#and that makes both him and Dale stuck in the past

[callmegaith]

Was it worth it?

[sthavoc]

🎶 📷∫ *.۰𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐘𝐋𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐂𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐒 | ENZO VOGRINCIC

𖥔 ࣪˖ pairing: enzo x actress!reader

𖥔 ࣪˖ summary: after the event enzo and you attended, the both of you had agreed to hang out. today is the day. part 2 to this.

𖥔 ࣪˖ warnings: just fluff

𖥔 ࣪˖ note: it was asked for a pt2 so here y’all go! also working on another req currently, yay!!<3 hope I didn’t miss any grammar mistakes

Enzo and you had been texting back, and forth for the past two days. Those two days have consisted of you smiling at your phone and letting loose a giggle at whatever silly joke Enzo would text. You had brought up how you guys agreed to hang out, and he mentioned that today he was free, which worked for you because to your advantage, so were you.

Te mando mi dirección? - you

Sí, sí. Pasó por tu casa más o menos como a las 12:00, y de ahí nos vamos.” - Enzo

Bueno, dale. - you

After you send your location, you receive another ding from your phone followed by Enzo’s response. Which said “Gracias, linda.” The little nickname had stuck with you ever since the event, and you were not going to lie and say that you didn’t like it because you did.

You left your phone on your coffee table and walked over to your closet, ready to try and pick something out. You hoped it wouldn’t take you that long to pick an outfit. Of course, you wanted to look presentable, but you also didn’t want to be overdressed for the occasion. After all it was just a small hang out as friends.

You shouldn’t be thinking so hard on an outfit. You thought.

You ended up choosing a pair of baggy jeans and a simple shirt. Your hand reached for your phone to check if Enzo had sent anything in the meantime but your texts were cleared.

You had been done with your hair and faint makeup when you heard your phone ring, and you saw how Enzo’s contact popped up.

“Hello?” You spoke into the other line.

“Hola nena, eh, estoy afuera ya.” Enzo’s voice comes from the other line making you remove your phone from your ear and check the time.

“Oh! Okay, okay. Ya voy.” You state before you hang up the call, and quickly clasp your bag and phone before you close the door of your room, and hurry downstairs.

“I’ll see you later preciosa.” You give your cat a small rub on the bottom of her chin making her purr, before you grab your keys and walk towards the door locking it.

You checked your phone and answered a couple of texts as you walked towards the front where Enzo waited. You could see him standing there looking at his phone. He wore a hoodie and a jacket over it with a pair of glasses and black jeans, getting a glimpse of his camera as well. You were not going to deny he looked good.

“Hola.” You greet him with a smile as he puts his phone away, and you can see a smile instantly spreading across his face.

“Hola, bonita.” He kisses your cheek greeting you. “Lista?”

“Mhm.” your response was followed by a nod while the two of you began to walk towards your car, unlocking it. “¿En dónde queda la disquera?” You unlock your car allowing the two of you in.

“Te mando la ubicación.” Enzo typed the location on his phone before he sent it to you making your phone ringed.

You opened the location, which immediately opened in your touchscreen from the Bluetooth connection from your phone. You clicked start as you began to drive away.

“¿Te gustaría poner algún tipo de música?” You turned to look at both sides before you got on the road.

“Eh, bueno.” You gave Enzo your cable while he plugged it in, selecting a song. The speakers on your car began to play Lucky by Radiohead.

“Oh, ¿escuchas Radiohead?” You glanced at him but kept your eyes on the road.

“Sí es mi banda favorita.” Enzo words followed a smile as he turned to look at you. “¿Tú escuchas Radiohead?”

“Sí pero no mucho.” You reply turning right as indicated on the map.

It said that you would reach your destination around 12:40. It was currently 12:27.

“¿Que te gusta escuchar a vos?” Enzo decides to ask, out of conversation. He honestly wanted to know more about you, and your taste in music.

“Pues-” you sigh “Pues me gusta escuchar un poco de todo. Pero los artistas que más escucho son, Harry Styles, The smiths, Pixies, Arctic Monkeys, eh Taylor swift, G-eazy.” You tapped your thumb on the staring wheel trying to remember some of your top artist.

“¿G-eazy?” Confusion filled Enzo’s voice. “¿Es una banda?”

You giggled at how clueless he was about who G-eazy was. “No, es un artista muy popular últimamente. Bueno siempre lo ha sido. Lo fue en el año 2014 pero la gente lo trajo de vuelta.”

“Ah, ya, ya.” He nods.

“Te pongo una si quieres.” You turned to look at him, and he nodded giving you his phone. “Te voy a poner una popular.” You came to a red light and quickly typed on his keyboard the name of the song before you tapped on it.

Tumblr Girls started playing. It was honestly a vibe with the atmosphere, with the windows down and the wind sending your free strands of hair everywhere. Enzo’s hair was going everywhere but not as much as yours.

“Bonito ritmo.” Enzo moves his head to the beat of the song as he kept his eyes on the road. “Me gusta.”

“Verdad.” You smiled before you glanced at the map and noticed you guys weren’t that far from your destination. Like two more minutes away. “Ya casi llegamos.” You mentioned.

Enzo only nodded as he looked out the window still vibing to the rhythm, before he spoke. “Me da vibras de verano, no se.”

“¡Sí! Por eso se hizo viral de nuevo. A la gente le gusta la vibra que transmite su música. Esa vibra de verano, y pues, porque les da nostalgia a los años como el 2014 o ‘16.” You explained as Enzo payed attention.

He seemed so interested in whatever you had to say about the artist. He honestly just liked the sound of your voice. Anything you were saying at the moment sounded so interesting coming from you.

“Wow, pues sí las da.” Enzo released a small laugh making you smile. He has such a pretty laugh you thought.

“Bueno pues creo que aquí me parqueo.” You glimpse at the free spot that was not too far from the record store. Your eyes skimmed at the store and you could already see some of the vinyls.

The both of you got out of your car after you locked it, and walked together into the store. Your eyes looked around the shop amazed, at the posters that covered the walls and even some records, hanging on the walls. You caught a glimpse of Enzo taking pictures of the background.

Until he got an idea and turned to look at you. You gave him an amazed smile as you realized he was taking a picture of you.

“Acordate que te iba a tomar fotos.” He reminds you of when you mentioned of him taking a few shots of you.

“Sí me acuerdo.” You giggled.

You walked over to the many types of vinyls. You scanned the genres until you came across Mazzy Star’s So Tonight That I See record. You turned to look at Enzo who only stared at you. “¿Me tomas una foto? yo tapándome la cara con el disco. Siempre me he querido tomar alguna foto así.” You smiled.

Enzo only smiled as he got ready to take the picture after you positioned the vinyl, and covering your face. “Listo nena.”

“Gracias.” You smiled putting back the vinyl in its place before you got an idea and turned to look at Enzo with a smirk. “Déjame tomarte una.”

“No, no. No te preocupes.” He shook his head and hand at the same time.

“Ay ándale. Es tu cámara, y te quiero tomar una.” You insisted, pulling him closer as you walked backwards before he gave you a smile.

“Bueno , dale.” He remove the strap off his neck, handing you his cámara as you smiled excitedly. “Pero que no salga mal.”

“Ay, para nada.” You frowned jokingly. There was no way this man would come out back in his picture. “Bueno. Uno, dos, y-” you dragged the last syllable as you waited to get the perfect angle and moment. “Tres.” You clicked the button hearing the click sound of the cámara capturing the picture. “De seguro saliste bien.” You give him back his camera, followed by a smile which he returned.

“Gracias.” He places the strap that held onto his camera around his neck again, while the two of you continue to walk around the store.

You reached another end of the records finding one of Lana Del Rey’s album. You immediately grabbed it, deciding you were taking it home. Enzo followed behind you, but you had no idea he had just taken another picture of you since you were distracted with the vinyls. You spotted another one from The Neighbourhood which was the album Hard To Imagine The Neighbourhood Ever Changing, you just had to get it.

“¿Artistas favoritos?” Enzo questions as he looked at the records in your hands.

“Mhm. Siempre que trato de encontrarlos no están.” You glimpsed at them before looking at Enzo.

The two of you continued to walk around the whole store trying to find more vinyls, but you didn’t find any wanted, apart from the ones you had already previously picked. Enzo proceeded to take pictures of anything interesting he spotted.

“Bueno pues voy a ir a pagar. Me puedes esperar afuera si quieres.” You searched into your bag and took hold of your wallet as you walked towards the cashier.

“Bueno.” Enzo nodded as he walked towards the entrance of the store and you towards the cashier.

While you paid, Enzo waited right outside the shop while he took a few glimpses of his phone. He was quick to put it away after he saw you walking out of the store with a bag, which he assumed had your new albums.

“Gracias por recomendarme la tienda.” You smiled, unlocking the car and allowing the both of you in.

“No hay de que, linda.” Enzo gave you a smile as he closed his door and reached for his seatbelt. “De verdad que me la pasé muy bien con vos.”

“Y yo contigo. Eres muy divertido Enzo.” You smiled as you changed your gear shift from parking to driving.

Enzo was really a sweetheart and an amazing person. He had such a pure soul and he made you feel calm with just his presence. This man was definitely going to become one of your closest friends.

[talekinesis]

Thunder Storms

So I've decided to make this an AU where Dale doesn't completely suck. Like he's still the mostly canon Dale, where he kinda sucks, Dev looks for affection and approval, and he can be kinda aloof, but in this AU, he actually recognizes this and does make an effort to be a dad to his kid

I'm stuck between calling it the "Okay Parent AU" or the "Dale's Not Terrible AU (DNT)"

He does care about Dev he just sucks at showing it basically. I will expand on this more in later posts, this us already super long

Summary: It's storming and Dev is scared

Dev laid there, curled up under the covers, as still as possible as if he could hide from the flashes of light outside. As a loud, rolling boom sounded he froze and began to shake slightly.

His blue eyes flicked over to his "dog," laying at the foot of his bed. He wanted more than anything to wake Peri up, but he knew he was still recovering from Magical Back-up and needed the rest. So carefully, he pushed the blankets back and slipped out of bed, shivering as his bare feet hit the cold floor.

He crept out of his room and down the hall, freezing with a frightened whimper each time lightning flashed.

For as long as he could remember, he's always been afraid of storms. When he was much younger, maybe five, he used to run to his dad and stay with him until the storm cleared. At five, your dad is indestructible, and the safest place in the world.

Now at eleven, he found himself tiptoeing toward his father's room again. He hadn't done this in a couple years, having tried to convince himself he'd grow out of it, but the thunder was shaking within the walls, and the kid was scared.

He wasn't entirely sure how his father would react to him coming into his room this late, and for a storm no less, so he tried to think ahead. Maybe he'd sleep on the floor, or just sit in the doorway until the storm cleared up. But the problem with that, was he didn't know when it would clear up. It could take the rest of the night for all he knew.

In the past couple of years, Dale had told him it was silly to fear storms because they were outside, and they couldn't get inside. That it was just rain and some noise. That he'd grow out of it. He knew his father probably hadn't meant to dismiss his fears, but that's definitely how it felt.

He pushed the door open and let his eyes adjust. His dad was asleep and facing the doorway, so he had to be careful. Dev crept further inside and toward the bed, his heart racing.

Logically he knew that, worst case scenario, his dad would wake up and just send him back to bed. But the idea of waking him up over something this silly scared him. He hated to upset, inconvenience, or irritate his dad. Dale had a short temper and wasn't always tactful when trying to get Dev to listen to him.

Thunder and lightning both struck, startling the child into just dropping to the floor with a soft thud, accidentally shaking the bed a little as he pressed himself against the side of it.

His heart was racing and tears started to sting his eyes.

It's just rain and some noise. It's silly to be this scared of some weather, and one day he'd grow out of it. It's just a silly, irrational fear.

He was pulled from his thoughts as a large hand clumsily felt around the side of the bed until it landed in his red curls. He heard a groan and a body sitting up before he was lifted off the floor and placed in bed next to his father, who promptly laid back down, exhausted. Blankets were pulled up over them both, and Dale's breathing soon evened back out, signaling that he had gone right back to sleep.

Dev laid there for a moment just processing what had happened before he turned onto his side and curled up, his eyes heavy. Now that the panic was gone, his body was screaming at him just how tired he was. He scooted just a bit closer to his dad and started to fall asleep.

Not a single word was spoken between them but the message was loud and clear.

___

Bonus:

Thunder boomed and rattled each window in the apartment. Hazel sat up and yawned, getting out of bed. She grabbed her blanket, wrapped it around herself, and slipped into the hall, heading for her parents room.

She opened the door, and just let herself flop to the floor, right there in the door, her legs still in the hallway.

Having heard the thud, and knowing the routine, her mother just barely woke up and cracked her eyes open.

"You gonna stay in the doorway, Haze?"

"Mhm.."

"Okay baby, good night."

"G'night.."

[amazingmaeve]

learning to fight | chapter one

Daryl Dixon x Hannah Rhee (oc)

series summary: hannah rhee never expected for the whole world to go to shit. i mean she was still learning in life she was still growing and trying to get through art school (something that it took years for her to decide to do), then the dead started to rise and hannah truly sees how hard she has to fight to survive. while trying to keep her little brother, glenn, and herself alive she comes across people that she will soon to see as her own family, one will worm it’s way into her fractured heart.

chapter summary: it’s been a few weeks since the outbreak happened and Hannah and Glenn have found themselves a group of survivors. The two sisters, Amy and Andrea, Theodore Douglas (T-Dog), the Morales family, Dale, Jacqui and Jim, Lori Carl and Shane, Carol and her husband Ed alongside their daughter. Glenn has made a few runs into the two while Hannah was weary of letting him go alone but he convinced her. On this run she wants to go with him to their old apartment to see if she could find something she forgot, with some convincing she’s able to go.

warnings: canon typical violence, some alcohol, swearing, little angst

word count: 3.7k

authors note: this will follow canon to some extent and it will begin shortly these are just some introductory chapters and some filler ones as well. also don’t worry Merle and Daryl will be making an appearance in the next chapter.

series masterlist

For the next few weeks for Hannah it wasn’t as rough as she thought it was going to be. I mean sleeping in a tent wasn’t the best thing to happen but with her being a Girl Scout when she was younger she was actually familiar with it. They were by a river where if someone felt the need to bathe they could and with Glenn making supply runs into town food wasn’t as bad as it could be. But she could see it getting worse and worse as the days went by.

Hannah and Glenn found themselves with their own group. Almost all of them were a bunch of nice people. Dale owned the R.V and was super helpful to Glenn which Hannah appreciated. Amy and Andrea were sisters that Dale had helped out and Hannah became friends with both of them but she had the most in common with Andrea. T-Dog she didn’t know much about but what she did know was that he was a really nice man, he offered to go out on runs with Glenn but was turned down. The Morales family was hard to watch since Hannah knew what happened to her sisters and parents, deep down she knew they were dead and though it was good to see a happy family it still cut deep. Carol is the one she felt really bad for, she knew that her husband was an absolute piece of shit that hit her and with her past Hannah felt the need to get close to her, to try and protect her if something happened to her or her daughter (Sophia). Jacqui was someone who she got along with as well since they were in the same age bracket. She didn’t know much about Jim, he usually kept to himself and she never wanted to intrude on his privacy.

The first people she met were Lori and Shane, while talking with Lori she knew that her husband died and Shane was his best friend. Hannah felt bad for the Grimes family, especially Carl, who was Lori and Rick's son. But she did notice Lori and Shane start to get closer but she kept it to herself, she didn’t want to judge, so she stuck to her own lane.

One thing Hannah hated was the horrid gender roles that were placed on her and all the women. They were expected to just sit and do laundry and cook (though sometimes Dale helped with that). Hannah knew one thing about her, and that was she just fucking sucked at doing laundry. Glenn would always complain about it before the world went to shit, she’d always just end up ruining her and Glenn’s clothes.

She wanted to do more. She wanted to go with Glenn on supply runs but someone was against it.

“I can go with you into town, two is better than one,” Hannah offered as she talked with the group and how Glenn was about to go into town and get some things.

“No, it's best if you stay here,” Shane interrupted while shaking his head. Hannah turned her head so she was facing him giving him a weird look.

“Why not, we can get more stuff if there’s an extra person going,” Hannah says, crossing her arms over her chest.

“It would be smart if two people went,” Dale interjects.

“No this is non-negotiable, you’re not goin’,” Shane snapped. Hannah rolled her eyes at that.

Shane had been the presumed leader since he was a cop but all Hannah thought was that he was a sexist asshole who didn’t want anyone’s opinion unless it alights with his views. But she decided she didn’t want to start an argument at the time so she just hugged Glenn goodbye and wished him luck on his journey. When he was gone her heart was starting to race and the thought of him not coming back.

Glenn was her best friend, even though she knew that was kind of loserish, he was the last person she knew and was the only one who knew what she was going through. But she had a feeling that Glenn would be back and she just tried to think happy thoughts as talked with Carol who was a bit closed off (which Hannah understandably understood) but eventually she began to talk more and more with Hannah.

Sophia, who was talking with Carl, came over and leaned into her mothers arms as Hannah gave her a soft smile.

“What did you do before all this happened,” Carol asked as Hannah rubbed the tight muscle in her shoulder, due to sleeping in a sleeping bag on the ground.

“Oh I didn’t really do much, I was a bartender but I wasn’t going to do that forever, I was only trying to support myself and Glenn while I was in art school,” Hannah explained.

“Aren’t you a little too old to be in school,” Sophia questioned with an inquisitive tone.

“Sophia,” Carol chastised while Hannah let out a little chuckle.

“It’s fine, I do know that 29 is a little too old to be in college but it took me forever to find something I was really passionate about and really wanted to do and what I wanted to be was an artist. And trust me it was weird seeing all the younger students there while I’m basically 30 and just figuring my life out,” Hannah says as a small smile graced her lips.

“Wow that’s so cool, I didn’t know you did art,” Sophia says with an awed look on her face.

“I just don’t usually do it a lot in front of people its usually when I’m alone,” Hannah explains. “So what’d you do before,” She questioned, looking at Carol.

“Oh I-I was just a stay at home mom and wife, just looking after my family,” Carol explains quietly as she runs her fingers through Sophia's hair.

“That’s still a job in my book, even though people don’t get paid for it,” Hannah says as she scrunches up her nose a bit.

“Yeah it’s amazing helping this one grow up,” Carol says, kissing Sophia’s head.

“You’re hair’s so long,” Sophia says looking at Hannah's head, specifically her.

“Thanks, I haven’t had a hair cut in some time and I think I was due for one but there’s no hair salons or whatever still around,” Hannah says with a tiny chuckle.

“Can I braid it,” Sophia questions with eagerness.

“Sophia you can’t just ask people that,” Carol chastises Sophia again before turning to Hannah. “You don’t have to say yes,” She says as her shoulders slouch.

“Do you really want to do it,” Hannah questions Sophia who began to eagerly nod. “Fine go ahead, just don’t cut any of it off,” She jokes and Sophia is eager to get up and run behind her. It was easy since they were sitting on a log.

“Uh,” Carol says and Hannah's head flies up and notices Ed standing near the R.V and beckons Carol to come over. Hannah swallows as her throat becomes dry. “Can you watch Sophia I-I have to talk to Ed,” She stuttered as her breathing got a bit faster.

“Yeah sure, take as long as you need, I’ll keep an eye on her,” Hannah reassures her as she feels Sophia's hands working up her hair.

Carol rushes to Ed who ushered her to their shared tent. An uneasy feeling stirs in her stomach as she watches that unfold. Before she even realized it Sophia was done and was standing in front of her with a smile.

“How’d it turn out,” She questions reaching behind to pull the braid so that it was over her shoulder.

“I think it turned out great but I’m not that good at that stuff, I hope I didn’t ruin your hair because it’s so pretty,” Sophia rambled sitting besides Hannah on the log. Making sure it was at least okay and she was relieved when it felt like a braid with some strands of hair poking out.

“It feels like an amazing braid, no knots and no hair loss,” Hannah jokes, making Sophia laugh. “You know I reckon when your hair gets a bit longer it’ll be able to be braided,” She says, making Sophia smile.

“It is really boring here,” Sophia groans, making Hannah nod in agreement.

“It is, but hey at least we’re still here,” Hannah reassures her, making Sophia nod. “Okay I know I said don’t do art in front of people, if you want I can try to do a portrait of you,” She offered, making Sophia's eyes widen and she began to nod fast.

“Yes that would be so cool,” Sophia exclaims.

“Before I go and get the stuff I need you’re gonna have to stay still for some time. I'm offering you an out,” Hannah warns Sophia as she stands up.

“I can stay still,” Sophia says confidently, straightening her shoulders.

“Okay, stay here I’ll be back in a sec,” Hannah says rushing to the tent she shared with Glenn. It was a pretty big one with some space. She got the stuff she needed out of her bag and rushed back to Sophia, knowing she reassured Carol she’d keep an eye on the young girl.

Luckily for her Sophia stayed put and they got to business.

During this time, Hannah was shocked that Sophia managed to stay still since she remembered being rambunctious when she was younger. Hannah asked questions about her life before and she knew her life was rough due to how she talked about her father. It was pretty obvious that he was abusive to Carol and maybe Sophia so Hannah didn’t want to make her uncomfortable by bringing up past fights, even though she felt the urge to strike the asshole.

A couple minutes have passed when Carol emerged from her tent, her eyes a bit red from crying and a bruise on her arm. Hannah diverted her eyes as some memories came back to her. She felt something burning inside of her, a fiery protective nature she felt over Carol and Sophia. If Ed was anything like her ex he was horrible, and she knew that the two didn’t deserve this whatsoever.

“Hey what’re you guys doing,” Carol questions with a quiver to her voice as she sat down besides Sophia. Hannah gave her a reassuring smile.

“She’s drawing me,” Sophia says with a smile, still staying still.

“I think we’re going to have to continue this tomorrow it’s almost night time,” Hannah gives Sophia a sympathetic smile. Sophia nods and they look to where the sun was still up but almost set.

“Why don’t you go and see what we're having for dinner,” Carol offers Sophia who nods and runs over to the rest of the group who was trying to decide what to eat. “Thanks for doing that,” She says quietly.

“It’s no problem really, she’s a sweet kid,” Hannah says, closing up her sketchbook. Carol nods as a bittersweet smile comes onto her face. “I hope Glenns okay, it’s going to be dark soon,” She says, and there was that worryness, it felt like something was squeezing her heart and her stomach was starting to turn.

“I’m sure he will, he seems like a very capable young man,” Carol tries to reassure Hannah and she gives her a smile.

“He is,” Hannah quietly says.

Glenn did make it back and with a lot of stuff, specifically food. Which everyone was grateful for.

In the next upcoming few weeks Glenn kept going on supply runs while Hannah did manage to get the portrait done and it warmed her heart to see Sophia smile so brightly in a world like this. But during those few weeks she’s been sneaking off into the woods to try and find some berries she knew had to be in there.

She still had the girl scouts engraved in her head so she knew when some were poisonous and some were not. She also managed to try and use the bow and arrow she had but it didn’t end up so well, she never ended up hitting the target and luckily it wasn’t a geek. It was usually an animal she was trying to bring home to the others so they could eat something. She wanted to help and provide for the group. Hannah had never felt more useless.

But Hannah felt like she was getting more and more comfortable with the bow, she felt like she was learning at least something with this.

Carol was usually a comfort for her, she felt like she was getting to know her better. Every time they talked though, she saw Ed lurking around and she felt that protectiveness flare in her stomach but she knew she couldn’t do anything about it.

Andrea was someone she started to see as a friend, as they both wanted to be more of a use to the camp. Instead they were just used for doing laundry which Hannah did, just so the other woman didn’t have to do it without her. She didn’t want to opt out and leave them with the responsibility.

Glenn made more and more runs and the more times he came back she felt more and more comfortable with it.

But this time he was going and she wanted to go with him. She wanted to go to their old apartment and get something. She wanted to get a family photo album. Hannah knew it wasn’t a need but she needed to keep those memories. She needed that.

“It’s not a discussion Shane I’m going and you’re not going to stop me,” Hannah snapped at Shane who just scoffed.

“Fine you wanna get yourself killed, go right ahead,” Shane snapped before storming off to his tent and Hannah's eyes narrowed as she saw Lori following him.

“You don’t need to come and protect me, I can do that myself now,” Glenn reassured her and snapped Hannah out of her trance. Hannah shook her head and led her to a more closed off area.

“I just wanted to go to our old apartment and get some stuff,” Hannah says looking down at the ground as she fidgets with her hands.

“What’d you need,” Glenn questioned.

“It’s gonna sound stupid,” Hannah says, shaking her head.

“Just tell me I’m not gonna judge you,” Glenn says, giving her a small smile.

“I wanted to get the family photo album,” Hannah quietly responds. Glenn makes an oh face. “I know I just need something to remember everyone by,” She says as she feels her chest tighten. “I also wanted to see if there's a place that has a book or something on making arrows from wood,” She says and Glenn shakes his head and chuckles.

“I knew that was part of the reason, you and that stupid arrow,” Glenn chuckles, making Hannah let out a tiny laugh. “Fine, just be careful and follow my rules,” He sternly says.

“What are these rules,” Hannah questions with a humorous tone in her voice.

“Uh I guess I’ve never really thought about it,” Glenn nervously chuckled while rubbing the back of his neck making Hannah let out a tiny laugh. “I guess it’s just one rule, try not to make any noises, I can’t lose you, I don’t know what I’d do if that happens,” He says earnestly.

“You got it boss,” Hannah gives him a salute and a soft smile as the two make their way out of the camp and into the city, Hannah remembers oh so well.

Going into the city was weird, just straight up weird for Hannah. The two of them had to be quiet due to the dead being everywhere so she followed Glenns rule and stayed quiet. It was like the walkers were sleeping and as she walked passed some in a car she felt her throat getting dry.

Glenn told her they should get stuff for the group first (food, medical supplies/medicine, feminine hygiene products, and some things that weren’t necessary but they could use like some blankets and pillows), then go to the apartment they once shared together.

Hannah helped Glenn put cans of food into multiple bags, the food consisted of fruits, vegetables and hell there was even spaghettios. Spotting a red jar she leaned down and examined it and her face broke out into a smile. It was red bell peppers. She knows it’s not some people’s favorite but it was a snack she loved to eat.

Hearing a pstt Glenn turned to Hannah who was holding the jar with a wide grin on her face. He shook his head and let out a quiet laugh.

‘Of course she’d take those’ Glenn thought.

Shrugging Hannah put the jar into the bag, alongside the other canned/jarred items they found for the whole group.

Finally after getting all the supplies they made their way to their apartment and Hannah froze as she stood in front of the building. Flashes of all dead walking passed the door as she put the chair up against the door knob to keep them out. The one who tried to take a bite out of her came to her memories like it was a movie.

“Hannah, we have to be quick, let’s go,” Glenn touched Hannah’s arm trying to snap her out of it. He was worried, she just stood there, her face slightly traumatized from the events they had faced the last time they were there. He wanted to comfort but they had to get this done before things got bad or the sun set.

Swallowing the saliva trying to clear her dry throat. She nodded and followed Glenn closely up to their apartment, trying to remain as quiet as possible. Dead carcasses laid on the stairs and it turned out they were actually dead and they wouldn't be coming back. That didn’t quench her fears though, there could be some more and she prepared herself for that and grabbed the hunting knife Glenn had found for her while on a run. She was willing to do anything to protect her brother.

Finally making their way to the door, Glenn slowly opened it and he actually had to push it harder due to the fact that the chair was still there. The door moving made a little noise and Hannah's face clenched in worry. But standing there for a few moments the two made their way into the old apartment.

It was like looking at a time capsule.

There was dust covering the counter top and the furniture, as Hannah dragged her finger on the couch she brought her hand up and saw that there was a large layer of dust.

“C’mon we have to get the stuff before it gets dark,” Glenn says, breaking Hannah out of her trance. Clearing her throat she nodded and made her way into her bedroom and entered her closet.

Kneeling down, she scoured through the leftover clothing trying to find the old photo album and she was starting to get a bit frustrated when she couldn’t. She swore it was there, it had to be there. She let out a sigh of relief when she found it and opened the old book and let a side smile across her face as she saw a photo of her and Glenn with her mom and dad.

Glenn knelt down beside her and noticed the picture he gave her a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder.

“They’re not gone you know that right, they’ll always be in our memories,” Glenn wisely says, letting out a shuddered sigh and before any tears came out she closed the book.

“Yeah I know that,” She whispers. “It’s just sinking in that they’re probably not around anymore, all those stupid family arguments just feel so stupid now,” She lets out a bitter laugh.

“I know, but they wouldn't want us to feel bad for all of this, they would want us to try and survive,” Glenn says, making Hannah nod.

Hannah moves something around and finds a book that she had gotten at Girl Scouts. It was a book/tutorial on how to whittle arrows and make them from scratch. It was pretty old and it may not even work, but hey trying wouldn’t hurt her. “Looks like we don’t have to find those arrows, we got the instruction manual right here,” she says.

“Knowing how stubborn you are, you’ll do anything to make one of those stupid arrows, even if you fail a thousand times,” Glenn chuckles quietly.

“Hey! I’m not the only one who’s stubborn,” Hannah defends herself while standing up and grabbing the bags she was carrying and putting both of the books in them as well.

“It’s like comparing apples to oranges, when you have your mind set on something you’ll do it while me, I like to think that I’ll give up shortly after,” Glenn explains.

“Sure you do,” Hannah playfully rolls her eyes while the two of them walk out of the room and Glenn gets his bags.

As Hannah steps out into the hall a walker suddenly grabs her by her shoulders, making her let out a tiny shriek. Dropping the bags and her knife the monster pushes her to the ground and crawls on top of her, trying to eat her. It was like deja vu but this time Hannah felt herself freeze as the monster tried to bite her and she put her hands on its shoulder.

Before she could even do anything something was stabbed through its head and blood was splashed all over her face. The walker fell on her finally dead and she saw Glenn standing over her with a crowbar in his hand, the end bloody.

Letting out a shuddered breath she pushes it off her and stands up and grabs her bags and knife.

“Let’s get out of here before more come,” Hannah says as she feels herself shaking a bit.

“Don’t you want to clean yourself up a bit,” Glenn says, wiping some of the blood off of her worry written all over his face.

“No, who knows how many more there are, we have to go before things get worse,” Hannah explains and Glenn nods and they both quietly walk down the stairs.

On the way back to the camp neither of them knew that there were some newcomers that Shane had decided to let in due to the fact that they could hunt.

[scarisd3ad]

To the end and back [daryl Dixon x reader]

Chapter six - I’ve still got love for you

Previous >> next

Masterlist

Taglist

Summary - after the world ended you were sure you’d never find love again but a certain archer catches your eyes and changes the entire trajectory of your life.

Season two!!

Warnings - mentions of rape and sa, mentions of religion and religious trauma.

'What lies ahead'

Season 2 ep 1

Day 65

We're going to fort benning. Atlanta is done for, it's lost to the walkers. We're hoping it'll be better there. We've decided to reduce the amount of cars we're talking something about saving gas. So we're leaving Daryl's truck, and Shane’s car. Daryl is taking his motorbike (well actually it’s Merle’s), so that means I'm back in the car with Rick, Lori, Carl, Sophia, and Carol.

I pull Daryl aside before we leave for fort benning. I make sure we're out of sight before I begin to talk. "Be careful" I whisper as I grab his hand. "I will" he replies. He knew the risks of driving the motorcycle, no walls, if we come across a horde of walkers he could easily get bitten, and then there's the regular risks of riding a motorcycle. I caress the top of his hand as I stare up at him. "Be careful" I repeat a bit more sternly. He nods "I will sunshine" he says which makes me smile. He presses his lips to mine swiftly before running off.

-

We're on the road now. The car is mostly quiet, except for Sophia, carls quiet whispers at times. "Just thinking about our trip to the Grand Canyon with Carl." Lori says turning her head towards Rick. Rick let's out a laugh as he remembers fond memories of the trip. "I don't remember that." Carl says with furrowed brows.

"No, you wouldn't. You were just a baby. Besides, we never made it past Fort Worth" Lori explains to her son. "No, you got sick. I never knew a baby could throw up so much" rick laughs. I can imagine a baby Carl, and a younger lori, and Rick. Sometimes I wonder about the others lives before this. I knew a bunch about Glenn's, but I never really asked about the others. I assumed it might be a sore subject.

"Ick" Carl mutters which makes both his parents laugh. "Yeah, ick" Lori agrees. "But the doctors in Texas said you'd live. Then we turned around, and drove home." Lori explains. Carls face scrunches up as he says "well that sucks." Lori shakes her head a bit "no, it was a good trip."

"The best" Rick agrees. "Can we go see it? The grand canyon? I'd like too" Carl asks. "I would too" Sophia says. "Can we go?" Sophia asks. Lori turns her head so she could see into the back. "We'd never go without you and your mom. That's a promise." Lori reaches her hand back and grabs carols hand as Sophia leans her head on her mom's shoulder. "Would you go with us?" Carl asks as he turns to me. I smile "we'd never go without y/n either" Lori says. I'd grow close with Lori, and her son over the months following the outbreak. I liked having an almost little brother well that's what I consider Carl. I'd watch him a lot while his mom, and Shane would go out, I played games with him and the other kids too. I liked being close to people, being able to build a bond, a relationship with new people was always something I cared about. I didn't want to have no one if I was ever in trouble, I always wanted someone to lean on in times of need.

The rv comes to a stop which in turn makes all of us stop. What we can see is there's a bunch of cars in the way. It's good and bad news. The good is we can scavenge the cars for cool things, and theres a lot of gas too. The bad thing is there could be walkers hiding in any one of them. We follow the rv, as Dale tries to find a way through the large 16 wheeler, that was laid out on its side in the middle of the street.

We find our way around it, but just end up even more stuck. There are so many cars. Then the rv comes to an abrupt stop the engine sputtering.

We all get out of the cars, and gather around the rv. "I said it. Didn't I say it? A thousand times. Dead in the water" Dale says as he, Shane, Andrea, and Glenn hop out of the rv. "Problem, Dale?" Shane asks as he walks around Dale. "Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of—" Dale trails off as daryl walks up to the back of an suv, and starts riffling through the contents. "Okay, that was dumb."

"If you can't find a radiator hose here..." Shane says. Daryl's still looking through the stuff in the back of this abandoned car. "There's a whole bunch of stuff we can find." Daryl mutters. "I can siphon more fuel from these cars for a start." T-dog suggests as he walks over to Daryl. "Maybe some water." Carol adds.

"Food?"

"This is a graveyard." Lori says which makes almost everyone turn towards her. "I don't know how I feel about this." Lori says quietly. "Alright, alright, here we go."

"Come on y'all. Just look around, gather what you can." Says Shane. We all spilt in our own directions.

I'm looking through the back on an old suv. It was definitely a moms seeing there is a baby and toddlers car seats sitting in the back seat. I wonder if their still alive, and if they are where are they. There's some spare diapers, formula, and wipes things I hope we will never have scavange around for. This world isn't a place for a baby. There's some old children's books definitely too easy for Carl or  Sophia. I look for maybe some older children's books chapter books or something, maybe something I can give to Lori, and Carol since both moms still try to teach their children standards 6th grade curriculum. I sigh as there's nothing but baby essentials. I go onto the next car it's a black Toyota corrolla. It's trunk is open as if the owner quickly grabbed a few things before fleeing. There's an empty backpack laying there. That's all just the backpack. It's nice enough so I take it. No holes, or stains, it looks brand new. I grab it before going onto the next car.

I'm already starting to sweat it's so hot. I wipe my forehead as I push myself through a broken open window to grab a baby pink sweater out of the back seat. I hold it up to my body. it looks like it'll fit so I stuff in into the bag. Then I go onto the trunk. It's also open. Inside is a loaf of molded bread, rotten milk, and some canned corn, and fruits. The person who owned this car must've died before they were able to grab this stuff because I don't think anyone would leave the canned goods. I stuff the canned goods into the bag, and move on. In the next car there is a trash bag full of cleaned clothes. There's pants, jackets, underwear, and shirts. I grab the entire bag and begin to drag it back to the cars. I pass by both Sophia, and Carl. Their mothers are just a few feet away looking through boxes. "What'd ya find?" Sophia asks, "bunch of clothes" I reply. Her eye light up "kids clothes?" She asks. I nod "some." For the last few months we've really only been rotating between two outfits one to wear when we're getting our clothes cleaned, and the ones we normally wear. So new clothes is exciting. I drag it all the way to the cars and load it into the van.

Dales on top of the rv keeping a look out, while Glenn is working on the rv. I don't want to mess with either of them so I go on continuing to go through trunks. I try to stay near the others, just in case I come across a Walker I won't be totally alone. I stay near Lori as she looks through the back of a black van. "What'd you find?" I ask "just some old cds" she replies.

"Lori, under the cars now." Rick whispers as he runs up. "Carl, Sophia, get down now." He hisses. I roll myself under a red suv as Lori runs to get carol. A herd of walkers come through. My hearts beating a mile a minute. I'm pretty sure all four of us adults are staring at the kids trying to tell them through mental telepathy to stay under the fucking cars.

I hope I'm not breathing too loud, it always seems that when you're trying not to be found you're breathing too loud. I cover my mouth trying to muffle my breathing. Right when we think it is over Sophia begins to scoot herself out from under the car. But with our luck there's somehow another Walker. It's growling at her as it gets down on the ground looking under the car. She lets out a blood curdling scream as she tries to scoot herself out the opposite direction. It's also scooting in towards her growling as it tries grabbing at her. Her screaming and sobbing probably drawing more near. She manages to scoot out from under the truck she's under and out into the grass clearing next to the highway. Two walkers follow after her as she runs down and into the woods. Rick follows suit running after Sophia and the two walkers with a rifle in hand. We all scoot out from under the cars following after. "Lori there's too walkers after my baby" Carol cries as she runs to the end he of the freeway. Lori wraps her arms around Carol hugging her, "shh, shh" Lori whispers as she tries comforting Carol.

When Rick comes back he has no Sophia. He said that he left her somewhere to hide while he went to draw away the walkers, and when he came back she wasn't there. He takes Daryl, Shane, Glenn, and t-dog out to look for her while leaving us at the free way.

Shane, t-dog, and Glenn end up coming back. Shane gives us some random chores like scavenging or moving cars. Carols a mess. She's standing at the side of the highway watching out into the forest. I walk over and place a hand on her shoulder. "They'll find her, she's a smart girl" I whisper. She nods with tears in her eyes. I give her a hug before walking off to go help out. I watch as she walks over to Dale "why aren't we all out there looking? Why are we moving cars?" She asks.

I wanted to help find Sophia too. They wouldn't let me. I've already got plans to go out looking by myself though. It wasn't safe, but I wanted to look for her too. She was like my little sister why wouldn't I want to go out looking for her.

"We have to uh clear enough room so I can get the rv turned around as soon as it's running. Now that we have fuel we can double back to a bypass that Glenn flagged on the map." Dale explains. Shane walks up and says "going backs going to be easier than trying to get through this mess."

"We're not going anywhere till my daughter gets back." Carol says with her arms crossed over her chest. Lori walks over and places a hand on carols back. "Hey, that goes without saying."

"Rick, and Daryl, they're on it, okay? Just a matter of time." Shane says. "Can't be soon enough for me." Andrea says tossing a bottle of water to Glenn, who stood next to me. "I'm still freaked out by that herd that passed us by, or whatever you'd call it." Andrea says. Carol walks away, her arms still crossed over her chest. "Yeah, what was that? All of them just marching along like that." Glenn asks. "A herd." I reply "that sounds about right." Shane says nodding "now we've seen it. It's like the night camp got attacked. Some wandering pack, only fewer." Shane sighs, and clears his throat "okay. Come on, people. We still got a lot to do. Let's stay on it. Let's go, come on." Shane says as he walks away. We all go back to work, while Carol stays standing next to the edge of the highway. Poor thing was just a ball of stress.

-

We wander around the freeway, collecting things we need from cars or moving them. Most of the cars are filled with rotten corpses, rotten food, or luggage. A lot of people were leaving, as fast as they could. But I guess something stopped them up around here. Probably the 16 wheeler, maybe a bunch of newly infected walkers. I guess we'll never know.

I watch from a far as Carl comes running up to Shane, and Lori with a big black thing. “Shane!" He shouts "Carl, what happened?" Lori says worriedly. "mom I found something cool." Carl says placing the thing onto the ground, and unrolling it. "Shane, check it out." Carl says with grunt. The thing must've been heavy. "It's an arsenal." Carl exclaims. Shane doesn't really give Carl the time of day. Shane stays bent over the car he's working on "that's cool, bud. Go give'em to Dale."

Carl bends over grabbing a hatchet. "Check this one out, Whoa it's a hatchet." Carl says as he examines the weapon in his hands. "Be careful. Don't play with those." Lori warns, Carl continues to play with the hatchet "they're really sharp-"

"What did I just say?" Lori scolds her son "can I keep one?" Carl asks looking up at his mom. "Are you crazy?" Lori says taking the hatchet from Carl. "No way." He then turns his head to Shane. Shane was always more lenient with Carl than Lori, So was Rick, they were way more fun in carls eyes. "Shane. Shane, tell her to let me keep one."

I continue to look through the trunk of a car. It mostly contained old cds in a large box though. "Hey, man, go give them all to Dale now. Go." Shane says scolding Carl which isn't normal for Shane. I can just sense the 'fuck you' facial expression that Carl is probably giving Shane. I was a kid once too, I remember when someone you thought was fun scolded you, the feeling of your heart falling into your stomach, the grudge that was forming.

"What was that?" Lori asks. I don't look up I continue looking through the trunk. trying not to make any noise that would alert the two that I was here. "What was what?" I hear Shane shut the hood of the car he was working on. "The way you blew him off just now. You crushed him." Lori whispers. Shane doesn't answer he continues to keep himself occupied. "I don't believe you. You're giving me the cold shoulder?"

"Isn't that what you want?" My brows furrow. "Aren't you the one who said stay the hell away, him and you?" Shane, Lori, and Carl were like a family. Everyone thought they were a family. A husband, wife, and their boy. But they weren't obviously after talking to Lori, and carl I found out about their supposedly dead husband, and dad. But he wasn't dead now, and I guess Lori was pushing Shane away. I was sure lori and Shane were fucking before Rick came back. Actually no I knew they were fucking, Glenn came across them in the woods one day, and told me about it.

"You forget what happened at the cdc? Your little meltdown in the rec room slip your mind?" Lori asks Shane angrily. "When you trie-" shane cuts her off "when I tried to what? What do you think that was?" My eyes are widened as I bend down staying out of sight. I definitely know too much, but it's hard to stop listening. "I think it is pretty plain what that was." As a women I know what she's alluding to, it's pretty simple. Sexual assault. They way Shane's trying to gaslight her, the way he's trying ot stay hush hush about it. He tried to rape her in the Rec room. That's why he had scratches on his neck that morning.

"A mistake. One that I admit to. I..I have a few mistakes under my belt, Lori. So do you."

"No debate there. But Shane, we need to stop this." I try to continue going through the boxes as quietly as I can but I keep getting distracted. Trying not to stare, but also trying to look through boxes quietly. "Why do you think I'm preppin' my new ride?....I'm leavin'" Shane reveals. "Leavin'?" I can hear the confusion in Lori's voice "as in I'm gone for good. Gonna quietly slip away first chance I get." Shane starts up the car. It works. I can hear the radio "the emergency alert system has been activated. The office of civil defense had issued the following message: normal broadcasting will cease immediately. This is a civil emergency."

The others begin to walk up "is that a local signal?" Glenn asks. "It's got to be within 50 miles of here" I stand up, and walk over. I can feel Shane staring at me.

"Avoid anyone infected at all costs. Remain calm. Help is on the way. The emergency alert system has been activated."

Shane bends over into the car and turns off the radio. "Asshole. Okay let's get back to work." Everyone begins to walk off.

I begin to walk over to the car I was looking through when I feel a hand on my wrist. I turn around quickly. It's Shane. His brows furrowed "how much did you hear?" He whispers. I shake my head quickly "I..I didn't hear anything. What'd you mean?" I lie. Anger fills his face. I'm lying to him and he knows it. "Don't tell Rick, I swear if you tel-" I cut him off trying to get him to let go of my wrist. "Let go, leave me alone please. I'll tell Daryl if you don't leave me alone" I cry. He tighten his grip around my wrist. I cry out in pain "what's Daryl goin' to do? If he even tries to touch me I'll kill him" he growls. I don't know what snaps inside of him but he begins to try, and kiss me. He presses kisses to my neck as he whispers "you like me baby just admit it."

"Get off!" I cry as I try pushing him away. "Get off! Get off!" I scream as I push him hard enough for him to fall back on his butt. I've gotten everyone's attention now. Everyone's turned their heads to me confused. Glenn's running towards us. "Hey man leave her alone!" Shouts Glenn. "C'mere" Glenn says as he walks up. I hug him immediately. Shane's still sat on the ground eyes widened looking up at me. He's been caught, "I-I wasn' trying to do anything" he stutters out.

"Come on you can come stay up there with me" Glenn whispers as he walks me over to where the others were.

"What was he trying to do?" Dale asks. Glenn shrugs.

-

I stay by Glenn for most part. I help him with the little jobs he's doing, sometimes I go up, and sit in the rv when Shane decides to show his face around us.

I don't know why he was trying to touch me. I guess even during these times men still think they can take advantage of women. No matter what I'd still be a weak little girl to men. Someone they can take advantage of for their own selfish needs.

Rick and Daryl come back when the sun starts to set. They come back with no Sophia though, which definitely upsets Carol even more. I'm sat in the rv, because Shane had decided to come back up towards the rv again. I don't want to see his face ever again.

I can see Rick, and Daryl talking to Carol from the window. Carols hyperventilating, she's worried about Sophia being out there alone. So am I. She's only 12. Letting her be out there all night couldn't be safe. She could get bitten, or get even more lost.

Rick walks off. Lori stays with Carol consoling her while everyone else goes back to their business. I can hear Glenn, and Daryl talking just outside the rv. "Where's y/n?" Daryl asks "in the rv. Um but I've gotta tell you, Shane tried to I don't know touch her earlier.." god he's telling Daryl. Daryl's going to confront Shane, and Shane's going to kill him. I bury my face in my hands.

I hear the sound of loud footsteps walking up into the rv. I look up, it's Daryl. "You alrigh'?" He asks as he sits across from me. "Mhm" I hum with a nod. "Don't..don't say anything please" I whisper. His brows furrow "why not? He tried touching you didn't he?" I nod "he..he said if you tried to do anything he'd kill you" i mutter. He lets out an angry sigh. "Please, don't do anything" I whisper. He lets out a grunt before hesitantly nodding "..fine" he whispers. "But if he does it again I'll kill him."

-

We slept in the cars, it wasn't a very good nights sleep but it was sleep so I can't complain. We were all going out to look for Sophia which made me happy. I hated being useless in the search for Sophia. Rick places the weapon that Carl found the day before on the hood of a car. "Everybody takes a weapon." Rick instructs "these aren't the kind of weapons we need. What about the guns?" Andrea says with a hand on her hip. "We've been over that. Daryl, Rick, and I are carrying. We can't have people popping off rounds every time a tree rustles." Shane says as he presses himself up against the rv. "It's not the trees I'm worried about." Andrea argues. "Say somebody fires at the wrong moment, a herd happens to be passing by. See, then it's game over for all of us. So you need to get over it." Shane explains. "The idea is to take the creek up about five miles, turn around and come back down the other side. Chances are she'll be by the creek. It's her only landmark." Daryl says. Glenn is admiring a weapon that I don't even know the name of. "Stay quiet and stay sharp. Keep space between you but always stay within sight of each other." Rick advises.

"Everybody assemble your packs."

I've got my messager bag already packed up with the essentials. Medkit, food, water, gun (even though I'm not supposed to carry it. I'm not getting my gun tooken away because Shane thinks I don't need it.), knife, flashlight, and compass.

Rick walks up to Dale who's sitting on the steps of his rv. "Dale keep on those repairs. We got to get this rv ready to move." Dale stands up "we won't stay here a minute longer than we have to. Good luck out there...bring Sophia back." Carls staying back with Dale. Carl is not happy about that. He wants to help find his friend. "Keep an eye on Carl while we're gone." Rick says as he pats at his sons shoulder. Carl looks up at his father brows furrowed before saying "I'm going with you. You need people, right? To cover as much ground as possible." Rick groans at the stubbornness of his son before looking over at Lori. Desperately looking at her, trying to make her make the decision. He doesn't want to be the bad guy in his sons eyes. "Your call. I can't always be the bad guy" Lori says. "Well he has all of you to look after him, I'd say he's in good hands" Dale says as he leans against the door of his rv. Rick let's out a sigh "okay. Okay. But always within our sight, no exceptions" Rick says before walking off.

I stand by a car looking through my bag, making sure I've got everything I need. I can't leave anything behind.

"Hey" I look up, it's Shane. I take a step back. "Go away" I whisper. Shane let's out a sigh "I'm sorry okay…about yesterday" I shake my head. "Well I don't accept your apology." I say before walking off towards Glenn. "What'd he want?" Glenn asks looking up at me "to apologize" I reply with an eyeroll. "You accept it?" I let out a chuckle "no."

We begin our way out into the forests, we stay together walking in a single filed line through the forest. I keep my hands pushed deep into my pockets, as i clutched my knife in my left hand tightly. I wasn't going to let go of it for a second, just in case.

We turn a corner, and Daryl and Rick both are kneel down. Daryl pointing at a tent set up just a few feet away. "She could be in there." Shane says. "Could be a whole bunch of things in there" Daryl replies as he stands up. At first we try to follow but Rick turns around telling us to stop and wait. Rick, Daryl, and Shane all make their way over to the tent. Daryl aiming his crossbow in front of him ready to shoot. Rick, and Shane stop while Daryl continues towards the tent. After a few seconds of Daryl searching around the tent Rick turns around and whispers "Carol." Carol sprints over towards them following rick towards the tent. We follow after keeping our distance with the tent. "Call out softly. If she's in there, yours is the first voice she should hear." Rick says.

"Sophia, sweetie, are you in there? Sophia, it's mommy. Sophia. We're all here, baby. It's mommy" Carol calls out, desperately wanting her child to crawl out of that tent. Alive, and safe. Rick gestures for Carol to wait while he walks closer towards Daryl, and the tent. Daryl slowly unzips the tent, opens it just a little before covering his nose, and mouth as he coughs. Daryl slowly walks into the tent. Rick was about to follow but has to close it as he coughs and gags. Lori walks up behind Carol wrapping an arm around her. "Daryl?" Carol calls out. No answer "Daryl?" No answer again. A couple seconds later Daryl comes out of the tent. No Sophia. "It ain't her." He says "what's in there?" Andrea asks. "Some guy. Did want Jenner said. Opted out. Ain't that what he called it?" Daryl says as he puts his crossbow over his shoulder.

Bringgg, bringgg, bringggg.

Church bells. We all look around confused on where those church bells are coming from. Rick points towards where the noise sounds the loudest, and we all start running towards it. "What direction?" Shane asks as we slow down. The bells are definitely way louder now. " I think that way. I'm pretty sure." Rick says pointing ahead of himself. "Damn it's hard to tell out here." Shane says as he hops up onto a log. "If we heard them, then maybe Sophia did too." Carol suggests as we continue walking. "Someone's ringing, those bells, maybe calling others." Glenn says.

"Or signaling they found her."

"She could be ringing them herself. Come on." Rick says before just booking it towards the bells.

-

After Miles of running we come across a small white church house, and a cemetery. But there's no bells at all.

"That can't be it. Got no steeples, no bells" Shane says. Rick ignores Shane, and continues on. "Rick." Shane calls out before letting out a sigh and following after Rick. Rick starts running, then we all start running towards the church. There's no need to run, the church isn't going anywhere, but what Rick does we do. He's definitely took over Shane's role as leader quite quickly (and better than Shane ever thought he was) we run up the to front steps of the church. Rick, Daryl, and Shane go up the steps first. Guns, and crossbow ready to shoot. Rick gestures to Daryl to be quiet before pushing the front doors open.

It's a small church, red carpeting, about 6 pews on each side, a crucifix at the front. There's people? Maybe walkers sitting. The turn around snarling, and growling. Definitely walkers. They stand up, Lori hands Rick a weapon, and Rick begins to walk towards them. Daryl trades out his crossbow for the machete thing Glenn was eying earlier. Rick attacks one walker dressed in farmer like attire. He stabs it straight through the head, not even giving it time to attack back. Once the thing falls to the ground Rick begins to stab it over and over again Daryl and Shane take out the other two. Sophia's not in here either.

"Sophia!"

Daryl approaches the crucifix. "Yo, j.c., you taking requests?" He says before turning back around. "I'm tellin' you, it's the wrong church. It's got no steeples, Rick. There's no steeple." Shane says as he walks over to Rick. Then the bells go off again.

Bringggg, bringgg, bringg.

Shane and Daryl push past us running outside. Once we're out there though we notice the ringing isn't coming from a bell but a speaker on the side of th church. Glenn walks over to it. There's a power box at the bottom. He shuts it off. The ringing stops. We wasted our time. "A timer. It's on a timer." Daryl says through pants.

Carol let's out a shaky sigh "I'm..im gonna go back in for a bit" before she begins to walk back towards the church. A lot of us go back in too. To take a breather, maybe pray. Pray for forgiveness, for whatever we did to deserve this shit. Maybe I wasn't religious enough after leaving my grandparents. I grew up religious but let it go soon after moving for college. I grew tired of the abuse, and the limits of religion. Maybe this is my punishment. Granddad did say people who left were given the worst punishments. People who left were saved the worst places in hell.

I sit in the back of the church, Carol kneels in the front. Lori walks in and sits just a bit behind Carol. "Father, forgive me, I don't deserve your mercy. I prayed for safe passage from Atlanta and you provided." I stay looking down at my feet. Memories of the memorized worships and prayers, the promises of purity, to live my life free of sin flow back. "I prayed for Ed to be punished for layin' his hands on me, and for lookin' at his own daughter with whatever sickness was growing in his soul. I prayed you put a stop to it, give me a chance to raise her right, help her not make my mistakes. She's so fearful." My granddad would be disappointed, disgusted of what I became. But who the hell cares of he thinks, what he thought. "She's so young in her way. She hasn't had a chance. Praying for Ed's death was a sin. Please, don't let this be my punishment. Let her be safe, alive and safe. Please, lord. Punish me however you want, but show mercy on her."

I stand up and leave. I can't stand to be in a church for two more seconds. I spent enough time in them as a child. I walk over or Glenn, and Daryl who are standing near a tree. "You alright?" Glenn asks "yeah" I whisper "yeah, I'm fine. Just don't know why I even decided to go in there" I chuckle as I rub at my forehead with my left hand. "You religious?" Daryl asks as I lean myself against the tree. "Nah, not anymore at least. Grew up very religious though" I sighed "it's traumatizing y'know" I laugh. Daryl nods. The rest of the group leaves the church too soon. We stand chit chatting about plans, Sophia, shit like that.

Shane and Rick walk up to us. "Y'all gonna follow the creek bed back, okay? Daryl, you're in charge. Me and Rick we're just gonna hang back, search this area another hour or so just to be thorough." Shane says as Lori stands up from where she was squatted down on the ground. "You splitting' us up. Ya sure?" Daryl asks. "Yeah, we'll catch up to ya" Shane says. "I want to stay too" Carl speaks up. Shane raises his head quickly "I'm her friend." Carl says as he walks forward toward his father and Shane. Both look up at Lori for permission. "Just be careful, okay?" She says walking towards her son. Carl turns towards her "I will." Lori cradles his face in her hands "when did you start growing up?" She says as she brings him into an embrace. Rick walks towards the two and presses a kiss to his wife's lips before hugging her. "I'll be along soon enough." Rick whispers. Shane stares at the happy couple, envy in his eyes. "Here take this. Remember how to use it?" Rick asks as he tries to hand his gun to Lori. "I'm not takin' your gun, and leaving you unarmed" she says. Daryl walks over "here, got a spare. Take it." He says handing the gun to Lori. Andrea scoffs before she begins to walk with the rest of us. She's still pissed about not being about to carry hers. I stay near Glenn most of the walk back to the freeway. We quietly talk as we walk through the very confusing forest. Sometimes I think we’re going to get lost, but Daryl’s got it under control. He wouldn’t get us lost.

“So this is it? This is the whole plan?” Carol says as she takes a seat on a log. We all stop in an circle around her. “I guess the plan is to whittle us down into smaller, and smaller groups” Daryl says leaned against a tree. “Carrying knives and pointy sticks. I see you have a gun” Andrea says turning towards Lori. “Why, you want it?” Lori says looking up at Andrea. Lori walks towards her “here, take it.” Lori holds the gun out in front of her “I’m sick of the looks you’re givin’ me.” Andrea let’s out a scoff but takes the gun. “All of you.” Lori says as she sits down staring down at the ground. At first I’m very confused because i hadn’t noticed nobody giving Lori any dirty looks except for Andrea.

“Honey, I can’t imagine what you’re going through.” Carol looks up at Lori “ and I would do anything to stop it. But you’re got to stop blaming Rick. It is on your face everytime you look at him.” Lori whispers. Carol looks back down at the ground. “When Sophia ran he didn’t hesitate, did he? Not for a second. I don’t know that any of us would have gone after her the way he did or made the hard decisions that he had to make, or that anybody could done it any different. Anybody?” Lori looks up at all of us. Her eyes going from Daryl, to Andrea, to Glenn, and then to me. She shakes her head as she lowers it “y’all look to him and then you blame him when he’s not perfect. If you think you can do this without him, go right ahead. Nobody is stopping you.” She says before taking a sip out of the plastic water bottle she had grabbed from her bag.

We all look at her with, guilt and pity. Lori slips the water bottle into her bag as Andrea comes up with the gun in her hand, holding it out for Lori.

Lori takes the gun and looks up at Andrea. “We should keep moving.” Andrea says. Lori pushes herself up off of the log she’s sat on, grabbing her bag and slinging it back over her shoulder. We start walking again, this time not uttering a word. The walk is quiet, an akward type of quiet. Out minds are all racked up thinking about what Lori had said. I barely even noticed the little resentment I had for Rick after he came back with no Sophia. I didn’t even notice I may have blamed him. I didn’t ev-

POW.

Previous >> next

Taglist

@e1d0lonk3k @soul4death @furiousheartpoetry @silicone-bonez @nezukos-number1fan @your-shifting-gurl

[slxsherwriter]

Sunday Interruptions

Fandom: A Good Day For It

Pairing: Norman Tyrus x female reader

Word count: 1,410

Warnings: Mentions of potential past abuse

Author's note: This started with the little opening scene and then branched off in an unexpected direction. Sort of just plopped in the middle of something established, but it was fun. As always, not beta-read.

Special shout out to the wonderful @slashingdisneypasta for being so encouraging.

The loud crash coming from the opposite end of the house had to be caused by Wayne and Dale. Hopefully, not breaking something. Again. You groaned, the sound muffled against both the pillow and warm arm beneath you. It was too early to be dealing with this shit. 

"Fuck, Norm. I thought you said you didn't want children." A bit of a childish statement in and of itself. The two were staying with you because they had nowhere else to go. At least not at the moment. Having them close made it easier for Norman and his brother as well. Hands for a job were never far.  But it was like having two children in the house. Dale worse than Wayne, but them together? A low snort came from behind you before the arm around your waist tightened. 

"No, I said I didn't want those children living with us. Never said anything about our own." Before you had a chance to respond, the door flew open, and Wayne was walking in without a care in the world. Sometimes, boundary was a foreign word and concept. Norman let out a sound that was quite literally almost a growl. "How many times do I have to tell you? You knock and wait for one of us to answer!" You thought that Wayne was just hoping to catch you two in the act or even you undressing at one point. For the laughs, nothing more. There was a certain level of respect there, given you did belong to Norman. At least in the eyes of the men. 

It took a second for you to catch the look that was plastered over his face. Far more serious than typical. Something was wrong. Lightly squeezing Norman’s wrist, it was an attempt to both soothe and make him pay closer attention. 

“What's wrong Wayne?” You spoke up first, shifting but remaining under the covers. 

“Need you both to get dressed and come see.” The tension that ran through Norman was palpable. 

“Get out. We'll be there in five.” Wayne went to say something before thinking better of it and nodding. He walked out and closed the door behind him, leaving the pit in your stomach grow.  “Shit…” The sentiment was shared, though you couldn't verbalize it right away. Slipping from the warmth and comfort of the bed, you instantly regretted the decision, but there was hardly anything to do for it with the risk of trouble hanging over your heads. Norman moved with the same sort of lack of desire but with a little urgency. The crash that you had heard could have been trouble. 

“You got the gun I gave you?” Immediately, you moved to the drawer of the dresser and pulled it out. “Good. Let's go.” 

The house was oddly quiet. Since Wayne and Dale had shown up, there was almost always some sort of constant buzz of noise. So much so that it had become a background staple, something you were used to, and now that it was missing, it sent an odd chill through you. 

“What's going on, Wayne?” Norman broached the situation first, making sure you hung back a bit. You knew what the boys did. You, yourself, weren't ever directly involved. It was safer that way. For you, and for them. 

The man in question gave a small jerk of his head, hands stuck in his pockets. It was an indication of where he needed to look. A soft huff came from Norman. Great. That was no answer. He moved off to look just around the corner. 

“Son of a bitch,” he exclaimed, hand smashing against the wall beside him. Well, that gave you a decent idea that whatever it was, you didn't want to see it. And that the crash hadn't been the fault of the boys. Wayne had shifted closer to you, hand coming out of a pocket to rest against your back. 

“Why don't you get some breakfast started?” The kitchen was in the opposite direction. Normally, you would have playfully bantered back, but now, you also understood the underlying words. The boys needed to talk in private. 

“Yeah, yeah okay.”

“Keep the gun close.” So much for not worrying and the both of you needing to see. Norman would give you a better idea of what you needed to worry about soon enough. Wayne wouldn't keep you in the dark for long either if his genuine concern over it was anything to go by. Giving one final nod, you moved off to begin the nearly mindless routine of getting breakfast ready. It was Sunday, after all. And while the boys were rowdy, Sunday breakfast was a staple they never missed. 

You had just gotten the bacon in the pan, batter mixed and ready to go for the pancakes, when Norman entered the kitchen. You could hear Wayne and Dale muttering to themselves just on the outskirts, though there was no way to fully make out what they were saying. Norman was quiet. Too quiet. You turned your attention from the pan after a second. 

“Wayne's gonna stay here with ya while me and Dale head out to take care of something.” There was a pause, but not one long enough for you to ask what was going on. “You keep the gun close and listen to what Wayne has to say if something happens, alright?” He closed the gap between you. Warm lips met your forehead. Eyes closed, you grasped his shirt for a moment. Keeping him in place, reassuring yourself. 

“What's going on, Norman?” A heaving sigh, reluctance. After another second of silence, he pulled a bloodied piece of paper from his pocket. Unsure what it was or what it could mean, your eyes were fixed on it. 

“Go on,” he urged gently. None of this was good but you did as he asked. The paper crinkled, feeling brittle under your fingers. Despite the still damp spots on it. You almost wished you hadn't asked as the writing on it became clear. Bile rose in your throat, that bitter acidic burn keeping you grounded in reality. 

“Is this real?” It took effort, but you were able to tear your gaze from the letter up to Norman. You weren't sure you could recall him looking this serious before. At least not in your presence. 

“Yeah, it's real. But it's nothing for you to worry about, okay? Dale and I are gonna handle it. Fucker won't be coming near you ever again. Told you that before and I meant it.” His hand came up to rest against your cheek, a gentle touch that was meant to be soothing. You had to trust that he could handle the situation. Otherwise… Well, it wasn't worth thinking about. The sense of safety that you had found here couldn't be compromised. You couldn't go back to that. “We'll be back in time for dinner.” This time, there was a more reassuring smile that came to his face and it ease the tangle of nerves that threatened to constrict your throat. 

“Okay.” 

“That's my girl.” Another kiss to your forehead before Norman was properly pressing his lips to yours. A silent reassurance. One you wholeheartedly believed. 

Well, that left you and Wayne for breakfast then, the realization coming as you watched Norman and Dale head out the back door off of the kitchen.  

“Come on, Wayne. Sit and eat.” Routine was necessary. It was something to cling to and find more even footing after the morning had flipped everything on its head. 

“Bacon and pancakes?” He was already stretching to get the plates. 

“It's Sunday morning, of course.” Wayne chuckled softly. You knew why Norman had chosen Wayne to stay behind. Sure, he and Dale could act like children. More often than not, they did. But Wayne was easily the smarter of the two, more calculating even if he didn't always seem it. You felt safer with him than you would have with Dale, who was the sharpest tool in the shed. Loyal and eager, but needed a whole hell of a lot of direction. 

“How ‘bout we get settled in the living room and watch that movie ya have been bugging us to watch?” The offer surprised you. 

“Ya sure?” He shrugged as his coffee was momentarily more important than the food on his plate. Okay, so maybe those two living with you and Norman wasn't as bad as it seemed. 

[seagullcharmer]

accidentally started typing too much, so. read more (rusty lake postin)

also, since i've been on a rusty lake kick recently, and just re-finished paradise, i've been thinking abt the eilanders again....... like. jakob was 21 during the events of paradise. at most, david was 19, but probably closer to 15-17, which goes to explain a lot more of his behaviour imo. he's just a silly guy. stuck with his cult of a family and literally doesn't know any better. hotel was my first game, and mr rabbit was my favourite guest, so learning that david and mr rabbit are the same make me kind of sad :-( david was a kid. and, sure, i guess we don't reeeeally know what happened to the eilanders directly after paradise (unless anyone can tell me?) sure jakob becomes enlightened but that doesn't mean he's omnipotent. maybe the rest of them lived after that, before becoming their animal counterparts.

and i know that birthday is a weird game, because it's a memory, and not technically what 'actually' happened (in either timeline!) (i don't believe that dale truly witnessed an anthropomorphic rabbit kill his family!) (as weird as rusty lake is, i am of the firm opinion that dale was mostly normal prior to case 23, loss of family notwithstanding) but man. i still feel bad for mr rabbit. even if he killed dale's family to try to 'balance his past lives' or whatever, david was a teenager, and while, yes, of course, he still played a part in killing(?) jakob, he otherwise did little to torment his brother (aside from the usual rusty lake nonsense) (yes david was not the most normal guy around but. again. a teenager living in a horrifying cult) so i feel like there's more at play here. did david/mr rabbit really deserve all those things that happened to him?

and, sure, mr rabbit's death in hotel was really one of the milder ones. and maybe david grew up to do other terrible things! or maybe mr rabbit did, before becoming a magician! but we just don't know!

this is a lot of words for someone who otherwise doesn't care about david eilander. i accidentally got emotional realising he was a teenager while unloading the dishwasher earlier, so. a.

jakob, on the other hand, i am very fond of. for no real reason. i don't particularly care for mr owl. but, jakob. what was going on with him? caroline sent him away as a child. where did he go? what did he do? how did nicholas know where to send the letter? (also. wow. 'i regret to inform you your mother has passed away' or whatever. my man, you were the one to kill her) (anyway.)

but jakob came back!!!! even though he was sent away because his family was going to sacrifice him to the lake!! and the only one he truly shows affection towards is his dead mother! why did he come back?? (i suppose it was still for his mother. if he hadn't, nicholas and the others would have eventually figured out her cubes and the elixir) (but still.)

although i am very fond of jakob and his siblings...... he's been gone for ten years or more (the picture is from 15 years ago, but i feel some time passed between the picture and the attempted sacrifice) but he comes back and some of the puzzles are just kind of silly sibling shenanigans. elizabeth going ice skating. jakob painting her face. getting her the frog flute. david and his frogs. rescuing david from the ice. putting the apple on david's head (as i'm sure every older sibling has wanted to do at least once /joking) like. the first thing you do when you get to paradise is help david making a fishing rod. brothers <3

also just jakob's model. he is so exhausted. just like me fr or smth.

also wish we got to learn more abt aldous + william and how they became alchemists. how did they discover the elixir? they're both major characters to rusty lake, but we know so little about them. despite roots being one of the longest games in the series, and we play as william the entire time, we know next to nothing about him. it isn't until samsara room that we get a little bit of personality detail! (i am of the opinion that the little comments abt the reflections are his personality. 'i look a little fishy' 'i like the view' etc. i still don't know how i feel abt him as a character, but he had a sense of humour, i guess?) (poor laura though. guess she didn't inherit that)

which: laura. is it any wonder she's messed up when she has the brain of dear granddad albert? while i don't take it to be the literal, physical brain, i'm sure it still had an influence on her poor mental health. like, mental illness runs in families. or in the case of the vanderbooms, walks slowly and shakes hands with each family member. having the brain of albert (very smart, very messed up), the tears of emma (depression hours real!!!!!!), the eye of ida (the visions. the horrors.), truly is it any wonder laura had issues??

also, harvey. not much to say abt him; just cool that he's been around forever. how did he get to rusty lake anyway? those birds aren't native to the netherlands. but despite the murders in hotel, he's a nice little dude :-) just sticks around and helps people. sorta.

okay i've been typing nonsense for like 20 minutes. good night

[artpigeons]

I'm trying to organise my gdocs, and I came across this thing from a while back. It's short but fun, just 600 words or so of my Lavellan absolutely thirsting after Dorian

Bringing Dorian along on this trip was a mistake. Why had Yeriel thought this was a good idea? He was a mage, surely they hadn’t needed another on the small expedition through the Dales and west towards Val Royeaux, even if they’d had to take a detour around Lake Celestine. Surely Cassandra and Sera would have been plenty of company. They’d stopped for the night at a small inn near Val Foret, empty except for the bored-looking owner, as it would be another full day’s riding before they’d reach the Orlesian capital, and after the past few days, all four of them were aching for a good night’s sleep.

Cassandra and Sera had gotten washed up by the well behind the building first and were now inside eating, waiting for Yeriel and Dorian to join them once they’d gotten clean and dry as well. They’d both been so relieved to stop for the day that it wasn’t until Dorian took his robe off that Yeriel realised that this was going to be… interesting.

Creators, it was challenging enough to be around him with his clothes on.

But no, there he was, stripping down to nothing but his breeches, as if Yeriel’s fingers and lips weren’t buzzing to explore the entirety of his ridiculously perfect body. His skin still looked soft even with the layer of travel-dirt and battle-debris, and Yeriel very quickly busied his hands undoing his braids before he could get too far in imagining what those toned muscles might feel like under his palms.

He’d had enough idle fantasies about Dorian’s arms and hands lately, he really hadn’t needed to know what the man’s back looked like when he stretched like that…

“You know,” said Dorian, somewhat pulling Yeriel back to reality a little, “as savage as this all is - and it is downright barbaric - I do rather prefer it to stream-water.” He stuck a hand into the bucket of water sitting at the edge of the well. “In no small part because I can do this,” he finished, the water starting to steam a little from the heat of the spell he was casting.

“Brilliant,” said Yeriel with a small grin, though he was mostly just relieved to have said something other than I want to lick every inch of you, and finally managed to rid himself of the outer layers of his own clothes.

Cleaning his hair with the small, rough piece of soap they’d brought along was something of a task, and quickly took his mind off all the interesting ways he could imagine pressing their bodies against each other. Washing bits of templar out of his hair took up too much focus for that, at least until he reached out to hand the soap to Dorian and glanced up from where he was bent over the bucket to find that Dorian was looking at him with some interest.

“I didn’t realise you had them all over,” said Dorian softly, taking the soap, and it took Yeriel a small moment to realise he meant the tattoos - of course, that’s what he’d been looking at. So much for those few seconds of elated excitement.

“Oh, well,” he said, straightening up, “the, uh- when we were younger, my friends and I would practice on each other. You have to sit still for this one,” he pointed to his face, “and not make any noise at all. We wanted to prove how tough and grown-up we were.” He stretched out his arm to show off a particularly wonky design. “They’re not very good, but we were all doing it.”

[faerune]

gibe pre relationship for joelclaire 🤲

How did they first meet? Tommy introduced the two of them a few days after Joel and Ellie return to Jackson! They're both pretty cordial to each other/don't really have strong opinions of each other especially because Claire prefers to keep everyone at arm's length at minimum.

What was their first impression of each other? Joel get's a little...irritated to say the least at Claire's unwillingness to work in a team :'). He thinks she's a little reckless and can see someone with a death wish just like he used to be able to look in a mirror. Claire is like Joel...right before the events of TLOU/around the time of Tess' death. Claire lost the one person she truly let in and loved dearly after everything and she's just kind of...coasting because according to her she's either too much of a coward to die or respects Dale's memory too much to just throw her life away.

So, Claire and Joel aren't really happy with either of each other and prefer to keep their distance unless paired to go on patrols together.

Who felt romantic feelings first? I think Joel does much to his surprise. It takes awhile but they get stuck out on patrol when a huge winter storm hits the mountains. It kinda forces them to actually talk to each other and they discover they have a lot of similarities both in past and interests. The two of them spend a bit more time with each other after that and become pretty fond of each other. It's easy between the two of them and it truly shocks both of them but Joel is the first one to really kind of be like...I want...to...kiss...

Claire hasn't thought about romance in a long time and is kind of scared to.

Did either of them try to resist their feelings? Both of them do but Claire to a greater extent. She lost her husband in the very first months of the outbreak along with losing their child and that really, truly broke her. Prior to that, her husband was a really good man he really was but he wasn't a good husband if that made sense. They were young and Claire married him to escape her family. They loved each other very much but it wasn't a good marriage but she very much romanticizes it and uses her ex-husband as one of the many excuses why she never wants to fall in love again.

What would their lives be like if they had never met? I would hope that Claire eventually had a few other people she grew close to in Jackson or another community. She'd continue on with her life and hopefully find meaning in those people instead of the people in Jackson. Either that or she'd leave Jackson/that community and head off on her lonesome again because she can't be around people anymore :( Once she feels like her "debt" to Jackson (for taking care of Dale in his final year) is paid.

Joel I hope would continue living in Jackson and try repair things with Tommy as well as raise Ellie. We don't talk about TLOU2 cause I hate it and the events of it happen differently in my canon thanks <3 He'd eventually repair his relationship with Ellie too though it make take a bit more time without Claire's nudging.

What was their "flirting stage" like? Sweet and sly and coy. Lots of bringing each other food or making each other things, just stopping by to "check up" on each other. Rescheduling patrols to make sure they're paired together, spending way too much time together. Annoying stuff that's so blatant to everyone else.

How do their friends and family feel about them as a couple? Joel and Claire are absolutely mom/dad and grandpa/grandma of Jackson and everyone really likes them together :'). Claire and Ellie started off...not on the wrong foot but more just Claire is very overwhelmed by Ellie lmao! She's a very loud in your face kind of young lady and Claire is ya know...used to be alone! But Claire is very sweet and caring once you get to know her and her and Ellie get close! Ellie thinks that both of them deserve it. Tommy teases them of course and Joel wants to punch him. Usual sibling stuff.

[callmegaith]

Hey! I'm just wondering where you got the idea to start shipping Dale and David? (Cool art btw!) As far as I know they've met thru Birthday but are they related in any other way?

Oh boy. Okay. This is gonna be all over the place.

So birthday, you get the letter from David saying he's sorry and all that. Yeah. Dale and David are connected, we just don't know how yet. Something important to David was for whatever reason in Dale's home.

But really the appeal just comes from what if scenarios. Both Dale and David are victims of their circumstances. David made Dale the person he is. He set him on the path of the lake, doom pretty much. And seeing he was remorseful for that in his letter, I like to imagine a world where David is doing his best to undo the damage he's done....

And so Down the Rabbit Hole is born. (If you haven't read it, I feel like it explores my idea for their dynamic better than my rambly post can. It's a comic series I'm working on exploring Dale and David's relationship during David's own paradox journey)

To me they are like two people chasing each other for opposite reasons. David just wants forgiveness so he can let go of the guilt of what he has done to Dale, and Dale wants peace of mind and an end to the trauma that the events of that day caused him... Or revenge even.

The potential of those two just... Meeting again, talking, and David finally having the chance to clear everything up to Dale can make for something so beautifully tragic. There's a story to be told here, not necessarily romantic. But a good tragic story about healing and moving on which is what I want for both of them more than anything. David has turned his back on the Lake. He has betrayed his gods and ran away unlike the rest of the souls at the bottom of the lake, and Jakob wanted to hunt him down and kill him for that. He's been up to something we don't know since then and that eventually led him to Dale. And I just imagine a world where the two of them become the characters that break the cycle of the Lake.

It's the star crossed trope really. With all the jumping around and changing pasts and futures in this game, the idea of them being doomed in every loop, every universe, every recreation. It's appealing to me. Just two people who are broken, running circles around one another but never being able to reach out to finally break the loop. And so they're stuck, never being able to move on while desperately wanting to. And there's just something so MWAH, chef kiss, about the tragedy of them.

So TLDR??? Makebelieve and doomed yaoi :)

It's really hard to explain and I do it better with art than words. I'm not very good with explaining things so I'm sorry if this made 0 sense. But hope it answered your question well enough or that at least Down the Rabbit Hole gave you a better idea than this xD (tho Down the Rabbit Hole is not a ship comic, it just shows the dynamic and idea I have for them)

Generally, the ideas I have for them aren't specifically romantic. I just like dudes kissing :)

(which I never even drew them doing except for a meme)

So yeah, gay, not gay, I just want the two of them to meet again and reconcile.

[the-daily-multi-fandom-post]

Glenns lover girl

 (part 3)

warnings: warnings: Mentions of racism, death, Weapons, weed, affairs, sex jokes,  drugs, drinking, murder, cussing? talks about past abuse that may be triggering Please do not read this if you are triggered by abuse it's not worth it. I promise you.

Taglist: @kaitebugg03 Ask me if you would like to be added to the taglist

word count: 3,190

Summary: Y/n is the younger sister of Daryl Dixon. Y/n was more like her brother Daryl than she was her brother merle. Well, that is unless she's angry. Then she has the mouth and anger of Merle Dixon himself. Y/n first met Gleen at the quarry. That's where there friendship first grew and continued to grow through the post-apocolypes.

The sun was rising over the hills. The sunlight glowed on the tent making it bright in there. Y/n groaned slightly as she pulled her blanket over her head covering her eyes from the sunlight.

Y/n rolled over reaching over for her boyfriend who stayed the night in her tent. But he wasn't there. Y/n jumped up looking for him. He was gone. "Glenn?" Y/n calls out. She slips on her shoes sliding a hoodie over her body as she stepped out of the tent.

"Glenn?" She calls out again. Usually by now one person would be awake by now, but Y/n didn't hear anyone. Y/n started making her way up the hill where she saw the camp infested with walkers. Glenn being eaten alive along with the rest of the group all bitten or turned. Y/n screams as she looks upon her worst nightmare.

Y/n felt her whole body shake, but she was stuck, frozen. "Oh my god." She cries as she falls onto her knees. The walkers walking up towards her. Y/n woke up from her nightmare with a scream. Glenn was trying to shake her awake and finally she woke up.

"It's okay, baby. It's okay it was just a nightmare." Glenn says as he wipes her tears away. "Oh my god, Glenn." Y/n cries as she pulls Glenn to her arms. "You were dead. Everyone was dead and turned." She sobs into his chest. "I'm here. I'm not going anywhere, I promise." He says as he kisses her forehead, rocking her soothingly. "I'll never leave you." He promises.

Y/n and Glenn got ready for the day. Y/n put on one of Glenn shirts and stuck to his side most of the morning. She was glued to his hip terrified her dream would become real. She didn't tell her brothers about the nightmares. But she gave both of her brothers a tight hug this morning and gave them a kiss on their cheek whispering that she loved them. They both told her they loved her too. Even Merle. He loves his sister, but doesn't show it in this best ways.

"Today were going to the ciry for a run, any volunteers?" Morales asked as they gathered bags together to take with them. "I'll go." Merle, Glenn, Jaqcie, andrea and T-dog all volunteer to go.

Y/n looks up at her boyfriend. A little anxious, but he always comes back to you. "I promised. I will be back." He says kissing her forehead. Y/n gives a tight lipped smile has she hugs him. "Y'all be careful." Y/n says as she hugs her boyfriend. She goes over to Merle and hugs him. "Be careful asshat." She says holding him tightly. "You have a bad dream again I guess." She nodded. "Don't tell Daryl, He'll worry about me and I don't want him to worry." Merle noddeds and agrees with her. "Don't worry about me baby sister. Can't nobody kill Merle Dixon." He proclaims with his arms wide. Y/n smiles and walks away. Off to help the other do chores around the camp. Just another day in the life of the apocolypse.

The day went by slowly. Y/n dreaded every second of that day. Her anxienty was up every minute of that day. She jumped at every little noise. Y/n watched the camp carefully. She had her weapons ready at every moment. She was hanging up laudry when she heard Lori walk off. "I'm gonna go look for more mushrooms. Carl stay in eye sight of Dale." Lori says as she starts to walk off. "You too, stay in shouting range. If you get into any trouble just yell." "Yes mom." She says softly.

Y/n observes as Shane shortly follows behind but going a diffrent route. "Hopes he uses the condoms we got." Y/n says to herself, shaking her head.

As the day went on Y/n starts to prepare lunch for the group. putting some beans in the cast iron pan to heat up over the fire. She feeds everyone, but she doesn't eat. She could'nt, her nerves would allow it. If she ate she would just throw it all up.

"This should help your nerves." Carol says as she hands Y/n a mug of tea. "It's herbal tea, it really does help with anxienty. It's what I drink every morning." Carol says softly.

"Nightmare?" Carol asks as she sits beside Y/n. Y/n looks out at the water and shakes her head. "Is it that obvious?" Y/n asks Carol. "Well, when one of our best and strongest people don't act normal some of us can kinda pick up on it, hun." Carol explains.

"I had a dream that walkers took over camp. I watched as the walkers ate yall alive. I couldn't do anything about it. I just sobbed and fell to my knees. I begged God not to let it be true. To see the kids being torchered. It killed me to see y'all like that. I finally woke up, but just to see that it killed me. I cried I know an half an hour after I woke up. I felt horrible that Glenn had seen me in such a wreck. I try to be strong. I try to be strong for everyone. I try to keep my emotions in check. Put them on the back burner, that way I can help any of y'all when ya need it." Y/n rants as tears dare to spill out of her Y/e/c eyes.

Carol imbraces Y/n into a hug and Y/n excepts it slowly. It felt weird to be imbraced by a woman. She didn't have her mom in her life very long. She died in a house fire. So to be imbraced in the arms of a person she trusted. Y/n just let all the emotions out. She just sobbed into her shoulder.

"Shh." Carol softly shushes as she rocks Y/n in her arms like a child. "It's okay. It'll all be okay in the end." She comforts Y/n.

"I'm sorry." Y/n cries out. Carol shakes her head no. "You don't have to be sorry, Y/n." "I'm weak." Y/n cries. "I can't even hold myself together. Am i even good for the group. Good for him, I'm just damaged goods." Y/n cries.

"What do you mean? You are not damaged goods." Carol says as she leans back pulling Y/n away looking into her eyes. "You can't tell nobody. I don't want anyone to think any diffrent of me." Y/n starts.

"I won't tell a soul." Carol promises holding up her pinking to do a pinky promise. Y/n giggles slightly as she wraps her pinking around Carols sealing the promise.

(Where the story of abuse starts skip until the next note if you would be triggered by abusive and grafic murder.)

"My daddy. He use to beat on us. He would hit me with whatever was in his reach. I've been hit so many times I couldn't even count the scares that I have on my body." Y/n says and instantly Carol finally understands what she meant the other day when she threatened Ed.

"My daddy, he'd put his ciggerates out on my hands or where ever he could reach. I can't even count the number of times I had to go to school with a black eye and just say how I got in a fight with my brothers. He'd use a whip on us. My back is covered in scares from it. I would take blame for what my brothers did, not wanting them beat either. Merle left us. Leaving most of the beatings to Daryl and I." Y/n somewhat regrets telling Carol all this. She feels bad about it. She should've kept her mouth shut.

"I don't want you to feel bad for me. I made that bastard suffer." Y/n says as she wipes her tears away. "May I ask what you did?" Carol asks. Y/n nodded as she smiles. "He hit me for the last time. Broke my arm and fractured my rib. I had enough of the abuse. I was abused for 19 years." Y/n starts. Carol sits there silently allowing Y/n continue at her own pace.

"He was passed out drunk in his chair in the living room. His drink still in his hand and a burnt out ciggerate in the other. All I thought about when I saw him was how he should pay for what he put me and my brothers through. And I just acted. I knew once he was passed out drunk he wouldn't wake up to anything. I tied him down to the chair. Taking extra prcautions. I thought about what to do. I grabbed a baseball bat from the closet. And I cracked it over  his head. And some how it didn't kill him. I beat his whole body with it. I just wanted him to feel the pain he put my brother and I through. I grabbed a knife from the kitchen and i just stabbed him. I stabbed him over and over. Making sure he'd be good and dead." Y/n says looking at Carol to see if she would look at her to see if she would look at her any diffrent.

"When I knew he was dead. I called Daryl. He helped me get rid of the body. We threw 'im in the hog pins down the road. We knew that nobody would miss him. He would skip town anyway. What did it matter if my daddy went missing again?" Y/n finshes. "Do you regret it?" Carol asks. "No, I'd do it all over again. That's why I told you if Ed put another hand on you again I'd kill him. I don't have remorst for the wicked."

(End of that part start reading here if you skipped it)

After Y/n pulled herself together and made sure carol was okay after pouring her heart out to the older woman. The day was pretty much over with. The sun would set in a couple hours. Y/n looked around camp searching for the group that left this morning.

"They talked a little bit on the radio earlier. They'll probably be here soon." by the time Lori tells Y/n that they all hear a car alarm.

"What the hell is that?" Shane asks as he looks up at Dale who was sitting on the top of the Rv looking out with the binoculars.

Y/n watches as Glenn pulls up in a bright red Dodge challenger. The alarm blaring loudly. "What the hell were you thinking bringing this thing here? Every damn walker for miles will be here." Shane yells. "Pop the hood please. Pop the dam hood please." Shane says as he opens the hood of the car finding the correct wire on the battery pulling it off. The alarm stops.

"I'm glad you're okay." Y/ns says gratfully as Glenn pulls her into him. "You have no clue." He says breathlessly. "I love you so much." He proclaims giving her a passionate kiss on the lips. "Are you okay were you bit?" Y/n asks, Glenn wasn't really the one for much PDA.

"No, no. Everything is fine. It's just been a long day." He says as he keeps her in the hug. "Where is the rest of them?" Lori asks. "They're right behind me. We have a new guy with us. He saved our lives today." Y/n looks up at him and smiles. Thankful that she was finally in his arms. "but there is something Y'all need to know. That Daryl and Y/n are probably not going to be happy about. Merle was left handcuffed to a roof. He's safe away from the walkers, but he was dangerous. Waving a gun around threatening us. He was high on something.."

By the time he says that the others pull up in a box truck. Everyone got out and joined their families. "The only way we made it out today was because of the new guy. He's a sherriff like you shane." Morales says as he looks back towards the truck. "Come on officer friendly, come meet the group." As Lori was comforting Carl from the lost of his father; Carl happens to turn around.

"Dad!" Carl cries out running towards his father. "Carl, oh my god Carl." Rick his father cries. "Lori." He cries more as he imbracing his family.

They were all enjoying the evening when they heard Carl and Sofia screamed. The group runs towards their screaming. They find a walker eating a deer that had an arrow in it. "Daryls not going to be happy." Y/n thinks to herself as the group of men start beating the walker.

"God, got my damn deer. I've been tracking it for miles." Daryl says as he looks at the walker that had aten half the deer already. "Do you think we can cut the eaten parts off? No need to waste good deer meat." He asks the group. "No, I wouldn't chance it."

They got rid of the walker and the half eaten deer. Daryl hands Y/n a handful of squirrels. "I guess this is what everyone is eating tonight. No deer." Daryl says as he walks off. The group gave Y/n a look practically telling her she should be the one to tell them about Merle. Y/n nods and walks off towards Daryl.

Daryl sits on a lawn chair down by the water. Y/n doesn't say anything as she sits on the ground beside him. Daryl notices his sister, but doesn't say anything. "Some of the group went on a run today in the city." Y/n starts. Daryl looks at her as she speaks. "You go?" Daryl asks as he sharpens his knife on a wet stone. "No, to be honest with you I haven't been in the right head space today." Y/n explained. Daryl nodded and said, "I know, I heard you screaming in your sleep, but I knew Glenn would take care of ya." Daryl says and Y/n looks down at her hands. "Merle was one of them that went on the run today." Daryl looks at Y/n trying to figure out what she is trying to say. "He dead?" Y/n shook her head no.

"He was threatening the group while they were trapped inbetween herds. He was shooting the gun when it was the worst time to. He was trying to hurt everyone in the group. The officer hand cuffed him to a roof. And one of them dropped the keys down the pipe when they fell. I will go with you tomorrow to find him, but at this moment we need to stay calm." Y/n rants quickly fearing her brother would yell at her, not meeting his eyes once.

"Okay, I'm pissed off, but I know it's not your fault and there's no need to cause more chaos in the group." Daryl tells you what you want to hear. You know truly he wants to beat everyones ass. Glenn included. "Just yell, get it over with." Y/n says as she finally met her brothers blue eyes.

"I ain't gonna yell at you. Them maybe just a little bit, but you did nothing wrong here." Y/n just takes her brothers word for it.

The group ate the squirell that Y/n had skinned for the group and that daryl had killed. Y/n ate slowly as she rested her back up against Glenns front. "This is the best damn squirrel I have ever ate." Daryl says looking down at his plate guzzling down his food. "I can't believe I am saying this, but I agree." Lori says, "Y/n knows how to fix it just like mama." Daryl says as he goes to meet Y/ns eyes.

"She was the one that taught me." Y/n says with a tight lipped smile. "Luckly I found the right seasonings." Y/n says giving them a smile.

Everyone ejoyed their meals and slowly one by one left the fire pit area. Y/n slowly got up. Glenn gets up with Y/n. Glenn takes Y/n by the hand and walking her to her tent.

Daryl was sitting out by the fire he made at their small camp at the water. Y/n looks at Daryl and knows he is upset about Merle. Y/n pulls her lawn chair closer to Daryl. And Glenn sits in the other beside Y/n. His hand resting comfortably on Y/ns thigh.

"I'm gonna go out with the group and help y'all find our brother." Y/n says lowly to her brother. Daryl just nods. "You know Merle. Nothing can kill him, that's what he told me this morning. That sneaky bastard will live through anything." Y/n says giving Daryl her comforting smile. Daryl nods. "I know." He aknowledging Y/n. They sit in silents just listening to the sound of the frogs and the crackle of the fire.

As time went on Y/n and Glenn eventually went to Y/ns tent. Y/n changed into clean pjs. (A just an oversize shirt.) She cuddled into Glenns arms just resting.

"Glenn, are you still awake?" Y/n asks as she looks up at Glenn. "yeah." HE whispered looking down at her. "Can I tell you something without you freaking out?" She whispers playing with his fingers that were wrapped around hers. "You aren't pregnant are you?" He jokes. "No." She laughs. "I want to tell you that I love you. Today it just made me realize that I need to tell you that. I thought if things with south today and you got hurt or killed. You would die not knowing how I truly feel for you. And you don't have to say anything back, but I just wanted to tell you that." Glenn smiles at Y/n as he leans down to kiss her. "I love you too." And with that the two just felt so comfortable they fell asleep.

end of part 3

[girl-of-many-fandoms]

Wrong Name // 7 (FINALE)

Pairing: Shane Walsh x Reader

Summary: The hardest goodbyes are to the ones we love.

Warning: mentions of blood and death

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7

MASTERLIST

----

Y/N’s POV

“You alright?” Lori stuck her head in my tent startling me a bit as I got ready for bed. It’s day two of the entire fallout between Shane and Rick; Shane completely isolating himself away from everyone.

“No…I don’t know.”

“You could’ve told me what he did out there ya know, I would’ve smacked him silly sooner if you had.”

“You didn’t have to do that Lori, he was just missing you and had too much to drink. Shane obviously isn’t seeing it that way.” She plopped herself down on the bed next to me, making herself comfortable.

“He’s reacting the same way Rick did when I told him about the affair so I completely understand. Have you tried talking to him?”

“No and if I’m being honest, I’m scared too. God, you should’ve seen the look in his eyes Lori, he was so angry.” Before that night I had never seen Shane’s temper get the best of him to that extent. He’s a firecracker at times but that night, he was a bomb and I’m terrified of even trying to go poking him to get him to talk to me because I don’t want to be the one setting him off.

“Y/N, in all the years that I’ve known Shane, he’s only had eyes for you. You’re his world and Rick did something none of us thought he would do and that has got to hurt him. Yeah I know, Shane and I did much worse and we both regret it but it’s different in a way.”

“I get that but those two need each other to survive.”

“They’ll put this behind them eventually so go, talk to him.” She pushed me until I was successfully off the bed and on my feet.

“Fine, where is he?”

“Lookout duty.” Nodding, I zipped up my hoodie and put my shoes on before leaving to find him. I walked past everyone huddled around the fire, heading straight for Dale’s RV. Shane’s eyes locked with mine as I got closer.

“Mind if I join you?” He shrugged and I took that as an okay to climb up to meet him. Shane laid the shotgun flat at his feet, clearing the seat for me but instead of sitting I walked up behind him and hesitantly put my hands on his shoulders.

“We need to talk.” He didn’t even spare me a glance or react to my hold on him as he continued to look out at the treeline.

“How long do you plan on keeping this up Shane? I need to know.”

“I can’t look at him.”

“You’ve done worse and he put it behind him.” Letting go of him I planted my butt on the chair and he finally turned to look at me.

“It doesn’t have to be like this, I forgave him for his mistake and moved on with my life.”

“Keeping it a secret is not moving on.”

“That’s cheap coming from you. Shane, I didn’t come up here to argue. He feels bad about the entire situation, he knows that he’s at fault and he’s sorry that he crossed the line.” He scoffed, reaching for his water bottle.

“He sent you up here to do his talking darlin’ or is this all you?”

“It’s like talking to a brick wall at this point. Please, just talk to him. The two of you fighting each other isn’t solving any of our goddamn problems.”

—

Shane’s POV

Ah shit

Still seated on top of the RV I watched as Y/N stormed off towards the rest of the group. She was right, I did way worse than what he did and they both forgave Lori and I for that but here I am finding it difficult to let it be water under the bridge.

That stubborn and big hearted woman I married forgave him for sticking his hand up her shirt immediately because he was drunk. I’m still very much ticked off that she didn’t do more than knock him out for it, a broken hand would have sufficed at least.

"You want me to take over so you could go after her?" Dale joined me, taking the seat Y/N occupied not long ago.

"She wants me to forgive him."

"You should, especially for the sake of your baby. Everyone here needs you two to survive, I don't know if you've noticed but without you and Rick we wouldn't have lasted this long." He sighed, realising that I wasn't going to give him the response he's looking for.

"Why'd you tell me?"

"I thought it was best that you knew, plus I wanted him to be on the other end of a fist since he likes using his." I chuckled at that vividly remembering the day he beat the shit out of me in front of everyone.

"Look Shane, I’m not saying that you should completely get over it but for everyone’s sake, move past it. Y/N’s okay, he didn’t hurt her. You’re pushing her away when you should be keeping her closer to you, especially since we don’t know how much longer we all have to survive.”

—

“I’m going on a supply run, see if there’s anything useful we can find. Who’s coming with me?”

“I’ll go with ya.” Rick and I are long overdue to talk and I’ll use this as an opportunity to do so. For a split second he looked over at Y/N and she walked off telling us both to play nice as she left us behind.

“Okay.”

We both got in the car and he started driving us further away from the property. We are at least ten minutes into the drive and during all ten of those minutes I tried to find a good way to start this conversation.

“Just say it Shane.”

“I’m still very much pissed off at what you did man and I know you’re still angry at me too but we can’t keep going like this. I’m not trying to make this right for us but for everyone back there especially our wives and kids.” Rick pulled up in front of a rundown minimart and killed the engine. We both got out of the vehicle and made our way to the building, killing the small group of walkers that came at us.

“You came after me like that in front of everyone that day knowing damn well what you did, I'll never forget that Grimes. I get that you were angry, you had every right to be but you could’ve done that so differently. That night I returned the favour, I told you to keep your distance from me. I didn’t want to cause any more trouble between us but you just had to get it off your chest.”

“You’re right, I shouldn’t have gone at you like that but I was seeing red that day and I deserved the beating you put on me man. I lied to you when you had asked me out at the barn and I had Y/N keep it from you. I’m sorry.”

“She chose to do that all on her own, you didn’t hold a gun to her head.” Now inside, Rick and I went on opposite sides of the store to work our way through the scant shelves. Water leaked from the ceiling forming a large puddle on the floor.

Smiling, I grabbed Y/N’s favourite box of chocolates, hopefully she’d forgive me for being such a prick over the past couple days. I threw it into the bag in my grasp and grabbed as many canned items I could carry, that should last us a while.

“Now that we have everything out in the open, can I ask you something Rick?”

“What’s that?”

“Did you ever think about it?” That thought has crossed my mind quite a couple times already and I want to know his answer. I slept with his wife, I wouldn’t be surprised if he wanted to do the same when he found that out.

“Only once, it was right after the whole fight we had the first time. Man I was so pissed off at you and I said to myself, maybe Y/N and I should’ve done the same but that wouldn’t have solved anything.” There was a creaking sound from overhead and I looked up just in time to see the ceiling caving in, walkers falling on top of each other.

I was knocked off my feet from the debris that fell with them and it took me a couple seconds to regain function of my body.

“Shane!” I kicked one of them in the head and scrambled to reach for the bag with the food items.

“Forget it man, let’s go there’s too many of them!”

He called out from the end of the isle but I’m not leaving here without those items, we need them. I stabbed a couple of them as I inched closer and closer to the bag. Quite a few of them gripped onto my shirt and pants just as I wrapped my hand around the handle. I forced myself away from the majority of them but only a second too late.

“Ahhh!” I reached back and stabbed the walker that bit a chunk out of my shoulder. Rick rushed over and helped me get out of there, taking me straight to the car. I groaned from the pain that flooded my entire body. I need my wife, I need to see Y/N.

“Man, we need to get pressure on that.” He took off his shirt and tried his best to slow down the bleeding but there’s no use, I’m going to die regardless.

“I told you to leave it behind.”

“You guys need it. Rick just get me back to my wife, man.” I don’t know how much longer I can hold out from this and I’d rather die seeing my wife’s face one last time.

—-

Y/N’s POV

The green Tuscon came speeding onto the Green’s property, alarming all of us that’s gathered outside. Rick was the first one out of the car and the first thing I noticed was the blood stain on his t-shirt and hands as he rounded the front of the car to get to Shane.

“Oh God, Shane!” Lori called out for me but I was already halfway over to them. He’s much paler than before, bleeding profusely from the bite on his right shoulder. I helped Rick take him up the stairs and we were about to take him inside but he stopped us.

“We have to get you inside.” He shook his head no and looked over at his friend who was trying so hard to keep it together.

“Do me a favour Grimes, look after my darlin’ for me.” He was living on borrowed time and he wanted nothing more than to be left alone with his wife who was trying her best not to scream from the pain she’s feeling.

“Always brother.” Rick pressed their foreheads together for the last time before helping Shane to sit on the steps. Y/N immediately sat behind him and held him closer to her, burying her face in his neck breathing in his scent.

“You can’t leave me, this wasn’t supposed to happen, not now.”

“Darlin’ look at me.” Shane shifted his body a bit so he could cup her face with his good arm.

“I’m sorry, for everything. I love you and I know that recently we haven’t been on good terms but I want you to know that even while we were mad at each other I didn’t love you any less.”

“Shane-”

“I got bit trying to save the last box of your favourite chocolates, I know how much you loved them and I was going to give it to you as an apology.” A weak chuckled slipped past my lips as I nuzzled closer into his touch.

“You got bitten saving a box of goldfingers chocolate.”

“You always loved those damned things more than me.” He started laughing but that soon turned into wheezing. The colour was draining from his face with each minute that went by, sweat coating his body from the infection running through his veins.

“Shane, thank you, for being everything and more for me. God, I’m gonna miss you so much.” He wiped away my fallen tears with his thumb with a small smile on his lips.

“I’ll always be with you darlin’.” His grunts filled my ear as he reached up and undid his chain and motioned for me to lean closer for him to secure it around my neck. My chest hurts so bad, I can’t say goodbye, I’m not ready.

“It looks better on you. Take care of our baby for me, tell him or her about me.”

“Of course.” He was struggling to keep his eyes open, the blood loss getting to him. Closing my eyes I kissed his forehead and the bridge of his nose before finally clasping our lips together. I did my best to put all my emotions into our last kiss, hoping that he feels just how much I love him.

“You can stop fighting now Shane, I’ll be alright. I love you, so much.” With a fresh set of hot tears streaming down my face I combed my fingers through his dark hair, mustering up the best smile I could during the most painful event in my entire life.

He started leaning all his weight on me, his lips not losing his faint smile as he did so. I wrapped my arms around him again and gently rocked from side to side until he took his very last breath. Sniffling I buried my nose into the mass of hair on his head as I retrieved my blade.

“I love you.” I finally broke down as I drove the blade into the back of his skull. I threw the weapon far away from me, crying as I held onto his dead body tighter.

“Y/N…”

“Not yet Rick.”

I’m not ready to put the love of my life in the ground.

—-

“She’s doing great Michonne, her dad would be proud.” Rick’s lady and I were off to the side watching Judith practice using her katana.

Today makes it ten years since I lost Shane and watching as the little girl did her training for the day only made me miss him even more. He would’ve loved to have been here to witness her grow into the incredible little lady she is. Rick and I raised her as our own ever since we lost Lori at the prison but now it’s down to me since he blew himself up on the bridge.

“Mom! Mom! How’d I do?” Judith ran over to me with the biggest smile on her face and for a split second all I saw was Shane. She definitely took after him.

“You did amazing.” She gave me high five and we said goodbye to Michonne as we left to go home.

“Mom, can I ask you something?”

“Of course sweetie.”

“What was my real dad like?” I stopped in my tracks to look at her better; I never brought up Shane before and neither did Rick. He said it was best that we didn’t so I’m not sure how she found out.

“Judy, how did-”

“I heard aunt Carol talking to aunt Michonne.”

“I see, well, he was a sheriff just like Rick. He was kind and sweet, you actually have his smile.” She grinned up at me as we continued walking home.

“He would’ve loved to be here with you, to see how amazing you are with your katana. You’re fiery, just like him; determined as hell too.” We made it to the steps of our home in Alexandria and sat down.

“Do you miss him?”

“Every single day but I have this to remember that he’s always with me.” I toyed with the gold chain around my neck, fiddling with the number twenty-two pendant.

“That’s why you never take it off.”

“Uh huh, he put it around my neck before he passed and I could never bring myself to take it off since. He was also great with Carl when he was your age, those two were inseparable.” A slight frown decorated her lips at the mention of her dead brother and father.

“Well at least one of us got the chance to meet my dad.”

“He’s always with you Judith, right in here.” I lightly poked where her heart was and she perked up at that.

“Never forget that. Alright, come on. Let’s go make dinner.”

—

THE END!

TWD Taglist:

@positive-squid @harrysthiccthighss @young7711 @beltzboys2015-blog @louloudeug99 @cathrinexxxv @bernthalbabe @sketch-and-write-lover @gabymiller @midnightmystic @st0rmi03

[mayday1284]

Valentines Day with the LotR/Hobbit boyss

Ahh the day of love, overpriced and super crazy in our world. But what about in theirs?

For sanity reasons, I didn’t write something for EVERYONE and these are drabbles, so if you didn’t see your fave I’m sorry,but you can always request a Matchup, even if you want me to write you one for a specific person!

Aragorn-

Boy I always start with him huh, anyways.

-He is a very secretive person, so I think he’d do a small surprise. I’m talking a candlelit dinner where you two can just be.

-He is super sweet to you all day, you might drown in love.

-He isn’t one to buy a ton of stuff for you but he legit will make you a necklace or bracelet its really cute

-Cuddle sessions babey its always a good time, he is a great cuddler

Legolas-

Ah our resident elf boyo

-So precious will ask everyone he knows for advice

-He doesn’t wanna mess up ok?!?!

- Settles for a boat ride

-Its a small but lovely boat, and its filled with blankets and pillows

-You head out to the middle of a lake and just lie down, holding each other and looking up at the stars

-He will tell you he loves you so much, he wants you to know its true

Thranduil-

When I tell you I looked at that gif a bit too long

-For him I think it’s super important to get away from it all for a day.

-You two will set out to a small cabin he has and just exist

-You talk of the past and the future

-You cook dinner together how domestic

-He needs a little help knowing what to do, he doesn’t do this often but he wouldn’t want anyone else but you to help him.

-SLEEPIN IN LATE WHOO

Thorin- 

Have a gif where he isn’t insane (he’s so broody wow)

-He’s also a king so again, he wants to get away.

-Small day journey out of the mountain

-Y’all camp I adore it omg

-Watching this man put up a tent is a WHOLE experience lemme tell you 

-Muscle city babey

-You two make a small meal and stargaze

-He knows so much about constellations so you can talk for hours

-Holds you as often as he can as he recalls how lucky he is that you stuck by him

Fili- 

-He wants you to be able to protect yourself and this is the best way in his mind

*What a man starts playing as the door opens*

-Sword fighting lessons!

-He is such a good and patient teacher its the best, you always have a funky fresh time

-When you finish its showering (maybe together who knows) and raiding the kitchens

-lotta bread, he’s a bread man (not actually made out of bread but you ya know)

-You sit on the balcony in the front of the kingdom and just watch life

-It was so important for him to get home and you got to see it happen

Fili-

I’M SO SOFT FOR THAT GIF HOW EVEN

-Maybe steals the idea from his brother and hosts a one-on-one archery lesson!

-Watching him work is an experience man...his chest against your back...his face so close to yours...his breath on your cheek....Where was I?

-He is so excited he might not be the best teacher cos he kinda skips parts trying to get to the fun stuff

-Pony rides after, you maybe race (you win whoops)

-Sitting in front of a fire and just holding each other

Bilbo-

Can I date a hobbit pretty pleaseee

-You bake bread together change my mind

-Its super soft and domestic, you guys dancing around each other in the kitchen knowing your patterns

-You sit in the living room and read your favorite books to each other 

-Make tea late in the night and dance in the dark kitchen to the sound of his humming

-Sleeping late again man I’m just saying, it’s like the best Valentine’s day gift

Bard-

ITS MAH MANS WHOO LOOK AT HIM GO

-It ain’t easy being king of Dale but having you as his advisor makes it so much easier

-But he wants to relax every once in a while

-You surprise him with something on Valentine’s day cos he’s so busy

-Super small picnic on the top of the highest building in Dale

-He is so surprised and very touched meanwhile you’re sitting there trying to figure out if the silence is happiness or annoyance

-Once he scoops you up in the biggest hug you get your answer

Boromir-

I kinda already did his but lets do it again babey!

-He gets really upset

-Because NOTHING is working, plans falling through, flowers wilting, its a disaster

-But you are so touched that he made dinner, even if you can’t tell what it is under the char

-So you redo dinner together and its super sweet

-Then its cuddling while drinking wine (how domestic ugh)

-He’s just so lucky to have you, so he lets you know

-By proposing (I’m a sucker for this ok)

-You wouldn’t really see it coming because you were both ok with where you were

-But he’s ready for forever as long as its with you

-----

OK WOW THAT WAS A LOT OF PEOPLE

Again I’m sorry if I didn’t do your fave if you want, you can ask for Headcannons with a specific person and I’ll do my best to write them

Happy Valentine’s Day!

[scarisd3ad]

To the end and back | Daryl Dixon x reader

Chapter eight - this love

Previous >> next

Masterlist

Taglist

Summary - after the world ended you were sure you’d never find love again but a certain archer catches your eyes and changes the entire trajectory of your life.

Warnings - regular twd warnings

'Save the last one.'

Season 2 ep 3

Glenn and t-dog are about to leave. T-dog is already in the car waiting for Glenn. Glenn is saying his goodbyes like he's about to die, even though we're probably going to see him tomorrow. "You sure you want to stay?" Glenn asks as he wraps his arms around me in a hug. I nod. I'm still hesitant about staying but Daryl said he'll protect me. "Make sure carl is alright for me" I whisper. I still want to go just to make sure carls okay. Ever since I found out Carl was hurt, I couldn't stop worrying. I want to go and find out if he was alright, but I also wanted to find Sophia. I was stuck between and rock and a hard place. Both kids were in trouble and couldn't find it in me to pick between the two. "Love you" Glenn whispers as I pull away "love you too I'll see you later."

-

Glenn, and t-dog left a few hours back leaving us just with the rv to sleep in. The rv was tiny and three people alone made me feel claustrophobic so I choose to sit up on the rv's roof with Dale.

"So, what made you decide to change your mind?" He asks. He's stood up with his binoculars keeping an eye out while I'm sitting on the edge. "Daryl" I whisper.

"Ah, are you two like..." he trails off as I shrug. "I dunno, I really like him though" I say as I fidget with my fingers in my lap. There's nothing but cars for miles. Nothing, not one Walker, or a person. Just cars.

"If you really like him, you should ask him about it" he says.

I can hear carols cries from inside the rv. I can't help but think I was being too harsh earlier. Her child did just go missing. "Dale" I whisper, "hm?" He hums. "Do you think I was being too mean earlier...y'know with Carol." I ask as I turn my head back so I can see him. He shakes his head "no you were being logical that's all."

The rv door opens and then closes. We both look down to see both Andrea, and Daryl coming out. They're both holding flashlights, and Daryl has his crossbow.

"I'm going for a walk. Shine some light in the forest. If she's out there, give her something to look at. You wanna come with me sugar?" He says looking up at me. I nod shyly, the nickname making me flustered "yeah sure" I whisper as he helps me off of the roof. "You think that's a good idea right now?" Dale asks. "Dale" Andrea warns before walking past Daryl and I. We follow after her, Daryl's hand still holding mine tightly. He doesn't let go until we get closer to the forest.

"You really think we're gonna find Sophia?" Andrea asks. Daryl turns his head towards Andrea and shakes it. He scoffs "you got that look on your face same as everybody else. What the hell's wrong with you people? We just started lookin'" Andrea turns her head towards Daryl and asks "well, do you?" He scoffs again. She's a smart girl, just because she's little doesn't mean she's not going to be found alive. "It ain't the mountains of Tibet it's Georgia. She could be holed up in a farmhouse somewhere. People get lost and they survive. It happens all the time."

"She's only twelve" Andrea says. I stuff both my hands in my jacket pockets. it's cold. If my estimation is correct, it's November, so the weather isn't far off.

"She's a smart girl" I whisper. "That doesn't make a difference she's still twelve" replies Andrea. "Hell, I was younger than her and I got lost. Nine days in the woods eating berries, wiping my ass with poison oak." Daryl has a point he may have been younger than that, hell I got lost in the woods behind my grandfather's farm several times, but we didn't have to survive with walkers all around us. I'm just hoping and praying Sophia paid attention to at least one bit of the survival skills Shane tried teaching Sophia, carl, and Morales's children.

"They found you?" Andrea asks "my old man was off on a bender with some waitress. Merle was doin' another stint in juvie. Didn't even know I was gone. I made my way back though. Went straight into the kitchen and made myself a sandwich. No worse for wear. Except my ass itched something awful." Both Andrea and I let out quiet laughs. "that's disgusting" i mutter "I'm sorry." Andrea says trying to hide another laugh "I'm sorry, that is a terrible story." Andrea says but ends up laughing again. "Only difference is Sophia's got people lookin' for her. I call that an advantage."

"Yeah, but you didn't have the risk of getting bitten by a Walker" I whisper. Daryl nods "you're right I didn't." We continue walking until we hear a bush rustle. We all jump back a bit. Daryl pushed me behind him as he pulls his crossbow off of his shoulder, and ready to shoot. Daryl continues into the forest keeping Andrea, and I behind him. We continue through towards the rustling until we come across a little campsite with a Walker hung from a tree.

"What the hell?" Daryl mutters. There's a note pinned to the tree. The Walker is thrashing around, trying to get out of the noose it's hung from. "Got bit. Fever hit. World gone to shit. Might as well quit" Daryl reads aloud. "Dumbass didn't know enough to shoot himself in the head. Turned himself into a big swinging piece of bait. And a mess."

Andrea covers her nose as she bends over placing both hands on her knees "you alrigh'?" Daryl asks. "Trying not to puke" Andrea replies through coughs and gags "go ahead of you gotta." The Walker does stink. I don't think I will ever get over how terrible a Walker smells. I cover my face with the top of my shirt. It barely even masks the smell. "No, I'm fine. Let's just talk about something else for a minute. How'd you learn to shoot?" She asks. Daryl simply responds with "gotta eat."

"That's one thing these walkers and us have in common. I guess it's the closest he's been to food since he turned hangin' up there like a big piñata" the walker is sticking its arms out and thrashing around trying to get to us. Its legs are practically gone, well at least the meat is only leaving its tibia and fibula bones left. "The other geeks came and ate all the flesh off his legs." Andrea vomits, maybe it was because of Daryl's comment mixed with the smell of the Walker cause now I feel like I'm going to puke. "I thought we were changing the subject" she says as she coughs. "Call that payback for laughing about my itchy ass."

"There wasn't a lot that came up" Andrea says through heaving breathing. "Hm, let's head back" Daryl says as he turns around and begins walking back the way we came. "Aren't you gonna..." Daryl looks up at the walker and shakes his head "no. He ain't hurtin' nobody. Ain't gonna waste an arrow either. He made his choice. He opted out. Let him hang" Daryl says as the Walker continues to groan, gasp, and thrash around. Andrea continues to walk towards the Walker. She stares up at it, pointing her flashlight up at it. Daryl walks over to her. I stay near the tent. Hoping and praying there's nothing inside that'll grab me. Their conversation is hushed but at the end of it daryl shoots the Walker before we start our walk back towards the highway.

When we arrive back at the rv Dale is down off of the roof. "Andrea. Wait." He says as Daryl and I walk into the rv. The door closes and Dale and Andrea stay outside.

"Come on ya needa go to sleep" Daryl says as I take a seat at the table. I shake my head. I haven't been actually able to sleep more than a few hours in days. Maybe it's the stress, or it's sleeping in cars. "Can't" I whisper. He sighs "just C'mere" he says as he sits down on the pallet of blankets, he's laid down on the floor of the rv for himself. I hesitantly get up and walk over to him. He gestures for me to lay down next to him and I do. He wraps his arms around my body pulling me closer. He's warm, so warm, and comforting. Human touch was comforting. His arms wrapped around me, and his chin resting against the top of my head. The warmth that emitted off of his body was better than any blanket.

I'm getting too attached, I know that. I'm falling in love. I can't do that, definitely not now. either of us could die any day now. it's just not right. but it's just so hard not to, I've never felt like this before. I don't even know what we are! I really like him, and he told me he liked me at the CDC, but did he like me enough to consider me his girlfriend? I definitely liked him a lot, but did he like me that much. did he just like me in a sexual matter? did he just want someone to hug and kiss? these times were really lonely, even with the group around, I guess I still longed for normalcy. a normal life, with normal friend, and a normal house. I really wanted that not people I'm forced to live with, not being forced to sleep in tents and cars. maybe he wanted that too, maybe I'm overreading the relationship. maybe I'm overreacting.

I fell asleep fast though, maybe it was the warmth, maybe it's because I feel safe, like actually safe. I've noticed that I've felt safer around Daryl ever since we came back from the city. I feel less tense around him, like I can actually relax and not worry. I know I'm safe around him, I know he'll protect me. I've never felt safer than I am right now, with his arms wrapped around me, his chin pressed against the top of my head, his heartbeat, his thumb rubbing small circles against my back.

i need to talk to him. I'll kill myself with anxiety if I don't. I need to know what we are, i need to know if he likes me just as much as I like him. I need to know.

Previous >> next

Taglist

@e1d0lonk3k @soul4death @furiousheartpoetry @silicone-bonez @nezukos-number1fan @your-shifting-gurl @maziejay08 @oi-itse

[felassan]

Thoughts on Dark Fortress #3

(This post is under a cut due to spoilers.)

There’s a lot I thought/wanna say about this final issue, to the point that it’s hard to know where to start!

The cover art is.. beautiful. The symbolic allusion between Shirallas and the dragon (his draconic-y claws, the semblance of a broken collar falling off in the same way, the fire) 👌 On the whole, lined up side-by-side the three covers of Dark Fortress feel really thematically cohesive. Shirallas’ and the dragon’s claws echo Tractus’ sharp metal gauntlet, and as well as the similarities between the dragon and Shirallas, both Tractus and the dragon have a circle of weapons, and the patterning encircles Tractus’ neck and wrists like the collars and shackles. Y’know, like you can just really tell the cover artist planned ahead and put a lot of thought into how the 3 cover arts would ‘flow’ from one to the other, blending elements between them.

I posted some of my fav panels here.

I knew he was my boy but Shirallas’ backstory broke my heart ( ´•̥̥̥ω•̥̥̥` ) the first panel is so bleak and heart-wrenching. the burning aravel parts.. another Dalish clan met a terrible fate.

I wonder if his clan wandered Tevinter like Clan Oranavra? it makes me wonder if Shirallas and Fenris met in Tevinter. It’s nice to see that another clan took him in. And if Shirallas is a name he took, not his original name, I assume it has a special meaning, maybe to do with his quest for justice/vengeance. Shiral means journey, “allas” is found in vallas, which means set, as in the sun. The “vallas” in vallasdahlen (life-trees, planted in remembrance of those who dedicated their lives to the Dales) means life. in many ways the sun and life are the same thing, and there’s the obvious connection to Elgar’nan, eldest of the sun. So journey/quest - sun/life? Like since the loss of his clan he’s on a journey/quest for the rest of his life to get justice/vengeance, which are attributes of the sun god Elgar’nan? that became his life’s purpose and his direction of ‘travel’ ever since his loss, what he dedicated his life to since then. :’( 

Elgara vallas, da'len. ( ´•̥̥̥ω•̥̥̥` )

This is our first look at the vallaslin application process, no? what Shirallas is saying in this panel is the Song to Elgar’nan. it’s interesting, in that that prayer kind of resembles what happened, or almost happened, in this issue. a fortress shaken, fire, winged death (a dragon), pretenders to power, “strike the usurpers” (“Red Wraith, dispose of my enemies, kill the traitorous mage”). pretty cool right?

⬇️ me two months ago, look at the tags in red brackets. 

oh my son.. Dalish father roams, and the Dalish son won’t survive the fight   ( ´•̥̥̥ω•̥̥̥` )

the panel where Fenris and Shirallas shake hands ;; to which experience is Fenris speaking of, I wonder? once upon a time he saw Anders almost lose himself in his own quest for Justice/Vengeance for the mages.

Parallels between Shirallas succeeding in proving himself to Nenealeus and when Fenris succeeded in proving himself to Danarius all those years ago - compare. ;__; an elf surrounded by bodies of people he’d killed to prove himself, and a horrible Magister telling him “well done”.

I love the design of the sword and its use as a ‘divider’ on the first page splitting up the panels is both smart and beautiful. even here there’s pink light around it, the dragon’s fire

overall I wasn’t expecting this issue to begin with flashbacks to Shirallas’ past and backstory, so this whole page caught me off-guard

omg look at the red lyrium ‘veins’ under Shirallas’ skin. when he emerges from the sarcophagus that is a very cool picture of his face

Nenealeus has been taking beard-styling advice/trends from the dwarves

check out the sword crackling and reforming as Shirallas makes contact with it. is the red lyrium under his skin moving in this scene?

in the panel of Vaea running away from the dragon, it’s nice that as she runs Fenris is still behind facing the dragon, to protect her

gorgeous background in the panel with Marquette, and his expression is one of Regret for what he just did and for his part in all this. the dawning realization that I’ve Fucked Up Big Time

as Nenealeus’ weapon is a sword, does he have some Knight Enchanter-adjacent skills (I don’t expect the actual KE artform is exclusive to southern Circles only)? it’s a physical item ofc, not a summoned one. staffs are infused with lyrium to provide a conduit for a mage’s power. so then, mages can channel power through other [presumably similarly-infused] weapons too, not just mage staves/staff-like magic implements or their bare hands

given the color of Nenealeus’ magic and the fact that the dragon was under the control of his magic, it now makes sense to me why the dragon’s fire is that color! o:

Marius is badass (nice touch that his shoulder is smoking pink with the effects of one of Nenealeus’ magic attacks here) and the four panels where everyone’s grim and determined, facing off against each other and Venatori goons made me feel quite emotional. Aaron is Team Dad.. it’s nice to see him having a friendship / paternal moment with Francesca both acknowledging her pain and power while also giving her a pep talk. You can tell when he says too “We all need to do whatever we can in this moment” that he’s talking about himself too and may already be thinking one or some of them aren’t going to make it out of there

Francesca GO OFF!! she’s so powerful, and it’s really cool every time seeing her plant magic in action. it puts in perspective how powerful Velanna would have been with her similar skills (skills like Thornblades), and I enjoy the contrast of the fire in the background and the blue/green of Fran’s magic in action

Fenris is so cool-headed in high-octane combat situations, quickly taking stock, assessing and realizing the odds then coming up with a plan. the look on Vaea’s face when she’s like >:( wtf u can’t just leave is cute

cool pulled-back bird’s eye shot of the Fortress

Karasten continuing with the sass about Tevinter even during a siege

Fenris speaking Qunlat! I love that they brought this lore fact into play and had him make use of this skill, it’s a neat reminder of Fenris’ exchange with the Arishok if you take him into the compound in DA2. in the opening-up the gates scene, Vaea’s worried about letting the Qunari in and going to the Qunari (from her expression), but she trusts Fenris and his judgement enough to open the gate and see what happens

I like that Tessa’s bolts are fletched the blue of her accent color

chills at the panel where Shirallas is walking out of the flames advancing on Aaron. Ser Aaron, who never retreats, not at Ostagar, not now ;__;

the battle-scenes are beautiful, fast-paced and gory, chaotic and colorful, like it would feel to be there 

Fenris then puts himself between Aaron and Shirallas. I could hear “I will deal with this Red Wraith” in my head

Autumn can look so scary. a true mabari warrior! when she leapt towards Shirallas I was Stressed for her safety despite knowing rationally that they wouldn’t kill their dog!

the horizontal combat splash page is awesome

CLEVER GIRL Autumn. she and Fenris are in sync in this sequence.

Shirallas serving super saiyan vibes with the bulk, strength, hair

Fenris bargaining for Fran’s life and then trusting her to use her magic as part of the attack on the Red Wraith

lmao Ser Aaron

smart thinking Fran

Aaron praising her ;__;

Marius was straight-up prepared to die to stop Nenealeus ;__; poor Tessa in this exchange

the face-melting scene  👌

“Ah, Marius... I knew it would come down to the two of us”: this panel is just really cool? Nenealeus looks almost congenial here, which makes him seem all the more colder and more dangerous. and the burning bodies strongly remind me of the bodies at the start of Inquisition which are at the ‘blast point’ of the Breach at the Conclave

when Marius and Vaea’s eyes meet and they formulate the backup plan  👌

nice to see ‘staff’-less magic in action. Nenealeus is clearly a very powerful mage. when he’s frying Marius he has Star Wars Palpatine and force lightning vibes

OH VAEA... you did it, but my heart hurts that she had to kill someone for the first time, even though it was foreshadowed by her discussion with Marius in a earlier issue. & Nenealeus’ look of surprise as he dies says it all

it’s a serious moment but Marius now looks like a cat that stuck its paw in a socket hh

when Nenealeus is doubled over dead, it’s a great panel- the white background taking us out of the chaos that’s going on all-around for just a moment, showing the seriousness of what’s just transpired for Vaea and the realization of it setting in. a pause, the shock. & it’s nice to see Marius being soft with someone other than Calpernia or Tessa

but despite what’s just happened Vaea is still Vaea, she’s concerned about life and immediately wants to save the dragon. I like the part where panels of Vaea and Fran ‘face’ each other as they have this discussion, a lot.

in the moment that it takes off, does the dragon realize Vaea is responsible for saving its life? the ‘eye’ panel feels like an acknowledgement from it, or between the two

Fran’s magic destroying and sinking the sarcophagus into the ground reminds me of what in-world lore says happened to Arlathan, in a way

omg they have to stop Shirallas before he gets over 9000

do you think when Aaron says “We cannot retreat” he’s thinking of Loghain’s retreat at Ostagar?

at this point btw I’m pleasantly surprised that Marius survives, I had sort of expected him to die in this issue

oh Marquette, curiosity killed the cat dontcha know

new lore just dropped: the Red Wraith is able to heal from any wound, which is notable, and he and the sword have a.. symbiotic relationship? with each other. “He feeds energy to the sword from the red lyrium in his veins. And in turn, the sword heals his wounds.” What are the lore implications of this? Just what is red lyrium capable of?

Paragon Branka reference! and later on a Black Marsh reference

:’( As soon as Aaron launched into his story at this point my stress levels went through the roof and I knew it was Time. and then - well. you know :’((( Aaron had death flags in previous issues, so I was logically prepared and not surprised by the occurrence (this isn’t a bad thing btw), but I still wasn’t EMOTIONALLY PREPARED

mfw

nooooooooo.... It was at this point everyone that I burst into tears.. i have never Ugly Cried at a comic before so that was a new experience.. It’s hard to put my feelings about this into words bc rly it just straight-up destroyed me, u know.. Vaea’s “Don’t leave me”, Aaron’s tears when he knows the deed is done, his pendant.. surely the resemblance between the way he looks on this cover and the way he looks in the panel when he’s falling and Vaea is shouting “Aaron!” is intentional. i’m just destroyed okay

On the next page, holes in Shirallas’ shirt where his wounds were before they healed is a nice touch. Autumn’s bite here must surely be shattering the bone in his lower leg. then as if i wasn’t in enough pain already - being separated from the weapon, did that bring Shirallas back to himself for a while? His “Friend?” and the look in his eyes when he looks up at Fenris is so pitiful :’( for a moment just before the end he’s the boy in the wood surrounded by his burning clan again. RIP Shirallas son, we barely knew ye but I loved u :’(((

Having Marquette escape is a smart choice, it means there’s someone still kicking around Thedas who knows what happened here and what went down. maybe we seek him out in the next game when trying to follow up on the plot-thread of the idol/red lyrium/its capabilities/Venatori/Qunari? anyway, can’t help but admire, in a fashion anyway, someone who dips out to save their own skin, and his attempted grift when he’s talking to Tractus x)

we hadn’t seen the last of Tractus indeed. there he is! “This is me, crying over our loss” - he’s such an edgy boi

THE IDOL

“Oh, you mean this idol?” feels like they’re breaking the fourth wall and deliberately teasing us x)

when Fenris says “[stay clear of it] Red lyrium can do things with your mind” I wonder if he’s thinking of his experiences with things like Bartrand and Meredith

started to cry again at the final Aaron scenes ok.. when it pans back to Vaea and Autumn on the shore with the dying Aaron, they look so small and lonely set against the backdrop of the gray rock, windy shore, jagged outcrops. it’s a beautifully poignant and incredibly forlorn backdrop for this scene. Autumn in these panels, and again the parallel between Aaron lying here and him on that cover page.. ;; the whole scene is raw and gutwrenching. even in death Aaron was thinking about Vaea, apologizing that she had to take a life, outlining his hopes that she continues to have a positive future and doesn’t descend into any kind of darkness. the fact that all this time he’s carried around a letter addressed to King Alistair in his pocket, to recommend that Vaea be knighted, the fact that he’s crying too, the pendant, the tenderness between them, how proud Aaron is of Vaea, the fact that he goes out telling a story and smiling because he’s so proud of her, here at the end Aaron is filled with pride and looks at peace.. i can’t ( ok i cried again on this re-read when writing this post, Dad Stuff is the ultimate way to get me ok.. don’t look at me _(°:з」∠)_ )

Vaea IS more than worthy. I’m so glad someone recognizes that and sees it in her. King Alistair WOULD knight her, and there’s a beautiful poetry in that fact as the son of an elf. there’s also something poetic in that, if Vaea becomes the first elven knight of Ferelden, well it echoes the Emerald Knights of old in a way. that’s beautiful. I’m very proud of Vaea.

Here we see another parallel - when Francesca is comforting a crying Vaea as her father figure passes away, it directly echoes when Vaea comforted Francesca when she was crying after her own father died. 

Aaron’s hometown of Portsmouth is a real place in England

I’m happy to see Fran and Autumn continuing to travel with Vaea, and Fenris continuing to keep his promise to Aaron to keep Vaea safe, and that Cassé is now Fran’s horse (that’s a lovely touch considering she healed him in Blue Wraith, a full-circle moment)

Fenris is right, they were family. soft supportive Fenris, with emotional intelligence ;; (and he of all people knows about Found Family)

the last panel of Vaea crying is beautiful too, the sun is rising in the east after the terrible night they’ve had, and the ‘faded’ rectangles is a great style/composition choice

even Cassé the horse looks sad

the scene of Fran and Vaea riding double with Fenris smiling in the background is super cute, and I love that the last we see of the party is them honoring Ser Aaron by telling stories like he did, of his exploits. I hope they always tell stories of Ser Aaron ;;

I’m glad Tessa made it out okay, she’ll be able to return to Charter. 💜 I was a bit worried this wouldn’t be the case

the last page DBKGRRGRKRKGREKF 

Pour one out for Ser Aaron Hawthorne of Portsmouth, Knight of Ferelden.

---

A recap on wider plot-points

The Qunari Antaam have taken control of Castellum Tenebris, and Neromenian has fallen to their advance.

The sarcophagus is broken and has been buried deep in the ground. Francesca asserts that it won’t be found.

The Inquisition agents retrieved the broken shards of the weapon, and are going to take its remains to the shadow Inquisition.

Tractus Danarius is alive and in possession of the idol, or was at the timepoint of this comic. He wants to use it to impress the Venatori remnants so that he can rejoin them. Marquette thinks, or said that he thinks (could easily be a bluff or his lack of knowledge about it compared to someone like Solas), that it doesn’t work anymore. (I’m leaning towards it does still work, otherwise why would Solas be interested in it?)

Solas, in what looks kinda like his most recent DA4 trailer gear, was watching the events of this series/arc the whole time and knows what happened. He knows Tractus has the idol. None of the people in this comic plot are “People Solas doesn’t know”. And it seems that he is able to use eluvians to watch people.

There’s a chance that Tractus Danarius is the mage in Tevinter Nights, from Dread Wolf Take You - the mage from House Danarius who went with some slaves to Nevarra to use the idol to perform a ritual with the Mortalitasi. That mage wanted to change the world to help fight the Antaam’s invasion. In the tale at least, he used the idol, a rift opened, the Dread Wolf popped out and killed him. At the time of that ritual the idol was still working.

+ some new lore -

the Red Wraith was able to heal from any wound, which is notable, and he and the sword the idol created had a.. symbiotic relationship? with each other. “He feeds energy to the sword from the red lyrium in his veins. And in turn, the sword heals his wounds.” What are the lore implications of this? Just what is red lyrium capable of?

eluvians can be used to watch people. not just to communicate over long distances or as portals between places

Lastly I don’t know what to do with myself anymore as this is the end of a long-running DA arc and was the final piece of [currently-known about] new canon Dragon Age content that we’ll get.

[daleisgreat]

30 Years of Super Nintendo - Flashback Special

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) recently celebrated its 30th anniversary of the North American launch, so it seems the perfect time to post a Flashback Special honoring it! Suppose you have not perused a past Flashback Special of mine (all linked at the bottom of this entry). In that case, they are essentially my history with the platform over the years, with a little bit of history thrown in, and recounting all my favorite games, accessories, memories, and moments with the system.

Odds are for the average gaming enthusiast reading this, and you probably are familiar with the core details of the SNES launch stateside (if not, then I highly recommend CGQ’s video on it for a quick breakdown). The SNES launched in 1991 when I was eight. I did not have a subscription to any gaming magazines yet, so I most likely first found out about the system around that time from classmates at the time at school, the infamous Paul Rudd commercial, and the fourth season of Roseanne that transpired from 1991-92. I vividly remember the Roseanne episode with her son, DJ, pleading with his parents for the brand new SNES for his birthday gift and how his parents dreaded not being able to afford the system. I covered that episode when I did my Roseanne complete series re-watch here in the year leading up to the relaunch of the show several years ago. It brought back memories of how that was the story with my parents also denying me the much sought-after SNES, saying it cost too much and that I already have an NES to tide me over. ”But mommmmm, the SNES is 16-bits!!!!” Yeah….playing that angle got me nowhere. Kiosks & Friends The first couple of years for the SNES, I mostly remember playing at store kiosks. Super Mario World blew me away from the brief time I played it with it being such a leap from the NES installments. I always ate up the precious few minutes I could procure at a store kiosk if no one were playing Super Mario Kart. One last store kiosk memory was eye-gazing over the impressive WWF Royal Rumble. I loved WWF WrestleFest in the arcade, and for a couple of years, it was the only WWF game that offered up WWF’s marquee over-the-top rope elimination match, the Royal Rumble, and it was endlessly fun to play in the arcade. Fast-forward to playing it on console kiosks around its 1993 release, and I could not eat up enough of that game’s Royal Rumble mode either, and at the time, the graphics seemed like a huge step up from the wrestling games on NES. One of my favorite issues of Nintendo Power is the 50th issue that did a several-page spread on WWF Royal Rumble that I must have thoroughly re-read at least a dozen times.

I read this NP spread of WWF Royal Rumble many times, and it was one of my initially most desired SNES games! Around 1993/94, a couple of friends and classmates started to get the Super Nintendo. An early SNES memory that stuck with me all these years is my grade school friend, Jon-Paul, having me over for his birthday where he rented a SNES console and Street Fighter II: Turbo from the video store, and we played it for several hours straight. Another is spending a lot of 1994 at my neighborhood friend’s place, where we played countless sessions of NBA Jam and Mortal Kombat II. Both games were big on codes and secrets and perfect two-player games. I was just regularly getting into video game magazines at this time and ate up issues of Tips & Tricks, Game Players, and Electronic Gaming Monthly to see what kind of hidden character and other much-rumored codes were making the waves each month for both of these games. Mortal Kombat II especially dominated the code-fervor that season with trying to uncover how to face off against secret characters like Jade, Noob Saibot, and Smoke, and trying to memorize all the input sequences for the game’s infamous Fatalities. Fast forward to late 1995/early 1996, and I still did not have a SNES, but a new neighborhood friend, Rich, just got one and the next several months at his place introduced me to so many SNES games. Rich kind of got me somewhat into RPGs at the time, and while it may not sound fun on paper, there were many times I recall just kind of embracing the role of “armchair gamer.” I did this for games like EVO: Search for Eden, and Eye of the Beholder while keeping an eye out during gameplay to offer whatever suggestions seemed viable.

FFVI was eye-opening to me at the time of what video game narratives were capable of, and I devoured the latest secrets for FFVI discovered in the latest issue of my Game Players subscription that was delivered. The RPG I felt like that I contributed something to was the game that was originally released as Final Fantasy III. That game featured two-player support for battles only, so it was refreshing to help Rich with progressing through the game finally. My two favorite characters to use were Sabin and Cyan. That game especially blew me away with its larger-than-life story with two different game worlds, the momentous opera scene with Celes, the dazzling mode-seven graphics when traveling via airship or Chocobo, constantly getting irked at Shadow whenever he deserted the party, and so many other priceless moments. Over the years, I tried restarting the GBA version on a couple of occasions and regrettably have yet to finish it. Finally Owning a SNES….in 1996

Growing up with divorced parents put me in a unique childhood when it came to gaming. I lived with my mom, who provided for us as best as possible for the three siblings I grew up with, so we only had an NES for us for the longest time. However, when visiting my dad on weekends, he would always be big on hitting up as many garage sales and second-hand stores as possible and would acquire whatever he thought seemed like a bargain. Games-wise, this usually meant he lagged behind a generation because everyone was offloading their Atari VCS/2600s at garage sales for cheap when the NES was king, so I could have a great couple of years to become familiar with the pioneering-era of games on Atari. He then got into the NES scene when the SNES hit in 1991. Sure enough, the same month the N64 launched in America in September 1996 was when he bought a Super Nintendo for the family used at our local Premiere Video. The game we picked up with it was Street Fighter II: Turbo. My dad instantly remarked upon booting it up the noticeable jump in graphics. We played nothing but Capcom’s second Street Fighter game on SNES for a few weekends. I could only finish that game by button mashing into a victory against the final boss, M. Bison, once….with M. Bison. I still have a lot of love for this era of Street Fighter - whether it be for the roster, every character’s stage and theme music, and receiving Nintendo Power’s strategy guide for the game for Christmas and studying it regularly to improve.

After a few weeks, we realized we needed something else than a fighting game, and after another trip to Premiere Video, we came home with Super Mario All-Stars. It felt like the easy choice to go with 16-bit remakes of all four 8-bit versions of the core Mario Bros. games. Every game felt like a whole different game with all-new graphics and sound, and more importantly, being able to save progress midgame. This was a bigger hit with the entire family, and it provided many days of taking turns in its alternating two-player mode to see who could get the farthest in the four Mario games included.

Make sure to have some tissues by your side as you witness FFIII/VI's infamous "opera" scene. Seriously, this was mind-blowing stuff to 13-year old Dale in 1996. 16-bit Sportsball Fun

After playing a lot of those first two SNES games, I went into this stretch for the next several years, where most of what I played was sports and wrestling games. I attribute this to many multiplayer sessions with Rich, my brother, Joe, and my dad. I know my dad was not all that into sports other than a passing interest in rooting on hometown Minnesota pro-sports teams. Still, I have to give him credit for spending as much time with us and taking the time to learn and become a pretty solid player at teaming up with me in many sports games. It is worth noting that I feel the 16-bit era is probably the last-gen where most of its library of sports games had a relatively simple pick-up-and-play feel that NES games had. That changed a little bit in the final SNES years, where it was usually EA’s games that started to incorporate more realism in their sports games and make use of most of the buttons of the SNES controller. For football, Madden NFL ‘97 was the one I played the most. I played plenty of the Genesis version at Rich's place, so much so that I noticed too many little differences with the SNES version to make it stand out on its own. For 16-bit sports nuts that want to know, the Genesis version had the better playing version, but the SNES had a better overall presentation and more popping audio and visuals. I was part of a small slice of sports gamers big into NES Play Action Football, and the 16-bit version played almost exactly like the NES version, but with a 16-bit upgrade and also has a nifty feature to play games at the high school, college, or NFL level.

NBA Jam and NBA Hangtime dominated my 16-bit sports lineup. The code scene for these games were so intense at the time I had to keep my own binder of notes on them all that I still have today as seen above! As I alluded to earlier, when it came to hoops, I played way too much NBA Jam the first year it was out at my friend’s place. However, the arcade hoops game I played the most on SNES was NBA Hangtime, which was developed by the same people who made Jam. I got that game new for Christmas in 1996 and must have played it regularly with Rich for nearly a year straight. I do not hear that game receive the same level of praise as Jam, but it added a few new fun layers to freshen up the gameplay, like being able to do co-op dunks and earn “Team Fire,” and being able to create players. For more simulation-focused hoops, I played a lot of NBA Live ’96 with my dad, in addition to Nintendo’s NCAA Basketball which appeared like a technical marvel to me that was ahead of its time with the mode-seven camera allowing constant 3D rotation whenever possession of the ball changed and foreshadowed what would become the go-to camera perspective for the next-gen of basketball games. Finally, I will cherish my time with Bill Laimbeer’s Combat Basketball for it being the only hoops game I ever had to consult a guide to figure out how to shoot the damn ball….and for its surprisingly rocking soundtrack. Find out all about it when I broke that game down with the Your Parents Basement crew on their penultimate podcast.

Nintendo incorporated the same camera style into its hockey game, NHL Stanley Cup. Its graphics also impressed me, but it was rather challenging to score a goal, and I did not have as much fun with it. I played EA’s hockey games more on Genesis than SNES, but EA’s baseball game, MLBPA Baseball, was the hardball game I spent the most time with on Super Nintendo. Many years later, I picked up Nintendo’s Ken Griffey Jr. Presents: Major League Baseball, and had some fun with it, but already played the Game Boy version of it to death by the time I picked up the SNES version, and thus did not invest as much time with it as I did with EA’s game. Wanna Wrassle!?

I must have read through this review of WWF RAW countless times in my youth, and seeing how this essentially is a bigger and better version of Royal Rumble only increased my desire to one day own a SNES! The North American wrestling library was a significant step up from the bottom of the stairwell where most of the NES games hung out….but on the SNES, it only made it roughly halfway up the stairs. The aforementioned WWF Royal Rumble provided many hours of fun for its day, but it has not stood the test of time with the button-mashing grapple meter it featured that will obliterate thumbs on the normal difficulty level! Its sequel, WWF RAW, was noteworthy for having more match types available and being one of the first games to have a selectable female wrestler in Luna Vachon, but it too used that same ill-fated grapple meter that has not aged well. WWF Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game is a fun little hybrid of Mortal Kombat and wrestling, but the SNES version is notorious for lacking two wrestlers compared to all other home versions.

For non-WWF games, WCW SuperBrawl Wrestling is rather unremarkable….except for its exceptional wrestler select screen.There were a few interesting unlicensed wrestling games in America. Natsume Championship Wrestling featured a solid wrestling engine but removed/altered the AJPW wrestlers from the Japanese version of the game. Hammerlock had a promising concept of having part of the screen dedicated to nonstop Tecmo-esque cinematics. In contrast, the other half of the screen featured 2D gameplay, but the cameras constantly flipped on screen, to which half was dedicated to cinematics or gameplay. It resulted in it being a jarring mess. Saturday Night Slam Masters is no such mess, however, and is a better hybrid of fighting game meets wrestling game, with this one done by Capcom. It features larger-than-life character sprites, full-on ring entrances with laser lights, and is a fun-playing combination of wrestling and Street Fighter. To top it off, Slam Masters has Final Fight’s Mike Haggar on the roster to boot!

Joey Pink does a fine job detailing why Capcom's "Street Fighter" in a wrestling ring should not be missed! Ensuring RPGs are here to Stay Aside from watching Rich play some of the RPGs I listed above, and of course, playing Final Fantasy VI with him, I did get a chance to play a few other RPGs on the SNES over the years, and it was not until the last few years that I finally finished a couple of them. In the late 1990s I first started two RPGs that stood out to me at the time because they broke out of the medieval fantasy mold most other RPGs at the time took place in. Shadowrun on the SNES was drastically different from the Genesis version I first encountered at Rich’s. This one still had the same futuristic cyberpunk world setting and terminology, but there were many more dialog options with NPCs that were pivotal in asking the right questions to progress the story. Additionally, the hacking games played out differently and had more of a puzzle theme to them than the action-oriented ones in the Genesis version, and the combat had kind a PC interface where a cursor had to be dragged across the screen on which target to aim at. I still wound up being totally into it and became stuck in the back half of the game before my save data became corrupted. I thought that would end my days with Shadowrun…

SNES Shadowrun remains one of my all-time favorite RPGs as of this writing! The final gauntlet tower was an ordeal and a half to work through, only to face off against a dragon as the final boss! …until nearly two decades later in 2016. I mentioned on past flashback specials how I occasionally guest host on the Your Parents Basement podcast, where they cover a random retro game per episode. In 2016 they asked me if there were any games I had in mind to cover, and Shadowrun felt like worth revisiting and possibly knocking off the “must beat this game” bucket list. I progressed until about a little over halfway through by the time we all met to record and broke down the game, but by that point, I just started to make further progress than my last effort and was determined to see this one through! I was playing on actual SNES hardware and was surprised that the battery still held a save but ran into trouble in the final tower with a gauntlet of enemies on each floor to overcome before the final boss. I looked up a walkthrough and discovered an exploit to grind experience to beef up my character. Eventually, I managed to persevere and finally conquer the final boss, a fire-breathing dragon, to cross finishing Shadowrun off my bucket list! I had a riot podcasting with the YPB crew about it too, so please click or press here to give it a listen if you want to know more about this under-the-radar 16-bit RPG.

Fast forward three years later in 2019, and the awesome YPB hosts of Steve, Huell, and Todd helped me once again restart and finish another SNES RPG that I came close to finishing in the late 1990s before evil corrupt save data reared its ugly head again. This time the game of choice is the uber-expensive Earthbound. Like Shadowrun, that game stood out to me because its setting went against the grain of fantasy settings and instead took place in modern times as grade school kids. The opening levels felt like getting lost in your neighborhood and using childlike items as weapons like Yo-Yos and baseball bats. I do not own that ridiculously expensive game, but by 2019 I did own a SNES Mini (more on that in a bit) that I made sure to abuse the save state and the rewind functions it provided to overcome some troubling bosses in the back half of the game. That final act of the game certainly goes places with its sci-fi twists and feels like an entirely different game, but I still loved it all the same! It felt exhilarating to finally knock this one off my “to do” list as well, and I had just as much fun dissecting it to pieces with the YPB crew that you can check out by click or pressing here. Unfortunately, this is where my extensive hands-on time with SNES RPGs comes to an end. I played a lot of FFIII/VI, and finished Earthbound, and Shadowrun. Sure, I dabbled in several other games but did not put more than an hour or two into them. One of those games is the much-heralded, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and I have no excuse for never sticking with it because I loved the NES original. It was the GBA re-release I played, and I think I was spreading myself thin while playing and reviewing too many games simultaneously. Lufia and Breath of Fire II were another pair of RPGs I put a couple of hours into that both left me with promising first impressions, but there was a whole other reason why I did not go back to those again, and that is because then I was waist-deep at the time in….. Discovering Emulation Right around the time my family acquired its first computer in the fall of 1997 was when I found out about emulation. It seemed way too good to be true to easily download and play games right on the computer, especially when factoring in the SNES was at the tail end of its lifecycle, and there were still new games releasing for it. As an unemployed 9th grader at the time, I sampled countless 8- and 16-bit ROMs with the SNES games I was the most curious about. A few of the RPGs in the previous paragraph being prime examples of the ones I invested the most time into. It proved to be overwhelming with so many choices, but I took a long sabbatical after a year or so of taking in the emulation scene after the family computer crashed and I lost all the save data I had amassed in so many games.

It has been interesting to see how emulation has evolved over the years from programs like SNES9X and Retroarch to being incorporated into machines like the MISTer, RetroPi, and Retron 5. Nintendo has learned to embrace official, legal emulation over the years with purchasable digital classic games on systems such as the Wii, WiiU, and 3DS. Having a stable income as an adult now many years later, I feel guilty for embracing the emulation scene so hard in my teenage years, so much so that whenever Nintendo re-releases one of its classic hits several times over, I choose to purchase it again (well…usually at a sale price) to redeem myself. Keeping SNES Alive Today

Over the years, I find myself diving into retro games versus the latest and greatest coming out. I am a fan of the various SNES hardware updates/clones, both officially from Nintendo and unofficially from other companies, which has kept my SNES and other retro game fandom blood flowing over the decades. I am unsure if it feels right to lump it in here, but the Super Game Boy lead to me getting a lot of extra life out of my SNES. Playing Game Boy games on the big screen was a big deal to me back then, considering it was always a pain to make out what was happening on the non-backlit handheld. For some reason, those special border screens that would eventually have funny animations after being left idle for so long made an impression on me. Game Boy games with the “Super Game Boy Enhanced” logo on the front of the box usually have their own exclusive border and special color palette. I loved the Mole Mania and Donkey Kong Land borders the most! I thought it was rad that around 15-20 special enhanced Super Game Boy titles featured multiplayer support with two SNES controllers. They consisted almost entirely of Bomberman and fighting games, but it was still a cool feature nonetheless. The handheld Hyperkin SupaBoy is the unauthorized SNES take on the Sega Nomad by having a portable SNES. It is a bit on the bulky side, but it has a rechargeable battery, and its support has been flawless with my entire SNES library. Another Hyperkin product I got a lot of use out of is the Retron 5. I know that particular clone system is controversial with retro game enthusiasts based on the unauthorized emulators it implements. However, the user interface and emulation support made it possible for me to make record progress in many SNES games by taking advantage of save states and its optional Game Genie-esque cheats library. The SNES Classic Edition is an excellent official piece of hardware from Nintendo that has the pint-sized SNES pre-installed with 21 SNES games, one of which is previously unreleased Star Fox 2. It has an adorably intuitive interface and supports game rewinding and save states, which made it the way I was finally able to finish Earthbound. It was also surprisingly not-so-difficult to plug into a PC and import a bunch of SNES ROMs into. Other companies like 8bitdo made that system extra convenient by making their recommended wireless controllers compatible with it!

If you did not grow up with the SNES, then both of these options are great entry points for those looking to move on beyond emulators. The Analogue Super NT may have been pushing it too much price-wise. When it comes down to the nuts and bolts of emulation tech, I am not a wizard by any means, except that by all sources, it sounds like the Super NT offers the best hardware emulation with its FPGA technology. It makes SNES games appear as pristine as possible on an HD/4KTV without any or as minimal of the fuzziness that happens whenever I try plugging in the composite/RCA cables from a base SNES system into a 4K/HDTV. For those unfamiliar with the Super NT, this video from the My Life in Gaming crew does a thorough dissection of everything it has to offer. The list of options in there is intimidating to mess around with, but this sounds like the way to go if one wants to keep playing their cartridges……although I have to admit I am pretty satisfied currently with the Retron 5 and SNES Classic Edition.

Odds are some of you are quite a bit younger than me and grew up post-SNES lifecycle. Not interested in going down the pricey road of hunting down old cartridges and hardware, and do not want to dabble on the dark side of illegal emulation? Then a terrific alternative is if you have a Switch with Nintendo’s $20/year online service membership and taking advantage of the Nintendo Switch Online and Super Nintendo Switch Online digital game portals. It has unlimited access to the slate of games on there, along with save points as long as your membership remains active. The implementation of save states and the user interface has also improved noticeably over the emulation used for NES & SNES Classic Editions. More importantly, it adds the feature to play online with a friend. Last year I played online SNES games with my nephew, who was wrapping up 6th grade at the time, and this was his first time playing SNES games. He loves Mario Kart 8 on Switch, and so when the first game we played was the original Super Mario Kart, I could not help but crack up when he instantly remarked, “Dale, this looks old!” He eventually came around, and then we had some fun playing co-op , Joe & Mac . A couple of years ago, on my Genesis Flashback Special, I made sure to reminisce of my fond memories of the summer I spent playing nonstop Sega Channel. These NES/SNES Switch portals are essentially the Sega Channel, but far better because it does not cost $15 a month (in 1994 dollars which equals $27.63 today per Google), offers multiple save states, and ability to play online for only $20 a year!!! Kids, get your parents to hook you up now!!! Miscellaneous Quick Hits

SNES games were the most common denominator on six of the 13 episodes I guest hosted on the retro game podcast, Your Parents Basement. Check out their full archives by click or pressing here. -Turns out I did quite a few guest hosting spots on Your Parents Basement Podcast for SNES games. For those that are podcasting fiends and dug the three episodes I linked to already, then I will link you to three more SNES themed episodes I appeared on where I breathed in the Mode 7 skies of Pilotwings, embraced Capcom’s action-platformer prowess in X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse, and made sure not to miss any Gatorade and Wheaties health pick-ups in Michael Jordan: Chaos in the Windy City.

-The SNES controller is my favorite pre-disc console era controller. It kept the similar button layout of the NES controller but rounded off the edges into its iconic “dog bone” feel so the controller no longer cramped in your hands! Throw in the two extra face buttons and two additional shoulder buttons, and it opened up all kinds of deeper gameplay possibilities! It made it perfect for most fighting games that used almost all the face and shoulder buttons. I found the shoulder buttons were also smartly implemented in NBA Jam/Hangtime for being assigned to use for turbo speed functionality. As far as other SNES controllers/peripherals go, since I loved the NES Zapper, I always wanted to try the Super Scope, but as a kiddo, its bazooka-sized proportions were kind of intimidating. It still kind of bums me out all these years I never got to experience it with epics like Yoshi’s Safari, T2: The Arcade Game, and Tin Star. I never had an opportunity to use the SNES mouse either, which I kind of regret all these years later after seeing all the marvelous creations from experts at Mario Paint, and it was cool to see some PC ports like Civilization, Doom, and Wolfenstein 3D take advantage of SNES Mouse compatibility.

-The 16-bit era was when fighting games exploded, and as you can tell above, I spent a lot of time with Street Fighter II: Turbo, and the first two Mortal Kombat games. Other than that, though, the only other fighting game on SNES I put significant time into was TMNT Tournament Fighters. It was released at the tail end of the TMNT-mania when the cartoon peaked at its popularity. The game itself was a surprisingly competent licensed fighting game from Konami, and tried its best to feel like a solid Street Fighter-clone. Speaking of them pesky turtles… -…TMNT IV: Turtles in Time was the only beat-em-up brawler I put considerable time into on the SNES. I have vague memories of trying others out once or twice like The Peace Keepers, and Super Double Dragon, but Turtles in Time was the one I frequently revisited over the years. It is a superb rendition of the arcade game, with SNES-exclusive levels like the Technodrome that had a fantastic first-person boss fight against Shredder, where lowly Foot Soldiers had to be chucked right at him to defeat Shredder. The soundtrack is one of my favorite SNES scores, so much so that I went all-in to get the for it! I have so many great memories of this game, with the highlight being my friend Matt and I revisiting this for complete runs of it once every year or two for about a dozen years.

Turtles in Time and FFIII/VI are my favorite SNES soundtracks, but Turtles in Time I own on vinyl so I will embed it here in all its glory for you to enjoy as well!

-The SNES library had a quality slate of racing games. Super Mario Kart quickly rose to the top of the ranks and was always fun to bust through a GP with a friend. Street Racer was one of the first kart-clones to hit in 1994, and for some reason, that one always stuck with me. As did it being one of the few games to have four-player split-screen support with all four screens being horizontal! Rock ‘n Roll Racing is another killer arcade racer on SNES; think of a more beefed up RC Pro-AM, but with a good dose of heavy metal mixed in. This past year saw it re-released as part of the Blizzard Arcade Collection for everyone to experience it! I remember trying out F-Zero at a store kiosk around SNES launch, but was too young at eight years old at the time to fully grasp its style of futuristic racing (or that the name was a riff on F1 racing until a couple of years ago). I was more into a game similar to its style that was the trilogy of Top Gear titles. Uniracers was a quirky racer I enjoyed with its unique aesthetic and one-wheeled racers taking advantage of their nature in races filled with jumps and loop-de-loops….too bad about Pixar holding a grudge against Nintendo and legally forcing them to yank it off shelves. Nintendo’s other racer, Stunt Race FX, was ahead of its time with the polygonal FX-based graphics running pretty chunky on the SNES. Still, it is a commendable piece of 16-bit tech they were just barely able to keep running at a passable-enough framerate. Another FX-chip game that did not originally gel with me was…

-…the original Star Fox. Being 10 when it released in 1993, I thought those polygonal graphics looked blocky and horrendous and would have none of it! Many years later, I would revisit it and rightfully come around on it! -Another Nintendo-published game that received a lot of hype was Donkey Kong Country with its cutting-edge 3D models. They were plastered all over gaming mags at the time. I briefly recall trying out the first and second of the three Donkey Kong Country games on SNES. However, I did not put more time into them because I beat Donkey Kong Land on Game Boy before our family got a SNES, which was just a watered-down port with some remixed levels for the handheld. I enjoyed my time with it, but its disappointingly blunt “congratulations” ending left a bad impression on me, and I never felt like giving the other entries a serious go all these years.

-Some may be wondering why there has yet not been anything dedicated to the pair of Super Mario World titles and Super Mario RPG? Super Mario World was probably one of the first SNES games I tried when I visited my older brother at his first apartment in the early 90s. I think the heavy-duty graphics and trying to comprehend attacking with Yoshi proved to be too much for eight or nine-year-old me at the time. I played it a few other times in my 20s, hanging out with coworkers on retro game nights, and had fun with it, but I think since I was exposed to the NES trilogy more and played the hell out of All-Stars, that those were the versions I preferred more. I appreciated how Nintendo stepped up to Sega’s edgier marketing at the time with Nintendo’s “Play it Loud” marketing campaign. Unfortunately, I think their ad for Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island was a bit too extreme for 12-year old Dale at the time. That ad (click here for it if you are feeling daring)was forever planted in my subconscious and always crossed my mind and indirectly caused me to avoid Yoshi’s Island for all these years. I did pick up Super Mario RPG and it is on my “bucket list” of games to play as well. I am holding off on it all these years because I was hanging out with Matt one day, and he explained how he was having a tough time with the final boss, Smithy. Well, he wanted to give me a quick demo to show how unforgiving of a challenge the boss was….but for some reason his clutch gaming skills kicked in right then, and he beat Smithy and was exposed to the ending right then and there!

-As far as other tough SNES games go, the two most challenging for me are easily Contra III: The Alien Wars and Zombie Ate My Neighbors. Contra III is like the first two games on steroids. I love the boss battles and intense walk-n-shoot chaos, but do not love constantly dying in one shot! Zombies Ate My Neighbors is another fun action-platformer that is also equally tough to make it farther than a few levels in unless you seriously dedicate yourself to it. Hey, both of these games also saw re-releases this past year on current consoles with the Contra Anniversary Collection and Zombies Ate My Neighbors & Ghoul Patrol set for those wanting to experience 16-bit nail-biting difficulty (but with save state support!).

I hope this excellent video review from the quintessential retro video game source, Jeremy Parish, suffices for my lack of any meaningful Super Mario World memories here. -In 1997, I was hyped for a late SNES release, the original Harvest Moon. The farm/life/dating-sim series is still around today from publisher Natsume (as well as the original developers parting ways with Natsume and delivering their own competing Story of Seasons series). During the SNES era, I spent several summers out on a farm. I appreciated rural life's solitude and free spirit lifestyle, and that first Harvest Moon game perfectly encapsulated that. Trying to determine the best way to spend the day tending to the fields, livestock and managing a social/family life was surprisingly fun and engaging! Harvest Moon remain one of two games that I submitted a blurry Polaroid photo to Nintendo Power’s “Arena” high score section. I cannot recall if my score got posted or not.

-The original Sim City port on SNES received a lot of love around the SNES launch window, with Nintendo giving it a unique makeover with bonus Nintendo characters in it and an exclusive tutor in the form of Dr. Wright to ease everyone into the simulation gameplay. I never played too much of that version, but one night at Rich’s, the game we decided to rent that night was Sim City 2000. That one was released way late into the SNES lifecycle and lacked any Nintendo extras the first SNES game had. Still, we stayed up all night playing it and looking at our daily news recap and mayor approval ratings and trying to figure out where to stop underwater pipe blockages! It ran slowwww on the SNES, but we tolerated it fine enough at the time because I had yet to play the PC version. Eventually, I would check out the PC version and came away surprised with so much I had to put up within the SNES game. -For those wanting to dare the Super Famicom scene, there are a plethora of great games that never made their way stateside, and better yet, a hearty chunk of them have received English fan translations. I am partial to the FirePro wrestling games that never made it here that are vastly superior to all the American wrestling games I broke down above, BS Out of Bounds Golf is an addicting take on miniature golf, the original Star Ocean, and the Back to the Future platformer that was not a five-star classic by any means, but blew away the poor NES and Genesis games that did release here. If you are not that familiar with the Super Famicom library, this top 50 list from RVG Fanatic is a great place to start your research and very much helped clueing me into a bunch of Super Famicom games I had little-to-no knowledge of. Conclusion

If you are around my age reading this, you may be wondering why I have not gone on about the fabled “16-bit Wars” by now. Rest assured, I experienced it in the lunchroom and at recess and in gaming magazines at the time. I devoured all the side-by-side screenshots in gaming mags of dual-platform releases to see if I could spot which version was better. I want to say back then, I sided with the SNES because I grew up with the NES, but that does not seem like a fair choice since I did not own a SNES until 1996. Reflecting on it, although I experienced a fair amount of RPGs and other games on SNES with Rich, I primarily played endless hours of Genesis games with him back at the time. So whenever I hung out with Rich, I considered myself a Genesis fan, and when I finally got a SNES and grew my SNES library, I considered myself a SNES fan and avoided a lot of the “console wars” trash talk. For younger readers here who want to learn more about the fervor of the 16-bit wars, the book, Console Wars, and its corresponding documentary (which is currently only available on Paramount+/CBS All Access sadly) are my recommended ways to absorb all that hoopla. I will cherish all of the past 30 years of SNES memories and hope you have enjoyed reminiscing with me for the last several thousand words. If you want to hear more of my SNES memories in podcast form, I have a few SNES-centric episodes of my old podcast I recently un-vaulted and have embedded below for your pleasure. They have some of the friends I repeatedly mentioned above as co-hosts that share their SNES experiences and memories, so please load up a random SNES “podcast game” and boot one of these podcasts up for fitting background noise….

10 years ago I did a 20th anniversary SNES special with Matt!

Here is the history of RPG series episode dedicated to the 16-bit era.

Finally, here is Matt and I hosting the 16-bit installment of our history of comic book games series. Bonus Overtime

It would not be a Flashback Special without one random oddball bonus story to wrap it up with. The only Kirby game I ever finished receives that honor. One day, my brother and his friend Jake were over at my place. We were discussing SNES games at some point, and Jake mentioned how Kirby Super Star is his all-time favorite. I said how I never played it and did not think anything of it at the time, but the next time I met up with him and my brother, Jake had the copy of that game with him and insisted on borrowing it to me and said not to give it back until I finished it. I felt this sudden obligation to play through it as a priority, so I did not feel like I was keeping his game hostage. Luckily, Kirby Super Star is a damn fun game, which the front of the box labels as “8 Games in One!” Most of the games are abbreviated-length adventures of only a handful of missions in their unique theme of levels, and a few of the games are mini-games like a race against King DeDeDe. Regardless, almost every game provided that trademark Kirby lighthearted fun and was hard to put down! Kirby’s Dream Course is also a lot of fun on SNES, and is an interesting take of Kirby meets miniature golf! With that anecdote, I will wrap up yet another Flashback Special. Thank you for sticking with me this far, and If you dug reading about my trials and tribulations with Nintendo’s 16-bit machine, please take a look at the other Flashbacks I have linked below!

My Other Gaming Flashbacks Dreamcast 20th Anniversary GameBoy 30th Anniversary Genesis 30th Anniversary NES 35th Anniversary PSone 25th Anniversary PS2 20th Anniversary PSP 15th Anniversary and Neo-Geo 30th Anniversary Saturn and Virtual Boy 25th Anniversaries TurboGrafX-16 30th and 32-X 25th Anniversaries Xbox 360 15th Anniversary