer. “Y/N?” 

A soft sound of movement, a throat clearing, “Sorry, what?” 

Kenma sighs, “Are you loaded into the game yet?” 

“Oh- yeah. I mean almost, my wifi’s being weird.” She laughs then and it’s so painfully forced that Kenma physically feels himself cringe. He has to give the girl props though, she’s doing a lot better acting excited than he is despite the fact that she seems more nervous. 

He’d only asked for her discord on complete impulse, not really considering what would happen if she agreed until it was too late. Don’t get him wrong though, he isn’t upset about it; finding new people to play his favorite games with is always enjoyable for Kenma. 

But he also isn’t looking forward to this being any more awkward than it already is. 

“Are you on the server already?” 

Kenma shakes his head, “No, I’m waiting for you to be ready so I can start streaming.” 

“Oh,” she says and Kenma only then realizes that he’s been treating her like he treats everyone else, even though they know essentially nothing about each other. “Sorry, I’ll be done as soon-.” 

“Don’t worry about it.” And now he’s interrupting her; great first impression, Kenma. “I’m trying to finish eating right now anyways.” 

She doesn’t say anything for a moment and then, almost out of nowhere, “What are you eating?” 

Funny thing about that though is that he’s not. 

“Ummmmm-,” he trails off, desperately searching his brain for some sort of response. “Apple pie,” he finally manages to say. 

“Wait really?” Y/N suddenly sounds much more genuine than she had mere seconds ago. 

Kenma hums in confirmation, head nodding even though he’s currently lying straight through his teeth. 

Why? Who knows. Kenma definitely doesn’t. 

“I had apple pie too,” she goes on to explain. “Literally like ten minutes before I turned on my PC.” 

Kenma isn’t actually eating any apple pie right now, so it’s not as much of the insane coincidence that Y/N seems to think it is. But it is one of his favorite desserts, so he did have some fairly recently enough for it to be considered at least a bit strange. 

“You’re kidding,” he tries to match her enthusiasm.  

“Do I look like the type of girl to joke about something as serious as apple pie?” She’s teasing him now but his mind is slow to pick up on it, unintentionally leaving her in awkward silence as he processes her words. 

“I don’t know,” he drags out the last syllable. “You sound like someone who would.” Kenma has never actually seen what Y/N looks like - and sure he might be comfortable lying to her about eating apple pie - but joking about her appearance without even properly seeing it first seems like a line he shouldn’t cross. 

She scoffs then and Kenma can almost picture the exact face she pulls in the process, having frequently seen the same expression on his own roommate’s. “I have literally never been so offended in my entire life.” 

Kenma subconsciously shrugs, “I have to keep everyone humble somehow, you know.” 

~~~

“I got some stone,” Kenma tells Y/N as he runs over to drop a Stone Pickaxe in front of her. Although, this time he does it close enough to ensure that she doesn’t have to move to pick it up. 

“Oh thanks,” Y/N herself is busy collecting wood, but she’s definitely mining more than she really needs at the moment. 

“I know I explained this a bit earlier but we wanted to stream together just to clear some stuff up,” Kenma says when he notices how confused everyone still is in his chat. “Like how we actually don’t know each other. Right Y/N?” 

Y/N’s character suddenly turns to him in game, mimicking a head nod. “Yeah, I have no idea who this guy is. What’s your name again? Kenny?” Kenma admits that he has to stifle a laugh as she starts running around him in circles. “Well I guess I wouldn’t know because I don’t know you.” 

Kenma rolls his eyes, “You know what I mean.” 

“Yeah,” she easily agrees. “Just like how we didn’t know each other during that game, I also totally didn’t mean to kill you either.”

“Oh yeah definitely not,” Kenma nods, looking over at his chat for a brief second as Y/N stops before a random oak tree to start collecting even more wood. 

Why is y/n mining so much wood???? 😭 😭

y/n’s skin is so cutteeee

I love how Kenma’s just watching her run around lol

But Kenma’s attention is suddenly brought back to the game when he hears the sound of something being attacked, only to see his health two and a half hearts lower and Y/N standing suspiciously far away from him.

“What did you just do?” 

“Huh? What?” She plays innocent almost too well. “What do you mean?” 

“I’m beginning to think you killed me on purpose,” he teases as he starts making his way towards a cave he spots in the ground. 

She gasps, as though she genuinely feels betrayed by his words. “Of course I didn’t mean to, I would never do something like that.” 

He nods as he enters the cave, immediately running towards a vein of coal embedded into the wall. “Oh right of course. Because I totally didn’t see you aiming that fireball at me or anything the other day.” He shakes his head light heartedly as he begins collecting the coal with his own stone pickaxe. 

“See I’m glad you agree with me, Kenma,” Y/N joins his side in the cave, mining the stone beside him before placing down a crafting table. 

His head subconsciously tilts, “I thought you didn’t know my name.” 

Kenma watches as she places a furnace next to the crafting table, “That was before.” 

“Before what?” He opens the furnace when he sees it light up, his curiosity satisfied when he realizes that she’s cooking some Porkchops. 

“Before I knew it. Obviously.”

“Oh duh,” Kenma makes a show of facepalming, adjusting his hand just enough to look into the lens of his camera. “Should’ve known. How could I be so dumb?” 

“You tell me,” she says nonchalantly. “Isn’t that like your forte?” 

Kenma pauses at her words, shifting his gaze back to his monitor as he uses his mouse to slowly turn and look at her. “What?” 

“What?” 

LMAOOOOO

y/n has no chill lol

STOP CUS I LOVE HER

“Did you just call me dumb?” He’s definitely hearing things, because there’s no way that the girl who was fake laughing twenty minutes ago is now teasing him like they’d been friends for years. 

“What- no- I would never- I mean-,” she’s stuttering practically on purpose at this point. “Oh, iron!” 

Kenma turns his character in the direction that Y/N is looking towards, eyes squinting as he leans forward in his seat to try and spot it. 

And then he hears her giggle. 

“Ha! Made you look!” 

He sighs, rolling his eyes half-heartedly as he leans back against his chair. “You’re literally a child.” 

Y/N manages to stop laughing for only a brief second, “I can’t believe you-,” her voice suddenly breaks off with a gasp as she tries to catch her breath. “Fell for it,” she’s barely even able to finish the rest of her sentence, too busy practically cackling.

Kenma finds himself chuckling along with her, even though she’s entirely making fun of him right now. But he doesn’t care, not even a little bit. 

Because for the first time since they’ve met, the interaction feels real. 

~~~

An hour later, Kenma’s stuck in a cave and Y/N is doing who even knows what on the surface, when his roommate walks into the room. 

Y/N is in the middle of telling some elaborate story about the first time she ever played minecraft when Kenma hears his door open. He doesn’t really react at first, only glancing at his viewfinder to confirm that Kuroo’s walking into the room. 

“And then-,” she abruptly stops. “Did I just hear a door open?” 

Kenma would have thought that his microphone (or even discord for that matter) wouldn’t be able to pick up such a soft noise. He’s been proven wrong a lot today though. 

“Yeah sorry,” he confirms as he turns to actually look at the person now entering the room. “It’s my roommate, just give me one second.” Kenma mutes himself in discord but keeps his stream’s audio on, trying not to censor Kuroo as much as he wants to. He then just decides to leave the world, knowing there’s really no way to pause an online game. 

“You? Apologizing? Since when,” the older man snorts. 

Kenma closes his eyes with a sigh, “Shut the fuck up.” 

“That was unnecessarily harsh.” 

The streamer adjusts in his seat, turning in his chair to face his roommate. “I’m still streaming, what do you want?” 

His best friend frowns, “I’m bored and being swarmed by cats out there.” 

“Did you get in the catnip again?” He briefly gets distracted by the sound of Y/N saying something in his headset, but isn’t able to understand anything she’s actually saying because Kuroo is speaking at the exact same time.

“It was only like this much!” He makes a small gesture with his fingers to further prove his point. 

Kenma stares at the distance between his pointer finger and thumb for an unnervingly long amount of time. “Only that much huh?” 

Kuroo suddenly hides his hand behind his back, “Hey don’t look at my fingers like that, you perv.” 

“It’s not my fault you just happened to measure the exact length of your di-.” 

“AHHH!” 

Kenma flinches as he’s cut off by a blood curdling scream, his pulse skyrocketing as he frantically turns back to the game. 

He somehow manages to unmute himself, his fingers clumsily controlling the mouse to log back into the world. “Holy shit are you okay?” 

“Fuck- yeah sorry!” Y/N is still being loud but it’s nothing compared to the way she’d yelled only a second ago. “Jesus, I’m so sorry; that scared me so bad.” 

Kenma feels himself relax against his chair, mentally sighing as he glances back at Kuroo with a clear expression of relief. “She’s good?” 

“Yeah,” he nods, swallowing unsteadily. “Fuck, did you hear her?” 

“Are you kidding? I think the whole street heard her,” he jokes and Kenma can’t help but smile. Leave it to his best friend to be able to relieve such a massive amount of tension with one simple sentence. 

“Your roommate heard me?” Her voice practically exudes embarrassment. 

He chuckles, “Yeah, I think you both gave us a heart attack.” 

“Oh no,” she groans. “I’m seriously so sorry.” 

“What even happened?” (Translation: what the fuck made you react like that?)

“I was just focused on building a house and then a bird or something - I don’t even know what it was  - slammed against my window.” She pauses and Kenma can hear her release a deep breath. “It scared the absolute shit out of me.”

“Okay I guess that’s fair.” He feels something tap against his shoulder and turns to look at Kuroo’s questioning expression. “A bird hit her window,” Kenma elaborates for him. 

His roommate suddenly laughs, “I think chat was more worried than we are.”

Oh noooooo

Poor Y/N 😥

She needs therapy after that 💀

“They like her more than both of us combined,” Kenma confirms. 

Y/N makes a disapproving noise, “I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” 

“Here wait,” Kenma says to pretty much no one as he grabs his headphone splitter and the second headset he always has on hand. After plugging everything in, he adjusts his microphone and wheels in another chair so that both men will be able to talk to her. “Okay, my roommate can hear you now by the way, Y/N.” 

“Oh. Hi there roommate!” 

Kenma frowns as he turns back around in game to start heading for the surface, “Why didn’t you sound that chipper earlier?” 

Y/N doesn’t get a chance to respond before Kuroo does for her. “Because I’m better than you.” 

Complete silence. 

“You’re not even going to try to deny it huh?” He shakes his head, still trying to find his way through the maze of a cave he’d somehow managed to trap himself in. 

“I don’t know; I’d feel mean if I did,” she responds without an ounce of hesitation. 

“Yeah why are you forcing her to do stuff, Kenma,” Kuroo suddenly chimes in with a teasing tone. 

“Fuck you Kuro. No one asked you.” 

Kuroo reels back in his chair, as though Kenma had physically slapped him in the face. “Um wow okay. I can really feel the lo-.” 

“Finally,” Kenma (accidentally) interrupts as he sees sunlight shining down into the cave. “I’m coming up by the way.” 

“Wait, already?” Y/N sounds strangely panicked. 

Kenma nods slowly even though she can’t see him. “Why,” he can’t help but feel suspicious now after her reaction. 

“I haven’t finished building yet.” 

He begins towering his way out of the hole, “I’m sure it’s not that ba-.” He suddenly stops as he sees a building in the distance. 

“I’m sorry, you said you aren’t done?” His roommate says beside him, basically voicing Kenma's exact thoughts as he sprints towards the house. 

“What the actual fuck this is amazing.” Kenma marvels as he opens what he can only assume is the front door. “How did you do this in two hours?” 

Her character suddenly runs over, crouching in front of him and dropping something on the ground. “I might not be super amazing at PVP, but I’ve been building since I was in elementary school.” Kenma scoots forward to pick up the item, his eyebrows furrowing when he realizes it’s a bed. 

“What’s this for?” 

“I wasn’t sure which room you’d want so I just decided I’d let you pick,” she explains. 

Kuroo nudges Kenma's shoulder with his own, “That was really nice of her. Right kenma?” 

But he's strangely at a loss for words because he just can’t get over the fact that, “She made it red.” His head tilts, “Why’d you make it red?”

“Oh,” she seems surprised by the question. “I don’t really know. I just thought it suited you, I guess.” 

“Hm,” he hums in acknowledgement, making his way over to the first room he sees and placing it beside the purple bed already placed against the wall. “Why don’t we just have the same bedroom?” 

“Ooohh,” Kuroo drags out. (Kenma had completely forgotten he was there.) “Putting your bed next to her’s huh?” 

Apparently they both decide that it’s better to ignore him this time because all Y/N says is, “Why would we share a bedroom?” 

Kenma blinks, he thought the reason was obvious. “So then we have more room for other stuff in the house instead of constantly needing to build for more space.” 

“Oh. Okay yeah that makes sense.” 

His best friend suddenly reaches over to press his mute key for discord, “Kenma’s got moves guys.” 

“Shut up.” 

~~~

Kenma enjoys streaming with her that night. He really, really does. 

But again, he’s doing this out of guilt. 

Or at least that’s what he tells himself when he ends up messaging her again that very next day.

Taglist: @crazy-people-are-here, @existential-traveller, @peachesncats, @royalz658, @musicluverr

Any names in bold are unable to be tagged.

[fictionfixations]

tamashina-mina event (aka the sunset savanna jp event)

so anyway because i cant read jp (the translated vid is in parts so thats why im posting multiple links)

leona brushes it off but

so LISTEN. The chamberlain whatever his name is isn't happy with Leona for not putting his intelligence to help the country

but when he DOES provide an idea (aka actually mining the mineral resources) its shrugged off because they're all for being with nature

so what im understanding is leona is proposing to actually make use of what the land has to, yes, make a profit, but also it could help with all loads of things? like spreading water to be a little more easily obtainable once having the funds to idk throw away money for the good of the people (i mean. they're already rich aren't they? i don't really get it but also the world runs on money. i dont know if there are any benefits to it just sitting there, or if there are cons to digging them out or not but leona seems very passionate about it.)

but so its like this then

where if its not modernized then people will just. not live modernized. and i get that ig, wanting to live with nature (well not really but i mean its all down to preference isnt it? which im not an outdoor person so uh)

maybe it'll make more sense in the EN version (whenever it comes). or maybe i need someone to dumb it down to me like im 5.

but anyway you see my point right?? Leona provides an idea (is very invested in it) that goes to the good of the kingdom (making more profit but its also like they dont have to mine ALL of it he at least just wants them to make use of it at least instead of not even touching it)

and then it gets shot down because. basically. tradition. ???

anyway heres my idea: if someone like Ruggie Bucchi can exist (i mean as in someone born in a poor environment) in the Sunset Savanna, then clearly there can still be something done to keep people healthy and in comfortable situations without compromising idk the beauty of also being able to live with nature at the same time? to help make it a bit more convenient in the process at least? (like there could be a system that brings them water, but it could still be in a well so they can still do that process by hand, there will just be more water so they dont have to worry about idk running out? i dont know how wells work but i imagine they can run out eventually)

and if anyones like 'oh but we wont make a profit' then propose ANOTHER way we can make big income. aka MINING the MINERAL resources so it could be like nothing even changed or that we might be even making more than we usually are (but also probably supervised so they cant take advantage and just i mean get rid of the entirety of it? cause. its.. important right? so some but not all.)

maybe i just dont understand this, maybe im biased towards leona who knows, but i kind of also feel like its dumb to just brush it off. and i mean who knows maybe hes proposed it many times before, maybe hes shown them so many ideas and proofs and proposals related but they mightve been flawed in some way i dont know and thats why they refuse. who knows. it just rubs me the wrong way

its also kind of related to people brushing off leona just as being lazy and stuff like that (also did you know he only failed ONE year? he joined NRC a year late) but leona isnt really doing anything to try to change peoples perceptions of him because 'thats what they think of me, why should i bother?' like people hating on him for being [something something] compared to falena so then just. takes that in and is like 'okay so people think of me this way. if thats how they view me, then whatever.' hes still very competitive and all that stuff but theres also apathy in 'people will think whatever they want of me, why should i even try to change it?' (and hes probably heard all kinds of things at a young age that really stuck with him and shaped who he was. which goes from being really hurt by it to not even caring about peoples opinions anymore. dont get me wrong it can still affect him because the part of him that got hurt by it the first time is still there but yknow)

but so then the chamberlain is like 'why dont you use your smarts for the country'

and leonas just like

THEN SAY SOMETHING TO MAKE HIM NOT SAY SUCH THINGS??? (you knew him as a kid surely you could do something) like. theres. just. such an utter lack of trying to convince him otherwise. and i guess to him it would sound so fake so he might not be convinced at all. but then if you stop trying at all then he'll think that he was right in what he thought people thought of him and wont try to correct anyone. or in fact will correct anyone if they think positively of him.

i mean theres also not wanting to say it in front of other people. but. listen. if youre afraid of what the people think then it will affect the other negatively.

like for example if you try not to do lovey-dovey stuff in public then your lover will naturally feel like youre just trying to hide them away. or that you might feel ashamed.

so if the chamberlain tries to convince him when they're in private but in public he doesnt. then you can see what kind of conclusion leona would come to, right?

its kind of a tough situation because i honestly dont know what youd do in that situation. its just. i feel like they could communicate better. that there could be things to be done and it just frustrates me.

yes he does go on to say that leona is strong

and that he believes in him basically but

it just. doesnt feel like enough. and it could definitely be on leona for also not being willing to listen so hh. and i also get the chamberlain has a lot of responsibility so he cant just be there all the time and everything hfeuishfdi

[its-time-to-write]

ch. 5 - hustling for the good life

table of contents

your boots beneath my bed

You, on the other hand, had done your proper research. Watched his highlights on Lust Conquers All and everything. You want to know what exactly your stupid brain is doing, thinking someone like that is cute or (retch) boyfriend material but who gives a shit because you’re probably not going to see him again. 

You’re out of the hotel and in some tiny little cottage just outside of London. No paps, no PR agents or what-fucking-ever, just you, Natalie, and loads of fresh air. She finds you in the yard one morning, plucking a tune on a guitar and humming.

“That’s new,” she grins. “Gonna have a new single out soon?”

You raise a shoulder. “I don’t know. Maybe. Might just keep this one to myself.”

Natalie says hmm then turns on her heel to go back inside. 

“Oh,” she says after a few steps, “you should at least send it to him. He might like it.”

“It’s not about anyone!” you call after her rapidly retreating figure. 

“Sure!” she yells back. You flip her off and she says, “I saw that!”

—

Natalie’s booked some coffee shop concert for you, so you’re a little preoccupied with sound checks and meeting your temp band and promising to drink a latte as soon as you’re done singing because fuck sleeping.

It’s sold out which isn’t hard because the place is small, but it’s fun to sit on a stool and sing into a small microphone and be able to talk and joke like you’re the small-town artist you began as.

The crowd goes crazy when you strum the first few notes of Mango, as they sing along to the whole thing. You finish the set and begin thank everyone for coming when you see an oddly familiar face in the very back of the room. You’re not even sure how you caught it because again, it’s crowded, but there it is. He’s with some other people who you’re pretty sure are part of AFC Richmond, but you don’t care about that now.

You pause in the middle of your goodbye and say, “You know what, I’m actually going to play one more song. It’s a rough draft right now, so be nice to me. The working title is Poolside, and you guys are the first to hear it.”

You begin to pluck the repeating melody that’s been playing on repeat in your brain and start the first verse.

I know it’s a bad idea

And I can’t have you anyway

But you’re like a tiny bit of sunshine

I can’t seem to chase away

It’s terrifying and vulnerable in a way you’ve never been before. You’ve played songs for boys before, but never like this. 

You were in a hotel room with Austin one night after one of his movie premiers and just giggling about how stupid it all was. 

“I already have our breakup song,” you’d said, hopping down from the table. “Wanna hear it?”

Austin thought that was hilarious so he said, “Obviously,” so you grabbed your guitar from your room and strapped it on. 

“Alright,” you said while strumming a bouncy tune, “this one’s a little more line-dancey than my usuals. So.”

Austin had tapped his foot while you sang, “A long time ago/in a land not so far away/we met in a bar/and you fucking said ‘hey.’”

It was silly as you both bounced around the room singing about your impending split. Neither of you cared because it wasn’t real, and you had recorded him singing a harmony on your phone. 

You snuck it into the actual track months later, too faint for anyone to actually notice. 

But that was the closest you’d ever been to directly singing someone their song. It was different with Mango because it wasn’t romantic. 

And now it’s different with Jamie, because you’re singing about how dumb it is that you keep thinking about him asking if you were ok at that dumb fucking party. 

You end the song to thunderous applause, and you’re pretty sure bootlegs are going to end up on YouTube within the hour. You don’t care. All you can think of is slipping to the back of the café to claim that latte then sneaking out the back. 

“Nice one, girl,” Natalie remarks as she hands you a cup. “The label’s gonna love that.”

You smile. “They don’t care. I make them too much money for them to care.”

She rolls her eyes and opens her mouth to speak but just stops. 

“Hello? Earth to Nat?” you say, waving a hand in front of her face. 

“Hey,” says a voice from behind.

You spin around. It’s Jamie. 

And god, he looks fucking fit in trackies, Gucci slides, and a neon orange shirt. 

You can feel Natalie sneaking away behind you, and for once, you’re glad to be alone. 

“Hey,” you reply. “How’d you get in here?”

Jamie smiles. “Keeley. She can talk her way into anything.”

You nod, still holding your latte. “Well, usually we have a strict policy about fans who try to come talk to me unannounced, but I guess for you, I’ll let it slide.”

Oh god, are you fucking flirting?

Jamie smirks. “Babe, I ain’t any old fan. Probably number one.”

You raise an eyebrow. “Uh huh. Right. And when did you decide you could call me babe?”

Jamie takes a step closer. “Right about the time Keeley convinced me to ask you out.”

You almost drop your coffee. 

All you can say is a weak, “Oh.”

“She would love to,” Natalie pipes up from behind a stack of coffee beans. “I’ll get you her number and you can set it up.”

Jamie’s looking at you expectantly, and you suppose he probably wants your consent, not just Natalie’s. 

You nod and say, “Sure,” with the same lack of conviction the oh held. Jamie’s expression ripples for a moment, but then he’s grinning and saying “Mint,” before saluting Natalie and exiting the way he came. 

“What the fuck, Natalie,” you say. Your bones feel like jelly. “I can’t go out with him.”

“Yes you can,” she tells you. “And you are. It’s settled.”

Oh fuck. 

—

He texts you the next morning.

hey it’s Jamie :)

I can’t be seen with you, you write back before you chicken out. The press would have a field day. I’m not looking for something public, so if you’re only in this to gain popularity, you’re out of luck. 

It’s a little harsh, but you’re going to be open about this.

no worries, he says. paps r fuckgn annoying. we can do smthg small. 

Turns out something small means sneaking into a restaurant where Jamie’s been going for ages. It has a small room in the back with windows you can see out of, but no one can see in.

“John’s been getting me back here for ages,” he says. “Haven’t had an issue with the press yet.”

It’s all so normal, the way he pulls out your chair and tells you what he likes to order. The way he’s making you laugh and asking you questions about your life, not the ones about your music, but the kind that are actually about you. 

The server comes around with a bottle, and asks, “Wine?”

Jamie looks to you and you shake your head, barely suppressing a grimace.

“All good here, mate,” he says.

“Not a drinker?” he asks once the man is gone. 

You hesitate. You’re about to cross into point-of-no-return territory. 

“I- I don’t know, I can’t really smell it without thinking of my family. They’re all…”

Jamie nods. “I get it. Like me dad. Prick’ll be sober when he’s dead.”

“Yeah,” you say slowly. “Yeah, never had a family event without someone fighting. My mom’s the first one to get out, because she’s the youngest. She saw all that shit and decided it wasn’t for her. She went away to college, met my dad, and never looked back. Course, my uncles started showing up once I got famous. And my aunt, too. She’s probably the worst of all of them. She actually broke into my first apartment asking for money. She smashed a bottle and cut up my face pretty bad… I was nineteen and still trying to figure out my music career and stuff. I still have a scar on eyebrow from it. But, I wasn’t so famous that it ended up on the internet, so…”

You trail off again. Jamie’s looking at you all thoughtful. You’re not sure when he started holding your hand across the table, but there it is. It’s warm and calloused, and he doesn’t seem to care that yours is sweaty.

“My dad’s the same way,” he says softly. “Showed up a month back at a match. Fucking prick. But… can’t seem to cut him off, y’know? He’s fuckin’… family or some shit.”

“Hah,” you say, “That’s what Margarita’s about.”

Jamie’s silent for a moment. “Thought it was about how you really fucking liked limes,” he says finally.

That gets a laugh from you. “I do actually really fucking like limes. But enough about me. How’d you get into football?”

By the end of the night, you’re properly smitten. This boy knows how to flirt, knows all the right compliments and ways to brush his hand against yours or brush a stray strand of hair out of your face. 

This is bad, you think as his lips touch yours. This is very, very bad.

table of contents

[protocolseben]

(3 days before flight)

"Rocky, should I untether Mark from the pipes?"

"Don't even think about it Sebastian. I don't want to get into trouble !"

»»» 11th Day of Mission

Load LOG : // SL-21-20XX-28-12_01…

(alternate title : fuck characterisation, hello OOC. get OOC pain'd.)

###########

23:04:26:85 UTC +1 CET

Recording? Ok...so today-

("Talking into your diary again like a girl, love? ")

"Fucking…" clunk "It's my logging session. I'll throw something at you."

("Did you forget where you are?")

"Fick dich."

("…I hope that's German for 'I like you a lot?' ")

< clunk >

recording terminated due to lack of sound / voice activity.

###########

END LOG SL-21-20XX-28-12_01

// -----------------------------

Load LOG : // SL-21-20XX-28-12_02…

###########

23:11:33:02 UTC +1 CET

…Ok, the light is on, it is recording now.

This morning the Earth looked bluer than usual, and I really liked it, so I grabbed the camera and quickly snapped a picture. My photography skills are good enough!

NASA's Jackson called us the noisiest astronauts ever. Fair... But he did remark on how efficiently Mark and I get the work done around the station, given the state and the age of the machines. We would really just split the massive amount of maintenance into two and made sure we tied up any loose ends, and they were always impressed.

Today we had to do a pretty massive job of putting on the NOAX stuff on the many of the station panels. It was our second time doing a spacewalk in only eleven days, so that's a big thing. And it was…four hours outside, putting basically space caulk. Heat really gets to these big guys! The application was less than fantastic though, as we had to use spatulas to put them on…it was a really careful science experiment. There's Mark and me, stuck to only the metal railings of the station for our lives, putting state-of-the-art things with some ma's spatula. It's hot doing this the whole day, just mashing this stuff in! Sweating in space is not fun…

I looked up the stuff when I got back from the work. They use these things in Formula 1 cars…? Well you learn something new everyday and experience new things too, but I'm not sure how this caulk thing will benefit that much… probably only useful if Michael Schumacher goes 27 thousand kilometres per hour, sure…

Ok, I have been putting off talking about Mark.

The previous recordings already have them, but for memory's sake, I will just mention it here. I know, I know, I'm going to be 24 next year, and here I am, still feeling like i'm in middle school with how I'm acting.

We've been co-workers for two years now, and we've had our fair share of being at each other's necks. Horner didn't help either. The only thing he had to say to us before we left was that we were like an old married couple. And to get "our shit sorted by the end of the trip".

Well…

It really is hard to put it into words. It was pretty obvious to everyone, so I am the idiot here. Hah... I tried not to think much of it, especially during the suit up procedure for the spacewalks. it needed two people anyway.

Before we went back into the airlock, the bastard went to unhook my tether off the metal railing! Fucker!! Do you know how screwed we'll get if I wasn't anywhere with the EMU? He had the gall to laugh in his suit. I should have just beaten his face in just now.

("You didn't mention me holding your hands?")

clnk

("oh shoot--")

recording terminated due to lack of sound / voice activity.

###########

END LOG SL-21-20XX-28-12-2

----------------

[findafight]

STOBIN AS DRIFT COMPATIBLE BESTIES FIGHTING KAIJU!!!

OKAY OKAY BUT. post canon au where the Breach opens in the early nineties instead of 2013, and eventually when the Jaeger Program is just in the fledgling stages, right at the start when they figure out the drift and sharing the load, some American government goon looks at another, and they're both thinking the same thing. They know a couple chucklefucks who are scarily in tune with each other that already have monster fighting experience. The problem is of course the chucklefuckery and also they. Hate the government.

But they figure yknow. May as well try to get the actually very good at killing monsters the military can't clowns. They need people willing to go into deathtraps and fight giant monsters, and those two have done that a few times before. They need people that can connect to each other while also fighting without dying, and figure those two are a prime example. So after a lot of government groveling and Robin and Steve slamming the door in multiple suits' faces, they eventually agree to at least...see what it's all about. Because they heard about the attack in San Francisco on K-day, about Manila and Cabo San Lucas and Syndney, and it was all bad, and as much as they dislike and distrust the government and military...they do want to help (and the pay is...good). It was probably only a matter of time before their luck in avoiding monsters ran out anyway. At least this way they had some control of how.

So Steve and Robin are in the Jaeger Academy almost as soon as it opens. It's...an adjustment. They're obviously not the regular type to join, mostly its a bunch of men who were maybe ex military or something, and they stick out. Training is a pain in the ass, they've spent the years between the upside down closing lounging and working and starting to relax, and so there's the expected heckling.

(I want them to meet Newt and Herman so bad like. they'd be around the same age as them (because we are bumping everything in PR canon back for this) and I think the combo punch of Newt and Robin being themselves would be hilarious. They're all kinda outsiders in the macho militarism of the Academy and i think the chaos would just be. unimaginable. )

But anyways. I think during the testing to see drift compatibility, Steve is called up and looks the scientist/military guy (because it's early days there aren't really "instructors" yet) and says "If you even think about putting me in one of those fucking things with anyone other than Robin, you've lost your mind and forgotten we're only here because you asked us to be together." Everyone is like ooooooh but then he squints at them and they shut up like oh damn okay sorry yeah.

And that's the end of that discussion.

There's something about being in the drift with each other that makes all that complaining and speculating and wishing to combine when they were teenagers seem half-assed. It's...not like anything either of them can describe. It feels right, like they were always meant to be that way. If they lived in each other's pockets before the Drift, they're in each other's skin now. Silent communication is expected for long-term drift partners. Residuals of the bond, dream sharing, but Robin and Steve, even among other pilots are exceptional. There's entire discussions happening in brief eye contact. They move in sync outside the Jaeger just as well as if they were still in the Drift. They've only had one RABBIT incident, and they pulled out of it fine. It's...eerie for some people to watch them, even other Pilots. (also the fact they'll casually mention shit like "well at least the air isn't toxic" or "hey. don't call this torture, that's offensive. I've been tortured!" or even "can't believe i survived evil bats for this shit." which is mildly offputting)

They end up on the Pacific northwest and into southern B.C. with a Mach 1 called... something like Midwest Deluge or something idk. They're media darlings the first Kaiju they kill two fifty kilometres off the coast of Washington. Robin is quirky, and Steve has all his midwestern boyish charm, and together they entrance people with the Drift. There's interviews and talkshows and then at some point action figures? (Dustin does not let this go. By this time he's also working in K-sci. [obviously??] but he's still annoying little brother shaped.)

Steve is usually one of the first quoted to describe the Drift, in his first interview having said "When I first met Robin --became friends with her--it felt like we'd known each other our whole lives. Now we have." Robin is also sometimes quoted with "There's probably nowhere I'd rather be, than in Steve's head."

Of course, with them being in the media, being kickass, and also being part of a program that emphasizes compatibility, there's questions on whether or not they're dating. Because while the Drift isn't romantic by nature, my god people would romanticize it. And when two hot people of opposite genders that are not related to each other in any way are piloting the Jaeger, and are just *gestures to all of stobinisms* assumptions abound.

They're in an interview after their third kill when it happens. It's a few years into their tenure as Pilots, maybe '96? (if the Breach opened in '91 and they were recruited in 93?) The host asks "So. romantically. You two have always denied that attraction, but working so close together, literally in each other's heads, isn't there a chance that has blossomed into something else? Something more?"

They roll their eyes. Steve says "there's nothing more than what Robin and I have. Romance isn't more it's just something else."

Robin goes "Plus..." Before Steve looks at her, eyebrows raised. "I think so" she says, obviously to a question Steve asked that only she heard. "What are they going to do? Fire me?" they both laugh.

He shrugs. "if you're sure..."

Robin hums. "Yes, well. I agree with everything Steve said. The Drift isn't romantic, it's connection. It's knowing. All sorts of relationships can be Drift compatible. Steve's and mine is Platonic. Capital P."

"You gonna actually say it anytime soon?"

"Shut up."

"I dunno it seems like you're stalling."

"Christ, Steve. I'm getting to it. Let me tell the world I'm a lesbian without nagging, goddamn." She turns to the interviewer. "anyways yeah I'm a lesbian so it was never going to be romantic between me and Steve. I'm just obsessed with him."

There's a pause, before they lean into each other and giggle. Steve whispers "good job" that's barely picked up by his mic.

They get a stern talking to by their Marshal but Robin was right. They can't get fired for it. They're too good and pilots are too valuable for plain ol' homophobia to get in the way. (It's seen as a cornerstone moment in queer history, a Jaeger Pilot, someone the world can do nothing but respect, came out! casually. with an already supportive loved one sitting beside her, ready to laugh with her.) And while some people act weird or distant about it, most move past it pretty quick, considering the Midwest team is well respected and there's obviously the bigger problem of underwater aliens trying to kill everyone. You either get over it and work with them or you leave or get people killed.

By the time of the events of the movie, they're old-timers. They've upgraded once to a Mach 3 after a brutal fight with a high category than expected made Midwest Deluge inoperable. They're in Hong-Kong because where else would they be? They need to end this. Just like they needed to see the Upside Down to the end. Their whole lives have been dominated by fighting for their lives and to protect their home and the world. One last push. They aren't even forty yet.

and then the breach is closed and the world is saved and they can retire with their massive pensions from being the best monster killers ever <3

[holybasementdweller]

Eudaemonia

Here goes! Midnight brain thoughts go brrr. I am going to regret this in the morning, probably. Debating making an AO3 account just to post this or not Prologue:

The moon loomed, cold and foreboding, over the vast streets of Central Hub City. It was a quiet night. Most civilians had long since returned home to their families, and the usual nighttime bustle was significantly calmer. Typically crowded clubs held only their regular patrons, and most other places had closed down for the night.

So, in theory, it should have been an easy night for Branzy to patrol.

Listen, he hadn’t meant to stay out quite as late as he had. Rek wasn’t there to be his man in the chair, and Branzy hadn’t been paying attention. The city being so quiet was meant to be a good thing. He could take it easy, stop a mugging or two, walk someone home, and call the night a job well done. Instead, he had found himself hiding behind a dumpster, hand over his mouth and desperately trying to not gasp for every breath.

Branzy knew better, he should have known the city was holding its breath because there was a predator on the loose tonight. Footsteps echoed down the alleyway, and Branzy held his breath, and waited, and waited. There was a small pause as the person seemed to stop and consider. Branzy’s head was spinning, brain whirling a mile a minute. The fire escape just across from him was a bit too high even with the new spring-loaded boots Rek had made, and far too exposed. He’d be dead before he grabbed the rail. There was a fence at the end of the alleyway that led to a courtyard, but he couldn’t see far enough to tell if there was another exit. It was too dark, and he was panicking, and Rek wasn’t even awake to help him but it wasn’t like he could call him anyway without giving up his position-

After what seemed like an eternity the footsteps resumed. Each step grew fainter as the person stalked away, and Branzy finally allowed himself a small sigh. He waited another few minutes, footsteps long since gone, just in case it was a trap. Rek might not be here with him now, but gosh his voice still echoed in Branzy’s head.

You know, they might not actually be gone. They were hunting you, and you saw another guy. This could all be a diversion. The first one walked away so that you would lower your guard and the second guy is just waiting there. 

…. Curse Rekrap and his paranoid thoughts. He was rubbing off on Branzy a little too much, actually. Branzy allowed himself to slowly rise from the concrete below, legs aching and his arms throbbing where he had blocked each blow. Cautiously taking a peek over the dumpster revealed that he was indeed alone in the alley. Branzy stretched a bit and winced at the strain; boy, he was going to be sore at work tomorrow. He tugged his jacket tighter around him to ward off the chill and headed towards the fence. Branzy would take his chances with the courtyard. There was no way in hell he was going to leave the alley and get jumped, because he still had a gut feeling those guys didn’t actually lose him.

Grabbing ahold of the chain links, Branzy hoisted himself up and over the fence. Sure, he was doing illegal things, but he was above vandalizing property and breaking the padlock. That would just be rude to the people who lived there.

He was halfway across the courtyard when the hairs on the back of his neck rose. Branzy might not be able to predict things like Rek could, but he felt the eyes digging into his back and tensed. Carefully, quickly, he bolted for the other end of the yard where the other gate was open and practically screamed freedom at him. Something landed behind him with a loud thump and Branzy did not look back, they were still after him, they’d found him again he was already tired and sore he couldn’t take another fight and his lungs burned with the effort of running-

An arrow found its home in his shoulder and Branzy let out a muffled shout. Fuck, he’d already taken a few punches earlier, but each swing and weave as he dashed towards the exit just sent another wave of white-hot pain down his back. The footsteps following him were getting louder and the person was gaining but the exit gate was so close he could practically taste the freedom. 

The mic in his ear crackled and Branzy nearly sobbed in relief as Rek’s voice popped up.

“Dude, I woke up in the middle of the night, what on earth did you get yourself into?”

“Help, please, I’m being chased and I’m hit-”

“Shit, hang on, use the boost pack. The new button I added on your wrist brace. It’s got some potions to help keep you going, let me get your location…” Rek yelped, and Branzy would have winced at the volume but the arrow in his shoulder was taking up all his attention. The footsteps were growing closer still, but he was almost out and the gate was right there. Panting, Branzy reached out and grabbed the edge of it, yanking it shut behind him as he ran through. 

His attacker slammed into the closed gate as Branzy cheered internally. He wasn’t quite sure how he’d managed to pull that off, but he had a few seconds, and as he turned to keep running Branzy desperately fumbled the button Rek was talking about. He let out a muffled shout at the sudden pinch just under the wrist brace before he felt the regeneration and strength flooding into his system.

Branzy was relieved as the boost hit him, dulling the pain in his shoulder and he leapt forward to the fire escape in front of him. He could worry about how the hell Rek had been able to find the time to either make or afford to buy the potions later- now he just needed to get the heck out of dodge. Scrambling up the fire escape, Branzy had barely made it to the roof when his pursuer shouted.

“You won’t be getting away that easily, you know?

[reigningqueenofwords]

For the Horde

Pairing: Dean x Reader Request: @fayemenelmir Hey there. Is it possible to get some more Gamer Dean? Or a Gamer Sam (With him MMO’s would be awesome)? Read the Gamer Dean Series a 3rd or 4th time now. Probably reader and Sam or Dean meeting in a game, she is a hunter as well and they really like each other and are desperate to meet, but can’t since they are afraid to drag the other one into the hunter life. Then they meet in a bar before a hunt and idk… she tells him about this “hot guy I’ve got to work with now”?

Part 1 of the Games We Play

You drummed your fingers on your desk as you waited for you character to load. Your headphones were on your ears, as you preferred to hear it that way. Barely on 10 seconds, and his name popped up, making you grin.

Theinastus- Well hello.  Kanestinia- Hey :)

You bit your lip. You’d been talking to him for quite a bit now, and seeing his name always made you blush. 

Theinastus- How was your trip? Kanestinia- Pretty good. Boring all on my own :( Theinastus- Poor baby. Want some company? ;)

Laughing, you shook your head and typed out your reply.

Kanestinia- I’m sure I wouldn’t get much driving done! Lol Theinastus- Probably not. Wanna do a random? Kanestinia- Maybe in the morning :( I just got on to do a couple dailies. I’ve been slacking…  Theinastus- 11? Kanestinia- Works for me.  Theinastus- Sounds like a date. I’ll bring the looks.  Kanastinia- You are such a dork. But, I’ll bring the DPS.

The two of you continued to chat while you did your dailies and he screwed around. You didn’t know his real name, and he didn’t know yours. It was safer that way. While you really liked him, you couldn’t drag him into this life. It wouldn’t be right. You were a hunter, and not in that ‘shooting Bambi’ kinda way. You hunted all the evil things that actually existed.

Dean groaned when he saw you go offline. You’d stayed on 10 extra minutes just to talk to him, but had a long day tomorrow. Sam came in, raising an eyebrow at him. “Isn’t that where I left you? Like…4 hours ago?”

“Pretty much. I got up to get a beer, and take a leak. That’s about it.” He shrugged.

“Why don’t you just meet her already? You went from watching too much porn to…that.” He motioned to the computer.

He laughed. “First of all ‘that’ is World of Warcraft. I can be, or do, damn near anything. I was playing this before I started talking to her, not the other way around. And, no, Sammy, I’m not meeting her.” He got up, grabbing his empty beer.

Sam sighed. “Why not?”

“We’re hunters!” He pointed out. “In case you haven’t notice, we lose people we care about in this business. Let her stay some virtual chick that is perfectly safe from the bad luck that comes from being near us.” He ranted.

“You love her.” He grinned. “Dude.” Dean gave him a look. “You’re in love!”

“So what. It doesn’t matter. Drop it.” It was obvious that it upset him, so Sam let it be.

The next morning at 10:50, you logged on to see him waiting.

Kanestinia- Awe. Were you anxious to see me?  Theinastus-  Shut up. Wench.  Kanestinia- Is that anyway to talk to the future mother of your virtual children? :P Theniastus- Fine. Miss Wench!  Kanestinia- Just invite me so we can get in queue.  Theniastus- Yes, dear.

You quickly accepted the invite and hoped you didn’t get a dickbag group again. A couple weeks before you ended up leaving the group because a couple of the guys in group didn’t know what they were doing.

Thankfully you got a pretty awesome group- laid back, but knew how to get shit done. You went through pretty quickly, and thanked them before leaving.

Kanestinia- Not a single upgrade, man.  Theinastus- Wtf you bitching about? I didn’t win a single roll.  Kanestinia- I rigged it. Lol Oops.  Theinastus- How do you rig it? Did you pay someone off? How much gold do you have? :O  Kanestinia- Are you trying to find out if I’m wealthy? Are you a gold digger? *gasps* You just want me for my booty! LOL Theinastus- I’m sure it’s a very nice booty ;)  Kanestinia- I think so.

A week later, a new motel. Another night hoping to see him on. Sadly, he was nowhere to be seen, so you sent him in game mail.

Theinastus-  Hope you’re having a killer Friday night! Don’t get too wasted on me. I need my DH :( I’ll be on tomorrow morning for a few before I need to run some errands. Hope to see you then! -K

Hitting send, you opted to quest for a bit before heading to bed.

Dean ducked as a fist came flying at him. “Son of a bitch!” He growled, running into the vamp’s stomach with his shoulder, taking him down.

Sam came running from another room, blood splattered on him. He was breathing heavy as he rushed to help his brother.

“Awe, man.” He sighed, seeing your name go offline just as he logged on. Seeing he had mail, he grinned. Reading it quickly, he went to reply.

Sam looked over his shoulder to read. “Awe. How sweet. She needs you.” He chuckled, slapping Dean on the back before walking away.

“At least there’s a woman in my life, Sammy.”

“Who you refuse to meet.”

Dean turned and looked at him before typing. “Look at us. We came back to the motel covered in blood. You think I want to bring her into that?”

Sam gave him a sad smile. “I know you don’t, Dean. Go on. Write back.”

K- I’m sorry I missed you. You can say I had a pretty killer night. Lots of action ;) I’ll be on and waiting for you.  Until then- T

[indigovigilance]

How to Write Good Omens Meta

Someone left something in my ask box that intrigued me:

My Ask is for insight into the theory of clues and how S2 clues move and build S3. Is there a meta on this? (If not, would you consider it at some point?)

Well, I did consider it, and here’s my first shot at answering this really good question. It's more about the art of writing than of clue analysis, but I may do a second piece in this series, if it feels necessary. Anyway, here we go:

read on Ao3

Learn Something New

People want to read meta to learn something that they didn’t know before. This probably means you will have to learn something that you didn’t know before. Some meta-analysts arrive pre-loaded with a rich background in costuming, tarot, biblical canon, and the wide array of cultural references that appear in the show. We also seem to have a fair number of psychologists (formally trained or otherwise) representing. I (and others: see Chekhov's Contract by @ineffablyruined) happen to have a background in law and so I was able to make a unique contribution via my piece Sovereignty, Citizenship, and the Bookshop. But for other topics, I have to self-educate.

In my personal opinion, the work on direct canon analysis (that is, watching the show and reporting what you see) has largely been done and I don’t think there will be many more breakthroughs until some people go away and come back with a freshly informed perspective. Personally, I’m waiting for someone to go learn everything there is to know about S.W. Erdnase and tell us what they found, because that is a very specific reference that I haven’t seen fleshed out yet (link it in the reblogs if it already exists!).

Don’t Be Afraid of Outside Sources

For example, quite a few times I’ve gone away to read outside source material before writing a new meta. Good examples are: Honolulu Roast, The Lament of the Metatron, and The Hornet in the Beehive. These are topics where I had no particular advantage over anyone else, I just had a question and decided to keep digging until I had something that looked like an answer.

On choosing a topic: in each of these cases I began with an in-show piece of information that seemed both unambiguous in its directness and yet unexplained. Why is there a mysteriously appearing sign in the coffeeshop that says Honolulu Roast? Who is the Metatron? Why is there so much attention drawn to bees when Crowley goes up to Heaven? If I start with a solid question and then follow an investigative pathway, usually beginning with the Bible given the nature of this show but not always, I’ll usually find something.

There are also some Clues that we’re basically told to investigate. The books on the shelves. The movie playing in the background in The Resurrectionist Pub. These are unambiguous breadcrumbs but they’re a lot of labor. I’m not going to read all those books and watch all those movies. So pick one (1) and go read it, or watch it, and then tell us what you found, so I can read your 1,500 word piece to learn what I need to know about it. 

Sometimes you get enough information for a meta just by hanging around long enough and absorbing information. That’s how I put together my pieces on Terry Pratchett’s Death and Crowley’s Dream. The trick in this case is to be able to synthesize it, and for that, the very best way to learn how to do that is read other people’s meta.

Specializing

The asker asked the most important question of all: what’s the balance between trying to manage all the Clues or ignoring them entirely? Well, think of it this way (I’m borrowing an XKCD comic for brevity):

The takeaway here is, when you get a PhD, you become a hyperfocused expert in a very narrow topic and you’re relying on lots and lots and lots of other PhD students becoming highly specialized experts in other topics so that together you are expanding the diameter of human knowledge.

We (meta-analysts) are all getting PhDs in Good Omens, one way or another. Some people are doing their theses in color theory. I am doing mine on the concept of memory and identity permanence (though frequently dabbling in law). Yet others have flung themselves body and soul into the topic of Crowley’s gender and God bless them. Heck, there’s a team of people on Discord who are on any given day ripping the Bentley down to its studs and building it back up again. Feel free to explore while you seek out your passionate topic but don’t feel the need to tackle all of them. You’ll find the one that you fit best in. 

You do not have to solve the S3 plot puzzle by yourself. You have to find two pieces, put them together, and then go find a buddy that also has two pieces and see if your pair of pairs makes a quartet. Literally. That’s what we’re doing here guys. It’s a team effort or nothing at all.

Organize your ideas into digestible segments

Great, so you learned something new, you have a tantalizing hypothesis, and you’re ready to write! But what does a good meta look like?

Your abstract (which I recommend you write last) will go at the top, followed by evidence in a logically progressive order that finally culminates in your conclusion. If you’ve ever written a five paragraph essay, you have these tools in your toolbox. And yes, sometimes you will even need to rebut counterarguments (“but Neil said” is the bane of my existence) just like your teacher taught you. But it shouldn’t be formatted like a five-paragraph essay. This is not an 8.5”x11” sheet of paper with 1” margins: this is Tumblr.

Walls of text are great and all but reading handicaps come in all flavors and I for one benefit greatly from having section headers that help me navigate a meta. I’m much less likely to read it if all I have to find my place by is paragraph breaks.

Section headers should tell me what the next paragraph or two are about, and if I read just the section headers, I should have a pretty good idea of what evidence you’re pulling from where and what conclusion you’re going to support with that evidence.

Here’s my opinion on gifs: if I need to see Michael Sheen’s micro-expressions to really understand your point, include it. If I just need a reminder of where we are in the story, or what a costume looks like, a still is fine and less distracting. For a lot of things, though, images are unnecessary. You’ll find the right balance but don’t overburden your written work with images. I think there are quite a few people who only read my work on Ao3 because they simply don’t like the Tumblr, image-centric format.

Have a main takeaway

What does all your evidence point to? It may feel like stating the obvious, but state it anyway. Put a little ribbon on top of this gift you have given to the fandom. Label it. Tell them exactly what your conclusion is from all this information you gathered.

…but don’t feel a need to draw a firm conclusion

In my meta Continuity Errors, I conclude that Crowley stops time in order to move something that was hidden in the bookshop out of the bookshop. I do not speculate on what exactly that something is that he moved. I don’t need to. By leading others down this path, I am tapping the collective resources of the hive mind to think about what exactly was hidden with the bookshop’s protection. They may have some information I don’t because they’ve been looking other places. Not having a hypothesis for this shouldn’t (and didn’t) stop me from publishing my work.

Go back to the top and write your intro/abstract

Have you written your main takeaway? Did you support it with evidence? Good. Now take that and write a 20-30 word elevator pitch that you’re going to put at the top of the meta so that people know what it’s about before they commit to 1,000-2,000 words of being led down the garden path. I have a bad habit of burying the lead, and I’m trying to break it. For a moment people were worrying about putting big revelations below the cut so that we’re not interfering with Neil, but I don’t think Neil has ever seen my work and I doubt he ever will, and at this time my opinion is that playing “hide the lead” is more of a hindrance to the fandom than helpful to protecting the integrity of the IP. So be bold. Tell people exactly where you’re going with this and a short roadmap of how you’re going to get there. You don’t necessarily have to “give away the goods” but the theme should be obvious. An okay-ish example of an abstract is the intro to my first meta. My abstract for Continuity Errors is decidedly more tongue-in-cheek. You'll find your own style.

Cite and Tag

If you read someone’s post and it gave you a great idea, cite them as inspo! It’s a feel-good moment for them and it ties the fandom together. If you’re relying on your own prior work or someone else’s work to support a point, link the piece and tag the author. You will probably want to start copying links to metas that you like into a doc or spreadsheet to make this easier. Check out mine to get an idea of how you could organize a spreadsheet, or check out this doc to see an alternative approach to meta database management.

Speaking of which: @cobragardens, @aprilodite, @drconstellation, @vidavalor, and @irispurpurea, your work appears in this... whatever exactly this is idk.

Recruit a Mentor/beta

Various Tumblrites have published comments or posts that they are willing to beta other people’s work. Reach out to those people before you need them and ask if, whenever you’ve written your next piece, if they wouldn’t mind taking a look at it? Have an upfront discussion about turnaround time. Most of us work, and have other obligations, so it’s unlikely we can look at a thing the minute you send it to us, even if we’re active on Tumblr at that moment. Some people have set days off that they know they’ll have time to curl up with a cup of tea and read the first draft of your meta; you may find that having a weekly schedule with someone pushes you to produce and improve at a pace you wouldn’t achieve under your own steam. Writing is a skill; you get better by practicing and getting constructive feedback.

Anyways, I hope someone finds this helpful: maybe meta-analysis seems like an intimidating thing to get into, but it shouldn’t be! This is a welcoming community with room for all shapes, sizes and flavors of contributions. If you have any follow-up questions about this piece, please feel free to drop them in my ask box!

[gougemyeyesoutsblog]

Ok, y’all I have an idea. A villain who already has one darling who was once a hero, and basically trains them to be a good house person. Then they see another cutie that they want under their belt, and they take them too. They tell their other sweetheart that they’re having another darling added to their relationship, but the first darling feels insecure now and wonders if they’re even enough anymore, do they matter to their yandere anymore, what’s gonna happen to them? So immediately bad blood happens between the newbie, and the first darling, while the yandere is all accepting, and nice, the first darling is just scowling and giving reader the evil eye, and being super jealous, so they kinda start making their life hell. They put noise makers in their room to make them think they’re going crazy, drop hot items on them, and then saying “my hand slipped” or some other bull shit excuse, flushing the toilet or starting a load of laundry when reader is in the shower, etc. but then, one day as they’re walking around the house, while the yandere is out, they find reader and see them on the floor on their back just sleeping because of the noise maker being in their room, (and I’m just gonna include a pet cause why not, but a pet who’s snuggled up real close and nice to them), Just living in each other’s presence, and they see that maybe they’ve been too mean to someone who barely knows what’s going on. I mean, nobody wants to be kidnapped by random people who’ve never even bought you a drink before, let alone met you, and now here you are with another victim who’s upset and jealous even though they were in that exact position a while ago. So they start to rethink their decision, and they take the noise maker out of the room, they buy some things for the reader online bc they probably threw them out or something, like hygiene products, and favorite foods, and they start to overall just make their space more accepting for them. The final thing they do, is move them back to their room and put the animal there too. They know it’s probably feel better than sleeping on the floor, so while your exhausted and sleeping in their arms, they walk you back to your room, and lay you down gently like a fragile artifact ready to break. Then they close the door and get to cooking. The yandere comes home with all the ordered stuff, and they see their og darling despondent, and withdrawn and they ask them what’s wrong, and the darling just breaks down. They talk about how guilty they feel for not letting you feel something other that fear and discomfort around them, and how they purposefully did those bad things to you, and how terrible they feel, and why they feel that way. They talk about how they don’t want to be forgotten when the rest of the world did that anyways when they were taken away, they don’t want to be forgotten by the person that says they love them, and they just cry. The yandere sees this, and comforts them and tells them it’s all ok, and they still love them, but they aren’t gonna tell reader the truth, bc they know if their new darling knows then shits gonna hit the fan in a more “I NEVER WANTED TO BE HERE AND YOU’VE DONE ALL THIS TO ME BECAUSE YOUR JEALOUS?!?!” Kinda way. Basically the og darling is given a slap on the wrist talking down too, while reader wakes up and just ignores all of them wondering how they woke up in their room, while going over to get a drink from the kitchen. The yandere then says “hey come over here darling, I’ve noticed that your not totally here right now, but tonight your sleeping with me and darling tonight, ok.” I’ll make a part two if this gets some traction.

[hapfairy]

Hi, I saw your post about wishing you got more asks like Neil Gaiman does so here's a writing question. I know that to be a better writer you have to also read a lot, but the more I read the more I encounter great ideas that have been done perfectly already, and it negatively affects my motivation. (recently I've been working on scene between two characters, and a certain line from a different story kept coming back to me... I found it very hard to keep trying to write something different when my mind is convinced the perfect line has already been written by somebody else). Is this something you've ever struggled with? How can a writer stay creative and original, while also engaging with their community and other writers' work?

Well this is a great question, thank you for asking! The thing that really helped me with this is I worked on accepting myself as a writer (mostly... imposter syndrome is real, haha) and a unique person. I used to get really upset because I'd read The Graveyard Book and then think well that's it, there's the perfect book, I can't improve on that. Or I'd read the blurb of a book in a shop and despair because it sounded exactly like the story I was working on, and thought I'd have to throw mine away because it was too similar and because they were a big award winning author and mine would never be that good. But the thing is: there is only one You. Only you have your experiences and your way of writing and your influences and your way of viewing the world. Two different people could be given the same plot outline and write it completely differently. I ended up writing my own series set in a graveyard and it's very different to The Graveyard Book. And when it comes to readers, most people just enjoy getting more of what they like. It's especially true for young readers. I remember crying after reading a series that came out just before mine and spotting loads of coincidental similarities, and thinking theirs was so much better (and fearing everyone would be mad at me and think I'd copied them). And yes, that series sells a lot and has a huge amount of fans - but mine also does well and thankfully no-one has ever shouted at me about it. It's like that comic where someone thinks "my cake looks rubbish next to theirs" and then a new person comes along and is like "hell yeah, two cakes!". Maybe the other person's cake is perfect, but that doesn't mean you can't make something good and different and interesting too. I used to worry more about copying other writers also. I felt like my work often just read like an imitation of Neil Gaiman or Terry Pratchett - not least because I was constantly reading their books. It helped when I started reading more widely and writing out of my comfort zone. There is a quote that goes something like "only by stealing from everything can you be truly original". Like if you look at Terry Pratchett, so much of his work is referential or parody or inspired by his own favourite authors or by real history. If everything has already been done better, then it's okay if your brain borrows things from other places - you just have to give it a lot of different things to borrow from, and piece it together in a new way. I would be lying if I said I didn't still sometimes feel worried about this or demotivated by it, but I've also learned how normal it is. So I would say next time you feel that way, it's probably good to remind yourself that your favourite authors almost certainly felt the same at one point. And then they wrote a book anyway.

[kaeyx]

somno poe <333

adding onto the fucking Poe in his sleep part y'know what would be weirdly funny. Him noticing how sore you are in the morning/the next day or two. and KNOWING you fucked someone, but he didn't visit you last night. so he gets jealous but also anxious because. what if he WON'T get a chance with you at all & he's losing you. He knows he cant do anything too drastic because he wants you to love him, trapping you in a book can wait until he knows for absolute certain who your partner is , if it wasn't just a one night thing

whoever you slept with must have done a damn good job, you seem pretty happy.

even better if you fuck him in his sleep multiple nights

he either makes more frequent visits to you at night or just kinda. tries?? to be more friendly w/ you, getting you gifts & staying close to you and making sure he has your attention when he can, without it being too suspicious.

But, we know Poe's smart. Ranpo beats him, yes, but he's Ranpo. We really need to see Poe go against other detective people. but anyway thats beside the point

point is, eventually he'd connect the dots between; 1) he can't find anyone else's items in your house other than people he knows don't fuck you, 2) he sleeps deeper the nights before he notices that you're visibly sore & he's more tired/groggy in the morning, 3) he swears you've been looking at him a bit differently. he can't tell if you're plotting something [when you should fuck him next] or if you're almost admiring(?) him, and 4) no one else has been acting differently around you. there's no giveaway for who the hell you could be fucking.

it'll probably take a while to actually consider it for long because he doesn't see why you'd actually want him, but eventually he realizes he was the one you fuck. instant flustered mess & instant horny.

I wonder if he'd start plotting down the days you do it so he can find a pattern, & the next night that you do it he just pretends to sleep; he's figured out what exactly you keep slipping the sleeping pills into, as well, so it's easy to avoid sleep by not taking the drugged drinks.. he wants to catch you in the act, just to be absolutely certain~

...this ended up a lot longer than i meant it to and i have no clue how

YEAH IT WOULD BE SO GOOD!! Poe feels terrible at first, like he's going to be sick, he even contemplates trapping you in one of his books. Whoever fucked you must have done such a good job, you look so happy... and you walk a little funny and wince when you sit down, he can't bare to look at you. He can't stop thinking about how you might have looked, sounded, how your perfect cunt would have stretched so wide and been filled so deep.... until you were dripping cum and your cervix was all bruised, and it wasn't even him who did it. He mopes around all hay, half hard because he keeps imagining you getting fucked but also miserable because because it wasn't him that fucked you. And every time it happens he does the same thing, wakes up groggy after sleeping a bit too much and finds you skipping around, smiling at him, walking funny as if you've just had your guts rearranged.

But no matter how much he investigates he can't figure out who the hell is fucking you! And yeah Ranpo is the better detective but not by that much, Poe should have figured this out by now! He's so sad and frustrated and still he's obsessed with getting his hands on you, jerking off every night while dreaming of you, sighing when he blows a fat load all over his hands and stomach, getting the sheets messy, wishing he was dumping all that cum deep inside you instead.

I don't know if he'd figure it out or not but eventually Ranpo would have to tell him, probably kick some sense into him too because Poe will be in denial. Ranpo already knows what you've been doing even if you haven't confided in him, and he can guess when you're planning to strike next. He tells Poe to not eat or drink anything after lunch, not even out of a sealed packet and especially not anything you make, and then pretend to sleep and wait. He knows his friend is in for a happy surprise.

[mdhwrites]

So, what do you think would have happened to Amphibia if its third season got shortened down to three hour long specials like Owl House did?

So A: this question is flawed. The shortening wasn't told to TOH's crew post S2. They were told WELL in advance. Dana is on record (source) for having said as much. The news came down on episode 7 of S2. Reasonably, this probably meant not a lot of S2A could have been changed due to deadlines but I don't know how all this works that well. For the sake of this, I'm going to mostly assume that something could have started changing starting episode eight and more drastic changes could be done after the mid season hiatus.

B: TOH needed S2B to mostly look identical to setup for going into the human realm, for having the Day of Unity as the finale and for the Collector to be set up as a villain by then. There are maybe two episodes you could change but nothing that is emblematic of the problems of S2B as a whole. Here's an entire blog about that. Btw, I published that blog before the finale came out and my opinion is mostly that that blog is kinder than it should have been.

C: I am not going to say this is a better version of Amphibia. Some might though. A lot of people think S2B and S3 of Amphibia is loaded with what they see as filler. Even I agree that you could probably cut a fair amount and not lose the core of the show. I'm about to demonstrate that. Also, just inherently because of a faster pace, the show would have to be more about the trio, or feel that way at least (again, I'll get into it), which the majority of the Amphibia fandom argues is what the show should have done anyways. So yeah, it's kind of an interesting conundrum.

D: I'll mostly talk about the weaknesses of this rewrite once I'm done. For anyone who needs a refresher though: S2, Episode 7 of Amphibia, the last one before this change, is one after Marcy at the Gates and has the segments "Scavenger Hunt" and "The Plantars Check In." Oh and before I get to the three specials, I'll mostly just be trying to slot in episode segments because that feels the most fair to actually capture a reasonable timeline for the show. Like I'm not coming up with cheats to handwave issues that this change would cause. As such, I'm not going to do something like cut The First Temple in half just for the sake of claiming more time. Once we get to the specials, that will change because those episodes' structures would have inherently changed, kind of like how The Hardest Thing has a different structure due to its extended run time. Until then though? I'll mostly be trying to effectively Mad Libs this off of what we already have despite the fact that the creators would have, at least if they're responsible, made changes to work within their new time frame. I'm going to give myself one unreasonable shift in return for this handicap effectively of not being able to change the core structure of the show or its plot points.

ANYWAYS. With that out of the way:

For the sake of pacing, you probably do Lost in Newtopia and then the Sleepover to End All Sleepovers as episode 8 because we can't literally go straight into leaving Newtopia and one could argue that the sleepover is important foreshadowing. However, the next episode is then a double whammy of A Day at the Aquarium to say farewell to Newtopia and still have that touching confirmation of the found family before then skipping Night Drivers and going straight to Return to Wartwood for the second segment, bringing us up to nine.

Then I would actually move Toad to Redemption into the first slot for episode ten because it is thematically important and a good rallying moment for Wartwood. You could also replace with Ivy on the Run for the sake of Sprivy and just make episode 13 into episode 10 by making After the Rain be the mid season finale. It's dramatic enough to do so and lets:

The First Temple opens S2B and episode 15 of the normal show, New Wartwood and Friend or Frobo stays too in order to help setup Wartwood's relationship with humans besides Anne and to get Frobo in. That brings the count to 12.

Then you do episode 17 as episode 13, Barrel's Warhammer and The Second Temple, because we do still need a bit more time with Sasha to prep for True Colors and The Second Temple is obvious. However, I'd probably swap their positions because then episode 14 is The Third Temple (so you don't have two temples literally back to back, even if the two are different episodes like in the actual show) and The Dinner... With Battle of the Bands being cut. It's Sasha's weakest episode, is just kind of reinforcement of a few elements and some expansion on the three's relationship, though mostly Anne and Sasha. The Dinner is needed though to get Sasha with the other two and heading to Newtopia because...

There is a quarter season finale now with True Colors. It is ABSOLUTELY the most radical choice in this rewrite and you could arguably say that it's not fair because Disney wouldn't have allowed them to have that episode as anything but a season finale. This is the only 'cheat' I'll give myself since I'm not altering episodes drastically or the like to fit in with the new time frame. Plus side: They'd have the compelling pitch that in five episodes, they CAN get back to Amphibia to make that the season finale. Otherwise there isn't really much to change before S3 because so much has to wait on the major turn of Andrias becoming the main villain. That version of this outline though, that S2 doesn't change at ALL, is... A genuine nightmare on a lot of fronts and honestly less reasonable than thinking this would be allowed and I'll get to why after the outline. Oh, there is one change that needs to happen unfortunately: Frobo probably doesn't make it in this version after this. Polly and him unfortunately just aren't important enough to really get the wrap up they do in S3. It does mean that mechanic Polly during the ending probably has an RC robo or the like with her to help explain where her being a mechanic came from.

Anywhos: Episode 16 is The New Normal... Mixed with Anne-sterminator. Anne is honest about the danger they're in from go and instead of the quarantine montage, we get her actually beating the Cloak Bot first try to show how far she's come to her parents and to show off the new powers alongside their cost.

Then you do Fight at the Museum followed by Turning Point for episode 17 to start the ball rolling on getting back as well as get Sasha into place and finish up her arc.

Episode 18 has Temple Frogs because the Plantars DO need to still connect with Earth and Temple Frogs is EASILY the best episode of that as it explores how different Anne is from the start of the show and how that isn't entirely a good thing because of the things she's now ignoring, fits thematically with the show as a whole and is just a lot of fun. The other side meanwhile is Olivia and Yunan. I would almost not advocate for keeping this episode for a lot of reasons but it's kind of necessary in order to set up for:

The Core and the King is in episode 19 because Andrias' backstory is REALLY important to how he is beat and to also understand what the Core is and what the kingdom of Amphibia can do. What the stakes are to all of this. It is also the one segment in the actual show itself that explores the villain so you can't really cut it. The other half of the episode though is If You Give a Frog a Cookie because we need Terry.

Especially because you might have noticed that I didn't include Mr. X. There just isn't room for them for the most part which luckily... Is okay. He's fun but his parts can be mostly replaced either with faceless people or Terry. You can also just go with his first appearance actually being him taking the Plantars in this episode. Maybe there's been foreshadowing at the end of Earth segments of someone watching. Something that only takes a few seconds but builds up to honestly having Escape to Amphibia be mostly the same as it was but with a reduced cast and less familiarity with Mr. X as a villain.

So that covers S2. Now there are 3 45 minute specials on average to cover all of S3B. Or more so there's two specials to cover the seven episodes between Escape to Amphibia and The Hardest Thing because Amphibia's finale already had an extended time slot. As 45 minutes is effectively two episodes each, you need to save on three episodes. Six segments.

That's... easier said than done because the segments are actually incredibly important to Amphibia's storytelling and these specials could technically be split into four segments each but more likely they actually have to tell a through line story per special. You can't jump AS MUCH as you could before.

So Special 1 starts with effectively Commander. The reintroduction to Wartwood and the finalizing of Sasha's new self after her character arc is not something you can really leave out. Plus side is that Commander Anne is a really efficient eleven minutes to introduce what Amphibia is like now and you probably don't do the pampered brat routine with the Plantars which is not a real loss. The theme of this special though is allies so the target of Sasha's mission when Anne gets back changes.

The goal is now to free Mother Olm. This way you can skip the Olms themselves and still get the prophecy and foresight from Mother Olm that sets up the finale. It also allows a smooth transition into meeting with Mother Olm in general. She warns them they'll need allies once they're done and we get a montage of the a lot of what people consider filler in S3 with getting allies, though mostly the Toads, Newts and the Killerpillars probably. You could also do this with people splitting up so that each one gets a truncated version of the full segment to get them. Then the final portion of the special is Sasha and Anne hoping their efforts paid off before Sprig shows Lief's hidden room to get Lief's letter.

Then Special 2 is effectively episodes 16 and 17 of S3. Just consolidating the army, heading out, then protecting Earth after midway through the special everything goes wrong. Not really anything even has to be changed here really except just smoothing out the transitions between segments. Admittedly, the Plantars probably rely more on Domino 2 to replace the loss of Frobo and unfortunately Polly just doesn't have a lot to do in All In.

Then Special 3 is literally just The Hardest Thing. Pretty much no changes I think because the elements for it have still been covered.

And that's it. It's not by any means perfect of course. Elements are rushed and some elements probably feel neglected or abandoned entirely. I already mentioned Polly but this version also means Sprivy is ignored post S1 effectively and just has a nice come back at the end of the finale (which is a good argument for Ivy on the Run over Toad of Redemption for the filler segment in episode 10 of the rewrite). Worse yet... Sprig is kind of ignored and Anne and his friendship is mostly left fallow. I admittedly don't think the show does the best job keeping it burning post S1 but S1 sells it HARD already as part of the stable base of the show so it's not a big problem. It also harms the connection to Amphibia itself so a line like "They aren't Amphibia's greatest treasure" doesn't hit as hard.

It would almost certainly feel actually rushed... Which is a fuckton better than what happened with TOH because TOH doesn't feel rushed. Its three specials are incredibly bloated with plotlines THEY introduce, or S2B introduced, that go nowhere. Or hell, resolutions that mean nothing, like how Luz finishes her character arc THREE. FUCKING. TIMES. Even people who love TOH still will admit the majority of For the Future is filler. That it does nothing to actually move anything forward, wrap much of anything up that couldn't have been left alone (besides Stringbean but that moment is cut off at the knees immediately by the finale's dream sequence) and those are people who won't bring up how Willow had her power problems resolved literally two seasons ago. S3 is so bankrupt on what to do to fill the time that they bring it back anyways, alongside Kikimora who has NO REASON to still be a villain we're dealing with.

That is the HUGE difference here. TOH doesn't actually feel like we're missing out on anything with its S3 besides fluff and maybe a bit of exploration on the whole Grimmwalker thing. The specials just don't feel like they actually know what to do in the first place though. It makes it feel like we're mostly missing out on filler but there's already so much of that in these episodes. Even the elements that could have been expanded, like Belos backstory, the human realm shenanigans and the Collector's redemption are rough because none of these are from before the shortening. Only Hunter's arc is really something stared BEFORE THE SHORTENING. Belos' backstory and the contradictory nature of The Collector, like how he absolutely knows what death is during Hollow Mind and is a complete evil fucker there... Are written in S2B. They were included and written as part of the shortening. Hell, the human realm and the Collector as a whole weren't even planned for S3 supposedly. They were things they wanted to do but didn't have a place for them and so just jammed in these MASSIVE new elements that needed more time than was available with no care for the fact that they had NO TIME. (I don't have a source for this unfortunately.)

Admit you didn't have a plan for your show without admitting you didn't have a plan.

That also brings up an element that I brought up at the top: How much the story might have actually changed. I'm having to work off of the main outline provided by the show but it's entirely possible that The Core might not have been included. That Earth might not have. Changes would have happened to the overall story and it's kind of impossible to reasonably guess how. After all, I wouldn't have guessed that an all powerful child and a trip to the human realm would have been responses to a shortening for The Owl House.

So I did my best and I still stand by that this would still be a fine to good version of the show. That it wouldn't have been impossible to tell a full narrative with the time given. One that is still thematically coherent, has a strong finale that doesn't contradict itself and still has plenty of fun in it to counterbalance the higher focus on the more dramatic elements.

That's still a LOT better than can be said for TOH's finale, let alone its three specials.

======+++++======

I ended up just rewriting the outline as a way to give it more thought instead of copy and pasting the first one I wrote. *whimpers*

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[cozyenigma]

Blood Drive

Word Count- 1406

Request?- Nope!

Summary- A chance encounter has you cleaning up a mess that you didn't even make. And facing some tough pills to swallow with a certain colleague

(Vampire au? Vampire au.)

Tag List- @cookielover0001010 , @swag-droid , @watchoutforfrostbite

Warnings- Blood, hospital setting

"I'm assuming you have questions."

"No shit I've got questions! What the hell, Ed?! Just- start talking before I call the cops!"

His lips thinned. "Really? The police?"

The notion seemed ridiculous when he put it like that but it was the only thing that came to mind. Blood was still dripping off his coat and your stomach lurched at the thought of how much was there. And on the floor. And the desk.

"It- can you really blame me? You look like a serial killer!"

Edward, the bastard, just shrugged. "What good are they gonna do here?"

The thought, which was probably a fair point, still made your heart stop. You were backed into a corner. The only thing between you and the man you thought you knew was the pair of keys you held between your fingers tight enough to break skin. No one to hear your cries for help. No exits.

"You want me to just do nothing then and- what, let you drink my blood? Kill me?"

He actually scoffed at that, like you were being ridiculous, like this wasn't ripped straight out of a horror movie. When he raised his hands in the air it was more annoyance than reassurance. You could see blood on his hands. It was half dried at this point, tacky and dark, making the lines in his palms stand out. You swallowed down the nausea.

"I'm a doctor. I'm not going to kill you. And if I was- I'd have already done it. Not to mention I don't like my chances of getting rid of your body without anyone in the hospital noticing. Waste of life on both sides."

"Wha- you're saying you're not gonna kill me because it's not practical?"

"That and I genuinely don't want to kill you?"

"Don't say it like a question!"

The doctor sighed and dropped his hands. Leaning against the desk, he very nearly looks like a regular man. If it weren't for the blood clotting on his coat you wouldn't think anything was wrong.

"What do you want to know?"

You wet your lips, glanced between the door and the blood across the floor.

"Are you a vampire?"

The question seemed ridiculous as you asked but Edward nodded along anyways. "Yes, in a sense. Not like Twilight or Nosferatu nonsense, it's more… plain, I guess you could say."

"How long have you been one?"

Looking up at the ceiling, he mouthed the numbers as he counted. "Five years now? I was a doctor first so that made things… awkward."

You tried not to imagine the unfortunate patients of his who happened to have a bit too much bleeding in the ER. Keep calm, you told yourself. You adjusted your grip on the keys.

"So how do you… You act like you're above killing people but you're- here. You're a vampire who happens to also be a doctor. You've got access to loads of people. Sick, vulnerable people."

Now Edward just looks offended. "Christ, no, I don't- I don't kill my own patients. I don't kill anyone. Think about it- I've been practicing for years and someone would notice if I left a trail of bodies behind me."

"I never said you killed them." Though you were thinking it.

Huffing, he bent down and snatched up a bloody piece of plastic. Only when he held it up did you recognize it as a blood bag. It was ripped open end to end, jagged and dripping still. You wondered with some discomfort if he used his teeth to do it.

The doctor tosses it at your feet, a few flecks managing to land on your shoes.

"I have a friend or two down in the lab. Usually it's just regular blood tests. Non-emergent ones. A few tubes go missing here or there or conveniently don't have labels. It happens all the time. That's usually enough for me to get by."

You looked down at the blood bag then back to the mess he'd made. At least this time he seemed almost embarrassed. Edward crossed his arms and grimaced.

"My usual lab tech is on vacation. I thought it would be fine. It wasn't. So… I cut out the middleman this time."

"Any reason why you're wearing half of it?"

The glare he gave you then could've melted glass. "I was fine until someone decided to try and pull a prank."

In your defense it was a very, very rare occasion to catch the doctor unawares. You had no idea what he was doing exactly but that wasn't a concern. Of course when you had tried to sneak up behind him..

"How was I supposed to know you were having a bloody juice box?"

"Why else would I be down here?"

"Excuse me if my first thought when seeing a colleague isn't vampirism!"

He pinched his nose, breathing out a heavy sigh. Unfortunately that only served to smear blood even higher on his face.

"Can we please save the arguing for another time? Unless you'd like us both to be caught with this mess?"

As if this was anywhere close to being your problem. You had half a mind to tell him to figure it out himself but something made you hold your tongue. Though you rationalized it as trying to protect other people, that you didn't know what he would do if he was cornered, you couldn't quite believe it. You already had cornered him. The rest of… whatever this was could come later. Edward wasn't the kind of man to hurt someone else (at least on purpose) and he needed your help.

Even if he was a bit of a prick.

You sighed and nodded, only managing to loosen your grip on the keys after forcefully willing your fingers to do so.

"Fine. I'll get a mop. You get something that isn't- get some clean clothes. And try not to smear more blood everywhere."

He blinked, stared at you for a moment, then simply nodded and got to his feet. The guy told you to help clean this up and then has the audacity to look surprised when you do. There's an uncertain moment where he's looking at the mess, frozen in his little island of blood. Then he's carefully shucking off his shoes and stepping well away from the puddle with relatively clean socks.

The cleaning wasn't difficult as much as it was time consuming. You'd clean off one area only to find a splatter of red on another surface. Edward had somehow managed to get it on the underside of the desk.

You'd turned to get another rag, more disinfectant, just in time to catch Edward at the sink. The water was flowing but instead of actually washing his hands, he had one raised. You watched him sniff at it then, like a kid sneaking frosting from a birthday cake, he licks at the back of his bloodied hand.

Then he looked back and froze. Your rag dripped on the floor. The water kept flowing. Neither of you moved. Very deliberately, you went right back to cleaning. Edward for his part washed up in record time.

In the end, you were already exhausted with the day and he was in a borrowed pair of hospital scrubs. The two of you just looked at where the gore had been for several moments. Neither of you said much at first. What was there to say? Any small talk felt woefully out of place and you weren't quite ready to poke the proverbial elephant in the room.

Finally, Edward clears his throat. "I'll dispose of these," he hefts a bag containing his bloodied clothes and shoes. "And we won't bring this up again."

You pursed your lips but agreed nonetheless. It was, frankly, kind of a miracle no one had been questioning the loss of the blood tubes or bags yet. Part of you was certain it wasn't the last time you'd be running into this situation. Hopefully with less cleaning next time though.

All the doctor offered was a nod and a quiet word of thanks. Then he just walked away. Just like that one of the strangest encounters of your life was over. Still, there was a heavy knot in the pit of your stomach. This had happened simply because of someone going on vacation. God forbid they ever get sick or quit. You didn't doubt his restraint normally but… well, it was only a matter of time.

[celestial-robots]

Finding Equinox

A Sun & Moon X Reader Story

Chapter Six: Activity Check

First | Previous

Word Count: 6092

Summary: It's the start of your second week and the Pizzaplex is busy with crowds wanting to see the newly-repaired Glamrocks. While going about your day, you let it slip that Sun and Moon are still active, and the head technician insists on checking things out. Should be fine, right?

Author’s Note: I meant to finish this about two weeks ago, but unfortunately life got in the way. You know how it is. Anyway, I won't waste any more time, you guys have already waited long enough XD Hope you like the chapter!

------------------------------------------

The weekend passed without much of note. You finally had that doctor’s appointment Monday morning to talk about your back injury. Sure, that resulted in scheduling another appointment on Wednesday for an X-ray (because apparently that couldn’t be done on the same day), but at least you got a doctor’s note saying you shouldn’t be doing any hard manual labor. Now management would have to be careful about what tasks they’re assigning to you. You made a quick stop at the library after the appointment to scan the note into a PDF, emailed that to management, and then drove out to the Pizzaplex.

There was a line out the front doors when you arrived, so you went in through a staff entrance in the loading dock. Then as soon as you left the staff-only tunnels, you found yourself in a crowd of customers. “Holy shit,” you whispered under your breath. The public areas of the Pizzaplex were absolutely crowded!

Well, that made sense, didn’t it? The Glamrocks were finally back. Sure, only half of them, but people loved the band. No wonder everyone was coming here to see Roxanne and Chica’s return.

You were curious about them, too. But not as curious as you might have been before. You’d already spent the whole week with an animatronic, the novelty of how the robotic band members worked had worn off.

Speaking of the animatronic you’d spent all last week with, time to go to Daycare! Better hurry before they started slamming you with tasks.

It took a few extra minutes because of the crowds, but as soon as you entered the Daycare area everyone abruptly cleared out. It was silent except for the bouncy music playing over the intercoms. You walked right up to the wooden doors and pushed your way inside.

“Heeeeello!” Sun popped up from behind one of the play structure’s tubes. He waved and skipped on over. “Welcome back, friend! It’s been so long!”

You laughed. “Hey, Sun. I missed you.”

“You did? I missed you too!” Sun’s rays wiggle. “I’ve been so busy! Look at everything, it’s all cleaned up!”

“Uh... yeah, I’m surprised.” The play area was brighter, all the colors more vivid. The cart of cleaning supplies was sitting by the wall with bottles knocked over and splashes of dirty water around the wheels. “Uh... you remember I said you didn’t have to clean the whole time, right?”

“I do, but...” Sun tapped his fingers together. “O-once I started going I couldn’t stop! Couldn’t stop until alllll the supplies were used up!”

“Hmm...” You frowned. “Well, I guess you probably have like... programming or something. But, uh... still. You could’ve taken breaks or something.”

“I couldn’t, I really couldn’t! Clean up, clean up.” Despite the cheerful little chant, you could have sworn there was a nervous edge to Sun’s voice. But before you could think about it that much, Sun moves on. “Oh! But I didn’t forget about what you said. You wanted to see some drawings, right? Here, over here!” He hurried over to the desk and picked up a few pieces of paper, holding them out to you.

“Oh cool! Did you have fun?” You followed him and took the offered papers, flipping through them. They looked more like kids’ drawings than anything else, with shaky lines and scribbled colors. Most of them featured the Glamrocks and other Fazbear-related things, but one of them was different. “Hang on, is this me?”

“I hope you don’t mind!” Sun said hurriedly. “But you drew such a nice picture of me that I wanted to return the favor. I know it’s not as good as yours, but here it is!”

“Awww.” You smiled. “It’s fantastic, Sunny boy. I like how you drew my hair. And all of these have such great colors!”

“Really? I-I snapped a few crayons so I thought I was pressing too hard.”

“Oof. Yeah, be careful with that. You’re a whole-as—you’re all mechanical and stuff, you’d be a lot stronger than us fleshy guys. But there’s nothing wrong with pressing hard to get those bright colors. I used to do that, too.”

Sun clapped his hands. “I’m so glad you’re happy, friend! I suppose it was a bit fun. Here, you can keep them if you want!”

You shook your head. “No, I couldn’t do that.”

“Oh really, I don’t mind!”

“...Alright. How about I keep the one of me and you can have the rest of them?” You separated that from the stack and put the remaining ones on the desk.

“Hmmm, okay! That’s fair!” Sun fidgeted with the stack on the desk, making sure the edges of the papers were all lined up.

“Great.” You carefully slid Sun’s drawing into your backpack. “Hey, I noticed you drew the Glamrocks. Did you know Chica and Roxanne are back?”

Sun’s face rotated, confused. “Back?”

“Oh! Right, you wouldn’t know! Something happened to the Glamrocks, like... a while ago. The Pizzaplex was closed for about a month. No one really knows what happened, but uh, at least Chica and Roxanne are back again.”

“Are they okay?” Sun asked.

“I don’t know, I haven’t seen them yet,” you admitted. “Did you... know the Glamrocks?”

“Well, not too well, but we used to sometimes take the kids out for trips into the rest of the Pizzaplex!” Sun said. “They would visit the band sometimes! So sometimes we would see them. I-I don’t think think they would remember me, though.”

“Hmm. So you guys are just, like, coworkers and not friends. That makes se—”

Ping! “New task added!”

“God da—!” You cut yourself off with a scowl and looked at your FazWatch. Two new tasks had been added. Cleaning up a mess in Chica’s Cupcake Factory, and rescrewing some vent covers that had fallen off. You sighed. “I’m so sorry, Sun.”

“It’s not a problem! You have to do your job.” Sun nodded understandingly.

“Yeah. But I’ll see you again today, I promise.” You smiled.

“Okay! I’ll look forward to it! Can you take the cleaning cart out with you? It’s been taking up space ever since I used everything up.”

“No problem, man.”

After quickly dropping off the cart of used supplies at the nearest janitorial closet—probably not where you should put it, but you were in a rush—you headed off to take care of the tasks.

The new crowds in the Pizzaplex meant you were forced to take the utility tunnels most of the time, which resulted in you getting turned around more than once. Stupid winding underground hallways. The more time you spent getting lost, the more tasks appeared on the FazWatch. At least you were getting used to the stuff they had you do here. A lot of cleaning, some maintenance, moving things around. Not too difficult. The most difficult task proved to be putting on the vent covers again, since some of them were in high, difficult-to-reach places.

It was a bit strange, actually. There was no sign of wear or anything on the vents or the screws holding them in place. Why did they fall off? They looked fine to you. But then again, you didn’t know anything about vents. Were they usually this big? A person could easily crawl inside.

Finally, everything was done. You headed back to the surface and were just about to leave the staff-only areas when—

Ping! “New task added!”

“Oh for fuck’s sake!” you shouted.

Something clattered behind you. You spun around and saw a familiar face. It was that blonde kid from last week. Jeremy. Apparently he knocked over a trash bin, sending it crashing into three other identical trash bins lined up next to it. “Oh sorry!” he said. “You just—I was coming to say hi. Did I bother you?”

“No, no, don’t worry.” You walked over and helped him right the fallen bins. They were all colored to look like Roxanne Wolf. “Jeremy, right?”

“Yeah. And you are, uh...” He paused. “Sorry, I’m not good with names.”

“It’s fine.” You told him your name again. “And don’t worry about me shouting, I’m just frustrated with this thing.” You checked the FazWatch. “All these constant tasks.”

“Yeah, they never stop, huh?” Jeremy laughed nervously. “I, uh... this is my first job, is this normal?”

“Depends on where you work. But yeah. It’s just annoying when you have something you want to do.” You sighed.

“Oh! Did you want to go see the show?” Jeremy asked.

“The huh?”

“The show’s starting soon!” Jeremy’s eyes lit up. “I haven’t gotten to catch one yet! It won’t be the whole band but I bet it’ll be awesome anyway!”

“Oh. Showtime.” You paused, reading the new task. Cleaning up some tools in Parts and Service. That could wait, right? You were a bit curious. “Y’know what? Let’s check it out together.”

“Awesome!” Jeremy jumped at the chance. “Come on, I know how to get to the stage from here.”

Showtime happened five times a day on the stage in the atrium. You wondered if every time slot was this popular, because the massive atrium floor was absolutely packed with people. Most of them families, and most of those families with little girls; clearly, little boys weren’t as interested in a show with only Chica and Roxanne.

“Who’s your favorite?” Jeremy asked you as the two of you stood at the very back of the room. “When I was little I loved Foxy, but they don’t have him here anymore, so I guess Monty’s my new favorite. He’s cool.”

“Really? Uh... I never really thought about it,” you said. “I guess... Freddy or Bonnie, maybe?” Honestly, you were never really drawn to one animatronic in particular. Until you stumbled into the Daycare, that is. Did Sun and Moon count?

“Oh that makes sense.” Jeremy nodded.

You raised an eyebrow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I dunno, they’re just... the classics. Older people tend to like the older characters.”

“I’m only like, eight or nine years older than you.”

“Yeah? That’s a whole decade.”

You laughed.

The atrium lights dimmed. The distant stage was lit up with pink, purple, and white spotlights. The crowd cheered in excitement. You saw a little girl in pigtails climb on a bench to try to see over the adults in front of her, showing enthusiasm that clearly wasn’t matched by the brown-haired boy next to her. Then, rising up from the ground, you saw the silhouettes of two tall figures. TV screens on either side of the stage showed a close-up for the people in the back: Chica and Roxanne, waving at the crowd. Everyone cheered.

“God, I wish we could get closer,” Jeremy said. “We should be able to, cause we work here and everything.”

“Well, I mean, I’m technically a technician, so maybe I can see them really up close some time,” you said.

“Really?! Cool!” Jeremy smiled. “Hey, if you ever get the chance, could you—this is gonna sound stupid, but, introduce me? Sometime?”

You smiled back. “Sure, I can try and do that.”

“Awesome.”

The show was short. Chica and Roxanne only preformed a couple songs, possibly limited by just the two of them. But it was fun. Like a mini concert. You didn’t know Chica could sing; Freddy had always been advertised as the lead. And the two of them moved so fluidly, like they weren’t robots at all but actually alive. Or maybe any mistakes were hidden by the fog and flashing lights.

The show ended with Chica grabbing the microphone and announcing, “Thank you all for coming! Roxy and I will be in Rockstar Row until our next performance!”

“Stop on by to say hi,” Roxanne added. “We might even hand out autographs!”

And then the stage they were standing on lowered, taking them out of sight. The Pizzaplex announcer said, “Thank you for attending the Fazbear and Friends Glamrock Show. Come back at 9:00 for our next one!”

“That was so cool, right?!” Jeremy said, looking at you and grinning.

“Yeah, really cool. Wonder what it’d be like with all of them.” You checked your FazWatch. “Ah, shit, I still have to do that one task before I can take my break. How do I get to Parts and Service from here, again?"

"I hear the stage elevator leads down there, so if you're brave enough you could jump on up there,” Jeremy said jokingly.

“Ha ha. I’ll figure it out. Hey, thanks for suggesting this. See you around?”

“Uh, yeah, sure!”

“Great.” You smiled at him. “See you later.” And you broke into a run.

Luckily you found your way down there quickly. But Parts and Service wasn’t as empty as you expected. The moment you walked in, you noticed activity in the big glass cylinder in the middle of the room. “What the...?” you whispered. You slowly walked forward and peered through the glass. Inside was a woman you recognized as Pamela, the head technician. She was bending over an exoskeleton laid out on the table/chair thing in the middle of the cylinder. There was no plating on the exoskeleton, but there was a bright red mohawk and a row of sharp teeth. “Jeez,” you muttered. Montgomery Gator had looked better. “Alligators. Can they kill your children? ... Yes.”

A few seconds passed while you tried to figure out what Pamela was doing. Then she straightened up and immediately saw you standing there. You started a bit, feeling strangely guilty, then gave her a wave and a nervous smile.

Pamela nodded once. It was hard to read her expression. Hopefully she wasn’t freaked out by you watching.

The door to the glass cylinder slid upwards and Pamela walked out. You immediately started talking. “Sorry, uh—I came down here to sort some stuff and I saw you and I wondered what you were doing—is that Monty? He looks weird without the, uh, shell thing—”

“Yeah, I’ve been finishing up his repairs,” Pamela said. “You’re new. Have you heard what happened to the Glamrocks?”

“Uh... no.”

“You’re on the same page as everyone else, then.” Pamela walked over to the computer by the cylinder and clicked something on the screen. “The day shift left one evening, then came back and found them all wrecked and the security footage gone.”

“Oh. That’s... that’s weird.” Really weird. “Wrecked like... smashed up?”

“Yep. No one knows what happened.”

“Maybe... someone broke in to destroy them?” You speculated. There were enough people out there who hated Fazbear Entertainment. Surely one of them would be crazy enough to do that.

Pamela shrugged. “No idea. What are you sorting?”

“Huh? Oh, right.” Your task. “Apparently there were a lot of tools in disarray...” You glanced around. There was no obvious mess in sight.

“Oh those.” Pamela nodded. “I took care of those before I started on Monty for the day.”

“Really?” When had she had time to do that? Well... you had delayed for a bit watching the show. You felt a bit bad for putting it off now. “Uh, sorry for leaving that for you. I-I’m still getting used to the layout of this place—”

“You probably wouldn’t have known where to put them anyway,” Pamela dismissed.

Your shoulders tensed defensively. She was right. But she didn’t have to say it like that.

“Want to see where it’s all kept?” Pamela asked.

“Oh, uh... no thanks, I wouldn’t take up any more of your time.”

“It’s fine. I’m almost done with this guy, anyway.” Pamela gestured back at Monty in the cylinder.

“Well, I, uh...” You checked your FazWatch. There were no new tasks after the sorting one. “I, uh, actually have more stuff to do.”

“Where?”

“Uh—in the daycare.” You were so surprised by Pamela’s unexpected ask that you said the first spot that came into your mind. And honestly, it wasn’t wrong. You did have stuff to do in the daycare. They just weren’t Faz-tasks.

Pamela raised her eyebrow. “In the daycare? That place has been closed for months. No one even uses the theatre or party rooms anymore.”

Shit. “Yeah, well, uh—doesn’t mean there aren’t problems!” You laugh nervously. “Like, uh, that animatronic in there. There’s probably a ton of problems with him, being all stuck in there.” Stop talking stop talking stop talking—

“Wait, you mean the Daycare Attendant?” For once, Pamela’s neutral expression broke into surprise. “They’re still up and running?”

“Uh... y-yeah.” You were also surprised. “They’ve... been active this whole time. Shouldn’t you know that? As the head animatronic technician?”

“I’m fairly new to the job, to be honest,” Pamela said. She ran a hand through her dark, curly hair. “I was working here while the Daycare was open, but I assumed that they’d shut down the Attendant when it closed. Maybe even scrapped them. Shit. You’re right, they probably have a lot of problems if they’ve been active this whole time. Hang on. I can help. Give me a moment.” She walked over to one of the rooms along the edge of the main Parts and Service hub.

“Oh. Well...” You wanted to say ‘that’s probably not a good idea, Sun has anxiety issues that probably wouldn’t be helped by the head technician appearing, and Moon is still a wildcard who might attack you.’ But what you actually said was “Yeah. Sure, come on.”

“Great.” Pamela ducked inside the room, then reappeared with a red duffel bag slung over her shoulder. She shoved a weird two-pronged tool into the bag and zipped it up. “You lead the way.”

The walk to the Daycare was awkward. You couldn’t really think of anything to say so you didn’t say anything. Pamela didn’t start a conversation, either. But you couldn’t help but feel you should be talking. If not to make small talk with your boss—she’s your boss, right?—then to explain what’s been going on with Sun and Moon. At least let her know about your quest to reopen the Daycare. But how the hell are you supposed to say that?! ‘Hey I know that kids were hurt and went missing in the daycare but I want to make it so they can go in again because I’m emotionally attached to the Daycare Attendant’? That sounded insane.

Eventually, you arrived. “Hey, um...” you said, finally finding your voice. “Do you mind if I head in first and tell S—the Daycare Attendant that you’re coming?”

“Sure.” Pamela nodded. “Going to slide in?” She pointed at the ‘Slide Into Fun!’ sign.

“Wha—no, of course not!” Though you still wanted to try that sometime. “We’ll just... walk down to the doors.”

You quickly walked down the stairs, Pamela behind you, and up to the big wooden doors. Pamela hung back as you pushed open one of them and ducked into the play area.

“Welcome back, friend!” Sun was straightening the barrels again, but he jumped up as soon as he saw you. “They really keep you busy, don’t they?”

“They really do.” You sighed. “Uh, Sun. So. I ran into someone, and I-I might have mentioned I was going to the daycare, and... well, someone else is coming. Is that okay?”

“Oh! Yes, of course, I’d love to meet another new friend!” Sun visibly perked up. He practically ran over to the door and skidded to a halt, bouncing with excitement. “Who is it? Are they going to help us?”

“Um... maybe. I-it’s the head technician.”

Sun instantly froze. “It is?”

“Y-yeah, I... mentioned you and how you’ve been, uh... active this whole time, and how that might mean, uh... problems. With...” You gestured vaguely at him. “...with your body. Like, joints and stuff. So—”

You were interrupted by the sound of the wooden doors opening. Spinning around, you saw Pamela shoving her way inside. “Heavy, huh?” she grunted. “Don’t think a kid could open these. Seems a bit stupid for a daycare.”

“Pamela! Hi!” You gave her a little wave. “Uh, so—this is Sun. I mean, you said you knew about him, but this is him. Sun, this is Pamela.”

“Hey.” Pamela walked over to the desk, letting the door close on its own.

You glanced at Sun. He wasn’t saying anything, staring at Pamela. Then he started. “Oh! You’re new!” he said. “Hello, friend! Welcome to the Superstar Daycare!” He gave a big, sweeping wave over his head.

“Hey. Thanks.” Pamela nodded. She cleared a spot on the desk, pushing aside the random stuff on top, and set her duffel bag down on top of it. “I saw you around before. But you looked different.”

“O-oh, really?” Sun dropped his hand. “Well, I’m not the only Daycare Attendant! There’s also... Moon.”

“Yeah, them. Or... him?” Pamela looked at you as she unzipped her bag. “You used ‘him’, right?”

“Uh, yeah, they’re both ‘him’s,” you said, a bit surprised at Pamela asking. You weren’t expecting her to clarify Sun and Moon’s pronouns. “They, uh... they share the same body, but when it’s light, it’s Sun, and when it’s dark, it’s Moon.”

“Really?” Pamela tilted her head, curious. “Two AIs in one body. With a light trigger. That has to be hard to code.” She glanced at Sun, giving him a quick once-over, then looked down and took something out of her bag. You recognized it as a laptop case. “Impressive.”

“Oh.Th-thank you?” Sun sounded a bit uncertain. He probably wasn’t sure how to reply. You reach over and grab his hand supportively. His head turned to look at you, and then he gently clasped your hand as well.

"You mind if I ask you some questions, Sun?" Pamela said. She unzipped her laptop case and took out the computer inside. It was unusually colored: pink and white with a big bow decal on the back.

“Yes of course! I mean, no! I-! mean, I don’t mind at all! Ask away.” Sun gave a little laugh. He was once again swaying slightly on his feet.

“Great.” Pamela looked down at her computer screen, typing and clicking. “You’ve been here in the daycare the whole time?”

“Yep! But... Moon’s able to go out and about. The roaming protocols were restricted for me, but not for him.”

“How have you not run out of charge?”

Sun paused. “W-well, there’s a charging cable in our room that I use. I always use it! Always. Always. Just in case someone shows up!” There was a manic hint in Sun’s voice that worried you. You squeezed his hand, wondering if he would even feel that. He did, and he gave a slight—very slight—squeeze back.

“Hmm.” Pamela nodded. “Have you been especially active while you’re in here?”

“Sometimes! More now that my new friend’s been checking in on me!”

Oh shit that was you. You stiffened a bit as Pamela turned her attention to you. “I mean—I-I’ve been coming in... occasionally...” you said. “To... see how things are going.” You noticed Sun’s face rotate, as if confused. But he didn’t say anything.

“Hmm. That explains why you knew the Attendant was still active.” Pamela looked back at the computer screen. “Sun, have you had any trouble? Stiff movement, broken parts? Software errors?”

Sun hesitated. He looked at you, as if silently asking permission. You thought about it, then shrugged, unsure if Pamela should know about Moon’s possible glitch. Sun looked back at Pamela. “Nope! I’ve been having no issues! None at all! Perfectly functional!” That might have been a bit of an overcorrection. “N-no need to check anything!” That was definitely an overcorrection.

"Calm down, Sun," you whispered.

"Right, right, sorry!" he whisper-shouted back.

"Don’t apologize, nothing was wrong, it’s just—”

“I can hear you, you know,” Pamela interrupted.

Both you and Sun stiffened. “Uh, sorry!” you said. “We weren’t ignoring you or anything—”

“It’s fine, I’m checking some information, anyway,” Pamela said. “Old stuff. Schematics. Shit, this file is dense.”

“No swearing in the daycare, new friend!” Sun said automatically.

You were more concerned with something else. “Wait, you’re looking at Sun’s blueprints?”

“Well I’m not exactly familiar with his design,” Pamela said. “It’s pretty different from the Glamrocks I’m used to. There’s some coding data here, too, but it’s way too much for me to look at right now. Not to mention everything else in this file. Really big ‘Incidents’ section.”

You looked at Sun, trying to gauge his reaction. It’s hard to read with his never-changing expression. But he was holding your hand pretty tight. Not tight enough to hurt, but it’s definitely noticeable. “Uh, let’s focus on one thing at a time,” you said.

“Right.” Pamela nodded. “I’ll trust what you say, Sun.”

“You will?!” Sun sounded surprised. He hurried to cover it up. “Well thank you, new friend! It’s always good to trust each other!”

“Not always,” Pamela muttered darkly. You almost couldn’t hear her. But she, too, quickly moved on to cover it up. “There’s just one thing I want to check. I want to see what happens when you switch into night mode. Then ask Moon some questions, since he has different features that might need maintenance.”

Silence. “You... want to see Moon?” Sun asked. His posture was stiff, worried.

“Yeah.”

“Um...” You raised a hand to get attention. “Moon is... Moon’s kind of... unpredictable. He, uh—”

“Yeah, I know the basics,” Pamela said. “Don’t worry. There’s a note here that the Daycare Attendant can’t roam behind the security desk in the daycare. I don’t think that’s changed.”

You look at Sun. “Is that true?”

“That’s very true, friend!” Sun agreed. He relaxed. “I-it will probably be fine if you and Ms. Brooks stay behind there. Besides, that’s where the lights are.”

“Oh. Okay. So... are you good with going lights-off right now, then?” you asked. “It’s okay if you’re not. Pamela can come back some other time.”

“No no, it will be fine.” Sun put his hands on his shoulders and turned you so you were facing the light controls. “Go ahead! J-just remember to turn the lights on again soon! The lights are supposed to be on during daytime.”

“I remember, Sun.” You turned back and gave him a smile and a thumbs-up. “I’ll turn them on really quick. It’ll be alright. Don’t worry.”

“I-I won’t.”

You walked towards the light controls, leaving Sun standing there, fidgeting again. “On three,” you said to him and Pamela. “One... two... three!” And you hit the button.

The darkness was instant. You hurried over to the desk, where Pamela’s laptop screen was now the only source of light in the daycare. With its glow and the light coming in through the glass around the play area, you could see the transformation starting. It wasn’t as... intense as the last one you saw. Probably because Sun wasn’t screaming. But the mechanical noises and jittering animatronic limbs was still upsetting to see. Sun fell over right as you reached Pamela’s side. And didn’t stand up again.

“Hello?” you called.

A blue-and-white hand grabbed the edge of the desk. Then another. And then Moon’s face slowly rose over the edge. “Naughty naughty,” he said. “Not naptime yet.”

“You don’t sound too upset at that,” you said casually.

Moon chuckled. In one smooth motion he jumped onto the edge of the desk, crouching on its surface. His red eyes landed on you, but then he quickly noticed Pamela and turned to stare at her. Was it just your imagination, or did you notice Moon tense up?

“So you’re Moon.” Pamela was shockingly calm given that a giant animatronic with freaky red eyes was only a foot away from her face. “I’m Pamela. I’m the head technician here. Your friend—” Her head jerked towards you “—told me that you and Sun were still active, which I didn’t know.”

Moon’s face swiveled over to you. “You told?”

“No!” You raised your hands defensively. “I just—mentioned I was going to the Daycare and—and things just sort of spiraled from there.” You glanced at Pamela. “Not that I was going to keep them a secret from you or anything—"

“It’s fine,” Pamela said, doing stuff with her laptop. You glanced at the screen and saw dense text paired up with a drawing of the Daycare Attendant’s inner workings. “I’m just here to check that everything’s still functioning with you. Is it?”

Moon didn’t answer. But he did return to looking at Pamela instead of you, which was relieving. He leaned forward, inching his face closer to hers. Pamela, to her credit, didn’t flinch.

“You know, I don’t think... Moon talks a lot,” you said haltingly.

“That’s fine. I work with the DJ sometimes, he doesn’t talk at all. I can work with this.” Pamela clicked to a different page on her laptop. “Sun said that he didn’t notice any problems. So it’s probably okay. But it says here that the two of them have different features and protocols, so there’s always a chance something’s gone wrong with their individual systems. I’d like to know if that’s the case, Moon.”

Moon’s head twitched. “All fine.”

Bullshit.

“Alright, then.” Pamela nodded. “It’s always good to run a check-up anyway, so if you two ever want to come down to Parts and Service—"

Moon leaned even closer to her. “All. Fine.” His voice was a low growl.

Pamela finally reacted, but only to lean backwards. “If you say so. In that case, there’s nothing more for me to do right now.” She shut her laptop and looked at you. “I don’t want to get in the way of whatever you were doing here. You can handle it, right?”

“Uhhh yeah.” You glanced at Moon. “I can take care of myself.”

“Great.” She put her laptop back into the case, and put that back in her duffel bag. “I’ll leave you here.” And she promptly walked away. Pamela wasn’t much for small talk, was she?

With Pamela now leaving, Moon turned his attention to you. He leaned closer. Unlike Pamela, you weren’t confident enough to stay in place while that happened, and took a couple steps backwards. “You told,” Moon said.

“I didn’t mean to,” you insisted. “She just started asking questions and I-I panicked. And I can’t tell her to not do something, she’s, like, technically in charge of me, so when she invited herself along—Why do you care, anyway?” You folded your arms. “Is it because you don’t want anyone knowing what the hell your deal is?”

“No swearing in the daycare,” Moon said.

“You do that, too? Well, I guess it must be in your programming or whatever.” You sighed. “Look. I’m not gonna tell Pamela anything you don’t want her to know. But she is the head technician. It might be good to have her on our side. Why are you so—so—weird about what’s happening?”

Moon’s face rotated. You could have sworn he looked thoughtful. “Naughty kids must be punished.”

“Okay. What does that mean in this context?”

Before Moon could say anything else, the lights in the Daycare all turned on again. “No!” He jerked backwards, falling off his perch on the desk. “No more lights! No more naps!” Mechanical clacking sounds filled the air. Moon slammed his head against the side of the desk, dislodging everything as he growled and struggled. And then everything stopped.

“Moon? Sun?” You leaned over the desk and saw Sun lying on the floor on his back. “Are you okay?”

Sun was quiet for a moment. Then he gave you a thumbs-up. “I’m in tip-top shape, friend!” he said in an overly-cheerful tone.

“Hah. Right.” You turned back around to look at the light switch. Pamela was standing there with her hand on the button. “Uh—Pamela, I—maybe you should warn us next time?”

“Sorry.” Her hand dropped to her side. “I didn’t think it would be that... difficult.”

Sun popped up. “Oh, it’s quite alright! All good here!”

“Right.” Pamela nodded slowly. “Hey, actually. You.” She looked at you. “Can I talk to you for a second? Out here?”

“Uhhh... ssssure.” You gave Sun an apologetic glance and made your way over. “This’ll only take a second.”

“Oh. Okay! Of course. Be back soon!”

“Definitely.” You waved, and then followed Pamela out through the big wooden doors. They closed solidly behind you.

Pamela paused for a moment, staring at the doors. Then nodded and looked at you. “So something’s definitely wrong with them.”

Your stomach dropped. “What? What do you mean?” you asked, trying to sound casual about it.

“Well first of all, no animatronics should be making those clacking and rattling sounds when they move,” Pamela said. “They’re designed to be quiet. But that’s probably just due to a lack of cleaning and proper maintenance. The light trigger is what really worries me. It shouldn’t be that... that...” She paused. “It should be a lot smoother.”

“W-well, uh, they’ve been transforming like that the, uh... the whole time I’ve seen them,” you said slowly.

“Hmm.” Pamela pressed her lips together. “I’m just saying. I don’t know if they’re aware of it, since they both said everything was fine, but something’s probably gone wrong with the software or the actual physical mechanisms. I could issue a Service Ticket for them. But I don’t like to do that unless everyone’s on the same page.” She jerked her head back to the doors. “I don’t really care what you do in there with them. But if you could, at any point, convince them to come down for some simple maintenance, that would be great.”

“Uh...” You weren’t sure how to respond to this. “Yeah. I can... I’ll try.”

“Great.” Pamela nodded. “I’ll see you around.” She spun around and left.

“Uh—see you!” you shouted after her. You watched her walk up the staircase and disappear, then you turned around to look back at the play area entrance. A moment passed. Then you sighed and headed back in.

“Is everything okay, friend?” Sun was waiting right outside the doors. “Are you in trouble? Are we in trouble?!”

“Everything’s fine, don’t worry,” you reassured him.

“Oh good!” Sun’s shoulders slumped in relief. “What was that all about, then?”

“Uh... I’ll tell you later,” you said slowly. “For now,” you tapped your FazWatch, “I’m finally on break, so this can’t drag me away. Is there anything you want to do?”

“Oh there’s so much!” Sun gasped. “We can keep fixing things up around here, but no, you probably don’t want to work on your break, do you, friend? We can play a game! I need to practice for playtime again! Oh, no, wait! You should eat something! You’ve been working so hard, you should have something nice while you have a chance.”

“Right, right.” You nodded. “I did pack a lunch. Almost forgot about it.”

“Never forget to eat, friend! Food is the fuel to keep you going!”

You laughed. “Is that a line you used on the kids?”

“Sometimes, but it’s true!”

“It really is.” You set your backpack on the desk, opening it up and rummaging around inside—being careful not to fold Sun’s drawing from earlier. “I’ll eat and we can talk, then once my break is over we’ll see if I have any new tasks.”

“Sounds good to me!” Sun said.

Unfortunately, the tasks did draw you away again after your break, but at least you had fifteen minutes of peace. Sun seemed eager to forget about what just happened with Pamela so he encouraged you to talk about whatever was on your mind. Which was mostly video games. Afterwards, you headed back into the Pizzaplex, where you stayed busy until it was time to go home.

You didn’t forget about what Pamela said about maintenance. She was right; Sun and Moon needed to have someone look at them. They’d been left alone for so long that they probably had a ton of problems, even if they functioned fine. But neither of them wanted it. Moon didn’t like talking about his problems in the first place, and Sun... well, he might go along with your suggestion, but he was clearly anxious about the whole thing. Was he afraid? Were they both afraid? Of what? Maybe... of what the check-up would find?

It was hard to figure out. But you would tell them about Pamela’s suggestion soon. Maybe some maintenance would help them both.