#corpse mention cw

[mx-werebat]

Entry 06/13/24 - Frankie 01

// pt: entry 06/13/24 - Frankie 01 //

I don't really remember what I was supposed to be, or at least, what I was made for. I know what I was made of- corpses. I don't know how many corpses or if they were sourced from bodies before they died. I don't remember Viktor, or my father.

I remember a journey. I started in Switzerland and made my way to America. The details are blurry. I don't remember what happened during that journey, but I know that when it was over, I was falling apart- quite literally- my stitches coming undone from whatever happened.

I met a vampire that day. At least, that's what she was outwardly. I don't remember much of what she wanted, or why we even crossed paths. I know she let me stay at her mansion.

She didn't let me leave. She wouldn't let me leave. It wasn't like I wanted to, anyway, but it's strange that she chose to pluck me off the streets and kidnap me.

I think she was lonely. She just wanted company. I don't know if that justifies why she didn't let me leave. It's oddly similar to one of the books I've read in this current lifetime, about a vampire who wouldn't let his guest leave. I don't think she'd want to know that, though.

[ Divider credit to @/cafekitsune ]

[galaxofmuses]

❝ ... hi. ❞ maz stands uncomfortably at amara's doorstep. her mask is off, currently worn to the side of her head. she figured that if amara saw her girlfriend's face, all of this would be easier to process.

❝ i'm sorry i stopped responding to your emails, and missed that date we were suppose to have when you got back. i was kinda preoccupied with... uh, all of this— ❞ she gestures to herself. bright green eyes had been replaced with a foggy grey, and her already-pale skin was now in an eternal state of pallor mortis. the hedgehog looks like she belongs in a grave, and yet here she was. in maz's arms are a bouquet of otherworldly blue flowers, and a black gift basket tied with a bow. in the basket was a set of measuring spoons and cups, an assortment of small spice jars that were filled with herbs and spices grown in mazin village, and a necklace with a heart shaped pendent, the middle of the pendant sporting a jewel that seemed to shift unnaturally. 

❝ —but, i wanted to stop by, and wish you happy birthday. ❞ despite her straight-faced expression, maz's words come out more nervous than she would have liked. it's clear she's expecting the worst, in terms of amara's reaction.

// nikki maz has a birthday gift for amara! ヽ(˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶)ﾉ

Amara's Birthday! 9/23 // Always Accepting!

Out of all the people and mobians, Amara did not expect to see her girlfriend to visit her farm for her birthday. To see her lover's pale face, yet the expression is oh so familiar and then looking at the gifts and opening each thoughtful item one by one. Then as she stops to see the pendent which looks so precious and felt her eyes welled up in tears. Trying not to cry and not to regret that she could have done something sooner.

This isn't Nikki. Yet, The sentiment and love in each gift is there.

Trying to find the words to express herself, yet nothing came out of her mouth. With no other choice, she happily puts on the necklace as the jewel seems to continue to shift and approaches to Maz to embrace her with a big comforting hug and eventually kissing her on her cold lips. Oh she misses the shy warm kisses so much, yet at this moment Amara doesn't care. She really misses this so much.

She is learning to pass the grief and continuing to spread her passion and love to others. That is her goal and that's what matters.

Looking back at her adoringly as she usually does with her girlfriend. "Ni-Maz....Thank you. I-I never got to apologize from my reaction and Skyler has been on his own journey to figure out what is wrong with him and I.....I still love you no matter what."

"Thank you so much."

[luck-of-the-drawings]

FOR A BEAT OF HEART, THE BREATH IS SHOT. AND WITHIN A BREATH, THE HEART IS CAUGHT. THE PIPES ARE BURSTING, UNDER GREAT STRESS, BOLTS TORN ASUNDER, MAKING A MESS. A FINAL COUGH, A FINAL RETCH, A GOREY SLOUGH, CLAIMED BY WRETCH.

[starry-bi-sky]

more cfau miscellaneous things because Childhood Friends Danny and Jason have my head and heart always and I need to finish rewriting chapter two dammit (and redo the half-finished chapter 4 because its just Not The Vibes). i'm almost through I need to get through the graveyard scene. (i just stubbornly refuse to have it be shorter than the original chapter and thats the little death. that is the mind killer.)

Danny and jason’s ghost forms both smell faintly like burnt flesh and cigarettes. However, Jason has a more smokey smell while Danny’s smells almost,,, electrical? In a sense? Like he just straight up smells like burnt flesh and sulphur while Jason smells like someone put him in a smoker first.

It’s very much an unpleasant smell but Danny finds an odd comfort in it just as much as he finds a comfort in the smell of nicotine.

(Jason post-revival smells burnt flesh once and is immediately offput by the fact that it brings him an instinctive comfort. He doesn’t realize its because it reminds him of Danny, and is uncomfortable by it.)

-

In an au of an au, Danny’s altercation with Rath ends with Rath regaining enough of his sanity to snap out of the grieving state and ends with him breaking down. Instead of being souped and imprisoned, Rath, who is permanently 14, decides to Move On into the unknown. He’s exhausted, heartbroken, and tired.

(Is this influenced heavily by the ParaNorman scene where he talks to Agatha and helps her move on? Yes. But it doesn’t fit with the Original Storyline so im shoving it into an Au of an Au.)

Rath tells Danny that Jason lied to them (which he genuinely believes), and that he’s tired of waiting/looking for him/grieving. Jason is gone. He isn’t coming back, he abandoned them. And he wants his mom and dad, and his sister, and his friends. And he’s ready to join them.

He leads Danny out to Gotham, which other than Amity Park might’ve been the only city left untouched due to Rath’s own mental block on the place. They go out to the park he and Jason used to frequent or up to one of crime alley’s rooftops, and there Rath lies down and goes to sleep. Only to never wake up again, materializing into nothing as his soul moves on.

Before Rath leaves, he forces Danny to promise him that he’ll only wait for Jason for ten years. After that if he doesn’t find him, or if Jason doesn’t show, then Danny has to move on. Whether that be like how Rath does, or if its inly mentally/emotionally, doesn’t matter. He has to move on. Don’t wait for him. Don’t waste his time any more.

(“Oh, and if you find him, kick his ass for me.”)

Danny reluctantly agrees, and Rath lies down. Danny sings to him as he falls asleep.

(Angsty points if the vigilantes including Red Hood caught wind of their presence and were silently watching from the shadows. Rath might know they’re there, but Danny’s too focused on Rath to notice.)

(If only so that Red Hood realizes that this is what happened to Danny, and that Danny is gone before he can make things right. The tragedy, folks. The angst. The initial realization that Danny was Rath, and then also that Danny was dead and has been dead for years, and that before he moved on, he moved on believing that Jason abandoned him.)

(like i said it doesn't fit in the original timeline/storyline hence why its an au of an au and isn't nearly a fleshed out, but i was largely just focusing on the tragedy of Rath moving on and Jason being alive to see it and realize just who Rath is.)

-

Just like how the Lazarus pits shot Jason's twiggy 4'6-5'4 (depending on what you find) feet tall and 86lb ass up like a tree an essentially fixed his malnutrition, the portal did the same thing for Danny.

(granted i forgot about malnutrition and danny's likely stunted growth at first -- his family lived in crime alley and despite both his parents working, I don't think they had enough food all the time. He probably wasn't as badly malnourished as Jason was, but he wasn't healthy either.)

Granted his ghost in its "natural" state (14) is short, and his growth spurts were slow at first, it did result in him reaching his dad's height. There were points where it just happened overnight, like a baby. He went to bed one night 5’6 and woke up the next day 5’10.

Jazz is shorter than him. Although I have't decided if she's even liminal at all (and if she is, it didn't cure everything because she would have also suffered childhood malnutrition, and since in au canon their parents didn't get their hands on physical ectoplasm until after they got to Amity Park. So the exposure is less.)

-

Danny's voice absolutely sounds like canon Dan's. It kinda just dropped one day when he was 16-17 and never went back up. Sam and Tucker sometimes ask him to just talk about anything because they find his voice soothing.

I'm not sure yet how Danny would feel about it at first considering Rath, but I imagine that Rath, when he did speak, would have had a quieter and scratchier/weaker voice considering he's spent the last decade shrieking and crying.

(and i suppose technically that shouldn't have any effect on his throat considering he's a ghost and idk if that would actually affect him, but i like the idea so im keeping it)

In the beginning you could hear him from a mile away by the sound of his loud, echoing wails, but ten years later you can only really hear him by the soft, shuddering sobs he makes. Like he's gasping for air that isn't there. The future is full of very quiet survivors.

And it's much easier to speak when you pitch your voice upwards (especially when whispering/speaking quietly) so he might've spoken in a higher, airy pitch in order to be heard. So Danny might actually find a comfort in having a lower voice.

[dragonflavoredcake]

Cleo: I really do like butterflies.

Joel: Really? They aren't very hardcore, are they?

Cleo: They drink blood from corpses. I am more than willing to do the same.

[super-secret-account-yippee]

CAB (C-orpse Attracted Being)

A coining post for a more friendlier term for ⚰️s to use! A CAB stands for a C-orpse Attracted Being. Alternatively you can also use CAH (C-orpse Attracted Human) or CAP (C-orpse Attracted Person).

The "-" in the word c-orpse is really just to help censor the post since i honestly don't feel like getting my account banned for something like this </3

[ayyy-imma-ninja]

Curious question about the serial killer duo, but do they have a calling card? Like, in movies and sometimes IRL, a serial killer has a calling card. For example, in se7en, the calling card is the names of the seven deadly sins. In the Sunny Family Cult, the cultists leave a smiley face with a slash symbol on it on the doors of their victims. In Soot, this demon draws a circle on people's foreheads. The Alice Killings, from what I remember, each involved playing cards being left with the victim's bodies...

You get my point. What are Sun and Moon's calling cards?

They sorta do.

Moonlit and I decided that basically what they do is they bury the body somewhere and let it decay for a few days. After that they dig up the bodies to let them be found by authorities, but first they start to carve messages into the corpses.

Things like: "Abuser". "Monster". "For [insert child's name here]."

However they didn't start this practice until 5 or so years into their spree, after a very personal incident had occurred for one of them.

[bladewinged]

taken from various Wikipedia pages and Pinterest which i'm a bit too lazy to source right now

[wildmrmix]

Thinking about how Pony almost died at 14 (fourteen). Google says Bob and Randy were 18 (eighteen) and I’m guessing they probably hung around with people their age. These 18 (eighteen) year olds almost drowned someone who hadn’t even been 14 (fourteen) for, what, 2 (two) months? He was literally a child, I can’t do this

[bonefall]

Bone what herbs should be used for a funeral

(CONTENT WARNING: DEATH AND DEAD BODIES. DECAY. BLOAT. STINK. MAGGOTS, EVEN. MORTUARY THINGS.)

Quick answer: Fennel, valerian, catmint, so the mourners can still safely 'share tongues.' Mint/Lavender if the body isn't looking so fresh. Vinegar, salt, herb oil, a very creative flower arrangement if it's yikesy.

Mortuary student answer:

Depends really, what state did they find the body in?

If they died in-camp, then they can just use any nice-smelling herb. The remains won't be stinking unless they were already smelling bad when they were alive.

At this stage I would avoid the canonical lavender and mint, since it's shown that they like to "share tongues" with them one last time. Those two herbs are poisonous! Instead, go with fennel, valerian, and catmint if there's enough to spare. Fragrant flowers that can still be consumed without harming the mourners.

Now if they died away from camp? They might have been laying there a while.

Generally after about 2-ish hours, the corpse will be in rigor mortis (depends on the temperature tho, heat speeds up decay). At this point there's no smell, and they can be brought home and mourned just like a cat who died in the camp.

You can expect the body to stay fresh about 1 - 3 days, depending again on the season, but you're gonna start noticing the belly begin to bloat.

And THIS is where you're going to have bigger problems to patch up, and you're gonna smell it before you see it.

The biggest one is going to be the maggots. There is no getting around this; a forest is full of flies. A single day after a fly lays its eggs, you will see the little noodles doing their little noodly things.

They're doing their job breaking down organic matter is all!

No need to be afraid of them. If the body needs to be stored because you're pending a funeral, just bust out those mint and lavender herbs I told you to put aside earlier. Those are insect repellents-- but it will mean they can't do the customary 'sharing of tongues.' Chives and other onion-relatives could also be helpful here

If the maggots are already having a party, clean them off. I mention that ShadowClan can ferment vinegar-- that would be super helpful. Just take a mossball of it and wipe lmao. They want to set up shop near orifices and exposed wounds so pay attention to those areas.

The vinegar will also help with the smell, if there is one (if you found the maggots after they JUST hatched, about 1 day post-mortem, there might not be a stink yet.)

But you might be past just dealing with a couple maggots. You might be looking at decay. In a cat with all that fur, you're going to notice the rotten smell before any visible symptoms... but when moved, the side towards the ground's going to be wet and gross. Probably ant-y.

First visible symptoms are fur starting to fall off, bloated belly, the eyes might be gone.

Now if you're dealing with that, you're pushing it. It's probably going to be better to get them in the ground quick instead of horrifying the mourners. But okay, let's say it's not SO bad yet that you can't carry them by the scruff anymore...

But let me tell you buddy, if you go to drag them by the scruff and the skin comes off. Give Up! Just Give Up! They are LATE for dirt duty!

But you may be able to bring some of that bloat down with salt to dehydrate them, but you'd need a lot of it. I also hope you have vinegar because you're really going to want to neutralize that smell, especially if you can't spare like half a pound of salt.

Lastly, I wouldn't even JUST gather flowers for this one, crush your herbs up and get a REAL smelly oil. Bathe them in that.

I'd get creative here too, get some fresh plants to cover up anything that's poking out you don't want being seen, like bones or muscle. Bring attention to the parts that you WERE able to restore, or aren't so bad yet. If something important is missing, like a leg or a head, gather up some dirt and cover it in flowers to give the appearance of them still having it.

[galaxofmuses]

Amara finds the horrific mess that Scourge made and sees the body that was Razor. Biting her lip and her hands balled into fists and eventually takes out the shovel with anger.

".........Survive....Survive this."

[beaft]

"don't read the goodreads reviews" is starting to be the new "don't read the youtube comments"

[freetobeeyouandme]

Wrap My Teeth Around the World

Tags: Rated M, Chose Not to Apply Archive Warnings, Bylerween 2023, Will Byers/Mike Wheeler, Possessed!Will, Demonic Possession, Corpses, Blood and Injury, mentions of cannibalism, Canon-Typical Violence, More or less anyway. It's not too graphic I think but well a demon is running loose in thise one

Words: 4k

Summary:

“You’re a fucking prude,” is all Dustin has to say. “Do you have an idea where he went?” Lucas asks. Mike pauses with the upturned container of flour in his hand, spilling the rest of it onto the floor. He surveys the scene around him, toeing the piles of rice and sugar mixing with the flour on the ground and opening the fridge he’d already closed again, its once organized insides ripped apart like the insides of a deer ravaged by a wolf. There is no Gone to get groceries written on the notepad by the fridge or Out on a killing spree, back later smeared on the hallway mirror in blood. He sighs. “No. He turned over the entire kitchen and then just left. I heard the front door close but I wasn’t quick enough to see where he ran. The bastard’s fast.” - Or, Bylerween Day 3: Demons, Devils & Exorcisms

read on Ao3 or below; see whole collection

A/N:

For today's prompt I picked "Demons, Devils & Exorcisms" and well, if you can recognize what inspired this one you probably deserve financial compensation. I hope you enjoy it anyway, and also sorry @ Benny Hammond, you're just unfortunately so damn killable. CW: Blood, Corpses, mentions of Cannibalism and also a bit of Violence

-------

“What do you mean he escaped?” Lucas yells at him over the radio, and Mike supposes he almost deserves that.

He’s only half at fault, but still.

“I don’t know!” he all but yells back. Even if he’s partially at fault, he’s not going to admit that to Lucas. “I went to the bathroom and when I came back he was gone! What was I supposed to do?”

“Not go to the bathroom,” Lucas replies.

Lucas’ line goes silent and Dustin’s crackles on. “Dude, you could have just used a bottle!”

“I could not! And besides, I don’t wanna piss or shit in front of my possessed best friend, okay? I thought he was secure. We tied him up!” “You’re a fucking prude,” is all Dustin has to say.

“Do you have an idea where he went?” Lucas asks.

Mike pauses with the upturned container of flour in his hand, spilling the rest of it onto the floor. He surveys the scene around him, toeing the piles of rice and sugar mixing with the flour on the ground and opening the fridge he’d already closed again, its once organized insides ripped apart like the insides of a deer ravaged by a wolf. There is no Gone to get groceries written on the notepad by the fridge or Out on a killing spree, back later smeared on the hallway mirror in blood.

He sighs. “No. He turned over the entire kitchen and then just left. I heard the front door close, but I wasn’t quick enough to see where he ran. The bastard’s fast.”

He wants to curl up and cry because the whole realizing Will wasn’t the same when he showed up for their game and then having to tie him up was more than he thinks he can handle already. He doesn’t want to go looking for the demon inside of his best friend, and he doesn’t want to figure out how to get it out of him either. He wants to forget about the horrid things the demon had said as they secured it, in this sweet voice that was almost like Will’s but so unlike him at the same time. And most of all he just wants his best friend back.

But there is no one to go and ask for help. Their parents would tell them they’re crazy, and Mike’s pretty sure even a man as open-minded as their former science teacher, Mr. Clarke, would have some concerns and reservations. So it’s on the three of them to save Will.

If only the demon had stated some goals as they confronted it, instead of giggling to itself over nothing and insulting them.

“Maybe it was looking for something to eat?” Lucas suggests.

Dustin scoffs. “Why would a demon need to eat?” “I don’t know. But if it ransacked the kitchen maybe it was hungry?”

Mike tosses the radio onto the kitchen island, deciding that Lucas and Dustin can just bicker this out between them. It had been their job to find information on possession at the library, they could figure out what the demon wants. His job had only been to keep an eye on the-thing-that-was-not-Will and failing that he now has a kitchen to clean. Otherwise his mother will kill him when she comes home.

She might just do so anyway, because even cleaned the damage will be noticeable. He’ll need to buy replacements for everything at the Big Buy and his bike won’t fit that many groceries, not to mention he doesn’t have time for several shopping trips and dumping his trash in the big container out behind Benny’s-

The radio almost falls into the trash in his scramble for it. “Benny’s!” he yells, interrupting Lucas mid sentence.

The line goes dead for a second as the boys wait for one another to say something. Finally Lucas prompts: “Repeat that. Over.”

“Benny’s” Mike says. “Any restaurant downtown would draw too much attention, but if he was looking for something to eat-”

“Benny’s,” Dustin says, cutting him off.

Mike drops the bag of trash and hurries downstairs to get the rope and his flashlight. His mother’s welcome to do whatever she wants if he isn’t murdered by a vengeful demon before she can get her hands on him.

“I’m heading over now,” Mike says. “Meet you there.”

He clips his radio to his backpack, picks up his bike where he’d dropped it yesterday, and then he’s off. Lucas and Dustin briefly let him know they’re on the way and then the line goes quiet.

The run down shack that is Benny’s Burgers sits on the outskirts of Hawkins. Taking proper roads it’s quite a bit from the Wheeler’s house, which never bothered any of them, because if the Wheeler’s are eating out Benny’s Burgers is at the bottom of the list of places his mother might pick. But that doesn’t hold for the boys, and neither are their bikes bound to asphalt streets. Cutting through fields and running cross country he makes it there faster than Lucas and Dustin, bound by the laws of traffic as they rush over there from the center of town.

Mike considers waiting out front, but the restaurant looks desolate and eerily quiet. Maybe it’s just his overactive imagination. Probably he’s just jumpy because his best friend got possessed by a freaking demon. There are two cars in the lot, Benny’s pick up and an old Ford belonging to Ratchet Dan, a man Mike doesn’t know what he does but knows he tends to show up to Benny’s before it opens to bum a cup of coffee from its owner. They have to be inside, and the worst case scenario will be Benny tells him they’re technically not open yet and makes him some fries anyway to tide Mike over as he waits for Lucas and Dustin so they can plan their next steps. Best case that thing masquerading as Will is actually inside and–

Well, actually that might be the worst case scenario, even if it’s exactly what he hopes for.

So, after taking a deep breath and hiding his bike in the bushes behind Benny’s truck, he heads inside.

The doorbell dings quietly, announcing his entrance to nobody. The lights are already on even as the windows are still shuttered, but the restaurant is deserted. Dan isn’t at the counter, and neither does Benny stick his head out of the kitchen to check who entered.

His overactive imagination and horror movie education tell him that he’s going to find the thing pretending to be his best friend in the kitchen, hunched over their dead bodies, munching on their brains. When Mike walks in it’s going to turn around, grinning at him with Will’s mouth, blood dripping down its chin. And then red, wet hands are going to reach out to strangle him.

Maybe he should warn Dustin and Lucas.

But before he can reach for his radio, his eyes snatch on the disturbed chairs and table all the way at the back of the room, by the counter. He inches forward slowly, careful not to bump into anything and announce his presence any further. One of the bar stools has fallen over as well, and when he rounds the last table, he sees why: Ratchet Dan is laying on the floor, his cup of coffee shattered by his head. Mike can’t tell if the dark liquid pooling beside him is coffee or blood. Perhaps it is both.

He doesn’t so much as twitch with the shallow breaths of the dying.

Mike clamps a hand over his mouth to stop himself from crying out.

He kicks Dan lightly, but that doesn’t seem to wake him up or get him moving in some way. Reluctantly Mike kneels down and tries to find his pulse. All he comes away with is blood slick fingers though.

Mike doesn’t have to guess at what happened, but he decides that this is definitely the worst case scenario. There is no relief to be had in having found the-thing-that-is-not-Will: Now they have to deal with it, and whatever reluctance it had shown when they first encountered it seems to have given way to murderous intent.

Mike swallows hard and looks about the restaurant for a makeshift weapon. He finds a baseball bat under the cash register and thanks god for the pragmatism of small town business owners. Then he unclips his radio and whispers: “Don’t answer me, but he is here.”

There’s a bang in the kitchen, followed by the shuffling of feet. Mike puts away the radio and grips his weapon more tightly, then takes a tentative step in the direction of the noise. He won’t like what he’ll find, he knows, but he has no other choice. Taking a deep breath, he pushes open the swing doors into the back with the bat.

Where the front of the restaurant had looked undisturbed on the first glance, the kitchen is an obvious mess, the signs of struggle just as visible as the ravaging of the demon. The baskets of the fryer are tossed haphazardly on the counter beside it and one on the floor. Somebody knocked over a shelf with spices, spilling salt, pepper, curry and a dozen other things over the floor. Knives clutter the island in the middle, and Mike doesn't have to take more than two steps into the room to see the pool of blood. Its metallic tang hangs in the air, mixing sickly with the smells of old fat and burnt food.

Two more steps reveal the short buzzed head of Benny and the big knife in his throat that had been the end of him.

As he continues forward, the banging and clanging at the back of the kitchen stop. He holds his breath, waiting for the demon to jump up and rush him. Instead the thing just sniffs, loudly, and then apparently having decided there is no threat, just continues. There’s a wet squish as it digs its fingers into something and then the wet smacks of lips and loud chewing.

Mike forces himself to take another step. Maybe he’s mistaken and this is something else. Maybe a raccoon has gotten lost in the kitchen and-

Stabbed Benny in the neck?

Perhaps that was unrelated. Maybe there had been a robbery and then the raccoon started to empty the pantry. Unlikely, but Mike will take anything that isn’t the demon possessing his best friend, anything that-

His futile hopes stop dead in their tracks with Mike. Will's body kneels on the floor, hunched over by the thing inside of him, digging into a portion of hamburger meat right where it's still in the metal bowl in which it arrived with dozens like it, frozen in the back of a truck. Unseasoned, uncooked.

As Mike watches, the thing grabs a handful of raw meat and stuffs it into Will's mouth. Pieces of it get stuck on his cheeks, some fall down to the floor. Not brains but just as pink. Littered around it lay two mostly empty bowls already and yet it continues to eat with the wild abandon of a starving animal.

The demon looks up at him as it chews, grinning with a full mouth, not caring at Mike cringing away from the ground meat falling out, wet with saliva, leaving a translucent trail behind in its chin. It swallows a portion of its massive bite and then says, never stopping to chew: “Hello, Mike.”

The voice is almost sweet. Almost Will.

It's fully at odds with the mouth it comes from.

Mike gulps and says nothing.

The demon swallows the rest and rises to its feet, apparently not ravenous enough to not leave the half empty bowl of raw meat behind. “Mi-ike,” it singsongs as it steps over its meal.

Mike holds the bat out in front of him in warning. The demon pauses, a grin on its face and its head cocked, watching him with curiosity.

“Don’t come near me,” Mike warns. He’s proud of the way his voice barely shakes.

The demon’s face shifts in an instant, playful teasing replaced with fury. “Don’t say that, Mike!” it hisses.

Mike grabs the bat in both hands, holding it above his head, readying a swing.

The demon laughs coldly and takes another step closer. “You’re not going to.”

“Don’t test me.”

It takes another step.

“Don’t-”

It takes a step.

“try it.”

It takes the last step and grabs the bat, ripping it out of his hands to send it flying across the kitchen. Mike whips his head around to look for one of the many knives.

“Forget about it,” the demon says sweetly. “You’re not going to hit or cut me. Him. Are you, Mike?”

Mike swallows, trying to meet the demons eyes. It’s right, and he can’t let it to know that.

The demon gets up on its tip toes, leaning in further. “Are you, Mike? Mi-ike, Mikey-mike. You'd never hurt me.”

The demon’s breath smells of blood and raw meat. And something else, sharp like spoiled egg. Mike takes a step back.

The demon sinks back down with a laugh, then affects Will’s voice again: “Don't leave me, Mike. Please.”

“What do you want?”

“I’m hungry. Sooo, hungry. He's hungry, Mike. Do you know how hungry he’s been?” The demon places Will’s hands over his stomach and mimes doubling over in pain.

“And you had to kill people because of that?”

The demon shrugs. “No, I just killed them because they were in the way.”

Mike wants to ask if he isn’t in the way as well, but he clamps his mouth shut before he can give the thing any ideas. He stumbles back another step as the demon crosses the distance between them.

“Have you ever been really hungry, Mike? So hungry it drives you crazy? He’s sohungry, Mike. He’s starving. Don’t you care that your best friend is starving, Mike?” “What do you want?” he asks.

He swallows, trying to bring up the courage to dive back to where the knives are and just stab it. Maybe in the leg, that shouldn’t hurt Will too bad. Or the arm. Maybe the stomach, but he’s not sure about that. Better not take any chances with Will’s internal organs when he doesn’t remember where the important bits were.

“I want what he wants. I’m hungry.” It licks its lips and takes a final step forward, pinning Mike against the counter.

And Mike has no defenses. The idea that he might grab a knife is just that, an idea. A heroic fantasy. The reality is he won’t hurt Will, not even a little bit. He can’t. So this is it. This is how he dies.

The demon leans in closer, its rotting breath acrid on his face. Hot and disgusting. Its fatty, dirt encrusted fingers come up to cup his face –

And then the demon kisses him.

Mike’s mouth opens in shock and the demon in Will’s body takes full advantage of that. Their teeth clack as it presses in closer, no idea what it is doing but following some animalistic instinct. Will tastes of the raw meat the demon had been shoveling into his mouth, and his lips are slick with fat. It’s not too bad, a little like plain hamburger patty without the smoky taste of being cooked. A little earthy, and in the aftertaste a little sour. Up close the rotten egg smell – sulfuric, the forgotten memory of a morning in Mr. Clarke’s science class informs him – is inescapable. It turns his stomach.

But Mike can’t push away the demon. When his hands reach out, they only find Will’s hair, Will’s face and he can only hold them gently. Because if this was Will, really him, then-

He won’t think about that right now.

He can’t.

The demon groans in to the kiss, and Mike only holds him close. It bites down on his bottom lip, drawing it into its own mouth with much too much force, drawing blood. It tastes metallic and hot in his own mouth.

The demon sighs happily.

And Mike knows that if the demon starts tearing at him, starts eating him, very literally, he still could not stop it. If this is the moment the cannibalism finally starts, this is the end of him.

Except at the front of the restaurant the bell rings, and the demon freezes.

Mike does the only thing he can think of doing: He wraps his arms around Will’s body, pulls him tightly against himself, and yells: “In the kitchen!”

“What are you doing?” the demon hisses. It tries to free itself, but Mike is squeezing it too tightly for it to be able to bring up Will’s spindly arms and push him away. Its struggle only has Mike holding on more tightly. “Get the rope and tie it up! We’re in the kitchen!”

The demon kicks his shin, and Mike clenches his jaw to keep from crying out. Its fingers find his hip, sharp nails digging into his skin, deep enough to make him bleed, and Mike doesn’t move. Will’s body returns his hug, face burrowing into Mike’s neck, teeth sinking into skin, and still Mike refuses to let go, letting the pain bring him to tears but only kissing Will’s neck, softly, in reply.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers in the hopes his best friend is still in there somewhere.

And then Dustin and Lucas are there. They’ve got the rope ready, and Lucas grabs the demon’s legs before its kicks can get anymore vicious, or worse, it realizes how much damage its knee would do to the soft, squishy meat between Mike’s legs. They tie them together tightly and then with Mike still holding its arms, secure its fists behind its back.

Mike doesn’t let Will go so much as that Dustin and Lucas have to pry him out of his grasp. The demon’s mouth and chin are covered in blood, and the smile it gives Mike is devilish.

“Tastes good,” it says, licking its lips.

Mike wants to throw up. Instead he looks the thing dead in the eye. He knows he will lose the staring contest, but he won’t just lay down and roll over for this fiend. He owes Will better than that.

Dustin pulls the thing away and out of the kitchen before either of them can break eye contact.

“Fucking shit,” Lucas says, turning Mike’s face so he’s looking at him. He pulls Mike’s hair away to examine his neck and grimaces.

“Got me good?” Mike asks and regrets having spoken when the movement sets the wound aflame with pain.

Lucas gestures for him to hold on and goes looking for the first aid kit. He steps around Benny’s corpse with a sour expression and disappears as he rifles through the lower counters.

There’s a small table to the side for Benny and the teens working as servers to take breaks at or hang out when business is slow, and Mike takes a seat. He’s not lightheaded from his injuries, but the smell of the kitchen and the sight of the blood – dripping over Will’s chin, the crazy smile, the taste of raw hamburger meat still clinging to his lips – has his stomach turn. And the adrenaline of the fighting subsiding leaves him in a cold sweat.

Lucas returns, wielding bandages and antiseptic triumphantly. He picks up a clean towel and starts by cleaning up Mike’s neck, then presses a second towel against the wound until it stops bleeding. Then he smears antiseptic over Mike’s neck, burning where it hits raw flesh, bringing fresh tears to Mike’s eyes, and carefully places a big bandage over the wound.

Mike looks at the fluorescent lights above him the whole time, counting their flickers. His jaw hurts from how hard he clenches it, but he’s not going to give the demon the satisfaction of hearing him cry out.

“Sucks that it’s not cold yet,” Lucas says as he cleans up after himself. “Would be much easier to hide if you could just wear a scarf.”

“My mom’s already going to kill me over the kitchen,” Mike says with a huff.

Lucas inhales sharply and gives him a you’re-totally-fucked-dude expression. “Well at least we caught Will. Good job distracting him until we got here.” Mike grimaces and says nothing. He’s not going to tell his friendswhy the demon hadn’t run from Mike. Or how he had gotten close enough to the thing to grab it like he had. He’s going to take the last ten minutes to his grave. Mike just hopes Will doesn’t remember a thing when they get him back.

If they manage to get him back.

“Did you find out what it wants?” Lucas asks.

Mike shakes his head, then amends: “It said it was starving, but I don’t think it really had an idea what for either.”

Really, the thing had kissed him because Will was starving. Because Will wanted that. But Mike’s not sure he wants to believe that. If it’s true then-

He’s not sure how to ask Will, isn’t sure this isn’t going to inevitably wreck something between them, and at the same time he wants it to be true.

If Will doesn’t remember, though, can he forget about it?

“That’s odd,” Lucas says but nothing more.

Mike gives him a tight smile and rises to his feet, not wanting to talk about it more. It’s almost a relief to think that the grave to which he’ll take this secret might come quicker than he expects it to.

In the restaurant, Dustin has forced Will’s body into a chair and is standing guard, his arms crossed.

“We should probably clean up and get out of here, right?” Dustin says. “Should we call the police? Give an anonymous tip?”

Mike shakes his head. “No, no tip. We leave no trace, but-”

“No!” the demon yells. Having realized its struggle was useless it had accepted its bonds with the patience and the quiet of a saint. But now it starts thrashing again. “Not her! No! No no no! Get me out of here!”

As if on cue, tires crunch the gravel outside. Dustin and Mike share a look with Lucas, just entering from the kitchen.

Dustin hurries to the shuttered windows. “It’s the sheriff. Shit.”

“Get me away from her!” the demon shrieks.

Mike frowns at it, somehow feeling no hurry despite Dustin’s announcement because of the way the demon is acting. If it wants to run, perhaps they should stay.

Gesturing for Lucas to keep an eye on Will, he joins Dustin at the window. The sheriff’s truck rolls into view, coming to a hurried standstill in the middle of the parking lot. There’s someone in the truck with the Chief, but only when she gets out do they get a good look at her. Mike’s only sure it is a girl because of the demon’s words: She’s about their age, but her head is shaven down to her scalp and her thin body drown in clothes that look borrowed from the sheriff, a loose flannel thrown over an even looser t-shirt.

“We need go,” Lucas says.

“No,” Mike says. He meets the demons eyes as he does. “Hop’s in a hurry but he’s driving with no sirens. And he has a strange girl with him. This doesn’t seem right.”

“She’s evil!” the demon quakes. “She’s the devil!”

Lucas frowns at their former best friend and seems to come to the same conclusion Mike had come to. Slowly he nods.

Mike looks from Dustin to Lucas to the demon and then back outside where Sheriff Hopper is putting on his hat and quietly conferring with the strange girl, then takes a deep breath. And then he pulls the door open and hopes he isn’t making a mistake.

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written for @bylerween2023

[the-lovely-cambion]

Snacks For A Barracuda

cw: mentions of cannibalism, slight gore, mentions of k!lying and depictions of merfolk corpses

The circle of life affects a merperson, whether they are a predator or their prey. For this barracuda’s case, it needs the corpses of freshly killed merfolk to sustain himself. He calls onto to his anglerfish sibling to fetch and kill/find merfolk (corpses). If they’re aren’t assigned to do that, then the barracuda hunts and slaughters every merfolk it can find so it can devour on their fleshy meat.

[somebozoontheinternet]

200 years before the first Super Mario Bros.

"200 years ago, there was a princess who was neurodivergent. It wasn't understood all that much, back then, and it was during a particularly dark period of an an otherwise bright kingdom. It started with mere name-calling, but escalated horribly from there. One day, during a rainy night, she was taken to the Forest of Illusion by the peasants, and murdered. The Forest King Biollante found her body, and, enraged with the Mushroom Kingdom carelessly ending the life of an important figure, brought the body back to the Kingdom. After having to listen to the heartlessness of the common-folk that had taken the princess' life, it attacked the kingdom, leaving it in ruins for a while. The King of the Mushroom Kingdom himself found and sentenced the murderer to death by his hands, and personally executed the murderer."

(Biollante/Coronation Day Peach origin story)

(I know Biollante's size is inconsistent, but it's a plant monster, so it can just change its shape and size to whatever it wants to be)

[bittyfromquotev]

I would like to hear about it :]

GASP!

YAYYY

OKAY OKAY OKAY HEAR ME OUT— (disturbing themes below)

In the CFAU, most of the TSAMS cast is a bunch of extended family. However, the “main” cousins (non-distant ones) are Lunar, Solar and Jack, all brothers. I still want Solar to have that little bit of trauma, but where to fit his traumatizer? Then it hit me.

Make him their father.

To explain, Solar’s Moon is not abusive because of the loss of a brother. He don’t give a SHIT about his brothers. This is about the loss of his WIFE. Solar’s Moon, Gibbus, had a wife named Sunflower. She died giving birth to Jack.

Jack was immediately put into foster care and they sent Lunar to live with his cousins (for Eclipse trauma along w/ Sun, Moon, and the BM twins). Solar was the only one that stayed. For some reason, idk just yet, Gibbus blames Solar for Sunflower’s death.

So, over the years, Gibbus forced Solar to help him sew her arms and head onto his body. Yeah. Great way to help a child deal with trauma.

But guess what? Though he’s WITHOUT A DOUBT CRAZY, he’s free to just exist. Why? Because there’s no mental health policies for their species yet. He’s been banned from family reunions.

Thank you for listening to my rant lol :)